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WEST HAVEN — City officials must determine whether they will change the city's ordinance regarding garbage and refuse in order to codify an ongoing co-collection program that was piloted in the city last fall and has been met with concerns from some residents.

The city last year accepted a $1.3 million grant from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to launch a citywide pilot program in which residents were encouraged and reminded to separate food waste into a separate bag from the rest of their trash. The bags — green for food waste and orange for household trash — have been collected through the city's regular pickup service and taken to a facility where the food waste is transferred to an anaerobic digester and turned into renewable energy.

Advocates for the program said the benefit of removing food scraps from the waste stream goes beyond the environmental benefits of reducing emissions from landfills and incinerators — it also is expected to stave off a tax increase, as the city's contract for its tipping fees, the amount a municipality pays per tonnage of waste, is due to expire next year and is likely to roughly double. As a cost saving measure, officials have suggested diverting food scraps from the waste stream in addition to encouraging residents to produce less waste overall.

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The program currently is operating through $93,000 in extended grant funding as state officials await West Haven's decision on whether it intends on continuing the co-collection program before the end of September. Public Works Director Tom McCarthy said in a communication to the City Council that up to $799,400 in additional grant funding is available should the council act on the proposal.

City officials this week reviewed proposed language for a change to the city's ordinance that would affect the waste collection process, including language that would standardize the city's rules around revenue streams for collector fees and recycling, an expected year-round transfer station and recycling center on Helm Street, as well as fines and enforcement actions for noncompliance.

Kristen Brown, vice president of waste reduction strategy for WasteZero and a DEEP consultant facilitating the program, told council members that the city has roughly a 20 percent participation rate, although that figure has decreased somewhat from a "plateau" when residents had free bags offered to them through grant funding; Brown responded to a complaint raised by council members that some residents are having issues finding more bags to purchase, saying some retailers are awaiting assurance the program will be permanent before restocking the bags.

According to a presentation Brown prepared for the meeting, the estimated cost to the city of "doing nothing" would be $600,000 in the 2025 fiscal year. Brown's estimations of the cost of maintaining the roughly 20 percent participation rate in the co-collection program is that the city would incur $281,233 in costs in that fiscal year. For the city to have 100 percent participation without marking up the trash bags, Brown estimated the city would see a roughly $500,000 savings.

In March, Brown presented data to the council demonstrating an 11.6 percent overall reduction in waste in the first nine weeks of the calendar year compared to 2022. She said the amount of properly-sorted recyclables also increased from 15 percent to 24 percent.

Councilman Ron Quagliani, D-At Large, said Brown's figures reflect that about 80 percent of the city is not participating in the program after the pilot; although Brown told the council that the city's participation rate is "really, really successful" for a pilot, Quagliani expressed concerns that the city still has a long way to go to get community buy-in before codifying the program.

“I don't want a good program to be ruined because we acted too quickly,” he said. "I don’t want to make the situation worse than it is now."

Councilman Robert Bruneau, D-9, said many seniors in the city are barely scraping by, and the cost of the garbage bags used in the program, which are thicker to increase their durability, could be cost-prohibitive. Brown said it is projected in her industry that the average American spends $35 on garbage bags annually, but the expected yearly cost of trash bags in the program would be $28.20.

McCarthy said one feature of the program is that residents may be more thoughtful about the volume of their waste, especially as the pilot program encouraged limiting the amount of trash bags residents put in their curbside receptacles to last the duration of the program. Each household is expected to use no more than two orange trash bags and one food waste bag per week.

“There are ways to subsidize if anyone is having a problem paying,” Brown said.

Councilman Gary Donovan, D-At Large, said he would want to see a program that is not means-tested, and for trash bags to be subsidized for all residents citywide. Donovan also questioned the materials used in the bags — despite the thicker material used in the bags compared to market-brand trash bags, he said he has experienced burst seams, requiring him to double-up bags to prevent leaking food waste.

Councilwoman Colleen O'Connor, R-At Large, told the Register she is making attempts to participate in the program in her home, which has been "slow going" but "nothing that we cannot get used to." She said that it takes more time to think about what to recycle.

The issue has animated many residents in the city, many of whom have taken to social media groups to express dismay about government overreach in changing the waste collection process.

In the earliest weeks of the program, residents received flyers alerting them to their "non-compliance," which some council members chided program officials for designing to resemble a fine or a ticket. O'Connor said one elderly constituent told her that she feared she may be evicted.

The council is expected to have a workshop Sept. 6 to discuss and review the proposed changes to the ordinance language. Council Chairman Peter Massaro, D-6, said a public hearing would be scheduled before the council could make any changes to a city ordinance.

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WEST HAVEN — After two years of planning and negotiations, a brewery and taproom along the city's shoreline intended to be the permanent home of local brewery New England Brewing Co. and a bootstrap economic development concept for West Haven came toppling down last week.

What remains at the site, however, is the former Savin Rock Conference Center, a dilapidated building with a leaking roof that initially was to be demolished to make way for the brewery development.

In a statement, Mayor Nancy Rossi blamed the collapse of the brewery development — which likely would have been remembered as the greatest economic development legacy of her three terms in office — on “some City Council members, a few Land Trust of West Haven members and an appeal filed by the owners of Jimmies of Savin Rock restaurant.” The latter two groups filed appeals that tied up the development proposal in litigation for roughly a year.

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Doug Gray, the developer who intended on leasing the land of the city-owned Rock Street parcel and building a brewery and taproom to rent to NEBCO, has not responded to multiple requests for comment about the project falling through.

With Rossi not seeking reelection in November, there will be pressure on the city's next mayor to figure out a new plan for the conference center site as the city seeks to generate more tax revenue and bring vitality to its beach.

State Rep. Dorinda Borer, D-West Haven, the Democratic mayoral nominee in November's election, said she has "no interest" in selling the property.

Borer said she sees two options for the space: either the city goes directly back out to bid or it invests in renovations for the property before going back to bid. Borer said she believes the latter option potentially could draw more attractive bids, but the city would need to have a good sense of what the parcel's future use would be before any renovation.

One thing she would prioritize before beginning the process, she said, has to do with a criticism she repeatedly has made of the city for lacking over the last few years: the hiring of an economic development director to navigate and support the process.

"Before we can consider bids, we need to have a team in place: a crackerjack lawyer, an economic development director and a finance director that knows what makes financial sense,” she said. "But I can assure you that building will not sit there in the shape it's in.”

On Tuesday, Republican rivals Barry Lee Cohen and Paige Weinstein will face off for their party's nomination in a primary election. Weinstein, the party's endorsed candidate, and Cohen, a former councilman who lost to Rossi by fewer than three-dozen votes in 2021, both said they believe the city needs to look forward.

In a text message comment, Weinstein said she believes NEBCO's withdrawal from the city reflects the difficulty developers have with working with the city under current leadership. She said she intends to focus on "sustainable developments" on day one of her administration, with developers she said she already has spoken with privately.

"When it comes to economic development, we are the bridesmaid who once again has dropped the bouquet," said Cohen in an emailed comment.

Cohen said he believes the city has not paid close enough attention to its Plan of Conservation and Development, and recent efforts to amend shoreline zoning regulations are "too little" and "too late" for the brewery. Cohen said his administration would be closely engaged with the Planning and Zoning Commission to ensure there is "versatility" in the zoning regulations to attract development.

"The zoning regs cannot be a 'one size fits all,' and must have input by the public and businesses being impacted by the zoning," he wrote. "Without such collaboration, we will continue to deal with more lawsuits, misunderstandings, and 'Plan Bs' where businesses and developers flee to other municipalities."

Republican Steven Mullins, who qualified for Tuesday's primary before pulling out and announcing his intention to run a write-in campaign, said he believes the first priority for the city must be cleaning up the 6 Rock St. conference center property.

"I’ve visited the property several times. It’s a mess!" he said in a text message comment. Mullins said he believes repairs should be made to the building so the city can rent it out for "a reasonable market rent."

Michael Moses, president of the Milford Regional Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement the chamber "is committed to fostering a vibrant and sustainable local economy that benefits businesses, residents, and the broader community."

"We support commercial development projects that stimulate economic growth, create job opportunities, and contribute to the prosperity of our region," he said in the statement.

Although city leaders believe there is strong economic development potential for the land, which abuts the boardwalk overlooking the water, some in the city believe the city's history is just as valuable as its future. Michael Mercuriano, chairman of the West Haven Carousel Committee and a longtime advocate for returning a carousel to the area of the former Savin Rock Amusement Park, said the city should commit itself to a full museum at the site.

Previously, the conference center played host to the Savin Rock Museum and Learning Center in its basement before city officials catalogued and removed items in preparation for the brewery development. Mercuriano said he believes there's too much history in the city and in the area to be overlooked.

"To me, the whole building would be a great place for a museum: a museum of West Haven history. A museum that would be supported by funds from the state and fed government once applied for in the proper way,” he said. "And let's get a carousel there. It doesn’t have to be a grand carousel, but something to symbolize what West Haven was all about for years. I think it makes a lot of sense and it could be a destination and a gathering place for seniors.”

WEST HAVEN — Following claims of years of neglect at the city housing authority's Surfside Apartments, residents soon could see some improvements.

Board members for Savin Rock Communities voted unanimously to borrow up to $29.3 million to make upgrades to Surfside, a 254-unit public housing property designated obsolete in early 2020 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to authority Executive Director John Counter,

"I've got goose bumps about this," Counter said after Tuesday's vote. "I am so excited, we’re going to flip every one of those units."

According to the approved resolution, the board of directors approved Counter to obtain an amount “not to exceed $29,296,000" in a mortgage loan from Lument Real Estate Capital.

Counter said in March that plans to borrow in order to renovate Surfside Apartments would be the first phase of a multiphase plan to update the West Haven housing authority's housing stock.

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Counter has said when he was hired to the executive director role in 2014 that Surfside had been neglected for years. He told the Register in 2021 that the true cost of updating the building was "cost-prohibitive" without first being approved for grants and loans that were delayed by a bureaucratic logjam caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although Counter had said 24-hour maintenance service is available to Surfside residents, the repairs that must be made to the building are beyond patchwork. On Tuesday, he said the borrowing will support upgrades to the roofing, boiler system and fencing, among other things.

“The building is going to look gorgeous from the street," he said.

When Counter was hired as director of Savin Rock Communities, the West Haven Housing Authority was embroiled in controversy over a bribery and conspiracy scandal. Former West Haven Housing Authority Director Michael Siwek pleaded guilty to accepting bribes for contracts in 2016 over a five-year period beginning in 2007. In 2021, residents complained of security and safety concerns following an alleged sexual assault of a resident of the building, an incident that led to a lawsuit earlier this year.

WEST HAVEN — Applicants for a proposed fast food restaurant on Saw Mill Road, where Denny's operated from 1978 to 2022, have declined to say the name of the restaurant they are working on. But some local officials suspect it could be a Chick-fil-A.

The city's Planning and Zoning office has received a site plan detailing the square-footage, parking, operating hours and various other elements of the proposed new building for a restaurant under development, but officials have said the future tenant has yet to be decided.

"The landlord is still working out the details," said attorney Vincent Amendola, who represented the application before the Zoning Board of Appeals Wednesday.

It echoed what developer Bill Baker told the Register last month: he still has some restaurants in mind that can go at that site.

However, ZBA commissioners seemed to have an idea of what was being proposed at Wednesday's meeting. Commissioner Ed Wise asked senior project manager Kevin Hixson if the proposed development would be open seven days a week; Hixson said it was his understanding that the application is for a restaurant intended to be open for six days of the week.

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Commission Chairman John Clifford said that sounded to him like Chick-fil-A, a national chicken sandwich restaurant that is closed Sundays.

"I can say it, but you can't," Clifford said to Hixson.

"That's why I asked the question," Wise laughed.

Although all plans filed with city departments related to the development do not name the intended restaurant, the proposed hours on the application of 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. match up with the operating hours of the nearest existing Chick-fil-A franchises in North Haven, Wallingford and Southington. On its website, Chick-fil-A says its restaurants operate minimum hours of 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The applicants were approved for four variances at Wednesday's ZBA meeting related to the location of the planned 2,700-square-foot restaurant on the site, which would offer only drive-thru and counter service options, with no internal dining. However, applicants said they intend to add some tables outside the restaurant for dining options. Included among the parking options, Hixson said, will be four electric vehicle charging stations.

Amendola said the hardship claimed by the application is related to safety, especially the flow of traffic. Although drive-thru restaurant queues can sometimes become backed up, Amendola said the fact that the site's driveway aligns directly with the Interstate 95 exit ramp, which is controlled by a traffic light, is to the site's advantage.

A proposed timetable included on the application suggests developers anticipate the restaurant will open in the spring of 2024; first, the developers intend on demolishing the existing former Denny's structure.

WEST HAVEN — Newlyweds may bring something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue, but West Haven officials are seeing green.

According to city officials, there has been considerable growth in the number of marriage licenses — and resulting revenue — issued in City Hall, a trend they said dates back to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

City Clerk Patty Horvath said she believes one factor is that, while municipal offices around the region closed during the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, her office continued to function through an exterior window. However, the growth of wedding licenses issued by West Haven has continued to balloon since then, with $82,000 in revenue collected between June 30, 2022, and June 30 this year.

By comparison, the city collected $9,550 in revenue between July 2, 2018, and July 1, 2019, according to information provided by the city clerk's office.

Although the revenue from wedding licenses has grown, the city keeps less than half: in the most recent year, $55,760 went to the state, and West Haven held onto $26,240. Horvath said the cost of a marriage license has remained at $50 throughout the four-year period. In 2019, West Haven's share of the marriage license fee was $3,056.

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Horvath said the city charges $20 for each certified copy of a marriage license that it issues, and the city keeps all of that revenue. Between June 30, 2022, and June 30 of this year, that totaled $47,456, documents show.

Horvath said an additional reason why West Haven City Hall has "weddings galore" is that the city has a model that makes it more convenient: her office makes justices of the peace available to officiate weddings in City Hall, whereas other municipalities often require that couples find an officiant of their own. Horvath said the cost of a West Haven justice of the peace officiant, which is paid directly to the justice of the peace, is lower than what couples would find most anywhere else.

"It probably is more unique here," she said.

Steven Mullins, a justice of the peace since 1999, said he gets called on occasion to officiate weddings.

"I'm called and if I'm available I take care of the ceremony, and if I'm not, I'm not. I'm happy to participate," he said.

Mullins said he also has noticed, anecdotally, an increased number of marriages in City Hall since the building reopened to the public after the pandemic.

"West Haven is one of the only [municipalities] in the state that will provide the JP," he said. "That's one thing that makes us rather appealing to people."

Horvath said the city is required to issue marriage licenses by law, and is only able to refuse them if they are able to prove that some sort of fraud has occurred. As a means of addressing the increasing numbers of applications for marriage certificates and City Hall weddings, Horvath said City Hall has ceased weddings on Fridays. She said they have also limited the hours from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., which allows her office to get work done in the morning in case there is an influx of couples seeking marriage licenses and also provides enough time at the end of the work day to wrap up their duties.

"I have a lot less staff than there were years ago, and our transactions have increased across the board: the land sales have gone up and elections are always plentiful," she said.

Victor Borras, a city councilman who also is a justice of the peace and an employee of the tax office — which is situated across the hall from the clerk's office on the first floor of City Hall, said the building gets "congested" during tax season, when couples waiting for marriage licenses wait in the hall alongside residents queued up to pay their taxes.

"It seems like it jumped up in the last three years for some reason. It seems kind of strange," he said. "It seems like it just bloomed."

Although the increase in marriages has created more work for city employees and increased the overall foot traffic in City Hall, Mullins said there are financial upsides for city businesses and tourist spots. He said he has officiated numerous weddings for couples traveling from outside the city or outside the state, and they'll ask him for recommendations on places to eat or visit.

"They utilize our restaurants and flower shops and jewelry stores, so it's good for downtown business," he said. "I think it's a small boost to the local economy."

Patricia Spruance, Windham town clerk and president of the Connecticut Town Clerks Association, said municipal clerks across the state have observed that they are issuing more marriage licenses. She said that, year over year, it's true of Windham: in June, she issued 30 marriage licenses but last June she issued only 13 and in July 2023 she issued 14 whereas last July she issued 12.

Spruance said neither she nor the state's clerks can identify any specific reason for the uptick.

"I guess that seems to speak to maybe hopefulness," she said. "We say that maybe love is in the air."