MONDAY MORNING UPDATE

MONSIGNOR DIES AFTER MASS

Mon­signor Robert L. Brown, the chan­cel­lor of the Nor­wich Roman Catholic Dio­cese for decades, died sud­denly on Satur­day. The 74 year old had just fin­ished Satur­day’s Mass at Sa­cred Heart Church when he was taken to the hos­pi­tal. He was sched­uled to serve as the mas­ter of cer­e­monies at Sun­day’s Red, White and Blue Mass at St. Pa­trick’s Cathe­dral. Brown had been a priest for nearly 50 years.

SOMERS TO LEAD HEARING

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – A Republican state senator is holding a public hearing to discuss operations at Connecticut’s only maximum-security psychiatric hospital, where nearly a dozen employees have been charged with alleged abuse.  Heather Somers of Groton, a Senate co-chairman of the General Assembly’s Public Health Committee, says she has invited the state’s Departments of Public Health and Mental Health and Addiction Services to testify on Nov. 13 at the Legislative Office Building and answer questions from legislators.  Members of the public, including current and former employees, will also have an opportunity to speak.  Last month, a tenth staff member at the state-run Whiting Forensic Division of the Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown was arrested in connection with alleged abuse of a patient. Thirty-seven staff members are also on administrative leave pending an investigation.

SEBASTIAN OUSTED

The Mashan­tucket Pe­quot Tribal Coun­cil has two newcomers.  In vot­ing among tribal mem­bers on Sun­day, La­toya Cluff and Matthew Pear­son both out­ polled Richard Se­bas­tian, the coun­cil vice chair­man.  Se­bas­tian had served a to­tal of five terms over the years. More than 200 tribal mem­bers cast bal­lots dur­ing the Mashan­tuck­ets’ an­nual meet­ing in the tribal com­mu­nity cen­ter.

BEWARE OF SCAM

Residents of Stonington and Mystic are being warned by the Aquarion Water Company about a phone scam. An imposter, identifying themselves as being from Aquarion, leaves a phone number for the customer to call back to make a water bill payment or pay a fine for tampering with their water meter. The company said that any customers who receive a similar call should immediately contact their local police department. Any customers who have further questions or would like to confirm their account status can contact Aquarion’s customer service center at 1-800-732-9678.

NYSTROM QUITTING

Norwich Republican mayoral candidate Peter Nystrom announced Friday that he plans to retire from his job as a UPS driver in mid-May. Nystrom’s full-time job became a campaign issue with his opponents in tomorrow’s election, with all four other candidates pledging to work full-time, daytime hours in the mayor’s office.  The position is technically, part-time.  Nystrom said he met with company retirement officials on Friday and worked out his plan to retire in the second week of May, “win or lose” the election.

OYSTERING MEETING CONTINUES

In Stonington, the Shell­fish Com­mis­sion expects a large crowd at the Mys­tic Mid­dle School cafe­te­ria Thurs­day night as it con­tin­ues it dis­cus­sion with a part-time Lord’s Point man who has a con­tro­ver­sial plan to grow and har­vest oys­ters in a small sec­tion of Quiambaug Cove. Op­po­nents and sup­port­ers of an ap­pli­ca­tion by Dana Lewis have been cir­cu­lat­ing pe­ti­tions and at last month’s com­mis­sion meet­ing, more than a 100 peo­ple jammed the small Town Hall meet­ing room and ad­ja­cent hall­way to op­pose the plan. No de­ci­sion will be made on the ap­pli­ca­tion and no pub­lic hear­ing will be held Thurs­day. Res­i­dents, how­ever, will be al­lowed to make brief com­ments be­fore the com­mis­sion tack­les its monthly agenda. The meeting begins at 6:30.