Week In Review: Mayor's Budget Proposal, Burglary Investigations

The week’s news began with Monday. The $49.2 million budget is almost one-fifth of percent more than the current year’s budget and results in a 0.28 mill increase in the tax rate.

A one-time federal grant ran out this year, leaving a $703,000 dollar funding gap in the education budget. But, the town knew a year ago that there would funding gap would likely occur and Rodolico worked with staff to bring in as close to a flat budget as possible.

"This budget started pretty reasonably," said finance committee member Sharon Wadecki.  "Thank you for a budget that isn't going to take us weeks to change."

The highlight of Rodolico’s budget presentation to the Finance Committee Thursday was the . Rodolico said that was one of four or five possibilities.

"I think there are some hard decisions that the mayor and council need to make in the next year," said Mayor John Rodolico.

Meanwhile, Ledyard Police have been . While they have made three arrests related to the nine burglaries since November, Lt. Michael Finkelstein said that Ledyard is seeing a and that many are still under investigation.

Patch blogger Robin Lipman let us know that the summer months are lean at the Ledyard food locker.

“The folks at the Ledyard food locker told me, however, that as spring and summer arrive, the food bank gets depleted because people don’t think to donate,” she wrote.

So, she and her teen-aged daughter are preparing to outdo themselves in another self-assigned challenge in extreme couponing.

“So, it’s time to dust off our sneakers, and get planning some trips to the market. My daughter says we have to try to get even better on our bottom line so we can donate more! 

Lipman wrote that this fall they donated nearly $250.00 in food by Thanksgiving, and they spent less than $45.00.

Mayoral Assistant Mark Bancroft is spreading the word about an easy way to save the town’s money by raising awareness and encouraging more people to as much household waste as possible.

Bancroft reported that Ledyard is paid $35 dollars per ton of recycling debris and is charged $65 dollars per ton of household waste and so far, Ledyard is steadily recycling more and discarding less.

He said that in July 2011 Ledyard residents threw away 425.79 tons. In January, Ledyard threw away 391.75 tons, which amounts to a 109.25-ton reduction and a savings of $7,101.

And, of Gales Ferry is the winner of the Ledyard Patch’s Readers’ Choice Best Preschool and received 146, or 32 percent, of the 456 votes cast. United Methodist Child Care Center came in at a close second most popular choice with 127 votes (27 percent) and came in as third choice with 104 votes (22 percent).