03/28/09 The Raw Greenwich News Feed; Overnight Update

If You Want To Know What's Really Going On In Greenwich You Have Got To Read The Out Of Town Newspapers......

PHOTO - CLEANED UP: A power plant once stood on a nine-acre parcel on the Mianus River that Greenwich gained 22 years ago in a deal with the state under which it would create a park and affordable homes.

In the Region Connecticut Now, About That Housing
New York Times
By LISA PREVOST

TWENTY-TWO years ago, the town of Greenwich struck a sweet deal with the state. The town persuaded the Department of Transportation to transfer ownership of a nine-acre power plant site on the Cos Cob shore of the Mianus River for $1 and some promises.

An affluent community, Greenwich pledged to use 75 percent of the land for open space that was accessible to residents and nonresidents alike. The remaining 25 percent was to be reserved for housing for low-to-moderate-income persons.

Two decades later, after demolition of the plant and removal of soil contaminants, Greenwich residents are finally contemplating development of the waterfront site into a public park and recreation area. Amid debates over details of the park, however, a solitary voice has raised an uncomfortable question: What about the affordable housing?

In January, during a hearing of the planning and zoning commission on the park proposal, Bernadette Settelmeyer, a resident who serves on the Greenwich Housing Authority, caused a stir when she raised the subject of the housing commitment and requested that a proposal to meet that requirement be made part of the park plan. The matter has since wound up in the hands of the town attorney, who is looking into whether the town still has such an obligation.

A 1997 amendment to the legislative act outlining the transfer agreement allowed the town to put an equivalent amount of housing — 24 units — somewhere else in Greenwich because of concerns about toxins.

Although the town never deliberately set out to create that housing, Peter J. Tesei, the first selectman, suggested that officials may be able to show that Greenwich has since gained two dozen units, perhaps through the housing authority and developers operating under the state’s affordable-housing statute.

“The question becomes, how do you define accounting for those units?” he said.

Ms. Settelmeyer calls such a strategy “a cheap shot” violating the original agreement. “The spirit of the whole thing was the town was supposed to give up some other land,” she said.

Alma Rutgers, a longtime housing advocate who sat on the committee that advised selectmen at the time of the transfer, agrees. “If I was the first selectman,” she said, “I would make it a priority.”

The legislative act authorizing the land transfer does not spell out who, if anyone, at the state level has oversight responsibility for the housing commitment.

The town attorney, Wayne Fox, did not respond to requests for comment. An assistant in his office would not allow access to documents pertaining to the land transfer.

In an interview in his Town Hall office, Mr. Tesei said that local sentiment simply does not support the use of town resources for affordable housing. “Many people would argue, ‘Who’s subsidizing my housing?’ ” he said.

Contrary to popular media portrayals of Greenwich as a place inhabited solely by the rich, he added, the town has an economically diverse population as well as diverse housing stock. To support his point, Mr. Tesei printed out a list of about 100 properties available for rent at $1,050 to $2,500 a month. The list is maintained on the town’s Web site to aid municipal employees looking for housing........

DVD now available at library helps combat stuttering
Greenwich Post
Help is available for adults and teenagers who stutter in the form of a DVD available at many Connecticut libraries including Greenwich Public Library. ...

Genna Gurkoff, David Farber
New York Times
The bridegroom, 26, is an associate in leveraged finance at Credit Suisse in New York; he focuses on gambling and lodging businesses.

His mother was a special-education and educational evaluator for the public school system in Greenwich, Conn., and until 2005 ...

Town recognizes TB day
Greenwich Post
The Greenwich Department of Health, Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) and public health officials across the state and nation recognized World ...

Area Stocks
Connecticut Post
... weeks in Swiss trading on speculation that the country's biggest bank may make a profit warning, analysts said. Greenwich-based Blyth Inc., which designs, manufactures and markets candles, home-fragrance products and Sterno, was down 90 cents at ...

Rebecca Gruber, Marshall Cooper
New York Times
.....The bridegroom, 41, is a partner and a founder of Greenhaven Partners, a firm in Greenwich, Conn., that buys, develops and sells companies that provide business information in a variety of formats, including magazines, directories, databases, conferences, software and Web sites.

From 1989 to 1991, he was an aide at the White House, where he edited the news summary for President George H. W. Bush. He graduated from the University of Michigan and received an M.B.A. from Dartmouth. He is on the national board of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. His father retired as the president of Exterminating Services Company in New York.

The bridegroom’s previous marriage ended in divorce.

The couple met in June 2007 at a public affairs committee dinner in New York. Ms. Gruber, who went as a guest of an honoree, sat at a table near Mr. Cooper’s. Soon they were glancing at each other.....

Area briefs
Stamford Advocate
GREENWICH -- The Fairfield County Community Foundation's Fund for Women and Girls will hold its 10th Annual Luncheon from 11:30 am to 2 pm Monday at the ...

Judiciary Committee Finds Itself Under Heat
New York Times

... wake of cases of questionable use of money at St. John Church in Darien and St. Michael the Archangel in Greenwich, both in the Diocese of Bridgeport. ...

Dress for a successful job interview
Connecticut Post
And she treated herself to highlights, done by her hairdresser Becker Chicaiza, owner of Becker Salon in Greenwich. To help clients, Chicaiza is making his ...

Illuminating the Sea: The Marine Paintings of James E. Buttersworth, 1817-1894 at the Bruce Museum
Art Daily
James E. Buttersworth , Schooner Yacht 'Sappho' off the Needles, Mystic Seaport collection

GREENWICH, CT.- Illuminating the Sea: The Marine Paintings of James E. Buttersworth, 1817-1894, a major retrospective exhibition highlighting the work of famed 19th-century marine artist James Edward Buttersworth, opens at the Bruce Museum in ...

Church Services
Greenwich Time
Last Sunday of each month Evangelistic service and prayer for the sick at 7 pm GREENWICH BAPTIST CHURCH, 10 Indian Rock Lane. Joel Wayne, pastor. ...

No. 18 William Smith Outguns Rensselaer for 4-0 Start
LaxPower
... just 40 seconds into the session tied the game at 6-6, and a free position tally from junior Sarah Goodkind (Millbrook School/Greenwich, Conn). ...

Couplehood as a spiritual path
Greenwich Time
Dr. James J. Wisecup is a Lutheran Pastor, a member of the Greenwich Fellowship of Clergy, and Director of the Riverside Counseling Center. ...

Iowa recoups $35 million in frozen IPERS assets
Sioux City Journal
The men ran Greenwich, Conn.-based Walsh WG Trading Company LP and Westridge Capital Management Inc. ...

Baseball Defeats Binghamton, 4-1
Quinnipiac Bobcats
Jeff Carino’s ( Greenwich , Conn. ) pinch-hit single in the bottom of the eighth scored the game-winning run as the Bobcats improve to 4-12 on the season ...

Fascinating portraits
Connecticut Post
These rarely seen works can be seen in "Boris Chaliapin: Faces of History," opening Thursday at the Flinn Gallery in the Greenwich Library. ...

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