TOWN OF WILLIAMSTOWN

Select Board Meeting Minutes

February 4, 2008

7:00 PM

Williamstown High School Library

Present: Francis Covey-Chair, Chris Peloquin, Stan Corneille, Art Stone, Morris Lasell

Town Manager - Ed Magee

Visitors: Arthur Kramer, John McIntyre - Williamstown Post Master, Michael Laverdiere- U.S. Postal Service, Todd Skulnik- U.S. Postal Service, Al Day, Larry Hebert, Yvan LeBlanc, David Traczyk, Nancy Edson, Steve Mckenzie- DuBois & King, Chuck Goodling- DuBois & King, Robert Erickson

Selectboard Meeting:

At 7 p.m. Francis Covey called the Selectboard meeting to order.

Announcements: Larry Hebert said he spoke to Michael Evens from DOT about the bridge project. He said the project is still on schedule and will be going out for bids early April.

Welcome to Visitors and Comments: Al Day passed out information to the Board for review about the Mason's Lodge and the tax exempt they are asking for. Al will be put on the February 18th agenda.

Review and Approval of Warrants:The Board reviewed the payroll warrants of January 19. 2007 and January 26, 2007. A discussion followed as the payroll Warrant of January 26, 2007 contained some errors. Chris said he would be in favor of approving the January 19th warrant and postponing the January 26th warrant till the next meeting. Fran asked to entertain a motion to approve the January 19th payroll warrant. So moved by Chris. Seconded by Art. No discussion followed and the motion passed by voice vote 5-0.

Fran asked to entertain a motion as to Payroll Warrant of January 26, 2008. Chris moved to postpone this warrant till the following meeting. Morris seconded. He said in support of the motion that we will be approving corrected check figures, basically that is all we are doing. The motion passed by voice vote 4-1.

The Board reviewed the A/P Warrant # 1 for February 4, 2008. Chris made the motion to approve the check Warrant # 1. Seconded by Morris. Chris said he would not be supporting this warrant because information for the Dubois & King bill was not included to explain the charges. Stan as Project Manager said he would supply this information when a bill was on a warrant. Board passed the motion by a voice vote of 4-1.

Approval of Minutes:

Chris made a motion to approve the minutes of January 21, 2008. Seconded by Morris. The minutes were approved with corrections. Visitors: page 1-Steve Spano corrected to Mike Sprano. Around the Table: page 3- Chris - last line, add sewer before the word violations The motion passed by voice vote 5-0.

Managers Report: Dog Violation: We have a violation action in process involving a complaint in the area of Amanicki Trail. A verbal warning and a written warning has taken place, an affidavit has been received, and a warning letter from the Town Hall will be going out next week.

Naming of Stream: A request from Robert Boyce to have the Board consider naming the unnamed brook running from Rood Pond Road to the Gulf House on Route 14 "Cascade Brook".

Around The Table: The Meadow Street pot holes were filled on January 11th. The Ferno Road stop sign is a State sign - they have been contacted. Davey's Tree Service has been contacted regarding dumping at the Town garage.

Visitor's Comments: Included in your packet is information on desk signs, as there have been requests to have name plates for the Selectmen at meetings. It was decided to wait until after the Town Meeting on this.

VLCT Insurance: We have received a Loss Control letter from VLCT requiring a response. The level of violation is a class "A" - a condition we feel could be a direct cause of an accident and has the possibility of happening". It is inadequate sanding and salting of the town hall parking lot.

Certificate of Highway Mileage: Annual report to State due 2/10. Changes include reclassification of Ferno Road Legal Trail to Class IV, and adding Soucy Lane as Class III. The addition of Soucy Lane also requires the Certificate of Completion and Opening of a Highway for Public Travel form.

Truck 5: Art Stone has received parts for the transmission in truck #5 and is in the process of putting it back together. We remain one truck short, and this has created some delay in sanding and snow plowing our roads.

Executive Session: Personnel: Town Manger's response to Selectboard member's allegations.

Unfinished Business: Steve Mckenzie gave the Board a memo and purpose for the Board's concurrence a direction for resolution/closure. On Brush Hill 2" PRV Value Operation will be replaced with a 3" Pilot Activated Value at not cost to the Town. The Contrec Totalizer/Rate Indicator has two functions and only one is functioning satisfactorily, they will refund to the Town half the value of the Contrec Unit. Morris made the motion to accept his offer of $285 half the cost because it can't register the low water flow. Chris Seconded. After a discussion the motion passed by voice vote 5-0.

NEW BUSINESS: U.S. Post Office, Michael Laverdiere who works for the postal service introduced to the Board John McIntyre, Williamstown Post Master, and Tom Skulnik from Public Affairs and Communications office in Manchester, NH. Michael came to let the Selectboard know they have identified a need for a bigger post office. They have a process to go through.First to brief the Town and the Selectboard for need of space. After briefing you and answering any comments you have we will make a decision, no sooner than 15 days from tonight as to whether we will consider expanding in the existing building where we are now or relocating to a new facility. The first thing we look at is expansion according to our regulations, if that doesn't work then we would consider relocating to an existing building in Town as a second alternative. The last alternative would be new construction of a building to meet our needs. And by regulation these are the steps we need to follow. After tonight there would be a 15 day time period where we would receive suggestions and comments from the Town, Selectmen and Town residents. Then notify you in writing of our decision to either pursue an expansion of the exiting place or relocate. Once we send you that letter there is a 30 day time period where we would consider comments or even suggestions that we reconsider our decision to expand or relocate. After that 30 day time period if that decision is to relocate, we then we have a public ad asking for proposals to lease us space to accommodate our needs, this will be a leased building, we would not own it. We would be looking for proposals from private individuals and public entities if they want to lease us space in a new building to accommodate the postal service for the community. Once they go through that public solicitation we will again notify the Town of all proposals we receive and give you the opportunity to submit comments as to suggestions and concerns about any proposal. Again 30 day comment period, once that time period is over we would again notify the Selectmen of our final decision is for locating the new facility. This gives the Town plenty of time to offer comments and suggestions.

Art Kramer - Planning Commission, Grant Seminar: Art shared information from the seminar he attended about applying for grants.

Around the Table:

Chris: Chris said with a truck down he thought there has been a good job of maintaining the roads, we have had a lot if ice lately. A thank you to one of the road department's members for giving a few shovels full of sand to a car that was off the road. It made all the difference in the world to that car getting out.

Francis: Nothing to report

Stan: Nothing to report

Art: Art said he is doing his best to get the truck back on the road. With Art fixing the truck the cost will be much lower then if it was sent out. .

Morris: Morris reported that the grant application for 21st Century Community Learning Centers Grant application has been signed and mailed.

Visitor's Comments:

Al: Al asked about the poles on Graniteville Road. Ed said Alan Chouinard met with Verizon about the middle of last week on Graniteville Road to give them indications of where sewer and water lines were. Verizon said they would be getting on it shortly. Art Stone said we talked about it once before about the weight limit on Graniteville Road before we did the new black topping. Someone paid an almost $14,000 fine traveling in Barre Town last week. He weighted a hundred sixteen thousand pounds on a 24 thousand pound road. We really need to enforce through traffic going up through there with that kind of weight. Chris asked if we could find out if the Sheriff's department has portable scales. Barre Town P.D. does their own weighting. They carry portable scales in their trunks.

Morris said the Sheriff that's been working here in town has parked his car in the travel portion of the road, on a hill, near an intersection to check people as they went by on another road. People complained about that, down the hill here was the Sheriff's cruiser parked on their side of the road. With slippery going and if someone was coming up and they had to stop, they could have rear ended the Sheriff's car. It doesn't make sense for them to park on the travel part of the road. Chris said he wondered if we don't allow them some access to the roads, especially this time of the year, are they going to be able to do any checking up in your area and my area, places like that. Morris thought they could find someplace to park off the travel part and he thought they might ask the Town Manger to have the road crew plow an area for them to park.

Art Kramer asked for clarification, on the last meeting minutes it was mentioned and it was changed to sewer violations and then to be discussed in Executive Session. Fran said that is correct. Art asked what about sewer violations that require it to be discussed in Executive Session out of the public. Fran said it was legal action. Art said regarding the open meeting law, there is about a dozen ways to go into Executive Session. But a sewer violation is not one of them. If it is a legal issue then it is legal.

Fran entertained a motion to go into Executive Session at 9:15 p.m. Chris moved to adjourn this portion of the Board meeting to take a brief recess and go into Executive Session to deal with a personnel issue. Art Seconded. Motion passed by voice vote 5-0.

Respectfully submitted,

Patricia Rumph

February 4, 2008

Executive Session

The Selectboard entered into Executive Session at 9:22 PM.

Personnel issues were discussed. No decisions were made.

Executive Session was adjourned at 10:24 PM.

Submitted by Ed Magee, Town Manager