1. Today is Monday, Feb. 25. The National Weather Service predicts mostly sunny skies and a high temperature of 41 degrees. The low will drop to 32 degrees tonight.
2. Both bond rating houses have confirmed Groton's current bond ratings, a Aa2, with a stable outlook from Moody's, and a AA rating with a stable outlook from Standard & Poors. The agenies noted the town's largely stable employment base, good household incomes and strong per-capita market values, sound financial management and relatively low overall debt in making their decisions.
3. The Groton Board of Education meets at the Committee of the Whole at 5:30 p.m. today in the school adminstrative offices, then holds a budget work session from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. Tuesday. The board is grappling with how to cut a proposed $76.6 million education budget for the coming fiscal year, a 5.54 percent increase over last year's spending plan. To get the budget to a zero increase, it needs to find about $4 million in cuts.
4. Groton's 2nd Annual Dancing with the Stars", a fundraiser for the Fitch High School Graduation party will be held starting at 6 p.m. on March 8, according to the town manager's weekly status report. The show in the Fitch High School Auditorium starts at 7 p.m. Tickets may be purchased at the Groton Senior Center, Sneakers Cafe or Bank Square Books.
5. More than 12,300 people from Connecticut registered for federal disaster assistance after Storm Sandy, according to a news release by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. More than $50 million in federal assistance has been approved so far, the release said. After the storm, one of the disaster centers set up to assist people was in Groton.
If you applied to FEMA for help and would like to check the status of your application, you can do this by calling 800-621-3362 from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. The TTY number is 800-462-7585. You can also check online at at http://www.DisasterAssistance.gov, or at m.fema.gov from a mobile device.
