The Caring Connection Adult Day Health Center received notice from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving that they will be the recipients of $4,000 from the Archer Foundation and $9,625 for the Brainard Fund. This $13,625 is a $500 increase from last year. All of this funding goes directly into the pockets of the caregivers as financial aide to pay for Adult Day Care. Congratulations to Deb Boemmels and the staff at Caring Connection for their continuous efforts in seeking funding alternatives for their clients.

A community forum on the budget process will be held on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 in the Windsor Town Hall Council Chambers from 7:00 to 9:00 PM. I will provide a brief presentation on the process used to develop the town’s budget. An informal question and answer period will be held with those in attendance. In addition, residents can learn more about the town’s budget process by reading the "Citizen’s Guide to the Windsor Town Budget," a publication available at Town Hall, Windsor libraries and the L.P. Wilson Community Center. The guide is also available on the Town of Windsor website at www.townofwindsorct.com. For more information, call 285-1835.

Due to snow still being on the ground, the Flashlight Egg Hunt scheduled for last Friday was postponed and will be held this Thursday evening, March 24^th on the town green beginning at 7:00 PM. For more information, call Recreation Services at 285-1990.

The Capitol Region Council of Governments (CRCOG) is proposing to adopt a Pedestrian Plan for the Capitol Region. A Public Information meeting on this draft plan has been scheduled for Tuesday, March 29, 2005, at 7:00 PM here at Town Hall, in the Council Chambers. A link has also been added to the front page of the town’s website for those who would like to learn more details of the proposed plan.

Sweeping of all town streets and town parking lots will begin this week.

The order of streets to be swept is rotated each year so that no one neighborhood is always done first, or last. This year, crews will begin sweeping in the Wilson area and head north to the center of town. After the center is complete, the crews will sweep the Poquonock portion of town and then the Bloomfield Avenue, Dudley Town and Matianuck portion of town.

The school parking lots will be swept during school vacation, and the Day Hill Corporate Corridor will be swept over two Saturdays during that same time.

For a complete, detailed list of the street sweeping schedule, please visit the town website at www.townofwindsorct.com

It is estimated that this schedule will be completed by the first week of June, weather permitting.

Councilmember Ellingwood recently inquired about the trend regarding personal property value. The Tax Assessor has compiled information for the period 1995 through 2004. Since 1995 the assessment value has risen from $219 million to $305 million dollars.

Although we have seen an overall increase there are fluctuations in value due to companies relocating part or all of their operations to and from Windsor. For example in 1996 Aetna made two business decisions which resulted in a loss of over $19 million in taxable personal property.

In 2002 JDS Uniphase closed their Windsor and moved over $15 million worth of property. This loss was off-set by significant increase in equipment at other businesses.

At the last Council meeting there was a question concerning the estimated interest savings if Pleasant Street improvements were cash funded versus bond financed.

The estimated interest savings would be $445,000 on a $340,000 bond issue. We would forgive approximately $305,000 in interest earnings over the life of the bond. Therefore the net cost would be $140,000.