Don Lowe First Selectman Column 08/25/2026
This Thursday evening, August 27, is a busy night for the Board of Selectmen as we have a Town Meeting at 6pm and Board of Selectmen meeting at 7pm. The Town Meeting has 6 items on it, the most profound is an expense not-to-exceed $560,000 to fund the resurfacing of Anderson Road. We are also asking voters for approval of not-to-exceed $33,000 to fund the replacement of our fuel monitoring system up at public works. Another expense we ask to be funded is $18,000 for a new sander (salt and gravel for winter work) and also a retroactive emergency expense of $4,300 from the Happy Acres Restricted Fund for tree work near the farm as a result of one of our summer’s severe wind/rain storms. The other two items are ordinance changes, one for the HRRA (Housatonic Resource Recovery Association) to change the voting mechanism from a weighted vote to a one-vote/one-town system. The other is a Park and Recreation ordinance concerning venders.
The Board of Selectmen meeting features reviews and reports of Town projects and we also deal with issues concerning Town Hall security as well as a discussion on recent scams that especially target Senior citizens. One other item of interest is a discussion about a recent ADA (Americans Disability Act) study that our council of governments (WESTCOG) performed. We will consider the findings and also consider the improvements that we can logically make with respect to ADA compliance. Agendas for both meetings are online.
I know I wrote this before, but the heavy summer rains caused quite a bit of sporadic damage on our roadways. Public Works is aware of the places that need repair and is taking each crack and pothole one at a time. They will get there and road blemishes will be fixed.
Another problem in Sherman, once again, is speeding. We have a few really bad offenders this summer that are ripping around Town and causing a lot of safety concerns. They will be dealt with through enforcement. I am also in the process of applying for a grant that we have received twice before to fund increased enforcement hours. This will aid our excellent resident trooper who has a lot of roadways himself to watch. Speed cameras are often brought up but we don’t think that is a solution to the issue. It sounds good, but they present a great deal of problems themselves. There is a rumor around town that we have speed cameras already. We don’t.
Please reach out if you feel you’d like to serve on any of the following: Commission on Aging, Conservation Commission, and The Commission for the Arts. There are open spots on all three of those commissions. I hope everyone had a wonderful summer. We certainly didn’t suffer a drought. With Labor Day approaching, I look forward to what the fall season brings.
