UConn's Coach Calhoun teams up to provide holiday meals

Calhoun also has partnered with Big Y for the “Food for All” program to benefit FoodShare and the Connecticut Food Bank.

Coach Jim Calhoun, his family, coaches and players will join a team that includes Big Y World Class Market, the Hartford law firm of RisCassi and Davis, Omar Coffee and Hartford Food Systems to provide holiday meals for 1,300 needy Hartford families on Tuesday, Dec. 16.

Coach Calhoun and team will be at St. James Episcopal Church, 75 Zion St. in Hartford from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., and at the North End Senior Center, 80 Coventry St.  in Hartford from 6:45 to 8 p.m.

The team will distribute 1,300 turkeys and holiday meal fixings.

This year’s event is Calhoun’s ninth and largest ever annual Holiday Food Drive.

He also has partnered with Big Y World Class Market for the “Food for All” program, a nearly two-month-long fundraising drive conducted in all Big Y World Class Market stores to benefit FoodShare and the Connecticut Food Bank .

Since Calhoun began his efforts in 1999, almost $1 million has been raised to benefit Connecticut families in need.

For more information, call Peter Gold at 860-874-7743 or Christy Deep at 860-214-1258.

Posted Dec. 13, 2008

For more information see: http://mansfield.htnp.com/sports/uconn_coach_calhoun_2008_holiday_food_drive.html

Mansfield responds to Gov. Rell's call for "shovel-ready" projects

CCM surveyed the state’s towns and cities about what kinds of projects they forwarded to the governor and received 94 responses representing $2.4 billion for 1,300 projects.

Responding to a call for “shovel ready” projects from the state’s cities and towns, Mansfield has come up with four with a combined price tag of $2 million:

• Install gas line (and other local costs) to provide natural gas to the Mansfield Middle School, $1,050,000
• Complete Birch Road Bikeway, $300,000
• Replace Dodd Road Bridge, $150,000
• Install storm drains on Woods Road, $500,000

Earlier this month, Gov. M. Jody Rell announced that she had written the mayors, first selectmen and other chief executives of every city and town in the state – as well as every member of the General Assembly – and asked them to help her compile a list of “shovel-ready” projects that could be undertaken if Congress and President-elect Obama agree on a new federal economic stimulus package.

On Dec. 2, Gov. Rell and other governors met in Philadelphia with Obama to discuss the economic needs of the states.

Congress has also indicated it will consider a second national economic stimulus package when it resumes in January. This package would be geared largely toward creating jobs through infrastructure projects, as well as providing aid tohelp with major state expenses such as Medicaid and other social programs.

“The only real solution to a recession is to literally ‘work our way out of it’ – to create dependable jobs that will provide our families with the incomes they need to build the kinds of lives they want and deserve,” Rell said this week.

“While we have no way of knowing with any certainty how much money Connecticut might receive from a stimulus bill – or even if one will be passed – it only makes sense to identify the projects we think would do the most to create jobs now and position us for further growth in the future,” Rell said.

At the Dec. 2 meeting in Philadelphia, Rell stressed than an economic stimulus package should fully fund infrastructure improvements, since most states are not currently able to fund the traditional 20 percent match.

She also lobbied for increased federal support for social service,s and a temporary increase in funding for unemployment compensation, job training and other aid to those looking for new jobs.

CCM surveys cities and towns

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities ( CCM ) recently surveyed the state’s towns and cities about what kinds of projects they forwarded to the governor. The organization received 94 responses as of Dec. 11, representing $2.4 billion for 1,300 projects.

CCM supports Rell’s intiative, but wants to see funds for these projects go directly to the cities and towns. “Local governments can get the jobs done quickly. We urge state and federal policymakers to provide that 60% of any infrastructure funding for Connecticut go directly to regions and local governments, rather than being routed through the state bureaucracy,” CCM states in a release sharing its survey findings.

The breakout of the proposed projects looks like this:

568 transportation projects (163 for bridges, 260 for local roadways, 76 for dams, 40 for mass transit and 29 for rail transportation)

216 projects for clean water needs (26 for drinking water and 190 for wastewater facilities)

51 projects devoted to energy and technology (18 projects for utility needs, 17 for fiber-optic/broadband efforts and 16 for alternative energy programs)

101 for waste management projects (30 for hazardous waste and 71 for solid waste disposal)

106 projects related to parks and recreation

73 projects for general municipal buildings

132 projects for school construction

47 projects for emergency management

34 “other”

“I can assure you, hometown Connecticut is ready to go,” said CCM Executive Director and CEO James J. Finley, Jr. “Funding these projects benefits Connecticut in three ways: it puts people to work quickly, it creates a solid platform on which to build economic growth and it improves the quality of life in our hometowns.”

Posted Dec. 13, 2008

For more information see: http://mansfield.htnp.com/news/

gov_rell_calls_for_shovel-ready_projects.html