Inside today’s ChronicleAbby .................................. 6Classified ...................12-13Comics .............................. 6Editorial ............................. 5Features ....................6, 9-10Horoscopes ........................ 6Local News ....................2-3Nation/World ..................... 7Obituaries .......................... 4Public Notices ................. 12State ................................... 7Sports ...................11-12, 14Television .......................... 7Weather ............................. 2

National

Sports

Pressure grows for changes at Volkswagen after scandal. See story on Page 7.

Whippets topple Tourtellotte en route to fourth victory. See story on Page 11.

WEDNESDAY

Mid-Day 3: 5-4-6Mid-Day 4: 8-8-1-1

Play 3: 4-7-2Play 4: 8-0-1-6

Cash 5: 10-12-19-21-26Powerball

8-29-41-51-58/5

Lotteries Around townThe Na-than Hale Home-stead in Coventry hosts a Haunted Corn Maze from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Friday. See more calendar on Page 3.

the Chronicle is printed daily, except Sunday and six holidays.

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 148, Willimantic, CT 06226.

Location: 1 Chronicle Road, Willimantic, 1/4 mile west of the intersection of routes 66 and 32.

To Subscribe: (860) 423-8466

For the record

Vol. 133 No. 225 Thursday, September 24, 2015 Newsstand $1.00

ECSU: OVERDOSE FORUM UCONN: DOG WASHWILLIMANTIC: DRUG BUST

the ChronicleAn Independent Newspaper Since 1877

Citgo Main St. 2.19Gulf Main St. 2.19A-1 Main St. 2.21Mobil Main St. 2.21Valero Main St. 2.22

— Gasbuddy.com

BEST GAS PRICE

ENTERTAINMENT PAGES TODAY!

It could cost $1.2M to upgrade jail cells

Roxanne PandolfiThe Willimantic Police Department has received an estimate that it could cost $1.2 million to repair and upgrade its jail cells.

ABOVE: Officials at the annu-al State of the Lake meet-ing in Coventry proposed a ban on flyboarding, shown above, at the lake because of possible harm to the eco-system. LEFT: The lake is otherwise doing well accord-ing to the most recent study, which found some increase in plants growing along the shore.

Michael Zaritheny

Roxanne Pandolfi

ReutersPope Francis is applauded inside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Con-ception in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday during his second day visiting the United States. He addressed the U.S. Congress today.

Pope Francis asks Congress to reject a ‘mindset of hostility’

Finance to get an assistant

By ALAN ZAREMBOLos Angeles Times

On most health measures, blacks fare much worse than whites — differences that have largely been attributed to socioeconomic factors, access to health care and discrimination by doctors in the treatments they prescribe.

But if there were a health system in which all patients basically got the same care, would the dis-parities still exist?

It turns out there is such a system: the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. And a new analysis of nearly 3.1 million patients in the VA system has found a different kind of racial divide: Blacks do significantly better than whites.

Over a nine-year period, researchers found that the adjusted mortality rate of African Americans was 24 percent lower than that of whites, accord-ing to a study published this month in the journal Circulation.

“We thought we were going to show they do the same if the same care is offered to both groups,” said senior author Dr. Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh, a nephrologist and epidemiologist at UC Irvine. “But we found blacks do even better.

“This is a paradox within a paradox,” he said.

The results suggest that blacks may have genetic or other biological advantages that make them healthier than whites in some ways, but that those advantages are canceled out by other factors in society at large, the study authors wrote.

That idea is not new. Among patients with kidney disease, blacks survive longer than whites — a well-known exception to the overall pattern. Kidney care also happens to be an area of medicine without large racial disparities, since the U.S. government has long covered dialysis for anybody who needs it.

Kalantar-Zadeh and his colleagues wondered whether there were similar differences among people without kidney disease who had equal access to health care.

Using VA records, they identified 547,441 black patients and 2,525,525 white patients who had a normal kidney function test between 2004 and 2006. Most were men, and their average age was 60. The researchers tracked them for an average of eight years.

More than 638,000 died by the time the study period ended in July 2013. The annual mortality rate for white men was 31.9 per 1,000, compared with 22.5 per 1,000 for black men.

Blacks fare better than whites when they get equal health care

(Blacks, Page 4)

By COREY SIPEChronicle Staff Writer

COVENTRY — A recent forum on the status of the town’s recre-ational jewel — Coventry Lake — revealed that while it is clearer than most water bodies, a future threat may come from a new water sport.

About 45 people attended the Coventry State of the Lake Forum last week, in which experts

expressed concern about the lake and recommended the new water sport of flyboarding no longer be allowed.

Eric Trott, Coventry’s director of planning and development, said this was the “biggest turnout since the annual forums started about four or five years ago.”

Greg Bugbee from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station discussed the

2014 results of the Coventry Lake Aquatic Invasive Plant study.

Coventry Lake was described by Bugbee as “more clear than others” and stated 12 to 15 feet of the lake is in the littoral zone, an area where light can reach the bottom and support plant growth.

Such plant growth is impor-tant because it provides food and habitat for wildlife, stabilizes

Study: Lake in good shape, but flyboarding raises concerns

(Flyboarding, Page 4)

By MICHELLE FIRESTONEChronicle Staff Writer

WINDHAM/WILLIMANTIC — The town will soon hire another individual in the finance department to help workers with their many projects.

The finance assistant 3 position was approved by the town council, 9-2, last week, with Charles Krich and Tony Fantoli opposed.

Council member Mark Doyle noted the lack of information council members had about the position, including salary range and a job description.

“I want to see this conceptual-ized,” he said.

Windham Personnel Director Paul Hongo said the starting rate for the position is $24 per hour, equating to a salary of $49,920.

He said the individual would work 40 hours per week and would do a variety of work, including accounting, payroll and work on the budget.

Finance officials have said the additional position is needed to assist with a heavy workload in the finance department.

Willimantic Taxing District

President Thomas DeVivo said this morning it is a good idea to add a position in the finance department office.

“They’ve been understaffed for awhile,” he said.

The department has been very busy recently, with the imple-mentation of MUNIS financial software that has been somewhat problematic.

There have also been some problems with the direct deposit system for payroll, for example.

The payroll issues were linked (Finance, Page 4)

By MICHELLE FIRESTONEChronicle Staff Writer

WILLIMANTIC — Early esti-mates show it may cost approxi-mately $1.2 million to upgrade the jail cells at the Willimantic Public Safety Complex, which is home to the Willimantic Police Department.

That information was revealed to the Willimantic Taxing District during its meeting Wednesday.

The public safety complex is located at 22 Meadow St.

It was built in 1977 and includes the Willimantic police and fire departments, as well as the dis-patch center

Members of the Willimantic Taxing District voted, 6-1, to send the plan to the full town council for its review, with council mem-ber Charles Krich opposed.

Silver Petrucelli & Associates of Hamden was hired as the

(Jail cell, Page 4)

Reuters

WASHINGTON — Fresh off his meeting with President Obama, Pope Francis delivered a speech today to a U.S. Congress led by Republicans who have opposed Obama on issues of importance to the pontiff including climate change and immigration.

Francis urged the Congress to reject a “mindset of hostility” on immigration and to recognize people who wish to move to the United States as people who are trying to improve their lives and those of their families.

Pope Francis told Congress today that the United States should reject hostility to immi-

grants and treat them humanely, directly addressing a thorny sub-ject that is dividing the country and stirring debate in the 2016 presidential campaign.

In the first speech by a pope to a U.S. Congress, the Argentine pontiff said the United States “must not repeat the sins and the errors of the past,” when dealing with immigrants.

“Building a nation calls us to recognize that we must constantly relate to others, rejecting a mind-set of hostility,” the 78-year-old Francis told the Republican-dom-inated legislature.

Aversion to illegal immigrants has featured heavily in the race

for the Republican presidentialnomination. Front-runner Donald Trump says he would deport the 11 million undocumented immi-grants if he were elected to the White House and has accused Mexico of sending rapists and other criminals across the border.

Speaking in English to lawmak-ers and other dignitaries packed into the House of Representatives, Francis said America should not be put off by the number of immi-grants who are trying to make it their home.

“We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces

(Pope, Page 4)