This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.

Sidewalk, Chamber Roof Funds Approved in Old Saybrook

The approval of two funding requests at a July 2 Town Meeting will allow for the repair and replacement of some town sidewalks, along with the replacement of the Chamber of Commerce building roof, both during this construction season.

For the first project, the Town Meeting approved appropriating $60,000 from the Capital Non-Recurring Account to repair the Chamber of Commerce building roof and cupola at 1 Main Street. After a public bidding process, the Board of Selectman selected low bidder Macri Roofing to do the work. Supplementing this appropriation is $30,169 that will come from the Gateway Rental Fund. The roof project is scheduled to be started in August and be finished in September.

First Selectman Carl Fortuna, Jr., previously explained that the Chamber of Commerce makes a monthly lease payment to the town for use of the town-owned 1 Main Street building. Funds accumulated in this Gateway Rental Fund account will now be tapped by the town to help pay for the roof’s repair this summer.

The second expenditure request on the July 2 Town Meeting call was for $150,000 to hire a construction firm to replace sidewalks in need of repair at specific locations in Old Saybrook. Fortuna said he plans to target sidewalks along the Old Boston Post Road and along Main and College streets to Saybrook Point. The appropriation will be made to the General Fund Capital Outlay Account and then transferred to an off budget account called “sidewalk construction.”

Initially, the Board of Selectmen had planned to allocate $99,000 to this year’s work, but decided to bring the project budget up to $150,000, in order to tackle more sidewalk areas in need of repair.

Fortuna reported that in positive financial news, the town actually received $150,000 more in revenue from the State of Connecticut last year than the town had budgeted.

Town Treasurer Bob Fish confirmed that, after these appropriations, the town’s rainy day fund is about 14 percent of the town’s budget.

The additional unbudgeted state revenue the town received is about equal to this funding request for the sidewalk repair project approved at the July 2 Town Meeting.

“We will put [the sidewalk project] out to bid in the next two weeks,” said Fortuna at a June 26 Board of Selectmen meeting. “Hopefully someone can start on sidewalks in July or August.

“Our goal over [the next] two to three years will be to get our sidewalks where they need to be. It’s a quality of life issue,” said Fortuna. “We will need more money, but this if a good start.”