Shelton residents agreed by large margins Tuesday to $11 million in spending on various projects as well as an overhaul of its charter.
The vote means Shelton will get a new animal shelter and four new fire trucks, as well as the reconstruction of Canal Street and other roads around the city.
Turnout was 77 percent, according to Republican Registrar of Voters Peter Pavone, with 18,797 of Shelton’s 24,797 registered voters casting ballots.
Fire Department Equipment
The city’s fire department received overwhelming support from residents for $3.5 million to buy new trucks.
A total of 14,458 voted yes on the question, and 2,2728 voted no.
The $3.5 million will go toward funding the department’s six-year capital improvement plan, which would include the purchase of four new fire trucks — two engine/quints and two rescue trucks.
Those new vehicles would replace six aging pieces of fire apparatus, including one truck that dates to 1977. The “quints” are multi-purpose trucks.
Each of the city’s four volunteer fire companies would get one of the four new vehicles.
Shelton Fire Department Chief Fran Jones thanked city officials, firefighters, and residents for supporting the department Tuesday night.
“I believe the city thinks very highly of our volunteer firefighters and the hard work that they do each and every day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Jones said. “They understand the challenges the firefighters face and the need to provide them with safe, quality equipment.”
But don’t expect to see new fire trucks rolling around town immediately.
“Unfortunately, it’ll probably be another year to a year-and-a-half,” before the department gets the new trucks, Jones said.
A committee is working on finalizing specs for the trucks, he said, after which they will go out to bid by late January or early February. Once those bids come back and manufacturers are selected, the trucks themselves usually take about nine months to a year to be built and delivered.
Jones said the $3.5 million will take care of the department’s “immediate needs” with respect to replacing its equipment. He said the department is pursuing grants for other upcoming purchases, like new breathing apparatus.
New Animal Shelter
Shelton will also be getting a new animal shelter as a result to replace its current, outdated facility as a result of Tuesday’s vote.
A question asking residents to approve $1.4 million in spending on a new building passed by a margin of 12,220 yes votes to 4,999 no votes.
A committee of volunteers has been working to develop plans for a new shelter, which will nearly quintuple the space of the current facility and bring its mission more in line with the times.
The new facility will be a safer, more secure environment for lost and stray animals, and will better promote pet adoption and education to the public about the pet overpopulation problem, according to members of the committee.
Its chairman, Gerry Craig, called the referendum result “wonderful” Wednesday night.
“We worked so hard on this, for six years we worked on this,” Craig said when learning of the results. “We put so much into this, and we really put together a good product, and the city was a really good partner on this.”
“What we have now is just crumbling,” Craig said of the current facility. “There’s no other answer other than it has to be replaced.”
Craig said he hopes construction can start by March, with a build time of about seven to eight months.
Other Questions, Charter Changes
Elsewhere on the ballot, voters approved $5 million to rehabilitate city roads.
The question passed by a margin of 14,563 to 2,818.
While in the run-up to the election city officials have had a policy of not saying how many or which roads will be worked on, Shelton has spent $5 million in the past two years — from a $4 million referendum in 2010 and $1 million from last year’s budget — to rehabilitate 53 miles of roads.
The city uses a combination of outside contractors and public works employees to perform the work, which takes the form of a combination of paving, chip sealing, and crack sealing.
In the last of the spending questions on the ballot, residents also OK’d $1 million to reconstruct Canal Street by a margin of 11,321 to 5,643, the closest margin of any of the spending questions.
In addition to paving, the city has to perform a “full-depth reconstruction” to replace utilities dating back to the 1800s. The money would also pay for improvements to sidewalks, streetscaping, and lighting which would help the road serve a wider population.
Revisions to the city’s charter were also approved by a vote of 11,123 to 4,559.
Mayor Mark Lauretti said the results show city officials are in tune with residents.
“It’s good to know you’re in sync with people’s thinking,” the mayor said. “These are all things that the city needs to do and can do, and we should do.”
Lauretti said he didn’t agree with some of the charter changes — like the new section dealing with how certain vacancies must be publicized — but that on the whole he was happy that the revision passed.
“There will be a couple of things that will create more work for us, but in this era of public transparency, that’s what goes on,” Lauretti said. “We’ll deal with it.”
The mayor said the provision is “more complicated than it sounds” and is worried it could be open to interpretation.
“Interpretation is fodder for political adversaries,” he said.
Still, he said, the overall result would benefit the city. “I’m not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
