Cromwell Council Clarifies Facilities Committee's Capital-Review Role
Town Council · Meeting of September 16, 2026
Cromwell council reviews building assessments, stalls on Community Field Road land purchase. Facilities Committee chairman Jason LeBlanc reported six town buildings mostly rated "good," but called the community building bad enough that it "should be rated emergency," recommending no further spending there until officials decide its future. Town Manager Tony said talks to buy property on Community Field Road remain stalled over the seller's refusal to fund a full environmental study, with a possible executive session floated for next week.
The council also learned a $15 million Route 372 reconstruction through Pearson Park will require a 20 percent town match, unanimously reappointed Phyllis Becker to the Conservation Commission through 2030, and accepted, "with regret," a commission member's resignation. Mayor James Demetriades said the town manager search is "moving really well," with committee interviews "forthcoming imminently."
In the full story:
- Who Was There
- Organizations And Documents Referenced
- The complete report — 3,777 words
Source: the Town Council meeting of September 16, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.
The Full Article
Citizens' Comments, Round One
The council split public comment into two sessions this meeting after hearing from residents that they wanted chances to raise issues both before and after the night's business. In the first round, James Rood of 25 High Ridge Road submitted written remarks urging the council, as it works on the town manager search, to seek "an individual who is experienced, energetic, creative, personable, and visionary," language he said he had also used at the council's July 27 special meeting. No other residents spoke in the first round.
Commission and Staff Reports
The council received several written reports without extended discussion. The Belden Library received a Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection grant to lease 16 laptop computers to residents in economic need; all 16 have been claimed, with more applicants than available machines. The town's human services director secured a separate $2,880 grant from the Connecticut Age Well Collaborative to fund a season of Tai Chi instruction for seniors.
A report relayed from the Board of Education, at the mayor's request, detailed a round of standardized test results. District reading benchmarks came in 9.8 percentage points above the state average and math 7.5 points above. High school SAT reading scores ranked third among the 24 towns in Cromwell's District Reference Group, beating the state average by 21.5 percentage points and rising nine points from the prior year to 76.8 percent proficiency; SAT math scores beat the state average by 16.5 points, also the third-highest in the group. Among students taking Advanced Placement classes, 151 enrolled and 86.75 percent earned college credit, with a 100 percent pass rate in AP calculus. Elementary literacy proficiency in first grade rose 19 percent, elementary math climbed 34 percentage points to 85 percent proficiency, and intermediate school scores rose 24 percent year over year. The report also noted the district's human resources director has resigned for another district and a new HR director is being hired, and that a new superintendent has begun work.
Public Asset and Facilities Committee: Building Condition Assessments
This was the meeting's most substantive item. Committee chairman Jason LeBlanc told the council his group has spent roughly five months producing condition assessments of six town buildings, working with the town manager and public works director, ahead of an October charter deadline for a capital project list.
The background and stakes: the town charter requires the facilities committee to submit a list of anticipated capital projects to the council annually by October. LeBlanc said this is the committee's first cycle producing baseline documentation, including photographs, to support that list and to allow future comparisons as buildings age.
The question before the council: whether to accept the committee's findings and consider where public capital dollars should go next, and how the reports themselves should be maintained and made accessible going forward.
Substantive content: LeBlanc's reports rated each building on a five-tier scale, from excellent to emergency, with the overall score for each building capped at the level of its single worst finding "so that if there's anything bad, it doesn't get buried," he said. Town hall and the library rated "good," with the roof unassessed due to icy conditions during inspection and cleaning products found stored improperly near electrical equipment. The fieldhouse, whose name LeBlanc gave as sounding roughly like "Dicknobile" in the recording (the correct name should be confirmed against town records), also rated "good," though state fuel-system inspection stickers could not be verified as current. The police department rated "good" overall, with one equipment tag showing a last inspection date of September 2024 that the committee flagged for follow-up, and its roof, replaced within the past two years, still under evaluation for remaining useful life. The public works and transfer station complex rated "good," with a "damaged fence due to theft entry" that has not been resolved. The park and recreation garage rated "good" but for dim restroom lighting, worn fixtures, a graffiti mark on a skate park wall, and a sand pit that creates a pedestrian conflict with maintenance equipment.
The community building fared worst by far. LeBlanc said it "should be rated emergency" but was scored "poor" only because of its low current use. He described cracking and settling brick on all sides, severely deteriorated exterior siding, missing boards and holes through to the interior, no heat, and an inoperable bathroom. "Based on these observations, the space should not be used for anything other than a maintenance garage, storage, or auxiliary workspace in a limited fashion," he told the council, recommending the town make a decision about the building's future before spending further money on it and that a structural safety assessment be conducted if one has not already been done.
The deliberation: council members asked mainly procedural questions about how the reports would be preserved and made public. "Can we migrate them to the town website somehow?" one member asked, after LeBlanc explained the reports currently live in a committee Gmail account. LeBlanc said he would work with staff to post them, likely through the public works department's page. Mayor Demetriades thanked the committee for meeting the October deadline early, noting the charter only required the reports by October and the committee delivered them ahead of schedule. "I know it took hundreds of hours of effort," Demetriades said, calling it "the first step in, hopefully, better documentation."
LeBlanc also told the council the committee has begun similar assessments of the town's four school buildings, sending preliminary findings to the Board of Education for comment, and that it produced roughly 25 pages of internal guidelines so future committees can replicate the process consistently.
Procedural steps and outcome: no vote was required for the reports themselves. Later in the meeting, the council did formally act on a related item, voting unanimously, on a motion by Bonneau and seconded by Henehan, to charge the committee with documenting the town's current capital-needs-request process in a memo, developing recommendations to improve it, and delivering both to the town manager. The clarified charge followed a meeting the committee held over the summer, in either July or August by council members' own uncertain recollection, with the town engineer, public works director and town manager.
Implications and what is next: the committee said it owes the council, by the charter's October deadline, a rolled-up list of capital projects informed by the new assessments and by feedback the Board of Education is expected to provide on the four school buildings. The community building's fate remains an open question for a future meeting.
Mayor's Update: Town Manager Search and a Regional Sewage Letter
Demetriades reported he met with the district's new superintendent and described the meeting as productive. On the town manager search, he said the selection committee has met with its search consultant and discussed next steps, with a first round of committee interviews "forthcoming imminently." Candidates advanced by the committee will next interview with department directors, and finalists will come before the full council in executive session, with Demetriades hoping to interview finalists by the October council meeting or a special meeting that month. He credited the town's clerk, Amanda, a staff member identified only as Ginger, and the search consultant for coordinating the process, and singled out the value of the town's HR director position. "I think the investment in an HR director is paying dividends already," he said, adding he wasn't sure whether a committee member named Mike, whose full identity was not established in the recording, would agree.
Separately, Demetriades said he and Councilor Anne Hulick are finalizing a letter, to be circulated for council approval and comment in October, asking other elected officials in Connecticut River Valley towns to co-sign an appeal to Sen. Chris Murphy's office and the Environmental Protection Agency over sewage overflows into the river. He said he has spoken informally with the mayors of Portland and Rocky Hill about joining the effort and cited a recent estimate that roughly 100 Olympic-size pools' worth of raw sewage had been discharged into the river, along with an E. coli outbreak in Essex tied to a river-fed aquifer. No vote was needed on the update.
Town Manager's Report: Community Field Road Negotiations
The town manager, identified in the recording only as Tony, told the council he held two phone calls with the owner of property on Community Field Road that the town has previously discussed purchasing. He said he conveyed the town's position, developed with input from the town engineer, that a full environmental phase one and, potentially, phase two study would be needed before a purchase. The property owner maintains his existing phase one assessment is sufficient and said he has other prospective buyers.
The deliberation centered on process rather than price. One council member asked how the original phase one study had been conducted and why it might be considered incomplete; the town manager said the timing and scope of that original study left questions about both the interior and exterior condition of structures on the site. Another member asked whether state law caps what the town can pay for a property, which the town manager said is not the case, though the town remains accountable to residents for paying above an appraised value. The town manager also volunteered that he has previously recommended other purchases to prior councils, including 60-61 River Road and an adjacent parking lot, both completed, while a corner property near Community Field Road that he had also recommended was not pursued by a prior council, which he called "a tragedy."
No formal action was taken. The town manager offered to schedule an executive session in the coming weeks if a majority of the council wants to continue the discussion privately; members were asked to contact him individually if interested. In a separate update, the town manager reported that demolition has begun at 100 Berlin Road, on a building he referred to as the old Lord Cromwell property, and that a site at Shunpike and the court has been cleared and is moving toward construction.
Liaison Reports
In a rapid round of updates, one council member reported on a first meeting of a reorganized recreation commission under a new recreation director. Another attended the middle school building committee's August meeting, reporting that solar panel installation was expected to be complete by September 8 and that remaining punch-list items were being resolved. Councilor Anne Hulick said she had not been able to attend the most recent Board of Education meeting but would continue as liaison. Demetriades reported meeting that day with the fire commission's leadership, the town clerk and the two registrars of voters to explore a joint budget and joint voting arrangement between the town and fire district, an idea he said had been rejected roughly a year earlier but drew renewed interest after a fire commission discussion the previous night. Councilor Luna reported attending the Cultural District Commission meeting on August 17, the library commission meeting on September 14, and the youth advisory board on September 15, and corrected a colleague who assumed she also liaised to the senior commission.
Finance Director's Report: Special Revenue Funds
Finance Director Sharon walked the council through roughly a dozen special revenue accounts at a member's request, following up on a prior meeting where the council asked for a breakdown. She organized the accounts to mirror categories used in the town's audit report: general government and social services funds included a transportation grant supporting a part-time senior center driver, an opioid-settlement account that funded a part-time prevention specialist, a land-recording ("low slip") fund, a town clerk fee account, a document-preservation fee fund, and a public health grant from Middletown. Culture and recreation funds included a field maintenance account, a pavilion rental ("picnic") fund, a farmers market fund, and a recreation revolving fund for camp staffing. She also described a public donation grant account covering roughly 30 department-level donation accounts, including one for the Cultural District Commission, and a public safety "tower fund" fed by cell tower revenue and used for police communications equipment.
One council member asked what process would be required to set up a new restricted fund, using open-space land purchases as a hypothetical example. Sharon and the town manager said the council can establish new accounts by resolution, without needing an ordinance, and cited the town's cannabis revenue fund, whose use is restricted by state statute, as a comparable prior example. No vote was taken on the discussion, which the mayor said was "something to talk about" further. Sharon separately noted the town remains mid-audit, with a state filing deadline of December 31 with Connecticut's Office of Policy and Management, and that a colleague identified only as Kyle was unable to attend but is expected at the October meeting.
Tax Refunds
On a motion by Henehan, seconded by Luna, the council approved 31 tax refunds in a single unanimous vote, with no discussion.
Police Department Update
Police Chief Penn reported an August charity softball game between the police and fire departments raised money and school supplies for the Cromwell PTO, with the police department winning. He also reported Sergeant Perricone competed in a nationwide SWAT challenge and finished eighth among roughly 40 officers, an improvement from the previous year. Penn said the department has dropped a shooting-range arrangement with a fishing and game club in favor of continuing its existing arrangement with the town of Berlin, citing what he called disproportionate controversy over the fishing club option. A council member floated the idea of the town eventually funding its own range. No vote was required.
Public Works Director's Report
Public Works Director John (a full-time staffer who did not attend in person; a colleague answered questions on his behalf) submitted a written report covering, among other items, a Shunpike-area flooding and sewer line question that a council member raised. The response indicated the underlying infrastructure belongs to the Water Pollution Control Authority, not the town, and that there is no town-owned land in the affected area; one member noted a staff member named Alice had previously said the WPCA could not act because the area involved private property.
The report also detailed a $15 million state-funded reconstruction of Route 372 through Pearson Park. The state would fund all work under West Street but is asking the town to commit to 20 percent of the cost of the remaining work through the park, which one member estimated could involve 400 to 500 feet of pipe. In response, a council member proposed reviving a capital reserve fund the town had previously used to pay down school debt, arguing dedicated annual savings would help fund such matches going forward. No vote was taken; the report indicated more detail would follow in 2027.
Land Donation at 19 Hicksville Street
The council discussed a proposed donation of roughly five to six acres of land at 19 Hicksville Street, near the highway, restricted from sale or development and required to be kept in its natural state. The council member overseeing the town's land trust, identified as Tony, said legal fees associated with the transfer would need to be addressed and that the matter needs to be resolved by the end of 2026. Members asked whether the natural-state restriction would preclude a walking trail; Tony said he had not asked the donor that question but would follow up. Members raised no objection to proceeding, provided ongoing liability and maintenance costs do not outweigh the benefit of ownership. No formal vote was taken; the consensus was to continue pursuing the donation and report back.
Facilities Committee Charge Clarification
Following on LeBlanc's building-assessment presentation, the council took up a proposal to formally clarify the Public Asset and Facilities Committee's charge. Demetriades explained the committee's current charter language allows it to "review long-term needs and make recommendations" but does not explicitly authorize it to review or recommend changes to the town's capital-needs-request (CNR) process, something the committee has begun doing informally. Amanda, the council's clerk, read a distilled version of proposed language, drafted after LeBlanc submitted a longer write-up: to charge the committee to document the current CNR process in a memo, develop recommendations to improve it, and deliver both to the town manager.
One member argued the committee, having sat through CNR requests with limited documentation and few answers available, is well-positioned to streamline the process, noting the committee meets only monthly and delays compound if information is incomplete. "It's the further we push them down the road" that problems worsen, the member said, adding the goal was to help the council, the town manager and the Board of Education make better-informed capital decisions more quickly.
On a motion by Bonneau, seconded by Henehan, the council voted unanimously to adopt the three-part charge.
Town Manager Search Committee Charge
The council revisited an agenda item questioning the scope of the town manager search committee's charge, after unspecified public feedback raised the issue. Demetriades said that so long as members remain comfortable with the process he had described earlier in his mayor's update, the initial committee interviews followed by director interviews and then council interviews of finalists, no changes to the charge were necessary. Members indicated they were comfortable, and no vote was taken.
Citizens' Comments, Round Two
Resident Mike Kanata of 136 Nookzilla Road, Cromwell (addressed earlier in the meeting as "Mr. Cannata," a spelling discrepancy that should be verified), raised two issues. First, regarding a downtown property discussed earlier in the meeting, he urged the council to consult an environmental attorney, noting that under his understanding of environmental law, liability for pollution generally follows a known polluter rather than a subsequent property owner, though he cautioned that a portion of the property in question was once a town dump and Cromwell itself could bear liability if that section were found to be polluted.
Second, Kanata previewed an upcoming Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on September 24 that will address data centers, stressing he was speaking personally rather than for the commission. He said existing site-plan regulations, beginning around page 173 of the town's zoning regulations and covering water, sewer, infrastructure, shadow lines and proximity to residential areas, already address issues a data center could raise, and that data storage uses are explicitly listed on page 86 as requiring a site plan. He said a firm called IMEG, engaged by a staff member he identified as Andrew, is currently reviewing the regulations again and had found little to change, following an earlier, more thorough overhaul by a firm called SLR several years ago. "I feel we have all the tools in our toolbox that we need presently to address a data center or a rock crusher or a nail salon," Kanata said.
Consent Items
The council approved the minutes of the August 12, 2026 regular meeting on a motion attributed in the recording to "Ryan," seconded by Henehan; no council member named Ryan appears on the roster, and the mover was almost certainly Bonneau. The council then voted, on a motion by Bonneau seconded by Henehan, to reappoint Phyllis Becker, who submitted a letter requesting reappointment as an independent, to the Conservation Commission through 2030. The council separately accepted, with regret, the resignation of a commission member whose name a council member said aloud twice while acknowledging uncertainty about the correct spelling, rendered in the recording as both "Schakowsky" and "Shakowsky." All three votes were unanimous.
Adjournment
With the meeting running roughly four minutes past its scheduled end time, the council voted unanimously, on a motion attributed to "Paul" (likely Councilor Luna) and seconded by Bonneau, to adjourn at 6:34 p.m. A brief final exchange concerned a document related to a previously continued public hearing on zoning regulation changes, which a member confirmed would return at the next council meeting.
Mayor James Demetriades, presiding (identification based on a single first-name reference late in the meeting combined with his role directing proceedings; not independently confirmed). Brian Bonneau, Member, made or seconded most motions of the evening. Jack Henehan, Member, seconded most motions of the evening. Paula G. Luna, Member, participated in discussion; also likely the person referred to twice in the recording as "Paul." Anne Hulick, Member, gave a Board of Education liaison update and is co-drafting the sewage-overflow letter with the mayor. Al Waters, Member, appears to have been absent; referenced only in the third person during the public works discussion. Jamin DeProto, Member, not referenced by name in the available recording; attendance could not be confirmed. Town Manager, referred to only as "Tony," title and first name only; no surname given in the transcript, agenda, or roster. Public Works Director, referred to only as "John"; a colleague answered on his behalf as he did not attend. Finance Director Sharon, presented the special revenue fund breakdown; no surname given. Police Chief Penn, gave the police department update. Amanda, the council's clerk or recording secretary; no surname given. Jason LeBlanc, of Three Cedar Drive, chairman of the Public Asset and Facilities Committee, presented building assessments. James Rood, of 25 High Ridge Road, public commenter on the town manager search. Mike Kanata, of 136 Nookzilla Road, Cromwell, public commenter on environmental liability and data center zoning; also identified himself as a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission speaking personally.
Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) — funded a grant for 16 leased laptops distributed through the Belden Library. Connecticut Age Well Collaborative — awarded a $2,880 grant for senior Tai Chi instruction. Cromwell Board of Education — source of the standardized test data reported to the council and the four school buildings the facilities committee is now assessing. Public Asset and Facilities Committee — presented six building condition assessments and is drafting a memo on the town's capital-needs-request process under its newly clarified charge. Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) — holds the infrastructure and easement responsible for a Shunpike-area drainage and flooding concern raised by a council member. Office of Sen. Chris Murphy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — intended recipients of a planned regional letter on Connecticut River sewage overflows. IMEG — engineering firm currently reviewing the town's zoning regulations, including data center provisions. SLR — engineering firm that previously conducted a more extensive overhaul of the town's use regulations. Connecticut Office of Policy and Management (OPM) — receives the town's annual audit filing, due December 31. Cromwell town charter — requires the Public Asset and Facilities Committee to submit an annual capital project list to the council by October.