"We've got a top-notch educational system," said Loda, who served previously for 10 years on the Board of Education. "We always looked out for the best interests of the children."
Maintaining educational quality and keeping taxes low "is a juggling act," she said, adding that the town's Board of Finance works hard to that end.
Loda said she disagrees with comments she has heard that the school system has too many administrators and that cutting some positions would save money.
"Do they know what administrators do?" she asked." I don't think [cutting positions] is prudent unless you've been out there and know what the job entails."
The high school has a principal and three assistant principles, she continued, and the administrators took the place of nine department heads in an effort to save money. Seymour doesn't have more administrators than surrounding districts, said Loda, and cutting positions is the prerogative of the Board of Education, not municipal officials.
The schools also need money to pay for unfunded state and federal mandates, she said.
Some residents "don't look at the whole picture," Loda said. "You have to look at what's best for the entire population."
"The Board of Education has an adequate [funding] level," Koskelowski said. "The town has another adequate level.
"The Board of Education will say they have two special education children and will need to spend $150,000 to educate them. But they're only responsible for four-and-a-half times the cost of a regular student.
"How much money do they really need?" he asked. "The only mandate is meeting the minimum educational requirement."
According to Koskelowski, the school system spent only $56,000 of a $26 million budget on textbooks. "It doesn't show me they're spending money on the children," he said. "A lot of money is spent on administrators. They have a lot of chiefs.
"I support education totally," Koskelowski said, including construction of the middle school and the addition to the high school.
"All I ask for is accountability," Koskelowski said.
He noted the school board has cut programs such as middle school sports, which was later reinstated. Had the board been concerned about saving programs, he said, it could have eliminated an administrative position.
Cutting the athletic director position did not save money, he said, because the AD became an elementary school principal. There are still two positions, he said.
"I have two grandchildren in the school system," he continued." I support it 100 percent. But they have to show us where the money is being spent. Our children are not benefiting from the money we're funding them."
In her rebuttal, Loda refuted Koskelowski's position on the athletic director issue. "The Board of Education got rid of the athletic director," she said. "There is no athletic director at Seymour High School. A position has been eliminated."
The former athletic director, Ed Strumello, filled a position that was open at Bungay School after the former principal moved to fill the position of Director of Special Education.
Additionally, Loda said the board spent $56,000 to replace textbooks, not to buy a new series of books. "Everything in the school system is spent on children," Loda said, including the cost of salaries. "You have to have teachers," she said.
What steps would you take as first selectman to attract new businesses and industry to Seymour?
Koskelowski responded that he would continue to do what he has been doing, and he defended his belief that the town has no need for an economic development director since "there's no land to market. Silvermine [Industrial Park] is filled up."
He cited examples of recent development. Three businesses in the Silvermine Industrial Park have put on additions and a new company has added 45 employees. The Peak Fitness Center on Route 67, a branch of the Naugatuck Valley Savings Bank and Dunkin' Donuts on Route 34 have moved into new buildings in town.
He said he is working with three developers who are looking at land the town does not own. "We have no industrial land left that is town-owned," he said.
Electric Cable Compound's relocation to Naugatuck is losing the town $12,000 a year in taxes, Koskelowski said, but he would "work to get a new tenant."
The owner of the Ames Plaza off Route 8 "doesn't want anybody to go in," he said. "We were going to have a mini-mall (there), but I could not persuade him to market the building. He inherited it from his grandfather. He's looking for a tax write-off."
The town is fighting its second legal battle with the plaza owner, Koskelowski said.
"Over the past two years we have increased the Grand List by $3 million," he said, and the development is continuing.
"I'm working with developers," he commented, and plans are underway to build a retail/professional complex at the foot of Cogwheel Lane, near the industrial park.
Loda countered that Seymour sorely needs an economic development director.
In Silvermine, "the land is sold but there is a lot not utilized," Loda said. Meetings could be conducted with the developer to use the land, she said.
Plans have stalled on a proposal to build corporate offices for the Haynes Group behind Stop & Shop, she said.
The town needs professionals who are educated in the area of economic development, Loda said. Currently, homeowners pay 85 percent of the town's taxes, she added.
"It's unfair to the people," she declared. "A start is to get an economic development director. Sometimes you have to spend a little money to bring in a lot of money."
In his rebuttal, Koskelowski said Seymour has seen more commercial and industrial growth in the past two years than in the previous decade.
Koskelowski said he has worked with the Kerite Company to subdivide its land so other businesses could buy it, talked with the owners of Peak Fitness Center about relocating Richland's to another site, and negotiated with representatives of the Naugatuck Savings Bank regarding their new branch.
"I've been working with private developers," he said. "I'm not going to waste the taxpayers' money for something a first selectman can do."
efforts would you make to protect open space in town?
"Developers should give us more open space than they do now," said Loda, who added that in the six months since new zoning regulations were being drawn up, there have been "almost zero" changes. "They changed a few regulations for in-law apartments," she said, but little has been done to enlarge the size of building lots.
"Larger lots would slow down growth," she said. "More children lead to the need for more schools. We need to work with the state for [open space] grants and work with the Land Trust."
Loda said she has learned that Seymour could have done more to start constructing its portion of a greenway walking trail along the river.
"There were grants out there, and apparently Seymour didn't apply," she said. "They're trying to connect (the greenway). Seymour is the only town that hasn't. I would work with the Land Trust."
Koskelowski said he has taken a lot of steps regarding acquisition of open space. The developer of the Rolling Hills Subdivision off Skokorat Street has given the town 80 acres of open space, which is a good portion of the 167 acres he plans to develop.
Seymour residents voted by a slim margin in 2004 not to pay $9.2 million for the land, which had been assessed at half that value.
"Developers are starting to give more open space than in the past," Koskelowski said.
Building a walking trail along the river would be difficult, he said, because of the steep slope and the presence of the railroad tracks, cemetery and community center.
He said Seymour doesn't have land along the Naugatuck River for such a trail. "We've been looking to connect Seymour to Beacon Falls and Naugatuck," he said, but the town cannot start construction while a conservation fish ladder project is underway.
"The Greenway Trail can't happen," he said, but a path leads from the community center to the river so people can put their canoes in.
"I want to encourage people to use the river," he said.
In rebuttal, Loda criticized prior handling of the Skokorat land deal.
"The town had every opportunity to buy the land for $3 million" during former First Selectman Scott Barton's administration she said, and town officials had discussed taking it by eminent domain. Koskelowski later met with the developer.
The town could not build a school on the 80 acres of land the developer is donating, she said, and the Rolling Hills subdivision could bring 300 more children into the school system.
The development will strain town services, she said.
"Chatfield School is bursting at the seams," she said, adding that "$9.2 million is cheaper than $15 million to $20 million for an addition to Chatfield."
Regarding the greenway project, "Mr. Koskelowski has got a lot of excuses," Loda said. A trail could run up Great Hill Road through Oxford, she said. "I don't think Mr. Koskelowski put the effort into that."
Seymour's future and how, as first selectman, would you work toward attaining that vision?
"I'm an infrastructure-type person" with a focus on "good roads and nice-looking buildings," Koskelowski said. "My aim is that everybody in Seymour is proud to be a Seymour resident."
He said he wants to "keep taxes as low as possible" in the face of residential growth that has brought people from Fairfield County to Seymour, and commercial growth that has seen the birth of a thriving antiques area in the downtown.
"I'm not in it for the money," he said. "When I get an idea, I will not give up...I'm happy people allow me to serve them. I like problem-solving. I don't panic. I have no fear of working 14-hour days."
Paraphrasing an old adage, Koskelowski said Seymour can been described as "a nice place to visit, but a better place to live."
Loda responded, "I see Seymour as a very nice bedroom community. We have to bring in economic development to help the taxpayers. We have to keep up with the times.
"We can't have 30 kids in a classroom," she said. "I think Seymour is a wonderful community. A lot of people are bearing the brunt of the taxes.
"We have to have total accountability from boards and commissions," Loda commented, and she said she supports zero-based budgeting. "I think every department needs to start from zero and build from there," she said. "I want to bring integrity, honesty and accountability to the office."
Koskelowski "didn't do a very good job with Seymour Ambulance Association," Loda said, recalling that she was "berated and belittled" when she questioned the association's financial condition before an investigation showed alleged theft there. "People who brought concerns were intimidated," she said. "I can't say Mr. Koskelowski was very cooperative," she said.
Koskelowski and his two predecessors were "the only ones who could have controlled [association director Frank] Marcucio."
"I took control," Koskelowski said in his rebuttal. "I appointed a committee to make sure it wouldn't happen again." In 1994, former town officials eliminated oversight of the ambulance association, he noted.
Robert Koskelowski has served as first selectman from 2003 to the present. He also was first selectman from 1983 to 1993.
He is a retired Seymour police officer who also served on the Parks Commission from 1979 to 1982, on the Board of Finance from 1997 to 1999, and on the Police Commission from 1999 to 2003. He coached Babe Ruth baseball for 17 years and peewee basketball.
Koskelowski has lived in Seymour most of his life. He is married and has four children and five grandchildren.
Jeanne Loda has served on the Board of Selectmen for two years. Prior to that, she was on the Board of Education for 10 years, a member of the Board of Finance for four years, chairman of the Civil Service Commission for six years, and a member of the Future School Needs Committee and the Democratic Town Committee.
She is vice president and office manager at the Loda Agency Inc. and previously worked at Ansonia Savings Bank, Norden's United Technologies Corporation and at WICC Radio. She also was a real estate broker.
This is cache, read story here