Town of Hamden – HQ Press

A Plague of Potholes: Neglect, underfunding and a harsh winter leaves Hamden roads in ruins

Potholes just off of Sherman Avenue Photo by Kristina Mendoza-Cabrera — Potholes just off of Sherman Avenue

Photo by Kristina Mendoza-Cabrera

Dodging, weaving, and swerving left and right. This isn’t the description of race car drivers approaching their final lap on the track– it’s one of Quinnipiac students driving along Mount Carmel Avenue trying to make it to class in one piece. The obstacle in their way? Potholes, which only seem to grow in size and number at the end of every winter.

Superintendent of Streets for Hamden’s Public Works Department Joseph Longobardi said that while potholes are a year-long problem, they occur more frequently during the late winter into spring, due to the change in weather.

“During the winter you have the rain and then it freezes, and it tends to pop the asphalt. That’s when the potholes occur and the complaints start coming in,” Longobardi said. “We’re filling them (the potholes) from then all the way to the fall.”

There are two trucks that maintain approximately 228 miles of road, one in the north end of town and one in the south. With these two vehicles, the public works department has filled 322 potholes from Jan. 3 to April 4 of this year.

The process of filling and refilling these road hazards is a long one and it depends on weather conditions as well as the availability of materials.

While the pothole is preferably filled with hot asphalt mix, which has long-lasting properties, it is often not available in the colder months. If this is the case, as it is in Hamden, repairs are made with other materials like cold patch, a mixture of stone and oil, and then revisited in warmer months.

Longobardi said the department uses the cold patch to maintain the roads for the winter while the asphalt plants are closed. When the plants reopen at the end of May, they can begin using the hot asphalt as a more permanent patch.

Constant maintenance of the roads is not enough to keep the complaints at bay. In fact, they’re a daily occurrence. There are currently 136 pothole reports on SeeClickFix. Yesterday, that number was 122.

Potholes off of Sherman Avenue

Photos by Kristina Mendoza-Cabrera

“I normally drive pretty fast, but that’s all changed since coming to school here,” Quinnipiac junior Jaysa Quinlivan said. “I feel like I have to be so careful to avoid the huge potholes.”

Sometimes, the consequences are more than a little jostling.

“I’ve messed up my car severely– my bumper was all scratched up,” Quinnipiac senior and New Road resident Sarah Foley said. “There are times when I’ve considered walking to school.”

And while the list of complaints is never-ending, the current resources for attending to the issue only go so far.

“There are many roads that we do need to pave, but it’s the budget,” Longobardi said. “The budget and money is the concern.”

Records of the Town of Hamden show the budget for the entire public works department– not just the sector that works on pothole repair– is approximately $10.4 million, or 4.9 percent of the overall budget. For comparison, the Board of Education receives $82.7 million and makes up 39 percent of the budget. Debt services which make-up 9.3 percent of the budget, get $19.7 million, according to the Town of Hamden’s “Citizen’s Guide to the Budget.”

A breakdown of Hamden’s budget

Photo via Town of Hamden

Still, the public works department works with what it has. Along with roads like Todd Street, Shepard Street and Sherman Avenue, the department has been filling potholes along Mount Carmel Avenue since March. The back roads from Quinnipiac’s main campus to the North Haven campus are especially ravaged.

“The back roads leading from Mount Carmel to Hartford Turnpike? We were on that for a week and a half,” Longobardi said. “We laid 20 tons of asphalt on that and it didn’t even make a dent.”

This is particularly bad news for students like Quinnipiac senior Erin Redding, who has classes in North Haven twice a week. The 15-minute commute is one she dreads.

“It’s a horrible road. The potholes are just unavoidable because there’s so many,” Redding said. “I feel like I’m ruining my car every time I drive there, but I don’t have a choice.”

And it’s not only students who are exasperated. Hamden resident James Wise, a mechanic at Firestone Complete Auto Care, says he can’t even count the number of cars he’s seen this month that have tire damage due to potholes.

“A lot of people have been coming in with their tires busted,” Wise said. “We’ve had quite a few people coming in and complaining about potholes here.”

One of those people was his aunt, Valerie Harold, who lives on West Side Drive and busted her tire after hitting a pothole.

“It was crazy,” Wise said. “I had to replace her lower control arm and everything underneath after the whole wheel fell out.”

Nick Froso, another mechanic at Firestone Complete Auto Care, spoke to the cost of repair for tire damage.

“Immediately it’s like $175 just for a mechanic to look at it. A new rim costs an average of $400 to $500 apiece,” Froso said. “Depending on the car, it’s anywhere from that price and the sky’s the limit.”

The same cannot be said for what’s to be done about Hamden’s potholes. With an insufficient budget, there is only so much the department can do for road repair. Most of the efforts seem to go toward preventing the damage from growing worse.

For those like Longobardi, the constant filling and refilling of potholes using cold and hot patch feels like an ongoing battle.

“It doesn’t seem like a lot, but we do what we can for now and hope it holds over,” Longobardi said.

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Hamden Democrats face changes as winds of change blow

State Representative Michael D'Agostino addresses the committee — State Representative Michael D’Agostino addresses the committee

By Rob McGreevy

The Hamden Democratic Town Committee met on Tuesday night in Hamden Public Library’s senior center to begin its spring session and to welcome newly elected committee members.

According to the chairman of the Hamden Democratic Town Committee, Lew Panzo, the committee welcomed 23 newly elected members. Some incumbent members said that number was even higher.

Whether it was 23 or more than half of the 63 members as some suggested, this is an unusually high turnover for the committee.

“Our body here was an older body of people who served here for 25-30 years and it was time for a change for some of them,” Panzo said.

The meeting was full of young people, and the loudest and most active voices in the crowd all belonged to newly elected members.

The committee didn’t reach a quorum and therefore was unable to conduct official business, but there were still plenty of opportunities for members to ask questions and voice opinions.

Connecticut state senator Martin Looney attended and briefed the room on the party’s status in the town, as well as the state.

He spoke about the senate’s general agenda and how it was going to act on certain matters, as well as what the Hamden Democratic Town Committee could do to help.

After Looney spoke, Panzo allowed a number of speakers who were either running for elected office, or had opened an exploratory committee to do so, to speak to the room. The group included Connecticut state representative Michael D’Agostino, who is running for attorney general.

The group also included two prominent Connecticut democrats — both vying for the same elected office.

Susan Bysiewicz announced she had opened an exploratory committee to run for governor. Her political resume includes 12 years as secretary of state. She spoke at length on major Connecticut issues, including establishing a pay equity law, infrastructure and especially tolls.

The other candidate for Governor was young Hartford mayor Luke Bronin.

Bronin is a former aide to maligned Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy. He lasered in on fixing Connecticut’s budget issues, while also brushing upon the base Connecticut Democratic issues that his opponent did – taxes, tolls, infrastructure, etc.

The HDTC gives these candidates a platform to reach Democrats in places they may not have been able to otherwise.

“Especially in an election year we have so many candidates running they will generally invite candidates to attend town committee meetings so they can present their case,” Looney said.

The HDTC did not have enough members to conduct its affairs, but going forward the newly elected members will be officially members at the committees next meeting on March 12.

Panzo seemed hopeful toward the new and exciting future of the Hamden Democratic Town Committee.

“It’s good to see this new influx of young people,” said Panzo, “that’s what this party needs, it needs to be revitalized.”

Looking ahead Panzo says that Hamden has always followed along with the state’s Democratic platform, “but there’s talk about us writing our own platform” — something that Panzo said will probably take place this year.

What will that platform look like?

“God only knows,” Panzo said.

Hamden establishes first animal control facility gift fund

By Mary Rose Bevins

According to Hamden Mayor Curt Balzano Leng, the Hamden Legislative Council recently approved the town’s first “Animal Control Facility Gift Fund.” The fund is the foundation for a new Hamden or regional facility and was established as a reaction to the community wanting a secure shelter.

“We would like to do a little better with animals than we are doing with them now,” Leng said.

Authorizing this fund shows the commitment to create a new animal control facility and allows those interested in helping the town and shelters make this goal a reality. According to the Town of Hamden’s Facebook page, any donation made to the gift fund must follow the town’s procurement process and solely be used for the purpose of a new facility.

While Hamden’s Gimme Shelter Animal Rescue and Where The Love is Animal Rescue are excited to hear this news, their main priority is to tend to their animals needs. Co-founder of Where the Love Is Animal Rescue, Christina Hackett, said all of the animals that arrive are examined by a veterinarian and given any treatment needed.

“Before [the dogs] leave and go to their forever homes they are microchipped, vaccinated and are either spayed or neutered,” Hackett said.

With the help of donations from pet stores like Pet Valu, grants and fundraising events, Where The Love Is is able to cover medical bills with that money. This year, they spent about $80,000 in vet bills and were able to use all of the adoption fees received and money donated/fundraised to help cover the cost.

To shelter their animals, they rent out two places.

“We have a garage and a kennel,” Hackett said.

The garage holds six 5-by-5 cages and the kennel holds four 5-by-5 cages with 20 dogs and two cats to care for. Hackett is happy where the animals are sheltered, but is also hopeful the gift fund allows all of the animals to be housed together soon.

While the animal rescue shelters continue to raise money to help support the animals they rescue, they also do what they can to raise money for a new facility. According to Leng, Hamden’s biggest contributor to help raise money for the shelter is Gimme Shelter Animal Rescue.

“[Last year] we held a small blue collar fundraiser that inspired the town to make an animal shelter fund,” Gimme Shelter volunteer Lenny Young said.

Gimme Shelter Animal Rescue has continuously held events to fundraise money for their animals, but their next big event will be a fundraiser to help establish a Hamden or regional animal shelter. On Feb. 15, JaSa Asian Cuisine will donate 20 percent of each pre-tax bill to the Hamden Animal Shelter Gift Fund. Young and other Gimme volunteers are excited for this event.

“We chose the day after Valentine’s Day because it’s the Chinese New Year, which is the year of the dog,” Young said.

The purpose of this fundraiser is to bring the animal shelter issue out of obscurity.

“We are trying to get people to support it, not necessarily help out. We just need people to spread the word,” Young said.

To get 20 percent of your bill donated, go to Gimme Shelter Animal Rescue’s website, print out the flier and bring it with you to the restaurant.

“Every penny goes to the animal shelter gift fund,” Young said.

According to the Where The Love Is Facebook page, the shelter has been doing more adoption events than fundraising events. On Feb. 9-10, volunteers went to various Pet Valu stores in Connecticut. At these events they bring along a few furry friends to interact with possible families who want to adopt a rescued animal.

They have yet to release any upcoming events, but are more than happy to have volunteers come in and help in any way possible, Hackett stated.

With the foundation of the gift fund under way, our furry friends in Hamden will hopefully be housed together in their new animal shelter very soon.

To donate to the Animal Control Facility Fund or adopt an animal visit either shelters website: http://abandonedanimals.org/ and http://www.wheretheloveis.org/

Hamden mayoral candidates: What do they think?

By Lindsay Pytel and Dorah Labatte

Hamden and QU’s relationship

The 2017 Hamden mayoral race between current mayor Curt Leng and underdog republican candidate Salman Hamid is coming to a close on November, 7, and the results could potentially impact Quinnipiac’s relationship with the town. Since being elected in 2015, Leng says that the relationship between the town and Quinnipiac University has greatly improved and that he regularly communicates with QU’s president John Lahey.

“We meet, we talk, we text,” he said. “We have a regular communication now and that’s really nine tenths of the whole game, because if you’re communicating then you can say ‘hey I have a problem with this and this’ or ‘hey can you help me out with this or this’ and (it’s) going both ways.”

Leng said he has seen this growing communication in other areas of the town as well. For example, he mentioned better communication this past year between the Hamden police and Quinnipiac’s public safety.

Created by Lindsay Pytel. Data accessed 10/30 at http://seec.ct.gov — Created by Lindsay Pytel. Data accessed 10/30 at **http://seec.ct.gov**

The expansion of the student body and increasing amount of student housing, however, is still an issue between Leng and Lahey, but Leng says they have been finding the balance between the town of Hamden and QU.

“It’s a balance of trying to figure out how you can have rules that are appropriate and legal that kind of incentivize locations that make more sense for student development period,” Leng said. “So it’s a matter of trying to plan these things out and the more that you work, I think, with the neighbors, university, town (and) students together, which we haven’t perfected yet.”

Hamid says if he is elected as mayor he will improve Hamden’s relationship with Quinnipiac by discussing housing with the incoming president.

“They should never have been barred from enjoying the benefits Hamden has to offer.”

He added that he will invite QU students back into Hamden for shopping and dining.

“…By working (with) the president of the university to smooth over the issues that have caused division such as student housing. We will use QU security to help ease tensions between neighbors.”

Money

Leng says that throughout his time as mayor, town financing has always held a major role.

“…We really focus on (it) a lot and we’ve been able to strengthen the town’s finances quite a bit,” Leng said.

He says that in regards of improvements in town financing, there is a lot for everyone to be proud of.

“Our bond rating has been upheld,” Leng said. “We had the first budget without a tax increase in ten years this past year, so that took a lot of work and spent a lot of time with our delegation making sure that our our state funding is fingers crossed still coming through.”

As for Hamid, key issues include high taxes, energy efficiency, animal shelter construction, equality in education and resident participation in spending for local government.

“You probably heard over and over of residents complaining about Quinnipiac student housing and so on and so forth,” he said. “That situation wouldn’t have happened if taxes were sustainable in town, because people have either foreclosed on their property or they rent it out to students because there is no other option because they can’t sell their homes.”

One can clearly see the difference in numbers and that on certain issues the two candidates don’t see eye to eye. All will be decided next week on Election Day Nov. 7. Who will you vote for?

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An interview with Hamden Mayor Curt Leng

By Ayah Galal

Curt Leng has been the mayor of Hamden for two and a half years. He was first elected in a special election in May 2015, then ran six months later. Now, he’s running for a third term. HQ Press sat down with Mayor Leng to discuss where he stands on certain issues as well as what he hopes to accomplish if re-elected.

What made you want to become mayor in the first place and why are you deciding to go up for re-election?

I’ve been involved with the town actually for 20 years now. I got involved when I was 20 years old and I ran for council as a 20 year old just coming out of high school, in college traveling back and forth from UConn. I didn’t win my first election that I ran as an independent candidate. And then two years later ran as a Democratic candidate and fortunately I’ve been winning ever since.

I got involved to begin with because actually in high school I had to do ten hours of work on a political campaign. So I went to the local person that was about a mile from my house and found that I really enjoyed it and I enjoyed digging into the issues that people were working on, both the neighborhood and debating them and the pros and the cons and really digging into it.

I learned quickly that you can get involved and you can and people will listen to you and people will you know appreciate the work that you do and you can actually get stuff done even when you’re not in office yet as long as you take that step and kind of open your mouth and get involved. And ever since then I’ve been on that track.

I like working to help people. I find this is one of the one jobs…that you can help somebody every single day. You know a call comes in–hey here’s a problem that I have– you can’t solve everything, there’s no question about that. But usually, several times a day, you’re able to help folks and I think that here at the local level, it’s kind of where the rubber hits the road. There’s things we can actually directly do pretty quickly to help people out.

So you’ve been in Hamden your whole life, correct?

I’m 43, I’ve lived here my whole life, except for when I was at school and my family has been here for a hundred years.

What are some of the initiatives you’ve been able to accomplish in the past two years that you are proud of?

A couple that I’m most proud of have been returning our police to walking beats and bicycle patrols–really focusing on community policing. We hadn’t had walking beats in probably forty years and we have our first walking beat that started two years ago and now we have two regular walking beats and we have 10 different bicycle patrols that go out in all different neighborhoods on the canal, on the shopping area.

Town finances is not necessarily an initiative but it’s one that we really focus on a lot and we’ve been able to strengthen the town’s finances quite a bit. Our bond rating has been upheld. We had the first budget without a tax increase in ten years this past year, so that took a lot of work and spent a lot of time with our delegation making sure that our our state funding is fingers crossed still coming through.

So finances would be number two and number three probably it’s not exactly a specific initiative but I think that there’s a community pride I feel is coming back and I think it’s coming from the ability to communicate more with local government with with I think it’s partly the mayor’s office and I think it’s partly the police department I think it’s partly council members having more interaction with people. And also having a lot more events that people get to go to.

Obviously this doesn’t come easily. What are some of the challenges you faced along the way?

I think every day is like pushing a boulder up a hill. Well, it goes back to finances probably is the main challenge because if the town’s finances aren’t good then it’s kind of the foundation in which everything else is built off of so if the finances are not doing well and if you’re not making sure that the pension is doing better than it was–we have pension reform that’s like three quarters of the way through we have to see that through the end–making sure that your spending is not out of control so that you can keep balancing budgets and keeping the taxes down, you know holding the line of taxes at least. Then you can’t do things like expand bicycle patrols and invest in sidewalks and streets. We’ve done a lot of infrastructure improvement.

In fact in the two and a half years years I’ve been mayor…we’ve paved thirty five miles of road in two and a half years.Fifty-six roads happening right now in the 2017 season and we’ve done probably about a mile of sidewalk so a lot it’s a lot of of infrastructure improvement. Even though we’ve got a lot of roads, I certainly know that we have a lot more to do.

Where would you say the relationship stands now between the town of Hamden and Quinnipiac?

Much improved. You know much, much stronger. I’ve been able to have regular communications with President Lahey. We meet, we talk, we text. Sometimes we’re both busy people and sometimes that ends up being the way that we can connect on certain things. So we have a regular communication now and that’s really nine tenths of the whole game, because if you’re communicating then you can say “hey I have a problem with this and this” or “hey can you help me out with this or this” and going both ways. I think its been a much better situation for everybody because nobody really wants bickering and fighting and and Quinnipiac is a great asset for the town globally. There’s problems with off campus housing sometimes yeah and it’s going to happen with any college in any town USA. Starting last year there was much better communication between our police and the campus security.

How do you facilitate balancing the needs of Quinnipiac students versus the needs of other residents in Hamden?

It’s tough. There’s no be easy black and white you know clear cut type of an answer on this one. You know, encouraging the university to build more housing where it’s fit and where people that will live in the units makes sense and you know there’s another two hundred or so beds that are going to be built up on York Hill which is good. That’ll get a certain number of people in and the truth is that it’s not all of the people off campus at all. It’s a small fraction that make it bad.

There’s many times that I talk with residents and I have someone say actually I students next door and they’re really nice and they came over and chatted and said hey if we have a little party or something on the weekend if it gets too loud would you be able to let me know…people learn how to live in a neighborhood and have a common courtesy for each other.

So it’s a balance of trying to figure out how you can have rules that are appropriate and legal that kind of incentivize locations that make more sense for student development period. So it’s a matter of trying to plan these things out and the more that you work I think with the neighbors, university, town, students together which we haven’t perfected yet; I think you’ll get better and better each year. Because other towns there’s always problems but other towns seem to have perfected it better than we have.

And I talked with folks from Fairfield University as an example and Sacred Heart and it seems like they had very very similar problems thirty years ago or twenty five years ago and you don’t hear much about it at all now so you know trying to follow those models I think is something that we need to spend more time on.

So is there anything you think maybe Quinnipiac can or should be doing differently or students in general?

I think it’s all of us have to really make a concerted effort to do a more formalized town gown committee commission and really commit to having faculty, students, government, residents participate in a positive way so it’s not just an airing of grievances. You know probably quarterly, I would think. And we’ve got kind of a framework of it and it’s something that I’d like to try to accomplish over the next over the next term if I’m still here.

Mayor Leng speaks with Hamden residents during his event titled 'Mayor's Night Out' — Mayor Leng speaks with Hamden residents during his event titled ‘Mayor’s Night Out’

I went to your event Monday night and you had mentioned SeeClickFix. What are the people in the town of and then concerned about?

Traffic is definitely up there without question…we’ve been doing some traffic calming work so it’s physical improvements to roads. Beyond that, we’ve kicked up enforcement a lot. The enforcement this year compared to last year is we did about 500 enforcement actions in the summer of 2016 and summer of 2017 there was 1388, so almost tripled the number of enforcements and we’re in a bunch more locations with selective enforcement stopping and watching, people go through a light, speed trap, all those type of things.

Graffiti and dumping issues occur in any municipality. If you’re fast with them, then they don’t become a problem if you’re not, they do. So SeeClickFix can be a good tool for that.

Any place that you can kind of get information flow back from residents and from the government to the residents even if it’s not completely productive you know, it’s good. Because the more information flow, the better because people seem to get most frustrated when they don’t know what’s happening.

What do you think sets you apart from Salman Hamid and why do you think people should vote for you instead of him?

Record of accomplishment that they can actually look at and say okay has this person accomplished what he said he was going to and do I think that it’s a good amount of progress that I want to see this direction continue and see what happens with another couple of years of his team together.

And then I’ll probably say that experience. I’ve been involved in in government and I understand municipal finances and I have been involved with the many local and state laws that really do bind a lot of the things that we do some good and some constricting. And without knowing these things and having a pretty fluid comfortable handle on them, it would be really really enormously difficult to accomplish things.

And keeping things positive. I think right now there’s a positive vibe about the town and I think it’s important not only for people’s opinions and you know just being happy and proud of your hometown but it also has a value to it outside of Hamden in that if word gets out more I think as it is now that Hamden is a pretty good place to be for a variety of reasons then families are gonna want to invest here, and buy a house and business are going to want to come here and set up shop and it’s good for our local economy and there’s nothing bad about it. So you know, trying to keep promoting that you know the track that we’re on. I think we’re headed in the right direction is probably the simplest way to answer that.