February 8, 2005
Page 6 of 6
TOWN OF PUTNEY
PO BOX 233
PUTNEY, VT 05346
802-387-5862
Selectboard Minutes
Tuesday, February 8, 2005
1. The Putney Selectboard convened the meeting at 5:10 p.m. at Town Hall.
Members Present: Regina A. Rockefeller, Lyssa Papazian; John K. Nopper
Others Present: Tom Guerino
2. Minutes
Minutes will be considered at February 14 meeting.
3. Orders, Bills, Warrants
There were none.
4. Manager Update
Tom Guerino presented the board with a draft exit report of activities. They will look it over and discuss on the 14th.
5. New Manager Recruitment
Selectboard will meet with Dominic Cloud of VLCT at 9:00 am 2/9 to discuss this agenda item.
6. Other Business
- Town Hall Roof
Lyssa Papazian will ask John Young of Brattleboro Roofing & Sheet Metal to come speak with the board at February 28 meeting. BRSM provided three quotes on different scopes of work for the roof.
- New Fire Station
The Fire Department Planning Committee provided a flyer for the upcoming forum. Board will look it over and discuss in depth later.
- Sewer Billing
Regina Rockefeller has been working extensively on the billing and has made substantial changes including increase to some sewer bills to bring them into line with ordinance. She thinks that we should send the water/sewer bill out then later send a letter explaining the work with the 12-14 accounts hardest hit by changes.
Anita sent out a sewer bill in January. There was discussion about sending out a new bill now with the water based on a new sewer rate and the other adjustments. There was more discussion that the town needs to do a specific survey of sewer use to fully answer the questions raised by Regina Rockefeller’s examination of the billing and may need to hold a hearing on the new billing. Those on water will have meters. Regina Rockefeller recommended staying with the old rate now and revise based on survey of people who have sewer but not water to get a full picture of the use.
Board decided to wait on the new rate and adjustments and send out bills based on the old rate for now.
- Hi-Lo Biddy Bridge
Lyssa Papazian reported on Hi-Lo-Biddy Bridge. There was general discussion about the bids and how the extra Town portion could be raised. Since the bids came in after the Town Meeting warning had been set, can’t add it to budget. It would need to be brought up in other business during Town Meeting in order to move forward. Lyssa Papazian spoke to Tom French, engineer about stabilization options. He thought there were things that could be done simply by highway crew and he could come done and meet with Dennis Wilson to devise a plan. There was discussion of whether it was open to pedestrians now and whether Tom French could come to the meeting on the 14th to discuss further. Lyssa Papazian will follow up with him.
- Town Garage
Dennis Wilson called Tom Guerino to say that the Town Garage furnace has failed and needs to be replaced. Tom ok’d the purchase of a simple replacement furnace.
- Density Steering Committee
Lyssa Papazian gave an update on recent and future meetings of the steering committee. There will be a design charette on March 24 using specific properties in the village as case studies for adding density with permission and participation from the property owners.
- Town Hall phone system
The Town Hall phone system needs replacing and updating. Regina Rockefeller has a quote from ------for $------.
Lyssa Papazian moved and John Nopper Seconded to use $------from Town Hall Renovation Fund to pay for new phone system. All were in favor.
- Audit
Board has received the draft audit report. There was discussion of need to get the auditors to come down and go over report with the board and to help develop management responses.
- Town Plan
Tom Guerino distributed the Town Plan section on Community Resources for Board to go over and comment/update for 2005 plan update. The Planning Commission needs this by the end of February.
7. Upcoming events -
-Joint meeting
Board will meet jointly with Westminster & Dummerston boards in Westminster Fire Station tonight/ Feb. 8 at 7pm to discuss animal control and law enforcement.
-Upcoming Selectboard Meetings
-Board will meet with Dominic Cloud of VLCT on Feb. 9 at 9 am to discuss the Town Manager search.
-A regular meeting is scheduled for February 14 at 6pm and Board asked Tom Guerino to invite the Fire Station Committee to attend to discuss the forum. The Board will invite the private schools to come to a joint 4 pm meeting that day.
-A regular meeting is scheduled for February 28 at 6 pm.
-Fire Station Forum
Town Forum/informational meeting on the fire station will be held on Thursday, Feb. 17 at 7pm at the Central School gym.
8. Financial Reports
The Treasurer had none.
9. Executive Session
John Nopper moved and Lyssa Papazian seconded motion to enter executive session to discuss a contractual matter. All were in favor. Board entered executive session at 6:00 pm and invited Tom Guerino and Randy Smith of Putney School to join them.
Board came out of executive session at 6:15 pm with no action taken.
Board recessed at 6:30 p.m. to drive to Westminster for joint meeting.
Board reconvened at 7:00 p.m. in the Westminster Fire Station.
Members Present: Regina A. Rockefeller, Lyssa Papazian; John K. Nopper
Westminster Selectboard members: Paul Harlow, Chris Harlow, Peter Barrett, Sheldon Beebe, Bill Noyes
Dummerston Selectboard members: Paul Normandeau, Cindy Jerome, Shorty Forrett, Jack Mannix
Others Present: Glenn Smith, Noreen Woodward, Christian Blake, David Clark, Mrs. Barrett, Mark Lord, Cole Streeter, Howard Weiss-Tisman, and another newspaper reporter (no name was given).
10. Law Enforcement
John Nopper opened discussion and described Putney’s law enforcement arrangements. Putney is now paying $15,000 for six months down from $48,000 a year.
There was general discussion of the service received from the Sheriff.
Paul Normandeau said that Dummerston had budgeted $12,000 a year for the past five years and had trouble with understanding the bills. They had overages that they did not pay and noticed no change in service. He noted that Sheriff Prue had called a meeting of towns serviced soon after taking office and was going to set up a community committee but nothing came of it.
Westminster is paying $13,000 a year down from $26,000 a few years ago with no noticeable change in service and they don’t understand the bills either.
Glenn Smith noted that the sheriff contract can be a flat rate per month to meet the budget. They call for 12 hours of speed enforcement in their contract.
There was further discussion of Animal Control. Sheriff provides this for Putney and Dummerston but Westminster has its own constable who handles animal control. There was agreement that Sheriff dept. does a good job at animal control.
Peter Barrett suggested that the 3 boards form a sub-committee to look into law enforcement and possible cooperative approaches. There was discussion of having a joint meeting with Sheriff Prue and also of asking for more accountability in contracts.
A sub-committee was formed from the 3 Selectboards of John Nopper, Putney; Shorty Forrett, Dummerston and Peter Barrett, Westminster to look at ways to cooperate on common issues, especially law enforcement.
11. Fuel
There was general discussion of fuel (diesel and heating oil) purchasing. Westminster has a state contract, Dummerston has a private provider, and Putney has a the highway, town and fire departments bid together but not through the state.
12. Ambulance Service
There was discussion of ambulance service costs. Putney and Dummerston use Rescue Inc and there was discussion of the recent cost increases there – going to $7.50 per capita this year and $10.00 per capita next year. Westminster uses LeFevre and pays $17.50 per capita - much more than Rescue Inc is asking from Putney & Dummerston but Rescue can’t cover Westminster.
13. Gravel
There was general discussion of gravel costs and approaches to buying and/or making it.
14. Emergency Management
There was general discussion about the Vermont Yankee plan and other emergency planning.
15. VTrans Highway District Office in Dummerston
All boards expressed concern over the proposed closing of the district office. Boards were urged to contact their legislators about it.
16. Others Present:
There was general discussion of re-appraisal in the three towns. Dummerston started 2 years ago and will be done next year. Putney is in the process and will not be done this year but hopefully next year. Westminster did it two years ago with their own listers. There was discussion about the education taxes and fund.
17. Floodplain Map
There was some discussion about FEMA’s new floodplain map that affects Connecticut River towns by raising the level 3 feet.
18. Covered Salted Sand Piles
There was some discussion of how towns were responding to the requirements under new storm water management rules to cover salted winter sand piles. There was talk of coordination here on buying sheds.
19. Equipment Repair
There was some discussion of different experiences and budgets for handling equipment repair.
Joint meeting ended at 8:00 p.m. and Putney Selectboard recessed until 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday (2/9) morning to continue agenda and meet with Dominic Cloud.
Putney Selectboard re-convened the meeting at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday February 9 at Town Hall.
Members Present: Regina A. Rockefeller, Lyssa Papazian; John K. Nopper
Others Present: Dominic Cloud
20. Town Manager Search
Dominic Cloud of VLCT met with the board to discuss how VLCT would handle a Town Manager search. He said that VLCT’s consulting services would cost $2000 - $3000 plus about $3000 in advertising. They aim at getting about 60 candidates who they review, rank check references and do background checks on top tier. It would likely take at least 3 months including some transition time. He asked to have our job description emailed to him .
There was discussion of what the Selectboard would do in the intervening three months without a town manager. It was decided to seek a temporary Selectboard assistant to help keep the office running smoothly while working closely with Selectboard members and town office staff to handle town business. The board will get the word out on website, iPutney, and through an ad in the newspaper. Compensation would have to be determined after consulting with Anita about how much is left for manager’s pay.
The board divided up project and topics as it did after Larry Hyde left.
- Regina Rockefeller will handle the water system, sewer system and the pool.
- Lyssa Papazian will handle Hi-Lo-Biddy Bridge, Town Hall building, the Village Density Study and Town Plan update and the pending revolving loan application,
- John Nopper will handle law enforcement, sale of the library and the fire station.
21. Other Business, cont.
- Warnings
Lyssa Papazian as secretary will help with getting warnings out on meetings.
- Old Library Sale
Selectboard signed a termination of lease which the last piece needed to move to closing. There was a question about whether the new library needs a lease.
Meeting was adjourned at 12:30 p.m.