Llodra Rubs Elbows, Shares Laments With State Municipal Leaders

By John Voket

(This is the second of a two-part interview with Pat Llodra, who took office as Newtown’s first selectman December 1.)

On her eighth day in office, First Selectman Pat Llodra was hearing about a bitter cold forecast while sharing likeminded concerns with dozens of other Connecticut town leaders. But it was not because the group battled the state’s first snowstorm to reach their Hartford gathering.

Mrs Llodra was attending her first Council Of Small Towns (COST) meeting, and sharing her deepening worry about the scope of potential cuts in aid to communities like Newtown. She does not doubt, like many of her mayor and first selectmen peers, that the cuts will be certain.

What keeps Connecticut’s municipal officials up nights is: how much?

“I’m trying to gauge the perception of how much of a reduction in funding municipalities will face midyear,” Mrs Llodra told The Bee this week. And she hopes that when cuts do come, “they won’t become the new floor in subsequent years.”

With her coat off and a cup of tea brewing, and offered, the first selectman looks over a pack of phone messages. Many, she has been apprised by assistant Sue Marcinek, are related to the day’s earlier storm.

In between calls, she planned to prep for a public hearing later that evening on a subject she was watching and studying long before she reached this elected office — the Hawleyville transfer station expansion proposal. (See separate story.)

The first selectman has also been keeping an eye on another expansion project in the area, the possible extension of United Water service.

“I’ve had the first conversation with the United Water Company [about] extending lines considerably,” she said. Mrs Llodra said she wants to understand better how the expansion will affect Newtown and the integrity of the existing water service before she can fully support the proposal, however.

Progress Being Made

Mrs Llodra also said the town was “weeks, not months,” from knowing whether there is any or enough environmental pollution on a proposed animal control facility site the state is ready to give the town to cause the town to reconsider signing the deed.

“I’m not suggesting there is a problem at all, but we need to rule out there isn’t. And assuming everything is ok, the next step will be to get the project in front of Planning and Zoning,” she said. “I know this isn’t moving along as fast as we’d like, but progress is being made.”

One week earlier, before she was settled into her new and sparsely appointed office, Mrs Llodra was nonetheless extolling the virtues of the newly opened Municipal Center and the proximity the first selectman has to the superintendent of schools.

In completing the question: Newtown needs a…? the new first selectman was quick to answer.

“Now that we’re all in this building together, we have to make it work for Newtown,” Mrs Llodra said. “We have to find the best ways for the town and schools to work collaboratively; find cost-effective ways to work; make more prudent use of our resources…”

The first selectman admitted the relationship-building will take time to develop, “but it should be a constant in everybody’s thinking,” she added. “There’s a great deal of recognition that we all have to come across the hall and engage each other figuratively and literally.”

Looking beyond the Municipal Center, Mrs Llodra said last week, and reiterated during her first Board of Selectman meeting Monday, that she shared the excitement of many who want to begin exploring and determining possible future uses and development at Fairfield Hills. She said development up to now at the town-owned facility “gives life to the campus.”

The Long Haul

Mrs Llodra believes the process of achieving a revised Fairfield Hills Master Plan “will take a long time,” and may be fraught with questions, but it should not be rushed.

“How do we garner consensus? There are a lot of process pieces — and we really have to open this up to everyone,” Mrs Llodra said. “Fairfield Hills has to take on a more positive image in the community. People need to understand that we’re going to balance the needs here against all the community’s other pressing needs.

“It’s a big challenge to reduce the acrimony and build a plan with a common good,” she added.

The finished product, she admitted, will come far beyond the end of her political career. “It will take many, many years. We’ll need a lot of that good old Yankee patience.”

Swinging her attention to the center of town and its stately Edmond Town Hall, Mrs Llodra begged the town’s patience as she works to explore a couple of viable options to breathe new life into its hallowed halls again following the departure of the core government offices to the new Municipal Center.

The Town Hall Board of Managers will also have a charge.

“We need to see a usage plan; we need a viable CIP for Edmond Town Hall; and we need to see a business plan — to see where resources can come from and then determine how to make it happen,” she said.

The first selectman’s goal to tackle the master plan for Fairfield Hills will be overlaid with a proposal to concurrently begin examining the town’s overall Master Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD).

“The POCD is usable for long-range planning, but not in its present form. The content and structure is workable, but we also need a full portfolio and review of the condition of all town facilities,” Mrs Llodra said. “And we need a review process to document the status of our infrastructures. That package of data will be the most important tool as we continue our long-range planning.”