Transportation officials hear public on return of tolls

Published: Thursday, April 30, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NEW HAVEN — With the state’s budget crisis looming, officials from the Transportation Safety Board met Wednesday to hear public comment on the possibility of reintroducing tolls on Connecticut’s highways.

Last year, the board commissioned a study on electronic tolls and congestion pricing. The report outlined nine options for tolls, including creating highway express lanes that would be tolled, charging only trucks on certain roads or installing tolls at the state’s borders.

Philip Smith, under-secretary for the Office of Transportation Policy, said Wednesday that neither the consultants nor the board have made any recommendations about the concept.

“This is in the very earliest stages of understanding what this is all about and what the application in Connecticut might be,” Smith said.

He added that there could be two possible reasons for installing tolls: collecting revenue and reducing congestion.

The hearing held at Gateway Community College attracted about 20 people, and most of those who spoke opposed reinstalling tolls.

Some of Connecticut’s highways had tolls until the 1980s, when they were removed. Several speakers Wednesday, in explaining their opposition to the tolls, referenced the 1983 crash at the Stratford toll plaza in which seven people died.

“I think for you to put my life and property in jeopardy just so you can collect tolls is one of the most grievous forms of taxation that there is,” Forrest Anderson, of East Haddam, said. “People do slow down at tolls; they idle at tolls. Tolls also cause people to change lanes.”

Smith said the tolls under consideration would be charged electronically, so that they would not require booths and barriers across the roads.

“I fully understand the emotions from 20 years ago with the incident in Stratford — I live there, too — but that’s not what we’re proposing,” he said.

Bob Manzella, of West Haven, said he would rather see an increase in the gas tax than the reintroduction of tolls.

“The state of Connecticut seems to have a never-ending appetite for my money and everybody else’s money,” he said. “Let’s let everyone in the state share in this debt, so if you want to get it from the cars, put it in the gas tax.”

Irving Stern, a Madison resident, said he would also prefer raising the revenue in another way. Stern said he thought adding tolls would exacerbate rather than improve traffic problems.

“I don’t see the need for creating the entire infrastructure within the transportation department that was probably done away with 20 years ago,” Stern said. “If you need the money, fine, send me the bill. ... I think the most expedient way to get the money is to add the tax to current bills.”

But Brian Walters, of Danbury, said he was “100 percent” in favor of tolls.

“Living in Danbury and commuting to Waterbury six days a week, I see that every other car is out of state and it’s especially the tractor-trailer drivers I think you need to go after, because they don’t stop in Connecticut to get the fuel so they’re not paying the fuel tax,” he said. “I’m concerned about safety just like everybody else ... but the technology is out there for E-Z Pass to get through there.”

Smith noted that the various options could have an effect on other forms of transportation in the state.

“Everything we propose has a domino effect, so there is no silver bullet in anything that has been proposed,” he said. “If we’re going to do something, it’s going to take bold courage and leadership and political will.”

Another public hearing is scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. May 5 at the University of Connecticut Waterbury campus, and officials said that an additional hearing will likely be set for mid-May in Norwalk.

For more information on the report on tolls, visit www.ct.gov/opm and click on “Transportation Strategy Board.”

Guilford board trims budget

Published: Wednesday, April 29, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — The Board of Finance voted unanimously Monday night to reduce the town’s proposed 2009-10 budget by $1.6 million, after a $77.12 million request failed at referendum last week.

The new budget cuts $1.18 million from the Board of Education’s budget request and $429,000 from the town’s funding, Board of Finance Chairman Matthew Hoey said.

The total roughly equals the amounts of contractual salary increases for town employees for the coming fiscal year. Officials from both the school district and the Board of Selectmen have said they are in discussions with employees about concessions that could include a wage freeze.

The new budget proposal of $75.51 million includes a projected 4.44 percent increase in the tax rate. The previous proposal would have raised taxes by about 6.9 percent.

Hoey said that it will be up to the Board of Education and Board of Selectmen to determine where the cuts will come from in their budgets.

“It depends on what the unions negotiate,” he said of the possible concessions. “(It will be) either that or the Board of Education and the Board of Selectmen need to come up with cuts somewhere to equal that amount.”

He added that the original budget requests were fairly “skinny.” The town’s original proposal of $27.28 million represented a zero-percent increase over the 2008-09 budget, while the school district’s budget would have risen 3.46 percent from the current level of funding.

“This was not an easy decision for the board to come to and we are cognizant of the sacrifices that need to be made in order to keep services intact,” Hoey said.

The budget failed by a vote of 2,727 to 2,262.

Board of Education Chairman William Bloss said that the board is looking at all areas of the proposed budget to meet the Board of Finance’s cuts. The school district is in ongoing discussions with the unions about contract negotiations, he said.

“We are continuing to explore every lawful and reasonable alternative,” Bloss said. “The practical difficulty that we face is that many of our (budget) items are immune from being cut by law, such as special ed, or by the fact that we need to keep buildings open, such as utilities and heat, ... so the areas where cuts can be made are not limitless.”

Bloss said the board is hoping to make specific recommendations before the next budget referendum.

The town has not yet set a date for a second town meeting and referendum. The Board of Selectmen is scheduled to hold a special meeting Thursday morning to discuss the budget and set a date for a town meeting.

Guilford to look at budget again

Published: Thursday, April 23, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — The Board of Finance has scheduled a meeting for Monday to discuss the town budget after voters rejected a $77.12 million 2009-10 proposal at referendum this week.

Officials also announced Wednesday that the town will return to using five polling locations, after all voting took place at Fire Headquarters for the past two referendums.

The Board of Finance did not make any changes to the Board of Selectmen’s and Board of Education’s recommended budgets last month before sending the proposals to town meeting and referendum. With the budget failing by a vote of 2,727 to 2,262 Tuesday, the package will return to the finance board, which will make changes before sending the budget back to voters.

The proposed budget would have increased the tax rate by nearly 7 percent, to $20.51 per $1,000 of assessed value from the current rate of $19.19 per $1,000. The town had put forward a $27.28 million budget, while the school district’s portion accounted for $49.84 million.

The $77.12 million budget represented a 2.2 percent increase overall from the 2008-09 fiscal year, which ends June 30. Last year, voters approved a $75.5 million budget with a 5.72 percent rise from the 2007-08 budget.

Voter turnout nearly doubled this year, with 31 percent of voters participating, up from 17 percent in 2008.

In a press release Wednesday, First Selectman Carl Balestracci said that voting in future referenda will take place at all five polling locations, which were last used in the November presidential election. The move is in response to the high turnout, Balestracci said in the statement.

An election at the central polling location costs between $5,000 and $6,000, while one at all of the locations costs about $11,000 total, according to the Registrar of Voters’ office.

Balestracci said Tuesday night that he has been in discussions with the town unions about concessions, possibly including a wage freeze for the coming fiscal year. Balestracci said a wage freeze would save about $450,000 for the town and $1.2 million for the Board of Education.

Superintendent of Schools Thomas Forcella said the Board of Education has also had talks with the teachers’ union about concessions.

“I’m sure those conversations will continue now that there’s been this negative vote,” he said.

But Forcella added that he thinks layoffs are likely following the budget rejection. The nearly 3.5 percent increase over the current fiscal year in the school district’s proposed budget was made up of negotiated salary increases and special education tuition, Forcella said.

Selectwoman Cynthia Cartier said she hoped that the town could work with employees to avoid layoffs. She added that she had voted “with reservations” for the budget when the Board of Selectmen sent it to the Board of Finance, and she was not surprised that it failed.

“The 7 percent (projected increase in the tax rate) was just too much right now. It was too much to bear for people in our community losing their jobs,” Cartier said. “The other thing was the fact that people are concerned with 7 percent this year, what’s going to happen next year — 10, 15 percent?”

Resident Doug Newman said he voted against the budget because he felt the tax increase was “too much to ask the taxpayers to swallow in this economic climate.”

Marian Breeze, a resident who made phone calls and put up fliers in favor of passing the budget, said that she was disappointed with the results but understood voters’ concerns. She noted that voters approved $2.55 million in school improvements through bonding resolutions, while rejecting an appropriation of $810,000 for new fire and public works trucks.

Guilford says no to $77.1M budget

Published: Wednesday, April 22, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King Register Staff

GUILFORD — Voters rejected the town’s proposed $77.12 million budget for fiscal year 2009-10 at the annual budget referendum Tuesday.

The budget failed by a vote of 2,727 to 2,262. A bonding resolution to spend $810,000 on a new truck each for the Fire and Public Works departments also failed, with 2,603 people voting against the appropriation and 2,365 voting in favor.

But voters approved two bonding items related to school improvements. A resolution to spend $1.55 million repairing the roofs at Guilford Lakes School and Calvin Leete School passed by 3,074 to 1,923 votes, while an appropriation of $998,750 for health and safety improvements at Elisabeth C. Adams Middle School passed by a vote of 2,883 to 1,656.

Board of Finance member James O’Keefe said that the budget will now return to the board, where it would likely face cuts. There would then be another town meeting before a second referendum.

The proposed budget would have increased the tax rate by nearly 7 percent. The $27.28 million town budget represented a zero percent increase over the 2008-09 budget, while the Board of Education’s $49.84 million request included a roughly 3.5 rise from the current package.

First Selectman Carl Balestracci said that he plans to continue talks on concessions with town unions. Balestracci said that he has been discussing a wage freeze for the coming year with town employees, which not all the unions have agreed to accept.

Balestracci said a wage freeze would save $450,000 on the town side and $1.2 million in the Board of Education’s budget.

“Given the reduced revenues and the negligible increase in the grand list, this is the kind of situation that we’re faced with and we need to consider,” he said. “I think it’s important (to discuss a wage freeze) at this point because I do not want to be faced with a situation where we’re cutting staff or we’re cutting programs.”

Board of Education Chairman William Bloss said the board will likely call a special meeting to discuss the budget. He added, layoffs could be part of the discussion.

“I would say that everything is on the table,” Bloss said.

But he added that he was gratified the two bonding resolutions related to the school passed.

“We’ve tried to be as careful as we can be about the buildings and the fact is, these buildings are going to continue to be used as schools indefinitely and we just have to continue to put money into them to keep them up,” he said. “We’ve cut corners for too long,” he said.

The budget last failed at referendum in 2003, when voters rejected it twice before approving it, according to the town clerk’s office.

Lake Quonnipaug dredging estimated at $3.3M

Published: Tuesday, April 21, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King Register Staff

GUILFORD — Dredging the southern portion of Lake Quonnipaug and removing plants that are choking the bottom would cost more than $3 million, according to the results of a recent study.

Town Engineer James Portley told the Board of Selectmen Monday that there does not appear to be a market for selling the dredged material, which could have offset some of the cost.

Officials had hoped that the lake would provide gravel, but Portley said the material on the lake bottom is not of high enough quality to be sold.

The narrow southern 2,000 feet of the lake is getting clogged with decaying plants, Portley said. Because the lake is not very deep at that spot, plants can grow on the bottom.

The 111-acre Lake Quonnipaug is a popular recreation site in north Guilford. It has a town beach and state boat launch.

The “dry dredging” project would require building a dam and draining part of the lake. The study, done by Branford engineer Donald Ballou, put the cost at $3.3 million, Portley said.

“It would be a tremendous project to enhance the recreational use of Lake Quonnipaug, but it would be a costly project,” Portley said.

Selectmen said Monday that the project will likely be shelved, given the economy, unless the town can get funds.

“It’s a very thorough report,” First Selectman Carl Balestracci said. “It’s going to take a real plan, and hopefully some state grants if we’re ever going to do this.”

Selectman Joseph Mazza added: “And in the meantime, unfortunately, the lake keeps filling in.”

Balestracci said the town will schedule a meeting to discuss the results of the study with residents.

Portley said that the southern part of the lake may become unusable for water recreation because of the plant growth.

“At some point, the vegetation takes over and you can’t use the last 2,000 feet (of the lake),” he said.

The study has been in the works for more than two years and was financed by a $75,000 state grant after a local group, Friends of Lake Quonnipaug, asked Guilford’s state legislators for help studying the problem.

Portley said that the study included three components: the hydrology of the southern end of the lake, cost and feasibility, and a survey of the natural resources.

The project could become more economically viable in the future, officials said.

“In time, if the market ever changed (or) if there’s something that needs a large volume of (fill) material, then this could come off the shelf,” Portley said.

The town has not scheduled the public meeting on the topic, but selectmen said it will most likely be held in north Guilford.

Sun brings out the best in cherry blossom fest

Published: Monday, April 20, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King Register Staff

NEW HAVEN — The blossoms were in full bloom, and the party was in full swing Sunday at the 36th annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Wooster Square.

The combination of warm weather and bright sunshine Saturday helped nudge along the flowers, which only a few days ago had yet to emerge. Ro Conforti, a board member of the Historic Wooster Square Association and festival chairwoman, said she was optimistic about the timing.

“I always expect the blossoms to be out — I am the ultimate optimist — so yesterday, when they popped, I said, ‘Great!’ I would say the good warm feelings of the neighbors helped them come out.”

The festival, which the Historic Wooster Square Association ran for the second year, attracted hundreds of people enjoying food, music and sunny spring weather.

Conforti said that the event offered more attractions this year, with three bands instead of the usual one, and new food vendors. The Neighborhood Music Schools Premier Jazz Ensemble, St. Luke’s Steel Drum Band and swing band Tuxedo Junction performed.

“I am so delighted this year — it’s more people, more activities, more music and more sunshine than we’ve had any year in the past,” Conforti said.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, said that she has been attending the festival every year since she was a child. Her father was one of the original organizers, and her mother “would kill me” if she missed the event now, she said.

“It’s just deep in my heart and soul and what it represents, in this community there is a wealth, a love, a sense of tradition, a sense of faith ... that pervades Wooster Square,” DeLauro said. “It’s all part of what our heritage is about.”

She added: “Much like the roots of this tree, the roots of this community grow very deep.”

Wooster Square boasts 72 Yoshino cherry trees, which were planted in 1974. The community has celebrated the annual blooming with a festival every year since.

Saburo Yoshida, a first-year student at the Yale School of Management who lives in North Haven, said that it was his first year attending the festival. Yoshida brought his 9-year-old daughter, Kana, and invited friends to share platters of sushi.

The Wooster Square event was similar to, if smaller than, cherry blossom festivals he has attended in Japan, Yoshida said. Celebrating the arrival of the blossoms is a traditional spring activity in Japan.

Yoshida said he was pleasantly surprised to see that the trees had flowered.

“We came here three days ago and there were no flowers,” he said. “In Japan, this time of year, most of the flowers are blooming, so it’s pretty late here.”

He added that the festival seemed “really traditional,” with one key change: “We have alcohol (at the festivals) in Japan — I think that’s the only difference.”

Conforti, the organizer, said that the Wooster Square Association begins planning for next year’s festival as soon as the current one is over. The event will likely continue to grow, she said.

“We plan all year,” she said. “This is a celebration of spring and music and neighbors.”

Need for center’s services keeps growing

Published: Monday, April 20, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King Register Staff

GUILFORD — With the economy taking a toll on many people’s emotional and financial situations, staff at the Women and Family Life Center — a community mainstay since the early 1990s — said they are seeing an increase in need from many of the groups they serve.

At the same time, the center itself took a blow when the financial crisis hit many banks, which are primary supporters of the organization. But Executive Director Liza Petra said individual donors stepped up during the annual capital campaign, and the center will be able to cover its $250,000 yearly budget.

With just five part-time staff members, the Women and Family Life Center covers many bases in Guilford, from offering yoga and dance classes to educational talks and support groups for divorced people and victims of domestic violence.

Petra called the organization a “jack of all trades.”

“We have such a diverse offering of ways in which people can connect and find ways to make themselves feel better, that it actually provides an opportunity for anyone to come in and find ways to feel better in this time of stress,” she said.

To that end, the center provides resources at its headquarters in a house and barn on Fair Street, as well as referrals to other organizations in the Greater New Haven area. Petra said that most of the people who use the services are from Branford, Guilford and Madison, but the group regularly receives calls from all over the state.

Program Director Leslie Krumholz said that many people know Women and Family Life as a crisis center, but it provides many opportunities for education and counseling beyond those situations.

“I think that people who know Women and Family Life have thought that it’s only a crisis center, and that is what we do and it’s a big part of what we do, but we also do many other things,” she said.

Petra said that the center receives about 1 percent of its funding from the town of Guilford, and the rest through private donations from businesses and individuals. The group works closely with town services, including the Police Department and Youth and Family Services, especially in cases of domestic violence.

“By coming together and collaborating, we’ve been able to provide those services here,” Petra said.

The organization offers about seven ongoing support groups — including the divorce and domestic violence groups, as well as a men’s group and ones for parents of infants and toddlers — which average between six and eight participants each week, Petra said. Other groups and educational programs are regularly added based on interest from the community.

“We have the flexibility to do that, to respond to community needs pretty quickly, so if there’s an issue that seems to be a concern to a group of people and they want to get support for it or get information about it, it might be something they would consider coming to us (for),” Krumholz said.

Both women said that the center has seen an increase in use in about the past eight months, sometimes in surprising ways. While many people might not choose to attend a support group, they said, a weekly walking group that visits Guilford Land Trust trails has surpassed their expectations and currently has 30 people signed up.

“We’ve seen an increase, and we’re anticipating it continuing to grow steadily,” Petra said, noting that the growth has been in both the support groups and wellness programs. “I think that there is a sense of self-preservation and needing to take care of oneself.”

The center is now beginning its spring program schedule, including a partnership to offer author talks with RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison. For more information visit www.womenandfamilylifecenter.org, or call 458-6699.

Memorial fundraiser honors asthmatic daughter

Published: Saturday, April 18, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King Register Staff

GUILFORD — For Marlene DeSanto, her plans to honor her late daughter Tara with a day of yoga and education at the Mercy Center at Madison have been full of symbolism.

Tara, who died during an asthmatic attack two years ago, would have turned 50 Feb. 5. But because of the risk of inclement weather, DeSanto scheduled her fundraiser for April 25.

She is also hoping to have about 50 people participating in the event.

“If Tara was alive, her 50th birthday would have been quite a bash because she was exuberant, fun loving and she loved to have a full house,” DeSanto said.

DeSanto, a yoga teacher and Guilford resident, said the fundraiser will feature yoga techniques focused on breathing, since her daughter’s death was caused by a lung disease.

“Tara passed away suddenly — she had an asthmatic attack and died on the way to the hospital — so I am going to definitely emphasize the importance of breathing techniques (and) relaxation,” DeSanto said.

The day of events, which runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., will feature two yoga sessions as well as talks from Judson Brewer, director of the Yale Therapeutic Neuroscience Clinic, and Bernie Siegel, a New Haven doctor and author who writes on the mind-body connection.

A portion of the proceeds from the event will benefit the American Lung Association. The cost for the day of activities is $85.

DeSanto said she chose to have a yoga-based event in part because of the benefits she found in yoga following her daughter’s death.

“I would like people to see what you can do if you put your mind to it,” she said. “Yoga makes you resilient. A lot of people don’t realize the power they have within them.”

DeSanto said there are still openings for the event. For more information, call 453-5360.

Dye-stained cash leads to alleged bank robber

Published: Friday, April 17, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King Register Staff

NORTH BRANFORD — A man who robbed a Citizens Bank branch is in custody, police say, thanks in part to his attempt to launder the dye-stained cash at a North Haven carwash.

Jonathan Walker, 28, of North Branford, faces charges of first-degree robbery and third-degree larceny for his alleged involvement in the crime.

On March 25, Walker allegedly entered the Citizens Bank on Foxon Road and passed a teller a note indicating that he had a weapon and demanding cash. He then left on foot with an undisclosed amount of money, police said.

Surveillance cameras caught him as he left, showing a dye pack exploding on the money, but police were not able to track the man down by circulating his picture to local media, police departments, probation and parole officers and court clerks.

About a week after the robbery, the owner of the Buggy Car Wash in North Haven deposited at a local bank about $500 in $10 bills that were dyed orange and red, according to police. A North Haven police sergeant was in the bank at the time, and, remembering that there was a recent bank robbery in North Branford, contacted police there.

North Branford detectives then obtained security footage from the carwash that showed a woman and a man who fit the description of the bank robber changing $10 bills into coins using a coin machine. A video camera from a business across the road also captured the suspects’ car, a silver Hyundai Elantra hatchback from 2004 to 2006, but the license plate number was not visible.

Detectives Ronald Onofrio and Kenneth McNamara obtained a list of all the vehicles in Connecticut matching that description from the state Department of Motor Vehicles, but later the same day, April 8, Officer James Lovelace stopped a silver Hyundai Elantra on Route 80 in North Branford. The female driver of the car resembled the woman from the carwash, police said.

The next morning, police went to the woman’s address — about half a mile from the site of the bank robbery — and found her and Walker, both matching the people in the video footage taken from the car wash.

The suspects at first said they had found a bag of money on Sea Hill Road, but later admitted to participating in the robbery, according to police.

Walker was arrested on an outstanding warrant for violation of probation, and served with an arrest warrant for the bank robbery while being arraigned on the probation charge Thursday, police said. In 2007, he pleaded guilty to fourth-degree larceny, according to court records. He was being held in lieu of $350,000 bail and is due in court Monday, according to the court.

Police did not identify the woman allegedly involved, pending her arrest.

Police said they believe the money was spent on drugs. After changing $10 bills into coins at the car wash, the suspects allegedly took the coins to a Stop & Shop and changed them back into cash using a Coinstar machine, Police Chief Matthew Canelli said.

“They went from dollar bills to coins, from coins to dollar bills again,” he said.

Canelli called the investigation “the best police work I’ve seen in a good long time.”

“It’s 90 percent of great, great police work and 10 percent of luck,” he said. “The North Haven sergeant happened to be at the right place at the right time and broke it open for us.”

Change of rules toward Cuba welcome

Published: Wednesday, April 15, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King Register Staff

When Yale Law School student David Perez returned from an academic trip to Cuba last month, he did not know he might soon be able to visit the country as a tourist.

Perez, whose parents grew up in Cuba, said that he and five fellow students had a difficult time getting visas to travel to the Caribbean nation. But with President Barack Obama announcing plans to lift travel restrictions for people with relatives in Cuba, those difficulties could disappear for Cubans and Cuban-Americans.

The move is a “step in the right direction,” Perez said Tuesday. But he and other Connecticut advocates for improving the political and economic situation in Cuba said the administration has not gone far enough.

“This should be seen as a positive step — it’s great, but very limited,” said Perez, whose March trip was his first to Cuba. “It was a bone, but it doesn’t have that much meat on the bone yet.”

On Monday, Obama announced that his administration would lift restrictions on Cuban-Americans visiting and sending money to family members in Cuba. The president’s directive would also authorize American telecommunications providers to set up networks so that Cubans can communicate with people off the island.

In separate statements Monday, U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., and U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-3, expressed support for the changes.

Dodd, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and co-sponsor of the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act, called the move “an important first step towards opening people-to-people contact between the United States and Cuba” in his statement.

“I hope to see more positive changes in U.S. policy toward Cuba in the coming months, and encourage the Obama administration to soon lift the remaining travel and remittance restrictions on all Americans,” Dodd said in the statement. “For more than four decades, we have maintained an isolationist policy toward Cuba, sacrificing Americans’ freedom to travel and to trade. This approach has not only failed to achieve its stated objectives; by depriving the Cuban people of the benefit of interaction with the American people, it has inhibited a peaceful and democratic transition.”

Cuba and its 11 million residents have been off-limits to most American visitors for decades. The communist government has been cited by the United States for human rights violations.

President George W. Bush tightened restrictions, limiting frequency and length of visits for Cuban-Americans with relatives in Cuba.

In a statement detailing the changes to the travel policy, the White House Press Office said Obama believes easing the restrictions could help “foster the beginnings of grassroots democracy on the island” since Cuban-Americans could act as “ambassadors for freedom” while visiting relatives.

Tim Craine, a professor of mathematical sciences at Central Connecticut State University and a member of the Greater Hartford Coalition on Cuba, said Tuesday that his group supports extending travel rights to all Americans. Under the existing policies, he said, it has been more difficult for CCSU students to study in Cuba.

“Americans should be free to travel to Cuba, so we understand that the president has made a small step in that direction but it really needs to be extended to all Americans,” Craine said. “It’s a good thing he made that step, but we would hope that he would go farther.”

Craine said that he is also in favor of the United States easing its trade embargo on the country.

Perez said he hopes to travel to Cuba soon under the relaxed regulations. Using the information he gained on his trip, he wrote a policy recommendation for U.S.-Cuba relations that he has circulated to some U.S. State Department officials and hopes to publish. A key element of the proposal is allowing all Americans to travel to Cuba, he said.

“There’s no doubt in my mind I’m going to take advantage of this,” he said. “I think you’re going to see a lot of people taking advantage of this because we never know when (the restrictions) are going to go back.”

Area students take 1st, 2nd in poster contest

Published: Monday, April 13, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King

Students from two area high schools took top honors this month in Donate Life Connecticut’s annual poster design contest.

Rosanna Bernardo, of North Haven High School, and Kathleen Elliott, from Guilford High School, won first and second place, respectively, in the contest the organization sponsors as part of National Donate Life Month in April.

The month’s activities — which include events at colleges, high schools and medical facilities — are designed to raise awareness about organ and tissue donation, said Kari Mull, program coordinator for Donate Life Connecticut.

“April is just a time when we can really focus on pushing people to be educated about donation and the opportunities they have to give to another person who’s sick,” Mull said.

“It’s a month when we focus on donation awareness, discussing it with their families and making a decision for themselves that they can be happy with.”

One person’s organs and tissues can help 75 different people, Mull said.

In Connecticut, about 1,000 are waiting for transplants, while nationally that number is around 100,000.

Mull said the educational events are meant to help people decide whether to sign up to be organ and tissue donors.

The group will spend two days visiting Jonathan Law High School and Joseph Foran High School in Milford, among others.

“We’ve specifically focused on high school students because they’ll be getting their license and it’s state mandated at the DMVs that the employees ask everyone when they get their license if they want to be an organ donor,” Mull said.

“It’s an important decision so we do a lot of high school programming and we have an annul high school poster contest.”

Bernardo’s poster features a pink flower superimposed with colorful hearts and the slogan “Become an Organ and Tissue Donor and Help Another Life Bloom!”

The image will be featured on T-shirts and other promotional materials, Mull said.

State Rep. Deborah Heinrich, D-Madison, last week co-sponsored a kickoff event for Donate Life Month at the state Capitol during which the winners of the poster contest were announced.

Heinrich said she has been interested in the issue since graduate school, when she signed up for a bone marrow bank in support of a friend with diabetes.

“It’s so easy to do — all you have to do is check it off when you go get your license — so I’m very much interested in raising awareness for that,” she said.

“The most common reason that people are not organ donors is they just didn’t realize that all you had to do is check it off on your license.”

Mull said that the many of the posters from the contest will be on display in the cafeteria of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford throughout the rest of April.

For more information on National Donate Life Month and the events taking place in Connecticut, visit donatelifect.org.

Desperate times: Job seeker hopes creativity pays off

Published: Friday, April 10, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

After nearly a year of unemployment, Pasha Stocking was out of ideas for continuing her job search.

“I had tried everything,” said Stocking, who was laid off from her job in sales and marketing in June 2008. “I had been submitting tons of resumes and going to job fairs and signing up with temp agencies, and it wasn’t getting me anywhere.”

Then Stocking’s mother mentioned a news story she had seen about a man in Milwaukee who put up a billboard advertising himself as a job candidate. The same evening, Stocking was e-mailing the man, Mark Heuer, and decided to pursue a similar strategy.

This week, she unveiled a billboard on the side of Interstate 95 in Bridgeport that says “Hire Me!” and directs people to her Web site, www.hirepasha.com. Stocking, 37, said she used money she had saved for a down payment on a house to pay for the billboard, which will be up for four weeks.

“My face is splashed on this billboard and it doesn’t get much clearer than ‘hire me,’” she said. “Everyone looks at billboards, pretty much — I just can’t think of a better way to get yourself out there if you want to take that risk.”

She declined to specify how much she paid for the billboard, which is owned by Lamar Advertising. A single-panel 14-foot-by-48-foot billboard for four weeks in the Bridgeport area costs $7,000, according to Lamar’s Web site.

Stocking, who lives in East Hampton, chose the spot for its heavy traffic and proximity to New York City. She said she is looking for work in marketing and design, and is also interested in positions as an executive assistant.

Before working for PMT Associates, a company that provides crisis intervention training, from September 2007 to June 2008, she worked for New England Residential Services for nearly 17 years and was a residential manager at the company’s facility in Guilford.

She designed the billboard and created a Web site to go along with it that includes her resume and contact information.

As a single mother to Alijah, 16, Kobe, 6, and Taylor, 4, Stocking said she was willing to take a risk on the billboard, and would relocate, if necessary, for the job.

While not all job seekers can spring for a billboard, many are looking for creative ways to distinguish themselves.

Robert Fort, marketing director for New Haven’s Workforce Alliance, which offers job training and helps connect employees and employers, said he would encourage people looking for jobs to think of interesting means to connect with potential employers.

“Anything that someone can do to make themselves stand out is important,” Fort said. “People use billboards for all sorts of things — to propose to each other — and I think she’s smart, if she can afford it. Especially if she’s involved in promotion and marketing, I’d admire that.”

Fort said his organization has seen a 30 percent to 40 percent rise in people looking for jobs in recent months, although the number of companies looking for employees has dropped 75 percent. Connecticut’s unemployment rate is at 7.4 percent, while nationwide the rate reached 8.5 percent in March.

Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace can be useful for connecting with potential employers, Fort said. He also advised job seekers to send resumes both by e-mail and regular mail and to follow up with phone calls at companies that are hiring.

“Squeaky wheels definitely get greased, and I think that in a job market like this, any advantage you can create by your aggressive pursuit of a job is going to get rewarded,” he said.

Stocking said that she hoped her gamble would help her find a job that will allow her to support her family.

Similar ploys have paid off for others: Heuer, who gave her the billboard idea, found several job opportunities through his ad. Joshua Persky, a former investment banker who walked the streets of Manhattan last year with a sandwich board sign reading “MIT Grad for Hire,” found a position at an accounting firm, according to the New York Post.

As of Thursday, Stocking said she had already received a few responses from potential employers as well as inquiries from local news media and The New York Times.

“It was a huge risk financially for me and my family, so if it doesn’t work, that’s going to be a problem, but hopefully it will,” she said. “I just want to work — I’ve never not worked, so this for me is freaking me out right now.”

Guilford budget heads to referendum April 21

Published: Wednesday, April 8, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — The town’s proposed $77.12 million budget advanced to referendum with no changes Tuesday, as the minimum number of voters needed to amend the proposal was not reached at the annual budget meeting.

About 200 people attended the meeting, less than the 300 necessary to reduce the amount of the proposed 2009-10 budget.

The budget referendum is scheduled for April 21 at the fire headquarters, 390 Church St.

Also, three bonding resolutions automatically advanced to referendum. They would appropriate $810,000 for two new fire and public works trucks, $1.55 million for new roofs at Guilford Lakes School and Calvin Leete School, and $998,750 for repairs at Elisabeth C. Adams Middle School.

The $77.12 million proposal includes $27.28 million for town operations and $49.84 million for the school district.

Several people commented on the budget proposal Tuesday, with many of the comments revolving around the issue of funding for education.

Ray Luden brought a prop to illustrate his thoughts on the budget, wringing out a wet towel into a bucket of water to symbolize the taxpayers’ situation.

Luden said he thought the town and school district should seek concessions from the teachers’ union in order to reduce costs for the coming fiscal year.

“Over and over I hear, ‘It’s about the kids, education, quality instruction and the number of kids per classroom,’” he said. “Is it really about that, or is it about what we are able to do within the confines of the teacher contract?”

David Roberts said that increasing the tax rate would put more of a burden on home-owners. The rate is projected to increase by 7 percent under the proposed budget.

“By keeping hiking the tax rate, it’s sure as hell going to deter businesses from moving here, and that’s going to leave us shouldering an ever greater part of the bill, and that’s going to be a self-perpetuating cycle,” he said.

But Marian Breeze said that deferring expenses or eliminating social service programs could cost the town more in the future.

“Our senior support programs are some of the most generous in the state and we should be proud of that,” Breeze said. “All of these programs keep Guilford safer and more affordable for our senior citizens.”

Chris Moore, founder of the Guilford Parents and Citizens Together political action committee, which is pushing for the budget, said that rejecting the budget could result in layoffs.

“The time is here to decide if we’re willing to spend to get what we want here in Guilford,” Moore said. “This is a budget that has already been cut significantly, that has no more room to move except on personnel.”

Voting on the four questions is set for 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. April 21. All five voting districts will vote at fire headquarters.

Guilford agencies move woman to ‘safe house’

Published: Tuesday, April 7, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — The officer responding to a report of a loud argument at a condominium last month sensed there was something unusual about the situation.

After speaking to the couple whose arguing had prompted a neighbor to call police, the officer felt additional intervention was necessary, Police Chief Thomas Terribile said. He called in a female officer to speak to the wife, who, like her husband, is originally from India.

Eventually, the woman told the officer she was being held in the house, alleging that her husband beat her if she ate more than water and a piece of fruit while he was at work during the day. She was not given any money, and allegedly was not allowed to leave the house while her husband was at work.

The man was charged with second-degree strangulation, second-degree threatening, second-degree breach of peace and third-degree criminal mischief, and also faces a charge of intentional cruelty to persons, according to police and court records. Because the New Haven Register does not identify victims of domestic violence, the couple’s names are being withheld.

Along with the town’s Youth and Family Services department, police officials helped the woman enter a safe house elsewhere in the state. Youth and Family Services and the Police Department recently began a program aimed at combating domestic violence in town.

“We used just about every organization we could find in the state to, No. 1, get the woman out of the house, get her some money and get her protected from this guy,” Terribile said. “I think the officers saved this woman’s life probably by getting her relocated and out of that environment.”

With the bad economy, Terribile said he is worried that programs such as the domestic violence partnership could suffer if voters reject the town’s proposed budget April 21 and the Board of Finance cuts funding. Terribile said the proposed budget maintains the Police Department’s force at 39 officers, but reduced funding would mean the department would have to trim personnel.

Lyne Landry, director of Youth and Family Services, said the new domestic violence program with the Police Department has been under way for about three weeks and has already assisted three families, including the incident last month. Further cuts to her budget would also mean a reduction in personnel, Landry said.

“We’ve already cut everything that we can from our budgets before we even presented them,” she said. “If people lose jobs, then we lose very valuable programs like this domestic violence program.”

The two departments have worked together on domestic violence issues in the past, Landry said, but the program extends that collaboration. When the police receive domestic violence calls, Youth and Family Services also responds, and the department has a social worker on staff who is specially trained to handle domestic violence.

“That comes in very handy because she knows all the connections in the state,” Landry said. “The police don’t necessarily know all of those connections, so they’ll deal with the legal aspect of it and we’ll deal with the social work aspect.”

Terribile said staff reductions could make it more difficult for officers to perform tasks such as checking on families that have had domestic disturbances.

“If we don’t have enough officers to be able to take the time to spend investigating these cases, this (incident last month) might have been one that just slipped through the cracks,” he said. “We got a domestic and we get there and the woman’s crying and the guy’s upset and you go, ‘There’s no crime here,’ and you just walk through the door.”

Guilford budget would raise tax rate nearly 7%

Published: Saturday, April 4, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — Town officials are projecting that the tax rate will rise nearly 7 percent in the next fiscal year, although the budget increase is just 2.2 percent overall.

The tax rate is projected to rise from 19.19 per $1,000 of assessed value to 20.51, an increase of 6.88 percent.

The Board of Finance has voted to send a $77.12 million 2009-10 budget and nearly $3.36 million in bonding expenditures to voters. The budget referendum is scheduled for April 21, and the town budget meeting is Tuesday.

The town has proposed a $27.28 million budget, which represents a zero percent increase from the 2008-09 package, while the Board of Education’s $49.84 million budget includes a roughly 3.5 percent rise from this fiscal year.

The projected tax increase is due to a reduced revenue forecast and a decision not to rely on the fund balance, Finance Director Sheila Villano said.

For many years, Villano said, the town has been using money from the fund balance — the difference between revenues and expenditures that can be set aside for future use — to support operating expenses in order to keep taxes low.

“This (drawing money from the fund balance) really isn’t a good budgeting practice, but when you eliminate it, you’re automatically going to see a mill-rate increase because it’s like lost revenue,” Villano said.

Last June, the fund balance totaled about $2.5 million, and Villano said she expects it to be lower than that at the end of this fiscal year because of a recent decline in revenues from interest, building permits and conveyance fees. This fiscal year, the town budgeted $1.2 million from the fund balance for operations.

Villano added that an adjustment to the grand list because of an increase in the cap for the Elderly Tax Relief Program has also affected the projected tax rate.

First Selectman Carl Balestracci said the town was told by two bonding agencies that it should reduce use of the fund balance in order to maintain a high bond rating.

“As we do every year, we’ve got bonding that we need to do and we don’t want to pay more interest on that than we need to,” Balestracci said.

Selectwoman Cynthia Cartier, who has been on the board since 2007, said she voted against the budget last year in part because of the reliance on the fund balance. She voted in favor of the 2009-10 proposal.

“For the past three years, we have dipped into the fund balance just to pay bills,” Cartier said. “Even though we would have faced some challenges now due to the national economic climate and the state economic climate, I think we could have better prepared for this if we had implemented more efficiencies a few years back.”

On Monday, the Board of Finance approved a bonding package with three items. The first would appropriate $810,000 for a firetruck and a public works truck; the second is to spend $1.55 million to repair the roofs at Calvin Leete and Guilford Lakes schools; and the third would authorize spending $998,750 on health and safety repairs at Elisabeth C. Adams Middle School.

The town budget meeting is set for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Nathanael Greene Community Center. At the referendum, voters from all five districts will vote at fire headquarters at 390 Church St.