Rick Albrecht, Ed Sipples, Cathy Iino

In the next five years, the Democratic team would use your hard-earned tax dollars to protect the investments Killingworth has made over the last century. In addition to the continuing expenses for town operations and Region 17 schools, we see several priorities.

Repairing our infrastructure has to be at the top of the list. We already know of some needed repairs—to the Reservoir Road Bridge, Burr Hill Road, Lover’s Lane, just to name the most pressing needs. The good news: we have already allocated $220K to cover our portion of the Reservoir Road Bridge replacement, and we have a federal commitment for the remaining 80 percent. A $450K fund to repair Burr Hill is also on target. Clearly, however, Killingworth needs to inspect all of its bridges, culverts, and roads and then repair and maintain them in a systematic way that will allow us to balance competing demands and preserve Killingworth’s scenic and environmental assets.

Another area of investment should be the development of athletic fields, most immediately on the Wettish property that the town purchased last year. In the last twenty years, Killingworth’s population has grown by 50 percent, yet we have added only one small baseball practice field. (Because school teams take priority, the new middle school fields only slightly relieve the pressure on our current facilities.) Twenty years ago, recreational sport here pretty much was baseball; today, over 600 boys and girls—and another 50 adults—play soccer. The few fields we do have are overused, and we have had to turn down proposals for football and lacrosse leagues for lack of space. The cost of new fields will be shared by the town and the state.

Another way we can guard both our quality of life and our budget is to acquire more open space. This is truly an investment in our future: it will ensure that Killingworth remains rural, and it will control the growth in public expenses. We need to look at many ways of managing growth, from conservation subdivisions to age-restricted housing. But it would also serve us well to develop a long-range plan for purchasing large tracts of land that come on the market. Our dedicated Open Space Subcommittee has been preparing an inventory of those properties. Again, the funds won’t all have to come from town coffers; we should seek partnerships with groups such as the Land Trust, the water companies, and the State of Connecticut. We must not allow these precious open spaces to be lost through inattention and apathy.

All of these initiatives are, in fact, overdue. Other demands are also on the horizon: our town hall is bursting at the seams; a Killingworth government website could help make town services more accessible; our public works department will need new equipment; our fire department must stay prepared. For the future, we promise to act openly, cooperatively, and expeditiously to guard Killingworth’s fiscal, capital, and environmental assets.