Issues. People. Events.

Alexis Rotella and Waterbury Neil O'Leary.

                                                 By John Murray

  Waterbury Mayor Neil O'Leary announced that he has hired Alexis Rotella to be the full-time Municipal Agent for the Elderly. Alexis will head up the Waterbury BRASS Program (which stands for Bringing Resources to Action to Serve Seniors), and will be housed out of the new senior center opening in a few weeks in the East End of Waterbury.

The Sovereign Bank building in downtown Waterbury was the focus of the negotiations.

                                                   By John Murray

   Negotiations to bring Post University into downtown have collapsed, Waterbury Mayor Neil O'Leary told a gathering of downtown merchants tonight. More than a year of intense efforts by state and city officials to get Post University to expand it's burgeoning online college into the Sovereign Bank Building on the Green is over.

                                           By John Murray

   Waterbury Mayor Neil O'Leary is a decisive man. He is either all in on a project, or all out. O'Leary is not prone to dipping his toe into the water to gauge the temperature. He's a cannonball kind of guy  who enjoys making a big splash, which makes his statement today that he is "undecided" about running for re-election in November newsworthy.

   "I'm not trying to be cute or play some kind of game," O'Leary told the Observer in an interview this morning inside City Hall, "I just don't know right now."

                                                   By John Murray

   Many young Albanian children living in Waterbury are caught between two worlds; the rich traditions and culture of their Albanian parents, and the fast paced, multi-cultural landscape of America. Clinging to traditions while pressing forward in a new homeland is the challenge of all new immigrants to the United States, and the local Albanian community put on a show this weekend at the 8th Annual Albanian Festival in Waterbury. For three days young and old alike came together to celebrate the music, food and dance of their homeland to keep their traditions alive. 

                                              By John Murray

   There was a lot of excitement at the begining of the Kid's Marathon at Crosby High School tonight. Nearly 500 Waterbury children were jacked up to run the final installment of a marathon they had been running for the past two months. After completing a final 1.2 mile cross-country course the students would have finished the equivalent of a marathon (26.2 miles), and would receive a medal from Olympic medalist Rod Dixon of New Zealand.

   The runners launched in four waves to avoid collisions, but kids being kids, they sprinted furiously from the starting line. Pony-tails and elbows were flying, and barely 20 yards into the run someone tangled legs with seven-year-old Cameron Raver, and he crashed to the ground with a thud. Cameron is pictured above rolling to avoid the stampede of runners that followed him.