On Thursday, October 23, First Selectman Jeff Capeci visited Newtown Senior Center for his monthly “Java with Jeff” program. During these programs, Capeci answers questions from seniors about town development and other town issues.

Capeci received a lot of questions regarding traffic, which he explained were more for Newtown’s Police Commission, which is the town’s local traffic authority. He did, however, also receive a few complaints about potholes in roadways. Capeci walked the seniors in attendance through the process of submitting a work order to Public Works.

Capeci went to the town’s website, newtown-ct.gov, hovered over the government tab, and clicked on Public Works. From there, he scrolled down the blue menu on the left and clicked on “Public Works Service Order Request System.” After clicking on that tab, a new site opens up, and residents are able to fill out the menu and use the mapping system to accurately mark where potholes can be found in the community.

“If you’re not computer savvy, or you don’t want to bother doing it this way, you can always call Public Works,” Capeci said, “As you’re on the phone with the Public Works Department, they will enter the information into the computer. And once it’s in the computer, a work order will be [submitted] and somebody will be sent out to do it.”

Resident Questions

With so many residents submitting questions in regard to traffic congestion and safety, Capeci said he would ask Police Chief Kullgren to speak to the seniors about their concerns.

One audience member asked Capeci what he thought his biggest accomplishment was over the past two years of his term, as Capeci is currently up for re-election against democratic candidate Bruce Walczak. Capeci said that while two years is a short amount of time, he said in his first six months in office, he had to “basically rebuild the whole finance team.”

Some aspects of the financial office that Capeci helped change include finding a new finance director, long-term planning, “a much better capital improvement plan,” and department heads using the e-finance system.

Another resident asked about the possibility of the budget for the senior center being increased over the next fiscal year.

“Our budget goes up every year,” Capeci said. “Costs go up and therefore the budget will go up.” Capeci also mentioned that the town budget has fixed and discretionary spending, and he assumed that the budget for the senior center has a mix of fixed and discretionary costs as well.

Natalie Griffith, director of Human Services, jumped into the conversation, “It was a very hard budget year last year, but we were fortunate [enough], we were able to keep the senior services budget pretty flat because we also increased some revenue stream … Last year we didn’t see an increase in our operations budget, we had that new revenue coming in, so we were able to still grow our programs without an impact to our budget.”

Someone asked a clarifying question about the termination of curbside recycling. Capeci said that the town-wide curbside recycling program will end at the end of the year. He explained that he is working with other town departments to possibly create drop-off locations for glass recycling and food scrap recycling at the five different fire companies.

“We’re working on, at least some of the heavier stuff like glass, to be picked up at local fire departments so you don’t have to travel all the way to the Transfer Station because we know Newtown is a very large town, and it’s only convenient for a small percentage of the population,” Capeci said. He added that changes will be made along the way to make recycling easier.

More questions arose about traffic safety. A resident in attendance explained that there are only two speed limit signs on Schoolhouse Hill Road, and she thinks there should be more. Capeci explained that navigation systems like Google Maps and Waze have the speed limit on-screen, so “speed limit signs aren’t as necessary as they were, especially for people who are using that software.”

Capeci said that the Legislative Council Ordinance Committee is working on an ordinance for speed cameras, which may be mobile and will allow several areas in town to be monitored. Capeci, half-joking, suggested adding speed tables to Schoolhouse Hill like there are on Queen Street, which then opened the conversation up to the speed tables on Queen Street.

A few residents expressed concern about the “excessive number” of speed tables, which slow down emergency response vehicles and cause for uncomfortable rides for those in the back of ambulances. Capeci said the reviews are mixed on the speed tables, but all five are still there.

Capeci reminded attendees again that the Police Commission would be the best place to direct that question to, as well as the many other questions about traffic control.

One resident asked if it would be possible to add a United States Postal Service collection box to the senior center. Griffith and Capeci both said that is a possibility and they will both look into it.

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