From the First Selectman's Desk

With such mild weather, what a wonderful way to end the week and head into the weekend. Check out this great sunrise that greeted me and my dogs this morning taken from my back yard. So amazing.

The week in review: Monday evening, I attended a meeting of the Water Pollution Control Authority Board. The committee supports the WPCA staff who does a great job staying on top of things at the plant; they keep it running smoothly and insure no environmental issues. Sewer expansion and sewer use fees were two topics discussed.

The town meeting on Tuesday evening, brought a large group of residents out to vote on two ARPA expenditures. Funding for both the new finance software ($85K) and the generator ($25K) for the Public Works garage were approved. Most folks stayed for the special Board of Selectman meeting that followed, where we heard several great presentations to request funding for a variety of programs and projects. The BOS has a tough decision on their hands. If you attended, please send me your thoughts. If you’d like to view the list of requests for ARPA funds and the list of what has already been allocated, please call or stop in and pick up a copy. Or drop an email and I’ll send you a copy of the spreadsheet. It is too big to attach here.

Due to these two meetings, I was unable to attend the special Region 4 BOE meeting since it was being held at the same time.  However, Selectman Gates was there and spoke on behalf of the Deep River BOS. Duane filled me in on the outcome of the meeting. Wednesday morning, at a meeting at the Region 4 Central Office, I was further brought up to speed on what I had missed. In attendance was the Chester First Selectman, DR’s Building Official and our Fire Marshal, the Superintendent of Schools, Region 4 Finance Director and Region 4 BOE chair. The discussion of course was John Winthrop Middle school and the efforts necessary to enable the students to return to school for the fall semester. The BOE proposes to spend 5.8 million dollars to accomplish this task. The project would include: complete cleaning of the school, demolition and abatement, installing some HVAC controls, dehumidification services, installing new insulation and new ceiling tiles and other general cleaning and upgrades. To see the complete project details and Superintendent parent correspondence, go to the Region 4 website or JWMS Building Updates (google.com). Your voice can still be heard. Please mark your calendars, as the Region 4 BOE is holding a public hearing on this issue on Wednesday, February 21, 2024 at 7:00 P.M. at Valley Regional High School.

Wednesday evening, I enjoyed attending the monthly meeting of the Planning and Zoning’s, Plan of Conservation and Development committee. They are working diligently to rewrite and update our 10-year plan for the town. Representatives from other town committees regularly attend and offer their input. It is always a great discussion.

Thursday, I attended a COST (Council of Small Towns) Town meeting to hear from several state legislatures, the Governor, Lt. Governor, State Comptroller and the Connecticut House Speaker, who spoke to municipal leaders about the state budget and its impact to our towns. Topics included the amount of state aid to towns, car and property taxes, the huge issue with household waste and waste reduction strategies, trash hauling costs, early voting, grant opportunities, the high cost of medical insurance, and universal preschool among other things. A great day for networking and learning. The afternoon found me at the Chester Town Hall, meeting with the First Selectman, the Building official and two Region 4 BOE members. There is definite interest in exploring options for school realignment and for considering what the future holds for our town’s schools. Be assured, nothing will be decided without your input. This is a topic that needs further study and much planning. I heard from a couple of you last week, but please more voices need to weigh in. Reach out and let me know how you feel about this issue here in Deep River. Email me your thoughts, I very much want to know where you stand.

Region 4: Don't forget to come out to the Region 4 BOE, DRES BOE and the Supervision District budget workshops. Let your voice be heard when the decisions are being made. Go to the Region 4 web site to find the dates for the upcoming meetings.Home - Regional School District #4 (reg4.k12.ct.us)

The Lower Connecticut River Valley Council of Governments (RiverCOG), has set the 2024 paper shredding and hazard waste disposal drop off dates for our area. These are free events. Discard your trash responsibility. Check out the dates on their web site, or stop by to pick up a brochure. Their website is great place to learn about all of the resources available to the town as a result of being a member of this consortium. (rivercog.org)

Dog & Chicken Rescue - Update: Thank you for the tremendous outpouring of kindness and generosity shown to the animals that are now in our care due to the recent police activity on a local dog kennel. So many donations were brought in to help care for the 43 dogs and 20+ chickens in our possession. Our ACO, Caroline Fountain, along with all of us here at the Town Hall, are overwhelmed with the response to our request for supplies as well as monetary donations to offset veterinary bills. We are still in need of smaller breed dog toys as well as puppy training pads. Monetary donations are still appreciated; to date, the vet bills are close to $5000. Many have called inquiring about adoption. Thank you. As soon as the court case is settled, the ACO, will begin that process only if the town assumes ownership of the animals.  

Reminder: The food scraps program continues at the transfer station; all residents should use Bpi compostable bags. If you can’t find any locally, my research found some at Home Depot and on Amazon (Amazon.com : bpi compostable bags ) at about 0.21-0.23 cent a bag for the 2-3 gallon size. If you still have some of the ‘free’ green bags that you were given as part of the Pilot program, feel free to use those. However, Please do not use black bags of any size!   

Volunteers: Thank you to all who have reached out to fill a vacancy on a Board or Commission. If you haven’t yet heard back, please be patient. We had some email issues this week and found many messages going into our spam folder; caught in the network firewall.

In case you missed the list, there are still several openings on a variety of Boards and Commissions. We would love to have you volunteer and lend your voice. We need to hear from all of our Deep River residents so that everyone can feel represented. Currently, we have openings on the following Boards & Commissions:

• Community Health Committee
• Conservation and Inlands Wetlands
• Deep River Sustainable
• Design Advisory Board
• Economic Development
• Library Board of Trustees
• Municipal Ethics
• Parks and Recreation
• Planning and Zoning
• Veteran’s Green Monument Committee
• Zoning Board of Appeals

Please send an email if you are interested in serving on any of these Boards or Commissions. Vacancies will be filled by the Board of Selectmen; minority representation shall be observed.

Valentine’s Day Ideas:

Dine locally- Eat breakfast, lunch or dinner out at one of our many locally owned restaurants. Take your Valentine out for a meal or grab a meal to go, and find a great picnic spot. We live in such a beautiful area, whether you enjoy a water view or wooded oasis.

Shop locally -Remember, Spruce Ledge Farm is open for Valentine’s Gift Giving! Now through February 14th from 12 pm-4 pm pick up some locally created gifts made by area artists and artisans. Spruce Ledge Farm is located on Route 80, close to the 145 (Horse Hill Road) blinking light @574 Winthrop Rd, Deep River. Buy your Valentine something special and shop local!  

Downtown Deep River also has so many great choices when you are looking for that special something. Get it personalized! Brick and Mortar has cool wooden gifts available that can be personalized if you order by 5 pm on Saturday; so, don’t wait!

Town Events: Start training for a 5K, so you can “Catch a Leprechaun” running the Region 4 Education Foundation Inc.’s, 5K Run/Walk on March 16th. The race kicks at 10:00 am from the Essex Town Hall. To register and learn more go to https://runsignup.com

Remember to purchase your tickets for the Valley Regional High School Musical production of the “Wizard of Oz”. Performances are 3/15 @ 7 pm; 3/16 1pm & 7pm & 3/17 @ 1pm. Tickets can be purchased at Celebrations and at VRHS. All tickets are $15.00.  

Job Openings:

• PT- Wetlands Enforcement Officer. Call the Selectman’s Office for more information.
• PT-Recording Secretary-Board of Selectman
• PT-Recording Secretary-Board of Finance
• FT-Transfer Station Attendant-Transfer Station
• PT- Social services position- description to be posted soon. 

‘First Selectman Fridays’: It was so great to sit and chat with the half dozen residents who joined me for coffee at The Nest, this morning. Thank you to our awesome server, Elizabeth. I am hoping to continue these ’First Selectman Fridays’ on a monthly basis, so let’s plan the next one for Friday, March 8th. Time: 7:00-8:00 am. Location: TBD

Super Bowl: Whether you root for the 49ers or the Chiefs, enjoy the game and the commercials. Please take care if you are traveling to enjoy this year’s Super Bowl. We want everyone to reach their destination and to get home safely. By the way, I checked on seat geek, and if interested and you can get to Vegas, tickets are still available for the game starting at a mere $6,063.00 each not including fees (and airfare, hotel, etc.)

They are predicting snow possibly for Tuesday, so get out and enjoy the weekend.  

Carol