Is There Life After Breakfast? (Norwich Meetings 16-20 November 2009)

As we head towards Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays, maybe just me but the year seems to feel like it's accelerating. Perhaps because daylight has shifted, the days all seem to be shorter and more jammed with activities. Personal calendars that were already pretty full are now loaded with holiday parties, travel, shopping outings and all kinds of other activities.

It's understandable if you have even less time now for municipal meetings in your town, because it tends to happen here, in my town, Norwich, Connecticut. This week in the Rose City is a great example of 'so many people in the same device' as there are as many different kinds of gatherings as there are people to have them. They're competing for our attention with everything else in our lives, so the burden is on us to choose wisely and well (something we're not always known for as a species; see seersucker jumpsuits and porkchop sideburns as just two examples of what I mean).

This morning at nine is a regular meeting of the Senior Affairs Commission (based on what I understand of their published schedule, it's their last meeting until March). Here's a draft copy of their September meeting minutes (which did mention an October meeting, but I didn't find any posting of October meeting minutes).

If you support regionalization, you should enjoy a double dose of it in the Norwich Business Park, at 5 Connecticut Avenue, as the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments, SCCOG, holds an RPC Reference Committee (suspect RPC doesn't stand for really pretty crazy) at 6:30 followed by a Regional Planning Commission meeting at 7:30 this evening.

They seem to be two different meetings for (I assume) two different purposes but I don't have enough familiarity with their functions to grasp the why or how. What I find of more interest, and hope the new City Council will as well, is the mechanism (or lack thereof) for relaying information to the Norwich City Council by its representative at these meetings. A check of the SCCOG website, where minutes are a hit or miss proposition at best, doesn't help me understand the attendance at meetings.

At City Hall, there's a welcome and thank you reception for incoming and outgoing City Council members, beginning at 5:30 in Room 335 (old courtroom) followed by what will be, in all likelihood, the last convening of this City Council at seven.

The Council meeting agenda reflects a variety of issues. The one getting a lot of the ink is the hospital property purchase. I believe in 'have a reason for everything you do'. And try as I might, I can't see the reason for the rush to acquire this property. I've been to meetings of the Hospital Site Development Committee (more than at least three of its members) and you can review the cost benefits analysis on the website and applaud the committee's candid and clear-eyed assessment. To me, we need to think in terms of decades not years or months for development and return on investment. While you're looking at the Council agenda I'd call your attention to item one of the public hearings as well with a new definition of a 'resort'.

Tuesday afternoon at 5:15, in their offices at the Buckingham Memorial, is a regular meeting of the Public Parking Commission (the private parking commission's meetings are by invitation only, I believe). Based on the minutes of their September meeting, I don't understand why we don't consider downtown parking more of an economic development issue than we do (to their credit, it seems the members of the Committee do).

The Norwich Free Academy Board of Trustees meets at 5:30 in Room 6109 0f the Latham Science Center; if you have a child in NFA or your taxes support the tuition of students attending NFA, you have good reasons (and incentives) to pay attention to these meetings as NFA is another example of regionalization and shared benefit.

At six, it's a twofer, The Norwich Public Utilities Board of Commissioners and the Sewer Authority meetings, beginning at six in the NPU building at 16 South Golden Street. The minutes of their 4 November special meeting aren't available from their website or the municipal website.

The Commission on the City Plan meets at seven in the basement conference room of 23 Union Street. There are September meeting minutes, but none for October on the city's website (but there was a meeting to produce an item, report #1, for the City Council's Monday meeting agenda).

Also at seven, is a regular (and investment) meeting of the Personnel and Pension Board, whose members are in need of (re)appointment, at least as detailed on the municipal website and whose efforts, in a turbulent investment market on behalf of city employees, are laudable.

And finally also at seven, is a regular (I think) meeting of the Downtown Neighborhood Revitalization Zone Committee at ArtWorks to Empower. No, I don't know where that is, but I also couldn't find minutes of recent meetings so I may not be the best person to send out as the scout.

Wednesday morning at 8:30 in their offices at 5 Connecticut Avenue in the Norwich Business Park is a regular meeting of the (entire) Southeastern Council Council of Governments. If this helps, September's meeting minutes are posted but NOT October's.

The Rehabilitation Review Committee meets at a quarter to nine in the basement conference room at 23 Union Street. As a review of their October regular meeting minutes suggests, they're also actively engaged in what could be seen as economic development. I point this out because there's been an effort to get arms around all the agencies and activities with a place at the economic development table, and now, during the post-municipal election honeymoon, is as good a time as any to get coordination accomplished.

At nine in the community room of the Dime Bank on Route 82 is a regular meeting of the Norwich School Readiness Council, Children First. A newspaper lists this meeting as being on Thursday, but the city's website says it's Wednesday. That underscores my larger frustration: we use all kinds of information dissemination tools (texts, tweets, facebook postings IM's) for the most varied of pursuits, but cannot successfully deploy them to support public policy initiatives. Here's what's on the CFI website about their meeting. Yeah, nothing. If information is ammunition, we, in the public, are too often unarmed.

The Housing Authority meeting has been cancelled for this month. One of the newspapers lists a meeting at 5:30 in Room 319 at City Hall of the 350th Anniversary Executive Committee, but it's not on the city's website and we observed this anniversary in July.

There's a special meeting at 5:30 in the Norwich Public Schools Central Office, 90 Town Street, of the (Kelly Middle) School Building Committee and at six, in Room 210 of City Hall is a regular meeting of the Norwich Baseball Stadium Authority, whose members' appointments need to be seen to, and who are, I hope, soon going to have good news about a new tenant for Dodd Stadium and the baseball season of 2010.

Thursday afternoon at five is a regular meeting of the Historic District Commission in Room 210 of City Hall and if the city's website is correct it's their first meeting since June. The Norwich Ice Arena Authority meets at six in their facility on the New London Turnpike-there are no meeting minutes posted on line and their appointments expired, or melted might be a better choice of words, two years ago.

And that's an attempt at what's going on in Norwich, mostly after breakfast (to include, where necessary, brunches). Don't bring a cake fork to a knife fight, but always carry a napkin, Virginia, in the event that there really is a free lunch. It'd be a pity to use your sleeve. Put the kettle on, mate.
-bill kenny