In accordance with the State of Connecticut Stormwater Management Plan guidelines, town staff will present an annual report on the plan to the town’s Conservation Commission on Tuesday, November 30^th . The Conservation Commission will meet at 7:30 PM in the Ludlow Room at the Windsor Town Hall and the public is welcome to attend. For more information call Duane Martin at 285-1871.

I want to provide an update on the status of the construction project at the Landfill to expand the Landfill Gas Collection System. This expansion, which was approved by the Town Council in October, is being installed to deal with odor issues emanating from the area of the Landfill which we refer to as the "wedge", which is along the southern and southwestern edge of the site.

Our consultants, SCS Field Services have been on-site since November 8^th doing drilling of the vertical collection wells. The installation of these wells was completed this last weekend. Beginning today, they have been trenching and installing the pipes between the vertical wells. This will continue for the next two weeks, with the majority of this work being completed in the next week-and-a-half. It is anticipated that the expansion project will be done and in operation during the week of November 29th.

In both March and September of this year the Community Development Office and Wilson Deerfield Advisory Committee hosted public hearings to obtain feedback on the town’s community development initiatives. We sought resident’s feedback on the needs of the community, and suggestions of activities for which the town may wish to apply for funds. The result of both of these meetings was a recommendation that the Community Development Office pursue CDBG funding for a number of activities, including: improvements to the Wilson Branch Library, reconstruction of Wilson Avenue, median improvements along Windsor Avenue, ADA improvements to Milo Peck and the Rappaport Building, and small business loan program.

The recommendations from those meetings were reviewed and it was determined that some of the projects such as the Windsor Avenue project were already included in the town’s CIP but were a number of years out in the future.

In addition, two of the projects, the Rappaport Building project and renovation of the Wilson Branch Library are not ready for implementation at this time. The response from the Library Director and Wilson Branch Manager was that while they would be interested in renovating the Branch in the future it should not proceed while the Main Library project is underway. In addition, any discussion of renovation needs to involve the Windsor Library Association.

During the current calendar year, Community Development Office grant activity has included completion of the final application for a $300,000 housing rehab grant authorized by Town Council in 2003. It also involved reapplication for a $110,000 grant for emergency generators for the Windsor Housing Authority. Originally, this project had been included with the housing rehab grant application, but it was rejected. Staff pursued and received approval of a separate grant for this project.

Presently, the staff is assessing potential applications for CDBG funds for public improvement projects as identified in the Capital Improvement Plan and for small business loans. We expect to be making recommendations to the Town Council in the near future.