Business View Magazine - April 2016 43
and in past years, on a cycle of every five years, the
Town Council would go to the voters and have them
pass a ten million-dollar bond issue for reconstructing
and refurbishing the roads in town,” he says. “In 2014,
Council took the unprecedented step of going to the
voters and getting them to pass a $60 million bond is-
sue, just for roads. So, for the next five years, 2015-19,
the Town is going to spend $12 million each year to
bring its roads up to snuff.” The Council also recently
asked voters to approve a $36 million bond issue to
upgrade the town’s sewer plant and bring it up to mod-
ern standards. “We’re working with a consultant to do
a final design,” says Erdmann, “and, hopefully, within a
couple of years, we’ll be in the midst of making those
upgrades.”
Roger O’Brien is Enfield’s Director of Planning. He
touts the many amenities and benefits of living in
Enfield, Connecticut – even if it doesn’t yet have its
new train station. “We tend to focus on the challenges
that we have, but when you look around, and look at
what we do have, you find a little bit of everything - you
don’t have to go too far,” he says, proudly. “There are
rural areas in which you see old barns and tobacco
fields; there are suburban areas with a range of hous-
ing opportunities; there are the urban areas which are
around the former factories; there are historic village
districts; there’s the retail shopping; there are corpo-
rate headquarters; and we have a manufacturing base
with companies that are expanding. And expanding
manufacturing in New England is something that, 20
years ago, nobody ever thought would be possible,
again. Three or four miles in one direction and you’re
in the mountains. But you can also be to Boston in a
short time, and you can be in New York City in a short
time, and you can be at the Connecticut shore in a
short time.”
In the end, O’Brien remarks that Enfield is, most im-
portantly, a friendly town with “long roots,” and people
that go back multiple generations who can still talk
about where grandfathers lived and worked and what
pond they used to skate on during the cold New Eng-
land winters. “The thing about Enfield is there’s a nice
feel to it,” he says. “You come into Enfield Town Hall,
and people say ‘Hello’ to you and ‘How are you?’ and
take the time to chat with you. They don’t rush by.”
And someday soon, when Enfield gets its new train sta-
tion, those trains won’t be rushing by, either.
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