HRA Celebrates 60 Years Of Community Action
By John McNamara The Human Resources Agency of New Britain (HRA) marked its anniversary at a “60 Years of Success” awards dinner held at Farmington Gardens on Thursday June 13th honoring individuals and partner organizations for their contributions to an organization born in the 1960s at the start of “the War on Poverty” and President […]
Mayor’s Mill Rate Increase Will Hike Taxes An Average Of $204 On Single Family Homes
Republicans Falsely Claim A $44 Increase After Double Digit Increases This Year; State Stabilization Funds Add $10 Million To City Revenue For Fiscal Year 2025 By John McNamara The dust is settling on the making of the 2024-2025 municipal budget for the Stewart Administration and the closely-divided Common Council of eight Democrats and seven Republicans. […]
Democrats Seek Transparency On Contracts And Tax Agreements
Common Council Budget Review Begins For the 2024-2025 Fiscal Year This report is the second in a series to keep the community informed about Council business and to encourage public participation in city government from the perspective of the Democratic Majority Caucus. The details of municipal purchasing, tax and and leasing agreements will be reported […]
New Britain Honors Memory Of Rev. King 56 years after assassination
Remembering April 4, 1968 It’s not the national holiday of his birth but 56 years later honoring the memory of MLK occurs almost everywhere in April at parks, in schools and at community events on the day he died fighting for the dignity of sanitation workers in Memphis. And for many of us of a […]
New Fed Grant Helps Friendship Center Enhance Shelter On Arch Street
A $1 million federal grant to New Britain’s Friendship Center (FSC) on Arch Street will support expansion of the facility, including the installation of private restrooms and other capital and maintenance improvements. U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-5) and FSC Executive Director Caitlin Rose announced the new funding on April 3rd which stems from approval of […]
Federal Earmarks Bring New Funds For Housing, Emergency Shelter And Sewer System
by John McNamara New Britain is the beneficiary of specially appropriated federal funds to address needs for the unhoused, affordable housing development and a deteriorating storm water and sewer system under the recently adopted Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024. Funded with $2,134,752 are three projects for two nonprofit agencies and municipal government submitted by U.S. […]
Bill For “Precise” Wording On City Charter Referendums Gets Hearing
New Britain Lawmakers, League of Women Voters Back Fair Ballot Questions By John McNamara Legislation to ensure specific wording on local referendum questions has been proposed for a second year at the Connecticut General Assembly’s Government Administration and Elections Committee (GAE). The GAE Committee will consider House Bill 5494 that would establish “standards” for city […]
California Congresswoman and New Britain Native Anna Eshoo To Retire At End of Term
1960 NBHS Graduate Grew Up In City’s Armenian and Assyrian Communities U.S. Representative Anna Eshoo (CA-16) a member of Congress representing California’s “Silicon Valley” and a close friend of House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (CA-11), is retiring at the end of this term after serving more than 30 years in the House of Representatives. Rep. Eshoo, first […]
Watershed: New Britain’s 1989 Mayoral Campaign
The Municipal Campaign That Changed New Britain Politics For A Generation Introduction to Part 3 In 1989, Donald DeFronzo became New Britain’s 34th Mayor ending the late William (Billy Mac) McNamara’s six terms as the city’s top elected official, a modern-day record not matched until last November when Mayor Erin Stewart won a sixth, two-year […]
Watershed: New Britain’s 1989 Mayoral Campaign (Part 2)
The Municipal Election That Changed New Britain Politics For A Generation Introduction In 1989, Donald DeFronzo became New Britain’s 34th Mayor ending the late William (Billy Mac) McNamara’s six terms as the city’s top elected official, a modern-day record not matched until last November when Mayor Erin Stewart won a sixth, two-year term. “During the […]
Watershed: New Britain’s 1989 Mayoral Campaign (Part I)
The Municipal Election That Changed New Britain Politics For A Generation Introduction: In 1989, Donald DeFronzo became New Britain’s 34th Mayor ending the late William (Billy Mac) McNamara’s six terms as the city’s top elected official, a modern-day record not matched until last November when Mayor Erin Stewart won a sixth, two-year term. “During the […]
Students’ Art, Music and Essays Commemorate MLK Day in New Britain
“America has not reached greatness yet because we are all not great together.” –Bishop Rha-Sheen Brown, Right Now Ministries by John McNamara On the 38th anniversary of the national holiday for the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the 95th anniversary of his birth, New Britain held its commemorative program Monday (January 15) featuring music, […]
Op-Ed: Council Democrats Address Stormwater, Audit and Shelter For Unhoused Issues
Hearing From Citizens Will Be Essential During City Budget Process Two months into a new term the new Democratic majority on the Common Council is working on key issues raised in last year’s municipal election and in responding to public concerns on housing and shelter for the unhoused, stormwater infrastructure and the status of the […]
Black Ministers Mark Anniversary of Emancipation Proclamation On New Year’s Day
By John McNamara The first day of 2024 marked the anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation 161 years ago by President Lincoln. The Proclamation signed at the start of 1863 freed more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the secessionist Southern states during the bloodiest year of the Civil War. New Britain’s […]
Hearing On Batterson Park Study Set For Thursday (12/7) At NBPD Community Room
A public hearing on the feasibility of Batterson Park’s revitalization as a state park will be held Thursday, December 7th at 6:30 p.m. at the New Britain Police Department’s Community Room, 10 Chestnut Street. The CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) is taking public comments on the study at three separate meetings in Farmington (December 4), Hartford […]
Two Poems By Ray Marafino
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA for Heather Hyer Tell us that the Confederate flag | does merely stand for heritage | when waved alongside the Nazi. And tell us that this is free speech | while being exercised as the swing | of a fist striking. Do tell us how the President lies | by dog-whistling […]
11-22-63: That Day Frozen In Time
by John McNamara It is a November 22nd when many Baby Boomers are going to tell you where they were 60 years ago. At age 13, I was in Mrs. Sonigan’s 7th grade speech class when the class abruptly ended at Pickering Junior High near Wyoma Square in Lynn, Massachusetts. This was just one year […]
City Marks 30th Anniversary Of MLK Park
Staff Reports NEW BRITAIN – Officials and residents marked the 30th Anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park on October 14th, rededicating the monument for the slain civil rights leader with more than 90 new commemorative bricks donated by individuals and organizations. The Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities organized the observance […]
New Britain’s Union Organizing History Is Worth Retelling On Labor Day 2023
1991 Saturday Night Club Paper Recounts City’s Labor Movement Past By John McNamara Labor Day is not a time to be nostalgic about the struggles of the last century to organize factory floors that turned New Britain into a “union town” with its many thousands of factory jobs, most of which have been long lost […]
NBPD Publishes Arrest Log Online After FOI Controversy
A July controversy over the City’s and New Britain Police’s denying access to arrest logs to the New Britain Herald without formal Freedom of Information requests has led to the New Britain Police Department (NBPD) posting a weekly arrest log online at https://pd.newbritainct.gov/safety-prevention/police-blotter. The link shows arrests made in the city for one week — […]