News & Updates

This Thursday, April 25 at 7 pm in Mallory Town Hall the Board of Selectmen (BOS) will hold its monthly regularly scheduled meeting. The agenda is posted on the newly designed website. Some of the items we will cover (though not limited to these items) are further discussions on the new pickleball courts and the Town Beach dock expansion project. We are also going to take on our storage space shortage here at Town Hall and possibly construct a storage shed on the Town Hall campus. We will be moving two capital projects to Town Meeting, one for the SVFD and the other for the Sherman School -- the latter being part of the roof recovery project (fixing the leaky roof) at the school.  

 

We held two Town Meetings last Saturday. The first was the Annual Town Budget meeting, a precursor to the May 4th referendum at Charter Hall from 8am to 8pm. Absentee ballots are available from the Town clerk’s office for that referendum in which voters will vote YES or NO on the Town Budget and on the Board of Education budget. Both budgets have a 3.8% increase; however, we experienced extra grand list revenue some of which is used to offset the budget increases. The total increase is 2%.   

 

As was explained at the budget meeting, while your taxes will increase 2%, there will be, for a few homeowners, some variation depending on the results of their property assessment reevaluation.  As mandated by the State, we do a “reval” every 5 years. Although the reval shows an increase (it generally does due to inflation), that in-and-of itself does not create a tax increase. The mill rate is adjusted downward to compensate for the increase in property values; hence, generally, a reval is a tax neutral situation. However, if a homeowner improved his or her property over the last 5 years and the revaluation was above the baseline reval, then a homeowner might experience an increase in taxes beyond the 2% that the budget brings. The mill rate for last year’s 2023/24 budget was 17.82. For the coming fiscal year, 2024/25, the mill rate decreases to 16.36.

 

In the second Town Meeting we approved all three items. The most provocative item (though it passed with only 3 NO votes out 30 people present) was the two YOUR SPEED indicators that we will be placing on Route 37 as one enters Sherman from either direction on Route 37. This is an effort, among others that we employ, to curtail speeding on our roads and to keep Sherman as safe as possible.  

 

In last week’s column, I wrote a paragraph about short-term rentals (Airbnb; VRBO, etc.) and I plan to continue that topic in future columns. In that column, when I referenced ways in which people can contribute to the community, I listed a few key volunteer roles and also mentioned having children in our school. One reader somehow interpreted my list as exclusive and that I was saying those were the ONLY ways to contribute to Sherman. This individual was highly offended. Of course, I was simply illustrating a few ways in which people might contribute to their community. 

 

Forthrightly, all taxpayers contribute to the communities in which they live. Paying taxes, in itself, shows care for one’s community. I wasn’t trying to single out that anyone was any better than anyone else, and this person’s take on what I wrote astounded me. However, if one person misinterpreted my writing, then chances are someone else did too. So. For the record. Whether a taxpaying citizen is up to his or her elbows in Town activities or whether the person is a taxpaying recluse, they ALL contribute to the well-being of Sherman in their own ways.   

 

By the way, the Sherman Commission for the Arts is still looking for a meeting clerk – the person who keeps the minutes. It’s a paid position and a great way to get acquainted with Town government.  

 

A quote from Robert Frost: “In three words I can sum up all that I have learned in life: It goes on.” 

Notice is hereby given to the taxpayers of the Town of Sherman, CT that the second installment of Real Estate and Personal Property; as well as Supplemental Motor Vehicle taxes on the Grand List of October 1, 2022 becomes due January 1, 2024.  If payment is not made on or before February 1, 2024 interest will be charged at a rate of 1.5% per month from the original due date, with a minimum interest charge of $2.00.   

Payments must be postmarked by the United States Postal Service on or before February 1, 2024 to be considered timely. Any payment received after February 1, 2024 lacking a postmark, or having a postmark after February 1, 2024 will be considered delinquent.

Municipal taxes are the responsibility of the taxpayer.  §12-130 - Failure to send or receive a tax bill does not relieve the taxpayer from his/her liability for the payment of taxes or delinquent charges. 

 Office Hours: Hours are Tuesday thru Friday 9a-12p & 1p-4p.

Mail: Tax Collector’s Office, P.O. Box 39, Sherman, CT 06784. If a receipt is needed, mail in your entire bill to be receipted with your payment along with a self-addressed stamped envelope. Again, payment must be postmarked on or before February 1, 2023 to be considered timely.

Online: Payments may be made with a credit/debit card or by transferring funds online at the Town’s website www.townofshermanct.org. Fees apply. Credit/Debit cards are not accepted in the office or over the office phone. This is the only legal form of online payment per state statute. Your personal online banking system is not covered by the state statutes. Please be aware that your payment from your personal bank account is sent to an automated clearing house and may take several days to be received. It is sent bulk mail and does not receive a USPS postmark. If received after February 1, 2024 it will be considered delinquent. Also, most banks service agreements forbid payment of taxes through their online bill pay.

Phone: IVR has been set up for those that would like to pay by phone. Fees apply. Please call 844-855-0070 to pay by phone. *Motor vehicles cannot be paid by phone.

Tabitha Fazzone, CCMC
Sherman Tax Collector

Condensed Legal Notice will run in the Town Tribune on:

12/21/23

01/04/24

01/25/24

The Tax Collector’s Office for the Town of Sherman announces that the last day to make payment of your town taxes before a lien is placed against your property is March 31, 2024. The last day to pay in-person is Thursday, March 28, 2024. USPS postmarks are accepted.  All delinquent taxes must be paid-in-full. Real Estate tax liens will be filed in the land records in the Town Clerk’s Office at Mallory Town Hall, 9 Rt. 39 North, Sherman, Connecticut the first week of April. Failure to pay will result in an additional $24.00 lien fee, plus interest at a rate of 1.5% per month from the original due dates, in accordance with CGS #12-171 & #12-182. Visit the town’s website at www.townofshermanct.org to pay your taxes on-line by transferring funds directly from your bank account, or by credit card, fees apply. Payments can also be mailed to the Tax Collector’s Office, P.O. Box 39, Sherman, CT 06784.  Office hours are Tues. thru Fri. 9-12 & 1-4.

Tabitha Fazzone, CCMC
Tax Collector, Town of Sherman

Town Tribune Issue:
March 7, 2024

 The Board of Selectmen (BOS) will hold its regularly scheduled monthly meeting this Thursday, March 28 at 7pm in Mallory Town Hall. Among the agenda items is a capital request from the SVFD for eleven automated external defibrillators (AEDS). I am so grateful for all that the SVFD does in its concern for the safety and well-being of our Sherman citizens. These devices, along with the present stock of AEDS, will increase the chance that one is available should someone have some variety of heart attack. We will be discussing the Fourth of July fireworks show that the Park and Recreation Commission has been good enough to put together. Much thanks to them! This isn’t a sure thing yet as there is some permitting required from the State Fire Marshal’s office. Also, the availability of the fireworks display company has not been made formal yet. But if we can square these two issues up, Sherman is going to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday with a spectacular fireworks show up at Volunteer Park. Our Sherman Senior Center building committee met last week with our chosen architect, Maura Newell, of 72 Architects firm out of Danbury. She went over the committee’s program (wish list) for the building with us and she also met, the next day, with Suzette Berger (Senior Center director) and Lynn Gomez (Social Services director) at our present Senior Center. All of this is an effort to bring to the Town a set of design plans that we can use for presentations in preparation for a future referendum. It’s premature to talk firmly about a timeline for this project, but if I had to take an educated guess I would say that we are looking at a referendum in about a year from now, the spring of 2025. Naturally, the referendum results will determine if we go further with this project. Meanwhile, tonight we are holding another joint meeting between the BOS, the Board of Education (BOE) and the Sherman School building committee. In my opinion, there has been a lot of encouraging progress being made and I think we will begin to see some of that in subsequent meetings. One of the encouraging signs is a strong willingness by all parties to work together and get something done, something that is acceptable to Sherman voters so that we can provide a school building with a properly working infrastructure to better serve our students. By the way, I was honored to be able to read books to the Sherman students in grades pre-K thru 5 last week. I was so impressed with the comments and observations that came from students in each of these grade levels. I should have written them all down. One, however, profoundly sticks in my mind. I read a book titled, Last Stop on Market Street, in which the theme is basically about learning to appreciate what you have. Many key observations were made by these fourth graders about this book, nearly everyone recognizing the sad truth that the main character, a young boy, was envious of the other children whom he felt had “had it better.” And then one of the students towards the end of our discussion raised a hand and said, “Well, Mr. Lowe, the book is really about perspective.” Indeed it is! And so much of life is about perspective. To quote Webster’s: “…our attitude toward something or our way of regarding something; our point-of-view.” This is what that glass half-full or half-empty stuff is all about. In any case, that’s a terrific group of students at the Sherman School and kudos to the wonderful teachers who guide them. 

Our budget letter will be going out to taxpayers at the end of this week. In the letter we will outline in specifics details about both the Town budget and the Board of Education (BOE) budget. In a general explanation, the two budgets together will end up being slightly more than a 2% tax increase (2.2%). Both the Town and the BOE expense budgets increased by about 3.7%; however, we experienced additional revenue that offset some of the budget increase. Our budget letter, along with next week’s column from me, will outline more specifically the reasons for the increase. 

 

Given what other towns in our area are experiencing in terms of escalations to their budgets, we are pleased to offer such a moderate increase. For six years previous to this we have kept the budget flat one year (2018/19) and decreased it in the five subsequent years (2019 thru 2023). The Annual Budget Town Meeting will be held at Charter Hall on Saturday, April 20 at 10am and the budget referendum will be held from 8am to 8pm on Saturday, May 4 in Charter Hall. 

 

Our resident trooper, Officer Wayne Tate, is having “Drug Take Back” day at his office (in the firehouse) on Saturday, April 27 from 9am to 1pm. This is an opportunity to safely discard of the prescription medicines that went unused in households. After the drugs/medicines are collected, the state police will safely discard of them in an environmentally friendly way. This effort also keeps unused drugs out the wrong hands.    

 

The Sherman Old Store, across from the Historical Society, opened last weekend and will remain open from noon to 4pm on Thursdays through Sundays into the fall. If you’ve never shopped in this classic place of commerce, do yourself a favor and stop by. The range and assortment of clothing, cooking stuff, glassware, yummy candy, literature, and whole lot of other goodies is truly amazing. 

 

Sherman Roadside and Community Clean-Up Day will be held on Saturday, April 20 from 9am to 1pm. On this day, the community walks the roadways and picks up the winter’s garbage and discards the bags full of trash in a dumpster in the lower Mallory Town Hall parking lot. The day also provides an opportunity to drop off your hard-to-get-rid-of household garbage, but truly, this is a day for the community to walk along the roads and clean up our beautiful Town. There are fliers explaining how everything works available in Mallory Town Hall. Safety vests, trash bags, and disposable gloves to be utilized that day are also free and available in Mallory Town Hall. 

 

I’m happy to report that our Sherman School Building Committee is starting to make progress towards developing a plan to eventually present to voters that will repair much needed infrastructure issues and possibly renovate sections of the school. It’s encouraging to see the teamwork developing and I know that we will get something suitable done. It’s also encouraging to see the public’s interest at the various meetings. Keep coming!

 LEGAL NOTICE A certified list of party-endorsed candidates for the Democratic Party in the Town of Sherman for participation as DELEGATES to the conventions of said Party specified below is on file in my office at Mallory Town Hall, 9 Route 39 North, Sherman, CT and copies are available for public distribution. CONVENTIONS Democratic State Convention CT 5th Congressional Convention 108th Assembly Convention 30th Senate Convention Dated at Sherman, Connecticut this 4th day of April, 2024. Carol L. Havens Sherman Town Clerk 

 LEGAL NOTICE 
A certified list of party-endorsed candidates for the Republican Party in the Town of Sherman for participation as DELEGATES to the conventions of said Party specified below is on file in my office at Mallory Town Hall, 9 Route 39 North, Sherman, CT and copies are available for public distribution. CONVENTIONS Republican State Convention CT 5th Congressional Convention 108th House Convention 30th Senate Convention Dated at Sherman, Connecticut this 4th day of April, 2024. Carol L. Havens Sherman Town Clerk 

DENIED: ZBA CASE # 760-  176 ROUTE 37 South- (Map-45, Lot-6)  Aldo Pascarella- POST FACTO-    Requesting Variance of Zoning Regulations, Section  331.5 Minimum Setback Requirements,  Front Yard Setback, from 50’ (feet) to 37.7' reference to Zoning Regulations, Section 322.3                         Porches, and Section 322.2 Terraces to allow construction of  a 10' x 15.6' deck and stairs as  shown in the footprint  location on  submitted A-2 survey entitled  "Proposed Zoning Location     Survey, Prepared for Aldo Pascarella 176 Route 37 Sherman Connecticut". Prepared by:  Riordan Land Surveying. Dated: February 7, 2024. Zone A.

 

 Walter B. Wriston 2024 Merit Scholarship for Sherman High School Students and Military Veterans and Personnel

The Sherman Veterans Association is pleased to announce the availability of the Walter B. Wriston Scholarship. Two $1000 awards are available, one to a Graduating High School Senior and one to a Veteran/Military Member continuing their education. Students eligible to apply for the $1000 award are full-time Sherman residents graduating from any high school this June planning to enroll at a 4-year, 2-year or Community College, Vocational / Training Institution or planning to Enlist in the Armed Forces.

The Wriston Scholarship is merit based with an emphasis on academic achievement, leadership and school and community involvement.

A second award will be available to full-time Sherman residents seeking to continue their education who are enrolled, or applying to enroll, in an accredited institution. Such residents must have previously served in the Armed Forces and claim veteran status according to Title 38 of Code of Federal Regulations or be currently serving in the Active, Reserve or National Guard component of the Armed Forces.

The Walter B. Wriston Scholarship was established by Kathy Wriston in memory of her husband, Walter B. Wriston, a resident of Sherman, CT for over 50 years. Mr. Wriston was a world-renowned banker, international financier, economic policy maker as well as a scholar, writer, philanthropist, conservationist and tree farmer.

The scholarship is made possible by a generous bequest of the Wriston family to the Sherman Veterans Association. Scholarship applications are available: - online at https://form.jotform.com/240885452519161 Completed applications can be submitted on-line, must be signed and received by May 10, 2024. 

This Saturday, April 20, we will hold our Annual Budget meeting at 10am in Charter Hall. At this meeting both the Town and Board of Education’s (BOE) budgets will be presented and it is an opportunity to ask questions or weigh in on what concerns you. Directly following the adjournment of that meeting, we will hold another Town Meeting and ask voters to vote on three proposed expenditures: 1. $260,000 towards a new ambulance; 2. $10,000 for YOUR SPEED signs on Route 37; 3. Not-to-exceed $20,000 for 11 automated external defibrillators (AEDS).
The Sherman School Building Committee met last week and made progress on forming a capital improvements plan that, at the right time, can go before the voters. We will be pursuing a two-pronged approach where one approach utilizes a 2018 architectural study, the Friar Report, which outlined a series of necessary infrastructure repairs. This falls more closely in line with what many people have questioned: “Why can’t we simply repair the school?” The work utilizing the Friar Report is designed to provide an answer to that question and show what that would look like. The second approach will be the development of a repair/renovate plan using a reduced building footprint. In consideration here is the State reimbursement which is in play for both types of approaches but is different for each one. More to come on this, but I just want people to know that good work is going forward and we will, eventually, arrive at a plan to make The Sherman School facility a properly functional building with respect to its infrastructure issues.
Eventually the BOE will make a final determination about whether Sherman School trims down to a K to 5 school. I’m confident the board will decide that that is not an option anymore. I certainly will support the decision to stay K thru 8. Not only is there no financial advantage to busing our grades 6 thru 8 to another school, but it would be a radical cultural change that I think is a bad move for Sherman’s character. I think of the marvelous play the middle school just performed last weekend, or our middle school sports, music, and outside activities. I would not like to lose any of that. Additionally, if we indeed want to attract young families to Sherman, bussing their middle school children is not very attractive.
Regarding the concept of a good school attracting young families, I’m not certain, in an area with such parity in educational choices (most area schools, like ours, are quite good) that a good school necessarily “attracts” families. There are many reasons why a family would choose to move to Sherman. However, and more importantly, a poorly functional school will certainly repel families who are considering Sherman. And that we must avoid. So, along with the juxtaposition of good school and property values, all of this makes our mission profoundly important to complete the necessary capital improvements to our Sherman School building. And we will.
Thanks to those who have volunteered to serve on the newly formed ad hoc short-term rental ordinance committee. Our first meeting was enlightening and successful. I’ll report more on this as time goes by. Mainly we concluded that, yes, the twenty or so short-term rentals (Airbnb; VRBO, etc.) that are carrying on now are in some cases causing nuisance disruptions and we ne need to address that. But in a larger picture, we also need to protect Sherman from becoming a town over-run by short-term rentals, a town where too many homes are used only for this purpose. The owners of these types of rentals are absent business people and the people living in their homes are day-by-day residents. These types of people don’t contribute to a community, they don’t volunteer, they don’t have children in our schools, aren’t members of our fire department, nor do they populate our necessary Town boards. Could this happen? Well, a successful local relator told me last week that nearly every call she receives these days asks if the listing can be used as a short-term rental. When I look at how fast our Town changed because of covid, I don’t think it is too far-fetched to think that Sherman could quickly change-over to a town of short-term renters – as has happened elsewhere to the detriment of the communities. This is an important town culture issue.

 

 

                

The electors and taxpayers of the Town of Sherman are hereby warned and notified to meet in the

Sherman Emergency Services Facility on Saturday, May 4, 2024 from 8:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. of said day

to decide by voting machine the following questions:

 

"SHALL THE TOWN OF SHERMAN BUDGET OF $5,581,761 AS PROPOSED BY THE BOARD  OF SELECTMEN, ACTING AS THE BOARD OF FINANCE, FOR THE YEAR 7/1/2024 THROUGH 6/30/2025 BE APPROVED?”

 

 

"SHALL THE BOARD OF EDUCATION BUDGET OF $9,869,360 AS PROPOSED BY THE BOARD OF SELECTMEN, ACTING AS THE BOARD OF FINANCE, FOR THE YEAR 7/1/2024 THROUGH 6/30/2025 BE APPROVED?”

 

 

There will be no voter registration after May 3, 2024.  Dated at Sherman, Connecticut, this 11th day

of April, 2024.

 

 
1. Registered voters of the Town of Sherman.  (There will be no voter registration after May 3, 2024.)      

2. Property owners who are U.S. citizens, 18 years of age or older and who have property assessed at $1,000 or more on the last-completed Grand List of the Town of Sherman.  (The last-completed Grand List of the Town of Sherman is

October 1, 2023.)

 

   

 
1. Absentee ballots will be available beginning Tuesday, April 23, 2024.

 
2. Absentee ballots must be picked up at the Town Clerk’s Office during regular office hours.  They cannot be mailed out by the Town Clerk.  You may designate certain people to pick up a ballot for you if you cannot do so yourself.  Contact the Town Clerk’s Office for details.