DUDLEY — The Northeastern Connecticut Council of Governments’ (NECCOG) animal shelter has sought the help of criminal justice management students at Nichols College to recommend ways to tighten security at the 13-year-old shelter following last summer’s break-in and theft of two Pitbull puppies.
The first dog, a 5-year-old Pitbull, was stolen last summer from the shelter on Rt. 12 in Dayville. Through social media, shelter staff were able to find and retrieve him. A second dog, a 6-year-old Rottweiler/Pitbull mix, was stolen a few weeks later; staff members have not found her.
NECCOG Animal Services provides services 24 hours a day and seven days a week to 10 towns for stray dogs, sick and injured domestic animals, capture and restraint of livestock, quarantining of biting animals, placement of animals that owners are unable to maintain, placement of strays not redeemed, a trap/neuter release program for feral cats, and response to complaints for nuisance domestic animals. It has three full-time employees, three part-time employees, and 20 volunteers who oversee 13 animals (six cats and seven dogs, as of press time). Animals are adopted every week.
With such a busy schedule and enormous set of responsibilities, the staff needed help to improve the shelter’s security.
Enter the Nichols College students, who used their leadership and business skills to come up with real-world, impactful solutions to the shelter’s problems. Those solutions have already been implemented at the shelter and are making a difference in the safety of the cats and dogs housed there.
Criminal Justice Management Professor Kim Charbonneau’s Physical Security class was invited in October 2016 to conduct a building-risk assessment of the shelter. Physical security includes a combination of security-related equipment, devices, and technology designated and arranged to alert personnel to loss-causing events or circumstances. Topics covered in the Nichols course include controlling and monitoring the access of people and vehicles, prevention and detection of unauthorized intrusions and surveillance; and safeguarding documents, proprietary information, merchandise, and buildings.
As part of the experiential learning aspect of the course, the students toured the grounds and assessed the security of the building, identifying potential areas of concern. Following the students’ assessment, the class met with Animal Services Director Dianne Collette to ask questions and discuss what policies and procedures were in place at the facility.
Through their assessment, the students determined the shelter’s most immediate security-related needs, and assigned each area to a student to determine a solution. The students spent several weeks developing fire evacuation procedures, training programs for volunteers, animal health and vaccination forms, volunteer application and background check procedures, and daily logs for the facility.
Collette was invited to observe their final presentations, where students shared with her their recommendations. She then brought the assessments back to the shelter and implemented several new policies, which, in turn, is helping to increase the safety and security of the animals.
“The Nichols College students’ recommendations were very beneficial and helpful,” said Collette, who has worked for NECCOG for 12 years. “They offered excellent ideas to keep our animals safe. We plan to implement some of their recommendations, such as an employee education program and creating kitten/cat vaccine forms.”
Said Professor Charbonneau: “Working with the NECCOG animal shelter gave my students an incredible opportunity to gain real-world experience in the area of physical security, while also giving back to the community.”
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Drawing of the new Rotary Park sign.
The Rotary clock
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM --- With a little bit of patience --- and fencing, the Putnam Rotary Park will be transformed in time for America's birthday.
April 19, hydroseeding at the Kennedy Drive park will begin. Willie Bousquet, Recreation Department director, said protective fencing around the park will stay up until the fireworks celebration July 1.
The fencing will protect the new grass seed and other projects at the park, a shared effort between the town and the Putnam Rotary Club.
Several projects at the park will be finished around the July 1 reopening of the park, Bousquet. The Putnam Rotary Club donated the cost of the irrigation project which was completed last fall. Bousquet said the hydroseeding company has gotten its hands on a certain amount of a grass blend that can take punishment --- it is used in ballparks and athletic fields. Other grasses will be blended in, giving the park a sturdy, nice looking lawn. The grass will cover the same area the new irrigation does: from the backside of the bandstand to the parking lot near the bridge. It will stop short of the Kennedy Drive/Bridge Street intersection, Bousquet said.
The clock, which is already installed, was donated. Rotary Club President Marc Archambault said, "We’re particularly grateful to the anonymous Rotarian who personally donated the funds to purchase the distinctive clock which has been installed in the park."
Bousquet said a sign, measuring 47 inches by 72 inches will be installed near the edge of Kennedy Drive, closer to the parking lot than the former sign was. He said it will be illuminated and can be seen from both sides. Bousquet, the town's Recreation Commission and Rotarian Jennifer Beckett worked on the sign and its design.
The town bell, which was moved from the Town Hall tower to the park for the town's 150th anniversary, will get a stamped concrete base and a protective roof with a cupola and a weathervane, Bousquet said.
Plans also call for three Free Little Libraries to be installed. One will be installed in Rotary Park near the Bridge Street bridge end of the park. Bousquet said two round picnic tables will also be installed nearby so people can pick out a book and sit and read in that quieter area of the park. Another library will go in the "pocket park" at the corner of Marshall and Providence streets and the third one will grace the parking lot grassy area across from the Riverview mini golf on Kennedy Drive. Eagle Scout candidate Michael DiColella, of Boy Scout Troop 25, is creating the library project as his Eagle Scout project.
Bousquet said two benches will be installed, each honoring the late Rotarian Doug Valentine. They will be wrought iron. One will be in Rotary Park, behind the bandstand and the other will be in Veterans Park on Bridge Street. Valentine was a Vietnam veteran. The benches were funded with donations.
In addition, some work will be done on the two plaques and the state of Connecticut sign. The plaque commemorating Dr. Robert Dinolt and the Rotary Club's help creating the town park in the early 1960s will be refurbished by National Chromium --- a donation. A second Rotary plaque has been glued to a rock in the center of the Rotary flagpole garden. Bousquet said they are trying to figure out how to refurbish that plaque without trying to take it off the rock. "We don't want to break it," he said. The state of Connecticut, years ago, gave each town a "town history" sign as part of its anniversary celebration. Putnam's sign is in need of some reconditioning. Currently the town and the Putnam Rotary club are looking for a local firm that can recondition that sign.
Funding for all the projects is a joint effort between the Putnam Rotary Club and the town of Putnam. With spare funds, the Rotary Club paid for the irrigation project, the benches, some of the sign work, stamped concrete, electrical work for lights for the sign, some of the seeding and other costs connected with seeding, some of the work on the bell, signs and plaques. A $4,500 Rotary Foundation grant went toward part of the sign, the Eagle Scout project, two picnic tables and part of the cost of the work around the bell.
Bousquet added that by May the town may know the fate of the state's local capital improvement fund. He said if the town gets a piece of that, they'd like to pave a small entry into the park that runs behind the bandstand and then pave a small parking lot behind the bandstand with enough room for five or six cars. "We would hope to do it in this calendar year," Bousquet said.
Rotary Park was created after the Flood of 1955 and was dedicated in 1966. The first revitalization was the addition of the River Trail and the removal of a parking lot. After that, in 2004, the bandstand was added.
Delpha M. Very, director of the Putnam Economic & Community Development, is past president of the Putnam Rotary Club and the project started under her presidency last year. She said: I have always felt that Rotary Park is a keystone of Putnam…a place where people gather to reconnect, a community spotlight for the arts and as well as having the most aesthetic views in town. Rotary Park should be shared in perpetuity and the Rotary Club of Putnam feels an obligation to be a caretaker. I am proud of our members to take this journey with me as past president and I can only thank the community at large for supporting our fund-raisers to make this journey possible."
Rotary President Marc Archambault said: "The club was very interested in funding a project which would have a significant, visible and long-lasting impact for Putnam and our surrounding communities. Putnam’s Rotary Park is a focal point in the community and draws so many people from all over northeastern Connecticut. We feel that the projects we’re helping to fund will enhance the usefulness and beauty of the park. The businesses and individuals of our communities are always so supportive of Rotary’s fund-raising efforts, and we’re happy to be able to use those funds to provide something which will be of lasting benefit to the community. The clock, along with the beautiful new sign, benches, picnic tables and Free Little Libraries which are soon to be installed, will help to enhance the look and functionality of the park. The enhanced grass surface will really make events more enjoyable for all."
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Spring
Begins
This crocus is one of the first flowers of spring. More photos on page 6. Linda Lemmon photo.
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
U.S. Congressman Joseph Courtney said that the "pushback" has already begun in Washington D.C. to save programs vital to eastern Connecticut that are on the proposed federal budget chopping block.
Many of the programs that Courtney described as "lifeline programs" that are especially important to small rural areas, such as eastern Connecticut, have been underfunded or unfunded in the proposed budget. Programs like Meals on Wheels, important to this area, would be hurt. Other programs in the USDA have also been cut. The Rural Development funds in the USDA have funded several major projects in Putnam including water and sewer improvements, the East Putnam Fire Department building on Rt. 44 and recreational projects and the Farmer's Market pavilion.
Zero funding is proposed for the Department of Interior's National Heritage Corridor areas. The Last Green Valley and the other 48 National Heritage areas would receive nothing. Courtney said some view these programs as too heavy handed in terms of government involvement, but that is not the case. "The Last Green Valley does not stifle. It works in a collaborative way," he said.
Courtney said that eastern Connecticut has a "good team relationship" with two Connecticut members of the Appropriations Committee --- Christopher Murphy on the Senate side and Rosa DeLauro on the house side. "We're lucky to have the two of them there," Courtney said.
Courtney last week signed a letter of support in Washington for the National Heritage areas. The letter was sent to Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, Committee on Appropriations.
The letter said: "We write to thank the Subcommittee for its previous support of the Heritage Partnership Program and to request that you provide funding for the coming fiscal year that is sufficiently robust so as to allow National Heritage Areas to continue their unprecedented levels of growth and success. The Heritage Partnership Programs received $19.821 million in FY 2016.
The 49 National Heritage Areas across the country preserve and revitalize cultural, historic and natural resources, delivering recreational and educational opportunities to visitors, residents and entire regions. Through innovative public-private partnerships, National Heritage Areas have effectively leveraged federal resources, attracting an average of $5.50 of private funding for each dollar appropriated.
Heritage Areas have a proven record of fostering job creation and advancing economic, cultural, historic, natural, and community development. In addition to creating jobs, National Heritage Areas generate valuable revenue for local governments and sustain communities through revitalization and heritage tourism. Lastly, Heritage Areas have undergone rigorous independent evaluations by the National Park Service which document the program’s worth.
As a way of building on these successes, we respectfully urge the Subcommittee to ensure an enhanced level of funding for the Heritage Partnership Program in FY 2018 so all Areas can continue their important work. This vital funding will enable communities and regions to effectively tell the stories of their past for the benefit of present and future generations." It was signed by more than 70 congressman, including Courtney.
Courtney said the federal budget process is still in its earliest stages and he called on communities to continue to stay involved.
"We going to be all over this," he added.