Facing possible court action and months of delays, the city announced this week it is reopening bids for a major reconstruction project that is pivotal toward its eventual plan to redesign lower Elm Street.

The city announced it will reopen bids for the New Haven Harbor bulkhead reconstruction, voiding a bid process that has been criticized by some bidders as “biased” toward one company. The city made the decision, in part, after receiving notification from the state’s Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) that it would not release funds earmarked for the job under the current process.

The decision puts back by a few weeks a job the city is still hoping to begin by late spring, according to Mayor John Picard. 

With the turn of the calendar, members of the city’s Board of Finance are beginning the long process that results in passage of the city’s budget for Fiscal Year 2013 that begins July 1. Members of panel began meeting more regularly this month.

The four-member committee is made up of two Democrats and two Republicans.  Peter O’Neill is the chairman, a Democrat. He is joined by fellow Democrat Gene Sullivan. Republicans include Stella Cretella and Michael Memmott.

According to Sullivan, the panel is in the initial stages of the process, reviewing expenditures.

A familiar face has left City Hall and public life. James Burns left his position at City Hall last week after six years on the job for Mayor John M. Picard. Burns opted to retire, ending more than 40 years of work of which 33 have been given to the city.

In a tersely worded statement issued last week, Burns acknowledged his appointment as Picard’s chief of staff is an appointed one, and that the mayor had opted not reappoint him. His last day was Jan. 20.

“I have truly enjoyed working with the city the last six years in an effort to help make it a better city to work and live in,” Burns said.

Vicenta Gibbons, West Haven resident and assistant principal of Amity Middle School in Orange (AMSO), is the 2012 CAS Middle School Assistant Principal of the Year. Now in her twelfth year at AMSO, she is credited with fostering a vibrant, caring, student-oriented culture where students can grow socially and emotionally as well as academically.  A passionate advocate of the middle school philosophy, Gibbons continues to enjoy the challenges of finding ways to meet the unique needs of young adolescent learners. She helped successfully transform AMSO from a junior high into an effective middle school which now serves as a supportive, personalized learning community where team leadership is prized and parents are fully engaged in the lives of their students.

 

Gibbons was nominated for the award by her principal, Kathleen Fuller- Cutler, eighth grade school counselor Bobbie Miller, and nine members of the AMSO faculty and staff. Says Fuller-Cutler, “I count my blessings that I have such an amazing woman to work with each day, one who is willing to collaborate, to share the load and to keep an open mind to new ideas and new possibilities for AMSO.”