As a candidate for the Board of Selectman two years ago I voiced a strong interest in seeing the town’s financial foundation stabilized, better roads and infrastructure, a higher quality of life for our residents, more efficient government, better schools, and eventually lower residential taxes.
Thus far we have made headway on most of these goals.
Our town is much better off today than it was just four years ago when Kurt Miller took office.
We’ve stabilized our finances and have been rewarded for our efforts with a higher bond rating (akin to the town’s credit rating), which will save us money well into the future.
We’ve paved more roads in the last few years than in we had in over a decade, along with the improvements to our general town infrastructure such as better sidewalks and more downtown parking.
We have a brand new park overlooking the long-stalled Tingue Dam fish bypass and seen multiple improvements to our other parks, which improves our overall quality of life.
Our town government has become more effective with a restructured police force that reduced administrative crawl and put more officers back in the community.
Our municipal government has also teamed up with our Board of Education to find symbiotic relationships to improve efficiencies, such as shared IT services and employee disability costs.
These are successes that should be recognized and benefit the entire town. Now that we’ve accomplished so much I’d like to turn towards what I’d like to see in the future. I believe that with this strong financial foundation and newfound efficiencies we can start to realize the benefits in our tax base.
I believe that we need to continue to work with the owners of the Tri-Town Plaza, the Seymour Lumber property, and the Housatonic Wire property to redevelop these zones into viable commercial properties. We are currently working with these private property owners to find the right fit for redevelopment and with Kurt Miller’s leadership I’m confident we will do it.
I’d like to see the greenway built in its entirety over the next decade. The first phase will be built downtown starting in the spring and it will benefit our downtown businesses with the increased pedestrian traffic.
Finally I would like to see our tax burden eased. As many of you know I have fought consistently for smaller government and lower taxes, both on the Seymour Board of Finance and in the Connecticut General Assembly.
With government efficiencies in place, a strong fund balance, an increase in commercial activity in town as seen by the multiple expansions of businesses like Basement Systems and Thule, we will be able to reduce the mill rate.
My ultimate goal is to see a better Seymour overall at a lower cost to its residents.
With Kurt Miller at the helm we’re going to realize that vision. I ask for your support for the Board of Selectman for not only myself, but for Kurt Miller and the entire Republican team.
The writer is running for re-election to the Seymour Board of Selectmen on the Republican line.
