Full-court press
As the University of Connecticut basked in its sixth NCAA women”™s basketball championship, worth noting is the fact that few reinforcements are on the way next winter to help Maya Moore and company keep intact the Lady Huskies”™ string of 39 straight victories.
Indianapolis guard Kelly Faris is the lone UConn recruit among the top 60 seniors nationally as ranked by ESPN, with the University of California Berkeley set to be a powerhouse in four years with eight recruits on the ESPN list.
Coach Geno Auriemma is faring better with the high school class of 2010, however, winning commitments from three of the top 20 juniors. They include Ohio guard Samarie Walker, a scoring machine some rate the top junior in the nation.
Fifth most interesting new business name:
Boogie Dawn Fashions, Norwalk
For that been-out-all-night look.
Fourth most interesting new business name:
Golden Girls L.L.C., Darien
Bea Arthur”™s unemployment has run out.
Power of the press
After Grapevine took U.S. Rep. Jim Himes to task last month over a Congressional Web site offering little substantive information for constituents, it should be noted that the Greenwich Democrat has since revamped the site by publishing online his legislative agenda and principles; some 40 press statements released since he took office in January; and photos of Himes out and about in the Fourth Congressional District.
Third most interesting new business name:
Love a Player, New Canaan
Check out “Bull Durham” before doing so.
Pressed to respond
The state Department of Environmental Protection took exception to a March 9 Grapevine item in which we held their collective feet to the fire over the bidding process for firewood.
Deputy Commissioner Susan W. Frechette wrote that the article “had a few misstatements I would like to clarify.”
“The DEP”™s Bureau of Outdoor Recreation annually seeks competitive bids from firewood vendors to supply bundled firewood that is then sold to campers in state park campgrounds. These firewood bundles generate revenue that directly supports the management and operation of the campgrounds,” he wrote.
“Gov. Rell has proposed the creation of a Connecticut Conservation Corps as part of her FY10-11 budget proposal. The CCC will provide much-needed jobs and paychecks for Connecticut citizens. We are developing a number of projects and programs that could be addressed by a Connecticut Conservation Corps, including innovative partnerships with job training and youth programs to ensure the program reaches as many out-of-work young people as possible. And it will address deferred maintenance in our parks and forests and will make a real difference for our state and for our people.
“The burning certificate mentioned in the article is a preventive heat treatment that kills insect larvae inside individual firewood pieces. This measure prevents the spread of invasive exotic insects such as Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) and Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB), which was recently discovered in Worcester, Mass. Both EAB and ALB are very harmful forest pests that can be inadvertently transported in untreated firewood from infested areas. The heat treatment criterion follows established protocols by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture for the importation of firewood from Canada. We thought it prudent to implement the same for our state parks since we cannot be assured where out-of-state firewood originates. Our goal is to protect Connecticut”™s forests from an infestation by either of these pests so that we may continue to have a healthy forest ecosystem that supports recreation, wildlife and a forest products industry.”
Second most interesting new business name:
People, Pet and Property Care, New Canaan
They do everything but the windows.
The most interesting new business name:
Closet Raiders, New Canaan
“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Leisure Suits.”