Plainfield Democratic Town Committee

Plainfield Democratic Town Committee We support the endorsed candidates of the Plainfield Democratic Town Committee

Joe de la Cruz spent 38 years in the sheet metal trade. Today is the holiday that exists for people like him.SMART Local...
09/07/2026

Joe de la Cruz spent 38 years in the sheet metal trade. Today is the holiday that exists for people like him.

SMART Local 40 since 1997. A certified welder who worked on Electric Boat projects. Four decades of getting up early and coming home tired.

Labor Day is not really about the long weekend. It exists because people who worked with their hands organized and asked for something better, and kept asking until it was written down. The eight hour day, the weekend, the idea that a job should not cost you your health.

Joe is running for State Senate in the 18th, and what he wants is not complicated. Raise the minimum wage. Protect paid family leave. Bring down what it costs to live here.

He has spent his whole working life on the other side of that conversation. He knows what the answer sounds like when it comes from someone who has never done the work.

Happy Labor Day from the Plainfield Democratic Town Committee.

Share this with someone who earned the day off.

Paid for by Plainfield Democratic Town Committee.
Approved by Joseph de la Cruz.

Connecticut made Labor Day a legal holiday in 1889, five years before the country did.The first one was not a day off. O...
09/07/2026

Connecticut made Labor Day a legal holiday in 1889, five years before the country did.

The first one was not a day off. On Tuesday, September 5, 1882, workers in New York City gave up a day of pay to march from City Hall to Union Square. Historians still argue over who called for it first: Peter J. McGuire of the Carpenters and Joiners, or Matthew Maguire, a machinist and secretary of the Central Labor Union. Both were tradesmen. Neither was famous.

Connecticut's General Assembly acted in 1889 and set the first Monday in September as a legal holiday. Hartford's parade that year was a thin turnout. West Winsted's picnic drew about three thousand. President Grover Cleveland signed the federal holiday into law on June 28, 1894.

That history sits close to home. Eastern Connecticut's mill villages were built by people who worked the floor, and the weekend, the eight hour day and the paid holiday all exist because working people organized for them.

To everyone in Plainfield working today, at the hospital, on the road, behind the counter, in the plant: thank you. And to everyone with the day off, that day off was won for you.

Share this if you agree the people who do the work deserve the credit.

Paid for by Plainfield Democratic Town Committee.

Marcus Palumbo: if you work every day for a paycheck and have a boss, you are working class.That is his line, not ours, ...
09/06/2026

Marcus Palumbo: if you work every day for a paycheck and have a boss, you are working class.

That is his line, not ours, and the rest of it is worth reading. "That is the vast majority of us. The hard work you do is what makes our state one of the most prosperous in the country. And yet, most of the wealth that workers create gets stolen away by corporate elites and big business."

He calls himself unabashedly and unapologetically pro labor, and he is specific about what that means.

Fight for unions. Support workplace democracy so workers get a seat at the table and wages go up. And where a company keeps mistreating its employees and racking up labor violations, he thinks those employees should get the chance to run the company themselves.

That last one is not a common position. He put it in writing anyway.

Share this with someone who has been told to be grateful for the job.

Paid for by Plainfield Democratic Town Committee.
Approved by Marcus Palumbo.

On January 1 Connecticut's minimum wage goes to $17.48. Sam Derenthal wants to talk about the rung above it.The raise is...
09/05/2026

On January 1 Connecticut's minimum wage goes to $17.48. Sam Derenthal wants to talk about the rung above it.

The raise is real and it is automatic. Fifty four cents, triggered by a 2019 law that ties the wage to the employment cost index. No vote, no fight, it just happens. More than 60 percent of the people it reaches are women and people of color.

Sam's point is that a floor is a floor. The question for a district like ours is what sits above it, and whether there is a path from one to the other.

That is not a talking point for her. Workforce development is what she does for a living, and it is on her platform in plain language: invest in workforce development and good paying jobs, and strengthen the programs that help families afford childcare and food while they get there.

Labor Day weekend is a good time to ask what work is actually worth around here.

Share this with someone who is working and still coming up short.

Paid for by Plainfield Democratic Town Committee.
Approved by Samantha Derenthal.

Plainfield voted 770 to 90 to fund the town's legal fight against the trash plant, WINY Radio reports.The WINY Radio new...
09/04/2026

Plainfield voted 770 to 90 to fund the town's legal fight against the trash plant, WINY Radio reports.

The WINY Radio newsroom reports that the referendum passed, 770 yes to 90 no. The question was whether the town could take $250,000 from its fund balance to engage legal representation regarding Smart Technologies. That is the Town's own money and the Town's own lawyers, and it runs on a separate track from the state proceedings.

This is the count as reported tonight. The Town's official certified result will be posted on the website as soon as it is published.

It caps a day with two results. This afternoon the Siting Council also granted a public hearing on Petition No. 1719, according to the Town's attorney who attended. No hearing date has been set.

One deadline has not moved, and it is the one that matters this week. Written comments to the Siting Council are due Sunday, September 6. Email [email protected], put Petition No. 1719 in the subject line, and say in your own words who you are, what street you live on, and what worries you most.

Where everything stands, with every document, is in the first comment.

The Siting Council granted a public hearing on the Plainfield trash plant.At its meeting this afternoon the Council took...
09/04/2026

The Siting Council granted a public hearing on the Plainfield trash plant.

At its meeting this afternoon the Council took up Petition No. 1719 as item 9 and granted the requests for a public hearing.

This comes from Ann Catino of Halloran and Sage, the attorney representing the Town of Plainfield, who attended the meeting, relayed by First Selectman Kevin Cunningham. She reports the requests "were granted with little commentary," and that three Council members spoke, one of them looking forward to a "robust public hearing."

Two things you should know before anyone calls this finished.

No date has been set. Dates were not discussed at the meeting, and as of last night the Council had not posted a hearing notice or a revised schedule. We are watching the docket and will publish the date the moment it appears.

The written comment deadline has not moved. It is still September 6, which is this Sunday. A hearing is a forum, not a decision, and the written record is what the Council must consider either way. If you have not sent your email yet, send it now rather than waiting for a hearing date.

Email [email protected] and put Petition No. 1719 in the subject line. Say who you are, what street you live on, and the one thing that worries you most, in your own words.

One more thing worth watching: the Council meets again on September 17, when it may take up the Town's motion to move this to a full Certificate proceeding.

The full record, with every document, is in the first comment.

Polls are open in Plainfield today, 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM, at the Town Hall Auditorium.All three voting districts vote in t...
09/03/2026

Polls are open in Plainfield today, 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM, at the Town Hall Auditorium.

All three voting districts vote in the same place this time: the Town Hall Auditorium, 8 Community Avenue.

There is one question on the ballot. This is its exact wording:

"Shall the Town of Plainfield approve taking $250,000 from the Fund Balance to engage with legal representation to fight Smart Technologies?"

That is the town's own money and the town's own lawyers. It is a separate track from the state proceedings, and whichever way the vote goes, the Siting Council's schedule for Petition No. 1719 and DEEP's permit review continue on their own timetables.

Also today at 1:00 PM, the Siting Council takes up whether to hold a public hearing on the plant. That meeting is public and runs on Zoom. Details are in the first comment.

The last time a town question on this plant was on the ballot, about 12 percent of Plainfield turned out. Whatever you decide, decide it at the polls today.

Two things happen tomorrow in Plainfield: the Siting Council takes up the trash plant at 1 PM, and the polls open at 6 A...
09/02/2026

Two things happen tomorrow in Plainfield: the Siting Council takes up the trash plant at 1 PM, and the polls open at 6 AM.

Start with the Siting Council. Petition No. 1719 is item 9 on the agenda for Thursday, September 3 at 1:00 PM. The question in front of them is whether to hold a public hearing on the proposed 45-megawatt trash-to-energy plant on Black Hill Road.

Here is where that stands, straight from the Council's own file.

The Council on Environmental Quality, a state agency, formally asked for a hearing on August 26. It wrote that a hearing would be "helpful in determining any issue concerning the request for a declaratory ruling," and would give the public a greater opportunity to be heard. If no hearing is scheduled, it asked that comments stay open through at least September 25.

State Senator Heather Somers wrote on August 14 that there "must be a public hearing in Plainfield, in person, before the Council takes any action on this petition."

SMART itself told the Council on August 19 that it "has no objection to a public hearing being conducted for this Petition," and that it would "welcome the opportunity to hear from members of the public." The developer is not fighting the hearing. This decision belongs to the Council alone.

Being on the agenda is not the same as a decision. The Council can act on it, defer it, or set a date.

The meeting is public and runs on Zoom. Meeting ID 868 2595 8246. The full agenda with the link is in the first comment.

The written comment deadline has not moved. It is still September 6, to [email protected], referencing Petition No. 1719.

Tomorrow is also the town referendum. Polls are open 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM, and all three districts vote at the Town Hall Auditorium, 8 Community Avenue.

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Plainfield, CT
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