On Tuesday, October 14, Newtown Borough Board of Burgesses held a regular meeting. During this meeting, Legislative Council Ordinance Committee Chair Jordana Bloom and Ordinance Committee member Laura Miller spoke to the board about experiences they have had within the Borough and what the Ordinance Committee has discussed so far.

Burgess Peter Schwarz first spoke, “A downside of the neighborhood character and walkability of the Borough has come to light with some increased door-to-door solicitation activity by people representing various commercial entities. There have been some complaints, many complaints, to me and to others … about that activity that is not adequately addressed by our existing ordinances.”

Miller said a resident, Judith Neary, asked Legislative Council a year ago to consider amending the current ordinance or banning solicitation entirely. Neary said the knocks on the door are “prolific.”

Miller said, “It’s the same story, which is you get a knock on the door, and if you ignore it, they continue to knock, and/or they come back. If you answer, they do not take no for an answer or insist on coming back later. Two residents have reported that [solicitors have] been in their bushes looking in windows, police were called. Police say they are soliciting and they cannot or do not arrest because some of them do have permits.”

Miller continued to explain that the permit process and the existing ordinance do not work together. Neary called the First Selectman’s Office inquiring about a permit and was sent to the police department, and then the police department sent them back to the First Selectman’s Office. Miller explained her own story about two individuals representing Frontier whom she told “no,” and they insisted on coming back when her husband was home.

Schwarz, Miller’s husband, came home later that day and watched the same two men across the street at their neighbor’s house knock on the storm door, open the storm door and do “something at the front door,” according to Miller, and then back up to take a photo or video of the house. She said that “all” solicitors take photos of the houses. She told many other stories of solicitors pushing boundaries and neighbors’ complaints.

Miller even had two men show up in a Honda Civic insisting that they were at her home to repair and replace floors, even though she had not ordered any floors or any work to be done within her home. “Luckily, my son, who’s like 6’3” was home and said to get the,” she paused for others to insert their own expletives into the sentence, “off the property and they left. It is very hard to say ‘no’ when you’re home alone and you’re a female.” She added that even after being told “no,” these solicitors come back time after time again.

Miller called Frontier to ask about these solicitors and talked to seven different people. One of the people she spoke to explained that the solicitors are third party hires. She asked who vets them, and the person replied that they are not vetted because “they’re felons.”

Miller thinks the Borough is in a “unique position” because of what Schwarz mentioned at the beginning of the meeting: the walkability. She added that houses are close together and driveways are short, which allows solicitors to easily view inside windows to see if people are home. She has installed a Ring doorbell now and generally feels unsafe because of this constant solicitation.

Neary has found that Ridgefield banned solicitation in 2018, and Norwalk has banned Frontier from soliciting.

Bloom then spoke a little: “[Solicitors are] a nuisance, literally, I think to everyone.” Bloom explained that the Ordinance Committee has discussed options to take and found that a ban would probably work best. She added that they would like to “carve out” an exception for nonprofit organizations, such as Girl Scouts, religious missionaries, or political canvassers.

“We think it would be a positive step if we could have a prohibition on solicitation and peddling with those carve outs, and I really think people would be grateful because it really is a nuisance,” Bloom told the board. She added that no action could be taken until after the election, but expressed a desire to work collaboratively with the town and Borough.

Bloom said that the ordinance committee established that the permit process is within the First Selectman’s Office, but it should really be handled by the police, and the police believe “they could do more for the town and the community if they had some enforcement, if we took it away from the First Selectman’s Office.”

Bloom added that she thinks most people would be happy with a ban and called it a “bipartisan issue … no one wants a person knocking on their door.”

Miller explained that the Ordinance Committee has “overthought” this issue, and a ban is the only thing that keeps this process clean and without paperwork that would need to be processed by a town employee. A ban also would not put extra work on the resident, such as putting themself on a “do not knock” list or looking through company websites to discover whether or not solicitors have a permit to be there.

No matter what the Borough or Town decides to do, Bloom and Miller said this process would take months to complete as public hearings will need to be held and ordinance drafts reviewed by attorneys.

Senior Burgess Chris Gardner shared that his house was broken into by someone posing as a solicitor, so he expressed his support, but thinks that the town should take the lead and the Borough follow suit because of enforcement. Burgess Maureen Crick Owen also expressed her support.

“Winter is coming, there will be less activity out there. The solicitors [will be] hibernating … so if the new Ordinance Committee … can make this a priority, is in motion by, say, April, May, when hibernation’s over, and we start to see people on the streets again, I think that would be beneficial for the entire community,” Gardner said.

The conversation ended shortly after Gardner’s comments, and all of the burgesses in attendance seemed to agree that addressing the solicitation problem is a priority for community wellbeing. As Bloom said, “no one wants a person knocking on their door.”

Other Borough News

Warden Jay Maher gave a brief update on the Church Hill Road and Queen Street sidewalk project and said that “it’s exciting.”

“Now that we actually have boots on the ground here, it’s actually a big little job with the curbing,” Maher said. He hopes that it will be completed by Thanksgiving.

In the Zoning Officer’s Report, 69 Main Street was discussed once more. Joe Chapman, the zoning officer for the Borough, said that enforcement action will be taken on the property, as work has continued there without the proper permits or historic district approval. Borough Historic District will hold a public hearing on Thursday, October 23 regarding the property.

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.