New Haven Independent

At the monthly neighborhood management team meeting held at the Winchester Avenue police substation, former Alderwoman and Board of Ed employee Teddi Glover revealed that the Board of Ed plans to move its toddler and infant daycare center from Martin Luther King School to Blake Street in Westville.

That got the crowd talking — not the recent state decision to revoke the license of the Taurus Cafe.

Newhallville Alderwoman Alfreda Edwards, pictured above, said she expected the meeting to focus on the Taurus. But not one of the more than 25 people in attendance voiced any complaints about the action.

Edwards said she had hoped a few young men she met over the weekend who discussed their concerns with her about the closing of the Taurus would show up. She prepared a letter to the management team, which she presented, summarizing their positions on that issue, among others.

She said they believed the liquor commissioner should not have “revoked the license.” The young men she spoke with reflect the sentiments of many in the community, she said. They also discussed their desire for the city to invest more in Newhallville.

The people who did show up Tuesday night wanted to speak about youth instead. Edwards discussed a youth subcommittee that the management team was forming. Glover discussed the daycare center move. And a group of Masons from Oriental Lodge #6 said they want to help with youth mentoring in the neighborhood they grew up in.

The new subcommittee, said Edwards, will do youth outreach. The group has already planned to host movie nights at the substation.

Everyone at the meeting, including Chairperson Claudine Wilkins-Chambers, expressed their concern about the move. Newhallville Alderwoman Katrina Jones said she was meeting with the schools superintendent and would address the closing as well as the lack of communication between the board and the community.

“Blake Street is two bus rides away,” Glover noted.

Edwards’ son, Arthur Edwards, pictured, is one of the Masons who attended the meeting. “Me and some of the fellas grew up here,” he said referring to the men with him. “We want to be magnets of positivity. We want to be used.”

Arthur Edwards said the Masons would like to help on the movie nights. His mother, Alderwoman Edwards, nodded her head in approval.

In other news, Bob Levine, pictured, director of the parks department, gave an update on the progress of a planned splash pad to be installed by the Lincoln-Bassett School. The concrete pad is controlled by human activation and squirts water. Levine said the splash pad is not expected to be completed until next spring.

Mayoral hopeful Jim Newton, pictured, showed up at the meeting to introduce himself and his campaign message.

“We have some serious problems with crime in this city,” he said. “It’s important that we work hard to do exactly what you’re doing here.”

Newton went on to call the Edgewood patrol a “vigilante system” and to suggest that “maybe” New Haven “should ask the governor to send in the state police.”