Let's Demonstrate Support For Bike-Friendly Streets

Free Parks and Brownfield Bus Tours on May

Middletown on the Move hosts a free Parks and Brownfield Bus Tours - all are welcome!
Saturday, May 14, 2016

10 am and 1 pm

The City of Middletown will be hosting two identical tours. Space is limited, reserve your space today! Join Middletown on the Move Staff to learn about brownfield redevelopment opportunities, and discuss how these underutilized properties can become neighborhood recreation assets and how existing City parks can be better.

To reserve a spot, register on line at www.middletownctonthemove.com/events
Questions? Please contact Patrice Barrett at Patrice.Barrett@MiddletownCT.Gov or at 860-638-4836

Boaty McBoatface Loses Nomination at Contested Convention -- The Colonel Carries On #30

By Liza Damned Liza and Statistics

Epigraph: “All the conditions are present. The trigger event could come at any instant.” --Garry Grimhorse

The Middletown Garden Club has its plant sale at Harbor Park today, Saturday, from 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. It’s part of Feet to the Fire River Fest. Does Mother like flowers?

“Life is a foreign language that everyone mispronounces.” --after Christopher Morley, journalist, novelist, essayist, and poet (1890-1957)

Life in a time of perpetual warfare, such as between Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia in Orwell’s novel 1984, is unpleasant, but -- at least in that novel -- not as bad as Hobbes’s state of nature before civilization: “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” (Not a law firm.)

WWI Digitization Event at Russell Library

Come visit the Russell Library this Saturday, May 7 from 10:00am - 2:00pm with your photos, letters and memorabilia from World War I.
The library staff will digitize your photos, and add the digital copies to the growing digital archive of WWI.
Or come and learn about the life of the doughboy from Dr. Edward Gutiérrez, author of "Doughboys on the Great War".
Hope to see you there!

Help Fund Outdoor Films on Foss, and Vote For Your Favorite

Visit https://www.gofundme.com/filmsonfoss and help support a summer of walk-in, outdoor movies on Foss Hill.

Homeless Man Arrested And Jailed

From the daily "arraignment report" of May 4th (click image to enlarge).

South Fire District Approves Budget

From Rob Ross, Chief.
--------------
The 2016-2017 budget was approved by South Fire District residents.

The vote count was as follows:
Yes: 456     No: 317

Thank you to all who came out to vote yesterday!

Cat Tales ~ Cat of the Week ~ LARRY!!

Larry

Gender:  Male

Breed:  Domestic Short Hair

Color:  Black & White

Age:  6 years old

I'm a very sweet boy who loves attention.  I'll gently paw you to keep petting me if you stop! I need a quiet home with a patient, cat experienced person who will give me time to adjust. I am a bit skittish until I know you. I'd love to curl up with you on the couch or in bed.  I'm FIV+. Humans can't catch this and it's difficult for other cats to catch. I have lots of love to give, so come meet me and see for yourself. The Cat Tales website explains all about FIV.​  I'll be waiting for you!

No Dogs / No Children / FIV

Web: http://www.CatTalesCT.org/cats/LARRY/

Phone:  860-344-9043

Email:  info@CatTalesCT.org

Seminar: Manage Your Income and Expenses at NEAT

MxCC Hosts New 5k “Cap & Gown” Run and Walk and Free Kids’ Fun Run

The MxCC Foundation is hosting a new “Cap & Gown” 5K run and walk on Friday, May 20, on the Middlesex Community College campus in Middletown.   This fundraising event, which benefits the MxCC student scholarship fund, begins at 5:30 p.m. for the free Kids’ Fun Run and at 6 p.m. for the 5K run/walk. Registration and starting line is in the lower parking lot on the MxCC campus.  Early registration is taking place now and forms can be submitted anytime online, by mail or in person on race day (beginning at 4:30 p.m.).  Entry fees for the 5K run/walk range from $15 to $25, with $5 discounts available before May 6.  Additional discounts are offered for MxCC students and faculty.   Free tee shirts will be given to the first 200 registrants and prizes will be will be awarded for race times and for best “cap and gown” costume. For online registration, detailed course maps, volunteer information, and other details, visit www.mxcc.edu/5K.

Elimination Of Parking Fund And Increased Penalties For Late Payments To Be Considered

Mayor Drew's draft ordinance eliminating the parking fund

As part of his budget address (here), Mayor Drew included three ordinance changes. One of them would double the penalties for late payment of parking fines, and another would divert revenue from parking fees and fines into the general budget of the city.

Parking Fees And Fines To Go To the General Fund
The Parking Fund was established in 2009, for the express purpose of expenses broadly relating to parking (signage, equipment, salaries, debt on bonds for capital improvements, etc). In addition to paying for parking-related expenses, the city has appropriated $450k from parking revenues into the General Fund every year since its inception.

The existing ordinance allows the city to add to the fund, but allows expenditures from the fund only after review by the Parking Advisory Committee.  Money that remains in the fund after the direct payment into the General Fund, and paying for debt service on parking-related bonds and for Parking Department salaries was allocated to the Parking Department for improvements to the City's parking infrastructure.

The first proposed change to the ordinance would eliminate all restrictions on Parking Fund expenditures. If the revision passes, the expenses of maintaining the city's parking infrastructure would instead need to be allocated by the Council on a case by case basis. If the city eliminated staff in the Parking Department (or even if it eliminated it altogether, returning responsibility for parking to the Police Department), the savings would not be required to be used for parking, they could be used by any other city department such as Public Works, Police, or Education.

Geen Thazampallath, Parking Director, said that the parking fund, as originally envisioned, provided the Department with the flexibility to do small projects related to parking. It has been used to pay for signs that direct visitors to parking and other locations downtown, and has been used to purchase and install cement flower planters.  However, Thazampallath said that currently there is very little spendable money in the Parking Fund, minimizing the practical effect of its abolition. The parking revenue is currently about $1.2M per year; Thazampallath thought it was reasonable that Mayor Drew and Common Council would covet that money to pay for other city expenses.

Increased Revenue From Fines
The second ordinance would reduce the grace period for paying fines, and double the penalty for late payment of fines. The fine would remain as it is today, but only if it is paid within 7 days, instead of the 14 days currently. After 7 days, the fine would double, and after 21 days, it would double again. For example, parking overtime in a metered space currently costs $10 if paid in the first two weeks, and $20 if paid after that.  Under the proposed ordinance, that same violation would cost $10 if paid in the first week, $20 if paid in the next two weeks, and $40 if paid later than 3 weeks.

Geen Thazampallath, Parking Director, said that the proposed changes are "part of raising revenue." He pointed to the budgetary crises in funding at the state level, "we have to anticipate structural changes [in how city services are funded]."

Council Members Claim Free Parking, Except Bartolotta
Thazampallath said that most Council members are exempt from any parking tickets. Some Council Members have two license plates on the do-not-ticket list. The 2-plate list is mostly Republicans, including Giuliano, Pessina, and Salafia; it also includes the Democrat Chisem. Council members with only one license plate on the do-not-ticket list include the Republican Kleckowski, and Democrats Serra, Daley, Blanchard, Faulkner, and Nocera.

Only one Council person is NOT on the exempt list, Thazampallath said, "Councilwoman Bartolotta chose not to submit her license plate [to the do-not-ticket list]."

He further said that he did not think the list of do-not-ticket license plates played much of a role, "Honestly, I don’t think this list comes into play maybe once or twice a year…a pure guess but I’m extremely confident it isn’t misused or over used."

He said there was no mechanism for monitoring the time or frequency that cars on the do-not-ticket list would have otherwise received tickets.

Beautifying Harbor Park

City residents are invited to attend a planning session for

Harbor Park with the Middletown Garden Club, the City of Middletown Planning Department, and the Conway School of Landscape Design.

Two sessions will be held:

Thursday, May 5, at 6:30 pm at the Senior/Community Center, 63 Durant Terrace, and

Thursday, June 9, at 6:30 pm in the Hubbard Room of Russell Library, 123 Broad Street.

A team of graduate students from the Conway School have taken on the project of interpreting the community’s vision of an improved Harbor Park; the project is under-written through the Susan B. Wasch Riverfront Development Fund, which is managed by the Middletown Garden Club. The goal is to increase usage of the park and expand opportunities to enjoy the waterfront through active and passive access to natural resources.  

The Conway School, located in Conway, MA, offers masters’ degrees in ecological design. Their mission is to explore, develop, practice, and teach design of the land that is ecologically and socially sustainable. The Middletown Garden Club, a 501(c)(3) organization, has worked to beautify the city of Middletown for over 100 years.