TORRINGTON – The Dec. 15 regular meeting of the Torrington City Council will serve as the final meeting of 2020 and the last official meeting for Councilman Bill Law. Law’s seat will be filled on Jan. 1 by Councilman-elect Dennis Kelly. 

Additionally, former Councilwoman Deanna Hill’s seat on the council remains unfilled. To be considered for the position, applicants must be registered voters living within the city of Torrington. Those interested in serving on the council must submit their letters of interest to Clerk-Treasurer Lynette Strecker by Friday, Jan. 8, at 4 p.m. The newly appointed councilmember will then be sworn in and seated at the Jan. 19 meeting.

Mayor Randy Adams said he wished to remind everyone of the statewide mask order in place, stating that masks are to be worn in all public places, retail outlets, restaurants, bars, government buildings and anytime social distancing might be compromised.

“We appreciate the cooperation by the community,” Adams said. 

Adams reported the number of infections had plateaued and might be declining. He also said he had learned the occupancy pressure had been somewhat reduced at Torrington’s Community Hospital. 

“There is no factual reason behind it, but we can assume that the mask order is beginning to have an impact,” Adams said. 

Adams told the council there were 59 positive cases of COVID-19 in the past week, leading to a 50% reduction from the number reported the previous week. Also, Torrington’s ambulance service reported a reduced number of calls from November. Additionally, Adams said November was the busiest month on record for the ambulance service.

According to Adams, the first doses of COVID-19 vaccines will be available sometime after Dec. 21. The vaccine will first go to residents of long-term care facilities, healthcare workers and then first responders. Vaccines will then be available to the general public in the early spring.

The first action item for the night was discussing an amendment to the airport hangar site’s lease. Aircraft Fabrications and Repair owner Dave Arland approached the city of Torrington and requested an amendment to his lease agreement. Arland’s proposed amendment would provide that Arland would pay approximately $35,000 to the city in exchange for the lease being terminated. After the termination, Shawn Madden would purchase the building and enter into a ground lease agreement with the city of Torrington. The city would own the real property and Madden would own the improvements and pay $192 a month to the city beginning Jan. 1, according to the lease agreement. 

The council unanimously passed the proposed amendment to the lease of the hangar site.

Building Official Dennis Estes requested the council approve an agreement on shared services between the city of Torrington, Fire Protection District 3 and the Torrington Volunteer Fire Department. 

“Things are getting a lot more expensive, so a lot of things are getting bought together with the two entities; Rural District 3 and the city of Torrington,” Estes said. “We’ve needed this agreement in some form for years.”

Estes said Rural District 3 and the Torrington Volunteer Fire Department had discovered some issues involving insurance liability. Some items owned by the city of Torrington were stored inside the Rural District 3’s building. The building is under Rural District 3’s insurance policy, but the city learned their property was not covered by the insurance. This agreement would serve to bridge that gap in insurance issues. 

“This is the first step in, what I hope, is a good working document for the future volunteers, city and rural,” Estes said. 

Strecker presented the financial report for the city of Torrington. She said the current cash reserve of $7.7 million was a “good number” and was ahead of where she thought the city would be. 

Strecker also reported that money received as revenue from sales tax had come in ahead of last year’s numbers despite the concerns over the impact of COVID-19. 

“So, we can kind of see that actually this year is actually looking pretty good right now,” Strecker said. 

The last five action items for the evening meeting were the result of budget committee meetings. Strecker presented a proposed amendment to the policy handbook, a new policy for volunteer emergency responder leave, a vacation carryover request, a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) recommendation and a performance evaluation and merit increate request. 

Strecker explained how the committee had discovered a new classification for employees, pro re nata (PRN). PRN employees work when they are called-in, but don’t work every day. The committee found that these employees were eligible for some benefits, but not all of them. 

Additionally, the committee recommended the creation of a written policy governing leave for volunteer emergency responders. Strecker said they had been operating on an “unwritten policy” and needed to establish the policy to establish what is expected.

The committee recommended employees be permitted to carry over more than the allowed 80 hours of vacation time due to the impact of COVID-19 on the various city departments. Strecker said this recommendation would impact 40 employees. If approved, employees would be permitted to carry over all accrued vacation time to 2021 but would only be permitted in this instance. The employees would have to use all the extra vacation time prior to 2022. 

The fourth item was COLA. The committee considered the increase and felt it was important to keep the wage scales competitive. The committee decided to ask for a 1.75% increase that would be effective Jan. 2021. 

Lastly, the council discussed the possibility of performance evaluation and merit increases. This year’s evaluations resulted in 88 total evaluations being conducted with nine staff members scoring in “extraordinary,” 30 scoring in “exceeds expectation,” 31 scoring in “fully meets expectations,” 15 scoring in “meets expectations” and three scoring in “not fully meeting expectations.” 

The wage committee requested a one-time stipend for the employees based on their performance. The stipend would range from $100 to $400 depending upon their performance evaluation and would cost the city $26,059.

The council voted to approve all the items presented by Strecker unanimously.

Before adjournment, Councilman Ted Kinney said he would like to extend his appreciation to the company which finished the walking path from 20th Street to West C Street.

“The path is awesome,” he said. 

Kinney also wished to express his appreciation to whoever cleared the path of snow on Sunday. He said many people use the path, and he is very thankful for their actions. 

The next meeting of the Torrington City Council will be Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021, at 7 p.m. at Torrington City Hall.