Representative-elect Elizabeth Esty (shown at left) will serve on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee when her first term as Connecticut's Congresswoman representing the 5th Congressional District begins next month.

 The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has jurisdiction over all modes of transportation: aviation, maritime transportation, roads, bridges, mass transit, and railroads.  It also oversees other aspects of the nation's infrastructure, such as clean water and waste water management, the transport of resources by pipeline, flood damage reduction and the activities of the Army Corps of Engineers and the various missions of the Coast Guard.

 The Committee is one of the largest in Congress, according to its website, with 59 members and has six subcommittees. Those subcommittees are:

• Aviation
• Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation
• Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management
• Highways and Transit
• Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials
• Water Resources and Environment

Esty said that while campaigning for office, the people of the 5th District told her "that infrastructure and transportation needs are critical to long-term growth in Connecticut."

"Serving on this important committee will provide me with the opportunity to advance a comprehensive transportation plan to help keep down commuting costs for workers, help small businesses and manufacturers save money and create jobs, and promote new industries while providing the necessary infrastructure to ensure their success," she said in a written statement.

Esty will get a second Congressional Committee assignment that hasn't been announced yet.

New Year's Eve isn't the only reason to throw a holiday party. At least not in Wallingford, anyway.

The Wallingford Public Library will hold a reception on Jan. 5th to honor retiring Library Director Leslie Scherer (shown in photo at left). The reception will also celebrate the installation of The Story of Wallingford, a new tile mural at the library.

The reception will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the library's front lobby at 200 North Main St.


  Scherer announced earlier this year that she is retiring from the library after 38 years.

You're looking at some of the 40 blankets purchased through a fund raiser held at the High Road School's high school program in Wallingford.

The special education school is donating the blankets yo a high school in Staten Island, N.Y. as the community there recovers from Hurricane Sandy.

The blankets are being shipped out today.