First Selectman Matt Riiska said Friday that a meeting to explain funding for the new fire house slated for April 19 at the Hub has been cancelled. A later meeting, tentatively scheduled for April 24 at Botelle School, is still planned.
NOTE: A new meeting has been set for Thursday, April 24, at 6:00 p.m. at Bottelle School.
A balloon float will be conducted Thursday, April 17, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the 78 Goshen East Street site proposed for the location for a new cell tower. The balloon, typically a red weather balloon three feet in diameter, will be floated weather permitting.
If the weather is not conducive for the float on April 17, it will be rescheduled for Friday, April 18. Failing that, it will be Saturday, April 19.
The balloon will float at approximately the same height as the proposed 186-foot-tall wireless telecommunications tower so residents can assess its potential visual impact from various locations around Norfolk.
The land, part of a 40-acre parcel owned by Paul Chapinsky, Sr., would be accessed by a 940-foot gravel road off Estey Road. A 73-foot-by-73-foot fence would surround equipment including battery cabinets, a propane-fueled generator and a 1,000-gallon propane tank.
Neighbors abutting the site will be notified by mail of the balloon float date(s). Should a cancellation occur, the construction firm, Tarpon Towers, will work with the Land Use Office to reschedule and notify abutting neighbors of the new date.
A set of documents describing the project is available here.
For further information, contact Zoning Enforcement Officer Stacey Sefcik at zeo@norfolkct.org; 860-542-6804.
The Board of Finance will be presented with a $8,427,157 budget proposal for 2025-26 when it convenes next Tuesday. That includes $4,467,294 for educational spending at Botelle Elementary and Northwestern Regional School #7, as well as a $3,959,863 budget for town government.
If the Board of Finance chooses to apply $150,000 from the town’s surplus funds, the amount to be raised through taxes would be reduced to $8,277,157, an increase of $260,848 (3.15 percent) over current spending.
The Board of Selectmen reviewed the budget Wednesday night, making last-minute adjustments. First Selectman Matt Riiska stressed that these are preliminary figures and still face a review by the Board of Finance and a public hearing before being sent to a town meeting vote in May.
If approved as presented, the mill rate would be set at 22.59, down from 28.40 this year. The mill rate represents how much tax is levied on a property for every $1,000 of assessed value. If the mill rate is 30, for instance, $30 of property tax will be charged for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value.
The mill rate is determined by calculating the number that, when combined with the Grand List and other sources of revenue, produces enough taxes to pay the town’s expenses. Thus, when the Grand List goes up, the mill rate usually goes down.
Norfolk’s Grand List totaled $366,458,625 on October 1, up $84,205,327 (29.83 percent) following the recent property revaluation.
For a list of past mill rates, going back to 1989/90, click here.
Two meetings to explain financing for the new fire house to Norfolk residents will be held before the Board of Finance holds its annual budget hearing at the end of April. The first meeting will be held Saturday, April 19, at 11:00 a.m. at the Hub and the second is tentatively slated for Tuesday night, April 24, at Botelle School.
The firefighters have cut about a million dollars out of the plan, reducing the expected cost to $8.5 million. Riiska expects when all funds are amassed from private donors and governmental sources, the town will have to borrow between $2.5 and $3.5 million. “We’re trying to get it down to $2.5 million, which would be excellent,” he said.
Bonnie, a certified labradoodle therapy dog, can’t wait to interact with the students at the Botelle and Colebrook elementary schools, which she visits each week. “She gets excited when I get out her red therapy dog kerchief,” said owner Kate Nelligan of Winsted.
Nelligan brings the dog to Colebrook on Tuesdays, where students read to her, encouraging literacy. That is important to Nelligan, a former reading instructor herself. At Botelle on Thursdays, the pup specializes in kisses and cuddles.
Bonnie has become a great favorite with both Botelle’s students and staff, who all of whom succumb to her soft brown eyes and friendly disposition. She has been coming to Botelle for the past year after completing eight weeks of training through Canine Link Therapy Dogs, a volunteer organization based in Sheffield, Mass. Canine Links prepares therapy dog teams to visit nursing homes, schools, libraries and hospice care centers throughout the tri-state area.
Nelligan said she got the dog because she has an older Labradoodle that “is just so wonderful.”
“I said I wanted another dog from that breeder,” she said, “so, we got Bonnie, and it turns out she is his full sister, although from a different litter, and she is just as wonderful.”
Nelligan said that to be a therapy dog, an animal has to look forward to meeting people and be unflappable in temperament.
Nelligan brings Bonnie to Botelle each week and children are allowed to interact with her for 15 minutes at a time, either singly or in pairs. “She makes me feel calm,” said Elana as she stroked the dog’s head. Soon, Elana was curled up on a bean bag beside Bonnie, staring into her face as she petted the pretty little dog.
Abby was equally engaged with the pup on her other side, gently stroking her fur.
Norfolk’s Board of Education is seeking two community volunteers to join a search committee that will identify candidates to replace retiring School Superintendent Mary Beth Iacobelli. Iacobelli recently announced that she will retire in June at the end of her 11th year leading the school district.
The committee will also include three staff members from Botelle School and three members of the Board of Education. There will be a significant time commitment.
Those interested in participating should send a letter of interest by April 7 to searchcommittee@botelleschool.org detailing why they would like to be a member of the committee.
Last March, after the town settled a lawsuit brought by a pedestrian who fell on slippery walks in the vicinity of the Congregational Church, First Selectman Matt Riiska looked at how to indemnify the town against future accidents.
He conferred with Julia Scharnberg, head of the Historic District Commission, to discuss the issue and told her that the town had three choices: remove the walk and replace it with grass; install a gravel walk, or use prohibitively expensive granite in keeping with other walks in the historic district to replace it .
Ultimately, town officials chose the first option and this week the walkway was removed. “Granite walkways are very slippery,” explained Administrative Assistant Barbara Gomez.
A municipality is responsible by state statute for the maintenance of sidewalks, both repairing them and clearing them following storms. Riiska later sought to defray the cost of sidewalk maintenance by establishing an ordinance requiring property owners and businesses to clear their walks. This was so unpopular that residents at a well-attended town meeting would not even second the motion to bring it to the floor for discussion.
The Norfolk Hub (formerly the Norfolk Foundation), which has owned the Royal Arcanum building for the past three years, is entering into an agreement to sell it to American Folk & Heritage, LLC. A closing date has not been set.
American Folk & Heritage LLC (AF&H) is owned by Norfolk residents Emily Adams Bode Aujla, Aaron Aujla and Dev Aujla. An initiative founded in 2020, AF&H is dedicated to preserving American craft and handwork with a focus on America’s Northeast.
Through its partnership with Bode, Emily Aujila’s American luxury brand, AF&H has worked with such institutions as the American Folk Art Museum, Shaker Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
The Norfolk Hub has lease agreements with all the commercial tenants in the building as well as a master lease with the Foundation for Norfolk Living (FNL), which is responsible for renting the second-floor apartments. All second-floor tenants have been notified of a pending sale.
All commercial tenants’ leases will be honored under the current terms and, upon completion of the sale, the Norfolk Hub will allocate a portion of the sale proceeds to FNL to help with its continuing mission of providing affordable housing in the community. Tenants will be assisted in finding new living space.
FNL’s president, Kate Briggs Johnson, noted that its members appreciate the planned donation.
Norfolk Hub co-president Michael Selleck said the sale is good news, providing much-needed new cash for other capital projects in town.
AF&H is developing plans for the Arcanum. Its mission is to honor the building’s history, heritage and aesthetic, as well as to support the commercial activity of Norfolk’s downtown core.
The Royal Arcanum, a non-profit fraternal life insurer, was founded in Boston in 1877 to provide health insurance to its members. A group of Norfolk members hired architect Alfredo Taylor to design the impressive multi-purpose building in the town center, putting businesses on the first floor and meeting places for the Royal Arcanum Council and the Masonic Lodge on the third. It also once housed the town’s post office and fire department.
Construction has begun on the Foundation for Norfolk Living’s 10 affordable homes known as Haystack Woods. Last year was devoted to developing the infrastructure needed to support the “net zero,” homes, which all produce as much energy as they consume.
The construction of the actual buildings will incorporate green building techniques A groundbreaking ceremony is planned for May 9.
Located on Old Colony Road, on the 39-acre site of a former gravel pit, the development is within walking distance of the town’s center. More than 50 percent of the land will be conserved as open space and the buildings will be arranged in a cluster with many acres of green space around them. The siting of the buildings is designed to encourage a sense of community, with loop roads and shared solar carports.
The Foundation for Norfolk Living is a non-profit, volunteer-led organization whose mission is to create affordable housing opportunities for persons and families of modest means. Click here or email mail@norfolkliving.org to get updates about this project and affordable housing in Norfolk and to be the first to hear about applications for these homes.
The Planning & Zoning Commission has closed its public hearing on the Manor House application for modifications to its special permit and site plan and will hold deliberations at its next regular meeting on April 8.
On the agenda last Tuesday was additional information requested by the Commission regarding details of the Manor House’s proposed operations and more information from both those in favor of and those opposed to the plan.
The Manor House team underscored that proposed usage remained within the scope of the 1996 special permit that allowed events for up to 150 people and up to 25 rooms. Daytime usage is between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.
At current capacity of eight rooms, 16 overnight guests are permitted by fire code, as are 44 people dining and a maximum of 50 guests on the main floor at one time. In addition, the applicant stated that no more than 50 people will use the recreational facility area at one time.
For more details, click here to see the Final Set of Supplemental Materials submitted by the applicant on March 19.
In the second portion of the hearing, Norfolk citizens spoke in favor of and in opposition to the project. Those who favored the project spoke of job and community growth associated with inns elsewhere in Litchfield County. Those who opposed it cited concerns about traffic and noise, the scale of the project and Norfolk’s rural character.
After closing the hearing, the Commission decided to begin deliberations at its next meeting on April 8. The public may attend to observe deliberations but will not be allowed to comment.
With the hearing closed, under state statute the Commission has 65 days, or until May 29, to reach its decision. In addition, however, the statute allows for 65 days of extension to be used at any time during the special permit application review process provided that the applicant consents. To date, 35 of those days have been used to extend the public hearing timeline, so an additional 30 days are potentially available for extending the decision timeline. If that time were used, the commission would have to make its decision by June 28.