Council Meeting 6/13

It's 1:11am and I JUST got home. Oh boy was this meeting a doozy.

First major item on the agenda was the public hearing regarding the $233k special appropriation for the pool. And the supporters turned out. Actually, that surprised me a bit. I think I've probably been the harshest Council critic of the pool subsidy. And I had told everyone that I was supporting the appropriation. I figured that the only way I could've voted against the appropriation at this point would have been if I voted to shut down the pool months ago. But I did not do that. So I felt compelled to vote for this.

Anyway, for the most part, I thought it was great how many people turned out to a public meeting and speak their mind... including little kids. The only thing that concerned me was what I thought were unfair charges about the press being unfair toward the pool. The two newspapers mentioned were the Cheshire Herald and the Record-Journal. I don't read the RJ everyday, so won't speak to that. But like most people in town, I do read the Herald. And I think that they are very fair in their reporting. In fact, that's not just my opinion. I've heard that from constituents... that the Herald does a good job trying to present both sides of the argument, particularly in relation to the pool. So I thought those comments were unnecessary and unwarranted. Having said that, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I guess I just wish people took shots at me, rather than at the press. I mean, as an elected official, I'm kind of asking for it. Right? Hahaha....

In the end, the Council voted 8-0 (Ecke absent) in favor of the appropriation.

Next thing that caught my attention was our Mayor, Matt Hall, asking me to read a proclamation. This was a bit unusual, but very much appreciated. The proclamation was for Alcohol Awareness Week. The week will take place from June 18-24. Not much will happen this year in relation to the week, but town staff is hopeful for doing more next year... perhaps even doing something like a teen survey.

There were some other items that came up, such as a request by the Energy Commission for a bid waiver on a continuation of their lighting improvement project. They asked for the waiver so they could use the same company that they've used for all the other buildings in town that they've done. The difference here was that because we were using a different grant program, bidding was required. So the EC requested the bid get waived. The motion to waive the bid passed.

There was a bit of discussion on a request to spend $9,000 on a consultant for the design of new ballfields at the corner of Highland Ave and Jarvis. The motion passed 6-2 (Schrumm & White opposed). I know there's a lot of concern with ballfields in town, but I simply didn't see the point in spending this money right now. As I said during the meeting, if the linear park didn't pass last year for $900k... then I have serious doubts that $2,000,000 for new baseball fields would pass this year at referendum. So I saw no need to do this now. As well, I think we may be able to do this in-house. Although that could take a while, years even. But if the town has no appetite for big ticket recreation projects, I figure we can hold off for a while.

Other than that, as the meeting had gone on so long, we tabled a few items. As well, in executive session we discussed collective bargaining agreements and Town of Cheshire vs. Baker.

Alrighty... it's too late for me to write anymore... maybe I'll write a bit more in the morning. I'm just too tired right now. By the way, since we did not finish everything on the agenda, we may end up having another (ugh!!) special meeting next week. We'll have to wait n see...

Tim White
Town Council, 4th District
TimWhite98@yahoo.com