MINUTES

WATERTOWN TOWN COUNCIL

PUBLIC HEARING

JOHN TRUMBULL PRIMARY SCHOOL

MEDIA CENTER

MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2006, 7:00 P.M= .

PRESENT:      &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;          Carl Mancini

        &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p; Paul Rinaldi, Vice Chairman

        &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p; Jack Walton

ABSENT:      &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            Elaine Adams

&= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;         Antonio Guerrera

= ;            &n= bsp;            = ;            &n= bsp;         Robert Kane

&= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;         Joseph Pawlak, Chairman

&= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;         Suzan Plowman

&= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;         Raymond Primini

OTHERS PRESENT:     &= nbsp;      Chuck Berger, Town Engineer

= ;            &n= bsp;            = ;            &n= bsp;         Larry Black, Fire Marshall

= ;            &n= bsp;            = ;            &n= bsp;         John Carroll, Police Chief

= ;            &n= bsp;            = ;            &n= bsp;         Roy Cavanaugh, Director of Public works=

        &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p; David Hardt, Deputy Fire Chief

        &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p; Virginia Mason, Council of Governments

        &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p; Robert, Delta Environmental

1.&nb= sp;        Convene Public Hearing - 7:00 P.M.

&n= bsp;

Mr. Rinaldi, Vice= Chairman, called the Public Hearing to order at 7:00 p.m.

=

Mr. Rinaldi, Vice= Chairman, read aloud the following Notice of the Public Hearing for the record:

= Watertown Town Council

Public Hearing

October 23, 2006

Page 2

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

Watertown, Connecticut

October 23, 2006

The Watertown Town Council will hold a Public Hearing on Monday, October 23, 20= 06 at 7:00 p.m. in the John Trumbull Primary School Library, 779 Buckingham St= reet, Oakville, CT, to receive written comments and to hear public comment regard= ing the proposed 2006 Town of Watertown Hazard Mitigation Plan prepared for the Town of Watertown and the Council of Governments of the Central Naugatuck Valley by DELTA Environmental Services, Inc.

Dated at Watertown, Connecticut this 18th day of October, = 2006.

____________________________

Charles A. Frigon, Town Manager

RETURN OF NOTICE

TOWN OF WATERTOWN

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

I = hereby certify that on October 18, 2006 I left a duplicate copy of the attached No= tice of Public Hearing, Town of Wat= ertown, Connecticut with Virginia R= usso, its Assistant Town Clerk, to be held on October 23, 2006.

I = further certify that I caused a copy of said Notice of Public Hearing to be publish= ed in the REPUBLICAN AMERICAN on October 19, 2006, which newspaper has a substantial circulation in said Town.

I = further certify that on October 19, 2006, I caused to be set upon the signpost or o= ther exterior places nearest the Office of the Town Clerk and all other place and signposts designated by the Town, a written copy of said Notice of Public Hearing signed by the Town Manager of the Town of Watertown.

Da= ted at Watertown, Connecticut, this 18th day of October, 2006.

        &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;         &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;

        &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;             = Charles A. Frigon

        &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;             = Town Manager

Watertown Town Council

Public Hearing

October 23, 2006

Page 3

TOWN CLERK’S CERTIFICATION AS TO

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING AND RETURN OF NOTICE<= /p>

I HEREBY CERTIFY that the attached Notice of Public Hearing of the foregoing Return = of Notice of Public Hearing are duly recorded in the records of the Town of Watertown, Connecticut, and that Charles A. Frigon was Town Manager on the = date the Notice and Return of Notice were signed.

Dated at Watertown, Connecticut, this 18th day of October,= 2006.

        &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;         &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;

        &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p; Virginia Russo

        &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p; Assistant Town Clerk, Town of Watertown<= /st1:place>

            Mr. Rinaldi: The meeting is now open.

<= /p>
            Virginia Mason, Council of Governm= ents

<= /p>
            Ms. Mason: Thank you. I'm Assistant Director of the Coun= cil of Governments, Central Naugatuck Valley. In the Spring of 2003 we sent out a notice to towns letting them know that certain FEMA funding to help them (inaudible). In the future we= 're going to require towns to have mitigation plans in place and approved by FEMA. A mitigation plan basic= ally assesses both your resources and your problem areas and presents various solutions on things that need to be worked on to improve those problem areas. And because of that requirement that's going to come into place, (inaudible) for those who want= to participate, and Watertown is one of three communities in our region for th= at year that chose to, so we received a grant of about $56,000 too hire a consultant for Watertown, Woodbury, and Oxford, jointly they did choose with our assistance, and we hired Delta Environmental from Branford. We knew that they had just complet= ed projects from the southeast part of the State and from the Town of Milford and Stratford. We were happy to choose Rob and we= have worked through the process for 2 years.&nb= sp; We began by meeting with Town officials, we've had several meetings = with them, follow-up interviews, we have worked with most of the people who are = in the audience today, Larry Black, Dave Hardt, Chuck Berger, Roby Cavanaugh as well as Mary Barton when she was here, to identify the particular problems areas, and Rob has done that and we have provided the mapping that you see = on the right for that particular project and he can go over the highlights of = the plan and talk about some of the (inaudible).

Watertown Town Council

Public Hearing

October 23, 2006

Page 4

<= /p>
      = ;      Rob Sonnichsen, President, Delta Environmental Services

      = ;      Mr. Sonnichsen: Thank you. We worked with the Council and the= Town to come up with a hazard mitigation plan.&= nbsp; We've sent what is now the latest draft report and it's been circula= ted in Town. It's a Plan in proce= ss that we've been going through. Virginia highlig= hted some of the parts of it. We t= ake a look at assessing the risks in the community, we take a look at what the critical facilities in the community are and transportation corridors and u= tilities and communications. There are really two parts of this process. One is, and the most important one is to have the best possible haza= rd mitigation plan that you can for the Town of Watertown. The second part which sometimes I'= m a little bit more sensitive to than maybe I should be in terms of the way that the process works entirely, but the second part is that you have to meet the requirements that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has in order to h= ave an approved plan. There are an awful lot of format issues, you have to present things in certain ways, you have to discuss how you have gone through the process. One of the things that we worked t= hrough with FEMA has been getting a plan for Watertown that is approved, that meets the standards and the requirements because it'= s a federal requirement that you have an approved plan. In the event that there is a disas= ter that is declared there is going to be some ties between what you have in yo= ur hazard mitigation plan and the receipt of federal disaster assistance funds. In addition to that, in order to get proactive funds, funds for projects that will mitigate for fut= ure damages, you need to have an approved plan, so these are the 2 things that we've been trying to accomplish on the draft plan that's been circulating i= n Town recently has been approved conditionally by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, it meets all the basic requirements. The one thing that needs to be don= e is that the community needs to adopt the plan as being Watertown's Hazard Miti= gation Plan and that will be the last item that's necessary for complete approve by FEMA that will then allow you to move forward potentially to be able to gain grant funds as they're available, but it also puts you in a position that y= ou can follow the guidance that's included in the plan in terms of looking for= ward to protecting yourselves against future disasters that may occur in Town.
<= /p>
            So we're here tonight to what amounts to being the final presentation on this = plan. One of the things that I want to s= tress is that it's a dynamic plan, there are requirements built into the plan to = have it looked at periodically. On= e of the things that I've been talking with the Department of Homeland Security about most recently is making a firm commitment, that the plan will be completely reviewed every 5 years by the community to make sure that it's u= p to date because you guys have been doing a lot of things, a lot of the projects that we have outlined in the plan are on-going or will be completed so you = need to completely continually update the plan, so it's never a final plan, it always needs to be looked at, but what we have now is a starting point that= has been approved by FEMA that you can use to step off and keep yourself current with the requirements for Federal Disaster Assistance.

Watertown Town Council

Public Hearing

October 23, 2006

Page 5

<= /p>
            I talked about the process that we followed, it's outlined on the Board that'= s in front of you. There's an aspe= ct of the plan in which we get together and see what the Town's resources are, and sort of generate a team that can work on developing the Plan. Then there's an assessment process= that we go through, taking a look at the disasters that you've experienced and w= hich ones you think are the most likely. What we find is that in New England, invariably flooding and Winter storms are the 2 disasters that everyone has to deal with and grapple with,= but we also looked at other types of hazards in the Town of Watertown. We discussed issues related to the= City of Waterbury's water supply system that runs through the town. We took a look at other potential = types of hazards and I was talking with Chuck Berger just the other day about tornados, and we actually modified a couple of minor things in the plan to = make tornado, give tornado an appropriate place in terms of the hierarchy in haz= ards in the community.

<= /p>
            As you saw on that last board, we're sort of in the implementation process, actually we're in the adoption process.&nb= sp; The next step is to adopt the plan followed by implementation of the aspects of the plan that are outlined.&nbs= p; The boards that I have, this next board that I'm showing you here is= a reproduction of something that's included in the draft plan, we call it a m= atrix, it's the projects, the types of hazard mitigation projects that we came up = with by meeting with the Town that collectively it was felt were appropriate to = try to pursue and I'll just kind of go through and highlight a few of them to g= ive you an example of what sort of projects that we are talking about. The description of the projects is fairly generic. I think we've= been able to focus on some projects that you've been working on in a very specif= ic nature, but because of the fact it's a planning document, there is some flexibility built into it and not complete specificity, it sort of gives yo= u a general guideline and a direction to move, and the next step is going to be= to pursue projects by developing potentially grand applications, doing enginee= ring design actually designing and implementing projects that are based on the tenants that are included in the Hazard Mitigation Plan.

<= /p>
            As you can see by looking at the matrix, the first page covers emergency commu= nications. We talked a lot and we always talk= with the emergency operations people and over the past several years in Watertown, emerge= ncy communications has been something that's had a high profile. There's been grant funds that have= been received and we talked about developing an emergency communication system between the police and fire departments and other emergency responders, and also there's talk about improving the emergency siren system.

<= /p>
            The next 4 projects that we've identified has all been related to flooding. Steel Brook has been a flooding so= urce that's been problematic to the Town since 1974 when I was working in the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. We all know about the soil conserv= ation service coming in and doing some work but there is still more work to be do= ne to address flood hazards that exist along Steel Brook and we're talking abo= ut a work, a valuable hazard mitigation project would be pursuing completion of = the flood control project designs that are on the books or the ones that are go= ing to need to be completed to be able to more fully protect the commercial buildings and the residents along Steel Brook.

Watertown Town Council

Public Hearing

October 23, 2006

Page 6

<= /p>
            Turkey Brook has been another area that we talked to the Public Works Department a= bout and we felt that pursuing funding and completing some non-structural projec= ts in the vicinity of Turkey Brook was appropriate as a mitigation project as = well as a project to take a look at the flood plain management regulations that = are currently in place in the Town and working collectively between the Planning Department and Public Works potentially, seeing if there are areas of improvement that would be appropriate in the flood plain management regulations. Many communities= are, with the encouragement of FEMA, adopting flood plain management regulations that address issues such as flood plain storage and other kinds of flood pl= ain regulations that exceed the minimum standards of flood insurance program and that's something that certainly is part of a review of the Town's ordinances would= be an appropriate thing to consider.

<= /p>
            The last one is a flood audit program on this page. Flood audits have been done in a f= ew places around the State. In <= st1:City w:st=3D"on">Norwich there was a flood audit program on the Niantic River. The information of a flood audit g= ives you is really what the potential hazards are. You have flood mapping and a flood= audit program would take the next step and take a look at the properties that are= in the flood plain in Town and see just what the hazards are. Are there properties that are with= in the 10 year flood, or are the properties only at the very fringe of the flood a= rea, and only subject to flooding during a 100 year flood. Such a program would be able to he= lp the Town direct funds and efforts towards areas that are most flood prone.

<= /p>
            One of the things that I talked with Chuck Berger about earlier this week is the hazard of tornadoes. We talked about wind storms in general, most of the time wind storms are considered, = they are dealt with as part of a Winter storm or some other kind of hurricane ev= ent, but Chuck indicated to me that a tornado is something that had been experie= nced as recently as 1989, a serious incident in the community and we talked about including tornado hazard as being something that is a Town-wide and potenti= ally does have significant potential for causing disaster conditions and we incl= uded a project that is evaluating the tornado resistant nature of critical facilities, now critical facilities in Town are police station, emergency response centers, hospitals, and care facilities. There is also included in here a recommendation that the Town's current tree clearing program be reviewed and enhance this potential and it potentially could be by work between the Publ= ic Works Department, the Planning Department potentially and the Tree Warden to make sure that trees that are not in healthy condition or that potentially could fall on power lines and cause power outages are reviewed and dealt wi= th in the most effective way possible.

<= /p>
            We talked about Wattles Brook as being a significant flood problem and the recommendation is to complete a culvert replacement flood mitigation projec= t on Wattles Brook. And then a continuing review of Town roadway systems to identify critical risks, culve= rts that are undersized, I know that it's an on-going thing, but it's the type = of program that FEMA likes to have the towns identify as being appropriate on a continuing basis.

Watertown Town Council

Public Hearing

October 23, 2006

Page 7

<= /p>
            I talked a minute ago about the = Waterbury high service water supply and aqua duct system. One of the things we talked about = at an earlier meeting is reviewing the coordination and emergency response plan having to do with that service which passes through Watertown but it's real= ly, the property is the City of Waterbury's and making sure that the coordinati= on and potential response plan for an event that could occur that might have an impact on that system was up to date. There's an awful lot of consideration and coordination between the e= lectric utilities in the Town and the other utilities that are private utilities in= the Town agencies and this is an example of one of them that was highlighted du= ring our plan development process.

<= /p>
            There are a few in here, the last one is distributing public information. That's a project that is easily accomplished and as I was talking before about updating the plan every few years, if there is a project such as distributing public information that c= an be undertaken, it can be highlighted as a successful hazard mitigation proj= ect that has been completed by the Town and that will be looked on favorably by= the FEMA. What they say is that t= here are grant funds available but they are highly competitive and communities t= hat have shown that they are interested in pursuing projects, even low cost projects and projects that can be accomplished with exiting resources, those communities are looked at favorably in terms of qualifying for grant funds going forward so we try to incorporate some projects that potentially can be undertaken by the Town that would score marks in terms of putting you in a = good position to quality for grant funds.

<= /p>
            Some of the projects that we have on this page are already on-going and already = have been either essentially completed or nearly completed and this sort of goes back to the discussions of having projects that indicate that the Town is active in terms of hazard mitigation. Evaluating the emergency shelters and updating the supplies and communication equipment, maintaining personnel training, which I know is do= ne but it's something that is a good project to have on a hazard mitigation pl= an because there are some communities that let their training fall behind but I know that Watertown is not one of them, but it's in here and simply is a project that would maintain the personnel training which we're confident is going to continue happening in Town.

<= /p>
            The next one is the wind hazard tornado project that I talked about. Evaluating and considering explain= ing the tree clearing program to protect power lines from possible tree damage. Developing and evalua= ting emergency backup power needs. I know that this has been something that's been on-going, taking a look at wh= ere emergency backup power is needed in Town, emergency shelters and places like that. One of the interesting = things about this particular project, in hazard mitigation planning, is the purcha= se of emergency generators. While you would think that that would be an ideal = thing to do under the hazard mitigation grant program, strictly purchase of emerg= ency response and backup generators is not considered to be under this program t= o be a qualifying project so therefore it needs to be tied into some other kind = of planning effort that could include also the purchase of emergency backup generators. The idea is that = there are other federal emergency management agencies, other department of homela= nd security projects that would address that kind of hardware purchase.

Watertown Town Council

Public Hearing

October 23, 2006

Page 8

            The last is evaluate potential and develop projects to obtain flood areas as op= en space. The greenway projects = are moving forward, one of the things that the plan wants to do is to try and coordina= te plans of conservation and development with hazard mitigation projects and t= he idea of obtaining open space as being appropriate, and river corridor purch= ases and preventing future development is something that is always encouraged as part of the hazard mitigation planning process.

<= /p>
            Those are the highlights that are currently included in the plan. We feel that it's a good cross sec= tion of projects for the Town and it's sort of the building block that can be us= ed by the Town to continue to pursue hazard mitigation projects and to put you= in a position that you can qualify for both the maximum federal assistance that will be available in the event of a disaster that's declared and also put y= ou in a position to pursue the grants is something that you are well qualified= to do. And that is the outline t= hat I had prepared to present to you tonight and I'd be happy to answer any questions, or we can address any other aspects of the Plan that I haven't covered.

<= /p>
            Mr. Rinaldi: Steel Brook - for example it's= a very costly project, we've been looking at it for quite some time. Would a project like that have to = be complete before we could apply for funds, or apply for funds (inaudible)b before we start the project?

<= /p>
            Mr. Sonnichsen: No, the farther along that you are= , and one of the reasons that I thought that a couple of the flood control projec= ts that you've been looking at are well qualified for the potential for future= funding, is that if you have a specific project and I know there's been a lot of engineering study done and the project is really very close to being at a p= oint that it could move to the next step, because the planning has been done, th= at kind of a project that's not a sort of let's see what we're going to do here type of project, puts you in a great place to qualify for grant funds becau= se you're going to need to look at things like that the cost ratios and some v= ery detailed things in order to be able to qualify so you don't need to have the project completed. As a matte= r of fact, I think in the case of Steel Brook, you're probably in about as good a position as you can be, how many funds you're getting, what level of fundin= g is going to be forthcoming is something that is always dynamic.

<= /p>
      = ;      Mr. Rinaldi: I know we already spent a large amount of money, for example Turkey Brook, something to the t= une of $4,000,000 and that problems has been addressed so obviously Steel Brook= is the next big flooding problem that we have to take a look at. Now FEMA, they help us out, they g= ive us grants, would the money come faster than it did for <= st1:place w:st=3D"on">New Orleans? (Tape #1, Side A ended - may have = missed some.)

<= /p>
            Mr. Sonnichsen: The best way of handling it and the reason what this program is, it's a proactive program that you're going to = be doing these things before something happens, but every year the money becom= es available and if you're in line for a project and there is a disaster you a= re in excellent position to be able to get additional disaster relief funds th= at would address that problem because you could say look, here's our hazard mitigation plan, we identified Steel Brook as being a project that needed t= o be done before the flood happened and now we really need the money and you can= use that as something that would assist you in getting additional disaster assi= stance to be able to pursue the project.

Watertown Town Council

Public Hearing

October 23, 2006

Page 9

<= /p>
      = ;      Mr. Rinaldi: So the next logi= cal step would be to get this approved?

<= /p>
            Mr. Sonnichsen: FEMA says, I don't have the offici= al letter, I have Woodbury's letter that came through on October 19th, but Watertown's has be= en drafted and you will receive by the Town in the next few days, and basicall= y it says thank you for giving us the opportunity to review the plan. We've determined that the Plan is satisfactory and meets all of the mandatory requirements for adoption by the local governing body, and as you know formal adoption is required and then = you will have a plan that meets the, confirming the Town's eligibility to apply= for mitigation funding through FEMA's Pre-Disaster PDM Program, Hazard Mitigati= on Grant Program and Flood Mitigation Assistance Programs, so basically what t= his does is adopting the plan will put you in a position to be able to quality = for grant funds.

<= /p>
      = ;      Mr. Rinaldi: Maybe Chuck or R= oy can answer this, to adopt this Plan, would this have to be done solely by Town = Council, or do you need other approvals as well?

<= /p>
            Mr. Cavanaugh: To the best of my knowledge, the o= nly legislative approval would be Town Council since this is for Town planning.=

<= /p>
      = ;      Mr. Rinaldi: Any other questions? Virginia, do you want to say anything?=

<= /p>
3.&nb= sp;        Adjournment=

Mr. Rinaldi, Vice Chairman, Closed the Public Hearing at 7:36 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,

Paul Rinaldi, Vice Chairman

        &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;            &= nbsp;           &nbs= p;             = Town Council

&n= bsp;

A= pproved: _______________________________

      Lynn M. LaF= orme, Clerk