By Sarah Opdahl

At the Thursday, June 24 New Fairfield Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting, there was a brief discussion about the Town’s Annex Building, which was recently vacated by the Board of Education. First Selectman Ms. Pat Del Monaco shared that there is a plan for the space. “One of our goals is to have the Finance Department all together on one floor in that building and create a space that works for them, so we are waiting on an estimate to do that piece of the work in that building.” She intends to give a presentation on the plan at the next BOS meeting.

In discussing the Personnel Report, there was a brief mention about the hiring  of Mr. John Artis for the long-standing opening of a full-time police officer position. As a state trooper assigned to the Town for many years, Del Monaco explained that all involved in the hiring process were happy to welcome Artis. Recently retired from the state police, Artis will now join the NF Police Department in the coming month.

There were a handful of interdepartmental budget transfers intended to continue the year-end “true up.” Police overtime funds, plus supply and small project needs made up the bulk of the transfer requests. The largest of the transfers was the police request, which Town Finance Director Mr. Adam Lawrence explained. “We have one large annual invoice that comes in, which covers the base salaries for both the resident troopers and resident sergeant, along with their benefits. We budget a best estimate of what that breakdown is going to look like but, of course, there is some variance of that, depending on staffing, depending on benefits, and this is just the way that that came out. The invoice was about, I think, $6000 higher than we had budgeted, but the breakdown between resident troopers and the sergeant was a little different than what we had budgeted.”

The BOS accepted two generous donations at this meeting. The first was from Selectman Ms. Khris Hall “toward the 250th celebration, and I just want to thank  Khris for her generous donation to observe the 250th anniversary of the Declaration, and she’s been instrumental in working with the committee to put all of the events together for our residents,” Del Monaco said. The second donation was from Jerry’s Gutter Cleaning and Power Washing LLC, who Del Monaco explained, “have agreed to do power washing of the senior center building and clean the gutters on the building, and this is work that is valued at $3,800.” She added, “I want to thank the owner for this generous donation. This is work that needs to be done at our Senior Center, and our Public Works staff is very busy this time of year, so this is a big help to us, and we appreciate it.” Hall added, “As somebody who is in and out of the Senior Center at least twice a week, this is something that has needed to have been done for quite some time. I am very thankful that this is happening.”

There was a reminder that there are a host of activities connected to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence coming up in Town including two showings, 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. of a video featuring twenty-three residents of New Fairfield reading sections of the Declaration of Independence on Friday, July 3, at Squantz Firehouse. Of course, all are welcome at the enhanced July 4th parade and on Wednesday, July 8 there will be another reading of the Declaration of Independence by elected officials, in concert with state and nationwide concurrent events.

The next regular New Fairfield Board of Selectmen meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 9, 7:00 p.m.