BOE meeting attendance

As reported by the WRAs Lauresha Xhihani:

A public hearing on the proposed $60 million school budget attracted only two members of the public on Tuesday night and was over in 38 minutes. More than 80 chairs were set up for the public hearing....

On the school budget... I'm continuing with my compilation. But it's taking some time. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to provide one or two more (of the six) major categories. About the "six," as I've mentioned before, I believe the six categories are the areas that are determined by the BOE by state statute. Any of the lesser categories may be reallocated without a BOE vote.

Tim White

Open forum 1/23

Rep. Mary Fritz is supporting HRC. I believe Uncle Al told me he's supporting Rudy. Anyone know who our other legislators are supporting? How about Council for that matter? I'm uncertain, but I'm pretty sure Tim Slocum isn't supporting Ron Paul (said with a heavy touch of sarcasm).

There's a Solid Waste Committee meeting tomorrow. The agenda includes bulky waste, a composting facility and the Town's solid waste contract with CRRA. If I recall correctly, the contract expires in 2009.

The Chamber of Commerce is having its annual dinner tomorrow night.

From the Take Another Step website: Construction Has Begun !!! The Town of Cheshire begins playground site preparation and equipment has been ordered. As of January 2008 the Kids In Motion playground is an active work in progress! With it's highly anticipated opening in the June 2008 timeframe, the ~38,000 square foot playground will be one of the largest in Connecticut.

As previously mentioned, tomorrow there will be a Cheshire Republican Town Committee meeting and a GOP Presidential debate. I have no idea if Ron Paul will be included, though he and gazillionaire Mitt Romney seem to be the only two Republicans with money.

Tim White

3 strikes legislation

From the Courant's Capitol Watch:

After one of the longest debates in recent years, the state Senate voted 36 to 0 Tuesday night for a comprehensive package of criminal justice reforms that were prompted by the triple slayings last summer in Cheshire.

As part of a 3 1/2 hour debate, Senators also rejected a Republican-sponsored "three strikes'' amendment that was designed to mandate an automatic sentence of life in prison for any criminal convicted of three violent felonies. The Republican amendment was favored by Gov. M. Jodi Rell and captured the support of three moderate Democrats - Senators Thomas Gaffey of Meriden, Joan Hartley of Waterbury and Paul Doyle of Wethersfield. In the House of Representatives, a "three strikes'' amendment was rejected, 91 to 48, shortly after 11 p.m. as eight Democrats broke with their party to vote with the Republicans...

The average sentence of eight years "is all the evidence you need that the judges don't get it,'' said McKinney, who graduated from the University of Connecticut Law School.

But Democrats ripped the amendment that was backed chiefly by Republican senators John Kissel of Enfield and Sam Caligiuri of Waterbury.

Politics this week

The Cheshire Republican Town Committee is meeting this Thursday, Jan 24 at 7:30pm in Town Hall. All registered Republicans are invited.

Also on the 24th will be a GOP debate. I don't know yet if Ron Paul will be included... though I'm sure Fred Thompson won't be. Earlier today he joined a growing list of GOP hopefuls -- Tommy Thompson, Jim Gilmore, Tom Tancredo, Duncan Hunter, Sam Brownback -- who have had their hopes dashed.

This Friday at 6pm in Middletown will be a CTGOP straw poll... acting as a precursor to the Feb 5 primaries.

This Saturday should be interesting in SC. I hope John Edwards does well... I'd like to see him stay in the race.

Tim White

Senior tax freeze renewal

A senior tax freeze --- once a controversial idea in this town --- has been making its way to the Town Council and hardly piquing the interest of anyone in town.That's in sharp contrast to what happened more than a year ago when a group made up mostly of seniors collected more than 3,000 signatures trying to force a referendum on a plan to freeze taxes on senior citizens. When they were not allowed to put their question on the ballot, more than 100 angry seniors showed up at Town Council meetings asking for a freeze. (WRA)

Tim White
Town Council, 4th District

CTP comments on proposed ND

Regarding the proposed ND, there's an interesting exchange on PZC "process" over at the Cheshire Town Post. Basically it appears to be an exchange between Craig Houghton and Marty Coburn (though I haven't telephoned either to confirm... and it could very easily be anyone posting the comments... so take the comments with a grain of salt).

Tim White

Tonight's Dem debate

Wow! Anyone see it tonight? I just saw some highlights. Again... wow. Though it just happened, there is one clip up on YouTube (by Veracifer).

Tim White

School budget III: operations & maintenance

And now as I begin to analyze the third "major" category (of the school's six major categories), the numbers start to get more interesting.

First, notice the number highlighted in blue:Then agree that to the "line item explanation":but then agree the line item explanation to the detail:huh?

Anyway, here's the detail for the third major category: operations and maintenance. Interesting to me is the detail for the "non-contract cleaning." See the green here:I'd be interested to know why the non-contract cleaning jumped from $150 to $90,067... yet the BOE budgets haven't changed?

By the way, the "non-contract cleaning" has been of interest to me for a while. Here's an excerpt from a post (and similar letter I wrote to the Herald) in Feb '06:

The Board of Education abdicated its responsibility to the taxpayers when it voted to support the school budget without any substantive changes. It did nothing more than move one item from the operating budget to the capital budget and reduced a few numbers that are based on estimates.

The taxpayers deserve more from the Board, but never seem to get it. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a Republican or Democratic majority. No one ever seems to review the budget. If they had reviewed the budget, they would know that they could eliminate wasteful spending in a number of ways, such as...

REMOVING THE FLUFF - Line items could be removed from the budget. Some budget line items are never used, such as:
A/c 330 (Research & Development)
A/c 430 (non-contract cleaning)
A/c 590 (storage services / microfiche services)
A/c 610 (K-12 computers)

Tim White

100 years later

- uploaded by Superjsuh

School budget II: non-certified staff

Here's some additional detailing of the school budget history. Today's installment is the second "major" category (of 6) - non-certified staff. First is the info from this year's budget:And below is the historical budget data. Since there's a lot of info here, in order to get your bearings, you may want to focus on the totals circled in red... then dig into the details:Nothing in particular jumps out at me.

Tim White

Next PZC mtg on proposed ND

Tuesday – January 22, 2008 – 7:30 p.m. – Town Hall – Council Chambers

And about the Jan 16 meeting... I just watched it on Channel 14. What confounds me is when I hear PZC members voicing concerns that appear legal in nature, but it's not the town attorney addressing the concerns... additionally, there had been a Council meeting scheduled for Jan 22, but it's been cancelled. So hopefully this PZC meeting will be televised.

Tim White

Caligiuri on need for special session

I just came across this YouTube clip on the web... it's Sam Caligiuri calling for a special session on criminal justice reform.I'm glad Sam has been pushing this issue.

Hunter is out

I've heard that Duncan Hunter has officially dropped out of the campaign... so I guess the GOP is now down to five "serious" candidates and one "unserious" Taft/Goldwater conservative... Dr. Ron Paul... interesting how an unserious candidate gets second place in Nevada.

On the other side of the aisle, I'm kinda wondering what Mike Gravel is doing. Though he does have some memorable made-for-internet ads:I'm also feeling kinda bad for John Edwards. It looked like he didn't do well in Nevada. But my understanding is that's due to the caucus rules that worked against him and for HRC... and are not representative of how the actual people voting felt.

Turf returns

In yesterday's NHR (not online), Luther Turmelle reported on the BOE turf discussions:

Superintendent of Schools Greg Florio told the Board of Education Thursday night that he had been contacted by a staffer from the office of House Speaker James A. Amann and told that $525,000 for a new field had been put on the agenda for an upcoming Bond Commission meeting...

Board Chairman Stephen Mrowka said he was in favor of accepting the state money for the field. "If we don't take it, it will go to somebody else," Mrowka said.

Board member Gerry Brittingham said that while he's not against the idea of improving the football field, he does have some concerns.

"The state is going out to bond $7 billion to adequately fund the teachers' pension fund, and then they want to spend money on things like this," Brittingham said. "That's how these problems occur in the first place."

Gerry also mentioned the health concerns that have been raised by many, including AG Dick Blumenthal.

Tim White

Sustainable is traditional for some

I was looking thru a box of photos and came across this photo I took in Denmark:As I was looking at it... recalling that this was a traditional-style house... I started thinking about the mall.

Seriously... why not? I know a lot of you are laughing right now or just scratching your head, but... my point is simple... America is gonna have to come to grips with all of our development at some point. And considering that the Town is bending over backwards... why shouldn't the developer bend over backwards too?

According to google, an acre = 43,560 sq ft. So a footprint of 500,000 sq ft would be about 11 or 12 acres. And (ignoring residential) that probably includes, say, 15 acres of parking. So how about making the retail two stories high (higher than that would defeat the "main street" concept) and making the parking three stories high?

25 acres of development becomes 10 acres of development. Then cover the third floor parking with a roof... and cover the roof with grass... as demonstrated above. Then put PVs (solar panels) on the grass. I bet some birds would absolutely love to nest there. And do the same on the retail... or hey... put the parking on top of the retail and reduce the impervious surfaces to 5 acres... this would also help ensure that the PZC is fulfilling its mandate that states the "Separation of vehicular and pedestrian traffic is maintained to the greatest extent possible" because people would walk across no more than 3 or 4 acres of parking lot... rather than 10 or 15 acres of parking.

But then, I'm not positive that's the PZCs mandate. Although it is what Cindy is reporting over at Underground Town Hall.

Assuming this project continues moving forward, I hope thoughtful people like Lou Todisco and Andy Maye exert their influence on the process and have their voices heard.

Tim White

Our Nutmeg primaries

Connecticut's primaries will be here soon - Feb 5. So I've added a link to the website of most of the candidates of which I'm aware (see the column to the left). And if you want to see the candidates in action, wikipedia offers the following list of debates between now and Feb 5:

Democrats
January 21, 2008 - Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
January 27, 2008 - Boca Raton, Florida
January 31, 2008 – Hollywood, California

Republicans
January 24, 2008 - Boca Raton, Florida
January 30, 2008 - Simi Valley, California

Be informed. Register with a party. And vote!

Tim White

Cal Thomas on Ron Paul

"The only one behaving like a real Republican is Ron Paul, who actually wants to cut spending and get government out of our lives. He won't win the nomination because too many Republican are into handouts and redistribution... maybe a miracle will happen and Republicans will start behaving like Republicans again"

- Cal Thomas on Ron Paul and the rest of the Republican field

The terrible 2s!

Cheshire bloggers, happy birthday! It's our second anniversary. Thanks for making this possible. I'm thoroughly convinced that even right here in Cheshire... the tubes are changing the town... offering more transparency and opening up government like never before (h/t to Cindy Kleist and Craig Houghton, in particular!).

I recognize that I've made mistakes with this blog... but for the most part, I think our ongoing dialogue has been a net benefit. And I'm sure that I'll make more mistakes, but will certainly try to avoid them. Please bear with me.

Don't forget... guest posts are always welcome. Frankly, I'd love to have another regular front page poster or two. I think it'd make the blog more interesting. Alternatively, you can always head over to Cheshire Town Post and publish whatever you want... probably anonymously. But make sure to come back here! Your comments are what make this blog so useful... they generally help push forward the dialogue in a positive manner that allows everyone to speak freely without fear of consequence.

A final thought... blogs tend to be relatively small communities and will likely stay that way for a while. So in the meantime, if you really wanna have your voice heard... send letters to the editors of the local papers... and you can find those email addresses right here... at the top of the column on the left side of this page.

Tim White

p.s. A special thank you to Sheldon Dill and Charley Polizzano. Charley was the person who first got me onto the idea of blogging back in May '05 with this feeble attempt. Unfortunately, I really wasn't prepared to begin blogging. But in January '06, Sheldon Dill convinced me a blog would be worthwhile and motivated me to make it happen with this post on Elderly Tax Relief. So again... a special thanks to both Sheldon and Charley. Cheshire's blogging community would probably be a whole lot less lively, if it weren't for the two of you.

Hitchcock Phillips House tour

I love the internet!

A few days ago I got an email from Diane Calabro with a followup from Mary Ellen Kania. The Historical Society (more precisely, Mary Ellen Kania, Josiah Rowe, Richard Smith and my favorite hometown comedian, Ron Gagliardi) put together this video, but it hadn't yet been uploaded to the web. So they asked me to do it... easy enough. Anyway... here's their video about the House. It includes a nice little history of the House and of Cheshire. I hope you enjoy it.

On a somewhat related note... the Titus Moss walk may happen again this year. Stay tuned.

Tim White

Bending over backwards

I attended part of the PZC meeting on the proposed ND. The comments I heard were disappointing. While PZC Alternate Andy Maye was talking quite broadly about the project, others seemed to be focused on the height of signs and amount of lighting.

Don't get me wrong... signage and lighting are important discussion points about PZC projects. However, those should be addressed only after bigger issues have been addressed... issues that were being raised by Mr. Maye.

In the short time I was there, Maye asked about sewer capacity issues. And he drove home the point that on any particular day, though not every day... the sewers already exceed capacity... (remember... last year, Riverside Drive became a river of raw sewage because the treatment plant exceeded capacity and backed up...) too bad that on this issue, Mr. Maye's voice seems to be ignored... just like the voices of others... it was Sept '05 when I suggested (in the Herald) that the PZC sit down with the WPCA and have a real discussion about the north end. Of course, that discussion hasn't happened... or perhaps it just hasn't gotten anywhere... I mean, where are we now... compared to where we were 2 1/2 years ago?

As Dick Mangino explained during last month's Council meeting... the town did an INI study 15-20 years ago... the study included a videotaping of the pipes... now where is the video? Does anyone know? Who's supposed to know? Who's in charge?

As I've said... I'm not opposed to this project... I'm opposed to it as proposed. This project is not self-sustaining in terms of energy consumption (the primary reason we're in the middle east) and it's unnecessary sprawl.

Later, Mr. Maye made another good point. While he was asking about some of the zoning reg's, he was told something to the effect that his concern did not face "construction problems." To which Mr. Maye replied something along the lines of "but there could be environmental problems."

And what were the other comments about... lighting and signage.

Lighting and signage?

Ok, ok... as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I wasn't there for the full meeting. But the bit that I did see was really disappointing. I mean, when I voted in favor of this project a year ago, I thought the idea had the potential to move beyond CTs poor land use policy of yesteryear. Unfortunately, based on the comments I heard tonight... it looks like we are going to continue to make the same poor decisions that have governed CT land-use policy for years.

I was left with the feeling that some PZC members have little interest in representing the public and are willing to simply approve whatever the developer requests. By that, I don't mean a vote in favor of this project = a lack of representing the public. Quite the contrary... some people in town love the proposed ND. No... I just mean that there should be some critical analysis here... ask some good questions as Mr. Maye was doing.

As for my personal view, I could live with it if the developer's profit margins are reduced by $30,000 per housing unit because the parking was stacked... and I'm not too concerned if the developer needs to float an additional $20,000 for photovoltaics for each residential unit... the PVs will pay for themselves over the next 20 years... and I'm not too concerned if the developer makes less money than they want to make.

As I said at the Nov 27 PZC meeting... the town has already bent over backwards for the developer. Now it's time for the developer to bend over backwards for the town.

Tim White