Daring Duo of Zoning Stepping Down

Frank Johnson and John Lodovico, who together have served nearly 50 years on the Bristol Zoning Commission, are stepping down from the board after their terms end in June.
Each of them has plenty of other volunteer commitments in the community, from serving Bristol Hospital to the Tunxis Community College Foundation and more.
They've made some people mad along the way, but if they hadn't, well, they wouldn't have been doing their unpaid jobs for the city. It's kind of like my job that way.
I know both of these men pretty well and while I haven't always agreed with the decisions they've made (but most of the time they seem right to me) I have never believed they had any interest other than that of their community at heart.
Let me put it another way: they have Bristol's long term good in heart and mind when they make decisions. The town ought to say thanks to John and Frank for their diligence.
They've taken the time to learn about land use and have spent countless hours at meetings that have gone into the wee hours. They've gone out on their own to look at properties and the sites of proposed projects, checking out claims of developers and opponents for themselves.
They helped rewrite the zoning regulations, and for that alone, any volunteer ought to get a medal.
I wrote a story that ran in today's edition of The Bristol Press about their long tenure on the zoning board. Check it out at www.bristolpress.com.
And thanks, guys. You've made zoning meetings more interesting (and that's a tall order, too) for me for the last 16+ years. It won't be the same when you're gone.