001Good evening. Today is Monday, August 18th, 2025. Before we call the board, the regular board of select meeting to order. Uh we just like to call for a moment of silence as tomorrow marks the 70th 70th anniversary of one of the most devastating events in our town's history, the flood of 1955. On August 19th of that year, Winstead and Winchester were changed forever as the charm of our small town main street was destroyed. Torrential rains swelled the rivers and that ran through our community and with in hours both the mad and still rivers overflowed with the force that few could ever have imagined. Downtown Winston was left in ruins. Businesses and homes were swept away and most tragically lives were lost. Yet, as we remember the destruction, we must also remember the resolve and the
002resilience that Winchester showed. Flood the flood tested the very spirit of this town. And what emerged was a community that refused to be broken. Neighbors pulled each others from the water. Families opened their doors to those displaced. and citizens stood shouldertosh shoulder to begin the long work of rebuilding. Out of the tragedy, Winstead showed its strength, its compassion, its character, and the determination to rise again. 70 years later, we gather not only to honor the memory of those who suffered and those who were lost, but also to reflect on how far Winston has come. The rebuilt Main Street, the strengthened infrastructure, and the protections that were put in place since then are the reminders that this community does not forget its history, and it learns from it. Let this anniversary be more than a remembrance.
003Let it remind us of the bond we share as a town, the importance of preparedness, and above all, the enduring resilience of the people of Win in Winchester. To those who lived through that night and to the generations who have carried forward its lessons, we honor you. We thank you and we promise we won't forget. And as our memorial on the park reads, all who of whom perished in this devastating flood into the city August 19th, 1955, we remember Josephine Cornelio, John M. Gould Manny Lache Mary C Mcronone Sinclair I Megalsen William A Samilina Zapula >> with that call to order. Nice job. Linda Graa, >> Troy Lemir, >> Paul Marino, Paul Harrington, Todd Archalashi, >> Glenn Alberticius, William Hester, >> Candy Perez, >> William Poso. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. >>
004I pledge algiance 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. Moving on to item number three, agenda review. We do need to add an item between 13 executive session and selectman's comments. Uh so we'd like to add discussion possible action on executive session sale real estate. >> So move one more as well. >> Okay. >> If appropriate. >> Well, let's vote on the first one first. Uh is there a second? >> Second. Okay. All in favor. Okay. And Linda, you would like to add? >> Yeah. Um if it's appropriate. Um this under unfinished business um the status of the proposed ordinance of the addition to chapter 87 notice of hours of town offices. >> Okay.
005Uh Candy, did you and Paul meet on that? >> Yes. And you are you ready to present a status or >> just a status? >> We can update a status. Yeah. >> Okay. So we'll Is there a motion to add that under 10A? >> So move. Okay. A second. Paul, you got the second? >> Sure. >> All in favor? >> Okay. Anything else? >> All right. Moving on to item number four, the approval of the minutes of our regular meeting on August 4th, 2025. >> So moved. >> Thank you, Troy. Second. >> Thank you, Bill. Any discussion, corrections, additions? Seeing none, all in favor? Unanimous. Moving on to item number five, citizens comments. Board of Suckleman welcomes public comments. Speakers be limited to three minutes or less. May speak once. This is your opportunity to
006voice your concerns. It's not intended to be a back and forth between the select men. Jay, >> you got to push the button. and just turn the There we go. >> Hi, good evening. My name is Jay Markwell. I live over the road in Winstead. Um this is concerning the um Sarah Smolic dogs. We have seen posts from channel 12 that four of the dogs seized in the Sarah Smolic case are placed with individuals connected to Sarah Smolac. Even though previously all reports indicated that safe fosters with no connection to Sarah had been found prior to the July one deadline. Question is, are the dogs currently being fostered by Sarah by Sarah's associates? And if so, what is being done by the town to remove the dogs from their care and placed in foster unassociated
007with her? >> Is that it? >> That's it. Sorry. Yes. >> You want to >> I will answer that since it's a it's a sensitive matter. So, uh we did call word of that late Thursday or Friday. Um our town attorney along with our detective along with the state's attorney is looking into the matter. I think some of the stuff that does get put out on Facebook might not necessarily always have um the whole story said, but the state's attorney will need to step in and rule that the dogs um are in an unsafe environment and then allow the town to go in and take those dogs. We met this morning about that. Just so you're well aware that when this dog case happened, Simon Foundation, which was recommended by the courts and AMA, they
008completely vetted these dogs. At the time, those four particular dogs were vetted by the Simon Foundation. Um, they did miss potentially a connection between Sarah Small and Nap. So, Simon Foundation originally signed off on those four particular dogs going to those four particular fosters. Now, you know, in the in the, you know, fourth quarter of this, um, it's appearing that there's new evidence that is coming out that potentially these four fosters do have some connection to, uh, Miss Smolick. So, we are looking into that. Um, we just can't take a rumor, but we have to vet it. We have to get the state's attorney involved, but all of the parties, the detectives, the town attorneys, the state's attorney, and obviously the town have met about it. We are looking into it. Those dogs right now
009do remain in those original four fosters, but we're waiting for the state's attorney to jump in and make a ruling that we can go in and take the dogs, but we literally cannot go in and steal somebody's property without the court ordering that. So, >> so that's where we're at. But, yeah, it was put on our radar. We jumped on it immediately. Obviously, a sensitive item and and you have a criminal proceeding, you have a civil proceeding. So, I I didn't bring much out because it is working its way through the court system, but we are on top of those four dogs. It's Ike Oakley. I forget the two other names, but we met early this morning about it. So, >> yeah. >> Anyone else? All right, moving on to item number six, the town
010manager's report. Who penned that nice intro about the 55 flood? >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I was wondering um yes Todd and I had the mayor and I had met earlier today and um I thought it was important to commemorate the 70 years of uh that and took a second and decided that I'd have the mayor read it and well done Mr. Mayor. Uh moving on to uh my report. This is for August 4th through the 18th. Uh quickly personnel, our union negotiations are progressing smoothly with both our clerical and supervisor unions. discussions have been very productive, respectful, and we are very optimistic about reaching a tenative agreement soon. I want to thank everyone involved for their professionalism and collaborative spirit during these talks. Reaching a fair, timely agreement remains a top priority for the
011town and I'm confident that we should be able to wrap these up in the notsodistant future. In fact, we are meeting with our supervisors union on Wednesday and clerical the following week, which we are hoping we could possibly get to a TA agreement within this month. Um economic uh development commission filming is officially underway uh as the EDC works to showcase everything Winstead has to offer. If you remember a few weeks back, this board did approve the transfers that we would uh bring in Acast and actually work on a video with a local production company called Allcast. Um we're going to highlight uh all of that uh great things that Winstead have to offer. But one of the most important things that's going to be uh portrayed in this video is the new owners of
012Ledgebrook Plaza, which is Henbrook Properties. Uh eagerly agre uh eagerly agree to be interviewed and why they chose Winstead and their experience working with the town has been having a national company speak positively about our community is just an absolute huge win for us and it'll help us attract more investment, more interest in the area. EDC does hope to have the video completed very very soon and with the board's permission they would like to actually do the premiere at one of our board of selectman meetings um and invite public in obviously you know with the videos but um we're going to have this thing probably wrapped up sometime early September and they'd love to come in and and preview it all to to the board of selectments. So I'm I'm seeing a lot of head
013shaking. Yes. So we'll we'll move in that direction. We'll move in that direction. Um speed cameras as we talked about at our last meeting. This board wanted to go out to uh an RFP process which is now live on the town's website. It does expire on August 28th. We have received several companies asking questions about these proposals. So, I'm really excited, you know, when the bids close or when the RFP closes to gather all of the information and share it all with you to, you know, vet a company that, you know, this town uh may want to do business with. I do want to make very public and very clear that we are in the very very early stages of deciding about the speed camera and for the public here and watching at home. There
014will be a very public uh meeting where the the public can come in and they can weigh in and they can ask questions. So don't feel that this board is cutting the public out from any of these discussions. We're just in the early stages of gathering the information to share with all of you and then collectively, you know, bringing it forward to to all of the residents. Um, as you saw uh at last meeting and and if you watch our social media channels, the street safe for all committee, the town formally has signed the agreement with the US Department of Transport transportation, activating our safe streets for all grant. This important funding will support the creation of a townwide vision zero action plan with the goal of eliminating traffic fat fat fatalities and serious injuries.
015To guide this work, we are forming a safe streets for all SS4 committee and encourage residents interested in traffic safety to participate. If you'd like to get involved, please get in contact with my office as soon as possible. I can say we did post it out on social media uh today. We've already got four people that expressed interest in in joining the safe streets for all uh Bridge Street intersection redesign publicformational session. Tonight was going to be the night where I was going to possibly announce that public information session and then I found out our public works director is pulling a vacation which everyone deserves a vacation. So we're going back to the drawing board tomorrow finding out a new date but we are going to do that informational session get questions designs all of
016that. uh look for that sometime in September. We do want to get it, you know, uh done so we can get as much input as we can. But um uh this was actually written and then changed uh in a final version of my town manager report because I was going to announce the date tonight, but then I had to change it. So uh but we will have thatformational session. I know looking at social media phone calls and people stopping in the office um there are lots of concern of you know what's going on over in that intersection all great feedback so let's collectively sit down get it all um and we're preparing the presentation but we'll get a date out uh sooner rather than later uh Tiffany Thompson Foundation if you remember they are a
017huge generous supporter of our police department happy to report that we're grateful that Tiffany Thompson Foundation for the $4,000 $4,000 donation to support active aging programs at our senior center. This funding will help us expand resources, activities, and opportunities so that older residents can stay engaged, healthy, and active. So again, I'd like to thank Tiffany Thompson Foundation for once again opening up their checkbook and writing a check to the town. This one going right directly to our uh our senior center. And last but not least, National Public Safety Drone Donation Program. The town has submitted a request to the National Public Safety Drone Donation Program for a drone to be used by the police department. This is strictly an equipment donation. No financial match or town funds were required. If awarded, the drone will enhance
018our public safety capabilities, expect especially during search and rescue operations and incident assessments. The review process may take some time and we sh we'll share the updates as we hear more and more from them. But that could be exciting that we get a free drone um out of it. With that, I'll open it up to the board for any questions they may have. >> Questions from the board, >> right? What roads are being paid next week? >> I will meet with Jimmy on Friday and I can send out uh an email. Friday, we meet at 9:00. Better be some smoke coming around on one of these streets somewhere. >> Other questions? >> Two questions. Um, as we look at the camera and you have these companies responding to the RFP, does it make any sense
019at all to any towns have looked into taking it inhouse as opposed to the cost of, you know, the sharing of the the split sharing of the fines? Is there any town that has said, "Hey, we can buy the cameras and and and run this in house." Does that make an ounce of sense? I guess is the question. Um, to date, everything that I've read, I've researched, there hasn't been any community in Connecticut that is further along in the process and or have implemented the process that any of them have actually purchased the system. Um, it'll be interesting to see when we're able to open up all of the RFPs, if a particular uh uh company does put that into their proposal, that here you go, you can buy it. Um, so I I to
020be honest with you, I don't even know the price of what these all cost. You got to keep in mind there's an administrative burden um as well that this company's taking on. So I think it may be cost prohibitive to do it that way by the time you know you're looking at buying the equipment, employing the staff where this is kind of uh, you know, the companies that we spoke with already. It's worth >> just curious whether it makes any sense to look at that option as well. >> It'd be interesting to see if any companies actually propose that option too. I just, you know, not to debate, but it'd be interesting to see if any of these companies out there actually do offer that. Hey, you buy it and it's on you. So, we'll
021find out. >> And the drone, is that a is that for the police department or is that going to be shared by police and fire? Because I have read about those. um they are quite helpful in search and rescue burning buildings that sort of thing where they can identify heat signatures in the building and find where people might be stuck. So is that will that be shared by >> it? Will it I more than likely that that did not come up when when we were applying for it, but our agencies do work together within the town. Typically if there is a fire, there is police present. So I I can't imagine um the police department saying, "Oh, no, no, no hands off fire department." We have, you know, great collaboration between both the agencies. And
022I I don't see it being uh being an issue, but I'll uh I'll follow up on that >> just to be handy for both. >> Yeah. >> Any other board me? >> Yeah. Um, so I've been thinking about what's happening tomorrow night with the board of education and the possible agreement with a private school here in town. So Paul, I'm going to ask you as somebody that sits here as the board of finance and suggest to all of you on this board that sits as a board of finance and next spring in March when you get this book again uh that we carefully go through and check and look at everything that uh is going to come before us. and Amarie I know is behind me going to do her finance director's report. I guess
023my concern is that there's a possibility that some agreement is going to be passed, but have you or Amarie uh talked to somebody that would tell you the the the amount of financial impact that is possible from the capital accounts and the carrying amount that the town could possibly carry in terms of paying for the capital expenses of the private school. Um because right now we haven't done anything with the capital expenses of our current public schools yet we're moving ahead or it looks like it's going to move ahead with a agreement to take care of the reimbursements for the private school. So, I would like to know if there's been any involvement by you and our finance director in terms of looking at uh because it doesn't appear on the agenda there's any language
024about how much capital can be done in one year so that the town can pay it back because the town will pay it through the tuition cost. and all of you sitting here um when you're sitting here next next year because I'm trying not to sit here next year. Um I don't have my name on a ballot or anything like that, but I do know what the impact is going to be uh on various different scenarios. Uh you're already behind with the $8 million bond of $400,000. You already got uh costs for uh contracts, etc., etc. So now there's this little piece coming in that you're not have no control over in terms of or it doesn't look like there's any control over any agreements in terms of how much capital even at 30% of
025the cost of it is going to be carried in any one year or how much it will be what the borrowing cost will be the interest cost etc. So have you guys been involved in that at all? Uh, I can speak for myself and and I'll speak for Amory, but I'll have please chime in because I do know a lot of the meetings that she's attend. I have not been directly involved in any type of those conversations. Amarie, you and I would have talked and you I was going to say I didn't want to speak for you if there was one that I might have missed, but we have not been brought in on on any type of those conversations. No. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Any other questions? Right. Moving on to item
026number seven, finance director's report. >> The microphone button. >> Just hit it once. >> There we go. Um just to piggyback on uh the question from u select woman's I guess I would my question would be how much can the board of ed commit the town to to fund capital expenditures for private school? Does the board of education have the authority to to commit the town to an agreement to cover capital expenditures that are going to be on the town side of the budget? That would be my question. It's a I I I do not know the answer to that. I we would >> it would be through tuition and 1034 which you don't have any control >> which where I was going to go back to the state statute 1034 which basically you know
027says that you know Gilbert is a vendor of you know the board of education and >> so that capitals would run through the operating board of education. tuition. >> It's a tuition. So, they're a line item in the budget, you know, >> unless there's been other agreements. >> And that's the same as it is right now. If there's a a capital done at Gilbert, they would just put it in tuition now. >> No. >> Where would it go then? >> Well, no, it would be in they would pass it on to us either way. >> But there it would be in the tuition. The difference right now, >> the difference right now is there's a planned larger capital plan and committing the board of education to a 10 to 20 year agreement with no other
028language that talks about how much is that capital. You know, I mean, right now they've they can do it and it's and it's good that, you know, the right people have been sitting there. There's not been a rogue person in there that gone crazy. But what if there is what if there is some future person in that number of years that says you know I'm going to build that master campus I'm going to do this there's there so I just wanted to know if there's any conversation with our finance people and especially for all of you because when you cut the budget and if you go to cut the education budget like two years ago there were two cuts one cut was shared one cut was completely completely absorbed by PK6. So that's the challenge
029that will be coming forward without clear language or expectations of what all of that financial that financial kind of outlook is going to be. And I I I think that I I've watched a lot of things in half my lifetime here, my half my adult life. I've been on this board for 22 years, probably the either the longest or second longest serving selectman in terms of years in in the history of the town of Winchester. And I'm telling you that I I worry I always worry I always worry about the budget. And now we have an open-ended kind of an arrangement that um you know maybe it's maybe people are doing their the right things now, but what if that's not true in the future? What if that's what if it's like a $5 million?
030What if it's a $6 million? I mean, we're not even able to manage our own school systems ability to fix the roof. The roof hasn't been done. It's leaking. And we all talked about that last April. So, I I bring that forward as to um you know, something that, you know, it's the part of the three-legged stool and for our town manager not to be involved in at least some of the conversations, uh I think that I think he should be. >> We did fund the Gilbert roof in the last couple years >> and we did that. We we moved one of them into the capital because we needed to keep the mill rate down and we wanted to take the onetime cost out of the mill rate so that the mill rate could come
031down. We took it out of the savings account but after that it's always been an operating and there's a big range of numbers in terms of how much it is each year. So I mean I mean I don't want to go through like like everything. I just I just think that that when we're the board of finance and this was there were people that stood before us in 2009 2010 telling us we were the board of finance and we were supposed to do this and we're supposed to do that and we're the board of finance board of selectment acting as that. So I think it just be a good idea if people start to look at well what is the language what is it going to be you know how much is it going to
032be are there any kind of agreements that say that well in this year don't go over this or if you're going to give it to us and it's going to be this amount um and because you can't cut it you can't move it and if the town's people vote no or you decide it's too much um then what happens so that's why I brought it It's val maybe I don't it's valid. It's very valid as somebody has to craft a budget every year to present to you all. Um it's valid. >> Okay. Uh so I'm just going to quickly review estimated results for fiscal 25 so far. Please keep in mind this is still very preliminary. We are still in the process of closing the year of uh running off invoices that are still applicable
033to fiscal year 2025, closing purchase orders, etc. So, these results are in no way final, but I just kind of wanted to give a picture of what we are looking at right now. So, if you look at the reports that I sent over to you, at the very bottom there's a little box. Um, and that is the easiest for me to review. So, uh, for fiscal 25, we had two pieces of our revenue budget. One was for our operating revenue and one was for a fund balance allocation to cover capitals. Uh our budget on the operating side was 38,756370. Uh as of the end of June 30th, as of 814 or whatever date I did that, um we were at 39,273057 uh with a revenue surplus of just over $516,000. On the operating expenditure side,
034we had a budget of 40,8637. Our operating expenditures through the end of June, as of current, 40,158677. We still have a little over $121,000 of open incumbrances. Of that, I estimate we'll probably be able to close about $81,000, leaving about $40,000 worth of expenditure runoff to to uh be paid to date. So with those numbers, that gives us an approximate total expenditure surplus right now of a little bit over $67,000. So our total estimated operating surplus to date, 1,124 fiscal 2025 budget, the budget included a fund balance allocation of just over $2 million. with these potential results. What this means is we won't need to draw that full two million because we we have an operating surplus of just over $1.1 million. So our expected use of fund balance is just about 926,000 in comparison
035to $2 million 50. Does that make sense to everybody? So we have an operating surplus that's going to cover a portion of the of the amount that you were allocating to capitals. So we won't need to full 2 million. It should be just a little under a million which is good. Which is good. Questions on that piece? Okay. Uh so we are one month into the year through July 31st of 2025 which is 8% of the fiscal year. I want to thank our taxpayers for paying their uh tax bills because as of right now current property taxes through July 31 14 million494 3333 so we are at 49.66% of what is budgeted for fiscal 26 that is in comparison to just over 1.2 2 million for the same period in the prior year which was
0364.5% and that was due to the fact that the tax bills did not go out on time last year. Our past two tax revenue through the end of July 83,299 that's 23.8% of the budget compared to 48,206 for the same period last year which was 8% of the budget. Total revenues through the end of July 38,623 um that is that 94% doesn't look correct but it might be uh a million five that's compared to a million56783 last year which was 3.84%. Total expenditures year to date with incumbrances 14,75171. The bulk of that is incumbrances right now just so you know that you have not spent that much. So 35.96% that is compared to 3,926 465 which was 9.62% for last July. Municipal aid received in the month of July we received 170,175 for an additional
037case a bridge grant reimbursement. Uh on July 8th of 2025, uh we closed tranch two of our bond which brought in just uh $8 million and then an additional premium of 344,900. Our cash flow uh at the end of July is just almost $29 million. Of that 13,155 was invested. 400 455,000 in the Northwest Community Bank sweep 2.6 6 million in stiff and 10.1 million in Northwest Community Bank money market. Keep in mind we had a significant amount of tax revenue come in coupled with the $8 million of the bond closing. Our treasurer in the month of August has uh moved and invested a significant amount more of that money. July 2025 capital expenditure we had one which was 168,478 towards our nextgen records management system. our portion questions. >> Anyone on the board? >>
038Um just one additional we uh our auditors have already been out. They completed their interim testing a couple weeks ago. Uh we are already scheduling our year end work. So we are in a good place going forward for year end audit. >> I'll just add a little color commentary. That just shows the importance of passing a budget on time. We can get way ahead on all of this stuff so we can meet our state deadlines, meet our deadlines and getting the audit done. Not saying, you know, we're going to hit it, but we're we're way ahead of where we were last year because we had a budget on July 1st. So, it's very important that we get a budget done right away because it allows our offices to just keep going forward and and pushing
039the work out. Um, the sweating that I was giving um but this page uh I got sneak peek of it. We obviously talk a lot um you know last year's budget we we went through a few revisions of it and uh you know this board with recommendations from me of of ticking up the revenue a little bit and there was concern and and I was sweating um and and and you know great work by our entire team at town hall making sure that we left no rock unturned and we were able to collect you know just over $500,000 of of revenue surplus which was great. And then on the flip side of it, um, our team also controlling expenses. Do you need that package of pens? Do you need, you know, obviously if you need
040something, we have to go out and buy it. But great job on on the team's uh part of, you know, keeping the taxpayer mindful in that trying to collect the revenue, that's owed to the town, but more importantly, just because the money was allotted in in a line item, if we didn't need to spend it, we didn't spend it and we back. So, um, great job by Thank And you will have uh for next month's meeting, the second meeting of the month, we anticipate to have hopefully very close to final uh budgetary transfers on a larger basis. >> We had most of it ready, but we didn't want to do it twice. So, we we didn't want to give you a big one and then a small one. We said, let's just push it to
041the second meeting of September. The auditors are we're going to be fine. So, be prepared for the second meeting in September for that big list. Anyone on the board with questions? See one. Thank you. Thank you. >> You're not going to miss that much of the game, Amber. >> Item number eight, correspondence. Does anyone have anything? Item number nine, boards and commissions. I believe we have nothing. >> Nothing tonight. >> I have a couple things. Go ahead. >> Yeah. So, uh, last week there was a resignation from planning and zoning and in our packet Glenn emailed it to us today about, um, Janet Perry was the next person that was up for planning and zoning. Um, and Troy, did you vet her way back last October when >> we did not bet any when there
042was no position, we didn't do it. >> All right. because um does she Glenn sent that to us? Are we? >> Yeah, I'll I'll contact her this week and we'll bring it up the next meeting. We'll put her on. >> And then the other thing too is um I understand on zoning board of appeals that needs to an alternate needs to be moved up. So, is it proper for me to make a motion to move Maryanne Marino up from an alternate seat to a a full seat on ZBA? It's been a couple meetings. It's been open. >> It probably be appropriate. >> Yeah, we could we could we could do that. I'm going to make a motion. I'll second. >> Made a motion for Marie. >> I'll second >> from alternate to full seated number
043on ZBA. >> How many alternates are on ZBA right now? >> Just making sure because >> I don't know. It's been a lot of moving parts around there as you know. Um, is it updated on the town website? >> It is. And and by memory and and Glenn, correct me if I'm if I'm wrong. I believe Marian was the only alternate um on ZBA. Um, so >> so do a quick perusal of that. As long as Wi-Fi is moving fast, we should be able to get right to it. >> Appeals. So we have >> one alternate >> is John Pollock is the one that resigned, >> right? >> So uh Ryan's a member, Paul's a member, Ellie's a member, Audrey's the chair, John resigned leaving the opening and the only alternate is >> so we
044would need two additional alternates. Correct. >> We need to find two more alternates after Maryanne moves up. >> And Glenn, correct me if I'm wrong. I I believe One, two, three, four, five. Is that a five member board or >> it's a five-seated member? >> It's a five- seated member. Okay. So then those would fill the the regular members seat. >> So you'd have two open alternates. >> Correct. >> Okay. We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion? Seeing no discussion. All in favor? >> Opposed? Abstaining. 601. >> I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor. I didn't want to interrupt the motion. Um, can you go back because we just want to have term expiring. She would take John Pollock seat >> December 1st, 2028 >> because whoever did the website did a nice job. >>
045Yeah. >> Her original expiration is May 30th, 2029. So it's just five months earlier, December 1st. >> I'm actually not sure that an alternate has their own expiration date when they move up. I don't think that she would necessarily take John's. >> She would keep her own. You mean >> I think she'd keep her own. >> No, you take the seat. >> No, you would take You would take the seat here. >> No, you take the seat. It's open. >> Take the seat. You take the seat. So, >> if we could correct the minutes um maybe retract the motion, remotion it to appoint Maryanne Marino to the uh ZBA term expiring. I'm sorry. Whatever. Second woman. >> Make a motion. I retract my last motion or make it clearer this time. Make a motion to
046appoint Maryanne Marino from alternate position to a full seated member on the town board of planning of zoning board of appeals to expire December 1st, 2028. >> Second. >> Thank you. >> All right. Now, all in favor again, >> thank you. I'm a sticklerating did that >> but we didn't do we got to remove Mr. Pollock from it. We we I'm going to >> Yeah, it was helpful right now. >> Oh, that one. >> Having it all correct. >> Prove to be helpful. >> Yeah, proved to be helpful. There you go. >> Uh moving on to item 10, unfinished business. Item A, status of ordinance 87. Candy, Paul, which do you want to >> So Candy and I met several weeks ago uh and went over a bunch of ideas on how to move forward
047with this. Um we had come up with a plan that we sent off to the town attorney and it appears the plan that we came up with won't work exactly because we can't the the only issue with the plan we came up with very quickly and I'm doing it from memory. The plan was that any Saturday prior to a referendum, the town clerk's office would be open Saturday from 8 to 12. That would be an automatic and it would require notice 5 days, I think we came up with, right, Candy? 5 days prior to that opening. It would be noticed in all of the sources that the town uses to to uh notice that. uh attorney came back and said that most of that's okay but what we cannot do is compel an elected official
048being Glenn >> to work uh 9 to 12 it would be up to him to decide to do that so that is a fly in the ointment in this plan and we've not met again to come up with a a different proposal so that's kind of where it sits at this moment >> it makes sense I mean he's a a salary employee and you don't get overtime. So you're asking somebody work for free. >> There are ways it could be done. I think certainly without even incurring overtime. >> Mentioned he talked to Glenn about it ahead of our meeting. So there was that Glenn would maybe work on Saturday and Lauren cover the office or however Harvard would work, >> right? I mean Lauren could do the Saturday and have the Friday off or he
049could do the Friday. Yeah, there was ways to work it out, but we we can't compel Well, we could compel Lauren to do it though, right? On a Saturday since she's an employee. >> Well, I mean I mean, yeah, I guess. I mean, I don't >> I guess Glenn would have to advise us. Can Can Lauren handle absentee ballots without >> Is there anything in the contract? If I may, um we the union contract does dictate the hours. Um being first in town clerk, uh statue, um although Lauren is a uh employee of the of the town, she's appointed by the town clerk. Um and and serves at the pleasure of the town clerk. Um so although yes an employee of the town, she ultimately does um report to the town clerk as other uh
050assistant town clerks in in any town where it's not an appointed board uh and it's an elected position. So I think we'd have to investigate uh the union uh contract because ours are stated. um we could do anou and then ultimately uh does this executive board have the right to uh instruct an employee the assistant town clerk to work? I don't know the answer to that but we could look into that. >> Yeah, that would be >> or I apologize that would be me. Yes. >> So I think if we can work out that detail to your question, Linda, >> I think Candy and I were we had a nice discussion. I think we agreed on on what it should look like. Um just working out the details of whether or not we can get
051that office physically open on that Saturday before each referendum. >> Thank you. >> I think I think we said budget referendum too, right? It wasn't Yeah, it was specifically for budget referendums. >> Yes. Yeah. You wanted to go crazy, remember? And I >> I was going to do everything. >> I brought you back. >> You did with the reality of what what it could be. So, uh the the concept is the concept is this is we're trying to find something that didn't require a charter change, right? So, we're trying to find something that didn't require a charter change and it seemed that the easiest thing to do would be to add absentee ballot voting on a on a Saturday, which would take care of the issue that happens at the town meeting where you can
052choose any day to hold your referendum. Um, I mean, the easiest thing to do would be make all referendums on a Saturday, but it's not easy for everybody. So, the town meeting gets to decide that. So, it was just trying to put the absentee ballot voting on a Saturday before whenever the referendum was. If the referendum was on a Saturday, you wouldn't need to have that work. It would just be the referendum. But if the referendum was on a Tuesday, on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, you would have it open the Saturday before that without appropriate notice. Right. >> And again, only for the purpose of processing >> absentee ballots. Early voting is not permitted for referendums anyway. >> Thank you both. Moving on to item 11, new business 25-30, refunds as recommended by
053the collector of revenues. >> Okay. Oops. Sorry. No explanation. Go ahead. >> No. I move that the board of selectment authorized the refunds recommended by the collector of revenue in the amount of $1,4868. >> Second. Thank you, Troy. Thank you, Bill. We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. Moving on to item B. Connecticut Municipal Development Authority, CD CMDA. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, I got really excited last week in that the executive director, David Cororus, came out and actually took a meeting with the town that he was reaching out to the town to discuss what the CMDA was. I'll be honest with you, I was unaware what the CMDA actually was. Uh, several years ago, it was put in by the Malloy administration
054and it was known as MRDA. Uh they started it back in 2019. Unfortunately, it was an unfunded quas public agency that never took off the ground. Governor Lamont came in uh revitalized it, named it CMDA, and then finally uh funded it with $60 million um to start off this organization. What the C CMDA actually does is it there's 161 communities that can opt in to be a member of the CMDA and they are basically a branch of DEC and they actually get in and work with your town in order to uh create more economic activity. Some of the econ economic activity that they spoke with to the town was they could create gap financing. So, we have some developers that come in and when they put pen to paper and the conversion of a mill
055building just doesn't pencil out where they can actually turn a profit and they actually lose money, gap financing comes in and actually turns that loss into a potential gain. Uh they also do lowinterest uh loans to either the town or to developers to really spur either housing, transit oriental uh development um and walkable main streets. Um, I'm looking for absolutely zero action tonight because in October 1st, a new law goes into effect and they've actually made it a lot simpler to opt into CMDA in that we can put it on a board of selectment agenda. As long as that board of selectment agenda does have public input, which all of our board of selectment agendas do, um, we can then opt in to begin conversations with the CMDA to see all the wonderful things that
056they could potentially do. We are under no obligation of anything that they recommend we have to do. We have to be lockep with them. But they do say if they if you take our recommendations, you're more likelihood of, you know, getting our money. If you don't, no hard feelings. But in order for us to engage with the CMDA to start putting together some plans, working with developers, trying to unlock some of this financing, we do have to opt in by legislative action. Um, that will take effect if this board has a has a warm sensation to it. I just wanted to put it all on your radar that this is something that I truly feel could be a gamecher for the town. It could truly be a gamecher, not only because it could be the
057financing that developers need to develop things, but also that CMDA reached out to the town um and engaged us before we engaged them, which tells me people in Harvard are watching our town, which excites me because here we have the executive director reaching out to us wanting to get us part of this organization on an early uh buyin. Right now, the only two towns that are a part of it are Bristol and Fairfield. There are two towns that have opted in. Um, but that is it. Um, a lot of other towns aren't aware of this, haven't been broached with it, but we're fortunate enough up here in Winchester that the executive director actually came out to us and met with us about um potentially jumping into this CMDA and seeing what they could do and
058help unlock financing for us. With that, I'll I'll open up to questions. I'm sure some of you probably went out under the internet and looked at what CMDA did. Um, there was a draft resolution that the executive director emailed us. This would be very similar to what we'd be looking at if the board wants to move forward in October. >> So, what's the U money that's been available in the past or they're planning to make available through this? So this is the first year they funded it with $60 million. There was no money available as I stated earlier back in 2019 under the Malloy administration. He created this MRDA but never truly got off the ground because they never funded uh this quas public agency. Uh Lamont came in, changed it to CMDA, brought on
059an executive director and got $60 million of seed money to at least start investments in the communities around Connecticut. So it says in the third whereas it also says it above it in the second whereas it talks about transit orientated development if that all the other things B and C and D have to come as part of transit orientated or is it transit orientated stands on its own housing units rehab stand on its own demolition on its own >> that's a great question They all independently stand on their own. Obviously, we're going to have a difficult time lobbying the state to bring in some type of a rail system to the town of Windset. So, >> There's also buses. True. Um, but they do all independently stand on their own. Uh, and now that I'm
060uh getting into the zone a little bit more about CMDA, we would define one, two, up to as many areas as we want of what we're looking to do in that particular area. CMDA would say that adheres to all of our ideas. We like it. We'll start working on that area and try and unlock financing over there. So, it's a very open pro uh process in that we define the areas. We present them to CD CMDA, they agree with the area that we defined and what we're looking to do in that particular area. You know, one of the things that immediately um and I used this uh term before and it uh brought a lot of question up is these legacy buildings, right? all of these mill buildings that we see run down immediately, you
061know, when we sit down, that would be the first area that I would like to define because when you look at the overall costs of, you know, doing these projects and and remediating them and then building them. Um, you know, this particular housing that they're looking doesn't necessarily rely on federal federal low-inccome tax credits. These could be full-blown, you know, uh, market rate apartments that are, you know, renting out for $1,500, $2,000, whatever the market bears. But, um, which attracted me a lot to this is that it's not looking at one particular segment and, you creating housing. It's looking at housing that's needed everywhere and it's putting, you know, uh, more more foot traffic on the ground here in Winstead. So the first area that I immediately if if we decide to go forward with
062this is look at all of our legacy buildings. How much money can we unlock to finally do something with all of these legacy buildings? The other area that that I mentioned is we are lack of parking on our main street. You know in order to create that walkable main street we do need to create some type of a quote unquote public private partnership with some type of a parking lot. you know, yes, you know, we've looked at and I know uh PNZ's looked at there's a lot of parking behind all of our buildings. Well, in order to get to traffic, I think that we all are looking for, we have to make parking accessible, easy, and and and and very well known to get to. So, um, you know, we've talked about obviously a lot
063of properties right across the street that this could be an avenue of pursuing of finally unlocking some type of a public municipal parking lot which will feed our main street where people feel safe walking and and parking their car. But that was a great question. >> Well, we go with a bar grant. If you look at number C, uh, you know, for remediating the redevelopment or demolition. So if the bar grant moves along and then you can grab one of these to go with it, you know, because that's what Rrista was talking about a lot was with the bar grant. It opens up other avenues to seek funding. So maybe this could fund in in there and you know because it doesn't have to be housing either. It could be it could be other things
064as well >> and it could be mixed as well. You know it could be mixed use where you have that retail down below. Um, and and select woman nail the the bar grant and I think you put that on the radar for at least me and and and and I appreciate that that when we get done with that 250 excuse me when the COD gets done with the $250,000 uh uh grant and we find out all of the what these buildings need to do when we go if we go down the road of the CMDA and we say, "Okay, here's the report that says we need X amount of dollars." Then we line up with the developer and we have what it's going to take to remediate the building. Here's the money to do it.
065I think developers will be lining out uh up outside town hall to to do that because we figured out all of the hard stuff for them and also the other hardest thing is usually the capital and we have that in place for them as well. So, it's very exciting. I hope the board warms up to it. Again, no action tonight. Take a look at the the website. Um, I got really excited when they came and and pitched us about the CMTA. >> Other questions? >> All right, moving on to item number 12, citizens comments. The board of sele welcomes public comments. Anyone wish to speak? It says >> J Markwell 68 Overland Road Connecticut. I do have one more question if I could. Has Sarah Smolik or anyone on her behalf made any payments or
066promises of payments to the town of Harington acco, excuse me, or Harington acco? Can't read my own writing. Um, for the money spent to care for the dogs that were seized from her home by Winchester Police Department. >> Because we're still in court, I'd rather not comment on that subject right now. Um, I'm limited of what I can and can't say, but with that particular matter, I'm going to say I no comment based on it's still working its way through its court system. >> Anyone else? questions. Maybe this town clerk Saturday thing, I think it was discussed some time ago about um making the town clerk not an elected position, but a town employee. Just throwing it out there. I don't know if that's still a on the table thing. >> Anyone else? All right.
067Moving on to item 13, executive session discussion regarding selection of a site for the lease, sale, or purchase of real estate under Connecticut General, Assembly Statue 1-26D, taking with us town manager Harrington and realtor David Satarana. Is there a motion? >> Motion second. All in favor? And the time is 7:56. You guys professionals. Yeah, Good night ladies. Good to see you. [Music] We are back from executive session at 8:46 p.m. There is no action to take at this time. Moving on to item number 15, selectman's comments and reports. >> Uh I actually have something. Sorry, Andy. Uh this uh Wednesday at 7 o'clock um um uh made in Winston with Pride before the 1955 flood. The historic commission is going to present uh made in Winston with pride. Um right outside the door to the
068right, there's some stuff in there that was actually made in Winston before the flood. The admission is free. It's Wednesday, 7 o'clock right here in this room. Should be a pretty good exhibit. >> Katie, >> yeah, I just want to make it a quick mention that the Sue Gman Greenway committee continues to meet on uh getting segment three and four done uh with with it. Um there's some misinformation out there in terms of where we're what we're headed or doing with uh with regards to uh utility. Um, so we're going to be havingformational meetings with all of the people down on that stretch of road uh to talk about what the plans are for the greenway and to address any concerns of information that people have that's probably not all correct. >> Other just wanted
069to remind everybody the parade for the fire department is Saturday at 6 pm. Go down and buy yourself a raffle ticket. >> Anyone else? just thank everybody for uh that attended the uh flag football fundraiser on Friday night. Um and those who came to volunteer and cooked all night and made an appearance. >> You still smell like a hamburger. >> And just uh congratulations to the Winston Police Department who had a school supply drive in the last couple of weeks and this past weekend they had shop with a cop uh the Elks hosted for them where they were allowed to give out those school supplies that they collected. Lastly, public service announcement. Uh during the fireman's carnival, which is Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, Raleigh Street will be temporarily closed from 75 Raleigh Street until
070Willow Street. Southbound traffic coming from Main Street onto Raleigh will be directed to a detour on Case Avenue. And that's Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday while the carnival is in attendance. With that, >> make a motion to journ. >> Second. All in favor? Good night. >> No, it's going to come off one of these days. >> You just so