Chair Report: Referendum Reminder & Review of April 25 Meetings

Good Afternoon, and a happy Arbor Day Neighbors! As a reminder, our Budget Referendum will be held this Tuesday, May 2nd, from 6am until 8pm at the Tolland Public Library Program Room. More details on the budget will follow the chair’s report. Please see below a review of our special and regular town council meetings held on April 25th.

On Tuesday, April 25th the Town Council convened a special meeting to engage in a site walk at the ‘Tolland Marsh’ property off Cider Mill Road, commonly known as the Hatch Property or Lyle Thorpe property. This land was previously purchased by a resident who has interest in providing it to the town for recreation purposes. Both the town as well as the conservation commission have engaged in activities to seek out grants from the state to help with the cost of taking ownership of this property and have proposed plans for various recreational trails, ADA accessible parking and kayak/canoe pathways for fishing.

Members of the conservation commission, town staff and members of town council reviewed the proposed parking lot space, toured a portion of the ADA trail and the boat launch site with the owner of the property. Discussion included safety/security at the parking area, the status of the grant and questions regarding stocking the waterways if recreational fishing is promoted.

Following the site walk, the council reconvened for our second regular meeting of the month. The first item of business was a proclamation read into the record recognizing Mr. Leon H. Parker for his 50 years of service to the Town of Tolland in the Public Works Department. We thank Mr. Leon for their half a century of work responding to storms and maintaining hundreds of thousands of miles of roadway.

The Town Council then held a public hearing to amend a revise chapter 20, subsection 20-3 of the Town code (Ordinance 91) regarding fire mitigation rates for fire and rescue. Rates are being adjusted and increased to align with current industry standards based on the consultation of Fire Recovery USA, which provides consultation to 10 departments in CT including Tolland as well as clients in 43 other states. These revisions were approved unanimously.

After the public hearing, the Town Council met with resident Bob Rubino, Tax Assessor Jason Lawrence and Human Services Director Beverly Bellody to discuss improvements and changes to Tolland’s Ordinance 60 tax relief program. This program is designed specifically for permanently disabled residents and senior residents of Tolland. They will provide a review of the current program and costs and scenarios that would increase use of the program if revised to a stepped-benefit program.

After discussion with council, it was decided to have the recommended changes drafted for our first meeting in May and tentatively set a public hearing at our second meeting regarding these proposed changes.

To review the minutes and packet, please visit:

April 25th Special Meeting Minutes – https://ecode360.com/TO1208/document/723389308.pdf

April 25th Regular Meeting Minutes – https://ecode360.com/TO1208/document/723371777.pdf

April 25th Regular Meeting Packet – https://www.tollandct.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif3921/f/uploads/2023-04-25_regular_meeting_packet.pdf

Town Manager’s April Report - https://www.tollandct.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif3921/f/uploads/2023-04-11_town_managers_report_with_attachments.pdf

Thank you for taking the time to review this report and the attached links above. If you would like to submit any questions or comments to the Town Council regarding the budget and other town-related topics, please email us at towncouncil@tollandct.gov.

To review all information regarding the budget, please visit https://www.tollandct.gov/finance-department/pages/2023-2024-budget-information. This link includes the referendum flyer and all meeting documentation that led up to our setting the budget and ballot to go out to a town-wide vote. I hope residents review this information carefully and make a plan to come out to vote on May 2nd, as turnout is traditionally below 20%. Have a great first week of May!