Since I've been requesting my readers to provide photos of any fire hydrant and/or sidewalks that aren't cleaned and poses a safety risk, someone tipped me off to this gem of a situation on the corner of Beaver Brook and Sand Pit Road.

In the photo, note how the business owner on the right cleared the sidewalk, also take note of the crosswalk signal. Since there is a signal across the street (marked in blue), then there should also be a sidewalk across the street.



Here's a better look at the sidewalk across the street (marked in red), as well as the the crossing signal (marked in blue), and the crosswalk (also marked in blue)...all of which are buried in snow...



...and here's a continuation of the sidewalk buried in snow (marked in red) as it wraps around Beaver Brook Road.



Clearly, this business owner is in violation of the city ordinance that pertains to sidewalk snow removal. Now, according to Mayor Boughton:

A sidewalk inspector was out making sure residents cleared hydrants and sidewalks on their property of snow and ice Thursday and Friday, Boughton said.

Residents who failed to clear their property might receive a ticket, he said.

A sidewalk covered in snow or ice poses a potential safety hazard for people trying to walk, the mayor said.

"If you get hurt walking on a sidewalk in front of a house, that's the owner's responsibility," Boughton said. "Not the city's."

It seems like this business owner is in violation of city ordinance sec 17-7a, which states:

Every person owning or occupying any land fronting upon any sidewalk within the city shall, within four (4) hours of daylight immediately following the cessation of any fall of snow, or accumulation of ice thereon, cause the same to be removed, so that travel upon said sidewalk shall not be obstructed, dangerous or inconvenient, and upon failure so to do within the time limit, shall be punished as provided in Section 1-7. After the expiration of the time limit as aforesaid, if such snow and ice shall not have been removed, the superintendent of highways or his designee shall cause the same to be removed at the expense of such owner or occupier, such expense to be recovered from either the owner or occupier in an action brought in the name of the city.

The punishment og this ordinance provided in section 1-7 states:

Whenever in this Code or in any ordinance of the city an act is prohibited or made or declared to be unlawful or an offense or violation, or wherever in such Code or ordinance the doing of an act is required or the failure to do an act is declared to be unlawful, and no specific penalty is provided therefor either by ordinance or statute, the violation of any such provision of this Code or any such ordinance shall be punishable by a fine of up to two hundred fifty dollars ($250.00) and as may be amended by state law. Each day's violation of any provision of this Code or of any ordinance shall constitute a separate offense.

So to recap:

• The snowstorm from hell occurred on Tuesday.


• According to city ordinance 17-7a the business owner in question had "within four (4) hours of daylight immediately following the cessation of any fall of snow, or accumulation of ice thereon, cause the same to be removed, so that travel upon said sidewalk shall not be obstructed, dangerous or inconvenient."


• Failure to comply to 17-7a results in punishment provided in section 1-7 that states: "the violation of any such provision of this Code or any such ordinance shall be punishable by a fine of up to two hundred fifty dollars ($250.00)...each day's violation of any provision of this Code or of any ordinance shall constitute a separate offense.

Based on a literal reading of the city's code of ordinances, as of Saturday, this business owner should be fined 750.00 dollars.

And what's the name of this business that's in violation of the city ordinance?



...and who's the owner of Arconti Concrete LLC?



Yup, you guessed it...CITY COUNCILMAN (and FORMER DANBURY POLICE OFFICER) Robert Arconti!

Funny how a councilman who boasts about law and order can get away with breaking the law? Where's the sidewalk inspector when you need him/her?

(BTW: Isn't that a lovely photo of Bob and anti-immigrant hate-group leader Elise Marciano?)

STORY BUMPED TO THE TOP @ 4:05 PM



I can't believe I'm actually writing this post.

It seems like some residents are being BONEHEADS when it comes to snow removal, specially when it comes to removing snow from the sidewalks and around fire hydrants.

Now before I start, let me just state that it's ABSOLUTELY INSANE for people not to clean the snow from their sidewalks and fire hydrants...ABSOLUTELY INSANE. I mean really, do you need someone to tell you the importance of removing snow around a freaking FIRE HYDRANT or removing snow from a sidewalk? Have we become so lazy of a society that people won't do the right thing until they are told by an authority?

Although you would think that cleaning around a fire hydrant would be common sense, throughout the city there are instances where this is not the case and hydrants and sidewalks are STILL covered with snow. This brings up an interesting set of questions:

1. Is there a city ordinance that outlines a property owner's responsibility when it comes to the snow removal around fire hydrants and/or sidewalks?

2. How much snow needs to be removed around a fire hydrant in order to be in compliance with city regulations (if there is a regulation in the first place)?

3. Which city department is responsible for enforcing snow removal responsibilities? City Works? Fire Department? U.N.I.T.?

4. Is there a penalty for not properly removing snow from the sidewalk and/or around a fire hydrant?

Although this seems silly to even be writing about this topic, as you can see in the above images (which were taken around the Balmforth-Osborne Street area), the lack of proper snow removal in the city is a rather serious problem...and I don't think I need to explain how the public's irresponsible attitude to this subject is placing the city's overall public safety at risk...

I'll update this post once I get some answers...

NOTE: If you see a fire hydrant and/or sidewalk that's not cleaned, snap a photo and send it to me (along with the location) at hatcityblog@yahoo.com (or @hatcityblog via Twitter) with the location and I'll document it by adding the image to this post.

The faster the problem is caught, the faster the problem can be addressed.


UPDATE: WHOA!!!!! I didn't expect the flood of emails I received on this topic. I guess I wasn't the only person concerned about the hydrant problem.

Send your photos (and location of the problem) to me at @hatcityblog via Twitter and I'll add it to the post!

UPDATE 6:00 PM: Danbury Fire Department responds (via NewsTimes Twitter feed):

Danbury firefighters have been digging out fire hydrants for a good part of the day, they said. There are about 1,800 of them in the city.

Since there's a 99.999999999 percent chance the Danbury Fire Department is reading this post, send your photos of buried fire hydrants to @hatcityblog on Twitter, or email me at hatcityblog@yahoo.com and I'll post the images to this write-up. Remember, the faster you point out the problem, the faster the city can fix the problem.

UPDATE 7:30 AM: OMG! OMG! OMG!!!!!

I received a number of messages on Twitter about Carol Kaliff at the News-Times beat me to the punch.

This is SO embarrassing...this is the fire hydrant in front of City Hall on Friday.



Now this is unacceptable plain and simple. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the driveway and sidewalk in front of City Hall was cleared after the storm so why wasn't the hydrant?

We're talking about City Hall!

Here's what the mayor had to say about cleaning sidewalks and hydrants (via News-Times).

Mayor Mark Boughton said if a fire hydrant is on a resident's property, the resident has the responsibility of clearing snow around it.

Given the unacceptable situation at City Hall (and the fact that the building was open on Thursday), maybe the mayor should think about leading by example.

Conveniently, the hydrant was later cleared that same day.



Now it's unfortunate that the Fire Department is getting stuck with this gross incompetence since residents should be out there doing the right thing in the first place (or in the case of City Hall, whoever cleaned the property). With another storm coming thins weekend and next week, hopefully this post can serve as a wake-up call before someone gets hurt!

If you live near a fire hydrant, PLEASE do the right thing and take the time to clean around it...the same goes for sidewalks.

...I'm still at a loss that I'm actually writing about this subject.


Keep sending me your photos of any dangers in the city. Send your pics of uncleared sidewalks and fire hydrants, as well as the location of the danger, to @hatcityblog (via Twitter) or email to hatcityblog@yahoo.com. The faster we can point out the danger, the faster the problem will be fixed.

Stew Leonards:



Beaver Brook Road (note how the business worked around the hydrant when they cleaned the sidewalk):




Finance Drive:



Town Hill Ave:



Town Hill Ave:



State Street:



State Street:

STORY BUMPED TO THE TOP @ 4:00 PM

Just received word that Troy Grant turned himself into the custody of the Danbury Police Department early this morning (aprox 2:15 AM). He's scheduled to be arraigned at Danbury Superior court sometime today after 10AM.

The former youth counselor for Pathways Danbury was arrested and charged with numerous charges stemming from his alleged sexual involvement with teenage boys.
Grant skipped his last court appearance last week at which time the judge doubled his bond and issued a rearrest warrant.

More on this story later...

UPDATE 3:30 PM: I stayed at Danbury Superior for as long as possible but had to leave before Grant's case was called. Mark Langlois over at the Danbury Patch and Dirk Perrefort for the News-Times were also waiting on the case. Here's Langlois take on what transpired today:

Troy Grant, the former youth counselor in Danbury accused of throwing house parties for teenage boys and gay men, was held on a $750,000 bond Friday for a court date next week.

Grant’s public defender, David Nanavity, argued for a lower bond, saying except for Jan. 7, the court date Grant skipped, he showed up every other time for court since his arrest in 2010.

“How many times has Mr. Grant showed up for his court appearances,” Nanavity asked the court.

Assistant State’s Attorney Sharmese Hodge agreed Jan. 7 was the one and only appearance he missed, but Hodge argued, “It was a very important date.”

Grant had agreed in December to solve the communications problems he had with his attorney, James Diamond, who asked to be removed from the case because of a complete breakdown in communication between Grant and Diamond. One issue appears to be the retainer Grant agreed to pay Diamond, but hadn’t.

Diamond didn’t appear in court for Grant. He couldn’t be reached for comment Friday.

So, it appears based on initial reports that Grant's bond was not lowered and he's held on 750,000 bond (which should mean that he has to hand over 75,000 in value to a bail bondsman). I don't know if Grant explained why he didn't appear in December...I'm still working on finding out more info on what happened in trial today.

UPDATE 01.15.11: Perrefort's write-up in the News-Times gives an indication that some Dog the Bounty Hunter stuff went down by Grant's bail bondsman:

Michael Baptiste, with Moore Bail Bonds, said "good research" led him to an apartment in LeFrank City in Queens, N.Y., where Grant was staying with a relative.

"It was very important to us to locate Grant and bring him here so he can take care of his responsibility," Baptiste said outside the courthouse Friday.

Baptiste said Grant was cooperative when a team of investigators arrived at the New York apartment where he was staying.

...as for why Grant didn't appear in court.

During Friday's court hearing, Grant said he didn't appear in court last week as a result of a miscommunication between himself and his attorney, James Diamond, who has filed a motion to be withdrawn from the case citing "an attorney client relationship that has broken down irretrievably."

This explanation seems a tad strange for several reasons:

1. Grant's not appearing in court happened last week and was featured on the front page of the News-Times (as well as on the newspaper's website and on this blog on 01.07.11).

2. Grant knew about the hearing that he missed since he was present in court in December when the date was set.

From information I obtained at Danbury Superior Court last Friday, a hearing has been set for January 7 to consider Diamond’s request to be removed from the case.

This all seems a bit strange that Grant had a mis-communication with his attorney since the mis-communication had nothing to do with him having knowledge about the January court appearance, unless he thought he didn't have to appear (which is also strange).

We'll know more when the case continues on Jan 21st.

RELATED POSTS:

02.05.10: VIDEO: Interview with Pathway Danbury Exe. Dir. Troy Grant

02.11.10: Court increase bond, places conditions to protect victims

02.18.10: Warrant paints a disturbing picture; Grant admits having sexual relations with victim

09.23.10: Grant rejects plea offers

12.09.10: Attorney wants off Grant case

01.07.11: Grant's bond raised; re-arrest issued

Unreal...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Veiled Criticism
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook

"All the vitriol we hear by people who make a living doing that--that may be free speech, but it's not without consequences."

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords shooting press conference 01.08.11

From Congressman Chris Murphy's "Congress at your corner. Simsbury CT, Aug 2009.

1. Racial slurs directed at me...

2. Hartford Tea Party leader Jim Bancroft baiting Murphy supporter into a fight.

3. Bancroft and other tea party extremists running amok.

Jim Himes Town Hall meeting Norwalk 2009. 9/11 anti-Obama rally, Bridgeport 2009

4. Right-wing extremists shout down a priest for speaking in Spanish. Right-wing extremists threaten resident for playing music during Ann Coulter's speech at 9/11 anti-Obama rally.

5. Bancroft advocating that Chris Dodd commit suicide.

ConnecticutMan1 just posted some disgusting video from yesterday's protest where one Republican "Dump Dodd" activist appears to loudly suggest that Sen. Dodd (who last week announced he has been diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer) commit suicide:

"How come we don't just give Chris Dodd painkillers? Like a handful of them at a time! He can wash it down with Ted Kennedy's whiskey...!"

6. The text of a death threat left on my car by a member of Elise Marciano's anti-immigrant/tea party hate group, United States Citizens for Immigration and Law Enforcement (USCFILE). Danbury, March 2010.

"Hi-Assh*le, Your days are numbered. You n*** f***"

Huffington Post's take on death threat made against me.

This is a citizen journalist receiving threats; CTBlogger like many in the media, regularly follows Connecticut politics, the Democrats, the Republicans...and the Tea Party.

Danbury is a small manufacturing & chemical based city, positioned aside the New York State border. With a passionate political climate, becoming increasingly hostile; especially against immigrants (see ACLU) when Danbury City Council was set to approve 278 (g), partnering local police with ICE, permitting them to stop suspected immigrants and allow ICE agents to raid homes. Anyone who appeared Hispanic was fair game. Since CTBlogger arrived in Danbury in 1987, he has noticed recently a new harsh level of intimidation, harassment and violence towards immigrants after the election of Mayor Mark Boughton, (Republican Candidate for Governor) an outspoken anti-immigrant crusader in the State of Connecticut for the past decade.

CTBlogger usually does not receive threats to his life while covering the news. Chronicling political events began to changed once Obama became President, with the rise of the Tea Party, gone was the civility, replaced by the shrill, the loud and sometimes crude, or as my late mother would say; "crass" attempts to hijack discussions, garner media attention and disrupt meetings.

Well documented are the members of Congress walking into the Capital to begin the historic Health Care Reform voting, Tea Party Patriots crossed the line from wearing crazy hats, holding homemade signs to spitting on or hurling insults such as Nigger & Faggot at members of Congress. Hate mongering has spread far wider than the US Capital.

With numerous occurrences of vandalism and death threats across the country, this appears to be another page in the Tea Party playbook. CTBlogger rightly filed a police report, for what it is worth. Maybe each case of hate crime needs to be taken more seriously.

Marciano had this to about the threat made on my life by her group.

It's purely made up," Marciano said. "Most people don't even know what he drives and didn't even know he was there.

My post/video in response to her crap...

...and the anti-immigrant/teabagging group's response on their website to my filing a police complaint against them speaks volumes...as well as Mayor Boughton's appearance at her anti-immigrant/tea party event months later.



7. Leaked memo outlining strategy on disrupting Jim Himes' town hall meetings from tea party extremist Bob MacGuffie.

It's clear now that the top-down Republican strategy on health care for the month of August (a strategy made possible in part by the Blue Dog "victory" of delaying floor votes on legislation until September) will consist of organized and potentially violent disruptions of town hall meetings scheduled by members of Congress with their constituents in their districts.

On Friday, ThinkProgress posted a leaked "best practices" memo (PDF) written by Connecticut right-wing activist Bob MacGuffie based on his experience taking part in such an organized disruption of a Jim Himes town hall meeting in Fairfield back in late May. The memo includes such advice as:

- Artificially Inflate Your Numbers: "Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half. The objective is to put the Rep on the defensive with your questions and follow-up. The Rep should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington."

- Be Disruptive Early And Often: "You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep's presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep's statements early."

- Try To "Rattle Him," Not Have An Intelligent Debate: "The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda. If he says something outrageous, stand up and shout out and sit right back down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions."

5. Local anti-immigrant, racist maniac Tom Bennett and USCFILE co-founder John McGowan, advocating residents kill members of the immigrant community: Danbury 2007.



...and more threats.



Although his language resulted in his show being deemed inappropriate for viewing before 10PM by the cable advisory committee and Comcast execs, somehow Bennett was allowed to move his act to another evening show where he continues his brand of violence and threats against immigrants...language that was criticized by the State Democratic chairwoman last year.

In September, Danbury Mayor and Republican Lieutenant Governor Candidate Mark Boughton was caught campaigning for himself and Tom Foley at a United State Citizens for Immigration Law Enforcement (USCFile) rally, at which his was warmly welcomed by USCFile leader, Elise Marciano. Marciano, the woman who publicly declared her belief that President Obama was a Muslim, had this to say on the topic: “He’s (Obama) not going to a Christian church. As President of the United States, he’s not going to a Christian church, even though he claims that the Reverend Wright’s church was Christian. How do you figure that? I’ll tell you why – because he was brought up as a Muslim, and he is a Muslim and they cannot go back on their religion.”

On Tuesday night, Boughton’s favorite anti-immigrant extremist and supporter Elise Marciano was at it again, this time claiming that President Obama has told “the whole damn world” to come into the country to “take over these damned Americans who are reading and writing and finding out what we are doing in Congress.” In particular, Marciano said she believes President Obama especially wants the “ones that are uneducated to come in and take over by sheer magnitude of numbers.”

But it gets worse.

Following Marciano’s tirade, her good friend, fellow anti-immigrant extremist Tom Bennett, put forward his own idea to form a “vigilante” group to “get busses and take these illegals…out on the ocean and put them in a boat with holes in it.” During the entirety of Bennett’s radical and scary rant, Marciano smiled and stayed silent, refusing to oppose Bennett’s call for vigilantism.

[...]

TRANSCRIPT:

ELISE MARCIANO: “He’s (President Obama) just telling the whole damn world, come into America, we’re going to let you do whatever you want. We just want you to take over these damned Americans who are reading and writing and finding out what we are doing here in Congress, and they don’t like it, so we gotta overwhelm them. That’s what they’re doing. That’s exactly what they’re doing. They want all these people, especially the ones that are uneducated, to come in here and take it over by sheer magnitude of numbers. They won’t know what they’re voting for, they won’t know what to do. It’ll be, you know, just anything they want.”

TOM BENNETT: “It’s time to do vigilantism, that’s what it’s time to do. We have to be organized and become vigilantes for our own protection. We have to protect our country, our citizens, because the police aren’t doing it. We have to protect our own borders. So I say, that we have to get together and have a very, very large vigilante group. Oh yeah. We need that. And then we can have club dues, have fundraisers and then we can get busses and take these illegals and we can get rid of them ourselves. We can take them out on the ocean and put them in a boat with holes in it. And that’s it, okay?”

8. Tea Party bumper sticker, Milford 2008 (h/t to CTBob)



9. Liberal hunting license:



10. Congressman Joe Wilson's "You Lie" comment engraved on AR-15 assault rifle lower receiver.



11. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on being targeted on Sarah Palin's list.



Greenwich Post editorial (via My Left Nutmeg):

We don't know yet what exactly led a gunman to shoot a U.S. congresswoman in the head and then open fire on a crowd, shooting indiscriminately and killing senior citizens, a nine-year-old girl and a federal judge who had come by after church to say hello to his representative. As a tragedy like the one in Arizona last weekend makes us question whether our political rhetoric has reached a point beyond what is acceptable, the finger pointing has inevitably begun.

While it is unfair to lay this directly at the feet of the Sarah Palins and Glenn Becks and those who see the need to use violent imagery and rhetoric to make their political points, it would also be shortsighted to ignore the fact that the toxic climate coming from the political right in this country is hurting our democracy.

It's no longer enough to disagree with someone politically. Now we must "kill" bills. Political opponents are identified through gunsights. People come armed to town meetings.

The right wing talk show hosts and political leaders in this country have turned reasonable opposition to Barack Obama's and Nancy Pelosi's ideas into a battle for American freedom, equating tax increases for the wealthiest Americans and health care for the uninsured with the loss of our liberty. People are buying this nonsense and it's turning the Becks, Palins and Limbaughs into wealthy people making a fortune off our fear and ignorance.

I'll update this snow madness post with my observations throughout the day...

---

2:30 PM: At least 20 inches of snow on the ground and after two hours, my driveway is cleared.

Most roads in Danbury are cleared. Here's my video of the Osborne Street area.



8:30 AM: Travel ban will be lifted at 10:30 AM.

8:00 AM: Fox61 weather update:

 

5:00 AM: Okay, we're at 12 inches and there's no relief in sight!

(VIDEO) 4:00 AM: No sign of snow letting up...in fact, it's coming down harder. 10.5 inches



3:00 AM: 9.5 inches outside my door...and the snow is coming down REAL heavy now...

Danbury Patch has the details:

Parents are encouraged to attend tonight's meeting at 7 p.m. at the Assumption Greek Orthodox Church, 39 Clapboard Ridge Road to learn about the school and city budget.

[...]

For information, call Danbury Children First at 203-797-8088.

If everything goes as planned, I will provide a live video stream of the meeting tonight.