First term town councilman Peter Massey (R-1st) resigned his position as chairman of the Stratford Water Pollution Control Authority, and Town Council chairman Joe Kubic was unanimously approved to chair the WPCA.
The Town Council accepted Massey’s WPCA resignation and approved of Kubic replacing him at the Council’s monthly meeting Nov. 10.
The WPCA is comprised of the 10 members of the Town Council. WPCA is legally a separate entity from the Town of Stratford and has a separate enterprise fund budget, but it is administered by town hall and overseen by the people elected to the Town Council.
Massey told The Star after the Council meeting that he resigned because he “does not have enough time to get to all the meetings.” Massey and his family are owners of Knapp’s Landing restaurant.
Massey said he was approached by Kubic about making the change in WPCA leadership and he agreed.
Asked whether or not part of the reason for resigning was his relative inexperience as a chairman of town body, especially as WPCA is expected to become a top issue in town during the next few months, Massey said “yes and no.”
Mayor John Harkins and his administration has been studying whether or not to recommend that the WPCA be sold or become part of a new regional water authority. Part of that analysis, the details of which have not yet been released to the public, includes whether or not to recommend that the WPCA acquires from the town the nine acres of land on which the water facilities are situated.
Recommendations from the mayor and actions by the 10-person authority are expected between now and February or March when the 2016 budget plans are made public.
Massey said it has been recent tradition to have the 1st district councilman be the chairman of the WPCA, but it does not have to be that way. A number of assignment of councilperson are being changed to accommodate the work schedules and other commitments of the council members, Massey said.