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Saturday, January 3, 2009

01/03/09 Greenwich Time News Links. TOP STORY: Police Palace Nearly Complete On Mason Street


Greenwich Police Palace To Open A Head Of Scheadule


Worth Construction will complete the $33 million project in February 2009, not September 2009, as originally slated.



By Debra "I Am A Big Fat Liar" Friedman

Despite minor quality control issues with the construction of the new downtown police station, building officials said the project is still moving ahead on schedule.

"We are on target for time and we are right at budget," said Alan Monelli, town superintendent of building construction and maintenance.

Recently, town representatives overseeing the project noticed a problem with the finishing of the concrete floors and asked the contractor, Bethel-based Worth Construction, to fix the flaw.

A hollow spot on the concrete surface must be sanded and filled in, according to Monelli, who said that the problem does happen occasionally.

"It's not a structural issue. It's a quality control issue," said Monelli, who noted that it would not cost the town any extra money to fix.

Worth Construction is repairing the problem, although it will not prevent workers from moving ahead with other aspects of the construction project.

"They've been trying to do it on a small scale and we've been advising them that they should increase their work force so they can get it done faster," said Monelli.

Thus far, the town has had no major issues with the contractor's work on the public safety complex, even though Worth's other Greenwich-based municipal construction project, Hamilton Avenue School, has been riddled with problems and delays.

"Based upon what I saw when I was on tour about two months ago, it appeared to be moving along, there were no issues," said First Selectmen Peter Tesei. .....

.....Tesei said once this phase of the public safety complex is complete, the town will discuss plans for a new central fire headquarters that will house the fire department and GEMS administration.

"That's a substantial project that will be the topic of considerable debate in terms of which direction the town wishes to proceed," said Tesei, who noted that the intent was to renovate the current police and fire facilities, but might end up involving a complete reconstruction.

"It may be more cost effective to tear it down and start from scratch, but that is a decision that still has to be made," said Tesei.

Rail yard plans get close scrutiny for savings
An audit of the plan to overhaul the New Haven Rail Yard is recommending major design changes, and delaying some elements, in order to achieve nearly $500 million in cost savings.

Residents' New Year's resolutions
By Greenwich Time Cub Reporter Colin Gustafson

With the economy in the doldrums, Greenwich mother Christine Sikes says she's swearing off the standard resolutions of New Years past, from exercising more to eating less, in favor of what she calls a more timely goal - becoming a spendthrift.

Legislators say revenue from higher federal gas taxes should fund repairs A large share of a proposed federal gas tax increase should finance myriad projects to ease Interstate 95 congestion, repair state bridges and increase mass transit in Connecticut, state legislators and others said Friday.

No DUI arrests on New Year's Eve
While New Years Eve is traditionally a time when police see a high number of drunken driving arrests, this year authorities said numbers were relatively low.

Consultant apologizes for reported comments
FAIRFIELD - A representative of the town's pension consultant issued an apology to First Selectman Kenneth Flatto and other officials after he was quoted as saying in a published report that he recommended Fairfield reduce its investments in a feeder fund linked to disgraced investor Bernard Madoff.

Police blotter
Carlos Aponte, 51, of 115 Atlantic St., Stamford, was arrested Thursday morning and charged with multiple offenses after attempting to run over someone with his car in the area of 14 Sherman Ave.

Families experience magic of movies at special show
STAMFORD - For Karl Arezzini and his family, opportunities to go to the movies are few and far between

Runner Buchanan, 50, still going strong
The old athletic adage says the legs are the first to go. Don't tell that to George Buchanan. Even at 50, his legs are still going faster than most men in the 20s and 30s could ever hope

"I don't think he has slowed down any since he was 30,'' said Jim Gerweck, the race director of the popular Boston Buildup running series, which Buchanan has won multiple times. "I think he's a little more selective in his racing now, but he hasn't slowed down a whole heckuva a lot over the years."

Buchanan, a former Stamford resident, will be on the starting line Sunday when the Buildup series begins its 31st year with a 10-kilometer run at Brien McMahon High School. The series increases by 3.1 miles every few weeks, culminating with a 25-kilometer on March 1.

Hope St. Rite Aid to close its doors
The commercial real estate market may be in the doldrums, but Michael Panek said he is optimistic that it won't take long to find a tenant for the building his business owns on Hope Street in the Springdale section of Stamford, now occupied by a Rite Aid Pharmacy.

A facility that championed environmentalism before a lot of the world caught up, the Garbage Museum in Stratford has been a somewhat quirky attraction that has drawn visits by area groups since the 1990s.

The museum, at the Southwest Connecticut Recycling facility, includes attractions such as "Trash-o-saurus," a 2,000-pound dinosaur built from trash and old toys, as well as a variety of exhibits about the virtues of recycling and protecting the environment. It's a field-trip destination for groups ranging from grade-schoolers to senior citizens.

The Garbage Museum and its educational programs have been funded since 1995 by the Southwest Connecticut Recycling Operating Committee, a group of 19 area towns and cities that oversees operation of the regional recycling facility in Stratford ..... BLAH ...... BLAH ...... BLAH ..... BLAH ...... BLAH ...... BLAH ...... BLAH ....... BLAH ...... BLAH ...... BLAH .......

FOR THE LAST THREE DAYS THERE HAVE BEEN NO LETTERS TO THE EDITOR PUBLISHED ONLINE AT THE GREENWICH TIME. MAYBE NO ONE WROTE TO THE EDITOR OF THE GREEN KITTY LITTER LINER.

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Please send your comments to GreenwichRoundup@gmail.com or click on the comments link at the end of this post.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I enjoy your rantings a great deal - you put an interesting spin on the Greenwich happenings. I am curious though - you get much of your info from the Greenwich Time. If in fact they are rolled into the Connecticut Post along with the Stamford and Norwalk Advocate where will you get your local news from? It seems to me that the local organizations haven't started taking you seriously as they won't add you to their press release list. What is your plan?

Greenwich Roundup said...

I think that more and more citizen journalists like Bill Clark, Chris Fountain, Greenwich Guy and Frank Trotta will pick up the slack of these failed Greenwich Time reporters.

I also think that an online Greenwich news site will be formed and monitized, thus allowing for local reporting. Examples of these web only nes papers are Westport Now.

http://www.westportnow.com/

Or like Larchmont Loop

http://www.getinloop.com/

Furthermore,other out of town newspapers like the New York Times have greatly increased thier Greenwich Coverage.

And Gannett, has expressed an intrest in expanding Journal News coverage to include Greenwich.

If the rumor is true that the Greenwich Time will be closed down, there will still be mainstream reporting.

Hearst Newspapers will still cover Greenwich with the CT Post and with a scaled down Greenwich Citizen that will serve as a wrapper designed to get Grocery and Drug store ads to Non-CT Post subscribers.

Personally, I would like to see Greenwich Time Managing Editor Jim Zorba put more effort into the Greenwich Time Web Site.

This is the only way for him to save the Greenwich Time.

Zorba should encourage his reporters to grow some journalistic balls and to start agressively covering Greenwich news stories.

Zorba could do this by setting a propper example.

If Zorba were to grow a pair of balls and start delivering local hard hitting editorials, then his reporters would not be afraid to let the chips fall where they may.

Zorba current editorial about the recyling museum in today's Greenwich Time is a joke.

http://www.greenwichtime.com/ci_11359807

Zorba has the same problem that Ex-Greenwich Time Editor Joe Pisani had.

They both failed to realize that Greenwich news will becovered with our without them.

Over a hundred years ago the Greenwich Observer thought that the news would not be covered if its Editor and reporters were not around.

So far Zorba has not had the skills needed to transform the Greenwich Time from an unprofitable print edition to a profitable online website that will save his and his reporters jobs.

Zorba is fiddling like Nero as he sits a top Greenwich's strongest web portal.

But other Greenwich web sites are gaining ground on the Greenwich Time rapidly.

Zorba and the Greenwich Time have a huge lead but citizen journalists and other web portals are going to eat his lunch if he fails to change with the times.

Zorba needs to realize that everything he knows about managing a media property is outdated.

It is is time for Zorba to develop a new aproach that will keep the Greenwich Time alive and save some jobs.

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