Week In Review: Police Station Location, CMTs & CAPTs Scores and Figaro

Another small business opened in Ledyard, or made itself known, last week. Sally McBee had a , and she hopes others will want to do the same. McBee said The Gardens at 222 are nice setting for all types of private events and parties.

In the midst of another application to change the rules at Stonegate Village, a retirement community on Flintlock Road, Patch reported on the phasing out of retirement communities around the state due to lack of interest.

However, residents living in Stonegate Village now say and that they could enjoy the company of peers also in the same phase of their lifetime.

Patch User named Kate wrote, “it seems silly in this economy to have age restrictions on housing. If someone is willing to buy a house and they are qualified it would be ridiculous to turn them away because of age. Drop the restrictions!”

And another Patch User ShelleyT provided a contrary opinion, “The developers gambled on this one and they may have to take the results of their wager. Real estate investment is like that... extremely sad, but they can't ethically change the rules when they find the wager didn't win what they expected. I think we're all tired of bailing out people who made bad choices...”

to select the best of three possible spots for the new police station. The list of locations came from the Town Council’s Finance Committee. They named the firehouse next to Town Hall; the old town garage at 47 Iron Street; on town-owned land near the transfer station. The former Gales Ferry School was also listed as an alternative.

Poll results showed that Patch readers preferred the new station be built in place of the old firehouse, or at 47 Iron Street or near the transfer station, in that order. However, according to Mayoral Assistant Mark Bancroft, the firehouse and the former Gales Ferry School will be listed on the market and “For Sale” signs are going up soon. And Building Committee members were uncertain that the 47 Iron Street location was environmentally fit for new construction.

A cooking class held by the Teen Librarian Andrea Buka was well attended. put together a chocolate pudding cake, no bake cookies, coconut macaroons and a chiffon cake.

Allyson Angelini, of , will be extending her growing season and offering winter greens a little longer than usual thanks to the Zoning Commission’s decision to grant her the right to farm her 193 Iron Street parcel along with the adjacent 195 Iron Street parcel, which she also owns.

At first, she was told that the 195 Iron Street parcel was too small to farm on and consequently was prohibited from constructing an “accessory structure” like a greenhouse instead of a primary structure like a residence on the lot. The town’s zoning regulations don’t allow commercial farming on anything less than 3 acres.

The Commission resolved that “the tract of land is not required to be on a single lot and that the tract of land may overlay multiple smaller lots, or parts of smaller lots, or be part of a larger lot, to achieve the 3-acre minimum tract of contiguous land necessary to be a “farm” as defined by the zoning regulations. Separate or multiple greenhouses can be constructed on each lot that is part of the “farm”.

Ledyard school district did well, overall, on , which are taken by students in third through eighth grades, and , which are taken by 10th graders. The scores were well above the state averages but within the district, some scores were better than last year, some were not.

Last but definitely not least, the , the cat scared high up into a tree, home safe. They had to use ladders and bucket trucks to reach him and ended up scaring him out of the tree, which he both crawled down and fell out of. Poor Figaro, what could have scared him up the tree?