Mayor Capone Almon statement about the energy programs

Mayor Capone Almon made some video statements this week regarding the energy programs that are being proposed by her administration. The first program regards energy savings at the skating rink. This program will save energy at the rink through new equipment and better insulation. In conjunction with United Illuminating the work will be carried out this summer and will result in 50% savings in energy consumption. Here is the Mayor's statement on that program:



The second program relates to the usage of generators at the High School to lighten the load on the power grid during warm summer days. At these times the high usage of air conditioning puts a strain on the grid. The Mayor is proposing using the school generators at those times. In return, the UI will give East Haven $40,000 to start an Energy Conservation Fund which can be used for green energy programs in town. Here is the Mayor's statement on this program:

Meetings This Week

There is a full slate of meetings this week. The most interesting is the Special Meeting for the Police Commission to be held on Tuesday at Police HQ on North High Street. As I noted in a previous post, the new majority of the Police Commission forced this meeting to be called at last week's Regular Meeting. The agenda includes withdrawing the appeal to the Connecticut Supreme Court on the Nappe case, rehiring Nappe and reviewing the outdated policies and procedures manual.

Here is the schedule for the week:

Monday June 2nd
Flood and Erosion Senior Center 7:00 PM
Housing Authority Town Hall 7:30 PM

Tuesday June 3rd
Police Commission Police HQ 7:00 PM
Town Council Senior Center 7:00 PM (public hearing @ 7, meeting @ 7:30)

Wednesday June 4th
Planning and Zoning Commission Senior Center 7:30 PM
Urban Renewal Town Hall 7:30 PM

Thursday June 5th
Cozy Beach Park Committee Beach House 7:00 PM

Police Commission Meeting

The Police Commission held their regular monthly meeting last night. It was the first meeting since Mayor Capone Almon had appointed Fred Brow as a replacement for the seat vacated by the death of Terry Pine. Since a majority of the Commission has been appointed by the current Mayor, a certain amount of fireworks was to be expected. The audience that gathered for those fireworks was not disappointed.

The meeting opened with a moment of silence for the late Commissioner but swiftly moved to a request by the Police Union President to add to the meeting's agenda the grievance concerning the removal of Nappe from the EHPD. The vote was 3 for adding it to the agenda and 2 against. However, since the addition of anything to the agenda requires a 2/3rds vote the motion failed.

The next item to come before the Commission was the addition of a second garage to the list of garage allowed to do towing for the Police Department. It was a long discussion. In the end the Commission members voted 3 for adding the extra garage to the list and the 2 Republicans voting against.

The final item was a motion by Fred Brow to have a special meeting on June 3rd at the EH PD building on North High Street at 7PM to address issues that were not on tonight's agenda. These include:

1. A briefing on the policies and procedures manual
2. Discussion and action on withdrawing the appeal in the Nappe case
3. Discussion and action on rehiring Nappe
4. Requesting a certified list from Civil Service for the position of Detective

As you can imagine the Republican appointees were not in favor of the Special Meeting. However, to schedule the meeting only a majority vote was necessary so the meeting was scheduled. Watch the discussion here or below:

Town Energy Programs

As I noted below the Mayor is proposing some energy savings programs. The programs were discussed at the end of the Board of Finance meeting last week. Instead of making everyone sit through an entire Board of Finance meeting video (which would be a wonderful cure for insomnia), I have extracted the discussion of the energy programs from the video and put it on youtube here....or watch it below:

Meetings This Week

With the Memorial Day holiday on Monday, this is a short week for meetings. There are, however, a couple of meetings that promise to be interesting. The two most interesting meetings occur at the same time so I will not be able to tape both of them. The Board of Education will be meeting on Tuesday night to discuss, among other things, their budget for the upcoming school year which starts on July 1st. The Board will have to determine which cuts will need to be made in order to stay within the budget provided by the Town Council in the 2008-09 budget which was approved at the end of April. Prior to the Regular Board meeting there are 2 subcommittee meetings. The Curriculum subcommittee meets at 6:00 PM for a presentation about computers at the Academy. The Finance subcommittee meets at 6:20 PM for discussion of the new budget.

The Police Commission meets on Tuesday evening at the Senior Center at 7:00 PM. This will be the first meeting since the Mayor appointed Fred Brow to replace Terry Pine. Now that the Mayor has appointed a majority of the Police Commission I expect the Nappe issue will disappear. The meeting should be good fun to watch.

Here is the complete list of meetings this week:

Tuesday
Police Commission Senior Center 7:00 PM
Board of Education High School 7:00 PM (subcommittees starting at 6:00 PM)

Thursday
Old Cemetary Board Town Hall 7:30 PM

Board of Finance - May 21, 2008 Regular Meeting

The video of the Board of Finance's Regular Meeting for May has been posted on google video. There were a lot of transfers from one account to another which happens near the end of the fiscal year. The Mayor also proposed making some changes to the lighting at the Rink. The lighting will be much more energy efficient and the UI will pay for a substantial portion of the cost. The Mayor also asked permission to join another energy program being pushed by the UI. The town agrees to let UI take the High School off the grid in very heavy usage periods in the summer. When that happens the generator at the High School will be started. The UI will pay the town $40,000 for this capability. The money will be going into a new energy fund for other projects which will make Town buildings more energy efficient.

Here is the link to the video or watch it below:

Meetings This Week

There is a pretty light meeting schedule this week. The one meeting that would be fun to attend is the Special Meeting of the Board of Education on Tuesday. They will be discussing the report on the conduct of Joe Travaglino regarding the irregularities in some buildings and grounds contracts. However, it is going to be held in Executive Session unless Mr. Travaglino requests it be held in open session. If it is held in Executive Session it will not be open to the public.

Tuesday May 20th
Special Meeting, Board of Education 7:00 PM @ the High School
School Building Committee 7:00 PM @ Town Hall

Wednesday May 21st
Board of Finance 7:30 PM @ Town Hall

Condolences

As many of you are aware, Terry Pine passed away this week. He was a long serving member of the Police Commission and, before that, a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission. Our condolences go out to his family at this difficult time.

Planning and Zoning - May 7, 2008

The East Haven Planing and Zoning Commission met on Wednesday, May 7th. There were 2 items on the published agenda and one item was added at the end. The two items on the agenda were a C.G.S. 8-24 request for the acceptance of 3 parcels of land in lieu of taxes owed by the owner of that land. There seemed to be skepticism by the Commission members since the owner owes approximately $50,000 in taxes and the land appears to be worthless for resale. The owner has not paid taxes in 14 years. When I heard that the first question that crossed my mind was, why has it taken 14 years for the Town to go after the owner? I'm pretty sure if I did not pay my taxes for 14 years the Town would have come after me. In any event the 8-24 recommendation to the Town Council was approved. The Town Council should be taking this item up at their next meeting in June.

The second item on the agenda was the modification to a site plan at 199 Saltonstall Parkway to create a licensed Hair Dressing and Cosmetology Salon in an existing structure. I think that is the building Subway used to be in. It was approved.

A third item was not on the published agenda but was added at the last minute. The was a request to add a deli to the 55+ housing that was being built on Main Street. I believe that is the building next to Goody's Hardware that is under construction. It was approved with conditions.

Watch the video here or below:

Housing Authority Meeting - May 5, 2008

The Housing Authority met for their monthly Regular Meeting on May 5th. They discussed, among other things, the fallout from the recent arrest of Casandra Ashe, the Housing Authority Director. Mrs. Ashe was suspended indefinitely without pay by the Authority. The Authority also decided to approve the Chairwoman's decision to close the 2 bank accounts at the Bank of America which were frozen the day of the arrest and to open one bank account. There was also a brief discussion of the having the property management company, Imagineers, take over many of the functions of the Housing Authority for now.

You can watch the entire public part of the meeting here or below:

Meetings This Week

Monday May 5th
Board of Education Sub-committees 6:30 PM High School
Democratic Town Committee 7:00 PM Senior Center, Everyone Welcome
Flood And Erosion 7:00 PM Senior Center
Housing Authority 7:30 PM Town Hall

Tuesday May 6th
Town Council 7:00 PM Senior Center

Wednesday May 7th
Planning and Zoning Commission 7:30 PM Senior Center
Urban Renewal Agency 7:30 PM Town Hall

Candlelight Committee Meeting - May 1, 2008

Here is the latest meeting of the Candlelight Committee (Cosey Beach Avenue?) meeting which was held on May 1st. Barbara Brow attended and gave a talk about the Shoreline Greenway Trail which will run past the Candlelight site.

Here is the link to the video or watch it below: