Trustees Meeting 1/29/24

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 SWANTON VILLAGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

SWANTON VILLAGE MUNICIPAL COMPLEX

120 FIRST STREET

SWANTON, VT 05488

REGULAR MEETING

Monday, January 29, 2024

7:00 PM

PRESENT: Neal Speer, Village President; Chris Leach, Trustee; Adam Paxman, Trustee; Eugene LaBombard, Trustee; William “Bill” Sheets, Village Manager; Dianne Day, Village Clerk; and Ch. 16. Via Teams: Suzie Kelleher, Guest.

Unless otherwise noted, all motions carried, unanimously.

1. Call to Order:

Neal Speer, Village President, called the Village Board of Trustees meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

2. Pledge of Allegiance:

Everyone in attendance stood for the Pledge of Allegiance.

3. Agenda Review:

Bill Sheets, Village Manager, stated that the Police Chief had an emergency so they need to reschedule his report to the Trustees. Strike #8.

4. Public Comment:

None.

5. Approve and Accept Minutes from the Regular Board Meeting held on Monday, January 8, 2024 as presented:

Adam Paxman made the motion to approve the Minutes from Monday, January 8, 2024 meeting as presented. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Discussion: None. Motion carried.

6. Approve and Accept Village Warrants through Thursday, January 25, 2024:

Eugene LaBombard made the motion to approve Village Warrants through Thursday, January 25, 2024 as presented. Chris Leach seconded. Discussion: None. Motion carried.

7. Approve 2024 Annual Warning:

Neal Speer, Village President, read the following Annual Swanton Village Warning:

VILLAGE OF SWANTON

ANNUAL WARNING

The legal voters of the Village of Swanton are hereby warned and notified to meet at the Swanton Village Complex, 120 First Street, Swanton, Vermont on Tuesday, March 5, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. to vote on the articles set forth. All articles are to be voted by Australian Ballot. The polls open at 7:00 a.m. and close at 7:00 p.m.

 Article 1:         To elect from the legal voters of said Village the following officers:

                        President for a 1-year term

                        Trustee for a 3-year term

                        Clerk for a 1-year term

                        Collector of Delinquent Taxes for a 1-year term

Article 2:          Shall the voters of the Village of Swanton appropriate $173,825 for the

                        operation and maintenance of the General Fund for 2024?

Article 3:          Shall the voters of the Village of Swanton appropriate $691,290 for the operation and maintenance of the Highway Department for 2024?

Article 4:          Shall the voters of the Village of Swanton appropriate $88,480 for the operation and maintenance of the Fire Department for 2024?

Article 5:          Shall the voters of the Village of Swanton appropriate $998,967 for the operation and maintenance of the Police Department for 2024?

Article 6:          Shall general obligation bonds or notes of the Village of Swanton in an amount not to exceed Fourteen Million Eight Hundred Thirty-Three Thousand Six Hundred Thirteen Dollars ($14,833,613), subject to reduction from the application of available state and federal grants-in-aid and reserves, be issued for the purpose of financing the cost of constructing a new public safety facility for the Swanton Village Police Department and the Swanton Fire Department, the cost of such improvements estimated to be Fourteen Million Eight Hundred Thirty-Three Thousand Six Hundred Thirteen Dollars ($14,833,613)?

The legal voters of the Village of Swanton are further notified that an Informational Meeting will be held on Monday, February 26, 2024 at 7:00 PM in person and via Teams for the purpose of explaining all the Budget items to the voters. There is also Teams Meeting access for this meeting. Anyone desiring to participate & listen in on the meeting can do so by going to the Village’s website at swantonvt.gov, click on Village, Village Trustees and find the meeting by date. Open the agenda and click on the meeting link.

Dated at Swanton, Vermont this 29th day of January 2024.

Neal Speer, President______________________      Chris Leach, Trustee________________________

Eugene LaBombard, Trustee __________________ Adam Paxman, Trustee______________________

Received and filed this 29th day of January 2024

_____________________________

Dianne L. Day, Village Clerk

Chris Leach made the motion to approve the Swanton Village Annual Warning for the March 5, 2024 vote as presented. Adam Paxman seconded. Motion carried.

8. Swanton Village Police Department Update:

Tabled until the March 25, 2024 Board Meeting.

9. Review and Acknowledge 4^th Quarter SQRP Report:

Chris Leach acknowledged the 2023 4^th quarter SQRP Report and stated the Board had reviewed it. He said this is a report card on how the Village provides electric billing and how they respond to electric work orders. Chris stated good job done by everyone involved.

10. Review and Approve Abenaki Maquam Bay of Missisquoi’s Coin Drop for May 2024:

Eugene LaBombard made the motion to approve the Abenaki Maquam Bay of Missisquoi’s coin drop request for Saturday, May 11, 2024 with a rain date of Saturday, May 18, 2024. Chris Leach seconded. Motion carried with two yays, one nay.

11. Village Manager Update:

Town of Swanton:  January 16, 2024, letter to the Village of Swanton President and Board of Trustees from the Swanton Town Selectboard. This is a letter from the Swanton Selectboard highlighting their January 10, 2024, public forum related to the future of policing. This letter was read for the Trustees and will be attached to the minutes for public records. The letter read as follows:

Gentlemen: In response to your proposal for 24/7 police coverage, our public hearing held on January 10, 2024 as well as additional public input received, we wanted to provide a summary of the discussion and conversations.

There were over 50 people in attendance with an additional 20 or so attending via Zoom. The discussion focused on the existing 56 hours a week schedule, the new 70 hours per week schedule as well as the mirrored coverage of 24/7 coverage for both the Town and Village.

There was a good exchange of conversation and ideas brought forward. Overall, it seemed to be the consensus of those present that the 24/7 coverage proposal presented to the board is not affordable at the present time. There was also some concern over the 70-hour coverage, however that was perhaps more due to the cost given the increase in a variety of other areas of property taxes. The Selectboard explained why the 70-hour coverage works better as it relates to management of the shifts of the PD. The Selectboard informed the audience that we are in support of the 70-hour coverage and urged them to vote for it on Town Meeting Day.

The audience was informed that as the Town grows, we will eventually have to grapple with the issue of 24/7 coverage and reach a fair and equitable solution.

The proposed public safety complex was discussed only in the frame of the cost, and we did not get into specifics as it was explained it is a Village project and none of the Selectboard is qualified to give any details on the project. It is the opinion of the Selectboard as well as the general public opinion we have heard, is that the police station is currently grossly inadequate, but the cost seems to be a factor having people in opposition.

Going forward, we look forward to working with you in addressing the public safety needs of both the Town and Village of Swanton.

Sincerely, Town of Swanton Selectboard – Earl Fournier, Chair; Steve Bourgeois, Vice Chair; Nicole Draper; Cody Hemenway; and Joel Clark

Public Safety Facility and Complex Renovations Open Houses: We have completed twenty-two open houses. We have five more additional dates in February (Feb 2, 7, 15, 16 and 21 at 10am, 2pm and 6pm) for a total of eighteen remaining.Three of these open houses occurred following the decision to trim the request down from the original request, and request bonding for phase one, the public safety facility only.

Open House Flyer (mailer):  We are working with ReArch to finalize our mailer. To reduce costs we will print, fold, and mail these in-house, and will get these sent out within the next few weeks.

Swanton Village Organizational Chart:  I have completed an updated Org chart, reflecting our forty full-time, nine part-time and 30 Volunteer Fire Department personnel. This Org chart will be included in our Village report as a visual staffing chart. We have also placed large copies of this at both Swanton Village Municipal Office entrances.

Invoice Cloud Statistics: (2023 Year in review) We use Invoice Cloud for our customer billing.

Forty-eight percent of customers made an online payment in 2023, which represents 10 percent over 2022.

Twenty-two percent of customers converted to paperless invoices.

Seventeen percent of customers enrolled in Autopay in 2023, a 21 percent increase over 2022.

Water Department Job Posting:  Interviews for the water department opening are this Wednesday. The expectation is that we will require the now two positions in the water department, as well as our two wastewater treatment plant operators, to be fully certified to operate both plants, and to fully participate in the on-call rotation.

Aldrich and Elliott:  Due to federal regulations Vermont Public water systems are required to inventory all drinking water service lines that connect homes /buildings to the water system. This must be completed by October 16, 2024. Aldrich and Elliott are our engineers who are in the process of completing this survey (handout for trustees).

EV Charging Station:  We have received limited response from our current level 2 vendor and have no current path forward to add a billing method. We still do not have the ability to charge people, as the previous credit card station failed multiple times. We have been in contact with our current vendor (Control Module Inc. out of CT), who have yet to provide a quote to get the card charging feature reactivated. We will continue to request a proposed solution; I request we place these chargers in “out of order” status until we have a plan in place. Heidi has completed the pre-application for level 3 chargers both for 120 Frist Street and 74 Merchants Row.

Options for the Trustees now include:

1. Keep the charging stations offline, effective 2/1/24, until we have a plan moving forward.
2. Pay for customer usage until we either,
   1. Reactivate the credit card feature on the device.
   2. Wait until we install a level three charger with grant funding.

Chris Leach made the motion to have the EV Charging Stations located at the Village Complex to be shut off effective February 1, 2024 unless another donor comes forward to pay for it. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Motion carried.

Downtown Parking Update:  As we discussed previously, we have installed an additional streetlight on the parking lot side of 74 Merchant’s Row. The handrail kits for installation on the left side of Merchants Row, to aid people with accessibility, have arrived. Dan Chevalier and his maintenance team will be removing the bent railing and installing the six handrails within the next few weeks.

VHB:  We had a meeting last week with VHB, our vendor for downtown enhancements. They provided us with a preliminary presentation, with an expected public outreach/education starting in late March or April of 2024. As a reminder all construction is likely to occur in the calendar year 2025. There are four primary objectives within this project.

-Three way stop at Canada and First Street

-A shortened crosswalk at Canada towards Cody’s/Bob’s Quick Stop

-A crosswalk at Marble Mill with traffic control, and the crosswalk on the north end of Merchants Row being moved to the south by several feet

-The sidewalk in front of parts of Merchants Row would be bumped out twelve feet, with some parking changes and one-way traffic when you some up the hill from the bridge.

FERC Process:  We continue to make progress and we have filed all supplemental habitat study reports with the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR). We have an in-person (with an online option) for our FERC attorney, supported by our subject-matter expert consultants on February 26^th at 10 am here at our complex. This meeting is the next step in the process to obtain our water quality certification through ANR prior to FERC re-licensing. Chris Leach stated they should contact their local representatives to help put pressure on the State.

Micro Transit:  We have had an ongoing discussion with Amy Brewer and her partners about Micro Transit possibilities for the Village of Swanton. I will be sending you the report and map electronically. This is an exciting project that will require more discussion in 2024 and 2025. Area partners wish to expand possibilities from the City of St. Albans to the Village of Swanton.

Total Eclipse:  The State of Vermont is assisting in planning and preparation (no statewide events are planned) for the April 8^th Solar Eclipse. There is no school on that date. There will be a partial eclipse from 2:14 PM until 4:37 pm, with a total eclipse at around 3:26 pm, for approximately 3 minutes and 30 seconds in our area.

12. Any Other Necessary Business:

Eugene LaBombard asked how the Village Annual Report was going. Dianne Day, Village Clerk, stated it would be sent off to the printers this week.

Any Other Business: Adam Paxman said while cleaning up the Christmas lights in the park he noticed how many of the trees are in sad shape. He said they need new trees for the park and asked about the tree replacement plan they had in place. He said he wants to revisit that plan and said he would talk with Frank Shumway and Hank Lambert about this. Adam also stated he would like for the candidates for Trustee and President attend the February 26^th informational meeting and introduce themselves.

13. Executive Session to Discuss Personnel and Real Estate:

Chris Leach made the motion to enter Executive Session at 7:57 p.m. to discuss Personnel and Real Estate. Adam Paxman seconded. Motion carried.

Chris Leach made the motion to exit Executive Session at 8:20 p.m. Adam Paxman seconded. Motion carried.

ACTION TAKEN: None.

14. Adjournment:

Eugene LaBombard made the motion to adjourn the Regular Meeting of the Board of the Trustees meeting at 8:41 p.m. Chris Leach seconded. There being no further business at hand, Neal Speer, Village President, adjourned the meeting at 8:41 p.m. Motion carried.

_____________________________________    _______________________________________

Neal Speer, Village President                            Date

__________________________ ________         ____________________________________

Dianne Day, Village Clerk                                Date