Quantcast

Norwalk roundup: ‘Tip of iceberg,’ education funding and the West Ave./Wall Street plan

A photo posted Oct. 5 on the City’s Facebook page.

Updated, 3 p.m.: additional information; 7:39 a.m.: Copy edits

NORWALK, Conn. – Some political developments for you:

  • Torre lists flood-prone areas as Council approves $1 million appropriation
  • Ad Hoc Committee on School Funding set to begin work
  • West Avenue-Wall Street plan ready to unveil – again

Continue reading Norwalk roundup: ‘Tip of iceberg,’ education funding and the West Ave./Wall Street plan

Advertisement

Looking forward to serving everyone in the 142nd District

Send signed letters to [email protected]

It is an incredibly humbling experience to put yourself ‘out there’ and ask people to place their trust in you. I would like to thank all those who voted for me on Tuesday. With winning elected office comes a great responsibility to represent all the people, not just those who give you their vote. It is an honor to represent every person in the 142nd District as your State Representative, and I look forward to hearing from each of my constituents regardless of our perceived differences. Continue reading Looking forward to serving everyone in the 142nd District

Advertisement

Opinion: Standing with Hearst in a ‘united defense of the First Amendment’

Republican State Representative candidate Frank Page, left, and other Republicans greet voters Tuesday at Marvin Elementary School. Some Norwalk Republicans urged NancyOnNorwalk to attend the Election Night “victory party” at The SoNo Ice House. Republican Town Committee Chairman Mark Suda sent NoN away.

Nancy Chapman.

Updated, 7:19 a.m.: Copy edits

In the days before Nov. 6, the Republican Town Committee promoted an election night “victory party”.  “All are welcome,” the announcement said.

Every election night for the past eight years, I’ve visited Norwalk Democratic and Republican events to obtain news and reactions.  This year, while I was visiting the polls, some Norwalk Republicans encouraged me to attend the Election Night party. I had already planned to; Harold Cobin was shooting video of the Democrats and I thought I’d get good photos and comments from Republicans to round out the coverage. Continue reading Opinion: Standing with Hearst in a ‘united defense of the First Amendment’

Advertisement

Surging tax receipts dramatically shrink hole in next CT budget

Office of Policy and Management Secretary Ben Barnes. (Keith M. Phaneuf/CTMirror.org)

State tax revenue projections surged again Tuesday, shrinking the projected shortfall in the upcoming two-year budget — and leaving Connecticut with nearly $2.1 billion in reserves to combat the deficit.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget staff and the legislature’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis upgraded revenue projections for the upcoming biennium by $880 million. Continue reading Surging tax receipts dramatically shrink hole in next CT budget

Advertisement

Norwalk Corporation Counsel calls police to ‘document’ Milligan’s behavior

The Norwalk Corporation Counsel office on Wednesday. Jason Milligan walked all the way down the hall on Tuesday, Deputy Corporation Counsel Jeffry Spahr said; Milligan said he didn’t see the stop sign and no one was around.

NORWALK, Conn. – Real estate broker Jason Milligan’s recent encounters with city officials have led to more accusations by each side against the other, and a phone call to the Norwalk Police Department.

 

Milligan was in City Hall on Nov. 6, trying yet again to get a permit for “Mr. Mango” to open a smoothie shop at 97 Wall St., one of the properties Milligan purchased recently, he said.  According to Milligan, Assistant Planning and Zoning Director Mike Wrinn had told him that P&Z needed the legal department’s opinion before issuing the permit.

“That in and of itself is a big problem. It seems all roads that I take in this city eventually lead to Super Mario​-a part time employee,” Milligan wrote.  The person Milligan refers to as “Super Mario” is Mario Coppola, the city’s corporation counsel, who Milligan has previously accused of treating him unfairly. Continue reading Norwalk Corporation Counsel calls police to ‘document’ Milligan’s behavior

Advertisement

Norwalk Council set to vote on $1 million as ‘initial investment’ to address flooding

An Oct. 27 flood on Burritt Avenue. (Rick Reardon)

NORWALK, Conn. – Norwalk Common Council members are set to vote Tuesday on Mayor Harry Rilling’s request for a $1 million special appropriation to begin work on flooding issues.

If approved, the funding would begin to address issues across the city, Department of Public Works Superintendent of Operations Chris Torre said at last week’s Board of Estimate and Taxation meeting.  “We have identified 26 areas where either the pipes need to be increased or decreased, dredging, curbing, a lot of things that go along with storm water management,” Torre said.

Video by Harold Cobin at end of story Continue reading Norwalk Council set to vote on $1 million as ‘initial investment’ to address flooding

Advertisement

Without you, local stories go untold

You read NancyOnNorwalk for stories and details that you won’t find elsewhere.  Stories about PACs, POKO, and protests.  Stories about your schools, your government, and your tax dollars.

Your tireless reporter Nancy Chapman goes to public meetings, stays late, and then writes until 5 a.m.  She sifts through thousands of pages of documents.  She asks questions.  She brings you unmatched stories about your hometown.  Videos too.

You read NoN because you value the role of a free press in holding your government accountable.   But a free press costs money, and it’s only possible if the people who read the site support it financially.

Keep Nancy asking questions on your behalf. Donate today!

Now it’s time to support Nancy’s work with a donation that says how much you value local journalism.   NoN has joined with 154 other independent news organizations around the country to participate in a two-month campaign called NewsMatch, supported by the Institute for Non-profit News (INN). NewsMatch will double every dollar you donate, up to $1,000 per individual donor.  All new subscriptions are doubled, too — if you subscribe at $10 per month, NoN receives a match of $120. 

Our stretch target for this campaign is $25,000 in reader donations.  With NewsMatch, that sum becomes $50,000.  With your support, we’ll hire more writers to tell the important stories of the zoning issue next door, the traffic through your neighborhood, and the Norwalk matters affecting your wallet.

Will this news site grow or die?  It’s up to you.  Please visit our NewsMatch page and donate.  Your donation will be doubled!   

Thanks.

Best,

Bob Welsh
Chair, Board of Directors
Chapman Hyperlocal Media Inc.
a 501(c)3 non-profit

Donate today!

Advertisement

Eversource plans Tuesday open house regarding transmission line relocation

NORWALK, Conn. – Eversource invites Norwalkers to come to City Hall on Tuesday to learn about their plans to relocate high-voltage transmission lines off the Walk Bridge.

The relocation of the two 115-kilovolt cables is mandated by the Connecticut Department of Transportation; Eversource plans to reroute the lines from the railroad tracks by burying them under the Norwalk Police headquarters parking lot, under Elizabeth Street, under the Norwalk River, under the Veterans Park visitors dock and then up Route 136 to the Fort Point Street railroad bridge, where the lines will then return above ground and continue down the railroad tracks. Continue reading Eversource plans Tuesday open house regarding transmission line relocation

Advertisement

Owen’s poem says it all

Send signed letters to [email protected]

On this Remembrance Day, the 100th anniversary of the ending of the First World War, nothing epitomizes the devastation, waste and horror of war like Wilfred Owen’s Poem.

And yet, yet, the U.S. continues to spend billions to devastate the lands of people in other countries ($700 billion of our tax money for the war machine in the latest budget). Continue reading Owen’s poem says it all

Advertisement

Photos from Election 2018

District 140 Working Families Party State Representative candidate Colin Hosten, left, seeks a handshake from Common Council member and election winner Travis Simms, center, speaking to Simms’ wife, Sandra Stokes, Tuesday in the Norwalk Inn.

District 140 Working Families Party State Representative candidate Colin Hosten, left, and Common Council member Travis Simms, winner of the election, shake hands Tuesday in the Norwalk Inn.

NORWALK, Conn. – Here is a photo display from Election Day and the Election Night festivities at the Democratic gathering at the Norwalk Inn:

The aftermath.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continue reading Photos from Election 2018

Advertisement

Moving on from four years in the Statehouse

Send signed letters to [email protected]

First of all I want to congratulate Lucy Dathan on her victory. Lucy clearly worked very hard throughout the campaign.

I feel saddened and disappointed by my loss. I care deeply about Norwalk and our State and I devoted these past four years to making both of them better places.

There was a huge wave of anti-Trump voters who simply voted party lines, without regard to the actual candidates themselves. Continue reading Moving on from four years in the Statehouse

Advertisement

Lamont launches economic revitalization tour in southeastern CT

Gov.-elect Ned Lamont and Lt. Gov.-elect Susan Bysiewicz (foreground) talk with reporters at The Garde Arts Center in New London.  In the background are regional economic development official Nancy Cowser and Sen. Paul Formica, R-East Lyme.  (Keith Phaneuf, CTMirror.org)

Gov.-elect Ned Lamont launched a series of strategic economic development tours Friday with a visit to Connecticut’s southeastern corner, saying the region exemplifies the state’s potential for growth.

Lamont and Lt. Gov.-elect Susan Bysiewicz, along with the region’s state legislative delegation, met with business, labor, education and municipal leaders, as well as representatives of the tribal casinos and regional economic development boards.

Southeastern Connecticut has been dominating the state’s economic development headlines with a major job expansion planned at the Electric Boat Shipyard in Groton, a surging public-private manufacturing training and job placement program, and the nation’s largest offshore wind farm under development 50 miles into the Atlantic.
Continue reading Lamont launches economic revitalization tour in southeastern CT

Advertisement

Poem: To Nwk

Michele Herman, of the Norwalk High School Class of 1975, was added to the NHS Alumni Wall of Honor on October 14.   Herman, a writer, lives in New York City.  At her induction ceremony she read her original poem “To Nwk”. 

“From 1983 (when I moved to NYC) until 2017 (when my mother died on Christmas morning), I went to Norwalk regularly, always marking in my calendar: to Nwk,” Herman wrote in an e-mail to NancyOnNorwalk.

 

 

To Nwk

 

I arrived in Norwalk in utero

when my parents set up camp

in a tiny walk-up on Cedar Street

later condemned for a Turnpike ramp.

 

Over three centuries old but still not quite sure

who she might grow up to be

with her poor Norwalk Mall and her town green not near town

Norwalk tries so to plan and to please.

Continue reading Poem: To Nwk

Advertisement