Monthly Archives: February 2014

Short of funds, Add a tax

I attended the hearing on electricity rates held in Norwich to support a friend who is a customer of CL&P. This caused me to look at my own bill from the Norwich Department of Public Utilities. I learned that I pay four individual charges to be one of their customers.

In my case, I am paying them annually $572.76 to be their customer. Then they, in turn, magnanimously turn a portion of that over to the City of Norwich. At least for the taxes I pay to the City, State and federal governments I get a deduction. For what I pay to the NPU, I don’t even get a membership card or a discount. I am lucky enough though to be able to be charged for two trackers. One is a Gas Capital Tracker and the other an Electric Capital Tracker. I pay for water coming into my house as well as for water going out and a mandatory sewer upgrade charge as well. I also contribute to the Energy Efficiency fund above paying for the purchased power adjustment and for what I actually used.

Now I just heard that the City Council will be considering a city wide fire tax that would be a fair thing to spread over the city as a whole but maybe it is time that we as a city looked at all of the individual fees, charges, and taxes and examined how they are being collected and distributed.

Running short of funds is not a new problem but adding to the burdens of the taxpayers without looking at other solutions is not a demonstration of good planning and leadership. Let’s look at the finances of the city and yes, even those funds we depend on other departments and companies to collect for the city. Let’s take this opportunity to look at how city funds are collected and distributed. Maybe its time for a change.

Electricty is more than Energy

There was a time when the residents of Norwich would actually put up a fight for what they thought was right even if it took years in the courts. When the 9 square miles of land was purchased from Uncas, the wording was very loose and so John Masons children and grandchildren tried for seventy years to lay claim to thousands of acres.

It took more than twelve months to read all the testimony in all the cases tried in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and England. It proved impossible to follow and no judgment was rendered.

It’s easy to turn to your family, friends, and  neighbors to say aloud what you think is wrong but it is a challenge to say in public, aloud and on the record those same thoughts and words. On Tuesday, there will be a hearing in Norwich to help The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) establish new industry guidelines for how it markets power to customers, how customers can switch between suppliers, how suppliers give notice and what types of products are allowed. Norwich Public Utilities customers won’t be impacted until the new rules are in place because Norwich residents are protected  by our local NPU but those outside Norwich are not so lucky. Please  attend the meeting on  Tuesday, Feb. 25th at 6:30 p.m., Norwich City Hall, 100 Broadway, Norwich, CT.  This is your chance to speak up and speak out about the costs of energy.

 

What is the story of your house?

Thanks to the new book about the millionaires of Norwich I have a new question. It has long been rumored that many of the houses on Bliss Place and Julian Street contain the windows, stained glass, staircases, doors, plate rails, and other wood works of some of the mansions that were torn down or replaced. Are there photos, sketches or drawings of the old homes that were torn down that might show what was re-built or replaced so that comparisons can be seen by the current residents to what is in their homes today? What are the stories of the architects, builders, contractors? What tales do the houses tell?

The City and Town areas of Norwich grew in fits and starts as people wanted to be closer to the businesses and industries where they worked. Wouldn’t it be great to have a display in City Hall of the City Maps from different periods demonstrating the growth of the city? Where were the developments? What were the parts of the houses that could be reused and how? Where were they re-used? Who sold them and how? Do we do the same thing today? Why or why not? What were the names of the streets back then? Have the street names changed? Have the streets been altered? What a great learning experience for students to have the opportunity to compare what was and what is and perhaps to create a concept of what will be. Norwich residents love to learn about the past but maybe it is time to create new concepts of the future.

More Reid and Hughes

I just read the news release about the two choices now available for the Reid and Hughes building in downtown Norwich. One proposal renovates the building into more one and two bedroom apartments with 1,600 square feet of retail space on the street level that there is the consideration of being used as an office for yet another non-profit local preservation agency. NO! NO! NO! NO! As a taxpayer I do not want to see more wonderful taxable space used by a non-profit. We as a city desperately need some tax paying entities in our city. We cannot continue to burden our residents and few businesses with more taxes to make up the differences It is time to bring new, tax paying businesses to our city. This is a rehash of the same proposal we have heard time and time again.

Proposal two  submitted by POKO Partners LLC of Port Chester, NY, in association with Antinozzi Associates Architects of Bridgeport is an ambitious plan that their chief executive officer Ken Olson said would  “change the landscape quite literally in downtown Norwich,”

POKO proposes to repurpose the Reid & Hughes building along with the adjoining Strand building into 31 housing units and 5,500 square feet of retail space. The remaining three phases would stretch the project along the block toward Otis Library, ultimately providing 113 dwelling units and retail space at street level.

That’s more like it. What we currently have in downtown is not working. Our elected, appointed, voluntary and hired folks have not been able to come up with an idea of what to do with the downtown in the future. They just keep repeating that in the 1950’s and 1960’s there was lots to do in downtown but there has not been one plan or proposal of a Norwich downtown in 2050. I do not know who Ken Olson is or his track record but he has a vision where and when no one else does so I say let’s roll out the red carpet and make him welcome.

 

 

 

Move business to Norwich

I admit to being a bit disappointed that Norwich will not be home to one of the new medical marijuana growing facilities. But that leads me to my next question, what businesses and industries are the representatives and marketers of our fair city going after next?

Who are they visiting? What promises are being made? How are they representing our city and its residents to the decision makers? How are other cities successfully enticing new businesses to their locations?

Norwich has a few new businesses but we have a tremendous need for many more and we have some great locations. Locations that would be suitable for education, training, light manufacturing and some that would be perfect for business incubators where many start-up businesses share office resources.

Our part of Connecticut has many resources of trained facilitators and personnel but we need help to attract the correct industries to make use of them. I would just like to have the assurance that people, places, and industries are being investigated. I see where other parts of the state are getting assistance getting their residents to work but I am not seeing it here. Every night on the news I see other states receiving federal grants and programs to put people to work To create jobs and to create tax payers, corporate and individual taxpayers. But in Connecticut and especially in southeastern Connecticut I see nothing. It is time for our elected officials to take charge and stop making polite noises about education, training, and jobs and to start forcing the state and federal government to take notice of southeastern CT and the resources we have here, ready, willing and able to go forward into the future.