Darien Teens Tell Board of Selectmen About What They Get Out of the Depot Youth Center

Download PDF

Learning the signs that someone might be suicidal, talking about problems (or anything) at Girls Night Out meetings, helping educate other teenagers about safety through the Students Against Destructive Decisions group, learning about mental illness, substance abuse, distracted driving, teen relationship violence. Those were the topics that nine Darien teenagers have been learning about at the Depot Youth Center, they told the Board of Selectmen at a recent meeting. 

During budget deliberations early this year, members of the Board of Selectmen said they thought it would be a good idea to hear more from the Depot and what services it provides to students. At the meeting on Monday, Nov. 26, Janice Marzano, the Depot’s executive director for programming, was present, but she let the girls speak for themselves. For some reason, every single one of the speakers were girls.

Town Hall 2015

Selectmen Unanimously Pass $45.7 Million Budget, Cutting 1% from This Year’s Spending — Maybe No Fireworks This Year

Download PDF

The Board of Selectmen on Monday unanimously recommended cutting the non-education part of town spending to bring it 1.05 percent below the current budget, as passed last year. One unexpected cut: $13,498 for the annual fireworks display, which may not be taking place this year for reasons having nothing to do with budgeting. Town officials said the high school’s turf fields and cafeteria reconstruction make that location too difficult, and there doesn’t seem to be another. The board cut $233,434 from the town administrator’s proposed budget to bring the overall budget to $45,689,237 — which is $485,395 less than the spending the town approved for the current 2017-2018 fiscal year. The cuts included deferring a project to improve a firefighter training facility ($45,000), postponing the hiring of more civilian dispatchers for the Police Department ($93,033 in salary and benefits for the last quarter of the fiscal year) and making a small cut ($42,391) to adjust the money the town gives Darien Library for workers compensation and medical insurance payments.