Eye On Town Government
Pension Plans, Affordable Housing Addressed At Town Hall
By Wiley Wood
Changing the pension plan for town employees from a “defined benefit plan” to a “defined contribution plan” sounds like a subject for serious policy wonks. But First Selectman Sue Dyer is, in fact, a serious policy wonk, and she has pursued the issue through a long year of negotiations with the employees’ union. When her fellow selectmen voted their approval on September 3, the measure finally received ratification from all parties.
“It’s monumental,” says Dyer. “No other town that I have talked to has a defined contribution plan for all town employees.”
As the employer, the town is now responsible for a payment into each employee’s plan calculated as a percentage of that person’s wage. The level of benefit that the employee will actually receive is no longer guaranteed by the town but will fluctuate with the fortunes of the market and the performance of the invested funds.
Faithful to its annual ritual, the public works department has been busy this past month sealing Norfolk’s roads before winter. Photo by Wiley Wood.
Dyer, who takes pride in the fact that the town ended its budget year in the black, noted that the town’s consumption of diesel fuel has dropped from 15,000 gallons a year to about 12,000 gallons, and that Norfolk’s upcoming fuel contract will reflect that.
She attributes the savings in large part to the new salt treatment for the roads during the winter. Where the town formerly scattered sand and salt on its roads during snowstorms, it now pre-treats the roads before a storm with a brown, granular salt that is a by-product of the brewing industry. The pre-treatment, controversial for its effect on cars, allows the town to save on overtime labor as well as fuel.
A video of the complete selectman’s meeting on September 3 is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW8zcz3Zi58
Planning and Zoning Hear Presentation on Multi-Family Housing
At its regular meeting on September 10, the Planning and Zoning Commission was asked to consider a change in its regulations by Lou Barbagallo of the Foundation for Norfolk Living.
The foundation wants to create six rental units from two neighboring houses that lie within the town’s business district. Current regulations only allow one- and two-family dwellings in that zone.
Until two years ago the foundation planned to build a single-family-home development on Old Colony Road. A survey, though, pointed to a greater need for affordable rental units, and the foundation changed tactics. Noting the stagnant real estate market, it decided to develop rentals using existing housing stock and focused on the former Menard house on the corner of Rte 44 and Shepard Rd. and the two-unit brick house next door.
“The reason that we want to create six rental units is that the state is not interested in any developments of less than six units,” said Kate Johnson, a board member of the Foundation for Norfolk Living.
To make a combined total of six units from the two residences would also require an enlargement of the footprint of one or both structures. Increasing the size of a building within the core village district is also against existing regulations.
Citing the availability of infrastructure such as water, sewer and roads, Barbagallo urged the commission to allow the conversion and expansion of one- and two-family dwellings within the business zone to accommodate multi-family dwellings.
“We believe that what we are trying to do is in keeping with the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development as it relates to housing, the town center and viable economic development,” said Barbagallo in a prepared statement.
The commission, which is currently engaged in a massive overhaul of its regulations, will discuss the question over the coming months, but Vint Lawrence, a commission member interviewed for this article, concurred with Barbagallo’s general point: “Getting more people to live within walking distance of the center of town is one way to help businesses survive there.”
