Archive - Feb 2010
February 24th
Wordless Wednesday
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 02/24/2010 - 07:06
February 23rd
An Act Concerning Certificates of Origin for Dogs Sold by Pet Shop Licensees
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 02/23/2010 - 16:05Yesterday, there was a public hearing about bills before the Environment Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly. Unfortunately, I could not attend this hearing since I was at the Government Administration and Elections Committee Public Hearing about the Citizens’ Election Program.
However, there was one bill that I’m very interested in hearing more about. It is An Act Concerning Certificates of Origin for Dogs Sold by Pet Shop Licensees. The goal of this bill is “To reduce costs associated with the administration of certificates of origin.”
Current Connecticut Law states:
Any dog sold or offered for sale by a pet shop licensee in this state shall be accompanied by a certificate of origin identifying the name and address of the person, firm or corporation that bred such dog and of any person, firm or corporation that sold such dog to such pet shop licensee. Such information contained in the certificate of origin shall be posted in a conspicuous manner not more than ten feet from the location where such dog is displayed for sale. A copy of such certificate shall be provided to the purchaser of such dog at the time of sale.
The proposed bill would replace the current requirement that the certificate of origin “shall be filed by such licensee with the Department of Agriculture not later than two days after such sale” with a requirement that
For a period of not less than one year after the date of issuance, each pet shop licensee shall retain an electronic or paper copy of any certificate of origin issued by such pet shop licensee to a purchaser. During such one-year period, each pet shop licensee shall make such electronic or paper copy available for inspection by the Department of Agriculture upon request by the department.
While I appreciate the desire to reduce administrative costs, especially during these times of major budget shortfalls, I question the wisdom of this proposed change. Currently, there are hundreds of dogs in municipal shelters across Connecticut. Just today, six more dogs were added to the City of Hartford Animal Shelter List. Any dogs unclaimed at the Hartford Shelter after ten days gets put to sleep. Is the cost of maintaining records at the Department of Agriculture greater than the cost of keeping dogs at shelters and eventually putting them to sleep? What are the real costs?
To gather this information, I called the CT Department of Agriculture on February 12th. The answering machine informed me no one was in the office. So, I figured it might be more effective to send an email to the address listed on the Department of Agriculture Website.
In my email, I asked some simple background questions. How many Pet Shop Licensees are there in the State of Connecticut that register certificates of origin with the Department of Agriculture? How many certificates of origin are filed each year with the department? How much does it cost for pet shops to file such certificates? How much does it cost the state to process such certificates?
This information would be helpful in understanding the costs and whether the bill is a good idea. What is more interesting to me is information about the number of dogs that are listed, what breeds they are, what states they have been brought in from, and other related information. Looking at this information could be helpful in finding ways to address the problems of too many dogs in our municipal shelters.
Unfortunately, no one at the Department of Agriculture ever responded to my request. Six days later, I sent it again, noting this was a second request and that it related to bill 5118. As of today, I have still received no response to my email.
Today, I called the Department of Agriculture again and explained what I was looking for. I was bounced from one person to another and no one knew who receives the emails sent to the Department of Agriculture. The last human at the Department of Agriculture I managed to speak to said that she could not speak to me, but that I should speak with Ray Connors who works for the Animal Control Division. I have left a voicemail for Mr. Connors and am awaiting a reply.
While I initially thought that there would be value to the Department of Agriculture tracking the number of dogs sold in the State of Connecticut and where the dogs came from, I now have doubts whether or not the agency, which seems unable to even answer emails is capable of the task.
Perhaps working with the Department of Agriculture to help them with basic computer skills, followed by moving to an electronic filing system of certificates of origin for dogs sold in Connecticut would be the best course of action.
February 22nd
General Assembly Hearings, Monday February 22nd
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 02/22/2010 - 09:35Today will be busy at the Capitol in Hartford. Starting at 10 AM in room 2B will be the Government Administration and Elections Committee Public Hearing about the Citizens’ Election Program. I intend to be there and cover it using Twitter, Facebook, CoverItLive and perhaps QIK. I’m going to juggle the mix a little bit this time and post most of the running commentary on CoverItLive with only the keypoints posted to Twitter and Facebook, since I don’t want to overwhelm those feeds. If I can juggle things, I’ll also stream some of it via QIK. The CoverItLive stream will be available below the fold.
Also, the Environment Committee will be having its public hearing starting at 10:30 in room 1E. There is one bill I’m interested in there, and I’ll probably write a blog post about this later, but not try to catch the Environment Committee hearing.
There are several appropriation subcommittee meetings during the day as well as a Central CT Bike Alliance Legislative Reception at 2:30.
February 21st
This Week In Woodbridge
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 02/21/2010 - 21:40After a particularly quiet week last week, this week in Woodbridge starts off with a flurry of activity. On Monday, starting at 6 PM, there will be a special meeting of the Board of Selectmen to review department budget requests for FY2011 and to vote on the recommendations to the Board of Finance for the FY2011 budget. At the same time, the Board of Fire Commissions will hold a meeting at the new fire house. This meeting will also be discussing budgets, building use. The EMS Commission is scheduled to start at 7 PM at the Town Hall.
Over at Beecher Road, there are two meetings taking place, both starting at 7 PM. The regular meeting of the Woodbridge Board of Education is scheduled for the Media Center. At the meeting, there will be a report on the monthly enrollment as well as actions on the school district’s participation in the Open Choice Program and the Wintergreen Magnet School.
The board is also scheduled to act on a recommendation of the BRS Town Building Committee to retain Dimeo Construction as the construction manager for the BRS building project. Acting as a committee of the whole, the board will review curriculum issues as well as the strategic school profile.
The recreation commission will meet at the same time at the South Assembly Room. The agenda will cover mostly the same topics as the January agenda, but in a slightly different order.
At the Library on Wednesday evening, starting at 5:30, there will be a career networking meeting. The regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen is scheduled to take place at the Town Hall starting at 6 PM. The Woodbridge Park Association is also reportedly meeting on Wednesday and the Massaro Farm Board is reportedly meeting on Thursday. There will also be a screening of The Time Traveler’s Wife at the library starting at 7 PM on Thursday.
Ending off the week will be The Hoot at Beecher Road School from 11:30 to 3:30. Also, starting at 1 PM on Saturday will be storytelling about maple syrup starting at the public library, followed by a hike in the Alice Newton Street Park.
This will be followed by a Gala Purim Masquerade Ball at Congregation B’nai Jacob in Woodbridge starting at 6:15 PM. Sunday, starting at 3 PM there will be a Purim Carnival at the Jewish Community Center.
(Cross-posted at the Woodbridge Citizen).
Lyman Orchard's Winterfest 38
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 02/21/2010 - 11:10I’ve lived in Connecticut for about twenty years now, and my wife and two youngest daughters were both born here, so it is a surprise that none of us have ever been to Lyman Orchard’s annual Winterfest. Yesterday, we corrected this error and had a great time.
One of the main draws for us was seeing Bill Covitz’s ice sculptures.
Of course Fiona was especially interested in sampling some of the food that was for sale in the store. They had lots of great samples, and I want to highlight some of the best. One of our favorites was the Mango Spice Salsa from Giff’s Original in Cheshire. It was very tasty and they use as much local products as possible in their relishes, chutneys and salsas.
There were quite a few other really good salsas and sauces available as well. Besides buying some of the Mango Spice Salsa, we picked up some Sachs Brand Barbecue sauce. Another good sauce that we sampled was All Natural Frank’s Marinara sauce. Frank used to run a restaurant up near Hartford, and now makes his sauces from Hebron, and you can find his sauces in a lot of stores around Connecticut.
Another honorable mention goes to Rich’s Sweet Heat crossing the line from Coventry, RI. Also notable in the sauce and salsa category is Salsa Delievery from East Granby with their Fresh Salsa of the Month club.
In the drinks category there were samples of fresh cider from the orchard, East Haven’s Foxon Park White Birch Beer, and Sweet Leaf Tea which had various ice teas and lemonade available for sample. Sweet Leaf Tea is actually from Austin Texas, but they’re making a big push in the northeast. Rounding out the drinks section was Lebanon, CT based Farmer’s Cow.
Across the aisle from the Farmer’s Cow samples were sample cider donut holes and cherry pie from the orchard and nearby were nuts from The Nut Lady from Agawam, MA.
With our food sampling complete, Fiona insisted that we stop and say hello to the puppies. Guilding Eyes for the Blind had a display up about their puppy raising program as well as several very cute puppies.
Ending off our day, we visited the igloos. These were small, but still large enough for Fiona to climb into. After this we went on a brief sleigh ride. Although the snow was melting around us as the horses pulled our sleigh across the field, it was a great experience.
As we left, Fiona asked if we can come back every year. I tend to take things a little more ‘one day at a time’, but agreed that we would put it on our list of things to try and come back to in 2011.
As a final note, in light of recent FTC rulings about bloggers endorsing things, I should let people know that the only things we have received for this favorable review was the good times and good samples we had at the Winter Festival, as well as a free cherry pie that we have been offered for putting some pictures of the event up on the Lyman Orchard’s Facebook Fan page. Fiona and I are really looking forward to Kim picking up the cherry pie.
For more pictures of the event, check out the pictures tagged ‘winterfest38’ on Flickr.
