www.plainvillecitizen.com
Volume 20, Number 16
Thursday, April 22, 2021
$63.45M BUDGET PROPOSED
All-day vote set for April 27 The Town Council’s Proposed Annual Budget for Fiscal Year 2021-2022 heads to an all-day vote Tuesday, April 27 at the Plainville Firehouse, 77 West Main St. Residents can vote from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. The proposed budget: Town Government: $19,191,787, a $581,056 (or 3.12 percent) increase from last year. In this Record-Journal photo from 2000, a group of Lincoln Middle School (Meriden) Ecology Club members lug garbage bags full of trash from the banks of the Quinnipiac River in South Meriden.
Odd items are the norm during Q-River cleanups By Joy VanderLek Special to The Citizen
There’s not much that could be pulled from the waters of the Quinnipiac River that would surprise David James of the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association. The long-serving QRWA president has presided over more than a dozen Q-River cleanups from the group’s headquarters on Oregon Trail Road in Meriden. In order to have the event during COVID, this year’s cleanup is being done throughout the entire month of April. Volunteers are asked to “clean independently,” without the benefit of the full group or a QRWA guide on site. Trash bags will be supplied. James asks that potential volunteers email qrwainfo@att.net. Volunteers may also go to qrwa.org for the event link sign-up. Volunteers are at the core of the event. Many, like James, are multi-year helpers. James, a Meriden resident, offered one reason for his commitment: “Just because Meriden is a less affluent town shouldn’t mean its residents have less access to the benefits of healthy natural surroundings.” To initiate actions to clean the waterways, the first regularly-held QRWA river cleanups were during the 1990s, becoming semi-annual in the early 2000s, James said. From its inception, the haul from each cleanup is estimated at the conclusion of each event. See Q-River, A27
Board of Education: $39,826,972, a $682,705 (or 1.74 percent) increase from last year. Debt Service: $4,430,350, the same total as last year. Capital Projects: $7,850, a $306,000 (or 97.50 percent) decrease from last year. The budget totals $63,456,959, an increase of $957,761, or 1.53 percent, over the FY 2020-2021 budget. If the proposed budget is adopted, the estimated mill rate would be 34.85, an increase of 0.23 mills, or .65 percent. The mill rate
calculation assumes the revenues as proposed in the Governor’s recommended budget remain the same. The Town Council held a public hearing on April 5 for the purpose of hearing public comment on the council's proposed budget. The meeting was open for public comments via email or call in. The moderator stated there were no listeners, and the hearing was closed. When the Town Council moved on to new business that evening, Councilman Underwood motioned to approve the General Government Fiscal Year 2022 Budget, including Debt Service and Capital Projects, of $23,629,987; and the Board of Education Fiscal Year 2022 Budget of $39,826,972. The motion was seconded by Councilman Wazorko and passed 6-0. Detailed information about the Town Council’s Proposed Annual Budget for Fiscal Year 2021-2022 can be viewed at plainvillect.com.
National Drug Take Back Day The DEA National Drug Take Back Day is Saturday, April 24. This effort addresses a crucial public safety and public health issue. According to the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 9.7 million people misused prescription pain relievers, 4.9 million people misused prescription stimulants and 5.9 million people misused prescription tranquilizers or sedatives. The survey also showed that a majority of misused prescription drugs were obtained from family and friends, often from the home medicine cabinet. The DEA’s Take Back Day events provide an opportunity for Americans to prevent drug addiction and overdose deaths.
Nearby, take-back events will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the New Britain, Bristol and Meriden police departments. If you can't attend an April 24 take-back, prescription drugs can be disposed of safely at home. Unused and expired medications should be mixed with an unpalatable substance such as dirt, cat litter or used coffee grounds. Place the mixture into a container such as a sealed plastic bag and throw the container away with your household trash. Remember to scratch out all personal information on the prescription label of your empty pill bottle or empty medication
packaging to make it unreadable, then dispose of the container. By taking these medication disposal steps you are helping unused and expired medication from getting to the hands of people they were not prescribed to.