Happy Holidays!
Happy New Year!
This past year has been a very successful and exciting time for the Town of East Hartford, filled with new opportunities and development. I am proud that with the exceptional commitment and dedication of my team of directors, our great town employees, the support of our Town Council, Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools as well as legislative delegation and the Governor, we have made great progress for the community.
We made particularly significant progress bringing together years of work on the redevelopment of the Silver Lane corridor. We have assembled an advisory committee made up of dedicated volunteers to oversee the vision for this important commercial corridor, and have successfully pursued a variety of programs and grant opportunities to bolster our efforts to start the redevelopment of this east-west gateway in the community.
Along with Silver Lane redevelopment, we were excited to pursue planning of the new senior center with construction to begin this year. Once completed, the center will offer new and improved programs and services, such as gym membership, extended community activities and other expanded options for personal growth for our adult population.
Additionally, we debuted a new citizen request management platform called “My East Hartford” to make your request for service process more transparent and accessible. The platform streamlines and manages resident requests for service, allowing staff and the public to smoothly track case progress and receive updates. The mobile application is available for smartphone users in the App Store for free, in addition to a Web portal on the Town website. You can find information about “My East Hartford” along with many other town accomplishments in our Annual Report, which will be distributed throughout our community and online after the New Year’s Day. Please, take a moment to read through the report to explore the wide variety of programs and services our departments offer. This past year, our Library and the Parks and Recreation Department continued to provide unique programming for children and adults. Additionally, our Police and Fire Departments excelled in the services they offer, keeping our community safe and building positive relationships with our residents through various community programs.
The Town also welcomed a new Public Works Director Keith Chapman, who has begun to outline revamping our road program to ensure greater progress in road rehabilitation, along with a curb repair and blueprint for the future undertaking of capital equipment investments. Additionally, a new plan for reopening of the Wickham Library is coming to fruition to see this beautiful town asset brought back on line with a refurbished interior. This facility will be ADA compliant and energy efficient.
Our Town Clerk, Finance and Inspections and Building Departments have also been very busy transforming years of paper storage into searchable digital documents. East Hartford again is one of the first towns in the state to take on a project such as this to continue providing our residents with accessible and transparent records. Most recently, we hired Roberta Pratt as the Chief Information Officer to oversee the Information Technology Department. This position is shared between the Town and the Board of Education and will help create a unified vision for both organizations along with protecting critical infrastructure and shepherding the Town’s entrance into a new, evolving technology.
These are just a very few examples of the instrumental accomplishments being done for the benefit of our community and by a very small team of very talented and dedicated employees. As we look to 2019, there is much work to be done and, despite the challenges that we face, I know that our community has the courage and determination to rise up and meet them. I'm excited for the upcoming year, because I know the best days for East Hartford are in front of us and I look forward to the opportunities and achievements 2019 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 East Hartford.
Warmest regards and Happy Holidays,
Mayor Marcia A. Leclerc