08/18/09 GRENWICH TAXPAYERS TELL REPUBLICAN FRANK MAZZA: "Thanks A Six Million"

Today's Greenwich Time Most Viewed Web Article - RSS Feed

Ham Ave. contractor sues town

The general contractor in the delay-mired Hamilton Avenue School reconstruction has sued the town for nearly $6 million for damages and losses incurred, it...

....Worth claims the building committee repeatedly failed to coordinate its oversight efforts with the architect, project manager and others whenever the need to make building modifications, known as "change orders," arose, causing numerous delays and cost overruns.....

....Closed in 2005 because of long-standing mold and structural problems, the old school was supposed to have been rebuilt within 18 months. Instead, the project took more than three years to complete, causing overall costs to swell by $2.2 million.....

....The imbroglio sparked a level of frustration among parents rarely seen before in Greenwich, as students were forced to attend class in a temporary modular building, which also had mold problems.....

.....In its suit, Worth claims the building committee, responsible for ensuring the project remained on schedule and within budget, was largely to blame for the setbacks.....

.....Frank Mazza, who chaired the school's building committee, declined to comment....

....Board of Education chairwoman Nancy Weissler declined to comment.....

Comment:

Do you remember all of those articles that Greenwich Time Cub Reporter Colin "BOE Brown Nose" Gustafson wrote about how Frank Mazza was doing an excelent job at Glenville School and that he was so far ahead of scheadule that the school might open by March of 2009.

In fact, the Colin "BOE Brown Nose" Gustafson's articles were speculating that Mazza's Glenville School project could open before Hamilton Avenue School.

Well in a few weeks Glenville parents are once again bussing their little children to the cramped old Hamilton Avenue School modulars as they wait for Frank Mazza to finish screwing up their school.

"Worth Construction, based in Bethel, Connecticut, has built roads, schools, sewage treatment plants, hospitals, corporate offices, even police headquarters and courthouses.

Last year, according to New York Construction, Worth's revenues totaled $186 million.

Worth Construction was also the contractor who just finished the new Greenwich Police Station (opening next week) and it was brought in on budget and ahead of schedule.

The difference between the Hamilton Avenue School project and the new Police Station is that Frank Mazza was not involved.

The good news is that contracted Republican Town attorney John Wayne Fox, his law firm and his legal buddies are going to once again make a small fortune off the taxpayers as they litigate and appeal this case to death.

Ka Ching .... Ka Ching .... Ka Ching .....

Please Read How Greenwich Time Cub Reporter Colin "BOE Brown Nose" Gustafson Always Gets Education Stories Wrong:

08/29/08 Is Michael Bodson Parading Colin Gustafson Around With A Nose Ring?

Please Also See:

07/23/08 Is Frank Mazza A Nut Case? The school's building committee wants 112 inspections approved in less than 4 business days!!!!

07/09/08 Surprise!!! - "A lot of it wasn't ready," Town Building Official Bill Marr said, "Most of these areas will need a re-inspection."

07/08/08 Hamilton Avenue School has passed only one of the 18 final inspections

07/08/08 - Hamilton Avenue Project Manager Gerard Adam,"Let's not keep repeating the same mistakes

09/10/08 Frank Mazza And The Band Of Idiots On The Hamilton Avenue School Committee Want The Taxpayers To Pay More Than 30 Million Dollars For This???

03/27/08 Hamilton Avenue Parents Say Frank Mazza Was Publicly Caught in Lie

09/11/08 School Board Member Mike Bodson Is Flipping Because Taxpayers And Parents Got To See What's Really Going On Inside Hamilton Avenue School

09/10/08 Is Frank Mazza Nuts?? The Greenwich Fire Department Is Not Going To Be Stupid Enough To Sign Off On This Crap. The Fire Corps Protects Kids!!

06/17/08 The Greenwich Building Inspector Had Better Not Illegally Issue A TEMPORARY Certificate Of Occupancy For Hamilton Avenue School

More Information:

03/27/08 - Letter To The Greenwich Citizen Editor About Betty "You Can Trust Me" Sternberg

03/26/08 - Things that make you go "hmmmmmmmmm?"

03/26/08 - The Domino Effect - Don't Cover Up School Administration Failure By Over Stessing A Few Positive Achievements

03/26/08 - Hot Off The Press - Breaking News From The Greenwich Post

03/23/08 - What No Heartfelt Thank - You For Betty "You Can Trust Me Sternberg?

03/20/08 - Why Won't Betty "You Can Trust Me" Sternberg Let Hamilton Avenue Parents Independently Test The Contaminated Modular Classrooms?

03/19/08 - May God Bless The Children Of Hamilton Avenue School Who Never Get To Compete On A Level Playing Field.

03/18/08 - Hey Betty, Who In The heck Is Away Testing Anyway - Are These Guys Qualified To Do The Job.

03/17/08 - "It's not just one classroom, it's the whole school," Tom Hardman of the Modular Building Institute said, "It's a bad situation all around.

03/17/08 - The Truth Is Betty Sternberg has failed to properly plan, organize, resource, lead, direct, and control the Greenwich Public Schools

03/14/08 - More testing is needed to determine the safety of the classrooms before architects and engineers will go in to investigate the mold

03/14/08 - Sternberg Received A Report On Air Quality Of The Modular Classrooms That Showed A Higher Level Of Mold Spores Than Previosly Released

03/14/08 First Selectman Peter Tesei: "I'm at the point of frustration. These issues keep recurring."

08/18/09 The New "Damaris Rau" Computer Virus May Have Already Infected Hamilton Avenue School Computers

Do Not Click On This Link

You Have Been Warned !!!!!!

Pictures It appears that Principal Damaris Rau Have Been Very Open And Transparent About and lines The Situation And Should Be Commended For Being So Straight ...

Computer hackers are using controversial out-going Greenwich school principal Damaris Rau to try and infect the computers of wealthy Greenwich residents.

Greenwich Roundup's copy of AVG says the above web page that mentions Hamilton Avenue School Principal Damaris Rau is loaded with a very nasty virus.

You Can Safely Click On This Link About Ms. Rau

08/12/09 - 08/13/09 Greenwich Public Schools Gives Reporter Colin "BOE Brown Nose" Gustafson An Exclusive Story (Updated)

Show all results about Damaris Rau from greenwichroundup.blogspot.com »

08/18/09 The day the elephant came to Greenwich

PSYCHOLOGISTS SOMETIMES USE the phrase, 'The elephant in the living room' to describe an obvious but unacknowledged reality within a family.

For Jayanti Tamm, however, the elephant wasn't in the living room - it was in her front yard, exposing for all to see the fact that Tamm's family was quite a bit different from their neighbors in suburban Greenwich, Connecticut.

"Our house wasn't a traditional house," says the Freehold resident, who is now a professor of English at Ocean County College.

Tamm, whose memoir of her childhood, Cartwheels in a Sari, (Harmony Books, April, 2009) has been profiled on National Public Radio and earned a review in the New York Times will be speaking about her experiences growing up in a cult at River Road Books on Thursday August 20 at 7:30 p.m.

Born in 1969, the year that man first walked on the moon, Tamm occupied another planet entirely from the one colonized, however briefly, by the tribes of aspiring hippies that later became known as the "Woodstock generation."

Tamm's parents were devoted followers of a famously controversial, wacky superman spiritual teacher known as Sri Chinmoy.

The live elephant that arrived on the Tamm's front lawn had been delivered so that Chinmoy could demonstrate his weight-lifting prowess with a photogenic stunt involving the massive circus animal.

While other girls her age were playing with Barbie dolls and watching Charlie's Angels, Tamm's life revolved around the rituals and obligations of being the guru's "Chosen One," a spiritual being called to earth by Chinmoy himself, who billed himself as the living representative of God on earth.

The charismatic guru had a knack for attracting publicity via an endless parade of feats and stunts, pursuing weight-lifting records that would get him in the Guinness Book of World Records - displays conducted with the help of some Rube Goldbergian contraptions that enabled him to lift giant pumpkins, motorcycles, celebrities, or in this case, an elephant.

The elephant-lifting stunt drew crowds of onlookers to the street where Tamm lived quietly behind a suburban façade.

It earned the guru a write-up and photo on the front page of the local newspaper. But when asked about it all at school the next day, Tamm pretended she didn't know anything about it.

It would be decades before Tamm succeeded in putting her childhood experiences into context and into print. Cartwheels in a Sari details her journey out of the Chinmoy universe and into the secular world.

Tamm owes her very existence to the guru's power to influence and direct the lives of his followers.

Tamm's mother arrived on the guru's doorstep in New York City in 1968 with a two-year-old son in tow and a failed marriage left behind in San Francisco.

She'd been guided to Sri Chinmoy by an address scrawled on a matchbook cover and the hope of finding spiritual shelter.

The turmoil of the 1960s had inspired many young people to question the beliefs they'd been raised with and set out in search of some sort of enlightenment.

In that time of widespread social upheaval, spiritual entrepreneurs like Chinmoy were ready and willing to provide answers.

At the guru's apartment that first night in 1968, Tamm's mother was welcomed as if her arrival had been long anticipated and seated next to a young blonde man who was also there for the first time - a graduate student in philosophy from Yale University.

Soon, the guru would instruct these two strangers to marry. And soon after that, in disobedience to the guru, they would break his edict of celibacy even for married couples and create Jayanti.

Forgiving their embarrassing slip, the guru declared that the child was to be a specially chosen soul sent to earth to act as his 'exemplary disciple.'

From that day forward, the guru would be intimately involved in every aspect of Tamm's family's existence, serving as benevolent god, threatening dictator, court jester and strict father.

At the guru's direction, Tamm's father abandoned his study of philosophy and became an attorney, taking on the guru's ever-growing global empire as his chief client, buying up property that would ultimately be tax exempt.

Instead of Girl Scout camp and vacations to Disney World, Tamm's family traveled the globe with the guru for various cult events.

School was not a priority, taking a back seat to the work of serving the guru in myriad ways that included writing "inspirations" to assist him in producing books of poetry and participating in events that helped him to build his mythology.

She gradually realized that her life was very different from that of the kids she went to school with. She began to 'lie low,' hiding her intelligence to avoid attracting attention, eschewing friendships that would only lead to complicated explanations and disapproval from other disciples. "We weren't allowed to have sleepovers and parties," said Tamm.

"We were always very different. We were always odd, and then school became difficult. It was always something that created tension. I luckily was able to 'fudge' a lot and coast by to keep from getting too much attention."

As Tamm entered her late teens and early twenties, she began to rebel against her role as the guru's Chosen One, challenging his prohibitions against mingling with the opposite sex and her life in the narrow circle of the cult.

The next years were marked by rebellions and reunions, guilt and despair. She was chastised for having a boyfriend.

Against the guru's wishes, she decided to pursue a college education.

When she completed graduate school, Tamm's brother, who remained in the cult, gave her a message from the guru: "You have finished your outer school. Now you should come back to your inner school."

But for Tamm, there was no going back. Ultimately, Chinmoy decreed that his former "Chosen One," was banished from the cult.

Eventually, her parents divorced, and both left the cult as well. Her brother and an aunt remained loyal to Chinmoy.

But cracks had begun to appear in the guru mythology. Former disciples were criticizing the Chinmoy cult, making allegations about rigged stunts, sexual abuses and financial improprieties.

Tamm began working on a memoir with the intention of telling only her own story, aided by her parents' willingness to share their own experiences and by the journals and keepsakes she had accumulated during a quarter-century in the cult.

Today, Tamm reserves her reverence for the secular world.

"I have no religion," she says. "I absolutely believe in nothing and no-one. All the teaching I was born with, all the things I used to feel I knew from him - I no longer believe."

She finds her delights in her life with her husband and daughter and the rewards of her career. "The feeling I receive from that is divine," she says. "I'm so happy to be doing normal things in the normal world."

08/18/09 The Greenwich Briefing (Updated)

Comprehensive News Feed for Greenwich, CT.

• Singhs second at Met Golf Father-Son Championship
  posted on August 19, 2009 06:42:24 am
  Pravin and John Singh of Kutsher's Country Club tied for second place at the Metropolitan Golf Association's Father and Son Championship Monday at Tamarack Country Club in Greenwich, Conn.
• Becker Salon offers discount for tough times
  posted on August 19, 2009 02:53:20 am
  Becker Salon in Greenwich is doing its part this summer to lift workers' spirits during the gloomy economy by helping them look their best without breaking their banks.
• SYS Junior Squash Open
  posted on August 18, 2009 11:18:53 pm
  ... of Belle Mead, New Jersey, placed fourth. Camille Lanier, 15, of Washington D.C. won the girls under 19 crown over Greenwich, Connecticut's Claire Blumenthal in three straight games. Katherine Elliott-Moskwa of Princeton, New Jersey, placed third ...
• The Bruce Museum displays West African Gold from The Olga Hirshhorn Collection
  posted on August 18, 2009 05:09:07 pm
  The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, opens a second show this summer drawn from the collections of former Greenwich native Olga Hirshhorn entitled West African Gold from the Ivory Coast: The Olga Hirshhorn Collection , on view from Saturday, August 8, 2009, through Sunday, November 8, 2009.
• Industry Leader Scott Schwartz Added to the Cambridge Who's Who Network
  posted on August 18, 2009 03:00:00 pm
  OLD GREENWICH, CT, August 18, 2009 /Cambridge Who's Who/ -- Scott Schwartz, President of SDS Consulting Group, has been recognized by Cambridge Who's Who for demonstrating dedication, leadership and excellence in business management.
• Maxum Petroleum buys Summersville company
  posted on August 17, 2009 03:30:00 pm
  ... Ed Shelton, will continue in their current roles, Maxum said in a prepared statement. Maxum was established in Greenwich, Conn., in 2004. The company has acquired 12 fuel and lubricant marketers including Simons Petroleum, Trevco, Hartney, Pecos, ...
• City dips toes in IPOs
  posted on August 17, 2009 11:00:00 am
  ... You've given us two IPOs. Someone must be working there," says Kathy Smith, principal at Renaissance Capital of Greenwich, Conn., an independent research and investment management firm that monitors IPO filings and newly public companies. But ...
• Atlas Holdings LLC Acquires Weyerhaeuser Building Systems Division
  posted on August 18, 2009 09:55:05 am
  ... the August 14, 2009, transaction were not disclosed. This is Atlas' second major acquisition in 2009. In May, the Greenwich, CT.-based firm purchased the second-largest wheel blast and surface preparation equipment provider in Europe -- the Othello ...
• Weyerhaeuser completes sale of commercial construction business
  posted on August 18, 2009 04:38:56 am
  Weyerhaeuser Co. has completed the sale of its commercial construction business to Atlas Holdings LLC, of Greenwich, Conn.
• Deals:
  posted on August 18, 2009 03:15:50 am
  ... chairman of Mitchells/Richards/Marshs, with two popular clothing stores, Mitchells and Richards, in Westport and Greenwich, Conn., delivered his message about succeeding in business through above-and-beyond customer service in the previous Hug ...

08/18/09 The Raw Greenwich News Feed: This Just In ......

Greenwich could face a nearly 8 percent property tax spike unless ... Greenwich Time By Neil Vigdor If a 3.5 percent property tax increase was too much to stomach this year, wait until next year. According to a preliminary forecast by the town's Finance Department, property owners could be facing a 7.67 increase in the tax rate come the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, 2010. To get back to the 3.5 percent annual rate increase that residents and businesses have grown accustomed to this entire decade, $11.8 million must be shed from the $366 million projected budget, the forecast shows. Architects of the budget emphasized that the forecast, which was developed in mid-July, is subject to dramatic changes that could bode better than expected for the town's finances. "The budget has a lot of moving parts," said Larry Simon, a member of the Board of Estimate and Taxation's Budget Committee. "You never know until February how the parts are going to fit together." First Selectman Peter Tesei downplayed the report's significance ...

============================= Please send your comments, news tips and press releases to GreenwichRoundup@gmail.com

08/18/09 Reader Submitted Comments: DEVASTATED!

Would you please publish the statement below immediately? Please?

All charges stemming from the December 2007 arrest of Dorothy Darko for counterfeit checks have been dismissed by the Stamford Superior Court as Darko was a victim of a counterfeit check scam.



Dorothy Darko
Darko Media Group
Founder & CEO
10 Brookside Drive, Suite 3K
Greenwich, CT 06830
U. S. A.
Tel: 1 203 918-2326
Fax: 1 203 340-9564
E-mail: ddarko@darkomediagroup.com

Comment:

Dear Dorothy,

We will once again publish your statement.

We previously published your statement here:

08/14/09 READER SUBMITTED COMMENTS: Article removal

We also saw that the Greenwich Time published your statement here:

Charges against town woman dismissed
All charges stemming from the December 2007 arrest of Dorothy Darko for counterfeit checks have been dismissed by state Superior Court in Stamford, as Darko was the victim of a counterfeit check scam. Read More »

===================================
Please send your comments, news tips and press releases to GreenwichRoundup@gmail.com

08/18/09 Reader Submitted Comments: More On Article Removal

Below is what you see when you google me. it's horrible

Greenwich Roundup: Those In The Know Are Not Fully Informed Untill ...

Four days before Christmas, Dorothy Darko, 50, and her son, Rupert M. Ommerhorn, 20, of 10 Brookside Drive, Apt. 3K, were arrested at Citibank at 16 ...
greenwichroundup.blogspot.com/.../123107-more-greenwich-pd-civil-rights.html - Cached - Similar

The article you said you have deleted is still online. I hope it goes away. Would you please publish the statement below so that people will know that the case has been dismissed. All the papers in Greenwich are going to publish it:

All charges stemming from the December 2007 arrest of Dorothy Darko for counterfeit checks have been dismissed by the Stamford Superior Court as Darko was a victim of a counterfeit check scam.

Dorothy Darko
Darko Media Group
Founder & CEO
10 Brookside Drive, Suite 3K
Greenwich, CT 06830
U. S. A.
Tel: 1 203 918-2326
Fax: 1 203 340-9564
E-mail: ddarko@darkomediagroup.com
www.darkomediagroup.com

Comment:

Dear Dorothy,

The article has been removed for days now.

If you click on the link you get a message that the page is not found.

The Cached version of the story is on Google's main servers and there is really not much we can do about that.

The Greenwich Roundup article from a year and a half ago was very sensitive to your position by writing.....

12/31/07 - More Greenwich PD Civil Rights Violations? They were arrested, Darko said, "in a most humiliating way without even reading us our rights."

.....Accused Mother, Son Claim They Were Duped....

.....Quote: "We will be cleared in the end, but at considerable financial and psychic cost.".....

....Not permitted by the police to investigate the envelope or to contact UPS as to who sent the package, they were arrested, Darko said.....

.....With their bail paid by a friend, Darko discovered a New Jersey return address on the UPS envelope that was confirmed by UPS authorities. Darko learned of similar scams taking place at both UPS and Federal Express. "The UPS security director called me," said Darko, "that hundreds of such packages containing forged travelers checks have been sent to people randomly." They advised Darko to contact the FBI......

....."We can't understand why human beings can do such cruel acts that have destroyed our reputation," said Darko......

Two persons have told Greenwich Roundup that they thought you should have left the artcle up with a statement about the final outcome.

When Greenwich Roundup mentions someone in a post usually becomes the first or second listing in the Google search results under their name or business name.

In your case a Google search of your name shows....

An article you wrote about HIV is number 1

The Greenwich Roundup post is number 2

Your business website is number 3

Your campaign contributions and donations are number 4

And your recent statement published in the Greenwich Time is number 5

Google generally places a high value on Greenwich Roundup's original content.

Today Google gave Greenwich Roundup a page rank of 7 out of 10.

Today the Greenwich Time had a Google page rank of 6 out of 10.

The page rank results vary, but we have not seen Greenwich Roundup with less than a 4 out of 10 for well over a year now.

Yesterday 1,803 unique visitors came to Greenwich Roundup to read what is really going on in town.

You can rest assured that most of these visitors understand that you have been cleared in the check cashing scam.

============================

Please send your comments, news tips and press releases to GreenwichRoundup@gmail.com

08/18/09 [Greenwich Diva News] 2009 Race for the Kids BIG BROTHER BIG SISTER

Join me and other Rudy's Runners on Saturday September 26 in NYC ( Riverside Park and 72nd, )to run or walk 4K. Bring the kids and a picnic. $25 means a lot to little Rudy. See my blog for more information (it's the ad on the right) If you cannot make the race you can still make a donation to Rudy Claudette Lewis-Rothman Coming soon.... "Greenwich Secrets," The Novel. A story about sex and murder in Greenwich, Connecticut. What life is really like behind closed gates in this tony town.

08/18/09 The Raw Greenwich News Feed

Old Greenwich chief lands new job Greenwich Time Cunningham said he has been working toward obtaining a career position in fire service for some time and credited his latest success to the Greenwich Fire ...

Hurricanes have struck Greenwich in the past Greenwich Time In 1938, the New England Hurricane swept ashore as a Category Although hurricanes have hit Greenwich and Connecticut, including Floyd in Sept. ...

What a ride: Greenwich resident Shulman claims a gold medal at the ... Greenwich Time Yet the Greenwich resident showed that she's simply at her best in pressurized situations. Shulman shined bright with the spotlight on her during the ...

Slideshow: New basketball court signals improvement at Greenwich ... Greenwich Time "It's amazing how things have changed," said Aldina Portu, one of the more outspoken residents who pushed police and the Greenwich Housing Authority to help ...

Exotic Excess - Estate of the Day: $17.5M Mansion in Greenwich ... By ExoticExcess 175m-mansion-in-greenwich-connecticut. A world of your own within the 24-hour guard gated exclusive waterfront community of Mead Point. Located on a cul-de-sac at the tip of the point, the private, serene 2.69 acres frames a 1985 ... Exotic Excess - http://www.exoticexcess.com/

08/18/09 Greenwich Police Officer of the Month

Please see attachment of Officer of the Month.

Lieutenant Daniel Allen
Greenwich Police Department
Public Information Officer
11Bruce Place
Greenwich, CT 06830

Officer of the Month

The Greenwich Police Department has selected Police Officer Frederick Quezada as its Officer of the Month for June 2009.

On Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at approximately 8:16 P.M., Officer Quezada along with other police units responded to a violent domestic dispute involving a subject wielding a knife and threatening family members.

Officer Quezada upon entering the residence overheard yelling and screaming.

Officer Quezada was subsequently advised by family members that their daughter/ sister had picked up a kitchen knife during a verbal argument and approached them threatening to kill them.

Furthermore, she was in the rear of the house still in possession of the knife.

Officer Quezada proceeded to the rear of the residence with his duty weapon drawn at which time the daughter exited a bedroom with a knife in hand. The female was ordered by Officer Quezada to drop the knife several times before she complied with his request.

The female was subsequently taken into custody and the knife was secured. No injuries sustained by family members or police.

Officer Quezada’s professional demeanor defused a potential dangerous situation that could have resulted in the officer using deadly physical force to protect him self and others who were in imminent danger of being seriously injured or suffer loss of life.

Congratulations to Officer Quezada on a job well done.