Board of Selectmen - June 15, 2026 Regular Meeting

001I'm with you. >> It's against state law. Hello. >> Okay, >> I got I got your >> Did you I reacted. >> I didn't see it. >> I said my >> [clears throat] >> Good evening. Today is Monday, June 15, 2026. The regular, this is for the regular board of selectments meeting. Before we start, one week ago tonight, uh, our community lost a vibrant business owner, member of economic develop commission, and mother to a case of domestic violence. In her honor, I'm hap I'm somberly creating the Carrie Stson Community Impact Award to be presented annually to an individual or business who represents Car's legacy and community commitment and involvement. More details on that will be forthcoming. I'd like to request a moment of silence for Carrie Stson. With that, call the meeting to order. >>

002[clears throat] >> Troy Lamir, Kevin Bishop, Paul Marino, >> Paul Harrington, Todd Archalashi, Clinton Alberius, >> William Hester, >> Cheryl Hewin, >> William Poso. >> Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Item three of the agenda review. >> Mr. Mayor, I do have uh two items. I'd like to see if the board could add to the agenda tonight. The first one being we did get a email from the superintendent this morning maybe midafter afternoon. Uh they are going into admin negotiations for contracts and she had asked for a if a board of selectman uh member would be interested in uh uh observing those.

003I thought it would be uh an idea of obviously putting it on the agenda and letting the board decide you know who should observe. >> Okay, we can add that under item 8A correspondence a correspondence of BOE and then one one last one. Uh today is the cut off of all POS. I would like to add an additional transfer to be fiscal year 2026-25. I do have copies of it when we get to it. we could put it under my recommendation put it under uh it would be the the new K and shift everything down because we're taking care of all those line items. So okay so those are the two requests that we have from my office. >> Can we have a motion to add those two items? >> Um Mr. Mayor, today's uh

004June 15, 2026. >> He pointed that out. >> Oh, you did? >> Yes. Yeah. >> I'm going backwards. I move that we add those two items to the agenda. >> Thank you, Paul. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Bill. All in favor? >> Thank you. >> Unanimous. >> Item four, approval of the minutes of our regular meeting on June the 1st, 2026. >> I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. >> Okay. >> Uh we have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion, corrections, additions, subtractions? Seeing none, all in favor? Unanimous. Item number five, citizens comments. The board of selectman welcomes public comments. Speaker be limited to three minutes. May speak once. Does anyone wish to speak? >> Glen, did you do a signup sheet this week? >> Okay. >> I

005just hit the mic. Thank you, sir. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening. Aubrey English, 97 Hinsdale Avenue. Um, I know you guys are going to be talking this evening about on the agenda about uh uh possibly renaming a street or the ideas around that too. U I was when I was at work last a couple weeks ago, I watched the um meeting there and and um I I I I felt the frustration of the speaker who talked about want to rename New Street Veterans Way. I also understand um the act of Congress it can go through to have to rename a street and all with different addresses uh to residents as well too there too. Um what I would like to just ask that you would um the uh board to kind of keep in

006mind um or possibly consider is possibly uh the the instead of naming the street itself adding a adding a sign there as an honorary street name for that street. I'll give you three examples here in Connecticut. Don't [clears throat] have my glasses on me. Um, in Middletown there was an honorary name of Prince Mortimer Adam Avenue a Avenue which was added to a section of Rapalo Avenue to honor a formerly enslaved man who walked this path every day to work in Bridgeport, New London. There are honorary signs for Martin Luther King Jr. that were placed on sections of roadways such as Stratford Avenue in Bridgeport and Coleman Street in New London. Um, in Bridgeport there's the Jimmy W. Jones Way and Linda Cer uh Cerero Way added to post along John Street and Stratford Avenue

007to honor prominent community advocates. Um especially this being the 250th coming up here, I think it's very important that any way we can honor our veterans, you know, instead of just saying the blanket, thank you for your service, um we should be we should seriously look at. And I think just to be able just to add a sign to new street like underneath it or above it that says like you know Veterans Way, Veterans Boulevard or Street, you know what, however, however the board or proper commission would want to uh do this um I think would I think would be um abs should be um should be should be cons very well considered. Um I I think I mean it's just Oh, okay. I was losing my train of thought. I would even even go

008as far to bond, you know, to to not even make a as a not have any t any cost any taxpayers for any signs. I would be more than happy if this was to go through to spearhead a fundraising effort to raise for to raise for a couple signs to be posted um on those streets as well. Um, as I said, that's just for your consideration when you talk about it. And that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. Anyone else wish to speak? [clears throat] >> I don't Mr. Mayor, I I know what the next item is. It's time manager report. I do see um a longtime business owner here with us who who is on the agenda. We have a a few lengthier items to go through before. It would be

009my recommendation to the board that we do move up item A on the agenda for right now and and we could we could do what we we brought Mr. Nero in to do tonight. >> Make a motion to >> so moved. Second. >> Thanks, Troy. Thank you, Paul. >> Mr. Mayor, I'm going to turn it over to you. >> How you doing? >> I am doing well, sir. [snorts] I'll try to keep the fingerprints off a bit. On behalf of your on of the board of selectmen, town of Winchester for your 40 plus years in business as the Gillson Theater, we wanted to show our appreciation and thanks to you by presenting you with this plaque. For generations, families have enjoyed movies at your theater, and we wanted to recognize your dedication and your hard

010work to the town of Manchester. >> Thank you. [applause] >> [applause] >> Let's open it up to the rest. If I may say, if I may say just a few words, um, it was 41 years ago that I came to this or I started that business. And if it wasn't for our local fire marshal and our building inspector at that time, I would never have succeeded. So, I'm hoping that this town will give the new owners the same appreciation and dedication that they gave me to make sure that that goes on and continues to be one of your viable places in town. And I think they have a great idea and I hope it's going to go strong. Thank you all. I don't know a lot of you. I'm sorry, but you know, I've been

011here and I loved everything I did, but it's time for me to move on. Thank you. Anyone else on the board wish to say speak anything? >> Uh I I shared last time when we had a board of selected meeting when back in the 60s when [clears throat] I was a kid uh we used to come down and do Saturday matinea at the Strand. Saw a lot of really good movies there. Been to the Gillson quite a few times. So I appreciate everything that you've done for the town. >> I also asked Lacy to come with me because she started a little Mexican restaurant with me 20 years ago and unfortunately that's part of our business that is closed. She needs some recognition. >> [applause] >> Thank you all. [snorts] >> We're going to miss

012you. >> Thank you. >> We'll miss We'll miss being there, please. >> Have a good evening. >> Item six, town manager report. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And again, good evening, board. uh quickly run through uh a few items that I thought were uh important to mention tonight. First one, uh last two weeks ago, Sleman Lamir mentioned that some signs were ordered and DPW was refusing to put them up. We immediately jumped on that. Um the signs uh are the Wayfair signs that we had ordered through ARPA money um and through some some other grant programs. Those signs are finalized. Uh I believe they are here now. What we're waiting for now is uh a uh permit from the DOT to put those signs up. And I know Troy, you and I spoke about that,

013but I also wanted to update uh the board and obviously our community that the signs weren't just antique shops, but they were wayfair signs. They're meant for a lot of walking. There's maps on them, and they're list several of our our our businesses around town, and there'll be a few of them popping up. Moving on, uh 508 Main Street. happy to report the electrical has officially been disconnected. Um, so that's exciting. Um, I will note that before demolition plans that are going to happen in the in the very uh soon future that uh the developers, Jerry in particular, did loan the building off to the Winchester uh Winstead Fire Department for a quick training exercise. Um, very important building. You know, we want to obviously keep our fire department as trained as possible. So, you'll

014see the fire department in there. Don't be alarmed. there's not a fire in there. They're doing a training and then uh shortly after that, the building will be coming down. Speaking of the fire department, um the Winston Fire Department has implemented a minimum participation standard policy to establish clear expectations for member uh involvement, ensure operational readiness. This was presented by the chief, supported by the entire U officers, and then supported by um all the firefighters as well. Under the policy, active responding members must meet annual minimum requirements for emergency responses, training, and department meetings to remain in good standing. Separate standards have been established to support the services, cadet, and behavioral health units of the department. The policy also provides flexibility for members facing medical, military, workrelated, family hardships that are case-byase exceptions approved by

015the chief of police. So, we know life does happen sometimes. It's not an all or nothing, but it does need approval by the chief. Moving on, automatic uh traffic enforcement, the speed camera program implement implementation is intimate in the future. We are continuing to meet on a weekly basis with the vendor, the police department, and obviously my office. We are in the final stages of this actual being implemented. Our goal is to go live mid July as we've talked about several times. When we go live, the first 30 days is just going to be issued warnings. After 30 days, then it becomes citation. So, look for citations to be issued sometime in the middle of August. Right now, what we're working on uh on our end is perfecting the letters, the citations, making sure that

016the verbiage is clear, making sure it hits all state statutes, everything like that. We're not reinventing the wheel at all on these. We're following what state statute says it has to be on it. I did want our logo slightly bigger on the citations. We were able to get our logo slightly bigger. Um, and the other thing that I tried to get done is the mailing of these is done by sight. I wanted them actually mailed from Connecticut because they would get to people's houses quicker. Unfortunately, they would not agree to that. They're in a mailing house up in Massachusetts. They do believe that once we've approved those tickets, they should be in households within 5 days. I was trying to narrow that down to two days. We approve it, print it, and you know, if

017you're mailing it from Connecticut, it'd be a lot quicker, but I lost out on that one. Um, 26 year end closure close out. As you can see, there's a ton of transfers to deal with later on in the in the meeting, but we begun the process of closing out fiscal year 26. Internally, today actually marked the final day for department heads to submit requisitions and obtain purchase orders for goods and service to be charged to this current fiscal year that ends June 30th. Over the coming weeks, the finance department will process final invoices, complete necessary transfers to address any key and deficits with a final fund balance uh position expected to be known following the annual audit later this year. As a reminder, fiscal year 2027, begins July 1st. We can say that because we

018have a budget. Um, thank you to our taxpayers for their continued support, timely payments of taxes and fees. It allows us to continue our operations. Uh, and I'm going to add, thank you to our finance department. They've done herculean efforts um continuously um with everything that they have going on. Safe streets for all. If you're following along with that, Tai and Bond will host the first public information session on Thursday, June 25th at 5:00 pm in the Hicks room to present the results of the survey that closed end of May. Um from there, um we're going to grab some residents comments as well and they're going to start forming this report. And remember, participation in this is vital because if we can get a report that we can provide to the state and the federal

019government, we can unlock millions of millions of dollars for infrastructure roadway repair. So, if you're not busy on Friday, June 25th at 5:00 p.m., please come. Um, it's right here in this room. Um, water treatment plant generator failure. Just wanted to let the board know that last week we had the generator fail at the plant. And by fail, it no longer worked. Um, and if you know anything about sewer plants, um, if we lose power, we have about two hours and then we're going to have real big problems on our hand. We all got together, we fixed the problem. We have a temporary generator up and running. Right now, we're over at the sewer plant with obviously the uh goal of replacing that and and getting a brand new generator in there. But it it

020stresses um, and I want to read exactly what I wrote. Um it it stresses that we have to address our capital needs because if you lose a generator and we weren't in the you know ability to move as quickly as we are and we do did lose power in this town that means none of the stuff that you're flushing down toilets and sinks is getting processed and it's all going to back up. So this is a critical infrastructure that, you know, this generator well outlived its lifespan, but it was something that we, you know, it failed and we had to address. So keep that in mind whenever we're talking about capital items. You can kick that can for just so long, but eventually um they're going to fail and it could mean big problems for

021us. Um and lastly, uh Sue Gman Greenway Planning and Development. We still we're kind of in a holding pattern right now. Cardinal and Engineering is outdoing the design of all of this. We're still waiting to hear from the Deep grant to see if we're going to get threequarters of a million dollars from that. Um I haven't talked about it lately because we're still in this holding pattern. We're trying to determine Cardinals exactly where this trail is going to go. We're going to meet some more, but um we're in this holding pattern for right now. Um and uh from there we we we're going to have a project that trail is going to get done. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to the board. questions for town manager. >> We have a rented

022temporary generator going there now. Is that >> We have a rented temporary generator right now. I will note um that if we end up uh putting a PO in for a new generator with this particular company, they will give us the rental for free and that's six months to almost eight months of uh a generator. >> It takes six months to get a new one. >> Yeah. It's one of those things that you just don't have on a shelf. I mean, yeah, it takes a while. >> What's the KW needs of that? >> Um 600. Mr. Rollins here. I'm going to look over to him, but we we talked about I try to remember. I think it was 600 uh KWS and uh 800 watt. Um am I right, Jim? >> 600 KW >> and

023800 watts, right? >> Uh no, 600 KW 480 volt. >> 480 volt. That's what I was looking for. Sorry. 48. I have we have one in Northfor that standby for our garage. I think it's 600. >> Okay. >> Um >> you want to give it to us? >> I can lend it to you if you need it. Uh but they they also we got it through um military surplus. >> Okay. >> So you might want to look into that. >> We're looking at everything. We've looked at everything. >> The biggest thing is if we can get the rental and to to throw a rough number out there, rental alone would be anywhere from 60 to $100,000 just to rent this machine easily. Wow. So if we can get that knocked down to zero, that's a

024home run for water, sewer, and obviously the entire community. >> Yeah. Just this week for for a 500 kW and it's eight eight months out. >> So I just I just want to touch uh a little bit what Paul said, not necessarily will it back up. What's going to happen is the the water comes in and it's going to come in. It's not going to be pumped. So it's going to fill up the tanks, then it's going to overflow and end up in the river. And that's really going to be not good because that's that's hazardous material. That'll be all hands on deck. That will cost an awful lot of money. So, >> other questions? >> Um, just one more. I missed the date on the um road safety thing. What was it? >> June

02525th, 5:00 p.m. Pickro. >> We'll get that all excuse me, publicized uh by tomorrow. Um, we just were given the date and I want to get this all to you and then we'll get it all advertised and put up there. >> I missed the last meeting. Couldn't make it. >> Item seven, finance director's report and bond project update. >> With us tonight is >> reinforcement. >> Yeah. With us tonight is is obviously our finance director and then also our director of public works. Um where we're the first finance report. >> Yeah. You guys are going to switch roles tonight. That could be fun. >> Yeah, that's easy. We we diverted all funds to rogue. >> That was easy. >> Good evening. [clears throat] These are the Oh, and look at your summary. Probably says 2025.

026It probably mirrored. >> We are stuck in 25. know what the problem is here that but the header should say we're going to go >> the header should say fiscal 2 FY26 uh so these are the results for year to date May 31st 2026 we are 11 months through our fiscal year which is 92% of the fiscal year current year-to-ate property taxes are 29 million305939 just a little over 100.4% % that's compared to 27,486216 which was 100.5% same period last year motor vehicle supplemental 294,736 year to date 84.21% 21% of budget. That's in comparison to 300,0002 uh which was 133.33% of last year's budget. Past due taxes 336,721 96.21% bud of budget that's compared to 375,277 which was 62.5%. Total revenues year to date 41,5090 101.19% of budgeted compared to 38,623 626 which is 94.65%

027of budgeted. Total year-to- date expenditures with incumbrances 37,106299. We're at just a little over 90.4% % compared to 36 million 10883 which was 88.49% for last year. Um municipal aid received in the month of May the only thing I received was this year's blowup grant for 123,196 cash flow at uh May 31st 22,756 628 of that 19,296319 was invested 460,000 of that Northwest Community Bank sweep, 2.65 million in the state investment fund, and 16.181 million in Northwest Community Bank money market. Uh capital expenditures for the month of May. There are several small expenditures. I will run through them all, but I'm going to do them quickly. 1500 for town hall repairs, 2,175 for police station upgrades, 4,500 for the NextG records management system, 23,978 for the community's challenge bridge street intersection, a little over 4,700

028for the community's challenge wayfinding signs, not wayfairing signs. >> It's way uh a little over 9,000 for plow truck number nine. Uh, I think that was an accessory. 45 45,900 for wetlands flagging for the Sue Grossman uh trail. That's Cardinal Engineering. 10,220 for Rockwell Street drainage. 13,9.99 for senior center repairs and upgrades. 37,341 for the senior senior center mechanical repairs. Uh, we're now into bond projects. 7500 Holliber Avenue for the non-lotset piece. 4336 for South Road, 88,521 for Wani, 56,771 towards Spring Street, 20,266 for West Wakefield Boulevard phase 2, and $8,200 for drainage. >> Any questions? >> Questions from the board. So, I'm I'm assuming that on our property tax when it's over 100% that means we got past due pass the pass due pieces in the past due line item. It just means that

029what uh we are collecting a little we're collecting a little more than what we had budgeted. So we remember that we budget for an adjusted number. >> Okay. >> Um so we're collecting a little more than what our what our um we had anticipated for collection rate. >> That's very good. >> Okay. So you all have a lot of pieces of paper that are very small printed. I didn't print those. Don't blame me for the really small nature of them. What I think we want to start with though is um while Jim is here, we're going to go over the biggest piece of that I think is what >> this one >> update on the bond project >> because it it goes to all three monitors. That's why I wanted we got going on here,

030but we're coming up with I don't think >> so. You're go down to Wi-Fi. You're off Wii. >> Oh, my Wi-Fi is not on. >> Yeah, I had to rejoin it for whatever reason when I came down here, too. >> I go into corporate. >> Yeah. And you should just It's not going to ask you for login. Just hit connect. You should be fine. It gave me the same issue. >> Did you hand us those pieces of paper? >> I did not. >> Maybe they can look at those if we're going to look at nothing. >> [laughter] >> I don't know what's going on. >> No, this they printed this today. Um, you have more of these. >> I gave you like 10. I gave you I think nine of them. >> Oh, fat fat

031fingers. >> You got You got one. >> That's my sheet right there. >> Oh. [laughter] I don't even I I can stare at the screen. >> All right, hang on a second because I want I gota try to pull this up. Maybe it'll come up the next time I get into Yeah, there you go. Now we're up. So, hold on one second. I got out of it. While they're doing it, is the main street paving done or is that >> main street paving is done? Yes. >> So, the old paving, they weren't going curb to curb the whole way. It was just >> just where they went curve to curb just out here and then um down the second stage of it because they haven't paved that. It was kind of little red bar crossover.

032They'll be back um after late summer to finish that up. >> Okay. So, you have this in financial form uh in that really tiny spreadsheet that you have there. Um, but I thought that it would be good for us to look back at the presentation that was given uh when we were looking to get the bond project approved and the list of roads that were slated to be done as part of the road bond. So, we sat down today, did a little comparison, made a little color chart, and that the colors coincide with the colors that you've got. um in your spreadsheet with the dollars attached. So, I'll go through just a quick list of the ones that are complete and then I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Rollins to go over the

033rest of them that are either in progress or in planning stage or um beyond. So, anything that is crossed off doesn't mean we just decided not to do them. Those are the projects that have been completed. So, uh, Marshall Street, Case Avenue, Whiting Street, phase two, Case Avenue Bridge, Elm Street, Upland Road, phase one is complete. Jim can talk about phase two um in his discussion, Taylor Brook, Lonnie Road, which is sign almost complete. Correct. Your list, I think on the detailed list, it shows is still in progress, but it is complete. Hannifan Road, Spring Street. Um, and then there is work being done on sidewalks and Highland Lake drainage. So, all of those projects that were slated for completion in the bond are complete. The ones in orange are the next ones that are

034in progress. Take it away. [clears throat] >> So, in orange, we've got uh three items up there. Hover Street is the top one. Uh Hoverard Street is substantially complete. There's just a stretch of asphalt sidewalk that wasn't part of the scope of work just because it was one of these things that if you designed it and built it, it was going to be crazy expensive rather than just doing it. Uh there's a a little issue with a retaining wall and a railing at the most, I guess, northern end. Um, we just got to build that wall, put in the railing, and then pave the sidewalk. Relatively small thing. Um, we just keep not getting to it. But it's the the project is drivable, workable. Um, you know, it's, you know, it's it's pretty much all

035set except for that one stretch of sidewalk. And it's not concrete, it's asphalt sidewalk. Um, uh, the essential sidewalks. I think I touched on this with the last meeting where we've been ghosted by the contractor that won the bid. Um so we're working with the town attorney to get the proper notification out um just to end that contract so that we can start over again. Um we're looking at a couple of different ways of doing it. Rewriting the bid using a a pre-bid service. Um a lot of it's got to do the it's all grant money that runs that. So, you got to look at what the the rules are associated with the grant to know what purchasing practices you can or cannot do. Um, the Highland Lake drainage, that's kind of this ongoing thing

036that is just always, always, always ongoing. We've got one, two, three projects currently in the design phase right now. The survey has been done, the test holes have been done. Uh I think the wetland flagging has been done and the engineers are actually designing water quality improvement measures. Uh one is right up kind of between the uh Wakefield Boulevard uh culvert and Mountain Road. There's there's an undersized culvert there that's got some searchcharging issues. One is a water quality issue at 450 West Wakefield and the other is a failing retaining wall um that's holding up Wakefield Boulevard right at 608 and trying to also mitigate some you know pretty dirty water that comes off that mountain try to clean it up before it gets to the lake. So that kind of dovetales with West Wakefield

037Boulevard paving can't do the paving till you do the drainage. So they all kind of dovetail together. So that takes care of the projects up there that are like really in, you know, in progress. Things are really happening. Um projects that are in the planning phase. We'll just start with Hallebert Avenue, which was originally intended for year one. >> And we we, you know, more or less did get going on that. We had to put the water main in first. And that took time to bid, time to install, time to, you know, go through the process. We had some gas work, gas company work. So the project now has been the design is done. It's I shouldn't say it's 95%. It's in the hands of the council of government. They have to review it in

038order for it to go to DOT for the final blessing. Um so the last thing we did before sending it off is we just reached back out to the utilities to say, "Hey, this is ready to go." >> And this is this is combined lots of and non-lotsip. That's why it has to go to the state. >> Yeah. The lower half is the lotzip uh section from Colony Drive down from Colony Drive up is is all our funds. Um so as we reach back out to the utilities because as everyone knows when you put a new road in the last thing you want to see is excavating shortly after it's been paved. So, we reached back out to them because it's been a while and since the time that we first approached them with this

039and now they decided they're going to be redoing a >> what is that thing called up there? Transfer station. No, it's a booster st pressure regulator station. >> That's it. Yeah. >> Um they're going to be redoing that at the very top of Hollird. And along with that, they want to replace mains downing Waldron Street. So, they're coming in, I want to say it was August, I think, is when they're planning on starting. >> So, we're putting our construction off until next spring so we're not rushed. So, it's designed, it's in the hands of the people that, you know, finalize it and, you know, we'll get it in the winter and build it in the spring. Um, [clears throat] I kind of touched on the Wakefield Boulevard. you know, that's you really have to get

040that the drainage and stuff done first. The other half of the other part of that Wakefield Boulevard challenge is a lot of that money was allocated to the section from Bonslane over to Holland Beach. And unfortunately, we've got to replace a water mane that was put in in 1890, Bill. I >> I think so. >> Um before we pave that road >> the other day. >> Yeah. So, before we pave it, we want to get that water man fixed. Um, and the water companies just got a lot on their plate with the lead service line inventory and um, I don't remember the other project we're doing. Oh, the two water tanks and water manes. So, we just haven't been able to rally our forces to get ahead of that. So, that's why that one's a

041little behind schedule. Oakdale Avenue, uh, that one is just a challenging project because it's it's bigger than we intended or more expensive I should say than we had intended. So, we're going to probably scale that back a little bit um to the lower section of Oakdale instead of going to the very tip top. Um we're not doing too much other than looking at options. Each one we look at is getting better on price, but not good enough. So, we're we're still looking at that. Um the bright point on this is South Road. The engineers are working on the pavement design right now and the drainage. Um the soil samples we took were were grim. um a lot of fines which make it very frost susceptible. So we're trying to design you know the aggregate mix

042to go under it and then the pavement. Um but the wetlands is done, the survey is done and the engineering is underway. So we should be we should be doing the drainage here in July, maybe August and then paving it in September. So that's the the plan for South Road. Um >> yellows. >> Yeah. So then projects that we haven't really put a whole lot of work into, uh, Newfield Road, the same thing we're doing to South Road currently is going to start up on Newfield Road as soon as they're done with South. It's basically the same task. You dig test holes, you analyze the soil to see what's under there, look at the existing drainage, figure out what needs to be changed, and you know, we'll be using probably probably state bid prices for

043the paving and probably our drainage bid pricing to do the drainage. So, that should be a pretty quick turnaround. Uh, our intention is to get that all designed and, you know, ready to go for uh for springtime next year. Uh Moore Avenue, to be honest, that one is really off my radar. Um I guess mostly because there's some sewer work that we'd really like to do. The Moore Avenue pump station has some ion inflow and infiltration issues that we would like to address before we we do the road. So again, bandwidth issues. If we can get ahead of that, I'd like to do the drainage and paving, but that's what's slowing us down. So that's kind of a status of the [clears throat] actual where we are on each project. You know, you can talk

044about the >> Lake Street or >> where is that one? >> The bottom one >> five years. >> Oh, there it is. Yep. Buried under the So yeah, Lake Street is [clears throat] that's a tough one to drive these days. They did >> clearly [clears throat] >> They did a gas man there last year or two years ago. Um and Again, one of the reasons that this one was scheduled for year five is because we knew there was a lot going on to get ready for that project. Um, we had some sewer issues that we had to fix. We had a gas man that we knew was being replaced. And that's because all the utilities, the towns, the water, the sewer, the gas, the electric. We all talked to each other with a five-year look

045ahead. So, we knew what was coming on their side. So, we put our Lake Street towards the end. Theirs is done. The next step for us is to we were going to use lots money but we're using that lots money on the um Hallebert Avenue project and we're only scheduled once every five years and for whatever reason we got out of phase with that. So we're going to go and use steep money for Lake Street and Tom's putting the application together for that. So, um, you know, once we once we get a little bit of a financial footing for that one, then, uh, we'll have a little better schedule, but it won't be. This is year five and it won't be this year. So, that's a basic basic overview. If you got any questions on

046any of those projects >> questions from the board, >> oh, excuse me, Granville Road in parenthesis. >> Yep. I'm gonna go back to that because I'm gonna give you you have the summary page that I gave to everyone [clears throat] >> which is if I can potentially get there. Hold on one second. >> Hey Jim, while she's looking for that, was there a list of Highland Lake drainage projects? Is there a when when the bond was created, was there a you know, here's the 12 items we're going to do or whatever the count was? So, we had a project we had project information sheets that demonstrated likely candidates. Some of the ones that we talked about are on there. Um, some of the ones we talked about are are new to the list. We're not

047holding that exact. It was just kind of representative. Um, the money that we had, excuse me, [clears throat] allocated for that would cover the ones we had, but there's some some other ones in the way. Uh the challenge on that is how to say it. We're trying to do a lot of different things with the same resources. Like the drainage money is really got allocated for water quality. The road really got allocated because it's tough to drive. the drainage problems and the road issues more or less work together uh but not exclusively. So some of the places that we think are you know high pollutants isn't really the best word high nutrient amounts of of discharge into the lake don't necessarily go with the areas of worst pavement. So they don't match they don't dovetail

048exactly. So the list is it's not exact. It's more kind of kind of parsed out if that makes any sense. >> Yeah, the paving was a different thing. But so there wasn't like all right here's the 10 things we want to do. >> There was five or six [clears throat] and two I think the only one that we're working on that wasn't part of that list was the one at three. Don't quote me on the number. I think it's 350 West Wakefield. That one kind of jumped to the top of the list because I had a willing property owner. You had a whole group, three or four property owners right there experiencing the same problem. And as you know at the lake, the hardest thing is getting access for your drainage water to make its

049way to the lake. And they're like, we have this open space. You can use it, but let's solve this problem. So rather than fighting the immovable object of, you know, territorial people and drainage pipes running through their property, I took the easy avenue to get one done. So that was that one wasn't on the list. The rest of them, I think, all were. >> And are you changing the design of the culverts that go into the lake? >> Yeah. >> From what they were 100 years ago. >> Yeah. So the short answer is yes. Each one is different. So I'll just leave it at that. You know, we're either upsizing the pipe or changing the shape of the pipe to allow as water comes out of a pipe, it's got a lot of velocity, which

050causes a lot of scour, which causes a lot of cost on the outlets. If you can change the diameter of the pipe or change the elevation of the pipe or put a bigger pipe in and bury it so you have more of a natural bottom, you can keep the same flow characteristics without the erosion. So, we're trying to throw those practices in where we can. One of them may turn into an actual box cover culvert. You know, that's why we have engineers because they they know what the state likes. They know what works the best and where the sweet spot is moneywise. But most of them will change either in size. Uh they'll add some kind of, you know, outlet protection. They'll add some kind of uh hydrodnamic separator, deeper catch basin, sumps, you know,

051things like that. So yeah, for the most part something something on each of them will change. >> Thank you. >> So this and I think you've seen this before, but if you have not, this summary uh in the box flows from the detail above the budgets for all the years, what's been spent. Um but we're really on the we're looking more on the budgeted side. So through the end of 2026 the total amount that's been of projects that have been budgeted it was a little over 18 almost 185 of that some of that has grant reimbursements built into uh built into those projects. However when we put the budget in we have to budget for the gross dollar amount of the project. Um and this top half of this is really was just to analyze

052what our cash needs were. So our net cash needed through the end of June 30th of 2026 was roughly $50 million. We did our first trunch of 5 million150 back in 2023. Uh 250 for drainage, 600 for sidewalks plus the um fire truck. We did that back in 2023. Also in July of 2025, we took another trunch two. We did $8 million for roads and drainage work. So, um, that left a million dollars that we have basically fronted for these projects that are currently in process. Um, the lower section is the more important section that we're really looking at is the total amount that we can spend. Uh, right now, let's assume we spent the whole amount on the on the truck. Uh, total amount that we are allowed to spend is 23,300 on the

053roads, the drainage, and the sidewalks. We have budgeted 18.5 which is from above the detail above. And then for fiscal 27 and beyond there's another 5.3 million right now that Jim was looking at uh that we would want to be budgeting for. That would leave us in a shortfall position of just a little over $520,000 which may require determining whether we can do all those projects on that list that you see you saw up there of projects that were not started. However, we are doing a full review of what was approved at referendum uh all of the projects and the reallocation of funds particularly with the projects that have grant funding attached to them and how we can uh best utilize the funds that related to the grant because what happens is when you've got

054grant money tied to those. Let's take Case Avenue for example. Case Avenue Bridge. Case Avenue Bridge was originally supposed to be an 8020. So 80 state state right >> state federal >> state and federal 20% the town and that's why that was part of the br the bond price come to the end of the project the state now it is 100% reimbured to the town so we have no skin in the game on that so we don't really need that to flow through the bond project because all that is doing is inflating our spend. So we've got $2.6 6 million that could be allocated to other pro other road projects that don't necessarily need to be included in the bond to spend. Does that make sense? Does everybody understand that? So, we're looking at all

055of these. We're looking at the Lake Street project, which Tom is working on the steep grant for. How much would be potentially would the town need to kick in? What's the cost of that project? That's where also the Mad River bridge grant bill road piece comes in because that's federal local bridge money and that's supposed to be 100%. So if that's 100% grant money again there's no reason for us to keep that in the bond package projects because if that's 100% reimbured we don't want us we don't want to allocate that money to a project that's going to be 100% reimbured to us. Whereas we [clears throat] could take I don't know let's say it's a $3 million project. I don't know what it is. I'm just going to throw a number out there. If

056it's $3 million, we wouldn't want to take $3 million and get us up to that 23 million, a little over 23 million when we could use that $3 million for other projects. >> So, I'm going to jump right in and add a little bit to that to why this decision gets even better. Our initial estimates for that bridge were, let's say it was 2 million. I don't know what the number is exactly. And now it's coming in at 3 million. That three million is what went towards our $25 million road bond. If it's three million, that means that road bond would be 26 million. But we can't go over the$2 million that was allocated. So that means a million dollars of other jobs has to come off to make up for that. It's it's wacky

057confusing. So taking those projects since they're fully funded away reallocates those funds to be used on these projects that were approved by the public and what they're expecting. So I don't know if that I don't that helped simplify things. So as projects as projects are finished on the ones that are in this that are crossed off the list and are coming to completion, we are then taking the budgets on those projects and we are bringing those budgets in line with the actual spend to be zero over or under spent. >> So some of those may have come in over what the initial project budget was. Some of them came under came in under. We re we we've been reallocating those budgets to the projects that need the funds, but we're going to get to a

058point where we don't have funds potentially to reallocate. So then the decision will be made deal road off of the list, not do it, wait till we have funding. If we can take these projects that are 100% grant grant funded out of the mix, that frees up for us to use those funds to reach that that 23,300 or ceiling for other road projects because it's it's sort of inflating your spend number when >> we're we're we're spending it up front, but we're getting all that money back, >> right? So, let's just take the case avenue bridge. You have roughly $2.5 million that you budgeted for in the bond that you're not going to spend. Is that >> Well, we've spent right right now. We've spent it right now, >> but you're going to get reimbured

059for that. >> We got reimbured for >> But in in looking at the total when I look at the total right now of the project budgets, let me go back to this. When I look at the total total spend allowed per referendum of 233, that's going to change a little bit when we pull out the money the excess out of the fire truck to reallocate to the roads. That $18,471 includes $2.5 million that was budgeted for Case Bridge. If we can pull $2.5 million out of that, that's going to bring us down to projects budgeted of 16 million million, which then gives us more bandwidth. use that word, right? >> Money band. >> It gives us it gives us more um availability of funds to use for other projects. >> So, it takes your $519,000

060shortfall and makes it a million5 plus. >> It's a surplus. >> Does that not help you with your Oakdale? >> Yes. >> Quandry that you're in there and bring Grantville back into play or >> Yes. Yep. >> So, do we have a on all the projects when you started this sheet five years ago? didn't get to do this today, but I know the question that you're going to ask because I pulled up the um Hold on. >> You're starting to read my mind. >> I knew exactly. It's a little scary, isn't it? >> Yes. >> No, I pulled that one up today and I was like, I gotta update that. Um Oh, it's Why is this one not? >> You had You had it open before. You had it open and then you lost the

061Wi-Fi. You're going to have to reopen. >> Yeah, I think I got to reopen it. I'm going to bring up the I'm going to bring up that uh schedule just to show you. So, >> I guess another way to say this because some of this does get confusing and maybe not for the board, but for the general public, I'm going to use the Pearson roof as as a good example as well. So, we did go out, we had asked the voters to approve the total amount of the Pearson roof project. We are expecting a 70% reimbursement. So, we're not going to go and obviously borrow all of that money because we're going to get 70% reimbursement. So, on these projects where, you know, Grantville Road where we're expecting 100% reimbursement, it's not there's no reason

062to bring it through the bond, I will need action from from this board to accept the the the money. um which will be later down the road, but there's no reason to inflate the bond total if we're not even needing any of the bond money to to do the project. >> You're leaving yourself a fictional shortfall, >> right? >> Correct. This is what I didn't get to today, which was the next project on my list was this is what was projected originally in the in the presentations for the road bond and I was going to do a comparison of what was the initial projection of the cost versus what the actual cost is coming in at. >> Is that what you were looking for? >> Yeah, about that. Yeah, >> sort of. [laughter] >> Certainly

063what >> somewhere close to that. >> So, I got a question. So, we did a bridge two plus years ago, 100% funded. We still didn't receive all the money yet. Does that affect I mean the bond >> for here? You mean? >> Yeah. For the, you know, for the extra money that you're going to >> What bridge are we talking? >> No, no, no. In my town. >> Okay. That's what I'm asking. >> Yeah. Um, yeah. It was 100% funded by the state and we we received like 90% of it, but they're still holding off on Can I answer that? >> You need a Tom at Anmarie and they'll get you 100%. You need a Tom at Marie. >> I just wonder if it affects it because I mean it didn't affect us because we

064don't have bonding. >> It's not going to affect us. I mean it might we might not have potentially you might not have cash in hand but as long as you have that agreement from the state that states that the reimbursement is coming in if they're with if they're potentially withholding funds like basically retainage right on the project. um then it's still a receivable for the town. So you can still recognize that as revenue because the project is complete, but you now have to go after the state of Connecticut to get those funds, which you know they are notoriously slow. Yes. Um and you have a lot of turnover at the state level and so you kind of have to keep you kind of have to keep pushing to get the funds. >> And and the

065project closed out was that through the federal local bridge program? The project really works quite well until project close out >> and then they are checking every little thing against every other >> fight the state and aquarian over a cost. >> Oh, see there you go. >> We got stuck in the middle of it. >> But they they they and again not that not that it's not a good thing that it's a bummer that takes time but that's them doing their due diligence to make sure that everybody's paid everybody's paying their fair share. The contractors what's private is being paid by the private people. So, but it's a it is project close out. We're still not done with Suckerbrook Bridge project close out. And >> yeah, mine's longer than yours. >> So, it's it's Yeah,

066that's it. It can be it can be a drag. >> So, if anybody has questions and you can read that little chart that you have, you also have an email that I had sent over, I think. Do they get copies of your email? >> So, the board packet is emailed to them and so they have it electronic. >> So, you might want to pull that up on your computer so you can actually read it. There are notes off to the side on the on the one that is the bond only projects. Uh we did some of them might be a little outdated on the ones that Jim has noted were mostly complete or you know he may have said we may have marked them complete in today's schedule. They may still be showing in not

067not in the purple completed projects. They're still showing as open projects. So but that's pretty much it on the bonds I think. Is there any other >> other questions from the board? >> So the Case Avenue bridge and the Granville Road um projects are ones that will be taken out. Are there any are there any other >> potentially? We're looking at you know we're looking at all of them. We're looking at the lots of versus the non lots for Haliber. Um if there is if there is a possibility of splitting those projects into two separate projects that would allow us to pull out the lots of piece. Um we're looking at the Lake Street which is tied to the steep um grant application that's being worked on right now. So we're we're looking at any

068of them that have a grant tied to them that we can we could potentially utilize those funds that were in here that we're going to be granted >> and and just so you know the where it said Grantville Road it's actually the Granville Road Bridge over the Mad River. It's that's it's not Mad River Bridge really. It's the Granville Road Bridge over the Mad River. It's just a big block and it took up two space >> and I couldn't get rid of it today because I couldn't get the slide to work. So, we left it as we gave up on that >> like we left it as it was in the initial slides back. That's how it was presented. So, we left the wording as >> Yeah. So, it's it's two bridges and they're both

069part of the federal local bridge program, which [clears throat] again, I'll just be real quick on this. When when we were doing the when we were doing the bond, we were putting these projects in, we were anticipating an 8020 split. So, we needed to get our 20% from somewhere. So, we went to the bond. At the very last minute, I threw in the grant bill bridge because I had heard that they were going to change to the 100%. And I wanted to get in before anybody else did. So, we threw it in and the wisdom of the board just said, "Well, let's go for it." Luckily, it paid off and it it could really salvage what, you know, what inflation has just hammered us with over a fiveyear bond. this will really help bridge that

070gap. No, no pun intended there. But um so it was part luck, part you know, again, it's always a team effort. You know, somebody hears something, you act on it, you go for it, and it worked out. Another part of the wisdom was, you know, the way they they wrote the bond was was general, so you had the flexibility to do these things. You know, if you write something so specific, you're just handcuffed. So, a lot of things went right about this and they're starting to show themselves. The one thing that went wrong was the timing. You know, that the inflation was just insane. Like, roughly 50% in five years. It's just crazy. So, >> thank you. >> Anything else? >> If nobody else has anything on the bond, I just while you're here, um

071on my way home, obviously notice that 263 states. Did they do anything to fix that problem out there? >> 263 what? >> Yeah. Where the building where the water out of the building. >> Yeah. So, DOT um DOT put a catch basin in that parking lot to capture that water before it gets out to the road and runs across and discharges into a Highland Lake stream. So, >> didn't didn't do anything for the water coming under the building though, right? >> Nope. >> Yeah. >> No, that's >> that's still in the works. >> Not by me. >> Oh, okay. >> No, if the owner wants to do something about it, they >> Oh, that's the owner thing. I thought the state was doing something about it. I I think they looked at what the possible

072options were and you just have to be, you know, in public life, you've got to be very careful to not use public dollars on private property and that was that was just hands down what what that would have turned into. So that they just had to go and just do what they could in the in the only area that they they had such a small area to work. That was the only option they had. As long as they set that catch basin top low enough, it's going to capture that water. You know, their surveyors picked up that location and they had it marked and they had it saw cut months months and months ago. So, I I don't doubt it's going to work. So, yeah, >> they lose a lot of salt over there. >>

073Oh, and it's just it interrupts it interrupts everything. There's just no no good can come from that the way it was. So, >> thanks. >> Yep. So, they're they're done with that. >> Thanks, guys. >> Thank you. Keep up the good work, folks. >> Item eight, correspondence, the superintendent's email. >> So, as you all saw, you got an email today. They are starting the ad administrative uh union negotiations. I apologize. I don't the the first meeting is I believe coming up next week. Um the superintendent is looking and by state statute is looking for an observer from the board of selectmen. I leave it to all of you to decide who your observer is. If you was that >> it's actually July 10th, the 23rd, and the 24th. >> I think it was June. >>

074I think it's one of those, not all of them. >> There's three of them. >> It's all three. The three dates have been set. Usually when you're when you're in a negotiations, you set the first >> three meetings. So July 10th is the first one. >> 10, 23, and 24. >> Are there timelines for that? I mean, is there morning, afternoon, evening? Um, all at 100 p.m. 100 p.m. >> Well, select Hefernet and I are the liaison for the board. So, >> yeah, >> I don't know if you can. >> It depends on the day. I mean, right now I can't do the 10th floor, but what was the other date? >> 23 and 24 I can do. I am okay if our liaison take that if they wish. >> I can do the 10th

075if you can't. >> I don't know if anybody else I mean does anybody want to >> Don't jump. No. >> I I mean it seems like we have general consensus. You can motion it or uh I can just let Julie know that the liaison will be um at the meeting if that's okay with the board. I don't think you need any formal action. >> That way. >> Okay. I I'll let her know tomorrow. >> Excellent. >> All right. Item nine, boards and commissions. Uh we don't have a formal report, but Kevin, you wanted to bring something up? >> We don't have anything. We >> Okay. We had a question come up about uh moving up someone from an alternate position to um a full-time uh regular seat position, but we need to look into um

076the two alternates. Uh this is for planning and zoning. We need to look into the two alternates and uh determine which one came first. >> Was it planning and zoning or ZBA? >> ZBA. >> CBA. Sorry. >> ZBA. >> Yeah. So just confirm that and confirm if the one that's older wants to sit or stay as an alternate too, you know, >> and they can do business with alternates until full-time is appointed. >> I can take care of that. >> Thank you, sir. >> Anything else? >> Item 10, unfinished business. Nothing is on the agenda. Item 11, B, charter revision. Charter revision commission report. Chairwoman Perez. >> Hi everybody. >> Let me see if I can connect real quick. Uh I gave you all a P uh packet and it's a report from the Charter

077Revision Commission. While I'm hooking this up, I'd like to recognize uh three members of the commission that are here. We have Mark, we have Sandra, and we have Holly that helped with it. Um, and then, uh, everybody else, uh, Paul and Cheryl were on here as well. Uh, Louisa helped and Bill Hudach helped as well. Um, you'll see on the bottom of your packet that, uh, the last one of the last pages of your packet, you have the members of the Charter Revision Commission. All right. So, everything's working good. That's why you get Macintosh. Just saying. But anyway, so this is our report. Uh so so the plan tonight is not to discuss the issues that are in here or the recommendations that are in here but just to give a broad uh view of

078uh what ones move forward and why. Uh we can schedule another meeting with all of you if you want to discuss any particular issue. Um we when I go through this we'll also get to the part it's on the front page of the report too of the next steps for all of you to do. Uh so the commission has done its work. We followed the timeline. We were under budget. Oh, wait. There was no cost because Holly did the minutes and I did the report. Um the rest of the team would like to go to lunch. Uh so so so we'll we'll figure that one out later. So anyway, so the first one we did was um there were charges that you gave us and there was other things from the community and also from

079the registars. So, the first one that we would like to move forward is the town clerk transition from uh profession from an elected position to professionally appointed. Uh there's a few uh little tidbits in there in terms of why that is. 75 municipalities use it uh as an professionally appointed position. Um and mostly the one of the first reasons to do this is the technical role that it plays. Now the land records, vital statistics, complex election laws, the amount of time it takes to get get certified. So we believe it would be best interest of the town to be a professionally appointed position. Um it would start after the if the charter question was approved at the next election, it would start at the end of the current term of the town clerk. The next

080one that we uh looked at and researched and moved forward uh was serving concurrent service on uh more than one major board. We defined the major boards um for the purpose of this restriction. You can see which ones they are up here and they're also in your packet and that was something that you had put before us. The next one came from the registars and it seemed to make sense when we were talking about it. And it kind of goes along with the same reason the town clerk would be a professional position is the registars. We want to go from a two-year term to a four-year term. It creates stability and knowledge and uh reducing any turnover that there might be. But there is really a huge financial impact to this that I don't think

081some of us recognized until after we, you know, really got talking to the clerks and got the information from them is that there's a $1,600 investment per clerk for some training that has to happen. They have to go to courses all the time and and within two years they just barely get that done. Um and the technical aspects of it again are are things that the state keeps putting out gets more and more complex and it also uh aligns with some of the regional standards out there. The report goes more into depth to you. Now this was the more fun one of all of them. Uh the budget timeline adjustments. Uh this was is purposefully done to do the structural changes to make things work better if we can. Um so we decided the board

082of ed would get a benefit because it we want to shift the date that the budget is due from March 15th to the 22nd to give the board of ed a little bit more time uh to uh finalize their budget but also it allows a little shorter of a window. You'll see that we're tightening up the timelines throughout this and the reason for that is um not only board of ed but taxpayer engagement. We're thinking we're thinking that the taxpayer sometimes if our budget meetings go too long or the process goes too long that they're engaged and they disengage and then they have to get back engaged again. So by going to a shorter window we might be able to have more taxpayer engagement because they only have to be engaged for a shorter period

083of time. uh board of selectment window we have compressed this uh to a shorter more intensive we call it decision- making window um because a lot of times as a board I know that when I was there sometimes we just put things off until we had to do the last minute you know it's like when you have to write a paper for school you wait until the night before and you finish your paper um and so sometimes decisions are like that so we've shortened and compressed yours a little bit um and the major thing that we were looking at is the referendum failure mitigation. Uh right now when a budget would fail, it would take a long time to get the next budget up and running. Uh we're looking at a 14-day turnaround if the

084budget were to fail. Luckily, over the course of time, not all budgets fail. Uh some budgets go out and and they make it in the first try. So, we wanted to make sure that we didn't do just everything for a referendum failure, but for referendums in in general. Um the other thing we did too is uh shortening the time after the town meeting will also shorten the town meeting window at that time. Uh there's more details like it like the other ones. So you take a look at that. So eligibility for boards and commissions. Uh I found my email from Kevin Deligan from 2022. Yeah. No, was it 20? Yeah. 2022. Um, the first one I had, remember, was from 2008, which really got us tangled in a few things, but in 2022, one of

085the things that always comes up is what is an elector and what is a property owner get to vote on? Um, and and what does uh somebody sitting on a board commission get to be? Uh, so we came to the um conclusion that to be eligible for most boards and commissions, and in your packet, you'll have ones that are starred and ones that are not. There are whatever one was in the charter is starred as having to meet these standards of being an elector, which basically is you're a resident and you're eligible to vote. Um, a property owner we define for budgets, for people that qualify as a property owner for budget referendums, votes that are bonds, things that are money. Um, but for being on a border commission, you have to be eligible to

086be you're an elector to be that means being a resident and eligible to vote on that. So, we went we went through that and um for boards or commissions that you form or boards or commissions that are ad hoc, you would decide the eligibility criteria like you did with the historic commission when we made those changes for historic commission. So you would decide that are they going to be an elector meaning resident or should they be a property owner or should they just have some skills that you want and they happen to have a business in town. Um so but for right now we're just defining the elector and property owner based on Kevin Nelligan's uh 2022 recommendations and he also was at our meeting uh online uh last Monday. items we did not move

087forward uh for various reasons is the four-year terms for board of selectmen IWWC membership 97 removal of stipens for board of selectmen that was due to time um there was a couple other things fire department consolidation was requested we sent that back for them to study it more and a resident brought up moving a Gilbert line item to the town side of the budget and that was ruled not consistent with law but we did not move those forward however we do have a major recommendation And um and I think you recognize this as well is the inherent challenges of incremental updates to this document. We strongly recommend that the board and the town manager find a professional firm such as we did with general code to restructure the charter into a more logical and accessible

088document. Following this reorganization, the substant substance of individual sections can be updated more effectively. Once that is done, after the reorganization of the charter, we recommend another charter revision commission should be established to review the necessary updates from the town attorney and others. That is a strong recommendation. It's been something that's been talked about for um not a thousand years, but pretty close to it. Um and it is a major recommendation at the end of your report. So, the next steps, because I know that's what you're waiting for, is the next steps is um if we follow the timeline uh from when we when you first uh did this in uh February, by June 15th, we submitted our report. We did our our job here. July 6th is your next meeting. We would recommend that

089you hold a a a public hearing at that time. It says within 45 days of submission, but if you waited 45 days, we'll be work working right on the edge of time in August if you wanted to send it back to us. If you don't want to send it back to us, then you could stay within 45 days, but we recommend July 6th as a public hearing to go along with the meeting that you're already here for. So, by July 21st, we would want any recommendations back from you or within 15 days of the hearing. So, we picked July July 21st was the date there. You must either accept it accept the report as is and say, "Wow, nice job. Let's go." Um, the next step after that would be for Kevin Nelligan to do

090the language within the charter and the questions for the ballot. If you don't want something in there or you want something else in there, you would send it back to the uh CRC with the recommended changes. So, if you accept it, we ship it off to Kevin Nelligan. If you don't, it comes back to us. Um, if when you do send it back to us, if there are things that you ex accept and want to accept, we might want to send those to Kevin Nelligan so he has plenty of time to do it without having to get crushed with everything. I've kept him up to date with the changes that we're making. So, there should be nothing unexpected by him. And I think that is those are our members of us that we have. And

091I believe that's the end. So again, we'd be welcome to come. We're we'd be happy to come back and talk with you about anything that you'd like. Uh a lot of stuff is in here. It's pretty comprehensive. Uh Cheryl and Paul were there. So the good thing about that is they know what we were doing as well. Um and they could answer questions probably for you a little bit uh if you needed to. But all of us here would come back again and speak with you if you need us to or if you had questions, we could meet outside the meeting um as as needed. >> All right. And that is all I have for you. >> Thank you all. >> Thank you. >> So um just just would point out thank you for everybody

092who did this hard work and for those on the board. Uh Michelle and I were at most meetings. I think this board or this commission I should say did a um they did their work very thoughtfully, very carefully. They went through each one of these issues um had great debate and I think what they've presented to us is a really good document. So thanks to the to the group. >> Thank you. >> If I may, m uh Mr. Mayor, if I could uh go over a few items that Candy just brought up. So, on July 6, which is our next board of selectment meeting, they are suggesting that the board of selectman hold a public hearing. Perhaps we could do a public hearing at 6:00. We could uh preview um you know, everything that they

093brought back. I also believe my opinion on July 6, you've all had an opportunity to read the document. We've then had the opportunity to hear from the public. We should have an agenda item of exactly what you want to do. Are you going to accept everything that the charter revision is um you know going to do? Is there more questions that you want to bring them back? Because we do need to give a recommendation to them on July 21st. But I think you all can debate um listen to what the public may have to offer on that July 6th meeting, talk a little bit more. But on July 20th, which is our second meeting, we are then it's by the 21st because obviously we're going to get out whatever time that next morning I'm emailing

094the Charter Revision Commission. These are the changes we want you to talk about or green light, go with what you have that you offer no changes. And I think, you know, even at the July 6, if there's certain ones we accept, just as Candy suggested, we can let them know that those are not in dispute. Y the others we want to explore. >> But yeah, I think that sounds like a very responsible plan. >> Okay. So, can I have a motion to set the public hearing on July the 6? >> I'll make a motion to set a public hearing for the Charter Review Commission report on July 6, 2026 at 6 o'clock p.m. >> Second. We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Unanimous. >> Would you like us there?

095>> Uh, yes, please. Um, and then what I'll do, um, charter revision has their own section on our website, but I'll make this a feature. I'm going to put up the the charter revision report. So, it becomes, you know, >> it's on the website. >> It's on your website. I knew you and Terry were talking about, but I I'll put it as a feature so it's not buried, you know, three pages deep. Is there a is there a summary of it somewhere? Because as you go through this, as you know, with all the line outs and the red lining, it's some bit hard to follow. Is there a good summary thing we should put up? >> I I was just going to offer Ken, if you could send me that presentation, I can put that

096up. Uh I don't >> I'm sorry. >> Lunch for the [laughter] >> fourth distress community. lunch. >> So, so a light a light. >> I think they have a budget, you know, they haven't touched yet. [laughter] >> Well, we're going to use selecting contingency. It's on your money anyways. Candy and I will work it out. Definitely. >> I think that would be great to put that up because it summarizes it well and it's easy to understand. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> I think they deserve a lunch. >> They didn't hire Secretary Harry. So, we do have those funds. I did you all vote on setting it for July 6th or was it first and then second? >> You voted. >> Did we vote? >> Okay, that's I was pointing you guys back. >> We didn't

097vote. >> No, we did. >> We did. We second it. Did we vote? >> I didn't hear. [laughter] >> We'll vote. All in favor? >> I already voted. I >> guess we didn't vote though. >> I didn't hear it. I was >> Jeff. Did we vote? >> Yes. It was unanimous. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Jeff. >> Thanks, Jeff. Item uh BC, discussion regarding naming of town streets facilities. Unfortunately, >> it's not well because we moved a up. >> Oh, I see. Okay. >> So, uh unfortunately, naming a town street or renaming a town street isn't as easy as one might think. Paul, >> thank you. So, at last meeting, I was caught a little flatfooted. I I'll I'll say that we did look the mayor and I did look at this uh several months

098ago. Um so I needed to to go back and and and recall everything that we researched, but I I think what we'll start is a few items came up at that last meeting and one of it was what what is the ordinance? So included in your packet was the actual ordinance and then also the memo from me. Uh the board of selectmen shall have the authority to change the name of any street or highway part thereof within the town when it is of the opinion that public convenience and necessity requires such change of name. No such ordinance shall be adopted, however, until after a public hearing has been held by the Gord Selecman on any proposed changes in the name of the street or highway. Public notice of such hearing has been published so on

099and so on and so on. Our typical stuff before and and I think the board wanted to talk about the ordinance which I think we should do as well. I also expanded and which I which I've written in the memo that the board could ultimately decide to change a street name. There are a lot of other agencies that I need to involve in the street name such as Connecticut DOT, E911, um, let me reference my uh, Connecticut E911, United States Postal Service, M Winchester Police Department, Winchester Fire Department, Emergency Medical Services, Department of Public Works, Planning and Zoning Department, and other agencies as appropriate. So remember, we live in this digital age now. Um, we all have maps on our phones, everything like that. changing a street name, you're involving all of those agencies because

100when you change the street name, and you know, our EMS crew, our fire department crew, even our police department crew, when they're going to a street, the GPS is guiding them to an emergency call. Um, if you've changed a street name is going to confuse a lot of what's going on. The driver may be looking for, you know, such and such a street and now it's named this street. Did they make the left? Did they make the right? Um this particular street, new street, um part of ordinance is we would need to talk to any of the residents that live on that street. Fortunately, there are no residents that live on that street. Um it does cross over a a major highway, which is now involving the DOT as well. In fact, they own that

101bridge because it crosses over a major highway. And and not making up, you know, anything because I think the idea is exemplary. Um, but I have to get the DOT involved and we all know how much fun getting the deal. >> Paul, before we even go down all that road, let's let's understand or at least try to come to a consensus. What do what does everybody believe that um public convenience and necessity requires it? So, what is that even allowing us to do? It says it's when we're of the opinion that public convenience and necessity requires such a change. I mean, what is that even allowing us to do? >> The way I read that, unless it causes mass confusion, um I don't see us being able to change it. So, I think if we

102do want to change the ordinance, you know, we would need to do that >> to correct that. Um, I would say something like Prospect Street and Prospect Avenue would cause confusion. Um, you other similar names. So we don't think that the request that we've was brought to us allow is allowed under what the current ordinance says. We agree on that. >> I would agree with you but I but I don't think that [clears throat] what Aubrey suggested is precluded by this because it's not changing the name. It's just creating a designation sign. So, as I read the statute, you know, what we, you know, charter and then statute, it's it's something that we could do, you know, as an honor and not actually, we're not actually changing the name, so it won't affect the the

103DOT. It doesn't affect the post office. It doesn't affect anyone's address. It's just a supplement. >> How do we have multiple names for one road, though? That's the part that kind of concerned me when I when I was listening to Aubrey's idea. How do we >> I see it all the time. New Haven has a number of them. New Haven has a bunch I think you brought up a bunch of locations >> if I may change their end that first one back in February of 25 and I think that had to go through like the the board of select or city council as well. Um, I don't I would have to do more research on how that actually happened there, too. But I think it was just an active uh the town actually approving letting

104that happen. Didn't affect having to go, you know, changing anything with the postal service, police department, anything else. You just you're adding a sign honoring a particular person, organization, or group of people, in this case veterans. Is it something that we can um again rather than tear into all of the things that you have there tonight, we don't think the ordinance allows it for that idea is can we get some research for one of our next meetings on okay, how did they do it? We don't know if our ordinance precludes it. You know, how did their ordinance allow it specifically? Give us an idea what it looks like and and how we might move forward with it. I think Aubrey's volunteering to be the ad hoc committee of >> You gonna go to Bridgeport and

105take some [laughter] pictures for us. >> What? >> You gonna go to Bridgeport, take some pictures for us? >> What? >> When I worked for the city of Tarton, um the owner of Carbones Market, uh when he sold the business out of respect for him, they named the street Oak Avenue after him, Tony Carbone, whatever Avenue or whatever it was. Um but the the sign was a different color as the street sign. So it was a blue sign. So they never physically changed the street. >> They never physically because they then then you're messing with people's addresses. Yep. Which is not a problem on New Street, but still if you do a blue sign and then >> you know it's like like they said it's a it's an honor to >> So I know the

106other question >> come up for me. >> I know when you put stuff on state property they get kind of cranky sometimes and they take your signs. We would need to make sure that they're not going to jack our signs as soon as we put them up. >> Well, if we put it on the other end of it, >> Stay away from the bridge. You should be have no problem. >> Stay off of uh old route 8 and go on the other end more than down on Route 8. And I believe the name is supposed to be Medal of Honor because there's Medal of Honor recently in Cinttown if I remember Mr. Canol speaking. >> Was that or was it something to do with Purple Heart? >> Go ahead. I think anything we could do

107for the veterans is wonderful very so and then a battalion and so I can tell you specifically and also district those signs which there's 30 maybe 40 they have these double signs they're exactly the same it creates amount of confusion it's unbelievable because people reporting fires emergencies see that sign and they start calling it in. The problem is that that sign's not official. >> It's just a sign, >> right? >> So now people are not using the right sign, they're using the wrong sign. Happens all the time. >> So when you start putting a sign above or below, just keep in mind that people are going to say that's the street that I'm on. That's not true. Now new street's not a big deal because there's no houses on. I'm just letting you know. I'm

108guessing this won't be the only request though. New street will be the beginning of >> more than one and we have to be aware. You know, imagine you're calling in 911 emergency and you look at the bottom sign. That's the first thing you see. So, I would just like to have some more research for this board to so that we understand how it would work, what some of the pitfalls have been in other communities. >> We're all on the same page. >> Bring public safety to see what their comment is. I would think the big distinction between Bridgeport and us is the size. We don't have, you know, hundreds and hundreds of roads. So that's that's a completely different issue. You know, I I think that if we're doing a, you know, one sign or

109a handful of signs that we're doing these honor areas on, you know, our police department and um fire department would be able to figure it out. >> I love the idea of honoring them. I just want to make sure we do something that's not going to confuse people and we're calling in emergencies with the wrong road names and and that sort of thing. >> And how would we how would we put um some kind of limiter criteria because you know then the next person's going to come in and want you know someone else honored and how do we how do we then deal with that question? >> So the ordinance does kind of address that. Um so you need to have a petition um to change the name. The board of selectment needs to create

110a naming committee. Um so there are some safeguards but >> like you both said where do we draw the line? >> Um and then naming standards. Um yeah, no facility shall be named for any racial, ethnic, religious group, organization facilities should not be named for individuals still living and except as deemed worthy of recognition by the board like dost standing contributions to the town. So there's there's, you know, some standards, you know, but right now this to to have to follow this process for something like what we're talking about is rigorous. But I mean, >> so Mr. Mayor, there's one more possible solution here. And if >> under the impression correctly, >> Winchester is new street, right? We discussed >> the bridge is not the bridge is state property, correct? Because it goes over Route

1118. >> That's correct. >> We we could drag in J case uh and request that the state name the bridge. So it would still stay New Street, but the bridge would be dedicated to the veterans. Is that the >> And that keeps Winchester was down. >> That's farther down because I know for us we can't change the name within 10 years once it's changed. >> Um so as long as it's not named for him already, >> that wouldn't be an issue. I I'd like to just go back to something that was debated on. I didn't I didn't I didn't get to chime in, but what this is, you know, uh thinking outside the box. So, I understand when you have two street signs on a poll, it gets very confusing. So, if we think outside

112of the box and we wanted to do something to memorialize our our our Purple Heart recipients, what if the sign was on the ground? by on the ground where it's a you know >> a sign on the ground where you know it's it's >> yeah not a >> wood not not a street sign right so now it's you know a >> monument sign >> thank you that was the word I was looking for monument sign come up with that one again just thinking outside the box does that confuse people [clears throat] I don't know you know when you're driving you do look at you know the signs above >> so doing it that way if you take it like if you take >> Route in Bridgeport is named after a particular colonel. It's the I

113forget his the name, but it's the, you know, Colonel So and So Memorial Highway is the southern >> Darcy right up there on this side, >> right? So somehow the state takes those interstate highways and they name them and they don't change it. Didn't become, it's no longer Route 8. It's still Route 8, but they give it some sort of monument sort of name. Maybe we can explore to your point having that monument sign that says this is the so and so memorial road even though it's still new street. >> Even new street is dedicated to those who have received the purple heart. >> Winston residents who received the purple heart. So it's not a street. It's an actual sign. The city of Harford has a lot of signs on buildings >> throughout the roads

114too. >> Yeah. like the Bob Steel Memorial plaque. Um, which isn't interesting. I hear you're not dealing with changing a street name, but you're dedicating a existing street or rededicated. >> I'm sure back in ' 86 they had something with the Whalers. >> Everybody remember >> although I've never seen >> should be the Chuck Kaitton, you know, road. I I truly I know my marching orders and and just as somebody that likes to fill his head full of stuff, I'm excited to learn what I find down in these honorary memorial, you know. Uh and I I know what you're looking for. You and I could team up. >> Um >> yeah, may add one more thing, too. Uh I just I just also remember too u state of Oklahoma the the two major highways, Interstate

11535 and Interstate 40. And there's like different sections of those highways here throughout the state that were just put on there with with just names like, you know, like the World War II Veterans Highway, one was the Korean War Veterans Highway and so forth and so on. So maybe instead of like the street sign itself or whatnot, you know, to to your idea of like a monument sign, maybe at either end of the street, you could say the uh Winston Winchester, Connecticut Veterans Memorial street or something like that, you know, as you as people turn on that street from either way. >> But I could but I could look into >> Well, let's Yeah, let's >> and I do think we need to clarify this ordinance at some point. Yeah, >> if you want to

116have Kevin read the ordinance, but it exactly what is convenience and necessity? What falls under that definition? >> I do it. I I I want Kevin to look at it. Okay. >> Should reach out to Mr. Canal to make sure that direction we're going is what he was looking for. >> Yeah. And the name I thought he said Veterans Memorial. >> I thought he mentioned Purple Heart. >> Yeah, he did. He did specifically mention Purple Heart. Purple Heart. I do like the name of the idea of naming bridges. I mean, that could actually perhaps since it's not renaming the street, but it could have perhaps help emergency responders more precisely locate things because it's another named thing that could be on, >> you know, whole state thing. So, that would almost we'd get it done,

117but it would it would become a only drawback there is it would probably be about nine years before the state got around to actually. >> Do we not own any of the bridges? Why do you not? >> Yeah, they all under they all fall under federal or state, >> which is a good thing because they pay to get them fixed. >> So, that is a good thing. >> We don't want bridges. >> Isn't there a Purple Heart program? >> Cuz I've been through other towns where you're driving around and there's just a sign up with a Purple Heart. Torington is a Purple Heart town. >> Yeah. >> You'll see a lot of state police officers named after bridges because they work for the >> Yeah, that's the state as well. Oh, don't you see the

118bridge is named after troop serve troopers and >> does one of the board want to reach out to our Harford delegation to ask about the bridge or you want me to >> I'll take care of that. >> You got it. >> Okay. >> So, I'm putting that on my list. >> But you're going to do the research on the rest of it. >> Yes. Yes. Plenty plenty of it. >> Probably wouldn't hurt to reach out to the police and the fire chief to give a little take on that. >> We've kind of >> So, we we we've had an initial conversation. We have a lot of new officers um that have started um and we have new officers that start you know throughout. Um these new officers are heavily relying on their you know system

119in their car of how to get to emergency response. Um so there was I I don't want to say push back by any means but there was definitely strong words of >> this could have big implications on response >> times if you actually changed the name the road. The exit numbers on highways were because of GPS the exit number changes >> and they still leave the old one up which I never >> You also need to include the public works director so you might as well ask him if do you have any opinion on it? Does it bother you in any way? >> This is the first I heard of it. So I'd rather think about it before answering >> because it says in the ordinance that has to go through you too. >> Yeah,

120it wouldn't be my first choice but I have my marching orders for sure. >> All right, moving on to uh item D, discussion on the Wallinsville Mountainside properties. Mayor, just give me one second. I'm going to put my other take a five. >> No, I don't need five unless the board needs behind. I don't >> I would take five. We need >> Keep going. >> We have a five recess. >> All right, we'll take five. So, be back at 8:42. Bro, I was in my zone. >> [clears throat] >> We're back from recess at 8:44. Item D, discussion on the Walls Hill Mountain Slide Properties. Domain. >> Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Uh, I'll report to the board that um all of the uh proposals are now listed on the town's website along with the Gman and

121York. So, if you are watching at home and you're interested in potentially looking at the three proposals that were uh submitted to the town, we have listed them on the town's website along with we did bring in Gman and York who put together a roughly 10page uh report that literally breaks down each of those proposals. I did ask Gman and York to be here tonight. Unfortunately, they did have a scheduling conflict. Um they asked if they were to attend what other information you would like. they felt that their report listed everything and they would just be re, you know, regurgitating the report that they they all gave to you. Um, I'm sure you all had time to look at the proposals and read the report. Um I'm recommending that um at a meeting to be

122scheduled, probably not a board of selectment meeting, we bring each of the developers in for a 15 or 20 minute proposal of each poss and and in of course the public is invited to that as well so they can hear potentially uh a window of a 15 to 20 minute questions that you may all have for the developers as well. Um, I believe the proposals were all very full of information. You notice what each one of the proposals said is that we would have to negotiate a contract and and and the information that gets put into the contract is important because they may be looking at huge abatements and some may be looking at smaller abatements. My recommendation is not only re bringing in the three uh developers, but to go back to them and

123ask them for a one pager of not agreeing to any of it, right? But asking them what they would be looking at from the town in terms of if they were the selected developer, what does your abatement scale look like? What does this tiff district look like? And and and by the way, they use the word tiff. That's tax incremental financing district. We would need to create a tiff. We would then what they're asking for and this is the carabetta uh proposal. They would then use the town to back the actual money that they would borrow for the projects. It was created by Michael and Andrade at TIFF district. Several communities have them. We currently do not have a trophic in town. Those are my recommendations to the board. But I I I obviously leave

124it open to to all of you and what you would like the next steps to be um in terms of vetting these three proposals out. >> I'm I'm curious, Paul, what the appetite of the board is for all three developers. I mean, I'd be interested in talking to two of them, but not all three. I don't know. Again, I So, I want to ask a question based on what you just said about the TIFF district. Do we have an do we as a board have an appetite to guarantee the money for any one of these projects? >> No. >> So that kind of takes the one with the tiff um sort of out of contention does it not caretas? That takes them out of contention. >> I would agree. >> I agree. >> I think

125everything is a negotiation. Uh, so I don't know if we want to disqualify anyone at this stage. >> I I think >> but it may be a hard pill to swallow. >> Sorry. [clears throat] Sorry, mayor. I I I think we should have all three of them come in and talk just like by the recommendation of the town manager and see what they all have to say and and then we can kind of, you know, baby step it a little bit and figure out what's what everybody's really kind of thinking and heading because I'm not sure what everybody's thinking here. You know, I know what I'm thinking but not not what everybody else is and what we're looking for for the town and help to grow the town. So I definitely have him come in

126step from there. >> What I would like to do is keep this project moving. I don't want to be sitting here a year from today going which one of these three are we going to pick >> lose some. >> Yeah. I'd like to move this along at a reasonable pace. May I offer up um and this is completely you know talking outside because we haven't talked to any of them. I I we did mention that you know the step that I would like to see is they each come in and make the presentation. I'm looking at the calendar right now. Um we are off until July 6th. Um I don't think we should do this on a border select night. Could be lengthy. You could potentially look at the 29th that Monday. I don't know

127if you're falling into potential vacations or not, but this is a big project and I think a developer should be here. Um, is the 29th is it that Thursday the 25th town halls open late. >> I can't do Thursdays. >> You can't do Thursdays. Can I? I can't do that. >> So, that's up. Um, how's the 29th as? And I'll update the board. We'll reach out. >> 29th or July. >> June 29th. Going off of what Select Marino said, move this thing. >> I agree. >> June. It's it's our by week as I like to say because there's five Mondays uh in uh in May or excuse me in June. >> What time would you have it on that Monday? >> It's 6:00 Monday. I won't I won't be in town until >> I'm not

128in town on the 29th either. >> 29th or 30th. I I'll also know and I and I already know what the board's going to say, but I'm just going to check this box. We'll also make it available obviously on our cable and our YouTube channel. Um, so if residents can't make it, it will be uh taped and they can either watch it at home or watch it at their convenience. >> We have enough time to do it next Monday. >> I mean, you're you're asking to put together a presentation. Aren't these the presentations? >> Uh, next Monday. I can't do We have an RDD1 meeting. >> Let's go for the 30th. Can everybody do the 30th? >> Tuesday. I'm gone the 29th and 30th. >> How about July 1st? >> A Wednesday. >> It's a

129Wednesday. I can do July 1st. >> Anybody else have an issue? >> Time. >> Let's go. Time and date. >> As long as it's later at night, I can do it. >> Seven. Six. You do six. >> Six. July 1st. >> July 1st. >> Okay. >> For now, would this be one or can we have two in an evening? >> I was going to go off. >> Three. Okay, great. >> 20 minute uh present. max 20 minutes. We'll time them. We we'll cut them out and then we'll say that um you know >> 15 minutes. >> Well, we used your 20 minute uh >> we do how about we do 30 >> always make it shorter because we like we said we have a lot of information. >> You have a lot >> for the

130then to do a presentation which we received the presentation. Correct. It's more about I think their role is more to answer questions >> you know and we could we could suggest I would suggest that if community members have questions they could submit them versus email. So we don't you know we can ask those questions and make sure and and it may be redundant questions. So that might be a way of handling that in the most efficient manner possible. >> And and I maybe piggyback off Select Marino's statement. Does anybody have an appetite for the tiff? I would present them with that question upfront, that developer, and say there's no appetite for that. Do you still want to come in and give you willing to change your proposal? Because if you're not and you're saying no,

131we have to have the tip then there. I mean, unless there is an appetite to hear that presentation, but >> I think we need to hear them all. Yeah. Whether or not is a different >> so want to do that sheet. Ask them to give us that. So, one page, maybe not one page, but a one pager of tell us what you need the town to potentially do. We're not agreeing to any of it that you and I'll get it to you before that meeting. So then you may ask questions. You I'll get that to you at least a week before. Right. >> Publish it. Yep. Um so then you can ask questions. Exactly. Of hey, you're looking for an abatement for the next 25 years, you know. Um I just throw that. I don't

132know if but um seems like we have consensus. We'll televise it, YouTube it. June 6th, 6 p.m. >> July July 1st. >> July 1st 6 p.m. >> I'm literally looking at July 1st on my paper. >> Get the 6th off of here before you move yourself over. >> So get a special meeting >> for that purpose. >> Perhaps it be a special meeting. >> Correct. Yeah. Okay. I agree. Yeah. I'm just Yeah, because you guys are all going to meet, so you can't meet without a meeting. >> That's right. >> Special meeting. >> You should know that. >> What time is it? >> It's not that late. >> It's nine. >> Not that late. >> Uh, anything else on the property? >> All right. July 1st, 6 p.m. Item E26-29, line item transfer. Town Manager

133Harrington. >> Hold on. Give me two seconds to catch up with everybody. Okay, let me get to it. You're in >> 26-29 >> EDC. Oh, because it's action step and I'm looking at the top. It's it's transfer 202619. Uh this is coming from our EDC commission. Um they are looking to move money from their memberships and dues and putting it into outside services and marketing. If you hadn't had the opportunity and potentially stream any type of uh TV shows, our Winstead video is being aired on that little you know 30 second 20 second. They are doing a phenomenal job with that video that you know you all agreed to do. um they are taking it and creating commercials on Facebook, other social media channels, and people that are streaming um on there. And this is

134just money within their own budget. They're not going to use the 450. They want to throw even more money at um marketing our town. So by recommendation of the town Andrew, I move that the board of selectment approve the above action step 26-29 budget transfer 2026-9 totaling $450. >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion. We have a second discussion. Seeing no discussion, all in favor? Unanimous. Item 26-30, line item transfer. So, this transfers uh is and and we're what we're looking to do is clean up some of the year end where we know we're running a deficit in some of these lines and moving out of lines where we know we have money. Um we're looking to transfer money out of debt administration into other shared cost telephone and contract services. Telephone and

135contract services. We really messed up on the on on the budget. We were looking to potentially save a lot more money on those particular lines and they ended up not actually coming through. So, we're looking to move $56,000, which will not be spent in debt administration, into those two line items to put those line items at zero. >> That same issue in our current budget. Did we fix that? >> We fixed that. Yes. Oh, yes, we fixed it. >> By recommendation, Tom manager, I move the board selectman approve the above action step 26-30 budget transfer 2026-20 totaling 56,276. >> Second. >> We have a motion. We have a second. Is there discussion? >> All in favor? Unanimous. Item 26-31, line item transfer. Town manager Harrington. >> This one comes from our town clerk's office. He's

136looking to move money out of the maintenance of books and maps and vital statistics into the office supply line. He wants to buy a digital stamp machine. So, when the agenda goes in, it digitally stamps the time and the date on it as well. They're I've seen a lot of towns use them. surprised that we actually didn't have one here when I first came here, but um this way there's no way of not knowing when an agenda or anything was put into the clerk's office. >> By recommendation of the town manager, I move that the board of select and approve the above action step 26-31 budget transfer 2026-21 totaling $810. >> Second. >> We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion? Seeing no discussion, all in favor? Unanimous. 26- 32 uh line item

137transfer. Tell me Mr. Harrington. >> We have some uh extra money in our sand line. We don't believe we're going to need any additional sand this year because the weather has actually broken. And Mr. Rollins said he'd like to get a jump on some pipes and manholes and and and replenish the stock uh that is depleted and beginning work on on on fixing some pipes and manholes around town. By recommendation of the town manager, I move the board of selectment approve the above action step 26-32, budget transfer 2026-22 totaling $5,200. >> Second. We have a motion. We have a second discussion. Uh town manager and public works director in trouble if we need more salt this year. >> All in favor? >> I don't control December. new budget >> uh 26-33 line item transfer town

138manager Harrington. >> So these two line items are slightly over spent from our senior center. Obviously we we our director uh Jen Kelly does a phenomenal job with our seniors. Um we've over spent the healthy aging programs and the maintenance of structure line. We did get a windfall that the vehicle that uh was vandalized um the actual insurance company is not actually going to require a deductible. Um, >> yes. Um, so that was a huge win for us. So, we have $2,300 in maintenance vehicles won't be spent. So, we were looking to zero out the line items that were just a little bit over spent uh from our senior center. >> By recommendation of the town manager, I move that the board of selectment approve the above action step 26-33, budget transfer 2026-23 totaling $2,300.

139Second. >> We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion? >> All in favor? Unanimous. >> Thank you. >> 26-34 line item transfer. Town manager Harrington. >> I call this the transfer because they are watching board of selectman meeting uh that the land use department is requesting $5,000 uh uh to put into their office supply because planning and zoning and inland wetlands is looking to go digital with all of their paper that they receive at meetings. This will be a computer that goes to all of the land use boards. We'll log them in and instead of printing out stacks and stacks of paper, they'll have it electronically. Um, we brought in our IT company, we're able to do that. They are not going to go home [clears throat] with them. They are going to

140be here, but instead of printing out a ton of paper to give to each of them, they'll be able to pull up everything. The only item that won't be uh digital, it'll be digital, but uh it is on the applicant is the big plans. They have to submit plans to each of the the board members. Anyways, I've talked to several of the board members. They they'd like to be able to touch those plans, but all of the other stuff and it's a lot of paper. It's all going to be digitized, which is a huge savings for the town because we pay every page we print. By recommendation of the town manager, I move the board to select [clears throat] and approve the above action step 26-34, budget transfer 2026-24, totaling $5,000. >> Second. >> We

141have a motion. We have a second. Discussion. No discussion. All in favor? Unanimous. 26-25 line item transfer. >> This was the added item. Um, this is two line items that we know are not going to be expended by the end of the year. We're looking to purchase uh office equipment. We do need to uh set up a hearing officer room. Plus, we're looking to use the old board of ed space for more meeting stuff. So, we're looking to bring in some office furniture and replace some of the office furniture that's around our town hall as well. >> Uh just for clarification, what number are we using? >> This is 26. >> 26-25. >> It says 37 >> 37 on some of them. >> No. Okay. So there's an action step and then there's an actual

142budget transfer number. So the budget transfer number is fiscal year 26-25. [snorts] You've taken 37 action steps this this calendar year. >> Some of the other ones were the action step numbers, >> but you have 36 down here which is the suspense list. >> Gotcha. >> So then you go to 37. >> So is this to update? I mean, are is there office supplies or desks that need to be replaced or we just want to >> There are some desks that need to be replaced, some chairs that need to be replaced. We are looking at potentially changing out the table in the blue room as well. Um, as you I I I guess I got yelled at once before, but I am looking to uh get us into the newer age of furniture around town

143hall as well. That's a great table. >> Great. Did you like to >> I'm just looking at where can we save a little money here and there. If we don't need to replace something like that, why are we >> Yeah. Um a lot and some of the stuff will be repurposed. Some of the stuff um does need to be replaced. Um I can keep the table in there as well. >> So what do you do? Well, I'm just saying. So if you replace that table, where is it going to go? >> That table that table potentially could go up into the old board of ed. We've thought about potentially bringing EDC to have their meetings in that room as well. Also a great meeting room when you want to lay out plans and and you

144know you don't want to be down here. You don't want to be just another meeting space. So >> be on the curb. >> No, no, no, no. If if anything um it's in our closet called the Bank of America building. I haven't thrown out one piece of furniture >> which which raises another question when we talk about is you know maybe auctioning that stuff off and getting getting rid of the stuff that we don't need in there. a little money off of that. >> I love that idea. >> I I was afraid when I I originally were going to change these chairs over from the old uh benches that we had in here. I was fearful of doing anything with those because the the the symbolic uh value of what they had to a lot

145of town people. So, we put them over at at at the Bank of America building >> and put it on their porch. If >> if you all are okay, I can get an inventory list. We can look at it and you all tell me what you want to auction off or potentially sell. >> Fine. I'll get an inventory list. >> Anyone else with me on that? So, I like that. >> All right. Well, let's let's do the auction. >> Okay. 26-34. >> Uh, is there a motion? >> A recommendation of the town manager. I move that the board of semen approve the above action step 26-37 budget transfer for 2026-25. a total of ing,112. >> Second. >> We have a motion. We have a second. Discussion. All in favor. Unanimous. Put together your inventory list.

146Item 26-35 refunds is recommended by the collector of revenue. Town Harington. >> As you see, our uh tax collector is recommending in the amount of $2,2825. Um, couple of them are corrections, couple of them are uh overpayments and personal property audits as well. >> Do we have a motion? >> I move the board of selectment authorize the refunds recommen recommended by the collector of revenue in the amount of $2,2825. >> Second. >> We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Unanimous. Item 26-36, the municipal suspense tax list from the collector of revenues, town Harrington. >> Something that this town and every other town in the state of Connecticut, every year they do a suspense list. It's anything that is now 15 years. It is still collectible. The debt doesn't go

147away. State law says that after 15 years, you do have to suspend it. So, this is our yearly suspense list uh in the amount of $26,41610. Again, still a collectible tax, but it's gone to 15 years and state law requires us to put it on the suspense list and interest is still approving. >> I move that Doris Lackman approved the town of Winchester suspense list. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Discussion. Uh Paul, are any of these properties potential tax sale properties? >> Uh possibly. I I do not want to answer that question. They're I >> It looked like motor vehicle. >> Looks like >> Yeah, a lot of it's going to be motor vehicle. Um >> yeah, a lot of them is motor vehicle, so probably not. >> Okay. >> All in

148favor? Unanimous. >> Uh we need signatures. >> Oh, yes. There's a a document going around that you all need to sign. 226-03 resolution awarding Bridge Street Intersection bid to Yield Industries Incorporated. Town Manager Harrington. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just got to get to my sheet now. So, as you uh probably remember, we did get $829 $830,000 uh grant from the state of Connecticut. I think it was community investment fund to rework Bridge Street. Uh we did go to a public hearing probably a year ago. At the time those plans were going to be closing off uh Bridge Street to one lane. You could only go up. You couldn't come down. We went back back to the drawing board. I do apologize if you're using the printed copy. Bridge Street is going to remain completely

149open. Four-way intersection. Traffic's going to flow every way. Um this is the plan that the engineers came up with with the mindset of everything that was talked about at the public hearing. I'll mention that we did go out to bid on this particular project because the state's ringing us that this project needs to be done by April 2027 in order for us to be able to collect the grant. If the project's not done by April, we're going to lose out on almost a million dollars. Let's not do that. So, before you tonight is a resolution 2603, which awards the Bridge Street uh intersection bid to Yield Industries. Paul, is this the same intersection where we did the >> painting and the tones and all that fun stuff? And >> yes, >> and now we're going

150to just go ahead and do it without even doing a second experiment, painting it and all of that >> because we're not actually changing the flow of traffic. The bigger project that we want to take on as Bridge Street is if you know that that road leaks and then ices, the majority of this money is going to fix [snorts] that problem. So, we no longer have that ice issue anymore. At the end of the day, you can see on your on your plans, intersections are being bumped out so the flow of traffic moves a little bit better. You'll see traffic. Um, but I needed to address the bigger issue, which is the icing up there because the phones ring constantly in the winter time and and the amount of salt and sand that we have

151to put out there um is is big. So, >> well, this is really you're going to want to try and get this done before winter hits. >> I would love to be able to get done. Yes. >> Now, okay. So, we need this resolved. If you want, you can just do uh motion to approve resolution 26-03, award of the Bridge Street intersection bid to Yield Industries, and we'll include this into the minutes. >> What do you say? >> So, >> second. >> We have a motion. We have a second. Do we have discussion? >> Yeah. Um I mean, I'm not comfortable voting on this because I wanted to see this. I mean, there should be a presentation for the public for this plan. I mean, I don't see anything on here that addresses the parking

152for the package store. It looks like the sidewalks are smaller on the right hand side than they are at the bottom. Um, I mean, this is, you know, this was a big thing and we're going to make a decision on something that we didn't even talk about. We didn't we were not involved in any of this. >> No, you're in you're involved now. But, >> yeah, but this is, you know, >> two things. Parking for the package store. Um, again, I think this goes back to what Mr. Rollins said. You really can't use um public funds to address a a a private resident or a private business. Um, you know, if you put a parking lot in for one, you'll have to put a parking lot in for for everybody >> so that it's okay

153to park on a sidewalk and not make a little strip for them to park on the side of the road. I mean, come on. That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. That's that's always been a problem there. So, we're not addressing that issue. It sounds like all we're addressing here is the water. Is that correct? >> And we're addressing the flow of the traffic as well. We're not addressing parking. That wasn't what we went out for the grant for. Um the grant was uh to go out and address the traffic there and also address the flooding that goes on. >> I'm just going to ask a question. We had a public hearing about that intersection when we did the painted lines and the cones and all that stuff and there was a lot of >> public input. And

154I think to Troy's point, we're going to suddenly we're going to act on this intersection without getting any public input. Maybe we need to think about that. >> I realize we're under a time frame to get the money. >> You are going to you're going to back me. um hard and and listen you know I am fully about any meeting bringing in the public again when we sat down with the engineers and then we ultimately sat down with yield industries the overall intersection itself is still going to flow the way it's going to flow right the biggest comment that we had is you're I'm going to clean up the language you're crazy that you're going to now make Bridge Street one way that was the loudest complaint that we've got this does not close uh

155into a oneway traffic going >> the issue that led to that decision. >> That is correct. >> Which is the icing. >> That is correct. >> So, this fixes that, but it keeps the same flow of traffic. Correct. That people are complaining about that changed. >> It creates a little bit more pedestrian friendly. You can see obviously there's crosswalks out there. There's a little bit of the bump out um to help you get into that crosswalk area. That was the uh notion behind the community investment fund is to create a little bit more of a walking intersection and obviously to deal with the with with with the flooding icing that goes on up there. Um I hear you and I and I understand that the board's comments, but when I'm looking at a potential loss

156of a million dollars, I do everything I can to make sure we get the million bucks, but it's the board's pleasure on what they want to do. So this plan though is is answering this is an example of like there being a public hearing and us listening to the public and changing the plan accordingly. Right. >> That is correct. Everything that was said at the public. >> Yeah. >> See this is the this is the problem here because we've had plenty of time since the public hearing on this street um to go over this again. And now we're being pushed to the to the envelope because we're going to lose funds. So, we're being forced to make a decision on something that we didn't even get to get presented in front of us. >> And

157and I guess the way Troy put it to birth, we're not creating parking for the package store. We're creating town parking spots. I mean, if somebody's going to business across the street and Main Street's full, they could park there. Technically, it's not for the package store, but we did get a lot of complaints because people try to get up to Pine Lake after work and you got a van here with six ladders on it and you got a truck on this side of the road and they leave one path in the middle. Um, that [clears throat] is a problematic spot. >> So, the grant was not written to was was written to increase parking. That was not part of any of the grants. So when we increase in in keeping in mind that we know

158that this there's a few comments that were brought up these plans are pretty much h off of the press. You know how it's how impossible it is to get an engineer to draw out plans. Engineers are booked up. So the comment of we waited we waited. We are also at the mercy of engineers to draw out plans. Right? The second that these plans got done, which was not so long ago, we immediately went out to bid to see are these plans even doable in terms of the money that we have available. Came back and I can tell you that this was a well bidded project. Some of the bids that came in, we would have been reaching into our pocket to fix this intersection. >> What is the cost of this project? >> Uh 900

159914700 $700. >> I thought we only had 800,000 for the project. So if you look into next year's the budget that's going to begin on July 1st, one of the capital projects uh that are in there was to put money in in case we had to reach into our pocket. >> So we are reaching into our pocket. >> We are reaching into our pocket for a small amount of money. Yeah. Was in the capital project. >> So with the concern about the uh parking that was just expressed um you know maybe which wouldn't require a change of plan wouldn't require going out to bid. make it, you know, park it on one side and then you don't have that situation. You got a van here and someone here. You just make it one side that

160they can park the side of the package store and the other side no parking. So, we don't have that issue and we don't it's not expensive, you know, and it's it solves that issue for people who are driving by the package store. >> When it comes down to changing a a road uh no parking on a sign, that's local traffic authority. That's me and the chief of police. We get signs out there tomorrow. Yeah, >> we got to do a little bit of study. But >> I'm just saying but that's, you know, that's simple. It's a town road, you know, and that it resolves that problem because it is, I mean, I see the problem on wetmore when the school's let out. You know, there's one lane from parents who are picking up their kids,

161but you know, I so I totally understand the concern. Um, but you know, I don't think that the issue with parking for the liquor store, which wasn't addressed in the grant, is a justification for not proceeding with this and taking the risk that we're not going to get this done in time and lose all that money. >> And doing what you said wouldn't change this plan, right? >> Not at all. >> No, that's there's really no structural changes to the intersection. The way I look at this, >> you're you're bumping out and >> there's some bumpouts. It >> no significant changes. >> Yeah. And it still cost a million dollars. That's the But it's the flooding and all that. So, um, again, >> so we fix the water, we make it slightly safer. Is that

162what >> And it doesn't cost us a million dollars. [clears throat] we get to, you know, and and the other thing you you you want to keep in mind when you apply for a grant and you get the grant and you don't act on the grant, the next grant you go for, the state of Connecticut or any of these other agencies don't look at you as favorable. Um I see EDC's uh they well you're going to be able to do it because they they make a big deal out of it and they want to see results with >> Are they going to pay all this? >> Oh, yeah. Yes. We're going to pave some. >> Yeah. [clears throat] >> Other questions, comments from the board. >> I see nothing else. Is there a motion? >>

163There was a motion and it was seconded. Yeah. >> Move the motion. >> All in favor? Opposed? 61. The resolution is approved. >> Item you may >> What's item? >> Your review. >> Item 12, executive session uh to discuss the town manager's review and the tenative agreement with the police contract. Taking with us town manager Harrington. Can I have a motion to go into executive session at 9:17? >> Some moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? Let's put that in. an official vote. We are back from executive session at 9:52 p.m. Do we have a motion? Uh item 13, new business, discussion, possible action regarding the town manager's review. You have a motion? >> Yes. I move that after uh conducting the town manager review, I move that we accept the addendum to the uh

164town manager contract um effective what date? April 22nd, 2024. >> April 22nd. >> Oh, sorry. 2026. >> 2026. >> 22. Second. >> We have a motion. We have a second. I will add that the review was a positive review. >> Any other discussion? All in favor? >> Unanimous. Congratulations. Item B, discussions regarding tenative agreement with the police contract. Town Major Harrington. uh as talked about uh that we did a one-year rollover with the police department. The essence of the one-year rollover is a uh 2.85% increase [clears throat] in pay for fiscal year starting July 1st. Uh one additional uh personal day and premium health share uh would remain the same as it is right now, which is at 21. >> Do we have a motion? >> Motion. >> Is that close enough? [laughter] Motion is

165enough, right? >> Motion to approve the tenative agreement between the town of Winchester up to unit number 330. >> What Paul said? >> Second. >> We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion? >> All in favor? Unanimous. Item 14, citizens comments. The board of selectment welcomes public comments. Speakers be limited to three minutes and may speak once. Does anyone wish to speak? Item 15, selectman's comments and reports. Does anyone have anything? >> I just like to congratulate uh Keegan Connelly and um Evan uh Dayton for the king and queen being crowned king and queen of the Laurel Commission thing there. >> And the runner-ups were Ethan, Kevin, Johnny, and D. >> Thank you. Anyone have anything else? >> I just wanted to say that the uh very first ever meeting of the cultural

166district commission will be on June 25th, Thursday at 700 p.m. in this room. Welcome anybody to attend >> with that. >> Motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Thank you everybody. July 1st. >> Special meeting July 1st, 6 p.m. here. >> We'll get emails out to everybody tomorrow. >> Actually, it's better than I thought it would be. >> 9:00. Yeah, I thought we'd be