Plainville Town Council Work Session and Regular Meeting - 03/03/25

001[Music] Mr chairman thank you um Sarah KY is with us um and preparing her final uh revisions to her notes it's a never changing landscape as you know with the governor making moves um both positive and and negative right so I did read a little bit about that today I think yes so uh we'll do the best we can to get through it because obviously um you know unfortunately the uh the grand list growth wasn't what uh we expected or had been projecting obviously you know last year and the previous years it's it's been relatively healthy I would think um from my advantage point of of north of 1% and anytime we get north of 1% uh I think we're in good good shape um this year as I I mentioned earlier at previous meeting

002uh the number is uh 0.39 so you know well under you know half a percent and um there are some you know economic headwinds there uh but but basically it's the grand list is our engine that grows and uh we're driving revenue from that so um there is that motor vehicle component and and the veterans component that I think uh Sarah will be able to uh walk us through uh so without further delay I'd like to uh ask Sarah to come up to the podium and uh kind of take us through we also have you know a recommendation in dealing with the uh motor vehicles that we we can deal with at the 7 o'clock all right thank you good evening Sarah just yeah make sure you hit the button thank you for being here

003tonight good evening um so as Mike said we're going to talk a little bit about the list first before we get into all the changes that occurred this year um we were up overall 39% for our grand list um which I have to say was amazing I want to recognize my staff for their hard work kind of going through all these changing changes that occurred this year and helping us out with that um as far as for our real estate Grand list we did see growth we have residential and Commercial growth going on in town um so that did add to our grand list but we did have the new veterans exemption that Mike began to talk about um that kind of brought that number back down a little bit let's see so for the

004new veterans exemption that ended up in a little bit over 4 million in assessment that is for um the new exemption is for veterans who are permanently and totally disabled service connected and it exempts the building for on their property um let's see for personal property we did have a few sizable new filings which helped us out tremendously this year and we also had saw some increases on our larger accounts that we typically see every year so that um that number did go up which helped us overall motor vehicle was our biggest change so in the past motor vehicle assessments were all based on 70% of average retail value this sta Connecticut has changed that to MSRP the average retail value to MSRP changes that assessment because it's the MSRP then it's depreciated based on

005the year of the vehicle and then we multiply it by 70% to come up with the final assessment that depreciation schedule is there about 5% um increases depending on the year and it is starting at 85 % and ending at 15% the other big change for this year was utility um trailers personal utility trailers are now considered exempt um that didn't affect us as much as I thought it was going to uh mainly because utility trailers as we all know don't really hold a lot of value this year we did see a little over 18,000 vehicles on our grand list which is about 130 more than the previous year our exempt vehicles are a little bit less than 4% of that total but with all those changes our Motor Vehicles exemptions increased by about 1

006million now what does that mean going forward there is House Bill 767 that is currently it has passed the house and the Senate sitting on the governor's desk and we're waiting to kind of hear further on that that will provide us with some changes potentially for our 24 Grand list even though it has been signed with that bill should Town Council approve the change we could have the option of using a modified depreciation schedule for our motor vehicles um this would essentially bump all of those percentages up another five 5% so that would change the schedule to start with 90% and end with 20% it also changes some of the language in the new veterans exemption that puts in um into the language 100% permanently and totally disabled it was one of the biggest variables

007that was really talked about as we all tried to figure out how to enact this new law so there could be those potential changes but I don't don't have any guarantees on what those will be quite yet um once the governor makes his decision then we'll have an idea of what we can do going forward for supplemental Motor Vehicles there was also some changes I I am recommending that we enact a new ordinance to allow us to to allow us to change when the supplemental bills are made and just to back up a little bit the legislation that was enacted changed the timing of when we receive supplemental motor vehicle bills from DMV or the information from DMV in the past typically we would receive that in an annual basis my office would compile a

008grand list in January and they would be built out at that time now we're receiving monthly files so we'll get the information sooner which is great um and I think that the intent of the law was really to try to speak along the process um and the reason for that is for example if someone registers a vehicle on November 3rd of 2023 they would be issued a supplemental bill due in January of 25 so there's a considerable amount of time in between a lot of times people might get rid of the vehicle in between and it just causes a lot of confusion um this would allow us to do that a little bit sooner my recommendation would be to take all of the vehicles registered October 2nd through March and apply those bills in July

009with our regular billing and then the second half of the Year April through September to Bill out in January with our other motor vehicle billing already I think that will cut down on some of the confusion as well July and January are our typical billing months so for someone to be looking out for a tax bill to change up the month might be a little confusing um and that is really all I have as far as what our grand list is and the changes that were made are there any questions anyone with any qu yes Mr chair I have two related questions yes both on the veterans exemption yes so right now any disability service related gives them not any it has to be permanently they have to be deemed by the Veterans Administration yep

010person uh permanently and totally disabled okay but service connected permanently and totally disabled okay um so I guess there is a distinction between that we we have seen some people come in with paperwork at an 80% disability but it is considered permanently and totally however that would not qualify with the new changes to the law right if they do make those changes with the way the legislation is currently written permanently and totally disabled that would qualify and without giving away anyone's information how many how many qualify in playville right now we have on our 24 Grand list we have 28 accounts okay and that equals to 4 million yes that is correct okay in in the new legislation I also believe there is some language in changing how like how much of the exemption they

011would receive my understanding is is not necessarily just the building there might be a portion of the land but I haven't had enough time to really kind of dig through it and figure that out yet plus we don't know if the governor might change some of that language by the time it becomes finalized okay yeah thank you you're welcome go ahead were any of of those veterans already receiving some exemption you know um with our regular tax um they were yes essentially how this new exemption works is it gives a veteran that fits that qualification an option to do the exemptions that were previously being given or this new exemption which which is larger of course the new exemption um but it's one or the other not both and it is if it ever changes

012as far as their determination from the VA that would be the only time that we would change that right yep all right anyone else with any questions or comments Mr chairman if I could yeah I don't know if I caught it but um the magnitude the sort of the Delta between previously this legislation and and the calculations of what historically we have seen versus this new $4 million uh level um if if I don't know if that's possible but I don't have the exact number in front of me but I I know that our total exemptions was a it went up about a little over 10 million now that does include everything not just veterans um so it's not the whole number but I can't I can get that information for you yeah just just

013so we have in terms of scope and size correct what the what the impact is in terms of the Delta of what we're trying to make up with that yes increased exemptions right Mr another question too now have are all 28 um owners of or homeowners yes they are they are MH there is a provision in the law that if they don't own a home they can't have it on a motor vehicle yes I read that yes yeah but in our case they are all homeowners Mr chairman again is that number that 28 you said is that that a known number now that is fixed that it won't increase or we don't know if it that for the 24 Grand list that is our set number okay yes okay yep all right anyone else with

014any questions or comments yeah so Mr chairman um I I think it would be helpful uh Sarah had mentioned you know her recommendation that we add that uh well I wouldn't suggest don't necessarily need to add it tonight you could but I think in terms of having a chance to digest it we bring it forth unless there unless Sarah there's a timing issue I'd like to bring it to the council for consideration on March 17th okay if that that would be fine that's fine that would be fine yeah okay than sense all right is is that how is that basically how other towns are trying to get to from what I from what I hear that seems to be the the typical um response to this new bill I have also heard some towns saying

015you know we're just going to continue to Bill everything in January and just kind of keep our information as we go um but as far as far as the reason why I didn't recommend that is I think that the intent of this really was to try to push that billing date a little bit closer to when the vehicles are purchased um it is very confusing to explain to someone that a year and a half ago they purchased a vehicle but now they're finally seeing a bill um and and most of the time it's well I was already built for that in July and it it just it just gets very confusing so I think the sooner we can do it the better off for the public I agree yeah all right anyone else with any

016comments or questions all right well thank you very much for being here and helping us through this and good luck and we'll handle the uh start talking about the new ordinance I guess on March 17th right yeah okay and if you think of any questions going further please don't hesitate to reach out okay thank you thank you good evening everyone it's about 7 o'clock I'd like to uh call our regular meeting of March 3rd to order uh if everyone could please stand I'm going to ask councilman Hurley to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance Al 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 all right thank you everyone um our first order of business

017tonight we do have a presentation we're going to um talk about uh the Farmington Canal Heritage uh bike trail um essentially we're getting a presentation tonight we will probably have some questions and comments from the council I know some of you in the neighborhoods we tried we did our best to invite you and let you know that this was happening um but just to give you some background you know this isn't certainly going to be the only meeting we're not making any decisions tonight um my recommendation and I'm sure the state's already thought about it but you know we will have an opportunity for residents who who potentially could be affected by this we'll have an opportunity to ask questions or make comments um tonight is probably not the appropriate time just like I said

018this is the first time we're going to hear about this as a group so um we will certainly keep you informed we'll keep everyone in the loop um you know we were certainly not going to make any decisions without letting you guys uh letting the neighborhoods know uh so with that I'm not sure if the town manager do you have anything to say or am I kicking it right off no you you can kick it right off in the interest of time and um we I'm not sure if stepen if he the point or Bill I'll start Ste we start take a good evening hey good evening everyone good to see you all um so as I mentioned we are here to discuss a new alignment for phase three of the Pharm Canal Heritage Trail

019um phase one and phase two are nearing completion of design um so a little bit of background on September 30th we were in this room discussing the Route 17 s alignment really early uh involvement from the municipality to try to understand some of their concerns as we design it we don't want to get too far ahead in our design without getting public input because public input really is what drives Alternatives um so some of the concerns were the private property impacts on Route 177 and some safety concerns so through the capital region Council of governments on November 20th of last year we had a field walk where basically we had three council members I believe um some some residents joined us and we essentially walked the route 177 alignment we had staked out kind of

020where we anticipated private property Acquisitions to better visualize it and on the way back it was recommended we take a look at Hemingway Avenue um so what we're showing today is basically the results of the past few months of us looking at a new alignment for the phase three of the trail essentially uh we found that it has a lot of Merit um there's a couple issues that we can design around um but with that I'm going to pass it off to Bill who's going to go over this alignment thanks all right thank you Steve and thank you Council for having us tonight uh tonight we're going to be focusing on phase three of the trail primarily the Hemingway alternative alignment uh as requested by the planville Town Council uh so the purpose of need

021of this project is to close the final remaining Gap in the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail uh uh the trail is planned to run from New Haven to the Massachusetts border with about 80% of that complete now and then our the final remaining Gap will be in planville for about 5.3 mil uh that is going to be closed through three phases our phase one section is the southernmost section uh starting at Townline Road that's about 75 miles of Trail uh to the very North we have the uh uh Northwest Drive section so that's from Route 72 to Northwest Drive it's about 2 mies of Trail and then the middle section is known as the phase three down downtown alignment uh that's another 2 miles of Trail uh primarily tonight we're going to be talking about the

022downtown section so a portion of that alignment uh within the vicinity of routs 177 and Broad Street and Norton [Music] Park okay all right so here are the two alternative alignments so back in the fall we presented our alternative for Route 177 uh that alternative started in Norton Park here uh followed along the uh Norton Park Trail roadway here uh down to Route 177 where it crossed to the east side of the roadway uh then continued along the frontage of the roadway to the north where there crossed uh the intersection of Route 177 and Broad Street uh from there the trail continues to the north on Route 177 until it crosses the intersection of Route 372 and then eventually crosses the PAB River um so then after the field walk uh we took the recommendations

023from Town Council and some of the feedback uh to look at an alternative alignment which is outlined here in yellow and which we're referring to as the Hemingway Street alignment uh now these two alignments do intersect at this point here at the intersection of Broad Street in route 177 and then they have the same design uh moving North on Route uh 177 Washington Street all right so here is the color plan for the Hemingway alternative uh I know it's hard to see here so I'm going to zoom in as we go along I got too many things in my hand sorry about that um okay so the first portion we're going to talk about is Norton Park uh and please note that North is pointed to the right of your screen here Norton park is

024in the South and then to the north here is Broad Street so here's the existing conditioning Norton Park the existing aerial we have Norton Trail we have the existing parking lot uh adjacent to the swimming pool facility and the restored Farmington Canal Trail or restored section of the Farmington canal and then here is a rendering of our proposed alternative for the trail under the Hemingway alternative so one thing you'll see here is we relocated the parking lot uh slightly to the east in order to maintain the same shape and configuration um one of the comments we received during the field walk was there was concerns with uh Trail users and uh children you uh accessing the pool facility from the parking lot and there was just concerns with that conflicting movement so by Shifting the

025parking lot to the east we're able to put the trail uh a little bit to the West right along the existing canal there now in order to do that uh you know we think there's a lot of Merit to this alignment uh there is a safety concern here which we would like to address by uh some significant tree clearing so we have about 20,000 square fet of tree clearing that's that green shape there uh the reason for this is because vehicles uh traveling south particularly on Norton Trail through that curve are traveling pretty fast um so there are sightline concerns for a new crosswalk there so by clearing those trees out and maintaining that vegetation you know we're able to provide better sight line to that Crossing and to safer Crossing and then we can

026avoid the conflicts with the pool users and the trail users at that location um another thing we would like to do is proposing rectangular rapid flashing Beacon at that crosswalk for safety and potentially a raised crosswalk as well for additional safety um so as the trail continues this is uh down to the bottom of the screen here this is to the uh we'll go this is the Northeast uh the trail follows along the existing restored section of the Farmington Canal the plan will be to avoid impacts that restored section of the canal pretty much at all costs okay so now from Norton Park we're going to go to location two we're going to go into Hemingway Street uh here we have the aial of the existing conditioning on Hemingway Street uh the pink lines represent

027approximate property lines on that uh the Eastern side of Hemingway Street there and then here is the color rendering of our proposed design over Hemingway Street and the circled there I'm going to zoom in on as well so here is that zoomed in image so uh the uh pinkish purple lines those represent approximate Street lines and property line and then the dash uh Pink line represents the existing edge of roadway limits so approximately we have about 34 ft wide of pavement here and about a 50 foot right away between uh the street line at this location so how do we plan to build a trail on Hemingway Street uh our proposed design includes includes uh 9-ft trail with a 5ft grass buffer on the east side of the roadway and that's typical for the entire

028stretch of Hemingway and then uh leaving the on street parking so an 8ft parking Lane uh on that east side of the roadway so now that's going to shift the center of the roadway there about 6 feet to the north 6 to 7 feet uh excuse me that's to the West uh where we plan on having 10 foot lanes and then a 1ft shoulder on the west side of the roadway so on this side of the roadway here we would not be touching or very minimally touching the existing grass buffer adjacent to that sidewalk and that existing sidewalk would remain so so um on the east side you have the uh 9 ft Trail and on street parking and then on the West Side the existing sidewalk Remain the its current location so as far

029as the trail along these property frontages here on Hemingway Street the trail there follows the existing back of sidewalk so the RightWay impacts along that Frontage are are minor To None uh for the most part uh where we're going to be following the existing back of walk I say for the most part because we do have to do a little bit of grading behind the back of Trail as part of our construction work okay so now we're going to go to location three so we've just went from Hemingway Street we're going to go north and we're going to take a right turn and head east onto Broad Street again same thing here existing condition the pink purple lines represent Street lines and prop approximate property burries uh here is our color rendering overlaid on Broad

030Street and then we're going to zoom in and take a closer look so existing condition we have about 40 ft 42 feet of pavement uh and about 64 ft of existing RightWay between Street line and Street line so the design here is pretty similar to Hemingway Street uh the concepts are pretty similar uh except now we're looking at a 11t trail uh with a 5ot buffer again we're going to keep the parking Lane on what is that uh eastbound Direction uh 11t travel lanes for both lanes on Broad Street and then a 4ft shoulder to the North and then similar to Hemingway Street uh the intent is to leave what is the north side of Broad Street untouched so maintaining that existing curb line uh the existing grass buffer next to the sidewalk there and

031then maintaining the existing sidewalk so the trail design here uh as on Hemingway again we're following the existing back of curb to the extent possible so basically the design of the trail is to have the back of the curb a back of sidewalk follow the new back of the trail so again we'll have you know some minor grading that we have to do beyond the property line um in order for us to construct the actual Trail all right so now we are in the bottom bottom right corner here this is location four we're going to take a look at the intersection of Broad Street and route 177 uh this design is very similar um almost identical to the design at the intersection uh that we discussed back in September uh really the only change here

032is now the trail is coming from Broad Street and instead of uh instead of root 177 okay so here's the color plan overlaid onto the existing aerial as you again you can see here the pink lines let me go back one represent the existing pavment conditions and here's uh the color plan rendering overlay on top of that aial um so at this location now the trail is coming from the uh from the West Direction uh so coming traveling to the East toward the intersection uh we have a crosswalk to the existing sidewalk Network um and then another Crossing uh to get on Route 177 to tie into the trail on Route 177 um so in the North and South directions on Route 177 uh there's existing no turn on red that'll remain in place um

033on Broad Street traveling Vehicles traveling Eastbound and Westbound we're proposing uh no turn on red when The Pedestrian signal is activated so you know it won't be no turn on red all the time it's specifically when there's a pedestrian who pushes the button and is looking to cross um additional safety amenities uh at this location include adding retrolective backing to the signal heads it improves sight line to that intersection and in turn improves improves visibility of the intersection at night time and in turn safety um another feature highlighted kind of in that brown shape in the middle and then down in the bottom corner is we would like to raise this intersection so basically having four Rays crosswalks approaching the intersection and having that raise section continued through the intersection now down at the bottom

034uh there's a profile view the bottom uh bottom right over there of what a raised crosswalk that profile is so it's not a speed table it's not a speed hump it's you know it's a very gradual change in grade so you can see it's about 3 Ines over over 6 feet for that change so it's a 3-in change in grade you know if you're driving over it it's it's very gradual um now also in regards to this intersection uh last time when we met we asked the council if we could continue with some of our preliminary design activities which included uh having a traffic analysis conducted at this intersection uh which we have done and have completed and what we found is by maintaining the existing Lane Arrangements uh improving signal timings we're actually able

035to improve the future condition of this intersection from a capacity standpoint now I don't know if you can kind of see those numbers there but I'll just run through them so here are the rightaway impacts associated with this intersection so our primary impacts are going to be at this property 143 Broad Street uh the reason for those impacts it's about 700 Square ft is we're softening that curve that that radi of um in between route 177 and Broad Street there the reason for that is for improved truck turning movement uh you know make it easier for trucks to make that right that right turn movement uh we're also proposing to soften the curve at 139 Broad Street um and also install Trail there so which that incurs about 500 square fet of RightWay impact um

036some minor radi improvements at the other two corners that would be at 11 South Washington Street and 136 Broad Street uh with this alignment we incur zero square footage of impacts at 136 Broad Street so I believe that's the uh real estate business there and about uh 7585 excuse me 86 ft of impact at 11 South Washington Street all right so then continuing to the north the trail continues on Route 177 uh that alignment is currently identical to what was presented to the council previously and discussed at the field walk so what are our next steps so uh tonight we're going to be requesting incurrence from the Town Council to advance the public involvement for the Hemingway alternative route 177 and then the route 372 Spurs so you know we're not asking for any kind

037of determination as you mentioned before we're just asking for your go ahead to start engaging the public in uh reviewing these designs and alignments um so what do we have to do for that in the design standpoint uh we have to get survey on Hemingway Street we have most of what we need on Broad Street uh but we do need to survey the rest of Hemingway um and then while this is going on we'll continue our preliminary design activities uh laying out actual templates in our design and um uh our actual engineering uh work in CAD additionally we'll have to continue our NEPA sepa process uh this is our environmental process that we have to undergo during any project and mostly that's going to be uh submitting a new review request to our environmental folks

038uh for that Hemingway alternative so with that I'll open the floor up to any questions or discussions um a couple photos here this is the overhead sign of the Farmington Canal Trail which is included on any of our design projects and then some photos from some folks at the walkability audit uh this past November all right thank you um I don't know I'm sure we have several questions but who wants to go first no I'm I'm just I'm it's not intentional oh okay I'm I'm very interested in first of all how how how is this all going to happen and not disturb what's going on at the corner of Broad Street and right there okay to me I I'm a former tractor trailer driver and I always knew that that was a difficult section to

039start with uh to go anyway through there and you're you're shrinking everything so how how am I supposed to handle that say to go north on uh Broad Street from 177 or the Washington Street go West on from Washington I want to make a right turn onto no no no the other way heading South heading south there heading South heading south on 177 right he wants to take a right on Broad Street okay y so uh this pink line here that's the existing curb line we're shifting that back fairly considerably um so that's at 700 ft of impact you see there part of our design we run our analysis for a tractor trailer truck and basically you know what was determined is by shifting that radii back and you know the impacts that we occur

040onto this property uh tractor trailers now readily able to make that right turn on the Broad Street oh I'm sorry the of all the turns on that in that could be developed in that whole intersection that that's the the best one that you can make going on going uh East on Broad Street either way from 177 you're you're really tight going on to Broad Street either way so this Mo this movement from Broad Street South on Route 177 yeah so yep so again there we're maintaining the existing edge of roadway there um additionally we have run our truck turning movements for so this is a local roadway to a state roadway movement um and we are able to accommodate the Su trucks for that turning movement now you know we're not saying that a tractor

041trailer truck is going to be able to make that turn they they can't now but that's not really something we could accommodate in this design without really taking that house or with with it without having very severe impacts to the corner of that property leave it at that some somebody else ask a question well you know I have a quick question so from ground level what would it look like what would the trail look like from ground level you know is there any I don't want to say a wall that's not the right way but any partition or how do you you know on Broad and Hemingway what would it look like if you were standing on the sidewalk looking across the street um so I would describe it as more or less like a

042wider sidewalk um you know there's no partition in between the trail and the residences it it can be viewed as a wider sidewalk okay all right but it would and it would just be lines on the ground that would deter that you would show this is a bike lane or you know bike trail or yes we'll have pavement markings on the trail itself to determine that correct all right go uh you mentioned that the trail would be a 9ft trail on Hemingway correct and then 11 ft on Broad Street and why would it I mean I know that's only two feet but uh why would it be wider on on Broad um so on Broad Street there's uh we back on hemway yeah all right so on Hemingway so we are allowed to go down

043to a narrower Trail for a short section when there are conditions that conditions that warrant it so on Hemingway because because the traffic volumes are low we're a little more comfortable dropping down to a 9t trail uh for a couple of reasons because uh one there's a sidewalk on the other side of the roadway which you will be able to access readily from Norton Park you won't really have to cross a roadway to reach that sidewalk uh from the park additionally because the speeds and the volumes are low uh if Avid cyclists want to use the roadway itself to get from point A to B between the park and Hemingway uh they can choose to do so and potentially we could put cheros uh bike cheros in the roadway itself um so that's really our

044justification for dropping down to 9 ft on Hemingway again it's a short distance over a longer distance uh given the volume of Trail use we would not want to drop below the 11v proposed okay now on Broad Street though there would uh still be sidewalks left I mean so that uh um I'm still a little clear why you would have to go wider on Broad Street because a lot of Walkers can certainly just take the uh sidewalk in fact some of the Walkers may continue down South Washington where their sidewalks as well yeah um yep so on Broad Street uh we're going to have faster speeds and higher levels of traffic so uh Trail users are going to be much less comfortable actually using the roadway should they choose to do so additionally if they

045wanted to get to the sidewalk on the other side so that's the north side of Broad Street they would have to cross we would have to install a mid block Crossing for them to get to that side of the roadway you know one of the one of the main comments from the route 177 alignment was private property impacts right so really what it comes down to on Hemingway is we can match the existing back of sidewalk and have essentially no private property impacts as we progress to the public and engage the residents of Hemingway we can go wider than 9 ft but that would incur a private property acquisition of two feet right so given the context of Hemingway uh it's acceptable to go to 9 ft um context of broad 11 we need we

046can certainly go to 11 on Hemingway but that's something we would want to discuss right now we're trying to do the minimal impact to private property that we can no actually I was more concerned about it u u going to you know rather going to 9 feet on Broad Street that thinking that that would be better if it was less on Broad Street I wasn't I wasn't I was not objecting to the so you know with you know that's something may overall but you know it's U um yeah I was concerned that it it had to be wider on Broad Street yeah understand yeah we can start with the pencil as they say but you know we're still back to the to the RightWay line on Broad Street so we're still not incurring any private

047property impacts there okay so I'm just to summarize so both streets you wouldn't necessarily at this point you you know see any private property impacts um I don't want to say any but well but there there will be minor grading that'll have to take place beyond for us to build the trail itself yes but I know one of the things with South Washington Street was a concern about you know there were was going to be potentially some impacts to private property and it sounds like at least this the way we're talking here it it does eliminate some of those concerns yeah that's correct um and then at least so on Hemingway and Broad Street there's the existing sidewalk Network on both sides so we're maintaining the existing footprint between those two sidewalks whereas on South

048Washington Street we only had the sidewalk on the southbound side okay yeah we were talking about maybe a 2 to three foot acquisition on South Washington where this would be a construction easement of a foot maybe 2 feet you know maybe there's a 6in movement on that sidewalk but for all intents and purposes we're just tying into the back of sidewalk well what I was hoping was that you could narrower on Broad Street too and maybe even eliminate the property acquisition so on Broad Street I would say at this point we do not have any property impacts or any significant impacts we would not want potentially we could see what we could do to play around within the existing footprint of the roadway and use the other side the north side a little bit more

049um but we did want to maintain the existing footprint of the sidewalk on the other side um but we will look into that for Broad Street I would not recommend going below 11 11 ft on that section given the nature of traffic on Broad Street um and the fact that you would have to have a mid block Crossing to get to the other sidewalk all right any other go ahead will there be is will there be any barrier between the bike lane and Broad Street so between there is a 5ot grass buffer that will M that'll be maintained between the trail and then the edge of curb on Broad Street but no no buffer in between the the trail and traffic uh so on this side of the roadway you do have that 8ot parking

050Lane uh the entree parking is present now that would be maintained so from the trail edge of trail to the traveling public 8+ 5 so what you have 13 ft okay okay all right anyone else with any questions um yes go ahead yes uh how do they how are you addressing the The Crossing uh at Broad and 177 is that a double double cross for the users or is it diagonal uh currently it is a double cross for the users uh crossing here on the southern southern part of the intersection and then another crossing here this is the uh Eastern section uh we did reach out to our traffic folks and we are investigating alternatives for potentially a diagonal Crossing um that's still being investigated so I don't I do have a firm answer on

051that now so this will be what we call an exclusive pedestrian phase so all you know when the P button pushed you can legally cross diagonally um we time that signal based on the length of crossing right it's 3 and 1/2 ft per second um to get that Crossing per Ada what we're at least looking at doing is timing that for that diagonal movement so it might be a little bit longer of a um pedestrian phase because we expect a lot of users will cross diagonally we are looking at some rather new and Innovative methods to cross diagonally there's some bike signals that are being developed that aren't necessarily approved yet but something we're looking into is is obviously that diagonal movement will be the most prevalent movement that we expect and that's another reason

052for that raised intersection not just raised crosswalk but the whole intersection is raised so essentially as you're Crossing diagonally you're still elevated and more visible okay any anything else any followup yes go Ahad chairman uh I I think it would be helpful uh to hear uh because I know I know I can anticipate the question we coming later this evening about uh behind Hemingway and a part of that um evaluation uh if they can shed some light on on that and how it moved to the to the front uh whether you know in terms of acquisition and other so I take it you mean through the woods in here okay yep so we did look into that alternative um we did do some field reviews um this area is in fact wet so this is

053a wetland area um not only is it a wetland area and that you know is environmental impact that would be incurred by the project um one thing we did notice out there is there's a lot of large and we're not talking like you know 6 in diameter trees they're they're large 12 18 in diameter trees that are uh falling over all throughout this section here um what that indicates is that that soil is very wet and those trees are falling over continually so if you know one of our concerns uh beyond the environmental impact is the limits of clearing that we would have to do through the woods there for the potential for any of those large trees falling onto the trail so um there are environmental uh impact concerns as far as the Wetland

054there that's an environmental resource uh that that could potentially be avoided via the Hemingway alternative which we find is a viable and safe alternative um additionally be because of the nature of those down trees back there um the clearing limits we're expecting would be very significant through there you you can't bring that so that it would come across the people's backyards yeah so saying and going through the wood no not you want it too high bring it right across the backyards you know I think when we when we look at those two specific Alternatives and we look at the lack of private property impacts on Hemingway that's what makes Hemingway so viable if we had a proposed 5- foot acquisition in each front yard that would make it a different um it would tip the

055scale so to speak um but I think the the impacts behind the properties and generally what we've seen from Trail projects with people um you know not wanting a trail behind their house right um and that's something that we can certainly bring up at the public info what's the difference between behind your house and in front of your house I'm not saying this is my perspective I'm saying this is the feedback we get from other from other public involvement sessions um additionally there are uh this property here their their Frontage or the back of their property extends to more or less uh where this pink line would extend and you also have a private property at the intersection here so there would be uh a fairly significant take from this property owner to build a

056trail and uh take through this property owner sidey as well which would put the trail fairly close to their sidey now we have been told um at least Through the Grapevine that that owner may be agreeable uh to that potential impact however um you know with rights away we never know who's going to own that property in the future question yes yes on the um potential environmental impact if you were to go behind um the homes on Hemingway um I real I realize you would probably do like a wooden uh platform type of Trail not a paved trail uh correct through a wetland section we would most likely have uh what we call a boardwalk structure uh the intent of that is to limit the uh size of our fill slopes um to keep the

057trail high and dry to keep those uh some of those impact quantities down that was my question does that uh address some of the environmental concerns that you would have it alleviates it some it alleviates the square footage impact um however it does not eliminate it does not eliminate those impacts and additionally um whenever you do incur environmental impacts you also we also need to be able to justify that there's not a viable other alternative okay are there other parts of the trail that do have the boardwalks of this particular Trail or other ones as well um yes in Cheshire there a boardwalk structure um just south of uh I believe that's Main Street Scott yeah just south of Main Street there's a boardwalk structure there and under our phase one Trail at the southern

058limits by Townline Road there's a proposed Boardwalk there as well over wetlands area correct yeah that's a much shorter one about 280 ft it does have the potential of alleviating some of the environmental impact the boardwalk structure did reduce some of the square footage impact um for that design alternative however our impacts were large enough that we had to separately uh construct a brand new Wetland elsewhere to mitigate those impacts in Treasure uh the planville planville okay oh I see you would have to okay it hasn't been constructed yet M okay thank you are there are there different materials used for the boardwalks or is there different designs some that are less that are more maintenance free or maintenance less less yes it's going to depend on the materials you use um in chesher that

059has a wooden rail system uh we actually those rails over time we starting to pop out and warp so on our design in phase one uh we chose not to use that wooden rail system it's more of like a composite type system um we also don't have nearly as many Curves in that section so the you know by having to warp the woods the more curves you get you're going to get uh additional maintenance over time uh the deck structures are typically concrete so there's pretty pretty minimal maintenance on those um and then usually they're sitting on concrete peers as well um you know there is a long-term maintenance cost associated with those but you know they should have a long-term lifespan uh the issue we've been finding is more with the side rails having

060to maintain those all right anyone else with any question you yeah go ahead keep going just two things so you have to prove to go behind the houses you have to prove there's not not another viable option to be able to go through the wetlands is that what basically what I what I heard you say yeah so as part of all of our projects especially when we incur environmental impacts we have to take those our design to uh Army Corps of Engineers and deep as well and present our design um now as far of that process they're always going to ask you for Alternatives analysis to prove that there are no other viable options to avoid that uh impacting that environmental resource okay okay and now is the impact with that stretch all the way

061to Broad Street or is the wetlands more toward the Norton Park uh part of Hemingway um it's more towards the Norton Park area uh it's kind of hard to see here uh can you kind of see where the trees might be a little bit shorter kind of in this aerial section there it's hard to tell typically that indicates you're kind of in a wetland condition or the soils might be a lot damper um so it's primarily this section here um but but it is pretty wet and if you went without you said said it quickly but it kind of intrigued me you would actually have to construct another area of wetland uh depending on the size of the impact um that could potentially be be requested of us by Army Corps DPS engine interesting we

062had someone email us and ask about where the trail sing to planer meeting there's some questions on now on where sington is going to end there are ongoing discussions with sington uh unfortunately I'm not the guy that can answer those questions for you Steve I'm not the guy either but I know a little bit more so so there's some sou is going through a couple different Alternatives perhaps using the rail line um however the plan regardless of those two Alternatives will still terminate in the same spot at planville so what actually doesn't impact our it's it's south of that where they are figuring out how it gets there but that Terminus is the same thank you that that was correct yeah so the Townline Road location is still the same yeah there's a short section

063where there are discussions with their Town Council all right anyone else any questions um you know I just to before we kind of summarize our next steps here I do have to go back I hate to go back to phase two but we had a gentleman uh in the spring we allow essentially it's a a racing group they race bicycles on Northwest Drive um and you talked about the raised um crosswalk um and they just the gentleman just expressed concerns about the fact that on Northwest Drive and I'm think it was Northwest Drive I forgot the intersection if it was um Johnson Johnson Avenue in Northwest Drive that a raised crosswalk there the fact that that that we do allow them to race bikes Every Spring would be an a potential issue for them whether

064or not they could actually continue to use that um that particular route so you know and I don't expect an answer tonight I just we did say that we would just relay that concern and I'm not sure if you guys are involved in that phase necessarily but um that is one thing to consider I guess um I am happy to speak to that came up at the public information meeting when we had phase two okay and my recommendation was the raised crosswalk is there for the safety of the trail users y 365 days a year y right we have pedestrians Crossing we have folks in cycle Cycles we have families with children Crossing that road the bike race is one day a year if they have to slow down at that one spot so everyone

065has safety Trail 365 days a year going to build the trail in the interest of safety right and and I agree with you and just you know when you say raised crosswalk would be similar to this situation where it's you know a 3in incline over 6 feet as you know I in my head I I kind of thought about more of a speed bump than a when I you know in my head when we first talked about it so you know this is a little bit different than what I had in my head so it kind of you know helps clarify I understand what you're saying um but we did just want to relay that information and I I wasn't aware that this is something that's already uh been discussed or brought up and we

066spoke to him and and I think that's a common misconception is you see these out in the wild and you assume that's what we're constructed but a lot of speed bumps that are not built to even the speed bump specification this is designed sinusoidally not to get Tech to go but more gradually so that it's a lot easier for bicyclists to drive over it while maintaining a lot of those safety okay so it would be like this three in and 6 ft corre all right so I guess if there's not any other questions from any council members I guess the next steps I mean we I you know certainly I would like to engage the public it sounds like one of the next steps I I know you're looking for the council to give you

067some you know whether it's a just a you know all of us agreeing to to move forward with this at least with the public uh involvement phase so I I guess the council is there anyone that does doesn't think we should engage the public at this point oh no we definitely got engage um so so we are we are agreeing to engage the public at this point um is this something time frame are we looking at something that's going to happen in next couple months six months do you even do you have an answer for that yet or is that something you'll kind of um so the first thing we're going to do is going to get that additional survey on Hemingway Street um before we talk with any Property Owners we're going to want

068those you know those down to the minute numbers um for the actual design on Hemingway right now we're just going off of aerial and field measurements so that survey data is going to be pretty critical um however as to when we start engaging the public we will reach out to the town manager's office and kind of let them know when those activities are starting um there's a lot there's a lot of residents in this area um so we still need to game plan how we want to do that but we'll continue to coordinate with the to town manager's office um when we get to that time would you say maybe the summer summer this summer all right cuz the only other thing I would just suggest is you know if if we could have at

069least a month or so lead time to any meeting just so we have some time to reach out to the residents and people we want to reach out to yeah we we typically we don't schedule them within eight weeks so we try to go for 12 weeks and then part of that is sending letters to each affected property owner doing some targeted Outreach we make sure we have a lot of time because if they don't show up or know about it it's it's a moot point Y um so yeah it's a lengthy process um and you know what we've been doing recently is more of an openhouse style where we have boards we have a number of Engineers to answer questions as oppos as opposed to a hearing format right so we can actually talk

070to the individual residents perhaps doing a meeting on Hemingway with some residents we're always available to come out for the more affected residents and kind of answer some of those specific questions as well okay and we probably help with that as far as you know organizing if people want to go that route we certainly can help and then uh Steve mentioned that you know we'll be sending out mailings for that public involvement it's not just the Homes located on those streets it's any resident within 500 ft of the project any direction okay all right yes go ahead my my question uh varies what what if you were to be suggested to come down Broad Street with the trail keep the Broad Street keep coming where you got to stop there keep it keep it coming

071down towards the next set of railroad tracks but there's uh Canal Street and then another street that are there that would take you over to West Street there's a Church Street down there um Can Canal Church Street there church church and Canal yeah Church then canal in other words instead of making the yeah bike trail go north at that intersection uh with with South Washington have it keep going on Broad Street yeah so this is Broad here this is pretty small have it keep going on Broad Street and rather than picking upington uh either either Canal um come come down Broad Street and you'll pick up the the Church Street or Canal Street and come across to West Main and then West Main to wherever you were going to go no not there have it

072go into the into into the woods yeah so uh that was very Sim that's very similar to the original alignment presented to us uh from the kog study uh the Gap closure study um so the issues I'll start with uh the woods up here so this is entire area is uh part of the pavic river flood floodway um so that's a sensitive flood area uh basically if you basically that is not environmentally permeable really at all giving that floodway um if we build any kind of structure there place any kind of fill in there and it shows any kind of level of flood increase on a nearby structure uh that project would not be permittable so this going up into the woods here there is severe risk with that alignment uh and it's very unlikely

073that we'd be able to advance it from a permit standpoint just cuz that is a sensitive floodway um we Al so coming down this way either Church Street and then maybe doubling back uh so that kind of starts getting into a secure securest alignment where you're you know taking the least direct path uh we are focused primarily on safety and our Trail design uh be given the nature of the users children families uh so one of our goals uh regarding safety in our design is minimizing the number of driveway Crossings and roadside exposure so the intent is we want to get Trail users from A to B as safely as possible um we can certainly at at least do a prelimary look at advancing down Church Street um but my original concern is now we're

074going to have additional Street Crossings and additional driveway crossings that we would have been able to avoid before um originally we really did want to build back here we wanted to build the trail in a new structure uh but basically we're told by our Hydraulics and environmental folks you can't do that we you there's no way that you can come through the area where where where like you've got well it used to be Atlantic pipe but it's some other company now clean earth clean earth clean Earth um behind behind them in other words if you come down West Main Street coming towards the center of town go out behind the firhouse and go out and connect to what whever wherever you can to your planning correct that was more or less the original scope of

075our design that we were advancing until until we it was determined that this is a floodway and we can't build back there ideally originally we planned going behind the firehouse building a new bridge over to the uh with the south side of the clean Earth property there along the river uh that was our design that was our alignment that that's where we were advancing uh until we met with The Regulators regarding that floodway area and they said more or less that's not going to be perable all right any other comments any other questions so so what you're saying is is you you have to come up from from the where where you've got it now you have to come up through the woods up past the cemetery to 177 and then left on to 177

076to connect down here correct yes so this bridge here the this is the pabic river this is Bridge uh 14 uh 1485 uh originally another idea we wanted to is build a separate structure off of that bridge uh for the trail again they said that won't be perable because it's going to show an increase in that flood on adjacent structures uh so what we're doing here is now just widening that existing structure um instead of building a new bridge uh and even then we don't we may have to consider using the existing footprint in the bridge as much as we can in order to get the trail across the river here so really this is the only location at Bridge 1485 that we can cross the river unfortunately I rest my case um all right

077is there anything else anything else anyone needs to say or ask Town manager you're you're okay fine um so I guess just to summarize I mean you know thank you everyone for coming out I I certainly this is just the start of a process um as we've heard there is going to be public input allowed and probably I say encouraged um it does sound like it's going to be something that's a few months away maybe towards the summer uh but we are going to get a good amount of lead time sounds like up to 2 three months lead time so we certainly are going to keep you in the loop uh we're hoping that the next time we meet you'll be allowed to get some public input get some questions answered uh it sounds like

078it's more of a one-on-one in some aspects uh situation where we'll set stuff up and you can walk around and ask questions to specific individuals but um you know I want to thank you for being here and certainly we're going to we're going to keep you in the loop and I and I hope you can take that away from you tonight regardless of what you heard or what you kind of liked or disliked about what you heard but there is going to be more input uh from the community so thank you again thank you for coming back um I don't know if there's anything else that needs to be said no not on the subject no we'll we'll coordinate okay and we'll push out information as it becomes available all right and I guess at

079that point thank you we'll we'll conclude the presentation um everybody's welcome to stay for the rest of our meeting but I understand you may have some more important things to do tonight but we'll take like a quick three four minute break so that if you do need to leave you can uh you can go ahead and do that and we'll kind of clean up and get reorganized with some of our displays here thank you very much hey thank you everyone we are going to reconvene the council uh meeting at this point uh we just finished item number one presentation so we'll uh move to item two public hearing there is none scheduled for tonight uh we can move to item three minutes of the previous meeting Mr chair councilwoman Christopher motion to approve the minutes

080of the February 18th 2025 regular meeting second oh Motion in a couple seconds is there any uh questions comments changes all those in favor I I any opposed motion carries um announcements and reports does anyone have an announcement or a report this evening U Mr chair yes I was able to uh attend the celebration last Friday at the planville senior center celebration of Shan Cohen who's the director of the senior center it was uh her 50th anniversary of being employed as the Director of the senior center uh she came back in uh 1975 and I was asked to speak and so I did speak briefly and I you know really expressed uh I think I'm sure the feeling of everybody up here uh you know how much she has done for the senior center and

081for the town it's really become a model senior center for the state of Connecticut and just tremendous with all her dedication and talent and time over the years truly amazing all right thank you Mr chair yes uh capital projects building committee met last Wednesday February 26th to choose which firms would be selected for interviews for construction manager at risk for the Middle School renovate Lake new project six firms responded to the RFQ RFP after quite a long deliberation process the committee chose three firms they felt were the most qualified to be interviewed those interviews will take place on March 5th and March 6th after the interviews the committee will decide on any construction manager at risk and send the recommendation to the Town Council to be voted on at March 17th meeting all right thank

082you anyone else with the announcement or report Mr chair yes um just a reminder that tomorrow there is a ribbon cutting at 2:00 at tcg candles which is located at 98 Whiting Street and um there's another ribbon cutting in planville and that will be on Thursday March 20th at 3:00 and this is at Boot Barn which is at 282 New Britain a in uh the plaza with Aldi's so yay I love boots okay all right anyone else with an announcement or a report all right we can move now to item five appointments and resignations uh item number one Mr chairman councilman Underwood motion to accept with regret the resignation of Thomas wi rowski planning uh from the planning zoning second we have a motion and a second any comments or questions all those in favor

083I any opposed motion carries um any other appointments or reappointments this evening and uh just before we move on the thank you there is a manager's minute about some of the vacancies we have in town um so if you get a chance on pretty much any social media Outlet you probably can find it uh again it's the manager's minute he does explain that we do have some vacancies and some openings in some of our uh boards and commissions so uh please feel free to reach out if you are interested in helping out the town um let's see we are past item six so we are actually out to up to I'm sorry uh up to section seven the town managers report of well that's the third Monday oh I'm sorry Town attorney how could I

084forget you I I very forgettable I have no problem with that um thank you Mr chairman just very briefly we I've already um the charter revision commission had its original initial public hearing and the fire department subcommittee has had two meetings already and I thought that um everything so far everyone's working really hard and I think that we've gotten a lot of really good information and I really uh have been very happy with the way things have gone so far anybody have any questions I don't have anything else really all right any questions for the town attorney all right thank you Mr chairman thank you so now we're up to item eight report of the Town manager I'm just so excited about the town manager report tonight so you know I got ahead of myself

085a little bit that's all right I uh am happy to report there are just uh four items and then uh we'll close have Andy close with uh happenings uh item number one is the uh lease of the former landfill for solar energy um this essentially um is a a project you approved uh and awarded at the February 18th uh meeting for uh a solar uh system on the Landfield that was awarded to ver Holdings Inc for an annual lease payment to the town of 53,723 K watt system that offered the best likelihood of success with a slightly better economics than another proposal from Green Skies um prior to signing the contract uh the Town Council will need to send this project to planning and Zone as part of an 824 referral um and so there

086is an item under new business to rever uh to refer the solar energy project to the Planning and Zoning commission for their review and then uh once they've taken action they'll come come back to the Town Council and then we can proceed with signing of contracts and and getting that underway um item number two I wanted to give you a uh quick update on uh the uh next Bond issuance so I'm recommending the town council issue a new round of bond funding totaling 9 million it would include 6 million for uh a 5-year Road Improvement plan 1 million for new Public Works facility that would include money for land acquisition design 1 million for various Municipal projects that would include a library roof HVAC units roof for the municipal center and HVAC units fire department

087and Senior Center HVAC units and 1 million for various Board of Education projects the date of the bond referendum is uh scheduled or is anticipated to be scheduled for June 3rd 2025 and uh the bond resolution necessary documents will be prepared for the next meeting on March 17th 2025 item number three is uh the request from Trump Inc manufacturing uh the town uh planville received an email uh from the corporation requesting a name change for Johnson Avenue on the Northerly side of Northwest Drive that continues into the town of Farmington uh there are no residential homes or commercial properties located on that section of Road in planville there is one structure belonging to Aquarian uh water company and they have no objection to the name change the official name uh being requested is lier way

088in honor of former chairman and owner berold linger I have coordinated with the town of Farmington and the town manager in Farmington will be bringing this to their council at their April 7th 2025 meeting uh Trump Inc does uh not pay taxes in planville but does employ 50 planville residents at their plant the name change is part of their uh opening of a new smart manufacturing Factory and an the event is an event is scheduled uh for May 20th 2025 with several high-profile dignitaries from across the globe attending at which time they would like to unveil the street name change so um I'm proposing that we uh move an item under new business to refer the request for name change to a public hearing on March 17th 2025 that's under new business and U we

089have the the graphic there um again this is just a small very small section um quite frankly I I'm surprised it's not um named differently um in terms of you know Johnson Avenue Extension or something like that it's is really an appendage it's there's no residential homes there so we're not talking about any impact to any uh planville residential homeowners in that area um and again it's it's uh timed for a u May 20th um event that they're having uh and last uh but not least of course uh item four is the proposed uh 2026 budget and you have uh budget book should be uh in front of each seat so you have those uh and I'm hoping to modif ify my comments tonight given the length of our meeting I thought it was best

090uh not to tort you with even longer presentation and then do it again tomorrow night so uh I'm suggesting I give you a kind of a highlevel uh overview uh and um leave the detail for tomorrow night's presentation with the superintendent at the at the public hearing um but I know Brian's here as well I really won't touch any of the board of ed obviously I'll I'll I'll just kind of give you the big picture and it's if you look at last year it's kind of like deja vu all over again uh this is this is the file from the presentation from last year where it was uh 4 million1 67,900 this year it's 4,187 for $800 $848 for a 5.82 % increase as a as a starting point again that's just as as proposed

091so I mentioned before uh at previous meeting there are some you know economic headwinds um again we've done our best uh to try to um address that but our grand list is our engine right and you heard at the 6:30 meeting from Sarah KY that uh it was small growth growth but small growth uh 0.39% impacted by uh um motor vehicle and Veterans exemptions uh but there is one positive side on the on the revenue side uh which uh we'll get into more detail tomorrow um about the revenue sharing in terms of uh sales tax that uh we are putting in conservatively at uh $400,000 which really helped a great deal um but those expenses really uh in this this year's increase uh are driven by the uh General wage increases um health insurance um

092and again hoping for tomorrow to get specific numbers but in the magnitude of a 10 no 11% I think on our side and 11% on the board of education or vice versa um so those aren't ins those are significant um and and um but so when you wrap the whole you know the top line is always the h are or Personnel costs that drive any budget and we're not immune to that those those increases um have a a uh multiplying effect and and uh so we're trying to do do that there's a a largest uh driver um we've also looked at uh we talked about the uh salary study as well and trying to make uh some changes there but I also have um been working with the council in the last few Cycles to

093improve or I should say increase the uh capital expenditure so there is between the capital expenditure and our Debt Service uh expenditures there is about a $350,000 increase again trying to move from where what was a you know very small Capital uh outl of 7500 to what is more you know significant um so it was just kind of a structural change that I've I've been using that phrase uh since I got here in 2022 uh and just trying to stay consistent with that because I think long term it's going to put us in a great position and um again on fund balance with again another Factor within this I'm not recommending any changes there it'll it'll be the same as has been from from my vantage point recommendation uh to leave it alone keep it

094the way where it is um so in essence it's a a five Allin uh a 5 uh 82% increase as a as a starting point well now that translates to uh with with a motor vehicle and and Blended rate um about a 1.73 uh mil increase um so we'll go through more in detail uh tomorrow night but um that's our that's our starting point um and it really is in majority of it in the in the top line of personnel costs okay um I guess before we uh move on to happenings any comments or questions regarding the Tommy ERS report uh Mr chair I have a couple questions um under the bonding issue issuance um the various Board of Education projects do we know what they are uh I don't but I had a good

095meeting with with uh with Brian and and Becky today um and I think we're moving forward and I would suggest or I'm going to suggest that the two bodies get together sometime maybe early April again much like we did on the weekend um last fall and look at long-term uh planning and and I'm not I didn't Define it it's really got to come from the Board of Education side to to Define that and and what projects but I think once when we get through this Bond issuance I think that process and that meeting and I'm suggesting maybe an evening meeting in you know an hour and a half two hours Max uh and maybe even an hour if we can laser like focus on just just capital projects right so we look long term at

096um what makes sense and obviously Christopher was with us as well and I think it makes sense uh you know to gather input and do more long-term planning uh and so that's the goal it's undefined at this point but that that will come okay we're getting there yeah and I think you know once the boards had a chance to discuss options and once we meet and kind of outline I think five seven years down the road certainly as we get towards I would imagine the end of April until May we'll be able to Define what what we're asking the public to vote on what you know potentially what projects could be uh completed using this this kind of money in the referendum so yeah and I think it's also just timing right we have to

097look at that a little bit of deeper dive into okay what's on the list is it is it really do we need every specific item and does it need to be addressed in 2027 or 2028 2029 and then uh some of these items like roofs and schools School R get uh you know refund uh funding from the state in terms of reimbursement so that that's sort of the factors where we have to you know put some detail to these project and get a a better sense of how this will unfold what projects at what point at what dollar you know okay and my other question was uh last meeting we talked when we talked about the uh Johnson have name change I had asked if uh Trump has an association with the high school they

098do a partnership yeah I I don't I'm I apologize I didn't get that unless Andy did I did not get that we did yeah we I did look into that I talked to Sue Bradley y uh they do partner with the school on a variety of like internship opportunities so there is a relationship okay good thank you all right anyone else with a question or comment regarding the town manager's report all right okay thank you very much can I hand off to Andy for for happen time for happenings time for happenings uh brief today so we'll get through it quickly uh just a couple items from the senior center and again for all programs related to the senior center you can call them at 860- uh AARP tax Aid and Vita tax Aid free programs

099for uh anybody who is considered low to moderate income taxpayers these tax preparations are completed by certified volunteer tax counselors and if uh individuals are interested they can set an appointment appointments uh are accepted now through Tuesday April 88th uh so that's on Tuesdays now through Tuesday April 8th or on Fridays uh up until April 11th and again for any questions you can call the senior center caregiving connections will meeting on Tuesday March 11th at 10:00 a.m. this is an opportunity to connect with other caregivers at the senior center to support one another on Journeys to recognize the challenges and frustrations of 247 caregiving and finally grandparents raising grandchildren will be meeting on Tuesday March 18th at 10:30 a.m. and this is an opportunity to share resources ideas struggles Joys and more with other grandparents

100who are raising their grandchildren that's all I have today brief all right thank you very much uh question go ahead yep did sigh High give you a business cards yes I uh the business cards for the Coalition uh yes I do have them I can grab them after the meeting if you'd like I just want to give them to the council members certainly yes um this is the uh community resource guide uh sahha the youth services director uh I believe throughout Town set up um brochures and uh informational Flyers with little business cards that individuals can take there's QR codes on them to access the online guide there's also hard copies as well uh so I'll grab a few after the meeting for the council thank you you're welcome all right thank you anyone else

101before we move on to public comment all right so thank you for the reports um at this point we'll move to item nine public comments anyone who wishes to address the council may do so please step forward to the podium give your name and address you'll have three minutes to make your comments uh the first ring means there's 30 seconds left the second ring means time has run out and I will turn it over to Mr Klick thank you Mr berserko I want to go first so I could get home this is almost as bad as a board of ed meeting anyway first but almost I don't mean to take up five seconds but almost you hear that Becky almost first a comment on that trail I mean it's a joke you got so many

102hazardous areas if they went to Farmington Avenue to Townline Road you'd probably save a ton of money and it'd be just as hazardous as anything else anyway that's not my issue tonight my issue tonight is naming that very small section of Johnson Avenue now from what I heard from the last meeting Mr Johnson Might Have Been instrumental and when planville formed off of Farmington and so here's a man who did something for town now I always thought that we name roads and school buildings and stuff after somebody who did something for this town like officer Robert hokom who was killed in a line of duty or our town manager who passed away while he was our town manager in schools like tlon wheeler tras this person is not Trump this person is somebody who formed

103their country along their company along long time ago I have to ask is he a citizen of the United States of America most likely not so in my opinion you're going to take and throw away Mr Johnson's history everything he's done for this town that most people don't even know and take replace him with a non US citizen in his place to me that's wrong and then another thing you had you had a naming committee for something in Norton Park um councilman gamman was on there someone gave a woman's name and I know nothing about this woman I had no input either way or Caren but they asked for something to be named for her and had a committee and the committee said she didn't qualify so they didn't do it now this is serious

104I don't care if it's a tiny little piece of Johnson Avenue it's history of this town this person and if Trump teams up with high school a lot of other companies do too we had um former Chief of Poli of fire department here that his company that he worked for one of my daughters actually did internship with them this man himself did nothing personally for planville or the state of Connecticut or the United States of America and you're going to have that on the agenda tonight I wish this Council would just say no this person does not warrant Mr Johnson's name being removed and I don't know if that that other young lady came up and spoke and Council woman Moran with it with her statement which I I said it don't matter if it's

105a little piece of the road it is planville and it is our road so ask This Town Council drop it just tell them no they they the person doesn't deserve this honor that's an honor and like I said we we only honor people who've done something for planville or gave their life for our town thank you all right thank you anyone else excuse me anyone else wish to address the council yes sir I apologize for not being at the podium uh so I could just show you some uh some pictures from uh Northwest Drive Matt if you could just and just your name I'm Matthew Stewart I'm the uh director of the Frozen for bike race uh by the way this uh Sunday we did have 151 riders in that wonderful weather on Sunday uh

106this is the view coming down towards the intersection that I had a concern with with the speed bump and as you can see there the the viewpoints are fantastic there nobody's going to surprise anybody Crossing at that intersection uh but what I wanted to point out to you was uh basically uh if you made that intersection at Spring Lane a three-way stop you would not have a problem with traffic crossings you would be keep your people safe and we'd still be able to maintain the race uh I just wanted to kind of give you a idea of what it's like coming through that corner for our Racers if I can get this to play maybe it won't it should it's a weird Mouse okay I mean what's a presentation without technical difficulties well that's true

107but I thought I had this dialed in oh let's try this one maybe this one will work better okay uh oh there this gives you an idea how fast they're coming into this corner how tight we are if we have a even a short raised crosswalk right there uh I will have to move I will have to cancel the race it can't can't do it but if it's a three-way stop you have the perfect intersection uh which to and the uh thing I talked to with the uh gentleman outside was basically talking about the uh safety of the path and I have maybe I have to get this over here there we go okay there's an intersection uh this is uh looking on the other way towards Spring Lane and if or excuse me this

108is an intersection in Canton the road has not been narrowed uh we do have good marking lights there the speed limit is only 5 mph slower than Northwest Drive uh no raise crosswalk that's route 179 and you will find that it gets a tremendous amount of traffic and I have no idea why I have puppies on there but uh it does get a tremendous amount of traffic and they haven't had any issues in that intersection so the only other one I wanted to point out to you was uh this one here and this is the that exact same intersection from the other side you see we have really good shoulders crosswalk is well marked it's not raised and it's still very very safe okay was that number one or number two that's number one okay

109yes so do you have any questions for me uh I'm I'm on the bicycle uh advisory committee in Farmington y we are dealing with the bike passs and bike safety in the town and one thing we do find is when you narrow a roadway it does affect it you're going to find when you put this Trail in a lot of people are going to ride to the trail from wherever they live yeah and you know I I think we can do both we can keep the race and still do this I was told that the three-way stop would be a frivolous traffic control at that intersection I leave that up to you if you put in a three-way stop it's going to be fine that's my opinion thank you and that's and you know my

110plan would be obviously to re-engage at some point with the state as we get into phase two a little bit more because okay you know to me it doesn't seem like it's an unreasonable request I mean I I know some people may disagree and that's fine but you know I would like to have further discussion I guess with the state I am a big fan of uh being safe I ride a lot across the country and I've seen a lot of different infrastructure uh this is just another view I just want show you is that just regular traffic driving next to this is me riding in the in the race with these guys but the cars that's like I didn't realize they didn't close all of Northwest Drive I didn't realize they let cars right

111we have traffic going both ways but that's that corner so it would be a serious issue even with a small bump there okay but the the three Ines and six feet it would be an issue yeah because if you got to think about that that's about the height of this to here and hitting that when you're going through the corner this close to each other would definitely be an issue do you have any questions for me don't think so no I I think it's pretty clear for me it's it's it's clear that's a US Army in front of me there from West Point riding this Sunday in the cold they're tough thank you well thank you you're welcome okay is there anyone else that wishes to address the council this evening yes Miss Laura Roberto

112laua 18 Parn Road um in regard to the previous uh minutes on February 18th I did submit something is that okay thank you sorry um Roberto laor 18 PN Road in regard to the previous minutes um that you approved earlier I did submit something to the um email that was suggested yes um I think if I don't know if I did it didn't do an enough time um if that is the case it would be helpful if you put the time on the website when that should be submitted um but something was submitted um and you you just you had a question about something that was in the minutes regarding something you said or didn't say correct yes sir okay and um you know and I again I'll give you a little extra time because

113I'm asking questions but when did you send that email I sent it today this afternoon okay so I I that's which is why I'm suggesting if I didn't do it in enough time it would be helpful if if would that would be included on the site when like when the cut off is for anything like that and if we you for help helpfulness to you and we will take a look at you know if we need to make changes we certainly can go back and you know amend the minutes if we need to that's very kind because we approved them tonight doesn't mean it's we can't go back thank you that's very kind of you um it was mentioned by our guests this evening that you know they they like doing one-on ones and um

114that kind of a setup regarding the trail and um I I know people were out there for quite a long time and I'm sure it would be more helpful particularly with a project this large and the impact that it has on so many people that it be put in a in a format where people can ask questions that everyone can hear as we know from experience with this group based on your September 30th meeting they had a 27 minute presentation but you had 40 minutes of questions I'm willing to bet that based on the questions that were being asked out there they should have be recorded number one for all to hear I just think the challenge with that is you've got individuals who are hearing One Thing by having it recorded for all to

115hear there's no nothing can be misconstrued nothing can be be put in a different format um so that's really important particularly for something like this so while they may like it for this type of project it's not a good idea I understand that they want to have stuff outside for you people to see tables and things like that but any types of questions should be for all to hear because I think that will help you and it will help everybody else you had to conduct the meeting however I'm sure there were questions out there that would have given you a light bulb to say you know I should have asked this this or this and you could have done that sadly they're gone now I would love to know more about these grants seems that

116they they seem to know it and yet we still don't but yet we are um abiding we have to abide by something we don't know what's in it um councilman Hurley eluded to going down Broad Street by Canal or Church Street you know based on that if you're going that far down for heaven's sakes just go all the way down to Farmington Avenue which is what many folks have been saying and I know they alluded to many driveways the reality is as um this gentleman said earlier um it's working fine in other areas so there's really no logical reason why you have to disrupt so many folks so other people can be entertained just which is why again why we got to go back to this grant know what's going on there's too much vagueness

117in terms of what's being said so recordings are very important thank you all right thank you all right and anyone else wish wish to address the council this evening all right we will close public comments uh we have no old business that we need to take up with tonight so we can move to item 11 new business anyone care to make a motion Mr chair yes councilman Gman make a motion to submit an 824 referral to the plan and Zoning commission regarding leasing former landfill acreage for solar energy all right motion in a second any comments or questions all those in favor I motion carries item number two Mr chair councilwoman Mar a motion to establish a public hearing on Monday March 17th 2025 at 7:00 p.m. in the municipal center to hear public comment

118regarding a street name change request from Trump in company uh for the uh section of Johnson Avenue from Northwest drive to Hyde Road in Farmington Connecticut second motion and a second any comments or questions all those in favor I any opposed we will all right so we'll have a public hearing at our next meeting on that and item three Mr chair councilwoman Christopher motion to approve the tax refunds as listed on the addendum motion and a second any questions or comments on the tax refunds all those in favor I I any opposed motion carries um other discussions of interest is there anything else Council or town manager assistant Town manager anything else we need to discuss tonight I do not have anything all right just a reminder we do have the public hearing on the

119budget tomorrow night 7 o'clock in this in the council chambers here um if nobody else has anything to discuss we can entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second we have a motion in a second all those in favor I I we are adjourned thank you very much everyone have a good evening [Music]