Ghosts Of Ziolkovski Past

In December 2008, first selectman candidate and building contractor was arrested for first-degree larceny after he failed to return over a $10,000 deposit from a would-be client. She canceled the job and Ziolkovski didn’t give her the money back.

After going to court, Ziolkovski repaid her with interest and the charges were dropped. Ziolkovski was also cited for not having a contractor’s license.

“I got arrested,” he said. “I had a problem. I took care of it the best that I could, and moved on with it. … Every once in a while, you get a black eye; it just depends on what you do afterward.”

Ziolkovski knows that just being arrested for first-degree larceny will probably cause a group of people to not for vote for him and many people will stop reading this story right now with that the only piece of information they take in. After all, most people “read the headlines and not the full story,” he said.

Not that he’s making excuses, and he took full accountability for his actions. But the story is worth telling, he said.

So: The Full Story

On Aug. 1, 2007, Ziolkovski resigned from the Groton Fire Department as a fireman. His plan was to turn his part-time job, owner of Summit Trail Excavation, into a full-time job.

“After 18 years, I was frustrated with the administration of the Groton Fire Department and I wanted to do something I loved doing,” Ziolkovski said. “I miss the guys I work with tremendously. I miss the job, although I still volunteer with Waterford. Although I will never say I regret leaving that job, as it allowed me to do some things and be there for people that I would have never been able to be there for.”

The move started great, and Ziolkovski soon had 12 people working for him. The money was coming in, the jobs were coming in, although Ziolkovski had no peace with himself, he said.

“I was a workaholic, a challenge-a-holic; I was working 120-plus hours a week,” he said. “I was sleeping in my truck for an hour, and then would wake up and go to the next job. I was crazy.”

Misfortune struck soon, as when he was clearing a lot, a tree hit Ziolkovski and put him in the hospital for 2½ weeks with a torn kidney. Knowing his customers were waiting for him, and with an unstoppable drive to get back to work, he lied to every doctor, saying he felt great.

“I lied through my teeth to get out of there,” he said. “My customers were hounding me, saying when are you going to get back, when are you going to get back. So I told the doctors I felt great, and lied right through my teeth and never told them how I was feeling.”

During this same time, Ziolkovski was going through a divorce and faced with some other difficult personal issues he did not want on the record. Still, the jobs kept coming in, and business was good.

Then, the economy crashed in 2008 and everything changed. Ziolkovski had several jobs out when suddenly clients would cancel them, and the money completely dried up.

“I lost so much money, it wasn’t even funny,” he said. “I maybe wasn’t on my clients as much as I should have been, and nobody was paying me.”

At this same time, a woman from Salem canceled her job and demanded the return of her deposit. Ziolkovski went to the bank and found he did not have the money. So, the woman called the police and he was arrested.

“She was doing what she needed to do, and I don’t fault her for that,” Ziolkovski said. “I didn’t pay her back the money. I’m not crying and whining; it happened.”

After being arrested, Ziolkovski borrowed money from his family, repaid the woman and the charges were dropped. To cover the costs of all his expenses, he cleared out his retirement account from the City of Groton (“six figures, before the decimal point”) and was left broke.

“There are people who are sitting in their house right now reading this and saying 'I can’t believe he would do that,' ” Ziolkovski said. “Then there are others that say, 'My life isn’t much different than his.' What does that make me? I don’t know.”

To top it off, while the settlement was being reached, Ziolkovski was involved in a serious motorcycle accident. But in a moment when he sat on top of car, covered in glass but unhurt, finally, some clarity came through.

“I’m on the hood of the car, halfway through the front windshield, and I said ‘I can’t believe I just survived this,' ” Ziolkovski said. “I’m alive. And I’ve got to change the way I’m living my life.”

Ziolkovski began to slow down, working fewer hours and trying to not take everything as a challenge he must accomplish (something he is still working on). Most importantly, he was there for his daughter and his son.

“I had the opportunity to be there for my daughter when she needed me to be there; I had the opportunity to be there for some other people who needed me, because I didn’t wind up dead,” he said. “When that happens, you find peace.”

Running For Selectman

Ziolkovski acknowledges that running for first selectman is the kind of thing he used to do that would get him in trouble. But while he’s trying to slow down and breathe, he can’t change overnight.

“Some say that by running for first selectman, I’m being the Kevin of old,” he said. “But a zebra can’t change all his stripes at once, or else he’ll be all black or all white.

“I worked like a dog, I raised my kids. I was married and divorced; I always connected to the average man -- I always have been one. And that is who I’m running this election for.”