Selectmen’s Budget Rises 3.5 Percent
By Wiley Wood With the town’s annual budget hearing scheduled for late April, the Board of Finance invited First Selectman Sue Dyer to present a preliminary town budget at its March 17 meeting. The board’s chairman, Michael Sconyers, opened the proceedings with cautionary words about budget increases. Dyer’s budget proposal came in $130,000 above last […]
Connecticut State Budget Has Implications for Small Towns
Norfolk Selectmen and Board of Finance Looking at Proposed Changes By Janet Gokay The Connecticut papers have been awash lately with news of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed budget for the next two fiscal years. When he unveiled his budget before the state legislature on February 18, he announced that it “is filled with tough […]
Music Shed to Get New Cupola
On a sweltering summer night, the Music Shed can feel like a steam bath. The acoustics may be perfect, the performers electrifying and the architecture deeply satisfying, but the place can be just too darn hot. The building originally had a cupola that, like a vent at the apex of a tepee, allowed hot air […]
Blocked Sewer Pipe at Station Place
A crew working at Station Place on March 23 to remove a chunk of ice blocking the lateral sewer pipe to the old Corner Store. They had first tried accessing the blockage from the building and through the manhole cover, but finally had to dig up the road to reach the blockage. This has been […]
Hartford Balks at Norfolk-Colebrook Regional Plan
By Wiley Wood The current legislative session in Hartford lasts until June 3, but it seems unlikely that the State Department of Education will endorse a proposal between now and then that will allow the Norfolk-Colebrook regionalization plan to proceed. The two towns have worked for three years on an agreement that would allow them […]
Peppering Norfolk’s Roads With Chlorides
The high snowfalls and bitterly cold days of January and February have kept Norfolk’s snowplow drivers busy and made serious inroads on the town’s supply of road salt. As of mid-February, First Selectman Sue Dyer reports, the town had spent $130,000 on salt, or $30,000 more than budgeted. At $85/ton, the Public Works Department has […]
Funding Sought for Workforce Training Program
Young people leave the Northwest Corner because there are no jobs. And employers find the qualified workforce pretty thin. A new initiative, endorsed by the Board of Selectmen, would document the workforce skills needed by regional employers and coordinate with high schools, trade schools, community colleges and universities to see that appropriate training is available. […]
Town Starts Repair of Aging Sewer Pipes
The Norfolk Sewer District will reline the sewer pipes along Laurel Way this season. Green Mountain Pipeline Services of Vermont has been picked to perform the work, at a cost of $50–60,000, said Ronald Zanobi, chairman of the Sewer District, at a January 28 meeting. Norfolk’s sewer pipes are among the oldest in Connecticut. The […]
Back to Drawing Board for City Meadow Park
Construction faces at least six-month delay By Christopher Sinclair The project to transform the sunken wetland in Norfolk’s town center into a park and storm-water treatment site has been rebuffed by state and federal permitting authorities, according to Steven Trinkaus, the project’s consulting engineer. The plan received a $500,000 state grant in September 2014. It […]
It’s All About the Data
Consultant takes hard look at Norfolk market area By Wiley Wood No one opens a business these days—no bank will lend money to start a business—without taking a hard look at the existing demand. “The days of ‘build it and they will come’ are long gone,” says Michael Goman. Which is where the firm of […]
