East Hampton transfer station, roads get $100,000 each

East Hampton's transfer station, whose budget money runs out around January, is getting $100,000 of last year's leftover money. The town's roads are getting another $100,000.

The Town Council approved both on Oct. 27. It also gave the transfer station a fund of its own, so the town budget will show in one line how much of the station's cost falls on taxpayers.

The town ended the 2025-26 budget year with about $361,000 left over, before its books close and the audit is done, Director of Finance Jeffery Jylkka told the council. The two transfers, $100,000 to the Capital Reserve Fund for roads and $100,000 to the new transfer station fund, were the Board of Finance's recommendation, and the remaining $161,000 or so falls into the fund balance, the town's savings.

Two weeks earlier, Town Manager David Cox had put the leftover at about $300,000 and asked members for ideas; members had mentioned the transfer station and roads. The town's worst roads would cost $15 million to $20 million to fix, Public Works Director Matthew Walsh told the Board of Finance in September.

A fund of its own

Today the budget lists the transfer station's costs, "200 and some odd thousand dollars," in one place and its fees somewhere else, so the public cannot see how much taxes cover, Cox said. The new fund puts both in one place, and the budget would show a single transfer to it, "the tax subsidy for the transfer station." The fund does not lapse at the end of the year, so a surplus could stay with the station. Jylkka said the town's September bill for waste removal was about 25 percent lower than before, potentially saving $25,000 to $30,000.

One member asked whether every department would be split out next, and called that "a slippery slope." Another said a separate fund would be "crisp" and "clear" and would answer misinformation about the transfer station on social media. The council approved the $200,000 transfer and the fund by voice votes.

The town plan

The council endorsed the draft Plan of Conservation and Development, which guides zoning, housing and land use for the next 10 years (the draft is posted for comment). Without the endorsement, state law would require a two-thirds vote of the Planning and Zoning Commission to adopt the plan, Cox wrote to the council. Adoption is expected in December, after the commission reviews the plan and holds a public hearing, his report says.

One member objected that Planning and Zoning had not yet taken up the plan: "I just don't feel comfortable endorsing something that they haven't even had on their docket yet, and actually had a meaningful discussion on." Juliet Hodge, who chairs the plan's steering committee, said it has been on the commission's agenda since about July or August. The motion carried by voice vote, with one "nay" heard.

Village center cleanup

The council added $82,000 to the town's contract with VHB, the environmental consultant assessing four town-owned properties in the village center under what Cox said is a $500,000 federal Environmental Protection Agency grant. The contract now totals $412,130, and Cox said the grant covers the increase. The work is monitoring and testing for "significant environmental hazards" at 1 and 13 Watrous Street and 13 Summit Street, contamination the town must address more quickly and report to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

At 13 Watrous Street, where PCBs remain in the soil, the state's spill response staff got involved in May and June after a neighbor raised concerns about PCB notices posted at the property, according to an Oct. 22 memo from Cox in the council's packet. Testing of the neighbor's water did not detect PCBs, the memo says, but state testing of some soils at the property line and at the street edge on Railroad Avenue "identified some additional PCB concerns." The state, with the town, has put up erosion-control fencing there. The state also sampled wells at Center School and confirmed volatile organic compounds in one school well; the memo says the town already knew, and that "when that water is used, treatment is in place to remove the compounds." Updates on 13 Watrous Street are due to the state by May 15 and June 1, 2027. Cox told the council that a second memo corrected the first and added items; it is not in the posted packet.

Also on Oct. 27

• Year-end transfers: The council approved $139,285 in end-of-year transfers to cover departments that ran over budget, most of it from $109,285 in police patrol salaries left unspent because of vacancies and the rest from the contingency account. The largest, $38,375, went to motor fuel after the town's fixed price for gas expired.
• Human resources: The council approved the job description for a director of human resources shared by the town and the Board of Education, reporting to both the town manager and the superintendent. The school district's current HR employee would move into the job and the town would hire a generalist to work under the director, paid from what both sides already budget, Cox said.
• Lake Pocotopaug: Everblue Lakes, which worked on the lake for the town for many years, has gone out of business, and a member of the Conservation-Lake Commission is drafting a request for proposals for a new vendor, the commission's chair, Jason Hartling, told the council. A blue-green algae bloom came earlier than usual this year, in mid- and late August, and the Health Department closed the Sears Park swim area.
• Clean energy: East Hampton has earned bronze certification from Sustainable CT, the statewide program that certifies towns for sustainability work, said David Price of the town's Clean Energy Task Force. Russ Kaplan, the task force's chair, said two free electric-vehicle chargers it secured through a state utility regulators' pilot with Voltpost went online in the village center that day, and two more at Town Hall are in the final stages.
• School funding letter: The council endorsed a letter asking the governor and legislative leaders to change how the state pays for schools. It says the school system loses more than $2 million a year without an adjustment for inflation, and that the town went through four referendums before voters passed this year's school budget. It is to go out after the Nov. 3 election.
• Zoning Board of Appeals: Kevin Reed was appointed an alternate, recommended by the Republican Town Committee, for a term ending Nov. 30, 2029.