Proposal increases spending, cuts tax rate
BEACON FALLS The town’s 2021-22 municipal budget proposal increases spending and funds a substantial list of capital projects, but cuts the tax rate by a full mill.
The spending plan will go to a public vote at a town meeting June 2 at 7 p.m. at the senior center, 57 North Main St.
The $7.95 million operating budget proposal is an increase of $473,596, or about 6.3%, from this fiscal year.
The proposal includes contractual increases, like 2.5% raises for town employees and a 5% jump in the cost of medical benefits.
The spending plan also raises the first selectman salary from $55,000 to $62,000, and the salaries for the treasurer, selectmen and registrars of voters positions from $250 to $13,750. The proposed salaries for elected officials are prorated in the budget and won’t take effect until after the November election.
By Elio Gugliotti, Editor
BEACON FALLS Even though the Naugatuck YMCA’s service area includes Beacon Falls, the nonprofit organization doesn’t have much, if any, of a presence in town.
That is likely to change soon.
Officials have started preliminary discussions with Naugatuck YMCA CEO Mark LaFortune about the borough-based organization running programs in town.
“There’s a lot of really cool things that I think we can do and we can work together on,” LaFortune told the Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance during a joint budget workshop April 27.
The town sponsors youth activities and summer programs through the Parks and Recreation Commission. Aside from some part-time staff for summer programs, volunteers mainly lead the effort to run the programs.
Beacon Falls, Naugatuck YCMA eye partnership mycitizensnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mycitizensnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Andreas Yilma, Staff Writer
BEACON FALLS A group of senior citizens is looking to get back into the swing of things and use the Beacon Falls Senior Center again.
“We would like to get together at least a few days a week, if it’s possible, in the afternoon,” senior center President Bernadette Dionne told the Board of Selectmen during its April 12 meeting.
Dionne and seven other seniors inquired if the center could be reopened or hold its regular monthly meetings.
The senior center has been closed since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit the state last March.
The town is slowly starting to reopen. Town Hall is open to the public by appointment and Beacon Falls Public Library is open on a limited basis.
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BEACON FALLS The Planning and Zoning Commission is holding a hearing Thursday on a proposed zoning text amendment to establish a floating Residential Industrial Transitional Zone.
The hearing starts at 7 p.m., in-person, at the Beacon Falls Senior Center, 57 North Main St.
The proposed RIT zone is an overlay, or transitional, zone designed to provide a process that permits an acceptable range of land uses and controls for the reuse of properties in residential neighborhoods that border industrial sites, according to the language for the proposed amendment. Permitted uses are limited to low-intensity office and service uses characterized by low traffic generation with little to no customer contact on the premises.