The Daily Five: Strange Police Blotter Item, Death and Taxes, Blighted Buildings

1. It's going to be mostly sunny today but don't expect to feel any heat. Temperatures won't reach any higher than 21 degrees, according to weather.com, and will drop to a below freezing 10 degrees tonight. There's a 10 percent chance of snow both day and night.  

2. This was one of the stranger items on the police blotter this past week. On January 17, while on a routine patrol of 1-95 North near exit 70, a state trooper observed a Cadillac with Massachusetts plates crossing back and forth over the dotted line into the center travel lane.

When the state trooper pulled the vehicle over, he noted that both occupants of the vehicle, Rickardo Coote, 30, of Arizona, and his passenger, Nochardo Robinson, 33, seemed very nervous and gave him conflicting stories as to how they were related and what they were doing.

The officer asked consent to search the vehicle, which they granted, whereupon he discovered $37,000 in cash stashed away in the hidden compartment of a computer bag in the trunk. When both men denied ownership of the currency, police seized the cash and secured it at Troop F in Westbrook.  

3. For the past few years, the East Lyme tax collector has sent out reminder notices on postcards to all local residents. This year, for the first time, he heard back. In some instances, people contacted him to say thank you for the reminder but others were upset to receive what they perceived to be collection notices.

At the most recent East Lyme Board of Selectmen meeting, the town tax collector said he would continue to send reminders to those who welcomed them but would stop mass mailings to those who didn't. Just as a reminder, however, both death and taxes are unavoidable and for those who make quarterly payments, taxes are coming due. 

4. Old Lyme is being honored with an achievement award by CIRMA (Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Agency) for taking the safety of its employees seriously. The award is due to the town's decision to kick-start a town Safety Committee (somewhat neglected in recent years) that offered training in employee safety in 2012. 

5. Old Lyme is contemplating passing an ordinance to deal with blighted buildings but it isn't doing much more than thinking about it at the moment. The town charged a committee to come up with a proposal for consideration about a year ago but the committee failed to vote on a recommendation.

It's a procedural issue, really, but without an official vote, the committee's proposal to create an ordinance similar to one that exists in Clinton isn't official. If the committee doesn't reconvene to vote on a specific recommendation to be put to the Board of Selectmen, the town will have to start again from scratch.