Born and raised in Wallingford, as with his parents, Jason Zandri is also a Father of four children that he is raising in a town he loves – Wallingford, CT. Like anyone else, he too has been handed many of life’s ups and downs, but also feels like he has have had enough control over his own destiny. According to Zandri “Between that, hard work and a little bit of luck / right place right time, things are good.” As such, Jason wants to give back to Wallingford, CT residents in more ways simply by Wallingford residents voting for him for Wallingford Town Council.
To Jason, he has done this over the years in small, personal ways. Making computer donations to local non-profits like Masters Manna. Helping the Spanish Community of Wallingford with their desktop computers, their server and the system backup as well as their wireless network configuration. “With other groups and organizations it’s been a little donation here and a little donation there – everything helps” Zandi concludes.
In 2010, with the cancelation of the Wallingford Fireworks, Jason Zandri had the chance to step up to a higher degree that directly impacted the whole town; by working with businesses and generous citizens, he was able to resurrect the cancelled decades old 4th of July fireworks celebration two years in a row, resulting one beautiful 2011 4th of July Firework display for the residents of Wallingford. This proves no matter what it is, big or small – Jason Zandri will never and does not intent to give up on those who matter most to him – the people in his home town. With all this being done, he knows there is still more to do and he will be trying to do that by running for a seat on the Wallingford Town Council.
Wallingford has an envious track record over the past 25 years of both fiscal conservancy and better than average growth. Both, together, have been a recipe for success. Each alone would have provided Wallingford for the ability to have some success but together they have allowed for us to be in the best possible scenario.
The problem is – those days are gone and doing “business” is no longer the same. It is coming under a whole new set of rules we are not prepared for.
The quotes Wallingford residents hear - “we can keep cutting services” and “people and businesses will always flock to Wallingford for the low electricity rates and the low taxes”doesn’t work anymore, said Zandri.
In Jason Zandri’s press release today, he emphasized the following facts -“Our electric rates are still lower than CL&P and UI customers but we are catching up to them as the gap is shrinking. Since 2005 our electricity rates have doubled and they are going up even more; CL&P and UI have gone up as well but not by 100% as ours have.
We need to do to more than just control spending. We need to find ways to make the spending we need to do bring in more than just a good deal for the dollar – we need to find ways to seek a positive return on the spending investment. If we are going to buy a new plow truck let’s make sure it has the equipment and horsepower, even if it costs a little more, so that the vehicle pulls duty for other things throughout the year. In this way, we might not need some other all purpose vehicle.
Let’s look at where our dollars are not spent efficiently and spend them so that they are. Let’s remove manual labor where automation can take over and then retrain those employees to do the new work. We can allow for natural attrition to absorb the jobs that no longer need to be filled. Increases in efficiency that allow for better individual output can make it so we are able to retire positions as the people leave them for their own retirements or as they earn promotions or move onto other things within their personal career path.
We need to find better ways to partner with business to make downtown better. Pouring tax dollars into infrastructure and other capital projects FOR them will not work; they will not have the personal investment in it and they will only be so committed to its success. Leveraging some tax dollars to work WITH them as an equal partner to revitalize downtown where their property and businesses reside makes better sense. With the right investments backed by proper planning and vision both downtown and their own businesses will thrive as the economy continues its recovery.
Our grand list fell last year. Yes there was a recession ending but every other surrounding town grew theirs even if just marginally. We have no plan set as to how to address this other than more service cuts, belt tightening, shrinking subsidies and higher taxes – reactive efforts all. We need to be more proactive.
If we want to grow our grand list, we need to better understand the business goals of the companies that are already setup in our back yard. We need to understand what they need to succeed and to partner with them as well to help them make that happen in ways that we can.
If we want to attract new businesses here we need to understand their needs and their growth plan and find creative way to work with them to make their visions a reality.
Growing businesses in Wallingford and attracting new ones means more local jobs on top of a larger grand list. More local jobs will contribute to make Wallingford better and it makes it more than the bedroom community which is a lot of its character today.
School costs are rising as they always do but we all have a responsibility as a community to help the upcoming generation learn the things we learned as well as to get a handle on the changes since then. There are many ways to leverage smart spending on technology and reusable materials to allow for this without needing to mortgage the very future we are trying to educate.
The basics will always be there, the reading, the writing, the arithmetic. But the way the world works today is far different from my grandfather’s day, my father’s day or even back in my own day – we need to address all of the changes in the way not just the town and state function but how the country functions on a global scale.
The return on this investment is a better generation of young adults, ready to leave academia and enter into the changing workforce that many of us will be leaving over the next 20 to 30 years. If we fail to make the investment in the next generation of workers that will produce and manufacture rather than “just” delivering a service then we will be delivering a generation into a shaky employment future for themselves and their future families. All of these things start at home."
Jason Zandri for Wallingford Town Council has proven to Wallingford residents that Wallingford, CT is a great place to live and he plans to work hard and make it even better.
Comments