From the monthly archives:

February 2009

Rell Proposes To Cut Norwalk Bonds Out Of Budget

by turfgrrl on February 28, 2009 4:07 pm · 15 comments

Actually, Governor Rell is proposing a cut to all bonds that were state aides to municipalities out of the budget, but I like to keep a focus on Norwalk. The Courant reports on Saturday, so this means a Friday press release, which means that the weekend media instead of the weekday media:  ”Gov. M. Jodi Rell has proposed canceling $389 million in state and local bond projects, forcing cash-strapped towns to decide whether they can, or want to, fund their own dreams.”

So what’s affected. The Courant provides a handy database to search by town.

Department Project Town Authorized Allocations Cancelled
Balance
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Senator McDonald lauds expansion of NBC Universal in Stamford

by Chris MC on February 27, 2009 10:07 pm · 6 comments

Capitol Watch reports the decision to expand in Stamford:

“Today’s announcement about NBC Universal’s decision to vastly expand its Connecticut operations in Stamford is an exciting opportunity for my community,” McDonald said. “It represents a rebirth for the Rich Forum, and I stand ready to work with NBC Universal, both here and in Hartford, to bring these hundreds of jobs to Connecticut.”

The Stamford Advocate reports:

The arts center, which also owns the Palace Theater at 61 Atlantic St., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last summer in state Superior Court in Bridgeport after experiencing financial distress for several years as state funding dwindled from $2.5 million to $500,000. …

NBC’s plans are “heaven sent” for the arts center, especially since the state plans to reduce next year’s SCA funding to $250,000 and then offer nothing the year after that, said Michael Freimuth, Stamford’s director of economic development.

“From that perspective, it will help them close what is projected to be a huge gap in state funding,” he said.

Here’s a bit of color for the story: Jodi Rell, who supported the cuts in State funding that put the Rich Forum under water, arranged to be in Southport today. She snuck down to Stamford on about an hours’ notice, in an effort to take sole credit for this. NBC wasn’t even there.

Why pull this clever little stunt? Same reason she appointed Stamford Mike Fedele (who is a nice enough guy, but way, way down the list of Republicans who would be considered qualified for his office, never mind successor to hers) as Lieutenant Governor:

NBC’s pending arrival is an exciting development for the city, said Mayor Dannel Malloy.

“The city has always made an effort to encourage and support the arts, and this deal is testament to the value we place on such projects in Stamford,” he said.

Advocate Political Reporter Brian Lockhart nails it on his most-readable blog Political Capitol:

If Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell were any stealthier about this afternoon’s visit to Stamford, she would have been dressed in black, her face smudged with black paint, with night vision goggles over her eyes and a cyanide pill under her tongue in case she was captured by the enemy.

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Art Show Tonight

February 27, 2009

This Friday, February 27 – 6- 9 pm

Opening Reception for “Feeding the Soul” a special art show featuring 32 professional and 90 youth artists views of satisfying physical, intellectual and spiritual hunger. Music will be provided by Jeremy Shockley and the St. Philip Youth Choir. Reception will be held in the S.P.A.G. gallery, in the Manice Lockwood Mansion, 25 France Street, Norwalk. Admission is free and open to the public. The gallery will also be open on Saturday, February 28 from 1 to 9 pm and on Sunday March 1 from 11 am to 2 pm.

feedingthesoul-2

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Waypointe 104 Million Bonding Issue Has Monday Public Hearing

February 27, 2009

After months of tweaking, the planning committee of the Common Council is ready to hold a public hearing on the infrastrucutre bonding plan of the Waypoint project.

The Hour reports:

Under the bonding plan, parking revenues and a surtax leveled upon Waypointe tenants within a special services district would repay the bonds over a 25-year period.

The bond resolution is part of a master development agreement spelling out the responsibilities of the city, Seligson Properties and the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency for Waypointe — a nearly $600-million project.

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Get Children Out Of Classroom

February 27, 2009

I’ve been saying this for years, and now the NYT opens an article on education with–“The best way to improve children’s performance in the classroom may be to take them out of it.”

Wait till they write about dodgeball!

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. The article goes on to say:

A study published this month in the journal Pediatrics studied the links between recess and classroom behavior among about 11,000 children age 8 and 9. Those who had more than 15 minutes of recess a day showed better behavior in class than those who had little or none. Although disadvantaged children were more likely to be denied recess, the association between better behavior and recess time held up even after researchers controlled for a number of variables, including sex, ethnicity, public or private school and class size.

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League Of Woman Voters Hosts Pie & Politics

February 27, 2009

Saturday, at the Norwalk Police Station Community Room, with the revolver, at 9 AM. The Hour reports:

In an effort to encourage discussion between legislators and their constituents, the League of Women Voters of Norwalk will hold “Pie and Politics,” a morning of information, discussion, and pie — really quiche and a light breakfast — on Saturday.

It is the third time the League has held the breakfast, said Mary Oster, co-president of the league.

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One Dollar A Bushel Threatens Shellfish Jobs

February 27, 2009

I’m really having trouble understanding how a $1 a bushel tax will cause hundred of jobs to be lost.  How many Oysters are in a bushel anyways?

The lay of the sea:

Today, more than 70,000 acres of shellfish farms are under cultivation in Connecticut’s coastal waters… farms that harvest millions of pounds of oysters, clams and other shellfish every year from Long Island Sound and the lower Connecticut River.

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Media carnage: Tribune Co. slashes Courant staff.

February 25, 2009

Rumors (apparently promulgated by Tribune management) of big staff changes were proven true today as The Hartford Courant dropped about 100 people. Among these were Mark Pazniokas, veteran political reporter in Hartford, and one of the two authors of the Courant’s Capitol Watch blog.

The paper’s report on itself offers some details. Excerpt:

The cuts include about 30 writing, editing and news support positions, bringing the news staff to 135 — down from 235 at the start of 2008. With the layoffs, the newspaper will no longer have a reporter assigned to Washington, D.C.

Most employees affected are being notified this week, said Stephen D. Carver, publisher and chief executive officer. The layoffs are mostly at The Courant but also at subsidiaries New Mass Media, which comprises the chain of Advocate weeklies, and Valu Mail, the direct-mail business owned by The Courant.

Courant survivor Dennis Horgan blogs about The Mardi Gras Massacre. Excerpt:

This is not good management. This is loathsome and mean-spirited and casually cruel. The bosses there have plenty of experience in laying off the workers so it is hard exactly to imagine why they chose this gruesome way to deliver the news, to punish one and all in the process. Was the old way getting boring? Do they need variety in such things? They won’t say. It is impossible to respect such as that. Impossible.

So much for my brightening mood about the direction of things.

Sources: The Hartford Courant, Courant cutting about 100 jobs.
Dennis Horgan, The Mardi Gras Massacre.

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Norwalk: The Budget Cap

February 25, 2009

Last night’s council debate on the budget cap was interesting enough that this morning I was still thinking about it and the ramifications or lack thereof of what was said. The simplistic analysis was that the council voted in a party line vote to raise the budget cap by $400k from Finance Director Tom Hamilton’s recommended cap. The party in favor being the Democrats and the party in opposition being the Republicans. Yet, it really wasn’t all that simple, each council member had nuanced positions that didn’t quite make it evident what their position was on some essential issues. 

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Common Council Meeting 2/24/09

February 24, 2009

Common Council MTG 2/24/09

Attending: Krummel, Serasis, Brown, Duleep, Lindstrom, Hilliard, Geake, Moccia, Maslan, Bolden, Straniti, Conroy, Bonenfant, Kydes, Hempstead, McQuaid

They approve the minutes with some minor comments about corrections, Duleep makes some adjustments and so does Brown but Kydes wanted to add something that he didn’t say and the Mayor reminded him that it was not a verbatim. They vote unanimously.

Public Commentary:

Scott Vetare : Secretary and Treasurer of local 2405. They did not sign the retirement package because there was a stipulation that temporary personnel could be hired to replace the people who would take the early retirement package. He points out that there are people with 30 years who can’t retire but they can’t move up.

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