Eye'M Sorry to Say...

...that none of the intrepid volunteer reporters for the EYE were available at 7 pm last night as the Board of Ed met at Middletown High, so unfortunately we won't have a full report for you.

I was able to make the "after party" in the parking lot though, as members headed to their cars at 8:30. Board chair Ted Raczka shared that the meeting was one of their shortest ever, and that among the highlights were two big pieces of news:

1. Middletown High graduation has been set for June 21st.

2. The Board confirmed a new principal for Woodrow Wilson Middle School (perhaps someone will give us the name in the comments section!)

Instead of attending the Board of Ed, I went to the Parking Department meeting at 7 pm, where the new Parking Director Tom Hartley filled us in on his proposal to test a new kind of parking meter on Main Street in the coming months. The single-space meters would take credit cards as well as coins, so that downtown shoppers would have more flexibility in paying for parking. Also, the level of data collected by the meters would help us understand the parking patterns on Main Street. Director Hartley has negotiated a 3-month trial of the meters without cost to the city, beyond the new expenses of processing credit card payments. At this point, the plan is to have the temporary meters installed on the East side of Main between Court and Washington from mid-May to mid-August, allowing us to analyze whether they would improve parking collections and satisfaction.

Earlier on Tuesday evening, I was at the Redevelopment Agency meeting, which clocked in at about 10 minutes in length -- we are working on a number of projects, but none required decisions on our part. In brief, we learned that the North End Home Ownership project has a slight change of plans: the historic yellow house on Ferry Street which was to undergo rehab will now quite likely be demolished and replicated, due to rot. The developers of the project, Nehemiah and Broad Park, have been working with the local preservation society on this.

Also at Redevelopment, we got an update on the ongoing assessment of brownfields in the City, with an eye toward identifying properties that would be suitable for redevelopment, if grant funds and private interest allow. The consultants, VHB, will be operating some public sessions in the coming months to get feedback on what sites should receive priority treatment in this effort.

And while we're on the subjects of meetings, consider this our annual pledge drive to recruit new writers for the Middletown Eye. There are lots of meetings that happen in town without any press coverage, or even any members of the public attending, though they are open. If you'd be interested in attending city meetings on topics that interest you, and then writing a summary for the EYE, then consider yourself hired. Just drop us a comment and we'll set you up!