Woodstock CT Café

Useful statistics for understanding this post: Woodstock is 61.8 square miles, or 39,550 acres. According to the Plan of Open Space and Conservation – accepted June 20, 2001 (pg. 15) there is approximately 22,721 acres in PA 490 (or 58.9% of Woodstock’s entire acerage). Including the holdings of the state, there are only approximately 3,038 acres that can be considered ‘committed’ open space.

While increasing the tax base is controlled by Proposition 46 the proper application of PA-490 isn’t. There are quite a few approved subdivisions in town that are presently taxed at the rate a farm qualifies for. These people are literally stealing from the town. ‘Burning Up’ mentions windfall profits. Well, this is exactly what these people are doing. They keep the land in PA-490 for 10 years and pay no tax penalty when they re-sell it. Some have existing lots of 2.5 or more acres with values of $150 K and more being assessed at $700 or less. Other abuses are the people that buy a house with 5 or more acres and put everything over the 2.5acre building lot into PA-490. This is an abuse of a program that is intended for farm protection. Why is PA-490 applicable to lots of 2 acres or more when the minimum lot size today is 2.5 acres? There is the fear that if property is taxed properly, it will cause mass building due to sales of land. This isn’t so since the present sub-division regulations limit the number of homes on a private driveway to 5 houses, and 50% of the buildable property is given up to open space. Read the rest of this entry »

My fondest memories as a kid were my visits to my grandparents’ farm in Mclean, Virginia, in the late 40’s and early 50’s. At that time Mclean was rural, not the high-rise Washington suburb that it has become. The crossroads at the center of town had a general store, a garage (yes they had cars back then), and a white church where my mom and dad and my mother’s two sisters were married. Many of the roads were still dirt. The big development for me in Mclean was the arrival of the Dairy Queen. I recall one hot summer day at the farm when Grandfather suggested that my Grandmother, he and I take a ride into town for a Dairy Queen. Grandmother grudgingly agreed to go only if Grandfather agreed not to go over 25 miles per hour. Grandfather gave me a wry smile and wink from the other side of his Woody and we headed off to town at 25 mph.

I ‘helped’ Grandfather put up the fence for the front pasture of what is now Roger Mudd’s front yard. We put up the fence pole by pole, sinking the pole, then hand drilling two holes so that we could string smooth wire through the holes. It must have taken him many months to get this done. When it was finished I was able to take Sparta, a Tennessee Walker, into the front pasture on my own. One day maybe a year later, I was in the front pasture on Sparta when Blue Jeans, his girl, whinnied back at the barn. Sparta’s head darted up and we took off for the barn. I remember holding on for dear life as we galloped close to the barn, and Grandfather running toward me shouting, “Put your head down when you go into the barn” … and so I survived without falling or wacking myself as Sparta and I entered the barn.

A few years ago I had some extra time in the Washington Read the rest of this entry »

The Courant’s assessment of the statewide test scores. This article also notices the difference between girls and boys.

The Norwich Bull published the performance scores for the 2007 eastern CT schools today (See: http://www.norwichbulletin.com/assets/pdf/A680686728.PDF ). Previously the Cafe reported the scores achieved in 2006 for Woodstock and surrounding towns. Woodstock did remarkably well in 2006 in that the middle school grades 5-8 tested very high statewide ranking the middle school 12th out of 134 middle schools in the state, while Pomfret ranked 9th (see this article).

Since the scores of many towns were missing, we decided to compare performance in 2007 with 2006 performance for Woodstock, Pomfret, and Brooklyn school systems since these school systems are neighboring and they send the vast majority of students to the Academy.

One distinction should be made between these three K-8 school systems. Both Woodstock and Brooklyn are in the same DRG (District Reference Group of schools; DRGE) and Pomfret is in a higher class DRGC. Woodstock was knocked down from C to E in 2005-2006, because its demographics changed from a “more affluent/lower need” student population to a “less affluent/higher need” student population. Our understanding (which needs to be confirmed) is that this knock down stemmed from higher registration of special education students, not so much from lower “affluence.” So Woodstock and Brooklyn are in the same DRG along with Eastford and approximately 31 other towns. Read the rest of this entry »

Campaign and party information has been moved to links on the right

See the “opinion article” on resident troopers in Thompson and other surrounding towns in the Norwich Bull.

New Mensa Words

The Washington Post’s* Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year’s winners. Read them carefully. Each is an artificial word with only one letter altered to form a real word. Some are terrifically innovative:

1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people, that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The Bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
4. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
5. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
6. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.
7. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
8. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
9. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease.
10. Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer. Read the rest of this entry »

Municipal election calendar 2007
Party endorsements of candidates - July 17-24
Certification of party candidates - July 25th (4PM)
Primary and nominating petitions for additional candidates - Aug 8th (4PM)
Primaries - Sept 11th

Those who believe that 2, 2.5 or even 5-acre lot sizes are adequate growth controls are misled. Those who believe that they have made great strides through this type of zoning are wrong.

If a 5-acre minimum was required for lots within Woodstock’s 60.5 square miles (making a wild guesstimate that the amount of permanently protected acreage balances out existing lots under 5 acres) that would allow for 7744 housing units in Woodstock. Woodstock had about 3400 housing units in 2005 allowing for another 4344 units. Assuming 80 new units will be built each year, Woodstock would reach the housing maximum in another 55 years and Woodstock’s population would climb to about 18,000. If Woodstock keeps the minimum lot size at 2.5 acres, just multiply all those numbers by two. I’d do it for you, but I’d rather not be the direct cause of an organ failure.

These lots would not leave room for farming, or encourage donations of land to trusts. This type of development would lead to a vast expanse of housing complimented by vast expenses due to doubling of school facilities, increasing needs for municipal services, and the resulting upkeep of dozens of new cul-de-sacs.

Let’s pretend that the 60.3 acres at 205 Roseland Park Road Read the rest of this entry »

T2, Thank you. I think you hit the nail on the head as to why we fundamentally differ in responses to issues.

First. You recognize that flaws exist at a greater level than local politics, state that discussion/debate of those flaws should occur at that greater level, advocate for action at the national/state levels where the flaws originate, and subsequently, you state a belief that discussion of the greater context adds no value to the local decisionmaking process. I disagree. I have always been fond for that bumper sticker that reads “Think globally, act locally”. I believe that in a democracy as large and as bureaucratic as ours it is very difficult for the individual to make an impact or create change at a level higher than the local. If a person thinks that it is difficult to foster change in Woodstock, try going to the State or national level. Voting for someone is perhaps our only impact at higher levels, but I believe it is not enough. Change needs to work from the bottom up, not from the top down. Read the rest of this entry »

A comment under the article “The Politics of Fear in Woodstock� caused a reaction (in the form of an email to the Café) by the subject of the comment, so we thought that we should examine what RepubliCon said and ask readers to post their views as well on this comment. The comment said as follows:

RepubliCon said “I read with great curiosity the handout provided at the Republican caucus by Nora Valentine in her quest for the Republican First Selectman nomination. In it she describes herself as a writer (word changed by Admin)/publisher, but her handout was full of grammatical mistakes. It would be interesting to learn what she is writer (word changed by admin)/publisher of, and what she has been CEO and CFO of, and, for that matter, where she came from and where she got her BA since she raised these issues in her hand out. If you’re going flaunt these accomplishments, it seems important to explain them a little better. I tried Googling this info but found nothing.â€?

The word “editorâ€? was changed to “writerâ€? by Admin in this comment because of the complaint that the aspiring candidate did not state that she was an editor in the handout … although when Admin went to the website of the magazine that is apparently the business this aspiring candidate is talking about in her handout, the website clearly states that she is “Editor-in-Command.â€? Read the rest of this entry »

It has come to our attention that the Woodstock Recreation Department (WRD) has decided to offer their own in-house recreational soccer program beginning this Fall (2007). To this we say good luck and applaud them for continuing to get the kids outdoors.

We (the Board of Directors for NECONN) met with the Woodstock Recreation Department (WRD) at their July monthly meeting. The WRD did not believe that NECONN (website below) was providing an adequate level of recreation soccer for the players of our club. These issues where brought to the WRD’s attention by what we believe is a small number of parents. We have been receiving many calls and emails asking “What is going on?â€?, “Can we still play and/or sign up with NECONN?â€?, etc… Read the rest of this entry »

It had to happen. The First Selectman’s bungling has been the talk of the past year around Town. Nevertheless… enter, stage right, the fear of the hideous Democrats…especially those hideous liberal democrats. I think I can speak for both Republicans and Democrats. If good, well-intentioned candidates are put up, the Town may achieve greater openness in its management, more honest & responsible fiscal management, and elimination of catering only to one large private contractor and personal interests from within the Town Hall. The Democrats and Republicans may differ primarily on approaches to issues surrounding the Academy, but certainly both will work toward a better relationship between the Academy and the Town.

Ernest Wetzel, the First Selectman’s homeland security adviser, has trumpeted his beliefs and accusations here at the Café in numerous recent comments. The message: Be very afraid of the Democrats…. but don’t question the CPSers or Ms. Wholean or HIS mission.

Nearly four years after Wetzel left office, some sort of Mafia remains a huge threat to Woodstock – this time it’s the ‘Education Mafia’. Previously when Wetzel ran for office it was the ‘Manure Mafia’. One of these Mafia’s has regrouped every election time in the tribal lands at the head waters of the Quinebaug and is threatening to recruit and indoctrinate voters in Town. I can hear the drumbeats along the Quinebaug.

If W’s rants are given an honest listening, it is a powerful rebuke to his approach to stealing political power in Woodstock. Read the rest of this entry »

A commentor referring to the Canterbury First Party said the following in the Norwich Bull: “Go for the best people and not political bozo’s. Bring the best of all groups, Republicans, Democrats, the Unaffilitated and place them on one ticket for election. (This) removes the political crap!”

As an outsider I found myself wondering what is so disturbing about the Academy’s default on the bond guaranteed by the Town of Woodstock’s in 1992? Apparently David Teed, an attorney and Assistant Attorney General, concluded that the Academy had defaulted on the bond by breaking the bond agreement with the Town of Woodstock, but Mr. Wetzel (not an attorney) insists that the Academy “is not in default.â€? Who should I believe???…just kidding. I am not a lawyer or an expert on contracts, so all I can do is listen to the discussions at this site and apply common sense.

While Woodstock did not make the monthly payments to pay back the loan raised by this bond, Woodstock paid roughly 40% of each payment through tuition payments and construction costs charged to the Town by the Academy. Likewise Eastford, Pomfret, and the other sending towns paid their proportionate share of these loan payments. So the loan repayment was more Woodstock’s burden than the remaining sending towns until the Academy defaulted and then took another loan to pay off the remaining debt on this loan. However, the tuition rate continued to rise even as construction costs diminished.

Mr. Wetzel pointed out in one of his comments that First Selectman Balch in 1991 assisted the Academy in purchasing the house at the entrance to Bentley Field in 1991 shortly after the bond issued. Whether his statement of fact is true or not, one thing is certain – the Town of Woodstock wished to help the Academy rebuild itself because citizens approved the guarantee of the loan in a referendum presumably out of concern for the Academy and a sincere wish to keep the Academy going. Read the rest of this entry »

On Monday night I agreed to run for First Selectman on the Democratic ticket.

I believe that the number one need in Woodstock is better communication from the Town Hall to the residents of Woodstock. Better communication and dissemination of information is essential to allow citizens to make informed decisions at the polls. Unfortunately openness and transparency has been sorely lacking in our current administration as well as others in the past. I hope to use skills that I developed as a researcher, writer, and director to create a new atmosphere of openness and transparency in our Town government.

Certain key steps can be taken to ensure that all town residents have the opportunity to become fully informed on what is going on at the Town management level. We need to take a creative approach to communication between the Town managers and residents. If elected I will implement several inexpensive methods that will open up lines of communication for all residents of the Town:

(1) I will implement Internet services (including webcasting) that will give open access to all committee and board meetings for all residents so that everyone who has a computer at home can attend any meeting of interest from their home;
(2) Initially meeting webcasts will be accessible in the form of stored archives posted shortly after the meeting has occurred with the intent of eventually webcasting meetings live over the Internet; and
(3) For those who do not own a computer, I will provide timely updates on all issues that the Selectmen’s office is addressing such as the resolution of the salt barn/Bennett farm issue and the budget formulation process using media like WINY, local newspapers, and meeting directly with residents. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently read that a group at the University of Texas has claimed proof that prions are the sole cause of prion diseases such as Creutzfeld-Jacob disease, scrapie and mad cow disease (Castilla et al. Cell 121: 195, 2005). While rigorous proof is hard to come by given the nature of a prion (an infectious protein) it seems that discounting the role of this mis-folded PrP as the causative agent of these bizarre diseases is something akin to saying that HIV does not cause AIDS (some still state this as fact).

A compelling case was built for the infectious prion protein when a ‘new variant’ prion was found in human victims of CJD (nvCJD) during the outbreak in England in the mid 1990’s. This variant prion was found to be structurally related to the BSE prion that was linked to the mad cow disease outbreak in England almost a decade earlier. But nvCJD was distinguishable from the spontaneous prion that is linked to classical CJD because the nvCJD prion had a different abnormal fold than the classical prion. There are other epidemiological features of the nvCJD prion that suggest its transmission from the BSE cattle. First, the BSE outbreak in cattle was followed by a similar localized outbreak of nvCJD in humans a decade later. Then the average age of these victims was 36 years younger than the rare spontaneous CJV victims. The development of CJD in young people argues for an external infectious source of the disease rather than a protracted spontaneous development of the disease.  Cloning and sequencing of the gene for the normal endogenous PrP protein revealed the existence of two different polymorphic forms in humans. One of the two allelic (polymorphic) forms of PrP contains the amino acid, methionine (M), at position 129 in the amino acid chain of PrP instead of valine (V) at that position due to an inherited mutation of at least one of the two possible PrP alleles. All victims of the nvCJD outbreak were from only one of the three possible human populations, those who carried the MM phenotype (a methionine encoded at position 129 in both of their inherited PrP alleles). No incidence of nvCJD has been found in people with the VV phenotype or the MV phenotype, indicating, as of yet, that they are not susceptible to the ingested BSE prion. However, it is possible that incubation periods may just be much longer for people with the VV or MV phenotypes.

Different populations of people have been examined for frequencies of occurrence of the normal MM phenotype that is associated with the rapid on-set of CJD. These frequencies ranged from 43% of a Caucasian population in one study to 50% of the French and 57% of the Turkish population in two other studies. Thus, a significant portion of the human population appears to be resistant to the fast onset of nvCJD. While rigorous proof of the direct link of the prion protein to “prion disease” is missing, it’s hard to ignore the rest of the story in favor of the prion protein as the etiologic agent of these diseases.

 John Leavitt

“It really doesn’t matter what the Cafe is ranked because we are not in competion with other sites …”

Over the weeks since BlogNetNews started ranking blog sites in Connecticut, we have been surprised that the Cafe is even on their radar given that the Cafe is strictly a local blog site. BlogNetNews has identified 38 blog sites to monitor and, believe it or not, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, CT Local Politics has links to 97 CT blog sites on the front page of their website, and all CT newspapers have blog options associated with their articles. Many CT Towns have interactive websites as well. For the most part this plethora of blog sites has low visitation and minimal commentary. One of us clicked into the Woodstock coalition’s website (we call CPSAcademy) which resulted in a nasty email to his employer the following Monday complaining about this five second visitation (no way to make friends and influence people…beware).

The ‘#1′ blog site in CT is Connecticut Local Politics according to BlogNetNews. In our opinion CTLP is mostly a reguritation of statewide news with too many ‘cut-and-pastes’, hotlinks, and bells and whistles including pictures and U-tube hiests. Many of the comments are ‘tit-for-tat’ comments by bloggers from other blog sites in the list of 38 as though they are participating in a mutual admiration society. At the Cafe we have discussions between pure Woodstockers. You won’t see the Cafe selling teeshirts and coffee mugs. We think that the Cafe far exceeds CTLP in quality of thought but we appeal only to Woodstock and the surrounding towns (I wonder if “appeal” is the right word?). Read the rest of this entry »

The “Campaign Statement Rules” has been removed from the front page and posted as a separate page on the right just above “Democrats”. The lone comment under this article was reposted under the article the Aussie’s new article where it belongs. Admin

We are grateful to ‘Reality Check’ for pointing out a mistake in this article published on June 30th. Thus it has been revised accordingly. Admin

The per pupil regular education cost are as follows:
Woodstock Academy … $9,998
Woodstock Public Schools … $7,734

The Academy per pupil regular education cost is the tuition figure of $9,998 (ref.1). To determine the per pupil costs of the PK-8 system, we start with the total education budget of $15,003,565 (ref.2) and remove all the high school related costs of $5,720,685 (ref.3). This leaves us with a balance of $9,282,880. From this we must remove $1,595,095 (PK-8 special education), and $541,648 (transportation – exclusive of high school/sped transportation) (ref.4) costs because none of these are included in the Academy per pupil tuition. This leaves us with a figure of $7,146,137. This figure is then divided by 924 (ref.5) which results in a per pupil cost of $7,734 for regular education in the PK-8 systems. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday the Cafe had 426 unique visitors and 907 page turns.

Having trekked all the way through the Abo lands to Darwin where everything bites but the butterflies, I know what its like to have a lot of salt all around. So when I read the latest article in the bush Villager (Friday the 13th) about Mr. Bennett’s continuing plight I felt buggered, broke and bewildered…just like Mr. Bennett.

According to Gus at the bush Villager, Mr. Bennett showed up at the last Board of Selectmens’ meeting and said from the audience “Things are starting to go to pot in the house. I don’t care what gets done. I just wish it would get on the way.” Mr. Bennett then added “If it doesn’t change pretty soon, we’re going to lose the farm.” Judging from what was also said about the lost cows milk, I suspect that the water in Mr. Bennett’s wells could gag a maggot. Mr. Bennett said “Something’s still wrong” regarding milk production. I wasn’t at the BOS meeting but if I were Mr. Bennett, I’d be angrier than a Hungry Tyson. Read the rest of this entry »