#Middlebury
By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
The Middlebury Board of Selectmen voted at their June 11 meeting to look into alternatives to using Middlebury police officers for traffic control. The vote came after Quassy Amusement Park co-owner George Frantzis spoke to selectmen at the meeting. Town Attorney Bob Smith, who attended the meeting, said nothing prohibits the selectmen from looking into less expensive traffic control options.
Frantzis told selectmen Middlebury Police Chief Fran Dabbo makes working with the department on events like the recent Rev 3 easier than it has been at times in the past. However, when the invoice for police officers was handed to the event organizer the day before the Rev3, the cost for Middlebury police officers – the special or private duty fees – had gone up $20 per hour per officer. This brought the per-officer cost per hour to $200 with a minimum of 4 hours ($800) for each officer.
Frantzis said of the fee, “It’s absurd; it’s egregious.” He said he is very concerned Quassy will lose the Rev3 event because of the police department’s special duty fees.
The Rev3 organizer shared with Frantzis the rates he pays for police officers at other Rev3 locations. Of the 14 other locations, the highest fee per hour was Rye, N.Y., at $118, and the lowest was Knoxville, Tenn., at $25 per hour. Three Connecticut towns, Watertown, Southbury and Plymouth, charge $73.15 per hour, $74 an hour and $95 an hour, respectively. The average per hour fee for the 14 towns is $66.40.
Frantzis said six or seven years ago Quassy was exempt from special duty fees. A 2010 Middlebury Police Department letter signed by former Police Chief Richard Guisti states, “Double time will be charged for any private duty job on a Sunday (Except Quassy Amusement).”
By 2013, the police department letter no longer included an exception for Quassy. Both letters state at the bottom, “Prior to any further increases in our rate, contractors will be notified, in writing, a minimum of thirty (30) days prior to such increase.”
Five years ago, in 2013, the regular hourly rate was $90.96 and the holiday hourly rate was $116.30.
At the June meeting, Frantzis said he was seeking some sort of relief from the $200-an-hour rates, either an exemption or use of a private traffic control company. He said cities like Hartford use such companies for major events. Selectmen asked him to provide them with a list of these companies. When we spoke to Frantzis recently, he said he was working on the list. Midsummer is, of course, the busiest time of year for him.
Looking online, we found a private traffic control company in Plymouth – Connecticut Traffic Control LLC. The website says the company “has been in the traffic control and flagging services industry for over 10 years, specializing in services to assist contractors with their construction needs. You can depend on our trained staff to arrive on the job site equipped with hard hats, safety vests, stop/slow signs and two way radios.”
The company is an approved subcontractor by the State of Connecticut Department of Transportation and it is a woman-owned business.
We called owner Beverly Olmstead and asked her about her company’s services. It turns out she got the idea for her business after she worked as a flagger for the Newtown prison and went on to other flagging jobs. She opened her business in 1996 and said they now have flagging jobs all over the place.
Among the events for which her company provides flaggers are the Goshen Stampede, events like music festivals at the Goshen Fairgrounds, and various bicycle races. They also direct traffic at various road construction sites.
Olmstead says her company charges between $49 and $52 an hour for a traffic control person, with a four-hour minimum. As mentioned above, the company is approved by the Connecticut Department of Transportation, so its flaggers can work on state roads.
In reference to flaggers on road construction jobs, Olmstead said, “There’s a lot of work out there. We’re the taxpayers here and the money for roadwork comes from taxpayers through state and federal funds.”
