February 2010
Issue
Public
Hearing
Anti-Blight Ordinance
A public hearing will be held on this Tuesday, February
9, 2010 at 7 P.M. at the Haddam Town Hall, 21 Field Park
Drive. For the full Legal Notice, click here, read it on our Calendar page, or go to the Haddam Town website.
The full proposed Anti-Blight Ordinance, in PDF, is
linked here and in the left column of this
page
Made in Higganum by Ed Schwing
For a younger generation of
residents, it is hard to imagine that not so long ago
almost everything used in Haddam, from thumbtacks to
complicated machinery, would have been made somewhere in
the United States.
Even Higganum, from the mid 1800 to 1920’s, was a prime
manufacturing center of farm equipment sold all over the
world. Self-sharpening hoes were made by the Scovil Hoe
Company on Candlewood Hill Road and plows and many other
farming devices were manufactured at the Clark Cutaway
Harrow Company in Higganum Center.
Indeed, at the start of the Industrial Revolution,
waterpower was the main source of energy for many
manufacturing shops and Higganum had plenty of it. This
inspired local entrepreneurs like the Scovil brothers to
run their small factories along the Candlewood Hill
Brook. When steam and later electricity became the energy
sources of choice, plants could be constructed anywhere
and Higganum’s streams and brooks lost their appeal as
energy sources to run machinery.
And as we know, more recently with the advent of oil,
extensive transportation networks, and cheap labor in
some countries, many US manufacturing companies decided
to move many of their operations abroad. For that same
younger generation of Americans, “outsourcing” is a term
much more familiar than “manufacturing.”
Gone are the days when items “Made in Higganum” would be
shipped to all corners of the world.
But are they really? (Full Story here)
Ed Vynalek on the levee in front of the restored Candlewood Hill DamVynalek, a Higganum resident and member of the Economical Development Commission , is a strong supporter of hydroelectric power.“Coal, oil, gas, and atomic powered generators add pollution to the environment,” said Vynalek. “Electric rates are going up , yet we have this renewable non-polluting hydroelectric power right in our own backyards being wasted away.”Vynalek believes the state should do more to help people like Ron and Bobbie complete projects like this one.
