New Year’s Message from Mayor Leclerc
Happy New Year!
2016 has been another great year for East Hartford.
This year, with the exceptional commitment and dedication of my team of directors, our great town employees, the support of our Town Council, Board of Education, legislative delegation and governor, we have made great progress toward our common goal of creating a vibrant, well-maintained and safe community.
We have made significant progress this year bringing together years of work on the Silver Lane/Rentschler field area. This is an area that holds much promise with much opportunity waiting to be realized. Silver Lane will once again become a gateway of significance as we bring the Horizon Development-Shoppes at Rentschler Field to reality along with additional development in the area which will complement the new Pratt & Whitney World Headquarters and the UTRC Campus expansion. What lies ahead is office, entertainment, hotels and housing within the Rentschler Field Development, with the next phase being the Outlet Shoppes development for which the town received a $12M infrastructure grant thanks to Senator Larson and our legislative delegation of Representatives Genga, Rojas and Currey.
Along Silver Lane we have completed the Willowbrook Study which will help with our long term planning and future development of the corridor. This will complement the transportation study we are currently undertaking and the $200,000 BAR grant (Brownfield Area-wide Redevelopment) which will provide a working document and full buildout scenario of the area. In November the voters of our community approved two very important referendum questions which will supplement the work in the Silver Lane area; the first a $3M bonding for potential acquisition and investment within the targeted corridor and the second was the City & Town Development Act which gives the town, with the Council’s consent, the ability if requested to work with developers and offer support, opportunities and abatements to encourage reinvestment and development within the identified area.
Along with this we have championed the extension of FASTRACK EAST which will provide expanded transportation opportunities to the town of East Hartford. All of which are very important to support retail and development of this corridor and other areas of town.
Additionally, we have begun working on two grant opportunities; the first is CTNEXT which supports entrepreneurial innovation in cooperation with the City of Hartford, area universities and stakeholders. The second is CT WORKING CITIES, through the Boston Federal Reserve and in cooperation with the Board of Education, a significant number of stakeholders, private partners, organizations and supportive agencies.
As many of you know we continue to be hopeful that the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes will select East Hartford as the home for their entertainment venue. I am proud to have been the only community to fully submit a complete reply to the RFP.
We continue to make town wide improvements to our town building and with the support of the residents we will begin to the process for the Senior Center come to reality within the next few years. From concept to design we will make this a public process.
And for those who have not seen the improvements and new tennis courts at the High School you should take a look. Over the years our tennis courts have deteriorated and now for the first time in decades our students can practice and play home games on eight USTA tennis courts. These courts are complemented by the work the Board of Education has done on the renovated High School field entry area and a new state of the art track & field, all of which was completed with money secured for us by our legislative delegation.
Other areas of town were also improved by adding a new pool deck at Drennan Pool, resurfaced basketball courts and new playground equipment at Hockanum Park. Labor Field had safety improvements made by adding lighting and paving and improvement to the location of the parking area. Additionally, our Parks & Recreation programs saw record numbers of participants in their programs.
Raymond Library celebrated its first full year since the renovation and expansion and on January 23, 2017 Sarah Morgan will start as the new Director of Library Services. I am extremely excited to have Sarah join my team of Directors and know she will bring the programming and building to life with her energy, vision and with the support of our library staff.
Our Health and Social Services department work tirelessly to keep our town healthy and safe this year, and ran a very successful farmers market, now in its 25th year.
Our Public Works Department rolled out several new recycling programs, including for paint and yard waste which complements our expanded commitment to recycling. For those who haven’t ventured to Ecology Drive lately you can see the improvements and maintenance enhancements immediately upon arrival. Our new ticketing system is extremely efficient and has deterred illegal usage and has yielded significant reduction in our solid waste cost.
Our Police Department continued their great work and are the heart of a safe community. While they provide exceptional services they continue to work toward the final stages of application seeking national accreditation. To become fully recognized as an accredited department a significant amount of work must be completed. The CALEA accreditation program goals are to improve the delivery of public safety services, primarily by: maintaining a body of standards, developed by public safety practitioners, covering a wide range of up-to-date public safety initiatives; establishing and administering an accreditation process; and recognizing professional excellence. This has been years of hard work under the Chief Sansom’s leadership and we look forward to receiving formal acceptance.
Additionally, several new programs were added to increase services to the public including hiring a full time Community Services officer, creating the Coffee with a Cop program and other community-based initiatives.
Our Fire Department continues to excel in the services they provide and under the leadership of Chief Oates led all town directors and key staff in a week long emergency planning exercise taught on site by FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute. This exercise allowed us to train with realistic disaster scenarios and ensure that East Hartford is better prepared in case of an emergency situation.
Youth Services provides essential services to East Hartford families and continues to find creative, engaging, positive experiences for our young people and families. This year Youth Services Director Cephus Nolan along with employees and the Police Department showcased the towns’ outstanding work with the Juvenile Review Board. East Hartford stood out state wide as a leader and was proud of our work completed with the National League of Cities.
Our Town Clerk Robert Pasek, Finance Director Michael Walsh, and Inspections & Building Director Greg Grew have been busy streamlining, archiving and updating their departments from clearing out years of paper storage into searchable digital documents. East Hartford again was one of the first towns in the state to take on a project like this.
East Hartford continues to lead the way with new energy efficiencies. Our past projects and commitment highlighted our towns efforts and we were recognized by the White House in the Better Buildings Challenge further acknowledging our commitment to reducing energy intensity 20 percent by 2020. In July we completed the replacement of over 5000 street lights from high pressure sodium to LED saving taxpayers about $300,000 a year and further reducing our energy usage.
These are just a few of the important projects being done for the benefit of our community and by a very small team of talented and dedicated people. As we look to 2017, your continued support is important. There is a lot of work to be done. Although the challenges continue to be great, I know that our community has the courage and determination to rise up and meet them. I'm excited because I know the best days for East Hartford are in front of us and I look forward to what opportunities and achievements 2017 will bring.
May the New Year bring you and yours health, happiness, and success. I am honored to be your Mayor, blessed to part of this community, and I look forward to bringing continued positive change and growth to our East Hartford community.
Warmest regards and Happy New Year,
Mayor Marcia A. Leclerc