I have not been posting for a few days in order to get ready for school-me for teaching at a new school and for my kids trying to wean them off of their “summer” schedule. Oh this ought to be a good one next Friday.

If you think your kids are the only ones who slept to noon this summer, think again. My significant other was at work the other day when he heard the following conversation: “oh, you finally got up? It’s noon for God’s sake.” And the classic: “don’t let me come home and find dishes all over the house”!!!

I know my significant other was relieved to find out that yes, we are not the only family with this issue. I sometimes think my husband is not in touch with the real world. He gets mad at my younger son for lounging around during the school break, but then he comes home and tells me, (and he is so astonished) that there are actually other people who are experiencing the same problems. Well, on to other things.

I was watching some of the Town Council meeting of August 14 I believe, and I was happy to see my main man Bill Kunde get up to speak at the public comments portion of the meeting. I really love Bill Kunde and I always will. For those of you who do not realize, Bill Kunde was my first guest on the Undergroundtownhall TV show a few years ago. Believe me, I know it took a lot of courage for him to do this, and I will never forget it.

Bill Kunde is a smart man who speaks well and makes intelligent choices (he came on my show didn’t he?) There was an item on the agenda which would allow the hiring of a new staff person at Parks and Recreation to fill an upcoming vacancy because of a retirement.

Discussion ensued on whether the position should be full time with one person, or part time with two people. Bill Kunde got up and told the Town Council that it probably would be better to have two part time people, thus making for a more flexible schedule. This makes sense because many of the Park and Rec activities take place after 5 p.m. and if a full time person started let’s say at 8 or 9 a.m. in the morning, they would not really be expected to work after 5 p.m. But with two part-timers, one could work late morning or early afternoon and one could work 6 to 9 p.m. or whatever.

Speaking of Park and Rec, the Yellow House offered many programs this summer for our kids. I know my daughter loves the Yellow House and visited their often. On many occasions it seemed as if there would only be a handful of kids taking advantage of their activities. I know the recent Boston trip only yielded around a dozen participants. It is really too bad because we have many kids whining all summer that there is “nothing to do.”

Well you know, even going to the Yellow House and watching a movie, playing pool or just hanging out listening to music to me is fine. I think some of these kids think they should be rafting the Amazon or climbing Mt. Everest or it is just too boring. It seems that if the parent is not spending hundreds of dollars on some of their offspring every five minutes, that they just can’t have a good time.

I know when I was a kid we would just drop acid and hang down at the park. And to think, we traveled all over the world and never left home–now that was a bargain!!! Cheap entertainment. And we never had to bother our parents!! What is wrong with these kids today, don’t they have an imagination????

I also waited to hear what was going to transpire when it time for reports from the various Town Council Commitees. Well again I was disappointed when the Ordinance Committee report came up and Ms. Esty did not mention the Police Commission. Apparently everything but was referred to: i.e. making sure all records and reports are available to the public. That is fine, and I have been attempting to do this for years, especially where the police department monthly reports are involved.

In fact, Ms. Esty, so you know, again I have to pull teeth to get the Town Goverment to release an update of the Police Gift Account balance. I contacted the Town Government and wanted to know why some of this balance wasn’t used to offset the patrol cars damaged during the home invasion. Now don’t get me wrong, those cars needed to be replaced immediately. But, first of all, I never got a response, and secondly, I am still waiting for them to click print on the Finance Department computer and send me the information.

If we are going to do this right, we need to make sure all yes all departments are treated equally. It would be a lot easier instead of having Ordinance meeting after meeting, to just mandate that all departments and commissions post their minutes on their respective website. EVER HEAR OF A SCANNER?

I am not picking on this woman, even though it may seem so but I think Ms. Esty wants to talk more about the Police Commission but SOMEONE is putting a monkey wrench in the works. Hmm—I wonder who? Well, as was stated by the PFJ in an earlier post–time is running out. Hopefully the discussion will remain active on this issue. I personally am telling all people to support Ms. Esty because I know she likes to talk a lot but she is honest and has good intentions.

I know many of you, especially myself, are concerned over the continuing problem with drunk driving So many lives are taken each year because people don’t know when enough is enough. Or they have a “problem” understanding the devastating effects drinking while driving can have on our community

The following is an interesting article from USA TODAY on how some people want to try to solve this problem, or at least put a dent in it. It is the idea of an ignition lock which would prevent an intoxicated driver from starting their car. This is an argument for and against this idea.

“Now, safety advocates want to turn technology loose on the problem by placing alcohol detection devices in cars of those convicted of a single drunk-driving offense. Convicted drivers would have to blow into an “ignition interlock.” The car wouldn’t start if it detected alcohol above a certain level.

Groups representing bar and restaurant owners and alcohol retailers are appalled at the idea. More appalling is the continued death of thousands each year. While stricter drunk driving laws, stiffer penalties and public awareness campaigns have cut the rate of alcohol-related fatalities substantially in the past 20 years, the number of people killed remains appallingly and unacceptably high.

Too many offenders ignore the law and drive anyway. About 11% of drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2005 were driving on invalid licenses and had previous drunk driving convictions. Mandating devices to prevent them from driving drunk could change that. A study done in Maryland by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that convicted drivers using the devices had 65% fewer repeat offenses in the first year than did offenders who were put on probation.

A number of states require the devices for repeat offenders. But in the past three years, Washington and New Mexico have passed laws to mandate them for first offenders. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is working to pass a “model law” in Illinois that would tie the length of time the device is mandated to how intoxicated the driver was when arrested. In another effective twist, the proposed law would require drivers to show that they hadn’t attempted to drive while intoxicated — the device records alcohol levels — before the device would be removed.

Ignition locks are no panacea. They can be thwarted by having sober passengers blow into the interlock. Critics complain they are intrusive and costly. Yet the deadly consequences of driving while intoxicated beg for strong measures to prevent a recurrence.

It can be difficult to prevent drunks from getting behind the wheel. On New Year’s Eve, everyone would be safer if fewer of them could start their cars.”

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a family member that received the  jury duty “notice” in the mail. Well, as you know, I blew a gasket big time. I started calling and calling everyone: Gov. Rell’s office, State Rep. Al Adinolfi, the jury administrator’s office–for starters.

First of all-the person is a student who does not reside-get it–does not reside in Connecticut. This person does not live–repeat-does not live–in the dormitory. The person resides in an apartment-pays his own rent, works and goes to school full time.

Now the jury (oops I almost spelled jerky) duty notice asked the family member to appear on Sept. 24 at 8:15 a.m. in Meriden, Ct. Unfortunately, there is a problem: the family member lives nearly 200 miles away. Do these people realize that we have a life? We don’t wait by the mailbox for them to interrupt our lives with rediculous requests, especially when you don’t live anywhere near the venue. My family member called, wrote and tried to explain that he did not live in Connecticut anymore. He provided his new address. But, the Jury Administration continued to send correspondence to the Connecticut address. It was like they were in denial.

Finally I got in on it placed the first call to the Jury Administration. They were very pleasant but they insisted that the family member had to go come hell or high water. I kept looking at the notice to make sure the government hadn’t re-instated the draft because that is how they acted. No, there is NO ONE ELSE in Connecticut to call to serve on the jury duty. They have to have my son appear or else the whole criminal justice system will go down the tubes. “Oh, he can postpone it for 10 months. All well and good, but that leaves us in July and as I stated above, he does not come home. He has a job. He goes to summer school. “Oh when he comes to the courthouse after driving nearly 200 miles, he can just tell the judge he is a student and the judge will dismiss him. Not so simple. What about all that time he just spent on the road getting there and now having to turn right around and drive back? Hello?

Well, I asked, what about on break, i.e. Christmas holiday, winter break, spring break, can he postpone it until then? “Oh no, the break has to be for at least a two week period. You know, come on!!  They are not even being reasonable.

So then, I called Gov. Rell’s office. The person on the other end of that line told me that the Governor can’t get involved in judicial matters because she is the Governor and with the Executive branch. Oh really, I said, then why is she making comments about the Petit murder and we should have the three strikes rule and she may go to the three strikes rally in Cheshire, blah blah. Suffice to say, that ended that conversation. Can you believe it!! I know I am important and so is my family. I expected the Governor to drop everything and help us.  Doesn’t she realize who called her? I sometimes wonder where some peoples priorities lie.

Then I called Al Adinolfi’s office. The spokesperson was very nice. He listened and we spoke ( uh, I spoke most of the time).  I told him that the State wanted my son to give up his license in order not to be eligible for jury duty. No, my son is not going to give up anything. Connecticut needs to straighten out its judicial system first. We already see what the problems are: people let out on parole that should have stayed behind bars–people slipping through the cracks of our court system: laws that are not evenly enforced: people driving without licenses for over 20 years–appearing in court on a monthly basis, and still being allowed to drive. I mean come on, as I stated in an earlier post, if our courts can’t hand down a sentence to this person with no driver license how do we expect them to handle something as complex as a person on parole!! It is a joke!! Oh ha ha ha, no license–oh ha ha–oh we will drop the fine honey its ok!! This is what one of the prosectors said when I went to court with this person. One prosecutor said one thing, then another said something else. Enforce the law will you please. Why are they on the books, for our health, or to give some copy editor something to do?

WHAT TYPE OF MESSAGE ARE THEY SENDING TO THIS PERSON?

Well, finally, I ended back up with the jury administrators office who said they would look into the matter and call me back. To my surprise they did call the next day. It was a nice woman named Tammy. She contacted my son and told him she would send him a form asking him to list his off campus address. This would make him an out of state resident and ineligible for jury duty AT THIS TIME in his life.

Thank youTammy for understanding my sons dilemma. Thank God they did not call my son in Montreal. Could you imagine that one: 14 hours one way to go to the Voir Dire only to find out you did not make the cut. No!!

I asked Rep. Al Adinolfi’s office to look into a bill that would make full time students ineligible for jury duty until they graduated. Rep. Al Adinolfi’s spokesperson said that idea might be against the 26th amendment granting 18 year olds the right to vote. I am sorry but I don’t get it. Eighteen year olds can vote, enter into a contract, get drafted, get picked for jury duty, but cannot drink alcohol. Look either you are an adult or you are not. You can’t pick and choose when you think it is appropriate for someone to be an “adult” to suit your needs whether you like it or not. If you are not a full adult in the eyes of the state of Connecticut until you are 21, then in my opinion, that is when you should be eligible for jury duty.

It is amazing that you are an “infant” in the eyes of the law when it comes to drinking, but you are an adult enough to be drafted and be on a jury and decide someones fate!! It doesn’t make sense. Oh well, that is life I guess. Anyway, problem solved for now. And no I do not advocate drinking AT ANY AGE!!

A few posts ago, I told all of you that I would download the site map of the “proposed lifestyle center. Well, here it is. The map shows the view as it would look as if one was standing on Rt. 10 across the street from the Interchange Zone. There are no markings on the map so one has to “guess” what is what. From what I can gather, the large amount of buildings in the lower center seems to be the “proposed lifestyle” center. One can see the head-in parking so it seems only logical that is what one is looking at. To the upper right hand side, one sees what appears to be two large buildings. I know the proposal calls for a hotel and or convention center so maybe that is what this is. Then to the upper left one can see four large buildings–I am thinking that this may be the proposed “condos-apartments.”

The large amount of buildings at the top of the map over the Southington line is that adult condominium complex.

I also received a report from a local resident regarding a trip by the Inland Wetlands Commission to the Interchange Zone. Read this residents report below which has been edited for content:

Interesting IWC site walk at the IC Zone - aqueduct site this beautiful morning. Commissioners and observers seemed quite impressed with the old canal aqeuduct stonework and both the old “big fill” and new “big fill”( the spoils for the immense bipass channel.) There was a great deal of sparse new grass cover and erosion control fabric. Swimming hole appears currently in use with a new-looking rope swing. It is huge! I wanted to dive right in. My associate, George Logan, noticed otter sign nearby. It is amazing to me that a river as big as the Ten Mile presumably still has swimmable water in the heavily developed central CT corridor.(Bacteria count should be checked first though).

East of the disturbed area and northwest of the river, moist, good quality woods extends up to the unnamed but sizable tributary from Southington (~seven foot wide channel), which is badly eroded, presumably by runoff from the new condo develoment and other impervious surfaces. Invasive autumn olive is dominant in the extensive sandy, disturbed areas, but I was pleased to see it was intermixed with saplings of assorted other native tree and shrub species, including black oak and black cherry saplings. I noted one remaining sandy hill with mature native hardwoods (black oak dominated). We saw some very old - but no recent - junk cars and the ATV’s track is mostly limited to one, discrete area.

However, we never were taken to the most valuable floodplain forested wetlands, just to the portion of the Ten Mile river where the crossing is proposed, near the swimming hole. We were also shown very little on the southeast side of the river. We were shwon a small wetland to be filled that includes an old household garbage dump. (Maybe the commission did not want to risk a rare wood turtle being spotted duirng the site walk) I heard no mention by the trip leader, John Milone of Milone & McBroom, of wood turtles. However, I did mention the two observed duirng the late May turtle search to a reporter.

Regardless of whether one supports or opposes a retail development at that location, that the review process improves design and reduces impacts to environmental and heritage values. For example, the proposed stormwater management system does not adequately treat the soluble component of runoff from impervious surfaces, among other issues.

For the map of the proposed Lifestyle Center Click Here (PDF)

GRYLLS’ THRILLS BOGUS: EXPERT

By DON KAPLAN

July 24, 2007 — Discovery Channel he-man Bear Grylls, the host of the survival-skills show “Man vs. Wild,” is barely the man he seems to be on TV.

On the program, Grylls appears to camp out in quickly-built shelters deep in the wilderness while battling hypothermia and dehydration. But when the cameras stop rolling, Grylls has actually moved to luxurious hotels.

In the last two seasons, he and producers have contrived other scenes to make it appear as if Grylls is more skilled than he really is, a consultant for the show told The Times of London.

“If you really believe everything happens the way it is shown on TV, you are being a little bit naive,” said Mark Weinert, an Oregon-based survival consultant, who said producers hired him as an adviser for the show.

Discovery Channel officials declined to comment, but in the U.K., where the show airs with the title “Born Survivor,” stunned network officials at Channel 4 said they are conducting an internal investigation.

“Discovery Communications has learned that isolated elements of the ‘Man vs. Wild’ show in some episodes were not natural to the environment, and that for health and safety concerns the crew and host received some survival assistance while in the field,” a spokeswoman for the network said.

“Moving forward the program will be 100 percent transparent and all elements of the filming will be explained up-front to our viewers. In addition, shows that are to be repeated will be edited appropriately.”

According to Weinert, while filming in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains - an episode in which Grylls, 33, is seen biting off the head of a snake for breakfast - Grylls actually spent some nights with the show’s crew in a lodge outfitted with television, stone fireplaces, hot tubs and Internet access.

The Pines Resort at Bass Lake is advertised as “a cozy getaway for families” and is a luxurious hotel with its own spa on a lake.

In another instance, where Grylls was supposed to be surviving on a desert island, he was actually in Hawaii and spent nights at a motel, Weinert said.

The same episode had Grylls building a Polynesian-style raft using only materials around him, including bamboo, hibiscus twine and palm leaves for a sail. Weinert said he actually led a team of builders to construct the raft.

It was then taken apart so that Grylls could be shown building it on camera.

In another episode, viewers watched as Grylls tried to coax what seemed like a wild mustang into a lasso in the Sierra Nevada.

“I’m in luck,” he told viewers, apparently coming across four wild horses grazing in a meadow. “A chance to use an old Native American mode of transport comes my way. This is one of the few places in the whole of the U.S. where horses still roam wild.”

In fact, Weinert said, the horses were not wild but were brought in by trailer.

NEWYORKPOST.COM

Video Link: Bear Grylls - Man vs. Wild - is a Fake

I am posting the link to the Cheshire Police Department Monthly Reports for July. I want to thank the Cheshire Town Managers Office and Police Chief Michael Cruess for keeping the reports up to date. I know it has been a difficult time for our town and our emergency response teams. But they all did a great job considering the circumstances.

I know many of you are worried. But let me tell you again, Cheshire is a safe town. The Police cannot be everywhere. We cannot expect them to. All of us in this town have to get involved. We have to look out for each other. We have to be the eyes and ears. If you see something you think is out of the ordinary, contact the police. Don’t feel embarrassed about it. The police will respond.

I read in one of the local papers that Cheshire Police Home Security Checks in Cheshire have increased from one or two a month to over two a day. Apparently the CPD is also going to distribute a walk-through pamphlet designed to make sure your home is secure.

But as always, the best defense is a good offense. And that offense is yourself and your neighbors looking out for each other.

I remember several years ago, there was this ad for a dummy man that you could purchase. I can’t remember the name of this product, but a consumer could dress the dummy man up to look like a security guard or a biker or whatever. The “man” could be placed in your car, i.e. if you were a woman driving alone, you were supposed to put the”man” in your car trunk, and then after work, especially if you worked nights, take the “man” out of your trunk and place him in your car to make it look like you always had a passenger. I don’t think this product went over too well because, frankly I could see problems right from the beginning. I imagined a woman or even a man for that matter, putting this dummy into the trunk of one’s car and some idiot calling the police thinking it was a dead body. That probably happened more than you want to think that is probably why I don’t see this product advertised anymore.

I also remember the advertisement stating that you could sit the dummy near a window of your home when you were going on vacation and people would think someone was home. Oh, come on, how stupid was that idea!! I would think that if someone was casing your home, after a few days of “watching” this dummy and noticing it was not moving, could be another major problem. I always wanted to find out how many of these dummies they actually conned people into buying.

Ok, well enough of that and now onto the monthly reports.

P. S. The jury duty saga continues. That will be in the next post. Stay tuned!!

Here is the Police Monthly Report: Click Here (PDF)

FINALLY: I did get the answer of what happened in the matter of the 45 year old man found dead in his car in April. Read the reports to find out.