News from the First Selectman’s Office, March 12, 2024
Hello, Wilton, and happy Women’s History Month, when the nation honors and celebrates the contribution women have made to this country since its founding. There are events happening around the state honoring legendary Connecticut Women, but I would like to highlight some of the remarkable women of Wilton, like: Hannah Ambler and her sister Elizabeth, active suffragettes in the early 1910’s; Rose Marie Verrilli, the first female First Selectman, followed by Peggy Gill and Lynne Vanderslice; actors Jane Powell and June Havoc (whose ashes are scattered over Cannon Crossing); Kristine Lilly, Olympic Gold Medalist in soccer; Emily Weiss, Founder of Glossier; Katherine Maher, former CEO of Wikimedia and incoming CEO/ President of NPR; Elizabeth Neuffer, award-winning war journalist; Sophie Cabot Black, prize-winning poet; Abby Elliot,actor and comedian; Angeline Post, educator; Polly Wakeman,abolitionist; and, Alice Merwin Eakland, suffragist. These extraordinary people’s contributions make us all proud.
Public Safety
The recent breach of security at the high school is of grave concern to us all. I was grateful to hear from so many parents who shared their deep frustration and anxiety over the incident with me. I’ve also been following public comment on the various social media sites. First, I would like to reiterate my keenness to hear from people in town. I always learn something, and have heard many excellent ideas on how to prevent anything like this from happening again. Second, I want to make clear that there were protocols in place that, unfortunately, were not followed as they should have been. I am particularly sensitive to this as I was one of the state legislators charged with the task of writing much of our school security language in our statutes after the Sandy Hook tragedy. This is why I can assure you that where there are gaps in knowledge and training, they will be addressed by school leaders and emergency response teams who are laser focused on this issue. Third, I wish everyone to know that when it comes to the safety of our children, no expense will be spared. The number one responsibility of any leader is public safety. It is top of mind in my administration.
How Wilton Works
For this edition of the Newsletter, we thought it most appropriate to let our Chief of Police, Tom Conlan, speak about his department directly to the people of Wilton. Learning about how things work behind the scenes at the police department is even more amazing when you consider that with every call they answer, these officers may be putting their lives at risk. Theirs is an outstanding example of public service. So, please, Chief Conlan and everyone at the Police Department, take a bow!
Now, a word from the Chief:
Calls to the Wilton Emergency Dispatch Center
911 calls made in Wilton are answered right here in Wilton at our Emergency Dispatch Center. The Dispatch Center is staffed by both a Civilian Dispatcher as well as Wilton Police Officers who are trained to work in the center. Some municipalities in Connecticut have regional dispatch centers that answer both 911 and routine calls for service,and these centers can be tens of miles away from the town where the call is originating from. In Wilton we see the value and the necessity for someone local, who knows the town and the community, to answer the sometimes-life-threatening calls.
The dispatcher answering the calls will send the responding units based on the type of call. For minor incidents this may require one police officer, but for major incidents, like a house or building that is on fire, the dispatch center would be required to send multiple police and fire units, as well as several fire apparatuses from neighboring towns. This level of awareness requires extensive training before a civilian dispatcher or officer is able to work in the dispatch center by themselves. They are required to take the state mandated Telecommunicator and 911 Call Taker trainings, as well as an Emergency Medical Dispatcher class. Lastly, they complete a three-month Communications Training Officer Program, where they work in the dispatcher center, shadowing current certified dispatchers/desk officers answering calls and dispatching units.
The level of response to a particular incident is dictated by state and national safety organization guidelines. The Wilton Police Department recently received Tier I and Tier II Accreditation from the POST-C Council, or the State’s Police Officer Standards and Training Council. This is an extensive process where the department must show they are compliant with 200+ standards related to our policies and practices.
Mutual Aid Requests
With Wilton being a relatively small municipality as compared to the larger cities in Connecticut, we rely on mutual aid requests with other towns in our area, when an incident requires more personnel than are currently working. These types of incidents are often larger in scale and entail emergency situations.
The Wilton Police Department is a member of the Fairfield County Mutual Police Assistance Compact. This is an agreement between thirty-one towns in and around Fairfield County to offer assistance when another police agency requests it. For major incidents where the department needs immediate assistance, the Fairfield County Police Chief’s Association have developed a standard response plan called “The Fairfield County Blue Plan”. When activated it gives the town an automatic and immediate response of a pre-determined number of officers from surrounding municipalities.
Transportation Advocacy
As a member of WestCOG, or the Western Connecticut Council of Governments, I have been deeply involved in a feasibility study related to upgrading our rail service. Specifically, I have been pushing the need for Wilton to have faster, more direct service along the Metro-North line. Below is an excerpt from a letter I wrote to Todd Fontanella, the Senior Planner at WestCOG, outlining my position:
Western Connecticut is one of our state's key economic engines, and mass transit is necessary to keep it going…trains…have become the lifeblood of our communities in this part of the state…Connecticut needs its residents…to stay in Connecticut and…contribute to its economy. But they must have conditions that allow them to get to work - efficient mass transit, less congested roadways, and…easy access to major metropolitan areas.
With the current service on these lines, some commuters can't get to work early enough. Others can get to work, but there is no train at a suitable hour to get them back to the station where they parked. The result is that many commuters from New Canaan, Wilton and Ridgefield drive to mainline stations like Norwalk, Westport, Darien and Stamford. This means overcrowded parking at those stations, and more congestion and pollution on both the north-south and the east-west roads.
Our commuters have been burdened for years. They have tolerated faulty equipment, inflexible schedules and poorly maintained rail cars. Yet the Norwalk Danbury branch still carries more than 700,000 passengers per year. More frequent service could raise that number substantially.
While I served in the legislature in Hartford, it took me over a decade to have the signal system upgraded on the Norwalk to Danbury line, but much more needs to be done. Not only will a modernized rail line help commuters, but also the businesses along the heavily traveled Route 7, who are impacted by traffic congestion.
I will keep reporting on this critical issue as things develop.
Budget Process
I’m happy to report that the Board of Selectman have passed their budget, as of Friday, March 8, coming in at the Board of Finance guideline of 4%. There have been three rounds of budget cuts. The budget that stands now would reflect the national rate of inflation that has vacillated between 8 to 4% in the last few years. I believe that if we had cut more, we would need to reduce town services.
We have been living through extraordinary times. In 2006, who could have predicted the collapse of the world financial markets and a global pandemic? It is understandable, then, that any increase, even one that might be considered standard in ordinary times, can feel shocking after nearly a decade of almost no increases at all. But it is necessary to transition beyond the constraints of crisis into a new period of growth. This is why it might appear that everything is hitting at once: a $100 million school buildings repair bill, a revaluation where property owners saw their values jump exponentially, a $30 million town buildings maintenance and space needs assessment, and Moody’s credit ratings service requiring municipalities to hold so much more capital in reserve, making borrowing for brick and mortar projects painfully expensive. In many cases, it’s not that these enormous bills are appearing from nowhere, but that during a long period of restriction, so many needs were deferred, until now, when putting them off is no longer possible.
But I’d like to offer some historical perspective here. I have lived in Wilton since 1983, and consider myself very lucky indeed. In that time, I have observed the town cycle through many financial ups and downs. In my first years as a Wiltonite, annual budget increases of 7% were considered quite normal. The big fear, then, was that the numbers might creep up into the double digits. Then came the financial crash of 1987, followed by several years of only 1% to 3% budget increases. In the 1990’s, budgets again began to grow, until the dot.com crash, which, predictably, shrank our budgets back to incremental increases. History repeated itself a third time, leading up to the crash of 2008. But the times of serious financial tightening, although necessary and admirable, were not halcyon days of frugality where all was well. Every financial crash created personal tragedies and heartbreak that are too awful to remember. And, although tax increases may have been negligible, they were also an indication of stagnation.
That brings us to where we are today. We are living through a time of new expansion. It is anticipated that the Board of Finance may reduce our mill rate substantially which is now at 29.3% as there has been an incredible growth of our Grand List of 28.7% to $5.7 billion. After several years of budgets that have come in at 2 and 3%, the Board of Finance asked that both the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Education use 4% as a guide to our budget deliberations. Goal accomplished! But this is just the beginning. These budgets will now go to the Board of Finance for a final determination before they will be put before the Town Voters in May. I would never minimize the economic discomfort families may be experiencing, but there is something to be said for the optimism inherent in how our town is growing.
Town Development
I am delighted that so many people in Wilton are tuning in to our Board of Selectmen meetings and learning about the future possibilities for our town. I have been made aware of this from the numerous letters I’ve received about our growth. People have expressed a need to expand our tax base with more commercial space and apartment buildings, while others decry what they fear Wilton could become. I am reposting here a response I crafted to a constituent that clarifies some of the roles and processes our town relies on to make these important decisions. Because these same questions have come up several times, I thought it worthwhile to share my explanation here:
The Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD), a planning document for Wilton, and revised every ten years, is in the purview of the Towns’ Planning and Zoning Commission, whose members are elected officials. The Board of Selectman does not determine what applications get approved or whether they conform to the POCD which includes commercial development, historic preservation and conservation. The town’s Water Pollution Control Authority monitors and approves the sewage for current and new building projects. Right now, Wilton is getting near capacity. Our former First Selectwoman warned me about this before she left office. In order to accommodate further developments, I have personally reached out by phone and letter (email) to the Mayor of City of Norwalk who controls our water capacity through a contract that extends to 2030 to ask for more capacity so the Town of Wilton can grow.
We have been receiving number of emails and calls from residents expressing both their support and opposition to the growth of the scale that has been approved by Planning and Zoning. One common theme is traffic on Route 7 and downtown Wilton. There are residents that are having difficulty entering Route 7 and have banded together to protest the traffic affecting their neighborhoods. They have come into my office to ask me what I will do about it. I have asked the DOT through our current State Senator to help widen Route 7 from 3 lanes to 4 in front of newly constructed apartments near their homes. It is our hope that a widening will help to mitigate the 350 or more cars expected from the complex as that could add to this neighborhood’s access problem. There is another project approved in the same area of south Wilton that is also forecasted to add another 300 cars which may further add to the congestion.
There are several other projects that are approved or in the approval process that when built could add 800 new apartments and cars. But, again, what and how many developments are approved are not the Board of Selectmen’s decisions. These decisions are in the hands of the Planning and Zoning Commission to decide. As a town, we will need to assess how the many projects approved will affect our police, fire and schools and the costs associated that will be borne by the taxpayers.
I hope this letter lays bare the complexities involved in developing our town responsibly, and how many people are involved in grappling with all of the issues that must be decided on.
Townwide Clean-Up Day
The Wilton Conservation Commission is looking for volunteers to join them for the 2024 Townwide Clean-up Day, to be held on Saturday, April 6th. Every year, your friends and neighbors become hard working volunteers, of all ages, who join together to pick up litter along Wilton’s roadways and the banks of the Norwalk River. More detailed information will be released closer to the event, but this is a great way for us all to model engaged citizenship for the youth of Wilton. All are welcome!
The Luck of the Irish
Finally, I will leave you with a little bit o’luck of the Irish, with this blessing from St. Patrick’s Day, coming up on March 17th:
May your troubles be less,
and your blessings be more,
and nothing but happiness come through your door.
Treat yourself to a donut as I did at the ribbon cutting of our newly renovated Wilton Runs on Dunkin Donuts store. On St. Patty’s Day, be sure to get one in green. Slainte!
