The Board of Selectmen met at 6:01 PM and the Board of Finance met at 7:00 PM on March 24, 2026, in Deep River, Connecticut. The meetings covered approvals of minutes, appointments to the Firehouse Building Committee, a vote to advance a firehouse design contract, establishment of special funds for fundraising, and detailed budget discussions. The Board of Finance reviewed year-to-date financials, approved recommendations from the Selectmen, and heard the Tri-Town Youth Services budget request.
All right, good evening. We'll call the Board of Selectman meeting to order on March 24th, 2026 at 6.01 p.m. First on the agenda is Secretary's report. We have approval of minutes from two regular meetings, February 10th, March 2nd, and then from special meetings of February 25th and March 12th. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from February 10th, 2026, March 2nd, 2026, and special meetings February 25th, 2026, and March 12th, 2026. All right. All in favor? So no opposed. Okay. So first audience of citizens. Publix reminded state name for the record and keep your comments brief, but anything anyone would like to address to the board. Zach, I guess saw your hand up first. Zachary Macall chair of the higher house building committee. During our last meeting, we did present Dwayne our feelings regarding our charter and how it states that the alternate gets moved out to a permanent seat if you know other people were to leave the committee. On the agenda today is a request from the firehouse committee to approve design firm of the new firehouse. Before approving this request, I recommend that the selectmen call a joint meeting with the firehouse building committee and the representatives from the Board of Finance. Thank you. It is on our agenda. We'll discuss in this more number seven. Uh like we can't um like we're lay people we need we need an architect to look at that um in order to find out whether there is uh a lower cost thank you it is on our agenda we're discussing this more number seven yeah okay thank you uh so I would like to add to the agenda um a recommendation from our finance department based on auditor's recommendation um so it would be to um don't know how to actually phrase it but basically um to approve the town holding fundraisers for various town events town committees etc and then they would be earmarked for specific that specific event that it got raised for um so we can talk more about it when we put it on the agenda right and then we will then if we agree we would move it towards the Board of Finance later tonight so I'll put a motion to add request from finance director faller okay uh 14a 14a talking about fundraisers okay and where to airmark the money why don't we put it at third well because we have to maybe vote on it all right well 13a then 13a okay okay so I have a motion from uh gates to add that and play with that yes second all in favor aye okay and none opposed okay great um tax refunds so the tax collector has asked for approval of one refund in the amount of three hundred and twelve dollars and fifty nine cents and I have a motion to approve that I'll make that motion okay I'll second it okay all in favor that's three I think and Adam I'm sorry so did you have any audience of citizens I didn't look back in the computer to see if your hand was up no I'm all set Carol thank you okay thank you okay appointments so possible appointments to the firehouse building committee um I didn't want to list names because I didn't know if anybody had a chance to reach out but I know I did was able to talk to uh Bruce Newman he was a name that had come up so I don't know if we want to move that forward tonight and then if we uh do want to act on moving Dave Barardis up to a permanent member that could be done in that in this possible appointments too unless we want to have more discussion about that. I would I mean I don't think at this point they're um not having a quorum so they're not able you know they're still able to have meetings because people are showing up but uh is that something we want to move tonight. I have no problem I I and just to follow up what Zach said uh I was at the building committee the other night and I told them my thoughts my concerns and my exact words at the end were I don't care who goes on the building committee. I want to get the firehouse built and I want it to stay under budget. That's what I said right so I have no problem moving Dave up. Okay and I'll make a motion I had conversation with Bruce last night for good 20 minutes. I think he's an attorney I I think it'll help the building committee out immensely everyone brings a different perspective to the building committee I think with his background lore. So I'll make a motion to put Dave and Bruce up and then we'll select one spot as an alternate. Okay and we can hold off on that for tonight okay uh second and then we can have more discussion you want to second I can second that okay um I also uh think Dave would be really good in that role he was only the alternate because he traveled a lot way back when um so I'm glad he's able to fill that role and then I did also talk to Bruce and being an attorney I think he's gonna bring a lot to the board and uh he was also told me he worked on a the church renovation or something in Essex so he has some uh experience being on a building committee as well so did you have a chance to reach out I did I spoke to him at length it was a nice conversation and he has some interest in firefighting as well so it'll bring that to the table too. Good good okay so why don't we um so we had a motion to move Dave Ferrardis up from um alternate to full time or a full member whatever um and then we have a same motion to uh appoint Bruce Newman as a full member full member yeah and then we'll have to search for alternates at some point right we'll have two vacancies for alternates are there two alternate okay so we'll be searching for the one alternate but otherwise we've filled our two fulls okay so motion was made seconded all in favor aye okay so three oh we pass that okay uh conservation and inland wetlands presentation of proposed changes to the canfield woods ordinance I forgot to put the S there on woods but we have Tanner here to the table okay thanks for having us um so Tanner Steves go ahead sorry Tara Steve's chair conservation in the wetlands commission um so uh there is an existing ordinance um that describes canfield woods and describes um uh the conservation inland wetlands commission as the stewardship body over canfield woods um in um 2023 the town purchased a small piece of property two and a half acres on rattling valley road and uh we added it added it to canfield woods um at the time of purchase um so um purchase price was eighty thousand dollars we used 45 thousand dollars in town open space funds we use 15000 from the community foundation of Middlesex and we use 2000 from uh Connecticut River Gateway Commission and those two external funding sources were brought And we added it, added it to Canfield Woods. At the time of purchase, so the purchase price was $80,000. We used 45,000 in town open space funds. We used 15,000 from the community foundation of Middlesex, and we used 20,000 from Connecticut River Gateway Commission. And those two external funding sources were brought in by the Deep River Land Trust. And so, as is often common practice when you have funding partners on open space acquisitions like that, you sometimes grant an easement to that funding partner. So we talked in this case to Jane Marsh about that, town attorney. She wasn't necessarily comfortable with doing that. So that didn't happen. We were thinking about another way that we could memorialize this newer piece of Canfield Woods and memorialize its place as open space, not simply a town parcel that could potentially be developed in the future. So we looked at our existing ordinance and we realized that it really doesn't specifically describe Canfield Woods as it currently exists either in a very adequate manner. And so looking at our current ordinance, we thought that we would simply specifically describe the three parcels that make up Canfield Woods currently and write that into the ordinance. And also just refresh the language or enhance the language as to why this property is preserved as natural area, and um just reiterate the Conservation and Inland Wetlands Commission as uh this the stewardship authority over that. And so the request from uh Conservation Inland Wetlands Commission is that we um put this revised ordinance as I understand is the process uh to town meeting for a vote to um adopt a new language um for for this ordinance. And this was approved by the attorney for the inland wetlands as well. Correct, thank you for adding that. Yes, um, she drafted the language for us um initially, and we collaborated over the course of several meetings um to agree on the language. Um we approved this language uh through vote at um conservation commission meeting um and yes it was drafted and approved by our uh town town um uh commission attorney um yes. Okay. So and the goal that I'm uh as I understand it, that newer piece that we have since it's town owned, there is a potential somewhere down the road that somebody could say, oh, the town owns that little parcel, we could sell it or something like that. So this is going to prevent that.