First Selectman’s Update, Feb. 11, 2025: Budget, Town Improvements and Infrastructure

The following is an update from First Selectman Toni Boucher. 

[Editor’s note: While we typically do not edit the First Selectman’s update for content, we do fact check it for accuracy. Where necessary we will note where we have spotted inaccuracies or inconsistencies, or where clarification is necessary. In this month’s update from the First Selectman, we have noted such points in the following sections: 1) Town and School infrastructure Needs Assessment Committee relating to the upcoming budget and bonding decisions the town will consider at the Annual Town Meeting in May; and 2) the Gilbert and Bennett School building regarding the town’s lease agreement with building tenants.]

“A budget is not just a collection of numbers, but an expression of our values and aspirations.” — Jack Lew

Hello, Wilton. Well, here we are again, deep in the throes of budget talks. Town leaders are hearing from department heads about the costs involved in delivering essential services to the people of Wilton. These town managers continue to operate in a time of significant growth, inflation, union wage increases and new state unfunded mandates that add to the complexity of their individual budgets for Fiscal Year 2026.

There is no question that living in Connecticut can be challenging with its high state taxes and local property and car taxes. In fact, last year was one of Wilton’s most difficult budget years in decades. But with town boards working closely together, keeping residents apprised of the facts, voters were able to make an informed choice and approved the FY 25 budget with a strong show of support [for] the town they love. This year will be no different.

Budget processing is a balancing act, carefully weighing the must-have items with the nice-to-have that matter to the quality of life in Wilton. But as painstaking as this process may be, this is democracy at work, where many voices must decide what’s best for our town. There are often a few disappointments along the way. The choice, however, resides with you, the voter, who will decide on the final budget at the Annual Town Meeting in May. Please listen in to the Board of Selectmen meetings when the presentations are made, and speak up when you have something you’d like to add to the deliberations.

How Wilton Works

When ice and snow hit our area last week, the Department of Public Works was ready to clear our streets and make our morning commutes as safe as possible. Decisions are made in the wee hours of the morning, when, like weather forecasters, DPW staff must first predict what travel to our work and schools will look like before jumping into action.

But that is only part of their job. If the Town of Wilton were a ship on the ocean, the DPW would be a combination of our engine room and bridge. The public may never see the machinery, but the combination of muscle and know-how keeps this ship powered and in good working order. Wilton’s Department of Public Works oversees the Transfer Station, the Highway Department, the Water Pollution Control Authority, engineering plans, and the capital improvement projects for the Town and the Board of Education. Last year alone, this department removed 202 trees; cleared vegetation overgrowth from 127 miles of roadway, improving visibility for all users; resolved 530 requests that came through the Town’s SeeClickFix portal; responded to 1,619 “Call Before You Dig” requests; issued 33 road opening permits; enabled 62 professional kitchens to dispose of their waste through the Fats, Oil, Grease Program; and reviewed 60 Land Use Plans applications. All of this work is managed by seven administrative staff, 15 highway department staff and two Transfer Station staff.

Transfer Station: The Transfer Station manages residential trash disposal and recycling, following the state’s guidelines for food scraps, and glass, mattress and electronics disposal. A new, more convenient, credit card payment system is planned for in 2025 that will replace the need to buy trash stickers at Town Hall.

Highway Department: The Highway Department clears our roads of snow and ice during the winter, and of hurricane and storm debris in other seasons. When they’re not responding to emergencies, they’re performing regular road maintenance, like paving seven miles of road in rotation every year. In 2019, the town installed a roadway scanning software program, called StreetLogics, that evaluates road conditions. This makes prioritizing the sections of road to focus on much more efficient. Road maintenance work is done by in-house crews using Wilton-owned equipment. This very expensive equipment, like our fleet of trucks, is also maintained by Wilton employees, at a huge cost savings to the Town.

Town Facilities and Board of Education Facilities: The DPW oversees the maintenance, repairs, improvements and new building construction for town facilities, and capital improvements for all of the town school buildings. Any work done on the Board of Education facilities is coordinated with the Board of Education staff. Ideally, the town should have its own maintenance department, which is recognized by all as sorely needed. Two additional staff hiring were contemplated for this long-term cost-saving measure, but unfortunately could not be budgeted in for this FY 26 cycle.

Water Pollution Control Authority: The DPW operates, maintains and repairs the sanitary sewer system in town, plus the pump station. These pipes ultimately discharge into Norwalk’s sewer system, where it is treated at their sewage plant under a contract agreement between our towns.

Engineering: The DPW manages the design and construction of all roadway projects that extend up to private property lines, otherwise known as the Town Right of Way. Town engineers also provide technical assistance to the Planning and Zoning Department, giving feedback on site plans that are part of building applications to that department. They provide the same expertise on applications that come into the Environmental Affairs office.

Infrastructure Projects: There is a steady stream of essential jobs the department is working on, all at varying stages of completion. Bridge and road work make up the bulk of their roster. Every two years, the state evaluates Wilton’s large bridges and provides the Town with its report, from which the DPW draws up a priority list of improvements. Much of this work is supported by state and federal grants that are won only after a daunting application process and some luck. The paperwork administering these grants also requires great patience and attention to detail. As you’ll read below, our DPW has been extremely adept at bringing in funds to support our town infrastructure.

• Nearly Completed: For instance, the replacement work on Lovers Lane Bridge and the Arrowhead Bridge are complete and in the close-out phase, and both received state and federal grants. The Pedestrian Bridge linking the train station to Merwin Meadows Park was also made possible by state funding and is in the close-out phase. The Norwalk River Valley Trail (NRVT) has been expanded by the Wil-Walk multi-use trail, which starts at Chipmunk Ln. in Wilton and continues through the woods to Grist Mill Rd. in Norwalk. It was paid for by the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), municipal funds and generous private donations by Wiltonians. The roof replacement on a portion of the Middlebrook Middle School building is nearly finished, as is the Schenck’s Island Parking Lot. The parking lot at Schenck’s was made possible with funds from the American Rescue Plan.

• In Process: Other projects are in mid-construction. The new Police Station has its walls and roof in place but is not expected to be completed until the fall of ‘25. The Wilton Sports Complex is having a flood mitigation system put in that first entails building a wall or berm to prevent excess water from overflowing onto the grass field, followed by laying in a 36-inch by 60-inch elliptical pipe to carry the water away from the field and into the nearby stream. A Community Project Fund grant [secured by] our congressional representative [U.S. Rep. Jim Himes] is making this much-needed upgrade possible. The design for the Kent Rd. Bridge repair is about to start. And finally, Scribner Hill Rd. is having its embankment shored up to make it safe again for travel, paid for by the Wilton taxpayers. Right now, the road is closed to traffic.

• Looking Ahead: Meanwhile, other town improvements have been approved but are in the planning and design phase. With help from state funding, Old Mill Rd. Bridge, Old Ridgefield Rd. Bridge, Middlebrook Farm Rd. Bridge and Seeley Rd. Bridge are slated to be rehabilitated. Other state grants will help replace Cannon Rd. Bridge, Honey Hill Bridge, Sugar Hollow Bridge and the Musket Ridge culvert. The Norwalk River Valley Trail will be expanded further with the approved Wilton Loop North extension of .9 miles. This new section will start at Skunk Ln. and end at Pimpewaug Rd. The chiller in Middlebrook School and the Cider Mill School elevator were approved for replacement by the Wilton voters as bond measures and are currently under design. Our town sewer systems will also see upgrades as part of infiltration and inflow-related improvements in the next fiscal year.

Of course, the DPW is deeply involved in every discussion of the Town and School Buildings Needs Assessment Plan. Their expertise has been at the table for every meeting of the [TSNAP] Committee, helping to organize the enormous undertaking of making long-delayed repairs on our school and municipal buildings. Without their guidance, prioritizing this enormous list would have been impossible. They are a knowledgeable, dedicated team working in conditions that make their job even more difficult. When they’re not outside in all kinds of weather, checking that everything in Wilton is working as it should, you can find DPW staff in cramped offices or crouched together over large maps and building plans making do without a conference room. Large documents live rolled up in the corners because there isn’t adequate storage. The Annex building that houses their operation was once a garage built in the 1930s. The bathrooms and staff kitchen are in rusted and run-down condition. We hope to improve their work-life in our future renovation and repair plans. For all of their dedication, expertise and hard work, Wilton’s Department of Public Works, please, take a bow.

Town and School Needs Assessment Committee

Wilton can no longer delay critical repairs to school and town infrastructure. The office and meeting spaces at Town Hall and the Annex have reached their absolute maximum. Essential staff cannot be hired because there is nowhere to seat them. Conference rooms have been cut into cubicles. The IT Department is located in a hall closet.

[Editor’s note: No Town Hall/Annex projects were prioritized or recommended by TSNAP for FY 2026. Certain smaller improvements to Town Hall were approved by the Town voters for FY 2025, including window replacement, heat, front entrance restoration and other structural work. Overall building and space needs on the Town Hall campus continue to be discussed as part of the longer-range 15-year capital plan.]

According to Wilton’s Fire Chief, no additional firefighters have been added to their crew since 1999, even while demands on the department have grown exponentially, as evidenced by the recent approval to build 1,100 new apartments in town. We hope that there will be room in this year’s budget cycle to add two more much-needed firefighters.

Last summer, a new committee was organized to consider and advise the Board of Selectmen on the myriad number of repair and renovation needs our government and school buildings are facing. This group of Wilton citizens and municipal employees was tasked with sifting through expert advice, making site visits of the facilities in question, and finally, drawing up a list of priorities to recommend to the Board of Selectmen for inclusion in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget, as bondable items. The Board of Selectmen will ultimately decide what goes before the voters at the Annual Town Meeting in May. But after careful deliberation, these are the 10 priorities the Town and School Needs Assessment Committee feels the Board of Selectmen should consider: [Editor’s note: the following list differs from the final list voted on by the TSNAP committee at the Jan. 15 meeting.]

1. seven miles of road restoration
2. Wilton High School Library Roof Replacement
3. The Cider Mill School Chiller replacement (new equipment and piping)
4. Wilton Fire Department apparatus room new office and repairs. Money for this will create a closed office space for the apparatus supervisor, who currently works in the open garage space, in temperatures that are subject to the elements
5. Drainage system around Cider Mill School, and Sidewalk Repair on all schools.
6. Ambler Farm
   • Raymond-Ambler House renovation: A deed obligates the Town to keep it as an administrative and public event space but it has been unusable due to its deteriorated condition.
   • Ambler Farm Yellow House is included in the same deed as the Raymond Ambler House. A grant of $55,000 was awarded to Wilton from the State Historic Preservation Office to remove lead paint from the outside of the house and from the ground around it. [Editor’s note: The Ambler Farm Yellow House was ranked 11th by the TSNAP committee, not 6th. The Yellow House was discussed by TSNAP as “next in line” after the top 10 recommended projects, for the selectmen to consider if they were comfortable with the total spending or if they disagreed with TSNAP’s 10 recommended priorities. The total cost of the 10 prioritized projects is $8.97 million — it would be $9.97 million including the Yellow House.]

7. Replace floor tiles, lighting and ceiling tiles in all of Wilton’s schools, as needed
8. Replace 25 or more 20-year-old exhaust fans in Middlebrook School
9. Replace heating system in the Middlebrook School gym
10. Renovate the restrooms at Merwin Meadows and bathrooms at Wilton Schools as needed

The artificial turf field at Wilton High School was slated to be replaced in FY 2027, but given the damage it sustained in last summer’s flood, this project was moved up to Fiscal Year 2026 as a potential project on the above list. [Editor’s note: TSNAP voted to prioritize the turf field before the Ambler Farm Yellow House.]

Over the coming weeks, the Board of Selectman will review this list, weighing the timing, expense and needs of these items, with the necessary demands of all the town departments. As a reminder, it is the voters of Wilton who will decide what projects can be undertaken next year. Town leaders are doing their absolute best to provide the public with the facts needed to make those decisions.

Gilbert and Bennett School

As many of you know, the beloved Gilbert and Bennett School building had to be vacated after the Wilton Health Department marked it unsafe because of the leaks and mold that existed, which were made worse by last August’s monumental flood. This historic building is a town-owned property that had been leased to private groups over the years but has not had a lease in place since 2016. [Editor’s note: This has been disputed by the Georgetown Community Association, with which the Town entered into an agreement for $1 per year in 2011 during then-First Selectman Bill Brennan‘s term, stating that the GCA would manage activities and daily upkeep at the building while Wilton was responsible for major repairs. That agreement was updated as a month-to-month agreement under then-First Selectwoman Lynne Vanderslice. Under Boucher’s tenure, the month-to-month agreement remained unchanged.] This is a beautiful, unique, 1915 structure that deserves to be preserved. The Town is undertaking immediate repairs that will stabilize it. A large tarp has been ordered to prevent any more water damage, and work is underway to clean the building as best as possible. To make it fully functional again, however, would take an investment of well over $3 million. This estimate comes at a time when the Town is facing $140 million in repair costs to school and town facilities that are used by hundreds of people every day, and the $16 million new Police Station project that is in mid-construction, which was approved by the voters.

Some have expressed concern that Gilbert and Bennett would be sacrificed to developers, which is a prospect that I personally would not support. Historic preservation is something that I have always championed. In addition, the site is on a septic system, which would make building a large, multi-family complex unfeasible. Any offer of sale can be discussed by law in a Board of Selectmen executive session, until an offer is made. Such an offer would then come before the board in a public meeting, and ultimately to Wilton’s voters. To date, no offer has been presented to the town by a school or business. Last summer, a school did request multiple tours of the facility but their interest vanished when they saw firsthand the amount of work and funds that would be needed to make the building viable for public use. The Town never received any offer from this party.

Town leaders are happy to meet with anyone who would like to discuss the Gilbert and Bennett School building. Our desire to preserve this historic structure will always be a prerequisite to negotiations with any potential buyer. For those who are interested, we have attached the assessment report that details all of the structural challenges of this special property. The Health Department’s report is also attached, which explains the immediate closure of the Gilbert and Bennett School building until it could be made safe again. To be clear, the Town followed up the Health Department’s findings with a second opinion from an environmental remediation firm. This firm corroborated what the Health Department found. That independent report is available at Town Hall for the asking.

G&B Assessment Report

G&B Health Department Report

Radon Kits

The Wilton Health Department has partnered with the Connecticut State Department of Public Health to offer a limited number of free Radon test kits to Wilton residents to test for the presence of Radon gas in homes. The free kits are available until supplies run out, and include postage-paid envelopes for shipping samples to the laboratory. If you choose to participate, you will be required to utilize the kit as promptly as possible. Please contact the health department via email to request your free radon test kit. Any questions about the program can be addressed to members of the department at 203.5630174.

Important Resources

Winter weather always provides an excellent opportunity to remind everyone in our community of what to do in an emergency and of all of the resources that exist that are ready to help if needed:

• Residents are strongly encouraged to sign up online for Everbridge, the Town’s emergency alert system.
• If there is an emergency, please dial 9-1-1 immediately.
• To reach the Wilton Police Department on its non-emergency line, dial 203.834.6260.
• To reach the Wilton Fire Department on its non-emergency line, dial 203.834.6247.
• To reach Wilton Social Services, dial 203.834.6238. Social Services can help families and individuals with food insecurity, mental health or addiction challenges, housing crises, filing medical insurance claims for seniors and those with disabilities, housing and in-home care services for seniors and those with disabilities, transportation services and more.
• To reach the Mental Health Crisis/Suicide Prevention Hotline, dial 988.
• To reach the Red Cross visit the Red Cross online or call 800.733.2767.
• To reach the Domestic Violence Crisis Center, dial 203.853.0418. The National Domestic Violence Hotline can be reached at 800.799.7233.
• For extracurricular programs and support for 6th graders through high school, call Trackside Teen Center at 203.834.2888.
• In the event of a power outage, dial Eversource’s emergency line at 800.286.2000 to log the outage in their system. This link to the Eversource emergency alert page contains complete information on how to sign up for outage alerts, recommended emergency preparedness and more.
• For hurricane preparedness, visit the National Hurricane Preparedness website.

Wilton’s Continuing Education Programs

Remember to bookmark the Wilton Continuing Education website on your browser so you can stay abreast with their array of offerings for all ages. They have classes, programs and camps for everyone from early school-age children to adults. Learn to code, shoot baskets, play the bagpipes or speak Italian. Spots fill up quickly so check in early and often!

Discover New Possibilities with Adult Education Classes in Wilton, CT | Wilton Continuing Ed! Whether you’re an adult exploring new interests, a parent searching for summer activities, or someone looking for music lessons, you’ve found the right place! Join us year-round for exciting programs and classes — there’s something for everyone right here in Wilton.

Department Collaboration

Again, a big thank you to our tireless DPW staff who, when the storm hit last week, worked closely with our Police Department and the School Superintendent Kevin Smith, to clear our roads and check that all was safe for the morning traffic. While the rest of us were sleeping, they were on the move, from midnight until 5 a.m., making sure that it was business as usual when the day started. They will be kept busy as there are more storms predicted this month.

Happy Valentine’s Day

This Valentine’s Day, our hearts are full of appreciation for the incredible community that surrounds us!

Toni Boucher
First Selectman
Town of Wilton

P.S. “All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” — Charles M. Schulz

[Editor’s note: After this article was published, GMW editors updated it in various places as noted at the top of the article to clarify or make corrections following additional fact-checking.]