Woodstock CT Café

from Nary

My understanding is that this is an region that wishes to live within the confines of the climate with its limitations of natural light during fall and winter. This isn’t always easy; this winter is a prime example. However, it is a value expressed by many.

To change topics, consider the land of the proposed complex. If you’ve walked this parcel lately . . you can imagine how difficult or costly this location will be to maintain in plan as approved.

Changing topics again, the Academy and the town can’t yet come to a financial agreement about a 20 + year old much-needed sewer line to the school. The WA continues to pump out their septic frequently while DEP and others in the state who care about vital matters like safe sewering are frustrated about the situation.

Given that the above problem can’t be solved successfully, does the town of Woodstock and sending towns have the means to build and maintain a large, wet, rocky area for the type of athletic complex envisioned?

The tennis courts and fields at Bentley are not maintained well and haven’t been so in years. How will the school adequately maintain a complex twice or more the size of what is there presently?

Thanks for your responses. I appreciate your time in posting them.

from Anon

Why upgrade? At this point the whole complex needs to be redone because nobody wants to spend money to maintain what is there now. Why do you think it is in the shape that it is in now ? Can’t you see the half dead Christmas trees that were installed over the summer to hide the place from scrunity of taxpayers. with enrolement down and talks of more cuts in September, how will they afford to maintain more of what they cant now? They should be working on the sewer line ASAP at their own expense before they have problem with the septic system that is located on town property. Yes the Academy does not own the common.

… and a new case to cover.

http://blog.nerac.com/rnailitigation/ John

This is reposted from February 2007 because of the events going on in Japan.

During the last election campaign there was talk by some candidates about finding ways to stimulate the economy of eastern Connecticut particularly in the quiet corner. The growing industry of bio-fuel production has often been mentioned which still requires combustion of fuels and a lot of Round-Up Ready to heat and drive motors. I think that Woodstock should consider a giant leap into the future and construct a nuclear power plant. After all, the Millstone nuclear power plant in New London contributes $585 million to the state’s economy and more than $1.1 billion to the U.S. economy, including labor income of $174.5 million. Millstone generates half of the state’s electricity production so half is left for Woodstock to produce. I don’t think that there have been any new nuclear power plants constructed since the 70′s. Yet these plants produce no polluting waste other than those pesky rods – no sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide or carbon dioxide like the fossil fuel plants that produce the other 50% of our electricity. I was reading yesterday that the USS Eisenhower, our nuclear aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, can run for 17 years without refueling, and this craft produces all of its potable water from the sea using the same ‘nucules.’

If we were to embark on this bold step, then Woodstock could become the focus of the entire state and nation for taking matters into our own hands, especially in light of our unique Prop 46. We could call it ‘Turkey Point’ or ‘Fox Creek’, names used by other eco-friendly nuclear power plants… or how about ‘Swamp Yankee Vernal’ after our revolutionary fathers. There are lots of large tracks of land in town to build the plant. I favor a high profile place like the Fairgrounds where everyone can view the majesty of the silos on a daily basis… and these grounds already have a fence put up for security. Read the rest of this entry »

from Ron

Sorry for the delay (to Nary). Understand that I work on the soccer side of the world and not football, but as you will understand this is about time using the sun when available and that is very limited once you get past the first week of November. Football is played until Thanksgiving, and soccer is played for league play through the first week of November. Both of these sports are played out side and with the normal time change moving to the first weekend in Nov there is a dramatic change in available hours to practice and play. From the web site: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=43&month=11&year=2011&obj=sun&afl=-11&day=1
Nov 1, 2011 7:17 AM 5:38 PM 10h 20m 51s
Nov 2, 2011 7:18 AM 5:37 PM 10h 18m 20s
Nov 3, 2011 7:20 AM 5:36 PM 10h 15m 50s
Nov 4, 2011 7:21 AM 5:34 PM 10h 13m 22s
Nov 5, 2011 7:22 AM 5:33 PM 10h 10m 55s
Note: hours shift because clocks change backward 1 hour (See below table for details)
Nov 6, 2011 6:23 AM 4:32 PM 10h 08m 30s
Nov 7, 2011 6:25 AM 4:31 PM 10h 06m 07s
Nov 8, 2011 6:26 AM 4:30 PM 10h 03m 45s
Nov 9, 2011 6:27 AM 4:29 PM 10h 01m 24s
Nov 10, 2011 6:28 AM 4:28 PM 9h 59m 05s
Nov 11, 2011 6:30 AM 4:27 PM 9h 56m 48s
Nov 12, 2011 6:31 AM 4:26 PM 9h 54m 33s

You see that on a sunny day the sun sets at 4:30 pm. If a school is lucky enough to qualify for the CIAC state run tournament for soccer these times get really short to practice. Basic practices start around 3:00 pm to allow the students to make sure they can meet with facility after classes end. With sun setting at 4:30 or less, and where the WA fields are located and adhering to standard safety rules coaches try and shut down practices at least 10 mins prior to the sun setting. This gets even worse when there is heavy cloud cover making it darker even earlier.

If in a state soccer tournament event the start time would have to be at 2:00 pm because they have to finish before sun set! Thus school is still in session and there is no one to really root for the team because the student body is still in classes.

As you can see the football program is then at a huge disadvantage compared to the the rest of the ECC league who have the ability to practice under the lights for a regular length practice session.

As to being at a night game – there is a different “aura” for a night game. More fans (moms, dads, other family members and a larger student presence) all because of the time shift in the starting time. The players are different for the night game because to them it feels like a “special” event and that all of their friends are talking up the game. From talking to other schools (Lyman, Putnam, etc…) that have light – this kind of ratching up the excitement is the norm and is something that the entire school really gets behind.

These games happen only in the fall. Also the ability to have lights to allow for a full practice session is huge from a coaching perspective.

Hope that answers.
Ron

from the Norwich Bull today.

A news release from the State House Democrats March 4, 2011:

Speaker of the House Christopher G. Donovan (D-Meriden) and State Senator Donald E. Williams, Jr. (D-Brooklyn) joined State Representative Danny Rovero (D-Putnam) on a tour of the TEEG house in Thompson on Friday morning. Formed in 1987, TEEG (Thompson Ecumenical Empowerment Group) is a community-centered, non-profit human services agency providing services and support to Northeast Connecticut residents and families.

“When Operation Fuel exhausted its winter fuel program funds, TEEG was there,” said Rep Rovero. “40-50 families in northeast Connecticut have benefitted from their hard work.”

“As we move through budget negotiations, we need to keep in mind our “safety net” facilities and all the good work they accomplish,” said Speaker Donovan. “Thousands of our most vulnerable utilize agencies like TEEG.”

“TEEG began many years ago when I served as first selectman of Thompson,” said Sen. Williams. “They do an excellent job helping people in these tough economic times.”

In 2010, TEEG delivered services to 2,433 individuals and 912 families in the Quiet Corner area. The support and services TEEG provide include:
• Food distribution
• Children’s services
• Parenting programs
• Senior services
• Operation Fuel assistance

TEEG secures funding from many different sources, including local, federal and state level governments as well as issue-specific foundations, and local community organizations. They also engage in fundraising from local individuals and businesses. TEEG is entering phase three of building a new facility, as their current one is not sufficient to cope with the needs demonstrated by the community.

Communicated by Joe Gresko
(860) 240-0071

This was last posted on Sep 28th, 2008. There were a few negative comments about the transfer station placed under “Going Postal in Woodstock” that I didn’t agree with but I never got around to responding to them. So I am re-posting this article in honor of the crew that runs the transfer station, works hard, and does not get paid enough. Hopefully they will get a raise this year. The Transfer Station has never been run better, and I still get great enjoyment from my weekly visit. John

One of the things that is automatic in my life is the weekend visit to the transfer station (aka, the recycling center and in olden days … the dump).

When it comes to trash, there are only three ways to deal with it – keep it as they do in the Ozarks, put it on the roadside for Waste Management to pick up, or visit the Woodstock Transfer Station. Second to road maintenance, I suggest that the transfer station under the watchful eye of Bob Blair (with Avis Spalding as the Chairman of the Transfer Station Committee) may be the most important service the Town provides to its residents.

Yesterday, on Saturday, I made two trips to the station to transfer some wealth to other Woodstockians. Besides unloading our weekly trash, my wife has been on a mission to eliminate all unnecessary items from our house and I have been cleaning out things that we have accumulated and stored in the loft over our garage. We have a lot of stuff.

At the transfer station, my first stop is always the shed where people deposit still useful items that they do not need or want anymore. When I step into the shed, I have that feeling of being a kid again on Christmas morning; you know, when we woke up, we ran downstairs wide-eyed to see what gifts were placed in our stocking or under the tree by Santa. I often say or think “has my Christmas present arrived yet” when I step inside and my eyes start to adjust to the cluttered darkness.

On this visit, however, I was delivering goodies to the shed. The first item I placed in the shed was a coffee maker. This is when I met Tom who asked “Does it still work?” I said yes and pointed to two other coffee makers there also. Tom pointed out that the others were missing a pot and, without hesitation, swept up my former coffee maker before someone else could claim it. This was instant gratification for me too. Tom explained that he was taking it to give to someone at the school who needed it. We talked briefly and then I continued to transfer other precious items from my car to the shed.

After finishing with the shed, I transferred some nickels in the form of plastic bottles and a six-pack of empty Sam Adams beer bottles to containers for soccer dads and moms to scavenge each week to raise funds for their kids’ little league teams. This is the same labor-intensive activity that the Academy football boosters used to help fund the new Academy football program.

Slowly I get around to distributing our regular trash to the compactor, and glass bottles, tin cans, milk bottles, plastic bottles, unread Villager newspapers, and used batteries to their respective locations. Finally I drove over and backed up to bulky waste to deposit the unusable things. I couldn’t help note that much of the stuff I was getting rid of was stuff I got at the dump in the first place.  It was raining so I was holding a rather garish orchid umbrella, my favorite in fact. This prompted some off-color remarks from two friends across the way also in the process of unloading their trash. I pointed out that “I got it at the dump” … a phrase I use a lot.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Cafe would like to commend Anthony Walker on his Letter to the Editor of the Villager published yesterday. This is a well-written and detailed accounting of the changes in next year’s budget.

We noticed this for the first time today. Our StatCounter keeps track of visitation to the Cafe. If someone searches for the Cafe on Google, the StatCounter now tells us if the search term came up in Google as the top find. If I hover the cursor over the “#1″ in our StatCounter, a message becomes visible that the Cafe website was the top answer for “woodstock cafe” or “woodstockctcafe”.

If you click on the form below, this will isolate the proposed mail-in form the letter above. Fill it out and mail it to the Town Hall at the address given above. Read the rest of this entry »

These regulations will be discussed at the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on March 3, 2011.

click to enlarge pages 1 through 16 left to right top to bottom

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