Board of Selectmen: Carusillo Opposes USA Hauling Trash Monopoly, Land Trust Gets Grants for Trails, BoE Vote Chaos Continues
06/11/24
First Selectman Todd Carusillo attended a Northwest Hills Coalition of Governments (COG) meeting wherein USA Hauling urged Northwest municipalities to opt out of a MIRA contract and instead sign a contract with them. “That would leave us with only one person controlling the whole area,” Carusillo explained. “I don’t think that’s a great idea because we won’t be able to control the tipping fees. I still believe the COG and all the 21 towns should own the [Torrington] transfer station.” Carusillo claimed that if the COG municipalities sign with USA Hauling, that the Torrington transfer station will close, its staff will lose their jobs, and local businesses will be pushed out from dumping trash at low rates. He further explained that tipping fee rates were supposed to go up to $188 per ton but Goshen and other COG municipalities are using $55 million in remediation from MIRA to lower tipping fee costs until the fund runs out. He hopes that when this fund runs out, residents will support Carusillo and the rest of the COG to take control of the Torrington transfer station. To reduce growth in trash costs Carusillo suggested the Recycling and Trash Committee contact Litchfield and Cornwall to possibly join them with food waste diversions.
Carusillo urged residents to vote yes for moving $500,000 from a STEAP grant from 190 Sharon Turnpike to 38 Torrington Road, the current location of the Public Works Department, to build a new Public Works storage facility. The town meeting to vote on this move was to be held on June 17th at the Goshen Center School cafeteria starting at 8 pm. Carusillo claimed this storage facility will help protect town equipment. Selectman Scott Olson added that the meeting will have residents vote on selling the 190 Sharon Turnpike property to the Goshen Land Trust, “People don’t have to show up, that’s not important to me. What’s important is that people are aware that the meeting is happening and they’re aware [of] what's going to be on the call.”
School District Region 6 was to have its high school class of 2024 and final graduation ceremony at the Goshen Fairgrounds on Wednesday, June 12th. This was WAMOGO Regional High School’s final graduation before transitioning into Region 20’s Lakeview High School in the 2024-2025 school year.
Republican Registrar of Voters Dawn Wilkes, Joyce Mowrey, and Board of Finance member Paul Collins suggested that the 190 Sharon Turnpike property be kept by the town until a new Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) is created. Marissa Wright, co-creator of the petition to either keep, sell, or use the 190 Sharon Turnpike property as a recreation site, urged people to protect the property’s natural resources and Goshen’s rural character, “This particular property that we are looking at has a tremendous amount of resources on it and those wetland and watershed resources are essential for flood protection and mitigation for our town, for water quality, to provide potential passive rec[creation], for wildlife as well, and maintaining our rural character.”
06/18/24
First Selectman Todd Carusillo announced that the town unanimously voted to move STEAP grant funds from 190 Sharon Turnpike to 38 Torrington Road. Antonio Damiani submitted his letter of resignation as an alternate from the Board of Fire Commissioners. The Goshen Republican Town Committee suggested Felix Sambuco fill Damiani’s vacancy. According to Carusillo, Sambuco served on the Waterbury Fire Department for 26 years and served as an Assistant Fire Chief for that department. Selectman Dexter Kinsella motioned to appoint Sambuco as an alternate on the Board of Fire Commissioners. This was unanimously approved.
Following the invalidations of both the Region 20 Board of Education vote and the 190 Sharon Turnpike petition vote on Monday, June 17th, Kinsella motioned to add the call for a new hybrid special town meeting to re-do the Board of Education vote on Thursday, June 27th, starting at 8 pm. This was unanimously approved. (Note: This date represented a conflict with the Region 20 Board of Education meeting scheduled for the same date in Morris, potentially denying incumbent candidate Emily Cole the opportunity to participate in the Town vote.)
No date for a redo vote on the 190 Sharon Turnpike petition had been set yet but Carusillo expected another town meeting for that vote will be held sometime in July. (Note: The Town meeting for the 190 Sharon Tpke Petition vote has since been scheduled for July 23rd at 8 PM. At that time it is planned to move the vote to a referendum to be held on August 2nd, with voting from Noon to 8 PM).
Goshen Land Trust Secretary Joyce Mowrey announced that the Trust received $89,744 from a Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) Trails Grant to develop two accessible trails in Goshen. The Trust was awarded further with $11,444 from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Community Challenge Grant. This combined grant total of $101,188 will be used to improve the StoryWalk Trail at Camp Cochipianee and John Ross Accessible Loop Trail on Pie Hill Road. Improvements to the StorSWalk Trail include renovating a nearby parking lot and making it handicap accessible, constructing a 6’ by 12’ deck with benches along Dog Pond, installing eight benches along the trail, and installing eight low profile, single pedestal signs for travelers to read short picture books from. Improvements to the John Ross Accessible Loop Trail include developing a small handicap accessible parking lot, installing a boardwalk and benches, installing four interpretive nature signs along the trail with QR codes to maps, historical and environmental information, and a scavenger hunt game. Mowrey requested the Selectman help provide permits for the dock and boardwalk, organized an advisory committee composed of Recreation, Library, and Public Works Departments members to review the trails’ plan, provide available building materials, and organize a plan of continued maintenance for the trails. There is no set timeline for these projects yet. Carusillo wants to see details from the grants before the town gets involved with the projects.
Pie Hill Marsh
06/25/24
First Selectman Todd Carusillo reminded residents that on Thursday, June 27th, Goshen was to hold a hybrid special town meeting to re-do a vote for a Region 20 Board of Education member starting at 8 pm. However, this meeting was later “adjourned”. In a subsequent conversation with The Goshen News, Carusillo explained that 5 individuals had filed protests of the June 17th vote and that the matter was now in the hands of State elections officials. (To date there is no record on the SEEC website of a protest filing from Goshen according to the eCrisis Search). Regarding the scheduling conflict of the revote with the Board of Education meeting for June 27th, Carusillo announced that he took full responsibility. “Just to let everybody know, I take full responsibility on not checking …they have a little sheet up on the top of the board out in the hallway with the dates… I made the call last Monday and sent it over to Chip [Roraback], our town attorney, for approval. I did not know that it was a 27 vote until Tuesday morning when I spoke with Emily Cole that she had a conflict.” He assured residents that a conflict like this would not happen again but noted that the selectmen were prepared to have a special meeting on Friday, June 21st, to consider having a town vote on Saturday, June 29th at 10 am. (This is disputed in article titled “Candidates Speak out on Botched BOE Election”.) This date was not chosen since the Board of Ed had already changed their meeting date and location to earlier on the 27th at Goshen instead of Morris. Selectman Scott Olson later added that he did not have any knowledge about a conflicting Board of Ed meeting when the call for the new special town meeting was created and said he should have questioned the meeting date and time last week.
Carusillo attended the Board of Ed meeting on Monday, June 24th and reported that the Region 20 school budget is short $3 million. He expressed concern that these missing funds could end up costing Goshen, “Our budget went from $8.2 million for the school down to $7.5 [million], now it’s gonna’–unless they can clarify this, are the numbers going to go back up? I hope to God it doesn’t go up because in my eyes, if it does go back up to $8.2 or $8.3 million, I’m going to think this merger was a big waste of time for everybody because it didn't really save us any money. It’s costing us money now because the Board of Ed is going to have to hire a consultant to go through all this…”
Later Tuesday night, Region 20 Board of Education Chairperson Emily Cole announced that Superintendent Christopher Leone resigned from his position, the day after the missing funds were identified. Assistant Superintendent Kristen Della Volpe will serve as Region 20’s interim superintendent while the school district looks for a replacement for Leone. (Note: The Region 20 Budget shortfall was later estimated to be $1.7 million, rather than $3 million, and was expected to drop below $1 million once funds from various grants were applied.)
For appointments, Scott Olson motioned to appoint Felix Sambuco as an alternate on the Board of Fire Commissioners. This was unanimously approved. His appointment was delayed a week to provide time for other residents to apply for the position if interested. No one else sent correspondence of interest in the position besides Sambuco.
Olson then motioned to add the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival to the meeting’s agenda. This was unanimously approved. Carusillo reported that the festival has fulfilled their application and received approval from state police, emergency services, and sanitation. Selectman Dexter Kinsella motioned to receive and accept the application. This was also unanimously approved. The festival was expected to receive final approval at next week’s Board of Selectmen meeting. The 2024 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival will be held at the Goshen Fairgrounds from Friday, July 26th to Sunday, July 28th. A pre-festival tastings and farm market day will additionally be held at the Fairgrounds on Thursday, July 25th. Tickets for the festival cost $65-$250.
Olson further detailed that the Selectmen are considering hosting the 190 Sharon Turnpike Petition revote on Tuesday, July 16th at 8 pm. The call still needs to be written and approved by the town attorney. Later, in Public Comment, Goshen Public Library Aide Thy Ho asked for an update regarding the “hostile work environment” at the library. Library Board Clerk Lee Kennedy has since resigned along with one other, unidentified employee, due to the “hostile work environment”. Carusillo said he spoke with the individual causing issues and expects Library Board of Directors meetings to be less chaotic from now on. (Note: Carusillo did not identity individual, however, Lynette Miller was cited by fellow Library Board Members and Library Staff members as the person in question).
07/02/24
Roadside mowing in town has begun. Most of North Goshen’s roads have already been mowed with West Goshen and Woodridge Lake expected to be mowed next. First Selectman Todd Carusillo reported that someone illegally dumped trash near Whist Pond Road. The trash has since been cleaned up by the Public Works Department. Anyone who has knowledge of who the perpetrator is or recording of the trash dumping is requested to call Carusillo’s office. Severe rainstorms last week caused 95% of town residents to lose power; Town Hall lost power until noon on Thursday. Despite the loss of power, no damage occurred in the Town of Goshen.
Carusillo reported that he and former member of the Broadband Advisory Committee Gary Stango applied for and received four grants. One is a $25,000 grant that will help cover Emergency Operations Center (EOC) upgrade costs and three other grants that total almost $10,000.
Regarding the sudden cancellation of the Board of Education Town Meeting revote scheduled for last Thursday, Carusillo said he received multiple pieces of correspondence about the event but was advised by the town attorney to not talk about it. “They’re not going to have an opinion if the vote stands or we’re gonna’ have another vote,” Carusillo reported. “That’s all I can tell you.” Carusillo later suggested that due to the high turnout of the original Board of Education vote, the town may host a referendum instead to allow people to come and vote between 12 and 8 pm and to prevent registrars from being overwhelmed. Despite these issues, Goshen will still have another town meeting on Tuesday, July 23rd at 8 pm to conduct a 190 Sharon Turnpike Petition revote, at which time it will be changed to a referendum on August 2nd. Selectman Dexter Kinsella then motioned to approve the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival’s application. This was unanimously approved.
