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10/09/2019 08:00 AMThe challenge of town government is to make day-to-day decisions without losing the long view.
We have to take the long view formally every 10 years: We’re required to have a 10-year Plan of Conservation and Development in order to receive state funding. The town’s Planning & Zoning Commission prepares the plan, based, in part, on responses to a town-wide opinion survey. (Here’s a shout-out to Stephanie Warren, a former member of the commission, for her impressive work coordinating the last survey, which received a remarkable 22.8 percent return.)
The plan clearly lays out priorities for Killingworth: protecting water supplies, preserving open space, stabilizing taxes, carefully controlling commercial development within the existing commercial district, and accommodating the need for alternative housing accessible to young families and elderly residents who wish to scale down but remain in Killingworth.
These priorities require constant vigilance and an in-depth understanding of how a variety of decisions affect any one goal.
Take protection of our water supplies, which is crucial to avoiding the huge expense of a sewer system. The continued viability of our private wells depends on the density and design of housing development, the maintenance of our roadways, and consistent monitoring of septic systems, among many other factors.
We have structured our Building and Health departments to make sure that building projects and existing systems don’t degrade our groundwater. We’ve gotten up-to-date on sending reminders to property owners when septic pump-outs are due. We continue to use sand as well as salt to treat winter roads in part to avoid contamination from heavy salt use.
Scores of such seemingly mundane decisions go into protecting Killingworth’s special character. Our citizens have told us what the long view should be; I and my fellow officials are here to make that view a reality.
First Selectman Catherine Iino
Killingworth