CREAM CREATOR PAGE
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JANUARY 8, 2018 | VOL. 54, No. 2
YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS
DRAWING CROWDS PAGE
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Couple expands play school business at wearying pace BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com
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ith construction of its latest school recently approved by the city of Trumbull, Educational Playcare is a business on the rise. After all, Trumbull will be the company’s 18th location since it began in Avon in 1986. “We are bombarded with opportunities,” said Gerry Pastor, co-owner with his wife Jane Porterfield of the company, which provides full-time and part-time educational child care programs and summer camp for children from six weeks to 12 years old. While such attention is welcome, he said, “Right now we’re a little weary. Most of our expansion has taken place over the last three years and that takes a great deal of capital.” While no new construction projects are planned following the scheduled summer openings of the Trumbull school at 111 Merritt Blvd. and another in Newtown at 2 Saw Mill Road, Pastor said, “We’ll be active when the right opportunities come our way.” Sites are chosen primarily based on demographic studies, he said. » PLAYCARE
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Caterer on a mission page 9
Former Merrill Lynch executive Evelyn Isaia hires and trains female immigrants and refugees for culinary jobs at her Ratatouille & Co. catering business in Westport. Photo by Phil Hall.
Local and regional development focus of Stratford’s new mayor
BY PHIL HALL phall@westfairinc.com
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hen Laura Hoydick was running for mayor of Stratford last year, she was reminded during a televised debate that town council meetings frequently erupted into shouting matches and it took less time for the state legislature and governor to agree on a budget than it took Stratford officials to sign off on their budget. Since taking office as mayor in December, Hoydick has been eager to put Stratford’s obstreperous past behind and focus on a more positive political environment. “It’s all about talking and building consensus and then getting things executed,” she said. “We got it right in Hartford,
finally, and I’m glad we got it right in Stratford.” Hoydick is a former commercial property manager at Station House Square LLC of Stratford and Winstanley Property Management LLC of New Haven as well as a two-time executive director of the Stratford Chamber of Commerce. She is now Stratford’s first woman mayor and only the third person to hold that title — the office of town manager was switched to a mayoral post in 2005. A Republican, Hoydick scored an election victory with 5,738 votes, beating Democrat Stephanie Philips who received 5,126 votes and with petitioning candidate Sandra Zalik tallying 688 votes. Hoydick succeeded John Harkins, a Republican who served two terms as mayor. She had previously succeeded
Harkins in 2010 as state representative for District 120. Hoydick resigned from the legislature on Jan. 2. “I felt that Stratford had so many great things going for it from the previous administration that the continuum needed to continue,” she said. “Our focus is economic development, job growth, tax base growth. There are some excellent projects already in the pipeline.” And some are not in the pipeline, such as the vacant Army Engine Plant at 550 Main St., a 77-acre property along the Housatonic River that Hoydick described as the “800-pound gorilla in the room.” Although it was closed in 1995, it is still owned by the U.S. Army and has yet to receive any cleanup funds for the contamination identified at the site. Hoydick » NEW MAYOR
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