Including the Mayor’s Report and Discussion of Former Center School Property
Editor’s Note: The Town Council ended the meeting by going into Executive Session
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 P.M. by Council Chair Carl Glad, who gave the invocation. Included in his prayer for guidance was an acknowledgement of the public service of the late Bill Cabral and concerns fir those suffering from the fires in California.
A motion that the reading of the minutes from the December 9th meeting be dispensed with was passed, as was acceptance of the minutes. There being no ceremonial presentations or awards, Glad asked for the mayor’s report.
Mayor Laura Hoydick’s Report:
Thank you, Chair. Happy New Year, everyone.I hope you had a very nice holiday and you were able to enjoy it with your family and friends.
Wreaths Across America Day was held at Union Cemetery on Saturday, December 14th. This is the first time we’ve done this in Stratford. That morning, the Raymond T. Goldbach Auxiliary Post 9460 VFW helped lay wreaths as a symbol of remembrance and honor on the graves of the country’s fallen heroes. I got a note from the organizer who said that through the money raised, they were able to lay 640 wreaths.
We celebrated National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day on Thursday, January 9th. Thank you to the men and women of our Stratford Police Department for their continued commitment to keep our town safe, and for being welcome and opening to everyone.
On Martin Luther King Day, which is Monday, January 20th, please join us at at the Baldwin Center from 9 to 12 to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy. Sterling House Community Center is organizing the event. The morning focuses on art and creativity, and if you have any questions, please call Sterling House for more information and also to register.
February is Black History Month, and the town will observe and celebrate Black History Month in a variety of ways.
The town of Stratford will be commencing on a town-wide revaluation project in accordance with the Connecticut General Statute 12-62. The appraisal firm of Vision Government Solutions, or VGSI, has been hired to conduct this project. The purpose of the reval is to update the market values for all real property as of October 1st, 2025.
Upon completion, the revaluation will have balanced the tax burden among all Stratford real property owners. Any possible tax impact in this revaluation may have been or will not be known until the mill rate is set in the spring of 2026. Beginning this week, property owners will receive a form containing all current property details.
The appraisal firm is asking owners to review the data and make any necessary changes before returning it to them. The form will have all the necessary contact information for VGSI and our tax assessor’s office should owners have any questions. I’d like to thank the community in advance for their time and participation.
In addition to the mailed forms, personnel from VGSI will be visiting properties that have been recently sold. Properties will be visited during the day and exterior measurements will be verified. Data collectors will also be asked to conduct a brief interior inspection.
If no one is home, a letter will be sent requesting that an appointment be made so an interior inspection can be carried out and the property details can be verified. All field personnel will be wearing an identification badge and their vehicles will be registered with the Stratford Police Department and the tax assessor’s office. A link to the revaluation frequently asked questions page can be found on the stratfordct.gov under the office of the CAO in the town hall drop down menu, as well as the tax assessor’s page.
The Health Department teamed up with the Board of Ed Strive Program to provide physicals for all their enrolled students. They also continue to offer opportunities for those students still not up to date with their vaccinations. If anyone needs a vaccine, please call the health department to make an appointment. They are a great local responsive resource for our community.
Efforts continue to engage community members in the planning of the community garden and arboretum, which is funded through a five year grant from Connecticut DPH. The Health Department collaborates with Stratford Public Works, the environmental conservation department, planning and zoning divisions and the mayor’s office as well as partners such as Sterling House Community Center, the YMCA and the South End Community Center. Two strategic planning meetings have been convened to create an agricultural plan for the town.
Heart Health Month is just around the corner and the health department has several Know Your Numbers events planned. See our social media posts and the mayor’s newsletter for dates and times in February.
On the community service and senior service front, AARP is offering free income tax preparation by appointment at the Baldwin Center through the middle of April. The South End Community Center is offering IRS VITA free income tax preparation for individuals and families who earned less than $67,000 in 2024, and this is done by appointment through the beginning of April.
For households struggling with energy bills, call the Baldwin Center for information and eligibility about the CT Energy Assistance Program, Energize Connecticut and Operation Fuel for Winter Assistance.
Stratford Partnership for Youth and Families collaborated with Stratford Parents Place to conduct the first of two Raising Highly Capable Kids courses. On the economic development front, regarding the Army Engine plant, the current removal of the PCBs in the interior of the buildings is taking place.
PSR (Point Stratford Renewal) launched a website to provide project updates. You can find the link to the site on the economic and community development page on the town of Stratford’s website. The site currently includes truck routes, ambient air testing and information on importing material. With the first environmental service cooperative agreement or ESCA in place, the Army is overseeing the upland remediation, demolition and fill process and will be making quarterly visits to the site.
The second ESCA is on the tidal flats. The Army should be approving the plan in January. Once approved, the contractor will start the project, which should take no longer than 12 months with completion expected in early 2026. The contractor, Intec, has already begun mobilizing equipment on the property.
The Performing Arts Complex project and the architectural firm Spiegel Partners, town staff and State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) representatives visited the Nicoll-Benjamin House on December 12th. The architect is awaiting SHPO’s feedback prior to advancing a design for the restoration in addition to the building.
The town is working with the constraints of EPA getting work on the site at the end of 2026. On the Contract Plating site, the fuel cell project is on the agenda for January 29th’s zoning meeting. The town council approved the supplemental funding from the Department of Economic and Community Development for $473,000, which will be used to finish the town’s preparation for the fuel cell project and complete phase three.
So when I say the town’s preparation of the fuel cell project, that means they’re preparing the land for the project to begin. We’re not building the fuel cells, we’re just preparing the site for the fuel cells. Under planning and zoning, the zoning regulations update and rewrite were approved for adoption on December 11th and the final version is now available online.
Complete Streets Two: we had a public meeting last Tuesday at the Baptist Church in Paradise Green for residents to review the 60% design which includes the public’s feedback. Next steps, DOT will provide technical information which, when completed, will bring the project to 90% design. Complete Streets Two will run from Main Street at Barnum Avenue intersection up through Paradise Green to Windsor Avenue.
We had several ribbon cuttings this past month: Ada’s Beauty Bar in 1212; The Village, which is the groundbreaking for the 100 units on Main Street, and was also in December on the 2nd; Northeast Luxury Salon Suites on 1675 Barnum Avenue, January 7th; Pickley’s Caribbean Fusion Restaurant, which is so cute and that was on last Friday, the 10th on the corner of Woodend Road; and tomorrow we have L&W Supply, which is 1525 Stratford Avenue and that’s at 10 o’clock. We had a commercial property sale at 820 Wood End Road to Fan Real Estate and that was for a million dollars. That transaction happened on December 10th.
For Celebrate Stratford we did the tree lighting, which was held on December 4th, and the menorah lighting that was held on December 26th. The 2025 Shakespeare Market will be held the third Sunday of the month from January through March.
2025 Restaurant Week is scheduled for March 1st through the 8th and it’s sponsored by the Community and Economic Development Commission. The Celebrate Stratford schedule is on the website at www.celebratestratford.com. Businesses and nonprofits interested in sponsoring Celebrate events are encouraged to contact Karen Doyle at kdoyle@townofstratford.com. For the Commission on Aging, I appointed John Wilson, Diane Martel and Samantha Rosenberg to the commission this week.
Other news: The state has started the flood restoration project on Route 113 Main Street alongside the airport going into Lordship. The project consists of installing a cofferdam system and rebuilding the roadway to mitigate flooding. It’s anticipated the road will be back up in use on January 25th.
The town has been awarded $589,274 from the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood through the brand new center-based Educator Registered Apprenticeship Program. The town’s community services will act as an intermediary support, and we are the only municipality to have been awarded this funding, with the rest of the awardees being nonprofits and education centers. We are looking forward to implementing this program, as we will know it will help the important childcare network in Stratford benefiting families, children and employers.
The town has completed a tree inventory, which was a grant-funded project. Through this study, the certified arborist evaluated every town tree and collected data to inform maintenance. Of 17,050 trees evaluated, only 64 were considered as priority one removals and the town tended to those trees immediately.
You can get updates on this project from the urban forestry-planning page on the town website, and residents can utilize the tree map to determine the town versus privately owned tree. The tree inventory is one component of the multi-pronged urban forest management effort, which the grant funded. Then last, well last but not least, the town hall renovation project. I just wanted to update you on a few things.
The town attorney’s office and the conference room are complete, so I think you could probably see it on your way out. You can at least see the conference room, maybe not the interior office. The first floor woman’s restroom is 80% complete and I peeked my head in before I came up to the meeting and it looks fabulous.
Construction material has been delivered for work to begin on February 13, which will be refurbishing the conference room, the kitchenette, and then the restrooms. Then the elevator modifications will begin on Monday, January 20th. All second floor meetings will be rescheduled to other meeting rooms that are ADA accessible.
And then I’d like to congratulate State Rep Gresco, who’s here today, State Reps McGordy and Shake, and Senator Gaston for their swearing in at the beginning of session last Wednesday. Thank you for your service to the town.
Stratford Town Attorney Report:
There was a personal injury claim filed. There were four property damage claims filed. We had 26 FOI requests.
We opened up a health violation file and we obtained some $15,000 in blight lien payoffs.
With no unfinished business to discuss, Chair Glad moved on to ordinances and resolutions.
Mr. Aurelia made the following motion:
I move that item 6.2.1 be approved, authorizing the mayor’s office to execute and deliver such grant application necessary to apply for and obtain funding from FEMA in the amount of $827,556.25 with a town match of $82,755.64 to support PPE and self-contained breathing apparatus equipment for the Stratford Fire Department.
The motion was seconded, and passed.
Mr. O’Connor made the following motion:
I move that item 6.2.2 be approved, authorizing the mayor’s office to execute and deliver the grant application necessary to apply for and obtain funding for round five of the Community Investment Fund in the amount of $7,200,625 with a town match of $878,158 in previously approved funding to continue the flood mitigation project at Ferry Boulevard. Thank you.
The motion was seconded, and passed.
Mr. Herrera made the following motion:
I move that item 6.2.3 be approved, authorizing the mayor’s office to execute and deliver such grant application necessary to apply for and obtain funding from the Department of Justice in the amount of $11,353 with a town match of $22,410.40 to initiate the purchase of and training with conducted energy devices for the Stratford Police Department.
The motion was seconded, and passed.
Mr. O’Connor made the following motion:
I move that item 6.2.4 be approved, authorizing the mayor’s office to execute and deliver the grant application necessary to apply for and obtain funding from Connecticut DEEP in the amount of $554,583 with a town match of $452,360 in the form of in-kind services to implement the composting program with Park City Compost Initiative, Inc.
The motion was seconded, and passed.
Mr. Leone made the following motion:
I move that item 7.1, an addendum to the formally approved 8-24 review of 1000 East Broadway be approved.
Chair Glad asked for any discussion.
Ms. Shake had the following request:
Could we just have a brief synopsis of what this is from Mr. Kubik or our town attorneys, just for the rest of the council, or Mr. Tymniak. Sure, I think Mr. LeClair can discuss, as he’s been involved in all the negotiations.
Mr. LeClair’s response:
Thank you. This is the Copperwatts House, 952 East Broadway. That was, as you may recall, some of you, this was part of a project previously approved by the town council, the so-called Center School property.
This was always a contemplated piece of it, this one particular house on the corner of the property. And to make it clear, it went back for an 8-24 review since this is included in this first phase now of the transaction. The house will be preserved.
I know that is a very common question, what’s going to happen with that house? And it’s going to be preserved as part of this project. It was part of the project originally to be phased in. It is now going to take place with the transaction all at the same time.
Ms. Shake’s reply:
I appreciate the clarification, and just for the public’s understanding also, so that they’re aware that essentially it’s [Resolution 7.1] preserving the Copperwatts House. That’s the goal— it’s not going to be torn down, just so if there’s anyone listening out there.
Mr. Green’s comments:
So this, I understand Attorney LeClair clarified, has always been part of the agreement, that is why it’s coming back today.
This agreement is to transfer that parcel from the town to the developers. It sounds like you mentioned that it would be retained. What exactly is the expected agreement, I guess, to happen through that transfer? Mr. Tymniak, would you?
Mr. Tymniak (Chief Administrative Officer):
We do have the developer here tonight.
Just to clarify, the original RFP which was given out, which was bid upon and approved by that, said the town of Stratford also owns the adjacent 952 East Broadway, which may be subject to the redevelopment in the future. The plan was this is always supposed to be the commercial, the mixed-use portion of the property. At the time, we had just signed an agreement to have Jeffrey (Fletcher) and the African American Museum move into that property, so with that going on at the time, it was not included in the 824 because he had just moved in.
We’re now at the phase, as Mr. LeClair said, where we’re going to final contracts on the overall property with Romano Development and the attorneys want to have this finalized and included now that Jeffrey will also be moving across the street to the Sterling Homestead with the grant he received from the state of Connecticut to develop that property. The intent is to have the property remain as is. That is going to be formalized in an agreement.
It’ll be an amendment put at the back of the contract and I think the attorneys are working out how that’s gonna, what that’s gonna look like, whether it’s gonna be like a 99-year lease or however we go ahead and do it, but there’s no intent, and I have the reminder, there’s no intent to have that be more housing or there’s not gonna be 30 units going on that. It’s gonna remain as a historical house here in Stratford. And I brought extra copies of the RFP so you can see that it was included.
It’s also included in the map. If I passed out some of those who had questions ahead of time, I’m happy to give out more copies if you’d like to see it.
Any further questions?
Unidentified:
My question is not really pertaining to that property, but there’s going to be a gap. Will there be a gap between where the museum would be or, I mean, we know where the museum’s gonna be, but how long is it gonna take?
Mr. Tymniak:
Oh, we haven’t, yeah.
Unidentified:
Is he gonna be out of there and, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It’s gonna take a while to renovate the building where the museum’s going.
Mr. Tymniak:
Yes, but that process is getting, we’re getting to the final stages of that. So the Sterling Homestead, the building in between the library and the Sterling House, is where the new African-American museum’s gonna be going.
We actually did one of our first calls today with the state and how we’re gonna go about dealing with that grant coming in. And we’re working hand-in-hand. And Chris Carroll, our grant writer, was here at the beginning of the day to go over some of this stuff.
Molly’s here as well. But that is gonna take some time to develop because we have to keep that up to SHPO standards because it’s gotta remain historical. But the money’s in place and the architectural plans are there.
Jeffrey is perfectly set up at 952 East Broadway until he’s ready to move.
Mr. O’Neal:
My question is in reference to the approval of the 824 review for 1000 East Broadway. Now, has that already been approved before? Then we’re adding, just adding. So all right, we don’t have to approve that.
Chair Glad:
That’s correct. This is just the addendum to this.
Mr. Tymniak:
So the fear is if it’s not included, they go to get their mortgages or bank notes or something, that it’s not a complete all-in document.
Mr. Green:
So I just wanted to clarify that what we’re approving tonight is basically to empower the town attorneys to pursue finalizing that agreement.
And our interpretation of that is that what we’re going to get is the property will be transferred to the developer, and in the same motion, basically, we’re signing a 99-year lease for a dollar back so that it’s still gonna be used for, if not the museum, something else for the public or non-profit. Is that correct? No. Okay, what are we agreeing to, Madam Mayor?
Mayor Hoydick:
So you’re implying that it’s going to be used for a non-profit or a public, and it may be commercial.
So I just don’t want it to be confused because we don’t know what it’s gonna be used for. But right now, in the immediate future, it’s gonna stay as the African-American Museum.
Mr. Green:
But the town will be the one basically leasing it back from the developer, so we’ll have control over what goes in there.
It may not be non-profit, but we will be the ones in charge of what goes there, Madam Mayor.
Mayor Hoydick:
Again, it depends on how the administration negotiates the lease.
Having a little bit of experience with that, I would probably work with the Romano Brothers builders to make sure that if the use is acceptable to them, that the town has full authority over how the building is used.
Mr. Green:
Okay.
Chair Glad:
I just wanna clarify. I think Chris, maybe, or Mr. Green, we would be sub-leasing it to someone, so we want, what I think the mayor was saying was she needs that authority in the lease agreement that needs to be negotiated. That’s what that meant.
Ms. Shake:
Just a general comment:
The center school property sale that the town went through was a very controversial moment for this town, for the neighborhood, community, et cetera. Would’ve been appreciated if the additional documentation, the RFP, Mr. Tymniak, or a summary of what the agreement is that was decided in planning came in our packet so that we could all review it before.
With no further questions, Item 7.1 was voted on and passed.
Mr. O’Neal:
I move that the bid 2025-14, the elevator modernization for the Stratford Library be given to Hartford Elevator LLC of Rocky Hill, Connecticut, with the base bid in alternates one, three, and four in the amount of $255,600 be approved.
The motion was seconded, and passed.
Mr. Leung:
Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that for the purposes of discussing a personnel matter, we enter into executive session to, what’s that? Pending litigation. Sorry, pending litigation.
And said persons should include Mayor Hoydick, the 10 town council persons, town attorneys Florek, Florek, Hodgson, and LeClaire, and Tom Cotter as well, and Ron Ng from Human Resources, as well as Mr. Tymniak and Sarah Matthews. Oh, Don Civo, our finance director.
The motion was accepted and those named moved to executive session.
Link to video of Town Council Meeting:
