NORWICH TAXES DROPPING
Norwich has its 2017-2018 municipal budget in place. The city council approves a 123-point-8 million dollar spending and tax plan last night that decreases the town mill rate by almost two-and-a-half percent, and the city mill rate by six-tenths of a percent. Aldermen approved along party lines several last-minute spending changes from the GOP majority. One resolution restores a civil engineering position in the Public Works Department by partially paying for it with a 63-thosuand dollar cut to the Otis Library. An irate Executive Director Robert Farwell says he didn’t learn about the reduction until yesterday morning and called it “shameful…and a stealth attack on the library. ” Council President Pro-tem Peter Nystrom says he told Farwell a couple of months ago that all city services were subject to spending cuts, saying the cuts aren’t easy but taxes have to come down. The new budget raises school funding by one-percent. The school board had requested a three-percent hike. They meet tonight at 5:30 to officially adopt their budget.
TRAFFIC STUDY RECS HUGE CHANGES
The results of a new traffic study for downtown New London have been released. Mayor Mike Passero says the most exciting part of the study is a proposal to turn Bank Street into a one-lane road. He expects Bank Street to be reduced to one lane on a two-week trial basis sometime this summer. Other study recommendations include making Eugene O’Neill a two-way street, installing bike lanes on Governor Winthrop Boulevard, and expanding the Water Street Parking Garage. The study also suggests creating a shared pathway along Water Street that would allow pedestrian access to Crystal Avenue.
FIRST CHIEF SWORN-IN
The Town of East Lyme has sworn in its first police chief as the town gets closer to developing an independent police department. Michael Finkelstein was unanimously voted in as chief by the East Lyme Police Commission. About 150 residents and dignitaries were in attendance last night at the East Lyme High School ceremony. Finkelstein was a longtime Ledyard cop and quit as Ledyard mayor to take the East Lyme job.
GRADS UPSET
Some Ledyard High School students, who have pre-enlisted in the military, are upset because they cannot wear their military branch-identifying shoulder cords at graduation on Friday. While many are speaking out on social media , Superintendent Jason Hartling met with the students yesterday to work out an alternative way to recognize them.
BUDGET FINALLY PASSED
Plainfield residents passed their 2017-2018 budgets last night. This was the third time voters had cast their ballots on the general and education budgets. The combined $47.3 million spending plan now carries a 0.87 mill rate increase.
RESIDENTS OBJECT TO SUBDIVISION
A public hearing was held in East Lyme last night concerning a developer’s plan to build a road that will eventually lead to a subdivision within an area adjacent to wetlands. Residents of the Green Valley Lakes Road neighborhood were on hand at the Inland Wetlands Commission hearing to express their objection to the proposed road and their worries about the 25 lot subdivision. It is the last phase of a project begun in the 1970s. The attorney for the developer maintains that neither plan would have a direct impact on wetlands. The agency will be the ones to make that determination.
