Category Archives: Budget

Old Lyme Town Meeting Postponed After ‘Larger than Expected’ Crowd Exceeds Capacity of Meeting Room, Delays Budget Vote

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OLD LYME–With the crowd spilling out of Memorial Town Hall onto Lyme Street Monday evening, the Annual Town Budget Meeting was postponed as town officials put out the call for a venue large enough to accommodate the response to a sharp budget increase amid rising property values. 

Fire Marshal Dave Roberge immediately put a halt to the 7:30 p.m. town meeting with his announcement that the capacity of 124 people had been reached in the Town Hall Meeting Room and its lobby. He said an additional 25 to 40 people were still waiting in line. 

Against the background of a blue screen with a presentation slide warning that the meeting would be rescheduled in the event of a “larger than expected turnout,” the three-member Board of Selectmen made its unanimous vote to find another date and time for the meeting. 

First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker, a Democrat, was joined by Democratic Selectman Jim Lampos and Republican Selectwoman Jude Read.

Shoemaker said no budget vote in the past seven years had attracted more than 60 people. She called for postponement “so that everyone can hear what they wanted to hear, and vote on what they want to vote on.” 

The $45.39 million 2025-26 proposed budget – which is up $3.28 million, or 7.8%, over the current year – was on the agenda along with several proposed changes to the local law books. The proposals on the agenda for the evening ranged from an ordinance on golf cart usage in the Sound View and Hawk’s Nest Beach areas to a $1,000 increase in the tax abatement available to volunteer first responders. 

Outside the Town Hall as the crowd dispersed, beach area resident Laura Parent said her taxes are going up 100% due to the recent revaluation. 

Assessor Melinda Kronfeld last week said the average tax increase townwide, based on the proposed budget, comes in at 4.7%. She said 3,312 properties in town would see their tax bills go up more than that, while 2,331 properties would be looking at an increase less than 4.7%, or a tax decrease.

Parent was one of the residents with sticker shock when she saw how much her home had increased in value. 

“My taxes are going to increase at least $1,800,” she said. 

She said she was concerned with the size of the town’s $31.52 million share of the regional Lyme-Old Lyme school budget, which is up $1.99 million, or 6.72%, from Old Lyme’s current payment. The hike is driven by debt, which is just starting to come due, on a large-scale renovation project affecting four of the district’s five buildings. The expense includes heating and ventilation system work in the four schools, plus the addition of classrooms at Mile Creek School. The project was approved by voters in 2022. 

Parent said enrollment numbers have not kept pace with estimates publicized at the time of the vote, based on numbers from the New England School Development Council.

She said she felt the district justified the new classrooms by saying attendance was going to increase.

“It’s not,” she said. “But we’re paying.”

Parent acknowledged she did not vote at the referendum on the school district budget, which passed earlier this month by a vote of 457 to 297. But she will next time, she said. 

Parent’s friend Mariella Shea said the town should have “planned a little better” for a town meeting crowd attracted by votes on several ordinances as well as the budget. 

“It’s regrettable that it has to be rescheduled,” Shea said. “So many things were on the agenda that they should have known.” 

Resident Michael Hansen said rescheduling the meeting was the appropriate thing to do. 

“There was obviously a big showing. People wanted to participate in their local democracy, which anyone should applaud,” he said. 

But he described as “disingenuous” the arguments by those who are opposing the proposed budget this late in the process. 

“We agreed several years ago that we were going to update the schools,” he said. “It’s time to start paying that bill. It’s not really something up for debate. The town has the money. If people were actually upset about it, it could have been addressed at the Board of Finance.”

A public hearing last month on the proposed budget by the finance board lasted just over a half hour in front of roughly two dozen people in the Town Hall meeting room. There were only a few questions from the public. 

Also last month, the finance board agreed to use $800,000 from the town’s predicted $14.2 million ‘Rainy Day Fund’  to help mitigate the impact to taxpayers. The vote was a compromise between Republicans, who wanted to take out less from the Rainy Day Fund, and Democrats, who wanted to use more. 

Hansen was critical of those on the finance board who did not want to use more than $800,000 to lower the tax increase for property owners. 

“And then some of those members are now also being, again, disingenuous, claiming that it’s (Democratic First Selectwoman) Martha Shoemaker’s fault that the mill rate’s going up, and that’s really not the case,” he said. 

Shoemaker after the meeting said the Board of Selectmen put together a fair budget. She cited scant attendance at public meetings throughout the months-long budget planning process.

She also pointed to a request from the finance board in April for the selectwoman to work with department heads to further reduce the budget, which resulted in a cut of $171,350 to the proposed budget. 

“So we did the best we possibly could for the budget,” Shoemaker said. 

With the school district budget approved by voters, the town is obligated to pay its $31.52 million share. 

“So where do you start cutting?” she said. “Do we cut capital projects? Do we cut people? Do we cut hours? If you do those things, you’re going to cut services.” 

The Board of Finance was initially set to formalize the new tax rate immediately after the town meeting. Instead, finance board members agreed to convene again after a vote at the rescheduled town meeting. 

Shoemaker said she has reached out to Superintendent of Schools Ian Neviaser to see if he has a larger space in the schools available on May 28, 29 or 30. State law requires notice of the meeting to be published in a newspaper at least five days before the meeting. 

Asked what would happen if the budget doesn’t pass, Shoemaker said she didn’t know. 

“I will have to call up to the state to find out,” she said.

Republican Board of Finance member Andy Russell after the meeting said he can’t remember residents voting down a budget in his 32 years as a resident. 

Old Lyme Annual Budget Meeting to Include Votes on Spending Plan, Local Laws

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OLD LYME–The $45.39 million 2025-26 proposed budget and several proposed changes to the local law books – ranging from an ordinance on golf cart usage in the Sound View and Hawk’s Nest beach areas to a $1,000 increase in the tax abatement available to volunteer first responders – will be up for a vote at the Annual Town Budget Meeting tonight. 

The headliner at the May town meeting is always the proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. This time around, the plan represents an increase of $3.28 million, or 7.8%, over the current budget. 

Paying off debt from large-scale renovation projects is driving much of the added expense. 

Old Lyme’s government operations expenses come in at $11.39 million, an increase of $835,260 million, or 7.9%, over the current budget. That includes debt service amounting to $702,350, which is up $271,168, or 62.9%, over the current budget. The increase is largely attributable to payments on the Lymes’ Senior Center renovation project.

The proposal includes an additional $107,000 in health insurance expenses over the current year.

Education costs in the proposed budget come in at $31.52 million, which is up $1.99 million, or 6.72%, from the town’s current payment toward the regional Lyme-Old Lyme school district budget.

The Region 18 school district’s $39.7 million 2025-26 budget was approved earlier this month in a vote of 457 to 297.

In Old Lyme, the increase to local tax bills will depend on the effect of last year’s revaluation process on each property owner. 

At an April public hearing on the budget, budget documents showed the projected tax rate to be 16.2 mills. The official tax rate won’t be set until after the proposed budget is approved by voters.

The current tax rate is 24.4 mills. After taking the revaluation into account – and if spending did not change at all in the coming year – the tax rate would be 15.5 mills. 

The town’s grand list of taxable property grew by 57.4% as a result of the revaluation, according to final assessor’s data. That means the tax increase compared to the current year will be around 4.7% for the average homeowner whose property values mirror the overall increase to the grand list. 

Assessor Melinda Kronfeld in a memo shared by First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker said the effect of the proposed budget on individual tax bills will vary based on how homes fared in the revaluation.

She used the example of a house valued at $200,000 in 2003. The tax bill associated with the property currently comes in at $4,880.

If the house went up 52% in value, the owner would see a tax bill that is $49, or 1%, higher than the current bill. If it went up 60% in value, the owner would see an increase of $326, or 7%. If it went up 82%, the increase would be $1,024, or 21%.

On the other end, the owner of a $200,000 house that went up 40% in the revaluation – which is less than the grand list increased – would see the tax payment reduced by $336, or 7%, in the coming year.

Kronfeld on Friday said 3,312 properties in town will see their tax bills go up more than the average 4.7% increase. There will be 2,331 properties looking at an increase less than 4.7%, or a tax decrease.

The finance board last month agreed to use $800,000 from the town’s predicted $14.2 million ‘Rainy Day Fund’ to help mitigate the impact to taxpayers.

Voters on Monday will also be asked to consider one new section and four revisions to existing chapters in the local code of ordinances. 

Golf Carts in Sound View Beach Area 

Shoemaker this week said the creation of an ordinance on golf cart usage in town-owned beach areas is the local reaction to a state law passed last year. That’s when Gov. Ned Lamont last year signed allowing golf carts to be used on public roads with speed limits of 25 mph or less.

“The best thing, according to our town attorney, is to let (people) know where they’re allowed,” she said. 

The ordinance codifies existing rules in Sound View Beach and adds town-owned streets in Hawk’s Nest Beach to the regulated area. 

Golf carts registered with the town will be allowed to travel on town-owned roads in the beach areas from sunrise to sunset based on the proposed ordinances. 

There will be an initial fine of $90 for those caught driving an unregistered golf cart, driving outside the allowed areas and hours, or missing necessary equipment. The second offense comes with a $180 fine, while the third offense will result in the golf cart being impounded. 

Golf carts must be registered annually and can only be operated with a valid driver’s license. The registration fee for this season, which lasts from May 1 to April 30, is $25. Rates will be set annually. 

The ordinance specifies each golf cart must have numerous safety features to ensure drivers can see and be seen. Locking brakes, a horn, a flag, various lights and reflectors, seatbelts and a windshield are required. Children’s car seats may not be installed in the golf carts. 

Golf carts cannot be driven at night or during inclement weather, according to the proposed ordinance. Vehicles are only allowed on Route 156 if they are crossing from Hartford Avenue, Swan Avenue or Portland Avenue to the corresponding extension on the other side of the road. 

If golf cart spaces at the bottom of Hartford Avenue are taken, registered golf carts can use the town parking lot. 

Harbor Management Commission ordinance

Selectmen earlier this month gave the go-ahead to language drafted by Harbormaster Matthew Lynch to address concerns from the Sound View Commission about chaotic conditions wrought by water taxis, jet skis and swimmers at the public beach. 

New language in the ordinances limits jet skis to no more than 6 mph within 200 feet of the shore, docks, piers, floats, swim zones or moored vessels. Boats are subject to the same speed restriction within 100 feet.

The changes limit motorboats to 6 mph on the Lieutenant River, Back River, Duck River, or Black Hall River. 

The boat lane at Sound View under the proposed ordinance is limited to vessels under 35 horsepower, which means jet skis don’t qualify to be there. Approved water taxis and emergency vessels are exempted from the regulation. 

The proposed ordinance gives the Harbormaster, Marine Patrol and Police the authority to enforce the rules. 

Any violations of the ordinance come with a fine of $150 each, or up to $750 in total in the case of three or more tickets on the same day. 

Certain violations, including traveling faster than 6 mph on rivers or operating jet skis in the boat lane, come with fines of $150 for the first offense, $250 for the second offense and $350 for each subsequent offense.

‘Tax Abatement’ for volunteer first responders

Proposed amendments to the ordinance affecting members of the Old Lyme Fire Department and Old Lyme Volunteer Ambulance Association would raise an incentive meant to recruit and retain more members from $1,000 to $2,000 per year for each volunteer. 

The proposed ordinance would also allow volunteers serving for at least 25 years to continue receiving the benefit even if they aren’t active volunteers anymore. 

Old Lyme Fire Department President Robert McCarthy in an interview at the Town Hall this week said the fire and ambulance companies asked town officials to consider updating the existing ordinance on the volunteer incentive. He cited changes to state law, which was updated in 2021. 

The original $1,000 incentive was implemented locally in 2002 as a tax abatement. McCarthy said officials in 2018 worked out a plan to deposit the incentive into a retirement account for volunteer first responders instead of using it as a tax break. The plan was vetted by Town Attorney Jack Collins and an attorney with Pension Administrative Services Inc, according to McCarthy.

Volunteers that year were given the option to continue with the tax abatement or take the money in the retirement account, McCarthy said. Any volunteer who joined the fire department or ambulance association subsequent to the 2018 agreement received the benefit as retirement savings. 

The revised ordinance language again makes it possible for volunteers to choose between a tax break or retirement savings, McCarthy said. 

The 2018 retirement plan states that volunteers are vested after six years of qualified service. Benefits are paid out after members stop serving or they turn 65, whichever comes first. 

Sound View Parking ordinance 

Proposed updates to a longstanding parking ordinance in the Sound View Beach area address private parking lots leased by local businesses, such as Kokomo’s, for customer use. 

The language specifies patrons and employees in the leased lots cannot be charged a fee for parking, “nor can the normal price of goods sold by a business be increased with a special surcharge for parking.” 

The hours of operation of the leased lots, which must be monitored, cannot exceed the hours of business operation.

The proposed updates come with a $200 fine for each violation, plus $100 per day as long as the violation continues. After five repeated violations, the parking permit will be revoked by the Board of Selectmen.

Newspaper Notice

Proposed changes to the ordinance governing the publication of town meetings would reverse a provision put in place in 1958 and amended in 2003 to make it more widely known to seasonal residents when off-season votes on big-ticket items over $25,000 are scheduled. 

The current ordinance requires posting the notice of town meetings in major newspapers from November through May, according to Shoemaker. She said the cost of posting these announcements has risen in the past two years. 

The proposal would strike the requirement to post meeting notices in newspapers in Hartford and New Britain, as well as Springfield, MA. 

Shoemaker in a selectmen’s meeting late last year said a survey filled out by 341 residents revealed “not a lot of people are reading the newspapers that we are publishing in.”

She said only eight people responded that they read the New Britain newspaper.

The proposed ordinance language would require notices to be published only in newspapers in general circulation within town borders, such as The Day and The Courant.

The Annual Town Budget Meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, May 19 in the Town Hall Meeting Room for residents and qualified taxpayers.

Editor’s Note: i) This article was updated with additional information from the tax assessor.

Old Lyme Selectmen Propose Increased Incentives for Volunteer First Responders

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OLD LYME–Volunteer First Responders could see up to $1,000 more per year in incentives over a longer timeframe if voters approve a change to the local law books at the Town Budget Meeting on May 19. 

Proposed amendments to the ordinance affecting members of the Old Lyme Fire Department and Old Lyme Volunteer Ambulance Association would raise the incentive, which is part of efforts to recruit and retain more members, from $1,000 to $2,000 per year for each volunteer. 

The proposed ordinance would also allow volunteers, who served for at least 25 years, to continue receiving the benefit even if they aren’t active volunteers anymore. 

The town meeting on the 2025-26 proposed budget, which comes in at $45.39 million, will give residents and qualified taxpayers the chance to vote on five ordinance proposals in total. Four are revisions and one is new.

Old Lyme Fire Department President Robert McCarthy in an interview at the Town Hall this week said the fire and ambulance companies asked town officials to consider updating the existing ordinance on the volunteer incentive. The proposed amendments were approved unanimously by the Old Lyme Board of Selectmen on March 3.

State law in 2021 was updated to allow cities and towns to expand the incentive program, which had been implemented locally in 2002.

Initially, the ordinance existed to give volunteers a break on their taxes. But McCarthy said the program has evolved along with the town’s retirement fund for volunteer fire and ambulance personnel.

The last major change came in 2018 at a time when federal law looked at property tax reductions received by volunteers as taxable income. McCarthy said town officials addressed the problem by working out a plan to deposit the incentive into the retirement account instead of using it as a tax abatement. He said the plan was vetted by Town Attorney Jack Collins and an attorney with Pension Administrative Services Inc.

Volunteers that year were given the option to continue with the tax abatement or take the money in the retirement account, McCarthy said. Any volunteer who joined the fire department or ambulance association subsequent to the 2018 agreement received the benefit as retirement savings. 

“With this ordinance, we’re trying to revisit it all and see if we can let people have a choice again,” he said. “They’ll be able to get the tax abatement if they desire, or they can still have the money put into a retirement account instead.” 

The town also puts money into the retirement fund each year separate from the incentive authorized through the tax abatement ordinance, according to McCarthy. He said that benefit currently amounts to about $980 per year.  

In the proposed 2025-26 town operations budget, which is also up for a vote at the May 19 Town Meeting, the emergency services retirement line item amounts to $172,000. 

That’s enough money to provide 61 volunteers with the proposed $2,000 incentive, according to budget documents. 

There are currently about 55 fire department and ambulance service volunteers in the retirement plan currently, according to McCarthy. 

Old Lyme Tax Collector Suzanne Thompson said about 20 of those volunteers opted to receive the incentive as a tax abatement. 

McCarthy said using the $2,000 incentive as a tax abatement can be more advantageous for some volunteers than for those whose tax bills don’t amount to $2,000.

“Say we’ve got a young member who owns a car and their taxes are at $400 a year,” he said. “They should let the money go to the incentive plan and get all of it into their retirement account rather than only getting $400.”

He said allowing members to continue receiving the benefit once they are no longer actively responding to calls is an important change. He pointed to members who have been volunteering for more than half a century and are slowing down. 

“And they’re the ones that, under the current abatement, wouldn’t be able to get it for the rest of their lives,” he said. “They’re 70-years-old now and have been doing this for 50, 60 years.”

The 2018 retirement plan states that volunteers are vested after six years of qualified service. Benefits are paid out after members stop serving or they turn 65, whichever comes first. 

He said volunteers over the age of 65 would likely choose the tax abatement option. 

The Annual Town Budget Meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, May 19 in the Town Hall Meeting Room.

Voters Approve 7.39% Budget Increase for Lyme-Old Lyme Schools by Comfortable Margin

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Lyme-Old Lyme Schools Superintendent Ian Neviaser. (File photo)

LYME/OLD LYME–The Region 18 school district’s $39.7 million 2025-26 budget has gone from proposed to official now that voters in Lyme and Old Lyme have approved the spending plan, which is up 7.39% over the current budget. 

Unofficial numbers show the budget passed by 457 votes to 297, which reflects 60.6% of voters supporting the budget and 39.4% voting against it. That, in turn, shakes out to a vote by town of 374 to 272 in Old Lyme and 83 to 25 in Lyme. The total number of voters in. both towns combined was a scant 754.

Of the proposed budget’s $2.7 million increase, $1.8 million is attributable to debt payments on the renovation project. Calls from some residents to mitigate the increase by dipping into the district’s Rainy Day Fund were rejected by the regional school board at the budget meeting Monday night. 

The budget includes an elementary school music position that was on the chopping block when Superintendent of Schools Ian Neviaser presented his initial recommendation early this year. The regional school board reinstated the position after a group of residents decried the ripple effect the reduction would have on the entire music program.

Neviaser on Monday evening welcomed the news. “We appreciate the continued support of our communities allowing for us to provide a top notch education for the young people of our two towns,” he said in a text message.

District budget documents show that Old Lyme is responsible for $31.51 million of the budget, while Lyme must pay $6.96 million. Both towns are billed by the regional school district based on enrollment.

That’s a proposed increase in Old Lyme of $1.99 million, or 6.7%, and in Lyme of $299,504, or 4.5%.

Old Lyme Town Budget Hearing Uncontentious Despite Proposed 7.8% Increase Over Current Spending

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OLD LYME – Board of Finance Chairman Bennett J. Bernblum on Monday presented the proposed $45.39 million budget along with its potential implications on taxes in this and coming years. 

The proposed $45.39 million 2025-26 budget – which includes town operations and capital expenses as well as the town’s share of the regional Lyme-Old Lyme school district – represents an increase of $3.28 million, or 7.8%, over current spending. It is heavily influenced by large-scale renovation projects affecting the schools and the Lymes’ Senior Center. 

The public hearing on the budget lasted just over a half hour in front of roughly two dozen people in the Town Hall meeting room. Bernblum opened with the acknowledgement that it was not the kind of “sell out crowd” that drew more than 550 people to the Lyme-Old Lyme High School earlier this month to discuss for more than three hours a controversial proposal to allow apartments on the commercial strip of Halls Road. 

Amid the apparent lack of controversy Monday night, Bernblum laid out the budget proposal he said would likely raise tax bills for the average property owner by around 4.7% based on the recent townwide property revaluation. But residents whose home values increased more than the average will see a heftier hike in their tax bills. 

He said the projected tax rate, which won’t be set until immediately after the proposed budget is approved by voters, will be 16.2 mills.

A mill represents $1 in tax per $1,000 of assessed property value.  

Bernblum has said the tax rate would be going up 6.8% if the finance board didn’t offset the increase by taking $800,000 out of the undesignated fund balance, or Rainy Day Fund.

The current tax rate is 24.4 mills. After taking the revaluation into account – and if spending did not change at all in the coming year – the tax rate would be 15.5 mills. 

The town’s grand list of taxable property grew by 57.4% as a result of the revaluation, according to final assessor’s data that takes into account adjustments by the Board of Assessment Appeals. The board finished its final hearings earlier this month. 

That means a house appraised at $400,000 with a valuation mirroring the average 57.4% increase to the grand list is now worth $629,600, according to Bernblum’s presentation. The tax bill for that homeowner based on the proposed budget would be $7,153 – an increase of $321, or 4.7%, over the current tax bill. 

Illustrating the complexity of a revaluation year, Bernblum said a house valued at $600,000 that went up 65% in value due to the revaluation is now worth $990,000. The owner of such a home can expect a $11,247 tax bill if the proposed budget goes through. That’s an increase of $999, or 9.8%, over the current tax bill. 

Old Lyme’s government operations expenses come in at $11.39 million, an increase of $835,260 million, or 7.9%, over the current budget. That includes debt service amounting to $702,350, which is up $271,168, or 62.9%, over current payments. The increase is driven largely by debt payments on the Lymes’ Senior Center renovation project.

The proposal includes an additional $107,000 increase in health insurance expenses over the current year.

The budget proposal, along with new language related to several town ordinances, will go to voters at a town meeting on May 19. 

The Impact of Education

The proposed budget in Old Lyme includes education costs of $31.52 million, which is up $1.99 million, or 6.72%, from the town’s current share of the regional school district budget. The increase is driven by debt payments on a multi-building renovation project approved by voters at a cost of $57.5 million. 

A referendum on the $39.7 million Region 18 budget proposal – which represents an increase of $2.7 million, or 7.39%, over the current spending plan for the district – is scheduled for May 6 in Lyme and Old Lyme.

The Region 18 Board of Education earlier this month voted unanimously to send the budget proposal to referendum.

Earlier objections to a decision to cut an elementary music teacher from the proposed budget were muted after the school board agreed to put the position back into the spending plan. The district will find savings elsewhere in the proposed budget to cover the cost, according to Superintendent of Schools Ian Neviaser. 

Neviaser in a Tuesday email said the regional school board has opted not to use any of its $3.1 million undesignated fund balance to offset the spending increase despite calls to explore the option.

“The board has not chosen to make any changes to the current proposed budget and plans to go to referendum with what we believe is a fiscally responsible and reasonable request of a 2.69% increase in the operating budget coupled with a 4.7% increase in debt service, which is the main driver for the overall 7.39% increase,” he said. 

School board Chairman Jason Kemp, who said he was speaking for himself rather than the full board, wrote in an email Tuesday that the undesignated fund is generally used for projects that might be too large for an annual budget, but too small to go to referendum and bonding. 

“While nothing is planned at the moment, an example of such a project would be to replace the track which we are told can’t really be resurfaced again. It would be fiscally irresponsible to spend that down significantly to cover a year of debt service on the PK-8 school project,” he said. 

He noted the proposed budget is less than the projected 10% increase for the coming year that had been presented to the towns prior to the referendum vote on that project. He cited lower than expected interest rates and grant funding that helped defray costs.

Rainy Days in Old Lyme 

On the town side, the finance board on April 15 voted to use $800,000 from its own undesignated fund balance to soften the impact of the proposed budget increase on taxpayers. 

Budget figures from Finance Director Anita Mancini show the allocation will bring the predicted $14.2 million Rainy Day Fund from 35.15% of the total operating budget at the end of this budget year to an estimated 29.6% in the coming budget year.

Bernblum said maintaining a healthy undesignated fund balance will help the town mitigate the effect of increasing budgets on taxpayers going forward. 

“And that will still leave (a) surplus of a significant amount to hedge against future needs,” he said. 

He emphasized that debt payments from the schools’ renovation project will continue to increase through the 2028-29 budget year. 

“So debt service for Region 18 is going to continue to go up significantly, but not astronomically, over the next several years, and then finally it will begin to come down,” he said. 

A philosophical schism between the two major parties on the finance board has pitted Democrats against Republicans. The decision to dip into the Rainy Day Fund for $800,000 represented a compromise among the three Democrats, who wanted to use more of the surplus to mitigate tax increases, and the three Republicans, who would have preferred to use less in order to save for the future. 

Some finance board members at the time said the town could be facing costs in coming years related to a years-long effort to bring sewers to several beach communities under pressure from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. 

While town officials have long said the expense would be covered by property owners in the affected beach areas, Bernblum on Monday acknowledged there could be costs to residents at large. 

State law specifies towns cannot assess property owners for any amount higher than the percent increase in the property value attributed to the sewers.

“It is possible that something could go wrong in the formula and that…the (Old Lyme Water Pollution Control Authority) won’t be able to bill the homeowners all of the costs necessary to recover 100%, in which case then the town could have some liability,” he said. 

Shoemaker said costs related to connecting town-owned properties to the sewer system, including the Old Lyme Police Department on Shore Road and a planned bathroom facility at Sound View Beach, would also be covered by the town. 

She said the town’s proposed capital plan includes $20,000 for initial engineering designs related to the Sound View bathrooms and contemplates spending an additional $20,000 on designs the following year. 

Uncertain Expenses

Proposed capital costs come in at $2.49 million in the proposed budget. That’s up $456,792, or 22.5%, from the current budget.

The capital spending plan includes $443,500 to save for the purchase of three fire department apparatuses over the next several years. Also included in the budget is an additional $200,000 for road-paving projects, bringing the total line item to $1 million.

The plan earmarks $70,200 toward architectural designs sought by the Halls Road Improvements Committee (HRIC) for a plan to add a pedestrian bridge, sidewalks and other amenities, according to Bernblum. 

But the Board of Selectmen last week agreed to put the work of the HRIC on hold in the wake of a groundswell of opposition to a separate proposal to amend the town’s zoning regulations and the subsequent resignation of HRIC Chairwoman Edie Twining. 

“What is going to happen with Halls Road is in the hands of the Board of Selectmen primarily at this point,” Bernblum said. “So what they decide to do, or we decide to do, with respect to Halls Road at the moment has not been decided.” 

Proposed capital expenses also include $80,000 to supplement $95,000 approved last year at a town meeting for the design and construction of a replacement gazebo at White Sands Beach. 

First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker said the town engineer’s original estimates were upended when it was discovered the town would have to follow state and federal flood zone requirements in updating the structure. 

Subsequent estimates came in at $173,000 for the project, according to Feb. 24 Board of Selectmen meeting minutes. 

Shoemaker attributed the steep increase to more stringent guidelines for installing the footings and holding the gazebo in place. 

Shoemaker said the plan is to complete the engineering designs using last year’s allocation so the project can go out to bid. 

Bernblum put it this way: “We’ll go out to bid when the designs are completed and cross our fingers that there’s enough money. And if not, we’re going to have to come back to you guys and beg for more.” 

Bernblum said the finance board remains open to public feedback on the proposed budget through the May 19 town meeting. 

“Historically, we haven’t gotten negative feedback in regards to it, but we certainly invite that,” he said.

Editor’s Notes: i) Bennett Bernblum is a financial supporter of LymeLine.com, but has no input to the editorial process, which remains completely independent.
ii) A reminder of Our Policy on Comments.