In recognition of the sacrifices that the town’s volunteer firefighters make, Town Meeting voters extended a $1,000 property tax abatement benefit both to probationary firefighters and to firefighters retired from the force but with 25 years of service or more. Active firefighter volunteers already qualify for this tax abatement if they own a home in Old Saybrook.

Since the town’s volunteer fire department is all-volunteer, the property tax abatement benefit is an incentive the town offers to encourage participation in this public safety mission.

The motion to extend the benefit to these two new classes of fire volunteers passed unanimously.

Other Town Actions

Also approved at June 26 Town Meeting was a request for $35,000 for engineered plans for parking at the Ingham Hill Road trailhead for the Preserve and $24,900 for engineering an Ingham Hill turnaround at the road’s ending. Once the plans are completed, First Selectman Carl Fortuna, Jr., said the town would have two shovel-ready projects.

For the Ingham Hill Road turnaround, Fortuna said that he would consider having the town’s Public Works Department do the construction, if the work is not too complex, however that decision would be made when the plans are finalized. The goal of the project is to expand the ending’s size to accommodate the larger turning radius of firetrucks and school buses, eliminating the current need to execute a “K” turn to reverse direction. The engineering services would be paid for out of the “185 Bokum Road” sales revenue account.

The second request is for engineering services to design a 25-space parking area at the Ingham Hill Road trailhead for the Preserve open space. Once the plans are finished, the town would apply to the Trust for Public Land (TPL) for construction funds. Fortuna explained that TPL, from its Preserve stewardship fund, would prefer to pay for “hard costs” of construction rather than “soft costs” like engineering services.

One nay vote was recorded for each vote on the motions above.

In another vote, electors approved a $260,000 appropriation from the Fund 7400, “Public Works Paving Exchange Fund” for the purpose of paving Bokum Road. When the Connecticut Water Company (CWC) completed a water main upgrade project on Bokum Road, CWC gave the town a check to cover the repaving of the road after CWC’s work was done.

“Bokum Road is a mess. We want to take it right down to gravel, from the Essex line to Route 154,” said Fortuna.

The Town Meeting also approved $25,000 to update the town’s Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan, and to eliminate Chapter 189 Swimming Pools, since that chapter is in conflict with the State Building Code upon which the Town relies.

Finally, the Town Meeting voted to endorse the applications of the Connecticut Sports Foundation Against Cancer and the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center to the State Department of Revenue Services for tax credits to support energy conservation projects at each group’s site. Fortuna explained that there are no financial implications to the Town of Old Saybrook for this endorsement.