First Selectman Weekly Update 1-17-2020
Hello Everyone,
Another week comes to a close here in our beautiful town and it was a busy one indeed.
This past week we held a Freedom of Information Act training facilitated by Tom Hennick from the State of Connecticut’s FOI Office. The purpose of FOIA is to make sure information is available to the public and meetings are conducted and advertised properly among other things. Volunteers, elected officials, and staff from the town were in attendance to learn about the latest information and to be sure we are following all the rules and regulations regarding this important law. We were grateful to have Tom come down and especially happy to have those who took the time to attend this training.
At our Selectmen’s meeting this week members of the Wheeler Library Board were on hand to talk about the many good works happening at our local library. This was informative and educational, and we are truly blessed to have a dedicated group keeping our library vibrant and active in our community. They will be coming back to present once again at another meeting and I would encourage folks to keep an eye out for that on the Selectmen’s agendas to learn more about this important organization in our town.
Wednesday I attended a conference organized by the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters https://www.ctlcv.org . This group is a bipartisan, statewide, non-profit organization dedicated to protecting Connecticut's environment by making it a priority for our elected leaders. As a legislative watchdog, CTLCV works in concert with Connecticut's environmental advocacy groups to identify and highlight important bills impacting our air, water, wildlife, open space, and our health. There were great panels and speakers on hand to talk about ways our state and local governments can make impactful decisions that help us combat the dire climate emergency we are currently in. I am happy to report North Stonington has been taking some proactive climate projection steps as evidenced by our recent award as a Bronze Community from SustainableCT.
Thursday evening The League of Women Voters https://www.lwv.org were kind enough to come down and do a training session for a small group of dedicated community members who have willingly stepped up to moderate future town meetings. Our town meeting is the legislative body in our non-chartered town and the moderator of that meeting is incredibly important to the running of the meeting. We now have a few people who have been trained and can step up if called upon to facilitate those meetings.
As you may have heard, the proposal to sell the acreage off Wintechog Hill for the development of affordable housing did not pass on Monday. However, that project will not move forward, our Affordable Housing Plan and Plan of Conservation of Development (written by and for the people of North Stonington) calls for affordable housing to be developed. It is a true need in the community. To consider next steps for our town, Juliet Hodge our Town Planning, Development, & Zoning Officer to discuss joined me. Click Here to view this weeks video.
In other planning news, the Planning and Zoning Commission recently approved a special permit for a Special Event Barn off Fowler Road and will be considering some minor regulation edits at their upcoming meeting. The Economic Development Commission has created a sub-committee to work on the development of a farmer’s market in town, and is currently planning a business open house event to highlight local businesses to generate interest in creating a new Local Business Directory.
In highway news this week we worked on waterway cleanouts on Jeremy Hill. We cut some trees on Puttker, Denison, Main, and around town with the windstorm yesterday. We repaired some potholes on a few dirt roads in town and continued cleanup of some shrubs around the Hewitt Farm 1750’s house. Next week more tree and roadwork will continue throughout town.
I am very happy to report I attended the preconstruction meeting for Boombridge Road Bridge. Construction will be start sometime between March and April so keep an eye out for more updates in the coming weeks.
Finally, we are in need of a few volunteers to help on two new committees that were established by the Board of Selectmen. The School Building Repurposing Committee and the Emergency Service Operations Committee. Links to both of the descriptions for these group are linked here…
https://www.northstoningtonct.gov/emergency-services-operations-committee
https://www.northstoningtonct.gov/school-building-repurposing-committee
If you are able to help on either of these important committees, please fill out the attached form and email/fax or drop off to our
That’s it for today, have a great weekend!
Mike Urgo
First Selectman