Town of Coventry,

Connecticut
By, Morgan Palmer

On December 21, 2015 the town of Coventry, CT had their town council meeting
at 7:30 in the town hall Annex. The meeting became controversial when Mrs. Thomas
asked for Mr. OBrien to repeat what he had previously said to Mrs. Petrantonio about
the fire department wanting new tankers. This was brought up multiple times throughout
the night as Mr. OBrien seemed to try to make a mockery of Mrs. Thomas but in return
it worked against him. Mrs. Thomas discussed that the Coventry town council has been
able to previously work as a solid team no matter the amount of people from the two
different parties, so there is no reason that this year that needs to change.
A topic that our Coventry citizens felt passionate about was the library expansion
plan. During the start of the Audience of citizens an elderly woman spoke to the library
expansion pan and how it would be beneficial to all generations of this town and that
there has been a surge in the younger generations using the library. She addressed that
the plan might be costly but it would provide the town and especially teens to have a
larger area to conduct activities. This was her plea that it is critical to send the library
expansion to referendum so that the town can make to decision not the few people in
the town that are sitting at that table. Tim Timberman spoke on behalf of the library
expansion building committee manager. He passed out folders that answered questions
that were needed after discussion at past meetings and was willing to stay after to
answer any other questions.
The town council members all made announcements of information that they
have had sent to them. They announced that 80 families have received help from the
town of Coventry. Also the Boy Scouts and many other community members helped to
ring bells for the Salvation Army. The Boy Scouts also recently built a new memo board
in front of the fire department. A congratulation was given to Mr. Merino for receiving
vice principal of the year. There was also members from the community that wanted
their feelings on the library expansion plan to be expressed.
The last group to talk was the economic development commission. They
discussed their challenges in bring large business into this town because of the lack of
traffic and people in the community. We have lost many opportunities because if both
those and the lack of infrastructure such as sewer that are crucial for many business.
The new farmers market has brought many opportunities to the town and the town is
constructing ideas on how to bring the citizens from the farmers market into the
business in our town.