Monthly Archives: August 2018

Accommodating All

Melia Hotels International is a mega conglomerate with 350 hotels in 40 countries offering more varieties of stores, businesses, restaurants, schools than everything currently being offered in the entire city of Norwich, CT. If you can imagine it; they probably have multiple sites that offer it. All sites are beautifully managed and maintained and the staff are an absolute treat to deal with. No detail is too small and every guest is treated equally. Their willingness to help achieve whatever the goal may be is a little daunting for someone more accustomed to hearing the words “No. Not interested.” before more than a greeting is exchanged.

All of the hotels play a part in the city they are located in. When pressed for their reasoning it was carefully explained that the city is the home to their staff and if the staff is happy and content at home and see a good future, they are more willing to see to the happiness and comfort of others. Staff who have a full belly and are not worried that their children are hungry are better workers.

Even the amenities bottles are with all guests in mind. The scent is a light “extract of orange and musk” made in the EU. Not my first choice but still very light and pleasant. But it was the bottles that of the shampoo, conditioner, bath gel and body lotion that caught my attention. Each bottle was also marked in braille so blind guests could identify the contents. The braille markings were not a pasted on aftermarket label but were a pressed in part of the bottle itself.

Someone gave thought to this accommodation. They thought about it and they brought it to the management who probably thought some more about it and looked into the costs and thought some more and then said “Yes.” Making this small accommodation for the small population of people that can read American braille will in fact demonstrate, more than words could ever do, how important all of their guests are to them.

Is Norwich, CT so accommodating? Do our leaders and management pay attention to the smallest of details and accommodations for our visitors, residents and taxpayers? Maybe the residents and leaders and officials of Norwich, CT should examine how a company can be located in 40 countries, with multiple locations, each with its own set of rules and regulations and design issues can operate so efficiently. It is long past time for Norwich leaders and officials to stop fighting with themselves and put the progress of the City of Norwich, CT first.

Thank you for reading and sharing my history and Norwich Community blog freely with your family or friends or anyone you think might be interested or in a position to take on some of the suggested projects. Don’t hesitate to contact me for further information. I am happy to pass along anything I can. Together we can make a difference. Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com View my past columns at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/section/blogs.

Mapleine Recipes

I found a recipe pamphlet advertising Mapleine at 35 cents for a two ounce bottle of the flavoring. I checked the price on-line today and found a two ounce bottle on sale for only $18.72 so you can estimate for yourself how old the pamphlet I am referring to is.

Mapleine, per the pamphlet is “not an imitation or substitute for anything because it is an original product. It is a purely vegetable product produced by a scientific blend of vegetable ingredients, emphatically not a coal tar product.” “contains no maple sugar, syrup, nor sap but produces a taste similar to maple.”

There are the usual recipes but as it is nearly fall and apple picking season, I urge you to give this recipe a try for Mapled Apples. 6 small apples, 1 ½ cups sugar, 1 ½ cups water, 1 teaspoon Mapleine, 1 banana, 6 marshmallows.
Peel and core apples and fill cavity with banana. Make a syrup of the sugar, water, and Mapleine and cook apples in it until they are tender, turning occasionally. Remove the apples, place a marshmallow on each and place in oven long enough to swell and brown the marshmallow. They had me at put the banana in the apple.

Mexican Kisses. 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar, ¾ cup brown sugar, ¼ cup hot water, ½ teaspoon Mapleine, ½ cup chopped nuts.
Boil the sugar and water until it threads. Remove from the fire and add the Mapleine. Beat until it begins to cream. Stir in nuts; then set in a bowl of hot water and dro from a teaspoon onto waxed paper.

Vegetable Candy. 1 cup hot mashed potatoes, 2 cups pulverized sugar, 1 ½ cups nut meats, ½ teaspoon Mapleine. Rub the potatoes smooth and mix thoroughly with the powdered sugar; add Mapleine and nut meats. Spread on waxed paper and when cold cut in cubes, or form in balls and coat with melted chocolate.

Crescent Health Bread 1 ½ cups sweet milk, 1 cup flour, 2 cups graham flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon Mapleine syrup, 3 level teaspoons baking powder. Let stand 1 hour. This makes one loaf of delicious bread. [ No baking instructions. ]

2018 Fall Recreation

Check your mail carefully for the Fall 2018 Norwich Recreation Department leaflet of new and exciting opportunities for children and adults. Its 16 pages with 14 new opportunities including: Fall Basketball clinics, Randy Deglin Basketball Clinic, Beginner Fencing, Childrens Yoga, Beginner Dance, Magic Lessons, A Schools Out Program, Pickleball League, Tennis Ladder League, Tai Chi for Beginners, Core & More, Nutrition Series, Therapy Dog Training, Kayaking for Fun, and Norwich Garden Club.

Norwich activities averaged a cost of $45 causing them to be slightly pricier than even the out of towner charges of similar activities in nearby towns but such is the cost of convenience. Its a shame that this leaflet is yet another demonstration of how Norwich organizations,businesses and government processes refuse to work together to create an image of a bigger, better and more cohesive community.

This flier could be a community showcase for activities and programs run at various churches, libraries, and yes, even the schools. The technical schools, Montessori schools, private schools all must run some programs but I gather they do not need paying participants from outside their memberships.

Frankly I am amazed that organizations that run the fairs, expo’s, annual dinners and carnivals are not fighting to be in a piece of mail that goes into every home in Norwich and gets at least a glance through in homes with schoolage children.

The Norwich Recreation Department has a new Director, Cheryl Hancin Preston, who may not know just how active the Norwich Community is so give her a call at 860.823.3791with your group or organizations calendar, with name, date, place, time, cost and contact to be included in the 2019 Adult, Youth and Senior Ceter booklet so together we can make Norwich, CT look like the happening place it really is.

Explain yourself Norwich

Did you ever wonder how a city gets to be rated one of the best cities to live in? Most of the articles I read used the US Census in a per county examination of nine categories: crime, demography, economy, education, environment, health, housing, infrastructure, and leisure.

So are the leaders of Norwich, CT targeting these demographics to promote Norwich, CT as a great place to live and work? In short, NO.

Is it really that difficult to speak positively about a city that has an over all B+ rating? Is there a reason that promotional community events are rarely found in the local newspapers and radio stations until after the event?

Norwich, CT has an average crime rate, perhaps even a touch lower than some of the surrounding communities. Why aren’t we crowing about being a safe community? The economy of Eastern CT stinks but there has been significant growth of small businesses in Norwich. OK they are tiny and mostly home-based businesses but there are also a few restaurants. So where are the promotions? Joining a Chamber of Commerce can be a significant amount for a start up so in some places, companies for the first five years are included in events and promotions at nominal rates to help them get the word out knowing that a membership will be taken out when the business can afford it.

Houses can still be purchased for under $100,000. Some of the last houses in Connecticut available in that market. That should be shouted from the rooftops and local realtors taught how to present these opportunities for young growing families as well as those seeking to downsize. Norwich has the potential to be a mecca for small business finish contractors, plumbers, electricians, landscapers, architects and designers. But what do we hear? Nada.

Our schools are not what they once were but they are getting better than they were. Considerable effort is being made to take advantage of every growth possibility to improve. Staff and administrators are not resting on their laurels but working hard at getting better. What more can you ask for anyone’s education?

When the lights go out in the surrounding areas, the lights remain steady in Norwich thanks to its own Norwich Department of Public Utilities. While NDPU has its flaws, and is not as cheap as other municipal utilities but it does keep Norwich humming when other places are dark. Why isn’t NDPU being spoken of as a reason to locate businesses in Norwich?

An absurd amount of Norwich, CT municipal property is parks. Every Norwich, CT community has its own park, a variety of recreational fields as well as its own minor league baseball field, golf course, ice skating arena, fishing areas, boat launch and a 400+ acre park for walking, hiking, fishing and swimming. Why aren’t there mentions of these places on the highway exit signs?

Backus Hospital is part of Hartford Health Care and so has wide medical connections throughout the state of Connecticut and beyond. Medical expertise within a local area is a dream for many.

Norwich, CT leaders are now on the campaign trail to promote a city wide promotion bond but without telling us any specifics just that it will help businesses in areas outside of the downtown for a change. Brilliant idea but I find it hard to have trust in a program run by people who have such a difficult time extolling the positive points of living and working in Norwich, CT and who are so reticent and embarrassed to tell us all what the details of the plan is for the money that will put the taxpayers of Norwich into serious debt. I want to vote yes on the bond on the November ballot but I need to hear the details of a plan for the money not just that the money will be spent.

New Fundraisers

Do you know a group, organization, or business looking for a new and different way to fundraise or reach out to a new and larger audience? Something a little different than the Norwich, CT standard of serve alcohol and the same people will come?

How about creating a coloring book. It is really not that difficult once you get the hang of it. There are quite a few YouTube videos showing the steps of how to change an actual photo into an outline form using photoshop or individual photos can be sent to a number of businesses who will make the pages for a fee.

For example if you were a landlord the coloring book of the property might have a page each of the outline of the house, the living room, the kitchen, the bedroom, the yard, perhaps a map with an outline to school, businesses, shopping, parks, or gyms.

If its an organization than perhaps an outline of your national logo, your past fundraisers, events, meetings, dinners, or sponsorship’s. Do you have an award ceremony and give out checks, or trophy’s? Even a single page can attract new and different people.

A city like Norwich, CT has serious potential for a thick coloring book using a variety of its many attractions for example the different house styles found throughout, closeups of window styles, gates or steps, Indian Leap, Leffingwell House Museum, Slater Museum, Mohegan Park pavilion, arches or Rose Garden, Any of the mills, the fire houses, animals, pets, wildlife, the possibilities are endless.

Norwich harbor has been home to a variety of types of ships and boats since 1659. Many of the ship types can be made using origami. If your interest is in history or shipping it would not be hard to add a bit of information to a page of origami outline to make it your very own. Most of the outlines are even easy to make once you get the hang of it. The pop-up said I could not add the directions for the origami for security reasons but I will be delighted to email the six types I have to anyone interested.

If any of these ideas sound interesting to you, please feel free to make them your own. Promoters of Norwich, CT need new, fresh ideas. Sadly the ideas listed above are not new or fresh but they have not been done in Norwich, CT and perhaps its about time they were.

Business Houses 1902

There is always discussion in Norwich, CT of bringing back the good old days. Why can’t we have more small businesses in Norwich like the ones I remember when I was young? “The taxpayers have a responsibility to bring businesses back to the downtown because that is where the businesses were.” “ People went to town to shop and conduct their business. There were no small businesses in the outskirts of the city or in the residential areas.”

Well folks, maybe its time to check the facts. Lets take a look at a section of the daily Norwich Bulletin on July 25, 1902 called Norwich Business Houses.

According to the blurb below its title, Norwich Business Houses is the “Directory of the leading Financial, Professional, Manufacturing, Wholesale and Retail firms. It is published daily for the benefit of traveling salesmen, strangers and the public generally.” This was a free and ever changing listing that helped to prove the worth of advertising to the readership of the local paper and helped to boost the business of those who could not yet afford to advertise but with a little help to their business might someday soon be able to afford advertisement.

Ah well, lets take a look who at who was singled out on this particular day and what the locations were.
Bakeries. L. H. Brunelle, 20 Fairmount St. “We make a specialty of fine bread.”
A. Shapiro, 10 Thames St, Baker of white and rye bread. Fine cakes and Doughnuts.
Star Bakery, Taftville. Best and cheapest place to buy bread, pies, cakes etc in the city. H. Mueller, proprietor.
Bicycle Repairing. D. K. Hubbard, 230 Franklin St. Bicycles, sewing machines, lawn mowers repaired. Locks and keys fitted. Knives, shears, etc. sharpened.
Blacksmiths. Wm. Blackburn, 15 Myers Alley, Blacksmithing in all its branches. Machine forging a specialty. Prices right and best of work guaranteed.
E.C. Gay, Town Street. Horseshoeing and general blacksmith. Personal attention paid to all work. Repairing promptly done.
Boots and Shoes. L. Markoff & Co, 159 West Main St Mark down sale of footwear. Prices are low.
Carriage Builders. Geo. W. Harris, 354 West Main St Has on hand a few new business wagons at low prices.
A. R. Keables, Norwich Town. Carriage and Wagon painting. General repairing on wood and iron work. Prompt attention given to orders.
Carriage Painters. George F Adams. Town St. Carriage painter. All work warranted to give satisfaction. Give a trial order.
Cigar Manufacturers. L. E. Conant. 11 Franklin St.
Hotels. Del-Hopp, Broadway. $2.00 to $2.50 per day. Commercial rate $2.00 per day. Hot and cold water in every room. Elevator.
The New Market, 215 Boswell Ave. Chooice line of ales, wines, liquors and cigars always on hand. On line of electric cars.
Florists. Miss R. L. Spencer, 24 Elizabeth St. Fragrant white roses. Very fine. Large stock. Also cut flowers etc at right prices.
Horseshoeing. H.C. Lane, 17 Chestnut St. The shoeing of lame horses a specialty.
J. D. Pfeiffer, 208 West Main St, Scientific horseshoeing a specialty. Horses called for and returned, if desired. Tel. Call 3-3
M.W. Sterry, Norwich Town Green. Practical Horseshoeing. General hobbing at short notice. All work guaranteed. Prices reasonable.
Junk Dealer. Norwich Bottle & Junk Corporation, 44 Forest St. Dealers in scrap iron, metal, rubbers, rags, bottles, etc. Drop us a postal and team will call.
The Max Gordon & Son Corp., Willow St Dealer in paper stock, woolen rags, rubbers, odd metal, etc. Highest prices paid. Telephone connection.
Livery Stables. John B Stoddard, 127 Franklin St Livery, boarding, and feed stable. Horse-clipping done with Gillette power clipper. Telephone 175-5.
Markets. Falls Market, 50 Sherman St., Choice beef, mutton, lamb, and veal. Canned goods, vegetables etc. J.B. Alofsin, Proprietor.
Merchant Tailors. A Greenberg, 227 Main Street. Extra fine Worsted suits made to order.

So how or what can the Norwich Bulletin do to promote more businesses in Norwich? How or what can every day residents do to promote more businesses in Norwich? Is blocking businesses in residential areas the answer? Maybe its time to take an honest look at the economic past of Norwich and not the economic past we imagined it to be.

CT Plein Air at Mohegan Park

The Connecticut Plein Air Painters Society (CPAPS) is coming to Mohegan Park, Norwich, CT on Sunday, August 12, 2018 from 9:00 AM to 12 Noon and signing in at Park Center. If you are not a member, you don’t have to sign in. If you would like to meet them and decide if its something you would like to be a part of this is your chance. Visit their website at http://www.cpaps.org/

According to the CPAPS website members are a group of local artists who enjoy the camaraderie, support and safety of painting together. They select sites within Connecticut that provide painters with bucolic farmlands, coastal marshes and vistas, waterways in forests and open spaces, as well as some of our historic and unique residences and villages.

Everyone is welcome and encouraged to join them as they explore our park with their pallets, sketch books, cameras and families.

I am personally very excited to see the 400 acres of forest, woods, nature, beach, garden and water through the eyes of these artists. I do not care if they are using cameras, sketch pads, paints or some other mediums I am not even familiar with. I know with an amazing amount of certainty that the results will be reaching the eyes of others and just might spark an interest in their making a trek or a visit to Norwich.

This is a public opportunity to interact with other artists. Some are amateurs. Some are professionals. Some are students. Some are teachers. Some just like art. Everyone is encouraged to come and spend some time outside. There are no time limits. Some people may spend 15 minutes and others may spend hours. Some may sit quietly and some may be actively walking, hiking or even running.

Every visit to our city brings potential for future interest. Every tiny splinter of interest is hope. The leaders of Norwich, CT chant the mantra of “Norwich just needs one chance, one opportunity to break through and become the great city it has the potential for.”

Maybe one of these visitors will see potential while on their visit here. Take a few minutes on Sunday and wander the paths of Mohegan Park with them. Become a visitor to your own city and imagine!

Bond Goals 2018

Am I wrong? Am I really wrong? When it comes to Norwich city politics I keep asking for a plan. Any plan. Just something with a beginning, steps to achieve or not but some sort of goals to reach and an ending being a better city. But what I keep getting are no plans but astronomical estimates and plans for another bond because the price Norwich would pay for the bond is low right now.

A plan that says only “We are going to take a loan out for the City (that’s the bond) and figure out how we are going to spend it later.” does not work for me.

Telling me that a bond needs to be taken out so more exorbitant salaries can be paid to people who may or may not have the required skills for a job that hasn’t been decided on or described yet does not sound fiscally responsible to me.

Please don’t tell me the City needs to have another study performed to assess what we have, don’t have and what our community and population needs are. Sorry but we have enough of those that sit on shelves in Norwich City Hall and Otis Library and yes, most of the recent ones are even available on-line. If there is in fact further confusion as to what members of the community are in need of, perhaps its time to ask the City of Norwich Department Heads what they and their staff are seeing. I’ll bet the Norwich Clergy Association and the area ambulance services would be happy to make a list too.

I looked at the Economic Development Strategic Plan 2015, City of Norwich and it proved to be an excellent source of what is where in Norwich, attitudes of the residents and lists good and bad points for industrial and business sites. It is not a perfect document and I would like some clarification of some of the points. But some goals were accomplished and now its possible for other goals to be set. I do not care who wrote the Plan or which political party was in place. The fact is, there is something in place that can be used. It has a variety of focus points. Choose one or choose five. Just don’t start all over again. It is time for the members of the Norwich City Council to begin to work together and to demonstrate open and honest fiscal responsibility for the residents and taxpayers of Norwich, CT.

Ask yourself, how proud of something are you if you can’t tell people about it? Please members of the Norwich City Council do not ask me to support a bond for which there is no plan or one you cannot speak proudly about. Thank you.

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