Kent

KENT — First Selectman Bruce Adams commented on the budget plan for fiscal year 2018-19 at the regular monthly meeting of the Kent Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, March 6. 
“The initial increase in the cost of health care was 19.2 percent, but it is now anticipated to be around 12 percent,” he said. The town currently uses Aetna as its health insurance provider, and is considering switching to a state plan, Connecticut Partnership 2.0, for further cost savings.

KENT — A 3.3 percent increase in education spending for Kent Center School (KCS) in the coming fiscal year was brought down to almost 1 percent  at a budget workshop on Wednesday, Feb. 28.
KCS Principal Florence Budge and Board of Education members Cici Nielsen, Dana Slaughter and Chairman Martin Lindenmayer reviewed a proposed expenditure at the workshop that showed a 3.3 percent increase.
“We’ve got some scary lines in here,” Nielsen said. 

KENT — Kent Memorial Library (KML) Director Donna Miller will retire on March 29, after almost five years of dedicated service.
Originally from the Farmington Valley, with a Master’s Degree in Library Science from the University of Colorado, Miller has more than 40 years of experience working in public, academic and special libraries. She became the director of the Kent library in June 2013.

KENT — At the Kent Board of Selectmen’s meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 6, Selectman Chris Garrity presented goals he thought the board should pursue in 2018. 
One idea he presented was to hold an all board chairs meeting two or three times each year, in which the chairpersons of all town boards, commissions and nonprofit organizations would meet to discuss short- and long-term goals.
“The concept is communication, not for us to tell other boards, commissions or organizations what we think they should do,” Garrity explained.