By Charles Stannard

CHESTER— The board of selectmen is preparing to bring a proposed purchase of 4.6-acres on the Connecticut River to a townwide vote in the early fall.

First Selectman Tom Marsh said the board of finance would discuss the proposed purchase of the Parkers Point Road parcel at a meeting Thursday. The board is expected to discuss options for financing the acquisition, including whether to issue a bond or pay the town’s share of the purchase price using undesignated surplus funds.

The property, which became available last year, has a purchase price of $948,000. The town secured a grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection for $464,500, with other grants, including funds from the Connecticut River Gateway Commission, reducing the town share of the purchase price to about $395,000.

The selectmen held a public hearing on the proposed land purchase last year, but later decided in consultation with the finance board to defer any action on the purchase until after adoption of the regular town budget for 2009-2010. The nationwide economic downturn that began last fall was also a factor in the decision to defer action on the purchase.

Marsh said he believes it is now time to bring the proposed purchase to a vote. The parcel would become the first town-owned open space land with frontage on the river.

“It certainly is something that should be decided by the town’s voters,” Marsh said, adding that Chester residents currently have “no place to go and have a riverfront picnic.”

Marsh said the other two selectmen, Bruce Watrous and Martin Heft, also favor bringing the issue to a town vote. The board has also agreed that any vote would be through an eight-hour referendum, rather than at a town meeting.

Marsh said options for financing the purchase include bonding, or using funds from the town’s undesignated fund balance that currently contains about $1.3 million. Chester ended the 2008-2009 fiscal year with unexpended funds totaling about $236,000. Marsh said a referendum vote on funding for the land purchase could be held in late September or early October.

By: Charles Stannard

CHESTER— Town Democrats Tuesday nominated Chuck Della Rocco for First Selectman on a ticket with former finance board and planning and zoning commission member Lawrence Sypher as the candidate for Board of Selectman.

Della Rocco, a former Old Saybrook police officer and current member of the local school board, was nominated on a unanimous voice vote of about 30 Democrats gathered at the Chester Meeting House. Sypher, a lifelong resident, runs a local internet technology consulting business called Sydell Associates. He replaces former First Selectman and incumbent Selectman Martin Heft as the party’s candidate for Board of Selectmen.

Della Rocco and Sypher will face off in the Nov. 3 town election against two term Republican First Selectman Tom Marsh and Tom Englert, the new Republican nominee for board of selectmen. Marsh and Englert were nominated at the Republican caucus last week.

Della Rocco, an Old Saybrook native who moved to Chester in 2002, said he began considering a run for the town’s top office last year. Della Rocco, a former U.S. Army military police officer during the 1989 Panama intervention and the 1991 Persian Gulf War, served on the Old Saybrook Police Department from 1994 to 2007 and currently works as a Judicial Branch police officer at the state Library/Supreme Court building in Hartford. Della Rocco said his campaign theme would be “respect the past-build the future.”

Democrats joined Republicans in cross-endorsing three town hall incumbents for new terms, Town Clerk Debra Germini Calamari, Town Treasurer Elizabeth Netsch, and Tax Collector Madaline Meyer. Netsch is a Democrat, Calamari and Meyer are unaffiliated voters.

Democrats nominated Lori Ann Clymas, the party’s unsuccessful 2005 candidate for board of selectmen, for the Region 4 Board of Education . Democrats nominated Jennifer Rannestad and Gary Clark for six-year terms on the Board of Finance, with incumbents David Cohen nominated for a four-year term and Virginia Carmany nominated for a two-year term on the finance board. Incumbent Edward Meehan, a former member and chairman of the finance board, was nominated for a new term as board of finance alternate.

Incumbent Errol Horner, Charles Vaccaro, and Keith Scherber were nominated for six-year terms on the Planning and Zoning Commission. Incumbent Sally Murray was nominated for a two year term on the planning and zoning commission, with Stephen Sepowski and Louis DesJardins, both unaffiliated voters, nominated for Planning and Zoning Commission alternates.

Amy Safran, Lianne Rutty, and Marjorie Della Rocco were nominated for the local Board of Education that supervises the operation of Chester Elementary School. Eileen Sypher was nominated for a two-year term on the local Board of Education.

Incumbent John DeLaura and Michael Desnoyers were nominated for Zoning Board of Appeals. Incumbent Justin Kronholm and Robert Gorman were nominated for ZBA alternates.
John Bellows and Elizabeth Gourlay were nominated for full four-year terms on the inland-wetlands commission. Incumbent Peter DeLisa and Caryl Horner were nominated for two-year terms on the IWC.

Incumbent Edward Ward, Samuel Chorches, and Albert Armington were nominated for four-year terms on the water pollution control authority, with incumbent James Pease nominated for a two-year term on the WPCA. Ward, a Democrat who currentlly serves as WPCA chairman, and Pease, a Republican, were also endorsed for new terms last week by town Republicans.

Incumbents Sandy Senior Dauer and Barbara Standke were nominated for new terms on the library board of trustees, with incumbent Dudley Clark Jr. nominated for a new term on the Board of Assessment Appeals.

Heft noted that Democrats had nominated a full slate for all positions on the town’s lengthy ballot, “for the first time in anyone’s memory.” He also announced that Clymas and former Selectman Peter Zanardi would serve as co-chairs of the Democratic campaign.

Clymas and Zanardi, at the time a two-term incumbent, had competed at the party’s 2005 caucus for the nomination for board of selectmen. Clymas defeated Zanardi at the contested caucus that may have set the stage for six-term incumbent Heft’s narrow 30-vote loss to Marsh in the 2005 town election. Marsh defeated Democrat Justin Good to win a second term in 2007.

By: Charles Stannard

Town Democrats will hold their nominating caucus for the 2009 municipal election on Tuesday July 28 at 7 p.m. at the Chester Meeting House on Liberty St.

Democratic Selectman Martin Heft, who served as first selectman from 1993-2005, is not seeking re-election. Heft said earlier this month the Chester Democratic Town Committee has interviewed prospective candidates for First Selectman and Board of Selectmen, but will not announce any candidates until the night of the caucus.

The nominating caucus, where the party will also nominate candidates for Board of Finance, Planning and Zoning Commission, and other positions on the Nov. 3 ballot, is open to all registered town Democrats.

Republican First Selectman Thomas Marsh is seeking a third term this year. The Republican nominating caucus is scheduled for Wednesday, July 22, at 7:30 p.m,. at the Chester Meeting House.

By Charles Stannard

CHESTER— Democrat Martin Heft announced Tuesday that he will not seek re-election to the board of selectmen this fall, ending 20 years of involvement in town government.

Heft said he decided over the past week to step aside from board of selectmen, and decline an offer from the Chester Democratic Town Committee to make another run for first selectman job he held from 1993 to 2005. He said the committee has been informed of his decision.

Heft, a 44-year-old life-long Chester resident, was elected to the part-time position of town treasurer in 1989. He was elected first selectman in 1993, and re-elected for six terms. Heft was uncontested by town Republicans in 1997, 1999, and 2003.

But in 2005, Heft was unseated by Republican Tom Marsh on a 770-740 vote. Marsh had unsuccessfully challenged Heft in 2001. Heft retained the minority seat on the town’s three-member board of selectmen, winning a new term on the board in 2007 as Marsh was elected to a second term over Democrat Justin Good. After losing the full-time job of first selectman, Heft was hired in 2006 as an assistant to state Comptroller Nancy Wyman.

Heft said the time demands of his state job were one factor in his decision to retire from town government. “20 years of being involved means its time to take a break,” Heft said, describing his service in town government as “one of my life’s greatest blessings.”

In a statement announcing his decision, Heft recalled some of the accomplishments of his terms in office, including increasing computerization of town government functions, completing the restoration of the Chester Meeting House on Liberty St., enhanced monitoring and protection of Cedar Lake, and completion of the new town hall on Route 154 in 2003.

Heft said town Democrats have prospective candidates for first selectman and board of selectman that are expected to be announced to the public before the party nominating caucus on July 28.

Marsh said Tuesday that Heft had been “a valuable member of the board of selectmen,” over the past four years. “Small towns like Chester depend on people getting involved and Martin was always willing to do that,” he said.

Marsh announced earlier this month that he would seek a third term in the Nov. 3 town election with a new running-mate for the board, as Tom Englert replaces six-term incumbent Bruce Watrous on the GOP ticket.

By Charles Stannard

CHESTER— A weekly farmer’s market will return to Main Street in the downtown village on June 14.

The board of selectmen granted final approval for the farmer’s market at a meeting Tuesday. The market will be run by a group of local volunteers who began planning for the activity earlier this year. Approval from the selectmen was required because the market will operate on a town street and sidewalks.

Carol Lewitt, one of the market organizers, said the market will operate on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. with up to 20 vendors selling Connecticut-grown produce and other food items. The vendors would operate from tents set up on the Main Street sidewalk.

The market, which will run through Oct. 4, is the first for Chester since a similarly weekly market operated at the town-owned parking lot on Maple Street from 1999 to 2003. The market shut down, with some vendors shifting to a similar market in Deep River, after the board of selectmen declined to approve a requested relocation to the town property on Water Street that contains the former CBT bank branch building. The building housed a visitor center for the downtown village in 2003, but was later leased to a private business.

Lewitt and Nancy Freeborn, another organizer who was involved in the earlier farmer’s market, said the goal of the market is to attract both out-of-town visitors and residents to the downtown village to shop for produce and other food items. Some downtown restaurants will also be selling food items on the sidewalk during the markets.

First Selectman Tom Marsh said the market would not require a closing of Main Street, though traffic safety during the markets is a concern that would require regular consultations between organizers and Resident State Trooper Adam Brown. “We’re only going to know how it goes by trying it,” he said.

While the board’s vote to approve the market was unanimous, Selectman Martin Heft said he believes the grounds of the Chester Meeting House on Liberty Street would be the best location for the market.

The seasonal market will kick off with a community picnic scheduled for Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Chester Fairgrounds on Route 154. The picnic will feature food prepared by local chefs, with tickets at $20 for adults and $5 for children under age 11. Funds raised at the picnic will be used to assist the operations of the weekly market.