Well-Paved Road to Well-Known Warm Destination

I once worked for a boss who used to say “I dislike telling other people how to suck eggs” which I understood to mean each of us arrives at his decision in his own way. We all see opportunities differently but missed opportunities are more universally recognized.

I worked for a boss who often said “I dislike telling other people how to suck eggs” which, I understood to mean each of us makes decisions in his own way. We all see opportunities differently but missed opportunities are more universally recognized.

I’m trying to remember that point even if I feel a little like Foghorn Leghorn walking on egg shells after last Monday’s City Council vote on the next city budget and the Council’s declination to add funding to both the instrumental music and world language programs (‘frills’ neighboring towns have) for children in Norwich Public Schools because at least two Council members didn’t feel there was any guarantee the added money would be spent on those programs.

By state statute and City Charter the council has the power to revise only the total estimated expenditures of the Board of Education, not line-items. Within its budget, the Board determines where the money is spent. Much of the Charter has been around since the early fifties, so it’s been like this for six plus decades and yet this year, it suddenly became a concern. I assumed Council members were familiar with the city charter by the time they take the oath of office.

Speaking of assumptions, trust in the word of the other elected city body with whom you meet during every budget formulation season, would (I’d hope), be paramount in the Council/Board relationship. Leaving me to wonder if integrity was the underlying issue last Monday night. 

Many homeowners are unhappy about the perfect storm created by revaluation and the increase in their mill rate. I understand the anger but am concerned that one of those who voted “no” seemed to link those taxes to education expenditures rather than to the continuing failure to grow the commercial portion of the Grand List.

When Norwich school children reach NFA, the same high school to which neighboring communities send their children, our kids could populate to greater numbers remedial classes in many academic disciplines that our schools could not offer fundamental skills at the elementary level. Why? Perhaps because we chose to save money that we didn’t save at all. 

This raises the price for NFA's education services to Norwich students, a cost borne by the city resulting in increased outlays from an already strained Board of Education budget, which in turn, leaves even LESS money to educate children.  And round and round goes the gossip.

Quality of education, as has been frequently reported, together with 'opportunities for employment,' is a critical determinant families (and businesses seeking workers and customers) use when deciding on relocation/expansion. 

We should pay now or we shall pay later and later is always more expensive.

Norwich still lacks a coherent and cohesive economic development strategy integrating personal and community growth and enrichment. No wonder so many residents perceive themselves as caught in a vice of spiraling taxes and diminishing municipal services, whether such a perception is true or not. 

We had a chance to change direction last Monday but chose, instead, the well-trod path of take-no-risks that always leads us nowhere and guarantees a less than zero reward.  

-bill kenny