Courtney Answers Questions Patiently

The following letter to the editor appeared in the September 5, 2009 edition of The Day:

Anyone who expressed doubts in these letters to the editor about Rep. Joe Courtney's willingness to meet with the public should have been at his town hall meeting Wednesday night in Montville.

Despite the hostile and rude nature of the opposition to health care, Congressman Courtney's answers were earnest, clear and forthright. He was patient and informative.

Why the hostility? I can understand that there are legitimate differences of opinion about health care, but the hostile tone of the opposition seems beyond health care issues. It seems as though people have anger problems and have chosen this issue to focus their anger on.

It's not easy to be a public official these days. Rep. Courtney stayed beyond the town hall meeting to answer questions for more people in the cafeteria. Some questions he had to answer over and over, and he did, patiently. I'm very proud he's my congressman.

Mary von Dorster, Noank

Courtney Stood on the High Ground

From a letter to the editor published in the September 8, 2009 edition of the New London Day:

I appreciate Rep. Joe Courtney for making good on his campaign promises and walking that proverbial walk. He has demonstrated that he truly is a representative of the people, not the politics. I salute him for restoring honor and honesty to public office.

He stood his ground, the high ground, at the acrimonious Montville town meeting. He endured some cheap shots and low blows from the “frankly, I don't give a damn about the uninsured because I have my health care coverage” crowd. He stood tall and landed some good, clean punches. It's reassuring to know we have him fighting for our fellow uninsured Americans.

He has been the steadying hand, moral compass and a clear and uncompromising conscience for the people of his district during these difficult times. Kudos to him for remaining centered and committed on legislating health care reform.

How can we help Rep. Courtney advance the humanity, compassion, pragmatism and patriotism contained in the public option? How do we argue convincingly and successfully that the public option is the best health care alternative for our grandparents and our grandbabies?

How can we help Congressman Courtney? Where would he like us to go?

Mary Hansen Old Saybrook
"Regional"

Courtney Spoke Truth at Meeting

From a letter to the editor in the September 8, 2009 edition of the New London Day:

I attended Congressman Joe Courtney's town hall meeting Wednesday night in Montville.

Rep. Courtney did an excellent job answering people's questions and getting information out about Congress's proposal for health care reform.

It could not have been easy for Rep. Courtney to stay calm and professional and even show a sense of humor with people in opposition yelling and cutting him off from speaking. He answered questions knowledgeably and got the truth out about what is being proposed for health care reform.

Some people listened and some chose not to. It is so evident that we need health care reform now.

I am proud to have Congressman Joe Courtney representing me in Washington, D.C.

Elizabeth Duarte Groton

Logee's Greenhouse Receives Energy Grant

From the September 4, 2009 edition of the Norwich Bulletin:

Logee’s Greenhouses in Danielson was awarded $195,650 in federal funding Friday to initiate energy efficient improvements.

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, announced the company was awarded the grant and more than $391,000 in long-term, low-interest loans through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program.

Logee’s plans to build a four-bay greenhouse with an energy efficient foundation and energy efficient heat retention curtains and operating equipment.

Positive Response to Problem

Enfield auto dealer Dana Miller writes in the September 7, 2009 edition of the Hartford Courant about how Congressman Courtney's office helped resolve an ongoing issue:

Congressman Courtney's office went right to work on the problem, as did the DMV commissioner's office. I'm thankful that after many calls, especially by one of Rep. Courtney's staff members, they were able to resolve the problem.

News Roundup - September 8, 2009

New London Rolling In Stimulus Money

The Day
By: Karin Crompton
September 7, 2009

New London - In an office accustomed to too much paperwork and too little money, Cara Pianka has a strange dilemma.

Since mid-April, when Pianka, the community development/lead coordinator for the city's Office of Development and Planning, got the go-ahead to use federal economic stimulus money, the money has been pouring in.

The office still has too much paperwork. The funding, for now, is a different story.

”At this time, I have so much money to manage, I don't know what I'll do if I get more,” Pianka said. “And every once in a while, I'll find out about something else I'm getting and it's like, 'Oh, geez.'”

”I don't usually complain about getting money, but I'd also like to manage the money well,” she added.

It started with a grant for the city's Lead Hazard Reduction Program and has continued into a Neighborhood Stabilization Program (also known as foreclosure prevention). Pianka's staff of six employees- five full-time, one part-time - is now handling far more projects than it did at the turn of the new year.

”It's a crazy world we live in right now, and having 4.6 million dollars to manage, it's a great thing,” Pianka said. “It's a challenge because last year, I was managing two to three million. So we're talking double - double the money and a lot more requirements.”

The office has 43 units in 35 properties currently lined up for work through the lead abatement and Housing Conservation Programs combined. They will ultimately work on 70 units.

Though there's no waiting list and homeowners can be approved now, Pianka said it can still take an inspector four months to start the process.

A trademark of the stimulus package is its so-called “transparency,” which requires recipients to track where the money has gone in detail beyond that normally associated with the projects.

For the Lead Hazard Reduction Program, for example, Pianka's office has to keep estimates of how many jobs are created or retained.

The program also contains a prevailing wage stipulation for every job, regardless of size - normally there's a minimum, like eight units and up - and Pianka has to review payroll sheets for proper hours, job classification, etc.

In addition, Pianka's target moves. The federal government regularly changes the wages, so Pianka needs to check online every week to see which job pays how much.

”It makes the management and oversight of each job more complicated,” Pianka said.

During each job, the office also has to interview at least one employee to demonstrate, on the record, what that person is working on, that they are performing the correct job and have not been coerced into working overtime without getting paid.

Still, Pianka said, the timing of the grant was fortuitous. New London has had a lead-abatement program for about 10 years and without the stimulus funding, Pianka said, the program would have ended.

”We would have lost at least one full-time position and another part-time position,” she said, describing the lead program manager and lead nurse jobs, each funded fully through the grant. Half of another position, a loan specialist, is also funded through the grant, she said.

Additionally, dozens of contractors became interested in becoming certified in lead abatement, and the office has organized three week-long training sessions since the spring, training 42 people. Pianka said attendees received the training, which normally costs $450 or $500, for free because of the stimulus funds.

The office is also handling extra funding through its Community Development Block Grant program and will work on a new energy efficiency program as soon as it receives an application from the state's Office of Policy and Management.

Pianka said her workload has let up a bit, since much of what she worked on dealt with the start of the jobs; the others in her office are now the ones heading out for inspections and other work affiliated with ongoing projects.

The work should continue for about three years.

”Since the stimulus funding has come along, it's been nonstop,” Pianka said. “It's just been overwhelming at times.”


Courtney: Groton Sub Base Is Safe… For Now
Norwich Bulletin
By: Michael Gannon

August 31, 2009
New London, Conn. —

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney told members of the region’s Subase Coalition that there are no tangible signs of another round of military base closures on the horizon.

“But we still have to be concerned about a future BRAC commission,” Courtney said after the meeting.

Four years ago, the Pentagon recommended that the Navy’s submarine base in Groton be eliminated. The decision was up to the Base Closure and Realignment Commission, or BRAC.

After an intensive lobbying effort on the part of the Subase Coalition, other local groups, the state and Connecticut’s congressional delegation, the commission voted on Aug. 24, 2005, to save the base.

Courtney said any new such commission would have to be established by legislation, and that there is not even a whiff of anything in Congress. But John Markowicz, chairman of the Subase Coalition and a retired Navy captain, said the region must be prepared to fight again.

“There are some green shoots out there,” he said, referring to conversations he has heard within Navy circles, with very specific language about excess Navy shore infrastructure.

$50 million from state

Since the last threat of base closure, the state has formed an Office of Military Affairs, and has pledged $50 million for base infrastructure, an investment designed to improve the base’s military viability.

Courtney said federal money for the base, including $9 million for a new torpedo magazine, is in the House defense appropriations bill but has not yet been decided in the Senate.

Salem First Selectman Bob Ross, nominated by Gov. M. Jodi Rell as the next executive director of the state’s Office of Military Affairs, said his approach, if confirmed in February, will be to assume a BRAC is coming at some point in the future.

It’s an approach local businessman Joe Quaratella believes is prudent.

“I’ve been in business in this town for 48 years,” said the owner of the Nautilus Barbershop on Route 12 in Groton. “They’re pouring a lot of money into (the base), so it looks OK for the future. But anything can happen.”

Courtney told the group that President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are committed to the submarine program, with budget requests that include expanding the construction of Virginia-class attack submarines and research and design money for the next generation of ballistic subs to replace the aging Ohio class.

Both programs mean contracts for Groton submarine builder Electric Boat. According to a Department of Defense information paper issued June 1, Groton is one of only two bases in the country equipped to serve as home port for Virginias. The other is at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

Statement from the Campaign, Sept 4, 2009
Rep. Courtney Makes $500 Contribution to Two Second District Social Service Groups

Congressman Joe Courtney announced that his campaign has made $500 in contributions to Second Congressional District food pantries and assistance groups aiding eastern Connecticut’s families in need.

The $500 represents the amount of a campaign contribution to Courtney for Congress in 2006 from Abraham Giles. Mr. Giles was arrested on September 2nd and has been accused of larceny and extortion in connection with property development. The following food pantries will both receive a $250 contribution:

* St. Vincent de Paul Place, Norwich
* Hockanum Valley Community Council, Vernon

Traveling throughout eastern Connecticut Congressman Courtney continues to see the impact of social service organizations such as Hockanum Valley and St. Vincent reaching out to those struggling in challenging economic times.

“Although this matter has not been completely adjudicated, I believe that my campaign should adhere to a higher standard of appearance, and I thought strongly that the amount of this particular contribution would be better served by these two leading organizations in our community,” stated Courtney.

U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service Buys 290 Acre Parcel In Haddam
Hartford Courant
By: Monica Planco
August 29, 2009


HADDAM — - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Friday bought an undeveloped 290-acre parcel from the Nature Conservancy and the town of Haddam for $1,755,000, officials said.

The purchase establishes the Salmon River division of U.S. Fish and Wildlife's Silvio O. Conte refuge, which was established in 1997 to protect plants, fish and wildlife that live throughout the 7.2 million-acre Connecticut River watershed.

The 290-acre property in Haddam Neck, once home to the Johnson family's Elm Camp, is considered one of the most important properties for conservation because it's at the confluence of the tidal Pine Brook and Salmon River, the benchmark for water quality in Connecticut. The land links the ecologically rich Salmon Cove with more than 6,000 acres of protected land to the north, said Shelley Green, the Nature Conservancy's lower Connecticut River program director.

The Nature Conservancy and Haddam each paid $1 million to buy the land in 2005 to keep it from being developed. Members of both parties said they were glad to sell it to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"Everyone now will be able to rest easy knowing that that property will be available in perpetuity for the use of the public and preserved from any future development," said Haddam First Selectman Tony Bondi. "I couldn't be happier."

Green said she owes a "big thanks" to U.S. Reps. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, and Chris Murphy, D-5th District, and Sens. Chris Dodd and Joe Lieberman, who advocated for Congress to provide the Fish and Wildlife Service with enough money to buy the land.

The federal agency, which is required to pay market value, bought the property for $245,000 less than what the Nature Conservancy and the town of Haddam paid because of declining market values, Green said.

The Nature Conservancy and Haddam officials are splitting the $1.8 million sale evenly, Green said. In Haddam, the money will be placed in a separate, interest-bearing account until the finance board decides how to spend it, Bondi said. Townspeople have recommended that it be used for open space.

Green's organization will now focus on its next most important project: working to preserve a 582-acre privately owned parcel in Haddam Neck. Connecticut Yankee, the landowner, is fielding expressions of interest from various parties, including nonprofits, for-profits and land preservation groups.

The New London Day: Good Job, Joe

Editorial from the New London Day, September 6, 2009:

Though he faced a tough crowd at Montville High School on Wednesday, it was a good week for U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, the Democratic representing the 2nd District.

Courtney, whose desire to provide health care to all citizens stretches back to his service in the state legislature, stood his ground despite the taunts and groans. He defended the key reform proposals: assure no one can be denied coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions; streamline the insurance documentation process; and provide a public plan to compete with the private sector.

Many in the audience did not buy into Courtney's contention that the federal government can effectively manage health care reform without further bankrupting the country. But no one can fault him for not taking the tough questions.