ANSONIA – The Ansonia Aldermen set a referendum schedule for a proposed 2025 – 2026 budget that could raise the property tax rate by 3.13 mills.
A public hearing and meeting will be held on the proposed budget at 6 p.m. April 21. The Ansonia Board of Aldermen could vote to approve a budget on that date, at which point it would head to voters for final approval.
Check the city calendar for the location of the April 21 meeting. A decision has not been made to whether it will be in-person or over Zoom.
A referendum is scheduled for Friday, April 25 at the Ansonia Armory (5 State St). Voting hours are 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
If voters reject the proposed budget, it will be sent back to the Board of Aldermen for revision.
Budget meetings will be held every other Monday afterward, and referendums held every other Friday at the Armory, if needed, until a budget is finalized. (Note: city officials previously said the cycle would repeat every week. However, that schedule changed around April 21.)
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Jean Falbo-Sosnovich | Apr 8, 2025 6:05 am
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CORRECTION: The Valley Indy has been reporting that a referendum in Ansonia is required if a mill rate increase totals three percent or more. THISISWRONG.
Ansonia City Corporation Counsel John Marini and Ansonia Economic Development Director Sheila O’Malley told The Valley Indy on April 8 that a referendum is triggered if the budget approved by the Ansonia Board of Aldermen represents an increase of three percent or more in net taxes to be collected from the previous year’s budget.
The Valley Indy regrets the error.
April 8, 2025
ANSONIA — Members of the city’s tax board voted April 7 to transfer a budget to the full Board of Aldermen for review.
The officials did not state the proposed budget’s bottom line nor reveal the proposed mill rate. The meeting was held on Zoom. A proposed budget was not included in the agenda packet for the public.
However, the last time the group met in public, they were discussing a $69.6 million budget that would set the mill rate at 29.62 mills – according to a slide shared at the meeting, which is posted at the bottom of this story. That is an increase of 3.13 mills. That is an approximate 11 percent increase in the mill rate.
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Eugene Driscoll | Mar 18, 2025 4:04 am
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Image made at Canva.com
DERBY – Computer systems at the Derby Police Department may have been compromised by a third party, The Valley Independent Sentinel has learned.
The Valley Indy reached out Monday (March 17) to the police chief and Mayor Joseph DiMartino’s office for more information.
Details of what happened – or what’s happening – are not being shared with the public.
However, at the Derby Board of Aldermen & Alderwomen meeting March 13, elected officials added a discussion item to the agenda calling for an executive session “related to a matter of security pertaining to the police department’s IT system.”
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Jasmine Wright | Feb 24, 2025 6:15 am
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School board members and school administrators talk during a public meeting on Feb. 19.
ANSONIA – School budgets in Derby and Seymour are put together in similar ways.
Principals put together spending plans for their schools and send them to the central office.
The school district superintendent and the business manager write a budget, and then show it to the board of education – in public.
The school board meets – in public – and talks about how much money is needed to run the schools and then, usually early in the calendar year, vote – in public – to send a funding request to the town’s tax or finance boards.
It used to work like that in Ansonia – but not anymore.
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Eugene Driscoll | Feb 3, 2025 2:44 pm
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An image from the inspector general's report.
ANSONIA – A fatal shooting involving Bridgeport police and an unarmed suspect who crashed in Ansonia was questionable – but there’s not enough evidence to file criminal charges against the officers.
“The investigation has determined that the police tactics in several respects were flawed, and the justifiability of the shooting is questionable, but there is insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution.”
That is according to a report released Monday (Feb. 3) by Robert J. Devlin, Jr., the Connecticut Inspector General.
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Eugene Driscoll | Jan 23, 2025 4:05 am
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Mayor Joseph DiMartino addresses the Derby Planning and Zoning Commission on Jan. 21, 2025.
DERBY – Members of the city’s planning and zoning commission Tuesday (Jan. 21) rejected a zone-text change that could have opened the door to high-density housing atop ‘Telescope Mountain.’
Several commissioners said they were not anti-development – but they said almost no one liked what was being presented, especially the public.
The vote to reject the zone-text change was 4 – 2. Commissioners Albert Misiewicz and Raul Sanchez voted against rejecting the proposed change.
Summit Hill LLC owns four undeveloped parcels off Mountain and Summit streets nicknamed “Telescope Mountain.” State business records list the principal of the company as Eric Brennan of the John J. Brennan Construction Co. in Shelton.
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Eugene Driscoll | Jan 14, 2025 5:47 am
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Marcarelli
DERBY – According to a police report, the Derby fire marshal was driving a city-owned vehicle when he was charged with driving under the influence.
David Marcarelli was charged in North Haven with operating under the influence on Dec. 23. The North Haven Police Department released a crash report to The Valley Indy on Jan. 13 detailing the allegation.
The city allows Marcarelli to drive a city-owned fire marshal truck.
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Jasmine Wright and Jean Falbo-Sosnovich | Oct 22, 2024 8:30 pm
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ANSONIA – City government broke the law by taking 123 days to release documents connected to a straightforward public records request, according to a hearing officer’s report for the state’s Freedom of Information Commission
Theresa Conroy, a former state representative and current member of Seymour’s Board of Selectpersons, filed a public records request in Ansonia in September 2023. She asked to see the employment contract for Kurt Miller.
Miller works part-time as Ansonia’s budget director. He also holds a full-time position as Seymour’s chief administrative officer.
Ansonia Planning & Zoning consultant David Elder addresses the commission on Aug. 26.
ANSONIA – The Ansonia Planning & Zoning Commission proposed a temporary moratorium on smoke shops during their regular monthly meeting on Aug. 26.
“The purpose of the moratorium would be to give the commission time required to draft and consider regulations that would regulate smoke shops and tobacco stores,” consultant David Elder told the commission.
Members of the commission said that smoke shops in town have had issues with police as well as labor violations. The commission wants a moratorium on new shops while they draft regulations.
The commission scheduled a public hearing on the moratorium for Sept. 16 at 6:30 p.m. It will be conducted via Zoom.
ANSONIA – A meeting to discuss vehicle break-ins is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday (Sept. 6) at Hilltop Hose Co. No. 5, 80 Pulaski Highway.
UPDATE: The City of Ansonia has rescheduled this meeting for a date to be announced. It with be held at the Ansonia Senior Center.
Ansonia Police Lt. Patrick Lynch said police will talk about how to protect vehicles from thieves, review current property crime stats, and to listen to people from the Hilltop neighborhood about their concerns.
“This is a statewide issue. You have these groups, predominantly juveniles, who go around packed into a car – four to six people, usually in a stolen car – who go into a neighborhood and start checking door handles,” Lynch said. “If a car door is open, they’ll go in. If it’s a push-button start and the car starts, that means somebody left a keyfob behind. And they take that car.”
Lynch said there have been four vehicle break-ins on the Hilltop and two attempted break-ins since July 1.
