A New Day for the EDC?

First Selectman Bill Morrison is trying to revive the Economic Development Commission (EDC), starting with a meeting on May 28, 2025. He came prepared with application forms and resignation forms.

Predictably, there was no quorum of the current members of the EDC. Only Larry McKinney, owner of McKinney Construction, showed up. Christopher Paradiso, John Wittenzellner, Joshua Simmons, Larry Vaughn, and Scott Nigro were absent. Morrison said his office has sent out two emails asking all of the current members if they still want to be on the EDC, but he has only received one response from a member confirming their wish to remain on the commission.

There were plenty of people in the audience, and many of them lingered after the meeting to talk about ideas and sign up to become commission members. There are three vacancies on the commission, but there is a process by which the Board of Selectmen can remove members of an appointed board who have not shown up for repeated, consecutive meetings. Whether or not it will be used to refresh the EDC has yet to be determined.

Morrison identified a number of potential duties of the EDC, from the mundane, like nominating a chair and secretary, to "Adopting policies that align with the town's Plan of Conservation of Development" or "make recommendations for the town; strategies for improving economic growth." See the entire list in the images below, along with the statute that governs the EDC.

McKinney noted some of the main obstacles to developing in town, most notably the sewer plant's capacity. This has come up in the past, when back in November, 2023: "Water Pollution Control Facility Superintendent Rick Hartenstein presented a brief overview of the expansion project under review for the water pollution treatment facility at 50 River Road. Hartenstein reported that the current plant processes 1 million gallons of sewage daily. If the volume of sewage increases to 1.2 million gallons daily, the current design cannot handle that volume and the solids will float and not be adequately processed, a condition which must be reported to State of Connecticut agencies. The proposed $17 million expansion would allow for treatment of 2 million gallons per day." Some of those details have changed over time. Hartenstein has told me in the past that a significant investment at 3M, prompted by the state, has reduced the amount of water the facility sends to the WPCF. However, with the apartments at the Borough School and new units at Woodland Springs, the flow will increase again.

McKinney also pointed to large landholders who have no intention to develop their property as part of the problem.

During the informal discussion, audience members raised concerns about what would happen if they joined the commission and the existing members continued not to show up. Essentially, they wanted to know if they would be wasting their time, and pushed for Morrison to consider having the old members removed so that the EDC could start fresh. While Wittenzeller's term expires this year, Paradiso and Nigro have terms that expire in 2027, Vaughn and McKinney are on until 2026. Simmons is the newest member of the EDC and has only had an opportunity to attend a couple of meetings before the EDC fell apart, and his term runs until 2029.

While many people had a chance to speak about their experiences in town (including me), the part that stuck out to me was a comment from Leaonard "Butch" Clark. As I've lamented many times in print, I don't think the EDC has ever had a strong grasp of what activities actually constitute Economic Development. Quite often, economic development looks like infrastructure upgrades, creating amenities that make people want to move to town, and improving schools so that high-income people don't immediately look elsewhere when buying a home. These are long-term strategies. Clark gave me a copy of a document he read from at the meeting and shared with Morrison. It outlines two priorities for economic development:

• Raising the median household income of residents

• Providing a revenue stream for town government

Concentrating on bringing good jobs to town through manufacturing (rather than retail) could help address the first issue. The second is trickier and requires more long-term planning. Clark mentions the sewer plant upgrades, developing a business park, and (my personal favorite) removing the utility poles from Main Street and burying the power lines. (I cannot tell you how many times I've walked down Main Street and wondered, "Do we have more powerlines than other places, or are ours just particularly ugly?") He also mentioned implementing a revolving loan program for businesses and encouraging business owners to take advantage of the C-PACE program.

You may notice that many of these things would require investments. Some grant programs could help with these ideas, but ultimately, actual economic development requires significant time, money, and resources. Let's hope the new EDC not only understands this but has the time and ability to pursue all the avenues that lead toward a brighter future.