Oswegatchie Fire Station Building Committee - Minutes - 09/04/2025

FIFTEEN ROPE FERRY ROAD WATERFORD, CT 06385-2886
Oswegatchie Fire Station Building Committee Meeting
September 4, 2025
Pledge of Allegiance
Meeting called to order at 6:30pm
Members Present: Robert Tuneski, Rocco Bracciale, Wayne Gilpin, Richard Muckle, Paul
Rafuse, Jennifer Bracciale, Ted Olynciw, Matthew Blankenship
Members Absent: Timothy Sullivan
Guests: Abbas Danesh, Kristin Gates, Ray Peabody
Public Comment: None
Opening Remarks: Director Haley is holding a presentation at Quaker Hill Elementary School
tonight at 7:00pm. B. Tuneski would like to defer new business in order to adjourn early to
attend this presentation
Silver Petrucelli presented a technical discussion at the RTM and showed a 3-D model of the
proposed Oswegatchie Firehouse.
Approval of Minutes:
MOTION by R. Muckle, second by J. Bracciale to approve the July 17, 2025 minutes.
T. Olyneiw requested Guy Russo’s name be added as the member who passed away.
VOTE: To approved the July 17, 2025 minutes as amended.
FOR: UnanimousApproval of Invoices:
MOTION by R. Muckle, second W. Gilpin to approve the August 26, 2025 minutes.
FOR: Unanimous

Approval of Invoice:
MOTION by T. Olynciw, second R. Muckle to approve the payment of Mystic Air
Quality invoice 66035 in the amount of $3,425.00 for Pre-Demolition Asbestos
Inspection.
FOR: Unanimous
Old Business:
Review of Actions:
B. Tuneski received an email from Chief Mark Balestracci regarding the traffic
signal. (Attachment 1)
There were no updates on the remaining open items.
Current Business: None
New Business: None
The next meeting is scheduled for 10/2/25
MOTION by M. Blankenship, second J. Bracciale to move the meeting to 10/9/25.
FOR: Unanimous
MOTION by M. Blankenship, second J. Bracciale to adjourn.
FOR: Unanimous
Meeting adjourned 6:51pm
Respectfully submitted by:
Linda Finnegan, Recording Secretary

Attachment 1
Robert Tuneski <j robert tuneski@sbeglobal.net>
Thursday, September 4, 2025 6:58 PM
Linda Finnegan
Fwd: Traffic Light Status
1 CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. !
1 Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender's email address and know the 4
content is safe
a)
Please add to meeting minutes for tonight
Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: J ROBERT TUNESKI <j_robert_tuneski@sboglobal.net>
Date: September 2, 2025 at 4:18:10 PM EDT
To: Marc Balestracci <mbalestracci@waterfordct.org>
Subject: Re: Traffic Light Status
Good afternoon Chief Balestracci,
Completely cleared up my questions. Thank you for the comprehensive and detailed response. BR
Bob T.
On Tuesday. September 2, 2025 at 03:04:07 PM EDT, Marc Balestracci <mbalestracci@waterfordct.org>
wrote:
Good afternoon,
The police department's concerns were line-of-site and right-of-way for non-emergency fire
apparatus returning to the station after a call and stopping traffic to back into the bay at the front
of the station
We felt that with the current line-of-site, emergency vehicles leaving the firehouse could create
crash hazards to the firefighters and the motoring public due to the bend in the road
repositioning further west of the new station and the speeds of vehicles on the road. I do
believe the line-of-site concems could be properly corrected with the removal of the shrubs/tree
at the western edge of the property. To date, all requested shrubs have been removed, but as |
looked Friday, the tree remains. Should the tree be removed, | think that would create the
distance needed to no longer require a traffic light so that fire apparatus could safely leave the
station and vehicles traveling east on Rte 1 would have plenty of notice to come to a stop safely.
1

As for the backing into the fire station after a call, fire apparatus are not emergency vehicles
when returning to the fire station and simply tuning on emergency lights to back-in does not
give town vehicles the right-of-way. Vehicles traveling on Rte 1 in both directions would have
the right-of-way unless the fire apparatus has both lights and sirens activated and were
responding to an emergency. For them to back-in safely and have the right of way, the traffic
light would need to direct traffic on Rte 1 to stop. | believe town leaders were considering a
policy that returning fire apparatus would need to pull through the back of the house, removing
the right-of-way concerns and town liability should there be an accident.
Out of the five fire houses, only Oswegatchie and Jordan have traffic lights. They are both on
State roads and have high volume/speed traffic passing with poor lines-of-site. Goshen,
Cohanzie and Quaker Hill have very low traffic volume in front of their stations and therefore a
light is not needed. | think this project could go without a traffic light if the two issues above are
addressed.
| hope that cleared it up more than confused things. Bottom line, better line-of-site and no
backing-in upon return and | think the light could be removed from the project. The traffic
engineers stated OSTA had no position on it and | believe the Police Commission would agree
with our position here.
Thank you,
Marc Balestracci
Chief of Police
Waterford Police Department
41 Avery Lane, Waterford, Connecticut
860-442-9451 Ext. 2282