West Hartford Center Body Count

It's sad, but a reality in these harsh economic times.
Stores are closing.

So far, here are the recent casualties:

Maggie Moos
Ritz Camera
Three Dog Bakery
Stone Fish Gallery

Stewart Collection is also closing

Plus there are other empty store fronts in the Center:

Lane and Lenge (moved out of the Center)
Honore Gallery
Mariel
Paesaggio Gallery/Manhatten Bagel
LaPerla's on Farmington - store reopened in Blue Back Square
and also there is the small store front near Bridgewater Chocolates

Further away the Kingswood Market is still empty as is the florist that was next to it.
There are of course many other casualties throughout town.

It's gotta be tough - higher rents and a bad economy are just too much for some store owners to bear. Commercial real estate is hurting all over - and even the owners of Buckland Hills Mall have filed for bankruptcy.

One recent move in - Max Burger where Simmer used to be.
(Gotta end this post with good news - right?)

Boil Advisory Lifted - Finally

The MDC put out their memo:

HARTFORD, (April 27, 2009) –The Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) and the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) announce that the Precautionary Boil Water Notice has been removed for MDC customers in the towns of Bloomfield, Windsor, Hartford, West Hartford, and parts of East Granby and Windsor Locks. THERE ARE NO LONGER ANY MDC CUSTOMERS UNDER A BOIL WATER ADVISORY AND THIS RELEASE CONCLUDES THE BOIL WATER ADVISORY FOR ALL CUSTOMERS THAT HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY THIS NOTICE.

Thank goodness.
Now that we have shot our beer and wine budget for the month - time to drink the water again.

West Hartford And Other MDC Towns Asked To Boil Water

MDC consumers in certain towns have been asked to take precautions by boiling water because of contamination concerns; specifically micro-organisms called rotifers and copopods.

The towns and cities affected are in the MDC water district; Hartford, East Hartford, West Hartford, Glastonbury, Portland, Windsor, South Windsor and Bloomfield; this also includes parts of East Granby and Windsor Locks.

News Channel 8 reported this:

"There were enough seen in samples to raise a concern," said Stephen Pratt of the MDC.

They are the size of a pin head; the black specks that look like tad poles have made it past the water filters at the MDC. And now the MDC is asking ten communities from Hartford to Portland to boil their water for one minute before they drink it.

"They are free, living multi-cellular organisms and are usually found in raw water sources, occasionally they are found post-filtration," said Pratt.

MDC said after reporting their findings, the state health department issued the boil advisory. It's because of what they are calling copepods and rotifers that have been found in the water. The health department said while there are no known health risks to humans, they are asking people to boil the water as a precaution.

"We are not sure at 100 percent so there for we are taking the extra precaution, to make sure there is no health risk associated with this, even though we have been assured by the CDC," said Pratt.

Updated information can be found on the District's website . If you have any questions, please call the Metropolitan District at 278-7850 extension 3600.

No health risk?
Sure - why just this morning I thought to myself - Gosh, I'd love to drink a long tall glass of copopods and rotifers.

Yuck.
Well, there's always beer.



(apologies for the ad - WHTALK does not endorse any particular advertiser supplied on WTNH video content)

$123.3 Million School Budget Approved By West Hartford BOE

The West Hartford Board of Education approved a 2009-10 budget Tuesday night that does not increase spending and avoids the major program cuts. They were told by the Mayor that they would not be getting any more money than they did in last year's budget, so out came the red pencils to pare down spending.

It's amazing the savings that can be found under duress. It took a tough budget year and a very weak economy to force the West Hartford School Board and Superintendent to come up with a budget that is actually less than the prior year. They cut some positions and found some savings in various places. Administrators also agreed to some wage freezes in order to save jobs (welcome to the real world).

All in all this could be a fine result, however, it's amazing how our school administration always seems to find an extra million or two laying around somewhere, sort of like that"googly eyed stack of money" in the GEICO commercials. It makes one wonder what other funds they are keeping on reserve and how much better they can do in terms of managing their budget.

The Courant had this to say:

The $123.3 million plan is actually $3,817 less than the current budget, and it appears to make West Hartford the first among the area's suburban school boards to reach a zero increase this year.

"A painful process," Superintendent David P. Sklarz called the reduction of nearly 21 full-time positions and 20 part-time custodians.

The full-time cuts represent 12 paraprofessionals, three security staffers, two maintenance workers and about four central office positions, including a parent liaison who works directly with Latino families acclimating to the school system.
..snip..
There were no cuts in Quest, the gifted education program. K-5 Spanish language instruction will remain. Physical education in grades 4 and 5 will not be reduced from 90 minutes to an hour per week, and middle school interscholastic track and cross country were not eliminated to save $33,000, as originally proposed.

Needing to cut $3.5 million, the board instead eliminated the after-school program at Charter Oak and Smith, the two elementary schools with the largest number of minority students. The program, a step toward closing the achievement gap, cost $68,550.

Bigger savings included a combined $1.3 million in lower utility and insurance costs. Also, the union representing school administrators agreed to a wage freeze next year in an effort that saved about three supervisor positions, Sklarz said.

But two "lucky breaks," as Democrat Clare Kindall put it, factored hugely, too. The school system expects to have a $1.1 million surplus this year, in part because of penalties that First Student Inc., its contracted bus company, incurred for not having working video cameras in school buses. Half of the surplus will pre-fund energy costs in 2009-10, the other half in 2010-11.

Second, $1 million in federal stimulus money will be used to fund an increase in special education costs. The problem, board members said, is that come 2011-12, about $2 million worth of energy and special education expenses will reappear in the budget.

The plan now goes to the town council, which is expected to adopt a municipal budget at a meeting Thursday in town hall, starting at 8 p.m.

It is interesting to note that East Granby just voted down their town budget which increased taxes by 1.1% . Their beef was that their 14 top school administrators alone make about $1.5 million, including benefits. They want to see some of that spending dealt with. Cutting programs in favor of allowing continued administration salary increases, really is not sitting well with taxpayers and the families of the children attending schools. Now the town is looking for give backs by school personnel to bring down their tax increase. While it is clear that West Hartford is not East Granby, and it is nice to see that our administrators accepted a wage freeze, what is worth noting is the sentiment of taxpayers regarding tax increases and employee compensation. East Granby also said this:

"There were no salary or benefit concessions offered by these administrators, including non-union, during budget discussions. No concessions were made by any union, including the teacher's union, despite the threat of staff reductions. "

Sound a little familiar? Our West Hartford teachers union wouldn't give an inch - no matter what. Thanks to our administrators and their union who accepted a wage freeze to help preserve programs in our town like Quest and Phys Ed. They are to be commended for being helpful to our town and sensitive to the financial burdens that we all face. Perhaps they can teach something to the teachers union.

As for the $2 million worth of energy and special education expenses that they say will reappear in the budget next year ... looks like they better start thinking now about what will have to be cut to make up for that.

In the meantime wouldn't it be nice if they can just find another stack of that googly-eyed money somewhere.

West Hartford Pot Hole Users Guide

As a public service, portions of a Pot Hole FAQ have been reprinted (with additions) for those traversing the streets of West Hartford:

What makes a pothole?
Potholes are created when moisture seeps into the pavement, freezes, expands and then thaws. This weakens the pavement. Traffic loosens it even more, and it eventually the pavement crumbles and pops out.

Some people will be blaming new de-icing materials that were used this past winter on our roadways. Who knows, it might even be all those heavy West Hartford SUV's and the increased traffic flow that was not meant for our roadways.

The Courant reports:

Most town roads were built when traffic volume was about 20,000 vehicles daily. Now, some roads have volumes of 60,000 vehicles a day, including many heavy trucks.

Then again, it could be an evil plot from the Town to use as an excuse for higher taxation, after all we cannot be made to choose between good schools and intact road surfaces. There's speculation that repair shops in town also have a hand in it since they want to do all those front end alignments.


Why do so many potholes occur in the spring?
Spring temperatures warm the cold pavement, melting and evaporating any ice. This creates air pockets that can eventually cause the pavement to break up. A winter of heavy snow or rain and several freeze-thaw cycles can mean a big pothole season ahead.

It's also budget season, and a good reason to try to claim more tax dollars for repair work, then again, stimulus money should be available for these "shovel ready" projects.


Who can I call to report a pothole?
If the pothole is on a city street, call the local department of public works or city hall.

Public Works - 17 Brixton Street, West Hartford, CT 06110
Office Hours: 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Telephone: (860) 561-8100 FAX: (860) 561-8141

Don't call the Mayor - he has enough other things to think about.


Once I report a pothole, how long does it take to get it fixed?

"Crews will repair the center cracks later this spring after the worst of the potholes are filled.

[Mr.] Hallenbeck estimates public works has gotten hundreds of pothole complaints this spring from residents. In addition to responding to those sites, the town road crew routinely stops and fills potholes they spot as they travel in town."

From the Town Public Works webpage:

Town streets are repaired as needed to maintain safe conditions for vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

Approximately 45% of the streets in town include curbing comprised of granite, concrete, or bituminous concrete materials. Where curbing exists along town streets, repairs are made as needed to maintain safe conditions.

The Public Works Department does have crews out filling potholes, weather permitting.

When weather is not permitting who knows what the crews are doing.


How are potholes repaired?
The pothole is carved out with a jackhammer or masonry saw to create a neat rectangle. When the excess asphalt is removed, an adhesive is applied and asphalt is added in layers. It is leveled off and compacted with a pavement roller.

Well, that's how they are supposed to be fixed.

Are there different kinds of repairs?
During cold weather, temporary repairs are made with cold patch asphalt, because the weather is too chilly to use hot asphalt. Hot asphalt is used for permanent repairs during warmer weather.

Of course most people don't care; they just want the nuisance things fixed.

Do some roads have more potholes than others?
Roads with high traffic volumes have more potholes due to amount of use. Bridges and ramps, which receive heavy doses of snow removal chemicals in the winter, are more prone to potholes.

Chances are the road you travel most has the most pot holes.

Can anything be done to prevent potholes?
Roads today are built to reduce their moisture capacity, and researchers are working to develop a better, more durable pavement. Researchers also have improved the cold-patch asphalt so those patches last longer.

Another good remedy is don't drive.


This has been a public service announcement.

TOWH Holiday Wishes

Wishing TOWH's Jewish visitors a very Happy Passover, and to TOWH's Christian friends a very Happy Easter.

May this holiday season be one of family togetherness, peace and joy for you and yours.

For those not celebrating this week, best wishes to you as well.

West Hartford Small Town Government: Inspiration Or Not?

The Courant's Roger Catlin wrote an article about West Hartford's Michael Schur who co-wrote and co-produces the new NBC comedy entitled Parks and Recreation, which is supposedly a parody of Small-Town Government and possibly modeled after our own West Hartford.

Why not? there's enough comedy in our Town Hall, and the projects they embark upon, to last a writer's lifetime. I mean, have you been to a town meeting lately? Some times the Town Council and Board of Education meetings become "Must see TV". We also have an interesting cast of characters.

The Courant reports:

"The front row is mostly old people and weirdos," the script for its pilot says of a public hearing. "The old people stare impassively like cows."

One of the speakers at the hearing is described as "a 50-ish weirdo ... very animated and inexplicably super sarcastic" who says things like: "The head of the police is a ninth-degree Mason," and "One day there was a fire. That's what killed my snake."

Truth be told, you can probably find that in most town's public hearings across the country. West Hartford actually has no age limit on weirdos. We've seen them younger than 50.

Michael Schur grew up in West Hartford, graduated from Hall High School and began his TV comedy career doing short shows at West Hartford Community TV, which is headquartered at West Hartford Town Hall.
-snip-
The setting is a fictional Indiana town called Pawnee City. But a cursory viewing of the well-meaning but occasionally unintentionally amusing fare on West Hartford Community TV indicates at least an inspiration there.

Have you seen some of the shows on WHC-TV? Some are very strange - and others are really pretty entertaining and informational. All in all they do a really great job over there, and it's good to see they may have helped launch Schur's career.

"I don't think that the show is about politics as much as it is about government," Schur said at the session. "It's like we're not grinding any kind of ax or anything. It's really about a small project on a very local level.

Well, small town projects can be pretty amusing. We've seen our share of drama, conflict, emotion and humor come out of everything from building a new school to constructing Blue Back Square. Remember when Councilman Art Spada said no one would be dishonest enough to park in the town garages and then run into the library to check out a book just to park for free? Now that was humor at it's best. Or how about the time when Richard Heapes said there was going to be an Arts Cinema (with no alcohol served) at Blue Back Square and we ended up with an overpriced run of the mill movie theater which is seeking a liquor permit. Heapes is probably still laughing over that one. Then of course there was Councilman Joe Visconti riding through West Hartford Center on a horse.

"We're not doing it as a big satire of past events," he went on. "It's more just trying to look at how a single government works or public-works project happens at one town in America."
Televised city council hearings are part of the inspiration, said Greg Daniels.
"It's that kind of world, and you know how dry those can be," Daniels said. "We intend to populate it with fun personalities and the inevitable conflicts that occur in any kind of decision-making at a local level."
But when I finally tracked Schur down, he assured me that no, "Parks and Recreation" is not actually about his home town.
In fact, he said with a laugh about his West Hartford days, "I never paid any attention to local government growing up. You know it exists, but nobody thinks about it."
Pawnee City, Ind., is meant to be any town, though some towns in Indiana are claiming they were the inspiration because they were visited by producers for research. But Schur said he and Daniels did their initial research by attending town-council meetings in Claremont and other California towns.

Well, even if it isn't really meant to be West Hartford, we'll just have to watch the show and see if we can identify parallel local personalities with Pawnee City counterparts. There are bound to be some. Afterall, the show features characters such as:

Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari, "Human Giant," "Scrubs"), who cheerfully exploits his government position for personal gain [and] Ron Swanson, who is philosophically opposed to government in any form.

[Then there is the] charismatic city planner Mark Brendanawicz, whose outlook has been soured by 15 years of public service.

Do you know any people like that?

NBC also says this of the show:

The documentary cameras follow Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler, NBC's "Saturday Night Live," "Baby Mama") a mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks and Recreation Department of Pawnee, Indiana. In an attempt to beautify her town -- and advance her career -- Leslie takes on what should be a fairly simple project: help local nurse Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones, NBC's "The Office," "Unhitched") turn an abandoned construction pit into a community park. Opposing them are defensive bureaucrats, selfish neighbors, real estate developers, and single-issue fanatics -- whose weapons are lawsuits, the jumble of city codes, and the very democratic process that Leslie loves so much.

Gosh if that doesn't sound like a scaled down version of the Blue Back Square project, then honestly what is?

The show could prove to be quite a hoot for us all in West Hartford, but be careful, you might also find yourself as one of the players in the cast.

West Hartford Town Budget Hearing Recap

The Board of Education and Town Council hosted the second of two budget hearings last night. It can be seen on West Hartford Cable TV's website on demand.

TOWH watched the proceedings and hopes to present you with a helpful recap.

It was not the usual public hearing format as the first public hearing was. This public hearing was presented in a very different format in that there was dialogue allowed and a microphone handed around for comment. There was a presentation in the beginning by the Mayor and the BOE Chairman and then the Town Manager.

It was revealed that the bargaining units in town have all come to the table and have offered some concessions - although it was not made clear what those were entirely, other than relinquishing wage increases for this coming year. That was a welcome announcement by the Town Manager.

The public comment opened with a concise presentation by resident Robert Sisk who spoke about the problem of benefits expenses and the need to make some significant changes to that.

Boris Kantor talked about the decline of school scores and rankings in conjunction with raising school expenses and taxes. He offered to share his research finding with the BOE. He doesn't believe that the declining quality of education can be fixed by just throwing more money at it.

After chastising BOE Chair Terry Schmitt for misrepresenting recent events (and even called him dishonorable), West Hartford Educators Association leader Dave Dippolino claimed that he, and not the State Union (CEA) made the meeting negotiation decisions and although the teachers union representatives skipped the meeting (due to Dippolino's health) they were supposed to have with the Town last Friday, they claim that they will be picking up negotiations this coming Monday. He claimed that his union offered $600,000 of cost saving measures including health insurance savings, and heard nothing back from the town. He said the WHEA is supporting the superintendents budget. Terry Schmitt said he would meet anywhere, anytime, and any place to reach some solutions.

There was actually much discussion about the education budget and teachers salaries and Open Choice students. Schmitt said that if every bargaining unit gave concessions, then every single job could be saved and they could come in with a zero increase education budget. Minority leader Leon Davidoff said the town is looking for wage freezes from everyone, for one year, in order to save services and help bridge the deficits the town is facing.

There was a recognition of federal stimulus money available to the town but nothing immediately, and much of it has lots of strings attached and targeted to specific programs not to be used to offset general fund expenditures.

The Taxpayers Association members were there, and Ms. Aron spoke about the amount of union dues paid to WHEA, $80 a month per teacher, and suggested that instead of opening up contracts that the withheld union dues paid to the union by the Town be used to offset possible layoffs to save jobs and services since the total paid into the WHEA union is $677,000 a year. The amount of all union dues for all bargaining units is over a million dollars withheld from salaries and collected by the town and paid to the union. Terry Schmitt then defended the WHEA and a speechless Dave Dippolino responded by saying that the education budget increases every year and always has. He attacked WHTA members by claiming they had lots of money and live in million dollar homes. The Mayor and Terry Schmitt quickly moved to diffuse a possible verbal scuffle.

Moving right along.

People also spoke about value of education, changes in education and not wanting to cut certain services. WHTA president George Kennedy said that adding money to the budget and raising taxes is not the solution to better education performance. Mr. Kennedy also mentioned that WHEA head, Dave Dippolino, had visited a WHTA meeting last yearsayinghe was a teacher in town, and admitted at that meeting that there was a lot of waste in the school budget. Mr. Dippolino did not dispute that at the hearing and said that was true; there is waste in the system. Kennedy suggested that we need more business people on the Town Council and Board of Education and that he is calling for a due diligence audit on the Education budget. He wants to eliminate tenure and reform binding arbitration and reminded everyone about how our test scores and rankings have dropped despite how much more money we seem to spend. The Mayor blamed the declines on changes in demographics and that our teachers face bigger education challenges.

Tom Devine asked - why should teachers give concessions of no salary increases for a promise of no layoffs and giving up what they just negotiated for when WHTA could force a referendum and possibly be looking for even more cuts which might result in the loss of jobs anyway? Terry Schmitt said it would be foolish for concessions to be yanked away by a referendum and he then talked about possible teacher concessions with a "poison pill" clause which would say that if a referendum on the budget came about then all bets on those concessions would be off. Schmitt said that he doesn't want to jeopardize teacher salaries "for nothing", and that if a "zero increased education spending budget" wasn't enough for the WHTA, then the teachers current negotiated contract should remain in place, otherwise the teachers should make the concessions to save their jobs and produce "no increase spending in the budget".

John Hardy was looking for some cuts based on a document that he produced with many suggestions after going through the education budget line by line and seeking efficiencies.

Councilman Tim Brennan spoke about the energy savings initiatives of the town.

Other speakers called for working together and being open to some new ideas and also talked about demographic and comparative issues. John Joyce spoke about some suggestions. One interesting idea was to have one sports team between Hall and Conard for each gender for each sport, as well as early graduation of students in high school.

Councilman Joe Visconti offered this factoid: 375 children are absent every day from West Hartford schools which is the equivalent to an elementary school a day. Unfilled classrooms and buses certainly cost us.

Seems as if there were some interesting comments and ideas floated and things for the Town to consider between now and April 23rd when they vote on the budget. Hopefully some further reasonable reductions canbe made, and workable agreements can be reached between the bargaining units, the town and the taxpayers.

One thing is for certain: we have a great town filled with people who care and a Town management willing to work to bring everyone together to solve our fiscal problems.