Voters rendered an unprecedented outcome in Newtown’s municipal election on Tuesday night, where Democrats lost virtually every contested seat to a combination of Republican and Independent Party of Newtown (IPN) candidates. The lone exception was incumbent Councilman Dan Amaral in the third district, who lost the machine total, but prevailed on the A/B’s to win by five votes when the counting was done. Newtown has three Legislative Council Districts, each with four positions; there are no at-large Legislative Council positions.

Popular long-time Legislative Council member Patricia Llodra (R) was elevated to First Selectman, filling the seat left vacant by Joe Borst (R), who completed a two-year term after unseating five-term incumbent Herb Rosenthal (D). Joining Llodra as Selectmen are long-time Legislative Council Chair Wil Rodgers (R), who lost a bid for State Representative to Chris Lyddy (D) last November; and William F. Furrier (IPN). The First Selectman (the only full-time, paid elective position other than Town Clerk) and two Selectmen are elected at-large.

The Bee has the complete rundown of Tuesday’s results.
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It’s been awhile since we ran one of these. But here’s your opportunity to guess what and where this is. The first commenter that gets it right, that is both parts of the secret, what and where, wins a prize.

The Newtown Bee reports via email:

School officials collaborating with the Newtown Health District have closed Reed Intermediate School and cancelled classes for the remainder of the year, citing a flu outbreak. While not specifically citing the H1N1 or swine flu virus as the culprit, Health Director Donna Culbert has already stated that anyone exhibiting flu like symptoms this late in the year is likely suffering the effects of N1H1.

Read John Voket’s full story at The Bee website. Continue Reading

Charter is the local cable provider to big chunks of Connecticut towns, particularly in Litchfield County and northern Fairfield County.

The AP report published by the Waterbury Rep-Am states that Charter plans to file a “prearranged bankruptcy”.
Excerpt:

Charter, which is controlled by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, said it has reached an agreement in principle with certain debt holders to reduce its debt by $8 billion in exchange for combinations of new debt, cash, common shares, warrants to buy stock and preferred shares.

Allen will remain as an investor and retain the largest voting interest in Charter. But Charter’s common stock will be canceled, meaning shareholder stakes will be wiped out. Allen has invested over $7 billion in the company.

In a prearranged bankruptcy, a company enters into reorganization with a plan to emerge that has the approval of major stakeholders. …

The company hasn’t recorded a profit since it went public in 1999.

That’s a lot of money to lose, even if you’re Paul Allen.

No word on what impact if any this will have on local operations – one of Charter’s principal facilities is in Newtown – or service.

Source: Waterbury Republican-American. Continue Reading

Over at Connecticut Local Politics the pseudonymous Ghengis Conn has prepared another of his very nice maps, this one showing an analysis of the State House of Representatives races. I commented there on one race in particular, cross posted here.

The 106th, where Julia Wasserman has vacated her seat after holding it since late last century, covers most of Newtown (the rest of Newtown is part of the 112th, predominantly Monroe).

Running for it are the long-time Legislative Council Chairman, Third District Republican Wil Rodgers, who so far has been focused on presenting his bona fides and showcasing his experience and knowledge by articulating a set of well-informed positions. He enjoys support of certain long-time Democratic officials who formerly served with him and whom Rodgers supported last fall in the face of a very effective group of activists. Support from the local powers-that-be would normally be enough in Newtown for a Republican to win, but the aforementioned group of swing voters in town is expected to oppose him at the polls as they did last fall.

They are potentially decisive because he faces an unusually strong challenge in the person of Chris Lyddy, a lifelong Newtown resident from a large, well-known and liked family with several grown siblings raising families of their own in town. Lyddy is impressing a lot of people with his energy and enthusiasm, and is relying on his strong ground game to establish his name recognition and set-up the kind of GOTV you don’t see in the suburban districts. Lyddy was the top vote getter on the First District ballot in his inaugural run for office last fall, winning a seat on the Legislative Council. Some say that if he plays his cards right he has a real opening to motivate that bloc of activists, who are based in the Second District, and it might be enough to swing the election, when combined with his demonstrated strength in the First.

The race is offers an unusually strong contrast on several levels. Definitely a toss-up situation worth keeping an eye on. One of the few remaining independent, home-town newspapers in Connecticut The Newtown Bee offers weekly coverage and letters to the editor. Continue Reading

The Newtown Bee reported a sad and somewhat disconcerting story earlier this summer about a golden retriever, the remains of which were found after it had been missing for a couple days. Nobody was quite sure what might have happened, coyotes live up in this heavily wooded area, and a bear or bears have been seen on that side of town. As virtually every news report on bears around here points out, black bears are more interested in your garbage than you or your pets, unless you’re getting between the beast and its cubs.

Which is probably (see Eugene Driscoll’s News-Times piece with video) what happened in New Milford this morning, where a man shot a mature female black bear dead in his yard. See a slide show of the treed cubs’ capture here.

Incidentally, this (referring to an earlier thread) is an example of how professional news organizations are migrating their breaking news coverage online.

Given the range of of black bears, and the short distance on foot from Newtown to New Milford, its possible this is the same bear that has been spied in Newtown.

In recent years, partially due I suspect to the continuing destruction of natural habitat, and perhaps not just that, there seems to have been an increase in sightings and perhaps populations, of large wildlife. Deer are almost a pestilence in some towns, and moose have been seen in the northwest corner. Predator/scavenger species such as coyote, fox, and bear are no longer a novel occurrence. Wolves have even been rumored seen wandering down this way. I don’t see rabbit like I remember growing up.

As I’m writing this, I can hear the red-tailed hawks overhead as they soar on the drafts rising off the ridge nearby, hunting. At night, the owls’ calls echo up and down the hollow. At dusk and dawn, I have to keep a sharp eye while driving to avoid the deer and the fox that are out to feed.

It’s great living in a gigantic forest, and having the wildlife around, even if things are a bit more complicated because of it.
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