Volume 17, Issue 14
Serving Durham, Middlefield and Rockfall
The summer of 1970: Middlefield fights planned rock festival at Powder Ridge By Trish Dynia Special to the Town Times As the summer of 1970 commenced, heat waves were interrupted by thunderstorms that freshened and cooled the air, children giddily embarked on barefoot freedom from the classroom, and headlines screamed of mounting casualties in the Vietnam War. The nation was still numb with shock from the May killing of four Kent State University war protestors in Ohio. Connecticut residents heard that the Black Panther murder trial would be held in New Haven in the fall for the slaying of organization member Alex Rackley whose body had been found the year before near the Coginchaug River in Middlefield. It was rare that a sleepy little town like Middlefield made national headlines, but the town’s 4,400 inhabitants were about to find themselves reluctantly in the spotlight again because of a planned rock music festival at Powder Ridge July 31 to Aug. 2, capitalizing on the 1969 Woodstock festival in Bethel, N.Y. On Thursday, July 9, lawyers for Middleton Arts International, an organization planning the large rock festival at Powder Ridge, faced off against lawyers representing two Middlefield businesses and 24 residents at the Bridgeport Federal Court where Judge Robert Zampano presided. On Monday the festival’s promoters had filed a removal petition to shift the matter from state to federal court, claiming that the promoters’ constitutional rights had been violated when Middle-
field officials waited until July 2 to inform them that the concert could not go on. The complaint stated that until July 2, “The town and others led the promoters to believe that there would be no fundamental restriction or objection in principle to the production of the festival except for details on health and sanitation…” Middleton Arts claimed they had spent substantial sums of money on national advertising and fees to the numerous artists who had agreed to perform at the weekend concert. Lawyers for the Middlefield residents stated that the rock festival would violate local health and zoning laws and would be a nuisance to the residents. They also felt the matter should be decided on the state, not federal level. Complicating the already convoluted mess was the fact that an ordinance passed in March to establish regulations for the holding of special events such as this was published a week later in the legal ads of the Middletown Press, but amendments to the ordinance, approved in April, were not published until two days before the July 9 hearing and a full two months after publication was required. See Powder Ridge, page 11
In this issue ... Calendar............................4 Durham Briefs ...........15-16 Honor Rolls .....................24 Libraries .................14 & 24 Obituaries .......................27 Spotlight..........................21 Sports ..............................26
Friday, July 16, 2010
We love our pets!
Clockwise from top left, Chris Gargamelli and daughters Anna and Isabelle brought Jasmine to the Durham Library’s pet parade on Saturday, July 10. Top right, Kate Mitchell and Connor with Sadie. Directly above, Gabby Bel-
lacicco with Dingo the guinea pig and Jill Taber with Peanut, her pet rat. Left, Sebastian Mitchell gives Sadie a drink of water from a cup. Below, Cari and Caity Hill brought their well-dressed guinea pig Chewey to the parade. Bottom left, Chewbacca Burtt demonstrates pooch push-ups on command from Lisa and Madison Burtt.