Meat of this week's meetings

It's the final week of the first month of 2009, and when you check the City of Norwich website for municipal and cultural goings-on (thanks for adding that dimension Josh P, it's a nice touch), you'll see some regularly scheduled meetings have been cancelled. I'm a specialist in NOT checking the calendar as closely as I should and either showing up for not-happening meetings, or showing up extra early for meetings. I thought one meeting I attended last Thursday was starting at five even though I had an agenda that said five thirty. Take me down to my boat on the river, indeed.

There's a Board of Education (Special) meeting this afternoon at 4:30 in the central office on Town Street across from the Norwichtown Green, but it's a private matter and not a pleasant one, as you'll read here. The Redevelopment Agency meets at 5 PM in Room 210 of City Hall. Based on their minutes from December, I'd expect they'll continue to sort out the Reid & Hughes project as well as Shipping Street.

On Tuesday, the Board of Education Policy Committee meets at 3:30 in their offices at 90 Town Street and I must confess to a certain and growing sense of annoyance with how the Board fails to use any of its taxpayer provided technology to even remotely address state-mandated requirements to inform the public about its meetings. Here is the Board's website; don't be disconcerted the membership roster is from 2005-2006 (between us, the members haven't changed though I'm sure they've improved or tried to) but do feel free to be perturbed that the posting of minutes of regular Board of Education meetings seems to be fitful, at best, and good luck finding any information on the committees or their activities.

Later Tuesday, at four at 23 Union Street (next door to City Hall), the Building Code of Appeals meets, and based on the minutes of their special meeting of 13 January, I'll be looking at the Majestic Rose with new eyes.

There are two meetings at five, both in City Hall. The Harbor Management Commission meets in Room 219 picking up, I'll assume, from where they left off in November (I was unpleasantly surprised in their minutes to read a note that some of the boats (not Tall Ships) that had committed for (I assume Harbor Days as part of) the Semiseptcentennial have withdrawn.). And also at five, in City Council Chambers, the NAACP (happy 100th anniversary!) is hosting a Crime Forum. Also Tuesday, at seven in Room 335 also in City Hall, the Board of Public Utilities Commissioners/Sewer Authority will hold a public hearing on the Newton Street Area sewer project.

There are two meetings Wednesday, one at five by the Board of Review of Dangerous Buildings (whose December meeting minutes, by the way, aren't; and were also shot in Panavision it seems to me) with the Golf Course Authority meeting at seven to follow in their conference room at the NGC over on New London Turnpike. I'd assume on the agenda will be the members' requesting reappointment by the City Council.

It's not a city meeting, by any means, but it happens Thursday at 6:30 PM over at Olympic Pizza and it's an opportunity to meet Alderman Bill Nash as he starts what promises to be a series of meetings across Norwich to gather input and ideas (rumor has it that he's bringing a large cardboard box to put all of those insights into, but it looks like the same box he was going to use to put all the fun in when he was elected to the City Council). It's a nice idea, and Olympic has great pizza so I hope to see you there, though I can understand the Alderman hoping more you, than me, will show up.
-bill kenny