Water, Realty, Power on Agenda

SHARON — The Board of Selectmen attended to a grab bag of issues in its final meeting of the year Tuesday, Dec. 12.

• First Selectman Malcolm Brown reported that the complicated process of completing the paperwork for the Calkinstown Damproject is on track. Stephen Szalewicz, chairman of the Sewer and Water Commission, is working with Brown on this. Lengthy forms are required for the state STEAP grant (Small Town Economic Assistance Program) and for permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

• Brown said that the town’s electric billswere "high, and they’re going to get higher." He will attend a workshop for municipalities sponsored by Connecticut Light and Power in January 2007.

• The new radio systemlinking Town Hall, the town garage and the town’s fire and ambulance services is now installed and running. Brown said it was the first time all town services and agencies had been linked.

• The selectmen voted to send on to the Board of Finance a request for up to $11,000 for extending the sidewalknorth along Route 41 up to the XtraMart convenience store opposite the shopping center.

The stumbling block is the culvert and phone pole where a sidewalk extension would cross over Beardsley Pond Brook, but Brown said he was confident that obstacle could be circumvented without too much trouble.

• The selectmen also considered whether or not to require the owner at 234 Low Road to install a culvertunder the apron of the driveway at the property, which is for sale.

Brown said that while the drive was completed three years ago, there was some question as to whether the apron would be adequate to prevent water and silt from spilling out over the road and/or overwhelming the existing ditch.

In the end, the selectmen opted to wait and see, and if the area requires drainage work, it should be at the town’s expense, as no culvert was required at the time the building permit was issued.

• Also on the landowner front, the selectmen denied a request by Michael Rost that he and two other persons be allowed to reside in a trailerat 172A Mudge Pond Road. The address is a construction site that has already sparked some controversy for an Inland Wetlands violation. At the last Inland Wetlands meeting a petition was presented for a hearing on Rost’s proposal to build a home at the site.

Brown cited a number of reasons for denying permission to live at the site, the most significant being the absence of adequate water and sewer facilities. A letter will be sent to Rost explaining the decision.

• The selectmen decided to list the town-owned building at 67 Main Street, next door to Town Hall, with multiple realtors in an effort to rent it. Brown said that the sluggish rental market indicated the best course was to cast a wider net for potential tenants.

• Referring to discussions with the incoming probate courtjudge, Charles Vail of Salisbury, Brown said that as far as the vault currently holding court records goes, the status remains quo. Once the scheduling with the probate court employee (who will be in all the towns in the district on a rotating basis) is sorted out, use of the office space by the town’s voter registrars will be possible.

• The board appointed Elizabeth Gall and Patrick Dore to the Historic District Commission, the former as an alternate and the latter as a regular member.