First Selectman Weekly Update 12-20-2019

Happy Holidays North Stonington!

We wish everyone all the best during this Holiday season! As the year wraps up I thought we would give a summary of what has been an incredibly productive year and also a busy 4th quarter!

I was very happy to get into the holiday spirit having attended the Wheeler Middle/High School Holiday concert Wednesday evening. Each time I attend a school event it is always incredibly impressive the amount of talent we have here in town. Thanks to the students and staff for putting on such a great show!

concert

This year saw many new beginnings and some endings. First, we started March 2019 with our Middle High School students and staff moving into the new building. The move took only two weeks and a great many people worked very hard to make the transition a smooth one. On the other side the old Green Gables demolition was completed, and the property was landscaped into a nice picnic area overlooking our beautiful community garden at Hewitt Farm. This year we budgeted for a couple of new capital items including a new ambulance replacing our 1998, and a new over the rail mower replacing our 1999 due to be delivered in March 2020. We also opened our new Hewitt Farm recreation pavilion which will be a great spot for picnics and events for our community! Thanks to the Hewitt Farm and Recreation committee for coming together and seeing this beautiful structure through to fruition. Finally, we are finishing our Center for Emergency Services project with the completion of the three-bay garage to hold our excess equipment, boat, and UTV. Thanks to the CES committee for seeing this project to completion!

garage

Much work took place throughout town courtesy of our highway crew including but not limited to paving of roads including Rocky Hollow, Hollowell, & Milltown. Tree crews including our own highway crew have taken down over 400 trees over the past year which improves safety and reduces the likelihood of power outages in town.

tree

Communication continued to be the theme this year as we continued our collaborative budget process working in tandem with departments, staff, and our Boards of Education and Finance to put forth the best budget for the town. This year we also held a community conversation about the “greater village area”, a walking audit of safety in the village, & a well-attended meeting about affordable housing in North Stonington. You may have also noticed new and improved weekly First Selectman updates and “topic focused” weekly videos which help to keep citizens informed about town happenings. We have also now scheduled “weekly drop ins” which are informal office hours where folks can stop in Wednesdays between 12-1pm or the third Monday of the month from 6:30-7:30pm to discuss anything town related. These are in addition to being able to pop by anytime or making appointments as needed. Lastly, we also held a brainstorming initiative to talk about the idea of opening an animal shelter in North Stonington to replace the inadequate one which was closed earlier this year due to the State.

village convo convo

audit

The end of the year saw another bout with EEE mosquitoes and precautions were taken for the safety of residents. Thankfully no cases were reported in humans in our community.

We were very proud to announce the Town of North Stonington has received the prestigious Bronze status certifying we are a SustainableCT community! A lot of work from many boards, commissions, volunteers, and staff went into this. Special thanks to Alexis Kahn who spearheaded the initiative as well as Administration and Finance Officer Christine Dias and Planning Development and Zoning Officer Juliet Hodge.

bronze

Thanks to everyone who voted in the municipal elections in November. We had a great turnout at the polls. Special thanks to everyone who stepped up willing to serve and put their name on the ballot. We are currently recruiting members to a couple of new research committees to help guide future planning for the town. Specifically we are looking for members of the School Building repurposing committee to look at alternative uses for the Old Middle/High School building currently being used as our Elementary School. We are also recruiting for our Emergency Services Operations committee to take a look a best practices around the area in delivering cost effective and efficient emergency services. Both committee descriptions are located by clicking here for the Emergency Services Operations Committee and clicking here for hte School Building Repurposing Committee. Please visit www.northstoningtonct.gov for details and reach out to Town Clerk Antoinette Pancaro at townclerk@northstoningtonct.gov if you feel you can help us on either of these committees or with any other vacancies in our town government. 

Next year we have some big projects to look forward to such as the solar initiative on Wintechog Hill Road, completion of solar on our school rooftops, and completion of our new elementary school. All signs are pointing to Boom Bridge Road Bridge construction starting in Spring 2020 with the bids coming back well within budget. Lastly, we will be holding a special town meeting on January 6th at 7pm to discuss the affordable housing proposal for Wintechog Hill and a referendum will take place on this topic on January 13th at Town Hall. Please join us to be informed and involved in this process.

Once again we wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year and we will be back with the updates in 2020!