TOWN OF WILLIAMSTOWN Present: Francis Covey-Chair, Chris Peloquin, Stan Corneille, Art Stone Absent, Morris Lasell Town Manager – Ed Magee At 6:30 pm the Board of Water and Sewer Commissioners commenced. Water and Sewer Commission: Fran introduced the Board to the resident requesting abatement on his water and sewer bill. The Board reviewed the information for the request and a decision was made not to abate the bill. Chris made a motion establish a payment plan for $50.00 each month towards $1200.00 debt and abate zero for the next 24 months with no interest charges or penalties. Seconded by Stan. A discussion followed and Fran wanted the resident to know this was a one time deal. Chris said failure to uphold the agreement may bring the return of interest and penalties and they must keep current with new charges. Motion passed by voice vote 4-0. Fran announced to go out of the Water & Sewer Commission at 6:45 pm and resume at 7 pm with the Select Board Meeting. Present: Francis Covey-Chair, Chris Peloquin, Stan Corneille, Art Stone
Town Manager – Ed Magee Visitors: Nicholas White, Mike Spano, Rodney A. Elmer, Horace Duke, Jr., Russell Ashe, Wayne A. Emmons, Evan Hughes, Phil Winters, Donnel Dexter, Bill Ashe, Al Day, Gregg, Punchar, Larry Hebert, I. M. Stephenson, Becky Watson, Tom Bailey, Crystal & Lance Donald, Dabvid Traczyk, James A. Hepsley Jr., James J Saundars, Mike Covey, Mike Noury, Marybeth LaFevre, Scott LaFevre At 7 pm the Select Board meeting commenced. Announcements: Stan said the sidewalk project will not start this year. There are not
enough funds to complete it. Larry met with V-Trans to see if they could
help fund it. They had no funds to support us but suggested we apply for
a grant for next year. Stan said he anticipates starting next spring.
Welcome to Visitors and Comments: Phil Winters said he was attending the meeting because of the proposed shooting ordinance. Fran said he saw a lot of hunters attending the meeting and appreciated their concern. Approval of Warrants: The Board reviewed the payroll warrants of August 18, and August 25, 2007. A motion was made by Stan to approve the payroll warrants. Seconded by Chris. After a short discussion the motion passed by voice vote 5-0. The Board reviewed the A/P Warrant #41 for September 4, 2007. Chris made the motion to approval A/P Warrant #41. Seconded by Stan. A discussion followed. The motion was changed to approve the A/P Warrant #41 barring the amount to be paid to DuBois & King for the amount of $8410.00 till we have further clarification. Chris asked Ed to update why Steve Mckenzie from DuBois & King was not here today. Ed said Steve has not reached a determination causing the problem. He is reviewing some more tests and promised he will be at the next Board meeting. The motion passed by voice vote 5-0. Chris also said he had spoken to the Town Treasurer and he was misinformed about the last invoice for the Graniteville Upgrade was going to be paid from the general fund. He was told before the meeting it was to be paid from the general fund and that was incorrect. And that was why he questioned it at the last meeting. It did get paid from the water fund and this one will be paid from the water fund. Approval of Minutes: The minutes of the August 20, 2007 Board meeting were read. Chris made a motion to approve the minutes with corrections. Seconded by Stan. Motion passed by voice vote 5-0. Page 3 change- Unfinished Business: 1st paragraph, second last sentence should read. Stan was not in favor of throwing up the road. Fran felt that it should be a complete Board decision. Page 3 change- Unfinished Business 3 paragraph 1st sentence word pulled to rolled. The minutes from the August 13, 2007 Special Board meeting were read and a motion made by Stan to approve the minutes of September 13, Special Meeting. Seconded by Art. Motion passed by vote 3-0. Select Board members Chris Peloquin and Morris Lasell did not attend this meeting. Managers Report: Speed Limit Request: The Transportation committee is doing a speed study on Maloney road. Residents are complaining about speeders and the road is not posted. This will be on the next Agenda. Pirie Road waiting time is up and the signs are on order. Maloney Road Culvert: Kim Morrow has requested the road culvert that drains onto the middle of his property be moved. Ed requested the Board do a site visit and provide feedback. FEMA: Ed attended the mandatory meeting on August 23rd, and completed the necessary filing forms DAVY TREE SERVICE: They have started the tree cutting at Rachel’s Garden. Davy Tree Service will be trimming trees along our roadways beginning Monday. EXCAVATOR: The town excavator has been taken out of service for repairs OLD GARAGE DOORS: Only one of the old Teen Center garage doors is left. DUBOIS & KING: Steve Mckenzie has not yet settled on a solution to the water pressure problem. He will be put on the next agenda. Unfinished Business: Teen Center Marie Frohlich was not present nor was she expected. Chris has been talking with Jeff Poulin from the Youth Sports Association in Williamstown and they felt the Kids Care and After School program would be better suited for the space. Chris will contact them to see if they have any interest. The Teen Center usage will be tabled till the next Select Board meeting. Chris made the Board aware the reimbursement to Char Rouleau needs to be paid. Chris made a motion to reimbursement Char Rouleau $585.52 for supplies purchased for the Teen Center. Seconded by Art. Motion passed by voice vote 5-0. Seaver Road Encroachment: Mary Beth LaFevre told the Board she had no knowledge prior to building the wall and putting up the fence it was in the town’s Right-of-Way. The LaFevre’s would gladly move the wall back and be sure the fence will not be a visual issue. Chris feels Ed; the Town Manager is a liaison between the Board and the Town’s residents. Ed said he has no authority and would like guidelines from the Board before contacting other residents with encroachments. Morris wanted the residents to know they are liable for damages because of being in the Town’s right of way. Fran said the Board needed to go forward with the Land Use permits for the Board and the residents. Art wanted to be sure the Board was not targeting the LaFevres. Becky Watson- Winchester Road: Becky polled the Board if they agreed or did not agree to the Town’s policy of no work on a class 4 road. Fran agreed with the policy that the Town should not have to work on a class 4 road. Chris would agreed with the policy in most cases but where there is an incidence where the class 4 road is causing personal property damage, he thought the Town should make a change. Morris said some Towns do minimal maintenance on class 4 roads and he is not sure if they get state aid for it or not. If we change our policy to work on class 4 roads can we get state aid for it. Then Morris would be in favor of the Town doing minimal repair to class 4 roads. Becky asked if he disagrees with the current policy or agrees with the current policy. He said if we can’t get state funds then I don’t believe that the Town should spend money on them. Stan agreed with the current policy. Art didn’t agree with it he said the Town has a responsibility to all property owners that live on a class 4 road to grade the road once a year. Becky thanked the Board. Fran said his feelings on responsibility to all property owners is if you buy or build a house on a class 4 road in rough shape you know what shape it is in. Becky called Ernie Englehardt at Dist 6 to see if the state had a policy on class 4 roads to see if they had to be passable and they didn’t know of any. They said it was an act of God the water overflowing its banks and washing away Winchester Road. Fran said in the 1960’s they stopped plowing class 3 roads. Becky asked what responsibility of ownership from the Town. Fran said the Board has an option to work on class 4 roads but you are requesting payment for the road as the work is already done. Morris made a motion to table this for the time being and give it a lot of thought how to protect private property damage from Town roads. Seconded by Chris. No discussion. Motion passed by voice vote 4-0. Stan abstained. Steve (Irvin) Stephenson – Flood Damage Steve told the Board his damage list was not complete yet. The culvert has been flushed out and why did they use the fire truck and not the hydrant. Ed said he thought the decision was made by the Fire Department. Fran said three balls were in the culvert and it needs a grate to cover the entrance. He had a concern about children falling in it. Steve said he will be back. Shooting Range Ordinance: Fran said two proposed shooting range ordinances have been brought forth to the Board. Michael Covey read a petition against the shooting range ordinances and understood that it was the wrong time for it but wanted the Board to know that it would be fought against. The petition had about 100-130 signatures on it. Chris said it is his belief the intent of the Selectboard is to protect the children of the schools because of what is being proposed. What has been told to us in the past and what has been told to us more recently is what the City of Barre would like to do. We are certainly not trying to take away rights from private individuals. Stan said at the last Board meeting there were two proposals. One for regulation with stringent criteria and the second one for prohibiting shooting ranges. Many residents who attended the meeting expressed their views on the ordinances. Fran said there is no finality to either one of these drafts. Chris said he has in the past meet with the Barre City Town Manger and the Mayor and it was not their intent for this to be solely for them but were looking to open, not for Williamstown Residents, for commercial purposes for any and all police and sheriff departments that wanted to come by and use it. We don’t know their intent this time around. Larry said the Board may want to look at the Town Plan in that area. Morris moved to ask the Planning commission to try to come up with wording to change the Town Plan to basically effect shooting ranges be in safe locations. Seconded by Chris. The Vermont Federation of Sportsmen representatives said a safe range could be planned following NRA guidelines. They would be glad to go to Barre and work with them. These were just drafts to get started on this issue. Larry suggested going to the Town Plan. Chris said the concern is the use the range would have. It would be open for commercial use and very active. Fran said there is no finality with either drafts. Stan said to lay aside the ordinance and bring it to the Planning Commission meeting on the 12th. A discussion followed and Fran said the motion needed to be clarified. Morris moved to ask the Planning Commission to try and come up with a Town Plan to make sure that shooting ranges if it does happen is safe and won’t cause problems to the school or residents and to table the ordinances until we have a chance to see what the Planning Commission can come up with. Seconded buy Chris. Motion passed by voice vote 5-0. Water Ordinance: The Board reviewed the Water Ordinance. Stan made the motion to approve the Water Ordnance as we wrote it and to accept the State’s comments. Seconded by Morris. A discussion followed. Chris said that the map shown, as he stated before, there are locations in that map the municipal water system could not supply. For that reason he will not support this water ordinance. Stan said we could supply water to all the residents outlined on the map. It only included two extra properties from the current map. Motion passed by voice vote 4-0. Chris abstained. New Business: Road Drainage Weir Road: Ray and Tara Pecor did not attend and the Board tabled the meeting to the next Board meeting Sept 17th. The Board discussed information on the problem before the next meeting. Tara has been in touch with Ed and says this is a 10 year problem with water running down the road onto their property. Ed said they have crowned the road and cut along it so the water can drain. The problem is the house sits lower than the road. Art went there and checked the road and said it was done very well but the house does sit below the road. Chris said maybe a ditch or swale to divert the water to a different part of the property. Set Tax Rate: The Town’s Listers gave the Board the tax rate for this year. The rate for residential is 1.8519 and non-residential is 2.0272. Chris moved that we approve the taxes put forth to us. Seconded by Morris. Motion passed by voice vote 5-0 Chris made a motion to accept as presented the corrections to the grand list. Stan Seconded. After a discussion the Motion passed by voice vote 5-0 Larry Hebert- Flint Road Culvert Larry asked the Board to approval his request to install a new driveway and culvert to relocate access to his property. Chris made a motion to allow the culvert to be installed as in the plan. Seconded by Morris. Motion passed by voice vote 5-0 Around the Table: Francis: nothing to report. Stan: nothing to report Chris: Chris asked Ed if he notified Velco about Baptist Street. Ed said he spoke to the person who issued the bond and he has not seen it or was aware of it. Ed was at the Transportation Committee on Monday night and they are going to get a straight edge and take pictures so we can see exactly what we are looking at. Chris said on South Hill the new culvert was put in at 90 degrees to the ditch as opposed to an angle. Larry said it was replaced as it was before. Chris said that ditch doesn’t get any erosion protections. Chris said he heard from a resident about some leads for grants for that. Chris asked if anyone has shown interest in the vacancies for the Planning Commission and the Economic Development Committee. Ed said no one has and he has a letter of resignation from another member of the Planning Committee. He will bring it to the next Board meeting. Chris mentioned one of the flaggers hired for the summer was pressure washing the Town Hall on Sunday. He felt it was an unsafe situation. Chris noticed the clean up at Rachel’s Garden. Ed said Al Day has been going in and cleaning up after Davey Tree Service has cut trees. Chris mentioned he had a visit from a resident about Pleasant St. edges. It hasn’t been graded out since the storm and the edges are very narrow and a large amount of dust. Ed said we need to double the amount of our budget for chloride for next year. Morris: Morris is concern of the use of the rock grader and the job of getting rid of berms. Art: He has contacted Dist 6 with both his concerns, corner banks and tree trimming. They have cut the trees and are suppose to call back but have not yet. Next week he will try to get hold of them again. VISITOR’S COMMENTS: Larry asked if any complaints about Soucy Lane. It’s been two years since we took over maintenance. Morris said we agreed to maintain it for a trial period for 2 years and at satisfactory acceptance at after that time we would take it over Chris said this needs to be on the next Agenda. Horace asked the Board if they had a policy for yearly reviews the Town’s fees. Fran said they do not but something they need to look into. Tom would like to see the grader on Flint Street. Rood Pond and Stone Roads are pretty embarrassing too. A Motion made by Morris and seconded by Chris to adjourn the Select Board meeting at 10:55 p.m. Motion passed by voice vote 5-0. Respectfully submitted, Patricia Rumph
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