If you've met First Selectman Bill Morrison, you may know he seems to have more energy than the average person. Even if you haven't met him, you may have seen him running, swimming, or biking around town. He is constantly on the go. If he's not at a meeting, you can be pretty sure he's either at another meeting or on an emergency call with the West Stafford Fire Department. In fact, the day I stopped by his office, he was up at 2 a.m. to respond to the fire on Bellrose Street. As we were winding up our interview, his beeper went off again because there were wires down on Furnace Avenue.
On a normal day, Morrison says he usually starts working around 7 a.m. and ends around 9 p.m. "I take this job extremely seriously," he says of a position he seems to have turned into a more-than-full-time job. When a vote counter came down sick on election day, the Registrars of Voters swore in Morrison, and he counted votes with the rest of the team until around midnight. Despite what often seems like boundless energy to work on Stafford's issues (and stop by Girl Scout meetings when he's invited), Morrison says there are some things he had hoped to accomplish in his first year that have not entirely come to fruition.
Namely, there is an ongoing legal battle over the geothermal project that Morrison hoped would be settled by now. (Read more on that here.) He thought mediation would lead to a settlement, but the case is moving on to court instead. That was "a big letdown," says Morrison.
Some other issues have begun to be addressed but will continue to play out over the next year. For instance, he points to Town Hall, much of which is not accessible to people with disabilities. He's also been thinking about how overcrowded and overused many spaces are. For instance, during last summer's Planning and Zoning meetings about the helipad, people were spilling out of the doors of the Veteran's Room. I can personally attest that it was stuffy and hot in there. Since then, Morrison has encouraged boards and commissions to think about other spaces in town, like the Community Center or Staffordville School. Those spaces are not only bigger, but they are air-conditioned. Freeing up rooms like the conference room in Town Hall from the pressure of hosting meetings may leave them open for office space.
"I want to use the space we have more economically and efficiently," he says. Even if the town fully funds the elevator at Town Hall, it will only reach the second floor. So, he would like to move the third-floor offices to the community center, where social services are now. Then, the social services office would move out to Staffordville School. He recognizes that some people may have a problem with making a longer drive to get to social services, but he points out that Stafford is a big town, and right now, downtown is a long drive for some people. "It's not going to be convenient for everyone," he says, but that does not mean it's not worth doing.
Morrison also wants to continue encouraging Main Street as a growth area for the town. He always tells me how the officials from other towns he meets with compliment him on Stafford's downtown. Like many others, he wrestles with the problem of parking. He would like to do a better job advertising all the free parking and possibly connecting the commuter lot to downtown with a sidewalk. Sidewalks, in general, are a focus for Morrison.
After the Levinthal Run sidewalk project is complete, he thinks extending the sidewalks up Route 190 will help bring more people into town on foot. (Full disclosure: I took this opportunity to make my pitch for East Street's sidewalks! So, all of you who walk that stretch of broken and often nonexistent sidewalk, be sure to back me up next time you see the First Selectman.)
Looming behind the First Selectman during our conversation were his whiteboards, one covered in DPW projects and the other laying out the timeline for this year's budget process, which is even more aggressive than last year's. He's asked his department heads for a zero increase, which he acknowledges is somewhat unrealistic, especially with union contracts involved. "Everyone deserves good pay for a good day's work," he says, but he still challenges department heads to find savings elsewhere in their budgets to offset the cost of pay raises.
Part of getting the budget under control is, in Morrison's mind, getting unfunded state mandates under control. He says he has been working with State Senator Jeff Gordon and State representative Kurt Vail to push back on state mandates. "I want to do what's best for the town," Morrison says, but that when the state issues mandates they need to be funded.
Speaking of working together, Morrison also says he wants to continue working with the officials from surrounding towns to better share resources. Tolland, for instance, is looking to regionalize the dog pound. Earlier this year, Willington loaned Stafford its grader. When Morrison approached them about trucks from Love's going down Stafford roads, where trucks are not allowed, Willington was happy to help by making some small changes to curb the truck traffic down residential roads.
"I don't think of this job as a political position," Morrison says, adding that for him it's just another opportunity to help people. He's got another year to finish working on his to-do list, but when it comes to running again, he says, "I certainly would consider it."