Selectmen take stock, make plans for 2011

SALISBURY— The Board of Selectmen has approved a resolution confirming its support for the recommendations of the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee for zoning changes. The board also took a look at the issues facing Salisbury in the new year. All this was done at the first meeting of 2011, on Monday, Jan. 3.

Selectman Jim Dresser said some two dozen nominations for the new Affordable Housing Commission had been received and the interviewing process had begun.

He then brought up the resolution, which Selectman Bob Riva and First Selectman Curtis Rand swiftly approved. (Dresser and other members of the now-disbanded Affordable Housing Committee presented the recommendations to the Planning and Zoning Commission the following night.)

Rand reported on a meeting in December with representatives from Falls Village and Bucknell University professor of engineering (emeritus) Jai Kim at the bridge in Amesville. Kim was the engineer who worked on the bridge some 25 years ago. Lou Timolat of Falls Village reported that Kim returned to take a look at the ailing bridge for no charge.

Rand said that the immediate problems are with the deck and the underside of the bridge, which links Falls Village and the Amesville section of Salisbury and spans the Housatonic River just upstream of the power plant and downstream of the Great Falls.

Riva noted that an informal count during the hour or so he was there had about 60 cars using the one-lane bridge.

Looking ahead to budget season, Rand said, “These are trying times. We will maintain a conservative budget, but not underfund things that will catch up with us later.�

“The rub is a lot of spending goes to organizations that provide services to taxpayers,� said Dresser.

Rand continued: “On the plus side, the cost of borrowing has been low, we don’t have much debt, we’ve been able to get grant money and package projects so that locals could bid on them.�

“The things we’ve done have built equity in the town,� added Riva.

Rand said with the firehouse complete, “We can shift the focus back to the transfer station.� The town has until July 1 to commit to a new contract with the Connecticut Resource Recovery Authority to dispose of the town’s waste.

“The good news,� Rand said, “is the prices shouldn’t be any higher and could be lower.�

In the works for 2011

• Appointing  a building committee for the new transfer station

• Work on the route 44/41 intersection in Lakeville (expect a public meeting on this topic later this winter)

• The results of the Academy Street traffic study

• Improvements to the town website, especially in terms of linking to merchants.

Rand also called the new ski jump on Satre Hill “a magnificent structure.� When the Junior Olympics come to town next month, “it will be quite a week.�