The Editor's Notepod, Thur., Nov. 10, 2011

Wallingford’s Cook Hill Volunteer Fire Dept. will close: not enough volunteers, not enough fire calls. Chief Struble is confident he can cover town with HQ and Yalesville with fewer but more intensively-trained crews. This decision says a lot about how volunteer firefighting and how society has changed in 30 years.

Meriden’s Quinnipiac Gorge Linear trail took a real beating during the snowstorm, worse than it took in Irene. But Mayor Rohde and consultant caseworker Ed Siebert have decided to round up city and volunteer help to get the trail in usable shape for the winter, a decision for which we have nothing but praise.

Although CL&P has offered $10 million to customers, pretty much without strings, who were damaged by the power outage, it is said that the sum should be greater. We imagine that someone is going to have to figure out how any such money, regardless of total, is allocated.

Plans for improving a part of Route 68 near rte 150 in Yalesville should help alleviate traffic flow. But we do find it hard to believe that merely synchronizing traffic signals would cost millions more.

Wallingford Housing Authority, as advised by its attorney, has hooked smoke alarms up to monitoring systems, a sensible and easy step. One can only wish other issues were so easily resolved, but such things as bookkeeping and employment evolve over time and can only be unraveled with care for legal priorities.

Connecticut superintendents of schools have come up with some plans to improve schools which should at a minimum produce a lot of discussion. Some of them seem like long-hoped-for goals, so pay attention!

A needs survey will be undertaken by MidState and United Way in Meriden and Wallingford beginning this Saturday. It will help shape what services you have available, so if you are called, answer thoughtfully.

Trees and CL&P: Governor Malloy and the utility could trade statistics and claims for years without getting very far. There’s no question that this storm was “different” from all previous in the last 60 years in many ways, since leaves remained on the trees; it’s also undeniable that back in 1998, when CL&P undertook a major tree trimming effort, local officials, including Meriden’s tree warden and Cheshire’s beautification committee, expressed distress at what was being done.