The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Mayor sees positive outlook for 2020
WINSTED — Mayor Candy Perez sees a bright future for her town: as long as the community continues to work with her, the Board of Selectmen and Town Manager Robert Geiger.
“I’d say we’re very fortunate to have so many people in the community, volunteers, employees, businesses, who are supporting our growth,” she said. “Along with our boards and commissions, the businesses that have moved here, as well as the ones who have been with us for years, all support our town manager and do things that help. It’s a real reflection of how people feel about our town.”
Civic pride is a mainstay in Winsted, she said, indicated by the annual parades and festivals that draw crowds of spectators to Main Street from summer through December. Perez pointed to the Laurel Parade, held during the annual Laurel Festival in June, as a great example of that pride.
“The parade’s expanded, and it’s more the way it used to be, thanks to the work of (Selectwoman) Lisa Bird,” she said. “That’s an example of the strength of our community. People are always finding ways to improve what we have and make it better.”
The mayor also praised the Board of Selectmen as a whole, saying they’re united in their efforts to improve Winsted’s reputation as a town and a community, and Geiger, who is entering his fifth year as town manager, for his work.
Perez also complimented the increased course offerings and involvement of Northwestern Connecticut Community College for helping Winsted’s status.
“They’ve invested so much in us,” she said. “They just added the fouryear businesses degree program with UConn, for example.”
The college has also joined forces with the Northwest CT Chamber of Commerce by holding
Northwest Startup programs, offering new and existing business owners a variety of programs and workshops to help people get started on a new venture or grow their own enterprise.
Overall, Perez said, the efforts of all these organizations is working.
“I think it’s sustainable,” she said. “If you rush things, if you go to fast, things could be ‘one and done’ but the things we’re doing are here to stay.
“You could call this a wish fulfilled, really,” she said. “The selectmen and the town manager are working together, and that’s really helped. I attend meetings in the area, and people are saying good things about us now. They see us as up and coming, like the little engine that could. We just have to keep plugging along.”
Business growth and property values
One of Winsted’s challenges is finding businesses that will move to town and stay.
“We had blighted properties that are now housing new companies ... the Lambert Kay building, for example,” she said. “Companies like East Coast Lighting, aerospace industry ... they’ve all found a place to operate here in town, and it’s impacting our property values.
“Look at the properties on Highland Lake — and the prices they’re selling for,” Perez said. “My family’s had a house there since the 1960s, and the values of properties on the lake are going up all the time. You never saw that happening 30 or 40 years ago.”
“Our town manager has done tremendous work, and it’s giving people confidence in the town,”
Perez said. “Getting blight cleaned up is continuing; businesses people are considering moving to Winsted. It encourages people to take care of their own properties, too. That’s something that’s always been an uphill battle.”
One of those new businesses is the Little Red Barn Brewers, which opened last June.
“You couldn’t ask for better people,” Perez said. “They support everyone in town. Even before they opened, they were trying to be included in everything, like writing a big social media post for the annual Fall Foliage Fest. Then there’s the places who have been here for years, like the Rowley (Grill & Tap), Mario’s Tuscany Grill, Monaco’s (restaurant) ... they’re all pulling for the town.”
Schools improving
Winsted is still engaged in a contract dispute with the semiprivate Gilbert School, which provides education to high school students, and Perez is hopeful that those issues will be resolved this year. But she was proud to discuss the K-6 system, run by the Winchester Board of Education, which has shown improvement over the last two years, she said.
In November 2019, the school board received a leadership award from the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education.
“With Melony Brady-Shanley as our superintendent, there’s been a huge turnaround for the K-6 schools,” the mayor said. “We have to solve the problem of declining enrollment this year, but as far as involvement, Melony has done a tremendous job, with special activities, and more parents getting involved in the schools. Thanks to the support of the kids, teachers, staff and administrators, I think everyone’s going in a good direction.”
In 2015, the state appointed Robert Travaglini as a receiver to oversee the school district’s finances, when the state investigated the district’s deficit of $1 million. According to Travaglini, tuition costs for students to attend Gilbert, along with spending that exceeded the school board’s budget, were reasons for having a receiver. Before leaving the district in 2016, Travaglini facilitated the closure of Hinsdale School, which was at the time estimated to save $340,000 a year. In 2019, residents voted to renovate and reopen the school.
When Travaglini was appointed by state Education Commissioner Dianna Wentzell , she said at the time that “State intervention of this magnitude is a rare occurrence in Connecticut, but it is necessary ... earning the trust of the families of the community and the confidence of the school staff is one of the most important tasks ahead for (Travaglini) ...”
In September 2015, Travaglini said he was aiming to create stability in the Winchester public schools through his work as receiver, and leave the district able to move forward in a sustainable way in the future.
“I’d like to leave the district with the capacity to sustain itself, and with a much stronger relationship and connection to the community and the various stakeholders that live here,” said Travaglini.
Perez says that has happened during the last three years.
“Our school system used to be something people pointed their fingers at, but no longer,” Perez said. “We’ve moved away from those problems.”
Property values and taxes
“We haven’t raised our mill rate in three years or so, but we did have a property revaluation during that period, and in
Winsted I always call it a threelevel of property values,” Perez said. “There are the lake properties, which have increased in value, the middle tier properties — residences and businesses, which are stable, and then there’s the more challenging areas, like Main Street, the downtown core of businesses, and older homes. There’s been a little shift in those values, but that happened because of the reval.
“But growth will help us: businesses will buy more equipment, or they’ll expand, and that will bring more tax revenue,” Perez said. “And as we take down or sell more blighted properties, that will help make the houses next to them worth more.
“Our big challenge is people with non-profits,” she added. “For example, a former nursing home on East Lake Street was just sold to a non-profit church, and since that was a property that was taxed before, we’ll have to see what happens. But those are the kinds of things we deal with when properties are sold.”
Property values are “complex,” Perez said. “But our goal is always to keep pushing, to help new and existing businesses, and to keep education going in the right direction.”
Communication
Perez is hoping to have better social media communication with Winsted’s citizens, but said she can’t do it herself.
“It’s always something I’m cognizant of — we’d like the town to have an official page, and our future goal is to let people know all the great things that are happening here,” she said.
“All the great things” could include promoting improved schools, activities and safety. “Look at our home prices, and see what you get — a safe community with plenty to offer,”
Perez said.
Facebook groups can be a deterrent to that goal, but Perez passed no judgment on people’s right to express their opinions. “Social media is what it is, it’s got good sides and bad sides, and you learn to deal with it over time,” she said. “I read an article in Scientific American about a social media study. It said that if a friend sends a friend something on social media, you believe them, because they’re your friend. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or a rumor. Our lack of having enough information on social media doesn’t help us.
“There’s a gap, and we have to figure out how we’re going to fill it,” she said. Perez hopes to use grant funds to have a designated person in charge of the town’s presence on social media.
According to Torrington Mayor Elinor Carbone, Facebook groups can help send information, but often send out so much misinformation that she can’t catch up. When a police incident or accident is reported, for example, comments dictate the outcome before the “real” report is even available.
“It’s not just in Torrington,” Carbone said recently. “I reached out to Winsted Mayor Candy Perez to talk about how to better communicate with the public, and she was at the time almost crippled by misinformation on social media. The newspapers try to keep up, but when something is posted (on a Facebook group site), it’s like the old rumor mill, or the game ‘telephone.’ It becomes something else entirely. Social media presents challenges because it devolves, as it goes around.”
Perez said she will continue to keep a positive attitude about Winsted. “If people post something about Winsted on Facebook, and they complain, that’s their right. It happens. I just want to stay positive, really.”