An eight-year tenure filled with drama and trauma is coming to an end this month when First Selectman Matt Riiska retires.
Over the course of those years, he has shepherded the town through crisis after crisis, from a pandemic to a massive oil spill, flash floods to Tropical Storm Isaias, bridge disasters to power outages.
He has juggled changing bureaucratic demands, stacks of paperwork, budgetary constraints, controversies of varying importance, and planning for a new firehouse. Now, he is departing office ready to do what he had hoped for when he first ran for office—to stay home.
Riiska, formerly a designer and project manager in the plastics industry, traveled incessantly, often being away for three or more weeks. In running for office, he hoped to be at home more. “It didn’t work out that way,” said the veteran of hundreds of evening meetings.
Over four terms in office he has seen much change, including the ubiquitous Zoom meeting. “People don’t realize how much disruption the pandemic created,” he said, “but Zoom was one of the good things that came out of it. It allows people to participate more easily and has certainly helped with the firehouse when we have meetings with the architects and engineers.”
Staffing key town positions is another area of change, becoming more difficult as the state requires more and more certification for assessors, tax collectors, zoning officers and the like. “Staffing town hall is difficult for small towns because the state requires certification and the salaries are high. We don’t need [these officials] full time and can’t afford them,” Riiska said.
He foresees a day when the Council of Governments might become a central office for member towns with, for instance, a certified assessor who could sign off on Grand Lists prepared by non-certified personnel. Similarly, he believes the day will come when the operations of the town will be overseen by a town manager with the selectmen setting policy.
Will he miss his desk in town hall? “To a point,” he said. “But you have to know that when a job gets to be more than you want to do, you let someone else take over. It’s just another chapter.”
Riiska lauded the volunteers and employees he has worked with over the years. “Through all the calamities, working with emergency management people like Richard Byrne and the fire department has made all the difference,” he said. “Through gas spills and floods and power outages I knew I could count on people like that. It’s been a pleasure.”