New Haven Independent

As part of a citywide tour, Assistant Police Chief Herman Badger paid a visit to the Dwight Central Management Team Tuesday night.

“We want to make sure we haven’t missed a step in our community relations,” said Badger ( in the photo with Lt. Ray Hassett, Dwight’s district manager).

When the floor opened to questions, one woman asked, “I don’t understand how it is possible that the supervisory set-up at the department is such that this was allowed to happen.” Hassett seemed prepared for the question; he talked about developing better “checks and balances” within the department.

Sheila Shanklin, an active member of the Dwight Central Management Team, defended the police by reminding everyone that “they’re people and people do things — it happens, stuff happens. But we have to just move on and see what we can do to help them clean it up—it’s all of our mess.” Shanklin’s defense wound down the conversation, and Florita Gillespie, DCMT chairperson, thanked Badger for coming.

(Click here to read a potboiler 57-page FBI affidavit about the case underlying the scandal. For other related stories, click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here , here and here.)

Summer Job Apps Snatched Up

The meeting moved to other important issues in the Dwight community, such as the Youth at Work program, which is so popular that Gina Calder, a Youth Initiatives representative, was fresh out of applications. She urged community members to talk to friends and family to see if anyone might be able to hire a high school student for the summer. “Everyone wants to work,” she said. “We really need the community to come together with this.”

A New School

In other news for Dwight’s youth, Susan Weisselberg (pictured), city coordinator of school construction announced: In 2010, Dwight students will be moved to a temporary location while Timothy Dwight school is renovated. All but the recent gym addition will be razed and rebuilt to educate pre-K through eighth-grade students. The project is still going through the approval process, but Weisselberg affirmed that it will take place within the next three to four years.

Spring Festival

Empower New Haven’s Sherry Gray also gave an update, focusing on Empower’s Neighborhood Workers Strategy. This program was supposed to hire a resident of each neighborhood as an on-the-ground Empower contact, but has been suspended because neighborhoods have not complied with the regulations, Gray said. Gray disappointed most people in the room when she said that these funds won’t be available to help finance Dwight’s upcoming Spring Festival. Money from the Neighborhood Workers Strategy will still be available to Dwight, but the neighborhood won’t be able to apply for it until after the May festival.

Speaking of the festival… Dwight residents are working hard in preparation as excitement builds for the annual event. In addition to pony rides, games, and barbecues, this year’s festival will include artwork and discussion centered on Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. New Haven’s Festival of Arts and Ideas is encouraging residents to read this book as part of The Big Read, a national community-building event. Gillespie handed out copies of the book and sold candy to raise money for the Dwight festival, which is scheduled for May 5.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting was Mary Guerrera (shown), the new executive director of Fellowship Place. After the last DCMT meeting’s heated debate over Fellowship’s new program for mentally ill ex-offenders, Guerrera’s introduction was low-key. “I look forward to becoming a part of the community,” she said, “and to becoming active with this group.”