Journal Inquirer Articles and Letters

On this page are articles and letters published in the Journal Inquirer.

May 14, 2010

Planner proposes undoing Walmart ‘supercenter’ site restrictions
By Suzanne Carlson

VERNON — An application to change the zoning regulations on property off exit 67 on Interstate 84 has brought up debate over big-box development yet again.

At a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting last Thursday, Town Planner Leonard K. Tundermann presented an application to amend zoning regulations on a 40.5-acre piece of property owned by the Lee and Lamont real estate agency, with frontage along Route 31, or Reservoir Road.

A hearing was continued to the next PZC meeting, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. May 20 in Town Hall’s council chambers.

The property behind the Burger King at exit 67 was the site of a Massachusetts-based developer’s 2003 application to build a 24-hour, 186,000-square-foot Walmart “supercenter.”

The Inland Wetlands Commission denied that application after eight separate public hearings and several weeks of review. A Superior Court judge upheld the decision in May 2007 after Lee and Lamont filed a lawsuit contending the PZC’s decision was “unfair.”

In July 2004, the PZC imposed a six-month moratorium for development on the exit 67 zone, so “flaws” in the zone’s regulations could be remedied.

The following June, the PZC worked with Planimetrics, a consulting firm, to amend the zoning regulations in the area to prohibit wholesale distribution facilities and kennels, as well as outside storage of chemicals, fertilizers, and pesticides. The amendments also included a provision for open-space setbacks, requiring any new project to sit on at least one acre of land with 50 feet of open space on each side of the building.

Those amendments, which remain in force, say that if a proposed building or complex is at 40,000 square feet, the setback requirement increases to 100 feet for the rear and side yards. For each additional 20,000 square feet of building, the setback must be increased by 25 feet, up to a maximum of 200 feet of open space. Fifty yards of setback would still be required for the front of the building.

Lee and Lamont filed suit against the PZC in attempts to both block the development moratorium and the amendments, saying that the PZC was illegally targeting the firm’s ability to develop the Route 31 property, which would be most affected by the changes.

Both appeals were eventually dismissed in court.

The amendments Tundermann presented last week would essentially undo the revisions made by the PZC in 2005 and eliminate the variable setback requirement for buildings or building footprints that exceed 40,000 square feet. That change would add approximately 6 acres to the property’s buildable land, increasing the total buildable acreage, which excludes wetlands on the property, up to 17 acres.

The application to amend section 4.25.2 of the town zoning regulations was attributed to the PZC itself, but commission member Watson “Chip” Bellows said the PZC had no knowledge of the application, and it should be attributed to the town of Vernon instead.

While Tundermann said that attributing the application to the PZC was consistent with past practice for similar circumstances, he said Watson was “correct that the commission had no knowledge of, or directive to proceed with this application.”

Tundermann told the PZC that “the purpose of this amendment is to advance the economic development potential of the zone.” He added that since the zoning regulations were amended in 2005, “there’s been little to no interest in development of that property.”

Tundermann cited references to development around the exit 67 site in the town’s most recent Plan of Conservation and Development, which is being revised and does not apply to pending applications. He suggested that the proposed revisions would have no adverse impacts on surrounding areas.

“I think the change to the 100-foot setback, which is greater than setbacks in all the other zones, would achieve an adequate sense of protection, or an adequate degree of protection to adjoining uses,” Tundermann said.

But Bellows was perplexed by the sudden desire to change regulations that were studied and revised five years ago.

“We spent an awful lot of money to get where we are on this as a town,” Bellow said, “and now all of a sudden we’re coming back to make a lot of changes. I’m really not clear in my mind why we’re doing it.”

“Was this something that all of a sudden, out of thin air, the town said, ‘We’re going to do this’?” Bellows asked.

“There is a town interest in promoting economic development, and this has been advanced as an effort in that direction,” Tundermann replied, but did not specify an applicant, other than the town of Vernon.

“Did this just fall out of the sky?” PZC member Sarah Iacobello asked Tundermann.

Iacobello dismissed the town planner’s assertions that the application was similar to previous applications that amended regulations regarding the storage of boats and trailers and the use of personal storage containers.

“The catalyst behind this is different,” Iacobello said. “There’s a real economic interest behind this one.”

Opponents of the proposed changes to the regulations have highlighted the fact that in 2009, Richard W. Lee and Steven A. Lamont each individually contributed $500 to Mayor Jason L. McCoy’s re-election campaign.

Tundermann reiterated that the application was an effort to remove constraints to development in that zone “that may have been a factor in the lack of development interest in the past five to six years.” He also cited the “present economic climate, with vacant storefronts, vacant restaurant buildings, vacant properties here and there.”

Anchorage Road resident Janine Gelineau commented that if the town is concerned about vacant storefronts, perhaps economic development efforts should be focused on moving businesses into existing vacant buildings and remedying blight in the process.

Commission members asked Tundermann to gather information on the wetlands surrounding the site, as well as data that shows how the zoning restrictions have been inhibiting interest in development on the site.

“I’ve been seeing this more and more creeping into applications,” Iacobello said.

“It’s really development that’s driving the zoning, rather than zoning driving development in the town, and I think that’s something we need to keep our eyes on,” she added.

A lawyer for a resident who lives close to the site said she would attend the PZC’s May 20 meeting with an expert to comment on the proposed zoning regulations.

May 26, 2010

Proposal to ease development restrictions at exit 67 pulled back
By Suzanne Carlson

VERNON — An application to change the zoning regulations that govern the site of a contentious 2003 plan to build a Walmart was withdrawn shortly before the continuation of a public hearing on the issue, but officials won’t specify who pulled the paperwork.

“We’re going to look at the issues that were raised at the meeting. We’re going to look at some of the concerns that people have,” Mayor Jason L. McCoy said Tuesday. “We’ll look at it and bring it back.”

The proposed changes first were brought to the Planning and Zoning Commission for a public hearing May 6.

Town Planner Leonard K. Tundermann presented the application to the PZC, explaining that the town was proposing zone changes to the land around exit 67 off Interstate 84 in an effort to spur economic development.

The property, a 40.5-acre parcel owned by the Lee and Lamont real estate agency with frontage along Reservoir Road, must adhere to zoning regulations that were amended in 2005.

In addition to a standard 50-yard buffer requirement, the amendments say that if a proposed building or complex is 40,000 square feet, the setback requirement increases to 100 feet for the rear and side yards.

Under the amendments, for each additional 20,000 square feet of building, the setback must be increased by 25 feet, up to a maximum of 200 feet of open space. Fifty yards of setback still would have been required for the front of the building.

The site, which is behind the Burger King off the exit, was where a Massachusetts-based developer proposed building a 24-hour, 186,000-square-foot Walmart.

The Inland Wetlands Commission denied the application after several public hearings and a superior court judge upheld the decision in May 2007.

At the May 6 public hearing, PZC member Watson “Chip” Bellows said the PZC had no knowledge of the application to change the regulations and argued the changes would undo the work that was done with consulting firm Planimetrics in 2005.

“We spent an awful lot of money to get where we are on this as a town,” Bellows said, “and now all of a sudden we’re coming back to make a lot of changes. I’m really not clear in my mind why we’re doing it.”

Tundermann said the town submitted the application to encourage development on the site, though the change would affect only buildings with a large footprint, such as big-box retailers. Wetlands already prevent portions of the parcel from being developed, but if a variable site restriction was removed, Tundermann said the parcel’s buildable area would increase by six acres, for a total of 17 acres.

The sudden effort to ease restrictions on big-box development startled many commissioners and residents, who questioned where the idea to reverse the amendments came from.

“Did this just fall out of the sky,” PZC member Sarah Iacobello asked Tundermann at the May 6 hearing.

Residents who had opposed the Walmart application were gearing up for another zoning debate, but that fervor ceased once word spread that the PZC’s agenda for May 20 had been changed.

The original agenda that was distributed for the May 20 meeting included a public hearing for the proposed changes to exit 67. But commissioners had new agendas waiting for them at the meeting that did not include the hearing.

Tundermann, who had been the de facto spokesman for the changes that were attributed to both the town and the PZC, was absent from Thursday’s meeting due to illness.

Upon his return to work Tuesday, Tundermann said he was unaware the application to change the regulations had been withdrawn. He later confirmed that it was and said he did not know why.

McCoy said the town was responsible for pulling the application, but would not credit any individual for proposing or preparing the application, calling it simply, “an economic development issue.”

“You have an area there that is ideal for expanding the tax base and there is a buffer zone, apparently, that was put in several years ago, not based on much,” McCoy said of the site. “I believe the prior Mayor didn’t want it, didn’t want anything to get developed there.”

McCoy said the 2005 amendment that made it near impossible for a big-box retailer to locate there was a targeted political response to Walmart that was not scientifically founded.

“I don’t think there was a basis originally, when they expanded the buffer zone, it was kind of a knee-jerk reaction,” McCoy said.

Former Mayor Ellen Marmer, who was in office during the Walmart debates, disagreed.

“It has always been my purpose to create sound development at the exit 67 area. There is no need to change the regulations to suit one particular developer,” Marmer said Tuesday.

“It’s a critical area that needs to be studied in its entirety, and it’s not just related to one developer, it’s related to the whole area as it would fit into our plan of development and increase our economic base,” she continued, saying any changes need to be “made very carefully, and not in any type of spontaneous, undirected manner.”

McCoy did not say what type of development he would like to see on the site, “Anything that’s appropriate off an exit,” would be desirable.

May 22, 2010

Valley Falls hosts statewide event for blind students
By Suzanne Carlson

VERNON — Visually impaired middle school students from across Connecticut visited Valley Falls Park on Friday to spend the day fishing, playing, and enjoying the refurbished Braille trail, a modified hiking path that allows blind people to feel their way through the woods.

“Blindness is such a low-incidence disability — usually they’re the only one in the school — so we like to get them together for outings like this,” said Laura Drufva, a visual impairment teacher with the state Board of Education Services for the Blind in Windsor.

Drufva said BESB serves about 600 visually impaired students in the state.

Every year, Drufva said, BESB holds a field trip for each age group of students. In years past, the middle school group has gone to a Rock Cats baseball game and on a boat trip.

Friday’s event was free for the students. Volunteers provided hours of their time, Charlie’s restaurant donated $200 worth of food for lunch, and students got an embroidered bucket hat to take home as a souvenir. Three lucky students got to take home trophies for biggest fish caught, smallest fish caught, and first fish of the day.

Don Bellingham of the Vernon Greenways Volunteers organized the event after the Friends of Valley Falls Park received a grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection to refurbish the Braille trail last year.

Bellingham said the first part of the trail was created as an Eagle Scout project in 1996. Constructed of ropes strung between trees with simple wooden signs that had Braille lettering describing the plants and landscape, that trail was a seed for what would come.

Two more Eagle Scouts added sections to the trail in following years with help from the Parks and Recreation Department along the way, Bellingham said.

“The idea is we’re going to maintain it going forward,” Bellingham said.

The Vernon Greenways Volunteers and the Parks and Recreation Department have provided the muscle to go with the DEP’s money. So far they have helped to remove invasive plant species from the 1.5-acre trail site and replant 104 natives; install 30 new rope-posts and 17 new metal signs with Braille descriptions of the area and its history; and mulch and repair the trail.

“They definitely did a great job redoing the trail,” said John Carnemolla, 14, of Tolland. “The ropes are brand new. They really did a nice job with this.”

Carnemolla said he had been to the trail a long time ago, and a lot of improvements have been made since then.

He was walking the trail with his mother and grandmother, Lynne and Irene, and another student, Alex Steinbrick, 12, of Seymour.

As the group walked along, both boys kept their hands placed lightly on a rope strung from wooden posts about waist-high. Every so often, a bump in the rope would give the boys a cue to stop and read a Braille sign.

The signs highlight aspects of the landscape that blind people can appreciate. For instance, one sign begins, “From this location, you may hear the sounds of a spring from Box Mountain rushing to join Railroad Brook…”

Another sign instructs hikers to reach out and feel a tree that has a permanently raised vein of bark where it was struck by lightning.

The signs describe visual details, and most even give a mini history of the area, which was the site of a waterwheel mill and other industrial development in the 18th and 19th centuries. The history of the trail site is so rich, in fact, that state archeologist and University of Connecticut professor Dr. Nicholas Bellantoni is planning a June excavation in the area.

In addition to the Braille trail, many students got a chance to go fishing.

The DEP stocked Valley Falls Pond with extra trout for the event, and members of the Connecticut Fly Fisherman’s Association and the Rockville Fish & Game Club donated their time and equipment to help the students learn the hobby they love.

“We want to let them have the enjoyment that we had,” said Frank Sypeck of the Rockville Fish & Game Club.

Sypeck and several others took a vacation day from work to help out at the event. Much of the day was a first for nearly everyone involved, as many of the volunteers had never worked with blind students, and many of the students said they had never gone fishing or walked on a Braille trail.

“We had a blast. It was so much fun, and the volunteers were so amazing,” said Nicole Dionne, 22, who had traveled from Farmington with her brother Eli, 9, and spent much of the day trout fishing.

Eli, who is legally blind, suffers from the progressively degenerative condition retinitis pigmentosa and has been gradually losing his eyesight since birth.

Fly fisherman Gary Bogli said he was a teacher for 37 years and has taught fly fishing before — but never to the visually impaired.

Bogli and other volunteers said there’s nothing about fishing that would prevent a visually impaired person from excelling at the sport. But it does require some practice.

“It’s just a matter of getting the timing right,” Bogli said.

When he called for volunteers, Bellingham said, he was overwhelmed by offers to help and had to scramble to find jobs for everyone. Several volunteers said they hope the day in the park will become an annual event for Connecticut’s blind students, and many students seemed to feel the same way.

“When I thought of the idea, it was something that seemed to make a lot of sense,” Bellingham said. Valley Falls Park is exceptionally handicapped accessible, and Bellingham said the layout of the parking lot, pavilion, and bathrooms, all connected by paved paths, lends itself well to disabled student groups.

“It’s all here,” he said. “It was logical so, what better?”

June 7, 2010

Norman Strong, fourth-generation farmer, laid to rest in Vernon
By Suzanne Carlson

VERNON — Friends and relatives filled the First Congregational Church to capacity on Sunday to mourn the loss of Norman R. Strong, a town native and fourth-generation farmer who is being remembered as a pillar of the community he loved.

Strong died Wednesday at his home at the age of 93.

He was the fourth generation of his family to operate the Strong Farm on West Street as a dairy farm until 1965, when the farm’s activities transitioned to turkeys, pumpkins, and other crops.

Strong’s free-range birds became popular fare for Thanksgiving dinner tables, and later in life he became widely known as the “turkey man” of Vernon, because of his willingness to show local schoolchildren the inner workings of his farm.

“Some people called him an icon. I felt like he was a cornerstone of Vernon, because everyone kind of looked up to him,” said Town Council member Pauline Schaefer.

Schaefer said her father shared the same birthday as Strong, Oct. 3, 1916, and though she is a Democrat and Strong was a longtime Republican Town Committee member, the two shared many conversations about politics and other town business.

“He would say to me, ‘Keep ‘em honest and give ‘em hell,” Schaefer said. “He was a man well ahead of his time in his thinking, and it was always what was best for the town. He was just fair and honest on everything that he did.”

On Sunday, attendees flooded Strong’s funeral at the First Congregational Church where he was a member for 69 years and held several offices, including deacon emeritus.

“I’m not surprised by the numbers that are here,” said senior minister Rev. Dr. Peter R. K. Brenner. “If I say to you we will miss him, that’s not even the tip of the iceberg. It is almost infinitesimal, the amount we will miss, because of the impact he had on our lives.”

Heaven, Brenner added, “will only get better with Norm up there.”

In addition to his service at the church, Strong was also a founding member of the Vernon Fire Department and was an active member for 35 years. The department’s honor guard served as pallbearers for his service Sunday.

Fire Chief William M. Call explained that prior to consolidation in 1965, Rockville’s mill area had its own fire service, but Vernon’s farmland was without townwide protection until Strong and others pulled together and formed their own department.

“He was one of the founding fathers of the Vernon Fire Department,” Call said.

In addition, Strong’s daughter, Carol Nelson, said she remembers her father going to town meetings nearly every evening, after rising at 4 a.m. to milk the cows, working on the farm all day and milking again at 4 p.m.

Strong was an organizing member of the Zoning Board of the Vernon Fire District, and the Board of Assessment Appeals. He was also a member of the Tolland County Farm Bureau, supervisor of the Tolland County Soil and Water Conservation District, a longtime 4-H leader, a 75-year member and past master of the Vernon Grange, and a member of the Advisory Board for Vocational Agriculture at Rockville High School.

For many years, Strong was also the superintendent of Vernon’s cemeteries, including Elmwood cemetery where he was interred today.

“He was one of those people that just did his job, and you didn’t even have to oversee him, because you knew that whatever had to be done was going to be done. In that particular position, he used his own truck, his own tools,” said former mayor and council member Marie Herbst, who was in office in the 1980s when Strong retired from the position.

Herbst said the council at the time was giving Strong a difficult time with his budget, because he’d requested a new truck and finances were tight.

“It was at that point that Norm, and only Norm could do it, he leaned back and in his very quiet, unassuming way said, ‘I am retiring, and when I go my truck comes with me.’ And there was such silence in the council chambers at that point, you could hear a pin drop,” Herbst said, laughing. “And of course there was no other way, we had to buy the truck because we didn’t have one.

“He was quiet, unassuming, but, boy, was he a hard worker. I don’t know how he put in all the things he did in the 24 hours of the day, honestly,” Herbst said. “He was polite, and he had a great dignity about him that I admired. He was a pillar of the church, but he was also a pillar of the community. He really loved the town.”

Robert Warner, a member of the First Congregational Church who also served on the Republican Town Committee with Strong, described him as “an extremely fine gentleman and a very, very good member of our church.

“Sometimes if you don’t know Norm, he came on a little strong, but he really was a fine man, if he wanted something, and he knew he needed it, he went after it. And if he thought that something wasn’t right, then he wanted to see it was changed,” Warner said.

Strong’s most visible legacy, the yellow farmhouse on West Street where his wife of 67 years, Geraldine Risley Strong, still lives, is being aided with donations from the Strong Farm Preservation Fund and recent state grants, but its future is uncertain.

“I think the biggest worry that he had at the end, was that he was afraid that his farm was going to be sold, and then things torn down and houses put up there, and he just did not want that,” Warner said. “He wants that farm and things to stay as it is.”

For now, the farm remains where it has stood since 1878. And on Sunday, as one of the last true New England farmers was brought from his beloved church to the cemetery he tended for years, rain began to pour suddenly from the sky, answering every farmer’s most persistent prayer and readying the ground for life to grow anew.

July 9, 2010

Town needs volunteers to remove ‘invasive species’
By Suzanne Carlson

VERNON — The town’s Conservation Commission is looking for volunteers to assist in a survey of the Tankerhoosen River and help remove two invasive aquatic plant species that may have spread into the protected waterway, according to Tom Ouellette, the commission’s co-chairman.

The survey is scheduled for Saturday, July 24, and volunteers will need to sign up by Friday, July 16 to help out.

Invasive species can be transported to a new environment in a number of ways, but once established, they can take advantage of new habitat and destroy the native ecosystem, according to Ouellette.

The commission is currently working to stop the spread of two aquatic invasives, Cabomba caroliniana, and Myriophyllum heterophyllum — commonly known as fanwort and variable-leaved milfoil — which were first discovered in Walker Reservoir East and Valley Falls Pond in 2008, according to Ouellette.

“These two species grow aggressively and are easily spread downstream to other water bodies,” he said.

The plants, which are often spread through dumping of bilge water in boats and other careless activities, have the potential to displace native plants, fish, and other wildlife, and can impair recreational activities such as swimming and fishing, Ouellette said.

Authorities are currently treating Walker Reservoir East and Valley Falls Pond with herbicides, a Department of Environmental Protection-approved removal technique. The herbicide use is supported by the commission because of the imminent threat to the Tankerhoosen River, which is rated a Class 1 wild trout stream because of its high water quality, Oullette said.

The June 24 survey is an additional effort to prevent fanwort and milfoil from gaining a foothold in the Tankerhoosen River, as well as Dobsonville and Talcottville ponds, he said.

“The survey will also serve as part of an invasive aquatic plant management plan that will be developed by the Conservation Commission for all of Vernon’s lakes, ponds, and streams,” Ouellette said.

Volunteers will meet at the Walker Reservoir East parking lot on Reservoir Road at 8 a.m. on July 24 for a training session in plant identification and removal procedures, he said.

Individuals will then divide into teams and walk one of four segments of the river between the reservoir and Tankerhoosen Lake. The segments will vary from approximately 0.75 miles to 1.25 miles in length, according to Ouellette.

Participants will map locations of fanwort and milfoil that are found in the river, and will then remove those plants and carry them offsite in plastic trash bags for disposal, he said.

Volunteers must be 18 or older and will be asked to sign a waiver of liability. Oullette recommended bringing a backpack, water bottle, snack, and insect repellent.

Participants should also consider wearing long sleeves to protect from bugs, sun, and poison ivy, along with secure footwear suitable for walking in and around the river, such as boots or sneakers.

Volunteers should wear a brightly colored shirt so team members can see them, and all participants are asked to carry a cell phone so they can contact project organizers if assistance is needed.

To volunteer for the survey by July 16, call the Planning and Zoning office at 860-870-3667, or email ConservationCommission@vernon-ct.gov.

February 2, 2011

Vernon tells TicketNetwork to follow PZC procedures before move
By Suzanne Carlson

VERNON — Town officials say TicketNetwork Inc. officials need to follow procedures and file the proper paperwork before moving their headquarters to Industrial Park Road and aren’t trying to impede its expansion.

Officials’ remarks come after TicketNetwork CEO Donald Vaccaro accused the Planning and Zoning Commission of treating his company unfairly.

Vaccaro has said he wants to move his rapidly expanding software company from its headquarters at 137 Bolton Road into an existing building across the street at 101 Industrial Park Road, but is being blocked by excessive red tape from the town.

The company, which employs more than 200 full- and part-time workers, contends its growth rate was 27,000 percent in 2008 and that it continues to experience “high growth.”

Mayor Jason L. McCoy and other town officials, meanwhile, said they would support the plan, but Vaccaro hasn’t submitted the standard information necessary to transition into the new facility.

“We’ve tried to explain to them, but they don’t seem to understand that they need to get their paperwork in,” Mayor Jason L. McCoy told the Town Council during a meeting Tuesday.

TicketNetwork’s public relations representative, Viveca M. Woods, and company officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

In addition to the main company, TicketNetwork, which sells software to facilitate the resale of tickets to sports and entertainment events, several related businesses are based out of the building at 137 Bolton Road, including TicketNews, TicketLiquidator, Ticket Software, the Better Ticketing Association, Suites and Seats, and TicketSummit.

It is clear the companies’ headquarters is bursting at the seams, as parking for employees often spills over to the lot across the street at 140 Bolton Road, which Vaccaro owns along with a parcel at 135 Bolton Road.

Those off-site parking areas originally were part of the plan for TicketNetwork Forest, a 2,000-seat, open-air outdoor concert venue proposal that was denied by the PZC in March 2010 after hours of testimony from both TicketNetwork consultants and employees and neighboring residents unilaterally opposed to the project.

Because of the complex and unusual nature of the venue application, Vaccaro and his representatives applied for seven special permits for alcohol sales and other exemptions, and hired consultants to conduct acoustic, environmental, and engineering studies, and submit numerous plans and reports.

In the end, the PZC denied the application on the grounds that it did not fit the zoning definition of a “commercial recreational facility,” and therefore did not qualify as a permitted use of the site, which was commercially zoned.

The vacant building TicketNetwork is looking to expand into is in an industrial park zoned for manufacturing use, Town Attorney Harold Cummings said today.

Though Vaccaro has argued that his company manufactures software, Cummings said, the office-type activity is a departure from its previous use by the manufacturing company Tyco, which vacated the building more than a year ago when it expanded into a larger facility.

Therefore, Cummings said, the proposed use is permitted within the zone, but requires an application for a special permit and a site plan that details how the property will be used in terms of parking, activity, and storage of hazardous materials or other potential dangers.

Vaccaro has complained that those two requirements cause an unnecessary hardship, but Cummings said they are standard procedures.

“What people don’t understand is that planning and zoning regulations regulate not only structures and parking lots and drainage, but also use. So when you come in, you may have a manufacturing use that is allowed within the zone, but you still have to document traffic, parking, capacity,” he said. “Basically the site plan is the operative document that describes what’s going on on that property.”

The special permit also requires that the application face a public hearing.

Hundreds weighed in during the public hearing for the concert venue proposed for South Frontage Road, adjacent to TicketNetwork’s headquarters and, Cummings said, it’s clear Vaccaro doesn’t want to repeat the experience.

“He stuck his finger in a socket, and he got badly shocked, so now, any time he goes near an electric outlet he twitches,” Cummings said.

“They’re terrified of the public in Vernon,” McCoy said of the company. “I’m sure they have nothing to fear in terms of like, public outcry over an office building.”

Several residents have said that they would welcome more unobtrusive office space and manufacturing in town, especially if it means filling vacant buildings.

Jennifer Roggi, who lives on Pineview Drive just down the street from TicketNetwork and whose property nearly touches the industrial park, was one of the most vocal opponents to the concert venue, but said today that she would have no problem with Vaccaro’s current proposal.

“His office buildings don’t bother me. Moving into that industrial building for office space is not a problem, but he isn’t special and he needs to go through the same procedures that every other business would have to go through. As of right now he hasn’t even tried to go through the regular course of action that I can see,” Roggi said.

Vaccaro also has claimed that he must make a decision about the property by Friday, but, Cummings said, this proposal has been in discussions for months and, “Whatever timetables Mr. Vaccaro is setting, well, those are his. In the meantime we’re not going to be bullied or browbeaten into doing something out of whack, we’ll process it in due course very promptly.”

Tyco still owns the property and would submit whatever zoning applications are necessary, not TicketNetwork, Cummings added.

He pointed out that an application and special permit for storage of large propane tanks on a parcel in the industrial park was approved in about 10 minutes and said Vaccaro could expect the same.

“With all due respect to Mr. Vaccaro, we appreciate his jobs and what he’s doing in town and everything else, but he still has to follow the same rules as everybody else, and that’s the bottom line here,” Cummings said. “This advice has been given to Mr. Vaccaro’s representatives repeatedly over the last several months. They would have been in there by now if they had just done what we’d told them to do.”

March 1, 2011

TicketNetwork CEO sued for sex harassment
By Suzanne Carlson

A former employee of the ticket resale software firm TicketNetwork Inc. has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit that claims she was fired two days after complaining to a company lawyer about unwanted sexual comments and touching from the company’s chief executive officer.

In a lawsuit filed in Hartford Superior Court on Dec. 14, Michele Ann Suttile of Glastonbury claims that after being hired as a marketing assistant on July 13, 2009, she suffered ongoing sexual harassment from TicketNetwork CEO Donald J. Vaccaro before being terminated on Dec. 11, 2009.

The 12-page document outlines five counts against Vaccaro and the company, including sexual harassment, sexual or gender discrimination, retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent hiring.

Throughout the course of her five-month tenure at TicketNetwork, at 137 Bolton Road in Vernon, Suttile claims she was “subjected to continuous, severe, pervasive, insulting, and offensive remarks, sexual harassment and sexual advancements by Mr. Vaccaro, defendant company CEO.”

The lawsuit cites several specific instances in which Vaccaro allegedly made sexual comments or advances on Suttile in the company of TicketNetwork employees and others who witnessed the behavior.

Suttile’s lawyer Emanuele R. Cicchiello and TicketNetwork lawyer Andra B. Mazur did not return calls for comment.

At a company-sponsored Halloween party on or around Oct. 12, 2009, Suttile claims that Vaccaro approached her and made sexual advances, which included “unwanted touching of the plaintiff’s body in a sexual manner,” and “unwanted sexual comments inappropriate for a work function.”

At the same event, Vaccaro also “pushed himself against the plaintiff and grinded himself against the plaintiff and other female defendant employees while dancing. This was performed out in the open and witnessed by other defendant employees,” Suttile claims in the suit.

On Halloween day 2009, Suttile says she was out in a “social setting” when Vaccaro approached her and complimented her breasts in the presence of her boyfriend, a comment that was “unwelcome, unwanted, and made the plaintiff extremely uncomfortable.”

Suttile’s friends also heard Vaccaro repeating the comment throughout the evening, she contends in the suit.

Later that night, Suttile claims Vaccaro approached her with two male friends and requested that she and her friends go back to his house in a limousine.

“I’ve spent many a night with women from our company,” Suttile claims Vaccaro told her, adding the women “never left unsatisfied.”

Suttile claims that, “again, these comments were made out loud so that others could hear.”

On or around Dec. 9, 2009, Suttile says she volunteered to host a company-sponsored holiday party, and during the event, Suttile says Vaccaro crudely complimented her breasts in the presence of other employees.

Later that evening, Suttile says she approached TicketNetwork lawyer Natalie Carpenter and told her about Vaccaro’s unwanted advancements and comments.

According to Suttile, Carpenter said, “Yeah, he does that all the time. We have to remind him all the time that he can’t do that.”

On Dec. 11, 2009, two days after she complained to Carpenter, Suttile says she was fired from TicketNetwork.

Company officials told Suttile she was terminated for not meeting her quota of 50 sales calls a day, which they said was part of her job responsibilities, the suit says.

But Suttile claims the requirement is reserved only for sales staff, and as a marketing assistant, meeting a quota for sales calls was never a condition of her employment.

Therefore, Suttile has charged that TicketNetwork’s reason for firing her was a “pretext for sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful termination.”

Suttile also says in the suit she had never been disciplined or warned that her job performance was an issue.

The lawsuit seeks restitution in the form back pay, reinstatement or front pay, damages for emotional distress, punitive damages including legal fees, and other relief as the court deems appropriate.

Suttile has demanded an amount “in excess of $15,000, exclusive of interests and costs.”

Prior to filing suit, Suttile made a complaint to the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, which released its jurisdiction over the matter on Nov. 23, authorizing her to commence a civil action against the company.

While employed at TicketNetwork, Suttile also worked as a correspondent for the company’s partner site, TicketNews.com, appearing in at least one video still posted online.

Vaccaro is divorced from his former wife, Lana C. Vaccaro. The divorce was finalized Sept. 23, according to court documents.

March 18, 2011

Ticket-marketing bill portrayed as a boon to scalpers
By Ed Jacovino

HARTFORD — A measure that critics say would remove protections against wholesale scalpers making steep profits through the resale of tickets to concerts and sporting events passed its first legislative hurdle this week.

The proposal, which the legislature’s General Law Committee passed Tuesday, would bar arenas and concert venues from limiting the resale or transfer of tickets and restricting how the buyer gets the ticket, such as in the mail or in person at the event. It also would block the exclusive use of paperless tickets. All those practices have been used by some artists and venues to thwart scalping.

Among the bill’s main backers is TicketNetwork Inc., the Vernon-based ticket resale software company. TicketNetwork makes money by facilitating the sale of a ticket between a ticket holder and a potential buyer. It also has been accused of buying up tickets itself, then reselling them to consumers at a steep markup.

Don Vaccaro, TicketNetwork’s CEO, told lawmakers at a hearing last month that the bill seeks to protect consumers by ensuring a free market on ticketing.

“Oftentimes, a ticket’s ‘real’ value is not determined by the artist, the venue, or the primary ticketing agent,” he said in a letter to lawmakers. “It is determined by the fans who choose to attend the event.”

But the venues, promoters, and producers who oppose the measure counter that it would help scalpers — including companies like TicketNetwork — operate with fewer restrictions. It also will push popular acts out of the state by limiting how they sell tickets.

David Fay, president and CEO of Hartford’s Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, told lawmakers that the problem isn’t individuals giving away or reselling tickets, but companies like TicketNetwork acting as wholesale scalpers.

He gave an example of a ticket to a future Bushnell show. The ticket would have cost $20 if bought from the box office, Fay said, but TicketNetwork was selling it for $167.

Fay said that TicketNetwork uses its computers to game the Bushnell’s system by putting a temporary hold on those seats — blocking customers at the Bushnell’s website from buying them and hoping somebody else will buy them for the marked-up price. Once somebody seeks to buy the tickets through TicketNetwork, he added, the company completes the sale and turns a profit.

A spokeswoman for TicketNetwork declined Thursday either to comment or to tell Vaccaro the newspaper was seeking comment.

The proposal also was opposed by the XL Center, the University of Connecticut’s Athletic Department, and Live Nation, which manages musical acts, controls some concert venues, and sells tickets to them.

It was backed by the National Consumers League, a new group called the Fan Freedom Project, and the online auction site eBay.

Lawmakers on the General Law Committee largely supported the measure, passing it on a 16-2 vote Tuesday.

They also agreed the proposal could be revised after expected negotiations with companies on both sides of the argument. The bill already had been amended from the original proposal to favor concert venues — removing a provision that limited how many tickets an artist could hold back from sales to the general public and exempting nonprofits, such as the Bushnell, from the new rules.

Sen. John A. Kissel, R-Enfield, said he sees the proposed changes as a consumer protection issue. Sports and music fans should be protected from the overwhelming power of companies like Live Nation, he said. “My No. 1 concern is that consumers don’t get let out in the cold during this process,” he said.

Rep. Kathleen M. Tallarita, D-Enfield, who cast one of the committee’s two votes against the measure, called it “a ticket-scalper’s bill.”

“It’s one thing for me to be able to sell my ticket,” she said. “It’s another thing for somebody to be able to buy hundreds of tickets and then gouge the tickets.”

April 5, 2011

TicketNetwork denies undercutting venues’ box offices
By Ed Jacovino

TicketNetwork Inc., an affiliate of which is at the center of a dispute as to whether it undercut venues by “reselling” event tickets at hugely inflated prices before the tickets were even bought, says it doesn’t support such practices.

“TicketNetwork does not condone the practice of speculative ticket resales,” company spokeswoman Viveca Woods wrote Monday in an email. The Vernon-based company has worked with the Federal Trade Commission to ensure it’s in line with the FTC’s best practices, she added.

Woods’ comments come after top executives of the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts turned over to state officials what they say is evidence that tickets to a Bushnell show were sold by a TicketNetwork affiliate before the tickets had been bought from the Bushnell box office.

The two tickets to last Wednesday’s showing of “Next to Normal” would have cost $73 if bought through the Bushnell box office. Instead, they cost $275 through TicketNetwork, whose affiliate “sold” the tickets to the show and only later bought them off the Bushnell’s website, the theater representatives said.

Those complaints — along with TicketNetwork representatives’ allegations that venues’ policies limit ticket sales — have sparked investigations by the Consumer Protection Department and the attorney general’s office into Internet ticket sales.

On the speculative sale of tickets, Woods declined to answer when asked whether the company had encountered ticket resellers doing this, had taken action against them, or would take action if it knew resellers were selling tickets speculatively on its marketplace.

TicketNetwork sells software that helps ticket holders connect with buyers across the company’s online marketplace.

In their complaint, Bushnell President David Fay and Chief Operating Officer Michael Fresher detailed how they purchased tickets to a Bushnell show on TicketNetwork’s marketplace, then watched as 25 minutes later those very tickets were purchased from the box office.

They also said the TicketNetwork-affiliated website feigned being the theater’s official box office site. Its web address included the words “Bushnell” and “box office,” and it was the top result in an Internet search for tickets.

Woods said TicketNetwork sites include disclaimers. “TicketNetwork’s site is clearly branded and labeled as an online ticket exchange,” she said. “All sites using the TicketNetwork exchange are required to have disclosures that it is not the official box office and that tickets may be above face value.”

The site Fay and Fresher used to buy the tickets stated under its headline: “This site is independently owned and operated and is not affiliated with any official box office or official website.” Also, the buyer agreed the company is an intermediary between ticket buyers and sellers and that the sales price could be above or below face value.

As for the state investigation, Woods said the company wasn’t aware that consumer protection Commissioner William M. Rubenstein and Attorney General George C. Jepsen were looking into the ticket market.

TicketNetwork executives had arranged to meet with Rubenstein for introductory reasons, Woods said. They talked about proposed legislation that would block musicians or concert venues from limiting the resale of tickets.

Proponents of the measure, including TicketNetwork, say it would protect the right of ticket holders to sell their seats at a fair price. Opponents, which include the Bushnell and other venues, say it would help scalpers, including the companies that do business through TicketNetwork.

April 26, 2011

TicketNetwork lawsuit scuttles legislation company favored
By Ed Jacovino

HARTFORD — The leaders of a key legislative committee dropped their support Monday for a controversial bill that would have banned many of the moves used by concert and sport venues to block ticket scalping.

At the center of the breakdown was a defamation lawsuit filed by Vernon-based TicketNetwork over comments made by the president of the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford in his testimony to the General Law Committee at a public hearing on the bill.

“For the first time — clearly in the history of Connecticut and maybe nationwide — a lawsuit was filed during session about comments made at a public hearing where legislatures look for open and free-flowing comments about bills,” said Sen. Paul R. Doyle, D-Wethersfield. “The lawsuit served as a chilling effect on our ability, the legislature’s ability, to hear both sides of the legislation and learn what’s best for all of us.”

Doyle co-chairs the General Law Committee, which had backed the bill on a promise that legislative leaders would meet with business representatives and rework the proposal to strike a compromise between venues and ticket resellers.

But at that meeting, lobbyists for the Bushnell and LiveNation Entertainment — which manages musical acts, controls concert venues, and sells tickets to them — declined to speak beyond a written statement, citing a “chilling effect” from the TicketNetwork lawsuit.

The bill pitted venues against ticket resellers. It would bar venues from limiting the resale of tickets. It also would block venues from turning away people with resold tickets and from forcing ticket buyers to pick up the tickets at the venue’s “will call” window or to use “paperless tickets” that tie admission to the credit card that paid for it — measures venues take to discourage scalping.

Supporters and opponents of the legislation both say they’re on the side of consumers. The bill would allow ticket holders to sell their seats at whatever a buyer agrees is a fair price, supporters say. Opponents point to inflated prices from ticket brokers, and say popular acts prefer limits on ticket scalping and would skip over Connecticut on their tours.

TicketNetwork is one of the bill’s strongest backers. The company provides software and an online marketplace for ticket brokers — people who have obtained tickets and want to sell them.

David Fay, president and CEO of the Bushnell, told the General Law Committee during a hearing in February that TicketNetwork and similar companies access official box-office websites to put a “hold” on tickets to thwart average consumers from getting them. Then, he said, the companies sell the tickets they have access to at a steep profit.

TicketNetwork denies the accusation.

Fay has since provided the Journal Inquirer with what he says is evidence of tickets to a Bushnell show being sold on TicketNetwork’s marketplace at a steep markup before the tickets had even been purchased from the Bushnell’s own box office.

Doyle said it was “ironic” that TicketNetwork’s lawsuit effectively killed the bill the company had supported.

“In this case, I think the fact that they filed a lawsuit hurt their legislation,” he said.

Instead of supporting the bill, lawmakers asked consumer protection Commissioner William Rubenstein to research issues in the ticket and entertainment markets, compile complaints from consumers, and recommend changes to existing law.

“We are committed to getting this right,” said Rep. Joseph J. Taborsak, D-Danbury, the General Law Committee’s other co-chairman.

Don Vaccaro, TicketNetwork’s CEO, said Monday that the decision to pull support for the bill because of the lawsuit set a dangerous precedent.

“The General Law Committee basically gave a blueprint on how to kill legislation,” he said. Vaccaro predicted more lawsuits would be filed in efforts to hold up debates and compromises.

The legislature should demand that people tell the truth when testifying before it, he added. Otherwise, Vaccaro said, public hearings are “useless.”

In an interview last week, Vaccaro defended the filing of the lawsuit against Fay and the Bushnell. “We have to pursue this with him for him to retract his comments, which I believe that he knows are not true, and are baseless,” he said.

He also said he doubted the lawsuit would hold up the legislation.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily going to hold it up, and the public policy should be that you want folks to support truth in public hearings,” he said.

Vaccaro also said in the interview that several lawmakers felt that “if somebody’s going to come into our public hearing and knowingly mislead us — that person should be called out.”

May 26, 2011

Tickets on the go: TicketNetwork leaving Vernon for South Windsor
By Suzanne Carlson

Ticket resale software firm TicketNetwork Inc. has purchased the 194,000-square-foot former Gerber Scientific property in South Windsor for nearly $6.8 million after months of speculation that the company might move its headquarters out of Vernon.

"South Windsor has been highly accommodating and we are very pleased with our decision," TicketNetwork CEO Donald Vaccaro said in a statement today.

South Windsor Town Manager Matthew Galligan called it a "win-win" for the town.

Acting under the firm TicketNetwork Campus Realty LLC, the company purchased one 13.76-acre parcel with several existing buildings at 83 Gerber Road West for $6.5 million, according to South Windsor Assistant Town Clerk James Krupienski.

The sale also included a second undeveloped parcel of 32.79 acres — 17.93 of which is in South Windsor and 14.68 in Manchester. The second parcel cost $273,500 and the purchase was conducted under the company TicketNetwork West Realty LLC, Krupienski said.

To fund the purchase, TicketNetwork has obtained a revolving credit note for $5 million with a maturity date to April 27, 2014, and a line to term note of up to $10,000, with the same maturity date, Krupienski said.

Gerber Scientific disclosed in an April filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had signed an agreement to sell its South Windsor facility for net proceeds of approximately $6.8 million. The company, which is moving its South Windsor operations to a factory it owns in Tolland, did not disclose the identity of the buyer.

The transaction is expected to close by July 1, according to the SEC filing.

"The company plans to enter into a one-year lease with the new owners of the facility for a portion of the facility in which Gerber Scientific Products operations are currently located," the filing adds.

Gerber officials said the net proceeds from the sale will be used to reduce its outstanding debt.

Galligan said today that Gerber would remain in the facility for approximately a year while TicketNetwork gradually moves its 325 employees into the offices.

Vaccaro founded TicketNetwork in 2002 with two employees and it has expanded ever since, outgrowing its Vernon location at 137 Bolton Road.

It was thought that the company was expanding into a vacant facility across the street and Vernon Town Attorney Harold Cummings said today that TicketNetwork had received Planning Department staff approval to begin moving employees into the building at 101 Industrial Park Road.

Property records show owner TighitCo Inc. sold the facility to Green Energy Realty LLC for $779,500 on March 16, which is affiliated with TicketNetwork, according to state documents.

Cummings said he was not aware of TicketNetwork's purchase of the Gerber property or its intentions to leave Vernon.

Vernon Economic Development Coordinator Shaun W. Gately — who was hired just over a week ago to fill the vacant position — did not return requests for comment.

"The very first question I asked them when we sat down eight months ago was, ‘Have you done all that you can to work with Vernon?'" South Windsor Mayor John P. Pelkey said today. "We have a policy that we will not entertain back and forth bartering of incentives. …We're not going to get into a bidding war, that's not how we operate."

But after TicketNetwork made it clear that its frustrations in Vernon could not be resolved, Pelkey said he and Galligan met with TicketNetwork government relations spokesman Daniel Pullium and Sen. Gary D. LeBeau, D-East Hartford, to work out arrangements.

Galligan said the town signed a confidentiality agreement barring officials from discussing the pending deal.

"They were looking for a building in town, coincidentally about that same time the Gerber folks had announced they were doing their reorganization," Pelkey said.

Pelkey and Galligan said they showed TicketNetwork representatives several buildings in the area but the Gerber location's highway exposure and vast facility sealed the deal.

"They're going to be bringing some equipment into the building, they're going to do some beautification of the grounds. I think they're going to be a good neighbor to South Windsor," Pelkey said. "This was a real positive for us because the last thing you want is a vacant building."

The rapidly expanding company is looking to grow to around 1,000 employees, Pelkey said, and many of those new jobs could go to South Windsor residents.

"We did talk to them about the education level of the people in town. We have a highly educated workforce and potential workforce. It's certainly a good place for companies to draw from," Pelkey said. "I think they just saw that it was a perfect fit for them."

No tax incentives were given to TicketNetwork and, "I think the thing that impressed them with South Windsor was our willingness to work with them and guide them through that process. Hats off to town staff," Pelkey said.

Vernon Mayor Jason L. McCoy said he was not aware that TicketNetwork had sold its property at 101 Industrial Park Road and had not known about the pending Gerber sale.

"I wish Don had come to me earlier and spoke with me," McCoy said, blaming a breakdown in communication with town staff, specifically the Building and Planning departments and the fire marshal.

"Our people that work here in these departments don't communicate well and they don't explain themselves. They just give people a hard time," McCoy said. "I'm incredibly disappointed. … It is what it is and it's very unfortunate. The only positive thing is at least we're not losing jobs in Tolland County."

TicketNetwork began encountering friction in Vernon when the company proposed building a 2,000-seat outdoor concert venue adjacent to its Bolton Road headquarters.

The application was denied March 11, 2010, on the grounds that it would create hazardous public health and safety conditions, would not be compatible with neighboring uses, and would create a nuisance.

Though opponents of the concert venue said they supported TicketNetwork's desire to expand its offices and add jobs, McCoy said the amphitheater's critics caused a negative chain reaction and singled out Pineview Drive resident Jennifer Roggi.

Roggi "was absolutely obnoxious during that whole thing," McCoy said. "Sometimes people don't always appreciate what the residual effect is and I tried to explain it to people."

Pelkey said his town has suitable sites for a concert venue along the Interstate 291 corridor but, "I'm not sure whether that's something that's still in their plans. Right now, I know their direction is to expand their base of employees and to be in a building that will allow them to do that quickly and that's the exciting part."

Journal Inquirer staff writer Howard French contributed to this story.