Woodstock CT Café

The Academy announced at their last Trustee meeting that they will begin another round of PR within the community. They have reason to feel impelled toward this. I wonder how many tax dollars will be spent on this new round of PR.

Bob Holland (member of the Ex. Committee and Chair of Buildings and Grounds) believes firmly that, because of his 30-year history of residency in Woodstock, he knows (without any shadow of doubt) that the vast majority of Woodstock residents would enthusiastically vote “Yes!” for the ambitious and costly Academy expansion of an athletic complex within the Historic District. Good thing for Bob that we don’t have any say or vote on the issue. At least he can’t be proven wrong.

John Guszkowski, planner with CME announced in the last PZC meeting that the athletic complex expansion will increase property values of abutters. Who knew!? What great news. John didn’t waste any words explaining how he substantiates this statement but several well-respected, long-term local realtors assure us abutters that this will NOT be the case but, in fact, devaluation will occur. Although I like John’s take on this far more, I defer to the voice of experience on the topic.

If PZC approves this application that includes placement of “non-structures” as big as a football field that will be jammed smack up against abutter’s property lines . . . well, won’t precedence be set with this decision? In that, shouldn’t we all expect to see - in time – more Woodstock residents getting non-structures like a football fields jammed up against their boundary lines too? This should please football fans anyway.

Guszkowski kindly let us know that the Academy doesn’t need to provide a buffer for abutter’s because the just-over-the-stone wall abutter’s land is in “agricultural use” therefore not needy or worthy of a buffer. For all those who own larger tracts of land – this is probably good information for you to know of now. Read the rest of this entry »

See article on Flight Design of South Woodstock

Harry Stefan has brought up the idea of separating the Town Operating budget and the Board of Education budget for the purpose of approval by the voting taxpayers.

It is our understanding that the town of Woodstock can’t do this because we do not have a town charter that says we can do this to over-ride State statutes. Because we do not have a town charter, we’re governed by State statutes which preclude separation of the budgets.

However there is an additional constraint on separation of the budgets. It’s Proposition 46. To conform to the restrictions of Prop 46, both budgets have to be formulated as one to ensure that they adhere to the guidelines of Prop 46. This year for, example, the Board of Finance told both the BOS and the BOE that we they had to cut their budgets by a combined amount of $100,000. It was decided in that BOF public meeting that each would cut their budget by $50,000 to solve the problem. This was done and now this single budget will be approved or disapproved in the referendum on Wednesday. If the budget were to be voted down, both sides would have to be cut more.

The following statement came from Kevin in response to the suggestion by ‘Pro Liber’ that the Board of Education should be more open to dialogue with Mr. Richardson about interpretation of Proposition 46.

“It is not the BOE’s place to officially respond to complaints about the interpretation of Prop 46 that Mr. Richardson is making. The interpretation and implementation of that ordinance falls under the sole purview of the BOF. That would be like the BOF giving official responses to complaints about the BOE’s involvement with EASTCONN’s ACT program (not that there are any complaints about this). While we can individually give our opinions, we don’t have any more weight in this arena as any other voter in town. Read the rest of this entry »

Today, May 31st, despite a slow post election period in January and February the  Café readership continues to grow. A total of 751 articles and 8,315 comments have been posted since October 2005. In first 5 months of 2008 the Café published 188 articles averaging 37-38 per month or 8-9 per week.

Growth in Cafe Readership

(See the explanation for the Page Load and Unique Visit numbers at the Bottom of the article.)

When we switched to our new look in late January by changing our blog template our number of page turns dropped. This may be due to our larger list of articles on the front page. We are not sure why page turns have gone down but, more importantly, visitation is increasing.

The Café estimates that there may be as many a 600-800 people visiting frequently or infrequently by assessing the number of different Internet Protocol (IP) addresses that are recorded by our StatCounter. However, when we changed our server to Bright Egg in late January we lost more than half a month of stats and that’s why we didn’t post the quarterly stats in April.

The other interesting finding is that our host (Bright Egg) which manages small business commercial websites was surprised by the volume of “hits” on the Café. It turns out the we are not detecting all of our visitors with our StatCounter software because some visitors have ‘masked’ IP addresses (either intentionally or unintentionally). Read the rest of this entry »

I think the worst gaff the BOF did was when asked if they thought the budget was in compliance with Prop 46 there was a pregnant pause; that looked bad. I’d probably characterize this as more of a lack of PR savvy then a lack of leadership. If Mr. Richardson’s group understands where that quote came from (and from past experience, I suspect they do) then that points to them being much better at the PR game than the BOF members. It also points to the fact that they are actively thinking about PR and how to manage public perception.But let’s be honest, Mr. Richardson’s tactics really come down to exactly that. Selective reading from the legal opinions in such a way that it changes their intended meaning, putting out information into several media outlets, repeating the same claims over and over again. All actions designed to change public perception but not necessarily to convey the truth.

So yes, our BOF is not good at PR and not being PR savvy isn’t the same as not being transparent. Yes, they knew Mr. Richardson was coming but did little to plan for him. However, in most towns I’ve lived in the finance group does not come against this level of orchestrated PR campaign. Under “normal” circumstances they would not need to. It’s unfortunate that our BOF find itself in a position.

I don’t think Mr. Richardson is doing much to make the BOF more transparent. In fact, I’d argue that he is obfuscating the concerns of citizens that may actually have some validity. But I don’t think he cares. As an observer of his actions, in my opinion they would seem to have one primary goal, to reduce taxes. It doesn’t matter where they come from.

Kevin

This post represents my personal opinions and in no way should be considered an official act of the BOE or that I am speaking on behalf of the BOE in any way.

The Board of Finance can shove their words up their arses. Whether you agree with Dave Richardson or not, he is a voting taxpayer and has every right to question the BOF as much as he damn well pleases as well as the rest of the town for that matter. In fact, I wish they would.

When Mr. Hosmer states “it would be impossible to conduct the town’s business” he really means “it would be impossible to continue business as usual” which is to challenge nothing, scrutinize nothing, and change nothing. To Mr. Hosmer transparency means we can see right through him…and that’s exactly what he doesn’t want to happen. That’s why he says so little. Mr. Richardson is a thorn in his side and frankly, deserving of it.

I am reminded of the words of Thoreau in Civil Disobedience, “there will never be a free and enlightened state until the state comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.” Instead, what we have is a local government that believes the individual is just an annoyance.

While I agree with Kevin that “public opinion can be manipulated to keep taxes as low as possible” it must be concluded then that if in fact this is a true statement, public opinion could also be manipulated as well to believe that the answer to all problems is raising taxes and spending more money. Read the rest of this entry »

From Dave Hosmer of the BOF: “Mr. Richardson has demanded that we concede to his opinion and has threatened legal action if we do not. What would happened if every citizen demanded that we take their particular course of action? It would be impossible to conduct the town’s business. Richardson has failed to convince both Democrat and Republican members of the Board of Finance that we have acted in bad faith against the intent and the law of Proposition 46.” A quote from a Letter to the Editor in tomorrow’s Villager. 

“…with the same re-hashed, false, conspiratorial claims of waste, fraud and abuse in the Woodstock Public Schools. Their blogs have all failed because they have nothing to add to the discussion - “Citizens for Prudent Spending” -Livernois/Schultz - FAILED. “Woodstock Coalition” - Powers/Rosendahl - FAILED. “WoodstockCtCafeReview” - Nora Valentine - FAILED. WoodstockTruth” - Richardson/Powers - ABOUT TO FAIL.” Remember, if you go there, THEY WILL BE WATCHING.

After listening to a number of Dave Richardson’s long-winded speeches - and reading a number of his redundant letters - about the “original intent” of Prop-46, I decided to take him up on his offer and visit his website “WoodstockTruth”. 

The cover page is stylish - judicial - in appearance and contains the quote “Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government”.  I am not sure what this means, but it seems to be a dead giveaway for a conspiracy-driven blog. 

The site consists mostly of various media devices to provide maximum exposure to Dave Richardson’s opinion of the proper interpretation of Proposition 46.  This includes text of Dave’s letters; video of Dave’s speeches; summaries of Dave’s opinions; audio recordings of Dave’s questioning of the BOF; text of Dave’s “unanswered” questions; comments of anonymous contributors supporting Dave’s opinions, on and on ad nauseum. I mean I have to admire the guy’s persistence.

Then I read the town attorney’s opinion which was posted on the website.  The opinion clearly contradicts Richardson’s frequently repeated misstatements in two ways.  First, it distinguishes between exceptions to Prop-46 as passed and approved by the town AS PART OF the original budget and those passed and approved AFTER the original budget; Dave keeps merging the two issues.  Second, the letter clearly states the town attorney has reviewed the past two years’ Prop-46 calculations and found them consistent with the ordinance.  Despite this, Dave Richardson continues to publicize his belief that the budgets are “illegal” and that the town attorney has confirmed this in private discussion with him.  Why does “WoodstockTruth” publicize a document that contradicts the sponsor’s own commentary on the site? 

Then, as I poked around, it got a little more interesting.  First, I wondered where all the video clips of the various town meetings came from.  Then I realized that Craig Powers is the only one taping these meetings, so the answer must be that they come from Craig Powers, who adopted the role of Stephen Speilberg when Cecil DeMille (Steve Rosendahl) retired and took a slot on BOE.  What is really interesting about this is that the intro page to “WoodstockTruth” contains a sidebar with a statement that the sponsor welcomes all opinions and will not engage in the poor practices of some other blogs whose sponsors hacked into personal e-mail accounts, identified IP addresses, “or any of that nonsense”.  This is of course exactly what Craig Powers did with his blog “WoodstockCoalition”, causing the failure of that blog through lack of participation by the public.  So if “WoodstockTruth” wants to assure its public that they will not engage in these practices, why are they employing Craig Powers as their cameraman?  Wouldn’t Powers’ participation be the kiss of death for “WoodstockTruth”’s credibility? Read the rest of this entry »

I support the maintenance budgets for both Education and General Government; however, I am disturbed by the additional 4% salary raise in town hall, especially since they got 9% last year. I was glad that Preston Shultz challenged this at the meeting.

I am also continually disturbed by the ever growing fire protection slush fund that never gets challenged. When someone questioned this last year the issue got totally emotionalized, much like Ms. Swenson’s inappropriate rant at this year’s meeting.

Her plea to accept the budget because “we owe it to our children” was the basic premise of her statement. What??? No one was debating whether or not our children deserve a good education, and this should not negate the need for scrutinization of the education budget. Was she trying to make us feel guilty?

Further, the questioning centered around the General Governent Budget, not the Education Budget. Are we simply to excuse a spendthrift government budget because “our children deserve a quality education”. I wonder if there a need to vote on the Education and the Government budget separately? Maybe then there would be no need for both sides to subvert the taxpayers by holding back criticism of each other in fear of not getting their own budgets passed? Read the rest of this entry »

The misguided priorities of the Academy leadership and its ‘track record’ does not bode well for the long term viability of its students’ futures.

Nothin’ Sexy got me thinking. Over the last day or so, I’ve been reflecting on NS’s input about the priorities of the Academy. Then last night, as I was watching the latest landing on Mars (a soft landing that hasn’t been done for over thirty years), it occurred to me that NS is absolutely dead on in the analysis of what is wrong with this picture.

‘Athletics’ have a place in our children’s education – encouraging sportsmanship, team building, cooperation, planning, strategy and more. I saw all that just now, on the television, as Phoenix went through its pre-planned paces. Then sixteen minutes removed from the actual event, telemetry informs the control room that Phoenix has landed. None of this could have happened without planning, strategy, cooperation and team building of the highest caliber. And, one can’t even describe the sportsmanship involved in being part of such an endeavor.

Right now the world is making a transition from the manufacturing of hard goods to the technology of computers, the internet and ideas. It is essential that our kids be prepared for this transition. The landing of the Phoenix tonight highlighted the pressing need of our educational system to address science and technology. Are we preparing our children for the world they will need to function in?

Long after our children have left the sports fields of their youths, they will still need to live and compete in a world of ever-changing and improving technology. Long after the bodies of their stripling youth have aged and slowed, our children will still need to function in a different world of business than the business world we (or their grandparents) know. Are we preparing them to be productive in that new world?

How many of our school children really are missing out on athletics because the Academy doesn’t have the biggest or best fields around? Really, how many? How many more children will be signing up for sports when and if this expansion comes to fruition?

I haven’t heard a loud hue and cry about kids being left out. Read the rest of this entry »

This statement below is the title of Dave Richardson’s Letter to the Editor to the Villager in the May 16th issue. This statement is the essence of what Dave Richardson has repeatedly said publicly … which is completely at odds with what our Town lawyer, Robert DeCrescenzo, has actually said. Mr. Richardson goes on to say that the Woodstock budget “is in violation of Proposition 46 on several counts, based on the town attorney’s legal opinion letter dated March 5, 2005.”

This below is the ending of Robert DeCrescenzo’s letter to the Honorable Alan Walker, First Selectman of Woodstock, on March 5th regarding interpretation of Prop 46 by the Board of Finance.

The key language in Mr. DeCrescenzo’s letter is that the Prop 46 calculations were “consistent with the language and intent of Proposition 46” and also that these calculations where consistent from year to year. 

You can read the full pdf copy of this letter from Mr. Decrescenzo at Kevin in Woodstock, along with Kevin’s thoughtful analysis of Mr. Richardson’s bogus claims.

You can also read Ms. Wholean’s Letter to the Editor in this same issue of the Villager where she says basically nothing, but with an inference that ‘SOMETHING IS WRONG’. This “something” will not be committed to until Ms. Wholean decides what it is a year from now when she starts her campaign to take back the Selectmens office from Alan Walker.

You Can’t Fix Supid… can you!

This article was published at the Cafe on June 2nd 2007. The article recognized a transition by the Citizens for Prudent Spending who had decided that the budgetary restrictions imposed by Proposition 46 were not enough. This article predicted that CPS would try to take their attacks on the budget to a higher level far beyond Prop 46. This prediction has now become realized with the continuing rants of Richardson and Wholean in the Villager, and Ernie St. Jean’s unreadable Blackboard Blog which, no doubt, tabulates CPS gospel in a manner reminiscent of Charlton Heston’s Moses with the Commandments raised high over his head carved in stone.

Dave Richardson achieved what few others have in his 9-paragraph warning to the supporters of Prop 46 and the Board of Finance in his article in the Villager (page 11, June 1 issue 2007) INappropriately entitled “Town has option in voting down budget” (thanks, Mr. Bird, for the bias of the title). Mr. Richardson managed to articulate what’s wrong with Prop 46 … no doubt unintentionally. The take home message from his tortuous statement is as follows: Shall we have Dave Richardson’s interpretation of Prop 46, Gerry Ralston’s interpretation, Margaret Wholean’s interpretation, or Wetzel’s, St. Jean’s, etc, etc. etc… ?

Don’t get me wrong.The Town can live with Prop 46 if the voters continue to demand it. Unfortunately, few voters have put much thought into this ordinance or even read it. It’s the bias that individuals inject into their personal interpretation that is difficult to accept.

Mr. Richardson committed an important omission in his statement in the Villager. He failed to recite Prop 46 for the benefit of the readers. Since Prop 46 is short and simple why not show what any and all discussions of Prop 46 are about.

Proposition 46: “Resolved, the town shall limit the increase in the town’s combined annual budget to revenue generated by growth in the Grand List, in State and Federal assistance, and in other income, except for increases, voted upon by town meeting, necessary to cover debt service on legal obligations, court judgments against the town, State mandated programs and emergency expenditures.

In the event of property revaluation, the actual dollar increase in the combined town budget shall be limited to the dollar amount of increase in the preceding year’s budget or the average amount of increase over the preceding three years, whichever is lower.”

As I read this simplistic ordinance, I can conclude that it does not account for inflation. Read the rest of this entry »

The new Football Facility (Foye Field, Line Master Switch Field, Crabtree & Evelyn Field, Sweet Evelina Field????)

Read the rest of this entry »

See Kevin in Woodstock for his latest on the last Town and BOE Meeting.

 The septic system at the Woodstock Academy hasn’t functioned well since the early 1990’s. As with any outdated septic system, increased use combined with a non-engineered facility renders it hazardous to the school and neighbors from time to time. The Academy resides within Woodstock’s Sewer District so permission for the needed sewer extension is granted. For close to twenty years now, the Academy, rather than plan for the costly extension, has chosen to manage its outdated system by cleaning and frequent pumping. There is no apparent plan for the costly sewer extension that will satisfy the good health and welfare needs of many students, staff and neighbors.

 As property owners, we all face frequent decisions regarding improvements needed on our own properties. Springtime usually includes assessment of the repairs and upgrades followed by budgeting of the costs. When faced with a failed septic system, most of us would respond quickly by securing a loan, finding a good contractor and overseeing the required improvement. In that process, most of us would need to delay or postpone the extras like meals out, clothing, and/or vacations. Most of us would not respond to the need for urgent upgrades to our properties by planning for and embarking upon a “Dream Vacation.” In this similar situation, the Academy acts as though they’d rather take their Dream Vacation. All focus and energy coming from representatives of the school is focused on the expansion of athletic facilities rather than on the less-than-thrilling plan for obtaining a good seat on the sewer line. How many of us would conduct our own property management in such a manner?

 The Academy urgently seeks the development of an athletic complex announcing vociferously that it is imperative as the existing fields are inadequate in number and size. Significant time and tax money has already gone in to the planning of this complex although I’ve never heard any hard and fast data stating the reasons why the Academy must build such a grand complex. How many children presently go without sports activities? What types of fields or sporting teams are most needed? How often are additional fields needed? Also appended to my thoughts is a concern over the Academy’s poor maintenance of the present playing fields and parking lot. If the school doesn’t maintain their current series of fields – what will happen when they have twice the area to maintain? If they continue to overlook their current need for sewer and ignore proper maintenance of existing fields and courts – how will they manage a much larger physical plant? Read the rest of this entry »

Re: the cell tower issue…
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1267607/

When is Woodstock going to get the new committee going?
No member’s addresses are available for contact, including Lisa Repose

http://www.woodstockct.gov/Portals/0/Docs/4-17-08%20Minutes1.doc

Verizon has looked at at least two other sites in town since the committee was proposed.
They looked at 3 areas near my home, and one site would be perfect since it is over 1000′ in the woods, but they prefer the site closer to the road.

I think the zoning should be changed to require towers to be 1000′ft min from any residence.

http://www.woodstockct.gov/Portals/0/Docs/Woodstock%20Zoning%20Regs%20Effective%2008-17-2007.pdf

If Woodstock doesn’t do something soon we will be stuck with an ugly tower where we don’t want it, like Kent

How do we contact the committee members?

Crazy4sure

From Kevin Ford : The number is incorrect (71.46%).

Here are the actual summary numbers:
Statutory requirements Including SPED, Transportation and High school:
07/08: $7,857,428 08/09: $8,272,664 Increase: 5.28%.

Salaries and Benefits (Exclusive of SPED and Transportation related Salaries):
07/08: $6,078,836 08/09: $6,308,155 Increase: 3.77%

If salaries increased by 71.46% we would be having one heck of a budget problem. Also the author states that Ms. Paul said WPS are in the bottom third of schools in the state. What Ms. Paul stated was that we were in the bottom few (like bottom five, but I don’t recall the exact number).

(Contributed by a commentor who attended this meeting. Admin)

The annual town meeting of the electors and citizens was held last night in the Woodstock Elementary School to present and discuss the proposed budget of the Town of Woodstock for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009. Ed Higgins was elected moderator.

Alan Walker, First Selectman, began with an overview of the General Government Budget which is proposed to increase by 9.33% this year. He attributes this increase to the new items of Revaluation cost $250,000 and Emergency Medical Services cost $123,000. He claimed that without these two additional items that the government budget would only be increasing by 3.41%. Legal fees request increased from $16,977 to $25,000 due to the Coatney Hill debacle. Town Hall salaries will see a 4.0% increase.

Quasset school requests for a new roof added $5000 to their budget. Open Space Land Acquisition went from $175,000 to $125,000. The Fire Protection budget increased only 2.94%…but don’t be fooled, their new apparatus fund went up 5.125 and their Capital improvements went up 22.45% (by the way, in the 5 year capital improvement plan Fire protection seeks to obtain approx. $ 200,000 annually as well). The total police protection budget has increased by 30.96%. Animal control up 8.20%. highway Dept. up only 1.07% but as Ms. Wholean pointed out, this is deceiving as their debt service (on pg.30 of the debt redemption page) is increased to $105,000. Fuel Depot is up 9.09%.

Environment spending continues to include benzene cleanup? Contracted out at $25,000 (and is included on the 5 year capital plan as well, hmmm.) The Coatney Hill cleanup cost this coming year estimated at $23,136. The public health, recreation, and welfare budget up 5% with Dial-a-ride now down to $5,414.

Next presenter was Lindsey Paul, Chairman of the WBOE to present the education budget which is approximately 73% of our town budget. The requested budget request comes in at a 4.34% increase. Ms. Paul notes that this is yet another maintenance budget, except for a mandated SPED instructor. She also mentioned that the schools continue to be a testimony of efficiency as their budgets are in the lowest third in the state and yet our students are testing above average in math, reading, and writing. Of the two largest increases in expenditures are contractual salaries increasing 71.46% and SPED costs that are increasing 16.80%. Significant decreases include textbook spending of $57,357 and Buses (transportation) $116,081. 53% of the education budget is statutory and includes SPED, transportation, and High School costs. Contractual and other salaries comprise another 40%. Read the rest of this entry »

Jemal Davis who recently resigned as Head Football Coach at Woodstock Academy took the Head Coach position at NFA.

We rarely publish National news but ‘Flash’ thought that this was important for Woodstock. This may be good evidence that both Republicon and Demobrat congressmen don’t read or fully understand the bills they are passing.

And this Newsflash about the Farm bill in Washington:

” ‘After gaffe, Democrats planning to redo farm bill’ By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press Writer, WASHINGTON (AP) —

Democrats are picking up the pieces after an embarrassing technical gaffe that delayed a triumphant rejection of President Bush’s veto of a massive farm bill.

Members from both parties hoped to bring the $290 billion bill, which includes election-year subsidies for farmers and food stamps for the poor, back to their districts over Memorial Day. But that is looking less likely now that the legislation will have to be passed all over again due to a printing error.

The House voted overwhelmingly, 316-108, on Wednesday to override Bush’s veto of the legislation earlier in the day.
The Senate then was expected to follow suit quickly, but action stalled after the discovery that a 34-page section of the bill had been omitted from the printed bill sent to the White House. That means Bush vetoed a different bill from the one Congress passed, raising questions that the eventual law would be unconstitutional. Read the rest of this entry »