This years election is over except for the shouting. The First Selectman retained his seat and Jack Lewis and I round out the Board of Selectmen. The cross-endorsement seemed to do the trick with all of the cross-endorsed (Republican/Democrat) candidates victorious and the few Republican/Democrat candidates left on their own being defeated by the Sentinel candidates. The part more difficult than campaigning has begun and that is tending to the affairs of the Town. I look forward to the challenges ahead and hope that our elected officials work together to deal with them. A meeting of the Boards is in order in the near future to discuss what issues we have in common and also to discuss how we all can help implement the final recommendations of the Plan of Conservation and Development. The recommendations will require a tremendous amount of effort so we can implement the vision of the Townspeople as set forth in that document.
Thank you to all of you who participated in the election. The election results can be seen at this link - 2005 Election Results
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Board of Education asks for better communication
In an October 11th, 2005 letter to the Board of Selectmen, the Board of Education Chair Shannon Bourbeau inquired about creating a town committee comprised of representatives of the Boards of Selectmen, Finance and Education. The Board felt such a committe is pertinent because it would help facilitate communications between the members and to better serve the Town. I am pleasantly surprised by the letter but I don't know what the reception will be at the Board of Selectmen because we discussed this same issue about a year ago and the motion was talked down at a meeting. This is an excerpt from the August 16th, 2004 Selectmen's minutes.
Any thoughts on the Board of Education's request?
"RE-ESTABLISHING CONSOLIDATION COMMITTEE
Selectman Patton commented that this can be a tool for the Town to have the Board of Finance, the Board of Education and the Board of Selectmen, along with staff, meet periodically to discuss different issues and problems. We can all offer solutions and ideas in terms of good relations, not us vs. them. We have different budgets but the money comes out of the same pocket. It worked well when we consolidated finances and went on to technology issues. It is a good planning tool. It is an avenue for all factions of the Town to talk, discuss problems, look at today and the future. Selectman Blessington asked what decision making power does it have? If you create a commission that does not have authority, people from the Board of Finance, Board of Education,Board of Selectmen and staff, they have to go back to their Board. It seems like creating a commission without real power is just for show.
Selectman Patton commented that if you have a formal committee it gives people an agenda, you can’t speak for a board as a whole but we never got into a real problem. Talk is not such a bad thing, it is a good thing. These people could come up with some recommendations, everyone thinks their problems are the most important; we need to deal with things collectively. We need to think and plan which way to go. First Selectman Eldredge commented that he understands his points but has a hard time supporting that idea. We can work back and forth; we solve problems by being asked. This is just another bureaucracy; he doesn’t feel like it is a plus. Selectman Patton asked what does it hurt? Many times when someone asks for help it is too late. First Selectman Eldredge commented that he agrees there needs to be interaction but in retrospect when he was a Board of Education member and financial consolidation took place, he felt that he lost the ability to act upon each financial detail. Selectman Blessington commented that we are creating bureaucracy that I do not see will really accomplish anything that can’t be accomplished at meetings; maybe we should have a meeting of the 3 organizations to see how they feel. They must have decision-making powers or it is not worth doing. Selectman Patton asked how do you think things get done? You have to look 10 years out; we should get together to plan things. First Selectman Eldredge commented that he
does not feel comfortable re-establishing this. Selectman Blessington commented me either.
SELECTMAN PATTON MOVED THAT WE APPROACH THE BOARD OF
EDUCATION AND THE BOARD OF FINANCE AND STAFF TO FORM A CONSOLIDATION COMMITTEE.There was no seconded. Motion fails."
Any thoughts on the Board of Education's request?
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Town Finances
There were a couple of requests to discuss Town finances. One specific request was "How about taking on a 'rural legend' such as:-The town's 'rainy day' fund has been washing away over the past 2 years. True or False?" Good question. There were also questions about the long-term finances of the Town. I don't have the answers tonight but I will gather up the information and try to shed some light on the subject as best as possible. In the meantime, feel free to share any information you might have.
Willington Emergency Services
There seems to be some interest in the Emergency Services in Town. One anonymous blogger wrote "I would be interested in knowing opinions regarding Emergency Services in our town. Why the need for two Fire Deparmtents, one department paid, the other not etc..It seems to me that one unit would provide a better service, better budgeting etc. It is very rare to have two seperate departments in a town of 6,000." Any opinions out there.
Willington Flooding
Sorry, I have not added to the blog recently but I have been making up for a couple of lost workdays due to last weekend's flooding. Willington, along with the rest of the region, probably experienced a 25 year flood. It damaged many roads on the north end of Town especially Turnpike Road and Turnpike Road Extension, Potter School Road, Mihaliak Road Extension, Liska Road, Michalec Road and Lustig Road. The Public Works Department responded late Friday night and the full extent of the problems became evident by early Saturday morning. Roaring Brook, the Fenton River and the Willimantic River all overflowed their banks. The Willimantic River caused the most problems to our residents by flooding three homes on Route 74 and doing extensive damage to the homes and vehicles. Many thanks should go out to the three members of the road crew who worked all weekend, the responding members of the Fire Departments for helping to evacuate people and pumping out basements and to Knight Construction and Hipsky Construction for responding to the call for help.
Friday, October 14, 2005
Viewer Posts
If you would like to see an issue on this blog site that I haven't covered, please send me an email at johnwpatton@msn.com or post a comment on this issue and I will try to accomodate you as best as I am able. Thank you all for using this blog.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Stop Signs on Cisar Road
The Board of Selectmen voted to install stop signs on Cisar Road at the driveway of Wood Haven Apartments. Here is an excerpt from the Board of Selectmen meeting minutes from October 3rd.
Selectman Patton brought up the Stop signs for Cisar Road and asked First Selectman Eldredge if he talked to the Dept. of Transportation? First Selectman Eldredge commented no but he thinks this is worth trying, it is not the greatest thing but the State Police support it. We recognize it is a bad road and would like to try to do something. Selectman Patton commented that the Town Engineer was involved before with Town roads. This is a private drive. I think we should re-visit speed bumps. First Selectman Eldredge commented that he would like to try something to see if it will help. Lynn commented we are getting a lot of calls on speeding. Selectman Patton commented stop signs are not the way to go. Selectman Blessington commented that it is not the best solution. Selectman Patton commented that stop signs are for intersections to prevent accidents. If you want to slow people down you can narrow the road, you could put speed bumps on it but putting a stop sign does nothing for the underlining problem, which is inconsiderate drivers. Putting a stop sign there is going to waste gas and inconvince the people who live there hearing the cars starting and stopping. Lynn commented that the DOT said stop signs are not to be used for speed control. First Selectman Eldredge commented that he talked to the State Police and they think it is worth a try, it is not the best solution but I want to try something. Selectman Patton commented that he would like to see a recommendation from the Town Engineer that this is a good idea. First Selectman Eldredge commented that I recognize what you are saying but I still would like to do something.
What are your thoughts on whether we should be installing stop signs at that location?
Selectman Patton brought up the Stop signs for Cisar Road and asked First Selectman Eldredge if he talked to the Dept. of Transportation? First Selectman Eldredge commented no but he thinks this is worth trying, it is not the greatest thing but the State Police support it. We recognize it is a bad road and would like to try to do something. Selectman Patton commented that the Town Engineer was involved before with Town roads. This is a private drive. I think we should re-visit speed bumps. First Selectman Eldredge commented that he would like to try something to see if it will help. Lynn commented we are getting a lot of calls on speeding. Selectman Patton commented stop signs are not the way to go. Selectman Blessington commented that it is not the best solution. Selectman Patton commented that stop signs are for intersections to prevent accidents. If you want to slow people down you can narrow the road, you could put speed bumps on it but putting a stop sign does nothing for the underlining problem, which is inconsiderate drivers. Putting a stop sign there is going to waste gas and inconvince the people who live there hearing the cars starting and stopping. Lynn commented that the DOT said stop signs are not to be used for speed control. First Selectman Eldredge commented that he talked to the State Police and they think it is worth a try, it is not the best solution but I want to try something. Selectman Patton commented that he would like to see a recommendation from the Town Engineer that this is a good idea. First Selectman Eldredge commented that I recognize what you are saying but I still would like to do something.
What are your thoughts on whether we should be installing stop signs at that location?
Center School Name Change
A Town resident has submitted a proposal to change the name of Center School in Willington to the Jared Sparks School. Jared Sparks (1789-1866) was an early Willington resident who grew up to be President of Harvard College and a noted historian of the American Revolution. The Board of Education is currently looking for input on this proposal. Your thoughts?
Thursday, October 06, 2005
What does cross-endorsement mean.
This year's local election features the Republican and Democratic leadership colluding to endorse the same person for an elected position. What is the benefit of cross-endorsement? In Connecticut, when a person appears on more than one party line, the votes are added together to achieve a total. Most often, a minor party will cross-endorse a candidate on a Democrat or Republican line to give that candidate an advantage and put them over the top and hopefully will give the minor party some leverage with their issues. The Working Families Party uses this tactic quite often.
It has never been used, until recently, by the two major parties to block the election of a minor party candidate. The first selectman's race in the last local election ended with Mike Eldredge receiving 601 votes as a Republican and 330 votes as a Democrat and John Patton receiving 762 votes as a Sentinel. Under the rules, Eldredge was declared the winner with 931 votes. The strategy seemed to work so well last election that this year the party leadership decided to cross-endorse sixteen candidates in order to wipe out the A Sentinel Party. In talking to some of the Democrat/Republican candidates, they do not realize that they are being used as pawns by their leadership to stifle political competition. However, if they desired, they could withdraw on their own from the party they are not affiliated with and run a fair election on one line.
I have often heard that the political leadership is doing this "for the good of the Town". Could somebody get past the euphamism and give me a specific reason this cross-endorsement is "good for the Town?"
It has never been used, until recently, by the two major parties to block the election of a minor party candidate. The first selectman's race in the last local election ended with Mike Eldredge receiving 601 votes as a Republican and 330 votes as a Democrat and John Patton receiving 762 votes as a Sentinel. Under the rules, Eldredge was declared the winner with 931 votes. The strategy seemed to work so well last election that this year the party leadership decided to cross-endorse sixteen candidates in order to wipe out the A Sentinel Party. In talking to some of the Democrat/Republican candidates, they do not realize that they are being used as pawns by their leadership to stifle political competition. However, if they desired, they could withdraw on their own from the party they are not affiliated with and run a fair election on one line.
I have often heard that the political leadership is doing this "for the good of the Town". Could somebody get past the euphamism and give me a specific reason this cross-endorsement is "good for the Town?"
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Reprint of Willimantic Chronicle Community Voices
The following is a "Community Voice" printed in the Chronicle on Tuesday, September 20th, 2005. The writer is a member of the Board of Education and a member of the Democratic Town Committee. Any thoughts about this voice?
Community Voices
Give Willington political parties a fair shake
By LAURIE MAZICH SEMPREBON
I am surprised at the Chronicle’s implied endorsement of the A Sentinel Party political party in Willington. I understand editorial endorsement of candidates or issues, but I thought that proper newspaper ethics demanded a neutral presentation of facts in articles on the front page and throughout a newspaper, other than in an editorial. Over the past couple of years, the Chronicle has had several articles heavily skewed in favor of the A Sentinel Party. You are not presenting accurate facts to the voters of Willington. As a resident who reads the minutes of many town commissions and boards, attends meetings, serves on a board in town and votes, I object to your pseudo- endorsement of the A Sentinel Party.
To be fair to the Chronicle , maybe you are getting phone calls or mail from A Sentinel Party members with information that you think is accurate and, because of time constraints or lack of reporters, you are not able to follow through as well as you should to present a balanced account of what is really going on.If that is the case, you are doing the readers a disservice to present only part of the facts.You are also contributing to the demise of our political system by presenting an unbalanced and unfair account of what is going on in the town of Willington. That makes me wonder how balanced the rest of your articles are, either on local events or nationally.Making an attempt to call one person and reporting in the article that he was “ not available for comment” and yet reporting quotations from several A Sentinel Party members ( or “ Primary Republicans” — the same thing) does not appear to be balanced reporting.
To give you just a few examples: 1) Terry Hoffman has been an invaluable, trusted servant of Willington and did not deserve John Patton’s implication that there was some kind of “backroom deal” to raise her salary. Terry has worked above and beyond her job description for years and is finally being placed at a more reasonable level, both in title and in monetary compensation; 2) If you read Bob Lisiewski’s letter to the editor accusing the Democrats of being “ the devil” and the cross- endorsing political parties of being “ the Taliban,” you might think twice about taking anything he says seriously ( it was amazing that he was able to insult almost everyone in town in a single letter).
3) Remember the big stink John Patton raised about First Selectman Michael Eldredge paying town employees overtime when they had taken sick or vacation time? It turned out that the same practice existed the entire time Patton was first selectman? These are just a few examples of how Patton’s A Sentinel Party has tried to create trouble for Eldredge and Willington when they could be spending more time and effort doing positive things for the town.I also wonder if you are reporting what you hear or read from the A Sentinel Party members because it sounds like a great story — the underdog being crushed by the bigger, stronger parties, so to speak. I think it would be a more interesting story to report the reasons behind the Democrats and Republicans cross- endorsing. I cannot imagine the crossendorsing happening on a national or even a state level, so I would think that you would be interested in what is really going on in Willington.
The Democrats and Republicans on the local level really are interested in doing what is best for the town of Willington; there is no ulterior motive for some sinister control of the town. I, myself, always vote for the candidates and not the parties ( including A Sentinel Party members) and the Democrats and Republicans put forth candidates that we felt would serve the town well.
Patton’s party had control for many years and townspeople got tired of one person trying to run everything from one position. And, although I do think that John did some good for the town when he was first selectman, I have lost a lot of respect for him in his relentless political trashing of the Republicans, especially Eldredge and Blessington. I do not agree with all of Mike’s and John’s views, but I try to listen to and respect all views. If Patton were really interested in doing the best for Willington, he would have spent more time over the past two years helping his fellow selectmen in working for the town of Willington and not creating controversy and getting in the way of every good thing that the other two selectmen have tried to do.In your future reporting of events in the town of Willington, try not to listen and report on only the A Sentinel Party side of an issue.
Semprebon is a member of the Willington Democratic Town Committee, a board of education member and a former conservation commission member.
Powered by QContent
">Copyright (c)2005 Willimantic Chronicle 09/20/2005
Community Voices
Give Willington political parties a fair shake
By LAURIE MAZICH SEMPREBON
I am surprised at the Chronicle’s implied endorsement of the A Sentinel Party political party in Willington. I understand editorial endorsement of candidates or issues, but I thought that proper newspaper ethics demanded a neutral presentation of facts in articles on the front page and throughout a newspaper, other than in an editorial. Over the past couple of years, the Chronicle has had several articles heavily skewed in favor of the A Sentinel Party. You are not presenting accurate facts to the voters of Willington. As a resident who reads the minutes of many town commissions and boards, attends meetings, serves on a board in town and votes, I object to your pseudo- endorsement of the A Sentinel Party.
To be fair to the Chronicle , maybe you are getting phone calls or mail from A Sentinel Party members with information that you think is accurate and, because of time constraints or lack of reporters, you are not able to follow through as well as you should to present a balanced account of what is really going on.If that is the case, you are doing the readers a disservice to present only part of the facts.You are also contributing to the demise of our political system by presenting an unbalanced and unfair account of what is going on in the town of Willington. That makes me wonder how balanced the rest of your articles are, either on local events or nationally.Making an attempt to call one person and reporting in the article that he was “ not available for comment” and yet reporting quotations from several A Sentinel Party members ( or “ Primary Republicans” — the same thing) does not appear to be balanced reporting.
To give you just a few examples: 1) Terry Hoffman has been an invaluable, trusted servant of Willington and did not deserve John Patton’s implication that there was some kind of “backroom deal” to raise her salary. Terry has worked above and beyond her job description for years and is finally being placed at a more reasonable level, both in title and in monetary compensation; 2) If you read Bob Lisiewski’s letter to the editor accusing the Democrats of being “ the devil” and the cross- endorsing political parties of being “ the Taliban,” you might think twice about taking anything he says seriously ( it was amazing that he was able to insult almost everyone in town in a single letter).
3) Remember the big stink John Patton raised about First Selectman Michael Eldredge paying town employees overtime when they had taken sick or vacation time? It turned out that the same practice existed the entire time Patton was first selectman? These are just a few examples of how Patton’s A Sentinel Party has tried to create trouble for Eldredge and Willington when they could be spending more time and effort doing positive things for the town.I also wonder if you are reporting what you hear or read from the A Sentinel Party members because it sounds like a great story — the underdog being crushed by the bigger, stronger parties, so to speak. I think it would be a more interesting story to report the reasons behind the Democrats and Republicans cross- endorsing. I cannot imagine the crossendorsing happening on a national or even a state level, so I would think that you would be interested in what is really going on in Willington.
The Democrats and Republicans on the local level really are interested in doing what is best for the town of Willington; there is no ulterior motive for some sinister control of the town. I, myself, always vote for the candidates and not the parties ( including A Sentinel Party members) and the Democrats and Republicans put forth candidates that we felt would serve the town well.
Patton’s party had control for many years and townspeople got tired of one person trying to run everything from one position. And, although I do think that John did some good for the town when he was first selectman, I have lost a lot of respect for him in his relentless political trashing of the Republicans, especially Eldredge and Blessington. I do not agree with all of Mike’s and John’s views, but I try to listen to and respect all views. If Patton were really interested in doing the best for Willington, he would have spent more time over the past two years helping his fellow selectmen in working for the town of Willington and not creating controversy and getting in the way of every good thing that the other two selectmen have tried to do.In your future reporting of events in the town of Willington, try not to listen and report on only the A Sentinel Party side of an issue.
Semprebon is a member of the Willington Democratic Town Committee, a board of education member and a former conservation commission member.
Powered by QContent
">Copyright (c)2005 Willimantic Chronicle 09/20/2005
Monday, September 19, 2005
Town Business Manager
At the end of their meeting on August 15th, the Board of Selectmen voted 2 -1 to create a position called "Business Manager" for the Town and Board of Education. This was done after the public had gone home because the Selectmen went into executive session (a non-public meeting to discuss certain privileged topics.) There was no job description or job requirements presented, no discussion with the Board of Education or Board of Finance, and the Accounting Supervisor was given an $8,000 raise and given that position. She has certainly gone beyond requirements of her position as Accounting Supervisor due to the fact that the First Selectman needed her to perform his duties since he admitted he did not understand municipal finance. Is the Town ready for a business manager or even a Town manager?
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Willington Library
Many people have asked about the new Willington Municipal Library. After 8 years of planning, a ground breaking was held to begin construction of the new Library. It is being constructed at the corner of Route 320 (Ruby Road) and Route 74 (Tolland Turnpike). The entrance will be on Ruby Road. The project is expected to take about a year and cost 3.5 million dollars for construction costs and soft costs.
River Road Recreation Complex
This facility is located at the Intersection of Route 32 (River Road) and I-84. It is just North of the commuter parking lot. The facility will eventually contain a regulation football/soccer field, regulation little league baseball field, basketball and volleyball courts. A pavilion will also be built there. Little to no funding or other support has been given for the completion of the fields by the current administration. The Board of Finance did intercede last year and voted to allocate an additional $65,000 to finish the little league field. The vote to give a final approval for the money will be at a Town meeting sometime in late September/early October.
Willington Senior Housing
The Access Agency of Willimantic applied for and received a grant to build an income-limited 32 unit Senior Housing apartment building on Old Farms Road in Willington. The facility is being designed currently and a ground breaking is expected late fall.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
