Storrs Mansfield News

Usually when a budget meeting is as packed as Mansfield’s was tonight, it’s a sign that the budget is about to bite the dust. However, that was not the case when 552 of the town’s electors filled the auditorium at Mansfield Middle School for the Annual Town Meeting.

The Four Corners area has suffered from serious water and sewer environmental issues for at least 20 years, which has hampered the town's ability to pursue development in this area... Town residents will have an opportunity to give their input on proposals for the Four Corners area at a community informational meeting organized by the Town Council-appointed Four Corners Sewer/Water Advisory Committee.

Peter Tork, formerly of The Monkees, was part of the first class to graduate from E.O. Smith High School in Mansfield.

Government Announcements Submitted by Bob Douglas on 2009-05-12.   State Rep.

Gina, I'm really proud of you for living out there in Mansfield, where you can frolic with the cows and horses and academic deans and stuff.

The Friendly Fire Game Center is finally open, after jumping many regulatory hurdles.

The owners. Dan Keener and Ryan Fitzgerald (a graduate of E.O. Smith High School) plan to hold a special event on Friday, Feb. 6 - a Launch Tournament for the new Conflux set in Magic: The Gathering .

The entrance fee is $25 for this event, for which you receive 6 booster packs, a free (rare) holographic card and poster. Attendance will be limited to 24 participants.

The center's Grand Opening is planned for the weekend of Feb. 13.

The Friendly Fire Game Center is now open from noon to midnight, Monday-Thursday; from noon to 2 a.m. on Friday; from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday; and from 10 a.m. to midnight on Sunday.

The center is located next to the Grand Union grocery store on Route 44, near the intersection of Routes 44 and 195 (Four Corners). For more information, visit the Friendly Fire Web site at http://www.friendlyfiregamecenter.com/.... (more)

The University of Connecticut’s Board of Trustees, meeting at the Storrs campus today, endorsed a series of actions to address some of the problems associated with Spring Weekend that persist despite continuing efforts on the part of the university and the town.

The recommendations come from the board’s Student Life Committee, chaired by Trustee Louise Bailey,which was charged with finding some new approaches. These include:

* reducing or eliminating the presence of non-UConn students from campus during the weekend

* scheduling exams or projects for that Friday’s classes

* making landlords [of off-campus apartment complexes such as Carriage House Apartments and Celeron Square Apartments, and other houses rented to students] and students [tenants]responsible for any costs their actions – or non-actions – cause, and

* curtailing any attempts by off-campus residents to expand the event from its traditional three days [because new parties have been popping up earlier in the week] ... (more)

It was the largest number of voters to come out for a District 19 referendum since 1986, according to an announcement of the results posted on E.O. Smith High School's Web site.

The project might not have gone to the expense of a referendum, however, if the District 19 school board had thought there would be so much opposition.

"The reason we went to a referendum was because we had so many people coming to us, telling us to do it [the facilities upgrade]. We had such a groundswell of sentiment, we felt we owed it to the public to bring it to a referendum," Archambault said today......

Local womena s franchises, Curves of Storrs/Mansfield and Fashion Bug clothing store know how important it is to boost womena s self-confidence and self-esteem. And they are taking their joint mission one step ...

''Some of you will earn a lot of money,'' the commencement speaker told University of Connecticut graduates a few years ago.

The UConn women's basketball team is in the midst of its longest road trip in 11 years, but don't expect the Huskies to complain about going 28 days between home games.

Communications Director for the U.S. Postal Service-Connecticut Marueen P. Marion says that holiday mail volumes have dropped dramatically this year, partly because of the economy and somewhat because of several "self-service" options.

That doesn't mean the U.S. Postal Service isn't busy, but there has been a dramatic drop in in mail volume. "Nationwide, we will still accept, process and deliver 19 billion pieces of mail this holiday season [Thanksgiving through January 2009]. Last year, it was 20 billion... we are very busy, but it is hard to ignore a billion pieces of mail."

Students attending the four universities that make up the Connecticut State University system could be facing large tuition increases.

Fifteen-year-old Brandon Specyalski spent the last hours of his life at home in Ashford drinking beer, downing shots of vodka and snorting ground-up morphine tablets he had taken from his mother, according to ...

About three dozen residents from the towns that make up Regional School District 19 came out for a Dec. 16 public hearing on the proposed $3.95 million upgrade to Edwin O. Smith High School's track and field facilities.

The project is about $4.35 million less than the $8.3 million version that the Region 19 Board of Education originally proposed in July.

The report was not an exercise in UConn-bashing. It was developed to demonstrate that the way the state apportions funding fails to take into account a town's particular circumstances.

In his report Smith puts it this way, "Our problem is very simple - we are trying to provide services to a town with a nighttime population of approximately 25,000 people and a daytime population of 35,000 to 40,000 people with a tax base of a town of approximately 12,500 people."

Smith also compared "index crimes" (serious crimes such as burglaries and assault) and motor vehicle accidents in Mansfield with similar sized towns- this time using the town's population without on-campus students, in order to emphasize the impact of UConn.

Storrs Farmers Market will launch its new Winter Market this Saturday, Dec. 13 beginning at 3 p.m. And don't worry about the weather, because this market will be held indoors, in the Buchanan Auditorium at the Mansfield Public Library on Route 89 (near the intersection with Route 195).

The Winter Market will be held on the second Saturday of each month from December through April. As with the regular-season Storrs Farmers Market, everything is Connecticut grown or produced, and the offerings will vary throughout the season.

This Saturday, there will be potatoes, apples, onions and winter squash as well as free-range beef, free-range eggs, and goats’ milk cheese.