Selectmen Present Items for Town Meeting

By Ruth Melville

At the July 2 meeting of the Board of Selectmen, First Selectman Matt Riiska reported that progress has been made on several bridge projects around town

The River Place bridge is now finished. Riiska is working on getting all the billing done on the project, which will probably not be completed until September.

The temporary bridge on Smith Road is also complete, at a cost of $100,000, which will come from the town’s capital reserve account, with the approval of the Board of Finance. Although the bridge is referred to as “temporary,” Riiska said it should last a long time, and he praised Will Sweeney, of Evergreen Construction, for doing “a fantastic job” on it.

The State of Connecticut has asked Norfolk to put out a job posting for an inspector/consultant to oversee the replacement of the Mountain Road bridge over Spaulding Brook. This project will be paid 100 percent by the state’s Department of Transportation, including the cost of the consultant.

Two items discussed by the board will need to go before a town meeting in September.

The first involves the state’s incentive program for members of the fire department and the ambulance service. In accordance with a town ordinance, recipients can choose to get their payment (now increased to a maximum of $2,000) either by check or by tax refund. It would be easier for accounting purposes if people would receive the money by check, but that change in the ordinance would require approval at a town meeting.

The second item is the road at the Haystack Woods affordable housing project. Once the paving of that road is completed in September, the road will qualify for a zoning permit, and it could then be designated a town road at a town meeting. Riiska added that he had recently visited the site and all outside walls for the 10 houses are now up, along with two carports with solar panels.

Aquarion’s replacement of the water main on upper Shepard Road was scheduled to start on July 9, with repaving of the area to follow. Water main work will then shift to Sunset Ridge.
Riiska informed the Board of Selectmen that the deadline for bids for the construction of the new firehouse had been postponed to July 8. There were two meetings at the firehouse for contractors to come take a look and ask questions, and Newfield Construction, the project management firm, was predicting good results from the bidding process. (For an update on the actual bids submitted, see the article on page 1).

Riiska praised the Firehouse Committee for working hard to take about $1.2 million off the cost of the building. The building has been trimmed back down to bare bones, he said, in the hope that as funds come in, some of the deleted items could be restored. He would especially like to retain the metal roof, which would add longevity to the building and allow for solar panels.

In other business, the selectmen voted to extend the terms of Mark Crone and Jill Hall on the Recreation Committee to July 31, 2027.

In closing, Riiska said he had just met the new superintendent of Botelle School, Kevin Case, and was looking forward to working with him on ways the town could support the school.