WEDNESDAY MORNING UPDATE

NS RETHINKING SCHOOL PROJECT

The town of North Ston­ing­ton will hold a town meet­ing next week for res­i­dents to vote on whether to pro­ceed with the school build­ing project, which was ex­pected to break ground next month. The town meet­ing will be held Feb 1st at 7 p.m.  in the Wheeler Gy­mna­to­rium.  It was sched­uled by the Board of Select­men in re­sponse to two pe­ti­tions sub­mit­ted by res­i­dents last week. The board was ad­vised by the town at­tor­ney that it was re­quired to sched­ule the meet­ing and vote be­cause of the pe­ti­tions.

DRIVER GETS SIX MONTHS

A Swansea, Massachusetts truck driver who crashed into a car on I 95 killing three of its occupants has been sentenced to six months in prison. Prosecutor David Smith said the plea deal that was worked out was fair, given the totality of the circumstances. Gerard Dube was also ordered to serve 100 hours of community services, half of it in an athletic/coaching setting and half, at the request of the victim’s family, with an organization that provides animal welfare services.

CATES OUT

Killingly Town Council member Matt Cates has submitted his resignation letter. Cates was one of several Republicans swept into office in November. He said his decision to step down from the nine-member council was based on job commitments. Cates was one of four, at-large councilors not tied to one of the town’s five specific districts. He’s been absent from all three of this month’s council meetings. With Cates’ resignation official, the Republican Town Committee will now meet to recommend a replacement. Republicans hold a 5-4 majority on the council.

PERMIT SOUGHT ON STONINGTON DEVELOPMENT

The de­vel­oper of the for­mer Perkins farm prop­erty in Mystic is seek­ing a wet­lands per­mit for the first phase of con­struc­tion of a 121-unit apart­ment build­ing. The Ston­ing­ton Plan­ning and Zon­ing Com­mis­sion al­ready has ap­proved a mas­ter plan to con­struct a 71-acre med­i­cal, aca­demic and res­i­den­tial cam­pus. If built as en­vi­sioned by De­vel­oper David Lat­ti­zori of Gro­ton, the project would be­come the town’s largest tax­payer, gen­er­at­ing an es­ti­mated $1.3 mil­lion a year in tax rev­enue and cre­at­ing sev­eral hun­dred jobs. The wet­lands com­mis­sion has slated a pub­lic hear­ing on the ap­pli­ca­tion for 7 p.m. Feb. 1st at the po­lice sta­tion.

HOMELESS COUNTED

Determining how many people are homeless in Connecticut was the objective of last night’s annual “Point in Time’ count . Volunteers in many cities and towns went to areas where homeless are known to reside.  Norwich Human Services Director Lee-Ann Gomes says about 30 volunteers, including herself, conducted the count in such areas of the city as behind the former Y-M-C-A building, the traintracks, and near Wal-Mart. Gomes says anyone with urgent medical needs was taken care of, while information about available services was also offered. Gomes says homelessness in the area has gone down dramatically in recent years for families and adults. Single youth between ages 18 and 25 has seen an increase, although Gomes says that may be because that age group wasn’t being accounted-for accurately until the past couple of years or so.

FOUNDRY 66 CELEBRATING

One year later, Foundry 66 in the former Norwich Bulletin building, boasts all nine offices and six desk spaces occupied, including a mixture of start-up businesses, an attorney and real estate agents. Outside organizations and businesses also use Foundry 66 facilities regularly, including home health care training conferences, NAACP and the Southeastern Connecticut Cultural Coalition. The Norwich Community Development Corporation will celebrate the successful first year of Foundry 66 today with a reception for some 50 to 60 people who helped get the project off the ground, recover from a fire and thrive in the months that followed.