Rachael Scarborough King

2010-10-22T14:03:00.000-07:00

Giving Readers What They Want?

One of my favorite anecdotes about working as a local-daily journalist is that my most popular story ever was about something that never happened. One day in September 2007, the local police in Guilford, Conn., started getting a lot of calls that there was a dead mountain lion on the side of I-95. By the time the state DEP people got there, though, the animal was gone. Not such an interesting anecdote, except for the fact that mountain lions haven't lived in Connecticut for decades. Animal control was adamant that there was no way the carcass could have been a mountain lion, although they noted that they get a lot of calls every year of "mountain lion" sightings -- none of which have been confirmed. So I wrote a short, tongue-firmly-in-cheek story about the dead "mountain lion." The next morning, I had 25 voice mail messages and dozens of emails -- by far the most response I ever got to a story. A story that made clear it was about a misidentified piece of roadkill.

I thought about the story again this week while reading through the New Yorker's recent profile of blog impresario Nick Denton. Denton argues that while he is definitely in the gossip business -- and nothing wrong with that -- he often disagrees with readers about which stories are important. Denton orients his editorial philosophy around the pursuit of page views, and each post's page includes an updating number of how many people have read it. The only problem is that you can sometimes end up with all mountain-lion stories. That is, if we're hoping to preserve journalism as some sort of key element in American democracy, the page-view model may not have a lot to offer us.

2010-04-07T20:22:00.000-07:00

Is it bad to refer to an Amazing Race team as 'the Lesbians'?

I can't really make up my mind on this one: Is it a good thing that, on the show, sexuality is treated as just another identity, like "police officers" or "brothers," or is it cringe-worthy that these two people are defined by their relationship? I'm just not sure.

Here's a link to the Amazing Race team profiles.

P.S. I really want to go on The Amazing Race , but I wonder what my one-word identifier would be. Academic? Grad Student? Unemployed?

2010-04-06T16:35:00.000-07:00

Blogging on 42nd Street

With all the recent focus on nonprofit journalism as a future for news reporting, I hadn't thought until recently (well, today, actually) about the role that libraries could play. All libraries, from the small-town ones to the New York Public Library, are thinking the Internet can offer new ways for patrons to search their catalogs and find out about on-site events. But some, like the NYPL, are creating original weblog content to draw in users who might not have been heading for a library site in the first place. While this seems like an obvious way to market libraries, who are trying to peer into the future as in-person research becomes less and less a part of their function, but it raises questions about how far the trend could go. Will libraries be hiring writer-bloggers to create must-read sites? How does the academic, intellectual role of a librarian fit in with the stereotype of the writing-in-my-underwear blogger? Just goes to show it's not only newspapers and magazines that are having to recalibrate their missions for a digital readership.

2010-01-15T12:40:00.000-08:00

What are ... our new robot overlords?

I had a pretty exciting Wednesday this week - helping IBM make computers smarter than humans. Designers at their Watson research facility in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., are designing a computer to play Jeopardy, and as a former contestant living in the New York metro area, they asked me to come "spar" with the machine. Turns out they were looking for average Jeopardy contestants like myself - those who had won no more than two games (I, sadly, placed second in my only game). Unfortunately I signed something prohibiting me from saying how the computer did, but let's just say it was competitive. More than competitive.

Apart from the cool factor of having a computer answer trivia in the form of a question, the potential software could help computers understand human language better and solve problems we didn't think machines could grasp. Just another step on the way to making ourselves obsolete, I guess.

Here's the NY Times article on the overall project from a few months ago.

Disclosure: IBM paid me a (small) consulting fee for participating in the sparring matches. I'm eager to think and write more about the effort as soon as they tell me I won't get sued for doing so!

2009-11-23T11:21:00.000-08:00

Spoilery

In scanning through articles on Project Muse (an academic journal database) just now, I noticed that hypertext author and scholar Stuart Moulthrop prefaced an essay on Watchmen with the disclaimer, "This essay reveals key plot details of the graphic novel Watchmen and the film based upon it." Are we really going to start putting spoiler alerts on academic writing now? And about a book and movie that came out 23 years and 6 months ago, respectively? Should we?

2009-11-14T08:37:00.001-08:00

Pres. Bush really made "emboldened" happen. Remember when he first said it and everyone thought it was a made-up word a la The Simpsons' "embiggened"? At least three academic panelists at the conference this weekend have used it.

2009-11-14T08:17:00.000-08:00

More from Yale

Jeff Jarvis (paraphrase): "The future of news is entrepreneurial, not institutional. ... Journalism becomes a task rather than a profession, as anybody can perform acts of journalism."

2009-11-14T08:11:00.000-08:00

The language of crisis

Fascinating conference today and yesterday at Yale Law School on new media, journalism and economic models for the future. A combination of the usual suspects (Clay Shirky, Jeff Jarvis, Steve Brill) and a variety of journalists, law professors, economists, sociologists ... One of the great things the conference is doing is enacting its precepts with a live video stream, live blog and constant Twitter updates - it's even creating a feedback loop between David Carr tweeting in the audience, panelists reading the tweets and responding during their talks, and Carr asking questions in person.

One disappointing thing, though: about 80 percent of the panelists are middle-aged white men. What does it say about this language of crisis that these are the people having the discussions?

2009-10-23T11:05:00.000-07:00

Elaine Scarry, On Beauty and Being Just :

By perpetuating beauty, institutions of education help incite the will toward creation. ... To misstate, or even merely understate, the relation of the universities to beauty is one kind of error that can be made. A university is among the precious things that can be destroyed.

2009-10-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

All the (good) news (about the Yankees) that's fit to print

Obviously I'm biased here ... but why is it that the NYT can be the most authoritative, objective paper on any other issue, but when it comes to the Yankees they gush like a fan blog? Even putting aside the almost total lack of Mets coverage (OK, there wasn't much to cover this year, but this is a longstanding issue), the Times' writers are always either praising or defending the Yankees. From extolling Jeter's fielding skills (right), to determining whether A-Rod is clutch, to today's inanity headlined "Don't worry! I'm pretty sure they're not going to blow a 3-1 lead!" they just can't stop wetting themselves over the Yankees' perpetual greatness. Could I maybe just get the box score?

2009-10-11T14:20:00.000-07:00

Get ready for a long, cold winter

"It's designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything is new again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains comes, it stops, and leaves you to face the fall alone.” - Bart Giamatti, former president of Yale and MLB commissioner.

Thanks, Red Sox radio announcers, for sending that little extra shiver of despair through my soul when closing out the season today. Remind me again why I decided not to move to L.A.?

2009-10-06T19:05:00.000-07:00

What Genre is this Blog?

"Classifications are empirical, not logical. They are historical assumptions constructed by authors, audiences, and critics in order to serve communicative and aesthetic purposes." - Ralph Cohen, "History and Genre"

"Genres fill a need for which no adequate alternative method exists." - Michael McKeon, The Origins of the English Novel

2009-09-25T19:51:00.000-07:00

Ralph Nader's take on genre theory.

2009-09-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

A Bloody Good Time

Enough has been written about the brilliance of Mad Men that it doesn't really bear repeating here, but I just had to comment on the utterly insane amazingness of this week's "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency." On other blogs and TV forums there has been some minor complaining about a slow start to the third season. Then last week there was the storyline last week of Sally pushing another classmate, with a glimpse of her smearing blood across her face. All of which led up to this week, when the bloody, mangled bits of new boss Guy's foot are splashed across Paul, Ken and Harry, and Joan spends the rest of the episode walking around in a bloody dress. No other show could make the chain of events (including the fact of the John Deere tractor even being in the office in the first place) so inevitable and realistic. (I could see something like this happening on The Sopranos, but there it would be part of some totally surreal sequence.)

And with all of this building up to JFK's assassination, here's a great analysis of the way the tractor accident mirrors the famous video of Dallas:
http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/mad_men_blogging_the_joke_isnt_funny_anymore/

2009-09-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

Blog vs. Blog

On a slightly related note: isn't it funny how certain segments of Internet users have appropriated the word "blog" to mean a post in a comments section? I've been noticing this for a while now, and you generally only see it on the Web sites of papers like the Register, whose readers have learned to leave comments but are generally not very Internet savvy. They know that a "blog" is some kind of online writing, but they probably don't read any blogs and thus don't distinguish between them and reader comments (which, however, can be integral parts of blogs). I've also heard both reporters and sources, many police officers for example, slip into this usage without thinking about it. I wonder whether this will become a widespread use of the word "blog" or fade away as people have more interaction with both blogs and comment sections.

2009-09-15T12:13:00.001-07:00

The story of Annie Le -- the Yale pharmacology Ph.D. student whose body was discovered in her lab this week -- is horrific, and it's difficult to know how to begin discussing it. But one of the aspects I've been watching with interest is how different media outlets have handled the story, and different groups of readers have responded to it. The story broke in the Register as a missing persons report, and the paper's fantastic cops reporter, Bill Kaempffer, was getting scoops from his myriad police sources right away. Any type of Yale scandal is A1 stuff for the Register, and a gorgeous scientist about to married certainly fit the bill. When I was riding the subway in New York last week, I noticed that the Daily News had picked up the story, highlighting the wedding aspect and placing the story on an inside page. The Times also ran a brief article focusing on the Yale, New-Haven-dangerous trope. Back in New Haven this weekend, the Register's front page was dominated by a pretty tasteless banner headline, "Bloody Clothes," and the cesspit that is the Register's comments section was weighing in with conspiracy theories. And with the discovery of Le's body Sunday night, the update made the front page of the Times Monday morning.

There's been a lot of discussion in certain media and feminism blogs in the past few years about the excessive coverage of disappearances and murders of young, white women, versus the lack of coverage for many of the same incidents that happen to people of color. While this story would seem to buck that trend -- Le was of Southeast Asian descent -- it also perpetuates it in many ways. To my mind, there are three reasons this has become a nationwide story: 1) It involves an Ivy League school, 2) She was young and beautiful, and 3) She was about to get married. While in some ways it's progress, I guess, to have this level of coverage of Le's death, it also speaks to how people/women are valued in the news media. In New Haven especially, there are many other crimes against women Le's age that go largely unreported.

2009-09-09T19:44:00.000-07:00

Nerd-dom

I seem to have steered my entire Genre in Theory and Practice seminar into reading Watchmen (and watching the film, giant blue penis and all). I hope they don’t think I’m some weirdo who only reads ultra-violent, quasi-right-wing comic books. Although, of course, I am.

And therein lies a lot of what I like thinking about when I think about Watchmen and other graphic novels – how we create hierarchies of literature, and why there’s still something somewhat shameful about reading a graphic novel/comic book versus reading “real” literature. I’m actually really excited to talk about all those things in a group, even if the group ends up hating me for it.

2009-09-08T19:41:00.000-07:00

Juicy Gossip

D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover :

“[O]ne may hear the most private affairs of other people, but only in a spirit of respect for the struggling, battered thing which any human soul is, and in a spirit of fine, discriminative sympathy. For even satire is a form of sympathy. It is the way our sympathy flows and recoils that really determines our lives. And here lies the vast importance of the novel, properly handled. It can inform and lead into new places the flow of our sympathetic consciousness, and it can lead our sympathy away in recoil from things gone dead. Therefore the novel, properly handled, can reveal the most secret places of life: for it is in the passional secret places of life, above all, that the time of sensitive awareness needs to ebb and flow, cleansing and freshening.

But the novel, like gossip, can also excite spurious sympathies and recoils, mechanical and deadening to the psyche. The novel can glorify the most corrupt feeling, so long as they are conventionally ‘pure.’ Then the novel, like gossip, becomes at last vicious, and, like gossip, all the more vicious because it is ostensibly on the side of the angels. …

For this reason, the gossip was humiliating. And for the same reason, most novels, especially popular ones, are humiliating too. The public responds now only to an appeal to its vices.”

2009-09-01T19:39:00.000-07:00

A new direction

For the past year or so, I’ve been struggling with a clichéd but still profound question: what to do with my life. When I was in college this wasn’t an issue; I was sure (well, let’s put it at 85%) that I wanted to be a journalist, and I doggedly pursued a strategy of applying (and applying and applying…) for internships at newspapers, getting my first job at a small daily out West, and moving up to a midsize paper in Connecticut about two years ago. Unfortunately, I began to realize that it wasn’t for me; while I love reporting and writing, I didn’t love doing it on a daily deadline, I didn’t love writing about school board and planning department meetings, and I didn’t love being treated like a child by misogynistic municipal officials. So I decided to return to a desire I had previously pushed to the side: going back to school to get a literature Ph.D. and eventually (if I’m really lucky) become a college professor.

The problem was, I had so long set myself in favor of journalism and against academia that I had trouble convincing myself, and my skeptical boyfriend, that this was really what I wanted. A few days before I’m due to start my Ph.D. program I’m still having trouble committing to the concept. For one thing, I’m feeling a somewhat irrational guilt at leaving the journalism profession. When you make a decision to enter a dying field (no matter how many times you tell yourself it isn’t dying), you have to have a pretty firm conviction that there are good reasons for doing so. Entering the Ivory Tower now makes me feel a little bit like Lord Jim, jumping into the lifeboat and leaving the rest to drown. I also struggle with what I guess you could call a utilitarian question: whether what I’m doing has any “use.” Although not all of the stories I wrote as a journalist were earth shattering, I never doubted that what I was doing served a purpose. And while I won’t miss the nasty phone calls and e-mails (it’s hard to top, “You make your living off the pain and suffering of other people”), it was sometimes nice having that direct connection with readers. In many ways, I feel like I’m about to spend the next part of my life looking ever further inward. Which, funnily enough, is a good way to describe this blog: so far mainly used as an archive of my journalism work, it has a readership of roughly 1 ½ people. So while I think there are good reasons for doing what I’m doing now, I’m certainly going to still be questioning myself for some time to come. Probably a good thing, any way you look at it.

Things I’m looking forward to: Talking about books I love with other people who love them as much as I do; learning lower Manhattan; riding my bike to school (all the way from 103rd and Bway!)
Things I’m not looking forward to: Living all the way at Columbia; not having any money; that vague sense that I (still) don’t know what I’m doing with my life.

2009-07-11T13:33:00.000-07:00

E. Haven man faces prison in Net case

Published: Saturday, July 11, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — An East Haven man is facing several years in prison after pleading no contest to charges that he held sexually explicit conversations with a 13-year-old girl using online instant messaging.

The girl’s mother, who discovered the chats more than a year ago, said the case shows that parents and teenagers need to be aware of how much information they share through messaging and social networking services.

Police arrested Gene Crescenzi, 33, last June after the girl’s parents approached the department with concerns about conversations they had found on their computer. Police seized several computers, cameras, VHS tapes, CDs and DVDs from Crescenzi’s residence, and working with state police they later uncovered images of child pornography, leading to a second arrest.

This week, Crescenzi pleaded no contest to three felony charges: risk of injury to a minor, enticing a minor by computer and illegal possession of less than 25 images of child pornography. According to the terms of his plea agreement, he faces eight years in prison, suspended after four years, followed by 10 years of probation and registration as a sex offender. He has been free on $175,000 bail and is due to be sentenced Sept. 30.

Assistant State’s Attorney Jack Doyle said in court this week that many of the instant messaging conversations police uncovered included graphic sexual language, and that Crescenzi had attempted to approach or meet the girl during the conversations.

The girl’s mother, who asked not to be identified to protect her family’s privacy, called the incident “really frightening” and said it showed that parents need to be aware of their children’s use of the Internet.

“We sometimes think, ‘Not in Guilford, Conn., it’s safe here,’ but because of how far reaching the Internet is, we have to be aware and be cautious,” she said. “Not (to) be in a state of panic, but we have to be cautious and teach our kids safe Internet practices.”

Crescenzi first contacted her daughter using AOL Instant Messaging, and then looked at her MySpace page, the mother said. He allegedly misrepresented himself by using a fake name and saying he was in his 20s.

By pleading nolo contendere, or no contest, Crescenzi accepted that the state had enough evidence to convict him at trial, but did not admit guilt. Although the effect of the plea is that he is found guilty, it could not be used as an admission of guilt in a civil trial. The mother said the family is not planning to pursue a civil suit.

The woman, who attended court this week, said she and her husband are planning to write a letter to the judge for sentencing. But she said she is satisfied with the plea deal as it will allow her daughter to avoid having to testify in court.

She added that she wanted to see the judicial process through to show her children the “responsibility of making sure that kind of thing doesn’t happen to other people.”

“It’s very scary today, the access,” she said. “I feel like my daughter was being assaulted in my own living room and I had no idea.”

She said she has talked to her children about the importance of using strong privacy settings on social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook.

“I think everyone has to be a little more aware, especially the parents, that our teenagers and our young ones can be hurt while we’re sitting right there,” she said. “We want them to have fun, we want them to socialize with their friends and we want them to do all the things teenagers do online to have fun, but we want them to be safe.”

2009-07-10T13:32:00.001-07:00

Old Saybrook residents vote to implement ’08 revaluation

Friday, July 10, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

OLD SAYBROOK — Residents voted to implement the 2008 revaluation rather than putting it off until 2011 at a town referendum Tuesday. The vote means that property values will remain at their current levels and will be the basis for property taxes for the next two years.

The measure to postpone the revaluation failed by a vote of 1,460 to 1,036, according to First Selectman Michael Pace.

The referendum was the result of state legislation passed this year that allows towns due to review local property values in 2008, 2009 and 2010 to put the process off until 2011.

The Old Saybrook Taxpayers Association had contended that the revaluation from October 2008 was inaccurate due to the downturn in the economy. The group presented a petition that called a town meeting, which adjourned to the referendum.

But Pace and Assessor Norman Wood said that figures for home sales since the revaluation had showed that the town’s values for the homes were within a few percentage points of their sale prices.

Housing values rose 32 percent overall in the revaluation, according to the assessor’s office.

“I’m pleased that so many people turned out and that the town voted to stay with the new revaluation,” Pace said after the vote tally was announced Thursday night.

“This will save us $500,000 because we won’t have to do a (new) physical revaluation,” Pace added.

2009-07-10T13:32:00.000-07:00

Special use hearing delayed

Friday, July 10, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NORTH BRANFORD — A public hearing on a revised plan to rebuild the Northford Store was postponed Thursday.

The Planning and Zoning Commission had been due to hear testimony from the applicant, store owner Nick Demos, as well as members of the public at its regular meeting this week. But members of the commission decided to put the hearing off until Aug. 20 because they had not received the results of a traffic study.

Demos won approval from the PZC in August 2008 to rebuild the 1870s-era store — which burned to the ground in March 2008 — with an 8,000-square-foot building including a supermarket on the ground floor and five, one-bedroom apartments on the second floor.

The new plans scale back the proposal to a 6,000-square-foot building with four apartments. The proposal is to build the store in two phases, with the first phase comprising a two-story structure with a coffee shop with a drive-through window and another tenant retail space, and two, one-bedroom apartments on the second floor. The second phase would add a 2,600-square-foot retail space and another two apartments to the rear of the building.

The original proposal raised some opposition from neighbors because of the inclusion of a drive-through window for a coffee shop that Demos planned to operate out of the store. The hearing originally scheduled for Thursday was to have dealt with the drive-through issue, as Demos would need a new special-use permit for the revised proposal.

Town Planner Carol Zebb said at Thursday’s meeting that the commission had not yet received a traffic study associated with the drive-through proposal, and commissioners voted to postpone the hearing for that reason. An attorney for Demos gave the members copies of the traffic study at the meeting.

The new hearing is set for at 7 p.m. Aug. 20 at Town Hall.

2009-07-09T13:31:00.000-07:00

Saybrook has 1 police chief applicant

Thursday, July 9, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

OLD SAYBROOK — Deputy Police Chief Michael Spera is the only applicant for the position of police chief, which will become open in October with the retirement of Chief Edmund Mosca.

Spera, 34, has been in charge of the daily operations of the Police Department since May, when Mosca announced his retirement and began using up accumulated sick and vacation days.

Last month, the Police Commission decided to look inside the department for a new chief, Chairwoman Christina Burnham said. If the candidate for the position does not fit the commission’s requirements, the town would then do an outside search, she said.

“We needed to see if we had a qualified candidate who met all of the requirements that we developed for the position before we spent money looking outside,” Burnham said.

Letters of interest from internal candidates were due last week. The commission is scheduled to hold a special meeting Monday, when it could vote on the appointment.

The department has been the source of controversy for two years as state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal investigated a fund that Mosca controlled and used for several purposes, including support for state and national police chief meetings, golf tournaments, conferences and local youth activities. Blumenthal found that Mosca had improperly used the McMurray-Kirtland Memorial Fund for 25 years, and required him to repay $22,500.

Blumenthal told the town to reorganize the fund, and his office is continuing to investigate the disbursement of $64,000 into it. A bequest left to the “Old Saybrook Policemen’s Benevolent Association,” which does not exist, was given to the fund rather than to the Old Saybrook Policemen’s Brotherhood Association, which later became the police officers’ union.

Blumenthal said Wednesday that the investigation is continuing, and he could not say whether there was a timeline for its completion. He said that no one within the Police Department is a target of the investigation.

Police Commissioner Richard Metsack said he would have preferred to do an external search for the police chief position, saying that it could have drawn more candidates with a range of experience.

“I’m adamantly against staying in town (to conduct the search),” he said. “I wanted to go out of town.”

The commission’s criteria for the job include a bachelor’s degree or higher in a field related to law enforcement or public administration, although the job summary states that “an equivalent combination of education and experience which indicates possession of the knowledge, skills, and other characteristics necessary for appointment may be substituted.”

Spera earned a Bachelor of Science degree in public safety administration from Charter Oak State College in May. He has also attended the FBI National Academy, a 10-week course for leaders of law enforcement agencies.

The qualifications for the police chief position also include 10 years of experience in law enforcement, with five years at the rank of sergeant or higher preferred and at least three years of experience as a shift supervisor required.

Spera was the only applicant last year for deputy chief when the Police Commission reinstated the position after four years with no deputy chief in the department. A town native, he started in the department as a dispatcher when he was 18 and became an officer when he was 21. He earns about $92,500.

He said he agreed with the process the Police Commission had chosen for the search.

“Just because I’m the only applicant does not mean that I’m getting the job,” he said. “That said, I do believe in promoting from within when you’re able to do that. I think it shows the personnel that if they work hard and they have goals that they can achieve them within their agency.”

Spera said he believed he meets the qualifications for the police chief position.

“Over the last year and a couple months as deputy chief, we’ve been able to make great strides with the members of our agency working really hard (and) building up on the legacy that Chief Mosca left us,” he said.

2009-07-07T13:30:00.000-07:00

Guilford drowning ruled accidental

Tuesday, July 7, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — Friends remembered Garland Brown, 19, as a sociable member of the University of Connecticut community, a day after he accidentally drowned.

Police are still investigating the incident, which occurred at a private pond off Susanne Circle Sunday afternoon, but they initially said that it “does not appear suspicious.” The office of the chief state medical examiner classified the death as an accidental drowning following an autopsy Monday.

Also Monday, Branford police responded to another man’s death when a resident of the Harbor Village condominium complex died due to a medical condition while swimming in Long Island Sound. Police said the man, 71, may have had a heart attack or other event. The unidentified man was transported to Yale-New Haven Hospital and pronounced dead.

Brown, of Queens, N.Y., was visiting friends in Guilford with other UConn students when the accident occurred. He apparently was swimming in the pond at about 2:40 p.m. when he disappeared underwater, police said. His friends pulled him from the water and began CPR. Emergency responders took Brown to the Yale-New Haven Shoreline Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Police said the pond ranged from about 3 feet to 8 feet deep. Detectives do not believe drugs or alcohol were involved in the incident, according to the Police Department.

Brown was just finishing up a summer course at UConn, said classmate Eduardo Garcia. Brown and Garcia were both entering their junior years studying engineering, Garcia said.

Garcia described Brown as “like a brother to me.”

“He was one of the first people I met at the University of Connecticut,” Garcia said. “He was genuine and honest, and his loss definitely has an impact on my life as well as, I’m pretty sure, others.”

Garcia said he and Brown would study together and meet up during the summer, when Garcia was home in New Jersey and Brown was in New York. He said they were planning to celebrate Brown’s 20th birthday next week, and they had spoken a few minutes before the incident Sunday. Garcia said there were about five friends swimming in the Valley Shores area, and he had spoken to some of them, but did not have details of the accident.

Another friend from UConn, Marcus Chapman, wrote in an e-mail that Brown spoke German and was participating in UConn’s Eurotech dual-degree program, which allows students to earn a Bachelor of Science in engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in German studies, according to UConn’s Web site.

Chapman added that Brown loved basketball and “constantly went to the gym and even pushed me to go to work out and play pickup basketball games.”

“He would always have a joke or a comment to say that would make you smile or laugh,” Chapman wrote. “He was a hard worker that when he faced a bump in the road, he kept going. He really looked up to his older brother and used him for motivation.”

By Thursday afternoon, a Facebook page set up by Brown’s brother, Andre Brown, Garcia, Chapman and another friend had hundreds of members, many of whom left condolences and happy memories of Brown.

Garcia said Brown will be remembered as an outgoing and friendly person.

“He was just nice to people — that was his one main thing, that he was really nice to people,” he said. “He was just completely humble and honest. That was one of the things that people will remember him (by).”

2009-07-06T13:29:00.000-07:00

Martial arts studios still closed after arrest

Monday, July 6, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — The United Studios of Self Defense martial arts academies in Branford and Guilford remain closed, more than a month after owner Joseph Moscatelli was arrested for allegedly videotaping staff and customers in a changing room.

State authorities found that Moscatelli did not have a health club license for the studios, but they have not taken any enforcement action as the businesses have not reopened, according to the state Department of Consumer Protection.

Police arrested Moscatelli, 43, on May 28 after an employee allegedly found a setup including a camera and computer in a back room of the Guilford studio, at 631 Boston Post Road. Moscatelli was charged with two counts of voyeurism with malice and one count of risk of injury to a minor, after investigators reviewing the recording initially found images of one female employee and one girl under the age of 16 in a state of undress.

After detectives seized equipment and studied more of the recording, Moscatelli was arrested again June 5 and charged with two more counts of voyeurism with malice.

He was released on $175,000 bail and has not yet entered a plea in the case. He is next due in court Aug. 13.

Guilford detectives informed Branford police of the case, since Moscatelli owns the United Studios of Self Defense at 66 N. Main St. in Branford. Deputy Police Chief Thomas Fowler said that the evidence in Guilford did not indicate there was a crime at the Branford studio as well.

Both studios have remained closed since the initial arrest, and Moscatelli has not responded to phone and e-mail messages from the Register. The Branford studio has had a sign in the window stating, “Due to unforeseen circumstances we are closed today. We are sorry for the inconvenience.” A sign that appeared in the window of the Guilford studio the day after the first arrest saying it was “closed until further notice” was no longer there last week, but the listed phone number had been disconnected.

Richard E. Maloney, director of trade practices for the Department of Consumer Protection, said the department discovered following the May arrest that Moscatelli did not have a license for either studio. The state requires a license for martial arts studios as they fall under the same category as health clubs.

Maloney said that the DCP has not taken any action against Moscatelli because the studios have stayed closed. A company called United Studios of Guilford LLC did hold a license for the location, but it became inactive in April 2000, Maloney said, and it is unclear how long Moscatelli has owned the business.

The DCP has heard from several consumers who paid upfront fees to Moscatelli, but so far has not received any complaints, Maloney said. He added that consumers should first try to recover any losses by contacting the studio by letter, but there is a state restitution fund if clients cannot obtain their fees.

“Our investigation is active and ongoing,” Maloney said.

2009-07-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

It was a great weekend for catching sun

Monday, July 6, 2009
By Amanda Pinto and Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

After weeks of rainy weather that kept people away from the beaches, tens of thousands of people descended on area parks during the holiday weekend.

Long-awaited rays of sunshine were a pleasant surprise for people like Pauline Findley, of Hartford, who strolled along the water at Long Wharf Sunday afternoon.

Findley, who visited the area after she dropped her daughter off at the University of New Haven, said she was happy able to be able to go for a walk on the morning of Independence Day.

“It was nice yesterday,” she said Sunday. “It made up for the rain the last couple of days.”

While some state parks reached capacity and had to turn away visitors on the sunny holiday, Hammonasset Beach State Park was able to accommodate the 6,000 cars that arrived Saturday, Park Supervisor Roger Kinderman said. Hammonasset has the largest car capacity of any state park.

With officials estimating that each carload averages four people, Kinderman said there were upwards of 24,000 day visitors at the park Saturday, in addition to the 3,200 people staying at the campground, which was full.

“We had a big day yesterday,” Kinderman said Sunday afternoon. “We hate to turn anyone away and I don’t want to do that ever because some come here with their kids and their picnics and their floats, and if we turn anyone away they’re sad — we don’t want anyone to be sad here.”

The “big day” for the state park was also part of a busy weekend for state cops.

As revelers across the state and nation celebrated Independence Day, state police also responded to 166 accidents between midnight July 3 and 9:30 p.m. July 4, according to a statement. State cops arrested 46 people for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, issued 2325 speeding tickets, and 351 seat belt tickets.

The area became a popular destination for out-of-staters this weekend; Raquel Zelayndia and her family stopped off at Long Wharf Sunday to picnic.

The group was returning from watching fireworks in Atlantic City, N.J., and couldn’t resist a stop along the water on the way back to their home in Worcester, Mass., Zelayndia said.

The parking lot across from Long Wharf was jam-packed with cars Sunday, some from as far away as South Carolina.

While Hammonasset’s parking lot was able to accommodate all the visitors Saturday, Kinderman said the number of people using the bathroom facilities caused a temporary drop in water pressure. Park workers had to close one of the bathrooms and turn the water off for a few minutes before reopening the facility.

“We had 25,000 people in the park yesterday all using our bathrooms, so the water consumption is enormous,” Kinderman said. “We had a little bit of a problem there but ... we were able to fix it in short order and get it back open.”

As of about 2 p.m. Sunday, the park had seen 3,000 carloads of day visitors, Kinderman added. With June’s rainy weather, more people may be hitting the beaches now that the sun is out.

“June was abysmal — it rained probably 24 days in June — and now that the holiday is on us and it’s sunny, people are saying, ‘Let’s go to the beach,’” Kinderman said.

2009-07-03T13:27:00.000-07:00

Referendum flier misleading, officials say

Friday, July 3, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

OLD SAYBROOK — Town officials are crying foul over what they called a “misleading” flier about next week’s referendum that features the logo from the town’s Web site.

The unsigned flier, which uses the Web site banner as letterhead, urges residents to vote at a referendum Thursday to delay the implementation of the 2008 revaluation.

A group of residents has been working for several months to delay the revaluation from last October, which they say is not accurate because of the recession. Jean Castagno, a member of the Old Saybrook Taxpayers Association, said the group has registered as a political action committee.

Castagno said the flier did not come from OSTA, and all communications from the group are signed.

First Selectman Michael Pace said he was worried that residents might think the flier had come from the town. He noted that it is illegal for the town to expend funds on swaying the election.

The referendum stems from a revaluation last year in which housing values rose 32 percent overall, according to the assessor’s office. The taxpayers group said the revaluation overvalued properties given the economic slump, and asked the Board of Selectmen to put aside the increase.

But Pace said that figures from the assessor’s office show that sales since the revaluation have been within a few percentage points of the assessor’s values. According to the assessor’s office, taxes would decrease for about half of the town’s residents with a tax rate based on the revalued grand list.

The bill passed by the General Assembly this year that became law allows towns that were due for revaluations in 2008, 2009 or 2010 to delay the revaluation until 2011 with the approval of the town’s legislative body. A petition from some residents called a town meeting to vote on whether to delay the revaluation, and the meeting adjourned to the referendum scheduled for July 9.

Pace said a full physical revaluation in 2011 would cost $600,000. Under the normal schedule, the next revaluation would be in 2013, five years after the most recent one.

Castagno said that the taxpayers group has received different figures for the cost of the revaluation, and she added that it would have to take place in 2011 or 2013.

“The whole five-year plan has been altered by this piece of legislation, so there will be one in 2011 and then in 2016, the next five-year period,” she said. “The money amount will be the same in 2011 as it would be in 2013.”

Castagno said she did not know the source of the controversial flier, which encourages people to copy and distribute it. The Register received no response to a message sent to an e-mail address included in the flier.

Pace said he had asked the town attorney to look into the flier and any possible election law violations.

“People have a right to vote how they want, they have a right to put information out, but there are laws for that and the first thing is you can’t use somebody else’s name, let alone government, to try to negatively influence what government’s position is,” Pace said.

Joan Andrews, an attorney with the State Elections Enforcement Commission, said it did not appear the flier violated election law, but it could violate other state law.

The referendum is scheduled for Thursday from noon to 8 p.m. at Old Saybrook High School.

2009-07-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

New law allows golf carts on roads

Thursday, July 2, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

With Shoreline communities filling up with visitors for beach season, golf carts laden with towels and umbrellas could be popping up on local roads.

After a year of uncertainty for owners about whether they could drive their carts on the road, new legislation passed by the General Assembly authorized towns to allow golf carts, with certain restrictions.

This week, the Old Saybrook Police Department started a program for owners to register their vehicles, following recent approval by the Police Commission.

State Rep. Marilyn Giuliano, R-Old Saybrook, said a reinterpretation of existing state regulations about a year ago led to golf carts being banned from public roads.

After hearing from beach communities concerned about the change, Giuliano put forward a bill that would leave it up to the towns whether to permit golf carts.

Under the legislation, local traffic authorities are allowed to set regulations for golf carts on roads with a speed limit of 25 mph or lower. The carts cannot be driven at night, and operators must have a driver’s license.

Old Saybrook, with a population officials estimate quadruples in the summer, is a prime location for people wanting to use their golf carts to drive from their homes to the beach. Resident Andy Natale said that many of the residents of Indian Town, the beach community where he lives, have golf carts for that purpose.

“Really, it was so helpful over here — you can have parking problems if you have to take all your cars down to the beach, (and) most of the golf carts are electric, so it saves on gas and emissions,” Natale said. “The only problem that we have, and hopefully (the law is) going to change it, is that you have these parents who let their kids drive them.”

Natale said the farthest people in his community drive the carts is three or four blocks. He added that the carts can increase mobility for the elderly or others who might have difficulty getting around.

Old Saybrook Deputy Police Chief Michael Spera said the department began receiving complaints several years ago about people operating golf carts unsafely, or about the carts being driven by children.

The town implemented an ordinance to allow the carts with restrictions, but the change in state regulation last year overturned those rules.

Spera estimated that there are about 500 carts in Old Saybrook. The town’s new regulation, under the new state law, requires people to register the carts with the Police Department on an annual basis and follow other safety requirements.

The cost for registering the carts is $25 for the first cart, $20 for a second and $15 for a third.

The penalty for violating the regulations is $35 under state law, Spera said, but that could increase in the future. Drivers also must obey all the traffic regulations that apply to a car.

Clinton Police Chief Joseph Faughnan said the town has not created its own rules for golf cart operation yet, but he expects officials will do so over the summer. Until then, he said, people should not take their golf carts on the roads there.

Faughnan said he was in favor of allowing people to drive the carts on local roads.

“They don’t take up much space, especially with the limited parking in the lots along town beaches, (so) it expands the opportunity for other people to use the beach because the parking lots don’t fill up so quickly,” he said. “They’re quiet, they don’t disturb the neighbors, and they’re fun.”

He noted that with the restriction of the carts to roads with a maximum speed limit of 25 mph, people do not have to worry about them causing traffic problems on Route 1 or other major roads.

“They’re big in beach communities,” he said.

In Guilford, Police Chief Thomas Terribile said he considered driving golf carts on the road unsafe, but added that he does not think it will be an issue since the town has few, if any, roads with a speed limit under 25 mph.

“Luckily, we don’t have any roads that are under 25 (mph), so we shouldn’t have to deal with it,” he said. “There are private roads, but certainly they could already drive on those.”

In Old Saybrook, Spera said he is working with the beach community associations to let drivers know about the change in the law and the need to register their carts.

“We’re hoping that this new process, like our former town ordinance, will curtail (dangerous driving) and make the operation safe,” he said.

2009-06-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

DUI checkpoint snares 6 suspects

Tuesday, June 30, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NORTH BRANFORD — Police made six arrests last weekend in the second of three planned drunken-driving checkpoints during the summer.

The Police Department recently received a $12,200 federal grant, administered by the state Department of Transportation, to put toward overtime pay to combat driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The department has a checkpoint planned for late summer, Lt. David D’Ancicco said.

The checkpoint took place between 7 p.m. Saturday and 3 a.m. Sunday on Foxon Road between Cedar Lake and Twin Lakes roads.

“We had the DUI checkpoint on Saturday night to Sunday morning and we made some really good arrests here,” D’Ancicco said.

Most of the arrests, D’Ancicco said, were on drug charges, not for driving under the influence. Of the one DUI arrest made, he said, the blood alcohol level of the person arrested was allegedly more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.

Bryan Tulski, 27, of East Hartford, was charged with operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, D’Ancicco said.

The others arrested were:

- Alicia Colavolpe, 21, of East Haven. She was charged with possession of narcotics, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and failure to keep drugs in the original container.

- Steven Godiksen, 20, of Madison. He was charged with operating with a suspended license, possession of narcotics, use of drug paraphernalia and possession of alcohol by a minor.

- Wayne Kopylec, 20, of North Branford, who was charged with possession of alcohol by a minor.

- John Pierlioni, 20, of Wallingford, who also was charged with possession of alcohol by a minor.

- Jennifer Napolitano, 24, of New Haven. She faces charges of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

2009-06-27T13:21:00.000-07:00

Madison, Guilford officials seek probate court merger

Saturday, June 27, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — Officials in Guilford and Madison are recommending that a planned reorganization of the state probate court system merge the two towns’ courts.

The Guilford Board of Selectmen Thursday unanimously approved a recommendation to the state probate judge assembly to combine the Guilford and Madison probate courts. The new court would be located in the current site of the Guilford Probate Court, in Town Hall.

Madison’s Board of Selectmen approved a similar recommendation earlier this week.

The votes came in the wake of newly enacted legislation that would reduce the total number of probate courts in the state to between 44 and 50, from the current level of 117. The move is projected to save the financially insolvent probate court system millions of dollars a year.

The assembly of all probate court judges has been meeting to draw up recommendations for a special redistricting commission that will redraw the lines for probate court districts.

Each district must now cover at least 40,000 people; Madison and Guilford have a combined population of about 41,000, according to the U.S. Census.

The recommendation from the two boards of selectmen, however, does not guarantee that the final reorganization will result in a combined Guilford and Madison probate court.

“This is our recommendation to the (state Probate Court) administrator, but they in fact could do something different,” Guilford Selectman Sal Catardi said Thursday.

The redistricting commission is due to make recommendations to the state legislature by September, and the reorganized districts would go into effect in 2011.

Guilford First Selectman Carl Balestracci said Thursday that Guilford was chosen for the location of the recommended combined district because it has more available space than the current site of the Madison Probate Court.

“We want to keep the districts as small as possible to give the most personal service to the citizens,” he said. “Guilford and Madison seem like a perfect fit.”

Remodeling some areas of the Guilford court to handle the larger caseload and create chambers for the probate judge is expected to cost about $10,000, Balestracci said.

Probate courts handle issues ranging from trusts and estates, to appointing guardians for children or the mentally retarded, terminating parental rights and granting adoptions. Many people appear in probate court without legal representation, and most towns currently have their own court.

The redistricting has raised concerns among some officials that town residents will lose the local service they have had in the past.

Also at Thursday’s meeting, selectmen voted to amend the minutes of their Feb. 9 meeting in order to resolve a Freedom of Information complaint brought by the New Haven Register.

The complaint alleged that the board had violated the Freedom of Information Act by declaring the first few minutes of the meeting, at which members discussed the Board of Education’s budget request, “off the record” and not keeping minutes for that portion. The addition to the minutes approved Thursday reflects the content of the entire meeting, indicating that members of the Board of Selectmen said that they thought the Board of Education’s budget request was too high.

2009-06-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

‘This was not the year’ for sick-leave bill

Saturday, June 20, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

When a bill requiring employers to provide paid sick leave to workers passed the state House of Representatives in late May, supporters were optimistic it would become law.

In 2007 and 2008, similar legislation had passed the state Senate, but the House failed to take it up. After speaking with senators, members of the Working Families Party, which was backing the bill, thought they had lined up the 19 votes necessary for passage.

But in the final days of the regular session, House Bill 6187 did not make it to the Senate floor. It died when the session ended at midnight June 3.

State Sen. Edward Meyer, D-Guilford, said he decided not to support the bill because of the economic climate. Meyer voted in favor of paid sick leave in 2007 and 2008.

“To some of us, this was not the year to put another cost on business,” he said. “I felt that this year, when we have more than 4,000 businesses closing in Connecticut and 65,000 people have lost their jobs, that the last thing we should do is impose an additional cost on our Connecticut employers.”

Proponents of the bill — which would have allowed employees to accrue paid sick days for every 40 hours worked — argued it could save employers money by avoiding the costs of “presenteeism,” a term for employees coming to work sick. The bill would have applied to companies with more than 50 employees, who would have to be 18 years or older and work at least 10 hours a week.

Jon Green, the executive director of Working Families Party, said that after speaking with Meyer about the bill he thought the senator would support it. But, when the Senate Democrats caucused the last week of the session, it became apparent Meyer would vote no.

“He said he thought it was a good bill and something he supported in the past, and wanted to talk about pushing the implementation date back and that was something he thought could get him back on board with it,” Green said. “We met in the Capitol and talked about a mechanism to do that.”

Green said the House’s amended version of the bill had the effect of pushing back the implementation date because no one would be able to use the sick days until they had clocked 1,040 hours of work after Jan. 1. With those amendments, Green said he believed Meyer would vote for the bill.

“That’s what we talked about, and he said that he thought that sounds good and gave every indication that based on that change that he felt he would support the policy,” Green said.

Green noted Sens. Bob Duff, D-25, and Jonathan Harris, D-5, also voted for the bill in the past, but were not supporting it this year. He said the Working Families Party knew in advance not to count on those votes. Last year, the bill passed the Senate by a 20-16 vote.

Meyer pointed out he voted against the bill in the Judiciary Committee in April. He added he did not say he would vote for the bill, and that he thought the effective date should have been in fall 2010.

“I don’t think we got specific enough when we talked with (the Working Families Party),” he said. “I did meet with a representative of that party and we did talk about getting the postponement of the effective date, but we didn’t get into the specifics unfortunately because I was looking, again, at the fall of next year and not at the beginning of the year.”

The original bill would have allowed employees to earn 52 hours, or 6 1/2 days, of paid sick leave at a rate of one hour for each for 40 hours worked, effective Jan. 1 for people who had already been employed for at least six months. The House amended the legislation to limit the amount of sick leave to 32 hours in 2010 and 40 hours in 2011 and subsequent years, and to start the clock for accruing leave Jan. 1 for all employees.

“The outcome of that would be to say that no employee could use their paid sick time until July of 2010,” Green said.

Meyer said he spoke with a number of employers in his district, particularly restaurant owners, who said the bill would hurt them because they would have to pay both the sick employee and a replacement. State Department of Labor statistics show restaurant workers are among the least likely to receive paid sick leave.

NOT ENOUGH VOTES

When it became apparent to supporters and opponents of the legislation that it did not have the votes to pass, it was not called for discussion in the Senate.

Kia Murrell, associate counsel for the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, said she was pleased with the results. The CBIA had lobbied against the bill.

“The bill ultimately was not called because it would have died on a vote of 18-18,” she said.

Murrell said the bill would have put state businesses at a disadvantage because Connecticut would be the only state with the requirement.

“The current state economy doesn’t lend itself to enacting new legislative mandates on business at a time when so many are struggling,” she said.

Bruce Deegan, a U.S. Postal Service worker from North Branford who supported the bill, said he was disappointed with the outcome. Deegan said he spoke to Meyer at a meeting in Killingworth in May and believed Meyer would vote in favor of paid sick leave.

“Based on things he said at the meeting and then the fact that it did end up having a later starting date, like he said he favored, I expected that we would have his support and I was extremely disappointed,” Deegan said.

He added that he became an advocate for paid sick leave after seeing a family member go to work while sick.

“I’ve known people with everything from the flu to Lyme disease who have gone into work when they would have been better staying home, so I think it really is about human decency,” he said.

Meyer said he expects to support paid sick leave legislation again in the future.

“When we get back to a reasonable economic time I will be taking a very different look at this bill indeed,” Meyer said.

2009-06-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

N. Branford council shelves blight ordinance

Friday, June 19, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NORTH BRANFORD — After discussing the possibility of implementing a blight ordinance in town at several recent meetings, the Town Council decided this week not to pursue the issue.

Council members raised the issue some months ago, and asked Town Manager Richard Branigan and Town Attorney Timothy Yolen to report on the town’s current response to properties with potential health and safety issues, and other aspects of implementing a blight ordinance.

Right now, Branigan said, the town’s zoning enforcement officer will send notices, work with property owners and issue a cease-and-desist order if necessary. If the violation continues, the town could take a property owner to court, Branigan said.

He added that situations involving the court system are infrequent.

“It’s not common — we’re talking about less than a dozen cases a year, hopefully,” he said. “Most people are responsive on the first instance or the second instance.”

Branigan said that complaints about properties with overgrown grass or other aesthetic issues tend to rise in the spring and summer. But he added that he does not think there are many areas that pose a problem.

“You really have to stretch the definition to find blight here in North Branford, and that’s not a bad thing at all,” he said.

After discussing the ways that nearby towns deal with blighted properties, Town Council members decided to stick with North Branford’s current system for now.

2009-06-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

‘Green’ heating system gains in No. Branford

Monday, June 15, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NORTH BRANFORD — The plans for the renovation and expansion of the Atwater Memorial Library are set to include a geothermal heating and cooling system.

Town officials have been discussing the possibility of installing a “green” heating system at the library for months. Town Manager Richard Branigan said it initially appeared that the system would be too expensive for the project’s budget, but a new design could allow the town to recoup the additional costs in about five years.

The current construction estimate for the project, which will nearly double the library ’s size to 12,500 square feet, is about $2.9 million. The town is planning to go out to bid for construction on Friday, and officials hope that work will begin in early August.

The total budget for the renovation of Atwater and the Edward Smith Library, which reopened in February after a year of construction, is $9.5 million.

The Smith library does not include alternative energy sources.

Branigan said that a test well at the Atwater library, at 1720 Foxon Rd., showed that the site can support a geothermal heating and cooling system.

The system would include some electric pumps and other parts, but most of the energy would be provided by a series of wells.

The total cost of the geothermal system is estimated at about $550,000, Branigan said, $150,000 more than electric heating and cooling.

“Five to seven years from now we would have paid back the differential cost in construction, and then after that we have no costs, which is just amazing,” he said, adding that a state energy efficiency grant of $66,000 could cut the payback time to one or two years.

Estimates for the entire cost of construction also came in about $200,000 under budget, Branigan told the Town Council last week, allowing officials to pursue geothermal heating and air-conditioning.

An early design for the geothermal system included one main well providing energy for the entire system, Branigan said. With a new design utilizing about a dozen wells, the architects were able to reduce the cost.

“When they looked at this alternate approach and then we started looking at the cost of this versus traditional sources, it made a lot of sense,” Branigan said.

Atwater is currently closed in preparation for the start of construction.

2009-06-15T13:17:00.000-07:00

Mazza to seek Guilford’s top seat

Monday, June 15, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — Selectman Joseph Mazza has announced he plans to run for first selectman, potentially setting the stage for a primary this fall.

Republican Kenneth Wilson, who ran unsuccessfully for first selectman in 2007, announced last month he wants to run again.

Mazza, a Republican who has been a selectman for six years, said people have asked him for several years about running for first selectman, and this year he decided that it was the “right time.”

An accountant with his own practice in Guilford, Mazza, 64, served on the Board of Finance for 10 years before being elected to the Board of Selectmen.

“I think if you take the experience I’ve had as an elected official from the Board of Finance and being on the Board of Selectmen, take my professional experience as an accountant, I think I can really kind of steer the town government in a new direction,” he said.

“I think I have a lot to offer in being more creative in the way we do things, look for more efficiencies, bring in technologies.”

Mazza said he thought the town government had lost some community trust during the most recent budget cycle, when voters first rejected a 2009-10 budget proposal before approving a reduced package. He said he would initiate a “top-to-bottom review” of town finances to look for areas of potential savings.

“Basically, I’ve been, I believe, a fiscal conservative, fiscally responsible selectman,” he said.

He pointed to the creation of the Elderly Tax Relief Program and the Public Works Commission as two important accomplishments as a selectman.

Mazza was chairman of the Elderly Tax Abatement Commission, which came up with a plan for the program.

“I’m eager to continue to serve the town of Guilford — I’ve said all along that my first concern is the town and its citizens, and party politics is second,” he said. “I think some of the things that I’ve done show my experience and my determination to help people.”

Wilson said Mazza has “served the community well,” as a selectman, but all the encouragement he receives from residents who want a change in administration “validates my desire to run for first selectman.”

Wilson said he gets correspondence daily from people in town looking for significant change and Mazza may be perceived by voters as being “more of the same.”

The Republican Town Committee is currently interviewing candidates for all elected positions, Chairman Jim O’Keefe said.

The Town Committee caucus, at which members will approve a slate of candidates for the fall election, is scheduled for July 28, O’Keefe said. Any necessary primary elections would take place Sept. 15, he said.

Incumbent First Selectman Carl Balestracci did not return a call for comment about whether he plans to seek re-election. He said when questioned by a member of the public at a Board of Selectmen meeting last week that he was not ready to make an announcement.

The November election will mark the first time that members of the Board of Selectmen are elected to four-year terms, following a charter revision last year.

The first selectman is the only full-time employee on the five-member Board of Selectmen. The position pays about $95,000 a year.

Mazza, who is originally from the Bronx, N.Y., has lived in Guilford for 22 years. He served with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1968 to 1970. He is married, and he and his wife have five adult sons from previous marriages.

2009-06-15T13:16:00.000-07:00

School door buzzer system a hit

Monday, June 15, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — A door buzzer system of the type tried at Abraham Baldwin Middle School may be used at other schools, school officials said recently.

The school district just completed a pilot program using the buzzers at Baldwin. Superintendent of Schools Thomas Forcella told the Board of Education last week that school officials had received positive feedback from parents and staff at Baldwin since installing the buzzers earlier this spring. The system will stay in place at the middle school, Forcella said.

The buzzer system requires visitors to ring a bell at the front door and front-office employees to allow them to enter the building. It is part of an overall upgrade of security technology at the district’s schools, including multiple security cameras in place at each school.

Forcella said the buzzer system could be useful at Elisabeth C. Adams Middle School or Guilford High School, where officials have long said they were concerned about the main doors not being visible from the front offices. Adams now has nearly 20 security cameras in place, Forcella said.

“One of the schools we’re most concerned about is Adams, because there’s absolutely no visibility at the entrance,” he said. “Anyone could walk in and be anywhere in the building without being noticed.”

Voters recently approved spending $998,750 on various health and safety improvements at Adams, money that could be used for security upgrades, Forcella said. The previous work had been paid for with $50,000 in the 2008-09 budget and a $12,000 state grant.

Security concerns came to the forefront this school year when six laptops were stolen from three district schools. A parent has been charged with the crime.

“It really gave us cause to think about how easy it is to access some of our buildings,” Forcella said.

While the system at Baldwin required a few adjustments on the part of front-office staff at first, Forcella said it proved “quite simple.” He said that the school had also asked parents to fill out responses, which were mainly positive.

“It is about keeping our students safe,” he said.

2009-06-15T13:15:00.000-07:00

Overhaul of probate to slash court sites

Monday, June 15, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

One of the last vestiges of Connecticut’s Colonial government — the Probate Court system — is due for a major overhaul in the coming months and years.

Last week, Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed legislation reforming the probate courts, the family courts that handle estates, trusts, conservatorships, child custody and name changes, among other matters. The most prominent feature of the act, which was introduced as House Bill 6385, is a provision to reduce the number of courts from 117 to between 44 and 50.

Many communities have their own probate courts, often located in town hall.

The legislation creates a commission charged with developing a plan to consolidate the Probate Court districts. The statewide assembly of Probate Court judges held a meeting recently to begin making recommendations to the commission for the redistricting process, and it is still unclear where the new consolidated districts will be located.

But with more than half of the courts set to merge, some probate judges are worried that their constituents will lose the local service they have known.

Probate Court Administrator Paul Knierim said that the legislation is a long-term solution for a fiscal crisis the probate system has been facing for years. The courts, which have been operating in a deficit since 2005, would have run out of money by December, he said.

The state Probate Court system operates on a budget of about $40 million a year, Knierim said, 92 percent of which comes from fees. Since 2005, the courts have been running on surplus funds from previous years, but that source is projected to dry up in a few months.

Officials estimate that consolidating the courts will save at least $3.5 million a year, he said. The system would most likely still have to depend on state support, but at a lower level.

“Our caseload has been changing over the years, and in the past, probate fee revenue, which comes mostly from the fees on decedents’ estates, was adequate for the operation because most of our work was in that area,” Knierim said. “Over the years, though, the caseload of the courts has been increasingly in the area of social service cases, such as mental health issues and children’s matters. There is not a significant revenue stream from those cases, but they are expensive.”

Probate judges handle a variety of cases, from the traditional trusts and estates to appointing guardians for children or the developmentally disabled, terminating parental rights and granting adoptions. Many people appear in Probate Court without legal representation.

With the redistricting, some local officials are concerned that residents used to handling probate issues in their neighborhoods might have to travel out of town to the consolidated courts. At a North Branford Town Council meeting last week, council member Joseph Faughnan, a lawyer, raised the possibility that the 15,000-resident town could lose its Probate Court.

With the consolidation, each court district must contain a minimum of 40,000 people.

“The impact on North Branford, I don’t want to say it’s traumatic, but being a smaller town in the region I do think we would suffer if we’re not alert to the process,” Faughnan said.

Frank Forgione, probate judge for North Branford, said he has spoken with members of the Town Council about their concerns. Even if the court is located in another town, Forgione said he hoped that the probate judge for the district would continue to hold some hearings in North Branford.

“Frankly, I think that 50 (probate districts) is too few, however that’s what the legislation calls for, so we are bound by what the legislation calls for,” he said. “I’m always concerned that as something gets larger, the hands-on approach, the local service, the local flavor, is diminished. However, I would like to believe that whether it is myself or someone else that’s serving as the probate judge in a combined district, that we’ll continue to provide the service that we’ve striven to provide.”

East Haven Probate Judge Michael Albis agreed, saying he “would have liked to see more than 50 approved.” But he said he supported other reforms in the bill, such as the centralization of court finances.

“I personally feel that the community-based nature of the courts is one of its strongest aspects and I am concerned that going down from 117 courts to 50, it’s quite a challenge for the judges to come up with a redistricting plan that will still be as user-based and community-friendly as what we have now,” he said.

Albis said that the probate assembly is looking at which towns could combine easily with enough existing court space for the larger districts.

The assembly will have the first opportunity to present a redistricting plan to the commission.

Although it is still unclear where the new consolidated courts will be located, State Rep. Bob Godfrey (D-Danbury), who introduced the legislation, said it is likely that many will remain in local town halls. He added that he does not think there will be a need for construction or rental of additional space.

New plan would start in 2011

Godfrey said the probate redistricting commission is scheduled to present its recommendations to the legislature by September. Prior to that, he said, there will be a public hearing process for community input. The new districts would go into effect in 2011.

The current economic recession and budget crisis at the state level created the impetus for reforming the probate system, Godfrey said.

“The system pretty well was working, it was just going to run out of money and it is antique. These are kind of leftover districts from before the American Revolution,” he said. “We’re dragging the state into the 21st century.”

Guilford Probate Judge Joel Helander said he did not think there would be any benefits to local residents from the system reforms.

“I believe that it had far less to do with cost savings than it did with centralizing power and authority,” Helander said. “I think that time will only tell, but I don’t really believe that there’s going to be any substantial cost savings to the state.”

He described the Guilford Probate Court as a “people’s court,” where 50 percent of the users do not have attorneys.

“The fear of the consolidation had always been of making the courts, turning them into mega-districts that would not be user-friendly and would be relatively inaccessible like the superior courts,” he said. “Now that the bill has gone through, we’re working with it.”

In addition to the redistricting plan, the legislation includes several other reforms of the probate system as a whole. It requires probate judges to work 20 hours a week, and probate court offices to be open 40 hours a week. It sets standard compensation for judges as a percentage of what a Superior Court judge earns, based on the size of the probate court district. Judges must now be members of the Connecticut Bar Association, although the provision does not apply to judges currently in office.

The new act also states that any annual surplus funds in the Probate Court Administration Fund will be transferred to the state General Fund.

Knierim, the probate court administrator, said he believed the act would solve the system’s financial problems, while reducing its dependence on the state in the future.

Another move could be to raise the $12,500 cap on fees from an estate, which has not been increased since 1998.

The current reform is a “long-term solution for the system,” Knierim said, that is “not at all a Band-Aid.”

“Not only is it a fix for the financial issues, but it maintains a system of probate courts that is community-based and people-oriented,” he said. “We wanted to preserve what’s best about the system while at the same time making it more efficient.”

2009-06-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

Grandson saved from prison in $1M theft

Published: Saturday, June 13, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NEW HAVEN — An East Haven man who stole up to $1 million in lottery winnings from his grandfather avoided jail time Friday through an agreement in which he will repay $175,000 to the victim.

Raffaele Iuliano Jr., 20, described himself as “young and stupid” when he committed the crime. Iuliano pleaded no contest to the charge of first-degree larceny and received a suspended sentence of five years, with five years of probation and the payment of $175,000 in restitution.

Police arrested Iuliano, along with his father, Raffaele Iuliano Sr., and friend Joseph Bernardo in February 2008 on charges they stole up to $1 million from Giuseppe Diglio, the grandfather and father-in-law of Iuliano Jr. and Iuliano Sr., respectively. Diglio, a North Branford resident, won the lottery in 1986 and kept his winnings in cash in a safe in his home, police said.

It was later revealed in court that it was difficult to verify the total amount of the money, as it was held in cash, and Diglio could definitely account for only $350,000.

At the time of the arrest, police said they had already recovered about $218,000. Under the conditions of Iuliano Jr.’s sentence, he will repay at least $125 a week to his grandfather, and his attorney said Iuliano Jr. would return the entire amount within 10 years.

Bernardo, 25, pleaded no contest to a charge of first-degree larceny in March. He also received a five-year suspended sentence and also paid restitution of $175,000.

Iuliano Sr., 45, in February pleaded guilty to fourth-degree conspiracy to commit larceny and received a nine-month suspended sentence.

The Iulianos’ attorney, Frank Antollino, said Iuliano Jr. will “carry the Judas mark in the family.”

“But for the kindness of his grandfather, my client would be going in that door (to prison) instead of out the other door,” Antollino told Superior Court Judge Richard A. Damiani.

Police said the theft took place Nov. 5 and Thanksgiving Day 2007, both dates when family members were gathered elsewhere. Diglio noticed and reported the missing money Jan. 15, 2008.

Damiani told Iuliano Jr., “I don’t know how you’re going to be able to sit at your family table and look your grandfather in the eye.” He added that the defendant could have faced several years in prison.

“Family is all you have — without it you’re a vagabond,” Damiani said. “Beside being a common thief, you stole from your grandfather.”

Iuliano Jr. said he was “deeply sorry.”

“I brought shame to my family (and) my grandfather,” he said. “This is something I have to live with the rest of my life.”

2009-06-13T13:11:00.000-07:00

Saltwater fishing license on hold until bill gets OK

Saturday, June 13, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

The new requirement for a marine fishing license will not go into effect unless Gov. M. Jodi Rell signs the legislation creating the license.

According to the legislation, House Bill 5875, people would need a license for fishing in coastal waters starting Monday. But the bill has not yet reached Rell’s desk, according to her office.

If Rell does not sign the legislation prior to its effective date of Monday, it would go into effect as soon as she approves it, said Dennis Schain, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

“The bill did say an effective date of June 15, but it does not become law until the governor signs it,” he said. “So there’s no requirement right now and probably not Monday or early next week to have a marine fishing license.”

The state Senate unanimously approved the bill June 3, following approval by the House of Representatives in May.

The legislation, which also deals with water quality, establishes a license for saltwater fishing that includes a fee of $10 for residents and $15 for out-of-state residents. The bill applies to people 16 years and older; those older than 65 do not have to pay the fee.

State fishermen have had to obtain a license for freshwater fishing for years, but have traditionally been able to cast a line in Long Island Sound for free. The new requirement comes about because of a federal marine fishing registry is set to go into effect Jan. 1. By creating its own saltwater registry system, Connecticut will be able to keep the fees associated with the license.

Schain said that the license was available for purchase through the DEP’s online system, but the feature has been deactivated pending the passage of the legislation.

If Rell did veto the bill, the DEP would refund fees for any licenses people have already purchased, he said.

“We know that the system can handle this new license and will be ready to get it up and running if we get the green light from the governor,” he said.

2009-06-10T13:09:00.000-07:00

Guilford High fields press box to bear announcer’s name

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — School officials are planning to name the press box at the Guilford High School fields after longtime football announcer Bo Mooradian.

The Board of Education this week voted to honor Mooradian after a group of community members sent a letter to Athletic Director Chip Dorwin, suggesting the move. Dorwin made a presentation to the Board of Education in April and then set up a committee to go over the naming, a standard procedure under board policies.

After the committee unanimously recommended naming the press box for Mooradian, Dorwin made another presentation to the Board of Education this week, and board members approved the naming.

Mooradian has been the school’s only football announcer since the early 1970s, when the football program was resurrected, Dorwin said.

“He has been the one and only P.A. announcer at our football games from day one,” Dorwin told the board Monday. He added that Mooradian may have missed “a handful” of games in that time.

Mooradian was part of a group that helped restart the Guilford High School football program, which had been dormant since the 1950s, Dorwin said. The athletic director at the time then asked him to do the announcing at the games, a volunteer position that he continues to hold.

This year, the school inducted Mooradian into its Athletic Hall of Fame.

Dorwin said there will be a ceremony to name the press box, which is about 10 years old, at a later date.

Board of Education members expressed their support for the move at Monday’s meeting.

“It seems highly appropriate for the press box to be named after Mr. Mooradian, who’s given so much,” board member Barbara Dudley said.

Board Chairman William Bloss described the move as “the least we can do.”

“It’s a small effort really for the amount of time and amount of energy he’s put in,” Bloss said.

Also at Monday’s meeting, board members thanked the two high school seniors who have served as student representatives and attended every board meeting this school year. Marissa Mohrer and Elizabeth Savrann received plaques commemorating their work and thanks from the board.

Two other graduating seniors, Lauren Trotta and Gabe Shore, received Student Leadership Awards from the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education. The students were also honored at this week’s meeting.

2009-06-07T18:49:00.000-07:00

Hook, Line and Stinker: Anglers don't like new fishing fee

Published: Sunday, June 7, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

For years, Connecticut residents who enjoyed fishing in Long Island Sound could just stroll down to the shore, cast a line and wait for the fish to bite.

But with the recent passage of legislation requiring a license for saltwater recreational fishing for the first time, that informal process could change. And some local enthusiasts and fishing-supply store owners say they are worried about the effects on Connecticut saltwater fishing.

The new license, which would create an annual $10 fee for Connecticut residents, and $15 for out-of-state visitors to fish in saltwater bodies, recently passed the state House and Senate as part of a bill dealing with water quality. After the act, House Bill 5875, passed the Senate by a unanimous vote on June 2, it advanced to Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s office, where it is awaiting her signature.

If approved, the new requirement goes into effect June 15.

The bill requires anyone age 16 or older to obtain a marine fishing license in order to “take, attempt to take or assist in taking any fish or bait species in the marine district.” People 65 years and older do not have to pay the fee. Anglers on “party and charter” boats will not be required to have personal licenses, according to the DEP.

Commercial fishing is governed by a different set of regulations.

The state has required licenses for

recreational fishing in freshwater lakes and rivers for years. The DEP issues about 145,000 freshwater licences a year, earing $2.7 milion in fees.

The new marine license has been in the works since 2007 and came about because of a move by the National Marine Fisheries Service to create a marine fishing registry, said Dennis Schain, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Schain said that implementing its own license system will allow Connecticut to collect the fees, rather than having them go to the federal government. The federal registry is due to go into effect Jan. 1.

“If there is a state program, it preempts the federal program, so if you have a state program, you can do the registry and the state can keep those fees,” he said.

Schain said the DEP is projecting the new license could raise $1 million a year for the state. Eventually, he said, the DEP is hoping to create combination licenses, like it currently has for freshwater fishing and hunting, but right now fishermen would have to purchase two separate licenses.

The new rule would be enforced by DEP officers performing spot checks of shoreline fishing areas.

The goal of the registry, apart from raising revenues, is to improve state and federal management of fishing resources, he said. The state spends $2 million a year on marine fisheries monitoring and management.

“The whole effort, whether we do it or what the feds are doing, is really to be able to better manage fisheries, to have an understanding of how many people are fishing and be able to make better decisions about conservation of species and resources,” he said.

But Dave Gay, of Waterbury, who was fishing with his son Jeff at the West Haven beaches Friday, said he did not think the coastal fisheries are well managed now, pointing to examples such as poorly maintained breakwaters. He said he is not in favor of the marine fishing license.

“It isn’t like they’re putting fish in the ocean and they’re paying for fish,” Gay said. “I think they should be doing a lot more prevention and maintenance in the state. If they were doing that, at least you could say, ‘Well, the license is worth it,’ but they’re not doing nothing.”

Gay said the new license could lead him to fish in Rhode Island instead of Connecticut. He said he would be more willing to pay a fee in Rhode Island because he prefers the fishing there.

New York’s requirement for a recreational marine fishing license is due to go into effect Oct. 1, although pending legislation could delay it until Jan. 1, according to the Web site for the New York Department of Environmental Conservation. Rhode Island is in the process of studying a license system, according to its Department of Environmental Management. Of the country’s 21 coastal states, the only ones without marine fishing license requirements are Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine and New Jersey.

Fees elsewhere range from $38.85 in California to $4 in Mississippi.

The Connecticut legislation includes provisions for reciprocal licensing with New York and the New England states if they implement the licenses.

Pat Abate, the owner of River’s End Tackle in Old Saybrook, said he thought the new license could decrease the number of people coming from other areas to fish in Connecticut.

“I think primarily it’s going to really discourage people coming from out of state to go fishing here because there’s no three-day license or anything like that, so anyone over 16, it’s 15 bucks a head,” he said. “So where you get the visiting relatives and you’d like to take them out fishing on your boat, I think it will discourage you from doing that.”

The state has also changed the system for purchasing licenses, eliminating the paper forms and going to an online process through its Web site, www.ct.gov/dep. Retailers and town offices can obtain dedicated computer terminals for the licenses, although stores must pay $1,850 for the terminals, Schain said. The retail outlets earn $1 for each hunting or fishing license sold.

Abate said he decided not to buy one of the terminals. He said some customers have come in not knowing about either the change in purchasing licenses in general or the new marine fishing license.

“Most people I tell about this are surprised and they say, ‘When does this take effect?’ and I tell them June 15 and then their jaw drops in disbelief,” he said. “I don’t think anyone is happy about having it implemented so fast.”

At Frenchy’s Bait & Tackle in West Haven, Paul French had put up a sign advising customers of the change taking place June 15.

John Zaluski of Meriden said he was not aware of the requirement until visiting the bait shop Friday.

“It’s just not right,” he said. “There’s a lot of people that fish out there that just do it for the kids and the family. The way the economy’s going,” the new license could be too expensive, he said.

French described himself as “disgusted.”

“People are actually fishing to eat because of the economy,” he said. “Now they’re going to think twice about it.”

2009-06-06T18:51:00.001-07:00

Treasure hunt’s priceless for students

Published: Saturday, June 6, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — Residents will have the chance to explore the town in what the Guilford Fund for Education is calling a “staycation” activity lasting throughout the summer.

The organization provides grants to support education and is kicking off its Discover the Treasures of Guilford event this morning.

The townwide hunt will allow participants to search for “treasure boxes” using written clues or with a handheld GPS device, an activity known as geocaching.

Organizers Lorrie Shaw and Pam Kelly told the Board of Selectmen this week that the event includes 31 boxes hidden around town.

They are all hidden in “beautiful or historic places,” Shaw said. The hunt will run from today until Aug. 30, and people can play at their own pace.

“I think it will be fun and I think people will find some not only beautiful spots, but will learn a little bit of history,” Shaw said. Members of the fund’s organization will periodically place special coins in the boxes that will make participants eligible for certain prizes.

Shaw said that she is also hoping to continue adding boxes throughout the summer.

A booklet to get people started on the treasure hunt costs $20. All the proceeds will go toward supporting the educational grants the fund provides, Kelly said.

“One hundred percent of all the donations, the $20 here, goes to fund those grants,” Kelly said, noting that $100,000 has been given out in grants since the organization started about three years ago.

The kickoff event takes place at 9:30 a.m. this morning at the Fire Department headquarters at 390 Church St.

Participants can also buy the clue booklets throughout the summer.

For more information visit www.gffe.org or contact discoverguilford@gffe.org.

“You can buy them all summer long and you can play all summer long,” Shaw said.

2009-06-06T18:51:00.000-07:00

Festival organizers still seek sponsors

Published: Saturday, June 6, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NORTH BRANFORD — Organizers of the annual Potato and Corn Festival are still looking for sponsors and other donations as they gear up for the event, set for Aug. 7 to 9.

Recreation Director Pamela Gery told the Town Council Tuesday that she has already raised about $12,500 in sponsorships toward the estimated $50,000 to $60,000 cost of the event. She hopes to cover the rest of the expenses with more sponsors, water sales inside the festival and a raffle.

Last year was the first the festival expanded to cover three days, and about 13,000 people visited the fairgrounds at the Augur Farm property, according to the Parks and Recreation Department.

Gery said the department has been planning the festival for about nine months, and already has 17 food and 20 craft vendors lined up.

New events this year are set to include a tractor pull put on by the Agricultural Commission, a cross-country road race and a business exposition.

The town also plans to expand the free shuttle service it offered last year, so people will not have to wait in long traffic lines to access the festival.

“We struggled with (parking) last year, although it seemed to work,” Gery said.

The North Branford Touchdown Club is sponsoring a raffle to raise money for the festival. The $20 tickets, which are on sale at the Parks and Recreation Department at 1599 Foxon Road, enter participants in a raffle with a top prize of $5,000. Gery said she hopes to sell 3,000 tickets through the raffle.

She added that the fireworks display is again scheduled for Saturday night.

Admission to the festival is free.

It is scheduled to run from 4 to 11 p.m. Aug. 7; 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Aug. 8; and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Aug. 9. For more information, visit www.nbpotatofest.org or nbparkrec.com.

2009-06-03T18:52:00.000-07:00

Time running out for sick-leave bill

Published: Wednesday, June 3, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

It has come down to the wire for a bill that would require many employers to provide paid sick leave for workers, as the state Senate has until the end of the day to consider the legislation.

The House of Representatives passed the bill, HB6187, with some amendments by a vote of 88-58 after nine hours of debate last week. The measure was forwarded to the Senate, but it may die there if the body does not take up the bill by midnight, the close of the session.

A special session for legislators to focus on crafting a budget is scheduled to begin at 12:01 a.m Thursday.

The paid sick days bill, in its amended form, would allow hourly employees to accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours they work, up to 32 hours in 2010, and 40 hours in 2011 and thereafter. The legislation would apply to companies with 50 or more employees, and companies that already provide equivalent paid leave, such as vacation or personal days, would be in compliance with the law.

The law would take effect Jan. 1 and make Connecticut the first state in the country to require employers to provide paid leave. The sick days could be used by employees to take care of their own or a child’s health, or to deal with issues arising from being the victim of sexual assault or domestic violence. Employees must be 18 or older and have worked at least 520 hours in the past year to qualify for the leave.

Connecticut Working Families, the coalition party that has been backing the sick leave bill, called the amended version that passed the House last week a “compromise” that would “create a basic labor standard for paid sick days.”

Joe Dinkin, communications director for Connecticut Working Families, said that with the economic crisis and concerns about swine flu, the need for the legislation “has never been clearer.”

“But in politics, nothing is as clear as it seems,” Dinkin said. “The Senate passed paid sick days last year. I hope they can muster the courage to do it again this year when it matters more than ever.”

Last year, the Senate approved a similar bill requiring paid sick leave, but the House did not take up the legislation.

The Connecticut Business and Industry Association is opposing the bill, saying it would put an undue burden on employers. The legislation’s passage in the House is “yet another example of the sharp disconnect between state lawmakers and the realities of today’s poor economy,” the group said in a statement on its Web site.

“The reality is that the only way many employers can accommodate this additional unbudgeted cost is by reducing other employee benefits, wages and, in some cases, the jobs themselves,” according to the statement. “What’s more, the bill will create a huge administrative burden on employers, especially smaller ones, in managing varying amounts of time off for their employees.”

One local business owner, Blanca Gonzalez, who owns B&M Homemaking and Companion Service in West Haven, traveled to Hartford this week to speak against the bill.

Officials from Connecticut Working Families and other business owners have said they believe the bill would save businesses money by avoiding the costs of “presenteeism,” a term for the phenomenon of sick people reporting to work.

If the Senate passes the legislation today, it would then go to Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

2009-05-30T18:54:00.000-07:00

Martial arts studio owner busted on voyeurism

Published: Saturday, May 30, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — Police have charged the owner of the United Studios of Self Defense martial arts academy on the Boston Post Road with allegedly videotaping an employee and an underage student while they were undressed.

Joseph Moscatelli, 43, was charged Thursday night with two counts of voyeurism and one count of risk of injury/impairing the morals of a minor, according to police.

Moscatelli also owns the United Studios of Self Defense on North Main Street in Branford, police said. Branford police have been informed of the investigation.

Guilford police responded to a complaint about possible voyeurism at the martial arts studio at about 9:30 p.m. Thursday, police said. Sgt. Robert Norman said an employee at the business found a DVD that included footage of one female employee and one female student under the age of 16 undressing in a back room of the studio.

The owner was not at the academy at the time, and employees called police. Norman said investigators seized evidence including computer and recording equipment.

It did not appear the recording had been made for security purposes, Norman said. State law defines voyeurism as when someone maliciously and knowingly records the image of another person while the victim is not in plain view, and is somewhere he or she would have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Norman said police are still reviewing the recording and investigating whether any other employees or students were involved.

“We’re basically urging anyone who has additional information to call our detectives,” he said.

Neither the Guilford nor Branford police departments have received complaints about Moscatelli or the United Studios of Self Defense, Norman said.

Moscatelli could not be reached for comment Friday. There was no answer at his home telephone number and a handwritten sign posted at his Guilford business said it would be “closed until further notice.” He was released on a promise to appear June 9 in Superior Court in New Haven.

The Branford studio was also closed Friday, but it was unclear for how long. Norman said Guilford police did not have anything to do with the Guilford studio’s closure.

The United Studios of Self Defense is a national franchise with schools in 17 states, according to its Web site. A call to the program’s headquarters in Lake Forest, Calif., was not returned.

2009-05-30T18:53:00.000-07:00

Guilford Finance Board raises tax rate to 20.04

Published: Saturday, May 30, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — The Board of Finance this week set the tax rate for fiscal 2009-10 at 20.04 mills, following voter approval of a $75.51 million budget at referendum last week.

In a brief special meeting, the board approved the tax rate by a vote of 4-0, with members Matthew Hoey, Michael Ayles, James O’Keefe and Kimberly Brockett in attendance.

The rate means that homeowners will pay $20.04 in taxes for every $1,000 of assessed property value. That translates to $4,080 a year for a house with an assessment of $200,000.

The new tax rate represents a 4.4 percent increase over the current levy of 19.19 mills.

The meeting this week followed a referendum May 19 at which voters approved the $75.51 million budget by a tally of 3,103 to 2,429. Voters had previously rejected a $77.12 million budget that would have increased taxes by nearly 7 percent.

Although the budget overall is set to rise 0.85 percent in the coming fiscal year, officials said the larger increase in the tax rate was due to a reduction in revenues and a decision to not budget in reliance on money from the fund balance. The funding for fiscal 2008-09 was $75.5 million.

This year was the first since 2003 in which the budget proposal initially failed in referendum. That year, voters also rejected the budget once before approving a lower proposal.

2009-05-28T18:55:00.000-07:00

Fire commissioner eyes top Guilford seat

Published: Thursday, May 28, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — Fire Commissioner Ken Wilson, who lost the race for first selectman to incumbent Carl Balestracci in 2007, has announced that he plans to seek the Republican nomination for the position again this year.

The Republican Town Committee is still in the process of interviewing candidates and receiving applications for positions, Committee Chairman Jim O’Keefe said. The group plans to announce its slate later this summer, with the caucus scheduled for July 28.

“I’m seeking the candidacy because this town needs new leadership,” Wilson said Wednesday. “There’s a demand out there in our town for change and I want to provide the voters out there in the town of Guilford with an alternative.”

Wilson, 56, is a member of the Board of Fire Commissioners and former member of the Parks and Recreation Commission. He is a retired manager with AT&T. He graduated from Guilford High School in 1970 and has two degrees from Albertus Magnus College.

Wilson said he decided to run for the position again because of what he called a “lack of leadership and mismanagement in the town.” In 2007, Balestracci won the first selectman seat over Wilson by a vote of 3,353 to 2,849.

“I believe there needs to be transparency in town government and also open up the lines of communication between the town departments internally and externally with the voters and the citizens in the town of Guilford,” he said.

O’Keefe said that Wilson has already filed an application seeking the Republican Town Committee’s nomination.

“Ken, a personal friend, is a lifelong resident of Guilford, has a distinguished record of civic involvement and brings promise of new and refreshing ideas on how to best manage our town in the years to come,” O’Keefe wrote in an e-mail. “I have no doubt that Ken’s service to our community will be exemplary.”

One of his first goals would be “fiscal responsibility,” Wilson said, including building up the town’s fund balance. Another focus would be economic development that is in keeping with Guilford’s historic character, he said.

Balestracci, who has been first selectman since 2005 and also held the position from 2001 to 2003, declined to comment Wednesday.

The full-time first selectman position pays about $95,000 a year.

The Democratic Town Committee recently announced that it is also interviewing candidates for elected positions for the November election.

For the first time this year, candidates for seats on the Board of Selectmen will run for four-year terms, following voter approval of a charter revision last year that increased the terms from their former length of two years.

2009-05-25T18:56:00.000-07:00

Grant aids North Branford library

Published: Monday, May 25, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NORTH BRANFORD — Officials are putting the finishing touches on the Edward Smith Library, which reopened in February after a renovation and expansion, with the help of a grant from the Ronald McDonald House Charities.

Christian Trefz, owner of the McDonald’s in North Branford, along with Ronald McDonald himself presented library officials with a check for $11,500 last week.

The grant has furnished the library’s children’s section with a wooden “castle” play space and additional bookshelves, Library Director Bob Hull said.

Hull said library officials had planned for a children’s area for imaginative play, but it might not have been possible due to budget constraints. Children’s librarian Debra Verrillo wrote a grant for the Ronald McDonald House Charities, and Trefz worked with charity officials to secure the approval.

“We had always envisioned it and we always wanted a special area for the kids where they could kind of hide away and play and yet still be in view of their parents,” Hull said. “Either it was going to have to be something very, very modest, like just a couple of bookshelves, or we weren’t going to be able to do it at all.”

Hull said the library is still waiting delivery of a large cushion that will go inside the 12-by-12-foot castle. Other than that, he said, the only item left from the library’s construction is correcting a mistake in the color of the wood panels on the ends of the bookshelves.

The library nearly tripled in size, to 12,000 square feet. The town’s other library, Atwater Memorial Library, has now been closed in preparation for its own expansion and renovation. The combined cost of both renovations is about $9.5 million.

Hull said that the Smith library is now seeing about one-third more users than both libraries combined before the renovation.

“It’s extremely busy here and very gratifying to see the townspeople using it so actively,” he said.

Trefz said the donation was a good fit for the Ronald McDonald House Charities, which supports programs geared toward the health and well-being of children.

“It’s really a great organization,” he said. “They chose the furnishings, which is a wooden castle play-scape and other furniture, and it’s just wonderful how this whole thing came together.”

2009-05-23T18:33:00.000-07:00

Sneak peak Monday at Hepburn theater

Published: Saturday, May 23, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

OLD SAYBROOK — The public will have the chance to look around the still under-construction Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center during an open house Monday.

Executive Director Chuck Still said that the open house will allow people to see the progress on the theater, which has been under construction for about two years.

“We are going to open it up to the public after the (Memorial Day) parade so they’ll get a chance to see what’s going on inside,” Still said. “You’ll get a real sense of what the theater is going to look like in terms of being a room.”

The theater is in the “painting and molding stage,” he said.

The plans for the $6 million renovation of the center, which is at 302 Main St., include a 250-seat theater and a small museum about Katharine Hepburn, who lived in Old Saybrook until her death in 2003.

The 1911 building was originally a theater but was later used as Town Hall.

The renovation is being funded by $4.3 million from the town and $1.7 being raised by the center’s board of trustees, Still said.

Although the building is still under construction, Still said he is hoping that performances will begin in August and he has some events tentatively scheduled.

“It has been a much longer process than anybody anticipated, but it’s an old building and whenever you’re renovating an old building it takes longer than you think it will,” he said “It was actually used constantly until the last two years, so a lot had happened inside of it and it’s taken some time to restore it back to being a theater.”

The open house is scheduled to take place from noon to 2 p.m. Monday.

There will be refreshments — including Hepburn’s favorite brownie recipe — provided by Frankie & Gianni’s and Starbucks.

2009-05-21T18:34:00.000-07:00

Guilford to get TRIAD program

Published: Thursday, May 21, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — Senior citizens can learn how to protect themselves from financial scams and how to stay safe, thanks to a program announced Wednesday.

At a morning event attended by several older residents, state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Guilford will be the 58th town in the state to initiate the TRIAD program. The goal of the program is to bring together law enforcement, private businesses and residents to make senior citizens safer.

“The idea of a TRIAD, as you might gather from the use of the word ‘tri,’ is to involve the three critical parts of law enforcement — police, businesses and citizens,” Blumenthal said. “The citizens in some ways are the most important part because you’re the eyes and ears of law enforcement.”

The program is sponsored by People’s United Bank, which offers support for an element of TRIAD called the Yellow Dot program. Angela DeLeon, Master’s Program coordinator for People’s United, said that the program allows people to assist emergency responders by placing a yellow sticker in their car windows and keeping a list of health conditions and other information in their glove boxes.

Guilford police plan to initiate the Yellow Dot program June 24 with a meeting at the community center, Deputy Chief Jeffrey Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson said the police department plans to have periodic meetings with seniors about issues affecting them. At Wednesday’s kickoff event, several speakers mentioned financial scams as a source of concern for older residents.

Blumenthal noted that his office has received many calls about phone and e-mail scams, in particular the recent calls indicating that a car’s “factory warranty” has expired.

“The economic threat is very real,” he said. “It used to be people would break into your home. ... Now they can easily enter your home through your computer and fool you, deceive you, mislead you, because the Internet is such a powerful means of reaching people.”

Another element of the TRIAD program is the Silver Alert, a system like the Amber Alert for missing children to help find older people who may have Alzeimer’s or dementia. A bill creating the system has passed the state Senate and House of Representatives and is waiting for the governor’s approval.

State Rep. Patricia Widlitz, D-Guilford, and Rep. Deb Heinrich, D-Madison, also attended the ceremony.

“This is what makes Guilford a great community — we all care about each other, we all pull together to take care of each other and the TRIAD is a great example of that,” Widlitz said.

Anyone interested in participating in the TRIAD program is asked to call the Police Department at 453-8061.

2009-05-20T18:35:00.000-07:00

Guilford gives a thumbs up on 2nd try, after spending cut

Published: Wednesday, May 20, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — Voters approved a $75.51 million budget for 2009-10 Tuesday, a month after rejecting a higher proposal.

The budget passed by a total vote of 3,103 to 2,429, according to the town clerk’s office. With 36 percent of registered voters participating, the turnout surpassed that of the April 21 referendum, which saw a 31 percent turnout.

The $75.51 million budget is projected to increase taxes by 4.4 percent, to $20.04 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

The outcome was welcome news to town officials, many of whom gathered at Town Hall Tuesday to hear the results. After voters rejected a $77.12 million budget that would have raised taxes nearly 7 percent, the Board of Finance cut about $1.6 million from the proposal, resulting in the $75.51 million package.

The funding represents a 0.85 percent increase from the 2008-09 budget.

Board of Education Chairman William Bloss said Tuesday that the vote represented “The voice of hope and the voice of the future.”

Last week, Board of Education members announced they had reached agreements with all school district employees on pay concessions that should account for about $750,000 of the $1.18 million cut from the district’s budget. Teachers have agreed to a 1.22 percent pay increase for the next fiscal year, half of what was in their contract.

Guilford is the first town in the state whose teachers are part of the Connecticut Education Association to secure pay concessions from employees, Bloss said.

All of the concessions, which also affect custodians, administrators and secretaries and paraeducators, were contingent on the budget passing.

“Everyone partnered in presenting the most reasonable budget possible, including faculty, staff, parents and taxpayers,” Bloss said. “It took some vision and a lot of work, but it balances all of the interests as best as can be done.”

After the first budget proposal failed, the Board of Finance reduced the budget for the school district by $1.18 million, and funding for town operations by $429,000. School and town officials said the majority of the reductions would have to come from employee salaries and benefits.

The town has also reached concession agreements with some employees and is continuing to negotiate with other unions.

First Selectman Carl Balestracci said he was “relieved” at the results Tuesday.

“It’s a very austere budget, but indicative of what we need to have for these times,” he said. “We’ll do the best we can to provide the service with the monies that have been approved.”

2009-05-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

Saybrook OKs police chief’s retirement

Published: Wednesday, May 20, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

OLD SAYBROOK — The Police Commission voted to accept Police Chief Edmund Mosca’s retirement after meeting in executive session for nearly two hours Monday night.

The commission also discussed a process for replacing the chief, whose retirement is effective Oct. 16, Chairwoman Christina Burnham said. The group plans to seek input from current police officers before meeting June 8, when commissioners will discuss the scope of the search, Burnham said.

The meeting was the commission’s first since state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced the conclusion of his investigation into Mosca’s use of the McMurray-Kirtland Memorial Fund, a pool of money that Blumenthal found the chief had partly misused for 25 years. Mosca agreed to reimburse $22,500 to the fund, which Blumenthal said would be reorganized.

About 20 people turned out for the meeting, and several expressed concerns about or support for the Police Department.

Mary Hansen, a town resident who filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the fund’s files more than a year ago, questioned whether Mosca would still have a role in the Police Department’s operations until October.

“If so, I would highly recommend that this commission make his retirement date effective immediately,” Hansen said, adding she thought the commission should look outside the department to replace Mosca.

“We need someone new to lead our Police Department,” she said. “We need a person with experience and no prior connections to the Mosca regime.”

Resident Jim Lynch said he has had “nothing but positive experiences” with the Old Saybrook Police Department.

“I don’t see anything broken with the police force,” he said. “I just don’t see the bureaucratic approach to reaching out, retraining and reorganizing something that’s not broken.”

Mosca announced his retirement April 30. He is currently using up accumulated vacation and personal days. In the meantime, Deputy Police Chief Michael Spera, who was appointed to the reinstituted deputy chief position last June, is in charge of the day-to-day operations of the department.

Police Commission members thanked Mosca, the longest serving police chief in the state, for his service after unanimously voting to accept the resignation Monday night.

“We’d also just like to commend him for his 47-plus years in service to the town of Old Saybrook and duly noted in all that he’s done for us over the years,” Vice-Chairman Timothy Conklin said.

2009-05-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

Guilford taxpayers vote today on reduced budget

Published: Tuesday, May 19, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — Voters are set to go to the polls today for the second time in a month to decide on a budget for fiscal 2009-10.

A budget proposal of $77.12 million failed at referendum April 21. Since then, the Board of Finance has cut the budget to $75.51 million, and officials have secured pay concession agreements from most town employees.

The Board of Finance reduced the budget for the school district by $1.18 million, and funding for town operations by $429,000. School and town officials said the majority of the reductions would have to come from salaries and benefits.

Last week, the Board of Education announced that it had reached an agreement with the teachers’ union for pay concessions and an early retirement program that are projected to save about $621,000. With additional concessions on raises and health benefit payments from the administrators, secretaries and para-educators, and custodians, the district is looking to account for a total of $750,000 of the $1.18 million cut.

The remainder would come from programming changes and the consolidation of school bus routes, officials said.

The concessions came with an agreement that there would be no layoffs. They are all contingent on the budget passing today.

Superintendent of Schools Thomas Forcella said that teachers were to receive a contractually agreed upon 2.45 percent raise in fiscal 2009-10. Under the concession agreement, they will receive a 1.22 percent increase, and the payments that come with certain tenure milestones will also be cut by half.

Forcella said he did not know how many people will take advantage of the early retirement option.

“I know we have a significant number of individuals who fall within the age and experience level that they could benefit by this,” he said.

Town department heads and the Guilford Employee Association, which represents workers in departments such as the library and Parks and Recreation, have also agreed to wage concessions that include a combination of reductions in contracted raises and unpaid furlough days.

First Selectman Carl Balestracci said that the $429,000 cut from the Board of Finance has been taken out of the budget, and he is continuing discussions with other town unions, including the police and public works employees.

“We were ordered and we did cut $429,000, which is the full amount of all salary increases for the town side for the next fiscal year,” he said.

“All of the unions are different — their missions are different, their conditions are different. We can’t offer unpaid furlough days to the police, fire and dispatchers because then we have to replace them at time-and-a-half,” he said.

Balestracci said that even though contract discussions are still ongoing with some unions, the budget reductions have already been made. Voters will be asked to approve or reject a $26.85 million budget for town operations, a reduction of 1.57 percent over the 2008-09 budget.

The school district’s proposed budget is $48.66 million, up 1.02 percent from the current fiscal year.

Voting is scheduled for today from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at all five polling locations.

For a list of voting districts by street, visit www.ci.guilford.ct.us.

“I just hope that everyone gets out to vote,” Balestracci said.

“It’s extremely important that we pass the budget this time. I think it would be a disaster for the town if this doesn’t pass this time, because you know we had cut everything down to the bone and we need to get back to running our town,” Balestracci said.

2009-05-18T18:37:00.000-07:00

Life’s hurdles no match for graduates’ determination

Published: Monday, May 18, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

In the midst of commencement ceremonies Sunday, thousands of Quinnipiac University seniors took time to honor someone who should have been crossing the stage with them: Robert Aliano, the Quinnipiac student who was seriously injured in a hit-and-run accident in November.

Aliano, who attended the Hamden ceremony with his parents and girlfriend, received a standing ovation from the 1,300 graduates, their friends and family after Business School Dean Matthew O’Connor noted his presence in the audience.

“He’s a real inspiration to all of us,” O’Connor said. “We are delighted to have him here as part of today’s celebration.”

At Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, where 690 undergraduate and graduate degrees were awarded Sunday at the school’s 86th commencement, there were also standouts in determination among the graduates.

Maxine Francis was proud to see her daughter, Samantha Augustine, receive her bachelor’s degree, because Augustine, who graduated with honors, had numerous health battles.

Augustine has sickle cell anemia and requires regular blood transfusions. She also suffered a broken hip during her studies.

The first thing she told her mother when she came out of hip surgery was, “Mom, am I going to be able to finish school,” Francis said. “She’s been through a lot.”

At Quinnipiac, Aliano, a business major, was to have graduated this semester. He is still in a wheelchair and has difficulty speaking following the accident, but his parents said he is hoping to start walking again in a few weeks and to finish college in one to two years.

His father, Nick Aliano, said that the family decided to attend the ceremony to send a positive message to the graduates.

“We wanted to come to inspire the rest of the children that are all graduating today to know basically never to give up and to continue and to go through life having a positive attitude,” he said. He added that the feature of Robert’s story on the “America’s Most Wanted” television program has led to some potential leads in the hit-and-run case, which is still under investigation.

Lori Aliano, Robert’s mother, thanked people for their “support and prayers,” saying they had made a big difference.

“We’re very proud of him,” she said. “He really deserved (the recognition), and he will be back.”

Quinnipiac President John Lahey called Sunday a “day of joy and celebration,” despite the chilly weather.

Commencement speaker William Weldon, chairman of the board and CEO of Johnson and Johnson, encouraged graduates to strive to balance work and family commitments in the future. Weldon and his wife, Barbara, both graduated from Quinnipiac in 1971.

Weldon, who received an honorary degree, noted that “perhaps no class in the past 80 years has faced a more perilous economic climate upon graduation” than the class of 2009.

“If you really have a passion for your work, your success and income will follow,” he said. “If you have a passion for money first, well, you only have to read the headlines of what’s happened in the last years to see where that can take you.”

Deanna Conway drove 16 hours from her Army post in Georgia to see her sister Tracina receive her bachelor’s degree Sunday from Albertus. She joined a row full of relatives, including a cousin who flew to the ceremony.

Tracina is headed to New York City after graduation, and wants to go into business.

Kate Faber carried a giant smiley-face balloon Sunday for her daughter, Jeanne Beth Willett, who, in her 30s, decided to return to school.

She worked full time while studying at Albertus.

Willett officially received her bachelor’s degree in January, and has already begun work on a master’s.

“I am very proud. Not only did she work a full time job, she went to school,” Faber said. “She just really wanted to go back to school.”

Albertus awarded honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees to Sister Anne Kilbride, Margaret Badum Melady and Thomas Melady.

Former honorary degree recipient Bishop Theodore Brooks, pastor of Beulah Heights Pentacostal Church, returned to address the graduates.

Brooks encouraged graduates to continue their education, and said he himself might seek a master’s of leadership degree from Albertus.

“We can find excuses for not achieving these things we want,” he said. “Procrastination is a thief not only of time, but of goals.”

At Fairfield University’s 59th commencement exercises Sunday, The Saint Ignatius Loyola Medal for outstanding university service, the highest Alumni Association award presented to a senior, was awarded to Ahna Johnson, of Hamden, a double major in physics and information systems.

2009-05-18T18:36:00.000-07:00

Freddie's Back: But parade turnout disappoints

Published: Monday, May 18, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NEW HAVEN — A year after the Freddie Fixer Parade was canceled because of concerns about violence, the tradition returned Sunday with a smaller event that many hoped would bring bigger crowds next year.

Walter Hammie, owner of Reliable Liquor Store on Dixwell Avenue, said the parade “wasn’t what we were used to.” Hammie said he has been attending the parade for years and remembered when bands would come from as far away as Richmond, Va., to participate.

“It used to be a whole weekend (of events) and this was the climax of it,” Hammie said. “Really, it was the largest black parade in America, right here in New Haven.”

The parade almost did not happen again this year, as organizers said they needed to raise up to $50,000 toward the cost of overtime for police. Although the event came off, it was on a shorter route than in the past, along Dixwell between Morse Street and Lake Place.

Hammie said he thought organizers should try to return to the roots of the parade and rebuild community support for the event. To that end, a community cleanup was held in the Hill, Dwight and Dixwell neighborhoods May 9.

The parade began in the 1960s under the leadership of Dr. Fred Smith and the Dixwell Redevelopment Agency as a community spring cleaning.

Although the Freddie Fixer Parade has been one of the premiere African-American events in New England, the crowds Sunday were sparse.

Thomasena Denny, who said she attends the parade every year, said the combination of poor weather and a lack of knowledge about the event resuming this year might have contributed to low attendance.

“I think it’s a good event for people because it brings all the pride out,” she said. “It’s something to keep a tradition going on and on. We all got to get together and come together as one.”

Denny said she did not think the parade was the cause of violent events in the past. The day had been marred in recent years by a fatal shooting and injuries when a motorcycle went into a crowd, and last year a string of shootings in the weeks before the event led to its cancellation.

“If the people feel like they’re going to fight or shoot, that’s what they’re going to do,” Denny said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the parade.”

Sunday’s event was the 46th time the parade has taken place. It featured music, dancers and performers, and was also accompanied by the “Drill-O-Rama” at Blake Field on State Street and a community basketball game at Wilbur Cross High School.

2009-05-16T18:38:00.000-07:00

West Shore voters approve fire budget

Published: Saturday, May 16, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

WEST HAVEN — West Shore voters narrowly approved an $8.85 million fire district budget at a special fire board meeting Friday night.

The 2009-10 budget, which passed by a vote of 57-54, requires a tax increase of 2.06 mills, raising the rate to 7.95 mills. The current rate in the district is 5.89 mills.

The vote came two weeks after home-owners rejected an $8.87 million budget that would have raised taxes by 2.19 mills. That budget failed by a vote of 174-66.

West Shore Fire Commission Chairman John Biancur said that the board will continue negotiating with the union, which has agreed to a two-year wage freeze, about contractual concessions.

“We would not have proposed this budget if we had another choice — we had no other choice,” Biancur said. “We’ve tried everything we possibly can in the time that we have. We will continue to work with the union.”

Several speakers Friday said they would like to see changes made to the firefighters’ pension and health care plans.

“If the Big Three in Detroit can go back to their unions and ask for concessions, and they did, then why can’t we do that here?” Ron Pelliccia asked.

Others questioned whether the district could save money by eliminating a firehouse. Fire Chief David Collins said that such a move would likely only save about $50,000 to $100,000.

“The operation of the district is not the part of our budget that is very expensive — it’s personnel and costs,” Collins said Friday. “I think that the (Ocean Avenue) station is well worth its three-man company. It provides an excellent response time to the lower portion of our district.”

Collins said the budget increase is due mainly to the retirement of five more firefighters than were budgeted for and a drastic rise in medical costs. The increase would be even higher, Collins said, if not for salary concessions recently negotiated by the union. Firefighters were supposed to receive a 3.25 percent raise starting July 1, but agreed to the wage freeze that starts next year.

Collins noted that the department will save about $400,000 a year over two years from a combination of the wage freeze and fewer expected retirements.

Residents approved the budget after rejecting an amendment that would have reduced the proposed appropriation by $50,000. Following the budget approval, voters approved setting the tax rate at 7.95 mills.

Voters also gave the commission the authority to borrow up to $500,000 in fiscal 2009-10, which Biancur said would be used in “catastrophic circumstances” such as the loss of a piece of equipment.

Also at Friday’s meeting, commissioners announced that Capt. Patrick Pickering has been chosen as the district’s deputy chief, a position that has been open since April 2008. The district will hold a swearing-in at a later date, Biancur said.

2009-05-15T18:38:00.000-07:00

Tentative givebacks set at Guilford schools

Published: Friday, May 15, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — The Board of Education has reached tentative concession agreements with the school district’s employees that will avoid layoffs for the coming fiscal year, board members announced at a special meeting Thursday night.

The agreements, which would save an estimated $750,000, are contingent on Guilford’s proposed $75.51 million budget passing at referendum Tuesday.

Since voters last month rejected a $77.12 million budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year, the board and Superintendent of Schools Thomas Forcella have been negotiating with the district’s bargaining units — which represent teachers, paraeducators and secretaries, custodians, and administrators — to make changes to contractual salary increases.

Following the failed referendum, the Board of Finance cut the school district’s budget by $1.18 million. The remainder of the cut after the $750,000 in concessions will be made up of program changes and the elimination of a bus route, Forcella said Thursday.

The majority of the $750,000 savings comes from the teachers union, which represents approximately $620,000 in reduced salary increases and an early retirement incentive. The paraeducators and clerical staff have agreed to a reduction of $48,000 in negotiated salary increases, while the custodians and maintenance workers represent a cut of $26,000. The $33,000 in savings from the administrators comes in the form of increased payments to their health insurance premiums.

Forcella said that the parties still need to “dot the i’s and cross the t’s” on the agreements, but added, “I feel confident it will happen.”

An audience of about 40 people waited while the Board of Education met in executive session for more than an hour, and cheered the announcement.

“Sometimes out of the most challenging circumstances we wind up with good news,” said Board of Education Chairman William Bloss. “This is an outstanding day for education in Guilford.”

Bloss said that the agreement included the condition that the concessions would avoid layoffs. But he added that the work to reach the concessions would be “decimated” if the budget fails Tuesday.

“I urge you to have some confidence in the promise of our future as a community, as a state and a country and confidence in the power of education to deliver that promise,” he said.

Board members thanked the employees and Forcella for the work that went into the agreements. “There’s a great appreciation for all the work with great respect for all the bargaining units and all the staff in the school system,” Ted Zuse said.

The budget referendum is scheduled for Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. For a list of polling locations, visit www.ci.guilford.ct.us.

2009-05-13T18:40:00.000-07:00

Saybrook chief agrees to repay $22,500

Published: Wednesday, May 13, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

HARTFORD - Old Saybrook Police Chief Edmund Mosca has repaid $22,500 to a fund that Attorney General Richard Blumenthal found Mosca used improperly for 25 years, Blumenthal said Tuesday.

Mosca, who announced his retirement late last month, has also agreed to have no further involvement with the McMurray-Kirtland Memorial Fund, Blumenthal said. The police chief is currently using accumulated vacation days prior to retiring Oct. 16, and could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Blumenthal said Mosca’s retirement was not a part of the investigation’s resolution, but added, “The timing speaks for itself.”

“His resignation was not an explicit condition of the resolution, but certainly the two came at almost exactly the same time,” he said.

The attorney general’s office is not referring any criminal charges related to Mosca to other agencies, Blumenthal said.

In a statement, Mosca’s attorney, Robert Britt, called the resolution of the investigation “mutually agreeable” to Mosca and the attorney general’s office. Britt said that Mosca believed the expenditures from the so-called “Mac Fund” benefited the town and Police Department.

“Although the attorney general may take issue with some of the expenditures as being beyond the scope of the fund, the chief was acting with what he believed to be in the best interests of the town of Old Saybrook and the Police Department,” Britt said in the statement. He added that Mosca chose to reimburse the fund so as not to “tarnish” organizations — including state and national police associations — that received money, and Mosca has also made a personal contribution to the fund.

Blumenthal’s office is continuing to investigate the disbursement between 2000 and 2002 of $64,000 into the Mac Fund. A bequest left to the “Old Saybrook Policemen’s Benevolent Association,” which does not exist, was sent to the Mac Fund rather than to the Old Saybrook Policemen’s Brotherhood Association, which later became the police officers union.

Blumenthal said Mosca was not involved in allotting the funds, but that it seemed clear the money was “improperly disbursed.” He would not specify who is the subject of the further investigation.

“The resolution as to Chief Mosca is complete, but others may be held accountable for the $64,000 that was perhaps, we believe, illegally and improperly devoted to the Mac Fund,” Blumenthal said.

In February, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit the police union had brought related to the money.

The Mac Fund was set up in 1985 after the merger of two separate funds that dated from the 1970s. Blumenthal said it was intended to support youth activities and the Police Department, but many of Mosca’s expenditures fell outside those areas. Mosca had sole authority over the fund, Blumenthal said.

“This fund was under the exclusive control of the chief of police and was used for purposes outside the donors’ intent,” he said. “Because the money was used inconsistently with the intent of the donors, some of this money has to be reimbursed.”

The attorney general’s investigation into Mosca’s use of the fund, underway since February 2008, found the police chief had spent $142,481 from the fund between 1985 and 2007. Of that, about 40 percent, or $55,000, covered Police Department expenses such as computers and training.

The improper expenses, Blumenthal said, came in the areas of funds for state and national police chief meetings, golf tournaments, conferences and other miscellaneous expenses. Mosca “cannot fully account for” money that he received from the fund for conferences, the investigation found. Only about 2 percent, or $2,936, of money from the fund was spent on youth activities, which Mosca had described as one of the fund’s primary purposes.

In a statement Tuesday, Police Commission Chairwoman Christina Burnham said money from the fund was spent on food and drink for staff meetings, police equipment, professional association fees, youth sports and sending flowers to people for weddings and funerals, among other items.

“Chief Mosca advised the Police Commission that he agreed to make the payment to the McMurray-Kirtland Fund to ensure that there can be no possible doubt that 100 percent of the McMurray-Kirtland funds will be used for the generally recognized purposes of such a fund, and that he agreed to make a donation to the fund to demonstrate his support for the fund,” Burnham said in the statement.

Blumenthal said that a lack of record-keeping for the fund complicated the investigation. He added that the fund, currently held by Hartford law firm Reid and Riege, will be restructured and registered to comply with state and federal regulations.

“It was the lack of recollection and documentation as to how the money was used that absolutely astonished us,” he said. “The record-keeping here was incomplete and incompetent — virtually nonexistent — and so reconstituting the paper trail on the uses of the money was almost impossible.”

2009-05-13T18:39:00.000-07:00

N. Branford budget rejected; low turnout fails to make it count

Published: Wednesday, May 13, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NORTH BRANFORD — Voters rejected the town’s 2009-10 budget at referendum Tuesday, but the turnout was not high enough to make the vote binding.

The budget failed by a count of 441-123, a turnout of 6.2 percent. The annual referendum is nonbinding if voter turnout is less than 15 percent.

The $45.25 million budget represents a 2.84 percent increase from the 2008-09 package, and taxes are projected to rise 4 percent, to $25.95 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

The referendum allowed voters to specify why they were rejecting the budget.

The vast majority, 437 people, said that it was too high, while four voters said that the budget was too low.

The nonbinding nature of the referendum means that the Town Council is not required to make any changes to the budget based on the vote. Mayor Michael Doody said he expects the Town Council to discuss and adopt the proposed budget at its meeting Tuesday.

The budget includes $11.8 million for town operations and $28.75 million for the school district.

With several building projects under way or recently completed, the town’s debt service is slated to increase 23 percent to $4.62 million this fiscal year.

Doody said he thought that the low voter turnout indicated residents were generally satisfied with the town’s handling of the budget in a difficult economic year.

“My personal opinion (is) the people have faith in the Town Council and what the Town Council is doing that’s why they’re not coming out to vote,” Doody said. “They’re satisfied with the process.”

Voter turnout was up slightly from last year’s budget referendum, when about 4 percent of the voters participated.

Doody said that the town worked to keep expenses down. The budget for town operations is the same as it was for fiscal 2008-09, and the Board of Education’s budget includes a 1.35 percent increase.

“It was a zero growth on the town side, it was small growth on the Board of Education side, but, you know, next year’s going to be even a tougher year,” he said.

“We’re talking over a one mill debt increase next year.”

2009-05-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

School budget cuts still on the table

Published: Tuesday, May 12, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — Four groups of school district employees — representing paraeducators, secretaries, custodians and administrators — have tentatively agreed to pay concessions for the coming year totaling about $150,000, Superintendent of Schools Thomas Forcella told the Board of Education Monday night.

The board is continuing to negotiate with the teachers’ union as the district looks to cut $1.18 million from its 2009-10 budget, Forcella said. Monday’s meeting drew about 30 audience members, including many teachers.

A budget proposal of $77.12 million for the town and school district failed at referendum last month, and the Board of Finance has agreed to put a revised $75.51 million budget before voters today.

On Monday, the Board of Education voted to send a formal request to the teachers’ union to engage in midterm contract talks. In the absence of pay concessions, Forcella outlined a scenario that included 21 layoffs, 11 teachers and 10 other staff members.

“There’s been a lot of discussion with the different bargaining groups,” Forcella said. “I think the discussions have been very positive. ... I think there’s a willingness to really do something as a district to move forward.”

The board did not vote on Forcella’s proposed areas to cut, but noted that the reductions will likely come from a combination of non-staff areas, pay concessions and layoffs.

Forcella and board members also noted the assumption would be that unions agreeing to concessions would not face layoffs.

“The board would take every effort to look at those and not take staff in those areas where the concessions were granted,” Forcella said, adding that the teachers’ union represented the “lion’s share” of contractual pay increases.

Board members agreed Monday not to cut middle school interscholastic sports or implement user fees for high school athletics and other extracurricular programs, two concepts that Forcella had suggested to save about $104,000. But members said they think the district should continue exploring the concept in the future.

“My concern is that the issue of interscholastic sports at (Elisabeth C.) Adams (Middle School) and the user fees ... is a major consideration that should not be undertaken under the pressure of a budget or a referendum,” said board member Alan Meyers. “I would like to have a dialogue with ourselves and the community about the pros and cons.”

Other savings, totaling about $400,000, could come in the areas of professional development, supplies and equipment, and the consolidation of bus routes, in addition to other smaller items, Forcella said.

“All of those items in the failed budget were below the prior year, so this is taking another look at those items,” he said. “The risk you run is these are deferred costs because if you don’t buy the equipment, obviously you’re going to have to buy it at some point in time because things don’t last forever.”

Board members said they will likely schedule another meeting to discuss the possible pay concessions later this week. A town meeting on the revised budget is scheduled for 7:30 tonight at Elisabeth C. Adams Middle School, and the second referendum is scheduled for May 19 at all five polling locations.

2009-05-04T18:42:00.000-07:00

Flu flurry may boost bid for paid sick leave

Published: Monday, May 4, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

With concerns about swine flu ratcheting up across the country, officials, from local health directors to President Obama, have been issuing the same message: If you or your child develop flu-like symptoms, stay home and avoid contact with others.

In Connecticut, labor advocates are hoping that message will hit home in their push to pass legislation requiring companies with more than 50 workers to provide paid sick leave.

The bill, HB-6187, has already passed two House committees and may come up for a vote in the Appropriations Committee Thursday.

After several years in which similar legislation passed the state Senate but was not taken up in the House of Representatives, proponents are hoping that the bill will make it to the House floor this year.

Jon Green, director of Connecticut Working Families, which is backing the legislation, said the swine flu scare highlights the importance of paid sick leave.

“The fact that there’s a flu epidemic in the world right now certainly raises the awareness and heightens the urgency of the issue,” Green said. “In fact, the people who have the least ability to stay home when they’re sick are often people whose jobs cause them to come in contact with the public and particularly with vulnerable populations, (such as) home health care workers, bus drivers, food service (workers).”

Connecticut health officials are advising anyone with symptoms, including fever, coughing and a sore throat, to stay home from school or work for at least seven days, waiting to return until one to two days after they are feeling better, according to an overview on swine flu posted on the state Department of Public Health’s Web site.

In the state, about 70 percent of full-time employees and 27 percent of part-time employees are offered paid sick leave through their jobs, according to a 2006 report from the state Department of Labor. The figure was much lower for part-time employees in the accommodations and food services industry, the report said.

The proposed legislation would allow employees to build up paid sick days at a rate of one hour for every 40 hours worked, up to 52 hours or 6 1/2 days per year. The sick days would become available 120 days after the start of employment. Employees would be allowed to use the leave to care for their own or a child’s physical and mental health, as well as for when the employee is a victim of domestic violence or sexual assault.

“It’s the type of policy that as people learn more about it and really understand all the implications, it becomes increasingly clear that there are significant public benefits that really do outweigh the relatively minor costs that may be associated with the bill,” Green said. “It reduces the likelihood of people going to work when they’re sick, and there’s lots of bad things that happen when people go to work when they’re sick.”

Green cited the risk to co-workers’ and customers’ health as costs that can be incurred through “presenteeism,” a term for employees working despite being sick.

But the Connecticut Business and Industry Association believes that the costs to business if the legislation passes would not be minor. On its Web site, the association calls the bill “anti-business” and estimates that the legislation would cost a business with 50 employees about $26,000 a year.

Kia Murrell, associate counsel for CBIA, called the proposal “extremely harmful to Connecticut businesses,” as it would make the state the only one in the nation with a sick leave mandate.

“No other state has this and for the most part the reason is because everybody recognizes that it will make the businesses in their state uncompetitive,” Murrell said. “Now that’s particularly problematic at a time like right now where even some of the most stable and viable businesses are struggling to compete, but particularly in Connecticut because our costs were already high even before the recent economic downturn.”

Murrell said that the “one-size-fits-all” bill could cause some employers to cut other benefits in order to offer sick leave.

According to the legislation, companies would be in compliance with the law if they offer paid leave other than vacation days that could be used for the same purposes as sick leave.

Scott Macdonald, a labor relations and employment lawyer and human resources consultant with the Human Resource Consortium in New Haven, said that some calculations about the cost per hour of providing sick leave do not take into account the costs to businesses from employees working while sick.

“All the studies that I have found through my research and all of my experience consulting with employers indicate that providing paid sick leave is actually good for business from the perspective of bottom-line success, productivity and lower turnover, enhanced employee morale and engagement,” Macdonald said. “It actually ends up costing the company less money than the cost of people coming to work sick and getting other people sick.”

2009-05-02T18:44:00.000-07:00

‘Rock pile’ project on hold

Published: Saturday, May 2, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — After months of rumors about an apparent lack of construction at the “rock pile” site, developers have confirmed that the project is on hold because of the difficult economic climate.

Representatives from Developers Diversified Realty, which is behind the controversial Guilford Commons shopping center at 1919 Boston Post Road, said in a statement this week that “for now” the company has “suspended further construction.”

In the statement, Paul Freddo, senior executive vice president of leasing and development, called the suspension a “temporary delay.”

“Current economic conditions, including shrinking consumer confidence and poor retail sales, have caused retailers who prefer the lifestyle center format to slow their expansion plans on a national level,” Freddo said.

“When economic conditions improve and lifestyle center tenants are again actively seeking quality lifestyle development locations, we will resume construction on Guilford Commons.”

The company did not specify a timeline for resuming work.

As of Friday, stock in Developers Diversified Realty was trading at about $4 a share, down from about $44 on May 1, 2008.

Town Planner George Kral said that planning officials have visited the site to make sure areas that were disturbed during the initial construction phase will not erode during the halt. Workers built a retaining wall and moved large piles of dirt during the early work, which began summer 2008.

“They have a lot of exposed dirt and they have a big pile of sand there, which is part of their septic system, and the concern is we want to just make sure it’s not going to create any problem,” Kral said.

“All of it I think has been pretty well secured, but those erosion controls are kind of designed to be temporary, not to be there for years and years — of course, no one’s hoping or expecting it to be years and years.”

Zoning and Wetlands Enforcement Officer Regina Reed said there was one incident on the site during a rainstorm in December, during which some of the hill eroded, but the contractors solved the problem.

According to the town’s conditions of approval for the project, a monitor must visit the site every week and after each significant rainfall, including during breaks in construction, to check for erosion.

Charles Magby, a resident who opposed the project as an official intervener during the approval process, said that he was glad to hear the work has stopped, but added he is worried about erosion into nearby Spinning Mill Brook.

During hearings before the town’s Inland Wetlands Commission, Magby and Gaboury Benoit, a professor of environmental chemistry and environmental engineering at Yale University, argued that the development would harm the brook and local wetlands.

The commission rejected the proposal in April 2007 before approving a revised version in December of the same year. The Planning and Zoning Commission approved the development in January 2008.

“Unfortunately, the town decided to approve that — the town’s going to have to live with it,” Magby said. “I tried desperately to tell them this kind of thing could happen. I showed them why it was wrong for them to allow this to be approved, and not just me, but so did a lot of other people.”

The 26-acre, $37 million development near the Exit 57 interchange off Interstate 95 was to have included chain stores such as Talbots and Coldwater Creek, according to a sign in front of the property.

Town officials said the developers will continue work to move a cell tower on the site.

2009-05-02T18:43:00.000-07:00

Reaction mixed on resignation

Published: Saturday, May 2, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

OLD SAYBROOK — Residents and town officials expressed surprise this week at the announcement late Thursday that Police Chief Edmund Mosca, who is under investigation by state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, would retire Oct. 16.

But Blumenthal said in a statement the retirement is “no surprise in light of my investigation’s conclusion and the terms of the resolution,” which he plans to release next week.

Blumenthal said that he has finished the investigation into Mosca’s use of money from a memorial fund and he is negotiating with Mosca to resolve the situation.

In a letter Thursday to the chairwoman of the Police Commission, Mosca, 70, said that he is retiring and is looking forward to spending more time with his family. The longest-serving police chief in the state, Mosca has been in his role for nearly 40 years, and with the Police Department for 48.

He could not be reached for comment Friday.

Prior to his retirement, Mosca will take accumulated vacation and personal days starting Friday, he said in his letter. While he is on leave, Deputy Chief Michael Spera will be in charge of the operations of the department, Police Commission Chairwoman Christina Burnham said.

The retirement announcement came at the end of Blumenthal’s more than yearlong investigation into Mosca’s use of what the chief called a “private fund” that he operated outside of the Police Department’s budget. Last year, the state Freedom of Information Commission ruled that the McMurray-Kirtland Memorial Fund’s records were public and ordered the town to release them.

The so-called “Mac Fund,” which was set up in 1975, was apparently used for a range of purposes, from meals and airfare for police personnel to office supplies and flagpoles.

The police union, C.O.P.S. Local 106, filed a federal lawsuit against Mosca for directing $64,000 left in a bequest to the Police Benevolent Association — the officers’ organization before they joined the national union — to the McMurray-Kirtland fund.

In February, U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall threw out the lawsuit. The judge dismissed the suit’s federal claims and “dismissed without prejudice (the five other claims) to filing in state court.”

Resident Mary Hansen, who filed the FOI request to get the Mac Fund documents, said she thought it was appropriate for the police chief to retire given the ongoing investigation.

“I think Chief Mosca knows that the office of the police chief has lost respect and credibility during the last 14 months,” she said.

Hansen added that she thinks the town should look outside the department for a new chief.

“I think that we just need a clean sweep,” she said. “I think we need some fresh air. I think that our guys in blue would benefit from a change in leadership and it would restore confidence on the part of the public in our Police Department.”

Police Commissioner Richard Metsack, who has criticized Mosca in the past, agreed.

“I knew Ed, I liked him, we got along pretty good, but I think it’s time for a change and if you stay in one place for too long things begin to stagnate,” Metsack said. “I think with this we can head in a new and different and hopefully a better direction.”

Burnham said that the Police Commission will likely meet next week or early the following week to discuss replacing Mosca. She added that she expects it will be a straightforward transition.

“We have a relatively small department — you know, we’re not a big city department — but our department is on the cutting edge of law enforcement,” Burnham said. “The chief has made sure that our department has kept up on the times and I think we have a very professional and competent department, and that’s in large part due to the chief and his efforts.”

2009-04-30T18:45:00.000-07:00

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.”

2009-04-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-23T18:46:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-22T18:47:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-21T18:18:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-20T18:20:00.000-07:00

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.”

2009-04-20T18:19:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-18T18:21:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

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.”

2009-04-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

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.”

2009-04-13T18:23:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-10T18:24:00.000-07:00

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.”

2009-04-08T18:24:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-07T18:25:00.000-07:00

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.”

2009-04-04T18:26:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-31T18:27:00.000-07:00

Opening Old Wounds

Published: Tuesday, March 31, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — David Knapp was expelled from the Boy Scouts of America for being gay more than 15 years ago, and has been in the news over the years protesting the organization’s policy concerning gay members and his exclusion from the Eagle Scout Association.

So he was surprised to receive an e-mail late last year from the Connecticut Yankee Council, the Boy Scouts organization for Southwest Connecticut, inviting him to become involved with the group again by volunteering or donating money. Earlier this month, he received another letter asking him to sponsor an Eagle Scout for an annual dinner.

Knapp, 82, said he thought the officials at the organization must have been aware of his past and had decided he could have some participation, even if he could not be a member.

“Since they wrote me a letter addressed to me by name, I assumed they were sincere in feeling I could be a merit badge counselor or work on the commission or be an Eagle Scout sponsor, and that they were just rising above this very childish, hurtful and discriminatory policy of the national office,” Knapp said.

Knapp, who said he continues to believe the Boy Scouts is “the best youth program in the world” apart from its anti-gay policies, responded to the invitations by offering to be a merit badge counselor for sailing and by supporting a local Eagle Scout with a $175 contribution toward the council’s Eagle Scout Recognition Dinner.

But last week, he returned home to an unpleasant phone message from the Connecticut Yankee Council — officials had run his name by the national organization and were told that Knapp was not eligible to mentor Scouts or attend the dinner.

Louis Salute, Scout executive for the Connecticut Yankee Council, said that someone at the group recognized Knapp’s name and thought it should be checked. Since Knapp was removed from the Boy Scouts, Salute said, he cannot participate at any level.

“Because of an administrative error, unfortunately, he was contacted to attend this event, and when it was realized it was an error, we called to talk to him,” Salute said. “It was our mistake, and we called to apologize. This never should have happened, and it was no attempt to open an old wound or anything with him.”

Salute, whose name was on the first e-mail Knapp received, said he believes the error occurred because of an effort the national office recently made to put together a directory of all Eagle Scouts, whether or not they were still members of the organization. That data was then sent to the local councils, which used it to reach out to past participants.

Knapp, who grew up in New Jersey, earned his Eagle Scout badge in 1944 and attended Wesleyan University before working professionally for the Boy Scouts between 1950 and 1960. He later moved to Connecticut and returned to Scouting as a volunteer, working for the Quinnipiac Council, the precursor to the Connecticut Yankee Council.

A married man with two stepdaughters and one daughter, Knapp said he realized he was gay at age 50, after which he and his wife divorced. He believes a family member outed him to the Boy Scouts, who in 1993 informed him he could no longer be a part of the organization.

Scout leaders said at the time that Knapp was not accused of any misconduct, but of being an “avowed homosexual,” although at the time only close family members knew about his sexual orientation. He is now a member of Scouting for All, which advocates for the Scouts to include all people regardless of spiritual belief, gender or sexual orientation.

In 2000, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, upheld the Boy Scouts of America’s right to exclude homosexual members.

Salute said the Connecticut Yankee Council, which was formed in 1998, has not removed anyone because of sexual orientation. When asked whether the council supports the Boy Scouts’ position on gay members, he said, “We don’t have a choice — it’s a national policy of the Boy Scouts of America.”

He added the issue in this instance was not why Knapp was removed, but that the removal precluded him from participation.

Knapp said he is disappointed at the about-face, and is not hopeful the national organization’s policy will change, but he plans to continue to advocate against it.

He added he believes the policy “goes against everything the Boy Scouts stands for,” and has damaged the group at a time when “we need it now more than ever.”

“I passionately believe that,” he said. “When I see all of the lying and deceit and corruption going on among the leaders of our financial institutions and our economic institutions and our politics, I think, you know, ‘Were they ever in Boy Scouts? Were they ever taught the Boy Scouts Oath and Law?’ They’re basic, simple things, but we need it; boy, do we need it.”

2009-03-27T18:28:00.000-07:00

Debt costs expected to boost tax rate

Published: Friday, March 27, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NORTH BRANFORD — The town is proposing a 2009-10 budget with a zero percent increase, but the tax rate is still projected to rise about 5.5 percent, due largely to debt incurred from several building projects.

The $11.8 million budget would cover town government operations. The school district is proposing a budget of $29.16 million, which is a roughly 2.8 percent increase from the 2008-09 budget.

The Town Council received the town and school budget proposals, totaling $45.71 million, last week and has not yet acted on them.

The council is scheduled to hold a workshop with a public input session April 6, as well as further workshops April 7 and 8.

The budget referendum this year is scheduled for May 12.

The budget for debt service is projected to increase to nearly $4.68 million in the next fiscal year, up from $3.76 million this year. That is due to construction work at North Branford Intermediate School, the town’s two libraries and on Reeds Gap Road, as well as open space acquisition and the installation of a new sewer at Stanley T. Williams and Totoket Valley elementary schools, Town Manager Richard Branigan said.

He noted that the cost of debt service is expected to increase again next year before leveling off at the higher rate for a few years and then decreasing.

North Branford Intermediate School is undergoing a “renovate as new” project, the Edward Smith Library recently reopened after an expansion and Atwater Memorial Library is due to undergo a similar renovation and expansion in the coming year.

“Debt service is kind of the key number — that’s a fixed cost,” Branigan said. “We’ve known that (was going to increase) for a while.”

With the current budget proposal, the property tax rate is expected to increase to $26.34 per $1,000 of assessed value.

Branigan said there were no major reductions in town services in the budget proposal. In order to keep funding at a steady level, he said, certain empty positions will not be filled, part-time positions have been reduced or eliminated and discretionary or travel expenses are being limited.

But the budget does rely on assumptions about levels of state funding, he added. The General Assembly is continuing to consider Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s budget proposal.

“There’s some fundamental hope and reliance that the state budget, the governor’s budget which includes a leveling of (Educational Cost Sharing) funding, that will continue and stay in place,” Branigan said. “If that doesn’t, then we have a new ball game.”

The April 6 budget workshop is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall. More information on the proposed budget is available on the town’s Web site at www.townofnorthbranfordct.com.

2009-03-24T18:29:00.000-07:00

Earmark funds may help town’s 1st responders stay linked

Published: Tuesday, March 24, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NORTH BRANFORD — Between Totoket Mountain and the Farm River, North Branford’s topography can make it difficult to receive radio signals in all areas of town.

Fire Chief William Seward III said that emergency personnel, including police officers and volunteer firefighters, sometimes do not receive messages on their pagers because they are in one of the area’s “dead zones.”

“There have been times where alarms haven’t been received,” Seward said. “Personnel didn’t receive the information over their pagers or in their vehicles.”

In the coming year, with the help of $500,000 in federal funding, the town is hoping to rectify the situation by installing a simulcast system using microwave technology that would allow multiple towers to send signals at the same time, eliminating many of the areas with poor reception.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, visited police headquarters Monday to announce the earmark funding. The money was part of the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, which President Obama signed into law earlier this month.

“You’ve got a beautiful town here in terms of hills and valleys, but it creates mayhem for communications,” DeLauro said. “Now their personnel will be able to really not be at a disadvantage.”

North Branford officials submitted the application for the new equipment to DeLauro’s office last year.

The funding would implement a broadcast system that officials hope will cover 95 percent of the town. By broadcasting signals from several towers at once, the system could fill in the “dead zones.” It would also replace copper wire with microwave transmission, reducing the possibility that a tower could be knocked out due to problems with the wire.

Seward said it could take up to a year for the system to be operational, as the funding will become available in October. In the long term, he said, he is hoping that the equipment could improve regional cooperation by making it easier for departments to communicate with each other.

Town Manager Richard Branigan said the next step will be issuing a request for proposals for a company to set up and maintain the system. He added that the federal money will allow the town to address the problem sooner than with other funding sources, but it would have had to implement the upgrades even without the appropriation.

“Eventually the town would have to do something about this,” Branigan said. “How long it took would be a function of other budgetary priorities in town. ... If you’re a volunteer firefighter and you can’t hear the signal at your house, that’s a problem.”

2009-03-16T18:30:00.000-07:00

Hair salon offering jobless a kinder cut on Tuesdays

Published: Monday, March 16, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NORTH BRANFORD — With a recession in full swing, many local families have been scrimping on luxuries, perhaps cooking at home more, or swapping a night out at the movies for a rental.

Christina Pepe, co-owner of La Bella Hair Salons on Branford Road, said she has noticed another symptom: clients going longer between haircuts or skipping them altogether.

Pepe and her mother, Bernadette, with whom she owns the salon, decided to create a promotion for unemployed residents.

On Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., they are offering what are normally $55 haircuts for $5 each.

“We started noticing it a lot — people not coming to get their hair done,” Pepe said. “People are waiting months to get haircuts.”

Pepe said the salon will be asking customers for some proof that they are unemployed, but the discount can extend to family members as well.

The promotion has been going on for about two weeks already, and Pepe said that about 10 people have taken advantage of it.

Hairdressers at the salon have heard from some customers who have lost their jobs, and have also noticed fewer people coming through the doors. But Pepe said that people who are not already clients at the salon are also welcome to take advantage of the $5 haircuts.

“We’re really trying to help, so even if these people don’t come back, we want to help them,” she said.

She added that the salon could provide a relaxing environment for people dealing with economic stresses.

“We honestly feel so bad, so that’s why (we’re doing this) — at least haircuts still make you feel good and look better,” she said. “Just to get away from the stressful environment and come in for a $5 haircut.”

The salon, in the Central Shopping Plaza at 280 Branford Road, will be offering the promotion every Tuesday.

Its normal hours are Tuesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 8:45 a.m. to 4 p.m.

2009-03-13T18:31:00.000-07:00

Investigation continues in Sound plunge

Published: Friday, March 13, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

BRANFORD — Police are still investigating an accident that killed a Guilford man when a Jeep he was riding in plunged into Long Island Sound early Wednesday, although they said the incident does not appear to have involved foul play.

Investigators are waiting to conduct an in-depth interview of the driver, who survived the accident. Autopsy results and blood tests on the driver are considered crucial in the ongoing investigation, according to police.

Mark Albo, 34, died at Yale-New Haven Hospital Wednesday after the SUV in which he was a passenger — and which was driven by his half-brother, Daniel Fleischauer, 22 — entered the water at the end of Flying Point Road. Fleischauer was taken by ambulance to the hospital and later released, police said.

Deputy Police Chief Thomas Fowler said that investigators are waiting for autopsy results from the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner, as well as blood tests for the driver, a standard procedure in fatal accidents, he said.

“We’re still following up all the usual stuff in a fatal accident,” he said.

Fowler said that no Breathalyzer tests were done at the scene, as emergency personnel took Fleischauer to Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Police did an initial interview with Fleischauer Wednesday, Fowler said, and will most likely speak with him again in coming days.

On Wednesday, investigators said they were unsure how the brothers, both of Guilford, ended up at the bottom of a ramp at the end of a private stretch of the road. But Fowler said Thursday the events appear to have been accidental.

“There’s nothing that’s leading us to believe at this point that it’s anything but a tragic accident,” he said.

The results of an autopsy are still pending, an official with the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner said.

“Obviously, the victim’s cause of death will lend some information as to what exactly happened,” Fowler said.

2009-03-12T18:31:00.000-07:00

7 students arrested in drug raid at SCSU

Published: Thursday, March 12, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King and William Kaempffer, Register Staff

NEW HAVEN — A months-long police investigation into an alleged drug ring on the Southern Connecticut State University campus culminated Wednesday in the arrest of seven Southern students, authorities said.

All the students arrested were placed on interim suspension, according to the university.

SCSU police and officers from the Statewide Narcotics Task Force executed a search-and-seizure warrant on a university-owned townhouse at 188 Pine Rock Ave. in Hamden at about 7 a.m. Wednesday. Police said they seized 242 pills of a narcotic prescription painkiller, with an estimated street value of $12,000, along with about $3,500 worth of marijuana, $900 in cash, cutting agents and packaging materials.

The arrests took place at the back of a campus housing complex made up of blocks of two-bedroom townhouses. The area is mainly home to upperclassmen, students said Wednesday.

Mary Kate Sullivan and Jody Burns, both SCSU seniors who live across a parking lot from the townhouse, said they watched events unfold Wednesday morning as unmarked cars pulled up and officers with a drug-sniffing dog entered the apartment. They were both surprised, and had not suspected that any drug activity was taking place, they said.

One of the students, Terrance Cramer, is a community adviser in the complex, they said, a position that entails some supervisory duties. Sullivan said Cramer had previously done “room checks” in her apartment to make sure there were no illicit substances or large amounts of alcohol.

“He comes in to make sure everything’s legal; meanwhile, we should have gone to check his room,” she said.

Sullivan described the morning’s events as “really nerve-wracking.”

“You see three of your peers being taken out in handcuffs,” she said. “We’re in college; we’re not thinking that there’s no drug’s going on or drinking, but for something that massive to occur...”

Arrested Wednesday were Blaire Dawson, 18, of Trumbull; Patrick Benjamin, 22, of Hamden; Christopher Marullo, 19, of Greenwich; Connor Heney, 18, of Weymouth, Mass.; Donte Blackmon, 18, of Hamden; Odarius Turner, 23, of Teaneck, N.J.; and Cramer, 24, of New Haven.

Campus police began investigating alleged drug sales last October and asked for assistance from the State Police Narcotics Task Force. Detectives working undercover infiltrated the drug ring and made a series of controlled purchases, according to the state police.

Two additional arrest warrants have been issued, but have not been served yet, the state police said Wednesday.

University officials said the incident was serious.

“Ensuring that our campus remains a safe and healthy learning environment for all of our students is obviously an issue that we take extremely seriously,” SCSU President Cheryl J. Norton said. “We have a zero-tolerance policy regarding the sale and use of drugs on our campus.”

2009-03-11T18:32:00.000-07:00

Guilford middle school to test buzzer access for visitors

Published: Wednesday, March 11, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — School officials are planning to test-drive a system in the next month that would require buzzer access for people visiting Abraham Baldwin Middle School.

The district has been improving its security systems in recent months, installing cameras and key-card access to allow teachers to keep side doors locked during the school day. Although the upgrades had been in the works since last year, they come in the wake of the theft of six laptops from three schools in December.

The buzzer system, which district officials are considering implementing on a wider scale, would require visitors to ring a bell at the front door and front-office employees to buzz them into the building.

Superintendent of Schools Thomas Forcella said that the district is planning to run a two-week test of the system in the next month. During the test, he said, parents visiting the school and the staff members operating the buzzer system will be asked to fill out a survey about the experience.

“One of the concerns was how much time this would take away from the secretaries’ work, and how the parents would feel about this entrance system, (possibly) making them feel not welcomed in the school,” he said.

The school district’s 2008-09 budget includes $50,000 for security upgrades, and the district also received a $12,000 state grant, Forcella said. With that funding, workers have installed security cameras and swipe-card access at all of the district’s elementary schools, as well as cameras and the buzzer access at Baldwin.

The school, which serves fifth- and sixth-graders, is one of the three where a parent allegedly stole teachers’ laptops in December.

“One of the problems at Baldwin and a couple of our schools (is that) the office is not one where, when people come into the building, you can see them, so it’s a blind entrance,” Forcella said. “What concerned us is the ease of access this person and how they were able to access the building without being noticed, so that’s one of the reasons why we wanted to install this particular security enhancement to Baldwin.”

Depending on the results of the two-week test of the door buzzers, Forcella said, the system could be expanded to other schools.

Board of Education Chairman William Bloss said that the district will have to weigh factors of safety and parents’ and other visitors’ access to the school.

“On the one hand, you don’t want to have schools hard to get to for people who belong there; on the other hand, you don’t want to just allow anyone in the building who has the ability to open a door,” Bloss said. “We’re trying to balance that and we’ll see what the thoughts are of the (parent-teacher organization) at that school and the parents.”

2009-03-09T18:17:00.000-07:00

Teacher takes pledge to heart, shaves head

Published: Monday, March 9, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NORTH BRANFORD — David Carpenter, physical education teacher at Totoket Valley Elementary School, has been feeling a little colder lately after he shaved his head in front of the entire school last week.

Carpenter told his students he would shave his head if they raised more than $10,000 in the school’s first Jump Rope for Heart event, which took place Feb. 2-13 and benefited the American Heart Association. The students surpassed his expectations — raising a total of $11,820 — and Carpenter held up his side of the bargain.

“We thought ($10,000) was unreachable, especially now in these times, so we were quite impressed,” he said. “The kids really got into it once they knew I was going to be shaving my head.”

Carpenter and fellow physical education teacher Nancy Gray coordinated the fundraiser, in which students participated in jump rope and other cardiovascular activities during physical education class. Students asked friends and family to sponsor them.

Principal Kris Lindsay said many students were excited about the project. The ability to sign up sponsors through the Web site made fundraising easier, she added.

“They’d say, ‘This is so much fun, we want to do this every day,’” Lindsay said. “They loved the sense of competing to see how well they could work together toward a common goal.”

Out of 500 students, Carpenter said, 224 students raised money. The top three fundraisers, who earned medals from the American Heart Association, raised from $375 to $445 each. The association also enters any student nationwide who raised $150 or more in a drawing to win a trip to Disney World.

The heart association returned $500 to the school toward the purchase of more physical education equipment. Lindsay said the school is “definitely” continuing the event next year.

“Our goal is to do it every year and we want to have banners from the American Heart Association that cover our gym,” she said.

The physical activities also raised students’ awareness about heart-healthy exercise, Lindsay said. The money they raised will go toward the American Heart Association’s CPR training program.

“Literally, the money is used to save lives because it’s used to train people (to respond to those) who have had heart attacks or other events,” she said.

2009-03-07T18:16:00.000-08:00

Kids hit car with snowballs; driver arrested

Published: Saturday, March 7, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — A town man is facing four felony counts after he allegedly confronted a group of children who were throwing snowballs at his car.

Police said Giuseppe Liguori, 23, was driving on North Fair Street this week when four youths threw snowballs at him. Liguori allegedly swung his car around, drove the wrong way on a one-way street and followed the group into the CVS parking lot near the intersection of the Boston Post Road and Fair Street.

He allegedly shouted at the children and “manhandled them a little bit,” Deputy Police Chief Jeffrey Hutchinson said.

“He kind of confronted them and corralled them,” Hutchinson said.

Liguori and the four youths then entered the CVS, Hutchinson said, where employees called police.

Liguori faces four counts of risk of injury to a minor, a felony, and one count of reckless driving, police said. He was released on a promise to appear March 17 in Superior Court in New Haven. Liguori could not be reached for comment Friday.

Hutchinson said the four juveniles were referred to their parents. He added that people should call police if they have complaints about children’s behavior, rather than taking matters into their own hands.

“Our advice to him and everyone else is: Call us, and we’ll take care of it,” he said.

2009-03-06T18:15:00.000-08:00

PZC OKs ‘Schanz Farm’ subdivision

Published: Friday, March 6, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NORTH BRANFORD — The Planning and Zoning Commission on Thursday approved the "Schanz Farm" subdivision of 30 houses on 64 acres along the Farm River.

The plan passed by a 3-1 vote, with Commissioner William Galdenzi dissenting. Commission Chairman Harry Dulak did not vote because he had not attended earlier meetings on the topic.

The commission found that the subdivision would not cause "unreasonable harm" to any natural resources in the area. But the three commissioners who approved the project — Rose Angeloni, Frances Lescovich and Charles Gunn — all said they did so with reservations.

"It does meet all our zoning regulations, so I feel I do have to approve it on that base," Lescovich said.

The proposal by Sunwood Development Corp. would put the houses on property owned by June Schanz at 1775 Middletown Ave. The company won approval for the project from the Inland Wetlands Commission in June.

Proposals to develop the property have been under consideration in town for nearly a decade. The Planning and Zoning Commission twice rejected a different developer’s plan to build a 200-unit subdivision for people older than 55.

Sunwood Development had earlier proposed putting about 75 or 115 homes on the site. Its current proposal initially included 34 lots, but the Inland Wetlands Commission’s conditions of approval reduced the number.

The Planning and Zoning Commission has been considering the application for months, including many nights of public hearings. A group of residents had filed as official interveners to the project, saying that it would harm the natural resources and wildlife.

The commission’s approval Thursday included about 20 conditions, including the creation of open space that would be turned over to the North Branford Land Trust and provide public access to the river.

Galdenzi said at the meeting Thursday he voted against the plan because he was concerned that a large number of lots would require a conservation easement specifying that no changes be made to areas of the property near wetlands or the river.

"I’m just really unclear and uncomfortable about how that is enforceable," he said. The Inland Wetlands Commission’s conditions of approval specified that boulders would be placed on the lot showing the border of the conservation easement. Planning and Zoning Commission members said several times during deliberations they were concerned homeowners would simply mow their lawns or dump yard debris beyond the boulders.

Gunn said his main concern was that many of the lots would only be accessible via a single bridge.

"I reluctantly vote for it because I’m really concerned about the 24 lots with access only over one bridge," he said. "I vote for it because I unfortunately can think of no reason to vote against it reading the regulations."

2009-03-05T18:14:00.000-08:00

North Branford votes to reduce sewer fees

Published: Thursday, March 5, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NORTH BRANFORD — Less than a year after raising the sewer connection fee to a flat level of $12,300 per unit, the Town Council this week voted to reduce the fee for businesses and age-restricted housing.

The council is also considering refunding tens of thousands of dollars that three new businesses owe in sewer connection fees, but did not vote on that proposal at its meeting this week.

The town increased the fee last April to set a standard rate for all residents and business owners. Previously, the fee to hook up to the town sewer ranged from about $1,000 to more than $12,000 depending on the property’s location.

But after implementing the fee, some Town Council members expressed concerns that the fee of $12,300 — which Town Engineer Kurt Weiss said at the time was higher than most towns’ $6,000 to $8,000 fee — would deter new businesses from moving to North Branford.

Under the increased rate, the council had the authority to reduce the fee by up to two-thirds for commercial uses, which could owe more than $100,000 depending on the number of units. In general, the town computes the fee by making 10,000 square feet in a business equivalent to one residential unit.

Weiss said this week that the new fee structure would take away the council’s ability to lower the fee on a case-by-case basis.

“This will set out in stone or eliminate the latitude or discretionary issues that the (Town Council) was dealing with earlier,” he said. “It also recognizes that non-residential or age-restricted residential uses are a benefit to the town and have less impact on the sanitary sewer.”

The $12,300 fee for homes to connect to the sewer will remain in place.

Since the fee was increased last year, the Town Council, which also acts as the town’s Water Pollution Control Authority, approved fee reductions for three businesses that could now see a further decrease in the amount owed. In each case, the council initially granted a two-thirds reduction in the sewer fee, but now may lower the fee further to bring it in line with the new rates.

At this week’s meeting, Councilor Joseph Faughnan said he thought the council should wait a month to make a decision on the reductions in case there were any challenges to the new fee structure. The council will most likely return to the issue at its meeting scheduled for April 7.

Town Manager Richard Branigan said that one of the businesses has started work and could see a refund in fees it has already paid, but the other two have not yet hooked up to the sewer line. The fees go into the town’s sewer fund.

“This is not tax budget,” he said. “It goes to pay for the cost of long-term projects and such related only to sewers.”

Branigan added that he thinks the reduced fee will make North Branford more attractive to businesses.

“People are looking for every opportunity they can get to get things rolling,” he said. “You want to remove ... as many roadblocks to development as possible these days.”

2009-03-04T18:14:00.000-08:00

North Branford may raise senior tax credit by $100

Published: Wednesday, March 4, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NORTH BRANFORD — The Town Council is considering increasing the senior citizen property tax credit to $300 from its current rate of $200 per family.

The council held a public hearing on the issue Tuesday, at which the only speaker was resident Roger Munck, who has repeatedly raised the issue of senior tax relief at council meetings in recent months.

Munck said he thought increasing the tax credit was a good first step, but he added that the council should do more to reduce elderly residents’ taxes.

“What’s got to happen is you’ve got to work for people on fixed incomes ... to (have their taxes) be frozen,” he said. “Their taxes have got to be frozen just like their incomes.”

The council did not act on the tax credit. Town Manager Richard Branigan said a resolution to increase the credit will most likely appear before the council at its next regular meeting March 17.

The proposal to increase the cap would also raise the income limit for participants in the program, which is set at $40,000 per person or $45,000 per couple. The credit applies to residents over age 65 who have lived in town for at least two years.

Branigan said he is not recommending that the council increase the total amount of tax money that can be credited to residents through the program. That cap is $75,000.

If the amount of tax credit applied for overran the cap, Branigan said, the $75,000 would be evenly divided between the number of people who had qualified for the tax relief. Last year, he said, the town credited about $40,000 in taxes through the program.

Branigan met with Munck and a small group of other concerned residents to discuss senior tax relief earlier this year.

Deputy Mayor Joanne Wentworth said she would like to do more to help senior citizens struggling with high taxes, but the town is constrained by the economic situation this year.

“I don’t think it’s going to go away — I think we’re going to look at more things,” Wentworth said. “I just don’t know how we can do it (this year).”

2009-03-03T18:13:00.000-08:00

Design team completes job for ‘amazing family’

Published: Tuesday, March 3, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — Beth Spencer declared her new family room “breathtaking” while her husband, Brian, said that he would have to take his shoes off to walk on the new tan rug.

The Spencers explored their made-over north Guilford home last week with their two older children, four foster and adopted children and several grandchildren.

The family room redecoration, which included repainted walls in a blue-and-tan scheme, a new sectional sofa and custom-built cabinets with cubbies for the children, came courtesy of DesignWish, a group of five designers from the Shoreline who organized the free makeover. They chose the Spencers, who have taken four special-needs children into their home since 2002, from about 20 nominated families.

“These kids are the ones that need the love (and) they’re the ones that get overlooked,” DesignWish member Kristen Wall said. “They’re really an amazing family.”

A group of more than 50 designers, contractors, carpenters, painters and many others donated their time last week to make over the Spencers’ 750-square-foot family room. It was the second year in a row that DesignWish has chosen a local family for the project.

The Spencers’ adult daughter, Rebecca Hastings, nominated them for the room redesign. Wall said the DesignWish team read the application and each member individually chose the Spencers.

The team then surprised the family on Christmas Eve with the news, and later met with them to discuss their wants and needs for the room. As a large family that holds Bible study groups at home, there was a need for more seating, Wall said.

“The main goal in the room was just to make it more serene, less cluttered and more pulled together,” said Wall, who owns Wall to Wall Home Concepts.

Beth and Brian Spencer both said they were amazed at the result, an inviting room with a beach theme that incorporated new and family heirloom furniture.

“I love it — everything is just perfect,” Beth Spencer said. “It’s just soothing. It’s exactly what we wanted.”

The DesignWish project started in 2007 when Lisa Leonardi, owner of The Room Doctor, approached Wall and Patty MacNeil, an interior decorator who owns Linden Shores Interiors in Branford. Last year, the group transformed a room in a Madison home during a one-day makeover.

This time, the effort was larger and more involved, Wall said. Designers and organizers Robin Reed and Julie Cousins joined the DesignWish team and after Guilford business owner Margaret Tehan donated a Web site design, the group was able to solicit nominations and donations online.

“We hope to make it bigger and bigger every year,” Wall said.

The goal is to choose a worthy family who would benefit from a redesigned room in their home. In addition to redoing the family room, the DesignWish team also scoured the Spencers’ kitchen and reorganized another room, adding desks that had been in the family room.

Beth Spencer called the work “a blessing.” Her six children — Rebecca, 29, Christian, 15, Andrew, 6, Jason, 5, Aimee, 3, and an 18-month-old foster daughter — filled the space as they looked over all the changes.

Spencer said she and her husband adopted Andrew, who has neurological impairments, in 2002 after hearing about him from a friend who is an occupational therapist. Their three youngest children followed soon after that.

“It’s just amazing to me how much God has done — it is God’s hand that we have these children,” she said.

The DesignWish members said that many people responded to their request for volunteers and donations.

“I think it’s a feel-good project that everyone has wanted to have a part in,” Leonardi said. “I think their story is one that’s very heartwarming and everyone wants to give back in some small way.”

The value of the donated services amounted to several thousand dollars, Wall said.

“In this economy, c’mon, that’s just so amazing,” she said. “Our hearts are so full from everyone’s response to this.”

2009-03-02T18:12:00.000-08:00

March roars in with heavy snow forecast

Published: Monday, March 2, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NEW HAVEN — Forecasters predicted up to a foot of snow would begin blanketing the area late Sunday night and make driving treacherous for this morning’s commute.

The snow was expected to begin falling before midnight Sunday and continue overnight, WTNH meteorologist Matt Scott said.

The New Haven area could see 6 to 10 inches, Scott said, with heavier snowfall in the eastern part of the state.

“This has the potential to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, storm of this season,” he said. “We’re looking at a potential of a foot of snow in some areas.”

The storm moved across the eastern part of the country Sunday, dumping on normally snow-free states, including Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. Up to 13 inches of snow was expected in the New York City area, according to the Associated Press.

Scott said there could be some further accumulation today, but most of the snow will pile up overnight.

“By the time the morning commute is done, the heavy snow is likely to be done (falling), but by then the damage has been done,” he said. “The rush-hour commute Monday morning is going to be a bear.”

At the East Haven Stop & Shop Sunday, several shoppers said they had heard that a storm was on its way.

Mary Lypen of West Haven said the snow seemed “out of nowhere” with the recent spring-like weather.

“It was already starting to get warm last week,” she said. “I thought it was over.”

Her friend, Kimberly Inglis of New Haven, said she had decided to stock up on groceries.

“I just kind of bought dinner for tonight and tomorrow, just in case,” she said.

New Haven resident Dan Okin said that he had seen enough snow this season.

“It’s March — I was kind of hoping it was done, to be completely honest,” he said. “But, you know, nature’s a little unpredictable.”

For some, the snow has been a boon this winter. Donna Hall, membership chairwoman of the New Haven Ski Club, said that her club’s members don’t frequent Connecticut ski areas, but the conditions have been excellent across New England.

“It’s been really pretty awesome,” Hall said. “I think that the amount of powder that we had this year was more than we had last year, which was really nice skiing ’cause for quite a few years there we were skiing on ice.”

WTNH’s Scott said that for forecasters, the snowfall counts as a spring storm, since the “meteorological winter” ends Feb. 28.

“I hope you haven’t put your shovel away yet,” he said.

2009-02-28T18:11:00.000-08:00

Public comment sought on new fees

Published: Saturday, February 28, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — Town officials are considering raising building fees, and residents will have the chance to comment on the proposal at a public hearing at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Nathanael B. Greene Community Center.

The move is part of an effort to boost the town budget in the wake of a steep decline in building permit applications, Finance Director Sheila Villano said.

The town issued 35 building permits last month, down from 95 in January 2008, Villano said.

“In light of the decline in local revenues, we asked all the departments if they could take a look at areas where they could possibly consider raising fees,” she said. “We’ve always been very, very low compared to our surrounding towns on the building permit fees.”

The proposal would raise the fees for new residential construction to 60 cents per square foot of gross living space, from the current 50 cents. Commercial fees would be set at $12 for every $1,000 of construction, up from $10 per $1,000. Some fees for a certificate of occupancy also would increase, depending on the type of construction.

“We’re still on the low end” compared to other Shoreline towns, Villano said.

Town Building Director George Gdovin compared Guilford’s fees with 15 nearby towns, arriving at the proposed rates. The Board of Selectmen is scheduled to vote on an ordinance increasing the fees at Monday’s meeting.

Villano said she is now projecting that the town will collect $350,000 in building fees the fiscal year ending June 30, a decline of $500,000 from her original projection when the budget was being prepared last year. That is partly because the developers of Guilford Commons have pushed back some work until later in the next fiscal year.

“The activity is definitely way off from where we were last year,” she said.

More information on the proposal is available on the town’s Web site, www.ci.guilford.ct.us.

2009-02-27T18:28:00.000-08:00

Bill allows for school board balance

Published: Friday, March 27, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — Although nonpartisan boards of education are common in other parts of the country, they are almost nonexistent in Connecticut.

Earlier this year, state Sen. Ed Meyer, D-Guilford, introduced a bill that would give communities the option to make their educational bodies nonpartisan. He told a handful of town residents Thursday he did not think the bill has a strong chance of passing this year, but he would continue raising the issue in Hartford.

Meyer and Gary Brochu, chairman of Berlin’s nonpartisan Board of Education — the only one in the state — discussed the bill in an event presented by the Guilford Parent-Teacher Association.

The bill, “An act concerning members of local boards of education and repealing of minority representation requirements for boards of education,” was referred to the General Assembly’s Education Committee. Meyer said he hoped it would make it to the floor for discussion.

“This is a bill that looks to me as if it’s not going to be passed the first year,” he said. “People have to think about it, they have to take on a tradition, think about it in a broader way and see that nonpartisanship can be a good thing.”

The bill would allow municipalities to decide to have nonpartisan elections for the board of education, and would eliminate requirements limiting the number of candidates from one party on a board.

“It’s what we legislators call an enabling act — it’s not a mandate,” Meyer said. “It says among the choices you have you can do a nonpartisan board.”

Brochu said that Berlin has had a nonpartisan school board since the 1960s and was “grandfathered” in when the state passed laws requiring minority representation on the boards. He said he was not advocating that Guilford adopt a nonpartisan board, but that he is in favor of towns having the option to do so.

“I’ve seen wonderful partisan boards, I’ve seen horrible partisan boards,” Brochu said. “Things change — this is not any guarantee whatsoever.”

Brochu said that in Berlin, people run for the Board of Education by obtaining the signatures of 1 percent of residents; there is no nomination process for the positions. In Guilford and many other towns, local Republican and Democratic town committees nominate people for the posts.

PTA President Lisa Fiala said she thinks that — although independents can also run for seats by getting signatures from local residents — the party nominating process may discourage some people from running for the Guilford board.

“It’s very difficult, I think, to run and win a campaign in any town as an independent,” she said.

Meyer said that he hopes to continue the discussion about the bill even if it does not pass this legislative session.

2009-02-27T18:10:00.000-08:00

Board looks at new high school options

Published: Friday, February 27, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — Preserving 25,000 square feet of space at Guilford High School would only shave $2 million to $4 million off the more than $112 million cost of replacing the school, architectural consultants told the Board of Education Thursday.

Board members had hoped to significantly reduce the cost of a new school by incorporating the math and science wing built in 1998. Architects from Fletcher Thompson said Thursday they will continue analyzing the numbers and hope to reduce the price.

The architects offered the board two options for including the 25,000-square-foot wing and saving the football field and track.

The first, with a cost estimate of $108 million, would be more compact, but place classrooms on either side of the building. The second plan, with a preliminary price of about $110 million, would have classrooms closer together and a large interior courtyard.

Board members did not make a choice between the options. Chairman William Bloss suggested holding a joint meeting with the boards of Selectmen and Finance next month to discuss a timeline for putting the project before voters at a referendum.

“I would remain hopeful that there is a greater savings” in preserving the existing space, Bloss said.

Initial estimates had put the cost of a new high school, built next to the current school and eliminating the football field and track, at $112 million. The school board voted last year to recommend replacing the school, and decided earlier this year to direct the architects to preserve the math and science wing and the recently installed football field.

The existing wing would need some renovations to make it part of the larger project, and there would be significant site work involved in replacing septic and sports fields, leading to the high cost estimates even with the reused space, the architects said.

The two options presented Thursday include between 220,000 and 230,000 square feet.

Superintendent of Schools Thomas Forcella said the initial goal was to look at the feasibility of building a new school off the math and science wing.

“I think we’re comfortable that it can be done,” he said. “We would hope to see more savings than $2 (million) to $4 million.”

Board members expressed enthusiasm about the architectural plans, but noted that they are likely to change. The current proposal has construction ending in 2012.

“I think that while this is all interesting, it’s still preliminary, and we still have a lot of work to do to move this forward,” board member Alan Meyers said. “What we end up with may not look anything like this.”

2009-02-25T18:09:00.000-08:00

Board may borrow $1M for school projects

Published: Wednesday, February 25, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — The Board of Education is considering borrowing $1 million to improve the air quality at Elisabeth C. Adams Middle School.

Board members discussed the proposed capital projects at a workshop meeting this week and are scheduled to vote on them Thursday night, Board of Education Chairman William Bloss said. The work would require voters to approve bonding at a referendum.

When the Board of Education voted in September to replace Guilford High School and continue studying whether to rebuild Adams, board members agreed that it was necessary to complete some health and safety improvement at the middle school right away.

Bloss said air circulation is one of the major issues at Adams. Last year, the school district conducted extensive drainage work at the school aimed at solving a persistent flooding problem. So far, flooding has not recurred, although administrators have said they are waiting for the spring thaw to see whether the problem has been solved.

The possible new work would involve adding capacity to the school’s electrical system so it could handle more air conditioners and circulators, Bloss said.

“The old part of the building has no air circulation at all — it was built in the days before they had any kind of air handling system,” he said. The original part of the Church Street school dates to 1938.

The projects under consideration are expected to cost about $1 million, Superintendent Thomas Forcella said. The board is also considering asking voters to approve bonding to repair roofs at several schools, which is maintenance work that the district does annually.

The town’s budget referendum, which would include any bonding questions approved by the Board of Finance, is tentatively scheduled for April 14, according to the town Web site.

Bloss said there were projects left off the list because of the adverse economic climate this year. Last year, voters approved about $3 million in bonding for the drainage work at Adams, a new roof at A.W. Cox Elementary School, reconfiguring the parking lot at Abraham Baldwin Middle School and digging new wells at Melissa Jones School.

“There’s one roof at the high school that we think we can put off, and anything like that that we can do (we will),” Bloss said. “Anything that can be delayed without conditions deteriorating to a degree that far greater expense would be involved, we’re postponing.”

Also at Thursday’s meeting, board members will receive new proposals for the high school replacement that incorporate the building’s most recent addition, done in 1998.

The board has asked the architects, Fletcher Thompson, to preserve the 25,000-square-foot math and science wing in the hope of reducing the anticipated $112 million cost of the new school.

Thursday’s meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in the Adams Middle School chorus room.

2009-02-23T18:08:00.000-08:00

Saybrook group wants revaluation put on hold

Published: Monday, February 23, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

OLD SAYBROOK — A group of residents is hoping to postpone the implementation of the latest revaluation, saying that the nationwide real estate slump has rendered the values inaccurate.

The Old Saybrook Taxpayers Association is asking the Board of Selectmen to delay putting the revaluation into effect, OSTA Chairwoman Jean Castagno said.

“What we’re asking the selectmen to do is to petition the (state) Office of Policy and Management to rescind the evaluation of 10/1/08 and/or delay it because the economy has changed so dramatically since last September,” Castagno said.

First Selectman Michael Pace said he considered options in case the revaluation was “severely flawed,” but after reviewing housing sales data since the revaluation was completed in October, he believes the values are accurate.

“I did have some concerns that we didn’t get caught in the middle of really a swing cycle here,” Pace said.

Residents and the Board of Selectmen discussed the revaluation at the board’s meeting last week.

State Rep. Marilyn Giuliano, whose district includes Old Saybrook, has introduced a bill to allow towns to postpone revaluations. The bill, which has been referred to the Committee on Planning and Development, does not specify whether it would include towns that recently completed a revaluation.

Pace said he testified before the General Assembly regarding the legislation earlier this month.

State statute requires municipalities to conduct regular property revaluations. A town’s legislative body can choose to phase in the increased assessment over a period of time, according to the statutes.

Property values rose 32 percent in the October revaluation, Assessor Norman Wood said. The process was a statistical revaluation, meaning that it did not involve a physical survey of properties. The revaluation takes place every five years.

Wood said he has monitored prices on the roughly 30 home sales in town since October, and the town’s revised values from October were “within 2 percent of what they sold for.”

“During the summer, it was obvious that the sale prices were sliding a little bit ... (but) it hasn’t been as bad here along the shoreline as it has been across the country,” he said. “I started tempering the values in July because it was obvious something was going on.”

He added the town already has a large increase in homeowners appealing their revaluations, with 1,500 people making appointments to discuss the values. Following the last revaluation in 2003, about 550 people appealed, Wood said.

Pace said there would have to be evidence that the revaluation was off by more than 5 percent to ask to delay the implementation.

“Looking at what is the current law to vacate, I don’t think there is any standard that would allow me to go to OPM and say, ‘This revaluation was flawed,’ because the numbers that (the assessor’s office) just did show that it’s not,” he said. “If it’s within the legal ranges, then that’s a decision that I’ll have to make. You don’t always make popular decisions, but you have to make legally correct decisions.”

Castagno said the OSTA group is continuing to meet and is encouraging more residents to get involved. The members meet every Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Acton Public Library, she said.

The group is looking into whether residents can directly petition OPM about the revaluation, Castagno said.

“The interest in delaying this is very, very strong,” she said. “People are very, very angry about the whole thing.”

2009-02-19T18:07:00.000-08:00

Land trust buys ‘Soundview’ with intent to sell to state

Published: Thursday, February 19, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — The Land Conservation Trust has completed the purchase of the “Soundview” property near the mouth of the East River, but is planning to sell the land to the state in the near future.

Stephen Besse, president of the Land Conservation Trust, said that the organization moved to buy the land, fearing that a deal could fall through while the state Department of Environmental Protection waited to secure funding for the purchase.

The 45-acre parcel of salt marsh and forest is surrounded by the East River Marsh Wildlife Management Area, which the DEP owns.

It lies south of the train tracks near Soundview and Saw Pit roads.

The Land Conservation Trust has agreed with the DEP to sell the property to the state once it secures funding.

“This has been a priority piece for the DEP for a long time, but they don’t stay as up on local things, so it was really the Land Trust that approached the owners and put the deal together,” Besse said. “We talked with DEP, but DEP wasn’t willing or able to close on it in the time frame the owners wanted.”

The Land Conservation Trust paid $360,000 for the property and the DEP has secured a $261,250 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service toward the purchase, but the money has not yet become available, Besse said.

He added that he expects the trust to sell the land to the DEP for $360,000 later this year.

Several other groups have also committed funds toward the state purchase, including the Land Conservation Trust and The Nature Conservancy, both of which have pledged $15,000, Besse said.

“This is not really a public-access piece so much as it is going to be wildlife preserve,” he said. “It’s wonderful habitat.”

The property is also known as the “Guilford Sluice” and “Saw Pit,” according to the Land Conservation Trust.

A proposal was put forward several years ago that would have seen the land developed with high-end housing, but there were issues with access to the area requiring a bridge over the railroad tracks, Besse said.

“The project didn’t go forward at that time and so we approached the landowners and came to terms with them,” he said.

The area is visible from the Guilford marina at the end of Old Whitfield Street.

“It’s a view that people probably take for granted but it would certainly be very missed,” Besse said.

2009-02-19T18:05:00.000-08:00

Town releases e-mail addresses at resident’s request

Published: Thursday, February 19, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

OLD SAYBROOK — A local man who requested a list of all the e-mail addresses that have been entered into the town Web site said he did so to make a point about the availability of government-related information.

Richard Goduti requested the e-mail addresses late last year, and the town posted a notice on its Web site last month saying it had released them. Goduti said he has not used the addresses and has no plans for them.

The town’s Web site has a section called “Subscribe to News” that allows people to enter their e-mail addresses in order to receive the minutes and agendas for boards and commissions.

“I don’t think it’s information that the town should have and not share,” Goduti said. “If it was available to the town, it should be available to anybody.”

Goduti added that, as a registered Democrat, he thought the addresses should be equally available to all political parties.

The addresses did not have names attached to them, Goduti said. He added that he has not counted the number of addresses, especially as there may be duplicates for the different boards and commissions.

Roland Laine, executive assistant for the selectmen’s office, said that he did not know how many addresses were released. He noted there were more than a dozen people on the list to receive agendas from the Board of Selectmen, and 30 to 40 people receiving the board’s minutes.

Laine said the town has had the e-mail option on its Web site for “at least three years.”

The town received a request for the addresses after Goduti contacted the state Freedom of Information Commission to see whether the information was public under the Freedom of Information Act, Laine said. He added that he spoke to an official at the commission before releasing the lists.

Laine said he had not previously considered whether the addresses would be subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The act states that “all records maintained or kept on file by any public agency, whether or not such records are required by any law or by any rule or regulation, shall be public records and every person shall have the right to (1) inspect such records promptly during regular office or business hours, (2) copy such records ... or (3) receive a copy of such records.”

The town has not changed the input section of its Web site to explicitly inform residents that the names are public information, Laine said.

“I hadn’t thought about that, but it’s probably something we should do,” he said. He added that he had received one inquiry about the issue since informing people about it through the Web site.

Goduti said he was not sure why the town put a note on its Web site about his request.

“Any and all information is available through FOI, and it bothered me that they even bothered to put that up on the town Web site,” he said. “(That) basically is the reason that I wanted it to begin with. It keeps them clean, that’s all.”

2009-02-18T18:04:00.000-08:00

N. Branford planning new use for grant

Published: Wednesday, February 18, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

NORTH BRANFORD — Town officials are considering ending the program that has provided funding for businesses to redo their fa硤es, and using the money elsewhere.

Town Manager Richard Branigan said at Tuesday’s Town Council meeting that interest in the fa硤e program, which began in 2006 with a $500,000 Small Town Economic Assistance Program grant, has faded in recent months.

“The interest in it seems to be sliding off as we go,” he said.

Branigan said he recently met with officials from the state Department of Economic and Community Development to discuss continued funding for the fa硤e rehabilitations.

“The recommendation that I received from the DECD was that the fa硤e program should wind down in the next six months or so,” he said.

At that point, Branigan said, the program is projected to have about $230,000 remaining in it.

The town could then reapply for a new STEAP grant to use that funding toward a longtime goal: moving Wall Field and renovating the town property next to the Police Department on Forest Road.

Branigan said it is best to apply for the grants with a project that is close to “shovel ready.”

“The more complex the project, the longer it takes, the more difficult it may be to get approval or the more strings that may be attached,” he said.

The state issues STEAP funds for capital projects, including those aimed at economic development, which was one of the goals of the fa硤e program.

Town estimates have put the cost of moving Wall Field at more than $1 million, and the town is expecting about $400,000 in funding from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Branigan said the STEAP and DEP money would cover the first phase of the project. He added that the town Public Works Department has already done preliminary site work at the location for the new field.

With the state looking to expand Route 80 beginning in 2010, the town has been planning to sell the old Town Hall site at 1599 Foxon Road and move the baseball field that is next door.

Town Council member Vincent Caprio said he would like to see the relocation project get off the ground before the Department of Transportation begins work so that the field is not eliminated.

“We already don’t have enough fields for our kids as it is,” Caprio said.

2009-02-16T18:04:00.000-08:00

Guilford gets FIT, as town employees compete for prizes

Published: Monday, February 16, 2009
By Rachael Scarborough King, Register Staff

GUILFORD — Some town employees are hoping to walk and diet their way to prizes from local businesses in the town’s ongoing wellness challenge.

The program, which officials are calling Guilford FIT — Feeling Invigorated Together — sets up a point system to encourage participants to exercise and eat better. Fifteen teams of between four and six employees are in the second week of the challenge, which is scheduled to last 10 weeks.

Selectwoman Cynthia Cartier, who is in her first term, said she was interested in starting an initiative to help workers improve physical fitness. A wellness committee began meeting last summer and the current challenge kicked off two weeks ago with a wellness fair that attracted 100 town employees.

The town has about 175 employees, not including the school district.

“Everybody’s really jazzed up about this,” Cartier said. “This is such a positive thing.”

During the challenge, the town is offering $5 healthy lunches twice a month, health seminars and fitness classes, Cartier said. She added that she is hoping to continue the wellness initiative following the challenge period with a “boot camp” in the spring, and yoga on the beach in the summer.

Cartier said the efforts have no cost for the town, and prizes for the challenge will be donated by local businesses.

Human Resources Director Mitch Goldblatt said the program could also have a financial benefit for the town.

“We want our employees to be healthier for their own good and to reduce sick time and things like that, but on the other hand with health care costs and medical costs rising so quickly, the healthier we can keep our employees the better,” Goldblatt said. “Hopefully we’ve got less injuries on the job, less workers’ comp claims in the long run.”

The challenge includes employees from all town departments, Goldblatt said, and many of the participants are now wearing ankle pedometers to track their number of steps each day.

“People talk about how their whole families are into this, too,” he said. “There’s no quick fix here, but ... if people are feeling better about themselves and feeling healthier, it’s going to transcend throughout their work productivity, as well as their own personal lives.”