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

Mr. Bliss called the meeting to order at 7:34pm.

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Board for a term to expire December 15, 2011. Ms. Weinstein seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Ms. Weinstein made a motion to reappoint Thomas Failla and Edward Schwarz to the Conservation Commission for a term to expire December 15, 2011. Mr. Major seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

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eliminate the need for night time winter driving. If not possible, make the Town bus available to pick up any seniors that need a ride. Another option would be to have letters of opinion read at the meeting for the purpose of obtaining as much input from the community as possible. Mr. Bliss indicated that written testimony is always welcomed at a public hearing.

Mr. Bliss said that he has given the information to the Town Attorney to write the ordinance but we do not have anything back as yet. Ms. Weinstein asked if we needed an ordinance because we were going over the State Statue limits. Mr. Bliss said yes.

Mr. Major made a motion to add to the agenda discussion/decision regarding the timing of the public hearing for the recommendations for the deferment program on the Commission on Aging. Ms. Weinstein seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Mr. Major made a motion that on January 10^{th at 7:00pm we hold a public hearing in the Town Hall Meeting Room to first hear the recommendation of the Select Committee for Veteran’s Affairs on the Veteran Tax Relief Program followed by a public hearing to air the recommendations from the Commission on Aging on the Abatement, Deferral and Freeze Program. Ms. Weinstein seconded and the motion passed unanimously.}

Mr. Major had asked that the Abatement and Deferral programs be forwarded to the Board of Finance for their comment and he request that Veteran’s Tax Relief also be forwarded for their comment. He said he would like to have a response from them by January 17th. Ms. Weinstein asked that we have information to the public before the public hearing. Mr. Major asked that Sharon Shattuck put this on the website. He asked that the scenarios that the Commission on Aging had submitted be included on the website.

Ms. Bochinski said that the committee, early on decided that a fresh look at potential cemetery sites were necessary. They did not have the expertise to make a decision on what sites were better and what were not good sites. They hired Grever & Ward, Inc., Landscape Architects and Cemetery Planners who have evaluated the sites and came back with his report.

The Cemetery Committee unanimously recommend that a portion of the Lachat property as shown in the consultant’s report as the physically and astatically most suitable site.

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She said they strongly believe that a cemetery on that site should be included as part of the master plan that is now being developed for use of the Lachat property by the Town and the Nature Conservancy.

Richard Wolf said the Committee discovered that they were fairly limited with their choices of Town owned sites. They decided there was only one site of Town owned property that they would recommend at this point and that was a portion of the Lachat site. Both Terry Hulley and Debbie Dyson said that the Lachat property was the site they recommended.

Mr. Bliss asked what property the consultant recommended. Mr. Wolf said the Lachat property. Ms. Weinstein asked why the Valley Forge site was ruled out. Ms. Bochinski said the Town does not currently own all of the property. Mr. Major said that that was also true of Lachat. The Nature Conservancy has already said that the only way they are giving up their restrictions there is through eminent domain. He said of all the properties listed that the Lachat was the most complicated as far as the deed restrictions.

Ms. Weinstein asked, if the Lachat property was specifically deeded to the Town for an educational, conservational nature, what would that mean to the cemetery. Mr. Major said we would have to get a sign off from the Lachat family. The piece that they have identified is probably the one piece that was most spoken about being left alone.

Mr. Major asked if they put the cemetery locations in order of preference what would the order be knowing Lachat was the first choice. Mr. Wolf said they decided not to rate it from there. Ms. Bochinski said that the consultant does not feel that the other sites, with the possible exception of Valley Forge, are good cemetery sites at all. Mr. Major said he would like more information on the Valley Forge site and he wants to understand whether or not it is a viable location as it relates to the reservoir and the other consideration and whoever owns it would be amenable to whether it is selling it, deeding it to us or whatever. He pointed out that there would be cost involved if we took property by eminent domain.

Mr. Wolf said that they have a letter saying that Bridgeport Hydraulic would never sell the Valley Forge property. Ms. Weinstein asked about Coley cemetery. Mr. Wolf said that members of the committee were looking at a new cemetery since they was not enough capacity at Coley. They did not feel that that Coley was the proper approach.

Mr. Wolf said he questioned how fruitful it would be for the Town to go forward with further discussions on use of the Lachat property with the Nature Conservancy in public meeting until the Selectmen take a position on the proposal that they have made.

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Discussion/decision regarding the status of the Clean Energy Challenge- Jay Whelan and Martin Strasmore. Jay Whelan said Ridgefield as well as Weston did commit to the 20% by 2010 initiative which is offered to the State of Connecticut through the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund and Connecticut Innovations. If 100 residents in the Town that sign up the Town will get a 2 kilowatt solar panel valued at about $20,000 to go on any municipal building.

On October 18th, Rudy Marconi, First Selectman in the Town of Ridgefield issued a challenge. Weston has increased since the October 18th challenge by .1% which puts us in a tie for third place. Redding is currently in first place but with the updated figures that Mr. Strasmore presented at the meeting we would be tied for first place. The results come out between the 15th and 25th of the month and they are supposed to reflect up to the month before. The winner will be announced on Earth Day which is April 22, 2008.

Mr. Strasmore said in order to get more sign ups they need to get more people enlisted in getting the sign ups. He said one way of doing that is by having a challenge and they had some ideas for doing that.

They are down to four people on the committee and they are looking for more members. Ms. Weinstein said she had someone who was interested in joining the committee.

They received the No Idling grant for $2,142 from the New England Grass Roots Environment Fund to implement an anti idling effort, raising awareness with signage, education with flyers, by public relations and by asking commitment from members of the community. The signs are being ordered.

Mr. Strasmore said they have 109 residents signed up. He had heard that we have actually paid the first clean energy bill and if we have done that we met the three conditions to be called a clean energy town and to get our first free solar panels. We get 3 kilowatts because we have also hit a goal of over 2% of the population. That is $30,000 worth of solar panels and we have to decide where to put it.

Mr. Bliss said the Building Committee is looking at town wide energy conservation so he suggested that Mr. Strasmore get with them and put it into a master plan with the Building Committee.

Mr. Major recused himself. There was much discussion about the Mission Statement. The final version is attached to the minutes.

Ms. Weinstein made a motion to create a Select Committee on Legal Review with the mission as modified here. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Ms. Weinstein made a motion to accept the property tax refunds as listed totaling $2,297.44. Mr. Major seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Mr. Major made a motion to approve the minutes of the December 4, 2007 as amended. Ms. Weinstein seconded and the motion passed unanimously

At 9:35pm Mr. Major made a motion to go into executive session. Ms. Weinstein seconded and the motion passed unanimously. Mr. Maggio questioned the wording on the agenda for the executive session and said he had spoken to a Cliff Leonhardt at the CT Freedom of Information. Mr. Maggio said that the individual he spoke to was the head person and that he told him that the description was not sufficient. Mr. Bliss indicated that he had talk to Valecia Harmon at CT FOI and that she had indicated the wording was sufficient. The Selectmen decided to table the item until they had a chance to review the conflicting advice with CT Freedom of Information.

At 9:36pm Mr. Major voted that they not go into executive session. Ms. Weinstein seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Respectfully submitted

Judy M. DeVito

Administrative Assistant

Approved 1/03/08