CT Numbers

by John Simone Only a couple of weeks after the Connecticut Main Street Center’s (CMSC) workshop last month on Building Lasting DownTOWN/GOWN Partnerships, our friends and colleagues at the Connecticut Economic Development Association, a not-for-profit membership organization committed to advancing economic development, hosted an event at Middlesex Community College (MXCC) on how community colleges are leveraging resources to meet community workforce needs.

While this topic was touched on at the CMSC workshop, with Enfield’s Assistant Town Planner Courtney Hendricson and Asnuntuck Community College President James Lombella describing how they’re partnering to meet the town’s needs, the CEDAS event delved more deeply into emerging workforce trends in Connecticut, namely the expected growth in media-based jobs and a looming shortage of skilled manufacturing workers. perspective square

According to MXCC’s Center for New Media, Connecticut can expect an 11.7 percent job growth in all media categories – arts, sports and media, and entertainment through 2020 (the national average is 4.3 percent). And according to Marjorie Valentin, Associate Dean of Three Rivers Community College, without training there will be a critical skills gap of new and existing manufacturing employees, as an aging skilled workforce leaves the field and a stigma of the profession remains, leaving a shortage of skilled workers that threatens the future of manufacturing in Southeastern Connecticut.

In response, these and several other community colleges are partnering directly with manufacturers like Electric Boat, who offer input into the curriculum to ensure graduating students have the skills necessary to perform. And MXCC recently opened a beautiful, state-of-the-art Center for New Media, complete with high-tech classrooms, a high-definition studio, a video control room, green room, audio production studio, and a radio station.

While it was impressive to see and hear how much our community colleges have to offer today’s students, truly preparing them to succeed in a competitive workforce, what really struck me was our need to think beyond just our downtown borders when building strategic partnerships.

While we should absolutely strive to create fruitful relationships between our main street organizations and local anchor institutions, we also need to keep in mind that as a state, our successes and failures are often shared. So while Windsor may not have a community college within its borders, it may have high school students and a manufacturer who could benefit from a training program offered in Norwich. Meanwhile, a student can benefit from learning medical animation in Middletown, working at a downtown Hartford hospital during the day, before going home to Portland at night.

Offering attractive, inviting downtowns and Main Streets with a variety of housing, businesses and resources accommodates a population that is fluid not just over the course of a lifespan, but often over the course of a day!

By being mindful that a wider, regional or even state-wide partnership can benefit our towns and downtowns at a very local level, we ensure our successes are complementary, not exclusive.

John Simone is President & CEO of Connecticut Main Street Center, which provides solutions that help communities create great downtowns across Connecticut, revitalizing downtowns as the social and economic heart of the community. At the local level, CMSC works with dedicated stakeholders including municipal employees, business owners and volunteers to help them craft an inviting, vibrant downtown. Learn more at www.ctmainstreet.org

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CT by the Numbers publishes opinion articles of 600 words or less. Submissions should be emailed to info@ctbythenumbers.info. Perspectives are published at the discretion of CT by the Numbers.

by Bill Denya Connecticut is hilly. In fact, the western part of the state, known officially as the Western New England Upland, is characterized by steep hills and ridges. There are abrupt inclines in the central region, sharp peaks in Litchfield County, and a long drop towards the Coastal Lowlands that run along the southern shore of the state near Long Island Sound. You would be hard-pressed to drive very long without encountering significant ups and downs.

With spring rainfall, especially over last year’s dead leaves, hills can become dangerous; they often mean skidding, sliding, slipping, and occasionally crashing. That in turn leads to trips to the auto body shop to bring our vehicles back to pristine, road-worthy condition. Or not.

perspective square Through no fault of our own, many consumers unwittingly are directed, or steered, to specific auto body repair shops by the appraiser who inspects the damage to our vehicle, or by our automotive insurance policy holder. The rationale behind this "steering" is that we consumers are sent to places where the repairs will cost less and everyone wins.

The auto body shop will get our business, the insurance company won't have to pay out as much in damages and we policy holders may not see our rates go up as much. Great idea.

Except that far too often the reason the repairs cost less is because substandard parts are used, sometimes in conjunction with substandard workmanship. This further endangers us motorists who certainly don't want to get back out on the road only to find ourselves in another collision, this one caused by our own recently repaired vehicle.

The Connecticut Auto Body Association has successfully fought against insurance company steering for many years, and in 2010 was instrumental in convincing the state legislature to outlaw steering in Connecticut.

Nonetheless, the practice still exists in Connecticut and nationwide, and it is causing considerable concern. State Attorneys General and auto body shop owners in at least 36 states currently are pushing for anti-steering legislation nationwide. It is obvious that the current laws need stricter enforcement and new laws need to be passed.

Among those pushing for nationwide anti-steering legislation is U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal who was a staunch proponent of Connecticut's earlier legislation. Blumenthal is so concerned about the possibility of injuries to motorists due to substandard replacement parts that he has asked the U.S. Justice Department to launch an investigation into the practice.

Blumenthal recently said that "steering often involves the use of parts that may be salvaged or inferior or even counterfeit." He added that the possibility of accident and injuries caused by such parts are "a real urgent and imminent safety concern for the consumer who may have no idea what the origin of the parts are, who made them, or even whether they're installed properly."

It is one thing to have an accident because the hills of our Connecticut can send us “slip-sliding away” in a rainstorm. It is quite another matter to cause a collision due to inferior parts and workmanship on a vehicle that we just paid to have repaired, and that we trusted to be roadworthy.

There are enough dangers on the roads, regardless of the season or weather, without adding to them by using poor quality parts.

Bill Denya is a board member and former president of the Auto Body Association of Connecticut, a statewide consumer advocacy group. He is the owner of Denya’s Auto Body in Meriden, and can be reached at (203) 237-6068.

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CT by the Numbers publishes opinion articles of 600 words or less. Submissions should be emailed to info@ctbythenumbers.info. Perspectives are published at the discretion of CT by the Numbers.