Like many other town committees and boards, the Borough Board of Burgesses started to discuss a preliminary budget at the Tuesday, March 11 meeting.

Borough Warden Jay Maher began the conversation saying, “As you know, many of these line items that we’ve had this past year have been stressed, and they will continue to be stressed as we close this year out.”

Maher sent out an informational “working document” that the burgesses referenced throughout the meeting.

Burgess Jim Gaston said, “I think it’s good, Jay … I think it’s spot on, quite frankly.”

Senior Burgess Chris Gardner said he had concerns about legal fees.

“It’s no mystery that we have fought a very hard fight with this application,” Gardner said, referring to the Castle Hill Development that was recently approved. “It’s cost us a lot of money to defend the Borough … and we need to continue to defend the Borough. I don’t see any way around it.”

Gardner said he expects to be sued by both sides, “if not, we have already.” Gardner wanted to make the legal line item for the 2025-2026 budget $50,000.

Gaston suggested splitting the increase over two years, but Gardner was concerned that would not be enough. Gaston then suggested to make the legal line item $30,000 and to pull extra funds from the non-allocated line item from the fund balance if needed.

This suggestion stuck, and the legal line item was changed from $18,000 to $30,000 in the preliminary budget.

Ann Scaia, the Borough clerk and treasurer, met with Borough Auditor Glenn Nanavaty, and discussed bringing the Borough “into the 21st Century.” Scaia explained she is exploring the possibility of using QuickBooks to help the Borough write reports.

“I’m online now, which is really exciting,” Scaia said. Scaia has started the transition of electronic transfers for the Borough so she no longer has to go to the bank and write checks.

“If you’re looking at my reports, you’re seeing me say ‘transfer’ on my electronic transfer, so we’re kind of getting away from checks,” Scaia explained. Scaia has been streamlining the Borough’s finances and working diligently with Nanavaty to make things quick, easy, and, most of all, accessible.

The burgesses decided to add more money into the office supplies line item so Scaia could purchase a subscription for QuickBooks.

Community News

The burgesses briefly discussed the luminary event at the Liberty and Peace Monument over Memorial Day weekend.

“For years, we’ve given approval for Memorial Day for the American Legion to have the ceremony on the [Liberty and Peace Monument] and also have the luminaries, and that’s from Saturday, May 24 to Monday, May 26. We need permission from the Borough to do that,” Gaston said.

He added that the Borough gives money to the American Legion for that event and wanted to increase the amount this year.

Gardner said, “It’s … a nice event for the Borough.” All the other burgesses agreed.

The burgesses made a motion to accept the event and donate $350 to the American Legion, which passed unanimously.

There was a brief discussion afterwards regarding the two unnamed streams in the Borough.

Maher said, “Okay, so I did spend some time with Rob Sibley and Steve Maguire, and that stream at Ram Pasture does have a name.”

Charles Zukowski, the chair of the Bike & Trail Committee, said that on DEEP maps, the stream is called “Country Club Brook.”

Maher explained, “It’s called Deep Brook Tributary 5.” He added that the process to name the streams would require going to the US Board of Geographic Names and is then passed down to the Connecticut Geographic Names Authority.

“It’s something that I’m not prepared to embark upon. I don’t know if anyone else in this board is,” Maher said to the burgesses.

Burgess John Madzula added that he agrees, but appreciates Zukowski’s “zest and great skill of bringing that up to us … We can always refer to it however we want personally, but that’s a big undertaking.”

Zukowski responded, “In fact, what we could do is we all agree on a name, I could just start putting it on trail maps and you know, 30 years from now when USGS is updating their maps, they might say, ‘Oh, the locals call it this,’ so it’s not controversial.”

He added that historically, that is how names for streams appeared on maps.

One of the last items the burgesses discussed was the appointment of a new Borough Historic District clerk. Shannon Hicks was appointed in a unanimous motion.

Zoning Officer’s Report

Two interesting line items came across in Zoning Officer Joe Chapman’s, report.

The first was at 26 Main Street for a “proposed cell tower antenna within the existing church steeple with ground mounted, natural gas-powered backup generator enclosed by a fence.” The Historic District will need to approve the application due to the generator being seen from the road. The antenna will be within the existing steeple, so it will not be seen from the road.

The other line item that drew a lot of attention was for 9 Diamond Drive, “application for home-based business as a bakery with a small, roadside stand to sell baked goods produced there.” Maher added that the application was approved.

Gaston asked, “Is Borough Zoning going to say no to anything?”

Peter Schwarz, a resident and a burgess candidate, asked Maher to repeat the line item from the report. He added, “It’s not April first.”

Burgess Sarah Phillips added that home-based bakeries need licenses and health inspections, thus commercializing a private residence. Some burgesses added concern for baked goods in the summer sitting outside in the sun. Maher said he will ask Chapman about this application.

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.