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Vermont stargazers fear prison lights
By John Larrabee, USA TODAY
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. - Stargazers have been gathering in the meadows on Breezy Hill near Springfield since the 1920s. That's
when local workers built a rustic observatory called Stellafane and rural Springfield began its reputation as the birthplace of
amateur astronomy.
The skies have always been dark, allowing sightings of dim constellations even for those without telescopes. Then the residents of
this once-bustling manufacturing center voted to accept a new state prison, towers, guards, lights and all.
"I've had 70 or 80 e-mails from around the world," says John Follett, chairman of the town's Board of Selectmen. "There's an
attitude that any industry that requires outside lighting should be opposed." With a second vote set for Sept. 14, and the governor
expected at a public hearing tonight, the controversy boils.
Stargazers around the country consider this hallowed ground. The main attraction: Springfield's dark night skies, a resource fading
fast in the growing glow of urban lights.
"In New Jersey, where I live, there is no Milky Way," says Wayne Zuhl, a computer engineer who comes to Springfield every
August for a convention of amateur telescope makers and astronomers. "At Stellafane, the skies are so very dark the Milky Way
looks like a bright cloud. When you look up with binoculars or a telescope, it explodes into thousands of stars." The stargazers
fear that building a prison less than four miles away will make Stellafane just one more well-lighted place.
But to some local residents, the dark skies signify economic stagnation and they want to reverse that. Springfield, a town of
9,500, once was a bustling machine tool center; today much factory space is vacant. Employment at the plants has dropped from
5,000 two decades ago to 1,000.
Townspeople favored the prison plan 1,633 to 1,564 in June, but opponents gathered enough petition signatures to force a new
vote.
The battle is the latest in an environmental crusade to pull the plug on outdoor lighting. "A dark sky is holy. It's a human right. No
one should be allowed to cut it off," says California activist-astronomer John Dobson, one of the movement's best-known
spokesmen.
The "dark sky" movement is gaining ground. Texas and Maine require shielded lights on highways and state-owned properties.
New Mexico recently adopted tough, new outdoor lighting standards. Many cities and counties in Arizona have strict controls.
Last month, the Canadian province of Ontario created the world's first "dark sky preserve" on 5,000 acres of wilderness known
as the Torrance Barrens Conservation Reserve.
And Springfield is bucking a history as a stargazer's Mecca that has its roots in the town's industrial past.
James Hartness, president of a local tool company (and Vermont governor in the early 1920s), was an amateur astronomer who
designed and built a first-of-its-kind tracking telescope .
Inspired by Hartness, a group of engineers and machinists at local plants launched an astronomy club, the Springfield Telescope
Makers, of which Zuhl is secretary. The vice president is Robert "Junie" Esslinger and the president is Maryann Arrien, who
keeps up the Stellafane Web site in cyberspace. They and other volunteers are today's custodians of a legend. In 1923, the first
members of the astronomy club built Stellafane (Latin for "shrine of the stars") on 30 acres donated by Hartness. The site includes
a pink cottage, with telescopes built into the walls. Outside stands the world's only reflecting turret telescope.
The Springfield Telescope Makers, who now come from all over the country, were covered by Scientific American magazine.
The group's president wrote a column for the magazine, sparking a nationwide telescope-building fad. Today the club has about
90 members, a third of them in the Springfield area. The annual August convention attracted 2,500 professional and amateur
astronomers from around the world. So the possibility of a prison less than four miles from Stellafane did not go unprotested.
More than 1,800 astronomy buffs have signed a petition urging Gov. Howard Dean to halt the prison project. Dean is expected to
answer questions, and push the prison project, at tonight's hearing.
"Stellafane Observatory has been here for 75 years, and there's one important thing to remember - it's not portable," Arrien wrote
in a letter to state and town officials But those who want the prison see the astronomers as interlopers, outsiders butting into local
affairs. The Springfield Telescope Makers recently asked supporters to stop discussing the issue until after the town vote.
Vermont needs a new prison to ease a cellblock crunch. In recent years the state has shipped inmates to as far away as Virginia
and New Jersey. The 350-bed prison would be the state's largest, with construction costs expected to top $26 million. But finding
a site is no easy task.
To win support in Springfield, the governor's office offered more than $7 million in economic incentives, including a recreation
center, upgrades for water and sewer systems and $1 million for a new industrial park. Critics also question if a prison is what the
town needs.
"It's going to depress real estate values, and with it come all sorts of safety risks," says Selectman Doug Richards, one of the few
town officials to oppose the plan. "People are worried about possible escapes, and about having prisoners in town on furloughs
and work release."
Springfield residents seldom mention the dark-sky issue when they debate the prison. But Kurt Staudter, a local journalist and
political activist, says he thinks they should.
"I grew up in New York City, where all you never saw more than a few bright spots in the sky. "Now I sit on my back porch and
I'm amazed at what I see when I look up at night. Astronomy has become part of our town's history. It's not too late to preserve
this as a part of our heritage."
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