by | Jan 11, 2022 1:01 pm | Comments (0)
Attorney Steve Mednick addresses Hamden's Legislative Council Monday night.
Just four months after Hamden’s old Legislative Council vetoed a year’s worth of edits to a ten-year-old town charter, a new administration has unanimously appointed seven volunteers to resurrect the revision process.
by | Jan 10, 2022 5:19 pm | Comments (9)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
Wednesday's Republican caucuses vs. Thursday's Democratic caucuses.
Seventy Democrats layered in jackets, scarves, and face masks stood outside an elementary school in the bitter cold Thursday night to cast a series of votes.
They were making the same point, with a different spin, that Republicans made a night earlier when they met indoors, without masks, to cast a series of votes.
by | Jan 10, 2022 2:40 pm | Comments (3)
New Haven and Hamden teachers got help dealing with the extra duties and health hazards brought on by the Omicron-fueled Omicron surge.
by | Jan 9, 2022 8:03 pm | Comments (4)
Paul Bass Photo
Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett
Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett will be able to “show up” safely for a scheduled meeting as planned Monday morning, even though she has tested positive for Covid-19.
Continue reading ‘Omicron Hits, But Doesn’t Stop, Hamden’s Mayor’
by | Jan 7, 2022 3:03 pm | Comments (8)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
Social worker Glenn Xavier: Without us, where would the kids be?
Upon learning that his colleague had tested positive for Covid-19, Matt Tremper did double duty: He taught history to his seventh-graders on one side of the library while overseeing a science experiment for another class assembled across the stacks.
Learning continued — even though the Omicron variant was doing its best all week to render schools inoperable.
by | Jan 6, 2022 11:55 am | Comments (15)
District Nine Republicans choose their leadership.
Hamden Republicans shed their face masks Wednesday night and congregated at Devonshire Hall to endorse the future faces of the party’s town committee — with the goal of building a stronger coalition of conservatives to serve as a “viable alternative” to the town’s new liberal administration.
by | Jan 5, 2022 9:41 am | Comments (5)
Cars lined up for Tuesday distribution.
Nora Grace-Flood Photos
Pablo Colon, daughter Angelica with tests they needed last month.
Desperate Amazon workers, exposed family members, and hundreds of others jammed the streets outside a shuttered Hamden High School late Tuesday afternoon in hopes of getting their hands on the last batch for now of town-provided at-home Covid-19 tests.
by | Jan 4, 2022 5:15 pm | Comments (11)
Firefighters, cops, and teachers continued to scramble to fill gaps and keep government working Tuesday as the state’s Covid-19 infection rate hit 23.85 percent and the number of hospitalized patients in Greater New Haven soared to 539 amid the spread of the Omicron variant.
by | Jan 4, 2022 1:48 pm | Comments (3)
Paul Bass photo
Nominee Rhonda Caldwell at a 2019 rally calling for the firing of Hamden Police Officer Devin Eaton.
A new day for Hamden’s police commission has come into view after five nominees won the first of two needed votes to take over — and promised to bring heightened transparency and a more diverse outlook on public safety.
Continue reading ‘Auguring New Direction, Hamden Cop Commission Nominations Advance’
by , and | Jan 3, 2022 6:49 pm | Comments (15)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
Principal Dan Levy: This isn't March 2020.
Administrators filled in to keep classrooms running and lunches served Monday, bus routes were combined, and teachers all received masks, as the New Haven and Hamden school districts resolved to remain open even as some suburban districts temporarily pulled the plug.
The hope remained by day’s end that kids can remain in schools despite the fact that Connecticut posted a record 21.5 percent Covid-19 test-positivity rate.
Meanwhile, New Haven’s teachers union president applauded the efforts to fill gaps but questioned whether they’ll prove “sustainable” — or if Connecticut should allow some remote learning to count as official school days.
by | Dec 23, 2021 3:28 pm | Comments (1)
1959 Lutheran church located at 3860 Whitney now sold to "Church of Christ LLC."
Northern Hamden will see three acres of previously private woods preserved and opened to the public — as well as a currently confidential congregation emerge within a 60-year-old church — in 2022.
Those are two upcoming developments described by sellers, buyers, donors, and donees in Hamden’s latest series of property transactions. (Check out the chart lower down in this story to see sales filed in the past week.)
Continue reading ‘Hamden Real Estate Roundup: Open Space Preserved, Churches Merged’
by | Dec 20, 2021 3:12 pm | Comments (2)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Pete Nizen III (pictured) repurposes engines in a spot now primed for new manufacturing.
Starting an automotive repair shop in Hamden just got a lot easier.
So did developing any industrial or commercial use enterprise in town, thanks to a series of new zoning regulation amendments aimed at reducing red tape faced by current and potential property owners and renters.
by | Dec 15, 2021 9:30 am | Comments (6)
Newly elected Hamden Council President Dominique Baez, who will appoint charter revision commission members.
In its first official meeting of the year, Hamden’s new Legislative Council chose to put charter revision back on the table by voting to form a second — and smaller — commission to update the document.
by | Dec 14, 2021 12:43 pm | Comments (8)
Sal Laudano: Quinnipiac property acquisitions wreck community.
When college kids officially move into 93 Lucien Dr., a three-bedroom ranch that has stood nestled within Hamden’s woodsy first district since 1968, they’ll make neighborhood history — by turning the street of long-term Hamden families into a majority Quinnipiac student-housing row.
by | Dec 13, 2021 9:20 am | Comments (5)
Hamden High memes, courtesy of a student.
Nora Grace-Flood photos
Sophomore SPCP representatives Ayanna Lovieno, Alianna Wray, and Hunmae McCollum address adults at community forum.
After three days off school due to gun violence threats, Fin Powers wasn’t sure what to expect when he returned to Hamden High.
So he prepared the best he could for the unknown. Following an anonymous Snapchat post in which a now arrested 13-year-old suggested intent to shoot up both Hamden High and Middle Schools, Powers read through a letter from his principal laying out new protocol for having students pass through a metal detector each day.
Continue reading ‘Students Speak Out On School Violence: Metal Detectors Won't Cure Isolation’
by | Dec 9, 2021 7:00 pm | Comments (9)
People will now be required to wear masks “indoors in any indoor public spaces” in Hamden, in the wake of the first report of someone in town testing positive for the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
by | Dec 9, 2021 1:26 pm | Comments (3)
Paul Bass Photo
Erik Johnson at WNHH FM
Erik Johnson looked at the barbed wire. He heard the lonesome factory whistle blow. He thought: This doesn’t make sense.
And he thought: When I grow up, I’m going to make decisions about how neighborhoods work and how people live there.
Continue reading ‘When Erik Johnson Heard That Factory Whistle Blow’
by | Dec 9, 2021 9:20 am | Comments (3)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Mansfield and Dunham, both detectives and both named Robert, now titled Sergeants.
Hamden’s Police Commission continued a promotional streak during their final meeting of the year Wednesday evening, moving Detectives Robert Dunham and Robert Mansfield up to sergeant status.
by | Dec 8, 2021 1:41 pm | Comments (3)
Police continued arresting students they say are responsible for issuing threats of violence that have been locking down or shutting down schools in recent days.
by | Dec 7, 2021 7:25 pm | Comments (2)
State Trooper Dawn Pagan: Still "looking at the full scope of the content and the motivation of that kind of a post."
Two 14-year-old boys at Eli Whitney Technical High — allegedly seeking to provoke a day off from school — were arrested Tuesday after State Police identified them as the individuals behind two separate threats of gun violence spread via Instagram that led to lockdowns Monday and Tuesday.
Continue reading ‘2 Eli Whitney Students Arrested Over Gun Violence Threats’
by | Dec 7, 2021 1:43 pm | Comments (7)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
Parent Jayme Clark at Monday night's community meeting: "You have educators watching children on the regular being beat to a pulp in your middle schools and your high schools."
After three days off from class due to gun violence threats, Hamden High students and faculty will return to school Wednesday — and be greeted by security guards waving metal detecting wands.
Continue reading ‘As Threats Continue, Hamden High Readies Plan For Reopening Safely’
by | Dec 6, 2021 5:45 pm | Comments (13)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
Assistant Director Mike Siciliano with newly appointed Director Matthew Kott, Mayor Lauren Garrett, and her Chief of Staff Sean Grace.
On her second Monday morning in office, Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett and Chief of Staff, Sean Grace arrived at Public Works’ headquarters on Shepard Avenue at 7 a.m. with pastries from Whitney Donut and 54 unionized employees’ new boss: Matthew Kott.
Continue reading ‘Garrett Hires New Public Works Director, Nominates 3 Cop Commissioners’
by , and | Dec 6, 2021 1:13 pm | Comments (15)
Lucy Gellman/Arts Paper Photos
Top: Cops on scene at Wilbur Cross Monday morning. Bottom: Junior Mikayla Torres on the phone with her mom.
A 17-year-old Wilbur Cross High School student has been arrested for phoning in a false gun threat that led to a lockdown — on a day when threats caused havoc for eight different New Haven schools and at least two Hamden schools.
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
SRO Jeremy Brewer stands outside closed Hamden High School Monday, alongside three other police officers assigned to the campus for extra security. On Brewer's first full day working in the high school this fall, he deescalated a situation in which a student was carrying a loaded gun within the building.
Continue reading ‘Threats Shut Down High Schools; Student Arrested For False Gun Report’
by | Dec 3, 2021 10:18 am | Comments (0)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Hamden High on Nov. 29, after a student was stabbed just off the campus.
Hamden High is closed through Friday after school officials were informed Thursday night of a gun violence threat that had been made online.
by | Dec 3, 2021 9:32 am | Comments (2)
Staff Photo
Asst. Supt. Highsmith: “We recognize that people are who they say they are.”
Hamden school employees will see raises, gender neutral bathrooms, and benefits for library media specialists take effect starting July 1 thanks to a newly approved contract negotiated between the teachers union and the Board of Education.
Continue reading ‘Hamden Teachers Contract Features 9% Raises Over 3 Years, Gender Neutral Lavs’