001Good evening. Today is Monday, October 20th, 2025 at 7 p.m. I'd like to call to order the regular board of selectments meeting. Lindo, >> Troy Lamir, Paul Marino, Paul Harrington, >> Todd Archalashi, >> Glenn Alberius, >> William Hester, >> Candy Perez, >> William Poso, and before we have pledge of allegiance, uh, about two weeks ago, former mayor Nancy Eisenmore passed away. Um, so if we could just have a quick moment of silence for uh, former Mayor Eisimmore. Thank you. Please join me for 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. Does anyone have anything? Seeing nothing, moving on to item four, approval of the
002minutes of our regular meeting on October 6th. >> Second. >> I have um just one correction. >> Okay. Discussion. >> Um page two, item 10. >> The vote I think the vote were five yes and one obstain instead of six. That would be correct, I would imagine, because Mr. Blackwoman Perez wasn't here. Correct. Anything else? [Applause] We need to amend the motion for the correction. So motion was to approve, then it was seconded, then we went into discussion. So I would then subtract the motion to approve and then do a motion to approve as amended. >> So move. So move. >> Thank you. All in favor? >> Opposed? Abstaining. 601. >> Thank you. Moving on to item number five, citizens comments. The board of select welcomes public comments. Speakers will be limited to three minutes
003and may speak once. Does anyone wish to speak? Moving on to item number six, town manager report. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and good evening, board. I'll start off with our Eversource gas main project update. Uh Eversource remains on schedule. to complete its gas infrastructure upgrades by the second week of November. The major pipeline work is finished. The only remaining tasks are running the laterals and attaching the new gas meters to each of the buildings. Coordination with the property owners has been fairly smooth. Uh after an initial hiccup wherever sus thought they were going to install the gas mans on the sidewalk, um we quickly addressed that problem and took care of that. Um so good news is that they are on schedule and they should be out of town by the second week of November.
004Um the road will remain the way it looks now and then they will be back uh next spring. They will uh mill it down. I am still trying to work from curb to curb um because I think it was only right because that road was very nice before they ripped it up. Um no answers on that yet, but uh then they're going to come back, mill it. uh they'll put a a coat down, then they'll come back and put a final coat down as you know that they are going to do it right. But my big fight, the town's big fight right now is I want them to go curb to curb uh from um when they come in and do the paving work on it. But I do want to thank everyone for their
005patience and cooperations throughout this project. I I know it hasn't been such an easy uh summer and fall. Um but we're getting there and now we have a good pipe in the ground and and less likelihood of any any bad things happen with our gas lines. Uh moving on uh the manufacturing tour uh continues. Um we visited Katico and Ho project uh products. Um visiting Katako was a real eye opening um not just for their scale and quality of their operations but their inventiveness behind their products. And if you didn't know, Katako was actually recently named one of the top 50 companies to work for in Connecticut. um absolutely was blown away by their operation and their team graciously let us sample some of the food that's cooked in their equipment at the end of
006the end of the tour. So that was always a good day. And today we uh we stopped up at HO Products uh and I was just absolutely struck by the level of precision and dedication that goes into meeting their customers needs. Both Katako and Ho products have deep roots in Winchester and remain committed to our community. They're not looking to go anywhere. you know, when I sat down and and met with management andor, you know, owners of the company, they're really excited to see the direction, you know, Winstead has been in and continues to to move in. Um, on a different note, I did receive a an email from uh Hubble's management. If you remember a few weeks back, I did visit uh Hubble and uh it was nice to get an email like this
007and I typically don't share these type of emails, but Bob Brown, who who manages Hubble down there, um he he he wrote a quick thank you uh and he appreciated that, you know, when his contractor came in, the permit application went very smoothly and they had the permit almost immediately and that the chief actually stopped them uh on the road when the chief was out there. uh one day and and said, "Hey, we're we're going to make sure we we step up enforcement." The town manager brought to our attention that you had some vandals that were coming in stealing some scrap metal. So, it was nice to hear um from management of of one of our our big businesses in town and he appreciates the work that the town's been doing. Uh moving on, I
008know most of you were were there on October 8th, we hosted the uh economic development commission's event over at Little Red Barn for our new promotional video. I thought the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The audience seemed generally impressed. The video has already been shared almost a hundred times. The reason I put this on my report is I want it shared more times. Um, if you can, please go to our Facebook page, um, find the video. It's not too far down, hit the little share button and share it with your audience. Uh, we are working with our website provider now. We're looking to add that video to our website, but we're looking to do it in shorter uh, shorts as they call it. And hopefully that will launch by the end of the week. working hard
009to get that up there because I think the video is really really uh done well and I and I want it on our our website. So, I'm working with Evan and and and hope to get that up on our website by the end of this week. Um, sustainable CT, our bronze re uh our bronze certification is actually expiring at the uh end of March. We met with the sustainable CT people. It's a lift to maintain um the bronze level, but I've challenged our team here and minimally we'll go for bronze, but I think we want to go for silver um status this time around. Um maintaining the certification just helps us stand out when applying for state and federal grants and it gives us just that little extra edge. So, it's worth that a little
010extra time. Get the certification. Hopefully, we can get silver. Uh more on that later, but just to let you know that sustainable CT uh uh certification is expiring at the start of 2026 and and we're going to be on it to minimally keep with our bronze certification, but possibly jump up to uh to silver. Labor relations, we recently uh brought in a mediator to assist with our clerical union negotiations and are pleased to report a tenative agreement has been reached. um while finalizing the contract will be slightly delayed. Our labor attorney does have a personal matter he's dealing with uh out west. Um we will uh get that contract uh written up and presented to you all um probably sometime late December, beginning of January. And then our supervisor's union will uh will be meeting
011with us on October 30th with the same mediator. We we're very optimistic that we'll have a very similar outcome. Here's a fun uh update. The 2027 budget uh development process has officially kicked off. Uh department heads met last week to coordinate our capital improvement plan. We reviewed historical funding, identified potential challenges for the upcoming year. Strategic planning is now and will help us address the priorities more effectively ensure that Winchester Winchester continues to make smart targeted investments in our future. So we are off and running for our 2027 budget that's due to you all on March 15th. Wallen Hill RFQ RFP update. As you remember at the last board of selectment meeting, I walked out of that meeting uh ready to post our proposal of the 118 acres uh up on Walland Hill. Uh it's
012a significant opportunity for Winchester. Uh RFQ's responses are due by December 1st, 2025. Seven member evaluation panel will be selected. uh three preferred developers will come from that seven panel uh board and then obviously brought um into the board of selectmen and then eventually obviously out. Um the proposals are due uh on or before February 2nd. I will tell you that since we've launched the RFQ, the phone has been steady. We've had uh huge developers from all over the country literally call on a Tuesday and fly in on a Wednesday morning and go up to the and do a sidewalk. Um, we are still waiting for Apex to do the infrastructure study. It it they hope to have it done this week. I read an email just before coming down here. As soon as that
013infrastructure report obviously is available, we're going to push that out there as as soon as we possibly can. All signs so far look very positive. I don't want to jinx us, but I'll just say Apex has given us uh very good thumbs up lately. But the response for the uh RFQ RFP for Wallins is not just getting local attention. It is getting national attention which is very very exciting. What it all means we're going to find out um in the future. Subosman still River Greenway the ad hoc committee by the way sidebar one of the hardest working committees of volunteers that I've seen put together. They they meet consistently. They come in with a plan. They really want this project done. It's just exciting when you sit down and meet with them. But um they're
014making good progress. Uh they're identifying a tenative uh preferred route pending completion of property easements and environmental review. Jeff and I are with our town attorney right now to start uh talking about easements and exactly what they look like. We're meeting again Thursday and and we hope to uh present a lot of good information to that group. You'll see later on in the agenda there's a trail grant that the state of Connecticut's offering and uh potential action by this board if uh if it so sees fit. And last but not least, Safe Streets for All Committee held their first meeting on October 7th at town hall uh drew drew a diverse engaged group of residents alongside a town staff. Even in the early stages, there's been a lot thoughtful discussion and fresh ideas. The town's
015RFQ for a consultant to lead our vision zero action plan is live on our town's website. Once the firm is selected, the committee will work closely with them to shape the plan and help guide Winchester towards safer streets for everyone. Again, that safe streets for all committee and the consultant is all paid for by a grant and and and there isn't any uh expenditure on the town side. With that, I'll open it up for any questions that the board may have. >> Questions? >> One quick one. Um you said Eversource is going to be wrapped up and that they'll be back in the spring. if we checked with every possible agency if there's anything else planned for Main Street, uh, water, sewer, the cable company, everybody, so that we don't pave that and in June
016we tear it up again because, >> you know, it's a great question. Um, typically before any of those major things are done, Eversource is always reaching out. It's what you saw up on Bridge Street, but I'm going to double check. So, I don't want to say that's 100% sure because I know I wasn't involved in those conversations, but I'm going to write that down and make sure. Hey, we're going to rip the road up. Let's rip it up before we put a final. >> We've seen it in the past, Paul, where we Yep. >> we're all done and we go, "Wow, that looks beautiful." And two months later, >> hey, the cable company needs to put a fiber optic under 44. >> Well, the interesting thing is Bob Guyger held them for two years on
017paving so that we could do our work on the streets. Um, and then Eversource just popped up this year with their gas, but it has been held when the state did their major pay. They held it for was it Todd? Like I thought it was like two years, a year and a half. >> Two years a year and a half. >> I know I know all of the agencies do tend to to work together. But it's it's definitely worth it's it's down in my notepad. It's definitely worth, you know, making sure that we do this once. So >> Andy, >> yeah. Um, the safe streets, did you review the last plan? And the only reason I'm asking you that is I was cleaning out papers. I was looking through it yesterday. I I have the
018last safe streets plan. >> I didn't know there was a safe streets plan that existed. >> Yeah. When we did the whole intersection for the bridge street, that's part of safe was part of the safe streets. >> Can you send that to me? >> I will bring it to you. >> You'll bring it to me? Even better. Okay. >> Okay. I got to get rid of things out of the house. And then the second thing, I might have missed it from from last week, but uh what about 508? Where are we on that? So 508, uh, if you haven't looked, it is available on the town's website. Um, currently, right now, we have three RFQ or RFQS and RFPs. Um, my goal is to probably bring that to the November 3rd meeting. Um, I don't
019want to say too much, but I was well, I'll say it. I was blown away by one of the RFQS that came in. Absolutely blown away. Um I'm not going to share which one, but uh I I was just waiting to see if any further ones came in, but I think this board will be very impressed with what has come in. Um each one is very unique. Um and I really think people understood what we were asking for when you see the information that they provided and their vision of what that building could look like. Anything else? Moving on to item number seven, finance director's report in lie of our finance director. >> It's me Harington. >> All right. So, currently uh current property taxes year-to- date 16,176677 which is 55.42% of our budget. Prior
020year being 14,273990 52.19% past due taxes 148,73 42.31% of the budget and prior year was at 20.96 of the budget. Total revenue representing 42.20% 20% of the budget compared to last year at 15,18161837.2% of the budget. Expenditures to date and this is obviously as of September 30th 11,552,43 which is roughly 28.146 28.16% of the budget compared to last year being 11,773,190,000 28.8 85%. I'll note obviously our expenditures are slightly lower than last year which is good to see. Um cash flow currently right now uh in the general fund as of September 30th 26,483,232. I think it's very important to note that I have had eyes on the actual bank statements to verify that there is that money in the bank. Um so currently invested 20,793,58 in the Northwest Community Bank suite 457034. Stiff has $2.6
021$6 million and in account 9127 which uh Northwest Community Bank uh money market 17748,859 capital projects through September 2025 we had $46,270 for the Elm Street firehouse roof repair, $43,343 for a plow truck lease payment annual road maintenance 190,462 $2 public works facility upgrade $2,000 annual computer replacements $11,246 Price Road Wani Road let me Price Road $9,910 which is bond Wani Road $25,383 which is bond and drainage at Highland Lake 33,484 which is bond as well. With that I would open it to any questions on finance reports. questions. Andy? >> Yeah. Um, I asked this last year and we try to ask it every year. Um, and there was one that Bruce had done which was a five-year projection. And do we have forecasts? >> Amarie is working on that. There were two projects that
022um, one that was one of the projects and the other one was showing the amount spent for each project on the bond. Um, we hope to have that here on November 3rd to show the five-year projection and also on the bond projects of what money was spent. Um, she has been working on that diligently. She got called away last minute. Um, and we hope to have that done by the November third meeting. Yes. Other questions. Item eight, correspondence. Does anyone have anything? Item nine, boards and commissions. Nope. >> Perfect. So, we have one uh individual up for appointment tonight. Uh the date was 10 to 2025. Thomas Cook for zoning board of appeals, party Republican as an alternate term end date five of 2029. Make a motion to appoint Thomas Cook uh zoning board of
023appeals uh alternate member term ending 52029. >> Thank you. Jo is our second. >> Second. >> Thank you Paul. Any discussion? Seeing no discussion all in favor unanimous. Thank you. That is that's it. Moving on to item 10, unfinished business. We have no unfinished business. Item 11, >> excuse me. >> Thank you. >> Presentation by the registars of voters, demonstrations of the new voting tabulators. >> So with us tonight is obviously our register of voters. Uh they've had a very long day. Um, sure it's probably going to come up under select comments, but early voting has officially kicked off today at 8 am >> 10 a.m. 10 10 to 6. Um, and we do have our new fancy tabulators um from the state of Connecticut. Um, I think it's in these are just like in
024every other town, but the registers wanted to take this opportunity to not only share with this board, but also to our viewing public of how fancy these things really are. If you guys don't mind, can you hit the microphone and kind of stand near that because the public watching at home won't be able to hear you. See the little red microphone blinking at you? Just hit any one of those and it's going to turn green on you. >> There you go. >> Okay. >> Thank you for allowing us to come tonight to show you our new tabulator. Um we wanted to give you all an opportunity to vote. So everyone of you have a ballot in front of you and answer questions from the tabulator. You'll see that the screen gives you um a message
025which is different from u our previous tabulator. There's a there's a screen and um as soon as you put your ballot in, it will give you a message that either it was accepted or it was rejected. And if it's rejected um for whatever reason, and it will tell you why, um you can either uh uh send the ballot in or take it back out. and they act they ask you what what you want to do and you press a button and if you want to just do it anyway. Um it'll go through and whatever you voted on that is not um wrong so to speak like a a double vote or something like that. We it will count those votes but it won't count the vote that's wrong. Got that? And then um if you
026decide that you don't want it to put it in, you take it will come back out. You go back to the ballot, excuse me, go back to the ballot and get a new one and do it correctly. Any questions? And there are questions on the back side of your ballot as well. Um there will be a tabulator tender who will be standing off to the side to assist. Um In the past, um, usually the, um, it was just the ballot kind of shot back out and we have a little, uh, screen that would say in the tender, the calculator tender would read to the voter what the issue was, but now it's going to show up on the screen. The voter actually will see and have the opportunity to make the decision. So, um, I'm
027going to start out totally unvoted ballot. >> Okay. But the um >> the people behind us. Okay. So, this blank ballot says you have made no selections on this ballot and it's asking me if I would like to return it or cast the blank ballot. So, I'm going to hit return. And then the tabulator tender would say to the voter says your vote was not cast. Um you know you haven't filled in anything and please go back and fill in the bubbles for the whoever you would like to vote however you would like to vote. Um, so now that has too many votes on it and the message comes up that we chose too many uh favorite dog breeds, too many favorite beaches, just everything was voted on. And it's the same thing. We can
028have it returned and then you take that ballot back to the um ballot clerk and they'll issue you a new ballot or you don't care. Um so we want to return it because we really want to vote. So So you notice what Debbie said is that it will tell you where your your vote is wrong. In other words, in the other one, it just said uh double voter or whatever it said. This actually shows you where you made the mistake where you have a double vote or too many little circles. >> Okay, so the next one does have an over over vote on one of the questions and it specifically tells me that I overvoted. I chose too many favorite dog breeds, but I cast it because I don't have time and that's the only
029one that's not going to be counted. The other questions on my ballot will get counted. So, I'm casting my ballot and it says, "Thank you for voting. Your ballot has been counted." And the last one just goes through and says thank you for voting. So would all of you like to come up and just >> Deb, if I may only because I talk with both of you, you know, weekly. Um, can we explain to the board and then also to our residents how many of those tablets we actually have and the process of how this all looks now? because I was amazed when I walked into the room and I won't say the number because I want you all to but explain you know how many we have and why we have as many as
030we have. >> So we were um allotted um seven tabulators and for each tabulator we have a backup. So we have the voting at the at the um poll at Pearson school. We have an absentee ballot tabulator. We have an early voting tabulator. We have a same day registration tabulator and backups for those. >> I was I was amazed when I walked in. I mean, I I was simply blown away by how many we had and then it they they walked me through same day registration, you know, absentee ballots and then there's backups for each each one of them. So, simply blown away. And then one other question I and maybe I don't know and and and I think it's an important question to ask. So, did in the old machines when it rejected a
031ballot, was there ever an option where the the voter got a new ballot? I was >> No, it you got a new vote a ballot. If it didn't go in correctly, it was kicked out. >> Y >> and then you you took your ballot back to the ballot clerk and got a new one. >> Okay. Okay. >> It it um but the the workers had to explain to the voter. Now the the voter is actually going to be able to read it themselves on this screen to tell them exactly where they have the problem. >> Okay. >> I just had a question. I don't know if if you necessarily know the answer, but are these connected to the internet in any way? >> No, >> they are not. >> Good. >> Yeah. My question is
032so you have four things count four tabulators counting the ballots. How do they get merged at the end of the night? Is it by hand or is it fed into or do they talk to each other or how does that work? >> They print out a ticket on each one. >> It's a Okay, so there's a USB stick >> that goes into the to the tabulator and um records everything that's going on, >> right? >> And then those So there's four of them. Each of those goes goes into a specific uh only use um laptop. >> Never touches the internet. >> It right. Nothing touchs the internet. It's a separate thing that the the company gave us and you stick your sticks in. >> Y >> and that records totals the totals of each of
033the machines and then gives you a total at the end for all of it. >> So this is going to streamline the counting at the end, >> right? Instead of having to >> look at all the tapes. That's what always drags us down. We got all of these tapes plus hand counted. um you know and any other extraneous and um then then you have to get the totals and then it has to be sent it will be the same this year in that we have to send it through um >> the old way to secretary of state's office but eventually everything will be all in here and it will and the information will all go to the secretary of state's So, we will have to read the totals on the tapes this year because they
034haven't um completed the program >> reporting program, but next year we should be able to do it the way that Barbara just described, >> right? Yeah. Because I I don't know. I just the I know this past year and the year before it it just seems like >> it gets dragged out. >> Well, that only gets dragged out. It's kind of unfair for people that have been working all day to to be there and putting numbers into a computer >> um and then the numbers not adding up and then everybody you know having to you know spend a lot of time going back and checking it. So um that's why I was wondering how they were going to do. But if it's going to be the same way as it was last year with the
035numbers um I would ask that there be more people at the polls at the end of the night. maybe a fresh person with with eyes that haven't been going since five o'clock in the morning to help put those into the into any spreadsheet, doesn't matter which one, as a backup. >> So, my question is, did the state mandate us to have this? >> They we all have the exact same tabulators in every town. >> Every town. Yes. >> And who paid for them? >> The state paid for them. Okay. And now the ballots are our costs. >> Yes. >> And it's only one company that you can get these through and they're very expensive. >> You can get it through the um the local company in Connecticut that we have been purchasing them for years
036or the company that we um who um built these tabulators also provide um the opportunity to get their ballots as well. So we have two options. So, for the people out there that are watching on TV, um what's the difference in cost from the old ones to these >> um >> because I remember we we talked about that. >> I don't think there was a price increase. Um >> the only difference this year was they are colorcoded and they have to be in the past they weren't. So my cross went for the absentees went from 35 cents to 37 cents and I ordered 80 absentee ballots. I believe there's 20 something dollars. >> Are the absentee or mail in top are they all the same form? So when we receive them they just go into
037the tabulator someone feeds them in. There are different color codes depending upon what kind of ballot it is. mine is yellow as an absentee and that I think the others were green and blue and depending on what they were >> the poll the um ones that we use at the poll is just a white ballot the the price um I know you're you're referring to the ballot >> when we would have a referendum we could buy our own blank ballots >> and we could make up the question and it was a quarter of the price this company um at the onset of you know signing up with them told us that they didn't provide that that they had never been requested to do this. Well, other towns in Connecticut were doing the same thing that
038we were doing in Winchester. So, they are working on being able to um give us the opportunity can use that be much >> cheaper. >> Yeah. >> How about the money? The ballots that get rejected, >> the ballots that get rejected and brought back to the clerk, >> what happens to those? Do they get marked as >> marked? Those um those little things on the sides get >> a line through it and then they a void it goes into a an envelope and um void is written on the outside of the >> so it clearly clearly be marked that >> there are not proper ballots. If someone's were to pop out of the um tabulator, the um tender would come up and put something over the ballot so that um she's not reading he or
039she is not reading it and then putting it into a folder and they are then um directed where they can go and receive another you know do the switch >> another questions try And the ballot is the same where it can go either way. >> Already did it. >> Early voting. Yes. For dogs. Yes. She put it in upside down and still read it. >> And that's the way the the other one that's okay. >> You can put it in any way you wanted to. follow directions. >> Yeah, I love those. >> And then it counted when you when you opened, >> of course. Yeah, it would have calculated when you when you open the curtain >> disappear. >> I didn't know she was going to go through and have all the uh >> possible
040outcomes. What was your fault? >> I double I purposely double voted on the um >> Saturday. >> Oh, >> so we will we will be um keeping this set up at our office and we'll post signs if anyone would like to come in and try it. >> Yeah, cool. Y have somebody >> that um you know we'll put it on the website too to invite people to come into the office if they want to get it back. >> I don't. >> So where are we storing all these? >> So So what I did is I scribbled out one of the circles like I made a mistake and I scribbled right through it. >> So it's still caught. >> Yeah. Oh yeah. >> Are these have to be locked before the votes like the last ones?
041Like the 30 days before? Um, so we have a closet that we've been given at Pearson that is only privy to us that will lock the five of the seven that are going over to um the poll >> and then two will stay here um in town hall. >> One is going to be the demonstrator and the other one will be for early voting. Unfortunately, um they didn't pass the law soon enough that we could use the tabulators for early voting. So, we're doing the old putting them into the envelopes and into the ballot box for another year. >> But they don't have to open. >> But it's 30 days they have to Was it 30 days have to be locked before an election? >> It's We have to do it 10 days. >> 10
042days. >> We've done it. >> Yeah. >> Are you going to tally tonight? Is that a possibility? >> No. >> I I just want to Well, >> you just want to know which dog won. >> No, no. I I I purposely did a writing because I wanted to see how that would >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah, I did it right. >> Oh, did you? I just >> even know I scribbled. >> We didn't set it up so that you could actually get the total. So, >> well, let me know votes me up. when you guys do >> other questions >> and I'll just put out there is, you know, they talked about a computer and and and the state did graciously. I mean, they they definitely not only to our town, but all the 168
043other towns. All this stuff was was uh purchased through the state for us and all the other towns. >> Well, you know who that is. We're still paying for it, huh? >> Yes. I mean, >> is there like an annual maintenance on >> maintenance? >> So, what happened to the the box that's outside? >> Oh, that's >> that still can be used, too. That's still there. >> That's They're still using that. >> That's absent. >> Do So, they provided you with backups for >> So, you said five are going to Pearson, three are staying here, >> which leaves you seven more, correct? No, there's the backup is is actually only one tabulator because we're using four different tabulators for those things that we already named off and there'll be one backup. >> Okay. So, not
044a backup for each individual. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> And and and so that makes the five and the plus the two that'll stay here. >> Okay. Okay. And did they give you backups for the USBs? >> Yes. >> Well, we haven't purchased them. >> That's another thing. That's another expense we have. There's all all kinds of additional expenses, right? >> You know, uh in addition to the to the ballots >> to to get this up up and running. >> Are those USBs one time use? >> Yes. >> Only um No, the just the one that we download um to get the information is we have to throw away it when we're done with it. That's it's not going to touch the state. laptop. >> So, am I am I wrong that we only had
045one tabulator forever? >> We actually had three >> at the same time. >> Yes. >> I don't remember going in to see three tabulators to the side and kept them covered and you know, we just had them there as a backup in case we >> Yeah, but that's my question. Are we going to be using three tabulators at the same time to like speed up voting? >> No. So only one tabulator again, >> right? So you're going to be going to Pearson um and voting on one tabulator on the we have we're going to have the spare, you know, on the side. We also will have the same day registration tabulator there. So when we have those ballots, they'll go through only those ballots will go through it. The same with the absentee and then
046the same with the early voting ballots. And like some towns like Torington or whatever, there's probably a line waiting to get to that machine. If you had a couple of them, it would speed up the voting. So >> So for instance, next year, you know, it will be a ginatorial year. We'll have probably have two operating >> running at the same time. Yeah. >> Okay. >> And and I'm sure Torington got a lot more um tabulators than we >> Oh, I'm sure they did. They got three different voting spots. heard that we were getting seven. We're like, who can put these things? >> It all worked out. >> Well, thank you, ladies. >> Thank you for all you do. >> While we have you both here, early voting started today. Any idea how many participated?
047>> That's good. >> Yeah, >> we went up one since I came down last minute. >> We're there for 13 more days. So, come on and see us. While we have it, do you want to because there there's some unique hours for some late nights. Do you want to just quickly and I would just uh ask if you could come a little bit closer to the microphone. Um >> our early voting hours are um from 10 until 6 every day except for the 28th and the 30th of October. We will be in our office from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. >> Thank you for having us. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to item B25-06, a resolution supporting the use of grant matching capital funds. Uh Mr. Mayor, if I can, if I can combine
048B and C together because they kind of are interchangeable with one another. As you're well aware, we do have a Sue Gman shovels in the ground committee that has been formed that has been working very diligently to try and launch this project. Take you back a little bit. Um, if you remember, we did get a federal direct spend of $2 million. I had the unfortunate pleasure of bringing to this court probably a year ago that when we received the grant, the town was unaware that there was a $500,000 match um to it. We did uh ask the Connecticut DOT if they'd be willing to uh write us a check for a half a million dollars and they actually did. So, currently we have $2.5 million in grant funding towards the completion of this project. Although
049a quite uh fair bit of money, we do have some early projections on what it's going to cost to build phase three and phase 4. I don't want to hit you all with the with the prices, but it's up there. I mean, roughly, if everything goes the way it is, you're, you know, in the tune of an the project's going to cost about $5 million. The committee is going to sit down Thursday. I think we're going to look at a little bit different, but I uh I move forward with that the uh Connecticut uh Department of Energy does offer a CT recreational trail grant um that you can apply for. There's roughly, I believe, $2 million that's up for grabs. Tom and I met we plan on putting in a grant application for $500,000, but
050we're going to do it in two phases in that we don't want to have all or nothing, but one of the phase one that we're going to say is that we want the the fence and the posts for, you know, phase three and the fence and the post for page uh phase four. that would roughly equal $500,000. Giving the trail grant people an option to say, "Hey, we'll fund all $500,000 or maybe we're only going to fund $300,000 and you guys are on your own for 200." But the more money we raised, the more realistic that we can get three and four completed before you tonight is is really two two requests. First one being is to give the town permission to go out and get the grant. But if there is part of the
051uh uh recreational trail grant that there is a 20% local match. The good news with the 20% local match is that we can apply inind contributions. And what inkind contributions mean is any work that the town is doing. In fact, the meetings that we all have been sitting down for for the last six, seven months, those people that have been meeting, there is an hourly fee that we can assign, hourly rate that we can assign to each one of those uh individuals that are in the room and we can actually put that towards our 20% match. Uh currently, right now, we do haveund I want to quote the right number. We have $160,000 in this capital account to uh and it was a great idea when the when the board established it. It was long
052before I got here, but um to go after when there are local matches and that we have the money ready to go. Um the ask tonight is to go out and I'm just going to say it plainly. Um Tom was very aggressive and he says up to $160,000. I don't think we're going to need nor would I would I ever agree to spend up to $160,000 because we're only going for $500,000. We know full well that um that's the maximum we'll probably ask for the trail grant. But uh the ask tonight is to uh use the uh capital uh match uh fund to offset any 20% that's needed cashwise if we can't offset it with inkind contributions. And then obviously the second ask would be a letter from the board signed by the mayor um
053with support of us going after this trail grant. >> Questions? >> Any discussion? Questions? >> No, I just I'm worth $30 an hour. I learned that >> I was actually thinking that Sle and Perez and I were worth $150 an hour >> and then Candace is worth $30 or $150 an hour and so we think we got the match covered. >> And then no, I move the board of selectman submit a letter of support for the town of Winchester's Connecticut recreational trails grant application on behalf of the board of selectman and authorize the mayor to sign a letter on behalf of the board of selectmen. >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. Thank you, Bill. Thank you, Bill. Any discussion? All in favor? >> Was that 2537 or we skip
054over 256? The resolution. >> We did the action step before we did the resolution. It's perfectly fine. Sorry. Would need action uh on resolution 25-06. >> Move that we uh do the resolution 256 supporting the use of designated grant matching capital funds. >> Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. Moving on to item D 25-38 refunds as recommended by the collector of revenue. Uh as you see we have an amount and all of them were based on COC's in the amount of $6476. I'll note that this was signed by uh Pam uh our newly interim uh tax collector because our current tax collector is out on maternity leave and congratulations to her and her family. >> I move that the board of selectman authorize the refunds
055recommended by the collector of revenue in the amount of $6476. >> Second. Thank you Troy. Thank you Bill. Any discussion? All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. Item 12, citizens comments. Board of selectman we welcome public comments. Speakers for limited three minutes and may speak once. Does anyone wish to speak? Item 13, selectman's comments and reports. And treat next Saturday. I uh want to thank uh Sergeant Justin Dval for allowing me to join him for the evening shift on Saturday night. Um it was an interesting evening. Once again, this is the second ride along I've done with our police department. Um I can report that the interaction between the police and the residents is uh something that I admire. They're doing a really nice job in the way they interact. I did learn some important things
056from Sergeant Dval and I've uh look forward to uh working on some of these things in the future. But thank you to him for allowing me to join him for the evening. >> So just a reminder, tomorrow's the ribbon cutting 1:00 for the new dominoes. Thursday 7:30 a.m. the ribbon cutting for Marshalls. Speaking of dominoes, um they have their no their hiring signs all over town and um they're all on town property. >> Yes, they are. Uh we did send Jeff out. We we sent them, but um >> I'm looking forward to tomorrow because I will be there a little bit earlier and I think we're going to use a different approach this time. But um they are all over town. I've seen them. And um yeah, we obviously support our our new businesses, but
057we also can't clutter up our town. Uh this coming Friday night, the Winston Youth Service Bureau has their annual fundraiser at Crystal Peak. Uh the Roaring 20s, I believe it's called. Tickets are still available on their website, I believe. >> Motion to Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Good night. >> Record. >> I don't think so. >> You had one earlier. >> Earlier earlier, >> maybe not. I >> think we had a 7 745 or 7:30 one.