A Special Town Meeting is being held in Redding next week to vote on funding of American Rescue Plan projects. The Board of Selectmen recently approved a list of recommendations from the American Rescue Plan Funds Working Group. The ARPA projects are $40,000 for the Redding Elementary School Paved Recreation Area and $35,000 for the John Read Middle School Project COOL Outdoor Learning Pavilion.
The meeting Thursday the 26th is at 7:30pm at the Redding Community center.
Also during that meeting, residents will be asked to transfer $460,000 from the unassigned fund balance to cover police overtime due to COVID-19 and other extended leave, along with legal expenses related to the Meadow Ridge trial over property revaluation.
A Superior Court judge found Redding's valuation of the Meadow Ridge retirement community property to be excessive, but that Redding Life Care’s multiple expert witnesses were unreliable. The nearly nine-year court battle was over the town’s tax assessment of a 136-acre campus in 2012. The assessment was $112.5 million, but the company claims the value was $84 million. The ruling says the court's calculation is $92 million. Meadow Ridge is the largest employer and biggest taxpayer in Redding.
Residents will also be asked at the Special Town Meeting next week to adopt an Illicit Discharge Ordinance for Stormwater, a federal requirement under the Clean Water Act.
