Tag Archives: Old Lyme Board of Finance

TOP STORY: Old Lyme WPCA Chair Cinami Seeks to Get Sewer Project Finally Flowing, Requests Additional $7.6 Million

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Old Lyme Water Pollution Control Authority Chairman Steve Cinami addresses a $7.6 million bond authorization request for sewers to First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker, center, Selectman Jim Lampos, left, and Selectwoman Jude Read, right.

OLD LYME–6/22 UPDATED: Headline amended: Six years ago, a $9.5 million request to install sewers in the Sound View Beach area got the go-ahead from voters at a town-wide referendum – but the project stalled.

Now, amid inflation exacerbated by the COVID pandemic and other factors, the Old Lyme Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) is back with a request for another $7.6 million. 

The state-led, decades-long charge to clean up Long Island Sound by ridding the area of septic systems involves a plan to require residents of three private beach associations and the public Sound View Beach community to install sewers. Continued concerns about the cost of the project and successive rounds of construction bids coming in higher than anticipated have dragged out the process.

Steve Cinami, chairman of the Old Lyme WPCA, visited the Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance this week to plead for approval to go to referendum for the bond authorization necessary to support the Sound View portion of the project. But selectmen balked at the lack of information about how the project will affect the Sound View residents who will have to repay the loan.

Old Lyme officials all along have said the cost of the Sound View project will be borne by the system’s users, not the town’s tax base. 

This time around, significant additional funding from the state and federal government will leave those users responsible for about $8.5 million of the $17.06 million project, which Cinami has emphasized is less than the amount requested at the 2019 referendum. 

He said the new numbers shake out to about $26,000 over 20 years, or $1,932 per year, for a property owner whose house has one bathroom, a kitchen, and four bedrooms or less.  

In August of last year – before the latest round of bids came back and before state and federal funding was secured – Cinami at a public meeting told residents the WPCA was estimating the cost to a user would be about $22,556 over 20 years, or $1,368 a year, for a similarly sized home. 

Assessing ‘affordability’

Selectman Jim Lampos at Monday’s selectmen’s meeting asked for more specifics about fees in addition to the annual project payments for which users will be responsible. He said connection costs and future capital spending for infrastructure improvements in the system flowing through East Lyme into New London will affect user’s sewer bills here in Old Lyme. 

“Before we go to a referendum, I think we have to give the property owners a clear idea of what the affordability is going to be,” he said. “And the taxpayers are going to want to know this before going to a referendum. They’re going to ask for it.”

Cinami estimated the average yearly fee would be around $500 per year in the Sound View area. Beyond that, he said he would have to “try” to develop a rough cost structure. 

State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) Project Engineer Carlos Esguerra last year said the agency sets the amount that residents can reasonably be expected to spend at 2% of the town’s median income, which he identified at the time as $122,000. That equated to $2,440 a year.

There is also a state law specifying a town cannot assess property owners for any amount higher than the percent increase in the property value attributed to the sewers. He said an assessor hired by the Old Lyme WPCA before the previous referendum estimated sewers would increase home values between 10 to 12%. 

Documents from the Sound View Coalition, a grassroots group opposing the sewer project, show an assessor hired in 2020 by the group found sewers would increase residential property values by 7% and commercial properties by 10%.

Cinami, who has been criticized for his abrasive manner at meetings, also heard complaints at Monday’s meeting from Shoemaker and Old Lyme WPCA member Dennis Melluzzo about the chairman’s alleged attempts to quell questions and dissent. 

Shoemaker said she was made to feel uncomfortable asking questions at the June WPCA meeting, while Melluzzo described feeling disrespected by Cinami while speaking up at last month’s WPCA meeting. 

Cinami said he was just trying to run an efficient meeting. 

“I feel, maybe it’s a misperception, but I feel as though I’m trying to get stuff across and I’m interrupted on a constant basis by members.”

He told Shoemaker he was sorry if she took offense, and said he owed Melluzzo an apology as well. 

Capital Costs

At Tuesday’s finance board meeting, member David Kelsey expressed concern about the financial impact of any large-scale capital upgrades that could happen in the future at the New London wastewater treatment plant into which Old Lyme’s sewage will flow. 

He said he’s heard for the past 10 years that DEEP was pushing for the installation of sewers in Old Lyme “because they wanted more users to spread the cost of upgrades in New London.” 

Cinami said he wasn’t aware that the city was on the verge of any major capital projects. 

New London Director of Public Utilities Joseph Lanzafame in a Wednesday phone call disputed Kelsey’s characterization of the situation. 

“There’s no truth to that. Not from our standpoint,” he said. “Somebody else may have other motivations, but from our standpoint, the contribution that Old Lyme is going to give towards the facility is very marginal.” 

A contract between New London and the four beach communities signed late last year calls for the beach associations to pay 1.2% of annual treatment plant capital costs and the town to pay 0.5%.

He estimated the city has spent $15 million over the past 10 years, but could not predict what the future holds in store. 

“But as far as major upgrades, I mean, we’re not looking at hundreds of millions of dollars of work to be done,” he said. 

He said the city does not have plans to upgrade the plant to be able to handle additional flow, which he described as an extremely difficult undertaking. But if that kind of upgrade did happen, he added that Old Lyme ratepayers would not be affected unless the beach associations or the town wanted to purchase some of the increased capacity. 

The current contract with New London allows the beach associations to send up to 120,000 gallons of sewage per day to the treatment plant and the town to send up to 50,000. They have the right to purchase up to an additional 130,000 gallons per day as more people in the beach communities tie into the system.

Lanzafame said he’ll be happy if Old Lyme doesn’t ask for additional capacity in the future. 

“I mean, I’m going to be quite frank. That’s just what it is. Wastewater capacity is a big deal, and it’s just not unlimited,” he said. 

Back at the finance board meeting, Kelsey predicted the costs to each user – including the minimum $1,932 payment homeowners will need to pay for 20 years, the cost of tying into the system, the annual fees and the increased tax bills from their new property values – are likely to result in angry residents. 

“It’s not going to be pleasant when all these numbers come out, is my basic point,” he said. 

While Cinami acknowledged residents in the affected areas will be required to hook up to the system, he added a caveat. 

“There are some new (septic) systems down there that cost sixty thousand dollars; We will probably not have them hook up immediately,” he said. “But any any system that’s in variance, which is, I would say, 97% of all the systems down there, will have to hook up.” 

Next Steps 

In addition to asking for more information on the financial impact for Sound View residents, the Board of Selectmen emphasized that the details of a Cost Sharing Agreement between the beach associations and the town must be finalized before they will ask residents to authorize more spending at a referendum. 

Another issue still outstanding revolves around the portions of the sewer project to be undertaken by the Miami Beach and Old Lyme Shores Beach Associations, which Cinami said have not yet gone out to bid. He said the beach communities’ project officials, who are waiting for approval by the state DEEP before opening the bid process, are hoping to make their selections by the end of July.

Cinami assured selectmen that winning bids received earlier this year for the Sound View work will remain valid through October, though he acknowledged the bidder selected to build the system’s shared pump station has not formally committed to keep his bid open that long. 

Shoemaker said Cinami’s request to schedule a referendum for August 14 won’t be possible because the traditional polling location in the middle school is being renovated and will not be available.

TOP STORY: Old Lyme Town Budget Passes Easily, Meeting Serves as Lesson in Small-Town Democracy

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Old Lyme-based Attorney Fran Sablone served as moderator at Wednesday’s Town Budget Meeting.

OLD LYME–Two young men sitting with their parents in the auditorium of the Lyme-Old Lyme High School Wednesday night were recognized at the end of the 2.5-hour Town Budget Meeting for making it through a crash course in the New England town meeting form of government 

First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker acknowledged the boys after a record-setting crowd of more than 200 residents and taxpayers approved the $45.39 million 2025-56 budget and five new or amended ordinances.

No meeting in the last seven years had drawn more than 60 people, according to Shoemaker.

“You have received the best education in what a town meeting can be like,” she told Joseph Jewett, 11, and Joshua Jewett, 9.  

The budget passed 167 votes to 40 in a year when a property revaluation left a majority of homeowners in town facing a tax hike in excess of 4.7%. Those whose property values rose more than average are looking at relatively higher tax increases.

The town meeting is a form of direct democracy that allows all eligible voters 18 years old and up to discuss and decide important matters rather than letting elected officials do it for them. 

While October 2024 data from the state Office of Policy and Management shows that 103 towns in the state have a town meeting form of government, many of them leave the ultimate budget decision up to a machine vote at a day-long referendum as a way to encourage more participation. 

Shoemaker applauded the Jewett family for showing the boys that their “voices matter.”

“Even though (the votes) may not go the way you want, your voices are heard,” Shoemaker said. 

Fire Marshal Dave Roberge said he counted 222 people in the auditorium Wednesday night. With 207 people voting on the budget, that leaves about 15 people like the Jewett children who were there to watch and learn.  

Procedural questions about how to vote dominated the early part of the meeting, with an early motion to use a paper ballot on all seven questions failing by a vote of 87 to 110. 

Voters decided to use a hand vote for the budget, which proved the most contentious issue on the call to meeting. They raised fluorescent green chits in the air to signify their voting status as Democratic Deputy Registrar of Voters Katherine Thuma and Republican Deputy Registrar of Voters John Mesham counted the chits row by row. 

When the results of the vote to approve the budget were counted, Town Meeting Moderator Fran Sablone put it this way: “The motion carries.” 

Voting down the budget would have required the town to bill taxpayers based on the current budget until a new spending plan was approved, according to town officials. That means the town would be locked into paying its share of the Region 18 education budget, which voters passed in a referendum earlier this month, even though the expense wouldn’t be reflected in tax bills. 

Board of Finance Chairman Bennett J. Bernblum, who during the meeting used the word “stupid” to describe such a scenario, was asked to clarify what he meant. 

“It would be stupid because it would put us into disarray,” he said. 

The meeting, originally scheduled for May 19, was postponed due to overcapacity at the Town Hall. Fire code there allows only 124 people in the meeting room and lobby.

Tax Impact

The finance board immediately after the Town Meeting convened to set the tax rate for the coming year at 16.23 mills. 

The current tax rate is 24.4 mills. After taking the property revaluation into account – and if spending did not increase at all in the coming budget – the tax rate would have been 15.5 mills. 

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

Bernblum in his presentation said a house appraised at $400,000 with a valuation mirroring the average 57.4% increase to the grand list is now worth $629,600. The tax bill for that homeowner based on the 2025-26 budget will be $7,153 – an increase of $321, or 4.7%, over the current tax bill. 

Assessor Melinda Kronfeld has said 3,312 properties in town will see their tax bills go up more than 4.7%, while 2,331 properties will be looking at an increase less than that, or even a tax decrease.

The finance board last month voted 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 use less, and Democrats, who wanted to use more. 

Bernblum said the town’s healthy savings helped secure a AAA bond rating from S&P Global Ratings, which translates to the most favorable interest rates when the town goes out to bond. He said he was advised that the finance board’s decision to dip into the Rainy Day Fund should not adversely affect the town’s rating. 

Bernblum said the $800,000 allocation, combined with $171, 350 in cuts identified by Shoemaker and town hall department heads at the request of the finance board, reduced the original budget proposal’s impact on taxpayers by almost a million dollars. 

New and Amended Ordinances

The remaining issues on the meeting call were determined by voice votes. The most controversial was an ordinance codifying golf cart use in the Sound View and Hawk’s Nest beach areas. 

The golf carts must be outfitted with numerous safety features to qualify as the kind of “low speed vehicle” authorized last year by the state to operate on any public roads with speed limits of 25 mph or less. 

Previously, state statutes left it up to cities and towns to decide if they wanted to allow golf carts on local roads. Now, it’s up to those municipalities to specify if they don’t want them – or to limit where they can travel. 

Shoemaker said the ordinance adds several streets in Hawk’s Nest Beach to a program established by the Sound View Commission a few years ago in cooperation with the previous administration of the Board of Selectmen. 

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

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. 

Sound View Commission Chairman Frank Pappalardo said the program has “worked out very, very well safety-wise” without being a hardship on residents. He cited 25 golf carts registered currently, with more joining each year. 

Shoemaker described the ordinance as a way to keep communities safe in a town with only six full-time police officers to patrol the streets. She said voting the proposal down would result in the Board of Selectmen, which serves as the local traffic authority, outlawing golf carts completely.  

“A ‘no’ vote will mean that we will prohibit golf carts in the Soundview and Hawks Nest area,” she said. “Because we cannot have people riding around in golf carts without some rules.”

Resident Steven Ross objected to the take-it-or-leave-it approach on what he described as an overly restrictive ordinance. 

“That’s a threat. It’s heavy-handed. It’s inappropriate,” he said. “I think this ordinance should be reviewed and redrafted and brought to another town meeting.”

Shoemaker said the town can consider expanding the ordinance to include the Rogers Lake area in the future if enforcement goes smoothly this summer. 

Other changes outlined on the call to meeting and approved without controversy included updating the volunteer fire and ambulance tax abatement ordinance to increase the maximum amount of the abatement from $1000 to $2000 and to extend it to retirees; revising requirements regarding publication of notices of special and regular Town Meetings in newspapers read by seasonal residents; revising the Old Lyme Harbor Management ordinance to slow down boats and jet skis and increase fines for violations; and revising language affecting parking areas on private property in the Sound View Beach area to, among other things, provide for on-site attendants. 

A Learning Process 

Joseph Jewett after the meeting said he ended up at the meeting with his brother because their parents, Dave and Daphanie Jewett, didn’t give them a choice. 

While 9-year-old Josh Jewett said he really didn’t think they learned anything, Dave Jewett said the kids got a lesson about the importance of voting and having a say in where tax dollars go – even if they didn’t realize it. 

Dave Jewett said he voted in support of the budget. 

“I’ve been in the town my whole life,” he said. “Now I’ve got my kids growing up in this town.”

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.

TOP STORY: More than 200 Hands Raised at Old Lyme Town Meeting, $45.39 Million Budget Approved at 7.8% Over Current Year

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Old Lyme-based Attorney Fran Sablone served as moderator at Wednesday’s Town Budget Meeting.

OLD LYME–Record attendance Wednesday night at the rescheduled Town Budget Meeting resulted in the passage of a $45.39 million 2025-26 budget and several new or amended ordinances.

Residents and taxpayers in the Lyme-Old Lyme High School auditorium raised fluorescent green chits in the air to signify their voting status as they approved the budget in a 167 to 40 vote. It represents an increase of $3.28 million, or 7.8% , over the current year.

The vote came amid large-scale renovation projects to the Lymes’ Senior Center and the Region 18 school district drove up the budget, while the recent revaluation drove up property values – and the resulting tax bills – for a majority of homes in town. The Board of Finance was expected after the meeting to set the tax rate at 16.2 mills.

A previous motion to use a paper ballot on all seven questions failed with 87 yea votes and 110 nays.

The five ordinances and a procedural vote to set the billing schedule for property taxes each passed in decisive voice votes.

First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker said no meeting in the last seven years had drawn more than 60 people.

The originally scheduled meeting on May 19 was postponed due to overcapacity at the Town Hall, where fire code allows only 124 people in the meeting room and lobby.

Fire Marshal Dave Roberge on Wednesday said he counted 222 people in the high school auditorium—its capacity is 550 people.

Editor’s Note: Watch for the full story on Thursday.