Guest Blog: Councilwoman Salafia Weekly Round-up

Councilwoman Linda Salafia provides a summarized view of last week's municipal meetings with her own commentary. A unique viewpoint for our Insider readers- Stay in informed!
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Last year at this time I was attending every event that I could possibly attend, walking
door to door, working full time and was an active union officer (local 466). This year is somewhat
different, after a few months of retirement, I’m basically back to work full time trying
to get a little shop of my craftwork up and running. One of the things that I did as a
union officer was to try to attend as many committee meetings as I could so that the
union would be informed. I have found that now attending the Finance and Government
meetings is a great help in being informed prior to the council meetings. The meetings
are open to the public and I encourage everyone to attend.

  On that note, out of the last meeting, which was Wednesday, there is some exciting news.
The first being that the Common Council Clerk applied and RECEIVED a grant in the
amount of $83,205 to offset the costs of the upgrades to the audiovisual equipment in
the Council Chambers. The grant was available for equipment costs only, which in the
project were $85,000 and we were granted $83,205. Great work by the Clerk.

  Also, other great news from the meeting is that the City will be streaming the council
meetings live via the internet. The City will be contracting with Granicus through their
Legislative Management Suite to broadcast/ stream the council meetings so that those
who are not able view over Comcast will now have a venue. This program has a search
function so that the public will be able to advance to the part of the program that they
are particularly interested in.

   From the point forward that it starts, we will able to search
all meetings for a particular subject. The presentation was very detailed and looked
great. This will able to be used for all meetings that are recorded at some point. It should
be noted that the funding is included in the bond already approved so no additional
appropriation will be needed. Although I’m not able to explain all of the details here I
am excited and pleased with this move and suggest that everyone check out their website
as this company has extensive experience and only works with government entities.
At the Special Council Meeting of August 30, 2012, the ordinance and resolution
were passed regarding the referendum vote at the general election in November for
the bonding of funds for the Senior / Community Center.

 There was a presentation by Councilmen Pessina and Klattenberg and the architects on the project and somecomments from the public. Most of the comments were in favor of the senior center at
this location; however, there were two speakers who were not in favor of the project. The
decision now will be up to the public in November. (I think it’s long overdue and that the
location will work well! I’m personally a firm believer in the need for a strong and active
senior center – it should be a gathering place welcoming to all.)

  Since Labor Day is Monday, the regular monthly meeting of the Common Council will
be held on Tuesday. AT 6:00 p.m. will be a presentation by Waterhouse Development
Company for development/ building an apartment complex at 225 River Road. There is a
resolution on the agenda for the regular meeting for the approval of a 7 year property tax
fixing / abatement agreement and a capping of building permit fees and water and sewer
hook-up charges. One thing to note is that the development of this property is totally
contingent on the City decommissioning the treatment plant on River Road and joining
Mattabassett. This item will probably generate a lot of discussion at the regular meeting
as it involves significant funds being abated over a significant time period.

 However,it involves the development of private property, which is currently not bringing in the
property tax dollars that it could. I’m sure that I’m not stating that very clearly but one of
the questions is: development with concessions better than no development at all??
Also, on the agenda for the meeting is a resolution for the setting up of a CNR line item
for the replacement of fabric chairs at the Russell Library due to the bed-bug infestation.
A no-brainer in my mind.
Linda Salafia