Yew knew it couldn’t last. We hear-tell that the white stuff is expected after weeks of nothin’ but rain. Yup, though we’ve had a wet couple o’ months, we had one early snowstorm back in late November, and thought that was gonna bring in a long cold snap.
We got the cold snap this week, but dodged a large bullet over the weekend, but the scare-mongers at the weather bureaus are saying we’re gonna have a humdinger this weekend – “a big snowmaker” according to one service. So, yew know what’s gonna happen, honey bunch. Effen yew thougt of stocking up with foodstuffs just because, yew should’ve done it by the time yew git this missive.
Effen the weather reports continue with what has been predicted as I scribe this week’s letter, then the local stores are gonna be very, very busy. Yew know how it goes, people stock up for a month, and then we wait. The storm ain’t quite as bad as expected – until the next dire prediction. We shall see. Cobina’s lumbago, which is the best predictor o’ bad weather I know, hasn’t acted up yet. That could change. We shall see.
~~~
As far as things here in our Asylum by the Sea, finances and more finances – and things financial – are in the news when it comes to this burg. Things were all in a lather last week, when on Friday the finance director, who has only been on the job for about five months, up and quit. He gave a terse letter to herroner who is said to be shocked about the abrupt resignation.
Sammy Bluejay happened by earlier in the week, though, and said that there was some friction betwixt the Mayor’s Office and the comptroller. We didn’t know exactly what the friction or its cause was, but Sammy sez that there was a disagreement. Toward the end of the week, the news was that things had been perty much smoothed over and the two were on good terms again.
Then came Friday. We got a call that himself, Ron Cicatelli, had been escorted outta the building. Of course, when that happens, people think the worst: he was fired or he did something that put him in trouble. Nope. This time the reason was that for some reason he’d had enough of the job and decided to leave.
Just a few days earlier, a conversation with a maven of the Actors Colony had told our editor that Cicatelli had decided to put down stakes in the area and move his family here. That seems strange now, considering the chain of events.
The good news for all was that the city was gonna hire a second in command and his game is Frank Ciepilski, and he hails from Fairfield. He was able to scooch into the top slot with nary a hiccup. That’s a good thing, cuz the budget “cycle” as they like to call it these days begins in earnest over the next few weeks. We know that, based on the agreement with the Municipal Accountability Review Board (MARB) through the five-year plan, taxes will go up again this year and for several years into the future.
But what we don’t know is how this is gonna affect the spending side of the budget package. Remember, the MARB is expected more cuts over the next few years cuz the city has promised to make sure its budget balances out on both sides of the ledger – something that the fictional spending plans of the past have failed to do.
It’s gonna be an interesting couple o’ months, that’s for sure.
~~~
Natchurly, that story has to be hooked into the decision by the aforesaid MARB to release $8 million to the city. That is the money the state failed to provide when it went through its own budget spasms in 2017. The city, which was told it was supposed to git $12 million in financial aid, thought it was being frugal by only planning for $8 million. It got none, and that really put us in the soup.
Of course, when the city bonded to finance the dozen-year-old deficit, it got more than it bargained for with the imposition of the MARB, and the possibility of having the state take the entire city over. The MARB made herroner put together the five-year plan, and promise to make more cuts. It also wanted to make sure the Allingtown Fire Dept. is fully funded regarding its pension, and wanted a report on the possible consolidation of the other fire services.
Let’s hope that the MARB doesn’t think it can force the city into consolidation. There are plenty o’ people who will give them a quite primer in the ins and outs of how the Home-Rule districts will have to dissolve before that could happen, and no state agency can force that. Right now, given the city’s financial constraints, who in their right mind would want consolidation? We can’t fund what we have now, and the word is there are a lotta people in Allingtown ruing the day they dissolved the old AFD.
We shall see where this leads, but the date for transfer of the cash – which fills a gap in last year’s budget, not this year’s – is set for April 30, pending all conditions being met.
~~~
Nelly Nuthatch was in t’other afternoon and broached the topic of Ed O’Brien seeking his old job back, given the recent developments. Nelly sez that with the MARB dangling the $8 million for the last time, and with the fack that even the loss of the finance director is part of the broader picture, O’Brien’s hill to climb might be just a bit steeper. He already has to explain how he let city finances git as bad as they did, running four deficits in a row, but also how things were allowed to git outta control.
O’Brien is expected to run come the summer, and there are people who are lining up to support him. What some people don’t understand is how he can defend the decisions he made and then run as some type of savior for the city. Nobody questions his love for West Haven, but the four years he was in office were not the best.
Still, don’t be surprised effen there is a primary come the summer, and that it is a down-and-dirty campaign. The two principals do not like each other, and aren’t afraid to say that publicly. It will be quite a few weeks leading up to the caucuses in July and the primary in September.
~~~
That brings us to the elephant in the room: the Haven projeck. Effen things are even gonna have a chance to git right in this town, the Haven is gonna be one of the reasons. Cobina has a lotta queries concerning how things are be logistically, especially with the traffic off the highway. But, there is talk – yet again – that the demolition of the various properties are to happen “soon,” but this is a song we’ve heard before.
Many a projeck around these parts was supposed to start “soon,” with things getting held up. Effen yew remember, one of the ways O’Brien increased revenues at least on paper, was for permits for the Haven project – and then prayed it would begin. Effen this thing don’t get started soon, we could see another year where the only progress we see over there is abandoned houses collapsing. Let’s hope it don’t git that far.
~~~
With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez,