Over the course of several meetings, the Board of Finance, in consultation with the First Selectman, conducted a line by line review of the Town Government budget, which includes requests from all town offices, organizations, facilities and services. A proposal will be presented to residents at a June 5 Public Hearing, after which the board will adopt both the Municipal and Hampton Elementary School budgets to be discussed at a Town Meeting on June 20 and voted on by taxpayers at a June 27 referendum.

As of press time, the Town Government’s proposed budget is $1,998,859, a $109,318, or 5.79%, increase over the current year.  The Finance Board is still considering the line item for legal counsel, currently proposed for $20,000, as the town has been embroiled in litigation with Huntington National Bank over the collection of taxes from the Solar Park. The revenue line also remains uncertain as the Legislative Session doesn’t end until June 4.

Many of the increases to the budget are fixed costs. The most significant is the line item for the KB Ambulance Service, increasing from $90,000 to $132,500 per the contract, which has been negotiated at 5% for the next two years. American Rescue Plan Act funds have been supplementing this cost for the last few years. The assessments were also revisited this year, with Pomfret paying half of the contract and Eastford assessed at $100,000, matching the bid from a competing ambulance provider to prevent Eastford from joining with another town, which would have cost Hampton and Pomfret considerably more. The Tax Collector’s contract has also increased by $5,000.

New mandated State systems have resulted in an increase of $6,819 to the Assessor’s budget for upgrades to computers and programs, and in an increase of $12,000 to the Town Clerk’s budget for upgrades to computers and programs to implement the State’s new Land Records system. State mandates have also increased other line items, with $2,500 to cover the cost of the Plan of Conservation and Development, and $$8,379 for Early Voting. Line items for fuel and electricity and fees for the Transfer Station have also been increased to reflect actual costs, as have the assessed fees for participation in local services such as the Northeast District Department of Health and the Thames Valley Council for Community Action.

Line item deliberations have also led to reductions in the budget. The Conservation Commission’s request of $26,350 was reduced to $11,699, the FY2023-24 actual expense, by eliminating the cost of legal fees to research unimproved town roads, and the cost of improving a right of way access to the Cohantic Cliffs, town owned property with historical significance. The plan, which would require Department of Transportation approval , was rejected due to safety and liability concerns. The Cliffs are located off Route 97.

The review also resulted in some reductions to departments when compared to actual expenditures for the last few years.  The clerical costs for the Board of Finance and the Inland and Wetlands Agency, and the Building Inspector’s mileage line, were reduced due to actual costs.  The First Selectman relinquished his raise this year due to the increases in all three budgets. All other town employees are receiving the 2.5% Cost of Living Adjustment.

Residents are encouraged to attend the June 5 Public Hearing, which will be held at Town Hall starting at 7:30, to provide input prior to the finalization of the budgets.

Allan Cahill, First Selectman

The Hampton Elementary School has completed its budget development for the upcoming school year.  Any school budget reflects both the needs and successes of an institution while balancing the economic capacity of a community.  The budget for the coming year contains modest but essential investments proposed for the 2025-26 school year. The $2,269,429 budget represents a 4.12% increase—or $89,829—from our current spending, a reasonable adjustment that reflects both fiscal responsibility and our commitment to educational excellence. Further, in a year of significantly higher increases throughout the state than those in the past, the fiscal year 25-2026 HES budget is over a percent lower than the state average.

This increase is not driven by excessive spending or unnecessary purchases. Instead, it addresses unavoidable pressures that affect every household and business in our community. Transportation costs continue to rise as fuel prices and vehicle maintenance expenses climb. Our current transportation provider operated this past year at a significant loss, further compounding the increased costs as we enter a new busing contract.  Special education services, mandated by federal and state law, require specialized staff and resources that we cannot compromise on without failing our most vulnerable students.

The budget’s most significant enhancements focus squarely on student support. Expanding our intervention teacher from three to five days per week will provide crucial academic assistance to struggling learners—an investment that can prevent small learning gaps from becoming insurmountable obstacles. Similarly, adding half a day to our school counselor’s schedule recognizes the growing mental health needs of our elementary students, particularly as they navigate post-pandemic challenges.

These staffing adjustments demonstrate our school’s commitment to supporting the whole child, not just test scores. Early intervention and counseling services are proven investments that save money and heartache down the road by preventing more serious academic and behavioral problems.  As a small learning community, Hampton Elementary School is uniquely poised to create nurturing environments where children are able to thrive.

Staff salaries and benefits reflect further efforts at cost containment.  Annual cost of living increases for staff have been set at 2.5%.  We are additionally asking our noncertified employees to contribute to their insurance plans and their health savings accounts.   We have additionally aligned the number of paraeducator work days to those of our teachers, a departure from past practices that has led to increased savings.

Schools are the cultural and community center of any town.  This is particularly true in Hampton, where HES engages a wide range of students and families. The budget that we have created is fiscally responsible while simultaneously providing to meet the needs of its learners. We look forward to the support of the community in passing this budget.

Andrew Skarzynski, Superintendent

As your Superintendent of Regional School District 11, I write to respectfully request your support for our revised school district budget in the upcoming referendum. After listening carefully to community feedback following the initial vote, we have worked diligently to present a fiscally responsible proposal that maintains educational excellence while addressing your concerns about cost.

Our revised budget represents a 2.88 percent increase from last year—a significant reduction from the 3.66 percent increase in our initial proposal. This conservative approach demonstrates our commitment to balancing quality education with fiscal restraint. Importantly, this increase remains well below both state and regional averages, proving our dedication to responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

To achieve these savings, we made difficult but strategic decisions that had the smallest impact on students, staff, families, and instruction.  We eliminated two undersubscribed team sports programs, Cheerleading and Golf, which served fewer students while consuming disproportionate resources. Additionally, we restructured leadership at the high school, replacing the Assistant Principal position with a Dean of Students role.  While we will sacrifice some administrative capacity, we will still be able to address our current disciplinary and student support needs while reducing costs.

These changes were not made lightly, but they reflect our commitment to maximizing every dollar’s impact on student learning. The remaining budget preserves essential programs, maintains competitive teacher salaries to retain quality educators, and ensures safe, well-maintained facilities for our children.  Further, this budget continues to provide us with the programming necessary to allow us to recruit students outside of the town of Chaplin, Hampton, and Scotland, all of whom reduce the assessment on our three communities.

This budget represents more than numbers on a spreadsheet—it’s an investment in our community’s future. Quality schools protect property values, attract young families, and create the educated workforce our local businesses need to thrive. I understand the burden of increased costs during challenging economic times. However, this conservative, thoughtfully crafted budget strikes the right balance between fiscal responsibility and educational excellence. Our children deserve nothing less.

Andrew Skarzynski, Superintendent

1. B. The reduction to Hampton’s assessment in this revised budget is $13,000.

The polls will be open from noon to 8PM on June 3 to vote on the Regional District #11 revised budget and on June 27 from noon to 8PM to vote on the Town Government and Hampton Elementary School budgets. All registered voters and those listed on the October, 2024 Grand List as owning $1000 worth of property are eligible to vote. Absentee ballots are available through the Town Clerk up until the opening of the polls, and curb-side voting is also available during polling hours.

Our Rural Heritage: Our Roads

Ever since we started the Rural Heritage series, initially meant to tell the stories of our old barns while they were still standing, and expanding, by popular demand, to other aspects of our town’s history, residents have asked us to explore our roads, particularly how they were given their names. Who was Calvin Burnham? John Mack? Sarah Pearl? Who were the Reillys? The Hammonds? The Bennetts?  What special features christened Cedar Swamp Road? Windy Hill? Brook Street? Where was the Parsonage?  The Old Town Pound?

While some of these answers seem simple enough, even obvious, the task has proven to be more cumbersome than expected. First of all, forty-seven roads are a lot to cover, researching geographic and historic facts, folklore, surveys and maps. Thus we decided to approach the topic over time, and to start with the only state and federal roads that run through town: Route 97 and Route 6.

Route 97, the state highway which runs north and south, extends from Route  44 in Pomfret to Route 12 in Norwich, and here in Hampton, from the Abington to the Scotland lines. Prior to its designation as a state highway, the northern portion was named “Pomfret Road”, as in the road to Pomfret, though the northernmost portion was once also called “Grow Hill”. Most of our early farms were situated there. The southern portion was named Pudding Hill, meant to describe the muddy conditions of spring when it was a dirt road.  Those who walked to the schoolhouses would tell us that mud was more difficult to trudge through than snow. A portion of Pudding Hill was called “Shaw Hill”, and later “Jewett Hill”, for the former owners who farmed there.

“Route 97” was commissioned on January 1, 1932, when the State renumbered nearly every one of its highways in Connecticut. However, Pomfret Road was not part of the State highway system until 1934 when Route 97 was rerouted, turning Station Road over to Town maintenance. Another portion of Route 97 near Old Kings Highway was also realigned in 1949. With the renumbering, the original names for Route 97 fell away, except colloquially, until the development of the 911emergency system which assigned every home, and potential house lot, a street name and number. Until then, mail addressed to “Charlie Halbach, Hampton”, for example, could be delivered. The 911 system reinstituted the names “Pomfret Road” and “Pudding Hill”.

In the middle of Pomfret Road and Pudding Hill is Main Street.  The 1759 map at Town Hall shows the street with only the Meeting House. The one drawn in 1858 shows several homes along the route. Referred to as “the village”, “the town center”, “Chelsea Hill”, “Hampton Hill”, or simply, “the hill”,  it has always lined some of our most important institutions, the Congregational Church, the Town Hall, the library, the blacksmith and other shops, the Post Office, the General Store, the inn, the Grange, and the elementary school, now at the southernmost end, formerly in the building that now houses Town Hall, and originally, near 237 Main Street where old deeds show a schoolhouse before those of the seven school districts were established for neighborhoods.

At one time, Main Street diverged into two roads, with, like so many New England villages, a town green, or “common”,  in the center. It became one road when it was finally paved.  Later a foot path east of the street was maintained for years by the “Village Improvement Society”. We always walked along the village this way; except for parades, I can’t recall walking on the actual street until the seventies. There are still remnants of the path, some very visible, even paved, and others, a narrow, dark smudge in the lawns in front of the houses there, like a shadow.

Our Main Street was once part of the original Route 6.

Route 6, also known as “the Grand Army of the Republic Highway”, is the only U. S. highway in town, the transcontinental highway extending from Long Beach, California to Provincetown, Massachusetts traversing nearly 3,200 miles. Our segment runs from the Chaplin to the Brooklyn line.

1926. S. Route 6 was one of the original routes in the United States Numbered Highway System, which was established in 1926. At the time, the named segment ran from Provincetown, Massachusetts through Rhode Island and Connecticut, to Brewster, New York. Later it would extend through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Colorado, and finally to California’s Pacific shoreline, completing its distinction as a coast-to-coast highway. Traversing nearly 3,200 miles, Route 6 is the second longest highway in the country, after Route 20, which runs from Boston, Massachusetts to Newport, Oregon. Nor was Route 6 the oldest transcontinental highway. That designation belongs to the Lincoln Highway of 1913, subsequently renumbered, in the main, as Route 30. Like the “Lincoln” highway, Route 6 also has an association with the Civil War.

In 1934, the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War started to promote the designation of U. S. 6 as “the Grand Army of the Republic Highway”. Starting with Massachusetts, each state adopted the proposal and in 1948, approval of the name was finalized. A formal dedication occurred on May 3, 1953 in Long Beach, California where the monument erected states: “…In memory of the heroic services and unselfish devotion of the Union soldiers, sailors and marines who laid down their lives on the altar of sacrifice during the Civil War…For what they did and dared, let us remember them today.”

With the development of the 911 system of addresses, the highway was split at its intersection with Route 97, with the eastern segment named Providence Turnpike, and the western, Hartford Turnpike. Interestingly, the old stone, road side markers, reused and found in the foundations of old homes, and even old gravestones, are carved with directions such as “Right Hand Road  to Boston, Left Hand Road to Worcester”.

At one time, East and West Old Route 6 (and the portion of Main Street which connects the two) were part of the Route 6 corridor, hence the name “Old” was attached to those sections when the highway was rerouted, around 1950. “East” and “West” were added with the establishment of the 911 address system.

Yes, the “Grand Army of the Republic Highway” ran straight through the center of our town for several years. In rerouting, with the segment starting at the western entrance to Old Route 6, and ending at the eastern entrance to Old Route 6, the transcontinental highway cut across the three farms along this new section of Route 6. Three tunnels were installed beneath the highway to allow the farmers’ cows to be brought to pasture, and return to the barn.

Imagine the vehicles — cars, trucks, tractor-trailers, tour buses — our Main Street would be subjected to daily, and nightly, in today’s world of traffic.   But pedestrian safety, wear-and-tear, and aesthetics were not the reason the new portion of Route 6 was installed to circumvent the town center. It was the steepness of the hill. During storms, trucks could not climb the eastern portion, and it was also dangerous to descend in treacherous conditions.

One of the hill’s legendary stories involves one of the largest farms and families in the town’s history. While driving down the hill on a wintry night in 1936, Al Vargas’s truck became disabled. He approached a lone farmhouse where the woman, a widow who lived alone, let him use the telephone and wait in her home until his truck was fixed. Mr. Vargas, a widower with five children, stopped the following week to “thank the good woman once again,” after which the visits continued, and eventually, the two married. Mr. Vargas farmed there for years, re-marrying when his wife passed away. He and his third wife, Addie, raised sixteen children there, some of whose children and grandchildren still live in town and share that road’s role in their family’s arrival here.

Growing up, East Old Route 6 was called “Hampton Hill”, and still is when folks are remembering sledding adventures, and West Old Route 6 was “Brown’s Hill”, undoubtedly from some resident. The name remains on Brown’s Hill Marsh in Goodwin Forest.

These wide highways and many of our town roads originated along the paths of Native Americans, like the Nipmuck Trail, that stitched the landscape before Europeans set foot on our shores, later to branch off to connect the homes and farms, the churches, the stores, the schoolhouses, the taverns that comprised our community. These are the only two that have the distinction of connecting Hampton to other towns in Connecticut, and to the rest of the country.

Dayna McDermott

I’m trying to figger back how many years ago it was that they built this road acrost Hampton Hill and down here. About 1915, I think it was. It was a mud road, and two roads, both of them muddy and a grass strip in the center. Then they voted to build the road and they had an awful time – they didn’t know where they were going to put a stone-crusher to crush rocks and so forth.

Finally they put it right out here by this stump and they used all our stone walls. Used to be y’know, you had a field and no space at all – there was a stone wall, just a little field and then here was another stone wall taking up all the space. And they said if they could put their stone-grinder out here that they would use all of those stone walls, clear our lots just perfectly clear. They dynamited rocks from our lawn no farther away from the house than here to the other end of that thresher. I suppose it had a gasoline engine at that time. When they made the roads first they’d fill it with big stones, packed those in, and then they’d fill in with this crushed stone on the top, then with gravel, and then with your oil.

Gertrude Pearl, from “Hampton Remembers”

The summer edition of Music at the Fletch kicks off with The Cafe Trio Plus, Wednesday June 25 at 6PM. Mark M. Davis, mandolin, Beverly Davis, guitar, Jan Jungden, accordion/flute and Lou Chatey, string bass will play a wide range of international tunes from French vals musette to Italian marcias and polcas Brazilian chorinhos to Argentinea tangos, not forgetting a few America jigs, reels and waltzes. The musical friends created The Café Trio Plus to play music reminiscent of the café sound of cities like Paris, Milan, Lisbon or Rio. The combination of mandolin, accordion, guitar and bass evokes another, more leisurely and sociable time, Davis says, just right for a summer evening.

Mark and Beverly Davis are well known for their classical guitar duo concerts and their appearances at the Fletch, as well as their work with the Providence Mandolin Orchestra and the Hampton Trio. Jan Jungden has performed with such notables as Jake and the Family Jewels and the Patti Tuite Band, as well as playing keyboards in her own bands — the Jan Jungden Trio (jazz) and FUSE (funk).  Lou Chatey plays either string bass or fretless electric bass with a variety of local bands as well as supporting area musicians with his Westford Hills Distillers concerts.

The musicians will play on the porch of the Fletcher Memorial Library and concert goers should bring chairs or blankets as well as their own refreshments. All Music at the Fletch events are free, but contributions to the music fund are gratefully accepted.

Janice Trecker

On May 16, the Hampton Seniors Club provided a senior luncheon for the first time in more than a year. Kara Hicks from the Hampton General Store catered a delicious meal of Swedish meatballs, noodles, cranberry, cucumber salad and homemade fruit crisp. Forty seniors attended this luncheon and enjoyed time to socialize with friends.

We will be having another luncheon on Friday, June 13^th, and Kara will prepare barbecued chicken or grilled vegetable skewers, macaroni and cheese, cole slaw, cornbread and another homemade dessert. Please request the vegetable skewers if that is the option you prefer. If you sign up for the luncheon and then find you cannot go, please let us know so that we can provide the meal to another senior.

On Saturday, June 21, we will be participating in the town-wide tag sale. Our tables will be located in the downstairs community room

at the Town Hall, so weather will not be a concern. We have recently begun sponsoring an online Sit and Stretch exercise program, as well as our ongoing weekly activities. To register for any events, or for more information about any of our activities, please do not hesitate to contact us at hamptonseniors01@gmail.com. Thank you for your support of Hampton seniors and we hope to see you soon!

Fran Gustavesen, President

Goodwin State Parks Interpretive Staff invite you to join our Trails Day Event on June 7. Story Hike & Seek will feature an interactive story of “The Forest of S.T. Shrew,” followed by a search for the story’s characters in Goodwin Forest. Events begin at 10AM and 2PM, running for 1–1.5 hours each (please choose a time when you register). The event is free and open to all ages. Meet at the picnic tables under the covered pavilion located in front of Mr. Goodwin’s home/museum. Parking is available in the lot across from Mr. Goodwin’s home/museum.

To register for this event, visit: https://forms.office.com/g/Qer1hXjQ1q

As part of The Big Read and inspired by Andrew Krivak’s The Bear, Eastern Connecticut State University students and alumni were recently challenged to create pieces of art made of natural materials that blend with the environmental surroundings. Their exhibits can be viewed along the trails at Trail Wood. Come see the natural materials that inspired creations with intriguing titles such as “Stalking Spring”, “Mors Venit”, “The Last One’s Return”, “The First Sighting”, “Lens for Introspection”, “Quiet Unraveling”, “Spiral Sentinels”, “Feet of Innocence”, “Forever in the Stars”, “The Hollowing”, and “A Gift”.