Your Daily Spin: Snow Job aka Blizzard of Lies

Today the Mess posted an article of an interview with Public Works committee chair Councilman Todd Berch and Mayor Drew addressing criticisms of the plan of action taken during last weeks blizzard.

Mayor Drew said that the crews were "working around the clock" (didn't he?) but then the public was told that they couldn't plow because of "visibility" issues. Which is it? Were they out plowing or pulled back to City Yard for their own safety?

If the crews were called back out of concern for their own safety as the Mayor has said, why wasn't that part of any of the robocalls the public got all weekend? It would have been a legitimate decision. What is incomprehensible is the duplicity of this administration. This mayor seems incapable of candor; he always has a story when it is totally unnecessary.

It is very clear that a conscious decision was made to pull the trucks off their routes sometime Friday night. Many citizens have said they saw or heard no trucks. Why can't they just admit it? They chose a course of action; now stand by it. Somebody decided that it was better to wait it out and launch a cleanup effort after the storm ended rather than stay in the field and plow while snow was still falling. This, however, was not communicated to the populace even once. Instead, press releases were issued, robocalls went out and pre-recorded messages were put on the City's phones, all making inaccurate representations about the cleanup effort and impossible projections as to when roads would be passable.

Finally, to refresh everybody's memory and provide a little perspective: It is reported that this storm delivered 32" of snow. The December 26, 2010 storm dropped 29" on Middletown. And then Middletown got hit again on the weekend. The city was fully passable within 24 hours; no streets were left untouched. All references to this being the most snow in 100 years notwithstanding, it doesn't explain the marked difference in response.It is recorded that Middletown 29" because that issue was relevant to eligibility for FEMA reimbursement which in fact the City got in 2010.

MEA CULPA: Irony is that that even when confronted with reality, this administration continues down the path that got them in the mess to begin with.  As one anonymous commented on the article said:  
"A humble acknowledgement of their poor and inept planning (or lack of it), combined with an apology and a sincere attempt to improve things next time around would go a long way and help earn back lost respect."
We couldn't agree more.

Parking Ban Still in Effect in some Areas

To assist the Public Works crews with winter snow cleanup, a Parking Ban will continue to be in effect for the following streets until further notice.


Columbus Avenue

Mazzotta Place

Erin Street

Stack Street

Grove Street

Rome Avenue

Pease Avenue

The ban for the rest of the City has been lifted as of today, February 14, 2013, at 3:30 p.m.
Should off-street parking be needed, the following municipal lots will be available:

Melilli Plaza Lot

Broad Street/KidCity Lot

Broad Street/Russell Library Lot

Arcade Upper Level off Court Street Entrance

Arcade Lower Level off Dingwall Street Entrance

Green Street Lot

Grand Street/CHC Lot - available after 7PM Thursday; cars must be

Letter to the Editor: Post Storm Evaluation Report Beneficial

I applaud any effort to review performance in order to find improvements. After-action reviews are a standard practice in business and government to review past operations for ways to improve performance and efficiency. An honest, open review of past operations is a productive, positive way to find improvements, remove redundancies and find gaps. It can provide the basis for an improved response plan for the next emergency. It is not to assign blame. It is evaluation, not criticism. This was a significant weather event. Such events provide excellent opportunities to find improvements, if you're willing to look for them. Or, you can become defensive, and say that you did the best you could, attack the critics, and say that any honest critique of performance is a political vendetta.

Ken McClellan
Chairman, Middletown Republican Town Committee.

Planning and Zoning is Cancelled aka 100% Road Cleared in Town!

Our graphic is based on dozens of comments from citizens. Not one of which criticized the plow drivers at all, nor do we. We don't blame any worker- they did spectacular jobs and labored long hours- of course we are all grateful for it. Whether the "PLAN" they were given by our executive chief of the city was a good one is still up for debate.

MIDDLETOWN: Planning and Zoning cancelled for February 12, 2013- new meeting going on February 27, 2013

The Planning &Zoning meeting scheduled for tomorrow night will be postponed until February 27, 2013 when the roads and lots (hopefully) are fully cleared. This will ensure that all people interested in attending can attend.

 One needs to understand, if the P/Z meeting that was set for tomorrow night did indeed take place a few non - P/Z questions would have to be answered:

1) Where do folks park? The lot behind The Clock Tower Mall hasn't been touched as of 4:00 P.M. on February 12, 2013.
2) Will the city ever plow (correctly) the lot on deKoven Drive?  When one walks by there, they see all cars parked at an angle in a style that Picasso would envy.
3) Will the city leaders (two of them at least) start using a plan that worked effectively before during storms and blizzards?

The meeting will consider two zoning code text change applications that will affect land use on Washington Street and South Main and around Wesleyan and Middlesex Hospital.

Blizzard 2013: Rep. Serra, Lesser, & Bartolomeo Issue Statements

Newsflash: Democratic Representatives  Joseph Serra (former Public Works Director for Middletown, & veteran Public Safety & Highway Committee member) Rep. Matt Lesser, & Sen. Dante Bartolomeo covering Middletown, Durham, Middlefield, Meriden issue the following statement to citizen's concerned about public safety regarding the blizzard and subsequent clean up efforts:

Letter to the Editor: Neighbors Helping Neighbors

Reader submitted photo. Beauty amongst chaos.

To the Editor: 
I was born and raised in a small NH town (Newport),where in the 1950's-60's the snowbanks were so high cars had to tie flags to their antennas so pedestrians could see them coming down the street.The town always maintained some large equipment pieces (road graders,front end loaders),to meet the worst case scenarios in the Winter.Road graders with an old-fashioned v-plow are excellent for "breaking-up" drifts and extreme snow depths.In my recollection,we never hah blocked or impassable roads,and school closings were rare! In my neighborhood,(Colonial Road/Scenic View Drive) we are "open" to Laurel Grove Road.This effort was due entirely to my neighbors........their first strategy on Saturday am was to use snowblowers to "cut" a path between houses and to continue this path down Scenic View to Colonial and ultimately all the way to Laurel Grove Road.It started strictly as an emergence measure to insure access to homes. This whole process was accomplished by only two neighbors on Saturday! With improvement in the weather by Sunday am a crew of two others joined the original two ,and along with a pick-up plow truck "opened up" Scenic View Drive, almost all of Colonial down to Laurel Grove Road.This whole scenario reminded me of neighbors helping neighbors many years ago in NH.What a great site it was yesterday to see the four snow blowers working along side of the plow truck to clear the roads! 
Former Mayor Giuliano was correct in his assessment,in my opinion.

Paul Dodge
Middletown

Editor's note: Former Mayor Seb Giuliano was asked by the Patch about his take on the snow removal strategyg: http://middletown-ct.patch.com/articles/former-mayor-e4b5f14a

Blizzard 2013: Message From Councilman Phil Pessina

As I have been reviewing all of the posts from our city residents stranded and paralyzed by this  Blizzard Event, which as others I have personally experienced, as the Council Minority Leader and member of the Public Safety Commission and Finance and Government Committees I am calling for the following information to be presented to both of these commissions at both of our meetings scheduled for later this month:

1.  That Mayor Drew present the results of his Emergency Management After Action Report, which will detail department by department the challenges that they were presented with, as well as their successes in keeping our community safe and accessible;  the caveat of course are those residents who's streets were not open in a timely fashion; we need to identify them and ensure that in the future we can galvanize private & public collaboration to prevent this from occurring in the future. 

2.   The financial impact on the departments and to the Budget, including the emergency expenditures, repairs to include the private costs for outside contractors support.  This impact report should include a review of our Emergency Vehicle fleet to assess their capability to traverse these types of severe weather events.

3.   The impact on our dedicated city employees covering their availability, food and rest periods which they all needed and continue to need.  A Review of alternate shift schedules with our Labor Union Presidents, where possibly all of our essential employees can have similar emergency shift scheduling to ensure rest, feeding and shelter capabilities.  

4.   The infrastructure prioritization utilized to identify major routes, street clearing and the identity of transportation modes for picking up and transporting hospital critical employees, fire and police personnel ho may have been stranded during the storm.  Also, route clearing to our city's Emergency Shelter (MHS).

5.    Have our I.T. Department propose a frame work on our city's Webpage an area for Emergency Information,which would continued to be update to better inform our resdients of the particular storm impact throughout a weather event; or other infrastructure, emergency events which our city may encounter.

6.    Any other pertinent  information Mayor Drew develops from his meetings with his directors.

 In addition, past Mayors should be contacted for their response suggestions and contributions to assist Mayor Drew.

THESE SUGGESTIONS AND FOLLOW UP REVIEWS BY THESE TWO IMPORTANT CITY COMMITTEES, ARE BEING MADE RESPECTFULLY TO THE MAYOR, OUR CITY DIRECTORS AND EMPLOYEES WHO HAVE WORKED TIRELESSLY THROUGH THIS EVENT FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE TO DEVELOP AN ADDENDUM TO OUR CITY'S EMERGENCY OPERATIONS PLAN FOR RESPONSE GUIDELINES, INFRASTRUCTURE IDENTIFICATION A PERSONNEL PLAN, EQUIPMENT AND COSTS FUNDING ANALYSIS FOR FUTURE MAYORS TO UTILIZE DURING THESE TYPES OF EVENTS! 

WE ALL NEED TO BE PART OF THE SOLUTION AND REPRESENT THE TYPE OF MIDDLETOWN RESIDENTS WE ALL ARE; MOVING TOWARDS ASSISTING EACH OTHER AND HELPING WHEN AND WHERE WE CAN.

Thank you and keep safe!

Councilman Phil Pessina

Editor's note: Former Mayor Seb Giuliano was asked by the Patch about his take on the snow removal strategyg: http://middletown-ct.patch.com/articles/former-mayor-e4b5f14a

The Mess is reporting that the Napa warehouse's roof located on Newfield street has collapsed. No one injured.

Letter to the Editor: The Mayor is Misinformed

Photo by Deb Meadows. Click to enlarge. 

Dear Insider,

Thanks for communicating since the town website is not!  

My husband just walked down the driveway to check (Feb 10, 10:29 pm) and our street (Laureate Drive) is still not plowed.  If we had an emergency, we would not be able to get out.   The town partially plowed the first two houses on our street and left the rest of us buried.   On the attached picture, the arrow indicates where our driveway is.   

They mayor says the streets are 100% open.  Well, he is misinformed!   Yes, my husband did call public works today (Sunday) about 2:00 pm and they said they would get to our street. 

Thanks!

Deb Meadows