Top paid city workers not quite so well off this year

For the first time in many years, the city’s highest-earning employees saw their take home pay dip a little last year.

Among the Top 50 municipal wage earners, the average yearly tally fell a little more than 1 percent in 2009, perhaps a reflection of the belt tightening at both City Hall and the Board of Education as officials scrambled last year to hold the line on spending during a tough economy.

The top earner, school Superintendent Philip Streifer hauled in more than $5,000 less than he did a year earlier – but he still collected $186,508. It marks his second year at the top of the list. Read the story here.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Top 50 Wage Earners for City of Bristol in 2009

CITY OF BRISTOL
2009
Fifty Highest Wage Earners

1 PHILIP STREIFER SUPERINTENDENT $186,508.42
2 EVERETT V LYONS PRINCIPAL, BEHS $179,056.90
3 ANTHONY MALAVENDA PRINCIPAL, MT VIEW ELEMENTARY $169,953.21
4 ANN BALDWIN ASSISTANT CORPORATION COUNSEL $166,443.67
5 JACK MICHAUD POLICE LIEUTENANT $154,547.12
6 DANIEL VEINS ASST. PRINCIPAL BEHS $154,534.95
7 SUSAN MOREAU ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT $150,369.90
8 JOEL ESTES POLICE LIEUTENANT $146,348.50
9 KIM HAPKEN DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL SERVICES BOE $145,921.67
10 DENISE CARABETTA DIRECTOF OF OFFICE & TEACHING & LEARNING $145,417.16
11 PAUL HINES POLICE DETECTIVE SERGEANT $138,155.93
12 MARK MOSKOWITZ POLICE LIEUTENANT $137,373.49
13 DENNIS BIEU BOE PERSONNEL DIRECTOR $137,316.80
14 MARTIN SEMMEL PRINCIPAL, BCHS $135,694.28
15 KEVIN MORRELL POLICE LIEUTENANT $134,851.00
16 CHRISTOPHER LENNON POLICE DETECTIVE SERGEANT $128,837.66
17 JOHN MCNELLIS POLICE SERGEANT $128,727.15
18 JOHN SASSU POLICE SERGEANT $126,964.96
19 ROBERT GARRY PRINCIPAL, NORTHEAST MS $126,095.48
20 CATHERINE CARBONE PRINCIPAL, CHIPPENS HILL MS $126,021.30
21 MARCIANN JONES PRINCIPAL, MEMORIAL BOULEVARD MS $125,278.62
22 JOHN DIVENERE CHIEF OF POLICE $125,059.83
23 ROSEANNE VOJTEK PRINCIPAL, IVY DRIVE ELEMENTARY $124,308.68
24 STEVEN BENT ASST PRINCIPAL, SOUTH SIDE ELEMENTARY $120,584.84
25 ANDREW LANGLAIS POLICE LIEUTENANT $120,429.90
26 MICHAEL AUDETTE PRINCIPAL, O’CONNELL ELEMENTARY $120,308.84
27 GARY MAYNARD PRINCIPAL, SOUTH SIDE $120,308.84
28 STEPHEN TAVARES POLICE SERGEANT $120,106.44
29 ANGELA ROSSBACH PRINCIPAL EDGEWOOD ELEMENTARY $119,972.84
30 CATHERINE CASSIN PRINCIPAL, STAFFORD ELEMENTARY $119,972.84
31 PETER GAUDET PRINCIPAL, GREENE HILLS ELEMENTARY $119,912.84
32 WALTER VESELKA III PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR $119,045.03
33 GLENN KLOCKO COMPTROLLER $119,043.11
34 JON POSE FIRE CHIEF $119,042.94
35 RICHARD BROWN POLICE LIEUTENANT $117,942.77
36 ELLEN BENHAM SUPERVISOR OF ATHLETIC OFFICE $117,940.64
37 DANIEL SONSTROM ASST. PRINCIPAL NORTHEAST MS $117,784.64
38 PETER WININGER ASST. PRINCIPAL, BCHS $116,971.40
39 EDWARD KELEHER ASST. PRINCIPAL, BEHS $116,959.40
40 MARIA GROODY SUPERVISOR OF ADULT ED/ESL $116,824.02
41 CHRISTOPHER CASSIN ASST. PRINCIPAL CHMS $115,718.80
42 MARY HAWK ASST. PRINCIPAL CHMS $115,658.80
43 DONN WATSON POLICE LIEUTENANT $115,632.08
44 RICHARD GAGLIARDI SUPERVISOR OF TECHNOLOGY CENTER $115,536.74
45 EDWARD SPYROS POLICE LIEUTENANT $115,469.14
46 MARTHA NOWOBILSKI ASST. PRINCIPAL MEMORIAL BOULEVARD $115,253.56
47 KRISTIN IRVINE SUPERVISOR OF TESTING, RESEARCH & EVALUATIONS $114,044.86
48 ERIC OSANITSCH POLICE CAPTAIN $113,719.83
49 DIANE FERGUSON CITY PERSONNEL DIRECTOR $113,326.29
50 DANIEL MCINTYRE POLICE CAPTAIN $111,652.88

Thanks to Mayra Sampson and the city comptroller's office for putting together the annual accumulator's list!

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Explosion in Middletown

What a terrible tragedy in Middletown with so many dead and injured at the site of a new power plant that blew up this morning.
Anyone from Bristol working there? Anybody see anything? Feel anything?
It's just so sad and sickening.

Update:  Take a look at the Extra Big Scoop blog has after talking to a Bristol guy who was outside the site this afternoon. It's reporter Jackie Majerus' blog and it's no doubt way cooler and better than this tired old site. So add it to your daily reading.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Ward talks projects with state DOT boss

One day after Mayor Art Ward urged support for the New Britain busway, he met with state Department of Transportation Commissioner Joseph Marie for "a good conversation" about potential projects in Bristol.
Ward met with Marie, New Britain Mayor Tim Stewart and state Sen. Donald DeFronzo, a New Britain Democrat, on Friday for a general discussion about ways the state might address Bristol's relative isolation from Connecticut's transportation grid.
Ward said they heard about the city's concerns and they listened to its ambitions along with "the potential for addressing them.
Ward said the session was "encouraging," but no decisions were reached and nobody talked about the details of any possible help the state might provide.
Still, the mayor said, "It was a good meeting" and he expects it lead to benefits for the city.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

City's Grand List up

Despite suffering the worst economy since the Great Depression, Bristol saw its Grand List rise by $31 million last year.

“We’ve been very, very fortunate,” Mayor Art Ward said Friday.

The new growth, much of it at ESPN, will mean an additional $804,000 in city property taxes, said city Comptroller Glenn Klocko.

The extra cash will help officials struggling to cope with sinking revenues and rising costs.

City Assessor Tom DeNoto said that ESPN, which is easily the biggest taxpayer in Bristol, led the way in adding to the city’s $4.3 billion tally of taxable property.

He said the Bristol-based worldwide sports leader has property worth nearly $500 million when its leased quarters are factored in. ESPN is “a huge contributor” to the overall tax base, DeNoto said.

“ESPN helped drive the way significantly for us. We’re proud of that,” Klocko said.

With plans for continued growth, ESPN could soon be responsible for a greater percentage of the city’s tax base than New Departure was at its height, when it paid more than 10 percent of the community’s property taxes.

DeNoto said the city’s reliance on ESPN is “not an overwhelming concern” because the company has always been open about its plans and accommodating to city officials at every turn.

The overall increase was .57 percent, less than the city’s norm during the past couple of decades, but better than last year’s rate of growth, when the tally increased by $10 million.

DeNoto said it is remarkable that a quarter of all the new growth is directly attributable to ESPN.

Also contributing to the growth was a new Dupont Business Archives on Halcyon Drive, the new CMI Specialty Products on Redstone Hill Road and other modest additions to the tax rolls.

Ward said the city’s long-term effort to attract new business and new emphasis on helping existing ones expand in Bristol is paying off. Maintaining a business-friendly atmosphere in the city is crucial, the mayor said.

The city also picked up almost $8 million in new value from its motor vehicle lists this year.

DeNoto said he thinks a number of people took advantage of the “Cash for Clunkers” program last summer that spurred automobile sales. The new cars are worth more than the old ones traded in.

He said that used gas guzzling pickup trucks and other large vehicles went up in value because the market for them got better after the gasoline price spikes of the previous year. That also helped the Grand List, DeNoto said.

Klocko said that some of the surrounding towns did “a little better than us” in terms of percentage increases, but because Bristol’s taxable property is worth more generally, the new revenue is more significant.

It’s not clear whether next year will be rosier.

“It also looks better for the future,” Klocko said, with ESPN’s day care center coming this year and another new building in the works that would be chock full of high-technology equipment.

But DeNoto said there are “way too many variables” to know how the overall picture will turn out.

Still, he said, “All indications are that we should have some growth.”

There were 54,190 motor vehicles on the rolls for the October 1, 2009 Grand List. That compares to 54,479 last year and 54,671 at the end of 2007.

It’s been at least half a century since Bristol saw a decline in the number of cars and trucks for two consecutive years.

The Grand List does not include hundreds of millions of dollars worth of exempt property, including Bristol Hospital, churches, cemeteries and parks.
The final taxable property numbers are likely to be adjusted slightly by mid-April after assessment appeals are decided.

People who want to challenge their new assessments have until February 20 to file the necessary paperwork with the assessor’s office. The Board of Assessment Appeals will consider appeals in March.

TOP 10 Taxpayers

1. ESPN $263.4 million
2. COVANTA BRISTOL $42.7 million
3. BRISTOL CENTER $36.3 million
4. CONNECTICUT LIGHT & POWER CO. $32.4 million
5. CARPENTER REALTY CO. $24.8 million
6. BRISTOL COMMONS $22.5 million

7. SUPERIOR BUSINESS PARK $20.5 million

8. LAKE COMPOUNCE $18.8 million
9. BRISTOL PLAZA $16.7 million
10. THEIS PRECISION STEEL $15.6 million
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

City borrows millions for less than 1 percent interest

To cover the tab for the $7.4 million the city has spent on the downtown mall site so far, the city this week sold taxable notes to investors willing to loan the money.

When officials did it last year for the first time, note buyers agreed to accept 2.33 percent annual interest in return for taking on the taxable notes.

This week, when the city sold another one-year note to cover the debt, taxpayers caught an even bigger break.

Investors proved willing to take just .85 percent to loan the city the money for another year.

“It’s an excellent deal for the city,” said Matt Spoerndle, the city’s financial advisor.

Spoerndle said the city, which had four bidders, snagged the best rate any Connecticut municipality has yet secured.

The city typically sells tax-exempt bonds because they are used to pay for civic improvements that fall within the norm of municipalities, such as schools, roads and parks.

But when the city bought the mall for $5.3 million in 2005, it leaped into a commercial enterprise that required different handling than the city’s other ventures. It has spent an additional $2.1 million since to demolish the mall and pay lawyers and other outside experts.

The city initially loaned itself the money for the mall purchase from its healthy rainy day fund, but last year recognized the need to borrow the money elsewhere.

City Comptroller Glenn Klocko said last year the city could just keep rolling over one-year taxable note until something is done with the 17-acre Depot Square sit on North Main Street.

The nonprofit Bristol Downtown Development Corp. is working out an agreement with the Long Island-based Renaissance Downtowns to work on a plan for the site’s revitalization.

Klocko said the cheap rates the city got are a matter of timing and a reflection of Bristol’s solid credit rating.

That four bidders were interested, said Spoerndle, also shows how well investors regard Bristol.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

The wheels on the bus go round and round

The busway got a big boost last night when the Central Connecticut Regional Planning Agency once again backed the $573 million project. Read the hastily written story here. (My editor, Bill Sarno, got it into print despite the decision coming half an hour after deadline.)
Only two people on the agency voted against the move -- the two Bristol delegates who attended: Don Padlo and Tim Furey. Bristol's other representative, John Pompei, was absent.
Some of the things that didn't get in the story:
* Mayor Art Ward is going to meet today with New Britain Mayor Tim Stewart and the state's transportation commissioner, Joseph Marie. Marie pledged to try to find ways to relieve Bristol's isolation from the state's transportation system.
* Marie and other DOT officials warned that if the CCRPA refused to back the busway, all of the region's transportation projects that rely on federal cash would grind to a halt for two years.
* Marie said that if the state pulled the plug on the busway, it would have to repay to the federal government 80 percent of the $53 million it has already spent on the project.
When I get my notes off my laptop, I'll add more.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Chamber disappointed in Press busway editorial

Statement from Mike Nicastro, head of the Central Connecticut Chambers of Commerce:
As the executive officer of the Chamber of Commerce I have to state how disappointed the Chamber was this morning to see the Bristol Press editorial staff endorsing a Busway project that is out of control with costs and will provide no tangible benefit to Bristol or any of the communities that make up the Central Connecticut Chambers.  Since saving the Press and Herald from the “mouth” of bankruptcy the paper’s management has repeatedly told the Chamber that they were going to “completely change the newspaper” and that coverage of Bristol and the Bristol region would be better than ever.  Evidence of this change has been minimal at best.  The Busway issue provided maybe the greatest opportunity for a breakout from the status quo and leap into a new day.  The Press editorial board missed the opportunity.  They could have worked hand in hand with the two largest communities of Bristol and New Britain to push our federal leaders to adapt to the changing environment and work with us to evolve the limited and costly Busway project into transit solution that could service hundreds of thousands of residents providing a bidirectional rail solution to New York and Hartford with the potential in future to service Bradley International and Boston.  Instead they chose to protect that status quo.  Instead of demanding to know why this project is in reality a 60/40 (new federal money/state) split and not the 80/20 that we have been told all along that it was they stayed silent.  Instead of leading, they chose to follow.   If we are going to change the future of our region we need to be happily accused of being “dreamers” and we need to fight to reverse ridiculous bureaucracy that works to force through bad ideas simply because they’re “too far along.”   We have to work by the adage that “good enough is not good enough.”  This was the opportunity to make that statement and they just plain missed it.  

Michael D. Nicastro

President & Chief Executive Officer

Central Connecticut Chambers of Commerce/

Greater Bristol Chamber of Commerce

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Press editorial: Do the busway

The Press has an editorial today detailing the argument for moving forward with the busway. Please be aware that I have exactly nothing to do with what stances my paper takes on its editorial page.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Commuter rail and busway plans can't quite co-exist.

Advocates of the proposed busway between New Britain and Hartford argue there’s no reason that the $573 million project they hope to build soon can’t co-exist with a commuter rail service.

“We could do both,” said New Britain Mayor Tim Stewart.

“We’re trying to shoot for them both,” said state Rep. Tim O’Brien, a New Britain Democrat.

But is that possible?

Not for Mike Nicastro, the president of the Central Connecticut Chambers of Commerce, who argues, “You can’t do both. There is no room for both.”

Both sides have at least a little truth in what they say.

The existing Pan Am Southern Railway line follows the old Highland route from Waterbury to Bristol, cutting across Plainville into downtown New Britain. From there, it cuts sharply to the southeast to end in Berlin, where the main tracks between New Haven and Hartford run.

It could, however, follow a rail right of way from downtown New Britain to Newington and West Hartford, a much more direct route – the same route that passenger trains took until they ceased operating half a century ago.

There’s just one hitch with using the old rail route: if the busway is constructed, it won’t exist anymore.

Stewart said the right of way is too narrow to allow for a busway and train tracks between Newington and New Britain. Fairview Cemetery is just one of the obstacles in the way, he said.

He said, though, that the train could simply go on to Berlin and catch the tracks to Hartford from there.

With the busway and the commuter rail between Berlin and Waterbury, Stewart said, the region could have “the best of both worlds.”

But Nicastro said that doesn’t make any sense.

Without the ability to run tracks from downtown New Britain to Newington, the whole route is inefficient for commuters coming from the west.

If the busway is allowed to “eat up the right of way,” Nicastro said, the ride between Bristol and Hartford goes from less than half an hour by train to much more, too much for commuters to consider it.

“To backtrack to Berlin and then go up to Hartford is not the way we live,” said Tim Furey, a member of the Central Connecticut Regional Planning Agency’s board.

A train that goes north from New Britain to West Hartford and Hartford, on the other hand makes for “a nice line,” Furey said.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Bingham School to close on July 1

View Larger Map

The Board of Education gave its blessing to a plan to shutter Bingham School after classes end this June. Read the whole story here.
Now the question for officials is what they're going to do with yet another wonderful old building downtown. Let's hope the answer isn't to let it rot.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Busway fate may be decided tonight

A last-minute bid to derail the proposed $573 million busway project between New Britain and Hartford has supporters and critics focused on tonight’s Central Connecticut Regional Planning Agency session.

Regional planners, who backed the busway a decade ago, are trying to decide whether to give their blessing to a move to allocate $116 million during the next two years to the busway project.

If they refuse, the 9.4-mile busway may be delayed or killed.

While busway backers say the agency’s support for use of the money should be automatic, it’s clear that at least some planning officials disagree.

Tim Furey, a Bristol representative to the agency board, said advocates of both the busway and the commuter rail alternative plan to present information to planners tonight.

With so much at stake, Furey said, it’s crucial that planners make “a very informed decision” and not a hasty one. He said a final decision may not be made until March.

Busway backers said the $45 million in federal aid announced Wednesday is irrelevant to the decision at hand.

For Mike Nicastro, president of the Central Connecticut Chambers of Commerce, the decision facing the CCRPA is a straightforward one: whether to commit another $116 million to the busway during tough years when the rest of the state is “going to take a beating” financially.

“We’re sure burning a lot of dry powder for 9 miles,” Nicastro said.

To allocate the transportation cash for the busway, he said, essentially means “eating funds” that could be use to fix highways, repair bridges or some of the many other projects already on the state’s to-do list.  Read the rest of the story by clicking here.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Documentary featuring Bristol Press to air on CPTV next month

FILM SCREENING, PANEL OF JOURNALISTS AT THE MARK TWAIN HOUSE & MUSEUM FOCUSES ON THE FUTURE OF THE PRESS

“The Death of My News May Be Exaggerated,” a Collaboration with Connecticut Public Broadcasting, Includes Screening of Important New Documentary, On Deadline; Panel Discussion Follows with Key Local Media Figures

WHEN: Tuesday, March 2, 7:30 p.m.

WHERE: The Mark Twain House & Museum, 351 Farmington Ave., Hartford

Join The Mark Twain House & Museum and Connecticut Public Broadcasting for a screening of a critical new documentary on the future of newspapers by John and Rosemary Keogh O’Neill, On Deadline: Is Time Running Out For The Press? followed by a panel discussion led by WNPR's John Dankosky with some of those involved in this changing trade.

Participants will be:

Michael Schroeder, Editor and Publisher, The New Britain Herald and The Bristol Press

Steve Collins, Staff Writer, The Bristol Press

Naedine Hazell, Editor, The Hartford Courant

Christine Stuart, Editor/Owner, CTNewsJunkie.com.

Mark Pazniokas, Capitol Bureau Chief, CTMirror.org

TICKET PRICES: Tickets are $15 ($10 for Mark Twain House & Museum and CPTV members) and can be purchased by calling 860-280-3130.

(On Deadline runs on CPTV Thursday March 4 at 8  p.m. with a repeat on Friday March 5 at 10 p.m.) 

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Busway's projected cost is 7 times higher than anticipated in 2001

After a dozen years of study and tens of millions of dollars worth of design work, experts are pretty sure the proposed busway from Hartford’s Union Station to downtown New Britain is going to cost about $573 million.

At the beginning, officials guessed it might cost just $80 million, a figure they tossed around as recently as 2001, but as they began working on the details, the cost rose steadily to today’s figure.

How much the final tab may be is, of course, uncertain. It depends on a number of variables, from the inflation rate to the bids that contractors actually submit when the state seeks companies to do the work.

At least Connecticut taxpayers can take comfort that the federal government is picking up at least 80 percent of the tab.

Even so, Michael Sanders, the transit administrator for the state Department of Transportation, said state officials are concerned about the escalating cost.

But, he said, by the time the engineers tallied the cost of relocating rails, rebuilding bridges, putting in an overpass and more, the construction tab reached $272 million. And that’s only a fraction of the overall expense.

It may turn out to cost more than expected or it could turn out to be cheaper, though government projects tend to wind up more costly than anticipated rather than less.

Click here to see a graph of how the projected busway costs have soared since 2001.
Read Wednesday's Press for much more.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Ward inducted into Hall of Fame

This morning, back from Florida and feeling rested, Mayor Art Ward was inducted into the Bristol Eastern High School Hall of Fame.
"I'm very humbled," the mayor said.
Joking that the move was unrelated to his academic record, Ward said he is the second Eastern alumni to be chosen for the honor.
Last year, Mike Reiss, a writer for "The Simpsons," was the first to be picked for the school's hall of fame.
There's probably a good "Simpsons" episode in this, but I'll let it go.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Hamzy says no to AG race

State Rep. Bill Hamzy just issued a statement saying he will not run for attorney general. Here's what he sent me:

   After alot of deliberation as well as conversations with family and friends, I have decided not to run for Attorney General.  Frankly, I am flattered that people thought enough of me to encourage me to consider this race.  The feedback and support that has been expressed by many, many people is very much appreciated.  As a person who has continuously practiced law in Bristol for the past 17 years representing individuals from all walks of life, I would thoroughly enjoy being the attorney who represents the people of the State of Connecticut. 

    However, the realities of running a statewide campaign, practicing law full-time, responsibly representing the people of the 78th District while trying to be father to my children and a husband to my wife outweigh a campaign to be Attorney General.  I would like to again sincerely thank all of those people who offered their support.  It does mean alot to me and my family.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Grave neglect?

Hidden behind a modern garage on Stearns Street is a tiny patch of lumpy ground with a smattering of weathered headstones placed almost haphazardly within the confines of old stone and metal fencing.

Beneath the ground lies the dust of some of the founders of Bristol.

At least two dozen people are buried within the walls, with 19 headstones remaining to mark their remains, some of them broken, cracked and beaten down by more than two centuries to the point where they are barely legible.

Though Judge Epaphroditus Peck, one of the city’s early chroniclers, called the cemetery “the most historic place in town” in an 1897 letter, it is almost entirely forgotten today.

Last week, the ground was littered with grocery store receipts, water bottles, pieces of aluminum that appeared to have blown off a house and a plastic bag with a Christmas tree printed on it.

Still, it exists.

That the city’s oldest burying grounds survives at all is the result of George Dudley Seymour’s efforts a century ago to preserve the landmark when neighbors wanted to develop the parcel.

Instead, he won approval to erect thick stone walls on three sides, with a metal fence separating it from the immaculately groomed and much larger St. Joseph Church cemetery next door.

In use from 1758 until 1824, the cemetery contains the remains of 11 of the 12 founders of the Anglican Church of New Cambridge, the first name for the community that ultimately became Bristol.

It may be that the overall neglect of the cemetery is rooted in that distant past, when loyalists to the Church of England were usually loyal to the king as well.

And in that revolutionary period, failing to support the cause of independence that ultimately led to the creation of the United States was, to put it mildly, not easy.

Peck reports that most of the people in New Cambridge “were intensely patriotic” and 50 or more of them served in the American army during the Revolutionary War.

The first Episcopal minister to conduct a religious service in what became Bristol, the Rev. William Gibbs, was carted off to jail in Hartford in 1749 with his hands tied under a horse’s belly because he refused to pay taxes to support the established Congregational Church. He wound up going insane, perhaps from the harsh treatment he received from the “presumptuous and bold men” he opposed.

Many other members of the church in the area were persecuted during the period and one, Moses Dunbar of Burlington, was hung for allegedly spying for Britain.

According to a history compiled by Mike Saman in 2004, the Anglicans first built a church on Federal Hill Green in 1754, on the site where Patterson Place stands, a former school. It became the second Episcopal parish in Hartford County.

When war came in 1775, “the meeting house men” from the independence-minded Congregational Church told the Anglicans that if they prayed for the king, “we will kill you,” according to E. Leroy Pond’s book The Tories of Chippeny Hill.

“So the members of the Church in New Cambridge closed its doors in silence,” Pond wrote.

They fled to homes on Chippens Hill or to the Tory’s Den cave.

Their minister, the Rev. James Nichols, was shot at several times by patriots and was tarred and feathered at least once, according to Peck.

During the war, the Congregational Church, which served as the local government, confiscated most of the Anglican Church’s 4 acres on Federal Hill, Saman said.

“They took the property away by adverse possession,” Saman said, because it had been abandoned.

Members were able, however, to fix up their old building and try to reestablish their place in the community.

But with only 29 members, the costs were too great so in 1790, Saman said, they joined “with the Episcopalians of East Plymouth’s East Church later called St. Matthews Church.”

On Chippens Hill, the church was on Old Marsh Road in a building that is now a private home, said Saman.

At that time, they sold the church building on Federal Hill to Abel Lewis, Saman said, who used it as a barn until it burned down.

During the 19^th century, after the last burial, the cemetery was used as a pasture, largely neglected. But Seymour’s call to preserve it found wide support and the Daughters of the American Revolution cared for it for at least a few decades in the early 20^th Century.

Most recently, an Eagle Scout project in 2001cleaned up the cemetery and erected a wooden sign listing those buried within its walls.

In 1891, Charles Shepard copied the inscriptions from the remaining stones at the cemetery, preserving some of the words that are no longer present.

Among the remaining stones is one for Hannah Hill, who died in 1766 at the age of 29.

At the top of the stone marking her resting place is what looks like a smiley face with a dozen or so octopus-like arms reaching out below it.

At the base of the marker on one recent day sat a crushed McDonald’s soda cup.

City refuses to take over cemetery

The city’s Cemetery Commission recently refused a request from the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut to take ownership of the historic burying ground.

Members said the city has too much on its plate to take on any extra expense.

Mike Saman, secretary of the panel, said the church “doesn’t want to have it anymore. They want to get rid of it.”

Saman said the diocese ought to pay the city $80,000 to fix up the cemetery and care for it as part of any deal for Bristol to take it over.

Instead, he said, “they just want to abandon it. I don’t think the city should take it.”

Saman said the church has the responsibility of caring for the cemetery, but won’t do it.

“They have an obligation to do something,” Saman said.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Public works seeks to triple outlay for paving streets

Worried that repairing crumbling streets will wind up costing taxpayers far more in the long run, public works officials are seeking to triple the money the city allocated for road resurfacing during the next fiscal year.

The budget panel for the Public Works Board recently recommended allocating $1.9 million for repaving city streets. That compares to the $650,000 it will likely spend this fiscal year, which ends in June.

“This is what we think we need to somewhat hold our own,” Public Works Director Walter Veselka said.

But with politicians and fiscal overseers fretting that revenues are down and wary of hiking property taxes, the prospects for winning approval for the spending are poor.

Finance Chairman Rich Miecznikowski, whose Board of Finance does most of the work of setting the yearly spending plan, said, “We’ll look at it very closely, as we do with all budgets.”

“I know damn well they’re going to cut it,” said Don Padlo, a long-serving public works commissioner.

Last year, public works sought $2.2 million for its overall streets budget – which includes paving, sidewalk repairs and a number of related items – but emerged with $1.3 million in its final revised budget.

This time around, public works officials are angling for $2.6 million, despite warnings that city spending will generally be frozen at this year’s level.

“We can’t take another $1 million hit,” said city Councilor Cliff Block.
For the complete story, click here.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

City seeks 5 percent sewer fee hike

With more than $15 million worth of sewer projects on tap during the next decade, the city is trying to stash away some cash to make sure that residents don’t get soaked paying for them.
Public works officials are calling for a 5 percent hike in the sewer rate this year followed by 5 percent increases in each of the next three years in order to ensure the projects can be done without clobbering taxpayers all at once.
Brian Fowkes, who oversees the sewer division, said that a 5 percent hike in the coming fiscal year will cost the average user $10.
The average homeowner would see sewer bills rise from $193 annually to $203 per year, Fowkes said.
For the whole story, click here.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Commuter rail price tag? Perhaps $443 million

A new estimate from commuter rail backers pegs the cost of creating commuter rail between Waterbury and Hartford at $443 million.

The figure includes new stations, tracks and other necessary improvements, supporters said.

Peter Lynch, an Old Saybrook resident with decades of experience with the New Haven Railroad, said at the meeting, “Fixing up the railroad here is not a big deal.”

He said the line, which had trains running on double tracks every half hour back in the 1920s, can up upgraded again for about $1 million a mile.

The work, Lynch said, “is relatively simple” and not time-consuming.

“There’s nothing easier than upgrading existing railroad,” Lynch said.

He said that commuter rail running from Bristol through New Britain and Newington into Hartford would take 27 minutes. Taking a bus from Bristol would take 50 minutes when the busway is finished.

For Plainville, Lynch said, the difference is 20 minutes by train to Hartford or 40 minutes by bus.

As a freight line, the railroad is marginal these days, Lynch said. But with commuter rail, there would be money to keep the track in top condition, spurring more freight use as well.

Lynch said he has no vested interest in the outcome of the busway versus rail battle. He said it makes more sense to provide commuter rail for a third of the state for less than $500 million than it does to spend nearly $600 million on a busway that only a few towns would benefit from. 

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Rail vs. Bus feud breaks into the open

When regional planners gather next week, supporters of a proposal commuter rail line in Central Connecticut are hoping to derail the $579 million busway between New Britain and Hartford.

A taste of how bitter the debate has grown cropped up Thursday at the Central Connecticut Transportation Improvement Committee session in Bristol when officials on each side lashed out at the other.

New Britain Mayor Tim Stewart accused rail backers at the meeting of “disrespectful and extremely disingenuous” behavior in trying to ambush the busway plan at the ordinarily mundane transportation meeting.

The public works director of New Britain, Mark Moriarty, said “calls were made behind New Britain’s back” to try to round up rail supporters to “put a kink” in the busway’s progress at Thursday’s session. He described himself as furious at the effort.

But as advocates on both sides faced off, they agreed to leave what would ordinarily be a routine administrative decision to the Central Connecticut Regional Planning Agency, which meets next week. Read the whole story here.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Bristol stands alone

The city of Bristol may be the only municipality in the country that has an overfunded pension plan for its employees that's got enough surplus cash to shift some of it pay for retiree health care.
City Comptroller Glenn Klocko said today he's checked with all the bond rating firms, which keep tabs on municipal finances everywhere, and none of them know of another city that has such an excess in its pension fund.
The city has about $500 million socked away, at least $100 million more than it is projected to need.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

25 years ago today

City historian Bob Montgomery just told us that 25 years ago today, the Barnes family announced it was selling The Bristol Press. That's a sad day in Bristol history.
Though corporate owners did right by the paper at first, it went into a free fall after the 1994 purchase of the then-thriving daily by a company I don't want to name or remember. Thank God we're done with them, after Mike Schroeder bought us a  year ago.
Though this remains a perilous time for any newspaper, at least we're still alive and still have hope that the world ahead still has room for this little paper's coverage of the town it has served since 1871.
Even so, I miss Bart Barnes.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Sorry for the slow week

There's been no time to do anything with this blog this week. Hopefully that'll change soon!
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Welcome to the Connecticut Mirror

As if the internet didn't offer enough riches, there's a new must-see site for anyone who cares about Connecticut politics and government: the Connecticut Mirror.
It is a nonprofit that calls itself an "independent source of news and information about our state's government, politics and public policy."
Let's hope it flourishes.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Charter panel delayed; Ward blames councilors

Blaming two city councilors who failed to submit nominees in time, Mayor Art Ward said he had to delay the creation of a charter revision commission until February.

That will give the new panel only a few months to recommend potential changes to the city government’s blueprint if its suggestions are going to wind up on this November’s ballot.

Ward said he wants the commission to weigh a few ideas, including the possible extension of the mayor’s term from two to four years, and to report to the council in time to let voters decide any recommendations this year.

“There’s not a lot of time,” Ward said, so the commission probably can’t have the sort of wide-ranging discussions that past panels have had.

The mayor refused to say which councilors failed to offer the name of someone to appoint to the seven-person panel, though he did say that Acting Mayor Ken Cockayne submitted one.

Several city insiders said the former city Councilor Craig Minor, an ardent support of a city manager, was among the names that were submitted.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

The mansions of our would-be leaders

Rick Green has a terrific post today. Go look at it.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Supreme Court throws aside campaign finance laws

In the sort of breathtaking edict that really ought to be decided on something other than a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court today tossed out longstanding restrictions on corporate campaign spending. The majority basically said companies can spend whatever they like.
The floodgates are going to be open wide.
Having watched this issue for decades, I'm not surprised, but I'm still stunned.
Justice John Paul Stevens' dissent has it just about right, I'm afraid. He said, ''The court's ruling threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions around the nation.''
This is also a very strange overreaching by the majority, who took a legitimate case in which federal restrictions were wrong, and leaped way past the facts to make a sweeping ruling that undermines everything about campaign finance laws. Talk about judicial activism!
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Bristol Nine hire marketing director

Former Republican City Council hopeful Derek Czenczelewski got a job recently as the marketing director for the Bristol Nine, the new collegiate league baseball team in town. So don't be surprised if he hits you up to be a sponsor or some such thing!

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Welch forms new Facebook campaign page

Welch and his family at a Tea Party gathering at the Capitol last April.

Republican state Senate contender Jason Welch is putting the pieces together quickly for a solid run against veteran Democrat Tom Colapietro, a Bristol Democrat.
His Facebook campaign page already has 117 fans, which isn't bad for a couple of weeks. He also has LinkedIn campaign page that's still pretty new.
One thing's for sure, his family doesn't mind politics. Here's his wife, Elizabeth, and kids campaigning in Massachusetts Tuesday for the successful GOP contender for a U.S. Senate seat, Scott Brown:

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Interesting thing to note about the blog

It's fascinating to me that the comments on my blog entries are far, far more enlightening and much less angry when they're made on my Facebook page rather than directly on the blog.
For those who don't know, I have a feed for this blog running on my wall on Facebook, where it gets mixed in with status updates, new 'friends,' and such. It's possible for people to make comments on the Facebook wall.
With growing frequency, they do, most all of them related to blog entries. What makes the comments better, I'm sure, is that all of them -- every single one of them -- is made by someone whose identity is clear. Heck, most of the time there's even a tiny picture of the person.
I say this in part as a mere observation. But I also invite anyone who'd like to be a Facebook friend and check out how that works. It may be better for some of you.
You can find me on Facebook by searching for "Steve Majerus-Collins." And while you're there, become a Fan of Youth Journalism International.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com