Torrington City Council

5/4/26 6:31 PM

Present: Mayor Molly Spino, City Councilors Paul Cavagnero, Anne Ruwet, Armand Maniccia, Rachel Hannon-Harrel and Chris Beyus. Present over zoom was Councilor David Oliver.

The Torrington City Council voted 4-2 to extend its contract with USA Waste and Recycling for municipal solid waste disposal at the council’s May 4 meeting.

Mayor Molly Spino and councilors in support of the measure said it would extend the existing contract over the next 10 years, and provide much-needed savings for the city as it navigates a difficult budget year. The company handles waste disposal at a transfer station in the town of Winsted owned by the company.

In an interview with The Goshen News on May 18, Spino said the contract renewal would not alter current operations. She added that the contract had been proposed to the previous mayoral administration before Spino was elected in 2025.

“They honored that price with us and retroactively gave us a price of $116 a ton for this fiscal year, that saved us about $75,000 so we received a refund from them for that,” Spino noted. “Going forward, our tip fees with the previous contract were going to be $128 per ton for fiscal year 2027 and now they're $122 a ton, so that's another savings of about $75,000.”

The move raised concerns from some councilors, as well as other officials with the Northwest Resource Recovery Authority (NRRA) who have for years been trying to offer municipal solid waste and recycling services through the public sector using the Torrington Transfer Station.

Councilors Anne Ruwet and Rachel Hannon-Harrel voted against the new 10-year deal with the Enfield-based company. Ruwet and Michael Magistrali, a member of the NRRA and the former Torrington corporation counsel, said they worry about the length of the contract.

Magistrali spoke at the public comment section of the meeting, said the NRRA has been trying to take control of the Torrington Transfer Station and offer municipal solid waste and recycling services to municipalities in the region.

The move to extend a contract with USA could disrupt that process, he noted. Torrington’s contract with USA, Magistrali said, raised concerns about whether the city is following its own procurement guidelines.

“Transfer of the transfer station title to the NRRA, and allowing the NRRA to operate the transfer station is in the public's best interest,” he said. “We've been working diligently to do that.”

Magistrali also questioned whether the process to move forward with a potential contract was transparent.

“I'm baffled and confused by what's happening now, and I'm also baffled and a little disappointed in the lack of transparency, not just to the public at large, but to me as a member of the NRRA,” Magistrali said.

Ruwet, who alongside Councilor Rachel Hannon-Harrel voted against the measure, said she disagreed with the need for a long-term deal with USA “I don't like it. Ten years is a long time, opt out or no opt out,” she said.

Other city officials aimed to quell other concerns raised by Magistrali during the public comment period. City Attorney Tomasz Kalinowski said the contract would not violate the city’s contracting laws.

“This proposed extension was on the basis of an original contract from 2022,” he said. “That… allows for this board to waive that process and authorize open market, direct negotiation without competitive bidding.”

Deciding to negotiate with USA however, is a fiscal move that gives the city flexibility, Spino said, noting that the contract has an out for the city after three years.

The mayor noted she feels the NRRA being able to operate trash services feels too far away. Spino said she understands why some may see the extension of the contract with USA as something that undermines the mission of the NRRA, but added that details on the operations of them aren’t solid yet.

The NRRA, Spino said, has up until recently shown inexperience in running a transfer station. The organization has recently reached out to the Housatonic Resources Recovery Authority (HRRA) to learn about their operations, Spino and Magistrali said. The HRRA is a regional, governmental, waste management and recycling authority serving 14 municipalities in western Connecticut.

Despite the collaboration between the two resource recovery authorities, Spino said certain incidents have made it difficult to be confident in the operations of the NRRA.

“There's been a lack of communication with the municipalities, at least with mine,” Spino noted. “There's been conversations that have been had that I have not been a part of. I find out about them secondhand, and to me that's a problem. That's not how you do business. [Meeting] minutes were never posted, or agendas were never noticed, so without having the full picture and being a part of the entire conversation, I can't be confident in their operations.”