Present: First Selectman Woody Bliss; Selectman W. Glenn Major; Town Administrator Tom Landry; Administrative Assistant Judy DeVito, Residents and member of the press.

Mr. Bliss called the meeting to order at 7:31pm

Mr. Miller is on vacation in Asia and cannot join us by phone.

Mr. Major made a motion to amend the agenda to provide for discussion/decision regarding the appointment to the Board of Ethics for a term to expire December 31, 2009. Mr. Bliss seconded and the vote was unanimously.

The three candidates are Howard Aibel, Jeffrey Eglash and Patricia Heifetz. Mr. Major said all three bring different skills to the table, but Mr. Eglash skills were phenomenal. Both Mr. Major and Mr. Bliss agreed that Mr. Aibel was on the Conservation Commission, doing a fine job and it would seem a shame to pull him off of that committee. Mrs. Heifetz is so involved in so many different organizations in Town that she has the potential of a conflict of interest in potential situations.

Mr. Major made a motion to appoint Jeffrey Eglash to the Board of Ethics for a term to expire December 31, 2009. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion carried.

Mr. Major made a motion to appoint Gary Betsworth to the Commission for the Arts for a term to expire June 30, 2009. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion carried.

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supplement the $1.3 million that the Town has allocated to the auditorium because the budget for the auditorium renovation is $1.6 million. They are running a seat campaign to raise the funs and have raised about $192,000. They have $100,000 to go and a deadline of March 1, 2008. At this point they want to reach the Town for the second wave of fundraising by sending out a Town wide mailing. The budget they have is around $1,500.

Mr. Major made a motion that they appropriate the sum of $1,534.21 to WestonArts Inc. to cover the mailing cost for the seat campaign donations. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion carried.

They are asking if they could take it from $4,500 up to $10,000 of the assessed value. She said she recommends $10,000, but she suggests that when we have a revaluation it should be adjusted to remain at the equivalent amount so that we do not end up in the same situation. Mr. Major asked what $10,000 reduction in assessment equal in dollars. Mr. Bliss said about $200. The $10,000 would be the floor.

The disabled Vets currently receives $13,500, they are proposing an increase of the same percentage which will brings it to $29,970. Mr. Major asked what the process would be to enact this. Mr. Bliss said this is an ordinance which will need a public hearing. Mr. Major said we should do the public hearings on both of the programs at the same time.

Mr. Bliss said we have a petition with 33 signatures that we will put in the record. Sarah Najamy also sent an email.

John Conte said they were asked to look at a concept at the intersection that Chief Troxell and some of the Easton officials had taken a look at. Mr. Conte said anytime you put an obstruction in a roadway or intersection you should check to see if that intersection meets current safety highway standards or do you have to upgrade it to meet the safety highway standards. He stated that the island concept would not work.

Consideration has to be taken into account, whether you are on a crest curve or a sag curve. Design criteria is based on speed limit if the posted speed limit is 25mph, you design for 40mph. Mr. Conte said to make unsafe, non conforming situation somewhat conforming is to create a stop condition at all points where it is unsafe. What we can do to reduce the risk and slow down the traffic is to have a three way stop sign. They are planning on putting stop signs at either end of the one lane bridge. To add two more stop signs will have to go back to the Police Commission.

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Discussion/decision regarding appointment of John Pokorny as Fire Marshall. Mr. Landry said Fred Moore is retiring effective November 2, 2007. There is statutory requirement that says the Board should preference to a member of regular or volunteer fire department of such municipalities. There are extensive training and certification requirements for Fire Marshal appointees. John Pokorny does hold these and he is the candidate that Mr. Landry is presenting. The Fire Marshal position by charter is a two year term and if he is appointed tonight it would be effective November 3, 2007 for a term to expire December 4, 2008.

John Pokorny said that he has been with the Fire Department since 1974 and held just about every position in the Fire Department. He was trained in breathing apparatus and trained other members of the department. He said he felt one of the key issues of the Fire Marshal is to teach people fire safety and try to give them life skills that can help them.

Mr. Major said that it was his understanding that there was another firefighter (Laurence Roberts) that was qualified for the job and that he was not seeking the position at this point. Mr. Roberts was at the meeting and said that that was correct. Mr. Landry said he called the State Office. John Pokorny and Laurence Roberts were the only two qualified applicants.

Mr. Major made a motion to appoint John Pokorny as Fire Marshal for a term to expire December 4, 2008. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion carried.

Mr. Bliss said on the agenda next Monday for SWRPA is a proposal for the entire agency to join. They cannot join until the individual municipal members join, so that is why this is on the agenda tonight.

Mr. Major said in reading the information two things jumped out at him. West Nile had nine cases since 2003 in the State while Lyme disease is responsible for 55,000 new cases a year in Connecticut. He said it certainly seems that Lyme disease should be getting more attention. Mr. Major said since he did not know how they were going to accomplish it. There is a specific line that reads that no member is obligated in anyway to sign on or support any specific initiative the coalition may undertake in pursuit of the coalition goal. Mr. Bliss said presently there was no cost to the Town. He did ask if there may be future costs and was told that the maximum would be something like $100 a year.

Mark Harper said that the members that are creating this organization also are part of the Fairfield County Deer Alliance. One of the suggestions that they have is to bring the current deer population down to nine deer per square mile. According to the statistics that is the magic number that is going to lower the Lyme cases in this particular area.

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Mr. Major made a motion that the Town of Weston joins the Connecticut Coalition to Eradicate Lyme Disease. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion carried.

The FAA proposal is to change the gap between planes in the air from five miles to three miles. The pilots pointed out that with the near misses we have today, if you reduce the gap between the planes that may cause even more problems. There are issues with fuel jet risk which currently is done out to sea and now some of that might be done over land. There is concern about reservoirs with regard to that. There were not proper environmental studies done for this recommendation and the FAA’s argument is that they are not obligated to do environmental studies.

Mr. Bliss said the Alliance has the contracts together but not finalized. The proposed approach involves three different entities. A legal firm in Chicago, a lobbying firm in Washington, who has extensive experience lobbying, and the third is a grassroots organization. The plan is to muster the political forces that they need to raise the issues at the local level in order to get our congressmen and senators to take action on this.

He said there are four law suits filed already and more are expected. Rockland County, New York; Bergen County, New Jersey, Delaware County, Pennsylvania and the City of Elizabeth, New Jersey have already filed suits. There are other counties and towns that are planning to file suits.

He said the reason for supplemental appropriation is to let the law firm know that we are going to go ahead and start getting the various towns to commit. The proposed payment schedule would be each town regardless of size would pay $30,000 initially into a pool to get this started. The total cost for the towns will be based on population of the town at 50% of the cost and a straight even dividing the other 50% of the cost. Right now there are eleven towns and on Monday proposals were made to five more towns which are affected by this, but are not currently committed.

The cost includes the first filing, a response to the FAA reply and one court case handled from start to finish. It does not include any appeals of that court’s decision. In talking to the lawyers and the lobbying firm these kind of situations frequently get resolved with a combination of legal, political and grassroots efforts.

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Hal Mathews read a letter written by his wife, who is in favor of fighting the FAA airspace design.

Mr. Major made a motion to authorize a supplemental appropriation of up to $58,000 to fund an appeal of the final decision of the FAA airspace redesign project subject to Board of Finance approval. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion carried.

Mr. Major made a motion to approve the Holiday Schedule for 2008 as submitted. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion carried.

Mr. Major made a motion to authorize the First Selectman to sign off on the property tax refunds as set forth in the agenda for a total amount of $3,868. 27. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion carried.

ATTENDANCE and DISCUSSION: The meeting was convened at 8:57 pm in the First Selectmen’s Office by Chairman Bliss, with Mr. Major present. Also present was Town Administrator Landry. The purpose of the executive session was to receive an update on

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the status of settlement discussions in the Losito and Liberty Mutual cases. Both suits are related to the school construction project. No votes were taken

ADJOURN EXECUTIVE SESION. At 9:04 pm, a motion to adjourn the executive session (Mr. Major, Mr. Bliss second) was made and passed by unanimous vote.

ADJOURN: At 9:05 pm, a motion (Mr. Major, Mr. Bliss second) to adjourn the meeting passed by unanimous vote.

Respectfully submitted

Judy M. DeVito

Administrative Assistant

Approved 12/04/07