Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call this regular meeting of the Plymouth Town Council to order 7 p.m. September 1st, 2026. here at the town hall community room. Quick roll call. Sue Boydard, Ron Tisha, Ray Engel. I would like to let you know that Mr. Zukerski is absent this evening due to a work obligation that just came up. He spoke to me on Sunday evening. And Mr. Green, let us know that there's He was out due to illness. I confirmed with the town attorney that a civil majority represents a quorum for this body and therefore we have a quorum by the presence of three individuals this evening. So thank you to the general public for watching this evening. Thank you for all those in the audience for coming this evening as well. Fire exit notifications. If you exit to your rear back of the back of this room if you go through the left hand door and go directly to your left you will exit out onto the parking lot if you go to the right hand door you will exit through the police department and then so that would be right and then left it takes your next hallway excuse me the next order of business is the pledge of allegiance please rise for the pledge of allegiance

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.

Thank you. Item five is our invocation. We would like God to bless America and the town of Plymouth and its public servants. At this point, it has come to the attention of the chair that we have the need to add an agenda item. So before we move into the regular business, is there a motion to add the requested agenda item that I forwarded out?

So moved.

If you could read that, please.

So we'd like to add to the agenda the discussion of possible action regarding WPCA pump failure and request for waiver of the bid process.

Mr. Tisha, thank you so much. I would like to add this, before we go on adding it, I would like to put this item in as item number 10, and then that would move the mayor's report to 11, and then the subsequent changes thereafter. This is kind of an emergency request, so I would hope you would endorse adding this item this evening. discussion or questions on adding the agenda item? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Is anyone opposed? Motion carries, I appreciate that very much. So the secretary will note that change please. Thank you. Item six, this is to accept the minutes from the August 4th, 2026 regular meetings. Is there a motion to accept those minutes? That's Mr. Tisha. Thank you, Ron. Second, Sue Boyard. Any discussion on the minutes from August 4th, 2026? Seeing none, all those in favor of accepting the minutes from our August 4th regular meeting, say aye.

Aye. Thank you. Any opposed? I abstain. I was absent. Okay.

i believe in that regard that we do not have a full quorum to vote on that i would entertain a motion to table the acceptance of the minutes from august 4th motion to table this boyard second to table this ron thank you okay all those in favor of tabling the acceptance of the minutes say aye aye any opposed so we can note that we will table these minutes And we were unable to pass it due to a lack of a majority vote on that. At this time, we'd like to recognize any member of the public that would like to speak on an agenda item. There will be an opportunity afterwards to speak to any non-agenda items. Does anyone have any comments on agenda items this evening? It's a pretty light agenda. I see none. We will move to item A. As folks may or may not know, or I hope everyone does, as part of the celebration of America's 250th birthday, This council formed an ad hoc committee for the America 250 Committee. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the committee. We have several members here tonight. And I want to make sure we mention all of them by name so that we get to my list so I don't miss anyone. And if I do, I'll apologize in advance. I believe the council members got the correspondence from the chair of the committee, who's Gretchen Del Cergo, who is our municipal liaison and also the director of our library. Also, you see that was provided a list of all the activities that were held. There was a bunch of those and had an attendance of nearly 1,000 people over the course of those activities. I want to express my gratitude to Gretchen and her committee for all the work that they did. I'd like to read the names of the following folks if you're here. Could you kind of stand up and be recognized? Mary Jean Monterey. Did I get that right, Mary Jean Monterey? Monterey, Monterey, thank you. William Renko. Reverend Denise Clapsaddle, also serves as our Reverend of the Plymouth Congregational Church. Nate Doty. Charlene Doty. And Gretchen Doty. Oh, there you are, okay, all right. Also, I'd like to mention, well, first of all, is there anyone here that I did not mention that served on the committee? Okay, thank you all for attending. Also, I want to mention Doreen Tennant and Michelle Moseluk? Moseluk, thank you. They were not able to attend, but we want to make sure that they are recognized for all their efforts. I know also there were other folks who participated as well in various capacities. On behalf of the town of Plymouth and the town council, I'd like to thank you for all your volunteer hours and all the efforts that you made in making the America 250 a very successful event. Thank you very much. The other order of business that's associated with this is since you're an ad hoc committee, we need to officially relieve you of your duties. I believe Sue Boyard has a motion to that effect. Sue?

Okay, I move that the America 250 Ad Hoc Committee, having completed its assigned tasks and no longer being required, be hereby dissolved, effective September 1, 2026, and its members are discharged from any further duties. And with a big thank you to all of you also.

There's a motion on the floor from Councilwoman Boyard. Is there a second? Second, Ron, thank you. Any discussion? Any comments?

Just want to thank them for all they've done. Great job, everybody.

Great job.

Thank you.

And I will remind the members of the committee that we have lots of things and lots of available board and commission positions. So if anyone's interested in serving the town in any other capacity, please reach out to the mayor's office. All those in favor of accepting the motion, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very, very much for your service. We appreciate it greatly, and so does the town. Item nine is board and commission's resignations and or appointments. In your packet, you will see a resignation that was forwarded and accepted in the town clerk's office. It is a resignation from Human Services Commission of Lee Ulinskis. Is there a motion to accept the resignation of Lee Ulinskis from the Human Services Commission? Motion, Ray? Second. I'm sorry, Ron made the motion.

I got R&R over there. Thank you. Ryan and Ray, you made the second? Yes, sir. Okay.

Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of accepting the resignation, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much. Next, we have an appointment. This is an appointment for a term of three years to fill... We had a resignation last month from the WPCA, I'm sorry, from the Public Works Board. That position had already expired, so this is a full three-year term position, which will go in effect when they sign in, I think. Is that right, Madam Clerk? They've got to come in and take the oath. So this is a three-year term. Is there a motion to appoint Daniel Barrett to the Public Works Board for a three-year term? Oh, shit, Sue Boyard. A second? Second. Second. Ron? I'm sorry, Ray, that time? I apologize. It's fall. Happy fall, everyone. The pollen is in the air already, or the ragweed. I'm a little bit stuffy. Thank you. Okay, there's a motion and a second on the floor. Any discussion of the appointment of Daniel Barrett for a three-year term for Public Works? No discussion. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? And that motion carries. Thank you. The next item is the appointment of Joseph Curie Jr. to the WPCA. He was serving as an alternate member And he was endorsed by the WPCA commission to move out to a full-time member. So is there a motion to appoint Joseph Curie Jr. to a regular member of the WPCA? This is to fill a vacancy through January 6th of 2029. Is there a motion to that effect? And I'm trying to get this one right. That was Ron. Is there a second? Second. Second, sue. Thank you. Any discussion on the motion?

Hearing none, all those in favor of the appointment of Joseph Carey to fill a vacancy term until January 6th of 2029, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much.

Okay, this is the new item 10. I did provide you all with some general background on this situation. The chairman of the WPC, George Andrews, is here this evening. George, I have forwarded your email to members of the council. But if you could give just a brief synopsis of what the nature of the repair is and why we believe it's something that needs to be expedited and handled on kind of an emergency basis in that regard. Mr. Andrews?

George Andrews, Chairman of the Water Pollution Control Authority. I try to package it up as briefly as possible. We have two large pumps that basically pump the entire incoming wastewater load through the plant. And the pumps are 36 years old. They were with the last upgrade that we did in 89-90. One of those pumps on July 20th failed on us. And the pumps are completely sealed, so it's not something that you can readily service. We cut into one of the shelves of the pumps and we were able to examine with a camera. And based upon the owner's rep from the manufacturing company, based on their observation and ours, we concluded that it would be somewhere between $370,000 and $400,000 for a repair on the pumps. These two pumps are going to be obsolete and gone with the upgrade that's coming up in the very near future for the plant, probably within the next two to three years. So consequently, a $700,000 replacement for repair would not be suiting to us. So what we'd like to do as an interim measure is purchase a submersible pump, self-priming submersible and programmable pump by a company called Xylem that we work with on a regular basis. We rent pumps from them right now as needed. The need for this pump would be 24-7. It would have to be there stationed in case we get a significant rain event. So we can't be mobilizing something in. It needs to be there real time. So the pump's got to come in, it's got to sit, and whenever we have flows greater than about a million gallons a day, that second pump would be actuated. So we're working on the one pump that we have right now. We have a 36-year-old backup pump that's backing it up that has no controls, which requires 24-7 oversight by staff. So as you can imagine, as we start to get more rain as the winter comes and spring comes over the next three year period, we would sum up a fairly significant amount of staff overtime and burden an already overutilized staff. So I mentioned we looked at repair of the pump and felt that that wasn't appropriate with the short time to replacement. We looked at the rental of a pump, and rental over the three-year period would be well over the cost of purchase. The cost of purchase at this point is somewhere between $70,000 and $100,000. It'd be a one-time purchase. The pump comes partially winterized. The rest of it we would be able to winterize with our own equipment that we have at the plant right now. We need it pretty much right away, and we'd like to request your authorization to waive the bidding process so that we can get the paperwork into Xylem and get that pump delivered as soon as possible. We did provide some pictures. It's tough to tell what you're looking at, but they're about 12,000 pounds. So just to remove the old pump, we've got to bring a crane operator in it. So it's quite a process. So with your consideration, we hope that you'll see it the way we see it and look at this as an emergency situation. And hope you can appreciate the urgency that we're asking you for. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer.

Is it not to exceed 100,000?

Correct. The motion that we took was not to exceed 100,000. We're hoping we can get it in a three-month period. They do have rentals, and right off the bat, my inkling was, well, tell them we'll buy the pump if they give us a rental immediately and carry that into the purchase. And at no cost, of course. We'll see where that goes, but hopefully they can see it in there. Also, I'd just like to make a point and clarify for Kate.

incurred by the WPCA in part of your operating expenses. This is not a request for an additional allocation of funds. This is simply, we can't move forward the WPCA under our guidelines of the charter and purchasing. We would normally go to a bid process. That would significantly delay this effort as many as several months, if not longer. So I want to make sure that it's clear that this is not an appropriation request. The funds are available. This is a waiver of the bid process that we need a motion on.

This evening we are authorized to do that. I just want to make that clarification. If I misstated that, George, please correct me. Perfect. Thank you.

Are you down to one pump now that you have?

We have the two pumps that were operational. The one that failed, we brought in a submersible. a 36-year-old submersible with no controls. So we're living along. The good point is, I mean, it couldn't have occurred at a better time of the year. It occurred in July. We have generally low flows through November. November they start to pick up and all the way through, typically through June. So that's the most troubling time period that we'll have. So this should fall into line very well with that. One of the more difficult items that we struggled with initially was to find a pump provider that actually provided a pump with the controls integrated into the pump so that we'd be able to wire it into our alarm system. and be able to wire it into a flow system so it doesn't have to have the 24-7 on it. It was difficult. We found one manufacturer, and that was Godwin Pump, and they're represented by the Xylem firm, which is why we settled on that and figured we would make an attempt to acquire the waiver from you.

Just a point of information, normal bid processes take anywhere from 45 to 90 days before you can actually even cut a purchase order. So that's one of the reasons why I'm assuming that you're here, because you need to waive that so you can get it in before the flow starts that you don't want. Exactly, yes.

Other questions? I'm not sure which mic is giving the feedback, so... Sounds like. All right. So we can have some further discussion. I would entertain a motion for the town council to waive the bid process as described in Chapter 7, Section 4 of the town charter and allow the WPCA to move forward with an emergency repair and or replacement of the failed pump. Is anyone willing to make that motion? So moved. And the motion is made by Ray. Is there a second? Second by Sue. Further discussion or questions on this Seeing none, this is not one of the things that we like to do. I want to make sure we have accurate accounting. So I'm going to ask for a roll call vote. So a yes is that we are going to pass this motion. A no is we are going to reject the motion. So Sue, is that a yes or a no from you? That's a yes. Okay, that carries unanimously. Thank you again. We don't like to do these things in these manners, but sometimes it becomes necessary. I am sure, knowing Mr. Andrews the way I did, I serve as liaison to your commission. I know that you look at things very thoroughly, and I'm sure that you're going to act in the best interest of the town. You wouldn't be here before us unless it was... necessary. So I appreciate your time and I also appreciate your volunteer support of the WPCA, which we won't say how many years you've been on there, right?

Protect that. Alright, that motion carries. Thank you for coming tonight.

I really appreciate it. Town Council, I appreciate your support in this particular item. Alright, we're going to move to number 11, which is the Mayor's Report.

It's not too long tonight. As quickly but still as legibly as I can.

I want to provide you some updates on the police department renovations. I'll remind everyone that it's not just the renovation for use of the former senior lounge, but this renovation also includes improvements and upgrades to the patrol area and evidence storage areas. The renovations for the former senior lounge are nearly complete. This included cleaning, painting, and preparation for the evidence storage area and additional wiring because some of the evidence needs to be maintained in a special refrigerator.

It's actually pretty interesting.

As I mentioned in previous mayor's reports, this project also includes cleaning improvements to the patrol and the final security upgrade should be completed in a few weeks, and we hope to have the area fully completed and ready for the detectives by mid-September. The complete accounting for the project will be sent to the council, as was requested by Councilman Zagorski, as soon as all the work and the bills are paid and everything is completed. We have begun that at work with the police chief as well as public works director. and all that detailed information for you and that will be available to you and the public when we are completed. I would like to invite any of the council members or the public to come and see the work that has been done. The Public Works team and the vendors that were hired did a wonderful job with the improvements.

It's a significant upgrade Route 6, regretfully, it is unlikely that the full reclamation and rebuild of the Route 6 section between Prospect Street and Park Street will be completed by the fall as originally planned.

The focus has been on the completion of the curbing and the sidewalks. as well as extensive coordination with Connecticut Water and other utilities for the water mine and infrastructure replacement work. I want to thank the Connecticut Water Company for working with the town, the state, and the contractor with respect to the work done on South Main Street. This coordinated effort ensured that the water mine maintenance was done prior to the full reclamation of South Main Street. I think we can all appreciate the fact that we don't want to finish up a road project and have it paved only to have it dug up later because of another need. So we are working closely with all the utilities to ensure that while we've got things dug up, we're going to try to fix it so we don't have to go around repaving anything. I want to provide an update on an effort that is going on. We are in the middle of a fleet review for all the town-owned vehicles. Over the past several months, there have been issues, collisions, and other events that prompted the mayor's office and public works to review the town's vehicle inventory, including police vehicles. Two town department service vehicles have been removed from service because of significant damage due to aging or collision. This has or will have impacts on the recreation, land use, and building departments that need to use vehicles in support of daily operations. The mayor's vehicle is currently being used to support some of the various department needs.

The public works director has been without a vehicle since he was hired.

We are working with the police department fleet officer, public works director, and our chief mechanic to evaluate all of our options. We have identified one of the police units coming offline as part of the scheduled patrol car that can be converted to a field vehicle for building and land use departments. There is also a maintenance highway truck that is nearly complete refurbishment that may be able to be used by the public works director. That is still being evaluated. We remain short at least one more vehicle and will continue to investigate options. If needed, one vehicle used by the police department currently Police Department for construction road duty will be repurposed for department head use. Once the full review is completed and the new police vehicles go into service, those are the two vehicles that are currently budgeted for, we will have a better idea of exactly how to proceed.

At the current time, there is no need to consider additional

construction, traffic control is being thoroughly reviewed along with all department use of town vehicles to determine if any purchases need to be considered for next year's fiscal budget. The public works director is currently working on and will present a long-term vehicle capital expense proposal as soon as possible. More evaluation of space and meeting rooms. It is clear that there are significant issues with the space in the town hall. This includes not only the police department, but storage areas, areas for records management in the town clerk and land use departments, meeting and conference space, and overuse of this community room. the public works director myself member the superintendent of schools and their business manager to discuss space at the eli ferry middle school there may be an opportunity for the town to use the current library media section of the school for a community senior activity center a meeting congress room and several offices the immediate needs of the community, town hall departments, and other town services. We are evaluating the modifications needed to use the space whether the school is in session or not. Interior renovations would require two ADA compliant restrooms be added on the ground floor. We are investigating whether or not we would still need to have a ramp system or an elevator system considering the office reconfiguration that would be needed as well as technology upgrades in order to support this. Exterior changes would include a parking lot expansion for school personnel and a reconfiguration for additional parking in front of the school building that would allow public use and public parking during school. Additional ADA and be added along with the modification of the entry and exits of the current parking lot to ensure smooth traffic flow during school hours. In addition, I want to comment that we are also looking at the impacts of the intersection realignment because under the current configuration, the school buses would exit directly into that new intersection, which we think might be problematic. The superintendent is working with a lot of different people on understanding what options we might have to reroute the buses. That may be required regardless of what is or is not done. So more to come on that. Also, side note, I did make the Planning Facilities Commission aware of this idea, and they are going to put that kind of in their repertoire of options of what we might have to do long term in terms of overall facilities and planning.

I want to make some personnel updates.

I'd like to take a moment to say our new land use compliance officer, Kate Losey, started on August 17th. This is Kate Losey. Welcome, Kate. Kate is a New Milford resident and has a background in conservation and land management. So welcome, Kate. We appreciate it. We're looking forward to working with you. Not here tonight, but also another personnel update. A new full-time building inspector has been hired. His name is Tom Lozier. Tom started with us on August 24th. Tom is a Bristol resident who worked in Bristol and in Cheshire as the head of the building departments in both of those communities. Tom brings a wealth of experience in department management skills to Plymouth. Besides his knowledge of building codes, he has experience in blight policy and ordinance enforcement. He will be an excellent complement to our overall land use objectives. It is my intention to have the land use staff, the building official, and public works personnel collaborate to aggressively address enforcement in the areas of zoning and blight and the blighted areas in our community. So again, welcome, Kate. Thanks for hanging around tonight. I appreciate it. Finally, I would like to congratulate the Terrible Lions Club and all the volunteers for a successful and possibly a record-breaking terrible affair. It really was quite extraordinary. everything else but not. A tremendous effort. Alliance Club is a tremendous asset and contributor to the town of Plymouth and all of its service organizations. We appreciate their effort. We appreciate the volunteers. And we were pretty tired on Sunday night. That concludes the mayor's report. Thank you very much. I'd like to move on to town. Again, we're missing a couple of town council members, but I'd like to start with Councilwoman Bolliard. Any report this evening, any liaison report?

Turn this thing on. I don't have a lot of reports. Everybody's taking August off, so the police department and the fire department didn't meet. Human services also did not meet. Dave already, the mayor already talked about the facilities commission. They met last night and they are going back and forth on buildings, what's available, what we can do with what, whether we should build new. So if anybody has any ideas, please feel free to come to the meeting and give us your opinions and what you think. We're trying to do a multiplex of the fire and the police. It's like a big dream project. So if you guys have any help, anything you want to help us with, we'd be happy to hear you. That's it.

Thank you very much. Ron, any report this evening?

Yeah, a couple things from the planning and zoning. The last meeting they had, they approved the five-dwelling unit multifamily building at 30 South Street. They approved Michelle Bozzano for keeping livestock on less than two acres, but requested only two roosters. And they approved a change in the dwelling units, a multifamily complex at 10 Agne Avenue. I have something else, but I'll wait for the council comment.

Thank you. Anything to report? Greg?

I've got two areas we have a report on. The first will be the housing authority like last week. There was a long, and I'm gonna summarize some of it because it was about a two hour meeting or so. There was a long discussion concerning the maintenance process and the funding process that goes along with it, as well as another topic that was being discussed was the replacement of some of the LTV flooring that was in there. Apparently, they may not have followed the instructions in terms of the installation, so they're looking at how they're going to fund and replace that as well. Again, it's a synopsis. It was much longer, but those are the two key topics that I took away from. Board of Finance, we went to that meeting about a week and a half ago, and the upcoming budget season was a minimal topic to start with, but the fiscal year 24 has closed, and the audit is available here at the town hall with limited audit reports. The fiscal year 25, we're pushing to try to close there by the end of September, and the goal is to be back on track to close out fiscal year 26 sometime in January or February so that we can maintain that schedule. Another topic that we looked at was, or that they were looking at discussing was the sale of assets and the updating of procedures. Other than that, that's all I've got.

Thank you, everybody. Appreciate that. We'll move to item 12, which is public comment on nine agenda items. If anybody would like to address the problem, please do. If that microphone gives you trouble, sir, let us know.

My voice is high enough.

I don't need that microphone.

Can anybody hear me?

We got you. We got you.

I'm here tonight.

My name is Michael Rinaldi. I just addressed. I just need your name and address, sir, sorry. Yes, I'm getting that. Okay.

My name is Michael Rinaldi. I live at the Vizinski Park in Ontario over here. And I take care of the flag, the American flag at the park. So I'm the steward. I was appointed by a board. I've noticed, so I think I'm a little bit qualified to do that in regards to I served six years in the United States Marine Corps. 1977-1983 um what i've seen in this town i've been here 10 years he said and i went with the prior mayors we went over the same thing and they finally edged up to the deal he said the flag the american flag in this town the first thing you you have to do in the morning when you take the you know your seat in the mayor's office is to make sure that that flag is a full staff or a half staff. It's probably displayed. Why are we doing that? I mean, I've been calling Julie every time I get the notice that the flag has to be a half staff I called Julie, Julie, the flag needs to be a half step. Oh, I'm sorry, we didn't get that email from the governor yet. Okay. As I was coming in tonight, the flag was supposed to be up at six o'clock, at 1800 hours. The flag miller is still down. I don't know if somebody put it up. But there seems to be a problem that I heard, now I don't know if you heard the same thing, is that the people that put the flag up need to be paid. That is totally ridiculous. I have never heard of that. These unions, I have never heard of the people have to be paid to put the flag up or down. I never heard of that. There's a gentleman, a former soldier, well, he's still a soldier. His name is Philip Albert. His plaque is sitting in Town Hall over there. It's looking at the flag. And it's truly despicable for these flags not to be a half-staff or a full-staff when they're supposed to. And I don't understand that. Why can't we have the secretary in Hawaii? The first thing she has to do when she sits down is to call either the governor or somebody. What's the position of our flags? What are we displaying in the American flag every day? Why are we doing that? You have also... a gentleman that is your chief of staff, I believe. Why can't he do that?

It only takes 10 minutes.

We are at war, ladies and gentlemen. Our men and women overseas are doing their job. They provide the security bar. We need to do a better job with the American flag in this town. We really do. And as the mayor, sir, you are, should be on top of that every morning when you sit down. And if you can't find somebody in that freaking governor's office to tell you, please call me at Vincente Park and I'll tell you what the position of the American flag is. I'm not an expert, but I keep an eye on that. Because those men and women deserve I respect. And it's very disrespectful for the people. I also take care of the monument on Main Street. I also put the flag up tonight when I was supposed to go up. Nobody says anything about that. One night I was putting the flags out here in Town Hall, and your fire department guy came out. What are you doing? I'm putting the flags up, sir, the way it's supposed to be done. Oh, well, you can't do that. Why are you touching the flags? Excuse me, sir, but that's what the flag's supposed to be at both ends. So, in other words, he's looking for somebody to be paid for it. That's what he's looking for. I'm asking the good people of Plymouth to stand up to this. Please, stand up to this. It's everybody's job, every citizen in this town, to make sure that that flag is flying at the right position. Everybody's. Not just the mayor. So you might have forgotten. Please call and tell them. It's everybody's job. Now I know I'm a little bit mad, but I truly stand for something I hope that it makes sense for the next generation. And we are, you know, make an example. Because if we're dummies, they're gonna be dummies. I have a pamphlet here. It's the American flag, the display of the American flag. The next time that the American flag is supposed to be at half staff is Patriot's Day. It's September 11th at sunrise. And at sunset, it goes up to full staff. I'm hoping that somebody can take care of it. I hope that you can assign somebody around to all the different departments that can The secretary could call, the first thing that she could do in the morning, call the different departments. Ladies and gentlemen, the flag needs to be a half stack there. I notice that the WPM, whatever you call the station over there, they're always in the dark. They don't know where to put that flag because they're doing their job. I understand that. But this is why we need that secretary or that chief of staff to do their job. That's their job. you know like you should tell them that say that's the first thing you should do in the morning because these people coming down with six they're looking at us and saying these people don't even know what today is you know memorial day the flag comes up at 12 o'clock and it goes at half staff and the sun now rise and at the sun's at 12 o'clock it goes to full staff all right so it's very simple let's do it for these kids

Mr. Rinaldi, I appreciate your comments very much, and I appreciate your additional explanation of why it's so important to you. It's very important.

Thank you.

You're quite welcome. Thank you for saying it. Additional public comments?

Melody Church. 328 Main Street, North Arlington, the school property. If you go back in the minutes, you will find that 26 acres is all that was allotted for that school by the state of Connecticut. They agreed to that, and then what happened, Rich Covello, the former mayor, had turned around and got a grant. It cost us a dollar for like 65 acres from the Connecticut water. So the Board of Ed received a letter from this board, the state, and said, we will not be giving you $499,000. You'll get just that dollar. So what they did is they met, and they decided, well, we have the right property, and we're looking at that, and we need that. And we're going to go down to the 26 acres, and then it will be subdivided. It never was self-divided. Look at the list right now. And that is why we are in the mess that we are in. No one knows and no one follows through and checks on these things. I will go back sometime this week or next week and I will give you copies out of the things right where the consul approved them. And it was never done. If you check with Rosie, the former assessor, she'll tell you nothing was ever surveyed.

There's no records of this.

That's where your numbers are all off, number one. Number two, it can't be adding on here for the cops and then turning around and talking about building. What do you want? And then it's up to the people. It's not up to you. We are, we care for our consulate. That is why the consulate is called our legislative body. They're the ones that have to say yay or nay. And these are the things that we need to follow. I'm going to make a suggestion that you all copy the chart and start reading it. Because you're going to find out you're losing your rights. And by you losing your rights, we're losing our rights. We voted. We said, no, please depart. So then who gets punished? The taxpayer. You don't give one bit about the taxpayers. Just pay more, pay more. We deserve this, we deserve that. What about the people that pay the bills? Does anybody look to them and ask them? No, a letter goes out. Here, we just did this. It's sad. And I do not think that we belong in the schools. This building was built for the power. This building right here, for everybody that's in here. And to take eight or nine officers and move them to another area, why do we have to build it? This is not, this is the farthest point in this town for a police department. The other side of, Plymouth, you can't compare that. You can't compare Paul Mountain. We have land that was given. We have that land. Put it up there and put up a tree. But when you do it, also ambulance cars sold. Money goes to offset. You know, everybody complains. But I have not seen anyone else get as much money as the police department in this town. Take a look. They have to have cars, they have to lease them. It's always a story. They need an L with everybody else. We need to take care of our own here. Here in this town, in this hall. And it's not done. It's done by a vote. It's done on openness. This is not transparency. And I don't care who sits as the assistant to who. That's not my problem. But my problem is we're not getting any services. We're not getting taken care of. But yet you want money from us? You want this bill, that bill? What are people saying? Nope, can't afford it. They're supposed to be living within a bus. And no other town has the amount of vehicles that we have out. Go drive through Tonniston. You aren't going to see the number of vehicles for the police that you're seeing here. This is overrated. And there has to be an accountability. Maybe there has to be a change. I mean, we have a captain. who disappeared, but yet is applying for jobs, eventually is going to end up for a job. And it's not all your fault. You weren't given all the information. That's the problem. So you need to, as our council members, to stand up for your constituents. And if you don't have an answer to something, vote no. They'll start giving you the answers. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Any additional members of the public that would like to address the council on any topic? Seeing none, we will move to item, which is now item 14, town council comments. Let's start on the other side of the room. Councilman Engel, any general comments this evening? Or questions or anything you want to bring before the council?

I JUST WANT TO THANK THOSE ON THE 2025 COMMITTEE TO START WITH. AGAIN, THEY DID A VERY GOOD JOB, AND I'M PROUD OF THE WORK THAT THEY DID. I DO HAVE A COUPLE OF THINGS THAT I'D LIKE US TO LOOK INTO DOWN THE ROAD, NOT RIGHT AWAY, AND I MAY BE HITTING YOU WITH ACCOUNTS OF A LITTLE BIT OF A SURPRISE, BUT IN MY OWN OPINION, I THINK WE OUGHT TO LOOK INTO A MORATORIUM ON DATA CENTERS DOWN THE ROAD, POSSIBLY COME UP WITH OUR OWN ORDINANCE TO BLOCK THEM OR STOP THEM. From everything I've read about it, they're being sold as a job creator, but the only jobs they truly create are those in the construction industry. But then they are pushing, they're basically run autonomously. You can run them remotely with very minimal staff. It's a data center. And anybody who knows anything about data centers and hardware and software, AI can take over and just about run anything you put in there. And they're huge water consumers. So I'd like us to consider that down the road immediately. And one last thing, I noticed that the, obviously the project is being delayed again coming in the center of town. Are there, do you know, I don't know what the contract read or how it's related to our programs. Are there penalty clauses within that contract for certain types of delays, delays beyond their control? they can start being penalized monetarily. I mean, I'm just curious. I know contracts, I've written contracts, I've been part of a binding deliverer. They started coming out of my pocket. So I just want to throw that out there. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Eagle.

Ron, some comments? It doesn't have to be answered right now, but the Board of Ed, I'm the liaison for the Board of Ed, and they offered to return, I think it was like $180,000 back to the town of Plymouth, but the town decided not to take the money back. I'm just wondering what the reason for that was.

What budget year was that, Ron? Was that just in the 2016? I'll have to look into that. I'm not familiar with those details.

Being an interim school business manager, the Board of Ed has all legal right to keep any and all surplus per state statute. Problem is, even if they gave it back, it would go back into the reserve, to our reserve. the best thing that they could do with it right now, and this is my opinion, because I'm a little biased, obviously, but in my opinion, the best thing they could do is utilize it for capital items. I know they've got air conditioning issues, they've got heat issues. It saves them from coming to the town, coming back in. They can get the three bid process and get it done more, more artificiously. That's having been doing that for 10, 12 years, That's probably the reason why. But I don't think that they voted. Take it. I don't remember us voting on it.

It didn't come before the Board of Finance that I'm aware of, but I'll follow up. Thank you. Anything else? Okay. No, thank you very much. Sue, any council comments this evening? Okay. All right. Once again, I want to thank everyone from the general public for joining tonight. Again, a big thank you to the court group that did the 250 anniversary. I was able to participate in one of the events. I got to read the Declaration of Independence, which I have to be honest, I never read the entire document, ever. So it was very enlightening in many ways. Thank you for those of you at home there that joined the technology. If you watch this meeting at some future date and you have any questions regarding this meeting, please go ahead and contact the mayor's office. I will make my one quick pitch again. We are always looking for folks to help us in this community. We have boards and commissions that have openings. We're almost done. We had some delays in the We have a site launch, but we're probably going to just need to roll it out just the way it is because it's three quarters done and we'll just deal with it. We'll fix it just like any other technology, right? If it's got a bug, we'll fix it afterwards. But hopefully we're going to make it easier for people to apply for boards and commissions and you'll be able to see a full list of those. Please contact the mayor's office and we will be glad to talk to you about any volunteer work that you'd like to do for the town of Plymouth. Thank you very much. We are now on item 15. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion by Ron Tisha, second by Ray Engle. Are there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of adjournment say aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you all very much for attending the meeting. Have a good night.

Thank you.