Minutes of the regular meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners held on Tuesday, August 2, 2005 in the Lower Conference Room, 3 Main Street, Newtown, CT. Vice-Chairman Finnegan called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
PRESENT: C. Mattegat, G. Finnegan, R. Simon and D. Giannini. ABSENT: R. Connor. ALSO PRESENT: Chief Kehoe, Captain Rios, six members of public.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION. None noted at this time.
MINUTES. The minutes and addendum of the regular meeting of July 5, 2005 were unanimously accepted as presented.
CHIEF’S ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT (July, 2005).
Overtime is the final report for last fiscal year. Overtime was under budget. Budget balances and encumbrances used 99.1% of the budget. GL balances are not remarkable. Fleet. The order for cars is being processed. Personnel – the new hire started yesterday and will be sworn in on Friday at 10:00 a.m. at Town Hall South. Training is slower in the summer due to vacations. There were several letters of appreciation Parking deck is ongoing and should be completed in September.
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CAPTAIN’S OPERATIONAL REPORT (July, 2005) included monthly calls for service, motor vehicle activity, DUI activity and detective division analysis reports were included. Sgt. Vanghele submitted a memo listing the July 4 DUI checkpoint statistics and that the July 23 checkpoint resulted in one heroin arrest. The Tercentennial fireworks display will be on Saturday night. There are shuttles from some of the schools and Kendro. There will be extra police activity that day. Chief Kehoe said that the public should be encouraged to park where the shuttle will pick them up and bring them to Fairfield Hills. Captain Rios said that Queen Street and Glover Avenue will be closed to traffic at 6:30 p.m. or 7:00 p.m.
OLD BUSINESS
Monaco Properties, South Main Street. Mark Lancor of Dymar is the engineer, surveyor and architect on the project. He reported that a larger building was approved in 1992 but the project was not completed. The current proposal is for a smaller 15,000 square foot building with 75 parking spaces. The sight lines on Route 25 will be improved to nearly 500 feet in both directions. The knoll will be partially taken down. Retail use will occupy 10,000 square feet and business 5,000 square feet.
Mr. Irving Chann, traffic consultant, said that traffic may queue but will not back up onto Route 25. Commissioner Mattegat is concerned about people trying to turn left onto Route 25. Mr. Lancor said that the State DOT said this would be an on site issue not one of concern to the DOT. Mr. Chann said all properties on Route 25 have the same issues with left turns. He said that the driveway was moved to provide the maximum sight lines.
Commissioner Finnegan moved to accept the plan with the indicated sight lines, second by Commissioner Simon and unanimously carried.
NEW BUSINESS
Application 28 Church Hill Road. A Japanese restaurant is proposed. The sidewalk should continue so that children can walk to St. Rose. Commissioner Finnegan moved to accept the plans as presented and request a crosswalk with a handicap accessible ramp at Hawley School which will connect to the sidewalk for this application. Second by Commissioner Simon and unanimously carried.
Application 40 Dodgingtown School, Housatonic Valley Waldorf School. Scott Whelehan, Building/Site Committee Member at the school and Ed Scoville from Stuart Somers Company presented the proposal. The School is asking for a special exception from Planning & Zoning to utilize the residence on the adjacent lot as a school. After discussion with the Commission, it was agreed that the two driveways on Jacklin Road would remain and the driveway on Route 302 would be used only for emergency access and would have a breakaway gate. Chief Kehoe noted that two years ago the School asked for a crosswalk with a pedestrian stanchion for staff only to cross Route 302 He said that the DOT said that major work would have to be done at that intersection and the DOT is not willing to put this forward because of this.
Chief Kehoe said that a mid block crosswalk may be more feasible. Mr. Whelehan said that the crosswalk was not discussed this year. Commissioner Finnegan moved that the existing two driveways on Jacklin Road remain as is, that the driveway on Route 302 for tax lot 52 be used only for emergency vehicles and have a breakaway gate and a “No Entry” sign posted. Second by Commissioner Simon and unanimously carried.
Application Ridge Valley Estates. Chief Kehoe said that there are no sight line issues. Commissioner Simon moved to accept the application and requested a stop sign be placed at Ridge Valley and High Bridge Roads. Second by Commissioner Giannini and unanimously carried.
Application Seven Berkshire LLC. The proposal is for a personal service establishment in an existing building. Commissioner Simon moved to accept the application for Seven Berkshire as presented, second by Commissioner Giannini and unanimously carried.
Request for Secondary Employment for Detective Koetsch. Chief Kehoe said that this a re-application for a three year employment. Commissioner Giannini moved to approve Detective Koetsch’s request for a three year extension to his secondary employment. Second by Commissioner Simon and unanimously carried.
Discussion on the Chief’s evaluation for 2004-05. Commissioner Giannini moved to accept Chief Kehoe’s evaluation as presented. Second by Commissioner Simon and unanimously carried. Commissioner Simon noted that Chief Kehoe did a great job this year and that morale has never been greater. He also noted that Captain Rios exemplifies the same attitude as Chief Kehoe, that we are lucky to have him and that his FBI training is a benefit to us. The Commissioners concur.
COMMISSIONERS’ PARTICIPATION (NEXT AGENDA). None noted.
EXECUTIVE SESSION. Commissioner Simon moved to enter executive session at 9:15 p.m. to discuss police union contract negotiations and to invite Chief Kehoe and Captain Rios to attend, second by Commissioner Giannini and unanimously carried.
At this time the clerk left the meeting.
Ann M. Mazur, Clerk
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