Granby Drummer (https://granbydrummer.com/author/susan-patricelli-regan/)
As with any family, a budget sometimes needs to be amended based on internal or external fiscal factors. I would like to challenge each of the departments to consider a reduction of two percent to their budgets not by simply trying to meet the current plus-2 percent budget-increase target.
What Connecticut Gold Coast town had a ’18—’19 mill rate of 11.369 and kept it flat for ’19—’20? It is also rated as #12 out of the 100 best towns to live in the U.S. and resident satisfaction has improved over the last three years in all departments. How did they achieve this?
Granby has a severe case of apathy. I say this because voter turnout for the FY19-20 budget referendum was 1,052 out of a potential 7,700 registered voters; 529 voted “yes” and 523 voted “no” with the budget only passing by six votes.
Kearns School has been the focus of various Granby Study Committees assigned by the BOS since receipt of the transference from the Education Department in 2016. A variety of recommendations were made by those respective group members but no subsequent action has occurred.
An unsolicited purchase offer was made on the Evonsion Farm but withdrawn after a public hearing, yet no further marketing efforts were/are currently forthcoming to my knowledge.
My focus in prior op-eds has been Granby’s economic fate relevant to the potential of its assets and the risks inherent in fiscal miscalculations.
I have written a number of op-eds on this subject and spoken at BOS meetings during public sessions over the past year or so. I acknowledge the objectives of a diverse public facility as proposed by the soliciting Facility Committee for the lease of Kearns School.
The proposal by the Kearns School Committee, led by Elliot Altomare, is an altruistic objective; however, it must make dollars and cents for the Town of Granby, its citizens and its relative economic health. While a non-binding letter of intent is being drafted, there are several points to be considered.
On Oct. 15, I made another public comment presentation to the Granby BOS to re-address the ongoing concern for the status of the closed Kearns Elementary School.
Over the past several months, my husband Bill Regan and I have made written and oral comments, as well as commenting at public sessions, all directed to the Board of Selectmen relevant to various projects and their processes that impact the town’s economic and development future. The core of these comments and observations was to stimulate a marketing plan as recommended in Granby’s Plan of Conservation Development (POCD) instituted and submitted to the state in October 2016.
In previous Drummer articles, I have expressed my opinions on aspects of our town’s fiscal status and how they are impacted by the boards’ decisions in the final determination for action on asset properties (eg. Kearns School and East Street Farm).