Stafford's Board of Selectmen made quick work of their agenda on Wednesday, November 1 — the last meeting of the current board before the election.
Amber Wakley-Whaley, Director of Grants and Community Development, stopped in to inform the Selectmen of her intent to apply for an EPA Brownfield Town Wide Assessment Grant for fiscal year 2024. Stafford can apply for up to $500,000 “to assess sites contaminated by hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants (including hazardous substances co-mingled with petroleum), and/or petroleum.”
Similar grant awards have, in the past, been used to assess The Witt School and Hydeville Mill. Hydeville Mill, which has been recommended for emergency demolition, could benefit from another round of grant money as the final assessments of the site can’t be completed until after it's demolished. The money, however, would also help identify and assess new sites in town that could benefit from clean-up and redevelopment, like old mills and other industrial sites. Another site that might benefit from the grant is the Avery Park Apartments, senior housing run by the Stafford Housing Authority. Currently, many of the apartments are vacant due to perceived contamination. The grant could help assess and remediate any problems, getting those low-income units for seniors back in action.
No vote was needed from the board.
Up next was the question of digital signage. Now that the Planning and Zoning Commission (PZC) has changed the regulations to allow for municipal use of digital signs (placement for the three signs procured with ARPA funds is on the PZC’s next agenda), First Selectman Sal Titus drew up a policy to govern the signs.
Essentially, the policy limits the use of the signs to emergencies to prevent people from learning to tune them out. There will also be an application that allows citizens to apply to host a message. Applications are to be reviewed and approved by the First Selectman. Given the desire to limit the signs to emergency messaging, Selectman Kurt Vail asked why the application was even necessary. “What urgent message could a citizen have?” he wondered. Titus said messages about soldiers returning from deployment might be one appropriate non-emergency use of the signs. Fire prevention education could be another.
Ultimately, the board voted unanimously to approve the policy as written but set a six-month review date to revisit the process.
The board then took up the matter of waiving the bidding requirement for procuring ARPA-funded shelter boxes. At the October 5, 2023, ARPA meeting, Officer Jim Desso asked the commission to allocate funds to purchase three preparedness carts and 70 ProPac linen sets for $6,655.00 (or $7,978.02 including shipping). These supplies are to be used in an emergency shelter situation. In past meetings, Desso has explained that he usually buys a few a year in an effort to stock the emergency shelter at Stafford Middle School fully.
The commission asked what it would take to bring the shelter’s supplies up to the required number of 250 kits. Desso said he would need eight preparedness carts and 140 ProPac linen sets to bring the shelter up to the required 250 kits. The ARPA commission unanimously approved up to $15,000 (including shipping) for the preparedness carts and ProPac linen sets. However, because there is only one supplier for these supplies, Desso can not bid out the project, as is normally required. So, at the BOS, the board unanimously voted to waive the bidding requirement.
Other than some board appointments — or reappointments — the last item on the agenda was transferring $7,720 dollars from the town’s IT budget to the Housing Authority to pay for a new phone system. An unexpected rate hike forced the Housing Authority to implement a new phone system, which comes with a large upfront cost. The money was not allocated appropriately in the budget earlier in the year, so it had to be moved to cover the expense. Again, the board voted unanimously to reallocate the funds.
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