A Message from First Selectman Bindelglass

In Redding this week, a sixth-grade member of our community suffered severe injuries in a house fire and subsequently passed away. This is an unthinkable tragedy and our thoughts and prayers go out to the Karlson family.

The Historical Society of Easton was recently awarded a $5,600.00 CT Cultural Fund Operating Support Grant from CT Humanities. This grant assists organizations like ours as we recover from the pandemic and will help maintain and grow our ability to serve the public.

With these funds, the Historical Society can continue preserving documents and photographs through improved computer infrastructure.  New equipment and software will allow our volunteers to digitize and upload our archive for public access.  These needed upgrades will help us provide learning opportunities for students and adults in our community. 

The Society currently manages two historic properties in town. This includes the Adams Schoolhouse, circa 1850, and the Bradley-Hubbell Homestead, circa 1816. The latter is listed on both the Connecticut and National Registers of Historic Places. As advocates for Easton’s recently adopted Demolition Delay Ordinance, the Society also provides valuable guidance for homeowner’s of historically significant properties.

In-person talks hosted by our Society will begin again this March 12^th at the Easton Public Library’s Community Room with a visit from Marty Podskoch, author of the marvelous travel guide, The Connecticut 169 Club.  He will be speaking on the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps in our state. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-90th-anniversary-of-the-civilian-conservation-corps-its-history-work-tickets-535764966437.

Silverman’s farm and Jacob Conover have agreed to continue farming the land in front of Staples Elementary School and providing the wonderful educational opportunities for our students to learn about agriculture and nutrition consistent with our farming heritage.

To reiterate something, I posted a few weeks ago, the region 9 board recently approved renovations to the athletic complex at Barlow to be considered in their new budget which would include a second new turf field and better locker room/meeting facilities. Redding has allocated $200,000 of their rescue money to the project to pay their half for their town’s usage of the facilities in cooperation with the school. This is complicated in that we, the Board of Selectmen, as well as our Board of Finance believe that this is not an appropriate use of those funds. We have earmarked our funds for a new EMS headquarters, which unquestionably is a legitimate use for the money. This is an honest disagreement between the two towns as to the appropriate use of the funds and I respect Redding’s decision.  I just disagree.  There is already a significant private fundraising drive going on in Easton intended for the field, but it has not been well publicized. I would urge you to contribute what you can. The contact person is Rich Cremin, [email protected].  Many in town, I believe realize that our children are disadvantaged by the lack of reliable field space available in inclement weather. Building an additional turf field at Barlow would be a huge benefit to our town and our children.  In the past, when this was raised as a possibility, there were serious objections to building a turf field in Easton. This would solve that problem. I would urge you to consider what this could do for our town, and consider contributing. I am bringing this up again because I feel this is critical for our children. Please take it to heart.

Town offices will be closed on Monday, February 20^th in observance of President’s Day.

Have a great weekend.

Dave