All aboard for a unique railroad experience – coming to Willimantic Oct 13-14

October 2, 2012 Areawide, Arts & Entertainment, Local News No Comments

Departing at 9 a.m. in Worcester, the round-trip ride will take passengers through Putnam and Plainfield to Willimantic, where visitors can explore the Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum and downtown during a two-hour stop, before returning to Worcester at approximately 6 p.m. Photo source: Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts

Hundreds of people from across the country will descend on Willimantic on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 13-14, during a rare passenger rail trip the likes of which have not occurred since 1983.

These passengers will board refurbished former Amtrak passenger cars for the “Willimantic Special” train ride, organized by the Mass Bay Railroad Enthusiasts (RRE) in cooperation with the Providence & Worcester Railroad, which brings riders from Worcester to Willimantic and back again.

The trip will include traveling over P&W’s newly restored Willimantic Branch, a section of tracks that has not borne passengers through a publicly organized excursion since Aug. 7, 1983, according to RRE President David Brown.

The idea proved so popular, the originally scheduled Oct. 14 trip sold out within a month, prompting the RRE to organize an almost-identical trip for the day before.

“This was quite unusual,” Brown said. “Part of it is the fact that it hasn’t been done in a long, long time.”

He said the ride will also take passengers through “a nice part of the country.”

“This trip has actually attracted national attention,” he said, citing already-registered passengers hailing from as far as California, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

The trip will include two or three “photo run-by” stops in which passengers can step off the train and photograph the train as it passes by.

During the two-hour Willimantic stop each day, locals who cannot participate in the full-day trip will be able to enjoy a shorter, one-hour ride departing from Bridge Street at 1:15 and returning at 2:15 p.m.

That short ride will be able to accommodate roughly 150 passengers, Brown said, with no advance reservations and cash-only fares paid at boarding time.

The train’s total capacity is approximately 230, he said, so over the course of the weekend, up to 460 out-of-town passengers could visit Willimantic.

The Oct. 14 tickets were sold out by Labor Day, and with two and a half weeks to go, over half of the Oct. 13 tickets are already sold, Brown said.

He said these rides bring together “all kinds of people,” including both “people with above-average interest in railroads and trains” and those who have never stepped foot on a train.

Brown described riding a train as a unique experience.

Riding in a train “gives you a really unique perspective on the countryside,” versus driving a car or traveling in a plane. “You see America’s backyards,” Brown said.

Begun in 1934, the Mass Bay RRE is a Massachusetts-based nonprofit educational corporation promoting public interest in and understanding of railroads.

For pricing, route and more information, visit www.massbayrre.org, call (978) 470-2066 or e-mail trips@massbayrre.org. Tickets may be ordered by mail or by phone.

Posted Oct. 2, 2012 as edited by HTNP.com Editor Brenda Sullivan

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Shift of students to former Kramer School building strains parking, patience

October 2, 2012 Local News No Comments

Resident Mary Lou DeVivo at a Windham Board of Education meeting last week, said the 322 Prospect St. lot is crowded to the point of being unsafe. “I’ve been observing what’s been going on,” DeVivo said. “Your own teachers have been parking in the fire lane.”

With many preschool and kindergarten students, the public school district central offices and several town offices installed in the old Kramer Middle School building, parking is tight, to say the least.

In fact, said resident Mary Lou DeVivo at a Board of Education meeting last week, the 322 Prospect St. lot is crowded to the point of being unsafe. “I’ve been observing what’s been going on,” DeVivo said. “Your own teachers have been parking in the fire lane.”

The building is currently housing some of the district’s preschool and kindergarten students, until these grades are moved back to their neighborhood elementary schools — Windham Center, North Windham, Sweeney and, pending a possible roof replacement at the currently closed building, Natchaug — as a new magnet school is phased in over the next few years.

Natchaug School is closed for the year due to a springtime report that the 123 Jackson St. school’s roof could not hold more than 9 inches of snow without the possibility of collapse.

Meanwhile, many of the district’s preschool and kindergarten students, along with the district’s central offices and the town, are trying to make do at the Kramer building.

Not only is parking scarce for employees, school buses don’t have a place to pull in, and there have been traffic jams.

“I think you people need to be concerned that the parking there is horrendous,” DeVivo said at the school board meeting

She suggested nearby Eastern Connecticut State University might be able to work with the public school district to offer additional parking. Full-time staff at Kramer could take a shuttle bus from an off-site lot, she said.

Windham Schools Superintendent Ana Ortiz acknowledged the problem and said the district is already working to find a solution. “We’ve all been affected by it,” she said.

Windham Board of Education Chair Murphy Sewall said, “there never has been enough parking here… however many spaces there are, there are not enough.”

Ortiz said this morning (Oct. 2) the situation is under review by a group that includes school district Finance Director Jeff Nelson, Assistant Superintendent Pamela Barker-Jones and Windham Early Childhood Center Director Mary Jane Crotty.

Regarding DeVivo’s suggestion about working with ECSU, Ortiz said, “that’s part of what we’re going to be looking at.”

The former Kramer School building was turned over to the town in the early 1990s when the Windham Middle School building was constructed on Quarry Street.Since then, the district has leased part of the building for district use.

At a school board meeting in early September, DeVivo drew the board’s attention back to the 1990s. “When you built the middle school, you said that Kramer was not fit for children,” DeVivo said.

Posted Oct. 2, 2012 as edited by HTNP.com Editor Brenda Sullivan

Windham School district to begin computer-based testing

September 28, 2012 Local News No Comments

According to a handout distributed Wednesday (Sept. 26), MAP® “presents students with engaging, age-appropriate content questions and adjusts up or down in difficulty as the student responds to them…This creates a testing environment that is less frustrating to struggling students, while still challenging students at advanced levels.”

Windham public school children will soon begin taking a new set of tests.

Beginning in October, these computer-based tests will be conducted three times a year for all students in grades 3 through 10, with the potential for adding the lower grades later.

The tests will evaluate students’ proficiency in reading, writing and mathematics with the potential to track individual and collective student progress from test to test.

Assistant Superintendent Pamela Barker-Jones presented information about the new assessment tool – called the Northwest Evaluation Association’s “Measures of Academic Progress” or MAP® – at this week’s school board meeting.

This year, Windham students will take the MAP® tests in October 2012, late January 2013 and early May 2013.

In future years, students will likely be tested each September and December, to allow time to use feedback from test scores to adjust instruction and better prepare for the state-mandated tests given in early spring.

The last MAP® testing cycle would be conducted at the end of each school year.

The tests are untimed, but average completion time is about 45 minutes, Barker-Jones said.

Especially appealing to Barker-Jones and Special Master Steven Adamowski – the consultant hired by the state to steer Windham’s school district out of poor performance – is the quick turn-around on test scores… 24 hours maximum, versus seven or eight months that pass before the release of results for state-mandated standardized tests such as the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) and Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT).

Quick test results gives teachers feedback that allows them to more quickly adjust their instruction where necessary.

Adamowski said adopting the MAP® system is “one of the biggest things that the district can do to move the needle on student achievement.”

“At least 43 states have adopted this,” he said.

Windham Board of Education Chair Murphy Sewall said given the variance in individual students in each classroom, the MAP® system won’t necessarily measure a teacher’s performance but the tests can give some information about how each school and each teacher is performing, and whether a teacher might benefit from additional professional development assistance.

The first two years of MAP® testing for grades 3 through 10 will be financially supported by funds appropriated by the state for Adamowski in his role as Special Master.

If the district chooses to expand the program for younger students or to include a science test, the district would need to find additional funds.

According to the handout, the MAP® tests cost less than $12 per student per year.

Sewall said he’d like to see the tests extended to the lower grades. “I think it’s essential that we do this (test) or something like this below third-grade,” he said. “The evidence is pretty clear that the younger the intervention takes place, it costs less and it’s more effective.”

School board members did have questions about taking tests on a computer, which include both multiple choice and “open-ended” questions. Members questioned whether a computer could adequately evaluate a writing test, for example.

Barker- Jones said the questions are “limited open-ended,” and that the computerized grading system is equipped with the ability to detect key phrases and other elements within students’ answers.

Posted September 28, 2012 as edited by HTNP.com Editor Brenda Sullivan

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Looking toward future development – Windham P&Z approves reg revisions

September 28, 2012 Business, Local News No Comments

The public filled the Town Hall meeting room Thursday to comment on the proposed revisions. Most in attendance were from South Windham where there has been controversy over expansion activity by the nonprofit recreation facility, Horizons.

The Windham Planning & Zoning Commission has spent years crafting zoning regulation changes that would encourage business development in town.

The goal is to “make it easier for a community business to open here,” PZC Chair Paula Stahl said.

At Thursday’s meeting (Sept.27) – which followed a public comment period – the commission took action on some proposed changes and postponed others.

Changes include alterations to boundary lines, revision and creations of zones, and clarification of application processes for site plans, special permits and enlargement of nonconforming uses.

The public filled the Town Hall meeting room Thursday to comment on the proposed revisions.

Most in attendance were from South Windham where there has been controversy over expansion activity by the nonprofit recreation facility, Horizons.

Some residents have expressed concern about the impact on the character of their neighborhood, and property values.

Horizons serves individuals with developmental disabilities.

PZC members were not in agreement about whether the organization’s presence in the residentially-zoned neighborhood represents a nonconforming use.

Member Jean Chaine recommended the entire topic under question — section 3.10.7 of the zoning regulations, which relates to enlargement of a nonconforming use — be removed from the public hearing Thursday and taken up by the PZC at a separate meeting.

“Even if it’s conforming, you have to look at what its impact is on the character” of the neighborhood, said South Windham resident Jack Kranacki.

“We’ve been so hot on being business-friendly,” Chaine said, perhaps the PZC is “starting to move in a direction of being resident-unfriendly.”

The PZC will consider section 3.10 in its entirety at a future meeting which Stahl encouraged the South Windham residents to attend.

The PZC also heard comments on a host of other proposed revisions including those for general business districts B2 and B2A, general commercial districts C2 and C2A and changes to zone boundaries.

Several West Main Street business and property owners said they are concerned that many now permitted vehicle-related uses would no longer be allowed under the new regulations.

Michael Taylor of Mansfield, who owns several properties along West Main Street, said “the whole area is being used for that type of business.”

“Those uses are no longer permitted by the new regulations,” he said, which “diminishes the developability” of that zone.

“To deny that use, I think, defeats the purpose of creating new businesses in the area,” Taylor said.

Joe Marsalisi of decades-old J&S Radio on Main Street also expressed concern that under the proposed regulations, his business might not be able to go ahead with plans to build a garage for emergency-vehicle work.

Marsalisi said the regulation change would be “a disadvantage for the town,” and said he might have to move his business out of town.

Bob Coutu, owner of another long standing truck-parts business, Coutu Truck Country, said his company has tried to keep up with rules and regulations as they’ve changed over the years to ensure his business is in compliance, but this latest round would mean he couldn’t expand his business.

Stahl responded by saying, “I think we understand your concerns… We will work with you on this.”

After lengthy discussion, the PZC decided to keep the public hearing open on revisions related to B2, B2A, C2, C2A and certain rezoned parcels. “I think we need to digest what we’ve heard,” Stahl said.

In contrast, there was no public comment on revisions concerning applications processes (except for Section 3.10.7). The PZC approved those changes unanimously, as well as for revisions related to lot coverage and the approval process.

Documents containing the proposed and approved changes and a map of the proposed revised district boundaries may be found on the PZC’s web site at www.windhamct.com/commission.htm?id=ubcne5dm& m=boards … look to the column on the right that lists several items marked “Public Hearing 9-27-2012.”

Posted September 28, 2012 as edited by HTNP.com Editor Brenda Sullivan

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Job Fair at East Brook Mall Sept 28

September 25, 2012 Business, Local News No Comments

Looking for a job, a change in career? Come to the job fair at the East Brook Mall from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 28.

Experts from the state Department of Labor will be on hand to help job applicants by critiquing their resumés, as well as a representative of the Veterans Administration to help veterans find work.

The fair will include more than 20 employers.

Job opportunities include the health industry, transportation, education and manufacturing. Participating businesses include General Dynamics, EastConn, FedEx Ground, M&M Transport services and U.S. Foods.

Also, four hospitals and several community health centers will talk with job seekers including Windham, Day Kimball, Backus and Natchaug.

Representatives from CTWorks East will also be available to help with your job search.

Questions? Call 860-423-8466, ext. 3314.

The Job Fair is sponsored by the Chronicle, CT Works East, Quinebaug Valley Community College, EWIB, Northeastern Connecticut Chamber of Commerce and the Windham Region Chamber of Commerce.

Other business news

From now until Friday, Oct. 5, Applebee’s restaurant in the East Brook Mall location (93 Storrs Road-Route 195) invites all sports fans and collectors to a silent auction that will benefit Make-A-Wish® of Connecticut.

Participants can visit the restaurant to bid on celebrity photos, sports items and local memorabilia that currently adorn the walls of the restaurant, which will soon be undergoing a renovation.

Posted September 25, 2012 – links added by HTNP Editor Brenda Sullivan

Related links: CT Gov page with many links to resources for a job search http://www.ctdol.state.ct.us/gendocs/JobSeekers.html

Windham Region Chamber of Commerce https://www.windhamchamber.com/

Have a news item, event or Letter to the Editor you’d like posted on this news site? Simply send your information to editor@htnp.com and include your town in the subject line of your email. Please also include a phone number where you can be reached if there are questions. For daily updates on local and Connecticut news, “like” us on Facebook at HTNP News. https://www.facebook.com/HTNPnews and find us on our NEW Twitter page at HTNP News (@HTNPNews )

Sept 25 is National Voter Registration Day

September 24, 2012 Areawide, Local News No Comments

Connecticut Secretary of the State Denise Merrill will mark National Voter Registration Day 2012 on Tuesday, Sept. 25 with Connecticut teachers and students. Courtesy photo.

Connecticut Secretary of the State Denise Merrill will mark National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday Sept. 25 with Connecticut teachers and students.

Merrill will hold a news conference, beginning at 10 a.m. at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford (Room 1B) at which she will announce new voter registration figures for Connecticut, and outline Connecticut’s ‘Election Project’ to develop an educational curriculum for CT school students tied to the 2012 Presidential Election.

In 2008, 6 million Americans did not vote because they did not know how to register or they missed their state’s voter registration deadline, according to the US Census.

The goal of National Voter Registration Day is to educate people about the process and the importance of each person’s vote.

On Sept. 25, 2012, volunteers and organizations all over the U.S. will host events. With the Presidential election just weeks away, this is an especially important outreach effort.

To find out if your town is hosting a voter registration event, call your registrar of voters.

In the HTNP News readership area, two registration events will be held Tuesday at the University of Connecticut in Storrs-Mansfield: from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., hosted by

HeadCount (646) 230-0100 at 115 North Eagleville Road and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., hosted by Michelle Maloney-Mangold and Amber West (415) 517-3120 at the Babbidge Library on the UConn campus, 369 Fairfield Way.

Posted September 24, 2012 based on a press release and the National Voter Registration Day web site

Related links:

National Voter Registration Day web site http://nationalvoterregistrationday.org

CT Secretary of the State web site http://www.sots.ct.gov/sots/site/default.asp

Have a news item, event or Letter to the Editor you’d like posted on this news site? Simply send your information to editor@htnp.com and include your town in the subject line of your email. Please also include a phone number where you can be reached if there are questions. For daily updates on local and Connecticut news, “like” us on Facebook at HTNP News. https://www.facebook.com/HTNPnews and find us on our NEW Twitter page at HTNP News (@HTNPNews )

Federal grant will help train Connecticut’s ‘dislocated’ workers, unemployed veterans

September 19, 2012 Areawide, Business, Local News No Comments

The U.S. Department of Labor has awarded a $12 million “consortium” grant to five community colleges and Eastern Connecticut State University and Charter Oak State college to help “dislocated” workers, veterans and other “under-employed” train for careers in the health services field.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today (Sept. 19) announced that the U.S. Department of Labor has awarded a $12 million “consortium” grant to five community colleges and Eastern Connecticut State University and Charter Oak State College to help “dislocated” workers, veterans and other “under-employed” train for careers in the health services field.

The job-training program will allow participants to earn certifications, industry-recognized credentials and associate degrees.

The grant is funded under the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grants Program at the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.

“Healthcare and the life sciences are two sectors of our economy that are poised to grow in the coming century,” said Gov. Malloy.

“That’s the reason we have vigorously pursued companies like Jackson Laboratories and Alexion to relocate and expand in our state. The more we can solidify Connecticut’s role as a leader in these industries, the more our residents will have access to good paying jobs with good benefits. And thanks to today’s announcement, we’re going to be able to have the workforce in place to really make this vision a reality.”

Some of the certifications that students in these programs may be able to earn include:

Biomedical Equipment Technician

Biomedical Informatics

Bioscience Manufacturing Technician

Health Information Technician

Instrument Calibration Technician

Occupational Health & Safety Technician

Quality Assurance Technician

Quality Control Technician

Respiratory Therapy Technician

Surgical Technologist

Some of the Associate Degrees students may be able to earn include:

Bioscience Manufacturing Technologist

Health Information Technologist

Medical Coder (Inpatient)

Occupational Health and Safety Specialist

Quality Assurance Specialist

Quality Control Specialist

For a link to the PDF document with specifics on the grant proposal, click here .

Some excerpts from the grant proposal:

will increase the use of online and technology-enabled learning through online and mobile app math and science booster modules, self-assessments and feedback surveys embedded in online course modules, online workplace skills assessment and development tools, and the migration of courses to online and hybrid delivery.

will enable 675 students to earn 10,000+ college credits for work, military and other experience that provides competencies equivalent to those gained in college courses, accelerating the progress of workers, improving retention and achievement rates, and reducing time to completion.

will expand the Connecticut Credit Assessment Program to recognize credits earned in other institutions and settings, and promote PLAs [Prior Learning Assessments] in workplaces.

recruitment and placement strategies will help 360 students obtain internships and provide 2,000 participants with job placement services.

Employer partners in this project include Connecticut United for Research Excellence (CURE) – the statewide bioscience growth council with 100+ employer members; Connecticut Hospital Association; Jackson Laboratory; Saint Francis Hospital; Eastern Connecticut Health Network; Greenwich Hospital; John Dempsey Hospital (University of Connecticut Health Center); Stamford Hospital; Yale-New Haven Hospital.

The University of Connecticut and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving are also partners in this program.

Robert A. Kennedy, President of the Board of Regents for Higher Education, which governs the 17 Connecticut state colleges and universities said, “I am particularly pleased that our proposal was submitted collaboratively by a state university, our only public, online college and five community colleges. This is exactly the kind of partnership we need to focus on now that we’re one, combined organization.

“I also appreciate the extraordinary amount of industry support we received – from hospitals across the state to CURE to Jackson Laboratory. Our private sector partners understand that with 96,000 students in our institutions, we have the capacity to train and prepare the workers they need,” Kennedy said.

Posted September 19, 2012, based on a press release and copy of the grant proposal

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New Storrs Center parking garage opens

September 18, 2012 Business, Local News No Comments

The new Storrs Center Parking Garage, located on Dog Lane, will begin full operation, complete with working gates, beginning at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 19. Parking at the garage is free for the first two hours, after which there is a $1-an-hour charge for each additional hour. The daily maximum is $8. Image courtesy of LeylandAlliance

The Storrs Center Parking Garage, located on Dog Lane, will begin full operation, complete with working gates, beginning at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 19.

Parking at the Storrs Center garage is free for the first two hours, after which there is a $1-an-hour charge for each additional hour. The daily maximum is $8.

Patrons will pay to exit either at the gate with a credit card, or with cash or a credit card at the pay station located in the lobby adjacent to the first floor elevator.

The new “downtown” opened this month.

Storrs Automotive, Select Physical Therapy, Travel Planners, Skora’s Barber Styling Shop, Body Language and Subway have all opened in their new locations.

Residents of the first 127 apartments of The Oaks on the Square also have moved in – many of them UConn students.

Additional businesses have signed agreements to become tenants, including PriceChopper, 7-11, and medical offices for the UConn Health Center.

Questions? Please contact the Town of Mansfield Public Works Department at 860-429-3331 Monday through Friday during office hours (offices close at noon on Friday) or send an email to StorrsCenterInfo@mansfieldct.org

Posted September 18, 2012 based on a press release

Related link: Storrs Center web site http://www.storrscenter.com

Have a news item, event or Letter to the Editor you’d like posted on this news site? Simply send your information to editor@htnp.com and include your town in the subject line of your email. Please also include a phone number where you can be reached if there are questions. For daily updates on local and Connecticut news, “like” us on Facebook at HTNP News. https://www.facebook.com/HTNPnews and find us on our NEW Twitter page at HTNP News (@HTNPNews )

Gov. Malloy to meet with CT National Guard soldiers being deployed to Afghanistan

September 17, 2012 Local News No Comments

An Afghan farmer shows a diseased plant to U.S. Army 1st Lt. Tara Robertson, a Minnesota National Guard member serving with the Zabul Agribusiness Development Team, during a meeting conducted while on a partnered patrol with fellow team members. Photo source: CT National Guard/ ISAF: NATO forces in Afghanistan

On Tuesday, Sept. 18, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman will participate in a send-off ceremony for National Guard soldiers being deployed to Afghanistan.

A total of 230 members of the 104^th Aviation Regiment and the 1048th Transportation Company (based in Stratford) are being deployed. The ceremony begins at 5 p.m. and will be held at the William A. O’Neill State Armory at 360 Broad St., in Hartford.

Earlier in the day, at 12:30 p.m., Gov. Malloy will be the guest speaker at a meeting of the Darien League of Women Voters, to talk about efforts to increase voter turnout in Connecticut. The event will be held at the Country Club of Darien, 300 Mansfield Ave., in Darien.

Posted September 17, 2012

Related link: Connecticut National Guard on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheNationalGuard

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ECSU to host film Hot Coffee about McDonald’s lawsuit

September 14, 2012 Arts & Entertainment, Local News No Comments

The J. Eugene Smith Library at Eastern Connecticut State University (ECSU) will host a screening of the documentary, “Hot Coffee,” during Eastern’s University Hour at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 19 in the Student Center Theatre. The public is invited. Admission is free.

The public is invited. Admission is free.

According to the documentary’s web site, the film reveals what really happened to Stella Liebeck, the Albuquerque woman who spilled coffee on herself and sustained horrendous burns – but was and continues to be the subject of jokes for suing McDonald’s – while exploring how and why the case garnered so much media attention.

The documentary also reveals the efforts made to keep legitimate claims out of court and the courage it takes to persist in pursuit of justice.

A panel discussion featuring two Connecticut trial lawyers Michael Walsh and Lincoln Woodard, along with President of Eastern’s Pre-Law Society Brian Levy will follow the screening.

Posted September 14, 2012, based on a press released submitted by Gabrielle Little, ECSU.

Have a news item, event or Letter to the Editor you’d like posted on this news site? Simply send your information to editor@htnp.com and include your town in the subject line of your email. Please also include a phone number where you can be reached if there are questions. For daily updates on local and Connecticut news, “like” us on Facebook at HTNP News. https://www.facebook.com/HTNPnews and find us on our NEW Twitter page at HTNP News (@HTNPNews )

Eastern Connecticut State University is the state’s public liberal arts university and serves approximately 5,400 students each year on its Willimantic campus and satellite locations. It is the policy of Eastern Connecticut State University to ensure equal access to its events. If you are an individual with a disability and will need accommodations for this event, please contact the Office of University Relations at (860) 465-5735.