Submitted by Kevin Driscoll, Cos Cob
There’s an old adage in politics that says elected officials come in two kinds: show horses and work horses.
Hector Arzeno is a work horse.
A few months ago, I was stuck at an intersection in town where traffic locked up and no cars were moving. Out of nowhere, a man with a smile calmly appeared and started waving cars through until it cleared. It was Hector. He saw people stuck and he helped, which is how he does the job in Hartford too.
My family saw it firsthand. A few years ago, when the state changed the cutoff date for starting kindergarten, our daughter’s birthday fell right on the line and we had no idea what it meant or what we were supposed to do. I emailed Hector, he wrote back immediately and guided us until we had a real plan. We were just parents in the district with a deadline and he treated the problem like it was his own.
You can also see it in the money he brings back to Greenwich. When delays caused the town to miss the state’s June 2023 deadline for the school construction reimbursement, the new Central Middle School was at risk of slipping a full year.
Hector and the rest of our delegation fought for the reimbursement anyway and came back with $22M, around $15M more than the town was expecting.
Last year, Old Greenwich School narrowly missed qualifying for the state’s school construction bill because of a technicality. Hector and Steve Meskers wrote and passed an amendment that fixed it. That unlocked $8M+ in extra state funding for the renovation. This is money that Greenwich residents don’t have to cover themselves now.
Hector is seeking a third term in the 151st on November 3. He has my support and I hope he has yours.
Kevin Driscoll
Cos Cob