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Norwich The City Council late Monday approved a new lease for the Thomas J. Dodd Stadium with the Norwich Sea Unicorns, which will start their new life as a summer wooden-bat collegiate team with their first home game May 31.
The aldermen expressed hesitancy at the turn of events that cost the city its minor league baseball team with a Major League Baseball affiliation but said approving a two-year lease with a third-year option “by mutual agreement” was the best option for the city. They questioned the financial viability of the summer collegiate team status and said the short-term agreement would allow the city to keep options open, including the possibility of selling the city-owned property in the Norwich business park for development.
Salomone said he d like to compete a review by next week. That would be the best for the council and the taxpayer to see it up front, Salomone said.
An item on the meeting agenda read: “An effort to reduce the general fund budget or to identify additional or alternate possible sources of revenue to reach a target reduction figure of 3%.” The resolution was sponsored by the council s three Republicans: Mayor Peter Nystrom, Bill Nash and Stacy Gould.
But the Democrats were hesitant to place more work on Salomone and his office and felt that a call to reduce the budget would contradict a resolution passed unanimously earlier in the evening increasing funding for the city clerk and tax offices.
NORWICH - City officials held the first public hearing for the proposed 2021-2022 budget Thursday evening, with a trio of residents urging aldermen to not raise taxes.
When the 2021-2022 budget was first proposed, City Manager John Salomone called increasing the initial proposed increase from 2% at the start of the 2020-2021 budget season to 2.5% this budget season generous.
But Norwich Superintendent Kirsten Stringfellow said the city needs to return to the 3.95% increase the city approved in the final 2020-2021 budget because she wants to be able to count on consistent investment from the city.
But Marvin Serruto, who spoke at the hearing, pointed out the expense of education. He calculated that Norwich on average spends more than $25,000 per student yearly.
Norwich School leaders defended their proposed $87.5 million 2021-22 budget before the City Council on Tuesday and discussed how the projected $26 million in COVID-19 relief grants would help students recover lost learning.
City Manager John Salomone has proposed a school budget total of $86.3 million, a $2.1 million or 2.5% increase over this year’s total. But it is $1.2 million short of the 3.95% increase requested by school officials.
Superintendent Kristen Stringfellow said several key items cause the budget jump, including salaries, a $379,544 increase; tuition, up 7.6%; health insurance, up by $271,000, and transportation, up by nearly $100,000.
The only new staff are a transportation/safety coordinator and grant-funded education equity coordinator and reading and math teachers.