Town Of Easton A Message From First Selectman Bindelglass - May 13, 2022

From: Town of Easton
May 16, 2022

The latest Covid numbers continue to rise and are affecting our schools and businesses. Again, this is a legitimate surge with a very contagious virus, but still fortunately not causing a great deal of severe illness or hospitalizations. Nonetheless, catching Covid can be uncomfortable and disruptive. For the week ending May 7, the rate of infection is 68.4/100,000.

Any senior seeking senior tax relief must submit their application to the Tax Assessor by Monday, May, 16.  I want to thank Paul Lindoerfer, who singlehandedly has tracked down and talked to senior residents for the last several years, including during Covid to make sure they could get the tax relief they deserved as well as updating the relevant ordinance.

Thursday, May 19, the Tax Collector’s office will be closed to allow the staff to attend their statewide conference.

The Town Clerk received a petition signed by approximately 700 residents asking for a special town meeting to discuss placing a Conservation Easement on the remaining property at South Park Ave. Many of you signed it on your way out of the polls on May 3rd. The people who asked you to sign the petition also sent you a leaflet in the mail urging you to vote against the sale to the Land Trust.  Ultimately, the town voted by a wide margin to sell approximately 18.70 acres to the Aspetuck Land Trust. The proposed easement would be on the remainder of the property. The Connecticut General Statutes mandate that if the town receives a petition signed by at least 50 verified voters, then it must convene a special town meeting within 21 days. Because of the statute there is extreme time pressure and we are required to make this decision on the easement in an accelerated fashion despite the fact that this has never been proposed before in the 14 years since the town bought the property. Some have already complained this would preclude consideration of any other types of proposals. We are in the process of scheduling the meeting. Setting the agenda for a special town meeting will be considered at the May 19, Board of Selectmen meeting. I will provide as much information on what this all means as quickly as I can. At this juncture, I cannot say that I support or oppose this petition because I have insufficient facts on which to base an opinion--which is the problem for all of us, including those who signed the petition. As you know, land preservation has been a top priority for me, and I've worked hard to preserve our precious natural spaces and farms in Easton. However, it took 2 years to hammer out the smart, bipartisan proposal to sell the first parcel of South Park. We arrived at a great solution because we had a consultative process which gave residents with differing priorities the opportunity to be heard. No one was left out of the discussion. We had the time to conduct financial and environmental studies. We had the chance to consult experts. I have also spent a number of months talking to the Land Trust and Citizens for Easton about a sale of the remaining 10 acres. I am not sure what would happen to those discussions now.

Obviously, this petition takes advantage of the town meeting statute to bypass all this important fact finding and public input by rushing us into a quick vote. I am very concerned If we move forward so quickly. I believe that the law of unintended consequences puts us all at risk if we push sweeping proposals through without fully examining them.  Will this proposal require us to immediately evict the current residents? Will this spark litigation that the town, and ultimately Easton taxpayers, have to pay for? Will this proposal even protect this land adequately?  Easements can significantly lower the value of a property. Will this happen to South Park? The petition offers very few details, and I have sought legal counsel to evaluate it.  I will report back with their findings, but I have only been able to give them the short paragraph which has been presented to me to evaluate. Expect to hear from me again shortly on this topic, with as much relevant information as I can give you, and please feel free to reach out.

One last point to make clear. You have come to know that I have been a strong defender of our town hall form of government.  We have made it so that you, the citizen, have been able to be heard on every question of importance before the town. This has made Easton the most democratic it has ever been. People petitioning for a town meeting is part of that process, and while that should continue, I believe we have shown there are better ways.  The Board of Selectmen have considered, and brought to the town several policies which originated with the public and are now ordinances, the proverbial law of the land. The land use and ethics ordinances are examples.  These were carefully considered and then passed. Let that be a template for how our government should work.

Next week is EMS appreciation week. Wednesday night, Easton EMT Stephen Brunetti was honored by St. Vincent's Medical Center, Bridgeport CT with an award for EMS week. EMT Brunetti went above and beyond this past winter. While on shift, he had received a call at our headquarters notifying him to the fact there was a 90-year-old who lives alone in the north end of town and desperately needed heating oil. His driveway was iced over and the, on scene, oil truck was going to refuse delivery due to the danger of his truck sliding off the driveway and leaking the oil.  EMT Brunetti exemplified what we are here at Easton Volunteer EMS and took it upon himself to drive up to the scene in the ambulance. With multiple buckets of salt/sand and a snow shovel he made this driveway safe for the truck driver to get the delivery done. This was not a small driveway and took EMT Brunetti some time to ensure the gentleman would be warm going forward. We are blessed to have such wonderful folks working for our town.

Have a great weekend,

Dave

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