Middletown Common Council Special Community Meeting – October 8, 2026

The Middletown Common Council held a hybrid special community meeting on Thursday, October 8, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. in the Municipal Building Common Council Chamber and remotely via WebEx. The purpose was to give members of the public an opportunity to raise or express issues of concern within the council's jurisdiction. The council heard from five in-person speakers and acknowledged two submitted letters; no remote speakers raised hands. The meeting adjourned after public comment.

Call to Order and Procedures

• The pledge of allegiance was led, and the Council Clerk read the call of the meeting; the chair declared the call legal and the meeting a legal special meeting.
• The chair explained that, at a community meeting, each speaker has 10 minutes (unlike 5 minutes at a regular meeting) and will receive a one-minute warning; speakers were asked to state their name and address for the record.

Public Comments & Testimony

• Annie Melendez, a New Britain resident and full-time state employee working at One Court Street, spoke about concerns she and people in her office and building have experienced with the traffic and parking pilot program near the courthouse. She said it took her 17 minutes to leave Port Street two days earlier, with the light cycling several times without turning green, and that courthouse business trips were delayed by almost 20 minutes. She raised safety concerns about emergency vehicles, buses, parking on both sides of the street in front of the courthouse, and people congregating outside after the change, including a couple's argument that began in front of the building and continued behind it, which she said could have turned deadly. She asked the council not to include the spaces in front of the courthouse in the pilot program and to restore two-way traffic from there downward so courthouse, transportation, and inmate vehicles can maneuver.
• Rogers Pilant, of 80 Round Hill Road, Middletown, publicly commended the Planning and Zoning Commission for its unanimous decision to uphold the Plan of Development and protect the historic downtown by denying a map amendment that would have removed properties' downtown village designation to expand Wesleyan's institutional development zone. Pilant said holding the zoning line does not mean ignoring Wesleyan's need for additional student housing, and suggested restoring historic homes on the block or building smaller multifamily housing that matches the surrounding street.
• Paul Manini, of 215 SIS Street, Middletown, discussed Connecticut General Statute 12-81g, which he said requires the city to give a tax break to veterans who are permanently totally disabled and permanently 100% disabled. He said the city has not adopted the optional exemption of up to two acres of land, and that 92 100-percent-disabled veterans in town would be affected. He also said the city can be reimbursed for lost tax revenue under paragraph E, but tax officials told him they have never requested that reimbursement.
• Gerald E. Augustine, of 1764 Bartholomew Road, Middletown, a Vietnam War combat infantryman, expressed support for extending the disabled-veteran property tax exemption to unused land and land over two acres. He described his service in War Zone C with the 196th Light Infantry Brigade and the 4th Infantry Division, his return home on August 4, 1967, his PTSD and effects of Agent Orange, the loss of a son to suicide in 2014 at age 38, and his own cancer survivorship. He said he was awarded a tax exemption on his home after negotiations with the tax assessor, but with a stipulation, and asked, 'Why not Middletown? Let's be fair to our disabled veterans.'
• Henry Fernandes, of 671 Laurel Grove Road, Middletown, a resident for about 25 years, raised concerns about escalating property taxes, saying he paid close to $14,000 in one year and that neighbors were seeking a forensic audit. He said some homes smaller than his received the same tax increase and residents cannot understand how the figures were calculated. He also said his neighborhood receives few services other than water, a recent street paving would not survive winter plowing, and police presence in the neighborhood only began about six months ago. He questioned the return on tax investment in education, citing Capital Prep's 98% graduation and college-going rate, the statement that children start at 50, an instructor remark that a child was not their priority, and a past Board of Education money-disappearance issue. He noted his water bill rose close to 25% and said he was over 67 and worried about selling a home with $14,000 in taxes when people cannot afford groceries.
• Two letters were submitted and acknowledged by the chair: one from John Millardo about health-care insurance costs, and one from Edward Um Dinsey about Wesleyan and taxes. The chair stated that the writers had asked for the letters to be read into the record, but the council announced their names and acknowledged the letters rather than reading them aloud.

Key Outcomes

• The council took no formal action on the comments and made no referrals during the meeting.
• The chair indicated the comments would be noted, and the two submitted letters were acknowledged in the council packet.
• With no further speakers, public comment closed; a motion to adjourn was made, seconded, and carried, ending the special meeting.