Game Face On

If you got a sled for Christmas, my apologies that you have to drive for hours to use it. I wish it were days. And please forgive me because I hope you have to drive all winter (though I know in my heart you won't). The rest of us, when not pining for the fjords, are perhaps more interested in what is going on locally to make where we live better. That, at least in theory, is the premise behind this note about what's going on in Norwich, Connecticut.

I'd like to think we have so many volunteers engaged in various boards and advisories, not because we need so much help, but because we have so many open-hearted people who want to lend a hand. Your mileage may vary, mine always does so sometimes I walk.      

This afternoon at five, we have dueling meetings in City Hall (what ever became of Eric Weissberg anyway?) with both the Volunteer Firefighters' Relief Fund Committee in Room 209 and the Ethics Commission next door in Room 210 (December's meeting minutes aren't on the city's website) .

At five thirty, around the corner, at 23 Union Street in the Planning Department's conference room it's a special meeting of the Reid & Hughes Committee to review an amended proposal from the same developer, who, a decade ago did the Wauregan Hotel.  

Tomorrow morning at 8:30 in Room 335 of City Hall it's a regular meeting of the Youth and Family Service Advisory Board, whose most recent meeting minutes, from November are here.

At 4:15 in the Public Works Director's office at 50 Clinton Avenue, it's a regular meeting of the Public Works & Capital Improvements Committee who have, seemingly, close to an infinite mission with very finite resources. Based on their agenda, they're not easily daunted.

At 5:30 in cafeteria of the newly renovated Kelly Middle School, it's a regular meeting of the Board of Education, whose most recent meeting minutes as posted on their own website are from the middle of November.

And at seven, at 23 Union Street in the Planning Department conference room, it's a regular meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeals. Assuming the minutes' posting on the city's website is accurate, they haven't had a meeting since May. And since these are actually 'as needed and requested' meetings, it may be a placeholder and not a hard and fast meeting. If you're planning on going, call first.  

Wednesday morning at 8:45 (what's with quarter hour start times? Perhaps the city could sponsor an essay contest and find a good explanation; the winner gets a watch) at 23 Union Street (the Planning Department), it's a regular meeting of the Rehabilitation Review Committee. Looking at the city's website, they met last in April (begging the questions of function and exigency). Here's another question: if the decision to salvage the Reid and Hughes building is made in the affirmative, does the building then become part of this committee's purview or do we just continue to stumble along with two committees with overlapping responsibilities? I'll bet we both know the answer; and keep your chocolate out of my peanut butter.

At two, in their offices at 132 Military Highway, it's a regular meeting of the Southeastern Connecticut Regional Resource Recovery Agency, SCRRRA. And at 4:30, in their offices at 10 Westwood Park, it's a regular meeting of the Norwich Housing Authority, whose page on the city's website is an unshirted disaster. Here is a comedic classic. Now check their page and try to guess why this file was listed as minutes of a September 14th meeting. Pathetic.

At 5 PM in Room 319 of City Hall, it's a regular meeting of Emancipation Proclamation Commemorative Committee, whose membership, meeting minutes and, actually, any information whatsoever about their function and purpose at all is conspicuous by its absence from the city's website.

At six in Room 210 of City Hall, it's a regular meeting of  the Baseball Stadium Authority, whose page on the municipal website is in need of updating: members, members' appointments and meeting minutes.

And at seven, in the Occum Fire Department, it's a regular meeting of the Public Safety Committee whose last meeting, if the city's website is accurate and current (pause for laughter or expression of dismay) was in September .

Thursday evening at six, it's a regular meeting of the Mohegan Park Improvement & Development Advisory Committee in Room 210 of City Hall. I worry if that becomes their new meeting location we'll very soon need another way to drive to City Hall. I, for one, would appreciate the same degree and depth of concern about the timely, and legally--mandated, posting of current meeting minutes. My dark blue suit already matches my eyes.

If you are a website developer, or know someone who is, and you'd like to leverage available technology to speed and enhance communication, and make some money while so doing, please bid on the Request for Proposal to "web site design, development, hosting and maintenance services" for the city of Norwich's municipal web site. Please? Thanks! And see you at something, somewhere this week?
-bill kenny  

The Devil is in the Details

A year ago today, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat representing Arizona's 8th District, which includes Tucson, was holding a "Congress on Your Corner" (a Town Hall type meeting) with constituents when Jared Lee Loughner, a very disturbed 22 year old man opened fire into the crowd.

Loughner wounded nineteen people to include Congresswoman Giffords whom he shot in the head at point-blank range. He killed six people, among them a nine year old girl, Christina-Taylor Green, whose birth date was September 11, 2001.

Giffords' recovery has been just this side of miraculous no matter how you measure progress. She and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly (he has the Tang to prove it) will be joined by many of their neighbors as well as friends they haven't yet met for numerous memorial remembrances today for all the victims of that violence last year.

I'd like to believe there's a lesson in what happened and (more especially) in the response to the carnage that followed but I just don't see it, as hard as I've tried. Our political rhetoric, which may have set Loughner in motion down a path of no return, is just as hateful and hurtful now as it was in the days, if not years, that led up to the shooting.

The Video Vultures and Bloviaters on cable news of all political stripes have long since agreed that nothing they said about those with whom they disagree had any impact on the emotional and mental swamp Loughner carried around in his head. My mom says a guilty conscience needs no accuser and anything I'd offer about moral culpability at this point would be piling on. You can do the math.

The national election of 2012 will be different from any that has ever preceded it. Christina-Taylor Green, 9; Dorothy "Dot" Morris, 76; John Roll, 63; Phyllis Schneck, 79; Dorwan Stoddard, 76; and Gabriel "Gabe" Zimmerman, 30 won't be part of the discussion we should have as a nation on whom we select as our next President. Their deaths were not accidental or acts of nature, unless we include human nature. They are victims in our ongoing war of words whose consequences no one owns and no one can, or will, ever stop.
-bill kenny

Rox in the Box

I go back to work for the first time this year on Monday. I knew exactly when it would be from the day I first took off in the old year, but knowledge is NOT always power because I'm still not happy about going back.

And if you think I have a sad heart wait until you see the red behinds on the people I work with by noon on Monday. You'll think you're on a mountain monkey reservation, except most of them are better shaved. Usually I look forward to going to work-if I were being (more) honest, I'd admit that I've allowed what I do for a living to define in its entirety who I am (and then wonder why I see more couches than an IKEA salesman in so many doctors' offices).

I'm working really hard in 2012 to learn to exhale (unlike another Bill) and part of that exhalation process, I hope (and you should, too) is that I feel the need to invest smaller amounts of time into these notes. They are, after all, far more ephemeral than letters to Santa burned in the chimney in that they don't actually exist anywhere, but, rather, reside, someplace and I don't know where.

Writing this is like talking to myself, but out loud where I cannot be unhappily surprised if overheard since I was, after all, engaged in a public display of attempted mental hygiene. I had a note from someone the other day whom I have met as a result of these daily burnt prayers who confessed she read this in the way she'd look at a wreck on the highway. Wait until the firetruck gets here, baby, to hose down the pavement and get the larger chunks headed towards a sluice. We'll have you back to doing double nickels in no time.  
-bill kenny

Haben Sie Feuer?

The line between bi-polar and bi-coastal got a lot smaller really fast when law enforcement in Los Angeles slapped the cuffs on Harry Burkhart for close to forty fires he allegedly set in three days because, as he phrased it, a 'rage against Americans.' Talk about bringing it all back home.

Our household is American and German, just as it was when we lived in my wife's country. Interestingly enough for all the years we lived in Germany, everyone, regardless of nationality, liked her and couldn't understand what she was doing with me. That pattern remained the same even when we switched to the other side of the ocean; I'm thinking it's a good thing to be a constant in the universe (and may start listing that on my business card).

After thirty-four plus years of marriage to me, I would have to believe if anyone were capable of being provoked into a rage against (an) American(s), singular or plural, it would be my spouse. I guess that means I'll have to add self-control to her list of attributes that already includes the ability to explain the same thing over and over to me without ever losing focus (though it's obvious to both of us I do), to repair everything in the house in which we live (since I possess my father's mechanical aptitude) and a relentless optimism that allows her to see the bright side in every situation (even when I'm knee deep in another misadventure).

Harry, Schämen Sie sich but make sure you stay on the other side of the country and don't give anyone any ideas, okay? If Arthur Brown could see you now, he would be profoundly disappointed. And while the BIC lighter folks are looking at a possible endorsement deal, Springsteen's people have already nixed a licensing deal, so you're on your own.
-bill kenny

Nuts and other Legumes

I have never been to Iowa-but no gloating out there, please. Your luck could run out and I hope you'll be good sports about it. I rarely vote in national elections for Republican Party candidates, so I'm treading carefully as I join the Chorus of the Arrogantly Ill-Informed offering drive-by analysis of the aftermath in Tuesday's tectonic plate shift (and you must always remember the "f" in that word) of the Republican Caucus.

Let me point out the Democrats had a caucus in Iowa as well. You have probably guessed the outcome which is why it didn't get the play the other side of the aisle received. I confess to some titillation over the realization that Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum were in a "tight three-way", most especially because of so many of their followers' positions about other people's sexual politics and preferences. How hard do you suppose you have to work to so thoroughly anger the gearheads at urban dictionary and who wants to ask the Rickster?

Forty-eight hours after the caucuses concluded (not to be confused with the mountain range or the skin color though the latter in light of the population breakdown in Iowa is understandable) a lot of time and talent has been focused at the top of the totals boards with those who ended at or close to the bottom more or less being fitted for political body bags.

Joining Herman Cain on the Fascinating Footnotes for '12 Trivial Pursuit play-at-home game are Michele Bachman and Rick Perry (the latter struggling to avoid premature capitulation). I'd wonder what happened to Jon Huntsman, but then again, don't we all? Or is it more that we don't care. Have we finally become a nation, sitting on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon going to the candidates' debate?   I'll leave it to you to decide who is catering and who is pandering.
-bill kenny      

The Importance of Somebody

I was taking a short cut the other day across Chelsea Parade. Even though it's ringed by a sidewalk, you can see the private paths many have blazed across it as we step out, if not to a different drummer, than to some form of alternative percussion. I was on a semi-dirt trail passing in front of the Civil War monument that links the NFA Administration building to the parade intersection with Williams Street when I stepped in it, and I'm not speaking figuratively.

I was angry, first at the animal whose droppings I had discovered with my shoe but then, more correctly, at the thoughtless owner, whomever it was/is. While I was cleaning my sneaker and breathing a happy sigh it wasn't July and I wasn't barefoot, I realized it's this 'I am the center of the universe-everything but me needs to change' mindset I'd want us to finally abandon in 2012.

We've all seen this 'the rules only apply to people who don't know better' attitude far too often. Around here, the  pooper/scooper requirement is just one of our more casual examples. If I had a dollar for every doggy daddy or mommy I've encountered underway without the requisite clean-up utensils, I could afford to build a second (and much-needed) dog park in the city.

People can be very defensive when called out on this (take my word for it),clutching their animal's leash in one hand while cloaking their embarrassment by feigning indignation with the other. Of course, standing in front of them with dog-don't all over my sneakers doesn't necessarily give me the moral higher ground, though it smells like I may have a point.

We know what the right thing to do is. We just choose to do otherwise and then wonder why so many of our endings are a little light in the happiness department-and whom we can blame. Start with the reflection in the mirror. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Perhaps like you, we're a city filled with people who want nice things. We admire the amenities and enhanced community quality of life other locales across the region have while wishing we had the same. And yet we are unable (actually unwilling) to accomplish those actions to create a foundation to build an environment of excellence.

We complain about trash on our streets instead of picking it up-or more on point, without contacting the  Public Works Department who manage the contracts with the refuse removal services to 'encourage' these companies to do a better job. It's too bad because somebody really should get involved, just as long as it's not us..

We all know how effective a  Neighborhood Watch can be in promoting public safety where we live and work -and if you don't, contact your local police department and someone will will be very happy to explain it to you in whatever detail you require and desire. But even then, the next time we see something, we'll reach for the curtains before we'll reach for the phone. It's too bad because somebody really should get involved, just as long as it's not us.

Everyone has a story about 'them' and 'downtown' but none of us have stories that place us at a City Council meeting, or searching out a neighbor who is on one of the volunteer panels we have for All Things Great and Small (I think I'm kidding about the name) to see what we can do to help. We won't ask those questions because we can't stand the answers. It's too bad because somebody really should get involved, just as long as it's not us.

If only anybody knew somebody. As Gandhi noted, 'be the change you want to see in the world.' I'm not sure which one of us wanted to be the Intermodal Transportation Center but I guess we'll find that out soon enough. Everything in life changes and not all change is good-but it can be good enough, if we’re willing to work at getting better.
-bill kenny

Changing Direction of the Circles?

Everything old is new again, so I'm not sure what that make this New Year but we have the luxury of time, practically unlimited, to start over or to start again (or to fall back into the same holes because we choose the same outcomes). It all depends on us, as it always has.

Everything, including liquor stores (gasp!) were closed around here yesterday (bars weren't so it's not the consumption of alcohol we were trying to slow; just sales of it in containers), but we start 2012 in full stride, at least here in The Rose of New England.

The City Council holds its first meeting of the year tonight at 7:30 in Council Chambers in City Hall. The agenda has a little something for everyone, though I suspect the 'communication' the Council received from a resident will offer all of them an earful, and not undeserved. I was pleased to see the Commission on the City Plan (CCP) advocate for a 'have a reason for everything you do' approach to closing roadways in Mohegan Park especially since the law I'm most concerned about, involving unintended consequences, gets broken around here more times in a day than Lady Gaga ruins barbecues.

The CCP should serve as a review for all volunteer agencies proposing City Council action, through the prism and perspective of the Plan of Development they manage and monitor. I'd hope the same process that had them review the Mohegan Park road closure would also mandate more scrutiny of the Harbor Management Commission's  "Waterfront Vision" (as well as everybody else's) since there may be some work needed before individual planning ideas can be incorporated into an omnibus municipal document.

Wednesday afternoon at five, the Emancipation Proclamation Commemorative Committee, which has shown up more often on the pages of our local newspaper than anywhere on the city's website, has a regular meeting in Room 319 of City Hall.

The (Kelly Middle) School Building Committee holds a regular meeting this afternoon at 5:30 in the school's library (the school was dedicated in December, ahead of schedule and under budget). I couldn't find their December meeting minutes on the Board of Education's website so here's the November minutes. I'm curious about this 'retribution' mentioned on page one. There's nothing like the smell of smiting in the morning or anytime. Breathe deep.

And at six, in the new Community Room in the Greeneville Fire Department, it's a regular meeting of the Greeneville Neighborhood Revitalization Committee, whose most recent minutes aren't, but you can read that for yourself here.

Thursday evening at seven in the Planning Department's Conference Room, at 23 Union Street, it's a regular meeting of the Inlands, Wetlands, Water Courses and Conservation Commission whose December's meeting minutes are here.

There are, apparently, two different and special Board of Education meetings Friday. One is at 11 in the morning while the other, at two in the afternoon, is an expulsion hearing (and not open to the public). Both are in the Central Office, across from the Norwichtown Green. The closest thing to current minutes are right here, from September (a/k/a 'not really').

Saturday morning at nine thirty, in the community room of the Central Fire House, it's a One City Forum and a chance in an informal setting (I recently learned pants are still required for attendees and that the rear  seats of the police cruiser are freezing) to speak about issues important to you with the Mayor, the City Manager, Charlize Theron and various members of the City Council (just checking to see if you were still reading; I guess you were) and get updates on projects in which you are interested.

We have a lot of things worth the time and talents of every interested resident and we can certainly use all the help we can get. We're not the only folks in the world, or Connecticut, struggling to make what we have better, but we're closest to it and can do the most good, if we want to. See you at something?
-bill kenny