Stratford News

The Warren Group, the publisher of The Commercial Record, said people bought 2,483 single-family homes in August 2008, a 32.4 percent drop from the 3,683 Connecticut homes people bought in August 2007. 17,211 single-family homes sold from January to August of this year,down more than 26.4 percent compared to the 23,397 homes sold during the same period last year... TOWN BY TOWN IN CT: TOWN % CHANGE SALES- STRATFORD -62.71(DOWN)/ BRIDGEPORT -22.73(DOWN)/ MILFORD -32.79(DOWN) Article:Rob Varnon-CT POST...

NOTE QUESTION IS :WHY HAS STRATFORD TAKEN THE BIGGEST PLUNGE?? BOTH IN PRICE & REDUCTION OF SALES - ALMOST DOUBLE & TRIPLE THE SURROUNDING AREAS!!-TGPHYLLIS

STRATFORD -- More than 70 police officers converged on Town Hall Thursday afternoon to show support for their union president facing a disciplinary hearing behind closed doors. Capt. Joseph McNeil, the union president, was called to the hearing by top police brass and town officials...they believe the union president is being "railroaded" and "made a scapegoat" in the investigation into who leaked Christian Miron's background file. NOTE:There were Stratford residents present in support as well

"Extraordinary pension benefits" granted to recent Stratford retirees, particularly police and firefighters, have left the Pension Fund more than $70 million short and is bankrupting the town, leaders of a special financial review committee say in a newly released report.

The report questions the town's ability to continue funding the pension plan through tax hikes, and suggests the problem will jeopardize the town's ability to issue bonds, attract new businesses and residents, and could force the curtailment of municipal services and infrastructure maintenance ...

The crisis on Wall Street is already filtering into one Main Street deli. It's in the conversation between customers.

"I'll still have money to eat," said Jay Duncan of Bridgeport while waiting for a sandwich at Gaetano's Deli at 1886 Main St. in Stratford. "I'll eat here."

"Thank you," said Milanno Ukëhaxhaj, a co-owner of the deli, as the two talked about the problems in the economy.

For more than a week, officials in Washington, economic experts and special interests have worried Wall Street's massive credit problems would wind up on Main Street and harm businesses there ...

The long-shuttered Shakespeare Theater will not be ready for Hamlet or even The Producers any time soon.

And it won't even cost the town any money -- for now.

The Town Council on Monday approved a proposal 8-2 that allows the town to enter into a "licensing agreement" with Rhode Island theater producer Bill Hanney, the latest operator chosen to try and renovate and reopen the theater, that permits the developer to put up between $200,000 and $250,000 of his own money to replace and repair the roof, make other repairs and paint the 50-year-old building.

While the town and Hanney continue to negotiate a long-term lease agreement that would allow Hanney, producer and operator of "Theater By The Sea," in Matunik, R.I., to renovate and operate a revived Shakespeare Theater, the council decided to take up Hanney's offer to at least replace the roof and make other "emergency repairs" before the onset of winter.

Under the agreement Hanney would be reimbursed if he and the town cannot reach a final deal to complete the renovations and operate the theater ...

Would-be Stratford developer Hector Natera doesn't have to pay immediately the more than $300,000 he owes his ex-wife, because she failed to prove he has the money to do so, a judge ruled Monday.

Although Christine Bonito and her New Haven attorney, Joe Tobin, asserted that Natera is a shady businessman who hides assets in numerous limited-liability companies and pretends not to have cash while driving a Mercedes, Judge Trial Referee John C. Flanagan said Bonito's testimony wasn't credible ...

... Revised plans for an ambitious Greenway pedestrian and bike path through the town is expected to take more than a decade to complete and cost about $7 million, but town officials are anxious to elicit public response to its updated proposal.

The proposed route for the Greenway would cover 16 miles, linking more than 20 sites and landmarks around town, and would take shape gradually over a period of years, officials said.

The latest version of the project will be presented by the Planning Commission during a public hearing set for 7 p.m. Tuesday in Town Hall ...

A Stratford man was killed after his car crashed into the Wilson Street Bridge on I-95 early Saturday, according to State Police.

Two passengers were critically injured in the crash but survived, police said ...

Metro-North remains the great mass-transit hope in Connecticut. Everything else is either unreliable, used by a small portion of the population or a pipe dream.

But to take advantage of its benefits, the proper infrastructure must be put into place. This is a suburban state - people are spread out all around the countryside. The majority of train riders hop in a car before they hit the rails.

That's why the delay over a new parking garage at the Stratford train station is unacceptable. The state Department of Transportation said last week the 640-space parking garage won't be completed until at least 2011, and will provide a net gain of only 400 spaces.

With 1,200 people on the waiting list, that's not good enough. Meanwhile, the estimated $13 million cost for the garage a year ago has more than doubled, to about $27 million ...

It's revaluation time again, but town officials say the results are likely to be far different than the last one.

In 2005, the average residential property value in town soared nearly 57 percent from the last re-assessment four years earlier, while commercial values rose an average 20 percent.

With an economic crisis gripping the housing market, town officials say they don't know exactly what to expect after the more-than-year-long revaluation of local properties is completed ...

The Stratford Chamber of Commerce has thrown its support behind the proposal for the town to sell 35-acre Long Beach West to the federal government for $10 million ...

WASHINGTON....In his bluntest assessment Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd on Tuesday rejected handing the Bush administration a $700 billion remedy "The administration needs to know that what they've sent to us is not acceptable," Dodd said after his committee... Peter Urban-Staff writer/CT POST

The new synthetic football field at Bunnell High School, considered a health threat by some experts, is vulnerable to damage from chairs, tables, tents and other objects, creating a variety of logistical problems that may force the district to buy hundreds of new chairs before next year's graduation ceremony. ...

STRATFORD -- An illegal immigrant from Guatemala has been charged with trying to pass himself off as a U.S. citizen while working on a roof job at Sikorsky Aircraft...had a permanent resident card, he admitted it was fake and he acquired it on the street in New Haven two years ago, police said. He also claimed he had gotten a Guatemala passport from the Guatemalan embassy and with that was able to obtain a New Haven resident identification card. By DANIEL TEPFER Staff writer-CT POST

If a movie were made of Hollywood East owner Hector Natera's day on Monday, "Jail Break'' or "Busting Loose'' might be good working titles.

Charles Willinger, the lawyer for Natera, the would-be developer of the former Army engine plant in Stratford into an entertainment production complex, insisted that his client should not have spent the weekend in jail over a disputed monetary settlement with his former wife, Christine Bonito, even though a court issued a $310,000 civil judgment and subsequent order for Natera's arrest when he failed to show up for a Sept. 15 hearing in the case.

But courtroom drama and probes into his financial background are nothing new to Natera, who was released Monday after posting $25,000 bond in Milford Superior Court and is scheduled to appear in court again at 10 a.m. Monday.

Natera was arrested late Friday afternoon when his former wife and a sheriff caught up to him in Bridgeport after Superior Court Judge John Turner issued a warrant for his arrest ...

Another battle in the more than decade-long fight to build a new animal shelter in town is taking shape and could delay the project yet again.

Several sites chosen as the best ones by a group of residents during a "Study Circles" forum more than a week ago are unlikely to be approved by the Town Council, council leaders say, and the location the council favors at the current Frog Pond Lane Shelter is considered the worst choice by residents who took part in the forum.

The more than one-acre Main Street parking lot adjacent to DeLuca Field and next to the former Army Engine Plant was selected as the best location for a new animal shelter by 67 percent of the 35 residents who took part in the forum, said Animal Control Officer Rachel Solveira, chairwoman of a planning committee created to run the session ...

The town's mayoral election is still more than a year away, but Domenic Costello is not just making an early run for Stratford's highest elected office ...

He's walking for it too.

Every night Costello, who ran for mayor as a Republican three years ago in his first political campaign, is now seeking the post as an independent and walks more than five miles every day, visiting up to 150 homes along with campaign manager Robert Lundequist ...

The mayors of Bridgeport and Stratford said Thursday they have narrowed the field of ideas about the future ownership of Sikorsky Memorial Airport to three possibilities ...

For the past two years, Shani Baldwin's family visited her gravesite while the man who raped and butchered the young Stratford mother avoided responsibility.

But on Thursday they finally began the process of closure when Michael McClendon, a Hartford man with a history of psychiatric problems, pleaded guilty to the killing. In exchange for his plea, McClendon, 28, will be spared the death penalty and instead receive life in prison without the possibility of release ...

Despite an economy that appears to be spinning out of control, aircraft management firm Volo Aviation LLC broke ground Thursday on a $27 million project to bring Sikorsky Memorial Airport into the 21st century ...