Two Southington Boys Spearhead Successful Toys for Tots Drive

Originally published in the Southington Citizen.

There’s no minimum age for compassion for the unseen have-nots in a community, certainly not in Southington, CT. Attesting to that is the generous work of the heart of two 6th grade, eleven-year-old boys. Jonathan Kryzanski and Jonathan Pierson have been friends since the age of six when they played soccer together. Since then, their friendship has grown, extending beyond sports to other mutual interests, such as joining STEPS, (Southington Town-wide Efforts to Promote Success), a movement that has itself grown very successfully in the three years since the program was established under a grant from a federal agency and a great deal of work and effort by a small legion of organized local volunteers from every sector of town.

As members of the STEPS COMETS, Jon K and Jon P had an idea to help kids who probably wouldn’t have much of a Christmas, let alone toys. They discussed and received approval of their idea with their parents and school authorities: Jon P attends JFK Middle School while John K goes to DePaolo Middle School. They would work together while each of them coordinated the efforts at their own school. They designed flyers to distribute to all classes, made daily announcements over the school-wide broadcast system promoting their ‘Toys for Tots’ Drive and decorated a large box for each school for the collection of toys donated by students.

With results successful beyond expectations, on Thursday, December 15th, Lester Pierson , the boys’ soccer coach and Jon P's dad, drove them down to Southington Community Services to deliver two large boxes of toys. Greeted by volunteer, Jeri Matyczyk, they told her their story very politely and respectfully. Matyczyk listened with delight, warmly thanking them for their hard work and generous spirit, "These fine young gentlemen presented themselves very courteously even shaking hands with me," Matyczyk said. Accepting her words of appreciation with a bit of embarrassment at the praise they pointed out that it had been their fellow students who came through. But Matyczyk saw how happy they were that the toys were welcome and that they would be a nice surprise to the kids receiving them.

Excerpt from The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

Christmas Über alles, Christmas is for all

Today is Christmas Eve

It was on this day in 1914 that the last known Christmas truce occurred along the Western Front during World War I. In the week leading up to Christmas, soldiers all over the battlefields had been decorating their trenches with candles and makeshift trimmings when groups of German and British soldiers began shouting seasonal greetings and singing songs to each other. On occasion, a soldier or two would even cross the battlefield to take gifts to the enemy. Then, on Christmas Eve, the men of the Western Front put the war on hold and many soldiers from both sides left their trenches to meet in No Man's Land, where they mingled and exchanged tobacco, chocolate, and sometimes even the buttons from their own uniforms as souvenirs. They played games of football, sang carols, and buried fallen comrades together as the unofficial truce lasted through the night.

_____________________________

FOX TV News of Connecticut reports on the incrediblely generous response of town to its own.

A Fox TV News of Connecticut follow up to the amazing story of a Connecticut town's incredible one-hour fund raiser for their local needy just before Christmas.

Also see a previous post, It takes a Town Like Southington.

Who is Your God?

Attending a long and full Saturday's agenda at a CT Catholic Men's Conference on October 22, 2011, hosted at St. Dominic Church in Southington, CT, there was a one-liner I heard that day that continues to come back to me, now almost routinely, even after two months. .

"If God is not your God, you will find another."

Who or what is your God?

Czech Playwright, Vaclav Havel, Dies at Age 75

Vaclav Havel, noted Czech playright and dissident against suppression of liberty under Communist rule in Czechoslovakia and leader of the first democracy to emerge from the former Soviet Union of Socialist Repblics, has died at age 75.

Essentially self-educated, Havel's most important role was doubtless the one he played on the world stage.

A review of Havel's story, filed by the Associated Press and published in today's New York Times reveals the multi-faceted life of an ordinary citizen whose personal  fervor for liberty and truth was to pioneer a peaceful movement in Eastern Euope that was to democratize member states of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, end the Cold War and unleash freedom to millions once under the heel of Communist domination. 

Vaclav Havel, an ordinary man whose contributions to world history need to be remembered.

It takes a town like Southington ...

This article was originally published in the Southington Citizen.

$12,285 Raised in One Hour

The people of Southington really do care. They prove their generosity time and time again. This time they broke all records.

Last week, an opportunity was presented to the people of Southington in the form of a call for help for Southington Community Services. For every dollar placed in the Salvation Army red bucket in front of the Walmart store on Queen Street, Walmart would match the donations, dollar for dollar. The campaign would run just one hour from noon to 1:00 pm on December 12, 2011 with Senator Joe Markley and state Rep. Rob Sampson personally ringing the bells.

Walmart was offering the same opportunity to their customers throughout the state. In Southington’s case, the entire collection would go to Southington Community Services to help make up the agency’s total donations short-fall in meeting the growing needs of our local population who are not able to make ends meet, essentially because of lingering poor economic conditions.

Director of Southington Community Services, Janet Mellon, and Kathy (Calvanese) Reinhard, who also serves the agency, reported Tuesday that the community responded resoundingly to the ringing of the bells. In addition, the positive response was attributed to so many getting the word out such, for example, at weekend worship services and the communications network of email, a new local blog, (The Quest for Common Ground), and Facebook.

Mellon had optimistically hoped to raise $10,000 in Southington Salvation Army donations in order to bring in $20,000 including the matching funds of Walmart of Southington. But, the people of Southington raised the stakes and contributed a total of $12,285 … in just one hour! Thanks to Walmart, who matched those funds, the total presented to Southington Community Services was $24,570!

By Wednesday morning, the huge response was the biggest piece of news throughout the Walmart stores and at the state legislature where the program had been set up. “Everyone was in shock!” Janet Mellon said. “The average collection around the state was $30 to $100 collected in that one hour. It’s easy to see why the donations of $12,285 in Southington were incredible. It’s the biggest fund raiser we have ever had … and still unbelievable that it was done in one hour”, Mellon added.

Beth Egliskis, Community Relations Coordinator of Walmart, said: “The first ones who came to the bell ringing were members of the Southington Fire Department who gave us a large envelope stuffed with money. Then the town manager and many other dignitaries came in to make their donations and the flow didn’t stop during the whole hour. When we took the collection to my office we were amazed, ecstatic and extremely proud that we had collaborated with Senators Rob Sampson, Joe Markley, Michael Rell and Brian Sundie of the Republican Party who put this idea together with Walmart. Putting the results into perspective, the average one hour collections were between $30 and $100 around the state. The second highest so far, after Southington, raised $402, according to Walmart.”

Mellon and Reinhard were elated. “This is astonishing news. We have added $24, 570 to the coffers this year to help the needy in our community. God has blessed this community and with the most generous people on earth! Merry Christmas to all.”, Reinhard said.

Southington Community Services helps those in need in many ways, including food distributed by them through the Southington Food Pantry, which Bread for Life also helps support in a big way. The service agency also provides fuel and rent assistance, clothing and other urgent needs of the poor. "These are God’s people," said Eldon Hafford, executive director of Bread for Life.

Southington "Spotlight Education" on Cox Cable, Local Channel 16

After viewing this video, don't forget to read the following exciting news about STEPS, also known as Southington’s Town-wide Effort to Promote Success,.

Teen members of the STEPS Youth Council, Joe Rogus, Austin Sullivan and Tyler Brinton, recently joined Dr. Joseph Erardi, Superintendent of Southington Public Schools, in taping a Cox Cable TV presentation, entitled Spotlight Education, which is airing on Monday and Thursday evenings at 7:00 pm and Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 9:00 am on Cox local Channel 16 through the end of December.

The program's focus is a discussion about STEPS, a rapidly growing Southington community initiative with an ambitious agenda aimed at developing healthy and successful youth. STEPS is a town-wide, multi-sector community network supporting the effort to grow great kids.

The special TV program provides some valuable and informative insights for all residents of the Town of Southington, including parents, teens, school faculty members, town leaders, clergy, grandparents, police, fire and healthcare officials as well as the business and professional sectors of the community.

For more information, visit the STEPS website .

A Christmas Story - Out of the Proverbial Mouths of Babes

From this morning's email Inbox ...

This Christmas Story told by the Hilltop Pre-School and Kindergarten Students of the Portland Christian Center made for a delighful morning-after-treat in the aftermath of our own more serious musical production of the Story of the Nativity performed at St. Dominic Church of Southington, CT, Sunday evening, December 11, 2011



Enjoy listening to these children, then, make someone else smile with your own comment and pass it along.

STEPS - Southington's Town-wide Effort to Promote Success - Promotes Toy Drive for the Neediest

Southington's STEPS organization is partnering with DePaolo Middle School of Southington to help "Make A Child Smile" with a toy drive that is now in progress through Friday, December 16, 2011.

Your gift of a toy can make a child's holiday season brighter as you share the joy of the happiest time of the year with someone who will deeply appreciate it.

Please bring toys to the box in the Main Office of the DePaolo Middle School located at the corner of Woodruff and Pleasant Streets in Southington.

Reaching for the Minds and Hearts of Southington

Let's start this weekend by rising to the call of "Stuff a Cruiser"

A Southington Police Cruiser will be on hand at Walmart at 235 Queen Street in Southington on Saturday, December 10, 2011 during the hours of 10:00 am and 3:00 pm.

Huh? How do you stuff a cruiser? What do you use to stuff it?

The idea is to stuff as many gifts into a police cruiser as we can for families whose holidays may not be so bright this year without a helping hand from you.

Help by donating a new, unwrapped gift; bring it to Walmart and help stuff the police cruiser. Gifts may be for all ages. The gifts will reach many families in need of assistance through Southington Community Services.

An even bigger event is the urgent request from Janet Mellon, Director of Southington Community Services. It's a one hour event starting at Noon on Monday, December 12th and it's a way to: "Double Your Donation". 

The Making of a Musical Production of the Nativity

I cannot remember a time in my life that the idea of writing and producing a play had ever crossed my mind, that is, not until almost a decade ago. Until then, I never seemed to have the time to even consider such an enterprise, especially during my professional working years.

But hold that thought, please.

In the late 1990s, my wife and I attended, for the first time, "The Passion Play" at St. Thomas Church in Southington, CT. To me it was a smash hit—not at all what I had expected from a church or community theatre type of production. The play was (and remains today), a marvelous depiction of the Passion of Jesus Christ, a wonderful musical and a superbly performed, well-rehearsed production.

More amazing is the fact that the production represented months of planning, rehearsals and hard work. Kudos to those who had the talent, enterprise, creativity and commitment to put such a grand piece of work together with a virtually all volunteer company.

After seeing the production again, I realized that there was nothing close to that level in Southington of this spiritually energizing, educational and entertaining opus about the Nativity. I put the idea of something similar for the Nativity on a "back-burner," honestly wondering if I could ever be part of a serious attempt for the Birth of Christ.

After being immersed for about 15 years of retirement in church and community service activities and writing, it came to me in early 2010 that we could put together a meaningful Nativity play, a musical production that would be based on factually accurate historical and biblical research, but written in today's American-English language. Of course, it would only be a start and could develop through the ensuing years if it turned out to be worthwhile.

In May 2010, I approached Lisa Carroll, well known in Southington and the surrounding area for her theatrical and musical expertise and many successful productions through the years. Lisa heard my ideas and understood that I would need to collaborate with someone of her talents and special skills to take a script that I would write and make it work as a quality musical production of the story of the Nativity; The Birth of Jesus Christ, King and Savior.

Lisa suggested simplicity as a starting point, so we were agreed about that. We wanted our focus to be on a quality presentation in telling the basic story with well-chosen music, which Lisa also organized.

Collaboration with her and the cast she recruited was a new experience for me, one which I not only enjoyed, but it fulfilled the dream of a decade to present such a work as a gift to our community with Lisa Carroll and the whole company. The key was Lisa's direction and understanding of every phase of the production.

May we invite you now, to come and enjoy being with us for our second annual production of The Story of the Nativity: The Birth of Jesus Christ, King and Savior on Sunday evening, December 11, 2011 at 6:00 pm at the Church of Saint Dominic at the corner of Flanders Road and Laning Street in Southington, CT.

We developed the play through a combination of brief narrated scenes of the story and live action of the actors and their portrayals of the characters also presented on our large church screens.

Reaching "Beyond The Weeping Willow Tree"

This review was originally published in the Southington Citizen.

A priest, scholar, educator, administrator and pastor in the Archdiocese of Hartford for more than half a century, the Rev. Fr. Henry C. Frascadore has continued his life long journey into retirement using his many talents to inspire others to discover deeper thoughts of faith through his charismatic speaking style and poetry.

In his recently published book, “Beyond The Weeping Willow Tree: Mystery is a Gift Wrapped in Ordinary Paper”, the author opens himself in his free flowing use of the art of poetry with words that paint striking images of the world around us leaving the reader open to his or her own answers to the questions Frascadore ponders.

His word-pictures glide like an eagle, missing nothing in its view, as it passes over and through the natural wonders of the forest, desert, beach, sky, rain and snow. But beyond the eagle, the poet presents is own close up observation of God’s creation and his human family.

Much more than a book about nature, the author’s work, unlike the eagle’s view, reaches for answers infinitely beyond the weeping willow tree and human understanding.

The best news is that Frascadore’s book is not reserved for a small circle of those engaged in esoteric spiritual pursuits that are deep in the well of human understanding. Rather, it is a spiritual treasure of recipes for clear thinking about our human experience and our relationship with God.

Several weeks ago, Fr. Frascadore, who is now retired, returned to St. Dominic Church, where he previously served as pastor, to present a program about his book.

Beyond the Weeping Willow Tree can be purchased on Amazon.com and locally from the Gift Shop at Bradley Memorial Hospital in Southington.

Southington Town Manager Advisory

We are pleased to have been of service to residents and businesses operating in Southington during and in the aftermath of Winter Sorm Alfred which hit our region of Connecticut on October 28, 2011.

Storm Debris Removal Operations - Town of Southington

Storm Debris Removal Operations

The following "informational alert and guideline" is being distributed by
The Quest for Common Ground as a service to the community of Southington, CT.

Storm-related debris removal began this week and is expected to last

approximately 3 weeks.

A Personal Thanksgiving Reflection

Delivered at the Annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service of Southington, CT at St. Aloysius Church in Plantsville, CT. on Tuesday, November 22, 2011.

Each of us present at this interfaith Thanksgiving Service would doubtless be able to share some interesting personal thoughts and recollections about Thanksgiving Day.  We’d hear about the gatherings of family and friends on a spirited holiday, rich in joy-filled memories; the excitement of busy preparations for days before; children watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, the arrival and happy greetings of the guests, the delicious appetizers and stimulating aperitifs;  the roast turkey at the center of the table, surrounded by stuffing, cranberries, gravy and all the savory trimmings to be enjoyed right up to and including, heaven help us, the variety of desserts.

And, yes, there’d be wistful thoughts of Thanksgiving holidays in the distant past, of the joyful camaraderie, the football games, and the uniquely splendid blend of smells of Thanksgiving Day in a happy setting.

With its American roots going back nearly half a millennium, Thanksgiving is rich in faith, history, tradition and diverse cultural customs.

I remember, as a child, what a wondrous holiday it was with good food in abundance, games to play with my brothers and the other children while our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles laughed with joy, grateful just be together, enjoying God’s gifts of that special day.

As I matured to a "certain age" my thoughts of Thanksgiving also matured.

First, I am most grateful for God’s greatest gift to me … my lifetime spent with a wonderful and loving wife, our beautiful children and the special treasures that are our grandchildren.

But the Good Lord didn’t stop there.  No. To accompany me in my life’s journey, he blessed me with loving parents, a wholesome family, the gifts of education, values, the discovery of personal skills, talents, aptitudes and an attitude for using them productively in my work. I thank God for what I have experienced, learned and what I have been able to share with others.

As I ambled through all this today,in a quietly prayerful stream of thought, my mind turned to the stark reality that right at this very moment today, and again on Thursday, and continuing into next week and beyond, there will be people who are hungry. There will many without shelter. There are the sick and the ill-clothed.

With a sense of deeper helplessness, my mind drifted to those who are in the solitude of loneliness, the uninvited who will be alone on Thanksgiving. Alone on that day of gatherings! God, please be with them! Bring us to them, if only in heart.

Alas, for me, the answer to these prayerful ponderings came back to the essential mystery of God.

No matter how we say the name of our one God, be it Elohim (אֱלהִים) in Hebrew, Deus in Latin, Waheguru (ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ) in Punjabi, Allah (حاكم قوي) in Arabic,I know that while the nature of God remains infinitely beyond full human comprehension, God is not some sort of Super Human creature prowling the universe, applying His magical works.

Rather, the miracle is that In creating us, I believe God has done and continues to do his work.  Our hands are his hands. Our feet are his feet. Our minds and hearts are his, as are the rich blessings he bestows on us … all gifts to be shared with the least of his children … through our ability to interconnect the meaning of the words:  faith … hope … charity … and love;  the love of neighbor God commands us to have for others and empowers us to have.

In closing, I would like to read of a short poem sent to me yesterday by its author,  my dear friend, the Rev. Henry C. Frascadore. It’s called:

KEEPING A LOW PROFILE

the widow kept a low profile.
only one person noticed her gift.
two small coins slipped into the basket.
that is all she had.
she gave what she had.

this morning’s soft wind did the same.
with delicate fingers it wove a rug
a circular oriental rug
made with the autumn leaves that
had fallen on the polished black walnut
surface of the pond
and carefully placed it
around the harmony sculpture.

like the widow
the wind kept a low profile
and gave its gift
with hardly a notice.

A Community Wide Gathering Together

Southington, CT.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011 -
Southington's Annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service will be held at 7:30 pm.

This year's host is St. Aloysius Church at 254 Burritt Street in Plantsville,.

All are invited and most welcome to attend.

Participating congregations include: First Baptist Church of Southington, First Congregational Church of Southington, Gishrei Shalom Jewish Congregation, Grace United Methodist Church, Gurdwara Guru Nanak Dabar SIKH Community, Mary Our Queen Roman Catholic Church, Plantsville Congregational Church, St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church, St. Dominic Church, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Southington Care Center Pastoral Care, and Ugaru Deepa (Sikh Faith).and Zion Lutheran Church.

Music will be provided by the combined choirs of Southington, "Branches" of First Congregational Church, Cheshire H.S. Women's Chorale, Musical Offering of the SIKH Congregation of Gurdwara Guru Nanak, Dabar.

Hosting parish of St. Aloysius Church invites attendees to enjoy light refreshments after the service.

Free will monetary donations and non-perishable food donations will be acceoted for the benefit of Bread for Life and the Manna Fund. Southington people helping their own in need. .

There is no charge for admission. All are most welcome.

We wish all our friends in Southington a Happy Thanksgiving and a truly wonderful gathering of friends and family on Thursday as we thank God for our many blessings.

Today in Southington - Townwide e-Note

e-Note from Town Manager:

The brush drop off area at the BulkyWaste Site is still relatively busy. Calls are coming in about next week. We will  keep it open as it doesn't hinder daily operations.

Hours are 8:00 am to 3:30 pm Monday through Saturday.

Special Note:  Next week, Thanksgiving Week, Hours are the same as above, but Monday through Wednesday only. This site is closed for the four-day Thanksgiving weekend.
We will alert Leslie Cotton  in the Town Clerks office and would appreciateit if you would help get the word out.

Thanks,

Garry Brumback ICMA-CM
Town Manager
Southington, CT 06489
(860) 276-6200
www.southington.org

Comments Now Open Without Sign-in

As a precaution during the first week of publication, comments were limited to guests who signed in. Some readers wanted to comment, but ran into trouble with the sign-in procedure, so I've opened comments to all.  Log-in is no longer necessary.

Thanks for all the encouraging comments and support that arrived via email and Facebook.

Bathing With Peggy

By Alfred G. Fortunato & E. Richard Fortunato

Brooklyn, Circa 1938:
A Memoir of a Happy Childhood in the Great Depression

Peggy was a beautiful girl of seventeen or so who had come over from Ireland just to take a job with our family. Red-haired, happy as a lark, she had a way of talking that charmed us all, including Dad, who soon fell into trying a bit of a brogue himself when we were all together on a Sunday morning. “Now, no Soondy marnin’ gay-it-tee oontil after we’ve all been ta Mass,” he would say in his pathetic stab at it, and Peggy would put her hand on her forehead and then pull it down to smooth all the laugh lines out of her face, and we’d imitate her and do the same to our own faces, breaking out in new laughs as we tried to smooth out the old ones.

We were three brothers, and the pattern on Sundays was for Peggy to take us to nine o’clock Mass, while Mom started preparing the Sunday dinner. This was just before the war, the Second World War, so I must have been about eight when Peggy was with us, and Junior seven. Sonny was a little more than two years older than I was, so he was maybe ten or eleven.

A Red, White and Blue Letter Day in Southington, Connecticut: Monday, November 14, 2011

All are invited to be present ...

As the newly elected and re-elected members of the Town Council hold their first meeting on Monday, November 14, 2011, the town will receive a gift of remembrance and appreciation from the organizers of the unique program in which seventy participating organizations and thousands of people of Southington commemorated the Tenth Anniversary of September 11, 2001 at a moving, patriotic memorial service at Southington High School's Fontana Field on Sunday, September 11, 2011.

The presentation will include a 12-minute video remembering that day of sudden violence ten years ago and how Southington took note of it ten years later with individual acts of kindness, charity and prayer for the nearly 3,000 who died in the Attacks on America. . 

A small framed plaque displaying a selection of the memorial stars, each representing one of the thousands of ways the people of Southington honored the memory of the victims of the attacks on America on September 11, 2001, will also be presented to the town with the plan that the display and a DVD of the video be rotated to various locations around town until reaching its final destination: the Southington Historic Museum. 

Election Day - It's Our Civic Duty to Vote

Hi everyone

Hope you all had a chance to vote today.  The word from the polling places is that the vote in Southington, CT has been on the light side today.

It's important to resident citizens of our town to have their votes count.

It's an election for all election town officials and an important referendum on the two middle schools.

If you haven't voted yet, there is still time.  Polls are open until 8:00 pm

Please spread the word.

Looking in the rear view mirror, hoping to see what the future may have in store for us.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y,. just four months before The Stock Market Crash that preceded The Great Depression of the Thirties, one would think I might have grown up with some sort of complex over some perceived sense of responsibility for ushering in such a devastating dark grey journey for many adults around me. But that didn't happen. All my psycho-analysts have agreed to that!

My own explanation of my happy childhood in that generation is that I was simply too young to understand why so many of my uncles were around the house for long periods of time. I simply took that fact for granted; it was a normal and nice nice thing to have your family around so much of the time.

Making Progress

Good evening,

We are making progress....

As of 6:30 PM Southington has 430 (2%) customers remaining (may be lessdue to timing of closing out outage tickets in our system).  The breakdownis as follows:

4C16 -- 89 (Meriden Waterbury Tpke, Pondview Dr)
4C15 -- 56 (Walnut, Raynor)
4C17 -- 38  (Mill St, Woodruff St, Williams St)
4C19 -- 67 (Meriden Ave, Scenic Dr.)
4C14 -- 50 (W. Main, Buckland)
12A6 -- 34 (West St, Welch Rd, Spring St)
15Q6 -- 22 (Marion Ave, Sunnyslope, W. Center)
15Q7 -- 20 (Wonx Spring Rd, Marion Ave, Old Mill Rd)
11K49 -- 17 (Mt. Vernon)
12A4 -- 13 (Campground Rd)
4C12 -- 8 (all indiv. services - Moorehill, Woodruff, Flanders, Foley)
15Q5 -- 6 (Lynwood Dr)
4C13 -- 4 (Lazy Ln)
12A12 -- 3 (Jordan, Queen, Dunham)
4C18 -- 2 (Flanders services)
4C11 - 1 (Pleasant St)

As I mentioned this morning, the crew supervisors have all outage packageswith them .   Southington will be at 99% by midnight tonight. 

Garry Brumback ICMA-CM
Town Manager
Southington, CT 06489
(860) 276-6200
www.southington.org

A Progress Report on C L & P and Power Restoration

Here is the update for this morning. Onthe Debris issue we are still awaiting Presidential declaration and shouldknow more tomorrow.

On the Power front:

Current Number of outage:  988 (5%)

The same crews (15)  from CL&P, Heart & Dominion are workingin Southington today.

The crew supervisors have all outage packages with them today to energizeas many customers as possible (including services).  They will befocusing on the circuits with the majority of the customers first.  Southington will be at 99% by midnight tonight.

Southington Storm Receovery Update

11-5-11 Latest Southington Storm ServicesUpdate as of 4:00PM

CL&P/Power Information

CL&P states they are continuing thepower restoration phase. Power has been restored to many residents howeverwe still have approx 1555 (8%) CL&P customers without power. CL&Pstated that crews will be in Southington tomorrow completing repairs. Assoon as we have the exact numbers of crews, we will report it at that time.CL&P also states that power should be restored to all schools by Saturday,allowing for a Monday opening.
As a reminder, the quickest, most efficientway to obtain information when your power is to be restored is by callingor texting CL&P directly. CL&P's phone number is 1 800 286 2000or text to 24612 and type in the message:  Outage (space) and yourzip code. Please report your power outage to CL&P. Your home maybe the only house in your neighborhood without power.

Southington Storm Update - Comments welcome

Today's update...three significant changes:

1) We are closing the shelter (Southington Community Services is making arrangementsfor the last few people in need).

2) Bulky Waste will close Sunday and reopen Monday through Saturday for BRUSH ONLY.

3) We are still waiting on thePresidential declaration of a Major Disaster which will extend debris pickup beyond the 72 hours so we can activate the contract.  The contractor is ready to go when we issue the notice to proceed.  In order to getthe word out we are hoping to start pick up the week of Nov 14.

We still have almost 20% of our residentswithout power and expect to have CL&P crews (the same number as today)in Town until it is fixed.
.
Thanks for all you help in getting this word out!

Garry Brumback ICMA-CM
Town Manager
Southington, CT 06489
(860) 276-6200
www.southington.org

Southington Bulky Waste Station Update

Public Service Announcement

Today's update...three significant changes:

1) We are closing the shelter (Community Services is making arrangementsfor the last few people in need)

2) Bulky Waste will close Sunday and reopenMonday through Saturday for BRUSH ONLY.

3) We are still waiting on the Presidential declaration of a Major Disaster which will extend debris pickup beyond the 72 hours so we can activate the contract. 

The contractor is ready to go when we issue the notice to proceed.  In order to get the word out we are hoping to start pick up the week of  Nov 14.

We still have almost 20% of our residents without power and expect to have CL&P crews (the same number as today) in Town until it is fixed.

Thanks for all you help in getting this word out!

Garry Brumback ICMA-CM
Town Manager
Southington, CT 06489
(860) 276-6200
www.southington.org

Southington Storm Services Update: 11-3-11 at 4:30 pm

The Quest for Common Ground announces:

Everything Southington Citizens Need to Know in the aftermath of Storm Alfred:

Provided as a service of the Town of Southington, CT. by Garry Brumback, Town Manager and all Departments.

CL&P Power Information

Southington Town Officials have received the following information from CL&P’s senior management: CL&P states they are now in power restoration phase. Power has been restored to many residents. We still have approx 7146 CL&P customers without power. CL&P stated that thirteen crews will be in Southington tomorrow completing repairs. Communications between Southington Town Officials and CL&P administration appear to be improving; allowing priority areas to be addressed. CL&P also states that power should be restored to all schools by Saturday, allowing for a Monday opening.

As a reminder, the quickest, most efficient way to obtain information on when your power is to be restored is by calling or texting CL&P directly. CL&P's phone number is 1 800 286 2000 or text to 24612 and type in the message: Outage (space) and your zip code. Please report your power outage to CL&P.

Please do not call the Town Hall or Police Department for this info.

Please stay away from any downed wires. Downed wires are especially dangerous since they can be energized from either CL&Ps system or customer owned emergency generators.

Southington, CT Power Outage: Update for October 31

Power:

Our crews have continued to work throughout the night with CL&P trying to open up the remaining 18 roads that were closed due to trees and wires down.  We have succeeded in most but still have 5 or 6 roads that remain closed.  Re-opening roads continues to be our top priority with our CL&P crews this morning. we have had a dedicated CL&P liaison since yesterday at 1:00p and a dedicated crew since 5:00p yesterday.

We are hoping to begin restoration this afternoon but don't have any CL&P crews dedicated to that effort at this time.  We will keep you posted on the restoration of power as information becomes available.

SOUTHINGTON, CT STORM INFORMATION

Southington Residents:

An Update on the Storm sent on Sunday, October 30th

1) School is closed tomorrow, Monday, Oct 31

2) CL&P will have a crew in Southington between 4 and 5:00 pm to link up with a crew from Highway.

 They will work through the night to clear down lines and re-open closed streets.

3)  As of 3:00 (Sunday) we had 18 roads closed due to power lines. Restoration of power will not begin until tomorrow (Monday) at the earliest.
4) The Calendar House is still open and has 8 guests so far.  They will be feeding as required.

The following will go out over Everbridge (reverse 911 phone calls) to our residents within the hour.  It is also being posted to our Facebook page, Twitter and our webpage.

Garry Brumback ICMA-CM
Town Manager
Southington, CT 06489
(860) 276-6200
www.southington.org