Zandri plans debate-watching party

As published in the Record Journal, Thursday September 27, 2012

By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff
rblair@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2225
Twitter:@RussellBlairRJ

WALLINGFORD — Democratic Town Councilor Jason Zandri is inviting the public to a viewing party at Zandri’s Stillwood Inn for the first presidential debate on Wednesday, Oct. 3.

Zandri organized a similar event in 2008 that drew 50 to 60 people. He’s hoping for a bigger turnout this year.

“I wanted to see if we could do it more formally,” Zandri said. “I want it to be as nonpartisan as possible. The debate itself is always interesting. And when you get 100 people in a room you get to hear different perspectives, which are always refreshing.”

The event is scheduled from 7 to 11 p.m. at the banquet hall, at 1074 S. Colony Road.

The debate between Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney will take place with five weeks remaining before Election Day.

“Debating is a muscle that doesn’t get used very often,” said Alan Schroeder, a journalism professor at Northeastern University and the author of “Presidential Debates: Forty Years of High-Risk TV.”

“Mitt Romney is better toned because he came off 20plus primary debates,” Schroeder said. “President Obama has not been on a debate stage in four years.”

Zandri said he supports Obama, but he is still looking forward to hearing what both candidates say.

“There’s always more substance,” he said. “This gives more background and depth and helps you understand the candidate’s line of thinking. It divulges better what they are running on.”

Republican Town Councilor John LeTourneau, a Romney supporter, said the presidential debates are usually informative, “but it depends on how it’s done and what are the questions asked.”

“If there are hard questions and hard answers, you get to know the person a little better,” he said.

LeTourneau said he doesn’t want to see the candidates attack each other.

“I want to hear what you are going to do to fix the fix that we’re in,” he said.

Wednesday’s debate, to be held in Denver, will focus on domestic policy. A second debate, a town hall-style session, is scheduled for Oct. 16 in Hempstead, N.Y., and the final debate, on foreign policy, is slated for Oct. 22 in Boca Raton, Fla.

Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan, and Vice President Joe Biden have a debate on Oct. 11 in Danville, Ky.

Several national polls show Obama leading by three to six percentage points, but the president has a wider margin in Connecticut.

According to a Quinnipiac University poll last month, Obama leads Romney 52 percent to 45 percent among likely voters in Connecticut. Twelve percent of Obama voters and 12 percent of Romney backers said they might change their minds.

Information from the Associated Press is included in this report.

90,000 new voters in Connecticut have registered leading up to National Voter Registration Day

HARTFORD — Secretary of the State Denise Merrill says nearly 90,000 new voters in Connecticut have registered, making them eligible to cast ballots in the November election.

On Tuesday, National Voter Registration Day, Merrill said 18-to-29-year-olds represent the largest group of new voters, with 39,277 signing up since January.

Of the newly registered voters, the largest block — 39,602 — are unaffiliated.

There are also 30,736 newly registered Democrats and 17,115 newly registered Republicans. Nearly 2 million people registered to vote.

Wallingford Center parking and the Main Street Investment Fund (MSIF)

As published via http://www.ct.gov/opm/cwp/view.asp?a=2990&q=505894

This is the grant that Wallingford is going to be applying for with respect to the private parking lot rehabilitation and the funds for that work.

Connecticut Main Street Center (CMSC), in collaboration with the Office of Policy and Management OPM, held a series of workshops around the State in July and August 2012 to provide information on this program, including who may apply and project eligibility requirements. The PowerPoint presentation from the workshops and sample Town Commercial Center Plans can be found using this link.

Authorizing Statutes

PA 11-1, AN ACT PROMOTING ECONOMIC GROWTH AND JOB CREATION IN THE STATE, Sections 78 and 79, (herein after “the Act”)

Program Overview

This act provides grants in the amount not to exceed five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) to municipalities with populations of not more than thirty thousand (30,000) or municipalities eligible for the small town economic assistance program (STEAP) pursuant to section 4-66g of the general statutes for eligible projects as defined.

The grant shall be used for improvements to property owned by the municipality, except the municipality may use a portion of the proceeds of the grant to provide a one-time reimbursement to owners of commercial private property for eligible expenditures that directly support and enhance an eligible project. The maximum allowable reimbursement for such eligible expenditures to the owner shall be $50,000 provided at the following rates:

(1) expenditures equal to or less than $50,000 shall be reimbursed at a rate of 50%, and

(2) any additional expenditures greater than $50,000 but less than or equal to $150,000 shall be reimbursed at a rate of 25%.

Supporting Documents:

MSIF Program Factsheet (pdf)

MSIF Program Application and Instructions (.doc)

Contact Information

Dimple Desai
Community Development Director
Office of Policy and Management
Intergovernmental Policy Division
450 Capitol Avenue, MS#54ORG
Hartford , CT 06106-1379
Phone - (860) 418-6412
Fax – (860) 418-6486
Email - dimple.desai@ct.gov  

MY TAKE on Simpson lot owners have ‘skin in the game’

This morning in the Record Journal there was a story titled Simpson lot owners have ‘skin in the game’ and I have it cross posted over on my other blog.

Councilor Craig Fishbein made the following point - "the town should ask for $50,000 from each property owner and $100,000 from Holy Trinity School for the retaining wall determined to be on the school’s property."

I agree and that you could "sell" to the majority of the people that voted against the deal at referendum.

At the same time - if the original deal wasn't correctly honored by the town as Mary Pimentel states (and I can certainly see her argument) I would go further to say "split the difference" - $25,000 from each property owner and cut the contribution from Holy Trinity School to the same - $25,000; $125,000.00 in total from the five (net - after any reimbursements); I would support that.

I don't like the way this was bum-rushed to the Council; I understand the timing situation but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth especially when you consider the will of the people at the last referendum which overturned the similar deal.

If we could go forward with either of these two offers to the property owners (and again - I would favor a softer deal to the town because of the years of not honoring the original maintenance agreements) then I say let's do it this week and then see where it goes from there.

This is supposed to be give and take but all I am seeing is push and shove; let's stop the posturing on all sides (the Council as well as myself personally is guilty of it) and move downtown forward.

And the number of parking spaces in Wallingford Center for PUBLIC parking is…

So before I get to the meat and potatoes of my post I want to remind everyone that I have the agenda posted for the regular Wallingford Town Council Meeting over on Wallingford Patch for Tuesday’s Council meeting on September 11, 2012.

Of special note regarding that I want to make sure to call out the following point; the Simpson Court / Private Downtown Parking Lot issue returns to this upcoming Town Council meeting.

You might not know it from this agenda item but the issue of Wallingford paying for the private parking lot at the rear of the businesses at Simpson Court uptown is going to be discussed.

8. Discussion regarding:

Report from the Town Attorney on the Simpson Parking Lot Wall
Possible options for the Town to pursue

The “Possible options for the Town to pursue” regarding the “Report from the Town Attorney on the Simpson Parking Lot Wall” is to apply for a state grant in the amount of $500,000.00 to “improve the Simpson parking area.”

The above link provides you with some additional details and along with my thoughts on that.

With the recap done – on to this post

I decided to talk a walk Sunday morning with my oldest son and count all the public parking spaces available in Wallingford Center.

By definition, a public parking space is one that is made available for the general public to park their car at will (within the limits posted by any signage) on a first come, first served basis.

I will outline what I counted and where as well as what I left out that I could have otherwise justifiably counted as part of the parking scheme for Wallingford Center.

So first – what did I leave out?

I left out the entire Wooding-Caplan site; even though we are presently rebuilding the area and may be using it for the next five to ten years, there has been no effort to fully commit the area permanently for parking. So due to that I skipped all the planned spaces there – all 100 spaces

I also left out the first block of every street off of Center between Route 5 and Main. It would be very easy to justify that area of parking as being available (as it is) but for the sake of discussion I left those spaces out too. I also left out any available spaces on Prince Street and Church Street.

I also did not count the BUSINESS spaces at the rear of Archie Moore’s because if there is any public parking back I didn’t see the signage so I erred on the side of caution and left it out.

The highlighted map below details the specific areas that I left out of my count.

All those yellow highlighted areas I left it out of the count – approximately 200 additional spaces for a total of 300 when combined with what I did not count at Wooding-Caplan (that area is shown below).

Also, beyond the 300 mentioned above I did not count the spaces we currently have use of by way of the year to year agreement on the private property behind the business at Simpson Court (as shown below)

What I did count

The 43 spaces at the Credit Union on South Main (shown below).

The 173 spaces at Town Hall and along South Main

The 69 spaces in Simpson Court and along North Main to Church Street

The north side of the lot, which has public parking space designation, between North Whittlesey and North Orchard which totaled 30 spaces.

The small lot behind that, across the street from the synagogue, which has 15 spaces.

The north sides of the Back of America lot and the lot across Meadow Street (only the areas designated as Public Parking by signage) – total spaces 83.

I also counted all the spaces available on Hall Avenue down to North Cherry and all the spaces at the rear of the Train Station that are available to the public as Public Parking – 108 in all.

The last major area of mention is Center Street itself from Route 5 North to Fair Street which encompasses 107 spaces.

So what’s the bottom line?

When you add all of these areas of available parking together you have a grand total of 628 spaces for the public to park their cars.

And there is even more space if you include the omitted first block areas of the side streets directly off of Center Street.

In the 27 years of driving my car into Wallingford Center for any reason whatsoever on any random day I have never had to walk more than one block to get to the destination of my choosing and that is because there is plenty of parking if you know where to look and are willing to walk about a block’s distance when necessary.

Simpson Court / Private Downtown Parking Lot issue returns to this upcoming Town Council meeting.

You might not know it from this agenda item but the issue of Wallingford paying for the private parking lot at the rear of the businesses at Simpson Court uptown is going to be discussed.

8.     Discussion regarding:

        Report from the Town Attorney on the Simpson Parking Lot Wall
        Possible options for the Town to pursue

The “Possible options for the Town to pursue” regarding the “Report from the Town Attorney on the Simpson Parking Lot Wall” is to apply for a state grant in the amount of $500,000.00 to “improve the Simpson parking area.”

Before I continue let me define this.

Parking in that lot to patronize a business is business parking and would always be allowed. It is no different there than going to CVS as an example and parking in their lot.

Public parking is to park there and go elsewhere. If you go to CVS and park your car and then get into a friend’s car and go to Hartford they could feasibly tow you because you are not using the parking as it is intended which is the patronization of that business. There is no PUBLIC parking permitted there.

Right now for 80% of that rear lot uptown you can park if you wish and walk all over uptown and downtown without being towed.

You could also park at Town Hall and do the same.

You can park at the Credit Union and do the same.

You can parking behind the divider at the rear of Bank of America and do the same.

You can park in the lot behind the train station where Brother’s Restaurant used to be and do the same.

All those lots allow for public parking as those lots are owned by the Town of Wallingford

So with that better defined, on to the details:

So the bottom line?

The business put up $20,000.00 and get reimbursed 50% so their skin in this game is really $10,000.00. The original lease discussion was 30 years so we are asking them to invest into their own property $334.00 a year for their share of $500,000.00 worth of improvements. They would also get 30 years of operational support and maintenance.

If I were a business owner you couldn’t get me signed up for this deal fast enough.

I am a Town Councilor charged with making sure your tax dollars are spent in the wisest and most prudent fashion and this is far from it.

You as a taxpayer (in this case taxes to the state and then via grant support) are putting in $500,000.00 for the use of these lots for public parking.

I think the residents were loud and clear at the referendum – do not spend tax dollars for the benefit of the private parking lot owners (mainly) and for public parking there.

I won’t support this but I will be in the minority I am sure. I will never support the spending of tax dollars in this manner. I could consider it if someone is providing a case study that shows public parking there is needed (number one) and where the owners of the property are putting in 50% of the costs at least (number two). Without that there is no justification.

You’d need to start with a case study of demand and need and there isn’t one; this is a desire to simply do this and I do not understand the directive to do so.

The private property owners there already get the benefit of some maintenance and snow removal provided on the taxpayer dime as they do not have to take out of pocket money from their rents to pay for this themselves like every other business owner that is responsible for their own parking areas.

It is a mystery to me how a supposedly fiscally responsible and conservative administration continues to champion an effort towards this when it is something that the tax payers have already spoke out against at referendum.

What IS their motivation for this? There is no demand for PUBLIC parking like this at this level at THAT location.

If this passes the Town Council, these same fiscally responsible and conservative individuals will be crying over the $30,000.00 that will need to be spent, AGAIN, on a referendum vote because the residents will most likely petition for the right to vote this down. If the past results are indicative to future events they will get enough signatures and it will happen.

If we are eligible for this state grant money it can be spent on the $200,000.00 price tag over on the Wooding-Caplan property where we are creating short tem (supposedly) parking to alleviate the out of pocket tax burden to the residents. Additionally, we could take the remaining $300,000.00 and spend it on the other downtown lots that the town already owns and fix them up with repaving and better lighting.

We wont spend the money on all the lots we already own (mentioned above) but we keep bring this effort back before the Council to try to ram it through when the people do not want it

Why?

AGENDA - Wallingford Town Council Meeting September 11, 2012 6:30PM @ Town Hall

I have the agenda posted for the regular Wallingford Town Council Meeting over on Wallingford Patch.

As you may already be aware, twice a month as a rule there are regular meetings of the Wallingford Town Council. They are held at Town Hall and open to the public.

An agenda is put together about a week prior to the meeting with topics for discussion that night and I have included the next meeting’s below for your review.

From time to time there are last minute changes / additions to the agenda but for the most part it is static once released.

This is the agenda as presented on Wednesday September 5, 2012 for the Tuesday September 11, 2012 regular Town Council Meeting.

Of position and pay - the position and salary of the Mayor of Wallingford

Stephen Knight has written and posted his bi-weekly “FROM WALLINGFORD” column over at the Record Journal; this week’s submission from him was titled “Power and pay”

I have written a letter to the Editor response which I hope will be printed Tuesday or Wednesday.

As it was only 300 words and there was more to say I have also blogged some additional facts and commentary over on the Wallingford Patch website in a post titled “Of position and pay - the position and salary of the Mayor of Wallingford”