FIRST OFF . . .

The Waterbury, Conn., board of aldermen on Monday defeated a resolution proposed by a veterans group to withhold an official welcome from Jane Fonda when she arrives to film part of MGM’s “Union Street” this summer. The 11-2 vote, with two abstentions, defeated a resolution proposed by a group of veterans still bitter over Fonda’s 1972 trip to Hanoi. The resolution stated that the city would not extend Fonda any official welcome, “symbolic or otherwise.” The anti-Fonda campaign, led by retired Connecticut National Guard Gen. Gaetano Russo, peaked Sunday when between 700 and 1,200 protesters rallied against Fonda in a city park. “Guy Russo has been claiming he . . . represents the sentiment of people in Waterbury,” said Fonda spokesman Stephen Rivers. “But what we found is that he doesn’t speak for veterans or Vietnam veterans and that he doesn’t speak for Waterbury.” A similar resolution did pass in Chicopee, Mass., in March. Rivers said Chicopee alderman bowed to the complaints of a few veterans.