FRANKSMITHSAYSNB EDITORIAL:
Tonight’s meeting of the Common Council subcommittee on Planning, Zoning and Housing (PZH) showed the true colors of Council Democrats. Two items on the agenda were particularly interesting, a resolution to sell a parcel of land on Broad St. and the Costco proposal. The first issue, the sale of a lot on Broad St. to Mr. Witold Pokorski was tabled at the request of Alderman DeFronzo. The person who benefited from this tabling was none other than former Alderman Rick Lopes. People will recall that Lopes was the Alderman who registered his vehicles out of town to avoid NB taxes. Later he would become the legislative aide to former State Senator, Don DeFronzo. Lopes would then become notable for being sanctioned for rifling through the desks of other aides at the legislature. In all of this, he was protected by DeFronzo. While Don has moved on, Lopes remains at the LOB.
The property in question was an empty lot at 179 Broad street. Lopes owns # 183 Broad street and has been squatting on the lot in question. Mr. Pokorski owns # 173 Broad St. and proposed to purchase # 179 to use for parking for his tenants. Alderman DeFronzo ( son of Don) moved to table the proposal. The vote was tied, 4 to 4. Chair Centeno voted to table, essentially killing the purchase. Thus the Dems took care of Lopes.
Later, DeFronzo and Trueworthy would vote against moving the Costco issue forward. Fortunately, Costco prevailed. But, DeFronzo and Trueworthy who were willing to put the general welfare of over 70K people aside for the benefit of a few anti Costco folks did take care of their notorious friend, Rick Lopes.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
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6 comments:
Young Manny Sanchez made a powerful remark when he announced that he would support the Costco proposal because they will bring jobs--jobs to New Britain. Manny again voted against his leadership which lead to my original editorial, a few days ago, that he deserves another term in office.
Kudos for Manny. He understands the plight of the people of New Britain. Not only will jobs enter into the picture but the ability of shoppers to buy food and other items at a reasonable cost. Just for the naysayers the purchases are in bulk but many family share the cost thus providing nutritious meals. Many families share the membership cost also.
Frank. I have sung the ptaises of Manny since his appointment to the Council to fill a seat vacated by Sylvia Cruz.
Manny however disappointed on one issue last night, a purely political trick engineered by Dave DeFronzo & Mike Trueworthy to block the sale of an empty lot on Broad St. to an honest Polish family by tabling the motion. Why?
The sale of the property would have allowed an adjacent property owner to acquire the lot for enhanced ingress and egress for his tenants. Of course, had the sale gone through The owner of the property on the other side of the vacant lot, none other than the infamous former alderman and Don DeFronzo aide, Rick Lopes, would have been denied access to the lot. Lopes and his tenants have been squatting the the vacant lot for years. The City lost money and Lopes continues to squat on the lot. The City in essence becomes a Lopes enabler. Again, Manny showed his political side on this one. Too bad.
The vote was tied 4 to 4. Democrat Chair Centeno broke the tie in favor of the tabling action.
All kinds of tricks of the political trade take place on both sides of the isle. It's a shame.
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Sorry to say, but Lou and frank have been slightly one sided on this one. The honest polish family was getting a sweet insider deal on this lot which is worth much more and never went out to bid or was listed to the public. Considering Mr. Pokorski has a son in management at city hall and a daughter in law as a city attorney, the shady side of this deal falls on who proposed it, not who blocked it.
Let's see what the market is willing to pay for this lot. Or heck, let's see if this lopes guy is willing to pony up more cash than Pokorski.
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