January 2017 Meeting Minutes

Meeting Minutes of the Whitneyville Civic Association

January Meeting, held at the Board of Education building 60 Putnam Ave., January 12, 2017

President Janet Kazienko called meeting to order at 7:08.

Janet said Travis Pittman of Salad Palace was invited to speak and will do so when he gets here.

  • A Bocce Court seems to have showed up in Denicola Park, Michael Ross announced. As Past President of the WCA, he spoke to the Mayor about it, and is trying to find out where it came from.  Janet asked if anyone wanted the WCA to officially react to this, and there was no request made to do so.
  • Library Committee: Dave Bechtel said the committee is following up on the Mayor’s promise to spend $40000 on both braches of the library. Dave said the committee has a great plan, and the Whitneyville branch is now open on Saturdays with consistent hours. The committee is planning a fundraiser, tentatively called “Books and Booze” at the Playwright in early spring.
  • Travis, owner of Salad Palace, talked about the cancer scare that inspired him to change his diet and then opened up Salad Palace to bring healthy food that can change your health, even reverse diabetes. The website is thesaladpalace.com. The menu features many types of healthy salads, smoothies, and juice, and there is a new menu coming up.
  • Janet said she is hoping to see a committee get together to work on changes to the summer music programs that the WCA has offered in the past. She is looking for new ideas. Marc Levenson said he is interested in getting involved.
  • Bob Pattison spoke about the new municipal LED lighting programs going on across the country, which often creating bright, even blinding light in neighborhoods. LED is good, he said, but the color makes a big difference. Light is measured in Kelvin; bright LEDS are heavy on the blue color, and new health studies highlight some of the issues in reference to circadian rhythm disruption and other health hazards. AMA recommends 3000K or lower, warm vs. bright lighting. UI currently wants to use the 4000 Kelvin lights. Marty Mador, head of the towns Energy Use and Climate Change Commission said he is not sure if the lights have been purchased, but Hamden might be getting these lights in May.
  • Dale Kroop, Hamden’s Economic Development Director, said energy is an issue that has been handled ad hoc. He would like to see the Energy Use and Climate Change commission work toward an action plan. Janet said she had contacted Teresa Eller at UI, but she could not come, but when Dave Bechtel and Michael Ross went to her, she made it clear that UI is working with towns, yet asking municipal leaders about lumens, but not color. Danny Kazienko stressed that it is not the brightness, it is the color, the blue color, that is disruptive.
  • Traffic Committee: Mark Foran said the committee had no report but was seeking input from residents. Marty mentioned issues with Augur, Street. Mark said Augur really has been left out on some of the changes and yet has some real issues. A chicane was proposed for that street, a good idea but it was never implemented. It would be at a 25 mile per hour speed limit. What Mark would like to do is create a visual representation of what this would look like. The Traffic Committee will be meeting sometime in the next month.

Deb Weckerle announced a book giveaway for teachers.

Jen Brosious announced several benefit events that are upcoming at the Whitneyville Cultural Commons and the Yoga Center.

Janet adjourned the meeting at 8:20.