City of Norwich approves NPU request for three water system projects

By Claire Bessette Day Staff Writer
Norwich - Norwich Public Utilities has received approval from the City Council for $5.9 million to cover three water system improvements that jumped to the top of the list of capital projects when federal stimulus grants and low-interest loans became available.
The three projects will be funded through water rates, requiring an estimated 5 percent rate increase for the three combined projects, NPU General Manager John Bilda said. The rate impact could be reduced if more than the expected 20 percent can be covered by grants to supplant the 2 percent loan expected to cover 80 percent of the project.
The projects include $1.83 million for a filter backwash recycle system at the Stonybrook Reservoir, $1.63 million to replace an aging water transmission line from the Deep River Reservoir in Lebanon and $2.44 million to replace the Deep River Reservoir pump and drive system and replace a large water storage tank in Norwich.
Bilda said the Deep River water line dates to 1924 and runs through a low-lying, flood-prone field in Lebanon. Bilda is concerned the joints in the pipe could become "compromised" and break if the high-pressure flow of water is disrupted for any reason. The line would be replaced with a new, 30-inch diameter water main that would run from the reservoir along Camp Moween Road in Lebanon.
The Deep River Reservoir pumps and motors are 40 years old and would be replaced.
Two smaller ground-based water storage tanks would replace the large tank in Mohegan Park in Norwich. The two new tanks would be built on land near the water treatment facility at the Deep Water Reservoir. The tanks, about 50 feet tall and 50 feet in diameter, would hold about 500,000 gallons each. They would replace the 5 million gallon tank at Mohegan Park. Bilda said because that current tank is so large, water sits and can become stagnant, leading to water quality issues. New technology would allow the water system to function efficiently with the two smaller tanks, he said.
The council unanimously approved bonding ordinances Monday for all three projects, with bonds to be paid for through water rates rather than taxes.
c.bessette@theday.com

Lebanon wins new Little League Fields

By PAUL PETRONE

For The Norwich Bulletin

Posted Jun 06, 2010 @ 09:21 PM

LEBANON — On Memorial Day night, Kyle Griffin, Jamie Bender and the rest of the town’s little league board stayed up late, staring at their computers and praying to stay in the top ten.
“We were texting each other, e-mailing each other; we were all so nervous,” Bender said.
The board was looking at the Pepsi website, to see where the town’s field project ranked among those being voted on nationwide. The ten projects to receive the most votes would each get $50,000.
 “I woke up at 6 a.m. eager and ready to go,” Griffin said. “And then I heard we won and I just lost it.”
The town finished ninth in voting in the Pepsi Refresh project’s Neighborhood’s category for the month of May. The money will be used to build three youth league fields, one for girls softball, one for little league baseball and the last for both.
“What a performance by our whole town and all the many people we managed to network with,” Former Little League President Jeff Walsh said, who originally brought the idea to the board. “Just a great reflection of a community who cares about their kids.”
Voters had to sign up and vote for a specific project, with the top projects receiving money from the soft drink company. People could vote once a day for Lebanon’s Tyler Field project, with the voting lasting until May 31 at midnight.
Months of work
Walsh entered the Tyler Field project in April, and after finishing 25th the first month, it was allowed to compete again in May.
“This was like an extra-inning ball game, and we used all our pitchers,” Walsh said. “When you get in a game like that, you better win. I mean, you put that much effort in already.”
While the actual voting figures have not been announced, Walsh estimated the number at 10,000 to 20,000 a day. The population of Lebanon is just over 7,000.
“We got people from across the country helping us, we got other little league groups, whoever we could,” Bender said. “Whoever was alive and willing to vote, we went to.”
The money will build the three fields and the parking lot. The job could be done by spring depending on how well the grass grows, said Bender.
There is not enough money for dugouts, scoreboards and a concession stand. Walsh said the little league board will continue to search for money to finish the field.

Copyright 2010 Norwich Bulletin. Some rights reserved

State Pulls Troopers from Schools

In the continuing craziness with the Connecticut State budget all State Troopers who served as School Resource Officers were pulled from the Schools. This will affect all of the students in the Lebanon school system because this is who conducted the DARE program for the children in Lebanon Middle School. There appears to be no chance that this will change anytime soon.

By GREG SMITH

Norwich Bulletin

Posted May 13, 2010 @ 11:21 PM

In a financial move unpopular with school administrators, state police are suspending a school resource officer program and removing 19 state troopers from dozens of schools across the state.   

Seven of those troopers have become staples at schools in Eastern Connecticut, from the shoreline to the Massachusetts border.

State police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance said the program will be suspended as of July 1,  when schools are closed and most troopers are typically blended back to patrol. The move, he said, is expected to save an estimated $1.2 million. Whether the program will return may hinge on the severity of the state’s budget problems. 

“This is a program initiated under the Clinton administration with federal funding,” Vance said. “The funding ran out, and we continued to fund it until now.”

Vance said troopers in affected towns will make an effort to stay involved in the schools and continue to provide service in the towns they cover.

It’s little comfort for Norwich Technical High School Principal Nikitoula Menounos, who has grown accustomed to having Trooper Jeff Rogers on hand or at least a phone call away. Rogers splits his time with Ella Grasso Technical High School in Groton.

“It’s not an adversarial role. We bounce ideas off of him and he gives us suggestions,” Menounos said. “If we do have some serious problems, he’s here. We have good relationship.”

Rogers, also a scoutmaster and DARE officer, said he volunteered for school duty because he likes children. 

“The key to being successful is to establish relationships, maybe change some perspectives of police as the bad guy,” Rogers said.

When things do go awry, Rogers said the students’ relationships with him, security officers and staff becomes key to solving what could amount to major problems.

Disaster averted
In October, a 16-year-old Norwich Technical  High School student threatened to kill everyone at the school and was later found in possession of a sawed-off shotgun and homemade bomb at his Colchester home.

What may have turned out to be a catastrophic incident went largely unnoticed by classmates until notification from school administration.

“One of the students felt comfortable enough to come forward with the information,” Rogers said.
Like other troopers, Rogers said he will miss the school duty, but “will go on the road if they tell me to do that.”

Farther north, in Windham County, Troopers George Vangel and Rick Oenning from Troop D in Danielson keep busy covering about a dozen schools, from Canterbury and Sterling to Killingly and Thompson, as well as Quinebaug Valley Community College.

The area has fewer police departments and resident trooper programs then than counterparts in the south.

“We try to do as much as  possible for as many schools as possible,” Vangel said. “We provide a resource for the schools. We could be talking to a preschool about strangers one day, and drugs and alcohol with a high school on another.

“We’re not there to arrest kids. We’re there for education and prevention, to build a rapport,” Oenning said.   

Activities
Among the other activities are safety talks, fingerprinting for children, lock-down drills, talks on bullying and a presence at school-related events.  

Vangel and Oenning are both parents who have coached sports. They also provided support for a group of Killingly High School students who collaborated for an Internet safety presentation throughout the region.

Naydene Gomes, 17, Samantha Tickey, 15 and Heather Slattery, 15, started the popular program teaching fellow students, parents and even staff about online dangers — things like sexting and cyberbullying.

‘We need you guys’
“There’s a lot of stuff that goes on in this school,” Slattery said, after hearing about the possible discontinuation of the school resource officer program. “We need you guys.”

The pinch on municipal budgets may also lead to the disappearance of two Norwich police officers from the city’s  two middle schools. The suspension of the state police school resource program also affects troopers from Troop K in Colchester covering schools in East Haddam, Windham, Lebanon and Hebron. A second state trooper from Troop E in Montville covers schools in Griswold and Voluntown.  

Colchester police Officer Robert Suchecki, who works full-time at four Colchester schools, is paid through the town.

Copyright 2010 Norwich Bulletin. Some rights reserved

Lebanon Budget is approved along with Amston Lake Sewer Project

The Lebanon Budget was passed last night by 200 votes and the Sewer Referendum won by over 700 votes. Most of residents were happy that the both projects did pass because the alternative was gridlock and a long fight.
In the case of the Town Budget it is clear that this prevented layoffs of over 14 teachers throughout the school system. The question now is how many teachers are going to be eliminated? The $300,000 that was added by the Board of Finance will cover only the increase in the Health Care Insurance costs for the school system. The salary increase for the teachers, that the labor contract required, of 4.75% will not be supported by this budget.The question for the teachers union is do you want the raise or do you want to save people's jobs?
The Amston Lake Sewer project passed easily. Most residents clearly saw that if it was not approved then we were facing a long drawn out legal fight with the State. It will be interesting to see whether the residents of Amston Lake push for Zoning changes that allow for the seasonal residences to convert to year round use. Will they pursue a lawsuit or will they be satisfied with just a political solution? That remains to be seen. To say the least everyone breathed a sigh of relief when it did pass.

Lebanon's split budget vote propsal is soundly defeated

The split budget vote proposal last night was soundly defeated by 151 votes against the change to 48 votes for making the change. The proposal was for the town government budget and the education budget to split and for each one to be voted on separately.  It was clear throughout the night that people were not as supportive of the change as the advisory vote last fall indicated. Many people at the meeting were confused as to why we needed to make this change when there are advisory questions as part of the ballot already. Many people commented that this was an attempt to segregate the education budget in an attempt to make it harder to pass. Supporters of the change tried to convince voters that they would have better control over the budget by going with this system but most were very concerned that this would lead to more confusion and came away unconvinced. Those who supported the change could not convince the majority that this change would improve the process of approving the budget. This is why it was soundly defeated.
Ron Cowles also managed to cause a paper ballot to be used instead of the usual voice vote. It is his contention that there are many people attending town meetings from other towns and then voting on the town business. There is no evidence that this has happened nor that is it a current problem. It did lead to long delays as everyone had to wait in line to vote.

Lebanon Residents Arrested

Raymond C. Crosby, 26, of 129 Lynch Road, Lebanon, was charged Friday in Griswold with failure to carry registration and insurance card, driving with a suspended license, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and failure to drive in the proper lane.

Julie Lang, 20, of 339 Beaumont Ave., Lebanon, was charged Saturday with third-degree assault, disorderly conduct, and risk of injury to a minor.

Lebanon's 6 Million Dollar Question

       The town of Lebanon is going to be faced with a large and expensive decision very soon. Lebanon has been under a consent order, from1987, to deal with the water pollution problems that exist on and around Amston Lake. This problem has been featured in the Hartford Courant as a front page article which has led to negative press attention to the problem and political pressure. The problem is that it will cost each citizen in the town about $802 and will benefit only a small portion of the towns residents.
        The question is do we need it? Apparently, the town is being forced into this decision by the State of Connecticut because of water quality issues on Amston Lake. If we do not agree to a remedy we will be taken to court and forced to do something about the issue. The First Selectmen, Joyce Okunuk, has already signed a consent order that has the force of a Court Decree and the time line if very tight. Hebron settled their pollution problems in the late 1980's when the original order came out and now we are going to be paying for a system that will cost far more to install than it did when Hebron installed their sewers. The waiting game is over.
         There is an attempt to obtain a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to pay for half the project. The problem is Lebanon does not currently qualify for the grant because our household median income is greater than the state median. There is a current study of the residents incomes, in the Amston Lake district, to see whether they meet guidelines for receiving the grant. The town may still not qualify for the grant if the incomes are greater than the median income of the state.
         Many residents of the Amston Lake area are already asking for their properties to be added as year round residences after the project is completed. Clearly there are some indirect costs that are involved with this project because the majority of the residences around the lake are seasonal at this point. The Willimantic Chronicle has already wrote a opinion article that supports the contention that there is no reason to keep those seasonal homes from transitioning to rear round residences once the project is completed. There are about 200 residences in the Amston Lake district and about 160 of those are seasonal residences. By allowing these residence to transition to rear round residences then we will have the addition of at possibly 200 new residents and the addition of more students to the school system.
           The addition of more residents to Lebanon could lead to increased costs to the town as a whole. The seasonal homes are only paying partial taxes at this point. What will the addition of year round residents and children do to the towns tax rate? No one knows. In fact no one knows whether there will be additional homes built on empty lots that surround the area now. All of this could lead to increased taxes to the residents as a whole because it is well known that residential developement does not pay for itself through taxes on the new developement but leads to increases in taxes on residents as a whole.The town has commissioned a study to see what could happen if these homes do transition to year round residences.
           The newly appointed Water Pollution Control Authority says on the town of Lebanon's website that    "the Amston Lakes residents will pay their fair share". No one knows what that means at this point. Does it mean that they will bear the full cost? If that is the case then each residence in the district will be responsible for about $29500. If they receive the United States Department of Agriculture grant then the grant will pay for about 50% of the cost of the project.
           At this point it is a wait and see period for the town. There is a push to have the project voted on and approved at the annual town meeting that is held in May.It may not pass. The question is what if? What if it's not passed? The State of Connecticut has already forced other communities to fix their pollution problems. This has occurred after protracted and expensive court battles. Our options have clearly run out. The question now is is who is going to pay for the project.
     

7-Day Forecast for Latitude 41.63°N and Longitude 72.22°W

7-Day Forecast for Latitude 41.63°N and Longitude 72.22°W