Jim Taylor

2 months ago | newtownbee.com | Jim Taylor

UPDATE: After press time, the Legislative Council on April 2 decided to approve the Board of Finance proposed 2025-26 budget with no further cuts. For the full story, see next week's paper. This is an update from the published version of the story.

2 months ago | newtownbee.com | Jim Taylor

BRIDGEPORT — Aquarion Water Company on March 26 announced a mandatory ban on non-essential outdoor water use for customers in Bethel and Newtown. This measure is being taken as the company continues to utilize its interconnection with the Eastern Fairfield County system while its primary source of water supply, the Newtown wellfield, remains offline. Last August, Aquarion’s Newtown wellfield sustained severe damage from a rainstorm and flooding, resulting in it being taken offline.

Mar 26, 2025 | newtownbee.com | Jim Taylor

Town Finance Director Glenys Salas asked the Board of Selectmen to place a $100,000 borrowing cap on Edmond Town Hall at a meeting on March 17. Salas said the financial relationship between ETH and the town’s General Fund has been “complex,” with ETH in September 2024 owing over $300,000 it had borrowed. Salas said she had talked with the ETH Board of Managers, and “they had been doing very good” for the last several months, recently getting the debt down to $117,000.

Mar 24, 2025 | newtownbee.com | Jim Taylor

After more than 30 years with Parent Connection, Founder and Executive Director Dorrie Carolan has stepped down to retire and named Nicole Hampton as the new executive director. According to the Parent Connection website, ctparentconnection.org, starting Parent Connection was never part of Carolan’s plan. But she founded it in 1993 to network with other parents as she was raising her four children in Newtown.

Mar 19, 2025 | newtownbee.com | Jim Taylor

The Board of Finance cut $1,071,806 from the proposed town budget and $900,000 from the proposed school budget at its final budget meeting for the year on March 5. The proposed budget now totals $49,866,665 for the town and $91,744,644 for the schools, for an overall bottom line of $141,611,309. The spending increases stand at roughly 5% each for the town and school budgets.