First Selectman Weekly Update 4-17-2020
Happy Friday North Stonington,
I hope everyone has had an enjoyable week though I'm sure another unprecedented one.
Our Elementary School renovation is nearing completion with only a handful of things left to do. We are feeling thankful that we were on the tail end of the project when COVID-19 arrived so there have not been too many major impacts to the project. Enjoy these pictures of the building. We can't wait to have our students using it hopefully this summer for summer school.
There are an incredible amount of resources coming out for both individuals and businesses. We have gathered much of the information in one place for your convenience as a business owner on the town’s homepage www.northstoningtonct.gov . If you are a business effected by this, please use the resources available to you.
CENSUS 2020 is officially underway as of April 1. If you received your notice in the mail, please go online and complete the CENSUS. It is important to do this as our State and our Towns receive funding based on accurate calculations of residents. There are some scams out there that tie completion of census to stimulus monies. The CENSUS has nothing to do with anything related to politics, payments, or anything else. It is simply a way of knowing how many people are living in each household. The information collected is not used by the government for any other purpose. Please fill out your 2020 CENSUS info today. Doing so will save taxpayer dollars.
Effective immediately, to support restaurants and other businesses providing essential services during the term of the current COVID-19 emergency proclamation, the Zoning Official will not enforce the use of temporary signs such as A-frames displayed by essential businesses. The purpose of this signage allowance is to allow essential businesses the ability to more effectively communicate with their customers their location, available services and how to get take-out and grab-and-go orders. Please note that the following guidelines will apply:
- This additional signage is only permitted for essential businesses that are still open in some capacity.
- All additional temporary signage must be immediately removed by May 20, 2020 or when the COVID 19 related restrictions have been lifted and businesses are allowed to re-open to the public, whichever is sooner.
- Temporary signs cannot be located in travel lanes, block sight lines in either direction or block pedestrian movement. Inflatable signs will not be permitted.
- Temporary signs must not exceed 20 square feet per sign’s face and be easily removable (e.g., A-frame signs, banners).
The Town wants to avoid excessive sign clutter that could result in less effective messaging. If temporary sign rules are not followed, or if too many temporary signs are placed in commercial or other districts where the business is located, the Zoning Official reserves the right to work with businesses to collaboratively reduce the size and number of temporary signs.
Please email jhodge@northstoningtonct.gov with any questions.
The Town and Economic Development Commission will continue to update their websites and or social media sites with information on the COVID-19 outbreak.
This week the highway crew cut trees on Main Street. Sweeping took place on Boombridge Road. Roads were cleared of branches with plows and fallen trees and limbs from the wind storm were cut and chipped. Mowing has begun with the new tractor on Wintechog Hill and Boombridge Road. Durham fence fixed the damaged guard rail on Reutemann Road. Sink at the CES building was repaired. Next week street sweeping will continue on main roads, stop bars are to be painted around town and mowing will continue of main roads.
With the major winds last Monday I am quite thankful we had very minimal power outages. The town, Eversource, and the State have worked hard to take trees down around town and we are truly thankful for this work which undoubtedly helped us keep the power on during this last storm.
Speaking of Boombridge, construction and demolition are continuing. We are still anticipating completion by November 2020 and hopefully sooner!
Many meetings continue throughout town via the Zoom virtual format. To participate or listen in, you can call the phone number listed on the agenda for the meeting which is filed and viewable at the calendar on the town website www.northstoningtonct.gov. Or you can subscribe to the town’s YouTube channel. This will notify you of meetings that are being streamed, many of which are. Participating in town business has never been more convenient and we urge anyone to join a meeting at their convenience. You also can view the meetings at anytime on our YouTube channel for the meetings which have been streamed. Click Here to subscribe to our YouTube Channel (must have a YouTube account)
Keep an eye on your mailbox for a postcard detailing a basic overview of our future thoughts on water/sewer creation in our industrial and economic development zones. We will have future discussions on the topic but we wanted to provide some basic information on the topic in advance of those discussions.
In the next couple of days, all residential homeowners will receive a form called a data mailer from eQuality. eQuality Valuation Services. This is the company that the Town of North Stonington has contracted with to do the 2020 revaluation. We are asking all homeowners to review this form and follow the directions contained in the package and return it to eQuality in the pre-paid envelope provided. Our assessor can answer any questions regarding the data mailer by email at DDelGrosso@northstoningtonct.gov. Thank you for your cooperation with this important town initiative.
That’s it for today, we hope everyone has a great week,
Mike Urgo
First Selectman