Daily Five: Selectmen Weigh 6.32% Increase In Police Budget Tonight

1. Today should be mostly cloudy, with a high around 42, according to the National Weather Service. Tonight, there is a chance of snow and sleet, with a low around 28, according to the service.

2. Tonight, the Board of Selectmen begins its budget reviews at 5 in Town Hall.

The board will review all the municipal budgets each Tuesday and Thursday for the rest of the month, and will take final action on the 31st. Then, the board’s budget proposal for the 2013-14 fiscal year will be sent for review to the Board of Finance and the Representative Town Meeting before it is finalized.

The board still does not have all of its budgets in, as it is awaiting health insurance and retirement. Both of those line items are among the largest line items in the general government's budget.

Tonight though, the board will have a challenge as it reviews the police department’s budget. The police department is proposing a $5.3 million budget, which is $315,379 more than this year’s total and a 6.32 percent increase overall. That is the single largest proposed increase of any budget that has been submitted to the Board of Selectmen.

Also tonight, the board will review the budgets of the Registrars of Voters, the Ethics Commission, the Waterford Public Library, the RTM, the Town Clerk, Emergency Management, Harbor Management, the Board of Finance and the contingency budget.  

3. Tonight at 7, there is a science fiction book discussion in the Waterford Public Library about the novel Kindred. Dr. Phil Ray, an English professor at Connecticut College, will lead the discussion.

There are always events going on at the library. To see the whole calendar, click here.

4. Tonight, the School Building Committee will meet at 5:30 in Town Hall. Also, Patch will be making a special appearance at the Waterford Parent’s Liaison Council meeting tonight at 6:30 in Town Hall.

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5. On this date in 1967, the first Super Bowl was played in Los Angeles between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Vince Lombardi-coached Packers defeated the Chiefs that day, 35-10. And on this date in 2009, Pilot Chesley B. Sullenberger successfully pulled off an emergency water landing into the Hudson River, which saved the lives of 155 people aboard US Airways Flight 1549.

Quote of the Day

“Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

-George Orwell

Trivia of the Day

On this date in 1892, what man first published the rules of basketball?

Yesterday’s Answer: Jeb Bush is the only Republican to serve two terms as governor of Florida.