RTM member Paul Curtis works a GCTV camera during an
RTM meeting at Central Middle School last week.
(Bob Luckey Jr/Greenwich Time photo)
TOP STORY:
For the past five years, Paul Curtis has led a double life to bring local government to the locals through Greenwich Community Television. The Representative Town Meeting member is by day a software engineer, but by night - and some weekends - volunteers behind the camera, filming various town meetings and other programs for GCTV.
"To me it's a public service, like anyone else who's on the RTM" said Curtis, a self-taught videographer who was inspired to get RTM meetings on television after local radio station WGCH stopped airing them. "Filming it is just a different facet of public service." ....
....GCTV now broadcasts RTM, Board of Estimate and Taxation, as well as Board of Selectmen meetings live on Channel 79 and over the Internet, through its Web page at greenwichct.org. It also features two news programs, "The Word," which explores such issues as green building on a local level, and the one-on-one "A Conversation With," hosted by Thompson and his wife, Dima....
..."It doesn't always have to be serious, but it will always be Greenwich-oriented. We want to get the word out that GCTV is a pretty good alternative to commercial television. And, of course, we don't have commercials or any 'Back after this' messages."
However it may expand, Curtis said he hopes GCTV to will stay true to its local government roots.
"If you think about it, there are very few mechanisms through which people can actually see and hear what their government is doing."
But in all the municipal action, there's still time for ribbing.
"Hey, Chris, when you run down there in front of the camera, your hair's sticking up," Delman said to RTM member Chris vonKeyserling at the RTM meeting. "It looks real good, like Bozo,"
TGIF could become TGIT, as in "thank god it's Thursday," if a group of town employees pushing for a four-day work week has its way.
With the backing of Tax Collector Louis Caravella, several town employees have been floating the concept around Town Hall and recently submitted a PowerPoint slide presentation to First Selectman Peter Tesei for rumination. The employees want the town to try the shortened work week in a six-month experiment.
Advocates of the plan say a four-day work week would improve employee morale, save the town money on the cost of heating and cooling offices and help the environment by getting municipal workers off the road on off-days....
...Proponents of the four-day work week appear to have their work cut out for them, however.
Tesei said not all employees would get to take advantage of the plan, especially those who work for the schools, the town-owned Nathaniel Witherell nursing home, police and fire departments.
"You have to look at equity and fairness for all employees," Tesei said, explaining that any changes to work schedules would have to be approved through collective bargaining with the eight municipal employee unions.
As the town's chief elected official, Tesei said he is opposed to shutting down Town Hall on Fridays as some have suggested.
"We cannot close the building to the public. The public comes first," Tesei said....
Greenwich Public Schools officials say they're tapping a group of school administrators, teachers, parents and students to address concerns about students meeting the challenges of work and career after graduation - possibly through a wholesale retooling of the district's middle schools and high school.
The newly-formed group, the Secondary Schools Review Committee, has been meeting to consider a raft of changes to the district's secondary-school curriculum, operations and administrative structure.
The goal is to boost achievement, particularly after recent lags in performance, and ensure that students graduate better prepared to enter college and the workforce...
...The committee's work comes at a critical time for the district, as it struggles to boost achievement and better align the secondary-school curricula with state standards after a year of oftentimes disappointing results on state exams.
While such results have come to light only after the committee was formed, school officials have repeatedly pointed to the committee's reform agenda as a way to address such shortfalls....
....The committee will meet regularly over the next two years to evaluate possible changes, review trends in performance data and eventually submit a final set of recommendation in spring 2010 to the Board of Education, which will eventually vote on implementing the changes.
The doors of Byram Pharmacy closed after the FBI said it executed a search warrant on the property on Friday.
Michael Romsky, a spokesman for the FBI's New Haven division, said he could not release any further details on the on-going investigation.
"A search warrant was executed, that's all I can say at this time," Romsky said.
Customers of the pharmacy, located at 13 N. Water St., arrived at store Tuesday morning, frustrated to find that the doors were still closed. Only a handwritten note was left on the front door, which read, "Pharmacy closed for Emergency. Sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks."
"It's been up there two days," said one customer, John Steele, of Byram. "They don't answer the phone. It is very disappointing," he said.
"I don't know whether its going to re-open."....
When Louise Herz, 76, was faced with the prospect of seeing a doctor about knee surgery recently, she was overwhelmed.
As a widow who lives alone, Herz contacted Lise Jameson, executive director of At Home in Greenwich, who hopped in her car to go with her.
"She took notes and then typed them up and gave them to me," Herz said. "I really needed that."
Herz is a member of At Home in Greenwich, a nonprofit which, nearly a year after its founding, has grown to offer more services and activities to make it easier for seniors to stay in their homes longer....
Despite Monday's stunning defeat of a $700-billion bailout of America's financial system in the House of Representatives, President Bush and Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress must continue to press for an acceptable solution to this economic crisis that affects not only Wall Street but most ordinary Americans.
The winding, leafy Merritt Parkway is celebrating its 70th birthday. Even though it has gone from an aesthete's dream to a motorist's nightmare, it's a grand old artery, and deserves a hearty cheer.
Tim Morgan is the treasurer of the Republican National Committee, and yesterday I got another letter from him.
I've seen bighorn sheep, pink rattlesnakes, California condors, mule deer, chipmunks and lots of other creatures on half a dozen backpacking trips in the Grand Canyon.
To the editor:
The U.S. financial system is the lifeblood of our economy. Unfortunately, the financial system was involved in a head-on collision, and the patient needs intensive care.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson were the first to arrive on the scene and were able to assist ... temporarily. They tried to rush the patient to the emergency room, but the U.S. House of Representatives turned them away.
But all is not lost. There is another emergency room available to stop the bleeding.
The U.S. government should act like Warren Buffett. The Federal Reserve should recapitalize the banking system by infusing equity while banks are in distress.
This is value investing. The Fed should buy equity in these troubled banks and receive preferred stock. In this way, the Fed would own equity and reap the reward for taking the risk.
Banks and the private sector would then be able to work out problem loans on their own. Weaker banks should be allowed to go out of business or be forced to merge with larger banks.
If this recapitalization is structured properly, it would cost the government nothing. It would probably make money. The result would be the beginning of the restoration of confidence in our financial system and by extension our economy. It would also begin to restore our country's balance sheet. The Fed would become the largest distressed fund in the world.
The bad news is that if our government continues to act like it did Monday, trust in our system will be lost, credit markets will shut down altogether and a nuclear winter will descend on our financial markets and our economy.
The good news is that if our government acts quickly, this could be the bottom of this crisis.
The patient would stabilize and then we could begin reconstructive surgery.
Stephen McMenamin
Greenwich
The writer is executive director of the Greenwich Roundtable, a group of private and institutional investors who collectively represent over $6.9 trillion in assets under management.
And Now They Want To Be Rewarded With Corporate Welfare For Thier Greed And Sever Errors In Judgement.
This Group Is Like A Burgular Who Beaks Into Your Home And Steals Your Property Then Sues You Because They Cut Themselves On The Broken Window On The Way Out Of Your Home.
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