Board of Selectmen Meeting September 12, 2018

Board of Selectmen Meeting September 12, 2018

Recently I requested under the Freedom of Information Act, the reimbursements and final payments made to past Director of Planning and Community Development, Jamie Rabbitt. A reimbursement request in the amount of$1,854.22 for travel expenses to attend the Congress of New Urbanism in Savannah, GA from May 15-May 19, 2018.

However, food, parking and hotel costs prior to the event were denied.

Since the Town is tax-exempt, State and Local taxes were not reimbursed.

There were denials due to lack of verification for a car rental.

There were requests for reimbursement from Hilton Head which is in an opposite direction from Savannah, GA.

It appears that Jamie Rabbitt used taxpayer funds to enhance his travel expenditures through unverifiable expenditures, never thinking that anyone would question his travel expenditures.

I would like to thank Town Manager Maria Capriola for taking the time to painstakingly review Jamie Rabbitt’s request for reimbursements and make employees accountable for their expenditures.

As a professional Town Manager, Maria Capriola has lived up to my expectations of professional management of taxpayer dollars.

With the appointment of Mike Glidden as Jamie Rabbitt’s replacement, the Town has a knowledgeable, well qualified professional that can work well with the Boards and Commissions, the Developers and the Residents.

Recently we experienced a travel nightmare on Route 167, Bushy Hill Road as the Department of Transportation resurfaced the road for several weeks during the day with extensive traffic.

Since the Chief of Police is the Public Safety Coordinator for the Town, why was Nick Boulter not included in the preliminary discussions with the State? There was a choice between doing the work at night with light traffic or during the day leading to the traffic nightmare. The choice was between having noise during the day or night and choosing to work during the day was a bad decision. It appeared that many more people were affected during the day construction than would have been during the night.

When the State decided to do the work during the day with increased traffic, the State did not foresee the need for detour signs which would have diverted some of the traffic. The planning for a significant project with a great impact to traffic was totally inept.

Since these projects will be ongoing in the future, the Town should be assured that all State projects in Simsbury should be completely vetted with the Chief of Police, Nick Boulter.

According to documents obtained from the Department of Consumer Protection, Liquor Control Commission, through an FOI request, the Red Stone Pub at 10 Jim Gallagher Way, was fined $375 for a permit violation on April 24, 2018.

According to the Code Compliance Officer for the Town, “there were numerous complaints concerning unauthorized events in the parking lot at Red Stone Pub located at 10 Jim Gallagher Way with consumption of alcohol beyond the limits of the approved liquor permit.” The Code Compliance Officer verified two occasions, August 5, 2017 and October 14, 2017 when this occurred.

I would hope that the $375 fine imposed on the Red Stone Pub would encourage the business to observe the rules and conduct his business with the appropriate permits.

On August 24, 2018 I was listening to my scanner and heard several medical issues called in to the Simsbury Dispatch in a short amount of time.

The Dispatcher tried to access the Simsbury Volunteer Ambulance with no response. The Granby and Canton Volunteer Ambulances could not respond to the call and several other Town’s were called with no results. After about ½ hour after the first call for medical attention, the Dispatcher called AMR, a private ambulance business. They accepted the call.

This is not the first time the Dispatchers had problems accessing volunteers for ambulances.

Since volunteers are in short supply for all organizations, it is time that Simsbury Board of Selectmen bring in the AMR organization to describe their business plan.

Avon uses AMR for their medical calls without any issues. They are self-sufficient and do not ask the Town for money.

The only requirements that AMR requires from the Town is to supply a building. The building used by the Simsbury Volunteer Ambulance Association is a perfect fit.

The Town Hall parking lot has an Electric Charging Station at the entrance. The town received $10,000 for the implementation of a charging station. We were told that once the money was spent, the Town would set a fee for the use of the electricity. The taxpayers of Simsbury should not be subsidizing anyone with high end electric cars.

Money was not appropriated for the Solar Farm appeal. How much money was spent and where is the expenditure reflected? The Solar Farm appears to be changing the site plan from stationary panels to moveable panels to absorb more energy from the sun. Is this a material change in the project?