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| A new year dawns with new beginnings on the horizon for several town departments as plans move forward to provide new homes for the town's emergency services. |
And as with every new year, a new budget season looms as town departments prepare their requests that the mayor, and ultimately the Legislative Council, will tackle this spring.
Top on the list of priorities for the coming year are new headquarters for both the police and fire departments. Mayor
Craig Henrici wants to renovate the old Memorial Town Hall into a new police headquarters, while the former D'Addio Farm on Putnam Avenue is slated to house a new fire headquarters.
The Memorial Town Hall for decades was home to the town's municipal offices, but former Mayor Carl Amento moved those offices to the new, more modern Government Center on the corner of Dixwell and Evergreen avenues.
Since then, the old building has sat vacant for the most part, though its auditorium is still used for Legislative Council meetings. The recently displaced Connex Credit Union now occupies space there after fire destroyed its home in the Hamden Plaza.
Henrici said one of his top priorities is moving the police headquarters, currently located next door, into the old Town Hall. The current police department and an old garage on the site would be demolished to make room for parking, and an addition would be constructed to the Town Hall.
Other town department offices could move in to the building once it is renovated, he said. The replacement of the Circular Avenue firehouse has long been in the works, and with the town's purchase of the former D'Addio Farm property, that will happen, along with a new fire headquarters.
To pay for it, a portion of the property would be sold, Henrici said, since all of it is not needed for the project. Those projects, and the new Town Center Park planned for the old Meadowbrook Golf Course, are the most important issues the town is tackling, Councilman Curt Balzano Leng said.
"One of the biggest responsibilities we will have as a council this coming year is making the right choices about such large projects as the new police facility, the new fire facility and Town Center Park," he said. "These are multi-million dollar projects that will impact the town and have a lasting effect for the next 50 years." Leng said he also is hopeful that a new town committee will bear fruit for two important and deserving segments of the population: Seniors and veterans.
"From a finance perspective, I'm looking forward to working with the new members of the Veterans and Elderly Tax Team on some very progressive tax relief programs for senior citizens and veterans," he said. "We have to prove that we can help those residents that most need our assistance. We can take some very positive steps to help people this year." But once again, it's going to be a tough year budget-wise, he said.
"As for the overall financial picture," said Leng, "I think we are on a much more solid footing than we were two years ago. That being said, this coming budget we need to find new approaches to minimize our too-high tax rate. We need to consider a range of unconventional things, such as potentially combining departments for efficiency, making sure that the Board of Education moves its offices into Hamden Government Center for increased communication and shared resources.
"I think we're going to have to take a long, hard look at cutting additional dollars from a number of department budgets," he said. "We have to stabilize our taxes - it's not an option anymore - it's a necessity."
Board of Education Chairman Michael D'Agostino said the board understands the financial restraints the town is under and will take them into consideration when it sends its budget to the mayor.
"We are again committed to sending the mayor and council a responsible budget request - one that appropriately balances our educational needs with the town's fiscal reality," he said. "The new superintendent is already consolidating and revising some administrative positions and evaluating the programs that work and those that do not.
"Our immediate goal, of course, is to make sure that all of our schools make adequate yearly progress as required by state and federal law," he said. "The board will also be forming a new task force in the new year to review our residency requirements."
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