All right, all right.
Feeney talks with friends. Episode 131.
We're here with a good friend. How are you doing, John?
I'm doing well. How are you? Nice to see you.
Thank you for having me on.
John Lyons, the local weatherman.
So, something like that.
And and many titles.
Writer,
car enthusiasts, weatherman.
Dad, girl. Dad, somebody.
Somebody has been Google searching Google, Google, Google,
what's going on? How are you, sir?
Pretty good, pretty good.
My name is Eric Feeney, founder and president, Friends of Feeney.
Our mission is to help
children and families that need assistance after heartbreak or tragedy.
And I use this podcast.
Feeney talks with friends and I talk to wonderful people
that do great things in the community.
And John, you've been in the West Hartford community for how long now?
20 years and four months.
You know, for a fact.
How did you know that? Well, we moved to town maybe three months.
We moved to town on December 22nd, 2004,
and I almost burnt my house down on December 25th, 2004.
So I met, that's how I met the West Hartford Fire Department.
So you got it down pat?
Yes, yes.
So good fire department here because they saved your house.
They they absolutely saved my house.
Very lucky.
So, yes, shout out to West Hartford.
Bravest. Absolutely.
So we had, Marsha McCurdy. McCurdy.
She was one.
She was in the crew that saved my house. Come on.
Yeah, she really was, former podcast guest.
Go back and check it out. Yeah.
That's great.
To review episode 130 Ali Baluchi blue Jean creative.
She does website.
She does the Friends of Jeannie website.
And she knows your daughters.
She said one fosters dogs and one is involved with outer space.
Yes, yes. That's amazing. Yes. Wow.
Yeah.
My oldest, went to work for a not for profit that sends people to space,
and they've sent 2 or 3 people to space, I think. Wow.
And then she
she did that for about seven years, and now she's doing personal coaching.
So which is not something I could do.
But she's good at it and making a living and not asking me for money.
So something's working.
Hey, that's all that really matters right now.
And then the day. That's right.
John and Sydney is, She's a yes.
She's a dog, foster. She bought a house here in town.
She scrimped and saved.
And, you know,
you know, what do they call that loan poor or house poor,
whatever they call house poor, I guess the term.
But, she, bought a house near in town, and then my son just graduated college
last spring, and he's here in town working for a competitor of the establishment.
We're sitting out here, so I.
We shall not say their name so.
Well,
speaking of which, we're here at Maximum Beverage.
This is 340 North Main Street.
Shout out to our sponsors.
Thank you for hosting us. Maximum Beverage.
And thank you to our podcast host Direct Line Media.
This is Stephania and Dave
there have there in 11 Sycamore Way in Branford, Connecticut.
And we have some other podcast guests. Maybe you could do this too.
When I point to them, you could point to them
because we have that new logo now we're going to add this.
We're going to try it.
If I point hearing like Keating Agency float
41 The Fix, Ivy Luna Pizza golf log or
look at this people's Bank, Parkville Management and West Hartford lock.
You're going to need another direction.
Exactly.
So, Scarecrow, this. Exactly.
So with our, being the local weatherman, what inspired you to do that?
How did you get into that?
So I've always been a little bit of a weather nerd.
I did not majored in college, but I took some courses and, so I,
I'm trying
to remember, but post on my personal page, my personal Facebook page.
I resisted Facebook for a long time.
I was a late adopter, but late puts me around 2010 or 11.
I probably joined
and so I started posting weather to my page
and that caught the attention of Ronni Newton.
Nice.
And Ronnie was at patch at the time, and she said, were you do weather for patch?
I said, sure, I'll take more distribution. What the heck?
And I did one report and they shut the they shut the place down and fired Ronnie.
So we all like to think it's because of my one weather report. So.
But by then I kind of caught the eye.
Patty I'll be, Who have you had power Patty yet?
Yep. Okay, good. Patty.
Where we got Patty?
I'll be episode 113.
Look at, you know, and I'm going to start. Jenny.
No names that you have pursued. 29.
Oh, we're going to have some fun with, numbers here. Okay.
That'll that'll happen later in our fourth hour of broadcast.
We'll we'll, we'll get into the numbers.
But, so Patty, said, hey, why don't you start doing it
on the neighbors and friends page?
So I did. You know, Patty's great.
She's been very good to me, letting me do it.
Give me the latitude to do it.
And, you know, Patty's a big part.
So, Ronnie, big part of a lot of stories I imagine we're going to
talk about tonight.
Because you already mentioned the article I wrote, which they're
they're both a big part of that article, too.
But we'll we'll get into that. But very cool. Patty.
Yeah. Wonderful.
She's instrumental on allowing people to get help
when needed or care for their home or their children.
So there's a, there's a she's got a great, platform.
It is I'll say this a lot tonight because I'm
sure going to talk about a lot of people that do this in town.
She does a lot for the town, for nothing, meaning for free.
She does not get paid and is strictly volunteer.
And, she's one of a whole list of people who just gives and gives
and gives and gives to our community.
And, it she needs to be recognized for that.
Yeah. Patty. Yeah.
She was the honoree of the Park Road parade once. Yes.
Yeah, I actually I'm going to take crowd nominated her.
I think a couple other folks did too.
And I brought I brought a car up for her,
that she was going to ride in.
It was all set. It was a convertible, and the top broke.
We couldn't get the top to go down, so we had to put her in another car.
And we ended up not having the the car on the parade because the top broke.
But yeah, that was exciting. That was a lot of fun.
I'm sad the Park Road parade is no more.
It just seemed like it was getting rained out every year.
Yeah.
And, but it was such a fun event,
you know, it was just it was kind of cool because it was tied to.
I know it's
tied to the Park Road community, but it was tied to nothing from a holiday.
Yeah, perspective.
And I think that made it more it was nicer that way.
It was definitely special.
Like, yeah, the first Saturday in October.
Yeah.
Almost to start back to school or, you know, kick off, clean up the leaves.
Yeah. Clean up or autumn.
And they always seem to catch good colors but bad weather, you know, good good
leaf colors but bad bad bad weather.
Certainly the last few friends of Feeney won best float a couple times this year.
So congratulations.
Okay.
We're excited and we're sad that to see it got to see it go.
But I we used and I know
I'm not supposed to be interviewing you but I can't help myself.
Will you be bringing the float to the Memorial Day parade?
Absolutely. We will look for that. Yeah.
So yep.
And we'll have an after party at Luna Pizza, please.
You know what?
I, we we had a discussion before we went live.
Not only pizza. It's good thing we're not six.
I'd be eating while I'm talking. So.
Yeah. So go back and check out 130 we just hosted.
Allie was her podcast was at Luna Pizza.
She does the website and social media for Luna Pizza.
Okay, so we hosted it there. Okay.
Luna Pizza is a great sponsor and supporter of Friends of Feeney.
So yeah, that's a quick parade.
Parkville Park Road is pretty quick.
Yeah. So show up, right?
Yeah. Well, eighth of a mile, maybe the route if that.
But but the Hartford parade, we we just did the Hartford Saint Patrick's
Day parade. That's quite a parade. Yeah, that's a big parade.
My calves were pretty burning at the end of that one.
It's been a long time since I've been to it because, you know, work
and things tend to conflict, but, it's, it's my work.
I do a lot of weekend travel.
That's part of the challenge with what I do.
I do a lot of weekend travel. So.
And I'm around during the week to annoy. What is your job?
So I, I do a lot of cars.
Work? Yeah. Vintage cars.
Somebody.
It's funny, somebody texted me a referral, I signed this. Yeah.
John Lane is a broker, and I'm like, no, no, no, no, I don't broker.
No. It's a it's illegal. And B, I don't do that.
And but it's no, but I, I consult.
So if, you know, God forbid, somebody in your life died
and they had a collection of classic cars, I sit down and consult
with them on the best way to sell those cars for maximum money.
I don't do probate.
That's for, you know, that's for probate judges.
But, but I can.
I know all the ins and outs of title work and auction law and all of that.
So that's what I do.
Yeah. So what's concourse,
What's that?
Okay. Now classic.
Give me give me a text.
Okay. Well, yeah, that's exactly what it is.
Yeah, yeah.
So, I founded the I'll explain that and.
Okay. I don't know.
So you're gonna have to give me
more context on the notes, but are you looking at Newport?
Concord, or what are you looking at?
I just have to.
I'm trying to, New England, Concord, new charities.
Yeah.
So what what what I did, and when I left corporate America in 2004,
I wanted to do something to give back.
And I didn't know anybody.
So I decided to have an event in Hartford,
the Hartford Concord Elegance, which is a
I used to know the translation, but it's basically a display of elegance.
And cars are judged and all.
And, you know, somebody sold me on Hartford being the rising star and,
you know, worst, most money ever lost in my life
and the worst one I've ever lost in my life.
I think we got 100 attendees to a show that we budgeted.
10,000 attendees.
You know, I don't want to, so I won't.
I won't go too far down that rabbit hole, get myself in trouble.
So the next year, we moved it to Newport and, Newport.
Still running today? I'm not involved with that.
I'm divested, but it's, it's, Newport was a huge success, and it just took off.
And, it's been a great it's been a great 20 year run now.
So, yeah, a lot of interesting stories not relating to West Hartford, but,
you know, you get involved with, Preservation Society in Newport
County and that's, you know, there's no more political organization.
And you'll learn a lot about politics, learn a lot about,
you know, swimming with sharks.
And there was a whole bunch of ex Clinton administration,
officials that were on the board of,
Preservation
Society of Newport County when I was doing a show up there.
So it was it was know the Tennis Hall of Fame is in Newport.
Yeah, the Tennis Hall of Fame.
And then you've got the all train car museum, which now owns the show.
Newport Newport's.
You know, we're not here to talk about Newport, but it's beautiful.
I, you know, I like to get up there whenever I can.
Is he is he a Newport guy? Okay? Yep. Yeah.
So who else? Yeah. Newport.
Great place.
Yeah, a lot of a lot of West Hartford folks who do get up there.
We have very close friends that,
you know, lived in West Hartford,
then bought a summer home, and now they've migrated
and now they're living full time in Newport.
They sold their West Hartford home,
but we still see them every year when we get up.
So they have a cape, the kite store, do they?
Okay.
Like, the piers that you can walk out on the beach.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. It's just beautiful, fun. Fair. Oh, yeah.
Maybe that's not Newport.
I thought they had a clock tower designed by. No.
Okay, that's P-Town in P-Town.
Yeah. Provincetown does. Yeah.
Has that built by the same guy who built the Waterbury clock tower.
Oh fun fact.
Okay, there we go.
Waterbury, hometown Waterbury, friends of Feeney where you can go to learn
so you know it.
Oh yeah.
Back to so yeah. Auto dealerships.
So you have an eye for cars.
You just know like you can price it.
I can price that. I'm wrong a lot.
It's tricky because the market, you know, cut off of the sale.
So, yeah, basically I get a consultancy fee based on a lot of different factors.
Rarely I take on live clients.
I usually my clients are normally
in the netherworld or in the next world, or whenever I call it.
Yes, on a live.
Yeah. And, but that's how it works. And.
Yeah, it's.
You think, you know, but, you know, the car
market is very sensitive, so it's got kind of two.
I don't know how to describe that.
I don't think I've ever tried to describe this before. There's.
So you get the economy right, the economy goes up, the economy goes down, whatever.
But with cars you also get what's in vogue, what's not in vogue,
and recognition of what is truly great and what's not great.
So like 20 years ago, 2005 six, right before the Great Recession,
wood bodied cars, like they call them woody wagons
from like 1930s and 40s for like all the rage, you can name your price.
And then around the turn of the decade, 2010 or so, that market changed.
And yeah, maybe it changed due to the Great Recession,
but it hasn't come back at all while everything else has come back.
So we've you saw it a submarket within the collector car
market change kind of permanently, which is heartbreaking.
I love Woody, so beautiful cars and,
I don't know, maybe maybe you have your staff
pull a photo of one, or I can send you one. One word.
Yeah. What is it?
Woody wagon, like, you know, pulling back.
Yeah. What, are you lagging? Yeah.
You know Ford. Woody at the Woodside.
Yeah. Correct.
Woodside. Like.
But don't think like 1970 as well.
No, no. Not that I know this is actual wood. Gotcha.
Yeah yeah yeah.
Die knock was started in about 1948 and went on I'm talking pre 1948.
Gotcha. Yeah.
So how many cars do you own?
You know, sorry, I just did the count.
Just because for insurance, I have 11 cars.
Collector cars. Right.
11 collector car, 11 collector cars.
Yeah, yeah.
When you store them, orange.
Mostly in orange, Connecticut.
I've got a couple out in Auburn, Indiana, that are getting ready for an auction
that's going to be out there next month.
But, you know, they photograph them and catalog them and all that.
So, all right, let's play a game. Okay.
Called first, last best worst. Okay.
Your first car, your last car, your best car and your worst car.
Okay.
Well, my first car I bought from a blind woman.
I was in high school.
I did my license, yet
I had a wicked stepmother who did not want me to get my license.
And, of course, I was not very accepting of that.
So I bought a car anyway and drove it anyway.
And, but it was 1966 Dodge Dart,
four door sedan, 225 slant six engine.
And, that car was more rust than metal.
A car lasted me five years and,
I sold it to my roommate and erect it three days after I sold it to him,
I was heartbroken, but my first car was a 1988 Dodge Dart.
Okay.
88. Okay, that's the small one.
The gas miser. Yeah, a little tiny.
Yeah, a little, little tiny. Yeah, a little tiny.
You would have been a real fuel miser.
Yeah, it would have been like 40 miles a gallon. 88.
Completely different car, I'm sure.
Yeah, yeah, they they evolved a lot.
All right.
So first, what was the best worst and last.
Yeah. Okay. So best
I'm going to go daily driver here because it's just
it's like picking among your kids when you talk about the classics.
But I, I had so I had
I was doing a lot of work in Newport and,
they part of the deal was like, you know, I had a good budget for a good car,
so I bought, a, a Genesis G90.
Best car on the road.
If you're looking for a car that's a luxury car.
Best car on the road.
They still make them. They're fantastic cars.
No one's ever heard of a good model.
What's the Genesis G90?
Genesis is the upmarket brand.
Never heard of it.
They're fantastic cars.
So Genesis is the upmarket brand of Hyundai. Kia?
Okay, Hyundai and Kia are fabulous cars.
They're fantastic cars.
People like to judge.
I judge cars for the merits.
And Hyundai and Kia, they make fantastic safety, durability.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just when you put the whole package together, it's just great cars.
That's the girls.
Yeah. With their permit.
Okay. Looking for a car? Okay.
Maybe we'll finish.
Yeah, we can, we can chat.
We can chat in a non podcast.
I'm happy to help you on and on podcast environment. See if we can find you.
You're not going to buy him G90. Yes. Because no no Genesis but yeah.
No. Yeah.
So but so so the G90 did come out on 2018 and
nobody knew what it was.
They weren't selling.
So I went to a dealer and the sticker on it was 76 six for the car I wanted,
and I bought it for 53,000, because there were so many discounts.
Factory at 10,000, the dealer 10,000.
And then there was some other big discount on the car.
Remember what it was?
I drove it, got rid of it during Covid and got my money back and then some
because the market had.
But now, unfortunately, the Genesis G90 is now 110 grand, which
I would never spend on a car.
Not certainly a daily driver.
And they are, people now recognize what great cars they are
and they're really hard to get. Not a daily driver.
Is this the car that you drive every day? Yep.
That's just to determine.
So that's so that's first best, worst.
I two really bad ones.
So one of my goals in life I always wanted to own a Jaguar.
By the time I was 35 and I was working in corporate America, I was doing
well enough, but probably not to justify the Jaguar.
I was 1999, I was about to turn 35 and my wife approved it.
Jaguar reintroduced the S type Google search in 1999.
S type
they came out in the middle of the summer and they were not ready for prime time.
And I went right at least one and what a crap show.
It was terrible.
Oh, lemon law.
Yeah. The car ended up being lemon law.
They ended up handing me another one.
I took it to a dealer, traded in, and just never looked back.
Yeah, they were really, really, really bad early on.
Interesting. So that's my worst.
And what's the last? I'm sorry. What was the first?
Last best worst first car? Okay. Last car.
Meaning the car.
I'm driving right now.
You're laughing more or less when you were driving.
Yeah. So you're laughing at me?
So my wife had a.
So one of the challenges with cars today is,
the tech is so advanced and it's so computer software based.
Yeah.
That very often when there's a recall the,
the, the car
manufacturers don't have the software to fix the recall.
So my wife drove a VW Arteon, which I love.
I love a good deal.
We bought the Australian.
We bought it wholesale and we it on Arteon is an Audi A5 and VW clothing,
and it's about two thirds the price of an A5.
So this car was great.
So you bought the car? Would love it.
We were going we were driving to Florida on December 1st this past December 1st,
and on November 29th my wife says, oh, by the way,
the airbag light's been on for the last week and the car's beeping at me.
I'm like, okay, that doesn't sound good.
So we bring it to the dealer and the dealer.
You know, I know that I know that Mitchell VW.
I'll give them a plug. They're great.
They're just they're they've always treated us very, very well.
And, Scott Dale is their service manager.
He's a good friend.
Have known him for as long as I've been up here.
And, he looked at me, says, John, you're not gonna like my answer.
He says, you need a part, but we have like 40,000 VW is across the country.
They need the part and there's like 14 parts in the country.
I said, call another deal, see if we can buy one. He laughed at me.
They said no. So I'm like I said, what do I do?
He said, well, can somebody sit in the back for the whole trip?
I'm like, no. I said, how about you give me a loaner?
Who's going away for a month?
He's like, John, I'm not giving you a loaner.
Come on, get real.
So long story short, it was the sitting in the back.
What was that gonna solve?
Could someone sit in the back because the airbag deployment or lack of deployment.
It's not the moment somebody sat in front.
Oh, there's like there's going to be liability
because we know there's a problem.
We know there's a serious airbag fault. Yeah.
So so long story short,
they made some calls and they cut us a deal
that I'm not really supposed to talk about.
We ended up with a Jetta 2025 Jetta crashed.
Beautiful.
Gets 40 miles to the gallon, has satellite radio.
Nice.
The car is beautiful. It's a Jetta.
It's a 20, whatever. $1,000 car.
And I couldn't, you know, I couldn't be happier.
It's a great car. So that's my last night. Sorry.
That was ten minutes there. First I could I could do too long on this.
I'm sorry about that.
So we're on your time.
It's all good. Yeah, yeah. All right.
All right.
When we're on the games and. Okay.
Three keys that make you a great local weatherman for.
We had.com and friends and neighbors on Facebook.
I don't know if I'm great. Three weeks.
I think plenty of good.
I think plenty of people would say I'm not I'm nowhere near great.
Probably including myself.
I get so frustrated I make a mistake.
It's just I just don't.
Most weathermen make mistakes or weather.
Yeah, yeah, they do.
But when you're doing hyperlocal, should be a little easier.
Got. Should be a little easier.
And then people misunderstand too.
Like,
we had a big windstorm happen.
We had a windstorm happened two days ago.
I posted about it, but we had a windstorm 2 or 3 weeks ago
where the winds were coming from the south.
I don't get nervous with winds from the northwest.
That is a typical that's typical weather behavior.
The trees are used to it.
Things aren't going to blow down.
But when the winds come, the south and southeast,
the trees and stuff aren't used to it.
That's when damage happen.
They're not used to predicting that angle that.
Yes. Yeah. They're just they blow in that direction.
So they used to I mean I know it's silly opposite way though.
They're not used to it.
I think there's more layers
and they're more likely to follow 100% more, more likely to be damage.
October 29th Superstorm in 2011.
What?
That's what I remember.
That's what got me noticed by Romney, was that storm
was because I made I mean, I canceled Halloween.
I'll give you an example.
I got that forecast wrong,
but the comment I made in my weather forecast caught everybody's attention.
I said, I can't believe we're going to get a foot of snow on the end of October.
I just can't think it's possible.
But if we do, the damage will be beyond imagination.
And it's that line that got the attention of Romney.
That's that's that's the part of the story I left out.
So, so I, I, I talked about the winds
coming from the south and they didn't quite get a strong they got to 35.
We thought they going to get to 40. No big deal.
But then a day later they're blowing hard from the north.
People are like why aren't you reporting on these winds?
I'm like, because they're from the North.
And that frustrates me because it's like I'm no, I don't worry about winds
from the north and northwest because we're used to it. Okay.
You know, not even.
But the winds from the south are nasty.
That's why hurricanes if the if the center tracks to our west. So.
All right, not at all answering your question.
Okay. Three keys, three keys.
I don't know if I can give you three keys.
What I focus on is map analysis.
And I understand, you know, magnets.
We all know magnets.
If you put the opposite end together, they repel. Right. So,
weather, weather systems like that, you put a low and a high.
They repel. They do not they're not going to be drawn to each other.
They're going to repel.
And what happens in between is going to be what we're talking about.
And so that's so it's just really map analysis
and understanding how weather systems react.
I do not use computer based modeling at all.
I read some of these. I can't even talk the language.
I don't even understand the language.
The computer based
modeling that, you know, the smart guys because I'm not one of them.
The smart guys like Ryan Hanrahan and Gill.
Forgive me. I'm sorry, Gill, I'm forgetting your last name.
And but the the professionals that are on TV use
are so above my pay grade.
You know, they've got these powerful computers that the networks have invested
in or these powerful subscriptions that, like the town is invested in that
that offer really fantastic, very high end computer data.
And it's, I just I just look at the maps.
I just look at the maps. So interesting.
I don't know, that's 2 or 3 things, but it's very cool what I do.
Yeah.
Now, can you dispel, dispel a rumor?
Okay. About who?
Someone says that you just call a friend.
So a meteorologist, a phone, a friend, phone a friend.
I do like meteorologists in the South, I do.
I have a host. We set up a giant game show studio.
It's really great. Blue with a lot of lights.
And we play the music in the background and, and,
And then I'm offered a chance to phone a friend, a friend, or I can narrow it
down to two possible forecasts from four,
or we have an audience, a live audience.
I can ask the audience what they think.
So I do those three things, and that's, Yeah, that's what I want to be
a weather millionaire.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly, exactly.
And then we mentioned rainy a lot.
Yes, again.
Episode 3029. Tune in.
Come on, 29. Go back.
Check out watching this. Come on.
And I didn't know that Ronnie just saw your comment
and then you became friends because you guys host a lot of we ha roundtables.
You seem very friendly.
I thought you guys were friends for like, a very long.
So way back, or did you meet?
All right.
Ronnie has different memories of how we met than I do.
My first memory of meeting her
is, There was a
coach fired from Hall High School,
and the kids wanted to have
a rally outside of,
board of Ed one night, one by town hall.
And this is the time when rallies weren't happening.
Every 15 minutes was kind of a special thing
when there was a rally in town.
I don't mean to say that, but it really is the truth.
So. And Nancy DePalma is a dear friend of mine,
had a huge influence on where I've gone politically.
She was, at the time the assistant superintendent,
working for Karen List, I think it was before Tom Moore.
So, the kids came to my house and a couple of them
who wanted to organize, and I kind of walked them through.
I said, look, this is what I would do, and I'm not an organizer,
but it just, you know, these were 16 or 17 year
old kids, 15 year old kids, they just didn't know.
And man, they pulled together quite thoroughly.
I was so moved by it. It wasn't a pro firing or antifa.
They were they did not want the coach fired.
And it was a situation where, you know, a lot of sensitive things happened
with schools and board of Ed and certain things, you know, you don't want to share.
I don't know the details. I'll never know the details.
But obviously there were some details that were not shared,
you know, for whatever reason.
So they had this huge rally outside town
hall and Nancy called me furious, feeling like I put it all together.
I said, Nancy, they did it.
I just told them how to do it. And,
and, but my first memory of
meeting Ronnie was standing out on the sidewalk at the end of that rally.
We chatted for like a half an hour just getting to know each other.
That was my first memory.
Her first memory.
We didn't meet in person, but I think she thinks we did.
I don't know, but it was terrible.
A child disappeared.
West Hartford child.
I don't want to mention names. Disappeared.
Who went to school with one of my kids.
And like, when that happens, you just think the worst.
And, Ronnie, we roped Ronnie in to help.
To help. And she.
I think she did a story on it and that that's so that.
But that was before I met her.
That was maybe 2011 or 12.
So I lose track of time.
Remember I met Doctor De Palma, my first interview for West Hartford?
Captain Slater was the principal of Hall.
I was in the National Guard with him.
Okay. And I taught in Waterbury.
And I said, hey, Captain Slater,
I was hoping to get into the West Hartford school system.
He's like, you ought to meet my friend Nancy.
Shit Whiting Lane. She was at Whiting Plane.
We met,
I think, maybe even on a Saturday, but sat down, talked about West Hartford.
She's awesome.
And just, like, opening my eyes to get to know West Hartford
and then, like, maybe a year or two later, I was hired at Walk It.
My doctor. Okay, so it was doctor DePalma.
So wonderful person the first time I met.
And I made a lot of enemies with this meeting.
First time I met Nancy DePalma, we were brand new to town,
and the my kids were going to school in flip flops,
and it was pissing me off. And,
I was
and I was not get having any luck with my wife.
It was a battle that she did not want to fight.
And I get it, you know, with the kids.
So I walked in and r-n.c the office.
No appointments, literally marched in.
And I said,
you've got to stop letting these kids wear flip flops to school children issues.
John Lines, you're absolutely right.
She sent a note home the next day to every family
at Whiting Lane said, effective immediately.
No more flip flops. Nice.
So she was my rock star.
But meanwhile, you know, I made enemies a half a half the fit
because it's like these moms and they just want it as easy as possible.
It's like, I just put your thumbs up, like, get out of my hair.
I want you to school.
I need to get to work.
Whatever. Well, if you're playing recess or PE.
Well, we we had an argument at that, so.
Yeah. Exactly right. That's a camp.
So what they were doing in PE is they were going barefoot.
I'm like so I had a big fight with I'd love to know who it was.
But in Nancy's office a year later, because my son came in with a broken toe
and, they're having the kids participate in PE barefoot.
And Nancy called somebody at the town, the town center.
Just. And I just tore heard. I don't even know who it was.
I would love to. I would love to if I got to ask Nancy who that was.
I see Nancy every once
while I bumped into her a week ago, and I got to find out, but it was just.
Yeah, I have very strong opinions
when it comes to like, kids safety and common sense.
What I feel is common sense.
So be a good friends are model, you know, pick up trash, hold the door,
be charitable, give compliments.
What makes Ronnie a good friend so.
Oh, she's just super loyal.
I mean, she's she's incredibly like she's always got your back.
Yeah. She's the most competitive person I've ever met.
Holy cow.
I would not want to get caught in her crosshairs.
I think she's one of the two hardest working people in West Hartford.
I think the other is, Cherie. Nice.
Yeah. And I just.
I've never seen to harder
working people give more hours for less.
Now, Ronnie, she earns money.
But on my business, what's yours?
But the amount of hours she works,
I guarantee it ain't a very good hourly rate.
And Cherie does it for nothing.
You know, she's an unpaid volunteer that puts up with a lot of crap.
And she's been a transformative mayor for the town of West Hartford.
Yeah, I mean, just Cherie Canter, episode 35.
Oh, there we go.
I was going to go there. I was going to quiz you,
but you got a future podcast guest, her husband Michael.
Oh, are you going to have him? Okay. All right, all right.
Michael, Michael, Michael's great is great.
Any questions lined up for me? What should I ask him?
He. I got to tell you, what he does for a living is fascinating.
Talk to him about, intellectual property.
Oh, my God, I know that sounds boring, but it's amazing what he does.
I know he got to a certain age.
He had to step down from being president, but he still works there.
He was in the Hartford business app.
Or he basically he basically create the kind of law that they do.
I like there's so much I know and I don't know what I can say safely.
So now, nothing illegal, nothing illicit.
All good.
But I just don't know what they like to share and they don't like to share.
But he literally invented
the type of law that he does.
And it's huge.
It's a call intellectual property law. Okay.
Geez.
It's amazing.
He's brilliant and he's so down to earth.
Like he's just like
like a lot of these, you know,
highfalutin types are not down to earth at all.
He's just like, oh, he's just super cool.
He's just like a regular guy.
So, you know, I'm looking forward to him.
He works with my friend Lauren.
I'm looking forward to talking with them.
Sherry gave me his number.
I got to reach out to him.
We saw each other at a Christmas party.
So good people, great family. Yeah.
Big UConn fans.
Yes. Well, she's on she's on the board.
Which can be tough at times.
I'm going to have something named Kanter. Right?
I hope so, if not, they better start soon because she's been at least
as far as West Hartford goes.
She's been I'm look, I've been in town 20 years.
I've had three mayors.
And the other two, you know, one of them were good friends with.
And the other one, I don't know real well, but great guy.
But the way Sherry led us through Covid
and the way the development that she's overseen, the responsible
development and growth of West Hartford has been amazing.
Yeah, I could I could spend an hour on sure.
We could do an hour on Sherry.
She's said, yeah, we had we played a game on our podcast.
Go back and check it out.
She's she's a great guest, great friend.
She could cartwheel still. Yes she can.
Yes she can.
I had one of the biggest reasons why I'm missing the Park Road parade
100th podcast.
We did a big celebration and I had Javier Colon, Frank Whaley,
and I'm like, Sherry's here, Sherry come up.
And I was, you know, instead of saying,
hey, say a few words, I'm like, can you cartwheel?
Did you boom!
It was amazing. Then I'm like, Ben, do you want to say something?
She's like, no, no, thank you.
So when we when we interview Sherry and we've been lucky enough
to interview her a bunch of times, is I always,
you know, we'll get to the issues and then I always try to book five minutes.
Sorry, Sherry. What's on your mind? Because.
Because she.
All right, so here's the way I describe Sherry is there's
I think there's levels of brilliance and leadership.
And to me the apps.
Okay. Self-actualization. Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Okay.
In that little tiny triangle, the very, very top is seeing around corners.
Sherry can see around corners,
she can see around corners.
And that that to me is it's brilliance and leadership.
And that's what that's what Sherry is.
She can literally see around corners like it.
Yeah, well, we did a lot of Weehawken talk.
You brought up Covid.
There's an exclusive wood just dropped yesterday.
Yeah. Exclusive? Yeah. Exclusive breaking.
Do you have a breaking news sound effect that we can follow? And
all politics is local. Yes.
Covid, five years later, part one just dropped it
on March 17th, 2025.
That was yesterday.
Yes, yes, my Saint Patrick's Day and it was great.
We had our com shout out to Ronnie and everyone over there. And
who is it? Time?
Don't ask me all their names, Tom, Bob Carr.
And don't ask me the last gentleman's name. I cannot pronounce it.
Oh, yeah.
So, But they have it where it can be read to you now.
Yes, I was, I was listening to a story the other day, and I was working,
and I was having it be read to me like I was watching, listen to a podcast or.
Great, I listen to yours today. Okay.
With the playback, it was awesome.
And I thought it was really good.
So Covid, five years later, you want to get into it
and don't give away the whole article. Yeah.
Why don't I, I don't care.
I was first of all it's a cliffhanger, so you gotta tune in anyway.
So tune in next month. Yeah.
I haven't even written it yet.
I'm like, okay, now what?
So, you know, now I'm obligated.
So I, you know, we were doing the TV show and then when Covid kind of calmed down,
we just didn't have as much, you know, it's town.
We're not doing statewide. So we just didn't have enough.
I don't want to say, but as much stuff to talk about.
So the TV shows became less and less.
And I like contributing to we are we all like it when I contribute.
So I, started to do a monthly car article, which.
So that was going in life.
Life was kind of the lead on that was going on in
life, West Hartford Life Magazine or whatever that is called.
And and then let's just say there was an issue.
So Ronnie and I resigned in protest.
And I was actually really happy because,
I just it's hard to write about cars when you kind of live cars.
It's like, what am I going to write about this month?
So I've done the Genesis. Okay.
I've done the catalog, I've done the Tesla, I've done this, I've done that.
You know, Keech Griffin,
he gets a car every two weeks.
Oh, so he's a member of Empire, and then he writes about.
Yeah. Okay. Was he the current or something?
I'm not exactly sure. Yeah.
If you if you're going to be a member of Empire,
you got to be like, you got to write something.
Keep Griffin.
So, anyway, long story short, you know,
we had this kind of sudden and abrupt end maybe six months ago to the life deal.
And so I started to do something, and I, you know, I love politics.
So I'm like, all right, Ronnie, I have an idea for for an article.
And she was here's what I love about Ronnie.
Ronnie will resist, but I love Ronnie
because she can be sold if you're doing it for the right reason.
With Ronnie, she can be sold.
And I hope she listens. This part.
And I always tell Ronnie, like,
if I need her to do something, I'll call and say, Ronnie,
I'm asking you this, but I'm asking you for the right reason, and I.
I'm at a point with her where I can say that she just knows that's the case.
But I will also tell her, Irani, I'm asking you to do this,
but it's for selfish reasons.
You're like, all right, let's talk about it.
Whatever. So,
you know, it's a level of trust thing, but, you know, don't you know,
you don't want to burn that bridge, you know, that's not
Ronnie is not somebody you want to burn in town.
So, so I had this idea, and she was really resistant to.
And I said, look, I said, I think I can do it.
I'm on the town DTC.
I don't know if you know that the town Democratic Committee I I'm I'm a member.
I was a district chair for a while now.
I'm a member.
And, so she was nervous and I said,
look, we'll put a disclaimer and let's just try it once if it doesn't work.
So she's okay, you know, she trusts me.
She knows. I'm really just trying to be helpful.
So I started writing this. All politics is local,
every month, and I'm trying to.
I can't remember what I've written about, but this month, I was really.
This is a monthly. It's a monthly? Yeah, it's a monthly.
Gotcha.
So, so this month I decided at Covid five years later,
and it was such an interesting time.
And I had such, you know, interesting memories from that time.
And then kind of like there was a certain look, Covid was horrible,
but there was a certain innocence to it back in the day.
I mean, let's not forget,
Trump was the one who said, okay, Operation Warp Speed, let's do it.
And everybody was on board.
Trump's supporters were on board.
Democrats wanted the vaccine, Republicans wanted the vaccine.
And then what it really gave rise to which I'm going to talk about in the next up,
next article, is it gave rise to a lot of these social media
influencers, which started probably April of 2020, May.
And a lot of these influencers, let's be honest, were dumb as a rock.
They have no infectious disease.
See me, I have no infectious disease knowledge whatsoever,
but I understand I'm able to admit that I do not have any.
So I'm going to go seek
an expert who has a ton like we did with Doctor Bennett for the show,
and we're going to I'm going to bring in an expert,
and I'm going to listen to his advice because he's an expert for a reason.
Because he did, you know, college.
He did post-grad. He did, medical.
He did his residency.
He he has the training.
And we've got people who are online who don't have college degrees
or are from very, shall we say, suspect universities,
schools that are giving and dispensing
medical advice that they have no business giving.
And we started to see a move toward that in the middle of 2020.
And it's you know, there's no doubt in my mind that really impacted the 2024.
I think that and then obviously the whole dei,
you know, pronouns thing, I think those are the two biggest things
that really impacted the 2024 election.
But it's you know, what what Republicans have done here we go.
Political is they've
they've managed to create these platforms where people like Tucker
Carlson and, who's the guy in the the guy in, Oh, God.
Charlie Kirk. And,
I'm trying to remember the one in, Steve Bannon,
you know, and a million other Laura Loomer.
I won't comment, so I'll just go like this.
So anyone listening doesn't know how I'm reacting.
My facial expression here, who
they have no understanding
of infectious diseases, and yet they're
out there going on.
You know, I don't understand what causation versus, what what's the about?
You didn't read any of this in the article that's going to come next.
I'm going to get I'm going to get in and, it's all right.
It's, you know, I just it's just it's really it's really this is.
Yeah. Yeah.
So this is the exclusive part then? Yes.
There we go. There now we have exclusive now please.
More breaking news. Music, please. Thank you.
So we, you know, it's I just,
you know, I just think it's, it's there was like a certain
we're all in this together innocence to it.
Kind of like we were after 911 and kind of like
we were after the challenger and kind of like after we were, you know,
when other momentous when Kennedy was shot and other momentous
moments in the history and and now that
like I feel like that just can't happen like, like there was a plane
crash and like, within ten minutes of the plane crashing,
it's a, you know, because of a desire,
you know, you know, and, and like that,
that's not at all construct of at all.
It's not constructive.
So agreed.
We'll check it out on we had.com and look out for part two.
Yes. What day you think going to drop it.
Oh come on, come on now you're putting the pressure on a guarantee.
It'll be in April
I promise being promised April I'm actually I don't travel a whole lot.
I'm actually speaking of the Covid. Do you remember this event?
I need to see.
I need to pull this over.
Okay. That is, Wow.
That's Mary Faye on the left. Me. Ronnie.
Oh, wow.
What now?
Wait, I don't know.
It's at a coffee shop.
I need help with this.
Okay, we're going to.
I'm in the photo, so clearly I was there.
This was friends of Fini.
We had a celebrity server event.
Oh. Come on, come on on Park Road at, no, no.
Nope, nope. Try again.
I gotta look now.
This is the owner of the establishment right here.
Oh, was it Germany or no? Nope. Keep going.
I don't know, this is donut crazy.
Oh, I remember that. That's right. Ronnie was nice.
She kind of pulled me in on that. I was like, the last second.
Add to that. That's why I didn't remember it.
Because Ronnie was nice enough to come on serve donuts with me.
It's all right.
So this is Irene on our.
Okay, donut crazy episode ten. Yeah.
Brooke daily I know Brookdale shoot for sure.
Fin she lawyer or she, real soon.
She's an advocate for Down's syndrome and autism.
Oh, good for her.
Okay. Her son Finn, was my third grade student.
Okay.
Very fair.
You know, she's on the podcast, so you come up,
what episode number is Mary say?
I want to say
75. Okay.
All right.
80. Okay.
Go back and check it out. 80. Okay.
You gonna watch it?
So yeah, I'm going to watch I'm definitely gonna watch that.
But you complete you complete all this.
You're the last missing piece. There we go.
But this date was March 8th, 2020.
Yeah, I remember it was right.
It was the Sunday before they closed school. Remember that?
That was our last week of school.
This was the last Friends of Feeney event.
Yeah, pre-COVID.
So, yeah, it was a cold, windy day.
We have Mike Golic, my gold junior, showed up.
We had,
what's his name?
Kenny Mayne showed up from ESPN.
Okay, Dennis. How's Scott?
I love donut crazy, but I don't go.
I can't eat it. Donut crazy.
Yeah, we had be a good friend.
Donuts, friends, a few donuts.
It was a great event.
But yeah I it kind of connects to the Covid okay.
All right. Thanks. So we had.com.
That was a crazy week. That was that was a crazy week.
I flew back into town that day so I yeah I remember now
I flew in to make that event.
I flew in that day to make the event.
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
Sorry I didn't remember where it was I apologize.
All good.
It was great that.
Oh, no, it was not great that it was it was scary that they're like,
oh, we're just going to close schools for two weeks to clean.
They said two weeks.
They said two week leech and clean.
And then it was not one
it was not I mean, it's just yeah.
You said the NBA.
Then I remember Rudy Gobert.
He was a French player for he plays for the Timberwolves now.
But he said he got diagnosed with Covid right.
And he touched the mic.
He touched all the mics.
And then next you know they canceled the NBA season.
It was like five years ago. Crazy week.
It was it was just like you mentioned NBA closing.
It was so on on the 12th.
Like it was nuts.
It was every five minutes.
It was a major story.
And I think while we were on air, MLB canceled, if I remember correctly.
And we had at one point we handed the mic to Ronnie
and said, Ronnie, just give us an update.
Talk for ten minutes.
Like it was insane.
Insane. And yeah, the school closing.
And then like, I know it's a little thing, but Patty,
I remember distinctly the conversation with Patty about going to approval
for her page like that was a huge deal.
That page was fine.
You know, all the Wild West stuff that used to go on it still.
But but she had to approve every approval she.
So she made that when they announced.
So what happened is I don't want to get in trouble, but
so basically,
do you know what it means when a story is embargoed?
Do you know the term?
Yeah, Ronnie told me that.
So stories embargoed one it's like, okay, you're in the media.
I'm telling you what the story is going to be,
but I'm not allowing you to share it.
And so trusting.
So, Ronnie, when we were getting ready to go on air,
the school closure was embargoed.
So Patty and I had a, like, a sidebar, and I said, look, Patty, you can't.
I remember I was like four, 430 in the afternoon.
And I said, Patty, you can't tell anybody, but they're going to close schools.
And she says she was worried about model because people were scared
and they were posting appropriately scared comments.
And she said, should I put on my approval?
I said, look, I would, I was too figured it'd be off in two weeks.
Students are my model moderator.
So basically,
if you post on neighbors and friends,
it doesn't go live until somebody looks at it.
Make sure the administrators approve.
It agrees with their rules and regs.
Yeah, yeah, Sandy, Patty and I forget who the other one is.
Have you had Cindy on yet? No.
Iraqi Rocky. Oh, you got a Rocky?
What episode number come on. 110. Oh. Whoa.
You know, he could be lying to me and I'll never know, so I'm really impressed.
So ten special episode.
We did a a special collab.
Two guys and a lot of wine slash friends.
That's cool at the same time.
Did you do it at the studio? Do.
That's cool.
They typically go 30 minutes.
Yes, we went about 60. Yeah.
You got to go along with that.
And Bobby P loved it.
It was great when we did it.
The 30 minutes, like we blinked our eyes and then we hung around
the studio and finished the bottles.
Yeah, I love the game.
I brought a bottle of,
bread and butter. Pinot noir.
I know Rocky is like, he knew where he knows stuff.
He's amazing press.
He knows he he absolutely knows the stuff.
Yeah, he's in there. Good.
And then I saw you at the event in November there.
45th. The 45th anniversary.
Yeah.
I mean, I made an appearance, I had we had to be somewhere.
We were double booked that night.
We were going to a birthday party that night.
This is like three months ago. Right through from us.
Yeah.
Yeah, that was a really fun and sound issues
that night, which was such a bummer for the broadcast.
Like, we could hear them, but it was such a fun night.
Interesting, interesting moment.
That night, I met Sean Daly for the first time.
We had Sean Daly on. Yeah. No. Okay.
And we shared ideas.
And an idea he brought up was a good one,
about helping, the registrars out and get them a little more pay.
And, you know, it was nice to see the two parties work together and get it done.
Nice.
I know you just,
girls basketball in town, so.
So he's he's he's passionate.
Whether you agree with him or not.
He's a passionate guy, so gotta appreciate the past.
Yeah, yeah I know. Yep, yep.
Should I have him on?
You're asking me.
Yeah. I don't know him all enough.
He he will.
The people will listen.
You know, he has no shortage of, I think, opinions and thoughts or let's
hear some upcoming guests. Should I have him on or not?
Let's go. Oh, boy.
Michael Kanter, we talked about. Absolutely.
Lieutenant Foley police, right. Yep.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
Officer Barrett, it's great.
He is part of the homeless division of Hartford.
Great person.
Oh. That's interesting.
Aaron Fox owns fix Ivy.
Okay. Never get a fix.
No, you hold on. Let's go back to that.
Yeah, I'll fix you.
Oh, yeah. They're amazing.
Amazing.
They freaking give you an IV, and it's not, like, medically required.
They're not sticking a needle in me unless it's in Medicare Part.
Oh, it's a registered nurse.
So what are they? We're.
What are you sit and just chill on a couch and you get vitamin C?
Magnesium, zinc, all types of good stuff.
And does it make run a marathon? Do you?
You feel really?
Yeah. Do you sleep well that night?
Sleep like a baby.
And what do they charge for this service?
Don't say 75 to 100 bucks. Wow.
We get a shot.
Okay, in the bottom,
there's the power shot, the relaxed shot and the rocket shot.
Oh, God. Okay, I gotta try it.
Okay, I'll not going to try. Okay.
Maybe we'll maybe we'll do a special podcast.
I'll do it live on air and I can I can talk about what's happening.
It's like, you know, the, you know, the news guys who like, get their,
you know, their heart test or their colonoscopy or whatever live on air.
It's like, we'll do it, we'll do it.
It's right across from a pizza.
Okay. Go get your pizza. Thank you.
You got pizza there for me? I'll be there to get a slice in.
And I've yet to see who else is on this list.
Rich Coppola was sports on, channel eight for 20 years.
Oh, that's cool, that's cool. Yeah.
Ryan McGinnis. Ryan. Soft wash.
You need any power washing?
Ben Fuchs, Fuchs financial.
Okay. If you if you just.
He related to my, rabbi.
Yep. That's his dad.
Oh, neat.
Oh, it's his kid. Okay. Yeah.
Okay. Okay. Okay.
My, my my first child went.
Oh, no.
Sydney went through her.
Wait, I don't I get this wrong. No. I'm wrong.
No, none of my kids had Rabbi Fuchs.
They had all they all had Michael Pincus.
I've had Michael Pincus on yet.
No. Michael would be a great guest.
Rabbi Stephen, chat Nova okay, episode number four.
Kidding. I'm just thinking on.
Yeah, yeah, 70.
They're all 70. Yeah.
I was gonna say, wasn't Mary Fey 70?
She might have been 60.
Now that I think of it. Okay.
Oh, my friend Thomas and Ryan, they're from Bristol.
They're insight plus technology. They want it in a raffle.
So we're raffling off podcast.
All right.
Okay, okay, so I just I'm like one level above the raffle, but I'm like four levels
below, like town council and like the, the real media and a ace
has been on trying to think Liam has been have you had,
have you had how about oh, you've had Chief Reddick.
Yeah. Amazing guy. He's great.
How about, how about the chief fire department?
Oh, you gotta get get ahead, Marcia.
But she was the deputy, okay?
She's retired.
She she did grad school, and it's doing other things she has.
How about agent Billings Smith? Yep.
That's ace. That's.
Yeah. She's. Yep.
All right. How about bored of it?
Have you had any board of Ed members?
No, but I want Lorna. Do you. Okay.
Her daughter and my daughter, our good friends.
Okay. Lorna has committed, but we just have worked it out.
All right, say on it.
If I see her, I'll.
I don't know, I'm not sure if I, I think, I think we have a good board of ed.
We had we had some bumps in the road maybe a few years back,
you know, with outside influences coming in and speaking on stuff
that they just didn't know about during the public comment section.
And happily, are you guys kind of that's kind of stuff that a little bit.
Well, I, I, I oh, they, they modified.
Well they, yeah,
there's been a couple of adjustments to public comment, but it really
maybe like a time.
So what was happening now it's a touchy issue.
But what was happening is you know, so
there's always the the enemy the enemy in the closet.
Right. And right now that enemy is die.
Four years ago, it was, social emotional learning school.
And you haven't heard us yell at or uttered in two years.
So outside forces, we're talking about how in West Hartford
is this liberal bastion of ACL not even understanding what ACL is,
not even understanding what West Hartford is,
and not even understanding what education in general.
So you had a lot of folks coming who were,
I believe, not properly
informed and not properly up to speed on the issues
and talking quite angrily at the board of Ed.
Well, not really
talking about issues that were related to West Hartford
and so that caused a change
in, public comment policy.
But then they made another change just recently because
that's kind of stopped.
And it seems like the dice stuff is falling more at the national level.
They're not coming after school systems with it.
They're going after pilots, apparently.
But but not school systems.
So yeah.
Oh, I mean, we got some future events or past event first.
Our parade was amazing success.
We got the shirts, we had sponsors on the back.
I just want to shout out a few sponsors, see if you know, you know, Seth Brown
ear, Nose and Throat of Connecticut.
Okay.
Lyons auto on New Britain have an unrelated but know them
well Ryan Keating yep, I know Ryan well.
Keating agency, French cleaners.
Yeah. Ryan is on Arapahoe Road, I believe. Right.
Oh, yeah.
You were on their podcast. What's happening?
Oh that's right.
Yeah, that was a while ago.
What year was that?
Oh. Are you.
Do you know the answer? Okay, don't tell me
what's hap 2018.
Very good. Bam.
Very good.
Direct line media.
Cricket press. You work with.
I don't read them, but I'm familiar with them. Yeah.
Lake George Steamboat Company.
You ever go on the Minnehaha? No.
Anthony's abatement? No.
Imma feel bad. These are all good.
These are all good folks.
The credit union, American Eagle, sweet bear coffee.
Amazing.
Sweet bear crafts are they is brand new.
My former students mother started it.
Proceeds go and help people with disabilities.
Nice.
She was just on the news talking about it.
So sweet. Bear coffee. Thank you so much.
My barber lost arts. There we go. Very nice.
You got a free haircut out of that deal occasionally.
I know, shouldn't I?
Yeah, I think you should be free. Cut.
John said so. There we go.
Greater, greater. Host Lions club.
You're going to the pancake breakfast in April?
That's right.
They usually do it in April.
It's usually the last weekend in April. Right.
I think it's April 26th.
Yeah, it's the last weekend in April. They do it every year.
I miss it every year because I've got an event that I have to go to every year.
Yep. They put a sign right near our house about a mile from our house.
I always see it and I love pancakes.
Yep. April 26th.
Okay, save the date, people.
The fix I've talked about West Hartford lock, Eric Brown. Uri.
Uri Uri kotlowitz. I've known you for years. Great.
Uri. Uri helped me on my car show when I did it briefly.
Oh, he likes cars. Yeah, he's dream he's a big car guy. Yeah.
You know what I, I give Uri, there's a couple of guys.
I give a lot of credit because they show up at town
council meetings and you think they're going to complain,
and then they get up and they say, I've looked all the facts.
I really thought this through.
I think this is a great idea.
Or if they disagree, they've got their ducks in a row.
And it's not a not in my backyard issue.
It's something more like
more substantial
that you can sink your teeth into and really give it thought.
You're he's one of those guys I Gary I saw 40.
You had Uri on episode 40.
There we go. Okay. Brown and Uri all right.
Dasani MJ this one.
Yeah okay.
I have a suit from the Swanee.
Right. That's in town, right? Yep yep yep.
Future podcast guest. Okay.
Core down drilling. What do you know about drilling?
What type of drilling are we drilling?
And I know nothing environmental in geochemical.
Okay. Pink flamingo.
Why do I know that?
Right next to Luna Pizza.
Oh, okay. Ashley. The balloons. Okay.
Why are BIC property?
You need your grass mowed.
Call my guy wire back. Okay.
Bergen financial. York. Bergen.
Okay. Sweet chili on park road.
Okay. Sweet chili time. We had dinner.
We had dinner. Sweet chili with Ronnie and Ted three nights ago.
No way. Yep.
Would you have?
I had I got to think this through. Okay.
My wife had shrimp, and it was really good.
I say 1 or 2 of her shrimp.
I had chicken with rice.
So what's that? That,
there's a term for it, but it's like a, like a stick.
Oh. Sticky rice. Oh, it's so good.
Oh, my God, it was so good.
And then,
Ted had beef and I don't remember what Ronnie had, but if you look on yesterday's
business buzz, you will see pictures of all of our meals.
So, because Ronnie takes pictures of me,
I know if I go out to dinner with Ronnie, if we go out for dinner,
I don't touch the food until Ronnie is taking her pictures.
So anyway.
And there's food from a Ronnie Ronnie Newton ism.
I'm sorry. There's food on sweet chilis.
Sweet chili.
What do you mean? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Sweet chili.
Got a plug on yesterday's business buzz.
Rightfully so.
Make a note of that.
Who's good? They've been around a long time. 20 years plus.
Really? Yeah, they've been around a long, long time.
Sweet chili. Great people. Yeah.
Sally and Bob's okay.
We like Sally and Bob's. They're.
They're like 120.
They were just on the podcast okay.
Wings over Helens. Awesome. Helens for now.
Yeah I have a buddy of mine who's in DC that
we get together for breakfast so we can bitch.
And sorry that's so one foul language I'll use.
Forgive me.
But, yeah, we just bitch about the state of politics.
So naturally, of course, we would never complain about local politics.
Never.
So anyway, people's Bank, Webster and CPF,
can you explain to me so People's United People's Bank was people's Bank.
Then they became People's United Bank. Then they went away.
And now we have a new people's bank.
It's a totally different entity.
People's bank together.
Yes. P and the B cap.
Yes. So it's not anything to do with the old people's Bank
or People's United Bank or the pub, because we like to call
a meeting with them tomorrow.
Ryan super hit them hard. Ha.
Let them take $10,000 sponsorship level.
That's a that's a silver level.
In case you're wondering,
they sponsor the podcast, they sponsor the golf tournament,
and they're sponsoring our next this parade and next.
Oh, come.
Yeah. You've already hidden for the 10th anniversary.
Okay. Good for you.
Good for little less than ten came close to making you. So
now that's great.
And we got some upcoming, I just mentioned Memorial Day.
That's.
Check us out on Farmington to South Main.
Quick little parade, but wonderful.
A soccer event, Hartford Athletic.
Do you ever go to the Hartford Athletic?
June 6th, please, I feel bad, I'm shaking my head to too much here.
So I feel our goats game.
We've been to yard. Good.
I went to one last summer. It was a lot of fun.
We had our seats, like, in,
I don't like, in a mezzanine.
And right field, like, upper level was really nice.
They had food and drink, and it was really cool.
I felt very fancy.
So I serve on a couple.
I serve, so I serve on zoning and wetlands here in town.
And then I also serve on, Greater Hartford Transit.
And once a year, transit does a yard Goats game.
And, we went so there's two it's a funny story for the transit game.
So we, we got a brand new executive director
that was like one of the very first events he's going to with us.
And I've been on for five years.
My term was five years. And,
so I decide I'm going to resign.
So like, yeah, I'll, I'll talk to Sam's dog.
I'll talk to dog at the, the Yard Goats game.
Low key. We sit down, chat.
So I sit down dog, you know, really happier on board, you know, happy.
I was able to be part of the interview process.
And, you know, I was on the the subcommittee that helped find.
And, you know, it's been a really great five years.
But, you know, I feel like, you know, it should be somebody else's turn now.
And so I'm going to I'm going to step down.
He goes, John, we just hanging to the end of the year.
I just, you know, I was like, okay, of the end of the year.
We'll reevaluate five months later.
I don't want to say his name because I don't
I didn't run this story by him, but two story five and say to the other West
Hartford person, without any prior discussion between the two of us,
walked up to dog and resigned as well, and Doug gave him the same speech.
We're both still on the board,
so but literally
within five minutes, unrehearsed, two of us back to back, we resigned.
It was pretty funny.
So I don't know.
Yeah, we're guy so and it's really great.
Hartford Transit does a lot of good for the community.
They do all the paratransit and they just they do so much for the community.
But they're based on the Hartford.
So but they handle they've got a bunch of member towns.
And so
yeah, our our fifth annual game, August 15th.
Okay. Tickets are on sale.
And then Johnny's got you on to Johnny's dog.
I'm not a jogger, Ronnie.
I'll be there. I'll speak for Ronnie and say she'll be there.
So how's that?
Ronnie, do you ever see Ted run?
He. Ted's a good runner.
I say, I'll I'll drive by him and he'll be running, and I'll be like.
I walked my dog once and I see this guy just flying.
Yes. Yeah.
Like the stride on this guy.
And he's like the picture of health too. So yeah, I mean, that's.
So what did I do?
I walked a dog, went home, put on my running stuff.
Did you see now me, I go home and just stick my head between my eyes and cry.
I can't do this. I try running and I injure myself.
So I walk, I try to walk and I'll run up and down a lot of stairs.
You know, dog, we have to talk.
Well, no. Hold on.
I cannot believe I just said that.
I'm shocked that I said that.
Hopefully my wife does. Yes, we have a dog.
However, a week ago, without my knowledge, my wife agreed to foster
a second dog who is about this big and ten weeks old.
And so right now we have two dogs,
but we will not have two dogs for long or be very clear.
So that's great. Yeah,
yeah yeah.
Our mark.
Wow. Well don't keep going for another.
We go for our number two I mean am I that interesting.
So this is great.
See we shot for 50 minutes with Feeney.
We hit 60.
Any recommendations for of what podcast TV
shows, books oh I gotcha
local politics, cars.
I mean, I'll talk local politics all day long with you.
You know, I get I get,
you know, I've been on a little bit of a I made the decision after the election.
I was not going to quite hold back the way I was.
And, you know, one thing that's really been on my mind is
I feel like we are really blessed in this town.
I don't know if you know the folks or not, but our town employees are incredible.
And our teachers. How about the teacher?
Aren't you a town employee?
You're kidding.
Yeah.
Okay, so you're included in that, right?
So I, I, I call you guys West Hartford smartest and I call
our kids West Hartford is brightest, so I don't know what's up.
All right. Is that the right nomenclature?
That's what I call you guys.
So, Yeah, you could go look back at some transcripts of BOE meetings
where I've spoken, testified. And that's.
Those are the terms I use. Thank you. So I feel like,
if Board of Ed is not
focusing on, kids or the budget, they're doing something wrong.
I'm very passionate about that. So,
but, so I see people go after an even
notable people, shall we say, go after our town employees.
And that makes me crazy because I be because of my role on zoning.
I get exposure to them all.
And these guys, they work 70 hour weeks on an average week.
They they are if half of them, if they went to the private sector,
they'd earn ten times as much money and they'd be in an executive suite
like they're that good.
And so it really bothers me when, and there was
I don't know if you saw Romney's admonishment in business Buzz yesterday
talking about the town employees and talking about how,
you know, our Electeds are all volunteers, unpaid volunteers.
And because people are all wound up over the budget,
because this is the time of year people get lined up over the budget
and, you know, they're working hard to trim it, to try to minimize the impact.
We're kind of in a weird spot right now because,
so we had Arpa funding, you know what?
Arpa funding was okay, American Rescue Plan Act funding from Covid.
So a lot of money from Arpa, which I do not think there's a mayor
in the country or a town in the country, used it more judiciously
than West Hartford, than Mayor Cantor Rick Ludwig,
the town manager and and the town of West Hartford.
So Arpa really ran out in 2024.
We've got some carryover on projects, you know, shovel ready,
you know, to use the Obama term, shovel ready projects.
So we've got we've got some money.
We the town of West Hartford, has some.
So you're going to see like the beautification of the center,
you know, all the trees are going to be replaced.
A lot of signage on a lot of beautification.
You're going to see around town.
That's going to make the town, you know, function look nicer and function.
But Arpa is basically gone.
But the good news is because of mayor can't just leadership and vision.
We have fantastic residential projects coming online.
I mean incredible huge I mean, one park we've got
I think four and Rick Ludwick get him on. Yep.
Get him on as a guest.
I think we have four projects right now that are are under construction, ready
to begin construction, under construction or just finishing construction.
That's going to rank and certainly in the top ten and maybe
even on the top five grand list participants in town
Yukon, one Park Road.
And there's a bunch of others I'm forgetting about,
but there's a two Yukon properties. Those are two of them.
There's one Park Road, but and and it's
it's it's Mayor Cantor's leadership and vision.
Talk about her being able to see around corners that understood that
the economy where we're between what things cost and, and
and the way the economy is right now, you can't build single family homes.
It's not about not wanting to.
You can't afford to do it.
You can't make money doing it, certainly for middle income people.
Yeah.
You could build a million and a half dollars, mansions.
But you can't build the $600,000 home.
The 500,000 are home.
It costs too much per square foot to build.
So to buy the dirt and then to build a house,
it costs a third of an acre in this town today.
That's not wetlands and not really
crappy on, like some terrible street.
I don't mean terrible
socio
economically, I mean terrible, just terrible view.
Terrible to get water or other resources.
Other, other utilities.
They're terrible traffic, that sort of thing.
The dirt is going to cost you 250 for a third of an acre.
So your construction costs are going to be 350 to 400 per square foot.
So that's 400,000 for 1000ft square house.
Nobody wants a 1000ft square house.
So you're talking 800,000 under today, 800,000 construction costs, plus another
250 for the dirt to have a three bedroom, two and a half baths house.
That is nice.
So that's why all these condos and apartments.
So, Sherry, recognize Mayor Kantor,
recognize that we have to do multifamily.
And to her credit, she's really, really working hard
to make sure that there's an affordable component in everything that is built,
everything the Yukon properties are 7.5% between the two.
This new one, that vessel which you're going to vote on.
And let me disclaimer I'm on zoning, but I did not vote on this.
This one I did not.
The way zoning works, I don't vote on everything.
So, but vessel is a,
is, 10% affordable by deed.
It's deed restricted.
You're talking 40, 50, 60, 70 years by deed.
These things are designated as affordable housing.
So it's because of that vision.
We're seeing huge growth in our rentals.
But for the next year or two, we're in between.
We're we're in a we're in a gully
this is my I've not been told this is a strictly my opinion.
Let me be very clear.
Based on my review of the budget,
my review of what's going on, no one has told me anything, but we're in a gully.
We lost our plan.
We lost some of the other stuff that we had.
We've got all these great projects happening,
but the money's not quite online yet.
It's coming, but it's not quite there yet.
So we got a year or two of a little bit of discomfort and,
and you know, the other thing that happened is, the I believe
the teacher contracts and I think fire police were all renegotiated.
Yep. I'm not teaching. I'm not speaking.
I'm not speaking for the town.
I'm simply offering an opinion.
And some of it I'm not for teachers, not was rhetoric.
I keep hitting the mic. I'm so sorry.
Retroactive to 2021.
I was a teacher.
Okay? Not teachers.
Okay, so it wasn't teachers somewhere around. Freeze.
Maybe the cops were on freeze for so long.
Perhaps. Yeah, but so.
So it's it's a little bit so we have, you know, in past years, when
I've looked at the board of Ed Budget, I've looked at the town budget,
particularly Board of Ed.
It's like, yeah, okay, we got room, we got room, we got room.
I've, I've got through this budget.
I think I've done a really good job.
And it's like it's up 7% and there's just now seven, 7.18%.
I was bustin, Paul was in his chops as a 7.8%, 7.18%.
He knew I was just goofing on him, but, future I want him on the podcast. So.
Yeah. Paul would be great.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, definitely.
Paul and Dave Kent, Rick led with Rick, and, you know, another one.
Maybe he won't do it.
I'm going to get some trouble here.
Dallas Dodge.
He's awesome. He's really tall guy.
He's tall.
I don't think there's our height requirement.
Yeah okay. So I got to be the tallest.
Oh yeah okay, okay.
Because there's a height of height now, but, you know, yeah.
Dallas, I think would be an interesting question.
We wanted to come on, but.
Yeah, get get, a LaToya would be, you'd have fun on the Toya.
She's on board of Ed. Nice.
You know, fun with her. She's passionate.
She'll give you.
Should give you a good hour. Hour and a half.
So perfect. Yeah.
So not great talking with. No, this is fun.
Sorry, I go on, I apologize before we end.
I'm a teacher.
Favorite
teacher, Eleanor Carr, Greenwich high school.
Well, senior year, she was awesome.
Just inspired me to do the writing that I do.
And, Yeah, she was just terrific.
So really great. She died a few years ago.
She died right at the beginning of Covid.
Not out of Covid, but like 2018, 19. So.
And I want to thank you for volunteering your time.
Celebrity, sir. Sure.
Are you just generous donation. I also want to thank you for that.
That was very kind of you.
Thoughtful and kind. Generous.
Your good friend had a good time talking with you.
A lot of politics, a lot of cars, a lot of Wycombe.
My next episode, we'll discuss women. Yes. Okay. Yeah.
Probably not. Right.
And then part two, we're going to cut that out.
Okay. Make a note.
Your little notepad there cut out you know minute 64 to 65.
So part two coming on the Wycombe all politics is local. Yes.
On three will say be a good friend to to each other.
Yeah. Okay. 123 be good friend.