January 2012
16 posts
14 tags
The pot heard round the world
I sit next to the police scanner, so oftentimes I am the first (and only) person to hear something. Richie Rathsack has a good ear from across the room and his ears will perk up if he thinks he hears something. Last Tuesday was one of those days.
Something came over the scanner about a 4-year-old having marijuana at Hanover Elementary School. My first thought: this is going to be big.
By...
“there is no place I would rather have been.”
– Casimir Pulaski Principal Tom Brown in an email talking about his retirement. He worked in Wolcott and West Hartford, worked in three different Meriden schools, worked for Stop&Shop and worked in the military. Still, he said he would rather be in Meriden more than anywhere else.
7 tags
Tom Brown - a Meriden favorite
I’ve yet to seeTom Brown in a bad mood. Anytime I visited his school, Casimir Pulaski, he was smiling and talking with the kids. Always on a personal level. Anytime I emailed him or gave him a call he got right back to me, had something quotable to say and had plenty of energy while saying it.
Hearing the news and reporting on it yesterday was not easy because Tom is such a great guy.
I...
6 tags
Two-way traffic, but not what you're thinking
For some, social media is probably pretty scary. Just knowing anything you say or put on there could potentially reach hundreds, thousands and even millions of people is frightening. But for public people, it’s necessary.
So here’s to you City of Meriden.
I’m glad you are on Twitter. I really am. Now use it effectively.
There was a parking ban on Friday. It wasn’t...
“And on the seventh day, God…or uh, Mark… finished his work that he...”
– one of our readers regarding the Benigni story. He wrote it not in the comments section, but in an email. Thanks.
You call that snow?
Shortly after 9 pm last night, I went to take my dog outside and was greeted by snow. A lot of it, or, at least more than I expected. I went out on a limb and predicted there would be a delay for Meriden students today. Sorry, guys.
Of course plenty of people were upset this morning when there was no delay, though the roads were clear.
As great as it was to have snow again, for some...
3 tags
A day with Meriden's fastest mover
I sent an email to Meriden’s School Superintendent Mark Benigni, the city’s former mayor, with one thing in mind - a recent letter to the editor.
I have a thing where I like to prove people wrong. This time it was going to be this letter writer. He wrote about how Benigni is a “figurehead,” how he gets fat on buffet food and how he does a lot of ribbon cutting....
Localizing internationally
So often national or international news happens and as a small, local newspaper we try to localize them. Whether it’s a feature-y story, statistics/data story, or breaking news you do what you can.
Today was a perfect example. Oversees, a cruise ship essentially tipped over with 4,200 people on board. The pictures are incredible when you think of the size of the boat.
So how the hell am I...
The scream room pandemic
The use of a “scream room” has caused quite the stir in Connecticut, specifically Middletown. This news story set off a series of articles appearing all over the place like FoxNews and Yahoo!. So are scream rooms really a problem, was the issue sensationalized or are people just overreacting?
Keep in mind the scream room was done by the same reporter/team that brought you the weighted...
2 tags
WatchOf all of the city’s grand plans for downtown, those for the Hub are my favorite. They are probably the most reasonable, as well.
Uncovering Harbor Brook is real, two-way traffic might be expensive and complicated and Pratt Street would be easy to build but could take time for people to buy in to.
So turning an empty piece of land into a park with a budget of $7 million that the state...
2 tags
Can Meriden afford to close a school?
Financially? Duh.
I want to look at what it would mean for the city, though.
Between the police, a failing downtown, spending, taxes, an already negative stigma surrounding the town from a large chunk of the population - can it afford to have something else fail? Probably not.
Through emails, facebook messages/posts/comments and other forms of communication, it seems like people are already...
3 tags
One less school in Meriden?
It seems to either be a real possibility or a political stunt - I am yet to figure it out.
Last year School Superintendent Mark Benigni said schools could close, but at the time, the Meriden Board of Education was facing a budget gap of about $9 million. The state kicked in its share of $7-plus million and slowly the remaining gap was closed.
This year, the school district is getting that $7...
WatchAs I do these stories about downtown Meriden, I keep coming across history. In pretty much every case, the history is that somewhere along the lines, somebody or some group messed up.
City officials failed over a dozen times in the 1900s when it came to flood control. Now, the city is faced with a costly issue in a time when money is rare. They also decided to cover the Hub and Harbor Brook and...
What you weren't reading this year
In my last post I looked at what people had been looking at this year on the Record-Journal website. Here are the top 25 stories based on what users clicked on, in case you forgot. And here are some memorable photos.
I struggled to come up with something in that last post that probably should have been in the top 25, until now. A certain $200+ million project that seems like it is almost ignored....
