Thumbs up, thumbs down
Thumbs up to the plan to move the 38-foot-tall Uncle Sam, an icon from the former Danbury Fair, to the Railway Museum in downtown Danbury where it is sure to attract attention. While we had hoped the statue could greet visitors at the Welcome Center off I-84 in the city, it was not feasible. A restored Uncle Sam should be back in the public arena by mid-May.
Thumbs up to Norwalk native Robert Kunkel launching the first hybrid cargo vessel in the United States. The emission-free refrigerated vessel will anchor an eco-friendly farm-to table distribution network between New York and Connecticut. Not only is the catamaran capable of carrying three to five times the freight of a truck, but it can cross Long Island Sound in a fraction of the time a tractor-trailer would take to make a delivery. There are many environmental benefits to this. It just happens to also hold the potential to reduce highway traffic.
Thumbs down to the Ridgefield parents who thought it would be a good idea to dry a ball field by dousing it with 25 gallons of gasoline and then alighting it — so that a high school baseball game could be played April 6. The environmental cleanup and field repair will cost the town an estimated $50,000. In setting another bad example for their children, no parents have come forward to accept responsibility for their actions.
Thumbs up to University of Connecticut Board of Trustee Chairman Thomas Kruger challenging Gov. Ned Lamont to name a woman as his successor. Kruger, a Greenwich resident, stepped down as Lamont pledged to replace members and reinvent the board to focus on outreach to the business community. The turnover has already become politicized, as Lamont dismissed longtime trustee Denis Nayden, who supported Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski, but has also donated millions to UConn. Regardless of politics, Lamont should consider the benefits of appointing the first woman to the post
Thumbs up to the Judiciary Committee pushing forward the so-called Time’s Up bill, which would expand the state’s sexual harassment laws, including a mandate of sexual harassment training for any company with three or more employees. The legislation would also extend or abolishing the statute of limitations on serious sexual crimes. It faces obstacles in the General Assembly, but deeper discussion on this challenges are overdue.
Thumbs down to UBS’s shrinking footprint in Connecticut. While the banking giants retains a larger presence than most residents likely realize, its heyday of two decades ago is long gone. UBS employed about 1,260 in Connecticut in 2018, a dip of 40 percent over four years. In 2014, it employed about 2,160 in Connecticut, less than half of the workers in Stamford alone before the financial bubble burst. For Connecticut to forgive the remaining $5 million on a $20 million loan secured in 2011, UBS would need to average more than 1,750 employees over the next three years.