SWANTON VILLAGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
SWANTON VILLAGE MUNICIPAL COMPLEX
120 FIRST STREET
SWANTON, VT 05488
REGULAR MEETING
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
7:00 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; and Ch. 16.
Unless otherwise noted, all motions carried unanimously.
1. Call to Order:
Neal Speer, Village President, welcomed all to the Regular Board of Trustees meeting and called the meeting to order at 7:06 p.m.
2. Agenda Review:
Reg Beliveau, Village Manager, stated that he needed an Executive Session to discuss Personnel.
3. Approve and Accept Minutes from Monday, December 11, 2017:
Chris Leach made the motion to approve and accept Minutes from Monday, December 11, 2017 as presented. Adam Paxman seconded. Discussion: None. Motion carried.
4. Approve and Accept Village Warrants through December 15, 2017:
Adam Paxman made the motion to approve and accept Village Warrants through December 15, 2017 as presented. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Discussion: Eugene LaBombard asked about the invoice for Champlain Valley Equipment for $2,412.46. Lynn Paradis stated this was to repair the Kabota lawn tractor in the Highway Department. Eugene also asked about the refund of $42,323.09 paid to SolarSense and Lynn stated this was for the solar project on Frontage Road and that the customer purchased their own transformer so we had to refund them for that. They paid an estimate before the job and Swanton Village charged them for it. Motion carried.
5. Review and Acknowledge 3rd Quarter SQRP Report:
Chris Leach stated he was very pleased with the 3rd quarter SQRP report as usual and thanked everyone involved with it. He noted that the Board of Trustees reviewed and acknowledged the 3rd quarter SQRP report.
6. 2018 Budget Discussions:
Reg Beliveau, Village Manager, stated they have made some changes to the budgets and it is now down .47%
ELECTRIC FUND: Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager, said she factored in a 2.5% COLA (cost of living) increase for the Village employees. She also stated that the electric crew would like to go to an on-call basis. She said they have occasionally run into issues with a lineman not being available after hours and feels this way there will be more reliability and they can remain competitive with neighboring utilities. She said she would like to implement this in July of 2018. She said this will apply to the highway crew as well.
WATER FUND: Lynn stated the maintenance line item was up quite a bit and she had a chance to talk with Scott Mueller about it. She said he only needs to have $10,000 budgeted for this line item, not the $38,000 so this helps bring the budget down in this fund.
SEWER FUND: Lynn stated this fund is staying just as she reported last week.
COMMERCIAL BUILDING FUND: Lynn stated she had nothing to report in this fund due to the upcoming sale.
GENERAL FUND: Lynn stated this fund is the same as last week as well.
FIRE DEPARTMENT: Lynn stated this department has level funded this year. She said they will put their request for two new fire trucks on the ballot this year and let the voters decide that purchase.
POLICE DEPARTMENT: Lynn stated the officers will need to order new uniforms in this department because their vests, shirts and pants are wearing out. She said they are also sending Kyle Gagne to the police academy in 2018. She also stated that workman’s compensation is up $30,000 this year and this department took a big hit in that as well
HIGHWAY: Lynn stated this fund is up 3.3 cents due to paying out an employee’s vacation time due to a retirement and having to do training in that department as well.
Lynn stated that the General Fund is going from .0788 to .0798; the Fire Department is going from .0437 to .0420; the Police Department is going from .3768 to .3799 and the Highway Department is going from .2917 to .3256. She said there is an overall increase of $0.0363 cents on the tax rate from 2017 to 2018. She said Village taxpayers would see an increase on a $150,000 home of $54.38, on a $175,000 home the increase would be $63.44 and on a $200,000 home the increase would be $72.51. She said her anticipated tax rate is going to be 0.8273 for 2018. The Board agreed that 2018 is going to see a lot of increases in the various budgets and suggested they have their own informational meeting this year so they can help explain the budgets to the taxpayers. The Village Informational Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 27, 2018.
7. Any Other Necessary Business:
None.
8. Public Comment:
None.
9. Executive Session (If Necessary):
Adam Paxman made the motion to enter into Executive Session to discuss personnel at 8:35 p.m. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Motion carried.
Chris Leach made the motion to exit Executive Session at 9:24 p.m. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Motion carried.
ACTION TAKEN: None.
10. Adjournment:
Chris Leach made the motion to adjourn the Regular Board of the Trustees meeting at 9:24 p.m. Adam Paxman seconded. There being no further business at hand, Neal Speer, Village President, adjourned the meeting at 9:24 p.m. Motion carried.
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Neal Speer, Village President Date
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Dianne Day, Village Clerk Date