Updates Town, School Modernization, Frigid Conditions
This week there will be no weekly video update due to the students being on vacation and school being closed.
The transfer station and town hall are open regularly scheduled hours with the exception of being closed on New Years Day for the Holiday. This week Water Pollution Control Authority met on Thursday as well as Affordable housing. Board of Selectmen had a workshop at on Thursday to discuss the Administration and Finance position recently approved in the town budget. We are happy to report ,many people have stepped up for vacancies on some of our boards and we are close to filling all positions. We still can use help on the Affordable housing committee, Economic Development, Hewitt Farm, & Recreation. Interested parties should email the town clerk at townclerk@northstoningtonct.gov . Speaking of the town clerk, we’d like to wish our town clerk Norma Holliday well as she officially retires today! Our new town clerk Antoinette Pancaro begins in the new year and comes to us with a great deal of experience from Groton.
In highway updates, we thank the highway crew for the work on Storm #5 which provided us with a white Christmas. Work continued this week on Rocky Hollow Rd, Johnson Rd guardrail post replaced / Pot holes repaired.
Trucks were serviced. Next week we will continue pothole, sign replacements, brush cleanup, pothole repairs, and snow removal as needed.
The School Modernization efforts continue with an estimated groundbreaking of Feb/March. Dr. Pamela Potemri the Chair of the committee wanted to share the following update…”Progress continues on the School Modernization initiative. Our Construction Management firm Downes Construction has received the bids back from all of the trades (30+ trades). After finishing scoping the bidders and a couple of bids coming in higher than expected, Downes and the committee elected to re-bid three of the trades to stay within our given budget. Once those bids are received back the committee will finish putting the final budget together and the guaranteed maximum price contract with the Construction Manager. This is all part of the process and the committee continues to work hard and meet regularly to stay on schedule. The committee is committed to stay on target with the budget granted from the town of 38.5 million dollars. We also received written confirmation this week that we will be receiving the space standard waiver on our schools which should amount to somewhere between 1.0-1.6 million dollars in additional reimbursement from the state. This will allow us to borrow less and thus create a lesser impact to the town in debt service. We expect to have all bids scoped out and a final budget by mid January and expect construction to begin in February/March!”
Next week Board of Finance meets on Wednesday, Planning and Zoning and Board of Selectmen on Thursday.
Please be aware temperatures are forecast to average 15 to 20 degrees below normal through Friday and from Sunday through Tuesday. Widespread subzero wind chill temperatures are forecast daily between midnight and noon. Please take care of neighbors and pets in these frigid conditions. A list of shelters is available by calling 800-203-1234 or visiting https://www.211ct.org/
Have a safe and Happy New Year!