The Start of a Big Year

Happy New Year to all – hope you had a safe holiday! And while many a New Year gone by has held the promise of being big – you can be sure this year will be very important for the Town. Why? Because we will be dealing with the following issues (listed in no particular order of importance or cost and by no means the only things on which we will be working):

•        Ad Hoc School Building Proposal
•        Hewitt Dam Repairs
•        Boombridge Road Bridge Repairs
•        Water Pollution Control Authority Sewer Evaluation
•        Main Street – Town Hall Bridge Replacement
•        Main Street – Village Green Bridge Repairs
•        Wintechog Property Gift
•        Affordable Housing Development Plan
•        Economic Development Plan
•        Plan of Conservation and Development Revision
•        Firehouse Construction

Decisions and choices made concerning these issues will not just affect the Town this year or next year but for generations of North Stonington residents.  This is very sobering considering we usually decide only expenditures for a year at a time and maybe approve acquisition of a couple of highway department trucks or something else we can pay off in three years. But many of these issues will impact the very nature and make up of our town. How do these all fit into our vision of what North Stonington should be? And how do we prioritize them, if at all?

The Boards of Selectmen, Finance and Education will meet in their annual Tri-Board session probably on Wednesday, February 8^th to discuss the state of the Town and the budget expectations for 2012-3. Several of these issues will affect how we plan our finances for many years to come. 

So stay tuned – this will be a very big year!