TOWN OF WILLIAMSTOWN PRESENT: Stan Corneille – Chair, Larry Hebert - Vice Chair, Art Stone, Chris Peloquin, Rodney Graham Town Manager: Garrett Earls
VISITORS: Kathleen Lott - Northfield News, Mike Sprano, Dave Delcor- The Times Argus, Tom Bailey, Horace Duke, Jr., Rama Schneider, Mariah Schneider, Becky Watson, Barbara Graham – Assistant Town Clerk, Earl Everhart, Irvin Stephenson, Harold York Selectboard Meeting Stan Corneille, Selectboard Chair opened the September 14, 2009 meeting of the Williamstown Selectboard at exactly 7 pm. ANNOUNCEMENTS: none VISITORS COMMENTS: Becky Watson representing Williamstown Historical Society is sponsoring a T-shirt logo design contest for a fund raiser. Deadline is by October 3rd and the winner will be announced at the end of the Williamstown Fall Festival. Becky made a general comment to, live and be part of a successful business in the Town and then sees public situations in the newspaper it distresses her greatly. She asked the Board members and the Town Manager to answer a question: why did you decide to run for Selectboard. Stan said Bernie Duff, who he had a great deal of respect for, got him interested in municipal government. He was not raised in Williamstown, but thought he might have a little different prospective as an outsider and could bring a little stability to the Board. Chris told he has lived in Williamstown his whole life and he thinks communities are built on people volunteering: either it’s this, school boards or youth coaching. This is my first attempt. Art decided to run for Selectboard Board because he lived in this Town since he was two years old, married a Williamstown girl and brought his family up here. He never was too involved in Town politics but like you he has seen many things in the paper that he disliked and decided to run for the Selectboard to help change some of that. He hoped he has made things a little better. Larry decided to run after urging from several people. He has a lot of knowledge in infrastructure and equipment through his business. All the years he has worked on the Regional Planning Commission, he has gained a lot of knowledge in that aspect of planning and looking ahead to the future. He has lived here all his life and knows no other place he would rather live. He hoped to contribute to keep the Town moving ahead and not become stagnant. Rodney has always lived in Town and served on the School Board. His father was a Selectmen and he saw that the Selectboard in the last few years has shifted towards running the Town as a private business versus a municipality in the government entity in his feelings. He feels they tired to run it more as a Town versus as running it as community. He would like us get back to a community and a lot of the stuff you have seen in the paper is more of results of us changing direction a little bit. We will ruffle a few feathers before we get there. He thought sometime people are scared of changed, like the sky is falling and it’s not, He wants to be part of the solution than part of the problem. Garrett said he was in management over twenty years and as you know he was interested in this position before. He raised his family here for fourteen years. He is here to try and make a difference in a positive way. Rama spoke to the Board that he is going to explained first what he was there for and what he was precisely not trying to claim. He was there to ask the Board to start the process to coming up with an ordinance dealing with conflict of interest. He was not there under any circumstances accusing anybody of doing anything illegal. The problem that arises for him from the public hearing that had to do with sidewalks and the fire station prior to the vote. The sidewalk presentation was fine, the problem came with the fire station, and Larry Hebert who owns the property that the Town was proposing to buy was sitting as a Board member giving the presentation. Rama thought that it was a conflict of interest that has the person who owns the property, no matter how good the intentions are and no matter how much some person understands more than another person, he thought it was a obvious conflict of interest. To have that person of interest sitting as a Selectboard member giving the presentation. He was not looking for a policy but an ordinance. Art commented the thing the whole Town is overlooking is that Stan was ill and Larry is the co-chairman so it fell upon him to make the presentation. It was his duty to fill in the chairman position and not Larry’s intention to mislead anyone. Regarding conflict of interest, Garrett did provide some samples of conflict of interest policies. As a Board they looked at them and decided they didn’t need a conflict of interest policy. We are of conflicts of interest and they felt they could be avoided. Larry said it was an informational meeting; it was not a promotional meeting. As far as the purchase of the land whether it be his land or someone else’s he had nothing to do with that, he had abstained from it. WARRANTS: Stan asked for a motion to approve five warrants SB13 to SB17. Art made the motion to accept them and second by Larry. After a discussion the motion passed by voice vote 5-0. MINUTES: Stan asked Art, Larry and Rodney for a motion to approve the minutes of August 17th as Stan and Chris were not in attendance. Rodney moved to approve the August 17th minutes and Art seconded. A correction was made and the motion passed by a vote of 3 in favor, 2 abstain. Manager’s Report: Right of Way Permit – Beverly Carminatti – An emergency on Friday and Garrett had to get the majority of the Board for a resident’s water line that broke under Bador Road. He wanted it noted in the minutes so he could have the permit signed. Larry thought in a case like that the manger should have the authority to proceed without having to chase us down. Garrett will bring an amendment to the next Selectboard meeting. Right Of Way Permit – Harold York – Mr. York requested from the Board a permit to replace old water lines under the road to his house. Chris motioned to grant the permit and Rodney second. Motion passed by vote of 5-0. Upper Winchester Bids – Out of five requests only 2 replied. One from Hebert Excavation for $2,400 and the second from Lewis Martin for $1,250.00. Lewis Martin will be starting the work this week. The State is providing the culvert and $500.00. Numerous Compliments on McGlynn Road from residents. The new Mack truck has arrived and has been put to work. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Review of Village View Heights Road – Request for Town to Take Over – Ray Duff has requested for the Town to take over his road. Years ago Mr. Duff put in the sewer lines and paved the roads. A letter from 2002 from Simon Operations indicated some deficiencies that needed to be corrected. Garrett was not sure if these deficiencies have been addressed and we need to verify have been repaired. We don’t want to take over a system that will end up costing the Town a lot of money. Garrett asked if the Board wanted him to write a letter to Mr. Duff to uncover the 5 manhole and valve box covers. Allen and/or Garrett will inspect them and report back to the Board. A motion on this will include in the reclassification of upper Flint Road. Cancellation of Purchase Sales Agreement – The Selectboard signed a Purchase and Lease Sales Agreement for the land purchase for the Fire Station. Larry would keep his property at Business Center Road off the market until we secured our stimulus funding or we were rejected. Rodney motioned to sign the cancellation agreement with Larry Hebert. Chris second. A discussion followed with Stan reading a letter from Earl Everhart which Earl had sent to the Northfield News. Stan wanted to comment on part of the letter; the Town did spend $11,000 of taxpayer’s money and it was spent to hire a civil engineer to do some required work in order to be shovel ready. We also spent some money on an architect to update the plans from 5-6 years ago. Garrett said we were co-permittee on that so it was specific to the Town. Rodney remembered he asked that question at that time and did those permits go with the land or the fire station. They reply was it was tied directly to the fire station. A suggestion from Chris was to form a committee to look to the future of the location and building with some future money as the current fire station needs some major repairs. Motion passed by a vote of 4 in favor, 1 abstain.
NEW BUSINESS: Reclassification of Upper Flint Road (between Cold Spring Road and the Poor Residence) Stan summarized that recently it was discovered a portion of Flint Road between Cold Spring Road and the Poor property is a Class IV Road and we have been treating it as a Class III Road. We have been plowing it, ditching it, and grading it. We could change the classification or just treat it as a Class IV road. Art made a motion to reclassify that portion of Upper Flint Road. Second by Larry. A discussion followed and Chris said in the past when we made changes we had exact measurements before reclassifying a road. Garrett said we propose to warn the three roads, Upper Flint., Village View, and the section of Ferno Road. It’s a 30 day notice to the petitioners and the Planning Commission. We can get the measurements of all three roads and include them in the Warning. Art withdraw his motion and Larry motioned to warn a public hearing to reclassify Village View Heights, the Upper end of Flint Road from Cold Spring Road to the Poor Residence and from the end of Ferno Road to Cold Spring Road on October 19th. Art second. Chris said the latter should have a contingency applied to it in that the work is completed. Larry added to the motion that all three places were to be brought up to specifications. Motion passed by voice vote 5-0. Selectboard Meeting on September 21st. Stan asked if the Board felt the need to meet a week from tonight, to have two meeting in September or can we put this off till October 5th. Chris motion to cancel the previous schedule September 21st Board meeting and revert back to our normal schedule. Second by Art and the Motion passed by voice vote 5-0. Petition & Order for Pole and Wire Locations – Brush Hill Chris said it is Henry Road and they call it the Brush Hill line. Chris motioned to grant the pole placement, maintenance, etc on Henry Road. Second by Rodney. Motion passed by a vote of 5-0. Deb Palmer – Town Clerk – Dog Violations Deb Palmer in a letter submitted dog violations and recommendations to the Board asking to authorize the Animal Control Officer to go & pick up these dogs that are not license or issue municipal ticket. Chris said he was sure the Statutes support a municipal ticket but does it support picking up the dogs. Chris said it seems that a municipal ticket would be first in order. Garrett said our Ordinance allows for progressive tickets. Chris made the motion that they authorize the animal control officer to begin the ticketing, assess the fee process that is clearly marked in our animal control policy and exercise the increase amounts at the scheduled dates. Second by Larry. Motion passed by a voice vote of 4 in favor, 1 abstained Board of Listers – Corrections & Omissions to the 2009-2010 Grand List. Rodney asked at the last meeting we raised the Grand List $222,000. from an error from Pike Industries. It indicates this new calculation they are trying to include that increase a second time. Chris explained in the past the Board of Listers have provided a front page which is what they are looking for tonight. Then they attach a year long running tally on the back. So if you look at the front page only that is what they are looking for tonight. The second page which does include Pike’s is the entire year to date. Chris made the motion we approve the four corrections: Donna Dailey, Barbara Jones, Unifirst Inc. and McGrath Rent Corp. Second by Larry and the Motion passed by voice vote 5-0. AROUND THE TABLE: Larry: Glad to have Stan back Art: Asked for a short Executive Session about a personal issue. Rodney: Where do we stand on grading the roads this fall? Garrett replied they are back to grading the roads and are aware of the dust. Chris: Saw the letter from the attorney regarding tax sales in the packet. Does this start the process all over again or is this just a minor delay. Garrett said we are stalled till this is taken care of. Chris asked if it’s all clear to the Treasurer. Garrett said the attorney has contacted him on this. Chris asked about the trash that was picked up on Cold Spring Road. Is the Town financially responsible for that? Garrett explained we are until Orange County Sheriff’s Office contacts us with their findings. The edge of Clark Road (the road that goes up to Second Spring) has some extremely deep ruts. Chris said in the Saturdays paper there was a letter to the editor about water billing from a name he didn’t recall coming to the Water & Sewer Commissioners. It leaves you with an impression that he can’t get an abatement. Garrett said he hasn’t even tried. Chris asked if he is aware of the opportunity to request one. Garrett said he is and any consumer assistance available. Stan: Concerned about the attorney letter and we need to get moving on with the tax sales. Visitor’s Comments (maximum of 3 minutes per person, per topic) Mike Sprano asked if the roads were not being graded because of the dust. Garrett explained they were trying not to create dust and the chloride doesn’t last that long when it is this dry. We do chloride the roads after grading. Tom Bailey asked when they are coming to work on Flint Road. Garrett said the schedule was changed and Flint Road will be the last road worked on for this year and they will be there for three weeks. Rodney reminded Garrett that there is an active farm that will be cutting corn within the next three weeks and be sure milk trucks can get through.
Kathleen Lott – Northfield News said she was confused on the issue of the conflict of interest. Is the Board going to move forward with it or not. Stan said his comment left it hanging and that is where they would like to leave it for now. Stan entertained a motion to recess for 10 minutes and then go into Executive Session. So move by Chris and Second by Rodney. Motion passed by voice vote of 5-0 Board entered Executive Session at 8:40 p.m. and came out at 9:11 p.m. They decided the Chair would speak to the Fire Chief about forming a committee to look to the future of the Fire Station. Motion made by Chris and Second by Larry to adjourn the Board of Selectmen at 9:12 p.m. Approved October 5, 2009
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