Education, Dodd Stadium and jobs: Five takeaways from the May 5 Norwich City Council meeting

Yahoo

06-05-2025

Long Norwich City Council Meetings are how you know budget season is in full swing.
The council held a regular meeting on Monday, May 5. The chambers were packed with people who wanted to talk about the Board of Education budget and the future of Dodd Stadium, as the city council adopted a preliminary budget.
The next public hearing for the budget is on May 12 at 7:30 p.m. The City Council has to adopt a budget by 11:59 p.m. on June 9, or else the City Manager's proposed budget from April 7 will automatically be adopted.
Here are five takeaways from this week's City Council Meeting.
Board of Education
The Norwich City Council had proposed a $956,809 reduction to the Norwich Board of Education's increase as proposed by the draft budget, which would have yielded a no increase year.
Superintendent Susan Lessard said the ad-hoc committee did not have the chance to review the work of City Manager John Salomone's 1% budget increase, instead of the 4.5% the Board of Education originally requested. This is at a time when other area districts are requesting around a 5.5% increase, she said.
The Ad Hoc Committee would meet the following night on May 6, Lessard said.
The Board of Education approached its budget differently this year by involving the city council early in the process, and already included significant reductions, Lessard said.
'We did this in good faith and with trust in the process,' she said.
Lessard said that a 1% increase is not sustainable but can be made to work for fiscal year 2025-2026. During the past two years the district already cut and demoted numerous administrators to math and reading specialists and classroom teachers.
City Councilmember Stacy Gould was one of the sponsors of the cut. She was encouraged by what Lessard said, and, urging Lessard to stay within the 1% increase figure, she opted to withdraw the agenda item.
Norwich Sea Unicorns General Manager Lee Walter, Jr. talks with Norwich City Councilmembers Stacy Gould and Bill Nash after the meeting Monday night.
Dodd Stadium
While there was an agenda item concerning listing Dodd Stadium for sale, the council decided to postpone any decisions until the fiscal year 2025-2026 budget is completed.
Dodd Stadium has been a staple of Norwich for 30 years, and had been home to minor league baseball teams until 2019, when Major League Baseball took away its affiliation from the then Connecticut Tigers and many other teams across the country.
The now Norwich Sea Unicorns have been successful in the college ball Futures League, winning the past two championships. Large community events, including the Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce's Healthy Living Festival, use it as event space. However, it costs the city up to $300,000 annually to operate it, and the stadium is due for maintenance.
There was vocal support for the city not selling Dodd Stadium from both people who work for the team and community members.
One community member who spoke in support was Brandon Hyde, who said the stadium is a place of unity in a currently divided world.
'I understand there are costs and challenges, but the cost of losing this is far greater than the price of preserving it,' he said.
The only community member who spoke against the stadium was Joanne Philbrick. She questioned how many of the team's employees are actually Norwich residents and reminded the city council they need to reduce the tax burden for seniors, she said.
After the meeting, Sea Unicorns General Manager Lee Walter thought it was smart to postpone the vote.
'We know how much of a burden things are in the city, but I just don't want them to gloss over what Dodd Stadium means and what our organization brings to the city,' he said. 'I want it to be a creative discussion, and this allows time for it to happen.'
Walter wants to work on creating more events and activities alongside baseball so Dodd Stadium doesn't have an annual cost to the city, he said.
Staples
City Council President Pro Tempore Joe DeLucia wanted to know if the Norwich Community Development Corporation or the City of Norwich itself had made any attempt to save the Norwich Staples location, which is expected to close next week. The business provides valuable services and residents will now have to travel to New London, he said.
Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom said he called Staples' corporate office, but nobody returned his call. DeLucia still wants to see if something can be done.
With Hartford Healthcare taking over Staples' spot, Nystrom reminded the public that HHC is still a tax-paying entity in the city.
Firefighters
Firefighting is still a partisan issue in Norwich.
One agenda item the city council considered, and eventually failed, was reductions to the police department, public works, and both paid and volunteer fire departments. After the city council decided to vote on the funds for the volunteer fire department separately, it declined to cut funds for the police, paid firefighters, and public works.
Gould wanted the volunteer departments to keep their money because it goes directly to firefighting, because the volunteers work for free, she said.
DeLucia countered that while volunteer firefighters save Norwich money, they still cost the city $1.5 million a year once you figure in factors like a special tax abatement and the relief fund. Gould responded by saying not every volunteer firefighter in the city benefits from those programs, and she felt it was unfair to cut from volunteers if the police, public works and paid fire department kept its money, she said.
The cut to the volunteer fire departments also failed.
One job saved
At the April 16 Public Hearing, Sally Masse explained to the council the importance of her job as the Rose City Senior Center Receptionist, and advocated to keep her job.
After that, Norwich Human Services Director Kate Milde spoke with City Comptroller Josh Pothier, and they decided Masse's job could be saved for at least fiscal year 2025-2026 through being half paid by city money and half paid from the opioid settlement funds.
City Councilmember Shiela Hayes wants to see if opioid settlement funds can be used to also save other city jobs, including Jake Dilts' role as an assistant program manager for Norwich Human Services and as the coach of the Norwich Raptors youth rugby team.
This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Five takeaways from the May 5 Norwich City Council Meeting