Earmark requests
If you've looked at Tuesday's agenda, you may have noticed item 10 - federal legislative requests... that's also what is known as "earmarks." Below is the Town Manager's explanation on this agenda item, along with his suggestion for an earmark:
I disagree with the TM. I'm fine with his suggestion, but I think there are other issues that are of higher importance. For example, what about turf? (j/k!). Or on a serious note, there's the energy wasted by the pool every winter. And I'm sure there are other projects that would, IMO, be a higher priority than extending the linear trail... though I like the linear trail.
Maybe funding for a public safety issue... deconstruction of the Strathmore Dam?
And, of course, there's the question of whether the town should request any earmark at all?
Anyway, if you're interested in your own personal earmark, here's the form:
What do you think? Should the town request any earmarking? If so, what should the request be?
And one last question... who among you believes the Council will have real discussion on this topic? Or will the discussion be purely symbolic with the decision being made beforehand, behind closed doors... as seems to have happened in the past?
Tim White
14 comments:
Where do I start on this?
Remove the dam and let nature take over.
Fix the pool, make it an example of energy efficiency.
Money for infrastructure of school buildings.
Create a farming and mining museum on the land of Boulder Knoll Farm
The town should request federal funds to find, map, and remove the toxins that have been migrating under the town and slowly killing resident and workers for decades via toxic water and now toxic air.
Is there a way for me to propose this formally?
Neil Fischbein
Hey Neil... print the form and mail it in. You may also want to do it with your Congressman. My thinking is though... isn't TCE virtually everywhere? If so, does it make sense to handle at a municipal/county level? I mean, if Cheshire has 17 sites (I think that's a number you've mentioned)... then those sites are probably everywhere in the US, right?
huh?
How about we stop looking to someone else for cash and solve our own damm problems.
We have a subprime economy because we have a nation of people who expect something for nothing.
Think globally, act locally
Good to see you want to put some money into the turf
Great idea
How much money are we talking?
I would love to see a permanent structure over the pool, I would also love to see the linear trail completed. I would also like to see that the residents in this town are living in a safe, healthy environment. Unfortunately, there isn't enough money to go around, unless the Feds just like Chris Murphy so much that they would open their checkbook to him.
This doesn't sound like a guarantee anyway.
Do citizens submit the requests or does it come from the TC?
I certainly hope our TC will listen to the citizens and go by what their wishes are and not what will help the TC individual, political advancements.
Consider funds to correct the mining issues we have. Either buy out and condemn the properties affected or fill the shafts in correctly.
Maybe we can get money to establish a farming and mining museum on Boulder Knoll Farm. Give mine tours, test contaminated water, look at invasive species, see the strong, rich history of the bedding plant capital of CT. If we build it they will come.
Right now there is enough linear trail for the usage. What does making it longer do for Cheshire residents? It would require more maintenance.
Currently, without a linear trail north of West Main the land bordering the canal serves as relatively undisturbed wildlife habitat providing nesting areas and food sources.
I realise that few people in town give a rats tail about the wildlife espescially many of our elected officials who voted for the for the destruction of 107 acres of habitat and the covering of 37 acres of the NE.
I think the Linear trail extension would work well for the W/S mall and the builders of 160 apartments. W/S touted that they would supply a means of connecting the mall to the trail, that way bikers, joggers and walkers would have another means of bringing business to the mall.
Is the extension request all about helping W/S and the builders of the 160 apartments? Coincidence?
Any request for an earmark should be for a real needs, like the pool. Maybe geothermal heating or putting a roof over it.
We don't need turf that has more problems than benefits and we don't need an extension to the linear trail. Don't waste our federal taxes on unnecessary things.
Tim, What's the chances of the TC requesting that the State redirect or expand the uses of that $525,000 and have it used towards the cost of a permanent cover on the pool? Makes more sense to do that than do put in a turf field. Maybe any federal funds could also be put towards a permanent pool cover too. At least in the end, it would save energy and taxpayer funds.
Isn't nice to think this money is free. The country has a huge debt and still we want to spend on things that we can't afford. This has to stop. While they all have merit I believe all efforts should go toward what we can do to save over $400,000/yr in energy cost for the pool. This make more sense to me and maybe later we would have enough $$$$$ to do the rest of our wish list.
Tim, I have never been a fan of the pool, but this is where the funds should be spent. Cover the pool, save energy.
Lets see how this works.
The democrats campaign on eliminating earmarks as they have a corrupting influence. It enables encumbents to gain more support for themselves. Earmarks are bad.
The Democrats gain control of congress, earmarks are good and we can now pay for the turf.
We send our jobs to China, we don't have any money so we borrow money from China. We then have money for earmarks.
Nancy Johnson liked earmarks and now we find Chris likes them too. Has anything changed?
Fix what is broken.
Do not buy new stuff.
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