What a week these past seven days were, where we experienced everything from a Catholic priest calling the world immoral because of their tolerance for abortion to us wondering aloud if anybody cares about Waterford’s budget.
We’ll hit the national news first, where Jorge Mario Bergoglio was named the new Pope. To get a local reaction, we interviewed Fr. Joseph Whittel, the head pastor of Waterford’s St. Paul’s Church. Whittel was “delighted” with the selection, but said Bergoglio will be dealing with an “immoral” world, where abortion is tolerated and people do not take responsibility for their actions.
This week, the Board of Finance continued its review of an $81.96 million budget proposal for the 2013-14 fiscal year that increases spending by 4.16 percent. On Tuesday, after noticing that nobody was showing up to any of the budget meetings and few were reading our stories about the issue, we asked if anybody in Waterford cares about the budget. The comments came flooding in with people saying they do indeed care, although many said they feel there is little they can do to curb the spending.
This week, we profiled two businesses. One was Tri-County Memorials, which took over Maynard’s Waterford Monumental Works at the beginning of this year. Maynard’s had taken deposits from people for gravestones and never put them in, but Tri-County owner Phil Costanzo has since filled those orders and hopes to turn the spot around.
On Friday, we interviewed Robert Schacht, owner of Hunts Brook Farm. Schacht and his wife Teresa have owned the farm for almost 20 years, but just recently began to rely on it as their main source of income. Schacht said there are many challenges to being a farmer, but making people happy by giving them delicious and healthy food makes it all worth it.
The most well read story this week was about a 54-year-old mail carrier who was in a horrific accident Wednesday in Waterford. The mail carrier was rushed to the hospital via Life Star helicopter and is in serious condition.
In other news, one of the most prestigious housing indexes in the country is predicting New London County to be one of the best housing markets over the next five years, Clark Lane Middle School’s principal took a pie in the face to raise money for a fundraiser and we revealed Waterford’s top ten taxpayers. Oh, and we almost forgot, there was that fascinating story about a plot to destroy all of New London (and probably all of Waterford as well)…
