From the First Selectman's Desk

*Let’s Count Down the Days….

• Daylight Savings-THIS SUNDAY…spring ahead your clocks…
• Deep River Chester Little League Candy fundraiser. Now through 3/17/24; pick up 3/25
• SOMA-Sensory Play workshop - 3/11
• Region 4 Informational Session-JW mold issue- 3/12
• DRES ‘Tip-A-Teacher’ night 3/13
• Region 4 Education Foundation Inc.’s, “Catch a Leprechaun” 5K- 3/16
• VRHS Musical-“Wizard of Oz” -3/15, 3/16 & 3/17
• DRES PTO & DRGC pansy sale. Deadline to order 3/18; pick up 3/28
• P & R Easter Eggstravaganza- 3/23 (11am-1pm)
• Region 4 Referendum for Mold Remediation Project 5.8 million -3/26
• Junior Ancients Flower Sale- 3/29 & 3/30
• Early Voting for Presidential Primary Preference-3/26-3/28 & 3/30
• Region 4 BOE Public Hearing on proposed budget next fiscal year-4/1
• Unified Buddies Prom – 4/19
• SOMA teen crawl- 4/19
• Deep River Ice opening day! - 4/20
• Deep River Little League Opening Day - 4/20
• Alan James, local artist, classes 4/20 & 4/21
• Friends of the Library- annual psychic event - ‘Mystics By The Sea’ -4/21
• Deep River Parks and Recreation Bus Trip to NYC -4/28

*For details of all of these events, or to register, please check out the appropriate websites. Due to space constraints, only a few are detailed here

A quick overview of my week:

Saturday: Early Voting has come to Connecticut. I attended an Early Voting educational session at the Deep River Library. It was offered through the local Women in Action group and featured the Registrar of Voters from East Haddam. A Deep River Registrar was also in attendance. The first time this will be implemented will be with the Presidential Preference Primary to be held on 4/2. Early in person voting will be held on 3/26, 3/27, 3/28, 3/30. Your Say. Your Day. There is no voting on Good Friday or Easter Sunday. Early Voting will take place using paper ballots and will take place at the Town Hall. The primary will take place on Tuesday, 4/2 in the Community Room at the Library. Absentee ballots may still be requested. Get more information on voting on the town web site or on early in person voting here: Welcome to Early Voting – an informational presentation (deepriverct.us)

Monday: I had a productive meeting with our Resident State Trooper and the four Deep River constables. We are lucky to have such hard working, dedicated and experienced officers on the job keeping Deep River safe. Later, I sat down with our finance director to continue the work on next year’s budget.

The evening had me up at Valley for the Region 4 budget workshop #3. Did you know that about .72 cents of every tax dollar goes to the school budget? Your voice matters. There were only three people in the audience as the board discussed their FY24-25 budget. The proposed Region 4 school budget for next year is 6.02% higher than last year; that is an increase of 1,315,761.00. To see a breakdown of the numbers, please visit the Region 4 web site or follow this link. http://ADD to MIN for Mar 07 2024-2025 Region 4 Budget DRAFT for BOE VOTE on 2024.03.07.pdf (sharpschool.com)

• March 12th @ 6:00 pm @ Region 4 presents an informational session on the proposed expenditure of 5.8 million to remediate mold and partial renovation at the John Winthrop Middle School. The meeting will be in the Valley Regional High School Media Center or you can dial in (321) 428-6155 PIN: 108 601 313#
• March 18th @ 6:00 pm. DRES budget workshop @ DRES
• April 1st @ 7:00 pm @ Valley- Region 4 BOE Public Hearing on the proposed 2024-25 Region 4 budget. 

http://Deep River Proposed Budget for Workshop #2 02.28.2024.pptx (sharpschool.com)

Tuesday: I met with Rich Forristall, the President of the Fountain Hill Cemetery Association. Fountain Hill Cemetery has been serving the community since 1851. For those who regularly walk through this lovely serene, park-like landscape, you can truly appreciate the hard-working part time staff and dedicated volunteers. They take pride in this piece of Deep River history which remains heavily rooted in the Deep River community. The beautiful historic Wooster Chapel is waiting to be explored. Go take a walk and soak in the Deep River history.  

I met with Lori Gianotti, the president of the Deep River Land Trust and Tanner Steeves. We spoke about the need for Deep River to develop and adopt an open space plan. They familiarized me with their Land Preservation Plan (LPP) for Deep River. The mission of the DRLT is to protect and preserve open space in the Town of Deep River. Their land preservation plan was established to guide fulfillment of that mission. They have set many goals such as:

The evening brought a Board of Finance meeting where we held our first budget workshop for the town budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 24-25. These workshops are always open to the public.

Wednesday and Thursday, I met with many residents and answered emails and calls about everything from water damage, to pot holes that need to be addressed, and even an invitation to be a judge at the invention convention at the elementary school. The large volume of water that we have received this year has caused quite a lot of issues throughout town, from wash outs in the roads, to collapsing walls, to sink holes, to water in basements. The intense rain has also caused trees to uproot due to the saturated soil. Our Public Works crew has been extremely busy and if you are on ‘the list’, please be patient. They will get to you. The Deep River Fire Department has been our unsung heroes, as they have responded to many calls to help divert water and pump out basements; sometimes staying on site until 3:00 in the morning! Please remember how much they do for our community when it is time to vote for a new firehouse. They need a bigger space; the one that they are in is in dire need of repair and renovation and is not adequately sized for their equipment.

Wednesday evening, I attended the monthly meeting of the Plan of Conservation and Development Committee where the discussion is always so lively. A great group of volunteers looking to help plan for the future.

Thursday morning, I was present for the CCM (Connecticut Conference of Municipalities) Legislative Committee meeting where they offered a comprehensive review of the current House and Senate bills which if passed, will affect municipalities. Marissa Paslick Gillett, Chairman of Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) also presented. PURA is a quasi-judicial agency that interprets and applies the statutes and regulations governing all aspects of Connecticut’s utility sector. Among other things, PURA sets the rates charged by investor-owned utilities. It is statutorily-charged with ensuring that Connecticut's investor-owned utilities, including the state’s electric, natural gas, water, and telecommunications companies, provide safe, clean, reliable, and affordable utility service and infrastructure. I expressed my concern with the rise in utility rates such as water and electric and its impact not only on our residents but on the town budget overall. Many other small towns voiced a similar theme.

Thursday evening, I sat down with the Assessment Board of Appeals after their scheduled appointments to learn more about the board and this group of volunteers. The board is designed to serve as an appeal body for taxpayers who believe the town has erred in the valuation of their property or has erroneously denied them exemptions. I asked why they wanted to serve on this board, and they all indicated, that they felt like they could help people even if it only saved someone $10.00, they thought it was worth it. Aren’t we lucky to have such dedicated volunteers. We are always looking for people to serve on the town’s boards and commissions, so please check out the web site if you have any interest; there are a variety of opportunities available.  

Later, I headed over to the Deep River Historical Society, for their program titled “Tories, Spies and Traitors: Divided Loyalty in Revolutionary Connecticut”. The speaker was from the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History and she was fantastic! Everyone was thoroughly riveted by her tales of the Connecticut Colony and the Tories and Patriots. The museum is located @ 231 Capitol Avenue in Hartford and the focus of the museum and its collections is Connecticut’s government, military and industrial history. The permanent and changing exhibits trace the growth of the state and its role in the development of the nation from the colonial era to the present. The evening’s program brought out an almost full house, who enjoyed delicious desserts and light refreshments.

Friday was a busy one. It started with me meeting up with a land surveyor to determine the location of the town’s property line in relation to a private property currently listed for sale. I then had a meeting with three residents who expressed their support for several of the projects that had requested ARPA funding. They were quite disappointed that the Board of Finance did not vote to move the projects recommended by the Board of Selectman’s forward to a town vote. I and the Board of Selectman will try again. It is always so great to sit and talk with Deep River residents.

Thanks to the efforts of Lenore Grunko and the Deep River Sustainable Committee, I entered into an agreement to bring a textile recycling container to the transfer station. This will give residents a place to discard very worn and stained clothing, towels, blankets, sheets and drapes and keep them out of the household waste stream. These stained or very worn items can’t be donated to a clothing container so they usually find their way into household garbage bags. By pulling out this weight, our tipping fees may be reduced. Plus, we get $120 per ton collected! Look for the box to be installed soon.

Several hours of my afternoon were spent visiting with the residents of a house in town severely impacted by water. The fire department, the building official, Selectman Gates and members of the public works department were all lending a hand to find a solution. The power of water; its amazing!

Finally, late this afternoon, I sat down with the chairman of the Wetlands and Conservation Commission and the Commission’s attorney, to interview a candidate for the position of Wetlands Enforcement Officer. It is not surprising, but always nice to hear, how much people love our town.

Tomorrow morning- before the rain…I will meet up with the installer of the new DRES exterior kitchen door. This has been an ongoing project which has seen delays due to a supply chain issue. I am sure that the DRES custodial staff and all delivery people will be happy once the door is completed.

Next, I will head to the Town Hall to let in a small group from a local college who will use our Town Hall auditorium to stage a graduation ceremony so that they can photograph it for their college brochure. How fun that our lovely grand auditorium will be shown in some published literature. You have all seen our gorgeous auditorium, now others will too. In case, you didn’t know, we do rent the space out for small gatherings and small theater productions. However, we do not have any paid staff but instead rely on volunteers. If you have any interest in being on the auditorium management committee, give me a call. Prior to the election, I served on that committee for the last 10 years.  

After helping settle in our guests to the town hall, I will head over to the Winthrop Fire Station to meet up with the Selectman, Board of Finance members and Fire Department personnel for a walk through of their facility. I have only been in the Winthrop fire house 1 time before, so I am looking forward to it. After our walk through there, we will all head to the Union Street station. The idea is to get a firsthand account of the needs of the fire department and learn how we can best support them.  The Union Street fire house, built in 1961, should be replaced. This is a need, not a want.  

A few things to note:

If you are interested in adopting a dog, please fill out an adoption form on the town of Essex web page. We have approximately 8 dogs left and some puppies coming shortly. Photos of some of the dogs have been published. ACO Fountain, will reach out to each qualified applicant to schedule a time to talk and make an appointment to meet the dogs. Everyone interested in adoption, must fill out the application.

Message from the Community Health Committee:  This week they are running low on peanut butter and jelly as well as juice and crackers. All donations can be dropped off in the lobby at 56 High Street, during regular business hours, M-Th 9-4 and Fridays 9-12.  While all donations are welcome, they asked me to suggest that since most of their visitors are single or 2 person households, please donate smaller sized products. Many of our older neighbors find it difficult opening and lifting larger sized products.   

The Deep River Junior Ancients would like to remind everyone of their annual fundraiser, the Spring Flower sale! Please stop on Friday and Saturday, March 29th and 30th and support the DRJA. The sale takes place in the parking lot across from the firehouse at the corner of Union and Elm St. This year they will also be selling new DRJA merchandise and products, plus baked goods! As always, they will have a small group of members who will be  performing during the event. If you'd like to donate baked goods, please feel free to stop by with them any time Friday or Saturday.

• Recording Secretary Board of Selectman part time
• Recording Secretary Board of Finance part time
• Wetlands Enforcement Officer-part time
• Social Worker-part time
• See the town web site for job descriptions and how to apply.

Other news: Congratulations, to the Red House restaurant that took first place at the 27th annual Old Saybrook Chili Fest last weekend. The festival featured chili from 25 chefs, and the Red House walked away with the title “Best Chili”. Make sure you stop in this weekend and grab a bowl! The perfect meal in cold rainy weather! Proceeds from the festival benefited the Chamber of Commerce’s Wilfred Hunter Memorial Scholarship for graduating high school seniors attending post-secondary school.

Have a great weekend in spite of the rain! 

Carol