Hand-made (Norwich) local government

Lots of words this week about national politics (and the pitfalls of being the President of the United States on late night television) and state politics (we seem to have already established who the two people are running for the 2010 Senate seat from Connecticut; and neither face is a new one and none of the ideas are either) that just helps me remember that we might all be better off as we rebuild our country if we start at the lowest level and work our way up.

Monday afternoon at five, the Norwich Redevelopment Agency meets in Room 210 of City Hall. I'm impressed by the number of people I know who volunteer to lend a hand on this--and they're not headline seekers by any means; they mean well and try to do well. Here's what they're doing this afternoon and what they did last month. There's a lot of work to be done in rebuilding Norwich--this group of volunteers always seem to travel with buckets and spades and are always open to new ideas.

Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 in the Central Office of the Board of Education is a meeting of the Policy Committee. You're tired of hearing me say this, but I never tire of noting it: the Norwich Board of Education website is, being polite, a car crash and a waste of electrons. There's not even a current listing of the members of the board and don't even look for meeting agenda or minutes of previous meetings (this is for a School Building Committee meeting that happened three weeks ago). I never attribute to malice that which can be explained by ignorance so guess why I think the website of the most important function of municipal government is in disarray. First prize is a week in Norwich; second prize is two weeks.

At four on Tuesday afternoon in 23 Union Street (next door to City Hall) is a meeting of the Building Code of Appeals whose previous meetings and current agenda are a mystery to me. At five o'clock, in Room 219 of City Hall is a regular meeting of the Harbor Management Commission.

Funny story-sort of: last week as part of my rehab on my left knee, I walked (or tried to) the Heritage Trail that goes down along the river to the harbor from the Indian Leap Falls. Yeah, I was the guy with the walker--and the case of the sad behind after I'd walked past the church and the rolling hills to the river under the Sweeney bridge to discover the trail is still blocked off by the police department from when the miniature golf course caught on fire. How long ago was that? Two years or so? I enjoyed the little golf place-never understood the volcano, but what's over is over and that is so over now, it's not funny. The Heritage Trail was constructed with federal tax money and belongs to all of us. The property owner and the police have had long enough to secure the area and safeguard that which needs to be safeguarded. How about, just in time for the 350th Anniversary, public works and public safety do what needs to be done to let all of us enjoy it again. And yeah, I'm a skosh cranked that I had to walk back up the hill instead of being able to continue to walk to Howard Brown Park.

At six, the Board of Public Utilities Commissioners/Sewer Authority meets in the training room on the 2nd floor at the Norwich Public Utilities’ building, at 16 South Golden Street. There's no agenda and no minutes posted from their last meeting, which is no longer a surprise to me despite state laws to the contrary.

Speaking of no agenda and no minutes, Wednesday afternoon's meeting at 4:30 of the Norwich Housing Authority at 10 Westwood Park rings both bells. Without putting too fine a point on this: you're not doing the rest of us a 'favor' by posting the minutes of your last meeting--you are complying with state law. Also Wednesday at 5:30 at 23 Union Street is a regular meeting of the Board of Review of Dangerous Buildings who asked for some help, in my opinion, from the City Council last Monday night and for the life of me, I can't tell you if they got the assistance they requested or not. These are serious folks, who toil in relative obscurity and have a 'target rich environment' as a review of their minutes of the special meeting would suggest.

Capping off Wednesday's meetings, at seven over at the conference room in the golf course, is a regular meeting of the Golf Course Authority. In honor of their regular meeting, I have a golf joke: why does Tiger Woods always wear two pair of golf pants? In case he gets a hole in one. I know you're out there, I can hear you breathing.

Thursday night at six, the Norwich Recreation Advisory Board meets in the Rec Office over at Dickenmann Field; their January meeting was cancelled because of lack of a quorum and finishing off the week at 7 PM in Room 108 of City Hall is a regular meeting of the Democratic Town Committee. There was a reasonable amount of chatter earlier in the month about DTC sponsorship of debates between those seeking the office of Mayor-and right now there are two candidates, both of them Democrats and both, I think, on the DTC.

Not sure why the debates some people want to have couldn't be held inside the regular monthly DTC meetings. Set a time limit of (I don't know) fifteen minutes and hold a debate limited to a specific topic at every meeting between now and whenever the nominating process happens. I'm a registered Democrat who has never attended a DTC meeting (I'm told they don't have pie), not that some people are happy to know that I'm a Democrat. I can't understand why allowing the two people seeking the office to debate their positions should be so hard to organize. As for waiting for those who may want to run but haven't announced, get in or get out--that's my attitude. You cannot win if you do not play. As I said at the top, own the process at the local level and people will feel part of the system at the state and national level. Otherwise, government is something that is done TO us and not FOR us. Don't just make a difference, be the difference--everyday.
-bill kenny