New Haven Independent

As often happens at these gatherings, Cody and some 20 attendees at Tuesday’s monthly Quinnipiac East Management Team (QEMT) meeting at the Ross/Woodward School listed perennial problems of speeders, illegal dumpers, and especially loud music and unmufflered motorcycle engines.

What was striking was what followed: repeated praise for cops, city government neighborhood workers, and an alderman.

Lt. Jeff Hoffman (pictured with QEMT co-chairman George Page and LCI specialist Linda Davis), the neighborhood’s district manager, said that over the last five weekends some 50 citations were issued for excessive noise from motorcycles.

“What about music?” Cody asked.

“Well, we’re out there,” he answered. “But it’s a lot harder to issue a citation or make an arrest in connection with people making noise in cars or in their homes. Harley’s don’t conceal their noise.”

Doug Pouncey said that he made four complaints to the police about a young man with a boom box in the Brook Hollow Development on Eastern Street adjacent to where Pouncey lives. “I’ve got a disabled wife, and a young child, and this young man just doesn’t stop. I’ve been to the management of the building. If something doesn’t happen soon, I’m going to confront him myself.”

“Not a good idea,” said Hoffman. “Give us the address, and we’ll take care of it.”

Similar stories were told, even by the team’s co-chair George Page. “This loud party didn’t stop until two, when the beer and batteries must have worn out.”

When Page said that he didn’t even hear back from the dispatcher that cops were on the way, Hoffman counseled: “Are you sure you wanted a call back in the middle of the night?”

There followed a conciliatory dialogue, characteristic of the appreciative tone of the evening, that, in effect, “I know noise is not a top police priority, and we don’t want to pull scarce officers away from serious calls, but …”

Page concluded by saying that the cops are doing the best job he’s seen in years, even though the police district, running from the North Haven border to Lighthouse Point, is huge and under-manned.

Hoffman announced to the attendees that subsequent to the ratification of the new police contract, the police unit dedicated exclusively to traffic enforcement will double in size. “They work now only days. Soon they’ll be on the job at night as well. The chief’s committed to that.”

Grass Is Being Cut Too

Likewise in the area of tracking illegal dumpers and getting grass cut, the Livable City Initiative (LCI) specialist Linda Davis was praised by Jewel Cody. “I’ve never met you in the flesh until now,” she said, “but I know you’ve helped me and neighbors in the past when I’ve called and lots of issues got resolved.”

“Well, yes,” said Davis, who described the past month as a big push to get the grass cut in the many residential and commercial lots that have not cut down the lawn growth of the spring, “there’s a lot we do behind the scenes.”

“Well, I appreciate it,” said Cody.

Jewel Cody was at the meeting she said, because, in part, her son’s imminent departure for the army gave her some time to see what’s going on in the community and to help. “I don’t want to go to work and then come home and sob and mope because he’s not around.”

She was giving some thought to volunteering for a position on the management team’s board. That’s what she was checking out Tuesdays night, her first ever at such a gathering, even though she’s a life-long Fair Haven Heights resident and has owned her home on Lexington Avenue for six years.

Would she join the leadership?

“Not, quite yet,” she said, although she appeared to be impressed. “For now I’m going to just keep attending.” She also met a fellow Lexington Avenue neighbor, Arie Mobley, a Lexington block watch leader, likewise attending her first management team meeting.

At the next meeting, July 7, the main item is going to be traffic calming procedures in the neighborhood. Alderwoman Erin Sturgis Pascale and city traffic chief Mike Piscitelli may be invited.

June 13 is slated for the Fair Haven Heights barbecue and clean-up, organized by Alderman Alex Rhodeen, who was in attendance, along with Alderman Gerald Antunes.

Antunes also solved a recent problem, with residents of Hemingway Place, a short street opposite the Bishop Woods School, now under construction. Neighbors had long complained, he said, that teachers parked on their street, filling up all available spots all day. That won’t be an issue with the new school and, in any event, Antunes announced that the area is going to be designated residents’ parking only.

The June 13 event is going to focus on the clean up of Quarry Park in Fair Haven Heights.