TOWN OF WILLIAMSTOWN MINUTES PRESENT: Stan Corneille – Chair, Larry Hebert - Vice Chair, Art Stone, Chris Peloquin, Rodney Graham Town Manager: Garrett Earls
VISITORS: Kathleen Lott - Northfield News, Irvin Stephenson, Alfred Jenkins, Arthur Kramer, Robert Cleaves – Town Treasurer, Brent Duff, Tom Bailey, James Stone, Frieda Hollyer Stan Corneille, Selectboard Chair opened the November 2, 2009 meeting of the Williamstown Selectboard meeting at 7 p.m. First item on agenda is to move into Water & Sewer Commissioners. So moved by Chris and second by Larry. Motion passed by voice vote 5-0. WATER & SEWER COMMISSION Ray Duff – Trailer Park Stan asked Brent Duff if he had information for the Board. Brent reviewed the pictures from the TV views with Larry. He recommended a few things, replacing at least three sections of sewer lines, possibly four of them. His father would like to keep the option open of fixing some of these joints. There is a new system out to fix some of the joints, it may or may not be feasible. Larry and Garrett have both come up with a price close to a hundred thousand dollars for the repairs. Larry mentioned putting up a Bond for a hundred twenty thousand. Brent asked if the Town would take over the road and then he would be required to do this work in a certain amount of time, is that how he understands it. What ever Ray Duff decides it would be agreeable with the Board. Or would you not take the roads over till the water & sewer lines are completed. Larry said he could see taking over the road if they had a letter line of credit for the water & sewer line. Brent said Ray just wants to be sure you will take over the roads if he does all the work. Stan asked when do you think you would have a decision which way you would go. Brent said within a month. Chris asked if a deed has been prepared on the roadway. Brent doubted it. Rodney asked if we required Mr. Duff to put up the letter line of credit and have the work completed by July 10th. If he does that we will accept taking over the road. Larry’s motion was that we accept Village View Heights Roadway & water & sewer upon receipt of a reputable letter line of credit, for one hundred twenty five thousand dollars necessary for sewer line repairs, all work is to be done by July 1, 2010. Second Rodney. Motion passed by voice vote of 5-0. Stan asked for a motion to adjourn as Water & Sewer Commission and enter the regular Selectboard meeting,. So moved by Rodney and second by Chris. All were in favor and the motion passed by voice vote 5-0. The Board moved into regular session at 7:12 p.m. SELECTBOARD MEETING ANNOUNCEMENTS: No announcements Visitor’s Comments: Steve Stephenson didn’t understand taking over the road at the Duff’s trailer park. Stan explained Ray Duff came and appealed to the Board to take over his road. The Board said they would take it over if Ray did certain things. One was to upgrade the sewer. If we take over the road we also take over the water & sewer lines. Mr. Duff will pay for the sewer repairs before we take over the road. Larry explained that in order for Mr. Duff to sell off his lots he has to have the town take over the road. If the other parks decide to petition us to take over their roads we will have to treat them just as we treated Mr. Duff. Frieda Hollyer told the Board there is a stop sign on Beckett St. going out onto Main Street. It is a one way, going the other way. The Board explained the state put up the sign and Garrett will call. He will ask for a one way sign. Review and Approval of Warrants: Stan asked for a motion to approve the warrants. Rodney moved to approve warrants SB23 and SB24. Second by Larry. After a brief discussion the motion passed by voice vote of 4-1. Approval of Minutes: Stan stated we have the October 19th minutes of the Public Hearing to Reclassify Highways and the Selectboard meeting. So moved by Chris and second by Rodney. No discussion and the motion passed by voice vote of 5-0. Manager’s Report:
Unfinished Business: None New Business: VLCT – Montpelier WWTF Discharge Permit Request for each municipality to contribute $300. toward funding on an brief in the case of Montpelier WWTF Discharge Permit. Garrett said it comes down to when our permit expires we would be one of the municipalities on the hook in the same situation with phosphorus discharge. Stan said the environmental court judge ruled that Montpelier’s present discharge standards they are using will have to be revised. It will be an expense to identify what those pollutants are and treat them. Larry thought it would be money well spent and he made a motion to spend $300.00 to support and help them out. Second by Art. Kathleen Lott from The Northfield News explained that the court has told the ANR has been commanded to update their figures they use in their calculations to what is allowable of Montpelier to discharge into the water. There is another appeal on hold waiting for this decision. Motion passed by voice vote 5-0. Larry Hebert – Discussion Route 64 Upgrade/Falls Bridge Larry explained the State of Vermont has plans on the shelves going back 25 years or more which probably would never happen. The state wants to clean them off the shelves and make way for new projects. One of the things that has been on the shelf since the interstate has been build is 3 separate routes to do an access road to Williamstown. Any one of the projects would be really expensive and is never going to happen. In order for something to be taken off the shelf the Town needs to go along with it. A few years back we did a study with a grant from the Regional Planning Commission, possible using Falls Bridge Road as an access. At that time the Selectboard directed them to focus on Falls Bridge Road connecting to Route 63.That being said the bridge becomes eligible for 90% state and federal funding. The Regional Planning Commission and the Transportation Committee asked if Larry would speak to the Board and get back to them if the Board would go along with taking off the table the Route 64 concept. The Town Bridge is 48th for repairs and we may be able to move it up the list. It was the consensus of the Board to have Larry proceed with seeing if he can get the bridge moved up on the list. Larry asked for a letter he could bring to the Planning Commission. Around the Table: Chris: Chris asked is there a plan in place for the Graniteville Road edges. Garrett said they will use some crushed asphalt. A time frame of work is in the next two weeks. We had a special meeting a few weeks ago about an employee policy issue. Has that been done and turned into to the VLCT for review. Garrett said he and Bob have not had a chance to work on it but Garrett will have something for the next meeting. Chris asked about the water policy and trailer parks. Garrett said the amendment to the water ordinance is in the warning process. We are waiting for the information on the mobile homes. Terry is preparing the list. Any news on the DuBois & King on the water tank. Garrett said nothing has changed. Chris asked Garrett to update the IT Services for the public. Garrett said they sent out four proposals and received back four. Supervisory Union was low bidder but then recanted the bid. The next in line was NEMRC and they started today. Rodney: Rodney reported the Fire Safety Committee would be meeting tomorrow night at the Fire Station at 7pm. Members are Ivan LeBlanc, Earl Everhart, Gordon Murray, Ed Eaton, Paige Emory and Rodney. Public invited. Art: Nothing at this time. Larry: Nothing at this time Stan: Stan said they talked about a Finance Committee and Stan had one individual that has responded, his name is James Pouffe and lives in Williamstown. Stan asked for help in finding two other persons to join the committee. He had received questions if the roads are going to be graded once more before they freeze up. Garrett said the road crew is grading again. Larry asked about Young Road plowing. Garrett asked the resident if he had an alternate plan and it was he will continue to plow the road. Larry rode up there and reported that road is no where up to the Town’s standard. We have no business being on that road. We should not get ourselves into something that may get us into trouble down the road. It’s already in the town policy. The town does not plow Class 4 roads. Visitor’s Comments: Al Jenkins asked if the grader was all torn up. Have all the operators all gone deer hunting. Aren’t they working on the roads anymore? Have all of the Boards member’s gone deer hunting. Have any of the Selectboard members been up to Stone Road. It’s the worst in forty years. They dug these beautiful ditches and then curved it up so the water runs right down the middle of the road. He would like the road graded up there. Garrett said it is on the list to be done. Rodney said at his place it’s only one lane wide. Al said why don’t you do something about it, you’re a Selectboard member. Rodney said he had no more pull than Al did. Al said it’s getting to where nothing is done any where. Art said maybe he should consider there are several other hundred people live on the roads and the road crew gets to them as fast as they can. We have one grader to cover the whole Town. James Stone said he lives on the other side of town and has seen the roads deteriorate for 15 years. He was there to learn before he complained to find out why it’s that way. Garrett said we need money for paving. Gravel roads are getting pot holes. Paving on Chelsea Road is bad and Garrett has offered that road to the state more than once. There is no money. We are still replacing culverts. James said a lot is proper grading and that has not happen in ten years. Larry asked to make a suggestion, he said you hear so much about grading and he has seen it himself, where the edges of the road are graded and there is a ridge of dirt so the water can’t get in the ditches. He knows a man that is one of the best graders he has ever seen, his name is Arnold Chase and he does all the grading for Brookfield. Try and see if he would come out and show our guys how to grade a road. He also does some great ditch work with the grader. He is not saying our road crews don’t know how to run it but maybe not to its full potential Chris said he called and asked Garrett to go to Brookfield and see the ditches that were done. Garrett was familiar with the loader the work it can do. Chris asked if he passed along this information to the road crew. He has. Garrett will contact Arnold and see if he is available. Tom Bailey said Garrett spoke of not having money for paving. Mr. Peloquin brought it up several times about brand new pavement of the Graniteville Road, fix it-don’t let it break off. You’re losing it. You need to back up shoulders. Garrett hoped this reclaimed asphalt crushed stone mix will hold up better. Also Tom told the Board Mr. Duke has done a lot for this Town and the only thing he has asked recently is to fix the pot hole on Construction Hill. It has not been done. Bob Cleaves said he liked to expand on the NEMRC – they have completed what Bob would call the security phase. They have secured all the machines and updated all the passwords. Now no one has access to anyone else’s machines. That should relieve anyone issues about that. All machines and information is secured separately. The system administrator is now NEMRC. Bob said in Unfinished Business it seem like a lot of time things are discussed and does not get resolved, then it gets forgotten about. It doesn’t come up again; we seem not to have any continuity bringing it back into the picture. Then months go by and the issue resurfaces or never is heard about again. Al Jenkins said he didn’t know if the Town could afford using slate on Stone Road Steve Stephenson some time back it was voted to sell one of the old dump trucks. Did that happen and where did the money go. Rodney answered that the Town Manager reported it is being advertised and not been sold yet. Approved November 16, 2009
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