Monthly Archives: October 2007

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18956567&BRD=1646&PAG=461&dept_id=11035&rfi=6

Labrot, McGrath vie for Town Clerk
By: Glenn Shafer, Staff Writer
10/25/2007

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West Hartford Town Clerk Norma Cronin is stepping down this year, opening up the race for the Town Clerk position. Two candidates, Republican Theresa McGrath and Democrat Essie Labrot, are facing off for the job.

Unlike the other elected offices in town, the Town Clerk position is unique in that the winner becomes a town employee with a salary and benefits. There have been only nine Town Clerks in the history of West Hartford. Overseeing five employees in the office and in many ways serving as the face of the town, the Town Clerk’s office generates over $2 million in revenue for the town.

Labrot moved to West Hartford in 1980. She was raised in Easthampton, Mass., graduating from UMass with a degree in marketing communications in 1978. When she moved to West Hartford, she was managing a store at Westfarms mall. Labrot made a career switch into Human Resources when she was hired by Connecticut National Bank and later, Aetna. Currently, she is a corporate recruiter working on a project for the West Hartford accounting firm, Blum Shapiro.

Her campaign for the Town Clerk position is her first run at elected office after 15 years of actively campaigning for other Democratic candidates, local, statewide, and national. Labrot has been a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. Policy wise, she is most interested in educational issues.

Labrot said her skill set is a combination of her business, operations, community, and not-for-profit experience. She said the Town Clerk position is not political but does require an extensive knowledge of politics in reporting to the state campaign donations. She said her experience with absentee ballots, serving as a moderator, justice of the peace, and treasurer of political campaigns, is valuable hands-on experience that qualifies to become West Hartford’s next Town Clerk.

“I’m not necessarily a policy person,” she said. “I’m much more of a process person. People need to look at experience because whoever takes Norma’s place will have to hit the ground running since we have a presidential primary coming.”

Theresa McGrath moved to West Hartford six years ago. She was raised in the Bronx, graduating from both Manhattan College and Johnson and Wales in Providence. McGrath is probably best known in town as the president of the West Hartford Taxpayers Association, a group that garnered enough signatures this year to force a budget referendum. McGrath has worked in catering and other jobs as a stay-at-home mother. With a special needs child, she became an advocate and lobbyist for other parents, ultimately founding the Alliance for Children in Education.

As a candidate for Town Clerk, McGrath also brings together many skills. She said her ability to read state statutes is vital to the job when working with campaign finance laws. She said her administrative skills, leadership skills, and executive level experience leading the West Hartford Taxpayers Association will also be invaluable.

Most of all, McGrath said, she is not beholden to a political party and will help those seeking information from the town. She wants to make information such as Town Council meeting minutes available to residents on the town’s Web site.

“We need to make the process of government more open for people doing their research,” she said. “My opponent is partisan and a well-connected person politically. She has aligned herself with one party. I have been an advocate for issues. It is vital that the Town Clerk is non-partisan. The Town Clerk doesn’t answer to the town or the majority party.”

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McGrath, Theresa (MC????)

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http://www.fuelcellsworks.com/Supppage8008.html

Mr. John Trocciola and Dr. Subhash Singhal Recieve the 2007 Fuel Cell Seminar & Exposition Award
Publication Date:24-Oct-2007
06:30 AM US Eastern Timezone
Source:Wärtsilä
Congratulations 2007 Fuel Cell Seminar & Exposition Award Winners!

The Fuel Cell Seminar & Exposition would like to congratulate Mr. John Trocciola and Dr. Subhash Singhal as the winners of the 2007 Fuel Cell Seminar & Exposition Award. This award is given annually to those who have achieved outstanding leadership and innovation in the promotion of the overall advancement of fuel cell technology.

{Extraneous Deleted}

Mr. John Trocciola

Mr. John Trocciola has served as a private consultant, both professionally and on a pro-bono basis, for a variety of potential fuel cell users in evaluating emerging and existing fuel cell technologies. These clients include UTCPower , US Department of Energy , US Department of Defense , US and Overseas electric utilities (Including NY Power Authority, Long Island Power Authority, and RWE). US and Overseas Natural Gas Companies such as KeySpan Energy, Energy East and Gazprom are also clients of Mr. Trocciola as well as Scripps Investments and Loans, Power Management Concepts, Ct Clean Energy Fund, Ct Department of Homeland Security, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Russian Nuclear Agency Rosatom, and the Town Government of Portland, CT.

Prior to working as a private consultant, Mr. Trocciola served a variety of roles at the United Technologies Corporation from 1963 – 2004. His position as Manager of Advanced Materials and Development allowed him to investigate the basic limits of materials for all fuel cell technologies including AFC, PEM, PAFC and MCFC, and to identify the fundamental thermodynamic properties of carbons, graphites and polymers which determine their suitability for use in fuel cells. In addition, he was active in performing Advanced System Analysis/Evaluation of all alternative fuel cell technologies of which he recommended PAFC for further development for commercial stationary fuel cells

As Program Manager of several NASA and DOD Programs for space and underwater fuel cell power plants, he was able to identify successful methods for supplying hydrogen and cooling fuel cells in harsh environments as well as methods to remove CO from hydrogen streams for PEM power plants.

One of Mr. Trocciola’s most notable and innovative achievements occurred while working on several US Environmental Protection Agency projects where and others at UTC and the EPA identified and patented unique gas cleanup systems to treat the renewable gas to produce H2; this resulted in 12 fuel cell installations at waste water plants and landfills around the world. And it was during a joint DOE/DOD Program that he was responsible for the management of the installation and startup of the first commercial fuel cell in Russia located at a Gazprom facility in Moscow. This is the same commercial fuel cell that provided power during the Moscow blackout.

Mr. Trocciola received his Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from Manhattan College, a M.S. Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Connecticut and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Connecticut.

Mr. Trocciola is recognized as a fuel cell industry leader and his 40 US Patents in areas such as AFC, PAFC, MCFC, SOFC, and PEM show his enthusiastic innovation. He was recipient of many awards including the Special Inventors Award by NASA, the Technology Innovation Award by Discover Magazine, and the Outstanding Engineer Graduate Award given to him by Manhattan College.

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Trocciola, John  (MC1963)

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Dear John,

Mike
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