Town of Williamstown
Board of Selectboard Meeting
May 5, 2011 – Monday 7:00pm
Williamstown Middle/High School Library
MINUTES
PRESENT: Larry Hebert, Chair, Rodney Graham, Francis Covey, Art Stone
TOWN MANAGER: Garrett Earls
VISITORS: Kathleen Lott – The Northfield News, Mike Sprano, Arthur Kramer – Health Officer, Horace Duke, Chris Peloquin, Bob Cleaves - Treasurer
At 7 p.m. L. Hebert called to order the May 5, 2011 Williamstown Selectboard meeting.
SELECTBORAD MEETING
ANNOUNCEMENTS: None
VISITOR’S COMMENTS: Mike Sprano asked if there was a final number for the Falls Bridge project. G. Earls said grants are estimates that we bill the State for, but there is a budget of $264K.
REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF WARRANTS:
Approval of Warrant SB 95 and payroll 4-10 to 4-23-11, R. Graham made a motion to approve, F. Covey second and the motion passed by voice vote 4-0.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Minutes for April 18, 2011 were approved, L. Hebert asked if there were any objections, all passed by voice vote 4-0.
MANAGER’S REPORT:
G. Earls reminded the Board of the 6pm meeting on May 16th with the residents of Young Road. Advertised and posted on the website for the closing of Falls Bridge Road on May 16th thru July 16th. G. Earls pointed out the spreadsheet given to the Board has specifications for the Falls Bridge project. There will be a deck poured 24 x 33, according to AOT specs. This will be a better quality deck than using pre-cast slabs, stronger, and within budget. G. Earls thanked F. Covey for the sign, it looks great. G. Earls had a discussion with FairPoint and they have promised to have 100% DSL coverage by the end of June. FairPoint sent in permit right of way requests for two poles one on Flint Road and Henry road. G. Earls asked for the Boards motion to approve. R. Graham made the motion to approve, F. Covey second, all passed by voice vote 4-0.
Next G. Earls brought up the rental of a mower with the arm vs. buying services from a contractor. He can rent the mower for two weeks at $4,200. There are three men from the crew that can run the mower. E. Farnham thinks that more can get done, cutting down tall grass, bigger area. G. Earls feels that with the rental more would get done. Last year the contractor charged $5,000. and additional work added was above that. This work will be done the 2nd or 3rd week in August. A. Stone mentioned concern about equipment not being used for other critical jobs. F. Covey brought up that the contractor probably will charge more this year, rising fuel costs. G. Earls will check to see what his charge would be for this year. B. Cleaves brought up that he thinks it will cost more money to rent equipment and use one of the crew, pay his salary. He thinks that a contractor would be better at it and quicker. He has a problem using the crew to do this work when they are needed to fix the roads that are the worst he has seen in 30 years. G. Earls said it’s not a money saver just that it will accomplish more. L. Hebert expressed that maybe this year with the Falls Bridge project going on that it would be better to do it next year. F. Covey agrees, but would like to know how much the contractor is going to charge this year. R. Graham doesn’t agree with having inexperienced crew running the machine. He pointed out that it’s now May and the roads are still quite bad, erosion, gullies and the roads need to be resurfaced. He suggested using someone else to run it, like Bruce Martin, so that crew won’t be involved. A. Stone would like to get a commitment from a contractor to do the work.
M. Sprano asked about the bridge plans. L. Hebert explained that there aren’t any engineering costs for this project; it would cost around $50K for that service. Trembley is an experienced bridge builder. He has done at least 50 bridges.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS: None
NEW BUSINESS:
Mr. Kramer made the remark that Justin Pickel is a very professional Animal Control Officer and thinks Williamstown is fortunate to have him.
Mr. Kramer expressed concern over a new law 24 V.S.A. is a life changer. There is no way to get around this law; the State wants to move with this right away. He distributed a packet with articles about the salvage yard problems around the state. Several hundred individuals who are junk dealers have raised environmental issues. Some of these yards have hundreds of tires that small fire departments can’t handle. Toxins raise concerns with the Health requirements for water contamination; this raises a lot of issues. Towns don’t want to be owners of these salvage yards, cleanup costs are very expensive. A. Kramer admitted he isn’t an expert, but had talked to a few around the state. Two things come up what are the Town’s unique goals, and creating a certificate of approved location (CAL). The Town starts this process with an approved siting. The State takes care of the environmental issues. After a proprietor gets the CAL from the town he then goes to the State for a certificate of recognition. On the last page of the handout is three groups, Toxics Action Center, works throughout New England, the Williamstown Healthy Environment Neighborhood Assoc. is run by Doreen Chambers and the Agency of Natural Resources, John Brabant, is run by the State. Some of the requirements for the CAL are: Prove that they own the land, nature of proximity of the location (schools, churches, hospitals), screening from the roads, nuisance conditions. A. Kramer suggests starting with a letter stating the laws and how they need to take steps to make it right. If after a few months with no response the Town needs to decide what they are going to do. What exists now is not appropriate for Williamstown. L. Hebert suggested the Planning Commission to come up with something. They could come up with a set of guidelines for the CAL. A. Kramer would like to come up with the letter first and then work on the CAL. That would put everyone on notice. L. Hebert thinks the Town needs to get its act together before the letter goes out. May require a public hearing. L. Hebert stressed how the Town needs to do something. R. Graham asked A. Kramer about the salvage yard exemptions. One of the exemptions is if the owner is a collector. The other deals with businesses, auto repair places. L. Hebert concurred that this is the route to take at this time.
R. Graham was discussing this with the committee about what is going to be done with the Diamond Reo fire engine. He is requesting that the funds from the sale be used for the parade. Advertise for two or three weeks for sealed bids. A minimum bid of $1,500 to $2,000. to cover the cost of the new tires on it. Accept bids until the meeting in June. A. Stone and F. Covey agree, a consensus was objected by C. Peloquin. So R. Graham motioned to advertise Diamond Reo with a minimum bid of $1,500, respond by sealed bids no later than June 3rd, proceeds to go to the parade, F. covey second, and the motion passed by voice vote 4-0.
G. Earls brought up the report on bridge inspections needs to be signed.
VISITOR’S COMMENTS:
Peloquin brought up that he would like to discuss an email he received from Town hall and would like to discuss it in an Executive session. L. Hebert did not want to have an Executive session. A. Stone didn’t want to discuss it at all. C. Peloquin asked again to discuss this and said he had three minutes at least. L. Hebert gave him to go ahead to speak. C. Peloquin asked if the Board members had read the email. All had except F. Covey. He felt that is was his democratic right to submit questions to the Town hall. A. Stone replied that democracy is this Board that has been elected by a majority of people, Mr. Peloquin isn’t a majority. L. Hebert encouraged Mr. Peloquin to get to the point. C. Peloquin said he doesn’t think that the response he got to his email wasn’t positive. He doesn’t think that it’s OK for his questions regarding policy to be ignored by the Town hall. He feels people should be allowed to get a copy of the policies, and not be berated. L. Hebert said you get respect if you show respect. L. Hebert asked if he made his point because his three minutes were up. R. Graham said that he believes any citizen of the Town has a right to ask Town hall questions about public information. That people shouldn’t be treated with disrespect when they do. If they aren’t happy with the answers there are other avenues that they can pursue. He feels that as elected officials they have an obligation to answer questions to the best of their ability. He does think that part of the response in the email wasn’t necessary and improper. F. Covey did say that he thinks that C. Peloquin does have an ability to get under people’s skin. That sometimes you get a response like that from actions done in the past. He asked C. Peloquin if he had talked to this person on the phone. C. Peloquin said yes he has several times in the past. A. Stone said that this is his third term on the Board. He remains on the Board to keep C. Peloquin from coming back and causing turmoil. B. Cleaves said that the elected Board members have a responsibility to allow people to ask those questions, express their opinions and not be degraded when they do. He feels that for someone to ask questions about this large project when there is a bidding policy in place is understandable. Why was this contractor approved over others and not bided out. Questioning the bid policy is a fair question. G. Earls spoke up that he had given the Board four letters of reference the Board agreed, it’s getting done within budget. He said that in the two years that he has been Town Manager C. Peloquin had done his best to harass him and the previous Town Manager as well. L. Hebert reiterated that as soon as they start treating the Town Manager and the Board with respect then they will treat them the same.
K. Lott asked if the Town has an amount for the project. L. Hebert said that a fixed price has been submitted for this part of the job, $80,000. The total will come to $240,000. B. Cleaves asked what the rest of the money will go towards. L. Hebert said that some of B. Ashe’s land will be used to straighten out the curves in the road, flatten it out. B. Cleaves asked if the contractor will be doing that work. L. Hebert said no that the Town crew will be doing the work. B. Cleaves asked if L. Hebert will be doing any of the work. L. Hebert replied no. B. Cleaves said that when the Board has members involved, B. Ashe land, Hebert construction and the Town manager lives up the road it does raise concern. A. Stone told B. Cleaves to worry about his own job and not theirs. L. Hebert called to end the conversation. B. Cleaves replied that when three people from the Board are involved that is reason for concern that there might be some personal gain. F. Covey explained that B. Ashe is swapping land with Barre City for no monetary reimbursement. He wants to clarify that because he doesn’t want to have any reason to doubt the Boards integrity. G. Earls replied that this project started when the State scraped the Route 64 project. The other main road into town is the Falls Bridge Road. The grant was submitted over a year ago to get $190K for class II roadway.
AROUND THE TABLE:
Francis: Nothing at this time
Rodney: Nothing at this time
Art: Nothing at this time.
Larry:
L. Hebert met with Rachael’s Garden committee and discussed the land next to the road from the site; he will volunteer his time and equipment to do the excavation that needs to be done. G. Earls asked if he needed the Town truck to haul away any debris. L. Hebert said there would be tree trunks and dirt. He will start in the next couple of weeks. He asked if the Board would approve all said that it would be a good idea.
Motion to adjourn the Selectboard meeting by L. Hebert at 8:20 pm, F. Covey second and motion passed by voice vote 4-0.
Selectboard approved minutes May 16, 2011.