Cynthia Varricchio

This Plan of Conservation and Development for the Town of Preston analyzes the town's past, present, and future development trends, setting a vision with short and long-term goals and objectives for the next decade. It focuses on preserving rural and agricultural character, protecting natural, historic, and archaeological resources, fostering responsible economic development, addressing housing needs, and improving municipal facilities and services. The plan emphasizes community engagement, fiscal responsibility, and environmental stewardship to guide the town's growth and development.

This document outlines the Town of Preston's strategic direction, presented within the context of a budget workshop. The plan is structured around key pillars: fostering economic development while protecting rural character, maintaining and improving municipal services, studying and implementing optimal use for all school and town buildings, investing in technology, and invigorating civic pride through communication and community initiatives. The overarching goal is to stabilize and enhance operations and staffing, leverage funding sources to reduce the tax burden, diversify tax revenues, and invest in the community's future, exemplified by projects like the Riverwalk.

The committee meeting focused on establishing its purpose and discussing key logistical issues regarding the town's polling location. The agreed-upon mission is to study the cost-effectiveness of relocating the polling place to a regulatory compliant site. A major discussion point was the non-compliance of the current Town Hall location with ADA requirements, followed by a general review of potential alternative sites, including various schools, the library, VFW, and fire departments. The committee passed a motion requesting the Registrars of Voters to seek a waiver from the Secretary of State's Office to continue using Town Hall for polling through the remainder of 2019. A motion was also passed to invite Kathy LaCombe to speak at the subsequent meeting on February 7, 2019.