Our weekly newsletter is being sent out a day early, as Town Hall will be closed tomorrow in observance of the holiday. I want to send out a special note of appreciation to our Land Use Technicians, Craig Bonatti and Falyn McQuarrie, who under the direction of Land Use Coordinator, Eric Knapp, spent many hours beyond their normal workdays preparing materials and coordinating the planning of two important Zoning meetings. The vote has been taken and now we will begin discussions on how to proceed from here.

On Tuesday evening the Finance Board met to determine the proposed final budget and possible mill rate for Fiscal Year 2025/26. Over the past week, Finance Director Anita Mancini and I have had discussions with department heads and chairs of various boards, commissions and committees. We worked together to find an additional savings of $171,000 in the proposed budget. I appreciate the team effort in finding savings in operating and capital expenses to decrease the budget for next year. The Town Budget Hearing is scheduled for Monday, April 28^th at 7:30PM.

Tomorrow, April 18^th, the Old Lyme Town Hall will join in the celebration of the 250^th anniversary of Paul Revere’s famous ride to Lexington and the beginning of the American Revolution. Our Town Hall will be one of many municipal buildings, businesses, organizations, and homes across the US who will be shining two lights in their windows as a nod to “One if by Land, Two if by Sea.” The commemoration also signifies a unifying call to celebrate and serve. We hope you will consider participating and are also suggesting a post to social media with a photo of your window with two lights, with the tag #townofoldlyme. Our goal is to create a digital photo album of all the illuminated windows in Old Lyme. Visit Explore Old Lyme for more information and a link to a flyer that can be shared with others.

This week we received a disturbing phone call from the owner of a building lot in Old Lyme. He told us that he had been contacted by a realtor. The realtor stated that they had been contacted via email by someone claiming to be the owner and that he was interested in selling his property. A false email was provided so the realtor became suspicious and contacted the real owner, who presently resides out of state. This is the second time we have been notified of this type of activity in Old Lyme. The Town Clerk’s office is advising residents to sign-up for the PropertyCheck service on their webpage.

Harbormaster Matt Lynch informed us this morning that the Kayak rack spaces are sold out. He also made us aware that he and the Old Lyme Harbor Management Commission will be co-sponsoring a CT SAFE BOATING CERTIFICATE CLASS with Personal Watercraft and Safe Skiing Endorsement. This class will be held at the Old Lyme Memorial Town Hall Meeting Room on Friday May 9^th from 4:30PM to 8:30PM and Saturday May 10^th from 9AM to 1PM. The registration link will be up in the next few days. Please continue to monitor our website for the official registration startup.

This week the Harbor Management Commission also learned that the Connecticut Port Authority approved their grant funding for $228,500. This will allow them to begin the necessary engineering for the expansion of the Old Lyme Town Dock. This will enable our Harbor Management Commission to support small boats and dockage for our town emergency service vessels. They also received $33,000 for Old Lyme to begin the process of maintenance dredging of the Four Mile River. Congratulations to all those who worked so hard on the application process.

We have had many people pop in to purchase their parking permit for the summer season. Please note that we will not begin sales until the month of May. We will have more information available in next week’s newsletter.

Fire Marshall Dave Roberge would like to remind all residents that a Burn Permit is required for outdoor burning. The permit application can be found here. You can also find the State's Daily Fire Forest Report here. If you have received a permit from the Fire Marshall to burn brush on your property, the permit is not valid if the Forest Fire Danger is rated high, very high or extreme and you are burning within 100 feet of a grassland or woodland.

And to end the week on two high notes

• Congratulations to Old Lyme Tax Collector Suzanne Thompson for completing the second of four courses required for Certified Connecticut Municipal Collectors. Each course involves eight classes and passing an exam, as well as passing the final certification exam. Suzanne is on track to take her final exam in June 2026.
• Congratulations to Jen Datum who successfully completed all the classes required for certification as a Registrar of Voters (ROV) and passed the final exam. This program's goal is to establish training, examination, and certification criteria for ROVs. Once Registrars complete the courses eight sections, they can take a final Certification Exam to complete the program.

Congratulations to both Suzanne and Jen for all their hard work.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

All my best, 
Martha