Voicemail left with mayor’s office has Perkins Street builder taking action to protect his properties and family

Lot at 260 Perkins St. that will be the entrance of a proposal to bring 16 single family homes to a portion of the Hoppers. | David Fortier

Posted By: David Fortier August 12, 2024

By David Fortier

A voicemail left with the mayor’s office in mid-July protesting a proposed housing development that would chip away at the Hoppers-Birge Pond Preserve is being taken seriously by the builder, who considers it a threat, even though the Police Dept. has decided against further action.

“I just never would think, and it happened to me, about this threat in Bristol,” said Tim Bobroske, of P & B Properties which has proposed a plan to develop private property that is part of the Hoppers-Birge Pond Nature Preserve along Perkins Street.

“I am a Bristol guy, born and raised in Bristol,” Bobroske said. “When I die, I am up at St. Joseph Cemetery.”

TBE has obtained a copy of the police report of the incident which took place on July 17. The report states that the mayor’s office received a voicemail from a person who is displeased with the project. The exact words of the caller’s comments have been redacted, so TBE has not seen them. Because the police are not pursuing further action, TBE has chosen not to print the name of the caller.

Bobroske has heard the recording, he said, and he has a different perspective.

“This was threat,” Bobroske said. “It just wasn’t just a regular telephone call. The threat was against the mayor, against inlands/wetlands, as well as zoning, and if the project was approved, this individual was going to do damage to the communities that we own.”

The mayor has not responded to a TBE request for more information, but the mayor’s office did confirm that it received a voicemail and handed off the voicemail to the Police Dept.

Bobroske said what he has a real issue with is how this has affected his wife, who hasn’t been able to stop thinking that every person who drives by their home might do them harm.

He is also concerned about his properties, under Tim Bobroske Company, there are four of them in surrounding towns, such as Wolcott and Plymouth, as well as one under contract in New Hartford.

Toward that end he has consulted with law enforcement and is taking proactive measures.

Four of his employees have permits to carry pistols.

“I asked them to carry,” Bobroske said. “I personally am going for a pistol permit. And I am not a gun guy.”

In addition, he has upgraded the security systems on his properties, he said, “Which is quite frankly a lot of money.”

He has also asked his attorney to seek a restraining order for the caller.

The Perkins Street development includes 16 private homes on 10 plus acres that had been owned by the Schaffrick family. The parcel includes land that is part of a core forest as well as geological formations dating to the Ice Age. 

“For this particular piece of property,” Bobroske said, “one of my goals, at the sunset of my career, I want to do a 16 lot, zero-carbon footprint community.

“We will be the first one in Bristol to do it. We have the technology. I am what you call an energy star builder. I go to the Energy Star standards that exceed the building code in Connecticut. That is where I am going with this particular project.” 

The P & B Properties inlands/wetlands application will come before the Inlands/Wetlands Commission at 6:30 p.m. in city hall council chambers tonight.

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