Episode #131: Feeney Talks with John Lyons

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
All right, all right.
Feeney talks with friends. Episode 131.
We're here with a good friend.How are you doing, John?
I'm doing well.How are you? Nice to see you.
Thank you for having me on.
John Lyons, the local weatherman.
So, something like that.
And and many titles.
Writer,
car enthusiasts, weatherman.
Dad, girl. Dad, somebody.

(00:21):
Somebody has been Googlesearching Google, Google, Google,
what's going on? How are you, sir?
Pretty good, pretty good.
My name is Eric Feeney,founder and president, Friends of Feeney.
Our mission is to help
children and families that need assistanceafter heartbreak or tragedy.
And I use this podcast.
Feeney talks with friendsand I talk to wonderful people
that do great things in the community.
And John, you've been in the WestHartford community for how long now?

(00:44):
20 years and four months.
20 years and four months.You know, for a fact.
How did you know that? Well,we moved to town maybe three months.
We moved to town on December 22nd, 2004,
and I almost burnt my housedown on December 25th, 2004.
So I met, that's how I met the WestHartford Fire Department.
So you got it down pat?
Yes, yes.
So good fire department herebecause they saved your house.

(01:04):
They they absolutely saved my house.
Very lucky.
So, yes, shout out to West Hartford.
Bravest. Absolutely.
So we had, Marsha McCurdy. McCurdy.
She was one.
She was in the crew that saved my house.Come on.
Yeah,she really was, former podcast guest.
Go back and check it out. Yeah.
That's great.
To review episode130 Ali Baluchi blue Jean creative.

(01:27):
She does website.
She does the Friends of Jeannie website.
And she knows your daughters.
She said one fostersdogs and one is involved with outer space.
Yes, yes. That's amazing. Yes. Wow.
Yeah.
My oldest, went to work for anot for profit that sends people to space,
and they've sent 2 or 3 people to space,I think. Wow.
And then she

(01:47):
she did that for about seven years,and now she's doing personal coaching.
So which is not something I could do.
But she's good at it and making a livingand not asking me for money.
So something's working.
Hey, that's all that really mattersright now.
And then the day. That's right.
John and Sydney is, She's a yes.
She's a dog, foster.She bought a house here in town.

(02:08):
She scrimped and saved.
And, you know,
you know, what do they call thatloan poor or house poor,
whatever they call house poor,I guess the term.
But, she, bought a house near in town,and then my son just graduated college
last spring, and he's here in town workingfor a competitor of the establishment.
We're sitting out here, so I.
We shall not say their name so.

(02:28):
Well,
speaking of which, we're hereat Maximum Beverage.
This is 340 North Main Street.
Shout out to our sponsors.
Thank you for hostingus. Maximum Beverage.
And thank you to our podcast hostDirect Line Media.
This is Stephania and Dave
there have there in 11Sycamore Way in Branford, Connecticut.
And we have some other podcast guests.Maybe you could do this too.

(02:49):
When I point to them,you could point to them
because we have that new logonow we're going to add this.
We're going to try it.
If I point hearinglike Keating Agency float
41 The Fix, Ivy Luna Pizza golf log or
look at this people's Bank, ParkvilleManagement and West Hartford lock.
You're going to need another direction.

(03:09):
Exactly.
So, Scarecrow, this. Exactly.
So with our, being the local weatherman,what inspired you to do that?
How did you get into that?
So I've always beena little bit of a weather nerd.
I did not majored in college,but I took some courses and, so I,
I'm trying
to remember, but post on my personal page,my personal Facebook page.

(03:32):
I resisted Facebook for a long time.
I was a late adopter,but late puts me around 2010 or 11.
I probably joined
and so I started postingweather to my page
and that caught the attentionof Ronni Newton.
Nice.
And Ronnie was at patch at the time, andshe said, were you do weather for patch?
I said, sure, I'll take more distribution.What the heck?

(03:54):
And I did one report and they shut thethey shut the place down and fired Ronnie.
So we all like to think it'sbecause of my one weather report. So.
But by then I kind of caught the eye.
Patty I'll be,Who have you had power Patty yet?
Yep. Okay, good. Patty.
Where we got Patty?
I'll be episode 113.
Look at,you know, and I'm going to start. Jenny.
No names that you have pursued. 29.

(04:14):
Oh, we're going to have some funwith, numbers here. Okay.
That'll that'll happen later in our fourthhour of broadcast.
We'll we'll, we'll get into the numbers.
But, so Patty, said, hey,why don't you start doing it
on the neighbors and friends page?
So I did. You know, Patty's great.
She's been very good to me,letting me do it.
Give me the latitude to do it.
And, you know, Patty's a big part.

(04:35):
So, Ronnie, big part of a lot of storiesI imagine we're going to
talk about tonight.
Because you already mentioned the articleI wrote, which they're
they're both a big partof that article, too.
But we'll we'll get into that.But very cool. Patty.
Yeah. Wonderful.
She's instrumentalon allowing people to get help
when needed or care for their homeor their children.
So there's a, there's ashe's got a great, platform.

(04:56):
It is I'll say this a lot tonightbecause I'm
sure going to talk about a lot of peoplethat do this in town.
She does a lot for the town, for nothing,meaning for free.
She does not get paidand is strictly volunteer.
And, she's one of a whole list of peoplewho just gives and gives
and gives and gives to our community.
And, itshe needs to be recognized for that.
Yeah. Patty. Yeah.

(05:16):
She was the honoree of the Park Roadparade once. Yes.
Yeah, I actually I'm going to take crowdnominated her.
I think a couple other folks did too.
And I brought I brought a car up for her,
that she was going to ride in.
It was all set.It was a convertible, and the top broke.
We couldn't get the top to go down,so we had to put her in another car.
And we ended up not having the the caron the parade because the top broke.

(05:38):
But yeah, that was exciting.That was a lot of fun.
I'm sad the Park Road parade is no more.
It just seemed likeit was getting rained out every year.
Yeah.
And, but it was such a fun event,
you know, it was just it was kind of coolbecause it was tied to.
I know it's
tied to the Park Road community,but it was tied to nothing from a holiday.
Yeah, perspective.

(05:58):
And I think that made it moreit was nicer that way.
It was definitely special.
Like, yeah, the first Saturday in October.
Yeah.
Almost to start back to school or,you know, kick off, clean up the leaves.
Yeah. Clean up or autumn.
And they always seem to catch good colorsbut bad weather, you know, good good
leaf colors but bad bad bad weather.
Certainly the last few friends of Feeneywon best float a couple times this year.

(06:21):
So congratulations.
Okay.
We're excited and we're sad that to see itgot to see it go.
But I we used and I know
I'm not supposed to be interviewing youbut I can't help myself.
Will you be bringing the floatto the Memorial Day parade?
Absolutely. We will look for that. Yeah.
So yep.
And we'll have an after partyat Luna Pizza, please.
You know what?
I, wewe had a discussion before we went live.
Not only pizza. It's good thingwe're not six.

(06:42):
I'd be eating while I'm talking. So.
Yeah. So go back and check out 130we just hosted.
Allie was her podcast was at Luna Pizza.
She does the website and social mediafor Luna Pizza.
Okay, so we hosted it there. Okay.
Luna Pizza is a great sponsorand supporter of Friends of Feeney.
So yeah, that's a quick parade.
Parkville Park Road is pretty quick.
Yeah. So show up, right?

(07:02):
Yeah. Well, eighth of a mile,maybe the route if that.
But but the Hartford parade, wewe just did the Hartford Saint Patrick's
Day parade. That's quite a parade.Yeah, that's a big parade.
My calves were pretty burningat the end of that one.
It's been a long time since I've been toit because, you know, work
and things tend to conflict, but, it's,it's my work.
I do a lot of weekend travel.

(07:22):
That's part of the challengewith what I do.
I do a lot of weekend travel. So.
And I'm around during the week to annoy.What is your job?
So I, I do a lot of cars.
Work? Yeah. Vintage cars.
Somebody.
It's funny, somebody texted me a referral,I signed this. Yeah.
John Lane is a broker, and I'm like,no, no, no, no, I don't broker.
No. It's a it's illegal.And B, I don't do that.
And but it's no, but I, I consult.

(07:45):
So if, you know, God forbid,somebody in your life died
and they had a collection of classic cars,I sit down and consult
with them on the best wayto sell those cars for maximum money.
I don't do probate.
That's for, you know,that's for probate judges.
But, but I can.
I know all the ins and outs of title workand auction law and all of that.
So that's what I do.

(08:05):
Yeah. So what's concourse,
What's that?
Okay. Now classic.
Give me give me a text.
Okay. Well, yeah,that's exactly what it is.
Yeah, yeah.
So, I founded the I'll explain that and.
Okay. I don't know.
So you're gonna have to give me
more context on the notes,but are you looking at Newport?
Concord, or what are you looking at?
I just have to.
I'm tryingto, New England, Concord, new charities.

(08:27):
Yeah.
So what what what I did,and when I left corporate America in 2004,
I wanted to do something to give back.
And I didn't know anybody.
So I decided to have an event in Hartford,
the Hartford Concord Elegance, which is a
I used to know the translation,but it's basically a display of elegance.

(08:47):
And cars are judged and all.
And, you know, somebody sold meon Hartford being the rising star and,
you know, worst,most money ever lost in my life
and the worst oneI've ever lost in my life.
I think we got 100 attendeesto a show that we budgeted.
10,000 attendees.
You know, I don't want to, so I won't.
I won't go too far down that rabbit hole,get myself in trouble.

(09:07):
So the next year, we moved it to Newportand, Newport.
Still runningtoday? I'm not involved with that.
I'm divested, but it's, it's, Newportwas a huge success, and it just took off.
And, it's been a great it'sbeen a great 20 year run now.
So, yeah, a lot of interesting storiesnot relating to West Hartford, but,
you know, you get involvedwith, Preservation Society in Newport
County and that's, you know, there'sno more political organization.

(09:32):
And you'll learn a lot about politics,learn a lot about,
you know, swimming with sharks.
And there was a whole bunch of exClinton administration,
officials that were on the board of,
Preservation
Society of Newport Countywhen I was doing a show up there.
So it was it was knowthe Tennis Hall of Fame is in Newport.

(09:52):
Yeah, the Tennis Hall of Fame.
And then you've got the all traincar museum, which now owns the show.
Newport Newport's.
You know, we're not hereto talk about Newport, but it's beautiful.
I, you know,I like to get up there whenever I can.
Is heis he a Newport guy? Okay? Yep. Yeah.
So who else? Yeah. Newport.
Great place.
Yeah, a lot of a lot of WestHartford folks who do get up there.
We have very close friends that,

(10:12):
you know, lived in West Hartford,
then bought a summer home,and now they've migrated
and now they're livingfull time in Newport.
They sold their West Hartford home,
but we still see them every yearwhen we get up.
So they have a cape,the kite store, do they?
Okay.
Like, thepiers that you can walk out on the beach.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. It's just beautiful, fun. Fair.Oh, yeah.

(10:32):
Maybe that's not Newport.
I thought they had a clock towerdesigned by. No.
Okay, that's P-Town in P-Town.
Yeah. Provincetown does. Yeah.
Has that built by the same guywho built the Waterbury clock tower.
Oh fun fact.
Okay, there we go.
Waterbury, hometown Waterbury, friendsof Feeney where you can go to learn
so you know it.

(10:53):
Oh yeah.
Back to so yeah. Auto dealerships.
So you have an eye for cars.
You just know like you can price it.
I can price that. I'm wrong a lot.
It's tricky because the market, you know,cut off of the sale.
So, yeah, basically I get a consultancyfee based on a lot of different factors.
Rarely I take on live clients.

(11:14):
I usually my clients are normally
in the netherworld or in the next world,or whenever I call it.
Yes, on a live.
Yeah. And, but that's how it works. And.
Yeah, it's.
You think, you know, but,you know, the car
market is very sensitive,so it's got kind of two.
I don't know how to describe that.
I don't think I've ever triedto describe this before. There's.

(11:34):
So you get the economy right, the economygoes up, the economy goes down, whatever.
But with cars you also getwhat's in vogue, what's not in vogue,
and recognition of what is truly greatand what's not great.
So like 20 years ago, 2005 six,right before the Great Recession,
wood bodied cars,like they call them woody wagons

(11:57):
from like 1930s and 40s for likeall the rage, you can name your price.
And then around the turn of the decade,2010 or so, that market changed.
And yeah, maybe it changeddue to the Great Recession,
but it hasn't come back at allwhile everything else has come back.
So we've you saw it a submarketwithin the collector car
market change kind of permanently,which is heartbreaking.

(12:21):
I love Woody, so beautiful cars and,
I don't know,maybe maybe you have your staff
pull a photo of one,or I can send you one. One word.
Yeah. What is it?
Woody wagon, like, you know, pulling back.
Yeah. What, are you lagging? Yeah.
You know Ford. Woody at the Woodside.
Yeah. Correct.
Woodside. Like.
But don't think like 1970 as well.
No, no. Not that I know this is actualwood. Gotcha.

(12:41):
Yeah yeah yeah.
Die knock was started in about 1948and went on I'm talking pre 1948.
Gotcha. Yeah.
So how many cars do you own?
You know, sorry, I just did the count.
Just because for insurance,I have 11 cars.
Collector cars. Right.
11 collector car, 11 collector cars.
Yeah, yeah.
When you store them, orange.

(13:02):
Mostly in orange, Connecticut.
I've got a couple out in Auburn, Indiana,that are getting ready for an auction
that's going to be out there next month.
But, you know, they photograph themand catalog them and all that.
So, all right, let's play a game. Okay.
Called first, last best worst. Okay.
Your first car, your last car,your best car and your worst car.
Okay.

(13:23):
Well,my first car I bought from a blind woman.
I was in high school.
I did my license, yet
I had a wicked stepmotherwho did not want me to get my license.
And, of course,I was not very accepting of that.
So I bought a car anyway and drove itanyway.
And, but it was 1966 Dodge Dart,
four door sedan, 225 slant six engine.

(13:45):
And, that car was more rust than metal.
A car lasted me five years and,
I sold it to my roommate and erect itthree days after I sold it to him,
I was heartbroken,but my first car was a 1988 Dodge Dart.
Okay.
88. Okay, that's the small one.
The gas miser. Yeah, a little tiny.
Yeah, a little, little tiny.Yeah, a little tiny.

(14:06):
You would have been a real fuel miser.
Yeah, it would have been like 40 milesa gallon. 88.
Completely different car, I'm sure.
Yeah, yeah, they they evolved a lot.
All right.
So first,what was the best worst and last.
Yeah. Okay. So best
I'm going to go daily driver herebecause it's just
it's like picking among your kidswhen you talk about the classics.

(14:28):
But I, I had so I had
I was doing a lot of work in Newport and,
they part of the deal was like, you know,I had a good budget for a good car,
so I bought, a, a Genesis G90.
Best car on the road.
If you're looking for a carthat's a luxury car.
Best car on the road.

(14:48):
They still make them.They're fantastic cars.
No one's ever heard of a good model.
What's the Genesis G90?
Genesis is the upmarket brand.
Never heard of it.
They're fantastic cars.
So Genesis is the upmarketbrand of Hyundai. Kia?
Okay, Hyundai and Kia are fabulous cars.
They're fantastic cars.
People like to judge.

(15:09):
I judge cars for the merits.
And Hyundai and Kia,they make fantastic safety, durability.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just when you put the whole packagetogether, it's just great cars.
That's the girls.
Yeah. With their permit.
Okay. Looking for a car? Okay.
Maybe we'll finish.
Yeah, we can, we can chat.
We can chat in a non podcast.
I'm happy to help you on and on podcastenvironment. See if we can find you.

(15:30):
You're not going to buy him G90. Yes.Because no no Genesis but yeah.
No. Yeah.
So but soso the G90 did come out on 2018 and
nobody knew what it was.
They weren't selling.
So I went to a dealer and the sticker onit was 76 six for the car I wanted,
and I bought it for 53,000,because there were so many discounts.

(15:52):
Factory at 10,000, the dealer 10,000.
And then there was some other big discounton the car.
Remember what it was?
I drove it, got rid of it during Covidand got my money back and then some
because the market had.
But now, unfortunately,the Genesis G90 is now 110 grand, which
I would never spend on a car.
Not certainly a daily driver.
And they are, people now recognizewhat great cars they are

(16:14):
and they're really hard to get.Not a daily driver.
Is this the car that you driveevery day? Yep.
That's just to determine.
So that's so that's first best, worst.
I two really bad ones.
So one of my goals in lifeI always wanted to own a Jaguar.
By the time I was 35 and I was workingin corporate America, I was doing

(16:34):
well enough,but probably not to justify the Jaguar.
I was 1999, I was about to turn 35and my wife approved it.
Jaguar reintroducedthe S type Google search in 1999.
S type
they came out in the middle of the summerand they were not ready for prime time.
And I went right at least oneand what a crap show.
It was terrible.

(16:55):
Oh, lemon law.
Yeah. The car ended up being lemon law.
They ended up handing me another one.
I took it to a dealer, traded in,and just never looked back.
Yeah, they were really, really,really bad early on.
Interesting. So that's my worst.
And what's the last? I'm sorry.What was the first?
Last best worst first car? Okay. Last car.
Meaning the car.
I'm driving right now.

(17:15):
You're laughingmore or less when you were driving.
Yeah. So you're laughing at me?
So my wife had a.
So one of the challenges with carstoday is,
the tech is so advancedand it's so computer software based.
Yeah.
That very often when there's a recall the,
the, the car
manufacturers don't have the softwareto fix the recall.

(17:38):
So my wife drove a VW Arteon,which I love.
I love a good deal.
We bought the Australian.
We bought it wholesale and we it onArteon is an Audi A5 and VW clothing,
and it's about two thirdsthe price of an A5.
So this car was great.
So you bought the car? Would love it.
We were going we were driving to Floridaon December 1st this past December 1st,

(18:01):
and on November 29thmy wife says, oh, by the way,
the airbag light's been on forthe last week and the car's beeping at me.
I'm like, okay, that doesn't sound good.
So we bring it to the dealerand the dealer.
You know,I know that I know that Mitchell VW.
I'll give them a plug. They're great.
They're just they'rethey've always treated us very, very well.
And, Scott Dale is their service manager.

(18:22):
He's a good friend.
Have known himfor as long as I've been up here.
And, he looked at me, says, John,you're not gonna like my answer.
He says, you need a part, but we have like40,000 VW is across the country.
They need the partand there's like 14 parts in the country.
I said, call another deal,see if we can buy one. He laughed at me.
They said no. So I'm like I said,what do I do?

(18:43):
He said, well, can somebody sitin the back for the whole trip?
I'm like, no. I said,how about you give me a loaner?
Who's going away for a month?
He's like, John,I'm not giving you a loaner.
Come on, get real.
So long story short,it was the sitting in the back.
What was that gonna solve?
Could someone sit in the back because theairbag deployment or lack of deployment.

(19:03):
It's not the moment somebody sat in front.
Oh, there'slike there's going to be liability
because we know there's a problem.
We know there's a serious airbag fault.Yeah.
So so long story short,
they made some callsand they cut us a deal
that I'm not really supposedto talk about.
We ended up with a Jetta 2025Jetta crashed.
Beautiful.
Gets 40 miles to the gallon,has satellite radio.

(19:27):
Nice.
The car is beautiful. It's a Jetta.
It's a 20, whatever. $1,000 car.
And I couldn't, you know,I couldn't be happier.
It's a great car.So that's my last night. Sorry.
That was ten minutes there. First I couldI could do too long on this.
I'm sorry about that.
So we're on your time.
It's all good. Yeah, yeah. All right.
All right.
When we're on the games and. Okay.

(19:48):
Three keys that make you a great localweatherman for.
We had.com and friends and neighborson Facebook.
I don't know if I'm great. Three weeks.
I think plenty of good.
I think plenty of people would sayI'm not I'm nowhere near great.
Probably including myself.
I get so frustrated I make a mistake.
It's just I just don't.
Most weathermen make mistakes or weather.

(20:10):
Yeah, yeah, they do.
But when you're doing hyperlocal,should be a little easier.
Got. Should be a little easier.
And then people misunderstand too.
Like,
we had a big windstorm happen.
We had a windstorm happened two days ago.
I posted about it,but we had a windstorm 2 or 3 weeks ago
where the winds were coming fromthe south.
I don't get nervouswith winds from the northwest.
That is a typicalthat's typical weather behavior.

(20:32):
The trees are used to it.
Things aren't going to blow down.
But when the winds come,the south and southeast,
the trees and stuff aren't used to it.
That's when damage happen.
They're not used to predicting that anglethat.
Yes. Yeah.They're just they blow in that direction.
So they used to I mean I know it's sillyopposite way though.
They're not used to it.
I think there's more layers
and they're more likely to follow100% more, more likely to be damage.

(20:54):
October 29th Superstorm in 2011.
What?
That's what I remember.
That's what got me noticed by Romney,was that storm
was because I madeI mean, I canceled Halloween.
I'll give you an example.
I got that forecast wrong,
but the comment I made in my weatherforecast caught everybody's attention.
I said, I can't believe we're going toget a foot of snow on the end of October.

(21:16):
I just can't think it's possible.
But if we do,the damage will be beyond imagination.
And it's that linethat got the attention of Romney.
That's that'sthat's the part of the story I left out.
So, so I, I, I talked about the winds
coming from the south and they didn'tquite get a strong they got to 35.
We thought they going to get to 40.No big deal.
But then a day laterthey're blowing hard from the north.
People are likewhy aren't you reporting on these winds?

(21:36):
I'm like, because they're from the North.
And that frustrates me because it'slike I'm no, I don't worry about winds
from the north and northwestbecause we're used to it. Okay.
You know, not even.
But the winds from the south are nasty.
That's why hurricanes if theif the center tracks to our west. So.
All right,not at all answering your question.
Okay. Three keys, three keys.
I don't know if I can give you three keys.
What I focus on is map analysis.

(21:59):
And I understand, you know, magnets.
We all know magnets.
If you put the opposite end together,they repel. Right. So,
weather, weather systems like that,you put a low and a high.
They repel. They do not they're notgoing to be drawn to each other.
They're going to repel.
And what happens in between is going to bewhat we're talking about.
And so that's so it's just really mapanalysis
and understandinghow weather systems react.

(22:22):
I do not usecomputer based modeling at all.
I read some of these.I can't even talk the language.
I don't even understand the language.
The computer based
modeling that, you know, the smart guysbecause I'm not one of them.
The smart guys like Ryan Hanrahanand Gill.
Forgive me. I'm sorry, Gill,I'm forgetting your last name.
And but thethe professionals that are on TV use

(22:44):
are so above my pay grade.
You know, they've got these powerfulcomputers that the networks have invested
in or these powerful subscriptionsthat, like the town is invested in that
that offer really fantastic,very high end computer data.
And it's, I just I just look at the maps.
I just look at the maps. So interesting.

(23:05):
I don't know, that's 2 or 3 things,but it's very cool what I do.
Yeah.
Now, can you dispel, dispel a rumor?
Okay. About who?
Someone says that you just call a friend.
So a meteorologist, a phone,a friend, phone a friend.
I do like meteorologistsin the South, I do.
I have a host.We set up a giant game show studio.
It's really great. Bluewith a lot of lights.

(23:25):
And we play the musicin the background and, and,
And then I'm offered a chance to phonea friend, a friend, or I can narrow it
down to two possible forecasts from four,
or we have an audience, a live audience.
I can ask the audience what they think.
So I do those three things,and that's, Yeah, that's what I want to be
a weather millionaire.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly, exactly.

(23:47):
And then we mentioned rainy a lot.
Yes, again.
Episode 3029. Tune in.
Come on, 29. Go back.
Check out watching this. Come on.
And I didn't know thatRonnie just saw your comment
and then you became friends becauseyou guys host a lot of we ha roundtables.
You seem very friendly.
I thought you guys were friends for like,a very long.
So way back, or did you meet?
All right.
Ronnie has different memoriesof how we met than I do.

(24:11):
My first memory of meeting her
is, There was a
coach fired from Hall High School,
and the kids wanted to have
a rally outside of,
board of Ed one night, one by town hall.
And this is the timewhen rallies weren't happening.
Every 15 minuteswas kind of a special thing

(24:33):
when there was a rally in town.
I don't mean to say that,but it really is the truth.
So. And Nancy DePalma is a dearfriend of mine,
had a huge influence on whereI've gone politically.
She was, at the timethe assistant superintendent,
working for Karen List,I think it was before Tom Moore.
So, the kids came to my houseand a couple of them

(24:57):
who wanted to organize,and I kind of walked them through.
I said, look, this is what I would do,and I'm not an organizer,
but it just, you know,these were 16 or 17 year
old kids, 15 year old kids,they just didn't know.
And man,they pulled together quite thoroughly.
I was so moved by it.It wasn't a pro firing or antifa.
They werethey did not want the coach fired.
And it was a situation where, you know,a lot of sensitive things happened

(25:20):
with schools and board of Ed and certainthings, you know, you don't want to share.
I don't know the details.I'll never know the details.
But obviously there were some detailsthat were not shared,
you know, for whatever reason.
So they had this huge rally outside town
hall and Nancy called me furious,feeling like I put it all together.
I said, Nancy, they did it.
I just told them how to do it. And,

(25:44):
and, but my first memory of
meeting Ronnie was standing outon the sidewalk at the end of that rally.
We chatted for like a half an hourjust getting to know each other.
That was my first memory.
Her first memory.
We didn't meet in person,but I think she thinks we did.
I don't know, but it was terrible.
A child disappeared.
West Hartford child.
I don't want to mentionnames. Disappeared.

(26:04):
Who went to school with one of my kids.
And like, when that happens,you just think the worst.
And, Ronnie, we roped Ronnie in to help.
To help. And she.
I think she did a story on itand that that's so that.
But that was before I met her.
That was maybe 2011 or 12.
So I lose track of time.
Remember I met Doctor De Palma,my first interview for West Hartford?

(26:28):
Captain Slater was the principal of Hall.
I was in the National Guard with him.
Okay. And I taught in Waterbury.
And I said, hey, Captain Slater,
I was hoping to get into the WestHartford school system.
He's like,you ought to meet my friend Nancy.
Shit Whiting Lane.She was at Whiting Plane.
We met,
I think, maybe even on a Saturday,but sat down, talked about West Hartford.
She's awesome.
And just, like, opening my eyesto get to know West Hartford

(26:51):
and then, like, maybe a year or two later,I was hired at Walk It.
My doctor. Okay, so it was doctor DePalma.
So wonderful person the first time I met.
And I made a lot of enemieswith this meeting.
First time I met Nancy DePalma,we were brand new to town,
and the my kidswere going to school in flip flops,

(27:11):
and it was pissing me off. And,
I was
and Iwas not get having any luck with my wife.
It was a battlethat she did not want to fight.
And I get it, you know, with the kids.
So I walked in and r-n.c the office.
No appointments, literally marched in.
And I said,
you've got to stop letting these kidswear flip flops to school children issues.

(27:33):
John Lines, you're absolutely right.
She sent a note homethe next day to every family
at Whiting Lanesaid, effective immediately.
No more flip flops. Nice.
So she was my rock star.
But meanwhile, you know,I made enemies a half a half the fit
because it's like these momsand they just want it as easy as possible.
It's like, I just put your thumbsup, like, get out of my hair.

(27:55):
I want you to school.
I need to get to work.
Whatever. Well,if you're playing recess or PE.
Well, we we had an argument at that, so.
Yeah. Exactly right. That's a camp.
So what they were doing in PE isthey were going barefoot.
I'm like so I had a big fightwith I'd love to know who it was.
But in Nancy's office a year later,because my son came in with a broken toe
and, they're having the kidsparticipate in PE barefoot.

(28:19):
And Nancy called somebody at the town,the town center.
Just. And I just tore heard.I don't even know who it was.
I would love to. I would love toif I got to ask Nancy who that was.
I see Nancy every once
while I bumped into her a week ago,and I got to find out, but it was just.
Yeah, I have very strong opinions
when it comes to like,kids safety and common sense.
What I feel is common sense.
So be a good friends are model,you know, pick up trash, hold the door,

(28:40):
be charitable, give compliments.
What makes Ronnie a good friend so.
Oh, she's just super loyal.
I mean, she's she's incrediblylike she's always got your back.
Yeah. She's the most competitive personI've ever met.
Holy cow.
I would not want to get caughtin her crosshairs.
I think she's one of the two hardestworking people in West Hartford.
I think the other is, Cherie. Nice.
Yeah. And I just.

(29:00):
I've never seen to harder
working people give more hours for less.
Now, Ronnie, she earns money.
But on my business, what's yours?
But the amount of hours she works,
I guarantee it ain't a very good hourlyrate.
And Cherie does it for nothing.
You know, she's an unpaid volunteerthat puts up with a lot of crap.
And she's been a transformative mayorfor the town of West Hartford.

(29:22):
Yeah,I mean, just Cherie Canter, episode 35.
Oh, there we go.
I was going to go there.I was going to quiz you,
but you got a future podcast guest,her husband Michael.
Oh, are you going to have him? Okay.All right, all right.
Michael, Michael,Michael's great is great.
Any questions lined up for me?What should I ask him?
He. I got to tell you,what he does for a living is fascinating.
Talk to him about, intellectual property.
Oh, my God, I know that sounds boring,but it's amazing what he does.

(29:47):
I know he got to a certain age.
He had to step down from being president,but he still works there.
He was in the Hartford business app.
Or he basically he basically createthe kind of law that they do.
I like there's so much I knowand I don't know what I can say safely.
So now, nothing illegal, nothing illicit.
All good.
But I just don't know what they liketo share and they don't like to share.

(30:10):
But he literally invented
the type of law that he does.
And it's huge.
It's a call intellectual property law.Okay.
Geez.
It's amazing.
He's brilliant and he's so down to earth.
Like he's just like
like a lot of these, you know,
highfalutin typesare not down to earth at all.

(30:33):
He's just like, oh, he's just super cool.
He's just like a regular guy.
So, you know, I'm looking forward to him.
He works with my friend Lauren.
I'm looking forward to talking with them.
Sherry gave me his number.
I got to reach out to him.
We saw each other at a Christmas party.
So good people, great family. Yeah.
Big UConn fans.
Yes. Well, she's on she's on the board.
Which can be tough at times.

(30:54):
I'm going to have somethingnamed Kanter. Right?
I hope so, if not, they better start soonbecause she's been at least
as far as West Hartford goes.
She's been I'm look,I've been in town 20 years.
I've had three mayors.
And the other two, youknow, one of them were good friends with.
And the other one,I don't know real well, but great guy.
But the way Sherry led us through Covid

(31:17):
and the way the developmentthat she's overseen, the responsible
development and growth of West Hartfordhas been amazing.
Yeah, I couldI could spend an hour on sure.
We could do an hour on Sherry.
She's said, yeah, we hadwe played a game on our podcast.
Go back and check it out.
She's she's a great guest, great friend.
She could cartwheel still. Yes she can.

(31:37):
Yes she can.
I had one of the biggest reasonswhy I'm missing the Park Road parade
100th podcast.
We did a big celebrationand I had Javier Colon, Frank Whaley,
and I'm like, Sherry's here, Sherrycome up.
And I was, you know, instead of saying,
hey, say a few words, I'm like,can you cartwheel?
Did you boom!
It was amazing. Then I'm like, Ben,do you want to say something?

(31:58):
She's like, no, no, thank you.
So when we when we interview Sherryand we've been lucky enough
to interview hera bunch of times, is I always,
you know, we'll get to the issues andthen I always try to book five minutes.
Sorry, Sherry.What's on your mind? Because.
Because she.
All right, so here's the way I describeSherry is there's
I think there's levelsof brilliance and leadership.

(32:18):
And to me the apps.
Okay. Self-actualization. Maslow'shierarchy of needs. Okay.
In that little tiny triangle, the very,very top is seeing around corners.
Sherry can see around corners,
she can see around corners.
And that that to me is it'sbrilliance and leadership.
And that's what that's what Sherry is.
She can literally see around cornerslike it.

(32:39):
Yeah, well,we did a lot of Weehawken talk.
You brought up Covid.
There's an exclusive wood just droppedyesterday.
Yeah. Exclusive? Yeah. Exclusive breaking.
Do you have a breaking newssound effect that we can follow? And
all politics is local. Yes.
Covid,five years later, part one just dropped it
on March 17th, 2025.

(33:02):
That was yesterday.
Yes, yes, my Saint Patrick's Dayand it was great.
We had our com shout out to Ronnieand everyone over there. And
who is it? Time?
Don't ask me all their names,Tom, Bob Carr.
And don't ask me the last gentleman'sname. I cannot pronounce it.
Oh, yeah.
So, But they have itwhere it can be read to you now.
Yes, I was, I was listening to a storythe other day, and I was working,

(33:25):
and I was having it be read to me likeI was watching, listen to a podcast or.
Great, I listen to yours today. Okay.
With the playback, it was awesome.
And I thought it was really good.
So Covid, five years later,you want to get into it
and don't give away the whole article.Yeah.
Why don't I, I don't care.
I was first of all it's a cliffhanger,so you gotta tune in anyway.
So tune in next month. Yeah.
I haven't even written it yet.
I'm like, okay, now what?

(33:46):
So, you know, now I'm obligated.
So I, you know, we were doing the TV showand then when Covid kind of calmed down,
we just didn't have as much,you know, it's town.
We're not doing statewide.So we just didn't have enough.
I don't want to say,but as much stuff to talk about.
So the TV shows became less and less.
And I like contributing to weare we all like it when I contribute.

(34:06):
So I, started to do a monthly car article,which.
So that was going in life.
Life was kind of the lead onthat was going on in
life, West Hartford Life Magazineor whatever that is called.
And and then let's just saythere was an issue.
So Ronnie and I resigned in protest.
And I was actually really happy because,

(34:27):
I just it's hard to write about carswhen you kind of live cars.
It's like,what am I going to write about this month?
So I've done the Genesis. Okay.
I've done the catalog, I've donethe Tesla, I've done this, I've done that.
You know, Keech Griffin,
he gets a car every two weeks.
Oh, so he's a member of Empire,and then he writes about.
Yeah. Okay.Was he the current or something?

(34:47):
I'm not exactly sure. Yeah.
If youif you're going to be a member of Empire,
you got to be like,you got to write something.
Keep Griffin.
So, anyway, long story short, you know,
we had this kind of sudden and abrupt endmaybe six months ago to the life deal.
And so I started to do something,and I, you know, I love politics.
So I'm like, all right, Ronnie,I have an idea for for an article.

(35:08):
And she was here'swhat I love about Ronnie.
Ronnie will resist, but I love Ronnie
because she can be soldif you're doing it for the right reason.
With Ronnie, she can be sold.
And I hope she listens. This part.
And I always tell Ronnie, like,
if I need her to do something,I'll call and say, Ronnie,
I'm asking you this, but I'm asking youfor the right reason, and I.

(35:28):
I'm at a point with her where I can saythat she just knows that's the case.
But I will also tell her, Irani,I'm asking you to do this,
but it's for selfish reasons.
You're like,all right, let's talk about it.
Whatever. So,
you know, it's a level of trustthing, but, you know, don't you know,
you don't want to burn that bridge,you know, that's not
Ronnie is not somebodyyou want to burn in town.
So, so I had this idea,and she was really resistant to.

(35:52):
And I said, look,I said, I think I can do it.
I'm on the town DTC.
I don't know if you know that the townDemocratic Committee I I'm I'm a member.
I was a district chair for a while now.
I'm a member.
And, so she was nervous and I said,
look, we'll put a disclaimer and let'sjust try it once if it doesn't work.
So she's okay, you know, she trusts me.
She knows.I'm really just trying to be helpful.

(36:13):
So I started writingthis. All politics is local,
every month, and I'm trying to.
I can't remember what I've written about,but this month, I was really.
This is a monthly. It's a monthly?Yeah, it's a monthly.
Gotcha.
So, so this monthI decided at Covid five years later,
and it was such an interesting time.
And I had such, you know,interesting memories from that time.

(36:34):
And then kind of like there was a certainlook, Covid was horrible,
but there was a certain innocence to itback in the day.
I mean, let's not forget,
Trump was the one who said,okay, Operation Warp Speed, let's do it.
And everybody was on board.
Trump's supporters were on board.
Democrats wanted the vaccine,Republicans wanted the vaccine.

(36:54):
And then what it really gave rise to whichI'm going to talk about in the next up,
next article, is it gave riseto a lot of these social media
influencers,which started probably April of 2020, May.
And a lot of these influencers,let's be honest, were dumb as a rock.
They have no infectious disease.
See me, I have no infectious diseaseknowledge whatsoever,

(37:17):
but I understand I'm able to admitthat I do not have any.
So I'm going to go seek
an expert who has a ton like we didwith Doctor Bennett for the show,
and we're going to I'mgoing to bring in an expert,
and I'm going to listen to his advicebecause he's an expert for a reason.
Because he did, you know, college.
He did post-grad. He did, medical.
He did his residency.

(37:37):
He he has the training.
And we've got people who are onlinewho don't have college degrees
or are from very,shall we say, suspect universities,
schools that are giving and dispensing
medical advicethat they have no business giving.
And we started to see a move towardthat in the middle of 2020.
And it's you know, there's no doubtin my mind that really impacted the 2024.

(38:00):
I think thatand then obviously the whole dei,
you know, pronouns thing,I think those are the two biggest things
that really impacted the 2024 election.
But it's you know, whatwhat Republicans have done here we go.
Political is they've
they've managed to create these platformswhere people like Tucker

(38:23):
Carlson and, who's the guy in the the guyin, Oh, God.
Charlie Kirk. And,
I'm trying to rememberthe one in, Steve Bannon,
you know, and a million otherLaura Loomer.
I won't comment,so I'll just go like this.
So anyone listeningdoesn't know how I'm reacting.
My facial expression here, who

(38:45):
they have no understanding
of infectious diseases, and yet they're
out there going on.
You know, I don't understand whatcausation versus, what what's the about?
You didn't read any of this in the articlethat's going to come next.
I'm going to get I'm going to get inand, it's all right.
It's, you know, I just it'sjust it's really it's really this is.

(39:07):
Yeah. Yeah.
So this is the exclusive part then? Yes.
There we go. There nowwe have exclusive now please.
More breakingnews. Music, please. Thank you.
So we, you know, it's I just,
you know, I just think it's, it'sthere was like a certain
we're all in this together innocenceto it.
Kind of like we were after 911and kind of like
we were after the challengerand kind of like after we were, you know,

(39:30):
when other momentous when Kennedy was shotand other momentous
moments in the history and and now that
like I feel like that just can't happenlike, like there was a plane
crash and like,within ten minutes of the plane crashing,
it's a, you know, because of a desire,
you know, you know, and, and like that,

(39:52):
that's not at all construct of at all.
It's not constructive.
So agreed.
We'll check it out onwe had.com and look out for part two.
Yes. What day you think going to drop it.
Oh come on, come on now you'reputting the pressure on a guarantee.
It'll be in April
I promise being promised AprilI'm actually I don't travel a whole lot.

(40:14):
I'm actually speaking of the Covid.Do you remember this event?
I need to see.
I need to pull this over.
Okay. That is, Wow.
That's Mary Faye on the left. Me. Ronnie.
Oh, wow.
What now?
Wait, I don't know.
It's at a coffee shop.
I need help with this.
Okay, we're going to.
I'm in the photo, so clearly I was there.

(40:35):
This was friends of Fini.
We had a celebrity server event.
Oh. Come on,come on on Park Road at, no, no.
Nope, nope. Try again.
I gotta look now.
This is the owner of the establishmentright here.
Oh, was it Germany or no? Nope.Keep going.
I don't know, this is donut crazy.
Oh, I remember that. That's right.Ronnie was nice.

(40:56):
She kind of pulled me in on that.I was like, the last second.
Add to that.That's why I didn't remember it.
Because Ronnie was nice enoughto come on serve donuts with me.
It's all right.
So this is Irene on our.
Okay, donut crazy episode ten. Yeah.
Brooke dailyI know Brookdale shoot for sure.
Fin she lawyer or she, real soon.
She's an advocate for Down'ssyndrome and autism.

(41:17):
Oh, good for her.
Okay. Her sonFinn, was my third grade student.
Okay.
Very fair.
You know, she's on the podcast,so you come up,
what episode number is Mary say?
I want to say
75. Okay.
All right.
80. Okay.
Go back and check it out. 80. Okay.
You gonna watch it?
So yeah, I'm going to watch I'mdefinitely gonna watch that.

(41:38):
But you complete you complete all this.
You're the last missing piece.There we go.
But this date was March 8th, 2020.
Yeah, I remember it was right.
It was the Sundaybefore they closed school. Remember that?
That was our last week of school.
This was the last Friends of Feeney event.
Yeah, pre-COVID.
So, yeah, it was a cold, windy day.
We have Mike Golic,my gold junior, showed up.

(42:00):
We had,
what's his name?
Kenny Mayne showed up from ESPN.
Okay, Dennis. How's Scott?
I love donut crazy, but I don't go.
I can't eat it. Donut crazy.
Yeah, we had be a good friend.
Donuts, friends, a few donuts.
It was a great event.
But yeah Iit kind of connects to the Covid okay.
All right. Thanks. So we had.com.

(42:21):
That was a crazy week.That was that was a crazy week.
I flew back into town that dayso I yeah I remember now
I flew in to make that event.
I flew in that day to make the event.
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
Sorry I didn't remember whereit was I apologize.
All good.
It was great that.
Oh, no, it was not great that it wasit was scary that they're like,

(42:41):
oh, we're just going to close schoolsfor two weeks to clean.
They said two weeks.
They said two week leech and clean.
And then it was not one
it was not I mean, it's just yeah.
You said the NBA.
Then I remember Rudy Gobert.
He was a French playerfor he plays for the Timberwolves now.
But he said he got diagnosedwith Covid right.

(43:03):
And he touched the mic.
He touched all the mics.
And then nextyou know they canceled the NBA season.
It was like five years ago. Crazy week.
It was it was just like you mentionedNBA closing.
It was so on on the 12th.
Like it was nuts.
It was every five minutes.
It was a major story.

(43:24):
And I think while we were on air,MLB canceled, if I remember correctly.
And we had at one pointwe handed the mic to Ronnie
and said, Ronnie, just give us an update.
Talk for ten minutes.
Like it was insane.
Insane. And yeah, the school closing.
And then like,I know it's a little thing, but Patty,
I remember distinctly the conversationwith Patty about going to approval

(43:47):
for her page like that was a huge deal.
That page was fine.
You know, all the Wild West stuffthat used to go on it still.
But but she had to approveevery approval she.
So she made that when they announced.
So what happened isI don't want to get in trouble, but
so basically,
do you know what it meanswhen a story is embargoed?

(44:08):
Do you know the term?
Yeah, Ronnie told me that.
So stories embargoed one it's like,okay, you're in the media.
I'm telling youwhat the story is going to be,
but I'm not allowing you to share it.
And so trusting.
So, Ronnie,when we were getting ready to go on air,
the school closure was embargoed.
So Patty and I had a, like, a sidebar,and I said, look, Patty, you can't.

(44:29):
I rememberI was like four, 430 in the afternoon.
And I said, Patty, you can't tell anybody,but they're going to close schools.
And she says she was worried about modelbecause people were scared
and they were postingappropriately scared comments.
And she said, should I put on my approval?
I said, look, I would, I was too figuredit'd be off in two weeks.
Students are my model moderator.

(44:50):
So basically,
if you post on neighbors and friends,
it doesn't go liveuntil somebody looks at it.
Make sure the administrators approve.
It agrees with their rules and regs.
Yeah, yeah, Sandy, Pattyand I forget who the other one is.
Have you had Cindy on yet? No.
Iraqi Rocky. Oh, you got a Rocky?
What episode numbercome on. 110. Oh. Whoa.
You know, he could be lying to me andI'll never know, so I'm really impressed.

(45:14):
So ten special episode.
We did a a special collab.
Two guys and a lot of wine slash friends.
That's cool at the same time.
Did you do it at the studio? Do.
That's cool.
They typically go 30 minutes.
Yes, we went about 60. Yeah.
You got to go along with that.
And Bobby P loved it.
It was great when we did it.
The 30 minutes, like we blinked our eyesand then we hung around

(45:35):
the studio and finished the bottles.
Yeah, I love the game.
I brought a bottle of,
bread and butter. Pinot noir.
I know Rocky is like,he knew where he knows stuff.
He's amazing press.
He knows he he absolutely knows the stuff.
Yeah, he's in there. Good.
And then I saw you at the eventin November there.
45th. The 45th anniversary.

(45:56):
Yeah.
I mean, I made an appearance, I hadwe had to be somewhere.
We were double booked that night.
We were going to a birthday partythat night.
This is like three months ago.Right through from us.
Yeah.
Yeah,that was a really fun and sound issues
that night,which was such a bummer for the broadcast.
Like, we could hear them,but it was such a fun night.
Interesting, interesting moment.
That night,I met Sean Daly for the first time.

(46:18):
We had Sean Daly on. Yeah. No. Okay.
And we shared ideas.
And an idea he brought up was a good one,
about helping, the registrars outand get them a little more pay.
And, you know, it was nice to see the twoparties work together and get it done.
Nice.
I know you just,
girls basketball in town, so.

(46:39):
So he's he's he's passionate.
Whether you agree with him or not.
He's a passionate guy,so gotta appreciate the past.
Yeah, yeah I know. Yep, yep.
Should I have him on?
You're asking me.
Yeah. I don't know him all enough.
He he will.
The people will listen.
You know, he has no shortage of,I think, opinions and thoughts or let's

(47:00):
hear some upcoming guests.Should I have him on or not?
Let's go. Oh, boy.
Michael Kanter,we talked about. Absolutely.
Lieutenant Foley police, right. Yep.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
Officer Barrett, it's great.
He is part of the homeless divisionof Hartford.
Great person.
Oh. That's interesting.
Aaron Fox owns fix Ivy.
Okay. Never get a fix.

(47:21):
No, you hold on. Let's go back to that.
Yeah, I'll fix you.
Oh, yeah. They're amazing.
Amazing.
They freaking give you an IV,and it's not, like, medically required.
They're not sticking a needle in meunless it's in Medicare Part.
Oh, it's a registered nurse.
So what are they? We're.
What are you sit and just chill on acouch and you get vitamin C?

(47:42):
Magnesium, zinc, all types of good stuff.
And does it make run a marathon? Do you?
You feel really?
Yeah. Do you sleep well that night?
Sleep like a baby.
And what do they charge for this service?
Don't say 75 to 100 bucks. Wow.
We get a shot.
Okay, in the bottom,
there's the power shot, the relaxed shotand the rocket shot.

(48:03):
Oh, God. Okay, I gotta try it.
Okay, I'll not going to try. Okay.
Maybewe'll maybe we'll do a special podcast.
I'll do it live on air and I canI can talk about what's happening.
It's like, you know, the, you know,the news guys who like, get their,
you know, their heart test ortheir colonoscopy or whatever live on air.
It's like, we'll do it, we'll do it.
It's right across from a pizza.
Okay. Go get your pizza. Thank you.

(48:24):
You got pizza there for me?I'll be there to get a slice in.
And I've yet to seewho else is on this list.
Rich Coppola was sportson, channel eight for 20 years.
Oh, that's cool, that's cool. Yeah.
Ryan McGinnis. Ryan. Soft wash.
You need any power washing?
Ben Fuchs, Fuchs financial.
Okay. If you if you just.

(48:47):
He related to my, rabbi.
Yep. That's his dad.
Oh, neat.
Oh, it's his kid. Okay. Yeah.
Okay. Okay. Okay.
My, my my first child went.
Oh, no.
Sydney went through her.
Wait, I don't I get this wrong.No. I'm wrong.
No, none of my kids had Rabbi Fuchs.
They had all they all had Michael Pincus.
I've had Michael Pincus on yet.
No. Michael would be a great guest.

(49:08):
Rabbi Stephen, chat Nova okay,episode number four.
Kidding. I'm just thinking on.
Yeah, yeah, 70.
They're all 70. Yeah.
I was gonna say, wasn't Mary Fey 70?
She might have been 60.
Now that I think of it. Okay.
Oh, my friendThomas and Ryan, they're from Bristol.
They're insight plus technology.They want it in a raffle.

(49:29):
So we're raffling off podcast.
All right.
Okay, okay, so I just I'm like one levelabove the raffle, but I'm like four levels
below, like town council and like the,the real media and a ace
has been on trying to thinkLiam has been have you had,
have you hadhow about oh, you've had Chief Reddick.

(49:49):
Yeah. Amazing guy. He's great.
How about,how about the chief fire department?
Oh, you gotta get get ahead, Marcia.
But she was the deputy, okay?
She's retired.
She she did grad school,and it's doing other things she has.
How about agent Billings Smith? Yep.
That's ace. That's.
Yeah. She's. Yep.
All right. How about bored of it?
Have you had any board of Ed members?
No, but I want Lorna. Do you. Okay.

(50:13):
Her daughter and my daughter,our good friends.
Okay. Lorna has committed,but we just have worked it out.
All right, say on it.
If I see her, I'll.
I don't know, I'm not sure if I, I think,I think we have a good board of ed.
We had we had some bumps in the roadmaybe a few years back,
you know, with outside influencescoming in and speaking on stuff
that they just didn't knowabout during the public comment section.

(50:34):
And happily, are you guys kind of that'skind of stuff that a little bit.
Well, I, I, I oh, they, they modified.
Well they, yeah,
there's been a couple of adjustmentsto public comment, but it really
maybe like a time.
So what was happening nowit's a touchy issue.
But what was happening is you know, so

(50:55):
there's always the the enemythe enemy in the closet.
Right. And right now that enemy is die.
Four years ago,it was, social emotional learning school.
And you haven't heard usyell at or uttered in two years.
So outside forces,we're talking about how in West Hartford
is this liberal bastion of ACLnot even understanding what ACL is,
not even understandingwhat West Hartford is,

(51:15):
and not even understandingwhat education in general.
So you had a lot of folks coming who were,
I believe, not properly
informedand not properly up to speed on the issues
and talkingquite angrily at the board of Ed.
Well, not really
talking about issuesthat were related to West Hartford

(51:36):
and so that caused a change
in, public comment policy.
But then they made another changejust recently because
that's kind of stopped.
And it seems like the dice stuffis falling more at the national level.
They're not comingafter school systems with it.
They're going after pilots, apparently.
But but not school systems.

(51:57):
So yeah.
Oh, I mean, we got some future eventsor past event first.
Our parade was amazing success.
We got the shirts,we had sponsors on the back.
I just want to shout out a few sponsors,see if you know, you know, Seth Brown
ear, Nose and Throat of Connecticut.
Okay.
Lyons auto on New Britainhave an unrelated but know them
well Ryan Keating yep, I know Ryan well.

(52:18):
Keating agency, French cleaners.
Yeah. Ryan is on Arapahoe Road,I believe. Right.
Oh, yeah.
You were on their podcast.What's happening?
Oh that's right.
Yeah, that was a while ago.
What year was that?
Oh. Are you.
Do you know theanswer? Okay, don't tell me
what's hap 2018.
Very good. Bam.
Very good.
Direct line media.

(52:39):
Cricket press. You work with.
I don't read them,but I'm familiar with them. Yeah.
Lake George Steamboat Company.
You ever go on the Minnehaha? No.
Anthony's abatement? No.
Imma feel bad. These are all good.
These are all good folks.
The credit union, American Eagle,sweet bear coffee.
Amazing.
Sweet bear crafts are they is brand new.

(53:00):
My former students mother started it.
Proceedsgo and help people with disabilities.
Nice.
She was just on the news talking about it.
So sweet. Bear coffee. Thank you so much.
My barber lost arts. Therewe go. Very nice.
You got a free haircut out of that dealoccasionally.
I know, shouldn't I?
Yeah, I think you should be free. Cut.
John said so. There we go.

(53:20):
Greater, greater. Host Lions club.
You're going to the pancake breakfastin April?
That's right.
They usually do it in April.
It's usually the last weekend in April.Right.
I think it's April 26th.
Yeah, it's the last weekend in April.They do it every year.
I miss it every year because I've gotan event that I have to go to every year.
Yep. They put a sign right near our houseabout a mile from our house.
I always see it and I love pancakes.

(53:41):
Yep. April 26th.
Okay, save the date, people.
The fix I've talked about West Hartfordlock, Eric Brown. Uri.
Uri Uri kotlowitz.I've known you for years. Great.
Uri. Uri helped me on my car showwhen I did it briefly.
Oh, he likes cars. Yeah, he's dreamhe's a big car guy. Yeah.
You know whatI, I give Uri, there's a couple of guys.
I give a lot of creditbecause they show up at town

(54:01):
council meetingsand you think they're going to complain,
and then they get upand they say, I've looked all the facts.
I really thought this through.
I think this is a great idea.
Or if they disagree,they've got their ducks in a row.
And it's not a not in my backyard issue.
It's something more like
more substantial
that you can sink your teeth intoand really give it thought.

(54:22):
You're he'sone of those guys I Gary I saw 40.
You had Uri on episode 40.
There we go. Okay. Brown and Uriall right.
Dasani MJ this one.
Yeah okay.
I have a suit from the Swanee.
Right. That's in town, right? Yep yep yep.
Future podcast guest. Okay.
Core down drilling.What do you know about drilling?
What type of drilling are we drilling?

(54:43):
And I know nothingenvironmental in geochemical.
Okay. Pink flamingo.
Why do I know that?
Right next to Luna Pizza.
Oh, okay. Ashley. The balloons. Okay.
Why are BIC property?
You need your grass mowed.
Call my guy wire back. Okay.
Bergen financial. York. Bergen.
Okay. Sweet chili on park road.

(55:04):
Okay. Sweet chili time. We had dinner.
We had dinner. Sweet chiliwith Ronnie and Ted three nights ago.
No way. Yep.
Would you have?
I had I got to think this through. Okay.
My wife had shrimp,and it was really good.
I say 1 or 2 of her shrimp.
I had chicken with rice.
So what's that? That,
there's a term for it, but it's like a,like a stick.

(55:25):
Oh. Sticky rice. Oh, it's so good.
Oh, my God, it was so good.
And then,
Ted had beef and I don't remember whatRonnie had, but if you look on yesterday's
business buzz,you will see pictures of all of our meals.
So, because Ronnie takes pictures of me,
I know if I go out to dinner with Ronnie,if we go out for dinner,
I don't touch the fooduntil Ronnie is taking her pictures.

(55:46):
So anyway.
And there's food from a RonnieRonnie Newton ism.
I'm sorry. There's food on sweet chilis.
Sweet chili.
What do you mean? Oh, yeah. Yeah,yeah. Sweet chili.
Got a plug on yesterday's business buzz.
Rightfully so.
Make a note of that.
Who's good? They've been arounda long time. 20 years plus.
Really? Yeah,they've been around a long, long time.
Sweet chili. Great people. Yeah.

(56:07):
Sally and Bob's okay.
We like Sally and Bob's. They're.
They're like 120.
They were just on the podcast okay.
Wings over Helens.Awesome. Helens for now.
Yeah I have a buddy of minewho's in DC that
we get together for breakfastso we can bitch.
And sorry that's so one foul languageI'll use.
Forgive me.
But, yeah,we just bitch about the state of politics.

(56:30):
So naturally, of course, we would nevercomplain about local politics.
Never.
So anyway, people's Bank, Webster and CPF,
can you explain to me so People's UnitedPeople's Bank was people's Bank.
Then they became People's United Bank.Then they went away.
And now we have a new people's bank.
It's a totally different entity.
People's bank together.
Yes. P and the B cap.

(56:51):
Yes. So it's not anything to dowith the old people's Bank
or People's United Bank or the pub,because we like to call
a meeting with them tomorrow.
Ryan super hit them hard. Ha.
Let them take $10,000 sponsorship level.
That's a that's a silver level.
In case you're wondering,
they sponsor the podcast,they sponsor the golf tournament,
and they're sponsoring our nextthis parade and next.

(57:13):
Oh, come.
Yeah. You've already hidden for the 10thanniversary.
Okay. Good for you.
Good for little less than tencame close to making you. So
now that's great.
And we got some upcoming,I just mentioned Memorial Day.
That's.
Check us out on Farmington to South Main.
Quick little parade, but wonderful.
A soccer event, Hartford Athletic.

(57:34):
Do you ever go to the Hartford Athletic?
June 6th, please, I feel bad,I'm shaking my head to too much here.
So I feel our goats game.
We've been to yard. Good.
I went to one last summer.It was a lot of fun.
We had our seats, like, in,
I don't like, in a mezzanine.
And rightfield, like, upper level was really nice.
They had food and drink,and it was really cool.
I felt very fancy.

(57:55):
So I serve on a couple.
I serve, so I serve onzoning and wetlands here in town.
And then I also serve on, GreaterHartford Transit.
And once a year, transit does a yard Goatsgame.
And, we went so there's twoit's a funny story for the transit game.
So we,we got a brand new executive director
that was like one of the very first eventshe's going to with us.
And I've been on for five years.

(58:15):
My term was five years. And,
so I decide I'm going to resign.
So like,yeah, I'll, I'll talk to Sam's dog.
I'll talk to dog at the,the Yard Goats game.
Low key. We sit down, chat.
So I sit down dog, you know, reallyhappier on board, you know, happy.
I was able to be part of the interviewprocess.

(58:36):
And, you know, I was on thethe subcommittee that helped find.
And, you know, it's been a really greatfive years.
But, you know, I feel like, you know,it should be somebody else's turn now.
And so I'm going toI'm going to step down.
He goes, John,we just hanging to the end of the year.
I just, you know, I was like,okay, of the end of the year.
We'll reevaluate five months later.

(58:57):
I don't want to say his namebecause I don't
I didn't run this story by him, buttwo story five and say to the other West
Hartford person, without any priordiscussion between the two of us,
walked up to dog and resigned as well,and Doug gave him the same speech.
We're both still on the board,
so but literally
within five minutes, unrehearsed,two of us back to back, we resigned.
It was pretty funny.

(59:18):
So I don't know.
Yeah, we're guy so and it's really great.
Hartford Transitdoes a lot of good for the community.
They do all the paratransit and they justthey do so much for the community.
But they're based on the Hartford.
So but they handlethey've got a bunch of member towns.
And so
yeah, our our fifth annual game,August 15th.
Okay. Tickets are on sale.
And then Johnny's got you on toJohnny's dog.

(59:40):
I'm not a jogger, Ronnie.
I'll be there. I'll speak for Ronnieand say she'll be there.
So how's that?
Ronnie, do you ever see Ted run?
He. Ted's a good runner.
I say, I'll I'll drive by himand he'll be running, and I'll be like.
I walked my dog onceand I see this guy just flying.
Yes. Yeah.
Like the stride on this guy.

(01:00:00):
And he's like the picture of health too.So yeah, I mean, that's.
So what did I do?
I walked a dog, went home,put on my running stuff.
Did you see now me, I go home and juststick my head between my eyes and cry.
I can't do this. I try runningand I injure myself.
So I walk, I try to walkand I'll run up and down a lot of stairs.
You know, dog, we have to talk.
Well, no. Hold on.
I cannot believe I just said that.

(01:00:22):
I'm shocked that I said that.
Hopefully my wife does. Yes,we have a dog.
However, a week ago, without my knowledge,my wife agreed to foster
a second dogwho is about this big and ten weeks old.
And so right now we have two dogs,
but we will not have two dogs for longor be very clear.

(01:00:42):
So that's great. Yeah,
yeah yeah.
Our mark.
Wow. Well don't keep going for another.
We go for our number twoI mean am I that interesting.
So this is great.
See we shot for 50 minutes with Feeney.
We hit 60.
Any recommendations for of what podcast TV
shows, books oh I gotcha

(01:01:03):
local politics, cars.
I mean, I'll talklocal politics all day long with you.
You know, I get I get,
you know, I've been on a little bit of aI made the decision after the election.
I was not going to quite hold backthe way I was.
And, you know, one thingthat's really been on my mind is
I feel like we are really blessedin this town.

(01:01:24):
I don't know if you know the folks or not,but our town employees are incredible.
And our teachers. How about the teacher?
Aren't you a town employee?
You're kidding.
Yeah.
Okay, so you're included in that, right?
So I, I, I callyou guys West Hartford smartest and I call
our kids West Hartford is brightest,so I don't know what's up.
All right. Is that the right nomenclature?

(01:01:46):
That's what I call you guys.
So, Yeah, you could go look backat some transcripts of BOE meetings
where I've spoken, testified. And that's.
Those are the terms I use.Thank you. So I feel like,
if Board of Ed is not
focusing on, kids or the budget,they're doing something wrong.
I'm very passionate about that. So,
but, so I see people go after an even

(01:02:10):
notable people,shall we say, go after our town employees.
And that makes me crazybecause I be because of my role on zoning.
I get exposure to them all.
And these guys, they work70 hour weeks on an average week.
They they are if half of them,if they went to the private sector,

(01:02:30):
they'd earn ten times as much moneyand they'd be in an executive suite
like they're that good.
And so it really bothers me when,and there was
I don't know if you saw Romney'sadmonishment in business Buzz yesterday
talking about the town employeesand talking about how,
you know, our Electeds are all volunteers,unpaid volunteers.
And because people areall wound up over the budget,

(01:02:51):
because this is the time of yearpeople get lined up over the budget
and, you know, they're working hardto trim it, to try to minimize the impact.
We're kind of in a weird spot right nowbecause,
so we had Arpa funding, you know what?
Arpa funding was okay, AmericanRescue Plan Act funding from Covid.
So a lot of money from Arpa,which I do not think there's a mayor

(01:03:13):
in the country or a town in the country,used it more judiciously
than West Hartford, than Mayor CantorRick Ludwig,
the town managerand and the town of West Hartford.
So Arpa really ran out in 2024.
We've got some carryover on projects,you know, shovel ready,
you know, to use the Obamaterm, shovel ready projects.

(01:03:34):
So we've got we've got some money.
We the town of West Hartford, has some.
So you're going to seelike the beautification of the center,
you know,all the trees are going to be replaced.
A lot of signageon a lot of beautification.
You're going to see around town.
That's going to make the town, you know,function look nicer and function.
But Arpa is basically gone.
But the good news is because of mayorcan't just leadership and vision.

(01:03:58):
We have fantastic residential projectscoming online.
I mean incredible hugeI mean, one park we've got
I think four and Rick Ludwickget him on. Yep.
Get him on as a guest.
I think we have four projects right nowthat are are under construction, ready
to begin construction, under constructionor just finishing construction.

(01:04:22):
That's going to rankand certainly in the top ten and maybe
even on the top five grand listparticipants in town
Yukon, one Park Road.
And there's a bunch of othersI'm forgetting about,
but there's a two Yukon properties.Those are two of them.
There's one Park Road, but and and it's
it's it'sMayor Cantor's leadership and vision.

(01:04:44):
Talk about her being ableto see around corners that understood that
the economy where we're betweenwhat things cost and, and
and the way the economy is right now,you can't build single family homes.
It's not about not wanting to.
You can't afford to do it.
You can't make money doing it,certainly for middle income people.

(01:05:04):
Yeah.
You could build a millionand a half dollars, mansions.
But you can't build the $600,000 home.
The 500,000 are home.
It costs too much per squarefoot to build.
So to buy the dirtand then to build a house,
it costs a third of an acre in this towntoday.
That's not wetlands and not really
crappy on, like some terrible street.

(01:05:27):
I don't mean terrible
socio
economically, I mean terrible,just terrible view.
Terrible to get water or other resources.
Other, other utilities.
They're terrible traffic,that sort of thing.
The dirt is going to costyou 250 for a third of an acre.
So your construction costs are going to be350 to 400 per square foot.

(01:05:49):
So that's 400,000 for 1000ft square house.
Nobody wants a 1000ft square house.
So you're talking 800,000 under today,800,000 construction costs, plus another
250 for the dirt to have a three bedroom,two and a half baths house.
That is nice.
So that'swhy all these condos and apartments.

(01:06:11):
So, Sherry, recognize Mayor Kantor,
recognize that we have to do multifamily.
And to her credit,she's really, really working hard
to make sure that there's an affordablecomponent in everything that is built,
everything the Yukon propertiesare 7.5% between the two.

(01:06:31):
This new one,that vessel which you're going to vote on.
And let me disclaimer I'm on zoning,but I did not vote on this.
This one I did not.
The way zoning works,I don't vote on everything.
So, but vessel is a,
is, 10% affordable by deed.

(01:06:51):
It's deed restricted.
You're talking40, 50, 60, 70 years by deed.
These things are designatedas affordable housing.
So it's because of that vision.
We're seeing huge growth in our rentals.
But for the next yearor two, we're in between.
We're we're in a we're in a gully
this is my I've not been toldthis is a strictly my opinion.

(01:07:12):
Let me be very clear.
Based on my review of the budget,
my review of what's going on, no one hastold me anything, but we're in a gully.
We lost our plan.
We lost some of the other stuffthat we had.
We'vegot all these great projects happening,
but the money's not quite online yet.
It's coming, but it's not quite there yet.
So we got a yearor two of a little bit of discomfort and,
and you know, the other thingthat happened is, the I believe

(01:07:34):
the teacher contracts and I think firepolice were all renegotiated.
Yep. I'm not teaching. I'm not speaking.
I'm not speaking for the town.
I'm simply offering an opinion.
And some of it I'm not for teachers,not was rhetoric.
I keep hitting the mic. I'm so sorry.
Retroactive to 2021.
I was a teacher.
Okay? Not teachers.
Okay, so it wasn't teacherssomewhere around. Freeze.

(01:07:56):
Maybe the cops were on freeze for so long.
Perhaps. Yeah, but so.
So it's it's a little bitso we have, you know, in past years, when
I've looked at the board of Ed Budget,I've looked at the town budget,
particularly Board of Ed.
It's like, yeah, okay, we got room,we got room, we got room.
I've, I've got through this budget.
I think I've done a really good job.

(01:08:16):
And it's like it's up7% and there's just now seven, 7.18%.
I was bustin,Paul was in his chops as a 7.8%, 7.18%.
He knew I was just goofing on him,but, future I want him on the podcast. So.
Yeah. Paul would be great.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, definitely.
Paul and Dave Kent, Rickled with Rick, and, you know, another one.

(01:08:36):
Maybe he won't do it.
I'm going to get some trouble here.
Dallas Dodge.
He's awesome. He's really tall guy.
He's tall.
I don't thinkthere's our height requirement.
Yeah okay. So I got to be the tallest.
Oh yeah okay, okay.
Because there's a height of heightnow, but, you know, yeah.
Dallas,I think would be an interesting question.
We wanted to come on, but.
Yeah, get get, a LaToya would be,you'd have fun on the Toya.

(01:08:59):
She's on board of Ed. Nice.
You know, fun with her. She's passionate.
She'll give you.
Should give you a good hour. Hourand a half.
So perfect. Yeah.
So not great talking with.No, this is fun.
Sorry, I go on, I apologize before we end.
I'm a teacher.
Favorite
teacher, Eleanor Carr,Greenwich high school.
Well, senior year, she was awesome.

(01:09:21):
Just inspired me to do the writingthat I do.
And, Yeah, she was just terrific.
So really great. She died a few years ago.
She died right at the beginning of Covid.
Not out of Covid, but like 2018, 19. So.
And I want to thank youfor volunteering your time.
Celebrity, sir. Sure.
Are you just generous donation.I also want to thank you for that.
That was very kind of you.

(01:09:42):
Thoughtful and kind. Generous.
Your good friend had a good timetalking with you.
A lot of politics,a lot of cars, a lot of Wycombe.
My next episode, we'll discuss women. Yes.Okay. Yeah.
Probably not. Right.
And then part two,we're going to cut that out.
Okay. Make a note.
Your little notepad there cut outyou know minute 64 to 65.
So part two coming on the Wycombeall politics is local. Yes.

(01:10:07):
On three will say be a good friendto to each other.
Yeah. Okay. 123 be good friend.

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Episode #131: Feeney Talks with John Lyons

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