Eye on Town Government

By Ruth Melville

South Norfolk resident Adair Mali attended the July 14 meeting of the Economic Development Commission (EDC) to ask for the commission’s support of her plan to hold a one-day workshop for women on self-defense, to be held in September in Battell Chapel. Mali was inspired to organize the workshop by a recent attack on a woman walking alone along Winchester Road. (The suspect was quickly apprehended by the state police. See article on p. 00.) The EDC voted to support the project, with the exact details and amount to be decided later.

The EDC also voted to review its ongoing, annual commitment to three town projects: $300 to the Community Association for the maintenance of the entrance gates on Route 44 to the east and west of town; $375 for a membership at the Hub that can be used by all town nonprofits; and $2,000 to support the Weekend in Norfolk (WIN) festivals.

Commission members discussed other ways the EDC could continue to support the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development. There are three areas in particular that fall under the EDC’s remit: to develop town businesses (which EDC co-chair Libby Borden admitted was easier to talk about than to do); to provide maps for pedestrians and bike riders in town; and to support efforts to bring people to town, for example, with events like WIN and Friday Nights on the Green. There was some uncertainty about how much money is available for drawing up maps, and Sue Frisch said that she would check on this with Town Hall.

Frisch brought the EDC up to date on a couple of new events at WIN weekend, which will be held this year on Aug. 5, 6 and 7. On Saturday of that weekend there will be a town-wide tag sale from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The ribbon cutting for the redesigned Robertson Plaza will be on Sunday, at 1 p.m. WIN organizers will ask First Selectman Matt Riiska if it is possible to close that end of Station Place during the afternoon.

The committee organized to decide on a fair distribution of the town’s share of ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds has been looking through the applications and dividing them into categories. Of the approximately $240,000 of ARPA money that the town received this year, $78,800 had previously been set aside to replace the slide at Bottelle School. However, thanks to a private donation for the slide, $25,000 of that money will go back into the pool.

Jim Nelson reported that the Chamber Music Festival is fully underway, and the audience attendance figures have been better than he expected. Robert Whipple, the new general manager designate, has been taking an active role in the running of this year’s festival.

The 2022 Haystack Book Festival is scheduled for weekend of Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, said Michael Selleck, co-chair of the EDC and director of literary festival. All events will be free this year, except for a benefit reception on Saturday evening at Husky Meadow Farm with Sam Sifton and Melissa Clark, cookbook authors and food columnists for the New York Times.