Selectmen showed support for Mt. Blue Community Access Television.
By Samantha C. DePoy
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – Selectmen on Tuesday adopted amendments to the town’s traffic ordinance that will tighten up parking regulations on Middle Street and make it safer.

According to the amendments, no person shall park a vehicle on Middle Street on the Community Center side (south side) of the street from the intersection of High Street and Middle Street to the intersection of Industry Road and Middle Street.

There is also to be no parking on the north side of Middle Street from the intersection of High Street and Middle Street east 50 feet to a “No Parking” sign, the amendments state.

However, there are several exceptions including: two parking spaces for people with disabilities adjacent to the American Legion building, the first two parking spaces easterly to the easterly vehicle entrance to the community center for people with disabilities and a spot east of the church for unloading and loading.

Selectmen also showed their support for Mt. Blue Community Access Television, which serves cable subscribers in Farmington and Wilton, by agreeing to chip in $36,839.04 of the station’s budget. The request from MBTV to the town is up slightly from $34,600 last year.

For the period between Nov. 1, 2003, and Oct. 31, 2004, MBTV has anticipated it will cost $64,820 to run the station. Farmington will pitch in the largest part of that, and Wilton will be asked to contribute $17,980.

Another $5,000 is requested each from Farmington and Wilton to help with the cable equipment fund.

Among the largest expense is to pay the $28,000 salary for station director JP Fortier and an additional $11,000 for health insurance for Fortier and his family.

$14,000 is budgeted for equipment, $2,000 for equipment repair and $2,500 for video tapes.

Selectman Dennis Pike noted that the station has shown “dramatic improvement” in its quality of programming since it began three years ago, especially in the last year.

Town Manager Richard Davis gave selectmen an update on the community center, which sustained massive damages in September when a roof drain failed during heavy rains and flooded the building.

So far, Davis said, the ceiling in the gym, the vinyl tiles in the voting area downstairs and the dance floor downstairs have all been replaced.

The gym floor was not salvageable, Davis noted, and is still moist causing the maple wood to cup and heave.

Estimates have come in on the cost to put in a new maple floor, with the lowest one being around $47,000.

It was also noted that the roof drains that caused the leak have been corrected, “So we should not have this problem ever again,” Davis emphasized.

In response to suggestions from community members, Davis asked selectmen how they felt and got a enthusiastic response about selling off pieces of the old gym floor “for sentimental reasons” with the money going toward a Community Center renovation fund. Davis said he would look into it and that possibly a square foot piece of wood could be sold for a $1.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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