Ben Barnes, The WPCA and the waste to energy project

Interesting Editorial on Ben Barnes, The WPCA and the waste to Energy Project today in the Stamford Advocate, It doesn't appear to be online, so I can't reference it for you, but I read it Today.
I have known Ben Barnes awhile and he is mostly a likable fellow, but the report was that he called the people against the WPCA waste to energy project a "lunatic Fringe".
Oops, I think he owes an apology to a lot of people.
Now the group the writer represents, I usually disagree with, but in this case i think they are right on.
I am not an expert in the field, as a matter of fact, I know almost nothing about the subject, but one of my friends who reads this does know a bit about it and he has told me that every attempt to make a project like this work, had failed. Since I know he has worked on something similar, I think he might have some knowledge.
My big deal with this is the amount of money they want us to pay for an experiment. Not at this time, not on my dime and not in this economy. They want to let employees suffer and have us pay for something unproven? I'll only say, forget it.

Mayor's meeting

Today, the mayor of Stamford met with the employees to talk about the budget.
The low down -
The mayor did not want this, disagreed with it and now has to deal with things that are handed to him.
His budget would have called for a zero % increase, except that the city is responsible for the current underfunding of the pension and that would have come fto a 1.41% increase.
The rest comes from the board of ed (and all those very high paid administrators!) italics are mine!
The board of finance cut the salary account, removing the negotiated extension of the current contract (3%) from that line. They also removed any step increases for newer employees.
Stamford Advocate said you have to make $70,000 per year to live here. I do not think one of these people in that room (the cafeteria) make that much).
The reason for this decision maybe found in a feud between the board of representatives and the board of finance. Apparently the Board of Finance does not have the right to refuse contract negotiations, only recommend or not a negotiated settlement. They did not recommend this extension of the contract, the board of representatives approved it, so they did what they had the power to do, cut the budget to get their way.
I still find the method disgusting, they don't talk to the Unions, they are 3 men who basically said to the board of representatives(I think in Stamford it is 12 people), forget you, we want it our way.
I find this petty at best.
I understand the mayor came across looking very good today.

Living on a prayer

That's right folks - the same peeps that brought you living on a prayer are slated to come to Stamford at the old Thirsty Turtle site.
No plans filed, but this time I think the rumors are HOT!

Good bye to all the wanna bees, you are all finished!

Bufflo Wild Wings, Bon Jovi, Mary Anns, I think Stamford just got well shaken!

Rumors

A while ago I read from someone with some misplaced authority that work had stopped at the Trump tower. Of course with the economy, the rumors are back. 4 different sources told me
a) All work had stopped
b)Trump was bankrupt
c) He stopped work every where
d) he was being sued for stopping work in Mexico City.

All these wonderful sources were wrong.

I had a chance to be in my home city, the work was still happening.
I had a chance to see the cranes moving in New York
I see workmen going in and out everyday of the Stamford building.

I have no way of verifying if Trump is bankrupt or not, but with the others not being true, I doubt that one as well.

The source were from people who ought to know, but don't.
Rumors are just that, rumors.

Still Ranting

About Mr. Tarzia. I realized that one of the responders to this blog noted that the Mill River Greenway is going to take $20 Million and so Tarzia cuts $10 million without talking to unions ahead of time??? Supposedly this targeted an agreed upon 3% raise for July and any civil service step increases. And then MY taxes go up 3% anyway! Cut the stupid greenway money and then we don't have any increase!

Budget and Cuts

Front page of the Advocate this fine Sunday mornin' talks how the board of finance cut the 3% increase for raises scheduled in July. Yesterday, the school board was talkin' the same cuts and what it would mean.
Now as a tax payer, I don't want to pay any more either, especially in this strange economy.
Why do I call it strange?
Well there is money out there, but businesses are cutting positions and others are raising prices (like at the grocery store, you notice).
The economy appears to be coming back up except of course for jobs and then there are those millions that we are giving to AIG (MY Money!) for bonuses.
So the cost of surviving has gone up (food is survival as far as I am concerned), so I can understand Unions not wanting to negotiated again. Actually when the whole thing started, they did negotiate and agreed to extend the contract another year with out anything else (at least the UAW did). This would mean that any action the city would take to reduce that would be certainly lost in arbitration.
Actually I understand, Joe Tarzia, the master mind of much of this, ranted at a city office support person (not any one with authority) for 20 minutes cause people in a completely different department had not given him info he wanted fast enough, The man has a loose screw.
I do not believe strong arming people is never the answer. The mayor negotiated with the unions and did get a simple extension. That was in good faith. Trazia's thing, however well meaning for us Taxpayers, is not.

Budget Hearings

or is it Herrings? Well Ms. brown removed the controversial $20 million waste to energy proposal, said it needed more study time, I guess. I still can not find anywhere in this country that this has worked! And someone has told me that they have been working on this for 30 or more years!
There is still the issue of the pyro-glass at the end of the process that will need disposal and how much "Fuel" will this process actually make?
Other wise one entire department (3 people) in the public works or whatever it is called now was eliminated. Sorry for any one who loses a job in this economy.
They did cut a good amount, but we still get a tax increase, UGH!