The Mountain Lion, The List and $250k for Firefighters’ Wardrobes

This was a staggering news week this week, with several unusual happenings around Waterford layered on top of some heavy-duty municipal news.

On the local government front, there was the granddaddy of municipal stories this week, the budget. On Thursday, the town proposed a $81.96 million budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year, a 4.16 percent increase over this year’s $78.79 million total. That proposal still needs to be approved by the Board of Finance and Representative Town Meeting.

We also had two other big municipal stories. One was about how the , a necessary tool to fight fires. And the second was about how

We also had some state news. We had one story showing the fill list of bills Waterford’s two state legislators are proposing this year, and another about Sen. Chris Murphy going to the state police gun range and watching state police shoot assault rifles.

But there was a lot of community news this week as well about some unusual happenings around Waterford, including the sighting of an imposing cat.

On Friday, we ran a story about Waterford Building Inspector Jay Murphy, and how he saw a mountain lion in East Lyme Tuesday night. The state claims that there are no mountain lions in Connecticut, yet Murphy said he knows what he saw, and said it was a mountain lion.

On Wednesday, we had a sad story about a fire at 18 Shore Road. The fire displaced a family of six and the Red Cross is helping the family recover from the unfortunate event.

On Tuesday, we had another sad story, this one about the closing of Yellow Bird Cupcakes in the Crystal Mall. Owner Chris Mastrianni said her business was profitable and was well received by the public, but she had to close it down because she suffers from a chronic medical condition.

And on Friday night, police confirmed that a man tried to burglarize Mallove’s Jewelers in Waterford. Police did not immediately catch the man.

In other news, 6.5 percent of Waterford residents have pistol permits, we filmed a dog named Dirt Road who loves to kick up mud and 44 Waterford High School students witnessed history. Oh, and then there was that contest, with more than 100 photos of adorable couples…