Goshen Board of Finance:
3/25/26 BOF Regular Meeting 7:30 PM
Present: Ned Bixler, Chairman; Robert Valentine, Vice Chairman; Scott Tillmann, James Korner, Paul Collins, Lorraine Lucas. Patrick Reilly, Alternate. Absent: Robert Layer, Alternate
The Board reviewed financial reports. Valentine gave kudos to Recreation Director Erin Reilly for greater donations than were budgeted, calling it "a nice thing to see."
In the First Selectman’s report, Breakell addressed the Town contract with USA Hauling & Recycling that concludes in 2027. He reported that he and Finance Board member Paul Collins met with USA to discuss a proposed five-year fixed cost contract based on three years’ tonnage. The savings to the town in waste removal fees was reported to be $71,760.
Breakell also reported that employee benefits will see a 10.5% increase in health insurance cost, and that a proposal for website upgrade would involve a $16,000 one-time charge, and then $11,000 annually. A reduction in the Public Works Capital budget was proposed by removing an excavator and public works supervisor pick-up truck. The Board of Selectmen voted to allocate $12,000 to each of the 3 publicly accessible lakes for weed control. Budgets for Town hall window replacements were also discussed.
Several motions were carried, for proposed 2026-2027 budgets:
4/22/26 BOF Regular Meeting 7:30 PM
NO ABSENCES
The Board reviewed financial reports and discussed potential shortfalls in investment needs, building officials fees that will be about $16,000 short.
The Board discussed the current status of the trash contract negotiations and budget with 1st Selectman Breakell.
“This whole thing with the transfer station, it's confusing”, Breakell said. “There's a lot of moving parts. It's a big mess. if you ask me. But number one, if the state legislature says you don't get the transfer station, that's it. Game over. But in the meantime, assuming the transfer station is operated by the NRRA, even that stuff, I had a meeting with Rista (Malanca) from Northwest COG. I had a meeting with Joe Rocco. I had another meeting with this guy, Rich… who runs Enviro Express, who runs the transfer station now. And then I went to the NRRA board meeting, and then I had another separate meeting with Dan Jarrett from Hartford, who's the chairman of the NRRA. And long story short is, they don't know what's going to happen.”
“And just to be clear,” Valentine explained, “NRRA is the COG entity created for the work of the transportation transit site.”
“At first, I didn't really think it was that big a deal,” Breakell continued. “But with the numbers that they presented us from the COG and from Enviro Express, it's about between $20 and $25 a ton savings of what we're currently paying now. I don't know how exactly they can pull that off, but that's the numbers they proposed to us through contract, assuming it's a transfer station. That's also assuming Torrington comes on board, Litchfield comes on board, we're on board. All the towns are going to come on board. Cornwall did have their town meeting and is on board. Sharon is on board. There's just so many things about, we think maybe possibly if it happens, it's crazy. So I guess the long or the short answer is we just do no harm and just wait it out to the last minute and see what happens with the legislature on a transfer station. Because ultimately the legislature is going to make this decision. It isn't really up to us.”
The impact of accepting the USA Waste & Recycling 5-year contract proposal was discussed next. Valentine expressed concerns that “if USA hauling has the only transfer station in the neighborhood, [it] gives them the ability … to be able to say to other haulers, your fee to dump our transfer station is x.”
Collins, who had joined Breakell in a meeting with USA, asserted that couldn’t happen under the proposed contract. “If we have a contract with them that includes whoever's falling… that was part of it. That any hauler that had at our trash got our price.”
“They couldn't say, well, we don't like you?” Valentine asked.
“No, they could not”, Collins responded. Valentine: “You're a competitor. So we're going to charge you more?” Collins: “Nope… It’s in the contract.” Valentine: “For five years.” Collins: “Yes.” Valentine: “That's off after five.” Collins: “Well, the contracts are off after five.”
Valentine: “My concern is this. We, we have seen costs of trash pickup that you and I and everyone else pays in this town go up exponentially because USA hauling has bought out all their competitors. And the only competitor that they have right now is Rocco Carting who came in subsequent to them buying out their other competitors, right? That for 1600 households, if they just raise it $20 a month, Well, that's a lot for our residents. And we should consider that when we enter into an agreement ... Because I know it might not be in our budget. It will be in all of our budgets.
Collins: “The trucking is separate from the tipping. Yeah. It's a totally separate thing. And that's what they do. I mean, what you're saying is true. I mean, at the end of five years, sure, anything can happen. I mean, I can't imagine that we'll end up with another transfer station someplace around here that we could use.”
Valentine: “I guess I'm saying I agree with Seth, let's see what happens and let's not jump into a contract with USA right off the bat.”
Tillman: “I think the question is, it's $125 a ton for our garbage, but... What are they paying USA? What does Rocco pay USA?”
Collins: “It doesn't matter if Rocco delivers, we get billed… He doesn't pay to drop that there because it's ours. It's billed on our [Town of Goshen] account.
Tillman: “So USA would have no way of upping the charge to Rocco to dump it?” Collins: “No.”
The board went on to discuss other budget issues, including emergency management and the role of available grant funds. Town employee compensation and benefits were also discussed.
A motion to receive a merit-based payroll budget increase of 3.5% carried.
Valentine said “We didn't want to be the highest paying town, and we certainly don't want to be the lowest paying town. We want to be in the midpoint…par with other municipalities, most of which are unionized.”
A motion to increase employee contributions to benefits from 1% to 6% also carried.
