1
00:00:00,542 --> 00:00:04,963
So it's made by a Chinese company,
and they do, Oh, that's a podcast topic.

2
00:00:05,130 --> 00:00:08,508
They pull that out with a little bit
for people who just have a like

3
00:00:09,009 --> 00:00:12,012
164 screen addiction or something.

4
00:00:12,137 --> 00:00:13,596
Oh, I'll say it a few times that.

5
00:00:13,596 --> 00:00:14,472
I'll even give you one of these.

6
00:00:14,472 --> 00:00:17,225
If you want me to put 164 in here,
I'll give you one at some point.

7
00:00:17,225 --> 00:00:18,435
So 64.

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That's the podcast number.

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So I know what.

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Oh, he's 131.

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Okay, great.

12
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I know.

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00:00:26,735 --> 00:00:29,070
All right. Ready? Zero.

14
00:00:29,070 --> 00:00:30,572
Okay.

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All right, all right.

16
00:00:31,698 --> 00:00:34,784
Feeny talks with friends. Episode 164.

17
00:00:35,160 --> 00:00:37,328
We're here at Maximum Beverage
with some good friends.

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What's up? Jason?

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00:00:38,913 --> 00:00:39,914
Who, me? Oh, hi.

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00:00:39,914 --> 00:00:41,916
What's up? Gail?

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00:00:41,916 --> 00:00:44,711
Okay, John, you went ahead.

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I did look directly at you.

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And this is John.

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I know John, he's a past podcast
guest. 131.

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Go back and check it out. 131.

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We're here to meet Jason and Gail.

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I've never really interacted with you. I'm
so happy to hear you.

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Have you on? How are you guys doing?

29
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During the weather?

30
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Yeah.

31
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Both doctors,

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different fields

33
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converged into the same field.

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00:01:07,859 --> 00:01:10,111
Oh, interesting. All right.

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00:01:10,111 --> 00:01:11,821
We'll table that for topic.

36
00:01:11,821 --> 00:01:15,075
My name is Eric Feeney, founder
and president, friends of Feeney.

37
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Our mission is to help
children and families that need assistance

38
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after heartbreak or tragedy.
And I use this podcast.

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Feeney talks with friends,
and I talk to wonderful

40
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people in the community
that are doing great things.

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Are you guys doing great things?

42
00:01:27,921 --> 00:01:28,713
Are you doing great things?

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Tonight at 730?

44
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We're nice.

45
00:01:32,884 --> 00:01:35,595
Nice. I'm looking forward to it.

46
00:01:35,595 --> 00:01:36,805
Yeah, we we will.

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We look ahead to the budget.

48
00:01:37,972 --> 00:01:39,933
Yeah. The great is in large.

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The size of this one will be receiving.

50
00:01:41,976 --> 00:01:43,937
Yes. Tonight the budget.

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00:01:43,937 --> 00:01:47,107
So. So you're new to the Republican,
town council.

52
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Why? Join NY West Hartford, please.

53
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You can start.

54
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Why West Hartford?

55
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Because this is,
where we have made our lives.

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This is where the town that we choose
to raise our family and live here forever.

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Want to make the town a better place?

58
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That's why.

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How long have you been here?

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Four years now. Nice.

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Why? Republican?

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I mean, that's,
you know, it's a big question.

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I think, because, you know, a gradually

64
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trended more conservative
as I've raised my family and,

65
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seen, you know, moved around

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the country, lived in more conservative
places, like, I grew up in Missouri.

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So, you know,
I'm not scared of that label.

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You know, nice for a lot of people
who are conservative backgrounds.

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I think

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there's certain values
that I want to protect.

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Also fiscal responsibility.

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Very concerned about the sustainability
of our town,

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the sustainability of our property
tax burden.

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Those are those are some words.

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Okay.

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Also, you know, I work in the addiction
field, and I think the addiction field

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is a lot about, you know, human thriving.

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And a lot of that doesn't
come down to government programs.

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We have excellent government programs
that do help.

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But a lot of that really,
if you look at what, helps people

81
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when they're really struggling
with substance use, it's community, work,

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family, parenthood,

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things that

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are by and large values
that I really believe in.

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And, you know, for example, building,
stable classes

86
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to the middle class building,

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housing markets
where people could actually buy a home and

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achieve that American dream.

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You know, these are all things that,

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I believe in a lot.

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And that's kind of why I've tried it
towards the conservative side.

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All right. Nice.

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Thank you for sharing.

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Gail,
do you want to take the same question?

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So I've probably I've always

96
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been like the conservative side

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and have considered myself Republican
for most of my.

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I really had nothing to do with politics
for six years.

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And I just. Don't.

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But I started to get really concerned
about six years ago when schools.

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Shifted

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to Michigan, like academics,

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political.

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Doesn't

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really bother me.

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And so I began to come to

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some of the committee meetings and, and

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I was there.

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I would say that
I'm really concerned about schools, and I.

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And then when there was a process,

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they asked me to do

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kind of hemmed and hawed because I wasn't
really, like I said, a political person.

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But I felt like maybe
I could sort of start to push back on

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some of those schools

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and talk to those. So.

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I did like four years.

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I really enjoyed the board of that.

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I kind of learned a lot.

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And I feel like,
you know, we did make some

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changes and beneficial to schools.

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Nice. Yep.

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I would see you there
from September to January. Right?

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My daughter Bridget's on the, she's the
high school rep, so, she's enjoying it.

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She asks questions, and,
she presents, what Connor is doing.

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So thank you for that.

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And why the shift from board of Ed
to town council, or how was that shift?

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Can you compare and contrast,
both parties in both.

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I mean, it's really different.

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I mean, I think that on the board of Ed,
the issues are often

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more contentious.

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Back and forth between different members

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and the way they see the,
you know, school system going forward.

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I don't feel that as much on me.

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On the town council,
I have been there that long, but from what

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I've seen, it's it's more,
you know, issues that I think,

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you know,
people can sort of rally around the.

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Division.

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So, yeah, it's different.

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I didn't exactly plan to go on the town
council

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without sort of this guy over here

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telling me to do.

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So, I didn't I'm not,

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you know, not to have to do it for a long,
long time.

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Nice.

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00:06:24,175 --> 00:06:25,885
And how long have you been in West
Hartford?

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Oh, I, I grew up here.

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I went to public schools.

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I mean, I moved here
when I was about six kids, so four kids.

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So you know,

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raised here, some of them.

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But, you know, what type of public school
support the private schools?

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Yeah. I think

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very nice.

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All right.

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John, so

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what made you push Galen to this position?

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Question one you and Jason real me in
if you think I'm out of line.

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But, I, I did a lot of recruiting.

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I had a very successful corporate career,
and one of my hard and fast rules.

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I was just telling somebody
this yesterday. One of my heart.

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Hard and fast rules was always,
always try to hire people around you.

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They're smarter than you.

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And they have different skill sets.

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And and, I've been I've been enamored
with our work for years.

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We talked about it, I kid her, I call her,

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I think, on
her a little bit, and we laugh about it.

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And Jason has just kind of blown me away
from the moment I met him.

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Seeing him testify before council,
seeing him talk about the issues.

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There's nobody in town, a lay person.

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There's no lay person.

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Town has done more for for pedestrian
and bicycle safety than and road safety.

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And Jason, I mean, he's
just been a trailblazer on this topic.

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So when I found out
I was not going to receive the nomination

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from the Democratic Party and I made the,

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you know,

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I call it

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the second most difficult
decision of your time,

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I'll tell you about the most difficult
decision I made in my life.

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It was a bad one.

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It was a good decision,
but a terrible decision I had to make.

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But this was the second
most difficult decision of my life.

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I made the decision to change

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parties, and two days later,
I met with Jason for coffee, and I said,

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come on, we got to do it, okay yourself,
and I'm very happy.

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And then, Gail, I had to work on, Gail
took a few weeks to convince her, but,

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I just

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I think it's so important
we have really bright, really

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creative, really diverse
people on council, and that's. I'm.

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I can't get over in this caucus.

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How happy every time I have a chance
to brag about this caucus, I do.

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And it's so much fun
working with these guys.

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We're getting so much done.

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The good news is we're
we're making inroads with downtown staff.

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We're making inroads
with, the Democrat side of the aisle and,

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you know, really starting
to make some progress on being able to,

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even though we're the minority, be able
to guide policy and God's decisions.

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So we're we're I'm having a ball
and I'll speak for these guys for mine.

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Having so much fun.

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00:08:52,031 --> 00:08:52,365
Yeah.

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00:08:52,365 --> 00:08:54,534
How is it I think of it right away.

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00:08:54,534 --> 00:08:56,452
It's 6 to 3. Yeah.

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00:08:56,452 --> 00:09:00,081
So how do you guys get things passed
or how does that work?

203
00:09:00,206 --> 00:09:02,542
The numbers are working against you.

204
00:09:02,542 --> 00:09:04,919
There cannot ever be 5 to 4.

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00:09:04,919 --> 00:09:06,337
And by charter.

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00:09:06,337 --> 00:09:11,259
It's is, a political party
can have a maximum of six

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00:09:11,801 --> 00:09:14,762
nominated and, you know, endorsed.

208
00:09:14,762 --> 00:09:16,472
You know, our representatives

209
00:09:16,472 --> 00:09:18,349
and the Democrats have had a six,
three majority

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00:09:18,349 --> 00:09:20,351
for probably close
to a quarter of a century now,

211
00:09:21,686 --> 00:09:22,853
quarter of a century.

212
00:09:22,853 --> 00:09:25,856
So this
place has been democratic for so long.

213
00:09:26,107 --> 00:09:28,109
Well, yeah,
we'd like to do a great job for the town

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00:09:28,109 --> 00:09:31,112
and, you know, show people what we can do,
what we can offer.

215
00:09:31,112 --> 00:09:32,405
I think a lot of people

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00:09:32,405 --> 00:09:36,325
have some frustrations with the town
and with the taxes with with other issues.

217
00:09:36,325 --> 00:09:39,579
And, you know,
so we'd like to kind of show a positive

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00:09:39,579 --> 00:09:42,582
alternative and, you know, maybe
we build up those vote counts over time.

219
00:09:43,624 --> 00:09:44,458
That's that.

220
00:09:44,458 --> 00:09:45,459
I think that's a great point.

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00:09:45,459 --> 00:09:48,462
I think the ultimate judge,
and I think I've said this to you guys

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00:09:48,629 --> 00:09:53,009
at least once recently,
the ultimate judgment of how we're doing

223
00:09:53,509 --> 00:09:56,387
is assuming we all run again in two years,

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00:09:56,387 --> 00:10:00,349
and we'll see if the vote counts, too,
even if they don't come up thousands.

225
00:10:00,349 --> 00:10:03,686
But even if they come up 10%,
if we see the vote counts come up,

226
00:10:04,145 --> 00:10:05,730
we're doing something right.

227
00:10:06,897 --> 00:10:07,815
That's the ultimate great.

228
00:10:07,815 --> 00:10:12,028
That's the ultimate ultimate, you know,
parade of our performance, I think, okay.

229
00:10:12,028 --> 00:10:15,031
Because there are towns have shifted.

230
00:10:15,364 --> 00:10:16,991
I think East Granby shifted.

231
00:10:16,991 --> 00:10:21,329
Farmington shifted to Bristol, maybe,
I don't know, but there are a couple towns

232
00:10:21,329 --> 00:10:25,041
that do see it ever shifting.

233
00:10:26,542 --> 00:10:28,919
I, I, I look, I think, you know,

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00:10:28,919 --> 00:10:30,963
we're not here to talk
about the national climate,

235
00:10:30,963 --> 00:10:33,257
but I think the national climate is tough
right now.

236
00:10:33,257 --> 00:10:35,384
It's very, very challenging right now.

237
00:10:35,384 --> 00:10:38,721
And there are a lot of people
who really take ownership of the National.

238
00:10:39,472 --> 00:10:43,100
The analogy I use when we were running is
everybody wants to play

239
00:10:43,476 --> 00:10:46,646
big league ball,
got all levels of baseball important.

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00:10:47,188 --> 00:10:50,650
And this this may not be big league ball,
but it's a really, really important

241
00:10:50,900 --> 00:10:51,692
level of government.

242
00:10:52,860 --> 00:10:54,612
But people want to
feel like they're playing the big leagues.

243
00:10:54,612 --> 00:10:58,407
So it's really tough to get people to say,
hey, let's look at the candidate

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00:10:58,407 --> 00:11:01,869
and move away from the R line
or move away from the D line.

245
00:11:02,370 --> 00:11:04,622
We saw that when,

246
00:11:04,622 --> 00:11:07,625
Dennis and

247
00:11:08,459 --> 00:11:11,671
the other ones helped me out here
who ran for the Connecticut party

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00:11:12,171 --> 00:11:15,174
when we had, yeah, Lee Gold and Rick Bush.

249
00:11:15,174 --> 00:11:16,425
Oh, yeah. When they ran for.

250
00:11:16,425 --> 00:11:20,012
And Ronnie Waterman
when they ran, a Connecticut party line.

251
00:11:20,638 --> 00:11:22,264
Every now,
Ronnie and I were doing the show

252
00:11:22,264 --> 00:11:25,976
at that time, we were doing
election coverage and, and we had three

253
00:11:25,976 --> 00:11:29,313
correspondents who were going to be
at each location, D.R.

254
00:11:29,355 --> 00:11:30,856
and ACP.

255
00:11:30,856 --> 00:11:34,318
They were all fighting to be at ACP
because everybody thought ACP

256
00:11:34,318 --> 00:11:37,321
was going to have a massive
like they didn't pick up a single seat.

257
00:11:37,530 --> 00:11:39,865
So people are really entrenched.

258
00:11:39,865 --> 00:11:42,702
So the only thing, you know,
the guys have given these guys

259
00:11:42,702 --> 00:11:44,036
and the guns, they've reminded me

260
00:11:44,036 --> 00:11:48,457
when I've started to do something
stupid is focus on the local people.

261
00:11:48,499 --> 00:11:49,166
That's why I'm here.

262
00:11:49,166 --> 00:11:53,295
I have no interest in any
anything beyond West Hartford.

263
00:11:53,462 --> 00:11:56,006
Just it's not you know,
I'm passionate about West Hartford.

264
00:11:56,006 --> 00:11:57,800
Serve West Hartford and just keep it

265
00:11:58,801 --> 00:12:01,804
cool.

266
00:12:01,887 --> 00:12:04,265
What are some top issues?

267
00:12:04,265 --> 00:12:07,268
Can you share some issues
that you going to talk about tonight?

268
00:12:07,685 --> 00:12:09,603
I saw one, tonight's the budget. Yeah.

269
00:12:09,603 --> 00:12:11,230
I mean, that's
that's what we're gonna talk about.

270
00:12:11,230 --> 00:12:14,233
And really we're just going to receive it
and then digest it.

271
00:12:14,233 --> 00:12:18,779
So that's I mean,
this is Rick led with give that budget.

272
00:12:18,988 --> 00:12:21,991
Yeah. We haven't seen it. Yeah.

273
00:12:21,991 --> 00:12:23,492
Oh so this is a big unveiling.

274
00:12:23,492 --> 00:12:25,619
Like it's going to be a surprise
for everyone.

275
00:12:25,619 --> 00:12:25,828
Yeah.

276
00:12:25,828 --> 00:12:28,831
We did see parts of the school culture.

277
00:12:30,332 --> 00:12:33,294
The teachers getting raises.

278
00:12:34,170 --> 00:12:36,839
Can we make sure that happens every year?

279
00:12:36,839 --> 00:12:39,133
I don't know, you were on board. Yeah.

280
00:12:39,133 --> 00:12:40,593
You voted for this contract?

281
00:12:40,593 --> 00:12:44,638
Yeah, but that was, you know,
maybe six months ago.

282
00:12:45,306 --> 00:12:47,600
Yeah, well. Thank you.

283
00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:48,267
We can use some more.

284
00:12:48,267 --> 00:12:50,519
I teach third grade. Right.

285
00:12:50,519 --> 00:12:51,520
Thank you for doing that.

286
00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:51,812
Oh, no.

287
00:12:51,812 --> 00:12:52,563
It's a big one.

288
00:12:52,563 --> 00:12:55,983
We're going to be discussing,
slight change to an ordinance,

289
00:12:56,400 --> 00:13:00,362
in terms of 830 g developments,
which are low income,

290
00:13:01,238 --> 00:13:04,241
housing and subsidized
housing developments.

291
00:13:04,325 --> 00:13:07,620
So we're gonna make a little tweak
to that, which is to give town council

292
00:13:07,620 --> 00:13:09,955
a little bit more, because town council,
one of our sponsors,

293
00:13:09,955 --> 00:13:12,625
is one of the alternate
zoning profiles on the authority.

294
00:13:12,625 --> 00:13:14,752
So we're making a little tweak to that.

295
00:13:14,752 --> 00:13:18,881
So that town council now
will see every application that crosses

296
00:13:19,507 --> 00:13:22,593
the desk of managers and or something.

297
00:13:23,219 --> 00:13:26,222
We should put them on
so someone sign them up.

298
00:13:26,222 --> 00:13:29,850
You got some people in 65. So, but,

299
00:13:30,935 --> 00:13:32,019
so that's,

300
00:13:32,019 --> 00:13:36,315
that's one of the things, that's like,
that's one of the things we did.

301
00:13:36,524 --> 00:13:39,360
So was that like the byline
and the Camelot?

302
00:13:39,360 --> 00:13:44,740
Is that or something
else, like Camelot reached a threshold?

303
00:13:44,740 --> 00:13:46,116
Yeah. Not the. But yeah. That's right.

304
00:13:46,116 --> 00:13:47,326
But we didn't get the byline.

305
00:13:47,326 --> 00:13:50,329
It's not a byline.

306
00:13:50,496 --> 00:13:52,122
Yep. That's Lewis Brown. Yes.

307
00:13:52,122 --> 00:13:54,500
Future podcast guest. Oh, great.

308
00:13:54,500 --> 00:13:57,336
I bumped into him in a Google
the other night.

309
00:13:57,336 --> 00:14:02,299
Yeah, I have his number email, so I was
so thrilled and so happy to run into him.

310
00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:03,843
I'm like, commander,

311
00:14:03,843 --> 00:14:07,179
do you have extra office space
for friends of any that you're not using?

312
00:14:07,179 --> 00:14:10,975
Come on, we only need it
like to do a podcast every other.

313
00:14:11,016 --> 00:14:15,479
Speaking of another lifetime West Hartford
resident Lewis Brown.

314
00:14:15,521 --> 00:14:17,648
Yeah. Good guy. Really?

315
00:14:17,648 --> 00:14:20,985
Did you guys take tours of the byline
or the Camelot?

316
00:14:21,652 --> 00:14:24,196
No, that was more for our time. Oh, you.

317
00:14:24,196 --> 00:14:25,447
Because I served on zoning at the time.

318
00:14:25,447 --> 00:14:27,241
I think when I talked to you a year ago,
I was on. So.

319
00:14:27,241 --> 00:14:30,870
So. Yeah, I, I have a question for
him, but they also said that

320
00:14:32,121 --> 00:14:35,124
44 high end residents

321
00:14:35,457 --> 00:14:39,962
or 48 one, the two bedroom units.

322
00:14:41,130 --> 00:14:42,590
Do you like that?

323
00:14:42,590 --> 00:14:44,049
I don't know if I understand the question.

324
00:14:44,049 --> 00:14:47,052
So the byline, which one's a nice one?

325
00:14:47,887 --> 00:14:48,971
The byline. Yeah.

326
00:14:48,971 --> 00:14:51,390
They're they're calling them residences.

327
00:14:51,390 --> 00:14:52,057
The byline.

328
00:14:52,057 --> 00:14:54,560
And the other one,
they're calling units one.

329
00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:57,187
They just all the apartments. Semantics.

330
00:14:57,187 --> 00:14:59,148
I think it's just that might be semantics.

331
00:14:59,148 --> 00:15:00,649
Okay. Because I just saw an article.

332
00:15:00,649 --> 00:15:01,901
I thought that was interesting, though.

333
00:15:01,901 --> 00:15:02,484
Yeah.

334
00:15:02,484 --> 00:15:05,487
They can just call on both units
or both residents.

335
00:15:05,821 --> 00:15:07,072
That's just me just thrown out there.

336
00:15:07,072 --> 00:15:10,075
An observation situation.

337
00:15:10,326 --> 00:15:11,243
I like them both.

338
00:15:11,243 --> 00:15:13,704
Potatoes and potatoes.

339
00:15:13,704 --> 00:15:17,249
But no, they're they're the issue.

340
00:15:17,625 --> 00:15:21,587
That's going to be for us
is specifically you can 830 G developments

341
00:15:21,587 --> 00:15:26,550
be approved by administrative approval,
meaning, less red tape but less review.

342
00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:29,887
I mean, a lot of review from staff,
but less public review.

343
00:15:29,887 --> 00:15:34,224
You know, meaning, can affordable
developments come through the town staff

344
00:15:34,224 --> 00:15:35,517
without coming to council

345
00:15:35,517 --> 00:15:39,521
or do all either g applications
have to come through council?

346
00:15:40,147 --> 00:15:41,941
When you go through council
that costs more money.

347
00:15:41,941 --> 00:15:43,776
You gotta
you need to pay for a lawyer's time.

348
00:15:43,776 --> 00:15:45,110
You need to pay for potentially more,

349
00:15:46,403 --> 00:15:48,489
an engineer's time, things like that.

350
00:15:48,489 --> 00:15:51,367
And so we don't want to drive up
the cost of building housing.

351
00:15:51,367 --> 00:15:51,825
But we also do

352
00:15:51,825 --> 00:15:56,246
want to deliver transparency and a chance
for citizens to provide their input.

353
00:15:56,622 --> 00:15:57,665
So it's a tricky issue.

354
00:15:57,665 --> 00:16:00,334
Yeah,
but the question we're considering is,

355
00:16:00,334 --> 00:16:02,753
can you have site plan approval
for affordable housing developments,

356
00:16:02,753 --> 00:16:05,589
or do all affordable housing developments
have to come through council,

357
00:16:05,589 --> 00:16:08,258
which by definition makes them slightly
less affordable.

358
00:16:08,258 --> 00:16:11,261
So it's a significant question.

359
00:16:11,470 --> 00:16:12,680
Jeez, this guy's good.

360
00:16:12,680 --> 00:16:14,932
He's let me let me tell you
that was well put.

361
00:16:14,932 --> 00:16:16,684
So I'll tell you
I'm going to get in trouble.

362
00:16:16,684 --> 00:16:20,688
Jason put on the story, but we were doing
a, a meet and greet at the gate

363
00:16:20,688 --> 00:16:23,691
on market, and Jason's mother was there.

364
00:16:23,732 --> 00:16:24,400
Lovely woman.

365
00:16:24,400 --> 00:16:26,068
And we were chatting for a little while.

366
00:16:26,068 --> 00:16:27,903
We were kind of off to the side, and Jason

367
00:16:27,903 --> 00:16:29,989
and the other candidates
were doing their thing,

368
00:16:29,989 --> 00:16:32,282
and I looked it up
and I said, I looked at her and said,

369
00:16:32,282 --> 00:16:33,909
some faceless photographic memory.

370
00:16:33,909 --> 00:16:37,204
And she just so not bragging,
just so matter of fact.

371
00:16:37,621 --> 00:16:39,081
Oh, yeah. Yeah. We both.

372
00:16:39,081 --> 00:16:40,207
And she was not bragging.

373
00:16:40,207 --> 00:16:42,710
She was not into this guy,
let me tell you.

374
00:16:42,710 --> 00:16:44,878
Like he you give him something.

375
00:16:44,878 --> 00:16:47,673
Once he he was elected,
he wasn't elected a week.

376
00:16:47,673 --> 00:16:48,215
And he had read

377
00:16:49,341 --> 00:16:51,010
ordinance after ordinance after ordinance.

378
00:16:51,010 --> 00:16:54,430
He'd read the town charter, he'd read,
I mean, just looked, you know, everything.

379
00:16:54,430 --> 00:16:56,598
And it's just, it's wonderful.

380
00:16:56,598 --> 00:16:59,852
Like I said, it was like the chief people
who were smarter than I am.

381
00:16:59,852 --> 00:17:03,814
And it's been really, I don't know
about smarter, but I like to read the.

382
00:17:04,064 --> 00:17:05,983
Yeah, I read the whole town code.

383
00:17:05,983 --> 00:17:07,443
Read the whole school budget.

384
00:17:07,443 --> 00:17:08,110
Yeah.

385
00:17:08,110 --> 00:17:10,320
We're going to read
whatever Rick gives us tonight.

386
00:17:10,320 --> 00:17:13,115
I read every page of the site plans.

387
00:17:13,115 --> 00:17:15,993
You know,
where the sewers are for developments.

388
00:17:15,993 --> 00:17:17,161
You know everything.

389
00:17:17,161 --> 00:17:17,828
Yeah. So.

390
00:17:17,828 --> 00:17:20,831
So I read everything
that pretty much second.

391
00:17:21,915 --> 00:17:24,168
Reading is fundamental
as a third grade teacher.

392
00:17:24,168 --> 00:17:24,960
Yeah. That's right.

393
00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:27,755
Read for 20 minutes every night. Kids,

394
00:17:27,755 --> 00:17:29,381
you must read a
little more than 20 minutes.

395
00:17:32,342 --> 00:17:35,345
That's great.

396
00:17:35,345 --> 00:17:38,098
Oh, so Why would residents
want more housing

397
00:17:38,098 --> 00:17:41,935
and more apartments
are we getting our tax cut for these?

398
00:17:42,436 --> 00:17:45,522
They'll contribute somewhat
to the tax base,

399
00:17:45,898 --> 00:17:49,026
whether there's a tax
cut really depends on a lot of factors.

400
00:17:49,026 --> 00:17:50,027
I mean, it's a huge budget.

401
00:17:50,027 --> 00:17:53,030
So yeah, I mean, if you
if a building delivers,

402
00:17:53,030 --> 00:17:56,867
you know, a couple million dollars a year
in, tax revenue, that helps

403
00:17:57,493 --> 00:18:01,163
will that directly translates into a tax
cut for, you know, I mean, maybe not.

404
00:18:01,163 --> 00:18:04,166
It depends on what the rest
of the town's doing, but it does help.

405
00:18:04,333 --> 00:18:06,001
But there's, you know, different factors.

406
00:18:06,001 --> 00:18:09,379
You know, for example,
if you if I talk to a firefighter,

407
00:18:09,379 --> 00:18:11,423
you know, a couple months back
who said, well,

408
00:18:11,423 --> 00:18:13,550
with some of these bigger buildings,
we have to do a lot more training

409
00:18:13,550 --> 00:18:17,096
because you got to haul a big freaking
hose through these long hallways

410
00:18:17,096 --> 00:18:18,680
as opposed
to being traditionally outfitted

411
00:18:18,680 --> 00:18:20,849
to serve more single family homes.

412
00:18:20,849 --> 00:18:23,018
So it's a really complex question.

413
00:18:23,018 --> 00:18:26,939
I mean, it's
it may not directly lower your tax burden.

414
00:18:26,939 --> 00:18:30,109
There is money
coming through through property taxes.

415
00:18:30,109 --> 00:18:33,195
We'll see tonight from Rick,
whether you know how much of an effect

416
00:18:33,529 --> 00:18:37,491
these property, these these units coming
online are going to have on our

417
00:18:37,491 --> 00:18:38,408
overall tax structure,

418
00:18:38,408 --> 00:18:42,412
but unlikely that we can build our way out
of, out of our spending.

419
00:18:42,412 --> 00:18:45,415
No, I mean, we did the calculation once.

420
00:18:45,415 --> 00:18:49,419
You have to be putting up like $1 billion
a year of housing or something to get us

421
00:18:49,419 --> 00:18:52,422
to a zero based budget, specifically
just by expanding the grand list.

422
00:18:52,756 --> 00:18:53,966
So it helps.

423
00:18:53,966 --> 00:18:58,220
It's not really going
to, significantly impact your wallet.

424
00:18:59,346 --> 00:19:02,349
I mean, that, you know, concerns me
with with all this housing

425
00:19:02,724 --> 00:19:07,062
and how it's going to affect, revenues
that, you know, I don't know, you

426
00:19:07,104 --> 00:19:10,107
guys, we're here,
but we can't move that square.

427
00:19:12,067 --> 00:19:13,944
You know, we're all

428
00:19:13,944 --> 00:19:17,531
going to reduce taxes
on the things that are going

429
00:19:17,614 --> 00:19:21,201
to the citizens of the county
that never came through.

430
00:19:22,327 --> 00:19:24,788
And, you know, I think like building

431
00:19:24,788 --> 00:19:27,791
a building, we're also, like, changing

432
00:19:28,250 --> 00:19:30,836
the environment.

433
00:19:30,836 --> 00:19:33,839
So I grew up, I think.

434
00:19:35,674 --> 00:19:38,927
A little town,
and now it's becoming a city.

435
00:19:39,678 --> 00:19:43,473
And, you know,
question is the people in this town.

436
00:19:45,601 --> 00:19:48,604
Tell them.

437
00:19:51,565 --> 00:19:53,942
Is it
going to really help with the tax burden?

438
00:19:53,942 --> 00:19:56,904
And I really have serious concerns

439
00:19:56,904 --> 00:19:59,281
because I think the spending,

440
00:19:59,281 --> 00:20:02,284
you know, outpacing spending.

441
00:20:04,953 --> 00:20:06,121
I agree with that.

442
00:20:06,121 --> 00:20:09,541
I think, money
does come through with these properties,

443
00:20:09,541 --> 00:20:12,920
but it doesn't address
our underlying issue with, with spending.

444
00:20:13,795 --> 00:20:15,339
It's a really complex issue.

445
00:20:15,339 --> 00:20:17,883
I mean,
you really we can go on ours for this.

446
00:20:18,884 --> 00:20:21,470
You know, we only have 50 minutes
with Feeney.

447
00:20:21,470 --> 00:20:23,722
Yeah, there's. Oh, there's, you know,
there's questions of property rights.

448
00:20:23,722 --> 00:20:27,351
You know, how much can one person say
that somebody can do to their property?

449
00:20:27,684 --> 00:20:31,188
You know, there's questions
about the character of the town.

450
00:20:31,188 --> 00:20:33,398
There's questions of traffic and road
safety.

451
00:20:33,398 --> 00:20:35,984
There's questions of
how do we serve the next generation.

452
00:20:35,984 --> 00:20:37,736
You know, many people
who may be listening.

453
00:20:37,736 --> 00:20:40,822
They may have children who maybe,
you know, high school age

454
00:20:40,822 --> 00:20:46,370
or you have a high school age child,
you know, do we want to, build places

455
00:20:46,370 --> 00:20:49,498
where young people can live and perhaps,
you know, get a foothold in our town?

456
00:20:49,957 --> 00:20:54,962
And, and we do know that building, you
know, increasing supply does reduce costs.

457
00:20:55,254 --> 00:20:58,215
We're seeing some landlords, 
providing incentives already,

458
00:20:58,215 --> 00:21:00,467
as a lot of suppliers
come on onto the market

459
00:21:00,467 --> 00:21:02,135
and they have to compete
against each other.

460
00:21:02,135 --> 00:21:04,972
So you do control costs, in your housing
by building more.

461
00:21:04,972 --> 00:21:08,433
But, it's a it's a it's
a very complicated conversation.

462
00:21:08,433 --> 00:21:12,145
I mean, it's not something that, you know,
one sound bite or, you know, one,

463
00:21:12,646 --> 00:21:13,313
you know, one.

464
00:21:15,357 --> 00:21:18,235
It's hard
to capture in a short amount of time, but.

465
00:21:18,235 --> 00:21:19,820
So we want to respect the character
of our town.

466
00:21:19,820 --> 00:21:23,407
We want to, you know,
not over overburden our, infrastructure,

467
00:21:23,740 --> 00:21:26,243
not overburden our existing citizens.

468
00:21:26,243 --> 00:21:29,246
We don't want to make outsized
promises of,

469
00:21:29,246 --> 00:21:31,373
you know,
that this is going to financially,

470
00:21:31,373 --> 00:21:34,167
that we're going to build our way out of,
financial problems.

471
00:21:34,167 --> 00:21:35,794
Exactly, exactly.

472
00:21:35,794 --> 00:21:38,213
But, you know, the town has changed.

473
00:21:38,213 --> 00:21:41,091
You know, we used to be
a little farming town not that long ago.

474
00:21:41,091 --> 00:21:44,511
And, the town will continue to change.

475
00:21:44,761 --> 00:21:47,889
If we don't change, if we don't build.

476
00:21:47,889 --> 00:21:51,143
The other issue is, as we see in places
like Massachusetts and California,

477
00:21:51,768 --> 00:21:53,979
the town still changes.

478
00:21:53,979 --> 00:21:56,732
Its the makeup of the people that change
because our housing costs

479
00:21:56,732 --> 00:21:59,401
start to skyrocket.
They start to really go through the roof.

480
00:21:59,401 --> 00:22:02,362
And that changes the type of people
who can afford to live in our town.

481
00:22:02,362 --> 00:22:05,449
So, if you if you don't

482
00:22:05,449 --> 00:22:08,618
build at all physically,
the town looks the same,

483
00:22:09,411 --> 00:22:13,707
but the type of people who can afford
to live in your town, as we see in places

484
00:22:13,707 --> 00:22:17,669
like California or Massachusetts, change
dramatically, dramatically.

485
00:22:17,669 --> 00:22:22,215
So, it's a very multifaceted issue
that we try to

486
00:22:22,549 --> 00:22:25,427
we're trying to thread a needle,
you know, another another piece.

487
00:22:25,427 --> 00:22:27,512
And Jason,
both of these guys just nailed it.

488
00:22:27,512 --> 00:22:31,933
But another piece is
we are at the mercy, as

489
00:22:31,933 --> 00:22:35,062
is everybody at the mercy of, for example,
construction cost.

490
00:22:35,312 --> 00:22:36,563
So let's talk pluses.

491
00:22:36,563 --> 00:22:38,482
So let's talk about you
because you've got properties.

492
00:22:39,649 --> 00:22:40,609
So many people

493
00:22:40,609 --> 00:22:43,779
wanted to build single family residences

494
00:22:43,945 --> 00:22:47,991
because that would be 14
acres on one side.

495
00:22:47,991 --> 00:22:49,368
You forget
how many were on the other side.

496
00:22:49,368 --> 00:22:52,704
But and the dream is split up to build

497
00:22:52,704 --> 00:22:55,999
a single family, single family
homes, starter homes, that sort of thing.

498
00:22:55,999 --> 00:22:59,002
But when you look at what
a third of an acre of land

499
00:22:59,002 --> 00:23:03,882
possible was after day
225 to $275,000 with dirt.

500
00:23:04,508 --> 00:23:07,511
And then we got the construction
cost of the average house,

501
00:23:07,719 --> 00:23:10,722
275 to 3 and a quarter per square foot,

502
00:23:10,847 --> 00:23:15,727
that 1000ft², you're at $600,000, 1000ft².

503
00:23:16,770 --> 00:23:19,398
It's really tiny.
And that's a lot of money.

504
00:23:19,398 --> 00:23:22,526
So there's so so you have to go
and you have to find

505
00:23:22,526 --> 00:23:25,112
the most efficient solution,
the most efficient solution.

506
00:23:25,112 --> 00:23:27,656
Right now for developers,
they're not going to

507
00:23:27,656 --> 00:23:29,658
they can't make money on them.

508
00:23:29,658 --> 00:23:31,701
They're going to build what we're seeing.

509
00:23:31,701 --> 00:23:32,702
You know, the larger

510
00:23:32,702 --> 00:23:35,705
developments with the small shopping areas
and that sort of thing.

511
00:23:35,789 --> 00:23:38,834
So it's yeah, to Jason's point,
we could spend

512
00:23:39,418 --> 00:23:41,920
two hours just on this issue.
It is so many.

513
00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:44,089
There's so many dimensions to it.
It is so complicated.

514
00:23:44,089 --> 00:23:47,050
And we're at the mercy
of economic conditions.

515
00:23:47,050 --> 00:23:49,010
And, you know,
the builders aren't going to build

516
00:23:49,010 --> 00:23:52,514
contrary to economic conditions
when economic conditions permit.

517
00:23:52,973 --> 00:23:53,765
Well, they lose money.

518
00:23:56,059 --> 00:23:56,726
When you refer to

519
00:23:56,726 --> 00:23:59,729
Yukon, is that the one on trout Brook
right here with the construction.

520
00:24:00,188 --> 00:24:00,522
Yeah.

521
00:24:00,522 --> 00:24:02,482
So yeah, there's a lot going on on there.

522
00:24:02,482 --> 00:24:06,236
It'll be online at some point
this year as parts of it will be 1800.

523
00:24:06,236 --> 00:24:08,447
It's going to take a little bit longer

524
00:24:08,447 --> 00:24:09,322
you know. Yeah.

525
00:24:09,322 --> 00:24:11,032
I would add on to that one thing,
which is I'm

526
00:24:11,032 --> 00:24:14,077
as I'm gradually learning
as well as time goes on.

527
00:24:14,077 --> 00:24:15,036
But there are

528
00:24:15,036 --> 00:24:20,459
there are ways for government
to deregulate and shift that cost calculus

529
00:24:20,459 --> 00:24:24,504
to make it more likely that small single
family homes can get built.

530
00:24:25,046 --> 00:24:30,385
So there is there are material costs, but
there are also a lot of regulatory costs.

531
00:24:30,802 --> 00:24:33,805
And so when we have excessive
regulatory costs to build,

532
00:24:34,639 --> 00:24:38,268
to build housing, 
you know, those are fixed costs, you know,

533
00:24:38,268 --> 00:24:42,606
hiring a lawyer, hiring a PR firm,
hiring engineers, those are fixed costs.

534
00:24:42,606 --> 00:24:49,070
So you can't build, like six small units
if you just spent $700,000 on your,

535
00:24:49,070 --> 00:24:52,532
you know, on on regulatory costs
before you, you broke ground.

536
00:24:53,116 --> 00:24:57,162
So there are ways to shift
that cost calculus

537
00:24:57,162 --> 00:25:00,207
so that it's more likely that more
and more economically

538
00:25:00,207 --> 00:25:03,001
favorable for a developer
to build single family homes,

539
00:25:03,001 --> 00:25:05,795
because it feels impossible
that we wouldn't see it in places like,

540
00:25:05,795 --> 00:25:09,257
you know, Texas or,
you know, other places in the country.

541
00:25:10,342 --> 00:25:13,345
So because their material costs
are not that different, us

542
00:25:13,595 --> 00:25:17,349
there's a market difference and regulatory
costs, land costs is significant,

543
00:25:17,974 --> 00:25:20,977
but, I don't think it's prohibitive
to build starter homes.

544
00:25:21,228 --> 00:25:24,648
But we, the government, make it
pretty hard to build starter homes.

545
00:25:26,816 --> 00:25:27,067
Yeah.

546
00:25:27,067 --> 00:25:28,985
This is this is deep.

547
00:25:28,985 --> 00:25:30,737
I asked that quick question. Yeah.

548
00:25:30,737 --> 00:25:31,696
Like you, you weren't kidding.

549
00:25:31,696 --> 00:25:34,449
When you go on forever, you want us to.

550
00:25:34,449 --> 00:25:36,159
We can go back to talking about soda
if you want to.

551
00:25:36,159 --> 00:25:39,246
Yeah, I, I mean, it's it's

552
00:25:39,621 --> 00:25:42,457
the affordable
housing crisis is a nationwide problem.

553
00:25:42,457 --> 00:25:45,544
And it is so common
that there's no easy answers.

554
00:25:45,627 --> 00:25:47,087
Yeah, there's no easy answer.

555
00:25:47,087 --> 00:25:47,796
Right?

556
00:25:47,796 --> 00:25:50,715
Well, I'm all for affordability.

557
00:25:50,715 --> 00:25:51,675
I want some more work.

558
00:25:51,675 --> 00:25:54,636
We need students.

559
00:25:54,761 --> 00:25:56,972
I need will I stay in business?

560
00:25:56,972 --> 00:25:59,015
Well,
there's. Will students be in the schools?

561
00:25:59,015 --> 00:26:02,102
Well, I mean, as housing costs
go up, family sizes go down.

562
00:26:02,102 --> 00:26:04,062
Eric, you know this, right?

563
00:26:04,062 --> 00:26:04,396
Yeah.

564
00:26:04,396 --> 00:26:08,400
Yeah, well, families are down,
but people have fewer kids.

565
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:08,608
When?

566
00:26:08,608 --> 00:26:11,736
Yeah, when your housing
cost is insane, you know? So,

567
00:26:12,904 --> 00:26:13,780
getting our housing costs

568
00:26:13,780 --> 00:26:16,783
under control
will keep you in business. Yes,

569
00:26:18,159 --> 00:26:19,327
I like it, Eric.

570
00:26:19,327 --> 00:26:21,162
It's your fault, I like it, I like it.

571
00:26:21,162 --> 00:26:23,623
Talk about soda.

572
00:26:23,623 --> 00:26:26,126
It's not a fox and park.

573
00:26:26,126 --> 00:26:29,129
So tonight
you have a meeting with, Mayor Cantor,

574
00:26:30,130 --> 00:26:30,463
right?

575
00:26:30,463 --> 00:26:34,050
So, Harris Lyons, McGinnis.

576
00:26:34,050 --> 00:26:38,179
Walters, Winograd pool in Lazarus

577
00:26:38,930 --> 00:26:43,226
and Wayne Wang, you
you must have been absent February 10th.

578
00:26:43,226 --> 00:26:43,852
Were you there?

579
00:26:43,852 --> 00:26:45,437
Oh, I was trapped in California.

580
00:26:45,437 --> 00:26:47,063
Yeah, the

581
00:26:47,063 --> 00:26:50,066
housing hellscape.

582
00:26:50,984 --> 00:26:51,693
Sherry Kanter,

583
00:26:51,693 --> 00:26:55,614
wonderful podcast guest number 35,
Lazarus and pool.

584
00:26:55,614 --> 00:26:57,991
And 152 together.

585
00:26:57,991 --> 00:26:59,492
Barry Walters 56.

586
00:26:59,492 --> 00:27:01,286
Go back and check them out.

587
00:27:01,286 --> 00:27:03,705
Lou Brown, we talked about the byline.

588
00:27:03,705 --> 00:27:06,249
We talked about honeycomb.

589
00:27:06,249 --> 00:27:09,252
Real estate.

590
00:27:10,378 --> 00:27:10,754
Oh, yeah.

591
00:27:10,754 --> 00:27:13,214
So let's see what else we have here.

592
00:27:13,214 --> 00:27:16,176
Oh, a lot of people moved over
to the Human Rights Commission.

593
00:27:16,426 --> 00:27:18,553
Carol Blank's good friend. She has twins.

594
00:27:18,553 --> 00:27:24,434
I have twins Michael Bloom, great golfer,
terrible basketball player, good friend.

595
00:27:24,684 --> 00:27:27,395
Andrew, just moved here.

596
00:27:27,395 --> 00:27:29,606
Great. He's on the human rights.

597
00:27:29,606 --> 00:27:31,733
So I was interested to see some familiar
names.

598
00:27:31,733 --> 00:27:33,568
We do. And it's around this time of year.

599
00:27:33,568 --> 00:27:37,322
December, January, February where all the
you know, we're several through there's

600
00:27:37,405 --> 00:27:39,532
there's several commissions and boards
in town.

601
00:27:39,532 --> 00:27:42,118
There's, only 30 of them.

602
00:27:42,118 --> 00:27:46,498
And the first thing we had to do
when we stepped into our role is to start,

603
00:27:47,248 --> 00:27:50,251
you know, people who were expiring
or who were expired,

604
00:27:50,460 --> 00:27:53,338
like,
we had a we had, I think, three instances,

605
00:27:53,338 --> 00:27:56,758
3 or 4 instances
where people were still serving,

606
00:27:57,050 --> 00:28:00,929
but it expired a year or 2 or 3 years ago,
just somehow, you know, just got this.

607
00:28:00,929 --> 00:28:02,555
And so we had to do a lot of that.

608
00:28:02,555 --> 00:28:05,517
But it's really, it's really interesting
because all this commission supports

609
00:28:05,892 --> 00:28:09,688
zoning, really have a big input on policy,
the direction the town takes.

610
00:28:09,688 --> 00:28:10,980
So they're all on board.

611
00:28:10,980 --> 00:28:14,901
And speaking of zoning,
this big Y in the, West Farms parking lot,

612
00:28:15,276 --> 00:28:16,194
that should be huge.

613
00:28:16,194 --> 00:28:17,320
Yeah, that's

614
00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:21,074
I'm not sure why, because it's on the it's
on the kind of the southwest side.

615
00:28:21,074 --> 00:28:23,159
So like ten parking spaces there in West.

616
00:28:23,159 --> 00:28:24,577
Can you.

617
00:28:24,577 --> 00:28:25,870
So who's going to vote for it?

618
00:28:25,870 --> 00:28:27,455
Are you a yay or nay on the big Y?

619
00:28:27,455 --> 00:28:29,541
Can you say yay or nay?

620
00:28:29,541 --> 00:28:30,250
I don't think we can say.

621
00:28:30,250 --> 00:28:33,420
Can we give an exclusive right now for the
for any Talks with Friends podcast?

622
00:28:34,170 --> 00:28:36,005
It's literally a sliver of land in West.

623
00:28:36,005 --> 00:28:37,924
It's not that it's not a big scoop we had.

624
00:28:37,924 --> 00:28:39,926
I'll swipe
I'll give you a quick funny story.

625
00:28:39,926 --> 00:28:41,970
So you know, the
you know, the Wendy's across the street.

626
00:28:41,970 --> 00:28:42,554
Yep. Okay.

627
00:28:42,554 --> 00:28:45,557
So I was half West Hartford,
half of half Farmington.

628
00:28:45,682 --> 00:28:48,268
So they brought they wanted to really want
to renovate the restaurant,

629
00:28:48,268 --> 00:28:49,811
which desperately needs renovation.

630
00:28:49,811 --> 00:28:51,980
And they want to drive through it.

631
00:28:51,980 --> 00:28:55,233
And, you know, West
Hartford is slow to accept drive thrus.

632
00:28:55,275 --> 00:28:58,486
But they came they put a phenomenal
presentation forward.

633
00:28:58,945 --> 00:29:01,948
We approved a renovation drive
through great

634
00:29:02,031 --> 00:29:06,035
waiting for the construction and stuff
going on from to it down.

635
00:29:06,536 --> 00:29:08,580
So it's so complicated Jason.

636
00:29:08,580 --> 00:29:10,290
Kids about, you know, approving ten spots.

637
00:29:10,290 --> 00:29:12,751
But literally we could tank the whole deal

638
00:29:12,751 --> 00:29:17,088
if and I'm not saying I certainly wouldn't
want to take the deal,

639
00:29:17,088 --> 00:29:21,468
but you know, but for just ten, ten spots,
it could take an entire.

640
00:29:22,510 --> 00:29:24,095
So is that Wendy's open or not?

641
00:29:24,095 --> 00:29:26,765
Is closed really?

642
00:29:26,765 --> 00:29:26,931
Wait.

643
00:29:26,931 --> 00:29:29,309
It's not going to yeah I know yeah.

644
00:29:29,309 --> 00:29:30,268
It's good.

645
00:29:30,268 --> 00:29:31,102
What about. Yeah.

646
00:29:31,102 --> 00:29:34,105
Because I've been here for 17 years
and I was like,

647
00:29:34,105 --> 00:29:36,691
I don't want to move to West Hartford.
They don't have drive through.

648
00:29:36,691 --> 00:29:39,611
I was huge, but now they've shifted

649
00:29:39,611 --> 00:29:42,614
a lot of Chipotle Lane,
which is a quasi drive,

650
00:29:43,323 --> 00:29:44,908
which is Starbucks.

651
00:29:44,908 --> 00:29:45,116
Yeah.

652
00:29:45,116 --> 00:29:47,911
They got the Starbucks drive through,

653
00:29:47,911 --> 00:29:49,162
again.

654
00:29:49,162 --> 00:29:51,122
So we got there. That's funny.

655
00:29:51,122 --> 00:29:52,415
Drive thrus.

656
00:29:52,415 --> 00:29:55,585
Key to I'm going to pick on Kevin Allen
who is a dear friend.

657
00:29:55,585 --> 00:29:56,961
He is the chair of zoning.

658
00:29:56,961 --> 00:30:00,298
And I've got nothing but respect
to the right kind of Kevin.

659
00:30:00,298 --> 00:30:03,259
Come a couple of drives a couple drivers.

660
00:30:03,259 --> 00:30:03,718
We should get him,

661
00:30:05,345 --> 00:30:06,262
chairs on

662
00:30:06,262 --> 00:30:09,265
traffic generator, make big traffic
generator.

663
00:30:09,516 --> 00:30:10,308
Yeah. That's true.

664
00:30:10,308 --> 00:30:12,185
People get worked up about housing units.

665
00:30:12,185 --> 00:30:14,771
But then you see how much traffic I know.

666
00:30:14,771 --> 00:30:16,773
You see how much traffic at a Chick-Fil-A.

667
00:30:16,773 --> 00:30:20,026
Maybe I forgot what town
I was in, but the drive thru

668
00:30:20,026 --> 00:30:23,029
was going into the main road.

669
00:30:23,238 --> 00:30:24,531
I forgot where I was.

670
00:30:24,531 --> 00:30:27,867
I like Florida,
yeah, but I, I went to the,

671
00:30:27,867 --> 00:30:30,870
The Raising Cane's when Enfield opened.

672
00:30:31,788 --> 00:30:33,289
It was insane.

673
00:30:33,289 --> 00:30:37,168
They had like the whole police
force out there directing traffic

674
00:30:37,168 --> 00:30:40,380
around the drive thru, you know, it's
it was crazy.

675
00:30:42,215 --> 00:30:45,009
And then, February 24th, snow day.

676
00:30:45,009 --> 00:30:45,927
That was a fun meeting.

677
00:30:45,927 --> 00:30:49,848
I enjoyed the 24
dimensionally as a teacher, I enjoyed.

678
00:30:49,848 --> 00:30:51,182
We had three snow days.

679
00:30:51,182 --> 00:30:53,059
We had three snow days.

680
00:30:53,059 --> 00:30:55,520
We had Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday off
and a two hour delay.

681
00:30:55,520 --> 00:30:55,812
Right.

682
00:30:55,812 --> 00:30:59,607
And you have to our belief that we got
it was a crazy I don't know.

683
00:31:00,024 --> 00:31:02,235
So you got to justify your snow.

684
00:31:02,235 --> 00:31:02,819
Yeah we'll see.

685
00:31:02,819 --> 00:31:05,029
Well we don't have any free ones.

686
00:31:05,029 --> 00:31:07,699
No one using me.

687
00:31:07,699 --> 00:31:10,159
Yeah. Right now it's Thursday, June 18th.

688
00:31:10,159 --> 00:31:14,163
Yeah, I know it was supposed to be
the 11th or something.

689
00:31:14,163 --> 00:31:15,707
Yeah, it's
usually between the ninth and the 11th,

690
00:31:17,250 --> 00:31:17,750
so. But

691
00:31:17,750 --> 00:31:20,753
really
because you, you were absent that day to.

692
00:31:21,004 --> 00:31:23,131
Come on man, that's two days.
And you know I don't know if that's right.

693
00:31:23,131 --> 00:31:24,632
I was definitely there in the 10th.
I don't know why.

694
00:31:24,632 --> 00:31:27,010
It's as I was absent. I'm not one of them.

695
00:31:27,010 --> 00:31:28,720
Know this this 10th.

696
00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:31,139
Yeah. Were you in Cali? No,
I wasn't in California.

697
00:31:31,139 --> 00:31:32,015
Oh, I was there.

698
00:31:32,015 --> 00:31:33,182
Oh, okay. Snow day.

699
00:31:33,182 --> 00:31:36,144
I forgot to tell me.

700
00:31:36,144 --> 00:31:37,854
It's like trouble.

701
00:31:37,854 --> 00:31:40,773
I don't know what's going to
I didn't I didn't miss two meetings.

702
00:31:40,773 --> 00:31:42,317
I only missed one.
Maybe going to miss the one.

703
00:31:42,317 --> 00:31:45,403
And it was really only missed one meeting
where I was trapped in California.

704
00:31:46,821 --> 00:31:48,573
And it's in the legislative chambers.

705
00:31:48,573 --> 00:31:51,576
Room 314 starts at 730.

706
00:31:51,618 --> 00:31:57,415
Huge shout out to the West
Hartford Community Interactive on YouTube

707
00:31:57,415 --> 00:32:00,793
because their live streamed Jen
Evans is an amazing person.

708
00:32:00,793 --> 00:32:03,630
She's a great friend,
so keep up the good work. Jen.

709
00:32:03,630 --> 00:32:06,799
It's very
we watched the board of Ed online

710
00:32:06,799 --> 00:32:10,345
thanks to them sporting events,
thanks to them and now the town council.

711
00:32:10,345 --> 00:32:14,098
Thanks to it, I was able to review
last year's budget meeting.

712
00:32:14,098 --> 00:32:17,143
Budget budget presentation
meetings and budget approval meeting

713
00:32:17,143 --> 00:32:19,062
so I can get a feel for how it works.

714
00:32:19,062 --> 00:32:20,521
Yeah, budgets change over there.

715
00:32:20,521 --> 00:32:22,774
So they they archive everything.

716
00:32:22,774 --> 00:32:24,275
John Adams is an absolute.

717
00:32:25,276 --> 00:32:26,402
Just a gift.

718
00:32:26,402 --> 00:32:28,738
Absolutely. Every word.

719
00:32:28,738 --> 00:32:32,158
I watched the first 20 minutes
to see my daughter's presentation.

720
00:32:33,576 --> 00:32:36,454
She's more interactive
with the information.

721
00:32:36,454 --> 00:32:37,956
Yeah.

722
00:32:37,956 --> 00:32:40,625
There are a couple teachers I know
in the crowd, and, like, she's good.

723
00:32:40,625 --> 00:32:42,835
Most don't ask questions

724
00:32:42,835 --> 00:32:45,755
because as a high schooler, you're
sitting is scared, but she's not afraid.

725
00:32:45,755 --> 00:32:48,633
So I like that about her
and very proud of her.

726
00:32:48,633 --> 00:32:53,096
Yes, she engages
and asks clarification questions

727
00:32:53,096 --> 00:32:56,849
at some point, like late in the night,
to where people might be zoned out.

728
00:32:57,266 --> 00:33:00,061
She's on it, so I'm super proud of her.

729
00:33:00,061 --> 00:33:01,938
Yeah. Wait, what year in school?

730
00:33:01,938 --> 00:33:04,399
She's a senior. Oh, great. Great.

731
00:33:04,399 --> 00:33:06,317
She know what she's doing next year?

732
00:33:06,317 --> 00:33:08,987
Possibly. PA program at Quinnipiac.

733
00:33:08,987 --> 00:33:09,612
Oh, great.

734
00:33:09,612 --> 00:33:11,155
Any advice?

735
00:33:11,155 --> 00:33:13,366
It's a great career path. Yeah.
We love our.

736
00:33:13,366 --> 00:33:14,283
They're awesome.

737
00:33:14,283 --> 00:33:16,035
You can do a direct. No,
I have to go to college.

738
00:33:16,035 --> 00:33:17,412
It's three and three.

739
00:33:17,412 --> 00:33:18,329
Oh, great.

740
00:33:18,329 --> 00:33:20,415
I'm that's a smart way to go.

741
00:33:20,415 --> 00:33:23,126
You know we are such a huge deal.

742
00:33:23,126 --> 00:33:25,294
There's such a huge help.

743
00:33:25,294 --> 00:33:29,966
Yeah, yeah, it probably probably
undersells the to say they're a huge help.

744
00:33:29,966 --> 00:33:33,344
They're they're really a huge, huge, huge
contributor to our health care system.

745
00:33:33,803 --> 00:33:35,722
So yeah it's a great kid.
Tell her that. Yeah.

746
00:33:35,722 --> 00:33:36,514
What minute are we.

747
00:33:38,307 --> 00:33:40,143
34, 34.

748
00:33:40,143 --> 00:33:41,185
We got a Bridget 34.

749
00:33:41,185 --> 00:33:42,270
We're going to get some good advice

750
00:33:42,270 --> 00:33:44,856
from when you give them
maximum beverage of luck.

751
00:33:44,856 --> 00:33:46,065
They gave us give me work.

752
00:33:46,065 --> 00:33:49,652
So yes,
maximum beverage is the place to be.

753
00:33:49,652 --> 00:33:51,029
I can't thank them enough.

754
00:33:51,029 --> 00:33:53,906
Friends of Feeney
has been the beneficiary of their

755
00:33:53,906 --> 00:33:57,118
whiskey event for six years in a row.

756
00:33:57,160 --> 00:33:59,078
There's a check for $7,000 over there.

757
00:33:59,078 --> 00:33:59,328
See that?

758
00:33:59,328 --> 00:34:01,706
Jason Lee? Check.

759
00:34:01,706 --> 00:34:03,082
I'm want to throw it in the back car.

760
00:34:03,082 --> 00:34:05,460
Back of your car like Happy Gilmore? No.

761
00:34:05,460 --> 00:34:06,544
Never see Happy Gilmore.

762
00:34:06,544 --> 00:34:08,588
No, no, but,

763
00:34:08,588 --> 00:34:10,173
no, I don't really want to take
your check.

764
00:34:10,173 --> 00:34:11,340
That's a nice check.

765
00:34:11,340 --> 00:34:12,091
You want.

766
00:34:12,091 --> 00:34:14,260
I'm not sure where you're going with this.

767
00:34:14,260 --> 00:34:16,679
You want me to take your time?
I'll take it, take it, take it.

768
00:34:16,679 --> 00:34:18,848
No. It's a good looking jacket.

769
00:34:18,848 --> 00:34:20,266
Very nice, isn't it? Very nice.

770
00:34:20,266 --> 00:34:23,144
Yeah. Oh, big, big news tonight. Big news.
All right.

771
00:34:23,144 --> 00:34:25,354
What are we voting yay or nay on this?

772
00:34:25,354 --> 00:34:25,855
We can't tell you.

773
00:34:27,231 --> 00:34:28,649
I'm willing to listen.

774
00:34:28,649 --> 00:34:31,319
I'm teasing. What do we got?

775
00:34:31,319 --> 00:34:31,903
Signage?

776
00:34:31,903 --> 00:34:34,405
Yeah, the signage on Farmington Ave.

777
00:34:34,405 --> 00:34:37,408
It is a data payroll services.

778
00:34:38,326 --> 00:34:40,203
That's. Todd is the guy.

779
00:34:40,203 --> 00:34:41,871
John, town planner.

780
00:34:41,871 --> 00:34:42,371
Yeah.

781
00:34:42,371 --> 00:34:46,876
It is, these these are fairly routine.

782
00:34:47,585 --> 00:34:50,254
What I can tell you is typically,
if zoning is comfortable,

783
00:34:50,254 --> 00:34:53,257
they typically tend to,

784
00:34:54,634 --> 00:34:57,386
not reveal
how we're going to keep that a big secret.

785
00:34:57,386 --> 00:34:58,304
That's why I keep asking.

786
00:34:58,304 --> 00:34:59,388
I know you can't answer.

787
00:34:59,388 --> 00:35:02,225
That's why I keep asking.

788
00:35:02,225 --> 00:35:06,312
We tipped them off before you got it,
so I'll be tuning in.

789
00:35:06,521 --> 00:35:09,524
Sometimes we vote on things where I just,
you know, it's like,

790
00:35:09,565 --> 00:35:11,526
why does the government
have to tell people

791
00:35:11,526 --> 00:35:14,195
what they can do with their own property
for certain issues?

792
00:35:14,195 --> 00:35:16,364
Are so are these

793
00:35:16,364 --> 00:35:18,533
some of the issues are so small that,
you know, it's like,

794
00:35:18,533 --> 00:35:22,036
why do we have to tell people, you know,
yes, you may do this to your own property,

795
00:35:22,036 --> 00:35:25,498
you know, or the old parking RVs in the
in their driveway.

796
00:35:25,498 --> 00:35:26,415
Right.

797
00:35:26,415 --> 00:35:29,836
So I give these this is where again,
I give these guys, these two guys

798
00:35:30,002 --> 00:35:35,216
give it to folks so much credit
because we had an RV ordinance.

799
00:35:35,216 --> 00:35:37,677
It's kind of a fascinating situation
because it was an ordinance.

800
00:35:37,677 --> 00:35:40,680
I was it was written
and authored by the citizen.

801
00:35:41,097 --> 00:35:43,683
And that it's only happened once, I think

802
00:35:43,683 --> 00:35:46,686
twice this century, twice since 2000.

803
00:35:46,978 --> 00:35:49,897
So it was a really fascinating study
to see somebody do that.

804
00:35:49,897 --> 00:35:53,651
And it was a very well written ordinance,
but it didn't consider a lot of factors

805
00:35:53,651 --> 00:35:57,029
like back to factors like that
and things like that.

806
00:35:57,029 --> 00:36:00,032
So we voted it down.

807
00:36:00,116 --> 00:36:05,580
But like in my remarks I said a
I think there's something here.

808
00:36:05,580 --> 00:36:07,832
I really hope as a citizen,
I hope you stick with it.

809
00:36:07,832 --> 00:36:09,876
Keep keep going,
keep working with town staff.

810
00:36:09,876 --> 00:36:12,003
Let's get this right
so we can all vote. Yes.

811
00:36:12,003 --> 00:36:14,755
And and I'm sorry, I don't remember
which one of you following up.

812
00:36:14,755 --> 00:36:17,508
We didn't all vote the same way.

813
00:36:17,508 --> 00:36:19,468
Yeah. Yeah, I voted that people should.

814
00:36:19,468 --> 00:36:22,263
Yeah, they're going against RVs
when people have the RVs.

815
00:36:22,263 --> 00:36:25,474
The other thing is that
the town is taxing people on their RV,

816
00:36:25,683 --> 00:36:28,186
but not allowing them
to keep it on their property.

817
00:36:29,562 --> 00:36:32,231
Yeah, I pay taxes on it.

818
00:36:32,231 --> 00:36:33,691
I can't put this away.

819
00:36:33,691 --> 00:36:35,067
I thought that was a great point.

820
00:36:35,067 --> 00:36:38,070
We we we should all situation.

821
00:36:38,070 --> 00:36:40,114
We tax them to own it.

822
00:36:40,114 --> 00:36:42,533
Then we find them because they own it.

823
00:36:42,533 --> 00:36:43,784
And then to change the ordinance,

824
00:36:43,784 --> 00:36:47,079
we charge them to submit an ordinance
which we then turned down.

825
00:36:47,788 --> 00:36:49,957
Kind of it's Sisyphean.

826
00:36:49,957 --> 00:36:51,626
Maybe it's, Yeah.

827
00:36:51,626 --> 00:36:56,339
It's so, no, we, I,
we voted in in storage

828
00:36:57,381 --> 00:36:59,550
to get it there. Yeah.

829
00:36:59,550 --> 00:37:02,803
The property, my zoning experience
kind of fooled my thinking.

830
00:37:02,803 --> 00:37:04,722
Nothing else. District,
in my experience on zoning.

831
00:37:04,722 --> 00:37:08,768
Because I know what some of this affects
our various areas, and,

832
00:37:08,768 --> 00:37:13,856
but it was very funny, and I just found it
very funny because the mayor,

833
00:37:14,523 --> 00:37:17,485
she doesn't usually do this
because this was such an unusual.

834
00:37:17,485 --> 00:37:18,778
And you can you can watch the video.

835
00:37:18,778 --> 00:37:23,366
It's public, but because of the type
in the way this ordinance was put forward,

836
00:37:23,908 --> 00:37:27,536
she said, okay, this is an unofficial
but I want to put through a straw vote

837
00:37:27,536 --> 00:37:28,996
and just where people fall.

838
00:37:28,996 --> 00:37:30,748
And we had discussed it.

839
00:37:30,748 --> 00:37:32,250
And normally we like to discuss things.

840
00:37:32,250 --> 00:37:33,960
We like to be on the same page
with things,

841
00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:36,712
even if we disagree to
how we get the police.

842
00:37:36,712 --> 00:37:38,256
And we'd like
to get to the same conclusion.

843
00:37:38,256 --> 00:37:39,966
We try the hardest. So

844
00:37:41,300 --> 00:37:43,386
it's like,
you know, everyone voting for it

845
00:37:43,386 --> 00:37:44,971
and you know, then to have one.

846
00:37:44,971 --> 00:37:46,597
I'm sorry everyone voted for it.

847
00:37:46,597 --> 00:37:48,599
Two hands were enough and I was like,
you know,

848
00:37:48,599 --> 00:37:52,144
none of us expected it because we hadn't
had a chance to discuss it.

849
00:37:52,144 --> 00:37:55,856
But again,
I, I viewed it through my zoning lens.

850
00:37:56,399 --> 00:37:59,485
But I really think
I think there's something there.

851
00:37:59,485 --> 00:38:02,488
And I think I really encourage it for

852
00:38:02,655 --> 00:38:05,116
the gentleman who put this forward

853
00:38:05,116 --> 00:38:07,285
is watching this continue to work it.

854
00:38:07,285 --> 00:38:10,288
There's a you're on to something
and there's a way to make this work.

855
00:38:12,039 --> 00:38:12,331
All right.

856
00:38:12,331 --> 00:38:14,417
So our motto is be a good friend.

857
00:38:14,417 --> 00:38:17,420
Here at Friends of Heaney
I have one of those on my fridge.

858
00:38:17,878 --> 00:38:19,588
You know, pick up trash is not yours.

859
00:38:19,588 --> 00:38:22,550
Hold the door for people,
give compliments and be charitable.

860
00:38:22,550 --> 00:38:26,971
Do you have a nonprofit in West Hartford
that you support or enjoy?

861
00:38:26,971 --> 00:38:28,681
Volunteering or supporting

862
00:38:30,641 --> 00:38:32,351
the campaign, like West Hartford?

863
00:38:32,351 --> 00:38:34,020
Yeah, like West Hartford.

864
00:38:34,020 --> 00:38:34,979
That's a big one.

865
00:38:34,979 --> 00:38:38,149
And then we
I do not want to run the typical campaign.

866
00:38:38,607 --> 00:38:42,028
So we did food drives
throughout the campaign.

867
00:38:42,611 --> 00:38:44,071
And in fact,
now that the weather's breaking,

868
00:38:44,071 --> 00:38:46,449
we're going to start
doing food drives for that care.

869
00:38:46,449 --> 00:38:49,452
Well we did
we did one for count, 1 or 2 for Brown.

870
00:38:50,453 --> 00:38:53,414
We did one for Crown Charm.

871
00:38:53,414 --> 00:38:56,250
We've donated all the food to

872
00:38:56,250 --> 00:38:57,543
future podcast guests.

873
00:38:57,543 --> 00:39:00,338
The Crown will be going over there.
It's going to be great.

874
00:39:00,338 --> 00:39:02,173
Looking forward to it.

875
00:39:02,173 --> 00:39:04,592
Well, you have a magnet already,
so I want to give you a magnet

876
00:39:04,592 --> 00:39:05,885
and give you a magnet.

877
00:39:05,885 --> 00:39:09,347
And then you got to go around
and tell why someone's a good friend,

878
00:39:10,556 --> 00:39:12,350
someone at the table.

879
00:39:12,350 --> 00:39:13,976
It makes them a good friend.

880
00:39:13,976 --> 00:39:16,729
Oh I see well, you're wonderful.

881
00:39:16,729 --> 00:39:18,230
There you go.

882
00:39:18,230 --> 00:39:19,815
You're lovely.

883
00:39:19,815 --> 00:39:21,275
A lovely person.

884
00:39:21,275 --> 00:39:23,277
And you two election.

885
00:39:23,277 --> 00:39:24,779
All kidding aside, you fantastic son.

886
00:39:24,779 --> 00:39:27,573
Yes or no? Well, we've known each other
for many years, right?

887
00:39:27,573 --> 00:39:32,703
No, no, I, I unknowingly knew, Gayle, son,
for many, many years now, I've met.

888
00:39:32,787 --> 00:39:35,790
Yeah. Met and love hanging out with you.

889
00:39:36,165 --> 00:39:38,459
I it's very hard to pick between these.

890
00:39:38,459 --> 00:39:39,543
Yeah. I like you, too.

891
00:39:39,543 --> 00:39:41,879
Thank you. Jason,

892
00:39:41,879 --> 00:39:42,296
you can go.

893
00:39:42,296 --> 00:39:44,423
You can do both. I could do both.

894
00:39:44,423 --> 00:39:46,801
So I'll start with John.

895
00:39:46,801 --> 00:39:50,805
I, you know, John was like,
I met John, and I was on the board of

896
00:39:50,805 --> 00:39:53,182
I had I been down

897
00:39:53,182 --> 00:39:55,893
to the meetings and I was, you know,

898
00:39:55,893 --> 00:39:58,729
I knew he was very involved
in Democratic politics on my.

899
00:40:02,191 --> 00:40:04,193
To the right to degree.

900
00:40:04,193 --> 00:40:04,985
He would always, like,

901
00:40:04,985 --> 00:40:07,988
say nice things to me after the meeting
and I thought, oh, this is so

902
00:40:08,906 --> 00:40:09,365
important.

903
00:40:09,365 --> 00:40:12,034
Democratic politics don't.

904
00:40:12,034 --> 00:40:15,246
It was great
that you said that doing a great job.

905
00:40:16,664 --> 00:40:19,792
And I just found that, like,
so refreshing, particularly in today's

906
00:40:19,792 --> 00:40:23,879
climate where everything is so partizan
and nobody's allowed

907
00:40:23,879 --> 00:40:27,133
to, like, ever say anything
nice about somebody on the other side.

908
00:40:28,134 --> 00:40:31,137
And that's kind of how we developed
this friendship that, you know,

909
00:40:31,137 --> 00:40:34,974
we speak with very openly and, and say,
we got.

910
00:40:37,143 --> 00:40:40,104
To appreciate it.

911
00:40:40,354 --> 00:40:41,814
I, you know, love Jason.

912
00:40:41,814 --> 00:40:43,983
He's like an awesome doctor.

913
00:40:43,983 --> 00:40:47,361
He's, I got to work with him
because I am an elite unit, and

914
00:40:47,403 --> 00:40:51,323
but I also did a year
of addiction medicine, and I kind of.

915
00:40:51,323 --> 00:40:52,324
That's how I met Jason.

916
00:40:53,742 --> 00:40:56,203
He's like, you know,

917
00:40:56,203 --> 00:40:57,872
obviously a brilliant guy.

918
00:40:57,872 --> 00:41:00,541
And he's so caring about his patients.

919
00:41:00,541 --> 00:41:03,544
I mean, he really is invested

920
00:41:04,295 --> 00:41:07,631
his patients like,
you know, the few doctors

921
00:41:07,631 --> 00:41:10,634
and see them and just seems like.

922
00:41:12,094 --> 00:41:14,847
The community is very lucky.

923
00:41:14,847 --> 00:41:17,266
Thanks, Gail.

924
00:41:17,266 --> 00:41:19,101
Do you also do so

925
00:41:19,101 --> 00:41:22,897
drug addiction, alcohol addiction,
cell phone addiction.

926
00:41:22,897 --> 00:41:24,648
What else? You. Yeah, that's a real issue.

927
00:41:24,648 --> 00:41:24,982
Yeah.

928
00:41:24,982 --> 00:41:29,195
So, process addictions, 
social media addiction

929
00:41:29,195 --> 00:41:33,199
is not in the DSM five, but,
you know, gambling disorder or gambling.

930
00:41:33,199 --> 00:41:34,366
No gambling disorder.

931
00:41:34,366 --> 00:41:36,994
The years over into social media
and cell phone addiction.

932
00:41:36,994 --> 00:41:38,287
Now like with this,

933
00:41:38,287 --> 00:41:40,789
you know, like all the betting
that people can do on their phones.

934
00:41:40,789 --> 00:41:42,750
So I sometimes I try to help people
with that.

935
00:41:42,750 --> 00:41:45,753
So primarily

936
00:41:45,836 --> 00:41:48,923
drug and alcohol addiction, but sometimes
veering into behavioral addictions.

937
00:41:50,216 --> 00:41:52,801
Know I'll make a plug use,

938
00:41:52,801 --> 00:41:54,136
we want to fight stigma.

939
00:41:54,136 --> 00:41:57,139
We want to, treat people with humanity.

940
00:41:57,640 --> 00:42:02,311
And we want to recognize that addiction
is, it's it's a chronic disease.

941
00:42:02,311 --> 00:42:02,728
We treat it.

942
00:42:02,728 --> 00:42:03,103
We treat it

943
00:42:03,103 --> 00:42:06,148
like any other chronic disease model,
which means it's highly treatable.

944
00:42:06,690 --> 00:42:10,402
And people do really, really well,
if they're given a chance.

945
00:42:10,861 --> 00:42:14,823
So I feel that I love to feel
that happy to work with Galen

946
00:42:15,866 --> 00:42:17,201
in your recovery together.

947
00:42:17,201 --> 00:42:18,994
Connecticut.

948
00:42:18,994 --> 00:42:20,246
Oh, that's my private practice.

949
00:42:20,246 --> 00:42:23,165
But, 
my primary job is at Hartford Hospital.

950
00:42:23,165 --> 00:42:24,208
And, Yeah.

951
00:42:24,208 --> 00:42:26,835
So I have a primarily work
Hartford hospital.

952
00:42:26,835 --> 00:42:28,712
I have a small private practice.

953
00:42:28,712 --> 00:42:32,132
And then I also work in, as the president

954
00:42:32,132 --> 00:42:35,261
of the Connecticut Society of Addiction
Medicine, where, like, several hats.

955
00:42:35,678 --> 00:42:40,349
But, yeah, so we've covered together
Connecticut's one had I wear nice.

956
00:42:41,850 --> 00:42:43,561
What's kratom?

957
00:42:43,561 --> 00:42:43,852
You know,

958
00:42:43,852 --> 00:42:47,523
kratom is it's an over-the-counter drug
that people are getting addicted to.

959
00:42:47,815 --> 00:42:49,692
Yeah.
I just heard this for the first time.

960
00:42:49,692 --> 00:42:51,277
Never knew anything about it.

961
00:42:51,277 --> 00:42:53,946
Can you elaborate?
A we'll get to know a little bit about it.

962
00:42:53,946 --> 00:42:57,992
It's basically it's an opioid, like it's
a plant with opioid like effects.

963
00:42:57,992 --> 00:43:01,787
And people can get addicted to it
in a very similar way to opioids.

964
00:43:01,787 --> 00:43:04,790
And you can get it like at the gas station
in a convenience store.

965
00:43:04,873 --> 00:43:05,958
What does it do?

966
00:43:05,958 --> 00:43:07,001
It's got opioid like effects.

967
00:43:07,001 --> 00:43:11,213
So no, but what
why would I by great to have a cold

968
00:43:11,213 --> 00:43:14,883
I know to to feel
good to get a buzz. Yeah.

969
00:43:14,883 --> 00:43:19,638
So they sell it solely to sell to people
drug addicts and that sort of thing.

970
00:43:19,930 --> 00:43:22,516
Yeah. I mean you can basically
you can get addicted to the stuff.

971
00:43:22,516 --> 00:43:25,102
It's an herbal product.
It's a, it's a plant.

972
00:43:25,102 --> 00:43:28,856
And it's,
it's been legal for a long time.

973
00:43:28,856 --> 00:43:31,692
My understanding is the state
just switched it to schedule one.

974
00:43:31,692 --> 00:43:35,613
I don't know if that's finalized yet,
but it may be illegal as of right now.

975
00:43:35,904 --> 00:43:37,948
I'm sorry. I don't know that as a fact,
but I'm pretty sure it's.

976
00:43:37,948 --> 00:43:40,117
It's illegal
as of, like, a week or two ago.

977
00:43:40,117 --> 00:43:44,580
But, some people use it to try to get
themselves into recovery from opiates.

978
00:43:44,580 --> 00:43:48,083
So, for example, somebody who's addicted
to, oxycodone or Percocet,

979
00:43:48,417 --> 00:43:51,253
some people do try to use kratom
as a way to kind of wean themselves off.

980
00:43:51,253 --> 00:43:52,921
So there's there's
positive things about it too.

981
00:43:52,921 --> 00:43:54,840
But, a large proportion of people

982
00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:57,009
who use create them
end up becoming addicted to it.

983
00:43:57,009 --> 00:44:00,596
And then there a,
derivative of kratom called 708,

984
00:44:00,596 --> 00:44:04,892
which is basically, a highly concentrated
form of the active ingredient of kratom.

985
00:44:05,184 --> 00:44:07,144
And that's, far more addictive.

986
00:44:07,144 --> 00:44:08,437
That's a big it's a big, big problem.

987
00:44:08,437 --> 00:44:11,148
It's a big problem
in, for for younger people.

988
00:44:11,148 --> 00:44:14,234
Luckily, it's highly treatable again,
you know, very highly treatable.

989
00:44:14,234 --> 00:44:16,987
We treat it just like any other opioid
addiction, except it's easier to treat.

990
00:44:16,987 --> 00:44:20,407
We tend to use lower doses
of the typical medications we use.

991
00:44:20,824 --> 00:44:23,118
But it's good to know about because,

992
00:44:23,118 --> 00:44:25,204
you know, high schoolers
could be getting into it.

993
00:44:25,204 --> 00:44:26,664
College students could be getting into it.

994
00:44:26,664 --> 00:44:30,417
And, it's good to just kind of
be educated about it.

995
00:44:30,417 --> 00:44:31,085
Yeah.

996
00:44:31,085 --> 00:44:33,462
Just because it's made illegal
doesn't mean it's gonna disappear.

997
00:44:35,798 --> 00:44:38,425
So weird that something's sold
at a convenience store.

998
00:44:38,425 --> 00:44:39,968
It's scary.

999
00:44:39,968 --> 00:44:43,430
Well, we're we're in a good point.

1000
00:44:43,889 --> 00:44:45,599
Which is, by the way, it's just.

1001
00:44:45,599 --> 00:44:47,518
That's a sponsor. Easy.
They're easy for Jason.

1002
00:44:47,518 --> 00:44:50,312
They're sponsor.
There's no. I'm kidding. Kidding. Tokyo.

1003
00:44:50,312 --> 00:44:52,314
But now I. I agree with that.
We are currently.

1004
00:44:52,314 --> 00:44:54,775
You're making a good point. Crazy.
That's something addictive with kids.

1005
00:44:54,775 --> 00:44:56,860
So how dare they.

1006
00:44:56,860 --> 00:45:00,114
Well,
at least you got to be 21 like they don't.

1007
00:45:00,114 --> 00:45:01,740
Is there an age limit on this thing?

1008
00:45:01,740 --> 00:45:03,325
You know, that's a great question.
I'm not sure.

1009
00:45:03,325 --> 00:45:06,328
Like, so, Yeah.

1010
00:45:07,830 --> 00:45:08,038
Yeah.

1011
00:45:08,038 --> 00:45:10,624
Yeah, yeah.

1012
00:45:10,624 --> 00:45:13,293
So it's a problem
to treat some people for it and,

1013
00:45:13,293 --> 00:45:16,130
you know, for people
generally super successful in treatment.

1014
00:45:16,130 --> 00:45:19,133
But, it's it's
definitely causing some problems.

1015
00:45:19,174 --> 00:45:19,800
Jeez.

1016
00:45:20,884 --> 00:45:21,844
Well, thank you for sharing that

1017
00:45:21,844 --> 00:45:24,930
because I, I heard that and I was like,
I saw your guy's background.

1018
00:45:24,930 --> 00:45:27,933
I was like, I it's it's a good time
to ask that question.

1019
00:45:28,100 --> 00:45:29,685
Wow. And that's recovery together.

1020
00:45:29,685 --> 00:45:31,103
Talked.

1021
00:45:31,103 --> 00:45:33,939
Do you do a private practice to

1022
00:45:33,939 --> 00:45:35,774
where practice is private practice?

1023
00:45:35,774 --> 00:45:39,903
I spent most of my career in private
practice. I.

1024
00:45:42,656 --> 00:45:45,659
Was two years.

1025
00:45:47,703 --> 00:45:52,124
So have you ever heard the child
and how many

1026
00:45:53,500 --> 00:45:54,585
these 2000.

1027
00:45:54,585 --> 00:45:57,004
2000.

1028
00:45:57,004 --> 00:45:59,882
There's the headline Doctor Gail Harris's

1029
00:45:59,882 --> 00:46:02,885
Birth to 2000 children. So.

1030
00:46:03,135 --> 00:46:05,053
Oh, yeah, that's a silly question.

1031
00:46:05,053 --> 00:46:07,765
Silly.

1032
00:46:07,765 --> 00:46:09,725
Well, me personally.

1033
00:46:09,725 --> 00:46:12,144
Yeah. Yeah.

1034
00:46:12,144 --> 00:46:14,313
Oh, wow. Yeah.

1035
00:46:14,313 --> 00:46:15,063
We're going to delete that.

1036
00:46:15,063 --> 00:46:17,357
Maybe we'll fix that one to. Yeah.

1037
00:46:17,357 --> 00:46:20,068
Birth 2000. Yeah. Oops.

1038
00:46:20,068 --> 00:46:21,987
Way to put it. It's very strange.
Very strange.

1039
00:46:21,987 --> 00:46:26,074
I take that back I take that completely
back to God I just, I, I'm hopeful.

1040
00:46:26,074 --> 00:46:29,119
I've already said a lot of nice things,
but I just, you know, that

1041
00:46:29,119 --> 00:46:30,162
we're saying nice things about you.

1042
00:46:30,162 --> 00:46:33,540
And I do want to reiterate how much
respect for these guys, how grateful I am,

1043
00:46:33,957 --> 00:46:36,168
first of all, for their trust in me
and letting me sell them.

1044
00:46:36,168 --> 00:46:39,963
On the concept of running
with some of the work that they put in.

1045
00:46:39,963 --> 00:46:44,968
We have, you know, I think, you know,
this is an incredibly strong caucus.

1046
00:46:45,135 --> 00:46:50,849
And, when we vote on things, it's
going to be with the intent behind us,

1047
00:46:51,350 --> 00:46:53,852
with the statistics behind us, with a true

1048
00:46:53,852 --> 00:46:57,314
understanding of the issues
and not well, I think I'll just vote,

1049
00:46:58,899 --> 00:47:01,902
which we've seen that in the past

1050
00:47:02,027 --> 00:47:07,574
is it's important that we make data
driven, educated and heartfelt decisions.

1051
00:47:07,866 --> 00:47:10,869
And that's that's something
I'll go on for a second here.

1052
00:47:10,911 --> 00:47:13,664
I love serving on town council
because I think it allows

1053
00:47:13,664 --> 00:47:16,834
for some creativity like,
like for of to me, they always want to be

1054
00:47:17,960 --> 00:47:19,086
they always want to be around the board.

1055
00:47:19,086 --> 00:47:22,047
But they're asking every cyclically
one way what

1056
00:47:22,047 --> 00:47:22,923
didn't excite me.

1057
00:47:22,923 --> 00:47:25,801
It's kind of like, you know, you're kind
of steering a ship through a tight canal.

1058
00:47:25,801 --> 00:47:27,928
It's like just steady as she goes

1059
00:47:27,928 --> 00:47:30,764
working on council,
I think allows for some really creativity

1060
00:47:30,764 --> 00:47:34,601
and really, you know, some vulnerability
and that's I, that's what I love about,

1061
00:47:35,644 --> 00:47:38,355
you know, being
able to serve these guys. So

1062
00:47:39,606 --> 00:47:42,276
I think, you
know, we're in our first budget season.

1063
00:47:42,276 --> 00:47:46,989
So I will say when I realized
that the board of Ed holds a lot of power

1064
00:47:47,573 --> 00:47:50,868
is, you know,
yeah, in terms of the budget,

1065
00:47:51,493 --> 00:47:54,496
the board of Ed budget is the town budget,
pretty large part.

1066
00:47:55,956 --> 00:47:56,164
All right.

1067
00:47:56,164 --> 00:47:59,167
We got lightning round
and we got upcoming events.

1068
00:48:02,462 --> 00:48:03,005
Ready.

1069
00:48:03,005 --> 00:48:05,799
So West Hartford wait.

1070
00:48:05,799 --> 00:48:08,302
Oh yeah. West Hartford center
or Blue back square.

1071
00:48:08,302 --> 00:48:11,305
Which one are you picking?

1072
00:48:13,181 --> 00:48:15,058
I like it all.

1073
00:48:15,058 --> 00:48:16,143
Favorite restaurant?

1074
00:48:16,143 --> 00:48:18,729
Favorite restaurant in West Hartford?
I'll let you guys.

1075
00:48:18,729 --> 00:48:22,524
Oh, you know, behind me,
you asked him to go back to episode 135.

1076
00:48:22,691 --> 00:48:26,653
Oh, and yes, everyone
go back to episode 131 to find out. My.

1077
00:48:26,653 --> 00:48:27,613
And we were there the other night.

1078
00:48:27,613 --> 00:48:30,324
We were there twice last week.
I said, this is a big deal.

1079
00:48:30,324 --> 00:48:31,658
Is that a rule?

1080
00:48:31,658 --> 00:48:33,493
When you saw Lou Brown?

1081
00:48:33,493 --> 00:48:34,870
Well,
you mentioned it. You mentioned it again.

1082
00:48:36,246 --> 00:48:36,580
Do you have a

1083
00:48:36,580 --> 00:48:39,583
favorite restaurant in all of town
or anywhere in the world?

1084
00:48:39,625 --> 00:48:41,084
Oh, in all town probably.

1085
00:48:41,084 --> 00:48:43,045
I mean, that's
also a really hard question.

1086
00:48:43,045 --> 00:48:46,423
I think being your favorite child,
we have great Chinese food in this town.

1087
00:48:46,673 --> 00:48:47,382
You know, we're

1088
00:48:47,382 --> 00:48:48,842
I don't know if people know
how lucky we are

1089
00:48:48,842 --> 00:48:50,552
to have such good Chinese food
in West Hartford.

1090
00:48:50,552 --> 00:48:52,930
So where's your spot for me to pick one?

1091
00:48:52,930 --> 00:48:55,933
But usually we go to either Chef
Jiang or Shu.

1092
00:48:56,224 --> 00:48:56,767
Likes to try.

1093
00:48:56,767 --> 00:48:58,644
Ali is awesome. Incredible.

1094
00:48:58,644 --> 00:49:00,354
And song is incredible.

1095
00:49:00,354 --> 00:49:03,774
So we're actually really lucky
to have, like, more than our fair

1096
00:49:03,774 --> 00:49:06,777
share of of fantastic,
authentic Chinese restaurants.

1097
00:49:06,777 --> 00:49:08,195
If I haven't shouted at one, I'm sorry.

1098
00:49:08,195 --> 00:49:11,615
Because there are so many of you guys,
black bamboo sunny.

1099
00:49:11,615 --> 00:49:12,866
Yeah, yeah. Sunny's awesome.

1100
00:49:12,866 --> 00:49:15,619
Sunny's future podcast guests.
Come on sunny.

1101
00:49:15,619 --> 00:49:16,370
They move.

1102
00:49:16,370 --> 00:49:18,121
Yeah. Really nice spot.

1103
00:49:18,121 --> 00:49:20,290
We're going to
podcast in the new place. So

1104
00:49:22,209 --> 00:49:25,212
best place to grab coffee.

1105
00:49:25,879 --> 00:49:28,840
I have to tell you, I like I like Nero.

1106
00:49:28,840 --> 00:49:33,595
Some people are complaining about the 17%
no 35 sun I went up.

1107
00:49:33,595 --> 00:49:35,889
There is indeed a 35%.

1108
00:49:35,889 --> 00:49:38,225
Oh, I knew there was,
but it went off the charts lower than that

1109
00:49:38,225 --> 00:49:41,228
a year ago for using cards,
for using a card,

1110
00:49:41,228 --> 00:49:44,356
dining in, for dining in at Nero
or everywhere.

1111
00:49:44,398 --> 00:49:46,358
Yeah,
I was a little bit perturbed by this fact.

1112
00:49:46,358 --> 00:49:49,361
So just tolerance about oh, it's so.

1113
00:49:49,653 --> 00:49:52,322
Favorite season in West and West Hartford.

1114
00:49:52,322 --> 00:49:54,282
Fall, winter spring or summer?

1115
00:49:54,282 --> 00:49:57,244
Autumn I like yeah, I like spring.

1116
00:49:57,244 --> 00:50:00,247
I cannot wait for spring and summer
this winter's

1117
00:50:01,623 --> 00:50:03,583
the endless winter.

1118
00:50:03,583 --> 00:50:05,919
Yeah, yeah.

1119
00:50:05,919 --> 00:50:07,879
Favor local event.

1120
00:50:07,879 --> 00:50:10,841
You got to celebrate West Hartford
holiday stroll,

1121
00:50:10,841 --> 00:50:15,095
Memorial parade,
some sort of maybe 100% no bike.

1122
00:50:15,095 --> 00:50:17,305
West Hartford puts on an amazing event
every year.

1123
00:50:17,305 --> 00:50:18,348
Are you on there? Bored to.

1124
00:50:18,348 --> 00:50:19,850
No, I was, I was

1125
00:50:19,850 --> 00:50:22,394
I left the board
when I became a town councilor because

1126
00:50:22,394 --> 00:50:24,062
that's a huge conflict of interest.

1127
00:50:24,062 --> 00:50:26,732
But better streets is,
is that when they go down the sale

1128
00:50:26,732 --> 00:50:29,151
with all the kids, that's
when they close down the whole block.

1129
00:50:29,151 --> 00:50:31,486
Yeah. And they. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

1130
00:50:31,486 --> 00:50:34,489
Huge, huge community building fun event.

1131
00:50:34,573 --> 00:50:35,323
Do you know the date on that?

1132
00:50:36,575 --> 00:50:37,492
Told me sometime in August.

1133
00:50:37,492 --> 00:50:38,577
No, I, I don't know yet.

1134
00:50:38,577 --> 00:50:41,580
All right. Cool.

1135
00:50:41,580 --> 00:50:42,914
Beautiful day.

1136
00:50:42,914 --> 00:50:45,834
Day pretty.

1137
00:50:45,834 --> 00:50:47,461
Nice.

1138
00:50:47,461 --> 00:50:48,545
What are you walking for?

1139
00:50:48,545 --> 00:50:50,547
You're going to walk it this year, too?

1140
00:50:50,547 --> 00:50:51,757
Oh, yeah.

1141
00:50:51,757 --> 00:50:53,967
I didn't know that. Yeah. Okay. All right.

1142
00:50:53,967 --> 00:50:55,927
Yeah. Look at.

1143
00:50:55,927 --> 00:50:57,637
And it's all very well.

1144
00:50:57,637 --> 00:51:00,182
It's it's fantastic. Yeah yeah yeah.

1145
00:51:00,182 --> 00:51:01,266
Great. Great event.

1146
00:51:01,266 --> 00:51:02,559
We have a float.

1147
00:51:02,559 --> 00:51:04,603
The be a Good friend
float will be at the Memorial Day.

1148
00:51:04,603 --> 00:51:07,314
We get to honor a veterans.
So we're happy to be there.

1149
00:51:07,314 --> 00:51:10,275
Very grateful we can work on our range.

1150
00:51:10,609 --> 00:51:13,278
Are you an early bird or night owl?

1151
00:51:13,278 --> 00:51:16,281
No, no, I'm not an early bird.

1152
00:51:17,157 --> 00:51:19,117
I know I am.

1153
00:51:19,117 --> 00:51:21,119
Today I was up at 558.

1154
00:51:21,119 --> 00:51:22,579
Morning

1155
00:51:22,579 --> 00:51:24,456
coffee or tea?

1156
00:51:24,456 --> 00:51:25,624
Coffee?

1157
00:51:25,624 --> 00:51:28,835
I gave up coffee two weeks ago
because I was getting headaches.

1158
00:51:28,835 --> 00:51:30,253
Thankfully, they had subsided,

1159
00:51:30,253 --> 00:51:32,923
but I probably did have a coffee tonight
because presentation.

1160
00:51:32,923 --> 00:51:35,092
So I'm getting to that hours or so.

1161
00:51:35,092 --> 00:51:38,095
But usually when you get a headache
and you're not having enough coffee, no,

1162
00:51:38,595 --> 00:51:39,221
I overdo it.

1163
00:51:39,221 --> 00:51:41,515
I get headaches since we're on the
opposite. So I just stopped.

1164
00:51:42,474 --> 00:51:44,726
Yeah, I tried cream soda.

1165
00:51:44,726 --> 00:51:47,562
Heard that's good for headaches.

1166
00:51:47,562 --> 00:51:50,565
Book or podcast?

1167
00:51:52,275 --> 00:51:53,693
I like both.

1168
00:51:53,693 --> 00:51:56,071
Yeah. Me too.

1169
00:51:56,071 --> 00:51:57,114
I don't read as much as I wish.

1170
00:51:57,114 --> 00:51:59,407
I wish I could read more,
but enjoy reading.

1171
00:51:59,407 --> 00:52:02,869
Jason always has great suggestions for
books to read to try to stay ahead of it.

1172
00:52:04,246 --> 00:52:06,039
Yeah, I, I love to read.

1173
00:52:06,039 --> 00:52:08,375
It is probably one of my favorite things
to do. So over.

1174
00:52:08,375 --> 00:52:11,169
Speaking of podcasts, here's
the Feeny Talks of Friends sticker.

1175
00:52:11,169 --> 00:52:14,047
Please subscribe, like and share

1176
00:52:14,047 --> 00:52:16,675
that all our listeners out there,
we're trying to get to 500.

1177
00:52:16,675 --> 00:52:18,468
We're getting close.

1178
00:52:18,468 --> 00:52:21,513
If you have a Saturday morning
free in town, what are you doing?

1179
00:52:21,513 --> 00:52:24,015
First?

1180
00:52:24,015 --> 00:52:26,143
Into a running club.

1181
00:52:26,143 --> 00:52:28,979
Oh, no. Okay. Yeah. Try not to miss it

1182
00:52:28,979 --> 00:52:30,188
I like that. Yeah.

1183
00:52:30,188 --> 00:52:31,565
It's great.
Great place to talk by the way.

1184
00:52:31,565 --> 00:52:33,525
So you know where it hurts to find me.

1185
00:52:33,525 --> 00:52:36,403
Best way to find me for, like, two hours.

1186
00:52:36,403 --> 00:52:39,156
You know, every Saturday
they have to run alongside you to talk to.

1187
00:52:39,156 --> 00:52:40,115
Oh, yeah.

1188
00:52:40,115 --> 00:52:41,825
I mean, we always gather afterwards, too.

1189
00:52:41,825 --> 00:52:44,286
We always gather afterwards. Do we always
sit down for coffee or something?

1190
00:52:45,871 --> 00:52:48,874
I'll probably be at religious services.

1191
00:52:49,958 --> 00:52:51,710
Breakfast or Sally's involved.

1192
00:52:51,710 --> 00:52:54,754
Yes. Their sponsor.

1193
00:52:55,922 --> 00:52:57,007
Helen and Cesar.

1194
00:52:57,007 --> 00:52:58,633
Podcast guest sponsor.

1195
00:52:58,633 --> 00:53:00,218
We have podcast there.

1196
00:53:00,218 --> 00:53:01,178
They have a big check.

1197
00:53:01,178 --> 00:53:03,388
Yeah. They do. They do checks.

1198
00:53:03,388 --> 00:53:05,974
Not that big, though.
As long as they clear.

1199
00:53:05,974 --> 00:53:08,768
You have a friend coming to visit you?

1200
00:53:08,768 --> 00:53:10,145
First time ever in West Hartford.

1201
00:53:10,145 --> 00:53:13,148
Where are you going to take them?

1202
00:53:14,524 --> 00:53:16,067
I love bringing people to the center.

1203
00:53:16,067 --> 00:53:19,154
I always love, you know, bragging
on the center because it's so beautiful.

1204
00:53:20,238 --> 00:53:22,532
So whenever you people come from
out of town,

1205
00:53:22,532 --> 00:53:26,077
we always been there
to the center of the town.

1206
00:53:29,289 --> 00:53:30,999
I also take them to the center.

1207
00:53:30,999 --> 00:53:33,543
My addition to that is that our.

1208
00:53:33,543 --> 00:53:36,838
I'm always touting the walkability
of our community because that is such.

1209
00:53:37,172 --> 00:53:38,089
The center is beautiful.

1210
00:53:38,089 --> 00:53:42,093
But what really makes the center is the
walkability, the fact that, you know. So.

1211
00:53:42,093 --> 00:53:45,513
So actually when friends visit there,
a lot of time is kind of blown away by how

1212
00:53:46,097 --> 00:53:48,642
what we have is really special,
like really, really special of West

1213
00:53:48,642 --> 00:53:51,645
Hartford, that you can have a nice
four bedroom house

1214
00:53:51,978 --> 00:53:54,522
and you can walk to not one, not two,

1215
00:53:54,522 --> 00:53:57,609
but like five coffee shops, the library
that, you know.

1216
00:53:57,776 --> 00:54:00,237
Yeah, the movie theater,
I mean, it's so special.

1217
00:54:00,237 --> 00:54:02,530
So yeah, it's the center,
but it's but it's

1218
00:54:02,530 --> 00:54:06,076
what really blows people away
is that, hey, we can walk over there and,

1219
00:54:06,326 --> 00:54:10,205
you know, you could have choose from like,
like 500 restaurants.

1220
00:54:10,205 --> 00:54:10,455
Yeah.

1221
00:54:11,539 --> 00:54:13,667
Agreed to talk about.

1222
00:54:13,667 --> 00:54:15,627
Yeah, yeah. Nice.

1223
00:54:15,627 --> 00:54:17,587
I sat for an honorable game changer.

1224
00:54:17,587 --> 00:54:20,257
Yeah yeah yeah.

1225
00:54:20,257 --> 00:54:22,717
Do you think there's a
what's the best hidden gem

1226
00:54:22,717 --> 00:54:25,720
in West Hartford?

1227
00:54:27,389 --> 00:54:28,515
We talking about restaurants?

1228
00:54:28,515 --> 00:54:31,476
Are we talking about.

1229
00:54:31,559 --> 00:54:32,352
It's the gem.

1230
00:54:32,352 --> 00:54:33,853
Wabi sabi.

1231
00:54:33,853 --> 00:54:35,230
Oh Abby. Sabi. Yeah it's funny.

1232
00:54:35,230 --> 00:54:36,398
My daughter loves one.

1233
00:54:36,398 --> 00:54:38,483
Oh yeah. Yeah. You ever got to know me.

1234
00:54:38,483 --> 00:54:40,360
Oh no. Me too. Is.
Oh no, that's not easy. Yeah.

1235
00:54:40,360 --> 00:54:41,778
That's why
I said there's so many Asian restaurant.

1236
00:54:41,778 --> 00:54:42,862
Yeah there's so many.

1237
00:54:42,862 --> 00:54:45,865
Yeah. But no one you have.

1238
00:54:46,157 --> 00:54:48,576
I had the name. I lost it,

1239
00:54:48,576 --> 00:54:51,579
the one by next Ada
where the, Chinese puts her.

1240
00:54:51,579 --> 00:54:54,124
Well, that's. You taught you? Yeah.
I want to say something.

1241
00:54:54,124 --> 00:54:54,666
I know songs.

1242
00:54:54,666 --> 00:54:56,042
Yeah. Those, Yeah.

1243
00:54:56,042 --> 00:54:58,461
Shu is another hidden gem
that we just love. Yeah, that's.

1244
00:54:58,461 --> 00:54:59,045
That's my wife.

1245
00:55:00,422 --> 00:55:02,507
There she is.

1246
00:55:02,507 --> 00:55:03,633
Nice.

1247
00:55:03,633 --> 00:55:06,636
One word to describe West Hartford.

1248
00:55:09,764 --> 00:55:10,932
Absolutely.

1249
00:55:10,932 --> 00:55:11,433
Okay.

1250
00:55:11,433 --> 00:55:14,436
That's true. It's really screwed up

1251
00:55:14,811 --> 00:55:15,478
home.

1252
00:55:15,478 --> 00:55:17,689
I don't know,

1253
00:55:17,689 --> 00:55:18,606
finish the sentence.

1254
00:55:18,606 --> 00:55:22,277
A good community leader always blink,

1255
00:55:23,445 --> 00:55:26,406
listens.

1256
00:55:27,824 --> 00:55:29,534
I read that you can't think of anything.

1257
00:55:29,534 --> 00:55:32,537
Better get them, at least. Yeah, yeah.

1258
00:55:32,954 --> 00:55:33,538
All right. Cool.

1259
00:55:33,538 --> 00:55:36,875
I got some, future advance we got.

1260
00:55:36,875 --> 00:55:40,962
I want to shout out the Lions Club
pancake breakfast

1261
00:55:41,212 --> 00:55:42,714
club is having a pancake breakfast.

1262
00:55:42,714 --> 00:55:43,173
Oh, yeah.

1263
00:55:43,173 --> 00:55:44,299
April 25th.

1264
00:55:44,299 --> 00:55:47,093
All right. These are phenomenal pancakes.

1265
00:55:47,093 --> 00:55:48,720
We got a golf tournament.

1266
00:55:48,720 --> 00:55:51,139
Our fifth annual golf tournament.

1267
00:55:51,139 --> 00:55:53,350
September 12th.

1268
00:55:53,350 --> 00:55:56,227
Giannis jog, May 22nd.

1269
00:55:56,227 --> 00:55:57,103
Awesome.

1270
00:55:57,103 --> 00:55:59,898
Their past podcast guests
and then friends of Phoenix

1271
00:55:59,898 --> 00:56:02,776
going to the Hartford Athletic game
July 11th.

1272
00:56:02,776 --> 00:56:05,362
Yard Goats, August 15th.

1273
00:56:05,362 --> 00:56:07,489
Please join us.

1274
00:56:07,489 --> 00:56:08,740
Any closing remarks?

1275
00:56:08,740 --> 00:56:11,409
Recommendations?
Recommendation. Oh, let's.

1276
00:56:14,037 --> 00:56:14,662
All right.

1277
00:56:14,662 --> 00:56:17,665
Chair of the Board of.

1278
00:56:17,707 --> 00:56:19,709
So, chair of the board of Ed.

1279
00:56:19,709 --> 00:56:21,711
Yep. She's a newly installed
chair of the board of that.

1280
00:56:21,711 --> 00:56:24,714
So always try to think of people you know.

1281
00:56:24,839 --> 00:56:25,673
And then you got Todd.

1282
00:56:25,673 --> 00:56:27,342
What about Todd.

1283
00:56:27,342 --> 00:56:29,594
Yeah. And who was the other one?

1284
00:56:29,594 --> 00:56:32,597
Shannon Merriman
I got a question for you, Eric.

1285
00:56:32,680 --> 00:56:33,390
Yeah. Please.

1286
00:56:33,390 --> 00:56:36,393
Do you think about tech in schools?

1287
00:56:36,476 --> 00:56:37,644
I teach third grade.

1288
00:56:37,644 --> 00:56:39,771
Oh, tech as in technology?

1289
00:56:39,771 --> 00:56:41,856
Yeah. Oh,
I thought you'd like a tech school. No.

1290
00:56:41,856 --> 00:56:45,235
Like, iPads, smartphones, schools.

1291
00:56:45,235 --> 00:56:45,735
What's your thoughts?

1292
00:56:45,735 --> 00:56:49,447
There's a lot of it,
and I. I'm old school.

1293
00:56:49,447 --> 00:56:52,742
I've been teaching for 22 years,
and I like the paper and pencil like this.

1294
00:56:52,742 --> 00:56:53,451
Okay.

1295
00:56:53,451 --> 00:56:55,495
We're teaching cursive again,
which is amazing.

1296
00:56:55,495 --> 00:56:58,498
It's a it's a lost art.

1297
00:56:58,790 --> 00:57:00,667
It helps. It's good for the brain.

1298
00:57:00,667 --> 00:57:01,626
It's good from left to right.

1299
00:57:01,626 --> 00:57:05,630
It's good for memory and, hand-eye
coordination.

1300
00:57:05,922 --> 00:57:08,007
There's so much good studies on cursive.

1301
00:57:09,008 --> 00:57:11,594
And there's so much screen time at home.

1302
00:57:11,594 --> 00:57:16,724
So I tried to not do so much in school,
but with limited resources.

1303
00:57:16,724 --> 00:57:19,686
Sometimes for books
like we, it's tough to have 20

1304
00:57:19,686 --> 00:57:22,689
copies of every book, so the student

1305
00:57:23,106 --> 00:57:25,150
would have to read on the Chromebook.

1306
00:57:25,150 --> 00:57:28,278
I prefer I,
I feel like the screen makes me dizzy

1307
00:57:28,278 --> 00:57:31,990
or whatever, like the blue light,
so I like printing out papers to read.

1308
00:57:32,323 --> 00:57:37,203
That's personally my take and I like
the old hold the book, turn the page feel.

1309
00:57:37,620 --> 00:57:38,621
So that's my take.

1310
00:57:38,621 --> 00:57:41,624
Personally, I'm not speaking on behalf
of the West Hartford Public Schools

1311
00:57:41,666 --> 00:57:43,835
or teachers around,
but that's just my take.

1312
00:57:43,835 --> 00:57:45,670
I think it helps with learning,
I really do. Yeah.

1313
00:57:45,670 --> 00:57:47,922
I mean, the physical media helps
with learning.

1314
00:57:47,922 --> 00:57:50,258
I'm just curious
because I've had some conversations

1315
00:57:50,258 --> 00:57:51,676
with Shannon about tech in schools.

1316
00:57:51,676 --> 00:57:53,678
It's certainly a big concern,
a big issue.

1317
00:57:53,678 --> 00:57:55,305
Yeah. Yeah, it's
something that we're going to be tackling.

1318
00:57:55,305 --> 00:57:58,308
It's a budget issue too as well. Cool.

1319
00:57:58,475 --> 00:58:01,978
Thanks for the question a little bit
to where we're going with this question.

1320
00:58:03,688 --> 00:58:04,481
But there

1321
00:58:04,481 --> 00:58:08,318
are also plus sides of the Google read
and right.

1322
00:58:08,318 --> 00:58:10,320
And the Google Speaks speech to text.

1323
00:58:10,320 --> 00:58:15,033
If a if a the child has struggles
typing or spelling, they can talk it in.

1324
00:58:15,033 --> 00:58:16,826
So there's pros to it too.

1325
00:58:16,826 --> 00:58:20,038
Yeah think depends on the definitely help
kids with learning differences.

1326
00:58:20,121 --> 00:58:21,498
Yeah.

1327
00:58:21,498 --> 00:58:23,791
Saint Patrick's Day parade.

1328
00:58:23,791 --> 00:58:24,792
Yeah.

1329
00:58:24,792 --> 00:58:27,253
Our float one third place.

1330
00:58:27,253 --> 00:58:30,632
We had color in shirts,
so students got there.

1331
00:58:30,798 --> 00:58:33,801
Our kids
got there early and colored in the shirt.

1332
00:58:34,594 --> 00:58:37,597
So it's very cool.

1333
00:58:37,722 --> 00:58:40,141
One thing, some sponsors,

1334
00:58:40,141 --> 00:58:43,186
we'll we'll show you the sponsors
or can't shout them all out.

1335
00:58:43,478 --> 00:58:46,523
Cold call Bergen Financial Group, Daybreak

1336
00:58:46,523 --> 00:58:49,526
Financial, West Hartford, LA Sullivan.

1337
00:58:49,901 --> 00:58:50,610
Sorry about that.

1338
00:58:50,610 --> 00:58:54,739
Atlantic, but no something tech company.

1339
00:58:54,739 --> 00:58:56,824
I guess you you shouldn't be an ad reader.

1340
00:58:56,824 --> 00:58:58,159
You can't be with those guys.

1341
00:58:58,159 --> 00:59:00,578
You know,
consult your doctors to help this guy.

1342
00:59:00,578 --> 00:59:04,999
Lux born and green French
cleaners attorney Pat Cooney.

1343
00:59:04,999 --> 00:59:06,501
Sorrell. Brother's Aiden's donor.

1344
00:59:06,501 --> 00:59:08,419
He wait till that
our drone footage comes out.

1345
00:59:08,419 --> 00:59:10,380
It's really nice. The JCC.

1346
00:59:10,380 --> 00:59:13,216
If you guys aren't members of the JCC,
I highly suggest you guys join us.

1347
00:59:13,216 --> 00:59:17,887
Amazing sauna, steam workout,
Lake George Steamboat

1348
00:59:18,429 --> 00:59:21,558
Company and Blue Trail Range
in Wallingford and West Hartford.

1349
00:59:21,558 --> 00:59:22,392
Lock.

1350
00:59:22,392 --> 00:59:24,435
I usually ask you to.

1351
00:59:24,435 --> 00:59:26,354
Now they're going to West Hartford Lock.

1352
00:59:26,354 --> 00:59:29,232
What are three keys
that make you great at your job?

1353
00:59:29,232 --> 00:59:31,901
But I didn't get a chance to do that
this time.

1354
00:59:31,901 --> 00:59:33,611
You guys come back, you guys get both.

1355
00:59:33,611 --> 00:59:35,780
Welcome to get your own solo episode.

1356
00:59:35,780 --> 00:59:38,491
Don't feel like you have to
bring your good friend John Lyons.

1357
00:59:38,491 --> 00:59:42,620
He had his own episode on 131,
but it was wonderful meeting you, Jason.

1358
00:59:42,870 --> 00:59:44,831
Wonderful chatting with you again, Gail.

1359
00:59:44,831 --> 00:59:46,749
I've seen you in action
at the board of Ed,

1360
00:59:46,749 --> 00:59:48,543
so it was wonderful
to finally talk with you.

1361
00:59:50,128 --> 00:59:52,880
Again, check out Feeny Talks with Friends.

1362
00:59:52,880 --> 00:59:55,883
Please check out, our upcoming events

1363
00:59:56,884 --> 00:59:58,553
and on three will say be a good friend.

1364
00:59:58,553 --> 01:00:01,556
1 to 3 be a good friend.

1365
01:00:02,223 --> 01:00:03,349
Want to go again?

1366
01:00:03,349 --> 01:00:05,935
Never. Sure.

1367
01:00:05,935 --> 01:00:06,978
Just Jason this time.

1368
01:00:06,978 --> 01:00:08,438
Ready?

1369
01:00:08,438 --> 01:00:09,522
One. Two. Three.

1370
01:00:09,522 --> 01:00:12,525
Be a good friend.

1371
01:00:12,609 --> 01:00:12,859
friends.

1372
01:00:12,859 --> 01:00:16,362
A free

1373
01:00:16,362 --> 01:00:20,617
day. Hey!