From city Communications Director Av Harris:
Mayor Joe Ganim today and the Bridgeport Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security have activated the city’s cold weather protocol for the entire President’s Day Weekend. This means all Bridgeport public library branches and senior centers as well as the Greater Bridgeport Transit Terminal will be open during the day as warming centers. In addition, the United Congregational Church located at 877 Park Avenue will serve as an overflow shelter for anyone in need of a warm shelter during the extreme cold temperatures expected to impact the region for the next few days.
“With frigid weather expected to drop temperatures to sub-zero levels and extreme wind chill, everyone who needs shelter during the day or night will have a warm place to go and a warm bed to sleep in,” said Mayor Ganim. “We want to make sure everyone who needs a place to go will start making plans now. The cold weather protocol is activated now and will stay activated for the entire weekend.”
Warming Centers are open during the day at the following locations and times:
· Greater Bridgeport Transit Bus Terminal – 710 Water St, Bridgeport CT (7:00am-9:30pm)Senior Centers:
· East Side Senior Center- 1057 East Main St Bridgeport, CT (9:00am-4:30pm)· Black Rock Senior Center- 2676 Fairfield Ave Bridgeport, CT (9:00am-4:30pm)
· North End Bethany Senior Center – 20 Throme St Bridgeport CT (9:00am-4:30pm)
Bridgeport Public Library Branches:
· Main Branch – 925 Broad Street, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. today and Saturday, 1:00-5:00 p.m. Sunday· Black Rock Branch – 2705 Fairfield Avenue, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. today and Saturday
· Newfield Branch – 1230 Stratford Avenue, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. today and Saturday
· North Branch – 3455 Madison Avenue, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. today and Saturday
· Old Mill Green Branch – 1677 East Main Street, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. today and Saturday
For anyone in need of shelter overnight who does not already have a place to stay in Bridgeport, the United Congregational Church located at 877 Park Avenue will be available. In order to register for that location, people can arrive at the Harrison Apartments on 651 State St, Bridgeport, CT 06604 from 4pm-6pm.
· After 6:00 pm, those in need of shelter can go directly to Prospect House located at 392 Prospect St, Bridgeport, CT 06604.
· After 9:30pm – those in need can call Prospect House at 203-610-6252 to be put into the overflow shelter at United Congregational Church. The church however does not accept walk-ins without going through intake at either the Harrison Apartments or Prospect House. Anyone who knows in advance that they will need shelter after 9:00pm is asked to call Prospect House prior to 6:00 p.m. to go through the intake process.
With the severe weather, these Warming Centers should be open 24/7. Why would anyone shut them down?
Good question.
Great point, Jimfox. Maybe it’s because they don’t see these people as humans and they’re convinced they are Foxes.
CT POST Reports
Connecticut and Long Island Sound are under a number of watches and warnings from the extreme cold this weekend.
On land, there is a wind chill warning from 4 p.m. Saturday to noon on Sunday. Wind chills are expected as low as minus 30 because temperatures will be 5 to 10 degrees below zero and northwest winds will be blowing between 10 and 20 mph with gusts as high as 35 mph.
The forecast for Long Island Sounds sounds downright chilling.
Days ago, regular and new OIB readers were shocked and offended by the barrage of insults thrown here before, during, and after the Super Bowl.
This is one of my favorite insults from an old OIB friend who hasn’t posted in a while. He uses the handle of yahooy. I don’t know about other OIB senior posters, but I miss yahooy! He contributed a lot of valuable points of view and was fun to engage in a blog conversation. All new and old OIB visitors should go check out the early years of OIB by checking out the OIB archive and start from the bottom of the list:
yahooy // Mar 24, 2008 at 11:19 am
Will somebody PLEASE tel Joel Gonzalez that no one, absolutely no one is interested in his baseless rantings. What a waste of good blog space.
Joel. You lost us all when you cut off your finger in a political protest. We don’t want to represented by or guided by someone who would do something like that. I suggest you pick out your favorite of the remaining nine and stick it squarely up your ass.
onlyinbridgeport.com/wordpress/feeling-for-finch
BREAKING NEWS: All Bridgeport Warming Shelters full to the max. One hour after city Communications Director Av Harris sent out a press release announcing the locations of the Warming Shelters, they had to close the doors and stop letting people in. It turns out hundreds of former Joe Ganim Campaign supporters/volunteers all of whom felt ‘left out in the cold’ after the election was over, rushed into the Shelters as soon as the doors opened.
Good one, Joel.
Feeling left out in the cold, are you?
No Bob, I’m good. I knew what to expect, that’s why I collected all the leftover Finch, Mary-Jane, Rick Torres and Joe Ganim lawn signs, political literature, etc. I collected enough to build and insulate my cardboard house and keep a fire burning ’til July.
It’s unchristian to put these homeless people back out in the cold after 6:00pm, Mayor!
Open up the schools, City hall Annex, The Klein Memorial and Testo’s.
Give them hot chocolate, coffee, something to eat, some place to sleep for the night!
We just got rid of a mayor who didn’t flucking care about his people!
A little overtime for Police and Fire Departments, why not!
Snarfing coffee in the morning really warms up a frozen brain. Thank you for that, Jim Fox. Really funny.
ZL, it’s not funny.
Jim,
In New York city and state they send out the police to round up some of these individuals to get them to shelters. In B’port it’s by reservation only. Go figure.
JML,
I’m only on page three of the transition report. The suspense is killing me. Cut to the chase. What does the report say about Warming Centers and Homeless Shelters?
The city is waiting for new direction.
Bob,
Do you want answers that are timely? Ask your Council person. Personally I did drop off a good-sized bag of bread and rolls from a concerned deli owner today to the Bridgeport Rescue Mission while they were serving lunch in a warm dining room.That is a weekly activity for me on Saturdays. For some reason I sense the number of homeless on the streets is somewhat less than in years past. Nevertheless humans need shelter from the elements and the next couple days will be especially straining.
How many of the folks asking questions today are serving the poor, hungry and homeless on a regular basis? It is not a funny matter, and not one that should wait for a record cold wave in February.
As to the transition report, I hope you read beyond page 3 (and a yell out to me). If it is put on a shelf with little or no action, then it will gather dust as many such reports have in the past. Status quo. Little or no change. To the extent you find some things that are positive, but without a timetable, ask about implementation. But asking me is a waste as I was not invited to a transition team and do not even have as much ‘power’ as a “former City Council member” like you.
I did witness the Mayor at the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance breakfast this morning at St. Paul’s Mission Church on Logan Street. The breakfast was hosted by the Greater Bridgeport NAACP. Mayor Ganim talked about the transition process with emphasis. Lots of questions from the clergy gathered. Also about large dollars coming to the community from Washington. Does that mean processes will change? Time will tell.
We should send the bill for operating these centers to Malloy as he is the present governor.
The state many years ago closed most of the mental hospitals and dumped those people on the street. The state should take care of these people.
I don’t care who but someone should be taking care of them.
Maybe MALLOY could get AAA to privatize this service also.
The state created much of this problem and should reimburse cities for the cost.
Oh, that’s right. I don’t think AAA has offices in the urban centers.
Wasn’t Carmen Colon and Andres Ayala going around counting the number of homeless people in Bridgeport, what for? All rooms and open space at the YMCA are taken.
Here is an example of what the state does with the mentally challenge. Just before I retired I investigated a fire on the East Side. The young man who lived there told us his girlfriend set the fire. He have us a complete description of his girlfriend. A month later while riding downtown we saw this girl. We stopped and talked to her and then she was arrested. This girl was our victim in drag. In speaking with him he stated as far as he could remember he had been in a mental hospital and this was his first shot at outside living.
One month later we were called to the Wood Ave area, same person, same type fire.
This cold weather will also be a problem for the poor in trying to stay warm by keeping their stove and oven on plus using electric heaters improperly.
We had a fire on Harral Ave this morning with 10 left homeless. Add all those who are calling the landlord to fix the boilers or heating system.