Memo To Me:
· Remind Mayor Finch to take credit for the $600 stimulus-package checks Bushy is sending out this week. Bird Man got the number correct, just the wrong direction.
· Call Jan Williams about hosting a blog party mid-May at Captain’s Cove Seaport. First round is on me. Ask Yahooy if he’ll cough up the second round. Ask Tom Kelly to do taste test.
· Ask Republican Town Chair Marc Delmonico if he and Rick Torres will lead the FU crew team from the Pequonnock River to the party at The Cove. Also invite Bob from Bepo to join us at The Cove. Tell him, if he comes, he’s still allowed to break my stones.
· Contact Marilyn Moore, former aide to State Sen. Ed Gomes, about her potential run for Rob Russo’s state senate seat. Don’t forget to visit her website www.witnessprojectct.org.
· Write MCAT about coming out of hibernation. Here kitty kitty, Envoy5 has something nice for you.
· Ask City Councilman Bob Curwen if the budget committee will restore Finch’s job cuts in the city budget.
· Thank readers of Fairfield County Weekly for voting OIB number one in the Best Of blog category.
· Also thank Wondering for his insightful posts.
· Ask Mario Testa if he’ll do a tank job on Anthony Musto, presumptive Democratic-endorsed candidate for state senate, if Tom McCarthy decides to primary.
· In lieu of Michelle Lyons returning my calls, contact Tom Lyons, husband of Michelle, to ask if she’s challenging State Rep. Jack Hennessy.
· Ask Bruce Hubler when he’s inviting Mo and me to the Patterson Club. Try not to beg in note.
· Ask councilman Bob Walsh if Bob Keeley is Yahooy. Not!
· Thank OIB readers for pushing us over the 40,000-pageviews mark since new launch.
And you thought the best fights broke out at city council meetings. A release from Boxing USA.
The USA Boxing Olympic Invitational to Open Activities with Event Press Conference, April 28 at the Arena at Harbor Yard
Three U.S. Olympians, USA Boxing CEO Jim Millman and Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch to be in attendance
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. — USA Boxing will open the event activities for the first-ever USA Boxing Olympic Invitational with an event press conference, April 28 at the Arena at Harbor yard. Lightweight Olympian Sadam Ali (Brooklyn, N.Y.), light welterweight Olympian Javier Molina (Commerce, Calif.) and heavyweight Olympian Deontay Wilder (Tuscaloosa, Ala.) will join USA Boxing CEO Jim Millman and Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch in kicking off the event. In addition, USA Boxing’s Connecticut LBC Chief of Officials George Phillips will share his comments on the major international event coming to Bridgeport and the state of Connecticut. USA Boxing will present Mayor Finch with an oversized commemorative ticket for the event during the press conference.
The USA Boxing Olympic Invitational, which will take place May 9 at the Arena at Harbor Yard, will showcase elite level amateur boxing with the United States taking on competitors from Brazil and China in a pre-Olympic showdown. Four United States Olympians will compete in the event with light flyweight Luis Yanez (Duncanville, Texas) joining Ali, Molina and Wilder in the major international competition.
A national level feature bout between 2008 National Champion Luis Arias (Milwaukee, Wis.) and 2007 National Golden Gloves champion Shawn Porter (Stow, Ohio) will round out the outstanding night of Olympic-style boxing action.
Tickets for the USA Boxing Olympic Invitational are currently on sale and are available through Ticketmaster as well as the Arena at Harbor Yard and range from $30 for upper level seats, $50 for lower level seats, to $75 for premium floor seating.
I thought there was a Boxer Rebellion in China.
Keeley and Grogins are going to be featured on the undercard.
Where’s City Kitty been meowing around lately?
Hello everyone … I’ve been real busy; no time to meow around, haven’t had time to read the blog. But when I did just now, I was happy to see some positive things. Sometimes all the negative stuff gets old and depressing. I see some bloggers speak Italian to each other, what happened to the French guy and his baguette? Where is Anna? I get a kick out of her and yahooy jabbing each other.
City Kitty; Anna went to the Veternarian and they decided to keep her a few days. She will be fine
“Where is Anna? I get a kick out of her and yahooy jabbing each other.”
Define “jabbing”.
What are people hearing about Finch’s budget?
Does he have the votes on the Council to get it passed?
Will the Council propose its own budget and would this budget save jobs and keep any tax increase low?
Will Finch veto a Council budget?
Does the Council have the 14 votes it needs to overide a Finch veto?
Lastly, does Finch have a line item veto?
yahooy – by jabbing I meant throwing snide comments at each other. I get a few laughs from it, I didn’t mean it in a bad way.
John from BR – I think Finch cannot veto the council’s version of the budget. He lost too much political capital in the DTC chair fight. He probably is trying to regain it to get Audren Grogins the party nomination. Why do people keep trying to elect her to something? She wasn’t any good on the BOE and was voted out. No one wants to appoint her as judge. She has been proven to lack judgment in her decision to represent the murder of 2 children and their mother in Cheshire. Her morals are suspect and she doesn’t know anyone in Hartford or anything about it. Why would want to trade in a guy who is the chair of bonding? Anyway enough about the blonde banshee as Lennie calls her.
Not sure about the line item, but I don’t think so. The questions regarding veto override are does he have 7 friends that will stand by him or will they succumb to political pressure and what does Mario want, he holds the cards for the next council election. People will look to him for funding and support not Finch. So if Finch and Mario aren’t on the same page, the council people have to think who do I want to piss off and do I want to be re-elected. It is the proverbial albatross around their necks.
Defending those 2 psychos took the cake. 3 Murders, rape, robbery, arson, and close to killing the doctor. How do you defend that? I know everybody is entitled to a lawyer, but she could have said no and let somebody else do that Cheshire case. I believe Keely could do a lot better for B-port than he has, but I don’t think she beat him.
I will be supporting Bob Keeley this summer, as I believe he is by far the best candidate. However, I will not be criticizing Auden Grogins for doing her job as a lawyer. As despicable as these people are, they are entitled to legal representation from someone. For me, there are plenty of other good reasons to support Keeley without dwelling on this one, in my opinion, non issue.
Paoletto, Santiago, Blunt, Lyons, Holloway, McCarthy. These six council members work for the city, I can’t remember any other names. Seeing that Finch needs seven votes to stop the council from overriding his veto (if he vetoes the council form of the budget). For sure he has Santiago, after all Mitch the Bitch Robles has set his stepson up well thanks to Finch. New job as Special Projects Coordinator, Council Seat and candidate for State legislator. Blunt has no guts and will go along and he will be rewarded. McCarthy, he can’t decide where he is. Is he with Testa or will he do Finch’s bidding? Recent large raise could be the difference. Holloway and Paoletto will stick with council majority. Lyons is an unknown factor. It appears that the minority Caucus will control where the budget goes as they have 12 members.
Finch has rebuffed Testa’s attempts to make peace and to work together. Latest from Finch: I will call you. It’s been 10 days.
I never have an objection to whom an attorney has as clients. There is a sitting judge who once told me that the hardest part of being a defense attorney was overcoming the revulsion he often had from the despicable crimes committed by those who hired him. These people are entitled to be represented by a competent professional who will ensure that all rights are preserved and that a fair trial will be conducted.
It was stated that Grogins should not have taken the case and let someone else do it. Why? Because she aspires to political office?
DiNardo tried to torch the Remington Arms plant again last night. That’s one way to get a lower assessment on the property and avoid wrecking costs!
His newspaper ad was maudlin and indicting in itself. He made false assertions that will soon be exposed and published by the media. He spent next to none (if any!) of his own money on the Brass plant “clean-up” and, by some indications, is farther in arrears on his taxes than previously noted.
All of his Bridgeport property should be seized and auctioned off and he should be forbidden from doing any more business in Bridgeport.
Sal DiNardo is a blight on our city and an impediment to our progress.
Hit the road, Sal! (Or should I say, “Hit the asphalt!”) Go muck up your own town!
(Lenny, for God’s sake, don’t let yourself get pulled down the drain with another corrupt regime and its cronies — get some respectable clients who aren’t eyeball-deep into the political muck of these parts… You don’t want to do any more composing from a prison cell! Think about the good old days when you were among the bright “Lights” of Bridgeport journalism!)
LENNIE RESPONDS: GOOD GRIEF CAPPY, ISN’T THIS JUST A BIT EXCESSIVE? I WRITE A RADIO CAMPAIGN THAT PROMOTES THE CITY’S TOURISM ATTRACTIONS, SPONSORED BY PETER DINARDO ENTERPRISES AND YOU WANT TO PUT ME IN THE JOINT? BY THE WAY, THIS BLOG IS A PRETTY DARN GOOD BRIGHT LIGHT.
If Finch had any brains at all he would be trying to work with Mario. As for the council, Santiago will definately go along with whatever the birdman wants, as he just got a 14 grand increase in salary. As for McCarthy, I believe he is torn also, but he’s more likely to go on Testa’s side. As for Holloway, I have seen him go against this admin a couple of times, so if he stays honest and ” for the people” he will go against this budget. As for Sal, WHAT A CROOK!!! I wonder if finch paid for that ad??
cpaitalistpropaganda- The Cold War is over. You must have spent a long time running the Gulag. What motivation would a property owner have to perform an act of arson that would only heighten their environmental and legal exposure? We have a free market system here and freedom of speech. But you can’t go around running into theaters yelling “Fire!” without any reason.
Far be it for me to be a pest. But no one has answered my question. Has Sal DiNardo done anything about removing toxic and hazardous material from the properties he “acquired” from the city? You know, the ones that have millions and millions due in taxes. These projects of DiNardo’s are highly profitable if he ignores taxes and hazard removal costs. If he pays for these things like everone else, the projects could be dogs. So, did he or did he not pay for hazardous removal? If he did, where are the documents that indicate the work was performed?
Yahooy:
DiNardo spent $5 million to clean and demolish a majority of the Brass site. The remaining piece he could not clean is controlled by the city. But for the piece that he controlled he has lived up to his agreement with the city –leveled, cleaned and removed.
yahooy, what kind of fair trial did that poor doctor’s wife and 2 daughters get from those heartless men? Did they get shown mercy when they were begging for their lives? Yeah, go ahead, give them a fair trial, they deserve only the best. As for me supporting somebody running for office that defends these creeps, no way. But hey, thats just me, everyone is free to make their own choice.
I think any remediation work would have to be cleared under documentation from State DEP and EPA. There are strict standards that need to be followed and a chain of evidence for any soil removed etc.
DiNardo also as a provision on the South Avenue is spending about $200k to clean that site. The Seaside Village folks are very happy after concerns of water runoff from polluted tape factory seeping into their backyards.
Five million was spent for cleanup of Brass site in preparation for United Rentals to come from Fairfield to Bridgeport. I don’t think you mess around with a high profile, publicly traded company coming to Bridgeport. Yahooy, you’re not a pest because the truth is an absolute defense.
You are correct, the people in Seaside Village are very pleased about the clean-up. My friend lives there and all the residents said it was long overdue.
In 1993, the EPA and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection began working together to complete the cleanup of contamination Raymark left behind in Stratford. EPA completed its cleanup of the contaminated residential properties in 1995 and the former Raymark plant property in 1997. Plans for cleanup of the Ferry Creek area and surrounding properties where additional Raymark waste was historically disposed are currently being developed by EPA.
The cost of cleaning up the Raymark Site exceeded $200 million.
The Bridgeport Brass property is easily 5 times the size of the Raybestos property in Stratford. Who’s kidding who?
Grimaldi
DiNardo may have lived up to his agreement with the city and all of the goombas that entails, but did he live up to any mandates imposed by the feds?
City Kitty
Thbbbbbt!!!
same to you yahooy!!
Where is Anna when we really need her? I think yahooy misses her thats why he sounds so annoyed the past few days. he misses her, he really really misses her!
Grimaldi gets Philistine of the Week for his dogged support of his benefactor, DiNardo. Get real, Lennie. Remediating contaminated property goes way beyond leveling and removing the debris making the property look pretty. What about hazardous material infiltrating the ground and surrounding water sources? Brass is any alloy of copper and zinc, both hard metals. Doesn’t degrade and doesn’t evaporate, just contaminates.
The outfit that bought the old Avco property in Stratford for $9 mil expects to spend $75 mil for remediation and have purchased insurance for another $200 mil.
Not one word about that by anyone.