ARPA apology

Editor:

As the vice chair of the ARPA Application Review Committee, I am writing this letter to apologize to the business and not-for-profit applicants that have been harmed by the committee’s decision not to proceed. I am sorry that your applications have been caught up in meaningless town politics.

I have been the dissident when it comes to reacting to the most recent action of the Town Council. By design, the committee always had an advisory role. The council has had complete discretion on what to do with the applications, we simply provide advisory opinions to assist with their decision-making process.

Once again, I am sorry to businesses and not-for-profits (like the United Way, SCOW, and Yalesville Little League; just to name a few) that ended up being caught up in this mess that has been created by a few people that do not understand what it means to be advisory. I hope the council steps up and does the right thing.

Mike Glidden, Wallingford

Support positive action

Editor:

Please contact your elected officials to support CT DEEP’s plans to save CT municipalities $50 million in trash disposal costs and to move closer to our goals for reducing climate change. These are well thought out plans based on detailed analysis and widely supported techniques. These reasonable and important initiatives should not require much support, but they do. Amazingly, getting this done has become political. For whatever reasons, every Republican member of the Environmental Committee voted against these plans. The plans seek to encourage producers to spend less on packaging that we have to pay to haul away. One claim is that costs will be passed along — it’s going to cost more to make less of the stuff that just gets thrown away? Another is that haulers will lose revenue. Would we have avoided curing polio to protect businesses who make wheelchairs and crutches? Please let your officials know that you support this legislation. Please be sure to vote. When mostly diehards vote, the focus is on divisive partisan topics, When everyone votes, reasonable and important things get done because government has lots of opportunity to make our everyday lives better.

To learn more, read R-J articles and search online under “CT waste management proposal” “CT ACT MANAGING WASTE” or “ACT CONCERNING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SECTOR SPECIFIC SUBTARGETS.”

Dave Rauch, Meriden

Missed opportunity

Editor:

I want to know why the City won't address the problem of Hanover Pond filling with silt and all the outcropping growing that are reducing the capacity of the pond every year? All that flood water that the City is trying to divert has to go somewhere and that is Hanover Pond. When we have a large rain storm Haberson Field floods because Hanover Pond can not hold all the water. The pond is slowly turning into a marsh, which then turns in a swamp. They missed the perfect opportunity to address the problem when they replaced the dam a number of years ago.

Al Kaiser, Meriden