Budget Input Needed
Over the last few weeks, the Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance have been conducting budget workshops to review the town budget line by line. This process is important to ensure that all board members understand where your tax dollars are being spent. During these meetings, some good discussions have been held on what our priorities are and what our next steps should be.
One of the things all board members realize is that input from the public is critical for us to make decisions that reflect your wishes. We’re very happy that people have attended some of the meetings, workshops, and forums to date and the input received has been helpful to us. We still need more input from the public though as we prepare to make some very difficult decisions.
We have recently put out a budget survey and I encourage everyone to participate and let us know your thoughts. The budget is available online on the town’s website at www.colchesterct.gov and paper copies can be found and returned to the First Selectman’s office. Additionally, there are still budget meetings every week and I encourage everyone to attend as many as possible. The complete schedule of meeting is also on the town website.
Town Happenings
While a lot of focus is being placed on the budget, it’s important to recognize that many other things are happening around town. First, we recently received a Federal grant for nearly $70,000 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The grant money will assist in making town buildings more energy efficient and can leverage incentives from the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund and the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund. Energy is a major cost we have as a town and anything we can do to use less energy will save money.
We’ve also seen new businesses open in town. Two new restaurants have opened on South Main Street. Gilbertie’s Place is a wonderful restaurant and lounge to go to for a nice lunch or dinner. Across from Gilbertie’s, the bagel store is now under new management and has a good bagel and sandwich menu. I’ve been to both these places and I recommend you try them yourselves as well as the other great restaurants that Colchester is lucky to have.
Lastly, I’d like to mention that the process of revaluation will be starting again. Every five years, Colchester is mandated to conduct a revaluation of every property to ensure they are assessed correctly. This will not impact this year’s budget as the revaluation is for 2011. However, to keep costs down, the town is going to try to do many of the inspections with our own staff rather than outsource it to another firm. This is just another example of the ways in which we are trying to save the town money.
- Gregg Schuster
First Selectman
Previous Selectman Notes can be viewed at
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