Torrington Mayor Molly Spino Discusses City Goals

Torrington Mayor Molly Spino recently sat down with The Goshen News Publisher Leya Edison, talking about her role as mayor and the goals she hopes to accomplish.

GN: You’ve been in office since Dec. 1. What did you find when you first took office?

Spino: “A lot of unfinished projects. There were a lot of things that Elinor [Carbone] was working on that I jumped in to take over. It’s been a lot of trying to wrap my head around what's been going on. I spent a lot of time with our economic development department working on different projects and events.”

GN: I know that the president has targeted Democratic states, Connecticut being one of them, to suspend all federal funds. How has that impacted Torrington?

Spino: “Torrington receives zero in federal funding because we don't have enough of a population. Federally it hasn't affected us, but different boards that I sit on, we're noticing an impact. The Northwest Regional Workforce Board, we had our annual meeting yesterday and that was one of the topics that was brought up was the reduction in federal funding.”

GN: I know that you're working to increase businesses in Torrington. Do you have a specific plan on how you're going to accomplish that?

Spino: “With our economic development department, we've been doing a lot of outreaches to different businesses. We put proposals together. We have a lot of different vacant land, vacant spots in Torrington that we're trying to fill. We've met with different developers throughout the region that are very interested in coming to Torrington. Some of them are in the process of doing sales contracts with the current owners of these properties. A lot of it is confidential until it's complete, but we are working on it and quite a few of these parcels that you see vacant in Torrington, we're getting some traction and movement on.”

GN: The town have boarded up businesses on Main Street. Are they included in that development?

Spino: “Well, I'll say Main Street, other than the Yankee Peddler, we're full downtown. Just about every spot is leased. Matt Cipriano, who owns Sasso's Pizza, bought the Allen Building that the Rovezzi’s had owned. So, he's been doing a lot of renovations there and filling it with businesses. Nutmeg Fudge, for example, moved from across the street in the old Reibman's building and they moved over to Matt's building now. And now that vacant building where Nutmeg Fudge was, was just leased last week. Right next to Geppetto's, that's been empty for a long time. I believe it was O'Connor's Pub before, that's been leased. And right next to it where Tommy's Bicycles was for decades, that's been leased now too. So, there's not too many spots left downtown, which is great.”

GN: In one of your last councilman meetings, a lot of discussion centered around contracts for trash and recycling. Talk to me about those two contracts. Is USA doing both? 

Spino: “It's the same contract for trash and recycling. And right now, that is just our tipping fees, our disposal. It's not our curb pickup. That's a separate contract altogether that will be negotiated next year. This contract that we just extended was our first extension to the contract. We had one year left on it, but after meeting with USA, they offered to reduce our tip fees for this previous year, meaning that we were getting reimbursement back, which we did. And then our tip fees going forward were going to be less than our current contract had. So, it was a cost savings for the City of Torrington.”

GN: Your contract next year is for recycling pickup on residences. Is that what you're talking about?

Spino: “Next year is the curbside pickup. This is the disposal.”

GN: About notifying voters and citizens about what important town meetings are coming up that require their notification, how do you do that? 

Spino: “Everything is posted on our website. I post the agendas on my social media page as soon as the agendas are available, as well as the Zoom links to the meeting. If somebody can't attend in person, they can watch it online. All of our public hearings, not only do they go in the paper, but we also send out a blast through Everbridge. Whoever signs up for that, they will get notification of any meetings and other things. We use Everbridge for other things too. Road closures, if there's an emergency, we use it. Dog licensing, we sent one out for that. When I first took office, I want to say we had around 8,000 to 9,000 users and I believe we're close to 15,000.”

GN: The Goshen News wants to help (with) notification. Either in the next upcoming edition or the one following, we plan to have a half page of all the towns on our distribution list, and we will print the town website. 

 Spino: “We did launch a new website back in December and I feel like it's a little bit easier to use. It still needs quite a bit of updating, but they can always contact our city clerk's office at (860)-489-2236.”

GN: Is there anything else you would like to share with the readers?

Spino: “I don't think people realize the amount of work that goes into this job. It is a 24/7, 365-day job. I have an amazing team here in City Hall and throughout the city. Our police, our fire, our street department, everybody's wonderful. It's a very strong team. We all have the same vision. Everybody's very happy and motivated and we're working as fast as we can to get as much done as we can.”