[2:39] Look, I know this guy.
[2:40] Yes, they are different.
[2:41] Each McBride is at least seven
[2:42] miles long. I
[2:44] promise you, my phone is just
[2:46] for me. Very good.
[2:48] Sean,
[2:49] are you ready?
[2:51] Here's Sweet.
[2:59] Recording in progress. I would
[3:03] like to call. Can you hear me?
[3:07] Okay, now we're talking. I would
[3:10] like to call the
[3:12] City Council Plenary Committee to the meeting at
[3:14] 6:31 p.m. m. And I'll take attendance.
[3:22] Councillor Burrell.
[3:23] Here.
[3:24] Councilman Boardman.
[3:25] Here.
[3:25] Councilman Fitzgerald will be
[3:27] online later. It's on TVCCA this afternoon.
[3:31] Councilman Good.
[3:32] Here.
[3:33] Councilman Jones. Here.
[3:34] Councilman McBride.
[3:35] Here.
[3:36] Councilman Merritt.
[3:37] Here.
[3:37] Councilman Picinich.
[3:39] That's me.
[3:39] And I, Mayor Parker. We have eight
[3:43] councilors. So I declare a quorum.
[3:47] Calendar communications, Councillor
[3:49] Barrell.
[3:51] Uh, right now I don't have anything.
[3:54] Okay, thanks. Councilman Boardman.
[3:56] Thank you. I just wanted to send my
[3:59] condolences to the family of... He
[4:00] called himself Neil, but his real name
[4:02] was Joseph Neil Splane. I lived on High
[4:04] Street in Mystic. He was my neighbor
[4:06] when I was little. I lived on
[4:07] High Street in Mystic when I was a child.
[4:09] And I knew him for many years, you
[4:11] know, from top to bottom of the hill.
[4:14] I knew the family quite well
[4:16] because their son was the choir director at
[4:18] Ledyard and then was at UConn and
[4:20] has since retired. But one of
[4:23] the interesting facts about this
[4:24] gentleman is that he was 102 years old. She
[4:26] also attended the same church I did
[4:28] . But he was also a
[4:30] councilor in the city of Groton.
[4:32] Please refer to the obituaries regarding this matter
[4:34] . This gentleman served in the
[4:37] army, was in the Battle of the
[4:39] Bulge, and also went from the army to
[4:41] the navy, where he later retired, I think
[4:43] to occupy some kind of
[4:45] officer position, don't quote me. And then
[4:48] I worked for EB for many years,
[4:51] I worked on the development of the Nautilus
[4:53] and then I went into politics, RTM, the
[4:56] city council. He was also
[4:59] important and decisive in advocating for and
[5:01] helping to bring the Pequot Health Center
[5:02] here, on this side of the bridge
[5:03] . Back then, if you remember, it
[5:06] used to have two lanes and two
[5:07] lanes. I only saw the photos, I don't know, I
[5:09] wasn't there at the time. But if
[5:11] there was an accident and I was
[5:12] talking to a former
[5:13] police officer in the city of Groton, he
[5:15] told me they had trouble getting
[5:16] people across that bridge if it was to go
[5:18] to the medical center. That's why having
[5:20] Pequot Health here can help
[5:21] stabilize people until they can
[5:23] get more help. So my deepest
[5:24] condolences to the family. I
[5:27] happened to see Mr. Splaine just a few
[5:29] months before, as my son had
[5:31] bought one of his cars after
[5:32] giving up driving. It was a
[5:35] great symbolic gesture and I was very excited that
[5:37] the car was for my son. And we were able to
[5:39] have a good conversation and all
[5:41] that. Well, if you don't know much about him
[5:43] , he calls himself Neil, but his name
[5:45] is Joseph Neil Spleen, Spleen. They
[5:48] definitely sought him out as a
[5:49] former councillor from Rotting Town. And
[5:52] again, I cannot emphasize enough that she lived
[5:54] a full life and was able to do many
[5:56] things. And if you read his obituary, it's
[5:58] simply phenomenal in terms of his
[6:00] life experience. I also wanted to
[6:03] let you know that I have received many
[6:05] communications regarding Flock cameras
[6:06] . I sent an email
[6:09] requesting all the information about
[6:11] how much they cost, who controls the
[6:13] data, where they are located, and all
[6:16] that stuff. Because while I answer
[6:18] questions for or against
[6:19] Flock cameras, it's important to know
[6:21] what burden this places on the people and
[6:23] how I should be able to answer
[6:24] questions from the
[6:26] community's voters. Many people have been
[6:28] asking about that. I also received
[6:30] a communication from someone on South
[6:32] Road, regarding the noise, the trucks, and
[6:36] concerns about trucks going up
[6:38] and down late at night
[6:40] to go to Tilcon. And that's why I drove through
[6:43] there late at
[6:45] night to check if, as they said,
[6:47] the traffic got heavier at
[6:48] later hours. So I went and I'm going
[6:52] to follow up with that client as
[6:53] well. I think that's all for
[6:57] now. Thank you.
[7:00] Councilman Fitzgerald is
[7:03] on TVCCA again. Councilman Good.
[7:05] Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just a couple
[7:07] of things. Last week I attended the
[7:11] Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce and
[7:14] Orsted Wind Energy for a cleanup
[7:18] of Groton and Stonington. Many
[7:21] people came and it was a great success. And today, Save
[7:26] Our Sound and Holmgren Subaru organized
[7:30] another
[7:33] Save Our Sound cleanup day at Esker
[7:37] Point beach, with good attendance and
[7:40] many bags of trash collected.
[7:44] So, thank you to all of them for
[7:46] organizing these events. That's all.
[7:51] Councilman Jones.
[7:52] Thank you, Madam Mayor. I attended
[7:54] three different events. Actually, one
[7:57] was very nice, with Mayor
[7:59] Parker and Councilman Pacino aboard
[8:01] the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Eagle.
[8:03] We held a ceremony and
[8:06] also did the first
[8:07] day stamp for the Coast Guard. It was a
[8:11] very enjoyable event attended by
[8:13] many different members of the
[8:15] Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival
[8:18] and other dignitaries. The Secretary
[8:20] of State came and gave a very
[8:21] pleasant talk. The
[8:24] Coast Guard admiral came and the base commander came
[8:26] . It was a very pleasant event.
[8:29] I attended the
[8:31] Golf Advisory Board meeting, a regular meeting
[8:33] . We just wanted to let you know that
[8:35] our new golf software is
[8:37] working wonderfully and
[8:39] everyone is very happy with it. Another
[8:41] good thing: this is the first time we
[8:44] have been able to obtain statistics,
[8:46] all kinds of statistics, from this
[8:48] software. Although only two months have passed
[8:50] , from July to August, we can see
[8:52] many different things, and that will
[8:54] help us in the future to determine the
[8:56] prices, the load and the operation
[8:58] of the golf course. So it was a
[9:00] really good change that hadn't been
[9:02] available before. And also the
[9:05] Liaison Committee with the Board of
[9:07] Education, RTM, the city and the town,
[9:10] just to connect with the four of them, but
[9:14] we had a really good conversation
[9:16] about public schools and
[9:19] construction and all sorts of
[9:21] different things, so that was it.
[9:25] Thank you, Councilor McBride.
[9:29] Thank you. I have nothing substantial to
[9:31] report this afternoon. Okay, I feel a
[9:33] little left out. Other people have
[9:34] a lot to report. I have nothing. I'm sorry
[9:36] .
[9:38] Councilor Merritt:
[9:40] Yes, I attended the
[9:42] port administration meeting at the
[9:45] Noank fire station this week, and
[9:47] regarding Councilor
[9:50] Boardman's issue with South Road, I believe it's
[9:52] the paving trucks for the
[9:55] Gold Star Bridge. My only
[9:57] concern is that I see them during the
[10:00] day, and someone should remind them of the
[10:03] speed limit. It's a
[10:07] heavy load to stop suddenly.
[10:10] Just so you know. That
[10:15] 's all.
[10:15] OK. Councilman Pacino. I
[10:20] have nothing to approve today. Thank you.
[10:23] OK. Now it's my turn. Very good.
[10:27] Besides Connecticut, thank you,
[10:29] Councilor Jones, for mentioning it because
[10:31] I forgot to write it down. I also attended
[10:35] an evening of thanksgiving hosted
[10:37] by Catholic Charities in honor of Tony
[10:39] Sheridan of the Eastern Chamber of Commerce
[10:41] . It was a pleasant event and, once again
[10:44] , congratulations to Tony for all he
[10:47] does in our communities.
[10:50] I also attended the grand
[10:51] opening of Studio Love. It's a
[10:54] new place. It's on Bridge Street and
[10:56] if you have the chance, please
[10:58] visit it. A very warm,
[11:02] welcoming and peaceful space. They do yoga and some
[11:07] renovation work, I don't know, they do a lot of
[11:09] different things, but if you have the chance,
[11:12] please visit.
[11:17] Human Resources Professionals Day is
[11:20] September 26th and I want to thank
[11:23] all our staff. HH. And next month
[11:26] is National Breast
[11:28] Cancer Awareness Month
[11:30] , as well as
[11:31] Cybersecurity and Anti-
[11:33] Bullying Month. Fire Prevention Week
[11:36] begins from October 4th to 10th
[11:38] and I would like to thank
[11:40] all of our
[11:42] city's firefighters. And that's all I have to
[11:44] report. Thank you. Very good.
[11:48] Can I mention just one thing
[11:49] quickly?
[11:50] Yes. I
[11:50] just wanted to mention that
[11:52] we finally have some active links to
[11:54] donate to Human Services on our
[11:55] website. Currently there are three
[11:58] options: donate to our
[12:00] food warehouse, donate to the
[12:01] energy assistance program, or donate to the
[12:03] general assistance fund they have. I anticipate
[12:06] that we will modify this as
[12:07] we move forward and perhaps add more
[12:09] options, but those are already
[12:10] available. You can find the
[12:15] links on
[12:16] our website's homepage or in
[12:18] Human Services on the website.
[12:20] Thank you. OK. Councilman McBride,
[12:26] I will approve the minutes.
[12:29] I would like to make a motion to
[12:30] approve the minutes of the
[12:32] Plenary Committee meeting of September 8,
[12:33] 2026.
[12:34] Second
[12:35] motion made by McBride and seconded
[12:37] by Boardman. Do you have any questions?
[12:43] Okay, since I don't see any hands, everyone who's
[12:45] in favor.
[12:46] I.
[12:46] I.
[12:48] So it's eight to zero to zero.
[12:51] OK. Next, we will not move on
[12:55] to the first item on the agenda.
[12:58] We will move on to the second one, which is the
[13:03] current presentation of the
[13:06] Conservation Commission 2026-833. If you can
[13:10] come closer, please. And I would like to
[13:15] remind everyone that, according to
[13:17] our rules, the mayor can set
[13:19] the submission time. We have
[13:22] 15 minutes this afternoon for
[13:23] you to give your presentation.
[13:25] The board may ask questions
[13:27] afterwards. Thank you. And if they could
[13:35] appear.
[13:36] Larry Don, I am the chairman of the
[13:37] Conservation Commission.
[13:39] I'm Greg Raphaely, vice president.
[13:41] And Tom Olson, member.
[13:43] Thank you.
[13:44] We will continue with my
[13:48] support. We are here to talk about
[13:52] how the statute requires us to provide
[13:54] information about the inventory of
[13:56] open spaces within the city and
[13:58] the status of what has been
[14:00] happening. That includes both the
[14:04] conservation commission and the
[14:06] tree advisory board, which is
[14:07] part of our statutes. Let's see,
[14:11] next click. Good. So, very
[14:16] quickly, as I said, the inventory and the
[14:18] highlights. I want to talk a little bit
[14:20] about administration. Let's talk about
[14:23] the tree advisory board, what it is, and
[14:27] what we recommend in terms of that
[14:29] compared to the
[14:31] tree commission, which was just approved.
[14:34] Let's talk about the future, and that's all.
[14:38] So, let's get to the actual inventory.
[14:41] Now, inventory information
[14:46] is provided online. Well, at the
[14:50] bottom of the chart, you'll see a
[14:52] website, which is the Croton
[14:54] Conservation Commission Viewer, and
[14:56] you can find just about any
[14:58] information you want about
[14:59] any of the parcels that are
[15:02] in the city's inventory, not just
[15:04] open spaces, but everything that is
[15:06] owned by the city. In a
[15:11] quick summary, we're at 29.5%
[15:14] open spaces, and that's close to the
[15:17] 30% target from a
[15:21] federal perspective. Therefore, what we have been
[15:25] doing for about
[15:27] a year and a half is that we have changed
[15:30] our priority from acquisition to
[15:32] management. That's why we're going to talk
[15:34] a little bit about administration.
[15:37] We will point out that we also calculated
[15:40] which areas are accessible to the public,
[15:43] and it is 17 percent of the total.
[15:51] So, with that calculation alone, only
[15:53] 60% of the open space is actually
[15:55] accessible. Some are due to the fact that it
[15:58] really cannot be done, and others to the fact that there are not
[16:00] enough funds to open it to
[16:03] public access and discuss it under
[16:05] administration. Well, I will point out that we have
[16:09] been pioneers in
[16:12] data collection and in the ability to manage
[16:14] open spaces in the state, and I think
[16:17] other people, other towns, have
[16:19] seen what we have done and are
[16:22] working on it. Therefore,
[16:25] we believe it is a remarkable achievement and will
[16:27] mention it in the future. The
[16:31] presentation. I will say that with the new
[16:34] PLCD, we will ensure that there is
[16:37] alignment between what is in the PLCD
[16:40] and its definitions and the definitions
[16:43] in the viewer, which is preserved
[16:46] and protected space. Well, that's
[16:50] almost always been the case. A very
[16:54] clear understanding of what it is, and I think we're
[16:55] finally clarifying that.
[16:59] I guess I have to do this. Very
[17:02] good. Okay, a quick summary and
[17:04] some highlights. We provide
[17:08] support through reviews and contributions to the
[17:11] PLCD 2035. I mentioned that
[17:14] the inventory was updated. We provide support to
[17:17] Parks and Recreation in the
[17:18] tree management plan and review.
[17:20] We updated the economic value model
[17:22] for open spaces.
[17:25] For those who don't know, this is
[17:28] one in which we quantify the value of
[17:31] open spaces in dollars and
[17:33] cents, and we can compare it to
[17:36] use as open space, use for
[17:38] commercial work, or use for
[17:41] development. And we have used it on several
[17:45] occasions to get input from the city council
[17:48] , which is quantified,
[17:51] not just guesswork. I mentioned the
[17:57] tree management plan that we reviewed.
[17:59] We support that effort with the people
[18:01] in support of climate resilience.
[18:03] We spent a lot of time, Tom did
[18:05] most of the
[18:07] trail connectivity, and we both supported many
[18:10] pollination pathways and, in fact, the
[18:11] creation of several of them. Continuing
[18:15] with the highlights, we've been working
[18:17] with Scura for about 3 years on their
[18:22] composting plan, which has finally
[18:24] been approved by the state. It's already
[18:27] underway. The analysis we've done
[18:30] from the perspective of the city of
[18:32] Groton is that, if we can recover
[18:33] 20% in terms of compound rates,
[18:35] we could probably save the city
[18:37] around one million
[18:38] dollars over 5 years. Now, it
[18:41] may not seem like much, but the
[18:46] cost of waste products for
[18:49] us is going to increase between 35% and
[18:53] 100% in the next 2 or 3 years due
[18:55] to what is happening at the state level
[18:58] and the closures. Therefore, there is a
[19:01] significant increase in cost for
[19:04] everyone, and this composting assumes that
[19:06] around 30% of the waste is
[19:09] compostable, so to speak. So
[19:13] they can eliminate some volume and
[19:14] obtain high-quality compost.
[19:16] Therefore, that is also a benefit.
[19:19] We have participated in
[19:21] joint cleanups in Birch Plain Creek with the
[19:24] NER. It's been two years since
[19:28] the NER was approved, hasn't it?
[19:31] We have also worked with other groups on
[19:33] cleaning certain areas. We have
[19:37] provided a draft of the
[19:38] management plan. I should point out again to
[19:41] those who have visited our
[19:43] website that we have all our
[19:45] management plans, all our
[19:47] conservation plans and lots of
[19:48] information there if you are
[19:50] interested in reviewing them. Finally,
[19:54] on this page, we have had our
[19:56] annual activity with Khan College and
[19:59] have carried out several
[20:02] special study projects. They are also
[20:04] available on our website. That's
[20:06] fun and very useful at the same time;
[20:08] In fact, I will talk about one of the
[20:10] projects when we get into the
[20:12] topic of the conversation about
[20:14] trees. So, the next step is
[20:18] administration. As I mentioned, it's
[20:22] good to buy the land and own it, but
[20:25] if it's not properly cared for, the
[20:28] economic value, which is the capacity for
[20:30] carbon sequestration,
[20:33] pollution management, etc., actually
[20:36] decreases when invasive species arrive
[20:39] . Therefore, not only is it
[20:42] pleasant and enjoyable to walk along the
[20:44] trails, but I also believe it is
[20:46] important to maintain the value of
[20:48] the city's acquisition and ownership
[20:50] . I'd like to give Bray the floor
[20:52] for a minute or two to
[20:54] give an example of Picquats Woods.
[20:57] What
[20:59] I would like to present is the
[21:01] storyboard that is on the right side of the
[21:03] slide. I'm not going to ask you to
[21:05] read it. But what I would like to do is
[21:09] say that we collaborated to obtain this
[21:13] storyboard which is now at
[21:16] Pequot Woods, and the origin of the
[21:19] request also goes back to Neil
[21:22] Splaine. I believe Neil Splaine was
[21:27] mayor when Pequot Woods was
[21:30] first acquired by the city
[21:32] , many, many years ago. There is a
[21:37] trail system in Pequot Woods. On
[21:39] the west side, there is an old winery
[21:41] that obviously dates back to
[21:44] colonial times and had a reference that
[21:48] said it was Jesse's house. I said,
[21:51] "Okay." And as you go along,
[21:56] well, there must be a little
[21:58] backstory to that. I wonder what it will be
[21:59] . "And then our committee
[22:04] contacted the
[22:06] Mystic River Historical Society, and in
[22:08] particular Marilyn Comrie, and
[22:10] posed a question: 'Do you know anything
[22:12] about Jesse?'" "Supposedly, this is
[22:14] a house in Pequot Woods. Do you know anything
[22:17] about it?" And the Historical Society
[22:20] got involved, and as a result of that, there is
[22:23] this storyboard
[22:25] above about Mr. Jonathan
[22:28] Jesse Wheeler. Part of the storyboard
[22:32] deals a little with the period of
[22:34] time he was on the property,
[22:36] how old he was, etc. And
[22:38] apparently he was some kind of
[22:41] farmer in the late 19th century. Part
[22:44] of the discovery of who
[22:47] Jonathan Jesse Wheeler was came from the
[22:52] diary of a particular
[22:54] 15-year-old girl, Mary Clark. That
[22:58] particular diary is held by the
[23:01] Historical Society, and they have produced it
[23:03] as a book. And in it, in fact,
[23:06] he talks about Mr. Jonathan Jesse, who
[23:09] apparently had quite a
[23:11] reputation in the city of Mystic. And
[23:14] this is where I lived. He was a hermit
[23:17] . And his comments in his diary date back to around
[23:21] this time
[23:25] in September 1920. She and her
[23:29] Sunday school class, after
[23:32] a picnic that particular day, were going to
[23:35] have it in the clearing, what is called
[23:39] the clearing in the Pequot Woods, which was
[23:42] right next to the house of Jesse
[23:45] Jonathan Jesse Whalers. And she
[23:49] recorded what her grandmother told her
[23:51] about Mr. Jesse, which was in her
[23:54] notes, in the storyboard that's in
[23:58] Pierre. And it's a very
[24:01] interesting description of some of
[24:05] Mr.
[24:06] Jonathan Jesse Wheeler's strange behavior. So, the
[24:09] storyboard was produced by the
[24:12] historical society and the
[24:15] city of Groton's Parks and Recreation Department
[24:18] , they opened the area where
[24:21] the house's foundations are, they
[24:24] opened it this year and the sign
[24:27] is now in place near the
[24:32] foundations. And if you really want to
[24:35] delve into Mr. Jesse's story
[24:37] , it's an interesting one. The rest
[24:41] of the story is in the
[24:42] storyboard. And I'm going to leave it at that.
[24:45] So, if you're out for a walk and want to
[24:47] take a quick break, check out
[24:49] the board and not far from the
[24:52] road there are some ancient foundations.
[24:55] Apparently, his house burned down in
[24:58] 1890. And it has remained there ever since
[25:01] . But that's one of the
[25:04] features of doing that trail and
[25:07] walking in Pequot Woods.
[25:09] Thank you. I would like to point out that this is
[25:12] a parcel of land that the
[25:14] Parks and Recreation Department has been
[25:16] maintaining very well. We've
[25:18] identified 14 parcels of 716 acres
[25:22] that really don't have any support,
[25:25] and that's one of the ones that's in the
[25:29] budget. Let me move on to the
[25:31] next chart. Very good. Well,
[25:36] those plots are identified
[25:38] and the details are on the website.
[25:43] The typical average, we're talking
[25:46] $30 to $50 per acre per year, you
[25:48] know, for
[25:51] nature management, you know,
[25:53] preserved land. So, when we analyzed
[25:57] this year's budget,
[25:59] we recommended to the
[26:01] city administrators a budget of two
[26:02] additional people. He entered there
[26:05] 0.5, which you approved. Well, it's a
[26:08] start, but we'll be back, as we do
[26:11] every year, to try and get
[26:13] additional support for that. So, with that said
[26:17] , I'd like to move on to the
[26:19] second part of what we do, which is
[26:20] the Tree Advisory Board. This
[26:24] chart only shows the
[26:27] ordinance code that establishes that
[26:29] responsibility. And we've done some
[26:34] work regarding the tree that
[26:37] supports the tree canopy within
[26:41] the city, and I'm not going to go into that
[26:44] here, but I have provided the
[26:47] city manager with a list of
[26:50] approximately 40 items he
[26:54] can discuss. But let me
[26:58] contrast them and talk about... Well,
[27:01] before we get to the
[27:03] tree commission, one of the things we did
[27:06] was environmental justice, a term that's
[27:09] used to ensure that,
[27:11] wherever you live, there's equal
[27:14] opportunity for open space or
[27:17] equal opportunity for
[27:20] transportation, whatever that may be. In this
[27:24] case, we are looking at
[27:26] tree cover in urban environments where
[27:29] Groton is considered urban. And if it
[27:33] 's below 30%, then it's
[27:35] considered a problem. Actually,
[27:38] we're in pretty good shape, except
[27:40] for two tracks identified on the
[27:42] chart as 727 and 728, which are
[27:44] below that benchmark. So there's
[27:48] some work to be done on
[27:49] that. And that was done using
[27:51] state data. What we intend to do, what we
[27:55] have begun to do, was to support
[28:01] the community tree plan, and this
[28:03] is the study I mentioned earlier with
[28:05] the Con College students, who
[28:07] analyzed a wide variety of
[28:09] options on how we can
[28:11] better measure locally without relying on
[28:14] state satellite imagery.
[28:17] So, once again, there is a report
[28:19] available. We provide it in
[28:20] Parks and Recreation. And they know, thanks
[28:23] to Giselle Milroy, who is a member of
[28:26] our committee, that she is in charge of
[28:28] managing it. Well, now, there was
[28:33] a resolution, as you know, 2026-662,
[28:36] that was passed and that establishes, or
[28:39] let me put it this way,
[28:42] confuses who does what to whom.
[28:46] So, as I mentioned, there are
[28:48] approximately 2/3 of the elements in
[28:50] the responsibility of the
[28:52] tree commission that are
[28:54] partially or completely carried out by the
[28:56] tree advisory board. So, our
[28:59] recommendation, based on your
[29:01] approval of that, is to merge the two
[29:03] and put them under the tree advisory board
[29:06] to remove, sorry, under
[29:08] the tree commission. Look, there's
[29:11] confusion there. To simplify
[29:14] things. However, that requires a
[29:17] series of administrative tasks.
[29:19] So, let me give the floor
[29:22] to my administrative experts.
[29:25] One of the things we're going to
[29:27] recommend is that if you go ahead
[29:30] with the tree commission to
[29:33] alleviate the need, you should amend the
[29:35] city ordinance so that this can be
[29:38] done, as shown in the next
[29:40] slide. It's just amending instead
[29:45] of changing. Oh. What did they do? Good
[29:48] . Okay, on the next slide,
[29:50] yes, here we go. In the next
[29:52] slide, it is a change of one
[29:53] word, in which the word conservation is removed
[29:55] from the
[29:56] conservation commission and replaced with
[29:58] tree commission. In that way, it's a
[30:00] simple exchange, but it can also be
[30:02] merged with the
[30:04] current actions, but I don't think anyone
[30:06] looked at the ordinances when
[30:08] the reviews were being done for the commission. But
[30:12] that's what we see, and then, following on from
[30:15] that, we would also have to
[30:17] update the ABC book which says: "Hey,
[30:19] we have the functions of the
[30:22] tree commission and the
[30:24] conservation commission clearly described,
[30:26] because there would be confusion between the two
[30:28] in the way forward." So when
[30:32] you get the update to
[30:33] set the tree commission,
[30:34] which I think will happen, that also needs to be taken
[30:36] into account. So, from
[30:38] our perspective, some punctuality is recommended
[30:40] to help with all of that
[30:43] and minimize confusion.
[30:46] As I mentioned to support that,
[30:48] we provided the city manager with a detailed list
[30:50] of where
[30:52] those responsibilities overlap and
[30:53] the items we are
[30:55] currently doing that would need to be
[30:57] transferred to the new
[30:59] tree commission. And the last beginning. Well,
[31:02] not the second-to-last beginning. We will continue
[31:06] taking inventory. That is our
[31:08] only legal responsibility.
[31:10] We will implement the actions in the POCD
[31:13] 2035. We have identified eight
[31:15] strategic action elements of that
[31:19] work effort that we will support as
[31:22] we supported the last POCD. Transfer
[31:28] . These are things we've already said.
[31:31] We want to continue working on the
[31:33] connectivity of the trails.
[31:35] I already mentioned one of the
[31:36] supporting organic wastes. So, to
[31:39] conclude in a timely manner. As I
[31:42] mentioned before and want to
[31:44] emphasize again, open spaces
[31:46] are not a cost in themselves. They generate
[31:50] income, and I can actually show you
[31:53] the figures. There are a variety of
[31:55] reports from all over the country where
[31:58] green spaces really do promote
[32:01] additional income, and frankly,
[32:04] people are coming to town. And you know, I always
[32:07] value history. I came to this town
[32:09] 25 years ago. One of the reasons was
[32:11] open space. In other words, he moved right next door
[32:14] , right there, to the farm over
[32:15] there. And I walk almost every
[32:18] day. Yes, I walk every day.
[32:20] So it's an attraction for
[32:23] people who come to the town. In
[32:27] summary, we appreciate the opportunity to
[32:30] give you the update and will be open
[32:33] for any questions you may
[32:35] have.
[32:38] Councillor Jones, Councillor Good, Councillor
[32:41] Bordewieck.
[32:44] Thank you, Madam Mayor. And thank you,
[32:48] gentlemen, for the work you do and
[32:50] for all the walks around the different
[32:51] plots of land that people take
[32:53] here. My question focuses on the
[32:58] composting plan. I know that
[33:02] Groton's unique structure, with all
[33:04] the different fire districts, has made it
[33:06] difficult because each one has
[33:08] some control over the trash in their
[33:10] districts. Do you have any
[33:13] recommendations on whether something like this would
[33:15] work in a town like this, or how you would
[33:17] approach it? Because I know it works
[33:20] in Stonington and in places that don't
[33:21] have this unique structure.
[33:24] Depending on where you live in the
[33:25] city,
[33:26] you get a different approach with the fire district. It would be
[33:29] great if we could, you know,
[33:30] merge it all and manage it, but the
[33:33] way this would work is how we
[33:35] 've worked it out with SKAEL, you know,
[33:37] since we started with the schools, the
[33:39] municipality, and the restaurants. So,
[33:42] first you work there. Then
[33:44] test programs would begin. There are
[33:49] commercial companies that
[33:50] will provide containers for
[33:53] organic waste, and they do so and are
[33:55] paid because, as I said, this material
[33:58] is a high-value end product as a
[34:00] result of the
[34:03] composting technology they have. Therefore,
[34:06] several people can earn money,
[34:08] reducing our costs and improving the
[34:10] plant. Therefore, we reduce
[34:12] waste and reduce our costs.
[34:14] So we'll start there. I think
[34:17] , as I've said, merging the district
[34:20] to do that is probably more than I would
[34:22] ask them to do. But
[34:26] if we can move forward and
[34:28] launch some pilot projects,
[34:29] then we can come back with a
[34:31] more substantive recommendation.
[34:33] Okay. Well, that's the approach you would take
[34:34] if you were going to do something to move
[34:36] forward, that's the approach.
[34:37] Start with the things you
[34:39] have control over and gradually unify them. Should
[34:41] we start with the easiest ones? The
[34:42] easiest ones. And the second question is, I know
[34:45] , and I agree with you, the
[34:47] tree advisory board and the
[34:48] tree commission probably, you
[34:50] know, need to merge. And if it's easy
[34:52] to fix a word. There were many
[34:53] obligations listed in the
[34:55] tree commission documents
[34:57] . Are there obligations
[34:59] listed in the tree advisory board
[35:01] that
[35:02] should be merged into that document?
[35:04] The ordinance is very...
[35:06] But you saw that we provided you with all
[35:09] the documentation in the presentation.
[35:11] So there isn't much. There is
[35:13] n't much that's legal. So we
[35:16] expanded it a bit over the
[35:18] years during my time as a
[35:20] conservation commissioner.
[35:22] We provide a lot. For example,
[35:24] we
[35:26] provided good oversight to the
[35:28] ranger, you know, asking, "
[35:30] Where are you, what are you doing, what are your
[35:31] qualifications, are you punctual?" and all
[35:34] this kind of thing, and we had meetings
[35:35] , we brought him in, we invited him to our
[35:37] meetings and things like that to show a
[35:39] certain level of things. And we have done that
[35:41] , and we've worked very closely with
[35:42] Mark and the Parks and
[35:43] Recreation Commission regarding
[35:45] Arbor Days and this kind of thing.
[35:46] And those are tasks that
[35:48] the tree commission will now have to do.
[35:49] Right.
[35:50] There are some that we would do. They
[35:52] 're listed there and weren't
[35:54] included in the other one, but they're not
[35:55] significant in nature.
[35:58] Okay. And he's turned all that
[35:59] paperwork over to the
[36:00] city manager. So.
[36:03] Okay. I think those are my
[36:06] questions. Thank you again for all the
[36:09] work you do to keep
[36:12] conservation at the forefront of our
[36:15] community. So, thank you. Councilor
[36:18] Good.
[36:20] Thank you, Madam Mayor. Through
[36:21] the mayor, I just wanted to probe a
[36:26] little bit more about the
[36:28] tree commission. Do you think what the
[36:29] commission of Trees. What does
[36:32] the Advisory Board do now? Do you think it's a
[36:34] burden that should be taken off the
[36:36] Conservation Commission and
[36:39] passed on to another board, or do you think the
[36:43] Conservation Commission could, in
[36:47] fact, encompass what a new
[36:50] commission would do?
[36:52] Well, let's take a step back and say we
[36:54] 're all
[36:56] volunteer organizations.
[36:57] Right.
[36:59] So, if you volunteer here, if
[37:01] you volunteer there, to me it doesn't matter
[37:02] ... That's not the issue. The
[37:05] issue, really, is that we don't
[37:07] confuse or have two
[37:08] separate things. They should be together.
[37:10] Could they be together under the
[37:12] tree elevation board, together as a
[37:13] tree commission? It could be
[37:15] either; either way would be
[37:16] sufficient. What we're concerned about is the
[37:20] division.
[37:21] Okay, thank you. I appreciate that. And I
[37:23] just wanted to... I've listened to most
[37:26] of your meetings, and I just wanted to
[37:28] tip my hat to Waltham for
[37:30] his kayaking adventures around town.
[37:33] I mean, I really appreciate you
[37:35] putting in that extra effort. Yes, yes.
[37:38] I just wanted to mention it so
[37:42] everyone knows that you guys really
[37:44] take it very seriously. And we appreciate that
[37:47] very much.
[37:50] What is That's it?
[37:52] That's all. Thank you.
[37:53] Councillor Bordenline?
[37:54] Thank you. No, first and foremost, I'm a huge
[37:57] supporter of conservation and
[37:58] protecting the land and everything
[38:00] you all do. As a former
[38:02] cross-country runner in Fitch,
[38:05] growing up here I was able to take part in all
[38:07] the trails in many
[38:09] different ways. Now more as a walker
[38:12] than a runner. But I'm very
[38:14] grateful to have those resources here
[38:16] . As a young adult, and as an
[38:21] adult now, it's very fortunate to have
[38:22] these spaces available for us to
[38:24] use whenever we
[38:26] want. So
[38:27] I appreciate all the hard work and
[38:29] commitment, and thank you for mentioning
[38:31] Neil's name again. That was
[38:34] quite apt and another great thing
[38:37] Neil just did. I think you
[38:42] raise valid points, as you know,
[38:44] how do we do it? One thing is to
[38:45] have them, we have to invest in them
[38:47] , and make sure we keep these
[38:49] places tried and true to what
[38:51] the purpose of these places should be
[38:53] and what their potential can be.
[38:56] And the ability to look at changing the
[39:00] language or deciphering the Ambiguity
[39:03] between the two labels on the tree.
[39:06] I think that's vital to
[39:07] refining everything and providing continuity.
[39:11] I think that simply removes
[39:13] uncertainty and confusion and
[39:15] simplifies things a bit. So I'm
[39:17] open to looking at ways to make
[39:19] that work. I encourage you to keep
[39:22] coming in and asking for more support, and I
[39:23] want to thank you for continuing to
[39:25] ask for it.
[39:29] Financially speaking, we need to find ways to
[39:31] keep everything going. And I also
[39:33] appreciate the bits of history you
[39:35] provide. You know, it's
[39:36] important, right? When we look at the
[39:38] land we have, where it all comes from
[39:39] . Well, one question I have is when
[39:43] you mentioned two sections on the map.
[39:46] Can you focus on that? What are
[39:48] those areas exactly? My first
[39:51] question is:
[39:51] I think we can?
[39:55] I believe it was areas 7027 and
[39:58] 7028. For this reason, we
[40:01] went beyond what's shown
[40:03] here, as we're talking about
[40:05] census areas. Areas 7027
[40:10] and 7028 are very large areas
[40:12] around the airport,
[40:14] extending north to the
[40:16] Route 1 corridor, and then, at
[40:19] 28th Street, you reach the Midway Oval area,
[40:22] from where the route
[40:24] continues all the way to
[40:27] Mystic. So, there's a lot of
[40:32] open space, particularly in the
[40:35] 7028 area. That's where we
[40:36] question the validity;
[40:39] are you guys working from
[40:41] too high a level, or are we really going to examine
[40:43] what's happening within
[40:45] our communities? That's what we
[40:49] were starting to do as part of
[40:51] our responsibilities on the
[40:52] Tree Advisory Board, and we hope that will
[40:54] carry over to continue
[40:58] doing that, to take a look
[41:01] when we get to the block-
[41:03] by-block version, at where we stand, at the 30
[41:06] %, or are we meeting the requirements
[41:08] here at the 30% in different
[41:11] block areas? And it's difficult to
[41:13] differentiate how the state
[41:15] arrived at these numbers, and that's
[41:17] precisely the challenge we're
[41:19] facing. And that's why we haven't drawn
[41:22] any conclusions regarding
[41:25] any particular block area
[41:27] , but I know this is one of those
[41:29] where The city has
[41:31] limited access when it comes to working
[41:34] with public areas
[41:36] regarding
[41:38] tree planting, but also with
[41:41] nature conservation work like they're
[41:43] doing in the city and are
[41:45] going to expand here as well. So
[41:50] that individuals can get a
[41:53] tree planting plan, which is
[41:56] relatively expensive for an individual,
[41:59] but it takes time to develop that whole
[42:02] process, and that's why we feel we
[42:05] need to continue expanding it to the
[42:10] block-by-
[42:12] block level instead of just a total census,
[42:14] which is too large an area to
[42:17] draw conclusions from, which will
[42:19] really help the people
[42:20] affected.
[42:22] Thank you for that. As I said when
[42:26] we were talking about the committee and all that,
[42:27] one of the biggest things with
[42:29] trees is that many
[42:31] local people just don't have the
[42:33] education about what they can plant in
[42:35] their yard, right? What won't
[42:37] affect their septic tank or their
[42:39] pipes? I can speak for myself. I
[42:41] love trees. I know what I
[42:43] want there. I want to get a
[42:44] mixed variety of species, but
[42:46] some people just don't
[42:47] . Sometimes, the obstacle isn't
[42:49] money. It's education about what I
[42:51] should put there. And that That's what I've
[42:54] seen in other cities where they've
[42:55] had days where people
[42:57] can come and pick up trees, and they
[42:58] advise them based on
[43:00] individual properties, going out and saying, "I know
[43:02] this yard would look good with X, Y,
[43:03] and Z." And people are receptive to that. I
[43:06] know I've been trying to look, you know
[43:07] , I live in a neighborhood where they
[43:09] just plowed up all the trees and
[43:10] built the houses, and that's what they were doing back
[43:12] then, right? And
[43:13] now we're realizing that's not
[43:15] the best thing, you know, so now
[43:17] they're looking at ways to rebuild it
[43:18] . So, thank you for that. Does this
[43:21] cover the whole city on this map
[43:23] you guys
[43:25] make? The data, but we don't really get
[43:28] involved in that particular thing
[43:30] when we go out and look at things.
[43:32] Thank you.
[43:35] I just want everyone to know that
[43:37] Councilman Fitzgerald is here
[43:38] online. He got here at 7:06 p.m. It's
[43:43] 9 now. Any other questions?
[43:51] Before we get to you, Councilman
[43:53] Fitzgerald, do you have any questions? I don't
[43:59] know. Councilor.
[44:05] He's online.
[44:07] He's muted.
[44:08] Yes. I don't know if that was a no.
[44:13] Okay. I know I saw him go off. Okay
[44:24] , I'll speak again if you want.
[44:27] Council and Lawn Board for your second
[44:28] turn.
[44:28] Yes, and I just wanted to wrap up and say
[44:31] that I think, uh, yes, there's definitely
[44:33] some way to look at this. I appreciate
[44:35] everything you guys do. And I think there's a
[44:38] lot to learn from, uh, you know,
[44:41] just from the land we have and what we can
[44:43] do, uh, and, uh, you know,
[44:46] in any way that from my
[44:48] perspective anyway, you know,
[44:51] as a community we should be looking at ways
[44:53] to support, uh, whether it's monetarily
[44:56] or, uh, ways to contribute resources. My
[44:59] other question is about composting,
[45:01] when I know SCAR came in and they were
[45:03] looking at different things, so one
[45:05] state I looked at is, well, like you said
[45:06] , they did all the restaurants,
[45:08] which was huge, with Mystic, and I brought it up
[45:10] in that meeting. Have we
[45:12] considered EB and the subbase, as well as
[45:15] the Collection points? There are a
[45:18] huge number of facilities,
[45:20] including Pfizer, and
[45:21] we're partnering with them and starting to have
[45:23] all those
[45:25] necessary conversations.
[45:28] Our Navy representative? I
[45:30] have no idea. I haven't been involved in
[45:33] the SCAR composting thing, but the
[45:36] Navy has its own contracts, and,
[45:38] well, I don't know, I don't see any
[45:40] town-related things. I think they treat them like another
[45:43] fire district, per se, as far as
[45:46] that perspective goes. So,
[45:48] you have to look into where they're going to
[45:51] do it, but I don't know
[45:53] personally or what... It gets
[45:56] a little complicated because of safety and
[45:58] other things being a bit far from
[46:00] their property. So, and you're right
[46:02] , they would do separate contracts. Well,
[46:05] yes.
[46:07] That's another issue that would be addressed
[46:08] maybe later, once we've
[46:10] established something. Then you can
[46:12] say, "Hey, do you want to do something local
[46:14] ?" "Well, but I don't think we're having a
[46:17] straightforward conversation
[46:19] here."
[46:20] Clear. Yes, and I looked at other cities that
[46:22] have great facilities and
[46:24] security, and it's a matter of
[46:26] contract, right? In other words, someone
[46:27] will come to collect the waste, no
[46:29] matter who it is. Therefore, it's
[46:31] just a matter of letting them know that
[46:33] this possibility is emerging; it's
[46:35] also good to know because they are
[46:37] a major consumer of waste in the
[46:39] area. And both are in Pfizer, EB and the
[46:42] naval base is also on the
[46:44] waterfront. Well, again, yes, they still
[46:47] have garbage collection service
[46:50] there, even though it's a
[46:52] security facility. They have people who come to
[46:54] repair the washing machines and dryers in
[46:56] the barracks for the boys and girls
[46:58] who are, you know, contractors outside
[46:59] the Navy. But it would be good, sometimes I
[47:03] think they forget. Always think, oh
[47:06] , that's a closed facility
[47:07] instead of saying, hey, and in the worst
[47:09] case it never goes anywhere,
[47:10] but I think we need to make sure we
[47:12] include them in those discussions so they
[47:14] know that this potential is
[47:15] diminishing. The number of people they
[47:17] feed in the kitchen there, and, you
[47:19] know, EB and Pfizer, there's a lot of waste
[47:21] and stuff that, you know, comes from
[47:23] somewhere outside that base and is
[47:24] transported directly out of
[47:26] our community. And then, moving on to
[47:29] military housing, that's
[47:30] a large housing structure as
[47:32] we begin to consider
[47:33] residential housing. So, there's a lot to
[47:36] think about and a lot of opportunities,
[47:37] but again, thank you again for
[47:39] everything you do and for being, you know,
[47:41] just volunteering and
[47:42] caring about our community and being such a
[47:44] great advocate, as I feel this is
[47:46] vital to our health and well-being
[47:48] . It's not just the fun of walking
[47:51] along those trails; it provides and gives
[47:53] back many
[47:55] health benefits. So, thank you.
[48:00] Councilman Jones for his second term.
[48:02] Thank you, Madam Mayor. I only have
[48:04] one question about page 30 of the
[48:08] document. It supports the growth
[48:10] of a healthier urban forest. It
[48:12] states here that the state objective
[48:15] is a 5% increase by 2040 in
[48:17] urban areas or areas designated for
[48:19] environmental justice where current coverage is
[48:22] less than 30%. So, does that
[48:24] mean we're currently
[48:26] working on the 30 by 30 plan, but
[48:28] the state's target is 30%?
[48:30] What does 35 mean, or what is that?
[48:33] You're confusing the 30% here. The 30
[48:35] % here is the canopy coverage.
[48:40] OK? As opposed to how much
[48:42] open space it is. Those are two
[48:44] different things. All this is just talking
[48:47] about the canopy. How much tree cover is
[48:50] there on Earth?
[48:51] And where?
[48:52] is it? It doesn't matter where I am
[48:54] .
[48:55] So Groton isn't like 62%?
[48:58] In total, this is how
[49:00] they can break it down into these census
[49:01] blocks because they have information
[49:03] on environmental justice in the
[49:05] census block area. OK?
[49:08] But then, when we say what we've been
[49:10] analyzing so far, you
[49:12] know, if you look at a census block,
[49:14] you have the Haley farm, Mortimer Wright
[49:16] , the sheep farm, it's all
[49:18] included there. So, how do you
[49:21] balance that? Of course I have
[49:23] 100% coverage in terms of
[49:25] vegetation cover in those areas because there are
[49:27] no houses or anything. But then,
[49:29] literally next door and halfway there
[49:31] , or maybe you realize there are
[49:33] n't a lot of trees in
[49:35] that spot, okay? Are we
[49:38] putting the trees where they need to be so
[49:41] that the people we need
[49:43] qualify for this
[49:45] environmental justice category in that area?
[49:48] So, you know, you can't just have
[49:50] the numbers not
[49:52] match.
[49:53] Yes, you can't average over such a
[49:54] large area. So, the
[49:56] work effort was to divide it into
[49:58] smaller components.
[49:59] Environmental justice means that
[50:00] everyone has the right to have a tree.
[50:02] Is that right? Okay?
[50:05] In the simplest terms. In the
[50:06] simplest ones, yes.
[50:07] You have tree cover and everyone
[50:10] there has the right to tree cover.
[50:11] In an ideal world, you know, everyone, if I walk out my door and I have
[50:15] 60% tree cover, no
[50:17] matter what house you live in in Groton,
[50:20] okay? OK. That's not the reality
[50:23] . Okay, I
[50:27] 'm just saying this is a goal, not
[50:29] a requirement.
[50:32] And I would point out that in most of
[50:35] these there are no punitive measures if you don't do it
[50:38] , which is interesting.
[50:41] Please, could you help us do
[50:43] this instead of not doing it? X
[50:45] , Y, and Z pass.
[50:46] So, Groton has 62, some
[50:48] parts have 100, some have 60,
[50:50] some have 20, yes, and if
[50:52] basically what they want is
[50:53] just to level this out a little more.
[50:56] That's the goal.
[50:57] And that's something we can
[50:58] work on,
[50:58] focusing first on the areas of
[51:01] environmental justice because that's where
[51:03] they wanted to start.
[51:04] Okay. Okay,
[51:06] to put it in perspective,
[51:07] Connecticut is at 61%, so
[51:09] Connecticut is well above the
[51:11] national average and Groton is
[51:13] above it, so we're doing pretty well. We're
[51:16] not doing
[51:17] badly.
[51:17] Yes, no, I don't know, okay. Okay, thanks
[51:20] .
[51:25] Councilman Fishcher, do you have something to
[51:26] say to me?
[51:30] Nothing for me, thank you.
[51:32] Okay, thanks. Thanks, guys. Thanks
[51:35] , guys, for coming this afternoon. Thank you
[51:36] for your presentation and for giving us more
[51:39] guidance. Thank you.
[51:42] And we'll see you in the next
[51:44] budget cycle.
[51:50] Okay. Okay, the next item on the
[51:58] agenda is 2026-829, the
[52:00] job description for supervisor
[52:04] 355. I believe Director Green and
[52:07] Director Berry are coming to the table.
[52:18] Councilman, could you please read it
[52:20] ?
[52:21] Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor. I would
[52:24] like to make a motion to
[52:26] recommend a resolution to approve
[52:29] the updated job description for
[52:31] Thrive 55+ supervisor.
[52:33] Second, Jones.
[52:35] Motion presented by Bien, and Jones
[52:37] supports it.
[52:38] Good night.
[52:39] Hello. He already introduced us. Do you want us to do it
[52:42] again? Okay. Well, we're
[52:45] here, I hope, for a pretty
[52:46] quick topic. This is just an update to
[52:48] a currently posted job opening
[52:50] . As most of you know,
[52:52] a
[52:54] team member who had held that position
[52:56] for a long time recently retired. We just wanted to
[52:59] clarify things for the candidates to
[53:01] ensure that the
[53:03] job description was aligned and gave them
[53:05] the right information so
[53:07] they could understand the expectations,
[53:09] I would say, of the role and the direction it's
[53:11] taking, making sure that we
[53:13] continue to focus on
[53:14] leadership and making that clear in the
[53:16] job description.
[53:20] Would you like to add anything? It
[53:22] was quick. Yes, I think there were
[53:27] some areas we tried to
[53:30] focus on. One was the
[53:34] additional responsibility of managing employee performance,
[53:36] development, and coaching
[53:37] . And also, you know, the
[53:42] old description focused on the
[53:44] supervision of programs and activities
[53:46] , and we've tried to change that focus
[53:49] to try to make everything fit now. And
[53:53] we are also making a shift
[53:55] towards performance-based results
[53:57] . That would be one of the
[54:01] new supervisor's responsibilities.
[54:05] And we also changed the history a bit—
[54:08] sorry, not the history of
[54:11] their qualifications—to include
[54:14] perhaps a degree in
[54:17] public health administration or community health,
[54:20] which previously focused more on
[54:23] recreation. So we've tried to
[54:26] update the job description
[54:28] to better reflect where we are and where
[54:31] we're headed.
[54:37] Any questions? Councillor Bright?
[54:40] Yes, just a couple of quick questions.
[54:41] Thank you for preparing this, and just one
[54:43] recommendation or request for the
[54:44] future: if we could modify the
[54:46] previous version. I
[54:48] do it based on the level of change.
[54:51] So, if I know that something has been
[54:53] completely renovated, it wouldn't make
[54:55] sense because 90% of it would be
[54:57] modified. So this had
[54:59] enough improvements to warrant leaving it
[55:01] separate so you could see in its
[55:03] entirety what it is and how it turned out.
[55:06] So, I make that assessment based
[55:07] on how much change there is and
[55:09] how digestible it is for people
[55:11] . Just
[55:11] a suggestion because it's easier to
[55:13] check if you see the red line, that's
[55:14] all. But I did the review. I like
[55:16] what you're adding in terms of
[55:18] additional qualifications, but my
[55:20] main question is about level 5 to
[55:22] level 9—how much does that change, and what
[55:24] 's the additional compensation?
[55:26] So, I think the
[55:27] overview indicates that there are no
[55:29] changes. Then, you may recall that
[55:31] we made an adjustment to the payment plan
[55:33] a couple of years ago, so the
[55:35] numbering system changed. So, that
[55:37] just reflects the equivalent number in
[55:39] the payment plan. There is no
[55:41] salary change with respect to what was
[55:42] approved and presented to the board the
[55:44] last few times.
[55:45] OK. Thank you for the clarification.
[55:47] That's the only question I have.
[55:49] Any other help? I don't see any hands. I
[55:57] have to take a roll call vote
[55:59] since the Fitzgerald Council is
[56:01] online. Councillor's Desk.
[56:06] Yes. Board Council.
[56:08] Yes.
[56:09] Councilor Fitzgerald.
[56:10] Yes.
[56:11] Councilor Good.
[56:12] I.
[56:13] Councilman Jones.
[56:14] Yes.
[56:16] Councilor McBride.
[56:17] Yes.
[56:18] Councilor Merritt.
[56:19] Yes.
[56:19] Councilor Piccinino.
[56:20] Yes.
[56:21] And I'm a yes, so it's nine to
[56:24] zero to zero. Thanks, guys, for coming
[56:27] .
[56:28] Thank you.
[56:33] Okay. Alright, our last item
[56:45] of the afternoon is 2026-834, the
[56:47] relocation of
[56:49] polling places in District 7, and we have
[56:52] our registered voter Kristen Ben
[56:55] Diddy, because I was going to say it wrong.
[56:58] Thank you. Oh, there's no excitement for Vaden
[57:02] Vance. Okay, so the presentation.
[57:06] Well, there isn't a real presentation.
[57:09] It's just information. We don't have
[57:12] any metrics or anything to base our analysis on
[57:14] . However, two years ago it
[57:17] was very hot in Fitch's gym
[57:20] and we tried to move to the
[57:22] cafeteria, but it wasn't much
[57:24] cooler because they didn't originally have
[57:27] the air conditioning on and that's
[57:29] a big room. Anyway, we can't
[57:32] use the cafeteria just to
[57:34] get that off your mind because when there are
[57:37] classes, like for the
[57:38] September primaries, we can't
[57:40] use the cafeteria because the
[57:42] students need to eat there. So
[57:45] we used the gym. The gym does not
[57:48] have air conditioning. And two
[57:51] years ago, someone fainted there.
[57:57] She was taken to the emergency room and
[57:59] she was fine, but it was partly
[58:02] due to the heat there and the
[58:04] stress that the whole situation
[58:06] caused her. The other problem from
[58:11] two years ago was that we had the
[58:12] oldest machines, which now
[58:14] have new tabulators, but the
[58:16] oldest machine melted down.
[58:20] They were old, so, you know, it worked
[58:22] , but they jammed because the plastic
[58:25] literally melted in the
[58:27] machine, and we lost that machine. It doesn't
[58:30] matter because now we have
[58:32] new ones. However, just to give you
[58:34] an idea of ​​how hot it is in
[58:35] the gym. This year I bought a
[58:39] bunch of fans to put
[58:40] there. Not many, probably about
[58:43] eight. And we thought that Mary Morrison maybe did
[58:46] n't have air conditioning.
[58:47] So when they found out they were
[58:50] doing that, I put them all on Fitch. And my
[58:53] moderator arrived around 8:30.
[58:58] She was soaked. Her hair was
[59:01] practically soaked. You know, I don't
[59:03] think it was leaking at that
[59:04] point, but it had been there since
[59:06] 5:00 a.m. m. until 8:15 p.m. m. It
[59:10] was too hot in there and the
[59:12] fans weren't very helpful
[59:14] because it's a very large room. We talked
[59:17] amongst ourselves about buying some
[59:19] portable air conditioners, but
[59:21] we would need so many that it simply does
[59:24] n't make sense to have them for just one
[59:27] day every two years. Or every year
[59:31] if we had primaries during
[59:34] municipal hours, as we have done
[59:36] in the past. So, my
[59:41] recommendation or my point of discussion
[59:44] , I suppose, is to move that. I had already
[59:48] researched the high school
[59:51] when it first opened, and I don't
[59:53] remember what they said, but it wasn't
[59:56] viable. So, he didn't go near that.
[1:00:04] When I mentioned this to the
[1:00:05] city manager, Burt, he
[1:00:08] said, "Well, what about the
[1:00:10] community center? If we could put an
[1:00:12] air-conditioned gym there, would you
[1:00:14] use it?" And I said to him, "Well,
[1:00:16] we could." We could get permission
[1:00:20] to do it, but it's not in Ward
[1:00:22] 7. And they don't really like the status—
[1:00:25] in this case, they really don't like
[1:00:27] the polling place being
[1:00:29] permanently outside the ward—
[1:00:32] but it's allowed. And then my
[1:00:37] question to the city manager,
[1:00:41] Burt, was: Could we use this room?
[1:00:45] And I know we were here before we
[1:00:47] moved back to Fitch a while back, and the
[1:00:49] problem was the lines in
[1:00:52] the hallway. But I figured if
[1:00:55] we used that door as the entrance, the
[1:00:57] lines would be outside. We could
[1:01:00] put up tents if it rained or whatever
[1:01:02] . Nothing's perfect, but it would be
[1:01:05] better, and then people would just be coming
[1:01:08] out that way, so there wouldn't be any
[1:01:11] conflicts with staff and
[1:01:13] visitors. So it's all verbal
[1:01:17] . That's my presentation, but I
[1:01:19] really think we have to move it
[1:01:21] somehow,
[1:01:23] Mr. Burt. I
[1:01:24] just want to add that I spoke with
[1:01:26] Principal Ryner about this, and I spoke
[1:01:28] with the staff who were here
[1:01:30] at the time. Even though it was
[1:01:33] congested, we believe we can
[1:01:35] make it work if that's the
[1:01:36] council's wish. Is that
[1:01:39] okay? The council?
[1:01:40] Are you asking for this just for the
[1:01:43] primaries, not for November, or just a
[1:01:45] complete move?
[1:01:47] I would love it if it were just for the
[1:01:49] primaries. However, moving a
[1:01:52] polling place is very, very confusing
[1:01:54] for most voters.
[1:01:58] When we moved from here to Fitch,
[1:02:00] there were angry people coming into the
[1:02:03] building saying, "I always vote
[1:02:05] here." Why don't I vote here? "It
[1:02:08] took them a while to get used to it. They're
[1:02:09] still not used to going to
[1:02:11] the gym. You know, we have a
[1:02:13] huge sign we put up there and people
[1:02:15] keep calling saying, 'I couldn't
[1:02:17] find the place.'" The door was
[1:02:18] locked. "They were on the
[1:02:20] cafeteria side. So it's very
[1:02:22] confusing to move them, which is also
[1:02:25] why in the past,
[1:02:27] when we had a couple of referendums,
[1:02:30] probably about 10 years ago, we didn't
[1:02:33] change the locations. We held the
[1:02:35] referendums in all seven because, at that
[1:02:37] time, I think we had eight. But
[1:02:41] we did it because it's very confusing, and
[1:02:43] people don't, you know, vote once a
[1:02:45] year. To give you another example of
[1:02:49] voter confusion, when
[1:02:52] early voting started,
[1:02:54] we have the early voting location
[1:02:55] in our office at the
[1:02:57] community center, and, you know,
[1:02:58] people were getting used to that.
[1:03:00] We put up big signs so they would know,
[1:03:02] and, you know, we had
[1:03:05] people there separated by districts,
[1:03:07] especially for the last
[1:03:09] election, and we would come up and say, '
[1:03:12] So, do you know where you normally vote?'"
[1:03:15] "And they were saying, 'I vote here.'
[1:03:18] Well, you know, it's all
[1:03:20] confusing for them because they don't think about it,
[1:03:21] except that today I have to vote. I'm going
[1:03:24] to turn around and vote. Well,
[1:03:27] actually, I wouldn't like to do that
[1:03:29] .
[1:03:30] Okay. Thank you.
[1:03:32] Okay. Councillor London and Councillor
[1:03:34] McBride.
[1:03:35] Thank you. Yes, I think this makes more
[1:03:39] sense because it's literally across
[1:03:40] the road and it will be going back to its
[1:03:42] original state. I think it might be
[1:03:45] necessary to hire staff and certainly have
[1:03:47] proper signage on the
[1:03:49] corner on election day and maybe
[1:03:51] someone on site. I would
[1:03:54] fully support us having
[1:03:56] someone for the first round, you know
[1:03:57] , stationed there periodically to
[1:03:59] help people with the signage
[1:04:01] . Another motivation that has
[1:04:04] led me to want it back here is
[1:04:06] that many times, you know, people—and I know a
[1:04:08] lot of people who have
[1:04:09] volunteered over the years we
[1:04:11] 've worked at the stations, and
[1:04:13] people who live in this borough—say it's
[1:04:15] not very accessible. You can park
[1:04:19] on that high curb. I don't know if You had
[1:04:21] kids at Fitch, you know where the
[1:04:23] little round thing is, and you can get there, but it's not
[1:04:25] a straight path for people
[1:04:26] walking. It's a long walk for
[1:04:28] disabled people, and I don't know
[1:04:30] how many complaints I've received. People
[1:04:32] even stand out there saying it's
[1:04:34] ridiculous, that it's too
[1:04:35] far. If they park in the
[1:04:37] disabled spot, they have to go up the
[1:04:39] stairs. And I see people with their
[1:04:41] walkers about to fall over. I love
[1:04:43] this place because it's flat and you can
[1:04:45] get in and out, and anyone with a
[1:04:47] disability doesn't have to walk far to
[1:04:50] get in and out. As for the
[1:04:52] concern about the heating, that
[1:04:53] 's another reason, isn't it? Well, now it's
[1:04:55] definitely on my list.
[1:04:57] I'll also talk to the Board of
[1:04:58] Education because the weather is getting
[1:05:00] warmer, and how do
[1:05:01] our students survive in that gym
[1:05:03] all year round when summer comes and
[1:05:05] the temperature reaches 85, 90
[1:05:07] degrees? I worry about our
[1:05:09] athletes running and playing in that
[1:05:10] gym. We should think about that.
[1:05:12] So, maybe the Board of
[1:05:13] Education will try to get some
[1:05:14] funding or a grant to
[1:05:16] install air conditioning and maybe
[1:05:18] more It might be possible to reinstall it later
[1:05:19] , but in the meantime, I think
[1:05:21] this is the best location, and I think it's
[1:05:22] a no-brainer because it's literally a
[1:05:24] stone's throw away. It's within the
[1:05:25] borough, right? But if we're going to
[1:05:28] do this, we have to act quickly
[1:05:29] because I see the
[1:05:31] disenfranchisement, and I think the timing needs to be
[1:05:33] fast, and the marketing needs to be
[1:05:34] available now. It should be on
[1:05:37] all social media. Obviously, there has to
[1:05:38] be something in the newspaper.
[1:05:40] Signs should start appearing.
[1:05:41] Things should start happening
[1:05:43] immediately. It should be all over the
[1:05:46] city website, everywhere, you
[1:05:47] know, on Channel 19, whatever.
[1:05:49] We have to inform people
[1:05:51] immediately. Well, that's what I'm trying to
[1:05:52] say. But, of course, I'm also
[1:05:54] concerned about the children in Fitch, because I
[1:05:56] 've heard people tell me that they also
[1:05:58] went to a basketball game or
[1:06:00] something and got dizzy there for
[1:06:02] the events. And what about our
[1:06:05] children, too? With
[1:06:07] special needs, disabilities, and other
[1:06:08] conditions. So, to me, it makes
[1:06:10] sense. We don't know what the
[1:06:14] future holds, but I think this It's just
[1:06:15] across the street, it's flat. In
[1:06:18] fact, it could make voting
[1:06:19] faster because you can get in
[1:06:20] quicker. I mean, you don't have to
[1:06:22] park much farther away. And it's
[1:06:24] important that people can
[1:06:25] comfortably get to the restroom, right? All
[1:06:27] the things people need. So it
[1:06:29] would be important to consider that
[1:06:31] . Okay, I took my notes. What's the
[1:06:33] ...? My question is, when do we think
[1:06:35] this would be from the time
[1:06:36] we decide tonight when it would be
[1:06:37] posted?
[1:06:38] Well, it wouldn't happen for this
[1:06:42] election. It's too late. It would be
[1:06:45] too confusing. We have to
[1:06:47] notify every single person in
[1:06:49] the ward by mail that their polling place has
[1:06:51] changed. So, we're waiting for
[1:06:53] the next election, and as of
[1:06:56] now, next November.
[1:06:57] Perfect. Thank you.
[1:06:59] So, there's plenty of time to
[1:07:01] post everything and put up signs all the
[1:07:02] time, and yes, definitely.
[1:07:05] Councillor McBride?
[1:07:06] Yes, thank you. No, I also support this
[1:07:08] for many reasons, Councillor Portalatin
[1:07:09] . That area is quite far away, and if there's a
[1:07:12] lot of traffic here and further out, it's
[1:07:15] a tremendously long walk. The
[1:07:18] hills and steps are too
[1:07:19] far. So, I fully support this,
[1:07:20] and I think there's plenty of
[1:07:22] room here where you can form a
[1:07:23] walking queue. So, I
[1:07:24] fully support it. I think it's a great
[1:07:26] idea. Thank you for proposing it.
[1:07:29] Councillor Jones, then Councillor Good.
[1:07:31] Thank you, Madam Mayor. Can you
[1:07:33] tell us a little bit about why it
[1:07:35] moved from here to Fitch? It
[1:07:38] was originally on Fitch all the
[1:07:40] time. I don't know why it moved
[1:07:43] here. That was before I was a
[1:07:48] moderator. I was a moderator in the building,
[1:07:51] and then it moved back to Fitch
[1:07:54] after...because what I heard—
[1:07:56] now, if it's true, I didn't hear from the
[1:07:59] townspeople who work in this
[1:08:01] building—was that they were having
[1:08:03] congestion issues and didn't like being
[1:08:06] here because of, you know, the
[1:08:09] presidential election, when people
[1:08:11] were waiting in the hall, and other people
[1:08:13] were trying to get in, and people were getting
[1:08:14] angry at them for cutting in
[1:08:16] line even though they weren't in line
[1:08:18] . That sort of thing is what I heard
[1:08:21] in the rumor about why it moved back
[1:08:23] to Fitch. I
[1:08:25] like your idea. to move it to the other
[1:08:27] door. That eliminates the problem of
[1:08:29] people simply leaving. I assume
[1:08:34] , as a staff member, you're thinking about
[1:08:36] this room, which means it needs to be
[1:08:37] reconfigured. Is that something you anticipate
[1:08:40] your staff
[1:08:43] or Public Works or someone else will do?
[1:08:45] No, our staff set up the
[1:08:47] polling stations every day,
[1:08:49] what they need for that day, and then they
[1:08:51] put it all back at the end of the
[1:08:53] night. We have workers who come in; we
[1:08:55] usually have seven or eight
[1:08:56] workers, depending on how busy
[1:08:58] the election is projected to be. So
[1:09:01] we have plenty of people to move the
[1:09:03] tables around and set them up the way we want.
[1:09:05] So you can take care of all
[1:09:06] that. Madam Mayor, do we need
[1:09:09] a motion for this? Yes.
[1:09:12] Okay.
[1:09:14] Can I ask the Council to approve it, and
[1:09:16] then we'll move on to a motion?
[1:09:17] Okay. Is that
[1:09:19] all set?
[1:09:20] Yes.
[1:09:20] Okay. I
[1:09:21] was going to make a motion for the
[1:09:23] Council...
[1:09:24] Okay.
[1:09:24] Jones can go ahead.
[1:09:27] Just a reminder, I need to
[1:09:28] make a note of that.
[1:09:29] Very good. Oh. Borough Manager
[1:09:31] , Bert, you may have to help me
[1:09:32] with this. A motion So... or is it a
[1:09:36] simple motion to move the
[1:09:38] District 7 polling place from
[1:09:40] Fitch High School to the
[1:09:42] City Hall Annex?
[1:09:43] Second.
[1:09:44] Beginning with the
[1:09:46] 2027 election cycle. Yes.
[1:09:49] That includes the primaries as well.
[1:09:52] Yes, 2027 leaves it open in case there's a
[1:09:53] special election or
[1:09:55] something, and as soon as this
[1:09:56] election is over, we can start notifying
[1:09:58] people. So, you know,
[1:10:01] notices can be sent out in
[1:10:02] December just in case something comes up like it
[1:10:04] did in February for the
[1:10:06] special election we had.
[1:10:07] Can you repeat that, please?
[1:10:08] So, a motion to move...
[1:10:14] the
[1:10:16] location of the District 7 polling place
[1:10:22] from Fitch High School to the
[1:10:26] City Hall Annex for the
[1:10:30] 2027 voting season. What would be the
[1:10:34] correct word?
[1:10:36] Voting year.
[1:10:37] Voting year,
[1:10:39] yes, never mind.
[1:10:40] Voting year.
[1:10:41] Second. Okay
[1:10:43] . Okay.
[1:10:44] Motion introduced by Jones, seconded
[1:10:47] by Castlebordelon, and just to
[1:10:49] reiterate, a motion to move the
[1:10:51] District 7 polling place from
[1:10:53] Fitch High School to the City Hall Annex
[1:10:55] Town hall for election year
[1:10:58] 2027.
[1:10:59] I propose. I already did that. It's already been done
[1:11:02] .
[1:11:02] No, I'm just reading it for the
[1:11:03] public.
[1:11:04] With that. I think I'm
[1:11:05] missing some information. Okay. Okay. Fine
[1:11:08] . A Castlebordelon discussion.
[1:11:11] Thank you. I think it would be helpful.
[1:11:15] I actually remember it being
[1:11:17] moved once because of renovations on
[1:11:19] Fitch at one point as well. But
[1:11:22] what I do remember is, the year
[1:11:23] before they did this, not the
[1:11:25] outdoor posters now, but at the
[1:11:27] polling station itself, when people
[1:11:28] came in and you handed them their
[1:11:29] ID to register,
[1:11:31] you could hand them a piece of paper and say, "Just so you
[1:11:32] know, the next
[1:11:34] election will be across the
[1:11:36] street." And start it off
[1:11:37] organically like that because you have people right
[1:11:39] there in this election. It can
[1:11:41] be a simple piece of paper the size of my
[1:11:43] phone, right? You don't
[1:11:45] necessarily want to leave it outside or in the
[1:11:47] newspaper yet, but when they come in
[1:11:48] as people, "Hey, I just want you to
[1:11:50] know you're ready." Take your
[1:11:51] pen. Take your thing. The next
[1:11:53] voting cycle will be in the
[1:11:55] town annex. "Take a piece of paper."
[1:11:57] That sounds good.
[1:11:58] Just an idea. And that's what I saw and
[1:12:00] remember them doing now that I think about it
[1:12:02] . I think it would be great because you're
[1:12:04] not going to put a limit on it. I mean
[1:12:06] , in local elections, there aren't that
[1:12:07] many people participating, but it's still
[1:12:09] a large percentage, and word of
[1:12:11] mouth will spread quickly. And then,
[1:12:13] when you include the posters and the
[1:12:14] newspaper article right after we
[1:12:16] get through these elections,
[1:12:18] we'll start the campaign to change
[1:12:19] the polls, so to speak. I think it would be
[1:12:22] great, but I think
[1:12:23] people would have a little piece of paper ready
[1:12:25] to hand out when they get their
[1:12:26] ballot; that would be appreciated. "Here's
[1:12:28] your ballot, here's your
[1:12:30] pen, and by the way, please note, the
[1:12:31] polling station chain will be
[1:12:33] affected the next time you come back," or
[1:12:34] however you want to put it. That's what I'm
[1:12:36] thinking. And I think it would be a
[1:12:39] polite and organic way to reach so many
[1:12:42] people so quickly. So that would be
[1:12:45] my idea, to get the word out at that
[1:12:47] polling station this November.
[1:12:50] That sounds great.
[1:12:51] So that's my idea. And, again, that does
[1:12:53] n't change what you do. It's just something
[1:12:55] that occurred to me. It doesn't change the fact
[1:12:57] of the motion, but I think it's a bit of an
[1:12:59] obvious idea, and we can re-evaluate it
[1:13:01] later, right? We're always
[1:13:03] changing and growing. Yeah, I mean
[1:13:05] , putting air conditioning in a
[1:13:07] gym sounds like, how come we don't
[1:13:08] have it these days? You know, people
[1:13:11] shouldn't be passing out in our
[1:13:13] gym. So I think it's great. I
[1:13:15] think we have time. We have time
[1:13:18] for the wording to get out. It's
[1:13:20] an election coming up that doesn't usually
[1:13:22] have as high a turnout as
[1:13:23] presidential elections, but we can reach
[1:13:25] a good percentage of those people, and
[1:13:27] the word will get around. I'm excited
[1:13:30] about that because I think the health of
[1:13:31] our poll workers is vital
[1:13:33] , as well as the health of the people who go
[1:13:34] to the polling places. If our
[1:13:36] poll workers are passing out,
[1:13:38] we have immunocompromised people and people with
[1:13:40] health problems, and we don't need
[1:13:41] people passing out at the
[1:13:43] polling places. Another thing, if I remember correctly,
[1:13:46] when I was here many years ago—I mean,
[1:13:48] I worked at the
[1:13:49] polling place at that time—I don't
[1:13:51] remember. I was on high. I think If
[1:13:53] you do it from this doorway, if the
[1:13:55] weather's bad, you could have people
[1:13:56] queuing up in this back area, and you
[1:13:57] just don't have
[1:13:59] polling places to shelter people
[1:14:00] from the weather. You could put 12, 15, 20
[1:14:02] people lined up against this
[1:14:05] back wall like a stage and take
[1:14:07] necks, right? Necks almost like you
[1:14:09] 're at the DMV, and then go back and forth
[1:14:11] . At one point, also, uh,
[1:14:13] your time.
[1:14:14] Yes. A sort of barrier behind
[1:14:16] you.
[1:14:16] Okay, your time. Yes. If I could, in the
[1:14:19] hallway where it separates the people
[1:14:21] going to the front door or to the order. Your
[1:14:25] time's up.
[1:14:26] Anyway. Your
[1:14:27] time's up.
[1:14:28] You can put a barrier in front. Your
[1:14:29] time's up.
[1:14:30] Thank you.
[1:14:31] Yes. God forbid.
[1:14:32] Councilor Pacino.
[1:14:35] Thank you, Madam Mayor. And regarding
[1:14:38] Councilor Bordelon's note, I know
[1:14:40] we can make business cards. And
[1:14:44] if we had them, and obviously
[1:14:45] handed them out with the sticker. And
[1:14:49] maybe even had them
[1:14:51] downtown Early voting is available for
[1:14:53] people who come from the
[1:14:56] 7th onwards. And they can also get their
[1:14:57] little card then. But
[1:15:00] yes, very good idea. I like that idea very much
[1:15:02] .
[1:15:02] Okay. Okay.
[1:15:05] I'm fine. Thank you.
[1:15:05] Very good. Roll call?
[1:15:11] Or should I ask if anyone else
[1:15:12] has any questions, or are we good?
[1:15:15] Okay. Roll call. Councillor
[1:15:17] Burrell.
[1:15:18] Yes.
[1:15:18] Councillor Bordelon. Yes.
[1:15:22] Councillor Fitzgerald.
[1:15:24] Yes.
[1:15:25] Councillor Good. Yes.
[1:15:27] Councillor Jones. Yes.
[1:15:29] Councillor McBride.
[1:15:30] Yes.
[1:15:30] Councillor Merritt.
[1:15:31] Yes.
[1:15:32] Councillor Piccinino.
[1:15:33] Yes.
[1:15:34] And I'm in favor, so that's 9 to 0. Thank you very much.
[1:15:39] Thank you.
[1:15:39] Motion to adjourn.
[1:15:42] Supported.
[1:15:42] Can we add it to item one?
[1:15:44] No. Okay. Fair enough
[1:15:45] .
[1:15:46] The motion to adjourn
[1:15:47] was made by Councillor Good,
[1:15:49] seconded by Councillor Jones. It will be
[1:15:50] a roll call. Councilman Burrell
[1:15:54] .
[1:15:54] Yes.
[1:15:55] Councilman Bordelon.
[1:15:56] Yes.
[1:15:57] Councilman Fitzgerald. Councilman Good.
[1:16:02] Yes.
[1:16:02] Councilman Jones. Yes.
[1:16:04] Councilman McBride.
[1:16:05] Yes.
[1:16:06] Councilman Merritt.
[1:16:07] Yes.
[1:16:07] Councilman Picinich?
[1:16:08] Yes.
[1:16:10] And I'm in favor, and we're 9 to 0, and we'll
[1:16:12] adjourn the session at 7:44 p.m.
[1:16:15] Thank you all. Good
[1:16:17] night.