Andover plans to eye future in 2022
Dec. 24—ANDOVER — Many meetings in Andover may still be held virtually due to the pandemic, but town and school officials continue to zoom in on what needs to be done for the future.
Work on the 2022-23 budget will start in January, with selectmen scheduling workshops through the winter on Jan. 10. The Andover Board of Finance is planning its review during weekly sessions throughout March and April.
Plans are also in the works to continue upgrades at Andover Town Hall, including improvements to the electrical and heating, cooling and venting systems during the new year.
The committee for the town's 175th anniversary will continue drafting plans and fundraisers for the milestone celebration, which will take place in 2023.
Students at Andover Elementary School will be working on poems and essays about Andover during 2022.
The Andover Community Senior Center Building Com- mittee has been working with Moser Pilon Nelson Architects and BSC Engineers to build a new facility.
Local senior citizens haven't had a place of their own to gather since 2018, when mold and structural issues made the former fire station, where they had been meeting, no longer safe. The committee was formed in 2019 to research alternatives and a plan to build new was decided as the best option, with the goal to keep costs under $1 million.
Work also continues at the town's Veterans Monument Park, with a new monument to honor those soldiers affected by Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant used during the Vietnam War, installed earlier in 2021, and new flagpoles installed at the end of December.
The project was spearheaded by Vietnam veteran and Andover resident Gerry Wright, who is plagued by health issues from his own exposure to Agent Orange.
His fundraising efforts to improve the park include plans to install a Battlefield Cross monument and a Prisoner of War/Missing in Action monument during 2022, as well as benches.
Children in Andover were part of their own commemoration when Andover Elementary School was selected as the state representative to decorate the Connecticut tree in Washington D.C. with their own handmade ornaments.
" We have great children and we were able to share that with the nation in D.C.," said Andover School Superintendent Valerie Bruneau. "I'm so proud of them. I am grateful we had a collaborative school community who helped our children through the past 1.5 years of the pandemic.
" Our school community is truly very supportive, and the children have been the beneficiaries of our ability to work together for them.
" It takes a village and I am proud of the Andover village. In 2022, I hope we can continue to raise and educate our children together."
Andover
