Town Council - Regular Meeting

Mr. Mayor, 7 o'clock.

Yep, I know, 7 o'clock.

We all could rise for the pledge, please. Romano, could you lead us in the pledge, sir? Sure.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

In a moment of silence for the men and women in the armed forces, first responders, those fighting the good fight in Ukraine, those suffering from the military conflict in the Middle East, our veterans as well. Also in memorial for Senator Lindsey Graham and for the unfortunate officer that passed as well as the Minofa resident in that awful crash that happened this morning. May their memories be eternal. Thank you. American Creed. Katie, can you lead us in the Creed, please?

The American's Creed by William Tyler Page.

I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed, a democracy, a republic, a sovereign nation made 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 foreign and domestic.

Thank you. And Diane, before we go to public comment, a couple things I would like to address to the public that's meeting here tonight, as well as to those that are watching this evening. We celebrated America's 250th, which was totally amazing. And I know we have Ms. Norcross here that will talk about the wonderful job that the America 250 subcommittee plus the Daughters of the American Revolution signing of the declaration that the public did, which we're inviting everyone, which is great. And that leads to something that I'd like to address the public here tonight. Is our forefathers for our country believed in freedom, believed in equality, but also believed in civility. And I'm going to address that tonight. First is kind of a lesson in really what does the town council do have a lot of people ask me really was a town council do. The town council. Grab my little bit of notes here. This is according to our charter. The town council. And this is Chapter 4 and Section 401. Right, Randy? we're going to talk about uh what the what the powers and duties are first of the town council the town council should have all powers and duties here and there thereafter conferred upon said town council and all board powers and duties of which on effective date of this charter were conferred by law upon boards of selectmen except as otherwise specifically provided in its charter The town council should have the power to enact, amend, and repeal ordinances which may be introduced by any of its members or by the mayor, provided the same are consistent with the provisions of this charter, the Connecticut general statutes, the state and federal constitutions as determined by the town attorney. and may recommend to the town meeting the creation consolidation or abolition of boards commissions departments and administrative offices the town council is authorized in adopting ordinances incorporate any nationally recognized code rules or regulations which have been published or any code officially adopted by any administrative agency of the state or any portion thereof by reference thereto in such ordinance provided that upon the adoption of any such ordinance, wherein any such code, rules, or regulations, or portions thereof may be incorporated by reference, there shall be maintained two copies of such code, rules, and regulations in the office of the town clerk for examination by the public. Nothing herein shall be construed to prohibit the town council from appointing by resolution, special or temporary boards, commissions, committees, as it may be from time to time deemed necessary and appropriate to the operation of the town government. In such event, said special or temporary boards, commissions, or committees shall be deemed to terminate one year after their creation except that the town council may extend separate temporary boards commissions or committees prior to its termination date for a period not to exceed an additional six months The Town Council may contract for services and the use of facilities with the United States government or any branch thereof of any federal agency, the State of Connecticut or any agency, political subdivisions thereof or may by agreement join with any such political subdivisions provided services and facilities in accordance with the applicable provisions of the State of Connecticut General Statutes. The town council may fix any charges to be made for services rendered by the town or for the execution of powers vested in the town as provided in chapter one of this chapter unless otherwise prohibited by law. If at any time during a fiscal year the Town Council shall ascertain that that revenue from the cash receipts for the year is likely to be less than the total appropriations, it may reconsider the program's expenditures, allocations of departments, offices and agencies, and revise the allocations of departments, offices, agencies so as to avoid or forestall the incurring of a deficit. Section 406 would be public hearing and publication of ordinances. Section 408, power of initiative, ordinances proposed to the town council. Section 409, power to overrule ordinances adopted by the town council. That's pretty much all that's in the charter, am I correct, Randy?

It is.

And the reason why I bring that up tonight is that's the powers of the town council. So when people come and address the town council about national issues, It has absolutely nothing to do with this town council and what it does. That's not the venue for that type of speech. That venue is better done to a congressional office or a state or a senator's office. Or if it applies to a state statute, you can talk to your state representatives or your state senator. I'd also like to bring up also within the charter, all meetings of the town council for the transaction of business, this is in procedure, section 404. All meetings of the town council for the transaction of business shall be open to the public. When in session and all regular meetings, now this is where it gets important, shall afford to provide for the electors of the town. an opportunity to address the Town Council with suggestions, petitions, and complaints in accordance with the rules and procedures adopted by the Town Council. Provided that the extent permitted in Chapter 3 of the Connecticut General Statutes, the Town Council may meet in executive session, closed to public when so voted by two-thirds of the Town Council members present and voting. And the reason why I bring that up, ladies and gentlemen, those are watching here too. It is by the town council, right? They're wanting to hear from people, but it is that the leisure of the council that people that do not live in new Milford have the ability to address the town council. Is that correct or Andy? That's correct. And the town council has done that because we want to hear from people. But with that comes responsibility. responsibility is civility and as i am mayor and chairman right and preside over the town council civility will hold people may not know what civility is so let me tell you according to the institute of local government civility In the context of democratic debate, civility is about how people treat each other. Civility involves display of respect for those who have positions which one disagrees. Even though disagreement plays a necessary role in governance and politics, the issue is how one expresses that disagreement. The key is to focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed solutions to community problems, not to engage in personal attacks against those who favor different solutions. An even more powerful leadership strategy is to listen for the concerns and values that underlines people's diverse perspectives and try to identify points of agreement and common ground. So it talks about how we do that. With rights come responsibilities. Avoid debates and interruptions as we're hearing from our public. Reduce uncertainty, assuring people they will be allowed to share their views. The importance of the council listening, which we all should do. And then the big one is be compassionate about the fear factor. Heckling and applause are not allowed here. And we are going to enforce that. There is to be absolutely no heckling, absolutely no applauding, absolutely no eyes rolling. I will ask you to leave. Polls suggest people fear public speaking. I know a lot of people that do. The fifth fear can come from concerns of being judged negatively or having ideas that people will ridicule or reject. Allowing cheering and booing and other forms of heckling discourages people from sharing their views. Even silence or no applause can be perceived as a rejection. It also runs the risk that those who do speak will focus more on getting applause and moving the conversation towards addressing difficult issues. Eye rolling and grimacing can be nonverbal forms of heckling and also have no place in communities that value mutual respect. So I'm putting everyone on notice, those that are watching here tonight, those that may be seeing it on TV, those that are here, or those that may hear it secondhand. We will not tolerate it. We will not be disrespectful to one another. We will be in a professional manner speaking to the town council of things that are pertinent to the council, to the community. If you have a national issue, talk to our senators, talk to our congresspeople. If you have a state issue, talk to the delegation. These personal attacks are stopping as of right now. so i thank everyone for listening to that and again we want our residents to come here and express their their opinions and their values as it pertains to what we can do here on the town council if you have a zoning issue please go to zoning if you have something for the board of finance if you have something for zoning board of appeals if you have something there please go to those boards

and address your concerns there as well.

So with that being said, I'd like to move on. I'd like to invite Ms. Norcross up first, talking about America 250 and our wonderful Declaration of Independence.

And Mayor Fuhrman, thank you.

Good evening. My name is Heidi Norcross, and I am here on behalf of the New Milford Celebrates America 250 Committee. Yes, Heidi Norcross, 10 Silver Birch Road, New Milford, Connecticut. So good evening, Mayor, members of the Town Council, honored guests, and fellow citizens. On behalf of the New Milford Celebrates America Committee, it is my privilege to present this commemorative Declaration of Independence signed by the people of New Milford. 250 years ago, 56 courageous men pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor by signing our nation's Declaration of Independence. Their signatures represented more than names on parchment. They represented a commitment to the ideals of liberty, self-government, and the belief that all are endowed with certain unalienable rights. Today, while none of us face the sacrifices demanded by our founding fathers, we are entrusted with something equally important, preserving the freedoms they secured and passing them on to future generations. Over the past 10 days, this declaration has been signed by more than 185 residents of all ages from the town of New Milford. These signatures attest a lasting reminder that the principles expressed in 1776 continue to unite us today. Each signature represents an individual who values our shared heritage and recognizes that the story of America is not only one of our past, but also of our future. Together, these names reflect the enduring spirit of civic pride, community, and patriotism that has long defined New Milford. As we commemorate America's 250 anniversary, it is fitting that this declaration become part of our town's history. We hope it serves as a reminder to future generations that in 2026, the citizens of New Milford paused to honor the remarkable legacy of our nation's founding and reaffirmed their appreciation for the freedoms that we enjoy. I can envision years from now that when some of today's children are young adults, they will see their signatures and remember celebrating our country's semi-quincentennial. It is with great pride that the New Milford Celebrates America Committee presents this community declaration of independence to the town of New Milford for preservation as a symbol of our shared commitment to the ideals upon which our nation was founded. Thank you, and may God continue to bless the town of New Milford, the state of Connecticut, and the United States of America. Yes, so if anybody has not signed it yet, I don't really want to interrupt your meeting so we can take it out and people can come out and sign or we can have them sign after the meeting is over. Did you sign it?

Did you? Let's go sign it.

Thank you. Thank you.

Mayor, we might have two of the council people go up and sign it.

Absolutely.

Anyone else in the audience that hasn't signed it, please. Please come up and sign it. And this will be hanging at Town Hall. And guess where? Roger Sherman's Town Hall.

You're going to hang it right here?

I'm thinking maybe around here or right out in the hall there. I'm thinking here. You know where I'm thinking?

We can't hang it there. Well done, Heidi. How was your trip? It was very fun. I'll have to take it. Did everybody get a chance to sign the Declaration of Independence?

Go once.

Going three times. Do we have any other public comment? Diane? We do.

We have Sean Delaney. Sean, if you would please go to the podium, state your name, your address, and you have five minutes.

Chief, how are you doing?

Sean Delaney, 8 Prospect Hill Road, New Milford, Connecticut. Chief of Water Witch Host Company number two. As I have done in the past, I'd like to bring you guys up to speed on the half year mark for our company. At the end of the month of June, 2026, the men and women of Water Witch have responded to 355 calls of service for the year, which is on track to be one of the busiest years yet. Since the 1st of July, This company has responded to 45 different calls, which is increasing and ever so busy. Today we've had three, actually four, as of 6 o'clock tonight. On average, we are averaging 13 firefighters per call. We are also averaging two officers per call, which is an amazing and astounding feat for a company that is fully volunteer. Over the course of the last few years, the mayor and I, along with the West Cog, have talked ad nauseum about the 830G and affordable housing. As everybody is well aware, in the paper in the last few weeks, we have seen over 600 residences starting to come into New Milford. That is going to put a very, very large strain on not only the infrastructure of this town, but the volunteer services that we provide to the town of New Milford. I know that the town has submitted the plan or is in process of submitting a plan to the state of Connecticut. It is not a town thing. This is coming from the state of Connecticut. As the president of the Litchfield County Chiefs Association, we were very adamant to the actual legislators that this is going to change the topography of each of our towns. And I want to let everybody know that while we are still doing it the same way that we did since 1863, it is going to get very, very busy in this town very quickly. I had talked about this a number of times during our Lanesville presentations. To date, the department has submitted a assistance to firefighter grant for $414,000 for the purchase of new air packs. We are right now in the process of review with the federal government and FEMA for the $414,000 grant, and we're hoping to report back to you in the next few months about it. This will bring brand new SCBAs, or self-contained breathing apparatus, the backpacks that we wear with air in it, to our department, all 43 units. So it's not cheap. But most importantly tonight, I'd like to invite each of you town council members, the mayor, Mr. DiBella, and the community as a whole. August 9th, we are proud to open up and cut the ribbon for the new Lanesville Fire Station. This amazing planned Operation has gone much smoother and much quicker than we ever expected. We are taking control of the facility within the next week. The punch lists are done. We have had operation in the firehouse continuous, uninterrupted through the entire construction. I cannot speak enough about J.A. Rosa and their work there. But I would like to invite you all and the community as a whole to the ribbon cutting and to come in and see the firehouse and really see what the community has given us because it is the next step. in an ever-growing and ever-changing environment that we have in new milford i'd like to thank each of you the board of finance the municipal building committee and zoning and wetlands for all you guys have done for us and really invite you all to come in and take a look at it it is an absolute amazing feat so thank you very much and everybody have a good night thank you chief 11 a.m. And we did post it on Facebook.

Okay, next we have Arthur Hopkins. Arthur, if you could please come to the podium, state your name, address, and you have five minutes.

Arthur Hopkins, my address is 18 Cambridge Circle, here in the great town of New Milford, Connecticut. Mr. Mayor, town council members, others, I'd like to discuss the funding to the Opioid Settlement Committee. And first, I'd like to read a short paragraph from my secretary of the Milford Community Shelter, Rufus DeRom, longtime board member. and fellow volunteer who stated that we, the New Milford Community Shelter, appreciates the recommendation of the Opioid Settlement Committee to donate to the homeless shelter. New Milford first opened a homeless shelter in 2001, and we have had clients from many different walks of life who found themselves homeless. However, one of the prevalent causes of homelessness is addiction in various forms. We thank the Opioid Settlement Committee for recognizing the fact that money spent to support the shelter is going to help folks with addiction issues get back on track. All our coordinators are trained regarding Narcan, and the information is passed on to the numerous volunteers who support us. This is an appropriate use of the opioid settlement funds, and we appreciate Tony and the committee's support. Thank you so much. My own remarks. Good evening. Again, my name is Arthur Hopkins. I'm the president of the New Milford Community Shelter. I've been a volunteer since 2002, so I've got a number of years under my belt. I'm ready to retire. But our shelter is opened solely by volunteers, and that's how it's operating. I just want to extend my heartfelt thanks for the recommendation to donate funds by the Opioid Settlement Committee to our shelter. We have had clients from many walks of life who for one reason or another have fell on hard times. As you can assume, we have had folks who were alcoholics, some with mental illness, drug addicts, and some who may be through no fault of their own have ended up in our shelter. Hopefully, we might have made a small positive difference in their life by keeping them safe and warm during our winter months. We have been in operation since around 2001. During COVID, we had to shut down for a couple of years. But at the request of the mayor in late 2023, we reopened the following year. With this funding, it will enable us to procure additional supplies, help defray heating costs that we give back to the churches that we use as shelters, help pay for insurance and for other expenses again thank you so much as i speak on behalf of our entire board thank you okay next we have coach tony morris name address and

Hey, gang. Tony Morrissey, Minehill Road, New Milford. Hi, friends. Good to see you again. I'm going to be back up in a couple of minutes to talk a little bit more about some of the other things we have from the Opioid Settlement Committee. The reason why I wanted to make public comment was really to thank, first to thank the folks at the New Milford Shelter, Art and Rufus. What they've done over the last 20 some odd years is nothing short of saving lives. And I thank you guys for considering the proposal we have on the table tonight to help that program. I volunteered over the winter. I came and I talked about it a little bit with the town council. Having gone through that experience and touched that program and worked with the volunteers that put that on, I can tell that it's led by compassion and heart. And I'm proud of this town, right, for having a program like that. So really just wanted to say thank you to those folks who have been involved for as many years as you have been involved. You guys are what we call Hope Dealers. And we thank you for your work. And additionally, I wanted to remind everybody another invitation. Our sixth annual Awareness 5K and Recovery Festival is happening on Saturday, August 29th. We invite everybody on the town council to please come down and join. Again, it's the same as every year. Mr. Murphy, you know how it goes, right? We start off with a 5K in the morning down at Youngstown Road. It's a down and back. It's very simple. It's not just a run. It's a walk. It's really an awareness thing. I really would love for everybody to participate. Our goal this year is to be 250 participants in the 5K. When we're done with that, everybody comes up to the town green. Beautiful town green in all of Connecticut, of course. And really just enjoy the music, the keynote speakers. Mr. Bass, I hope you'll join us again this year as you do every year. We thank you for that. I'd actually like to invite Mr. Rosenberg, who's not here tonight, to also attend. We have a couple of particular missions for you guys. We'll talk more about that. But, yeah, the day is free. It includes a bunch of activities for the kids, bouncy jumpies, magic shows, face painting, all kinds of great stuff for kids like my grandkids. who are walking around without a parent, right? It's a forum, it's a place for these kids to connect. It's a place while they're doing that and having fun for parents and grieving families to find resources. It's a place where we have recovery advisory services like MCCA, CCAR, Lantana, You know, a bunch of different providers in the area, Greenwoods, they're giving Narcan out, showing people how to use Narcan, talking about programs, beds, detox centers, right? We're going to put a spotlight on the conversation and really just continue to drive that number down. In New Milford, Mr. Bass, you probably can attest to this, we are the leader in the state. We're the leader in the state when it comes to this decline in overdose deaths and responses and things like that. And that's because of the compassion and the heart that this town council and our opioid settlement committee has put into this and the work that has been done by the great nonprofits and organizations in the community. And I'll say what I always say. awesome work uh we're getting there we're not done yet so we got to keep going uh so please you know uh join us on august 29th and uh thank you again for your consideration of the proposals we have coming tonight thank you that's all thank you

agenda item for a I'd like to move that we approve the prior minutes thank you and second by Tom any discussion all those in favor aye opposed any abstentions thank you item five I'd like to move the that we approve a Filling a vacancy on our film commission, Michael Boucher, he's unaffiliated. His term would be July 13th, 2026 to January 31st of 2028.

any discussion all those in favor aye opposed any abstentions thank you mayor and Katie before we go to comments I would like to ask the council if we could amend the agenda and I see that the superintendent is here and I see that the board chair is here if we could move number 11 which is their request for uh putting monies into the capital reserve moved up to now we could do that that's okay yes amend the agenda second all those in favor aye any opposed any abstentions thank you and i would like to move that we put item 11 up underneath item five okay item five b has that we already made the motion so now we go with the discussion and possible action to appropriate $1,964,500 to be out of the Board of Education's capital reserve account to fund the capital items listed on attachment 11a that was in your packets And I would entertain that motion if someone would like to make that motion. And Katie made the motion.

And second? Okay.

And we have the superintendent. We have the board of that chair. Ms. Sarich here. Does anybody have any questions on the motion?

Okay.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you.

next we're going to move to mayor's comments thank you

First I'd like to start off, last week we had our bond and band sale. And speaking with Barry Bernacki as our financial advisor, we had a very good sale. And once again, the town exceeded expectations with not only the number of bids received, but also the very competitive borrowing rates. The town sold 4.3 million of long term bonds. 4.65 million of short-term notes to finance various improvements to roads and the Lanesville Fire Station. The town received nine bids for the bonds with the winning rate of 3.37 from UBS Financial Services. This rate was lower than recent sales from the towns of Westport, which is a 3.42, and West Hartford, 3.43. Both AAA-rated bond towns, same as we are. The town received eight bids for the notes with the winning bid of 2.66 from Jeffries. The town of Southbury also rated AAA recently issued one year notes at a rate of 2.89. New Milford was lower by 23 basis points. The town also received a premium of $295,210 on the bonds, $61,938 on the notes, which will be used to mitigate the debt on the new bonds. The town continues to issue debt for capital improvements on a strategic basis that layers the new debt with the amortization of the old bonds that allows annual debt service to remain virtually level. The town's bonds were rated AAA and the notes SP1+, both of which are the highest possible ratings, as we talked about at the last meeting, higher than, guess what, nation's sovereign debt.

Really?

Yep. So, big congratulations to our town employees, both on the town side, the education side, also to our volunteer boards and Olga who's not here tonight too for all of her help as well and kudos to everyone next is I was speaking with Randy last week we had Northern Construction Service today or they had I don't know if people are familiar with the railroad culvert that is on West Street You may have noticed over the last several years the degradation of that culvert. It's not our culvert, it's the railroad's, but it continues to degrade. So much so that Northern Construction, which was the company that is supposed to be doing the work on this, has been very concerned. They were talking about an urgent request to expedite permitting an agency review. That would be done by not only our land use boards, but also Inland Wetlands, but also it would be by the Army Corps of Engineers, DEEP. That's taken too long, it's taken way too long. We just experienced a lot of rain. Now you may say to yourself, why does this matter for the town of New Milton? It's the railroad crossing, it's the railroad. So if something happens, it's the railroad. Tracks go down, tracks go down. Well, Wouldn't you know, the town's major sewer line for this side of town runs right underneath the culvert. So if that goes down, we have huge problems. Huge problems. So, in so knowing that, and this was done in the 1950s, It's probably earlier than that. 1940s is when this line was put in. So diligently, the sewer commission with representation has been working with the railroad, been working with Northern, because we're going to have to move the pipe because we have to now, the railroad has to put a new culvert in, and we need to get the pipe out of the culvert so we never have an issue as if their thing comes down, it doesn't wreck our stuff. Right. So what we've been waiting on is having the permit process completed by Army Corps of Engineers and by DEEP. We've been working diligently and trying to get those done. It's still taking, as red tape sometimes does, a very long time. We've been monitoring this culvert for quite some time. Jack Healy's felt concerned, especially with the massive amounts of rain that we get all at one time. So I spoke with Jack and also with Randy. I wanted to inform the town council that I did an executive order to help with cutting some of the red tape. This, the culvert is under the auspice of DEP, of the Army Corps of Engineers, and also the railroad is under the auspice of Congress. So, with that being in mind, even though we have an executive order, Northern Construction is like, you can't compel us with your executive order to bypass the permits. So, we're going to wait for the permits.

Yes, sir.

So, we've asked them to expedite it. Hopefully, they're working diligently to do this. I know Randy will talk about it in a moment, but we're trying to put them on notice if something was to happen, that it's on you guys. We've done everything we can to try and help expedite this process. The actual installation of the culvert will probably be three days, right Randy? Be like three days. but it's the additional permitting process that's taking quite some time, how we go about doing it. Moving forward, I told Jack that I'll be sending out updates to both you and the public. Moving forward, as we're getting closer now to actual installation, what they did do, I'm gonna pass this around. This was a picture that was taken of what it did look like. You could see our pipe, but you could see what the culvert was degrading to. We did an emergency repair on this where they actually shored that up. So we will have some stability within the culvert. But I think it's very important for the public and the council to know that we are working on that. But it unfortunately has red tape to it. Next is a big thank you to the linesmen, both Eversource employees and those contracted. They came out and did the work in last week's storm event. There was over 100,000 Eversource customers statewide that were without power during the storm event. We had well over a couple, close to 2,000 at TOPS that were out into Milford. And then they continued to chip away at that. We did have some residents that took a couple of days to get. power back in some of these areas, but a big huge thank you to those linesmen. Eversource had stated they were surprised at the strength of the storm. Some of the other towns surrounding us, we were at one point at about 1.9% of all residents of New Milford. They were on Eversource. New Fairfield was over 94%. It was totally without power. Harwington was around that area as well. Torrington took significant damage also, so it was like an all hands on deck endeavor to bring power back. So as I state, when we push these events out, please, we're getting into hurricane season, please make sure that you've either opted in to notify New Milford or you have a course where you can obtain communications that we put out, that Eversource puts out. You can always opt into their system too if you're a customer and they can let you know more stuff internally. And just reminding everyone if you do have a generator, please make sure it has plenty of fuel. Please make sure the exhaust is outside when and if you do need it. Please make sure just as a common note between now and the rest of hurricane season, just make sure your electronics are fully charged in case we do have an incident that does knock out power. And what that can mean too is we had that rain, it was pretty significant. So and that rain was something that came down very hard, very fast. So didn't have a chance to really go and settle into the ground. So that came in and the balls of these trees, they have become loose because of this, because of this moisture. We have full tree canopy. So even a wind of 25 miles per hour, even a sunny day like today, can knock trees down or knock large limbs down, which could knock down power. So please make sure that you have your electronics fully charged. Also, these downpours can be flash flooding. We were extremely fortunate the last big storm that we had that there was talk of us getting several inches of rain, up to five inches. That rain actually moved a little more to the north and a little to the south, so we were very fortunate. But that leads to making sure if you have a sump pump in your house, if your house is in an area in a flood zone, please make sure your sump pump is working and make sure you keep an eye out. to make sure that you have a way to get out in case there is an issue. And if there's any water going across the road, do not try and drive through water. Seek an alternative route because water is very strong and it can push your car places you don't think it's gonna go. So please make sure. I want to congratulate Officer Hannah, who is now promoted to Lieutenant, and Officer Descalso, who was promoted to Sergeant at last week's promotional ceremony. And they are replacing two retired officers, and a big, huge congratulation to them. Want to say good luck to Emmy Lim, and she is headed as a wrestler for the New Milford Greenway. She's competing in the 2026 Fargo Nationals, the U.S. Marine Corps Junior and 16U National Championships. So a big, huge congratulations to her and wishing her the best of luck. Also wanna congratulate our newest Eagle Scouts, Oliver Brandel, his brother's already an Eagle Scout, so two brothers, Eagle Scouts, that's pretty amazing. A big thank you to Scout Troop 158, Scout Master Hotchkiss, They allowed me to present a certificate to the new Eagle Scout, which is very nice. I appreciate that. And State Representative Buckbeak brought one from the state legislature as well. I also want to thank Scoutmaster Peloso as he talked about what it's like to be an Eagle Scout. to be an eagle, and Scoutmaster Norcross, who is Heidi Norcross's husband, for presenting the Troop 158 medicine bag. So each eagles that are from 158 put something in the bag, and then during the Court of Honor, they talk about all the stuff that's in the medicine bag. So that's pretty cool. Also wanted to thank the New Milford Youth Agency as they had a kind of teen concert that was here on Saturday night at the bandstand. It was great to see all the youth that was there. Great music by New Milford band called Pentamore, all New Milford High School alumni. It was great to see all the people there. A big thank you to Maria Leo and Brian Hembrook. of the Youth Agency for putting that on. It's great to see all the young people out and about. As we all know, or most of us know, health insurance is super important for all of us. For those that don't have health insurance, Access Health, which is the state, helps with making sure that everyone that wants health insurance can get health insurance. We have representatives from there that comes to Pettibone. And there's an opportunity, you can go to the social services website, the mayor's website, or Access Health, and you can make your own appointment, schedule a time to listen to an actual representative to see what best health insurance is for you, there's lots of choices and these experts will help you compare plans answer your specific questions and ensure you enroll in the right plan for you and your family so please make sure if you don't have health insurance this is a great opportunity to check out this may be right for you we want to make sure that everybody has the ability for health care it's so important new milford youth baseball and softball fall ball registration is now open Also, they have a, they just started this past year, called Buddy Ball. And what is Buddy Ball, you may ask?

I may.

Okay. So Buddy Ball is you have people with special needs, children, or neurodiverse, and they play with a regular player, and they play a game of baseball. So it's called Buddy Ball.

So a big, huge thank you to the Milford Youth Baseball and Softball for bringing that to the Milford.

And for those young athletes that are really showing those that may have not played baseball, how wonderful that game is. So if you want to register your child there, please go to their website and register. Also, Katie, did you know New Milford Green Flag football also has open registration?

Yes, I do.

As well as the New Milford Bulls tackle football. So there's lots of great opportunities to do great things.

Is there an age group, by the way, that I might be able to? I don't know what you're laughing about.

So.

And I know Chief Chief Shawn just left, but I wanted to thank him. You know, mutual aid is a big part of emergency response, especially up here in Southwest Litchfield County. On July 10th, a hype hiker became heat exhausted two miles into the Appalachian Trail in Kent. Our Galeageville Fire and Waterwich Fire provided mutual aid with surrounding towns and Northwell Health. Big outstanding work by all. Great teamwork. Good news is we did have some of our folks that got some heat exhaustion, but those hikers ended up being okay. Everyone ended up being okay. But a big, huge thank you, and it goes to show how mutual aid works up here in southwest Litchfield County. Thank you. I want to congratulate the New Milford VFW for achieving all-American status. So a big congratulations to Commander and also his wife, Mayor, who is the auxiliary, Women's Auxiliary President for the VFW. Big congratulations again as Heidi was here to our celebrate 250 committee. Not only did they help us celebrate, but also daughters and sons of the American Revolution. Our New Milford Police Department, New Milford Fire, Public Works, New Milford Ambulance, Sir Team, right back there, Park and Rec, Women's Club, Veteran Honors Guard, American Legion,

Right.

The VFW, the Garden Club for all their work and the Women's Club. Did I say Women's Club? Women's Club during the American 250 festivities. And there's still more festivities to come. Right. But it was great to see. Some of our infrastructure projects were just about almost completed with our New Milford sidewalk project that is down on Route 7. Also on Larson Road, we have sidewalks that are going from Route 7 Larson to the high school. They're completing those as well. Road updates, Sunrise Lane, the contractor is continuing with drainage work on Sunrise Lane. And a big, huge thank you to our Parks and Rec director, Dan Calhoun, our foreman, Blaise Tuz, and our maintainers. Today, they were able to rake and spread 20 yards of certified playground mulch. It's Carlson's Groves Playground. So this year, they've done Young's Field. They've also done Pettibone. And now they've done Carlson's Grove. They're going to continue to do the rest of the playgrounds. But great for them. want to congratulate our very first miles off main community walking project medalists jessica and annabelle and this is what we talked about last time where we have people go to different stores in the downtown they bring their passport or their book with them the stamps by each store stamps those they bring them back and they get a nice medal and it's great to see that this is a self-guided way to experience downtown new milford one stop at a time They collect the stamps in their mile off main walking journal and they work towards the commemorative medal. You can visit newmilfordnow.org to learn more and you can start your miles off main adventure and you can pick up a book either here BD provisions or the hunt if you'd like. The ice cream crawl is doing very well. Lots of people. Again, now we have 10 participating shops for that. You just have to visit 8 between now and August 31st. Bring your seats in the town hall. Guess what, Brian? Ice cream crawl, t-shirt.

Awesome. It increases something in our population, not necessarily other people, but the total weight of the town.

They could, but enjoying it. Oh, of course. And you have plenty of time. So it's not like going and getting them on one day. We have great ice cream places.

I guess we do.

We do.

How many places? Ten?

There's ten, but you have to only go to eight.

Helped you out. That's good. Yeah.

And speaking of other great things, we have lots of farm stands and farms in New Milford. Also, they have their own farm stands. You can go to newmilfordnow.org and check out all these wonderful farm stands and farms. We also put them out on our social media. one at a time some of the great farms we have here we also have our award-winning the milford farmers market on saturdays 9 00 a.m to noon time We also have Notify New Milford, we talked about before. That's where you can opt in to that service and it gives you real time, whether it be weather alerts, traffic alerts, where our crews are, any impeding information that you may need for your day to plan your day ahead. And you know, Katie, I'm glad you asked. What's going on in town? Glad you're saying that.

Can I just say something? I don't know how many people here get the Connecticut magazine, CT magazine. It's the magazine Connecticut lives by, according to the ads. However, in there, they had all the things that they gave awards to, first, second, third. Milford had lots of winners. Unbelievable. Yep. Not just the food, but all kinds of things. All sorts of great stuff. Our shops. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. I was quite proud in reading that. I mean, I'm always proud of New Milford, but that really...

Best town in the USA. July 16th, Thursday. Ron, you're asking what's going on Thursday? Rock the block. 6.30 p.m. Nashville Drive. Great country band. It's Thursday. So make sure to bring your lawn chair. It's going to be outstanding. July 18th, Saturday. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. right here on the green. Litchfield Artisans Festival. Over 95... artisans this year, Randy. So that's kind of like the Old Village Fair Days.

Because people ask, you should bring back the Old Village Fair Days.

Well, guess what? You've got the Artisans Festival here. So come down and enjoy that. And once you're done with that, Diane, guess where else you could go? vintage mania ice cream 10 a.m 4 p.m yeah so if you like comics if you like old autographs old toys like when i was a kid the old toys right brian the old like matchbox cards stuff like that great stuff Also happening on the 18th, I know Katie, you'll be there.

Yep.

10 a.m. starting off the Abbey, the Irish Road Bowling. And if you don't know what that is, right? That's teams get together. They have like, it looks like a little cannonball. It certainly does. And the goal is to get from Jerusalem Hill all the way down through Sunny Valley with the least balls. The money goes to help a most needy family, so a big, huge thank you every year. The Litchfield County Irish American Club puts this on, and it helps so many wonderful families.

And it's a great, you start at the Abbey, they have a hay wagon. I mean, everything about it, if you're just there, you don't necessarily have to bowl. You've got to sign up, which you can't have.

And if you want to come check it out, you can. Yes, right. It doesn't cost anything to go watch how they do that. Right. Then on Sunday, Randy, I know you'll like this, car show. At Pettibone, New Milford Food Bank's getting proceeds with MVPSOS. A lot of cool cars there. Then on July 19th, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., every Sunday, Merwinsville Hotel does their Sunday tour. So you get to see, if you haven't been up there, that's a really cool spot. Oh, it is. It's great. And Jeremy Ruman does such a great job, her and the commission. You have to go in, it's a very unique property. It has a lot of good artisan things there as well. And then July 23rd, 5.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. at the library. Lawyers in the library. These are 20-minute scheduled sessions. They're free, pro bono, free of charge. So if you have a question about the law, you can go to the library. July 25th, starting early in the morning, Park and Rec is doing their 8-mile, 5K, and Children's Fun Run road race right here in the downtown. Mm-hmm. So it's going to be, they've done that for many, many years now. So big congratulations to them. You still have a chance if you're a runner to register. We have now another car show, Randy, on the 26th at Pettibone. And this is Don Clady's cruise into Milford. This is called the big one.

That's a big one.

We have the Farmers Market that'll be on August 1st, 9 a.m. to noon. And Music on the Bandstand, 10 to noon. Dennis Simeon will be playing. And then on August 2nd, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Harrybrook Park. Duck Days, which is formerly the Big Jeep thing, will be there. Then on August 1st, 7 p.m., is the Commission on the Arts. First Kincaid Concerts on the Green, which is always fun. august 7th noon right here in town hall is we are a purple heart town this is the purple heart celebration we do this every year where we celebrate uh those military heroes that received the purple heart august 6th 7th and 8th at pettibone is the lions club carnival it's always fun and tom get this fireworks this year at the lions club like the old days yep Then on August 8th, Farmer's Market Music by Al Bengaster and Friends from 10 a.m. to noon. Al, thank you. Kincaid Concert Series is also on August 8th. Pet Thrift Shop. Paul, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., so if you have a dog and needs some additional stuff, whether it be a bed, a bowl, all sorts of great stuff at a discount price, and the proceeds go to Animal Welfare. And then on August 9th, and these are roads throughout the town, the Macedona Gravel Grinder Bike Ride. And this is like a regional thing. There's hundreds of cyclists here. And they go throughout our town and Kent and everything. And they go on our different roadways. That's a pretty amazing thing. And they come right back here to Young's Field. If you want a chance to see how that is, it's pretty cool. And then KD August 13th will be the fourth Rock the Block, the Pop Rocks.

That's right.

Always a very popular band. 6.30 p.m. That's all I got.

That's all?

That's it.

Okay, well, moving forward, let's go back to item number seven. There's an A, B, C, and D, and with the council's agreement, I would just like to read them all, and you can aye or not afterwards. Is that okay? Good, all right. Seven A, I'd like to move that we accept the following donations. A is the Milford Police Department has a donation for community outreach events, a speaker that they will use. It's estimated to be worth $100, and they wanted to thank a retired SRO, which would be Brian Bolero, for this kind of donation. item seven b parks and rec we'd like to they would like us to accept uh... prove that they can receive the following which is quite nice these donations were for their eight mile and five k road race and they are requesting that the following monetary donations be deposited in their recreation revenue account which is number one zero four five zero five zero zero 44709. The following. New Vance Health, $500. All American Waste, $500. Marandola Fuel, $250. Yardscapes, $250. Luminary Diamond Fine Jewelry, $500. Kimberly Clark, $250. Bright Path Child Care, $2.50, Italia Mia, $25 gift card, Valley Golf, two gift cards estimated about $30 apiece, BJ's, a $50 gift card, Costco, $50 gift card, White Horse Pub, one $65 gift card, and A&M Quality Painting, $500. Item 7C, I'd like to move that we approve for the Department of Public Works, they're requesting permission to accept a donation from the bid winner for $300 and deposit that into the account 104. and item 7d mayor's office requests that we accept the following donations for fireworks they're requesting the following monetary donations be deposited into the economic development fireworks account which is 60-300-53001. And that $1,500 came from American Waste. Second. Any discussion?

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you. All right. Absolutely. Absolutely. Very nice.

Moving on to item eight. These grants, if you agree, we'll move them all together under eight. There's an A, B, C, and D. The first item that we'd like to, Senior Center would like to have us approve a $3,800 award from the Connecticut Community Foundation. The grant will fund after-hours programs for older adults and promote health, wellness, social connection, recreation, making participation accessible for those who work during the day. Transportation and a light dinner will be provided to ensure participants can easily attend and enjoy programs. The funds will be deposited into the account determined by our finance director. Item 8B is the Town of New Milford would like to have us accept an award of $32,035.43. It's a grant from the Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board to support the Summer Youth Employment Program. This program gives the youth a chance to apply for a six-week summer work experience where they get real, hands-on, not they get real, there shouldn't be a comma there, They get real hands on the job exposure right here in New Milford and they learn important skills like communication, responsibility, and teamwork. uh... item eight c the new milford youth agency would like us to move on a two thousand dollar uh... award from the united states united states united way coastal and western connecticut uh... this is an impact philanthropy grant the funds will be used to support child care scholarships for local families helping ensure that equitable access to youth programs and services is available acceptance of the funding will directly support the well-being of new milford children by expanding participation opportunities for those with financial need funds will be received into an account determined by the director of finance and 8d We'd like to move that the New Milford Registrar of Voters would like to accept an award of $21,956.85, and this came from the Connecticut Secretary of State to help offset the expenses that are related to the early voting, and that includes labor costs, printing costs, equipment, and supplies. They respectfully request that the following items be placed on the agenda. Well, it is on the agenda, so that we didn't need. Okay, so there you go. Second by Rolando.

Any discussion?

Just a comment. The grants writer is doing an amazing job.

Amazing. Victoria is doing fantastic. Very happy about that.

Okay. All right. All those in favor?

Aye. any extensions any negative all right thank you okay item number nine this is our tax assessor who's going to be speaking once i tell you what i'm going to say uh i would like to make a motion that we approve the following tax abatement request 9a 31 still river drive masonry construction and 9b 401 danbury road which is a golf driving range a new pro shop and a clubhouse edition Second. Thank you.

Brian?

Okay, Brian?

Okay, for the record, Brian Lastra, town assessor. The first one we'll talk about is 31 Still River Drive. Received an application from the property owner, Alexandra Piera. This pertains to the construction of a masonry garage storage building. comprises about 4,375 square feet at 31 Still River Drive. This is the headquarters for UNA Masonry LLC, a masonry construction business. The building will be used for the storage and servicing of construction equipment and for the storage of materials as well. So I looked at the town ordinance and this project meets the requirements of our ordinance. It's properties located in the restricted industrial zone. It's going to be used for storage. and the cost of improvements exceeds $50,000. If you looked at my summary, at the present time, the property would pay, based on the assessment of the vacant lot, 40, yes.

Because there's a lot of false information that's out concerning tax abatements. So first, some people think that if the town was to give a tax abatement, that these people pay no taxes.

And oh, by the way, they're paying nothing.

So, Brian, isn't it true they would be paying for the next five years the same amount of taxes as they're paying right now?

That's correct.

So it's the same?

Yeah, that's the way our ordinance is written. They continue to pay what they've been paying. In this case, it was a vacant lot.

And one of the things, whether it was on town council when we were doing these or as mayor, so the public can understand why towns do this to bring in extra economic development. First, if you don't bring in commercial development, When taxes go up, guess who pays for all of it? We do. Right? Right. So here's an example. So when you guys look at this sheet of paper that Brian's going to be talking about, You look at right now, Brian Wright, it's $4,900 in taxes per annum. Right. Right?

That's what it is currently. On the real estate.

And they'll continue to pay $4,900 per year, right? When you look at these abatements, you look at over what they call a 20-year run rate, right? Because we look at, when you're looking at property, looking right tom you're in that business 20 years of the norm so if you were to do that right now if nothing was to happen the town would collect over 20 years 98 000 not bad right randy not bad 98. now with the fact that this company now is invested in new milford and grown Brian, what is the new tax going to be without an abatement on it?

Yeah, so the new tax would be over $9,000 a year without the abatement. Now, you're saying to yourself, why is that important?

Well, let me tell you why. So, your first five years, you're continuing to pay your $4,900. Then you add in After year five, what the new amount is going to be, $9,030. So what does that bring? Now, we already said that over 20 years of doing nothing brings you $98,000. Well, do it this way, Randy. Guess what? $225,750 is how much over a 20-year run rate you're now going to get from this business.

Right.

right now we also have to think of that and that's just the incremental difference right then you got to add the 20 650 because for the first five years don't forget guys you're still paying the 40 the 4900 so you gotta add that in that's 246 400 and here's the kicker so brian you actually on your sheet talk about the additional motor vehicles, excavators, and stid skiers that now we're taxing this new entity. How much does that come out to be?

So between motor vehicles and equipment, probably around $4,100 a year. So you're actually paying for the abatement just by the personal property that's... And we've had, like Savitri, we've had other instances where their personal property taxes exceed the tax abatement per year.

And so, with that being said, and, right, as you were just saying, Brian, that starts day one. You're not waiting five years. That's when they assume it and you put it on the rolls. We are taxing them on those vehicles. Right. That comes to $82,000 a year. So, when you add all of that up, on the one hand, if nothing happened, over 20 years, $98,000. Now, $328,000. 98, 328. A difference of $230,000. Pretty good return, wouldn't you think there, Rolando?

So again, with the improvement they did to that corner, which looked like a dump, it's starting to grow and look beautiful over there. Yeah.

So again, that's why towns, and we're not the only one, as Brian could tell you, there are other towns fighting for these businesses, like nobody's business, no pun intended. Yeah. But just so the public can understand, it's not like they're paying zero taxes. Right. They're paying the same as they're paying now for five years, but paying for their capital. They're paying for their vehicles and everything else. And again, there's that.

okay now we have the next one now we got the next still river drawing okay uh 401 danbury road this was submitted by jerry romanello new milford golf llc and it pertains to the construction of a new driving range a new pro shop expansion and renovations of the existing clubhouse at candlewood valley country club again this one meets the tax deferral ordinance it's located in the industrial commercial zone the property will be used for recreation and the cost of the improvements exceeds 50 000. The project will be done in three phases. Construction of a new two-story driving range and associated site improvements will be first. Second phase will involve the demolition of the existing golf cart building and the construction of a new pro shop. So the pro shop and the driving range are actually going to be like back to back. Then third, they propose expanding and completely renovating the existing clubhouse. Scope of the work will include the construction of a new main entrance at the front of the building with a grand staircase to the second floor banquet hall. So as you can see here, this is typical of golf courses. They're trying to branch out from just golf into being more of a hospitality type of venue. So in terms of the numbers on this one, currently, they're assessed at a little over $1.5 million, and they're paying $36,360 a year in real estate taxes. So that's not going away. That's going to stay. The increased assessment attributed to the new construction will be a little over $2 million, $2.171 million. and that would generate using the current mill rate a tax of $51,020. So you're looking to abate this new construction. As I said, it's going to be in phases. It's not going to get done in one year. So this will occur over a period of time. But again, it shows a real vision for this type of property for the future. And personal property taxes are going to go along with this type of expansion. I estimate it would be about $9,500 per year. So you'll get some of that in terms of the abatement. You'll be getting some of that back in new equipment.

Was so many years ago, remember? I do.

so again real quick math right uh but this would be a little bit different because you're layering in these different years but just as an example right now they would continue to pay uh was it thirty six thousand three sixty correct brian right that comes over twenty years the seven hundred twenty seven thousand two hundred dollars with the new assessment over a 20-year run you'd be at one million seven hundred forty seven thousand six hundred dollars and then over a 20-year run rate on the actual uh property equipment would be an additional 190 000 but again layered in because they're going to be different phases to this project but again you can now you can see that by doing these things you're actually seeing growth in the commercial sector and these revenues will help offset expenditures both now because he's paying the same he's paying today he's not paying zero and it helps as we continue uh and costs uh continue to escalate also what is very helpful as well is people aren't taking these projects and pulling the money out of their pocket Maybe some are extremely lucky. Those are unicorns that have that kind of cash. But most everybody else is doing what they call loans, more than likely small business loans. Why are you even bringing this up? Because they have to qualify for loans. And in qualifying for loans, you have to take a look at revenue and you have to take a look at cash flow. These projects, another big reason why I know Tom was on the council when I was on, why we really wanted to go with these abatements, which is just as important as the revenue, is the fact that because you're able to lower for the first five years their cost, right, because it would be tax cost, you can qualify. I know of two businesses that would not have been able to open in New Milford because the cash flow wasn't there without the abatement so this is another reason why you do this is it allows for those people that are borrowing funds you have a lower what they call debt to income ratio dti because you're able to offset that and a lot of the sba loans or a lot of other loans look at that kind of track record especially right time over the first five years or whatever so again another plus okay

Any questions for Brian? Thank you, Brian.

Okay. You know, real quick, Katie, before you make the motion, I really got to thank Brian, and I got to thank his whole department there. Homestead Act, reval, it's busy, and then these things as well. He's got a three-man staff. He's got good people. You have a couple of part-timers that are helping with Homestead. But, Brian, I know we can't thank you enough for all of your hard work, for sure.

Yeah, appreciate it. Thank you.

So we've had a motion and a second.

A motion and a second. Any other discussion for Brian? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you. Thank you, Brian. Appreciate it. Appreciate it very much. Thank you.

Item number 10. We have 10A, B, and they have to be motions. So I'd like to motion for 10A. This is to approve the creation of a contract administration support specialist who would be funded by the opioid settlement for the amount of $12,000.00.

We have a second. Tony or Amy, would you guys like to talk a little bit about the committee's recommendation?

I'm going to defer this, Amy.

Hi, good evening everyone. Thank you so much for having us tonight. So essentially the $12,000 would be allocated rather for this administrative contract position. The employee would be focused on evaluation of some of the initiatives that have been passed so far as well as some of the administrative duties that are associated with our organization. So helping our health department out and bringing some of our initiatives to fruition as well as social services.

And Amy, that person would be reporting to the health district?

That's correct. Where would that person be located? So predominantly probably remotely and sometimes they would come into the new Milford office as well.

Any further discussion on this motion? All those in favor? Opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you.

Next item 10 B. I'd like to move that we approve the appropriation of $7,500 from the opioid settlement for the homeless shelter Before I ask any questions, I just have a question first, because I don't know that everyone in this room are people at home. When you say the homeless shelter, what can you please define? Because the arts, is the one art still here? Yes. Yes, I know you deal with it in various ways, but what do you please describe?

let me actually ask mark who created who drafted the proposal to present and maybe have art as a backing mark can you just you know just a brief yeah so it would be this is for the new milford community shelter that arthur spoke about so my name is mark eccles

So this would be... You're talking about where Lobes and Fish is. Is it Danny Straub Center that you're talking about?

No, no, no. This is the temporary shelter that operates over the winter. So the New Milford Community Shelter.

So we use three different churches.

Okay, that's what I was trying to get you to say. Okay, because there is no shelter as a one place. I'm talking about the churches that you have been using for a long time. Okay, so how is that? Then my question, knowing that you have three, and who knows, you could have another one, that this is intended to give funds where they're needed there? Correct. I'm looking at you, but I don't know if I should be talking to you.

It's okay, either one. Yeah, it's to offset their operating costs of equipment, heating, insurance.

Okay, so just so people understand, it's to offset the operational costs, insurance, and things that are necessary in order for us to have these shelters.

Correct.

Okay, that's all I had to ask.

Yeah, I mean, Tony and Arthur talked about it in pretty good length, but I, uh, this is, you know, obviously offsets about half of their operating costs to provide that temporary shelter in the colder months. Um, I think about in 2022, about 700 people died from hypothermia. They weren't housed about a little over half of those suffered from either substance use or mental illness. So this would just provide a place in the colder months to, um, you know, get them, you know, in a safe spot overnight. So it's entirely volunteer. So,

And are we sure that this is a use for opioid settlement funds? Yes. Thank you, Amy.

And Art, a big thank you to you, the other Art, all the volunteers. I served a night last year as well, and it's very much needed for sure.

We're always looking for overnight volunteers, by the way.

Yeah. And the numbers are growing. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. Any other questions on the motion?

No, there are three.

The shelters are, there's three of them, but they're the churches, right?

Yeah.

What is the organization, the Community Homeless Shelter?

The New Millford Community Shelter, yes.

Is that what you call them officially? Uh-huh. Okay. Yeah.

Community Homeless Shelter.

Yeah, that should be on here.

Okay. It's a 501c3. Yep. That was your motion.

all those in favor aye opposed any abstentions thank you item 10d um is i don't know that there's a motion for this but um I guess there is. I'd like to move that the Opioid Settlement Committee is able or should or can define the eligibility for redemption housing voucher program. So my question, you're going to define it? It means you're going to write up something?

well actually yes we do have a proposal here i do want to give a little framework a little context here if i if i may uh tonight i'm asking the council to clarify really uh you know what the the definition of a new milford nexus really means uh in our mind when we when we presented the proposal some months ago uh you know we we thought that it meant a uh a meaningful and verifiable connection to our community, not simply the possession of a current New Milford residential address. This issue arose after a candidate was denied the opportunity to be screened because they did not have a New Milford residence. While residency requirements may be appropriate for traditional taxpayer-funded municipal benefits, certainly does have a place and it makes a lot of sense, this particular program is uniquely different in three ways and probably more than that, but in three ways it's uniquely different. I've brought an OG in this space, Ms. Allison Fulton, to speak to one of those. But the first I want to call out as Ms. Allison comes to the stand here is that this program is not funded by New Milford taxpayers. I think that's an important footnote. This program is funded through the opioid litigation settlement proceeds, not New Milford property taxes or the town's general operating budget. Connecticut requires these proceeds to support substance use disorder abatement, including prevention, treatment, recovery, harm reduction, and related services. These funds exist because individuals, families, and communities suffered devastating losses during the opioid epidemic, which is still ongoing. It has gotten better, but it's still ongoing. Frankly, as you know, families like mine did not lose our loved ones according to a municipal boundary. The opioid crisis did not stop at the New Milford border, and neither does the treatment and recovery network serving the community. Connecticut has also recognized that housing is a legitimate opioid abatement strategy. In 2025, the state approved $58.6 million in housing initiatives for people experiencing opioid use disorder and homelessness. Housing is not separate from recovery. In fact, it's the foundation in which recovery is built on. If you don't know where you're going to wake up, You cannot possibly build a strong recovery plan. It's almost impossible. Okay. Now that's point one. Point two, again, I'm going to defer to Ms. Allison, who might be able to give a little bit more context, but really it's about the need.

I understand what you're saying about you know the money is there now but every town is available it's available money for them as well so you're asking to have instead of just working on people in New Milford and helping them out you're saying you'd like to expand that to anyone

Well, yes, but no. Let us finish the framing, and then maybe I can answer your question with more clarity. The answer is yes, but no, and I'll clarify that in just a second.

Okay. Thanks for having me. I'm Allison Fulton. I'm with the Western Connecticut Coalition. I'm a part of this wonderful council. And I've been in this field since 2001. So I've been kind of around since the genesis of the opioid epidemic, as I like to call it. So I've kind of seen things. I've seen things come and go. And so we were having this conversation during one of our most recent meetings about, you know, what about not servicing people who are actual residents of the community? And so I said, you know, if an ambulance pulled in because they were called and 911 was called, they wouldn't turn, they would not serve the person because they are not a resident of New Milford, I don't think. And then I also just kind of was thinking in my head, well, you know, I've been looking at the data from the Office of Chief Medical Examiner for a long time and let's just take a look and see how many people who live and pay taxes in Milford have passed away in another community. and how many people from other communities have passed away with overdoses here in Milford. So I just looked 2020 to 2025, and I included both 2020 and 2025. So all the way through those five years, or six years actually, there were 23 overdose deaths that occurred in New Milford. I'm just gonna read my notes between those years. 26% of them involved people who were not New Milford residents. Also, between those same years, 20 and 2025, 25% of overdose deaths of New Milford residents occurred somewhere other than New Milford. So I kind of went through those towns. I'd be happy to tell you what they were. So services are rendered in other places. As Tony mentioned before, this is something that does not have borders, right? This is a devastating situation for all communities. And yes, you know, every single 169 town in the state of Connecticut did get settlement dollars. And, you know, maybe there was a middle ground. Maybe there's a plan B for saying, hey, we're servicing somebody from your community. Just so you know, maybe you could help us balance it out. I don't know. I just think just flat out saying no is really not a great idea. It's really going to cost lives.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Any questions?

Yeah. obviously you know you wouldn't turn away just as you use the ambulance thing but this is a housing voucher and I have some questions for Tony you know where's the housing what are you talking about and how long do they stay and then what happens who supports them when they're here I mean those are just a few questions that I have I don't want to be the one that's asking all the questions but so I understand what you're saying else and it's certainly it needs it's something that needs to be addressed but the The epidemic itself is the big McGill in the room. This is a housing voucher program, and that's what I'd like to have you explain to us. One of you, all of you.

I just want, I just, well, I just also feel that something like this, a program like this is really worth testing out before we just flat out say, hey, this is not a good idea. Too many dollars might be allocated to people who don't live here, never lived here, whatever. We know one instance where somebody was actually homeless. They don't live anywhere. Well, I have the data. Of course. Okay.

I have the data.

What's the voucher? This is what I'm trying to say. So the voucher is to ensure that they- Where's the house first? Let's talk about where.

Anywhere that they select. It's like Section 8. This voucher can be used at any provider across the state of Connecticut and beyond as it was approved that provides recovery services that will prevent them from from being found dead in the street.

Okay. I get that. But my point is you're talking about that somebody doesn't matter where they're from, but this is now going to be a voucher that they can go into whatever section a availability we have in new milford and stay there for one month and to be clear i'm using section 8 as an example in that they can take this voucher and utilize it anywhere as being told that they have to use it so you just answered one other question one month and who oversees this so that that person is January 1st, let's say, when it gets to be February 1st, who assures that that person is still there? Are they, when they leave, when they don't? How does that all get taken care of?

So we rely, the start and end of this program is basically getting that applicant through the candidacy process, the screening process, and then ultimately a check is delivered to the resource provider directly. At that point, this service is complete. That's done. They have one month to work with the recovery provider, Silver Home. And the hope is that that 30 days, which generally a lot of times is actually matched by the provider themselves to extend it to 60 days. But at that period of time, that allows them to get themselves a job, their documentation, their license, all those things that they need to sort of put the backpack of life back on and get themselves back going. Remember now, this is on the heels of the crisis intervention moment, the detox. the inpatient setting, and then this kicks in.

I understand, Tony. We've all heard you tell us, and I think we're all intelligent enough to understand. But my point is, I don't know how much Section 8 housing do we have in New Milford. It's not Section 8, ma'am. I'm sorry.

I used that just as an analogy. Well, what is it? It is a silver housing voucher program. Okay.

Sober houses. We have, I understand that. Okay. That's a little different because section eight is also used by people who are not.

Okay.

So now the person's there and how is the second month? You said it could be funded by the provider. Who's that?

the recovery home that they went to, a lot of times will match our voucher with their own voucher in a gesture of good faith to kind of get these people going.

I'm not trying to knock what you're doing, but there's a lot of people in this town who ask me and some other people that, because we hear you and we're the ones here to ask you these questions, is that we have some issues in our own town with people, unfortunately, and it's everywhere, and we try to do the best we can. And I just wonder what... putting out this redemption voucher, is that going to bring somebody, new people or whatever, to take a place that maybe somebody the next day who's lived here forever.

They're a legitimate concern. And we have data so far. that we could talk about with how the program's going so far. So far we've had four applicants, four candidates. 75% of the candidates have been from New Milford. One of those three is couchsurfing. So that technically is not really a nexus to New Milford as it is previously defined. Right. That person who's couch surfing actually does not have a residence, you know, actual residence here in New Milford. Right. They're couch surfing by a host family from, you know, that's just kind hearted enough to let them stay somewhere until they can get into a place. Right. The other ones. One was one was went to New Milford High School, but doesn't live here anymore. But that was considered a nexus. So we're just trying to clarify what that nexus is. What we may be able to do, in the spirit of what Ms. Fulton said, was maybe we play this out. Maybe we put a reserve in there that says up to 25% can be used outside for people non-residents or something like that.

There's no amount here. Tony, there's no amount. You're talking about 75%. This is to define, you're supposed to be defining eligibility for redemption housing voucher programs. Yes. So I expected you to say you were going. You want us to say that's OK to do it, but then you're going to bring it back. Because you you expect you're going to define it for us and you want us to vote on it now.

Yes ma'am and I have one more one more consideration for this debate and that is this notion that if we say no to not to people who don't hold a residence of an address. The notion that it's. We save money. It's actually costing us a lot more money.

I don't think anybody's talked about the money.

But I just want to make sure that I'm on record to call out that the national numbers show that just an overdose call alone without an inpatient or anything like that, a simple run-of-the-mill call is about $2,000. It's about $10,000 for an inpatient encounter, and costs just escalate when you have this sort of repeat.

Tony, I understand those costs, but you're talking about a voucher for somebody to have a place to stay. We would never turn somebody away, like you said, if the ambulance picked them up, of course.

I'm trying to contrast the difference between a $1,000 voucher.

But you're using money in a way that what I want to know is, How much of your opioid settlement do you intend to use for this? Because that's what taught. I don't want to hear about what the ambulance and the hospital cost because New Milford would do that.

Well, we should want to hear that part. But if we're looking exclusively.

But you can't stop, Tony. You can't stop that from happening. That's how you're going to find out about the person who needs the voucher. That's going to happen no matter what. You're not going to reimburse.

That's not necessarily the case. It could be. Okay.

You want to split hairs. Just please answer the first. Just keep going. Tell us how this is going to work.

Okay, so the request of clarification is this. I respectfully ask the town to adopt the following interpretation. For purposes of the Redemption Housing Hope Fund, a New Milford nexus means a documented and meaningful connection to the New Milford community through the current or previous residents, family, education, employment, temporary housing, homelessness, host family, within the community, connection to treatment, healthcare, recovery services, peer support participation, nonprofit involvement, or referral from a recognized New Milford area provider, agency, or community partner, such as the uh community navigator uh in those those types of programs an applicant shall not be denied screening solely because the applicant lacks a current permanent new milford uh residential address this does not eliminate vetting applicants still get screened for financial need and those sorts of things and for the appropriateness of the recovery housing and placement readiness it simply ensures that the definition reflects the realities of the homelessness and recovery and remains faithful to the purpose and settlement of the funds entrusted to our town. So that is basically the way that I think that at least I was thinking about what nexus to New Milford means. For example, Mark works with Lantana. And Mark, you brought up a use case. Maybe you can explain that use case.

Yeah, it's just, I mean, we have two treatment facilities in New Milford. We have several sober homes. So a lot of times those clients don't have a physical address at all, right? But they're being housed in some capacity or at least cared for in New Milford. And they would, you know, they need to, once they complete their treatment, find housing. So that was a situation that came up. Do they qualify for Nexus, right? Or do they qualify for this money?

There are people in the sober homes. They pay to be there. They either have an insurance or how they're paying for it if they have it. There's no free ride here. I know people who are in these homes. They pay for it.

Right.

That's what the doctor's for. This helps them get in that first month.

The first month in one of those sober homes is a lot more than what you said about you meant to say.

Well, ma'am, we've got four.

You didn't mean to say the Section 8, right?

No, ma'am. I was using that just as an example of how they can take this voucher and go anywhere because there's two different sorts of, maybe that was a bad analogy, but I was just trying to demonstrate that it was an at-will voucher where they could bring anywhere that they wanted as opposed to being forced to basic needs. establishment, which is oftentimes not good.

Thank you, Tony. I have a question for Allison because you represent the can. What other towns are doing this in your can?

I'm sorry.

What other towns are doing this in your can?

In our region, the 43-town region that I am currently in, no one is doing this. So we're the only one? No. There's another group that has a consortium of like 14 towns all pooling their funds. They are not running a program like this. No. They're doing a lot of other wonderful things, but not this one. New Milford's Council and the things you've done are very unique.

So as you just said, this transcends borders. So if we're the only one... yeah right that's doing this and we don't have a marker for how we treat using these and they're not going to be funds forever right yeah okay what happens so how do we do that if we're the only town well i'm yes you're right i mean um it would be wonderful if another community could do it and you could have reciprocal you know agreements i'm kind of looking at this like

This issue is one of those ones where it seems to me, in Western Connecticut, a lot of towns, and you used the term mutual aid before, somebody, I mean, this is what people have been doing for one another, kind of help, and to just abate the whole situation. I mean, for 20 some odd years, Newtown, Parent Connection has been servicing mostly people not from Newtown with Newtown dollars and Newtown Foundation dollars. So, you know, it's one of those, this topic I think is a little different than every other topic.

And I would agree with you if New Milford was the only one receiving opioid funds. Every municipality has received funds. We're one of the smaller towns in your camp.

Yes.

So we get less money than the other towns do. I have a question. I'm sorry.

How about going about it another way? Because Tony, you have connections with a lot of the people on our surrounding town. How about trying to get everybody on board to try to do something like this? Because what happens is, and I don't think anybody at this table is going to think otherwise. We all want to help. But you see where there's going to be people that are going to be thinking, Because everybody uses, you know, the brain is going to think that there's going to be other times that are just going to say, okay, the helper's doing it. We'll find a way to get you to move, to get you to help, not, you know, to get you to help. It's going to get people asking, like, we're going to get a lot of people now coming in here. What are these vouchers?

And I'd argue, not argue, I agree. I understand the concern. I really do. We want to make sure we've got money for our residents, right? And I think there's ways to do that. What money do you think you're going to use for this?

You haven't given us an amount. What are you thinking when you say this, you are redefining? What's the kitty? What's in the piggy bank for this?

So this was already approved for a set amount. I understand, but what happens? I can dig that number up. It's already been approved. So I think it was $75,000 was the amount that we approved several months ago. And I'm not asking that we open that up to the entire world. But just really to get back to your point, I agree with you, Mr. Castro. But this is very much the same as when we were shipping our homeless folks down to Danbury. And that happened for many years. Right. So this is a reciprocation in theory, in concept, in spirit of a similar kind of thing. I have made roots, as you know, I know Mayor Alves and Danbury and those folks down there. You know, I don't influence that. I'm not the chair of their committee. I can certainly host those. And maybe that we can band together in that way. And that's that's the next an obvious and a great next step. um you know what i'm really asking for here is that where there is a connection when mark is working with somebody and he's been and he's got them ready to like take that next step that should serve as a connection you know he's he's a he's a milford partner right same thing with with our foundation the same thing with the phoenix house you know miss amy you know any of these people like just because they don't have the traditional it's almost it's almost like a a catch-22, right? Like you can't get New Milford help because you don't live in New Milford, but you can't live in New Milford because you, you know, it's just weird catch-22.

Tony, there are people in our three plus sober houses here who don't live in New Milford, didn't live in New Milford until they... went wherever they did and for how long and needed a place to stay. And I vouched many of those people. But when you mention that people, you know, that sending people to Danbury, Danbury is a city. They have a lot more facility availability than we do. And we're not going to turn into a city overnight for sure. I think... I'm just going to say this for myself. I would like to see more. I'd like to know how you're going to apportion this. Is there going to be anything, as the mayor said, that prevents people just from being sent here? That happens all the time. Just as we would send someone to Danbury if there was an open place, such as at ARC. Well, we paid for some of that. You can't expect the people of New Milford to view this and I know you want and we all want people to understand this is a big problem and it doesn't harm you today and tomorrow it might. So I get that but I think as I've told you people have wanted to know about all this. This was out here and I said I don't really know what the whole point is going to be about this voucher. When somebody leaves the 28 days and they come down here and they have the insurance or whatever to stay, they stay as long as the money will last. You have $75,000 and of course you're continuing to receive opioid settlements, right? So I just think it's something, it isn't a matter of saying don't do it, but I think there's other issues in this same cauldron of, unfortunately, that's there and maybe the part about sending, keeping people here, sending people here is going to be a little bit stuck in the craw. Nobody's really ever said anything about the money you've spent in other ways. This is just a little bit closer to home, that's all.

I think we did talk about, we've all talked about the exact same things you're bringing up right now. I think we did talk about having excuse me, just like one spot always, like there would never be no spots open for vouchers for people who actually are residents of New Milford. And some way of creating that that system where when they got vetted okay we've got three open spots and you know we know that nobody from the milk will be turned away there was a way to figure that out i think that's what we were kind of working on if nothing else maybe for tonight we can maybe for tonight if nothing else we could land on

what the definition should be until we can come back with maybe a wider definition of it. My proposal is that I think the ultimate goal here is to make this program accessible and accessible to those who need it as it is defined, as this thing was intended to be in the spirit of this fund, which is to help people who need these supports because these are critical life-saving matters. And if you, I think I need to walk away tonight understanding what your view, the town council's view.

My view is 169 towns are receiving the money just as we are. And as the mayor said, we're certainly not any metropolis. We're not getting more than. There's people getting more than. And Allison pointed out, Newtown, they're spending their own money now. Why? Maybe they don't have people like you who are interested in getting into the opioid and doing something with that funds. But I just don't, I think I would like, personally, I'd like you to give some thought on this and come back and have something written to show us. And I think the town has to be able to think about it.

I do have something written. I'm willing to provide. No, I want us.

I want you not. We're not going to decide. I don't want to decide on this tonight.

OK, I understand that.

We can submit the portion that you've written to the council tonight. They can review and we can assess that in another meeting.

And Amy, what I'd like to see if we could do is talk to for the health district, which is New Milford. It's Washington. It's Oxford, Southbury and Woodbury. Let's see if we can get all of us together and maybe we can all appropriate in our area a certain set amount that creates the kitty that Tony's talking about. I will call Mayor Alves tomorrow and see if there's the ability with Danbury, maybe Steve Dunn in Brookfield, and maybe we can create in that segment of the area that we can each appropriate a certain amount of dollars. Right? A small amount so that we start exactly what you're talking about in a kind of controlled environment to see how that works for everybody. But then get everybody buying into it.

And that way maybe other towns would see what you have done and what you're thinking of and understand that, you know, I think Milford's done a lot for people and of course you have been at at the forefront, I know Allison's always on it, that you just show somebody, like one of the towns you just mentioned, Southbury is an example. I mean, there's no town that's free of having these problems. So if they maybe don't have the time, maybe Newtown doesn't have a bunch of people to look at, you've done part of this work, I think that's a good idea. Talk about it. And that way, no one town or 10 towns is gonna feel a burden because the other 159 or whatever aren't doing anything.

I like what you just suggested. I just want to point out one thing. Talk about it.

I've heard and seen over the years that many people that, let's say, from New Milford whose addiction is here can't really remain here because there's too many reminders, there's too many friends that drag them back in. So we may be, some of the people that may need to be put up may need to be shipped out of town so they're in an environment that is not familiar. So that opens up a whole can of worms with this on how we need to be able to help and get funds from other towns. If there's a sober house in Southbury and we're sending somebody there and there's somebody from Southbury who wants to come up here, we have to have some sort of collaboration with these other towns. If we're the only people that have had the sense and the compassion to start a committee like you folks, we have to get up on the hill and start saying something and maybe start to embarrass some of these other towns into participating with us because people are coming into Milford because there's a lot of resources here, right? There's a lot of places people can camp behind Big Y. There's lots of farms here. You can go disappear here very easily.

It's not funding, though. Right. It's not our town funding. Right. But just, you know, the funding is there for all the towns. So I think in the course of talking, as the mayor said, to talk with the towns that we are abutting with and say, have you considered this? And they might say, well, we don't know how to start. Well.

We have the committee. We've had the idea.

I don't want to speak to you. every community in the state of Connecticut is doing something with those dollars but I thought your question was are they doing a voucher program no that's so I know that they use them as far as I know in our region which is the 43 towns of western Connecticut nobody's doing that yeah just you guys but you know um yeah some of we've kind of talked about doing collaborative work with other communities along the way and I think it's a great idea I think the better we can you know

Does Danbury have a voucher program for the sober housing?

No, not that I know of. Do you know that? No.

But they have a lot of people that are willing to help. And Tony knows he has a lot of connections in Danbury. And like Mayor Pete just said, you know, maybe we can start there. We can start reaching out to our neighbor in town. And let's go on this together.

Question. I know from personal experience that when somebody is ready to leave their treatment and they do need to go somewhere, the treatment center usually finds some place for them.

Find, yes.

No, I understand what you're going to say. Whether they can fund it is a different story. So are the centers around us that where people go, do they know about this, what you're thinking of doing? And do they know that there's so few towns that are even considering doing something like this through the vouchers?

The answer again is yes and no. None of this is a black and white kind of response, unfortunately, and I'm not trying to evade your question. Here's the bottom line. We are the spearhead of this thing. We are leading this whole thing. And with that becomes great responsibility. And sometimes it's answering these tough questions. And sometimes it means guys like me have to take no for an answer. And I understand that.

But you're also the perfect person, Tony, to talk to another town about it.

Yeah, I just I just I'm telling you, gang, that if we're going to wait for everybody to join us. We're going to see more losses.

I don't think for anybody, I just...

I understand. It's defined, listen, you gave us, there's five words here that we're supposed to now, we're supposed to define. If you come back with a full definition of what you're looking for, as well as that description, when we have other members too, we're also missing other council members.

And other towns that have people handling things like this might have some good ideas too.

Maybe it does need a little more work, but I guess the bottom line is after they leave the sober house, we know that's kind of a dangerous period and that's when a lot of deaths occur. So whether they're New Milford residents or they have some connection to New Milford, it's still the loss of a life. And I think this is a really good idea to support it. And in my opinion, they probably would need more than a month, but at least it's a start.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, nobody, I don't think, speaking for myself, I'm not against this. I just want some more clarity to this, and let's flesh this definition out. And quite frankly, I wouldn't promote it to everybody in the world, because if every other town around here knows, they'll be shipping them here, you know, there'll be bus tickets.

We understand that concern, we really do. We're trying to find that, you know, like, you know, and really what we're trying to say is like, if they haven't established like, you know, like what Mark's doing, what Austin Gold is doing, like, you know, these people, you know, they're not from New Milford, but they found their way here. Right. And what do you do with that? Right. It's not like, you know, grabbing a megaphone or putting something in the paper. Kevin, New Milford will take care of you. It's like when we uncover somebody in need and, you know, we understand that there's this boundary and stuff, it's complicated stuff.

And so I understand the mission. Like Mayor said, get together.

Yeah, I'm telling you, though, that, you know, we and to be clear, New Milford is one of the larger award winners of this across the state. We did receive a lot more money than a lot of other towns, not the most of all the state. But we are in terms of what we receive. When I compare that and I talk with my peers across the state, a lot of towns, some even bigger than ours, didn't even get as much as us. And I was actually shocked. Like, you know, really shocked. So, you know, let us take this back. It sounds to me, to answer the question that I presented before, for now, the definition of the nexus to New Milford is you must possess a New Milford address in order to qualify for the voucher program. We're not saying that. We're not saying that at all, Tony. Not at all. We're not saying that.

Just don't say that because it's not anything that anybody here said.

I'm sorry, Ms. Francis. Then help me understand where we are right now until we can come back.

We don't want people sent here because we're the only place. I understand. I understand. I want people to not be addicted, to not have these problems. We all do. but by having vouchers and sending somebody from some other town in the state here, it's not gonna solve it. So let's work, I think, what I'd like you to do, and you have all this information and Amy and Allison, sit down and figure out how to let the people who abut us, and then those people would look at the town next to them, because we can't take everybody, right? So that, there you go. And it could turn out that way, Tony, because if it's all as great and works as well, once you start it, that's what'll happen. And that's why people ask me, what is this all about? Why this voucher? See, when you put that in there, that makes people ask, voucher for where are they going?

You're going to a certified recovery center.

It's not like it's only a New Milford provider that they would have to go to. So in your example, if it's a New Milford resident that wanted to go to a sober house, there's no sober living in Southbury that I know of, but they wanted to go somewhere else in the state, they could do that with this one. We're not bringing people into New Milford.

Right, but your voucher wouldn't go to another town.

Yes. Yes, it will. It would go to that provider.

Yes, it will to the provider.

Okay, then you have to have interaction with the town. Let's say the person lives in Brookfield. So you have to have some sort of interaction with someone so that this voucher is used. And that's why you go back to what the mayor said and have a conversation with the people around us. That's all. Just that we can't do it right now doesn't mean we're not going to do it. But I think we owe the people who live here an opportunity to understand it.

And with all due respect, ma'am, we owe the people who are looking for this help a definition of what nexus to New Milford is. I understand that. And so tonight, I think, you know, in lieu of, you know, any other, it sounds to me like we're going to take traditional practices.

I think Tony and I'm speaking with the council, they can... interject right now, but I think what you may think is you're talking about somebody couch surfing, right? If you could quantify that they have been here for say a quarter, four months, three months, four months, they've been here. They've had some stuff here, not somebody that's been here for a week. It was moved here for a week, now it's couch serving, and now I think there has to be some sort of a timeline as we kind of work this stuff out. I personally am an optimist. I think by you bringing us this challenge, which you have, you guys have come up with some very innovative solutions, and we can see by the data how this is successful. how now this can lead to us now talking through the region, like asking, now Amy, for us as the health district is one part, but then our other towns that are next to us, whether it be Brookfield, Danbury, Sherman, seeing if they wanna partner up a little bit, take a little bit of their money, putting it into a pool that now we have the resource for what you're talking about, regional. which I think is going to be much more advantageous. That would be great.

So let's say Sherman, small, right? Maybe they have three vouchers. That's what they could handle. And then you go to Washington or Warren or whatever. And that way you're still in the area if this person would like to be in the area, but we don't overwhelm. And there is only so many places that they can go here.

But I mean for two, but I mean...

they want to go to another town, they use the voucher for the month for the other town. Like I said, from my experience, a lot of people cannot live where they were addicted. There's too many reminders, there's too many friends, there's too many people dragging them back into that lifestyle.

It's not a no, Tony. It's just that this is a complex thing, and there's a town full of people who I hope are going to watch this.

My mind keeps going to, what's the referral process? How are people going to hear about this? Like, that's where I'm going.

And I also say, even at the regional level.

You mean people who need it, you're saying, Allison?

I'm just saying, I mean, I know that somebody was involved with this one person that has come looking for a voucher that didn't get it because they didn't live here, right? That's the way I understand it. So what I'm wondering is, like, You know, where are these people coming from that are finding out about the voucher?

Well, that's why I asked about the treatment centers, because I do know this from a friend.

The treatment centers don't know about this program.

No, no, but they do sometimes try to find a place to send. Yeah, sometimes they will.

Who denied you? The other curveball here is that even with the regional thing, right we're still going to have this border problem right like is someone's going to be like sherman's going to say yeah we'll come in with you and then they're going to get a they're going to get somebody who's not a resident that that falls in under the like police are going to come on the scene where are you from you know how can we help you and no i don't i don't see that myself tony i i would two people who passed away here in new milford who were from

Well, Wingdale, New York, and Brooklyn, New York. Right.

But that's because they, like you talked about the ambulance situation, I think that's fine. But you mentioned that somebody was denied a place to stay here. Who denied them?

Well, it's it's and I don't want to. I don't. I don't know. I don't know names and stuff like that. All I know is I don't want to know the name.

It was a process problem who sent, but who was doing the processing? That's what I want to know.

I think it was. I think it was the vetting process. They kind of vetting by whom? Um, I know for social services, I think is the one who that's the financial piece of this.

And I think when they, when they, uh, when they had a call, I think it was not within their purview to be able to review people who don't. Okay. That's more like it. I just was going to say that.

Okay. All right.

So I don't mean to disparage at all the folks that are part of it because they're just, you know, adopting, you know, logical previous.

practices and stuff uh and that's why we're here well there's another avenue of the reason that we really ought to you know get in get into this so i think yeah just don't worry about emotion i did not make a motion oh i did that's right yes you forced me into it and rilando seconded it it isn't to say no tony so please don't think that but you have to understand that just the few people that are here tonight even even if all 11 of us were here This is what you're saying is, well, we want to have people come into town. And you know what I'm saying? And it isn't that we don't want to help them. But you and I both know that not every person who comes for help ends up wanting that help. And then who knows? So there's only so many beds. There's only so many places, and we'd like to just get a better sense, and as Amy said, I think, and the mayor, that it would be great to have a conversation with another town. As much as I'd like to hear about the town that does it, there must be somebody else in our state, I'd like to hear about why somebody like our town, or even bigger, doesn't do it.

Do you want a table or a draw?

We're still discussing. So... I'd like to table my motion or withdraw my motion because there's no more tonight after we're done. And I would like to have you define things for us, not just us in this room, the town and the people who would need this help. This isn't defined enough to, I don't know who said no. If it was that, then there must be a rule or regulation to cause that. And that's something to think about as well.

Well, there's a prerequisite to qualify for these programs of a residency, and that's what we're here trying to redefine.

and that that definition applies through what process again if they came to you if you ca if they came to you and they didn't necessarily they would they go what happens is when they apply for the voucher social services oh a voucher like i know what kind of vouchers okay so they vetted in that particular case that person was not from new milford So the reason being New Milford would have had to fund the voucher for a person who wasn't from New Milford. Is that the reason?

That's correct.

Okay. So it had nothing to do with where the person came from. It had to do where the money was going to come from.

No, it was a denial because they did not have a New Milford resident.

Yes, because they were going to get money. They were going to get a voucher, not money. They were going to get a voucher to go someplace. And that is equivalent to money, right? Yes. If I walked in the room and said, you know, here's $250 for this guy, what would they say? They wouldn't turn him away then. They'd take the money and give him a voucher.

So, Tony, I'll give you a call tomorrow. Yes, sir.

I'm happy to connect with whoever you think we should connect with and do that due diligence. We do have a definition drafted. I'll send that along. I should have sent that in advance, so my apologies there. And thanks for making us consider this even further. You know, this is important enough for us to keep going.

Yeah, and I think it could go further.

And then Amy, we'll work together about the district too, so we have even more opportunity through the district.

Amy, do you have any incident or, you know, any going across the borders and talking to people that you know of towns who consider or do something like this?

No, I think there's a lot of data that we can collect. There's a lot of information on the DPH website about how other towns have allocated this funding. I think the towns that Mayor Bass mentioned are a great place to start. So I'm definitely happy to start that process. Good. Thank you. Thanks, Allison.

And we'll put it on the next agenda.

All right.

Thank you, everybody.

Thanks very much for spending the time to explain it all.

Thank you. Mayor, would you like to make a motion to adjourn? In a second.

In a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for tuning in tonight.