Woodstock CT Café

 See the full analysis at JenRan Realty.com. You have to register to read Jennifer Esposito’s monthly news letter which contains a monthly Northeastern CT housing market analysis.


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from Frank Corden

Independent, Taxpayer, Con and all others who seem to be routinely participating in a number of thoughtful discussions, I’d like to tee one up that flows from Independent’s comment above regarding a few tough years ahead.

Clearly, we need to get our state and federal budgets under control. As we look at the approach of the Reagan Republicans (and as most recently championed by the Tea Party activist), abandoning regulation hasn’t served us very well. Their collective cry for “smaller government” is too simplistic. There appears to be this sense that by starving government for funds, government will get better.

Rather it seems that a cash poor government is generally headed to becoming a poor government. Case in point, starving the regulatory arms of the SEC, the bank regulators and the food safety inspectors hasn’t made us any richer or safer.

Organizational behavior virtually guarantees a poor outcome. When organizations are starved for resources, in the absence of VERY STRONG leadership, the organizations don’t try to limit what they do, but rather peanut-butter the resources across as many of their previous activities as possible. The result is that the organization tries to “do it all” but instead does it all poorly.

If we are going to reduce government spending and still have well run programs that protect the health and safety of our citizens and the financial future of our country, what we need to do is to settle on the appropriate priorities for government at each level, federal, state and local. Then be rigorous about holding to those priorities.

So, the question I pose for discussion is, “what are the appropriate rolls for the federal government” and “what should we shut down”. In each case of the do’s and don’ts, I like to discuss what rationale we would use to justify the recommendation.

from Frank Corden

Sorry folks. I’ve been traveling over the last couple of weeks and consistent with company policy, won’t use my laptop for personal/political purposes.

Regardless, I didn’t realize a request for clarification would engender such a vitriolic debate.

This shouldn’t have been about me personally. I’m sorry it devolved to that. It’s about the actions and positions that politically active citizens take.

To go back to the original post, my question of WVG was what actions, activities or positions did Shultz et al take that benefited the schools (note I’ve seen none documented to date on the threads. If you have posted some my apologies, I could have missed a thread), and what actions/positions did I take that were detrimental (again, I’ve not seen any specifics).

WVG, any comment?

For the record my preference was to run again for the BoE slot. I did interview with the Woodstock RTC nominating committee. I did not have the support of the nominating committee and didn’t believe I had the time or resources to commit to a primary challenge.

So it was a personal decision.

Bill Loftus (D) will oppose Mike Alberts (R) in the next election.

Click to enlarge. There’s more to this story, I’m sure.

This is an image from GoodEarth. The Image two articles down is from GoogleMaps.

Click to enlarge. The house at 234 Pole Bridge Road was owned by Rick Lafleche (R. Lafleche Logging and Construction Co). The home was at the end of a private dirt road nearly a mile from the paved town-owned section of Pole Bridge Road. Rick returned home at about 4PM Wednesday to find it in flames.

LOCAL SMALL BUSINESS ASSISTANCE FORUM
Saturday, February 27, 9:00 a.m. @ Willington Library
 
State Representative Bryan Hurlburt; who represents Ashford, Tolland and Willington in the Connecticut General Assembly, is inviting local businesses to join him for a small business assistance forum Saturday February 27 from 9:00 am to 11:00 am at the Willington Public Library.
 
Hurlburt, who is hosting the event, said it is a great opportunity for businesses in northeast Connecticut to hear about the various assistance programs offered by the state. 
 
“The state offers a number of programs to assist small businesses, but not all of our local businesses know about these resources,” Hurlburt said. “This is a great opportunity to gain awareness of these programs and to network with other businesses and state agencies.”
 
Scheduled participants include:
·         Hank Reed and Dennis Twiss of the Small Business Development Center
·         Peter Lent, Dept. of Economic and Community Development
·         Donna Wertenback, Community Economic Development Fund
·         Lori Granato, Connecticut  Development Authority
·         Peter Gioia, Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA)
-         Robert Miller, Northeast CT Economic Alliance, Inc
 
WHAT:     Small Business Assistance Forum
WHEN:     Saturday, February 27, 9:00-11:00 a.m.
WHERE: Willington Public Library Community Room (lower level)
7 Ruby Road, Willington, CT 

Contact: Larry Perosino
860/240-0144

from Con

In a small Town, very often any given lawsuit or proceeding initiated by citizens simply does more harm than good. A group of Woodstock Citizens most closely associated with woodstocktruth.com fails utterly to realize this nearly self-evident dynamic (And BTW, WHY do they call cafe.com ‘Aljazeera’? - that says much about their bigotry and prejudice…)

Is there any specific data regarding the Total amount of Legal Fees spent on matters involving or initiated by Town citizens? Our Teachers always said “It takes 2 to fight” and when there was a costly fight, the first question was always “Who started it?”

Absolutely it is a citizen’s perogative to initiate lawsuits when the situation calls for it and all other alternatives have been fully explored and exhausted, etc. and no one should be treated unfairly or live with a bad situation. Taxpaying citizens deserve to trust that tax dollars are not to be wasted on lawsuits which are unnecessary or in which the Town wrong or has done wrong; Citizens also deserve to know that fellow citizens would only initiate expensive proceedings only as an absolute last resort and, ideally, are as narrow as possible, only to correct an existing, materially bad and costly problem and NOT merely to prove that they are in the right, to correct some minor problem/situation or to retaliate.

Ideally, citizens in a small town understand that the Town is simply not equipped to deal with costly lawsuits and, though possibly unfair, such citizens would go the extra mile to avoid costly proceedings by taking all factors into account. Ideally, citizens would put the interests of the Town’s taxpayers above such citizen’s interest in merely proving the town wrong, setting some precedent, ‘punishing’ the Town for inappropriate behavior, etc. It simply does more harm than good. Read the rest of this entry »

Sunday February 7, 2010
Woodstock East Congregational Church, 220 Woodstock Rd

Pot luck luncheon 12:30-1:30         
Business Annual Meeting 1:30-2:00

Program at 2:00 - Cordwaining:  The history and art of making shoes by hand

Sponsored by the Woodstock Historical Society
Free and open to the public

        About the Speakers:   Daphne Board, honorable cordwainer, and Lisa Davidson, honorable beginning cordwainer.  Davidson will provide a brief introduction (with photos) on the history of shoemaking in Woodstock, CT.  Board will speak about the process of making shoes by hand, and will bring along hand tools and examples of her work.

Board crafts custom-made shoes, from soft-rounded kitten heels to knee-length studded leather boots. Her mother taught her to sew when she was in her early teens.  Board spent seven months learning the almost lost craft of shoemaking from two theatrical shoemakers in Canada.  After graduating with a degree in Textile Design from Rhode Island School of Design, she spent several years making costumes for regional theatres in New England.  She also had a short apprenticeship with a milliner in London.  She now makes shoes by hand in her small studio in Holyoke, MA, under the name El Diablo Shoes.  See examples of her work online at zerkahloostrah.etsy.com. Davidson is one of Board’s students, and is also a resident and businesswoman in Woodstock.

Woodstock’s shoe manufacturing business began in 1833.  By 1845, it employed 9,825 men and women who produced more than 5 million pairs of shoes, according to The History of Windham County, CT, 1889.   In the 1930s and ‘40s, even factory-made shoes came in different widths, but modern shoes are now sized to fit a generic foot that seldom exists.  Board focuses on comfort and style that cannot be achieved on factory scale.  She values the process of creation — every shoe is made to measure for a client’s foot before a stitch of leather is sewn onto the last. The process involves cutting a pattern to fitting to a “last” (a wooden model of a foot). 

Douglas Zimmerman

Program Chair

Woodstock Historical Society