O'Sullivan Award - Mitch Goldblatt

Mitch Goldblatt has served as an elected official in the Town of Orange for over 40 years. His love for serving his community has spanned the elected positions of Constable, Town Plan and Zoning Commission, Board of Selectman and First Selectman. A many term member of the Board of Selectmen, Mitch is the chair of the Orange Recycling Committee and a member of the Pension Board. A volunteer at many events, Mitch is always present at the Orange Country Fair, the Firemen’s Carnival, Shredding Day, the Lions Club Thanksgiving Dinner, and more. 

A town resident for most of his life, Mitch has been involved in town affairs beginning with the Sesquicentennial Committee in 1972, when he was also the president of the Orange Stamp Club. His desire for celebrations about our town have continued for the past 50 years as he was also significantly involved in the Orange Jubilee in 1997, and served on the 2022 Bicentennial Committee, where he was in charge of commemorative items and ensured the event would be remembered by suggesting the Bicentennial Clock near Town Hall. 

Commencement in Orange politics began with Mitch’s election as a Town Constable in 1979 and then in 1981 to the first of three 4-year terms as a member of the Town Plan and Zoning Commission. He served concurrently for a decade on the Inland Wetlands and Water Courses Commission, the most years as the Chair. He continued to serve those commissions when he ran an unsuccessful campaign for State Senate in 1986.

In 1993 he was elected to the Board of Selectmen, where he was appointed as the Chair of the Post Road Fire House Building Committee and the Case Memorial Library Building Committee. He was an original member of the Orange Government Access Television Committee and served as its Chair for several years.

Then in 1999 he was elected to his first of three terms as Orange’s First Selectman. During his six years as First Selectman, the Town purchased the Bryan House and the Housatonic Overlook. Mitch was an early advocate of the extension of Edison Road, the development of an Orange Train Station, and began the path for a surge of economic development, including working to bring Target and Kohl’s to town, while initiating discussions with United Illuminating. His statewide efforts to ban smoking in restaurants earned him an award from the American Cancer Society. He helped establish the Post Road Study Committee, the Open Space Committee, and the War Remembrance Committee, among many other achievements. He advocated for the new Amity High School and what became the Brady Auditorium. Since 2005, Mitch has continuously been re-elected as a Selectman. He is currently an associate member of the Orange Chamber of Commerce and a standing member of the Bond Oversight Committee.

He has served for decades on the Orange Democratic Town Committee and is a lifetime member of the Orange Historical Society and the Orange Land Trust. A long-time supporter of Orange Rotary events, Mitch was recognized last year as the most recent recipient of the Paul H. Harris Fellowship. He currently works for the Town of Guilford as the Director of Human Resources and is an adjunct professor of Public Administration at the University of New Haven. A proud graduate of the Amity High School Class of 1975, Mitch earned a BA in Political Science from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania and an MBA in Management from The University of New Haven.