May Day has come and gone. No Maypoles were tethered, no songs sung like when we were tykes, sweetie pie, but it’s good to know that May is upon us. Heck, it even seems like we’re havin’ a bit of a spring in these parts. Even though it is “cooler at the shore” as the weatherman likes to say, we’re actually not going from bracing cold and damp to wilting hot and humid. That brings up a pernt.
T’other day whilst we were conversing and it was one o’ those warmer days, a body was heard to ask a simple query: Now that the temperature is over 60 or 65, we can’t say it’s damp. So, do we have to say it’s humid?”
Good question. When does “damp” become “humid.” Maybe one o’ them newfangled AI critters can let us know, but it seems what is damp at 50 degrees, is humid somewhere after that. Go figger.
Here in the Asylum by the Sea we are heading into spring activities. Yew can tell cuz over the last little while the number of events along the shore seems to be growing. Heck a few weeks ago, we had a marathon wending its way through town, and methinks I saw other people doing something similar on the boardwalk in the weeks that followed.
A sure sign of things is the beach volleyball nets have been rigged up and Cobina happened to see some perty hefty action going on a weekend or so ago. That means warm weather is about to commence, and after being in the house most of the winter, it’s a welcome time.
May also means the end of the “budget cycle” for the boys and girls of the Actors Colony. Effen my remembrance of the city charter is correck and ittiz, the City Council ended its review of the document Herroner handed to them back in March. The review lasted through April, like the showers, and come the foist Thursday in May, the budget ordinance was passed. That ended the local process with one thing to go.
State Law still gives a two week window after our charter, with city budget having to be finalized, I believe, by the thoid Thursday of May. That is next week. The MARB, that boisterous bevy of beauteous bumpkins that are in charge of our finances still has to give its imprimatur on it. Nothing is official until then, and, as we know from the past few years, the panel can make changes willy nilly, and has. Soooo, we won’t know what is final until the MARB sez it is. We will keep you posted.
Jest a final note. The budget process with the council was probably the least talked about we’ve ever seen. Nothing came outta the discussions that we saw, and whilst we try to keep our ear to the ground to heard whatever is going on, not much was out there. That is something very unusual in these parts.
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In the last isshew we ran a story wherein a bigtime alum of the University of New Haven gave a nice chunk of cash for the building of a business school, the location of which is the now purchased Railroad Salvage location, and probably the former North End baseball field that hasn’t seen a baseball in at least four decades.
Tennyrate, the new constructions are gonna be a bit of a boost to the area which has seen some decline cuz of the loss of the supermarket – it was once ShopRite and before that a Grand Union derivative store – and the venerable Railroad Salvage. According to Sammy Bluejay, the school is gonna close its Orange site or sell it off, it was the former Hubbell locale, and will build a new business school in that location.
The good news for the Borough of Allingtown and for the city in general, is the school is looking to make a larger donation to the city in a voluntary contribution to offset the new responsibilities and pressures that will be on city finances, as well as city infrastructure.
There has been some talk over the years about the school wanting tracts along Front Avenue and the environs, but this seems to put the kibosh on that sort o’ talk. Though, as I told yew in the last missive I sent, there are still murmurs about the city getting rid of Quigley Stadium and selling off the land. That has raised some hackles in the borough, which has complained it’s the city’s redheaded stepchild for decades.
And as I reminded yew in the last missive, the potential sale of the stadium set off a series of events in the form of the downfall of the Azelio Guerra administration in 1989, and led to the election of Clemente Evnageliste that put the city in the financial mess it’s been trying to dig out of ever since.
Since the opening salvo about the stadium, we ain’t heard much, but who knows. Most of what we hear about in this regard is rumor. However, in this berg the “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” rule persists.
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Nelly Nuthatch was perched at the parking lot on Foist Avenue for the press conference the city and state hosted concerning the reconstruction of the bridges on I-95. It was a strange thing, jest a couple weeks ago we wondered in these pages whether the thing was off the drawing board, and days afterward, the press conference happened.
Nelly was trying to get any new info that might be told during the event, but it was perty much the same stuff that we were told late last summer when the project was announced. It’s gonna encompass both the bridge over the railroad tracks outta Union Station, and the First Avenue bridge. It’s gonna take 27 months from start to finish, barring anything unforeseen. It’s gonna create problems for both North- and Southbound commuters during that time.
In other words, it’s gonna be Hades in these parts for about two-and-a-half years, and there ain’t thing one we can do about it. I guess the only thing we can hope for is that they make quick work outta the reconstruction and they get outta the way as quickly as possible. But, with state projects one would be foolish not to think things won’t go the way they are planned.
Whilst we can speculate on how things will be – and they will be difficult – we really won’t know the full effects of the project until work begins. Let’s hope for the best, but prep for the woist, I guess. Plan out other ways of getting around – the city, and the work areas. I jest hope that traffic doesn’t find its way off the highway and onto our streets. When that happens things here just come to a grinding halt.
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As yew can see from out front page, the new Washington School is (as our managing partner likes to say) on time and under budget. Well, it’s on time. Whether it’s under budget or not will be seen perty soon. Now, I know yore expecting me to go off on a tirade about the old building and how it was summarily razed, but I won’t do that this time. I’ve said perty much all I hafta say on the matter. Still don’t believe something could be done, but that’s another story.
Meanwhile, Iva Lootey agreed with me that whilst he is glad the thing is on time and within the cost, it looks like soooo many other setch buildings. It’s like they have one cookie-cutter style for apartment buildings, schools, and other institutions and that’s all you see being constructed.
It’s not a pretty building. Modern architecture is not much into form, jest function. It’ll function as a school, but what the kids are taught is till less than their fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers. It’ll jest be a big, square building. Nothing nice, nothing to be proud of, just….there.
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Speaking of constructions, the new restaurant in the former Chick’s location on Beach Street seems to be moving along, but not as fast as people had hoped. I guess getting materials delivered, the famous “supply chain” problems we’ve had since Covid, are still will us. But those delays now put the finishing time at sometime in June or July.
The Wag had heard that it was hoped the location would be fully functional by Memorial Day, the traditional beginning of the beach season, but the supply problems put them behind. That’s the bad news. The good news is they will still have the better part of the beach season to build a clientele.
Meanwhile, the City Council made its approvals for the Kelsey, the wedding and event venue that will be put into the former Conference Center building. When they start rehabbing the building is not yet known, but we’re at least sure the projeck won’t get bogged down in some litigation or t’other.
Cobina does know that people are wondering what is going to happen to the former Savin Rock Museum that was in the Conference Center. When the NEBCO plan was discussed the exhibits were gonna be put on display there. Not much is being discussed as to what happens next. It would be nice to have a museum reopen there, but Iyam not sure effen that’s in the plans or not.
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With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez,