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The 2019 Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade Queen and Honor Attendant were crowned at a competition at the Irish American Community Center on Saturday, February 10.  The event was sponsored by the New Haven Gaelic Football and Hurling Club. 

Taylor Besciglia was chosen from a field of contestants to represent the Irish community in a variety of year-long events as Parade Queen.  Her Honor Attendant, Claire Bohan, will accompany her to most of these functions throughout the year and appear with her in the New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Sunday, March 10.  

The ladies will be called upon by each of the four Irish Societies (the NH Gaelic Football & Hurling Club; the Knights of St. Patrick; the Ancient Order of Hibernians; and the West Haven Irish-American Club) to take part in their events that occur throughout the entire year.  This is when the queen and her honor attendant truly make an impact on the community.  They are inspirational role models for their peers and the younger generations. 

Taylor Besciglia- 2019 Parade Queen — Taylor is the daughter of Heidi Pierpont and Frank Besciglia, Jr.  She lives in West Haven and her ancestors hail from Piltown, County Kilkenny. 

She is currently a student at Southern Connecticut State University studying elementary education with concentrations in STEM and English.  She will graduate this spring.  Besciglia is employed by the Kumon Learning Center as a tutor, she is also a student teacher within the New Haven Public Schools. 

Her personal ambition is to become a successful elementary school teacher while serving as a positive role model to her students.  Her interests include fitness, Gaelic football, hiking, reading mystery books, spending time at the beach, and arts and crafts.  She also believes in raising mental health awareness.  Taylor is a member of the West Haven Irish-American Club.

Claire Bohan – 2019 Honor Attendant — Claire is the daughter of Seamus and Dina Bohan.  She lives in Orange and her ancestors hail from Mohill, County Leitrim.  She is currently employed by The Clay Date and Duffy’s Irish Pub.  Claire’s personal ambition is to travel the world helping underprivileged children as well as conserving and improving the environment.  She aspires to become an art therapist.  

A demolition crew removed what is left of 22 Richard Place following a two-alarm fire Friday night. Fire officials suspect an external cause on the building, which is owned by the Haven Group LLC.  The fire was reported to West Haven Emergency Services at 10:28 p.m., and was brought under control at 11:44.  Fire Safety personnel remained on scene throughout the night.  A  Public Works crew was dispatched to the scene, and applied salt to the roads and affected areas.  No serious injuries were reported.

Mayor Nancy R. Rossi was kept apprised of the situation throughout the night, and inspected the site along with Chief James O’Brien of the Center District Fire Department to obtain an update on the cause of the fire. 

“The cause is currently inconclusive, pending the outcome of the ongoing investigation,” said Saturday.  “But, we don’t think it was intentional. It looks like an accidental fire.”

While at the scene Rossi spoke with Fire Marshall Keith Flood of the Center Fire District, who said preliminary evidence pointed to the fire being set.  

“The fire remains under investigation at this time, and it is looking like an incendiary fire,” he said at the time.

The West Haven Police Department assessed the remaining vacant properties to identify vulnerabilities.   Matt Armstrong, from the Haven Group, LLC, took part in an on-site conference call, and said the developer will take steps to make sure the rest of the area is secure.

“We will cooperate with the City of West Haven throughout the weekend and on Monday to get the site safe and secure,” he said. “Standard Builders, at the expense of the Haven Group, is out in the field with their professional carpenters, securing the remaining houses to a higher standard.  We continue to stay on top of the situation.” 

By Monday afternoon the building was down and the cleanup was underway.

Armstrong said the situation needed a quick response, which was taken by the company.

“As a local developer, we’re on call 24/7”, Armstrong said.  “When something like this happens, we take it very seriously.  We’ve responded very quickly, very thoroughly. “

Rossi extended her thanks to the Center District Fire Department, the West Shore and Allingtown Fire Departments who assisted, Milford and New Haven Fire Departments who provided mutual aid, the West Haven Police Department, West Haven Emergency Services/911, the West Haven Department of Public Works, the West Haven Building Department, Matt Armstrong, the Haven Group, LLC, and the West Haven residents who reported the fire.

The fire comes on the heels of reports from businesses in the area that a letter went out saying demolition of the four-block area will begin sometime around March 1. Rossi has said plans call for demolition to begin in the next few weeks.

The Haven project entails construction of high-end specialty outlets that are expected to bring thousands of dollars in taxes, and hundreds of jobs to the area, not including the hundreds of construction jobs expected during the estimated two-plus years of construction.

The project has seen several delays since first announced in the fall of 2014. Among them were purchase of properties and lawsuits regarding the use of eminent domain as well as wading through the permit process with state agencies. The announcement last week by Rossi that demolition is set to begin signals that part of the process is complete.

The belief it was unintentional give credence to the complaints of homeowners in the area that squatters or homeless people were using the vacant buildings. More than a year ago, city crews put concrete barriers up on the streets to prevent traffic and possible illegal activity, but homeowners have reported seeing individuals going into and out of some of the buildings.

By Josh LaBella

Voice Reporter

In her second town hall meeting in as many weeks, Mayor Nancy Rossi answered tough questions from Allingtown residents. The district, which one resident previously described as West Haven’s “red-headed stepchild,” saw a 2.1 percent supplemental district tax increase this year.

For more than two hours, the mayor answered questions that varied heavily in scope: from the tax increase, to speeding, to complaints about light, noise and blight. Rossi said afterwards that she held the meeting after city council members representing Allingtown asked her to hold one for their district. She said a lot of the time Allingtown is forgotten.

“It’s not fair,” said Rossi. “A lot of the time they [the city] do things and they don’t go to Allingtown. I wanted to make sure that we were available.”

Many residents who spoke did have questions about the tax increase. One woman said she could no longer afford to live in the district and was selling her house. She said soon there would be no people left to tax.

“If you don’t sit down and meet with the people that are here in West Haven,” said the woman, “the families – and keep them here. You’re not going to have anybody but college students running around, tearing up the road and not paying anything.”

The woman said she was being run out of Allingtown [due to the taxes]. The mayor responded by saying the city is trying to develop the area to grow the tax base. She pointed out that the city taxes are the same for all of the districts but each have their own taxes to pay for the fire districts.

“The fire district [tax] is high because we have a small district,” said Rossi. “They have an unfunded pension liability – it’s only been funded 22 percent. Now we have someone [the MARB] ordering us to do it [raise taxes on the fire districts] or they are going to take complete control – which is tier four.”

The Municipal Accountability Review Board, or MARB, has ordered the city to do a fire study to see where money can be saved vis-à-vis the fire districts. As the mayor has previously stated, they have control over the budget, the mill rate and any contract over $50,000.

Another topic which residents honed in on was the fact that the University of New Haven is not taxed. One resident called for a moratorium on all non-profits buying properties in the city. Another, Carla Hill, said she was second guessing buying her home and wanted to know what the residents of Allingtown could do to hold UNH accountable.

“UNH doesn’t pay taxes,” said Hill. “I see them continually encroaching from the Post Road, buying people’s properties, and every time they buy someone’s property it isn’t getting taxed.”

Mayor Rossi said UNH gives a voluntary payment to the Allingtown fire district. She said the city also gets PILOT money from the state in lieu of taxes from the university – although that money is diminishing.

Mayor Rossi said they had sheets for people to fill out with questions or concerns that her staff would be following up on. She said hearing peoples issues is the reason she holds the meetings.

“We don’t know everybody’s problem,” said Rossi. “We don’t know every street. We don’t have time to send somebody down every street. However, when you come and tell us, now we’re going to go look. I try very hard to put myself or my staff out there to try and correct problems – because that, to me, is what you got elected to do.”

By Josh LaBella

Voice Reporter

Mayor Nancy Rossi announced last week that the city’s grand list of taxable property has grown by nearly $30 million from 2017 to 2018. This puts the net value of the grand list at over $2.683 billion. The grand list is an aggregate of all taxable property and is used to determine mill rates during budget-making.

City Tax Assessor Ann Marie Gradoia attributed nearly a quarter of the rise to the Yale University distribution center on Derby Avenue.

“They didn’t even begin building the building yet,” said Gradoia. “But we had to combine all their properties and value the land. So that is about eight million dollars added onto that. It will be even more next year when the building is completed.”

Mayor Rossi pointed out that, when the buildings are finished, anything used to furnish them will also count as taxable property. She said Yale did not get any type of tax abatement for the development. Rossi said they asked for one once she got into office but she said no.

“Obviously we’re going to have to take any additional buildings on a case by case basis,” said Rossi. “Because they have a big parcel of land there and the intent is to build more around the distribution center.”

Gradoia also said there were eight or nine new houses built which added to the growth. She said personal property audits have been another major contributor. The city hired the company Tax Management Associates to help do more audits.

“They’ve been pretty aggressive,” said Rossi, “and it’s great because this is all lost money.”

Gradoia said the honor system is used regarding filing personal property taxes and the audits turned up more taxable property. She said some people genuinely do not know what to report on their taxes which can lead to assets going untaxed.

“Everything is taxable,” said Gradoia. “Real estate or personal property. So if you have an empty box, it’s either considered real estate or personal property. It’s got to be one or the other.”

According to a press release, growth occurred across all three taxation districts. In Center, West Shore, and Allingtown the increases were roughly $8.9 million, $10 million, and $11 million, respectively. Mayor Rossi also spoke to the importance of the growth.

“The grand list increase signals economic growth that is critical to improving the long-term fiscal health of the city of West Haven,” Rossi said. “The grand list growth in 2018, although relatively small, is the largest increase in several years and will generate approximately $1 million in new revenue for the fiscal year 2020 budget, which will begin on July 1, 2019.”

The mayor also said the growth is good news for West Haven and their focus on “aggressively pursuing” economic development will result in continued increases this year and moving forward.

“The new construction on the Yale property on Route 34 and the expansion of the Allingtown revitalization are tangible evidence of our recovery,” said Rossi. “We are making progress attracting new business to West Haven and encouraging current West Haven businesses to expand here. Though recovery is slow, we have a plan and are moving in the right direction.”

By Josh LaBella

Voice Reporter

The questions were many, and they were varied. Dozens of residents showed up at City Hall last week for a town hall give-and-take.

At the Jan. 29 meeting Mayor Nancy N. Rossi faced a number of questions from residents, with concerns ranging from blight, traffic and parking problems, development, and the Municipal Accountability Review Board (MARB).

The meeting was co-hosted by the New Haven University Political Science Department. A junior international development and diplomacy major, Douglas Gordon, was the moderator.

Rossi, who said she preferred this form of event to giving speeches, was happy with the turnout, especially given the weather, which was in the single digits. She told the assembly she liked connecting one-on-one with people.

She said she thought the main concerns she heard that night were about development, and increasing the city’s stagnant tax base.

“I think ‘Development’ because nobody wants to pay taxes,” said Rossi. “So, the idea that if we have better development or more development, like commercial, we will have a have a better tax base, a bigger grand list, [and] we won’t have to pay as much in taxes.”

One resident from Chauncey Street asked the mayor what was being done about the lack of employment opportunities in the city. She referenced the Haven project and noted it was supposed to add 1,200 to 5,000 jobs. The mayor said the Haven is still being built and that it was a stalled project when she came into office but is now making progress.

“The site plan was approved in July,” said Rossi. “Now they are going through DOT. They (were) going through, hopefully, their last round of comments on Jan. 9. They will be starting something within the next six weeks.”

A citizen, via Facebook Live, asked what other revenue projects were in the works. The mayor referenced the Stiles and Thompson schools, which are up for bid, and mentioned the Savin Rock Conference Center being a point of interest for the city.

“We are trying to seek funding,” said Rossi. “We don’t want to sell it. We would like to see a management company take over and (make it) a wedding destination, a restaurant … a brewery — a combination of any of that. That way it would constantly be a revenue stream.”

Rossi said the problem with selling something like the conference center, when it has not been maintained, is the city would not get as much money for it. The mayor said they were looking for different types of continuing revenue streams, not just one-time sales.

One question the mayor fielded asked why the beachfront was not being utilized. The mayor responded by saying much of the waterfront is in a flood zone and, therefore, the road will need to be raised in order to develop there. Rossi said raising the road would cost $7 million.

On the topic of the MARB, which took emergency control of the city to its poor finances, Rossi said it has control over budgets, the mill rate and any contract over $50,000. She said the city was able to secure the first $8 million of funds from them and is in the process of getting another $8 million in 2019.

One resident, who said he worked in finance, claimed the mayor had cut police staffing by $200,000 and, when the mayor denied the claim, became agitated, using off-color language. He said he had the budget with him and showed it to the mayor on his phone. She noted the cut to police funding was not in staffing but other areas of their budget.

After to event, the mayor said he was looking at the bottom line of the budget, not the staffing line item. She said she could see who sent the resident the information.

“I know exactly who it was,” said Rossi, who said she saw the initials EO on the man’s phone. “It was Edward O’Brien.”