Monday, January 07, 2008

Reader: Bigger, More Urgent Problems Include High School Flood Damage


Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Many Enfield Eyes On Dog Park, Cocoa Puffs":

A dog park in Enfield, is all
well and good. As is a football
field @ Mount Carmel for a youth football team. But honestly, aren't there are bigger, more urgent problems to resolve?

Who's paying for the water damage
that closed Enfield High last week? It didn't sound as if the BOE officials knew whethet insurance covered this extensive damage. How could that be? If insurance doesn't cover the costs, does that mean Enfield tax payers will once again be footing a bill?

I just got my property tax bill and in this decling market, my house is not worth what Enfield is "taxing" it at. The Town is already getting too much of my hard earned dollars.


Posted by Anonymous to The Cool Justice Report at 6:36 AM


  • Many Enfield Eyes On Dog Park, Cocoa Puffs


  • 8 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    Water damage is very much a problem,also is this new Board of Ed under the helm of Andre Greco. Greco seemed to be the spokesman about the whole problem with information given him second hand. What you don't know is that in an attempt to save money so more money would go to education, the board told the facilities dept not to have maintenance crews do snow removal on New Years Day. Instead they waited until the next morning when they would only be on straight time. Sad but if a crew was taking care of the ice on New Years Day maybe they would have seen the broken pipe a whole day sooner. Isn't it a good thing that they are here to save you money. Way to go Andre. We'll be keeping our eyes on you and your personal agendas on the Board of Ed!

    Anonymous said...

    > the board told the facilities dept not to have maintenance crews do snow removal on New Years Day. Instead they waited until the next morning when they would only be on straight time. Sad but if a crew was taking care of the ice on New Years Day maybe they would have seen the broken pipe a whole day sooner.

    Are you saying that the BOE (some elected officials) tell the Town's facilities staff "when" to work? Aren't Enfield's employees part of a union? Don't they have to work according to a pre-determined work schedule?

    Find it hard to believe that the BOE could "stop" workers from performing their tasks, regardless if its a holiday or not.

    Where's the Mayor, or better yet, the Town Manager in all of this? Isn't the Town Manager in charge of "managing" the town services?

    If BOE "caused" this ruckus with their penny-pitching attempts, they can pay for this mess out of their own pockets. Am very tired of "rookies" trying to run Enfield.

    Anonymous said...

    Wait, now the Town of Enfield officials want all Enfield residents to buy their tipper trash barrels.
    See JI's
    http://www.zwire.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=19178197&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=569380&rfi=8

    Here the BOE's latest actions could have cost the Town big $$$$$ for the high school's water damage, and now the Town wants to pass along an additional expense to the townsfolks? Unreal.

    Wanna bet there will be a lot of flak over low income or elderly having to spend $60 to replace one's perfectly good trash can(s).
    I fit neither category and I'm not too happy about this idea.

    Lower my taxes and then maybe I'll agree to buy into this venture.
    But not before.

    Anonymous said...

    Isn't this just one more piece of great news. Talk about another example of "big brother" government (now they're trying to tell us how to throw our trash away).

    According to the Tipper Barrel Order form on the Enfield web site,
    http://www.enfield-ct.gov/content/91/169/4317/default.aspx these barrels cost $50. So where does Enfield's Town Manager come up with $60? Who's pocketing the $10 difference? Or didn't he do his homework?

    Enfield taxes are already out of sight. This Council has some nerve to ask us for more $$$ for town services we're already paying a pretty penny for.

    I think this new Council is really off to a rocky start. With lousy ideas such this, the Enfield Democrats are likely smiling once again!

    Anonymous said...

    According to that JI article,
    "The most important piece of this is recycling," Coppler said. "We're going to see savings initially because of the recycling." Robert Egan, chairman of the Solid Waste Advisory Committee, had said that the financial savings for the town if the program is successful is at least $1.2 million

    Will someone explain to me how these larger tipper barrels will help recycling? One can fit a lot more crap into one of these barrels and unless someone is combing through them for recycl-ables, all the stuff ends up in the same place as the trash from the smaller, individual barrels.

    As the JI article states, "IF" the program is successful, the Town could save money. That's a mighty big "IF". Enfield isn't known for making smart decisions when it comes to saving their taxpayers' money (just look at soggy Enfield High and the athletic fields at the Fermi).

    There's a lot of "red" in Enfield. Their bottom line ain't pretty.

    Anonymous said...

    >> During the week of June 15, the town would distribute barrels to residents who had not yet purchased them and charge the price of the barrel to the residents' tax assessment.

    Oh yeah? You mean the current Enfield tax assessment that is already incorrect and out of sight? Just try charging me and others more tax dollars for some foolish barrel I don't need and didn't ask for.

    If Enfield's Town Council wants people to use these tipper barrels, then the Town Council had better come up with a way to distribute these barrels for free.

    PS
    And what would we do with our perfectly good, older barrels after June 15 - trash them? Now doesn't that make good sense. Talk about needless waste.

    Anonymous said...

    I agree 100%. Just read the articles in the Courant and JI re: the tipper barrel proposal, and I say if the Town of Enfield is forcing people to use these barrels, they better darn well be providing the homeowners with these $$$ barrels, for free.

    Anyone who purchased one of these earlier, did so because they wanted one (maybe they needed a new barrel to begin with?). But for those of us who have been using the same barrel(s) for many years, why should we have to buy these.

    And, don't think for a minute anyone wants the price of one of these barrels tacked onto their current assessment.

    Shame on you, Enfield Council. Your attempt to save the Town money is once again slamming the very same people who pay the taxes. You better come up with another means to implement this plan.

    I notice none of the Enfield Council members are "chiming in" on the blog re: this. Wonder why?

    Anonymous said...

    What about people like me who bought my tipper barrel with my own money? Should I get a check back in the mail?

    That's the problem that you run into with providing barrels for "free". If you don't reimburse the group that already bought them (8,000) you being inequitable and can be sued over it. That's because you are treating some citizens different from others. If you want to institute a rebate for those who already bought the barrel, it's an administrative nightmare.

    Here's how the tipper barrels contribute to recycling:

    1. The technology makes it possible to exclusively have 1-man trucks.

    2. This frees up staff to do weekly recycling collections instead of bi-weekly recycling.

    3. For every ton that is recycled, Enfield is paid $10 for the raw material and saves $70 in tipping fees.

    Many people don't recycles as well because it isn't every week.This should help that. issue.