The Daily Five: No School Again, Emergency Shelter Relocates, and a Property Tax Reprieve

1. We'll see both sunshine and clouds today, though there's only a slight chance of rain. Weather.com is predicting a high temperature of 56 degrees and a low temperature of 43 degrees. Tonight will be mostly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of rain.  

2. There's no school again today for students in East Lyme, Old Lyme, and Lyme, but the Lyme-Old Lyme school district decided to just go ahead and cancel school and all school activities for the rest of the week. East Lyme is still taking it one day at a time but most if not all of its schools may have power by Friday.

East Lyme High School never lost power. Flanders Elementary School was reenergized last night and the Red Cross Regional Emergency Shelter is leaving the Middle School today, so it's possible that most schools could open on Friday. 

3. The Red Cross Regional Emergency Shelter is relocating today from East Lyme Middle School to East Lyme Community Center, which is pretty much next door at 41 Society Road.

The shelter will remain open to people and pets from Old Lyme, Lyme, East Lyme, Montville, Waterford and New London but the number of people staying at the shelter is dropping daily. The Community Center is also the place to go if you need to charge your electronic devices or pick up bottled water.

4. After long nights of dealing with the crisis caused by Hurricane Sandy, East Lyme, Old Lyme, and Lyme are beginning to shift away from emergency management toward assessing, restoring, and rebuilding. Though East Lyme, Old Lyme, and Lyme Emergency Operations Centers remain open, they won't all be staffed 24/7 and staffing levels will be reduced when possible to give everyone a chance to catch up on some sleep.

Starting today, Old Lyme's Emergency Operations Call Center be manned from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you call after hours, leave a message and someone will get back to you. Overnight messages will be checked at 6 a.m. The Call Center number is (860) 598-0120 but obviously, if you have an emergency, call 911.  

The towns will continue to do everything possible to meet the needs of residents affected by the storm. The Town Health Department in Old Lyme, for instance, is offering everything from confidential mental health counseling to information about what to do if you think your well water is contaminated.

Old Lyme's building department, meanwhile, is offering guidance for residents whose properties have been damaged and building department workers are making house-to-house visits in severely impacted areas.   

5. If you suffered property damage in Hurricane Sandy, probably the last thing you want to see is a property tax bill right now. Yet property tax bills were due yesterday for people who pay quarterly. Gov. Dannel Malloy decided to take some of the sting out of that and gave everyone, if not a tax break, at least a break from taxes by extending the deadline. 

“Getting life back to normal is going to take some time, but this Executive Order will give residents some breathing room to avoid accumulating interest fees,” said Gov. Malloy. “Local leaders and legislators have advocated strongly for their communities—this is important in the effort to help people recover from Hurricane Sandy.” 

It's not going to be a long break, mind you. Quarterly property tax payments are now due Nov. 15, 2012.

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