The Meriden YMCA Childcare Center bought the 66 Crown St building previously owned by the Meriden Childcare Center with a $500,000 August state grant. The facilities houses 60 preschoolers where the previous center housed 20. The school has brought in eight special needs students from the Board of Education and has hired additional teachers. The YMCA has a Kids Campus at the former St Rose School, but the new facility is especially geared toward ages three, four and five. Tuition runs on a need-based sliding scale from $8-100 per week. The YMCA took over an existing Connecticut Department of Social Services grant to provide financial aid for up to 50 students. YMCA Executive Director John Benigni, who said the former owner was Michael Martorelli, and Site director Steve Markoja renovated the building, painting the walls, cleaning the rug, fencing off an area of the parking lot of a playground, and converting the basement-level bar to a multi-use room. The new facility allows for the use of the YMCA buses, pool and space; it’s teachers can get tuition reimbursement when working toward associate degrees at Middlesex Community College.
Aramark
A longstanding Anti-Aramark campaign in New Haven targeted the bear-proof trash Dumpsters used in public schools. The union billboards compaign presses to remove the Philadelphia-based company from the oversight and maintenance of public schools. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 4, paid for 10 billboards against Aramark. The protesters claim that the back-loading system of the dumpsters in ineffective because the opening is too small and bags rip. The dumpsters must tilt several times to unload trash and there tends to be spillage. Shocks that open the tops have failed, so the workers are left holding the heavy tops or propping them open, injuring workers if they fall. The work requires 2 special trucks purchased by the Public Works Department and Board of Education, the most recent of which was priced at $205,000. Aramark claims that the dumpsters were a school board decision and had nothing to do with the company. In spite of Aramark’s defense, Superintendent of Schools Reginald Mayo has agreed to reevaluate the bids for the schools’ maintenance and food service contracts.
