Norwich Meetings 22-26 June 2009

I stumbled across this link, again, on the City of Norwich website and it makes me smile. Shows what The Buggles know. Turns out the Radio Star is unscathed, it's urban suburbia that tends to take it in the shorts. Twenty-one months left on a three year relationship, it'll be hard to top the first fifteen, I guess.

As for goings-on in The Rose City this week, there's a ton of Semiseptcentennial events you can most easily learn more about by visiting here.

Meetings-wise, this afternoon at four there's a (another) special meeting of the Board of Education though it's a public meeting really for the purposes of posting only as a reading of the meeting agenda suggests. And am I alone in being surprised as to how this agenda can be shared with the Norwich City Clerk for posting in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act and public law, but nearly all the other Board's meetings and meeting minutes cannot be posted seemingly anywhere.

At five o'clock in Howard T. Brown Park is a special meeting of the Harbor Management Commission, special despite what the agenda says because it's on a different day and time from its regular convening which is why the Commission had to send a note to the City Clerk, not to mention its location shifted from the great indoors to the great outdoors. If it's raining, does the meeting shift to the gazebo?

With all due respect to the agenda, which mistakenly presumes this is a regular meeting, there shouldn't be any new business as a special meeting must be restricted only to the posted on the agenda reason for the calling of the special meeting (there isn't on this one). While it would be heartening to hear an update on the Cadle Mill development, past meetings suggest that all's quiet (too quiet) on that front. If you are going to attend, I suspect there's a lot more specifics on the Harbor Management Plan update first introduced in May after months of work. From what I've read, it seemed like a good first draft with some work still needed.

The announced for Tuesday at four o'clock Building Code Board of Appeals meeting has been cancelled. For those (like me) keeping track at home there's NO posting of meeting agendas or any meeting minutes, since March of this year, on the City's website.

It may be worthwhile on Wednesday to pack a picnic lunch and hike over to 23 Union Street as there's a series of meetings going on there, starting at five, with the Dangerous Buildings Board of Review whose meeting agenda makes it one of the harder-working groups of people this, or any other, week in Norwich. I've joked about the name in the past, and it is a tad overly dramatic, perhaps, but the members are serious and sincere about making the city a better place for everyone.

Meanwhile, stay where you are if you go to that meeting because at 6:15, both in the basement conference room of 23 Union Street, are meetings of the 21st West Thames Street Advisory Committee followed at 6:30 (or when the first meeting is over) by the 751 North Main Street Advisory Committee (FWIW: for BOTH Advisory Committees, there are no agendas posted online and neither set of draft minutes mention where your meetings are held; how can you expect Waldo and Carmen San Diego to include them as part of their date?)

And at seven across town on New London Turnpike is a regular meeting of the Norwich Golf Course Authority, whose members' appointments have ALL EXPIRED. Perhaps the City Council can reappoint the members (or close New London Turnpike, whichever is easier), at an upcoming meeting? And my compliments to the Authority Chair for alerting the Council.

Thursday morning at eight, in their offices at 75 Main Street is a regular meeting of the Board of Directors of the Norwich Community Development Corporation. I am the most easily amused person I know, and even I have stopped laughing at the irony of the lack of a website presence for the agency designated by the Norwich City Council as the primary agent for economic development for the city.
You can probably get a meeting agenda and/or minutes of their last regular meeting by contacting Bob Mills, their Executive Director, though what you're to do if you're in search of new location for your business, is beyond me, possibly him and probably all of us. Hilarious.

"Dwarf on a moped speeds through the park
To Kilroy's Renaissance, the Temple of Art
Signs with a flourish, then makes it his own
Pockets his pencil, and slyly rides home."
-bill kenny