Town Council - Special Meeting

Okay. Okay. Leave the pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. A moment of silence for the men and women in the armed forces of first respond. Ukraine military.

Thank you. American creed. We're going to do the American creed if you like. Yes.

Okay. This is from William Tyler Page. I believe in the United States of America of the people by the people for the people whose just powers arrive with the consent of the govern. The democracy of the republic, the sovereign nation of the many states, perfect union, one and inseparable established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrifice their lives and fortunes. I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies. Thank you.

Okay, Diane, do we have anybody to address the town council for public participation? I did sign up, but I'm going to wait. Okay. Thank you, Ari. Uh, next, the consent agenda. Okay. I'd like to move that we approve items 4, A, and B on the consent agenda. Second. Thank you, Paul. Any discussion? All those in favor? I

opposed. Any abstensions? Thank you. Item number five, I'd like to move to approve the request uh for the uh c for cultural district $1,000 grant from the state of Connecticut office of the arts and that will be used for marketing activities including development of the cultural district logo. Any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. Any abstensions? Thank you. Mayor's comments.

Thank you, Katie. Uh first couple things. First uh wishing a uh congratulations first and wishing the Neilford High School girls basketball team good luck in their CIA AC girls basketball state championships division 2 tournament game against Bristol Central. That'll be this Saturday. Uh this month we celebrate Women's History Month and we honor the successes and sacrifices of US women. And to every woman who has paved the way, broken barriers, lifted others up, shaped the world with courage, creativity, and strength, we thank you. Your stories, your resilience, and your leadership and everyday acts of kindness inspire us all. And just a point of personal privilege, my my mom's rest in peace, maternal memory. and uh amazing woman. Amazing woman. So uh big thank you to the Saranobyl PTO for Saturday. They had the summer camp and activities expo and uh a lot of parents uh came and learned about all the different summer camps and activities they have for their children. You still have an opportunity uh for our park and wreck program for camp. The youth agency is sold out. Uh I know the Pratt Center has uh availability and uh you can check uh on Facebook pages, you can check on websites and see opportunities. Uh the Greenwave dancers did very good at their state competition over the weekend. So congratulations to them. And uh also uh wanted to thank uh uh Tim Flattery and Melissa Prito of Village Crest Center as we uh celebrated Melanie Brett 32 years of service at Village Crest. So a big huge congratulations. Gina uh Lacy, she's the owner of the Hunt. We wanted to congratulate her on the hunt's fifth year anniversary. Congratulations to the Milford Youth

Baseball softball 9U team for their runnerup finish in the DRZ tournament. Uh for those that don't know, Jack had talked about a little bit before, but the Sand Road bridg is open, which was a big help and this past uh snow that we had uh over the weekend uh for that. That was a big huge help. some of the events that we have going on. Uh starting off uh this weekend, we're going to be having or actually starting off on the 7th uh which will be the Winter's Farmers Market. Uh that's each and every Saturday, 9:30 to 12:30 at St. John's Church. All pro dads, uh that's going to be from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the max. And that's for dads and their children. They get together and network the dads do and the kids. Big huge uh thank you to the youth agency for doing that. On March 10th, 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the MAX is navigating the AI landscape. That's a dinner and a conversation. You want to know about AI uh and how that's affecting society. That's a great uh time to go and uh check out that. St. John's church is hope hosting a civic method method actors workshop on March 14th from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. March 16th at 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the max is safe kids. That's for neurodeiverse uh children and families. They get together network and have a good time there. March 20th 8 a.m. at El Francino and that's behind Johanna's restaurant. Uh they're having the wheels fundraiser breakfast and uh the wheels those are the ones that provide the meals for our seniors. Uh it's a great time to come and show your support and it's a wonderful fundraiser. March 21st again the Winter's Farmers Market 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Then on March 21st 6:30 p.m.

to 8:30 p.m. is the medium at the Museum at Harry Brook Park. March 21st, 9:00 am to 12:30 p.m. at Petty Bone is HR. That's our recycling uh consortium that we're part of. They are having a regional repair cafe. So, if you have like an old appliance, you have a clock, they can go and they can see if they can repair it for you at no charge. March 22nd and 23rd at Sullivan Farm is Maple Fest. On Saturday, it's from 10:00 a.m. to 400 pm. Sunday it's noon to 5:00 pm and that's where you get to see the how they make maple syrup currently and the maple candies but then they also have different uh stations uh on the farm where you can see how they were made uh in the past all different times March 26 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. the library. Lawyers in the library. These are 20-minut sessions. So, if you have a legal question, um the lawyers are there to help you proono with that. Again, Winter's Farmers Market is on May 28th as well, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. On March 28th, uh Park and Wreck is doing their Easter egg hunt. That's from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon on the middle green. and uh lots of programs uh at the youth agency, the library, the senior center, lots of great stuff. Take take a look at their websites uh for more information. And then I would like to turn over for just a moment. Um if uh Mary Jane, you could talk a little bit about there were three families uh in the affordable housing complex that are in need because of a small fire. If you could talk a little bit about that and where people could go to donate. Um so yeah um unfortunately we had a fire in one of the upper duplex apartments and um not only did it do fire damage but um the sprinkler system you know

it all comes down and so it took out two apartments below. So it was a busy night last night. um you know, fire, police, um Red Cross was there and they provided um vouchers, you know, for um some of some of the families had families to go to, others needed vouchers for um you know, for overnight, but it's not a lot of money. It's only like $350, which what do they need? What? What do they need that got ruined in the

Well, they a they lost furnishings, rugs, clothing, food, especially the lower apartments were really um so um you know, we're in the process of going through the insurance company and um well, that takes time and um and then we'll be um you know, getting in the restoration as ASAP and trying to get them back into their apartments as soon as we can, but it's going to it's going to take a couple months probably at least. How many people were displaced? So, I would say um probably about eight people all together. Any children? Yeah.

Oh, if you have a list of things like clothing or something. Yeah, we're we're just trying to get it all together today. But um because they're not all in any one place now, are they? No. No, no, they're all over the place. So, if they're in need of furniture, there's off the streets. in Danbury, Joe Simons, they they would probably bring them more furniture, used furniture. That that's kind of what they do. But also, if you have like a flyer or anything, I could promote it on ARCs social media and try to get some support for that. Thank you. Yeah. Um same with Habitat furniture and stuff, I'd be able to help with that, too. And um social services on, you know, we referred them to social services for um you know,

money for you know, for wherever they're going to have temporarily. Where are they? We don't really have too many places around town. I know, right? I don't know. Not that a voucher would cover, right? But as soon as they're set up more, let us know so we can push it out to the public. Thank you. Absolutely. And that's what I have for mayor's comments, Katie. Okay. All right. Let's move on to item seven. I'd like to move to approve the following uh appointment which would be Jim Delansancy for the Fair Rent Commission February 23rd 2026 to January 31st 2029.

Uh then we move to the scenic road committee Steve Donahghue and uh there's no that's a temporary committee correct Mary Jane's on that. Yep. And the youth agency advisory board would be Detective Drew Sin. And that would go from March 2nd, 2026 through January 31st of 2030. And he Thank you, Paul. And he's um replacing Detective Smith, who's retired. That's right. Any discussion on the um appointments? All those in favor?

I opposed. Any abstensions? Thank you. Item number eight, I'd like to move that uh we approve for the Milford Public Library a donation of a maong set. It's valued at $80 and like to thank Lisa Dearia. They uh donated it to the library in February 12th and the donation would be uh used for library programming and things like that. Thank you. Thank you. All those in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you.

Finance. There she is. Uh good evening members of the council, members of the public. I'm here to discuss our um monthly performance report as of um end of January. It's been a while. Um on the revenue side, you know, we are trending um as we would like. State revenue is coming in on schedule. No, you know, any unexpected reports or updates from the state on that front. So, we are moving through the year as planned. Um, you know, interest rates do fluctuate. They they are on a decline, but for our budgetary performance, we are still trending uh to um achieve our budgetary target if we remain uh in this range. uh for uh one of the interest income lines we have exceeded our budgetary performance that was for those additional funds that we were able to identify and um you know place into investment bearings accounts um as you can see on the revenue side uh that additional 1 million revenue did come in um that I mentioned during budgetary hearing so that's definitely a very positive um you know deposit into our revenue side so um all other departments are trending um you know in line with their prior year performances. Um taxes are about 96% collected where that's um our normal trend. Uh months of January that's when the supplemental motor vehicles bills were coming in. So that revenue um is already reflected in the report. So so far um you know on the revenue side we are moving um as projected and if you have any questions I can address those. No, sounds good.

Um, on expenditure side, um, similar to, you know, prior months, um, other than overtime, uh, winter overtime for public works and parks and wreck, not much to report. Uh, departments are staying within their appropriations. Other than, you know, this, uh, winter that, um, did present some challenges for us in terms of additional expenditures. um other lines and other operations um are staying within uh the appropriations. So, not much going on, just business as usual. Um so, if you have any questions, I can address those. And just in a side note, um the audit has been complete in a timely fashion. It has been filed um before the December 31 deadline. No material weaknesses um has been reported. And that's basically the most positive outcome that we can expect from the audit report. No material witnesses um or any other issues. So that's a a good thing. And other than that, not much to report.

Any questions for Thank you, Olga. Thank you. Okay. Item 10, Mayor discussion.

Yep. We could have Jack uh come up and talk about the energy savings uh project. And this we did in tandem with the board of education. And for those that may have not been on the board, um this was a $15 million project that we did in partnership with uh the board uh where we've done things like solar panels on Sarah, solar panels on the ambulance and the police station. Uh also we did the uh um the new boiler system that we had at the high school, new boiler systems at Saranov. also have the co-gen plant which is in the high school which when it's working totally takes us off the grid and saves uh electric all did all LED lighting and we were able as we talked to the council before we're able to secure financing at 1% at that time uh which you'll never see that again but we're able to do it at that particular time and we use the savings that we would see in our um uh efficiencies to pay for that uh for the actual project. And we had, which Jack will talk about in a moment, we had a third party come and evaluate to make sure that that was the case. And Jack, can you talk a little bit about the um the actual third party and what they gave us as far as

ND5 is our third party. Good I'm sorry. Good evening. Um we had ESG was the contractor who we used for the energy project that was selected by way of a RF RFQ RFP system which u they went through and they were selected I think out of five different firms um they came on site um during COVID of all times and did audits of the facilities came up with a guar a provided to the town certain years of guaranteed savings and if they don't if they don't make those savings and they have to uh let's just say ante up. Um we hired a firm NV5 to do an audit of them on an annual basis and our first report we received from MV5 on January 31st. Um and essentially they said that they exceed the first year's guarantee was $623,63. That's what's in the contract. Um, NV5 is saying that it represents an excess that they saved $639,8846. Uh, which represents in excess of $16,243. And I think there's still a few questions that I talked with the mayor with Olga last week and I'm still just vetting out some of the information, but what they're saying is at this point we have achieved the guaranteed savings for the first year. In addition, they provided a report. Um, sorry, I'm going back and forth between the phones and need bigger glasses. Um, they also identified that when we first started this problem project, excuse me. Um, that the town was would um received uh a certain amount of money from utility incentives for Eversource to do this project. They also received uh we we are over the next 20 years going to receive payments on renewable energy credits. Uh we have certain number of credits that

we go out to the market and um that's uh in a certain time frame we get those energy credits uh based on what they can sell the credits at the time. Um we also have a demand demand response program uh through ISO New England. We we get a certain payments on that. Um I get and Matt at the school get emails um at certain times of the year to reduce our demand. I send them to the mayor and I think between the three of us we distributed that to everybody to tell them shut their lights, turn down your air condition or turn up your air conditioners and reduce the demand so that you don't rat don't set a demand that's too high. Um and therefore there's savings associated with that. Um and there's a interest rate buy down that we received through PIR to be started with and again as the mayor said the major improvements included high efficiency HVAC equipment le LED interior and exterior lighting solar photo they take uh PV systems those are at um Sarah Noble uh at the ambulance facility the police station and Hill and Plane um all those have the um PV systems currently in place. Um we did improvements to the building envelopes. We did insulation um in certain buildings. We put on water restrictions. They changed the toilets out. Um we they put the little um monitors on many of the copy machines and everything to reduce the energy flow from there. And then oh and then of course the big one is the cogen system as the mayor indicated at the high school. we get a a better rate on the natural gas coming in which is important right now. Um and because of that better rate we can generate electricity for the high school and then um we use the excess heat from the cogen systems to preheat the water going through the boilers and for the

hot water systems in the in the school. Um and that's really in a nutshell the report you know is about that thick. Jack. So bottom line, the first thing you said it all sounded great that for the first year they were supposed to save us 623,000 and you said it was 639 or something. Okay. But at the bottom from all those all those things that we're doing, you know, photovalttaic, turn this down, turn this up. Is it is it saving us money? It is. According to the the report, it is saving us money. Right. But okay, but you didn't write that report, right? No, I did not write the report. So, the people who made up the report. So, I'm just

Well, no. The report's written by a we're paying a third party, right? A third party to do that audit for us. Okay. Um, and how much would you say overall we've saved? Well, that would I'd have to go back and look at the the the payments up front. We received quite a few payments up front and that helped I think with the first year's payments if I remember, mayor. Correct. Been a couple few years, right? Yeah. The goal was to be able to to save enough that we could then do $15 million worth of projects. Yeah. Badly needed infrastructure improvements that the board of ed needed and not have to put it into the budget. This was

something that through cost avoidance because of all the new high efficient uh equipment we have that's able to uh get that plus on top of that getting it at 1%. Well, that we'll never see that again. So, what do you think? What do you think at this point we're in right now? You think it's good? I mean, are we okay above the norm or are we below?

I think we're I think we're okay. I think I think we're we're okay to good. Let me put it that way. I wish we were outstand. But part of this is I've done this for too many years. And the problem is you're you're saying this year, this happened to me in Berlin. I did the same thing, bro. And because of variations on when people use the buildings and and what the baseline is, increased use of the buildings. Right now, I think we're good. I think we're we're we are making the money. Yeah, we are. Oh, we on the plus. Okay.

Um and and we have to be, as the mayor said, because we're trying to we want to pay off that the um the installation of the codegen and the boilers, those were those were very good investments. Um they've done they've done a lot of good work for the schools. We have a lot of work to do as far as maintaining the solar panels. Um, I've been talking with Matt and we have to we have to go up and basically squeegee them periodically and make sure Well, you know, that's a question. I have to park at the PD. Yep. After we'd had not the big snow, but some snow and then I was there a couple days later and I thought, well, if they can't see the sun, they can't make any energy. So, how does that work? Wasn't hot enough to melt them.

Not yet. Um, we may actually with the with the solar panels, we make most of our money starting like May through the end of September. Right. But, you know, I was just thinking there are I've seen these on houses and things where they move. Yeah. And I was wondering if that was something that was supposed to tip the snow off, but I couldn't see anything under there. Oh, so they just have they don't get any energy out of it for that. You don't get as much in the winter time off of those. Um, probably the ones at Saranobyl, you get more. Yeah. Um, but off of those I would say a lot. And on those uh the ones at the PD, you'll notice that there's this spring as soon we've been waiting for the weather to break. We're going to get under there, clean out, and we're going to put down some fabric and stone and things to to right suppress the uh

or you have any little miniature uh goats you could put. Well, the problem with that, you don't want the goats hit the to hit the the uh the lines. Yeah, that's true. That was Thanks for that uh that run through that you did because that we have that's been around a while and I never hear about it. And is it ND like David five? No, NV as in very good Victor D. Okay. Thanks to answer your qu I think I think you're good. I do. Okay. I know where you are. I can find you if it turns out. Any questions for Jack?

Thank you, Jack. Uh next uh uh update on economic development. Uh so first a big congratulations to Gina. She's the owner of the hunt. They celebrate their fifth year anniversary. Yeah.

Big congratulations to them. We welcome a new business on Saturday, Country Farm, and they're up on Park Lane. And uh very wellreceived, very busy weekend, and that's an they have antiques. They have uh different kinds of home decor from all different um artisans. They have uh soaps. They have all sorts of great uh stuff there. If you get a chance, stop in, say hi to Bill. Uh also, AllTown Market continues. For those that have seen, if you drive by, that's on the corner of Picket District and Route 7. Uh they're continuing with their project. They'll be doing starting some demolition, I think, once the weather breaks a little bit there. Uh, right next to it is Murphy Heating and Cooling.

Is the gas station coming soon? Yeah, they're going to take that. My favorite gas station. They're going to take Yep. They're going to take that down and build the new one, the All. That's good. Uh, also um on last Thursday I went up um to uh not go uh trying to remember the town now. Morris, thank you.

I met with uh a bunch of farmers that were there. and plow to plate organization as they helped sponsor it with our state of Connecticut agricultural commission was there. We did a roundt on farming and what we need to do to make farming uh continue. They looked at all sorts of different um options, agurism being one of them. And what is agurism because in some people's minds agurism may mean one thing, it may mean another. That's for sure. I thought which was a nice aside. Katie was the gentleman sitting right next to me.

He lived in to he lives in Torington. started a goat business and his goats uh actually the town of Torington leased land on the solar farm that they have and they're eating the shrubs underneath the solar panels. That's right. So, he was pretty clever uh talking about that. Uh also talking about some of the other farms that have expanded into agro tourism and how that's really helped them obviously because you can't make a living on just vegetables anymore. there's the price points are too uh there's not enough margin in there. So, it's very receptive. They're going to have another one in the next few months

and uh once all that data comes in, I will bring it to the council uh and we can talk a little bit uh more about that and agurism, how important we did that a few months ago and how important agurism uh is uh for those businesses.

Very important. Also, Seven Brew, that is a 600 chain coffee uh uh outlet is put in an application with zoning uh from on Lichfield Crossings. And they're a little different where you call in your uh you call in your order. There's no you don't go inside. Everything is done right outside, right by your car. And so, they're working on that going through zoning. And they would be the first seven brew in our whole area. Uh, and I chose New Milford for that as well. At the next town council meeting, which is next Monday night, I'll be bringing in um all the new zoning regulations that have come from the state of Connecticut and those that are being proposed in this year's uh legislation as well. Uh, and give the council an update. uh uh it's going to change some of the complexities of how housing is done in in the state of Connecticut, not just New Milford. Uh and more on that as it pertains to uh our land use boards and the public at large. That's pretty much what I have.

You know that Seven Brew you talk about? I've been to those. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I've been to one. Yeah. They're in other states and they're very efficient. At least when we were there, they were efficient. Sort of like Starbucks opportunities for what they make. Great. Shaking her head. Yeah. You wish you had one. Is that what you said? So, our next meeting is next Monday. Our next meeting is next Monday. But those that are watching Thursday night, right, is when the town council does their deliberations on the budget right here starting at 700 p.m. Once the deliberations are completed, that's the town council's then budget. Then that will move to the board of finance. Y

the board of finance then will set their their town meeting uh for input from the public and then they will make uh their date for their deliberations and then they can make uh as the council can the council can make line item adjustments. The board of education I mean the board of finance can only make adjustments per category if they so choose. Once that's completed and then that's what will be the referendum budget that goes out to the public to vote on.

And then these are as per charter change. These are two distinct budgets. There's the town budget and then there's the educational budget. They all rise and fall on their own. They both pass then that's you're done. If one fails, it goes back uh for review. If they both fail, they go back for review. And so uh this Thursday referendum. Yep. And another referendum. Um, so we'll see everybody this coming Thursday for the budget deliberations. Thank you, ma'am. Do we have a motion to like to make a motion? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I oppose. Any obst? Thank you everyone. Thank you everybody for watching tonight.