Happy 4th of July!

Talk of West Hartford hopes that you have a relaxing and fun Independence Day with family and friends.

Congratulations 2009 Graduates!

To West Hartford high school graduates -
(both public and non-public schooled)

Congratulations on a job well done!
Good luck in your future endeavors!

Poetic License

West Hartford's great municipal nightmare is over! - we have a new "Poet Laureate".
You can be relieved that we will not have to lift another latte in town without some poetic words to utter.

According to definition - "A Poet Laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for State occasions and other government events." In the case of West Hartford, our Town's Poet Laureate is expected to sponsor readings each year and to promote poetry in town. Don't worry though - it's not a paid position (at least not yet).

West Hartford News reported

Dennis Barone, English professor, director of the American Studies program at St. Joseph College and the author of 14 books, was named the second West Hartford Poet Laureate in the town's history last week.
Out of seven nominations, he was selected by committee and will serve a two-year term.

He replaces West Hartford's two term Poet Laureate (and also the Town's first), Maria Sassi, who accepted the position in 2005.

Councilwoman Shari Cantor was given credit for spending the last few years spearheading the effort and responding to the poets in town who initially asked to have a Town Poet Laureate post created. Councilwoman Cantor busied herself with the project of helping to establish this position and brought forth candidates and their work to the Council to fill the position.

Here is a sample of Barone's work:

DOCUDRAMA

A window repairman came to repair a window
where a bird had flown into it and broke it.
The next day another bird met its match on the window’s mate.

Poetry is the absence of insurance.

In another room another man spoke about a woman
in a language that could not be understood and he
kept close count of his pulse as he struck the ivory
keys on an out of tune piano and remembered.

Poetry is the absence of insurance.

Well, as they say, Chacun à son goût (to each his own taste), and for this critic it looks like in this case poetry might also be the absence of coherence.

Of course, Talk of West Hartford has another suggested poetic submission for your consideration: (not penned by TOWH, but by a reader who hopes you will take it with intended tongue in cheek)

There once was a councilor named Cantor
Who enjoyed hearing poetic banter
“The town should get classy
“So let’s go get Sassi
“The first poet laureate,” said Cantor

Sassi visited school after school
Did the students think her poems were cool?
When she read, some would weep
And the rest were asleep
Which was all just incredibly cruel.

After two terms the town called her hence,
“When you started we thought you made sense
“But ‘Rooted in Stars’
Sounds like it’s from Mars
We’re revoking your poetic license!”

A crisis befell the town hall
“For poems now who will we call?”
While the town’s budget waited
The council debated
The next poet they should install

At St. Joseph’s Dennis Barone,
Was an English Professor unknown
He adjusted his glasses
And said “Hold my classes!
“There’s a call on my cellular phone!”

“It’s Cantor here, the town has the blues,
“A new poet we have to choose”
He accepted the job
Of head poet snob
With a write-up in West Hartford News

“Let West Hartford worry no more!
“Have I got some poems in store
“And thanks to my labors
“We’ll show off to our neighbors
“Those Avon and Simsbury bores!”

We know that the job is part time
And what’s more it pays not a dime
But you get what you pay for
If the town would just pay more
Then maybe his poems would rhyme

Congratulations to Mr. Barone and appropriate thanks to Councilwoman Cantor. A West Hartford townwide haiku competition might now just become reality!

Parcxmart: A West Hartford Convenience

It's a parking card.
It's a shoppers card.
It's an instant rewards card.
It's cooler than cash!
It's just like having a new local currency!

West Hartford's Parcxmart card is an idea that has finally arrived in town.

Parcxmart cards are being used in a few cities, and in Connecticut it's being used in West Haven, Bridgeport and now West Hartford. The list of cities will no doubt grow as people catch onto this, and more cities utilize the technology.

You can use your West Hartford Parcxmart card when you travel to other Parcxmart branded Card Towns and Cities. You can also reload your West Hartford Town Card in another Parcxmart town or city; or buy one there and use it here at home.

All the Frequently Asked Questions are here.

Purchase a card at any merchant who sells them (No doubt this list will grow), and you can load the card with up to $100. Be careful though, it's just like cash. The chip in the card does not store personal information, so if you lose your card it's just like losing cash.

How about that for a great Father's Day gift?

On With The Shows! Playhouse On Park

Playhouse On Park is opening its doors in the same spot next to A.C. Petersen Farms, in place of the now defunct Parkroad Playhouse.

Darlene Zoller of Vernon, Tracy Flater of Simsbury and Sean Harris of West Hartford comprise the Playhouse Theatre Group,Inc., (a 501(c) nonprofit) and they are the new renters of the playhouse, having signed a lease recently with the folks from A.C. Petersen Farms who actually own the building.

Their website states this:

The Playhouse on Park theatre space has 165 seats surrounding a three-quarter thrust stage offering audiences of all ages an incredibly intimate theatre experience. A year-round performance schedule is produced and/or presented by Playhouse Theatre Group, Inc. and includes: professional and community theatre; theatre for young audiences; new works and play readings; comedy and improvisation; cabarets and concerts; dance; educational opportunities lead by resident and visiting artists; corporate events, special events and more!

Their mission:

Playhouse Theatre Group Inc., at Playhouse on Park is dedicated to the following purposes:

• to provide quality entertainment at affordable costs to as broad an audience as possible
• to embrace and provide opportunity for professional, emerging and community artists.
• to offer educational and outreach opportunities through visiting and/or resident artists and educators
• to create and/or explore opportunities to collaborate with other existing arts organizations
• to be fiscally responsible and accountable at all times
• to continue to be an integral member of the West Hartford community

Their opening event is "MY SHOW, A Choreographer's Story", which runs JUNE 25-28, 2009, for performances on Thursday at 7:30, Friday at 8:00, Saturday at 8:00, Sunday at 2:00

Talk of West Hartford wishes the new endeavor a boatload of good luck, and as they say in the business - Break a Leg!

Celebrate! West Hartford! June 13 and 14

Celebrate! West Hartford

June 13 and 14, 2009
West Hartford, Connecticut

West Hartford's 23rd annual celebration
Free Admission - Rain or Shine

Celebrate! West Hartford is a highly attended, annual tradition that promotes, embraces and celebrates community life.

Attracting well over 30,000 people each year, Celebrate! also provides festival attendees with a wide range of wholesome family activities – an award winning juried arts & crafts show, great food, entertainment, games, rides, a certified 5K road race – as the saying goes, "something for everyone".

The event offers civic, service, sports, schools and charitable organizations a way to increase community awareness and an opportunity to raise funds for their worthy causes.

Free parking is in the Town Center garage behind Fidelity as well as the Isham garage. REI and Central Connecticut Bicycle Alliance are also repeating the bicycle valet service that they offered last year.

We can taste the fried dough and kettle corn already!

West Hartford Halts Property ReValuation Phase-In

On June 9 the West Hartford Town Council voted to halt the 2006 revaluation 5 year phase-in after the State Legislature passed legislation to allow towns to freeze the revaluation phase-ins that towns in CT had been engaged in. See complete legislative bill details here.

Representative Beth Bye was the only West Hartford legislator to co-sponsor the legislation, although she was absent from the House floor vote along with Rep. Andrew Fleischmann. Rep. McCluskey voted for the measure, and in the Senate, so did Jonathan Harris.

West Hartford Town Manager, Ron Van Winkle said in his explanation at the Town Council meeting, that 75 percent of all homeowners will get a tax break in July because of the cessation of the phase-in. Property owners will be taxed based on the 2007 grand list to figure next fiscal year's taxes. He also mentioned that the vote allows the Town to move forward to send out tax bills to residents and prevent a delay. A delay could have caused problems for the town. The mill rate was 36.97 last year and was supposed to be 34.81 with the phase-in. Nothing on the Town website indicates if there will be a change in the mill rate, although the Town tax calculator comes up with 37.54. (This has to be clarified)

Councilors voted 8-0 on the measure with Councilman Steve Adler abstaining because he felt he did not have enough information on the pros and cons of the issue, especially in light of a document presented by Town resident Robert Sisk regarding the impact of halting the phase-in. (Mr. Sisk was kind enough to forward Talk of West Hartford the document which is now available on Scribd).

Property taxes will now be a little bit less for many residential homeowners, but the freeze on phase-in affects commercial property since the shift of taxes was being placed away from them with revaluation phase-in and that has now been halted.

When houses were re-assessed in 2006, it was at the height of the real estate market, and since then some people had complained that they couldn't even sell their house in the current market for what their house was valued/assessed at. How our property taxes are calculated according to Town Charter and State Law is that the town
1. does a market valuation of your home - either physical, where they come out to actually look at the features and aspects of your home - or statistical, where they more or less apply an overall percent increase or best guess to the value based on the documented features of your home
2. Takes that market value and multiplies it by 70% yielding an assessment which is then applied to the mill rate.

So if your house is valued at $200,000, your assessed value is $140,000. The mill rate is then applied to that assessed value, divided by 1000 and that is how the tax bill is calculated. With the phase-in, the difference between the 2005 market value assessment and 2006 market value assessment of the property was split up into phased in amounts which were to be applied every year until the phase-in was completed. In West Hartford's case that would have been 2011.

Since the phase-in is to be halted, homeowners will be paying taxes on the same assessed value as they did last year (based on the 2007 grand list). This year the only difference will be as a result of applying the mill rate, and not the mill rate plus a phased-in increase in assessed value over last year. This gives property owners a little bit of relief (depending on what the mill rate is).

Critics of the way in which we currently tax property claim that taxing based on market value of property is inherently flawed because homeowners are paying taxes on unrealized capital gains. That is to say, you may be paying higher taxes on a price of your home that can be inflated due to the market conditions. In fact, many homeowners may not be able to sell their homes for the value that they are currently paying taxes on! That is a problem, and amounts to over taxation.

In any case, this move by the legislature and by the Town of West Hartford could be a bit of relief for tax payers until the next revaluation is done.

The real issue regarding higher taxes however, rests more with how much the Town is spending as well as how much they are collecting in non-tax revenues, as both determine how much the homeowners and commercial property owners must make up to cover the cost of running Town services and administration. Keeping Town spending under control and getting the best use of every tax dollar should certainly be the aim of Town elected leaders and administrators.

It's interesting after this past budget cycle that the Town ended up with a budget surplus. It looks like after much budget searching for savings, and now halting revaluation that our Town is doing well. What is still puzzling is how the Board of Education who originally cried that they could not find a slim dime to cut from their budget, and who had heated feelings for the Mayor who took a hard line with them, ended up finding millions of dollars to apply to their budget afterall so that cuts wouldnot have to be made. It looks like that GEICO pile of money just showed up! How fascinating.



That's good news for taxpayers.
But just remember - this is an election year.
Let's hope and pray we don't get slammed with higher spending and even higher taxes next year.

Allen Collins and E.L. Wilde Close - The Body Count Grows

More stores are leaving the Center, and more for lease/for sale signs are appearing in shop windows.

We bid adieu to E.L.Wilde and Allen Collins, and Mediza too!

Further away from the Center, the Park Road Playhouse is also closing and in Bishop's Corner Kiddly Winks has moved to Canton.

The body count is growing. Many stores like Kingswood Market have long sat vacant.

"For the first time in the last decade, we've had a number of stores moving out of the downtown," Rob Rowlson, the interim director of community services, said Friday. "It's an unfortunate byproduct of the economy."

Years ago, West Hartford Center had about a dozen small clothing shops, said Rowlson, also a town native.

"Those days are not coming back because of competition from chain and big stores. The retail part of the story — soft goods such as clothing, gifts and decorating — is what worries me the most," he said. "Small retailers, like we have in West Hartford, have trouble in this economy."

Higher state and local taxes, higher rents, less spending by consumers in this bad economy in general, all seem to be the problem. Some folks say that West Hartford overbuilt with Blue Back Square and that the project also contributed to an inflation of business rents in the vicinity. While some may place the blame on "greedy landlords", it should be noted that when taxes and insurance and energy costs and other fees go up, they have little choice but to raise the rents.

One thing is for sure, we can't bring people into town to shop, free parking or not on Sunday, if we have empty storefronts.

West Hartford Abandons Free Parking On Sundays

Parking for free in West Hartford in the town lots on Sundays will be ending on July 1. It's an attempt to raise revenue for the Town, and was part of the Town's budget plan passed in April. On-street parking will still be free on Sundays. The Town owns two parking garages at Blue Back Square and charges for parking seven days a week there.

The move to charge for parking on Sundays is predicted to raise revenue by as much as $120,000 a year, although it was not specified how much will be spent on additional parking attendant hours. This past week, Town Council members voted to change current parking policies in order to institute what was outlined in the budget that they adopted for the new fiscal year. In the adopted budget, other services such as ending free trash collection at churches and private schools, and instituting shortened library hours were also specified as budget cutting/saving measures.

It is predicted by Town management that charging for parking on Sunday at Town Center lots will have no impact on shopping or business there. Skeptics say that this remains to be seen, especially as people can just as easily shop elsewhere, like the malls, for free.

In the past, there have been issues with people parking on residential streets.

The article in the Hartford Courant reported that -

Councilman Joseph Visconti, who lives on Clifton Street near the center, said residents closest to the center have problems with spillover parking on the unmetered side streets Monday through Saturday.

The end of free Sunday parking in lots will encourage workers in downtown businesses to park on side streets to save money, he said, which will eliminate "the one day of peace we have a week" from cars turning in driveways and parked vehicles lining streets.

One thing that is particularly intriguing is that while the Town strives to become more "walkable" and wants to discourage traffic and the congestion that it brings, the Town also derives revenue from parked automobiles and people visiting the Center. It would seem that the two policies tend to work at cross purposes.

According to some statistics, our parking lots are already underutilized.

In this time of economic stress, let's hope that the prediction is accurate; that charging for parking on Sundays won't chase away business. If it does deter folks from visiting, that would be very unfortunate for us and our business owners indeed.

Memorial Day In West Hartford

From West Hartford Town Website -

The parade is scheduled for Monday, May 25, 2009, and will commence promptly at 10 a.m. from the corner of Woodrow Street and Farmington Avenue and proceed to the Town Hall. After the conclusion of the parade, a brief memorial service will be held at the West Hartford Veterans Memorial, located at the corner of Farmington Avenue and North Main Street.

Assembly of parade units will take place at 9:30 a.m. in designated areas west of Woodrow Street on Farmington Avenue. A listing of the parade units and line-up locations is found here.

The West Hartford Memorial Day Parade Committee appointed Colonel Donald Fenton, US Army (Retired) as the Parade Marshal and the Honorable Nancy Wyman, State Comptroller as the Honorary Parade Marshal of the 2009 West Hartford Memorial Day Parade.

West Hartford takes great pride in hosting its annual Memorial Day Parade. It follows a tradition established by returning West Hartford veterans from World War I in the 1920s.

The 2009 West Hartford Memorial Day Parade Committee is a joint endeavor and cooperative effort of the West Hartford Veterans Affairs Commission, The American Legion of West Hartford Hayes-Velhage Post 96, and Hannon-Hatch VFW Post 9929, in partnership with the Town of West Hartford.

Enjoy the day!

Hartford Magazine Reports - How Good Is Your Public High School?

click image for enlargement

West Hartford schools came in 4th (Hall tied with Farmington) and 15th (Conard) out of 32 schools when compared to other area schools on a variety of measures. Hall did fairly well, but we ought to be wondering why neither of our two high schools came in first place (or even 2nd or 3rd) in any category.

The 1st place winner for best area high school was Avon.

Hartford Magazine (June 2009 issue) rated public 4 year high schools in the Greater Hartford area using information from the State Department of Education strategic school profiles. Nearly all information pertained to 2007-08 school year along with CAPT results from 2006-07.

They chose to measure 10 criteria, took raw data from the profiles and ranked the schools based on those factors. Some factors were weighted based on importance.

Criteria used:
Average Class Size
Students Per Computer
Teachers with Masters degrees
Student Physical Fitness
Attendance
SAT Scores
Graduation Rate
Pursuit of Higher Education
CAPT Scores
AP+3 (Those students that scored higher than 3 on AP exams)

West Hartford Schools, The State, And Social Engineering

It's baaaaack.... oh yes, the issue of racial imbalance. You didn't really think that the State would go away on that issue, did you? Just when the West Hartford community could come together and not be divided over a budget referendum, we get race thrown at us from the State and its social engineering mandates.

In a move to somehow make more white students attend Smith School and Charter Oak Academy of Global Studies, school officials are considering demolishing the 80-year-old Charter Oak school and constructing a new, bigger Charter Oak at the cost of $45 million dollars!

Are they nuts? Who will pay for this? Shouldn't we be more concerned with the content of our curriculum so ALL kids can benefit rather than moving kids around like chess pieces in order to make sure the crayon box is better color co-ordinated?

The state notified West Hartford last month that Charter Oak and the Smith School of Science, Math and Technology — two neighborhood schools in the southeastern part of town with intra-district magnet programs — have again been identified as racially unbalanced. Under state law, that occurs when the proportion of minority children in the school is more than 25 percentage points above or below the district's average. In West Hartford, 36 percent of elementary students are minority.

This state mandate is well meaning, but stupid. What they ought to be focused on is whether ALL children in the same school district are receiving a quality education, not what color or ethnicity or socio-economic status the children sitting next to one another is in any given classroom.

Though facing pressure from the state, school officials say they consider it "a moral obligation" to address the issue and have outlined preliminary options, including reviewing the schools' magnet themes, changing the magnet lottery process and developing a short-term plan to increase magnet seats.

But the loftiest, long-term idea is erecting a $45 million "premier facility," in the words of incoming superintendent Karen List, that would seat up to 550 students and feature an academically rigorous International Baccalaureate program that the school has already begun to implement. The hope is that students from Duffy, Bugbee and other elementary schools would be drawn to the school voluntarily.

Moral obligation? The moral obligation here is to be color blind and offer the best education to EVERY child in town no matter where they live and go to school! Should we now consider busing kids all over town, and taking the time and expense to do that just to satisfy some arbitrary State mandated numbers? This law, no doubt, is designed to invoke cries of racism that really does not exist in our already incredibly diverse school system. Families from the any given side of town may not be interested in attending Smith or Charter Oak, and vice versa, not because of a higher or lower minority ratio, but because of many other factors. Proximity to home is a big one.

Instead of wasting tens of millions of dollars on building a new school, how about West Hartford creates its own voucher program such that any child can go to any public school in town (or does that ability exist already)? It seems that families will still opt for neighborhood schools, because we understand that race is not the issue; school pride is. Charter Oak and Smith families love their neighborhood school, and they full well know that any child of any background is welcome there, as they are in any West Hartford School. Can the State honestly ignore that factor over race? Please, let's not buy into the notion that West Hartford is somehow a community of racists, and let's not allow the State to somehow infer that we are, especially since several factors dictate where people buy homes and send their kids to school in our town.

Harry Captain's comments at last night's board of education meeting was spot on as he pointedly asked, (perhaps not verbatim) "What is the minority ratio of the Hartford Magnet School? do we know?" Where is the State on that one?

And why isn't the State doing more to help us financially, or with other resources, to close the achievement gap that our system is experiencing? No, instead they continue to shove more mandates and more problems at us to fix at our own expense.

In drawing up a new action plan, West Hartford school officials acknowledge that a decade long effort to desegregate Charter Oak and Smith has failed.

This school year, children identified as black, Hispanic or Asian make up 81 percent of Charter Oak's student body and 70 percent of the Smith population.

While the vast majority of magnet students were white 10 years ago, now three out of four magnet students at Charter Oak — and two out of three at Smith — are minority.

Even as some neighborhood families from the southeast move to wealthier sections of town, parents sign up their children as magnet students so they can return to Charter Oak and Smith, places viewed as more welcoming of diversity.

School officials say the lack of magnet seats is another reason behind the persistent imbalance. Currently, Charter Oak has space for 361 students, largely neighborhood children.

A bigger Charter Oak, they envision, would house Charter Oak neighborhood students, some from Smith and 150 to 250 magnet students. The freed-up space at Smith would then allow that school to accommodate more magnet students.

At least the Mayor has a sense of reality, when the notion of who will pay for new construction arises.

Mayor Scott Slifka said balancing the racial and socioeconomic makeup at the schools could be "one of the more defining issues of our time" in West Hartford. Building a school, however, won't happen "in the foreseeable future," he said.

"One of the areas we cannot afford to pursue at this time is construction of anything, especially something of that size and scope," Slifka said.

But of course proponents are already crying and looking to get federal money for this foray into social engineering.

The latest racial balancing efforts have involved town officials and state legislators, some of whom have met with U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-1st District, in recent weeks to talk generally about their options. A spokeswoman for Larson declined to comment Monday on whether the congressman would be open to exploring federal funding for a school.

It would seem that so much more could be done with $45 million dollars, especially in education. Building a new school and shuffling kids around seems to be the least effective way to spend that kind of money. Putting that kind of money into reading programs, and making technology available to ALL kids, or perhaps finding more effective programs to close achievement gaps would go a much longer way than spending it on bricks or buses. Expanding outreach and parent involvement is also something to consider. We need to forget geography and stop thinking about re-arranging the deck chairs on a ship that just needs to concentrate on the needs of ALL of the passengers.