Serving Durham, Middlefield and Rockfall
Volume 18, Issue 5
Middlefield town budget meeting recessed, Renninghoff elected to BOE By Chuck Corley Special to the Town Times Although Middlefield held the annual town budget meeting on May 9, residents agreed to recess it until next Monday, May 16, at 7 p.m. in the Community Center. However, this left two other matters to cover that night. Two members were elected to the Board of Education. Despite serving 17 years on the Board of Education, board member William Currlin was voted off the board after receiving only 23 votes. Newcomer Jeremy Renninghoff of the Board of Finance and Nancy Boyle was reelected receiving 34 and 40
Friday, May 13, 2011
Discovering Durham’s farm culture
votes respectively. Less controversially, only two names were nominated for the two available Durham-Middlefield Interlocal Agreement Advisory Board seats. Veteran member Jim Gibbons will be joined by the newly-elected Howard Weisberg. Inland Wetlands member Marianne Corona spoke highly of Weisberg, saying, “They don’t come any better” while noting his involvement on the DMIAAB Task Force as well as his experience working as the deputy director of New Haven’s Public Works Department. Both members received unanimous approval from the town.
An A+ teacher — Phil Moriarty
On Wednesday, April 27, the Durham Co-op Nursery School’s three-day class took a field trip to Greenbacker’s Farm in Durham, where Norah Healy milked a cow. Submitted by Mica Machnik
Fulton elected to BOE at Durham’s annual budget meeting, budget passes By Cheri Kelley Town Times
Regional School District 13’s Teacher of the Year was honored Tuesday, May 10, during a party for him at John Lyman School. Phil Moriarty shows off his celebratory balloon. More photos page 16. Photo by Stephanie Wilcox
The Durham annual budget meeting was held in the auditorium at Coginchaug Regional High School on Monday, May 9. A very large crowd — about 160 to 200 people — was in attendance. Dave Montgomery was the moderator for the evening. The Durham budget passed by a voice vote for the fiscal year 2011-2012 in the amount of $5,377,918, less state and local revenues of $1,155,009 for a net town budget of $4,222,909. There was some discussion about state budget woes and how that will affect the
town’s budget if the state doesn’t work out negotiations with the unions. One resident stated, “Municipal aid may be taken away if concessions aren’t made at the state level.” State Representative Matt Lesser was also in attendance, and he fielded the question saying that he believes the state will come to some sort of agreement with employee negotiations by the end of the month. Another concern was the lease of the current Durham Activity Center (DAC) location. Residents wanted to know if there were restrictions on the activities allowed there based on age, to
which First Selectman Laura Francis stated, “There have never been any age restrictions; it is open to people of all ages for low impact activities.” In order to be good neighbors, the town See Durham, page 36
In this issue ... Calendar............................4 Devil’s Advocate........17-24 Durham Briefs................12 Libraries.....................14-15 Middlefield Briefs...........13 Obituaries.......................37 Sports ..............................38 Spotlight..........................28