Click above to read the current "About Town" column;  unofficial information ONLY found on this webpage. ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THIS SITE HERE.
T O P I C S   O F   I N T E R E S T   -   M E E T I N G S    -    C O M M E N T A R Y 


"New Canaan Tea House"
Margaret Wirtenberg


TAXES:
LIFE IN GENERAL:
Annotated Bibliography and Research Source Page Link...

FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE (WHEN "GOOGLING" WITHIN OUR SITE DOESN'T REALLY SATISFY YOUR NEEDS):  a page summarizing all internal links by topic!



FINE ARTS PROJECT '09  "With a little bit of luck" WestonArts has played its part finding $$ to renovate the high school auditorium in 2008.  
What makes Weston Weston?  Animals, public schools, home, fields, nature, culture, WILD THINGS"Public Art" by alumna.

Schedule for meetings of Boards, Commissions, etc. is in the Town Clerk's Office (note that Town Hall Annex is on School Road): click here for shorthand titles for Town Clerk's room reservation list

NOTE:  Posted in the Town Clerk's Office September 8, 2004, the following memo to Town Employees from the Office of the Town Administrator..."Due to the increase in Freedom of Information requests and the time involved in copying audio and video tapes, the Town will no longer provide copies in house.  All tapes will be sent to an outside vendor for duplication.  Cost for audio tape is $10.00 per tape with a $15.00 round trip delivery charge.  Cost for a video tape is $25.00 per tape with a $15.00 round trip delivery charge."

Notes beginning with change in administrations below;  Boards of Finance and Education links to our notes;  our Selectmen's notes as far back as May 30, 2002) click here. 


The Town Hall offices will be closed in observance of the following holidays during 2010:

Friday, January 1, 2010

New Year’s Day

Employees Personal Choice Holiday*

Floating Holiday

Monday, January 19, 2010

Martin Luther King Day

Monday, February 15, 2010

President’s Day

Friday, April 2, 2010

Good Friday

Monday, May 31, 2010

Memorial Day

Sunday, July 4, 2010 (Holiday observed on Monday July 5, 2010)

Independence Day

Monday, September 6, 2010

Labor Day

Monday, October 11, 2010

Columbus Day

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Veteran’s Day

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Thanksgiving Day

Friday, November 26, 2010

Day after Thanksgiving

Friday, December 24, 2010

Day before Christmas

Saturday December 25, 2010 (Holiday observed on Monday December 27, 2010)

Christmas Day




GOVERNMENT:  

CONNECTICUT GENERAL ASSEMBLY:   2010 SHORT SESSION OVER.
Who are YOUR government representatives?  Did you know that these offices will be up for election this year?  Links to info:  http://www.firstgov.gov/
Weston now represented by John Stripp in the House (not running in 2010), John McKinney and Toni Boucher in the Senate.

Bond Commission withdraws funds, citing cash flow problems
Greenwich TIME
Ken Dixon, Staff Writer
Published: 10:32 p.m., Tuesday, August 17, 2010


HARTFORD -- The normally placid State Bond Commission erupted in controversy Tuesday morning amid charges that the state is facing a major cash-flow problem because of diminished tax revenues and less federal support.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell sided with state Treasurer Denise Nappier and down-played the potential danger of converting more than half a billion dollars in bond funds sold for short-term operating costs, into longer-term notes.

But Republicans led by Rep. Vincent J. Candelora of Branford, Sen. Andrew W. Roraback of Goshen, and House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr. of Norwalk, warned that in black-and-white terms, the state is spending more than it is taking in and could be unable to pay monthly bills of $600 million by the middle of next year.

The controversy centered on $580-million in short-term debt approved last year by Rell under her executive powers that Nappier now wants to convert to $520-million in long-term general obligation (GO) bonds.

"The spigot that has the tax revenue is not flowing," Cafero told reporters, charging that the state is in a crisis. "It's dripping. We are getting less money than we've ever gotten before. However, the ladles of water for which we pay all those things are still the same amount of money..."  Full story here.



PEOPLE:
According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census...it is simple to use U.S. Census 2000: click HERE for SAMPLE OF WESTON DATA AND BLOCKGROUP MAP, and for more:



ENVIRONMENT:
Excellent I-BBC series on global water crisis - HERE.
Link HERE to Connecticut Fund for the Environment;
WOODLANDS COALITION...click HERE to join or just read of their reasons for being concerned about the future...345kV old power lines articles.

FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT:
Basic groundwater link: http://nemo.uconn.edu/

Update of Unofficial Weston Land Use Map in the works:

 
l
Imperviousness...what is it?
Click on the picture of Connecticut to the upper left.  What about installing more impervious surfaces on School Road (is the Sports Complex proposed surface and drainage any less permeable than the existing "Great Swamp" natural drainage system) ?
Should we start looking at this report again - especially since it addressed the issue of limitations regarding watering fields?  We did!  And now the School Building Committee has retained the firm which did the report (below) to draw up a working plan for water supply for our School Project.

NEMO visits Weston January 2005 and agrees with P&Z regarding need to care for groundwater resource;  FIRST (EARLY) GROUNDWATER FEASIBILITY STUDY OF WESTON PUBLIC SCHOOL CAMPUS: summary, conclusion and recommendations--click here.

And do you remember this from YR2000?
Wastewater Public Hearing Notes--May 25, 2000 continued to June 13, 2000 (by now some "old news"):
From the first night:  Weston resident Christopher Plummer, who attended the meeting on May 25, spoke for us all in a letter to the Editor of the 5-31-00 Westport NEWS, part of which is quoted below:

"We live in America because she allows us the freedom to improve and protect our land according to the rules of nature.  In short, she allows us privacy in cohesion with nature."
 

CT. D.E.P. "CONSENT ORDER" SIGNED, SEALED AND DELIVERED (as announced at Special Town Meeting 5-24-01);
WATER COMPANY LANDS, WATER QUALITY...REMEMBER THE DROUGHT?  HTTP://www.drought.state.ct.us/
Go to the links below for H20 Quality and Quantity Data:
USGS in Connecticut...the best there is when it comes to mapping, etc. The "umbrella agency" for hydrologic data as well.  Please find the "estimated use of water" 1995 report along with the chapter on "Wastewater Release:  Wastewater Treatment" which shows that States with heavy return of treated wastewater to surface water are Illinois and Ohio...but the big reclaimed wastewater States are Florida, California and Arizona.

Connecticut ranks in the middle in terms of amount of public water treatment release to surface water.  But in 1995, in CT Publicly Owned treatment facilities, there was zero--none-- re-use of treated wastewater ("reclaimed").

WESTON has plan for water recycling for high school and middle school...and the voters approved water conservation plan for high school and middle school at machine vote on June 28, 2001.  PROGRESS:  Nettleton contractors finishing up summer '02 on this job.  Connecticut SURFACE WATER conditions are reported (click below).  Nearby monitoring points are: the Saugatuck River (in Redding) and Sasco Brook (in Fairfield):

Surface water news to think about...red tide next?
USGS Surface Water Information--State Maps
Click below for USGS graphs measuring flow status in current "historical" period:
Average Daily Streamflow Conditions Plots for Connecticut
For future reference:  Ridgefield Water Company (part of Kelda/Aquarion) taking out water from the Saugatuck--December 7, 2000 Board of Selectmen's meeting discussed this matter.



REPORT OF 9-11 COMMISSION.


Some newly released September 11, 2001 photos (above)...

NOTE:  A few pictures, immediately above, are worth remembering after the Presidential Election year 2008 - guess the Wall Street meltdown and global sub-prime mortgage contagion over-trumped all other issues!

NYC light beams marking 9/11 paid for through 2011
The Associated Press
Updated: 12/17/2009 10:53:20 AM EST

NEW YORK—The agency responsible for ground zero redevelopment will spend $695,000 through 2011 to fund the twin beams of light that pay tribute to the World Trade Center victims.

The Tribute in Light memorial has been projected into the night sky from lower Manhattan around the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks every year.

The board of directors of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. voted Thursday to pay for the lights through the 10th anniversary of the attacks in 2011.

The board also voted to fund an oral history project and a documentary about the rebuilding of the trade center site.