The Daily Five: A Magic Carpet Ride, Granting Wishes, And No Shooting Allowed

1. Today will be partly cloudy, partly sunny and mostly dry, with just a 10 percent chance of rain, according to weather.com. It won't get much warmer than 41 degrees and overnight lows will dip to 29 degrees. The forecast for the weekend looks promising, however, with mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the mid to high-40s. 

2. East Lyme voters approved three special appropriations at a Special Town Meeting on Wednesday.

The first was a previously approved plan under capital improvements to add two more antennae to the town's radio tower to improve emergency communications. The extra $221,564 the town requested was necessitated by the fact that the company doing the work had changed.  

 The second, to appropriate $59,118 for the purpose of repairing, renovating, and installing improvements to the town's parking lot at Cini Park, will be reimbursed by money Amtrak is paying the town for use of the lot during bridge construction and for access to a utility pole to run electricity to the site.  

The third, to appropriate $29,000 to purchase three ATVs, one Jet Ski with a trailer and safety gear as requested by East Lyme Police Department to be used to patrol the beaches, will be reimbursed through nuclear safety grant.  

3. Although East Lyme voters have already approved the town's purchase of the historic Samuel Smith House, a new state statute required a public hearing on the town's decision to sell half of the property to the Niantic Sportsmen's Club because it involved the sale of town land valued at more than $10,000.

The Friends of Samuel Smith House turned out to show their support for sale but Wednesday's hearing also brought out a number of neighbors who live near the property at 82 Plants Dam Road who were concerned that the gun club may be planning an expansion.

To clarify, the Sportsmen's Club has no intention of setting up a shooting range on the property. It is buying the land to preserve it as open space and under terms of the sale, shooting and building on the property is forbidden.

The Sportsmen's Club is leasing the land to the Friends of Samuel Smith for $1 a year. The Friends of Samuel Smith plan to turn the historic house (which is on land that the town will continue to own) into a museum and will conduct archaeological digs on what they believe to be a burial ground on the portion of the property that the Sportsmen's Club will be buying.

4. Want to put a little magic in your life tonight? Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School presents Disney's Aladdin Jr., a musical based on the Disney movie, promises big fun for the whole family. The show opens tonight and will be performed again on Saturday at LOL Middle School at 7 p.m. Advance tickets are available at The Bowerbird on Halls Road, Old Lyme, for $7 or at the door on performance nights.  

5. If you didn't get your fill of corned beef and cabbage and can't get enough of Irish pipes and drums, there's one more chance to catch a St. Patrick's Day Parade this weekend in Mystic.