THE GOOD AND THE BAD

With the money that Hartford dumps into Media spokespeople at City Hall, they continue to miss the boat. A lot of good stories are happening in this City, but very rarely will you see that in a press release. Typically it is like pulling teeth to get the details on positive stories.

I regularly take heat for writing the negative stories, but I gladly post positive stories  when they are  made available to me.

Here are just a couple of examples that should have made a press release out of the Mayor's Office, but unfortunately haven't. They might actually take a little more work to put together than the next ribbon cutting, but these are the things that might actually begin to turn around the City's image.

The first one comes out of the Hartford Police Department and the Emergency Dispatch Center. The Dispatch Center has taken a bashing recently, but there are good people that work in there and combined with a Hartford Police Officer, are trying to make a difference.

I don't know all of the specifics, but Hartford Police Officer Matt Labbe and a dispatcher named Betty ( sorry, but no one has provided me with more details, including her name) went above and beyond after a recent incident. If I have the details wrong, please feel free to correct me in the comments.

Apparently Officer Labbe had a contact recently with a homeless family . The mother was confined to a wheelchair, but still the family found themselves on the streets. Now I am not sure how, but apparently Labbe and Betty arranged for shelter at a local motel temporarily. I am not sure if they paid for the room or if the hotel stepped up and provided a vacant room, but the homeless family was offered a roof and accommodation's.

The next problem occurred with transportation of the wheelchair bound mother  to the hotel. Betty the Dispatcher stepped up and made a call to someone she knew at American Medical Response, (AMR) who in addition to their ambulances operates a wheelchair transport service. Betty was able to convince AMR to step up and transport the mother  and her wheelchair to the hotel free of charge.

These are the type of things that should be put out to the public daily instead of the usual nonsense about where Mayor Segarra is cutting the next ribbon No one cares about him and his golden scissors, but a police officer and a dispatcher making a difference would send a good message about the people in our City.

This next story I can already picture on CNN or the national news. He isn't going to be happy with this posting because I don't think he wanted it out, but this is a great story. A Hartford Police Lieutenant who has asked me to remain anonymous, is known  as an accomplished runner. Anonymous LT, has run numerous marathons and is constantly training to shave the few seconds off his times. Sometimes a tough job for an older guy edging closer to retirement.

Again I don't have all the specifics, but  the LT. was recently approached to take part in a rare opportunity for Public Service and it has nothing to do with police work. Because of his reputation as an accomplished runner, he was asked to work with a blind runner who is a middle school student in a suburban school, who is participating in Cross Country running. He runs with her and apparently she wears very dark glasses and even in the bright sun, combined with the glasses she can make out his silhouette to follow him

The Lieutenant says he has to wear a white shirt so she can see him. He is not able to offer her any encouragement as they run, since that would be an unfair advantage apparently, but he calls out obstacles and guidance to her such as curbs, roots, turns  etc. She apparently gave the aging Lieutenant a run for his money today in the heat as she runs an under 7 minute mile.

I am sure there is a lot more positive things going on around our City, but I need to be made aware of them. If you have some good new, feel free to e-mail me or call me. If City Hall won't put it out, I will. And thank you to our City employees that are willing to go above and beyond.

UPDATE: After the original posting , the Lieutenant , who was originally named, asked me to remove his name because he is doing this  to do the right thing, not for publicity. I also removed identifiers as to the students school. Anyone familiar with HPD will know immediately his identity, but at his request I have removed his name.