Senator Doyle has good feeling about Monday meeting with Army

According to an email sent to a Middletown Eye correspondent, State Senator Paul Doyle and Mayor Sebastian Giuliano had a conference call with Army Corps of Engineers Colonel Keith Landry last week about the Army Reserve Training Center.

During that conference call Landry indicated that a decision about preferred sites for the Army Reserve Training Center would not be forthcoming.

"He (Landry) told us that the decision was delayed by superiors," Doyle wrote in his email.

According to Doyle, during that conference call Landry said he was confident, and hoped that the mayor and Doyle would be happy with the Army's decision. The mayor indicated that only a decision which indicated the Army would choose Cucia park would make him, and the town, happy. Landry would make no confirmation about the Army's decision.

At that point Landry indicated he had booked a flight for November 10 to be in Connecticut, according to Doyle's email. Doyle's response: "I told him that there is no point in coming unless the decision was made by the 10th."

The meeting before the meeting

Now confirmed by four sources, it's clear that some of our town leaders met with our state and federal leaders and Army representatives in a "pre-meeting" in the Mayor's office before the "public" meeting with the same individuals, concerning the Army Reserve Training Center.

No one would deny the mayor and other leaders the opportunity to have a cordial introduction outside of the gaze of the press, but the pre-meeting and discussion went on long enough that the actual public meeting was delayed by 25 minutes.

So much for the declaration by city leaders that they want open discussions about the Army's plans.