“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” ~ Malcolm S. Forbes
Prst. Std. U.S. Postage Paid Naugatuck, CT #27
FR EE
Bee Intelligencer AN INDEPENDENTLY OWNED FREE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
Informing the towns of Middlebury, Southbury, Woodbury, Naugatuck, Oxford and Watertown
www.bee-news.com
Volume XI, No. 9
August 2015
McCormack to challenge St. John By MARJORIE NEEDHAM Middlebury Democrats endorsed the town’s Board of Finance Chairman Michael McCormack to face the Republican incumbent, First Selectman Edward B. St. John, in the contest for Middlebury’s top spot in the Nov. 3 election. Candidates playing musical parties this year are Brenda Carter, a former Democrat who is now a Republican, and David Cappelletti, a Republican who was endorsed by the Democrats and is expected to change his party affiliation to Democrat. Carter is running for a position on the Region 15 Board of Education; Cappelletti is an incumbent Board of Finance member. Carter will face Democrat Lois Yager, who joined the MDTC earlier this year. Both selectmen, Republican Elaine M.R. Strobel and Democrat Ralph Barra, were endorsed by their respective parties. McCormack and St. John frequently are publicly at odds with each other during Board of Finance meetings. Whether the animosity they show there will be evident in their respective campaigns remains to be seen. The Middlebury Republican Town Committee met Tuesday, July 21. After a brief business meeting, they went into executive session and emerged from it with a printed list of candidates created after the nominating committee met with those interested in being endorsed. The biggest surprise on the Republican ticket was its two candidates for the Board of Finance. Instead of endorsing incumbents Michael Kenausis and Cappelletti, the Republicans endorsed Rita Smith and Dawn Calabrese. MRTC Chairman Tom King said Cappelletti was interviewed, but Kenausis was not. He said Kenausis did not respond to MRTC correspondence. Republican St. John will run for his 15th term. He said Wednesday, “I have lots of unfinished business. We have a capital plan that needs to be finalized and developed. The most critical question here is that taxpayers can afford it.” He said the main big-ticket items are updating mechanical equipment, replacing roofs and replacing underground fuel tanks at the Public Works Department. He said the town also was seriously behind in road improvements. “I think we’ve got a great team running for office this November,” St. John said. “I always look forward to serving this community.” The Middlebury Democratic Town Committee (MDTC) held its caucus Wednesday, July 22, with some 17 Democrats present. The biggest surprises there were its endorsement of Republican Cappelletti as a candidate for the Board of Finance and its failure to cross endorse Republican Tax Collector Jean Dawes as it has in the past. Many of the Democratic
candidates were chosen in answer to this question from Chairman Curt Bosco or Secretary Anastasia Persico, “OK. Who wants to run for this office?” Ann Merriam Feinberg nominated McCormack for first selectman. There were no other nominees. In accepting the nomination, McCormack said, “I think it’s very important we win this election … The way to keep taxes down is to cut the budget and bring in industries.” He said the town has been on a spending spree and needs to exercise financial restraint. “We’ve been trying to steer the ship in a certain direction, but it’s very hard to do that from the Board of Finance. It will be a lot easier to do that from the Board of Selectmen,” he said. When the Democrats reached the tax collector position, MDTC chairman Curt Bosco suggested they cross endorse the Republican incumbent, Jean Dawes, as they have in the past. McCormack said, “No.” He said the Democrats should run someone for tax collector. When no one volunteered to run for tax collector, McCormack again objected to cross-endorsing Dawes. McCormack then spoke up for Republican Board of Finance incumbent David Cappelletti. He said Cappelletti was a great member of the Board of Finance and an auditor who had just started his own firm. Persico said Cappelletti told her he would change parties if the Democrats endorsed him. McCormack nominated Cappelletti, and the MDTC voted to endorse him. The MDTC endorsed Joseph Drauss for the other Board of Finance position. Persico said, “See, Mike already runs the town.” Three positions, all Republican, are open on the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA). Bosco said “It’s a good time to run three and get some Democrats on there.” They endorsed Punyada Bhaduri, Mark Petrucci and Persico for those positions. Returning to the yet-unfilled tax collector position, Selectman Ralph Barra and Board of Assessment Appeals Chairman Stephen Ferrucci spoke up for Dawes. Barra said “She has done a great job. She’s very competent. I have worked with her and I know.” Ferrucci said the position was a fulltime job, failing to get re-elected might affect her pension and this was likely the last time she would run for office before retiring. McCormack said this has nothing to do with her pension; people are vested after 10 years in the plan. He again objected to cross-endorsing her. “She never had a tax sale until two years ago. The extra effort we needed just wasn’t there,” he said. “Leave the position blank.” Although the MDTC did put up a candidate for town treasurer, Persico, McCormack described the position as “a political patronage job.”
Inside this Issue Adopt a Rescue Pet.....4 Obituaries...................5 Classifieds...................7 Parks & Recreation......4
– See McCormack on page 5
MONday
August 3
Diversified Tax Tidbits...5 Puzzles.......................7 Here’s a tip.................7 School Daze................3 Library Highlights........2 Veterans Post..............5 Library Lines................2 Winning Ways.............5
Editorial Office: Email: mbisubmit@gmail.com Phone: 203-577-6800 Mail: P.O. Box 10, Middlebury, CT 06762 Advertising Sales: Email: mbiadvertising@gmail.com
sunday SATURDAY
August 16-22
FRIday
August 28
THURSday
Sept. 1
Standing in front of the U.S. Courthouse in New Haven are, left to right, attorney Dan Thibodeau, Jim Morotto and Paul Perrotti. They were passing time while waiting for jury deliberations in Perrotti’s trial to conclude. (Marjorie Needham photo)
Perrotti jury returns partial verdict, defense plans action By MARJORIE NEEDHAM Thursday, July 23, the jury in the federal trial of Middlebury’s former fire chief, Paul Perrotti, returned guilty verdicts on two of three counts against Perrotti. Monday, July 27, Perrotti and his defense attorney, Martin Minnella, held a press conference to announce plans to ask the judge to throw out the two guilty verdicts and, if that fails, to appeal the verdicts to the Second Appellate Court in New York City. The jury found Perrotti guilty on counts 2 and 3 in the United States of America versus Paul Perrotti. Members could not agree on guilt or innocence on count 1, so they returned what is called a partial verdict, which the court accepted. When Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah P. Karwan if she would agree to dismiss count 1, she asked him for a few days to consider the matter. The counts, one for each year for the years 2011 through 2013, charge that Perrotti “did embezzle, steal, obtain by fraud, intentionally misapply and otherwise without authority knowingly convert to his own use property and funds valued at $5,000 or more, which property and funds were owned by and under the care, custody and control of the Town of Middlebury.” Judge Meyer set a tentative sentencing date of Oct. 29, 2015.
After the verdict was returned, Perrotti said, “It’s been an uphill battle from the start. I’m fighting the United States of America. I don’t think the jury understood the evidence.” Defense attorney Martin Minnella said he would file a motion to arrest the judgment. “They (the prosecution) threw a lot of numbers at the jury,” he said. “The judge said they couldn’t use that to convict him. The numbers with Kim (Connors) had nothing to do with his guilt … The prosecution threw out exhibits and never showed they had a connection with his case.” Minnella said the charge was that Perrotti took goods from the town, and the prosecution provided no evidence or testimony to connect him with taking goods from the town. “They inundated them (the jury) with hundreds of invoices that were not connected to anything. They didn’t provide a scintilla of evidence to connect a criminal act to Mr. Perrotti,” Minnella said. “This is one of the weakest cases I’ve ever seen.” At the Monday press conference, Minnella said he would pursue the Rule 29(a) motion he filed with the court earlier. This motion asks the judge to enter a judgment of acquittal for offenses for which the evidence is insufficient to sustain a conviction. After the jury returned its verdict, Minnella asked the judge to rule on his motion, but
Meyer said, “We are not prepared to rule at this time.” The FBI press release ran under a headline saying Perrotti was convicted of embezzling funds, but in court Karwan agreed he actually was being charged with converting town property for his own personal profit. The press release also said the government believes Perrotti embezzled more than $70,000. Minnella said Monday, “Where have they shown even remotely that he took $70,000? Their evidence showed nothing.” Minnella said the FBI spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in manpower and all they came up with that was unaccounted for was two doorbells and $90 worth of red glass globes. The jury in this trial initially failed to agree on any of the counts. When they returned to the courtroom after deliberating Monday, July 20, and half of Wednesday (they did not deliberate Tuesday) and told the judge they could not agree, Meyer told them they needed to spend more time deliberating and reviewing the evidence, and sent them back to the jury room to continue their deliberations. They then returned their partial verdict late Thursday afternoon. The FBI press release said the maximum term for each of the counts is 10 years in prison, so Perrotti’s maximum could be 20 years behind bars if the judge so chooses.
Middlebury says power plant a risk to aviation By MARJORIE NEEDHAM Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) on May 14, 2015, obtained a favorable decision from the Connecticut Siting Council on its proposal to build a 785-MW power plant adjacent to Oxford Airport. The decision came despite protests and hundreds of hours of testimony from area residents opposed to the project. At least one remaining obstacle may prevent the plant from being built – its hazard to air traffic. And Middlebury’s airport representative, Raymond Pietrorazio, is doing all he can to provide authorities with supporting studies that show the twin-stack
power plant close to the runway does, indeed, present a hazard to aircraft. He filed a seven-page petition with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) June 29 asking for discretionary review of an earlier FAA determination of no hazard to air navigation and related FAA reviews for this obstruction evaluation. Pietrorazio said he is bound and determined to get industrial plumes to be considered in any obstruction evaluation. Currently, the FAA does not consider smoke plumes to be an obstacle to air navigation. Pietrorazio said the conclusions of two previous studies of smoke plumes conflicted with each other; therefore, a third study is needed.
In his petition, Pietrorazio said it is the position of the Town of Middlebury that the FAA is not carrying out its statutory responsibility to the safety of the airspace and that its actions and non-actions are arbitrary, capricious and not in the best interests of flight. He then proceeded to document this statement. On July 8, 2015, the FAA returned a notice of “valid petition received” to him. It said his petition met the agency’s criteria and they will consider his petition and advise him if the discretionary review is granted or denied.
– See Power Plant on page 3
Middlebury Special Town Meeting What: When: Where:
Vote to appropriate to Account 01-76-00-9854 for Fiscal Year 2014 -2015 $95,433.97 for expenses incurred as a result of blizzard January 2015 DR 4213 CT in 2015. 6:30 p.m. Shepardson Community Center, Room 26, 1172 Whittemore Road, Middlebury
Connecticut sales tax-free week on clothing and footwear Info:
This year items costing less than $100 will be tax free this week; in previous years items costing less than $300 were tax free. Learn more on the Connecticut Department of Revenue website, www.ct.gov/DRS.
Refresh yourself with a cool Watermelon Aqua Fresca
Page 6
Look for the September print issue of the Middlebury Bee-Intelligencer in your mail box or on a rack or shelf in a business/library near you.
Regional School District 15 first day of school
Published by The Middlebury Bee Intelligencer Society, LLC - 2030 Straits Turnpike, Middlebury, CT 06762 - Copyright 2015
Send mail to
P.O. Box 10, Middlebury CT 06762
203-577-6800
Visit us at 2030 Straits Turnpike, Suite 1