This page is maintained by Swanton Village, Inc and is intended to be the official online posting of public meetings and minutes in accordance with Vermont’s Open Meeting law (Amended July 1st, 2014).

Thursday, August 21, 2014

August 11, 2014

SWANTON VILLAGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

SWANTON VILLAGE MUNICIPAL COMPLEX

120 FIRST STREET

SWANTON, VT 05488

 

 

INFORMATIONAL MEETING & PUBLIC HEARING

REGULAR MEETING

Monday, August 11, 2014

7 PM

 

 

PRESENT: Neal Speer, Village President; Chris Leach, Trustee; Adam Paxman, Trustee; Eugene LaBombard, Trustee; Reginald Beliveau, Village Manager, Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager; Dianne Day, Village Clerk; Ronald Reynolds, Glen Gurwit, Chris Goodman, Gary Guilmette, Darla Blondo, Butch Patch, Lloyd & Lorraine Collins, and Channel 16.

 

Unless otherwise noted, all motions carried unanimously.

 

Neal Speer, Village President, welcomed everyone to the Informational Public Hearing and Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees and called the meeting to order at 7 o’clock.

 

1. Informational Meeting & Public Hearing – Electric Bond Articles:

Village Manager Reginald Beliveau read the Articles to the public that was in attendance:

 

Article I: Shall the voters of the Village of Swanton approve a note not to exceed $1.3 million dollars for the purpose of establishing a line of credit facility to support the operation of the Swanton Village Inc. Electric Department?

 

     Article II: Shall the voters of the Village of Swanton approve a note or notes not to exceed

     $1,450,000 for the purpose of purchasing utility vehicles and making capital improvements to

     its Orman Croft Generating Facility?

 

He asked if there were any questions from the audience members. Butch Patch stated he was concerned why the Village didn’t vote on this at Town Meeting Day in March. Reginald stated that Swanton Village applied for rate increase last year for 10.69%, they only received a 1% rate increase. He stated because of that they needed to file additional paperwork and were finished with that at the end of May. Lynn Paradis stated the Public Service Board needs to approve that paperwork and because of that approval time they were not able to vote on this at March Town Meeting day. Butch stated if they voted on it in March they would have a better turnout. He was concerned that very few people would show up on Tuesday, August 19 and that very few people would approve this.

 

Lynn Paradis advised everyone there that Article II is two years worth of work at the Hydro Plant. She stated at the end of 2016 the original bond payment will be paid off and that will free up about $400,000. She also informed the public about the outages they’ve had at the Hydro Plant and the costly repairs that they’ve had to endure. Christine Goodman asked about hiring another maintenance technician at Swanton Village. Reginald stated it was necessary to have another maintenance technician on hand due to the five-year preventative maintenance plan that is now in place at all Swanton Village plants. He said they need to maintain these plants and cannot do it with two people.

 

Chris Leach stated that the Public Service Board is being very strong on all utilities in Vermont now and he stated Swanton Village is the first utility to go in for rate increase since Green Mountain Power merged with CVPS. He stated the Public Service Board is being hard on Swanton Village and that they are the biggest Hydro Plant in the State of Vermont and that they are very unique.

 

Ron Reynolds asked why the Electric Department wasn’t voted on Town Meeting day like the General Fund, Police Department, Fire Department and Highway Department. He asked about Article 1 and Lynn advised this was for internal accounting purposes only and she said this would not affect the rates. She stated it would be a 0% interest line of credit and it would handle internal accounting functions here at Swanton Village. Ron asked why the Village needed to purchase new vehicles. Lynn stated the pickup truck in the Electric Department is a 2005. She stated they were interested in buying a bigger utility truck so that they could take that on outages rather than taking the bucket truck out every time. Ron stated his frustration with the Public Service Board and asked who governed them. He asked what would happen if Swanton Village told them no on some of these issues.

 

Darla Blondo asked what would happen if the vote didn’t pass on Tuesday. Lynn stated they wouldn’t be able to do the work scheduled at the Hydro Plant and they would run the risk of major repairs needing to be done. She stated they could have longer outages if the electricity were to go out and safety issues would arise as well. She also said they would be in violation according to the PSB and she doesn’t know what they will do to Swanton Village if Article I doesn’t pass.

 

Christine Goodman asked where all the cash has gone. Lynn Paradis advised they had been depleting the cash since 2008. She stated they have been over budget on purchase power, have done major line improvements, have done a substantial amount of work at the Swanton Village substation, and purchased a huge transformer. Lynn stated they were $600,000 over budget last year alone on purchase power and have had to budget higher for that line item.

 

The Board of Trustees thanked everyone for attending and urged them to come out and vote on Tuesday, August 19. They asked the Village taxpayers to support these two Articles and vote in favor of them on Tuesday, August 19th.

 

2. Approve and Accept Minutes from Monday, July 28, 2014:

 

Chris Leach made the motion to approve and accept the Minutes from Monday, July 28, 2014 as presented. Adam Paxman seconded. Discussion: None. Motion carried.

 

3. Approve and Accept Village Warrants through Friday, August 8, 2014:

 

Adam Paxman made the motion to approve and accept Village warrants through Friday, August 8, 2014 as presented. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Discussion: Eugene LaBombard asked who vendor ECI was for. Reginald Beliveau stated that was for the bridge job. Eugene also asked why the payment made to Wesco was so high. Lynn Paradis stated that amount included several invoices in one payment and that was for electric inventory. Motion carried.

 

4. Electric Rate Case Discussion:

 

Lynn Paradis stated Swanton Village filed a rate increase three and half weeks ago. She said the Public Service Board has until Friday to approve or litigate and said she is waiting to hear back from them. She stated Swanton Village pulled a few things out of the rate increase and they dropped from a 7.4% to a 6% rate increase. Lynn stated the Public Service Board wanted a cost-benefit analysis done stating when a vendor would arrive and when the vendor would leave as well as signed quotes. Lynn said another utility has agreed to do this so now Swanton Village will have to. She said they are creating a base level of standards. She stated they also had to do a depreciation study and Swanton Village paid $10,000 for that study when normally it would cost $40,000. Lynn stated as soon as she hears from the Public Service Board regarding what they been approved for a rate increase or whether or not they will litigate she would let Board know.

 

5. Any Other Necessary Business:

 

Adam Paxman wanted to remind everyone that the Downtown Enhancement Committee will hold a meeting on August 28th at Holy Trinity Church at 7 PM. He urged everyone to attend and check it out.

 

Any Other Business: Eugene LaBombard wanted to remind everyone to come out and vote on Tuesday, August 19 from 7 AM to 7 PM. He also stated the MVU budget revote will be held on Tuesday, September 9 from 7 AM to 7 PM here at the Swanton Village Complex. He also stated there will be a JLB meeting on September 10 at 7 PM here at the Village Complex.

 

Any Other Business: Reginald Beliveau stated he received the tree survey back from UVM. He said this was a report on all trees in the Village right of way. He said the study named the species, size and health of all trees here in the Village. He said the study was done at no cost to Swanton Village and they also included a replacement schedule on these trees.

 

6. Executive Session to Discuss Real Estate:

 

Adam Paxman made the motion to enter into executive session at 8:35 PM to discuss Real Estate in regards to Municipal Parking. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Motion carried.

 

Adam Paxman made the motion to exit Executive Session at 9:10 PM. Chris Leach seconded. Motion carried.

 

ACTION TAKEN: Adam Paxman will talk to landowner to discuss options for parking.

 

 

ADJOURN: Eugene LaBombard made the motion to adjourn the Informational Public Hearing and Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees at 9:10 PM. Chris Leach seconded. There being no further business at hand, Neal Speer, Village President, adjourned the meeting at 9:10 PM. Motion carried.

 

 

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Neal Speer, Village President                           Date

 

 

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Dianne Day, Village Clerk                               Date