Monday Musings on Norwich Meetings

You really should ask for a day/date reminder for Christmas. One with really big blocks on the calendar so you can keep track of all the extra-curricular activities that you'll be interested in as a result of one of those New Year's resolutions you're gonna make, if only you had a tool to track it all. Be of good cheer (to appropriate a phrase), here's what this week looks like for those of us in the Rose City.

Were you as surprised by the snow on Sunday as I was? Yeah, it helped make the Winterfest Parade look a lot prettier and it really didn't screw up the roads or the walkways too much (it seemed to bewilder a lot of drivers, judging from the number of sirens I heard throughout the day) and I shouldn't complain it is December and this is New England. And yet, ever since I stopped getting sleds for Christmas, the blush, so to speak, is off the Rose. It was nice to go by the old Buckingham School and see the kids sledding down that hill-I used to take my two there when they were little. Still try to, except the twenty-six year old (fourth item down) keeps falling off the saucer.

As for indoor sledding this week, the meetings in and around Norwich are many and varied.

Tonight at 5 PM in room 209 of City Hall is the Volunteer Firefighters Relief Fund Committee. The watchwords seem to be 'you can’t buy a loaf of bread with negative earnings.' I suspect that's true for more than just the bread buyers among us, even those on gluten-free diets.

Tuesday afternoon is a little less frantic as Mark B (as in "I Be in the Know") was kind enough to share that the Public Works and Capital Improvements Committee meeting at 5 at 50 Clinton Avenue is now CANCELLED. (Nevertheless, here's what they worked on last month.) Between us, I've concluded it may be until April or later before this committee has its full complement of City Council representatives, unless someone steps in for now former-Alderman, State Representative-elect Chris Coutu.

Also Tuesday at 5:30 in the Slater Auditorium at NFA the Norwich Historical Society is sponsoring presentation on Historic Neighborhoods of Norwich. Remember the firestorm in the fall of 2007 about the attempt to create a commercial overlay zone in the middle of a neighborhood? (Oddly, a former City Council member with higher aspirations, doesn't. Looks like we'll be trying the ABL logic during the next mayoral election. You're gonna need a LOT more than that, as far as I am concerned). Anyway this meeting is a lot larger and more far-reaching that its name suggests (and thanks to Martrese F. for the tip and explanation).

At 6:45 PM (who thinks meetings on the quarter-hour is a good idea?) Tuesday evening, the Downtown Neighborhood Revitalization Zone Committee meets at the Otis Library (hope no one is in need of handicap parking as there is none, zilch, at the library. How odd is that?). You won't find out who the members are from the City of Norwich Website, but here's the most recent meeting minutes (NOT from 11 November, but rather), 14 October's meeting.

And at 7 PM, at 23 Union Street it's the Zoning Board of Appeals. Here's their agenda from last month's meeting, though no minutes, as required by public law, are posted. (not meant as criticism--a lot of us only follow the laws we like, see cell phone use while driving as an example.)

On Wednesday, made possible by a grant of the 'We Love Meetings that Start on the Quarter Hour, Kenny Can Go Stuff Himself' ad hoc group, the Rehabilitation Review Committee meets 8:45 AM at 23 Union Street. Here's what went on at their November meeting. Later in the afternoon, the Norwich Housing Authority meets at 10 Westwood Park and there's a meeting of the Board of Review of Dangerous Buildings at 5:30 at 23 Union Street, though there's no current meeting minutes on line so I have little idea of their agenda.

The Baseball Stadium Authority meets at 6 PM in City Hall. I couldn't find their November meeting minutes on line, but I did find the October minutes to be well worth reading, about 239,000 dollars worth, point in fact. Also at six, across town at the New Asia Buffett on Boswell Avenue, is a meeting of the Greeneville Neighborhood Revitalization Zone Committee and that's it as Mark B has also shared the regular meeting of the Public Safety Committee (in Taftville Fire House) has been cancelled (we are all fortunate that he chooses to use his power only for good. I have a request already in for pony rides for my birthday-I'll let you know how that turns out.)

The 'days to' countdown is in full swing, and I hope you don't find yourself as roadkill under Santa's Sleigh as the days dwindle down. This time next month we, as a city will be talking more (and more seriously) about the Norwich SemiSeptennial (and what we can afford) as those who are thinking about running for office, be it Board of Education, City Council or Mayor, start to think harder. But there's some winter weather and a budget to get to and through before all of that becomes all of this. Otherwise, 'it's just a long long long lonely taxi ride. Going nowhere.'
-bill kenny