Not much in the news to comment on today, but all of you have had plenty to say in the comments. Today’s column in The Hour by John P. Reilly was a heck’uva job. I’m not quite sure what to make of an opinion column that is critical of the accuracy of blogs on the one hand, and yet gets the very famous “Brownie” quote wrong and concludes with the very fictional goings on at “Hooter Lake.” It must be a generational thing.

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The final budget recommended by the BET is sort of final because it still has to pass by the Common Council. The Council can choose to adjust the spending cap up or down. So what’s the final BET recommended budget? From the Hour:

That $246.3-million cap represents the $264.5 million budget recommended by city Finance Director Thomas S. Hamilton less nearly $16.2 million in estimated state aid less an additional $2 million.

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SWRPA (South West Regional Planning Agency) sponsored a panel on the topic of congestion pricing for our parking lot I-95. From the Advocate:

Congestion pricing is different from tolls because it doesn’t charge a flat fare to motorists regardless of the time, DeCorla-Souza said.

With advances in technology, cash lanes are not needed with congestion pricing, he said. Tolls can be collected at high speeds using transponder tags such as EZ-Pass, or by taking photos of license plates.

The Federal Highway Administration would not support a method to reduce traffic if it led to toll plazas that slow cars down, DeCorla-Souza said.

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The racism charge that hangs over the Norwalk fire department has certainly caused some long lasting friction. Last night, according to the Hour, a hearing was held by an investigatory panel to look into the incident involving a video tape that only the Hour has seen.

The panel had hoped to shed some light on a racist videotape made public last November. The tape, which was released exclusively to The Hour by former firefighter Scot Wilson, showed firefighters at the Broad River Station using racial slurs. The panel included Common Council members Michael Coffey, Carvin Hilliard, Richard McQuaid, Joanne Romano and Herbert Grant as well as the Rev. Phyllis Bolden, chairwoman of the panel.

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Connecticut has the highest electricity rates in the country, at least in the contiguous states, and only Hawaii has higher rates. This is one of the contributing factors to the high cost of living here. So you’d think that Connecticut’s legislature would be trying to do something about that wouldn’t you? Well, as I’ve posted on before, they are content to push 4 bills out of committee that don’t really do anything.

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There’s congestion toll pricing on I-95, surcharges on the trains and plans for random bag searches on Metro North trains … er, can you imagine how that will go down in New Canann? Feel free to talk about any topic here.

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Last night, the Hour reports, around 60 parents and residents met with Norwalk School Superintendent Corda and to chat about the process of hiring a new principal and 4 housemasters for Brien McMahon. The hiring process, I’ll dub “Instructional Principal Hiring Specialists”, begins with a hired gun consultant who will pick and choose a candidates to present to two teams consisting of ; Four teachers, four parents, one housemaster and two students will be on one interview team, and on the second team will be a director of secondary education, an instructional specialist, a director of special education and the human resource officer.

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As a followup to last night’s post on the DPW budget, I have posted up the list of trees that are part of the huge backlog of trees. I also have a link to the schedule of sewer hookup fees and have confirmed that every residential or commercial hookup whether on existing properties that are expanding or changing their use, or new developments will be required to pay a fee. This should help fund ongoing maintenance in a non crisis way that everyone Hal Alvord, Mayor Moccia, Bill Krummel and Fred Wilms agreed was important to do.

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Radon has been clocking in time at in area classrooms for a possible go at participating in the CMT tests. Or according to the Hour, there’s Radon detected in 25 classrooms. I’m not sure what to make of it, so here’s the details from the Anna Gustafson article:

The district conducted two radon tests in about 600 district rooms in December and averaged the results of the two tests to determine which schools needed work to decrease radon levels. The averages are measured against the EPA’s action level for radon in the air, which is 4 picocuries per liter. A curie is the unit used to measure the activity of radioactive substances.

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Today’s Hour contains two enticing tid bits of news in a Robert Koch article. The first:

“The Water Pollution Control Authority for the city of Norwalk is deferring approval of sanitary sewer connections in the Westport Avenue sanitary sewer service area until infrastructure improvements are constructed with a targeted completion date of no more than two years,” wrote Elisabeth O. Bardon, operations manager for the public works department, in a memorandum to Planning and Zoning officials. “This applies to any new development that will contribute flows in excess of what is currently being discharged to the sewer from the affected parcel.”

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