I’m slow to reply to your question (see “Re: Tough Times Ahead”) because it’s so thought-provoking. Our nation was formed some 234 years ago and one would think that this question would have been answered at the outset. But as we’ve ‘evolved’ (if that’s the correct word) we’ve added more states, more people, more industry, more infrastructure, more politicians, etc.

I think for me, what makes your question so difficult to answer is that in these 234 years, we have blurred the lines ourselves as to the proper role of our government. That role was generally initially defined in the preamble of the Constitution, the purpose of which was “in order to form a more perfect Union”. The goals and “mission statement” of our federal government were to “establish Justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the Blessings of liberty…”

If you take that piece by piece, there’s quite a bit there. I think most citizens would agree that we still have a legitimate need for our Federal government to provide for our National defense. We can dissect the hows and how much of the defense system, of course, but I think we would all agree on the continuing need for it to remain in place.

Ensuring domestic tranquility….I’m not sure what the founding fathers exactly intended by this phrase, but to me it speaks to the need at the State and local governmental level (since we’ve now added more states than the original 13 we started with) for basic public services such as police enforcement and fire protection. How tranquil can one’s life be if subjected to crime or fire? If we want to expand this notion of tranquility to the Federal level, then I could see an argument for FEMA to exist in times of disaster relief. I guess this would also make a case for militia at a State level, such as the National Guard, enforcement at a State level, such as a State police Dept., disaster relief at a State level as an outpost of FEMA at the federal level. I could also see highway infrastructure coming under this category at all 3 levels of government because vehicles are available for purchase in the private market for those who have the financial means. But vehicle ownership requires someplace on which to safely operate the vehicle. I would limit the role to infrastructure maintenance though. To me, this should not include a nationalization of public transit be it planes, trains, buses, monorails, subways, ferries - whatever. None of these other modes of transport are a requirement for one to live a life of domestic tranquility so they can and should be provided by the private sector and each citizen can choose to avail themselves of any given method as their means and circumstance (and personal preferance) dictate. (more…)

What could be a better indicator of a recovering economy? Timber harvesting.

We are seeing this on Barber Road in Woodstock and on Storrs Road in Tolland. The two graphs at the bottom are showing that both white pine and fuel wood are coming back. You can get as much as $15 a cord for fuel wood. We recommend Don Dubois of Brooklyn as the Forester (Masters Degree from Yale in Forest Management) who marks the trees and manages the harvest. He works with John Trowbridge, a local logger. This is a clean, professional operation that improves the forest by removal of older and diseased trees.

The pictures below were taken on Barber Road yesterday at dusk. The first picture is white pine harvested as saw timber for construction lumber.
(more…)

Regarding editorial policy, I do think that it is an important discussion because it is one of the most crucial factors to consider when deciding what type of media site you want to be. I believe that the reason why the Cafe’s policies appear to be going back and forth is because to some extent they are as the owners receive different advice on what their editorial policy should be. At the end of the day one important thing for a media outlet’s credibility is the notification, constancy and consistent application of the editorial policy.

To this end, this is the best advice I can give living in the industry is to consider the mission and vision for the site in three particular areas; 1) what type of content do you want (logical discussion, free for all, political debate, educational issues, family memories, this doesn’t mean they have to be mutually exclusive but some items may be), 2) who and how many do you want contributing content (creators and critics) and 3) who and how many do you want reading the content (spectators). It is important to realize that for the second and third questions it is unrealistic to just say everyone because no matter what editorial policy you choose, including no editorial policy, you will be attracting and repelling different groups.

Once a mission and vision is articulated, including those three areas, you can design an editorial policy. The editorial policy should, of course, be designed to directly support that mission and vision. Luckily the Café doesn’t have a profit component so makes this much easier to consider as an entire set of stakeholders is gone. I’ll list out a few of the areas of contention on the Café’s editorial policy as of late and how they impact those three things I mentioned.

Profanity. I mention this because there has been a fair amount of it introduced to the Café recently. This goes back to the questions of whom do you want to contribute and who to you want to read the site. The profanity question is very important to the later. Do you want parents to read this site and just as importantly be comfortable allowing their children to? The decision to allow profanity will have a real impact on who will be reading the content. There is a technological component to this as well as parents increasingly are utilizing filtering tools to protect their children; there is a very real possibility this site might end up blocked by those tools if it contains profanity.

Personal Insults. This really ties into all three. Abusive debate attracts certain people as contributors and repels others. It also helps determine what type of content will be created in the first place. A poster had mentioned that anyone is free to just skip such posts but there is a different result in practical application. What actually tends to happen in practice is that individuals do not decide to read or not read certain posts on a case by case basis, they eventually move on or off the media site as a whole. Human nature is what it is. (more…)

That anecdote about the $100 circulating through a small town is - as one blogger observed - in part about velocity. How fast money moves through the economy is a partial measure of how well the economy is functioning. 

The anecdote is also an illustration of what economists call the “circular flow.”
Circular flow can be reduced to a simple chart that illustrates how money travels in a (theoretical) circle throughout the economy.
- Consumers pay for what they get;
- The storekeeper uses that money to pay the manufacturer for his store stock;
- The manufacturer uses the money to pay for his equipment, his raw materials, and the talent that made it;
- and along the way, everyone is using some of the money to pay employees… who take their paycheck home and … spend it on consumer goods and services.

Circular flow also works the other direction; read the little story backwards to see how goods and services move in a circle too.

There are lots of visual charts for this (go to google images and type in “circular flow”). Some are simple, most add in government, usually placed in the center of the circular diagram (because money flows to the government from all quarters as tax payments, and services flow out from the government to all quarters). Some diagrams get very complex by adding in the role of banks, others add annotations for “leakage” (money that goes out of the system because Aunt Tillie stores it in her mattress or Billy dropped his lunch money down the storm drain or all those coins are gathering dust in odd corners around the house). But however much elaborated, the basic idea remains one of money moving around the circle in one direction, in exchange for goods and services that move around the circle in the other direction.

The reader who thought the anecdote was just a tired old internet joke … was right; it is. But perhaps he didn’t recognize it as an illustration of Circular Flow, deliberately oversimplified for a touch of humor (yeah, rather dry humor at best, but economists aren’t known for their humor, are they).

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.

So to the point, the only position you (WVG) have mentioned that I took that is contrary to your views has to do with Woodstock Academy. You stipulated to items, one that I supported the efforts of the BoE chair to propose legislation changing the statutory status of WA. The second is a general point regarding WA’s budget actions having a detrimental impact on the K-8 programs.

I was not involved or knowledgable of the chair’s action regarding meeting with State legislators. Further, I don’t recall Sherrie Vogt’s name ever being mentioned during the BoE meetings. With that said, I do believe that the governance of WA is structure in a manner that makes it unresponsive to the needs of Woodstock, the largest sending town. If a change in the statutory status or governance structure of WA is a means to that end, I certainly would seriously consider supporting it.

With respect to the second point, I do believe that the budgetary actions of Woodstock Academy have had detrimental impacts on the K-8 system. The education budget is of a fixed size as defined by the Board of Finance. When tuition for Woodstock students to attend Woodstock Academy increases substantially and those increases aren’t adequately addressed by the budget imposed by the Board of Finance, Woodstock Public Schools takes the hit.

In 4 of the 6 years I served this community on the Board of Education, unjustifiable increases in the WA budget directly resulted in cuts in staff and programs at Woodstock Elementary School and Woodstock Middle School. (more…)

Once again, Anon makes an important point about the core workings of our economy. When I was in college, my professor took the class to Sturbridge Village to make this same point. Like the little town in Texas, it is a microcosm of the broader economy.

Economists call this concept the “Velocity” of the money supply - the speed at which money moves through the economy is as important as the total supply of money in the economy. So, “Moneterists” traditionally believed modulation of the cash supply is a sufficient tool to expand or contract growth in the economy, as needed, depending on its Velocity.

“Fiscalists” or “Keynesians” traditionally believed that it is the total amount of spending that matters, and that growth must be modulated through the expansion or contraction of government spending.

The “ISLM Framework” resolved this theoretical divide in the 1960’s, providing a hybrid theoretical framework that accommodates both concepts. This common ground was generally supported by both sides.

What changed beginning in the 1980’s was the rise of classical economists and their theory of pure free market principles to the securities markets; i.e., the belief that all security prices were by definition priced correctly in an open market. The theoretical work of these academics was picked up by key players in the capital markets and politicians and policymakers who favored government deregulation. This became the basis for deregulation of the financial markets and the failure to regulate new financial instruments like derivatives. (more…)

WVG, Your persistence in your last comment about having been here before jogged my memory. I like the way you make things up as you go along. It wasn’t four years ago as you suggested in one of your first comments (maybe just a smoke screen). It was more recently that you graced the Cafe with your presence and inimitable style (I hope I spelled that correctly ). Since you are using a pseudonym now, we will leave your identity at that. You were wrong on the four year span between your two strings of commentary; no, it was not before we came out of the closet; no, you did not use pseudonyms; no, you weren’t banned; no you are not a valley girl; and yes we put you in wackety rants  for two comments … and “biblion” and “gmx” are prevocative to say the least. As for use of Siberia or Wackity Rants, our friend Con has straighten me out about that practice. It was also interesting that Ernie came back to the Cafe when you did, but that may be just a coincidence. As I said earlier, you are very entertaining and we like to be entertained. Readers sometime forget but the Cafe never forgets.

During your last visit (a couple of years ago), I had the distinct feeling that you were on a mission on behalf of someone else more local or a particular group with a political agenda. As you are from another town, why would you lower yourself to unproductive activity like blogging in Woodstock. I sort of have the same feeling about your presence now. That’s okay though because we all have missions and/or agendas. The Cafe really runs on its own as it has since October 2005 so your contributions are welcomed within reason.

It’s been an education for me to read your commentary about election procedures. I haven’t the time to check anything you have said although you sound convincing. You are certainly in a position to speak with authority though. Maybe Bill will learn something during his tussle with you.

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.

Subtitle: An Ode to ‘Bill’

Fact: Frank Corden never would have been endorsed by the Woodstock Republicans (and by “Woodstock Republicans” I mean, the nominating committee of the RTC, the entire RTC, and a caucus of all Republicans) for the Board of Education this year. He would have been nominated if he were to pull a primary petition, force and win a primary and win that primary BUT Bill, let’s come back to reality, the odds of Frank prevailing in a Republican primary this past September were slim to none, you know it and I know it and so does Frank.

Fact: There are three methods by which to endorse candidate for municipal office, I quoted the statute word for word and you sit there insisting I’m wrong and that I’m “taking things out of context.” “Petitioning” is NOT a method of “endorsement.” Bill, you are obviously too stupid to realize this. Petitioning is a method by which one gets their name on a primary ballot which then determines who gets NOMINATED. Bill, this is why I’ve been asking you to please explain to me the difference between “endorsement” and “nomination” and unfortunately your obstinate attitude and refusal to do so has resulted in you making a complete ass out of yourself because you’ve proven you don’t know the key difference between those terms as they relate to candidates on the ballot.

Fact: Delegates for district and state conventions are chosen IN ACCORDANCE WITH LOCAL PARTY RULES which varies from town to town, some do it by Town Committee and others by caucus. If you don’t believe me Bill, start looking in the legal notice section this month and you will see MANY towns posting legal notices for party caucuses that will be held to “endorse delegates for state and district conventions.” The window for towns to hold those caucuses this year is between March 23rd and March 30th and the legal notices need to be in at least five days before that. Tell ya what Bill, I’ll scan one and email it to the admin who will post it for all to see how wrong you are. (more…)

Brownie, Conservative judges are the ones who vindicate corporations over the working guy. Take the recent court ruling on corporate campaign contributions and of course, how can we forget eminent domain? Liberalism looks out for everyone equally and I see no harm in that. Everyone deserves a fair trial and are innocent before proven guilty. I wish the sanctimonious religious right acted in such a Christian fashion.

Woodstock Valley Girl, the reason our economy is in the tank is because of capitalistic greed, not jealous liberals. I could care less about the rich. I just want to live simply and peacefully in a country where the working class is treated fairly. Before you start stereotyping people you should do some volunteer work. There are a lot of very good decent people that are on welfare. Not everyone is as fortunate as you (nor as ignorant, thank god).

Mr. Wetzel, I don’t want anything from anybody else, but I am willing to contribute to the welfare of a society so that it remains civilized, it treats people fairly, and provides safety nets for people. It seems to me that you don’t care about any of these things. It seems to me like you would prefer to live in a stressed out dog-eat-dog world where the rich get richer by exploiting the rest of us while you rationalize this behavior by pretending that you are above it all. Well, someday you might not be. You should try doing some volunteer work and maybe you will see how the other half lives.

It is a slow day in the East Texas town of Madisonville.  It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted.  Times are tough, everybody is in debt and everybody lives on credit.  

On this particular day a rich tourist from the East is driving through town.  

He enters the only hotel in the sleepy town and lays a hundred dollar bill on the desk, stating that he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.  As soon as the man walks up the stairs, the hotel proprietor takes the hundred dollar bill  and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.  

The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to pay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer then takes the $100 and heads off to pay  his debt to the supplier of feed and fuel.  The guy at the Farmer’s Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has lately had to offer her “services” on credit.  The hooker runs to the hotel and gives the $100 to the hotel proprietor to  pay for the rooms that she had rented when she brought clients to his establishment.   

The hotel proprietor then lays the $100 bill back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.  At that moment the traveler from the East walks back down the stairs after completing his inspection of the rooms.  He picks up the $100 bill and says that the rooms are not satisfactory. He  then pockets the money, walks out the door and leaves town. 

No one earned anything.  But the whole town is now out of debt, looking to the future with a lot of optimism.

What ever liberal wrote this nonsense (below) must be smoking some good stuff. You’re revisionist history is incredible. Our country has been marching toward socialism/communism since the early 1900’s. The American public educated by our government schools has no basis of history, economics or common sense. They keep voting for liberals/progressives and when it comes time to pay for “services” of government they don’t want to pay taxes. So our government has resorted to borrowing to finance these communist programs and now the bill is coming due. There are plenty of fingerprints at the scene of this crime, you can blame Republicans or Democrats, take your pick. What is really wrong with America is her people. The public is uninformed, uneducated and doesn’t care what happens as long as they can live the good life on borrowed money. Our fiscal and monetary policy of the last 30 years is disgusting and mainly implemented by the Honorable Alan Greenspan. America is bankrupt financially and morally. We are in another Great Depression right now and the public is too stupid to realize it. They still believe, ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC etc. The TARP and Stimulus programs are just throwing gasoline on the fire. I love it when everybody says our great grandchilren will pay the bill.  How stupid are you? The bill is coming due now and over the next 10 years everyone is going to pay by living in poverty. The only consolation I have is that the Baby Boomers, the most undisciplined, immoral, fiscally irresponsible generation is going to get the brunt end of it. Couldn’t happen to a bigger group of idiots, morons I mean.

This (below) is a good summary of our political economy in my opinion. I have a few relative nitpicks.

Demographic trends as the echo generation attempts to support the larger retiring baby boom generation has greatly aggravated the entitlement financing problem. The solution will inevitably involve means=testing these programs on both the revenue and expenditure sides as with Greenspan’s Social Security commission in the 1980’s. Incremental adjustments to actuarial assumptions compound over time to create large savings.

The “green revolution” in American agriculture was spawned by government research that responded to the terrible climactic conditions (”Dust Bowl”) as well as the financial crisis in the agricultural industry. In the words of one defender of these programs “When Roosevelt took office, our country could not feed itself; by the end of his administration we were feeding the world”. However, with the green revolution spreading globally, the rest of the world is now largely feeding itself, and so it is long past time to adapt to the new realities of the agricultural economy.

It was Jimmy Carter who replaced Arthur Burns at the Federal Reserve with the intention of getting the money supply under control, as the rapid expansion of the consumer credit system (sound familiar?) in the 1970’s had expanded credit beyond the traditional definition of M-1 (i.e., cash) in the economy and, along with the financing of entitlement and military expenditures, created the persistent, stubborn inflation pattern of the 1970’s, accompanied by structural shifts in the economy (i.e., decline of manufacturing) that created a co-incidental persistent unemployment problem. (more…)

The four biggest institutions that haven’t paid back their TARP money include only one bank, Citigroup; the other three are Chrysler, General Motors, and AIG. Six of the ‘Big 7′ banks have paid back their TARP funds, and the government has made about 15% on those investments.

Also I would blame the Great Recession, at least in the immediate moment, on two factors - the big push for housing and specifically FNMA and FHMLC, which have been around since the 1970’s, and the lack of regulation in the derivatives markets, specifically credit default swaps and their various offspring. There are many other underlying causes, many of which the writer mentions.

The comments on Keynes and the misapplication of his writings was excellent and right on the money. The paragraph that begins ‘While the system is so labyrinthine as to be impenetrable…’ may be the best summary of those things that economists agree on that I’ve seen.”

by Anonymous 

Farm underwriting is no news. It originated in the Great Depression — along with Social Security, the w.p.a., the c.c.c., etc. — when family farms were folding right and left and vast numbers were unemployed.  

The idea originated as social programs to help the most desperately unemployed and poor, though it would mean deficit spending. Previously deficit spending had happened only in wartime. The idea of peace-time deficits originated in the theory of British economist John Maynard Keynes, who advocated that — if a nation operated with a balanced budget or a modest surplus in flush times — a depression could be abbreviated if a government spent into debt to generate jobs, stimulate industry, and get money flowing again … provided they afterwards paid back their debt when stability returned. Taking a chance, the US adopted this policy and launched small programs, of rather modest impact given the depth of the depression (though those who found work through government programs were grateful, and a lot of lasting public works were accomplished). But it was massive deficit spending required by World War II that turned out to be the boost that jump-started the economy, proving Keynes to be correct that government spending could bring a country out of economic depression. But anyone who says today’s cumulative debt is the result of Keynsian economic theory is either ignorant of — or willfully ignoring — his full argument that presumes paying off debt in prosperous times.   

Most Depression-era programs were discontinued in time, with the exception of Social Security, a variety of farm aid programs, and (indirectly) veterans’ benefits. In time, with broad changes in American public conscience toward poverty and racism, Johnson’s Great Society Programs were added in — aid to dependent children, head start, medicare, etc., some of them (welfare) replacing old state-run poor-relief programs. In time it got out of whack and expensive. Starting around the end of the Vietnam War the national debt grew and was not repaid. More and more programs were added, mostly with good intent, but the number of people qualifying for support (”entitlement”) kept growing too. 

As recently as the 1950s Republicans were socially liberal and fiscally conservative. Recall that for a brief moment both the Democrats and Republicans considered Eisenhower as their candidate. But from Reagan onward these stances were reversed, as the party sold its soul to evangelicals to buy their votes (though in fact harshly indifferent to evangelical social causes), and became the party socially rabid and fiscally irresponsible. Most of the current national debt has been accumulated since then, the vast majority of it (but not all) under Republican administrations and congresses, through a combination of increasing debt (through entitlement programs and wars) and simultaneous cuts in taxes. That’s a little bit like quitting your job and going on a spending spree. Recall that almost the only balanced budget we’ve seen since Eisenhower was under Clinton’s second term. (By the way, the annual deficit and cumulative debt are not the same as international balance of trade).

Reagan does get legitimate credit for taking some really unpleasant steps to stabilize the economic mess that had been taking shape since Nixon’s era; he allowed the Federal Reserve Bank to adopt controls on quantities of cash awash in the market place. It was painful but it worked. Reagan also set in motion the consecutive tax cuts and deregulation that would come back to bite us all later. His party continued with deregulation and tax cuts for the next thirty years. Clinton gets a share of blame for signing some legislation passed by the Gingrich Congress (pressing Ginnie Mae to extend mortgage credit to people who really weren’t qualified). Bush II’s tax cuts combined with his puzzling war in Iraq added immensely to cumulative national debt. With these expenses and still more tax cuts, annual revenue fell ever shorter of annual expenditures. The end-of-year debt just keeps getting rolled over into cumulative debt that requires interest payments. If the day comes that interest payment (”servicing the debt”) equals or exceeds revenue, we’ll see a collapse that will make the Great Depression will look like a Sunday school picnic. If Reagan wanted to “starve the beast” of Big Government… we may be seeing the beginning of it now.

Meanwhile, in the Reagan spirit, his party set about de-regulating banking, investment, and other financial industries because they (correctly) saw that there was great growth possible with removal of these barriers. These regulations had been put in place after the Great Depression. For a reason. You will recall that the first signal that deregulation wasn’t such a great idea was the collapse of numerous Savings and Loan banks just as Reagan wound up his career and passed the torch to Bush I. Their party may have led the stampede for deregulation, but they probably weren’t alone in voting for it; it would be instructive to see a vote-by-vote tally of every deregulation vote in congress since 1980. (more…)

Because of the Title to this main Comment, I’d like to stick to that subject: What exactly about the comment is “…just plain a lot of baloney, double-talk and whining…” as your comment had stated about “most” of Frank’s primary comment? A lot of us readers do actually think for ourselves, but you must back up your assertions like everyone else.

This is NOT a pattern of everyone ganging up on you because we disagree - it’s about making completely unsubstantiated, empty assertions about the merits of a Comment. We think for ourselves and require strong back up if a comment is to be taken seriously.

Whenever I make critical comments on certain other websites, I’m often set upon first by a Haughty Admin, then followed by most readers - however, those comments are almost always immature insults, personal attacks which have nothing to do with the merits of my comment or any of my assertions in a ‘point-counterpoint’ type back and forth. All to say, you may feel similarly ’set upon’, but you won’t be insulted by me nor will I make any personal attacks. ‘Ad Hominem’ may be over-used, but does describe much of it: “…an argument which links the validity of a premise to a characteristic or belief of the person advocating the premise.”

I’m asking for an argument from you ‘which links the validity of a premise’ to the actual subject matter and proves it out - I’m not linking anything to your apparent dislike/vindictiveness toward Frank C. (more…)

On Sunday February 28th, 1988, Becki and I drove up to the Hyatt at North Lake Tahoe and spent the night at the slots ’till about 2 AM. The next day, Leap Day, we drove over to Carson City NV. We found the local court house and a  parking place with a meter that still had 40 minutes on it. There was no line at the wedding license desk so we stepped right up, paid 15 bucks, and headed back to our car with license in hand. Seeing that we still had  about 25 minutes left on the meter, we decided to take a stroll a block or two down to the wedding chapel shown below. We knocked on the door and were met with a waft of chicken soup as the door opened up. The owner of the chapel was standing at the door along with her toddler son with broken leg in a cast, and he also seemed a little agitated by the situation. She ushered us in saying that she would call the minister who lived a few minutes away. During that few minutes she insisted in showing us the three optional rooms that were available for our marriage. All the while, as we toured the establishment, we insisted that we weren’t interested in an elaborate wedding - we wanted the $20 version plus $5 for the witness. So this was settled as the minister arrived. I hardly remember the ceremony, but after all, our life together had been splendid already. We thanked all for attending our wedding and headed back to our car. The meter was barely out of time. So we headed back to Tahoe and then on to Palo Alto to finish an otherwise typical spring day (where spring arrives in January and February).

WVG, you are just guessing on election results. I know plenty of republicans who would have voted for him (Corden), myself included. Heck, I’ll draw some better conclusions than that from the past races.

1) If Mr. Rosendahl ran that election, he would have lost badly, perhaps worse than Mr. Richardson. A lot of people were tired of his attacks. That was evidenced in the extraordinarily low vote totals that his allies got.

2) If Mr. Powers ran against anyone else, he would have also gotten the same number of votes as Mr Richardson. He got less than 50% of the vote running against himself.

3) If Mr. Corden ran in the general election, he would have won. Pretty clear from the June results.

Given the recent election results, it is clear that the majority supported his actions and the board’s.

Anyways, I’d much rather be talking about the future than debating whether someone could have gotten through a primary when they chose not to run. That is pretty old news.

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

Mariah with (another Academy girl) Stephanie Corey’s son Nathan last summer.

I’m sitting in the airport waiting for my flight home to Virginia, but I hate leaving California. A very large part of me wants to stay out here, move out here, to live near my family. But leaving Virginia would be hard as well.  I feel really torn. I think the solution will be to come live out here for a few months at some point, find a job, just to see if this is where I need to be.

I think the hardest part of not being in California is not being able to watch Chris and Hannah grow up (younger cousins).  While I was here I got to go to Hannah’s gymnastic practice and Chris’ baseball games, I wish I could go every day! Hannah is so talented. I know that when it comes to your own family its hard to see them not being the best, but I truly think that with Hannah’s raw talent and dedication to what she is doing already (she is only 9 years old) she could go very far with it. And if you know me at all, you know my addiction to baseball. Chris seems to really like it. I think it would be fun to work with his teams.

Boy do I miss baseball. I moved to Virginia to try to get further in baseball, to do something to accomplish my dreams. Unfortunately, living expenses got in the way of my dreams. You have to have a job to pay for food; unfortunately that job takes up so much of my time. And now I have been away from baseball for two years. I almost feel like I’m setting myself up for failure, how can I succeed in baseball if I’m not working in baseball. (more…)

As illustration of your point I recall one particular FOI Demand Action which I believe went all the way in the administrative process and, because it was so broad, burdened a lot of employees to search carefully in order to comply with a demand to basically produce ‘any & all communication to, from or among [Name, X, Y & Z], including emails, notes, blogs, etc. for X Months’ - and compliance demands production of every scrap, so imagine each employees tedious and time-consuming efforts on just the email ‘trees’ alone - Employees who had to stop working at their actual job and labor on this matter, all paid for on the Taxpayer’s dime.

As far as I could tell, the only purported purpose of the FOI Demand was the implementation of Meeting Agendas that would be comprehensive, transparent and allow no unfair surprises. Seems Fair; the FOI Demand did not, nor did it seem suited to achieve that end.

I don’t know if the parties ever just sat down and talked; I don’t believe that direct request regarding Agenda changes was ever made; nor did I ever hear of ANY kind of offer of informal meeting; nor of any compromise; or Alternative Dispute Resolution; or efforts to narrow matters to keep costs down and ensure that the FOI Demand language limited itself to truly germane material. There was an atmosphere of a stubborn stand-off on both sides, but only one side initiated the matter and seemed to a lot of us to have had a stern and stubborn lesson to teach (at our expense). (more…)

Contact: Larry Perosino
860/240-0144

Kevin: Thanks for taking the time to present an example of the kind of rational decision making that characterizes the administration and the Board of Education in general and Dr. Baran in particular. Though you can disagree on the numbers that one applies in any of these sorts of decisions, the structured process assures that when you do settle on representative/realistic numbers you are likely to arrive on a sound course of action.

Unfortunately, as with any pre-emptive action, you can’t tell how things would have turned out if you had acted differently. The likes of Shultz, Wholean and Powers will be just as quick to criticize Dr. Baran for not seeking an opinion if a situation escalates to a grievance, regardless of the outcome.

Another point you alluded to but didn’t expand on was the “opportunity cost”. There are at least two categories of opportunity cost here. First, the money that is spent on the legal advice helps provide (but not guarantee) a deterent to future costs. The costs of that grievance or litigation is the difference between having and not having a spring sport, or between having and not having public speaking or other comparable after school program. Spending $62 for a bit of insurance against losing one of those after school programs makes great sense. (more…)

A response to the uninformed musings of Wholean, Powers, and Shultz.

by Kevin 

I think it is important to know what is behind these numbers before coming to any conclusions. I understand that it is normal that when people don’t know the context of something they tend to make one up. I do happen to have some visibility into these items so I thought I’d put a little context around them.

As I understand it the $62.50 was for the administration changing a student’s grade that they thought was incorrect against the wishes of a teacher. In such a case they really have two choices; 1) they can leave it alone but that’s problematic when they feel it is to the student’s detriment (our raison d’etre) 2) attempt to change it against the teacher’s wishes. As I understand it discussion had already happened and the administration wanted to move forward with the second option because that’s what they believed was in the student’s best interest (I have no visibility into the facts behind the grade so I have no way to know who was “right” or “wrong” so please don’t read that in).

If you look through the legal bills they pulled you will see what even a relatively inexpensive union grievance can cost in legal bills, not to mention time and focus of the administrative staff. Spending $62.50 up front so both sides understand the legal authority granted to each group is comparatively minor insurance to preempt a possible grievance.

This gets back to what I’ve been talking about quite a lot lately. The difference between understanding long term vs. short term costs. I’m going to explain a little of the math behind this using some admittedly arbitrary numbers. I’m not suggesting that the administration is making decision trees for all of their decisions but this does illustrate to importance of considering the full costs of the decisions we make in many different contexts.

For the sake of argument let’s say that the cost of an average union grievance is $5000 in legal bills, time and energy (the opportunity cost of what we could be doing other than a union grievance, this is much more costly than the obvious legal bills). Let’s also say for the sake of argument that the average legal consultation is $100. (more…)

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. (more…)

 2/5/2010 1:12 PM Margaret Wholean wrote:
Why do we pay our administrators so much money if they have to constantly ask for legal advice on how to perform their job and how to deal with daily issues? Why do they need to receive strategy advice from the attorneys on so many of the issues? Don’t they know the right thing to do?
2/5/2010 1:27 PM Admin (e.g. Craig Powers) wrote:
A very good point Margie, and a question more citizens and parents should be asking, in my opinion.
2/5/2010 4:52 PM A Taxpayer wrote:
I think Margaret’s question is a good one as well. In many ways I don’t blame our BOE and Superintendent for seeking legal consult. We not only live in a litigious society, but the rules that govern it have become increasingly complex. I don’t think anyone can keep current with all of its laws. However, that being said, if local boards and administrators lose their efficacy and strength as a result, then perhaps there is no reason to continue with the same structure. Perhaps regionalization of local offices and administrators should be considered-not only as a matter of practicality, but also as a matter of cost savings. If an administrator’s role has become merely one of a legal go-between, then we need to ask ourselves if they are they really worth their salary. For instance, perhaps there should be one Superintendent of schools for all the Academy sending towns.
2/5/2010 7:47 PM Admin (e.g. Craig Powers) wrote:
Tax, I don’t disagree with all you have said; however, I have to ask myself what would be the reason that the adminstration would ask what their authority is to override a teacher’s grade? Is there a problem with the teacher? Were they trying to appease parents? There doesn’t seem to be a good answer. Moreover, why would Frank be asking about PAC contributions? It would appear that he was asking on behalf of the ‘Attack PAC’- this is public money we are talking about and I don’t care if it’s a nickel- IT IS WRONG! Just a couple of small examples, but goes to the core of the issue which is there is something systemically very wrong with our school system and it starts at the top.
2/8/2010 2:48 PM Preston Shultz wrote:
People do not sue at the drop of a hat. People sue when they are frustrated to the maximum. Every time anything comes up, he calls the lawyers- every day.
 
An example of such is calling the lawyer rather than a parent that was not going to allow their child to be detained after school. Shouldn’t the first call be made to the parent to engage in a dialog? Other times when it comes to SPED and  IEP’s and PPT’s where the parents are supposed to be equal in the process on educational decisions be made for their child, you see in the legal bills that each “strategy” is being scripted by Shipman. If the parents are equal partners then no one needs an attorney much less using one that the parents do not know about.
 
Why do you think he is taking legal strategy on the bus drivers , the teachers, the custodians…He is not a people person and he has a real problem when it comes to speaking the truth.

Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bzcDDtLQiY  

I did my taxes this week … always ahead of the game. Usually I owe a little bit to the Feds and receive quite a bit back from the state which off-sets Federal taxes owed and the cost of heating oil in February and March. I did notice that very little federal taxes had been withheld from Becki’s lower pay.

As usual I received a goodly sum back from the state but was wacked by the Feds. Then I recalled that the Feds had reduced withholding requirements to encourage spending and employers automatically implimented this stimulus. For those out of work in the last year, reduced withholding was irrelevant. For those of us that received a slightly larger take-home pay as a result of this stimulus, this seemed inconsequential. But for the overall economy, lower withholding resulted in several billion dollars being put back into circulation.

Frankly I never considered the ramifications of lower withholding until I found out that I owed the Feds a little more than $2700 with a small fine added in.  It would not surprise me if most of the employed did nothing about their withholding a year ago and are now in shock because of what they owe the Feds.

While reduction of withholding may have stimulated the economy last year, what impact will this measure have on our national economy this year?

Here is the beginning of an article (below) on this system that is already in place in Vermont. See the original article . Also here is another article on “Cow Power“. Dave Brown alerted us to these two articles.

A third article in the Norwich Bull today provides some details about the Miller proposal. The Millers have 1000 cows and feel that they can generate electrical energy in excess of their own usage from this methane digester system. Imagine all dairy farms in Woodstock doing this to help their profitability.

From the first article: “Like many top dairy producers in Vermont, Brian and Bill Rowell attribute their success in large part to their ability to think outside the box to maximize available resources to maximize profits. Cow comfort ranks high on their agenda, as does communicating effectively with their 15 fulltime employees and using sustainable practices to protect the environment and preserve the land for future generations.

The owners of Green Mountain Dairy LLC, a 1,050-cow operation in Sheldon, Vt., also embrace changing technologies to improve their herd average and increase revenue from their cows beyond what they get for their milk. Installation of an anaerobic methane digester system two years ago enables them to convert manure produced on the farm into renewable energy. The Rowells milk 900 cows on a twice daily milking schedule in a double-15 milking parlor, shipping their milk to the St. Albans Cooperative Creamery…”

One of our favorite activities in San Francisco was, and still is, walking the Golden Gate Bridge (Becki is there this week). Whenever my kids who lived in Odessa TX would visit, we would make a point of spending a day in San Francisco and having a date with the Bridge.
(click to enlarge the small pictures)

In May of 1987, I noticed that the 50th anniversary of the bridge was going to be celebrated in the evening with a spectacular fireworks display and a concert at Chrissey Field (near the Presidio) with the bridge lit up in full view for the ocassion. So Becki and I reserved a room at the Stanford Court on Nob Hill (our favorite hotel in SF) for the nights before and after the event. Six months earlier we had spent 5 days at the Court as the guest of Ryoichi Sasakawa, a billionaire Japanese industrialist who was visiting Linus Pauling.

We heard there was going to be a bridge walk starting at 6 AM on Sunday when the bridge would be blocked off to cars. So we got up early to take a cab over to the bridge because of our uncertainty about parking. Becki stood at one block corner and I went to the next corner to hail a cab; but there were no cabs to be found. Then another fellow showed up at my corner and we discussed the surprising fact that there were no cabs. I said to him that I have a car but I’m not sure where I would park. He responded that he was a VIP and had parking tickets for the ocassion. So his family of four and Becki and I piled into my 4-cylinder Mustang, which barely made it up to the top of Nob Hill, to head over to the bridge.

When we got to the parking area next to the bridge, we realized why there were no cabs. Everyone in San Francisco was taking a cab to the bridge. The organizers of the bridge walk had grossly under-estimated the appeal of the ocassion. Several hundred thousand showed up. Becki took the picture below of shadowy figures at about 6AM entering onto the bridge at sunrise.

We were two of the first to make it to the center of the bridge. That’s me on the left making some wisecrack to Becki. Standing next to me is the son of my VIP friend who was representing Bethlehem Steel which provided the steel for construction of the bridge. That family had never been to San Francisco or seen homosexuals before and were concerned about what they might catch. So they kept close to us thinking that we would offer them some protection. That’s Becki below with the hills of Marin County in the background before the crush. As you can see we weren’t crowded at the center at the beginning. We were oblivious of the happening that was developing. Little did we kow that we would be at the center of the bridge until mid-afternoon. A huge crowd was marching toward the center from behind us and in front of us from the Sausalito side. (more…)

On November 16th in the year 1993, Mariah, her dog Lickity, and her mom and dad drove out of Palo Alto CA on their extended tour across the nation and back. Mariah had expressed the desire to see her Granny June and Grampy Peter in Woodstock CT and other friends and relatives scattered around the country. She also wished to drop in on Bill and Hillary at the White House. Thus we embarked (pardon the pun) on a four-week road trip chronicled here.

(click pictures below to enlarge)

We drove down through southern CA by Bakersfield and Barstow to Kingman AZ - then down past Tuscon and into NM to Las Cruces - then to El Paso TX to our first destination, Odessa TX. We arrived in Odessa on the eve of Nov 18th in time to see big sister Elizabeth (16 yrs old) inducted into the National Honor Society. Eliz obviously inherited her dad’s intelligence . Unfortunately she also shares with her dad the accomplishment of totalling the family car in her first year of driving.

The following night Elizabeth, Mariah, and mom and dad attended the way off-Broadway production of “Gloweena” staring Mariah’s other sister, Christina (13 yrs old). Christina played a budding holyhock in the production. The musical ended dramatically with Mariah entering stage-left to join her sister on stage. At that point Mariah’s parents adopted anonymity until the entire audience had left the theater. Several years later, as a senior at Odessa High, Christina went to the Texas state finals as the lead in her acting troup only to lose because they went over the time limit. Christina’s success is chronicled in “Friday Night Lights” in the left side-bar.

The next day, Saturday, Mariah, Lickety, and her mom and dad drove to San Angelo TX to see her brother Drew and his soccer team play the arch rival Purple Gang in a soccer tournament. After the game which ended tragically, we took Drew (left) and his teammate and mother to lunch. At this point, we sadly said good-bye to Drew and drove on to Irving TX near Dallas. A few years later brother Drew graduated from Plano High with the graduation ceremony taking place in Texas stadium where the Dallas Cowboys played.

The main event in Irving was Mariah having a much need bath with cousins Emily and Michael while mom and dad visited with Auntie Julie since uncle Andy was away on business in Colorado.
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We saw cotton growing from CA to Tennessee. Mariah finally got to walk in a cotton patch (left) in western TN. After we got back into the car Mariah memorialized this experience with this illustration (right).
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We then drove to Rowayton CT about 40 miles up the Long Island Sound. Dad grew up in Rowayton which is a wonderful beach town in Fairfield County. We stayed with auntie Phoebe and cousin Danielle. During this stay Mariah learned several new methods of impishness from cousin Danielle. Danielle later graduated from Woodstock Academy and Eastern CT State.
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I spent today at the WES attending both sessions of the 2010 Winter Olympics. I had not had a chance to attend them before, although my children have participated in prior years. I just have to commend the PE teacher, Mr. Lazur. No wonder he’s Woodstock’s Teacher of the Year. Based on what I saw today, I’d say that distinction is long overdue and richly deserved - and then some. Every event in the winter Olympiad was represented. The day was complete with opening and closing ceremonies, pop quiz questions about the different events, and the children even learned about several countries and their respective flags. There was even an Olympic torch to be lit at the opening cermony and extinguished at the closing ceremony with an explanation about the tradition of the torch. I can’t even imagine the amount of planning and creativity that’s required to develop such a day for the children. I would bet very few elementary school children are treated to such a fun way to learn about a historical sporting event and the other nations of the world that also participate. Amazing doesn’t even begin to describe what I enjoyed seeing the children actively learn about today.

So a huge heartfelt thanks to Mr. Lazur and to all of the parents and staff who also volunteered their time helping the children at each sporting event station. What a wonderful cultural and physical fitness experience for our kids!

I had my first desk top computer in 1985 when I was a researcher at the Pauling Institute in Palo Alto CA. I first used the Internet in 1995 at the Air Force Academy where I was on the faculty for a year. Boy, have things changed since then … not to mention the Great Recession and Obama. So it’s no surprise that the cheese keeps moving and we’re continually adapting to change at what seems to be an ever accelerating rate. Likewise the blogosphere has been evolving with the emergence of newspaper and media blogs, Facebook and Tweeting. And, we do not want the Café to be perceived as left-wing or right-wing making it hard to fit into the statewide and national blogs – we just want to be local and have primarily local interest.

The town of Woodstock has also changed for the better over the last few years. Now we have Alan Walker doing a fine job as First Selectman, a happier town hall, and happier town as well. Then, there’s the Villager which has improved its reporting with the fine work of Editor Stephanie Jarvis and ace reporter Matt Sanderson. Even the Reminder has cleaned up its act. And, the Green Team is transforming our local environment. Also, Anthony Walker has taken control of the BOE and curtailed their monthly newsletters. Finally certain negative types have been muted or have crawled back into their caves. So, the harsh reality is that we don’t have as much to talk about at the Café based on our past model. Nevertheless, our readership is still high even though we have little to complain about.

I learned recently that the ‘leading’ blog in Connecticut, CT Local Politics, has bitten the dust and many other older blogs have dried up. Even my friend Parlin who had a nationally recognized blog gave it up because he “got tired of talking to idiots”. Other more local blogs like the Pomfret Voice, Free Norwich, and the Canterbury blog closed down, and other local blogs that tried to start up just couldn’t get traction.  So, the Café may be the longest standing Connecticut blog that’s still truckin’ (I don’t have time to investigate this, though).

Of course, if something bad happens locally then we will jump all over it. And we still want to encourage the Café faithful to contribute in the same way they have in the past if they wish.

Becki and I see a need to change and, therefore, we would like to shift direction of the Café … just a little bit. We would like to be more upbeat. We would like to have more story-telling about our and your life experiences. It doesn’t matter if some aren’t interested. Our lives have changed dramatically over the last eight months leading us to experiment with two other blogs that for the time being will remain nameless. We’ve found great satisfaction in these other blogs that serve a real purpose in our lives and others. We would like to make this truer for the Café even though we have always enjoyed the Café activity. We’ll see how this works for us with the next article that I am conjuring up entitled “Roadtrip to Woodstock” . 

I thought that the meeting went very well. It was nice to see the new Headmaster of Woodstock Academy and I was glad that he saw the issue of Woodstock education funding as a mutual K-12 concern and not an “us vs. them” situation (WA vs. WPS). I asked a few questions and got some very solid answers. One is that the Woodstock Academy field expansion is on hold (pending some zoning and environmental issues) and will not impact this year’s education budget. Other concerns I had are longstanding problems that have haunted us and Ct. education funding for years, but nonetheless, are important to raise.

So pretty much the same old same old, but compounded by a terrible economy which will make for a “perfect storm”, as Headmaster Caron called it. As Kevin can attest, this year’s budget will thus be a tough one. The BOE will continue discussing spending priorities and budgeting strategies again on this Thursday’s meeting.

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

Unfortunately for supporters of Scott Brown I think because of several factors he is bound to disappoint or fail outright.

1) The pendulum always swings, it’s only the speed which changes - now it’s really moving fast. A month before election he had ‘no chance’, but Voters are fickle and demand instant gratification. This can all backfire on him - if Voters are that tough to predict and change so much so fast, what’s to prevent them from pouncing on him at first screw-up like they do with Sox players who fail?

2) More importantly, he represents something that is too big for him. That is, just like Sarah Palin, he rode to the national stage faster than most any national political figure - that is not an equation for success. He would have to be both brilliant and perfect just to live up to expectations and NOT fail. He’s neither (no one can be that perfect). Like Palin, he’ll have a lot of very smart journalists and ‘pundits’ intent on tripping him up - I would not want to be in that position. How can he win?

3) There is another team of smart and highly effective investigators who are ‘vetting’ him and his past. Again, I would not want that! Who would be comfortable - especially in this information age - knowing that every single aspect of your life and your past is under the most intense scrutiny literally in the world? The Party does not want to be surprised by some bad fact coming out; opponents would love it - BOTH have huge incentive to dig deep and find absolutely anything that exists. Again, only someone perfect could survive this.

Most Senators get to that position slowly and they learn the game through years and years of it, each year getting incrementally more challenging and both obstacles and rewards growing apace. Brown has arrived at ‘Year 12? without having gone through 12 years of ‘Senator School’ AND he is not someone like Obama who basically set out at age 3 to be President and knew what to do and what not to do.

Too much has been placed on Brown’s shoulders or coat-tails and he’s not the type to be able to handle it. November is 8 months away - that is 10 times as much Time that Brown needed to go from obscure little fish in little pond to Hero for an hour. Voters, with their tiny attention span, will turn away from him in droves and in exactly the fashion with which they turned TO him…

Thanks Con, We will heed your advice. What you say below regarding Taxpayer’s behavior is bothersome to the admins who enter the Cafe more than anyone else. It’s come down to the fact that when readers see Taxpayer’s obnoxious statements, they just pass over them with out reading them. Unfortunately, we have to read them for liability sake. Taxpayer submitted a long winded rant which he asked me not to post. This meant that we were relieved of the responsibility of having to read it. Since he said not to post it, it’s gone. You’ve said everything that is needed to be said below. Admin

To Admin, I object to your proposed action regarding Tax - you state: ” (In your typical back handed way you are mis-characterizing people. Keep it up and you will no longer have a voice at the Cafe. Admin)” [Parenthesis are sic]

It may well be that Tax mis-characterizes people, misquotes statements and otherwise manipulates the truth, but what you threaten smacks of prior restraint and I find THAT far, far more objectionable to anything Tax can offer. Of course, the answer to what Tax is accused of is to EXPOSE his actions at every turn - to challenge Tax relentlessly if he is doing any of those things. By doing so, it is the ‘free exchange of ideas’ which will expose him, punish and correct him because his credibility will drop, his ’standing’ will diminish like the shrinking man and soon his comments will not be taken seriously by ANYONE. Allow us to take care of it. (more…)

I’ve for many years struggled with a similar question (to Newcomer), how to get people to the polls? I believe that a democracy works best when the full measure of the people express their will. I don’t think that has to have anything at all to do with political parties, indeed I have never been a great fan of them.

I occasionally think on the Australian system of compulsory voting. They may not be able to force anyone to submit a valid ballot, but they have to show up at the polls. Part of me thinks this is a great thing for democracy. But the other part, the one based in strong civil libertarianism, says “Nuts to that!”

I’m left with the real question of how do we bring people to the polls to express their views? As many as we can. I’m still working on that one but no one else has it figured out either… If you come out and vote, you’re alright in my book. I know Taxpayer does and I bet we don’t always vote the same but his voting makes him OK in my book too despite our other disagreements. But I don’t think any particular party affiliation is nessesary.

I do think there is the reality that in order to be elected to any type of high office that you most likely will need to be a member of a party and Mr. Brown saw that. Even at our town level it is the town committee’s that select the people that have the best chance of winning. So in that I can see Taxpayer’s point. But at the end of the day I’m just happy to see people come to the polls and become involved, party affiliation not required.

In less than four years my service to the town will be over; you can always run for my seat then But even if you don’t that’s OK, I just hope that you continue to make your voice heard, and of course vote. I’m 100% for my political opponents voting, in fact the true test of a democracy is to let them speak and all of us decide who is right. I’ll of course be shouting out that I think they are wrong all the way…

Thanks,

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 table that shows where most of the visitors came from shows a large Russian contingent. While we can dismiss these visitors as being Woodstock relevant, they are turning pages and their page turns are not due to spam (which is tallied separately as “non-viewing”). Almost 40,000 of the 72,000 page turns in January came from the USA (mostly CT); but we have visitors from most of the countries of the world accounting for the other 32,000 page turns.

We are getting referrals from non-search engine URLs like Rich Green’s page at the Hartford Courant and other CT websites such as CT Local Politics. Most of our visitors are from the US and Connecticut, but visitors come from other parts of the country to see what’s happening in Woodstock, including my son Drew in Dallas and Mariah in Virginia Beach. Then, of course, there’s the Aussie who went back to Australia and the Horse eater in southern France.

Internet traffic has declined to blogs over that last year. This is a general phenomenon not exclusive to the Cafe. As you can see in the lower set of graphs, total page turns have been steady for the last ten months with the exception of a busy June 2009 because of the referendums. Five pages is the average per visit but >1000 are turning 6 pages per visit.

I am continually amazed by the stability of Cafe visitation. If the Russians, Germans, Canadians, and others are turning pages, then I’m okay with that; but it’s the Woodstockians and surrounding communities that matter the most and we will never forget this!

Your first statement (in your post #38) summarizing how I feel about this is a bit off (this is to Taxpayer). On a National level, I do feel that the political parties have separated themselves from the people they are supposed to represent. However, your second thought is not my conclusion about this; namely that “therefore the people can somehow be vanquished from taking any responsibility for their government.” This is an incorrect characterization about my position on this. In fact, I feel completely that the opposite is true. Because there is such a disconnect between the political parties and society at large, the people who are not part of this machine must come together collectively to exert their influence upon their elected officials and the political parties whom those officials represent.

Politicians like to tell us all about how they represent us when they are campaigning. But then they get into office and owe their party and so many special interests favors for getting them elected that the people end up at the bottom of the totem pole. The people need to stop tolerating this. We need to stop allowing our elected officials to put our interests last instead of first. And, no, I do not have much confidence that this can be done from the inside out (from within a political party). It’s too late for that. Both parties have grown too wealthy and too powerful and they are now locked in a power struggle with one another. This can only be done at the grass roots level, in my opinion.

You mentioned the tea party movement in a different post elsewhere in this thread. I think that movement needs to exercise caution at this point. (more…)

from John 

I read with some amusement Anthony Walker’s Letter to the Editor of the Villager (January 29th) entitled “Walker:Education board introduces new initiatives.” But according to Walker, he’s pretty much acting on his own by writing the story in this egocentric way.

The first paragraph

…I wanted to write the town… (what about the rest of the Board)
…I was elected to the Board… (uncontested)
…I was elected chairman… (there’s another story here that I won’t go into because it would embarrass another board member)

paragraph 2:

“…I first wanted to tell everyone…” (goes without saying)
“…I have taken several steps…” (are these revolutionary?)

paragraph 3:

“…comments I heard repeatedly…” (probably from the same nay sayer minority group that repeatedly attacked and sued the BOE over the last few years).

paragragh 4:

“…I have taken…to re-engineer…” (engineering citizen participation? this will be interesting to see and hear)

“…I will also add…one additional citizen’s participation…” (this will be interesting - hopefully Powers will be taping)

paragraph 5:

“…I have taken in my role as Chairman…” (one man show?)

“…I have modified two of them (subcomittees) and created a new one…” (weren’t you in favor of less members and shorter term lengths - that referendum you lost)

paragraph 6: no “I”s

paragragh 7:

“…I felt it was important…” (what about other board members?)

paragraph 8:

“…I felt that this was…much needed…” (maybe the board should expand its size)

paragraph 9 and10:

How gracious. There were some things that the board did together (or is he just acknowledging that these other members exist).

paragraph 11:

“…I wanted to briefly mention…” (re: the $19,000 windfall from the State)

“…I encourage you to attend…” (to hear about progress in securing this 0.1% of the budget)

last paragraph:

“…excited…as I am…and that I see you…” (I think the rest of the board could also claim this)

See the History of Bowen’s Garage at http://www.bowensgarageinc.com/history.html 

Their dealership was sold to Oliver Bowen by Henry Ford himself!

Today there’s an article in the Norwich Bull by reporter Tom Chiari about an initiative in Eastford to develop zoning regulations. It will be interesting to listen to the dialog between those for and against adopting regulations in Eastford which is one of only two towns in CT that has NONE.

From the Bull article: ‘ “It’s something that the citizens found important,” said Lee, who also helped draft the Plan of Conservation and Development.  “As one of only two towns in the state (without zoning), we’re pretty vulnerable without it.” ‘

It’s also interesting to hear the opinion of Arline Bowen (84 year old daughter in-law of matriarch Gertrude Bowen) because she is a delightful woman and a distant relative of mine. 

She is quoted in the article as saying ‘ “I’m comfortable with the way things are,” she said. Bowen said people in town are protective of their right to do what they want with their property. “I just hope the people on the zoning board think hard before they make their decision” ‘. Arline’s opinion reflects the views of many of the longtime landowners and farmers in Woodstock.

My great aunt Gertrude was half sister (by a different mother) to my father’s father and they grew up in Spencer MA, not too far into MA from Woodstock. Gertrude Leavitt married Oliver Bowen and moved to Eastford in the early 1930’s (I believe) to establish Bowen’s Garage - not the oldest, but one of the oldest still-in-business Ford dealerships in the country. Her son, Spencer Bowen, took over the Garage some time later and now his son Steve runs the Garage. I have always enjoyed stopping off at Bowen’s Garage to have a chat while getting gas and service. You will feel like you are getting ripped off when you take your car to be serviced at other dealerships in Putnam (because of the higher cost), but you will always get honest and effective service at Bowen’s Garage. If you buy a car for your spouse as a Christmas present, Steve or Spencer will deliver it on Christmas morning.

The proponents of establishing zoning regulations in Eastford will walk a fine line “to strike a balance allowing flexibility for property owners while still protecting natural resources.”

I’m wondering if Eastford has an “Open Space” program like Woodstock. Shouldn’t our “Open Space” program be used to protect our forests in addition to farm lands? 

This figure shows (1) the number of unique IP paths (IP stands for Internet Protocol) that indicate unique visitors, (2) the total number of Visits, and (3) the number of clicks on a specific page (article) which we call “page turns” from January 1 through January 21. Becki and I are one unique visitor (because we come to the Cafe from a common path) with 1912 page turns from January 1 through January 21. We turn the most pages at the Cafe because of the posting and editing process for comments and articles.

The Figure below is complicated. Let me try to explain it.

Each vertical bar represents one individual unique visitor that entered the Cafe between January 17th at 9:25 PM (furthest to the right) and January 21st and 4:40PM (furthest to the left). The horizontal location of the bar represents the last time that individual came to the Cafe. These unique visitors range from one time visitors who never return to unique visitors who come into the Cafe every day multiple times. This would include Becki and me. The left most verticle bars are the individuals that have entered the Cafe most recently and most of them have the highest bars. The height of the bar represents the number of page turns by these individuals that have accumulated from January 1 through January 21. So it makes sense that the more recent visitors, for the most part, are the most addicted visitors (like me and Becki) . Since the vast majority of the Cafe visitors have shorter bars, I have made this an exponential plot so that we can resolve less addicted visitors.

There’s a visitor who came into the Cafe shortly after midnight early on 1/18 who had turned 104 pages up to that point on 1/18 from January 1st; however, this individual did not return by 4:40PM on 1/21 so his/her bar did not move forward to the left. This is the pattern throughout the month going back to the beginning of the month. Some individuals come in every day, some come in every few days, some come in every week, and some come in every few weeks … and very few comment. Furthermore,  some come to the Cafe and turn just a few pages while some turn many pages to review all comments. Also we are getting visitors from all over the world, although the vast majority are from the USA and northestern CT (spam doesn’t count because it is non-viewing visitation).

This may seem complicated and it is. One of the interesting phenomenas stems from our posting of many images captured from Google Images. Because of this, when one searches for images from the movie “Friday Night Lights” they end up with images found at the Cafe including a picture of my daughter, Christina… or a picture of corn from the article that I published on how to cook corn.

I don’t completely understand this but we are all over Google. In the last year we have started two other websites and we are seeing nothing like this.  

As an aside (to Chicklet), did you hear about yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling? It struck down a significant portion of McCain-Feingold that had made it illegal for private corporations to pay for ads either in support of or against a political candidate. In a way, this related to what I was discussing here about what a powerful lobbying block the Telecomm Industry is. This ruling, while a victory for freedom of speech, also clears the way for more special interest money to flow into the political process. The companies cannot give money to a candidate’s campaign directly, but they CAN put up an ad either supporting ‘their’ candidate or denouncing, even attacking ‘their’ candidate’s opponent. This has the potential to make candidates (once elected) beholden to the special interests of the corporations that supported them.

To me, this is a dangerous thing. There’s already too much special interest money in politics. And the result can be sweeping legislation like the Telecommunications Act of 1996 where an industry has far more rights than do the American citizens do as consumers of that industry. (more…)

The CT Siting Council is considering a proposal from Verizon to place a cell tower at 445 Prospect St. There will be a public hearing tomorrow (1/21) March 11th (we think & will verify tomorrow) at the Woodstock Town Hall from 1PM to 10PM to allow townspeople to express their opinions on the proposed site. This is a courtesy extended to us because the council can actually allow tower placements pretty much wherever they choose. The CT Siting Council was formed this way specifically because towers are needed and, if individuals/groups within communities could obstruct/prevent towers just by sheer volume of objection alone, we wouldn’t have many towers at all  … So, we will be getting a tower at some point.

This goes beyond NIMBY, really… I understand people’s objections but, just the fact that some of us have objections doesn’t mean that we should have the expectations that those objections should have overwhelming weight in the discussion. This comes a lot closer to an expectation that our individual opinions, about any/everything, are so important that they should displace common sense.

None of us should ever have an expectation that our definition of life, in this immediate moment, should not change. It is a wonderful goal to attempt to minimize our human impact on this planet. However, it is absurd to try to imagine that humanity can exist without leaving a footprint. Change comes to us, regardless of whether or not we are screaming at the top of our lungs in protest. (more…)

I do want to mention an issue that was the subject of a recent article in the Norwich Bulletin. The article discusses local concerns about a potential cell tower being sited on land owned by Mr. Fred Rich. Here’s a link to the article:

http://www.norwichbulletin.com/homepage/x1672016251/Woodstock-cell-tower-causing-dispute

I read some of the comments left under this article at the Norwich Bulletin website and it sounds as though some neighbors of Mr. Rich may have concerns about the use of his land as a potential cell tower site. Also, the news article mentions that the Woodstock Conservation Commission also has some concerns about the same potential site.

First, a little background.

Originally, Verizon had selected a potential cell tower site in East Woodstock on a parcel of land in the Prospect/Child Dome Road area. The residents of that neighborhood became concerned about the original site for the same reasons that Mr. Rich’s neighbors are concerned now, namely the risk of ruining a scenic viewshed and the safety concerns of living close to a cell tower. My advice to some of the neighbors of the original site choice was the same then as it is now to Mr. Rich’s neighbors and that is: try to find an alternate site that would work better for both Verizon and the townspeople. (more…)

I don’t get it. Based on these numbers (from the Hartford Courant), Woodstock students will benefit by a little under $14 each per year and about 7.8 cents each per school day. You wonder if it is worth the cost of the application filing and administrative paper work. Apparently, 67 out of 187 school districts did not sign up with the State Department of Education for this cash cow. This program may only benefit large inner city school systems.

ConnCan’s Statement Regarding the Education Stimulus Money

“The federal government’s $4 billion dollar Race to the Top competition is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Connecticut to reform its public schools. With the largest achievement gap in the country and an enormous budget deficit, no state needs to win this competition more than we do.

On Jan. 19, the commissioner of education submitted our state’s Round 1 application for the Race to the Top. This is a good first step, but its not enough. Connecticut is like a C student applying early admission to Yale–we can’t just count on the application essay to get us over the top.

(more…)

Ever since the community of Woodstock rejected my idea to build a nuclear power plant (see “Woodstock Should Go Nuclear”), I’ve been racking my brain to come up with an alternative, more appealing solution to solve Woodstock’s economic problems. The answer was presented to me when I heard that NASA is going to put their left over Shuttles up for sale for a very reasonable price of $28.8 million each.

A wise economist once said, “You gotta spend money to make money!” Thus, Woodstock should not delay in raising a bond to buy one of these relics.

Just think about it. Having an authentic Shuttle in Woodstock would draw visitors from around the world. These visitors would get their coffee at Java Jive, lunch at Sweet Evelinas, and they would visit other businesses around town. B&Bs and guest houses would thrive.

The Shuttle could be parked at the Woodstock Airport and a fee could be charged for tours inside and around the Shuttle. DBrownie could be in the cockpit and explain all of the switches and flashing lights. After the loan is paid off, income from the Shuttle could be put aside for acquisition of development rights for our open space (our own space program).

On holidays when there is a parade we could load the Shuttle onto a flat bed truck and drive it up Route 169 to bring up the rear of the parade as the grand finale. And town leaders could give political speeches with Woodstock’s Shuttle in the background. Below I have put together some postcards that could be used to advertise and spread the word about Woodstock’s Shuttle (click on the images to enlarge). We could also create our own line of space paraphernalia to sell to visitors like the space helmet shown below that I wore in the 1950’s.

dbrownie sent in the picture of the control panel he’s familiar with.

Just a reminder that there is a meeting Wednesday evening at 7 pm at the Hyde School to discuss the town’s Plan of Development in the light of sustainability issues.

Every 10 years the town rewrites it’s Plan of Development and the next one is due in 2012.  Currently there is a series of meetings to explore citizens’ concerns and get their input as to what key issues will need to be addressed in the next plan.

This meeting will specifically address sustainability issues.  Jean Pillo will begin with a review of water usage and regulation — particularly in light of the fact that Woodstock is the source of water that is used downstream by other towns.  Then Delia Fey will take over to make some comments on several other issues and lead a discussion.

Other matters that may be discussed include changing land use, declining energy availability, financial maelstroms, and climate change.

Come and make your concerns known, listen to others’ comments, and begin a discussion that will support creative planning!

Thank you -

Rebecca Hyde

PS  Please forward to any one else whom you think might be interested.

The Academy’s decision to start a foundation to raise private funds for expansion projects is a step in the right direction if the Academy decides to head into the future as a independent private school. The challenging part, however, is to find someone to head the foundation that understands the importance of public relations and has the ability to recruit influential people to work for the Academy cause.

There are two aspects to successful non-profit fund raising that I am aware of – good public relations and aggressive solicitation of donations and bequests. In my experience the cause was not about promoting an individual, but instead promoting an ideal such as the quest for betterment of humanity.

After I left the National Institutes of Health (some said I was crazy) to take a position at the Pauling Institute in Palo Alto CA in late 1981, I had to raise my own funding through grants and help the Institute to raise money to stay afloat. This was a continuous effort at the Pauling Institute and with later employers until I left research at the end of 1995.

While Linus Pauling was a notable figure with a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 and a Peace Prize in 1962, rarely did raising donations come easy and I was not going to depend on that. Between January 1, 1984 and September 1995 I raised around $2.5 million from funding agencies to support my research program (American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute primarily; these grants are listed in the left sidebar under Novel Science and can also be found in the CRISP database on the Internet). But this funding paid for less than half of the costs of my research and by 1985 the Pauling Institute had no other federal grants. Today, the Pauling Institute which is focused on nutrition and its role in human disease is thriving and well funded at Oregon State University Paulings alma mater. (more…)

“To see what’s happening with local, independent, newsgathering, stop by the Woodstock CT Cafe or Urban Compass in Hartford, but don’t forget the always fresh Bristol Today.”

There was a very positive development by the Woodstock Academy Board of Trustees last year that shouldn’t be forgotten. In the December meeting they voted to start a foundation to raise private funds for expansion projects. This has been something that has been discussed for several years but in 2009 the BOT has taken concrete steps to make it a reality. The import of this is; if successful they will be able to pursue their expansion plans while reducing much of the cause of the friction with sending town’s BOEs that occurs when expansion happens through funding by tuition (i.e. from tax dollars).

The new foundation is in the process of having its members selected. It was set up under control of the WA BOT with the purpose of creating a large enough endowment to finance growth projects. A similar setup was very successful at the Norwich Free Academy, their current endowment is in the realm of $40M after 15 years.

However, it is important to realize that it takes time to build such an endowment, 5-10 years at least. In the short run the endowment will not help alleviate the understandable friction between the sending town’s BOEs and the BOT over projects such as the sports complex. If done today it appears that much of that project would have to be funded at taxpayer’s expense. Due to declining enrollment at the Woodstock Academy they are already looking at a 2010-2011 budget shortfall that may make the athletic field project not so attractive at this time.

One of the reasons why the Woodstock Academy has been able to keep tuition rates so low is because they were operating near max capacity, but now that a lower student population has worked its way through the PK-8 system into the high school they are facing a similar challenge on how to wind down their expenses in the face of lower utilization (less students when they are staffed and have purchased PP&E to handle more students). From what I’ve seen the Woodstock Academy BOT is well aware of the economic realities of the declining property taxes on the sending towns and so they know they can’t make it up with higher tuition alone. We will have to see how this plays out.

Thanks,

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.

I found it interesting that Ms. Musumeci (former BOT chairman) reminded the Academy Communities that Woodstock and Eastford approved a special bond in 1987 amounting to $14.5 million for renovation and expansion of the Academy (equivalent to about $27 million today). The renovations and the expansion were completed in 1992 according to her address. But apparently the renovation and expansion continues as the result of the excess cash created by the refinancing of those 19-year old bonds. Under other circumstances the decision to refinance might make good financial sense.

Normally private, non-profit institutions have development programs with a Director of Development whose job description is to drive fundraising through public relations under the guidance of some sort of long-term strategic plan. The Boards of Trustees usually play key roles in development of strategic plans. These same Trustees are usually key operatives of fundraising programs, working together with and under the guidance of the Director of Development and the administrative leaders. This is why influential people with records of success in business and government are invited to join these Boards. Such Trustees have well developed networks with other influential people who, because of their successes in the business world, have their own wealth as well as the influence and ability to solicit the wealth of other potential benefactors. The Trustees’ altruistic mission is to explain the importance of supporting worthwhile missions and institutions/charities by articulating their value to the community and to the world. In doing so, they persuade potential benefactors to donate money to the cause of the charitable or non-profit institution. I speak from experience having been involved in hundred-thousand to million dollar fundraising efforts by three different non-profit institutions. The keys to success were always the perceived value of the mission of the institution AND the effectiveness of the leadership, the development director, and the trustees in creating this perception. This is an age-old, well-practiced activity of private schools, colleges, universities, and other educational institutions. (more…)

·        Woodstock Villager for providing improved and more accurate local news coverage under the leadership of editor Stephanie Jarvis and reporter Matt Sanderson.

·        The Woodstock PTO for rallying the electorate to vote NO and reject the repeal of the WBOE in the June 9^th referendum.

·        Allan Walker for his steady leadership as First Selectman of Woodstock.

·        Woodstock Municipal Employees for accepting a zero pay raise.

·        Anthony Walker and Scott Sincerbeaux for their uncontested election to the Board of Education and their acquisition of leadership of the BOE.

·        Lindsay Paul for her years of leadership of Woodstock education system and its improvements during those turbulent times.

·        Frank Baran for his leadership and improvement of Woodstock’s education system.

·        Kevin Ford for growing into a valuable and constructive member of WBOE in his first two years of service to the Town.

·        Kim Caren for quietly bringing new leadership and perspective to Woodstock Academy.

·        Woodstock’s pro-education electorate for the defeat of anti-education forces trying to undermine the Board of Education.

·        Dean Audet for his constructive support and contributions toward improvement of the Town Highway Facility.

·        Citizens of Woodstock for the defeat of irresponsible forces trying to block much needed and long awaited improvements in the salt storage and highway facility thus avoiding State takeover of the mandated improvements.

·        Richard Cass for years of contributions to the community and then persevering as a Democrat to win a six-year term on the Board of Finance.  

·        Community Partners for Woodstock’s Future (CPWF, a PAC) for helping to persuade Woodstock’s electorate (1) to reject the repeal of the BOE in the June 9^th referendum (vote NO), (2) to elect the more effective candidates for Town Boards in contested November 3^rd elections, and (3) to pass the December 8^th referendum bond proposal which funds the repair salt facility and long-needed improvements of the Highway Facility.  According to the Villager (January 1 issue), founding members of the CPWF published 14 Letters to the Editor in the Villager in attempt to persuade the electorate.

Woodstock’s Losers

·        The Biggest Losers are Dave Richardson, Craig Powers, Stephen Rosendahl, Preston Shultz and Avis Spalding – For repeatedly failing to persuade the Woodstock electorate that the sky is falling with repeated publication of mis-information and erroneous claims of misconduct by the Town leadership. The following list is the number of Letters to the Editor published in the Villager (according to the Villager, January 1 issue) by these people who also use the WoodstockUntruth.com as their soapbox:  
Richardson (7)
Powers (4)
Rosendahl (3)
Shultz (1)
Spalding (1)

·        The Woodstock Democratic Town Committee and Chairman Jim Kaeding for endorsing the actions of the above group and failing to provide adequate endorsements for their contested candidates.

·        Margaret Wholean for receiving only 441 votes in her candidacy for the BOF even though she was a former First Selectman. She also aligned herself with the above group.

·        Citizens for Prudent Spending (CPS) for allowing their PAC to be high jacked to serve the special interests of the above group.

·        Woodstock Academy Board of Trustees for pursuing their special interests at the expense of Woodstock residents while failing to develop a successful fund raising program.

The landscape from the second floor of the Bowen building at the Academy that was snapped on Monday.

We measured 11 inches. Below (1) our house, (2) John wrestling with the snow blower, and Becki pausing from shovelling on Route 197.

(more…)

“What do you think about this Character Counts program? Do you feel it’s helping you meet the State CCT standards any better than you were already doing on your own (prior to three years ago when CC came in)? Are you seeing an appreciable difference in the children’s behavior as a result of Character Counts?

There has been acceptable and unacceptable classroom behavior since I was a student (back in the days of Moses). Teachers never needed a program like CC before. What has changed nowadays and do you feel that whatever it is that has changed, CC thoroughly addresses it?”- Newcomer

I think it’s important to think of CC as just one tool to help us create an ideal atmosphere for learning. In the same way a new math book does not equal a new curriculum (just a different tool), CC does not equal different behavioral expectations, just a different way to get them across. There are a few things I like about the program that improves on conditions.

First, it adds consistency throughout the school. All teachers are using the same language when dealing with children. In math, if everyone is effectively teaching, but covering different topics and using different curriculum, it would be inefficient and confuse the kids. I see character development in a similar way. This program aims to coordinate all of our efforts and add consistency to cut down on confusion and make the instruction for efficient.

Second, students are able to see that the whole school has taken ownership in helping to develop them, not just their classroom teacher. Students in a group may have 2 teachers out of their grade level and a teachers assistant facilitating their activities. They see the community effort in building character.

“If one key reason for introducing this program is to curb a bullying problem, how does this program attempt to do that?”- Newcomer

By developing students’ abilities to think of others, show respect, and take responsibility, you hope to have kids think before acting in a bullying manner. Will this automatically happen due to this program for every kid? No. But I think it will help. It also will help with the bullying issue in another way. When someone is being bullied, there are almost always onlookers. We hope to encourage others to actively advocate for kids being teased or bullied. (more…)

When I have a question about what my children are doing in school I contact their teacher(s). I’ve not had to take any steps beyond that so far, as I’ve found that the teachers in Woodstock have responded to the questions I’ve asked. If I were not satisfied, contacting a building administrator would be my next step. If my questions/concerns were still not addressed to my satisfaction, I would next contact Dr. Baran, and, if necessary, the BOE.

This forum is a great place to exchange ideas and make arguments (in the scholarly sense) about policies and procedures. In the end, it’s just a bunch of people who toss ideas around. I appreciate the fact that Kevin posts here regardless of whether I agree with him. But he should not be expected to make any sort of policy statements - the BOE Chair is responsible for BOE statements and explanation of policies, and Dr. Baran is responsible for WPS public statements and explanation of policies.

I’m pretty confident that Kevin does not need me, or anyone else to stick up for him - but it would be inappropriate for him, when “backed into a corner” to explain BOE policies, curriculum, or any other official position. Again, that is the role of the BOE Chair and/or the superintendent.

It is wholly appropriate for parents and taxpayers to inquire about the WPS curriculum. (more…)

Teacher has expressed a deep sense of frustration with replies to Taxpayer’s questioning of the value of the Character Counts program. One has only to look across the street from the Woodstock Middle School and see an entire educational facility dedicated to the Character Counts philosophy. Hyde School is a prime example of how an entire curriculum is based on the principles of CC education. When I was teaching at a Juvenile Detention Facility in Grafton, Mass. all 200 plus teachers in the Department of Child Services were given training on Character Counts Education with specific goals and objectives to accomplish with incarcerated adolescents in our programs. A program designed by the juvenile justice department in Mass. had several components, some of which were based on trends in popular music and movies. Students identified with these contemporary examples of behaviors that are unacceptable in a civilized society. I hope that Tax’s opinions fail to dissuade teachers and administrators from curtailing CC education in the Woodstock Public Schools.

I don’t know much about this Program and so am giving benefit of the doubt by the ideal suggested by it’s title - and I don’t understand objections to a program like this. What could be more important for young people to learn, develop, acquire, etc., than Character?

Tax says that “this sounds like a program to make us all “feel good”- one that has very good intentions but has no scientific basis, no clear objectives, no clear path for monitoring outcomes.”

That list is merely one (narrow) method to approach any program when there are numerous criteria which don’t fit neatly into such a list - even assuming the statement/list is true (how do we know?) that does not mean the program is good or bad, it means the measurement approach is flawed. I mean, we are talking about a deeply ingrained, ineffable personal quality - Character - which we can all agree is highly desirable, yet often incredibly difficult to detect, measure, ‘grade’, etc. Traditional methodology seems inadequate and inappropriate (is there a Standardized Test to determine if someone is a ‘Good Person?’).

‘No clear objectives…’? What about “doing our best to help young people develop Character”? This is not Algebra and the very paradigm for measuring anything about it - ’success’, progress, etc. - is completely different from most anything else. That ought not be reason to shoot it down, but instead to change our thinking about it all.

And because young people spend about 1/2 of their waking life in school, it seems a very good idea to work on Character during that time - especially considering their activities (and lack of concentration or opportunity for learning) during other waking hours. They deserve it. (more…)

“I’ve heard other parents say that their child has been bullied in one of our schools. One of my children has also been bullied. The handful of students whom I’ve asked about this program report that it’s “so boring” Newcomer said.

If it’s fairly new in our schools (the Character Counts program), I guess we’ll have to track student surveys and student/parental complaints to see if reports of bullying do indeed decline after a few years of implementation. Afterall, any program needs to effectively address areas needing improvement in order to be considered successful. I haven’t yet heard any complaints of our students’ irresponsibility or lack of trustworthiness (2 of the 6 “pillars” of character) being problematic throughout the student body. But the bullying is a problem and we need to stay on top of it. I’m willing to give this character counts program a chance, but if there’s no measureable improvement in bullying reports over time, then I’d be open to trying something else that would directly address a clearly identified area of student behavior that several parents feel needs improvement.”

There are definitely reports of bullying like you stated. And I agree with you that it’s important to address this across the student body. To address only the ‘bullies’ wouldn’t be as effective. All students need to learn to identify bullying behavior so they can advocate for themselves and their peers.

As for character counts being boring, well, to some it is. But that doesn’t make it less important. Many students would describe math or reading as boring as well, but it is still important that we teach it. Whether it’s boring or not depends on two things. One is the teachers that are facilitating the group. I know some students love it and look forward to those days. They find the facilitators to be fun and exciting. The second thing is the attitude the students bring to the group. If a group has even a few students that the class sees as leaders and they’re enthusiastic, it will be infectious. In certain dynamics, students find it fun and exciting, in others, not so much.

Trustworthiness and responsibility needs to be taught and reinforced to pretty much every student in the middle school age group. Are the majority of students not trustworthy? Of course not. But many are. And even the students that are mostly trustworthy aren’t all the time in every situation. There’s always room for improvement and opportunities for discussion in this area. As for responsibility, this is problematic. I’ve seen specific classes accumulate over 200 late homework assignments in a single quarter before. I think there’s is definite room for improvement in the area of responsibility. It’s not a problem specific to Woodstock, it’s a problem specific to this age group.

“3- What exactly is the weekly curriculum for character counts? Answer:There is none. Its “student directed”…which according to the rhetoric above translates to “greater student input and ownership”. For thinking people, this means, “not much is going on”.”-Tax

Just because teachers act as facilitators and allow students to direct character counts sessions does not mean that ‘not much is going on’. Teachers in the room carefully steer and direct students to self discovery and character counts awareness. All ideas are approved by teachers, and students are on task at all times. They’re not just sitting around doing nothing. They’re being directed to stay on course and work diligently toward certain goals.

“4- Shouldn’t teaching “positive behaviors” and “good citizenship be done at home by parents? Answer: YES! And I’m sure that’s where most of the teachers got theirs. Its an insult to assume that it doesn’t happen at home. I wonder if there has been any parent “input and ownership”.” - Tax

While I certainly agree parents should be doing this at home, I also think teachers and schools should be reinforcing it at school. Parents and teachers should be working together to meet this goal. In the same way it’s not solely the school’s job to teach kids reading and math, it’s not solely the parents’ job to teach character. Also, their are many aspects of character that may be specific to a specific environment. Is it not appropriate for schools to teach the students the type of behavior and character they expect to be shown in our own school setting? Is it not appropriate for us to establish an environment we find conducive to student learning and success?

Norwich Bull article. ‘First Selectman Allan Walker said he was “very excited” the proposal passed. … I think it’s the right time to do it because bonding rates and construction costs are low right now,” Walker said. “It’s long overdue.” ‘

ALSO… Many thanks to those who participated with donations to the the Food and Fuel Program! Once again, Woodstock shows it cares!

To raise $2.5 million to repair the salt storage facility, remediate ground contamination, and house highway facility equipment.

If we don’t, the State will at our expense.

Results should be in by 8:30 PM

YES   359

NO   326

The margin does not require a recount.

The Naysayers didn’t show up at the poles. They figured they could get the result at the Cafe.

From teachref09: “I just can’t fathom the incongruity of Mr. Powers who has sued the Town of Woodstock and cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars in legal fees and now has a seat at the BOF table. What is wrong with this picture? The CPS crowd has placed a lot of faith in Mr.’s Schultz, Powers, Richardson et. al. and have come up sorely dissapointed. These “Three Musketeers” have never had one positive contribution to the Town and continue the negative rants in the Villager and elsewhere. When will they learn you get more with honey than vinegar?”

This appeared in the December 4th issue of the Woodstock Villager. Everything is usually forgotten the following week but the Cafe never forgets.

While listening to the WINY Talk Show this morning (Monday)I heard a woman talking about voting down the proposed bonding issue for the salt shed/Town Garage. Is every building project in the Town of Woodstock going to be called a “Taj Mahal?” First it was the new Town Hall then it was the purchase of the Data General Property to build a middle school. The Elementary School Renovations was cut back because it was going to be another Taj Mahal! And now the salt shed/Town Garage is going to be, yes you guessed it, a Taj Mahal! Maybe Woodstock has been relocated to India, like most jobs in America. How come no one calls Woodstock Academy’s building projects “Taj Mahals?” Oh, it’s ok to make Woodstock taxpayers pay for whatever the Academy wants without question, everything else is a “Taj Mahal” when it comes to town building projects.

from Becki

I don’t know what the average per head cost would work out to be. What I remember from the town meeting was that the increase in taxes that this project would create would work out to about $30 per $100,000 in assessment(…or $2.50 a month) initially. Then in the second year it would be more - about double or $60. After that when the debt we have now phases out, I think there wouldn’t be increases and at some point I believe the cost would actually go down. The proposed financing has been designed so that the increases in taxes are minimized.

by Dean Audet

I would like to address comments made by Craig Powers and the Citizens for Prudent Spending such that people have the facts when they vote on Tuesday.

Mr. Powers’ letter to the editor advocates eliminating the use of sand resulting in “some increase in the use of salt” as his reasoning to vote against the project. I want to remind voters that a “salt shed” is being proposed and not a “sand shed.” If you buy into Mr. Powers recommendations, we will still need a salt shed as he is advocating completely relying on salt.

The Citizens for Prudent Spending ad made several points that were misleading or just plain wrong.

First, lets be absolutely clear, the people that were responsible for the pollution at the salt shed are long gone. To imply that current officials are responsible is not true.

Second, we cannot use grant money to clean up pollution on the site. To imply that you can is simple disregard or ignorance of the facts. Grants are not available to “polluters” to clean up their “pollution.” In this case, the Town is viewed as a “polluter.” The logic goes like this: Polluter saves money by not properly disposing wastes, they then do not get grant money to clean up what they saved money doing.

The total principal that will be financed is $2.48 million over a 20 year period. The financing plan presented on Tuesday night showed the following:

1)We would begin paying off our loan in FY 2011.

2) This year, 0.7 mills of our taxes will go to pay debt service. Under the proposed financing plan, this would increase to a max of 0.77 mills in the FY 2011-2012 and then decrease to 0.50 mills in 2014-2015 and continue dropping.

3) The increase of 0.07 mills that is proposed for that one year is equivalent to $54,760 for the entire Town. I believe that there are more than 10,000 taxpayers in this town (not voters, but people who are sent tax bills). Using 10,000, this works out to an average of about $5.48 per taxpayer (I will double check this on Monday).

The financing for this project has been thought out to minimize impacts to all of us. Obviously, those with large property values will pay more, and those with less will pay less.

Over the next two days, if you have a question that you need answered to help make a decision, please post them here and I will do my best to answer. Once again, I have been working on this Committee and want to make sure people understand what they are voting for.

Common sense suggests that students who feel safe, supported, and engaged in school are more likely to learn well. In the last 30 years, a growing body of research has confirmed the importance of the learning climate for students. Compelling empirical research shows that a positive and sustained school climate promotes academic achievement and healthy development. Not surprisingly, a positive school climate also promotes teacher retention, which itself enhances student success.   

At the Woodstock Public Schools, our administrators recognize this strong link and have implemented coordinated and sustained programs to foster a positive environment for all our students.  Foremost among these is our Character Counts initiative, now in its third year at both WES and WMS. Character Counts underscores positive behaviors that are foundational to good citizenship and respect for all.  The program emphasizes six “pillars of behavior” to help guide students toward strong character development:  caring, citizenship, fairness, respect, responsibility and trustworthiness. Promoting these behavioral traits is embedded in classroom and in school- wide activities and includes encouraging awareness of these traits in self and others, promoting guidelines to model these traits, and recognizing students who consistently reflect these traits. Our staff has received training to promote positive character development, and our discipline procedures have been modified to reflect expectations of good character, self-discipline and accountability in our students.  This year the Character Counts initiative was expanded to include greater student input and ownership. 

To identify a baseline for our school environment, last spring we administered a “Student School Climate Survey” to all 4^th through 8^th grade students. Twenty- three questions invited students to respond to topics covering school safety, staff support and respect, teacher and learning expectations, and overall strength of the school community. (more…)

“Evaluation of the efficacy and safety of a statin/caffeine combination against H5N1, H3N2 and H1N1 virus infection in BALB/c mice”   

by Liu, Zeyu et al.

European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences 38:215-223, 2009
  
“The development of novel antiviral drugs is necessary for the prevention and treatment of a potential avian influenza pandemic. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a novel statin/caffeine combination against H5N1, H3N2 and H1N1 virus infection in a murine model. In H5N1-, H3N2- and H1N1-infected BALB/c mice. 50 mu g statin/200 mu g caffeine effectively ameliorated lung damage and inhibited viral replication and was at least as effective as oseltamivir and ribavirin (two antiviral drugs). The statin/caffeine combination also appeared to be more effective when administered preventatively rather than as treatment. These findings provide justification for further research into this novel antiviral formulation.

from the poorly written Norwich Bull article today:

“Town officials are seeking permission to bond $2.5 million … to demolish, expand or rebuild several buildings at the garage site, a plan that includes removing contaminated soil from the property.

The question will go to referendum Tuesday (December 8th). The money, if approved, would supplement a $500,000 state grant already received for the … $3 million project.

John Navarro, highway department foreman, said the Coatney Hill Road garage has a host of problems, most notably its size. He said the existing structure cannot accommodate the fleet of municipal vehicles. Eleven of them sit exposed to the elements and are in danger of incurring weather-related damage.”

also

“First Selectman Allan Walker Jr. said taking on the new bond will have a “negligible” effect on the town’s mill rate. He said the town’s existing debt load is set to decrease about the time the first payments on the new debt would be due, in 2013.

“This is the time to go out to bid on this,” he said. “Pricing is competitive and bond rates are the most attractive they’ve been in years.”

A portion of the bond money would fund construction of a bigger 10-bay garage, a new covered salt shed, well and septic system. A vehicle wash bay and employee facilities also would be built.

Roughly $1 million of the money would be used to remediate soil that was contaminated by leaking underground gasoline tanks, solid waste and salt.”

Mike Dougherty summed up the situation accurately by saying “We should do this now … It’s only going to be more expensive if we wait.”

Ms. Wholean’s Proposal which failed miserably in referendum (October 8th, 2006, article) is pasted below.

(more…)

The questions about whether we need a new highway garage and whether we should do it now are good ones. I have been working on the Highway Garage Committee for 5 years, here are some answers to your questions.

First, lets just be clear, the existing highway complex is polluting the environment and our neighbors. That needs to get cleaned up and a new salt shed is needed to prevent it from happening again in the future. We can do it now or wait for the state or our neighbors to sue us. At which point we will still do it while also paying lawyers fees.

Second, the highway garage expansion is being proposed for several reasons.

1) One of the storage buildings on-site needs to be torn down to allow for the environmental cleanup. The building leaks badly now (as anyone who went on the site visit two weekends ago can attest). We will have to build a new storage building anyways. Under this plan, this storage would be part of the highway garage building. No matter what, some building would have to be erected to replace this storage.

2) Today, we store 10 trucks and many other pieces of equipment outside. The trucks cost more than $150,000 apiece. Storing them outside shortens their serviceable life (think about the difference between storing a car in garage or outside). That costs us money today. The highway garage expansion will allow us to move those trucks indoors.

3) Even worse, their is no place to wash trucks on that site. It is illegal for the Town to wash trucks there as there is no system to collect runoff from the washing operation. It is not hard to do the math where we send trucks out to salt and sand our roads, don’t wash them and store them outside. This significantly shortens the life of our $150,000 trucks by years. The new highway buidling will have a state approved truck wash that can also wash fire trucks and school buses.

4) The existing building falls woefully short of building code and is unsafe in some areas. The improvements would also bring us to standard.

So why do this now?

1) Every day that we don’t do this we lose money by shortening the life of our expensive equipment. The people that are concerned that approving the bond for the highway garage will cause people argue against funding the schools need to keep in mind that spending money on trucks and other equipment does come from the same pot of money as the schools. (more…)

Acting to correct the issues at the town highway garage is a requirement by the Connecticut DEP. To date they have been very reasonable in their requests. As a former environmental scientist who addressed many Superfund sites over the years, I know what the high cost of addressing an issue like this can be. Handling this while the DEP is being supportive will be millions of dollars cheaper than handling it when the situation becomes adversarial should we drag our heals.

And for those of you who think “salt” contamination isn’t that big a deal, I’d suggest you look up the Florida Steel superfund site in Indiantown, Florida. The groundwater contamination prinicpally consisted of sodium (salt is sodium chloride) and was responsible for pulling into the ground water metals from the soil and rock, including radium. The long term cleanup at that site is pumping and treating groundwater and as Woodstock experienced during the cleanup of the leaking fuel tanks at the Woodstock Public Schools, pumping and treating ground water is an expensive proposition.

A half century of football memories recalled in the context of Academy athletic expansionism.

“It’s the bad fans and booster mentality that destroys the football experience … (and the) exploitation of the athletes by the school leadership to make money and remind themselves of their glorious childhoods … GLORIOUS IN THEIR OWN MINDS ONLY.”

I started to enjoy the game of football in high school. I went to every home game at Norwalk High and the final showdown at Danbury High my senior year. We never had a great team and we were usually demolished by Danbury in the final game of the season. But the year was 1960, November 24th, and Jerry Fishman was the senior fullback at NHS. Norwalk had only one play, Fishman up the middle. He ran the ball 50 times behind the right and left guards and tackles for 342 yards and Danbury could do nothing to stop him. It was an heroic effort that is still mentioned on the Internet.

The next time I saw Fishman was in a game on nationwide TV between Maryland and Navy. Jerry would run the same play up the middle against Navy, get tackled, get up from the pile, and run back knocking down his own teammates on the way back to the huddle. No doubt he was hated by his own team. The other memorable event of that game was Fishman standing on the 30 yard line giving the finger to the midshipman section in the stands.

After high school I continued to go to my college football home games at Bethany College in West Virginia (the “Small College of Extinction“). I think we had one above average year while I was there, but the thing that stands out the most in my memory was when a senior halfback was tackled on the sideline after making a decent run down the field. I can still hear his screams as players huddled around. His knee was twisted and crushed by the tackle. He never completely recovered from this crippling injury and was force to wear a metal brace to walk, probably for the rest of his life.

I went on to the University of Pittsburgh to work toward my Ph.D. in Biochemistry. I made a point of attending nearly every home game at the stadium next to the medical school where I was working. (more…)

The following is the text of the famous 1936 Thanksgiving proclamation of Connecticut Governor Wilbur L. Cross: 

 State of Connecticut
By His Excellency WILBUR L. CROSS, Governor: a

Proclamation

Time out of mind at this turn of the seasons when the hardy oak leaves rustle in the wind and the frost gives a tang to the air and the dusk falls early and the friendly evenings lengthen under the heel of Orion, it has seemed good to our people to join together in praising the Creator and Preserver, who has brought us by a way that we did not know to the end of another year. In observance of this custom, I appoint Thursday, the twenty-sixth of November, as a day of

Public Thanksgiving

for the blessings that have been our common lot and have placed our beloved State with the favored regions of earth — for all the creature comforts: the yield of the soil that has fed us and the richer yield from labor of every kind that has sustained our lives — and for all those things, as dear as breath to the body, that quicken man’s faith in his manhood, that nourish and strengthen his spirit to do the great work still before him: for the brotherly word and act; for honor held above price; for steadfast courage and zeal in the long, long search after truth; for liberty and for justice freely granted by each to his fellow and so as freely enjoyed; and for the crowning glory and mercy of peace upon our land; — that we may humbly take heart of these blessings as we gather once again with solemn and festive rites to keep our Harvest Home.

Given under my hand and seal of the State at the Capitol, in Hartford, this twelfth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and thirty six and of the independence of the United State the one hundred and sixty-first.

Wilbur L. Cross

I think you are both right to some extent (JK and nanny). The chair’s position isn’t that of a CEO or president talking to his EC. That’s more the roll of Dr. Baran and his senior staff. However, it does have some power. For example, it does take a super majority (2/3) vote to add an item to the agenda once in meeting. If Mr. Walker decided an agenda item wasn’t going to be brought up, he does have a fair amount of power to keep it off the agenda. Having said that, I have seen no indication Mr. Walker will do this.

The chair also gives committee assignments. This can be changed via the will of the board (voting) but you would then have to publicly fight the chair. The default position is that he assigns them. Once again, I don’t have any indication that Mr. Walker will unfairly dole out committee assignments.

The chair can also choose the order of who speaks on an issue. This can be major if the chair wants to make sure that someone who supports his beliefs gets to make a motion he believes in first. Then it must be shot down before a competing motion can be voted on. That is a pretty major way to control the direction of the discussion because then you are discussing the merits of a particular motion. I don’t know if this will be a problem.

In my research into the position I’ve found that the common recommendation is for the chair to present himself as impartial, particularly during debate and not debate from the position of chair. This is because the chair does do what I mentioned above as well as making rulings as to the disposition of procedural disputes (which can still be appealed to the full board). The membership should have faith that the chair is making impartial decisions which is difficult when the chair is simultaneously pushing a position. Ms. Paul wasn’t in complete agreement with this and from what I’ve seen Mr. Walker is much less so. That is, from what I saw in one meeting he will use the position of chair as a pulpit to push his agenda. This is truly unfortunate as it will not serve the board well. Mr. Walker stated that he didn’t really know Robert’s rules yet and I hope as he studies them he will come to the conclusion that there are good reasons for the chair to maintain the appearance of impartiality.

Thanks,

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.

As the Woodstock Girls recreation basketball season starts up soon for this winter, I wanted to take the time to send a thank you message to the parents and young ladies of Woodstock that I have had the pleasure to coach. Last year was my 12th consecutive year working with young ladies on the basketball courts early on Saturday mornings. Many changes have occurred with the program during this time, from the girls only playing one another (totally in house) to where the girls are now playing two other towns in a formal league with a championship tournament held at the end of the season!

There has been a great deal of progression in the level of play and the approach that the young ladies take to the courts from this program. I have been fortunate to have worked with many great volunteer parent coaches over this time. Recreation activities within the town that are vast, allows people to meet and get to know each other who would not normally do so. One example is that my daughter is now 22 and as such I would not have had the opportunity to meet so many other families in town that have children that are not the same ages as my own.

I want to especially thank Mike Bernardi for his time and energy over the years. Mike did so much of the administration work behind the scenes to help grow the girl’s side of the program into the multi-town event it is. (more…)

Changing leadership on a yearly basis does nothing to keep continuity. And it takes at least one year to get familiar with the workings of the board in general. I don’t think that it is a good idea to just change leadership for the sake of change. But then again what do I know? Seems like a whole lot of ‘politicking’ has been going on behind the scenes and the current board has only a couple of experienced and devoted members who really know how the board functions. Good Luck to the new members…I hope they do live up to what they look like on paper.

Two things that also need to be addressed to the town’s residents and taxpayers, that Good Old Dave fails to understand:

1. The town is under orders from CT D.E.P. to get this corrected- NOW! or else they will come in and do the job ANYWAY! This can be verified by simply calling our First Selectman’s office.

2. Another “No Brainer” that even “Good Old Dave” fails to see: Who is more likely to get this job done at the least cost to the taxpayer? The Town of Woodstock or the State of CT?

This job is going to get done, whether or not anyone likes it. I suggest we be proactive and not shoot ourselves in the foot, as we have been known to do in the past! Let’s finance this while interest rates are low and get the job DONE! We owe it to the Bennett’s, the town and future generations.

-George McCoy
These are my personal comments and in no way should be viewed as an official statement from the B.O.F.

Just in from the Board of Education meeting…….

The BOE voted and elected Anthony Walker as Chairman, Scott Sincerbeaux as Vice-Chair and Carol Andrzeicik as Secretary.

Chairman Walker took the gavel and started conducting the meeting with a personal greeting - a positive and inclusive message. One item Chairman Walker brought forth was the suggestion that the chairmanship be a rotating, one-year position with a new chairman voted each November. Members will consider this and revisit the matter at their December meeting. The agenda item concerning committee assignments was put off until the December meeting as well. Members were requested to email their preferences to the chairman. Walker also would like to see a board member at each of the town committee meetings to enhance the flow of communication. He also suggested the board consider a new committee to address academics/raising test scores. There was a general consensus that this could be piggybacked to one of the current standing committees.

Dr. Baran presented an update of the budget and where the district stands currently. He was able to illustrate the fluidity of expenditures versus changes in revenues and expenses. The newly elected members asked many questions and actively pursued items to clarify their understanding of specific issues. There were a multitude of suggestions and requests pertaining to information that would augment/increase their understanding of an array of subjects. I guess the district office will be fairly busy for awhile.

The upcoming budget timeline was revealed and a list of dates was provided. Several possible additional meeting dates were discussed as well. The first draft of the budget will be presented to the board at their January 28th meeting.  The BOE presentation of the finalized 2010/2011 budget to the Board of Finance will be on March 23rd. The town meeting for the budget will be on May 27th. There were other dates listed, but I will refrain from putting them in here because I had to leave the meeting (I get up at 4:45 AM) before the board considered their 2010 Schedule of Meetings.

There will also be a ‘Meet and Greet’ sometime in January, but those dates as well are not set.

So, there you have it in a nutshell. I’m sure there will be much more to come.

The RTC gave no public statement last summer regarding the referendum to unseat the BoE. Instead, they chose to sit tight, wait it out. Failing the results they were looking for, a new RTC platform soon emerged containing words like “environment,” “communication” and “Preservation.”  A kinder, gentler RTC is what we see now. Indeed, the new RTC is as sweet as a little lamb.
 
A few months back, ace Villager reporter Matt Sanderson wrote a charming piece that featured arduous work being done by one stalwart leader of the RTC. According to the article, the good lady is probably still out traipsing the wilds of Woodstock in her hip boots and waders with notepad in hand while she catalogues miles of historic stonewall. Thank goodness we’ve got such a prominent member of the RTC and PZC doing the hard work of preserving Woodstock. Keep mindful that this is the very same woman who was the strongest advocate for the complete removal of any and all stone walls (plus forest and wetland) that threatened to impede an Academy player’s ability to score a touchdown in a hoped-for, state-of-the-art Football Stadium. Does the RTC really think they are pulling the wool over our eyes?
 
Presently, a key administrator at the Woodstock Academy is “concerned,” about the good Preservation of the Woodstock Common. Parked cars are causing erosion! says the Official. Apparently, the Academy wants to “Preserve” this ancient common land that has progressed since its use in the 17th century of common grazing land to that of parkland then parking lot. Presently, it’s a sewer overflow basin. Naturally, the large Academy planned development now in suspension for over a year due to environmental risks is NOT a polite topic of conversation for it causes no one any concern. No worries either about the good Preservation of the Common. The Historic District Commission’s SWAT Team was dispatched immediately to quell the anxiety. They will begin by cataloguing all the plantings on the Common. (more…)

This article will appear in the Villager tomorrow.

I think it is important to recognize that the salt shed has become an ecological disaster and that it was a fully preventable one. It has contaminated the water supply, hurt the health and business of nearby landowners and may have long term impact on their land values. We, the citizens of Woodstock, collectively allowed this to happen.

Now that the problem has become so bad that the state has mandated that we fix the salt barn we are starting to hear the argument that we should just fix that and ignore the other facilities in the complex that are in a similar state. I cannot warn against that enough for many of the same reasons why it was harmful to ignore the problems with the salt shed in the first place. For example, if we can’t properly maintain and wash the salt off our vehicles what is the long term cost of replacing those vehicles on a more frequent schedule?

I understand why some people may be worried that groups may use this as an excuse to attack the education budget. However, from watching them for quite some time, they will do so anyway. They won’t need this excuse and their movement on the education budget will be the same either way. At the end of the day not voting to maintain or replace things of this nature because of apathy and fear of a minority interest is what caused the salt contamination in the first place.

We need to learn from that lesson; we should take a longer term outlook in our cost/benefit analysis. Not just in terms of finances but in terms of potential ecological harm, harm to land values, harm to the people who work in the facilities and harm to the people who depend on them. When overfed government can be dangerous but when starved the harm of neglected infrastructure can be just as great. (more…)