THE SENIOR MEN'S CLUB OF NEW CANAAN
Minutes of the Regular Meeting of November 22, 2002
President Bob Witt opened the meeting in the sanctuary of the First Presbyterian Church with 131 members present. Membership is 520 with 5 invitees and 18 on the waiting list.
Announcements: President Witt in his opening remarks told us that many of our favorite supermarkets are foreign owned. Dick DePatie told us that Roger Phillips died and that Frank Perron was still in Waveny. Charlie Morris once again gave us the delectable menu for the Christmas luncheon for the amazingly reasonable price of $456, gratuities and White Owl cigars included. Unfortunately, drinks are extra. Jack Murray is looking to put together a group of flight simulator enthusiasts.
Activities: Racquetball and bowling are on temporary leave. Paddle is in business Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 9A.M. 4Fs luncheon today is at Nino's. Bridge is thriving, next lesson will be on 12/13 at 9 A.M.
Couth: The 12/5 Newport bus leaves at 7:30A.M. from St. Marks. The 1/30 N.Y. Philharmonic trip now has two buses also leaving at 7:30A.M. February will feature a trip to the Museum of Moving Image, exact date TBA. 3/12 is Mama Mia, April we go to Hartford, and a May trip to Boston is being planned.
Resident Humorist: John Berg told a story about a Navajo woman hitchhiker who thought a bottle of wine traded for a husband was a good deal. She probably was right.
Speaker: Vice President Bob Shafter introduced State Senator Bill Nickerson who covered three subjects; the state budget, transportation, and casinos. For eight years Connecticut had budget surpluses but for the past two years a deficit. To offset that, short term bonding was issued and a rainy day fund was tapped into. To keep a balanced budget in the future, there will have to be
spending cuts, union give backs, and additional revenue gain which primarily would come from fixing the loopholes in the corporate tax codes of the state. Transportation was the next topic and naturally the old I-95 problems came up. Mr Nickerson stressed that since 1983 the transportation department dealt mainly with maintenance, not with new planning. A new planning board has been formed and is deeply involved with I-95. The solution lies with a new intra state commuter and rail transportation system. Naturally, this will be extremely expensive and will require further bonding, federal funding, and even a user fee. Casinos was the last subject. Casinos bring in approximately $368 million to the state, and there are currently 10 tribes trying to get in on the action. They are trying to use an old 1790 land claims act, which deals with property taken away without congressional approval. They also seek help from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which at the moment is swamped with problems and lawsuits, etc. A primary target for a casino is Bridgeport, but the city is already corrupt, and the chaos and further traffic jams on I-95 would be tremendous. A prominent personality in all of this is Donald Trump who certainly has a strong rooting interest in the Indian affairs. Is " The Donald" part Apache, or is he Comanche, Iriquois, or Seminole? In any case, he has about as much Indian blood in him as the tribal members involved.
Eric Musa, Secretary