Crocodile Club, One Of The Missing Pieces

I wrote two stories about the Crocodile Club for today's edition of The Bristol Press, but I guess there wasn't room for everyone's comments, so in case you're the kind of reader who wants the whole enchilada, here goes:


First-timers joined old “crocodilians” at the Crocodile Club dinner at Lake Compounce Tuesday, rubbing elbows with many of the state’s candidates and reconnecting with old friends.

“It think it’s a grand event,” said Jill Fitzgerald of Bristol, who is the Republican candidate for the state House in the 77th district and attending the dinner for the first time. “I really like it.”

Many of the people there, both candidates and non-candidates, said they enjoyed the friendly, social aspect of the dinner that left serious politics at the door.

“It’s bringing back a lot of memories,” said Bristol City Councilor Ken Cockayne, who said he used to come to the park to watch his late grandfather, Patsy Cistulli, help longtime organizer Stretch Norton with the cooking.

“So far, it’s great,” said Republican Ann Brickley, who is hoping to unseat Congressman John Larson in November and was attending her first dinner.

“This is an excellent crowd,” said state Rep. Betty Boukus, a Plainville Democrat. She said she’s happy that the carousel museum has taken over the dinner and will benefit from it.

Wallace Barnes of Bristol, whose attendance at the Crocodile Club goes back to the 1950s, said he came back early this week from an out of town trip and came to the dinner because he “didn’t want to miss it.”

Thomas Morrow, executive director of the Bristol Community Organization who has attended many Crocodile Club dinners in the past, brought his friend James Gatling of Southington.

“It’s got a rich history,” said Morrow, who said he’s glad that the Crocodile Club dinner now benefits a non-profit agency.

Gatling, who runs a similar agency in Waterbury called New Opportunities, said he didn’t know quite what to expect but was wowed by the number of people there and the fact that politicians from both parties came together in one place.

“I’m really impressed,” Gatling said.

George Sobestanovich of Bristol, who wore a Crocodile Club shirt and hat he bought at the last dinner in 2002, said it was a good afternoon.

"I'm glad they resurrected it," Sobestanovich said. "I hate to see these old traditions fade away."

John Lodovico of Bristol also said he’s glad the club is back, adding that the ballroom at Lake Compounce provided a “very comfortable setting” for the event.

State Sen. Tom Colapietro, a Bristol Democrat, said he saw a lot of friends he hadn’t seen in years. He said he was happy to support the dinner, which was a benefit for the New England Carousel Museum.

“This is non-political,” said Colapietro.

“It’s entertaining,” said Tunxis Community College President Cathryn Addy, who attended the dinner for several years before it ended with the last one in 2002. “I’m happy to see it back.”

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who had a reputation of arriving late and leaving early at the dinner each year, vowed to stay “for the duration” this time, and did.

“It’s a great tradition,” Blumenthal said. “I’m just delighted to be here again.”

Crocodile Club President and host Ray Dunaway pronounced the dinner a success.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever been at an event when Dick Blumenthal stayed till the end,” Dunaway said.

The Crocodile Club was videotaped for later broadcast on CTN.

Zoning Buddies

I met a couple of real nice gents at the Bristol Zoning Commission meeting Wednesday. These two guys, Richard Chapman and Pete Roseen, showed up out of concern for the project on the corner of Middle Street and Mountain Road.
They were quite dedicated, as they waited nearly four hours to have a chance to speak about the proposal.
Quite a few newcomers were on the zoning board that night, and things weren't exactly speedy. Former Chairman Frank Johnson and former Vice Chairman John Lodovico, who had both been on the board since Moby Dick was a sardine, recently stepped down as their terms ended. They're still active in a lot of community stuff, most visibly the Bristol Downtown Development Corp.
But let's get back to my new zoning pals. These are guys after my own heart. They patiently sat through long presentations on a couple of other projects, including testimony by the ever-riveting traffic engineers.
Mr. Roseen, who said the meeting was going on WAY past his bedtime, told me it was "like watching grass grow."
Mr. Chapman, whose daughter, Patty Chapman, recently retired from the city treasurer's office, is a former state police officer who has seen his share of ugly.
"Autopsies are more fun," he said, than zoning meetings.
I couldn't resist asking them if this experience didn't make them appreciate newspaper reporters just a little bit more.
It did, they said.
After that, I shared my candy with them, making it a better evening all around.

Give Downtown Project a Chance

Yesterday I wrote a story for The Bristol Press (www.bristolpress.com) about the realistic timeframe people can expect for the downtown project.
The deal isn't even signed yet between the city, developer Don Monti of Renaissance Downtowns and the Bristol Downtown Development Corp., but both Monti and Frank Johnson, who chairs the BDDC, kindly spoke with me a little bit about the plans.
I'm sure many people in town are as eager to know what to expect there as I am, and hopefully just about everyone is also as eager to have something good there.
They were honest enough to say downtown won't be built in a day. In fact, expect it to be built in phases, a piece at a time, over a period of years. The whole thing could take the better part of a decade. At the moment, Monti plans what he called a "boutique" hotel as part of it all. That means a small one. That would be part of the big picture of mixed use, commercial, residential, retail, pedestrian-oriented development that Monti is pushing.
As I understand it, the investment could be really significant.
Of course, the anonymoust reaction to this in the stupid blogosphere is outrage -- it'll never be built, why should it take so long, the hotel will be terrible... yada, yada, yada.
My husband and favorite co-worker, Steve Collins, wrote in the Bristol Blog about how shameful this anonymous and moronic tirade is. See what he had to say in www.BristolToday.com.
Now it's time for my two cents.
Too bad the silent majority is so silent. How about a little confidence in the members of the community -- homeowners, business leaders and others like Frank Johnson, Jennifer Janelle, John Lodovico and the rest on the BDDC as well as Mayor Art Ward and the entire city council and a host of professional staff, some of whom live in town and others who are professionally invested-- who have given their own time (well, yes, the professionals were paid) and energy into figuring out what to do with the old mall property and done it all by using their real names, in public?
How about giving Monti, the chosen developer a chance to see what he can do? He's putting his own money on the line, after all.
From my interactions with him, I can tell you that Monti is very high energy. I know Bristol needs that. He's got successful businesses elsewhere and other towns have put their faith in him.
He's got a track record of bringing all sorts of people together and he sees great potential in Bristol.
It seems Monti believes more in Bristol than the anonymous posters who can't wait to go on the attack and trash him, the city and everyone else who is trying to do something for the good of the community.
I think the people of Bristol can return that faith, at least to give him a chance to give it a go. I hope they do, and I hope he ultimately gives them reason to cheer.
I may no longer be eligible to vote in Bristol, but I was for some time. My children were born there and I've invested the bulk of my professional life in the Mum City. I care about people who live there and I truly want good things for the city.

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.

Tunxis Expansion Plans Taking Shape

Here's a story I wrote for today's edition of The Bristol Press (http://www.bristolpress.com/) about the expansion plans at Tunxis. If you've been impressed by the school's new look along Route 6, you'll be interested to know that it'll be extended a little further into Farmington. The view is of the new addition, seen from the east side. On the far right side of the picture is the corner of the building, at the junction of Routes 6 and 177.

FARMINGTON – Tunxis Community College is preparing for the next phase of its expansion, with a newly designed classroom building.
Tunxis President Cathryn Addy said they now know what the building will look like and are in the process of selecting the public art that will be part of it.
“It’s quite a ways down the road,” she said. “I’m really excited about it.”
Addy said the school is at capacity.
“We desperately need the space,” she said. “I’m very grateful that we’re even getting to plan a building right now.”
John Lodovico, the director of facilities at the college, said the 50,000-square-foot addition will extend the newest building – the face of the college – further east along Route 6.“It’s a good-sized building,” said Lodovico.
The project will be ready to go out to bid early this summer, said Lodovico.
“Then, it’s out of our hands,” he said, until the State Bond Commission allocates the money for construction.
Under the best possible scenario, Lodovico said, construction could start in the fall. The project will take 600 calendar days, he said, so in theory, it could be occupied by July 2012.
But he said, “I doubt that’ll happen.”
The new structure, which will be known as the 600 building at Tunxis, will have three stories above the ground. The eastern portion will also have a basement, said Lodovico, offering about 11,000 square feet of space.
The mechanics and custodians will have a work area in the new basement, said Lodovico, and there will also be storage space there.
The first, second and third floors will each have about 13,000 square feet each.
The first expansion phase at Tunxis completed two years ago added a new 33,000-square-foot library, student meeting space, labs, an art gallery and a half dozen classrooms. In all, it was a 100,000-square-foot addition.
“We still fell short of classroom space,” said Lodovico.
The second phase is half the size of the first one and is designed by the same architectural firm, Du Bose Associates in Hartford, in a matching style.
The building will have LEED environmental certification, based on design and materials. They’ll have flooring made of recycled rubber tires, he said, more glass and natural light to reduce electrical use. He said they’re looking at the mechanical system to see what can be done to make it more efficient.
Lodovico said the second phase adds nine 40-seat classrooms, six 30-seat classrooms, two laptop-compatible classrooms that accommodate 24 students each and two 20-seat classrooms for the first and second story.
The third floor will be reserved for future expansion, and probably used as office space at some point, according to Lodovico.
“We will wait until we can afford it,” said Addy.
Tunxis has 4,480 students, Lodovico said, which is 9 percent higher than this time last year.
Even after the first phase of the expansion, said Lodovico, the school was too small. He said he hopes the second phase meets the current needs of the school and said he expects it will, unless enrollment spikes again.
Having enough space for parking remains a big problem, Lodovico said, one that will likely require land acquisition to solve.
Originally, the budget for the second phase was set at about $35 million, according to Lodovico. But it has since been scaled back to $12 million, he said, not enough to do the original project.
The project initially had included the renovation or demolition and replacement of two of the original buildings on campus, an early-1960s-era former strip mall and a former grocery store. But that’s been put off indefinitely, Lodovico said, and the third floor of the new building won’t be finished right away, either, to save money.
It’ll be insulated and heated, he said, and pipes will be brought up there and capped.
If the bids come back low enough, Lodovico said, it’s possible that something could be done soon with the third floor. Otherwise, he said, it’ll be ready for expansion later.
If the economy improves or federal stimulus money is available to the school, Lodovico said, the project could move more quickly and more of it could be finished.
“The need is here and it starts with education,” said Lodovico.
Lodovico said a state traffic study showed the college needs a traffic light on Route 177 at the southern end of the property.
When classes let out, it can be difficult to make a left turn out of the parking lot, Lodovico said.
“It’s a busy place,” Lodovico said. “There’s a lot going on here.”
It’s possible the new traffic light may be a caution light, he said.
“That’s still in design development,” he said.