By Avice Meehan

The Dec. 3, 2025, and Jan. 7 meetings of the Board of Selectmen (BOS) each lasted under an hour but covered a wide range of town matters. Selectman Sandy Evans was unable to attend the meetings because she was out on calls for the Norfolk Lions Club Ambulance.

In December, First Selectman Henry Tirrell and Selectman Leo Colwell, Jr. voted in favor of a resolution regarding town acceptance of Haystack Woods Road and forwarded the matter to the Planning & Zoning Commission for review. Final acceptance of the road, which connects Old Colony Road with the affordable housing community under development by the Foundation for Norfolk Living, will be subject to a vote at a town meeting.

Tirrell reported on several important milestones for the new firehouse. On Dec. 3, the town received the $4,015,400 bond anticipation note. Treasurer Chelsea Dewitt will set up a short term investment account through the state so that the funds earn interest. In addition, he reviewed payment schedules for the $2.5 million state grant and the $500,000 federal grant. The construction manager has been asked to provide monthly budget assessments. For the duration of construction, as noted in the January meeting, the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department will fuel their vehicles at the town garage.

Tirrell also addressed the efforts by the town’s Department of Public Works (DPW), noting that the first storm of the year required evening and early morning overtime shifts. Training sessions with the Connecticut Training and Technical Assistance Center (T2) are ongoing and would continue into 2026. He briefed Colwell on concerns raised by the Inland Wetlands Agency about tree cutting supervised by the DPW. Discussion of this matter continued into January when Henry Gundlach, an experienced logger and owner of South Norfolk Lumber, shared his view that dead ash and other dead trees posed a danger to residents. Tirrell said he hoped to address tree removal in the next budget and to develop a management plan.

Gundlach also asked about the status of the bridge replacement at Old Goshen Road. Tirrell said that would occur after the bridge over Spaulding Brook is replaced at the intersection of Mountain and Westside roads. The current schedule calls for the Mountain Road project to start on April 1 and to be completed by Nov. 2.

Speeding was a big topic in January. Tirrell reported that the town had received two solar-powered speeding signs from the state at no cost. One had been placed on Ashpotag, but the location was too shaded to work. In addition, Tirrell met with a representative of Site Stream, a company that provides mobile-speeding cameras. No sooner had a test camera been set up at Laurel Way and Route 44 than it was knocked down when a vehicle struck a utility pole. The evaluation of whether speed cameras make sense for Norfolk will be ongoing.

Tirrell noted that Norfolk’s DPW fleet is “pretty old” and that time has come to consid-er new equipment. He hopes to create a capital investment group to help advise on a strategy going forward. While praising the efforts of the town crew, Tirrell said he has also cau-tioned the DPW to be “conservative” with the use of salt and to use a mix of salt and sand, where possible.

The town is still fighting for reimbursement of the costs it incurred following the 2022 gasoline spill on Route 44. In late January, Tirrell said the matter is now in mediation and that he hoped to have more information by early February. The BOS made numerous appointments in December and January. They included: Jon Riedeman to the Economic Development Commission; Susan MacEachron to the Fire-house Building Committee; William Millard to the Inland Wetlands Agency; Gloria Gour-ley as the representative to the Torrington Area Health District; Ann Havemeyer as the assistant to the town historian; Martina Gago Ageitos to the City Meadow Committee. At the Jan. 7 meeting, the board also voted to ap-prove a name change for the Friends of the Meadow Committee. It will now be called the City Meadow Committee.