Woodstock CT Café

I’m a newcomer to Woodstock and still trying to sort out the political landscape. It’s not that easy to do sometimes. All of this name-calling back and forth is distracting to someone who’s trying to familiarize themself with the issues.

This will surely sound like an idiot’s question but could someone please explain to me why the people in charge of the K-8 system and the powers that be at WA are so against each other? I get that there is only so much money for both places and there’s a habitual bloodbath to see which system will win. My impression (and I could certainly be mistaken) is that WA wins this fight every year. Then, we have a town-wide slugfest as to who thinks that’s fair and who doesn’t, and whether or not we should wipe out prop 46 to try to solve the problem. The voters apparently want to keep prop 46. I’m not saying I’m in favor of that or not, just stating a fact as I understand it based on referendum results.

But at the heart of this issue are THE SAME CHILDREN, Read the rest of this entry »

See Meghan’s tongue lashing of two other commentors below.

It’s nice to hear you all whine about how developments are ruining this town, but what is the farmer’s choice for getting market value for their farmland? This farm is my substitute for a pension or 401k. Even with prop 46 and 490 status my taxes went UP over $2000 in 2006 and are going up again in 2007. I was told that this was because the appraisals for outbuildings (barns, etc) went up at a much higher percentage than those for homes.

So I can’t afford to stay here NOW, let alone RETIRE here. I wouldn’t make enough to pay the taxes, not to mention the cost of food, heat, utilities, and making repairs on a 167 yr old farmhouse. Sure I tried refinancing, but the farm mortgages were variable and the lot is too large for conventional financing. I contacted several people about selling the development rights, but they are only interested in preserving cropland or cow farms. No one is interested in preserving a horse farm or 50 acres of hay. So I’m selling it, with the development rights, for less than its 2005 town appraised value. Maybe a farmer will buy it, maybe a developer… but I tried to preserve it without success. The rest is up to fate.

So don’t punish farmland owners (who didn’t sell out early) by proposing moratoriums or larger lot sizes… If your farm is larger than 20 acres I’ll listen. Maybe you will lease my fields and turn them into a vineyard! Most farmers only get enough on leased land to cover the taxes, not enough to cover insurance or make a profit. If your lot is smaller, than 20 acres, then you are part of development too! If the town has no funds and you want to keep the density down, team up together and buy these lands yourself before the developers do!

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As for the school system Read the rest of this entry »

Both Madison and South Windsor have recently the SmartPower clean energy program.

This is the pdf form you need to mail with your bill to Northest Utilities/CL&P – THE FORM . You need Adobe Acrobat to view it. Just print the first page and cut out the application.

We’ve added links to all of the clean energy-related articles on the right.

CL&P provides a sign up form for clean energy in every monthly statement. Should Woodstock residents meet the threshold of 100 members, which there are currently 45, the town would receive a free solar panel (valued at $10,000) from the CT Clean Energy Fund… the more members, the more free panels.

This is the first step toward helping CT reach 20% by 2010.

Fifty Six towns have actively advocated for clean energy and of those, 28 towns have met the 100 member threshold.

Everyone should do their part to help the future generations and protect our most valuable resource… Earth.

Contact CL&P or visit their link below for energy efficiency at home:
http://www.cl-p.com/clmres/indexclmres.asp Read the rest of this entry »

FINAL REGISTRATION for NECONN Youth Soccer. Online Registration at www.neconn.org . Last day to register is Sept. 7th, 2007. Congrats to Neconn.

The Café is More Connected to Its Constituency than State-Wide Blogs.

The Café is 226 times more connected to its constituency than CT Local Politics (CTLP), rated the top blog in Connecticut. How did we calculate this?

There are about 3.6 million people in Connecticut and 72.8% are adults. CTLP has about 900 visitors a day on average. So CTLP is drawing 0.034% of the adult population, its constituency. These unique visitors include visitors that go only to one of 31 city-specific blogs that are supported by CTLP.

Woodstock has about 8100 humans and about 6200 adults. There are 3500 mailing addresses in Woodstock which presumably are residences. On average lately the Café has about 270 unique visitors a day (this can range from 200 to just under 400). These visitors represent unique modems/Internet connections that could be used by more than one person. For example, in our house two adults (and sometimes three) access the Café from one Internet connection. Over a period of a week, Café Admin believes at least 400 individual internet connections access the Café, so if we assume that 50% of the connections have 2 people. Then we have at least 600 adults visiting the Café. If we assume that 80% of the visitors are Woodstockers, then 480 Woodstockers may be reading at the Café. If this number is correct, and there are 6200 adults in Woodstock, then 7.7% of the adult population is coming to the Café.

If you divide CPLT’s 0.034% into 7.7% you get the number 226 “times more connected to its constituency.�

Today we discovered that CTWeblogs (www.ctweblogs.com) is tracking 296 blog sites in Connecticut including the Café. The founder of CTWeblogs, Tom, lives with his wife, family, dog, cats, gerbils and fish in the “beautiful townâ€? of Harwinton CT on a spot of land that he hopes to someday turn into a real farm. Read the rest of this entry »

John Leavitt, the endorsed Democratic candidate for First Selectman, will debate Margie Wholean, the incumbent, on WINY (1350 AM) at 9AM on Tuesday, September 4th. You can also audio stream WINY on your computer from the Internet. http://www.winyradio.com/listeningroom.htm

This debate is for the Democratic Primary election to be held on Tuesday September 11.

Let the games begin!

‘Reality Check’ has interviewed Joe Campbell and others at the Academy and has come up with the following explanation relating to the bond default and refinancing of the bond debt and the assertions in the article below entitled “Is the Academy’s Windfall Income Going to be a Taxpayers’ Expense Annually” (see comments 47 and 51).

This article asserts that $1,110,000 (principle & interest 2003-04) minus $318,000 (P & I 2006-07) = $792,000, an amount referred to as “windfall income” for the Academy.

But along with the principle and interest of $1,119,023 paid (RC’s number) for the 2003-04 year, $688,831 in bond income (revenue) was received from the bond. In 2006-07, since the bond was erased, there was no bond income. So if one subtracts bond income of $688,831 from $1,119,023 (the total cost of the bond in 2003-04) one ends up with $430,192, the actual net cost of the bond in 2003-04. In the absence of that bond the refinanced loan cost $318,000 in 2006-07 with presumably no income. So the net difference is only $112,192, far less than $792,000 (claimed as “windfall income”).

Is this basically correct?

….But where did the funding come from that resulted an $854,000 increase in teachers salaries between the 2004-05 year and the 2006-07 year? Teachers’ salaries went from $3,680,000 in 2004-05 to $4,534,000 in 2006-07 during the time before and after bond default and refinancing. If teachers were hired, there was also the increase in fringe benefit costs associated with new employees which usually runs at about 20-25% of the salary, or about $170,000 to >$200,000.

….Also, the $688,831 in bond income in 2003-04 was presumably not used to payoff the bond debt. Wasn’t the original purpose of the bond funding for construction and other things needed to make the Academy solvent? Presumably the bond income was used for its purpose and the taxpayers paid the $1,110,000 premium in 2003-04. And then in 2006-07 the taxpayers paid the $318,000 reduced premium in 2006-07. But with all this, the tuition was not reduced by the $792,000 realized.

Is this incorrect? Read the rest of this entry »

Woodstock,Pomfret,and Eastford preK-8 schools get off to a good start. See the Norwich Bull.

Yesterday the Cafe had 317 unique visitors and >700 page turns. This includes Boycotters .

On October 10th residents of Brooklyn and the residents of three Region 11 towns, Chaplin, Hampton, and Scotland, will vote in a referendum to determine if the Brooklyn will merge with the Region 11 to build a new high school. Residents of each of these 4 towns will be voting to approve or reject a contract binding all parties for 25 years. If the voters of each town approve this merger, the pay-off is significant for all 4 towns. Detailed hearings will be held in Hampton on Sept. 10th, Chaplin Sept. 11th, Brooklyn Sept. 18th, and in Scotland on September 20th. Then two “cost detail� hearings will be held on Sept. 25th in Region 11 and on Sept 27 in Brooklyn. There will be a final meeting in Brooklyn on Oct. 2nd and one in Region 11 (Parish Hill High School) on Oct. 9th. The payoff is that the State of CT will provide $80 million in bond funding to build a new high school for the four towns. If acceptance of this bond offer is approved by the voters, a new high school will be built in Brooklyn on Prince Hill Road. Brooklyn will own the land and the governing Cooperative Committee will own the school facilities. My best guess is that the high school would be open to students for the 2010-11 school year.

Another attractive feature of this high school is that Mary Lou Bargnesi, the former headmaster of Norwich Free Academy, will assist in creating an “outstanding educational program.â€? During her tenure Ms. Bargnesi helped NFA raise their endowment by approximately $40 million. Read the rest of this entry »

Yet again I sat through another Citizen’s Participation session at a Board of Education meeting (August 23rd) where the sole purpose of the “participation” was an open forum for selected citizen’s to claim they act in the best interest of our students yet at the same time conduct a transparent attempt to embarass the administration and BoE members. The citizen if taken at her word, proclaimed a desire to act as a partner with the BoE to improve education in Woodstock. Yet the participation in the Citizen’s Participation belied that claim. The presentation focused on a year over year comparison of student performance in the K-8 program. The citizen claimed that Dr. Baran and the BoE were “sugar coating” the scores.

I truthfully don’t recall when the citizen entered the meeting, so I don’t know if she was present during the discussion of the changes in math curriculum or not. Frankly, the administration and the BoE are VERY cognizant of the need to disaggregate scores and look at strands as well as the performance of individual students. For the last two years we have advocated for software to reduce the manual effort currently expended to disaggregate the scores and look in detail at the student performance, even down to the individual question on the CMT. Dr. Baran pointed out earlier in the evening that the WPS had changed the Math curriculum because it has failed to deliver the expected performance. The administration routinely responds to questions from the BoE members regarding our student performance and the steps they are taking to improve it. Read the rest of this entry »

For last week’s activity, BlognetNetNews ranks the Cafe 5th in the State for “Political Influence.” See whose ranked in the Top 20. Yesterday the Cafe had 332 unique visitors and 634 page turns. This includes Boycotters .

We also apologize for 5 hours of interruption of services Sunday AM and early PM due to server problems. Admin

If we were to take a poll of Woodstock residents as to whether property taxes are too high or not, I think we can all agree on the outcome of the poll. Below I have taken exerpts (most of the article) from an excellent Editorial published in the Norwich Bulletin today. The quotes indicate where I have taken paragraphs verbatim. There’s a lot here that seems relevant to Woodstock, so I thought that it would be worthwhile putting these thoughts in the context of Woodstock.

Putting aside the issues that we have been debating in Woodstock about the Academy, the Academy represents a form of consolidation that is the main focus of this Editorial. Might the towns of Woodstock, Pomfret, and Eastford benefit from some sort of consolidation of services?

The Editorial also states that “local leaders need to be willing to give up their little kingdoms.” This statement articulates why I am incensed by the 8.9% to 9.9% pay raises given by the First Selectman to the herself and three other elected town officials in Woodstock’s current budget and the misguided territorial intrusions by our current First Selectman into the State-mandated missions and activities of Woodstock’s Planning and Zoning Commission and the Board of Education.

No one has any real answers to the Town funding dilemma and high property taxation because the State refuses to act to reduce local property taxes by providing proper funding of State-mandated services.

John Leavitt

(from the Norwich Bull article) “Keith Robbins, Bozrah’s Republican first selectman, has some ideas he thinks local leaders are getting ready to listen to. Robbins wants to see municipalities begin joining together to consolidate services. ” Read the rest of this entry »

Jim & Mona Stratos have started a grassroots group to pursue the feasibility of solar/wind power for Woodstock. They feel that it is our Town’s duty and responsibility to do its part in reducing CO2 emissions by adopting alternate energy sources. The municipalities throughout CT have all jumped on board and their communities are strongly committed. With all the open space here in Woodstock, we can look into the possibilities of creating solar fields and perhaps a few wind turbines to generate our own electricity, which can be sold back to the grid under the net metering provisions. Bio-fuels for the school buses is a major interest and there is money appropriated for this by the State and Federal government, which Woodstock should be looking into. Bio-Diesel reduces emissions by 70%. Jim Stratos said “We are currently planning to have SolarWrights do a feasibility study here in Woodstock.”

Here are the actual costs spent for electric power last year (data provided by Jim Stratos):
Schools:
$58,114 for the elementary school
$84,026 for the Middle school
(This cost is not known for the Academy)

Municipal Facilities:
$2,821 for the Transfer Station
$22,723 for the Town Hall
$5,288 for the Highway Garage

The Pine Point School in Stonington has already implemented Solar Panels to supplement their power needs. Panels were installed on the school’s roof. The installation of the 330-panel solar photovoltaic system was made possible through a grant of $285,000 from from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF). The grant covered approximately 62% of the cost of the solar panel installation. The balance of the system cost is being financed by solar developer and installer SolarWrights Inc.

Pine Point School Roof with Solar Panels

Solar Power Plant in open fields
Read the rest of this entry »

Every year I keep track of the amount of heating oil I burn and its cost. The following is what I burned for the last 6 years from July to June:

year/gallons burned/cost

2001-02…1368 gal…$1614
2002-03…1689 gal…$1893
2003-04…1782 gal…$2019
2004-05…1616 gal…$2625
2005-06…1478 gal…$3517
2006-07…1335 gal…$3592

We have a modest house and have taken a number of steps to reduce heating oil expense. Even though I burned less heating oil this last year than in 2001-02, I paid 123% more than I did in 2001-02. Then, of course, our electric and propane bills have also gone up by maybe 50% in that time period. Also, there’s the cord of wood I purchased each of the last two years at about $150 per year.

Recently I started thinking about purchasing solar panels, but I’m aware that they are quite expensive – a 200 watt solar panel costs about $950. A regular size house might require 20 such solar panels so the total cost might be around $20,000 plus installation. For each house this installation might reduce greenhouse gases equivalent to the metabolism of these gases by 400 trees or removal of 24 cars from the world. If 100 households installed solar power, savings would be the equivalent of 40,000 trees or elimination of 2400 cars from the world (this kind of info is all over the internet). Read the rest of this entry »

The following three comments are taken from the “Curly…â€? article. The italicized words are changes that Admin made in the actual comments to make these comments more consistent and readable. We’ve also put explanations from Taxpayer Too’s points directly under or over the budget year that they address and recalculated some of the numbers in these points to make them more consistent with the data from the Academy’s budget.

Taxpayer Too: “Do you believe it is appropriate for the Academy to pick up $800,000 per year of windfall cash flow from the bond refinancing and spend it on whatever they want while the K-8 system remains underfunded?�

Reality Check: “If the Academy is, indeed, enjoying an $800K annual windfall from the bond refinance, can you refer to the specific documents in which this information can be found.�

Taxpayer Too: “I am holding in my hand a document entitled: Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, Monday the 20th, the Cafe had 288 visitors (including boycotters ) and >800 page turns. Sunday the 19th, the Cafe had 320 visitors and >600 page turns.

I hope that you will see the desperation in Mr. Wetzel’s last post … the fantasy he lives in is simply amazing.

1) Mr. Breen has recognized the artificial barrier that Prop 46 imposes upon reasoned evaluation of the budgetary needs of Woodstock. So have many others, including ironically Mr. Wetzel himself. In fact, Mr. Wetzel spearheaded the last effort to repeal Prop 46 much to the consternation of his pals, like Gerry Ralston, a ruthlessly deceptive act perpetrated upon his own supporters and proof that he’ll do anything to accomplish his objectives. As to the belief that Prop 46 should be amended … check the results of the vote on that referendum … extremely close and to the extent that Mr. Wetzel’s claim of a mandate against Prop 46 amendment is devoid of factual foundation.

2) Mr. Wetzel demonstrates clear confusion about Mr. Breen’s role in contract negotiations with the Academy. It is Mr. Wetzel himself who has contributed to the outcome of no contract. The record shows that Mr. Wetzel has stated at several Woodstock Academy meetings that the Academy should not negotiate a contract with Woodstock BOE.

3) Mr. Wetzel has once again incorrectly characterized Mr. Breen’s proposal to the legislature as an attempt to “take over” the Academy. Mr. Wetzel demonstrates a complete failure to understand the Breen proposal by such a statement which is obviously intended to fan the flames again without factual basis. One only needs to read the Breen document and the draft legislation that was issued by the Education Subcommittee of the General Assembly to see how far off Mr. Wetzel is in his allegation of a take-over attempt. And in another example of contradiction by Mr. Wetzel, one can see that he was one of several former BOE members, including Mr. Livernois and Mr. Masiello, who previously advocated for increased representation of sending town representatives in a published BOE report that Mr. Wetzel signed himself (see “WA Agreement Committee…- 1999″ in Key Articles on the right. Admin). Read the rest of this entry »

Interesting comment by a new ‘Harry’ under Stranded’s article.

This is a reprint of a Letter to the Editor in the Norwich Bulletin today, August 19th, 2007. This is article #500 at the Cafe. Admin

Woodstock Democrats maintain their broadly articulated principles including balanced improvement of the town’s education system including both the public K-8 and private Woodstock Academy, conservation-oriented land use management and cost-effective fiscal management. These principles provided the basis for election of our slate two years ago.

Incumbent First Selectman Margaret Wholean has continued her attacks on Woodstock’s public schools, has interfered with its Planning Commission and has rapidly inflated town salaries (including her own). Ms. Wholean has also aligned with Citizens for Prudent Spending, well known for unfairly targeting the Board of Education with false allegations. These actions are inconsistent with the town’s interests and her published platform.

This is why Woodstock’s Democrats voted overwhelmingly to nominate a new candidate, John Leavitt, for first selectman. Mr. Leavitt is well educated with extended family history in Woodstock and is an avid participant in the town’s political debate. John Leavitt supports our principles as critical to managing the town’s growth consistent with its distinctive history and character.

Woodstock voters face a critical choice this fall between the politics of the past and a true vision for the town’s future, and Woodstock Democrats plan a robust discussion of this choice in the upcoming campaign.

JOSEPH E. BREEN
Chairman, Democratic Town Committee, Woodstock

This statement will be treated as an in-kind contribution to the Woodstock Democratic Town Committee for purposes of meeting requirements of Connecticut campaign finance laws. This article is paid for by John and Becki Leavitt, 515 Route 197, Woodstock, CT 06281 as administrators of www.woodstockctcafe.com.

As a property owner whose home abutts the cell tower site and as the mother of an Autistic child, I am completely against the cell tower. I have done a good deal of research regarding the health hazards of living within close proximity of a cell tower and those risks are significant. Of course, the telecommunications companies will deny this, otherwise they could be held liable. The problem is that there is a Federal law on the books that was passed in 1996. It gives the telecom companies free reign to put their towers where ever they find a willing landowner to lease them the property without regard for health hazards and minimal regard for environmental issues. The law is on their side. As concerned residents we must first educate ourselves about the risks and then decide where we stand on this issue. At the meeting held by Verizon at our town hall on August 13, Verizon stated that they have been contacted by other landowners in Woodstock who would also be interested in leasing property to them. Verizon has not yet investigated those sites as of the 13th. Read the rest of this entry »