From 2008: Welcome To The Middletown Eye

The following three articles are from 5 years ago today, the first two were published on June 16, 2008, and the third on June 17, 2008. Each was written by Ed McKeon.

These articles were the first ones posted on The Eye, and they are as relevant today as they were 5 years ago. What you read on The eye is entirely dependent on volunteers who write a short report or send in a photo about an event (usually one they would have attended anyway). McKeon's original guidelines have been fleshed out a little, the Eye Stylebook contains further elaborations and suggestions.

Please consider contributing, send an email to the general Eye email address; any of the current contributors can also point you in the right direction.
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Here's looking at you
Increasingly local media is failing the municipalities and communities they cover. Corporate ownership has drained valuable dollars from the local papers, leaving them to scramble for coverage. It's not through any fault of reporters, it's through lack of reporters because the corporate parent believes more in advertising than editorial content. No single reporter can be at any one meeting.

Think of Middletown. Forty-two square miles. An active Police Department. Municipal meetings nearly every night. Cultural performances galore. Sports at many amateur levels. There's no way that even a handful of reporters can do the town justice.

But what if we become the reporters - those of us who go to the meetings, and concerts, ballgames and social events. With a digital camera, an audio recorder and a laptop, we might be able to do a far better job than the newspapers ever could.

So that's the idea. A blog devoted to our town, and written by its residents. Imagine what might happen if there were a set of Middletown eyes at every significant (and maybe insignificant) event.

Of course, we need volunteer correspondents. More on that in a later post. For now, think about what you would have liked the newspaper to report at the PTA meeting, and then consider how you could write it to get the most important points made.

Consider it your Eye, and your point of view.

Ed McKeon
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The EYE opens
Today marks the official blog publication date for The Middletown Eye, a cooperative news, information and opinion blog created by, and for the residents of Middletown CT.

Inspiration for the Eye came from Jennifer Alexander who mentioned more than a year ago that such a web presence would be valuable for Middletown (because of that, it's an honor and pleasure to feature a posting by Jennifer as the opening blog). Jennifer also noted on hearing about the Eye, that the name of the blog has a triple meaning - "eye" as in seeing, "I" as in created for and by residents, and "aye" as in voting for progress.

In addition, the success of the Wesleying blog, created by and for the Wesleyan community, but not officially linked to the university, has been a huge source of inspiration.

Please bookmark the page, and feel empowered to contribute. Our initial goals will be modest - at least four original postings a day, with hopes that by the 6 month mark we'll have 500 daily visitors.

And so opens the Eye. Let's see what there is to see.
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Looking for correspondents
There's only one way this is going to work.

We need people who are willing to blog about the events they attend. We're not necessarily looking for "reporters" to attend specific meetings, we're just looking for folks like you who are attending anyway and would like to write a few words about what you witness, and how the voting went.

There are a few rules:

No personal attacks.
No anonymous rants.
Facts trump opinion.
No slander, unfounded gossip, innuendo.
No hearsay.

What we are looking for is people who would like to blog in areas like these, and more:

Middletown civic meetings
Middletown politics
Middletown events
Area cultural events
Wesleyan
State politics which affect Middletown
Federal politics and policy which affect Middletown
Middletown sports
Middletown business events
Middletown crime
Middletown successes
Think pieces (which are not personal attacks)
Travel
Education

(Additions to this list are welcome)

If you decide to write, it would be great to carry your cell phone with camera, or a digital camera along because photos help people pay attention to what you're blogging about.

If you're interested, drop me an email at mieyeed@gmail.com

Please Help The Eye and Take Our Survey

Dear Readers,


We take privacy very seriously and as a result we don’t know much about our readers. One of the things we haven’t collected from you is your basic demographic information. In fact, we don’t know much about our readership other than what we might hear from you if you send us an email or post a comment on an article or you interact with us on our Facebook page.   


Generating quality content is tough and time consuming work. If you feel we’re providing a quality service, can you give us a few minutes to provide us information to help us continue to build our audience and to provide the coverage you want? 


It will take you about 5 minutes to complete. The information is collected anonymously. We’ll have no way to assign this information to individuals, and we’ll be aggregating all responses into a single number (i.e. 54% of site visitors are 35-45 year olds, etc). 


 We greatly value your time and privacy. This short survey will help us grow and will help provide us with the resources to deliver to you what you want to see in the Middletown Eye. If you have any questions please contact us. Our email address is middletowneye@gmail.com 


Thank you from all of us who contribute to the Middletown Eye News!


Click here to open the short survey

Politics Roundup

Election Day is November 8^th – voting is an important civic duty. Below is a list of links to our past recent articles specifically related to the upcoming elections. This is to highlight recent election-related Eye posts to make them easier to find for readers who may have missed seeing them or for any voters wishing to obtain information about the candidates or issues. We encourage voters to educate themselves using all resources available. Links to all past Eye articles are always available on the right side of the page in the section called “Blog Archive” toward the bottom.

***New to the Eye*** To receive a daily e-mail digest of all the day's Eye headlines with the first paragraph of each article, and a link to the full story, simply enter your e-mail address into the box at the top right of the main page and click Submit. Try it out. And hey, if you don't like it, you can unsubscribe at any time.

Oct 22 - Councilman Reacts to Courant Cartoon

Oct 21 - Mayoral Debate Play-By-Play

Oct 21 - Wesleyan Hills Debate Tuesday Evening

Oct 21 - Candidate Profile: Joe Bibisi (R) For Common Council

Oct 21 - Candidate Profile: Ed McKeon (D) for Board of Education

Oct 20 - Suzio Endorses Giuliano For Mayor

Oct 20 - Mayoral Debate Tonight

Oct 20 - Candidate Profile: Ed Dypa (R) For Common Council

Oct 20 - Candidate Profile: Ron Borrelli Alternate P & Z

Oct 18 Letter In Support Of David Bauer

Oct 18 Letter in Support of Jon Pulino For Treasurer

Oct 18 (A Different) Letter In Support Of Jon Pulino For Treasurer

Oct 17 Mayoral Debate and Candidates Forum Scheduled This Week and Next

Oct 17 What Happens in College...Stays in College?

Oct 17 Ron Klattenberg - Candidate for Common Council – Statement

Oct 17 An Appeal To All Voters

Older article links can be found in last week's roundup: Politics: The Weekly Roundup of Articles

Politics: The Weekly Roundup of Articles

Every Monday between now and Election Day, November 8^th, the Eye will post a list of links to our past articles specifically related to the upcoming elections. This is to highlight recent election-related Eye posts to make them easier to find for readers who may have missed seeing them or for any voters wishing to obtain information about the candidates or issues. We encourage voters to educate themselves using all resources available. Links to all past Eye articles are always available on the right side of the page in the section called “Blog Archive” toward the bottom.

Oct 15 - An Expensive Mayoral Contest Funded by Out Of Town Donors

Oct 14 - Scarrozzo Commentary On Board Of Education Forum

Oct 14 - Special Voter Registration Session

Oct 14 - Treasurer Candidate Jon Pulino - Opinion Letter by Rebecca Tomaszewski

Oct 13 - A Lively Board of Education Candidates Forum

Oct 12 - Board of Assessment Appeals – James Streeto – Statement

Oct 11 - BOE - Gene Nocera - Statement

Oct 11 - BOE - Gene Nocera - Endorsement from CT Federation of School Administrators

Oct 9 - Common Council - Ed Dypa - Opinion Letter

Sep 29 - Mayoral Candidate Dan Drew – Endorsement from Building Trades Council

Sep 22 - City Treasurer Candidate - Jon Pulino – Letter to the Eye

Sep 22- Multiple Candidates – Endorsement from American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Two links below

1) http://middletowneyenews.blogspot.com/2011/09/afscme-coucil-4-press-release.html

2) http://middletowneyenews.blogspot.com/2011/09/afscme-local-endorses-mayor-other.html

Sep 21 - Common Council – Linda Salafia – Opinion Letter

E For Effort: Semi-Notable Tribulations of a Volunteer Reporter

The following accounting of events is being posted anonymously to protect the innocent. (from embarrassment). Please note, dear readers, that “Middletown's Eye”, with the possessive apostrophe-letter-s, is a new author name shared by many Eye authors, and is not Ed McKeon. A posting is only from Ed McKeon if his name is in parentheses after Middletown Eye.

Thursday night there was a Community Meeting of the Common Council scheduled to occur at 7 p.m. at the gymnasium at Macdonough School. When I arrived around 6:45pm there was a sign on the front door saying the meeting would be in the Library. So, naturally, off I trudged to the library... the Russell Library on Broad Street. I walked there, as I had been on foot that evening doing errands at various places downtown that were within close proximity to each other. During the 15 minute walk from Macdonough School to the Russell Library, I wondered why the meeting location had been changed and thought I would definitely have to ask that question of the Council members. I arrived at the library at 7, the time the meeting was to start. Nobody at the library had any idea about this meeting, and it wasn't on their room reservation schedule for the evening. When I told the librarian about the sign she politely suggested that the sign may have meant the school library. She did a good job of saying this in as a nice a way as possible so I wouldn't feel like a complete idiot for not realizing this in the first place. In my mind, I slapped myself on the forehead and said a Homer Simpson style “DOH!” I thanked the librarian and walked back outside into the humid mist, thinking about how lack of sleep can seriously reduce one's brain power. My energy was pretty low from all the walking I'd already done that evening and I didn't think I could manage to hoof it back to the school, but I refused to give up on my mission to cover this meeting for the Eye readers! Thankfully, a friend who lives near Russell library answered my phone call, came by and picked me up and drove me back to the school. There were police cars with lights flashing outside. Great, I thought, someone raises a huge ruckus in the first 10 minutes of the meeting, the police get called in, and I missed it. A lot of people were standing around all up and down the street, watching the scene, which turned out to be a car crash. It must have been loud to have drawn such a crowd, but it didn't look too serious that I could see. I asked some kids who were standing on the corner about how to get to the school library and they kindly directed me where to go. It was 7:20 once I got inside, and was promptly informed that the meeting had already ended by the remaining Council members who were sitting around talking amongst themselves. Considering the meeting was over that quickly, I am comforted by the thought that there was probably not much to write about it. I tried my best. It's just another day in the glamorous life of a volunteer reporter.

Community Meetings of the Common Council are an opportunity for members of the public to approach the Council in an informal environment and present or talk about issues of concern. These meetings have been held on the second Thursday of every month throughout 2011. The next two meetings are November 10th at Woodrow Wilson Middle School on Hunting Hill Avenue and December 8th at Moody Elementary School on Country Club Road. If any readers out there want to join in the excitement of volunteer reporting, all you have to do is open your eyes, attend this or any municipal meeting or event, and submit a written report about it. If you're thinking about it and want to know more, send an email to middletowneye@gmail.com

The EYEs Have It

My experiences as a contributing writer at the Middletown EYE have been very rewarding and as we reach the 3 year mark I have some reflections to share.

EYE writers are EYE writers because, well, we write for the EYE. What I mean by that is that we are simply people who have taken the initiative to actually write, and submit articles to the email address listed on the site, and have asked Ed to give us “posting power”. The ability to contribute is not a privilege bestowed on select people, it is a right available to anyone who chooses to exercise it. In the next post down Ed talks about welcoming new involvement. It really is just a matter of putting in a little time and effort and stepping up to be involved. There are no requirements in terms of background, education, or work history. There's no secret to finding events or stories to cover, it's all about opening your "EYEs", literally, and having a sense of what's going on around town, which can be developed if its not innate. It's all about willingness to learn, to try, and to engage yourself.

I frequently meet people who say things like, “Oh you write for the EYE, so you believe X, Y, or Z about the police chief”, or whatever issue, that I actually have no knowledge or opinion of personally. We try to be a unifying force in the sense of community building, but we are not a solidified unit with specific positions, as evidenced by the two posts published earlier today written with different perspective about the same issue.

We have no more political influence than any other citizen, but a common thread is that we are willing to publicly make our voice heard. Collectively, the EYE has had an impact on the Middletown political landscape, and that is a great accomplishment that some EYE writers are rightfully very proud of. The simple fact of our presence and accessibility to the public has raised awareness and brought some added accountability and transparency into some political forums. We hope for more.

When I go to an event, I sometimes make a conscious decision about whether I am attending as an EYE writer or not. The question is, do I want to simply enjoy myself and take in what's going on, or do I want to report about this event later, and will therefore take mental or written notes, commit the experience to memory or paper, and spend a considerable chunk of time later writing about it, uploading photos, editing videos and putting it all together. It's a tough position to be in, because I want to do both. It can be rewarding to put on the “EYE hat”, but it can also sometimes be or feel thankless and tiring. What is nice about it being volunteer work is that I have the choice and can decide for myself.

I like being a part of a community-oriented, all volunteer run, advertisement free, unstructured group and information forum with no official rules and no clearly defined scope. I have met and gotten to know many interesting, talented, and civically minded people, initially brought together thanks to our little virtual space.

I am very thankful that the EYE is what it is today and look forward to continuing to write and seeing what the future holds.

Eye on the Air, August 21

Eye on the Air, Friday 1-2 PM, WESU 88.1 FM (wesufm.org)

GUEST

Rob Rosenthal, Wesleyan University professor of sociology speaking about his studies of protest and topical music, and his work with Pete Seeger.

Eye on the Air, July 31

Eye on the Air, July 31, WESU 88.1 FM.

Guests: Mark Masselli, president and CEO of Connecticut's Community Health Center and Brian Burness host of UH Radio Bluegrass on WWUH-FM, 91.3.

Rolling with the Rotarians

I spent an enjoyable lunch hour with a group of community memebers who care about Middletown as much as I do.

The Rotarians invited me to be their luncheon speaker on the topic of The Middletown Eye, one topic upon which I am qualified to expound upon.

I recognized several faces, and was gratified at the show of hands of folks who recognized, and had actually read the Middletown Eye.

I think we recruited a few new readers, and a new author or two.

The Middletown Eye thanks Cathy Branch Stebbins for the invite.

Eye on the Air July 24

Eye on the Air, WESU, 88.1 FM, 1-2 PM.

Today's guests:

Matthew Lesser, Connecticut State Representative

Matt Pugliese, Managing Director, Oddfellows Playhouse Youth Theater

An infant Eye

I'm afraid I've been scooped.

As you will have read (the strange thing about this blog is that you may read my post first, though it was published later than others on this topic), the Middletown Eye is celebrating its first anniversary today. Jen Alexander's post provides the stats, but allow me to be a bit more anecdotal.

I've been a newshound for most of my life. I began reading news in earnest when I delivered the New Britain Herald, beginning at 10 years old. I've never tired of it. I began my post-college working life as a reporter for the Hartford Times, but made my wage with other kinds of writing after the Times (Hartford's liberal, afternoon daily) folded.

The inspiration for this blog is multi-faceted. For years Jen Alexander and Mark Masselli have been trying to convince someone to start another newpaper, or online newspaper, in Middletown. I was a part of those occasional dinner-party conversations. I was also in attendance at several town meetings, of some great import, at which there was nary a reporter from the dailies which claimed to be covering Middletown. Unfortunately, my conclusion was, when no one's watching local government, there's a greater tendency to make policy the general public may not like. On a practical level, Catherine Johnson, a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission, was complaining to me, exactly a year ago yesterday, that the town needed a newsource at local meetings.

"I can do that," I thought.

The same day, I was listening to my iPod on a walk, and one of my favorite Billy Bragg songs, "Waiting For the Great Leap Forward" shuffled on, and Billy sang, "If no one out there understands, start your own revolution and cut out the middle man" As an inveterate letter-to-the-editor writer who was often frustrated by my ability to get letters published, I decided to go home and open a blogger account, and create a blog, "The Middletown Eye."

It's been something of a magical, exhausting year. We've gone from a few dozen visitors a day, to nearly 600. We've covered development controversies, dozens of town meetings, cultural happenings and an electrifying election.

While the Eye isn't read by everyone in Middletown, it is a favorite stopping place of politicians, activists, and residents who want to stay in the know. I can't go to any event without someone stopping me and saying "thanks."

But the thanks are not due to me alone. We have some regular, and very dependable correspondents - Stephen "fishmuscle" Devoto, Jen Alexander, Richard Kamins, Jen Mahr and some less-frequent, though always informative and entertaining contributors like Izzi Greenberg, Vijay Pinch, Beth Emery, Anthony Lancia, (the mysterious) Madam Nirvana, Karen Swartz, Eye M, John Hall and Catherine Johnson. Some contributors have only posted a time or two, but those posts are appreciated. And the many thoughtful commenters have kept the news lively.

We're always looking for more Eye writers. More citizen journalists.

What's happened in the past year is that the dailies which used to cover the town well are even more strapped. The Courant has all but disappeared. The Press continues to be dragged down by corporate debt. And you won't see a TV truck in town unless there's a murder.

The Eye has a long way to go. From my perspective, I'd love to see us covering every town meeting, sporting events, charitable events, cultural events. I'd love to have a correspondent at every school. I long for the Eye to be more diverse in every way, involving new ideas and new correspondents from every neighborhood in Middletown.

And except on those nights, after a particularly late municipal meeting, when I am feeling wiped-out and brain dead, I think the Middletown Eye has been a good idea, and good for the community.

As an anniversary gift to the Eye, consider two gifts - a post or two over the next year, and persuading a friend to check out the Eye today.

Happy Birthday to Us!

Happy Birthday!

One year ago today, Ed McKeon sat down at his computer and tapped out a post on the power of the people to create their own press, unleashing the Middletown Eye upon the world.

One year later, it adds up to 93,814 visits, 1236 articles, and a current average of 507 times a day that somebody clicks on the Middletown Eye.

Thanks, Ed.

Anyone who knows me has heard me go on about how much I love the Eye. It has restored a level of fun to living in Middletown that was lost around the time that Ebben Flow left the Middletown Press and moved to Massachusetts. I like living in a place where:

1. People keep up on the news, and
2. There’s news to keep up on.

Granted, I don’t always like the news itself, but you can’t always get what you want.

Here’s a reprint of Ed’s original post.

Welcome to the Middletown Eye.

Increasingly local media is failing the municipalities and communities they cover. Corporate ownership has drained valuable dollars from the local papers, leaving them to scramble for coverage. It's not through any fault of reporters, it's through lack of reporters because the corporate parent believes more in advertising than editorial content. No single reporter can be at any one meeting.

Think of Middletown. Forty-two square miles. An active Police Department. Municipal meetings nearly every night. Cultural performances galore. Sports at many amateur levels. There's no way that even a handful of reporters can do the town justice.

But what if we become the reporters - those of us who go to the meetings, and concerts, ballgames and social events. With a digital camera, an audio recorder and a laptop, we might be able to do a far better job than the newspapers ever could.

So that's the idea. A blog devoted to our town, and written by its residents. Imagine what might happen if there were a set of Middletown eyes at every significant (and maybe insignificant) event.

Of course, we need volunteer correspondents. More on that in a later post. For now, think about what you would have liked the newspaper to report at the PTA meeting, and then consider how you could write it to get the most important points made.

Consider it your Eye, and your point of view.

Ed McKeon

Eye on the Air, Friday June 12

This week on Eye on the Air (WESU, 88.1 FM and wesu.or) at 1 pm, Common Council member Ron Klattenberg will talk about money saved through a conservation program at Middletown Schools. John Hall, minister of First Church, and director of the Jonah Center, will talk about the goals of this enviromental group, and about the River Paddle which will take place on June 20.

The Middletown Eye on Facebook

For all you M-towners on Facebook, there's now a discussion group, all topics welcome, on Facebook. You can find the group here.

You do need a Facebook account to join the discussion, but the account is free.

A glance backwards

While the Middletown Eye has only been around for just more than six months, we've seen some significant developments in town. However, since I've been commenting on town events for somewhat longer, in my personal blog, Caterwauled, I'm able to get a 20/20 hindsight perspective on the entire year.

The year began with an old church rolling down Main Street, as what was formerly 9 Liberty Street, became a new address on Rapallo Avenue.

Shortly thereafter, the Army Corps of Engineers rolled into town announcing that they were going to build an Army Reserve Training Center in Maromas. That was not welcome news for that part of town, or to city leaders. As you know, if you're a regular reader, the Army has been back in town several times since, with a set of plans which included building on Boardman Lane (another choice which rankled neighbors and town leaders), and building on one of three sites, including Boardman Lane, Mile Lane and Cucia Park). In between, the Common Council met to provide it's input, and the mayor appointed a committee of residents to recommend sites (Cucia Park is the favored site), and the Army held a disastrous press conference.

The face of Main Street has changed over the course of the year, with O'Rourkes finally re-opening, with new dinner hours, no less. Not far away, It's Only Natural grocery left it's old location in Main Street Market (which now, unfortunately has no on-the-street tenants), for new digs in the Liberty Square development. On the other end of Main Street, a new building for Rite Aid went up, not without controversy. And while we lost some businesses on our Main drag, others opened, including Public, the Book Bower, Iguana Ranas Taqueria and Desa Vintage.

Wesleyan was at the center of news which brought attention to our town from the outside world. A "riot" of partying Wesleyan students on Fountain Avenue brought what some regarded as an unneccessary show of force by local police. On a happier note, Wesleyan's commencement speaker was none other than our current president-elect, Barack Obama.

Speaking of the election, it was an important topic all year long. The Obama effect created a huge surge of new voters who gave Democrats the advantage of very long coattails. Locally, the Middletown Eye offered the most complete, and the most rapid coverage of Voting Day, with Eye correspondents at many of the local polling places.

In early summer, it became clear that other news media was failing the citizenry, largely as a result of financial problems with their corporate parents. The Hartford Courant reduced its coverage, and the Middletown Press saw its parent company beginning to close dailies.


So, on June 16, The Middletown Eye debuted with its first post. While we haven't quite met our projected six-month goals, we have become a respected part of news in this community. In the upcoming months you'll see some changes and improvements as we work to provide more complete coverage, expand our readership, and be more of a service to our community.

One thing's for certain. When reviewing stories of a year gone by, Middletown is a great place to live. For a mid-sized town, there are an amazing assortment of cultural activities, from cutting edge rock, to Shakespeare in the Grove from Feet to the Fire to the Annual Oddfellows Youth Circus. And with the proximity of rivers and forests, one can kayak into backwaters, or scale a diminutive peak.

We hope you've enjoyed reading our reports, and encourage you to encourge your friends and neighbors to join you as Middletown Eye readers. And if you're doubly inspired, we invite you to write about anything you consider news in Middletown.

Eye in the Press

The Middletown Press has a feature about The Middletown Eye, today. You can read it here.

I especially enjoy the endorsement of the mayor: "I do think the Middletown Eye should be in everyone's favorites folder."

Thanks, Mayor.

The invisible Eye

Commentary by Ed McKeon

(NOTE: This is an edit of the original posting, based on a conversation with the reporter who wrote the Courant story.)

It may be small of me to carp. But the Middletown Eye is small, for now.

A few weeks ago, I took time out of busy day and spent an hour and a half talking to Courant reporter Jodie Mozdzer about The Middletown Eye, the state of journalism in the state, and the difference between a newsblog and an online newspaper. Her story appeared in Sunday's Courant, and The Middletown Eye didn't even get a single mention. Strange.

Mozdzer warned me that the story might never appear since it was a story she was pitching, and not assigned. I noted that while I love and hate the Courant with equal passion, depending on the day, the Courant indeed may see me as a bit too critical of that paper (not in this blog, but over at Caterwauled), and might spike the story. I know for a fact that folks over at the Courant read both blogs regularly. Mozdzer herself confessed to reading the Eye to get a catch-up on town topics as she took over stories from Josh Kovner who had recently decamped to West Hartford.

Mozdzer now tells me that she wanted to focus on the newest of the local blogs, and one which was actually hiring reporters.

The story that appeared Sunday focused on something called East Hampton Today, published by Hometown Today News Publications (HTNP), with websites programmed by Biznuzz IT Services.

When I first spoke to Mozdzer, she had spoken with but not yet met with East Hampton Today editor, Cristina Johnson, or publisher Jean Maheu, but when hearing about the sites, I guessed it was an attempt at creating an on-line template, for local editors to fill with stories. Look at the site for Mansfield, and you will probably agree. I argued that sites like the Middletown Eye might have a truer sense of mission, because the only mission here is to provide information that other media outlets don't provide, and not necessarily to strive to make a killing on the internet with a "online newspaper product." But, admittedly, we are amateurs.

Who's to say which business model will work (maybe we should dredge up Rich Hanley like anyone with a newspaper question seems to do these days)? Maybe HTNP is onto something, but it seems like an online version of a newspaper chain, and aren't the chains the ones who killed the dailies in the first place?

I find it strange that HTNP became the core of Mozdzer's story, when other sites, like Paul Bass' New Haven Independent (the model for all such sites), and Christine Stuart's CTNewsJunkie, are mentioned, but only in passing, when they have a much longer track record than HTNP.

This is a rant, plain and simple, because we didn't get mentioned, and we can't figure out why.

Are those in the heritage media are threatened by blogs like The Independent, CTNewsJunkie, MyLeftNutmeg, CTBob and even HTNP? Why else would the online version of Mozdzer's story fail to give a single hot link to any of the news sites mentioned in the story? Afraid the readers might actually read one of them?

I can only vow that the Middletown Eye will continue to grow, pursue the news of Middletown Connecticut, and give residents and readers an angle on town information that disappeared with local ownership of local newspapers.

And I invite Courant editors to hire and send reporters to every meeting in town to demonstrate their commitment to local news.

Not exactly an original Eye-dea

Okay, so the Eye isn't the first town blog. But we're the Middletown's very own. We didn't get namechecked by the New York Times, but we may be mentioned shortly in stories in some local newspapers. It's nice to see what we could become. We'll keep you posted.

Free rides from Rell

Governor Rell announced this week (press release with lots of web links here) that the state would provide free bus rides and vanpooling options to state commuters, to encourage alternative transportation. 10 free bus tickets are available for use on state-sponsored bus lines. 3 free vanpooling vouchers are also available, for programs such as Easy Street (which already has some vans coming to workplaces in Middletown), NuRide, and Telecommute Connecticut.

From Middletown, call 1-800-972-EASY to sign up for your free commutes.

Appreciation for the Eye

I am a five-year resident of Middletown and I wanted to thank you for the gift of The Middletown Eye. I am so grateful that there is a new, fresh way to deliver cultural and political news to Middletown residents. I hardly knew of anything that went on in town before a friend of mine told me about your blog. For this, I thank you again.

Secondly, I wanted to mention that the Farmer's Market has returned to the green on Old Church Street. It's open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 AM till 1 PM, and the vendors only accept cash. This may be something that Eye readers may be interested in. I myself would volunteer to report this on the blog, but sadly, my schedule does not allow enough time for that.

So thanks again for the gift of the Middletown Eye. I am happy to add it to my collection of bookmarks.

Sincerely,

Lisa Urso