SWANTON VILLAGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
SWANTON VILLAGE MUNICIPAL COMPLEX
120 FIRST STREET
SWANTON, VT 05488
REGULAR MEETING
Monday, July 25, 2022
7:00 PM
PRESENT: Neal Speer, Village President; Chris Leach, Trustee; Adam Paxman, Trustee; Reginald Beliveau Jr., Village Manager; Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager; Dianne Day, Village Clerk; Michael Markus and Ch. 16. Via Zoom: Elisabeth Nance, FCIDC.
Unless otherwise noted, all motions carried unanimously.
- Call to Order:
Neal Speer, Village President, called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
- Pledge of Allegiance:
Everyone stood for the Pledge of Allegiance.
- Agenda Review:
None.
- Public Comment:
None.
- Approve and Accept Minutes from Monday, July 11, 2022 as presented:
Chris Leach made the motion to approve and accept Minutes from Monday, July 11, 2022 as presented. Adam Paxman seconded. Discussion: None. Motion carried.
- Approve and Accept Village Warrants through Thursday, July 21, 2022:
Adam Paxman made the motion to approve and accept Village Warrants #67-#69 through Thursday, July 21, 2022 as presented. Chris Leach seconded. Discussion: None. Motion carried.
- Discussion on Academy Street and Church Street – Michael Markus:
Michael Markus, a Swanton resident, stated he was leaving the Town Clerk’s office last week and was nearly hit by a truck driving up Church Street. He said he feels there should be a stop sign across from the Town Clerk’s office. Reg Beliveau stated he talked with Chief Sullivan about it and think they can put a stop sign up as well as stop bars painted on the road on both Academy and Church Street. He said the tenants at 18 Church Street would lose some parking spots on the road and said he wanted to talk more with Chief Sullivan about it. Michael said he just wanted to point this out because he feels it’s dangerous. Reg said he has received other complaints about this area and they’ve talked about making Church Street a one-way street at certain times of the day. He said there’s a lot of work that needs to be done in this area and said they will be working on it. Dianne Day, Village Clerk, stated the Village would need to update their ordinance for stop streets added. The Board thanked Michael for bringing this to their attention.
- Elisabeth Nance, FCIDC -- Update:
Elisabeth Nance stated she wanted to give an update on 6 South River Street, the Riveria Hotel property. She said there’s been some activity there in the last week or so and said Regional Planning Brownfield Committee has them on their project list. She said they have approved funding for the Phase II assessment which was started about a month ago. She the underground storage tanks were found, one in the front of the building and one in the basement. She said they are pretty much on schedule now. She also said the lead levels they tested for were below the requirements. She said they did find some asbestos but not much and that will be removed. She said because it’s an historic structure age wise, in order to qualify for federal funds to do the cleanup, they need to go through a section 106 filing. She said that report should be complete by the end of August which is the same deadline for the Phase II report. She said it’s been a slow run so far but they are now seeing some progress. Neal Speer asked who invited the historical association in on this and asked if it was through Regional Planning. Elisabeth said she and Reg had a discussion about this a few weeks ago and if they were looking to use federal funds for the cleanup and corrective action plan, they need to be involved. She said they don’t have to do it if they don’t want to but they could not use federal funds. Reg said if they chose to use some ARPA funds for any of this they need to do this filing because ARPA are federal funds. She said there has been some interest in some of the larger pieces in the building and they need to work on getting those out sooner rather than later. She said an asbestos abatement needs to be done also. Neal said the engineer that was there last week said KAS is coming in the first of August to do some boring in five various places on the lot. He said he thought KAS was interested in finding someone to do the assessment and taking the building down. He said he will go in this week with an excavator and brush hog enough to clean the lot so that the engineers can do their test borings next week. Elisabeth said the hope is to move forward with the asbestos abatement and to keep everything moving forward. She said so far Brownfield funds are paying for Phase II and she said she believes there are clean up funds available as well.
Elisabeth also told the Board she met with the folks who are renting the old Swanton Rexall building and said it looks great in there. She said they are hoping to open very soon and said that will be a great addition to Merchants Row. Reg asked her if she had anything on the Swan Valley building. She said there is interest in the building and they have done 4 or 5 tours. She said the department of agriculture is working with the current owner and said someone is interested in making sheep’s milk cheese but said there is a shortage of sheep in the area. She said they will continue to work with them. Elisabeth also said the Downtown Scoping Study partially funded implementation is still at VTrans for review. She said it will be next year before they do any implementation. Reg mentioned there are still a few businesses that are not handicap accessible and wonder if they should do something temporary until the funding goes through. She said they should because it could be 3 to 4 years before construction begins on the Downtown Scoping Study project. She said there are tax credits available for that as well but the July deadline has already passed. They also discussed the Mylan and Leader Evaporator buildings as well. She then informed the board about the aviation building at the airport and said they are now teaching aviation classes and a young man from the State of Georgia has moved here with his family to attend these classes.
- Set Village of Swanton Tax Rate for 2022:
Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager, stated that the Village Grand List is $1,650,493 and the amount to be raised in taxes is $1,565,550. She said she estimated the tax rate to be .9595 but it has been reduced to .9486. Chris Leach made the motion to approve a Village tax rate of .9486 as presented. Adam Paxman seconded. Motion carried.
- Any Other Necessary Business:
Adam Paxman asked if there was an update on the bridge job. Reg Beliveau stated they received two bids and opened them this morning. He said McFarland Johnson is reviewing them today and he said both bids came in higher than the $175,000 grant amount. Adam also said he wanted to give a shout out to the Swanton fire department for taking care of a huge limb that came down at the Nativity Church. He also wanted to thank them for helping clean the swan pond because of the very hot and humid weather. Adam also wanted to remind everyone about the car show on 7/30 and National Night Out on 8/2.
Any Other Business: Chris Leach asked if the passing of Attorney Paul Guiliani would adversely affect the Village. Lynn Paradis said it will be a change in culture but said the staff at Primmer & Piper seem to be up to speed on government and bonding questions. Chris also asked if the Route 78 West project was still on schedule. Reg said they will be doing scarifying and blacktopping of the road until they do major repairs in a couple of years.
Any Other Business: Neal Speer said he worked at the Riveria Hotel property all day with the engineers and said they were top notch at getting the big tank out of the ground.
Any Other Business: Reg Beliveau informed the Board that Deb Larose from the Abenaki Nation went to the Town of Swanton and they voted to sponsor the grant application to renovate the back building.
Any Other Business: Lynn Paradis said she sent the Trustees the June financials and said purchase power is on track. She said she needs to get the highway department back on track and bring that budget back into alignment. She said all other departments were doing good.
- Executive Session to Discuss Personnel:
Adam Paxman made the motion to enter Executive Session to discuss personnel at 7:54 p.m. Chris Leach seconded.
Adam Paxman made the motion to exit Executive Session at 8:50 p.m. Chris Leach seconded. Motion carried.
ACTION TAKEN: None.
- Adjournment:
Adam Paxman made the motion to adjourn the Regular Board of the Trustees meeting at 8:55 p.m. Chris Leach seconded. There being no further business at hand, Neal Speer, Village President, adjourned the meeting at 8:55 p.m. Motion carried.
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Neal Speer, Village President Date
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Dianne Day, Village Clerk Date