To the Editor:
In any time, troubling or not, it can be instructive to view current events within a combined legal and historical prism.
Here's one, very brief case in point that seems to have relevan...
To the Editor:
Thank you so very much to all of the volunteers, big and small, who came out to help me prime the walls [for the Church Hill Road mural project] on May 20. You have given me the largest...
To the Editor:
Hopefully many of you have heard or read of my intention to seek the endorsement of the Republican Town Committee for the office of first selectman. I write now to announce that while i...
To the Editor:
This is a response to last week's "State of Our Union" [letter from Richard Cole, Letter Hive, May 19, 2017].
While I do agree with some points in your letter and disagree with others, ...
To The Editor: Exit The Body was a terrific play and everyone seemed to have a great time. The Little Theatre is one of the gems in our community and Friends of Newtown Seniors is a group whose missio...
To the Editor:
There's something rotten in the state of Newtown and it smells like the community center.
After two years of legislative tinkering and much hemming and hawing, the community center desi...
To the Editor:http://ecode360.com/15288387. Some projects, dictated by our Town Charter, go to referendum and others do not. A change in the referendum approval dollar amounts approved at referendum l...
To the Editor:
Do tough times distinguish between fiscal years? That's the question I was asking myself when I learned the Boards of Selectmen and Finance and the Legislative Council all voted to proc...
To the Editor:senatorhwang.com.Tony.Hwang@cga.ct.gov and at 800-842-1421.Sen Hwang represents
Newtown,
Easton, Fairfield, Weston, and Westport.
An open letter to Newtown taxpayers:
I am proud...
To the Editor:
Thanks to the Parks and Recreation Department, the" Evening in Paris" dinner dance, also called the "Senior Prom," was a great success. Special thanks to students from Ben's Lighthouse ...
CT primaries are closed to voters not registered with the party's designation. Dems can't vote in Rep. primaries and, vice versa. Unaffiliated and Independent voters cannot vote in them. Keep primaries closed!
Bruce, welcome to the conversation.
Your recent statement after the storm — admitting that you should have communicated “faster, more completely, and more personally” — was fine as far as it went. But this is not just about one storm. It is about a pattern. You ran on openness, responsiveness, and transparency, even saying that “evasive answers or silence are unacceptable in government.”
The problem is that Newtown residents have been dealing with exactly that silence from you since you were elected.
Newtown’s Emergency Management page says the town, together with the Office of the First Selectman, provides “critical public information and warning” during emergencies. The town also rolled out CodeRED cellphone registration on March 24, 2022 so residents could receive emergency information directly.
So where were you when police were searching for missing 23-year-old Kateri Doty in January? Where were you during the brush fires near the Newtown town line in April? Where were you on April 22, when state police and Newtown police were searching for two people who fled an I-84 crash and a canine search moved into the Church Hill Road area?
Residents should not be hearing about a missing person, wildfire conditions, or police tracking dogs moving through backyards from Facebook, neighbors, or kids in town. They should be hearing from their town government.
This is not really about whether you personally press the CodeRED button. Or how many task forces you have created. It is about leadership. You are the First Selectman. You are responsible for making sure the town communicates clearly, quickly, and visibly when public safety is involved.
So yes, it is nice that you have finally acknowledged the problem. But the public did not need this storm to figure it out. We have been saying it for a long time.
Bruce, you were missing when the town needed to hear from you. The question now is whether this storm finally woke you up, or whether this is just another late apology followed by more silence.
The topic may be the same but the narratives every other week differ and I appreciate the installments. Rebuttals on factual content rather than focusing on form would improve the discourse.
Congrats to all the 275 graduates.
For context...class of 2005 had 360 students, the number of graduating seniors seemed to cap out in the late 2000's in the low 400's.
