Greenwich Roundup: Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Greenwich artist overcomes dyslexia to pursue artistic passion - Greenwich Time
Artist Michael Hone, at the Cos Cob Library, in front of one of his paintings. He is a retired backhoe operator with the town who has turned his hand to painting.

"I don't know what I would call myself -- I just like to draw," said the retired backhoe operator for the town who dropped out of school at the age of 16.

His work, which is on display at Cos Cob Library through the end of the month, revolves around his love of his Model T cars -- of which he has three -- junkyards and scenes of Greenwich that the town native remembers as a youth.

Hone, 65, an Old Greenwich resident and self-taught artist, infuses humor into many of his works....
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Playing Politics: Chairman James "No Notice" Boutelle Annonces Special Election Tonight !!!
District 8 of the Representative Town Meeting is scheduled to hold a special meeting at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Cos Cob School cafeteria to fill two vacancies for the remainder of the current term.

Any interested candidates may call the district chairman, James Boutelle, at 203-629-4795., at 203-629-4795.

COMMENTS:

Shame, Shame Shame On James Boutelle For not providing enough notice for an election of two new RTM members.

The under handed back room political dealings need to end in District 8.
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Obama To Order Big Paycuts At Bailed Out Finance Firms
Responding to the growing furor over the paychecks of executives at companies that received billions of dollars in federal bailouts, the Obama administration will order the companies that received the most aid to deeply slash the compensation to their highest paid executives, an official involved in the decision said on Wednesday.....

....... Street executives feel: Dr. Daniel E. Fass, another chairman of the event who lives surrounded by financiers in Greenwich, Conn., said: "The investment community feels very put-upon. They feel there is no reason why they shouldn't earn $1 million to ...
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Greenwich schools chief looks to pare down 'to-do' list - Greenwich Time
Hoping to get a handle on the hodgepodge of education initiatives under way at town schools, the new schools chief says he is starting his first school year in office by not introducing any initiatives at all.

Superintendent of Schools Sidney Freund says he is holding off on introducing new initiatives this school year that would affect next year's budget, hoping to narrow the focus on existing projects and ease the burden on educators. The school system, he's repeatedly told the school board, is suffering from "initiative fatigue."

"Everyone likes to plant flowers, but nobody likes to pick weeds," he said. "If we're going to show the kind of improvement (the school board is) talking about, we need to adopt a narrower focus and dedicate our resources accordingly."

Freund's move marks a break from some recent superintendents. After inheriting several initiatives from her predecessor, Larry Leverett, former Superintendent of Schools Betty Sternberg unveiled her own ambitious agenda shortly after assuming the post. That included, among other projects, creating a task force to tackle racial imbalance, space use and declining enrollment.

While that task force no longer operates, a number of agenda items have carried over from Sternberg's tenure into Freund's, including a review of the secondary schools, an overhaul of the district science curriculum and a new teacher-evaluation system implemented district wide for the first time this year.....
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Corinthian Colleges Buys Heald Colleges for $395M
Corinthian Colleges Inc., a for-profit provider of higher education, said on Tuesday that it was buying Heald Capital LLC, the parent of the Heald Colleges, for $395 million in cash....

...Palm Ventures, a Greenwich, Conn., venture capital firm which invests in education companies and other sectors, is Heald's controlling shareholder.
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Greenwich school system's assistant superintendent of business to retire
A Greenwich High School graduate who has spent the past five years looking after the school system's finances, budget processes and maintenance of school facilities is retiring at the end of this year.

Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Sue Wallerstein, who oversees the non-instructional "operations side" the schools system, plans to step down at the end of December, school officials announced Tuesday afternoon.

An educator for nearly four decades, the Norwalk resident says she's looking forward to spending more time with her children, her grandchildren and her husband, a retired Greenwich public school teacher of 35 years.

"My goal after 38 years -- and my husband is role model on this -- is to really spend time assessing what, if anything, I want to do" in education, said Wallerstein, 60, who also teaches at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y....
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Greenwich's Haub retakes reins at A&P
Greenwich resident Christian Haub took over Tuesday as chief executive officer of the Great Atlantic Pacific Tea Co.
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Greenwich senior health fair showcase services at home and in the community - Greenwich Time
Giovannina Dattilo went to the Greenwich Civic Center in Old Greenwich on Tuesday to get her seasonal flu shot, and left armed with information about home care for seniors.

Dattilo, 71, who recently underwent back surgery and recovered in her Glenville home, took advantage of the townwide senior health fair to find out how to prepare if she needed services in the future.

As the push continues for seniors to "age in place," home care continues to be a growing aspect of the health fair, held for the last 15 years, said Sam Deibler, director of the town's Commission on Aging, which helped organize the event.

"Home care is the big thing for the future," Deibler said.....
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Quote for the Day
From the shit you can't make up file : Dr. Daniel E. Fass, another chairman of the event who lives surrounded by financiers in Greenwich, Conn., said: "The investment community feels very put-upon. They feel there is no reason why they shouldn't earn $1 million to $200 million a year, and they don't want to be held responsible for the global ...
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Greenwich police blotter - Greenwich Time
Lynette Aurzada, 51, of 23 Church St., was charged Tuesday morning with driving while intoxicated....

.....Two 16-year-old boys were charged Monday with second-degree breach of peace and third-degree assault during a fight at Greenwich High School. They were both released on promises to appear.
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BOE PRESS RELEASE: Susan Wallerstein Retirement - Search Launch
ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT FOR BUSINESS SERVICESANNOUNCES RETIREMENT
Search Begins for Senior Administrative Positions
(For immediate release: Greenwich, CT – Tuesday, October 20, 2009)

Dr. Susan O. Wallerstein, AssistantSuperintendent for Business Services, has announced her retirement, effective December 31, 2009. Dr.Wallerstein has been with the Greenwich Public Schools (GPS) for the last twelve of her thirty-eight years ineducation. After 38 years in public education Dr. Wallerstein is looking forward to spending more time with herhusband, a retired Greenwich teacher, her children and grandchildren. She came to the District as the ProgramCoordinator for Media and Technology in 1997, with oversight for curriculum and instruction in this area, aswell as the information technology support operations. In 2004, after completing a six-month Interim Principalposition at Hamilton Avenue School, Dr. Wallerstein became the Assistant Superintendent for BusinessServices. Over the last five years as a leader in the operations of the District, Dr. Wallerstein has developed acomprehensive and transparent budget process; provided oversight of a successful facilities and maintenanceprogram, and has developed numerous processes and procedures that have helped to clarify and streamline theoperations of the District.....
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Police charge 2 after shots fired in Greenwich park - Greenwich Time
A pistol-packing town man caused alarm at Mianus River Park early Sunday morning after police said he was firing a handgun into the air within the woods where he and a group of other people were hanging out and drinking.

At 2:32 a.m. police received several 911 calls reporting shots fired near 441 Cognewaugh Road. Four officers responded to find two empty, unlocked cars sitting in the parking lot. The officers then heard four gunshots fired from the distance, at which time they surrounded the woods with their guns drawn.

"We had 911 calls, but when the officers got out of the car, they actually heard four gunshots," said Lt. Richard Cochran. "They waited for them to come out and asked them to raise their hands."

Soon after, four men and two women -- including Robert Caldwell and Steven Caldwell -- emerged from the woods with their hands up, and police began patting them down checking for weapons.

At that time, Robert Caldwell, 27, of 304 Sound Beach Ave., became combative, fighting with police and verbally threatening them, according to the police report.

"He threatened to (beat up) the officers," Cochran said. "They had to restrain him."...
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Greenwich billionaire may be only the beginning in insider trading case
Raj Rajaratnam, billionaire founder of the Galleon Group, a major hedge fund, is led in handcuffs from FBI headquarters in New York Friday, Oct.16, 2009.....

....... professionals with insider trading, some linked to the criminal case against billionaire hedge-fund manager and Greenwich resident Raj Rajaratnam that shook Wall Street last week, people familiar with the matter said. The pending crackdown, more ...
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Greenwich schools' capital spending swells with auditorium project - Greenwich Time
New middle school "fitness centers," energy-efficient windows at an elementary school and bathroom upgrades across the district.

Those are a few of the capital improvement projects in the school district's more than $36 million capital spending plan proposed for the 2010-11 school year.

While an estimated $23.5 million GHS auditorium rehab is the headliner on the proposed projects list, a variety of smaller-ticket items are also in the works under the district's latest plan. Those range from school repaving projects, to security upgrades, to plans to replace the lockers at Central Middle School.

The single-year spending plan is part of a larger 15-year capital plan, currently projected to cost more than $129 million. The school board is scheduled to vote on the spending proposal Thursday.....
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Former Goldman exec sells 15 CPW unit
Former Goldman Sachs partner Donald Opatrny has sold his three-bedroom apartment at 15 Central Park West for $21.5 million, nearly doubling what he paid for it early last year.....

... closed on the sale Oct. 8, is identified in city records as 35D CPW. Opatrny recently sold a 25.5-acre estate in Greenwich, Conn., for $18.7 million, obtaining a price about 22 percent below what he had asked for it. He is listed as a board member ...
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Group calls for reform of Greenwich's ethics rules - Greenwich Time
The League of Women Voters of Greenwich is calling for the town to tighten up its Code of Ethics, the set of rules governing the conduct of public officials that the organization said has undergone few revisions since its creation in 1965.

Chief among the group's recommendations is that the definition of a conflict of interest under the code be expanded to cover non-financial situations and even those that create an appearance of impropriety.

Public officials are currently required to recuse themselves from voting on anything in which they have a financial interest under the two-page code, which the league said should go one step further and bar their participation in deliberations.

"The league believes the public should have confidence in the integrity of town officials," said Cheryl Dunson of the league, a nonpartisan education and advocacy organization.

Dunson briefed the Board of Selectmen Friday on the league's recommendations, which she said were not precipitated by any scandal but are rooted in the interest of sound policy-making.....
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Philip Johnson House Resurrected
In the fall of 2008, Victoria Lyon of Victoria Lyon Interiors in Old Greenwich, CT., invited a group of artisans, artists and furniture makers to collaborate on bringing an empty Philip Johnson modern house back to life and showcase it as an example of how a small but iconic mid-century modern house could be adapted for life in the 21st century.
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Swine flu vaccine delay means uncertainty about public clinics in Greenwich - Greenwich Time
The town is still waiting for its supply of the H1N1 vaccine, which is arriving much later than officials first thought.

While some Greenwich doctors have started to receive shipments of the inhaled vaccine, made from a live version of the H1N1 virus, there has been a delay in shipments of the inactive-virus shots, said Greenwich Health Director Caroline Calderone Baisley.

Calderone Baisley said all of the town's pediatric providers will administer the vaccine, and that many other doctors have also signed on as providers, but there is still some uncertainty as to when doses will arrive and what that means for public vaccine clinics.

The Health Department ordered 100 doses of the inhaled vaccine to cover emergency medical workers and people who take care of children under 6 years old, plus 400 doses of the shot.
"We have a lot of doctors in town who are providers," Calderone Baisley said....
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Raj Rajaratnam Hoping To Break Even?
The Galleon Group put out an rap about itself a few years ago but apparently its accused co-founder Raj Rajaratnam's tastes swing a bit more country.....

... itself a few years ago but apparently its accused co-founder Raj Rajaratnam's tastes swing a bit more country. One Greenwich neighbor (the hedge fund manager maintains residences at Sutton Place in New York and at 577 Round Hill Road in Connecticut) ...
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Affordable housing battle looms in Byram - Greenwich Time
While busy at work behind his counter -- "I've got a 180-person wedding," Kevin Allmashy said -- Thursday morning, the owner of Executive Corner Catering on Mill Street in Byram said he hasn't heard complaints about more affordable housing in the western corner of town.

"No one's been talking about it here among my customers," he said as he packed food into a box. "Maybe it will change when it's in the newspaper," he said with a laugh.

It probably will soon become a topic of discussion in his deli and other area gathering places, as some neighborhood residents plan to stop a proposed expansion of low-income and senior housing in Byram by the Greenwich Housing Authority.

The authority wants to add 19 new units to an existing 51-unit building at McKinney Terrace II at 71 Vinci Drive. In addition, it seeks to build a new 35-unit building across the parking lot from the current structure in a wooded area.....
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

1021/09 The Raw Greenwich News Feed: This just in ....

09/21/09 Comment On These Greenwich News Stories At The Greenwich Topix Forum

10/21/09Playing Politics In District 8: Chairman James "No Notice" Boutelle Annonces That District 8 RTM sets special meeting for tonight

10/21/09 The Raw Greenwich News Feed