Brace Yourselves for Storm Sandy!

To all the readers out there the staff at the Insider would like to say please brace yourselves & your families for Storm Sandy! Hopefully the big wigs at Connecticut Light and Power have a plan in place this time and have learned from last year's storms better clean up methods. Please keep all the linemen and emergency first responders in your thoughts and prayers over the weekend to stay safe! 
Reports from City Hall say Middletown High School is on stand by to be opened as a shelter if need be. Stay safe!

Guest Blog: South Fire's Endorsement of Lesser 'Shameful'

Deborah Kleckowski, 2010, Moose Riders, photo South Fire District website

Dear Citizens,

  The South Fire District Firefighters' Union has announced its endorsement of incumbent representative Matt Lesser (D) for the 100th district. No surprise, unions typically always endorse Democrats no matter what the facts really are.  The Middletown Patch quoted Local 3918 Union President James Mastroianni as follows:  “Matt Lesser has been a friend of South Fire District’s  Professional Fire Fighters for many years and we fully support this  endorsement.”

      I would like to know what exactly has Matt Lesser done to deserve this endorsement? Where are the actual facts?

      Councilwoman Deborah Kleckowski, Lessor's Republican challenger, was not even given a fair shot for this endorsement as she was never given an opportunity by union members to discuss any South Fire issues or  interviewed by them before the endorsement was summarily announced.  Furthermore, no vote was taken by the local union members nor were they otherwise polled to determine who they wished to endorse.
      Deborah Kleckowski has always been a proponent of public safety. She  sits on the Public Safety Committee of the Common Council. In 2011, she and  former Republican Mayor Sebastian Giuliano aided in the support of the Middletown Moose Riders'  program to distribute stuffed animals to children during emergency calls. Kleckowski ardently supported the South Fire budget every year, attended the Fire Ops 101 Training program for public officials and completed the entire exercise.
     In 2010, Matt Lesser showed up for this training briefly to show off his Dan Malloy campaign shirt and take a photo before leaving. Kleckowski spearheaded the effort to purchase  and install specialized communication equipment inside the helmets of all city firefighters so that they may more effectively communicate in a fire, not only helping to save  more lives, but to ensure their own safety on the job as well.

      When no emergency access road was designed into the original plans for the new Middletown High School, Deborah Kleckowski advocated and made sure a road was installed at the site.

      Kleckowski worked tirelessly at the emergency shelter set up at the High  School after the power outages last summer and fall. She worked  to make sure emergency personnel had access to the facility when the last  Board of Education Administration fought to block the shelter from even being set up. She also made sure all the union workers- everyone- was paid when the Board of Education, under the direction of then Superintendent Michael Frechette, withheld their pay for over a month. During all this, Lesser was nowhere to be found.
      It would be most enlightening and helpful to be able to compare Lesser's status as a "friend of South Fire District's Professional Fire Fighters" with Kleckowski's actual involvements and accomplishments.

     The failure of the employees of South Fire not to stand up for a person like Kleckowski, and to permit their parent union to endorse Matt Lesser is shameful.

       Kleckowski has proven herself as a true public servant time and time again. Not endorsing her is demeaning, not only to the rank and file firefighters, but to all of the residents and taxpayers of the South Fire District. 

     What is more, it perpetuates a stereotype in Middletown that party affiliation and cronyism outweigh proven hard work  and dedication to the greater good. The firefighters' union owes taxpayer’s more of an explanation than Lesser is a “friend.”

William Wilson,

Vice-Chair Middletown Republican Town Committee