Present: First Selectman Woody Bliss; Selectman W. Glenn Major; Town Administrator Tom Landry; Administrative Assistant Judy DeVito; Martin Strasmore; Kassandra Strasmore; Alison Martin; Deby Goldenberg; David Weber and members of the public.

 

Mr. Miller was not in attendance.

 

 

Mr. Bliss called the meeting to order at 7:31pm.

 

Martin Strasmore said he would like the Town to demonstrate some leadership in Towns of this size. He wants to get information out to people of what they can do because it is a topic that he is interesting in and he would like to have a positive impact on the world.

 

Kassandra Strasmore said she currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors on the United Way. This is a passion of hers that she wants to share with the community.

 

Alison Martin said She had previously lived in Weston moved away for a while and moved back. She helped on the Town to Town Partnership Committee even though she was not a member of the committee. She thought this was a worthwhile cause when she saw it in the paper and she wanted to lend her support.

 

Deby Goldenberg said she has lived in Weston for 13 years and is presently a free lance Educator. She welcomes the opportunity to be part of the Weston Global Warming Committee.

 

Nancy Selman was unable to attend the meeting. Mr. Bliss said he had spoken to her and we do have a resume on file for her.

 

David Weber said that he was very concerned in the change in the climate that he has been seeing.  He said he saw the movie “Outgoers”outgoers and encouraged everyone to see it. He was very concerned about the future of his child.

 

Clement Malin was unable to attend but we do have a letter of interest from him.

 

Martin Strasmore said that he had spoken to John Drummond and he is seeing if someone from the High School can participate. There are several people who are interested.

 

Mr. Major made a motion to appoint Martin Strasmore, Kassandra Strasmore, Alison Martin. Deby Goldenberg, Nancy Selman, David Weber and Clem Malin to the Select Committee on Global Warming for a term to expire June 30, 2008. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion passed Mr. Major, Mr. Bliss yes, Mr. Miller absent.

 

Discussion/decision regarding the appointment of Jay Fortin as Weston’s representative on the Fairfield County Municipal Deer Management Alliance for a term to expire June 30, 2008. Mr. Fortin had chaired the Weston Select Committee on Deer Management.  Mr. Major made a motion to appoint Jay Fortin as Weston’s representative on the Fairfield County Municipal Deer Management Alliance for a term to expire June 30, 2008. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion passed Mr. Major, Mr. Bliss yes, Mr. Miller absent.

 

Discussion/decision regarding the appointment of Tracy Kulikowski to the position of Land Use Director. Mr. Bliss said Tracy had done an outstanding job for us on the building project. Mr. Major made a motion to appoint Tracy Kulikowski to the position of Land Use Director. Mr. Major amended his motion to add for a position which would be 20 hours per week, an hourly rate of $37.11, receiving health, retirement and other benefits as provided for 20+ hour employees in the Town’s Personnel Policies and Practices Handbook. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion passed Mr. Major, Mr. Bliss yes, Mr. Miller absent.

 

Discussion/decision regarding the Valley Forge Bridge Preliminary Engineering Report-Kyle Turschman P.E: Kyle Turschman representing the McGuire group made a presentation regarding the Valley Forge Bridge. He said they were in the preliminary engineering phase collecting the data in order to determine the parameters of the bridge. He wanted to show the Selectmen where they are and where they are going.

 

He said the existing bridge is a 50ft concrete arch that passes over the Saugatuck River perpendicular to it resulting in two very sharp S curves right at the bridge. They are proposing to move it down stream a little bit and tweak it so that it is not exactly perpendicular to the river so that they can open up the road a little bit and get better sight distance through there. Right now approaching the bridge form either direction the sight distance is very limited.

 

The proposal right now is to close Valley Forge Road during the construction and use a local street detour, possibly Davis Hill Road. The advantage of detouring the traffic is it makes the construction duration much shorter. Trying to keep the bridge open while you are actively working there slows construction considerable and the inconvenience could be well over a year. By detouring traffic around locally the construction range would be three to four months. It is a lot quicker, it gives the contractor full access to the site, he is able to get in and do the project and get out, higher quality product and shorter duration helps to keep the cost down as well.

 

The bridge that they are proposing is about an 80ft precast arch. It is similar to the arch that is currently there but a bigger span because they are a skewed to the river rather than going across perpendicular. The river is a little wider down where the bridge is going.

 

The federal government is funding 80% of the project and the town is funding 20%. The preliminary cost estimate for this is about 1 million dollars for the project. The next step is to go into preliminary design with this concept, come back do a public information meeting and public hearing.

 

Mr. Major asked why come south and not go north. He said that you would have to do significant blasting in order to get the access through to the new bridge. Mr. Turschman said if you look at the 100 year flood plain those are limits that we have to stay outside of. He said even though the water course is narrower the 100 year flood plain is larger.

 

Mr. Bliss said that they have known for some time that this bridge needs to be replaced because we get a report from the state. We had put in the Capital Budget three years ago $300,000 with the idea that we would have to pay for the whole thing and that we should start putting money away in anticipation of the need to replace the bridge.. Mr. Landry said we do have to have a Public Hearing but we do not need an actual Town Meeting.

 

Mr. Major asked who owned the property where the new bridge is going. Mr. Turschman said the Town of Weston. Mr. Major asked if there were any restrictions on the deed. We will have Town attorney look at the deed.

 

Sally Harold asked how much dry stream bank is under the bridge. Mr. Turschman said it was an 80ft arch and you could walk under the bridge. The bridge is designed for 30 mph traffic, which will be faster than the existing because they will not have to slow down as much to take the two curves. There will be a sidewalk on the south side. There will be two 12ft lanes, a 4ft shoulder on both sides and 5ft sidewalk with a total width of 37ft.

 

Mr. Major asked about the architect style. He said he would like to see it mimic what is there.

 

Mr. Landry asked if they had a sense of when they would be through the design process to the point of having a public hearing. He said after the first of the year. Once the bridge is in they can open up the traffic while they are working.

 

Mr. Major asked if the old bridge could be used by emergency vehicles while construction is going on. Mr. Turschman said it may be possible but the old bridge is almost right up to the new bridge. Mr. Major said he is seeing two issues, emergency vehicles and school buses. He said when you are talking about a four month time frame you have basically made a huge dead end for a significant number of children. He said now the bus currently comes down Valley Forge. The only way to do it would be coming up Valley Forge and he said he did not know where you would turn the bus around to get it out. Somewhere there has got to be a spot designed not only for buses but for all the other people who do not read the signs. He said we have to have some place where they can safely turn around.

 

Discussion/decision regarding the appointment of Richard Troxell as the moderator and Susan Moch as the parliamentarian for the Annual Town Budget Meeting on April 4, 2007. Mr. Major made a motion to appoint Richard Troxell as moderator and Susan Moch as alternate moderator for the Annual Town Budget Meeting scheduled for April 4, 2007. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion passed Mr. Major, Mr. Bliss yes, Mr. Miller absent.

 

Discussion/decision regarding the request for $5,000 from the Saugatuck River Watershed Partnership – Sally Harold: Sally Harold said two years ago it was Mr. Bliss’s idea to create the Saugatuck River Watershed Partnership and to get the affected townsTowns in the watershed to work together to collaborate on protecting the natural resources of the watershed. She said they have been working very hard on getting involvement with the project.

 

Since February 2005 they have raised $124,000 in grants. All of the grants required that they also raise matching funds.. They have not received support from all eleven Towns that share in the watershed.

 

Ms. Harold said they would be looking at a $200,000 annual budget for the partnership. They are asking from the Towns approximately 1/8 of that. She said there are four towns making up 80% of the watershed, Easton, Weston, Redding and Westport which would be $5,000 a year and the other seven towns $1,000 a year equaling $27,000. They will try to get $100,000 in grants, $25,000 from partners involved with the watershed effort, $25,000 in donated services and goods and $25,000 from the TNC supporters. She asked that the Town renew itsthere contribution this year.  

 

Mr. Major said that it sounded like they had added a new element to it. It sounds like she’s asking for $5,000 annually. She said it would be nice to get it annual, because each time they write a grant to do a specific project they have to match it with funds. Mr. Major asked what Towns were affected by the watershed. They are Ridgefield, Bethel, Danbury, Newtown, Wilton, Redding, Easton, Weston, Westport, Norwalk and Fairfield.

 

Mr. Major said he thought she was doing a great job but here she was coming back to us when there are five towns that have done nothing. Mr. Bliss said his job was to get the money from the other Towns. In Westport, First Selectman Gordon JoseloffJoseoff supports it, whereas, his predecessor, Diane Farrell, did not support the project last year. Fairfield Ken Flatto supported it and he will follow up with the other Towns. Sally Harold said when they first started rolling they had received $25,000 grant and for that grant they needed an $11,000 match so the effort to get that match was very strong.

 

Mr. Major said if this came before him a third time and this is where the other Towns were coming in he would really have to consider whether it was appropriate or not. He said it was not a reflection on what she was doing but it was a reflection of the Tax payers of the Town of Weston’s responsibility. Ms. Harold said that Easton, Redding, Weston and Westport make up 80% of the entire watershed.

 

Mr. Bliss made a motion that we contribute to the 2006-2007 year $5,000 to the Saugatuck River Watershed Partnership. Mr. Major seconded and the motion passed Mr. Major, Mr. Bliss yes, Mr. Miller absent.

 

 

Discussion/decision regarding Weston’s legislative priorities for the 2007 Connecticut Legislative Session. Mr. Bliss said that we would like to wrap this up at our next meeting since Mr. Miller was not in attendance. He said when we get this put together he would sent a letter to Senators Freedman and McKinney and Representative Stripp.

 

Mr. BlissHe said that his priorities are 1.The Real Estate State Conveyance Tax be made permanent, or if not, renewed  renew it for two or three years. Mr. Major said he felt thatsomehow if they should makemade it so that we know by budget time whether or not it is going to happen. 2. Revising the Prevailing Wage legislation. 3. Revising Binding Arbitration. He said he would like to see us have a set of rules that are the same as the State of Connecticut.. 4. Adequate funding for the Clean Water Act.

 

Mr. Major made a motion to approve property tax refunds for a total of $4,017. 94 as set forth in the agenda. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion passed Mr. Major, Mr. Bliss yes, Mr. Miller absent.

 

Discussion/approval of the Board of Selectmen’s minutes of November 2, 2006. Mr. Major made a motion to approve the minutes of the Board of Selectmen’s minutes of November 2, 2006 as submitted. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion passed Mr. Major, Mr. Bliss yes, Mr. Miller absent.

 

Any other business to come properly before the meeting: None

 

Executive Session – Litigation At 8.27pm Mr. Major made a motion to enter into executive session. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion passed Mr. Major, Mr. Bliss yes, Mr. Miller absent.

 

ATTENDANCE:  The meeting was convened at 8:29 pm in the First Selectman’s office by Chairman Bliss to provide a status report regarding the Nunziata suit, as well as the status of attempted dispute resolution negotiations in the Fletcher Thompson dispute. In attendance were Selectman Mr. Major, Public Works Director Joe Lametta, and Town Administrator Landry. No votes were taken.

 

ADJOURN: At 9:04 pm a motion (Mr. Major, Mr. Bliss second) to adjourn executive session and reenter open session passed by 2-0 vote.

 

ADJOURNMENT: At 9:05 pm a motion (Mr. Major, Mr. Bliss second) to adjourn the meeting passed by unanimous vote.

Respectfully submitted

Judy DeVito

Administrative Assistant

Approved 12/07/0612/8/2006