The Daily Five: New Businesses, New Roads, New Water Meters, and New Claims for FEMA

1. Today will be a bit chilly with a high temperature of just 47 degrees, and partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of rain, according to Weather.com. Tonight temperatures will drop to 35 degrees but the chance of rain also drops to 10 percent. 

2. East Lyme Zoning Commission gets down to business tonight. The commission will consider three applications for special permits from people who want to open a wide variety of businesses in East Lyme.

Tyler Gilbertie wants to open a fast food restaurant called Lazy Burrito at 327 Flanders Road. Nancy Hutchins of Long Water Farm wants to open an organic market at 32 Black Point Road in Niantic. And To Design LLC seeks to open a fast food restaurant at 168 West Main Street in Niantic. 

The commission will be holding public hearings on each of these applications. The meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. at East Lyme Town Hall. 

3. Old Lyme has added two more official roads to its town map. Voters unanimously approved accepting Village Lane, a part of Village Estates Subdivision, and , as town roads at last night's Special Town Meeting. 

4. On Tuesday, East Lyme's Water and Sewer Commission voted to send a request for a special appropriation of up to $2.6 million to the Board of Selectmen to cover the cost of a water meter replacement project and development of a new water meter reading system.

By the town's estimation, more than 3,000 residences need new water meters. After considering a variety of options, the Water and Sewer Commission is leaning in the direction of installing meters that can be read via a radio transmission network. To take the readings, a town employee would simply drive by residences instead of having to make house calls.

This system would allow the town to read meters more frequently and that could result in big savings as problems would be detected earlier. The Board of Selectmen will take up the issue at its next meeting and then the proposal would be sent to the Board of Finance. If both boards sign off on the proposal, it will then go to a Town Meeting or to referendum for a vote. 

5. Today is the last day that the FEMA Disaster Recovery Center will be open in East Lyme Town Hall. Local residents whose property sustained damage as a result of Superstorm Sandy are encouraged to apply for federal grants. The U.S. Small Business Administration is also on site to help businesses and homeowners with low-interest loans. The office is open today from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.