The new year brings some new changes around town, and one of them is a new Town Council chairman. After being re-elected to the council in November 2017, Ken McKay was elected chairman in December. He’s excited to take on the responsibilities, and wants to create a transparent Town Council.

“I like it,” Ken says, “It’s a lot of responsibility; it’s a lot of work.”

Having served on the council for about 20 years, this is actually Ken’s second time as chairman. He previously served in the role a decade ago, and says it feels great to be chairman once more.

One of the responsibilities of the Town Council chairman is that the chairman becomes acting mayor of the town in the event the mayor is away, and fills in for the mayor for an event or activity if the mayor has a conflict.

He did just that last month when author and community advocate Grace Birch visited town schools and first responders.

“I filled in...and handed out candy to all the kids and rode on the fire trucks with the battalion chief,” Ken says. “It was a great turnout; a lot of people... That was a wonderful thing for them to do.”

One thing Ken is looking forward to now that he’s chairman is infrastructure improvements such as selling old town-owned buildings, specifically the old high school and the former D.C. Moore school. He says the town spends a lot of money to heat and power the former schools, and he’d like to see them get back on the tax roll, adding that it’s good when the town can generate new revenue streams as it’ll help keep taxes low.

A former firefighter for the town, Ken understands firsthand the importance of public safety. He mentioned that the council recently approved a transfer of funds to allow the Fire Department to buy new equipment.

“Some of the stuff is aging, and being a former firefighter, I understand that... It’s so important to have protective turnout gear to go into a fire,” Ken says.

He says being a firefighter in town was great, and he misses the camaraderie of it. He says it was a brotherhood, as firefighters spend a lot of time together and rely on each other. After suffering a traumatic brain injury nine years ago (he awoke one morning with head pain; the condition put him into a coma for a month and required months of rehabilitation), Ken recalled how the firefighters rallied around him, such as offering to prepare his home to make it safe when he returned from rehabilitation.

“They never forgot who I was,” Ken says.

He and Mayor Joseph Maturo, Jr., served in the Fire Department at the same time, but that wasn’t the first time the two had met. Ken has lived in East Haven since he was nine years old, and Maturo was one of the first people he met when he moved to town.

Ken recalled a time when the two were having breakfast at a restaurant after they’d both retired, and Maturo mentioned to Ken that he might be getting into to politics.

“Here we are how many years later... and we’re both elected officials,” Ken says.

He enjoys running to stay physically and mentally fit, and the cold weather in the winter doesn’t stop him from going for a run. He says he goes running three days per week with the mayor; the two recently completed the Hartford Half-Marathon.

“We’ll gear up again; we’ll start training for some half-marathons again,” Ken says.

While tohe commitments of Town Council chair are demanding, he says he’s been able to balance his work at Tremonte Auto Group in Branford with his municipal duties. He has Wednesday mornings off, so he’s able to meet with the mayor to discuss upcoming plans. One things starting soon is the crafting of the town budget for the next fiscal year.

“People don’t realize how much time and effort we put in,” Ken says about budget season.

Although his Town Council responsibilities keep him busy now, he was previously involved in other groups in town, including the Rotary Club and Momauguin Recreation League. He’s also an honorary member of Foxon Firehouse Company 3.

Ken’s family roots are deep in town. His mom, Phyllis, still lives in the house Ken grew up in, and he has three children, Scott, Melisa, and Ken. His two grandchildren, Nathan and Cameron, are both currently in the town’s school system. He’s also going to be welcoming another grandchild very soon.

“My daughter Melisa, she’s a week and a half overdue,” Ken says, “So maybe by the time this article comes out, I’ll be a grandfather of my first girl.”