SWANTON VILLAGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
120 FIRST
STREET
SWANTON, VT 05488
MINUTES
BOARD OF TRUSTEES REGULAR MEETING
MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2012
7:00 PM
PRESENT: Neal Speer , Village President; Chris Leach , Trustee; Adam Paxman, Trustee; Eugene LaBombard , Trustee; Reg Beliveau, Village
Manager; Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager; Dianne Day, Village Clerk; Mark
Rocheleau, Chamber of Commerce; Tim Smith, FCIDC and Channel 16.
Unless otherwise noted, all
motions carried unanimously.
1. Approve and Accept Minutes from Monday, January 9,
2012 Meeting:
2. Approve and
Accept the following Warrant: Warrant #368 for $65,816.83; Warrant #369 for
$44,050.92; Warrant #370 for $379.64; Warrant #371 for $187,438.65; Warrant
#372 for $913.00; Warrant #373 for $193,021.28 and Warrant #374 for $3,713.30:
5. Any Other Necessary Business:
Mark Rocheleau from the
Chamber of Commerce requested use of the Village Park
Adam Paxman made the motion
to approve the Chamber’s request for their Annual Car Show on Saturday, July
28, 2012 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. with a rain date of Sunday, July 29, 2012. Chris Leach seconded. He stated they would give
review to the Burn Out Competition and get back to him with an answer within 30
days. Motion carried.
3. Tim Smith, FCIDC Update:
Tim Smith gave his best
regards to Neal Speer on hearing of his Village President retirement. Neal
stated he would like to stay on with the Northwest Regional Planning Commission
and said the Village has enjoyed working with FCIDC and they have enjoyed a
great friendship. Tim stated he is making his rounds visiting all the local
boards to update everyone on what they were doing. He said his biggest message
is how fortunate Franklin County has been. He said the unemployment rate is 4.6%
and there are places still hiring. He said VT Precision Tools is hiring as well
as other local businesses. He said the only downfall to the unemployment rate
dropping to 3.2% is it is then hard to find good help. He said the State of
Vermont offered any company that hires a college graduate in engineering, that
individual would receive a $1500 check from the State. He said that is a five
year program and hopes local companies will use that incentive. He said this is
a way of recruiting young people to the State and that there are 50
sponsorships available. He said Kathy Lavoie works with an internship program
with local high school students placing them in local businesses. Reg advised
that Swanton Village hired a high school student through this internship
program. Tim stated that Kathy is working on a tour and panel discussion
regarding sugaring operations and food processing plants. She has placed over
100 high school students from the five area high schools and also kids who have
gone to college but came back for some reason. This program works with kids age
18 to 23.
Tim stated that at a meeting
last week they determined that 76% of high school students have been accepted
into colleges and that they are trying to educate the remaining 24% with
vocational skills. He said Mylan and Ben & Jerry’s will pay up to $5400 per
year toward college classes and said this will have an impact on keeping kids
here.
He said FCIDC is also working
on taking their initiative into Canada letting them know what’s available here
in Franklin County and will hopefully attract more Canadian businesses here. He
said there is a promotional banner hanging in the Northbound Rest Area on I89
about expanding business into the US market. Neal stated that they are working
on building a super highway in Canada and said that will hopefully boost
business in our area and that it would be very beneficial. Chris Leach stated
it would be great to attract young kids to this area.
Tim said they are working on
the diversified agricultural businesses in Franklin County to help them grow
and expand. He said they are working on putting out a directory to educate the
community on who is selling organic beef, vegetables, products, etc. He said
hopefully this will help grow their businesses. He said the Job Expo this year
will be held on March 29, 2012 at the Collins Perley Complex in St. Albans. He
said over 650 people attended last year.
Adam Paxman asked Tim if he
had an update on the Challenger Learning Center. Tim stated they are working on
finalizing their presentation and will begin soliciting large businesses for
donations and said it is moving forward. Adam stated this would be beneficial
to Franklin County and would help create a lot of very smart kids. Tim said
they raised $55,000 for permits, now they need to raise a lot more and said
they have three years to raise the funds.
The Board thanked Tim for
coming in and updating them and said they are happy with the good relationship
they have with FCIDC and associated groups like Northwest Regional Planning.
4. Adopt 2012 Budgets:
Lynn advised the Board she
has completed her budgets in all departments and gave them a quick overview of
each department. She said nothing had changed in the Electric Dept. since their
last meeting other than her purchase power amount. She said she received her
purchase power budget from VPPSA and it had increased by $161,000. Chris Leach
asked if she anticipated a rate increase this year and she said she would have
VPPSA look at their numbers to see if one was necessary. She said it would be
better to raise the rates in small increments rather than large ones like the
last increase. She said overall the Electric Department is showing a slight
loss for 2012.
She stated there were no
changes in the Water Department as well. She said she would like to run the
numbers for a rate increase in this department because there have been
increased costs and they haven’t raised the rates. She also said she would like
to fund depreciation as well. She said so far this year the Public Works crew
has had 7 water leaks since the beginning of the New Year and that they need to
start putting away money for these repairs. Chris Leach said hopefully soon
they will go before the voters to get approval to move forward with the 2nd
and 3rd phase of the transmission and infrastructure job. Lynn said
at this point they are $150,000 under budget for the Water Treatment Plant
upgrade and they would need to go before the voters and get permission to use
those funds on pipe work, etc. Chris Leach stated he was disappointed they
didn’t get voter approval to do the whole project. Lynn said she would like to
have a Class Cost of Study done so that their rate structure is a more fair way
of billing. She said the big users would pay more fairly for their usage.
Lynn said there were no
changes in the Sewer Department as well. She said the same theory exists in
this department as with the Water billing. She said they need to restructure
their rates. Chris stated it makes sense to do them both at the same time.
Lynn advised there were no
changes in the Highway Department as well. Chris asked if they were still
planning on doing sidewalk projects and thought a list of the anticipated
paving jobs would be nice to hand out at the Annual Meeting. Lynn stated they
weren’t raising any more in taxes than last year in this department. She said
there is 18 months left on the truck loan and in 2013 that will come out of the
budget. They mentioned how old the vactor was and that a new one would be a
possibility in the near future.
Lynn said there were no
changes in the General Fund to the Complex and the Park. She said they would
take $35,000 out of savings to do repairs on the building and said she bumped
up maintenance of parks so that they could purchase benches and garbage
receptacles.
Lynn said the Fire Department
has seen an increase due to personal protective equipment and radios needing to
be purchased. She said these items are needed for safety issues and gear needs
replacing and after talking to Rick King they added these items back in because
of the necessity of them.
Lynn said the only change in
the Police Department was in the equipment line item. She said she bumped it up
by $4000 because their computers are 6 to 7 years old and need replacing. She
said this budget is also up because of their SRO (Student Resource Officer)
grant and that the Village has to pay his fourth year of payroll for July and
August.
Lynn advised the Board that
there were no changes in the Commercial Building Fund and that this was income
from the Blake Street Project and the School Housing project.
Lynn said overall she tried
to keep all departments level funded but that there is a 10% increase in the
Fire Department without the new fire truck. She said the Police Department is
up just under 6% but she couldn’t get around the SRO grant. She explained that
on a home assessed at $150,000 there would be a $33 increase and that the
estimated tax rate would go from .63 to .65. She said if Article 7 gets
approved that would add $7.67 to a $150,000 home. Article 7 is asking for $8000
for park enhancements like trees and benches.
Lynn said that if the fire
truck purchase was approved that would add approximately $20 to a $150,000
home. Eugene stated that the overall budget was up from their last meeting from
3.3% to 3.5%. Reg stated it was because the Fire Department really needs the
new equipment and fire truck and that hopefully next year they can keep those
items level funded. Eugene stated he could see where it is coming from and that
it is necessary.
Eugene LaBombard made the
motion to adopt their 2012 budget as presented. He stated they had several
questions asked and answered and he is satisfied with the information. Chris
Leach seconded. Motion carried. Lynn stated that if any customers had any
questions or concerns to please call and she would answer their questions.
Reg stated that the Fire
Department wanted to put an article in the St. Albans Messenger to get the
information out there. He said to call, stop by or email them with any
questions also. He stated the Village’s Informational Meeting would be held on
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 7 p.m.
5. Any Other Necessary Business:
Eugene LaBombard asked Lynn
how the audit was going. She said it was going well and because of the recent
embezzlement cases in the State of Vermont they added some extra work but
overall it went well.
Any Other Business: Adam
Paxman said a resident called him and asked if there was an auditorium in the
Village owned building on Label Lane. Neal explained there was but the cost to
remodel that building would be astronomical so not a good idea. He said they
did some renovations about 10 years ago. Chris Leach stated that building
provides income to the Village and the Teen Center uses the bowling alley and
recreation room. Neal said it is still considered the Veterans Memorial
Building.
Reg advised the Board he
would need an Executive Session to Discuss Contracts. Adam Paxman made the
motion to enter into Executive Session at 9:06 p.m. Eugene LaBombard seconded.
Chris Leach made the motion
to exit Executive Session at 9:28 p.m. Eugene LaBombard seconded.
Chris Leach made the motion
to enter Regular Session at 9:29 p.m. Adam Paxman seconded. Chris Leach made
the motion to authorize Reginald Beliveau, Village Manager, to terminate the
Village’s Contract with Bridgestone. Eugene LaBombard seconded.
ADJOURN: Adam Paxman made the motion to adjourn the Regular
Board of Trustees meeting at 9:40 p.m. Chris Leach seconded. There being no
further business at hand Neal Speer ,
Village President; adjourned the Regular Board of Trustees meeting at 9:40 p.m.
_____________________________________ _______________________________________
Neal Speer, Village President Date
_____________________________________ _______________________________________
Dianne Day, Village Clerk Date