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."