Nobody can say we ain’t had a winter in these parts. After not having a major snowstorm in two or three years, we’ve had two in less than a month. In fack, the storms were exackly four weeks apart, and that last one almost two weeks ago, dumped almost a foot-and-a-half of the white stuff. As Fibber McGee was once heard to say, “It’s amazing how something so light could get so heavy so fast!
Ole Cobina was out shoveling her gassamobuggy from underneath quite a large mass of “climate change” and got quite the workout doing it, she must say. As Iyam scribing this note to you, the word is the next little while will have lotsa rain and showers. Where all that water is gonna go Goodness only knows.
Like everywhere else, the days were a bit warmer after the snow, and what melted quickly froze at night. Mornings around here, especially in the first few days after the blizzard were somethin’ else. One had to watch where one trod or one was going to be sprawled on the business end of the street. This body found herself slippin’ around quite a lot with black ice, and other types of ice.
Meanwhile, here in the Asylum by the Sea things are picking up after what seemed like weeks of quiet follying the holiday season. Well, things have erupted into almost more than you can probably handle.
Foist, let’s talk about the loss of the two department heads that took jobs in other locales. The long and short of it is the four-year terms that other cities and towns have with their chief administrative officers is more attractive to those who are politically appointed. Worrying every two years whether you have a job gets on the nerves after a while, and looking for more stability is only natural.
Soooo, with the topic of charter revision coming back into the conversation, one of the topics that might be number one on the list is changing two-year terms to four-year terms for elected officials – at least in the executive. Other towns have done it, Hamden for one, and that is where one of the guys went, with the stability question high on the list of his reasons.
Charter revision was last attempted eight years ago, and voted on six years ago. A commish was appointed in the middle of 2018 and give 18 months to come up with a list of revisions. The revisions, which overhauled the entire way the city did business was put to the voters, and came up short. We’ve talked about this.
One of the proposals was a four-year term for elected officials. But, the whole thing went down to defeat after a big campaign by the political establishment. Interestingly, it wasn’t as one-sided as they had hoped, and the thing lost, but not in a big way.
Herronner hasn’t announced the establishment of the commission, yet. And it looks like she has her own list of things they could look at. We shall see what we shall see. And it’ll be interesting who will be appointed to the panel. That’s always a good indicator of things to come. It won’t be Ed Granfield, that’s for sure. He and his bride have moved to a quiet commune on the other side of the Connecticut River, and he is looking at politics like most people look at the plague.
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Nelly Nuthatch was traversing around Foist Avenue recently and told Cobina that things around the construction site on the turnpike are not as bad – so far – as feared. Sure, Long Wharf is still the parking lot it always is around rush hour. I hear-tell a guy was going from North Haven to West Haven for meeting and it took him more than an hour to get through the nonsense from I-91 through Long Wharf and into the berg.
Tennyrate, the construction looks to be doing what they did for other big bridges. The span over the railroad tracks is being worked and it looks like a new bridge is settling in next to the old. That was done when the Yankee Doodle Bridge was replaced about a decade ago.
The moving of lanes around that curve is still a hassle, but it ain’t nearly as bad as we thought it would be, and at least you can plan to get into and outta the city with some planning. But that exit onto the Boulevard from the southbound lane is still a disaster waiting to happen. Whatta mess!
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Sammy Bluejay perched on the sill before the snow last week and explained to me the move the thoid floor is making with the budget this year. The papyrus usually publishes the legal notice and it is something the higher-ups in the company plan for. Well, this year the plans are a bit different.
Herronner thought the financial difficulties were behind her, Iyam sure. Then came the word over the last few weeks that the auditor found a big hole — $8 million worth – due to overruns in the Board of Education spending. The culprit is unexpected rises in costs for special ed for those who are using facilities outside the school districk.
Between tuition, transport and upkeep, the costs ballooned well above what was expected in the FY 26 (that ended last June 30). And, we ain’t the only city that’s been hit with these overruns, they are erupting all over the state, to the pernt there are several chief execs looking for the state to increase its share of the costs.
Madam Mayor has made several trips to Hartford to plead the case of our city and others. Needless to say, the whole issue has pernted out a problem that is all too common when putting together budgets: it’s a guessing game.
Sooo, a few weeks ago, the topic of changing the date the budget gets proposed was aired. Herronner wants to plan around the state’s deadline day for finalizing its own plan (in the hopes more money is allocated amongst other things) and adjust the proposal accordingly.
Sooooo again, the state’s budget deadline is May 4, she will make her proposal the next day, and the City Council will then set up a public hearing, do a run-through in May rather than April, and have the final package voted on by the state-mandated deadline of May 31.
The ability to do this is a tweak the General Assembly passed back after the 2017 budget debacle that saw the state budget not passed until October, and municipalities needing to revise their budgets after the money spigot was pouring a lot less into the coffers of cities and towns. The state allows a municipality to forego its charter mandated timeline and revise it for cause. As long as the May 31 law is abided by, everything is hunky-dory.
This puts some pressure on the council, and the two independent fire districks might have a crunch to git their budgets passed – that always wait until after the city passes its budget – but it’s making the best of a bad situation, sez Herronner.
We shall see how it all shakes out. But, one hasta wonder the frustration that the Actors Colony denizens felt when they hoid a deficit was found in the audit merely months after the state’s oversight was finally ended.
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The Village Improvement Association – the group that runs the city’s library system – has to be beside itself with he news that the once touted Blake Building as the new Allingtown Library is jest another false alarm in this six-year saga. Word came out last week that the developer, who was once in favor of the plan, determined it would be more lucrative to install 20 apartments or condos in the site, than have the library. What a surprise!
Developers love apartments or condos. It’s quick money, they build and leave, and move onto new construction projects – more apartments or condos and quick money. Meanwhile, the VIA is looking for a new venue or reviving the joint plan with the West Haven Fire Department – Allingtown to build and share a building on the Post Road.
That idea was proposed two or three years ago, and is still an option now that that the Blake Building is no longer a possibility.
Iva Lootey sez the VIA board is a bit frustrated, but think with the help of the Actors Colony a new plan could get moving. This administration – some think – is more amenable to the idea that officials in the previous one were. We shall see what shakes outta this caper.
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Then there is the matter of the Debonair property. Jest before Christmas the old motel was torn down, and is now rubble. The rubble won’t be carted away until the snow season makes it possible. Trying to cart away wet rubble ain’t the easiest thing in the world.
Madame Olga was telling me some interesting stuff about the development of that site. I ain’t sure of all the details yet, but some adjustments might be in the works from what was discussed earlier. That, too, is gonna be a bunch of housing stock. The question before the house not what but how many.
Then, there is the matter of the former Haven property. It’s still there, still vacant, and still giving the residents on the western side of First Avenue a fine panorama of New Haven Harbor. From the way that project is going, it might be another three decades before we know what’s gonna happen there.
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With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez,