Tuesday, March 15, 2022
VIRTUAL Event
6:00 pm
Free
Richard H. Shriver, Publisher of Estuary Magazine
The Connecticut River … past, present and future
RESERVE YOUR VIRTUAL SEAT
The Connecticut River … its long and peaceful past until the industrial revolution, followed by years of abuse, then partial recovery, and a bright outlook today.
Dick Shriver uses PowerPoint slides to illustrate his presentation on the last 12,000 years of the CT River to the present, with special attention to abuse of the river during and following the industrial revolution. He acknowledges those in government who established the present-day regulatory apparatus that has helped clean up the water in the river. Finally, he summarizes the good works currently underway for the long-term benefit of the environmental and ecological features of the river.
Dick Shriver has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering. He has held executive positions in government and industry having been assistant secretary of the US Treasury Department and Senior Vice President, Chase Manhattan Bank. He has been professor of business finance & marketing at the International Management Institute, Kiev, Ukraine. He is provost emeritus of the European College of Liberal Arts (now Bard College Berlin), and is currently head coach of girls’ varsity lacrosse at Old Saybrook High School.
Photo Courtesy of Dick Shriver
Thursday, February 10, 2022
VIRTUAL Event
6:00 pm
Free
Josh Shanley, MS, MEd, MBA, EMT-P
The Connecticut River Valley Flood of 1936
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Author Josh Shanley recounts the greatest flood in New England history and examines the potential for future floods.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, the Connecticut River Valley was a thriving manufacturing hub for fabric, arms and brass. But early in the spring of 1936, nearly two feet of rain created havoc on a massive scale, killing more than one hundred people and leaving tens of thousands homeless, unemployed and without power for weeks. Patrols were conducted in rowboats on city streets. Typhoid and other public health issues complicated recovery efforts. Adjusted for today’s standard, damage estimates exceeded $9 billion, and the flood helped launch FDR’s Flood Control Act of 1936. Dams, reservoirs and dikes were constructed to control future flooding. Much of that system now remains in place but has gone largely unmaintained.
Josh Shanley has worked in emergency services since 1989 and during that time has had the opportunity to support several special operations teams as a tactical medic and rescue technician. He served as a canine handler with the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force (Massachusetts Task Force 1) and participated in the response to the World Trade Center attacks both in 1993 and in 2001. He completed a master’s degree in emergency management in 2005 and during the years that followed chaired various committees with a focus on public health and healthcare preparedness and emergency management. He ran a consulting practice for five years, working with hospitals around the country on a variety of scenarios, including flu pandemic and full building evacuation planning. In 2008, he earned an MBA in entrepreneurial thinking and innovative practices and, most recently, just completed a master’s degree in education. He has been a firefighter/paramedic with Northampton Fire Rescue since 2009 and the media project lead for the Massachusetts Fire Academy, where he builds online classes and shoots photos and video of the Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad, Hazardous Materials Response Unit and Technical Rescue Teams. He has lived and worked along the Connecticut River since 1995.
Photo Courtesy of Josh Shanley
