Town Council Adopts Ordinance Against Nuisance Peddlers, Other Items

More than a few high school seniors attended Wednesday’s Town Council meeting but they weren’t there for the action-packed agenda nor the stimulating political debates.They were there because it is one of the last Town Council meetings before graduation and as Ledyard High senior Elizabeth Hooper said, “we’re the procrastinators.”

Ledyard High seniors must attend one Town Council meeting and one Board of Education meeting as part of the graduation requirements. Normally they come in pairs or quadruplets but Wednesday’s meeting had about 20 or 25 students in the audience.

Dru Mahalko was in the audience Wednesday and said he pretty much got what he and classmates expected.

“It was a long, boring meeting.”

There were a lot of items on the agenda but admittedly, none that would offer a first-timer a feeling of intrigue and none that sparked captivating  political debate.
Here are some highlights:

**The Town Council voted to adopt revisions of the 1972 ordinance regulating peddlers, hawkers, street vendors, door-to-door salespeople and the like. Mayoral assistant Mark Bancroft presented a draft to be adopted, which later received a series of revisions by council members. Briefly, the ordinance is meant to help prevent and take action against nuisance peddlers. It also raises the price to do business in Ledyard from $10 to $100.

**Five people were appointed to town volunteer commissions.

**A public hearing was set for May 22 for residents to comment on the town’s proposed amendments to the ordinance regulating the use of LVES funds. The fund balance is around $800,000, which comes from billing patients for care and transport to the hospital, etc. LVES wants to maintain a high balance in the event that they have to buy a new ambulance (or two) and so that they can continue buying medical equipment and supplies for themselves and the fire departments, etc.

The town would like to use money from the LVES fund and put it toward the operating budget of LVES so that the volunteer organization would be more self-sufficient. They agreed that the town can recycle 10 percent of the balance so long as $400,000 remains in the account.

Among other things, the LVES fund already pays the town $100,000 a year to rent the building on Fairway Drive and the salary of the town employee who works there part time. 

The changes to the ordinance need to happen because the Mayor has already taken money from the fund for that purpose, according to council member  Sharon Wadecki.

**Also, for those of you looking forward to watching old-fashioned timber cutting this spring you are out of luck. The historic Up-Down Sawmill will not conduct sawing demonstrations until repairs are made to the mill. The Town Council agreed to go out to bid for needed repairs, which are expected to be complete by the fall season. But take heart sawmill fans, volunteers will staff the mill on Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. to answer your questions.