One of the casualties of yesterday’s inclement weather was our ability to tell people about our cultural survey. So I’m posting the link here, in hopes that you can spread the word. We want to know about your visits and thoughts about Norwalk’s Arts and Culture. It’s anonymous, it’s short and it would help the Norwalk Arts Commission out greatly. 

http://1215654610.Norwalk.sgizmo.com

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.

Breaking news……Corda resigned today. This BOE gets to pick new superintendent.

What should have been a nice day finishing up pARTy in the Park details, turned out to be one where we started constructing an ark. Or rather, plan B. So while it would have been fun to track what was going on in BOE land tonight, we’ve been working out rain related details for pARTy in the Park. According to the weather forecasts, we might get some rain. That’s about as good as the forecasts are. Whatever happened to those five day forecasts that used to be fairly accurate. The highlight today was reading about today’s weather (3/5 services said lightly raining with mist) and watching hours of deluge style rain pelt Norwalk. 

They, the BOE that is, didn’t vote on any of Corda’s budget recommendations, or the overall budget itself. The Hour reports on Corda’s position and the teachers union’s position. First Corda:

For weeks, parents, students and school administrators have expressed their concern over many items included in the superintendent’s proposed recommendations such as closing the Norwalk pool, eliminating or cutting positions and slashing benefits that would reconcile the board of estimates’ requirement that the board of education eliminate an additional $2.2 million from its budget.

Oh where is that filmmaker gadfly when you need him. Michael Moore got his start in gadfly-iness when he filmed his tribute to the Detroit auto industry, and specifically GM with Roger and Me. The plot, loosely – Moore chases after, Roger Smith CEO of GM and confronts him about the harm that closing plats and ending 30,000 jobs did to  Flint, Michigan. 

Too bad we’re not getting daily webisodes of the impact Obama’s economic team is having on business. Let’s take a close look at the Chrysler/Fiat deal.

Part of the fun of planning pARTy in the Park has been meeting at the Lockwood Mathews Mansion once a week. The people there have been gracious in accommodating our expansive meetings, and are excited about the festival highlighting the park and of course the mansion. This morning’s meeting was the last all group meeting before the event, and one of the first things we chatted about, between quotes from Airplane! was this news item:

Police had to clear an “out of control” bat mitzvah party Saturday night at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum.

You’d think with all the months of organizing this I’d have spent some time here telling y’all about it. Alas, it is the classic case of the shoemaker’s shoes. So here we are a few days out, Saturday June 20th is the big day. Somehow 100 exhibitors a dozen or so bands and our friends at Post Road Diner, Coromandal, Archie Moore’s, Fountainhead, Rolling Cones, Kettle Korn, Luncheria Valencia, BJ Ryan’s, Tuscan Oven, Fat Cate Pie Co. and YumNuts will be on hand. Over the next few days I’ll be cross posting here and updating the Arts Festival web site. It’s here; www.norwalkarts.org/pip/, a short click away.

CT Voices for Children certainly has targeted the Film Tax Credit program, an odd position since it apprently thinks that Children don’t grow up to be creative economy professionals. I guess in the perfect world of working of Fairfield County taxes, all money would be devoted to reducing childhood poverty. You know, programs and people devoted, dare we say passionate about protecting children. Unfortunately with groups like these, the focus is on the problem not the cause, and if there’s one simple cause for child poverty, it is adult poverty. And jobs, as in earned wages is one great cure for adult poverty.

This is by far the best explanation to date: