Author: Kathryn Boughton

The Rails to Trails Committee opened four bids Thursday for the long-delayed North Brook Trail. Three bids ranged from a low of $774,406 to a high of $1,900,000. A fourth bid was rejected as being incomplete.

The committee will discuss the bids during its regular meeting on Thursday, May 14, but one had a clear advantage. The low bid, submitted Yield Industries, LLC, came in about $8,000 under the amount the committee hopes to have for construction. 

The town received a $399,000 state grant in 2023, but the project was delayed by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, which decided that the permit application should come from the state and not the town. The town finally received its general permit in March.

“The state dragged its heels for three years,” said committee Chairman Bob Gilchrest. “During that time prices went up and there was a lot of beaver activity. The state took so long we had to raise the boardwalk and extend it by 100 feet. What had been puddles became a lake.”

The committee is seeking an additional state grant of $226,000 to meet increased costs but has yet to hear whether its application has been successful.

Gilchrest noted that the project is on state land and the state would like to have it done all at once and not in phases. The committee hopes to begin construction in late summer or fall, with the majority of the work happening in 2027. 

—Kathryn Boughton

Eight of the nine bat species in Connecticut are currently listed as endangered, threatened or of special concern due to severe population declines from white-nose syndrome. Only the big brown bat is not currently listed.

Bats are considered vital to the ecology because they consume vast quantities of small flying insects—a little brown bat eats up to 1,200 mosquito-size insects in an hour—controlling insect populations and helping to prevent the spread of diseases such as West Nile fever.

Despite their important ecological roles, however, little is known about which state-listed bat species are recovering or how they interact with different forest environments and conditions. 

In an attempt to learn more, Great Mountain Forest is partnering with the University of Connecticut (UConn) and Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) to track bat activity across a range of habitats within the forest.

During the study, UConn faculty members will oversee undergraduate and master-degree level students using acoustic monitors and remote sensors to capture bat activity throughout the Great Mountain Forest. Dr. Devaughn Fraser, a wildlife biologist at DEEP, will lend additional expertise. 

GMF forester Kate Regan-Loomis will work with the teams to refine maps of forest stands, wetlands and management histories, while three GMF summer forestry interns will conduct on-the-ground surveys, gathering data on forest tree species composition and structure. 

Together with UConn and DEEP, they will create a dataset linking bat activity to habitat features across more than 1,000 acres. In addition to informing scientists about bat recovery and activity, the findings will be shared through K–12 science field trips and GMF Woodland Academy workshops for landowners and professionals.

Even those not working with the forest study can add to the DEEP’s understanding of bat recovery in the state. DEEP encourages reporting of summer bat colonies and sightings through their bat page.

—Kathryn Boughton

It’s been only three short years since replacement of the first bridge on Mountain Road was completed, freeing traffic and walkers to traverse the scenic section of road from Route 272 to Westside Road. Now the road is closed again as work begins on a second bridge.

The second bridge, located about 200 feet from Westside Road on the Route 272 side of the intersection, will be a clear span rather than the three-cell culvert currently in place and will provide for wildlife crossings underneath it. 

The estimated construction cost for this project is approximately $1.86 million. The federal government will pay 80 percent of the cost through its federal bridge program, and the state will assume payment for the remaining 20 percent. 

The existing bridge was constructed in 1955 and is a 21-foot-long, span in poor condition, according to the DOT. 

—Kathryn Boughton

The Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department has partnered with Stadium Systems in Canaan to launch an online store featuring a wide range of NVFD-branded merchandise for men and women, including t-shirts, hoodies, hats, mugs, blankets and more. 

Items can be customized with choices of different designs such as the department’s Yeti or fire department logos, or the NVFD shield. To order directly from Stadium Systems, click here or use the QR code found on the department’s website and Facebook page. 

Orders are processed on the first and 15th of each month and shipped directly to the address provided at checkout.

—Kathryn Boughton

James Clark, the town’s building official, has retired as of May 1, complicating the continuing oversight needed for construction of the fire house.

First Selectman Henry Tirrell hopes to have an inspector from another town help out on a temporary basis, and the fire department is getting someone from a neighboring town to come. 

There is a dearth of building officials in the Northwest Corner and currently six communities lack an official.

Approximately half of the towns surveyed by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities reported that building inspector is the most difficult position to fill. Indeed, 89 percent of municipalities surveyed reported difficulty finding candidates to fill these positions.

A licensed building official in Connecticut must complete training programs focused on state building codes that range from single-day sessions to several months. After licensing, they must earn 90 hours of continuing education credits every three years to maintain certification.

Smaller towns are particularly challenged in finding officials because of lower pay scales. Many towns share inspectors and that is the course Tirrell expects to follow in coming months. 

—Kathryn Boughton

The Inland Wetlands Agency is proposing new permit fees to ensure the town recovers its expenses for required legal notices and state fees. The agency will hold a public hearing for the changes on June 1.

Prior to the public hearing, the fees will be reviewed by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. And because the current fees are cited in the ordinance governing the agency, the changes must receive town meeting approval.

Proposed changes include a $60 base fee and a $275 charge for substantial activity. 

Wetlands Enforcement Officer Stacey Sefcik said the proposed fees will vary with location—whether in a wetland or an Upland Review Area—and with the intensity of the disturbance. Increasing fees proportionally for wetland and upland review areas is intended to discourage applicants from activity in sensitive areas.

After-the-fact permit fees will also be proposed: $150 for a residential use and $300 for a commercial property. After-the-fact permits are sought when the property owner has already done the work without IWA approval.

—Kathryn Boughton

Early stages of construction of the new fire house have produced one potentially costly hiccup. 

“It was related to the depth of the footings in one area,” said First Selectman Henry Tirrell. “There was an unanticipated adjustment once they got started.” 

The adjustment required a “step down” footing, a foundation technique where the concrete footing changes elevation in horizontal “steps” to follow sloped or uneven ground rather than keeping a constant depth.

Discussion with the contractor centered on whether the possibility of the problem could have been foreseen and who would bear the cost. The increased cost was originally estimated at $80,000, Tirrell said, but was eventually reduced to $28,000, drawn from the contingency fund built into the $10-plus million-budget for the fire house. 

Tirrell said enough invoices have now been generated to apply for the first third—$833,000—of the state’s $2.5 million grant. Money must be expended before reimbursement is received from the state. 

The $500,000 federal grant will not become available until the project is finished.

—Kathryn Boughton

The Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department is accepting applications or its annual William F. Kelley Road Race Scholarship. 

High school seniors and college/higher education students living in Norfolk are eligible to apply. Submissions must be mailed to the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department, Attn: Scholarship, 20 Shepard Rd., Norfolk CT 06058 by May 15 and should be accompanied by a resume listing what you’ve done in the last four years, including volunteer activities, hobbies, special recognitions and employment.

The fire department will hold its annual Memorial Day 5K road race Monday, May 25 to raise funds for the scholarship, but additional donations are being sought. Those wishing to donate can click here or mail contributions to the address above. For more information, email info@norfolkfire.org.

—Kathryn Boughton

A lightly attended public hearing held Monday to present a proposed $9,426,846 budget for 2026-2027 drew no comment from the public. The budget, which reflects an increase of $189,276, up 2.05 percent over the current budget, will not boost taxation.

The amount of increase was misstated in last week’s budget article as 2.50 percent.

The Board of Finance will pull $216,000 from the town’s Positive Balance Fund to offset any increase, keeping the mill rate flat at 22.49.

“The increase in the budget was modest, less than inflation,” said Board of Finance Chairman Michael Sconyers. “The Board of Selectmen deserves a lot of credit for this, despite having to deal with a couple of curveballs.”

He was referring to a town meeting held a couple of weeks ago that approved buying a new $270,000 plow truck for this coming winter using funds remaining from the termination of the town’s defined pension plan. That meeting also set aside $130,000 from the same source to start a savings account for the purchase of a $1.1 million firetruck. 

Another $130,000 is set aside in the proposed budget for the fire truck and a second plow truck will also be purchased.

First Selectman Henry Tirrell said he has applied for federal Congressional discretionary funds to help with the purchase of the fire truck and is hopeful the town will receive the money. 

“This budget is really good news,” said Sconyers.

It will be taken to a 7:00 p.m. town meeting on Monday, May 11, at Botelle School.

—Kathryn Boughton

The town will receive a $585,000 insurance settlement that will close out a trucking firm’s liability for damages incurred when its truck, carrying 8,200 of gasoline, overturned on Route 44 in November 2022.

First Selectman Henry Tirrell revealed at Monday’s public hearing that he will hold a special Board of Selectmen’s meeting next week to get authorization to sign the settlement.

Closure has been a long time coming. Former First Selectman Matt Riiska initiated the claim against Soundview Transportation during his term in office, citing some $750,000 in costs the town had to cover during the cleanup. Negotiations dragged on, however, and he left office last November without reaching a resolution with Federated Service Insurance Company.

The town eventually took the issue to court. To date, it has expended $143,000 in legal fees and may have more expense before all is concluded, according to Tirrell. The money to pay those fees will be taken from the settlement, with the selectmen recommending that the remainder be applied toward the cost of a new firetruck anticipated to cost $1.1 million.

While most damage has been mitigated, Verdantas, an environmental consulting firm, continues to monitor pollution levels and tests soil and groundwater in the aftermath of the gasoline spill. Soundview Transportation is responsible for the cost of that work. 

—Kathryn Boughton