After 29-and-a-half years of service on the Granby Board of Selectmen, Sally King has decided to step down. She and her husband, Eric Lukingbeal — partners in serving our community in so many ways — aren’t going anywhere, so thankfully we will still see Sally riding her horse or her lawn mower or walking with Eric and her Aussie Shepherds at Holcomb Farm. Still, it is important to pause and recognize our pioneers and contributors, and for Granby, Sally was both.
Sally met Eric at the law firm Robinson and Cole, where he was her mentor until she became partner, one of the first women ever at this prestigious firm. Both busy litigators, they were encouraged by their colleague, Dick O’Brien, to move to Granby in 1984, cutting their commute from Barkhamsted to Hartford in half, and they have never looked back.
By 1986, Sally was seated on the Inland Wetlands and Waterways Committee, and in 1993 she was elected to the Board of Selectmen (BOS), where she remained until this summer. Back then, the Holcomb Farm had just come to the possession of the Town, and she was appointed to serve as the BOS liaison to the Friends of Holcomb Farm, the non-profit formed to manage the property. The farm and buildings were in terrible disrepair after years of neglect by the University of Connecticut so the Town and Friends had their hands full, for years, and Sally helped navigate. From this important start, open space became a theme in her work for Granby.
In 1999 the BOS formed the Open Space Advisory Committee (OSAC) and charged it with developing an inventory and prioritization of open space in Granby and presenting a plan to the BOS, to include communication with current owners and financial plans to support acquisition and preservation. Sally remembers long hours working with colleague Put Brown, identifying and cataloging Granby’s parcels.
Asked for comment, Put noted: “Sally had a keen interest in preserving Granby’s ecological treasures, those features of the land that define the character of our community. We focused on assembling larger tracts of land, ones that offered landscape scale views and recreational opportunities. We also hoped to maintain working farms and interconnected pedestrian and wildlife corridors. Being an avid horseback rider, Sally brought nuanced insights to our discussions …. Her focus on the needs of horseback-riders, natural allies in Granby’s land preservation efforts, was especially appreciated by the rest of us and found voice in our final recommendations.”
Notably, the report identified 12 priority properties totaling 1,000 acres, then in private hands, for preservation. Today, over 750 of those acres — three-fourths — are protected from development. The final OSAC report proposed, and the Town adopted, an Open Space Policy that remains relevant today. It says, in part: “It shall be the policy of the Town of Granby to encourage the acquisition and holding of open space parcels of land within the Town if those parcels are of value to the Town and its residents in one or more of the following ways …” This helped set the stage on which the Town, individuals, and the land preservation organizations Granby Land Trust and McLean Game Refuge, have as of today secured some 10,000 acres in Granby as preserved open space, enhancing the character of the community, and enriching our lives.
Asked how service on the BOS had changed over her almost 30-year tenure, Sally’s view is that it hasn’t changed that much. She says Granby has been blessed with many talented people who have volunteered their time to help govern the town. Over the years, issues arise that get the public’s attention — e.g., Walmart building on Rte.10, a proposed golf course, bears — and the BOS listens and ultimately acts. But, the majority of the work is the day-to-day governing and oversight of the professionals hired to run the Town; it is a matter of showing up, and doing the work. Her advice to others who may want to get involved: “Go watch the meetings, and when you do get involved, speak up.”
In addition to the BOS, Sally has been very active in the Granby Horse Council, which helped make sure that regulations pertaining to owning horses and other livestock in town reflected Granby’s rural character. She has served for years on the State of Connecticut Juvenile Review Board.
She got involved in agility training with her Australian Shepherds (they have had nine of them over the years), which evolved over the past seven years as she worked to get her dogs certified as therapy dogs. In 2015, the Granby schools called to see if she and the dogs could visit to help with the start of a particularly tough school year, and the reaction of the kids was so powerful that the visits continued throughout all the schools — until the pandemic. She and her friends and their dogs, the Bradley Buddies, visit Bradley Airport on Thursdays to calm stressed passengers and airport employees. She is looking forward to returning to the schools.
As we consider her long tenure of volunteer service to our community, consider the words of former Republican First Selectman Scott Kuhnly, about his Democrat colleague, Sally King: “I enjoyed working with Sally. She always offered sage advice and perspective and the history she has in town is invaluable! I could always count on her to help steer the direction of the board in a positive way. I am extremely grateful for her friendship! Thank you for all you have done for this Town, Sally, it is a better place because of you.”
