BOARD OF SELECTMEN
Meeting Minutes
Regular Meeting November 5, 2012
Lower Level Conference Room 6:30 P.M.
First Selectman Mailhos called the meeting to order at 6:30 P.M. with the following in attendance: Selectmen Littell & Blessington, Lynn Nicholls and residents.
First Selectman Mailhos led the Pledge of Allegiance, noting the beautiful new American and State of Connecticut flags in the conference room which were donated by the Willington Senior Center.
Approval of Minutes:
Selectman Blessington moved to approve the minutes of October 15, 2012 as written.
Selectman Littell seconded the motion.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Littell & Blessington) 0 No.
Present to Speak:
No one was present to speak.
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:
*Performance Contracting – Siemens installed sensors throughout TOB last week. We will expect to hear from them in the coming months with a final presentation on their data reports.
* Old Town Hall Renovations – A meeting was held at 4:30 to discuss the final assessment from the architect. The decisions will be discussed later at this meeting on how to proceed with STEAP funds.
*Transfer Station – The Solid Waste Advisory Commission continues to meet regularly. Next meeting will be on Wednesday, November 14th at 7:00 P.M.
*Reapportionment Committee- The three Towns (Mansfield, Ashford and Willington) held their public meetings last week and the week prior. The question is on the election ballot. If the vote is in the affirmative, the committee will dissolve.
*Union Contract Negotiations – a tentative agreement has been reached and the union will then vote on it.
Public Works:
Lynn reported that the crews prepared for Storm Sandy, cleaned up after Sandy and are now preparing for the nor-easter that is expected to hit on Wednesday afternoon.
New Business
First Selectman Mailhos moved to re-appoint Teresa Gutowski as a regular member of the Willington Inland Wetlands Commission retro-active from May 16, 2012; expiring May 16, 2015.
Selectman Littell seconded the motion.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Littell & Blessington) 0 No.
First Selectman Mailhos moved to re-appoint David Schreiber as a regular member of the Willington Inland Wetlands Commission retro-active from May 16, 2012; expiring May 16, 2015.
Selectman Blessington seconded the motion.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Littell & Blessington) 0 No.
First Selectman Mailhos moved to refund $89.13 to Michelle Cunningham; 41 Liska Road for a sold vehicle.
Selectman Littell seconded the motion.
Vote: 3 Yes (Mailhos, Littell & Blessington) 0 No.
- Old Town Hall Renovations
First Selectman Mailhos stated that they held a meeting at 4:30 to discuss how to proceed with the $100,000 STEAP funding. They looked at the urgent items and the total cost for everything listed was $168,000. The consensus was to focus on protecting the shell of the building. Most of the urgent work has been chosen to be done first. The upgrade of the restrooms and septic will end up as a separate project. First Selectman Mailhos will amend the original CIP request to meet the estimated costs. (approximately $70,000).
Our Town Engineer will work up the bid documents with the architect.
-remove the existing access ramp and build a new ramp (with reconfiguration of the parking area – adding an additional parking spot)
-provide and install new gutters and downspouts
-remove soil in basement and installing concrete slab to minimize moisture in the walls
-repairing shear failure at purlin over Meeting Hall and install joist hangers at all existing purlins
- repairing the brick masonry on the west side
-repairing ell (beams) and installaling joists in the floor.
-provide code compliant grounding for existing electrical and moving the electric service line
The work is estimated to cost approximately $100,000 but when the bids come in, we will know for sure.
The Old Town Hall will be closed for the winter, beginning next week, November 12, with the exception of the Willington Nursery Co-Op Holiday Bazaar on December 1st.
First Selectman Mailhos stated that she was hoping some members of the public would be in attendance.
Lynn stated that there were some people who assumed that we were aware that they were without power, and she urges everyone in the future to be sure to call the outages in to CL&P as well as the Willington EOC. Chief Millix concurred and stated that CL&P does not have a sophisticated enough system to tell them if someone is without power.
First Selectman Mailhos stated that the Town facebook page along with the CL&P circuit map and other liaison tools were very helpful to track and map outages as they occurred and were restored.
Chief Millix suggested that it might be worth it for the Town to look into installing the Everbridge Notification System. EMD Stuart Cobb added that it is an emergency notification system that can be tailored to whatever the need (by road, district, or the entire town). The notification can be sent out via voice message or text on landlines as well as cell phones. Chief Millix stated that it is somewhat costly, but worth the investment. The initial cost is approximately 80 cents per capita for the first year and then 40 cents per capita each year subsequently. -
First Selectman Mailhos stated that we lack the ability to get news to residents. We do have several hundred residents who signed up for the public notices; but we received a complaint from a subscriber who uses AOL as a service provider, that they did not receive the notices. After looking into it, we found out that Virtual Town Hall (our web server) was having issues with AOL (and a few other service providers) in all of their Towns. First Selectman Mailhos thought perhaps the servers/exchange might have been impacted by the hurricane. She added that there are about 500 subscribers to the town notices. The facebook page has added several subscribers as well since it has been on line, making out about 268 subscribers. Lastly, she added that we received feedback that it is difficult to find the
public notices on the website. The notices were posted daily, and on some days, twice per day. They are posted on the front page of the Town website as well as publicized through email. She is not sure what else we can do about that. Selectman Blessington stated that we will never be able to make everyone 100% happy.
First Selectman Mailhos added that the response from CL&P was better this time. They notified the towns and stated that we would each get one crew on day 1 to work with our Public Works crew on road clearing and they stuck to their word. First Seletman Mailhos said it was nice to have the one crew, but would have been nice to have more, because they could have done more in a faster pace, but that is not how it worked for any of the towns.
Stuart Cobb stated that we still had two crews in town today and they did a great job. He added that we had more control as to where the crews should have gone as per our priority list as opposed to last year. ( 1) road clearing, 2) critical facilities, 3) restoration to businesses and residents in order of number impacted and 4) single service line repairs.)
First Selectman Mailhos stated that it was very helpful to have our CL&P Liaison in the EOC before the storm hit and every day after. She had improved tools and communication with the Tolland Work Center and crews, which was better this time.
First Selectman Mailhos added that the most frustrating thing was timing – trying to get our Public Works crews where the CL&P crews were. Our crews started very early and LC&P would comie into Town when their shift started, sometimes hours later. Stuart Cobb said one of the minor issues was that the shelter signs should have been taken down once it had been closed as people were showing up to the school while it was in session.
First Selectman Mailhos stated that she would like to send a letter to CL&P to give some thoughts on how we can all improve in the next weather situation and will incorporate these points in the letter.
Lynn added that CL&P did a great job with maintenance over the summer and this year there was a huge improvement with the workers.
Stuart Cobb added that AT&T also had improved their communications this time around. They had installed generators on the tower the next day after it lost power.
Good & Welfare
First Selectman Mailhos stated that there will be a comedy show fund-raiser for Del Ekenbarger on November 16th. Doors open at 7:00 PM tickets are limited to 300 people. Call the Selectmen’s Office for further information.
First Selectman Mailhos reminded everyone to vote tomorrow.
First Selectman Mailhos stated that the BOS will be appointing two members to the CIP Committee in December. We are still in the process in receiving nominations. If anyone is interested in being appointed to the Committee, please contact the Selectmen’s Office.
The meeting adjourned at 7:20 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Robin Campbell
Administrative Assistant
| 
