A Cozy Town Needs More People Playing the Leadership Roles to Be A Town

Submitted by livfully

on Tue, 07/02/2019 - 23:46

Here's a post I put on a serious notice given to the Town of Falls Village CT also known as Town of Canaan CT (which happens to be My Home Town after being in Salisbury Ct for 4 years).

Much quieter than the ol' Route 44-dominated scene and unfortunately noise and pollution than much of Millerton NY or even Great Barrington MA, other favorite spots...and of course any city you can think of, so lend us your ears, kids, courage and talent ideally with lots of funds and not too many needs.

But we like many are small but mighty And the HVRHS programs couldn't be more convenient. Maybe everybody should come live in Falls Village who has kids, and a junior high could be put in place at HVRHS...and we could all use the Town Pool to teach all kids to swim (there and Hotchkiss in Lakeville.) Okay now back to the First Order of Business...

Maybe we could have a huge homeschooling contingency and use the schools for a second shift or on the weekends and in the summer, even for social events and more. Just saying... even the grounds could be used for camping and basics (especially with bear proof fences or campers...)

Good luck in sharing this and giving it A Lot of Consideration. We have some lovely communities in Brooklyn NY, parks and much more with very few shared resources...and still a big challenge getting people to work together..the invitation to do so isn't there..no recreation programs or directors even though lots of nice parks...

Hmm, maybe some exchange programs would be in order... with twenty people going there for two coming here...We'd likely find a lot of great ways to build that kind of network in every town in the MA/NY CT area...and more in house as well since that's been the HVRHS tradition and Oliver Wolcott too..more alliances help people see their lives working out well there...

This kind of problem of needing dedicated workers on committees and in government is likely confusing to overcrowded cities and even large suburbs where people may compete for positions on every committee needed to run a town. We are trying not to run people out of town but it happens due to the high costs of living especially when there's hardly any business or other stuff to do.

That said, there are students to educate and lovely rural settings and people with heart and talent to assist in keeping their town going. So here's an All Call to help towns like this know well in advance what their prospects are for following the nitty-gritty details and Recruiting more town-friendly citizens and Much More...

So here's a post from FB and my response then the Big Schpeel from A Government Notice (hope you learned Latin and have patience, maybe get a team of people together to decipher What This Means for Real for Your Town...and of course feel free to pitch in for our small towns in CT, such as Falls Village CT or Town of Canaan CT (same place, need to sort out our identity...) 06031, got it? Great..now here goes

Notice One from FB Post from Someone In the Know (not mine):

NOW IS THE TIME for all good people to come to the aid of their municipal form of government in the State of Connecticut. If you're interested in ANYTHING government related (especially if you live in Falls Village, CT 06031-0047 - State calls us the Town of Canaan; Post Office (the Feds) call us Falls Village), PLEASE respond here. A simple "I'm interested" with a number to text (or snail mail a letter to Town Hall, PO Box 47, Falls Village, CT 06031-0047) will allow us to continue to have elections. I am worried about a ballot full of blank spaces, or Boards and Commissions with only one or two members. This was posted July 2, 2019 but will likely be pertinent for years to come so thanks in advance for spreading the word.

My FB response is as follows to keep the ball rolling and encourage more discussion which was limited initially ( See more on CATV6.com where hopefully Marshall Miles can summarize this concern, I'll ask him to do so...)

So Part 2 (my response)--

Playing with Low Numbers of people and committee, board and leadership people (or No Numbers)in any Small to mid-size Town USA or other country is like playing with fire or other dangerous stuff... so may as well have a Safety Plan to stay an accredited municipality.

Likely a committee is needed to figure all of this out and recruiting from far and wide to get people on board 'for the good cause of keeping the boat afloat' would make sense. There are tons of people in Brooklyn looking for nice places to retire...and many others to fill whatever needs there may be. We'd need recruiters for commuters and places for everyone to 'park' (and maybe that could be a trailer park at some point until proper housing is made to fill the 'state requirement to have a decent percent of Affordable, Low Income housing.'

That's likely the case for any city. Now that the beaches in CT are open to anyone with a legal residence in the state, the mindset of more possibilities may be dawning on people. In addition it's a great perk to get people in the beach-friendly state. We could likely cook up another dozen to Try Being Part of A Small Welcoming Community... they might like it enough to put down roots.

We need friendly housing and other policies and programs, but growing the numbers with families who are paying a bundle to go to the area private schools may be happy enough to have their kids go to the public schools, have host families give them some access to the area and so on... a little more figuring at the drawing board would be great even if it takes a few years...The whole world will be facing these kinds of situations and sharing one's town will be a big help to the cities that are overcrowded and needing help on every front. Just sayin'... .
 
Now Part 3, Major Official Notice, so fasten your seatbelts like race car drivers of yore (and by the way Falls Village is a neighbor to Lime Rock Race Track, so let's put together our recruiting package accordingly...)
 
TO MUNICIPAL CLERKS OF MUNICIPALITIES HOLDING ELECTIONS NOVEMBER 5, 2019: From the CT Secretary of State (as copied from a post on FB)

Primary Law_

The major parties must certify their party endorsements for municipal offices to the municipal clerk pursuant to Section 9-391. It has been our experience that the political parties often endorse fewer candidates than the full number to which they are entitled for some or all of the municipal offices to be filled in a municipal election year. A less common occurrence is a party's failure to certify some or all of its endorsements to the municipal clerk by the statutory deadline, which this year is July 24, 2019.

Section 9-395 requires the municipal clerk to forthwith publish, in a newspaper having a general circulation in the municipality, notice of the fact that certification of a party's endorsement(s) was timely received. Section 9-395 further requires the clerk to publish notice of the fact that the clerk has not received timely certification of a party's endorsement(s) with respect to any office to be filled, if such is the case. This latter requirement applies to instances when the party has (a) either failed to file a timely certification of endorsement for some or all of the offices to be filled, or (b) the party has underendorsed for some or all such offices.

Section 9-395 requires the Secretary of the State to prescribe the form of the notice required by Section 9-395. Accordingly, we are enclosing three different notices of certification of party endorsements, to be used by you depending upon the circumstances that exist in your municipality this year. Form ED-6l9b, entitled "Party-Endorsed Candidates for Municipal Offices," is to be used if a party timely certifies its endorsement of the full number of candidates for all offices to be filled. Form ED-6l9h, entitled "Party-Endorsed Candidates for Municipal Offices Including Notice of Underendorsement for Some Offices," is to be used if the party underendorses for some or all offices or if the party partially endorses for some offices and fails to endorse at all for other offices. Form ED-6l9c, entitled "Failure to Receive Certification of Party-Endorsed Candidates for Municipal Offices," is to be used if a party fails to certify any endorsements by July 24, 2019. A separate notice (either ED-619b, ED-619h or ED-619c) must be published for each of the two major parties.

In order to reduce the likelihood of inadvertent failures-to-endorse, you may wish to remind the party officials in your town that (a) all party endorsements may be made only between July 16 and July 23, 2019, and (b) endorsements must be certified to you by 4:00 p.m. of July 24, 2019. If an endorsement for a particular office is not made between these dates, this does not produce a "vacancy" which may be filled by a later endorsement under party rules. (The only vacancies in endorsement which may be so filled are those resulting from withdrawal or death of a candidate originally endorsed at the proper time.) Moreover, the failure to file a timely certification nullifies an otherwise timely endorsement.

You may also wish to remind the town chairmen that if caucus is the endorsing authority for municipal office, Section 9-390 of the General Statutes requires the town chairman or his designee to give newspaper notice of the date, time, location and purpose of the caucus at least five days prior to the caucus, unless party rules require earlier notice.