Volume 20, Number 18
Serving Durham, Middlefield and Rockfall
www.TownTimes.com
Friday, August 16, 2013
Crowded job fair for Powder Ridge By Mark Dionne Town Times
The first lines at the new Powder Ridge ski resort were not for lifts but for jobs. Powder Ridge hosted a job fair Aug. 10for positions at the resort, set to open this winter. As of 11 a.m., over one hundred applicants had been processed while approximately another hundred waited in lines. The job fair went from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. “We’re very encouraged,” said Powder Ridge owner Sean Hayes. “This is what it was about.” Accord i n g to H ayes , about 200 positions were available, many of those seasonal. Some of the positions, such as maintenance and landscaping, start immediately while
Cromwell, retired for four years, was in the line for costumer service employees because working at Powder Ridge “sounded like a fun gig.” Bruce Ring from Middletown, on the other hand, was looking for a full time work, similar to the construction supervision job he had for forty-five years before his employer went out of business. One ca r in the pa rking lot had Vermont plates and a UVM sticker. Peter Farrell drove down from U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal with Coginchaug Regional the University of Vermont High School junior Garrett D’Amato during Powder in Burlington for the job Ridge’s job fair Aug 10. | Town Times photo by Mark Dionne fair. Farrell has family in Wallingford and was lookothers, such as instructors bining work at Powder ing for “anything full time.” U. S. Senator R icha rd and ticket takers, begin in Ridge with his other park, Blumenthal walked through Brownstone. December. Many of the job seek- the fair, shaking hands and Hayes said that he hopes some employees will have ers in line were from the speaking with job-seek“dual season jobs,” com- area. Sharon McHugh from ers. Blumenthal referred to
Powder Ridge as a “landmark” and reminisced about events held at Powder Ridge when he was Connecticut’s Attorney General. Blumenthal said he was especially pleased to see the opportunity for young people, noting that unemployment was particularly high for the young. “This success story is going to continue,” he said. Hayes expects to have an opening with artificial snow on Nov. 27 and to expand the snow coverage in December. The restaurant, with cafeteria, tavern, and fine dining options will be feeding - and employing - people this winter. “ Powder R idge h a s brought a lot of people together over fifty years,” Hayes said. “Now it’s coming back.”
Elephant show planned for fair under discussion By Mark Dionne
Town Times
Aug. 12 has been declared World Elephant Day, which would normally pass without much notice in Durham and Middlefield. However, a decision by the Durham Fair Association to bring Elephant Encounters, a traveling elephant show, to the 2013 Durham Fair has increased local awareness of the conditions of captive elephants. Rachel Mann of Durham picked World Elephant Day as the end date for her change.org petition calling on the DFA to cancel the show. The change.org petition, which has gotten over 2,800 signatures as of Aug. 11, questions the practice
of captive elephants as entertainment and accuses Elephant Encounters’ owner Bill Morris of failing to treat the elephants lawfully. As of press time, the DFA had not canceled the show. The DFA made the following statement: “Additionally, we have been in contact with the owners of these animals and are convinced that they regard these animals as we regard our own pets. “ The DFA has a regularly scheduled meeting Aug. 14. What are the laws for transporting and exhibiting elephants? The Animal Welfare Act originally passed in 1966 and, since amended, details minimum standards of care and treatment for certain animals. Pets, cold-blooded ani-
mals, as well as animals “that are used for food, fiber, or other agricultural purposes” are exempt from the AWA. Exhibited elephants are covered by the AWA. The AWA is enforced by the Animal and Plant and Health Inspection Service, which is part of the United States Department of Agriculture. APHIS licenses the home location of commercial animal concerns and also regulates the transportation and exhibition treatment of certain animals, such as Cora and Shannon, the elephants scheduled to be at the Durham Fair. Critics of Elephant Encounters have drawn attention to Morris’ use of a bull hook on his elephants. Bull hooks, which resemble
fireplace pokers, are often used to issue instructions to elephants. They have also been used by elephant handlers as instruments of punishment. Certain counties in America have banned their use, but they are not specifically banned by the AWA. There are transport regulations regarding ventilation, sturdiness and cleanliness of the container, and other matters. The standards for transport integrity and ventilation are two of the AWA violations alleged against Morris in the late 1990s. According to the AWA, animals can be transported in cages smaller than they are usually kept in as long as they can turn around and make “normal postural adjustments.” Some species
that travel standing up, presumably elephants, can be more restricted in transport if, according to “professionally accepted standards,” too much space is a danger during travel. An elephant in transport has to shift and adjust its massive weight with the movement of the truck or train. A United Nation report describes the situation. “It looks like the elephant is doing nothing but in fact it is hard at work physically and even mentally ... Such an elephant will arrive at the destination physically exhausted.” According to Google Maps, it is 1,236 miles from Gibsonton, Fla., Elephant Encounter’s base, to the See Elephant / Page 23