Post by Wethersfield.com on Apr 1, 2005 9:58:53 GMT -5
TO: The Honorable Mayor and Town Council Members
FROM: Bonnie L. Therrien, Town Manager
DATE: March 31, 2005
A. COUNCIL COMMUNICATIONS:
1. Manager: I will be away from the office beginning tomorrow AM until late on Wednesday evening. The Chief will be in charge and Rae Ann Palmer will be standing in for me at Monday’s meetings. Everyone will know how to get me in case of an emergency.
2. Upcoming Events:
• Paul Woodworth from the Great Meadows Conservation Trust will host a Public Land Preservation program in Council Chambers on April 6th at 7 pm. Council members and the public are invited to attend to learn how to preserve open space in Wethersfield.
• The April Business After Hours will be held at the D’Esopo Life Center on April 7TH from 5 to 7 PM. Flyer Attached.
• NEW – The MetroHartford Alliance is hosting a Rising Star Breakfast on Tuesday, April 12 at The Bushnell. Maurice Hines, star of stage, screen and television will be the guest speaker. The event will be held from 7:30 to 9:00 AM and costs $15.00, including a continental breakfast. To register call (203) 562-6312 or Breakfast@cttrust.org.
• Youth Volunteer Recognition Event, Community Center, April 12th at 7:00 PM.
• The Wethersfield Volunteer Ambulance Explorer Post # 855 will hold fundraising car washes at the Ambulance Facility on April 9, 16 and 23.
• NEW – On Monday, April 11 from 9:30 AM to 12:00 PM, there will be a mini-conference on Education Adequacy and Equity in Connecticut. This conference will be held at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, Room 2C and is sponsored by the CT Coalition for Justice in Education funding. For additional information: infor@ccjef.org or (860) 461-0320.
• The workforce board for North Central Connecticut, invites you to join its Board Members, Chief Elected Officials from the region, and economic development professionals for Partnering with Economic Development: Creating the Workforce Advantage, a national teleconference co-sponsored by CWP, the Workforce Development Network and the National Association of Workforce Boards, and presented by Greg Newton of Greg Newton Associates, on Tuesday, April 12, 2005 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Capitol Region Education Council 111 Charter Oak Avenue, Hartford. Please RSVP to Suzanne Dutilly at 522-1111, ext 228. Lunch will be provided at $5.00 per person.
• Senior Volunteer Recognition, Community Center, April 28th at 2:00 PM.
• Riverfront Recapture has announced an opportunity for an exclusive first look at the Connecticut Convention Center on Saturday April 16th. More information is to follow or call Riverfront Recapture at 713-3131.
• Save April 30, 2005 from 7:00PM to midnight for the Chamber of Commerce’s 40th Anniversary Dance/Fundraiser at the Wethersfield Country Club. Tickets are $60 per person and can be purchased from Peter Gillespie or John Cascio.
• On Saturday, April 30th, the Christian Conference of Connecticut will hold its 23rd Annual Peace and Justice Convocation at the Mercy Center in Madison. Myron Oldfield will be the main speaker who worked on the Metropatterns Report. For more information call 236-4281.
• The Chamber of Commerce’s State of the Town Breakfast will be held Thursday, May 5, 2005 at the Wethersfield Country Club. Registration is at 7:30 am. Please mark your calendars to attend this important event. The flyer is attached. The fee is $15.00 per person for Chamber members, $20.00 for non-members.
• The Chamber of Commerce will hold their Annual Dinner/Meeting on May 18, 2005. Details to follow.
• NEW - Center Edge informs us that there will be a West Hartford Community Forum on how we are going to reduce property tax reliance in the future on May 25 from 7-9 PM in the UCONN Greater Hartford Building Auditorium. See attached flyer. The topics are very close to issues we have been discussing in Wethersfield.
• CRCOG will hold their annual dinner on June 21 at Manchester Country Club. More details to follow.
3. Council and Board/Committee Dates:
• Monday, April 4, 2005 – Budget Committee (Councilors Adil, Fortunato, Czernicki, Karangekis) – 6:00 pm – Town Manager’s Office
• Tuesday, April 5, 2005 – Planning & Zoning Commission
• Wednesday, April 6, 2005 – Shade Tree Commission
• Thursday, April, 7, 2005 – Youth Advisory Board
• Tuesday, April 12, 2005 – Shared Services Meeting (NOTE – April 4th meeting is cancelled)
• Budget Workshops will begin Monday, April 11th. Agendas will go out next week.
4. Department/Division News:
• Economic Development – Director Gillespie informs us that the Silas Deane Highway Advisory Committee is looking at creating a new fund raising initiative for the Highway Revitalization “Adopt a Tree” Program. Trees can be purchased by individuals, businesses or neighborhoods at $450 each. Please call Peter for more information.
• Parks and Recreation – The Nature Center is hosting an Earth Day Clean-Up in Wintergreen Woods: Volunteers of all ages are needed to pick up litter, spread wood chips, and prune bushes, etc. on Friday, April 22, 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. Visit Starbucks Coffee (1080 Silas Deane Highway) or contact the Nature Center (721-2953 or naturecenter@wethersfieldct.com) to sign-up by Friday, April 15.
• Police Department - Two new officers were sworn in last week, Manuel Silva and Ronald Floyd. We welcome them to our Town and know they will do an excellent job in the academy.
5. Board/Commission News:
• The Planning and Zoning Commission’s legal notice of action from the March 15, 2005 meeting is attached.
• EDIC – The EDIC held their third Realtor’s Breakfast today. About 25 people attended the event to discuss ways we can attract more businesses and clean up our main throughways. We were very pleased by the response from the attendees and they have given us good ideas to move forward with renovating the Silas Deane Highway.
6. Council Questions/Answers:
• Attached are three emails regarding the MDC dye testing of the two laterals on the high school property. With all the rain this week, the Dobrucks and others did not have any sewage in their homes.
• In response to a question about the net interest on the Webb School project, Finance Director Hanthingy informed me that the net issuance costs are $103,020.07. Prior to the credit of the BAN premiums of $62,938.60, the total issuance costs were $165,958.67.
• Regarding your email addresses, I have received the following update from our Data Systems Coordinator, Paul Dudley: Advanced Office Systems was contacted to solicit their assistance on coordinating the migration of your mail boxes and email addresses in house. We’re aware of some the of changes that will have to be made to point the domain (Wethersfield.org) where the Council e-mail boxes are hosted to our internal server, but we’ll need help from AOS and our firewall consultants Omni Data to make changes on the back end. Our representative from AOS will be in touch with Omni Data and get back to us in the next few days with a proposed timeline. This change will also affect mailboxes for Board of Education members, as well as any other Board/Commission members with a mailbox hosted at Wethersfield.org.
• In Finance Director Hanthingy’s recent report on Webb School she stated that the data in Munis was corrupted. The meaning of corrupted in this context is that there is something wrong with the where/how the data was entered or coded so that the display screens do not match the expenditure data. The expenditure data is correctly recorded in the system.
7. CRCOG: Nothing this week.
8. COST: Attached are two updates on pending legislation..
9. ICMA: Nothing this week.
10. Miscellaneous:
• Attached for your review is an article from the Courant entitled “”Opting out of Social Security”. We will be implementing our program by the end of May.
• The MetroHartford Alliance and the Hartford Business Journal are working together to promote and host the second annual Business Champions Award Program that recognizes the Region’s fastest growing privately held companies. If you would like to learn more about the program visit the website: www.MetroHartford.com or call Stacey Vendetta-Costa at 525-4451, ext 268.
• Attached is an article from the Sunday, March 27, 2005 New York Times about the clean up of the Connecticut River and the Cove in the greater Hartford area.
• Attached is an article from the Courant titled “Construction Costs on Rise, Strain Budgets”.
B. PROJECT UPDATES:
• Nott Street – State DOT staff informs us that the ground is still too wet to reseed the grassy areas. They hope to be able to begin work to close out this project within the next 2 weeks.
• Church Street Reconstruction – General Paving has advised us that construction work on this project will begin on Monday April 11 between the Silas Deane Highway and Garden Street. The work is expected to last three months.
• Olson House – Peter Gillespie and I met this week to discuss marketing the Olson House for a future rental. Peter will bring this to Planning and Zoning in May to discuss proper uses for the building and then we will begin marketing the house for lease. I will keep you posted on this.
C. ATTACHMENTS:
• Business After Hours Flyer
• West Hartford Community Forum flyer
• Planning and Zoning Commission Legal Notice
• Emails regarding dye testing (3)
• Cost Bulletins (2)
• Courant article
• New York Times article
• Courant article
FROM: Bonnie L. Therrien, Town Manager
DATE: March 31, 2005
A. COUNCIL COMMUNICATIONS:
1. Manager: I will be away from the office beginning tomorrow AM until late on Wednesday evening. The Chief will be in charge and Rae Ann Palmer will be standing in for me at Monday’s meetings. Everyone will know how to get me in case of an emergency.
2. Upcoming Events:
• Paul Woodworth from the Great Meadows Conservation Trust will host a Public Land Preservation program in Council Chambers on April 6th at 7 pm. Council members and the public are invited to attend to learn how to preserve open space in Wethersfield.
• The April Business After Hours will be held at the D’Esopo Life Center on April 7TH from 5 to 7 PM. Flyer Attached.
• NEW – The MetroHartford Alliance is hosting a Rising Star Breakfast on Tuesday, April 12 at The Bushnell. Maurice Hines, star of stage, screen and television will be the guest speaker. The event will be held from 7:30 to 9:00 AM and costs $15.00, including a continental breakfast. To register call (203) 562-6312 or Breakfast@cttrust.org.
• Youth Volunteer Recognition Event, Community Center, April 12th at 7:00 PM.
• The Wethersfield Volunteer Ambulance Explorer Post # 855 will hold fundraising car washes at the Ambulance Facility on April 9, 16 and 23.
• NEW – On Monday, April 11 from 9:30 AM to 12:00 PM, there will be a mini-conference on Education Adequacy and Equity in Connecticut. This conference will be held at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, Room 2C and is sponsored by the CT Coalition for Justice in Education funding. For additional information: infor@ccjef.org or (860) 461-0320.
• The workforce board for North Central Connecticut, invites you to join its Board Members, Chief Elected Officials from the region, and economic development professionals for Partnering with Economic Development: Creating the Workforce Advantage, a national teleconference co-sponsored by CWP, the Workforce Development Network and the National Association of Workforce Boards, and presented by Greg Newton of Greg Newton Associates, on Tuesday, April 12, 2005 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Capitol Region Education Council 111 Charter Oak Avenue, Hartford. Please RSVP to Suzanne Dutilly at 522-1111, ext 228. Lunch will be provided at $5.00 per person.
• Senior Volunteer Recognition, Community Center, April 28th at 2:00 PM.
• Riverfront Recapture has announced an opportunity for an exclusive first look at the Connecticut Convention Center on Saturday April 16th. More information is to follow or call Riverfront Recapture at 713-3131.
• Save April 30, 2005 from 7:00PM to midnight for the Chamber of Commerce’s 40th Anniversary Dance/Fundraiser at the Wethersfield Country Club. Tickets are $60 per person and can be purchased from Peter Gillespie or John Cascio.
• On Saturday, April 30th, the Christian Conference of Connecticut will hold its 23rd Annual Peace and Justice Convocation at the Mercy Center in Madison. Myron Oldfield will be the main speaker who worked on the Metropatterns Report. For more information call 236-4281.
• The Chamber of Commerce’s State of the Town Breakfast will be held Thursday, May 5, 2005 at the Wethersfield Country Club. Registration is at 7:30 am. Please mark your calendars to attend this important event. The flyer is attached. The fee is $15.00 per person for Chamber members, $20.00 for non-members.
• The Chamber of Commerce will hold their Annual Dinner/Meeting on May 18, 2005. Details to follow.
• NEW - Center Edge informs us that there will be a West Hartford Community Forum on how we are going to reduce property tax reliance in the future on May 25 from 7-9 PM in the UCONN Greater Hartford Building Auditorium. See attached flyer. The topics are very close to issues we have been discussing in Wethersfield.
• CRCOG will hold their annual dinner on June 21 at Manchester Country Club. More details to follow.
3. Council and Board/Committee Dates:
• Monday, April 4, 2005 – Budget Committee (Councilors Adil, Fortunato, Czernicki, Karangekis) – 6:00 pm – Town Manager’s Office
• Tuesday, April 5, 2005 – Planning & Zoning Commission
• Wednesday, April 6, 2005 – Shade Tree Commission
• Thursday, April, 7, 2005 – Youth Advisory Board
• Tuesday, April 12, 2005 – Shared Services Meeting (NOTE – April 4th meeting is cancelled)
• Budget Workshops will begin Monday, April 11th. Agendas will go out next week.
4. Department/Division News:
• Economic Development – Director Gillespie informs us that the Silas Deane Highway Advisory Committee is looking at creating a new fund raising initiative for the Highway Revitalization “Adopt a Tree” Program. Trees can be purchased by individuals, businesses or neighborhoods at $450 each. Please call Peter for more information.
• Parks and Recreation – The Nature Center is hosting an Earth Day Clean-Up in Wintergreen Woods: Volunteers of all ages are needed to pick up litter, spread wood chips, and prune bushes, etc. on Friday, April 22, 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. Visit Starbucks Coffee (1080 Silas Deane Highway) or contact the Nature Center (721-2953 or naturecenter@wethersfieldct.com) to sign-up by Friday, April 15.
• Police Department - Two new officers were sworn in last week, Manuel Silva and Ronald Floyd. We welcome them to our Town and know they will do an excellent job in the academy.
5. Board/Commission News:
• The Planning and Zoning Commission’s legal notice of action from the March 15, 2005 meeting is attached.
• EDIC – The EDIC held their third Realtor’s Breakfast today. About 25 people attended the event to discuss ways we can attract more businesses and clean up our main throughways. We were very pleased by the response from the attendees and they have given us good ideas to move forward with renovating the Silas Deane Highway.
6. Council Questions/Answers:
• Attached are three emails regarding the MDC dye testing of the two laterals on the high school property. With all the rain this week, the Dobrucks and others did not have any sewage in their homes.
• In response to a question about the net interest on the Webb School project, Finance Director Hanthingy informed me that the net issuance costs are $103,020.07. Prior to the credit of the BAN premiums of $62,938.60, the total issuance costs were $165,958.67.
• Regarding your email addresses, I have received the following update from our Data Systems Coordinator, Paul Dudley: Advanced Office Systems was contacted to solicit their assistance on coordinating the migration of your mail boxes and email addresses in house. We’re aware of some the of changes that will have to be made to point the domain (Wethersfield.org) where the Council e-mail boxes are hosted to our internal server, but we’ll need help from AOS and our firewall consultants Omni Data to make changes on the back end. Our representative from AOS will be in touch with Omni Data and get back to us in the next few days with a proposed timeline. This change will also affect mailboxes for Board of Education members, as well as any other Board/Commission members with a mailbox hosted at Wethersfield.org.
• In Finance Director Hanthingy’s recent report on Webb School she stated that the data in Munis was corrupted. The meaning of corrupted in this context is that there is something wrong with the where/how the data was entered or coded so that the display screens do not match the expenditure data. The expenditure data is correctly recorded in the system.
7. CRCOG: Nothing this week.
8. COST: Attached are two updates on pending legislation..
9. ICMA: Nothing this week.
10. Miscellaneous:
• Attached for your review is an article from the Courant entitled “”Opting out of Social Security”. We will be implementing our program by the end of May.
• The MetroHartford Alliance and the Hartford Business Journal are working together to promote and host the second annual Business Champions Award Program that recognizes the Region’s fastest growing privately held companies. If you would like to learn more about the program visit the website: www.MetroHartford.com or call Stacey Vendetta-Costa at 525-4451, ext 268.
• Attached is an article from the Sunday, March 27, 2005 New York Times about the clean up of the Connecticut River and the Cove in the greater Hartford area.
• Attached is an article from the Courant titled “Construction Costs on Rise, Strain Budgets”.
B. PROJECT UPDATES:
• Nott Street – State DOT staff informs us that the ground is still too wet to reseed the grassy areas. They hope to be able to begin work to close out this project within the next 2 weeks.
• Church Street Reconstruction – General Paving has advised us that construction work on this project will begin on Monday April 11 between the Silas Deane Highway and Garden Street. The work is expected to last three months.
• Olson House – Peter Gillespie and I met this week to discuss marketing the Olson House for a future rental. Peter will bring this to Planning and Zoning in May to discuss proper uses for the building and then we will begin marketing the house for lease. I will keep you posted on this.
C. ATTACHMENTS:
• Business After Hours Flyer
• West Hartford Community Forum flyer
• Planning and Zoning Commission Legal Notice
• Emails regarding dye testing (3)
• Cost Bulletins (2)
• Courant article
• New York Times article
• Courant article