The City's Aflood (Norwich Meetings 21-26 December 2009)

Still struggling for the perfect present for that hard-to-shop resident of the City of Norwich? Why not the gift that keeps on giving (and no, I don't mean a cold)? Share with them the link on the city's website that lists the entire month's municipal meetings at a glance. Perfect for people with insatiable curiosity. There's nothing to wrap or mail and no scary entries on your credit card statement to start off 2010.

And the lucky recipient has one less excuse to be unhappily surprised by the goings-on here in our Rose of New England. Our neighbors and friends who make up the various advisories, boards, commissions and committees that help so much of this city, and so many others across the country, function will appreciate having the public in attendance. Hey, if they welcome me now, imagine how euphorically they'll embrace you.....

With that in mind, recognizing snow (and removal of snow) and its impact on intended schedules and realizing Friday is Christmas, let's see what's forecast under the tree this week for municipal meetings, and watch out for the coal and what looks like a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer (and some of their output).

This morning at 9:30 in their offices in the Norwich Business Park (it's easier to get there if you head up Plain Hill Road) is a special meeting of the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Transmission Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative. The only part of their meeting open to the public is the discussion and decision on next year's meeting schedule, so you may want to consider the weather outside and the driving conditions in light of the return on attending the meeting.

This afternoon at 5:15 in their offices just off Route 12 in Gales Ferry, is a regular meeting of the Southeastern Connecticut Water Authority. I suspect it's counter-intuitive to assume they have a bottled water vending machine in their lobby, so drink up before you go.

This evening at 6:30 in their offices in the Norwich Business Park, is a regular meeting of the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments Regional Planning Commission RPC Reference Committee, the proverbial mouthful if I've ever seen one. And kidding aside, as belts continue to tighten because the recession-that's-already-been-pronounced-as-over-seems-to-keep-on-going-around here, the pragmatic necessity of regionalization and cooperation will continue to replace the 'leave my rice bowl' alone mindset that many seem to think is independence and SCCOG are setting the standards on cooperative efforts.

Tonight at 7:30 (remember the time changed for the second monthly Council meeting) the City Council convenes with a hefty agenda. You might wish to pay attention to reports from the two committees, the Commission on the City Plan and the Norwich Baseball Stadium Authority.

The report from the Commission on the City Plan is a negative recommendation to purchase the Norwich Hospital Property parcel and creates the requirement for a super majority of the City Council, five of seven, in favor of resolution seven. Assuming, of course, all members of the City Council, to include the three former members of the Hospital Site Advisory Committee, choose to vote, either tonight or at a subsequent meeting prior to the state-mandated purchase deadline of 24 January.

The State of Connecticut just agreed to significantly restructure the remediation provisions of their purchase agreement with Preston for their share of the property, so perhaps an extension of the purchase deadline of the Norwich parcel isn't beyond the realm of possibility, as has been presumed. If you don't ask, the answer is automatically no.

The other report is from the Norwich Baseball Stadium Authority, whose November minutes (most recent ones posted) don't indicate what the presentation might be about, but with Major League pitchers and catchers reporting in less than sixty days (yippee!), it would be swell if an update on a possible new tenant for Dodd Stadium were the topic.

Another item of elevated interest on the agenda, at least for me, is resolution six, the leasing of 337 Main Street, the former YMCA building. Some have argued that Norwich cannot afford another failed building as a gateway gargoyle. But when all the improvements at 337 Main are made, and all the foot traffic that the Recreation Director's presentation forecast/promised for the facility walks out the doors and back into downtown Norwich, what will have changed in downtown (be it in three years or three decades), aside from the facility itself? Quite frankly why is this building more important than the one across the street or at the other end of Main Street? You know what else I'd like to know--how many memberships, offered the evening of the presentation, have been sold in the ten days since it happened? What's your guess and are you an optimist or pessimist?

I would hope the ladies and gentlemen of the City Council, based on two Saturday sessions in a workshop entitled Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail (not what Doug Relyea is calling his intervention, but could), with the third session set for this Saturday (more later) would agree the Silver Bullet Solution to urban center revitalization does NOT work. (And the draft plan handed out Saturday was just that, a draft. I can remember the person who distributed it saying just that. I hope the Council can remember that.) You are not done and we are not over. Unless there's a more holistic approach to development and implementation of a revitalization plan rather than the current haphazard philosophy still being used, we'll continue to have bright starts that quietly fade to black with time.

Remember when the Mercantile Exchange was going to be the catalyst for a new downtown? Then it was the Wauregan that was the spark in the dark. At one point it was going to be a Discovery Center in a building someone stuck us with (and then charged us extra for windows he never installed and we paid for them anyway). We're told the Regional Inter-Modal Transportation Center is the tool that will 'help us turn the corner' and now we can add the acquisition of the former YMCA building, 337 Main Street, to that same list. In case you haven't noticed--nothing is improving.

The possibilities of a recreation center at 337 Main Street have enormous promise and offer both great rewards while containing great risk. We shouldn't become so enamored of the former that we are blind to the latter. Nor should we fear doing anything lest we do something wrong. We should research and evaluate such an acquisition, but think bigger, not smaller. What if the City Council can agree this project is but one step, and not a journey unto itself, in a larger, longer and more difficult road to re-establishing a defined downtown district as a destination for visitors while also reinventing itself as the heart of a Norwich our residents can come home to.

Our elected leaders should and would work to reward risk undertaken for the greater good, over developer greed, while defining a vision of The Next Norwich and then partnering with the private (NOT public) sector to refine that vision into a more tangible future. You and I have heard and read that 'better days are coming to Norwich' FOR DECADES. We're running out of calendar pages as well as opportunities. These are better days because THIS is the only day each of us has. We need to make something of it while we have it.

I'd like to think we haven't yet had all the discussion on this issue that there's going to be, and a friendly reminder of a point we all know, but sometimes forget (present company included): two competing monologues do not a dialogue make. There's a difference between speaking with and speaking at one another.

The Board of Education Policy Committee meets tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 in the conference room at the Central Office, across from the Norwichtown Green. There's a lot to be said for an up to date website, especially for an entity whose operation requires over half the municipal budget. Too bad it doesn't get said, or updated, often enough on some websites, eh?

The Harbor Management Commission meets tomorrow at five in Room 219 of City Hall. Here's a draft of their November meeting minutes. I'm concluding the reconstructive work on the seawall is just about accomplished, though I'm not sure if that's what the minutes actually mean. And just as a pass-along, the regular meeting of the Building Code of Appeals has been cancelled.

Wednesday night at seven in their conference room at the facilities, and don't let the weather fool you, there's a regular meeting of the Norwich Golf Course Authority. Think Spring and give Golf for the Holidays (I was reading their special meeting minutes).

And, because you've seen these itty-bitty, teeny-tiny notices in the newspapers about 'force rankings', I wanted to mention a meeting this Saturday morning (yes, as in the day after Christmas) at eight in Room 335 of City Hall where a third City Council (and City Manager) workshop, and they've been incremental in going at this, will attempt (my word, not theirs) to 'Develop a plan that will improve the Norwich economy by XX% before the end of 20XX.'

Working with their facilitator, Douglas Relyea, the City Manager, City Council and Mayor will develop a SMART-Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely-Plan of action, define the specifics and refine the tools needed to achieve the goal. Gotta tell ya, the same faces were in the gallery last Saturday as were there the Saturday before, so you need to think about joining us. Keith R is seeing more of me than my wife is-and one of them is waaay too happy about that turn of events.

Seriously, these sessions aren't high drama-but quiet progress and hard, solid work. Maybe this town is in need of a small vacation from grand gestures, or even rude ones for that matter, and instead of a balled fist, we might be willing to finally try a helping hand. "Oh, we're beaten and blown by the wind; Blown by the wind. Oh, when I go there, I go there with you. It's all I can do."
-bill kenny