Mayor Slifka Updates Old Guard on Town Activities

West Hartford Mayor Scott Slifka was final speaker for the season at the Old Guard on Tuesday at their meeting at .  The mayor’s presentation, postponed from an earlier planned visit to the Guard, featured an extensive conversation about town activities, from current development plans to the emergencies earlier in the year to budgeting challenges.

Slifka described the genesis of the Request for Proposal which is being developed for town property just East of . The parcel was originally thought to be an ideal park space for the town but it receives no utilization now and the square behind the library is utilized instead. 

As a result of considerable deliberation, the Town Council has unanimously decided that the best use of the property would be a . It would provide useful housing for guests who could utilize existing town-owned parking and food service provided by the many restaurants in the neighborhood.

The mayor stated that” no town funds or tax abatements would be provided to the developers” but it would provide an ideal business proposition. He described that the height of the structure would be six stories at most to fit with the character of the town and not incidentally, to comply with an ordinance which states that a structure cannot exceed height of the top of the steeple of First Church.

The RFP is being created now and is hoped to be completed this summer. Slifka described the property as “among the most valuable, available land for development in the entire Hartford area”.

There was also extensive discussion, in response to a questioner, about town budgets and the ability to reduce staffing benefit costs. Slifka said that many challenges that have been read about have already been dealt with in West Hartford, such as early retirement ages and packing overtime into final years prior to retirement. Some other changes are difficult to accomplish as mediation is often the tool used to resolve differences and the town is at the forefront and most other entities used in comparison have not begun to address the issues.

When asked about the benefits of the New Britain to Hartford busway, CTFastTrack, Slifka responded that “there are zero benefits to the town of West Hartford, except for possibly a small construction company getting some work out of building it”. 

The Old Guard does not meet during the summer months but their Meals on Wheels and UConn Health Center volunteer activities continue. The first meeting of the Fall will be the Tuesday after Labor Day.