East Side Residents Meet With Mayor Stewart

The East Side Neighborhood Community Action Meeting held with the Honorable Mayor Timothy Stewart at their meeting held on 11-6-08.

The mayor gave his overview as an excellent update of the current and future expectations of the city services for the west end.

He mentioned the rehabilitation that is underway at the old fire station which has been used as the emergency building and will be ready in a few months for public use and scheduling of meetings. He touched on the Broad Street area growth that is occurring.

Leaf pick up whether curb side or bagged with a spring time final pick up after the snow has melted.

Importantly he announced a terrific change in this year’s snow plowing schedules by going from 10 routes to l4 with double shifts and arranging the same routes being done by the same trucks with their first doing the emergency and or public safety routes which will result in faster completion of the task with the same employees becoming familiarized with their routes. He also announced a change from the traditional salt and sand to a salt that is less toxic to the grass and trees by the road side.

He continued by announcing in addition to the standard garbage pickup that they will be introducing a separate canister for the recycling materials which will only have to brought out to the curb every two weeks. Some people place metals and furniture on the on the curb side without arranging a scheduled pick up with the city’s department of public works. They have inspectors checking around the city and issuing $100 fines to these violators.

The Mayor also mentioned that with the new recycling program, the materials are being sent to the Bristol facility, which produces electricity, and suggested that it helps the city to save on electrical cost. He also mentioned that the contractors assigned to pick up the garbage start as early as 4 AM in order to beat the traffic caused by the school busses but that he will negotiate a 5 AM start up when their contract renewal is due. He also did mention that the containers cost the city approximately 800 to 900 thousand dollars which was funded through bonding.

The Mayor elaborated that the planned work for the Walnut Hill Park which will commence after the cancer walk-a-thon on mother’s day in order to correct the pot holes caused by drainage problems on Hart Street and in the Park itself. Due to the major drainage corrections needed to be accomplished, this project will take a long time to complete. Hart Park had its baseball field re-done along with the girl’s tennis courts as well.

He also mentioned that the New Britain Police Department is attempting to fill the current vacancies with New Britain Residents if at all possible with the 70 Applications that have applied. He reported the removal the police sub-station from Broad Street to the West End near the Chesley Park area.

He also explained the city has experienced less income from its investments creating a shortfall on the anticipated budgeted income and we will not hire to fill the vacancies at city hall and may have to go to a shorter work week for our workers because we cannot layoff all of our workers. We have stopped our personal use of city vehicles for going home for lunch in order to save the fuel involved.

He announced the planned west end streets to be repaved are Jubilee, Smalley, and Linwood which is part of a five year plan that was decided not on a political basis but by having a survey done and setting the priority needs.

The Mayor did answered many questions asked by the residents but he seemed reluctant in answering about the cemetery fencing problem since it is a legal matter but did indicate that the individual contractor was arrested and that there is a performance bond involved.

He mentioned the problem properties while under bank forecloses with the banks providing no services such as lawn maintenance and snow removal and how the city has to do the clean ups and having to place a lean on the properties.

Saint Thomas School was also mentioned with the Mayor indicating that a local Middletown developer is interested in making a 55 and over residence with it.

He answered questions about seniors obtaining a tax freeze on their property taxes by their applying at the senior center through Mr. John Coughlin to make the arrangements and especially those who need help in removal of leaves and snow off their properties due to disabilities they too must see Mr. Coughlin in order to prove their income status for their eligibility to obtain the needed help.

Additionally, the Mayor during the Q&A period mentioned how they have portable cameras that can be placed anywhere in order to get surveillance information to help the police department to move forward with their suspected criminal activity investigations. He alluded to some cameras being placed on top of telephone poles and all are motion detected and do work on the internet as well. He also indicated that they are dealing with the taggers by their grouping several of the misdemeanors charges together in order make a felony conviction stick.

The Mayor made an excellent presentation and all those present were well satisfied with all his answers and hoped to see more of him in the future. I should indicate that Aldermen Mark Bernacki and Adam Platosz were also present along with four members of the New Britain Police Department.