Residents of Summerfield Garden are concerned about the use of city-owned property for parking of school busses.
As is my custom and reason I created this blog, I comment on articles in the news directly with my thoughts and without filter. Given the dynamic nature of data available on the web, I try to go beyond that regarding this news-story. The BOA have a public portion component at the start of their regular monthly meetings. During the 2009/Feb/11 meeting (minutes at City website) the residents of Summerfield Gardens raised concerns over what would become of nearby City property. There was also a community activist who recorded video for two of the speakers, and uploaded it to youtube. (Video 1, Video 2).
I have opinions on the comments recorded in the meeting's minutes, spoken in the video, and writen in the caption/info component entered for the videos by username sheltonpulse (which is Irving Steiner of the WeR1 organization). I will refrain from making those here as there isn't enough space, and will instead try and contain myself to the newspaper article.
I encourage readers to go to the CtPost article as they are the content creator of the article and have methods for readers to comment on their articles within their website. I cut/paste with my comments under right of fair-use for public education as Chairman of the Conservation Commission.
http://www.connpost.com/ci_11717245
Condo residents angry over bus plan
By Kate RamunniSTAFF WRITER
Posted: 02/16/2009 06:24:40 PM EST
SHELTON -- It began late last year when residents of Summerfield Garden condominiums on Constitution Boulevard began to see marks in the road and a driveway being forged into the nearby city-owned Wiacek property.
++ The Wiacek property is located between Constitution Boulevard and Meadow Street, adjacent to the open space set-aside acquired by Shelton during the subdivision of land into the Summerfield Garden condos. The CC advocated to the BOA during a powerpoint presentation at their 2004/Jan/7 meeting that the Wiacek farm along with two other parcels in the City be acquired for various reasonings. The case made by the CC for the Wiacek property begins on p.7 of the above link.++
They were even more upset to learn the land the city took by eminent domain and later bought for open space several years ago could end up being a parking lot for the city's school buses.
++ The BOA agreed with the CC thoughts presented to them. The BOA authorized the Mayor to negotiate with the 3 property owners to purchase them. Clearly in the CC presentation to acquire these open spaces was the possibility for use by the City beyond it's current state of undeveloped agricultural land. This included possibly trails for passive recreation, sports fields for active recreation, preservation of streetscape to retain a natural landscaped rural character atmosphere, further environmental enhancement via accumulation or compilation to a greenway corridor, and future municipal uses which included enhancements for complementing the existing school and/or teaching environments. The focus for much of the potential uses of the Wiacek property was its central location in the community and proximity to the already existing campus of the SHS and SIS. At the end of our BOA presentation, in the presence of several people, the Wiacek owner stated that he would not sell and the only way the City would get his property was eminent domain. The City attempted negotiation over the subsequent months, but could not do so to an amicable resolution. The BOA on 2004/Sep/30 authorized bonding in the amount of $500k. Important to note in the above link's minutes regarding motion for bonding funding $500k of value: "for the acquisition of land in the City of Shelton for the purpose of open space preservation" Next motion at the above meeting was to enter eminent domain prodeedings on a piece of the land aka "Wiacek Farm Estates", a recently approved subdivision map for apx 24 lots referred to when legally describing the taken area of apx 20 building lots. The amount of compensation was $2.5million for 39.7 acres (apx. $63k/acre, or apx.$125k/unimproved building lot) with funding coming from the Capital Project Fund Account (see p.4 of the minutes). Important to note in this eminent domain motion was "Said taking is for City Open Space and recreational purposes consistent with such open space " The court has since found that the City was in the right to use eminent domain (I testified in the case) but has yet to render a decision as to value. I understand that the funds the City has forwarded ($2.5million) still remain in escrow. To clarify the article: The City purchased the property as open space and completed the acquisition by eminent domain proceedings. Despite the CC promotion for mixed use, the BOA motion states no use other than recreational purposes associated with it being open space. +++
Speaking with Mayor Mark A. Lauretti recently, Summerfield Gardens Association president Diane Alterio said she made it clear those plans wouldn't fly with the residents. She also spoke at the Board of Aldermen meeting last Thursday. "We wouldn't tolerate such a thing in our residential neighborhood," Alterio told the board. "It would hurt our property values."
+++ I understand the neighborhood concerns over what currently exists and what may change in the future, but this neighborhood will change dramatically from it's feeling of secluded cul-de-sac. It's access entrance is from Constitution Boulevard, a future arterial road that will connect to the White Hills area of town as shown in many City planning maps. Traffic, noise and light pollution will increase when this road is pursued, and any substantial residential growth in the City's north section of town will cause the road's build-out sooner rather than later. That is a reality which I feel not everyone in this neighborhood (nor the nearby Old Dairy Estates) appreciates. +++
Those plans won't be implemented in the immediate future, Lauretti said, but could be down the line. "It's only talk" at this point," Lauretti said Monday. "It's not necessarily going to happen, and if and when the time comes we will let them know about it so they can voice their opposition." What will happen soon is the area will be open for overflow parking for the nearby baseball and soccer fields, Lauretti said.
++ The Mayor is correct in that there had been "talk" from his office regarding the buses being located on the Wiacek parcel. The school buses were located at a leased lot on River Road, and the City offered a City-owned parcel for overnighting the vehicles which would have reduced the contract fee charged the BOEd for school transport services. (apx.$100k). The City prepared a parcel on Riverdale Avenue near the sewer treatment plant downtown, but contamination issues arose that caused a return to the private lot on River Rd. The BOEd contracts for the transport services, and the City had promised them to find a location - which apparently led to the idea of using the Wiacek parcel. The Mayor informally mentioned this concept and asked if there were any restrictions for use of the land during a meeting I had with him in his office on 2008/Sep/5, the results of which I emailed to the CC members and the public could read on our google group. The Mayor was exploring the option of locating buses on the City owned Wiacek parcel. I told him that there is no deed restriction on the City's use of this land that I am aware of, but intentions and representations to the public were made as evidenced during the 2004/Sep/30 BOA mtg. The CC has not been asked to comment on any application for development to the parcel by the City, either for bus parking or for vehicle parking to access the school campus' sports fields. If the property were used for active or passive recreation (sports fields or trails), there would be a need for parking. Thus in my personal opinion, parking for better access to sports fields is an appropriate use of open space when it is associated with open space use for active recreation. There is significant drainage issues on the property that has plauged the upper ball fields for years. Any use of the site that causes disturbance to topography or creation of impervious surfaces, should go through a review process from first the IWC and secondly the PZC. No applications to either agency have occured to my knowledge. +++
"There is a consistent problem with parking there and they know about that," Lauretti said. The marks the residents saw in the road were put there when city officials called in Call Before You Dig, a nonprofit organization that by law must be notified before any excavation is done on a property. Someone from CBYD will go out and mark what utilities run on the property free of charge in order that they not be disturbed during the work.
+++ Again, I have no knowledge of any application for use to a City agency. This should be done, even with the fact that the City owns the parcel. +++
The city was bringing in wood chips to the property to prepare it for parking, Lauretti said, and had to cross a section of the Iroquois Pipeline to do so. "That's why there were markings in the road," he said.
+++ Actually, anytime you have excavation on any land you must execute a CBYD (call before you dig) action. Simply depositing materials onto a site doesn't warrant a CBYD, excavation does. Further, I'm no engineer, but organic material such as wood chips does not make an ideal base material for a parking area. If there is a wet soil area that requires preparation for parking use, it is likely a wetlands and requires an application by the City to the IWC. +++
The traffic from the games is bad enough, one Summerfield resident said; to put a school bus lot there would only make it worse. "When there is a game we have some traffic constriction," said Judith Falango, a Summerfield resident. "If you have buses going there every day, it will get really heavy."
"If you have 58 school buses and [drivers'] own cars going in there, you're talking about 232 cars on the road each day," said Chris Macri, which is more than the total number of people living at Summerfield, where Macri resides. Add to that the approximately 100 Summerfield residents who work, Macri said, and you have a traffic nightmare.
+++ As stated earlier, the feeling of a quiet cul-de-sac in the form of Constitution Boulevard terminating where it does now, is temporary. More traffic and congestion is guaranteed to occur at that location at some point, and any purchaser of property in that area should have been made aware of such by their real-estate agent or via simple search of City records and plans +++
But if the city needs the space to park the buses, it will, Lauretti said. "It is city-owned property," he said. When the buses were parked on River Road, it cost the Board of Education $100,000 a year in lease fees, he said. A city-owned lot on Riverdale Avenue is being readied for the buses, but fears of contamination surfaced there at the beginning of the school year because of soil dumped there, forcing the buses back to the privately owned River Road site.
+++ On this I disagree. The CC advocated and advised for the parcels mixed use to the community. Despite this, the BOA voted for taking and funding the property acquisition cost solely under the concept of open space, a poorly thought thru decision in my opinion. Simply creating parking lots for non open space purposes is now contrary to the BOA intentions. Further, the Mayor's statement has an air of presumption that the only alternative spot to River Rd or Riverdale Ave is this location. Just because the City owns a property, doesn't give it the right to do with it as it pleases. Alternatively, I would submit that their are numerous parking areas where the bus fleet could be more intimately located - the schools themselves. This would be more efficient as a geo-disbursed resource rather than a fixed root-tree layout of resources(currently being followed due to emination of equipment from extreme southern end of town) or a spoke-wheel style layout (if busses were to eminate from a central spot such as Wiacek outward to where they were actually used). It is done in numerous communities, and can be done in Shelton. +++
There are no plans now to park the buses on the Wiacek property, Lauretti said, but if there are, "we will be sure to let them know."
+++ Again, there are no plans for buses that I'm aware of, but there are plans to alter part of the overall parcel's use thru the Mayor's own admission regarding woodchips and CBYD actions. The CC advocated for such mixed use activity, but the BOA didn't clearly state that they desired that intention to be followed, and only stated a open space use as reason for acquiring the land. Not being forthright and transparent in goals, even as activities have taken place upon this land and there has been no discussion about it among agencies that should review it, is a bad sign. I am not for or against use of this land in ways that enhance the education campus until I have seen a presentation. To attempt these actions in a clandestine manner is sneaky, a term I purposely use to show such manner of action is not building confidence that the outcome will be positive for the community. Communication of plans or goals WILL make for a better outcome. +++
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Millings for RecPath
The community of Shelton has a long held vision to see completion of a Recreation Path (firm surfaced, hcp accessible, 8ft wide walking path) from Pine Lake near Wheeler Street and Rte108, all the way to Huntington Center.
Back in 2008, there was a repaving project of Rte8 done by the State. The CC and Trails Committee members had expressed numerous times about the need to obtain millings from repaving projects in our area. When used with filter fabric to keep soil and millings separate to cut down on vegetation growth, they can be used as a base material for the RecPath.
Returning home late from work (1am from Derby on Rte8), I followed a dump truck taking millings off the Rte8 ConstBlvd exit and making a right turn. Knowing the City's interest in obtaining these millings, I followed the truck to see why they were heading into downtown Shelton. Having not been communicated to from the Mayor's office that the City had been able to obtain the millings from the State, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were being deposited at the lot next to the wastewater treatment plant, and the pile was VERY large.
I subsequently heard that the millings had been used to level the lot where they were deposited from the state contractor, in preparation for parking school buses there (which generated its own controversy). Still, I was surprised when there were no millings left over. Now it seems they went somewhere else. (see below story1)
After that loss of materials to what I thought at the time was simply another City project in the form of leveling the bus parking area, Huntington Street went thru a local paving project (fall 2008) where I discovered that the City Engineer contracted the millings to the contractor rather than to the City. I expressed disappointment to the Mayor directly on that loss, and thought that after the Rte8 project this would have been different. He expressed surprise and promised to follow up so it wouldn't happen again.
The City of Shelton has several areas that could use these road millings as base material for the RecPath. Approvals are in place from the BOA and the PZC and IWC to do such work. Yet public materials were not being retained or utilized for this RecPath. To better communicate that with the City staff and the public, I created a google map that has clickable areas to determine length and plan use of City forces or outside contractors. (see below embeded map) The City continues to not make the best and broadest use of it's GIS (Geographic Information System) software to plan and communicate these types of projects with City staff, so I turn to using these publicly accessible tools.
View Larger Map
To now learn that materials which could have been used as a base material for the RecPath, a project on the books for 10yrs of which everyone is aware, are instead diverted to a private organization's parking area is a sad reflection on the administrations otherwise supportive actions over the years.
The RecPath has nearly 3/4 of a mile out of it's entire design length ready to make use of these types of materials from State as well as City paving projects. In fact, a 3/4 mile section was completed by a City sub-contractor this fall, which meant that at the time of the Rte8 milling project there was 1.5 miles of RecPath ready for base materials such as millings. To have given away City property to private entities or contractors, shows poor communication of the administration's goals as it relates to long-term capital projects, and poor management of City resources.
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/02/19/news/valley/a1_--_asphalt.txt
Thursday, February 19, 2009 6:22 AM EST
By Michelle Tuccitto Sullo, Naugatuck Valley Bureau Chief
SHELTON — The Police Department’s detective division is investigating whether there was any criminal wrongdoing last summer when city workers were told to take asphalt millings from Route 8 to an American Legion property in the middle of the night.
The millings were later used to resurface the legion’s parking lot.
Detective Sgt. Kevin Ahern said this week he is not sure when the investigation will conclude. “We have the reports and are in the process of reviewing them and conducting interviews,” Ahern said.
State workers had milled Route 8 in preparation for repaving it. Those millings, or ground up old asphalt, were being stored in piles in Shelton, according to police.
Police released initial reports by Officer Edward Dobbins on the July 17-18 incident this week. According to the reports, the state resurfaced Route 8 in Shelton, and loads of asphalt millings from the project were put on city property off Riverdale Avenue. The millings were to be used to resurface a lot for city school buses once some contaminated soil at that location was removed, the report shows.
According to the report, a city worker told police that city employees were directed to move some of the millings to the American Legion parking lot, and alleged it was done at the direction of Mayor Mark Lauretti, who frequents the club.
Dobbins reported that he saw more than 20 newly placed piles of asphalt millings at the American Legion Sutter-Terlizzi Post 16 Bridgeport Avenue lot on July 21, and then saw they had been spread when he returned July 26.
A resident called police and reported hearing “gunshots” at 12:45 a.m. July 18, though police later determined it was the sound of dump truck tailgates slamming shut at the American Legion, the report shows. Police had seen a city dump truck at 2 a.m., and followed it to the legion property, the report shows.
In the report, Dobbins wrote that he was contacted by various members of the city’s Highway Department, who “wished to remain anonymous in fear of retaliation by city officials.”“They confirmed that the asphalt millings hauling detail was wrong, and that several union members refused to participate, but those who did were told to not talk about it,” the report states.
Some city workers allegedly told police truckloads of contaminated soil from a pile at the sewage plant may have been dumped at the American Legion to level the area, prior to the millings being applied, the report shows.
“At this time, it appears that city officials utilized city workers and city equipment for services for a private purpose,” Dobbins wrote in the report, dated Oct. 20.
According to Ahern, Police Chief Joel Hurliman told detectives to investigate.
This week, Lauretti said he directed city workers to move the asphalt millings, which the city got from the state. According to Lauretti, some millings were spread at a bus yard and some went to the American Legion. Lauretti said he wasn’t sure if city workers were involved in spreading the millings at the American Legion, or just in moving them there.
Lauretti said he was unaware of any police investigation.
Kevin Nursick, a state Department of Transportation spokesman, said the state typically offers unneeded asphalt millings from road projects to municipalities for free. Shelton had requested about 1,900 cubic yards of asphalt millings, and the state provided them to the city, and delivered them to an area near the city’s sewage treatment plant, according to Nursick.
Once a city takes them, they belong to the city, he said. If a community isn’t interested in the millings, the state goes out to bid and tries to sell the millings to private companies, Nursick said. The millings typically fetch between $1 and $2 per cubic yard.
Alphonse Sabetta, an adjutant with the American Legion Post 16, said it is his understanding that someone from the Legion spoke with someone from the DOT about getting millings for the legion’s lot. Sabetta said this week it was “news to me” that there is a police investigation.
According to Sabetta, Lauretti belongs to the Sons of the American Legion because his late father, John Lauretti, was an Iwo Jima survivor and Marine Corps veteran.
Nursick said the DOT was contacted by someone from the Legion post about millings, but the DOT’s response was that it doesn’t deal directly with any public or private entities when it comes to obtaining millings.
Board of Aldermen President John Anglace, a member of the American Legion, said what to do with asphalt millings would be an administrative matter for the city, not something that required a vote from aldermen.
“Several aldermen are members of the American Legion, and we are aware the city has helped out the American Legion,” Anglace said. “Does anyone doubt that they aren’t worth helping out? The American Legion did enough for us, and they don’t need to be harassed. I wish the police would do something like catch more speeders.”
Colleen Ezzo, a union spokeswoman and field organizer, said Wednesday she consulted with union leadership on the issue.“No one is willing to say what they’ve seen or done,” Ezzo said. “They are really concerned about making a public statement on this issue at this time. Since the American Legion is a nonprofit, they don’t want to hurt that group’s intentions by bringing up this issue.”
+++++++
Next is the CtPost article on investigation findings.
http://www.connpost.com/ci_11775165
No charges in Shelton asphalt case
Police probe clears Shelton mayor
By Kate RamunniStaff writer
Posted: 02/24/2009 04:16:12 PM EST
SHELTON -- Mayor Mark A. Lauretti did nothing wrong when he directed Highway Department employees to work night shifts to bring asphalt millings to the American Legion, a police investigation has determined.
"We find no probable cause for any arrest or any wrongdoings," Shelton Police Department spokesman Sgt. Kevin Ahern said.
Detectives interviewed a number of people, Ahern said, including state Department of Transportation officials, city officials and members of the American Legion.
"No one benefited from [the deliveries] except for the organization itself," Ahern said. "No one person benefited."
Police Chief Joel Hurliman recently directed detectives to investigate after Officer Edward Dobbins submitted a report of his findings of the situation from last summer.
Then, Lauretti ordered Highway Department employees to work two night shifts July 17 and 18 to haul the millings from under the Route 8 bridge downtown to the Legion on Old Bridgeport Avenue.
At the time the DOT was paving the highway, and it gave the city the millings -- the asphalt scrapings collected while preparing the road for paving. The city used the bulk of the millings to resurface the Riverdale Avenue lot where the school buses are parked and gave the rest to the American Legion, to which Lauretti belongs.
Several Parks and Recreation Department and Highway Department employees approached Dobbins to report that the millings were being brought to the Legion in the overnight hours in a clandestine operation at Lauretti's direction.
"The work was done at night because that's when the state was doing the milling on Route 8," Ahern said. The Route 8 work, he said, "coincides with what the Highway Department worked for those two nights." Giving the materials to the American Legion is no different from the city helping out any other civic, nonprofit organization, Ahern said.
"It's what we would term an "in-kind" service," he said, "where the city provides something to an organization that is a nonprofit group like Little League or Pop Warner." The problems at the American Legion's paring lot were well known, Ahern said.
"When it rained, it became muddy and hard for cars to get through there," he said.
Lauretti said helping the American Legion has been something the city has tried to do for years. For example, in 2005, the Board of Aldermen waived charging the organization building fees when it renovated its facility, he said.
"This is not a social club -- it's far from a social club," he said. "This is a civic-minded, nonprofit organization that has done things like sponsore baseball teams.
"How do people think those flags get on the graves on Memorial Day?" he said. "They sponsor oratorical contests, send boys to Boys State, offer scholarships, the list goes on and on. And if for nothing else, they went into foreign lands and served our country. We have always tried to help them where we could."
Lauretti was philosophical about the latest investigation into his actions. "This has been going on for 18 years as it pertains to me, and at the end of the day it speaks for itself" he said. "I'm just sorry the American Legion guys got dragged into it."
Back in 2008, there was a repaving project of Rte8 done by the State. The CC and Trails Committee members had expressed numerous times about the need to obtain millings from repaving projects in our area. When used with filter fabric to keep soil and millings separate to cut down on vegetation growth, they can be used as a base material for the RecPath.
Returning home late from work (1am from Derby on Rte8), I followed a dump truck taking millings off the Rte8 ConstBlvd exit and making a right turn. Knowing the City's interest in obtaining these millings, I followed the truck to see why they were heading into downtown Shelton. Having not been communicated to from the Mayor's office that the City had been able to obtain the millings from the State, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were being deposited at the lot next to the wastewater treatment plant, and the pile was VERY large.
I subsequently heard that the millings had been used to level the lot where they were deposited from the state contractor, in preparation for parking school buses there (which generated its own controversy). Still, I was surprised when there were no millings left over. Now it seems they went somewhere else. (see below story1)
After that loss of materials to what I thought at the time was simply another City project in the form of leveling the bus parking area, Huntington Street went thru a local paving project (fall 2008) where I discovered that the City Engineer contracted the millings to the contractor rather than to the City. I expressed disappointment to the Mayor directly on that loss, and thought that after the Rte8 project this would have been different. He expressed surprise and promised to follow up so it wouldn't happen again.
The City of Shelton has several areas that could use these road millings as base material for the RecPath. Approvals are in place from the BOA and the PZC and IWC to do such work. Yet public materials were not being retained or utilized for this RecPath. To better communicate that with the City staff and the public, I created a google map that has clickable areas to determine length and plan use of City forces or outside contractors. (see below embeded map) The City continues to not make the best and broadest use of it's GIS (Geographic Information System) software to plan and communicate these types of projects with City staff, so I turn to using these publicly accessible tools.
View Larger Map
To now learn that materials which could have been used as a base material for the RecPath, a project on the books for 10yrs of which everyone is aware, are instead diverted to a private organization's parking area is a sad reflection on the administrations otherwise supportive actions over the years.
The RecPath has nearly 3/4 of a mile out of it's entire design length ready to make use of these types of materials from State as well as City paving projects. In fact, a 3/4 mile section was completed by a City sub-contractor this fall, which meant that at the time of the Rte8 milling project there was 1.5 miles of RecPath ready for base materials such as millings. To have given away City property to private entities or contractors, shows poor communication of the administration's goals as it relates to long-term capital projects, and poor management of City resources.
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/02/19/news/valley/a1_--_asphalt.txt
Thursday, February 19, 2009 6:22 AM EST
By Michelle Tuccitto Sullo, Naugatuck Valley Bureau Chief
SHELTON — The Police Department’s detective division is investigating whether there was any criminal wrongdoing last summer when city workers were told to take asphalt millings from Route 8 to an American Legion property in the middle of the night.
The millings were later used to resurface the legion’s parking lot.
Detective Sgt. Kevin Ahern said this week he is not sure when the investigation will conclude. “We have the reports and are in the process of reviewing them and conducting interviews,” Ahern said.
State workers had milled Route 8 in preparation for repaving it. Those millings, or ground up old asphalt, were being stored in piles in Shelton, according to police.
Police released initial reports by Officer Edward Dobbins on the July 17-18 incident this week. According to the reports, the state resurfaced Route 8 in Shelton, and loads of asphalt millings from the project were put on city property off Riverdale Avenue. The millings were to be used to resurface a lot for city school buses once some contaminated soil at that location was removed, the report shows.
According to the report, a city worker told police that city employees were directed to move some of the millings to the American Legion parking lot, and alleged it was done at the direction of Mayor Mark Lauretti, who frequents the club.
Dobbins reported that he saw more than 20 newly placed piles of asphalt millings at the American Legion Sutter-Terlizzi Post 16 Bridgeport Avenue lot on July 21, and then saw they had been spread when he returned July 26.
A resident called police and reported hearing “gunshots” at 12:45 a.m. July 18, though police later determined it was the sound of dump truck tailgates slamming shut at the American Legion, the report shows. Police had seen a city dump truck at 2 a.m., and followed it to the legion property, the report shows.
In the report, Dobbins wrote that he was contacted by various members of the city’s Highway Department, who “wished to remain anonymous in fear of retaliation by city officials.”“They confirmed that the asphalt millings hauling detail was wrong, and that several union members refused to participate, but those who did were told to not talk about it,” the report states.
Some city workers allegedly told police truckloads of contaminated soil from a pile at the sewage plant may have been dumped at the American Legion to level the area, prior to the millings being applied, the report shows.
“At this time, it appears that city officials utilized city workers and city equipment for services for a private purpose,” Dobbins wrote in the report, dated Oct. 20.
According to Ahern, Police Chief Joel Hurliman told detectives to investigate.
This week, Lauretti said he directed city workers to move the asphalt millings, which the city got from the state. According to Lauretti, some millings were spread at a bus yard and some went to the American Legion. Lauretti said he wasn’t sure if city workers were involved in spreading the millings at the American Legion, or just in moving them there.
Lauretti said he was unaware of any police investigation.
Kevin Nursick, a state Department of Transportation spokesman, said the state typically offers unneeded asphalt millings from road projects to municipalities for free. Shelton had requested about 1,900 cubic yards of asphalt millings, and the state provided them to the city, and delivered them to an area near the city’s sewage treatment plant, according to Nursick.
Once a city takes them, they belong to the city, he said. If a community isn’t interested in the millings, the state goes out to bid and tries to sell the millings to private companies, Nursick said. The millings typically fetch between $1 and $2 per cubic yard.
Alphonse Sabetta, an adjutant with the American Legion Post 16, said it is his understanding that someone from the Legion spoke with someone from the DOT about getting millings for the legion’s lot. Sabetta said this week it was “news to me” that there is a police investigation.
According to Sabetta, Lauretti belongs to the Sons of the American Legion because his late father, John Lauretti, was an Iwo Jima survivor and Marine Corps veteran.
Nursick said the DOT was contacted by someone from the Legion post about millings, but the DOT’s response was that it doesn’t deal directly with any public or private entities when it comes to obtaining millings.
Board of Aldermen President John Anglace, a member of the American Legion, said what to do with asphalt millings would be an administrative matter for the city, not something that required a vote from aldermen.
“Several aldermen are members of the American Legion, and we are aware the city has helped out the American Legion,” Anglace said. “Does anyone doubt that they aren’t worth helping out? The American Legion did enough for us, and they don’t need to be harassed. I wish the police would do something like catch more speeders.”
Colleen Ezzo, a union spokeswoman and field organizer, said Wednesday she consulted with union leadership on the issue.“No one is willing to say what they’ve seen or done,” Ezzo said. “They are really concerned about making a public statement on this issue at this time. Since the American Legion is a nonprofit, they don’t want to hurt that group’s intentions by bringing up this issue.”
+++++++
Next is the CtPost article on investigation findings.
http://www.connpost.com/ci_11775165
No charges in Shelton asphalt case
Police probe clears Shelton mayor
By Kate RamunniStaff writer
Posted: 02/24/2009 04:16:12 PM EST
SHELTON -- Mayor Mark A. Lauretti did nothing wrong when he directed Highway Department employees to work night shifts to bring asphalt millings to the American Legion, a police investigation has determined.
"We find no probable cause for any arrest or any wrongdoings," Shelton Police Department spokesman Sgt. Kevin Ahern said.
Detectives interviewed a number of people, Ahern said, including state Department of Transportation officials, city officials and members of the American Legion.
"No one benefited from [the deliveries] except for the organization itself," Ahern said. "No one person benefited."
Police Chief Joel Hurliman recently directed detectives to investigate after Officer Edward Dobbins submitted a report of his findings of the situation from last summer.
Then, Lauretti ordered Highway Department employees to work two night shifts July 17 and 18 to haul the millings from under the Route 8 bridge downtown to the Legion on Old Bridgeport Avenue.
At the time the DOT was paving the highway, and it gave the city the millings -- the asphalt scrapings collected while preparing the road for paving. The city used the bulk of the millings to resurface the Riverdale Avenue lot where the school buses are parked and gave the rest to the American Legion, to which Lauretti belongs.
Several Parks and Recreation Department and Highway Department employees approached Dobbins to report that the millings were being brought to the Legion in the overnight hours in a clandestine operation at Lauretti's direction.
"The work was done at night because that's when the state was doing the milling on Route 8," Ahern said. The Route 8 work, he said, "coincides with what the Highway Department worked for those two nights." Giving the materials to the American Legion is no different from the city helping out any other civic, nonprofit organization, Ahern said.
"It's what we would term an "in-kind" service," he said, "where the city provides something to an organization that is a nonprofit group like Little League or Pop Warner." The problems at the American Legion's paring lot were well known, Ahern said.
"When it rained, it became muddy and hard for cars to get through there," he said.
Lauretti said helping the American Legion has been something the city has tried to do for years. For example, in 2005, the Board of Aldermen waived charging the organization building fees when it renovated its facility, he said.
"This is not a social club -- it's far from a social club," he said. "This is a civic-minded, nonprofit organization that has done things like sponsore baseball teams.
"How do people think those flags get on the graves on Memorial Day?" he said. "They sponsor oratorical contests, send boys to Boys State, offer scholarships, the list goes on and on. And if for nothing else, they went into foreign lands and served our country. We have always tried to help them where we could."
Lauretti was philosophical about the latest investigation into his actions. "This has been going on for 18 years as it pertains to me, and at the end of the day it speaks for itself" he said. "I'm just sorry the American Legion guys got dragged into it."
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