Public hearing closing

It was quite a meeting last night... when I left my house at 9pm, I was actually wondering if I'd get there in time to speak. ha! anyway... some thoughts...

1) I got there and the first thing I was told was the outgoing PZC Chair Patti Flynn Harris kicked off the meeting with a Freudian slip, commenting "when we approve this..." er, uh... "if we approve this...." ha! Again though, I showed up late so don't know if it's true. Nonetheless, I just had to mention it cuz it was too funny to pass by... seriously though, can anyone confirm if she said that?

2) There's been a lot of discussion about whether this proposal will be the tipping point in moving from a volunteer FD to a paid FD. And that seemed to be refuted, but we should all keep in mind that a paid FD (more precisely, two paid firemen) was on the Council's agenda just over two years ago. It disappeared without much fanfare, but it did get on the agenda once already.

3) I think of most concern to me was the fiscal impact analysis' revenue assumption for building inspection fees:

This concerned me because while the Town Manager presented this revenue of $1.16 million (with offsetting costs of approximately $100k), he didn't mention that in CT, it is basically illegal for towns to "turn a profit" in a municipal building department. In other words, building department revenues cannot exceed building department expenses... or at least that's what the Council has been told for each of the past four years whenever we've discussed the building department fees. And when I asked for clarification... perhaps I missed it, but I didn't hear anything about the law changing. So I'm still wondering... is this "million dollar windfall" for real? Or will the town approve this project, get paid these fees, then get sued by the developer and refund this $1,000,000? I don't know, but I know the Town Manager has testified with some very contradictory information.

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised though... from the continued claims that defined contribution plans don't really work for volunteers to the pool with its 40,000 annual users and $1,400 profit... I think I may need to start directing all my financial questions to our Finance Director, Patti Lynn Ryan.

4) As the clock ticked away and 2am arrived, I finally got a chance to talk. (Btw, while I was annoyed at the late hour... I don't fault PFH. It was a judgement call with good intentions... people were there and she wanted to let us speak. Unfortunately, she couldn't foresee just how long comments would take.) My early morning comments...

a) I drew attention to the flooding problems related to the 129' vs 137' floodplain elevation... including asking the PZC to ensure that no government agencies ask the town to return the $280,000 that passed thru the town on the way to remediating the collapsing aqueduct.

b) I asked if the proposal was energy independent... and keeping in mind that I was pretty groggy at this point... I think the answer was no, though the developer is looking for state and federal funding for some alternative energy projects that may alleviate their drain on the grid. And if I got this right, then this answer was unacceptable... I mean, at what point will we start taking our energy issues seriously?

c) I pointed out that this proposal was sprawl and should be rejected as presented. While there's no need for the residential, if it is included it should be above the retail and the impervious surfaces should be reduced while conservation easements should be placed on much of the land.

Again, it's a late night... so signing off with a thank you to Chiefs Cruess and Casner. I thought Mike and Jack did a really good job in compiling the information and explaining their thoughts.

Tim White