Selectboard Meeting 11/16/16 Minutes

TOWN OF PEACHAM

SELECTBOARD MEETING

MINUTES

Wednesday November 16, 2016

UNAPPROVED

Present:

Selectboard Members: David Jacobs and Annette Lorraine

Public: Energy Coordinator Jock Gill, Aubrey Cabot-Case, Town Clerk Tom Galinat, Mike Bruton, Road Foreman Jeremy Withers

Clerk to the Board: Melissa Laurita Kohl

The meeting was called to order by Chair of the Board Annette Lorraine at 6:33PM.

1. Agenda – Additions
   1. Preliminary Budget Ideas
   2. Jock – connectivity
   3. School Board Online Posting
   4. Add Rusty/Bathroom estimate and Listers/RFP to Special Budget Meeting 11/30/16 and notice
2. Review and Approve Minutes of 11/2/16
   1. Annette moves to approve the 11/2/16 Hearing Minutes with one minor amendment. David seconds. All in favor. So moved.
   2. Annette moves to approve the 11/2/16 minutes with four minor grammatical changes. David seconds. All in favor. So moved.
3. Village Pathway Winter Maintenance
   1. David said that the meeting about safe routes to school that he had with Jock and Adam was good. They looked at three different possibilities for a way to school, two of which go through Adam Kane’s property. One also goes through the Fitsue's property and one goes along the roadway. The school’s responsibility would be to keep the pathway clear. Jock emailed us a map with all of these routes on it. A lot of it is school responsibility to make these things happen and there is some property ownership issues. Adam was quite fine with it. The other thing is to make the crosswalk a 90 degree – recommended by state engineers, the state paints it so will have to be done next year. David threw out a survey to the school. The survey was there for 2 weeks. Got 8 responses out of 36 families. 6 of 8 go by car, 1 by bus, 1 by car/walk but do have these letters from a couple of people on the Bayley Hazen Rd. Another option was have the bus stop at café and pick up kids that cant quite make it from there to school safely in the winter time.
   2. David said that he is beginning to lean toward not maintaining the path in winter and to have school set up a bus. Mainly because the path is low and will become dangerously icy and the town is just not set up to deal with that. The end of the path is steep. He thinks the town needs to work on figuring out how to improve that path in a way that maintaining it in the winter time will be safe as well. He thinks we should look at all the alternatives. The town can buy a weed burner to burn weeds off of staymat instead of roundup. It wont cost a lot to do a staymat pathway. He thinks the goal should be doing something about the path next summer.
   3. Jock showed Annette the picture of the proposed paths. They also talked about traffic calming measures so people don’t speed up the hill and know there is a school there.
   4. As far as safe routes to school for winter, David recommends that we do not maintain the pathway but that the bus stops at the Peacham Corner Guild and that transportation is provided for any field trips into the village. David will talk to Ashley at the school about the bus. David will flag the trees and Jeremy will take them down. David will research rumble strips.
   5. Mike said there is also town property that abuts the school property that might be an option for an alternative path. Mike will look into the right of way on the Palmieri property as well. David said that to get kids off the road in the fair weather is a great option.
   6. The State said that Elkin’s Way should be a right angle as well. David will contact Judy to see if she has a file on the safe routes to school.
4. School Board Minutes
   1. Melissa had sent an email about the school board minutes posted online not meeting State requirements.
   2. Tom said that VLCT recommends keeping the municipality and the school board separate.
   3. Annette will contact the school board members to talk about this to see if they can ask the CCSU to make this a priority.
   4. Annette said that the best source on Open Meeting Law is the statute itself. VLCT is not always accurate. The Orange Book is not accurate as well. Annette will train the Selectboard and Melissa on how to use the state statutes online when we have a light agenda.
5. Zoning Regulations Update from Planning Commission
   1. Annette had asked the Planning Commission to answer some questions which they answered at their last meeting. She will make a final round of edits and send it to the Planning Commission to make sure that the changes make sense.
6. Connectivity Meeting
   1. Clay Purvis, the Connectivity Development Manager Department of Public Services in Montpelier will make a presentation at 7pm on Tuesday December 13^th at the Peacham Library. Notice it as a special meeting. Change the Planning Commission Meeting. Annette will look into having pizza for the event.
7. Highway Department Update
   1. Now that the paving job is done, he filled out this TA65, which needs three signatures. He is going to meet with Shauna in the morning and pass the file on the job to her so that the town can be reimbursed for $175,000.
   2. Annette moves that the Selectboard sign the Request for Reimbursement Form TA65. David seconds. All in favor. So moved.
   3. Jeremy received a new application from someone with a CDL. He has four applications total. Jeremy will schedule an interview with the Selectboard and an applicant.
   4. Jock said that there is a crushed culvert on Ha Penny.
   5. Mike said that the roads are in great shape.
8. Town Clerk Update
   1. Tom said that right now the town has $260,000 in the bank and that puts us at a negative $115,000 because the town borrows against itself for the working capital fund. If we get the $175,000 that puts the town at a surplus of $59,000 but will probably still end up negative $8,000. He ran the final numbers for East Peacham Rd – it cost $99,000 in addition to the reimbursement. He thinks the town was able to shoulder that $100,000 but it means that purchasing the loader doesn’t look promising. If the town has any surplus and the town doesn't use it, it has to be put toward reimbursing taxes or the town can put it into working capital fund but the town only has $1500 left in that line item as it has a $150,000 cap. Tom will call VLCT and confirm the laws around how to deal with surplus. May add an agenda item for town meeting day about how to spend surplus.
   2. Jeremy will start shopping for loaders to see whether it’s worth purchasing this season. Jeremy thinks that time wise the town is cutting it close. He would have to spend a lot of time on this ASAP to make it happen.
   3. Dewesburg Land Records – John Reiss brought it to Tom’s attention that in 1810 when they split the town in two the records would be put in Danville. Tom contacted Danville. Annette moves that the Selectboard authorizes money from the restricted fund to be used for restoration of land records for the Dewesburg Land Records for up to $2000. David seconds. All in favor. So moved.
   4. Tom would like to increase the percentage of recording fees that goes to preserving records. Right now for every $10, $2 goes to it. Would like to increase it to 30% to 40%. Ideally one day would have a dedicated laptop for people to search in. He thinks would be about $4,000 for computer and software.
   5. Auditors – for comp time it says not more than 40 hours of comp time but its unclear whether its 40 hours in one year or at one time. Annette said that it is at one time. She wrote that.
9. Preliminary Budget Idea
   1. Annette said that through the years, since we don’t have a town manager style of government here the town clerks take on a lot of stuff that is really a manager issue instead of town clerk/treasurer responsibilities. This can be remedied with a part time position that is divided between assistant town clerk and town administrator. The clerks are coming up with a list of all of the things that they do that are not part of their job description as clerks. Annette thinks this could work out really well where the Selectboard won’t feel like they are imposing on the hired officials. Jeremy currently has more health insurance benefits than anybody else in his road crew. He feels like ethically we should offer a family plan to everyone. And to offer health insurance to Rebecca, too.
10. Review and Approve B ills
    1. The Selectboard reviewed and approved bills.
11. Review Correspondence
    1. The Selectboard reviewed correspondence.

Annete Moves to adjourn at 9:01Pm. David seconds. All in favor. So moved.