Board of Selectmen: More Voting Chaos, Public Comments About Public Comments, Land Trust Mistrust, New Library Windows

07/09/24

A contractor was found to have illegally dumped material at Whist Pond Road. State police apprehended the unnamed dumper and were able to track down the contractor’s company in Torrington due to a receipt left in a bag. Carusillo expects the contractor to be fined $500. The official bid for Goshen Public Library's new windows will be published soon. Eight windows have needed replacement since 2015, with several allowing leakage during severe storms.

A town meeting for the 190 Sharon Turnpike Petition re-vote scheduled for Tuesday, July 16th was canceled. Instead, plans were announced for the petition to be addressed via a town referendum tentatively scheduled for Friday, July 19th at the Goshen Town Hall from 12-8 pm. (Note: The referendum was again rescheduled and held on August 2^nd. The referendum was to have only the yes or no petition question on it. The petition was originally a subject of the town meeting on Monday, June 17th but that vote was vacated due to residents misusing ballots.)

Selectman Scott Olson then motioned to add the Podunk Bluegrass Festival Application to the meeting’s agenda. This was unanimously approved. The application couldn’t be approved due to lack of a public announcement in newspapers. The selectmen will approve the festival next week. The 2024 Podunk Bluegrass Festival will be held at the Goshen Fairgrounds from Thursday, August 8th to Monday, August 11^th after public notice and BOS vote.

For Public Comment, Joyce Mowrey of the Goshen Land Trust requested that the selectmen notify residents that the Land Trust does not and cannot sell land, “The Land Trust has never sold land. We preserve land, that’s our job.” (Note: this question has been raised and a few have notified the GN concerning this.  GN is currently investigating this.) Cynthia Barrett, Planning and Zoning Commissioner, reported sightings of speedsters on East Hyerdale Drive and Beach Street and requested speed humps be installed to increase road safety. Judi Armstrong requested an update on the status of the Board of Education re-vote after voting irregularities were noted during June 17^th vote. Carusillo claimed he hadn’t heard anything from Attorney Stephanie Cummings of Carmody & Torrance et al, regarding the Board of Education.

07/13/24 Special Meeting

On Saturday, July 13th a Special Meeting was held to discuss and read the call for a Special Town Meeting to vote on the petition for preserving 190 Sharon Turnpike as open space. Originally intended to be voted upon on June 17^th, the new call was to hold the meeting on Tuesday, July 16^th, which was unanimously approved by the selectmen on Saturday. But the chaos surrounding this endeavor continued as the approved date was later said to be in error, according to Carusillo, and was intended to be Tuesday, July 23^rd.

07/16/24

On Tuesday, July 16th’s Board of Selectmen meeting, Olson motioned to add the call for a Special Town Meeting on Tuesday, July 23rd in the Town Hall Conference Room starting at 6 pm. This was also unanimously approved.

The meeting on the 23^rd was not intended to be for the purpose of having residents revote on the petition question. Instead, attendees would vote on whether or not to hold a town referendum vote for the petition question on Friday, August 2nd at Goshen Town Hall from 12-8 pm. According to Carusillo, this decision was made to avoid the “chaos” from the June 17^th  special town meeting.

For the First Selectman’s Report, Carusillo reported  that Camp Cochipianee is looking for a new independent contractor to serve as a custodian. Regarding the August 2^nd referendum, Carusillo  stated “Any property owner that their assessment is over $1,000 has a right to vote on this piece of land, So if you own a piece of land in town, you might not have a home here but you are a landowner, you could come vote on this land.”(Note: Any person in Goshen having $1,000.00 of taxable property is eligible) The selectmen received the completed application for the Podunk Bluegrass Festival Application. Motion to approve the festival’s application was unanimous.

Public Comment was mistakenly not listed in July 16th’s Board of Selectmen meeting agenda so Olson motioned to add public comment to the agenda. This was unanimously approved. Josephine Jones, Cynthia Barrett, and Audrey Blondin all expressed disappointment in the lack of information detailed in Board of Selectmen meeting minutes documents, especially comments made in previous public comment sections. Barrett called the lack of at least short descriptions of their comments in the minutes an “insult.” None of residents’ public comments other than Henrietta Horvay’s were detailed in July 16th’s meeting minutes. Only the names of the other commenters were listed.

07/23/24

First Selectman Aide Lucille Paige apologized  for listing on the meeting’s agenda that comments could only be made in connection to items pertinent to the agenda. “it was from an old agenda that we had way back.” She said. Carusillo reported that five masked men attempted to break into cars near 31 Milton Road around 2 am in the morning. The incident was reported to state police but Carusillo urged people to keep an eye out and attempt to record incidents such as this, if possible, to catch the perpetrators. Goshen received its second installment from (the resolving) Region 6 school district’s capital improvement account in the form of $247,538.96.

For New Business, Carusillo announced that he spoke with Goshen Town Treasurer Matthew Sweet to move funds around for a restoration project for degrading headstones in town cemeteries. Carusillo is communicating with Torrington and West Hartford monument companies to review the stones’ conditions to submit a quote.  He would rather replace historic 18^th and 19^th century stones with new ones. Selectmen Scott Olson agreed that it would be more cost effective to simply replace broken stones instead of repairing them.

In Public Comment, several more residents expressed disappointment in the lack of detail of their comments listed in the public comment section of the Board of Selectmen meeting minutes documents. Paige heard residents’ concerns and wrote a brief summary of each commenter’s  statements in the July 23rd minutes document. Michael Exstein asked about the status of the Region 20 school district’s finances following the sudden resignation of Superintendent Christopher Leone and missing funds. Carusillo claimed he’s been attending Board of Education meetings and that 11 teachers are expected to not return in the next school year with the merging of Litchfield and WAMOGO High Schools. Carusillo is meeting with Leone next week to get more answers on Region 20’s financial situation. (Note: meeting was cancelled according to a BOE member).

Affordable Housing Plan Committee Chair Lynette Miller claimed that the Goshen Land Trust (GLT) does in fact sell land, despite claims from Land Trust Member Joyce Mowrey in prior meetings that the Trust does not. According to the GLT’s website, under their About Us page, it states, “In order to achieve our mission, Goshen Land Trust seeks to preserve the following lands… In addition, the Land Trust will accept donations of property that can be sold to fund the acquisition of priority lands. Such property will be designated as “trade land” at the time of acquisition.”

07/30/24

New Business: Carusillo announced the town only received one bid to replace Goshen Public Library Windows. Jim Pescatore of the Torrington-based Jim Pescatore Home Improvement LLC submitted a bid to replace five rolling windows with picture windows and six double hung windows for a total of $22,750. A walkthrough of the library was conducted for potential bidders on Friday, July 26th but only Pescatore showed up, according to Carusillo. Selectmen Dexter Kinsella was hesitant to accept the bid at first since only one bid was submitted and requested to see competitive pricing from other companies, “I think one bid for windows doesn’t make sense to me. That’s all I’m saying.” Selectman Scott Olson suggested the board reach out to other contractors directly to make sure they’re aware of the bid. Carusillo claimed this would be “unfair” to Pescatore due to his bid having just been read to the public and other companies could submit slightly cheaper bids to acquire the project. After a brief discussion, Kinsella motioned to receive Pescatore’s bid. This was unanimously approved.

In Public Comment, Marissa Wright, owner of Wright Farm and co-author of the 190 Sharon Turnpike petition, reminded people to vote in the upcoming referendum (8/2/24). Goshen Land Trust Secretary Joyce Mowrey expressed confusion with comments made against the Trust but claimed that the Trust could purchase the 190 Sharon Turnpike property if the town decides so through the petition vote. “I understand there has to be further decisions made by the Board of Selectmen of what to do with the property if the decision is yes,” Mowrey explained. “I just want to reiterate that the Goshen Land Trust is an accredited organization. It took us two years to get accreditation through the Land Trust Alliance of Accreditation Commission.”