Owning the Decision and Everything that Follows

Tuesday night as part of its meeting agenda, the men and women of the Norwich City Council will, in some shape, size or form, decide on an offer by the State of Connecticut to purchase that portion of the former Norwich State Hospital property within the city limits for a dollar. Let me hasten to add there are a number of conditions to the sale including an assumption by the residents of Norwich of both the responsibility and costs of environmental remediation of the entire parcel.

The advisory panel, assembled by the previous City Council, after months of research and conversations with subject matter experts ranging from historians through hazardous material disposal specialists reported estimated remediation costs in seven figures for a property that so far has yet to have a purpose or function articulated for it.

The question before all of us, but most especially the seven people at the front of the room Tuesday is two sided: Can we afford to buy this property? Can we afford NOT to buy it? Now might be a good time to take out a blank sheet of paper, number as much as you'd like and do not copy from your neighbor as you compile your own list of reasons for how you would decide.

But speaking of lists, at a Saturday session a month ago, the Council and City Manager agreed on a ranking of challenges and opportunities facing our city. Their Top Six included (in order): a need to promote Norwich; the lack of an economic development plan; an inability to establish and attain realistic goals; location, history and citizenship; emergency services and a lack of manufacturing jobs and proliferation of service jobs.

In the Saturdays that have followed, progress has been made on sorting out the responsibilities involved in creating, articulating, staffing and managing the various aspects of a cogent and coherent action plan to enhance economic development (and the revenue streams that such development provides) across Norwich.

They'll all meet again this Saturday morning at eight in Room 335 of City Hall with the advisory boards and organizations involved so far in answering questions and concerns about demographic and economic aspects to better develop a snapshot of where Norwich (is) Now before choosing a path and pace towards which we can head.

There will be a second meeting on Saturday, at 1230, also in Room 335, with State Senator Edith Prague and representatives of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, to share with the members of the City Council as an informational workshop (I imagine much of) the information the Norwich Hospital Site Advisory has already gathered, developed and shared with the Council. There will be an 'opportunity for citizen comment' and if you've been procrastinating about making yourself heard, Saturday afternoon might be a time to rethink that position.

All of those Saturday discussions will be part of the perspective each of the alderpersons will use Tuesday evening, I hope, to decide despite the compelling reasons so many residents have shared during the public hearings, that Norwich should NOT purchase the former Hospital site property. Not necessarily part of the discussion Tuesday, but helping frame it, I'm sure, is Connecticut General Statute, 8-24, on the requirements for a two-third majority vote by a city council for any purchase receiving an unfavorable recommendation by its commission on the city plan (thank you ML for the citation). Meaning five yes votes, and not a simple majority of the Council, will be required.

It's not just the multi-millions in clean-up costs that disquiets me (though it certainly doesn't reassure me) or that those dollars are so urgently needed for other projects across and throughout the city., It's the total absence of any plan for what to do with the land (of which slightly less than half of its sort-of seventy acres reportedly can be developed). We're learning to plan our work and then to work our plan. We're not there yet, but we're getting there. When we do, it's not likely this opportunity will have vanished and the next time, we'll be ready, willing and finally able.
-bill kenny

Bringing It All Back Home....

Never let it be said I never give you advanced warning-put this one in your 'things to do' planner now, even if it's three plus weeks away: Thursday, 9 October in Norwich City Hall, Room 335, starting at 5:30 and slated for two hours, the Mayor's Economic Roundtable Forum (I'm not sure what to put in capital letters and what Not to; like that right there, or This).

The previous two meetings of the forum (community leaders of all stripes and interests) had been devoted heavily, if not exclusively, to the (nearly) seventy acres of the former Norwich Hospital property. I was in the audience for both of these meetings and appreciated the discussions that went on throughout but got a bit lost in the tall grass in terms of what was accomplished. Having been the subject and often the object of local politics for about a decade and half, I hope those who still are will NOT be offended when I characterize a lot of it as akin to the 'rap sessions' we used to have back in the day while twisted on 'weed, whites and wine.' Much of the time, then as well as now, it's not so much will and desire as wallet and a plan--the former we seem to have in abundance and the latter, well, not so much.

Don't get me wrong-discussion is always good and a thorough examination of all aspects and impacts of a project can only improve the final product. But...you can talk things to death or at least into a stupor. And after about three and half hours, total, in connection with the Norwich Hospital property, it looks like come 9 October, and now for Something Completely Different (nudge, nudge).

The topic for the 9 October Economic Roundtable (having thought about it, I'm a caps kinda guy) third installment is the Norwichtown Mall (NT Mall) the proverbial red-headed stepchild of retail activity (or inactivity to be more precise) in the region and a cautionary tale of consequence for any developer or wannabe developer. The panel for the Economic Roundtable, as outlined in one of the local newspapers, is as impressive and well meaning as such assemblies of talent can be, but rarely are.

Maybe just me (I'm practicing self-effacement; in reality, there's no 'maybe' about it) I would have thought a discussion on the NT Mall might better be served and far more useful to everyone if the owners of the property, Edens and Avant, were to offer a status report on where they are, outline about where they hope to go and discuss they plan to get there. Actually all of this is long past due, in my opinion. The NT Mall is, last time I checked, privately owned and NOT public property like the Norwich Hospital.

In an aside before Monday's City Council meeting, one of the alderpersons told me he'd been informed Edens and Avant were invited, but wouldn't be attending. They asked, he said, to be updated on whatever happens at the meeting. When I wondered what possible value could come from an intervention where the 'subject' wouldn't even be in the room or in the state, he insisted it could still be a positive opportunity for the community to tell the developer what those of us who live here think should happen. I'd really love for that to happen, and admire him him for his positivism. But if twice (or twenty times) as many customers of the NT Mall show up on the 9th, it'll still be me and four other folks (feel free to hum a few bars of "Eddie Are You Kidding?" right about here.)

With all due respect to those who offered their time and talents to develop and discuss ideas at the first two roundtables and who continue to attend and participate --what exactly does ANY of this get the city and where is the map of conclusions being drawn from those previous meetings? If we should have a reason for everything we do, what, then, is the reason for the roundtables? And how do we transform discussion into implementation?

Don't get me wrong-I'll be there in Room 335 on Thursday, 9 October (and encourage you to do the same) because while I'm not from here, I just live here with my wife and we raised our two children into adults as residents of the Rose of New England, even if I've been too often a thorn for some who think of this city as their personal leisure time activity. Smart Economic Growth seems to be a lot like the weather--large amounts of talk and little action. I'm bringing a raincoat, a beach blanket as well as snowshoes because you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
-bill kenny