From the Desk of the First Selectman

Don Lowe First Selectman Column 06/09/25

We will hold a Town Meeting on this Saturday, June 14 at 9am in Mallory Town Hall to ask voters to approve two items. One is a request by the Sherman Volunteer Fire Department for a not-to-exceed $125,000 request from either the capital non-recurring fund or from ARPA funds (or a combination of the two) for (12) SCBA Packs; (24) Cylinders; (12) SCBA Face Masks.

The other item is a request not-to-exceed $15,000 from the capital non-recurring fund to cover pre-referendum expenses for a potential new Senior Center. These expenses include construction budget pricing, construction sequencing /schedule, and value engineering. This is needed to give voters the opportunity to vote Yes or NO on a new Senior Center. The date of that referendum vote is yet to be determined, but will probably be early in 2026.

Two weeks ago our Land Use Enforcement Officer (LUEO) resigned his position so the Town is in the process of finding a new one. Advertisements have been placed in appropriate venues and, additionally, I have reached out to neighboring towns for possible connections to finding a new LUEO. This is not an easy position to fill. In the meantime, Planning and Zoning Vice-chairman Christian DaCunha has stepped into the role of interim LUEO and he will handling some of the applications in order for us to avoid a back-up. Thank you Christian for stepping up!

Starting June 23, our Parks and Recreation director, John Wrenn, will be taking office space in Mallory Town Hall. You can find him sharing space with our assistant tax assessor Andrea Maloney. Andrea is also our treasurer and has become a very valuable team member on behalf of the Town. I truly appreciate her flexibility to share her office space, and I also appreciate John Wrenn’s willingness to relocate while the Sherman School renovation is taking place.

Summer Camp starts on June 23 and continues until the first week of August. The Junior Camp will relocate to the JCC. I thank, by the way, the JCC for its willingness to help us navigate relocation issues due to the Sherman School renovation. The JCC (Jewish Community Center) has made itself a destination for many amazing events, especially music and lectures. It also hosts classes and provides an array of “good stuff” and offers itself up as a community center to greatly help make Sherman wonderful.

Chip sealing and the subsequent sweeping is nearly completed on the roads we had earlier announced. Chip sealing is a process that we use on our Town roads that are still in good shape and have been resurfaced in the last, say, five to seven years. This process adds extra years to the good condition of a road for a fraction of the resurfacing cost. The first few days, until the loose stones work themselves into the surface, can be a little disconcerting to drive on so thank you for your patience.

So, anyway, two North Dakota fishermen – let’s call them Sven and Ole – were out fishing. They caught fish like crazy and Ole said, “Sven, we should mark this spot so we can come back tomorrow and catch more fish!” So, Sven proceeded to mark the bottom of the boat with a huge X. Ole looked at Sven and shook his head. “Oh Sven, you dummy! Now how do you know we’re going to get the same boat?”