REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2011

Local News
DAILY DIGEST
WAT E R B U R Y

SECTION

CLASSIFIED, 6B

Aldermen get committee assignments for term

Members of the new Board of Aldermen have been assigned committee and liaison duties for the coming political term. Democrat Joseph Begnal Jr. will lead the finance committee, which includes Majority Leader Anthony T. Piccochi, Democrat Gregory A. Hadley and Republicans Frederick Luedke, Frank A. Burgio Sr., Carlo Palladino and Lysa Margiotta. Democrat Anne P. Phelan runs the intergovernmental committee, which includes Democrats Ryan A. Mulcahy, Ernest M. Brunelli and Ronald A. Napoli Jr. and Republicans Jerry Padula, Steven Giacomi and George N. Noujaim. Brunelli will serve as liaison to the Board of Education, while school board member Jason Van Stone will return the favor and attend most Board of Aldermen meetings. Padula will sit on the Waterbury Development Corp. board. WAT E R B U R Y

Parties split on redistricting

Supreme Court to decide congressional lines
BY PAUL HUGHES
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

HARTFORD Democrats and Republicans disagree over how the state Supreme Court should approach congressional redistricting. Republicans want the high

court to appoint a special master to develop a redistricting plan. The Democrats want the court to decide based on competing plans that the two parties submit. The Supreme Court is taking over because top Democratic and Republican lawmakers on a redistricting panel failed to

agree on a plan for realigning the five congressional districts. The state constitution authorizes the court to redraw the districts itself or order the Reapportionment Commission back to the drawing board. The expectation is that the seven justices will assume re-

sponsibility for the congressional redistricting. The court has a constitutional deadline of Feb. 15. The Supreme Court has not had to draw a congressional map before. It must now decide how to proceed with the politically fraught task. In court filings, lawyers for

See DISAGREE, Page 5B

THE N E W S M A K E R S OF 2011

School board OKs contract for youth services mentoring

The Board of Education earlier this month approved a $50,503 contract continuing an arrangement with Waterbury Youth Service Systems Inc. to provide mentoring and guidance services for children with truancy issues. The contract provides funding for the fiscal year beginning July 1, and is one of several important revenue streams for the local agency. The contract also obligates the city to provide an equal amount of in-kind services, such as transportation. This is used to bring in a matching state grant of approximately $110,000. The contract still requires approval from the Board of Aldermen and Mayor Neil M. OLeary. S TAT E W I D E

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Flu vaccines needed for children in day care

Parents of preschool youngsters age 6 months to 59 months who are attending or registering at any licensed Connecticut day care facility must have their children receive flu-immunization vaccinations by Dec. 31 according to a Connecticut Department of Health directive. Unvaccinated children will be ineligible to enter or return to school in January. Medical or religious exemptions are available with proper documentation. Information is available by calling New Opportunities Muriel Moore Center at (203) 759-0841, ext. 227. CHESHIRE

THE FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT OF UCONN HAS MADE AN IMMEDIATE IMPACT, FROM CHAMPIONING RESEARCH TO TUITION HIKES
BY GEORGE KRIMSKY
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

SUSAN HERBST

Council approves lease for Hitchcock Phillips House

The Town Council approved a five-year lease for the Hitchcock Phillips House at 43 Church St. with the Cheshire Historical Society. The historic home has housed the Historical Society for at least 10 years. A 10-year lease expired earlier in the summer. The council, at the recommendation of Town Manager Michael A. Milone, approved a five-year lease for the house for a token $10. Milone said the society has been an extremely good tenant. WAT E R B U R Y

The first female president of the University of Connecticut, Susan Herbst, has been described by womens basketball coach Geno Auriemma as smart, tough and engaging. She hit the ground running, championing the university as a future research mecca, pushing to drive the endowment up to $1 billion, insisting on academic and recruiting compliance for athletes, holding onto the Big East Conference while other schools defected, and in her most controversial move, persuaded her board to raise tuition rates. She spoke to the Republican-American from her office in Storrs last week.

In a word or two, how would you describe your kick-off at UConn?

Q A Q

Interesting, exciting and very welcoming.

Driver sent to city hospital after crash on I-84, police say

A collision on Interstate 84 sent one driver to the hospital Thursday. Jomyra Martinez, a 26-year-old Naugatuck resident, was driving a 1997 Honda Civic east on the highways right lane at about 4:48 p.m. when an unknown other vehicle merged into her lane from the left, police said. The second car continued without stopping, police said. Martinezs air bag did not deploy, and Martinez was taken to Saint Marys Hospital with back pain, police said. Her car was driven from the scene, police said.

U.S. News & World Report ranks UConn 19th in the country for public universities. Do you think thats fair, and which universities are good comparisons from a competitive point of view?

The rankings are taken seriously, because its not a beauty contest. A lot of factors

See HERBST, Page 5B

PROFILE
Susan Herbst, 49, of Storrs >> Married to Douglas Hughes, with a daughter and son. >> A Duke grad with a Ph.D from USC in communication theory, Herbst taught at Northwestern University and later worked in top administrative posts at the State University of New York, Temple University and the Georgia university system, before being tapped to head the University of Connecticut in December 2010.

MORE NEWS INSIDE

New creche in Bethlehem
Members of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem have raised money and replaced a creche that crashed to the ground in high winds last year. PAGE 2B
PHOTO COURTESY OF PETER MORENUS

Susan Herbst is the first female president at the University of Connecticut.

Injured bridge worker files suit

A construction worker who was critically injured when a Naugatuck bridge collapsed last year is suing subcontracting companies that were working on the bridge. PAGE 2B

STUDENTS ANTI-SUICIDE VIDEO COMES ALIVE

BY ALIA MALIK
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

Route 8 driver crashes, runs

A Thomaston man with a record of drunkendriving convictions was charged Monday after he crashed along Route 8 and ran into the woods, police said. PAGE 3B

>>> DEATHS ON PAGE 2B

WATERTOWN Sunrises and sunsets. The ocean. Listening to music and hearing your favorite songs. Earlier this month, town native Lauren Taylor and some of her friends sat in their Quinnipiac University suite and thought of 100 things that make them happy reasons that someone contemplating suicide should stay alive. Taylor, 20, a junior studying communications, and

her roommate, Michelle Brandow of Brooklyn, incorporated those things into a video called 100 Reasons to Stay, which has been viewed nearly 76,000 times since it was posted on the popular Perez Hilton website two weeks ago. Its cool that it got as popular as it did, and hopefully it helped somebody, said Taylor, who lives with her family on Whispering Hill Road when she is not at school. See STAY, Page 5B

Lauren Taylor, 20, a Watertown native and junior communications major at Quinnipiac University, holds up the first card in her suicide prevention video titled 100 Reasons to Stay. The video, which Taylor made with her roommate, Michelle Brandow, has been watched 76,000 times on the popular Perez Hilton website.
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