Title: Community presentation on the feasibility study for a community waste water treatment system.
Start Time: 11:00
Date: 2013-03-30
End Time: 13:00
Title: Community presentation on the feasibility study for a community waste water treatment system.
Location: OL Town Hall
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2013-03-25
End Time: 21:30
Jim Cameron
Shortly after he came to office, I wrote something critical of newly elected Governor Malloy. Nothing new there. I’d certainly questioned Republican governors in years past, usually to little response. But this time the reaction was different.
A Malloy confidante, a senior State Senator from Fairfield County, took me aside and threatened me. Not physically, but legislatively. “You know, we could eliminate the Commuter Rail Council if you keep this up,” he said in Machiavellian tones. “Bring it on,” I said, half-shocked at this political threat.
Well, it took a couple of years (and more criticism), but the threat has come true. The Governor has submitted a bill (HB 6363) that would wipe out the existing Metro-North Commuter Rail Council and its 15 members. In its place, a new Council would be appointed and the Governor, not the members of the Council, would choose its Chairman.
Further, the new Commuter Council’s mandate would turn from investigation and advocacy on behalf of fellow commuters to a PR advisor to the CDOT. While the current Council has the power to request information and is required to receive cooperation from any state or local agency, that power would be eliminated under Malloy’s bill.
The Commuter Council isn’t the only pro-transportation group affected by the bill. The CT Public Transportation Commission would also be eliminated along with the last vestiges of the Transportation Strategy Board (killed off by Malloy last year), the TIA’s, or “Transportation Investment Areas”.
This obvious power-grab by the Governor has so far gone unchallenged in the legislature, buried in a 66-page Christmas tree of a bill. If it becomes law, my 15+ years as a member of the Commuter Council (the last four as its Chairman) will be history.
But why is the Metro-North Commuter Council singled out for such harsh treatment?
It’s not that the Commuter Council has been wasting state money. We operate on a budget of zero dollars, even dipping into our own pockets to pay for design of a logo and pay for postage. And I don’t think it can be argued that we haven’t been doing our jobs … meeting monthly with Metro-North and the CDOT to address commuter complaints and push for ever better service.
No, I think the real problem is that we’ve done our job too well, calling out CDOT, the legislature and yes, even the Governor, when they did things that we felt screwed commuters. That’s our mandate.
I guess Governor Malloy didn’t like it when we pointed out that as a gubernatorial candidate he promised to never raid the Special Transportation Fund to balance the state’s budget, but then did just that when he took office. And I guess he wasn’t happy when I noted that his budget took new fare increases from Metro-North riders but didn’t spend the money on trains, in effect making the fare hike a “commuter tax”.
And I’d imagine the Commissioner of the CDOT… the fifth Commissioner in my 15+ years on the Council… would be happy to see the current Council gone, critical as we have been about their Stamford Garage project which we see as selling out the interests of commutersto private developers.
It’s sad that the Governor feels the way to answer legitimate criticism is to eviscerate those who question him. But I can promise you that his proposed elimination of the Metro-North Commuter Council won’t silence me.
Bring it on, Governor.
Editor’s Note: JIM CAMERON has been a commuter out of Darien for 21 years. He is Chairman of the CT Metro-North / Shore Line East Rail Commuter Council, and a member of the Coastal Corridor TIA and the Darien RTM. You can reach him at Cameron06820@gmail.com or www.trainweb.org/ct
So much of our childhood is hard to forget, yet hard to see with real clarity.
You remember how you felt going to that 7th grade dance. How nervous you were. And excited. You remember joining the German club or the book club or making the JV Field Hockey team as a freshman, but other than your mind’s eye — which frankly gets weirder as one gets older (we all have tangible proof … mine certainly does) — there aren’t the images. The photographic evidence that we were there. We did it. We loved it. Or hated it. But certainly it made us who we are as adults.
Peter Nordberg has found a way to help. He has found a way to track down these photos of our formative years, predominately K-12. He has also found a way that raises money for our schools. How?
Classphotofund.com. Look it up. It’s so clever and unprecedented and potentially fabulous, both personally and altruistically, that you’ll be proud of him. He and his wife have others start ups (nestnewyork.com) and years of experience in venture capital, both here and abroad.
What they saw in their own children’s New York City Public Schools was the need for a new way to fundraise and celebrate our K-12 schools. 140,000 plus schools. That’s roughly 175 million high school graduates, who would love to have those pictures. Can you find your yearbooks? Doubt you could find more than a couple.
Here’s what though, if people look they will. Someone will. Then they upload it to the classphotofund.com site (through Facebook now, coming everywhere soon with a mobile app available this summer.) Scan it. Take a picture with your phone, upload it. Tag people you remember. Via Pay Pal, you will be paid $1. Your alma mater will be paid $1. Classphoto gets 50 cents to keep developing …
All Kindergarten through twelfth grade schools are eligible. 140,000 schools are already in the database.
If you search for and find a photo that your friend or arch nemesis from 8th grade has uploaded, you can buy it for $2.50. It will load into a Facebook file only with your full permission. No one can see that snaggle-toothed school picture without your permission.
Group photos, like teams and clubs are the main target because everyone is in them. “Hey Bob – look you still had hair!”.
The ultimate goal is to bring alumni back into the fold. Not to be hassled for donations, but to reconnect. Generations younger than us (… if I can figure it out you can) are more technologically savvy than older alumni and could raise more money spending an afternoon at school uploading yearbooks to the site than making cookies. Really – do we need more cookies? One photo of 20 kids is potentially $20 for the school. Booster clubs are promoting the sport legacies / heritage and raising money for their schools.
Reunion committees can connect and have fun alternately laughing their butts off and getting misty-eyed as they upload their history together.
I am going rummaging right now. Watch out Brearley, ASL and Farmington …
Classphotofund can raise $100 million for these school by the end of 2013/2014. How about $ one billion by the end of 2014/2015? As more school budgets get cut and more art and music programs are eliminated, this money is literally invaluable. Take one photo that you’ve had in your drawer for 20 years, upload it and give your friends a chuckle … and funding to the current students. How easy! How clever!
Go to classphotofund.com for more specifics and bucks.blogs.nytimes.com 2013/02/14 for additional insights.
The Lyme-Old Lyme High School Model United Nations Conference team gathers for a group photo with their advisor, LOLHS physics and chemistry teacher Glenn Elliott (back row, second from right.)
For the first time in more than 20 years, Lyme-Old Lyme High School (LOLHS) was represented at a Model United Nations (MUN) Conference. This conference was held at UMASS Amherst.
Dealing with a variety of current and historical topics, delegates struggled to find solutions to some of the world’s most intractable problems. Using parliamentary procedure as practiced at the UN, delegates in these Crisis Action Committees tried to pass directives or release communiques to resolve the issues.
Lyme-Old Lyme High School MUN Secretary General Tom Crisp represented the President of Armenia and rode a tight line between its oil source Iran and democratic ally, the United States. In the same Crisis Action Committee of the Central Asian Summit was Phil Hallwood, who portrayed the CEO of Chevron and represented all US oil companies.
Lyme-Old Lyme High School Director General Liam Corrigan took on the role of Pol Pot in the anti-French resistance and worked with other Vietminh including junior Graham Richartz to coordinate attacks.
Hannah Paynter was the European commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs and Hannah Wilczewski was a representative of Doctors without Borders. Together they were constantly rebuffed trying to get humanitarian aid to refugees in Bangladesh from the Rahkine state in Myanamar until they turned world opinion on the government of Myanamar.
Senior Crow Sheehan, pictured left, and sophomore Eric Pan played various members of the North Korean cabinet dealing with the emotional antics of Kim Jong Un.
Josh Swanski, Sam Winter and Harry Godfrey-Fogg had various positions in the Apple Board of Directors struggling with the reform of odious factory working conditions in China.
Although all of the LOLHS delegates were rookies and there were more than 300 delegates from 30 different high schools from throughout New England and New York, Sheehan captured the award for the Most Outstanding delegate in his 30-member Crisis Action Committee of the North Korean Cabinet.
Significantly, all delegates gained valuable negotiating experience and learned a great deal of both history and current affairs.
The Model UN Club is planning to attend two conferences next year, one in the autumn and another in the spring.
The LOLHS Model UN club is still seeking members.