A Special Town Meeting is being held in Brookfield tonight about capital items and setting the date for the budget referendum. The proposed budget vote is May 17th. There are several items included in the Town's capital expenses, totalling about $8.27 million. Tonight's meeting is at 7pm in the Brookfield High School Auditorium.
The projects are a Town-Wide emergency Radio System, Street Scape Phase 6, a truck replacement, a Payloader Replacement, Parks Department Upper Garage Addition, High School Tennis Courts, High School Baseball and Softball Outfield Drainage, High School Paving and Concrete, and Whisconier Middle School 3-Wall Replacement.
The Brookfield Board of Finance is holding a Public Hearing tonight on the proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. Part of the discussion, starting at 7:30pm, will be about proposed American Rescue Plan Act projects.
The Board of Finance recently finalized the list of projects to be paid for with some of the remaining $3.12 million in federal pandemic relief funds. More than $300,000 would go to the volunteer fire companies and $200,000 each for a temporary behavioral health specialist position and a small business grants program.
The Board took out a recommendation for a sewer installation connecting 11 buildings across nine properties in the town center area. Failing historic dry wells are causing contaminate and disease-causing organisms to leach into the Still River according to the Water Pollution Control Authority. The sewer project has been under consideration for more than two decades, but has been cost prohibitive.
Those opposed to the project called it a potential opening for developers seeking to build affordable housing projects under the state’s 8-30g statute.
