Shifts are made in the ranks of the road crew

SHARON — The Board of Selectmen (BOS) set interview times for the two open road maintainer positions on the town road crew and accepted a bid for two town-owned properties for sale at Silver Lake Shores. All this and more was at the board’s bi-monthly meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 11.

The meeting opened up with public comment. Former First Selectman Bob Loucks commended First Selectman Brent Colley and Selectmen Jessica Fowler and Dale Jones for their recent action regarding the town road crew. They had recently terminated one worker and suspended another. The reasons for the actions were not made public.

Loucks urged the board to hire a resident of the town as they would likely feel more of a sense of ownership for the work being done. He also mentioned this was a good opportunity for the selectmen and road crew to work together. 

Loucks then shared his opinion regarding Sharon Ridge, which he said should remain as a separate entity (as it currently is) and that the town should not get involved as a landlord.

The three selectmen then accepted the resignation of Helen Degener from the Board of Assessment Appeals. 

Town Secretary Tina Pitcher told the board that the position did not need to be immediately filled and could wait until after municipal elections are completed in November. 

Fowler agreed and said there were several good candidates recently endorsed to run for the Board of Assessment Appeals in the upcoming election and that waiting until the results were known might allow one of the proposed candidates to fill an open position if he or she is not elected.

A second bid for two lots in Silver Lake Shores was then discussed. The board had previously accepted and forwarded one bid to the Planning and Zoning Commission for a report and then for approval at a future town meeting. The new bid was submitted by adjacent property owners, who were not aware of the lots’ availability when the first bid was made. The board accepted the second offer and forwarded it to the Planning and Zoning Commission. After that it will go to a town meeting and taxpayers will ultimately decide who the lots are sold to.

The selectmen then set times for interviews for the two open road maintainer positions on the road crew. One position was vacated last month when an employee left; the second became available the week of Aug. 3 when Colley terminated one worker. 

Colley said that 17 applications were received, with seven of the applicants chosen for interviews. Of those seven, four are residents of the town. Colley indicated that the seven were chosen based on their ability to plow using the town’s commercials trucks. The board set interviews  for Tuesday, Aug. 18, and Friday, Aug. 21.

Following the conclusion of scheduled business, the board invited Ed Kirby to speak about his new book for the usual history moment, which ends each of the selectmen’s meetings.

The book is called “Industrial Sharon,” and it highlights the different industries within the town, which were mostly focused around the Sharon Valley Iron Company. Kirby said the iron industry in town was mostly run by the Sharon Valley Kiln, which was built in 1825 by Leman Bradley.

Bradley had previously built a furnace in the Great Falls area and supplied iron to Horatio Ames, for whom the village of Amesville is named.

Kirby said the book also deals with the “characters” involved in industry in Sharon, including Romulus Riggs Colgate, who built the Colgate Mansion, and Frank Sprague, who is known as the father of electrical traction. 

The book features many appendices, including an 1874 map of the different school districts and reports from those schools. In total, Kirby said, the town had 18 one- and two-room schoolhouses that educated a total of 640 students — compared to the roughly 170 in Sharon Center School and about 70 from Sharon at Housatonic Valley Regional High School today.

The book is scheduled to be released in November.