Howdy do, dearie. January is gone and the coldest month of the year – usually, tho’ January was setch that Cobina’s timbers were shivered on more than one occasion – and we wonder effen we’re gonna have a big snow before it’s all over. February seems to be the time when we git more storms in these parts and we wonder about the snow cuz, let’s face it, we ain’t seen a big blow in these parts in quite some time. We ask that cuz we’ve had more little snow squalls than we have seen in a while. Maybe we’re a Polar Vortex away from another 1978. Cobina wouldn’t mind bein’ snowbound for a couple o’ days. She needs a rest.
Here in the Asylum by the Sea things are startin’ to pick up with the budgetary process. The Bored of Ed came up with its request for the year with a (compared to other years) “modest” 3.8 % request over the current fiscal year. Like I told yew the last time, this is the time o’ year when the departments kind of put together their wish lists, things they’d like to have, but know in the long run the splicer will come in and pare things away. A less-than-four percent request from the B of E is quite something.
And, like our editorial sez this week, this is a big year for our little corner of the universe effen we wanna finally git rid of the Municipal Accountability Review Board types. It’s been seven long years and there’s an “itch” to git rid of these guys and gals and do things on our won.
But, we’ve seen this movie before, and we hope in this version it has a different ending and a bit of a plot twist. The last time we were under state control, as we pernt out, things really didn’t change for the better regarding the way things were done in the Actors Colony, or, truth to tell, by elected officials. At the time we remember this papyrus taking isshew with many decisions being made, particularly with the matter of bonding, and were told that the city had many more millions of bonding leeway to go before it became a problem. Well, we know how that woiked out.
Here we are on the cusp of the MARB leaving once and for all, and we jest hope the changes made in our little berg stay in place. One little jiggle here, or wink-wink there, and we could be back behind the fiscal eight-ball. That’s a place that was becoming all too familiar.
Tennyrate, we don’t think it’ll happen under the current gatekeepers, but with time comes laxity, and that’s something we in this town know all about. I guess time will tell.
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As announced in today’s papyrus, Eleanore Turkington is ending her colyume, The Gripevine, after more than two decades. She had this piece in other papyruses before she came to us, including the West Haven News way back in the 80s and 90s. She always did good work as a consumer advocate, and did run up against some opposition by the powers that be over the years.
Politicos don’t like to be put on the spot, and challenged effen their answers are somewhat vague or misleading, and El always called ‘em out on it. Many’s the time they tried to put pressure on us to halt the colyume, and many’s the time people would refuse to talk to her. But, she had the attitude “I will get the answer with your cooperation or without it. But I will get it.
We will miss her quick wit and dry sense of humor. Knowing her for more than 40 years, Cobina is sad to see an old warhorse like herself decide to end things. But, setch is the way of the world. Good Luck, El. Godspeed!
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Sammy Bluejay came in t’other afternoon and perch himself on the sill, saying that whilst it must be the deepest part o’ winter, City Hall is lookin’ already toward the sun and fun of later in the year. Of course, with the winter comes the annual battle with Mother Nature concerning beach erosion. And, since our three-plus miles of beach is the product of postwar decisions, meaning most are manmade, the continuing subjeck of beach sand replacement comes up. And this year seems to be no exception.
The problem is that beach sand is subject to the churning of the tides, which churn much more in the winter months with the weather. Ole Mother Nature chews up the sand, and each year tons of sand that was put down finds its way back into Long Island Sound. Now, the average person looking at this might ask, “Well, can’t we just go into the Sound and retrieve it?”
Nope!
Once the sand finds its way into the Sound the feds don’t allow anyone to go in and git it. Maybe, under a more common-sense administration, this will change. But until then, don’t expeck to see back hoes mobilized on sandbars. That means Herroner and the locals that staff her administration are looking for ways to replace the sand, and not put it on the backs of the local taxpayers.
While the local papyrus is blaming “climate change” those of us who’ve been around a bit, can tell you that beach sand erosion has always been a problem, but it was made more of a problem when a big projeck in the 1970s was introduced to protect the beaches, namely those jetties.
Compared to the manmade beaches, the jetties are only about 50 years old. Effen mem’ry serves – Sammy’s not Cobina’s – the jetties were put in under the Johnson administration, which puts it between 1973-81.
Tennyrate, the jetties were supposed to make what was a smaller problem at the time less of one. Instead, it made it worse. When you make a bottle-neck liquid going into a smaller space has more power and surge. This was recognized about 20 years ago, when the idea came up to git rid of the jetties, but it never came to pass.
Whatever the city can do to get sand and not shoulder it on the taxpayer is a good thing. But maybe jest recovering some of the sand would be an even better one. Just sayin’.
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Nelly Nuthatch came in and sez that there is a plan to make Stiles School a residential complex…again. Haven’t we been down this road before? To ask the question is to answer it, hon. Maybe this time it’ll work. Stiles has been laying fallow since the early 2000s methinks, and this might be the thoid time the idea of a housing complex comes into play.
We hope something is done. We were jest riding by there in the gassamobuggy a few days ago, and we always liked the look of the place and the grounds. There is a certain stateliness to it. The only problems we know over there is the flooding of the roadway when there is a big storm and Cove River overflows its banks. But, that has never been a big problem for those grounds, which are perched somewhat away from the flood zone.
Let’s hope the city can get something for the land, and some tax payments. Former municipal building standing unused don’t help anyone, and could be undermined by the aforementioned Mother Nature.
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Wow, just Wow! The Wag came in t’other day and mentioned the hearings going on in DC for various cabinet posts. The Wag, never at a loss for words, was wondering effen our national officials were losing their minds. When Cobina took a gander, she understood the query.
Foist off, Rosa DeLauro Greenberg’s rant on the House floor a couple weeks back on Elon Musk was an etude in insanity. Methinks the ole girl has finally cracked up.
But then there are our junior and senior senators. Yikes! I know the senior senator is one for histrionics, but the junior senator is on another level. What an embarrassment. One scribe asked, “Who elected these people?” Who, indeed.
Blumenthall, who likes to visit these parts on occasion, should take some acting lessons. His put-on histrionics are bad politics and bad theater. Murphy? He’s jest a buffoon. But, they are all playing their roles, I guess. Like the lawyers say, “If you have facts, argue the facts; if you have the law, argue the law; if you have neither, bang the table.
They have been doing a lot of that, and looking clownish in the process. But with them it’s (D)ifferent.
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Finally, we’re another two weeks into the year and another two weeks into nothing happening at former Haven site. Ole Cobina is gonna mention this as much as she can until something is done. It took years before they tore down the eyesore that was that shuttered neighborhood. It might take jest as long for them to finally dispose of the property. Meanwhile, the neighborhood suffers.
With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez,