6 Percent Increase, Some Smooth Moves By Police Officers

Well, probably the biggest news this week came out of Town Hall. After months of waiting for health care costs to come in, the town’s budget The $78.8 million budget proposal is a 6 percent increase from this year’s $74.3 million total, meaning taxes for next year should rise around the same amount.

The Board of Finance will hold a special meeting on the budget on April 4 at 7 p.m. inside Town Hall to approve the budget. There is a public comment section at that meeting (judging from the comments on this website, some people are not happy with the increase). Once the finance board approves the budget, it will be sent to the Representative Town Meeting for final approval in May.

There was quite a bit of police news this week, highlighted by a scary incident Saturday morning. A man was a Waterford police officer in the parking lot of the Waterford Police Department. Luckily, nobody was hurt, as the police officer managed to avoid the car.

Speaking of police officers with some smooth moves, cop Steve Whitehead and Clark Lane Middle School teacher Alison Stahl won (Patch will have a full story on that Monday morning). And in other police news, the , while after being convicted of second-degree sexual assault, among other crimes.

Education reform has been dominating the news lately, and Wednesday Patch talked to Waterford’s top administrator, Superintendent Jerome Belair, and Waterford’s union head, Connecticut American Federation of Teachers President Sharon Palmer, . And despite being on opposite ends of the spectrum, both had largely the same view, with both saying that teachers who do not meet a high standard should be let go.

Along that same topic, a Clark Lane Middle School student wrote a piece this . So often, when we have these debates, we talk about what it means for the teachers or the administrators or the parents, and almost never get the students' perspective.

In other news, the town got some , Patch took a , the Friendship School and Patch ascertained the (more on that later today). And a special shout out to the staff at the Waterford Public Library,