I received this from a reader. It is really funny. Just move your cursor (that arrow thingy) over various parts of the picture and click. If you click with the “hand” cursor over the same parts of the photo several times, different “things” happen. Have fun.
I also wanted to run this analytical “paper” if you will, outlining the pros and cons of installing synthetic turf. This is and probably will be an ongoing discussion in Cheshire for quite some time, so it is good to see other points of view on this subject.
This synthetic turf analysis is from the City of San Francisco.
If any of you read the local papers, the big story is about that house in Roaring Brook Falls Park in Cheshire that has fallen into disrepair and has to be torn down at a cost of the town of $20,000.
I want to be honest, I did not even know there was a park in Cheshire that has the states LARGEST drop (80 feet) waterfall until 10 years ago when my daughter did a report for school!!
P.S. Some of you are going to say that Kent Falls State Park is the largest waterfall. WRONG!! Kent Falls is a SERIES of waterfalls culminating in a 250 ft drop. Roaring Brook is the largest single drop waterfall in the state of Connecticut.
How many people, even now, know about this? This town does not do a good job at ALL of promoting its natural and even man made resources, i.e. this park, the pool, for starters.
I am still convinced this town is run by ex employees of Area 51!!
I contacted the Town Managers Office and the mood I got was like it is “too late why are you calling now.”
Fair enough, but I did not know about this house or I would have made a call to friends of mine in the Bridgeport area that restore abandoned homes. It would have been worth a try.
‘I know a Police Officer lived in that home nearly 20 years ago. Well, it is too bad he did not stay there. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t object to town officials occupying homes on Town property. I did do a post several months ago on the Town employees that do “rent” the home at the Lock Park and Boulder Knoll Farm. Despite what chatter may occur on this issue, these people do provide a service. They keep the property up. They keep vandals out!!
Now a home from 1925 with a beautiful stone foundation and probably beautiful woodworking on the inside and outside of the house, which has been destroyed by a bunch of punk kids, whose parents did a great job teaching them respect for other peoples property, will have to be torn down at a cost to US taxpayers of $20,000.
You know, I ran into someone late Thursday afternoon from the Town and this person told me that the reason the house had been abandoned for so many years was that the driveway went up a big hill and no one wanted to or couldn’t drive up it.
I am going to New Hampshire this weekend for the last time until Spring. (My driveway is NOT paved and goes up 160 feet and I mean UP. I am across from Gunstock Ski area OK?? And I CAN DRIVE UP THAT DRIVEWAY which is mostly dirt and large rocks, (New Hampshires “gravel”) with my OLD 97 Corolla for God’s sake.
Then take into consideration that because I don’t drive up and down the driveway all the time, it is like washboarded at the bottom. I actually leave it that way because I know most people will not chance it. That driveway is NOT for the faint of heart.
But still, the $20,000 the town is going to spend tearing down this house, probably could have been spent paving the driveway and having someone live there uninterrupted over the past several years!! HELLO!!
The property, which the town owns, is worth at least $300,000!! It is too bad that the town did not attempt to keep someone living in there. I really wished I had known about this home years ago. I would have pushed to keep it going. It is a part of the towns character and history that is now sadly gone, Someone who was facing foreclosure maybe from illness or job loss in town, could have lived there for a while. Did the town think of that?
And I really want to congratulate that person who wrote the letter to the editor in the Herald asking how the Town of Cheshire could let our food pantry go “dry” but at the same time, spend inordinate amounts of money at the pool.
In the words of Connecticuts Famous Forensic Scientist “SOMETING WRONG”!!!
ONTO OTHER NEWS:
I am posting a daily update on the Electoral College count on the Presidential Election. Of course, when I mentioned I would be moving to Italy if McCain and Palin win, my fan club just had to put in their two cents.
Then people in Town Government want to know why “more people don’t come to the Town Council meetings” THAT IS WHY and THAT WAS A NICE COMMENT!!
As far as I am concerned, the Town should save money and not even bother televising these Council meetings or any of these Town Government meetings. It is a waste of time. You don’t hear any real discussion, I mean real hard discussions about any issue. The Republicans try. But, how can you get real, when the “official timekeeper” tells you to “wrap it up” or “that question should be in writing” or “go to the committee and discuss it.”
The bottom line: this town wants everything orderly and rehearsed. I don’t care who likes it–it is true!! They are getting a little bit better about listening to what they consider “out of bounds” issues, i.e. the police department, municipal gas usage. But some questions, like how fast the officer who pulled over my husband was driving, will not get answered. They will just ignore it and hope it goes away.
IT WON’T!!
The other night, I happened to turn on the television which is rare for me because I usually work, I saw the Cheshire Republican Town Committee show: Cheshire Central, and the guest was former Town Council member Dave Schrumm.
Of course, a good part of the discussion centered around Democratic Town Council member Elizabeth Esty, who is running against Incumbent State Rep. Al Adinolfi 103rd district which includes PARTS of Cheshire, Wallingford and Hamden.
This senior tax freeze issue makes me laugh. “Oh, I led the way for the tax freeze” “Oh, I did this and that”
The ONLY person, and this is a fact, not an endorsement, who ran with this idea right from the beginning was AL ADINOLFI.
The Town Manager did not want it, and neither did the Democratic Town Council.
FYI: If the Republicans were in control of the Cheshire Town Council at that time, THEY would not have wanted it either, in my opinion!!
Then the McCain Republicans have a nerve talking about Obama and Socialism. ISN’T THE TAX FREEZE SOCIALISM??
What do you call the Republican bailout of their CEO pals, i.e. AIG, Lehmann Brothers,, Goldman-Sachs, etc–SOCIALISM-Yep!! Again different strokes for different folks. Actually, if you read my last post, it is CAPITALISM at its worst, not SOCIALISM.
Well, halfway through the show, Mr. Schrumm spoke about Connecticut not having enough of a tax base. That is true Mr. Schrumm. But the REAL PROBLEM in Connecticut is simple, but complicated.
THERE ARE TOO MANY TOWNS!! This state needs to “combine” many of these small municipalities. That would alleviate many economic problems.
A state that is 5,009 square miles, the third smallest in the United States, has 169 TOWNS?? Think about it.
The Hartford Courant wrote an editorial today believe it or not on this very subject.
Another idea I like is this “Unified School District.” This is implemented in the midwest and west. Kansas had the Unified Schools, which incorporates several towns into one school district. It might be cheaper in the long run, instead of every town in Connecticut believing they have to have their own schools.
We do have Regional School districts to our credit, and when I lived in Easton, they were a member of Region 9 which meant that Easton and Redding shared the same high school, Joel Barlow. But, Easton and Redding fight like cats and dogs. It is like the North and the South for God’s sake.
I don’t know if they do it anymore, but I know when I covered Easton and Redding for the Bpt Post years ago, EVERY YEAR an Easton resident would force a referendum on the Region 9 budget–EVERY SINGLE YEAR!! Easton would always shoot down the budget but Redding and the Georgetown section would pass it!!
I am providing a link to the Unified School Districts of Kansas. There are 308 of them, but keep in mind, Kansas covers 82,282 square miles,
