Health Department Tests Show No Contamination At Kolman Farms

In January the Middletown Common Council instructed the Health Department to conduct water tests near water sources on and near the Kolman Farms on Higby Road. Salvatore Nesci, of the Health Department reported to the Board of Health that according to tests his department conducted and there is no contamination of water sources by the composting operation on the farm.

In other business the Board of Health voted to deny an exemption which would allow a Wall Street resident, Patty Stickney, from keeping a horse on her property at 32 Wall Street on a lot which measures .27 acres. Town ordinances prohibit keeping horses, chickens or other livestock within 200 feet of any dwelling.

Despite her pleas that she wanted to bring her horse Jazz "home" from a boarding stable in Cromwell, the board agreed that granting the exception would set a worrisome precedent.

The Board also refused to lift a legal citation against Homer Scoville, owner of 835 Washington Street (site of a proposed PriceChopper), after the property was cleaned up but not sealed against illegal occupation by homeless squatters.

In the Director's report, Dr. Joseph Havlicek indicated that the department had prepared four prospective budget projections under orders by the mayor. At "level service," the budget projected a shortfall of $18,000. Havlicek cited the projected state budget as largely responsible for the shortfall, indicating that the Governor offered incentivized funding levels based on the willingness of municipalities to develop a regional approach to services. Havilek and Nesci both argued that Middletown should reject and overtures toward regionalization because the city would lose its autonomy, and would have to give up the more than $100,000 in revenue it realizes each year.

Board member and Common Council member David Bauer suggested that rejecting the idea of regionalism, without a thorough study of its effect on cost and revenue, was not a reasonable approach.

Nesci, indicating the case of Patty Stickney, argued that autonomy would not allow residents like Stickney to address their concerns to a local board. In the case of Stickney, she was allowed nearly 50 minutes to make her case to the Board of Health.

Common Council expresses alarm at composting operation

(Ellie Kelsey offers evidence of leachate contamination before the Common Council Monday night.)

An unexpected brouhaha erupted in Council chambers Monday evening during the regular monthly Council meeting when Council members voted to suspend rules to discuss the public comments provided by resident Eleanor "Ellie" Kelsey.

Kelsey, who lives on Higby Road and is a longtime attendee of Council and Zoning board meetings provided extensive evidence that the leaf composting operation on the Kolman Farm on Higby Road was in violation with its original agreement with the city. Her presentation was similar to one she presented to before the Planning and Zoning commission in December.

Kelsey claims that Kolman has turned the onetime leaf composting operation, for which Middletown pays $20,000 annually, into an extensive solid waste operation which has included road sweepings from the town of Berlin, road debris trucked to the site by state DOT contractor Empire Paving during the rebuilding of route 66, wood chips, tree stumps and other debris. These operations, Kelsey claims, have caused deterioration of the property, and possible contamination of groundwater, and other nearby bodies of water.

Kelsey brandished a bottle of what she claimed was leachate from the operation which had been collected by another Higby Road neighbor, Donna White. And she came armed with detailed reports for each Council member, and enlarged maps and photos of the site.

Kelsey, who occasionally undercut her own argument by admitting, "I may not be right, but I think I am," seemed quite convinced of the claims she was making before the Council.

Council members who spoke were uniformally aghast at the deterioration at the Kolman Farms, and various Council members including Thomas Serra, David Bauer, Gerry Daley, Ron Klattenberg and Phil Pessina wanted to know how the operation got so out of hand, and who in the city was responsible for testing, oversight, and ultimately halting what appeared to them to be an illegal operation adjacent to a city reservoir.

Councilors fired their questions at city staff, including environmental resource specialist James Sipperly, health department enforcement officer Sal Nesci, water and sewer department head Guy Russo, city planner Bill Warner, and manager of the public works department Bill Russo.

Nesci, Sipperly and Guy Russo declared the resevervoir and nearby wells, free of contamination from the leachate, though admitted to Councilman Klattenberg that groundwater and surface water near the operation had not been tested, and that testing at the "worst possible location" might reveal contamination. Warner indicated that John Kolman had been cited by the state DEP for an illegal composting operation, and that he had been served two cease and desist orders from the city.

The most explosive admission of the evening came, when under withering questioning from Councilman Vincent Loffredo, Public Works Director William Russo admitted that the City of Middletown Public Works Department itself had dumped potentially contaminated road sweepings on the Kolman property. That dumping is a clear violation of the original city agreement with Kolman to only compost discarded leaves on the property. What's more, under the original agreement, it appears the Public Works department was given the responsibility of monitoring the composting operation. The admission also diluted the Council's shock that the town of Berlin had been dumping road sweepings on the property.

Kolman's neighbor Donna White also testified to seeing Middletown city trucks dumping wood chips and road kill at the Kolman property.

Councilman Daley recommended that the city use the leverage of the contract to force Kolman to clean up his farm

Councilman Streeto recommended a workshop on the topic with an invitation to Kolman, and his attorney, to attend and explain his side of the story. That workshop is scheduled for March.

Planning and Zoning Board member Ron Borelli testified that annual testing, in surface wells, which was to have been done by the city for the past fifteen years, had apparently never taken place.

"This has been going on for 15 years," Borelli declared. "If the soil, and the water is contaminated at the site, we're too late. We haven't been doing our job."

Councilors urged the mayor to ensure that all responsible city departments immediately begin water tests on the site, and take all measures necessary to get the operation back within the original guidelines. The mayor readily agreed.

In the end, the Council voted to end the suspension of rules and return to the regular meeting