Board of Selectmen - Regular Meeting

You know, I know

We'll get there.

602 and public hearing will start. First, we'll do the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. First, we'll have citizens comment. Any citizens comment?

Are we talking about what you just did on Kentucky?

You can talk about anything.

Now's the time. Is this a selective meeting or a town meeting?

This is a public hearing.

David Lamont, Wiley School. the chip seal on the stocking come out pretty nice. I just had a couple of questions. First one, roads selected to be taken care of. When you're looking at your budget or how much you can do, who makes the determination and what needs to be done?

The determination comes from public works. What roads are more grave than others? Some of the roads can't be gypsy. Some of them are just, they need to be replaced. So they figure out what roads could you, like they start with Chautauqua, then they'll go to Brown Road or wherever.

Well, can I jump in here? We also have the contract with Beta, which did a scan of all 37.2 miles of town road. And they gave us recommendations for maintenance for each road and a schedule. And that's what Public Works is using to make their decisions. So it's not just we're randomly picking roads. It's we have data that was collected because they drove around with trucks and they scanned all the roads to get road conditions. And then they gave recommendations on whether it was a chip seal, whether it was a full replacement, all that sort of stuff. It was a host of things that they gave us.

Okay. So if we remember back last year at the town meeting that got the cops involved and over a lot of voicing over Williams Road over there off of Brown Road. And Chautauqua was supposed to be chip sealed last year. But apparently they went over and did a paid job on Williams.

So the reason why Chautauqua wasn't done last year wasn't a change in priorities. It was due to weather. So they ran out of time due to weather on what they would do. But there was time to do Williams.

There was time to do Williams.

And when they were crack sealing and it got 90 degrees, you undercoated everybody's car. This stuff was running down the road.

Yeah, I heard a few people calling about that. So we have the chip sealing company here tonight, I think. I don't know if they're going to show up. They were supposed to be here.

So my second question is, When are you going to finish the rest of Chautauqua from Wiley School instead of Horace?

I don't know if that was on the plan.

Do you, Brian? Really? Chautauqua is on the plan. Chautauqua and not Valley. Ron, what's your road? James? James Road. He's on James Road. James Road. So they were doing Chautauqua, James Road, and I think Fallon.

Where the chips heal.

Yeah.

But Chautauqua, from Wiley School to the forest.

The back end?

You can't just chip seal that.

Is that? Okay. I know what you're saying now. You know where I mean? Yeah, to the dead end? Yeah. To the dead end back there? There you can. I mean, I'll have to find out about that. Have you driven? I've driven. It's not great. I'm not great. It's not good.

I'm just curious where it fits in.

Right. I'll get to the bottom of that and ask them why. Okay.

And the other one he had done was that was just as bad. Right. Quickly. Right.

I will make that a note and I will talk to the chip dealers if they hear tonight about it. And then if not, then I'll talk to them. That's a complete rebuild.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

rebuilds a little tougher than just chips but so it wasn't the other one off of brown road right that was rebuilt all right it was just part of it yeah well okay it was just part over yeah but it was just as bad a shape as the rest of japan is that's the same well it's a lot better than it was

We'll figure that one out. We'll try to figure that one out. And that's just like any other road in Volontown. We've got to look at it, process, and what we can afford.

At one time, one of the cast selectmen, I talked to him about it, said, well, there's only one house down there. That was the wrong answer.

Did you hear me say that?

No.

No. No. Every road's a road here, whether it's one house on the road, whether it's 30. Right. I look at it the same. So, and you drive around Volontown, and some of these roads are not good at all. So, I mean, it's tough to, like, we can say that, and we can put Gallup on there, and we can put Kenny on there, and we can put, you know, a ton of them on there, too. Oh, yeah. So, there's a lot of work in Volontown. If we had the money, it'd be great. I wish I could call and say, well, we're going to do this one this year. We'll do that one next year or those two next year.

But, you know. Well, you can put in your strong recommendation. Right.

Anybody else?

Hey, John.

Yep. I'm not messing with the TV. It's still working. Everybody can be fine. But John's here.

New business. First part is the water study findings. John, you there? John? I am here. Can you hear me?

Can you guys hear me?

He shouldn't be coming through the TV. He should be coming through the TV.

John, can you hear us?

I can, yes. And I can see Brian and Sue.

Okay. Okay. Here on the laptop. Give us a second, John. We'll get you. Okay.

Yeah. Take your time.

Is the plug coming out from the garbage can on the wall? Oh, yeah.

I can see. Yeah. Well, you know,

Thanks, Tracy.

Can you guys hear me now?

Perfect. Yes.

Okay. So for the record, I'm John Guskowski. I'm the town's consulting planning director. I've been project managing the community water system study. Just have a brief statement about the current status. The town of Voluntown community water system study was initiated to evaluate whether a public water system could address recurring well reliability concerns, support future development, and enhance long-term water availability in two key areas of town. This study was prompted in part by drought conditions over the last several years and concerns regarding private well capacity and particularly within the village center area and the beach pond area. We pursued and received a community infrastructure fund grant from the state of Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development. This was a $250,000 planning and engineering study that was fully funded by the state, no municipal finances were required or involved. As part of this effort, the town conducted hydrogeologic investigations. We installed and monitored observation wells and we performed water quality testing at several potential water source locations. In the village center, which study is basically getting wrapped up now, the observation wells showed promising groundwater availability in terms of pure flow. However, there was a need for treatment for detected levels of manganese and PFAS. We are still undergoing hydrogeologic investigations at Beach Pond to determine if a viable water source exists. We received preliminary findings, again, on the village center system. While a water system may be technically feasible in the village center, meaning that we have enough water for a community water system, the capital costs that would be associated with developing a permanent public water supply system in the village area appears to be prohibitively expensive for the town to take on. So as a result of this expense, pursuing a public water system in the village center does not appear to be a practical investment for the town unless significant, and we mean significant, outside funding was available for implementation. So at this time, town leadership has decided not to pursue any additional funding for the village center component. We will be having, again, as I said, we are not done with the beach pond study. When that study is wrapped up, we will provide additional public information at that time when that component of the study concludes. I'd also just like to note that we have been maintaining a page on our community website, the town website, providing updates on the water system study so people can check in on that. But again, the bottom line is the first phase of this study focusing on Village Center revealed Sufficient water, but the capital costs for implementation were deemed too high, and we will not be pursuing further studies or engineering along this line in the village. So happy to answer any questions that people may have.

John, how much was the significant capital cost for us to go further with this study?

Yeah, it was in the range of $15 million to $18 million. to basically stand up the system. Thank you. I mean, a lot of that infrastructure is expensive, but a lot of that had to deal with building up water treatment capacity and storage and that sort of thing.

Who would maintain something like that?

It would be maintained most likely. Again, if we were to consider something like that, and I want to reiterate, at this time, we are not. It would be maintained by the Connecticut Water Company, who is designated by the Department of Public Health to be the exclusive service provider for public water systems in this municipality. So we would essentially build it and then turn it over to Connecticut Water to maintain. So similar, there is a small water system out near Beach Pond, Tanglewood, a couple of roads over there. That is a small community system maintained by Connecticut Water.

And those residents receive a bill from Connecticut Water, correct?

Precisely, as they would for any other utility.

So that's not a reoccurring budget line item?

On the town, no. But it would then be anyone connected to it would get a monthly water bill.

pretty big amount of money to put out.

Which is why we have chosen at this time to not.

You wouldn't get any return on it.

Well, a public water system is not intended to be a money-making operation. It's a utility. Right.

The reason why we even looked at this originally was because of the possibility of future economic development and growth in the town center. some of the mandates from the state around changing zoning so that we could change from single family dwellings to multifamily dwellings in town center. But with that sort of cost, that's a, oh no. Because right now it's costing town nothing to do the study. Right, right, right, right. So, and we've gotten an answer out of the study on the village center. We'll get an answer on Beach Pond. So we'll talk about that when that happens.

It would have to be a real good well.

Right. Exactly what area of the beach farm are you talking about?

John?

Yeah, it's basically the Bennett Road, Bennett Circle area. The properties, and I mean, we... I think we may expand just the cost estimates to the north shore of Beach Pond also, but the initial study was intended to be basically the Bennett Road, Bennett Circle area. The area is just immediately south of the pond itself. The area of highest residential density.

And it's not an area where you're going to bring in multifamily homes. I mean, everything's stacked in.

Well, in the Beach Pond area, the idea there is recognizing that the properties are developed quite in a high density. Those are seasonal cottages that have gradually and continue to be converted from seasonal one bedroom, two bedroom cottages to three, four, five bedroom year round houses that have a significantly higher water demand and more importantly, require by public health code, significant separation distances between water systems and septic systems. So that public health code significantly hinders people's ability to essentially build out their property and invest in their property, making improvements and, frankly, making their properties more valuable in a way that is good for the town's grand list. And so because of public health limitations, sometimes those building expansions are hindered. And so the idea is if we can bring in public water, we can reduce the separation distance burden and allow people to develop at a more robust level.

Properties that you can do that with?

I'm sorry?

Do you have a count? A number of properties that would possibly do that?

We didn't do a property by property analysis. We just basically drew a circle around the highest density of residential properties and said these would be the ones that would be included in a public water system study. Again, this is just a planning exercise.

So that is two separate systems. a system and a pond system.

Correct. And so we've completed the research on the village system. The beach pond system is another six weeks behind.

Any additional questions?

Did I ask a question? Did the town ever look at... The opposite situation where you provided a mutual septic tank instead of dealing with the well issue because that also has some things going on.

Sure. So we did at the initial planning stages consider that. I mean, so if you're looking to do some sort of public infrastructure system, either a public water system or a public sewer system, either of those would help alleviate the development constraints. However, in very broad strokes, a sewer system is an order of magnitude more expensive than a public water system. because you not only have to do all the pipes that you would for a water system, you also have to build a water treatment facility, a sewer plant. And, and so, you know, whereas in, in rough numbers, you know, if, if a water system in the village is going to cost us $15 million, a sewer plant would cost us 75 million. Like, and so we, you know, knowing, knowing those, those just how expensive sewer treatment is versus water.

Yeah. versus a larger septic system, which would be pumped out, which the homeowners could pay a fee to have that maintained and pumped out every year.

Sure.

Not a whole home sewer system.

Right. Yes, we could look at, I mean, that is something that could be looked at, a community wastewater, basically a community septic system, like a that would be certainly cheaper than a full blown sewer system, but it's, it's size constraints would be quite low compared to, I mean, even the number of houses there right now, you wouldn't be able to get that number of houses on a, you know, a traditional community system, even if you had, you know, a bunch of acres for a perfectly designed septic leach field. Not that you've got the space. I don't know where down there you would be able to size a leach field that big. But yeah, I mean, that's a consideration, falling short of a full sewer plant, yes. But we just didn't see that as feasible for the type of study we wanted to do with this money at this time. That could be something we look at in the future.

And then the only other question is a zoning question where a lot of our towns, if someone owns a small lot, which can't be built on because it's too small or they don't have the room for another well or another septic system, but they own an adjacent lot and want to upgrade their property, there's some towns that require that the homeowner combine the lots to make the lot more conforming.

Is that a question or a statement?

No, that's one way of alleviating too much buildup on the lawn because You still have people building up and adding bathrooms and adding all this stuff. You're still close to the pond and so you still have leeching water that goes down to the pond because everything just about on that pond is uphill from the pond. So if you're building bigger houses with bigger bathrooms, going from cottages to cold long houses that are two-story or three-story and five bedrooms and four bathrooms or whatever it is, you're adding beach water into the pond, which is a big concern because this is the quality of the water. Pretty sure everything down there pretty much is engineered septic. Now it's going to move forward and something. There's a lot of smaller cottages that are not.

Yeah, but you're not going from a one bedroom to a five bedroom without any engineered septic.

No, you're not, but But some people, we did it. We went up. But we still maintained. It was a three bedroom. We maintained a three bedroom. But there are some places that are smaller, a smaller lot. And with old septic systems, I don't know if you've ever seen the soap suds that run along the pond every weekend. It's just, what do you want? Do you want more development? Do you want the houses to be worth more? Do you just want people to be able to maintain their houses? Or do you want the pond to maintain its quality of water in the long term because of tax dollars down there and tourism and all the fun people have down there in the summertime? or is it just benefiting a few people for all this money?

We want all of the above for nothing.

All right, so John, since I got John, we got the proposed extinguishment of the pound section.

there's just one thing about the water, the water system. I know it's all preliminary and I know the engineers and all probably looked at this. I looked at a lot of the paperwork, a lot of the first study that was done, what was available in the least. One thing I didn't see in there, taking into account, and I know the chief of study is up in Massachusetts, a lot of towns went through the same problem over the decades and they put city water in to solve a lot of the problems. In 20 years, they have more problems because You have to take into account when you pump water out to different locations, it'll raise the water table six feet in the town. And all the septics fail because you're pumping water to all these locations. So all hydrology and everything else has to take into account theoretically all that water being put in a different location. And as I'm just saying, we ended up paying $50 million for the septic system, for the sewer. Lucky though, you're next to a large city. So a large city took the same treatment. So we don't have a large city nearby to pipe it to. So that's just something I just didn't see in the study, just chiming in from what I've seen. That hit me in the pocket quite hard when that happened. So it got very, very expensive to connect because we had a bond and everything. Just pointing that out. Thank you.

John, are you still there? I am. Okay. A proposed extinguishment of the town's right-of-way to Old Econ Hill Road. Where did we come up with that?

That was a request made by Butters on old Econkill Road, folks that basically have an old road right of way still under the control and ownership of the municipality that was sort of handed over to the town when the state rebuilt 49 and rerouted it. There's a little eyebrow of a road that basically runs through a couple of people's backyards. And they made the inquiry and request that since the town clearly does not use nor need this, that it be formally extinguished and the legal term is discontinued so that the town can divest itself of that property, which it does not use nor need nor need the liability on and basically hand it off to the abutting property owner so that they can own it in fee simple. This was the request made. The Board of Selectmen considered this and referred it to the Planning and Zoning Commission for what's referred to as an 824 referral, referencing Connecticut General Statute Section 8-24. The Planning and Zoning Commission determined that this extinguishment of the road formally through discontinuation was appropriate and was in keeping with the goals of the Plan of Conservation and Development. They encourage the selectmen to move forward on it. And in order to do so, if the selectmen wish to continue, The selectmen need to schedule a town meeting to formally vote to discontinue the road. And there are some legal notifications in the newspaper, legal notifications to the abutters, as well as signage posted to properly notify the municipality of its intent. but that this would be basically a formal action requiring a majority town meeting vote essentially to extinguish and say the town no longer has interest, legal interest in this right of way.

All right, so how's... September 22nd for a town meeting for this.

John, does that give us enough time? That's 60 days from tonight.

Yeah. You basically need to notify a Butters 30 days prior and post a sign 30 days prior. And then, you know, you need to, because it's a town meeting, you need to legally notice it in the paper twice ahead of time, at least 15 days. So yes, two months out gives you plenty of time.

I make a motion that we set a town meeting for the discontinuance of old Econkill Road under an 824 referral to September 22nd, 2026. All in favor?

Aye.

September 22nd, town meeting. Yep. At 7 p.m.? 7 p.m. Then we're here. at town hall okay thanks john okay thanks folks okay next the chip ceiling guys are supposed to be here are they here they did not show up so we cannot talk to them which is great Let's do tax refunds now. We talked about the chip ceiling with that. I'll talk with the guys. I'll talk why they're not here tonight. That's not good. The company was supposed to be here tonight. The representatives of the company. Maybe the weather.

There's some miscommunication on the time. I just talked to Ron and they think the meeting is at 7. But they should be on their way. I think that the meeting was six, they thought it was seven. Okay, hold on for a half hour.

Let's reschedule with them. Oh, the 22nd with them too. You want to do that?

Add them to September 22nd. Okay, good.

Was this a town meeting or a selectman's meeting?

Public hearing. Public hearing.

What does it say on the board? Do you want a new board up there?

It says on the website.

What is it?

It says town meeting on board. That is a mistake that we fully take responsibility for and acknowledge. But this is a public hearing. The newspaper and the town website stated it was just the board that was the mistake. And that's the one that doesn't have a legal requirement. Not trying to get out of anything.

Then don't try and get out of it. No, we're not trying to get out of it. We take it. No, go ahead.

Doors are always open. You want to come in, talk, whatever.

Oh, no, I read it. Yep.

I'm going to stay.

Oh, okay. That's fair.

All right. Let's do the... Where do we have three? I have more. All right. The first one is for Robert Engel, Jr., for 3145. I don't know. 1145. Second one is for Toyota Lease Trust, 19730. Third one is for Sean Dooley, Founding Road, Ballantown, 40. stole on the road. That one is $44.88.

I make a motion to issue tax refunds as recommended by the tax collector.

Second.

All in favor? Aye.

Thank you.