Trustees Meeting 7/22/24

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 SWANTON VILLAGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

SWANTON VILLAGE MUNICIPAL COMPLEX

120 FIRST STREET

SWANTON, VT 05488

REGULAR MEETING

Monday, July 22, 2024

7:00 PM

PRESENT: David Winchester, Village President; Eugene LaBombard, Trustee; Adam Paxman, Trustee; Suzie Kelleher, Trustee; William “Bill” Sheets, Village Manager; Heidi Britch-Valenta, Grant Specialist; Matthew Sullivan, Chief of Police; John Lavoie, Brenda Perretta Gagne, Abenaki Chief; Melody Ferland and Ch. 16. Via Teams: Liz Curry

To watch this meeting in its entirety, go to Northwest Access TV on YouTube. Unless otherwise noted, all motions carried, unanimously.

1. Executive Session to Discuss Contract – 6 p.m.:

Eugene LaBombard made the motion to enter executive session at 6:00 p.m. to discuss contracts. Suzie Kelleher seconded the motion.

Suzie Kelleher made a motion to exit executive session at 6:38 p.m. Adam Paxman seconded the motion. Motion carried.

ACTION TAKEN: None.

2. Call to Order –7 p.m.:

David Winchester, Village President, called Village Board of Trustees meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

3. Pledge of Allegiance:

Everyone in attendance stood for the Pledge of Allegiance.

4. 7:00 P.M. - Call to Order Public Hearing on Village of Swanton Making Application to the State of VT for an Implementation Grant Under VCDP for the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi:

David Winchester, Village President, called the Public Hearing on Village of Swanton Making Application to the State of VT for an Implementation Grant Under VCDP for the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

5. Public Comment for VCDP Grant:

Bill Sheets, Village Manager, stated he needed a motion to approve the Resolution for VCDP Grant Application that the Village will do on behalf of the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi. Adam Paxman made the motion to approve and sign the Resolution for VCDP Grant Application Authority between the Village of Swanton and the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi. Suzie Kelleher seconded. Discussion: John Lavoie thanked the Village for doing this for the Abenaki Nation. He said it’s needed and is the last piece of the puzzle they need to get started on this project. Liz Curry said they can begin their project and said a new roof is needed as well as some structural work and can then begin their energy efficient retrofit working with VT Gas to install a heat pump, insulation and a new furnace. Liz said the food pantry needs walk in coolers, an electrical upgrade and a better loading dock. She said in the program area they need to raise the ceiling and put it back to its original state because of its historical value. She said the walk in area also needs some work and needs to be ADA compliant. Liz said so far they have approximately $750,000 but need about $1.2 million for everything to get done. She said design and development is about 90% complete at this time. Brenda Perretta Gagne, Chief of the Abenaki Nation, said she wanted to thank the Trustees and said this is all about the community. She said they help everyone, not just Abenaki members. Adam Paxman said he has people asking how they can go and see what’s going on there. John Lavoie said they are open Monday, Wednesday and Friday and said anyone can stop by and visit and see what’s going on there. He said the new building will have displays to show their historical items and information. Motion carried unanimously.

6. Adjourn Public Hearing on VCDP:

Adam Paxman made the motion to adjourn the Public Hearing on VCDP at 7:12 p.m. Eugene LaBombard seconded the motion. Motion carried.

7. Agenda Review:

None.

8. Public Comment:

None.

9. Approve and Accept Minutes from the Monday, July 8, 2024 meeting as presented:

Suzie Kelleher made the motion to approve Minutes from the Monday, July 8, 2024 meeting as presented. Adam Paxman seconded the motion. Discussion: None. Motion carried.

10. Approve and Accept Village Warrants through Thursday, July 18, 2024:

Eugene LaBombard made the motion to approve Village Warrants through Thursday, July 18, 2024 as presented. Suzie Kelleher seconded the motion. Discussion: Suzie Kelleher said she was going to read her email from Lynn Paradis about some questions she had regarding the warrants. Warrant #72 NHDOT E-ZPass for $16 what department is this for. Lynn wrote for interstate tolls when the electric apprentices go to NEPPA for their training. Hudak Farm $2,119.50. Lynn answered for the beautification committee which comes out of the parks budget. Kasey Mactavish for $131.76. Lynn answered that is an electric refund to a customer. Bill Sheets, Village Manager, stated he wanted to add that the Trustees approved them spending $5000 for the Swanton Enhancement beautification committee. Motion carried.

11. Discuss Towing Rotation with Cota’s Towing Service Between Swanton Village and Swanton Town:

Bill Sheets said the background on this is that a request has been made directly to him and Chief Sullivan from Mr. Cota for reconsideration on how they do the towing rotation. He said when there’s an accident the practice has been to ask the individual what preference they have for a towing company and as long as it’s not two hours away they do that. He said in the event they don’t have anyone to call, the officer would call dispatch and will use a towing rotation and whoever is up next in the que gets the call. He said the request here tonight is to modify the rotation and restrict it a bit more. Mike Cota said depending on the dispatcher’s schedule there is a company that uses two different fictitious business names. He said Stone’s goes by Stones, Benoit Towing and Townline Towing. Mike said he wasn’t sure why VSP allows this and named the list of companies on the list. Mike said Stone’s would come from Fairfield to the Village. Mike suggested the Village and Town use the businesses that are in this town, who pay taxes here. He said there is his business as well as TDI. Chief Sullivan said his system has a list that Central is supposed to use. He said when they ask for the next company in line that’s who they get. Adam Paxman asked if they could just create their own list and Chief Sullivan said yes they could. Adam said here in Swanton they have Cota’s, TDI and Jami’s Auto and wants to use our local businesses. Mike said this is very fair to him and said he doesn’t believe Jami’s Auto wants to be included. He said he does tow sometimes but other times he calls Mike to tow for him. Suzie Kelleher made the motion to create a Swanton Wrecker Call Out Rotation list that includes Cota’s and TDI, unless their other local garage (Jami’s Auto) wants to be included. Adam Paxman seconded the motion. Motion carried. Mike Cota thanked the Board.

12. Swanton Village Police Department Update with Chief Matthew Sullivan:

Chief Matt Sullivan was here for this presentation and handed out the statistics for the month of June 2024. The police department responded to 147 incidents in the Village. The top ten calls for service were 21 suspicious person/circumstances, 12 directed patrol, 10 citizen assist, 10 family fight/domestic, 9 community outreach, 9 citizen dispute, 8 traffic stop, 8 juvenile problem, 7 welfare/suicide check and 6 theft.  He said they conducted 8 traffic stops issuing 5 tickets and 6 warnings and made 12 arrest charges with 10 individuals.

Matt said they responded to 266 incidents in the Village and Town and the top ten calls for service were 52 directed patrols, 28 suspicious person/circumstance, 22 traffic stop, 16 community outreach, 15 citizen assist, 12 family fight/domestic, 11 agency assistance, 10 welfare/suicide check, 10 juvenile problem and 9 citizen dispute. He said they conducted 22 traffic stops, issuing 21 tickets and 15 warnings, had 4 arrests associated with traffic enforcement and 27 arrest charges with 20 individuals. Matt said they worked an additional 12 hours for the Town. He said he also provided the speed data for Beebe Road from July 16^th to July 22^nd. He said there were 17,588 vehicles measured and out of that 4,781 were above 45 mph.

46-55               4,548 = 25.9%             

56-65               190 = 1.1%                  59 between 1600 - 0200

66-75               19 = .11%                    10 between 1600 - 0200

76-85               5 = .028%                    3 between 1600 - 0200

86-95               2 = .011%                    1 between 1600-0200

96+                  5 = .028%                    0 between 1600-0200

Chief Sullivan went on to show the board the different times of day the vehicles were speeding. He said this is good information to have for enforcement purposes. He said some of this information is concerning but overall he’s pleased how people responded to this detour. He said there was very little backup of traffic. Adam agreed and said he saw people being kind and courteous. Adam asked about the suspicious person category in the Village being higher than normal. Chief Sullivan said he would need to look at each call because this is kind of a catch all category. Adam said he had a few people reach out to him and said the tractor trailer trucks aren’t as popular now with the detour so thought they may have taken alternative routes. He said he hoped it stayed that way.

13. Discussion on Purchase of Police Department Morale Coins:

Suzie Kelleher stated these are actually challenge coins but she named them morale coins. She showed the Board coins that belong to her husband and also showed the coin that she designed. She said this is a military tradition and said when you are in a unit you get this for doing a good job and it is a symbol of belonging to that group. She said it’s a morale booster. She said in the police department it’s more about sharing them with other department members much like they do with patches. She said she would like to purchase some for the department members as a token of camaraderie. She said she has done a cost analysis and the coins she’s looking at would cost $541 for 100 of them. She said the Chief would get them and hand them out as he sees fit. Suzie concluded that the police and fire department challenge coins are not just a symbol but a testament to the dedication of our departments. By adopting this tradition, we honor our shared commitment to serving and protecting our community. She said she proposes they move forward with the creation and distribution of these coins to enhance morale within their departments. Chief Sullivan said he appreciates Trustee Kelleher initiating this and said it’s really nice and a lot of officers do collect the coins and have quite a collection. Adam Paxman made the motion to approve the purchase of these morale coins, not to exceed $1,000. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Discussion: They talked about the Fire Department getting coins also and Adam amended his motion to state “not to exceed $1,100” in case the Fire Department decided to order coins as well. Motion carried.

14. Review and Acknowledge 2^nd Quarter SQRP Report:

Suzie Kelleher stated they have reviewed and acknowledged the 2^nd Quarter SQRP Report and said the Village is doing phenomenally good. She said three errors out of 12,000 bills is very impressive.

15. Village Manager Update:

B-6 Bridge update:  July 10^th was the start date for this project. Traffic control continues to be effective. We are in day 13 and approximately 140,000 vehicles have successfully navigated this detour and one has not. We had one young operator rear end another at the Beebe Road intersection, with the root cause being inattention.

Dirt Tech is ahead of schedule, and we are waiting for the subcontractor, Nikon, to arrive on Tuesday morning the 23^rd to install the asphaltic plug in both expansion joints. This is largely weather dependent, and we are hoping that the rain holds off until tomorrow afternoon. If this portion of the project is successful, we will turn the bridge over to our Electric Department and Public Works on Wednesday and open the bridge to all traffic Wednesday evening.

Public Works will do what they can to fill in any potholes on the bridge and the Electric Department is cleaning the existing lights and adding new lights to both ends of the bridge.

Public Works is out daily managing signage and adjusting, as needed. Police are spending significant time monitoring and performing traffic calming functions. The speed cart has been deployed throughout in a couple different locations. We will be fully prepared to open the bridge as quickly as possible.

Missisquoi River Crossing:  G.W. Tatro kicked off this project on June 24th, and they have completed nearly all the work on the Canada Street/Webster Terrace side of the bridge and have connected to the main line on Canada. They have also connected on Foundry Street and are making their way down Foundry towards the boat launch. They have installed a temporary water line for Foundry Street residents that has passed state standards for drinking water. The boat launch remains officially closed. The subcontractor, Henniker Directional Drilling, who will be doing the drilling work, is scheduled to arrive on site on July 29^th. The project remains on time and is scheduled to be completed in September. Our next progress meeting is tomorrow at 11:00 am, but we connect daily onsite for updates.

Wastewater:  Our preconstruction meeting with Kingsbury Construction, and all parties, will be held here at the Village complex tomorrow afternoon. We anticipate officially kicking that project off soon.

Hydro:  We are still waiting for the water levels to go down before installing the new control ring on Unit 1. With the continued rain we are maximizing generation over draining the penstock and getting unit 1 back online.

Stump dump/burn pile: For awareness purposes we continue to have occasional issues while trying to burn brush at the stump dump located off Route 7, on Village property. The current expectation is that this location be used by Swanton residents only. We understand this restriction is not being followed. We are struggling to keep up with burning the piles, which we are permitted to do. When we do burn, we try to do it in ideal conditions to lessen the impact on our neighbors. Earlier today, we did receive a complaint from a resident in the area, who complained of the smoke. I traveled to the scene, and it was smoldering more than burning. As a result, I asked FD Chief Dan Chevalier to extinguish the fire, which the FD did immediately. We need to add this to a future meeting as an agenda item. In the interim, we should explore all options for the best way to manage this important community resource moving forward. Options worth exploring include signage restricting outside residents, reinstalling the gate, restricting hours, adding acreage for a waste (no burning) pile.

MVU Career Fair:  Five of us will be representing the Village at their career fair on July 26^th from 10 to 12. This is another opportunity to highlight the variety of job offerings that we have within the Village.

16. Any Other Necessary Business:

Adam Paxman said he had seen the video that Chevon Cooper had done with David, Dianne and Bill regarding Charter changes and board member changes. He said he was discouraged to say the least because if there was talk about changing Trustees why weren’t any of the Trustees invited. He said he would have a conversation with Chevon if he could ever find her and said if they’re concerned about transparency there wasn’t any. He said he got the impression she was trying to get things changed as quickly as possible. David Winchester, Village President, said he took it more as a Q&A session as to what the process would entail and how to go about it. Adam said he would encourage her to reach out to him or he can her, to have the same courtesy.

Any Other Business: Suzie Kelleher said regarding the Block Party she has spoken to the band and they prefer to be in the bandstand in the park. She also said the food drive at the Village went good and she split the food and dropped off to the Church of Nativity and Abenaki Food Pantry. She said she collected $270 in cash and went to Hannaford’s and purchased $269.99 in food. She said the Church requested things like crackers, coffee, cake and brownie mixes and the Abenaki Food Pantry requested things like peanut butter crackers, granola bars and canned goods. She said everyone did great and she is very pleased with the results. She also mentioned the Car Show being held in the park on Saturday. Adam said they are praying for good weather. He also mentioned the Citizens Band playing in the Village Green on Wednesday, July 31^st from 7 to 8 p.m.

17. Adjournment:

Suzie Kelleher made the motion to adjourn the Regular Meeting of the Board of the Trustees meeting at 8:18 p.m. Adam Paxman seconded. There being no further business at hand, David Winchester, Village President, adjourned the meeting at 8:18 p.m. Motion carried.

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David Winchester, Village President                  Date

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Dianne Day, Village Clerk                                Date