Merrick pushed his third party ideas to Minor

On Dec. 27, 2006, Republican City Council candidate Bob Merrick sent an email to Democratic Councilor Craig Minor that Merrick said was never answered. Here is what Merrick sent:

From: "newenglandopinion.com" <neweng@newenglandopinion.com>> Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2006 7:51 PM> To: craigminor@ci.bristol.ct.us> Subject: Vision for Downtown>> Dear Mr. Minor,
I have sent you the piece I wrote for the Observer that I talked to you about at the Blackstone. I also have attached a piece that I sent to the Bristol Press about Dave and his efforts on litter in Forestville. I'd be happy to help in any way with the downtown initiative. Prior to becoming a teacher I worked in procurement and contract administration at Pratt & Whitney for eight years.
As I mentioned to you I have started my own websites to help establish dialog about important issues. Please visit my websites at newenglandopinion.com, lincolnians.com, or lincolnians.org if you get a chance.
Sincerely,
Bob Merrick

Merrick attached these two documents:
Small Acts Make a Big Difference
By
Bob Merrick

It’s a cold crisp morning you grab your coffee and head out to the car making your way to work. As you run through your mental list of things to do for the day perhaps you don’t notice that the neighborhood looks cleaner than it did the day before. As you make your way to work you suddenly become aware of the prevalent litter that plagues certain parts of the city. You utter an angry comment in disgust. Why is your part of the city different? Doesn’t the public works department work throughout the city? No, it is not the fault of the city workers. It is not that people don’t litter in your part of the city either. It is due to the mission of a man called Dave.

Dave is Dave Pasqualicchio, owner of Nuchies in Forestville and President of the Forestville Village Association. Dave can be seen with his orange trash pail walking the streets of the Forestville section of Bristol picking up trash. Dave hates litter! He is passionate about keeping his section of the city clean. It is a constant battle. He realizes that first comes the litter, a visible invitation to drug dealers, transients, and criminals. Then comes the crime, shootings and other undesirable activities. What happens next? Out move his friends, neighbors, and hardworking families with children.

Hmm…Dave may be onto something. A few years back New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani started cracking down on small-time infractions and crimes which had been largely ignored due to limited police resources and the priority being given to larger crimes. Critics accused the mayor of tying up the police force with minor issues at the expense of larger crimes. What happened? As the smaller issues were addressed the larger crimes started to dramatically decrease. Hey, that makes sense. Any parent knows that if you let your children get away with the little things it doesn’t take too long before they start in on the larger ones as well and then you have a much bigger problem on your hands that is harder to correct.

What can we do? Be like Dave! Pick up your neighborhood, talk nicely to the kids next door and ask them to pick up after themselves or give you a hand. Introduce yourself to your neighbors and offer to help that senior citizen next door or single parent across the street rake the lawn, shovel the sidewalk, fix the front porch, or paint the house. Your kids said they were bored right? Send them outside to help! How about starting a neighborhood association, getting your community church involved, or enrolling your child in the local boy scout or girl scout troop? The cost of involvement is small but the rewards are big.

Whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, Independent or any other political affiliation it doesn’t matter. Make a New Year’s resolution. Take responsibility for your community. Make your neighborhood a better place to live. Be involved, be a good citizen, and make a difference.

Thanks Dave!

and

A Vision for Downtown Bristol
By
Bob Merrick

I have been a resident of Bristol for nearly eleven years. By Bristol’s standards I am a newcomer, an outsider. Many families have lived in Bristol for generations. It is great to see the love and commitment many long-time residents have for their community. I love it too! Bristol has a lot to offer. It has a great infrastructure, diverse population, good business base, good schools, centrally-located, affordable housing opportunities, beautiful libraries, nice parks, and is very self-contained.

As an educator, a home-rehab enthusiast, and a just plain curious guy Bristol is a great place to live. Bristol like just about any community in America is changing. Some changes are positive and some changes are not. In order for Bristol to maintain the integrity of our community we need to realize who we are and who we want to be going forward.

Bristol diverse population is composed of service workers, laborers, tradesmen, small-business owners, entrepreneurs, educators, craftsmen, and professionals among others. We are a considerably more diverse population than many of our surrounding towns.

There is a common bond, however, that many of our residents share, the love of sports.
Bristol loves sports. Baseball, football, basketball, soccer, hockey, you name it they watch it, attend it, play it, and support it. Little league, midget football, travel soccer, middle-school sports, high-school sports, and many others are loved in the city of Bristol. Hey, Bristol is the birthplace and home of ESPN for goodness sakes!

So what is Bristol’s identity and vision? Make Bristol the sports capital of Connecticut.
Develop the mall site as a small venue (8,000 seats) multi-purpose arena capable of supporting an arena football team and a minor league hockey team among other activities. Recently, ESPN signed a 5-year contract with the Arena Football League (AFL) taking a minority ownership position and guaranteeing television coverage. An arena would breathe life into the downtown area and provide entertainment opportunities not only for Bristol’s residents but for central Connecticut as well. With the development of the arena anchor restaurants and associated businesses would be interested in locating in downtown Bristol. Additionally, many new jobs would be created for our residents.

This project does not have to be exclusively funded by taxpayers. We have many outstanding local citizens and businessmen capable of backing this type of project. ESPN are you listening? Contact the mayor, the chamber of commerce, the town council and let them know what you think.

Remember that we need to step up and stand out, investing today, to ensure a bright future for our great community of Bristol!



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Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com