City Council - Regular Meeting

We are on Tuesday, August 18, 2026. Good evening and welcome everyone. We have with us Ryan Caïs from KGO-SKRM radio. This meeting is broadcast live on both local radio stations and on YouTube and will be available permanently on YouTube. We also have with us tonight the Torrington Telegram with its editor and reporter Ryan Dickey. So welcome to the press. Our first point in the order of the day is the Sermon on Allegiance and I asked the advisor Eric Warren to lead us.

I swear allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic that it represents, a nation under the aegis of God, indivisible, with freedom and justice for all.

The next point on the agenda concerns the mayor's information. Although the calendar indicates that there is about a month of summer left, for many of us, the school return marks the end of summer. The school started yesterday for all the establishments of the city and county. As such, please give way to the school bus, especially during the rise and descent of children. Please respect the road code. Be careful of speed limits reduced in the school areas. Please give way to pedestrians and stay vigilant in the face of electric bikes, skateboards and electric scooters, and even traditional bikes. Most residents have managed to fight against the proliferation of weeds this year. I thank them for their efforts, but many properties are still in infraction, with the municipal ordinance on weeds. Invasive weeds reduce our quality of life, are harmful to the environment and cause a risk of fire. Take care of these weeds to avoid visiting agents in charge of the application of the code. While the weather is still warm, continue to enjoy the next municipal recreational facilities, golf courses, swimming pools, sports fields, walkways, parks and the new pickleball courts. A remark concerning the swimming pool. The free swimming pool is no longer offered. The school has resumed, which ends the free swimming pool, but swimming in the corridor and the aquagym continue. The hours for swimming in the corridor and the aquagym are from Monday to Friday from 6h00 to 7h00 and from 17h00 to 18h30, except for the weekend of the work day. So, as a reminder, swim in the water and aquagym from Monday to Friday, from 6.00 to 7.00 to 18.30, except for the weekend of the work day. As always, slow down and don't use your mobile phones while driving. Thank you. The next point of our order of the day is the approval of the consensual order of the day, which includes the verbal trial of the Council meeting of August 4, 2026, as it was published. Mr Mayor, I propose to adopt the simplified order of the day. I have a motion from Councilor Dille to adopt the simplified order of the day as presented. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Councilor Kelly. Other remarks? Without intervention, I put to voice those who are in favour of the adoption of the simplified order of the day as presented. Oppositions? Please say yes or no. No opposition. The simplified order of the day is adopted. The next point is the approval of the order of the day itself.

I propose to approve the order of the day as presented.

I have a motion from Councilor Victran to approve the order of the day as presented. Is there a second? Second. Councilor Kelly. Any other comments, gentlemen? Without intervention, I put to voice those who are in favour of the approval of the agenda as presented by Capo Recue. Oppositions, please say against Recue. No opposition. The agenda is approved. The next point to the agenda is what we call the public forum. I don't see any leaflets in the box in front of the councillor W. Warren. So no one has signed up for this? Is there anyone who has signed up?

It's been a long time since I've intervened in the public forum.

Yes, you will be free to do so at the end during the public comments, madam. Very well. I would like to explain this. This is for the out-of-order topics of the day. There is a two-minute limit and the interviewee must register before the meeting. This is a time for the council to listen. No measure will be taken. In the future, if anyone wants to take advantage of it, here is how to proceed. There are forms here. Fill them out. Place them in the black box in front of the councillor, Warren. Very well, we are coming to our action measures. First action measure, a letter of support for the request for a 911 grant. As a personal reference, I have Matthew Johnson, Chief of Police. So I invite Chief Johnson to speak.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor of the Council. We are making a new attempt for the additional funding of the 911. As you may remember, Senator Steinmetz worked hard to get an allocation of 3 million dollars during the last session in order to fill part of the deficit that communities are suffering due to the 911 funding revenues linked to taxes on your phone bills in relation to our real expenses. Nous avons réussi la première phase de la demande de subvention pour cela. J'ai reçu la confirmation orale qu'ils nous ont accordé 200 000 dollars et... C'était un peu curieux. Car au départ, ils pensaient recevoir bien plus de demandes que de fonds disponibles. Qu'est-ce ? Nous avons donc tous réduit notre demande pour tenter d'anticiper les montants disponibles. Ehm... Stanley ? Notre demande était de 200 000 dollars. We have obtained the total of the $ 200,000 and there is still about half a million dollars left. They have therefore opened a new candidacy process for this half a million. I suppose it will be a little more competitive than the previous request, but we would be stupid not to at least try to obtain additional funding. I plan to use the same format as the last time concerning our personnel expenses to advance the file. The support letter is an element they talked about. Favorably? If you are ready to approve it, I think it will increase our chances and we will voluntarily submit a new request for a grant.

Boss, this should be a simple process for you since you have already managed the previous grant. It's a bit of copy-paste.

There are not many changes. Some numbers will change since we have received 211 funds, but it is quite easy to justify.

Okay. Do you have any questions for Chief Johnson? Okay. Thank you, Chief. I am ready to receive a motion to approve the letter of support and my signature on this one.

Mr. Mayor, I make the motion to approve the letter of support and your signature. Very well, I have a motion.

Point number 1, a motion by the Councilor Dille to approve the letter of support to the request of the 911 grant and my signature. Anyone to support this motion? Supported by the Councilor Victran. Any other discussion? Not hearing any, I put the question to the vote. All those in favour of the approval of the support letter for the request for subvention 911 and my signature, please sign by? Yes. Opposition? Please sign by? No opposition. The support letter is approved and I will actually sign it. Thank you boss. The next point in the order of the day is point number 2. Agreement for professional services with West Plains Engineering. The personnel recommends approving the professional service contract with West Plains Engineering for the design, call for offers, services, as well as the administration and inspection of the works of the replacement project of the Lincoln complex cooling tower for exercise 2027 for a amount of $ 15,000. We have two speakers, but I will first call on Denis Estus and Jeff Harkins. I will give the floor to the Director of Public Works, M. Harkins. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Councilors.

As you remember, we launched an offer call on February 25, 2026 for the evaluation and recommendations concerning the CVC system of the Lincoln complex At this time, we received proposals on April 8th and West Plains Engineering and the engineering company to which we attributed on April 21st. For a total of $ 3,500, West Plains Engineering provided the most complete evaluation, including reports on the deficiencies of the performance evaluations and hierarchical recommendations. As the Mayor said, we recommend approving a new professional service contract with West Plains Engineering for the design, preparation of contractual documents, service requests and the administration of the construction for this project. They will have 90 days to complete the design and service request part of the project, after the signing of the professional service contract. The city has currently budgeted 200,000 dollars for this project in the budget of the 2027 exercise under the account number 150,000 SUK 25 on the basis of the estimates provided by West Plains Engineering. If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them.

I just have one, then the council will certainly be able to ask its own. If I understand correctly, this building was built in 2010. Renové, pas construit. J'ai été à l'école ici. Mais il a été rénové et transformé en hôtel de ville en 2010, hein.

Date à laquelle nous avons honte. D'accord.

Donc 7 tours de refroidissement à à peu près le même âge, c'est ça ?

Donc 16 ans.

C'est bien ça, n'est-ce pas ? J'obtiens une confirmation. Eh bien messieurs, avez-vous des questions pour M. Harkini ?

Now, it's only $15,000. Preliminary procedures, right? Not for the repair or anything else?

No, it's for the preparation and contractual documents, the call services, then the inspection of the contract itself.

They will supervise the owner of the contract to ensure that the work is done according to the plan and that it is ready to be approved by our health care. And the consultant, West Plains Engineering, thinks that we can carry out this project for less than $ 200,000.

This is his preliminary estimate, correct?

And I know that this summer we had some problems. I know that the ladies on the side were very hot at times this summer. And I think that the people on the west side have sometimes been too cold. So it wasn't very functional this summer with the heat that made it. So this is the watch that we need. And every time I pass this door over there, there are puddles of water. It flees. It must be replaced.

And we have had several places where the hot water recirculation system presented leaks throughout the corridor.

I remember that all winter and spring, I saw the guys on the ceiling taking care of leaks.

It's true. So these 200,000 dollars are supposed to cover the cooling and heating

The water recirculation system. In addition to the cooling tower. Not the boilers. Not the boilers. Not the boilers.

The engineer thinks there was a deficiency from the beginning. Because the engineer thinks that there was a deficiency from the beginning in this system, because 16 years doesn't seem very long to me.

You know, the cooling tower was already in place before we arrived. So I don't know exactly when it was put into service. I don't know if it was part of the initial renovation. So one thing he found, I think, is that some of the The chemical composition of the water that circulates in the conduit seems to pose a problem and I think it recommends some chemical additives for the system. So this project will include the change of the chemical composition of the water so that it is less corrosive.

So West Plains Engineering will also send forms of offer for this kind of thing.

Once they have prepared the design and contractual documents, they will launch the offer for the project as we would do it, then they will make a recommendation based on the proposals received. As for the company to choose to carry out the work,

And how long does it take to prepare all these plans?

It is indicated 90 days to finish the plans and the call services.

Did West Plains give any indication on the availability of the necessary parts and components?

I am sure that the cooling tower itself will be a new tower. So it will depend on the entrepreneur to locate it and order it, and then, whatever the time required for the manufacturer to build it or to bring it to Torrington, I suppose it will probably not be before next spring.

Mr. Mayor, are you ready for a motion? I am ready to receive a proposal. I propose to approve the professional service agreement with West Plains Engineering as presented. J'ai une proposition pour le point numéro 2, une proposition du conseiller Victor visant à approuver l'accord de service professionnel avec West Plains Engineering tel qu'il a été présenté à... Y a-t-il un second ? Just go. Appuyé par le conseiller Warren. D'autres discussions, messieurs ? Not hearing anything, I put you on the line. Point number 2, all those who are in favour of the approval of the professional service agreement with West Plains Engineering as presented, please sign by yes. Any opposition, please sign by no. Not hearing any no's, this agreement is approved. Thank you. Point number 3, our order of the day tonight is the approval of invoices from 5 to 18 August. Et comme d'habitude, il y avait un document supplémentaire ce soir. Je donne la parole à la greffière trésorière, Lynette Strecker.

Merci, Monsieur le maire et chers conseillers. Je serais ravie de répondre à toute question concernant ces factures.

On page 3, it is mentioned. Electric high point for the repair of a mermaid.

Where is this mermaid, silly? It was the mermaid located at... Cold Springs industrial park.

So it goes back quite a long time, doesn't it?

In the first lot, I see that the BOR engine has been redone. Is that right?

Provide that.

Quite electric. Which page?

First page. First lot. Have we been stopped for a long time for the disposal of waste?

I have no idea.

I guess not, because I have not heard of it.

I think they might have an emergency engine. These guys are magicians. To operate a 1973 BOR model. Isn't it?

Thank you.

The note on the invoice indicates to redo the motor of the compactor that has been greased. After 12 zeroes.

Monsieur le maire, s'il n'y a plus de questions sur les factures, je propose de les accepter telles quelles.

Très bien, nous en sommes au point numéro 3. J'ai une proposition du conseiller Kelly pour approuver les factures telles que présentées, mais y a-t-il un second ? Je seconde. Conseiller Dille, d'autres discussions sur les factures ? N'entendant rien, je mets aux voix. Point numéro 3. Tous ceux qui sont favorables à l'approbation des factures telles que présentées, dites qu'à oui ou que. Toute opposition. Dites non au PE. N'entendant aucun nom de. Ces factures sont approuvées. Très bien mes messieurs, nous passons au point 4, les commentaires du public. Je sais que le chef des pompiers, Jeff Schick, est parmi nous. Et je lui ai demandé de nous faire un petit rapport.

Good evening, Mr Mayor. Good evening, Council. One month. Enough. Normal. We are at 8 calls for the moment. 7 in the city, outside.

We had a fruitful course of decarceration, the 8 and 9 of this month. Me. I would like to thank Butler Auto for giving us 7 cars to cut. He came himself to move them and put them in position for us. So thank you to the Butler establishments. Just a moment. So Butler did all this for free? Everything is free. No fee. Well, that's good for him. Did you save him? We saved him, of course, but he had to spend time.

Yes, he brought his tire loader to move everything for us. He is really very good with the firefighters, we have never received any invoices. If we have to put up a firefighting equipment, he doesn't make us pay anything.

Otherwise, the day, Save Kids, is approaching on August 29 at the fairground.

Then we have a conference of firefighters in Douglas in September, I think it's from 10 to 13. We'll probably see two or three firefighters there.

I saw a fire truck heading east on 21th street around 3.30pm.

We were on our way for a call related to carbon monoxide. The resident of the house thought he had problems with his cook.

Well, that's a good thing. It wasn't a fire, just a call for carbon monoxide. I see you have vehicle repairs.

That's right. Richie examined the N° truck and... I'm sure you see that on other vehicles, but it's DEF system. If you have a bad duration, it triggers codes and alarms. He must have come to plug in the suitcase and it was fixed in 30 minutes. He erased the code and made sure there was nothing serious, but... This seems to be a recurring problem with this DEF system. Dave. I don't think I've heard anyone appreciate this DEF system. It's a real headache.

Do you have members or equipment deployed on forest fires?

We have two vehicles ready.

No one has left on a mission this year for the moment. This will probably not happen this season, but we hope to get there next season. I don't like to be greedy, but the number of calls has been quite low this summer.

We were lucky in terms of firewood, especially with the thunderstorms like last night. Fortunately, the rain has arrived. If something happened, nothing was reported, everything was extinguished by the rain.

Very well, gentlemen. Questions for the chief? Thank you, chief.

Thank you, gentlemen. Very well, we move on to the comments section of the public. Commissioner Gilles, would you like to come here?

Take your time.

Thank you, Mayor Dobby and the Council. I have only been in town for about a week, and as I live between the building of the Nazarene Church and the Presbytery, because it is not yet habitable, I noticed a lot of traffic on this sidewalk, with electric scooters that I almost miss overturning people. And now that the school has resumed, I've seen a lot of our young people on the roads with their scooters. And I don't know the laws concerning the wearing of the helmet. Do they have to respect it? But a lot of people who were walking their dog, or even on a bike, even on a bike. This is the case of the path that crosses our city, over three kilometers. Are there rules, regulations and speed limits for users? Maybe Chief Johnson would like to give me a radar because I'm right there in the corner and I can see at what speed they're going.

Well, I'll start. Maybe the chief will join me. We adopted an ordinance regulating electric scooters and electric bikes in the last spring, I believe. And Chief Johnson worked a lot on it. He looked everywhere in the state and elsewhere for ideas. We had work sessions on it. We made it adopted by the council. The basic idea is that if you are under 16 and you are on one of these electric scooters, Skateboard, bike, scooter, you have to wear a helmet. Okay. You can't. Correctly. Wear it correctly.

You can't just wear it. Some of them go to more than 48 km per hour. Yes madam, that's the case.

And I'm amazed. And that's one of the reasons why we had this order. Because it was not regulated or not regulated in a way that we considered useful. Concerne le sentier pédestre, beaucoup de collégiens vont de l'est de la ville où ils habitent jusqu'à l'ouest pour aller au collège et nous aimons qu'ils l'utilisent car cela les éloigne de la rue. D'accord. Donc c'est une raison pour laquelle nous apprécions qu'ils utilisent ce sentier plutôt que la rue ou le trottoir.

I wonder if they could not be encouraged to drive at 8 or 15 kmh instead of rushing at full speed in our city to... Maybe they are late for school, I don't know. Well, we are working on it.

I know that last year, our liaison agents in schools were very involved, especially in high schools, because it is the age when children use them the most. They organized educational programs and others in high schools. According to my observations in the community, I see a lot more young people under 16 years old wearing a helmet than the other way around. Well, so in a way, the message has passed. I know that the police were working on it with the young people and the parents, and I sometimes heard, and ... Okay. The children or the parents who asked, why should I? Well, that's what the order says.

C'est une leçon pour moi car j'étais au parc des expositions du comté avec une caravane d'aumônerie et je suis garée là en attendant que cette maison redevienne habitable après cinq ans d'abandon. Mais bon oui, si je remarque quelque chose, peut-être pourrais-je voir avec le chef Johnson pour demander. Que pouvons-nous faire pour apprendre aux jeunes à être plus respectueux envers les piétons sur le chemin ? Et les vélos sont-ils autorisés à circuler dessus ? You know, we want him to be able to go from one end to the other, from the city safely, to go to school. But yes, I even failed with the cars I saw. Anyway, thank you. That's all.

No, we appreciate your concern. You know, two years ago, with the Rotary, we were able to install these pedestrian passages where the road crosses the street.

Just next to where they can push the button to trigger a flashing light.

But some don't.

And if a car doesn't see someone behind this tree and this bush on the property south of the parking lot, there will be a collision one day and... God will protect us. And we hope not.

We hope not.

It would help our young people.

But your concern is shared by many other pastors.

Thank you.

I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Mayor or Chief, that there is an obligation to give way to pedestrians in the ordinance.

Okay. So on any pedestrian crossing, with the big white lines and flashing lights, cars slow down and wait to let them pass, even if they are already on the crossing. But some young people, you know, whatever their age, they don't care about the street and cross without looking. But I just wanted to draw attention to that and thank you. It's good to be back in town.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. On the same note, what worries me the most, I think it's the young adults who get off the highway 85 in scooters. They rush directly through the intersections and... in the middle of the traffic.

You know, we only have a limited number of police officers, so they must be on site to see him. Mike.

We carry out a lot of controls related to scooters and bicycles. I would like to think that we are changing things, but I am not optimistic about completely solving this problem. In a perfect world, there would be no road infractions, but as you know, chief, we still have a lot of people who violate the road code.

Is it an exact statement? Well, if anyone wants to make a public comment, to the council. Comments from the public? I just say thank you to the Lord for all the rain that we have had. So with that, I ... because our order of the day requires it. Point number 5, I request a motion to leave the ordinary session and start an executive session.

Mr. Mayor, I propose the motion to go into executive session for reasons of potential litigation and personnel issues.

Very good. I have a motion from the Councilor Dille to enter into an executive session in order to discuss potential litigation and a matter of personnel. Do I have a second? I have a second. Seconded by the Councilor Victor. Other discussions? Not hearing anything, I ask for a vote. All those who are in favour of leaving the ordinary session and entering the executive session to discuss potential litigations and a matter of personnel, manifest it by saying, oh, our game. If someone opposes, manifest it by saying against. Not hearing anything against Reagan, we are now in executive session.