The following is an excerpted version of the Cheshire Police Departments’ monthly reports for October.

FATAL MOTOR VEHICLE CRASH: On Oct. 13, 2007 at 9:13 p.m., the Cheshire Police Department responded to a one vehicle crash on North Brooksvale Road, north of Chamberlain Court.

It was determined that a 25 year old Cheshire resident was operating a 2000 Jaguar southbound on North Brooksvale Road (Rt. 42), when he began to slide, rolled anc collided with a utility pole. Upon impact the operator was partially ejected from the vehicle which caught fire. Neighbors and other motorists stopped and pulled the victim away from the burning vehicle. There were no other contact vehicles or other parties involved.

Campion Ambulance Service personnel pronounced the victim dead on upon their arrival. The roadway is posted 25 mph and at the time of the crash, there was no adverse road or weather conditions. The Jaguar was extensively damaged.

Death Investigation: Detectives are investigating the untimely death of a 20-year old male found deceased in his residence. The investigation is continuing and foul play is not suspected.

Detectives continue to investigate the triple homicide at 300 Sorghum Mill Drive. The investigation is in conjunction with the Connecticut State Police Major Crime Squad.

FRAUD: Detectives are investigating the use of counterfeit currency at local businesses. A possible suspect has been identified and the case continues.

LARCENIES: Detectives continue to investigate several larceny complaints from the local YMCA. Several lockers were entered with cash and credit cards being stolen.

Detectives are identifying several suspects and are working in conjunction with the Southington Police Department who are experiencing similar thefts.

Detectives are also investigating several vehicle break ins which have occurered while the victims park their respective vehicles at local businesses and have left personal items in their vehicles. Detectives are following up on several leads.

BURGLARIES: Police are investigating, two residential burglaries that took place in the south end of the Rt. 42 area. Cash and jewelry were taken.

NARCOTICS: Detectives have applied for an arrest warrant pertaining to the illegal possession of a controlled substance by a worker at a local pharmacy. More information will be released if the warrant is signed.

Addendum: I found a video, albeit a shaky one, of the Long Hill (section of Trumbull), fire department responding to a call on Edison Road in Trumbull. What is unique about this video is that the fire trucks were already at Trumbull Shopping Park when the call came in. You can see the trucks turn right and go up that LONG drive that connects to Trumbull Shopping Park. You see it is THREE LANES and very long and very wide.

 The trucks turn left towards Trumbull. The video is as I said shaky, but you can see the bridge over the Merritt Parkway that the state widened a few years ago. It is THREE LANES with one dedicated turn lane onto the Merritt Parkway. Main Street is TWO LANES in Trumbull and in Bridgeport going to the mall and from the mall. Take note on how WIDE everything is.

Also Trumbull has the Long Hill Firestation, where this unit is located about 1/4 mile away from the mall on the Madison Avenue side of the mall entrance. There is another fire station in Bridgeport on their side of Madison Avenue about a mile away. I believe there is yet another station up on Main Street about two miles away near the Board of Education building. There are at LEAST THREE STATIONS possibly four. Cheshire will have to rely on that one station in Southington. Not good.

Here is the video:

LONG HILL FIRE DEPT RESPONDS TO A CALL. TRAVELING FROM TRUMBULL MALL. 

As I indicated in my last post, I am featuring Westfield Shoppingtown aka: Trumbull Shopping Park (or as us natives to the area will always refer to it) Trumbull Mall in Trumbull Connecticut.

I have provided a link to an interesting blog that highlights different malls throughout the country. This link is to Trumbull Shopping Park which I believe opened in 1964, it was actually before Lafayette Plaza, I thought it was after. I think that date is way too early, I  will try to find out.

I hope you go to the links and read the comments. Some of the information on the website I know is wrong and some of the commenters correct it. Trumbull Mall was NEVER an outside mall. Milford Post was originally an outside (like a Lifestyle Center), set up, in fact some parts of the Canton Lifestyle Center reminded me of the old Milford Post Center believe it or not.  I think this blogger is mixing up Milford with Trumbull, especially with the dates of construction.

Also take note near the bottom of the bloggers comments that there is some sort of plan in the works for an “open air” shopping center past Exit 48. Can you imagine?

The mall was built by Tom Frouge and expanded in 1978. I actually worked at that mall: I worked in Korvettes Dept Store. I found an OLD picture of E.J. Korvettes  but it is very grainy so I won’t bother running it.

Westfield (which is an Australian Company) Shoppingtown in Trumbull has 5,000 parking spaces and like Clinton Crossing a few days ago on Black Friday of this year, I have see ALL of these spaces taken. I went to Trumbull Mall about three years ago when I was working in Fairfield and I could NOT find one space-even in their parking “garage.”

 I even recall years back on Black Friday and a few days before Christmas, especially Christmas Eve, that entire mall parking area filled and people resorting to parking on the side of the driveway that leads into the mall; on the grass, everywhere you could park a car-it was parked on. If people could have parked on top of each other’s cars, they would have. But that was the holiday season. The rest of the year, the parking lot is busy but you can park quite easily.

The Clinton Crossing parking disaster which was highlighted in a recent New Haven Register article, in which the retailers, fearful of a weak holiday season, highly promoted a sort of “midnight madness” sale and boy did they ever get a response. People parked on streets, in other businesse’s parking areas, on lawns, everywhere.

I guess it got so bad that the Clinton Police Department had to contact the Clinton Crossing management. This is because they ran a special sale that ran from midnight to 10 a.m. in the morning.

 Now everyone likes a sale, especially before the holiday season. And retailers, as I mentioned above, are really pushing it this year because of high fuel prices. They want to ensure some sort of a profit in case sales bottom out midway through the holiday season, which might happen.

Anyone who knows retail, knows that most retailers are in the red until the holidays. They have to make their money within several weeks and a few weeks after the holidays or they are kaput in plain English.

Now, what do you all think is going to happen to Cheshire when this Lifestyle Center opens its doors for the first time? Or at the holiday season when these sales start at midnight and run all day and all night?

Will you all be content to sit in traffic? Maybe you will. This Lifestyle Center does not bother me personally because I am used to traffic, living in Fairfield County most of my life: and I grew up in Bridgeport which had mixed use everywhere.

But let’s face it, Rt. 10 in Cheshire can not handle any more traffic.

Case in point, the other night I was coming off I-691 at Exit 3 when I noticed gridlock. The traffic was backed up on Rt. 10 both sides, north and south and on the exit ramp. The light turned green and I could not turn onto Rt. 10. Vehicles were stuck in the middle of the road-no one could move, Why? A police car had it lights on from either a traffic stop or an accident.

 I don’t know. It could have been a disabled motorist. It might have been a traffic stop. It was a DISASTER. Now I am not saying traffic stops should not be made-not at all, but be prepared everyone, because traffic will not move because people have to “Looky Loo” and they are afraid to pass the cop or blow their horn.  I think it must have been a traffic stop because right after I finally got on Rt. 10, the cop car pulled out into traffic, then of course everyone REALLY slowed down.

I can remember a few years ago traveling to Fairfield to the Black Rock Congregational Church for a holiday concert. The church hired a cop to direct traffic. BIG MISTAKE. The cop was trying to direct the cars in an orderly fashion when some of the people in the line I was in, decided they’d had enough  and would not wait anymore and started blowing their horns at the cop and yelling at him. After several seconds of that, the people just started going around the cop and ignoring him. 

 You would NEVER see that here. I miss it so!!

And as far as I-691 goes, the traffic starts slowing BEFORE Exit 4 which is Southington for some reason, speeds up a bit before Exit 3 and then continues on.

I can bet my life that when construction starts on the Lifestyle Center, which you will be able to see from I-691, that the Looky Loos will practically come to a complete stop to see it or stare at it wondering “what is going on over there” and not see the car stop in front of them and have accident after accident. I know it.

To get back to Trumbull Mall, the traffic backs up on that exit ramp (Exit 48) off of the Merritt Parkway, which is really the only way to get there unless you want to travel miles out of your way cutting through the back roads of Trumbull. That exit ramp is four lanes: two turning left onto Main Street towards the Mall and two turning right towards Trumbull Center.

The exit ramp (Exit 3) off I-691 is only two lanes: one lane to turn left towards Cheshire and one lane to turn right towards Southington. If the powers that be do not have a dedicated lane to go into that Lifestyle Center: all I can say is pack your overnight bag because you are going to be in the car a LONG TIME.

Now Trumbull Mall also has several major arteries that connect into the mall. Main Street: Old Town Road: Madison Avenue and Park Avenue.

 Main Street near the Mall and all the way up from Bridgeport is TWO LANES. Park Avenue is one lane but it is a boulevard and VERY WIDE and they do NOT GO 25, its more like 55!!

 I don’t know how those Sacred Heart University students cross Park Avenue from their dorm without flying over a car hood.  Amazing.

 That is mixed use to the max. A 10 story dorm right next to a single family home on the Bridgeport side of  Park Avenue, because zoning permits this use in Bridgeport and the university took advantage of it. Nice!!

 I hate to be living next to that dorm on a Saturday night. Well you want mixed use, this is how it can morph into something you never imagined. Go take a look at it one weekend. Then go drive this weekend or any holiday weekend on the Merritt Parkway south and try to get off Exit 48 without your car sticking out onto the Merritt Parkway. Say your prayers you do not get sideswiped: and as I stated in an earlier post, the state WIDENED THAT BRIDGE and traffic is still snarled.

Unlike Cheshire’s proposed Lifestyle Center, Trumbull Shopping Park has TWO MAIN ENTRANCES. One on Main Street, which gets the bulk of the traffic from Trumbull and Bridgeport which has NO MALL. 

But believe it or not, if you go up to Exit 47, Park Avenue exit off the Merritt, turn left and then left again at the traffic light onto Old Town Road, then at that traffic light turn left onto Madison Avenue, you can enter Trumbull Mall with little or no traffic backup.  Most of the traffic seems to enter through Main Street. Again, Old Town Road is one lane but very WIDE and people DO NOT DO 25 mph!!

I know when that Apple Valley Mall was being considered in the mid 1980’s I remember hearing something about going in on it with Southington, which was going to provide another entrance or exit from their end. I think Cheshire better look into another entrance or if that is not feasible, at least another way to exit.

Mass transit should also be utilized, but I am sure this will not be a popular idea with the town government. W/S should at least provide a few shuttle buses to travel around Cheshire picking up people and bringing them to the Lifestyle Center and around town to other shopping locations as I mentioned in an earlier post.

All I can say in my heart is I sincerely hope Cheshire does not panic like Trumbull did. You know what happened when Lafayette Plaza closed and people started to come to Trumbull Mall. There is always some crime at retail establishments but Trumbull I believe panicked.

That is when the problems started: the targeting-the backlash from minority groups from Bridgeport who felt they were being targeted. The Department of Justice investigation. LEARN from this Cheshire. Be careful. Be smart.

 Here is the link to Trumbull Mall, my favorite mall in Connecticut. I love Trumbull and I did almost move there about 10 years ago but the house we wanted to buy was too expensive and my husband really wanted to stay in Cheshire.

I know what some of you are thinking!! Oh TOO BAD!! Whatever. You are stuck with me for at least a few more years!!

http://thecaldorrainbow.blogspot.com/2007/01/westfield-shoppingtown-trumbull.html

I managed to get to the last so called-public hearing of the Planning and Zoning Commission which was to take public imput for the last time before its January decision on the proposed Lifestyle Center to be located in the North End Interchange Zone near I-691.

I arrived around 9 p.m. I figured I would be able to speak around 10 or 10:30 p.m. the latest.

 Now after the Town Manager gave his fiscal impact study and the Police and Fire Chief gave theirs, the Chairwoman Patty Flynn Harris allowed people to come up and ask questions of the Town Government officials. A few people asked some questions, but I was still waiting for the opportunity for general comments. I finally had to leave the meeting a little after 11 p.m. and the general public comments had still not commenced.

I know everything was legal, there were “comments” by the public, although limited in scope, but come on, allowing general comments after midnight!! That is outrageous. I couldn’t believe it. Most people work in the mornings and just could not afford to stay any later.

How many times do we have to keep hearing the Intervenor and W/S make essentially the same presentations over and over. A public hearing is to HEAR THE PUBLIC COMMENT ON WHAT ALREADY HAS BEEN PRESENTED.

Now Roberts Rules of Order do call for public comments to take place at the end of a meeting in which public comments are allowed, and for those who are not aware, public comments do not even have to be allowed at a general meeting. But this WAS a public hearing. It was sad that people had to wait until Wednesday morning literally to speak their piece. It was really upsetting to me.

I did notice that the Town Council Chambers were filled and I was glad. It did not matter who was on what side. What mattered was that people showed up. I know the people opposing the Lifestyle Center and the residential portion obtained approximately 595 signatures, so that was some sort of opinion I guess. Of course I will hear the other side saying it is not a mandate. Of course it isn’t, but I believe the turning over of the Planning and Zoning from a Democrat ruled entity to now six Republicans and three Democrats WAS!

And the other big shocker of the night, the projected revenue from this Lifestyle Center which will include a hotel, conference center, fitness center, movie theater, 140 units of condominums–a one time shot of approximately $1.3 million!!

The annual recurring revenue, according to our Town Manager, would be in the area of $2.6 million with some of this figure based on full retail occupany and the mill rate (taxes) would be the same.!!

Milone also told the P and Z that this occupany rate “could” affect personal property taxes if the housing is not fully occupied, but all fairness, no one really knows the answer to that question. We would have to wait and see.

Of course, I couldn’t wait to hear the impact this Lifestyle Center would have on our public safety, especially my friends at the Police Department, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Ok- rough estimate by Chief Cruess, five more officers-one per shift. Chief Cruess did tell the P and Z that this project would not put the Police Department “over the edge” thank God!!  I don’t think the Chief is off at all in his estimates of man/woman power up at this Lifestyle Center. This is necessary because this project going to bring in a LOT of people, especially when it first opens.

The Police Chief made a point that because the Lifestyle Center is located in the North East quadrant of town, if an officer received a call and they were at the Hamden line, which is at the completely other end of the spectrum, it would take roughly, in his estimate, 6 to 8 eight minutes to arrive . What? Come on people, when I was younger my brother and I went from Waterbury to Stratford in 15 minutes!! (it was like 3 a.m. in the morning–whatever! Those days are gone.

Now, each officer would cost 8 to 9,000 dollars to train and equip and of course, we would need a new cruiser at a price tag of approximately $40,000. . So the grand total to the town so some people can shop at Barnes and Noble and eat at Panera and shop at Coldwater Creek and see a movie would be approximately $173,569. You had better be buying a LOT of clothes, working that body night and day and eating and shopping until you are dropping people, for that pricetag.

And oh, that doesn’t include a new fire pumping engine at a cost of $1.2 million. What did the Town Manager said the revenue for the town would be? Start adding-against all these costs. Hmm!!

Now another point of discussion was this disparity over just how many school children would enter Cheshire Schools if and when these 140 condo units are built. W/S says 11 and the Intervenor for Westfield or more legally Meriden Square 2 and 3 or 7 of nine or something, I lost count (I hate numbers-they are just so —impersonal), this Data Corp estimates the number will be 29. A local resident got up at that don’t blink or you missed it public hearing, and said that he estimated there would be at least 100 more students.

Supt of Schools Greg Florio in a letter to the P and Z, stated there would be little or no impact on the school system. So there you have it, three people, three different figures. Take your pick.

There was also a discussion by the Intervenor on the declining housing market (or the soft market). Condos are soft now, they are declining in value. So you might pay as much as the projected $325,000 per condo or as little as $188,000 or even $250,000 which would not make the condos attractive because there would be plenty of empty ones in Cheshire at that price after everyone sold theirs and moved to the Lifestyle Center.

W/S  Representative Lou Massiello countered the housing slump claim offered by the Intervenor by stating quite loudly and passionately I might add, that “none of us know what the housing market will do.” 

He added that a vast amount of the tax revenue will be from commercial not from the housing part of the Lifestyle Center.

My suggestion to Cheshire, build this project in phases. Do not build the stores, the condo’s, the theater, the fitness center, the movie theater, the conference center, the hotel ALL AT ONCE. Get your feet wet Cheshire, by building the stores first, even though residential can be built quicker and see faster revenue, Cheshire has to get used to seeing a lot more people than we now have, traveling through this town. Take it one step at a time, evaluate and then continue on if needed.

My next post will focus on Trumbull Shopping Park–its location–its traffic flow–and its problems and its successes.

INXS-"Don't Change"-for my Australian readers

 If you read between the lines of the article posted below this one, what the developers did was to create a “new city” away from the heart of the original downtown. This is what I believe will happen to Cheshire if and when the Shoppes at Cheshire are built. The focus will shift away from central and southern Cheshire and will focus on the Shoppes.

This could be a good or bad thing depending upon how ones looks at the situation. As far as taxes and revenue go, the Town could be on the positive receiving end. On the other hand, if the rest of the town falls into abandonment, what will the cost factor of that be?

I suggest the developer W/S if it is to do anything for the town, supply a shuttle bus or two that could travel between the Lifestyle Center and make stops at Maplecroft Plaza, Everybody’s Plaza for starters and circulate the people around to the different businesses so they stay open for starters.

Cheshire has a “signage” problem, as we see with the Area 51 Pool, so if and when this Lifestyle Center is built, I hope Cheshire Town Government has enough sense to put this sign up advertising the pool that is open to ALL PEOPLE, to take advantage of the increase traffic that will most likely occur on Rt. 10. I am telling you, six word would solve the Community Pools financial problems: “CHESHIRE COMMUNITY POOL-ALL ARE WELCOME, with an arrow pointing in the direction of the pool. Cheshire needs to learn to stop its nonsense and welcome all people and stop calling people from other towns “outsiders.”

I feel like I’m in an episode of the Twilight Zone when I hear that one.

I know another article I read about a Lifestyle Center in another state mentioned that they were limiting access to the facility by highway only. That could be done in Cheshire, but it could tie up traffic on the off ramp into the Lifestyle Center as is the situation on Exit 48 on the Merritt Parkway south when one tries to get off to go to Trumbull Mall.

Even though the state spent millions widening the bridge that goes over the Parkway onto Main Street, the traffic, especially around November and December still backs up into the right lane of the parkway, making for a hairy situation to say the least, especially when someone decides they won’t wait in the line and just pulls out into traffic.

If that idea was adopted there would have to be a limited access road for emergency vehicles. Probably Dickerman Road.

Another idea was to incorporate all the surrounding roads into the main shopping area. I don’t know if this will work or not. But the main idea is for Cheshire Town Government to make sure all people feel comfortable traveling through Cheshire so they will have a pleasant experience (not a traffic court experience) get it?

A few residents went out this weekend with their two-pronged petition: one against the entire project ) and one petition just against the housing. I personally am not against the Lifestyle Center, just where it is located.  I would like to see a scaled down version of it on West Main Street in the Ball and Socket Factory, which could be paid for by the government in full under the “historic building grant.” That is how the City of Bridgeport funded the old Read’s building restoration and made the six story department store into professional housing for artists. No children. All adults. And, they have an 80 year lease. So you can have housing and retail without burdening the school system.

These people who collected signatures wrote down some of the comments people made while signing the petition. They are very interesting. Here are some of their statements:

Apparently a number of people referred to the pool and that the Lifestyle Center will end up like it.

“We don’t need another mall.”

“They should have the stores built closer to the town center  and we wouldn’t have to drive so far.”

“To drive to the mall from the town green is 4.2 miles. To drive to Rt. 5 in Wallingford is 5 miles.”

“The least of our needs is residential to fill our schools.”

“Why don’t they make the residential age restricted.”

“You can’t build classrooms overnight and our schools will be overcrowded.”

“I don’t like the way they pushed this through.”

“I’m against the mall, but I work for the town for 23 years and I’m afraid of repercussions if I sign.”

“What is going to happen to our existing businesses.”

“This will give us a paid fire department.”

“Where I live, we still can’t hook up to the sewers.”

The petition gatherers noted that many people told them they were wasting their time that the town won’t listen and will do what they want.

Other comments:

“As soon as I retire, I’m getting out of Cheshire.”

“We already have a traffic maze.”

“I don’t think the mall will last.”

“Why couldn’t we vote on it?”

“The state should buy it for a park and wildlife refuge.”

“A lot of people I know left Cheshire right after their children got out of high school and found they could buy the same or better condo’s outside of Cheshire.”

“It’s just a mall, where did they get Lifestyle from”?

FROM ”WIRED” NEWS: 

1963: President Kennedy is assassinated as his motorcade passes through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas. Texas Gov. John Connally, riding in the same car as Kennedy, is seriously wounded.

The Warren Commission, set up by order of President Johnson to investigate the assassination, concluded that Kennedy was killed by a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, firing from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Although the report was widely accepted at first, skepticism grew as more information concerning possible conspiracies leaked out.

Oswald denied having anything to do with the shooting at all, let alone being part of any conspiracy, but he was killed — and silenced — two days after the assassination while in the custody of Dallas police.

That, coupled with the FBI’s miserable handling of the initial investigation, did nothing to quell the suspicions of those who believed Kennedy’s assassination was the work of (pick one, or more than one): the CIA, Johnson, the mob, Fidel Castro, the anti-Castro Cubans, J. Edgar Hoover.

Whether the shooter was acting alone or as part of a bigger conspiracy may never be known. Most of the available evidence, such as the Warren Commission Report, is inconclusive.

But the other big assertion — that Oswald (or whoever the Book Depository gunman was) had help from shooters on the ground — has never been adequately supported by hard evidence, either.

The so-called “grassy knoll” theory maintains that there was one, and possibly two, gunmen at ground level in Dealey Plaza. A number of eyewitnesses claimed to have heard gunfire coming from the grassy knoll, but nobody actually saw a gunman and no shells were ever recovered.

The Warren Report, basing its findings on the autopsy and forensics reports, concluded that two bullets struck Kennedy. They came from the same weapon, a bolt-action Mannlicher-Carcano military rifle of Italian manufacture that was later recovered at the Book Depository. Three shots were fired, all from above and behind the target. The first missed. The second, the so-called “magic bullet,” passed through Kennedy and tore into Gov. Connally, causing all his wounds. The third shot, the killing one, exploded into the right side of Kennedy’s head.

Conspiracy theorists point to the impossible trajectory of the magic bullet, and to the Zapruder film, which shows Kennedy’s head snapping backwards as the fatal third shot takes off the right side of his head, as evidence that shots came from more than one direction.

Forensics experts disagree, however, arguing that the described path of the second bullet, while improbable, was not impossible and that Kennedy’s head snap at the moment of impact suggests a reaction to the first bullet striking him and not the second.

Forty-four years on and we’re still not entirely sure what happened in Dallas that day. All we do know is that something changed in an instant and America has never been the same country since. It’s a dark line that grows only more pronounced as the day recedes into history.

(Source: Various)