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WARNING
TOWN OF WASHINGTON
ANNUAL TOWN BUDGET MEETING

The voters and electors of the Town of Washington are hereby warned that the Annual Town Budget Meeting will be held on Thursday, May 22, 2003 at 7:30 p.m. at Bryan Memorial Town Hall, Washington, Connecticut, to consider and act upon the following agenda:
  1. To consider and act upon the proposed General Fund Expenses for the 2003-2004 fiscal year.
  2. To consider and act upon the proposed Nonrecurring Capital Expenses for the 2003-2004 fiscal year.
  3. To consider and act upon an Ordinance regarding the appointment of the Assistant to the Town Clerk and Registrar of Vital Statistics.
  4. To consider and act upon an Ordinance regarding the affixing of street numbers for public safety purposes.
  5. To consider and act upon a motion to rescind Town Ordinance 306E entitled "Disposal Fees for Residential Bulky Waste and Recyclables" and to amend Town Ordinance 306D regarding Transfer Station Regulations, including but not limited to the setting of disposal fees.
  6. To consider and act upon an Ordinance to rescind the current Floodplain Management Ordinance, as amended, and to replace it with a new Ordinance.
  7. To consider and act upon a motion to enter into a Recyclables Diversion Agreement with the Tunxis Recycling Operating Committee.
  8. To elect two (2) members to the Shepaug Valley Regional School District #12 Board of Education from the Town of Washington.

A copy of all information pertinent to this meeting is available in the Office of the Town Clerk.

Please note the change in the time of the meeting to 7:30 p.m.

Dated at Washington, Connecticut this 14th day of May 2003.

Elaine C. Luckey
Nicholas N. Solley
Harry H. Wyant

Board of Selectmen

Complete Resolutions

#1. Resolved:

That an amount not to exceed $3,202,816 be approved for expenditures from the 2003-2004 General Fund Budget

#2. Resolved:

That an amount not to exceed $890,025 be approved for expenditures from the Nonrecurring Capital Fund.

#3. Town Clerk Assistant:

RESOLVED: That the Town Clerk, with the approval of the First Selectman, may appoint not more than three (3) Assistant Town Clerks and not more than three (3) Assistant Registrars of Vital Statistics, who having taken the required oath shall in the absence of the Town Clerk perform all duties as Town Clerk and Registrar of Vital Statistics, respectively. These assistants shall perform such other duties as the Town Clerk may prescribe.

#4. Street Numbering

RESOLVED that an Ordinance be established to provide for the assignment and affixing of street numbers.

The Purpose: The purpose of this ordinance is to promote public safety and convenience by providing a street number system whereby police, fire and medical services may identify addresses for emergency response.

Assignment of Street Numbers: Pursuant to Section 7-148(c) of the Connecticut General Statutes the Assessor shall assign street numbers to all buildings, parts of buildings, and house lots fronting on any street or highway within the Town. The Assessor may change numbers, if necessary, to have a more orderly numbering system. When a new street is laid out, the Assessor shall promptly assign numbers to each lot on said street, which shall not imply acceptance of such street as a public highway. Whenever the Assessor has assigned a street number to a property, the Assessor shall promptly notify the owner of record by mail. The Assessor shall maintain maps showing the street numbers assigned to each property, which shall be open for public inspection.

Affixing of Street Numbers: Each owner shall affix to said building or part thereof, or to some object appurtenance thereto, the street number or numbers assigned by the Assessor. All numbers shall be at least three (3) inches high and affixed so as to be visible from the street or highway from either direction, and at least mailbox height. The numbers shall be on a surface perpendicular to the roadway and within twenty feet of the intersection with the driveway.

Enforcement: This ordinance may be enforced by citations issued by the Washington Emergency Management Coordinator, who may impose a fine of $50 per violation, providing a written warning noticing the specific violation has been issued at least four (14) days prior to the issuance of the citation.

Effective Date: This ordinance shall become effective July 1, 2003.

#5. Transfer Station Fees:

RESOLVED: That Washington Town Ordinances 306E entitled "Disposal Fees for Residential Bulky Waste and Recyclables" be rescinded.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that Town Ordinance 306D, effective June 1, 1996, be amended as follows: (Amendments shown in BOLD type.)

TOWN ORDINANCE 306D, AS AMENDED

TRANSFER STATION REGULATIONS

The Town of Washington has established a transfer station on the site of the former landfill at Clark Road. This facility is designed to expedite the handling of municipal solid waste, bulky waste, white goods, tire, batteries, scrap metal, (DELETE: AUTOMOBILE WASTE OIL,), residential demolition materials, and recyclable containers for newsprint, corrugated board, glass, metal and (ADD: PLASTICS #1 & #2) for a fee (DELETE: AS SET BY TOWN ORDINANCE)(ADD: AS SET BY THE BOARD OF SELECTMEN.)

The following rules and regulations will apply:

This Ordinance shall become effective July 1, 2003.

#6. Floodplain Management Ordinance:

See Floodplain Management Ordinance, a 14-page PDF file.

#7. Recyclables Diversion Agreement:

RESOLVED: That the Town of Washington enter into a Recyclables Diversion Agreement with the Tunxis Recycling Operating Committee (TROC). In the event circumstances, events or conditions may occur that ACRI is unable or cannot process and/or dispose of all Recyclable from Contracting Communities and/or Participating Municipalities, the Communities desire to have in place alternative disposal sites or facilities available to accept and process Recyclables.

NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the premises and of the mutual obligations undertaken herein, the parties, intending to be legally bound, hereby agree as follows:

1. In the reasonable judgment of the TROC, upon the need to divert Recyclables originating from the Town of Washington from ACRI's Intermediate Processing Facility (IPC), the TROC shall give notice by telephone to the appropriate Town official responsible for the supervision of the Town's municipal recycling program.

2. Notice shall be given to the Town not less than 48 hours prior to the time diversion of Recyclables is required. The notice shall specify the date and time that diversion shall commence, the expected length of time diversion will be required, and the disposal site, transfer station, or facility where the Recyclables shall be delivered. The TROC shall confirm the telephone notice by faxing the same information to the official within 24 hours after the telephone notice.

3. Notice of diversion for the Town of Washington shall be to the First Selectman of the Town of Washington. In the event that the First Selectman is unavailable, notice shall go to the First Selectman's Assistant.

4. Washington, immediately upon receiving notice from TROC on the need to divert Recyclables shall take all reasonable and necessary steps to divert its Recyclables to the alternate disposal site, transfer station or facility.

5. Washington shall pay to TROC the prevailing TROC Member tipping fee at the IPC for diverted Recyclables, which TROC shall invoice to the Town in the normal course of business as if the Recyclables were accepted at the Facility.

6. Washington shall take all reasonable and necessary steps to see that all necessary insurance certificates, licenses and registration forms for its haulers of Recyclables Waste are in place and in effect in order that the Recyclables can be delivered to the alternate site, transfer stations or facility.

7. TROC shall reimburse the Town for any incremental transportation costs incurred by the Town resulting from the diversion of Recyclables. Reimbursement shall be made by TROC within 30 days after receipt by TROC of adequate documentation of the incremental transportation costs for the Town.

8. Any Recyclables diverted by the Town shall be credited to the Town's minimum tonnage commitment for the Contract Year pursuant to the Contract and Inter-Community Agreement.

9. Each capitalized term used in this Agreement shall have the meaning given to such term in the Inter-Community Agreement and Contract with ACRI as amended, unless otherwise specified herein.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties hereto have executed this Agreement as of the 22nd day of May 2003.

#8. Board of Education Elections:

To elect two (2) members to the Shepaug Valley Regional School District #12 Board of Education from the Town of Washington.

Notes from the Selectmen

 Explanation of Proposed Ordinances and Agreement for Town Meeting of May 22, 03

The numbers below correspond with those on the Town Meeting agenda.

3. Appointment of Assistant Town Clerks

Public Act 02-137 passed last year. This law leaves the appointment of assistant town clerks and registrars of vital statistics solely up to the town clerk, as opposed to the selectmen having the right to approval of appointments. Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) did not approve of this legislation and encouraged towns to pass ordinances to return the authority to the selectmen to approve the appointments made by the town clerk. We talked with Shelia and she thought that it made sense to go back to the original statute and give selectmen authority to approve appointment. So, that is what this ordinance will do.

4. Affixing of Street Numbers

It is Barbara Johnson's job to assign street numbers (used as 911 numbers). She felt that we should have an ordinance requiring people to put up street numbers so that they could be seen by the Fire and Ambulance Services. I spoke with Trooper Sordi, Fire Chief , Mark Lyons, and our Emergency Coordinator, Rocky Tomlinson, all of whom felt that an ordinance would be a good idea. All had good suggestions. Many homes, apparently are not adequately marked, some not at all, and this makes it difficult, in an emergency to locate the right home. We obtained sample ordinances from several different towns.

Our proposed ordinance says, in essence, that each owner is to affix to the building or to some appurtenant object the street number assigned by the assessor, in such a way as to be visible from the street from either direction, and at least mailbox height. The ordinance may be enforced by the Washington Emergency Management Coordinator, who may issue a fine providing a written warning notice has been issued at least fourteen says prior to the citation.

5. Transfer Station Regulations

The costs for removing bulky waste and demolition materials from the Transfer Station have increased. Therefore, we have had to increase the fees charged to bring in these items. The amounts we are now charging are not accurately reflected in the current ordinance No. 306E. We would like to repeal this ordinance and allow the selectmen to alter the fees when the costs demand that we do so. Ordinance No 306 D should be amended to give the Selectmen the authority to set the fees, and to add that payment by check for amounts over five dollars will be required.

In addition the first sentence of Ordinance No 306D should be revised to delete the inclusion of automobile waste oil. That is no longer accepted at the Transfer Station.

6. Flood Plain Ordinance

In the early eighties the Town of Washington volunteered to participate in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). In order to do that the Town had to pass a flood plain management ordinance, complying with the standards of the NFIP. The ordinance has been revised several times, and recently reviewed by the Inland Water Resources Division of the Department of Environmental Protection for compliance. That department, on February 27, 03 sent us certain recommended and required amendments to our regulations. These must be incorporated in our Ordinance and passed by Town Meeting before June 25, 2003. If we do not do this I believe that certain insurances that we and our residences have may not be viable.

Most of the amendments have to do with minor additions to the definitions. Bill Jenks, our building inspector, who is the administrator of these regulations, felt that the changes would have "very minimal impact on the present regulations."

We plan to repeal our initial Ordinance No. 1505, and to incorporate the new amendments into a new Ordinance, Town of Washington Flood Plain Ordinance, No. 1505C. Because of the length of the new document we did not want to run off multiple copies for perusal at Town Meeting. Janet Hill will give a brief summary of the changes at the Town Meeting. We have a few copies in the Town Hall, which you are welcome to look at, and we will post it on the Town Web site at www.WashingtonCT.org.

[Here is the document: Floodplain Management Ordinance, a 14-page PDF file.]

7. RECYCLING DIVERSION AGREEMENT

In August of 1990 the Town of Washington entered into an agreement with the Tunxis Regional Operating Committee (TROC) to accept Washington's recyclable materials at its regional facility. In December, 1990 TROC contracted with Automated Container Recovery, Inc.(ACRI) to receive the materials at its Intermediate Processing Facility in Berlin, CT. The Contracting Communities have determined that they should have, in place, alternative disposal sites or facilities in the event of some unforeseen circumstances. We, therefore, would like to sign an agreement with TROC to spell out the obligations of both parties.

TROC would be required to give our Town a certain number of hours notice when diversion of recyclable materials to a specified site is demanded. Washington then must arrange for such re-routing of materials. TROC would assess Washington the same tipping fee as currently prevailed when taking materials to ACRI at Berlin. TROC will reimburse the Town for any additional hauling costs incurred from transporting to a further location. Any recyclables diverted will be credited to the Town's minimum tonnage commitment for the contract year.

Web page last updated: May 12, 2003