The Daily Five: School Budget Vote, Setting Limits On Outdoor Dining, And What's New At Cini Park

1. Today should be mostly sunny with a high of 64 degrees and an overnight low of 47 degrees, according to www.weather.com. There's just a 10 percent chance of rain this evening. 

2. The Lyme-Old Lyme Board of Education has already held a number of public hearings on the Regional School District 18 budget, which were notably not well attended. Tonight there's one more final meeting and a vote scheduled before tomorrow's budget referendum. 

The Annual Budget Meeting and Vote for the Regional School District No. 18 will be held at Regional School District No. 18, Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School Auditorium, 53 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, Connecticut at 7:30 p.m. to adopt a budget of $31,741,789 for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014 as recommended by the Regional School Board.
You can find the budget book online or pick up a copy at the district's central office at Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School. 

3. East Lyme's Zoning Commission continues to grapple with the issue of outdoor dining and what the regulations for it should look like. It's granting renewals and new applications for outdoor dining on a nearly weekly basis, including a renewal of a permit for Smokey O'Grady's just last week. But the commissioners are concerned that downtown Niantic could turn into other popular beach resorts where visitors are confronted by tented outdoor bar areas packed with people pounding down drinks.

That isn't the case now, but they're trying to write regulations to ensure that Main Street doesn't turn into that. A few ideas they're batting about include a prohibition on new outdoor bars—such as the one that would be grandfathered at Burke's Tavern—and rules that would allow alcohol to be served only if people are seated and eating outside. There will be a public hearing on the proposed rules once the commission has a document in place.

4. The Lyme Board of Selectmen meets as usual at 3:30 p.m. at Lyme Town Hall. The Old Lyme Board of Selectmen will meet at 7:30 p.m. at Old Lyme Memorial Town Hall. Here's the agenda.

5. Now that fishing season is upon us, the town of East Lyme has signed five leasing agreements to allow local fishermen and the Blackhawk charter boat company to continue using the town dock at Cini Park. As the construction surrounding the Niantic River Bridge is nearing completion, there are no more discounts on the rent though. The leasing rates have gone up by 5 percent across the board.

East Lyme has reserved 30 feet of the dock next to the Blackhawk for town use and the town has made repairs to the dock that were needed after the pounding it took from Superstorm Sandy. Amtrak is in the process of pouring concrete paths and putting up fences down by Cini Park, and then it will turn its attention to the parking lot. 

East Lyme First Selectman Paul Formica said the Amtrak Boardwalk is slated to open on June 7. The town is already planning to hold a big ceremony to celebrate, with lots of dignitaries on the invitation list including Vice President Joe Biden, who helped get the funding for Amtrak's new Niantic River Bridge. Biden hasn't RSVPed yet.