State of North Branford Is Positive, But Future Vision and Volunteers Needed

After being postponed due to the blizzard, the North Branford Chamber of Commerce held its annual State of the State/Town Breakfast on Feb. 27. Speakers included Senator Ed Meyer, State Representative Vin Candelora, North Branford Mayor Anthony Candelora, Interim Town Manager Bonnie Therrien and Superintendent Scott Schoonmaker.

State of the Town

The overall mood was positive with Mayor Anthony Candelora saying, "Despite the recession, North Branford remains one of the greatest places to live, work and raise a family."

He cited the school system; police, fire and public works; the town's location and conservative budget that has maintained a 27.77 mill rate for the past two years as just some of the positives. Candelora also expressed excitement about the many ongoing projects, including the development of Route 80.

Interim Town Manager Bonnie Therrien began by thanking the staff and residents for welcoming her into her position. She echoed many of Candelora's positive sentiments, but also cautioned about the future of the economy and needing a vision for the town.

"I've worked in communities like this where everyone wants to keep the agricultural look, but you also have to look long-range – do residents want to keep paying all these taxes?" she said. 

She said that the Economic Development Commission is interested in doing a Charette Study and looking into ways to market North Branford's "great attributes."

Therrien also expressed gratitude to the many people, particularly Fran Merola, who helped clean up the blizzard, but while she was thankful, she also called out for volunteers. 

"These emergencies aren't going away," she said. "We need more volunteers."

Dave Palumbo, who moderated the event and is the vice-chairman of the Police Commission, reiterated the need for residents to step up.

"We do have a great community, but we need as much help as we can get and as much input as we can get," he said. "We have a great team of people who care about our community, the passion is there. It doesn't matter what party you're in because I really believe in a community like ours, we can do a lot." 

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State of the Schools

Meyer talked about a recent trip to Texas where they had just decided to arm the staff at a public schools – Superintendent Scott Schoonmaker began by saying, "We will not be arming our teachers in North Branford," though he did stress school safety as one of the biggest concerns.

"We're the biggest business in town and the largest employer," said Schoonmaker, who is heading into his fifth year at the head of the North Branford School District. "My biggest goal from day one is being able to personalize education. It's college and career readiness. We want to offer something for everyone."

Schoonmaker discussed academic programs, the automotive programs, the engineering programs, the building of the press box and ticket booth – "all skill sets that will help them later in life."

The budget, which will be presented soon, will request a 2.66 percent increase. The increases come from paying back the jobs bill and adding security, including the new armed school security officers.

"Will there be reimbursement coming from the state? I can't wait for that," said Schoonmaker, who had police at the schools since Dec. 14. "It was costing the school district in excess of $10,000 a week."

Schoonmaker, Police Chief Matthew Canelli and others with experience came together to form a plan to take steps toward ensuring safety in the schools. Schoonmaker said that with the buildings the town has, "it is nearly impossible to keep someone out who wants to get in. We're taking the stance we want to have a trained person in those buildings with communications to get our police force there."

He ended by talking about the state of the schools, particularly the 40-plus-year-old high school that will eventually need to be replaced, followed by Totoket Valley Elementary School. 

Schoonmaker also encouraged local business owners to reach out to the high school's internship program and work experience program to get students involved.

"We can give you free help," he said. "They learn more from hands-on experience and just being around you."

State of the State

Both Senator Ed Meyer and State Representative Vin Candelora said they are facing a lot in Hartford for this session with the budget, which would eliminate the car tax but take away other funds from the towns, as well, according to Meyer. 

"We really have to let Sen. Meyer and Rep. Candelora that the impacts of [Malloy's proposed budget] could really hurt us, especially the loss of the car tax," said Therrien. "For us, we're estimating we could lose $2.5 million in revenue. And it's either cut services or raise taxes."

Meyer said the goal is rebuilding Connecticut's economy – focusing on benefits for small businesses; finding Connecticut's mainstream economic drive, which is trending toward bio-science; energy costs as "we're one of the highest in the United States" and incentives to move to natural gas; health insurance; streamlining the permit process for businesses; and gun law reform. 

Candelora started by speaking about gun control, which is a "difficult process that will take a while as it's bipartisan. There's an attempt to not politicize this and try to come up with what's best for Connecticut."

He went on to say that mental health is an important area to focus on as Connecticut is "one of the only states in the country that doesn't have out-patient commitment."

As far as the governor's budget, Candelora said there were many areas that "took us by surprise" and "If we don't start fixing the problems of why we're running out of cash...we're just going to keep spiraling."