February Thaw

Hope I don’t jinx things by noting that we are dodging the proverbial wintry bullet of snowstorms so far which has allowed work to begin on the Main Street bridge replacement. If you have been by Town Hall recently, you will have noticed that the parking lot is cordoned off to permit the contractor laydown space for site preparation work. 

Work also continues on the engineering for the Boombridge Road bridge repair/replacement. Because this bridge crosses the town and state line, piecing the funding together to accomplish this work has been challenging and not all the pieces have fallen into place yet. Enough funding is secured to accomplish the engineering, however, so we can proceed to the next step later this year.

A Special Town Meeting is called for Monday, February 27^th at 7:00 pm in the Elementary School Multipurpose Room to address a proposed revision to the Hewitt Property Rules and Buono Appetito restaurant lease to permit the issuance of a full liquor license.  Attorney Benoit, who helped us resolve the lease issues of last year, will attend to answer questions as needed.

As I mentioned in the last posting, the Communications Study Group attended the Selectmen’s meeting of January 24^th and presented recommendations regarding the conduct of and communication about Town Meetings, use of a Moderator, qualifications and training requirements and possible town ordinance changes. You may have also noted the editorial in this week’s Mystic River Press on this subject. The Selectmen have placed this item on the weekly agenda and are reviewing the group’s recommendations. Please forward any thoughts on this subject.

There is a continuing need for volunteers. In particular, as noted on the Town News section of the revised Town webpage, the Selectmen are seeking North Stonington residents interested in serving on a Fire/EMS New Building Committee.  The Committee will continue working on a presentation for a new facility to house the Town’s Fire and Ambulance; possibly including Civil Preparedness, Fire Marshal and Meeting Rooms.  Any interested residents should contact the Selectmen’s Office, 860-535-2877 extension 10, to submit their names.

We are well into budget reviews of the various departments. In the Tri-Board meeting of February 8^th, the Board of Finance encouraged budgets to again be kept level. This continues to be a challenge as cost pressures increase – for instance, the State is this year requiring towns to pay 100% of the cost of State Troopers assigned to their municipalities. In past years, we have only paid 70% of that cost. Separately, the Fire and Ambulance services will be required to switch emergency radio bandwidth capability to a narrower frequency which necessitates equipment upgrades estimated to cost $194,000 by next January. Some towns have been able to secure grants to offset this cost and we are investigating what is available to North Stonington.

In addition to this instance, the Selectmen are considering how to incorporate a grant writer into the budget, either dedicated or shared with other towns, to provide revenue offsets to both mandated and discretionary costs.