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Post by SyZyGy on Aug 3, 2007 3:55:22 GMT -5
www.wfsb.com/news/13784224/detail.html Click vid link under picture.
and
"Friends of Animals Challenging Carriage Rides in Wethersfield, Fox and CBS News Report
August 01, 2007
Wethersfield, Conn. — Friends of Animals’ strong objections to the town’s plan to provide horse-drawn carriage rides drew statewide television coverage last night. Speaking before the Wethersfield Tourism Commission, Nancy Rice, Outreach Coordinator for Friends of Animals, urged that the exploitative and archaic practice “be left behind in the history books.”
In follow-up interviews for both CBS’s Susan Raff of WFSB and Fox’ Tom Benemann of WTIC, Rice suggested that the $25,000 state grant for the carriage rides program be put to better use than to be deposited into the coffers of a horse-for-hire company.
Rice stated, “We are confident that the town officials and citizens of Wethersfield can find other ways to preserve and herald the historic richness of this lovely town without resorting to a tradition that exploits free-living animals for entertainment.”
Rice cited the growing momentum to ban horse-drawn carriage rides in cities throughout the world, including Key West and Palm Beach, Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; Camden, New Jersey; Toronto, Canada; Beijing, China; Paris, France; and London, England.
State Senator John Fonfara (D-Wethersfield), who initiated the carriage rides program, claimed it will add to the “ambiance” of the town. Fonfara praised peaceful evening walks through Wethersfield’s historic district. Perhaps Fonfara should look to this pastime for a more positive inspiration, such as guided walking tours of the tree-lined lanes and colonial homes.
The public will be allowed to speak again at the Wethersfield Town Council meeting on Monday, Aug. 6, at 7:30 p.m., Community Center, 30 Greenfield Street, Wethersfield, The Banquet Room. Please ask town officials to find more enlightened and creative ways to accentuate their New England heritage than returning to the days when animals were forced to pull people through the streets. Let’s leave that piece of history behind."
The contact information for Wethersfield town officials:
Wethersfield Town Manager- Bonnie Therrien
860-721-2801
Bonnie.therrien@wethersfieldct.com
Wethersfield Economic Development Manager-Peter Gillespie
860-721-2837
peter.gillespie@wethersfieldct.com
Mayor Andrew S. Adil (D)
860-257-8176
andrew.adil@wethersfield.org
Dep. Mayor Christine T. Fortunato (D)
860-529-3828
cfortunato@wethersfield.org
State Senator John Fonfara (D-Wethersfield)
860-240-0043
Fonfara@senatedems.ct.gov
State Representative Antonio Guerrera (D-Wethersfield)
860-240-8585
Tony.Guerrera@cga.ct.gov
State Representative Russell Moron (D-Wethersfield)
1-800-842-8267
Russell.Morin@cga.ct.gov
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Post by Dr.Ken Sokolowski on Apr 8, 2008 10:56:33 GMT -5
Having had another meeting to attend last night, I was unable to attend the Council meeting. I would appreciate members here commenting on the highlights of that meeting.
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Post by cruzrt on Apr 23, 2008 15:04:25 GMT -5
Was anything important said at the Council's Public Hearing on the budget? It was Monday night.
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Post by Dr.Ken Sokolowski on Apr 25, 2008 10:08:36 GMT -5
Yes!
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Post by cruzrt on Apr 28, 2008 18:53:25 GMT -5
The video of the budget public hearing finally is being shown on Channel 16. One of the speakers raised a very interesting topic. Per Pupil cost for the school system is from $700 to $900 higher than in Avon and Glastonbury. He says those towns have good schools and he's probably right. He says we have 3800 students in the system which calculates to almost $3,000,000 more than those other towns. . A woman from the public then stepped up and said his numbers were not relevant. So, who's right?
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RGarrey
Gold Member
WCTV "Wethersfield Live" Channel 14
Posts: 84
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Post by RGarrey on May 2, 2008 9:39:49 GMT -5
I have heard that the town is ready to approve the purchase of another giant ladder truck for the fire dept at a cost of over 1 million dollars. Could this be true. I know the town purchased one of these in about 1995. Why would we need two of these when as far as I can tell the only "high rise" we have in town is Executive square. Also Rocky Hill and Newington both own large ladder trucks. The town is always talking about sharing services well isn't this a perfect example. I know we already have mutual aid agreements between the fire deptartments. Anyone else know anything about this.
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Post by standish on May 5, 2008 14:20:36 GMT -5
I have heard it said, during Overlay Zone discussions, that Wethersfield is already built-out, but, not UP!
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Post by Dr.Ken Sokolowski on Jul 19, 2008 15:47:00 GMT -5
Dear Involved Citizens,
July 22 – is apparently going to be a VERY busy evening. There will be six (6) meetings of a board or commission at that time. I have captured the following information from the Town’s website and (with a little tweaking) am presenting it for you. Since Bonnie has made it clear that many meetings’ times were posted to the site well in advance, I do not have confidence in the times and places for each of these meetings. I will seek confirmation from the Town Clerk. The Town is still not faithful in alerting the public using modern means to meeting changes and cancelations. Nonetheless, I will tentatively trust the following.
Note: Something new has been added to the Town Calendar on-line and I applaud it! In the expanded information from the link on the calendar for the WRA meeting was the agenda! This should be done for each and every board and commission. The public of the 21st century Wethersfield deserves it!
Dr.Ken
4:30 PM - Redevelopment Agency "Special" Meeting (Town Hall)
(To make up for recent cancelled regular meetings!
AGENDA
Redevelopment Agency
Special Meeting
Tuesday, July 22. 2008
4:30 p.m.[Note "early" start time]
Conference Room 1 (Basement Level)
Town Hall- Call To Order
- Roll Call/Attendance/Quorum (3 Required)
- Public Comments
- Approval of June 18 and July 9, 2008 meeting minutes
- Public Information Forum
- Overlay Zoning Regulations - Status
- Executive Session (Real Estate Matters)
- Next Meetings - August 13, September 10 and September 24. (no indication if regular or special now)
- Correspondence
- Adjournment
====================
5:30 PM - Tourism Commission (Town Hall)
Town Hall: Lower Level Conference Room 1 (Basement)
Immediately follows the WRA mtg (above)
====================
6:00 PM - Special Town Council Meeting (Pitkin)
"Special Town Council Meeting: July 22nd, 6 p.m., Room S-1 (Down the South wing - not the banquet room) at the Community Center to discuss core services for the 2009-2010 budget." Next year is a local election year; hmmm!!
[/color] ==================== 7:00 PM - Library Board (Town Hall)Town Hall: Lower Level Conference Room 1 (basement) Immediately follows the Tourism Comm. Mtg (above) ==================== 7:30 PM - Historic District Commission (Pitkin)Pitkin Community Center, Banquet Room, 30 Greenfield Street ==================== 7:30 PM - Board of Education (SDMS)Silas Deane Middle School Auditorium, 551 Silas Deane Highway [/size]
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Post by Dr.Ken Sokolowski on Jul 21, 2008 8:05:49 GMT -5
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Post by Dr.Ken Sokolowski on Jul 21, 2008 8:57:01 GMT -5
And, if want to get into the nitty-gritty of what the Council is contemplating, it behooves you to read (on-line) the 108 page, agenda package (PDF): wethersfieldct.com/council/agenda/2008-07-21_agenda-pkg.pdfLot of interesting stuff there! I found interesting and disturbing the following paragraph from Gillespie's monthly report to TC: "Comstock Ferre and Co. – Main Street
An application to the HDC has been resubmitted for the demolition of the rear portion of the building to
accommodate the creation of a mixed use retail-office and residential project and a new building fronting on
Church Street is also planned. The Historic District Commission must vote on this project at their next meeting
on July 22nd. If no vote is taken, the appliation [sic] is approved."" The Town will "have its way" with Old Wethersfield if the WHDC does nothing on the Comstock proposal.
If default is the way that the Comstock application is "approved" then I ascribe each member of the WHDC pariah, in addition to lacking gonadal endowment!
If such political craft is the way the Town wants to promote pecuniary business at the expense of our historical endowments and the peaceful enjoyment of our residential properties and society, then it had better be ready to experience some very serious exercises of our First Amendment RIGHTS by we the people of Old Wethersfield!
Dr.Ken |
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RGarrey
Gold Member
WCTV "Wethersfield Live" Channel 14
Posts: 84
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Post by RGarrey on Jul 22, 2008 22:04:51 GMT -5
Well it seems that at last nights council meeting the Council voted to approve the lease purchase of the new Fire truck that was included in the budget. This is the 1.2 million dollar truck that I have mentioned before on this site. It seems that only one bid was received. I could have predicted that. Yes the bid was written so that only the one company that the fire dept wanted was able to bid. How do we know if we are getting our money's worth when only one company can bid. This defeats the purpose of the bid process. This truck should have gone to referendum but instead the council is willing to spend more of our tax dollars on a lease rather than face the voters as is written in the charter. Now with this rigged bid we as taxpayers get screwed again. I am sure there is one very happy salesman out there right now! Imagine that commission. Wouldn't you like to be the salesman bidding a truck with that value knowing that only your company can even bid on the truck.
Is anyone in town listening? Has everyone given up and are just willing to accept this type of blatant disregard for the taxpayers in town? We are facing very tough economic times right now and it is only going to get worse. When is the council going to get it?
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Post by oldetowne on Jul 23, 2008 6:29:30 GMT -5
Rick said: "Is anyone in town listening? Has everyone given up and are just willing to accept this type of blatant disregard for the taxpayers in town? We are facing very tough economic times right now and it is only going to get worse. When is the council going to get it?"
Unfortunately, I don't think there are very many people listening. And of those, most aren't doing anything about it except complaining to their neighbors.
The single bid fire truck "lease" was almost the same situation as the bids for the new library shelving. The high bid became the low bid because it was the only one that referenced a certain type of hardware that was written into the bid specifications. We as the taxpayers are now out 70K (the difference between the two bids) and will be paying that back with interest for 15 years.
I shudder to think what the high school - Hanmer project is going to look like.
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Post by cruzrt on Aug 20, 2008 12:54:14 GMT -5
I've heard second hand that some kind of health related issue caused the Council meeting this week to be cancelled after a few minutes. Does anyone know if this is true and how serious it was?
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Post by oldetowne on Aug 21, 2008 9:22:46 GMT -5
Yes, it is true and it was very serious. The gentleman whose obituary has been reposted by Dr. Ken was stricken during the meeting.
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