Clinton Town Council Regular Meeting - January 7, 2026
Clinton Town Council Regular Meeting - January 7, 2026
The Clinton Town Council held a regular meeting on Wednesday, January 7, 2026, at 5:00 AM UTC. The meeting covered several items including public comments, a library project update, approval of a historic documents preservation grant, a budget calendar, a public works line item transfer, and two executive sessions. The council also heard a suggestion from the town manager to videotape future budget workshops.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Minutes: The council unanimously approved the minutes from the meeting of December 17, 2025.
- Acceptance of Historic Documents Preservation Grant: The council unanimously authorized acceptance of a $5,000 grant from the Connecticut Historical Documents Preservation Grant program and authorized the town manager to sign the agreement.
- Budget Calendar: The council unanimously approved the 2026 town council budget calendar as presented.
- Public Works Line Item Transfer: The council unanimously approved a transfer of funds from the engineer salary line item ($77,000) and full-time salary savings ($19,000) to purchase a replacement truck for Public Works. The original truck suffered a catastrophic engine failure, and the repair cost exceeded the vehicle's value. The new truck also functions as a sander, needed for winter operations, and is expected to be delivered by February.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Matthew Williams (91 Ironworks Road): Expressed concerns about the Planning and Zoning Commission's operation. He noted that the commission is relatively inexperienced and that a strong personality often dominates meetings in a negative way. He suggested that the town planner should be more involved to help the chair keep meetings on task and avoid potential liability from ignoring testimony. He also strongly encouraged the council to approve an appropriation for rewriting the town's zoning regulations, which he described as convoluted, ambiguous, and a hindrance to development and investment. He stated that clarification would motivate development and reduce pressure on administrators.
Discussion Items
- Library Project Update: Mary Beth provided an update on the library renovation project. The contracted architects (QA&M) have submitted fees for additional services (design development, construction documents, bidding, construction administration, furniture/equipment). The building committee is waiting on funding. The only available state grant (State Library Construction Grant) requires a funding commitment for the other half of the project; the deadline is September. Council members discussed phasing the project. Dennis proposed a phased approach: Phase 1 (moving books upstairs, ~$400,000) using the library board's $250,000 pledged plus a town contribution of $200,000 in the next budget. Phase 2 (constructing conference rooms, ~$400,000-$430,000) and Phase 3 (facade/vestibule work, ~$1 million+) would follow. Some council members expressed concern about phasing due to cost escalation and completion risk, while others supported committing to a ceiling amount for bonding in fiscal year 2027-2028 without specifying the funding method. The council agreed to have the architect provide a phased cost breakdown and to revisit the project at a workshop during budget season.
- Town Manager's Report: The town manager reported that Alan Felgate resigned effective January 2, and Dale Krupp will serve as acting Economic Development Coordinator. The town did not receive the Connecticut Main Street grant (for bike racks, approximately $10,000) but received feedback to strengthen future applications. The town manager suggested videotaping all budget workshops to increase transparency and help residents understand the process. The council expressed consensus to proceed with videotaping.
- Council Discussion: A brief discussion occurred regarding scheduling an executive session presentation on a real estate matter. Some council members preferred a night meeting for more time, but the chair noted the matter is time-sensitive and confidential (real estate, requiring executive session). The presentation was scheduled for the morning meeting with a hard stop at 9:50 AM.
Key Outcomes
- Library Project: No formal vote was taken. The council agreed to ask the architect for a phased project breakdown and to continue discussions at a future workshop. A commitment to a ceiling amount for bonding (possibly in 2027-2028) was informally discussed, but no decision was made.
- Executive Session (Real Estate): The council went into executive session to discuss a real estate matter involving a previously approved tax abatement. After the session, the council voted to modify the existing tax abatement agreement to extend the window through 2030 and authorized the town manager to negotiate the modified agreement. The motion carried unanimously.
- Executive Session (Personnel): The council then entered a second executive session for personnel matters. No further action was reported.
- Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned after the executive sessions.
Meeting Transcript
All right, good morning, everybody. Welcome to the town council regular meeting. Uh Wednesday, January 7th, 2026. We'll start with the pledge, Dennis, if you don't mind leading us. Thanks, Dennis. Next item on the agenda, item number two is visitors. Do we have any visitors that like to speak? Hey Matt. How are you? Please come to the table. Say your name and your address, please, and I got a brief disclaimer to tell you. During the public comment and the council will listen without reply. This approach ensures fairness and order while showing respect for your input, which we value and will consider carefully. If a response or action is needed, the town manager will follow up with a meeting or the council will place it on your matter on a future agenda. So there won't be interaction. Understand. Matthew Williams, 91 Ironworks Road. I wanted to uh bring to the council's attention concerns that I have regarding um planning and zoning and its sort of current makeup and operation. So I've had a numerous experiences there over a number of years, as you know, I'm involved in a lot of projects in town. Uh I am very well versed in the zoning regulation, the detail of it. Not only Clinton's, but many, many regulations. And I've been to a lot of a lot of commission meetings and a lot of approvals and a handful of denials here and there over my years. And she and I have even talked about this a little bit here and there. I think she's leery of overstepping her bounds as not being one of the elected officials. Um however, in my experience, in a lot of bigger miss municipalities, town planners in many cases, and I'm not saying that say this is appropriate, they really run the meeting. And what happens is that commission members who come once a month oftentimes forget detail of testimony that was given in prior hearings or hearings that were closed in any particular matter, which is understandable. And I think that um if Abby was asked to um sort of monitor where they forget things, and I'll just give you a recent experience was with the proposal that I had brought, and they had asked me to make an amendment to this uh text amendment uh application that I had. And then after the hearing was closed, that amendment was was uh thoroughly debunked by one of the members, and uh which didn't make any sense to me that they asked me to put it in and then they tore it apart and made it one of the reasons why they denied it. Um so I think that those for those reasons I think a town planner could speak up and just bring it to the attention of the of the chairman. Um that um you may want to recall the minutes and testimony prior, and those are the things that I think are not necessarily happening, and it wasn't just that application that you know I've seen this happen before. You have a young um relatively inexperienced commission. The uh chairman, um Mike Rossi is a wonderful guy who is very knowledgeable. Um there's also one other strong very personality on the commission who um if you just watch any of the tape or listen to the meetings, you will see um really dominance dominates and steers the commission in my opinion most most commonly in a negative way, not in a proactive way. And I think that um perhaps that can be dealt with in some way, shape, or form. Um but really the purpose of my comment is about asking the town planner to be more involved in the meeting uh so that she can help the uh chairman um keep things you know on task and make sure because unfortunately they may make decisions that might put them at uh risk of liability if they ignore testimony. Um the second thing is I just wanted to um strongly encourage you to approve an appropriation that I think was brought to you or is in the works for rewriting the regulation. I think that that's been long overdue. Um, you know, going back, I don't know how long ago it was Willie Fritz was first selectman, but I mean I remember telling Willie years ago that regulation I think really hinders development and investment interest uh in the town, and I work directly with people who are you know consider spending their money on any specific property, and it isn't necessarily changing what the zoning says. It's a matter of clear um removing all the ambiguity and contradictions that are within it. It it's not a um it's not uncommon that um these regulations are written over time by members of the commission or planning or whoever uh and the town attorney, but what happens is you end up with this very convoluted thing where people don't really know or understand what the intent is. And um it also puts a lot of pressure on your administrators when people don't know that. So um I would just strongly encourage you to approve that when that comes forward, it really needs to be done, and I think it'd be a great thing for the town because I think it will really help um you know motivate people to to do things, you know, if there was some clarity there. So all right, thanks for your comments. Uh it's valuable for us to hear from a person with your skill or expertise in our town. So thank you for letting us know what you're thinking. I appreciate you having me. Thank you very much. All right, next um a motion to approve the minutes from the meeting of December 17th, 2025. Do I have a motion? So moved.
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