After More Technical Difficulties, Here's News From the Selectman's Desk
Finally, we look forward to a dry, somewhat sunny, weekend. Get outside and enjoy it.
This weekend:
Deep River Junior Ancients Flower Sale- 3/30
Transfer Station- Closed on Easter Sunday-3/31
Deep River Congregational Church sunrise service- Easter morning (3/31); 6:30am@ Fountain Hill Cemetery. All are welcome.
Next week:
Town Meeting -4/1 @ 6 pm.
Region 4 BOE Public Hearing on proposed 2024-2025 Region 4 budget-4/1 @7 pm
Presidential Preference Primary-4/2- @6am-8 pm.
A few things coming up:
Alan James, local artist, open house-Sat. 4/6
DR Club 60 author talk- 4/9 @ 2 pm (DR Ambulance Barn)
Looking Ahead:
Con Brio Spring Concerts- 4/12 & 4/14 (tickets 860-526-5399)
DRFD Lime Sale- 4/13
Deep River P & R & DR Land Trust-Earth day hike -4/13 @10 am
DRCLL-Opening Day -4/20
Friends of the Deep River Library, psychic event -4/21
A quick overview of my shortened week:
Met with Inland Wetlands, Planning and Zoning and Safe Harbor Deep River along with their engineering contractors to hear about their plans to dredge the Deep River Marina in 2025 or 2026. Their plan must be approved and permitted through the state and any local regulations must be followed, so they have a long road ahead to make it happen.
I attended the CT State Tourism Board meeting to hear what other towns are doing to encourage visitors to their towns. Several tried-and-true ideas were shared but some unique ones too. Lots of ideas that could work for Deep River.
The Region 4 referendum regarding the mold remediation project was held on Tuesday and the first day of Early Voting in Connecticut also began on Tuesday. It was a busy day for our town’s registrars and the town clerk’s office.
In case you haven’t heard, the expenditure of 5.8 million for the mold remediation project at John Winthrop Middle School was passed by a vote of 1129-yes/597-no. Deep River’s vote tally was Yes-318; no-263. A project committee was established with Selectman Gates named to represent the Board of Selectman. Work will begin as quickly as possible as the goal is to allow the students back by the fall.
The Early Voting that began on Tuesday, 3/26, is for the Presidential Preference primary. The primary will be held in person on Tuesday, April 2, 2024 from 6 am-8 pm in the community room at the library. One more day of Early Voting will take place tomorrow, Saturday, from 10-6pm @the town hall.
Tuesday there was also a Regional Housing Committee Meeting through RiverCog. The evening brought a Board of Selectman meeting as well as a Board of Finance meeting.
Wednesday, RiverCog hosted the municipal leaders with reports from each of the RiverCog committees, which includes transportation, elections, land trust, housing, hazardous waste collection, DOT report and reports from the offices of each of our elected officials: Blumenthal, Courtney, Needleman and Simmons. Many more topics were discussed also, making these meetings so informative to attend.
Thursday, along with members of the Deep River Sustainable Committee, I attended a kick off meeting to set up a Community Resilience Building workshop for our town. “Community resilience is a measure of
the sustained ability of a community to utilize available resources to respond to, withstand, and recover from adverse situations.” The goal of the town’s workshop is to bring together stakeholders from various departments, committees, groups and neighborhoods to begin a dialogue about our community’s resilience. Chairperson Sara Connor is leading this effort. If you would like to be part of this one-day workshop, please call the Selectman’s office and we will get you in touch with Sara.
The Board of Selectman held a special meeting with Verogy personnel regarding the Solar Farm Array planned for the former landfill site outside and adjacent to the Public Works Department building. Verogy is hopeful that they will be up and running by October, assuming construction and installation begins in May.
The BOS also met with Jerry Roberts about The Connecticut River Gateway Commission; Jerry, who is Deep River’s representative, explained the purpose and function of this important group formed in 1973, by the Connecticut General Assembly. They found that preserving the Connecticut River “is in the public interest...to preserve such values and to prevent deterioration of the natural and traditional riverway scene for the enjoyment of present and future generations of Connecticut citizens...”. Section 25-102a, Connecticut General Statutes. Read more about it here: https://ctrivergateway.org/about/
Due to the holiday, Town Hall was closed on Friday. Please remember that the transfer station will be open on Saturday and closed on Easter Sunday.
News from our Departments:
Animal Control- Thank you to all! All of the dogs and chickens that were in our care, have been adopted. How wonderful. Thank you for opening up your hearts and homes to these animals.
Parks and Recreation-
Thank you to all who came out to the annual Easter Egg Hunt last Sunday. It was great to see so many children enjoying the day and smiling in photos with the Easter Bunny. Thank you to the Deep River Fire Department for transporting the Easter Bunny to the field.
Summer youth camp registration is now open. Don’t miss out on the week you might want/need, as space is limited. Field trips are back. Register today.
Earth Day hike-The P & R Department along with the DR Land Trust are co-sponsoring a hike through the Smyth Sanctuary on Saturday, April 13th @ 10:00 am. Register today!
Community Health Committee-
The group is seeking food donations. All items are appreciated but this week, folks were looking for tea, cereal, pasta sauce, canned fruit and applesauce.
The CHC asked me to give a shout out to Maureen Ward and her business partner, Mary Wassef from Unwind Muscular Therapy and New Ritual Skincare in Centerbrook, who have passively collected food for the Deep River Food Pantry, by setting up a drop off box at their business. This week Maureen delivered a large donation of peanut butter. The members of the Community Health Committee that work hard to keep the shelves stocked, so appreciate the generous donations from Maureen and Mary’s many clients. The group will begin planning for the annual ‘Stuff a Cruisier’ food drive which usually occurs in early May outside Adams.
60 Club-
This active group of folks 60 years and older, have two events coming up. All are welcome to attend.
On April 9, the DR Club 60 is hosting author, Matilda Yenowich Dumbill, from 2:00-3:00pm in the DR Ambulance Barn. Matilda grew up in Chester, attended UCONN, and had a long career as a designer/dressmaker for women of taste and wealth. She will be discussing her book Makhorka, The Green Cigarette.
On April 23 local author, Peggy Adler, will speak from 2:00-3:00pm about her book, Pallenberg
Wonder Bears from the Beginning. This book chronicles Emil Pallenberg’s migration to the U.S. in 1914 with three trained, acrobatic bears. Emil is considered to have been the greatest bear trainer of his time, originating most of the circus tricks performed by bears to this day. This event will also take place at the DR Ambulance Barn.
DR Sustainable: They asked me to let everyone know that the Lower CT River Valley Council of Governments (RiverCog) and it’s member municipalities, Deep River is one, are excited to announce the spring 2024 Community Compost Bin and Rain Barrel sale offered once again at a reduced cost. The Compost bins are “The Earth Machine” brand and retail for $150.00. The River Cog price is $69.95. The rain barrels are ‘Systern Rain Barrel’ brand and are on sale for $79.95. You can order by following this link: Connecticut.compostersale.com/rivercog. Orders need to be placed by May 3rd and pick up is May 5th. Backyard composting is an excellent way to reduce the amount of trash going to landfills while, rain barrels can help reduce water costs and provide a natural source of water for plants and gardens.
The textile recycling container will be delivered in the next 1-2 weeks so look for this at the transfer station. Soiled or very worn clothes, sheets, towels and blankets that can’t be donated due to their condition can be put in the textile recycling bin and kept out of the household waste stream. The town will receive money for every ton of recycled material.
A few notes:
Don’t forget to come out to the Region 4 Public Hearing on their proposed 2024-2025 budget Monday evening, 4/1, @7:00 pm. This is after the town meeting. Their proposed budget, which is a 6% increase over this year, will negatively impact our budget. The meeting is in the Valley Media Center (library).
Town meeting- Monday evening @ 6pm in the town hall. Voting on 3 items:
Approving expenditure of $21,000.00 for new Financial software- annual fee.
Approve the interlocal agreement for Deep River to participate in the RiverCog hazardous waste collection
Approve the interlocal agreement for the regional animal control officer.
We still have some vacant part time positions, so please check the web site for all of the employment opportunities.
Enjoy your weekend. Happy Easter to those who celebrate.
Carol