001Good evening. Today is Monday, May 18th, 2026. There's a typo on the agenda. I'd like to call the regular Board of Selectmen meeting to order. Troy Lemire. Kevin Bishop. Paul Morino. Todd Arshulashy. Glenn Albenesius. William Hester. Cheryl Hepburn McGlinn. Town manager is Elton night and Selectman Pozo is excused. Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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, agenda review. Uh Mr. Mayor, I'd like to add to the executive session under A and also under new business A, add 99 Hover Street to both of those. And that's 12 and 13 A. Yep, 12 A. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor?
002Six nothing. Item four, approval of the minutes of our regular meeting on May the 4th. Thank you, Troy. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Kevin. Any discussion? Seeing no discussion, all in favor? Opposed? Abstaining? 5-0-1. The minutes are approved. Item five, citizens comments. The Board of Selectmen welcomes public comment. Speakers will be limited to three minutes or so and may speak once. Does anyone wish to speak? We have no town managers tonight for item number six. Item number seven, finance director's report. We're moving right along. We may have to recess and wait for David to get here. Now you're on to something. I think it's 9:00. I think it's eight. Might be eight. Cuz I went last time. >> No, it's not. It's not. It's nine, yeah. Yes. >> [cough] >> Uh good evening.
003Uh these are the results through April 30th, 2026 for the general fund. We are 10 months through the year, which is 83% of our fiscal year. You should all have the one-page summary. Yes. That you can follow along. Current year-to-date revenue revenues, property taxes 29,238,461 or 100.17% of the budget. That is in comparison to 27,434,251, which was 100.32% for the prior year. Motor vehicle supplemental 285,675, which is 81.62% of the budget. Compared to 294,716 for the same period last year, which was 130.98% of budget. Past due taxes 325,859, which is 93.10% of budget. In comparison to 345,950, which was 57.66% of budget. For the prior year. Total revenues year-to-date 40,935,268. We are at 99.8% of budget. Compared to 38,227,228, which is 93.68%. Total year-to-date expenditures with encumbrances 33,477,706, which is 81.62% of budgeted compared to
00433,081,528, which was 81.07%. Municipal aid received in the month of April, our final installment of the education cost sharing of 3,925,682, and Pequot pilot 16,491. Our cash flow at at April 30th You can disregard that prior month I have written there. 25,299,721 Of that 19,239,413 is invested. 459,695 in the Northwest Community Bank Sweep 2,646,302 in the State Investment Fund STIFF and 16,133,416 in the Northwest Community Bank Money Market. Our April 2026 capital expenditures just over 66,000 for our annual police vehicle replacement $8,000 $8,000 installment paid paid for the police feasibility study 4,500 for the next gen records management system 6,790 for annual road maintenance 3,022 for Hanafin Road culvert 12,500 for the Safe Streets for All Roadway Safety Action Plan a little over 4,700 for the Spring Street Pond and $3,000 payment towards the BOE
005nursing roof. Questions? Yeah, Mary. Yes, sir. Is it normal to get the education cost sharing this late in the fiscal year? Yes, always the end of April. So, we receive one quarter of it October, I think. One quarter of it in January and we receive a double payment in the at the end of April every year. Yes. It's way right to the end. Yes. Sometimes it's been even later, but typically in April is when we receive it. Yes. Other questions? I'd just like to thank the taxpayers for everything. Mary, it looks like we're really pretty good shape here for Yeah, on the revenue on the revenue side I I Paul has mentioned our investment income is significant for this year above above budget and we did have we did have a couple of sales of
006property so those those came in um obviously higher than budgeted because we don't budget for that revenue so yeah. Not too bad on the expenditure side we've got some line items we will have to do some we will have to do some transfers as we get closer to the end of the year um but you know we should hopefully be able to move some stuff around I'm working with Jim Rollins on the capitals summary for where we are with the bonds with the bonds project. I'm going to update that. I did it through the end of April I'm going to update that as of the 15th of May just so we did have a check run last week that had a few payments in there so I am going to update that and I know
007that Paul has asked Mr. Rollins to be at the June 1st meeting so we'll sort a couple of that all together it'll probably be good for him to be here so I'll send him over what I have he's going to he'll go through it and then he and I will sit together we'll update the notes on all the projects and kind of you know see where we're at. Good. Very good. I got two more questions starting No you're you got your question allotment. Yeah as we're talking um the motor vehicle are we losing money because of the cap is that No we are we are under the cap we are under the cap so we get no state aid related to the cap correct. We are we don't get any because our mill rate is
008lower than 32.46 we don't get any state aid and if we did get state aid aid it is on a one year lag so it looks at your last year's but last year's mill rate to determine if you're going to get money for the following year so for those towns that fall under the cap say you have reval, you may lose that revenue stream that comes in from the state of Connecticut. Um and then on the past due taxes, is that are we doing good on that? Is that what it says? That's a better question for the tax collector, um and I have not looked into that with her at all. Um but It is at 93.10%? >> Yeah, let me look at Let me pull up the You have the bigger detailed sheet, right?
009But it's just pulling It's pulling the same numbers. >> it may mean because they adjusted the number this year to be closer, we may have over budgeted last year, that's why it was so low. Oh, okay. Yeah, that may have been I know I know we had a I think we had a little bit of an aggressive uh aggressive number in there for past due taxes, so I I was just hoping people were there and they were I think we brought that down. You know what? Let me just give me 1 second. Let me open the file just so I don't misspeak here, but it'll take me 1 minute to find it. Bear with me. Okay. Uh goodness. But we only budgeted 350 this year. Yeah, we had a bigger number last year. Yeah, we
010had 600 No, that's motor vehicle. Motor vehicle taxes >> Past due prior year was 600. >> so it's Yeah, so we came in >> Oh, okay. So there was That was a really high number and I think Tom and I really put our foot down this year and said, "No." You're not budgeting that much. I mean, looking at that number, though, if you added that 350, we're we're in good shape. >> where we right We're right where we were comparable to where we normally are, but I think and part of that past due, if you remember, I think was supposed to be a portion of the maybe the property audit. So, we were expecting to maybe collect an additional amount that did not come to fruition. Okay. So. Thank you so much. Yep. Question for
011the board. Um you can say yes, no. Would you like a quick summary of our purchasing card and Amazon purchases? >> Yes, please. Okay. Paul was going to bring that Paul was going to bring that up in his statement. >> and I will get that up for you. Hang on. And the safeguards we have in place to it was It's a whole I did a whole summary, so. I I know that from from what happened to the town years past and everything that happened um being on the water and sewer commission, there was a a really tight rein on spending and cards and the whole nine yards. So, I'm not really sure why my picture is coming up like super tiny right now, so bear with me as I read this like minuscule and it
012won't zoom in for some reason. I don't know why. So, I'm going to read this off to you. So, purchasing cards. We have a limited number of purchasing cards currently in use. I believe we have four total. The town manager's office, my office, the police chief, and the fire marshal. Fire marshal has a card if he has to mis- he has to misplace someone. If he has to displace >> [laughter] >> If he has to displace any residents, he has to use the credit card to secure a hotel room for people. So, instead of me getting a phone call at you know, 11:00 p.m. on a weekend, we opted to allow him to have a card. Um So, uh, town treasurer enters any card requests into the Bank of America P-Card portal. So, if there
013was a request for a card, we would decide who gets a card. Uh, Cindy does that and requests the card through the portal. All the card features, including the daily, monthly, and temporary spending limits, spending categories, and specified vendors can be customized within the card portal. So, if you have somebody say that we need to to get a card because I had this situation in Plymouth, we had a member of our police department who was part of the regional SWAT team was going to Texas, I believe, for training. Needed a credit card because didn't want to use his own personal card for the amount of expenditures. Gave him a card, set a dollar limit of, I don't know if it was $2,500 or $3,000 for a specified period of time. When he returned from training,
014that card was turned off. So, the card still exists, and actually, I think we had held the card, um, and then you [clears throat] can turn the cards on, you can set a temporary limit if you need it to make a one-time purchase that was higher. That can all be done in the in the, uh, card portal. That would be myself or Cindy most of the time that I would have Cindy do that. The finance department, myself, maintain a P-Card that may be used by town departments to facilitate one-time online purchases, training and conference registrations, and other professional development costs and dues that require online payment or reservations. A lot of times we have things that will you can only do online. Uh, registering for hotel rooms, uh, registering for certain conferences and trainings. If,
015say public works finds a part that they need, emergency part for something, and they can only get it online, they have to go through my office to get the card, make the purchase. Following that, all purchasing card transactions must be accompanied by receipts and an approved purchasing card form, which is signed by the requester and the department head. Those completed forms and receipts are forwarded to me for review and approval sign-off. I then forward those to the treasurer, who reconciles the monthly P-Card statement against all the forms and statement charges on a monthly basis. Once they're reconciled, all the activity is properly booked to the general ledger. The town treasurer, if she doesn't have a form, will come to my office and wave a piece of paper at me and say, uh, "There's open items
016or there's missing forms." And I will follow up on those. Usually, it it might be me that I'm waiting on. Our Amazon business account. Um, most departments have someone in their department who has access into the Amazon account that I have given them access. So, let's say Terry needed access. If she didn't have it already, I would set her up in the system as a requisitioner. An invitation goes to Terry via email. She sets up her own login, different from her personal login, for the business account. Uh, the administration of the town Amazon account is managed by me. Uh, I provide access to those town departments and or individuals or commission members, uh, such as maybe somebody from EDC or Soldiers Monument, if they needed to purchase through our account. The benefit of purchasing through
017our Amazon account is our tax-exempt status and the review process that it goes through. Uh, once someone's granted access, the each requisitioner sets up their own password, uh, to access the account. All order requests route to me for review. So, I get an email when there's an order waiting. I review it, and then at my final approval and order placement, I place the order. Whoever placed the order asked for the order gets an email saying the order has been placed. It will go directly to their department that they designate is the delivery. So, if Glenn's office requests something, we usually have it to get delivered to Glenn, the police department, public works facility, etc. Um the town purchasing agent downloads the monthly Amazon order detail and reconciles to the monthly bill. Once that's all coded
018and reconciled, accounts payable enters the bill detail into the system for check payments to Amazon. I then review all of the check payments that go out the door as does Cindy. So, there is a multi-layer review and process for both of these things. So, not in the budget. >> [laughter] >> No. No. Not. So. Any questions on that? Thank you very much. Okay. Do you offhand know the interest rates we're getting right now from our accounts? No pressure since I didn't give you a heads-up on this in advance. I Cindy is the best person. I can give you probably It's not going to show it typically. It's not going to show it on our statements, I don't think. The one it will show is on our stiff statement, which is kind of a general uh
019Stiff is calculated daily, too, though. Yeah, but it'll give you a you know, it'll give you a ballpark. Uh hold on one second. Average 30-month yields on stiff right now, 3.179390. I'm assuming Northwest Community is probably is typically a little higher than that for us. Um let's see. >> [clears throat] >> Give me 1 second. I I I know if it's going to show on the statement. Actually, there There is no interest on our general fund statement. Let me look at our money market statement. Hold on. I'm guessing at which file it is in my history here. No, that's not in there. I know that Warren Zevon has some in that Northwest community >> They have some in They have a small amount >> That does really well, right? >> a small amount. They've got
020most They've got um They've got some money sitting in sitting in STIF too. Let's see if I can find it here. Maybe that's it. I'm trying to find Oh, there's the big one. So, on a monthly basis right now, uh 3.83. The rate is 3.75. The yield is 3.83. That is on the bulk of the money, the 16 million that's sitting in the Northwest Community Bank investment account. Okay. Any other questions? Thank you. Sure. Okay. Item eight, correspondence. Uh I did want to mention an email I got uh later this morning. Um For those of you that don't know, we had the pet parade this weekend, and this resident was concerned about the timing and the road closures of the parade. Um I believe they said they were a newer driver and weren't so sure
021about the routes that were available to get through town uh because Main Street was closed for the parade at 1:30-ish. Um so we probably do need to do a better job in the future of getting the detours out there for people who aren't from around here or don't know how to get around Main Street when it's closed for the parade. Cuz that could be a concern and you do kind of have to go out of the way. And our police department's defense, I did uh attend the uh pet parade and I saw the police directing people at the big intersection, so I don't know why there would have been an issue and they were giving them directions, actually. Yeah, I think it was because it was a newer driver and they may have been intimidated
022to ask a police officer how to get around. But I just wanted to put that out, so maybe we do need to do a better job of posting the detour online on our social media pages. Anyone have anything else? Item nine, boards and commissions. I did not see anything in the packet. Do we have anything? Nothing. We have nothing. Item 10, unfinished business. We have no unfinished business at this time. Item 11. >> [clears throat] >> Uh Emery, you want to do the transfer or let me just go over it quickly. All right. Item A, 26-25 line item transfer. We just really like having you here. You're my gun. To make my drive worthwhile, right? Okay. Um so we have a request from the assessor's office for a transfer for $30 out of personal property
023audits to training and education for $50 and for contracting contracted printing. Um the request is for an overage in training due in due to the increased costs associated with this year's CAAO registration. That is for our assistant assessor to go to Yukon for her assessor's classes in June. That is one of those things that she uses the P-card for to reserve a room. In addition, contracted printing expenses came in slightly above the original budget. So, she's requesting this transfer to cover those overages. We have a motion? By recommendation of the town manager, I move the Board of Selectmen approve the above action step 26-25 budget transfer 2026-16 totaling $300. Second. Thank you, Paul. Thank you, Troy. Any discussion? Seeing no discussion, all in favor? Six nothing. Item B, waste receptacle adoption program. You know the
024paperwork that we received in the packet indicates that there was supposed to be action on that on the next time on the agenda. So, basically, after the last Board meeting, I had a conversation with Paul about the the issue on Main Street with a lot of litter. And we see it in front of our location. >> Carol, could you just speak up a little bit? The window I can't hear you. We see it We see it very significantly by our area. People just leaving stuff out. But there's no waste receptacles. So, you know, we're constantly cleaning up. So, I suggested to Paul that we could look into a program where the where a business agrees to sponsor a can and be responsible for emptying it and maintaining that area. So, I think it's a a
025good way for to have a network between businesses and government. I think it benefits the businesses. It benefits the communities. So, when we talked about it, you know, he he looked into it. He got the cost per unit. He he felt that he would be able to use the Nipper funds, so we may not cost take anything out of our budget, and he was going to further research that as whether he can do it and just start out with a few, start looking to see what businesses would be interested. Obviously, mine is, and hopefully we can get Main Street looking cleaner, and if it works well, expand it maybe someone taking over a couple areas of the park, maybe green would be nice so that we can have a prettier town. So. So, Paul's looking
026for at the end 15 to 25 of these. We do have funds to cover that in the Nipper proceeds providing the state doesn't make Nipper bottles illegal. We should continue to pull in a lot of money from the Nipper bottles. The one thing that we do need to keep an eye on and make sure people don't abuse these containers and use it for their own household trash, which is an issue everywhere. When I was in downtown Hartford working, it would happen a lot. Um and occasionally you'll see it with the collection bins where people go and drop their couches and their mattresses and um not that somebody's going to drop a couch or something on Main Street, hopefully, but we do need to keep an eye on that. Unfortunately, the style of these are very
027small, relatively small openings, so you're not going to get your whole bag of kitchen garbage in there. Have you No. Yeah, they're bolted to the sidewalk. They're heavy. They're not going anywhere. They'll they'll push them in the road, you know. No. And there's, you know, then you have a key to open it to be able to retrieve the receptacle to clean it, so it's not very simple. You know, it's not something that's easily accessible by, you know, your tenants or whatever. Have you had have to talk to any of the neighboring businesses or No, I have not had a chance to talk to them. But I'd be surprised if people wouldn't cuz it it is pretty bad with the debris. Uh it's very frustrating when people just leave this, that, and everything all over the
028place. Yeah, I love the idea. I just hope the businesses don't see it as a burden like oh I got to empty this thing every week or every day. >> Then they don't sponsor it. I mean, we're we're willing to do it, you know. They get their name on it? Yeah, you get your name on it. So, you know, Yeah. I mean, it's just a matter of just you know, it'll benefit us, you know, as well and then the whole community. >> People start picking up after their dogs, too. And And it should not cost the businesses any money if I've read this correctly. >> a charge for their sponsorship? >> There's no charge for the sponsorship. What Paul talked about was giving a bunch of like a you know, 100 bag liners to start
029or 50, I don't remember what the number and then we'd be responsible for purchasing the liners going forward. So, it would cost us money in the end. But So, on the page two, it's what's required of the businesses. Uh I just want to add a little as somebody that does garbage for a town uh on a weekly basis, we might want to think of something that's bear-proof. Uh I have a lot of raccoon and bear problems in Norfolk. I don't have like the mainstream you know, we got a very small area. Good as gold, they knock them over a lot. So, maybe that's something to think and I'm all for this cuz I think it's needed, but you might want to just make sure they're we can get something maybe bear-proof, too. Well, I mean,
030I don't I mean, they're going to be able to get a hand in their paw in there, but these things aren't going to get knocked over. These are bolted to the to the pavement. >> They can grab the bag though, that's what they do already. Well, they'd have to go into the top, you know, and it's a small hole. >> in Norfolk and they they steal the garbage bags. Have a conversation with Paul about it. I'm not I'm not involved in ordering it. It was just my idea. >> the ones I just suggested >> No, I know, yeah. The ones that they have in Hartford are bolted to the ground. And then I believe there's a steel frame that covers the bag with just an opening about that big above the bag so they can't
031really get to the bag. Right. Um and even though it is bear-proof, nothing is bear-proof. Even though they claim to be bear-proof, >> [clears throat] >> we've seen that we have. Hopefully surprisingly I Um I I was just thinking especially in front of your place, Cheryl, is is it going to take up too much room cuz there's some sidewalk that's not really all that large in some spots. Yeah, I know. But it's still better than we can fit it in front of where the alley is so it's not you know. >> a trash problem. There is a significant trash People are throwing things in the alleys and so on. Yes. Yeah, cuz I did say 55, yeah. Yeah, so when I when I helped Friends of Main Street pick up garbage garbage, I started by
032the church just right out here and my bag was full by the time I hit the library and I couldn't carry it back. I had to leave it and then come back to get it picked up so and that and I just walked one direction and I filled that bag up. On Main Street itself? On Main Street itself. I walked right up. So. So what can we take action on this tonight? Ann Marie, do we need any further clarification on whether or not NIP money can be used? Okay. I believe cleanup was I was going to say given that the Yes. Yep. Given that NIPpers were the idea of the NIPper law was to create less NIPper trash, you would think this would fall right into the category. >> Uh, no. You mean, wait a
033minute. Am I using common sense again? I'm sorry. >> for the nippers out there, then sadly, you are correct. And we're getting paid for it. Yes. All right. Uh, so we can do a couple of motions. Um, I move So, I move that the Board of Selectmen approve the proposed funding allocation for Was our motion written or am I just making this up? >> at the thing. It says yeah, it just says what it says. Yeah, okay. Uh, a proposed funding allocation for the purposes of uh, funding the um, waste receptacle adoption program. Any discussion? All in favor? Six nothing. Also move that the Board of Selectmen authorize launch of the Main Street Waste Receptacle Program and direct staff to proceed with implementation and business outreach. I'll second Thank you both. Thank you. Any discussion?
034All in favor? Six nothing. Congratulations. We have a Main Street Waste Receptacle Adoption Program. You know, I was concerned You can even add the doggie bags to the side of it and a and a little dispenser. >> That would be a great idea, actually. Yeah. That's what we do. We have a station that They just take one at a time? Well, They can just Yeah, or they may just take the whole stack or whatever, but Um, I usually change them like, uh, two times a week and there's like a roll of a hundred, so I think somebody's taking the whole roll of all of the pets. What we do. Moving on to item C, Pearson Building Committee update. Um, so one of the members has a conflict of interest and he is stepping down from
035the board. Uh, we want to thank Rob Aslin for his service to the committee. We do have one application that I handed out to you guys to add to the committee to bring it back up to I believe it was five, six. I'd make a motion to add Mark Douglas to the committee in place of Mr. Aslin. We have a second? >> Do we have any discussion? Seeing no discussion, all in favor. I think he's been around a long time. Opposed? Abstaining? So, five, oh, one. Congratulations, Mr. Douglas. So, aside from that, is there any other update on the Pearson Building Committee, Troy? Yep. Um, we had our first meeting last week. Um, oh, the only person that couldn't attend was Dave, the uh maintenance guy from Pearson School, but he was okay with not
036being able to make the meeting. Um, we pretty much unanimously voted on a architect. Um, and we just uh discussed some logistics of, you know, uh what we would like to see our architects work on. So, we're on the right path. We have a standing meeting now. I believe it's the second Wednesday of every month in the blue room. Uh, did you guys elect a chairman? 5:30. I'm the chairman. And uh uh Jason Cann is the uh secretary. Is that gentleman here that was also helpful with the grant? Troy, does he go Does he go >> Oh, he's with us, yeah. He did He um did that remotely. Uh, he couldn't make the the that uh >> Sure. Um, we went on his recommendation for the architect, so um uh the architect came in at
03727,500. Um, the next bid was uh 50,000 plus [screaming] and then went up to $100,000. So, we asked if he felt comfortable with the low bidder and he was very uh positive about that company and said that he's worked with them in the past and they've done a fine job. And he actually called the when they bid and asked if if they made a mistake when they put the bid and he says, "Well, I'm not happy. I left money on the table, but I think we can handle it for that money." So, so we got it for half less than half of what Any other questions? Seeing none, moving on to item 12, executive session. For the purpose of discussion regarding the sale of town-owned properties, 32 Harbor Street, 82-84 Rockwell Street, 17 Bird Street,
038132 Florence Street, 124 Rockwell Street, 99 Harbor Street. Taking with us for that, uh realtor David Sederhana. Here. Yeah, he's sitting right over there. And then item B is discussion regarding MOUs for the police. So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? 7:34 p.m. we enter executive session. Um excuse me, Mayor, where where do we go? Is the blue room occupied? Yes. Uh is Probate open? Can we actually just clear this room for Wouldn't we have to shut the Well, you can just turn off the mics. >> Yeah, yeah. Yeah. >> Mhm. >> We are back from executive session at 7:49 p.m. That volume in your mic. Yes. So, from executive session, first of all, a motion to table discussion regarding the MOU until our next regular meeting. Second. Any discussion? All in favor. Unanimous.
039And next, a motion to sell 99 Harvard Street, Winsted, Connecticut for $40,000 and move it to town meeting. Second. Second. Thank you, Cheryl. Any discussion? All in favor. Unanimous. I also move that we sell 124 Rockwell Street for 26,500 and move that to town meeting. Second. Any discussion? All in favor. Unanimous. Do we need to set the the meeting date today? So, meeting date not less than 30 nor more than 45 days, I believe. So, We can go the regular meeting on June 15th. That would be within the window. 6:00 or earlier like we've done before. Before? We have charter revision scheduled in here at 5:30. So do it at I mean it sounds 6:00 Yeah. thing to do at 6:30? >> good. Yeah. Okay, so we're setting the town meeting for the sale of
040those properties June 15th at 6:30 in the Hicks Room. Can we have a motion for that? Motion. Is there a second? >> Second. All those in favor? Unanimous. And then we want to move that we take 32 Harbored Street Winsted, Connecticut, 82-84 Rockwell Street, Winsted, Connecticut 17 Birdsall Street Winsted, Connecticut 132 Florence Street Winsted, Connecticut to list them for sale. Is there one more, Todd? Is it What was it? 92 32, 82-84, 17, 132. That's it, right? Okay. So we need to add to bring those to market. I'll second that. Any discussion? All in favor? Unanimous. Item 14, citizens' comments. No citizens' comments. Item 15, selectmen's comments and reports. So I just like to thank um Phil Hester, Phil Pozzo, Mark Lynn Banana, Kevin um Higgins and Doug Warner for the help putting up the
041banners in the park for the um Hometown Heroes. Um and then I just like to say that um I went to the pep parade and uh although I wished there was more people there, I think it was done quite well. The kids seemed to be uh enjoying themselves and it was a good time. Other comments? Just a reminder, budget referendum, Saturday, May 30th, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Pearson School. And echoing Troy's comments on the pep parade, it was a good time had by all. With that, no further Motion to adjourn. Is there a second? Second. All in favor. Good night, everyone. That's 7:53 p.m. Yeah, let's talk to the commander about that. We got stuff done and got out early. No, we don't want to be doing this tomorrow, but Good morning, enjoy
042it. Stay hydrated tomorrow. 97 now. You know really. Come on, come on, fun.