Northwest Hills Council Of Governments

07/09/26

Present on Zoom: Board Chair Gordon Ridgway, Vice Chair Denise Raap, Secretary Greg LaCava, Treasurer Patrick Roy, Casey Flanagan, Jim Brinton, Magi Winslow, Meaghan Cook, Paul Harrington, Doug Thompson, Brad Bremer, Curtis Rand, Dan Jerram, Eric Epstein, Todd Arcelaschi, Tom Weik, David Barger, Henry Tirrell, and Jesse Bunce. Absent: Michael Criss, Seth Breakell, Molly Spino.

After some pushback, the Northwest Hills Coalition of Governments (NHCOG) approved a services agreement July 9 with the Northwest Resources Recovery Authority (NRRA), a public entity in charge of providing municipal solid waste services to member localities in the region.
The agreement will enable the NRRA to use the Torrington transfer station for the next 12 months and makes NHCOG responsible for employing an operator for the scale house at the transfer station. The NRRA is to reimburse NHCOG for that hire and related costs.
NHCOG will be the employer of record for the operator at the facility, which was acquired by the NRRA earlier this summer, following the state of Connecticut’s transfer of ownership of the facility in May. The Torrington City Council created the NRRA in conjunction with NHCOG in May 2025 in a climactic move capping a yearslong process prompted by the state in 2023.
Creation of the authority symbolized a pathway for municipalities in the area to enter services agreements with a publicly controlled authority for waste management and recycling services. Members of the NRRA include the towns of Salisbury, Sharon, Cornwall, Canaan/Falls Village, North Canaan, Norfolk, Goshen, Colebrook, and Torrington.
As the NRRA gets operations underway at the transfer station, some municipal officials said at the NHCOG meeting they are worried about who will be responsible for paying for the scale house operator. The NRRA is meant to refund the costs for the position “if and when funds to do so become reasonably available to the NRRA,” according to a copy of the shared services agreement obtained by The Goshen News.
“We just went through a pretty contentious budget,” said Winchester Town Manager Paul Harrington. “Where is the COG paying for it?”
NHCOG Director of Economic and Community Development Rista Malanca, who acts as a point of contact for the NRRA, reiterated that the NRRA will reimburse the NHCOG from anticipated grant funding or tipping fee revenue.
Harrington said he is concerned about the language that states “if and when funds to do so become reasonably available to NRRA, NRRA shall reimburse NHCOG for all costs and expenses incurred by NHCOG in hiring, employing, and paying the scale house operator.”
“This is saying that the NHCOG is paying for the scale house operator, and if the NRRA feel they have reasonable funds, they’ll pay it,” he said. “The way this contract is written, there is no guarantee that the NHCOG will be reimbursed for the NRRA’s employee.”
Malanca said that ideally the NRRA would handle costs of the new employee, but the agency is dealing with cash flow issues that come with being a new organization. She and New Hartford First Selectman Dan Jerram said it is the intent of the NRRA to pay its bills.
“This has been an initiative pushed forward by the NHCOG for the better part of two years here,” said Jerram, who is the NRRA’s board chair. “Paul, I understand your concern. If you want to see a review of this every 30 days when we get together, how it's going, I'm all in favor of that, but I think that we gotta get this thing going, so the western community towns that are going to be using this service have somebody at some place to take the trash.”
Burlington First Selectman Doug Thompson also balked at approval of the shared services agreement, saying he received the document at 9:30 a.m. that day, only 30 minutes prior to the NHCOG meeting. 

“I have had no time to look at it. I doubt anybody has,” Thompson said. “I find it unconscionable that we are prepared to vote on something that nobody has had the opportunity to look at.”

NHCOG’s Executive Director Rob Phillips said the NRRA Board reviewed the documents on July 7, two days prior to the NHCOG meeting, and it also was reviewed by the NHCOG’s attorney. Phillips said he, too, was not able to look at the contract due to a high meeting load.
“Because it was approved and supported by NRRA, and because it was drafted and reviewed by our legal team … these things do happen, as far as the timing of it,” Phillips said.
Thompson said it happens too often. “I for one, am concerned with the amount of time the NHCOG is spending with the NRRA. I think it is a drain on the resources for the rest of the COG,” he added.
Thompson’s comments prompted a slight delay on the vote, but members eventually approved the shared services agreement. Harrington was opposed, and Thompson abstained.
Also at the meeting, the NHCOG agreed to use grant funding to hire consultant Diversion Strategies for $112,667 to help set a vision for the growth of the NRRA. Last October, Gov. Ned Lamont announced a $350,000 grant from the state’s Sustainable Materials Management Grant Program to support the operations and expansion of the Northwest Regional Waste Authority.
Salisbury First Selectman Curtis Rand said he sat on the interviews with the consultants considered for the job, and he found Diversion Strategies to be the best suited for the 12-month contract.
“Whatever we gain that may be nestled in the NRRA will certainly reach out to all other COGs and the state, and so we're hoping that we can provide a little bit of leadership,” Rand said.
Harrington said he supported the initiative but asked if NHCOG will have an “out” in case Diversion Strategies’ services are not as advertised. He offered an amended motion to include termination clauses in the contract, as well as benchmarks for Diversion Strategies to hit, and it was approved.