The Board of Ed voted with 4 members absent to give the Superintendent a 3.5% raise. Ram Aberasturia was the only Board member to vote against the measure saying that a 2.75% raise was more in line with what the Teachers received. The Board didn’t extend her contract but will consider that at a later date.
She now earns more than $150,000.
Boy, I sure hope that the test scores improve dramatically and that she proves herself worth this salary.
Everyone already knows that the proposed zoning changes for Prestige Park and North Meadows failed at the TPZ meeting. Personally, I believe this to be a good thing for the Town. Not because we don’t allow new adult entertainment business in town but because of the locations. Just too many residents would be affected. Hats off to Commissioners Ryan, Roczynski, Grottole and Salemi who voted in favor of denying the application. I wonder just where the heads of Commissioners Kayser, Carey and Fitzgerald were. I suppose they might have been looking for an easy way out. Well there is no easy way out of this situation. And what the Town faces; a renewed lawsuit by Chu, a continued lawsuit by Pitkin St Entertainment and the possibility of an additional suit by Chu seems to loom large.
The new proposed permit restrictions were reviewed by the ordinance committee and still need to be worked on. That will continue to be a work in progress.
So stay tuned, I am sure that there will be plenty of news coming soon.
The item below is listed on the TPZ agenda for Wednesday evening. This is not a public hearing item and I don’t think residents will be allowed to speak, however, it may put some pressure on the commission if the residents show up!
TEXT AMENDMENT APPLICATION: Establishment of two new zones to be known as Sections 504 Industrial III-A (I-3A) & 407 Business III-A (B-3A) to allow adult-oriented establishments as a permitted use with minimum requirements and the modification of the existing Section 503 Industrial III (I-3) zone to eliminate adult-oriented establishments as a special permit use and adding adult-oriented establishments as a prohibited use.
Applicant: Town of East Hartford Planning and Zoning Commission
(Action Postponed from April 30, 2008)
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It looks like the August 12th primary for the 9th District Representative seat will be interesting.
Republicans vying for the win are: Brenner, Crockett & Thompson.
Democrats Rojas and Hachey will face off.
In the 10th District - still no opponent for Genga.
Genga’s website is: www.henrygenga.org
In the 11th District - still no opponent for Larson.
Larson launches website here: http://larsonforstate08.com/
During last night’s Council meeting, Jim Kate, the recycling coordinator for the Town, discussed the currect status of our recycling efforts. Jim says the rates are increasing and that may be true since the number of items you can recycle is greater than it has been in years past - so the rates should increase.
The Town gets paid $10/ton for recycled materials said the Mayor, while we pay $72/ton for garbage; all handled by CRRA. Just how much the Town receives would be an interesting number to see, chart and make public. Maybe this would serve as a catalyst in increasing the public awareness and recycling activities - attach a dollar value to it.
My family over-stuffs the orange bin every week and I was glad to hear that there are new deeper bins available at Ecology Drive for $4. I shall go pick one up soon.
Recycling enforcement is limited to Jim’s dedication of traveling the Town looking in green cans for recycling items in the absence of orange bins. He leaves a warning notice or chats with the homeowner. He’s got a rough job in hot and cold months…think about it! Jim makes himself available to come talk to groups about recycling.
Single-Stream recycling was discussed - these are the new large bins that take everything and don’t need to be sorted at the curb. Hartford trialed the program. It has a huge success and we cannot have it - why? It costs too much right now, about $1 million. I am not sure when we could have such a luxury!!!
Grass clipping disposal was discussed as another huge problem and could be resolved, again, with potentially significant cost.
Nothing was mentioned about the possibility of fining those “repeat” offenders.
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The JI is reporting that the Town has hired West Hartford’s retired police dept employee, Marc G. Bassos, to be the Youth Task Force Coordinator. Good Luck and I hope you can wave your magic wand without the mega bucks that support West Hartford.
On the Town Council agenda for the 17th’s meeting, under new business is the following:
Board of Education: Appropriation from Fund Balance for Early Reading Success Program
I hope this means that the Town found the $700,000 from State sources and isn’t tapping our “rainy day” fund.
The sign is up at the former Ames store: Opening Soon, Petsmart.
Campaign news from Jason
Please join the Jason Rojas for State Representative campaign Saturday June 7th at 9:30am at the Glastonbury Democratic Town Committee Headquarters located at 2341 Main Street , Glastonbury 06033 .
The campaign has gained great momentum since being endorsed at the May 20th convention and we are preparing for an exciting and hard working election cycle. Please join us for our meeting as we plan out our winning strategy to move a Democratic agenda forward for the residents of the Ninth Assembly District.
Please call 895-8374 for details.
I thought you all would like to know that you can check the States Election Enforcement Commission list to see if your candidate of choice for the November 2008 elections have registered a campaign. This list is updated weekly.
Here is the link: http://www.ct.gov/seec/lib/seec/can08.pdf
Last night the Democrats chose their nominees for the 9th & 11th Assembly Districts.
Jason Rojas was selected for the 9th and former Mayor, Tim Larsen was selected for the 11th.
Jason may in fact face a primary challenge from Joseph Hachey.
Tim Larsen is currently not being challenged.
As you know the incumbents (Stone & Christ) for Assembly Districts 9 & 11 are not seeking reelection and that leaves the field wide open. There has been some speculation as to who would run and this morning according to the Courant, we have some answers.
Tonight is the Republican convention for the 9th district where at least three candidates from Manchester hope to gain the nomination. They are: Cliff Thompson, Michael Crockett and Dennis Brenner. This coming Tuesday the Democrats will hold their convention and the hopefuls are: Joseph Hachey and Jason Rojas.
The 11th district has only one candidate so far: former East Hartford Mayor, Tim Larsen (D).