The week in photos – August 15, 2019
‘Major Step’ looks for new membership
Josh LaBella
Voice Reporter
The Major Step team is looking for high schoolers to try out for their majorette and step dance group.
Coach and high school math teach, Yvonne Daniels, said majorette is a mixture of jazz, Latin and hip-hop dance while step dancing is used to chant beats.
“We chant at the basketball games,” said Daniels. “We chant at the football games. We do outside competitions and we also do school activities such as pep rallies, student-teacher basketball games, things of that nature.”
Daniels said team is in its second year since the combination of the majorette and step teams. She said she wants more boys to join the team.
“I feel like they think they can’t try out but want to be a part of it,” said Daniels. “We really want to make sure it’s inclusive.”
Daniels said members of the team are disciplined and have tutor sessions to keep their grades up. She said the students must have a “C” average, in order to maintain membership. She said being a member of Major Step has its advantages.
“To be a part of the school spirit is also great,” said Daniels. “They are part of a team. Which builds that team leadership and those qualities that it takes to be successful: social skills and discipline. All of those things.”
According to Daniels, students do not have to dance to be a part of Major Step. She said it is more about joining a team and having fun with them.
For more information: Call Coach Daniels at (203) 526-0263.
Around Town
‘Mix and Mingle’
The West Haven Republican Town Committee is hosting a “Mix and Mingle” at the Poli House, 686 Savin Ave., on Thursday, Aug. 22 from 6-8 p.m. Suggested donation is $10. Please join party members for a fun time and to meet your candidates.
Hillhouse ‘59
Hillhouse Class of 1959 will celebrate its 60th Year reunion on Saturday, Sept. 21 at the New Haven Country Club, Hamden. Luncheon is from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30P.M. Any question? Visit the website: hillhouseclassof59.com.
Poetry Lounge
The Poetry Lounge Open Mic is returning to West Haven Main Library, 300 Elm St., Monday, Aug. 19 from 6:30-8 p.m. All poets and listeners are welcome. There will be light snacks and door prizes. For more info, contact Deborah at swananewhaven00@yahoo.com.
Library sale
The Friends of West Haven Library will hold the 16th annual Book Sale on Friday and Saturday Sept. 6 and 7 in the Connie Sacco Room of the Main Library, 300 Elm St. Donations and Volunteers are needed. Please bring your new and used books, DVDs and Music CDs to the Main Library Circulation Desk. All Donations should be in good condition; no magazines, textbooks or encyclopedias.
Volunteers are needed to prepare for and staff the book sale. Sign up at the Circulation Desk for help beginning Sept. 3 either from 10-noon, or l-3. All proceeds of the sale are used to help the library with programming, museum passes and other materials.
Karaoke Night
The West Haven Italian-American Ladies Auxiliary is hosting a Karaoke night with “Terreoke Entertainment,” on Friday, Aug. 16, from 7-11 p.m., at the club, 85 Chase Lane. Proceeds will go to the Ladies Auxiliary so they can continue to contribute to local organizations and others in need. $10 entry, includes 1 food item. There will be food, raffles and a cash bar.
Pig roast
Join the Harugari’s annual German Bierfest and Pig Roast on Sunday, Aug. 25, under the pavilion.The time is 1 p.m. rain or shine. The Adlers will be performing for your listening and dancing pleasure. The Harugari Schuhplattlers will also perform traditional German folk dances. German food and bier will be available for purchase.Admission is $5 for adults, Under 18 free. Veterans can receive free entrance when you show your Veterans’ Card.
WHHS ‘64
West Haven High School Class of 1964 will hold its 55th year reunion on Saturday, Oct; 5, at App’s Restaurant, from 5:30-10 p.m. Buffet dinner and DJ. Cost $50 per person. Your guests are welcome. Invitations have been sent.
I-A Seniors
The West Haven Italian-American Civic Association Senior Center is seeking new members to join its Tuesday senior gathering. Join a group of friendly seniors in an afternoon of good company, with Bingo, cards, trips to casinos and conversations with like-minded people and more. We meet at the club, 85 Chase Lane, each Tuesday from noon to 3. The cost is just $3 per week to cover expenses. We offer refreshments at no additional cost. Call Sherri Torre, (203) 932-2893 for further information.
WHHS ‘69
West Haven High School Class of 1969 will hold its 50th reunion on Friday, Sept. 27, at Seasons located at 990 Foxon Road, East Haven, from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. There will be music provided by a DJ, a plentiful cocktail and hors d’oeuvre hour, buffet dinner along with open bar. The cost is $75 per person Checks should be made payable to Charlene Morgal and mailed to 18 Shumway St., West Haven, 06516, before Aug.ust 15 More information can be found on our Facebook page: WHHS Class of 1969- 50th reunion, or by emailing chazbo40@ aol. com /203 494 7379 or sandee110@aol.com /203 494 7730.
Senior Center trips
Join the West Haven Seniors on the following scheduled trip: All trips leave from Savin Rock Conference Center:
Monday, Aug. 19 “Holiday Hill” — statewide annual senior picnic 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Cost is $45 per person with unlimited buffet all day. This trip is in conjunction with The West Haven Housing Authority. Pick up times are: Morrissey Manor 8., Savin Rock Conference Center 8:15, Surfside 8:30, Union 8:45, and John Prete 9. If you are being picked up at Housing Authority sites please make reservation with Yolanda (203) 933-9449. If you are being picked up at Conference Center please register at the West Haven Senior Center or call (203) 937-3507. Payment is due no later than Aug. 1.
Tuesday, Sept. 17, Aqua Turf – Rob Zappulla Celebrates the Music of Frank Sinatra $67 per person Rob has performed to sold out audiences of all ages across the country and headlined performances at the Lincoln Center in NYC and Foxwoods Casino to name a few. Menu includes coffee and donuts upon arrival, door prizes, complimentary glass of wine or beer. Family style luncheon: salad, penne bolognese, chicken florentine, baked scrod, vegetable, potato and dessert. Bus leaves Savin Rock Conference Center 10 a.m. Payment is due by Friday, Aug. 30.
Wednesday, Sept. 25– The Big E “New England’s Great State Fair” in Springfield Trip cost is $45. Scooter rental available for $50 and must be paid in advance of the trip by check or credit card along with reservation form available in the office. This trip is in conjunction with Savin Rock Communities. Pick up times are: Morrissey Manor 8 a.m., Savin Rock Conference Center 8:15, Surfside 8:30, Union 8:45, and John Prete 9. If you are being picked up at Housing Authority sites please make reservation with Yolanda (203) 933-9449. If you are being picked up at Conference Center please register at the West Haven Senior Center or call (203) 937-3507. Payment is due no later than Sept. 1.
A flyer with further details is available at the office at the West Haven Senior Center 201 Noble St. or you can call the Senior Center (203) 937-3507.
Coin Show
The Liberty Coin Club of West Haven, organized in1962, will host a Coin Show on Sunday, Aug. 18, Oct. 20, and Dec. 15, at the Elks Club, 265 Main St., from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free. Anyone with an interest in buying, selling or collecting coins, or with questions about coins, is welcome to attend. Expert dealers and collectors will be on hand.
Al-Anon group
An Al-Anon meeting group invites new members to attend its weekly meetings on Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. in the First Lutheran Church, 52 George St. For information and details, call (203) 506-1464.
Student Loans
The Seth Haley Memorial Loan Fund of West Haven provides eligible college students with loans of up to $2500 to help students finish their post high school education.
Applicants must be West Haven residents who have completed two or more years of college or post-secondary work or be in their final two years of advanced work. Any West Haven resident attending college or a post high school professional, technical or trade school can be eligible for a loan. Repayments do not begin, and no interest will be charged until one year after graduation. If you are interested in making an application for a loan, please Gert Beckwith at (203) 934-6921, or Ralph Lawson, (203) 934-6442
Gripevine
Dear Gripe Vine Readers:
This week’s column might prove to be “different” for I am going to publish a number of your gripes that have not been solved. Now, in all fairness, if any of these gripes belong to you and they have been corrected, please let me know. If they have not been solved, I will be ready to keep pushing to get them completed. Send me an email gripevine4wh@aol.com or write to Gripe Vine c/o West Haven Voice, 666 Savin Ave.
Now, here we go: There is a large pothole 2 feet by 3 feet at Peck Avenue and Leete Street. Councilman Nick Ruickoldt was notified of this condition. Has this pothole been filled and repaired?
A reader writes, “High grass on Riverview Terrace. People have to walk in the street to avoid this condition.” Councilman Ruickoldt was made aware of this condition.
To the griper, has the grass been cut and to Councilman Ruickoldt, will you send Gripe Vine an update, please?
A reader writes, “The grass is high and unkempt attracting all kinds of pests at Morse Avenue.” Councilman Ruickoldt was notified of this condition several times. Has this condition improved? Will the Councilman and/or the reader send me an update on this complaint?
“There is a pothole at the intersection of Platt Avenue and Sorenson from plows. Also, another pothole 30 feet on Sorenson Road from the intersection in front of a resident’s mailbox.”
To the complainer, I had notified Councilwoman Tracy Morrissey. To date, I haven’t had a recent update. To the reader, update my readers, won’t you?
A reader wrote, “There used to be a sign prohibiting beach parking at Seaview and Ocean Avenue. The city needs to install a No Parking sign that seems to disappear every four years. The sign refers to no parking in the summer which were once going all the way up the street to Overlook. The signs have slowly disappeared over the years and last summer season resulted in parking issues as they meet intersections up from Ocean Avenue. Also, someone removed the STOP sign at Seaview and Ocean.”
Councilwoman Tracy Morrissey was requested to provide an answer. If, for some reason, the email didn’t arrive, I am still waiting for a response. Perhaps the sign was installed. Gripe Vine would appreciate an update from either the complainer or Councilwoman Morrissey on this gripe.
Three weeks ago, I sent a request to the tax office for information on the status of the Boot Program in West Haven, asking what the dollar status is, re, money collected from the Boot Program; How many individuals were fined this year, etc. Gripe Vine has not received a reply yet. Watch future Gripe Vines. I will have an answer for you.
Complaints arrived on my desk concerning Third Avenue speeding. I forwarded these complaints to Councilman Aaron Charney. He indicated he had brought up this issue. Gripe Vine hasn’t heard an update on the speeding on Third Avenue yet.
A request to replace a missing streetlight was directed to Councilman Nick Ruickholdt the middle of July. Gripe Vine received no reply yet on this issue.
Gripe Vine Readers:
It is necessary to let me know if your complaint has been addressed. Please email gripevine4wh@aol.com or write to Gripe Vine c/o West Haven Voice, 666 Savin Avenue.
You can submit your comments, gripes or suggestions to gripevine4wh@aol.com or mail them to Gripe Vine c/o The West Haven Voice, 666 Savin Avenue. Please include your name, address and phone number, kept strictly confidential with me.
Historian’s Corner
Old Newgate Prison
With the growth of the first settlements in New England, crime and punishment became common issues, just as they had been in the Old World. However, the setting had changed and so the early codes and methods of punishment mirrored the coarse, difficult nature of these early pioneer settlements:
Branding of the condemned, in accordance with the crime.
Docking-cutting off part of an ear for each crime committed.
Ducking-binding the criminal to a chair and lowering him into and beneath the water.
Whipping-(the most common punishment) the entire town would be assembled to witness the whipping of the convicted criminal while he was tied to a whipping post.
Stocks-the criminal was forced to sit with his legs captivated in a wooden frame with foot holes cut into it.
Pillory-the condemned was captivated by head and shoulders into a wooden frame which was located in the town square; it was common practice to throw rocks and rotten fruit at the criminal while he was so incapacitated.
Not long before the outbreak of the American Revolution, it was decided that an alternative to the existing corporal punishments should be made available in Connecticut. The intent was to separate the criminal from society and to employ him at some form of labor to offset the cost of such an incarceration. In May of 1773, the Connecticut General Assembly appointed a committee to visit an inactive copper mine in the area now known as East Granby, to determine if it could be used for “the purpose of confining, securing and profitably employing criminals in lieu of the infamous punishments now appointed.”
“In the night after the 24th of August (1775), New-Gate Prison was broke up, and the following prisoners made their escape: viz. the notorious Richard Steel. He is about 5 feet 9 inches high, pitted with small pox, has been twice crop’d and branded, had on a green coat. Also, Richard Marshfield, about 5 feet 10 inches high, about 25 years of age, black hair. Also, James McGinley, an Irishman, about 5 feet 8 inches high, black hair, darkish complexion, speaks broad, wore a claret coloured coat, white diaper jacket, a pair of spotted Manchester breeches. Whoever will take up said fellows and return them to the prison from whence they escaped shall have three pounds reward for each, paide by John Viets.” Connecticut Courant, August 28, 1775
When the committee visited the mine, they discovered that it was made up of a network of tunnels, and two vertical shafts. The mine became a prison as a wooden lodging was built above ground. Prisoners were to be kept deep underground and mine copper ore under the supervision of expert miners.
The prison overseers confidently stated that it would be impossible for anyone to escape from Newgate Prison.
But such was not meant to be: the first convicted criminal to arrive made his escape within 18 days. The next three prisoners to be incarcerated at Newgate made their escape attempt shortly after their arrival, by digging their way out. But on the way, they caused a cave-in, and their bodies were never found.
Time after time, prisoners arrived and prisoners escaped. And those who didn’t escape included younger men who were taught the tricks of their trade by the more experienced hands who worked alongside them in the mine.
They worked in a place they called “hell,” where prisoners “cursed and swore, and fought and committed other abominations.”
As time passed, Newgate Prison’s reputation grew worse and worse, until it was closed in 1827. Curiosity seekers began to visit regularly and it was eventually turned into a sort of museum. Today, Old Newgate Prison operates as a state-owned museum, and is opened to the public during the warmer months.
Murillo fights against adversity
By Josh LaBella
Voice Reporter
Jennifer Murillo described her sister, Gabby, as a bubbly person with a contagious smile and a heart of gold.
“I feel like any time my sisters or my family or friends needed something, Gabby would always be the person to volunteer to help,” said Murillo. “I own an online jewelry store. She would always help me pack when I’d get swamped with orders.”
Jennifer said her sister was about a month into her dream internship at Disneyworld in Orlando when she was involved in a car accident that left her paralyzed from the shoulders down. Her C3, C4 and C5 vertebrae were injured as well as other nerves being completely severed. Since the June 15 accident, Gabby has undergone multiple surgeries and was recently airlifted from Florida to Georgia.
According to Murillo, Gabby’s desire to work at Disney grew overtime and started with family trips to Disneyworld. She said it grew when Gabby participated in a cheerleading competition in Florida. By the time she was a freshman at Gateway Community College, Murillo said Gabby knew she wanted to do the internship program at Walt Disney World.
“Me, personally, I had no idea that even existed,” said Murillo. “But she was a fan. She said, ‘I want to do this. This is my goal.’”
Murillo said received the notice that she was chosen for the internship early this year. She said Gabby cried tears of joy when she got the news.
“We were all so happy for her,” said Murillo. “She’s 22 and she’s finally getting out of my parents house and starting her own adventure.”
Jennifer said Gabby moved down to Orlando in early May and began the internship later that month.
“She loved it,” said Jennifer. “She would text our whole family saying ‘I’m going to Magic Kingdom tonight to watch the fireworks.’ And that was just her Friday night thing – going to any of the parks at no cost. It was remarkable for her.”
Murillo said the weeks since Gabby was in the car accident have been a “big jumble.” She said her mom has been with Gabby since the car accident and has been hard not having her home.
“It’s upsetting for our whole family because we’re all separated,” said Murillo, adding that her sister Amanda discussed with her how she missed family events like Sunday dinner. “It’s been a lot of changes and I just keep telling myself and my mother that this is just temporary. This is just going to be a memory one day.”
Jennifer said Gabby is doing great and has made a lot of progress since the accident. She said she and Amanda went to Atlanta to visit Gabby over the weekend.
“They’re taking her off the trach four about four hours and then put her on for about three hours,” said Murillo. “So for those four hours that she is off the trach she actually has a voice and I can kind of see Gabby being normal again.”
Murillo said Gabby was cracking jokes the entire weekend. She said it was good to see that Gabby is slowly but surely getting her quality of life back.
Jennifer said the family has been told to expect medical bills upwards of a million dollars. She said insurance is not covering everything. She said they will be able to write some of the equipment off on their taxes but other things, such as 24-hour care, which might be necessary depending on Gabby’s progress, will cost a lot of money.
The Murillo family is hopeful, Jennifer said, that between therapy and the stem cell research studies they are trying to get Gabby into, she will make progress.
“To get Gabby back to even moving her fingers would be the ideal situation,” said Jennifer. “That one day, she would be able to hold her own cup of coffee, or do her own hair, do her own makeup. Then she’ll be more independent. We’re hopeful for that.”
Jennifer said the community has been incredible. She said she always knew West Haven was great but she would never expect the amount of support they have received. She said even just the messages of support mean a lot to them.
“I’m truly proud to be from this town,” said Murillo.
Jennifer said Gabby is a fighter. She said she has always known her sister is amazing but this experience has changed her perspective and shown her how strong an individual Gabby is.
“I don’t know any other person that would be as positive and strong-willed about this entire experience,” said Murillo. “I hate saying this because it’s such a cliché but she really is my hero.”
CDA now accepting applications for aid in down payments
The Community Development Administration is accepting applications for a down payment assistance program for first-time home buyers.
To qualify for the forgivable loan program, applicants must buy a single-family house or condominium in West Haven and live in the home for five years. The loan is then abated at a rate of 20% annually and forgiven after the fifth year.
Eligibility for assistance is based on the income and number of members of an applicant’s household, according to guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Applicants must provide 3% of the purchase price from their own funds. CDA will then match $2 for every dollar up to $7,500.
Also, CDA is accepting applications for rehabilitation projects for owner-occupied single-family homes and owner-occupied multifamily homes.
Funds for CDA-approved rehab projects can be used to correct code violations or make structural improvements in homes. Cosmetic work does not qualify.
Eligibility for assistance is based on HUD income limits.
Applications for the programs are available by contacting CDA administrative assistant Rosa Richardson at (203) 937-3550 or richardson@ westhaven-ct.gov. Anyone with questions can call the same number.
Using the lessons of past
By Rich Lowry
Syndicated Columnist
At some point in the late 1960s, you could be forgiven for thinking that the FBI was in charge of the KKK. It conducted an operation that infiltrated, manipulated and ran the group into the ground. With violent white hate again on the rise, we should take some inspiration — even if the methods can’t be replicated — from the FBI’s past grappling with racist extremists.
If there were any doubt that the country has a white nationalist problem, the shocking attack on an El Paso, Texas, Walmart should remove it. These self-radicalizing freaks, a subset of the broader mass-shooting phenomenon, take inspiration from prior acts of vicious mayhem and cheer high body counts on internet message boards. They are domestic subversives and terrorists, and deserve to be treated as such.
There is no doubt that if we had suffered a string of massacres on our soil carried out by Islamic radicals, we’d do everything in our power to diminish and hopefully eradicate the danger — indeed, we have. The national response to racist extremists should show the same alacrity and resolve, while acknowledging that they represent a different, more-difficult-to-counter threat than the old Klan.
In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson told FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to go after the Klan as he had the Communists. Running until 1971 and involving 26 field offices, COINTELPRO-White Hate targeted groups and people deemed violent threats, not their ideology per se.
The effort was comprehensive and no-holds-barred. In his history of the FBI, Tim Weiner writes, “The FBI dangled small fortunes before potential KKK informers, offered outright bribes to Klansmen who could serve as double agents inside state and local police forces, planted bugs and wiretaps in Klaverns, carried out black-bag jobs to steal membership lists and (on at least one occasion) dynamite caches.”
The FBI worked to preempt violent acts, and gained an enormous influence over Klan groups. The New Orleans office was so successful at degrading the Louisiana chapter of the UKA that the office’s concern became propping the group up, lest its disintegration loosen the FBI’s control.
Overall, Klan membership shrank from an estimated 14,000 members in 1964 to 4,300 in 1971. Per Shelton himself, “the FBI’s counterintelligence program hit us in membership and weakened us for about 10 years.”
Of course, the contemporary FBI obviously isn’t going to take over the “alt-right,” nor should we want it to. The abuses of the COINTELPRO programs — the FBI also targeted civil-rights groups and the New Left, among others — became notorious when they were exposed in the 1970s.
There are also practical obstacles to the FBI duplicating its anti-Klan work. The Klan was an organization, whereas today’s white supremacists are free-floating haters posting anonymously on the internet.
Yet the FBI needs to be intensely focused on this threat. The bureau should take an intelligence-based approach. It should monitor sewer message boards like 8chan, the forum for white-supremacist propaganda. Posters who cross from First Amendment-protected speech to incitement should be prosecuted. The FBI should interview anyone expressing sympathy with terrorism — just as it does with suspected Islamic extremists — and surveil such persons as appropriate and permitted under the law. El Paso was an outrage, and surely not the last. We need to react accordingly.
Rich Lowry is editor of the National Review.(c) 2019 by King Features Synd., Inc.
Editorial
A familiar feeling
We are getting a familiar feeling concerning Charter revision – a feeling we’ve had every time said revision has been attempted in the city: Disgust and disappointment. For the past 18 months or so, the Charter Revision Commission worked to update, improve, and yes, restructure, city government. And we would venture a guess that many or most of the recommendations posited by the commission fly in the face of the status quo, and, therefore, are not looked upon kindly by the political establishment.
It appears that despite the 18 months of work put into the review and revision of the document that serves as the city’s “constitution,” the City Council appears unprepared to do its part to make sure it is a smooth process toward a vote in November. At the two public hearings last week, it was evident to many that council members either had not bothered to read the document, or found it more than they could comprehend. Neither is an acceptable explanation.
In its deliberations, the Charter Revision Commission sought to do a major overhaul of a system that, quite frankly, works not well in the current era. The city has been under state control twice in the last quarter-century, has lost its two-party status, being controlled by various flavors of the Democratic Party, and has offered under its current format some lesser lights in running the city. The commission sought to reverse course by doing what other towns and cities have attempted to great success.
- It sought to reduce the number of council districts from 10 to 3. Each district would have four representatives and at least one would be of the minority party. This is a good change. Too often the minority party – the GOP, or even a third party – has had only one representative, allowing for no discussion of dissenting opinions;
- The reducing of the power of the mayor to that of a president of the City Council, and its 13th vote. The city would come under the day-to-day operation of a City Manager with experience in public administration. Over the years, the city has suffered from inexperienced people becoming mayor and filling their offices with cronies – with as little experience as the top of the ticket. The results we see;
- Demanding that departmental heads have credentials in their given fields, taking away from politicians one of the “spoils” of victory. This would be done through attrition;
- Looking to consolidate and reform departmental structures to eliminate waste and overlap.
The lack of preparedness by the City Council makes it look as if the members are “slow walking” the recommendations, pushing off the date of their consideration by the voters until after November’s election. Under the current state-mandated schedule, the council had 45 days to consider alterations in the initial report by the commission, and then it had 30 days to consider those proposals. All is then set for a November question on the ballot.
The fact council members were unprepared is troubling enough. What is more troubling is that once the commission hands in its final report, it ceases to exist. Pushing off the vote past November will serve to have it fade from the electorate’s memory and allow those who oppose any change to marshal their forces.
We’ve been here before. We’ve seen other charter revisions go down to defeat because the political establishment was threatened. They should be threatened. The council does not need more time, it needs to do it homework. The schema for charter revision was set up by the council. It should do its work, read the report, make its proposals and allow a vote. To do otherwise and couch it in terms of “digesting a large proposal” is derelict.
Dear Felicia
Don’t look now, honeybunch, but methinks the weather is starting to change. Each year about this time, the sun angles git different, and the nights git a bit cooler. It’s Mommy Nature tellin’ us that summer is on the wane, and before we know it trees are gonna change color and lose their leaves, and the snow will be flyin’ shortly thereafter. Of course, the fack that school will be startin’ in less than two weeks has to be hangin’ heavy on the kiddies – and a source o’ joy for mommies.
Tennyrate, here in the Asylum by the Sea, the slight change in weather is also the precursor of the fack that we have a primary comin’ up in a few weeks. Yup. Effen yew forgit, both parties are having a primary, and it’s on Sept. 10 effen my info is correct. The fack that both parties are battling it out is something unusual in this burg, which usually has only the Demmies beatin’ each other’s political brains out every two years. This time the minority party has endorsed candidate Michelle Gregorio against Steven Mullins.
Evidently, Sammy Bluejay was out and about last week, and members of the GOP are somewhat appalled by the way the intra-party squabble has become sooooo nasty on the social media front. Of course, nobody should be surprised. Social media had become a sewer of discourse – or lack of it. It’s amazing how something that could be so beneficial can also be so toxic.
Tennyrate, the members of the GOP are seeing threats and vitriol that is usually associated with the tripartite Democrats. It’s been unsettling – and my lead to some legal action Iyam hearin’ from Sammy. The threats are not being taken lightly.
~~~
For the Demmies, the three candidates are well known. Herronner, Nancy Rossi is the endorsed candidate, whilst she is being opposed by Deb Collins, the challenger representing at least one o’ the other factions in the party, and Ed O’Brien, former mayor, who is wanting his ole job back, and has not so much factional support, but a type of grassroots support that might surprise people.
One thing that has been noticed by people is the fack that the city only political fighting seems to be about which flavor of Democrat is running things, and not much else. Meanwhile, the city has been mismanaged for many years and throughout many administrations.
We shall see what happens come the primary, but Cobina is of a mind that this is gonna go down to the wire, and it’s gonna be razor thin. The only way that won’t happen is effen more Demmies come out than usual. There are more than 19,000 registered with the party, but primaries usually bring out about 6,000. That makes the winner of these things somewhat hampered before they even begin.
~~~
Nelly Nuthatch tells me that the bipartisan leadership of the Charter Revision Commish and many of the members are wonderin’ effen the “fix is in” and their 18 months of work will go down in flames. The City Council’s showing of how well they read or understood the Commish’s initial report had more than a few people waggin their heads.
Charter Revision in this burg has been, throughout the decades, a routine we go through where work is done, ideas are put on paper, and then they are deep-sixed by those who think their political power will be curtailed. The last three charter revisions have done very little to make this city’s government work any better.
Soooo, there is a feeling that the council is slowing down the process not because it needs to ‘digest” what was done, but because it does not want to have the vote in November. Not having it in November will cost the city money, for sure, but what it will also do is cut down the turnout, and allow those against the plan to put it out of its misery.
There is no doubt the charter as proposed by the commish is a vast change, but given the fack the city has been under financial water for decades, dontcha think we need vast change? This papyrus has done all it can to publicize the recommendations to give the public an idea of what it is voting one.
Nelly, in fack, tells us that we are being smeared in some social media circles cuz we aren’t allowing “alternative voices” to appear in the papyrus. That ain’t the case. Those who want to speak against the proposals are doing so on social media, but they ain’t sending things here. We can’t jest pick up stuff from some platform and present it. The person doing the writing has to send it to us. No send, no print. It is as simple as that. I know a certain HH is on our case, but he hasn’t sent anything to us, just moaned on a social media site about how unfair we are.
The feeling, meanwhile, about the Charter Revisions stuff is that the move now is to push it past November, and that will certainly hamper the passage of any or all of the 18 months’ worth of work the commish has done. Maybe that was the plan all along. It has been in the past.
~~~
Didja see that Gilbane Construction toined over the foist part of the high school over to the city in time for classes in two weeks? Well, that has put smiles on the faces of more than a few, and makes some wonder about what is coming next.
There are still two years before the entire thing is supposed to be finished, and now the new auditorium, main office, and cafeteria are completed, along with the “media center.” That was the “library” in our day, sweets.
Other parts of the main structure will now be taken down and replaced. And we will make a prediction: the taking down of another part of the building will bring about protests from some about asbestos abatement. We saw it before and we’ll see it again. People git a bit excited about the matter and for good reason, but there are some that insist everything is wrong and somebody is cutting corners. It should happen once the second section of the building is taken down. You can set your calendar to it.
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Another week, another no demolition. People have actually called the papyrus wondering when the taking down of the homes over there at the Haven site will begin. The DOT giving its approval of the traffic plan was supposed to be the last piece of a puzzle before things happened.
There was a meeting with the developers with the City Council and things were said that led people to believe something was gonna take place. Nary a thing’s been done. Meanwhile, it’s getting seedier and seedier over there.
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Jest a final thing about the primary, jest to make us come full circle. The signs are starting to appear on lawns like mushrooms after a rain storm. The body wonders effen this year will see recriminations of campaigns destroying signs or effen grown ups will make sure it don’t happen. Cobina won’t hold her breath.
With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this week till next, mitt luff und kizzez,