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,