Whitby School students Ashley and Michelle Nadler performed in traditional Santa Lucia attire and sang songs for Cultural Diversity Day at Whitby School. The day featured an ethnic feast and a performance by students.
Town offers guitar lessons in the new year
The Department of Parks and Recreation is offering guitar lessons at the Bendheim Western Greenwich Civic Center in Glenville for eight weeks beginning Monday Jan. 26 through March 30.....
Medical emergencies ranging from small cuts to choking, bleeding or shock can occur at any time and anywhere. The Red Cross offers people the opportunity to learn first aid and CPR through January classes. Learn how to prevent injuries and sudden illnesses and how to recognize emergencies and provide basic care until the arrival of advanced medical personnel.....
On Sunday, December 28, at 5:00 pm, Chabad of Greenwich will host the completion and dedication of a new Torah scroll for use in its Synagogue. Mr. Leon Gandelman, a Greenwich resident, in memory of his father Jacob, donated the Torah.
While publishers can knock out millions of copies with dozens of new titles a week, crafting a single torah scroll takes over a year to complete. What’s the holdup? Computerized printing presses make printing simple, although the results often have many errors. However, timeless dictums hold for a certified Torah scribe and everything from the character of the scribe to the quality of the parchment and type of ink are taken into account. Furthermore, each of the 304,808 letters and notation must be scripted to perfection. The slightest error voids the entire 54-portion parchment.
To celebrate the auspicious occasion of this completion, the community will celebrate with a ceremony where participants will have the opportunity to fill in the last letters of the Torah, alongside the scribe Rabbi Moshe Klein, at the Chabad Center. The Gandelman family will then host a festive dinner for family and friends at the Center.
For more information about the celebration and about Chabad of Greenwich, call Rabbi Yossi Deren at 536-8678 or e-mail rabbi@chabadgreenwich.org.
There will be no holiday miracle for Hamilton Avenue School parents after the district pulled the plug on last-ditch attempts to get the school ready by Jan. 5.
District officials have long said that a month would be needed to get everything ready for children when classes resume in the new year, but Superintendent of Schools Betty Sternberg had given the town until Monday to grant a temporary certificate of occupancy (TCO) for the building. An original deadline of Dec. 19 had been set, but Ms. Sternberg granted a weekend extension to try to make it work. But when questions surrounding pipes used in the boiler could not be settled by Monday afternoon, Ms. Sternberg announced the planned move was off.
At issue is flue piping used for the boiler system in the school. The wrong pipes were installed in the system, creating the possibility that over time, carbon monoxide could get into the building. The town’s building department said the TCO could still be granted if five conditions were met. The project’s building committee needed test results proving there was no danger, the town’s fire marshal had to grant approval, the project’s engineer had to sign a letter agreeing to the safety of the school and the manufacturer had to grant a letter saying it was safe, and carbon monoxide detectors had to be installed.
Four of the five conditions were met by Friday, and Fire Marshal Deputy Chief Joseph Benoit told parents last Thursday there was no risk and he wouldn’t let anyone into the building if there were. However, the boiler manufacturer would not sign off on the letter, and the building department, acting on the advice of the town attorney’s office, would not issue the TCO.
“Betty Sternberg needed this TCO by today and we couldn’t get that,” building committee chairman Frank Mazza told the Post on Monday. “We just ran out of time.”
The committee had spent the weekend and Monday trying to secure a temporary boiler that could be used until repairs were made to get the right pipes in. Mr. Mazza said one was located in Long Island, N.Y., but it wasn’t certified to be used in Connecticut and there wasn’t enough time to get it properly installed, certified and inspected to get the TCO when the district needed it.
The building is more than two years behind schedule. Parents begged the school board and the building committee to get it ready by the end of the holiday break so their children could finally move into the promised state-of-the-art school. Parents said Monday the decision to wait was just another blow to the community.
“Disappointed doesn’t even begin to explain how we feel right now,” Hamilton Avenue School PTA co-president Dawn Nethercott said. “It’s not fair to the children or the teachers or the administration. I don’t understand why this is so difficult. I don’t understand why it’s taken us so long to even get to this point. It’s just one more to the Hamilton Avenue community.”
Ms. Nethercott, who is also a prekindergarten teacher at Hamilton Avenue, said she didn’t know how parents were going to be able to tell their children they weren’t moving to the new building, since the expectation was they’d be able to during the break. She said the children were excited about being able to get into the new building, but they will have to be told “not yet” again.
Now the question is, When will children be able to move into the building?
A TCO is expected to be granted once the pipes are repaired, and the building committee’s expectation, as of last week, is that this will happen by the February break. While school board chairwoman Nancy Weissler and Ms. Sternberg had previously said they would want to wait until April to move the students so as not to disrupt classes close to the time of the Connecticut Mastery Test, parents are already calling for a move in February if the building is ready in time, and the April date no longer appears set in stone.
In a statement issued on Monday evening, after Ms. Sternberg reached her decision, she said district officials would review the situation in January regarding the TCO’s status and “reassess plans to move into the new building available at that time.”
Kim Eves, director of communications for the district, confirmed to the Post that February is not “off the table” and no decision has been made over any potential future move-in dates.
Ms. Sternberg could not be reached for comment, but Mr. Mazza said the committee would proceed with its work.
“We’re going to move forward as quickly as we can,” he said. “We will get the pipe flues fixed and we will get the TCO.”
In the battle of east side versus west side, it’s a polar bear on skis and a sleigh full of presents versus a Ferris wheel and blow-up Frosty and Snoopy. Who has the better decorations? Is it all about competition? For homeowners on both sides of Greenwich, setting up for Christmas isn’t about one-upping their neighbors, but about having fun and bringing joy during the holiday season.
After 25 years with the Greenwich Police Department, Capt. Michael Pacewicz has put in his papers, with his last day expected to be this week.....
......Capt. Pacewicz told the Post Monday he didn’t want to discuss the decision except to say it was not because of the ongoing lawsuit by Lt. Gary Honulik against the department. Lt. Honulik filed suit after he claimed he was bypassed for promotion by then Chief of Police James Walters, who gave a captain’s position to Capt. Pacewicz even though Lt. Honulik claimed he scored higher on the test than Capt. Pacewicz did.
In brief comments to the Post, Capt. Pacewicz expressed great disappointment that his 25-year career had been boiled down to the lawsuit.....
.....The lawsuit has left vacancies in all the top spots in the department now under the chief because the judge on the case issued a restraining order keeping any promotions from being made until the case is decided. Chief of Police David Ridberg was the lone promotion after Chief Walters left, but no other moves have been made. There are currently no deputy chiefs or captains in the department since no one has been allowed to move above the rank of lieutenant.
Mr. Tesei said he had talked with the town attorney’s office about the status of the case, which was expected to have been decided this past summer. He said he was eager for a resolution so the department can fill vital positions.
“It’s disappointing that this has dragged on so long,” Mr. Tesei said. “I know this has been a strain on Chief Ridberg because of all the work and for the whole department. I’d feel that way about any senior management official in the town without deputy staff under them, and it’s especially critical when you’re dealing with public safety.”
The case is now before the state Supreme Court after a 2007 Superior Court ruling was made in Lt. Honulik’s favor. The town appealed the decision, and it was heard before the state court in April.
Chief Ridberg could not be reached for comment
The budget ax did indeed fall on the magnet program for Hamilton Avenue School, but the cuts were not nearly as deep as some parents had feared.
In completing the 2009-10 school budget, the Board of Education cut the school’s ice skating program at Dorothy Hamill Rink, but did not touch the swimming program at the Boys and Girls Club or the Suzuki music instruction. It also added in money to restore part of the school’s foreign language instruction for kindergartners through second graders. Ultimately, the budget, which was approved by a 7-1 vote Dec. 18, was just under the Board of Estimate and Taxation’s (BET) recommended guideline.
The BET had called for a $127-million school budget, and after the board was finished with all cuts and additions, the budget stood at $126,999,931. The budget will now be sent to the BET for consideration, and if passed through its budget committee and the full finance board, it will go before the Representative Town Meeting in May. The economic downturn has caused the budget to be even tighter than usual.
School board Chairwoman Nancy Weissler said this year was “a very challenging budget environment” and “everyone is feeling some pain.”
The lone vote against the budget came from board member Marianna Ponns Cohen. Ms. Ponns Cohen, who also voted against last year’s budget, said it wasn’t clear to her there was any improvement from last year showing where the money is being spent per school in the district. Ms. Ponns Cohen also expressed concern that the budget wasn’t actually decreasing, but rather just reflecting a decline in enrollment, and this could create problems down the line because it is actually a 1.5% increase compared to last year.
In addition to the skating program, several internal cuts were made by eliminating some board reports. An additional $21,712 was cut by combining all summer school programs to one location instead of having them spread out throughout the district. A motion to add in $11,545 in performance bonuses for district cabinet officials was defeated. While the money was intended as the start of an overall incentive program to retain and keep district staff, the money was thought to be too little and the bonuses too limited to make much of a difference. It was also felt the money would be better spent on educational programs. .....
The men and women of Abilis’ Life Skills group have helped deck the halls at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center for two years now, creating ornaments and decorations to hang at the farm there. The fruits of their labor are on display at the center’s Holidays on Hecksher Farm event, during which guests may take a free stroll on a luminary path and see the stars from the observatory.
Increases in some parks fees and parking tickets have been approved for next year, but the possibility of raising parking permit prices will remain an open issue into the new year.
Fees are reviewed on a yearly basis, and the Board of Selectmen gave its unanimous approval last week to raising the parking ticket fee from $20 to $25. Whereas previously fines would double if not paid after 15 days, ticket fines will triple after 30 days of nonpayment. All other fines, including meter feeding, parking in a “no-parking zone” or using a handicapped space without a permit, will also increase by $5 and be subject to the same doubling and tripling schedule.
Town Parking Services Director Allen Corry unveiled the new fee schedule, which also includes a raise in booting fines and parking meter rentals, earlier this month, but the selectmen waited until Friday, Dec. 19, to vote so the public would first have a chance to comment.
While fees and tickets will go up next year, the selectmen decided against creating a $10 processing fee for those appealing parking tickets. The fee would have been applied regardless of whether the ticket was upheld, and board members questioned whether the strategy was fair.
“I think it’s safe to say this has no support,” First Selectman Peter Tesei said at Friday’s meeting.....
.....Board of Estimate and Taxation member Leslie Tarkington, who has a permit to park at Greenwich Plaza, urged the board not to raise the fees. She cited data showing a decline in permits sold in the past four or five years as the prices have gone up. She said the town, which owns the underlying land in the Greenwich Plaza building and leases the air rights to the developer for $127,000 a year, should review the lease to see if it is entitled to more money because of the increased value in the land.
The selectmen said Mr. Corry would review the lease before he returns with the proposal for a vote on Jan. 15.
Parks fees
Town Parks and Recreation Director Joseph Siciliano got selectmen approval for his department’s fee schedule as well. There will be no change in the beach fees for the 2009-10 season, maintaining the “status quo,” as Mr. Tesei put it. While the cost for riding the ferry to Island Beach will remain $3 for non-beach card holders and beach card holders 16 to 64 years old, Selectman Peter Crumbine wondered if that was enough, especially after a cost breakdown showed the average per person cost to the town of a ferry ride is $9.
“It’s something that costs us $9 and you’re selling it for $3,” Mr. Crumbine said to Mr. Siciliano. “I just can’t support that.”
Despite Mr. Crumbine’s dissension, the parks fees passed, 2 to 1. Nonresidents will have to pay increased parking costs and also get a $5 pass. In addition, nonresidents will need to buy their tickets at off-site locations. Previously non-beach card holders had to be in the presence of card holders when riding the ferry, but that was changed this year, and Mr. Siciliano said the fee structure was put together by his office working with the town attorney’s office......
Angelina (Chimblo) Russo, a lifelong Greenwich resident, died on Dec. 17 at Stamford Hospital. She was 92.
Riverside resident Charles D. Hanlon died on Wednesday, Dec. 17, after a brief illness.
Freddie Ann Bell of Wilton, a retired Greenwich High School art teacher, died suddenly Wednesday, Dec. 17, at her home. She was 71 years old.
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