For all of you that have been following the other “saga” besides the Northend development issue, I have some news. The Ordinance Committee of the Cheshire Town Council will be meeting to discuss the Police Commission on Wednesday, May 16 at 7:30 p.m. in Room 207 in the Cheshire Town Hall, 84 South Main Street. Hopefully we will have meaningful discussions and not excuses. “It’s too political” and “Isn’t this an oversight board” is not cutting it. Anything relating to government is political, number one. Number two: yes, the Police Commission is an oversight board, but guess what, so is Planning and Zoning and the Board of Education. If some people who run this town believe we really do not need a police commission then my answer to them is that I do not believe we need a Board of Education. The Chairman of the Town Council Matt Hall recently said he trusted the Police Chief that is why we don’t need a police commission. Well I trust Greg Florio, our Schools Superintendent so I guess we don’t need a Board of Education. I trust our Town Planner so maybe we don’t need a Planning and Zoning. When I was a reporter way back when with the Norwich Bulletin, I covered a town in Northeastern Connecticut, Sterling, that had no zoning. The people who ran the town were meeting frantically to enact zoning regulations because people were selling off parts of their property to commercial developers. It was a mess. As I have said before, our government was set up to have the people in control. A police commission is not going to stop our police from doing their jobs–quite the contrary-it is a commission of people that is for the police department. Yes, they may hear complaints–and they are in charge of hiring and firing–but that is the way our government was set up–this is the check and balance afforded all of us in the Constitution. I will keep you posted on the outcome of the meeting.

After the digital camera disaster, which prevented me from filming on May 9th up in Canton, I am scheduled to return on May 16th (this Wednesday). Hopefully the weather will co-operate, but if it doesn’t I will film the ENTIRE Shoppes area in Canton from inside my car if I have to. I am taking along a friend who resides outside of Cheshire to illicit her opinion. Stay tuned for more information.