By Jack Krampitz

The City Council meeting on Tuesday had little of the drama that was present in the first few meetings of the Caggiano administration, but there were several items that the citizens of Bristol might find important.

Public Hearing on sale of lots in Centre Square to Wheeler Clinic and Carrier Construction

The public hearing scheduled for 7 p.m. was over before 7:05 p.m. No one appeared to speak for against the two sales, and the meeting was quickly adjourned. The sales were later approved by the Council.

Update on renovations to City Hall

The report on the City Hall project was very positive. All of the bids on various aspects of the renovation have come in, and the bids are approximately $1.5 million below the budgeted amount. Contracts should be finalized by the end of April, and work on the project should start the second week of May. City Hall will be fenced off and all the city departments will be located in their temporary placements around town. Right now, the completion date is tentatively Oct. 15, 2023.

Public Participation

After the fireworks in this part of the meeting in previous months, this was low-key.

Three residents of the Redstone Hill area in Forestville spoke on the importance of installing sidewalks in all the proposed cul-de-sacs in a new development off of Redstone Hill Road. The Planning Commission had granted the developer a waiver to only install sidewalks on half of each cul-de-sac, and the speakers urged that decision be reversed.

Wage increase for Emergency Management Director

The Salary Committee recommended that the salary for the Emergency Management Director be doubled from $12,015 to $25,000 per year. It was pointed out that the workload for the director was huge during the past couple of years with Covid issues especially adding to the hours on the job. Part of the increase is being covered by a grant. The Council approved the raise unanimously.

New Flag Policy

Councilperson Sue Tyler explained that the Ordinance Committee put this issue on their agenda a couple of months ago. She stated, “The discussion of flag policies, governmental endorsements, free speech, picking winners and losers; it elicits a very strong emotion and varying opinions and convictions on both sides.” Tyler explained that the Ordinance Committee decided that such an important issue needs to have the opportunity for considerable debate and public participation. The ordinance process will allow such debate.

Tyler then proposed the following to the Council: “I would like to make a motion to put a moratorium in place that would restrict the raising of any flags on any City of Bristol maintained property other than official flags representing our nation, our state, our city, as well as any official service flags representing the U.S. armed forces or flags representing a military unit in recognition of its service to our state and country.” The moratorium shall remain until the conclusion of the ordinance process.

The Council approved Tyler’s motion unanimously.

Council approves application for statewide cultural district designation

Bristol is in the process of applying to the state for cultural district designation for portions of Maple Street, Center Street, Main Street, Church Street, Riverside Avenue, and Memorial Boulevard as the Bristol Cultural District.

The Bristol Cultural District will highlight and promote the exploration and participation of the arts and humanities through cultural and historical experiences unique to our community. The district endorses the goals of economic vitality and enhancing community life and tourism.

Superintendent of Parks, Recreation, Youth and Community Services Dr. Joshua Medeiros, who initiated and completed the initial application, is in charge of the next phase. If Bristol is successful, it will be the second community in the state to receive the designation.

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