Issues. People. Events.

                                               By John Murray

   WATR radio host Larry Rifkin moderated a two-hour live mayoral debate on 1320 AM this morning featuring from left to right, Independent Party candidate Larry De Pillo, Democrat candidate Neil O'Leary, and Republican candidate and incumbent mayor, Mike Jarjura. The three candidates largely reiterated the positions they have been espousing for the past two months, but there were several sharp exchanges which will be reported in greater detail on this website in the next 24 hours.

   At 2 p.m., the city of Waterbury will transition its temporary shelter for those affected by the widespread power outages from the Waterbury Arts Magnet School to the North End Recreation Center, 268 North Main Street. The move is being made in anticipation of re-opening Waterbury Public Schools at some point prior to full restoration of power citywide. No determination has been made yet as to whether Waterbury Public Schools will open Thursday. For information on school closures, visit http://www.waterbury.k12.ct.us/

Joe Geary, pictured above, shared the latest update with WATR radio 90 minutes ago.

                            Story and Photographs By John Murray

   The director of operations in Waterbury, Joe Geary, told WATR radio that the most up-t0-date information he had about the massive power outage was that the city still had 15,722 homes without power, or 32% of the city. Geary said he had spoken to CL&P at 10 am on Wednesday and the projection was that 99% of Waterbury would have its power restored by midnight on Monday, November 7th. Projections for the Overlook neighborhood were to get power restored by 5 pm on Monday, November 7th.

   The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that federal disaster aid has been made available to the State of Connecticut and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from a severe storm during the period of October 29-30, 2011.

For up to date information about Snow Storm Alfred please check out the: www.211ct.org or call 211.

    In light of the widespread damage and ongoing safety concerns from Saturday’s storm, Mayor Michael J. Jarjura has decided to postpone Halloween Trick-or-Treating until Saturday, Nov. 5. Downed power lines could energize at any time as Connecticut Light & Power works on outages affecting 68 percent of the city, Mayor Jarjura decided to call for the postponement of trick-or-treating in the interests of safety and giving children in neighborhoods that currently are completely dark at the moment to enjoy the holiday once power is restored. Be safe, be smart and save your costume until Saturday (the snow should melt by that time anyways).