Town Council - Regular Meeting

rise for the pledge, please. Diane, could you lead us in the pledgece to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Have a moment of silence for the men and women in the armed forces, our first responders, our veterans, those fighting the good fight in Ukraine, and those suffering from the military conflict in the Middle East. Thank you, Katie. Could you lead us in the American creed? I certainly can. I get it out of here. Hold on. Okay. This is William Tyler Paige.

I believe in the United States of America as a governor of the people, by the people, for the people, whose powers are derived from the consent of the govern states, a perfect one and insalable established upon those principles of freedom, 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 obey its defend.

Thank you everyone. Before we get to public participation, tonight is a school night and uh I would like uh if it's okay with the council, we have a proclamation for the Girl Scouts. So, we're going to come up here and have the Girl Scouts come up.

First of all, thank you for being here tonight for all the good things you do for our community. Did not we notice a big big thank you from the town recognizing Girl Scout United States of America on it celebrating the legacy of the Girl Scout movement and founder Juliet. Whereas March 12th, 2026 marks the 114th anniversary of the Girls Galaxy, the United States of America. Mission is to build girls with courage, confidence, and character to make the world a better place. You guys do. Whereas Girl Scouts offer girls 21st century programming, science, technology, engineering, math, the outdoors, entrepreneurship, and beyond. helping girls develop invaluable life skills through Girl Scout leadership experience. Whereas today more than 50 million women, trailblazers, visionaries and leaders of Girl Scout alone embody the Girl Scout mission every day. Whereas the Girl Scout movement began on March 12th, 1912 when Julia Daisy Gordon Low, a native of Spanish, Georgia, organized a group of 18 girls and provided them the opportunity to develop physically, intellectually, socially, and spiritually. Whereas public service and civic engagement were a cornerstone of Julian's life remain an important part of today's Girl Scout experience with programming designed to encourage girls to seek opportunities to learn about federal, state, and local government research and engage with their elected officials and inspire girls to become civically minded individuals equipped with tools to make a positive change in the world. Whereas Julie Bornlo utilized

her extensive network of friends across the country and around the world to establish the foundation of the Girl Scout movement, creating opportunities for girls to lifelong friendships with fellow Girl Scouts. Whereas Julie Gordo believed in the power of global connections and the ability of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts to positively impact their communities in the world. serving as the movement's worldwide ambassador and first Girl Scout global citizen. [cough] Whereas on March 25th, 2025, the Julia Gordon Low Commemorative Quarter was released into circulation by the United States Men celebrating the enduring legacy of the Girl Scout founder and the Girl Scout. Whereas Juliet Gordon Lo's journey from trailblazing leader to a face on our nation's currency is a testament of the power of girls and women everywhere. And whereas Girl Scouts of Connecticut serve 16,000 Girls Trust Connecticut. Now therefore, I he by virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor of the town of New Milford to hereby applaud the Girl Scout Movement and Girl Scouts of Connecticut for [clears throat] 114 years of building girls with courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. I declare the 12th day of March to be Girl Scout Day. And a massive thank you to all [cheering] [applause]

[applause]

No, we're just here in the There we go. [laughter] I know. Saturday, the girls will be out beginning Saturday. So, be on the lookout.

You haven't got anything. [applause] Okay. Okay, next. Diane, do we have anybody for public participation?

Okay,

your name and address. You have five minutes. Okay. All right. Well, that was great. Thank you, um, Girl Scouts. Um, Jackie Eden, 6 Redwood Lane. So, hello everyone. Tonight, I'm here to address what happened at the February 9th town council meeting. And first off, I'd like to apologize for speaking out of turn and interrupting Councilman Castro. Uh I'm sorry for that disruption. Um so that night after Chief Cerudo and Lieutenant Reelier had given their police report and answered questions from the mayor and the council about ICE, Councilman Castro made comments about ICE and Danbury that mirrored the dangerous lies coming from the president and his administration. Just like the deceitful red rhetoric coming out of Washington, Mr. Castro's comments were false and harmful. Tonight, I have invited members of ACT Local and our allied organization, Danberry Unites for Immigrants, who are on the front lines in Danberry and involved with immigrant justice organizations across Connecticut. They are here to share what is really happening in Danberry. It is no different than what is being documented by it eyewitnesses all across America. I cannot say and will not say that Mr. Castro knowingly lied, but I can quote his exact words spoken from up there on the town council deis speaking from a position of power and authority to the people of New Milford. So from the two nine councsil recording starting at 37 minutes and 3 seconds, Mr. Castro states, quote, there are people that are just misinforming the community and he goes on and you really need to

understand that this is not, you know, we see the cases with the national cases that are going on around the country. That's not happening around here. And that's when I said from the audience, I apologize in Danberry. And Mr. Castro continued, it's not happening in Danbury. Then I said, "It is happening in Danberry." And Mr. Castro continued, "It is not happening in Danbury." He then goes on to say, "They're going out and getting people that have crimes, people have committed crimes, and they're being removed." End quote. On December 9, 2025, and updated again in February, CBS News journalist Camilo Mononttoyo Galves reported that less than 14% of nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by ICE in Trump's second term had charges or convictions for violent crimin criminal offenses. Nicole Foy of ProPublica reported back in October that more than 170 US citizens have been held by immigration agents in terrible conditions and without due process. As elected town officials, members of this council are in a position of authority and spreading hateful and divisive misinformation and rhetoric coming from the current administration is unconscionable. There have been two cases where councilmen have shared false and divisive information. One was Tom Esposito spreading lies on social media about our protesters being paid. And the second one was on February 9th when Rolando Con Castro stated it isn't happening in Danbury. We are here to testify to the truth. We will not stand by and allow the lies and hate from Washington to go unchecked in our towns, especially by town officials. We will continue to fight for human and

civil rights and to fight for what our founding fathers fought for and wrote into our constitution. Yeah, thank you. Um, we are your neighbors and although we do not agree on many things, we do know that we need to be thoughtful, honest, and courageous during these really difficult times. Thank you. Okay, we have one Tapia. Please uh state your name and your address.

Good evening everyone. Juan Fon Secatapia 14 scooper road in Danbury. I am one of the co-founders of Denver Unites for immigrants in uh and is an organization that has been supporting the immigrant community in the greater Danbury area. I was asked to come and speak about what has been happening in Danbury. I wish it was true what has been said that ICE has not been in Danbury or I wish we didn't have to protest and get paid as some people say. Um on August 14 there was a young man 19 years old that went to the courthouse in Janbury. He went to the courthouse because his neighbors called the police on him for playing music too loud. He was arrested and went to the courthouse. It was his first appearance, 19 years old for a noise disturbance. He was taken by ICE. I witnessed it. When people say that ICE is not in Denver or in the greater Danbury area, let me tell you something. They are lying. I have lost count of how many people have been kidnapped in Denver. I have I have seen it. I have witnessed it myself. A lot of the people that are being taken in Denver have been taken when they are leaving or going into the courthouse. Which if the narrative that we hear a lot was true about people being criminals, I don't believe that criminals would be going to courouses on their own will. Another person was kidnapped on September 4th out leaving the courthouse in Danbury. I met his wife, his five years old, and his six-month-old daughter. He was placed in solitary confinement in New Hampshire. We worked with the administration, with

the office of uh Senator Murphy and Senator Blumen to expedite the deportation once we learned that he was placed in solitary confinement. He was placed in solitary confinement after a fight broke because of the lack of food. He was in detention for 74 days. We had to work with Senator Blumenal's office to get a passport for a six-month-old, which if you know anything about passports, in order to take get the passport of a minor, you need both of the parents. It was extremely difficult when one of the parents was in detention and it was moved across three different states and five detention facilities. There is another person that was just taken three weeks ago. He was getting ready to go to his court appointment and he didn't have an attorney but he actually didn't know that his case had been dismissed and this was related to a suspended license and he didn't have to go to court. So I hope that these accounts serve as an example for you all to know that ICE in fact is in Janbury probably has been here in New Milford. The kidnappings that have been happening in Brewster has been daily. We have seen daily activity in and these people like many of the folks that are in this room, some of them are in this room and drive around the city in the morning. Many of them start driving around at 6:00 in the morning.

One minute. Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you. And it it saddens me to know that there are members of this body that have been saying that the ICE activity in Danbury is not real and that they are going after criminals. And it saddens me even more to note that some of those members I met years ago and stood outside their business asking pe asking people to support our now state senator Julie Kushner. It saddens me to know that the men that get ready to go to work in the morning during the summer during the winter attend members of these bodies businesses to get lunch in the morning before they go to work. And it saddens me to note that members of my own community are spreading misinformation and lies which I wish I truly wish that those things were not real. I truly wish that people were not being kidnapped the way that they're being kidnapped in our streets. Thank you. [applause]

[applause] Okay, next we have Gina Romano. Uh again, when you come up to the lecture, please state your name and address. You have five minutes. [sighs] Hi, good evening. I'm Gina Romano. I'm from One Terrace Drive, Sherman, Connecticut. First, I hope that uh you're all planning to protect those little girls from the kinds of pedophiles that many of you support. um that rape children. What? I saw Mr. Castro's statement

that there has been no ice in Danbury. In the words of Ben E. King, you know that you lied. You know you lied. The cult knows you're lying. We know you're lying. Everybody knows you're lying. I was going to humor you and give you some statistics, but I think there are enough people here doing that, but it's really not worth it because you're going to continue to lie. I've seen that you've already done that quite a bit. It is part of your ethos along with the cruelty. I've been in Danbury and I have seen firsthand people abducted. I've walked with a mother with an eight-year-old child to court. I had to fear that she was going to be taken for no reason other than her skin was dark. So, I have to tell you, I really don't like New Milford anymore because your town council lets people stay on it that lie to people in their town.

Thank you. Uh, next we have Adrienne Karn. Adrienne, please state your name and address. Five minutes. Thank you.

Hi everyone. Adrian Bigalow, Kern 76 Second Hill Road, New Milford, Connecticut. Um, just before I I have someone's statement to read here, but I've been protesting. I'm not paid. I can't believe I even have to come for another time to state that. So, it it really disheartens me that people believe these types of things. So, uh, the statement is from Mark Edwards. My name is Mark Edwards, residing at 65 West Street. I am making this statement because I cannot attend the town council this evening. I belong to ACT local NWCT and I have been attending good trouble rallies to protest President Trump's regime of hate and fascism since the summer of 2025. I along with my friends at the rallies have not been compensated for my time because we believe in democracy and stand against the brutality of the Trump administration and his ICE agents who have been documented taking citizens off the streets locally. There are resources that record their actions. Mark Edwards Okay, next we have Nicholas Bonis. Nicholas, uh, please state your name for us.

Good evening. My name is Nicholas Banis. I reside at six Twin Oaks. My wife and I are residents of New Milford and we have been attending the protests here in town on Saturdays. I was driven to come here tonight not by financial incentive but by a desire to defend my honor and integrity in the face of baseless accusations by a member of this council. I'm here in response to a social media post by town council member Tom Espazito. It's an older post, but it recently resurfaced online and it came to my attention. Um, in the post, uh, regarding the protests in Norwok, Espazito said that, quote, "Many are paid protesters. So many out of town protesters who come and take up the parking all over downtown, hurting local business." This is another stunt and false narrative. As elected officials, you have higher expectations of your public conduct and disparaging your con and excuse me, disparaging your constituents like this is not acceptable. Speaking for myself and my wife, we are not paid to protest. We both work full-time. My wife runs her own business. I'm a teacher with a two-hour commute. We carve out time each week to gather in town with our neighbors to express our collective outrage at the behavior we are seeing from our government. This is our civic duty and it's our right as outlined in the Constitution. We gather peacefully in our precious spare time without compensation because we love our country and we love our community. I wrote a portion of my remarks here to

address Councilman himself, but seeing as he's not here this evening, I will just proceed with my remarks and address the rest of this panel. Council member Espazito, if you have evidence to support the claim that someone is being paid to organize us, please feel free to make that public. If not, one must assume that you are attempting to disparrage us in the hopes of distracting from the message that we are speaking. This tactic has been proven not to work. Hardworking Americans across this country are turning up in droves to express their displeasure with the way that things are being done. Since our founding moment, peaceful demonstration has been one of the cornerstones of American political discourse. The notion that citizens in a free society gather and express their grievances without any payoff or remuneration is not a radical idea. This is a small town. You are elected officials. And whether or not we agree on national politics, it is not relevant to how you should serve your constituents. If you have proof that any of the lovely folks who show up every week are being paid, please present it. if not with respect, keep misguided and misinformed assumptions to yourself rather than sharing them online for all to see. I hope someday to return to a time of political discourse in which the expectations of our public servants are that they serve the causes of justice, reason, and the rule of law. If you wish to serve in public office, take that responsibility seriously and serve with integrity. Remember who put you where you are and what function you are meant to serve. Thank you. [applause]

Uh next we have Cindy Maguire. Cindy, please state your name and address. Five minutes.

Yes, I'm Cindy Cindy Maguire. I'm from 34 Redwood Drive in Bethl, Connecticut. and I'm part of ACT Local and I've also been a legal observer with Danberry Units for immigrants. Um I I want to say that I have seen ICE personally as many people in this room have as one has mentioned. Um somewhere in America there's a young Hispanic girl writing in her diary perhaps right now in Danbury. I'm here though to read a statement from my colleague Joan Mcmanis, five Broad Broadview Road, Brookfield, who regrets that she is unable to attend this meeting in person. Tonight, I honor the memory of my maternal grandmother's family, men, women, and children who were exterminated in the Holocaust. Tonight, I honor the memory of my father's 18-year-old brother who was slaughtered in the Battle of the Bulge less than two weeks after his deployment. Tonight I exercise my right of free speech that is protected under the first amendment to the United States Constitution. Tonight I bear witness to the terror and trauma of my immigrant neighbors when I accompany them to their court appearances. These are human beings and they are certainly not the worst of the worst. Tonight I tell you that I was at the Danberry Courthouse on August 13 14th, 2025 when approximately 30 armed, mostly masked goons in military gear purchased from Amazon aggressively stormed the parking lot to deliver their threatening message of lawlessness, brutality, and intimidation to peaceful observers. It didn't work, by the way. The observers are still out there exercising their First Amendment rights, and the resistance grows. The new Milford police have never met an ICE agent, while many of us ordinary people have up close. A

new Milford town council member denies that ICE acts illegally. Republican leaders howl paid protesters. Establishment Democrats are backsliders, mostly derelict, in their duties to the people. It is just this lack of concern and failure of leadership coupled with passive complicity and downright denial of the truth that have led millions of people across the country and the world to protest for free and have led ordinary people to take extraordinary actions and to put themselves personally in harm's way in order to defend their fellow human beings. We know that fascists don't stop until you stop them. Tonight, I ask that you stand with and for the people and do the right thing. Tell the truth. Stop denying the evil that is before our eyes. Protect the rights of all individuals. Protect the rule of law. Shield us from abuses of power. All of us are in great danger when ICE is present in our neighborhoods. We cannot allow our neighborhoods to be their training grounds. Do not cooperate or collaborate with ICE. America will rise against the people of the lies. And gracias paz yamore. I hope I said that right, Joan. And I also organize weekly rallies in Bethl, Connecticut. We're up to our 54th weekly rally and none of us are paid protesters. [applause] [applause] Ari Rosenberg, Six Taylor Street. I'm speaking today not as a member of town council, but rather as the executive director of the Association of Religious Communities, or ARC. Uh for those who do not know, ARK provides the only homeless shelters available to the greater Danbury area 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We serve several new Milford

clients. [snorts] Uh, further ARK's Coma Food Pantry serves 5,000 people a year, over 90% of whom are Hispanic immigrants. We are serving the most vulnerable people in our community, some of whom are undocumented immigrants, some of whom are legal residents pursuing citizenship. What I can tell you is this. People are terrified and rightfully so. Here are the facts. According to their own statistics, in fiscal year 2024, ICE arrested 32,000 people who did not have a conviction or pending criminal charge at the time of arrest. The Connecticut Mirror and Danbury News Times have reported on numerous ICE sweeps throughout Connecticut, including the detention of a mother while taking her children to school and a high school senior days before graduation. Danberry saw one surge of ICE activity last June followed by another in August. The latter was labeled Operation Broken Trust, targeting the Trust Act in Connecticut. According to ICE, Operation Broken Trust took some 65 people throughout the state of Connecticut. Do you know why we don't know how many of them were from Danbury? The police chiefs of Danbury and Norwok and Stanford all testified that ICE did not inform them that this would be happening. There was no communication from ICE about it. There were no warrants and even the mayors were kept completely in the dark. What we do know is this. According to ICE, only 29 of the 65 people arrested during Operation Broken Trust have been charged or convicted with serious crimes. It is a fact that ICE is purposefully singling Connecticut out, conducting operations less than 20 miles from here and seizing people without warrants or other forms of due process. We might have dodged a

bullet here in New Milford. Or we might not have. We'd never know because ICE does not communicate that kind of thing with the police or the mayor's office. I'm not here to debate anyone's politics. My request is simple. Let's keep this space sacrosanked from misinformation and let's not belittle the genuine fear of our friends, families, and neighbors. Thank you. [snorts and applause] [applause]

And lastly, Daryl Kurland. Daryl, please state your name and address. Hi, I'm Daryl Pearland, 12 Oldenville Road up in Northville. Um, I'm here in my capacity as head of outreach for theert to give a quick update. So, first, uh, good evening, Mr. Mayor and council members. I'd like to give a quick brief update on activities of of the new Milford Community Emergency Response Team. Along with dozens more community organizations, we participated in the library community engagement day on January 31st and were pleased with the number of people who stopped by our table to chat with us and take some emergency preparedness materials. During February, several of our members, including myself, attended a webinar on the state crisis track tool, which enables real-time entry of information such as damage assessments and road closures to assist decision-making by emergency managers during large-scale incidents. Further trainings with this tool will allow the CERT members to assist in gathering this important data and helps to free up valuable time for emergency managers. Dates are now chosen for the 2026 CERT spring basic training classes. Tuesdays and Thursday evenings from April 21st to April 30th and Saturday, April 25th and May 2nd. We will provide this information shortly to New Milford. Now, create some yard signs and ask if an electronic sign board is available to further publicize this free training. I'll give you a copy of my notes. During May, we plan to host a cert table at the senior center openhouse on Saturday, May 16th and a table at the new Milford High School health fair on Tuesday, May 26th. Apart from my outreach role with the CERT, a couple of weeks ago, I was

approached about the currently vacant position on the new Milford Public Library board of trustees. A library is an asset integral to the community and its literacy with a remarkable amount of resources and information in print and digitally on an everinccreasing variety of media as seen at the community engagement day plus the library activities calendar. The library also serves as a meeting point for people and groups of all ages and interests. Our library even has an array of items you might not expect that are available to borrow from the library of things. I understand that the town council needs to approve candidates for the board of trustees and I hope you will consider me favorably for this position. Thank you. [applause] Uh, mayor, I'd like to suspend the rules to move item 9E up to uh take 9A so that uh Jennifer from Iraq uh can go to her appointment appointed places this evening.

Perfect. Second from uh Paul. Thank you. All in favor? I opposed. Any abstensions? Thank you. Okay. And we are moving up the discussion of possible action regarding the approval of the solid waste revised ordinance. And Jen, can you come up and talk a little bit about it? You're the director of HR and thank you for coming tonight. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Jenn Jones. I'm the executive director of the Husatonic Resources Recovery Authority, also known as HR. Um, so I think I'll take some direction from you, Mayor Bass, in regards to what you would like me to cover. It's similar to our previous town council meeting. Okay.

Just so the people that are watching and here in the audience can kind of understand the reason why we need to kind of change the ordinance a little bit to dovetail [clears throat] to match HR.

Um, there we were asking I'm I'm going to be repeating myself from our last meeting, so I apologize. Uh we are asking for three changes to the ordinances of the town of New Milford. Um one section is regarding voting uh for the HR members voting. Uh that's under current your current section of your ordinance 7-64. That was last updated in March 2nd of 1989. Um that basically changes moving a weighted vote to a one town one vote. So all town, all members have the same weighted vote. That was also uh voted on at a full authority meeting of all chief elected officials and members and it was voted on unanimously. The second section is a full replacement of your solid waste ordinance that was last updated on March 12th, 1991. Essentially that is modernizing your solid waste ordinances to to align with changes over the many years from the state as well as throughout the region. And the third section is an enhancement of enforcement specifically hauler enforcement for non-compliant haulers to ensure the safety of the public as well as uh equity and fairness to all haulers throughout the region who are in compliance. And I want to make sure that we state that we have many very good small businesses who serve our communities and they are compliant and they do a fantastic job. Unfortunately, we have a we do have a list of um folks who are refusing to register and be permitted as per state law and but there's other reasons to enforce our solid waste ordinances when folks decide to do things that are illegal and we don't have any recourse to bring them to justice because we h do not have the authority only you as the town of New

Milford have the authority to enforce the laws. Um, so that's a briefing of the three sections that we've asked for to for you to address and change and I'm happy to take any questions. Any questions for Jen? Joe taking a look at everything. Everything seems to be compliant.

Um, there is one [clears throat] I appreciate comments this evening. Um, I do want uh us to the voting session ordinance. My understanding that um is requesting us to go one vote system. I understand that right now I think 11 structures. We have to make an adjustment to the voting language and be consistent with the request and go down to one vote. I assume every other town within the authorities doing that as well. And this was I was a big proponent uh soon as I took on as Jen will know as well as other uh towns as uh there are other towns significantly heavier weighted than a new Milford and what was happening was some of those heavily weighted towns maybe would partner with one other town

and [clears throat] then there wasn't really as Jen says the equity. Um now everybody has one vote so it makes it much more fairer when it comes to uh different types of uh things that HR reviews. [clears throat] So it makes perfect sense. Yes, it absolutely does add to that.

Absolutely important to understand the history. Sorry my me deny that FaceTime from my 2-year-old grandchild. Um this is the bedtime story time. Um so sorry about that. So, uh, the history of HA is that back in the 1980s when it was formed, um, as a resource recovery authority in New Milford and many of the other towns became members, there was a financial obligation of each member town. You were bonding for 29 years for the waste to energy plant to be constructed in Bridgeport and you were all responsible for a putter pay contract at the time. So 29 years, you had a put or pay contract. So if you didn't put up all the solid waste, the garbage in the region, you were financially responsible for the difference. We never hit that threshold luckily over all the years and um over that time there there was at some point a membership fees that went away and that went away through you no longer tax dollars do not fund the HRA. They are very eager to talk to me. Um the HA is funded through a small fee on the tip fee. So it's not tax dollars that you're you do not pay a membership fee. You're no longer financially obligated. The new contract, the new 10-year contract that we are currently under has no financial obligation to the town of Mil New Milford or any other member. And so the weighted vote has really no meaning. The weighted vote was about securing and and protecting your interest based on the amount of garbage that you are producing. But since no long that's no longer the case and there's no need to have that weighted vote there all of the members felt that it was time to go to one town one vote so everyone had equal opportunity to have a voice. In addition to that I would I'd like to add that um often we have a hard time getting a quorum because of the way the weighted votes work. It only takes two or three towns not to show up. I can have 11 chief elected officials at my table and

not have a quorum out of 14 towns. So, it's really hard. And you think they all drive to New Town to have an in-person meeting and here they've just wasted their time because I don't have a quorum. So, it's it's about logistics as well as um the legality of we no longer have a put or pay contract. I hope that's helpful to understand why we we're going to one town, one vote.

Uh sorry, mass. So, I would suggest that um uh our office examine the voting section of this ordinance based on what I'm hearing tonight and all towns wanting to switch to this one town, one vote system, which seems reasonable. It makes sense to me. Um so, I would actually I would recommend that the council act on this at the on this ordinance at the next meeting because we may need to make an adjustment to the voting language. Uh because I'm hearing for the first time that that we're switching to the one vote, one town arrangement. So, uh, rather than do this, um, you know, on the fly, I'd rather have us look at this again and modify it if we need to. That's all.

Yeah. When I read it, I didn't do that. Yes. So, can you resend the modified one uh to the council and then we'll put it on the agenda for the next meeting and then Yeah. Anybody have any questions? Everything else everything [clears throat] everything else is

Yeah, everything else should be fine. Yeah, we did we did adjust the uh the violation section. We also adjusted the registration section. Um because it's true that the town is the enforcement authority for entities that are unregistered. Um and we actually are giving the uh the town quite a bit of latitude to demand that information such that if someone's not compliant then you know they'll be facing the the consequences here at the at the municipal level. Um but yeah, I do want to look at that voting language again because my understanding is that it was not adjusted to the one count one vote arrangement. So it was at it was at the H meeting and other towns have already any other.

Yeah. So um my understanding of the process is after the HR sends a proposed notice of violation to the mayor then if after three business days according to section three the mayor hasn't responded it's assumed to be disapproved like it that that that that's just where it ends and and Tom Capsiac spoke earlier at the public what do you Barry could Eric could just excuse me I don't want to interrupt you but you got to explain what is it that's being disapproved in your I don't understand You said section three is about well I it's the word is disapproval here. No I meant what is what is the full intention of section three?

The full section the full intention of section three is that the mayor would be informed of the proposed notice of violation. Oh and then if the mayor you know then the mayor has the opportunity to either approve of it or disapprove of it. Right. But if he is busy and doesn't have time to send something in three days,

then it's assumed to be disapproved. But Tom Capsak suggested earlier that maybe it should be the other way around. Maybe the assumption should be that it's approved that it that they would receive a notice of violation. And if you know they had any issue with that, they could always appeal it. There's an appeals process. But had you given any thought to doing it the other way around that that that the presumption would be that it's deemed approved unless the mayor, you know, explicitly disapproves it.

Uh thank you for the question. Uh [snorts] the language that was submitted from our town from our uh H council to town council was the last sentence failure to appeal by the mayor. such an ov within said time shall be deemed to mean the violation occurred. Um so our suggested language was what you're asking and so was it changed at some point or

we did not make any changes to our suggestions. Any changes that have um been suggested came from the town of New Milford. So, did the attorney's office have an issue with the original intention or or like I I and I I mean this with no espers like I I just don't understand why it's why the default would be disapproved. It seems approved would make more sense. Well, we're sticking my understanding is that we're sticking with the recommendation of HR on this one. So, we're not we're not deviating from the uniform model that was provided by the authority. I mean, I don't I don't I wouldn't recommend that the town go off on its own and start adjusting language that wasn't recommended by the authority to begin with.

Did I misunderstand you? Did you not just say that your recommendation would be that the default is approved, but the language here is disapproved? So, or disapproval technically. So, I mean something got Joe. Can you get confirm with Randy because Randy was the one that reviewed this for the town council. Can you guys confirm with Jen and then we'll bring it back? Uh

I just I think it's important that your uh legal counsel um did reach out to me on Friday. I then reached out to him. We played phone tag. So I have not spoken to legal counsel, but I am available and happy to to meet with legal counsel and and review this language to ensure that we're all on the same page. All 14 towns. Yes. So, it's all the same language we've offered to all member towns, right? Does anybody have any other questions? Sorry. Um, there were some complaints that I got a digital copy of it and I appreciate that. Thank you. But there's some complaints from members of the town that it wasn't publicized to the whole town. Could we have when it's revised, could we just make sure

it's revised? will send it to the council then right after the council will post it on the town web page so the people can take a look at and if the council members have it they can send it to anybody who asks you about it and we serve the people of New Milford residents can call us we're here to answer any questions regarding solid waste recycling questions hard to manage material but I'm also happy to answer these questions to guide the public as well any other questions for Jen awesome thank you Jen

I thank Thank you for your time. I thank you for adding me to the top. And uh I would just like to add as a mom of a Marine um we hold our hearts to our parents that have children who are and I hate to say children but they are young men and women who are serving our country. So just want to add that for your um I appreciated your words of Please thank him for his service. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Okay. Okay, Katie. Next. All right. Uh, I'd like to move item 4 A and B, the consent agenda and the tax collector that had no refunds. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. Any abstensions? Thank you. Mayor's comments.

Thank you, Katie. uh first of all is uh if you may see uh as Jen had spoken concerning our men and women in the armed forces each month we fly an armed services flag right here at town hall on the town flag pole this year this month we are honoring those that serve in the US army and God bless America and all the troops that serve in all of our uh services armed force services uh Quick uh update on um there was some social media posts concerning some unfortunate uh people putting in old uh oil into some of our catch basins. Uh on Saturday, a call was placed to the Department of Environmental Protection concerning a smell and a sheen of what looked like very old oil which provided a smell uh in the Husatonic River by Young's Field. Thank you to Deep for their quick response as they came and inspected the area. The sheen in the smell appeared like it came from an old home heating oil is what they suspected. Deep then investigated catch basins in the area and found additional dumping of the heating oil substance on Aspatuck Ridge Road and Wells Road areas. Thank you to Water Witch Chief uh Shawn the Milford Police Department Amy Bethage, our health district director for responding and assisting over the weekend. Deep then sent an environmental cleanup contractor who deployed cleanup efforts including booms to soak up the o the old o old oil uh in the catch basin areas. This morning, our DPW team checked all the catch basins from well from the Wellsville area, Wells Road area, Youngsfield Road area for additional dumping.

In speaking with Deep this morning, until we get rain, the smell and the sheen will continue, but will dissipate with the rainfall. Supposed to be getting rain Wednesday through Friday this week, and that should be helpful. We were able to obtain a video of the possible dumper. We are asking anyone that was in that live in these areas if they have a ring or other camera that points or can show where a catch basin is, if they find a vehicle that was unusual, it's not normally there to please contact our New Milford Police Department as this is still under full investigation. Our goal is to uh vigorously investigate this. When we find this person, we are going to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law as we take dumping uh especially environmentally dangerous materials into our catch basins extremely seriously. I will continue to update the council, but this right now is still under investigation.

Mayor, is this the kind of oil like an heavy equipment type? It would be like uh old oil that could be in an old uh oil tank and maybe the oil tank was pulled out of the ground. Oh. And drained and [clears throat] because those oil tanks may have PCBs in the oil, you can't like our recycling center does not get rid of it be very difficult to get rid of. It would be very costly.

So, uh the thought process is someone may have decided that they were going to use our catch basins to do so. So, we are currently working on that. Uh, this afternoon we hit 67 degrees, which is awesome. It was great for those that got to go outside. That really did you keep it up? I wish. Really? Yep. A few days ago, we were in the 30s if we remember.

And prior to that, sub-zero nights. [clears throat] Why I bring this up is this year we had a deep frost and we had plenty of snow and rain. That being said, with these current warm uh warm temperatures, you're going to see potholes forming on our roadways, deep potholes, and our gravel roadways.

As the roadways dry out, we want to let the council know and the public watching that we'll be sending our pothole machine out to fill the potholes. The larger cracked areas, we will actually be sending our DPW crews out and uh patching them as well. Also tonight, uh, Aquarian Water, they'll be doing hydrant testing in the firing following locations. Birchwood, Bradbury Road, Bradbury Lane, Brookfield, uh, Brook View Lane, Hecott Crossbook, Old Orchard, Old Park, and Taylor Terrace. Estimated time uh, is anywhere between 2 to four hours. They started about 5, so hopefully it's ending. I do uh understand I put out right before we had our town council meeting there was a water main break

up in the Hecon Crosswork area. That's about a six-hour job. So uh stay tuned for more information on that.

Congratulations to the New Milford youth basketball eighth grade travel team. They won their league championship. So great job to them. Congratulations to the Milford's Gabriella Angel. She's a Nilford High School freshman. She qualified and made the top 20 beam score at the Connecticut state opens championship meet. Gabrielle Gabrielle also complete competes at elite gymnastics here in New Milford and she made the top 100 gymnasts in America for scoring a 9.7 on the beam at the Commonwealth mean Commonwealth meet in Massachusetts. Want to thank uh Northville President PTO Becky Lang and the entire Hill and Plane PTO uh teachers Miss Allen and Miss Sanger, Principal Calibes as uh a lot of us were able to read at Read Across America. So that was fun. And also thank you to Hill and Plane uh staff uh for allowing me to uh also do read across America as well as lots of other uh volunteers as well. It's great to um

be a part of that wonderful thing. Yes. Congratulations to Miss Eers uh the sixth grade Blue Thunder class as they won the first NFL reading challenge at Scatakoke Middle School. I got to be there. They have a big huge Super Bowl like trophy that they hand out uh each year. Congratulations to Nemar. He was the rookie of the year with the most minutes of one player reading. So big thank you to Gretchen, Jen, Gina, and Principal Skorlick for initiating this wonderful challenge and seeing all the kids, all of that grade participated. So it was great to see. Big congratulations to New Milford youth wrestler Chase Reynolds.

He is a sixtime Connecticut state wrestling champion. Already his young age. Absolutely amazing.

Uh Lanesville Fire Department renovation project update. Our contractor continued with the application of uh gypsium board and insulation at the interior partition walls. They did foil re reinforced craft paper was applied to the interior side of the exterior walls. The electrical roughs were continued pulling wires through the conduit from the mechanical room into the addition and preparing overhead electrical in the apparatus bay. Gas lines were run that will service the overhead heaters in the garage bays. Airlines were run to where they will serve the overhead hose reels. In the addition, the hose reels were mounted to the ceiling. The fire suppression and riser service entrance equipment was installed and uh uh they also uh continued uh to build out some of the uh weather stripping uh improvements to the outside as well. So, uh, the goal is within the next month or so to invite the town council to see kind of, uh, what's happening, the upgrades that are going on there. It's the project's going very well and for you to take a look as well as the public. Uh, also some of the uh, other things. We talked a little bit about the project that was approved by the town council board of finance reviewed it will then go to a town meeting in April and that is the bike track and the pickle bulk works. It was brought to the attention uh from some people that we need to do some additional testing for that soil. I asked Jack Healey to come here as the DPW director uh to talk a little bit about uh that request and also from our environmental expert uh on those two projects. Thank you for coming tonight, Jack. I appreciate it very much.

Hey, how are you? Um yeah, I'd like to address um there was some cons there's u some concern about the project at JPCC. Um and in in there um I think we have to understand that there's construction projects occurring all the time and there's been a pro there's a procedure in place for that and up until March 1st it was based on trans you wouldn't do any surficial sampling unless there was something through the transfer act. um that changed as of uh March 1st, but it hasn't changed as far as sampling soil and things like that unless there's a release. The new regulations are called releasebased cleanup regulations and if you if you identify a release, you would then sample the soil accordingly. Um just so I said, okay, let me let me take a quick look. I got went on the D website and particularly the the JPCC school is not listed as a site with release based. So I said, "Okay, we have our normal process which we would go out and we would do the work. We we've got a plan in place. We'll get a bid and we'll do the work." Um the work that's planned is very is is not very deep. It's probably, you know, no more than a couple feet deep. We we're going to move the soil off. We're going to build a a track and we're going to build some uh uh pickle ball courts. I keep calling tennis courts or pickle ball. And we're going to use u concrete and uh post-tension concrete, which is a great product. um we would do our normal process. Now the only the the main difference for what we're going to do is in the past in the past that soil would be considered clean just because there's no release with the new regulations and this is something that we're going to have to adjust to as we go. If we were to transfer let's say we created extra soil if we transport that offsite we're going to have to sample it. That is something new and all all people who are doing work are going to have to do that. So, I talked to uh our LEP. I work with several leaps uh on the school.

What is an licensed environmental professional and uh it's one of the things I thought about getting. I said, I don't need any more initials, so I'm not doing that one. Um just so a little background, I've been doing environmental work since 1983. I used to do the transfer act screenings. I used to do um investigations for company for transfers uh for corporations um and doing work for that. I've done remediation work for Ingresol Ranatory Company for 25 years. So this is something that can I just ask you are intending to transfer some soil out? No, I said if we did

on this one we're not going to we're not going to have enough. So we're going to probably we're going to move it around, plant some grass. I I want to plant some flowers and get with B city and do that type of thing. I talked to the LDP licensed environmental professional. I just wanted to say, okay, we should have a standard process for this and our standard process is going to be the same as always. We're going to go out, we're going to lay out the project. We're going to do the work and we're going to, you know, if for some reason there's excess soil, we'll do we'll do the sampling. Otherwise, we're going to quote unquote, you know, gray the soil off, plant flowers and grass and let it go from there. The material that we're going to bring on is going to be clean processed material just like we would anything else. We'd buy it from OMG or another contractor and we'll use that to put down as a base. So that's a normal process where I think one of the things that we ought to know is is a lot of the remediation standards are based on groundwater. We're not going to if we were to go down and say, "Okay, I was going to say to you, I'm going to dig down and hit the groundwater table." We would have to then do some more sampling. We're not we're not doing that. We're not going to come anywhere close to the groundwater. that's in a GB area. Um, if you look at the map, it's identified as a GB area, which means you can't have drinking water there without some type of filtration. That's on public water. So, that's not that's not really a a problem. It's not an issue at this place at this time. Um, because

GP GB there's if you look at the map, there was a map attached. If you look at that map, there's different colorations and the green one says GB. I think it's yellow is GA. That means you could drink, you get a well there, no filtration. A GB mean you have to have filtration. If you go below that, don't drink it. Okay. Um, so we're planning on doing this. I don't I we will use our normal process, right? We will do the project. Uh, we're going to actually plant some grass, some flowers, and everybody can go and play pickle ball. Great. Sounds great. Is there Thank you, Jack. Appreciate it very much. Uh lastly, Katie, before uh

we go into road closures, um just an update on our traffic enforcement. Oh, yes. Uh I spoke with the uh deputy chief and uh so far this year as far as motor vehicle stops. We are at 436. That's a little lighter from last year. Reason being is we've had a lot of storms. We had blizzards, had ice, we had everything else.

Oh yeah. So obviously uh the police were more concentrated on uh making sure that that's safe versus traffic stops, but they're back up. We're also going to be getting additional grants. So those numbers will be increasing. Uh motor vehicle accidents. Last year to this date, we were at 155 with 31 in parking lots. This year is up. We're at 189 with 40 in the parking lots. The reason being is all the accidents. We have blizzard. Yeah. We had snow. We had ice, so you're going to have more accidents because of the weather conditions. Once the weather gets better, hopefully those numbers will go back down as they did last year. Hope so.

DUIs, uh, last year was at 14 at this time last year. We're up a little bit at 17 and, uh, we continue, uh, to enforce those. Uh, currently, uh, last year we had one fatality. One fatality is too many. But as the chief had said in his presentation to the council during budget, prior years we were at 5543. Hopefully this year, we're knocking on wood, we are at zero, and we're hoping to keep it that way. So, I'll continue to provide additional updates when it comes to those uh um statistics. Also in speaking with Chuck Ballard and Jack on Friday concerning a first town traffic light and that will be at uh Hine Hill and Grove Street because that was the real uh hot spot area for our town roads. Uh all we're doing is waiting for the right jack final sign off from Connecticut DOT once that's uh completed and it should should be when Jack at any time

I hope so. when when would that be at any time? That could happen any time now. Okay. We're hoping to have this installed. And then once that's once that's approved by them, then we go out to bid and then once the bid is completed, then we'll be uh in the process of um putting in our first light. And as a reminder, this was done with the lot tip grant. That's right. So the town uh uh didn't have to uh put any money out for this first traffic light. That can't happen fast enough. Amen. I almost got [laughter] rocks. And that's what I have for mayor's comments. Nuts.

Okay, let's talk about road closures. Item number 6A. I'd like to move that we uh for the Ostammy Awareness Foundation. Uh we'd like they'd like to close Young'sfield Road, Husatonic Avenue, and Boardman Road from 6 PM to 900 p.m. That's on May 15th. That's a Moonlight 5K race. I have a second. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you.

Uh item 6B, uh Scrivener's error here, a clerical error. They neglected to put the date of the village center for the arts. uh they are having uh asking to have on May 19th to uh close Church Street from the corner of Maine to the northwest corner of the town hall parking lot from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. They are going to be having their 26th anniversary celebration and the crossover, our southern crossover, they'd like that closed from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. And again, that's on May 19th. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. Any abstensions? Thank you.

Item number seven, I'd like to approve the following appointments and reappoints. We'll start with the zoning board of appeals. Uh that is a four-year term. That would be Barbara C. Parks. Her term would be March 9th, 2026 through January 31st, 2027. This this is an appointment. This is an appointment. I'm going to do them all together, Paul. Okay. [laughter] I'm sorry to get you excited. Uh next we have the board of finance. This will be an appointment of Richard Sumara. His term on board of finance would be from March 9th, 2026 to January 31st, 2030. And finally, we have on the library board of trustees, uh, Daryl Kurland, who would be Daryl, pardon.

There he is. Yeah, he's right there. Uh, again, a four-year term, and that is from March 9th, 2026 through January 31st of 2030. Thank you. Thank you. And we have Barbara here in the front audience. And right behind Barbara is Richard. Oh, [laughter] all right. And we have a motion, a second. [snorts] Yep. All those in favor? I opposed. Any abstensions? Thank you everybody. Congratulations. And uh Joe, if you could swear them in while we're going through this, that'd be wonderful. Okay. Awesome. Would you like me to move ahead? Okay. I don't know. Because we have Jack, he can talk a little bit about I had Yeah. Wheaten Road Bridge Project.

Item number eight. I would like to move that we authorize Go outside to sign the uh Wheaten Road Bridge Project. Second it. Thank you. Okay. Come on, Jack. Jack.

Uh, we were scheduled to do the Wheaten Road bridge project this year. It's going to be post pushed off until we'll bid it this summer and we'll do the construction next year as and if you've gone by there, you've seen where we've had to post it to um limit the weight that goes across it because the beams on the outside are starting to show a loss in web. What the uh DOT does is there's there's two very small pieces. They're owned by the town that they acquire um a rightaway for for the construction of that bridge. I believe that both pieces are worth $700 each. Um and you need to and the town council needs to make a motion. Don't spend it all on one place. Um to authorize the mayor to uh sign um and approve the acquisition of those two pieces by the DOT. Um it is a it's a part of the process that we need to do. Um we are very close to having the design complete and will go out to bid this summer. Uh and that bridge will be installed next year. And and it's important to note that bridge is a 100% bridge. 80% federal, 20% uh uh state local. We do not the town is not out any money to construct that bridge.

And mayor, are you up to that to? Yes, ma'am. You guys allow me to say a lot of money. Okay. Any questions for Jack? We have a second. And we have a second already. Thank you. All those in favor? I oppose. Any abstensions? Thank you, Zach. Thank you, Jack. And thank you, Jack. Item number nine, um, we're going I'm going to move we move into executive session. I have, uh, attorney Mortal Mortali when he comes back in. Randy DeBella, Chief Cerudo, uh, no, he's not. No, Joe's here. Joe's here. Yeah. So, and that would be the chief also. Yep.

Chief Ceruto, you also would be staying. Yep. So the rest did somebody second. Oh yes. Somebody want to second this over here boys? Thank you s all those in favor of going executive session. Yes. Okay. Oppose any Thank you. Come on now.

Okay, we've uh come back from our uh session and executive session. During that time, no motions were made and no votes were taken. And I'd like to move that we go back into regular session. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you. Item nine. We'll now move to item 9B. I'd like to move that we discuss and affirm Chief Ceruto's contract. Second. Thank you. This is an additional four years to the chief's contract for his outstanding job that he's done for New Milford. Continues to do so. Uh, all those in favor? I

oppose. Any abstensions? Chief, thank you again. [applause] We appreciate very much. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Okay. Item 9 C. I'd like to move that we take an action on the ordinance for the municipal school bus violation system. And you all should have had that information. Second and we have a second and uh I know the chief was a big proponent of this as well. Chief, would you like to talk a little bit about as far as uh police and how this would be helpful for uh

Yes. Uh as you know, traffic enforcement, traffic safety, reduction of accidents and fatalities in our community, very very important. Um and uh we uh put our children first always. [snorts] Protecting our children is very important to us at the police department and this is an extra tool for us to do that. Um, school bus stops are very dangerous uh areas and uh obviously children have a propensity to do things that may not be expected and uh we need to do all we can to protect them. Uh stopping vehicles from uh passing school buses is critical and I think that this program will help uh us do that. Thank you.

Thank you. And we have a motion on uh the ordinance itself. Does anybody have any questions concerning the ordinance? Any discussion? All those in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you, everyone. Okay. Uh item 9 D. I'd like to move that we set a date for a public hearing on the municipal school bus uh violation enforcement program and I suggest March 23rd at 6:30 p.m. Thank you. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you everyone.

Okay. And we've already uh discussed our solid waste to revised organization. So motion to adjourn. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor? Thank you everyone. Thank you everyone for watching tonight. Thank you. Thank you everyone.