As published in the Record Journal Wednesday November 14, 2012
By Andrew Ragali
Record-Journal staff
(203) 317-2224
aragali@record-journal.com
Twitter:@AndyRagz
WALLINGFORD — A committee formed to assess the Lyman Hall High School track informed the Board of Education Operations Committee Tuesday night that the entire athletic facility at Fitzgerald Field needs to be overhauled.
The update would include the immediate installation of a new turf football field, six-lane track, handicap accessible bathrooms and lights, with a new concessions building and another building that would include a weight room and training room scheduled for construction further down the road.
Board of Education member Kathy Castelli, who served on the committee, said initially it was all about getting the track redone.
“We can get by this year, but that’s pushing it,” she said.
After a presentation by Lyman Hall Athletic Director Amy Labas on Tuesday night, the Operations Committee — consisting of five board members, with only four present Tuesday night — unanimously decided the project would move forward to the regular Board of Education for action during their Friday meeting.
“We’re at a point where it’s necessary to switch to all-season turf,” Labas said.
Labas said the initial project — including the turf field, track, bathroom and lights — is estimated to cost $1.2 million. With the addition of a concession stand, the project is estimated at $1.5 million. The school district already has $300,000 secured for the project for track funds.
School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo asked that the board allow the project to move forward so the school district could pursue time-sensitive grant opportunities, specifically the Whorrel Grant. Fred Balsimo, a member of the committee asked to look at the track, said the grant could pay for a certain percentage of the project that was put at just over $100,000 with current estimates.
The committee decided to hire an independent consultant for the project, and the district must go out to bid for the consultant before it can apply for the competitive national grant. Balsimo said only two of eight schools in the state have been approved for the grant.
Balsimo, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Athletic Directors, said “I’m here to help because I live in Wallingford.”
Mary Fritz, who represents the 90th General Assembly district, said that she and Balsimo both helped find grant money for the Sheehan High School turf field, but didn’t remain active in the process. This time, they both said they are in for the long haul.
Fritz said she has tentatively secured $525,000 for the project that was previously allocated through bonding for a project in Wallingford about 10 years ago that she refused to name. She said that she called the state Office of Fiscal Analysis on Tuesday and found that the bond funds were still leftover.
“All I have to do is change the title of the bond to Lyman Hall, and we have $525,000,” Fritz said.
This was news to Menzo, who asked “who are you taking it from?”
“It’s not your concern,” Fritz replied. “It’s not new money. It was already approved.”
With funding tentatively in place, the project only needs about $275,000. Along with the Whorrel Grant and the money Fritz found, the school district plans to look into a Small Town Economic Assistance Program (STEAP) grant, which can provide up to $500,000. Fritz said that Cheshire has received money for several projects through STEAP money. The caveat, said Fritz, is that the grant can only be applied for by Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr.
Menzo asked Fritz if the money could be split, so the school district received $275,000 and the town could receive the rest.
“You’re going down the wrong track,” Fritz said. “(Dickinson) is not going to do that.”
Menzo replied, “I’d give it a shot.”
If the project moves forward on Friday, Labas said ground will be broken on July 1, 2013, with hopes the field and track will be done by the time school starts. Labas has lined up several fundraisers for the project; including an April 1 5K at Lyman Hall that will become an annual event. In a survey of about 70 parents of athletes at the school performed by Labas, 59 percent said they don’t think Lyman Hall athletic facilities measure up to competition.
The project, she said, “is something that will enhance the program.”
Showing posts with label 90th Assembly District. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 90th Assembly District. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
‘Most people like what the two Marys are doing’ - Mushinsky and Fritz are in for the long haul
As published in the Record Journal Saturday November 10, 2012
By Laurie Rich Salerno
Record-Journal staff
lsalerno@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2235
Twitter:@LaurieSalernoRJ
WALLINGFORD - Democrat Mary Mushinsky is poised to tie for longest-serving state representative in the records of the Connecticut State Library.
If she completes the two-year term in the 85th District that she was elected to Tuesday, she will have served in the house for 34 years — as long as Richard O. Belden, a Republican who represented Shelton from 1975 until his death in 2007 at age 73. The library’s database goes back to 1849 for House members.
“I don’t go looking that stuff up, but I know I’ve been there a long time,” Mushinsky, 60, said last week after being told about the record.
“It’s interesting; I never would’ve thought it — I didn’t get into politics intentionally,” said Mushinsky, a former activist who one day decided she might make more of an impact as a legislator.
Apparently a town of steady habits, Wallingford has a couple more high profile, longtime incumbents in 28 year state Rep. Mary Fritz, 74, a fellow Democrat who also won re-election in her 90th District this week, and Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr., 64, the Republican who has been in power for 31 years and is the second-longest serving mayor in the state now in the role. Prospect’s Mayor Bob Chatfield, who was first elected in 1978, is the only mayor now in office who has served longer.
The analysts and those involved in town politics who were interviewed say they don’t think the interest in reelecting incumbents necessarily has to do with the community; rather, it’s the strength of the candidates themselves.
“If they do a good job, and people like the job they’re doing, they’ll get re-elected,” said Republican Town Chairman Bob Prentice, whose two Republican candidates, Greg Bachand and Guy Darter, were beaten Tuesday by Mushinsky and Fritz. “Most people like what the two Marys are doing. I don’t always agree with what they do — but I’ve only got one vote.”
His counterpart, Democratic Town Chairman Vincent Avallone, credited Fritz and Mushinsky’s repeated wins to their hard work in office.
“They’re just what representatives should be. They’re in touch with their constituents, they return phone calls — they help to solve problems and they’re sincere,” he said. About Dickinson and the Republican majority on the Town Council, he said, “It’s been very hard to defeat the mayor — he has a coattail effect.” But Avallone said he believes his party is strengthening in local elections.
Sacred Heart University government and politics professor Gary Rose, who lives in Cheshire, said incumbents often have an advantage on Election Day.
“Once these people get in office ... and they have their staffs up in Hartford, they know who all the voters are,” Rose said. “They are almost like little machines. They really are part of the community — they know exactly how to work the community.”
Though there’s an inherent advantage, Rose, too, credits the work and attitude of individual politicians with their own career longevity. As for why these politicians, despite their success, would not seek higher office, he said these people tend to believe the adage that all politics is local and would like to stay where they are.
“The people that run for higher office tend to be of a different type of ilk — more money, higher aspirations,” Rose said, whereas long-term incumbents find themselves with seniority and clout in the legislature. “It’s a gamble when you start to do that.”
Fritz said she never sought to move up because she liked the close contact with her constituents as a state representative and wanted to be around for her family.
“It’s because I really like what I do — and because it’s a (population) of about 22,000. I’m not that far removed from them. And at the same time, we raised six children ...” Fritz said.
Mushinsky, who has two sons with her husband, Martin J. Waters, said she has been asked, but the timing to run for a higher role was never right for her family.
“If you lose ... and you don’t have something else lined up and you’re not independently wealthy — and I’m not — it’s a big gamble,” Mushinsky said. “I think that what I work at now is what I’m good at.”
As for new blood bringing fresh ideas, something Bachand hammered away at in his campaign, the incumbents interviewed said their years of experience were invaluable.
“Experience is important. Government is becoming ever more complex, experience does play a role,” Dickinson said. “Having a feel for what’s needed, what the laws provide, what changes in law may be having an effect.”
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Monday, October 22, 2012
WALLINGFORD - Fur flies at forum for 85th, 90th
As published in the Record Journal, Friday October 19, 2012
By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff
rblair@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2225
Twitter:@RussellBlairRJ
WALLINGFORD — Republican Greg Bachand says state spending has grown 700 percent during the 32 years his opponent, Democratic state Rep. Mary M. Mushinsky, has held office.
“Her voting record speaks so loudly, it doesn’t matter what she said here tonight,” he said.
But Mushinsky called Bachand a “tea party aficionado” and said with the cuts he proposes, he’s putting dollars before people.
“There’s a clear choice between the two of us,” she said. “He looks at numbers, not people.”
Bachand and Mushinsky, who are vying for Wallingford’s 85th state House district, were the first of four pairs of candidates to face off in candidate forums sponsored by the Wallingford Community Women at Town Hall Wednesday and Thursday night. The forums were taped and will be rebroadcast on Wallingford Government TV.
On an issue that has financial implications in the millions, Bachand and Mushinsky also disagreed. The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection adopted a phosphorus reduction strategy in response to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and compliance with the current standards will cost Wallingford $19 million.
Mushinsky, who has been a longtime environmental advocate, said the legislature passed a bill to give municipalities more time to comply with the standards and to receive up to 30 percent of the cost of the upgrades from state grants.
“I think more time and good technology should allow us to solve this problem at a reasonable cost,” she said.
But Bachand said unfunded mandates are “not sensible.”
103rd House District: Parts of Wallingford, Cheshire and Southington
Democrat Elizabeth Linehan agreed with her opponent, Republican state Rep. Al Adinolfi, on several issues throughout the forum. Both candidates said they supported reducing state government spending and suspending the Risk Reduction Earned Credits Program, which allows inmates to take courses and earn time off their sentences.
“It’s too inefficient on who they allowed to be released early,” Adinolfi said.
“I may be a Democrat but I am tough on crime,” Linehan said. “I have kids who live in this community ... I’m not messing around.”
But Linehan, a mother of two, said she felt she was more in touch with the concerns of residents in the 103rd District, which includes portions of Wallingford, Cheshire and Southington.
“Mr. Adinolfi, as nice as he is, does not fully represent the values of our district,” she said. Adinolfi said he has been elected five times, and votes based on what he hears from his constituents.
“I know what’s going on up there and I know what needs to get done,” he said.
90th House District: Parts of Wallingford and Cheshire
In one of the sharper exchanges of the night, Republican Guy Darter criticized the record of his opponent, Democratic state Rep. Mary Fritz. Darter said Fritz has been part of Democratic leadership that, through increased spending and taxes, “has driven the state into the ground.”
“Sometimes I wonder how you sleep at night,” he said.
But Fritz defended her record, saying she voted against the state income tax when it was proposed in the early 1990s and also voted against Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s most recent budget, which included $1.8 billion in new taxes.
When Darter called for spending cuts, Fritz pointed out that his company, Darter Specialties, has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in state contracts.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have spent that money,” she said.
Darter countered that he would be in favor of eliminating his own contract — which covers pens, pencils, coffee mugs and other promotional material for the state.
“It’s one of many of the frivolous ways we’re spending money,” he said.
34th Senate District: Wallingford, East Haven and parts of North Haven and Durham
Democrat Steve Fontana, a former state representative from North Haven, criticized Republican state Sen. Len Fasano for not working hard enough to support the middle class.
“He’s become too close to millionaires and corporations,” Fontana said. “On issue after issue Len sides with millionaires and corporations. What we really need ... are people that side with the middle class.”
But Fasano said that Democrats had supported a budget that increased the sales tax and made clothing purchases under $50 and over-the-counter drugs taxable.
“That hurts the average person.”
He agreed with Fontana that the middle class is in trouble, but said Democrats were to blame.
“We’ve had 26 years of one party rule. ... It wasn’t me, it wasn’t my party that got us here.”
Fontana, who served in the General Assembly from 1997 to 2011, was defeated by Republican David Yaccarino for the 87th state House District seat in 2010. He said in the two years since, he has learned to reconnect with his community. “Too often when you’re at the Capitol, you live in a bubble,” he said.
This year is the first time Fasano has had an opponent since he joined the state Senate in 2002, but the Republican said he wasn’t changing his message or his campaign strategy.
“I want my kids to stay in the state of Connecticut,” he said. “I have to make this place desirable for them to live here.”
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
WALLINGFORD - Trying to make a name in the 90th House District
As published in the Record Journal, Saturday September 15, 2012
By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff
rblair@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2225
Twitter:@RussellBlairRJ
Recognition is big problem for Darter in campaign vs. Fritz
WALLINGFORD - Republican Guy Darter has been going door-to-door since June in an effort to convince voters to elect him to the 90th House District and send home 28 year state Rep.Mary Fritz. Darter, a Cheshire businessman making his first run for elected office, won his party’s nomination in May and has been working hard to get his name known. He also met with voters at the recent Cheshire Fall Festival. “I’ve gotten a great response,” he said. “I’ve been talking to them about the issues. I think people are fed up with the state government.”
Fritz, a Wallingford Democrat, was first elected in 1982, lost in 1984 and has won every election since. In addition to sending out mailers to her constituents and going door-to-door, Fritz has been having meet and greets in some of the new neighborhoods her district added in last year’s redistricting.
“In an informal atmosphere like that, people feel comfortable to talk about anything and everything,” she said.
Fritz said she does her best to be available to her constituents and is constantly meeting and talking with constituents at church or in the grocery store. She said she routinely appears at community events, such as the Fall Festival and Wallingford’s recent 9/11 memorial service.
Both Darter and Fritz qualified for public campaign financing. The candidates received $26,850 from the state’s election fund after raising at least $5,000 on their own from at least 150 donors from their district.
Darter said his primary focus if elected will be to reduce the tax burden — particularly on senior citizens, by eliminating state income tax on social security benefits — and make the state more business friendly. He pointed to a recent study by the Institute for Truth in Accounting that ranked Connecticut’s financial state as the worst in the nation.
“Spending is out of control,” Darter said. “Democrats have controlled the General Assembly 28 of the last 30 years. (Fritz) is a Democratic leader. She can’t run from it.”
Fritz considers herself a moderate Democrat and said she has voted against several bills that weren’t in the best interests of her constituents, including Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s most recent budget that raised taxes by $1.8 billion. She noted that the Institute for Truth in Accounting report only details Connecticut’s fiscal status through mid-2010 and she believes things have gotten better since then.
“I think the jobs bill has been helpful,” Fritz said.
Darter is a believer in term limits and a true part-time legislature.
He wants to limit state legislators to five terms.
“A state government should not be run by career politicians,” he said.
Fritz said she works hard on behalf of her constituents and it’s not uncommon for her to meet with one on a Saturday morning to work on a problem. She said some of her recent accomplishments including working to bring EDAC Technologies Corp. to the former Pratt & Whitney plant in Cheshire and fighting the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection over phosphorus regulations that could cost local towns millions.
“I worked for my community on a lot of issues,” she said.
Darter, Fritz and other candidates are expected to appear at the Cheshire-Wallingford League of Women Voters forum on Oct. 11 at Cheshire Town Hall, where they will field questions from the audience. The event is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Darter looks to oust Fritz
As published in the Record Journal, Tuesday February 14, 2012
By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff
rblair@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2225
CHESHIRE / WALLINGFORD — A local Republican businessman has announced his interest in his party’s nomination for the state House seat now held by Democrat Mary Fritz, of Wallingford. The 90th House District consists of portions of Cheshire and Wallingford.
Guy Darter, 57, co-owner of Darter Specialties on Cornwall Avenue, says he wants to work to make Connecticut more business-friendly.
“As a business person, I can’t take what they’re doing,” Darter said. “It’s not a good state to do business. I want to bring a business sense to government.”
Fritz, 73, said she is “happy to have someone interested in the seat.” However, she said she has done a lot to help small businesses during her years in the legislature.
“I’ve run two small businesses, so I know all about that,” she said. “In 28 years, I’ve helped out a lot of business people, but I’ve never heard from Mr. Darter,” she said.
Darter will be making his first run for elected office, but said he has always been interested in politics and has been attending Republican Town Committee and Town Hall meetings for several years, in addition to visiting the state Capitol for the past decade. With his kids out of college and a growing dissatisfaction with state government, Darter said now is as good a time as any to run.
After growing up in Norwalk, Darter took undergraduate and MBA classes at the University of New Haven. He started Coupon Madness, a direct mail advertising business, which he sold in 1990 to start Darter Press Inc., which began in his garage with one printing press.
The company started as a commercial printer before shifting its focus to screen printing, embroidery and signs and banners. Darter co-owns the business with his wife, Alice, and has lived in Cheshire for 32 years.
Among his chief goals is holding the state budget to generally accepted accounting principles. Darter says the rules will make it so state government can’t rely on “phony revenue” to balance the budget.
“No longer can they play with the numbers,” he said.
The state budget has gotten out of control, Darter said, and taxes and mandates make it hard for his businesses to compete with similar shops in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York.
“The state is fundamentally broken,” he said.
As a business owner, Darter said he’s against the proposal by House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan, D-Meriden, to raise the minimum wage.
“Not in this economy,” he said. “The high school kids won’t have jobs, you’re hurting that population.”
Darter also wants to eliminate the state income tax on Social Security benefits for seniors, and cap the gross receipts tax on gasoline.
Another statewide issue Darter is campaigning on is the death penalty, saying he supports it and wants to strengthen the law to make it easier to carry out.
“It’s impossible to carry out,” he said. “You should get one appeal, and you’re done. ... There’ve been no wrongful convictions on Connecticut’s death row. If there was a flaw, it would come up.”
Darter said Fritz is “very nice,” but it is “time for her to retire.”
“Her politics are old,” he said.
Darter also proposes term limits of 10 years for state legislators.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
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