Questions face voters tonight at Annual Town Meeting

Written by Macklin Reid, Press Staff
Monday, 07 May 2012 04:40

Presentations, discussion and questions on the $127-million operating and the $3.8-million capital budget — and a series of votes to approve or reject $438,000 of selected capital expenditures — await voters at next week’s Annual Town Meeting.

“We’ll be there to answer questions from the public,” First Selectman Rudy Marconi said. “That goes for any Board of Selectmen questions, any Board of Education questions, and any Board of Finance questions people may have, relative to the budgets.”

The annual meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 7, in the Ridgefield Playhouse starting at 7:30.

The $127-million operating budget — $81 million for schools, $32 million for town departments, $13 million for debt service — will come before voters in two weeks at the annual budget referendum on Tuesday, May 15. Most of the $3.8-million capital budget will also be on that ballot, as a series of yes-no questions.

But the selectmen have chosen $438,000 worth of capital spending proposals to be approved or rejected by voters next Monday night at the annual meeting. Voters may speed through them, or go with the traditional question-and-debate approach.

“Each individual item would be voted on separately,” Mr. Marconi said. “Representatives of the various departments will be on hand to answer any and all questions.”

The items to be voted on next Monday include (not necessarily in the following order):

• A high-tech cardiac monitor, replacing a 12-year-old monitor now in use on one of the ambulances that is “a full generation behind in technology and lacks some of the diagnostic and treatment capabilities of the newer units,” according to fire Chief Heather Burford. The new monitor would meet hospital protocols by being able to provide “pulse oximetry, 12-lead ECG capability, cardiac defibrillation and pacing capability, carbon monoxide monitoring, end-tidal carbon dioxide monitoring and body temperature monitoring.” The cost is $33,200.
• Firefighter Air Pacs (self-contained breathing apparatus, or SCBA) would be replaced at a cost of $62,285. This represents the fourth and last installment of a four-year program to replace all 41 of the department’s air packs. Some of them are up to 12 years old and don’t meet new standards concerning breathing in situations with chemical, biological, radioactive, and nuclear threats.
• Firefighter equipment of a less technical sort — protective gear like pants and boots, as well as 500 feet of hose with accompanying nozzles, and an air compressor — would cost a total of $20,000.
• Lake Mamanasco drainage work proposed comes to a total of $111,800, but taxpayers are being asked for only $16,000. The remainder would be contributed by the Mamanasco Lake Improvement Fund, a homeowners group dedicated to caring for the lake. Improvements include drainage work along Mamanasco Road and stabilization of a stream bed off Third Lane. The goal of the ongoing multiyear project is to reduce the flow of sediment into the lake, reducing the nutrients that feed aquatic plant and algae growth.
• Engineering work to design a drainage project off Bennett’s Farm Road would cost $33,300. Mr. Marconi said this “is for engineering work to fix a major culvert under the road that has collapsed and was fixed temporarily.” The area in question is near Ridgebury School. “There’s a road plate that has been paved over that is certainly safe but needs to be replaced and paved over on a more permanent basis,” Mr. Marconi said.
• Park safety improvements would cost $23,406. They include installation of a new black vinyl-coated chain-link fence around the Scotts Ridge soccer field, and installation of electricity for a well at Sturges Park.
• Martin Park Beach is proposed to get $20,000 worth of improvements, including new roofs and refurbishing of the bathhouse and changing building, as well as the gazebo.
• A new rotary mower for the Parks and Recreation Department would cost $52,100. “It’s one of the larger rotary mowers we use on our ball fields,” Mr. Marconi said. “The old one is well beyond its years, and getting to cost more to repair than what it’s worth.
• Replacement trees for the tree warden’s ongoing work would cost $35,000. Tree Warden John Pinchbeck plants about 50 new trees a year, replacing some of those that are taken down for safety reasons.
• The town’s Information Technology Department has four requests: $65,000 for servers and software in the town’s central computer operation, $24,000 for an “uninterruptable power supply” there, $29,000 for a software program for the Human Resources Department, and $25,000 for new software for the town clerk’s office.

The town charter now allows the selectmen to pluck out items that cost less than $100,000 each and send them to the Annual Town Meeting, while the rest of the budget goes to referendum.