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Republicans Honor “Black Cabinet” Trailblazer

by YASH ROY

George Logan and a handful of fellow local Republican politicos commemorated Black History Month with a live performance of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” and with a lineup of speakers who paid tribute to the late civil rights icon and informal presidential adviser Mary McLeod Bethune.

Logan, a former Hamden state senator who almost unseated Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes in Connecticut’s 5th congressional district in November, played that tune Saturday afternoon during a New Haven Republican Town Committee-organized Black History Month event at the Q House community center at 197 Dixwell Ave.

He was one of four speakers who spoke about their work while also commemorating Dr. Mary Bethune, a civil rights leader who in the 1930s served in an informal group of advisers to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt known as the “Black Cabinet.”

RTC members organized the event in the hopes of both remembering and memorializing Bethune who wore many caps throughout her lifetime, including civil rights advocate, teacher, university president, and leader of various national civil rights organizations.

Saturday’s event was the first of a set of three panels at which the RTC will work to commemorate Black leaders in the state and nation while also discussing issues important to Black New Haveners. During the event, attendees heard from Logan, African American History Museum owner Jeffrey Fletcher, state Department of Developmental Services Division Director Jackson Pierre-Louis, and Mount Calvary Deliverance Tabernacle Pastor Robert Smith.

Smith connected Bethune’s work and legacy to that of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., saying that both represented the grit and dedication of Black Americans in the 20th century who moved the United States towards racial justice.

Smith, whose congregation includes a descendant of Bethune, explained that Bethune dedicated her life to winning Black Americans the unfettered right to vote, which was important in winning power during the Civil Rights Movement. “They both knew this, and I am saying it, now is the time that we’ve got to come together. Keep working, keep organizing, keep inviting. When we finally come together as a people, we’re going to see strength that we’ve only dreamed,” Smith concluded.

Attendees also heard from Fletcher who set up an African American History Museum in Stratford after he became interested in documenting the history of African Americans. The museum opened in October 2021 and has had roughly 8,000 visitors.

Fletcher’s parents grew up in the Carolinas before moving to Colchester, Connecticut during the Great Migration. That’s where they met and raised a family with four children, including Fletcher.

Fletcher served as a New Haven police officer for almost two decades retiring in 2015. He began the process of putting together the museum after he discovered artifacts that his mother had collected which memorialized Black history in the US.

“I inherited 230 pieces of paper and other paper objects that my mom collected

and I was going to throw it out because I thought it was junk,” Fletcher said at the event. “After retirement it hit me that I needed to tell my mom’s story and it was really hard to set up this museum but it finally got done and we’re now open.”

Fletcher shared with attendees that he had to “face many closed doors,” but he finally caught a break with the historic law firm of John W. Sterling. Sterling, who made his riches off of representing the Standard Oil Company, donated $29 million to Yale University leading to the

construction of the Sterling Memorial Library and Sterling Law School.

Sterling’s law firm, Sherman and Sterling LLP, was the first sponsor of Fletcher’s museum.

“Sterling decided to reach back spiritually, and say, we needed to help this young man and this man out with his mission, his statement and what he’s trying to do. So therefore, they were the first pillar to support what I’m doing,” Fletcher shared. The firm is also helping Fletcher relocate the museum to Sterling’s 10,000 square-foot house in Stratford which is significantly larger than the current 4,000 square-foot museum. Fletcher added that he hopes Yale will soon reach out to him to partner with his museum.

Fletcher also walked attendees through various exhibits of the museum which are designed to immerse visitors into the history and plight of African Americans through the last 400 years.

The exhibit includes a reconstructed hull of a ship that carried enslaved people through the Middle Passage. In this section of the museum, visitors must only rely on their ears and sense of touch in an attempt to mimic the conditions enslaved people had during their forced voyages. It also includes artifacts from the 1960s and doors that represent the segregation faced by Black Americans during Jim Crow. Fletcher also has chairs from the Woolworth company in Greensboro where civil rights leaders staged sit-ins at diners to force desegregation.

Fletcher hopes to increase visitor attendance at the museum and encourages attendees bring students and other school groups. He also shared that many state Democrats had refused to even acknowledge the existence of the museum. After Fletcher, Pierre-Louis shared work that his department is doing to help seniors live comfortable lives during and after the pandemic.

Logan closed out the event sharing why he personally feels it is important to teach Black history.

“The kid of a friend of mine came home one day and asked his dad if he was a slave,” Logan said. “It’s so important for us to teach Black history and highlight it because so many people just don’t know all of our history and they should.”

Logan added personal experience he had with designing Black History Month curriculums that were successful in schools until principals and superintendents prevented him from coming in to speak with students about Black History Month.

“Suddenly it became that I didn’t have the credentials and there were privacy issues,” Logan said. “We can’t just rely on the government or school to teach our people. It’s our responsibility.”

After the speakers, organizer Anthony Acri told the Independent that he was “speechless” from all the talent and dedication he had heard from the speakers. He added that he is excited for future events that the RTC will host to commemorate Black History Month.

YASH ROY PHOTO

Ex-State Sen. George Logan, with guitar and in front of picture of Mary McLeod Bethune, at Republican-organized Black History Month event.

At Saturday's RTC-organized Q House event, with New Haven RTC Chair John Carlson (second from left.)

New Haven Independent

Arrests, Lockdowns Detailed After Shootings

by THOMAS BREEN

A likely miscommunication between police dispatch and the school district’s security team caused 10 schools to go into some form of lockdown during an East Rock drive-by shootout — which, thanks to quick police work, has led to two arrests and the confiscation of four guns, one of which has now been connected to the crime scene.

City Police Chief Karl Jacobson and Mayor Justin Elicker provided those updates Tuesday afternoon during a press conference held on the third floor of police headquarters at 1 Union Ave. The presser took place one day after the occupants of two different cars shot nearly two dozen bullets at one another soon after 8 a.m. on Monday as the vehicles drove through Edwards, Livingston, and Lawrence Streets in the East Rock neighborhood. While the moving cars, and at least one parked car, were hit during the fusillade of gunfire, miraculously enough, no one appears to have been injured.

That incident led to 10 schools going into temporary lockdowns — at first full, then partial — after an apparent miscommunication between police dispatchers and the school district’s security team over whether or not Monday’s drive-by shooting was an “active shooter” incident.

Following the morning’s harrowing shootout, some community members, including those who attended Monday night’s East Rock Community Manage-

ment Team meeting, have asked why so many schools — even those not immediately proximate to the shootout — were put in lockdown. (See more on that meeting below.)

Jacobson said on Tuesday that police found 23 cartridge casings “throughout a couple different city blocks” after the Monday morning shootout. With the help of community-provided video evidence

and statements, police tracked down an Acura MDX, one of the cars they believe was involved in the incident, to Hamden. They tracked down another car they believed was involved, a Dodge Durango, to Fair Haven.

“Through investigative efforts,” the city police department’s shooting task force and criminal intelligence unit working with state and Hamden police “deter-

mined that the persons responsible for the gunfire” may have fled to a house on Newhall Street in Hamden “which police have identified as a known location for criminal activity,” Jacobson continued.

“After conducting surveillance,” cops observed and then arrested two individuals, one a 19-year-old and the other an 18-year-old, who exited that Newhall Street house, Jacobson said. He said police found two handguns — a Mossberg MC1SC 9mm and a Glock 22 .40 caliber — on those individuals.

Both have been charged with criminal possession of a firearm, possessing weapons in a motor vehicle, pistol without a permit, high-capacity magazines, and larceny of a motor vehicle.

The police chief said that city cops soon thereafter obtained a search warrant for the Newhall Street house. That search yielded the seizure of two more handguns –a Sig Sauer .357 and a Springfield XD .40 caliber.

“The investigation for the gunfire has been assigned to the shooting task force,” Jacobson said. He said that cops anticipate making more arrests thanks to these gun seizures.

After the presser, Jacobson said that city cops have received lab test results from the state confirming that fired cartridge casings found at the crime scene match the 9mm gun seized at the Newhall Street house.

“It was a crazy scene, with gunfire in

“Flower Lady” Sidewalk Biz Re-Blossoms

by LISA REISMAN

With a box of 250 roses and a few hundred other flowers, as well as an assortment of balloons, “flower lady” Annette Walton figured she was well-stocked for her grand reopening in front of Yale’s Humanities Quadrangle on York Street between Wall and Elm.

Around an hour later, those hundreds of flowers were mostly gone.

Walton, who’s been selling flowers since the 1990s around Yale’s downtown campus, re-set up shop on York Street last week after an almost three-year hiatus.

She saw her street-vending license expire during the pandemic when the university went remote starting in March 2020. A hardy band of Yale students and alumni jumped through hoops for her at City Hall and launched a university-wide GoFundMe campaign that raised $1,500 to help her business re-blossom.

The reason for the overwhelming response to the reopening, according to Yale School of Drama alumnus Arthur Nacht, was simple.

“She’s a wonderful person, a special

woman,” said Nacht, as he stood on the sidewalk amid a hive of students buzzing around the “Flower Lady” on a pictureperfect Valentine’s Day; he met Walton in 2003 while a student at the drama school.

“Plus she has a million friends.”

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Among them is senior Adam Zhang, who returned with four boxes of 1,000 roses.

“It was really a community effort,” “You’re amazing, Annette,” said senior Katie Smith, a history major, who was standing nearby. She met Walton early on

in her time at Yale. They hit it off. Every Wednesday, she, along with her friend Averil Walters, bring her coffee. “We sit on the wall and chat for a couple of hours,” Smith said. “Best part of my day.”

Emme Magliato, who organized the GoFundMe campaign with Zhang, had a similar take.

“I met Annette during my first year and I felt really connected to her,” she said. “I had a hard time connecting on campus at Yale, coming from a lower-income background. I feel like every time I see Annette, it brings joy into my day.”

She watched another student ask for another five roses.

“This is huge for her not just for today but also for the future,” she said. “When we set up the campaign, her husband had just passed away, and we wanted to make sure she felt supported and had community around her to help her get her license and keep her busy and engaged.”

Zhang, who met her in fall 2021, agreed.

“I felt very connected to Annette, and I saw an opportunity to really help some-

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THOMAS BREEN PHOTO Police Chief Jacobson (right), with Asst. Chief Ettienne and Mayor Elicker, offering arrest update Tuesday.

LISA REISMAN PHOTO Annette Walton back at work on York St.

New Haven Independent

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Lucretia Gets Her Corner

by PAUL BASS

The name of New Haven’s first Black resident appeared Monday above a Downtown intersection, where it will remain. The resident was named Lucretia.

A crowd of officials and community members gathered Monday morning during the final days of Black History Month to officially dub the intersection, at Orange and Elm Streets, Lucretia’s Corner.

We don’t know Lucretia’s last name. We don’t know where in Africa Lucretia was born. We don’t know where she’s buried. We do know Lucretia was the first known recorded slave in New Haven Colony. She was married to a fellow enslaved person named John Cram. She worked as a slave for then-Gov. Theophilus Eaton shortly after the establishment of New Haven Colony in 1638, on an estate that was located where her name now flies above the street.

The naming was the result of a 25-yearlong effort launched by Ann Garrett Robinson, a writer and psychology professor with a long history of civic involvement. She discovered historical references to Lucretia in 1998 in a document she found at the old Afro-American Historical Society archives at the Q House. This past year she teamed up with then-Alder Steven Winter and others to gather 250 signatures on a petition to name the corner, then win approval for the naming from the Board of Alders.

Lucretia advocated for the health of the elderly, Robinson said; at some point Ea-

ton freed her. At the naming ceremony, Mayor Justin Elicker and Downtown/ East Rock Alder Eli Sabin emphasized the importance of remembering the city’s history, including the fact that slavery existed here, as well as recognizing the social justice work left to be done.

The crowd included members of local churches and others who have helped Robinson in her campaign. Those helpers included Trina Greene (pictured), who belted out a rendition of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” as part of the

ceremony. She ended with a riff on the chorus: “It’s been a long time coming / But a change has come …”

New Haven Academy teacher Kelly Hope (pictured above) brought her 11th and 12th grade African American Literature class. “This is a real-life opportunity for my students to make connections between what we’re learning about in class and the experiences of AfricanAmericans in New Haven,” Hope said. “I wanted them to come and experience this story.”

PAUL BASS PHOTOS Ann Garrett Robinson, at center, beside Trina Greene and Steve Winter watching unveiling of Lucretia's Corner sign.

New Haven Independent

Library Lets The Good Times Roll

by Lucy Gellman, Editor, The Arts Paper newhavenarts.org

Shelves packed with new releases disappeared for a table heavy with canapés and bright, festive blooms. The reference desk became a bar, with gem-colored cocktails that multiplied as the night wore on. The makerspace turned into a dance floor, the second floor lobby into a stage. And once the Cupid Shuffle came on, not a single pair of feet stayed still.

No one asked patrons to turn down the volume. No one whispered. And true to form, no one went home without a story. The good times rolled back into the Ives Main Branch of the New Haven Free Public Library (NHFPL) Tuesday night, as 200 bibliophiles, friends and new and lifelong patrons gathered to celebrate Mardi Gras in person for the first time since early 2020. For the past two years, celebrations have continued entirely online, with conversations between literary luminaries and remote fundraising efforts. Tuesday, it roared back to life just in time for the library’s 136th birthday. The Ives Main Branch of the New Haven Free Public Library initially opened on Feb. 21, 1887.

“Today is a special day, where we really come together beneath this beloved cosmopolitan canopy, in the place that is the greatest public good, and that is so good for the public,” said Michael Morand, chair of the NHFPL Foundation’s Board of Directors. “Us being together in three dimensions is fitting in this place that has led the way to being open and bringing people together.”

The New Haven Free Public Library Foundation does not yet have the amount raised. Manmita Dutta, director of advancement for the foundation, said that over 200 people attended.

Throughout the night, the event became a bead-studded call to support the library and its staff as it works toward another 136 years—and more—in New Haven. In the past century, the library’s branches have grown into community hubs, art galleries, warming and cooling centers, spaces for professional development, pop-up tax offices and even vaccine and booster clinics. There are currently five, which reach out from downtown like sparkling tentacles across the city.

Since the last in-person Mardi Gras, the NHFPL has navigated a pandemic, weathered the city’s threat of a branch closure, lost beloved City Librarian John Jessen, opened the new Stetson Branch Library, rallied for fairer wages, and launched its search for a new city librarian. Tuesday, Acting City Librarian Maureen Sullivan, who arrived last June, said that she will likely be leaving in May.

“It’s wonderful to be back together in this beautiful, sacred sanctuary—not just for books, but for ideas, identities, intersectionalities and our whole community,”

said NHFPL Board Chair Lauren Anderson. Lifting a copy of Nikki Giovanni’s A Library to cheers, she stressed Giovanni’s words, that “A library is a place to be free.”

And Tuesday, it was. At the reference desk, Ordinary New Haven Co-Owner Tim Cabral turned out blush-tinted cocktails in honor of former City Librarian John Jessen, who died last May after a years-long battle with cancer. After learning that Jessen loved mojitos almost as much as his hometown of Strawberry Point, Iowa, Cabral designed a drink with a strawberry and mint simple syrup, lime juice, soda water, rum, and a strawberryabsinthe mist.

For the next month, people can also find the cocktail at Ordinary, where a portion of each drink will go back toward the library. As Jessen’s memory filled the space—Tuesday was magical, but conspicuously bereft of gentle banter, wellplaced dad jokes and a surprising love for flyover country—attendees toasted to him over and over again, floating across the floor.

One room over, Ives Squared was suddenly a ballroom, dripping with traditional Mardi Gras gold, green, and purple in every direction. As musician Timmy Maia soaked the space in sound, longtime patrons and Mardi Gras newbies alike pledged their support for the library, many taking time to reflect on what it has become for them. Beneath Maia, musicians Trever Somerville, Jay Rowe and Wayne Brown turned cover songs into a proper jam.

Taking a break from the dance floor, climate activist and organizer Gabriela Campos remembered coming to New Haven two decades ago, and falling quickly

in love with the library. As an immigrant and a mom, the Ives and Fair Haven Branches became her safe havens dozens of times over—they still are today.

When her sons were young—her oldest is now 17—she would bring them to the library in search of not just books, but story hours and kids’ programming with librarians, chess lessons at multiple neighborhood branches, and books that made their world seem much bigger than New Haven’s 19 square miles. Thinking back, she remembered finding a wellloved Mongolian origin story among the stacks, and being able to check it out and bring it home with her. She and her sons read it over and over.

“It’s just been a part of living in New Haven,” she said. She recalled how proud she felt years ago, when she saw that librarians were among the first—and the most vocal—to take a stand against the

blur of orange and red silk, and Rowe hit just the right note on keys.

A longtime New Havener, Petaway had never been to Mardi Gras, and wanted to give it a try after hearing that it was a great party. Raised in New York, she grew up visiting the library on trips to see her grandmother, who lived close to Dixwell Avenue and the old Q House. In the 1960s, she moved to New Haven because she loved it so much. For her and her daughter, Valerie, the old Stetson became a space for not just books, but also programming and community meetings. As the co-president of the GNHAAHS, she now uses the new Stetson Branch Library across Dixwell Avenue as a community meeting and event space. After trying out Mardi Gras because she loves to dance—it’s how her parents met in New York years ago—she said that she’ll be back next year.

“Time goes by so fast, baby, you don’t know if you’re going to be there tomorrow,” she said. “I’m so glad I came. Really, I had a good time.”

Taking a break at a ribbon-draped table, friends Pamela Cox and Anna Marie Perkins both praised the library for fostering a sense of community. Moments before, they had been weaving through the room to the lyrics of “Love Train,” their hands dancing atop fellow revelers’ shoulders. Now, they took a breather before hitting the dance floor for the last hour of the night.

After moving to New Haven in the 1990s, Perkins spent hours each week in the library, sometimes as a doting mom and sometimes to find books for herself. For years, she took her kids to the old Stetson Branch Library for school assignments, then to Ives for storytime. Tuesday, she was excited to return with a mask that was covering her eyes, rather than her mouth and nose.

U.S. Patriot Act in the early 2000s. When Lunar New Year celebrations returned to the library this year, they were there to welcome in the Year of the Rabbit. Recently, her son signed up for classes at Ives Squared, where he is learning to use a laser cutter.

“You think of librarians as mousy and quiet, and they’re so badass,” she said. “I just love it.”

Back in Ives Squared, the party was heating up. As Maia crooned his way from The O’Jays to Prince to Frank Sinatra, dozens filled the dance floor, pulling out their best moves. At the center of the action, Greater New Haven African American Historical Society (GNHAAHS) Co-President Diane Petaway lifted her arms and let a cover of “Give It To Me” take her away. She spun slowly, a

“It’s not just mine, it’s everybody’s,” added Cox, who moved to the city in high school, and never left. She’s been using all five branches, with a particular penchant for Stetson and Mitchell, for over three decades.

“Alright, librarians, you ‘bout to party like it’s 1999!” Maia announced from across the room, and immediately Stetson Branch Manager Diane Brown was working the crowd, pulling her colleagues onto the floor. In the green and purple light that bounced over the room, her dress glowed silver. By the time Maia eased into the first verse—I was dreamin’ when I wrote this/Forgive me if it goes astray!—the librarians were out on the floor in a sea of color.

The space seemed foreign but enchanted, somewhere between a Gatsby-era party and Saturday night at the club. As he served steaming cups of red beans, rice, and spicy Andouille sausage in the former Con’t on page 09

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UConn Students Protest Lamont’s Budget

by Hugh McQuaid

Hundreds of UConn students and staff rallied Wednesday at the state Capitol in opposition to the university’s funding levels recommended by Gov. Ned Lamont last week in his two-year budget proposal.

Backed by a state coalition of public sector labor unions, some of the UConn community staged a mid-day walkout from the university’s Storrs campus, boarded buses and gathered on the north steps of the Capitol building. After the event, state Capitol police estimated that roughly 700 people attended the rally.

At issue was the governor’s budget package, which, if approved by the legislature, would spend around $887 million on UConn, its four regional campuses, and UConn Health over the next two years.

On paper, it’s an increase over the $753 million in baseline funding the school received in the last budget, but it pales when compared to the total of more than $1 billion the university received when combined with temporary federal aid.

During the rally, the governor and his budget proposal came under fire from students, faculty and some Democratic lawmakers who represent towns with UConn campuses.

“When the governor released his budget, he said there was a focus on inclusive opportunity and I think it’s clear from everyone here today that he missed his mark,” said Jon Heiden, external affairs director of the school’s student government.

“We’re here to remind Governor Lamont and the General Assembly that without

adequate funding for academics, this state can not prosper,” Zachary Boudah, student body president of UConn’s Avery Point campus, said.

Over 45 minutes the group chanted and applauded a slate of student and faculty speakers from the university’s campuses.

At the conclusion of the rally the protestors dispersed, many of them planning to testify at a hearing of the Appropriations Committee being held in the nearby Legislative Office Building.

Sympathetic lawmakers described for the crowd the tone of that hearing.

“The conversation inside has already taken a bad turn,” Rep. Gregg Haddad, a Democrat whose district includes the Storrs campus, said. “Legislators are talking about right-sizing public higher education in Connecticut. That’s a code word for shrinking it and instead we should be expanding it.”

Others said the budget proposal was a disappointment that would lead to higher tuition, less faculty and few in-state college students. Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Windham, said that over the last 30 years Connecticut had reduced its share of UConn tuition from 50 cents on the dollar to less than 25 cents under the proposed budget.

“That is wrong,” Flexer said. “At what point does UConn stop being a public institution if there is no public investment?”

Responding to the rally, the governor released a statement touting historic investments in UConn. Lamont said the budget included the largest baseline grants for the school in state history. The proposal would support wage increases and shift

pension and retirement health benefits into the General Fund, making them more competitive for grant funding, he said. Lamont said the state could not continue to fund the school at the levels it had when pandemic relief funds were available.

“The COVID-19 federal relief funds were intended to be one-time in nature, providing support during the public health emergency. Those federal dollars were never intended to pay for ongoing expenses,” he said. “The UConn administration’s insistence that the state continue covering this federal aid now that it is no longer available is not a fiscally sustainable solution.”

But UConn’s backlash against the governor’s budget began almost immediately after he proposed it last week. Last Tuesday, the Daily Campus reported that UConn President Radenka Maric suggested the school may pull out of an agreement to play UConn basketball and hockey games at the XL Center in Hartford.

During Wednesday’s rally, Jeffrey Ogbar, a history professor and president of the faculty union UConn-AAUP, said he did not buy the governor’s claim that this year’s budget represented a funding increase for the school. He pointed to years of belt-tightening and employee benefit concessions. Ogbar said inflation more than canceled out recent increases.

“Any way you look at it, we’re losing money. We’re not going back to that baseline, we’re going backwards, backwards. It’s a disinvestment any way you look at it,” Ogbar said. “We can’t be flimflammed, bamboozled, hoodwinked, run amok by a slight of hand.”

Nursing Home Staffing, Transparency Up For Debate

by Christine Stuart and Hugh McQuaid

Nursing home staffing shortages, financial transparency, air conditioning, and family visits topped the agenda Thursday for the Human Services and Aging Committees.

One of the more controversial proposals would require a minimum number of hours of care per resident moving it from three hours to 4.1 hours per day, the recommended level of care from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services since 2001.

While everyone who has a loved one in a nursing home wants the best care for them, staffing shortages have meant that nursing staff has less time for each patient every day.

The bill would impose a $10,000 fine on nursing homes that didn’t provide this level of care.

Supporters of the bills held a press conference in the Legislative Office Building prior to Thursday’s hearing. During the event, Lurlette Newell, a certified nurs-

es’ assistant at Westside Care Center in Manchester, said nursing home staff are frequently overwhelmed as patients once cared for at hospitals are being shifted to nursing home settings.

“Residents need our love and affection and we are not able to give this to them due to the lack of time with the current staffing levels,” Newell said. “Connecticut residents living in a nursing home should be a priority to the legislators of Connecticut.”

In testimony before the legislative panel, Ed Hawthorne, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, agreed.

“Safe staffing levels are important for protecting the quality of patient care and workplace safety. They also reduce staff burnout and turnover in an industry that is desperate to hold on to qualified and competent staff,” Hawthorne said.

Timothy Flaherty, an administrator of Village Crest, said recruiting staff, even before the pandemic, to achieve that 4.1 hours was difficult.

“Hiking up minimum staffing level without any financial support will only

further negatively impact our facility,” he said. “We don’t have the labor in the community to support this bill.”

Russell Schwartz, vice president and director of operations at Avon Health Center and West Hartford Health & Rehabilitation Center, said they set up interviews every week and many applicants don’t even show up.

“The workforce just does not seem to be there,” Schwartz said. “Everyone is chasing the highest hourly rate, with no commitment to the job, or the residents. There are only so many extra shifts our staff can cover before suffering burnout.”

Family members like John Interlandi, who is the conservator of his brother, said when he visited his brother he found his pants and his bed soiled in urine and the temperature in his room was over 80 degrees.

“Based on my personal experiences, I am very concerned about the care that folks like Joe receive within the nursing home setting,” Interlandi said.

Con’t on page 09

UConn students display signs during a rally over the university’s funding on Feb. 15, 2023

Credit: Hugh McQuaid / CTNewsJunkie

UConn Professor Jeffrey Ogbar, president of UConn-AAUP Credit: Hugh McQuaid / CTNewsJunkie

Lurlette Newell a certified nurses’ assistant at Westside Care Center in Manchester Credit: Hugh McQuaid / CTNewsJunkie

Good Times Roll

home of Orchid Café, chef and pitmaster Jose Perez looked around, taking in the moment. Perez, who is now in his early 40s, grew up in Fair Haven in the 1980s and 90s. As a kid on Fillmore Street, the Grand Avenue branch location became his second home. Tuesday was like coming full-circle.

“Growing up in Fair Haven, we didn’t have money for books,” he said. He remembered checking out a book he’d first seen on the show “Reading Rainbow” about whale watching, and holding on to it because he loved it so much. He never got in trouble with the library. Three decades and a move to Morris Cove later, he still visits the branch—now as a dad, with three kids who love books as much as he does.

Perez joined Bear’s Smokehouse five years ago, after hearing they were looking for a pitmaster. In advance of Mardi Gras, he started building a recipe that would pay homage to New Orleans’ kaleidoscopic culinary culture, and to his own Puerto Rican upbringing. After starting with the “holy trinity” of onions, celery, and peppers, he seasoned and cooked the sausage beneath the smokehouse’s brisket, so it would collect the drippings for flavor.

“It feels like Night at the Museum,” he said with a big, broad smile. “I love seeing people here.”

On the dance floor, Maia was closing out the night with “New York New York.” There with Newhallville neighborhood champion Jeanette Sykes, Jennifer Tillman raised her arms above her head, burst into a huge smile, and slid back onto the dance floor for one more time before the end of the night. A former psychiatric social worker, Tillman praised the library as “a place of fellowship,” where patrons could find so much more than books.

Growing up in New Haven, Tillman has always loved the library, she said. As a mom, she spent time there with her kids, and now brings her grandkids. When she decided to pursue her real estate license a few years ago, the Mitchell Branch Library became her one-stop-shop for resources and study materials.

It echoed Morand’s reminder from much earlier in the evening, that the library is no single thing to any one person. Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, he remembered visiting each of the library’s five branches. At the Courtland Seymour Wilson Branch in the Hill, he arrived to see a line already outside the door, waiting for the library to open.

For him, that was a testament enough to the role that it plays every day.

As people trickled out of Ives and burst back into the damp night, the library fell quiet once again, ready for another day.

New Principal Sets Sights High For Wilbur Cross

by THOMAS BREEN

One month and one day into his new job as principal of New Haven’s largest high school, Matthew Brown hopes to help make Wilbur Cross “the premier urban comprehensive high school in the state of Connecticut” even as he, his colleagues, and the school’s 1,642 students face head on the challenges presented by pandemic-era disruptions to public education.

Brown offered that take during a brief interview with the Independent Friday morning while hustling between an outdoor press conference celebrating a $4.35 million sports complex overhaul and a planned meetup with a group of students inside the halls of the Mitchell Drive high school.

A former High School in the Community Building leader who left the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) in 2021 for a job as chief turnaround officer in Waterbury’s public school district, Brown was tapped in December to be Wilbur Cross High School’s new principal. He replaced the high school’s interim principal, NHPS Supervisor of Youth, Family and Community Engagement Kermit Carolina, who filled in since October when his predecessor, John Tarka, left his job as Wilbur Cross’s principal after only five weeks of classes.

Brown formally began his new Wilbur Cross head job on Jan. 23 making Friday the one-month- one-day-iversary in the role. He’s begun the job as the district as a whole struggles with low test scores in math and literacy, high rates of chronic absenteeism, and teacher shortages citywide, all as NHPS looks for a new superintendent to replace the soon-to-retire

Con’t from page 08

Transparency Up

Cinnamon St. John, a senior health policy specialist at the Center for Medicare Advocacy, said proper staffing is at the heart and soul of every nursing facility.

In Connecticut’s 233 nursing homes, over 4,100 residents have suffered COVID related deaths, and there have been over 28,000 COVID cases.

“Perhaps one of the most important lessons to come out of the COVID-19 crisis is the realization that nursing home facilities must have the right numbers and mix of nursing and direct care workers on hand,”

A study in 2020 found that among facilities with one confirmed positive case of COVID, every additional 20-minute increase in nursing staff per resident, per day was associated with a 22% reduction in confirmed COVID cases, and a 26% reduction in COVID deaths.

Aside from staffing, lawmakers heard from the public about the importance of family visitation and air conditioning in nursing facilities.

Iline Tracey. How’s it going so far?

“It’s going great,” Brown said about his time at Cross so far. “People have been incredibly welcoming.”

Brown lives in the city. Three of his children are currently students at Wilbur Cross.

“There is an enormous amount of pride in that building,” he said. He said he’s been “impressed by the amount of love people have for this school, both what it has been and what it can be.”

What are some of the biggest challenges he’s seen facing the Cross community one month in to his new job as principal?

“Education prior to Covid and education post-Covid, the scale of the challenges has changed.” He said he’s worked in education for three decades. This moment three years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic feels unique.

“How do we make sure that we’re really utilizing our strengths and helping students to understand that they are resilient despite the fact that all of them have had interrupted educations because of Covid?” he asked. While New Haven may be nearing the other side of Covid as a “public health emergency,” “the effects of that, of having your schooling interrupted, are going to be with students for

years and years.”

Thus one of the biggest challenges and opportunities he and his colleagues face. “How do we help [students] feel strong in what they know how to do even as we’re pushing them to be open to some of the things that they still have to learn. That’s something that, quite frankly, is going to take years.”

Any big-picture goals for his tenure as Cross principal?

Brown said he thinks that the school, which currently has around 1,642 students, making it the largest in the city, can be a “premier urban comprehensive high school” in the state. “I believe that’s a worthy goal.” He said that “Getting some of the resources and facilities” that the school needs like the now-started $4.35 million overhaul of the athletic complex “will be reflective of that. That’s the type of school that all of our students deserve to go to.”

What is a moment or experience that has stuck with him in his first month on the job so far?

Every morning, Brown said, “I stand right there in the atrium and welcome in all the buses and the walkers and the students getting dropped off. It’s this wave of diversity, in the age of students, the background of students, what they’re coming in with, who’s excited to show up, who’s a sleepy 15-year-old who maybe just rolled out of bed and maybe is not excited to show up. Just being able to connect with the students as they start their days, it’s the best part of my day. And those get to happen every morning.”

“It really affirms for me that Wilbur Cross is New Haven,” he continued. “It’s what our city is.”

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO Wilbur Cross Principal Matthew Brown on Friday.

John L. “Jay” Pottenger, Jr., 72

John L. “Jay” Pottenger, Jr., Yale law professor and tireless advocate for fair housing, died peacefully on Thursday, February 23, 2023 at Connecticut Hospice, surrounded by his wife, Sue, and his three children Will, Jack, and Emma. In 2021, he was diagnosed with an advanced stage urologic cancer, and his bravery and humor in the face of this illness was extraordinary. He was always grateful for the exceptional medical and surgical care he received at Smilow Cancer Hospital.

Jay was born on March 3, 1950 to John L. Pottenger, Sr. and Tavia Morgan Pottenger in Chicago, Il, and before the age of 15 had called several midwestern cities home. As the eldest of six gifted children, he had tremendous love for his siblings Marty, Lynn, Candy, Bill, and Betsy.

After attending Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh, PA, he went on to dabble in several academic pursuits at Princeton University, before settling on Urban Affairs. He was an avid member of the Speech and Debate team, a protester of the Vietnam War, and a passionate bridge player. After Princeton, he attended Yale Law School, graduating in 1975.

After two judicial clerkships and a few years at Paul Weiss in New York City, Jay devoted his career to the Yale Law School clinical programs, where his wide-ranging service work included legislative advocacy, prison legal services, trial practice, landlord/tenant law, and professional responsibility. The true north of his work

managed to attend every soccer game and tennis match in which his children ever played, and was a long-time board member of the Branford Soccer Club. Jay also took great pride in his night-owl habits, and his ability to get anywhere faster than the GPS predicted. He also loved excellent wine, and covertly organized most family travel around visiting the best vineyards in the world.

A brilliant, humble man, Jay’s legacy includes countless law school graduates who have gone out into the world carrying Jay’s creativity, positivity, and dedication to service. He spared innumerable clients legal jeopardy, and treated them with dignity no matter the ultimate result. He had colleagues and friends on both sides of the pond and all over the world. But for all his accomplishments, Jay’s greatest source of pride was his loving family.

of West Haven

Former Planning and Zoning Commissioner Steven R. Mullins has announced his candidacy for Mayor

The announcement was made in a video released Friday on social media

was housing and community development, through which he has made an extraordinary difference in the Greater New Haven and larger Connecticut communities. He was a tireless advocate for affordable housing, and took great pleasure in taking on any institution or individual in the name of justice. Jay’s passion for housing justice was also expressed through Open Communities Alliance, an organization he helped to co-found that

aims to unwind Connecticut’s history of government-perpetuated segregation and focuses on reducing social, economic, and health disparities experienced by low-income families of color.

Teachers Union Contract, Fed-Funded Tutoring Plan OK’d

Outside of his legal work, he served on numerous nonprofit boards, and he was an avid sports fan with a particular passion for Liverpool Football Club, the Steelers, and the White Sox. Despite his professional responsibilities, he somehow

Relatives and friends are invited to a visitation Sunday afternoon from 3:00 – 6:00 PM at the W. S. Clancy Memorial Funeral Home, 244 North Main Street, Branford. A funeral service will be held Monday morning at 11:00 in Trinity Episcopal Church, 1109 Main Street, on-thegreen, in Branford. Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Open Communities Alliance (www.ctoca.org), or the Greater Dwight Development Corporation (www. gddcnh.org). For directions and online memorial see www.wsclancy.com.

Mullins, a Republican calls West Haven “A beautiful costal community with untapped potential,” in the one minute video. “Having served as planning and zoning commissioner for sixteen years and as a volunteer firefighter, I know and understand first hand, the issues going on in West Haven.” he says.

LAURA GLESBY

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Teachers Union Contract, Fed-Funded Tutoring Plan OK’d

by LAURA GLESBY

City teachers will be getting a 15 percent pay raise over the next three years — while a new math-and-literacy tutoring initiative will be getting $3 million in federal aid to get off the ground — thanks to two recent education-focused votes by the Board of Alders.

Both of those votes took place Tuesday night during the latest bimonthly full Board of Alders meeting, which was held in person in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.

Alders unanimously voted to approve a contract between the New Haven Federation of Teachers and the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) district. That nowfinalized union deal will run from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2026.

The new contract includes a 14.79 percent salary increase over the course of three years, raising the starting salary for New Haven teachers with a bachelor’s degree from $45,357 to $51,421 by 2026.

In addition, the contract will enact between a 2 and 5 percent increase in employee contributions to healthcare plans. It will compensate teachers an additional $42 per hour for covering classes during their prep

administrators, during which teachers can raise concerns about working conditions.

gram for NHPS students.

students by 2025, with every student receiving at least an hour of tutoring across multiple sessions per week.

At Tuesday’s full Board of Alders meeting, Marchand summarized some concerns among Finance and Education Committee members about the proposal.

“Many [alders] had questions about a lack of details about how the money would be spent … and the administration’s reliance on very many volunteers,” Marchand said.

The committees ultimately recommended that the plan be approved, Marchand said, because of an amendment requiring a review committee comprising an alder, a Board of Education member, and a city staff member to oversee the program’s development.

“We need to be doing everything we can to ensure our students have the resources they need,” echoed Education Committee Chair Eli Sabin.

Mullins brought up issues of litter, blight and potholes. He also mentioned the corruption of former Democratic State Representative and City Council administrative assistant Michael DiMassa, who is accused of embezzling over one million dollars of Federal Covid relief funds from the City. “One day of corruption is far too much corruption.” He said. “It is time to end the culture of corruption that has infested West Haven City Hall.”

Mullins served on the West Haven Planning and Zoning Commission for sixteen years until Mayor Nancy R. Rossi dismissed him last month.

In the video, Mullins criticized Rossi’s lack of leadership in cooperating with the State’s Municipal Accountability Review Board, which is threatening a complete state takeover of City finances due to the Rossi Administration’s non-compliance with the agency.

Finance Committee Chair Adam Marchand summarized these contents to his colleagues on Tuesday, while underscoring “the important role that teachers play with our youth.”

The alders also unanimously authorized the city to spend $3 million of federal

Mayor Justin Elicker proposed this tutoring plan months after learning that last school year, 83 percent of third graders performed below grade level in reading and 87 percent performed below grade level in math.

Educators rally outside City Hall for full school funding last March. City teachers will be getting a 15 percent pay raise over the next three years while a new math-and-literacy tutoring initiative will be getting $3 million in federal aid to get off the ground thanks to two recent education-focused votes by the Board of Alders.

The Elicker Administration hopes to enlist enough volunteer tutors to serve 1,500

Both of those votes took place Tuesday night during the latest bimonthly full Board of Alders meeting, which was held in

Now that the plan has been approved, city Communications Director Lenny Speiller said the administration’s next step is to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for at least one organization to administer the tutoring program. Speiller said the RFP will likely go out in early March.

“We need a leader that will attend the meetings of the MARB.” Mullins said. Republican Paige Weinstein is the only other candidate for Mayor to file candidacy paperwork. Former Mayor Edward O’BRIEN filed papers for an explanation committee. Rossi has yet to announce her intentions to run for a fourth term.

Steven R. Mullins Photograph by: Alex Vishno

Steven R. Mullins

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO John L. "Jay" Pottenger, Jr. (center), surrounded by legal students and colleagues.

PAUL BASS FILE PHOTO

New Haven Independent

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Yale Cabaret Lands The Parachute

by DONALD BROWN

Blood-spattered limbs. Wigs and heels. A marriage in trouble. Angels and demons, birds and fish. All of these and more are part of the Yale Cabaret’s current season, as it has returned to in-person dining and theater under an inspired and historic artistic team pursuing the venerable old goal of delivering the shock of the new.

The Yale Cabaret, located in a basement at 217 Park St., has been through some changes of late. Founded in 1968 as a location for experimental theater and run by students at the then-Yale School of Drama, the Cab, as it is generally known, had to close its doors in March 2020 when the pandemic prevented Yale students from returning to school from spring break. Like many theaters in the area, the Cab had to find ways to cope — including online productions in 2020, and in 2021, productions mostly created on campus but streamed to an audience. Into 2022, masked attendance was allowed in the Cab space with masked performers. Then, toward the end of last season, the performers were allowed to be mask-free. Today, the audience must still mask while the show is on.

The Cab, which had long established its reputation as a place for offbeat theater together with convivial food and drink, was unable to reopen its kitchen until the current season. Which means that, as of fall 2022, the Cab returned to what many old-timers remember it as — which hasn’t been the case since March 2020. A long time, as student populations go.

Another major change occurred in 2021 when media mogul and philanthropist David Geffen donated $150 million to the Yale School of Drama, since then rechristened The David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. The donated funds allow the school to offer tuition-free admissions. To cope with pandemic interruptions to normal instruction and scheduled productions, enrolled students were permitted an extra year for what is typically a threeyear program.

Arts & Culture Downtown Theater

Biz Re-Blossoms

one I cared about,” he said. “I think that pushed me. A big part of it is also my faith, to serve others like Jesus did.”

“Whew,” Walton, 63, was saying during a short lull. “From now on, it’s going to be simple, one bucket of flowers, real simple. Mondays, because their girlfriend or someone is mad at them, they’re going to need a flower, but not everyday. I’m old now. I’m too old. Back in the day, I’m flexible. I could move. Everything going to be sore tomorrow.”

“It’ll be a nice sore,” said Seraina Berger, who introduced herself as another of Miss Annette’s friends, along with her husband Andreas Berger, a post-doc at the Divinity School.

“You good?” Walton asked her. “How’s your leg?”

“I’m good,” Berger said. “Glad you’re back.”

At that moment, Jennifer Klein, a professor of history, alighted from HQ, greeting Walton.

“She always asks about family,” she said. “She wants to know how your kids are doing. She really thinks about other people, and I think she sees herself as part of the Yale community, which I think she is.”

Black-owned restaurants, the Anchor Spa. Chef Kendall’s offerings have been a hit, but the restriction that all food and beverages are consumed by curtain time puts a burden on the staff. Shows tend to start 20 – 30 minutes beyond the scheduled time. Eat faster, friends!

All these factors make Cab 55 a unique event in its own right, a brave creative venture worthy of the success it is enjoying. The Cab 55 team has proven itself resourceful, resilient and deservedly proud of its unprecedented place in the vital theatrical history of the Yale Cabaret.

lence in Performing Arts and has a BFA from Southern Methodist University. He will receive his MFA in acting this spring at Yale. The Cab experience has been a great opportunity to “see behind the scenes,” he said. As an actor, he plays “one role, a body onstage,” but the Cab has caused him to “learn all the moving parts” and to “see all aspects of the process.”

is “only risk and commitment. No assignments only invitations.” A place, as Gray said, where theater-makers may “dare greatly.” The parachute, he added, is bound to face “some turbulence in our Covid-afflicted times.”

The Season So Far

Kayode Soyemi, Ashley Thomas, Jason Gray. Blood-spattered limbs. Wigs and heels. A marriage in trouble. Angels and demons, birds and fish. All of these and more are part of the Yale Cabaret’s current season, as it has returned to in-person dining and theater under an inspired and historic artistic team pursuing the venerable old goal of delivering the shock of the new.

That familiarity might explain the outpouring of support in the effort to help Walton secure a license to sell her flowers.

Which means that the current graduating class of 2023 are the previously unusual fourth-years, admitted in 2019. As such, they’re the last group to remember the school before the pandemic, while the current first-years are the first this decade to experience a fully functioning Cab right from the start.

Now, if ever, is the time to pass the torch. The artistic and managing directors of the Cab’s 2022 – 23 season — Jason Gray, Kayodè Soyemi, and Ashley M. Thomas — are all fourth-years in the school and the first all-Black leadership team ever in the Cab’s 55 years. When the team realized they would be expected to reopen the Cab’s kitchen, they brought in the enthusiastic participation of Kendall Thigpen, the head chef at one of New Haven’s

Meet The Team

Jason Gray, the current executive artistic director, served the Yale Summer Cabaret 2020 as co-managing director. He will receive an MFA from the DGSD and an MBA from the Yale School of Management in 2023, and has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. He has worked as an actor in New York and elsewhere and was a founding program director of the Black Arts Institute at the Billie Holiday Theatre in Brooklyn. For him, the Cab 55 season makes him feel “like a proud papa,” learning what it means to “give birth to something and be responsible for it.”

Kayodè Soyemi, producing artistic director, is a first-generation NigerianAmerican actor, writer, producer and interdisciplinary artist. Soyemi “writes impossible pieces that use language, popculture, and world history to investigate charged topics.” He graduated from the HSPVA Cobb County Center for Excel-

Ashley M. Thomas, producing artistic director, hails from Harlem and explores “the intersections of culture, politics, and Beyoncé through a Black feminist lens.” She’s an MFA candidate studying dramaturgy and dramatic criticism and expects to graduate in May 2023. Her background includes dramaturgy at Rattlestick in New York, Utah Shakespeare Festival, and Yale Rep. She has a bachelor’s degree in social work from University ofWisconsin-Madison and has done arts administration work at Roundabout and Classical Theatre of Harlem, among others. For her, the Cab demonstrates “why community is so important. It’s a question of who will show up for you,” she said. In March 2020, she was collaborating with Gray on staging Ain’t No Dead Thing by a.k. payne, when Covid interrupted; the show went up as a radio play instead. Theater nurtures relationships, and Thomas stressed that the Cab requires and inspires a communal feeling for those who “love and care for it.”

Last weekend the Cab continued its roll for the season. The year opened with a appropriately melodramatic and bloodsoaked evening of Grand Guignol. The Cab then staged a high-spirited Dragaret early this month (a Drama School tradition 10 years running). and a Black queer take on Sondheim’s “Marry Me a Little” the previous weekend.

The Yale Cabaret, located in a basement at 217 Park St., has been through some changes of late. Founded in 1968 as a location for experimental theater and run by students at the then-Yale School of Drama, the Cab, as it is generally known, had to close its doors in March 2020 when the pandemic

Nacht, Zhang said, helped “work out the logistics of going to City Hall, filling out the forms, applying for licenses, going back and forth with the ward.” Others assisted in setting up a bank account, and with understanding regulations and other financial matters.

“People kept coming forward,” he said, as the flower lady wrestled with the bouquet of balloons.

“They’re not cooperating,” she said, finally freeing a heart-shaped one.

The Cab 55 team is called Parachute, which they see as a “soft umbrella,” “a space for trial and error” where there

Udo — Igbo for “peace” — is a new play written by the two actors who played in it: Abigail C. Onwunali and Nomè SiDone (both Acting ’23), directed by Bobbin Ramsey (Directing ’24). Amarchi (Onwunali) and Kelechi (SiDone) are a Nigerian immigrant couple, still childless. Kelechi is working on a doctorate; Amarchi works in a hospital. In the midst of their overworked lives, Amarchi wants passionately to rejuvenate the marriage. She dons a skimpy baby doll dress, reads Playgirl for tips, indulges in expensive perfume, and struts her stuff with reckless abandon. Kelechi isn’t unresponsive, but much of the entertainment in their attempts at coupling comes from our voyeuristic view of how easily a departure from routine becomes a chore, how embarrassing a failure at connection can be. The scenes are funny, awkward, sexy and, increasingly, desperate. A phone call brings news that

“Keep the change,” said student Nick Aldana.

“At a certain point we were very discouraged,” Zhang recalled. “The city was not letting her vend downtown and the weather was getting colder and colder. Annette was frustrated too.”

“You back again?” Walton was saying. “How many girlfriends you have?”

After “a lot of back and forth with City Hall and the local government,” as Zhang put it, the license came through in midJanuary. They decided to wait until Valentine’s Day.

“That was Adam’s brilliant idea,” said Nacht. He looked at the queue of smiling faces.

“This really warms my heart. She’s making a lot of people happy, it’s a gorgeous day, and you couldn’t ask for much more.”

LINDA-CRISTAL YOUNG PHOTO Kayode Soyemi, Ashley Thomas, Jason Gray.

LINDA-CRISTAL YOUNG PHOTO

New Haven Independent

curiosity Set your free

Edward A. Bouchet, was the valedictorian of the Hopkins class of 1870, the first African-American to graduate from Yale College, and the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. in physics. His intellectual drive and dedication to his studies remain hallmarks of a Hopkins student today.

Hopkins is where high-achieving, motivated students inspire one another in a collective pursuit of excellence.

To learn more, please visit us at hopkins.edu

Multiple grammy award winner Pharrell Williams is the new creative director of Louis Vuitton menswear

by Abu Mubarik Face2Face.com

Multiple grammy award winner, artiste, and record producer, Pharrell Williams, has been named creative director of Louis Vuitton menswear, making him the second black person to hold the position after former creative director, Ghanaian-American-born, Virgil Abloh, sadly passed away in November 2021.

Louis Vuitton announced that Williams’ title would be instated “effective immediately” and his first collection will be in June 2023 during the menswear season at Paris Fashion Week.

The menswear department had been without a director since Abloh died of cancer two years ago.

Williams emerged as a surprise candidate for the job. According to Dezeen, it was a two-horse race between LiberianAmerican fashion designer, Telfar Clemens, and Jamaican-British fashion designers, Grace Wales Bonner and Martine Rose.

Williams, a two-time Oscar nominee,

has been involved in the fashion industry for almost as long as his music career. In 2013, he co-founded the streetwear label, Billionaire Boy’s Club. He was also in charge of a sublabel of Billionaire Boy’s Club named Ice Cream.

According to Euronews, he has worked with brands like Chanel and collaborated with luxury brand designer, Marc Jacobs, to design eyewear for the label in 2004, and again in 2008.

What’s more, he has partnered with top fashion brands like Moncler and Adidas for a number of projects.

“I am happy to see Pharrell return home after our collaborations in 2004 and 2008,” Euronews quoted Pietro Beccari, CEO of Louis Vuitton. “His creative vision beyond fashion will undoubtedly lead Louis Vuitton to a very exciting new chapter.”

In a statement, Louis Vuitton said Williams’ vision in the creative industry expands from music to art and fashion, and has established himself as a cultural global icon over the past twenty years.

“The way in which he breaks boundaries across the various worlds he explores

aligns with Louis Vuitton’s status as a Cultural Maison, reinforcing its values of innovation, pioneer spirit, and entrepreneurship,” the statement added.

The “Happy” singer was born on April 5, 1973, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, to Pharaoh – a handyman, and Carolyn Williams – a teacher. He is the oldest of three children. Music was quite instrumental for young Williams, it was not surprising that he played the snare drum in the marching band while at Princess Anne High School.

He proceeded to Northwestern University, but dropped out two years later to pursue music with his childhood friend, Chad Hugo. They formed an R&B group, The Neptunes, and were eventually discovered by record producer, Teddy Riley, while performing at a high school.

Williams launched his solo career in 2013 with his debut single, “Frontin’,” and a debut album, “In My Mind.” In 2014, he launched his second album, “Girl,” which reached No.1 on the US R&B chart as well as in Australia, Denmark, Switzerland, and the UK.

How Leontyne Price went from studying education to becoming an opera icon with over 15 Grammy awards

by Ben Ebuka, Face2FaceAfrica.com

Mary Violet Leontyne Price was born on February 10, 1927, in Laurel, Mississippi, USA. The 97-year-old multi-award singer began her singing career at her local church. Born into a religious family, her grandparents were Methodist ministers, and her parents, James Anthony Price and Katherine Bakker Price were in the church choir.

Leon had an affinity for music at an early age and began piano class at age 3. She attended Oak Park Vocational High School and began her music study in 1944 at the College of Education and Industrial Arts in Wilberforce, Ohio (now Central State University), where she gained admission to study and become a music teacher.

Her success in the school’s glee club brought the opportunity for her to do many solo assignments. After hearing her perform, the president of the college, Dr. Charles H. Wesley, advised her to switch her major from education to vocals. She changed to voice in her third year and participated in master classes, including one with the prominent bass, Paul Robeson, at Antioch College in 1948.

Impressed with Price’s voice, Robeson collaborated with the central state administration to host a benefit concert to raise money for Price’s education. She enrolled in the Julliard School of music in New York City to continue her music studies. At Julliard, she worked under a renowned concert singer, Florence Page Kimball.

In 1950, she joined the opera workshop in Julliard and performed small roles in

the workshop’s performances of Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’ (First Lady) and Puccini’s ‘Gianni Schicchi’ (Aunt Nella). In 1951, she enrolled in the opera program at the Berkshire Music Center, where she sang Ariadne in Strauss, ‘Ariadne auf Naxos.’

In 1952, she performed as Mistress Ford in the Julliard’s production of Verdi’s ‘Falstaff.’ Impressed by her performance, Virgil Thompson included her in the revival of his ‘Four Saints in Three Acts,’ where her performance earned her another invitation from Ira Gershwin to perform the role of Bess in his revival of ‘Porgy and Bess,’ which played for two years in New York City (1952 – 1954), with a further tour across the United States and Europe. Price married William Warfield, her Porgy, and a renowned bass-baritone concert singer on the eve of the European tour.

In April 1953, she was invited to sing ‘summertime’ at a Met Jamboree fundraiser at the Ritz Theater. The Met’s performance earned her an enviable place in history as the first African American to sing with and for the Met. She also sang a recital at the Library of Congress in 1953 alongside composer and pianist Samuel Barber.

Price performed her formal recital debut in New York in November 1854. She performed the title role in Puccini’s ‘Tosca’ in 1955, standing out as the first appearance by an African American in a lead role in a televised opera. Price further performed in another three NBC Opera broadcasts as Pamina in Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute in 1956, as Madame Lidoine in Poulenc’s ‘Dialogues of the Carmelites,’ and as Donna Anna in Mozart’s

Giovanni’ in 1960.

She began touring US and Canada alongside John La Montaine and David Garvey at different times in recitals on the Columbia Artists roster. In 1956, she toured India alongside Garvey, and on May 1957, she performed Verdi’s ‘Aida’ alongside the Philadelphia Orchestra. Price made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera (Met) in New York City, where she performed the role of Leonora in ‘II Trovature’ alongside Corelli. The performance climaxed with more than 35 minutes of ovations from the audience.

Leontyne Price went on to perform in many other operas, and from the 1970s, she began to concentrate more on recitals. However, she rendered her first performance of ‘Ariadne auf Naxos’ in October 1977 in San Francisco, which recorded great success. Leontyne Price performed her farewell in 1985.

Price received numerous awards and recognitions during and after her career, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1964), Kennedy Center Honors (1980), National Medal of Arts (1985), and Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement (1985). In October 2008, she received the Opera Honors from the National Endowment of Arts. She received an honorary doctorate in 2019 from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

Leontyne Price has 15 Grammy Awards. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. The 97-year-old living legend still enjoys the fame and fortunes from her almost seven decades of hard work.

Photo via @pharrell on Instagram

Photo Credit: Gramophone.Co.Uk

‘Don

SCOTUS Poised to Rule Against Student Loan Forgiveness

As Protestors Rally to Save Biden’s Plan

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has questioned the administration’s authority to implement the debt relief program, with Chief Justice John Roberts pointing to the vast impact and expense of the program, estimating that it would cost “a half-trillion dollars.” Kavanaugh suggested that the administration was using an “old law” to implement a debt relief program that Congress had rejected unilaterally. states throughout the country.

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Senior National Correspondent

Millions of student loan borrowers, particularly those of color, risk losing out on relief if the Supreme Court strikes down President Joe Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness plan.

The plan, which aims to forgive or reduce the student loan debt held by the millions of eligible Americans that qualify for the program, has faced opposition from Republican-appointed judges on lower courts and now faces an uncertain future as it is being challenged before the land’s highest court.

In a three-hour-long argument on Tuesday, Chief Justice John Roberts led his conservative colleagues in questioning the administration’s authority to cancel federal student loans due to the COVID-19 emergency broadly.

It remains unclear whether any of the six justices appointed by Republican presidents will approve the debt relief program. However, Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett appeared most open to the administration’s arguments.

As the Supreme Court heard oral arguments, demonstrators converged on the nation’s capital to showcase their support for debt relief.

The People’s Rally for Student Debt Cancellation was the largest-ever mass demonstration by people with student debt in front of the Supreme Court, bringing together individuals from across party lines, industries, faith communities, socioeconomic statuses, and cities and

TBE# 6 – President Biden responds to

By Marc H. Morial, President and CEO, National Urban League

“Imagine what it’s like to lose a child at the hands of the law. Imagine having to worry whether your son or daughter will come home from walking down the street or playing in the park or just driving their car … Imagine having to worry like that every day in America. Here’s what Tyre’s mom shared with me when I asked her how she finds the courage to carry on and speak out. With faith in God, she said her son ‘was a beautiful soul and something good will come from this.’ Imagine how much courage and character that takes. It’s up to us. It’s up to all of us.” — President Joe Biden

Just before Tuesday’s State of the Union address, my fellow civil rights leaders and I asked President Biden to use his platform to call for a robust and impactful fed-

Speakers at the rally emphasized the legality and urgency of President Biden’s relief action, citing the ongoing economic distress caused by COVID-19 on borrowers and the history of abuse and mismanagement throughout the student loan system.

Organizations representing millions of borrowers and supporters co-sponsored the rally to show the broad and growing support for debt relief.

If the Supreme Court strikes down President Biden’s plan, it will negatively impact millions of borrowers, particularly those of color. The administration says that 26 million people have each applied for up to $20,000 in federal student loans forgiven under the plan.

If the plan isn’t allowed to take effect before a three-year pandemic-inspired pause on loan repayments ends no later than this summer, “defaults and delinquencies will surge above pre-pandemic levels,” according to U.S. Solicitor General, Elizabeth Prelogar.

The debt relief program has faced opposition from Republican-led states and lawmakers in Congress, as well as conservative legal interests, who argue that it is a clear violation of Biden’s executive authority.

They claim that the plan is not necessary now to keep defaults roughly where they were before the pandemic and that the 20 million borrowers who would have their entire loans erased would get a “windfall,” leaving them better off than before the pandemic.

The administration argues that a 2003

National Urban League priorities in State

eral response to the killing of Tyre Nichols and the continuing disproportionate police killings of Black and Brown people.

Tyre’s parents, RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, were given a place of honor alongside the First Lady and Second Gentleman, so the nation could not look away from their grief.

Their presence, and the words of RowVaughn Wells as shared by President Biden, made a powerful case for transforming the relationship between police and the communities they serve, reminding the nation that their anguish of is an ever-present specter for Black families.

We asked the President to call on Congress to implement a transformative police accountability framework to address systemic police violence, whatever the legislative vehicle. As he noted in the address, we must “give law enforcement the training they need, hold them to higher stan-

Marc H. Morial

dards, and help them succeed in keeping everyone safe … And when police officers or departments violate the public’s trust, we must hold them accountable.”

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act represents a vision of what President Biden called “the covenant we have with each other in America” and the National Urban League stands with him in demanding its passage into law.

While President Biden assailed the January 6 insurrection and the Big Lie that fueled its violence, his call to honor the results of our elections did not specifically call on Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act or other comprehensive voting rights measures.

The National Urban League remains committed to this legislation and will continue to advocate for its passage.

We were pleased to hear the President’s praise of the Child Tax Credit, which has

law, commonly known as the HEROES Act, allows the Secretary of Education to waive or modify the terms of federal student loans in connection with a national emergency.

The law was primarily intended to keep service members from becoming worse off financially while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has questioned the administration’s authority to implement the debt relief program, with Chief Justice John Roberts pointing to the vast impact and expense of the program, estimating that it would cost “a half-trillion dollars.” Kavanaugh suggested that the administration was using an “old law” to implement a debt relief program that Congress had rejected unilaterally.

However, some speakers at the rally argue that the student loan system has a history of abuse and mismanagement that disproportionately negatively impacts people of color. Advocates point out that Black and Latinx borrowers, for example, are more likely to take on debt to attend college and that they are also more likely to struggle to repay those loans.

The issue of student loan debt relief has also become a political issue, with Democrats predominantly supporting President Biden’s plan and Republicans opposing it. Debt relief advocates say it is necessary to address the financial burden that student loan debt places on individuals and the broader economy, particularly during the ongoing pandemic.

of the Union Address

given “tens of millions of parents some breathing room and cut child poverty in half, to the lowest level in history.” The National Urban League is a staunch advocate of expanding the CTC, which would reduce poverty among children of all racial and ethnic groups and specifically cut Black child poverty in half.

With regard to consumer data privacy, the President endorsed “stricter limits on the personal data these companies collect on all of us.” The National Urban League continues to prioritize the need for comprehensive federal privacy legislation with strong civil rights protections to protect our communities online.

The National Urban League appreciates our collaborative relationship with the Biden-Harris Administration and looks forward to advancing our priorities of racial justice and economic opportunity in the months ahead.

Photos for the NNPA by Mark Mahoney / Dream In Color Photography

Howard Swim & Dive Team Becomes the First All-Black Swim Team Featured in Sports Illustrated

By Nyah Peebles, HBCUBUZZ.com

The Howard Bison, The only allBlack team in college swimming recently made history as the first allBlack swim team to be featured in the famed sports magazine, Sports Illustrated.

Sports Illustrated began coverage of the Howard University swim and dive team this past October at the start of the fall season.

The historic feature article sheds light on the barriers the team is breaking.

Howard University is the only HBCU with a swim team, and they have made quite the name for themselves as they continue to break school records and make history.

The men’s team is currently 6-2, and the women’s team is 5-3 overall. Both teams are on track to become Northeast Conference champions.

The women’s team captain, senior Raychel Fauntroy, shared her excitement about the team being highlighted. “When Coach Nic asked me to be in the photo shoot for it, I was really shocked that they wanted to do an article and feature us. A lot of people don’t know Howard has a swim team let alone the only HBCU with one,” Fauntroy told The Hilltop.

The article details the team’s season-opening meet, “The Battle at the Burr,” which made collegiate swimming history with one of the largest

attended events with 2,000 tickets sold and over 1,200 attendees. The release also dives into the growth of Howard’s success, statistics, the history of swimming among Black people, and much

more.

“This is about our mission as a university and the message we want to send as an HBCU…This isn’t a bunch of Black people in a pool; it’s young

Black men and women succeeding in a sport that, for years, has shut them out of this experience,” the swim program’s coach, Nicholas Askew told Sports Illustrated.

The Sports Illustrated article can be found on their official website, as well as printed copies on stand.

Naomi Osaka is now Victoria’s Secret’s first individual collaborator in its 45-year history

by Abu Mubarik Face2FaceAfrica.com

Naomi Osaka is no stranger when it comes to making history. In 2020, she became the world’s highest-paid female athlete after earning a staggering $37.4 million. She has remained the highest-paid female tennis player to date.

Osaka’s backstory played a significant role in her earnings since her skills are undeniably great. Also, her heritage made her very relatable to many individuals hence a hot commodity for Olympic sponsors who intended to reach a wide audience. Sponsors like Procter & Gamble, All Nippon Airways, and Nissin jumped on the Osaka wagon and signed endorsement deals with her to market their products for the games.

Osaka’s success is not only limited to the tennis court. She is also an entrepreneur and a brand ambassador. She is the brand ambassador for the French label Louis Vuitton. What is more, she is a part-owner

of a National Women’s Soccer League Team, North Carolina Courage. She has also invested in a skincare line known as KINLÒ, purposely for melanated individuals. She created the product with Ghanaian-born dermatologist Dr. Naana Boakye. Also, Osaka recently launched her maiden swimwear collection in collaboration with Los Angeles-based fashion brand Frankies Bikinis. The line aims to empower women and make them feel extra confident.

The tennis great has added another title to her resume after landing a collaboration with the lingerie brand Victoria’s Secret. The deal makes her Victoria’s Secret’s first individual collaborator in its 45-year history, Boardroom has reported.

“So honored to present to you the Naomi x @victoriasecret collection. I was shocked to hear this, but apparently, I’m the first person to ever collaborate with Victoria’s Secret on a collection, and I’m so humbled and appreciative,” the tennis

star noted in an Instagram post.

“Every piece in the collection is made out of recyclable material, and the whole premise of the collection centres around chasing your dreams, so I hope you enjoy everything as much as I do,” she added.

The line ranges from blousy Boyfriend Dress Shirts to silky Short Robe, according to Boardroom. Osaka will be involved with the design and have her own line with royalties. On Osaka’s expected royalties, Boardroom noted: “Osaka is secure in receiving royalties for her involvement in the items that are already available online and will be featured in flagship stores not just across America but also all the way to China and the UK.”

The tennis star grew up in a Haitian household in New York where she lived with her grandmother. Osaka plays tennis under the Japanese flag despite not being able to speak the language fluently.

Naomi Osaka | CREDIT: PAOLO BRUNO/GETTY IMAGES

Ellington Jazz Series

Jane Bunnett and Maqueque

Mar. 3 | 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall

A performance by saxophonist and flutist Jane Bunnett and the all-female Afro-Cuban group Maqueque, which DownBeat has said “sounds like no other today in jazz.”

Tickets from $23, students $10 | music-tickets.yale.edu

Aviso

NOTICE

Town of Bloomfield

Deputy Finance Director/Controller

Notice

VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE

Efectivo inmediatamente, La Comunidad de Elm City - Departamento de Vivienda de la Ciudad de New Haven (ECC/HANH) abrirá la lista de espera del Programa de Auto Suficiencia Familiar para COMPRA DE CASA para participantes del programa de Vales de Elección de Vivienda (Sección 8) y residentes de vivienda publica. La lista de espera permanecerá abierta hasta nuevo aviso.

Salary Range - $87,727 - $136,071 (expected starting pay maximum is mid-range)

Effective immediately, the Elm City Communities - Housing Authority of New Haven (ECC/HANH) will open the Family Self Sufficiency Program waiting list for Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) participants and Low Income Public Housing residents. The waiting list will remain open until further notice.

HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this development located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed preapplications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

Todo solicitante será colocado en la lista de espera y recibirá notificación de la posición en la lista. Nombres serán seleccionados de la lista en el orden en que fueron recibidas las pre-solicitudes según dispuesto en el Plan de Acción del Programa de Auto Suficiencia Familiar de ECC/HANH.

Las pre-solicitudes pueden ser obtenidas en la oficina localizada en el 360 Orange Street, New Haven, CT. Todas las pre-solicitudes deben ser devueltas a nuestra oficina en persona o por correo solamente. Las pre-solicitudes solo podrán ser llevadas a la oficina entre las horas de 9:00 a.m. y 5:00 p.m.

NOTICIA

El solicitante debe de ser participante actual del programa de Vales de Elección de Vivienda (Sección 8) o residentes de Vivienda Publica (LIPH).

VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES

Fully Benefited –35 hours weekly Pre-employment drug testing. For more details, visit our website –www.bloomfieldct.org

Town of Bloomfield Finance Director

Salary Range - $101,455 to $156,599 (expected starting pay maximum is mid-range)

Each applicant will be placed on the waiting list and will receive a notice with the position on the list. Names will be taken from the FSS waiting list in the order in which your pre-enrollment is received set forth in ECC/HANH’s FSS Action Plan for the Family Self-Sufficiency Program.

Pre-enrollment forms can be obtained from our office at 360 Orange Street, New Haven, CT. All pre-enrollment forms must be returned to the office in person or by mail only. Pre-enrollment forms can be dropped-off at the office between the hours of 9:00am and 5:00pm.

Applicant must be a current Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) participant or Low Income Public Housing (LIPH) resident.

Incomplete applications will be rejected.

Aplicaciones incompletas serán rechazadas.

Solo una solicitud por familia será aceptada.

Otro miembro adulto de la familia puede aplicar siempre y cuando el Jefe de Familia este de acuerdo.

HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510

Todo individuo que requiera una acomodación razonable para someter la aplicación puede llamar a Teena Bordeaux, Coordinadora de Acomodaciones Razonables de HANH al (203) 498-8800 ext. 1507 o al Número de TDD (203) 497-8434.

“El Departamento de Vivienda de la Ciudad de New Haven no discrimina en las base de raza, color, origen nacional, religión, sexo, edad, incapacidad o estado familiar”.

NEW HAVEN

Fully Benefited – 35 hours weekly Pre-employment drug testing. For more details, visit our website –www.bloomfieldct.org

Portland

Police Officer full-time

Go to www.portlandct.org for details

Only one application per household will be accepted.

Another adult member of the Household may apply so long as it is agreed and approved by the Head of Household

Any individual requiring a reasonable accommodation to submit an application may call Teena Bordeaux, Reasonable Accommodations Coordinator for HANH at (203) 498-8800 ext. 1507 or at the TDD Number (203) 497-8434

“The Housing Authority of the City of New Haven does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability or familial status."

Equal Opportunity Housing Provider

242-258 Fairmont Ave

Igualdad de Oportunidades de Vivienda

2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 & I-95 highways, near bus stop & shopping center

Request for Proposals

Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258

Communications Media Consultant

Invitation to Bid: 2nd Notice

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

Old Saybrook, CT (4 Buildings, 17 Units)

Steel Fabricators, Erectors & Welders

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

Invitation for Bids

Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project

Bid Package #3 Chamberlain and Essex Townhouses –CO and Smoke Detectors

Top pay for top performers. Health Benefits, 401K, Vacation Pay. Email Resume: Rose@qsrsteel.com Hartford, CT

CT. Unified Deacon’s Association is pleased to offer a Deacon’s Certificate Program. This is a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125. Classes start Saturday, August 20, 2016

3:30 Contact: Chairman, Deacon Joe J. Davis, M.S., B.S.

1:30-

Elm City Communities is currently seeking proposals for a communications media consultant. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/ gateway beginning on

(203) 996-4517 Host,General Bishop Elijah Davis, D.D. Pastor ofPitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster St. New Haven, CT

Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at 3:00PM.

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

Listing: Facility Maintenance Technician

Immediate opening for a part time Facility Maintenance Technician for a busy office/ transportation facility. Position requires flexible work schedule. Some heavy lifting required. Send resume to HR Department, hrdept@eastriverenergy.com, 401 Soundview Road, Guilford, CT 06437.

A pre-bid conference will be held at the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

**An Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer**

Bidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority Office, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any

New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, Castin-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection. This contract is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements.

Elm City Communities is currently seeking bids for bid package #3 Chamberlain and Essex Townhouses – CO and Smoke Detectors. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

State of Connecticut

Office of Policy and Management

The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management is recruiting for a Municipal Finance Policy Development Coordinator

Monday, February 6, 2023 at 3:00PM.

Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016

Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016

The Town of East Haven is currently accepting applications to participate in the examinations for the following positions:

Project documents available via ftp link below: http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage

Further information regarding the duties, eligibility requirements and application instructions are available at:

Secretary II, Grade Level 10-$21.36/hour.

Account Clerk, Payroll-$55,412.00/year

Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 AA/EEO EMPLOYER

https://www.jobapscloud.com/ CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?R1= 221215&R2=1581MP&R3=001

The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

Information regarding qualifications and job duties are available along with the application online at https://www.townofeasthavenct.org/civil-service-commission/pages/ job-notices-and-tests or from the Civil Service Office, 250 Main Street, East Haven and must be returned by March 17, 2023. The Town of East Haven is committed to building a workforce of diverse individuals. Minorities, Females, Handicapped and Veterans are encouraged to apply.

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks:

Construction

South Central Regional Council of Governments (SCRCOG)

“Metropolitan Transportation Plan 2023-2050” Review

NOTICE

Construction Equipment Mechanic preferably experienced in Reclaiming and Road Milling Equipment. We offer factory training on equipment we operate. Location: Bloomfield CT We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits

VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE

Contact: Tom Dunay

Phone: 860- 243-2300

Seeking to employ experienced individuals in the labor, foreman, operator and teamster trades for a heavy outside work statewide. Reliable personal transportation and a valid drivers license required. To apply please call (860) 6211720 or send resume to: Personnel Department, P.O. Box 368, Cheshire, CT06410.

The public is invited to offer comments on the Region’s Metropolitan Transportation Plan 2023-2050. This plan guides major transportation and transit investment in the Region and also updates air quality conformity. A copy of the plan is available at www.scrcog.org.

Email: tom.dunay@garrityasphalt.com

Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks

Reclaimer Operators and Milling Operators with current licensing and clean driving record, be willing to travel throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits

HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this development located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed preapplications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V Drug Free Workforce

PVC FENCE PRODUCTION

:

Public comments may be emailed to jrode@scrcog.org or mailed to James Rode, Principal Planner, South Central Regional Council of Governments, 127 Washington Avenue, 4th Floor West, North Haven, CT 06473 with receipt, in both cases, by no later than April 8, 2023.

Key Dates

February 22 - April 8, 2023: Public Comment Period

March 8, 2023 @ 1:00 PM - Informal Public Meeting*

April 8, 2023 @ 12:00 PM – Transportation Committee Meeting – Review*

Contact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860- 243-2300

NOTICIA

Email: rick.tousignant@garrityasphalt.com

VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES

Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

Large CT Fence Company looking for an individual for our PVC Fence Production Shop. Experience preferred but will train the right person. Must be familiar with carpentry hand & power tools and be able to read a CAD drawing and tape measure. Use of CNC Router machine a plus but not required, will train the right person. This is an in-shop production position. Duties include building fence panels, posts, gates and more. Must have a valid CT driver’s license & be able to obtain a Drivers Medical Card. Must be able to pass a physical and drug test. Please email resume to pboucher@atlasoutdoor.com.

April 26, 2023 @ 10:00 AM – SCRCOG Policy Board – Approve*

*All meetings at SCRCOG, 127 Washington Avenue, 4th Floor West, North Haven, CT

Union Company seeks:

Tractor Trailer Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction Equipment. Must have a CDL License, clean driving record, capable of operating heavy equipment; be willing to travel throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits

HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510

Contact Dana at 860-243-2300

Email: dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com

Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

NEW HAVEN

242-258 Fairmont Ave

AA/EOE-MF

Full Time Administrative assistant position

for a steel & misc metals fabrication shop who will oversee the daily operations of clerical duties such as answering phones, accounts payable purchase orders/invoicing and certified payroll. Email resumes to jillherbert@gwfabrication.com

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR

Exterior Insulation and Finish (EIFS) Repairs at D’Amato Building in New Britain, CT

THE HOUSING AUTHORITY of the CITY OF NEW BRITAIN (Authority) will receive sealed bids, in TRIPLICATE, The work generally consists of the repair of EIFS at one building. Bids will be received until March 7, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. at the office of the Authority, 16 Armistice Street, New Britain, CT 06053, at which time they will be publicly opened and read aloud.

Invitation to Bid: 2nd Notice

State of Connecticut Office of Policy and Management

To obtain a copy of the "Request for Proposal and drawings" visit www.nbhact.org under procurement

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

Fence Installers:

Old Saybrook, CT (4 Buildings, 17 Units)

The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management is recruiting for a Municipal Finance Policy Development Coordinator Further information regarding the duties, eligibility requirements and application instructions are available at:

Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project

Large CT Fence & Guardrail Contractor is looking for Fence Installation helpers. Must have at least 2 years of experience installing chain link, wood, PVC and ornamental iron fencing. Work available 10-12 months per year, Pay Rates: Non Davis Beacon Work - 23.00 in state, 42.25/hr. out of state. Davis Beacon Work in CT - 32.25 + 24.40 Fringe. All necessary equipment provided. Medical, holiday, 401K, vacation & other benefits included. Must be able to pass required physical and drug test. An OSHA 10 Certification is required. A valid CT driver's license is required and must get DOT Medical Card. We are an AA/ EOE company. Send resumes/inquiries to: rhauer@atlasoutdoor.com.

New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, Castin-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection. This contract is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements.

https://www.jobapscloud.com/ CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?R1= 221215&R2=1581MP&R3=001

The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016

Help Wanted –

Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016

Project documents available via ftp link below: http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage

Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com

HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 AA/EEO EMPLOYER

EOE Please apply in person: 1425 Honeyspot Rd. Ext. Stratford, CT 06615

Lg CT fence company looking for an experienced foreman in CT and surrounding states who will work as a leader of small crews. Individual will be responsible for all types of fencing installation. Specific tasks include but are not limited to: May be responsible for crew(s) of two or more individuals, manage and troubleshoot problems that arise on site and notify superintendent when needed, ensures employees adhere to all safety and company policies and practices, able to perform fence installation and setting posts as indicated by plans, project site clean-up. Job requirements include the following: preferably have up to 5 years’ experience, have a valid driver’s license with acceptable driving record, must be able to get a DOT medical card, OSHA safety training required prior to start of employment, pass drug screening and a physical test. Pay Rates: Non Davis Beacon Work - 33.00 in state, 52.75/hr. out of state. Davis Beacon Work in CT 32.25 + 24.40 Fringe. Medical, vacation, 401K and other benefits included, all necessary equipment provided. We are an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer. Send resume to gforshee@atlasoutdoor.com

The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any

NOTICE

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING FOR THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF BRIDGEPORT (HACB) SIGNIFICANT AMENDMENT TO THE FY2022 ANNUAL PLAN

VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE

The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport d/b/a Park City Communities (PCC) plans to incorporate a significant amendment into its FY2022 Annual Plan. Copies of the plan and the significant amendment are available on the agency’s website www. parkcitycommunities.org.

Steel Fabricators, Erectors & Welders

SECRETARY

HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this development located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed preapplications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

Top pay for top performers. Health Benefits, 401K, Vacation Pay.

Email Resume: Rose@qsrsteel.com Hartford, CT

Members of the public are invited to provide written comments addressed to: Park City Communities, Significant Amendment FY2022 Annual Plan; Attn: Phoebe Greenfield, 150 Highland Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06604 or via email to: agencyplans@parkcitycommunities.org. The forty-five (45) days comment period begins on February 24, 2023, and ends on April 10, 2023. All comments must be received by April 10, 2023.

LEGAL NOTICE Request for Proposals (RFP) for Services

Senior Clerk: Performs a wide variety of responsible clerical duties in a municipal government office. The position requires 4 years of office work experience of a responsible nature and a H.S. diploma. $23.72 to $28.28 hourly plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply: Department of Human Resources, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Applications may be obtained at the office of the Department of Human Resources or may be downloaded from the Department of Human Resources Web Page. The closing date will be that date the 50th application form/ resume is received, or February 22, 2023, whichever occurs first. EOE.

State of Connecticut

Office of Policy and Management

NOTICIA

Please be advised the Public Hearing will be held on Tuesday April 12, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. via Zoom. The Zoom Link will be placed on PCC’s website. Please note, participants are limited to the first one hundred, (100) call-ins. The public hearing is scheduled for ninety (60) minutes and address concerns by residents and general public.

VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES

HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF NEW BRITAIN 16 ARMISTICE STREET * NEW BRITAIN, CT 06053 HIRING

HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510

Property Manager

Occupancy Specialist for Public Housing

For the full job description and instructions to apply visit www.nbhact.org.

NEW HAVEN

The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management, is seeking proposals to provide certain services related to financial management of the City of West Haven, Connecticut. The intent of the request is to identify individuals or firms with the necessary expertise to provide these services within a stated timeframe.

The RFP is available online at: https:// portal.ct.gov/DAS/CTSource/BidBoard and https://portal.ct.gov/OPM/Root/RFP/ Request-For-Proposals or from Kevin Meakem, Office of Policy and Management, Finance Division, 450 Capitol Ave., MS# 54FIN, Hartford, Connecticut 06106-1379. E-mail: Kevin.Meakem@ct.gov. Telephone (860) 418- 6313. Deadline for response submission is 3:00 PM EST February, 3, 2023.

The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management is recruiting for a Municipal Finance – Policy Development Coordinator and a GIS Analyst (Research Analyst)

Further information regarding the duties, eligibility requirements and application instructions are available at:

https://www.jobapscloud.com/CT/sup/ bulpreview.asp?R1=230203&R2=1581MP&R3=001 and

https://www.jobapscloud.com/CT/sup/ bulpreview.asp?R1=230206&R2=6855AR&R3=001

The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

Invitation for Bids

Bid Package #1 Scattered Sites East – CO and Smoke Detectors

242-258 Fairmont Ave

2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA

All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 & I-95 highways, near bus stop & shopping center

The South Central Regional Council of Governments (SCRCOG) and a Regional Advisory Committee have updated the region’s Hazard Mitigation Plan for FEMA review and municipal adoption. Prior to State and FEMA review, the public is encouraged to review and comment on the draft plan. The plan identifies and prioritizes actions each of the 15 SCRCOG municipalities may take to mitigate the risks of natural hazards and climate change.

Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258

To review and comment on the draft plan, visit the SCRCOG Hazard Mitigation web page at: www.scrcog.org/hazard

Invitation to Bid: 2nd Notice

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

Elm City Communities is currently seeking bids for bid package #1 scattered sites east – CO and Smoke Detectors. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

Old Saybrook, CT (4 Buildings, 17 Units)

Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project

Monday, February 6, 2023 at 3:00PM.

CT. Unified Deacon’s Association is pleased to offer a Deacon’s Certificate Program. This is a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125. Classes start Saturday, August 20, 2016 1:303:30 Contact: Chairman, Deacon Joe J. Davis, M.S., B.S. (203) 996-4517 Host,General Bishop Elijah Davis, D.D. Pastor ofPitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster St. New Haven, CT

The plan is available for review through March 13, 2023.

The plan includes detailed information regarding twelve natural hazards and climate change and their impacts to the region and each municipality. Impacts include those to critical facilities, historic assets, and the built environment. The goals of the plan include the categories of community planning, flood hazards, trees, regional collaboration, and public awareness and preparedness.

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, Castin-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection. This contract is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements.

Construction

Seeking to employ experienced individuals in the labor, foreman, operator and teamster trades for a heavy outside work statewide. Reliable personal transportation and a valid drivers license required. To apply please call (860) 621-1720 or send resume to: Personnel Department, P.O. Box 368, Cheshire, CT06410.

Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V Drug Free Workforce

Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016

Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

Comments can be submitted to Rebecca Andreucci, Senior Transportation Planner at randreucci@scrcog.org or by phone at (203) 466-8601.

Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

Construction

A pre-bid conference will be held at the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

Seeking to employ experienced individuals in the labor, foreman, operator and teamster trades for a heavy outside work statewide. Reliable personal transportation and a valid drivers license required. To apply please call (860) 621-1720 or send resume to: Personnel Department, P.O. Box 368, Cheshire, CT06410.

Bidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority Office, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V Drug Free Workforce

The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any informalities in the bidding, if such actions are in the best interest of the

Pre-employment drug testing. AA/EOE.

Project documents available via ftp link below: http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage

For Details go to www.bloomfieldct.org

Fax

Email Questions

to: Dawn

@ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com

Invitation for Bids Temporary Help

Elm City Communities is currently seeking bids from firms to provide an as needed basis, temporary administrative-type employees. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

Monday, February 27, 2023 at 3:00PM.

NOTICE

Town of Bloomfield

Deputy Finance Director/Controller

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING FOR

VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE

LAROSA GROUPS IS GROWING

Salary Range - $87,727 - $136,071 (expected starting pay maximum is mid-range)

THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF BRIDGEPORT (HACB) 2023 ADMINISTRATIVE PLAN FOR THE HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER AND AMENDMENT TO THE 2022 ANNUAL PLAN

HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this development located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed preapplications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

LaRosa Building Group LLC, a General Contractor is currently looking to add the following full-time positions to our Team: Project Manager Assistant Project Manager/Project Engineer Superintendent

LaRosa Earth Group LLC, a Site/Excavation Company is currently looking to add the following full-time positions to our Team: Heavy Equipment Operators Skilled Laborers

NOTICIA

Fully Benefited –35 hours weekly Pre-employment drug testing. For more details, visit our website –www.bloomfieldct.org

Town of Bloomfield Finance Director

The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport will be adopting the 2023 Administrative Plan for the Housing Choice Voucher Program and proposing to amend the 2022 Annual Plan.

Copies of the 2023 Administrative Plan for Housing Choice Voucher Program and the amendment to the 2022 Annual Plan, will be made available on Wednesday, February 1, 2023, on the agency website www.parkcitycommunities.org

VALENTINA MACRI

VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES

Please submit resumes to HR@LAROSABG.COM or stop by our main office to fill out an application: 163 Research Parkway Meriden, CT.

Salary Range - $101,455 to $156,599 (expected starting pay maximum is mid-range)

You are invited to provide written comments addressed to: HACB/PCC, 2023 Administrative Plan for the Housing Choice Voucher Program and/or Amendment to the 2022 Annual Plan; Attn: Phoebe Greenfield, 150 Highland Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06604 or via email to: agencyplans@parkcitycommunities.org. The forty-five (45) days comment period begins on February 1, 2023, and ends on March 17, 2023. All comments must be received by March 17, 2023.

Salary will be commensurate with experience and best fit for the positions. Health plan; 401K; company-paid holidays in addition to paid time off. LaRosa Groups is an Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer who values diversity and encourages all qualified applicants to apply.

HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

Invitation for Bids

Scattered Site Homes Exterior and Interior Renovations – Group D

Fully Benefited – 35 hours weekly Pre-employment drug testing. For more details, visit our website –www.bloomfieldct.org

Portland

Police Officer full-time

Please be advised the Public Hearing will be held on March 21, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. via Zoom. The Zoom Connection Link will be placed on the website and please note that Zoom participants are limited to the first one hundred, (100) participants. The public hearing is scheduled for ninety (90) minutes and address concerns by residents and general public.

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

Invitation for Bids

Bid Package #1 Scattered Sites East – CO and Smoke Detectors

NEW HAVEN

Elm City Communities is currently seeking bids for Scattered Site Homes Exterior and Interior Renovations – Group D. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing. cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

242-258 Fairmont Ave

2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA

Wednesday, February 22, 2023 at 3:00PM.

All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 & I-95 highways, near bus stop & shopping center

Go to www.portlandct.org for details

QSR STEEL CORPORATION

Invitation to Bid: 2nd Notice

Elm City Communities is currently seeking bids for bid package #1 scattered sites east – CO and Smoke Detectors. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

APPLY NOW!

Old Saybrook, CT (4 Buildings, 17 Units)

Monday, February 6, 2023 at 3:00PM.

Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258

The Guilford Housing Authority is currently accepting applications for one bedroom apartments at Sachem Hollow in Guilford, CT. Applicants must be age 62 and over or on 100% social security or federal disability and over the age of 18. Applications may be obtained by calling the application line at 203-453-6262 EXT: 107. Applications will be accepted until end of business day or postmark of March 20, 2023 4PM. Credit, police, landlord checks are procured by the Authority. Smoking is prohibited in the units and building.

Steel Fabricators, Erectors & Welders

Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project

Top pay for top performers. Health Benefits, 401K, Vacation Pay. Email Resume: Rose@qsrsteel.com Hartford, CT

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

Invitation for Bids

New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, Castin-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection. This contract is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements.

Bid Package #3 Chamberlain and Essex Townhouses – CO and Smoke Detectors

State of Connecticut

Office of Policy and Management

Elm City Communities is currently seeking bids for bid package #3 Chamberlain and Essex Townhouses – CO and Smoke Detectors. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

Water Quality Inspector

Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

A pre-bid conference will be held at the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

Bidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority Office, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

Performs responsible specialized work in protecting the quality of the water supply and distribution system for the Town of Wallingford, CT. Requires an Associate’s degree in environmental science or sanitary engineering, plus 3 years of experience in a water utility. Successful candidates must have a valid Connecticut driver’s license and be in possession or be eligible for a Class I Water Treatment Plant or Distribution System Operator Certification and Certification as a General Backflow Preventers, Tester and Cross-Connection Survey Inspector issued by the State of Connecticut. The Town offers a competitive pay rate of $27.79-$33.76 per hour plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply: Department of Human Resources, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main St., Wallingford, CT 06492. Forms will be mailed upon request from the Department of Human Resources or maybe downloaded from the Department of Human Resources Web Page. The closing date will be that date the 50th application form/ resume is received, or March 7, 2023 whichever occurs first. (203) 294-2080. Fax: (203) 294-2084. EOE

The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any informalities

Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016

Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016

Monday, February 6, 2023 at 3:00PM.

Project documents available via ftp link below: http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

Invitation for Bids

Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com

The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management is recruiting for a Lead Planning Analyst-Juvenile Justice. Further information regarding the duties, eligibility requirements and application instructions for this position are available at: https://www.jobapscloud.com/ CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?R1= 230127&R2=0007AR&R3=001

HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483

Scattered Site Homes Exterior and Interior Renovations – Group A – Re-Bid

The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

Elm City Communities is currently seeking bids for Scattered Site Homes Exterior and Interior Renovations – Group A – Re-Bid. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

Monday, February 13, 2023 at 3:00PM.

OP-ED: Addressing the Issues Around Public Safety and Policing

NNPA NEWSWIRE — To those who have lost loved ones to police violence, know this: just because you’re not in the headlines doesn’t mean you’re absent from our hearts and minds. South Carolina remembers Walter Scott, who was shot in the back and killed by a North Charleston police officer the morning of April 4, 2015. His brother, Anthony Scott, was my guest for this year’s State of the Union Address. Together, we heard President Biden’s call for action, and I can assure you that I will do all within my power to answer that call.

By BlackPressUSA

Congressman James E. Clyburn

Following the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in 2020 at the hands of law enforcement—two in a long line of avoidable tragedies—Democrats reaffirmed our commitment to ensuring that law enforcement truly protect the communities they serve. House Democrats passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to prevent police misconduct by improving law enforcement practices and enhancing accountability. Regrettably, the bill stalled in the Senate due to Republican opposition. Since taking office in 2021, President Joe Biden has restricted the transfer of military equipment to police departments and directed federal law enforcement agencies to end the use of chokeholds and no-knock warrants.

Now a renewed call for action has emerged as the country mourns the violent death of Tyre Nichols, yet another unarmed Black citizen murdered by police. It has become undeniable that the

culture of policing must improve. To reform this violent culture, we must enact public safety reforms that address the lack of accountability and transparency in policing while increasing the standards for those who wear the badge.

Our communities deserve meaningful change in how they are policed, and increased accountability will further that goal. It is unconscionable that a police officer can be fired from their local department for misconduct only to find employment in another department without consequence. Lawyers, doctors, public school teachers, and nearly all other professionals face accountability. Police officers have a sacred responsibility to protect the public—they should certainly not be immune from it.

Increased accountability goes hand in hand with increased transparency. Police department data, information, and policies should be made available to the communities they serve. There are more than 18,000 local police departments in the United States. However, there is no

Congressman James E. Clyburn

national requirement for collecting and sharing use-of-force data. Nor is there a nationwide database or registry that tracks problematic officers, preventing those who have been fired from moving on to another jurisdiction without accountability. The lack of transparency erodes public trust and allows dangerous actors to patrol our streets.

Increasing the professional standards for those who serve involves setting national practices and instituting mandatory trainings to ensure officers have the communication and de-escalation skills they need to better connect with their communities and prevent the deadly escalation of force. Training officers in these areas would improve police conduct and help officers better serve their communities.

In his January 7, 2023, State of the Union Address, President Biden urged us to “rise to this moment. We can’t turn away. Let’s do what we know in our hearts we need to do. Let’s come together to finish the job on police reform.” It is time for us to enact the reforms neces-

sary to save lives. I call on our colleagues across the aisle to join in this critical effort.

To those who have lost loved ones to police violence, know this: just because you’re not in the headlines doesn’t mean you’re absent from our hearts and minds. South Carolina remembers Walter Scott, who was shot in the back and killed by a North Charleston police officer the morning of April 4, 2015. His brother, Anthony Scott, was my guest for this year’s State of the Union Address. Together, we heard President Biden’s call for action, and I can assure you that I will do all within my power to answer that call.

2nd Chronicles 15:7 urges, “be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.” The road to achieving police reform may be long, but we must not tire. Instead, we must press on in honor of those we have lost and to prevent more Black men and women from falling victim to the same fate.

OP-ED: President Biden is Investing in America’s Underserved Communities

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Thanks to the historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Inflation Reduction Act, American Rescue Plan, and executive orders signed by the president, historic investments are being made in cities like Atlanta – and everybody has a shot at participating and benefiting from these investments.

By BlackPressUSA

Atlanta City Mayor Andre Dicens

Atlanta has a proud legacy as the cradle of the civil rights movement. Throughout our history, Atlantans from Martin Luther King, Jr. to the trailblazers of Sweet Auburn not only helped birth the modern movement to create justice for all but had a laser focus on economic empowerment for everyone

When I ran for mayor, I made a commitment to end the tale of two cities in Atlanta. I promised to fight for an economy that grew in a balanced way, so that workers could get trained for family-sustaining jobs, small businesses could participate in our city’s growth and all of Atlanta could rise together. More plainly, I wanted to ensure that Atlantans from all backgrounds have a shot at fully participating in Atlanta’s economy.

Atlanta is one of the most diverse cities in America, so the economic mobility of all Atlantans is of extraordinary importance to me. It matters to President Joe Biden, too. In fact, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have proven this time and again by delivering federal resources. Thanks to the historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Inflation Reduction Act, American Rescue Plan, and executive orders signed by the president, historic investments are being made in cities like Atlanta – and everybody has a shot at participating and

benefiting from these investments.

This month, Vice President Harris joined me in Atlanta to celebrate federal dollars coming to electrify Atlanta-area school buses. We’re moving away from the hazardous fumes of diesel school buses, which are disproportionately used in underserved communities, toward cleaner energy that’s better for the environment and better for our children’s health. And with these investments, we’re ensuring Atlantans in all zip codes have access to apprenticeships and good-paying job opportunities.

These investments are just the beginning when it comes to ensuring all of Atlanta participates in our economy. Within days of taking office, President Biden signed an executive order which requires the federal government to live up to the Justice 40 Initiative. Justice 40 is an effort to ensure that at least 40 percent of certain federal investments go to communities that have faced a disproportionate burden of environmental harms and pollution. That means more improvements and more jobs in our communities.

Plus, thanks to the Biden-Harris Admin-

istration working alongside Sen. Ossoff, Sen. Warnock and Rep. Williams, Atlanta will receive $30 million to improve safety along Pryor Street and Center Avenue through the Safe Streets and Roads for All Program. This program will allow the city to hire workers from our communities to build protected bike lanes and pedestrian facilities, making the area safer and more accessible while connecting the Southside and the Southside Beltline. This is in addition to $40 million delivered to upgrade Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and millions of American Rescue Plan funds the City has already put to work on pre-arrest diversion services, combatting homelessness, job training and so much more.

We have a lot more work to do before every family in Atlanta has the same access to economic mobility, but change is happening right now – and a lot of that progress is due in large part to the priorities of the Biden-Harris Administration. Here’s the bottom line: as mayor, my job is to show up and deliver. President Biden and Vice President Harris make that job easier – they are providing the resources to create jobs, contract with women and minority-owned firms, and make real improvements in our communities. In the cradle of the civil rights movement, we’re benefitting from allies in the White House who are laser focused on economic empowerment.

Atlanta City Mayor Andre Dicens

In observance of Black History Month, the Yale School of Music acknowledges and celebrates past, present, and future Black artists from Yale and the New Haven community.

Put your heart to work.

A job with the State of Connecticut is a way to put your compassion into action. We have open roles in healthcare and direct support, with great benefits and opportunities to grow your career. If you’ve got the heart for it, join us. Apply today at ct.gov/ctstatejobs

Tiffany Jackson ’95MM ’96AD

Johnathan Berryman ’96MM

Helen Hagan

1912 BM

Lisa Williamson ’12MM

Althea Waites ’65MM

Joel Thompson ’20MMA ’26DMA

Leah Hawkins ’15MM

Willie Ruff ’53BM ’54MM