24 November, 2024
3 mins read

City Taps Patton Brook Well For Water After Calling Off Bargain Basement Sale, Hiking Rates To Pay For MDC Water.

By John McNamara More than a year after the Stewart administration and Common Council sought to sell off the Patton Brook Well at an undervalued price of $1 million the unused well is replenishing the Shuttle Meadow reservoir. Mayor Stewart and her Council majority authorized the sale in August 2016, seeking to give up the […]

2 mins read

Numbers Don’t Back Mayor Stewart’s Claim That State Budget Caused City’s Negative Credit Rating

By John McNamara Contributing Columnist Mayor Erin Stewart has blamed this year’s state budget crisis for the city’s negative credit rating in response to a November 2nd report of an “escalating” debt and her administration’s own budget that shows interest payments will cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars over the next four years. “We were downgraded […]

3 mins read

New Britain’s Bond Rating Drops From Stable To Negative: Huge Spike In Debt Through 2021 Cited By Moody’s

By John McNamara Contributing Columnist Republican incumbent Mayor Erin Stewart, in her re-election campaign this year and throughout her second term, has touted improving municipal bond ratings for New Britain’s fiscal solvency, claiming credit for budget surpluses of $15 million and pushing spending up at City Hall with no need for an election year tax […]

3 mins read

Information Available on Where to Vote, and How to Register to Vote on Election Day, Nov 7, 2017

Editor’s note (11/1/2020): This article is from 2017. The New Britain Progressive has published a similar article for 2020, Registering and Voting This Tuesday Nov 3rd. City elections are coming up on Tuesday, November 7th for the offices of Mayor, City Council, Board of Education, Town Clerk, Tax Collector, Treasurer, Board of Assessment Appeals and […]

2 mins read

April 2016 Protest in New Britain Against Manafort Prescient of Recent Indictments

Criminal charges are being made, now, against former Trump campaign manager, Paul Manafort, by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, but, on April 23rd, 2016, charges against Manafort were being made by members of the Ukrainian community in New Britain, warning of things now front and center in the national consciousness. As Contributing Columnist John McNamara wrote […]

4 mins read

Will Erin Stewart Get Another Off The Books Push From An Absentee Landlord in 2017?

By John McNamara Contributing Columnist On the eve of  the 2015 municipal election scores of  tenants in New Britain got a notice about a possible rent increase from their landlord. It wasn’t an official increase but a not so subtle endorsement of Mayor Erin Stewart who at the time was cruising to re-election for a […]

3 mins read

Board of Education Candidates Discuss Education Funding, Diversity and Special Education.

Democrat Violet Sims and Democrat Annie Parker join incumbent Democratic Board of Education member Daisy Sanchez in running for Board of Education opposite Republican Nancy Rodriguez, current Republican Board of Education President Nick Mercier and Republican Board of Education member Mallory Deprey. The Board of Education is responsible for managing and setting policy for the New Britain school district […]

1 min read

League of Women Voters Candidate Debates to Appear on Public Access TV Oct 25th to Nov 6th

The League of Women Voters has announced that its candidate debates will be aired from October 25, 2017 to November 6th on the area public access television system, Nutmeg TV. The debates, which occurred on October 14th, featured mayoral and city council candidates in this year’s November 7th city elections. The debate will be shown […]

6 mins read

State to Provide $1 Million to NBHS Under Commissioner’s Network Program

The Consolidated School District of New Britain has announced that the State Board of Education has approved New Britain High School as the state’s newest “Commissioner’s Network School”, bringing with it $1 million in additional funding for NBHS during the next three years. NBHS was initially selected as a possible Commissioner’s Network school on October […]

8 mins read

At Large City Council Candidates Discuss Education, Economy and Water

Current Democratic Ald. Manny Sanchez (D-3) is joined by fellow Democrats, Eva Magnuszewski, Yvonne Muniz, Katie Breslin and Richard Reyes as the Democratic candidates for At-Large City Council members, facing Republican Desiree Costa and incumbent Republicans Tremell Collins (R-AL), Jim Sanders, Jr. (R-AL) and Daniel Davis (R-AL) and the Republican Council Leader Daniel Salerno (R-AL). […]

4 mins read

Ward 5 City Council Candidates Discuss Making City Hall Work for the Community

Democrat Francisco Santiago joins the Democratic City Council Leader Carlo Carlozzi Jr. as the Democratic candidates in the Ward 5 City Council election, with Republican Carmelo Rodriguez and Republican Miriam Geraci as their party’s candidates. New Britain’s Ward 5 includes the northwest and northernmost parts of the city. Ward 5 includes the neighborhoods around Slater Road and Corbin Avenue, […]

3 mins read

Ward 4 City Council Candidates Campaign on Education, Economy and Watershed Land

Democratic challengers Ann Speyer and Bobby Berriault are taking on incumbent Republicans Don Naples (R-4) and Robert Smedley (R-4) in the election for the two City Council seats representing New Britain’s Ward 4. New Britain’s Ward 4 elects two members of the City Council. The ward includes Little Poland, the Belvedere neighborhood, the Little Warsaw neighborhood, the Stanley […]

2 mins read

Rep. Tercyak Opposes Republican Budget Plan That Could Cause 3,400 New Britain Residents to Lose Access to Medicaid Health Care

New Britain State Representative Peter Tercyak (D-26) hosted a press conference this week to object to the Republican State Budget recently approved in the state legislature that he says would jeopardize the health care of tens of thousands of Connecticut residents, which would put thousands of New Britain residents at risk. The state legislature’s Republicans […]

3 mins read

Ward 3 City Council Candidates Focus on Neighborhood Concerns

Democrats Iris Sanchez and Aram Ayalon and Republicans Joel Moret and Jason Gibson are running for the two City Council seats representing New Britain’s Ward 3. Sanchez and Ayalon say that they are running for City Council to advocate for public services for the working class and the elderly and to protecting water and air quality. Ward 3 […]

1 min read

Merrill Gay Announces Total Campaign Contributions of Over $60,000

Democratic Mayoral candidate Merrill Gay has announced that he has received $29,660 in campaign contruibutions between July and September. Gay announced that his most recent campaign finance report brings the total amount he has raised in contributions toward his Mayoral bid to over $60,000. That amount of money is widely considered to be one sign […]

1 min read

NBHS Baseball Players and Coach Selected for International Goodwill Series

Two New Britain High School baseball players have been selected to play in the International Goodwill Series in Adelaide, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand, starting on December 21st. William Homar and Danniel Rivera will play for the American Team. The players will be joined by New Britain’s Head Coach Roberto Mercado. Mercado is part of the coaching staff […]

2 mins read

Ward 2 Candidates Discuss Serving New Britain’s East Side

Democrats Lamar Bowsky and Brian Keith Albert are discussing improvements to the city economy and community services for the people of New Britain’s East Side in their challenge to first-term incumbent Republicans Jerrell Hargraves (R-2) and Kristian Rosado (R-2) in the City Council elections in Ward 2. New Britain’s Ward 2 elects two members of the […]

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