Latest / Day Drinking With Dog / Tony G Rejoins The Show!
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Viva Tequila Seltzer, the number one hard Seltzer in the
- 0:04Speaker 1: world and the official heart Seltzer of Day Drinking with Dog.
- 0:08Speaker 1: Ditch them all add tequila Welcome back Day Drinking with Dog.
- 0:13Speaker 1: It is my pleasure to bring on. Recently announced he
- 0:16Speaker 1: is running for reelection Tony G. Mayor of Milford. Thanks
- 0:20Speaker 1: so much for coming back on the show. My Pleasure Dog.
- 0:23Speaker 1: Happy to be here. You know, I had to you know,
- 0:25Speaker 1: go through your assistance assistant to get a hold of Justin.
- 0:29Speaker 2: Thank you, Justin, by the way, for setting this all
- 0:31Speaker 2: up for me.
- 0:32Speaker 1: He was actually I figured out finally how to get
- 0:34Speaker 1: a hold of you, and that was through Facebook Messenger
- 0:37Speaker 1: and then he got he got right back to me. Good. Yeah,
- 0:40Speaker 1: very very cordial, very nice.
- 0:43Speaker 2: All right, So big news.
- 0:45Speaker 1: Obviously we all kind of thought you'd be running again. Regardless,
- 0:48Speaker 1: two years is just not enough to get you know,
- 0:50Speaker 1: everything you want done. Correct, Absolutely, yes, And I would
- 0:54Speaker 1: also like to thank you for all the support for
- 0:57Speaker 1: music in downtown Milford. That was a huge, huge win.
- 1:02Speaker 1: Was at the first one. I wasn't at the second one.
- 1:03Speaker 1: I was at the first one. I saw you there.
- 1:05Speaker 1: Uh yeah, that was a big win. And this past weekend.
- 1:08Speaker 1: We uh you know, we had the bands all weekend
- 1:10Speaker 1: and it was back to normal. Absolutely. Uh. I don't
- 1:17Speaker 1: want to like pooh pooh anybody that was on the
- 1:20Speaker 1: other side of that, but I just it. I don't
- 1:22Speaker 1: ever think it should have came to that, but uh,
- 1:25Speaker 1: I think the right outcome came out of it.
- 1:28Speaker 3: Yes, I agree, it's our culture. Yeah, really it really
- 1:31Speaker 3: is live music in Belford. It's it's hot. Yeah, it's
- 1:34Speaker 3: just it's just it's a whole. It was weird, like
- 1:37Speaker 3: like the week's leading up to it and we didn't
- 1:39Speaker 3: have it.
- 1:39Speaker 1: Yeah, it was just like just like like no energy. Yeah,
- 1:44Speaker 1: it was just like even and even though like we
- 1:46Speaker 1: didn't like we don't always have music, like it would
- 1:48Speaker 1: be like eight o'clock on a Saturday and just quiet it.
- 1:52Speaker 2: It's weird, you know.
- 1:53Speaker 1: So you were a big part of that.
- 1:55Speaker 2: You got up and stated our case and actually did.
- 2:00Speaker 1: The guy you're running against, Rich Smith, he actually supported
- 2:03Speaker 1: us too. So once he got up there and you
- 2:05Speaker 1: got up there, I'm like, oh, it's just done. Yeah,
- 2:08Speaker 1: this is uh, this isn't a h this is a
- 2:10Speaker 1: bipartisan you know, everyone everyone wants to music, so it's
- 2:14Speaker 1: important to mo for Yeah, it really really is. And
- 2:19Speaker 1: I think it's.
- 2:19Speaker 3: Uh, there's an expectation when you come downtown, right, and
- 2:22Speaker 3: I think it's a fair you know, permit that was
- 2:25Speaker 3: you know, it's when not First of all, we never
- 2:27Speaker 3: played till fricking three in the morning, two in the morning,
- 2:30Speaker 3: one and the morning like, we were always done by nine
- 2:32Speaker 3: at the latest.
- 2:33Speaker 1: Right, So now it's you know.
- 2:34Speaker 3: It's nine thirty nine thirty now, right, Yeah, and we
- 2:37Speaker 3: still shut it down before that. We get it's done
- 2:39Speaker 3: in a respectful way. It always has been.
- 2:42Speaker 1: Right, all right. So you're running for second term? Uh,
- 2:46Speaker 1: how would you I would you say your first term went?
- 2:50Speaker 1: It was great?
- 2:51Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it was a great experience. I mean I'm
- 2:53Speaker 3: still you know, experiencing it. You know, every day I'm
- 2:57Speaker 3: having community conversations with people.
- 2:59Speaker 1: Every day about Milford.
- 3:02Speaker 3: And you know, we've accomplished a lot in a short
- 3:05Speaker 3: period of time.
- 3:06Speaker 1: We've addressed public safety, public.
- 3:09Speaker 3: Health, economic development, and you know, there's still a lot
- 3:13Speaker 3: of work left to be done.
- 3:15Speaker 1: But it's an exciting job.
- 3:17Speaker 3: It's a great city to grow up in, it's a
- 3:20Speaker 3: great city to raise your family. And so I encourage
- 3:22Speaker 3: people all the time if they're not from Milford to
- 3:26Speaker 3: you know, look at Milford as as a place to
- 3:31Speaker 3: to buy a home, as a place to raise your family,
- 3:35Speaker 3: and to even come and visit. I mean, you know,
- 3:37Speaker 3: there's so much to do now. We're like the envy
- 3:40Speaker 3: of the state. Woodmont, the Borough of Woodmant was recognized
- 3:45Speaker 3: as one of the best beach communities in the country.
- 3:48Speaker 1: I mean, we make the paper.
- 3:50Speaker 3: Zillow recognized Milford as, you know, a great shoreline community,
- 3:54Speaker 3: a city, you know, with a downtown harbor. So you know,
- 3:59Speaker 3: nationally people are taking notice that Milford's the place.
- 4:03Speaker 1: Yeah. I agree. I'm actually, uh, since you last time
- 4:07Speaker 1: on the show, I've become a homeowner again in Milford.
- 4:10Speaker 1: All right. Yeah, I'm on Valley View Road over and
- 4:14Speaker 1: I guess it's called Nakatuck Heights, is it. Yeah? OK,
- 4:17Speaker 1: label it over there Nagata Gardens or something. I don't know. Yeah,
- 4:20Speaker 1: jfk Off of West Alve. Yeah.
- 4:22Speaker 3: Everyone's got their little community. And that's what's cool about
- 4:25Speaker 3: Milford with all the beach communities you have, like you know,
- 4:28Speaker 3: the Borough of Woodmont, and you got Point Beach, you
- 4:31Speaker 3: got Bayview Beach, you.
- 4:33Speaker 1: Got Wildelmary Cedar Laurel. So we have the longest coastline
- 4:37Speaker 1: in New England right seventeen and a half miles, which
- 4:42Speaker 1: we're protecting. I put out on the Capitol Improvement Plan.
- 4:48Speaker 1: You know, we're having some challenges with erosion. I'm trying
- 4:51Speaker 1: to get funding from the state and federal government to
- 4:55Speaker 1: address these issues, to protect our shoreline, to preserve it.
- 4:58Speaker 1: We're doing a lot of stormylliency projects. So we have
- 5:02Speaker 1: a big storm, you know, we're able to deal with
- 5:04Speaker 1: with flooding in real time. So you know, that's something
- 5:08Speaker 1: that we have to continue to work on because that's
- 5:11Speaker 1: what brings value to Milford is our shoreline.
- 5:13Speaker 2: Absolutely.
- 5:15Speaker 1: What like a campaign promise in your first term, have
- 5:19Speaker 1: you fulfilled that you were most proud of?
- 5:21Speaker 3: So, I would say probably the first and foremost is
- 5:25Speaker 3: the police street takeover ordinance that was adopted. I ran
- 5:31Speaker 3: on public safety. That's a big concern of mine. It's
- 5:34Speaker 3: a big concern of the people that live here obviously,
- 5:38Speaker 3: you know, making people accountable when they come into a
- 5:42Speaker 3: city like Milford. You know, we have five exits off
- 5:45Speaker 3: A ninety five, so we're subject to these street takeovers.
- 5:47Speaker 3: Now the police have an ordinance that they can enforce,
- 5:51Speaker 3: so when this happens, they can arrest someone and pound
- 5:55Speaker 3: their vehicle, you know, sell it off at an auction.
- 5:58Speaker 1: Then there's a fine associated with that to teach these
- 6:02Speaker 1: people a.
- 6:02Speaker 3: Lesson that we're not going to tolerate that kind of
- 6:04Speaker 3: behavior in Milford because it puts our citizens at risk,
- 6:08Speaker 3: our drivers on our roads and pedestrians walking on our sidewalks,
- 6:13Speaker 3: our police. Yeah, and this was a statewide problem. This
- 6:16Speaker 3: was prior to COVID.
- 6:19Speaker 2: What do you think this comes from.
- 6:21Speaker 1: Just just a different generation. I mean, like we all
- 6:25Speaker 1: did dumb shit when we were kids, but like this,
- 6:28Speaker 1: this is like an epidemic of you seem I see him.
- 6:32Speaker 1: I see reels all the time on the internet. These
- 6:35Speaker 1: things happen, and they're doing it on the Bridge and
- 6:37Speaker 1: New Haven. Yeah. Yeah, you know, I don't still understand, Like, well, I.
- 6:42Speaker 3: Think, you know, as a public servant, as an elected official,
- 6:46Speaker 3: I believe in law and order, and you should hold
- 6:48Speaker 3: people accountable and you should protect the people within the
- 6:51Speaker 3: city limits. And I think what happened was there was,
- 6:56Speaker 3: you know, the Police Accountability Bill came out, and you know,
- 7:00Speaker 3: it kind of opened up the gateways for some of
- 7:03Speaker 3: these people and incentivize them. You know, police can't chase
- 7:06Speaker 3: people anymore, so it's a new way of policing, and
- 7:09Speaker 3: I think that some of these people take advantage of that.
- 7:13Speaker 3: And it's been happening throughout the state, and you know,
- 7:16Speaker 3: the state should have addressed it a long time ago,
- 7:19Speaker 3: and you know, now all of a sudden, they're starting
- 7:22Speaker 3: to look at it and they want to address it.
- 7:24Speaker 3: But you know, as mayor, that was one of my
- 7:26Speaker 3: first priorities. You know, I remember that I'm not going
- 7:29Speaker 3: to tolerate that that type of behavior. And the police
- 7:33Speaker 3: department's been doing a great job. I support them one
- 7:36Speaker 3: hundred percent. We also did a prohibition on vape shops.
- 7:42Speaker 1: During my first year and a half as mayor.
- 7:45Speaker 3: There was vape shops popping up everywhere and it was
- 7:48Speaker 3: just becoming, you know, a nuisance and it's not the
- 7:52Speaker 3: best look for Milford. I'm not denying access to vape.
- 7:58Speaker 3: I want people to understand that, but how many vape
- 8:01Speaker 3: shops do you need in a small city.
- 8:05Speaker 1: And we had the one right by Stonebridge and the
- 8:07Speaker 1: guys are really nice in there, but I just I agree,
- 8:10Speaker 1: it's like, you know, it's these Neon led lit up
- 8:13Speaker 1: places and there's really nothing in there that's good for you, nothing,
- 8:17Speaker 1: and they and they market our youth. Yeah, oh, they
- 8:20Speaker 1: go right after them.
- 8:20Speaker 3: And you know, the stuff, the products however you want
- 8:25Speaker 3: to call it, that, you know they're they're selling and
- 8:27Speaker 3: their marketing have poisonous chemicals.
- 8:30Speaker 1: Vape is not healthy vape. I talked about this the
- 8:33Speaker 1: other day. I'm like, I remember when the first vapes
- 8:35Speaker 1: came out. It was just air. It was just it
- 8:37Speaker 1: was just oxygen or whatever, and it looked like smoke
- 8:40Speaker 1: and it was kind of a tool to help you
- 8:43Speaker 1: quit smoking, you know, And then like I never did it,
- 8:46Speaker 1: so I didn't. I never really got into it. And
- 8:48Speaker 1: then all of a sudden it just became oh wait,
- 8:49Speaker 1: they're putting nicotine in it, and now they're putting chemicals,
- 8:51Speaker 1: and everyone was a different to it, and all the
- 8:53Speaker 1: big cigarette companies bought up all the vape companies and
- 8:55Speaker 1: it's like, oh here, and now it's even worse. It's
- 8:57Speaker 1: popcorn lung.
- 8:59Speaker 2: And I really lot of stories.
- 9:01Speaker 1: All it is.
- 9:01Speaker 3: I took a big stance on that, and you know,
- 9:04Speaker 3: I had to support from the board of Aldermen and
- 9:07Speaker 3: we were recognized I actually was recognized statewide, was a
- 9:11Speaker 3: government prevention award that we received, you know, because of
- 9:15Speaker 3: the stance that we took, and.
- 9:17Speaker 1: It's had a positive impact.
- 9:19Speaker 3: And I can tell you this, even the vape shops
- 9:22Speaker 3: that are open acknowledged it and they were happy about it.
- 9:25Speaker 1: Because they were popping up all over the place.
- 9:28Speaker 2: And their competition.
- 9:29Speaker 1: Yeah, slow that down, but exactly so, so what is
- 9:33Speaker 1: the exact ordinance now? Is there a number you put
- 9:37Speaker 1: on it? And it's almost like the old liquor license
- 9:39Speaker 1: things where you really couldn't get a liquor license until
- 9:41Speaker 1: another one dropped out.
- 9:43Speaker 3: So it's simple, right, Yeah, So we're not accepting any
- 9:47Speaker 3: applications for any more additional However, if you own a
- 9:51Speaker 3: vape shop and you want to sell your vape shop
- 9:54Speaker 3: to another proprietor, it'll remain there because it's grandfathered in.
- 9:59Speaker 3: If you own a vaape shop and you happen to
- 10:01Speaker 3: close your vape shop and then someone comes into that building,
- 10:04Speaker 3: into that space with a different type of use and
- 10:08Speaker 3: turns it into a shoe store, whatever kind of retail store,
- 10:13Speaker 3: at that point.
- 10:14Speaker 1: It's not allowed. That's gone. It's gone. You're not getting
- 10:17Speaker 1: it back so the only way to get into Milford
- 10:19Speaker 1: is to buy an existing shop.
- 10:21Speaker 3: At this point, yes, hey, listen, Jeremy. If it got
- 10:24Speaker 3: to the point where there was they're all gone, they're
- 10:26Speaker 3: all gone, or needed one, you know, then we would
- 10:29Speaker 3: revisit it. But at this moment in time, I think
- 10:32Speaker 3: we did the right thing because of the point the
- 10:35Speaker 3: one that opened up next to stone Bridge downtown and
- 10:39Speaker 3: protecting our historic charm and our green of downtown. I
- 10:44Speaker 3: don't feel that's the best use of that property. We
- 10:47Speaker 3: always talk about highest and best use. That's not the
- 10:50Speaker 3: best use. That should be a cafe. And then I
- 10:53Speaker 3: heard there was going to be another one potentially opening
- 10:56Speaker 3: on the other side of the green, and that's when
- 10:58Speaker 3: I said enough's enough. And I worked with the city
- 11:02Speaker 3: attorney and we did some you know, research about other
- 11:06Speaker 3: surrounding towns that have adopted this type of ordnance and
- 11:11Speaker 3: it was accepted and it's we're better off with it today.
- 11:15Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I remember all that. That's that's I mean,
- 11:20Speaker 1: it is crazy, how Yeah, No, I mean, We've done
- 11:23Speaker 1: a lot. There's property.
- 11:26Speaker 3: We took an inventory of property when I became mayor.
- 11:29Speaker 3: We put city owned property back on the tax rolls
- 11:32Speaker 3: right near the train station. There was two lots that
- 11:35Speaker 3: we were sold for single family housing, not apartments, but
- 11:39Speaker 3: for single family housing.
- 11:42Speaker 1: We had a RFP went out.
- 11:44Speaker 3: One of the neighbors that lived on High Street came
- 11:46Speaker 3: to the meeting, had an interest in the property. Were
- 11:49Speaker 3: under contract. They're going to build a house next to
- 11:52Speaker 3: their house, and then there's an existing two family house
- 11:55Speaker 3: that they're going to renovate and repurpose.
- 11:57Speaker 1: And it's great. That's great for the city, it's great
- 12:01Speaker 1: for that area, and it fits into the single family
- 12:06Speaker 1: housing that's on that street, and it's right across from
- 12:08Speaker 1: Laurelton Hall. So I'm excited about that. That was another big,
- 12:13Speaker 1: big win.
- 12:14Speaker 3: And you know, we filled the Fair Rent Commission that
- 12:18Speaker 3: was formed. That was a state mandate that every municipality
- 12:23Speaker 3: over a certain amount of people had to have a
- 12:25Speaker 3: fair Rent Commission because we have so many renters here
- 12:28Speaker 3: in Milford and if the people feel like their rent
- 12:31Speaker 3: is being do.
- 12:32Speaker 2: You think there's a fair rent in Milford?
- 12:34Speaker 3: I think I think the market rent is expensive to
- 12:40Speaker 3: live here, but I know, yeah, it shocks me.
- 12:43Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 12:43Speaker 3: Well, if they feel that they're being overcharged for whatever reason,
- 12:48Speaker 3: they can file an application, and you know there's certain criteria,
- 12:54Speaker 3: you know, and you have to meet the criteria, and
- 12:57Speaker 3: you know you can have a hearing, so.
- 13:02Speaker 1: Well, so are you have a hearing? What's what's the
- 13:04Speaker 1: process after that? They with those board members and they decide, Okay,
- 13:08Speaker 1: you say your rents three thousand, they knock it down,
- 13:10Speaker 1: like what what? What? What? I think It's not it's
- 13:13Speaker 1: not that easy.
- 13:14Speaker 3: But I'll tell you that the people that are on
- 13:16Speaker 3: the board, there's there's landlords, there's renters, there's people that
- 13:24Speaker 3: are advised by the city attorney. The city attorney oversees
- 13:27Speaker 3: that that commission and it's a process.
- 13:31Speaker 1: Right and they but at the end of the day,
- 13:34Speaker 1: there could be a reducing rent.
- 13:36Speaker 3: Well they're going to what they're going to do is
- 13:38Speaker 3: a market evaluation. You know, just because your rent goes up,
- 13:43Speaker 3: you know, you have to see what the market bears.
- 13:46Speaker 3: So if it's an excessive amount, then yeah, and they
- 13:50Speaker 3: can you know, demonstrate that they're.
- 13:52Speaker 1: Being charged overcharged, so to speak, then then yeah. You
- 13:56Speaker 1: know what I always wanted, like a some kind of
- 14:01Speaker 1: statute that you you could only go up a certain
- 14:04Speaker 1: percentage every year. Well, that's rent control. That's a little right, right, right, Yeah,
- 14:08Speaker 1: because I mean I've rented in Milford, you know, over
- 14:11Speaker 1: the years. Yeah, and you know you go from like
- 14:14Speaker 1: fifteen hundred to you know, eighteen hundred.
- 14:17Speaker 2: Yeah, just why, like how do the cost go up
- 14:19Speaker 2: that much?
- 14:20Speaker 1: Well, the insurance goes up. I know, I get I
- 14:22Speaker 1: get increases, but yeah, some of them. You know, it's
- 14:25Speaker 1: like it's like anything. And even in the restaurant world,
- 14:27Speaker 1: you know, like the cost of food goes up. So
- 14:30Speaker 1: what's fair? Is going up eight dollars on a lobster
- 14:33Speaker 1: role fair? Or the two bucks? You know, like and
- 14:36Speaker 1: how how does the consumer know? Well, that's what you know. Yeah,
- 14:39Speaker 1: they're going to measure that.
- 14:41Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's the reason why we have this board
- 14:43Speaker 3: because if people feel that they're being treated unfairly, they
- 14:49Speaker 3: have a place to go.
- 14:51Speaker 1: And I have faith in the process. And I'm not
- 14:54Speaker 1: a businessman at all. I always say, wouldn't you rather
- 14:59Speaker 1: like if if somebody moves out, you're losing at least
- 15:02Speaker 1: one month rent? Correct? Correct that one month rent could
- 15:06Speaker 1: cover your increase for the year if you kept them
- 15:10Speaker 1: there at small increments. You know, when I'm going on
- 15:12Speaker 1: fifty bucks one hundred bucks, you know, something I don't know,
- 15:14Speaker 1: just because I see a lot of you know, like
- 15:17Speaker 1: people getting not kicked out of apartments per se, but
- 15:20Speaker 1: like getting kicked out of a business, like a business
- 15:24Speaker 1: just can't afford the rent anymore, and then you just
- 15:26Speaker 1: it just sits there empty. So this is residential only
- 15:30Speaker 1: you no, No, I understand. I'm just like kind of
- 15:32Speaker 1: going off track here a little bit. But okay, more
- 15:34Speaker 1: to my point of, you know, if you just kept
- 15:37Speaker 1: it fair and reasonable. Again, I don't know what he's got.
- 15:39Speaker 1: Some landlords feel exactly the way you feel.
- 15:43Speaker 3: And those are the landlords that you know, want to
- 15:46Speaker 3: help businesses and they want to, you know, make sure
- 15:50Speaker 3: that there's longevity and that the businesses can become successful
- 15:54Speaker 3: without you know, having to overcharge them for rent.
- 15:59Speaker 1: Right, and you know, and I probably just have so
- 16:03Speaker 1: much money they don't give a ship. It's it's you know.
- 16:06Speaker 2: I know names. I hear names all the time in town.
- 16:08Speaker 1: Yeah, he's not so good. I won't mention them on
- 16:11Speaker 1: this show. You never know, it'll come down the line.
- 16:16Speaker 1: What So this is funny. So I just moved in
- 16:18Speaker 1: in November, and I moved in the wintertime, right, And
- 16:21Speaker 1: I don't really talk to the new neighbors.
- 16:22Speaker 2: I knew a couple of them.
- 16:23Speaker 1: Okay, so like just two weeks ago, right, I meet
- 16:29Speaker 1: the neighbor kind of across the street diagonal. It's a
- 16:31Speaker 1: very nice lady and we're just chit chatting in the
- 16:34Speaker 1: street and your name came up from her, is that right?
- 16:38Speaker 1: And she's a Republican. Excellent, but she's she's not happy
- 16:43Speaker 1: with you, No, not not particularly entirely. And this and
- 16:46Speaker 1: this is this is what this is why I don't
- 16:49Speaker 1: envy you in your job, because this is why she's upset.
- 16:52Speaker 2: Okay, So off of Lynnwood.
- 16:55Speaker 1: I'm off of Lynnwood Street, so it goes West Ave
- 16:57Speaker 1: Linwood and the Valley View right so West Avenante Linwood.
- 17:00Speaker 1: And then there's a little park back here. Okay, it's
- 17:03Speaker 1: like a basketball court, some swings and the and there's.
- 17:06Speaker 2: A sign that says.
- 17:10Speaker 1: Infant I think, like two to six years old swings
- 17:16Speaker 1: or something. But they're not they're adult swings. Okay, I listen,
- 17:21Speaker 1: this is a street conversation that couldn't be banging it
- 17:23Speaker 1: up a little bit.
- 17:23Speaker 2: But that's what I got from her.
- 17:26Speaker 1: And I said there, I said, well, funny thing is
- 17:27Speaker 1: I got them coming on my podcast or she didn't
- 17:29Speaker 1: even know I had a podcast, and I'll ask him
- 17:31Speaker 1: the question. So I'm not going to say, Tony, go
- 17:34Speaker 1: put an infant swing set down there. But what I
- 17:38Speaker 1: want to do is say, how would someone go about
- 17:41Speaker 1: contacting the office and putting a request in for anything.
- 17:46Speaker 1: I don't care if it's a swing set or a
- 17:48Speaker 1: crack sidewalk, Like, what's the best and easiest way that
- 17:53Speaker 1: a resident, a homeowner, even a renter in Milford could
- 17:56Speaker 1: could contact.
- 17:57Speaker 2: I mean, you probably get flooded with emails a day, and.
- 18:00Speaker 3: So the best way would to be quite you know,
- 18:06Speaker 3: up front, is to call city hall, okay, and we
- 18:11Speaker 3: have a great staff of people there, and what they'll
- 18:13Speaker 3: do is they'll take the information and they'll direct you
- 18:16Speaker 3: to the department. In that instance, your neighbor, that's a
- 18:21Speaker 3: Parks and rec situation, they can answer to the swing
- 18:25Speaker 3: of why it's you know, an adult swing and it
- 18:29Speaker 3: only says that it's only allowed for infants.
- 18:33Speaker 1: Yeah, and that could be a little more research went
- 18:36Speaker 1: down there, but that could be corrected, you know.
- 18:40Speaker 3: Or even if somebody sees something at a park and
- 18:42Speaker 3: it needs to be fixed, I would advise them. They
- 18:46Speaker 3: can call city Hall or they can call the Parks
- 18:48Speaker 3: and rec Department, you know, because we service the community,
- 18:51Speaker 3: we service the residence. If it's a crack sidewalk, they
- 18:55Speaker 3: can call public Works department, or they can call the
- 18:58Speaker 3: Mayor's office and we'll direct them to the public Works
- 19:01Speaker 3: department to the specific contact that will take We have
- 19:04Speaker 3: a working list and we'll identify where these potential repairs
- 19:11Speaker 3: need to be made. So there's nothing No one should
- 19:16Speaker 3: be upset, no one should, you know, feel that, you know,
- 19:20Speaker 3: things happen, and that's why we're here. We're all I'm
- 19:24Speaker 3: elected to, you know, to serve the people. And I
- 19:27Speaker 3: don't know what the situation is in some of these neighborhoods,
- 19:32Speaker 3: but if someone if somebody sees something, you know, then
- 19:37Speaker 3: they should say something and just let us know and
- 19:39Speaker 3: we'll be happy to fix it. And you know, that's
- 19:42Speaker 3: really the joy that I get is, you know, solving
- 19:45Speaker 3: problems and and sometimes it's just a matter of making
- 19:48Speaker 3: the phone call and getting the person on the phone
- 19:52Speaker 3: and letting them know, you know, what needs to be done.
- 19:56Speaker 3: And that's what we do. You know, We're we work
- 19:59Speaker 3: in a professional away. We expedite a lot of these calls.
- 20:05Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, we're doing tree work, we're doing sidewalk work,
- 20:09Speaker 1: we're improving our park department.
- 20:15Speaker 2: And my apron, your apron, apron's on me right.
- 20:19Speaker 1: Well, typically, yeah, the the residents are responsible to maintain
- 20:24Speaker 1: their sidewalks as well, so yeah.
- 20:28Speaker 3: That's something you know, sometimes people will get notified if
- 20:31Speaker 3: their sidewalk is a hazard, if it's a trip hazard
- 20:34Speaker 3: and by the city engineer, they'll get a letter and
- 20:38Speaker 3: they'll have to address it, you know and repair it.
- 20:42Speaker 3: Or if it's a tree on city property and the
- 20:45Speaker 3: tree lifts up the sidewalk, then the city will repair it.
- 20:49Speaker 3: So it's really a case by case situation, so we
- 20:51Speaker 3: have to evaluate it. So I would say the first
- 20:54Speaker 3: step is to call you know, public works and somebody
- 20:57Speaker 3: will come out and do an inspection and.
- 21:00Speaker 1: Value and neighbors all have nice ones. It's all cracked,
- 21:02Speaker 1: is it. Yeah, Well, like I just like we need uniform,
- 21:07Speaker 1: you know, we are like.
- 21:09Speaker 3: You know, we want to be a walkable city. We
- 21:12Speaker 3: want to increase the walkability.
- 21:15Speaker 1: So they just they just took down two trees on
- 21:18Speaker 1: one on each side and they just dug up the sidewalk.
- 21:21Speaker 1: So I think they're I think they're getting all the
- 21:23Speaker 1: roots out and then they're going to redo this side.
- 21:25Speaker 1: It would be my gas.
- 21:26Speaker 3: The trees really have caused the most damage to the sidewalks.
- 21:29Speaker 1: Yeah, those things, you know, use those roots are huge.
- 21:32Speaker 3: You know, and years ago that was that was you know,
- 21:35Speaker 3: the practice was to put in sidewalks and plant trees
- 21:38Speaker 3: along sidewalks, which looks nice, but over time or time
- 21:42Speaker 3: it's gonna, yeah, it's gonna And then also the roots
- 21:45Speaker 3: of the trees get into sometimes the lines, you know,
- 21:49Speaker 3: the sewage lines, and you know that creates other problems.
- 21:53Speaker 1: Speaking of city sewers, my boss has a question for you.
- 21:57Speaker 1: It's off of Wheelers Farm Road. Yes, and he has septic.
- 22:01Speaker 1: I think everybody's septic up that way. They are, Yeah,
- 22:04Speaker 1: he said twenty years ago maybe they were looking into
- 22:07Speaker 1: uh switching over because he thinks it might have been
- 22:10Speaker 1: a He told me there was a plan for a
- 22:12Speaker 1: stopping shop to go in somewhere over that way. There's
- 22:16Speaker 1: like a big lot over there, and yeah, it obviously
- 22:18Speaker 1: obviously never happened.
- 22:21Speaker 2: But is that in your second term?
- 22:24Speaker 1: Well, the there's more development up that way, yeah, right now.
- 22:29Speaker 1: And there was a big project that was was supposed
- 22:33Speaker 1: to happen, and it the developer was responsible for bringing
- 22:39Speaker 1: in the sewers up to that point so we could
- 22:41Speaker 1: connect to them. But that project never happened.
- 22:44Speaker 3: But my understanding is that that property is under contract
- 22:49Speaker 3: to be sold and they want to do some development there.
- 22:52Speaker 3: So there's an opportunity for the developer to possibly you know,
- 22:58Speaker 3: continue the sewer line and then from that point we
- 23:01Speaker 3: can look at it and see.
- 23:02Speaker 1: What it would cost. Gotcha, I do have a question,
- 23:07Speaker 1: you know, I did inform you of the guests or
- 23:10Speaker 1: the Facebook friend questions that I got, yes, And so
- 23:14Speaker 1: to Melanie maguire her question, Unfortunately, you can't really answer,
- 23:18Speaker 1: well I could. I just don't. I can't, you know,
- 23:22Speaker 1: speak to what happened there with the developer. I think
- 23:26Speaker 1: the whole deal was a bad deal. The developer that
- 23:32Speaker 1: sold these lots.
- 23:33Speaker 3: The understanding that there was going to be an HOA
- 23:36Speaker 3: formed by the residents. For some reason, that message wasn't
- 23:42Speaker 3: conveyed over to the residents, and the residents found out
- 23:47Speaker 3: after the fact when they applied for their CEOs for
- 23:51Speaker 3: their properties, and that you know, that project was approved
- 23:58Speaker 3: based on that agree.
- 24:00Speaker 1: So the legalities of it is.
- 24:03Speaker 3: It has to be met and as long as the
- 24:06Speaker 3: neighbors all buy into it, then we can move forward
- 24:11Speaker 3: and issue CEOs. I don't know which neighbors are holding out.
- 24:16Speaker 3: It's a small street, but I would encourage those neighbors
- 24:20Speaker 3: to reach out to each other, Yeah, to each other,
- 24:24Speaker 3: to the city. I've talked to neighbors on that street
- 24:27Speaker 3: and you know, the message has been you know, loud
- 24:29Speaker 3: and clear that I think we even have a lawyer
- 24:32Speaker 3: that's willing to form the homeowners association that worked with
- 24:38Speaker 3: the developer to get the approval, and we just need
- 24:43Speaker 3: the neighbors to buy in and it's very simple. As
- 24:46Speaker 3: long as they all agree to it, then we can
- 24:48Speaker 3: get it done. What I did was I offered to
- 24:51Speaker 3: pick up the garbage, you know, the city garbage, and that,
- 24:55Speaker 3: you know, was something that I felt was that needed
- 24:58Speaker 3: to be done right away, a.
- 25:00Speaker 1: Plowing the street.
- 25:01Speaker 3: You know, we're doing our part, our responsibility as a city.
- 25:06Speaker 3: So I hope that the neighbors can get together and
- 25:10Speaker 3: get this whole thing behind them because it is a
- 25:13Speaker 3: great development.
- 25:14Speaker 1: The houses are really nice houses, and it's in a
- 25:19Speaker 1: great area. So I would encourage them, Well, thanks for
- 25:21Speaker 1: the answer. Yeah, you have it, Melanie. All right, I
- 25:24Speaker 1: won't say where it is. And Melanie, please feel free
- 25:26Speaker 1: to call me.
- 25:27Speaker 3: I know you're frustrated, but you know we got to
- 25:31Speaker 3: work together on this and get it done.
- 25:34Speaker 1: So you mentioned garbage and trash. Yeah, I have a
- 25:37Speaker 1: question for this is my own Okay, because now I'm
- 25:40Speaker 1: a homeowner and I want to throw a lot of
- 25:41Speaker 1: shit away. Okay, what now, I've talked to certain people
- 25:45Speaker 1: and I've gotten different feedbacks.
- 25:47Speaker 2: I know there.
- 25:47Speaker 1: Was was there a change where every car has to
- 25:51Speaker 1: go through not just trucks and get waighed. Oh we're
- 25:55Speaker 1: talking about the transferation. Yeah, well you're aware of.
- 25:58Speaker 3: No, it's fine, but the res and it's no. And
- 26:00Speaker 3: I'm sure you know we offer bulk pick up twice
- 26:03Speaker 3: a year.
- 26:05Speaker 2: Yeah, so if.
- 26:06Speaker 3: You accumulate things that you want to get rid of
- 26:10Speaker 3: prior to that, then yeah, you have the option of
- 26:14Speaker 3: going down to the city transfer station. If it's in
- 26:17Speaker 3: your car, If you can put it in your car,
- 26:21Speaker 3: there is.
- 26:23Speaker 1: No fig Okay, so it's still like that. But if
- 26:27Speaker 1: it's in a truck, you have to weigh.
- 26:29Speaker 3: You have to weigh and pay because what happened or
- 26:32Speaker 3: what's happening is we're getting a lot of these small
- 26:35Speaker 3: businesses that are you know, taking advantage, you know, and
- 26:40Speaker 3: the they.
- 26:42Speaker 1: Don't want to buy a dumpster, and they don't want
- 26:44Speaker 1: to get a dumpster.
- 26:45Speaker 3: We don't know where the trash is coming from, so
- 26:47Speaker 3: to speak.
- 26:48Speaker 1: You can't really.
- 26:49Speaker 3: Yeah, so you know that's how we're handling it right now.
- 26:53Speaker 3: And you know that's an additional expense on top of
- 26:57Speaker 3: you know, the bulk pick up that we provide the residents.
- 27:02Speaker 3: So the dump fees have went up. You know, we're
- 27:05Speaker 3: not we're trying to mitigate the costs. We're not trying
- 27:09Speaker 3: to you know, hurt anyone in the process. But unfortunately,
- 27:13Speaker 3: if you go in there with a truck, you know,
- 27:15Speaker 3: you're you're going to be charged accordingly.
- 27:18Speaker 1: Based on way A big suv is good. Yeah, it
- 27:21Speaker 1: can't be a pickup truck, right or yeah, yeah, OK,
- 27:25Speaker 1: as long as it's load and all my crap and
- 27:28Speaker 1: back of.
- 27:29Speaker 3: You are you are and it's cheap. And I got
- 27:31Speaker 3: to tell you the rate that we do charge even
- 27:34Speaker 3: you know, I wouldn't discourage anyone if they have it
- 27:37Speaker 3: and they want to get rid of it, even if
- 27:38Speaker 3: they have a truck and they have to pay. It's
- 27:40Speaker 3: cheaper than any private company. And we have one on
- 27:44Speaker 3: Old Gate Lane. It's a private business entity and we're
- 27:47Speaker 3: a much cheaper than they are. So as far as
- 27:49Speaker 3: cost wise, you're not.
- 27:51Speaker 1: Going to beat the price, right, right, I've been there
- 27:54Speaker 1: in a while. Yeah, I heard some things changed. I
- 27:56Speaker 1: didn't know. Yeah, there was Well it's well the best
- 28:00Speaker 1: is it noon on Sundays? Though? Where at the transfer? Yeah?
- 28:03Speaker 3: Well yeah, there's probably different hours in the summertime. I
- 28:07Speaker 3: would think, so I would advise someone to go on
- 28:10Speaker 3: the website, you know before they load up and you know,
- 28:13Speaker 3: find out that it's closed.
- 28:15Speaker 1: And then they got to drive around with a carload
- 28:17Speaker 1: of Yeah, all right, this one is always near and
- 28:23Speaker 1: dear to my heart. How will you continue to address
- 28:26Speaker 1: the mental health, addiction and homelessness in the town. I
- 28:32Speaker 1: talk about mental health a lot on this show. Yeah,
- 28:36Speaker 1: it's important, it is. And I think, uh, I think,
- 28:40Speaker 1: I think you know you're doing a great job. It's
- 28:42Speaker 1: it's it's not something easily navigated. Uh, it's hard to
- 28:47Speaker 1: I think, really put your finger on something that you
- 28:50Speaker 1: really can't see, Like there's not like a you know
- 28:53Speaker 1: what I mean. But but homelessness you can see, uh
- 28:57Speaker 1: and and could I know a few of them in town? Yeah,
- 29:01Speaker 1: personally sure, and it's sad. But at the same time,
- 29:05Speaker 1: how do we you know, I feel like I feel
- 29:09Speaker 1: like there's people that are just the way they are
- 29:12Speaker 1: and they don't want anything to do with homeless people.
- 29:14Speaker 1: You know, they just walk the other way or you know,
- 29:17Speaker 1: they drive. You know, there are a lot of them
- 29:19Speaker 1: outside of shop right, you know, by the bus station
- 29:21Speaker 1: or wheeling around.
- 29:22Speaker 2: I mean, it is what it is.
- 29:25Speaker 1: Have you ever thought about trying to do something about
- 29:29Speaker 1: the homelessness of Milford or is it just kind of.
- 29:32Speaker 3: Well, first, let me say this. You know, these are
- 29:34Speaker 3: people that didn't become homeless, you know, by choice, right,
- 29:41Speaker 3: and that have heart, had had some struggles and hardships
- 29:45Speaker 3: in their life.
- 29:46Speaker 1: So you know, they should be treated with dignity and respect.
- 29:50Speaker 3: And we have an outreach program through the Bethel Shelter,
- 29:54Speaker 3: and you know that we're in the process of building
- 29:56Speaker 3: a new shelter which is going to you know, help
- 30:01Speaker 3: I think, facilitate a lot of these these people because
- 30:05Speaker 3: you know, our Bethel.
- 30:06Speaker 1: Shelter is.
- 30:08Speaker 3: Probably you know, depending on the time of year when
- 30:11Speaker 3: it's cold. You know, it's it's maxed out, you know,
- 30:16Speaker 3: so we'll be able to provide you know, more services
- 30:19Speaker 3: to more people.
- 30:21Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know it's working with the nonprofits is
- 30:26Speaker 1: what I.
- 30:27Speaker 3: Do, and I enjoy doing that. To understand, you have
- 30:31Speaker 3: to become educated first. You know, you can't just come
- 30:34Speaker 3: out with an opinion because there's a lot of things
- 30:38Speaker 3: that come into play.
- 30:39Speaker 1: These people are approached.
- 30:41Speaker 3: And you know, we want to help them, but they
- 30:43Speaker 3: have to accept the help, right and if they don't,
- 30:48Speaker 3: our hands are tied, right, but the help is there,
- 30:52Speaker 3: you know, and we check in on them. I know
- 30:54Speaker 3: there's certain police officers that know them, like you know
- 30:57Speaker 3: them and like I know them, and they're part of
- 31:00Speaker 3: our community. And as I don't think they mean any
- 31:04Speaker 3: harm in what they're doing, but you know, it's it's
- 31:10Speaker 3: something unfortunately, it's seems to be a growing population, so
- 31:17Speaker 3: you know.
- 31:18Speaker 2: The rents aren't.
- 31:20Speaker 3: Yeah, but I know people that come to me, that
- 31:23Speaker 3: come to city Hall that I sit down and we
- 31:25Speaker 3: have these conversations and they reach out to these people
- 31:28Speaker 3: and they help them and they'll buy them a meal
- 31:30Speaker 3: and you know, they'll see if they need anything, and
- 31:33Speaker 3: you know, maybe maybe that's why you see a lot
- 31:37Speaker 3: of these people and because they're getting the help that
- 31:41Speaker 3: they need.
- 31:42Speaker 1: But you know, they have to want, you know, shelter,
- 31:47Speaker 1: They have to want to you know.
- 31:49Speaker 2: Yeah, you can't force anyone into to give them.
- 31:53Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think I think, you know, because the
- 31:57Speaker 3: shelter is located downtown that you know, obviously there's there's
- 32:01Speaker 3: a lot of activity there and people, you know, notice
- 32:05Speaker 3: it when they're driving buy or they're at the light
- 32:07Speaker 3: and they see these people. But you know, it's it's
- 32:12Speaker 3: just a way of life. You know, we all have
- 32:14Speaker 3: to learn how to coexist.
- 32:15Speaker 1: And everyone has a story and we don't know their stories,
- 32:19Speaker 1: and no we don't.
- 32:20Speaker 3: And you know, we could just continue to offer help,
- 32:25Speaker 3: you know, in any way that that that we that
- 32:27Speaker 3: we can offer them help and as long as they
- 32:29Speaker 3: accept the help, they'll get the help that they need.
- 32:32Speaker 1: Nice. Yeah, it's it's tough. Like I said, it's not easy,
- 32:36Speaker 1: you know, because they're not committing a crime, right you know,
- 32:41Speaker 1: you know, the worst crime they might commit is loitering.
- 32:43Speaker 3: And and you know, and depending on where they are,
- 32:46Speaker 3: they could be on state property because people will bring
- 32:48Speaker 3: it to my attention, Oh, how come they're.
- 32:49Speaker 1: On the post road. That's a state road.
- 32:52Speaker 3: We can't enforce anything. You know, where the library is,
- 32:56Speaker 3: that's a park. You know, at a certain hour when
- 32:59Speaker 3: the park closed is Yes, you know, if they decide
- 33:03Speaker 3: you know, to you know, stay at the pavilion or
- 33:07Speaker 3: you know, on a park bench, they have the right
- 33:10Speaker 3: to do that. They're entitled to do that. You know,
- 33:13Speaker 3: as long as they're not closing right any harm or disturbance,
- 33:18Speaker 3: then you know, that's that's their right.
- 33:22Speaker 2: Excellent.
- 33:22Speaker 1: So my next question is partly from me and partly
- 33:26Speaker 1: from someone on Facebook. Uh, basically, how do you balance
- 33:30Speaker 1: growth and development in a you know where we were
- 33:33Speaker 1: always called the small city with a big heart. Uh?
- 33:37Speaker 1: And then he Michael messaged me about basically like the
- 33:41Speaker 1: Bridgeport Flyers now gone, and that's going to be a
- 33:44Speaker 1: massive I don't know how big, but it's going to
- 33:45Speaker 1: be a a condo or apartment complex. When because I
- 33:50Speaker 1: you know what you you I'm sure you hear it
- 33:52Speaker 1: all the time. I read it all the time online
- 33:55Speaker 1: people are frustrated when metro Star gets another bid. You know,
- 33:58Speaker 1: there's the one downtown cross from you know, or right
- 34:02Speaker 1: across from the post office, which looks beautiful, by the way, Yeah,
- 34:06Speaker 1: that building looks gorgeous, a lot better than what it
- 34:10Speaker 1: was going up, right.
- 34:11Speaker 2: Right, right, right right.
- 34:13Speaker 1: We got landscaping now, yeah, yeah, I know right. How
- 34:18Speaker 1: do you balance that? How does the city balance keep
- 34:21Speaker 1: the balance between that small city charm with you know,
- 34:27Speaker 1: these basically big companies coming in and building, and a
- 34:30Speaker 1: lot of them are the same company.
- 34:32Speaker 3: So it's a very difficult situation, I'm sure. But I
- 34:36Speaker 3: started out on the Planning and Zoning board and I
- 34:39Speaker 3: was there for four years, and I have an understanding.
- 34:43Speaker 3: It's a board that's driven by regulations. So the balance
- 34:48Speaker 3: is balance. These developers see value in Milford because we
- 34:55Speaker 3: have the train station, because we have the bus lines,
- 34:58Speaker 3: and we provide public transfer rotation access, so we're subject
- 35:04Speaker 3: to density. Some of these areas allow if you look
- 35:08Speaker 3: at the plan of conservation and development, especially near the
- 35:11Speaker 3: train station, to transit orient the district, it allows for
- 35:16Speaker 3: more density.
- 35:18Speaker 1: They're trying to encourage.
- 35:19Speaker 3: More people, the young people that work in Stanford, that
- 35:22Speaker 3: work maybe even in New Haven or New York, to
- 35:26Speaker 3: take the rail, to get cars off the road. But
- 35:30Speaker 3: in order to do that they have you have to
- 35:32Speaker 3: provide the housing, and it happens to be apartments, and
- 35:36Speaker 3: we've seen a big influx, especially downtown off the Green
- 35:40Speaker 3: of these apartment you know complexes, but they're all market rate.
- 35:44Speaker 3: These are professional people, Jeremy and I got to tell you,
- 35:47Speaker 3: I talked to these landlords and these people have you know,
- 35:50Speaker 3: big incomes, and they could afford to live there, and
- 35:53Speaker 3: they choose to live there, and they commute back and
- 35:56Speaker 3: forth to the city. They want to come home and
- 35:59Speaker 3: they want to live downtown. They want to walk out
- 36:01Speaker 3: their door, and they want to green. That's got you know,
- 36:04Speaker 3: maybe a fair going on, an event, an oysterfest. They
- 36:08Speaker 3: want to bike, they want to walk, and they basically
- 36:11Speaker 3: that's their lifestyle. So I think what we're seeing is
- 36:15Speaker 3: a transition in a city, in a small city, it's
- 36:19Speaker 3: becoming a little more urbanized in that way, and the
- 36:24Speaker 3: zoning and the plan of Conservation development allow for that.
- 36:28Speaker 3: And then on top of that you have and I
- 36:31Speaker 3: know we've probably talked about this is the eight thirty
- 36:34Speaker 3: g which is what's happening at the Bridgeport flyer.
- 36:38Speaker 1: So that completely is a state statue.
- 36:41Speaker 3: And that trump's local zoning. So then you have to
- 36:44Speaker 3: deal with that as a municipality, but that's state law.
- 36:47Speaker 3: Now you have this housing bill that's before the governor
- 36:51Speaker 3: which is even more dense, which is allowing for more density.
- 36:56Speaker 3: So the cities are under a lot of pre pressure Nationally.
- 37:01Speaker 3: They say there's a shortage of housing. They say there's
- 37:05Speaker 3: a shortage of so many x amount of units in Connecticut.
- 37:08Speaker 3: So it's starting from the top. It's starting in Hartford,
- 37:11Speaker 3: and it's trickling down. And these are the people that
- 37:14Speaker 3: are creating the legislation. These are the people that are
- 37:18Speaker 3: in power, and they've been in power, and this is
- 37:20Speaker 3: the result.
- 37:22Speaker 1: What I try to do as mayor is navigate through that.
- 37:26Speaker 3: Okay, I thought Bridgeport Flyer, the first application was the
- 37:32Speaker 3: best because it was only for fifty apartments and it
- 37:36Speaker 3: was mixed use. The Planning and Zoning Board denied that project.
- 37:41Speaker 3: They pushed that developer into doing an eight thirtys G
- 37:46Speaker 3: because they wanted more units.
- 37:48Speaker 1: They want more affordability.
- 37:50Speaker 3: So now it's eighty units, all one bedroom affordable.
- 37:56Speaker 1: So all one bedroom. Yeah. So sometimes you know, you
- 38:00Speaker 1: have to look.
- 38:00Speaker 3: At the project for what it is, and you know
- 38:05Speaker 3: there's people that are trying to steer the ship that
- 38:10Speaker 3: are on these boards that want more density, and the
- 38:13Speaker 3: local voters have to take notice to that the Planning
- 38:17Speaker 3: and Zoning Board, the Mayriorage does not control the Planning
- 38:20Speaker 3: and Zoning Board, right, That's like I said, that's a
- 38:23Speaker 3: board that's driven by the regulations.
- 38:24Speaker 1: Stand in front of them for the stone Bridge the exactly.
- 38:27Speaker 3: And you know I went before them when I did
- 38:30Speaker 3: my eight twenty four approvals when I had this city
- 38:33Speaker 3: owned property on High Street that I wanted single family
- 38:36Speaker 3: housing development and it was passed and it was granted.
- 38:40Speaker 3: You know, it's a conversation. It's a difficult thing. But
- 38:44Speaker 3: you have some people on the board that you know,
- 38:48Speaker 3: promote and want more density. They just passed an amendment
- 38:53Speaker 3: for more density down in the Devon district.
- 38:57Speaker 1: Now, to me, Devon.
- 38:59Speaker 3: Is dense already, So you know, you have to take
- 39:03Speaker 3: notice of who's representing you, what district and the way
- 39:08Speaker 3: that they're voting, because the only change that's going to
- 39:12Speaker 3: occur is people that are going to go to the
- 39:18Speaker 3: polls and they're going to be educated and they're going
- 39:21Speaker 3: to know if they want to change the direction of development.
- 39:23Speaker 3: They have to look at their Planning and Zoning Board
- 39:26Speaker 3: candidates and who's on that board and what they're doing.
- 39:31Speaker 3: So it's you know, it's it's happening on North Street
- 39:35Speaker 3: now there's a big application there now that's in a
- 39:38Speaker 3: single family neighborhood, you know, and you know that went
- 39:42Speaker 3: before the Police Commission and then now it's going to
- 39:45Speaker 3: go before zoning. There's a whole process that doesn't.
- 39:48Speaker 1: Come before the Board of Aldermen, it doesn't come before
- 39:51Speaker 1: the mayor. I can't cannot control development. These developers have
- 39:55Speaker 1: the right to develop their properties and they go through
- 39:57Speaker 1: the process and the Zone Owning Board, you know, has a.
- 40:01Speaker 3: Lot of a lot of power in what they're doing.
- 40:05Speaker 3: So it's it's something that you know, we have to
- 40:09Speaker 3: be more aware of because it's just it's it's becoming
- 40:13Speaker 3: more and more evident that, you know, the landscape is changing.
- 40:18Speaker 1: The mall, the mall, the mall both times you were
- 40:22Speaker 1: on the show before, Yeah, the mall. What's going on
- 40:25Speaker 1: with the mall? Is there any updates on the mall?
- 40:28Speaker 1: I mean I walked in the mall about six months
- 40:31Speaker 1: ago and I said, well, I was I forget about
- 40:34Speaker 1: I was going I was going to Dick's get some
- 40:36Speaker 1: stuff at Dix And I said I'm going to walk
- 40:39Speaker 1: the mall because I haven't done it since I was
- 40:40Speaker 1: probably in my thirties, right, it was it was just sad. Yeah,
- 40:46Speaker 1: nothing like I remember. Everything's either a shoe store or
- 40:50Speaker 1: a put a battery in a watch. Yeah, restaurants, which
- 40:55Speaker 1: is fine, but I just go ahead.
- 40:59Speaker 2: I just don't know that.
- 41:00Speaker 1: I'll tell you. The more they the mall is going
- 41:03Speaker 1: to bring more opportunity once they decide exactly what the
- 41:08Speaker 1: design is going to look like.
- 41:10Speaker 3: I talked to Centennial. I was on a zoom call
- 41:14Speaker 3: with them. They're the company that bought them all from Westfield.
- 41:17Speaker 3: They're a national mall company. Their headquarters is in Texas.
- 41:23Speaker 3: They redeveloped malls all over the country. And based on
- 41:27Speaker 3: the conversation, it's going to be a hybrid mall. Half's
- 41:31Speaker 3: going to be outside, half's going to be inside.
- 41:34Speaker 1: We're talking about walking.
- 41:35Speaker 3: Trails, kiosks, fountains, very you know, landscaped very nicely on
- 41:41Speaker 3: the outside, smaller dwellings but separated. A lot of these
- 41:46Speaker 3: higher end retailers want to have their own space. They
- 41:48Speaker 3: don't want to be under the same roof or connected.
- 41:52Speaker 3: So it's going to have more of a village feel.
- 41:54Speaker 1: No how the mall was originally I'm not a lifer,
- 41:57Speaker 1: so wasn't it. Then they have like an outdoor, Yeah
- 42:00Speaker 1: it started, it.
- 42:01Speaker 3: Really was, but you know, and then it changed. But
- 42:04Speaker 3: you know, that's how things work, right.
- 42:05Speaker 1: So almost like like I wouldn't say outlets because the
- 42:09Speaker 1: outlets are connected, but you know, but you have to
- 42:13Speaker 1: walk into each door from the outside, right, Yeah, it
- 42:16Speaker 1: won't be like one big roof of everybody right right,
- 42:20Speaker 1: So you know it's going to be great.
- 42:23Speaker 3: I mean, and you know, they were approved for housing
- 42:27Speaker 3: there two hundred and fifty units. I don't even know
- 42:29Speaker 3: if they're going to do that because when I talk
- 42:32Speaker 3: to them, they weren't even sure. But that still may happen.
- 42:37Speaker 3: But hopefully we get other things there that are going
- 42:40Speaker 3: to draw people there, maybe an entertainment venue, maybe an
- 42:43Speaker 3: educational space, maybe a medical building, you know, to get
- 42:48Speaker 3: more people there for different reasons, not just to shop,
- 42:52Speaker 3: but have some higher end restaurants, some higher end retail.
- 42:55Speaker 1: But you kind of got to mix it up a
- 42:57Speaker 1: little bit, you know.
- 42:58Speaker 3: And that's what it is. It's to be a hybrid.
- 43:01Speaker 3: So I'm looking forward to it. You know, that project
- 43:04Speaker 3: was before the Planning and Zoning Board years ago and
- 43:08Speaker 3: it was denied twice. So once again, you know, the
- 43:14Speaker 3: mall's dying. We need to work with them to resurrect
- 43:20Speaker 3: the mall because that's the biggest taxpayer in the city
- 43:26Speaker 3: of Milford. And we took an eighty million dollar loss
- 43:32Speaker 3: in real estate value because the mall went down in value.
- 43:38Speaker 3: When I took office just before that, it was valued
- 43:41Speaker 3: at one hundred and eighty million.
- 43:43Speaker 1: Now it's only one hundred million.
- 43:44Speaker 3: So our grand list overall lost eighty million dollars worth
- 43:49Speaker 3: of real estate taxable revenue.
- 43:51Speaker 1: So how do you make that up?
- 43:52Speaker 3: And then that pressure gets put onto single family homeowners,
- 43:57Speaker 3: you know. So that's the balance. That's where the balance is.
- 44:01Speaker 3: You have to bring in economic development. I just was
- 44:05Speaker 3: driving through the parking lot where a subway used to
- 44:08Speaker 3: be today, which is the new distribution center that's moving
- 44:13Speaker 3: into Milford.
- 44:13Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, woost Off.
- 44:15Speaker 3: It's bringing one hundred and fifty jobs to Milford. They're
- 44:19Speaker 3: relocating from Norwalk. So all those people are gonna come
- 44:22Speaker 3: to Milford. They're gonna work here, they're gonna shop here,
- 44:25Speaker 3: they're gonna eat here, and hopefully some of them end
- 44:27Speaker 3: up living here, and that's something that the planning zoning
- 44:31Speaker 3: Board amended his own because office space it wasn't being filled.
- 44:36Speaker 3: You can't rent it because the majority of the people
- 44:39Speaker 3: don't work in an office anymore.
- 44:41Speaker 1: They work remotely.
- 44:43Speaker 3: So it was a great opportunity and it's gonna work
- 44:48Speaker 3: out great. And we're going to develop the piece across
- 44:50Speaker 3: the street the same developer. And that's what's gonna happen
- 44:53Speaker 3: with them all. It's just a time thing, these things, Jeremy.
- 44:57Speaker 3: This is getting back to you know, we talked about
- 44:59Speaker 3: the election before he went on. You know, it's a
- 45:02Speaker 3: two year term. These things they take time. There's planning,
- 45:07Speaker 3: there's permitting, and then by the time the shovel hits
- 45:09Speaker 3: the ground, now you got to build it out right,
- 45:12Speaker 3: you know. I mean I wish I was doing ribbon
- 45:14Speaker 3: cuttings at the new mall, but it just doesn't happen
- 45:17Speaker 3: fast enough. But you know, you have to, you know,
- 45:22Speaker 3: just stay the course.
- 45:23Speaker 1: I get a lot of questions from being at stone Bridge.
- 45:27Speaker 1: What's going in that building that they're building over by
- 45:30Speaker 1: the post office. Now, I saw signs for they were
- 45:32Speaker 1: looking for a grocer. Yes, I've heard restaurant I mean,
- 45:36Speaker 1: I know everything's on the first floor. It's residents upstairs,
- 45:38Speaker 1: parking below right right, Is there any is there anybody
- 45:42Speaker 1: in there concrete yet that you know of My understanding
- 45:46Speaker 1: is what you just said. I don't know who the.
- 45:49Speaker 3: Who's going to be occupying it, what businesses they are,
- 45:53Speaker 3: But yeah, there's a grocer.
- 45:55Speaker 2: I think a grocer's a fantastic idea.
- 45:57Speaker 3: Of course, I agree, because you got people living down there,
- 46:01Speaker 3: and you know, they get off the train, they want.
- 46:04Speaker 1: Some don't have cars, but they just train into the city.
- 46:07Speaker 1: They don't they yeah, they don't have cars, so they
- 46:10Speaker 1: want to get a prepared meal and they want to
- 46:13Speaker 1: go back to their apartment.
- 46:15Speaker 2: Yeah, go to the restaurant every night of the week.
- 46:16Speaker 3: No, And you know they would need milk, they need eggs,
- 46:20Speaker 3: and and it's going to be a great fit. And
- 46:22Speaker 3: there's going to be more people that are going to
- 46:24Speaker 3: take advantage of that as well. And I think it's
- 46:27Speaker 3: you know, all about watching the people how they live,
- 46:31Speaker 3: you know, and and building around that. So I think
- 46:35Speaker 3: it's a great fit.
- 46:37Speaker 1: I walk by it all the time and I'm like, Starbucks, Yeah,
- 46:41Speaker 1: there should be a Starbucks on the corner of this place. Now,
- 46:44Speaker 1: I'm not even a Starbucks fan. I'm a Duncan guy,
- 46:47Speaker 1: but like it's just that building exudes. There should be
- 46:50Speaker 1: a Starbucks there. Yeah, the architecture I could see, I
- 46:54Speaker 1: could see. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah, I know
- 46:55Speaker 1: you guys. Is there still that statue of no chains
- 46:58Speaker 1: downtown or was that ever thing?
- 47:01Speaker 2: I ever when Duncan moved out years ago?
- 47:03Speaker 1: Yeah, own chain, rest change, any kind of change downtown,
- 47:09Speaker 1: like they want to keep it all mom and pop
- 47:10Speaker 1: shops kind of. Yeah, I think that's important to you know,
- 47:15Speaker 1: protect But not that I'm aware of. Not that I'm
- 47:19Speaker 1: aware was just chatter I always heard, not that.
- 47:21Speaker 3: I'm aware of, But that parking garage is going to
- 47:23Speaker 3: be the catalyst to the growth of those small businesses
- 47:28Speaker 3: down there. People are going to have a place to park,
- 47:31Speaker 3: and that is so important because those businesses parking is
- 47:36Speaker 3: a challenge, and you know, it's going to open up
- 47:40Speaker 3: a lot of opportunity for a lot of those businesses.
- 47:44Speaker 3: They're going to be able to advertise for parking. It's
- 47:47Speaker 3: free parking, and I'm looking forward to it.
- 47:51Speaker 1: That should be we should be opening that building.
- 47:54Speaker 3: And my understanding is probably within another month.
- 47:58Speaker 1: So hopefully these people.
- 47:59Speaker 3: Get in there and they get situated, they get settled,
- 48:02Speaker 3: and you know, let's go.
- 48:03Speaker 1: I get my beard groomed. That isaac across the street.
- 48:07Speaker 1: Oh yeah, once a month, you know, just to tighten
- 48:09Speaker 1: it up. And he's just been watching it since since
- 48:12Speaker 1: day one, like it just oh, there goes your sunlight.
- 48:15Speaker 1: And he's like, I don't care, it's beautiful. Yeah I
- 48:17Speaker 1: was there.
- 48:18Speaker 3: Well, you know, people don't necessarily you know, change is tough,
- 48:23Speaker 3: you know, being in my position, I'm you know, subject
- 48:26Speaker 3: to an open field of opinions, of course, but changes,
- 48:30Speaker 3: you know, people have a hard time with it. And
- 48:32Speaker 3: I remember Milford the way it was when I grew up.
- 48:34Speaker 3: But you know, nothing stays the same. We just have to,
- 48:38Speaker 3: you know, make sure.
- 48:39Speaker 1: To evolved with the times. And yeah, like you said,
- 48:43Speaker 1: everyone's working from home. Oh we need more more places.
- 48:47Speaker 1: We got a new health department that we're building.
- 48:49Speaker 3: I saw that, yeah, downtown, and we really need it badly.
- 48:53Speaker 1: I don't know, are you familiar with the health department.
- 48:57Speaker 1: I opened bar three thirty three and I dealt with
- 48:59Speaker 1: the health department. It was quite the experience, yeah, I know,
- 49:02Speaker 1: but it was very small. Its tiny.
- 49:05Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like three people there.
- 49:06Speaker 3: Yeah, and I you know, we talked about you know,
- 49:09Speaker 3: public health and you know, we have to be prepared
- 49:13Speaker 3: as a city and we have to provide services for
- 49:17Speaker 3: all of our citizens, seniors, our young people, you know,
- 49:21Speaker 3: all the people that live here, and they provide you
- 49:23Speaker 3: know a lot of things that they do that people
- 49:25Speaker 3: aren't aware of. You know, they're constantly you know, testing
- 49:28Speaker 3: the water and you know, the water that we swim in,
- 49:31Speaker 3: the water that we drink. We do mosquito spraying, you know,
- 49:35Speaker 3: because there's a lot of viruses. You know, we have
- 49:37Speaker 3: a lot of marshlands we're subject to here in the
- 49:39Speaker 3: shoreline community. You know, it's it's very important work. And
- 49:44Speaker 3: we have a lot of restaurants, we have a lot
- 49:46Speaker 3: of food truck festivals. You know, there's a lot of
- 49:48Speaker 3: responsibility that goes into running a city.
- 49:52Speaker 1: And there's you know, there's laws. I mean there's.
- 49:56Speaker 3: State laws, federal laws that need to be you know followed,
- 50:00Speaker 3: and we have sanitarians and you know, we don't want
- 50:03Speaker 3: any outbreaks. We don't want people. We want people to
- 50:07Speaker 3: know that when they come to Milford and they dine
- 50:09Speaker 3: in Milford and they go out in Milford and they
- 50:12Speaker 3: want to swim in Milford and they want to drink
- 50:14Speaker 3: the water that you know, everything is, you know, taking
- 50:18Speaker 3: care of the right way?
- 50:20Speaker 1: Are you? Are you? Are you? How confident are you
- 50:26Speaker 1: for like another hurricane rolling in or a new COVID mandates, whatever,
- 50:34Speaker 1: How confident are you that Milford has been through You know,
- 50:36Speaker 1: I've been through Irene and Sandy and COVID and all that,
- 50:39Speaker 1: and I thought a lot of it was handled. Well,
- 50:43Speaker 1: it's not easy. Do you think the town's well prepared
- 50:47Speaker 1: for anything that comes up? Prepared now than ever.
- 50:49Speaker 3: Yeah, because of the experience that we all went through
- 50:53Speaker 3: and we lived through it and we became smarter about it.
- 50:57Speaker 3: And these are the projects, you know, like health department
- 51:01Speaker 3: for instance, that's being funded five million dollars of that
- 51:03Speaker 3: project is through ARPA funds and that's the intent of
- 51:08Speaker 3: that money is to put it back into your community
- 51:12Speaker 3: for public health. So we need a health department, we
- 51:16Speaker 3: really do.
- 51:17Speaker 1: We have to have.
- 51:20Speaker 3: Enough room if there is a pandemic where we can
- 51:24Speaker 3: have vaccinations. Plus we're going to be doing other things
- 51:28Speaker 3: there and we're going to be you know, providing other
- 51:32Speaker 3: health services that are going to be buildable services. That's
- 51:35Speaker 3: going to generate revenue for the city. So we're gonna
- 51:37Speaker 3: be able to build people's insurance companies. If they need
- 51:40Speaker 3: to go get a shot, they could come right downtown Milford.
- 51:43Speaker 3: They don't have to go to a pharmacy. The pharmacies
- 51:45Speaker 3: are closing. Yeah, look at right aid, you know, and
- 51:49Speaker 3: I'm happy that the boot Barn came in. You know,
- 51:52Speaker 3: these are the things that I'm consistently working on there. Yeah,
- 51:55Speaker 3: the boot barn opened. Yeah, you see the boot barn
- 51:59Speaker 3: next to Donald's. Oh country Western clothes, boots, hats. Oh yeah,
- 52:07Speaker 3: it's a whole thing. It's like walking into Nashville.
- 52:10Speaker 1: What's what's going into uh Michael's. It says coming soon,
- 52:15Speaker 1: but there's no there was no, like, it's not a secret.
- 52:19Speaker 1: What I know. I'll tell you what I know.
- 52:21Speaker 3: And I heard that it's going to be a high
- 52:22Speaker 3: end gelato oh shop, So you know, which is great?
- 52:29Speaker 3: Which is great? And Straga's they're working on Straga. He
- 52:32Speaker 3: moved to New Haven, but somebody that I know, another
- 52:36Speaker 3: restaurant business owner that has a place in Bridgeport, is
- 52:41Speaker 3: coming to Straga. So when you see empty buildings, you
- 52:46Speaker 3: know that brings opportunity. You know, so things are changing,
- 52:50Speaker 3: we're still in this transition.
- 52:51Speaker 2: I'm actually trying Pizza Life tonight for the first.
- 52:56Speaker 3: How many times did we drive by there and say
- 52:59Speaker 3: when is this guy opening? Well, he's open, And let
- 53:02Speaker 3: me tell you, every time I go by there, there's
- 53:04Speaker 3: somebody walking in or walking out. And it just fits
- 53:08Speaker 3: because it gets back to what I was saying earlier.
- 53:11Speaker 3: You have these influxive apartments. Those are the people that
- 53:14Speaker 3: are walking here and there. You know, they bring pizza
- 53:19Speaker 3: down to Like tonight, we have one of the bands
- 53:22Speaker 3: is playing Shameless down at the Foler Pavilion to go
- 53:26Speaker 3: for chamber and there's a lot of people there and
- 53:30Speaker 3: I go there and they have Pizza lifeboxes and they
- 53:33Speaker 3: walk down there, they grab a slice, and you know, if.
- 53:37Speaker 1: You think about it, it's it's I mean, they're not
- 53:39Speaker 1: really traditional pizza either. I believe they're sour dough, but
- 53:42Speaker 1: we don't downtown outside of Colony, and Colony is definitely
- 53:45Speaker 1: not traditional pizza that we're used to. It. It's still good,
- 53:47Speaker 1: but it is. Do we have a pizza place downtown? No,
- 53:53Speaker 1: not that Frank goes that's gone, Yeah, which I liked. Yeah,
- 53:59Speaker 1: I thought was good. The closest is like silver Sands,
- 54:02Speaker 1: or you go this way, there's the Greek Greek one.
- 54:06Speaker 3: So these you know, everybody has their niche, and I
- 54:09Speaker 3: think pizza life has you know, their own lane, so
- 54:13Speaker 3: to speak, like one in Westport in colonies. Good, They're
- 54:17Speaker 3: all good in a different way.
- 54:18Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, yeah, you gotta really fuck up.
- 54:24Speaker 2: All right, Well let's uh, let's we'll start.
- 54:26Speaker 1: Well, I want to get into uh, this is the
- 54:28Speaker 1: question that we'll get into. Uh, taxes, taxes, Sorry, hold on,
- 54:34Speaker 1: let me interrupt you. Uh. Basically, i'd love you to
- 54:40Speaker 1: explain the mill rate. Why I went up? Was it
- 54:45Speaker 1: a kicking down the kicking the can down the road,
- 54:47Speaker 1: if you will?
- 54:49Speaker 2: Did you inherit it?
- 54:51Speaker 1: A lot of people seem to blame you for it
- 54:53Speaker 1: because you are the sitting mayor.
- 54:55Speaker 2: But yeah, what happened then?
- 54:58Speaker 3: So I inherited, or we should say the city inherited
- 55:03Speaker 3: a lot. Yeah, Okay, I came into this position, and
- 55:08Speaker 3: you know.
- 55:08Speaker 1: Along with the people that live here.
- 55:13Speaker 3: With a city that consistently wasn't fully funding the pension,
- 55:19Speaker 3: that wasn't appropriately funding departments, and the can was being
- 55:24Speaker 3: kicked down the road, and I decided that I had
- 55:28Speaker 3: to fix things because that was what I was.
- 55:31Speaker 1: Elected to do. And I did the work. And what
- 55:37Speaker 1: I did was.
- 55:39Speaker 3: I started appropriately funding the departments because these departments were
- 55:44Speaker 3: underfunded and there was a lot of infrastructure projects that
- 55:49Speaker 3: weren't being addressed that were being put off to the side,
- 55:52Speaker 3: like the firehouse. We fixed the roof that was way overdue.
- 55:58Speaker 1: We're redoing all the office upstairs.
- 56:01Speaker 3: That's the headquarters downtown, which is a historic building. It's
- 56:04Speaker 3: a very historic firehouse, so you know, it takes a
- 56:08Speaker 3: little longer to do these things. And that type of building.
- 56:12Speaker 3: Fixed the heat in the other firehouse. Put a lot
- 56:14Speaker 3: of resources back into the fire department and they appreciated it.
- 56:20Speaker 3: And you know, we have a great fire department. We
- 56:23Speaker 3: have a Class A fire department. You know, we have
- 56:26Speaker 3: ems services that respond within five minutes.
- 56:29Speaker 1: If you make a call. Bought a fire truck.
- 56:33Speaker 3: We have another fire truck that's we bonded for that's
- 56:37Speaker 3: going to be built. You know, we invested in new
- 56:39Speaker 3: ambulances and these were the things that weren't being addressed.
- 56:44Speaker 3: Along with that, we fully funded the pension because it
- 56:51Speaker 3: wasn't being fully funded. You know, at one time, the
- 56:55Speaker 3: city's bond rating was triple A and that was before
- 56:58Speaker 3: my predecessor took office, and then it went down to
- 57:03Speaker 3: double A plus because what was happening was they weren't
- 57:09Speaker 3: fully funded. Depension wasn't being fully funded, and a lot
- 57:14Speaker 3: of the contingency money, the tax money that was being collected,
- 57:19Speaker 3: was being used to keep taxes low and that's not
- 57:24Speaker 3: best practice.
- 57:26Speaker 1: So all of that caught up to us.
- 57:29Speaker 3: So this was the first budget, okay that I put
- 57:34Speaker 3: forward that appropriately funded the departments, that fully funded de pension.
- 57:39Speaker 1: On top of it, new wage contracts, new wages. Everybody
- 57:43Speaker 1: in the city's making more money.
- 57:45Speaker 3: Just like everybody else got raises in the private sector.
- 57:48Speaker 3: Because you know, of inflation, we're dealing with higher costs
- 57:54Speaker 3: with utilities. The city spent six hundred thousand dollars more
- 58:00Speaker 3: were our utility bill this year than last year to
- 58:03Speaker 3: fully fund the pension this year versus last time, a
- 58:07Speaker 3: million dollars more met all those obligations. Put forward a
- 58:12Speaker 3: prudent budget with a tax decrease, and the majority of
- 58:18Speaker 3: the Board of Aldermen voted it down for political gain.
- 58:24Speaker 1: That's the problem with politics.
- 58:27Speaker 3: Local politics should not be political and they voted it.
- 58:33Speaker 1: Down, and I put forward. Another opportunity to lower the
- 58:38Speaker 1: mill rate was when we had the motor vehicle.
- 58:44Speaker 3: Reassessment for the motor vehicles that came from the state.
- 58:46Speaker 3: All that money that was being collected went up to
- 58:49Speaker 3: the state. And then they realized that a lot of
- 58:51Speaker 3: the municipalities with motor vehicle taxes were having shortfalls in
- 58:55Speaker 3: their budget. So they gave each municipality the opportunity to
- 58:59Speaker 3: take the money and they changed the value of cars.
- 59:04Speaker 3: But that's out of our control. But that would have
- 59:07Speaker 3: brought in an extra one point five million dollars worth
- 59:10Speaker 3: of revenue. And the majority of the Board of Aldermen
- 59:14Speaker 3: rejected it, and that would have lowered our mill rate.
- 59:17Speaker 1: And can you tell me what the what the breakdown
- 59:19Speaker 1: is in the Board of Aldermen. Well, if you read
- 59:23Speaker 1: the paper, it's eight seven. You know the majority is
- 59:27Speaker 1: eightith Democrat right and seven Republican correct.
- 59:31Speaker 3: So that's what you're dealing with. So people need to
- 59:34Speaker 3: know this next election is important.
- 59:38Speaker 1: We're doing the work. I'm doing the work every day.
- 59:41Speaker 1: Should I run for an Aldermen? You should?
- 59:43Speaker 2: I really should?
- 59:44Speaker 1: You really should? Because they turned their back on the
- 59:49Speaker 1: people in Milford. They not only sorry, not only did
- 59:52Speaker 1: they turn their back, right, they lied. They sent everyone
- 59:58Speaker 1: a fucking text message in town. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
- 1:00:01Speaker 1: that vote for rich Smith because you raise taxes. But
- 1:00:08Speaker 1: it was quickly debunked by fact checkers. Yeah, well.
- 1:00:15Speaker 2: You know me, and now we have.
- 1:00:16Speaker 1: We talked about these text messages when you were running
- 1:00:19Speaker 1: for mayor. It's unfortunate, and you took the high ground.
- 1:00:23Speaker 1: I didn't, but you did. I always respected you for that,
- 1:00:26Speaker 1: and you and I always will and I will rise
- 1:00:29Speaker 1: above this. And I still have hope, and I want
- 1:00:32Speaker 1: to work with everyone. I came from the minority. I'm
- 1:00:35Speaker 1: still in the minority, right, Okay, I've worked with these people.
- 1:00:39Speaker 3: I always worked with the majority when I was in
- 1:00:41Speaker 3: the minority. If it was good for Milford, that's what matters.
- 1:00:45Speaker 3: That's what people want to see elected officials work together.
- 1:00:49Speaker 1: So they turn their back.
- 1:00:52Speaker 3: They talk about seniors on fixed incomes, So why not
- 1:00:56Speaker 3: lower the taxes if if you can, if you have
- 1:01:01Speaker 3: an opportunity to do that, that's what you're elected to do,
- 1:01:04Speaker 3: you know, is to stabilize the tax base.
- 1:01:08Speaker 1: Then do it. Then do it.
- 1:01:11Speaker 3: And the single moms that that you know that are
- 1:01:14Speaker 3: working maybe two jobs, and maybe they have a small
- 1:01:16Speaker 3: house or a condo.
- 1:01:17Speaker 1: Help them, help them, you know. And when you lower
- 1:01:23Speaker 1: the mill me, I got a new mortgage when you.
- 1:01:26Speaker 3: Lower the mill rate, Jeremy, here's the other thing, getting
- 1:01:29Speaker 3: back to the motor vehicle tax, Your motor vehicle tax
- 1:01:33Speaker 3: goes down. That's the catalyst of the taxes. It's all
- 1:01:37Speaker 3: based on the mill rate. So the lower the mill rate,
- 1:01:40Speaker 3: the lower your taxes are. That's what took place here,
- 1:01:45Speaker 3: and they set a very very bad precedent, very bad.
- 1:01:50Speaker 1: And how do we get past this without gaining the
- 1:01:53Speaker 1: majority back? Or are we dead in the water if
- 1:01:56Speaker 1: we don't get no Well, you know, you take notice
- 1:01:59Speaker 1: watch them, watch all the twists and turns.
- 1:02:03Speaker 3: You know, they're holding these signs and they're talking about
- 1:02:06Speaker 3: lower taxes, and they had an opportunity to do that,
- 1:02:09Speaker 3: but they didn't want to do it because they felt
- 1:02:14Speaker 3: they wanted to.
- 1:02:17Speaker 1: Blame me. They adopted the budget. It's their budget, right, right,
- 1:02:23Speaker 1: they own it, right. I put it forward, I put
- 1:02:26Speaker 1: policies forward. And you know what's crazy is not the
- 1:02:32Speaker 1: pat Stonebridge's back here. But when we did that planning
- 1:02:36Speaker 1: and zoning meeting. They probably shattered records on how many
- 1:02:40Speaker 1: people watch that from home? Really? Oh my god, my
- 1:02:43Speaker 1: phone was blowing up because I was sitting like second row,
- 1:02:46Speaker 1: left behind Ritchie and they're like, oh wear I forget
- 1:02:48Speaker 1: like blue shirt.
- 1:02:49Speaker 2: Ah, yeah, it's me.
- 1:02:50Speaker 1: Everyone was texting me. And then I'm like, wait a second.
- 1:02:54Speaker 1: Now I could be totally wrong. Well, I'm like, why
- 1:02:58Speaker 1: didn't we go first? And then we had to sit
- 1:03:01Speaker 1: there through all the fucking dumb shit that I could
- 1:03:03Speaker 1: care less about. But I'm like, wait, these guys, these
- 1:03:06Speaker 1: guys got eyes on them today. They want they want
- 1:03:08Speaker 1: people to watch for a little longer than they probably
- 1:03:10Speaker 1: normally do. Now, the Alderman meetings are the same. I've
- 1:03:13Speaker 1: never watched one, right, but they're televised, they are, But
- 1:03:16Speaker 1: we don't have that kind of crowd. Well, see, you
- 1:03:19Speaker 1: get me on the board. You get me on the board,
- 1:03:21Speaker 1: I'll get eyes on us. I'll get eyes on us. Yeah.
- 1:03:24Speaker 1: So how do I go about running for Aldermen? Is
- 1:03:26Speaker 1: it too late for this cycle? No?
- 1:03:29Speaker 3: I mean anybody can run. Anybody could get involved. You know,
- 1:03:33Speaker 3: they have to reach out, they have to become affiliated with,
- 1:03:35Speaker 3: you know, their political party and their beliefs and you know,
- 1:03:39Speaker 3: join the town committee of their political party and start there.
- 1:03:44Speaker 1: That's how I started. Listen, you know, this.
- 1:03:47Speaker 3: Is the thing what people know about me is I served.
- 1:03:54Speaker 3: I was a public servant for twenty years, a volunteer,
- 1:03:58Speaker 3: and it just evolved, and I I really really enjoy
- 1:04:01Speaker 3: doing it. I enjoy people, and I love the city
- 1:04:05Speaker 3: and the city is very important to me because you know,
- 1:04:08Speaker 3: I grew up here, I raised my family here and
- 1:04:11Speaker 3: you know, I'm from Milford, you know, and I want
- 1:04:15Speaker 3: to see things done the right way.
- 1:04:18Speaker 1: So I really enjoy.
- 1:04:22Speaker 3: You know, putting things forward to the board that it's
- 1:04:25Speaker 3: going to help people, make people's lives better, like like
- 1:04:28Speaker 3: I told you, public safety, public health, economic development, by
- 1:04:32Speaker 3: bringing the opportunity forward to lower the mill rate, you know.
- 1:04:36Speaker 1: And I need a board that I can work with.
- 1:04:41Speaker 1: And they fell short. Politics shouldn't be on taxes, they
- 1:04:46Speaker 1: really did, because I think what happened was they came out,
- 1:04:50Speaker 1: my opponent came out so soon that he was going
- 1:04:52Speaker 1: to lower them, which he can't, and we did, and
- 1:05:00Speaker 1: they just sabotaged the whole thing. And that's and that's
- 1:05:04Speaker 1: and then blamed you well people know, yeah, oh, they know,
- 1:05:08Speaker 1: they know they.
- 1:05:09Speaker 3: Come up to me, and you know, I have a
- 1:05:13Speaker 3: very jeremy. I'm building a nonpartisan coalition in this election.
- 1:05:19Speaker 3: I have a lot of not just Republicans, Democrats, unaffiliates,
- 1:05:25Speaker 3: independents that are rallying behind, you know, doing the right thing.
- 1:05:31Speaker 3: And they don't like when people do that because that
- 1:05:35Speaker 3: shows that these people are just interested in themselves and
- 1:05:41Speaker 3: not the people they represent.
- 1:05:43Speaker 2: Now you're your opponent.
- 1:05:45Speaker 1: I read the other day he's on the police commission board. Yeah,
- 1:05:50Speaker 1: and he skipped the last meeting. He skipped the last meeting.
- 1:05:53Speaker 1: He calls him. Does he even live in Milford full time?
- 1:05:56Speaker 1: You know, you'd have to ask him. Well, I know,
- 1:06:00Speaker 1: and I actually thought about setting you guys up for
- 1:06:02Speaker 1: a debate, but I wouldn't be the best man, I
- 1:06:04Speaker 1: got to tell you. You know.
- 1:06:05Speaker 3: Uh, you know, he likes to tell everyone he has
- 1:06:08Speaker 3: a very nice place down in Florida.
- 1:06:11Speaker 1: Yea, that he likes to frequent. So I'll leave it
- 1:06:15Speaker 1: at that. Yeah, you know, for him, Yeah, Hey, no,
- 1:06:18Speaker 1: God bless you, but I'd rather boots on the ground
- 1:06:21Speaker 1: kind of. Yeah.
- 1:06:22Speaker 3: Well listen, you know, and they mock me because I'm
- 1:06:25Speaker 3: out in the community and you know, when you're the
- 1:06:29Speaker 3: mayor and you're at an event and somebody wants to,
- 1:06:31Speaker 3: you know, invite you to their event and they're and
- 1:06:33Speaker 3: they're happy that you're there and you're supporting their cause
- 1:06:37Speaker 3: and they want to take a picture. Well, that's what's
- 1:06:39Speaker 3: being That's what's being the mayor is all about.
- 1:06:42Speaker 1: You know. Yeah, that's a part of it too, you know.
- 1:06:46Speaker 1: And when you have not.
- 1:06:48Speaker 2: For nothing, you have a little celebrity status in town.
- 1:06:50Speaker 1: Well, you know what, when you come into stone Bridge
- 1:06:53Speaker 1: and you come up and say hi to me, people
- 1:06:55Speaker 1: say to me, oh, you know the mayor, another show
- 1:06:58Speaker 1: come on? Well before he was the mayor. That's what
- 1:07:01Speaker 1: I tell there, you go, there, you go. But you know,
- 1:07:07Speaker 1: I'm proud of Milford. City's awesome man. You know.
- 1:07:10Speaker 3: And when these people, like my opponent, they tried to
- 1:07:12Speaker 3: shed a negative light about Milford, Are you kidding me?
- 1:07:15Speaker 1: Right? You know? Not here? Right? That doesn't work here. No,
- 1:07:20Speaker 1: We're we're.
- 1:07:21Speaker 3: Doing great and we're gonna and we're building a miniature
- 1:07:24Speaker 3: golf course down at Eisenhower Park.
- 1:07:27Speaker 2: Did I tell you that?
- 1:07:28Speaker 1: No, you didn't know that. That's what I'm talking about.
- 1:07:31Speaker 1: When I go home, I get online.
- 1:07:33Speaker 2: I fucking watch reels.
- 1:07:34Speaker 1: I go to be just past the splash pad. We're
- 1:07:37Speaker 1: doing a miniature golf course, eighteen holes under the lights.
- 1:07:41Speaker 1: We're going out for our FP, the whole windmill and
- 1:07:43Speaker 1: everything that time were we might have the tower at Stonebridge,
- 1:07:47Speaker 1: we might have like a theme of Milford historic landmarks. Wow. Yeah,
- 1:07:53Speaker 1: the kids are gonna lost.
- 1:07:54Speaker 2: We should have ed the show with that.
- 1:07:55Speaker 1: I'm pumped. Listen, there's no miniature golf in the city
- 1:08:00Speaker 1: and was there ever?
- 1:08:03Speaker 3: Yeah, there was probably at one time to maybe three places.
- 1:08:06Speaker 3: But that's what I enjoy is taking these ideas.
- 1:08:11Speaker 2: And this is gonna be free kind of part of
- 1:08:13Speaker 2: the park, or is.
- 1:08:14Speaker 1: This is this is you're gonna have to pay Jeremy,
- 1:08:17Speaker 1: I'm fine with that. I'm fine with that. I'd rather
- 1:08:20Speaker 1: be because I'll keep the riff rapping. It's gonna be way.
- 1:08:23Speaker 1: They call it an enterprise fund. It's gonna be like
- 1:08:25Speaker 1: the public golf course across the street. So that money
- 1:08:28Speaker 1: that's raised it goes back into the Milford General Fund
- 1:08:33Speaker 1: to support.
- 1:08:34Speaker 2: So I buying my house it is.
- 1:08:37Speaker 1: I love it. It's my forever home. So I'm not
- 1:08:39Speaker 1: leaving Milford. So I mean, I know, I joke about
- 1:08:41Speaker 1: becoming an Alderman, but there is there is a step
- 1:08:45Speaker 1: that I want to take to be more. I mean,
- 1:08:48Speaker 1: I feel I'm active with the community when it comes
- 1:08:49Speaker 1: to like doing the show, and I bring a lot
- 1:08:51Speaker 1: of the you know, a lot of the causes onto
- 1:08:53Speaker 1: this show and promote you know, keeping Milford warm at
- 1:08:56Speaker 1: the Bethel Center and stuff like that. But I literally
- 1:09:02Speaker 1: have I feel like I don't have a lot of time.
- 1:09:04Speaker 1: But then I sit back, I'm like, no, I got time.
- 1:09:06Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, I you know, I started at Sikorski.
- 1:09:09Speaker 1: I've been there almost a year and I'm out at
- 1:09:10Speaker 1: two o'clock every day. So it's like, all right, well
- 1:09:13Speaker 1: what do I do now? You know, unless I got
- 1:09:15Speaker 1: to mowdolawn or have a show. You know, I still
- 1:09:18Speaker 1: work a stone Bridge on the weekends. But you know,
- 1:09:20Speaker 1: I think you'd be great if the mill rate would
- 1:09:22Speaker 1: go down, maybe I could quit stone Bridge, but well,
- 1:09:24Speaker 1: the Democrats aren't letting that happen.
- 1:09:27Speaker 3: The mill rate is still is still a very good
- 1:09:31Speaker 3: mill rate. It's under thirty mills, and if you compare
- 1:09:34Speaker 3: it to you know, west Haven, Strafford and some of
- 1:09:37Speaker 3: the surrounding towns.
- 1:09:39Speaker 1: You know, it's it's and.
- 1:09:41Speaker 3: For the value of what you get in Milford with
- 1:09:44Speaker 3: all the amenities and the shoreline, you know, in the downtown,
- 1:09:49Speaker 3: you know, it's it's a great place to live.
- 1:09:52Speaker 1: I can probably count about five to six people that
- 1:09:57Speaker 1: have gone into stone Bridge from Massachusetts, Virginia, wherever, right
- 1:10:02Speaker 1: nowhere in Connecticut. They're not familiar with the town. Sat
- 1:10:06Speaker 1: in my bar and we start shooting the shit, and
- 1:10:09Speaker 1: there I get to the point where you know, what
- 1:10:11Speaker 1: are you doing in Milford? And they got a new job,
- 1:10:14Speaker 1: and they were thinking about Milford, Strafford or west Haven
- 1:10:16Speaker 1: or wherever Orange and I would sell them on Milford.
- 1:10:22Speaker 2: I do, and they and I'm not lying.
- 1:10:25Speaker 1: They come back like four months later and like remember me,
- 1:10:28Speaker 1: And I'm kind of honest about it. I'm like no,
- 1:10:30Speaker 1: and they, oh, we were talking. I was from Virginia
- 1:10:32Speaker 1: and blah blah blahh oh yeah, she goes, yeah, I
- 1:10:34Speaker 1: bought a house over here, over here. We love the town.
- 1:10:36Speaker 1: I'm like, it's Milford is such an easy sell. Yes,
- 1:10:40Speaker 1: Like we have everything. We have the Route one with
- 1:10:44Speaker 1: all those businesses you need, we have the shoreline, the downtown,
- 1:10:47Speaker 1: you know, the public beaches, the private beaches. It's I
- 1:10:50Speaker 1: mean the Woodmont communities, the Bayview communities. You know, the
- 1:10:53Speaker 1: fourth of July is coming up. What a fucking day.
- 1:10:56Speaker 3: We got the summer kickoff on Saturday. This Saturday, the fireworks,
- 1:11:00Speaker 3: the rum Runners are playing. Yeah that that happens this Saturday.
- 1:11:06Speaker 3: And you know that's another family event.
- 1:11:09Speaker 1: We have Pirates Day, yeah, duck race. Everything. Even in
- 1:11:14Speaker 1: the wintertime, we do you know, the Santa claus On,
- 1:11:16Speaker 1: the fire enge and the tree lighting. Yeah.
- 1:11:18Speaker 2: I used to joke about it.
- 1:11:19Speaker 1: I'm like, the fucking there's something going on every weekend,
- 1:11:21Speaker 1: whether it's for adults or kids.
- 1:11:24Speaker 2: I do want to finish on on one.
- 1:11:26Speaker 1: Thought, and that's the Oysterfest, because I feel I have
- 1:11:30Speaker 1: a lot of thoughts on it. I my biggest thing was,
- 1:11:34Speaker 1: and I talked to some people that are on the board. Uh,
- 1:11:39Speaker 1: their biggest thing was, we don't have help. We don't
- 1:11:43Speaker 1: have volunteers. That's our biggest thing. And I kind of
- 1:11:47Speaker 1: fired back, I don't remember you asking. I don't remember
- 1:11:52Speaker 1: you putting stuff out like we need volunteers.
- 1:11:54Speaker 2: They could have.
- 1:11:55Speaker 1: I could be wrong, but I've never seen it with
- 1:11:57Speaker 1: my own eyes and I'm not saying I'm the one
- 1:11:59Speaker 1: that's gonna volunteer because I can't. I just w you know,
- 1:12:03Speaker 1: working at over, I get basically three jobs now and
- 1:12:06Speaker 1: maybe fourth with an all them in a position you're
- 1:12:09Speaker 1: not going to get paid for that. I know, I know,
- 1:12:11Speaker 1: I know it's still a job though. You know, I'll
- 1:12:14Speaker 1: get my I'll get my sidewalked one though for that
- 1:12:17Speaker 1: fifteen value sidewalk done check. But honestly, like I'm sad
- 1:12:22Speaker 1: to see it what happened. I hope it's just a
- 1:12:25Speaker 1: one year thing. I know.
- 1:12:27Speaker 2: I think it was the rotary that stepped up and
- 1:12:29Speaker 2: put the fare on the green that.
- 1:12:32Speaker 3: Was Devon Milford. I'm sorry, the Downtown Milford Business Association. Okay, yes,
- 1:12:37Speaker 3: taking over that component, it's still it's still not going
- 1:12:41Speaker 3: to be the same. I know, we're trying to get
- 1:12:43Speaker 3: the rum runners to play like they normally do.
- 1:12:46Speaker 1: Uh. You know, we're trying to keep it as normal
- 1:12:48Speaker 1: as possible. I know one of the big expenditures was
- 1:12:51Speaker 1: obviously entertainment for the event, and that's where I think
- 1:12:53Speaker 1: their budget was off. I have said since probably fifteen
- 1:12:57Speaker 1: years ago, because it was always the number one expense.
- 1:13:00Speaker 1: Why don't we have all the local bands down there
- 1:13:04Speaker 1: instead of trying to get a big ticket item in
- 1:13:07Speaker 1: spending that money because one is drawing people from way
- 1:13:10Speaker 1: out of town, which is great, let's showcase our town.
- 1:13:13Speaker 1: But at the same time, do we really need seventy
- 1:13:15Speaker 1: five thousand people to see you know, Steppenwolf or something.
- 1:13:19Speaker 1: I don't know, Like, I would rather keep it more local.
- 1:13:23Speaker 1: And I think we'd be fine with forty five thousand people,
- 1:13:26Speaker 1: you know, Like I just those are my thoughts on it.
- 1:13:28Speaker 1: I agree with you.
- 1:13:29Speaker 3: I think we're still going to draw the same amount
- 1:13:31Speaker 3: of people regardless, because when you bring in these local bands,
- 1:13:35Speaker 3: they're going to bring their following as well. And I've
- 1:13:37Speaker 3: been you know, I grew up here. I've seen so
- 1:13:40Speaker 3: many great bands, like Tonight is Shameless. I just saw
- 1:13:43Speaker 3: a stairway to Hanlin, you know, their screaming shout.
- 1:13:46Speaker 1: There's a lot of fun bags at the fun Bags
- 1:13:49Speaker 1: a few, I mean, there's a lot of talent. Yeah,
- 1:13:52Speaker 1: and the rum runners and these these guys all together
- 1:13:57Speaker 1: and with a Friday night and a Saturday.
- 1:13:59Speaker 3: Night, I I think it's going to be fabulous. And
- 1:14:04Speaker 3: that's what I'm looking forward to. I think it's gonna
- 1:14:06Speaker 3: be good. I think it's gonna be different. You're not
- 1:14:09Speaker 3: gonna have that big headliner. But you know, there was
- 1:14:12Speaker 3: a lot of pressure too. It was hard to get
- 1:14:14Speaker 3: some of these bands to book these bands because a
- 1:14:16Speaker 3: lot of these big headliners they're under contract.
- 1:14:20Speaker 1: Yeah that's what that's Yeah, kind of my point, like
- 1:14:22Speaker 1: why I didn't waste our time with them and they
- 1:14:24Speaker 1: were being put off?
- 1:14:26Speaker 3: I think because of the contracts, So you know, they weren't.
- 1:14:30Speaker 3: You know, I think that the Oyster Festival Committee did
- 1:14:32Speaker 3: a great job and I.
- 1:14:35Speaker 1: Commend them for all.
- 1:14:37Speaker 2: Do as well.
- 1:14:37Speaker 1: And I want to make that point clear, like I
- 1:14:39Speaker 1: don't envy their job. I mean the they literally start
- 1:14:42Speaker 1: the next year the day after they do, you know,
- 1:14:45Speaker 1: and it's it's quite the job, but they I just
- 1:14:49Speaker 1: wish I just wish it wasn't announced the way it was.
- 1:14:52Speaker 2: There was no.
- 1:14:54Speaker 1: You know, I wish there was something leading up to it, like, hey,
- 1:14:57Speaker 1: if we don't get more volunteers in the next couple
- 1:14:59Speaker 1: of years, we're gonna we're gonna have to switch the
- 1:15:01Speaker 1: things up. Yeah.
- 1:15:03Speaker 3: I don't think it was just all about volunteers. I think,
- 1:15:06Speaker 3: you know, it was hard to get these these bands
- 1:15:08Speaker 3: to commit to playing here in Milford because there's.
- 1:15:11Speaker 1: Any think how much money they would have saved if
- 1:15:12Speaker 1: they didn't get them. I know.
- 1:15:14Speaker 3: But a lot of these bands, they signed these contracts Jeremy,
- 1:15:17Speaker 3: and they're not like allowed to play if they come
- 1:15:19Speaker 3: to Connecticut. They're like owned by the other management company
- 1:15:24Speaker 3: that promotes.
- 1:15:25Speaker 1: Well that's what I'm saying. But we could we could
- 1:15:28Speaker 1: fill twenty bands, local bands down down on Fowlerfield, you know,
- 1:15:33Speaker 1: we certainly can you know, have just they all play
- 1:15:35Speaker 1: for forty five minutes just to keep it going all day.
- 1:15:38Speaker 2: I don't know, Like again, I'm not on the board.
- 1:15:39Speaker 2: I can't speak for them.
- 1:15:41Speaker 1: I you know, I'm not. I know I sound critical,
- 1:15:43Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm just disappointed. Yeah, it's not going to
- 1:15:46Speaker 1: be the same. I've never been to it. I'm always
- 1:15:48Speaker 1: working it, you know, but I see it now. The
- 1:15:50Speaker 1: road's not going to be closed, you know, And there's
- 1:15:52Speaker 1: not gonna be people walking around during a day anymore.
- 1:15:55Speaker 1: They're all gonna be up on the green, which is
- 1:15:56Speaker 1: you know, maybe selfish of me because it's you know,
- 1:16:00Speaker 1: it's my you know, it's my big day too.
- 1:16:03Speaker 2: Sure, So I don't know, it's it's we'll see how
- 1:16:06Speaker 2: it work. It maybe is huge success.
- 1:16:09Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know what, it may go back to
- 1:16:11Speaker 1: the way it was. You don't know. I just think
- 1:16:13Speaker 1: it's a you know now, just to me, it's like
- 1:16:16Speaker 1: a big drink in fest two nights in a row.
- 1:16:18Speaker 1: I'm not going to see and then and then it
- 1:16:20Speaker 1: ends at ten and now I got to deal with them.
- 1:16:23Speaker 1: I mean, you know, liability is a big thing in
- 1:16:25Speaker 1: this state. And uh, I don't know, it's just it
- 1:16:28Speaker 1: just sucks. But I get it. I do get it.
- 1:16:31Speaker 1: But I don't know. I just wanted your thoughts on that.
- 1:16:34Speaker 1: And I know you had you know, you're the mayor
- 1:16:36Speaker 1: of the town, so you you you have to promote it.
- 1:16:38Speaker 3: And absolutely, I mean I met with the Oyster Festival Committee,
- 1:16:41Speaker 3: I met with the Downtown Milford Business Association, and you know,
- 1:16:45Speaker 3: everyone's working together to make it, you know, continue on,
- 1:16:50Speaker 3: you know, in a strong way.
- 1:16:51Speaker 1: So I'm confident. Yeah, you know, and maybe.
- 1:16:55Speaker 3: They might you know, change things, you know, But for
- 1:16:59Speaker 3: right now, I think I think.
- 1:17:00Speaker 1: People are looking forward to it. Yeah, I mean I
- 1:17:03Speaker 1: want to see how the how the residual effects of
- 1:17:06Speaker 1: it are, like, you know, are we still going to
- 1:17:08Speaker 1: have all the vendors that come in with their little
- 1:17:10Speaker 1: push carts. Are we still going to have I mean,
- 1:17:12Speaker 1: we be enough room for him. Are still people that
- 1:17:16Speaker 1: are are charging parking? Are they going to even have
- 1:17:18Speaker 1: a need for that this year? Or are people going
- 1:17:20Speaker 1: to just not boycott it but just be like, oh,
- 1:17:22Speaker 1: well there's nothing during the day now.
- 1:17:24Speaker 2: On it's Saturday.
- 1:17:25Speaker 1: Yeah, we're not going to Milford at night. You know,
- 1:17:27Speaker 1: it's always fucking busy. You can't park anywhere, you know.
- 1:17:30Speaker 1: Is that mindset going to change? You know?
- 1:17:33Speaker 2: I don't know, because so.
- 1:17:35Speaker 1: I've never been to the Friday Night either. How many
- 1:17:37Speaker 1: people would go to the Friday Oyster Eve? Yeah? How
- 1:17:39Speaker 1: many people?
- 1:17:40Speaker 3: I gotta tell you that that grew. I really that's
- 1:17:43Speaker 3: more local vibe. You see a lot of the people
- 1:17:46Speaker 3: that live in Milford the Friday Night, which I think
- 1:17:48Speaker 3: will still continue, right, and.
- 1:17:51Speaker 1: Well my fear is that's what it's going to be
- 1:17:53Speaker 1: both nights.
- 1:17:54Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just local. No, I wouldn't I wouldn't worry
- 1:17:58Speaker 3: about that. As long as we still have the dunk.
- 1:18:00Speaker 3: We're gonna have the dunc tate.
- 1:18:01Speaker 1: You gotta call the fire department, right, That's one thing
- 1:18:05Speaker 1: I di missed here in the siren going up on
- 1:18:07Speaker 1: the because that's like literally right so that's my right here,
- 1:18:09Speaker 1: it's right there. Yeah, you know, it's just such a
- 1:18:12Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's like it was fifty years, you know,
- 1:18:15Speaker 1: like we just had the fiftieth anniversary. That's what I've done.
- 1:18:18Speaker 2: I literally worked twenty five of them.
- 1:18:20Speaker 1: Half my life. I've worked them. And you know you've
- 1:18:24Speaker 1: been obviously you went to one of your kids. Yeah,
- 1:18:25Speaker 1: you know, And actually I delied. I did go once,
- 1:18:28Speaker 1: did you? So I was late in. I had to
- 1:18:32Speaker 1: be in at like four, so I said, let me
- 1:18:34Speaker 1: check out the oyster fest. So I literally walked down
- 1:18:37Speaker 1: by the behind the library and I got stopped like
- 1:18:40Speaker 1: ten times by people going, well are you working right now?
- 1:18:43Speaker 2: And I finally said, fuck this.
- 1:18:45Speaker 1: I went back up the hill and I went to
- 1:18:46Speaker 1: work because I didn't want to deal with it.
- 1:18:48Speaker 3: Well, we're still going to have oysters, Yeah, I know,
- 1:18:52Speaker 3: we got.
- 1:18:52Speaker 2: A Hey, we're one of the few bars in Milford.
- 1:18:54Speaker 1: That actually serves raw bar like that. So all right,
- 1:18:57Speaker 1: so I'm going to have you privy to my I
- 1:18:59Speaker 1: do a Douche of the Week segment. I don't think
- 1:19:01Speaker 1: I was doing it when you were on last So basically,
- 1:19:05Speaker 1: there's somebody and during the week that is a douche
- 1:19:08Speaker 1: and I call him out for it. It could be
- 1:19:10Speaker 1: a person, a group of people. Lebron James has been
- 1:19:14Speaker 1: a lot Lebron Lebron Okay, but this one. I was
- 1:19:19Speaker 1: actually watching the w NBA last night and my douche
- 1:19:25Speaker 1: of the week is in fact the w n B
- 1:19:27Speaker 1: A and the people that run this league. Because Caitlin
- 1:19:30Speaker 1: Clark again was who is the she is the Tiger
- 1:19:35Speaker 1: Woods of the PGA and GA.
- 1:19:39Speaker 2: Did it right. They they embraced Tiger.
- 1:19:42Speaker 1: Even though his race wasn't the majority of the people
- 1:19:45Speaker 1: that played golf at the time, they embraced him, and
- 1:19:50Speaker 1: he literally made everyone instant millionaires because the purses went up,
- 1:19:55Speaker 1: the travels, all that expenses, the caddies, moneys went you know,
- 1:20:00Speaker 1: one was making hand over fist and still are to
- 1:20:02Speaker 1: this day. Okay. The WNBA pays their players about seventy
- 1:20:07Speaker 1: to eighty thousand dollars a year.
- 1:20:09Speaker 2: That is like right, so they're a subsidy of the NBA.
- 1:20:12Speaker 1: The NBA subsidizes the WNBA, so they have this Tiger
- 1:20:18Speaker 1: Woods of their own Caitlin Clark coming into the league,
- 1:20:22Speaker 1: who is literally getting the gotten my eyes. I joke
- 1:20:25Speaker 1: about the WNBA. I used to, but since she's joined
- 1:20:28Speaker 1: it and she's got some rivalries out there, which is
- 1:20:31Speaker 1: always healthy, yeah, and.
- 1:20:34Speaker 2: She literally is just getting brutalized on the court.
- 1:20:36Speaker 1: So last night she got poked in the eye and
- 1:20:38Speaker 1: after that she turned around and then she got shoved
- 1:20:40Speaker 1: to the ground because they all are jealous of her. Really,
- 1:20:43Speaker 1: and I always joke, well, that's the difference between men's
- 1:20:46Speaker 1: and women's sports. You know, the girls get all caddy
- 1:20:48Speaker 1: and the guys just you know, they'll throw a punch
- 1:20:50Speaker 1: here in there, but you know, at the end of
- 1:20:52Speaker 1: the day, so they they they whine about the inequity,
- 1:20:56Speaker 1: the what do you call it equity between the two leagues,
- 1:20:59Speaker 1: you know, the quality of what they're making. I don't
- 1:21:03Speaker 1: think a lot of people understand that the league needs
- 1:21:05Speaker 1: to generate money. They lose fifty million dollars every year
- 1:21:08Speaker 1: that the NBA pays the bill on. They've never made
- 1:21:12Speaker 1: money and one year they've been around over twenty years,
- 1:21:14Speaker 1: they've never had a profit. And now they have this
- 1:21:18Speaker 1: golden goose, this girl coming in and she gets people
- 1:21:21Speaker 1: to watch them on TV. They're they're these girls. The
- 1:21:25Speaker 1: other girls in the league are getting shoot deals. They're
- 1:21:27Speaker 1: now getting chartered planes instead of flying coach ok. And
- 1:21:32Speaker 1: it's all because of Kitlyn Clark, no matter what you
- 1:21:34Speaker 1: want to say. Because Caitlin Clark was just came off
- 1:21:37Speaker 1: the injury list. She was out for two weeks. The
- 1:21:39Speaker 1: ratings for WNBA plummeted by seventy five percent when she
- 1:21:42Speaker 1: was on the bench, when she was not playing. Wow,
- 1:21:45Speaker 1: she's back and the all eyes are on it again.
- 1:21:47Speaker 1: And this is what they did. The were last night
- 1:21:49Speaker 1: and the WNBA reps didn't eject the other girl. It's
- 1:21:52Speaker 1: actually a white girl that hit her and shul heed
- 1:21:55Speaker 1: to the ground. And I just don't understand who runs
- 1:21:58Speaker 1: this league.
- 1:21:59Speaker 2: You have to in five.
- 1:22:01Speaker 1: Years from now, when these girls are hopefully making five
- 1:22:04Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars a year, right, you know instead of
- 1:22:06Speaker 1: seventy five thousand, you could turn back.
- 1:22:09Speaker 2: And this is the pivotal moment.
- 1:22:10Speaker 1: This is where the league needs to just literally sit
- 1:22:15Speaker 1: down with all their players and be like, listen, we
- 1:22:17Speaker 1: have to market this girl like the Michael Jordan of
- 1:22:20Speaker 1: this league. Are those are the women union like I don't.
- 1:22:24Speaker 1: I like think so the NBA is, I mean the
- 1:22:27Speaker 1: NBA is, yes, yeah, but no, they don't have a union.
- 1:22:30Speaker 1: I don't believe.
- 1:22:31Speaker 3: So I heard that she does draw like when she's
- 1:22:36Speaker 3: playing it doesn't matter where her team is.
- 1:22:38Speaker 2: When she plays Mohegan song, it's sold out.
- 1:22:41Speaker 1: And not only sold out, it's like three hundred dollars
- 1:22:44Speaker 1: you know, a ticket on the black market. Yeah, yeah,
- 1:22:46Speaker 1: so that speaks volumes too. Yeah.
- 1:22:50Speaker 3: But I've noticed games and I've seen her get get robbered.
- 1:22:54Speaker 1: Yeah, Clobbard. I don't know why, but I just I'm like, listen,
- 1:22:58Speaker 1: if you girls want to complain about money, well here's
- 1:23:01Speaker 1: your ticket, and you're gonna abuse the shit out of it.
- 1:23:04Speaker 1: It's just I don't know. So my duche of the
- 1:23:06Speaker 1: week is the w NBA. Get your act together, stop
- 1:23:09Speaker 1: this ship. Suspend players that like like you always like
- 1:23:15Speaker 1: like Lebron, even though I'm not a Lebron fan. The
- 1:23:18Speaker 1: NBA knew exactly what to do with Lebron, you know,
- 1:23:21Speaker 1: put him front and center, put make them the Golden
- 1:23:23Speaker 1: you know, make them the next Goat, make them the
- 1:23:25Speaker 1: next Jordan. They their marketing team got it right, and.
- 1:23:29Speaker 2: The w NBA can't do that with her.
- 1:23:30Speaker 1: Is his son still playing on the gam Does he
- 1:23:34Speaker 1: get time? Not really? Yeah? They just that was a
- 1:23:39Speaker 1: whole nother reason why I hate Lebron. But yeah, there's
- 1:23:42Speaker 1: many reasons. There's a whole checklist. I go right down it.
- 1:23:44Speaker 2: But save that.
- 1:23:45Speaker 1: You're a big I'm a big sports fan in general. Okay,
- 1:23:49Speaker 1: the NBA is kind of I'm not even gonna watch tonight.
- 1:23:51Speaker 1: It's Game six of the NBA Finals.
- 1:23:53Speaker 3: So what I'm hearing from you, the biggest disappointment is
- 1:23:56Speaker 3: you just Caitlin is getting clobbered. Yeah, they're not marketing
- 1:24:01Speaker 3: or right, but I'm embracing like so intentionally people are
- 1:24:05Speaker 3: following her and like elbowing her.
- 1:24:07Speaker 2: And shoving the ground trying to hurt her.
- 1:24:10Speaker 1: Girl pulled her hair down on the ground through. Oh yeah,
- 1:24:12Speaker 1: they're trying to that's that's lousy. Yeah, in the NBA.
- 1:24:16Speaker 1: So last night they actually gave Caitlin Clark a technical
- 1:24:18Speaker 1: foul because she she got poked in the eye and
- 1:24:22Speaker 1: she like literally like the fouls called, she went through
- 1:24:24Speaker 1: her eye and then I'll show you after and then
- 1:24:26Speaker 1: h she just kind of like shoved the girl away
- 1:24:28Speaker 1: from her, like get away from me, and then this
- 1:24:31Speaker 1: other girl came in and just fucking like hip checked
- 1:24:34Speaker 1: her to the ground and like literally like just on
- 1:24:37Speaker 1: Twitter alone, it's just like here we go again, because
- 1:24:39Speaker 1: it's happened, like it's got to be ten times now.
- 1:24:42Speaker 1: Oh the girls.
- 1:24:44Speaker 3: Speaking of girls' sports, the foreign softball team.
- 1:24:47Speaker 1: I went up to the game. The yeah Class M
- 1:24:50Speaker 1: State champs. Incredible game.
- 1:24:54Speaker 3: The picture abby through or she struck out thirty two batters.
- 1:25:00Speaker 3: I mean that's got to be a state record. I
- 1:25:03Speaker 3: mean the game was like intense.
- 1:25:05Speaker 1: Wait, she's struck out thirty two battles of the one game. Yes,
- 1:25:08Speaker 1: pitched the whole game. How many innings ago? It was thirteen,
- 1:25:12Speaker 1: holy and she pitched the whole thing, the whole thing
- 1:25:14Speaker 1: thirteen times three is thirty nine. So she struck out
- 1:25:17Speaker 1: thirty two and thirty nine players.
- 1:25:20Speaker 2: Congratulations.
- 1:25:21Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, we're is this a product of all
- 1:25:24Speaker 1: the Little League World Series girls that we've had, yeah
- 1:25:26Speaker 1: years back into high school. They're all coming in at
- 1:25:29Speaker 1: the same time.
- 1:25:30Speaker 3: And you know what another exciting thing is there was
- 1:25:33Speaker 3: only one senior, which means that these girls were beating
- 1:25:37Speaker 3: They're all coming back awesome, and they were undefeated. Yeah,
- 1:25:41Speaker 3: and then they won the championship.
- 1:25:43Speaker 1: That's awesome.
- 1:25:43Speaker 3: Yeah, they'll be at city Hall the next Board of
- 1:25:45Speaker 3: Alderman meeting. We're going to present the proclamation to them.
- 1:25:48Speaker 2: Oh that's awesome.
- 1:25:49Speaker 1: Yeah, very exciting. Cool shit when you're mayor. Oh yeah.
- 1:25:53Speaker 3: And then like that, the boys wrestling at Foreign they
- 1:25:55Speaker 3: won the Class M state championship.
- 1:25:57Speaker 1: Too.
- 1:25:58Speaker 2: Nice.
- 1:25:59Speaker 1: I think it starts third one.
- 1:26:01Speaker 2: He goes to Platte.
- 1:26:02Speaker 1: Oh really, that's a nice school though. It's beautiful in there,
- 1:26:05Speaker 1: it really is. He loves it. He's a freshman. A well,
- 1:26:08Speaker 1: he just finished bea sophomore in the fall. What trade
- 1:26:11Speaker 1: he's in Collision? Nice? Yeah, so he's uh, he actually started.
- 1:26:14Speaker 1: Actually I'm gonna give him a plug right now. All right,
- 1:26:17Speaker 1: he started, He started a little startup for himself.
- 1:26:21Speaker 2: I made him a deal.
- 1:26:23Speaker 1: Whatever money he can raise through this startup, I'll match
- 1:26:27Speaker 1: and we'll buy him a car when he gets his
- 1:26:28Speaker 1: license in a year. So through Collision they started detailing cars.
- 1:26:33Speaker 1: So what he did with his birthday money in March
- 1:26:36Speaker 1: was bought all this stuff to detail cars on Amazon.
- 1:26:39Speaker 1: I thought he was gonna buy video games, you know, so,
- 1:26:42Speaker 1: you know, like any other teenage lazy kid. You know,
- 1:26:44Speaker 1: he just kind of pushed kicked the can down the road,
- 1:26:47Speaker 1: if you will. And finally he said, you know what,
- 1:26:50Speaker 1: I want to do this. So we've lined up like
- 1:26:52Speaker 1: ten already. It's only fifty bucks. He can on the weekends,
- 1:26:55Speaker 1: I can bring him to your house or during the
- 1:26:58Speaker 1: week you'd have to come to our house. He'll do
- 1:27:00Speaker 1: it in our driveway. So if anyone wants their car
- 1:27:03Speaker 1: excuse me car detailed, hit me up on Facebook, or
- 1:27:06Speaker 1: you've had my phone numbers, shoot me a text. I
- 1:27:09Speaker 1: love it. What's your what's your son's name? Braden Braiden. Yeah,
- 1:27:12Speaker 1: So so he's excited, and uh, I don't want to
- 1:27:16Speaker 1: make too much money. You'll be buying them a brand
- 1:27:20Speaker 1: new OUTI or something. Oh that's right, Yeah, I gotta
- 1:27:23Speaker 1: match it. I gotta match it. Yeah. I tell whatever
- 1:27:25Speaker 1: you saved though, not what you're not, what you've actually made,
- 1:27:28Speaker 1: what you say, So you know that's great? All right?
- 1:27:31Speaker 1: One last thing, obviously, Wednesday night is a sponsored event
- 1:27:35Speaker 1: for oh yeah, like we're having to.
- 1:27:38Speaker 2: Talk about that a little bit and then I'll let
- 1:27:39Speaker 2: you go.
- 1:27:40Speaker 3: So we're having a fundraiser campaign fundraiser at Citrus from
- 1:27:46Speaker 3: six to nine on Wednesday, that's June twenty fifth. I'm
- 1:27:50Speaker 3: really excited about that. Citrus is a great place Kenny Benson, Ken.
- 1:27:58Speaker 1: Komoda.
- 1:27:59Speaker 3: Yeah for a patio, okay, And I got a lot
- 1:28:03Speaker 3: of friends down there that are supporting me.
- 1:28:06Speaker 1: And you know there.
- 1:28:08Speaker 3: If if anybody wants to come, it's online. It's on
- 1:28:12Speaker 3: the Facebook. Ye, Tony g for Milford. So I'm actually
- 1:28:16Speaker 3: donating one hundred dollars today. You are, yes, because Mac
- 1:28:19Speaker 3: Mac text me the other night he goes, you better
- 1:28:21Speaker 3: come and donate.
- 1:28:22Speaker 1: I sa, I'll do you one better. He's coming on
- 1:28:24Speaker 1: my show Thursday. I'll donate live. We thank you so much.
- 1:28:26Speaker 1: I really appreciate that. Yeah.
- 1:28:28Speaker 3: Absolutely, Yeah, mister Mac is hosting along with Ray.
- 1:28:31Speaker 1: You know Ray Ray.
- 1:28:33Speaker 2: He's been on the show before. Oh yeah, Ray with
- 1:28:36Speaker 2: the sauce.
- 1:28:36Speaker 1: Yep, yeah, yep. Marine veteran veterans are welcome. We love
- 1:28:41Speaker 1: the veterans. So he comes on when the bull the
- 1:28:44Speaker 1: bull riding events are in Bridgeport, Is that right? Yeah,
- 1:28:46Speaker 1: because he's the guy that is like the head of UH.
- 1:28:51Speaker 1: I think he's like the head of the promotions department.
- 1:28:53Speaker 1: Is from Fairfield and he lives locally but he travels
- 1:28:56Speaker 1: all around for the pb PBR towards. That's cool.
- 1:29:00Speaker 2: Yeah, so I've had them on a couple of times.
- 1:29:02Speaker 1: Did you go? I went two years ago. I was
- 1:29:04Speaker 1: in Florida this year, but we sat in the little pit. Really,
- 1:29:07Speaker 1: it was phenomenal. Nothings like you can't even explain the
- 1:29:10Speaker 1: experience because you just you don't think of ever going
- 1:29:13Speaker 1: to it. And then I was like hooked. I'm like
- 1:29:15Speaker 1: I'm going.
- 1:29:15Speaker 3: But then I gotta tell you, Jeremy, You're doing a
- 1:29:17Speaker 3: great job. And I appreciate you inviting me on this
- 1:29:20Speaker 3: podcast because you have a following of people. You get
- 1:29:23Speaker 3: the word out and people come up to me like, oh,
- 1:29:26Speaker 3: I heard you on the podcast, you know day drinking
- 1:29:28Speaker 3: with dogs. Yeah, and I and how I haven't had
- 1:29:31Speaker 3: you drinking yet though.
- 1:29:32Speaker 1: That's okay. I know. I brought it out just for looks. Yeah,
- 1:29:37Speaker 1: it looks good.
- 1:29:37Speaker 3: Yeah, but how long have you been doing this?
- 1:29:42Speaker 2: This is twenty four years good.
- 1:29:45Speaker 1: Yeah. So I just actually just signed another lease for
- 1:29:48Speaker 1: a year to stay here, but this will probably be
- 1:29:52Speaker 1: my last year here because I'm building, like I'm transforming
- 1:29:57Speaker 1: my garage at the house into a bar slash expense
- 1:30:01Speaker 1: and all that.
- 1:30:02Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, so I'm gonna move it home.
- 1:30:04Speaker 1: Probably this time next year, so bring it out home,
- 1:30:07Speaker 1: bring it home. But it's great, but I'm kind of like,
- 1:30:11Speaker 1: I'm going to miss this spot. You know, it's a
- 1:30:13Speaker 1: little man cavish kind of It's just where you started,
- 1:30:16Speaker 1: right Yeah. Yeah, well I started on the kitchen table
- 1:30:19Speaker 1: and then it was COVID, so you know, the call
- 1:30:23Speaker 1: was not too happy.
- 1:30:24Speaker 2: People were coming to the house that you know, spread
- 1:30:26Speaker 2: disease and germs, and you.
- 1:30:28Speaker 1: Know, I'm a I'm a conspiracy theorist, so I never
- 1:30:31Speaker 1: got the jab and didn't give a fuck.
- 1:30:33Speaker 2: But that being said, I found this place.
- 1:30:36Speaker 1: I went online and met the realtor and actually the
- 1:30:39Speaker 1: person that owns this is Susan. She's the sister of
- 1:30:45Speaker 1: the founder of a subway. She used to be the
- 1:30:48Speaker 1: CEO of subway. Yeah, okay, she lives in Florida now,
- 1:30:52Speaker 1: but she owns this building or her property.
- 1:30:55Speaker 2: Management group owns this building.
- 1:30:56Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, So she informed me of my slight increase
- 1:30:59Speaker 1: in rent and would you like to sign with the
- 1:31:01Speaker 1: year leads like, I'll do one more years, sure, But yeah,
- 1:31:05Speaker 1: I love it. I love having guys like you on
- 1:31:07Speaker 1: you know. I'll be there Wednesday for sure. Thank you.
- 1:31:11Speaker 1: You're the best. I do get up early, so I
- 1:31:13Speaker 1: got to cut it out a little early. But can
- 1:31:16Speaker 1: we have a drink Wednesday? Absolutely? All right? All right,
- 1:31:19Speaker 1: oh yeah, I know.
- 1:31:20Speaker 2: I bring you on.
- 1:31:21Speaker 1: You're like, when are you going to get the mayor
- 1:31:22Speaker 1: to drink? I'm like, he's on, he's working right now.
- 1:31:25Speaker 1: You can't drink right now. But hey, hey, thank you.
- 1:31:28Speaker 1: It's a pleasure. Right Let's let's get together if you want,
- 1:31:30Speaker 1: right before the election, and one last one vote for you,
- 1:31:33Speaker 1: and let's do it if I can, if I can help,
- 1:31:36Speaker 1: I don't know. You say I do, but I don't know.
- 1:31:39Speaker 1: I knew mister Mack was voting for you. Anyway, Tony J.
- 1:31:43Speaker 1: Good luck and your reelection bid and you know we'd
- 1:31:47Speaker 1: love to have you as mayor.
- 1:31:48Speaker 2: Thank you for two years, if not longer.
- 1:31:50Speaker 1: I appreciate that.
- 1:31:51Speaker 2: Anytime.
- 1:31:51Speaker 1: Brother.
- 1:31:52Speaker 2: We'll talk to everybody next week. Take care,