Much has been made of the “political aspects” of the Common Council’s decision to reject Mayor Sebastian Giuliano’s nomination of Patrick McMahon as chief of police.
But I ask you to take a look at who has been raising the most fuss about this decision. Almost immediately, the president of the Middletown Managers and Professionals Union (who is married to Debra Milardo, the city personnel director and mayor’s closest aide) and the Republican Town Chair (a city employee in the firefighters union and a former Republic council candidate) launched a movement to get Democrats to change their voter registrations to Republican. This is nothing more than using a decision with which they disagree to recruit for the Republican Party. What is more political than that?
If you need any more evidence of how this issue has beenmanufactured to appear “political”, you need to read the guest op-ed written by John Milardo (Superintendent of Parks/President of the Middletown Managers and Professionals Association/husband of the personnel director) in the Middletown Press on Thursday, (10/21/10). The op-ed was the most recent of at least four public appeals for voters to switch parties. These were sent on city time and, most likely, with city equipment bought with tax dollars in order to support the Republican Party.
In his letter, Milardo references “special interests” that the Democratic caucus refused to cut out of the budget. What were the “special interests” he references? They were services for seniors that Mayor Giuliano cut from the budget with Milardo’s support. Perhaps Milardo should look closer to home. Despite being a manager, he earned an additional $29,000 in overtime in 2008 and is on-track to make the same in overtime pay this year.
Milardo has cited the number of people in Council Chambers in support of McMahon on the night we rejected the acting chief’s nomination and concludes, therefore, there is a need to switch parties. But again, appearances are not what they seem. My understanding is that on the day of the vote, half the police officers in attendance were on their scheduled work shift and urged to be in attendance.
The mayor used taxpayer money to fill the room withpolice officers to create the impression of a groundswell of departmental support for McMahon. This put the good men and women of the department in a difficult position.The mayor, the Parks Superintendent and union leader John Milardo, and the Republican Town Chair (a city firefighter, union leader and a former Republican candidate for Council) are now using the presence of those officers as their justification for people to switch to the Republican Party.
And they’re doing it on city time while using your money. It doesn’t get more political than that!
As a retired city employee and local 466 union official, I am appalled that John Milardo is suggesting these changes in the name of organized labor immediately prior to a mid-term election. To the municipal employees reading this, please think carefully about what the mayor and Milardo are doing: They are trying to get people to switch parties and vote Republican in a year when Republican candidates are suggesting privatization of public services and up to 15% in pay cuts for whichever public employees they don’t fire. Giuliano and John Milardo are not looking out for you. John Milardo’s actions are self-serving with a personal agenda.
Mayor Giuliano, why are you condoning such brazen abuses of city resources? Why are you allowing this to happen on city time and with city equipment? Most importantly, how do you justify this to the taxpayer whose hard-earned money is being used to finance a Republican registration drive?
At the Neon Deli, corner of Cross & Vine, it's not just chips, sandwiches and local news. Using a donation can on their front counter, owners Cynthia and Fran Galle like to collect change for whatever cause grabs them each month.
Cynthia is hoping that her customers can help make this Halloween a special one for the roughly two dozen kids living in Middletown's Red Cross Shelter.
They're only collecting until October 26th, so the kids will still have time to go costume shopping. So stop by this weekend, order a grinder and maybe even pick up a copy of the Courant or the Press for old times sake. Then don't forget to feed the can.
This is an reprise article from a post we print every year around graduation time. It's homecoming and family weekend at Wesleyan. Here are a few suggestions for students looking to ditch their families before or after the football game. If you're a Middletown resident, be sure to point wandering families toward your favorite sites.
Say you're a returning Wesleyan grad feeling you've seen everything you can see in Middletown. Or you're a student who wants to ditch the parents and send them off for a few hours over the weekend so you can hook-up with a friend for that party at the Butts. Or you're a parent wondering just how many orange trees you can look at before going crazy.
Here are a few things to consider.
Where the Coginchaug Meets the Mattabassett
Just North of downtown on the Connecticut River two rivers, the Coginchaug and the Mattabassett meet, then flow intertwined into the Connecticut. The rivers drain through parkades and suburbs then snake around the old landfill. The huge wetlands and watershed supports a huge diversity of avian and aquatic life, floating meadows, wild rice fields and miles of navigable (by canoe and kayak) waterways. The easiest and only way to tour the fascinating backwaters is to launch a canoe at the Middletown or Cromwell boat launch and navigate the Connecticut River until you reach the mouth of the Mattabassett. An interesting note, the Mattabassett were a tribe of native Americans who called an area from the Connecticut River and west to what is now Berlin, home. Mattabassett is the original, and native American name for Middletown. Wesleyan biologist Barry Chernoff, along with John Hall of the Jonah Center often organized informative paddle tours of the watery wonderland. It's a shame there isn't one being offered this weekend.
Middletown, just this week, committed land and funding for an official kayak launch site near the landfill. The floating meadows are particularly interesting in the fall when flocks of redwing blackbirds descend to feed on wild rice.
Wesleyan Potters
This prestigious and well-loved craft guild was founded in 1948 as a guild to foster the crafts. It continues to offer classes and its gallery displays juried pottery, glass and ceramics from the craftspeople associated with Wesleyan Potters and from artisans around the country. It's a great place to find a one-of-a-kind gift. But it's your bad luck that Bowlapalooza was in May. It's a wonderful fundraiser with food, music and pottery in which your $10 admission entitles you to pick a pottery piece from the Bowlapalooza table. Wesleyan Potters is located at 350 South Main St.
Hindu Temple
The Sri Satyanarayana temple at 11 Training Hill Road is also known as The Connecticut Valley Hindu Temple Society. It comprises the state's largest and most active Hindu spiritual community. Numerous daily temple services and weekly poojas revolve on an accessible schedule, and visitors are welcome to tour the beautiful grounds. The temple features a splendid setting and thoughtfully appointed deity statuary, as well as a warm and friendly atmosphere. Graceful, pristine white marble and delicate tapestries complement the open space and airiness of the building.
The Other College Middlesex Community College, is also on Training Hill Road, in the hills on the South side of town, and sometimes referred to as MxCC, it's part of the state's community college system. A two-year college, it offers a variety of degrees, is a feeder school for four-year universities, and it also offers certificate programs in accounting, television broadcasting, early childhood development, web development, hazardous waste handling and several other disciplines. It also offers weekend and evening courses for adult learners. The grounds, on one of the highest hills in town, looks out over the Connecticut River valley, and is the site of ArtFarm's summer drama festival, Shakespeare in the Grove, which presents The Taming of the Shrew this year.
Meadow Meat
After a year or two on campus you've likely found Stop and Shop, Waldbaum's and now Pricechopper. But you're not likely to have stumbled on this hidden ruby. Sure to offend any vegetarian or vegan, Meadow Meat is an old-fashioned wholesale and retail butcher shop, where the day's cuts and catches are posted on a blackboard, and you make your purchases by stepping directly into the meat locker where you'll find a counter surrounded by cuts of chicken, beef and pork. The prices are very reasonable, especially if you're buying in quantity, and the advice is expert. Want to know how to cook a spoon roast? Just ask. On the days leading up to summer holidays like this one, the lines can be very long, winding down the concrete loading-dock stairs. And don't wear a sleeveless shirts and shorts. When it's time for you to squeeze past the plastic curtained doorway, you'll find a shorter queue inside, but you're likely to experience hypothermia if you're exposing too much flesh. You can find Meadow Meat by traveling East on River Road, making a right when you have to on Eastern Drive, going under the railway trestle, and it's the non-descript industrial building on the right painted, appropriately enough, blood red.
Miller's Pond
While not technically in Middletown (we're only talking a matter of yards), Miller's Pond State Park is a beautiful freshwater site that's perfect for picnics, gentle hikes and swimming. It's not an official state swim site, so there're no lifeguards, and lots of sub-surface boulders, so divers need beware. It's also not a site that all of you have missed. Miller's is known at Wes as a place for an impromptu picnic - bread and cheese and the appropriate mind-altering substance - and then a swim, often sans suits. So you had your skinny dipping fun, why not recommend it to your parents, and your roomates parents as a way to view the foliage up close. Tell them to head out Millbrook Road, continue onto Foothills Road, and settle in for a late afternoon "picnic."
The Airline Billy Joel Took
The beautiful old swing railroad bridge over the Connecticut River was once a part of the Airline Railroad. While "airline" and "railroad" seem not to go together, the Airline Railroad was a line which ran from Middletown to Providence for the Providence and Worcester Railroad along a rail built through the hills on a series of trestles. The rail bed still exists and is called the Airline Trail and is used for hiking and biking, and is accessible in East Hampton. Billy Joel used the railway bridge across the Connecticut for his music video of the song River of Dreams. Walking on the bridge is prohibited, but you can get a close look at it just off deKoven Drive.
Mount Higby Mt. Higby is a beautiful example of the traprock ridges that run north-south the length of our state. Higby Mountain, at 892' is the highest point in Middletown, and offers spectacular views all along the ridgeline.
To the north is Lamentation Mountain (also partly in Middletown), due west is Chauncey Peak (in Meriden), and to the southwest is the valley containing Meriden, Wallingford, and other towns along I91.
There are three different access points to the Higby Mountain Trail (with a car or bicycle shuttle, you can do a nice one-way trip). The nicest place to start is at Tynan Park, on Higby Road at the intersection of Sisk Street. A well-worn trail leads from the dirt parking area into the forest, across some hayfields, and onto the slopes of Higby Mountain.
Another access point is at Guida'srestaurant on Route 66 (itself a fantastic destination for the very best milkshakes in the area). They have a big parking lot at the rear. The trail starts very close to the highway, on the west side of Guida's. Finally, Mt. Higby can be accessed from a turnout on Country Club Road, about 200 yards from the I91 on-ramp. Look for a dirt road on the south side of Country Club (there is a for sale sign there). Follow the dirt road, which is called Massatom Road (no signs though), up the mountain, and then follow the blue-blazed trail markers along the ridge.
Speaking of Guida's, on the other side of town, the Guida Family Preserve at the end of Coleman Road, offers a short an lovely loop hike through former farm pastures, meadows and woodlands.
Henry Clay Work House.You'll find a bust of this relatively unknown songwriter of the Civil War era, appropriately enough, in Union Park on the South end of Main St. The composer of such classics as Grandfather's Clock, and Marching Through Georgia was born in Middletown but lived much of his life elsewhere. A printer by occupation, Work came to songwriting by avocation. Biggest little known fact: the tune of his song, The Ship That Never Returned was used for the classic country music song (in fact the first million selling record, ever), The Wreck of the Old 97, recorded by artists as diverse as Vernon Dalhart and Johnny Cash. The same tune was used for a hit song of the sixties, M.T.A. by the Kingston Trio. The Henry Clay Work house still stands on Mill Street.
And let's not forget another illustrious Middletown songwriter, Allie Wrubel, who was educated at Wesleyan and went on to write the much loved, but much maligned, Disney classic Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.
Maromas
A hotly debated section of town for many years. Recently, it's been in the news because a new gas-fired energy plant is being built there, and because the Army proposed building an Army Reserve Training Center there (which will now be in Cucia Park, on the Eastern border of town). This Southeastern corner of Middletown (a section as large as neighboring Cromwell), is mostly wild, rugged and beautiful as it hugs a broad turn in the Connecticut River. But it's also home to a power plant, a jet engine manufacturing plant, and an old feldspar quarry.
You likely read about Maromas when tragedy struck the Kleen Energy power plant there this February. An explosion at the plant, resulting from a purging of pipelines with natural gas, destroyed the plant and killed six workers and injured many others. The investigation into what the causes of the explosion were is still underway.
It's eminently hikable, and if you're lucky you stumble on the rock shelter that was used by native Americans, and in the 19th century by the famous hobo, the Old Leatherman, who was made famous most recently in a Pearl Jam song, and received new acclaim in a volume published by the Wesleyan Press and written by Dan Deluca. You may also read an ongoing serialized novel about the Leatherman here (full disclosure, I'm the author).
The "Insane Asylum"
The other institution on a hill in town is located to the East of Wesleyan, and visible from there. Legend has it that occasionally parents have mistaken Connecticut Valley Hospital for Wesleyan and have dropped their young student there. It's the hospital currently known to locals as CVH. Connecticut Valley constitutes the only state hospital dealing exclusively with mental health issues in the state. It's a huge campus, and the older, unoccupied buildings are a frightening example of "insane asylum" red brick Victorian architecture. But don't take any pictures, because you might get arrested.
The beautiful Victorian building pictured here, Weeks Hall, which had suffered severe neglect by the state, burnt to the ground a month ago.
An Authentic Italian Meal While in town you may have visited the famous Main Street Italian Restaurants, but Middletown's best Italian food requires entering a hidden gem on Court Street. In the basement of the Italian Society club is the Cantina. The Cantina may not have the atmosphere of a Main Street outdoor patio, but the restaurant serves what many feel are the best Italian dishes in town. If you go, be prepared to linger for several hours enjoying your food. You will get several courses of genuine slow-cooked, delicious food.
The Noiseless Typewriter Factory
Middletown was once heavily industrialized, shipping everything from rubber banding to fertilizer from its deep water port (and importing opium in the "China trade.") One of the things manufactured here was the Noiseless Typewriter. The Noiseless company was bought by Remington, which became Remington Rand. The company was the site of a bitter labor dispute in the thirties, and the company later was involved in early electronic development, including creating a television camera designed to aid in the launch of guided missles. Today, the city of Middletown owns the site, after another attempted sale fell through this year due to its status as a brownfield, and it is the home of a number of small companies. Go to the North end of High Street, then turn right onto North Main and you'll find the gate to the old factory.
An addendum from Beth Emery
The Noiseless Typewriter company was originally the Keating Wheel Company established in 1897. They manufactured bicycles and then motorcycles. I knew this to be part of the history the building and went online to see if I could find dates. From The Salafia Property report commissioned by the Jonah Center for Earth and Art in 2006, I found out the following information. (http://www.thejonahcenter.org/pdf/salafiareport.pdf) The company did not last long, as the bicycle craze of 1890's was coming to an end just as this facility was being established. In 1903 the facility was operated by the Eisenhuth Horseless Vehicle Company which manufactured automobiles, before becoming the Noiseless Typewriter Company.
Lyman Orchards
Your undergrad has likely suggested a trip to this orchard in Middlefield, just Southwest of downtown Middletown. There's nothing like sinking your teeth into an apple, sweet, cool and crisp, right from the branch where you picked it. Avoid the Delicious variety. You can buy them in any supermarket, and the flavor is not much different then the ones found there. You've got to be suspicious of an apple they had to name "delicious," to convince you it is. The Romes, Crispins, Cortlands, Spencers and Ida Reds truly are delicious. If you've got the time, you might want to wander the corn maze, this year hilariously in the shape of UCONN Women's baskeball coach Geno Auriemma's head. But don't skip the apple donuts. Not exactly fritters (for those, head across the bridge and down Rte. 17 into Glastonbury to the old Cider Mill), but delicious.
Canadian rapper, Drake (Aubrey Drake Graham), who scored a number one album and single this year, and performed Thursday night at the Oakdale Theater in Wallingford, had his after-party at The Shadow Room on Main Street in Middletown early Thursday morning.
Drake arrived at midnight, and the party, open to the public, had the crowd dancing to Drake's personal DJ until 3 a.m.
With a heads-up from club owner Nicholas Caraci, Middletown and State Police were positioned outside the club. Caraci indicated that there was no trouble at the club. The door was supervised by a Middletown fire marshall, and the event was supervised by four state troopers and about a dozen Middletown Police patrol cars.
Drake, who started his career as an actor in the youth TV series, Degrassi: The Next Generation, is a protege of Lil Wayne, danced and mingled with the crowd at the Shadow Room until closing time at 3 a.m.
It's probably him. But his Wesleyan benefit for the Green Street Arts Center is sold out, so if you don't have a ticket, you won't be getting in.
However, the Open House on Saturday welcomes everyone to explore what Green Street has to offer. And a Sunday Salon with Professor J. Kehaulani Kauanui will offer stimulating ideas on indigenous rights.
Open House
Saturday, October 23 | 2-4 pm | Free
Green Street celebrates Wesleyan Homecoming & Family Weekend in style. Join us for Salsa classes, West African Drumming & Dance, and a performance by popular band Buru Style, visual art projects and music for the whole family! Enjoy tours, refreshments and a special pre-registration discount if you sign up for a Session Two class before you leave!
Sunday Salon Discussion Series: Hawaiian Nationhood & Indigenous Rights with Professor J. Kehaulani Kauanui
Sunday, October 24 | 2:00-3:30 pm | Suggested donation: $5
Join us for this series of intriguing conversations with Wesleyan faculty members. This talk will address the outstanding Hawaiian independence claim and the persistent issue of sovereignty facing the Kanaka Maoli (indigenous Hawaiian) people. Come learn more about how the U.S. government came to acquire Hawai`i and the spectrum of political activism relating to self-determination and nationhood.
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, approximately 1.5 million people will be victims of physical assault by an intimate partner this year, and 30 to 60 percent of those cases will involve children. Despite its prevalence, domestic violence continues to be one of the most chronically underreported crimes. Today, New Horizons Domestic Violence Services – a program of Community Health Center, Inc. (CHC) – will help end the silence with “Walk In Our Footsteps,” a free outdoor exhibition to raise awareness through the voices of women and children victims.
The exhibit, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Middletown’s South Green, will include 54 pairs of children’s shoes, each representing a child who resided or participated in New Horizon’s services between October 2009 to October 2010; the Clothesline Project, displaying more than 40 tee shirts with the artwork and words of adult and child victims; and cardboard silhouettes of children, each featuring a story about a child affected by domestic violence. Representatives from New Horizons will be available to answer questions and provide information on community services and resources.
“This exhibit, representing the thousands of women and children in Connecticut who are victims each year, ensures their voices are heard,” said Michele Waldner, program director at New Horizons. “A recent Mary Kay Foundation survey found that 77 percent of domestic violence shelters are reporting an increase in women seeking assistance from abuse. This problem isn’t going away, so we must learn from victims and work together to find solutions.”
New Horizons provides a 24-hour emergency shelter, as well as community education, support groups, advocacy and individual counseling and consultation with CHC’s health care providers, for more than 1,450 victims fleeing domestic abuse each year.
WHAT: “Walk in Our Footsteps,” an exhibit to raise awareness of the prevalence of domestic violence and its impact on women and children through the voices of victims. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
About Community Health Center, Inc. Since 1972, Community Health Center, Inc. has been one of the leading healthcare providers in the state of Connecticut, building a world-class primary health care system committed to caring for special populations. CHC is focused on improving health outcomes for its more than 100,000 patients as well as building healthy communities. Currently, CHC delivers service in 173 locations statewide, offering primary care in medical, dental and behavioral health services. For more information, visit www.chc1.com.
The North End Farmers Market runs Fridays from 10 AM - 2 PM, in front of It's Only Natural Market, 575 Main St.
Join us for the penultimate farmers' market of the season! A great variety of fresh produce is still available, including greens, eggplant, peppers, squash, apples, and the last of the tomatoes. Our guest restaurant is Public Market, serving up delicious pizza and desserts.
Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Laureate and award-winning author who survived the Nazi death camps, will make his first-ever detailed public address on use of the death penalty October 26th at Wesleyan University.
Wiesel’s lecture is entitled “Building an Ethical Society: The Death Penalty and Human Dignity." It will be a departure from Wiesel’s well-known lectures on the Holocaust.
The Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University has in the past provided a glimpse into his thinking about the death penalty.
“With every cell of my being and with every fiber of my memory I oppose the death penalty in all forms,” Wiesel has said in news accounts. “I do not believe any civilized society should be at the service of death. I don’t think it’s human to become an agent of the Angel of Death.”
In his Connecticut lecture, Professor Wiesel is expected to speak from the perspective of a person who knows what it means to have loved ones murdered, but rather than seeking retribution through the death penalty, the need for civilized societies to seek peace and atonement, and to recognize the dignity in all of humanity.
When: Tuesday, October 26, 4:45PM - Media Availability
7:00PM – Lecture
Where: Wesleyan University 221 High Street, Middletown, CT
Lecture at Memorial Chapel
Thursday, October 21, 2010
There is still room on board!
Join the fun by October 27th
Stories in Stone: The Rockfall Foundation’s
Autumn Benefit Cruise
along the CT River
Oct. 30, 2010
1:00 pm to 3:00 pm (boarding at 12:45 pm)
Boarding and landing at Eagle Landing, Haddam
There is still time and room on the Essex Riverboat Becky Thatcher. Please join us for a guided tour of the CT River--north from Haddam and back-- with geologist, author and Wesleyan Professor Emeritus Jelle de Boer.
The cruise will run--rain or shine. Two of the Becky Thatcher's three viewing decks are enclosed and the talk will be broadcast throughout the boat. Complimentary light refreshments and a cash bar will be available. Copies of Stories in Stone will also be on board for purchase.
Proceeds from the book sales and Dr. de Boer's tour will benefit The Rockfall Foundation's Green Grants and educational programs.
Come help us celebrate Rockfall's 75 years along the CT River!
To reserve your place: Cost is $45 per person and includes light hors d'oeuvres. Space is limited; . Deadline: October 27th. For reservations, and directions to Eagle Landing, please visit www.rockfallfoundation.org, "News and Events" page; or call the foundation's offices (860)347-0340
... Questions? Please call The Rockfall Foundation office (860)347-0340 or email Claire Rusowiczcrusowicz@rockfallfoundation.org
The Middletown Press reported today on the Public Works Commission discussion about a City purchase of the St. Sebastian School Building. In a motion by Councilman David Bauer and a second by Councilman Ron Klattenberg, the Public Works Commission voted to negotiate the purchase in order to provide space for the senior center.
This makes the second time that the City has discussed this purchase. The first discussion was at the April 30th, 2009 meeting of the Finance and Government Operations Committee, chaired by Ron Klattenberg.
I thought it might be of interest to dig back in the archives of The Eye for coverage of this discussion. The following photographs and text are from two articles by me, one on the monthly meeting of F&G, and a second on the history of the building (the second article corrected mistakes of history I made in the first, I have incorporated the corrections into the two extracts below).
The Finance and Government Operations Committee discussed the purchase of a historic school building at their meeting on Wednesday evening.
Eckersley Hall St. Sebastian School will close at the end of this school year, a decision of the Norwich Diocese,previously reported in the Middetown Press. St. Sebastian School was founded in 1944, and occupies a building which was built in 1872 as Eckersley Hall, part of the Middletown public school system. It is on Durant Terrace, just behind Illiano's Pizza on S. Main Street. When St. Sebastian bought Eckersley Hall, the sales agreement stipulated that if the building ceased being used for education, the city would have the right of first refusal to purchase the building from St. Sebastian. Councilman Gerald Daley speculated that the city had sold the school to St. Sebastian for $1 [see correction below].
With the closing of the school, St. Sebastian has offered the building to the city for a price of $1.3 million. Planning Director Bill Warner said that all departments had contemplated possible uses for the school building, but none foresaw a benefit to the city. Councilmen Daley and Ron Klattenberg pressed Warner, but it seemed apparent that the building is too small, not handicap accessible, and in an inconvenient location for use as a senior center, city school, administration building, or any of the other possible city uses. The F&G Committee voted unanimously against purchasing the school. -----------------
Eckersley Hall was built as an elementary school in 1870, to serve the children of the Durant neighborhood, which was the concentration of houses around what is now South Main Street. St. Sebastian school moved into the Eckersley Hall building in the 1980s. The Eckersley Hall School Building, which is on theMiddletown Historic Properties List, was what the F&G declined to purchase (for $1.3 million) at their meeting on Wednesday evening. Also in my article on the F&G meeting, I reported the speculation by Councilman Daley that St. Sebastian had bought their current building from the city for $1. Mayor Giuliano addressed this speculation, as well as the history of St. Sebastian School in a comment ona March 27th article in the Middletown Pressabout the closing of St. Sebastian. Here is all of his comment related to the school building:
No, it is not true that the City sold St. Sebastian School to the Parish for $1.00. St. Sebastian bought the former Johnson School on Green Street in the 1950s for $25,000 (back when this amount of money was actually worth something). In the 1980s, when it became obvious that the Green Street/Ferry Street neighborhood where I attended school during the 1950s and 1960s was declining, the Parish made a trade with the City. We gave them the Green Street property in exchange for the former Eckersley Hall School on Durant Terrace. Since then, the parish has made extensive improvements to the physical plant, including adding a computer lab, air conditioning, a separate annex to house the middle school, playground equipment and audio-visual amenities, among other things. This is value put into the property via the contributions of St. Sebastian's parishioners, not to mention the staggering subsidies they have contributed annually to sustain the school's operations. As I stated, once this year is over, if there is not going to be a combined regional school, the property should be marketed and the sale proceeds put in St. Sebastian's treasury. This way, the parish can repay its debts to the cemetery trust fund (from which it borrowed heavily to sustain the school) and to the Diocese, which underwrote the school's insurance obligations.
