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WATERTOWN — The Town Council, meeting Tuesday, September 6, approved an appropriation of $1.5 million to replace the town’s Ladder 2 fire truck and related equipment.

The council also approved an appropriation of $5 million for various road improvements and related work.

Finally, the council considered an $11 million appropriation for various school capital improvements, noting that the Board of Education had asked for an appropriation of $12,861,000 to complete the projects it deemed a priority, including new roofs at the Watertown High School and roof repair at John Trumbull Primary School and Swift Middle School.

Additional school capital improvements include turf and track replacement at the high school and HVAC work at John Trumbull Primary School and a boiler replacement at Judson Elementary School as well as other projects.

The town manager pointed out that the school district hopes to be reimbursed $4 million from the state for these projects.

The council approved the $12,861,000 appropriation.

These appropriations had recently been presented to voters during a public hearing to gather feedback.

Next, the matter will go to referendum for consideration by voters and the council set the referendum date as Tuesday, November 8, to be held in conjunction with the election.

In other business, the council approved the use of Extra Duty Solutions, which administers the work associated with organizing coverage for special police assignments, which currently includes calls made to identify available officer(s) and billing of vendors.

As this work is labor intensive, the police department would like to shift all program administration.

Vendors would work with Extra Duty Solutions; the company would follow the Watertown Police Department protocols currently in place.

Extra Duty Solutions would also collect fees and ensure the town was appropriately paid; a surcharge would be applied to vendor invoices.

The surcharge is a charge that the town itself currently applies to special duty assignments.

Use of Extra Duty Solutions would relieve the dispatch and officer currently doing this administrative work.

The council confirmed that grievances would follow the contract process and that Extra Duty Solutions will follow up with delinquent payments from vendors by taking on all administrative tasks.

In other business, the council appropriated $25,500 for engineering services for the Guernseytown at West Road project, with work to be done by Weston & Sampson Engineers, Inc., Rocky Hill.

The reconstruction of Guernseytown Road will begin 300 feet north of Eastwood Hall Road and extend northwesterly to Crestview Drive for a total distance of 3,600 feet.

The work is part of the third phase of improvements to the road and will include full depth pavement reconstruction, horizontal and vertical alignment improvements, and drainage improvements.

West Road will be realigned to improve the intersection.

As a Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program, the project design will be funded by the town but construction will be funded by the state.

Construction will begin in the fall and should be completed by summer or early fall 2023.

Before the meeting adjourned, the council held a non meeting to discuss labor negotiations, coming out of the non meeting to approve the proposed collective bargaining agreement with C.S.EA. Watertown Town Hall Supervisors.

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