In the yin yang world of public outrage, Norwalk’s, the NMEA is all geared up to fight a proposal to codify the relationship between the Friends of the Museum and the City. Their position, according to Koch’s article, is that somehow, this codification impugns the job description of the Curator.

“It came up in a discussion I was having with the (city’s) personnel director,” Brey said. “I’ve made it clear, as I have for months, that any attempts to reassign the duties of the curator position to any non-union person, whether it be The Friends or anybody else, is a violation of the Municipal Employees Relations Act, and we would file a prohibitive practices complaint.”

[Read more →]

Remember when Corda and Opdahl were so eager to outsource the school kitchen services so that the ongoing deficit allegedly incurred would go away? Ah, promises, promises. Today we find out that the deficit hasn’t gone away because some parents have failed to pay for school lunches to the tune of $90,000. It’s funny how no one in this school administration ever admits to any responsibility for anything that goes wrong. Here parents are to blame, the implication either that parents are too cheap, too poor, to irresponsible to pay for school lunches for their kids. Nowhere in the Hour’s report, does Opdahl or Corda accept responsibility for communication failures that lead to this situation.

[Read more →]

No more liquor permit for the nightclub Gasoline on Washington street. Gasoline owner, Tadhg Dolan, did not show up for the Hartford hearing and it’s unclear if the nightclub has been open according to a report in The Hour. Last summer there was a daily stream of news about parking lot altercations, guns and fights about the nightclub. While it is always distressing to see vacant retail store fronts in SoNo, the demise of Gasoline is likely a good thing.

source: The Hour, Commission revokes nightclub’s liquor permit, by James Walker, August 23, 2007

[Read more →]

Talk about hubris. Here’s a guy whose FBI transcripts reveal the cozy relationship he had with alleged mob connected James Galante, and a mysterious diner chat that swirled around “paying a visit” to “take care of” the wayward behavior of a relative. Senator Fred Thompson were he still on Law and Order would have no qualms about what to do. He’d prosecute and have the whole disgraced State Senator removed from office by the first commercial.

Instead we get the ponderous slow-mo action from the State Senate Leadership, and the defiant response for DeLuca. From the Advocate:

[Read more →]

Chalk this report released by SWRPA as stating the obvious. As real estate prices have shot up in the last few years, the affordable factor in housing disappears. And that’s what the report basically says in today’s Advocate. One solution, the report states is to encourage 40 year mortgages:

The study recommends state and local governments pursue density bonuses and other incentives for developers to create affordable housing in those areas.

Other recommendations include SWRPA becoming an affordable housing information clearinghouse in its role as the region’s main intergovernmental planning agency, and urging lenders to create more flexibility in mortgages so home buyers can borrow more within acceptable limits.

[Read more →]

Along time ago on a television far away, a Wendy’s commercial once ended with Clara Peller asking “Where’s the Beef?” after peering at a very small burger on a rather large bun. You get the impression reading Amanda Pinto’s article in the Hour today, that the BOE bun was rather large. I can almost hear Dr. evil Corda saying, “This is what we are going to do, we’ll fluff up the presentation and create some understanding.” Oh joy, he brought out the powerpoint. Crank up the victrola, the good there show was about to begin.

Ready?

[Read more →]

Deadlines loom. The thread is yours for the commenting.

[Read more →]

The Courant is running a good story on the preservation challenges of modernist homes. Most people would recognize that Phillip Johnson’s glass house is iconic, but there are many other homes in the area that represent this period of architecture.

From the Courant:

People are coming looking for these houses, so the tear-downs have slowed down,” said Janet Lindstrom, executive director of the New Canaan Historical Society. “They seem to be much more respected. Many of them are in the process of being refurbished and it could be that maybe five years ago, they would have been torn down and lost to us forever.”

[Read more →]

Chris Shays, congresscritter from the 4th CD, has earmarked funds for improving police departments in the area. From Matt “Mad Max” Breslow’s Advocate report:

The grant was approved along with $500,000 to improve law enforcement in other towns, according to a news release from U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Bridgeport. The funding is included in the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill.

The Senate must approve its own version of the legislation, then both houses of Congress will work on a compromise bill.

Shays said he voted against final passage of the bill because it “undermines a critical provision of the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act.”

[Read more →]

Okay the legislature is out of session, so these what might have been stories are a dime a dozen, but, I find it irking to the max that instead of talking about the big problems, we get legislators talking about the little problems. Problems like a tweak to the open container law. From Brian Lockhart’s report in the Advocate:

Amann said over the weekend that when the General Assembly reconvenes later this summer to vote on a bonding package, he wants his colleagues to budget additional money for bridge and road maintenance to avoid a deadly collapse like the one in Minneapolis Aug. 1.

[Read more →]