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School Cancellations
Weston Forum
Jun 9, 2008
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Weston Forum
Jun 6, 2008
Sixth annual Georgetown Day is Sunday
by Susan Wolf
The Sixth Annual Georgetown Day Street Festival kicks off on Main
Street at noon on Sunday, June 8, and continues until 7 p.m. Main
Street will be closed to cars to create a pedestrian walkway and to
provide a venue for a variety of attractions, everything from
inflatables like a Bounce House for kids, to the Lions Club beer tent,
to a Chili Cook-off, to some 70 vendors, as well as raffles, and music.
Local restaurants will be open for business, many offering streetside
food, and there will be a chance to see “A Georgetown Story.”
“It’s a little taste of what Georgetown used to be,” said Ralph Bosch,
Georgetown Village Restoration, Inc. president, about the festival.
“It’s people getting together to do things. It’s an attempt to
recapture some of this.”
Georgetown Day is sponsored by Mr. Bosch’s group along with the Georgetown
Volunteer Fire Department, the Georgetown Lions Club and, for the
second year, the Georgetown Community Association. Sponsoring the Chili
Cook-off for the first time is the Joel Barlow High School wrestling
team, who took over this event from the Mark Twain Library.
Weston Forum
Jun 6, 2008
Weston Planning and Zoning Commission
Members differ on zoning officer's authority
by Patricia Gay
Is the town’s zoning enforcement officer an agent of the Planning and
Zoning Commission, or does he have autonomous authority and veto power
over the commission?
That was the subject of a philosophical — and sometimes heated — discussion at the P&Z meeting on Monday, June 2.
Town attorneys Ken Bernhard and Patricia Sullivan were on hand to advise the commission about its powers under state law.
Ms. Sullivan said the commission derives its powers from Connecticut
General Statute 8-3(e) which simply states, “The zoning commission
shall provide for the manner in which the zoning regulations shall be
enforced.”
Weston Forum
Jun 6, 2008
It's incomplete
P&Z Commission rejects garage's application
by Patricia Gay
The Planning and Zoning Commission this week rejected an application
regarding the controversial “Midtown Garage” property, saying it was
incomplete.
In a unanimous decision on Monday, June 2, the commission voted to deny
receipt of an application by Weston I, LLC, seeking to operate an
automobile repair facility at 107 Georgetown Road.
James Pjura, the town’s zoning enforcement officer, said the
application was submitted without a plot plan, wetlands survey, and
other items as required by the town.
Weston Forum
Jun 6, 2008
Lyons Plain firehouse clears its first hurdle
by Patricia Gay
The Planning and Zoning Commission has amended its regulations to allow for the operation of privately-owned firehouses.
The commission voted unanimously, Monday, June 2, to include
“firehouses on land not owned by the town of Weston” in zoning
regulation 341.2.
The vote closes a loophole the commission inadvertently created when it
amended its zoning regulations in January. At that time, a section
applying to firehouses was removed and incorporated into a new
regulation governing municipal-owned buildings.
Weston Forum
Jun 4, 2008
Giving a helping hand
Screech and Lucky get a second chance
by Patricia Gay
When Barbara Gross walked out to get her mail around noon a couple of
weeks ago, she heard a strange “chittering” sound coming from the
driveway of her home on Blue Spruce Circle.
Walking toward the garage, she found the source of the noise — two tiny baby raccoons were huddled together and shaking.
Seeing no mother raccoon in sight, Ms. Gross, knowing that raccoons can
often carry rabies, took care not to touch them, and instead walked to
her deck and watched the critters make their way to a bed of
pachysandra to cover themselves.
After some time passed and there was still no sign of the pair’s
mother, Ms. Gross started to think something might be wrong. She also
grew concerned that the babies would become prey to larger animals.
Looking for guidance, Ms. Gross called Wildlife in Crisis, a nonprofit
wildlife care center in Weston that rehabilitates wild animals.
Weston Forum
Jun 4, 2008
The $1,686,585 question
Weston Town Meeting asked to decide
by Brian Gioiele
Taxpayers will be asked to spend $1,686,585 from the general fund next week.
The Board of Selectmen, in a special meeting Tuesday, May 27, voted
unanimously to request spending the general fund money ($1.1 million
for OPEB — other post employment benefits — liability funding and
$586,585 to cover the remaining costs of the high school auditorium
renovation).
The Board of Finance, which joined the selectmen at that Tuesday
meeting, then immediately approved that request, sending it to a
special Town Meeting set for Wednesday, June 11, at 7:30 p.m. in the
Weston Middle School auditorium.
The money to cover the proposed $1,686,585 in expenditures will be
coming from the town’s ever-burgeoning general fund. Earlier this year,
the finance board moved to keep the town’s fund balance at 12% of the
total town budget, currently estimated at $63.4 million for the 2008-09
fiscal year.
Weston Forum
Jun 4, 2008
Weston Town Meeting at a glance
Who: All registered Weston voters and Weston property owners who hold
at least $1,000 of taxable assets may vote at the Town Meeting.
Weston Forum
Jun 4, 2008
Weston school district
Head lice issue refuses to die
by Patricia Gay
The Weston school district’s lice notification policy is still a hairy issue for some parents.
Despite recent publicity by the media, including The Forum and Channel
12 news, parents say administrators are not getting the word out
quickly enough when lice are discovered at the schools.
Betsy Peyreigne, the mother of a student at the Weston Intermediate
School, takes issue with the district’s policy not to notify parents
when a student in their child’s classroom has nits — the unhatched eggs
of head lice.
The schools are notifying parents only when they have a “verified case”
of live lice in the classroom, meaning the school nurse has seen lice
on the child, or the lice has been confirmed by a professional source
such as a medical doctor.
Weston Forum
Jun 4, 2008
Stephen Barber
Eagle has roots in scouting
by Patricia Gay
Stephen Barber’s grandfather, the late Alden Barber, would be proud of him.
Mr. Barber had a long and distinguished career with the Boy Scouts of
America and served as chief scout executive from 1967 to 1976.
On June 16, Stephen will honor his grandfather’s memory when he
receives the Eagle Scout award, Boy Scouts highest honor, at a Court of
Honor ceremony in Redding.
“My grandfather was very involved in scouting, and that had an influence on my scouting experience,” Stephen said.
Stephen, 18, is a senior at Weston High School and a member of
Georgetown Boy Scout Troop 40, which serves Redding and Weston. He is
just the second Eagle Scout from that troop.
"Troop 40 was active in the 1980s, and then it went dormant for 20 years and was restarted in 2004," Stephen said.
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