CCM Pitches a Regional Approach to Federal Funding Opportunities

It was going to take an awful lot of work to convert the former second-hand store in a Norwich strip mall into the barbershop that Carlos Ventura had long dreamed of owning. 

But after weeks of gutting the storefront and surviving the setback of a burst water pipe, Carlos and his wife Brenda opened Ventura Barbershop earlier this month and couldn’t be happier with the unexpectedly strong business they are doing so far. 

CCM’s American Rescue Plan (ARP) Advisory Service Committee calls for greater regional and state collaboration on recovery projects

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) today (Monday, October 18) said that CCM’s ARP Advisory Service Committee is advocating towns and cities to use a portion of nearly $700 million in available funding towards regional recovery efforts and encouraging the State to collaborate more with local officials on state ARP projects.

In total, under the ARP, there is $1.56 billion being sent to Connecticut municipal governments and another $995 million for Connecticut school districts.

Fiscal Watchdog: Novocaine Is Wearing Off

Keith Phaneuf follows the money. And all roads lead back to Connecticut’s financial capacity.

Joining “The Municipal Voice,” the program hosted on WNHH FM by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, Phaneuf, who covers the Capitol as a reporter for the CT Mirror, told us that he’s always been drawn to the state’s “fiscal problems because they’re sort of the magnet that’s pulling our compass off course.” 

State and Local Legal Center Listserv: Justice Sotomayor Allows NYC to Mandate Vaccines for School Employees

Justice Sotomayor turned down a request from a group of New York City teachers and paraprofessionals asking her to overturn a federal district court decision upholding New York City Department of Education's (DOE) policy requiring all employees and contractors who work in-person in DOE buildings to be vaccinated against COVID-19. 
 
In July New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio mandated all municipal employees be vaccinated or tested weekly for COVID-19. In August he ordered that DOE employees could no longer opt out of the vaccine mandate through weekly COVID-19 tests. 

Who should pay for school ventilation upgrades? Towns & schools at loggerheads with state

Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration is under mounting pressure from divergent stakeholders to fund school ventilation upgrades.

Jacqueline Rabe Thomas of Connecticut Public Radio’s investigative unit, The Accountability Project, reported that the state’s largest teachers’ union claimed that each year, more educators were filing workers' compensation cases related to air quality issues in their schools.

Pandemic Presents Superintendents With New Challenges

Running a school district is not as simple as A-B-C, and with the Delta variant and HVAC issues, it’s going to take collaboration from all sides to make education work. 
 
That was the lesson learned from Fran Rabinowitz, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS), when she came on “The Municipal Voice,” a co-production of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) and WNHH 103.5 FM. 

Local and school officials call on state to help fund improvements to school ventilation systems

Hundreds of schools across Connecticut lack air-conditioning systems and proper ventilation, school officials say, but town and state leaders continue to disagree on who is responsible for funding a solution.

Issues of air quality, ventilation and temperature regulation in schools gained greater attention during the coronavirus pandemic, but local officials said during a press conference Thursday that students and staff have struggled with such issues long before COVID-19. Groups representing towns, teachers, boards of education and superintendents came together for the event.

CCM, CEA, CABE, CAPSS, COST, AFT CT and CSEA SEIU Local 2001 to hold statewide Zoom news conference, Thursday, September 23 at 10:00 a.m., on funding partnership needed to improve HVAC systems and assure acceptable air quality in CT public schools

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) in coalition with the Connecticut Education Association (CEA), the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE), the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS), the Council of Small Towns (COST), AFT Connecticut, and CSEA SEIU Local 2001, will conduct a news conference via Zoom on Thursday, September 23 at 10:00 a.m. to discuss the funding partnership needed with the State and the Lamont administration to improve school HVAC systems and assure air quality improvements in public schools across the state.

Bethlehem Fair Comes Back

After a year off due to Covid, Connecticut’s agricultural affairs are back for 2021.

Mike O’Neill, President of the Bethlehem Fair Society joined the Municipal Voice, a co-production of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and 103.5 WNHH FM, to talk about this year’s Bethlehem Fair.

Will CT’s race to attract data centers pay off? For some, it’s unclear

“Usually on property tax exemptions, we get very hesitant,” said Randy Collins of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities. His group worked with legislators to include language in the bill that would protect towns in cases where the developer doesn’t hold up their end of the deal. “We wanted to make sure a municipality wouldn’t be taken advantage of,” Collins said.

At the same time, CCM didn’t want to cut off an economic opportunity for distressed communities. “When you take a town with no economic prospects for this parcel — sure, in a perfect world, I’d get $5 million on this parcel but I take $1 million. Maybe the economic development around it will build off what they’re doing,” Collins said.