The Common Council approved the WPCA budget but issues remain about how the billing is executed. The Hour reports:

The Common Council narrowly approved a $12.8-million operating budget to keep the city’s wastewater treatment plant running after July 1.

At issue was not the bottom line of the Water Pollution Control Authority’s 2008-09 operating budget, but the fairness of annual flat fees charged residential and commercial sewer users.

Some council members believe consumption-based billing would be fairer to water users, and that a forthcoming study will bear that out.

Mayor Richard A. Moccia isn’t so sure.

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2012. That’s four years away already. That was then the CT DOT was planning to start construction? Hey by then gas will be at $10/gallon so maybe the the parkway will be used by motor scooters exclusively.

Redesigning the congested Route 7/Merritt Parkway interchange will take longer than projected because the state needs a new blueprint for the project.

Starting construction in 2012 is no longer realistic because the state Department of Transportation must find an alternative to the cloverleaf design that has sparked strong opposition from interchange neighbors, said Tom Harley, the DOT’s manager of consultant design.

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Education is not that much different than industry. There are widget makers, that would be the people who instruct, and management, that would be the people who don’t. If your product is widgets, and you need to produce more to stay competitive then you don’t cut the widget makers. So Kimmel has it right when he says:

Board member Bruce Kimmel said he would favor combining central office positions and not the assistant principals, because they are in the schools.

“My view is the schools are touched last,” Kimmel said.

. . .

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Now that the BOE has cut the revenue generating news stand, they are eyeing other cuts to the budget. The Advocate reports:

Parents, teachers and administrators from West Rocks Middle School crowded into last night’s school board meeting to decry staff reductions included in cuts to the district’s proposed budget.

The school board is trimming $1.4 million from its budget request to meet the $148.2 million the Board of Estimate and Taxation approved last month for 2008-2009. The school board was expected to vote on the budget reconciliation after deadline.

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What is it with dog poop and Norwalk? Today, as I was investigating the latest developments in the garbage proposal, conversation turned to one of my more favorite issues, flooding and the progress of the storm water drainage projects. For those of you who think DEP approvals fall from trees, the status of the Lockwood/Buckingham pipe replacement project should give you pause. You see, before issuing a permit to replace the storm water draingage pipe, the DEP measures for thigns like e-coli. And it turns out that the existing pipe has high levesl of e-coli, so no permit.

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The bids have been sent out for contractors to bid on repairing the Haviland Parking Deck, the lot that runs behind Washington street in SoNo. The proposed timeframe for construction is after the SoNo Arts Celebration in August.  People will be redirected to other lots, which inevitably means that people, will have to, gasp, walk a bit farther to reach Washington Street.

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The statue of John Harvard, outside University Hall in Harvard Yard is a prefect example of the old adage that you can’t believe everything you read. It’s something that history scholars learn early, which is why source materials are always the preferred starting point for academic studies, rather than the stuff that follows. It comes in handy in programming too, although with a bit of geeky humour, the declaration, “use the force, read the source” will make you too, a jedi master. Naturally, after my usual WTF moments after reading the Hour this morning, I thought of the statue, more commonly known as the statue of three lies, because the article about the latest in the battle of 93 East Ave is so …. mind boggling.

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Garbage, or as the engineered like to refer to it, solid waste, is not a subject that most people gather around the proverbial kitchen table to discuss. Unless it’s about who is taking the trash out the night before pickup. Once the cans hit the curb though, that is usually the end of the thought process about what happens next. Yet, what happens next is precisely the part that has preoccupied so few in town that on a rainy Wednesday night 45 people filled the community room, with the lead pipe and Professor Plum Crazy. Of those 45, by my count, half were political flunkies. Of the non political flunkie set, there were clusters of representatives from trash hauling companies and the press. What’s the frequency kenneth?

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Out in the real world, I occasionally get real world comments about the blog. There’s a sentiment held that somehow the comments on this blog can get out of hand. I don’t disagree, but I’ve always felt rather strongly that the first amendment is pretty important, and that anyone who comes to a blog to discuss news and issues is taking that step to exercise that right to free speech. Sometimes that speech comes anonymously. There’s a long history of anonymous speech on the internet. And many issues of privacy that come with it. Huge issues of privacy in fact. Every pixel posted in email or on web sites such as this one, is recorded somewhere. And no one knows who will end up owning that data. Privacy in the age of unknown ownership of data is one reason I tolerate anonymous comments. I wish posters would pick handles, so at least repeat posters can I identify which “anonymous” they are, but that choice is left to the individual who chooses to post a comment.

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From the press release:

Volunteers help enrich Norwalk’s urban landscape

As the tree liaison of the Spring Hill/Hospital Neighborhood Area Association, Diane Witkowski is bent on restoring the lush tree stands and greenery she recalls in the Norwalk of her childhood.

“Many of our magnificent 100-year-old-trees have been lost to development down through the years and the streets are far more barren,” she laments, rewinding the years.

Witkowski is encouraged by the city’s current urban forest initiative—Norwalk has been designated “Tree City U.S.A.” for the fourth consecutive year—and points to seven plantings in her neighborhood this spring as “a good start.”

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