BOS Green Lights Housing Study, Work on Green

Awards that arrived last December just in time for the holidays may now serve the town as a Christmas in July, as the Board of Selection last evening approved two agreements between the town and the state worth $180,000.

The town expects to file the agreements concerning the two Small Town Economic Assistance Program or —one for a housing study and the second to continue the brick, pedestrian walkway around the town green —within a week for projects now expected to begin this summer and fall.

The larger or $150,000 sum will provide funding to continue improvement to the town center as called for in the town’s 2008 Plan of Conservation and Development and the 2009 Town Green Study by extending the brick pedestrian walkway, which now stops on Montowese Street, the full length of Montowese Street to South Main.  At present, that portion of walkway is asphalt—a material that First Selectman “Unk” DaRos termed not only “ugly” but also “an insult to the Town Green.”

He said the funds will enable the town to hire a consultant, with construction of the brick walkway likely to begin this fall when the summer activities on the green have wound down. 

“I hope it’s going to start very soon,” said the First Selectman of the improvements there. 

Also of interest to the First Selectman is a walkway between the Academy and the historical marker that sit near the Southeastern corner of the green. DaRos noted that not many people may know that the marker, which is officially the Yale Memorial Tablet, is there. 

The marker commemorates the spot where reverends met to donate books for the school that became Yale University.  The town now rents the small-scale , which was founded in 1820 and moved to its present location near the historical marker in 1971, for wedding receptions and other events.   

Branford received the second grant for $30,000 to engage a consultant to work with the Branford Housing Authority and planning office to conduct a feasibility study for the town’s future housing needs, complete with proposed site selections and also an identification of funding sources. 

According to the application the town completed, the study would represent “a major step in developing a housing strategy to meet the town’s changing documented needs.”  Among those needs are affordable housing for the disabled and also the elderly.  The study is expected to begin as soon as the filing process is complete.

Both projects, according to the applications, were unlikely to move forward without the assistance the town received from the state, and both gained BOS approval unanimously.

Also winning unanimous approval was the selectmen’s proclamation, in conjunction with the town of East Haven, of this Saturday, June 9 as .  The First Selectman observed that the Shore Line Trolley Museum would host a day of events to raise funds to build new facilities so that it can place its collection of trolleys on high ground. 

The collection, DaRos noted, “took quite a beating” last year during Tropical Storm Irene.