WILTON – At the Wilton selectboard meeting on Tuesday evening, Shannon Smith of the Wilton Blueberry Festival Corporation presented the town with $14,500. Four years ago, they had saved this money for the opportunity to bring the Budweiser Clydesdales to the Blueberry Festival, which is costly. The horses fell through at the last minute and the money remained unused. Smith and the WBFC wanted to donate it to the town to use towards the festival in the future.
“Shannon I’d like to say thank you for the many, many years,” Selectperson Tiffany Maiuri said to Smith. “We appreciate everything that you’ve done throughout them.”
The selectboard considered funding for a drinking fountain installation and security cameras. The water fountain is the second of two that were part of a grant that the town received during the pandemic, one indoor and one outdoor at the Recreation Department. The installation of the outdoor fountain will cost about $2,000. Town Manager Rhonda Irish suggested that they take $2,045 out of the American Relief Plan Act funding to pay for it. There is approximately $250,000 remaining of the original $418,949 of funding, after $55,000 was expended in 2021 and money was set aside for the public safety hazard premium pay last meeting. Selectperson Maiuri made a motion for the money to install the water fountain to come out of the ARPA funding. Selectperson Mike Wells seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
Frank Donald of the Wilton Parks and Recreation Department informed the board of recent problems with vandalism at Kineowatha Park. He proposed putting in security cameras to deter the vandals and stop the damage from occurring. He told the board that there have already been $1,000 worth of damages this summer. Donald and Selectperson Maiuri proposed purchasing nighttime security grade cameras that would be necessary in order to accomplish their intended purpose. These cameras would also allow the police department to have remote access. They could judge the importance of the disturbance and dispatch officers accordingly. The cameras would cost between $3-5,000, which is not in the Parks and Recreation budget for the year.
“We certainly won’t catch them all,” Donald said. “But I think the bigger thing for the police will be is that it will cut down the amount of time they spend.”
In other business, the board unanimously approved a new cannabis store, called Valley Cannabis, and welcomed the business to Wilton.
