Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there’s a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom,
blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter,
come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,
rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!

First of all, I want to thank all of the people who have supported me over the years.

I started Underground Town Hall at the end of 2002 with my Cable TV shows on Cox Public Access. And then a few months later I began the website. I had very little support from the Town Government. People here were not used to hearing or seeing another point of view for that matter.

I believe I have established a good pattern here. People are responding. I think Tim White can carry the torch. I just don’t have the time right now and I am sorry for that. We will continue to leave the site up for a while but I won’t be doing any more posts.  The site will continue to be monitored. And I do want to leave it up so people can read the old posts.

Goodbye .

Lately, I have been getting a good dose of behavioral do’s and don’ts. I am becoming quite an expert at it, ever since I rattled the authorities tail. So let’s see where you fall. Are you a Type A or Type B. After you take the quiz, see if you can guess where I fit in.

You know all of us are like cans in a supermarket, we just have to be labeled. I just want to remind the folks in the middle of town that class is not dismissed. You soon will be having your “history” lesson.

Click here for quiz

I liked the question that asked do you look at your watch when you have nothing to do or are bored. That reminds me of someone that has a pre occupation with time.

Ok, time to go. I have to run down the Hall to answer my phone.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND AGAIN!!!

New photos of Pleasure Beach. Taken in March 2008. It is quite different now. I actually went down there with someone and you can see the difference.

As I have stated before, many of the cottages shown in the Michael Raleigh photos from 2006 were destroyed by vandals.

I am including a narrative of events as well so you can understand the tragedy of this. It is weird to go there. I and my friend saw our lives come and go when we were there. Sometimes I feel like Pleasure Beach, once vibrant and new, and now old and fading.

Here is a perfect example of beach front property that is worth NOTHING!!!

Pleasure Beach March 2008

Narrative from LYNOLSOFFICE

The last residents lost their long battle with the town of Stratford and finally left after Memorial Day 2007. Since then, the power and utilities have been cut and the peninsula has been vacant. The town had officially evicted them in 1997; a year after the Pleasure Beach Bridge went up in flames, cutting off all vehicular access. (It’s an almost two mile walk down the beach to get there now). Even before the bridge burned Stratford said they would no longer lease the land to the cottage owners because they could not provide emergency services as it took them such a long time to reach the remote area. Unfortunately, a week before my trip, a fire was set and three cottages were destroyed, and one more was demolished to stop the spread of the fire to the other forty something vacant cottages on Stratford’s section of the peninsula. You can tell from the state of the cottages that some were abandoned in 1996-1997, and others stayed on till the very end hoping for a court ruling in their favor, which was not to be. Moving day 2007 was like an emergency evacuation; there was no vehicle access to the peninsula, so owners took only what they felt they needed and left everything else when the barge came back to collect the moving vans that had been brought over across Lewis Gut earlier in the day. Pictures cannot capture the weirdness of actually being out there; in what were once a cozy summer beach community, and a beautiful city park and beach, now a deteriorating piece of land in total silence and isolation surrounded by a busy city and its crowded suburbs.

This is a short post tonight. But, I want to thank all my friends and supporters who are giving me support in this difficult time. I had to make a choice and do something I knew would have consequences. And I found out about it today. TOO BAD!!

My children are the most important thing in the world and I will DO ANYTHING to help them.

Thank God it worked. I don’t care what the consequences are. I am very patient, but the authority knows what happens when I have to take action. Now the ball is rolling.

Never mind Cheshire F School “when is he 16 ” so we can wash our hands of it.

How about addressing the issue. Now I was forced to take action and it is SOLVED. ISN’T IT? All these resources and look what it took to solve the problem.

Three years begging for help. It is true, if he wore a football helmet you would have gotten whiplash looking at them running so fast to help.

Maybe we should have been like some people I know in this town, just run off to work. Or this classic that I heard from an administrator “Just let it pass, it will work out.” Yeah, when the kid is 16!! NO!!

I raised four children in this town and they are good and respectful. Just ask anyone. Or as that moron wrote on you know who’s blog “just ask the cops” Yeah, ask them about my children. Ask any schoolteacher. They will tell you.

My daughter knows at least three Cheshire F School students that are dropping out. How many more are. It is disgusting. No one should be leaving high school in this town. But you can see why. I will NEVER support education in this town AGAIN!!!

P.S. The Ambulance issue is continuing. My family will be making a statement in front of a state agency within the next two weeks. YES!! They are not getting away with what they did and neither are the other ones in the middle of Highland Avenue. You have to fight to the end in this town. I will. And I will never waiver when it comes to peoples rights, especially my children. Whatever they do, I will fight right back.

Michael Jackson wrote a song years ago entitled “They Don’t Care About Us.” They don’t. The authority does not care about the average person, especially women or children. And if you are a parent, it is even worse.

Michael Jackson-You Are Not Alone

I have had this property in Bridgeportfor many many years.  And now I am fixing it up. That is no secret. It is not in the best of neighborhoods, but years ago it was. I just kept it. A person needs to have options and needs to remember where they came from.

I will be honest, and this is is probably no secret either, I never liked Cheshire from day one I came here and Cheshire never liked me.

I lived here because my husband had a house here BEFORE we were married. That house is NOT in my name. Check the deed in Town Hall.

I outright own NOTHING in this town and I never did.

I must pay about, actually, I don’t pay ANY property tax in Cheshire at all!! My husband pays the cars and the house. So, if I, who live here for free practically, can get this involved in town where technically I shouldn’t care if the mill rate goes up 300 percent, I can’t even imagine most of the people in this town not caring one iota about ANYTHING THAT GOES ON HERE as far as town business goes.

It is your money, you would think you would care?

Is it a sign of the times? Maybe. But I have lived in towns or even covered towns where I was a reporter where people did and still do care. I don’t know what is wrong here–well, I really shouldn’t say that because until recently, our Town Government did not encourage people to participate in town affairs.

Recently at a budget hearing for the Police Department, where only one other resident besides myself and my husband showed up, the Police Chief spoke briefly about the extended office hours that I encouraged. He said he was lonely in the office. Well, guess why? YOU DON’T ADVERTISE IT!!! HELLO!!! I know the extended hours, which takes place the first Thursday of each month, is on the CPD website, but why isn’t it on the TOWN GOVERNMENT WEBSITE OR ON THAT WASTE OF TIME CHANNEL 14?

Then they want to do live video streaming of the Town Council meetings? For whom? The five people that are really interested in watching? And what is this $16,000 for a consultant to get everything started. Now I am not a web genius, but the town has the server at the Board of Education, get a webcam, purchase some software and for under $1,000 you have it.

Now as far as the pool goes, why is this town hesitating? Get with it. Milford has already cleared the path by putting up the retractable polycarbonate glass enclosure. Follow their lead. I know it is costly, but bite the bullet, get rid of the dragged through the mud bubble and just do it. We will save energy and save a lot of money when we no longer have to take this gigantic bubble up and down twice a year. Energy costs are NOT GOING DOWN.

My hus and I were talking about the pool and a good idea was brought forth. The DOT does traffic studies; let the town keep track of how many people use the pool each month.

The month with the lowest amount of users should result in the pool being closed for that period of time. For example, if the lowest amount of usage occurs in February, then close the pool for that month. Any swim classes or whatever else goes on there, can take place at another location, i.e. the Academy pool or Southington YMCA.

I know many of you are still talking to me about this car usage. Why does it bother me? It should bother you too. Why? Because my husband is a revenue examiner for the Connecticut Dept. of Labor has to drive his OWN PERSONAL VEHICLE on field audits which is all day and half of the night. He has been doing this for 30 years. The state does not issue him or others in his department a car. He gets re-imbursed for gas mileage, so many cents a mile, but BIG DEAL!! This does not even begin to cover the daily wear and tear.

When he gets into an accident, whether it is his fault or not, WE PAY. When he needs an oil change, WE PAY. When the car needs new tires or a new battery or engine work or whatever maintenance, WE PAY. I can’t even tell you how many cars he has been through in 30 years. A LOT!!

So I don’t have any sympathy for these people who are municipal employees, ANYWHERE, who think they can use taxpayer money to suit themselves. Absolutely not!!

For the couple who called me the other night about some town employees over at the coffee shop across from St. Bridget’s Church. Right!! Take your own car. If you are not on town business or on patrol, meaning that is your shift and your right to take a break, then TAKE YOUR OWN CAR. No more “I am at the office AT THE OFFICE, so I will take a town car to Stop and Shop or the deli or wherever for lunch.”

TAKE YOUR OWN CAR. My husband has to–so can you.

And as far as this Town Council goes, I really was disappointed, especially with the Republicans, for not backing up Tim White with this municipal gas use issue. Why are you on this Council?? Please.

You see I ran another story about yet another member of the Bridgeport Fire Department being fired for town vehicle misuse. GOOD!! You take on a municipal position to serve your constituents. Not take advantage of them.

Did someone here take a town car to Vermont? We will probably never know. But I do know a person that works at a local landscaping company in town. What stories will he tell me?

Now I told all of you who support UTH on Members Only to wait. You have concerns, you have information. WAIT. I will hopefully be able to straighten a lot of things out with our Town Government in a few weeks. I am going in there alone, but I know I have your support.

Now let us to to WTNH for the latest on that tragic incident involving Officer Morelli of the Norwalk Police Department.

Apparently, it is being said that Officer Morelli might have taken his own life. It is so sad. If this is true, I really feel sorry for his family.

Here is the story

Also, the Associated Press Article which ran in the Greenwich Time.