Bielik wins first selectman race

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Beacon Falls Democratic Selectman Peter Betkoski, left, and Democratic First Selectman Christopher Bielik celebrate after winning re-election on Tuesday. –LUKE MARSHALL

(Full Beacon Falls election results)

BEACON FALLS — Voters backed Democratic First Selectman Christopher Bielik for a third term in office.

Bielik defeated Republican challenger Ken George, 894 votes to 700, on Tuesday, according to unofficial numbers. Roughly 37.2 percent of voters turned out to the polls.

“I am pleased that the town believes that the direction we have chartered for the last four years is a good one. I am looking forward to continuing with the programs we have in place already,” Bielik said.

Bielik said he is going to keep his “open door” policy to hear ideas from residents.

“I am always looking for new ideas. God knows I don’t have them all. Over the next two years, anything we can do to improve upon anything we can do already, I am down with it. So for four years my door has been open for Town Hall and that will not change,” Bielik said.

George, a political newcomer who never ran for office before, said he’s pleased with the effort he put forward.

“I ran a clean campaign. I did what I did. I kept them on their toes,” George said.

The makeup of the Board of Selectmen will remain the same. Selectman Peter Betkoski, a Democrat, and Selectman Michael Krenesky, a Republican, were re-elected to the board.

“I am very happy that the voters feel I have done the job that allows them to vote me back into office again,” Krenesky said. “Now it is rebuilding the Board of Selectmen team, who we have sort of split apart based on this whole election cycle. We need to rebuild that level of, I don’t know if trust is the right word, but working together. We have to do this. The people in Beacon Falls have spoken, and now it up to us to do what is right for the town.”

Republican Christine Arnold was re-elected to the Region 16 Board of Education, which oversees schools in Beacon Falls and Prospect. Arnold will be joined by school board newcomer Democrat James Huk. Huk and Arnold received 936 and 889 votes respectively to earn seats over Democrat Eric Dey, who received 813 votes.

Huk previously served as the chairman of the Board of Finance and believes his background will be beneficial to the board.

Beacon Falls Republican First Selectman candidate Ken George campaigns in front of Laurel Ledge Elementary School Tuesday. –LUKE MARSHALL

“Having people bring their own personal experience matters. I think now, especially with what is going on at the state, having a financial background has to be a help,” Huk said. “I think the balance is making sure that we meet the needs of the kids while also being fiscally responsible. I know we can do it.”

Democratic incumbent Town Treasurer Wendy Rodorigo defeated Republican challenger Doug Bousquet.

Republican incumbent Town Clerk Len Greene and Democratic incumbent Tax Collector Mary Anne Holloway were both unopposed and will return to their respective positions.

Stacey Betkoski and Donna Taylor, both Democrats, won seats on the Library Board of Trustees.

Democrat Sheryl Feducia won a seat on the Board of Assessment Appeals, defeating Republican David Dlugos.

The Board of Finance will see the return of Democratic incumbent Thomas Pratt and Republican incumbent Marc Bronn.

Republican incumbents William Mis and Benjamin Smith and Democratic newcomer Brian Horgan won seats on the Zoning Board of Appeals.

5 COMMENTS

  1. I would like to thank the voters of Beacon Falls for supporting me this election cycle by electing me 2nd Selectman. I look forward to being your voice at Town Hall.

    MAK

  2. This is a good description of our First Selectman. Pompous and arrogant.

    Until a viable candidate runs with a competent running mate we may be stuck with these two for quite some time.
    But as all his supporters point out, he supposedly works full time for part time pay, this is done by design to keep the field to retirees.
    You get what you pay for.

  3. I’m very disappointed that Beacon Falls voters re-elected Chris Bielik. I wonder how many voters actually had direct interaction with this guy. I admit that my former view was to just re-elect the incumbent if things in town seemed to be going OK. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. My opinion changed the moment I had to deal with Mr. Bielik.

    I’ve lived in Beacon Falls for over 25 years. I have never had an instance to complain about our elected leaders until Chris Bielik came into power. I’ll admit that living in Beacon Falls, most of us have the luxury of having a garage or at least a driveway in which to park our cars… but it’s not always possible during storms. When I first moved to town, my house was set atop a small hill and my driveway was impossible to get up if it were snowy, slippery or icy. I found myself often having to just pull my car as close to the curb as I could in front of my home. There wasn’t much I could do. My neighbors did the same. We never got a ticket nor a tow. I think public works knew that it wasn’t a choice.

    Fast-forward to two years ago. I now live downtown on Main Street. I don’t have the luxury of off-street parking. If it were snowing, I’d try to park in the firehouse or train station lot; neither being very close to my home. I tried to be thoughtful of the town plow drivers. I work nights. One evening I arrived home very late and parked on the street, as there was no forecast for snow. When I went to go to work in the morning, my car was gone, as was my spouse’s. I called the police station, and was told that the First Selectman decided to go out on the road with the town plows (even through there was maybe a dusting of snow overnight – and not in the forecast) and they towed a dozen or so cars “to teach people a lesson about following winter parking ban”. My first thought was – I live paycheck to paycheck – I couldn’t afford a tow. My next thought was – Winter Parking Ban? I assumed if it wasn’t snowing it was ok to park on the street. I never saw a sign posted anywhere. I never saw anything posted online. I wondered where was this parking ban posted that the First Selectman “wanted to teach people a lesson about”. I was told he was “looking out for the town employees that had to occasionally plow around a car or two”.

    I didn’t have the money to get my car. I had to go to work. I couldn’t comprehend what kind of person would take pleasure in driving around town with the sole purpose of pointing out cars to tow to enforce a parking ban on a night it wasn’t even snowing. I walked to town hall and asked to speak with the First Selectman. I told him that my car was one that he had requested towed and that I didn’t have the money to get it back. He told me it was too bad and that I shouldn’t have violated the parking ban. I asked where the parking ban was posted, He said in the newspaper. I asked him which one, and he said he didn’t know, but I still should’ve been aware of it. I asked how? I never saw a street sign. I never saw a notice posted at town hall. I never saw it on the town website. He insisted it was on the website. (At the time it wasn’t, because I looked, hard.) I asked him to go to a computer and show me. He told me that he didn’t have to do that. So I asked him why wouldn’t he show me the parking ban? How could I have known that I couldn’t park on the street if it weren’t showing? I never had an issue before… he finally told me that the parking ban was printed on a piece of paper inside a loose-leaf notebook in the community room just outside his office and I could’ve looked it up anytime by simply going to town hall, going into his office, and looking for a random, unmarked loose-leaf notebook on the shelf.

    He was rude, condescending, and totally unapologetic during my entire interaction with him. I have never felt the need to ever voice my opinion to an elected official before, and I was extremely disappointed in the way I was treated. I felt I had a legitimate gripe, and his response to me was “too bad”. You disobeyed an ordinance that I’ll admit wasn’t posted anywhere, wasn’t enforced before, and I decided to enforce it on some random night when people wouldn’t expect it. He just sat there with a smug expression on his face, totally admitting that he did it to “show support for public works” and “teach people a lesson about following rules”.

    I see this guy in church. I can’t believe he can show his face knowing that his best decision on that night was to “teach people a lesson”. What kind of person does that??? How about posting the parking ban. Somewhere. Anywhere. (I have to note soon after my visit to town hall that it appeared on the town website). How about going up to a person’s door and asking them to move their car. How about putting a note with the ban or a warning on a person’s car before towing it and costing them $80 per car?

    This may seem like a small complaint to some people. Others may say that we should all be aware of every ordinance in town – I mean all we have to do is go to the town hall, ask permission to enter the First Selectman’s Office and rummage through his bookshelf, right?

    What this experience did for me, is to show me that this man doesn’t care about the citizens in his town. He towed at least a dozen cars of unsuspecting Beacon Falls citizens that had no idea they were doing anything wrong. And he didn’t care. He actually seemed to take pleasure in it. Is this a man that I want having the power in my town? Nope. Nope Nope.

    So disappointed. Chris Bielik, I hope you’ve changed your ways and are actually going to be a kind person and give a crap about everyone in town – not just the more affluent folks residing in larger homes. (BTW -they’re the ones that can afford to pay for a tow. Just sayin).