Community News

The Region 7 Board of Education will make a second informal presentation of its proposed 2025-2026 budget Wednesday, March 26, at 6:30 p.m. in the Botelle School cafeteria.

On March 12, the Board of Education voted to decrease the budget total to $24,824,729. The budget is still up $554,637, or 2.29 percent, over current spending. For details, click here.

The four Region 7 member towns pay assessments based on their student populations as they relate to the other towns. Norfolk, which paid $2,146,693 last year, is sending 10 fewer students this year, dropping its assessment by $171,148 to $1,975,535.

The Norfolk Board of Education will meet following the presentation to adopt the call for the annual budget hearing and to set its date for April 21.

—Newsletter Editor

It’s happened! It’s officially spring and as the Earth prepares for rebirth, the Norfolk Conservation Commission is planning to play midwife. 

The world is experiencing rapid climate change, and the commission is ready to help homeowners cull invasive plants and creatures that harm the landscape. Each month it posts “Wanted” posters for the “Invasive Plant of the Month,” providing pictures, descriptions of the plant’s properties and advice on how to get rid of it.

Copies are available at the Hub and more information can be requested at NCCInvasiveRemoval@gmail.com. Also available at the Hub is the NCC’s cheat sheet on Norfolk’s six worst invasive plants and what to do about them.

Not wanted at all are the invasive Asian Jumping Worms that constitute a serious threat to forest ecosystems across the U.S. The Conservation Commission will present a lecture about the worms at the Hub, March 26 at 5:00 p.m. Annise Dobson, a research scientist from Yale University, will be the speaker. 

The program will be presented in-person and via Zoom. For more information and registration, visit the Hub’s website.

A second event event, this one sponsored by Aton Forest, looks ahead at a changing landscape and how to react to it. It will present “The Right trees for Tomorrow, Smart Planting in a Changing New England,” Sunday, April 6, at 2:00 p.m., also at the Hub. 

Speakers Bill Gridley, Aton Forest head steward; Dave Beers, Connecticut DEEP western forester; Amanda Bunce, UConn research assistant, and Nash Pradhan of Ginger Creek Nursery and Aton Forest, will discuss species that can be planted to replace trees such as ash, sugar maple and beech that are under stress. Register here.

—Newsletter Editor

Verizon has located a new site for a 186-foot wireless telecommunications tower in South Norfolk and will hold an informational meeting for the public on Wednesday, March 26, at 7:00 p.m. at Botelle School. 

A set of documents describing the project is available here. 

Cellco Partnerhsip, doing business as Verizon, will present the application to the Connecticut Siting Council. A letter to First Selectman Matt Riiska from Cellco’s attorneys, Robinson & Cole LLP, said the new facility “will provide improved wireless service in the southern portions of Norfolk and northern portions of Goshen.” There is currently no signal from just south of the village center to the Burrville section of Torrington.

The land, part of a 40-acre parcel, is located at 78 Goshen East Street and is owned by Paul Chapinsky Sr. The tower, proposed for the western corner of his land, would be accessed by a 940-foot dirt road off Estey Road. A 73-foot-by-73-foot fenced compound would surround equipment including battery cabinets, a propane-fueled generator and a 1,000-gallon propane tank.

While local zoning has little control over the placement of telecommunication towers, the Town of Norfolk can choose to become an intervenor in the proceeding. The Connecticut Siting Council will hold both a pre-hearing conference and a public hearing on the application and, prior to construction, the council will require Cellco to submit a development and management plan that incorporates any conditions it imposes. 

These procedures are outside the town’s jurisdiction and are governed by state statutes.

Robinson & Cole wrote, “In our experience, the primary [environmental] impact of a wireless facility such as the proposed Norfolk South facility is visual.” That impact will vary from place to place in South Norfolk, they conceded, “with the majority of the year-round visibility affecting 183 acres, or 2.3 percent, of the two-mile radius study area.”

Norfolk Zoning Enforcement Officer Stacey Sefcik asked for a test that calls for a balloon to be floated on the site at the height of the tower to assess visibility.

Last year, residents of Old Goshen Road were alarmed to learn of a proposal to build a Verizon tower virtually in their front yards. They considered trying to raise funds to buy the 10-acre parcel from Michael Farrington, the Florida man who had inherited, but never visited, the land. The plan for that property faded and Verizon moved on to the new location.

—Newsletter Editor

State Attorney General William Tong has announced $350,000 in penalties and payments will be levied on Soundview Transportation following the November 2022 oil tanker accident in Norfolk. 

The settlement requires Soundview to pay $100,000 to the state as a civil penalty, $200,000 payment to compensate DEEP for costs associated with overseeing remediation and $50,000 to the Office of the Attorney General’s Consumer Fund to support state enforcement actions on behalf of Connecticut consumers.

In addition, Soundview is fully responsible for all costs for the original and continuing remediation and clean-up of the contamination, which will total millions of dollars. 

The accident occurred in the early morning hours of November 5, 2022, when a tanker truck leased and operated by Soundview hit a utility pole and a fire hydrant on Route 44 just west of Botelle School. The truck’s full cargo of 8,200 gallons of gasoline spilled out, contaminating the yards of nearby residences and traveling through the town’s stormwater sewer system into nearby surface and groundwaters. It is the largest petroleum spill in Connecticut history.

“Soundview’s tanker accident resulted in severe disruption to neighbors and significant environmental harm,” said Tong. 

The accident sent 20 regional mutual aid companies scrambling to assist Norfolk’s first responders. Reacting to the real possibility of a massive explosion, they worked quickly to reduce the hazard, ordering the electricity in the village center to be turned off. Aquarion Water Company was contacted to ensure adequate water pressure for any firefighting efforts and the DEEP Emergency Response Unit arrived to work with volunteer first responders. 

The concentration of toxic and potentially explosive chemicals caused six residences to be evacuated. Some of these families would not return to their homes for many months.

Ongoing remediation efforts required substantial removal of contaminated material along Route 44, Maple Avenue and neighboring streets. The saturated ground around the two nearest properties—approximately 600 tons—was removed to a depth of nine feet. Vacuum trucks removed approximately 90 thousand gallons of contaminated water from streams and storm drains. 

Norfolk has been reimbursed for its remediation efforts through payments from Soundview’s insurer. First Selectman Matt Riiska estimated that $500,000 was expended on cleaning up contamination on Maple Avenue alone. The town was also responsible for housing the displaced residents.

—Newsletter Editor

Wednesday night First Selectman Matt Riiska gave the Board of Finance a first peek at a proposed $8 million-plus 2025-26 municipal budget. Because of a post-revaluation increase in property values and conservative spending, he predicted that the mill rate will drop to 22.5 from this year’s level of 28.4. 

A mill is equal to $1.00 of tax for each $1,000 of assessment. To calculate the property tax, the property’s assessment is multiplied by the mill rate and divide by 1,000. In general, when property values go up, mill rates drop because the town taxes only for the funds it needs and fewer mills are needed to generate those funds based on the higher assessments.

“But don’t get excited about that decrease,” Riiska told members of the Board of Finance. Following the recent revaluation, he is still trying to get a handle on the actual value of properties. Property values are said to have increased between 24 and 35 percent, “but 24 percent to 35 percent is a big range,” he said.

“If you paid taxes on a $250,000 home last year, your taxes would have been about $7,100 [at 28.4 mills],” he explained. “If your property value increased 24 percent, you would pay about $7,200 at 22.5 mills. But if it is 35 percent increase, you are going to pay more.” 

He said the October 1 Grand List totals $366,409,204, of which $331,129,480 is in real estate. There is about another $15 million for personal property and more than $19 million for motor vehicles. “Originally motor vehicles were $17 million,” Riiska said, “but last week the Governor signed a bill that allowed municipalities to change the way they assess motor vehicles.”

The new bill allows towns to use manufacturers’ retail prices to assess vehicles rather than the National Automobile Dealers Association’s annual appraisal guide, which usually assigns lower values. 

Under the new system, if a car is a year old, 90 percent of its value is subject to tax. That goes down 5 percentage points every year until the car is 20 years old or older, when the tax bill is based on 15 percent of the car’s value or $500, whichever is greater.

Riiska said he is still refining budget figures, but that with decreased budget demands from Regional School #7 and Botelle School in the coming year, the total municipal budget should be “$8,250,000-ish.”

—Newsletter Editor

Tuesday night the Planning & Zoning Commission again continued the public hearing on modifications to the special permit and site plan for the Manor House until a March 25 special meeting as it awaits more information from both the applicants and those opposed to the plan.

March 25 will be the fourth session for the public hearing, which has already heard more than nine hours of testimony during the first three meetings. 

The Manor House, located in a residential zone on Maple Street, has hosted guests for nearly 50 years and was granted a special permit to operate as a country inn in 1996. A site plan is referenced in the minutes of the meeting that approved the permit, but it cannot be located, complicating the current P&Z Commission’s ability to judge what exactly was approved 29 years ago.

The application currently under discussion seeks to modernize and enhance services at the inn by adding recreational facilities at the rear of the main building, constructing a new storage garage, expanding their current food service, and upgrading the parking area. Earlier plans to construct two Nordic-style guest cabins and their associated walkways and lighting have been removed.

Click here for links to the proposed plan and other application documents.

—Newsletter Editor

The Army Corps of Engineers has given finally its imprimatur to the town’s plan to construct a temporary bridge on Smith Road. Approval has been sought since last summer.

“Now it is up to DEEP to approve it,” said First Selectman Matt Riiska. “I have been on the phone with our engineer, and I sent an email to DEEP to let them know we are prepared to move forward.”

Still, he was uncertain when he might get a green light from the state. “The point that I push with all these people is that the permanent replacement for the bridge won’t be done for two years. I just want to build this temporary bridge so the people on Smith and Old Goshen Roads can have some comfort.”

The Old Goshen and Smith Road bridges were swept away by a flash flood in July 2023.

—Newsletter Editor

The $1.25 million in federal funding the town hoped to get to assist with building a new fire house appears to be on indefinite hold. 

A representative of U.S. Representative Jahana Hayes met with First Selectman Matt Riiska at this week’s Northwest Hills Council of Government’s meeting and told him that the continuing resolution passed Thursday in Washington, D.C., provides funding to keep the government running but does not include discretionary spending.

Riiska had hoped to get $750,000 through a grant from the Senate and another $500,000 from the House to assist with construction of the fire house. Riiska said the money was approved late last summer, but only through a temporary budget. 

“The earliest it could be approved is September and it could easily get pushed out again,” he said. “And now, with the climate in Washington, it might not get through.”

The cost of the firehouse was recently estimated at more than $8 million, but, again, the financial turmoil in the country is making it difficult to pin down costs. “The plans for the firehouse are 95 percent complete,” Riiska said, “and we are getting another estimate together, but it will be difficult to figure costs. The stock market is fluctuating, and we don’t know what interest rates will be. And how the tariffs will affect steel prices is a huge consideration for us.”

Still, he said, plans are pushing forward. He expects to hear in April whether the town’s application for a state $500,000 STEAP grant is successful and a local fundraising campaign continues to receive pledges. He estimates that the town has promises of about $5.5 million toward the cost.

“If the town had to borrow 3 to 3.5 million, it would cost about $240,000 a year for 25 years at 4.25 percent,” he told the Board of Finance Wednesday.

—Newsletter Editor

There will be a total lunar eclipse this coming Thursday, March 13, and astronomer Matthew Johnson plans an eclipse viewing event at the town baseball field on Mountain Road, beginning at 11:30 p.m. 

Johnson will be on site at 11:30 p.m. but the eclipse will not be noticeable until about 1:00 a.m. At that time, the Earth’s umbra will begin to shadow the moon, turning it red. 

The total eclipse will occur at 2:26 a.m. when the entire moon becomes dark red. Its maximum effect occurs at 2:58 a.m., when the moon is in the center of the Earth’s umbral shadow. It ends at 3:31 a.m. The whole celestial show is over at 6:00 a.m. 

Attendees are advised to dress for a mid-March night and to bring handwarmers, hot beverages, snacks, a chair and their own optical devices to view the heavens.

Johnson will hold a second observation opportunity on the morning of March 29 when there will be a partial solar eclipse. Particulars about that event will be announced later.

The events will be cancelled by inclement weather, high winds, if the skies are 75 percent or more covered by clouds. 

The event is sponsored by Aton Forest.

A just-released update to Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation’s demographic report on the 20 towns that it serves (including Norfolk) reveals stark realities. 

In short, birth rates continue to be low—Norfolk had the lowest average birth rate with six births per year on average, and death rates are high because of an aging population, home costs are astronomical and young home buyers and renters are being frozen out throughout the region.

In Norfolk, between 2017 and 2023, the increase in the median value of a home was $183,274 (up 66 percent). The annual increase of combined mortgage and utilities costs was $24,996 (up 93 percent), while the median increase in household income was only $7,718 (up 10 percent). [

Norfolk’s median home values are between $401,000 and $500,000. 

The report is estimated that to provide the basics necessary to live and work in Litchfield County requires an annual income of $50,679 for one adult and one child. This ranges up to $97,875 for a family of four with one child in childcare and one in school.

Data for each of the 20 towns was analyzed and compared to the data from the 2017 report to determine what has changed. The new report reveals that trends identified in 2017 have not only come to fruition but are more pronounced today than seven years ago. 

The full report can be found here.

—Newsletter Editor