Have you ever wondered how you can tell when the “seasons” are changing? I’m not referring to the typical four seasons of certain types of weather in an area, rather, I’m referring to election seasons, municipal, state, congressional, presidential, etc.

1/30/13

We are now in the Municipal reelection season. In November, we will elect a new Mayor, Council and various other representatives for the many offices up for grabs. Precious few should be reelected, especially for the Mayor’s Office and .

Have you noticed also that the tenor of the subjects tends to lean more toward the positive? No more talk of looming deficits, absentee landlord problems to name a couple. Instead, there is talk of new proposals, newspaper ads talking about all the actions to clean up blight like boarding up the Berkowitz Building, no property tax increase, etc. Also, our newly elected U.S. Senator comes to town for a photo op with O’Brien and State Rep., Sanchez. The won’t do any more for NB than they ever did which was zero.

The costs for all this positive talk are being borne by the taxpayers: $100K to hire a PR Firm to promote O’Brien’s anti blight efforts/reelection effort; $Thousands - no bid - given to a firm to board up the Berkowitz Building; $47+K to hire a Community Organizer who is the wife of a city alderman, etc., etc.

Now, probably the most ridiculous one yet was put forth by the Parks Dept., an entertainment complex on part of the Stanley Golf Course (SGC). $Thousands will be spent at taxpayers' expense to hire a firm to study the idea. Taxpayers don’t know yet the full effects of Costco taking a portion of the Red Nine at SGC. Golf Course income will suffer severely through loss of tournament play if the length of the course is shortened, Hartford Rd. traffic will be more adversely affected. No estimate is available as to the costs of creating, operating and maintaining an entertainment complex to say nothing about moving the SGC maintenance building. O’Brien is planning to use money from the sale of SGC land to fund this folly; has the sale been made yet. Would you run your own household budget like this?

The O’Brien mayoralty has been a fraud and that won’t change, evolution doesn’t happen that fast. New Britain voters need to oust O’Brien/Sherwood from office or face a monumental tax increase. There is precious little left to purloin from Water Dept. reserves or other Enterprise Funds. City Hall needs a thorough cleansing.


Lou Salvio, New Britain