By Ruth Melville

Since Sarah Bruso will shortly be resigning as the town tax collector, Town Hall has drafted a job description for the position, which First Selectman Matt Riiska presented at the Sept. 4 Board of Selectmen meeting. The draft will be voted on at next month’s meeting. Pam Pelletier, an experienced, certified tax collector, will be taking over from Bruso.

Prompted by several recent job turnovers—the zoning enforcement officer, the town assessor, and now the tax collector––the Selectman’s Office has decided to prepare and keep on file job descriptions, covering policies such as payment, time off and vacation days, for all Town Hall positions, whether appointed or elected.

In his Selectman’s Report, Riiska said that work on the River Place bridge has started up after a long hiatus. The new pilings are in, and the Connecticut Department of Transportation (DOT) is planning on working through the winter, with an expected completion date of April 30. Riiska has been working with the DOT on a plan whereby the town will not have to pay its 20 percent share of the additional cost ($1,019,000) but will instead be reimbursed for 100 percent of the overage. 

The Town of Norfolk has a revolving line of credit with NBT Bank for the original cost of the bridge, at 2¼ percent, but since the project has taken so long, the bank is requiring the town to refinance the balance of the loan. A town meeting will have to be called to vote on the new lending rate, which hasn’t yet been set but will be higher.

The cost of the replacing the two bridges in South Norfolk will be entirely covered by the State of Connecticut, but the work will probably not be completed until 2026 or ’27. Riiska said he has been working with the DOT, Cardinal Engineering, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) to get a temporary bridge for Smith Road. Before granting approval, however, the Army Corps and DEEP have requested more information, so the decision on the temporary bridge is still up in the air.

For Maple Avenue, Riiska said he has submitted the paperwork to the state for the promised STEAP (Small Town Economic Assistance Program) grant of $500,000. He has also put in a request for $752,827 to the insurance company for work on Maple Avenue subsequent to the November 2022 oil spill. 

Since the software the town is currently using to track payroll and accounts payable will no longer be supported, it has been decided to switch to QuickBooks, at a cost of $2,900 a year, not including support. Organization INK, a business services provider in Great Barrington, will send someone to train Norfolk staff in using the new software.