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TOWN OF WILLIAMSTOWN Board of Water/Sewer Commissioners September 6, 2011
Visitors – Horace Duke, John Perkins, Bob Cleaves, Chris Peloquin, Ivan LeBlanc, Debbie Martin, Wally Roberts, Iva Lazuloua, Kathleen Lott, Ed Farnham, Earl Everhart Water/Sewer
Commissioners
L. Hebert called to order the Water/Sewer meeting at 7:00p.m. F. Covey motioned to start, R. Graham, second, all passed by voice vote 5-0.
Mr. Day didn’t show for the meeting. R. Graham made a motion to exit the Water/Sewer meeting, F. Covey second. Motion passed by voice vote 5-0. SELECTBOARD MEETING L. Hebert called to order the Selectboard meeting at 7:05pm.Announcements: L. Hebert discussed the situation during the flood of Irene. Flyers were handed out to people living in the low landed areas. The alarm was sounded and he said about 16 people came up to the school. He thanked Rick Delphia, Mrs. & Mr. Pierce, Jeff Davidson, and some others for their efforts to help those in need. B. Ashe said that people were fore warned and how people were shocked that Vermont was affected so hard by the storm. Planning beforehand proved very helpful. The culverts that were repaired held up well and the wall on Brockway Hill held back a lot of water. L. Hebert said the Town was better prepared than in the past and the Town is learning what is needed from each episode. The Fire Department did a great job, helping with pumping water. The Highway department was there and he thanked Mr. Bottiggi for opening up his restaurant and providing food. Falls Bridge road project is now finished; he thanked several people for their efforts. Visitor’s Comments: (maximum of 3 minutes per person, per topic) C. Peloquin said it would be a good idea to send out a written thank you to the people responsible for help during the storm. B. Ashe and L. Hebert agreed. Review & Approval:
R. Graham made a motion to approve payroll 7-31 to 8-13, 8-14 to 8/27, and SB117. F. Covey second. R. Graham asked about the Lowell McCloud invoice. E. Farnham explained that there was a piece on the frame that was broken. B. Ashe asked about the Sheldon Truck repairs on truck #4. E. Farnham said that these were parts for the repair. The Tibbits invoice was questioned; E. Farnham said that it was for the roller used on Falls Bridge road. The other invoice that was explained was Vermont Recreational Surfacing which was for guardrails. Motion passed by voice vote 5-0. B. Ashe made a request for a motion to approve SB 116, Hebert Excavation, R. Graham motioned to approve, F. Covey second. R. Graham asked if this invoice was for the full amount; L. Hebert said yes. B. Ashe asked if J. Higgins had any additional information about the agreed amount for L. Hebert’s work on Falls Bridge road. She reviewed the minutes and the DVD from August 1st and there wasn’t a set amount or a contract. R. Graham did remember it was discussed. J. Higgins did call G. Earls and he said that he did meet at the location to discuss what work was needed. G. Earls, L. Hebert and E. Farnham had met and an amount was discussed of not to exceed $50,000. E. Farnham was at that meeting and did agree it would be better to contract the work out. C. Peloquin said that at the 8/15 meeting the invoice was presented without any description of the work done. A verbal agreement was agreed to for an amount of $45K and with the current invoice it goes over that amount. He requested that the Board doesn’t make this a precedence of having verbal agreements, and invoice’s without detail be approved. B. Ashe said that none of the invoice lists have a detailed description. A policy was written in June, based on what the VT League of Cities and Towns suggested. He would like to give the Town Manager time to review these policies. When a project is approved it has a dollar figure and within that figure individual decisions come up that may alter that figure. C. Peloquin said there should be a better description of any contracted work. B. Ashe agreed that the way a project is managed should be revisited. Ivan LeBlanc asked if extra amounts that came about were they or not approved by the Board. He trusts the Board and Town manager to get the projects done. He believes that the people elected did a good job getting these projects done, and to expect the Board to get criticized for paperwork is unreasonable. R. Graham was aware of what was going on and the extra costs involved. There was a spring discovered under the road that needed drainage so that wasn’t part of the $45K. A bulldozer had to be used to do the grading, that was extra. The Board was fully aware of what was going on and what the costs were going to be. It will not continue to be a pattern of the Board. Ivan said basically it will be a policy review. L. Hebert said he discussed the work for removing stumps, moving the ledge, banking up the blasters; it was going to be between 45K and 50K. J. Higgins said that the total for the Falls Bridge project now is $213K, plus the costs for the topcoat. F. Covey said that a retaining wall that had been damaged from the flood wasn’t figured in. B. Cleaves said that most of the invoices do come with detail. B. Ashe said that the information that the Board gets doesn’t have that detail. B. Cleaves believes that the Falls Bridge project is not within budget. He doesn’t believe the Board did a good job on this project, it should have been put out to bid, and the road hasn’t been straightened out. He said that he doesn’t believe the taxpayers got their money’s worth on this job. B. Ashe is calling an end to this discussion. Motion passed by voice vote 4-0.
R. Graham made a motion to approve August 15 minutes, F. Covey second. Motion passed by voice vote 4-0. B. Ashe abstained since he wasn’t at that meeting. J. Higgins said that there was a correction to the August 1st minutes. The corrected minutes were in the Board’s packet. R. Graham made a motion to reopen the minutes from August 1st, F. Covey second. F. Covey made a motion to reapprove and R. Graham second. Motion passed by voice vote 4-0. B. Ashe excused himself since he wasn’t there. Reports – Manager Report The gift card for Deborah Palmer was $200. from the Town and another $415. collected from the people in the Town. J. Higgins and Dubois and King were scheduled to meet on 9/1, but because of the Irene storm the meeting will be rescheduled soon. The landfill monitoring will continue until 2013. At that time the landfill will be reassessed and that will determine if it needs to be monitored on a yearly basis. She gave the Board a revised tax policy. Right now the mortgage companies aren’t notified when taxes are delinquent, only when there is a tax sale. She would like to contact the mortgage company sixty days after the taxes are delinquent. Also she would change the policy back to 12 months instead of 18 months to repay. This would keep it on schedule before the next tax bill is sent out. So they wouldn’t be six months behind but current. L. Hebert said that with the recession from a couple years ago the Town wanted to give people more time to pay. R. Graham agreed with both changes. J. Higgins is the tax collector for delinquent taxes in Tunbridge and the policy is 12 months there and it works well. L. Hebert thinks that back taxes need to be caught up. J. Higgins said that there are delinquent taxes as far back as 2006 with $234K in back taxes outstanding. R. Graham asked how long she worked for Tunbridge, she said 13 years. B. Cleaves said that with J. Higgins experience the Board would be prudent in accepting her advice. B. Ashe would like to clearly state that this supersedes the previous policy. So with people who are delinquent as of November 15th the new payment plan will be used. R. Graham made a motion to make the changes to the delinquent tax policy, B. Ashe second with the language added to clearly supersede the previous one. Motion passed by voice vote 5-0. The new policy will be in the Town report and a copy will be included with delinquent bills that are sent out. J. Higgins said the final paperwork had been submitted to FEMA and an amount that will be paid to the Town will be provided at the next meeting. The Chelsea road sign project paperwork has been sent to AOT. When the State receives the final invoice from L&D then they will reimburse the Town. She rode around with J. Perkins looking at the roads for some paving specifications. Garden Street needs to have the water work done first before paving. L. Hebert said that the road crossing needs to be done first so maybe hold off on that one until next year. R. Graham said that the Board only approves the work done in the Town’s ROW. F. Covey spoke to J. Perkins and discussed shimming instead of repaving. J. Perkins said that Mountain View Drive should not be ground up. Pike really likes that because of how it makes paving easier later and they make more money. Paving runs at $80.00 a ton and the Town can’t afford two and a half inches of pavement. J. Perkins volunteered to review the culverts and see which ones need repair. L. Hebert said that if it is done that all of them should be done, it would be foolish to fix the road and not do the culverts also. F. Covey said that this topic should be revisited after the culverts are done. E. Farnham gave his opinion to grind up the road and add some gravel would make the road last. L. Hebert asked how much is left in the paving reserve. J. Higgins said around $150K roughly. J. Perkins went over the bid outlining the roadwork that needs to be done. E. Farnham said that this is all cold patch roads. J. Perkins said that if it is done right it would last for eight years. A. Stone said that this has been let go for so long that he agrees with J. Perkins to put a good base first or it’s like putting a band aid on a cut that needs stiches. He believes that the Town at some point may have to borrow money to get the roads fixed. J. Perkins said that in the last six years the Town has paved upper Graniteville Rd., lower Graniteville Rd., Meadow Rd., Perry Rd., Adams Rd., Chelsea Rd., Brushhill Rd., Circle St. and Brockway Hill Road. If the Town keeps putting in $100K a year then the Town would be able to finish the rest of them. R. Graham said the Town has been putting in that kind of money to fix the roads, but there is no sense in paving when the roads need to be dug up for water & sewer repairs. L. Hebert said that McLean Rd. and Gilbert Rd. don’t have these issues and could be paved. F. Covey asked if Gilbert Rd. would be the same as McLean Rd to repair. E. Farnham said that Gilbert Rd. has some issues underneath. There was discussion about the different roads to fix. FEMA will be coming back to look at Robar Road. L. Hebert asked for a motion to decide which roads to fix, R. Graham motioned to fix Robar Rd., McLean Rd., Seaver Rd. patch, Cogswell St., and Graniteville Rd., F. Covey second. E. Farnham asked about the timeframe. J. Perkins said October 15th will be the deadline to have it finished. R. Graham added by October 15th to be the deadline, F. Covey second. E. Farnham said the culverts will be done. Motion passed by voice vote 5-0. B. Cleaves asked why this wasn’t on the agenda. J. Higgins put it under the manager’s report because she wasn’t sure if the specifications would be in by tonight’s meeting. Highway work done in the last two weeks was; resurfaced half of Martin Rd., resurfaced a section of Sugarhouse Rd., resurfaced a section of Chelsea Rd., fixed a culvert on Flint Rd. and a washout, grading was done on Martin, Steller and Hebert Rd. and finished work on Falls Bridge Rd. to get it open. Work to be done in the next two weeks are more grading, haul sand, repairs from Irene, fix shoulders, and a topcoat on Falls Bridge Rd. Rood Pond road is also getting repaired. Ivan and Chris said that the potholes are dangerous on this road. B. Ashe brought up the mediator Neal Rodar. The mediation process was to help with relationships that had deteriorated in the Town. After Mr. Rodar had conducted the interviews he told B. Ashe that an active mediation process wouldn’t be successful. That the relationships in the Town were not going to be willing to change. In order for this to work people needed to start fresh, so his recommendation wasn’t to continue with this process. Around this time the Assistant to the Town Manager resigned and then the Town Manager so with the resignations of these people the dynamics of the situation changed. B. Ashe apologized for the delay in relating this to the public. Unfinished Business
Basically this is a proposal to help the homeowners and businesses in the Town to obtain clean energy assistance. Introduced Iva Lazuloua, an intern from Bulgaria where they have a similar program. The way it works the SB elects the Town to become a district for energy projects and renewable energy. It is submitted to the voters for approval at the next Town meeting. Then the Town sets up a loan fund or by floating a bond. The homeowners apply for assistance from the loan fund for approved energy projects, or renewable energy. They pay back the loan thru an extra property assessment on their taxes. The rest of the Town isn’t responsible for the improvements. The State legislature passed a law in 2009 for this assistance within the State. Residents who don’t participate aren’t responsible for the costs. W. Roberts could do a survey in the Town to see who would participate. No sense in getting started without participation. If there is enough interest then it would be voted on. There are some costs associated with administering the loan. There is a process to approve the loan. You can set up a district with more than one Town, this would lower the overhead. R. Graham asked who would put up the pool of money. The Town would put up the money from a loan or a bond. Only the borrowers are responsible to pay it back. F. Covey said that a bond wouldn’t be worth the cost without participation. L. Hebert said that the average cost would be around $20K a home. W. Roberts can work up some figures, and the Town lawyer could review it. The Town pays nothing but the administration. B. Ashe, F. Covey and L. Hebert would like for W. Roberts to work something up for the Board to see. W. Roberts will provide a survey and meet with the energy committee to get further information.
The Board made a site visit to assess the work done on Young Road. R. Graham made a motion to initiate the process to reclassify the road. From Gilbert Rd. to Whitcomb’s property to Class 3. B. Ashe second. E. Farnham said a topcoat is needed. L. Hebert said the town had agreed to do this previously. C. Peloquin pointed out if the Board approves, then the Town is responsible for the future maintenance. J. Perkins brought up that it needs to be reported to the State. J. Higgins said she is aware of the process and will get it started. Motion passed by a voice vote 5-0. R. Graham thanked Mr. Duquette and the other Young road residents for getting the work done in a timely fashion. New Business:
She would like to be the person to call for help with large animal situations. She has the equipment to handle this. She is a member of Large Animal Technical Rescue (LATR). L. Hebert asked how much would she want for compensation. She volunteered her services or the Town could absorb the costs. R. Graham said once a heifer had showed up on his property that had come all the way from Tunbridge. F. Covey said that two horses showed up at his property that came from Northfield. R. Graham said that he couldn’t think of anyone who could take care of this better than Debbie. L. Hebert asked if she would be the large animal coordinator. R. Graham made a motion to make D. Martin the large animal coordinator, F. Covey second. B. Ashe asked if the Town Manager could make it known to the Town’s residents. Motion passed by a voice vote 5-0.
L. Hebert said the issue is the retaining wall that was put in higher so the water runs over onto Mr. Beattie’s property. L. Hebert spoke with Pat Ross who is a stream engineer for the State. J. Higgins said she is waiting for a call back from Tom Anderson from the State’s office. R. Graham said that the State needs to be persuaded to take care of this since it is a State road, State ROW, and the State built the bridge. C. Peloquin asked that the property owner contact the district six representatives for this problem. It’s the State’s responsibility not the Towns, but the Town is intervening to try and get this addressed. B. Cleaves said that it wasn’t designed properly and the State needs to correct it. Visitor’s Comments C. Peloquin thanked J. Perkins for the road recommendations and for Wally Roberts for coming in. Around the Table: R. Graham read a memo to the Selectboard regarding the chain of command within the Town. He researched the VLCT Selectboard manual regarding this issue. He feels that the Town Manager should take action or refer the issue to the proper department head, or bring it to the Board. The Town Manager is running the Town. He wants to know if the Board wants to establish a formal chain of command. B. Cleaves said that Jackie is the sixth manager since he has been working for the Town. He doesn’t feel that she will be swayed or intimidated since she is fully knowledgeable about municipality functions. R. Graham said it isn’t his intention to go backwards but to suggest something better. F. Covey doesn’t agree that the Town Manager should be micro managed, and that is why the State has statutes. F. Covey brought up an issue that he has noticed and that there have been more robberies in the Town. When residents call the Sheriff’s department they need to get the case number to find out about any updates. J. Higgins talked to the Sheriff’s department about ideas and options to relate to the public. She said crimes have increased all over the State. Meetings should be scheduled to hold for residents to be informed. L. Hebert brought up flooding that occurred in Roxbury where trees have fallen into the streams causing erosion of the banks. The sewer station has some problems with trees down and gravel filling up the culvert. He said that culvert should be cleaned out somehow by the Town since FEMA won’t do anything about it. J. Higgins has received one bid for removal of the trees in the water way, she is expecting more. F. Covey said that back in 2007 the flood was called a 100 year flood, now with the current floods it’s hard to say what the weather is going to be like. R. Graham asked about the cost for this, he wants to have J. Higgins move ahead with this. F. Covey agreed. B. Ashe moved to go into executive session, F. Covey second. Motion passed by voice vote 5-0. Adjourn F. Covey made a motion to adjourn at 9:40pm, R. Graham second. Motion passed by voice vote 5-0. EXECUTIVE SESSION – LEGAL ISSUES At 9:45 R. Graham made a motion to enter Executive session for legal issues, F. Covey second. At 10:26pm R. Graham motioned to exit Executive session, F. Covey second. At 10:27pm R. Graham motioned to adjourn, F. Covey second. |