By Ruth Melville

What would the town want with a 1.4-acre parcel of land on Greenwoods Road East across from the transfer station?

The parcel was offered to the town by the State of Connecticut for $12,000, and the offer was the first item on the agenda at the March 2 Board of Selectmen (BoS) meeting. It was agreed by the BoS that the town had no particular use for the property, so the vote was to reject the offer.

 Through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, the state is giving the town a grant of $1,297,193 to go to the Foundation for Norfolk Living for site work on the Haystack Woods housing project. First Selectman Matt Riiska noted that the BoS has already approved this grant resolution three times, but since the numbers have changed, the town has to formally approve it again, which the selectmen did.

The town has received this year $241,199 from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), of which Board of Finance (BoF) has already agreed to spend $74,000 for a new generator for the sewer district. The committee advising on use of the ARPA funds also recommended at the March 8 BoF meeting that some of the money be used to replace the broken slide at Botelle School, and it was approved. The estimate for the slide has gone up substantially, from $43,000 in Aug. 2021 to $78,800 in Jan. 2022.

The rest of the meeting was devoted to a discussion of a preliminary draft of the 2022/23 town budget. Riiska stressed at the outset that it was still early days, and that nothing has been approved yet. At the end of April, there will be a hearing on the budget, which will then be presented at a town meeting on May 9.

In his overview of the proposed budget, Riiska noted in particular areas where expenses are expected to increase. Examples include the town’s taking over paying for the town website, an increase in legal services and in engineering services (although a substantial portion of the money spent on the River Place and Mountain Road bridges will eventually be reimbursed by the state), and an increase to the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department and in the share the town pays to support Geer Village.

In the area of employment, salaries for town employees will go up 2.5 percent. The town has hired an assistant to the assessor, and the Public Works Department might be getting a new staff member. The Wetlands Commission also has requested a secretary. The town will begin paying a stipend for the emergency management director, which has up to now been a volunteer position.

Since the town went over budget this year in paying for winter overtime and truck maintenance, the estimate for those items will be increased for next year.

Three capital items under consideration are repair of the tennis courts at Botelle; buying a new tanker truck for the NVFD and converting the old tanker into a plow truck; and buying a new small dump/plow truck.

There will be a slight increase in the budget for social services (a few more hours of a staff person’s time per week) and in paramedic services. Although the town’s contribution to the Northwest Transit District will go down, the money for running the town van will go up.

One budget item that was discussed at greater length is an increase in spending for the fire marshal’s office. The current fire marshal, Daryl Byrne, is retiring after 22 years and has requested that his deputy (and brother) Keith Byrne, take over as marshal, and that John DeShazo, who has completed the required training, be appointed as deputy marshal. All three marshals, who were present at the meeting, will overlap during the transition period. Byrne was asked whether it was necessary to have three marshals for the next few months. After further discussion of the fire marshals’ duties and the need for continuing education, DeShazo was approved as deputy fire marshal.