Chairperson's Report: Oct. 3 Special & Oct. 10 Regular Meeting Review

Good afternoon neighbors, and happy first Friday of October! Please see below the chairperson’s report for the October 3rd Special Meeting and October 10th Regular Meeting.

The Town Council met this week for a special meeting to consider two ARPA requests approved at their meeting the previous Thursday. The first item, which was unanimously approved, appropriated $115,000 from the ARPA fund and $115,000 from the Ambulance Reserve Fund to procure a gently used ambulance for the Tolland Fire Department.

Due to supply chain delays, the town’s new ambulances have yet to be delivered. This has resulted in our older ambulances to run well past planned operational hours, resulting in significant downtime for repairs. This downtime has resulted in being without one or both of our ambulances, requiring additional mutual aid into our community.

This third ambulance will cover the needs of our community and mutual aid to other communities in the event our two permanent ambulances require further work until they are replaced with the previously approved new apparatuses.

The second item for approval was unanimous approval for an allocation of up to $30,000 from the ARPA fund for a Public Safety Study. This study will be comprehensive of Fire/EMS/Rescue services, apparatus and infrastructure. The Town Council has directed Town Manager Foley’s Office to work with regional partners to locate a suitable firm to conduct this study. The last time a study was conducted was in 2010.

The Town Council will be convening next week for a Special Executive Session, followed by a regularly scheduled meeting. The executive session will be to discuss a pending claim before the town.

The Town Council will reconvene for our regular business, with two public hearings that will be held. The first hearing will be on revisions to Chapter 51 of the Tolland’s Town Code regarding Adult-Oriented Establishments. The intent of these changes is to uphold the suspension during an appeals process to the Town Council, and that a decision on an appeal from the Town Council is final.

The second hearing will be a revision to Ordinance 96, the Tax Stabilization Fund. The main changes to this ordinance is a reduction in the maximum balance from $3 million to $1 million and to conduct a review of the ordinance every five years. Any funds that exceed $1 million are transferred to the Unassigned Fund Balance, though the intent of reducing the maximum on the account is to facilitate more regular use of the fund to alleviate significant increases in the mill rate.

Following these hearings are three new items of business. The first item of business is an annual review and presentation to the Town Council by the Library Foundation President Linda Byam of their budget and activities over the past year.

The second item is a resolution authorizing the Town Manager to enter into a contract with the Town Assessor to perform the 2024 Reevaluation in-house. This process has been utilized for previous reevaluations during Mr. Lawrence’s 11 years of service to the town as Town Assessor.

The third and final item of business is an approval to appoint a resident to the Recreation Advisory Board.

To review the meeting minutes, packets and Town Manager’s Report, please visit:

October 3rd Meeting Minutes: https://ecode360.com/TO1208/document/752967832.pdf

October 10th Meeting Packet: https://www.tollandct.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif3921/f/uploads/2023-10-10_regular_meeting_packet.pdf

October 10th Special Meeting Agenda: https://ecode360.com/TO1208/document/752968157.pdf

October 10th Regular Meeting Agenda: https://ecode360.com/TO1208/document/752968158.pdf

October 10th Town Manager Report: Pending

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