First Selectman Weekly Update 11-29-2019
Happy Holidays North Stonington!
I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving with family or friends. It was another busy week here in town.
Last Friday I had the opportunity to attend the Climate Crisis event hosted by the Connecticut Forum in Hartford. https://www.ctforum.org/event/climate-crisis It was a very informative effort to take a look at real steps that can be taken to help change the trajectory on climate change. I would encourage anyone who wants to take action to become more informed and see how you can be a part of the solution. Thanks to the CT Forum for hosting this event.
I also was honored Friday to attend outgoing Preston First Selectmen Bob Congdon's retirement celebration. Bob has served for over 2 decades and has been a great leader for our local area. He will be missed but we know he is going to enjoy some well deserved time with family and friends!
Saturday we were very fortunate to have 40 or so people come to a brainstorming discussion about the need for an animal shelter here in North Stonington. Many ideas and best practices were shared and neighboring towns even came to share their thoughts. Folks that were in attendance will look to set up a follow up meeting to begin putting action steps in place toward making this a reality. If you were unable to attend but are interested in being involved please keep an eye out for the next meeting.
Progress is beginning to be more visable on our Elementary School. Much framing is done within the building and the exterior is beginning to be completed as well. The underground drainage mentioned in a previous update has been replaced and the trench is now filled. Concrete should be poured this week to finish that part of the job. Drywall continues to go up and mechanicals continue to be tied in. Some insulation is now also beginning to go in certain areas.
As mentioned in previous updates, a town meeting had been petitioned for to discuss and vote on using 8-10 acres of town owned property on Wintechog Hill Road for the development of affordable housing. The Selectmen officially called the meeting and subsequent town referendum. The Town meeting will be held on January 6th at 7pm at the new middle high school. The referendum will be held on the following Monday January 13th. Please mark your calendar for this important event.
Additionally at our Selectmen's meeting Tuesday we discussed the need for two volunteer opportunities. The first is the formation of a "complete count committee" for the US census. We are looking for a few people in town who can help be trusted voices in the community to insure everyone in town is counted for the Census in North Stonington. This committee is not charged with actually doing any counting of people, just encouraging participation in the census. For more information on this please see this link...
https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/newsroom/press-kits/2018/ccc-guide-d-1280.pdf
The second is we are looking for are folks who are interested in becoming trained to be moderators and/or facilitators at town meeting and events. We are putting together a training to help those interested become well informed to do this job. If you are interested in either of these opportunities please email townclerk@northstoningtonct.gov
Finally our auditor came to our last Board of Finance meeting to give a report on the towns most recent audited financials. Board of Finance Chairman Dan Spring joins me this week on our video to discuss the results... Click Here to view this weeks video.
Thats it for today, have a great weekend!
Mike Urgo
First Selectman