BOARD OF SELECTMEN
Meeting Minutes
Regular Meeting April 5, 2010
Town Office Building – Common Room 6:30 P.M.
First Selectman Mailhos called the meeting to order at 6:30 P.M. with the following in attendance: Selectmen Millix & Blessington, Lynn Nicholls and residents. First Selectman Mailhos led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Approval of Minutes:
Selectman Blessington motioned to approve the special minutes of March 8, 2010 12:00 P.M. with the following correction:
Item A; 4th paragraph – 2nd sentence; “Legislature gave them 10 years to get better” – should read “Legislature gave them 5 years to get better”.
First Selectman Mailhos seconded the motion.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Millix & Blessington) 0 No.
Selectman Blessington motioned to approve the special minutes of March 8, 2010 1:30 P.M.; 5:15 P.M. & 6:15 P.M. as written for the Attorney interviews.
Selectman Millix seconded the motion.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Millix & Blessington) 0 No.
Selectman Millix motioned to approve the special minutes of March 8, 2010 2:15 P.M. with the following correction: Item A; 4th paragraph, last sentence: “PW vehicle maintenance decrease by $40,000 for a total savings of $35,250” should read: “PW vehicle maintenance decrease by $5,000 for a total savings of $35,250”
Selectman Blessington seconded the motion.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Millix & Blessington) 0 No.
Selectman Blessington motioned to approve the special minutes of March 9, 2010 9:45 & 10:45 A.M. as written for the Attorney interviews.
Selectman Millix seconded the motion.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Millix & Blessington) 0 No.
Selectman Blessington motioned to approve the special minutes of March 12, 2010 11:00 A.M. with the following corrections:
In the first paragraph after “Open for discussion”, the first two sentences should be one and read:
Selectman Blessington said that it has been petitioned and that any discussion of the issues should take place at the Town Meeting itself.
And the next sentence should read:
”Jim Poole said that it’s a miscarriage of the state legislative statutes for Town Meeting Form of Government”
In the next paragraph, the sentence, “Mark Palmer said that the Board could act on the petition if they deem it to be not frivolous” should read:
“Mark Palmer said that the board could refuse to act on the petition of they deem it to be frivolous”.
In the seventh paragraph, the two sentences that begin with “Selectman Blessington” read, Selectman Blessington said that he agrees with Mr. Poole, you hear the same arguments at the election time the people don’t understand so you keep having elections until the people keep getting it right. He stated that unless the Board declares the petition frivolous, he is not willing to go that far.” Would more accurately read:
Selectman Blessington said he agrees with Mr. Poole, that this is like a Banana Republic where if El Presidente doesn’t like the outcome of the election he announces that the people didn’t understand the issues and he will keep holding elections until they get it right. However, the only way to avoid calling the meeting was to declare the petition frivolous and he was not willing to go that far.
Selectman Millix seconded the motion.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Millix & Blessington) 0 No.
Selectman Blessington motioned to approve the special minutes of March 15, 2010 11:00 A.M. as written.
Selectman Millix seconded the motion.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Millix & Blessington) 0 No.
Selectman Blessington motioned to approve the regular minutes of March 15, 2010 6:30 P.M. as written.
Selectman Millix seconded the motion.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Millix & Blessington) 0 No.
Present to Speak:
Donna Hardie, Town Clerk was present to ask the Board for approval to process the preservation grant. The grant is $3,000 map system to coordinate the index data in an electronic format for online searches.
First Selectman Mailhos motioned to approve Donna Hardie to apply for a Historic Preservation Documents grant in the amount of $3,000.
Selectman Millix seconded the motion.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Millix & Blessington) 0 No.
First Selectman Mailhos motioned for Donna Hardie to be the designated agent for the History Load Proposal for Property Maps Project
Selectman Blessington seconded the motion.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Millix & Blessington) 0 No.
Holly Drinkuth of the Nature Conservancy gave a brief overview of the Nachaug River Basin and the progress that has been made since 2005 when the conservation project began. The drainage from Nachaug River Basin runs into the Mansfield Hollow Dam and is the drinking water supply for Willimantic and much of Mansfield. Most of the Towns and organizations within the Natchaug Basin have a document with some form that addresses water resource protection. However, many municipalities lack the capacity necessary to proactively apply the strategies identified in their documents. Meetings have been held to improve the effort. Ms. Drinkuth brought an invitation to a steering committee meeting which will be held on April 29. She has asked to have representatives from Willington attend the meeting and be involved in
supporting the cause. First Selectman Mailhos asked if we could send more than one person from our Town. Ms. Drinkuth said absolutely; they don’t want to limit representation from Towns to just Boards and Commissions. Selectman Blessington nominated Mark Palmer, as he had been involved in the project in prior years. Ms. Drinkuth said that Mr. Palmer had some very good suggestions in the meetings. First Selectman Mailhos asked if there were any findings regarding road maintenance use of salt and road sand run offs into the streams. Ms. Drinkuth said that there have been discussions and research on the issues. It is starting to become more common to use salt versus sand, and there are some impacts and some benefits with reducing sediment in the streams. In this area there are still many unpaved roads that need to be maintained and make sure they are not flowing into the streams as well.
WHFD Chief Mike Makuch said that spring weekend at UCONN is slated for April 21 through the 24th. He said that the rumor is that students are planning to have the Willington Wednesday parties somewhere on campus rather than dealing with the resistance in Willington. However, we should still plan on increased activity in the Willington Apartment complexes. He has asked to have First Selectman Mailhos contact the property managers of Cedar Ridge, Woodhaven and Willington Oaks and Walden Apartments.
Correspondence:
A list of correspondence was available at the meeting and in the Selectman’s office.
First Selectman Status Report
First Selectman Mailhos went over the updated report:
*Low income home improvement grants – we are still adding to the list and residents who are interested in applying can obtain applications at the Selectmen’s office.
*Water System Treatment at the Senior Center and Senior Housing – has been connected and the new pump is active. It will take a few weeks to go through the system to know whether or not it is working properly.
*There will be a budget hearing tomorrow evening at 7:00 PM at the Old Town Hall.
*CL&P major conversion in Willington - First Selectman Mailhos met with our representative from CL&P last week. They are planning the conversion to take place on April 20. They will come in on Route 32 and Route 74. Pinney Hill and surrounding roads will be down about 6 hours during the day. The goal is to improve everyone’s service. We will send out a notice on the Town email site to notify everyone of the outage. The rain date is set to be April 21.
*Planning and Zoning violation – Karl Acimovic will go before the Planning and Zoning Commission to request that the gravel pit be converted to a reserve land zone.
*Energy Audit on the Town Office Building – the audit was completed and a report was circulated to the Board of Selectmen with the findings. The Energy Advisory Commission will present their findings to the Board at our next regular meeting. The main finding is that the Town Office Building is 300% leakier (in terms of energy) than it should be.
*Probate Court Planning – It looks like the Court will stay in Tolland but relocated to where the police station is. They are close to finalizing the details.
*Senior Center Recreation Area – The area is being worked on this week. The raised beds are already installed. The horseshoe pits and benches and picnic table are expected to be finished this week. Planning and Zoning should then sign off on the work done to move forward with the next phase of grant funding.
Public Works:
Lynn said the sweeper will be sent back to us tomorrow, and she will give Robin the sweeping schedule to post online. They are finishing up the work at the senior center this week, and also working on filling potholes all over Town.
Old business
A. MIRMA update
First Selectman Mailhos said that Municipal Interlocal Risk Management Agency (MIRMA) will be holding a meeting on April 14 to discuss the recent assessment with the Towns who have been affected by it and they will be able to answer questions. She as well as Selectman Blessington plan to attend. Selectman Blessington stated that we have an invoice that is supposed to be paid prior to July 1, but House Bill 5011 would allow MIRMA to balance the assessment over 4 years rather than pay it at once, but the downside of HB5011 is that if MIRMA is still under water by 2013, they would be allowed to do another re assessment.
B. Approval of revised CIP
First Selectman Mailhos gave a background on the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). The Capitol Improvement Committee is an advisory committee to the Board of Selectmen. The CIP and Board of Selectmen started working on the plan from January through March, but the plan was not approved by the Board of Finance. Last week, the BOF asked BOS to remove 1 line item which was a fire truck but it was not decided at the time as to which department would be the one to get the truck. The CIP met again to discuss options regarding the truck. It was then put on the plan that WFD#1 would get the new truck. The Board of Selectmen has the revised CIP to approve. The revised plan is to lease 1 truck at a cost of $475,000 for WFD#1 in fiscal year 2010-2011 and WHFD will receive $525,000 in 2012-2013. The funding source for
both of the trucks is from the Emergency Services Fund. It is important to note that this is not directly correlated with taxpayer’s dollars. John Patton, (chairman of the CIP) said the original recommendation from the CIP Plan was to fund both trucks this year. They looked at the Emergency Services Funds, and the funding could pay for both trucks as well as replace the ambulance in a few years. If the two departments use the same vendor we could save more money, but the Board of Finance said they did not want to fund more than one truck. The CIP committee is only an advisory committee, and cannot fight the decision made by BOF. He also stated that the Board of Selectmen probably should have fought the decision, and he thinks it is a mistake. As long as we have two departments; we should be buying two trucks at the same time. Fire Chief Makuch said he felt he needed to argue the concept of purchasing two
trucks for the two departments at the same time; the two Chiefs are not asking for both departments to get new toys; the two departments cover certain areas of Town and need the proper equipment to do so. It is not looking at the broad scope of things. He said that the emissions are due on the truck and in order to pass emissions, they will need to purchase a new engine at a cost of $26,000. They have been holding off on that with the anticipation of replacing the truck. The truck is 29 years old and is the first one out the door for most calls. It has responded to 95% of all fire calls in the past calendar year, and has responded to 2,570 calls in its lifetime. Chief Makuch said that being almost 30 years old is not acceptable, and quoted the letter that was sent to the Board of Finance last week “As parents we don’t put our families in 30 year old cars, we don’t put our children in 30 year old busses, and as Fire Chiefs, we
will not put our firefighters in 30 year old trucks”. This is a safety issue. We have a funding source that is no net cost to the taxpayers. He said he is aware of the Board of Finance concern with the emergency services fund possibly tapering off, but the trends seem to keep going up, even with the economy. He is asking the Board of Selectmen to reject the current CIP plan. The taxpayers should get modern equipment, especially if it is no net cost to them. Chief Makuch said that this could also drive a wedge between the two departments. Both departments need the new equipment. He said that WHFD spent $90,000 to refurbish the truck when it was 20 years old, and spent an additional $42,388 on repairs. Robin Knight said that both of our departments were previously at the recent Stafford fire, and the Main Stafford truck went down. We need to think about trucks going down; if there is a fire in the middle of the night,
and people are trapped in their house, and the truck breaks down, and can’t get to them quickly, someone could get killed. It is not just about getting new equipment; it is about the people and saving their lives. First Selectman Mailhos is aware of the need for both departments to replace trucks, and noted that there is a funding source that doesn’t impact taxpayers. If the Board doesn’t approve the plan as submitted, the old plan would still be in place. Chief Makuch said that he, on behalf of his department, is not happy with the plan and will request the Board take affirmative action.
Selectman Millix motioned to submit and reaffirm the original CIP plan submitted to the Board of Finance for their reconsideration.
Selectman Blessington seconded the motion.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Millix & Blessington) 0 No.
C. Center School water project update
The Center School Water Committee met last week to reaffirm the direction that we are going with the project. It was decided that it was not the jurisdiction of the Committee, which was formed to bring water from the Senior Center to the School to make decisions about the direction. First Selectman Mailhos has been looking into other options, as the current project looks to be over budget by approximately $10,000 if the contingency funds are needed. There was a suggestion to reactivate one of the existing wells, but it was never fully explored. She suspects it was at the time Hall School went on public water, but she was not involved, so she cannot confirm.
The Engineering firm that was hired is in the process of getting their permits, and in the design phase, but the Board of Education has expressed some concern with the water coming from the Senior Center, as they are having issues with the copper. However, that would most likely not be the case as we have been assured that the copper is coming from the pipes in the senior housing due to a PH imbalance. So far we have spent $25,000 between the Town Engineer and the Engineering Company that was hired. If we were to research reactivating the existing well, it could potentially be a lot less. She thinks it is worth looking into if it saves money, and has confirmed with the State that we could still use the grant money to look into the well, as long as we fill out the proper paperwork with them. Selectman Millix said
anything to reduce the cost has to be explored, and that is our job to do that.
D. Discuss draft of Bulky Waste Policy
First Selectman Mailhos presented the Board with a draft policy for their review. She retrieved information from our TSOMP (Transfer Station Operation Management Plan), which is our operation manual. Once the verbiage is approved, the intent is to have Robin McBriarty of Public Works mock up a brochure and once approved, we will distribute at the Transfer Station. The main things people need to know are that the main gates are to remain closed at all times, unless assisted by the Transfer Station Operators, who will open the gates and inspect while dumping. Residents are allowed 3 yards per week. If waste comes from out of Town, people will be fined. These are not new rules.
New Business:
A. Re-adopt Fair Housing Policy Statement:
First Selectman Mailhos read the following statement:
TOWN OF WILLINGTON
FAIR HOUSING POLICY STATEMENT
It is the policy of the Town of Willington to promote Fair Housing opportunities and to encourage racial and economic integration in all its programs and housing development activities.
Programs funded and administered by the Town of Willington must comply with the provisions of Section 46a-64c of the C.G.S., and with related state and federal laws and regulations that prohibit discriminatory housing practices.
The Town of Willington or any Sub recipient of the Town will carry out an affirmative marketing program to attract prospective buyers or tenants of all majority or minority groups, without consideration of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, creed, sexual orientation, marital status, lawful source of income, disability, age or because the individual has children in all programs and housing development activities funded or administered by the Town of Willington.
The municipality’s First Selectman’s office is responsible for the enforcement and implementation of this policy. The First Selectman may be reached at 860-487-3100.
Complaints pertaining to discrimination in any program funded or administrated by the Town of Willington may be filed with the First Selectman’s office. The municipality’s Grievance Procedure will be utilized in these cases.
Complaints also may be filed with the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunity, Special Enforcement Unit, 21 Grand Street, Hartford, CT 06106, telephone 860-541-3403.
Revised April 5, 2010
Dated: April 5, 2010 Christina B. Mailhos, First Selectman
Selectman Millix motioned to readopt the Fair Housing Policy Statement
Selectman Blessington seconded the motion.
Vote 3 Yes (Mailhos, Millix & Blessington) 0 No.
B. Re-adopt Fair Housing Resolution:
First Selectman Mailhos read the following resolution:
TOWN OF WILLINGTON
FAIR HOUSING RESOLUTION
Whereas, All American citizens are afforded a right to full and equal housing
opportunities in the neighborhood of their choice; and
Whereas, State and Federal Fair housing laws require that all individuals, regardless
of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, marital status, age,
mental or physical disability, lawful source of income, sexual orientation,
familial status, be given equal access to rental and homeownership
opportunities, and be allowed to make free choices regarding housing
location; and
Whereas, The Town of Willington is committed to upholding these laws, and
realizes that these laws must be supplemented by an Affirmative State-
ment publicly endorsing the right of all people to full and equal housing
opportunities in the neighborhood of their choice.
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED,
That the Town of Willington hereby endorses a Fair Housing Policy to
ensure equal opportunity for all persons to rent, purchase and obtain
financing for adequate housing of their choice on a non-discriminatory
basis: and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the First Selectman of the Town of Willington or
her designated representative is responsible for responding to and
assisting any person who alleges to be the victim of an
illegal discriminator housing practices in the Town of Willington.
Re-Adopted by the Town of Willington on April 5, 2010
Christina Beebe Mailhos, First Selectman
Selectman Blessington motioned to re-adopt the resolution
Selectman Millix seconded the motion.
Vote 3 Yes (Mailhos, Millix & Blessington) 0 No.
C. Re-adopt Compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
First Selectman Mailhos read the following
COMPLIANCE WITH TITLE VI OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
The Town of Willington does not discriminate in the provision of services, the administration of its programs, or contractual agreements. The Town of Willington seeks to fully carry out its responsibilities under the Title VI Regulations.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the grounds of race, color, or national origin in programs and activities receiving Federal financial assistance. Title VI provides that “No person shall on the grounds of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under any program” covered by the Regulations.
This policy is effectuated through the methods of administration outlined in the Town’s Fair Housing Plan and is fully implemented to ensure compliance by the Town, as the recipient, and by subrecipients. The cooperation of all Town of Willington personnel is required.
April 5, 2010
Christina Beebe Mailhos, First Selectman
Selectman Millix motioned to adopt the Compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Selectman Blessington seconded the motion.
Vote 3 Yes (Mailhos, Millix & Blessington) 0 No.
Good & Welfare:
First Selectman Mailhos thanked the members of the Willington Hill Fire Department for another successful Joe Green Memorial Easter Egg Hunt. It was the best weather ever, and everyone in Town was there. As usual, they did a great job. Chief Makuch said that it is a huge deal, and a lot of volunteer work goes into it. He thanked many of the business in town who donate prizes and put money and time into the event.
First Selectman Mailhos reminded everyone that the budget hearing will be held tomorrow night at the Old Town Hall at 7PM.
She thanked the Road Crew for their emergency repair of Hockla Farms Road late last Monday evening, as well as other areas in Town. Also a special thank you goes to Henry Becker who opened up the gravel pit for the crews to get material so late at night.
The Willington Nursery Co-Op celebrated its 50th year anniversary a few weeks ago, and they had a big fundraiser. First Selectman Mailhos created a recognition proclamation for them, as they are the oldest continuously running cooperative in the State. She is a 1974 graduate from the coop and both of her children have recently attended. It is rare to find a place like that, and it is run strictly by volunteers – it truly is a special place.
First Selectman Mailhos thanked Dan Donahue for all of his work during the past 5 years that resulted in the recent preservation of hundreds of acres of land in Willington.
First Selectman Mailhos motioned to adjourn the meeting at 7:56 P.M.
Selectman Millix seconded the motion.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Millix & Blessington) 0 No.
Respectfully submitted,
Robin H. Campbell
Robin H. Campbell
Administrative Assistant
| 
