by | Oct 23, 2020 10:27 am | Comments (3)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Residents at a pre-Covid council meeting.
After its council revisited and passed a transfer it had previously failed Monday, Hamden is now set to close out the last fiscal year as finance officials would like, and set to stop the longstanding practice in town of including savings in operating budgets.
by | Oct 21, 2020 5:02 pm | Comments (0)
Sam Gurwitt photo
Susan Bysiewicz.
Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz made a pitch to get out the vote in a different kind of presidential election Tuesday, one that won’t affect who sits in the White House next, but that might spur young soon-to-be voters to political action.
Continue reading ‘Bysiewicz Gets Out The Vote — In High School Mock Election’
by | Oct 19, 2020 10:47 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Saul Fussiner.
“Why do we tell stories involving food?” asked Saul Fussiner, storyteller and host of Songs and Stories, at Best Video on Saturday evening. It was the opening to treat himself and a group of others to a show titled “Food for Thought,” which would answer his question and more.
by | Oct 16, 2020 9:44 am | Comments (7)
Cabrera, Logan on the campaign trail.
George Logan didn’t bring his guitar to his latest performance, but he did bring a refrain: His opponent tells “only half the story.”
Continue reading ‘Debate Pits Labor vs. Regulation Priorities’
by | Oct 15, 2020 5:24 pm | Comments (6)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Hamden’s West Woods School, in dire need of a new roof.
Well aware of Hamden’s fiscal stress, school board officials are planning to approve a new five-year plan for school maintenance projects throughout the district with significantly scaled-back construction projects.
Continue reading ‘Hamden BOE Eyes Scaled-Back Construction Goals’
by | Oct 14, 2020 3:32 pm | Comments (16)
Sam Gurwitt Photos
Cracked foundation at PIne Rock.
Cameron Revels: You knew your neighbor. All this didn’t exist.”
When Vanessa Brown moved into her condo in 1997, she hoped to pass her gorgeous 1,500 square-foot investment to her son one day — that is, until cracks started to form in her walls and foundation.
by | Oct 8, 2020 2:15 pm | Comments (2)
Contributed photo
Adrian Webber
Adrian Webber likes to lead through balance and building consensus with facts. In his new post on the Hamden Legislative Council, those skills may be put to the test.
Continue reading ‘Hamden Council Elects Consensus-Builder To Vacant Seat’
by | Oct 7, 2020 3:00 pm | Comments (7)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Mayor Curt Leng.
In a tenth-hour vote following an evening of frustration and confusion, the Hamden Legislative Council voted Monday to not make a $2.85 million transfer to close out its 2019 – 2020 fiscal year (FY20) budget.
The move will not affect the budget’s bottom line, but it might create some concerning figures in an upcoming audit because of how the budget was crafted in the first place.
Continue reading ‘Hamden Council Nixes Year-End Closeout Transfer’
by | Oct 5, 2020 3:34 pm | Comments (3)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Weruché George.
A Democrat is taking on a Democrat for one of Hamden’s state legislative seats, but on an independent line — with a focus on her experiences as an immigrant and without taking shots at the incumbent.
Continue reading ‘Democrat, Running On Independent Line, Mounts “Equity” Challenge’
by | Sep 30, 2020 8:00 pm | Comments (1)
Sam Gurwitt Photos
Two residents and two firefighters went to the hospital Wednesday afternoon with non-life-threatening injuries after a fire broke out in the basement of a six-story apartment complex in Hamden.
by | Sep 28, 2020 12:24 pm | Comments (3)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Stephanie Allis receiving gifts.
Neighbors decorated Stephanie Allis’s lawn with tissue paper and balloons — not to mourn the life she tried to save, but to celebrate the one she will soon bring into the world.
by | Sep 27, 2020 1:16 pm | Comments (0)
Jorge Cabrera at a July press event for Stop & Shop workers.
Jorge Cabrera doesn’t have Covid-19.
Continue reading ‘After Scare, Cabrera Tests Negative For Covid-19’
by | Sep 25, 2020 12:09 pm | Comments (3)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
A backhoe at Paradise Landscaping in September.
The Hamden Planning and Zoning Commission spent nearly three hours heaping a pile of ire almost as deep as the rocks and dirt at 82 – 92 Crestway on Rus Boyarsky and his illegal landscaping operation.
Then it stalled his only path forward with the town for another month.
Continue reading ‘“Paradise” Remediation Stalled, As Politically Connected Scofflaw Hits A Wall’
by | Sep 22, 2020 6:10 pm | Comments (0)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
A public works crew clears brush after Isaias.
A month, and a month and a half, after storms ripped through Hamden, crews are still picking up the brush from downed trees all over town. On Monday, the town got the bill for that cleanup.
by | Sep 22, 2020 12:40 pm | Comments (8)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Ruiz on the steps of his apartment building, for now.
The state has turned off the tap on an emergency pandemic rental assistance program — leaving even “lucky” applicants like Jonathan Ruiz unsure if they’ll get any of the promised money.
by | Sep 21, 2020 12:11 pm | Comments (6)
Sam Gurwitt Photos
An illegally stored truck at the Paradise lot.
Hamden officials are set to decide this week whether a politically connected landscaper gets a second chance in town after repeatedly violating zoning laws and evading taxes — or whether time’s up and it must cough up $270,000 (and counting) in fines.
by | Sep 18, 2020 4:20 pm | Comments (41)
Sam Gurwitt Photos
Josh Elliott, Kathy Hoyt out seeking votes: Split on policing.
Josh Elliott was holding a stack of campaign flyers calling for defunding police when he asked voter Craig Wiehler what issues concern him.
“I would like,” said Wiehler, “to not see the police defunded.”
by | Sep 18, 2020 9:40 am | Comments (5)
Police have charged a 21-year-old Hamden man with negligent homicide for erratic driving that ended up killing a 54-year-old bicyclist.
by | Sep 18, 2020 9:27 am | Comments (0)
The first song The Bargain played in their set at Best Video Thursday was “a pandemic song,” said singer Frank Critelli. But it was a pandemic song with perspective; it was about how even now, there was still time to work on yourself.
It was the beginning of a set of original songs from The Bargain — Frank Critelli, Shandy Lawson, and Muddy Rivers — that showed the band as a group of artists already responding to the immediacy of the moment, but with their eyes on the bigger picture and what it all might come to mean. It was also warm, humane, and a lot of fun.
by | Sep 17, 2020 5:00 pm | Comments (3)
Two days after Hamden’s schools opened for hybrid in-person instruction, a staff member at the Helen Street School tested positive for Covid-19.
Continue reading ‘Hamden School Staffer Tests Positive For Covid-19’
by | Sep 15, 2020 5:05 pm | Comments (4)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Logan and Cabrera on the campaign trail.
George Logan and Jorge Cabrera agree about one thing: Families in Connecticut’s 17th State Senate District struggle with the costs of living.
But when it comes to what to do about it, one promotes paid family medical leave and a $15 minimum wage. The other argues those policies choke businesses, and tax dollars, out of the state.
by | Sep 14, 2020 1:10 pm | Comments (1)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
The glass table where Kaye Paddyfote attended Professor Khalilah Brown-Dean’s lecture on America’s prison system was spotless. Not a crumb was left from the cupcakes sitting on the nearby counter from a roommate’s birthday the night before.
by | Sep 14, 2020 9:21 am | Comments (0)
A masked Pete Kaufman leaned into the microphone as David Sasso tuned his instrument at the start of their second set at Best Video.
“It’s such a nice night,” he said. “Not going to have too many more nights like this. What’s better than being outside?”
by | Sep 10, 2020 5:24 pm | Comments (6)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Hamden Superintendent Jody Goeler, Assistant Principal Scott Trauner, and Principal Nadine Gannon.
Stickers with arrows dot the hallways of Hamden High School, signs hang down from the ceiling at every corner with arrows and small yellow and green dragons in the corner, and classrooms are set up with desks six feet apart. Now, the building is just missing students.
Continue reading ‘Hamden Schools Ready To Reopen, With Dragon Pride’
by | Sep 9, 2020 5:17 pm | Comments (2)
HFD
The alleged shooter’s car.
A driver got into an argument with a 46-year-old panhandler, then shot him “three or four times.”