Select Board Annual Report (2006-07)

Article Index Select Board Annual Report (2006-07) page 2 All Pages Page 1 of 2 The Town Report serves as a tool to inform the citizens of the Town about many subjects. It presents past, present, and proposed future budgets, serves as legal notification of upcoming Town Meeting votes, provides reports on everything from zoning and planning issues, to property valuation and property taxes, to activities of social service agencies active in our Town. These are all very useful to both provide an accurate picture of Town affairs and, as a result, allow the voters to make informed decisions on budgets, appropriations, capital purchases, and candidates for elected positions. Among the many functions of the annual Town Report, however, one is often overlooked. Anyone who has looked into the history of the Town will likely know what that is. Perusing Town Reports from the past provides a unique look at the workings of the Town over the span of years. Incremental changes over the years often reveal changing Town government priorities as the proportion of the budget spent on infrastructure or education, for example, shifts with time. Sometimes changing budgets and grand lists reflect population trends as one section of Town or another experiences relatively faster growth. So, the yearly Town Reports are useful to see changing trends across our Town over time. The Select Board, along with the School Board, are the two governing bodies whose decisions over the years set the course and direction of the Town. Those decisions, along with those of the voters and other Town officials, are reflected in the annual Town Reports and, when looked at over a period of years, provide an accurate picture of the history of the Town. The remainder of this Select Board Report provides a summary of Board actions and projects over the last year that are all parts of the larger picture of Town government in 2006-2007 and may not be reported elsewhere except perhaps as line items in the budget. Taken together, we hope that they provide current and future readers with a window into some of the whys, and hows to go with the whats of the budget and other reports. Weathersfield has over one hundred miles of public highways, most of which are maintained by the Town. Our obligation to maintain these roads results in a large portion of the budget being apportioned to road upkeep and repair. We are fortunate to have an excellent Highway Department crew, ably led by Highway Superintendent Westley Hazeltine. In addition to routine maintenance, this year we finished repaving Thrasher Road from Route 5 west to the I-91 overpass. Additional paving was done on Stoughton Pond Road, but the section over the Stoughton Pond dam remains unfinished. We obtained a Public Lands Highway Grant to fund the Stoughton Pond project. However, these grants come with numerous strings attached. Federal bidding standards, wage scales, and other administrative requirements for projects on federal (Corps of Engineers) property greatly increase the total project cost, causing us to seek additional funding before proceeding. Prev - Next >>