Important Information Regarding

Bristol’s Board of Education

Local democrats maintain that the City of Bristol has consistently underfunded education.   

Factually, every department in the city has been underfunded.

Each year, department leaders present their budget requests based on their assessment of how much taxpayer dollars will be needed to ideally run their respective departments.

And each year the Board of Finance cuts those requests to align with city revenue derived from the taxes you pay.  

The democrats and particularly the chairperson of the BOE, wanted the city to give the BOE over $146 million this year, which was up a whopping $16.5 million from the 2024-2025 budget of $129 million.  

The current BOE leadership has mismanaged their budget over the last 2 years and maybe more, resulting in annual deficits.  This year it reached an $8 million deficit.

To grow the Grand List, using the most current mill rate, the City would have to create an additional $250 MILLION ANNUALLY of taxable property to generate $7 million of additional tax revenue just to cover the BOE deficits and nearly three times that amount to fill their original $146 million ask!!

A herculean task for anybody.

To write this year’s $7 million check to cover the BOE deficit, the city will need to use the $2.5 million surplus the non BOE departments generated and take funds from the city’s fund balance (reserves).  

When the fund balance drops below 12% of the total city budget, our bond rating is negatively affected.  

This means it will cost the city more money to borrow funds for current and future planned capital improvements like schools and other municipal projects.

So, what would democrats prefer to do?  Raise taxes or cut other department resources and personnel to “fully fund education”?

That is the position democrat leadership on the BOE has put you, the taxpayers of Bristol, in. 

 

Express Kitchens owner finds warm welcome in Bristol

TOPICS: Bristol CTBusinessEconomic and Community Development

Express Kitchens is on the site of the former Associated Spring on South Street

Posted By: David Fortier July 14, 2025

by Mike Chaiken-July 14, 2025

The owner of Express Kitchens expressed his delight with his company’s arrival in Bristol –and the treatment his company has received from local officials.

Hitesh “Max” Kothari attended the Wednesday, July 9 meeting of Bristol’s Economic and Community Development Board and spoke to the city panel about his company, which manufactures kitchen cabinetry, and the company’s relocation to the old Associated Spring building at 18 Main St.

The Associated Spring building became available when the corporate owner, the Barnes Group, was sold to Apollo Funds for $3.6 billion in January.

Kothari said his decision to consider Bristol for his business began rather casually.

“I have twin boys and my wife. After dinner, on a Sunday, I told them let’s go take a ride. There’s a building in Bristol I’d like to drive by,” said Kothari.

That Sunday drive, however, piqued Kothari’s interest in Bristol.

“What happened is I took a wrong turn by coming up this way, and I somehow ended up in… this downtown area. And when I saw the City Hall, when I saw the building (the Carrier development on North Main Street) across the street and then I started seeing that somebody’s putting some kind of puzzle (of economic development) together over here that gave me a lot of confidence that this is not downtown that’s on its way down. This is something that somebody’s taking some serious steps to revive … (This gave me) confidence that we should buy a building of this magnitude– because this is a big buy. This is a major investment for me,” said Kothari.

The CEO of Express Kitchens also explained how Economic and Community Development executive director Justin Malley and Mayor Jeffrey Caggiano made him feel welcome and wanted in the community.

Kothari said he was visiting the Associated Spring building and called to set up an appointment with Malley to talk about the building. Discovering that Kothari was in town, Malley immediately invited him to meet him at City Hall. Malley quickly brought Kothari in to meet with Caggiano.

Kothari said he was impressed by the treatment he received from the mayor, Malley and the local officials once efforts began to bring Express Kitchens operations to the city.

Kothari, now 60, said his entry into the world of business began when he opened a hardware store in the North End of Hartford when he was 25.

“I started Express Kitchens a few years back,” the CEO explained.

“Today,” he said, “we have 12 stores in four different states. We do supplies (of cabinetry, too) … There are trucks pulling up from Michigan and Texas that are picking up cabinets for Home Depot right from this plant… We also sell to big builders like Toll Brothers (which is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange).”

“We did an acquisition for a pretty sizable company in New Jersey where we were manufacturing cabinets over there. I will move that (operation) to Bristol,” said Kotari.

Currently, Kothari said there are about 50 people employed in the Bristol building. He said the plan is to add another 50 or so.

Malley noted that Express Kitchens is also bringing in state-of-the-art technology to build its kitchen cabinets. The equipment will automate the process.

“it’s just like a Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory there,” said Malley referring to the chocolatier in the famous children’s novel by Roald Dahl. “It’s pretty interesting.”

However, Kothari said installation of the equipment has been slow because of changes in immigration policy—the technicians needed to install the equipment are relegated to instructing workers in Connecticut via Zoom on how to handle the task.

Kothari told the ECD board he is aware of the economic and community legacy of the Barnes Group.

“They have deep roots, and they truly care,” said Kothari. “In fact, (Tom Barnes, the former chair of the Barnes Group) and his wife and I and my wife, we had dinner together. They’re good people… I would like to try to make sure that legacy (of the Barnes family) comes through with what we do.”