Column

Well now that we’re in a two-week rotation, sweetie pie, there is plenty to tell yew. Of course, though we mentioned it in the papyrus and in our online edition, people sometimes don’t git the message, or missed the edition. Soooo, we did hafta field phone calls from some of our more frantic fans looking for the paper.

Of course, there was the brigade that can always be counted on to make snide comments, and one o’ those is a guy who is only happy when he’s miserable, and he tries to make everyone as happy as he is. He some cherce words over Mr. Bell’s invention, and thinks himself quite the pundit.

Natchurly, he didn’t ID himself, but it didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figger it out. Heck, Dr. Watson would’ve had this one in a trice. Elementary, dontcha know. Tennyrate, he had his rant, but it wasn’t anything we ain’t heard before. He thinks himself quite the problem-solver, yet he’s never really accomplished anything, anywhere, anytime.

Cobina didn’t go to the social media sites either. As I’ve said before that is the world of the Perpetually Enraged. Most people like to spout their opinions, whatever they are, and usually negative. Not very many happy people work the social sites, just angry ones in our reckoning.

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Nelly Nuthatch brought over the notice that the city is gonna have a seminar/info session on Allingtown under the aegis of the Planning and Zoning Commish. This is the latest in what is to be a serious of sessions about what the city has planned. I gotta tell you, foist off, that anyone who has been traversing that part o’ town after not seeing it for a while should be very impressed.

The new buildings, the one under construction and just the whole clean-up of the area has made the place something it hasn’t been in decades. Residents of the borough should be very happy with what they’re seeing. Traffic is better with the new pattern, and once they git something built where the Forest Theatre used to be, the place will have a facelift that is complete.

Nelly also had a few discussions and heard that the University of New Haven is huntin’ for property in the area. Needless to say that rumor has been going around for ages. The university is gonna need room to expand as they’ve jest about build every nook and crany of the old campus. The only place they have left is the North Campus where the athletic facilities are.

Nelly seems to think that a sale or two might be in the offing that will change the landscape of the college – and its footprint. We ain’t sure of the details yet, but even people in the Actors Colony are chirping about something getting ready to happen over there. Stay tuned.

I guess the fly in the ointment might be the fack that a storm was expected overnight that might put the meeting at risk. Cobina don’t believe it. We ain’t had any real snow this year, and it don’t look like it’s gonna happen at all – at least not in the near future.

Cobina ain’t a bettin’ woman, but there’s something in me that thinks we’re gonna git snow in March or even April. It’s happened before, and usually when we don’t have snow to speak of from October to March.

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Over the hiatus, the venerable Dr. Dino Ciaburri, resident musician extraordinaire, happened to be talking to people in the office, our editor in particular, and sez that his Community Orchestra is going to be making some very interesting moves in the future.

Dino likes to play things close to the vest, and we don’t wanna let the cat outta the bag, but we seem to think that what we’re hearin’ ain’t gonna be bad for the orchestra. It will certainly give it a foundation that will make it last well into the future effen things go right.

Sooooo, music will be much in the news in 2020 methinks, and it will be a good thing for the city – which needs some good news. That’s for sure.

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As I told yew a couple weeks back, keep yore eyes on Mikey Mercuriano. He found an old exemption from the General Assembly, and is wonderin’ effen something can happen down at the Haven property that will not be in the mercantile sphere.

He’s gathering things right now, and Sammy Bluejay seems to think that he will put forth his proposal to city leaders sometime soon. Cobina has an inkling of what it is, but she ain’t gonna be the one to let this one out. Let Mikey do it.

It’s a bit “outside the box” as people like to say. In fack, it’s so outside the box right now that it’ll be hard to fit it into one, effen yew git m’drift. Stay tuned. Cobina will make mention of it when it finally gets out. All yew hafta know is that Mikey has a one-track mind: making the city better. His approach may be a bit…off-putting….to some of the members of our ruling establishment, but he’s fought those people before.

Remember, after the city declared it wasn’t interested in a train station, it was he that waged a long battle, getting a petition that forced the state Dept. of Transportation and the city to take a new gander at things. It took years and a lot o’ work, but he did it. He’s like a dog with a bone effen yew give him half a chance.

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Iva Lootey is interested in the fack that the city is now trying to put together its budget for the new fiscal year that will begin on July 1. This is a five-month process perty much, starting after the foist of the year, and running through these weeks of prep, and a final proposal in March. Then the City Council gits the thing, and it mulls it over for six weeks. Final vote is in May: the foist Thursday.

Effen yew think that’s a long time, yore wrong. It goes by perty quickly. It seems every time yew blink this process begins anew.

Herronner has some interesting things to say in our story this week on the process thus far. But as we know, the one thing that is certain is there will be a mill increase. The Municipal Accountability Review Board, affectionately known as MARB, has mandated via the five-year plan that city raise its mill rate up to 40 by the term’s end. Sooo, being we are in the third year, I think, we will see an increase.

The MARB held up last year’s budget cuz it didn’t have a mill increase in it. Herroner tried to do the equivalent via cuts in spending, but the pencil-pushers on the panel were having none of it. We’ll see how it goes this year.

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Hmmm. Trundle on over to Eleanore Turkington’s colyume. It’s that time o’ year. People are complaining in bulk about potholes throughout the city. Even though we haven’t had a lotta snow, the salt and the rain have resulted in the same thing. When one is in the gassamobuggy traversing the streets and avenues, one must keep his eyes peeled for craters in the pavement.

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With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez,

Well honeybunch, it is probably best to git the elephant in the room outta the way. As yew can see on our front page, the papyrus is gonna go to an every-the-week publication in the next little while. Whether it stays that way is, quite frankly, up to the advertisers – both current and possible – and the readership.

This decision was sprung on all o’ us last week, and ain’t something that any of us want, but effen the papyrus is to survive, it seems it’s a route we hafta take. There have been many town papers that have gone this route or started out this way. We hope it’ll be temporary.

Newspapers are havin’ a tough time of it, but ours ain’t the fack that people aren’t readin’ us, ours is a problem of revenue – we ain’t ever been able to run excep’ on low overhead. Cobina’s hope is that the readership and the town will do what it usually does, and helps out. Otherwise, the city will be without a newspaper in short order, and it’ll have very few means to git information out. Whilst social media might be a useful tool, it’s not the way things are accurately put forward, and usually has an agenda attached.

Our agenda has always been the people o’ the city. We’ve made lotsa friends, a few enemies, but always tried to do what was good for the city as we envisioned it. Former political enemies have become friends, some former friends have become enemies. The pernt is we’ve done what we saw was right, and we aim to continue to do so.

That said, we help that things will see an upturn, but we are in a part of the state that is not seeing the effecks of the good economy in a state that is surely not seeing the effecks of the good economy. Of course, with the leadership in our state, we don’t expeck that things are gonna change. They see the world a whole lot differently than most of us, and won’t be told otherwise.

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We’ve been telling yew for a long time that the city’s minority party has been going through some type of metamorphosis. That’s a nice way o’ sayin’ that things are changing. We had a story of the two town chairman, Democrat and Republican, and got expanded answers from Mike Last, the Democrat, whilst we got very brief answers from Pat Libero, the GOP honcho.

Well, the splintering in the party brought an interesting note from a body in the party, and Cobina thought she’d share the note with yew and see where it takes us.

Evidently, the town committee caucus of a few weeks ago was a bit more of a purge than was given at first glance, prompting the following. The note refers to an answer given by Libero as to what happened at the caucus and whether it was of interest. Libero said “several” longtime members of the RTC were replaced or, to use her term “voted off.” That prompted this.

“One of the ‘Several long-time Republicans were voted off the RTC,’ included Pat Libero. It’s funny how this little detail got overlooked. It will be interesting if the current chairwoman of the Grand Old Party decides to primary as those chirping to Sammy Bluejay, have noted that one of the “egos” Libero notes is clearly her own.

The chairman publically prattles on about ‘party unity.’ If she decides to primary, then her words ring hollow. And if she wins the primary, she will most certainly further divide the party. It’s anyone’s guess as to Libero’s next steps.”

What are we to learn from this: 1) there is a bigger split in the party ranks than foist thought, and that Libero is in the eyes of some the center of the difficulty; 2) Everyone is waiting until the deadline later this month to see effen there will be a party primary for the town committee, that ain’t been decided yet; 3) We think this is a good sign for the party. It’s been moribund fer years, and maybe this little kerfuffle will git people interested again.

We ain’t seen any movement in the party for years, and, certainly, it really is not the party it was decades ago under Al Conte. We shall see what transpires.

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Sammy Bluejay fluttered by t’other afternoon after our two stories about the chairmen and the fack the mayor had a story about what she wants to accomplish. Sammy, always perched in the right place, has made it a pernt to be where people are talking.

He told Cobina that whilst herrroner was extolling the hopes and desires for the Haven in 2020, there are fewer and fewer people who actually believe it’s gonna happen as planned. Word has come that the outlet stores in Westbrook are mostly closed. That is a high-end enclave as the Haven is supposed to be. Those who have ventured out there say the number of stores actually open are in single digits.

Sammy and others are wonderin’ effen 2020 is gonna see something at the Haven location, but not necessarily what is advertised. And, the talk is made worse by the fack that the development company is playing everything so close to the vest that it almost invites people to speculate.

Effen things don’t start happening by the time the beach season comes to this burg, Cobina is of the opinion that it ain’t gonna happen in 2020. We can be wrong, and we hope we are, but the economics of it, and the new mall in Norwalk kind of work against us.

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Nelly Nuthatch, meanwhile, sez that Mikey Mercuriano, our own outta-the-box thinker, has another idea that is outta the box. He’s mullin’ over how he can bring up the isshew and when it’s finally brought up, it’s gonna be interestin’ – in many ways – how the whole idea is discussed.

Yew can say what yew want about Mercuriano. He has the city’s best interests at heart, and, at least, has come up with some ideas to put forth for discussion. Not too many of our fellows can say that.

Jest one more thing: one o’ his projecks is the carousel at Savin Rock. Are we ever gonna get there?

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The wag was in t’other afternoon and is convinced that Gov. Lamont’s idea for tolling trucks on the state’s highways is jest the camel’s nose in the tent. And, methinks that is what everyone thinks that’s why there is so much opposition to it.

Lamont is trying to get the idea of tolls in concrete form in the least objectionable way possible. But, let’s face it, this is jest another way to gain revenue. We don’t have a tax problem in this state, we have a spending problem. Any attempt to curb spending – even controlling the increases – is seen as a catastrophe by some interest group or t’other.

Meanwhile, the number o’ people leaving what used to be a destination state is staggering, not to mention the businesses we’ve lost cuz of our addiction to taxes and spending. Maybe the whole house of cards has to come crashing down.

With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez,