Now, more than ever you need a proven leader with vision and integrity. A leader who understands how to be fiscally responsible and who has shown true care and compassion for the needs of the people of Cheshire.

RE-ELECT DON WALSH

While serving on the Town Council over the past 2 years here are some of the biggest issues we have faced and what we have accomplished:

• Fiscal Responsibility

  • Under our leadership, we delivered balanced budgets while maintaining a $10 million fund balance to plan for the expenses we will face with the 2 new schools we are building. We also have maintained a AAA credit rating allowing us to have lower interest bonding rates.
    

•  Lowering Residential Tax Burden

  • We have had the largest increase  in our tax base in the past 25 years and we foresee that continuing in the next several years.  A big part of that is due to us approving the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) which helps fund infrastructure in new developments.

• Improved Parks

  • We approved the successful referendum to build a new park adjacent to Bartlem Park which can be used by residents of all ages. We made a wide range of improvements to our parks, including renovated bathrooms, lit pickle ball courts and a new John G. Martin Education Center at Mixville Park.  We also created a new master plan to renovate Mixville Park.

• Education

  • Our schools are producing top notch students and continue to rank high in terms of standards throughout Connecticut. However, we do need to address the infrastructure. As a member of the School Modernization Committee(SMC), which is a committee of the Town Council, we worked hard to create a multi-phase plan to upgrade our schools to face the future enrollment issues in a fiscally manageable way. We are excited to break ground on the 2 new schools next year.

• Public Safety

  • We are fortunate to have a great police department and fire department.  The Town Council has  fully funded the Cheshire Police Dept. for 48 officers. We are making sure that we provide them with all the equipment and personnel they need to keep us safe. 
    

• Environment

  • As chairman of the Solid Waste Committee, we brought back the Bulk Trash pick up. We have also approved a pilot program at Chapman School for food waste recycling using funds we received from the Nip Environment Fund (NEF)