Town Council - Special Meeting

Glenn, you all set back here, sir?

Yes, sir. Okay.

We're live.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Hi, good evening, everyone. Thank you for attending the Plymouth Town Council special meeting, 7 p.m., June 16, 2026, here at the town hall on 80 Main Street. This is technically a special meeting, as it was called, in place of the regular June meeting, because at that time it would have been impossible for us to field a full council for quorum. So thank you for your understanding. Again, this is classified as a special meeting. I want to note to the Secretary, we do have a full attendance. All council members are present this evening. Fire exit notification. If you exit the rear of the building and go to my left, you will exit two doors to get to the outside. If you go out the door to the right, my right, and exit through the police department and then take a left and you will get to the outside. Item four is the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. Zagursky, would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? Thank you. Thank you, sir. May God bless the town of Plymouth and God bless America. The first item for council business, number six, is accepting the meeting minutes from May 5th. Again, apologies. Somehow they were not included in the packet, but you have received a written copy. We did approve them before we put them out on the website, but I would entertain a motion to approve the meetings from May 5th, 2026. Absolutely. I heard Mr. Zagorski and a second from Mr. Tischer. Thank you. Hearing none. All those in favor of accepting, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you. The motion carries. I'm going to follow by the numbers this evening and make sure I don't mess it up. We are now on number seven, which is public comment on agenda items. If anybody would like to address the council on agenda items. Please step forward. Thank you very much.

Will you write my name?

Negative. Identification is fine, thank you, Mr. Church.

Melanie Church, 328 Main Street. I want to speak on two things. One is discuss and take action authorization for the mayor to negotiate enter a land purchase agreement. I understand that's going to be our new senior center. There is already stock for the police department on part of that land. Leave us where we were. That was given to us from the state. And if you want to change it, put it out to a vote. We're not stupid. We're not imbeciles. But the way this is written doesn't give any information. There is no transparency. None at all. And all of you should hang your heads. Because you don't even half the time know what the hell is going on. That's number one. I can't find it now. But I want that. Oh, the extra money that is coming. I believe there's extra money coming in that's going to be transferred. That was not part of the budget. It's over $50,000. You must take it to a referendum. I don't care whether you're going to give this department so much, this department. It's one total from the state. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other public comment regarding agenda items? Seeing none, I'm going to move to the mayor's report. I did forward that. I have a couple of late additions that I'll also share with you. And we'll also have some more detail on the upcoming items of excuse me of item 10 so mayor's report first of all i want to give an update on the 2026 budget process and provide some general more general information about what happened i did supply on In the email to council, the detail of the analysis that was done with respect to the additional funding that was provided by the state. At the end of Mayor's report, I'd be certainly happy to entertain any question or discussion on that. So as you're aware, the state legislature passed a bill which provided cities and towns with a one-time supplemental aid amount for towns and local boards of education. Plymouth will receive $525,629 in total, $392,084 to supplement the Board of Education, and $133,545 for municipal town aid. Once the town received the final memorandum from OPM, I worked with our finance department, the superintendent of schools, and the school business manager to ensure we understood the options regarding the allocations and the conditions for reporting those expenditures when the money was spent. Town council members should have also received a letter from the superintendent of schools outlining how the Board of Ed plans to use their portion of this grant. There remains some conflicting information on how the Board of Education Board of Education received correspondence that says it's gonna be in two payments, one for fiscal year 27, one for 28. The information that we received in the town says that it's gonna be in a single amount. I will keep everyone advised of how that works we calculate a mill rate based on the in that really quite frankly the our inability to determine whether or not the full amount is going to be coming to us all at once so this in this in a nutshell amounts to an extra grant and there's also if you want more details i have the connection and the link to the opm website if you want to connect with A meeting was held last Wednesday, June 10th, with the Connecticut DOT officials overseeing the project of downtown realignment of Agony Avenue and Main Street. This included the supervising engineer, the project manager, and the chief inspector, the contractor representative from Schultz Corporation, members of our police and public works departments. The discussion included detailed schedules Street, overnight road closures, detours, project changes, and its financing. This is a major project, and all activities will be coordinated. We have the commitment that all activities will be coordinated with our public works, our utility companies, and with the state administrators. Night work and road closures are planned to begin mid to late August and may last up to six to eight weeks. Due to the extent of the reconstruction and the need to reopen Route 6 every morning for daytime traffic, the time frame is prolonged. We are avoiding a total shutdown of Route 6. still being discussed. The town will continue to meet with the project team regularly and we will use the town web page and the mayor's Facebook to communicate updated information. We will also post links to the state of Connecticut DOT websites. I'm not sure it's not really a website, it's more of a action area where they all the projects, all that information will be posted so people can do their research. An update on the community investment fund, downtown project planning, or SIF. The closing on the $1.7 million grant to the town is nearly complete. I met with our town attorney, who's also our committee chairman, Bill Hamsey, to complete the final paperwork to secure the grant. This effort began in 2022, and I want to extend my gratitude to the CIF committee and members of the Kilgolf administration for all their efforts on behalf of the town. This is a long time coming. We have a ways to go, but we're in good shape. Several meetings have been held with our current consultant, SLR, and town staff to review our progress. Many tasks have been completed, including the surveying, Zoning review of the various building sites, preliminary mapping, and conceptual building proposals. A dedicated page for this project will be established on the town website in August. Some information technology updates. Support for the police department's transition to the next gen communication system is nearly complete with implementation or go live link for the department reporting and the connection to the Connecticut judicial system database and Litchfield County dispatch. I want to thank all the members of our police department who put in extensive time daily and in the evenings to train on this new system. An update on the town website. The launch of the town website was pushed out to the end of June. This was due to some priority issues that needed to be addressed. These included system backup monitoring and switches, maintenance, cyber security support, and preparation for the new phone system that's being installed on June 29 and the 30th. The system backup improper switching of our servers. I got it. The good news is that this happened on a Saturday, so there was no town business affected, although the police department was without power for several minutes at least. This occurred whenever source maintenance was conducted and unintentionally cut off the power to the town hall. The generator and all systems were brought back online and the system was tested to ensure that the problem was corrected. Some updates on town hall staffing. The position for land use compliance official was advertised and several candidates have applied. Interviews have begun and will continue. Our interim building official has agreed to stay through the summer. and we're still getting support from other supporting building officials who are kind of on loan or are working on a contractual basis. It is the plan to advertise for a full-time building official position in July with the hopes of having a full-time official at the end of the summer. Some updates from the financial department. The financial planning and account set up for the road bond projects has been completed, and the account set up for the community investment fund grant has also been established. Accounting for all the bond expenditures and grants is critical to ensure fiscal responsibility, maintain standards, and ensure timely reporting to the state for reimbursements. Work is ongoing to complete the 2025 audit. We have bi-weekly meetings with the auditor and have filed all the appropriate documents and extensions with the State Office of Policy and Management. Our target for completing the 2025 audit is August. We also have met with all the department heads who are reviewing their budgets in preparation for closing fiscal 2026. The mayor's office and finance department staff are in the process of reviewing those department expenditures and will bring any transfer requests to the board of finances needed as required by charter. A couple more items. An important safety announcement that I want to bring forward to the council's attention. You may have heard about it because there's been various announcements and communications going on through other avenues. At the request of our police and fire chief, a meeting was held with members of the Lake Plymouth Association, emergency officials, our fire marshals, and our public works director to discuss and plan for July 4th. As you may or may not know, there were several serious incidents last year on July 4th, including a house fire and personal injury to fireworks displays. Because of the large number of people and uncontrolled parkings of vehicles, it was difficult and in some cases impossible for emergency personnel to respond as needed. We were fortunate there was no major loss of property or loss of life. To ensure public safety, the town and the Lake Association have decided to enact temporary parking and traffic control measures from Thursday evening, July 2nd through Sunday morning, July 5th. Traffic on Lake Plymouth Boulevard will be one way with the entrance on the south side of the lake and flowing counterclockwise and the exit on the north side. Temporary parking signs will be posted and the parking and monitor to ensure that people are abiding by the changes the association has set out information to their residents please understand it is not the town's position to shut down activities and celebrations this is a matter of ensuring access to the area in the event of emergency This late edition, I failed to include it in the report, and several thank yous have gone out already, but I wanted to use this Town Council meeting to formally thank everyone who assisted with the program to honor the Vietnam veterans that was held on June 8th. Special thanks to the assessor's office, the town clerk's office, the mayor's office staff, volunteers, Councilwoman Boyard and others who helped us stuff envelopes and ensure the communication went out to all of our veterans. The Main Street Foundation for sponsoring the refreshments, the Board of Education The foods department helped us as well and did a terrific job. Boy Scout Troop 73 who was our color guard and the young lady who sang our national anthem was terrific. Also thanks to our IT who also supported this effort. It was a really fabulous event. I was really moved by some of the reaction of these veterans and the comments that were discussed during the during the follow-up when we were having refreshments. Some people were really genuine, so it was a really nice affair. Extra long report tonight. There's a lot going on. I appreciate your patience. Does any council members have any questions regarding the mayor's report that I need to follow up on? Okay, I thank you very much. And again, thanks for your indulgence. I know it was a long report tonight. We will move to item nine, which is town council liaison reports. Let's start with Mr. Zagorski.

We've had quite a few meetings over the past month. Public works, they started road construction for all the bond package. They're in the farms right now working on drainage, underground work, electrical. I'm starting to prep for ripping up the rest of the road and paving, hopefully mid-summer. Keegan Road is... Been patched up and working on that. It's a work in progress. Lane is being redone. Hopefully that will be getting redone by the end of this month, beginning of July. Ship ceiling is starting next week up in the area around the fairgrounds. So it consists of Scott Road, Washington, Town Hill, Magnolia, Knollwood, and South Eagle. So there's a lot that's going to be up there. So if you're up in that area, it's going to be dusty and a little bit loose up there. But Public Works has been very busy. They're almost at full staff. They're doing, I think, one more interview for the last position on the crew, and they're going full scheme ahead. Transfer Station, they're taking bids right now from the new trash compactor and should have something going on there hopefully by the end of the summer. Park and Rec, summer camp is still open. The numbers are drastically lower than what they were last year. Week one only had five kids signed up, and the rest of the weeks only had about 27. So we have another meeting this week, and I don't know if anything's happened between last week and this week yet. But they're working on that. I went to Capital Improvements last week with the Public Works Department. They're going over the bond package and foreseeing projects coming forward for road work. The Sewer Commission also met last night and last month. They're going through the plans. They got a lot back from the engineers on the nitrogen and phosphorus upgrades. They got a scary estimate back and they're working with the engineers and they're looking at close to a $50 million price tag for that whole project. They also voted last night on the new 2027 or 2627 budget. And the sewer use fees are going to be going up like $25 to increase to $530 for the year.

And that's all I have for the moment. Thank you. And we're going to be meeting Clearly no town can afford $50 million to rebuild their WPCA. So a lot more to come on that. And we will try to stay ahead of that and keep people informed. Councilwoman Boyd.

Can you hear me okay? I have a couple things. I wanted to talk about the veterans program that was in June. Everybody saw that it was a wonderful thing, and Kevin had a lot to do with that, so I want to play you out on all the work you did, and Linda, who did a lot of work with Kevin. There's also the mayor signed a project. I'm not going to sign mine. Oh my God. He did this memorandum of understanding. Yes, there we go. For the Veterans Strong in Bristol, we have to, by state, have a group that the veterans can go to. We're trying to work on something so that there's a number of people can call in case something would happen on the weekends or they want information on something. But they've really been great in the past, so I'm looking forward to them continuing to be great in the future. I don't know where I got this, but I think everybody should know they're doing a 250th birthday Townwide public potluck dinner. So if anybody else would be on July 3rd. If anybody's interested, I'll leave it up here. I'm not sure where I got it. Fire Department Commission, as always, they're looking for new members. There is a process they go through, and they want to make sure that you're going to be happy doing the fireman's work, because I think people have a strange idea of what it is or a different idea of what it is. So they do a lot of teaching, a lot of vetting, and they will have you go to class for Firefighter 1. which will be reimbursed if you make it all the way through. But they have a really good process for it. But we do need more firefighters in town. They do a great job. And the police department, also doing a great job on everything. The commissioner is concerned that because the town has run so well, we don't have any crime in the town. And the people don't know that we have some crime in the town. She said to please lock your doors and lock your keys, lock your cars and make sure you don't have any issues that way. And let's see, human... Research Services is finishing up on their winter oil and gas and utility stuff. And they're always a beautiful for money. I'm sorry, I thought that was going to happen. Anyway, but they're doing a great job too. They're working with other groups so that they can get more efficiency and all that going on. That's it.

Thank you. Mr. Green, do you have anything to say?

Yes. Economic Development Commission is looking into, now that the park is full, they're looking into other properties throughout the town. They're discussing possibly changing the zones of the properties, but generally speaking, they're looking at different properties and what they can do on those. There was interest in THE PROPERTY NEXT TO THE DOLLAR GENERAL, BACK TO THE CORNER JUST ABOVE THE INDUSTRIAL PARK ON NORTH HARMONTON AVENUE AND PRESTON ROAD. WE'RE LOOKING AT COMPLETELY USES IN THERE, AMONGST OTHER THINGS.

THANK YOU.

MR. TISHON. OKAY, PLYMOUTH VOLUNTEER AMBULANCE, THE MONTH OF MAY, THEY HAD 151 CALLS. 90 OF THEM WERE TRANSPORT CALLS. transport costs or anything. Their annual fundraiser is going on right now. They've raised over, so far, a little over $15,000 over the goal of $20,000. If anybody wants to donate, you donate online at pvac111.com. And if you do it online, you get an extra 15% added to your donation. Fundraiser ends June 28th. Also, the PVAC Board of Directors nominations, they were taking nominations through June 12th, and the actual election will take place tomorrow, June 17th. Planning and zoning, they approved the tire shop at 130 South Riverside Avenue. They also approved the rail track renovation and expansion at 370 South Main Street for Inland Intermodal LLC. And they also approved a garage renovation at 18 Allen Street for applicant Michael Bach, Jr. And Board of Ed, I just want to mention a couple of things on Board of Ed. So I want to say congratulations to teacher of the year, Casey Tosacchio, and paraeducator of the year, John Christiana. And I want to congratulate the retirees, Diane Boylan, our teacher for Puna Center School, who was teaching since 1987, and Robert Nave, social studies teacher, teaching since 1995. That's it.

Mr. Engel.

Look at that tan. Look at that tan. Thank you all for

bringing that information to our meeting this evening I appreciate that very much item 10 for the benefit of the public let me just provide a little bit of background on this request it's come to the attention of the town that the property is going to be going up for sale. And we were reached out to see if we might be interested in it. We did as much information, as much fact finding as we could. And I found out that Obviously, I've been on council and I've been participating in town government for a long time, and there's a lot of rules and regulations that surround property purchases. However, when you have an opportunity, I'm looking for ways to make sure that we can at least capitalize it and get ahead of the game. First of all, there's no intention regarding this property. I believe it's an opportunity that would afford the town a chance to expand this building if necessary, to make that part of the conversation when we reconvene the facility planning committee. uh where they brought forward the resolution or rather the to vote with the referendum to build a brand new police station i would like to have the town council endorse this idea at least to provide that time the talent and opportunity if that's the case we could all we could always sell the property obviously there's state rules and regulations i did forward Tom Council had an email with some background on this. And what I am asking for is a motion to authorize the mayor to negotiate and adhere to an agreement to purchase the property of 86 Main Street, contingent on the required Town of Plymouth financial and legal process approvals, unquote. Those process approvals include, obviously, appropriations that need to be conducted through the Board of Finance, as well as, depending on the purchase price, a town meeting, as was mentioned by the public, right? with any expenditure over $50,000 is required to go to a town meeting. So certainly those rules and regulations need to be followed. I'm asking for this motion, if it's the town council's pleasure, which would at least afford us an opportunity to have the conversation with the property owner and see if we can secure this property. So I wanted to provide that background for the benefit of the public. The council has some of this information, but if someone wants to make a motion, we can certainly, and second, we can certainly open it up for more discussion and more inquiry. Is there a motion to what I previously said? I have it written. If somebody wants to read it, any volunteers?

I make a motion to authorize the mayor to negotiate and enter into an agreement to purchase property located at 86 Main Street, Terryville, Connecticut, contingent on the required town of Plymouth financial and legal process approvals.

Thank you, Mr. Green. There's a motion. Is there a second? Second. Second reading. Again, thank you. And please, town council, any discussion on this, that's what we do this for. Let's make sure that we understand what we're talking about. Any discussion? Mr. Zadursky.

We have a couple of questions. We have ballpark pricing on the property and all that?

There have been a couple of numbers kicked around. I think it would not be to our benefit from a negotiation perspective to quote one number at this point. What happens a lot of times is you start kicking around numbers and the price goes up. But the current asking price, we did a little bit of market research, and it's reasonable, I would say.

Now, the property lines, would it match up where we could actually go off the side of this building and benefit from that property? Or would this just be like a use for parking and the cooling tower in general here?

I would say based on the cards we reviewed, it's a reasonable alignment. It definitely allows for additions up to a point. There is actually some discrepancy about whether or not the generator is actually on the part of the property. But those are all things that would be definitely reviewed and considered before we move further. What size is the lot? I do not have that information. Not safely to quote it here. It's a full-size building lot. There was proposals. It originally held a two-family. It was a three-family. It's kind of a standard front that's on Main Street. And I know that there was other considerations before it was offered to the town for a three-family or duplex type of proposal that was discussed.

The only downside I see to it is you're gonna pull taxable property off of Main Street that we're trying to build. So I think we really need to have an iron plan of what we want to do with this property. We need to kind of know what we're gonna spend and what we could do with the property. So you kind of have to get through that negotiation phase.

I plead from a process perspective. Any potential agreement would have to come to the council first. Or it might actually have to go to, I mean, I'm going to defer to a member of our finance board. Does the appropriation, if we want to purchase property, have to go to the board of finance first because it's a new appropriation? What's the status? It's scary.

I couldn't tell you. I think what it has to do with me is when she was deciding whether or not to purchase it, it was to have the family and then the board of finance Absolutely, it's an extended process.

More than likely. That part, that part I know. This is actually, I've never participated in this. So I'm a purchase and I'm kind of learning as I'm going. But without this governing body's authority, I cannot represent the town in any negotiations. So that's what we're requesting tonight.

Dave, I might be getting ahead of myself, but were there any, I know I saw previous drawings for a possible new complex, but were there any drawings or any? Anything done for this building?

Or is there anything else? There is not. The only information I was able to find was the study that was done, which included the renovation of this building. That did not include an addition. It was just a full renovation of this footprint. And then, of course, there was other conversations about the new building, which was... But to my knowledge, I did speak with former members of the building committee at the time, and they did some preliminary investigation about what it would take to renovate this building and possibly add on it. But it then was shelved when other opportunities presented themselves, and then ultimately they decided to go with a proposal for a brand new building. So I'm hoping they're good. meeting of the facility committee. And there's an item later on to complete all the members of that committee, appoint someone to complete the membership of that committee so we can get that on the books for June 29. So there's a lot to go. Your point is well taken, T.J. Yeah, there's some risk, but if it doesn't work, we sell it back, put it on the market. That would be my response to that. Further questions or discussion? I'm going to do a roll call vote, okay? The motion on the table is to authorize the mayor to enter into a land purchase agreement for 86 or negotiate and enter into an create approvals and procedures. Mr. Zagorski, yes or no? Yes. Yes. Ms. Bolliard? Yes. Mr. Green? Yes. Ron? Yes. And Mr. Engel? Yes. I gratefully, the motion passes, I gratefully support that. I will keep this council advised as well as not only the process of negotiation but also procedurally Thank you for your support. Move to item 11. So we are in the process of reviewing all of the open positions on boards and commissions. I know I've made that statement at a couple of different town council meetings, but it's a long process, but we are making progress. I also want to just note for the council's information, I'm working with the town clerk to clarify the process to properly handle resignations that come into the mayor's office and how those resignations have to be filed and there seems to be some misinformation or some misunderstanding or certainly inconsistency in how that's done. In my communication to you, I mentioned the possibility of having some action regarding resignations and acceptance of resignations. At this point, that's not necessarily something for us to just think about going forward. Tonight, I would just like to bring forward These nominations to fill these vacancies or in some cases in the case of the historic properties this is to Re-appoint members of the Historic Properties Commission who have been serving Even though their term was expired and that's why you might see Some of the information and what you received in your packet. Did you get all the applications in the packet? Okay, great All right. So we'll take these one at a time. I would entertain a motion to appoint Susan David to the vacancy on the beautification committee. There is no end date for that. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion to TJ. Second, Sue. Thank you. Any discussion? Again, this is an ad hoc committee, so it's not a charter committee. There is no appointment date. Thank you. Do we know that she's not registered completely? I don't know. Town clerk, do you know the answer to that question? I'm not sure I missed that. We called to find out if she's still interested. That question never came up. Thank you. Yeah. It sounds like we got it. I think that's a good question. And we should find out, is the motion to table the nomination? Or do we draw the motion for nomination? I'll draw. Okay. And the second? Okay. We will reach out and get that information. Thank you. I would guess it's probably okay as long as you're a resident and taxpayer, but we'll find out. Okay, thank you. All right, let's move to historic properties. If there's no objection, these folks are all currently serving on the historic properties they had served in the past. And this is a continuation to extend their term to August 1st of 2029. If there's no objection, I'd like to do all three of these together. The motion would be to appoint Robert Green, Erin King, and Helen Nitschfeldt. Did I get that right? I know Helen, but I want to make sure that the last name counts correctly. A motion to reappoint them to the historic properties with a term ending August 1st of 2029. Is there a motion? Motion, Mr. Engel. A second. And there's a second from TJ, thank you. Any discussion on that nomination? All those in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Any abstentions? One abstention. Thank you, Mr. Green, appreciate that. Motion carries. okay great okay the next one is a appointment The former commission, all the members agreed to stay on. However, the fire chief, Mark Sikorski, did submit his resignation from that commission for a variety of reasons, but that has already been handled. So this is to fill the vacancy. Is there a motion to nominate Robert Green to the Municipal Facilities Planning Commission? Seconded. Ron Tishman made the motion and seconded by T.J. hearing none all those in favor say aye and we're opposed and anyone abstaining and there's one of those thank you I want to personally thank mr. green though for his service he his dedication to the town his knowledge of operations and things related to planning and property is invaluable and his participation is greatly appreciated so thank you everyone and thank you for your support in that we are on number 12 pretty easy one tonight we just have a single rebate taxes this is to Refund overpayment of property taxes to Pamela Green. No relation, I don't think. We're clear on this one. In the amount of $159.83, is there a motion to refund overpayment of property taxes? Supervisor made the motion and seconded by Mr. Green. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries. Thank you, everyone. All right, item 13, public comment on nine agenda items. Please, would anyone like to come up? We've got one right up front. Go ahead, sir. Thank you.

Hi. Anthony Rapato, 67. Just a couple quick things. I just want to make it a record. Wetlands Commission, we have an opening for one member and one alternate. We would love to fill that position so we can keep on making evidence for it. and at the meeting uh the previous meeting that we had we did uh money for beautification or arbor day and rather than just plunk a tree anywhere that was voted on suggested and voted on to use it to landscape the memorial the memorial stones in park so it's just not three stones there with nothing around them just to give it to the beautification committee to handle that statement. That's all. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

i've been looking through my uh and I've been unable to find it. I do have a question. The public has the right to know policies and procedures according to our charter, and I was wondering if some of the commissioners and the different commissions could read chapter nine Section 3, subsection 2, 3, 4, and 5. I think that some of them do need to read that and get that handled. It's chapter 9, section 3 of the charter. Subsection 2345. I do have a question. Does the town council have a board of ethics at all? I am not sure and I would like to know if there is one and if there's anybody sitting on it. The other thing I want to bring up as a Board of Finance member, I do know that you guys did get a letter from the District of Titans. Our Board of Finance meeting is on Thursday. I'm hoping that the same letter is given to the Board of Finance members. I've had to see it in my package. But seeing that we do take care of some of the finances, we would like to know about the additional funding from the state is going to, and that's what they're doing. My understanding was, is there was a goal to be given to them that you can go back to the Town Council and the Board, if the Town Council do decide to do something special with that money, that they could, instead of just putting it as a bottom line on their budget. There's many, many different things that have to be done to the schools. The school is negligent in a lot of ways. The laboratory needs to get done, and that carries Fisher and a bunch of other things. And maybe diverting some of that money and fixing the school is going to help. But I do not know if it's up to the town council. I just don't know what they want to do with it. But maybe over $50,000, but again, even when it's money, it's going to have to go to the public.

thank you I'll make sure that the letter gets forwarded to Board of Finance and I do want to say though as what the direction clear that it is not an option for the town council to override the direction of that funding, but I will get you what information we can. I'll get that to the, I actually sent the OPM moment to the chair of the board of finance, but if it didn't get forward, I'll make sure that it gets out to you. Thank you. Appreciate that. More public comment.

And I'm going to have to have you look next to me. I thought I had to go around. And this is a former one, which was done by a former policeman. It's showing a pattern in that. It's something that we can end up liable for because we are ignoring it. And he can go to another police department and do the same thing. And we're the ones that have ignored it. Three different instances. And I have a little concern for that. Because people are super. And we can be held liable because we're ignoring it. Number two. How can you, as a council, vote on something that you didn't see? How can you vote on what was in the report for what had happened? I'm giving you that report, and I'm asking you to pull your votes and do what's right and protect everyone. There's a Berlin chief that had to check. One of his girls was harassed by him too. And he was told that if he went there again, he would be arrested. So this has been going on. And when Fat Eric was our first female officer, she went through it. So this has been, and they just, oh, well, okay, we're gonna put him on leave. Then he talked about killing himself. Oh, we're gonna put him on leave. He knows how to play the game. And it's gonna end up at our expense. And I think it's a serious enough charge to look at. You know, we don't want these things with this town. That doesn't help our town for people to wanna move in. This is the most important thing that you have. And to be given bits and pieces, plus read it and look at the spelling of it. None of this was done properly. And with that, I ask you to rescind your votes. Read this report and ask the mayor to rescind your votes and turn it over to the state attorney. Let him decide.

thank you thank you very much any other comments from the public on non-agenda items any topic you'd like to address the town council seeing none i want to move to item number 14 which is the town council comments and i'll start with the right hand side mr angle any any comments this evening

The only comment I have right now is what parameters did OPM actually give in terms of how that money can be spent? I know I've worked with OPM in the past, and these parameters, I know they're very specific. And my concern is we're looking at this as a grant, and technically it is a grant. It's a supplemental aid grant. Can we, can this money be utilized to offset or supplant money that's already been allocated? That's my concern. We've got $66,000 that as a result we want to pull the $65,000 in this application for the capital. Can we legally do that? Has somebody checked with OPM to make sure that that can happen? I don't want to have to owe them two and a half times what they gave us because you can't be getting penalties from us. I just want to make sure that it's not going to cost us $90,000 to spend $60,000.

I don't know the guidelines on the proposal from the Board of Education. It's an interesting point, which I don't know the answer to. I think it's important at least to understand that there's no money has changed hands yet whatsoever. But we have an upcoming meeting with OPM, we've got a contact there, so I will bring that to, the proposal from the Board of Education is that they don't need the money for the sidewalks anymore, so they're just gonna simply give it back. I really don't know the rules around that. I don't know that anything's been considered from a state legislator point of view, but our interpretation of the guidelines that we stood firm to receive the money, is that it has to be spent in certain areas. The complexity of returning that other money, I don't know, and I'll have to... That's an excellent point. I'll discuss that with the finance director, and we'll get all the OPM and get a ruling called, you know, so to speak. Yeah, I will do that. There was a link in the correspondence. I don't think I sent that correspondence to the council. I know I sent it to the board of finance chairman, but I didn't send it, but I will send you the correspondence that was sent to town council by OPM. I do have a question.

The United Board of Finance, they're talking about the sidewalks and the capitals. They don't need that money anymore because that can be used as a bottom line budget. It still can be used for something else if they want to rename it. They need to fix them. We've done that before. That's why when I tell people when they do the budget and the capitals and they do the project description, you do a very broad description. Because that way it encompasses a lot. When they put it as specific in the budget, the capitals, it has to be for that item. The sidewalks, the thing that is included with the driveway parking lots, it can be done with the driveway parking lots, or they can come back to the Board of Finance and rename it, so that can still be used as something different for capitals. The money is separate. At the end of three years, And it stays there for three years. At the end of three years, it goes back to the .

I appreciate your comments, Ms. Kerry. I think it's, I mean, this is all completely uncharted territory, right? So these are great questions, right? And comments are well appreciated. I think we're going to have to just see how this goes. I have some questions myself that have come to mind based on this discussion. But we will follow up and get you some information. Thank you. One last comment. Sure. Board of Finance members are copying this memo?

You should be getting copies.

I'll check to make sure it's in the mailbox. My understanding is that it did go on the Board of Finance as well. Okay. I mean, it's nice when you get extra money, but when it's not really clear on what that means, the state had, what, three amendments when they did this? So... Mr. Titia, any general comments? Nothing. Okay. Mr. Green?

Yeah, I just have a general comment about that letter. Sorry, that letter again. There was an indication that the Board of Ed decided they wanted to do preschool T at initial position for preschool. I'm just going to warn, I guess probably warn the Board of Ed, that when we received, and I'm going to relate this to when we received our ARP funds, that it was What I always went by was that that should not be a burden on future budgets, and I think that's what they're doing is putting a future burden on their budget, and now they're going to have to pay for that position down the road.

They may. That's a risk they're taking. Obviously, I do want to just add to that point that we did get the ruling that this funding is not added to the... MRP, did I say that right? In other words, the MBR. So this fund, this extra money is not included in that calculation. But you're right, that does put them in a dilemma. Councilwoman Boyard, anything? Mr. Zagursky, any general comments?

Just a short criticism. Did we get some of the paperwork a little bit earlier than the rest before the meeting?

Well, I absolutely take responsibility for the mayor's report not being in your box. And I did not realize that the other stuff wasn't in there. Point taken, Mr. Zegerski.

We used to get it like Thursday before, so we had a weekend to try to get through some of the stuff.

That is a fair criticism. I know you said you were going to work on it. That's okay. No problem. That's very, very fair criticism. That's why I apologized in advance in the email. Yeah. No, it is not. It is absolutely the responsibility of the mayor to ensure that the town council has... for the meeting and I will try to improve that. Okay, thank you everyone for your participation. Thank you members of the general public for coming to our meeting tonight. Thank you those of you watching online and I believe we're at the last item on the agenda. Is there a motion to adjourn? Objections? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We are adjourned. Thank you very much. A quick reminder, there is no July meeting scheduled as per original planning. Thank you. Have a great night. Bye-bye.