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Category: Local

  • Rocky Hill considers joining local redevelopment program

    Rocky Hill considers joining local redevelopment program

    At the March 17, Town Council Meeting the Town Council received a presentation on a new support to development. David Kooris, the Executive Director of the CT Municiple Redevelopment Authority (MRDA) explained resources that Rocky Hill could deploy to develop our downtown area.

    According to Kooris, the objectives of the MRDA are to promote economic development, particularly transit-oriented and new housing. This is done through:

    • Technical support to town staff in drafting zoning rules and building fiscal impact analysis
    • Low interest loans to the development and grants for infrastructure
    • Supporting finding a developer

    In order to enroll in the program, there needs to be a public hearing. That hearing is scheduled for April 7th. After the hearing the Town Council needs to adopt a resolution declaring their intent to work with the MRDA.

  • Pancakes and Principles

    Pancakes and Principles

    On March 1st, I attended the Mayor’s Pancake Breakfast at VFW Post 2138, in Rocky Hill.  It was a fundraiser for a very worthy cause, the Blue Star Memorial Project.  That project – creating a network of memorial markers for our armed service members – was launched in 1945 to honor veterans of World War II.  It now pays tribute to all our veterans.

    As I ate my pancakes, mindful of the setting and the cause, I reflected sadly about an incident from just the day before.  That incident was the spectacle of our President and Vice President publicly berating the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

    President Zelenskyy is a profile in courage who embodies the very ideals that America’s fallen World War II veterans died for:  protecting democracy and freedom from the forces of tyranny and oppression.  The current Administration’s philosophy of “might makes right” desecrates those values and mocks the sacrifices of America’s service members – those who came home and those who didn’t.

    Meanwhile, the Administration is applying a sledgehammer to the Department of Veterans Affairs. This will harm not only the veterans who rely upon the Department’s services – it will also put many veterans who work for the Department out of work.

    The President loves to say that he “loves our veterans.”  Coming from him, the words could hardly be emptier.