Torrington Blue Ribbon Commission
Minutes of Meeting
Tuesday August 16, 2011
Torrington City Hall, 5 PM Office of the Mayor
Members Present: Mayor Ryan Bingham, Elinor Carbone, Lorel Purcell, Mike Clark, and Doug O’Connell; also present: advisor Mayoral Aide Stephen Nocera.
1) The meeting was opened at 5:06 PM on a motion by Mr. Clark, seconded by Mr. O’Connell.
2) Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of 07.19.11 was made on a motion by Mr. Clark, seconded by Mayor Bingham, and unanimously approved by the commission, with an abstention by Mayor Bingham due to his absence from that meeting.
3) Ms. Purcell reviewed/ updated the BRC task list and schedule:
• Mr. Clark stated that the task group studying PAYT trash management had met with Jerry Rollett, City Public Works Director, Waste Zero representative Mike LaPorte and Elinor Carbone. Mr. Clark stated that the meeting reinforced his concern for the need of direct oversight of the PAYT program by a City person, and regulations for penalty assessment to property owners not following program guidelines. He stated that although other towns using PAYT had no such program in place, their demographic was not comparable to Torrington’s; especially in the ratio of rental properties to single family homes. He stated that other towns did not include no-charge bulk waste pick up in their programs, but offered it on a charges basis. Mr. Clark stated that Torrington’s downtown merchants
needed a trash collection system that would take their needs into account and that the task group was reviewing that need as well.
• Ms. Purcell stated that although Bid/Purchasing lists from the BOE have been completed and costed, the City Purchasing agent had yet to furnish the same data due to fiscal year end work. That list with costs would be available before the next BRC meeting. and a task group meeting would then be scheduled to analyze the merged information
• Ms Purcell requested that Mr. O’Connell join her task group reviewing a citywide energy audit. Mr. O’Connell agreed and suggested that it might be worthwhile to commission a professional audit as well. He added that although the Police Chief is very interested in improving energy efficiency in his department, there are no funds currently available to do so. Ms. Purcell said she would get information from the BOE energy audit which had already been completed.
• Mayor Bingham said that he and Mr. Traub were reviewing sharing maintenance crews between the City and BOE.
• The Mayor indicated that he was in the process of following up with the Engineering Dept. to assess savings likely through greater use of high efficiency street lighting. Mr. Nocera stated that he had been in contact with Senator Lieberman’s Office and was informed that there are no further grants currently available for implementing a lighting efficiency program
4. Other Business:
• Ms. Carbone requested that another review of City and BOE organizational charts be added to the task lists again.
• Mr. O’Connell stated that the Chief of Police had suggested using fewer contractors for minor repair work and use retired personnel or lower pay level persons for that type of work instead. Mr. O’Connell and Ms. Carbone will follow up on that suggestion
5. The meeting was adjourned at 5:50 PM on a motion by Mr. Clark, seconded by Mayor Bingham and approved by the commission.
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