Preston no longer considered a distressed municipality
Preston — The town won't have to hear the jokes about being “Depressed-ton” or “Distressed-ton” this year, now that the town has dropped off the state Department of Economic and Community Development's new list of the state's top 25 distressed municipalities.
Preston was added to the list in 2014 at No. 21, a ranking that surprised both town officials and regional leaders — especially considering that Norwich had dropped off the list two years earlier.
Preston dropped to 28th this year, off the top 25 list.
“We didn't stay a distressed municipality for long,” First Selectman Robert Congdon told the Board of Selectmen on Thursday, reading a letter he received from DECD with the new top 25 list.
But Preston will retain eligibility for certain state and federal grants associated with the distressed municipality list for five years, the DECD letter said.
Norwich returned to the list last year and remained on the distressed municipalities list this year.
And Montville, which has see-sawed on and off the list in recent years, is back on.
New London has remained on the list consistently in recent years, while Groton dropped off in 2014 and remained off the top 25 list this year.
Other local towns on the distressed municipalities list were Sprague and Griswold.
The state DECD each year ranks all 169 towns based on a weighted scoring system in nine separate categories, said Kolie Sun, senior research analyst for DECD.
The data is updated each year using U.S. Census data and the American Community Survey.
This year's list is based on data from the 2014 survey.
The municipality's unemployment rate, per capita income, percent of poverty in the town's population, percent change in population, percent change in per capita income, percent change in employment, percent of the population with a high school diploma or higher education level and the per capita adjusted grand list of taxable poverty are among the highest scored criteria.
State statutes direct the agency to base the list of distressed communities on high unemployment, poverty, aging housing stock and low or declining rates of job creation.
Sun said two factors helped Preston drop from the list this year. The percent of high school graduates rose from 92 percent in 2013 to 93.5 percent in 2014, and the poverty rate dropped from 10.2 percent to 8 percent.
“That helped lower the town's composite score,” Sun said.
“I never considered Preston to be distressed,” Congdon said Thursday night.
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