WILLIAMSTOWN SELECTBOARD MEETING

Williamstown Middle/High School Library

February 7, 2011

Hearing - TEFRA - Monday 6:30 pm

Selectboard Meeting - 7 pm

MINUTES

PRESENT: Larry Hebert - Chair, Rodney Graham - Vice Chair, Francis Covey, Art Stone

Absent: Bill Ashe

Town Manager: Garrett Earls

VISITORS: Horace Duke Jr., Mike Sprano, Arthur Kramer, Kathleen Lott- The Northfield News, Stephen M. Wasserman, Richard Dybvig, Mary Norman, Nancy Lindsey, Marlene Hazen Goston, Terry Knight, Will Knight, John Perkins, David Delcor -The times Argus

Larry called the public hearing to order:

Hearing - TERFA

Public Input: Richard Dybvig built Williamstown Square 32 years ago in 1978. It is a Section 8 Project; Hud and VSHA have a contract for all the units there except one. Residents pay 30% of their income and Hud makes up the balance of the rent. After 30 years Richard and his business partner decided to sell the properties they own. An investment group from Georgia showed interest and they have a signed purchase agreement. They are grouping several projects in Vermont together to create a large enough total purchase so they could sell public bonds. One key element is they are a non profit 501C3 which means that this is income tax deductible from the federal standpoint. Someone buying the bonds does not pay taxes on the bonds, that brings in cheaper financing. The feds call for a TERFA hearing which is an announcement to the public and the governing authority to hear opinions on this sale. Then asking the Selectboard for approval if they find in their judgment appropriate for Williamstown. This is no connection to the Town, no liability, no indebtness, no obligation, this is totally a stand alone ownership as it been for the last thirty years. Questions and comments from the Selectboard and those present followed. Rodney made the motion to approve the resolution and authorize Larry to sign in the witness of the Town Clerk. Second by Francis and the motion passed by a vote of 4-0. Residents from Williamstown Square thanked the Selectboard for signing and as they felt very safe now for housing.

SELECTBOARD MEETING

Larry at 7 pm welcomed everyone to the February 7th Williamstown Selectboard meeting.

Announcements:

Larry asked for an Executive Session for a Personnel issue after the regular Selectboard meeting,

The second public hearing for the Charter change will be February 21st at the next meeting right here. From the last meeting Larry, Garrett and Arthur Kramer went back to the attorneys and they streamlined the proposed charter, copies can be had at the Town Hall.

Larry announced there will be some changes at the Town Clerk's office. The current Town Clerk will be taking time off. Barbara Graham, her assistant agreed to extended hours to cover the office so it will be open Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday the normal hours from 8 - 4:30 pm. Closed on Wednesday, Friday 8 to 2 pm till Debbie can return. On behalf of the Board and Town our prayers and thoughts are with Debbie.

Visitor's Comments:

Arthur Kramer reported on the Fullard's situation concerning the salvage yard. Her son was not there but Mrs. Fullard invited him onto the property, they walked around the yard and he saw no discoloration in the snow to indicate anything else. They went into the garage in it was a snow machine and tons of mechanic tools and just stuff. He saw no fluids on the ground, spill marks or containers of fluids. He did not asked any question of how materials were dealt with since the son was not present. Garrett has not received the plan from them for the removal of the cars and fluids. Garrett will follow up with a letter.

Review and Approval of Warrants:

Francis moved the check warrant report SB83 and the payroll warrant week of 1/2/2011 thru 1/15/2011. Seconded by Art and after a discussion the motion passed by voice vote 4-0.

Garrett explained the next warrant to pay VSP, Vision Plan. The amount is for two months, this is an elective program for the employees, the town does not pay anything into it. As you know we pulled out of VLCT heath trust for economic reasons and stayed with the vision and the dental. The vision program VLCT switched to did not have any providers near this area. So we were able to work with the actual insurance carrier VSP but because we are a two to nine member plan we have to pay this bill on line. To do this we need to have the account and routing number which the Treasurer for the last weeks has not provided. Pay Data deducts the employee's contribution for this plan. We are asking to allow us to pay this online using the Pay Data account. Pay Data will not pay it. Francis made the motion to allow this process paying VSP online and second by Art. A discussion followed and the motion passed by voice vote of 4-0.

Approval of Minutes:

Rodney made the motion to approve the minutes of January 17th and Hearing as well as the Selectboard meeting. Second by Francis. After a correction the motion passed by voice vote 4-0.

Manager's Report:

It's the time of the year to turn in the highway mileage of the town to the state and it requires the Selectboard to sign. Garrett prepared the report.
We have two Planning Commission openings. They will be posted around town and on the web page. It's time to start thinking about the July parade. We do not have a place as in the past. Could it be discussed at the next meeting. Rodney was planning to bring this up later but he liked to propose an idea of skipping the Memorial Day parade and combining the parade with the Fire Departments 100th Anniversary sometime later in summer. He will speak with one of the Fire Department Officers to see if there is any interest working with the Fire Department to try and map out some ideas. Francis reminded we still would be looking for a location. Some suggestions were to hold it at the school. Garrett reported Unifirst does have a contract to demolish their building.

Unfinished Business:
None at this time:

New Business:

Creation of Fund - Samantha Avery & Alicia Rominger Alicia Rominger a social studies teacher at Williamstown Middle/High School handed out information that Samantha will be talking about. Samantha Avery started thinking about this because the school celebrates Peace Day. We are trying to have peace one day through out the whole world. She took that and wanted to spread it further by bringing it into our community and then the town. She wanted to start a group called the IMPACT group which stands for Inspire, Motivate, Positive, Action (with) Community Trust. It is basically a support fund to assist Williamstown residence through temporary crisis. Some of the goals are to encourage community involvement, provide assistance, build trust and interest and raising money. Ms. Rominger explained why they were asking the Board, there are a lot of different factions in town and not a center so this seemed like it would be a nice way to bring a lot of groups together for a common cause. To have funds available for people with short term emergencies. There are some considerations of who would actually make the decision, what the qualifications would be, confidentially and who would need your support to investigate and report back to you. By consensus the Board agreed this is a good idea and gave some suggestions of people to talk to. They will report back to the Board in a few weeks of their progress.

Simon Operation Service - Contract:
Garrett presented the Simon's contract which expires June 30th, we need to make a decision by April 1st. He would like to set up a date to meet with Mark Simon and negotiate the contract. Larry had mentioned the $5,000 allocation fund and Garrett explained that was something they have with other towns because not many other towns will purchase the items that come up. We have not spent any of that allocation funds this year. It is not necessary in their contract. Larry said one thing on page 6, the CPI index; they have a minimum 3% increase every year. He would not like to have that minimum amount in there any more. Another thing they do beside operating the water & waste water plants is a lot of paper work regarding rules and regulations. Rodney asked if we thought of operating it on our own. If you hire someone they would not do both, operate and paper work. Larry said if you do hire someone they would need a truck, chemicals, etc., he did not think you would be saving. You also need backup for that person for illness and vacations. Someone is going to send a letter of interest for their services to operate the sewer plant. Garrett said not against anyone else out there but he has a value of Simons as his experience has been very positive. They help us save $30 -40,000 putting in that aeration system. Another advantage is having Allen Chouinard who is employed by Simons living in town and assigned to Williamstown. Rodney asked what if we authorize Larry and Garrett to negotiate the two items of concern and report back at the next Board meeting. Francis thought to stay with Simons because of there performance and security in their performance. Art felt the same as Simons has taken care of the Towns systems properly. He did not like putting things out to bid, you go with the cheapest and don't know what you're going to get. The Board will discuss Simon's contract and the letter of interest of the other interested party at the next meeting.

Fire Department Policy:
Larry, Garrett, Ed Eaton- Fire Chief, Ted Nickel -Captain, Bill Ashe, and William Graham - Fire Fighter meet as a committee to review the current fire department policies. Changes were made to bring it up to date. After a discussion other changes were made. It will go back to the committee members for review and comments then back to the Board for approval. When signed by the Board the fire fighters will receive a copy with an acknowledgement page to be kept in their files.

Visitor's Comments:
Mike Sprano asked if the Fire Department Policy has been put through the Policy Committee. It was explained it was a separate committee appointed a few weeks ago. It was not the Financial Policy Committee that Mike was on. It was comprised of two Selectboard members, the Town Manager and the balance of fire fighters. It was specific to the fire department. Two Board members were on the committee so it did not need to be warned.

Horace Duke asked since the Unifirst building is going to be demolished in a few weeks he had a comment: he hoped they are going to do something to make sure they are not going to scatter dust all over the countryside. Garrett said they can't because they have to do asbestos abatement first and that will involve water and the concrete demolishment looks like if there is any dust coming off the site he will have to go up there. They can't do that. The company involved is Catamount Environmental.

Around the Table:
Francis: asked about the guard rail on Graniteville Road, it is a hazard the way it is. Could it be pulled back so it is not at such a sharp angle. Garrett will look into it.
In the Board packet is a letter from Richard and Maggie Sample, it was really nice of them to send us a letter mentioning the sidewalk project; recovering of the sidewalk and it made it pleasant to get around. Also in the letter they brought up we still have got that sidewalk yet to be put in going up to the schools. He appreciated members of the community showing appreciation. Their has been a lot of Selectboard's working on that sidewalk project, Stan Corneille especially. It's good to hear.

Rodney: Just wanted to finish up with what Francis was saying, he has had a lot of comments of the lighting on the sidewalks and questioned if and when we can get lighting on the other side of the town. Garrett said to be honest we could never afford those lights up there. We are in the process of doing an inventory of the 109 lights we have around town in hopes that a grant comes available to get the cobra heads changed to LED lighting. They will not be nice ornamentals he would like to see.
Last week on February 2nd in the heavy snow storm he had a header across one of his barns broke and the roof started to collapse. He was able to get the cattle out and called 911. A vast majority of the fire department showed up with roof rakes, ladders, shovels and neighbors with friends. We were able to get the roof shoveled off , the header fixed, the roof fixed and back in operation. Rodney wanted to commend the Williamstown Fire Department; they came about 9am and worked through 3 pm non stop. He really appreciates all the work and effort they gave him. He did think Williamstown has a high quality emergency service organization in this town.

Art:
He had a few words for our resident sign maker. There was something on the sign of someone who should be ashamed of running for the Selectboard again when he had not made half the meetings. Art had no problem with that. He wished the next time he makes these remarks he put Art's name at the top so someone else will not be blamed what he is suggesting. Art spelled his name out for the resident and told him to keep up the good work. Rodney added there are a lot of people that have a lot of negative comments about the town and the town leadership, but he doesn't see any new names on the ballot for Town Meeting. Guess we are not doing such a bad job.

Larry:
Woodchuck didn't see his shadow so it's suppose to be an early spring.
Tonight he was contacted by a resident on McCarthy Road about vehicles going way too fast, speeding. We are hearing a lot of complaints about this outside and around the village. The sheriff's spend a lot of time near the Pump N Pantry and the Moose Club. Maybe they should spend a little time on the back roads for awhile. Garrett said he has called the sheriff's office about this problem.

Rodney made the motion to enter Executive Session after a brief recess for personnel and second by Francis. No discussion and the motion passed by voice vote 4-0.

Selectman entered Executive Session at 8:50 pm and came out at 9:30 pm. Rodney recuse himself. Motion made by Francis and seconded by Art to pay the current Town clerk 75% of pay and increase the Assistant Clerk's pay to $400.00/ week for a period of 3 months at which time the Board will re-assess the situation. Motion passed by voice vote 3-0.

Motion made by Francis and second by Art to adjourn the Board of Selectman meeting at 9:37 pm.

Approved 2/21/2011

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