This past weekend we celebrated the 375th birthday of Greenwich in typical Greenwich fashion—we held a parade. Greenwich knows how to throw a parade. We do it, almost without exception, around every St. Patrick’s Day. The day that Greenwich Avenue turns green. People plan their tailgate parties with all the seriousness of a Super Bowl party. Everyone is Irish that day. Antics ensue. Remember when they used to paint a green line down Greenwich Avenue? Remember when the owner of the old Showboat Restaurant extended that green line to their parking lot?
Sunday’s parade was a celebration for the community. There were not as many people lining the route as for the St. Patrick’s parade, but you soon realized that most of Greenwich was marching. Every organization that mattered in town had a float or marched or danced or sang. The YWCA was well represented in their orange T-shirts, and Abilis let you know who they were. It was an opportunity for town organizations to show their pride in their community. It was nice to see how many trucks Fred Durante donated to pull floats. Sal Longo and his brother Anthony, who worked so hard on the September 11th Memorial, were the drivers
of two.
Of course the politicians were there. Who knew we had so many? The elected officials marched in a bipartisan fashion organized by level of government. After them came the partisanship, the Republican Town Committee followed the Democratic Town Committee. The DTC seemed resigned to their place in the parade, but eager to move up. It was nice to see former office holders included as well. Ned Lamont and Lolly Prince looked happy and rested. Perhaps it is time encourage them to make another run. Davidde Strackbein and the organizers did a wonderful job of celebrating Greenwich’s rich and vibrant history, including having on hand decedents of our founding families, such as Russ Reynolds and Jeffrey Bingham Mead. This straight line back to the founding of our community is important to recognize as we must know our history to prepare for our future.
Now that we have celebrated our birthday, what’s next? How do we prepare for the next 10 years, let alone 100 years or more? On Monday, First Selectman Peter Tesei will present his annual “State of the Town” address at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon. We suspect it will be a mixed message. As far as we can tell, the town is being managed well, but there are bigger influences that may have an effect here. Governor Malloy recently announced dramatic cuts in Medicaid to our state’s hospitals. Greenwich Hospital will feel that impact doubly, since the federal government matches Medicaid payments. How will that affect healthcare for town employees?
We are looking forward to hearing what Peter has to say with an open mind, and so should you. A quick review of major issues in town over the past year presents many opportunities for continued growth and leadership. While the “State of the Town” is sponsored by the business community and Chamber of Commerce, it is open to everyone. We encourage everyone who can to attend, the better to make informed decisions about the future of our town. It is too easy to be an armchair quarterback, a person who criticizes without getting involved. Come, hear what is said. If you do not like it, get involved. If you do like it, get involved. Our community functions best when we have an active citizenry. Who knows, you could be marching in the
next parade.
A word about ourselves…
The Greenwich Sentinel is your community newspaper. Our first issue was Memorial Day weekend, when we delivered the paper to 16,000 household and a handful retail locations around town. Today the paper is delivered to 18,000 households and is available at more than 200 locations around town. Our digital edition is emailed to more than 6,000 individuals and includes embedded videos from our digital reporters. Much of our content is available on-line on our website or Facebook. We want to do more. Our goal is to have the paper delivered to each household in town, but we need your help.
In today’s paper is an envelope that allows you to support the Greenwich Sentinel if you so desire. It costs us $45.52 to produce and distribute the newspaper to a household for a year. If you are someone who believes in our mission of being a positive, honest recorder of Greenwich news as much as we do, we hope you will support us and be a part of our success. Every supporter will receive a magnet that they can put on their car to show others they are a “Sentinel” and be listed in the paper in our issue on November 6, which will honor and celebrate Veteran’s Day on November 11.
What is a “Sentinel?” Someone whose job it is to stand and keep watch.
