Portland... On the Move

Issue 76 ~ News from your Town Hall ~ May 2000

Portland Fair, Quarry Focus Day, New Town Hall, Riot on Main Street, Special Report on Taxes

Portland Agricultural Fair Update Returning to Tradition... The Fair Association decided it was time to touch base with those people who expressed an intreast in bringing back the Portland Agricultural Fair. The planning of bringing back the fair started in July 1999, and at that time seemed a long way off to the fall of 2000. An initial date of September was decided on, feeling that since the Portland Fair of the past had always been in September, it would add a feeling of nostalgia. Then the rude awakening came! All weekends in September were already taken by other long-standing fairs. Since we wanted to come out of retirement in a big way, we thought it best not to compete with larger fairs. It would mean that a lot of vendors and the people showing animals would have to choose between fairs that they supported in the past, and one that was an unknown event. Hence the dates of October 6, 7 and 8, 2000 were finally settled on. Portland will hold the last fair of the season! What has been going on so far... The Portland Agricultural Fair Association was formed and is registered with the State of Connecticut. By-laws have been drawn-up and accepted. All areas of planning and operating the agricultural fair have been divided into 9 committees, each overseen by an Officer of the Association. The Association meets on the first Tuesday of the month at the Grange Hall on Sage Hollow Road. Each sub-committee has set their own meeting schedule and has been meeting once or twice a month for the last few months.

Brownstone Amusement Company has been selected and contracted with. Food and craft vendors are applying for space and signing contracts. Educational and industrial exhibits are being planned to fill exhibit tents. Livestock people with their cattle, sheep. pigs, goats and poultry are coming forward to help in that area. We are excited that the oxen and horse drawings will be called by Nick and Rosemary Naples, who are "the" callers at drawings at almost all the state's fairs. We've also heard from so many locally and throughout the state that "I was involved with the Portland Fair a long time ago, and want to help in whatever way I can." Local organizations taking notice of the great fund raising oppurtunity, need to call Ann Mancini at 342-3698 to get an application for a booth. The advertisement information for the Fair Premium Book has sent out to local businesses and has drawn an immediate and positive response. If any businesses still want to put in an ad, they need to know that time is running short. Please contact us ASAP. Plans are in progress, working with the Portland Exchange Club, to make improvements at the Portland Exchange Club grounds on Route 17A to accommodate this major event. The Portland Agricultural Fair Association has joined the Connecticut State Association of Fairs. The officers have attended both the fall and spring meetings. We have the best wishes of 100% of the fairs in Connecticut. They have told us that they will help in any way they can (so we don't have to re-invent the wheel). Looking to volunteer for your community...? For an event this size, there are many ways and areas that you could help. Much time and effort goes into planning an activity of this magnitude. You can decide how much time and what degree you want to get involved, whether at the planning stage or working on the weekend of the actual fair. Being involved is contagious. What a great opportunity to be part of what so many remember as a true Portland tradition!

Ever Healthy, Ever Green Tips for Healthier Grilling In recent years, there have been warnings about summer grilling and increased cancer risk. But is that backyard barbecue really a major heath worry? According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, the small risk that grilled foods pose can be reduced substantially with a few simple changes. The consumption of grilled, smoked and charred meats has been linked to a higher risk for many types of cancers, particulary stomach and esophageal. Research points to chemicals formed during grilling as the likely cause. When fat from meat drips onto hot coals or stones, carcinogens called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are formed and deposited onto food by smoke and flame-ups that char or blacken food. Foods high in protein that have been cooking at high temperatures to a greater level of doneness have been found to contain another class of cancer causing agents called heterocyclic aromatic amines (HCAs). Since vegetables and fruits are low in protein, eating these foods cooked on the grill does not pose a significant risk. You'd have to eat grilled meat almost every day for these conditions to be considered a major health concern. If you're serious about reduing cancer risk as much as possible, however, it makes sense to use moderation and take a few precautions when you grill. Choose lean cuts of meat to grill, instead of higher-fat varieties, such as ribs or sausages. Reduce fat substanially by trimming raw meat and removing the skin from poultry. (Removing fat and skin has other health benefits as well.) Use tongs or a spatula to turn foods, rather than a fork, to avoid piercing meat allowing juices and fat to drip and cause flame-ups. With a few modifications, you can make grilling much safer. Charred and overcooked food will be less likely when you reduce the heat of your grill, cook foods as far away from the coals as possible, or move food to a cooler part of the grill. You can also try partially cooking meat, poultry and fish in the oven or microwave for a few minutes to give it that unique grilled taste and aroma. In addition, recent studies have shown that marinating may significantly protect grilled foods from the formation of potentially carcinogenic substances.

Making grilled foods healthier doesn't mean an end to an easy, flavorful meal. Grilled fish steaks and skinless chicken breasts are two simple and lower fat entree options that can give you wonderful flavor, espically when marinating them before cooking. Vegetables can also be a light, delicious addition to the grill. Try them skewered and marinated, or wrapped in aluminum foil and steamed on the fire with herbs and a splash of broth, wine or flavored vinegar. For a dessert that tastes deceptively rich, grill fruit at your next barbecue. The grill's heat caramelizes the fruits's sugar and gives it a more intense and sweet flavor. Grilling out is an enjoyable warm-weather activity for millions of Americans. Just remember that a few simple changes mean that you and your family can enjoy all of a barbecue's fun and flavor in the most healthful way possible. Celebrate Family Day June 10 The Parks & Recreation Department and Prevention Council will be holding their fourth annual Celebrate Family Day on June 10th from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM on the green in back of the old Town Hall. Entertainment will be scheduled throughout the day with the return of Balloon Magic and Juggles & Joy, proven crowd pleasers in the past. Contests will be run throughout the day with prizes awarded to the winners. An expanded craft, game, and activity area is planned with fun stuff to make and do. With always something new offered for those who attend. Food will be available at family affordable prices. Shaded areas will be provided just in case the day is sunny and HOT or rainy and not. It is with the help of many volunteers and organizations donating their time as well as the increase in money donations that Family Day has been steadily increasing in size. The goal of the day is to give the families who attend an opportunity to spend quality time together without feeling that they need to spend a lot of money. It is a "Fun" day not a "Fund" raising day. Anyone wanting to donate time, energy, or a monetary donation, please call either Sandy Darna or Mary Pont at 342-6757.

By: Doris Sherrow Riot on Main Street? (220 years ago...) At 10 o'clock on the night of June 14, 1780, Justice of the Peace Ebenezer White was "call'd out of my Bed and Inform'd of a Riot at Noadiah Whites." Noadiah White lived at 492 Main Street, in the house owned by the Portland Historical Society. Ebenezer, Noadiah's cousin, lived just up the street, at 582 Main. Unfortunately Ebenezer gives no details on who did what to whom. But various legal papers illuminate the controversy. Seth Overton was a 21-year-old who, as a teenager, had been forced to flee his home in Long Island when the British invaded in 1776. He was living with Noadiah White, having married his daughter Mehitabel a year before. They had a three-month-old son, and he was in the process of building a house on the site of present-day 506 Main. Overton was a sailor - in the next two years, he would command privateers in the Revolutionary effort. But in June of 1780, he was offering for sale from his father-in-law's house a large amount of British goods. You remember, of course, the Boston Tea Party, and the boycotting of tea and other British products? By 1780, Americans, initially glad to boycott British luxuries like tea and silk, had discovered that sassafras tea and homespun were sad substitutes, and they longed for the real articles. Consequently there was a market for such things. And there were ways to get them. A strong trade had grown up in questionably obtained British goods. These could be acquired by going to New York and pretending that you had a British clientele on Long Island to supply, or by seizing them from another ship in what could be described as either piracy or privateering. The Connecticut government had little quibble with such seizing, even writing one letter of commission to allow its holder to engage in "the Illicit Trade." Probably Seth Overton was involved in illicit trade of one sort or another. After all, he was an ambitious young man, with a socially-connected young wife, a new baby, and a two-story house in the works. Worse yet, he had a boat full of wheat, rice, and Indian corn, and permission from the state government to sail on to Long Island and give it to the British. Hence the "Riot." Perhaps he did intend to bring the ship full of grain to Long Island. His parents had fled with the rest of the Long Islanders in 1776, but they had gone back not long after. For one thing, they, like the other refugees, had left their home, their livestock, their crops, their tools - their whole lives - on the island, and needed to go back to survive. For another, they felt that their advanced age would spare them from any real abuse by the British. This proved not to be the case. Soon on the night of June 14, 1780, young Overton waited at Noadiah White's with his wife baby and baby son, a passel of British goods for sale, and a ship full of wheat, rice, and Indian corn on the nearby Connecticut River.

Several men from the "downstreet" area came to try to seize Overton's grain before it headed out of port. Ebenezer White lists ten names involved in the "Riot." Deliverance and Thomas Cooper probably lived near Pacouset in the vicinity of Marlborough Street. George Ranny Jr. lived at 86 Marlborough Street. Joel Hall and Jonathan Bush lived on Main Street somewhere between Marlborough and Commerce streets. Abraham Baley's house still stands out on Sand Hill Road; only Ithamar Pelton lived in Overton's neighborhood, at 613 Main Street. (Research to date has not shown where Tomas Ranny, Daniel Stow, or Joseph Pelton Jr. lived.) It is curious that most of the opposition came from another neighborhood. There were plenty of people living near Overton who could have protested if they felt he was a traitor. Ebenezer White kept the peace, but another outbreak occurred the next night: "P.M." writes Ebenezer wryly, "another comp[an]y at Serg't White's with Design to take Seth Overton's goods [They] tarried until in ye night but Did not take [the]m." On the 16th of June, Captain Joseph Kellogg and Dr. Moses Bartlett went to the General Assembly and had Overton's permit to go to Stonington invalidated. The next day, Captain Churchel, who lived in the colonial house which stood where Dunkin Donuts is (152 Main), tried to get Ebenezer to authorize the confiscation of Overton's grain. When White refused for lack of a bond, Churchel returned with Tom Cooper and Tom Ranney, and White finally had his 26-year-old son David take the grain, as much for safekeeping as for seizure. On June 21st, White went with young Overton up to the Assembly in Hartford, both to "assist him to get Pay for his Grain" and to "Clear up his Carracter." Obviously Ebenezer White liked this young man. Four months later, Seth Overton petitioned the General Assembly to allow him to bring his elderly parents out of Long Island. The Assembly refused. A week later, Ebenezer White recorded, "...the same old leavon rise about Seth Overton at Capt. Hall's..." Probably "leavon rise" aludes to the rising of leavening - yeast, for example - what we might call "ferment." Apparently some of the townsmen still suspected Overton of Tory leanings. On March 23rd of 1781, the Assembly reimbursed Overton "1:14:9 gold & silver" according to White's journal. That July, he signed on as a commander of the privateer Regulator, which captured the British ship Restoration and her cargo of arms two months later. In December of 1782, Overton, commanding the Governor Clinton, captured the Dolphin carrying fuel and provisions to the British garrison at New York. No more was his patriotism questioned. Seth and Mehitabel lived out their lives at the house he had built that troublesome year; they had four more children. She lived to 74, and Overton married again three years later. In his later years, he cut a colorful figure in town, being "General Overton" by this time, and wearing a navy blue uniform with brass buttons. He died at age 93.

Something to think about... by: Dean Jacques, Social Services America's Time To Grieve Memorial Day is coming, and with it we are called to remember those who died on behalf of the freedom that America stands for. It is a time to grieve that our freedom could only be purchased at such a cost of human life. Grief is an emotion we do not embrace readily. We would rather laugh, or read a good book, or just concern ourselves with our daily business. But grief has its purpose. When wrong is done, when injustice has been suffered, when lives are lost or shattered on the battlefield, it is right to grieve. If we don't, then something is dreadfully wrong. Perhaps we feel that the grief is too terrible to face, the horror too upsetting. Perhaps it reflects a deep seated guilt we prefer to ignore. Sometimes we purposely avoid facing the consequences of grief. We prefer ticker tape parades or basketball games. When tragedy strikes, reminding us of our mortality and the seriousness of life, we find it easier to look away, or build walls of distractions to protect ourselves. It's easier to go to work each day ignoring that certain tragedies have happened. But then Memorial Day comes around, and we are reminded that grief is a natural response to tragedy. It is a healthy response. We need the catharsis of genuine grief in order for life to go on. When you think of it, anything less is an insult, and affront to our humanity. Can we take a moment to really grieve on this Memorial Day? Can we give our hearts over to the sadness of so much untimely death? To the injustice we have fought against, and the injustice we promoted? Can we grieve for the deaths of so many soldiers in the past - thousands upon thousands? Can we grieve especially for those who died in Viet Nam, who have yet to be properly welcomed home?

Can we grieve for the Native Americans who lost their land and their lives unjustly to foreign invaders? Can we grieve for the slaves who had their families torn apart, their humanity denied, and suffered the sting of the overseer's whip? Can we grieve for those who died to set them free? Can we empathize, just for a moment, with those immigrants who gave up everything to enjoy the basic rights we all hold dear, and suffered discrimination because of it? If we fail to grieve, fail to properly acknowledge suffering, how will we ever learn to make things better? Grief unties us all. Once we properly grieve as a people, we will make sure that the wrongs of the past never happen again. Through grief we learn the value of human life. We learn to cherish the freedom that came to us through so much suffering. We learn what causes are worth dying and killing for, and which are not. What's the alternative? It's possible to run away from grief, but not without denying our own humanity. And even then, the grief follows us. We have to run forever, adding to the insult of so many victims. Most of us here were not alive during the major world wars. The Revolutionary, Spanish American, and Civil Wars are merely chapters in our history books. Korea and Viet Nam hit closer to home, while the glittering rockets of Desert Storm are etched quite vividly in our mind. None of us owned slaves. None of us personally stole land from the Indians. None of us participated in the genocidal regimes that killed so many millions of people. Yet we are united with both the victims and the aggressors by our own common humanity. We have seen what human being do to each other. If we do not grieve for the victims, then our silence implies sympathy with the aggressors... and, hopefully, none of us wants that. Let us choose to grieve, then, all of us, and heal ourselves as a nation. Let us regret those who were stolen to this land in chains; let us agonize with the veteran who returned from Viet Nam without so much as a thanks; let us sympathize with our ancestors who braved a new land that was not as hospitable as they had hoped; let us mourn the near genocide of the Native Americans, whose homelands were taken without apology; and let us thank the soldier with humble hearts for all that was suffered on ou behalf during war.

Portland On The Move Special Report 2000/2001 Taxes The Board of Selectmen, after much deliberation, has found it necessary to propose a 3.1 mill increase in property taxes. This is quite a jump from previous years, when increases averaged less than 1 mill. Why the sudden increase? The reasons are complex. Running the town of Portland depends on three basic monetary sources: 1. Town Taxes 2. State Aid 3. The availability of existing monetary reserves We are all acquainted with town taxes, on real property and vehicles. State aid comes from state taxes, granted to the Town to support various programs. The reserve is a set-aside fund that makes money available for use on a day-to-day basis. The money expended from this fund generally comes back to the Town when outside funding finally comes in. For example, if we know that the State is going to give us a certain amount of money for a program, but that money will not come in on time to run the program, we can take it from the reserve, and replace it later on. The overall reserve is made up of two funds: the Operating Reserves, and the Sewer Assessment Fund (charges collected from the connection and construction of local sewers). Unfortunately, a number of problems came up in the current fiscal year to make our financial status less secure than it should be: ·Total State aid to Portland has dropped in recent years from approximately 25% to 18%. ·In the past, we have diligently tried to keep the mill rate down. To do this, we have taken money from the operating reserve. Doing this, however, in conjunction with cuts in State aid, have contributed to dropping our overall reserve to below 5% of the yearly annual budget. 5% is an important number. Anything less reflects negatively on the bond rating of a town. In other words, if we wanted to borrow money for an emergency project, for example, we end up paying a significantly higher interest rate if our reserve is less than 5% of the yearly budget. A healthy reserve keeps us financially sound. ·The sewer assesment fund had about $900,000 in it. We had to borrow from that fund until its balance dipped to $108,000. This also resulted in lowering the total reserves, which could negatively impact our bond rating. We recently discovered that the sewer assesment fund could be utilized for any improvement in the sewer system. This helps us pay for improvements mandated for the sewer filtration plant. This will save Portland residents a significant amount of money (since we will not have to borrow the full amount, and have to pay all that interest). Unfortunately, it also lowers our reserves.

·Because we lacked sufficient money in our operating reserve, we had to borrow money from bank accounts from bonding that had not yet been used. This was necessary to insure sufficient cash flow so that basic Town services could continue. Less money in the bank means less interest coming into Town coffers - less revenue that we were previously counting on. These monies will be restored by the end of the fiscal year, however. So, that gives you an overview of the financial problems we face. They will not go away by themselves. The solutions call for us to bite the bullet. We need to maitain a minimum of 5% in our reserves, in order to maintain a good financial rating. To do this, we have to restore $175,000. This will hopefully allow us to adequate cash flow so that we wil not have to borrow any more bond money. The $367,000 which we anticipated borrowing from the sewer assessment fund wil therefore not be borrowed. In addition, $150,000 will be repaid from previous borrowing. In this way, the sewer assessment fund will eventually recover so that we can use it to help pay for the sewer filtration plant renovations (thus reducing the bill for sewer users). On top of all this, the Board of Selectmen are only approving budgetary items and capital equipment deemed to be essential to maintain the town's infrastructure and day-to-day operations. Since it would be imprudent to borrow more money to restore Town reserves, the burden of repaying previous loans from the reserve falls to the taxpayers this year, resulting in a 3.1 mill increase. While this is a significant increase, it is important to keep things in perspective: Thanks to conservative administration of finances, most tax increases of the last few years have been less than 1 mill. The Town will not be borrowing any money from internal funds for the forseeable future. We are instead repaying past internal loans to make sure that the Town financial status remains sound, thus enabling us to secure the best bond ratings available. We do not anticipate this situation happening again. In recent years, the Town of Portland has made some bold strides in overall improvements that were both necessary and a long time in coming. We have done this while carefully maintaining an environment that is uniquely Portland. We want this momentum to continue. If you have any questions at all, please call any Board of Selectmen member. Mill Rate Increases of the Past 1999/2000 1998/1999 1997/1998 1996/1997 1995/1996 1994/1995 1993/1994 1992/1993 1.15 0.87 0 0.59 1.41 0.46 revaluation 0

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