Representative Town Meeting - Regular Meeting

As well as those watching and streaming live on westportct.gov and those watching on optimum government access channel seventy nine. On my right tonight is RTM deputy moderator Lauren Carf. Note regarding public participation in tonight's meeting, members of the Westport electorate may comment on any agenda item when we open discussion for that item. Comments will be limited to three minutes. Emails may be sent to rtm-dl@westwardct.gov.

That's d l for distribution list. Rtm-dl@westwardct.gov. Those emails go to all RTM members, but they will not be read aloud during the meeting. Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Reverend Doctor. Steven Savides who is the very recently arrived new pastor at Saugatuck Congregational Church. Welcome Reverend Savides. Thank you so much.

Moderator Weiser, deputy moderator Caff, representatives and my fellow citizens of Westport, it is a great pleasure to be here. I bring you the church's greetings tonight and also our commitment to hold you in prayer as you do all of your important deliberative work here on our behalf and it's just wonderful to be able to be here. I also address you of course as an immigrant you can hear from my accent I'm originally from South Africa and a naturalized citizen And I've been thinking a lot about our country and these deliberative processes that that happen. And one of the things that has really struck me in recent days is the preamble to the constitution which I know you all will know by heart. We, the people of The United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our austerity, to ordain and establish this constitution for The United States Of America.

Those first 15 words, we the people of The United States in order to form a more perfect union. And with all that's going on in our nation, with all the tumult, with all the promise, with all the hope, with all the fear, I think this is a really good thing to remember that

we

are here working toward a yet more perfect union and I love that because the framers identified that the idea itself was was perfect within itself but the execution of that has never been ideal or perfect but that's what we're working toward and so those words in order to form a more perfect union I've been carrying on my heart and those are the words I bring to you tonight as you go about the business of this town. You know it's easy to think that this should happen at the national level but I think it's happening all the time at the local level and that is what makes this country as great as it is. That is where the promise of our country lies in what you do and what the citizens of Westport do. So I thank you for this opportunity and I invite you all please to stand as you're able for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America, one

for which

it stands, one nation under God, with liberty and justice for

all. Thank you. Thank you, reverend Smedes, for those wonderful words. That's really great. That was really good. Yeah. That was great. Thank you. Would the deputy moderator call the roll, please? I just put a snack in my mouth. Sorry.

Miss Kuykendahl? Here. Mister Mandel? Yep. Miss Purcell? Here. Mister Tate? Here. Mister Teenan? Here. Miss Levy?

Is on the phone? Here.

Mister Mull? Here. Miss Peacock? Here. Mister Burkhart?

Here.

Mister Drake?

Here.

Mister Izzo? Here. Miss Kopak? Here. Mister Kolobella? Here. Mister Lucas? Here. Miss Wiley? Here. Mister Gold? Here. Miss Kramer? Here. On the phone. Yep. Mister Lowenstein? Here. Miss Chum?

Here. Yeah. She's traveling still, think. Right?

Okay. Miss Banks is coming late. Mr. Braunstein? Here. I am here. Miss Sorrelli? Here. Miss Briggs? Here. Mr. Carson? Here. Miss Lautenberg?

She's on the phone, I think, or will be.

Mr. Kling? Here. Ms. Bateau? Here. Ms. Cohn?

On the phone, I think. Ms. Cohn? She's trying to get on the phone. She'll be here.

Okay. Miss Grayson? Mr. Newman?

Here.

Miss Johnson? Here. Miss Kale? Here. Mr. Moore?

On the phone? Here.

Miss Schneeman? Here. Mr. Weiser?

Here. So is Miss Cohen on the phone?

Yes, I'm on the phone.

Great. There we go. And Ms. Grason's here now. So is Ms. Kramer on the phone yet?

Yes she is. Hi.

Yes she is. I'm here. Good. Yep. Thank you.

So it's just Claudia and Ellen.

35 or 34.

33 until Candace

gets here.

Oh yeah, right, right, right. Oh, Ellen's not here. Is Ellen on the phone? I haven't heard from her.

And is Melissa?

Yes. On the Okay. So we're at thirty three at the moment and 34 coming in. Soon, we send February birthday greetings tonight to Dick Lowenstein, Matt Mandel, Nancy Cale, Jimmy Izzo, and Josh Newman. A big class of February birthdays. Congratulations and happy birthday to all. I think they're all mostly toward the end of the month so nobody we can sing happy birthday to but that's okay. I've heard some of you sing so that's alright. That's good. So let's see.

I just want to confirm we will as you saw yesterday, we revised the agenda that we will not be discussing the Connecticut Municipal Development Authority this month. The lawyers are still reviewing the paperwork with some vacations. It's been a little difficult, so it's now planned that that will be discussed next month. And at the moment, there is nothing on the Board of Finance agenda this month except a lot of budget stuff, so that might be the only thing we're talking about in March. So that that could be a good opportunity to take a deep dive in that.

But it is a reminder that budget season is coming up. The Board of Finance had their first review last night. Two more coming up and we're going to be getting into a deep dive in that in the next couple months. The also the town clerk's office and I ask those who are doing the reports, the minutes of the meetings, if you a reminder that they they send out the packets Friday before our Tuesday meeting, and they really collate everything by Thursday at noon. And if you're having a meeting sometimes, I know it's very tight, sometimes they're involved all involved discussions, They're difficult, but if you could get in your minutes your meeting minutes by Thursday at noon, it is ideal.

Or let them know that it's on its way so that they know what's coming in. That's all I have. Miss Lautenberg's here, so we're at 34 people. So are there any RTM announcements? Any members have an announcement? Well, there's a surprise Mr. Mandel has an announcement or two or three.

Just

a bunch.

Matthew Mandel, RTM district one. I'll make it quick as I can. So, VersaFest is almost set and we've been working very hard bringing the four day music event to the library at the March. And just to run off, tickets are on sale And, the lead concert on Friday night is Wyclef Jean. And, so that should be a great event for everybody to come to.

But, we also have Annie DiFranco coming, Susanna Hofs from the Bangles, Gina Gershon, the actress, David Jay from Bauhaus will be speaking, and then Peter Shapiro who now is very much involved with the Port Chester, what was it called, the Capitol Theater in Port Chester and jam bands and what he's done with them and bringing them there. So there's a huge amount of information, a huge amount of music to be involved with in VersaFest. And as Chris France says, it's the hippest library in the country. So come on out. So just released today is a new speaker series that the chamber of commerce has put together.

It's called your state your business. And we'll be bringing three of the constitutional officers from the state to talk to the businesses and anybody else who's interested. And, on March 5, it'll be controller Sean Scanlon. On the nineteenth, it'll be secretary of state Stephanie Thomas. And, on April 2, it will be attorney general William Tom.

All of these speakers will be talking about relationships of what's going on in the state and how that relates to your businesses and how that relates to town. So, it's not just for the businesses, it can be for anybody else. So, that's a Chamber of Commerce new event. Again, the library is gracious enough to give us the space so people can come. So, these are events that are free, but you do have to register because there's limited space for these events. So, that's about it. But, come to your state, your business, and of course, come to Versafest.

Thank you, miss Mandel. Anyone else from the RTM like to make an announcement? Anyone else? Seeing none, would the deputy moderator read item one of the call. Our next regular meeting is scheduled for March 3, the aforementioned meeting where we might just be discussing c m d a March 3, Tuesday March 3. Would the deputy moderator read item one of the call please?

To take such action as the meeting may determine upon the recommendation of the board of finance and request by the director of information technology to approve an appropriation in the amount of $330,000 to the capital nonrecurring fund account to address an IT storage replacement initiative.

Thank you and welcome to Alberto Vargas, our new IT director

Thank you.

To present this and miss Banks is here. So we're 35 people.

Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Good evening, RTM. As was mentioned before, I'm Alberto Vargas, the EIT director for the town of Westport. And I'm here to respectfully request capital appropriation in the amount of $330,000 to fund a new storage solution for the town.

As a way of background information, our current storage solution is end of life, end of sale, and as of August, end of support. What that all means is that the vendor after this summer will no longer support this storage solution. You may ask what the store solution is needed for. Quite a bit of things. The storage, Our current storage solution includes any and all user generated data for the town including tax and financial records, personnel records, emergency service data for the police and fire department, land and building building records, GIS data, databases, long term archives.

And basically any user data that the the departments generate is stored on these devices. Again, the current support warranty gets us through the summer. Our current solution is a little over six years old. By way of referencing, most of these store solutions only land last five to seven years. And because of the nature of of this store solution, it is critical that we we get approval sooner rather than later because the configuration and installation of said unit can take approximately three months.

The reason why it's being asked for in this fiscal year, it was part of the ten year capital forecast for this year because my predecessor did know that the solution the current solution was going to be end of support in this fiscal year. The source solution again is a hybrid solution which means there's two parts to it. There's a cloud portion of it, and then there's an on prem physical storage device that will go here in town hall and over at the police department as a way of replicating said data. I'll take a pause right there. I know I've said a lot. I'll see if anybody has any questions before I continue.

Actually, Rargas, you would keep going. No problem. Okay. Sure. And then we'll have a committee report and then we come back to you

and get there Sounds good. Appreciate that. Sorry about that. Not at all. Again, so the as I mentioned before, the reason why we have selected a a hybrid approach is for a resiliency purposes, predictive performance, long term cost stability, flexibility, compliance, and control.

The users of of said storage systems are again all any and all town departments including all our public safety departments, but it also includes our the public. Right? Our customers, people that interface with the the town and the various with the various different departments. There have been some questions about possible synergies with this solution as the board of ed has a similar solution in place for the past six or seven months right now. We do look for synergies where possible.

However, this was not possible due to the strict compliance and storage requirements that the board of head board of ed has versus the town and and emergency services units. Again, the biggest factor in this in selecting this particular device, it's called Pure Storage, is because of the ten year total cost of ownership. And we now know for the next ten years what our costs will be as opposed to current competitors which again only lasts about five to seven years. This would be an exercise that we would have to repeat in about five years at probably a much higher rate in the future. So again, Pure Storage, it's a slightly higher upfront capital cost, but they're fixed cost throughout the life cycle of the ten years, which is explained here in the in the presentation.

This is a I got a storage solution that's used by other neighboring towns here in Connecticut. Norwalk uses it, Meriden, Stonington. The state of Connecticut also uses it. And as I mentioned before, the board of ed uses it for all their data needs. We I am part of a cybersecurity team that looked at possible a lot of different possible solutions here.

We settled on Pure Storage again for those aforementioned reasons, but primarily because the the longevity of this solution. It's something that once you kind of set it and there's periodic tweaking that has to go on, it'll last up to ten years. The current Gartner report, is an independent very popular independent research company, has voted recently Pure Storage as the leader above competitors such as HP, Dell, NAS, and so on and so forth. IBM is another one. Again, so we went out for two bids to ensure that we were getting best pricing with this.

We did follow the NASSPO contracting, which are, again, are are compliant bids, they're competitively bid because they're preapproved pricing done at at the state level. And the vendor that we have part that we would partner with if approved is a vendor that we currently use for other solutions here and has worked with the town and other municipalities for well over fifteen years. And that's pretty much it.

Great. Thank you very much. We have a committee report from the IT committee by miss Shom, but I believe miss Kopak is going to present it. I have IT and finance. And finance. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. IT and finance.

Pam Kopec, RTM district three. We had an IT committee meeting separate from the finance committee meeting, and I was lucky enough to be at both plus the board of finance. So I've heard this three times, and he just gets better every time. The couple of things I mean, you you got 90% of what I would have said, but that's okay. One thing that I found interesting in in this is that there is this cybersecurity team, which I had never heard of.

And it's Tom Kiley who's on operations director, Jamie Sachs from IT, Charles Sampson who's the police IT, Matt Cohen who's a fire department IT, and Natalie Kerrigan who's the director of IT for the public schools. I always worry that our IT people are working in a silo and that, you know, police is doing their own thing and fire is doing their own thing. But lo and behold, they're not. They're all in the they they're a committee, and they work together, they selected this solution. There's a lot of technical stuff in this.

Couple of questions we asked were, why would you have the storage at town hall and the police department? Because they don't seem like they're very far apart in case there's, you know, a disaster of some sort. But it's the physical location of those places. The cloud storage is on our own Westport Gov cloud, little secret place that's just us. Nobody else can get to our cloud.

And the departments will help determine what needs to go in the cloud versus what needs to be hot storage. And one of the best things Alberto said is if the FBI walks in the door, you better have it down there ready for them to get that information. So to keep the FBI out of our door, that as he said, it's it's in the capital forecast. It was proposed by his predecessor. That magic quadrant thing was something I actually knew from twenty years ago in IT, so it's good to know that some of these things stay stay true.

The school district explained. Oh, we're this is a little technical tick picky point, but we're moving from 230 terabytes to 246 terabytes. It doesn't sound like a big move, but the way the data is handled with this new system, it's a flash thing and it it make it's a good fit and it also is way more data than we have now. And as Alberto said, you don't wanna buy anything you don't need. So he's being appropriate in buying what we need and what's the right fit.

Both committee IT committee unanimously approved it on the January 15. Finance unanimously approved it on the twenty seventh. That's it.

Thank you, Gopak. We now turn to the public. Would anyone from the Westport electorate like to comment on this item? Seeing none, do we have a resolution?

Resolved that upon the recommendation of the board of finance and request by the director of information technology, the sum of $330,000 to the capital Like

my moves were a little

Could you mute please? The

sum of $330,000 to the capital nonrecurring fund account to address an IT storage replacement initiative is hereby appropriated. Second.

Thank you, miss Karp. Mister Kling, Would anyone from the RTM like to comment on this request or ask Mr. Vargha questions? Ms. Bateau.

Hello, Wendy Bateau, District 8. I also have heard the presentation several times and several iterations of the questions. But I still have a question. How is anything that's stored in any cloud secure?

Yeah. It's a very good question. We are a Microsoft shop. So Microsoft uses the cloud and ensures that we are just our little section of the cloud. It's something that they also call FedRAMP certified. So it follows federal levels of compliance, security, and controls to ensure that nobody is allowed in. And aside from Westport data, nobody else is allowed in. So there are different levels of security there, and Microsoft is the top. Hopefully, that's I mean, it's it's yeah. It's it's again, it's they follow particular compliance and and regulations and rules when it comes to the to that data.

It's just like, you know, if you if you have an iPhone and things are on the iCloud, it's just your data that nobody else is allowed to touch. There are very strict rules around that, around who can get in, who can who cannot get in.

That's scary

to hear, actually.

Yeah. Since

last time it's been hacked so easily. I just have one more question about it. What kinds of information would be stored in the cloud versus on the actual hard stuff.

Yeah. So, what Pam had mentioned before, so what would be kept on-site is what we call hot storage. Hot storage is data that has to be readily available. What we would be shifting to the cloud would be older data. The examples that I used in previous meetings are, well, I'm still working with the individual departments to determine kind of the cutoff. But let's say a fifteen year old RTM meeting that we're still storing on-site, the chances of somebody needing to access that video is probably null at this point. So we would shift that from on-site, free that up, and move it over to the cloud.

I see. So just so, for example, people's taxes and I don't know, arrest records and other private information, that would not be on the cloud?

Correct. So, yes. So, anything from like the police and fire department that has to remain because of their very strict compliance rules that would have to stay on-site. Yeah.

Okay. Thanks. Thank you.

Thank you, miss Beto and mister Vargas. Any other members of the RTM like to comment on this? Any other members? Alright. Seeing none, we are voting on the following resolution. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the board of finance and a request by the director of information technology, the sum of $330,000 to the capital non recurring fund account to an IT storage replacement initiative is hereby appropriate. I'm gonna take it riskier. All in favor? Any opposed? On the phone?

Yes in favor. Yes.

Great. I heard four yeses. Miss Levy, Miss Kramer, Miss Cohen, Mr. Moore. It's unanimous. Thank you, miss Vargas, and welcome. You have big shoes to fill with miss Zhang, but you're getting off to a great start. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Would the deputy moderator read item two of the call?

To take such actions, the meeting may determine upon the recommendation of the board of finance and a request by the director of parks and recreation to approve an appropriation in the amount of $60,158 to the capital nonrecurring fund account for the purchase of a 2024 Chevrolet Silverado 3,500 HDCC work truck, which will replace a 2008 Ford f Ford f three fifty rack body truck.

Thank you, miss Carr. Presenting for the administration will be Eric Barbieri, our director of Parks and Rec. Welcome.

Good evening, everyone. Eric Barbieri, parks and recreation director. I'm hoping and I've said this before, but I'm hoping a picture paints a thousand words. If anyone was able to view the current state of the vehicles that we are replacing tonight, they are sorely needed, inoperable, or the amount of money to repair them both are it's just it's not it cost ineffective. The first vehicle we have here in front of us, one of the kind of the the nice things is that Nick Quatrano, who's here with me tonight, park superintendent, is looking at doing more applications of organic fertilizers himself in house.

This vehicle will house some of those materials as he does his job and his staff does his job. It also gets used for special events, moving things, trash, brush pickup. It's really a multipurpose vehicle, and and both these vehicles are kind of the lifeblood of what this department does and the parks division does every single day. So outside of the pictures, there's really not a whole lot to say other than we really need these things to make our department work. It is on state bid and they are being replaced. The vehicles will be auctioned off. The current ones that we have will be auctioned off.

Thank you, mister Barbieri. Do we have a report from mister Colabella? Joint report finance and parks and rec.

Good evening. Andrew Kolbello for district four. There was a joint committee meeting to discuss the purchase of the 2024, Silverado. The big question was why a 2024 and not a 2026? Because these are vehicles that go through a state bid auction. These are vehicles that are brand new, left over from the year prior, and are still have zero miles with a warranty that does not take action until purchase has been made. So that was pretty much it and it was a unanimous vote from both committees. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Colabella. We now turn to the westward electorate. Anyone from the electorate like to comment on this request? Any westward electorate? And seeing none, do we have a resolution?

Resolved. That upon the recommendation of the board of finance and a request by the director of parks and recreation, the sum of $60,158 to the capital nonrecurring fund account for the purchase of a 2024 Chevrolet Silverado 3,500 HD CC work truck, which will replace a 2008 Ford f three fifty rack body truck is hereby appropriated.

Thank you miss Carve. Mister Kling, any member of the RTM like to comment on this request? I gotta say you're right. A picture is worth a thousand words. They look fully depreciated to me.

Let's see. If there are no comments from the RTM, we're voting on the following resolution, resolved that upon the recommendation of the Board of Finance and a request by the Director of Parks and Rec, the sum of $60,158 to the capital non recurring fund account for purchase of a 2024 Chevrolet Silverado 3,500 HD CC work truck which will replace a 2008 Ford f three fifty rack body truck is hereby appropriated. All those in favor? Any opposed? Any abstentions? On the phone?

Yeah, maybe yes. Rachel, yes. Yes, Aaron.

Great. And Mr. Moore, did I hear you?

Yeah. I said yes.

Great. Okay. Unanimous again. Thank you all. Do we have item three of the call, please?

Yes.

To take such action is the meeting may determine upon the recommendation of the board of finance and request by the director of parks and recreation to approve an appropriation in the amount of $65,027.49 to the capital nonrecurring fund account for the purchase of a 2025 Chevrolet 3,500 HD dump truck, which will replace a 1999 Ford f four fifty dump truck. Thank

you, miss Garp. And mister Barbieri is back.

Okay. Thank you very much. Eric Barbieri, parks and recreation director. The second vehicle, similar scenario as the other. However, the purposes are a little bit different as you could probably see in the materials here. Heavy material dump truck used primarily on our ball fields bringing heavy materials, soils, mulches, things like that around town. Also, host for as you can see on as for our leaf collection in in the fall, is a very important thing that we do. Again, the lifeblood of what we do and a very important thing for us to replace. So we appreciate your consideration.

Thank you, mister Robert. Mister Bronstein has a report.

Good evening, everybody. Seth Bronstein, RTM district six. This is covering an item that was also addressed on the evening of January 27 in a joint committee meeting. This particular portion of the meeting was held with finance and parks and recreation. The parks department relies heavily on their dump trucks.

It really is a sort of all purpose vehicle, gets tons and tons of different usages across all seasons. And I think to Eric's earlier point, you know, it's sort of self evident the need to have this vehicle be replaced. It's a 1999 truck. So this truck drove 28,000 miles largely around longshore. Think about that, how many laps that would be.

I'm sure it escaped the premises occasionally, but the bulk of its existence was in the longshore area or in the in the you know, sort of down by the beach and through the golf course. We probably spent more time quite frankly in our meeting not talking about the truck, but rather talking about the need for a proper maintenance facility, which would, in the end, create an a better environment for sustainability of our vehicles. So if we had a proper maintenance facility down there, you'd be able to allow thorough wash downs. Salt corrosion is a very big deal for all vehicles, and we really don't have an ability to do that properly currently. So when you look at the pictures in the packet and you see those big gaping wounds where rust has sort of taken hold of these vehicles, a lot of that is directly attributable to both the salt applications on the road.

But remember, it's also we live in a coastal community. So there is salt in the beautiful sea air we all like to breathe. It also having a proper mace maintenance facility would allow for improved protection for the elements. So our 1999 truck could conceivably have lived, again, 28,000 miles. We do, you know, we do our best to to maintain these vehicles in an exceptional manner.

Could've lived a few years longer. Both of them both of the committees voted unanimously For finance, Pam Kopak made the motion and was seconded by Nancy Kale. For parks and recreation, Alma Soreli made the motion and was seconded by Andrew Colabella. Again, both votes were unanimously in favor of recommending approval to the full RTM. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Braunstein. We now again turn to the Westport electorate. Would anyone from the electorate like to speak to this item? Seeing none, do we have a resolution?

Resolve that upon the recommendation and the of the word of finance and request by the I'm sorry. I lost my okay. Request by the director of Parks and Recreation, the sum of $65,027.49 to the capital nonrecurring fund account for the purchase of a 2025 Chevrolet 3,500 HD dump truck, which will replace a 1999 Ford f fifth Ford f four fifty dump truck is hereby appropriated.

Second. Thank you, miss Garth. Mister Kling, would any member of the RTM like to comment on this item? And wanna know how we keep a truck going for twenty seven years? That's, you know, that's my question. That's good. Seeing seeing none, we're voting on the following resolution that upon the recommendation of board of finance and request for the director of parks and rec, the sum of $65,000.20 $65,027.49 to the capital nonrecurring fund account for the purchase of a 2025 Chevrolet 3,500 HD dump truck which will replace a 1999 Ford f four fifty dump truck is hereby appropriate. All those in favor? Any opposed? Any abstentions?

And on the phone.

Melissa Levy, yes. Yes. On the board. Re Re Cocone, Great.

That's four voices. Thank you all. Miss Levy, Kramer, Cohn, and more. Would the deputy moderator read item four of the call? Thank you, mister Barbieri. To

take such actions, the meeting may determine upon the recommendation of the board of finance and request by the director of public works to approve an appropriation in the amount of $815,000 along with bond and note authorization to the municipal improvement fund account for town hall ADA improvements.

Thank you miss Carf and we have a bittersweet presentation from the director of public works Pete Rackledge. What's what's new, Pete?

Oh, not much.

Congratulations to Yeah.

Sentence is up. Thank you all. And I I wanna remind the moderator that, from this point forward, it's tradition to put a retiree at the front of the line on every agenda that they come in on.

Now that we might be recruiting for a replacement, we better or we'll never get one.

In any case.

Anyway, congratulations.

Thank you very much. Appreciate all the well wishers that have contacted me today as well. Town hall is in need of some ADA improvements. Back about a year ago or so, we embarked with WestCOG on a ADA transition plan that we've needed for quite some time. And what this is is an attempt to evaluate all of the ADA deficiencies in and around town hall and as well all of our other facilities, all town facilities for the most part with a few exceptions.

The audit for town hall came back with about two fifty pages of things that we need to do. This is an attempt to start some of those. As you may have seen out in the back, we did start doing this when we started paving the parking lot last year. But we are unable to complete that until I can replace a failing ramp that's out on the north side of the building. It has already deteriorated to the point where we have to shore it up, or we have shored it up.

And in order to do that, I can't really take that ramp out until I have other ADA access into the building. In addition, once we touch the building, we really need to bring it into compliance with the 2010 code, which would require accessible entrance capabilities at two thirds of the entrances of the building. It's a little complicated because this is a historic building so we can't just an ADA ramp in front of the building. It would sort of ruin the facade and the appearance of the building. So we had to make a few compromises.

Luckily, most of the people come in through the back entrance at both DPW side and at Board Of Ed side. So before we take out the ramp and replace it, that would be the third entrance out of four entrances that people would actually use, we need to have other access. So in the two stairwells on either side, the DPW side and the Board Of Ed side, we're proposing to put in lifts that will handle a wheelchair or someone with a disability to all three floors. I only need one before I take out the ramp on the side but we intend to put both of them in and then do some modernization of the flow as well. Because right now our only two handicapped spots are on the northern side of the exit road and the ramp's on the southern side of the exit road.

So if you're in a wheelchair or you have a visual disability, you're literally taking your life in your hands by crossing that road, especially if it's at 04:30 on a on a weekday or on a Friday because people fly out that road. So one of the things that we will be doing over there is separating the handicap parking and bringing it to the south side of the exit road so that cars will be going out on a separate exit. And if you need to park in a handicap spot, you can pull off to the left and the ramp will be right there, right in front of you. In addition to the two lifts in the stairwells and the ramp, which are all part of the 815,000, we also have no access to the stage. And we really do need to have access to the stage to make it ADA compliant.

So we'll have an additional lift on the other side of that door that will be able to bring you up the stairs and then you can bring your wheelchair in and onto the stage, thus making the stage available for anybody who has a disability. There's a lot more little things that we can do here in town hall and we're going to try to pick away at the low hanging fruit as often as we can. As a matter of fact, on his way out the door, Alberto told me that we had finally gotten a quote and for a Oracast system in this in this building so that if you have hearing aids and your hearing aids are modern enough that they have an app, you'll be able to Bluetooth right into the system and whatever the moderator says will come right through your hearing aids. It's a little bit of an improvement over the system that we have right now, which is not really working, I don't think even anymore. In any case, that is what the 815,000 is all about.

This is on the capital forecast, but it's part of a larger project for ADA upgrades to town hall in general. So we will be coming back to you, we, me or my successor, in future months to do additional ADA improvements to here in our attempts to modernize town hall and bring it into compliance. With that I'd be happy to take any questions.

Thank you Mr. Rackledge. We have a joint committee report from finance and public works by Ms. Kale.

Hi, everyone. Nancy Kale, RTM district nine. I'm delivering the joint committee reports. And I for the RTM member who's first to notice the mistake in my report, I'll buy your drink the next time I go out with everybody after the meeting because I it was glaring when I just looked at the report. Alright.

So we're talking about the $850,000 town hall ADA improvements appropriation. And just to give you a little bit more information on the need, town hall is not currently fully ADA compliant. The town is actively developing the comprehensive ADA transition plan to address these compliance deficiencies. I think that's due out by sometime late this year. And the ADA audit identified priority access issues at town hall that require action right now.

Failure to demonstrate progress toward compliance increases the town's exposure to enforcement action by the US Department of Justice, particularly if a complaint is filed. So we need to do this now. Just to give you the listing so you know this is kind of a multifaceted project, there are two wheelchair accessible stair lifts that go from the bottom the Ground Floor up the three flights of stairs. And then there's the additional stairlift for right here. We're reconfiguring the roadway and replacing the unsafe deteriorated ADA ramp that's in the blind spot north side.

We are relocating two ADA parking spaces to improve safety and accessibility and repaving the front half of town hall and we' modifying the sidewalk ramps near the parking lot. Then there' a contingency. So the project timing is that this will begin in March 2026 and be completed by November 2026. The estimated useful life of the improvements is twenty to twenty five years. And a little bit confusing in some of the documents that we received from the board of finance packet, this work is part of is represents a portion of a larger 1,750,000.00 town hall ADA grant upgrade that's in the the town's capital forecast, but that's based on an old ADA plan from 2016.

So the plan that we're really looking at is the new WESCOG assisted plan that Pete mentioned before. To answer some of the questions you might have, why is this work necessary now? Because we're not fully compliant and the town will show measurable progress or risk enforcement action and the town the ADA audit identified these items. Why are we replacing the ramp? Because it's falling apart and it's dangerous and it's heavily used by not only for accessibility but for deliveries.

Why is the front entrance not being modified? Modifying the front entrance would substantially alter the historic facade and the redesigned ramp near the primary rear entrance meets ADA access needs without impacting the building's historic character. Why are we adding and relocating ADA parking spaces? Because code requires accessible parking at each building entrance resulting in a total of six ADA spaces at those entrances. Will the stair lifts block stair access?

No. The staircases will remain passable when the lifts are in use. Why are we not using ARPA funds? We had a discussion about ARPA funds during our meeting. Federal ARPA rules require the town to obligate those funds for immediate shovel ready projects, the Old Millgate in particular.

Those funds have already been committed and are no longer available for this project. Is this the full ADA solution for town hall? No. This appropriation addresses the highest priority exterior mainly access issues. Additional ADA improvements may be addressed in future capital requests as part of the broader ADA transition plan, including accessible bathrooms, and as Pete mentioned, the improved audio system.

I

really wanted to say that. But that doesn't actually have anything to do with the accessibility to town meetings, which I hope is coming soon too. The committee votes were finance six zero zero and public works eleven zero zero. Thanks. Thank you

miss Cale. We turn again to the Westport electorate. Would anyone from the Westport public like to comment on this request? Anyone? Mister Falk, come on down.

Good evening, Harris Falk. I've seen this numerous times and it's great and it's fantastic. But for some reason this is the first time that I noticed that I don't think there's an automatic door to actually get to the lift. That was I'm just wondering when that would be an insult or if it would be.

Thank you for pointing that out. It's not part of this project but it's easily solvable.

Great. Thank you mister Falk. Any other comments from the public? Seeing none, do we have a resolution?

Resolve that upon the recommendation of the board of finance and request by the director of public works, the sum of $815,000 along with bond and note authorization to the municipal improvement fund account for town hall ADA improvements is hereby appropriated.

Would any oh, thank you miss Scarborough. Mister Klang, would any member of the RTM like to comment on the request? Mister Lowenstein?

Dick Lowenstein, District 5. Pete, when you talked about the ramps here and there, this is the, will there be access to the green room from that ramp?

You're saying ramps, I assume you mean lifts.

I'm sorry to hear you.

You're saying ramps. I assume you mean lifts. Yes. So the the lift will live down at the lowest level of the staircase. When you press the button to call the lift, it'll come up and you can go back down to the green room because you'll be able to go around and get in the elevator to go down one half story to the green room.

And and where the theater is as well?

Correct. Where the theater is as well.

So that's basically for the elevator, you kinda loop around the back. For the elevator, you loop around the back of the where the elevators are right now.

Correct. So you'd come in to the lowest level, you go along the hallway on one level, get into the elevator, and you get on a half a story to get to the green room or the community theater.

Okay. That's important because the theater has had problems with people getting in right now. Thank you. The other thing is you mentioned that this is only a not a fraction, but a small part of the changes needed for town hall. What are the other significant ones that you have aren't able to handle right now?

There's there's a whole plan. Mean, it'd probably take me more than a minute to describe. Essentially, the access is the most important one. There is some reconfiguration of rooms to add additional bathrooms that are supposed to have a non gender bathroom in town hall and debatable as to whether that has to be on all floors. So there's still a lot of work that needs to be done to determine that. And there were also some ideas about space modifications in town hall to better utilize our space.

Okay. Fine. Thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you, mister Lowenstein. Any other members of the RTM? Miss Johnson?

Hi. Jennifer Johnson, RTM district nine. I have a request at our committee meetings for this and the next item. There were some great maps and visuals that were created. And I think that a map says tells a thousand words and makes it very easy for everybody to understand kinda what's happening and what's being done.

I think of last meeting where attorney Levine was trying to describe the lot with her hands when we were trying to approve a a right of way. So this is a request, a personal request and if we could make it more of a habit to include schematics and when possible because I think that if we could use them on the screen, that'd be great. But if that's too cumbersome, at least if it could be in the RTM packets. So when people are interested in understanding visually where these ramps are that Pete described, which he did such a good job during committee meetings, there was a schematic as well as for the ADA ramp. And since those schematics do exist, if the RTM packet could be amended to include them and then if we could use them more in presentations where possible.

Thanks.

Good suggestion. The town clerk's office is working on a project to to get more information into committee meeting packets which will then feed the rtm packets and and they really are spending some time on that so that it would be a good suggestion for them as well so thank you for that any other comments from the rtm Any other comments seeing none we are voting on the following resolution that upon the recommendation the board of finance and request by the director of public works a sum of $815,000 along with bond and note authorization to the municipal improvement fund account for town hall ADA improvements is hereby appropriated. All those in favor? Any opposed? Any abstention?

And on the phone?

Yes. Karen,

did I hear you miss Kramer?

Yes.

Yes. Good.

You did.

I did. Thank you. That's unanimous. Again, 35 to nothing. Thank you very much. You know, for those people who are sticking with us on westportct.gov, I will point out once again, it appears like we are motoring through these things, but there have been great committee meetings on every one of these that have gone into pretty deep dive which is reflected in the good committee reports that have come in which are part of the packet online. So, we're we're we've got a lot of oversight here and it's very good. So, that's my pitch. There you go. Do we have item five of the call, please?

To take such actions, the meeting may determine upon the recommendation of the board of finance and request by the director of public works to approve an appropriation in the amount of $275,000 along with bond and note authorization to the municipal improvement fund account for an ADA accessible ramp between the Imperial Lot and the Levitt Pavilion lot.

Thank you, miss Carr. Mister Reckwich is back.

Mister Reckwich is back. This is a proposal to make the experience of moving from the Imperial Parking Lot up to the library lot a lot easier, especially if you have a disability. Right now there's a concrete staircase that is on the west side of the bridge that goes over Dead Man's Brook from the Imperial Lot to the library. The only accessible route to get up to the library lot once you come over the bridge is to go all the way around the point of the pavilion and then come into the library and use the elevator to get up to the 2nd Story. This has been requested many times over the past two and a half years, I think, it makes sense.

We have, you know, we allow the farmers market to use the Imperial Lot If anything was to happen and we needed to evacuate someone to the west, there's really no no good accessible access there. So this will be about a 60 foot long two tier ramp that is going to start at the left side of the staircase and will go south on an incline upward to several landings. Like, every 30 feet, you have to have a landing so that if someone in a wheelchair can rest, and then it will turn and come back on a switchback. And if you know the the site at the library there, there's a big transformer that's right next to the staircase. So the ramp will exit on the south side of the transformer, but onto an asphalt pavement that will then lead to the Levitt or to the library.

And essentially, needed it's ramp. We decided that we did not want to use a lift in this location because it's a remote location. So if the lift were to malfunction and someone was on that lift, it would be not the most pleasant experience and there may be there's no one there to monitor it. We looked at using a lift. We looked at even going to a small tram car from one level to another.

We looked at an aluminum ramp, which we felt would be too noisy. But we ended up with this passive masonry retaining wall ramp that is made out of asphalt and then the landings will be concrete. The one thing that makes us use that method is that this whole site is on a landfill, and the masonry structure that we're proposing to use can flex with landfill settlement, differential settlement, whereas a solid concrete structure like the one we have here at town hall might might shift and crack. So this is much more maintainable in this situation. And I guess that's about all I've got for it.

So I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you again, mister Ratkwich. We have a joint committee report from finance and public works by mister Colabella.

Hello again. Andrew Kolobello for District 4. This was a joint committee meeting that we met on January 27 by Zoom. Pretty much the nature of the meeting that we really covered on was how we're gonna build it and what we're gonna do because as many of you know, that area of town is actually landfill. So you don't have, like, an actual solidified ground.

So he had gone into detail on how they were gonna build it and how gradually over time of you have seen in the past that the parking lot developed very big dips into it. So, obviously, the structure would would potentially move even if you were to put pilings in. So they created the like a geo grid design so that the blocks are interlocked with one another so that over time as the ground formation changes, it would actually move with it too. They had also talked about that we would use an asphalt by two minutes concrete paving. And it would have railings obviously on the side to keep anyone from falling off of it.

However, there was a big discussion as to why do you need such a long ramp. And that's because engineers and ADA have required that for every foot that you go up, you must have 12 foot of ramp. So with the ramps that are designed as they are right now, you need a very gradual grade for those that are disabled, handicapped, but also those that have strollers so that they are able to go up and down the ramps with very much ease. Peter Gold had questions about the design, which we had already covered, and the elevation of the 12 feet. Chris Tate inquired about illumination of the walkway for dusk and night accessibility considering that it will be built on town dump.

Thanks, Chris, for the reminder. Pete had responded that the existing illumination in connection would suffice to ensure accessibility. Jack Cleen had proposed maintaining the current plan emphasizing that it doesn't create any adverse accessibility issues in terms of length, slope, or accessibility. So thank you, Jack. Jennifer Johnson had referenced in her email that everybody had gotten from the r t that she had sent to the RTM expressed her desire to save or replant the holly tree, which is actually very pretty.

She had appreciated to the schematic visual provided for the discussion by mister Vakowitz and construction cost mentioned in the RFP. The contractors cannot hold their price due to volatility of construction environment and supply chain accessibility. But further back to the plant that with hopeful consideration by Mr. Ben Sikis that it would be hopeful that the plant could be relocated or moved possibly or trimmed. But that was a unanimous vote from all committees. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Golovella. We now turn again to the Westport electorate. Would anyone from the public like to speak to this? Mister Falk, come on down.

Evening again, Harris Volk. This is fantastic. We've been pushing for this for years. It's come up in numerous DPIC meetings and other meetings. And has been mentioned that the Levitt was pushing for it and the farmers market as well. So this is fantastic. And just in case I don't get a chance to do this again, have you considered making it electric? Okay. Thank

you. Thank

you, mister Falk. Anyone else from the public like to comment on this item? Seeing none, do we have a resolution?

Resolved. Upon the recommendation of the board of finance and request by the director of public works, the summon the amount of $275,000 along with bond and note authorization to the municipal improvement fund account for an ADA accessible ramp between the Imperial Lot and the Levitt Pavilion lot is hereby appropriated.

Thank you, miss Garvin. Mister Klang, anyone from the RTM like to comment on this? There were a whole bunch of people at the committee report committees meetings, but mister Longstein.

Dick Loanstein, District 5. So the reason why we can't use the existing walkway from the Imperial Lot to the, Levitt Lot is because of the 12 foot distance from the low to high. Right? I always wondered why we just couldn't put a ramp on that little walkway and make it straight away.

The total length of the ramp is about a 150 feet. So that would end up out into the parking lot if it was one straight run. And it would also eliminate the bridge. Would eliminate the bridge. Okay. Or we have to take a different route for the bridge.

Also the Many years ago there was a proposal for something called Library Lane. Do you recall that?

I I I

didn't quite hear you.

Library Lane. It was gonna be a one way road going from the Library Levitt lot into the Imperial Lot. You go up you go south, but you couldn't go north. Would that have been at the same site or is it kind of something that's not even under consideration?

That would probably change the whole picture but I don't think there's much of a possibility of that happening.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, mister Lowenstein. Anyone else from the RTM like to comment on this request? Anyone else? No one. Okay. Seeing none, we're voting on the following, that upon the recommendation of the Board of Finance and request by the Director of Public Works to summon the amount of $275,000 along with bond and note authorization to the Municipal Improvement Fund account for an ADA accessible ramp between the Imperial Lot and the Levin Pavilion lot is hereby appropriated. All those in favor? Any opposed? Any abstentions? And on the phone.

I believe we yeah. Absolutely.

Have

a couple yes.

We have two yeses and two absoluties.

No? Do you have another yes?

No. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Four it's unanimous again. Thank you on the phone and thanks to all of you and thank you. Pete, do we have item six of the call, please?

To take such action as the meeting may determine upon the recommendation of the board of finance and request by the director of public works to approve an appropriation in the amount of $31,500 to the capital and non recurring fund account for an emergency elevator repair at town hall.

And welcome back, mister Reckowitz.

I feel like I'm on a speed RTM meeting here.

Yeah. This is something.

So a couple of years ago, we replaced the town hall elevator and one would think that there's a robust guarantee with that. But in fact, like many contractors these days, it's a one year guarantee. So when the valve went for on this, it was unexpected but it was also something that we had to react to immediately because we absolutely need to have an elevator in town hall. Again, ADA compliance. The elevator was replaced in 2019, so the equipment is actually six years old.

And of course the expenditure is not on the capital forecast. And it would normally be funded in our operating capital as a projected equipment replacement under preventative maintenance. Unfortunately, since do to that. And hydraulic valve. And when you replace a hydraulic valve on an elevator, it's recommended to also replace the pump because there might be small particles that have gotten into the pump and damaged that as well.

Thus, the estimate for 31,500 including the inspection cost for the elevator company to come out and do the initial assessment of what was wrong of about $4,000 $4,200. So this money is already spent and is basically being done on an emergency basis. The elevator is now working. They got it working again in a couple of days, know, flying the expediting the delivery of the equipment. So we are in compliance again. Now we just have to pay for

it. Thank you. And we have a joint committee report from finance and public works by mister Keenan. Almost got away from home meeting without a report from public works.

Almost. Almost. Jay Keenan, district two. This is more of a reimbursement than a than an appropriation. It's a request from public works for $31,500 for the emergency elevator report, and this will replace the money that was taken out of the operating account in order to pay for the emergency repair. Both committees voted unanimously to recommend to the full RTM. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Keenan. Would any member of the public like to comment on this request? And, this is kind of an unusual situation because there are four members of the public here. It's worth pointing out. One, the first time ever an invocation speaker has stayed for the whole meeting, so I salute you. Our first selectman is here. Mister Falk, as you know, is here and miss Ziminetti is here. So so the gang's all here. So welcome. Would any of the members of the public like to comment on this? Seeing none. Do we have a Resolve. Resolution.

Resolved upon the recommendation the board of finance and request by the director of public works, the sum of $31,500 to the capital nonrecurring fund account for emergency elevator repair at town hall is hereby appropriated.

Second. Thank you, miss Garth. Miss Kling. Anyone from the RTM like to comment on this? Miss Bronstein?

Hello again everybody. Seth Braunstein, RTM District six. I just didn't want this evening to end. I know Jeff had made a had made a quick comment at the outset.

That's the first time that's ever been said.

I didn't want to end, hold on, without one very important acknowledgment. We have all worked very closely with Pete for a long time. And I view him as as an exceptional town employee, really town leadership if you think about it. I mean, he he he has gone up over and above year after year and has ensured that this town's priorities are met and that everything has been done in a tip top manner. So I I've expressed my own personal appreciation to Pete, but I had hoped to stand up here in some regard sort of representing all of my fellow RTM members just to just to let this, you know, appreciation and gratitude be made publicly.

So, Pete, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you one and all. I assure you I will be back a couple times before you before I actually say goodbye. So you're not done with me yet. Have a wonderful night.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So We didn't follow you. We know I know. Yeah. Yeah. So but there were no more comments from the RTM or are there more comments from the RTM? Seeing none. Thank you. We're voting on the following that upon the recommendation of the board of finance and a request by the director of public works a sum $31,500 to the capital non recurring fund account for emergency elevator repair at town hall is hereby appropriate. All those in favor? Any opposed? Any abstentions? And we're down to three votes on the phone.

So 34. More yet.

One believe he has. Yes.

And miss Cranberry, And miss Conan has had to leave us. So it's 34 to nothing. Thank you everybody. Spotted horse if anyone's interested. Night. Thank you everybody.