The Plainville
Cit itiz ize en
Volume 11, Number 50
Plainville’s Only Weekly Newspaper
Town’s waste disposal plan goes to public hearing By Maura Gaffney The Plainville Citizen
The Town Council will hold a public hearing on Monday, Dec. 17, at 7:30 p.m. regarding a proposed contract with Covanta Energy for waste disposal and recycling. Immediately following the hearing, the council is expected to vote on whether to approve the new contract. The town’s current contract for the processing of solid waste at Covanta’s waste-to-energy facility in Bristol will expire on June 30, 2014. Negotiations for the new 20-year contract with Covanta have been taking place over the course of the past 18 months, according to Town Manager Robert E. Lee. The Covanta facility in Bristol processes 650 tons of solid waste into 16.3 megawatts of renewable en-
ergy every day with most of the energy being sold to Connecticut Light & Power, according to Covanta Bristol, Inc. Plainville has been able to negotiate favorable contract terms and pricing with Covanta due to its membership in the Bristol Resource Recovery Facility Operating Committee, a regional partnership made up of 14 cities and towns. “If we work together, we’re going to get a better deal,” said Lee noting that BRRFOC towns make up nearly half of the capacity for the plant. Member towns include Berlin, Branford, Bristol, Burlington, Hartland, New Britain, Plainville, Plymouth,Prospect, Southington, Seymour, Warren, Washington and Wolcott.
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Thursday, December 13, 2012
Hear those sleigh bells ringing
Citizen photo by Maura Gaffney
Plainville held its community tree lighting and downtown holiday get-together Dec. 6. It was a beautiful night and events included rides throughout town in a horse-drawn carriage. For more photos see page 8.
See Waste, page 11
Chief asks council to add extra officer to force Move should reduce overtime costs By Maura Gaffney The Plainville Citizen
A proposal to expand the Plainville Police Department police force was discussed during the Town Council meeting on Dec. 3. Town Manager Robert Lee and police Chief Matthew Catania notified the Town Council that during the upcoming Dec. 17 meeting, the council will be asked to approve new police officer appointments which will expand the size of the police force from 34 to 35.
“In talking to the chief over the last couple of months, we’ve discussed the possibility of adding an additional officer, and we feel there’s potential for cost savings, especially in the area of overtime and given what we’ve faced in terms of some of the turnover of the staff,” Lee said. “We’ve had people retire at higher salary, and if we replace them with people at lower salary, we feel there are some win-win situations there.” Catania said the town staff has spent a lot of time and effort on the recruitment process of late, but it’s been difficult because many applicants wash out through background checks. The chief said he’s recently managed to get three candidates
with clean backgrounds, and he’d like to seize the opportunity by getting all three into the police academy in January. “That would bring the strength of the force to 35,” he said. “We’re currently authorized for 34. Thirty-five was the 2009 number, then we went back to 34. I believe we can utilize that extra person on the street, and I believe it will cut overtime down and we’ll be able to make some changes in the way we police.” Catania also noted that there is potential over the course of the next year that the force may lose at least one employee due to personnel issues which he was not at liberty to discuss. If that happens, Catania
said, “we’ll be down to 34 again, if we go to 35.” On another police-related matter, Town Council Vice Chairman Scott Saunders noted that the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association recently awarded the Larry & Shirley Bostrom Pillars of Change award to Chief Catania on behalf of the Plainville Police Department. Saunders congratulated the police chief on behalf of the council. “This is an award honoring those chiefs and departments who have taken a stand against domestic violence and who have altered their practices to bring law enforcement into the modern era with regard to this issue,” Saunders said.