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Showing posts from April, 2025

Editorial: Enfield’s Revised Blight Ordinance Isn’t Ready for a Public Hearing

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  AI generated art via ChatGPT The Enfield Town Council tonight may set a public hearing date for a revised blight ordinance. In its current form, this proposal is not ready for public hearing and needs significant changes before moving forward. Anonymous Complaints While the ordinance itself still requires signed complaints, Enfield’s revised blight complaint form explicitly accepts anonymous complaints and signals that they may still be investigated. That represents a clear shift from the town’s prior policy, which discouraged anonymous filings and stated that the town was not required to investigate them. Historically, Enfield’s practice has been to reject anonymous complaints. For example, on SeeClickFix — the town’s reporting platform — a town official wrote in response to one blight complaint: “All complaints require a signature. Currently this complaint is showing anonymous. Please add your full name and contact information to this complaint.” That was the standard approach...
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Amazon Buys Bacon Road Site for $20 Million

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  Amazon stock art image available on its news media resources page Amazon has purchased a Bacon Road site in Enfield approved for warehouse development, for $20 million, according to a town official. Public records confirm the sale. The transaction took place on April 23. Lauren Whitten, Enfield’s director of planning, informed the Planning and Zoning Commission of the sale of 35 Bacon Rd., at its regular meeting on April 24. "As far as we know, things are going to progress as they were approved," Whitten told commissioners during the meeting. ( See PZC YouTube April 24 at approximately 2:58) But it is not definitively clear how much land Amazon has acquired. Public records show “two parcels,” but do not specify whether the purchase covers the full 181-acre development area. Amazon and Winstanley Enterprises were not immediately available for comment. The site is where Winstanley Enterprises had proposed an 819,000-square-foot distribution warehouse. Amazon purchased the la...
Location: Enfield, CT 06082, USA
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25% of Budget, 5 Minutes of Questions: What are the Council Republicans up to?

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  Enfield Town Council budget workshop The Town Council is currently preparing the 2026 budget. Department heads present their proposals at public workshops where council members usually ask detailed questions. However, something notable occurred during this week's Department of Public Works (DPW) budget presentation. Despite DPW accounting for nearly 25% of the town's non-education spending, the questioning lasted less than five minutes, with only a few basic inquiries from Republican council members. The Democrats, as the minority party with limited influence on the budget, remained silent. [YouTube video: Q&A starts at about 1:31. The DPW presentation begins at about 1:16) There were no substantial questions or debate during the presentation itself, and nothing raised about the pending outsourcing study—despite its direct relevance to the DPW budget. This limited discussion raises legitimate questions, particularly as the Council is actively exploring outsourcing trash ...
Location: Enfield, CT 06082, USA
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The Public Deserves to See the Trash Outsourcing Report

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Art generated by AI following author's prompt: Report locked in safe The Enfield Town Council is considering a consequential issue: outsourcing our public works trash removal service. However, the town has not released the consultant's report, which likely examines the pros and cons of such a move, even as the Council begins its budget deliberations. The town council authorized the hiring of the consultants in November, 2024. On April 7, 2025, the Town Council discussed the report in executive session. I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for a report copy this week. The Town Manager's office responded that the report is still in draft format and is not eligible for public disclosure under the Connecticut Freedom of Information Act. I was also told: "The contract has not provided us a completion date at this time." That means the report could be withheld from the public indefinitely. Draft is not an automatic exemption This was my response: "My un...
Location: Enfield, CT 06082, USA
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