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Trustees Meeting 10/15/20

  • Thursday, October 15, 2020
    7 PM – 9 PM

Village Trustees

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SWANTON VILLAGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

SWANTON VILLAGE MUNICIPAL COMPLEX

120 FIRST STREET

SWANTON, VT 05488

REGULAR MEETING

Thursday, October 15, 2020

7:00 PM

PRESENT: Neal Speer, Village President; Chris Leach, Trustee; Adam Paxman, Trustee; Eugene LaBombard, Trustee; Reginald Beliveau Jr., Village Manager; Dianne Day, Village Clerk; Joanne Parah Reiter; Ron & Sandy Kilburn; George & Priscilla Connelly; Michelle Nordberg; Betsy Fournier; Gordon & Debbie Winters; and Channel 16.

Unless otherwise noted, all motions carried unanimously.

  1. Call to Order:

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

  1. Pledge of Allegiance:

Everyone stood for the Pledge of Allegiance.

  1. Agenda Review:

None.

  1. Public Comment:

None.

  1. Approve and Accept Minutes from Monday, September 28, 2020:

Chris Leach made the motion to approve and accept the Minutes from Monday, September 28, 2020 as presented. Adam Paxman seconded. Discussion: Chris Leach asked if any progress has been made regarding the beach on Maquam Shore. Reg Beliveau stated he found out the harvester won’t work there. He said he discussed this with Mr. George. Motion carried.

  1. Approve and Accept Village Warrants through Friday, October 9, 2020:

Adam Paxman made the motion to approve Village Warrants through Friday, October 9, 2020 as presented. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Discussion: Chris Leach asked about the payment made to the Town of Swanton for $71,901. Reg Beliveau explained this was for taxes. Eugene LaBombard asked about the payment made to Attorney Tim Hawkins for $32,576.34. That was for the Riviera Hotel property purchase. Motion carried.

  1. Discussion on Request to Reinstall Art Boards:

Priscilla Connelly stated that at the July 27th meeting regarding taking down the art walls there was discussion on the importance of the art walls in the community. She said herself along with her husband George have learned a lot since then. She said the art walls were up for five years and had very little problems until this past spring. She said there was nothing in place such as a policy to work with and they understand the board took this on and made a decision to take the boards down. She said they’ve come to understand that they want to really try and get these boards back by working with the board so they don’t have a repeat of what happened in the spring and summer. Priscilla said they decided to form a group of five people and have been working on this for the last few weeks. She said they’ve been researching what other towns have done and have come to a conclusion that a memorandum of understanding would be very helpful in addressing issues like they had in the spring. She said they are here tonight to ask if they can get going on this, are you open to it and are you ready. She said they’ve discussed where the boards might go, what size they’ll be and if there can be different sizes. She said they’ve talked about having an appointed person, having a plaque there so people know the artist and having time limits and what to do when a boards is whitewashed. Reg Beliveau stated he wanted to clarify the term as “resetting” not whitewashing. Michelle Nordberg said they are trying to work out some guidelines but are here to ask if the board is willing to move forward with the discussion. Neal Speer stated the decisions this board has made were in the best interest of the community and said they were advised by legal council to take the boards down. He said they appreciate them coming in tonight but during the whole upsetting situation they never saw the Arts Council. He said as far as moving forward they are going to have to present something to the board that really tantalizes them because they took all the heat for the removal of the art walls when they were doing it in the best interest of the community. He said if anything goes forward with this someone would have to be the responsible party for dealing with it because the board doesn’t want to be hit again like they were last time. Priscilla said her understanding was that the boards would be taken down in July but would be revisited in January. She said they are coming in as community members saying they will do the work necessary to get them reinstalled. She said she wants them to know they are working with the board not against them and wants their support. Adam Paxman stated the board felt their decision was the best thing to do back in July for the safety of everyone involved. He said he did say they would revisit the issue in January and said he would like to see a proposal in January of what their plans are. Priscilla asked if their proposal could be handed in before January and Adam said that would be fine. She said they are researching this issue and doing their part. Michelle said they are not asking the board to defend their position they are here tonight to move forward. She said the original arrangement with the Arts Council is separate from them, they are independent community members who may be affiliated with the Arts Council either separately or independently. Chris Leach said he and his wife loved seeing the art walls and enjoyed seeing local artist display their art. He said if he was to be in favor of this there would have to be a board to filter and be responsible for the content in case anything went awry those individuals would take the heat and not the Village. He also said the criteria for what’s art and what’s a political message has to be clearly defined in their proposal. He said he doesn’t feel the boards should be on Village owned property. Priscilla said they are asking for these boards to go on Village and Town property not privately owned property. Reg Beliveau said he would work with the individuals and be a conduit and bring Chief of Police Joey Stell in as well. He said they would have to follow zoning regulations and go from there. Sandy Kilburn said she understands the reasoning as to why the boards came down but said personally she misses the boards. She said unity is needed now more than ever and said the swans on Canada Street are beautiful. She said she has heard many people say they miss the boards. Priscilla asked about the existing boards and the one that was damaged. Reg said the boards were taken down and one was unintentionally damaged because it was in concrete. He said they would repair it. Adam said he wished this conversation would have happened earlier and thanked them for coming in tonight. Eugene LaBombard said he appreciated the letter and said it was very well written and easy to understand. He said the board would soon be working on budgets so he encouraged them to get something to them before budget season begins. George Connelly introduced himself and said he worked along with Priscilla and Michelle and would like to get the art boards reinstalled with law and order and rules and regulations. He said they want to make their jobs easier and more manageable if there are violations to the art walls. Chris Leach said the concept of ownership should be addressed and asked if artist could sign their work. Joanne Reiter said she was part of the Arts Council when the boards went up five years ago and they didn’t anticipate the things that are happening now in 2020. She said they didn’t foresee any controversy and they’d like to pave the way for things to be easily cleaned up if they run into issues. Ron Kilburn said he’s just a citizen sitting and listening. He said they’ve all been through hard times the last couple of weeks and it makes him sad, it drains his energy and leaves him feeling hopeless. He said he feels much better just knowing there are people trying to do the right thing and he offered his help if they need it. They discussed meeting with Reg on October 27th and will let the board know when they have a proposal to offer.

  1. Discuss Invitation to Participate in Municipal Roads Grants-In-Aid Program:

Reg Beliveau explained that Vermont’s Regional Planning Commissions (RPC), the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Agency of Transportation (VTrans) invite the municipality to participate in the Municipal Roads Grants-In-Aid Program. This program provides funding for municipalities to implement best management practices in compliance with the DEC Municipal Roads General Permit. He said Swanton Village would be eligible to receive $5375. Chris Leach made the motion to authorize the Village of Swanton to participate in the Municipal Roads Grants-In-Aid Program as presented. Adam Paxman seconded. Motion carried.

  1. Discussion on Northwest Vermont Communications Union District:

Reg Beliveau explained to the Board that he was contacted by the Regional Planning Commission to assist with the formation of a Communication Union District in an effort to bring high-quality, high-speed and reliable internet access to communities in Franklin and Grand Isle Counties. He said areas of focus are the Enosburg area and Washington County. He said there is no financial risk to the taxpayer or municipality. Eugene LaBombard asked if anyone would identify the problem areas. Michelle Nordberg stated this was a topic for discussion for the Town Selectboard at their last meeting and said a list of underserved areas was sent to Elisabeth Nance, Economic Development Coordinator. Eugene LaBombard stated that if the Town is going to join this why should the Village. Neal Speer stated that if they are looking for Village representatives to fill seats that would be difficult because they are already on several boards and commissions as it is. Reg Beliveau stated he would talk to Elisabeth and get more information regarding this. The board agreed to table this item until more information was gathered.

  1. Sign Letter of Intent for Stormwater Project #8711:

Eugene LaBombard made the motion to move forward with the Stormwater Project #8711 and authorized Village Manager Reginald Beliveau to sign the letter of intent to participate in a public-private partnership with Pomerleau Real Estate (Hannaford’s Supermarket) and the Village of Swanton to manage stormwater. Adam Paxman seconded. Motion carried.

  1. Discussion on Noise, Chicken and Farm Animal Ordinance:

Reg Beliveau explained that the Village had received complaints about roosters in the Village as well as noise complaints from tenants in local apartment houses. Because there is no noise ordinance in place it has been difficult to manage. He said they would like to bring back some civility to the Village and get an ordinance in place that will help with that. Reg stated there were a couple of points in the Noise Ordinance that they would change such as using jake brakes and trash removal. Adam Paxman stated he would like to have two ordinances in place, one for noise and one for farm animals. Village Clerk Dianne Day stated there were issues with the chicken/farm animal ordinance such as having to get permits and stated most communities had that built into their zoning regulations. She said she contacted the zoning office and they don’t have any regulations for this. It was decided that Village Clerk Dianne Day and Lt. David Kachajian would continue to work on the ordinances, as well as work on revoking all the old ordinances on the books and revise everything at once. It was decided that this topic would be kept on the agendas until all ordinances were updated.

  1. Discussion on Village Parks and Beach:

Reg Beliveau stated a while back he had a discussion with Betsy Fournier and Debbie Winters about helping out with Marble Mill Park. He provided the board with the contribution list that Rise VT has given for Marble Mill totaling $38,000 since 2016. He said some of the events they have held there include an Ice Cream Social, Community Survey for Marble Mill, Dam Duck Derby and Pickle Ball. Betsy Fournier stated they’ve been discussing how they invest in their local parks and they are utilized to their full potential. She said they’ve created so much wonderful infrastructure in the community but still have areas that aren’t as nice or utilized like they should be or given as much investment as the others. She said they’ve been working on how to make that a better place so that people want to go there. She said they have a master plan but it comes down to grants and needing matching funds. She said Swanton Beach is another asset that needs attention. She said people want to live here and if you invest in your parks it will help help the tax base as well. She said there are so many events held on the Village Green and asked why aren’t these events spread out to other parks and areas? She said they are here tonight to ask for a Park Capital Fund budget. She said there is vegetation at Marble Mill that needs to be taken out and the fence needs repair. She said this would help when applying for grants because it would show that Swanton is investing in their parks as well. She said the five member public works crew can’t keep up with all this and suggested maybe hiring another person to maintain the parks. Gordon Winters said he commends the Village for what they’ve done in the last few years and shown that they want to invest in Swanton. He said it’s not just Marble Mill, it’s all areas. He said they are asking them to consider putting money in the budget to keep this going. He said after it’s built into the budget it gets easier especially after seeing what has been done. He said he’d like more in the budget to cover more than just mowing and maintenance. He said once a year a project could be done capital wise not just maintenance wise. He said its commendable that the Trustees took the step and purchased the Hotel Riviera property. He said that’s something that was long overdue but a hard thing for a municipality to do. He said getting that property ready for a developer to take it over will be a  huge asset for many years to come. He said new residents living here notice nice sidewalks, mowing and trimming and this would be beneficial to everyone. Neal Speer stated you can’t see Marble Mill from the road and it would be a big improvement cleaning up all that sumac that’s grown up there and relatively easy to accomplish. Betsy said she has a budget of approximately $22,000 to get done some clearing of vegetation, fixing the fences, and removing the guardrails in the parking lot. She said they don’t sell there parks very well. She googled Swanton parks and nothing really came up. She said there are so many assets that need to be sold so people know how nice these things are. She said this information should be on the Village website and suggested maybe the Swanton Enhancement Project could help with marketing these assets. Sandy Kilburn said she liked the idea of focusing on all the parks in the Village. She said it would be nice to do some of the activities at Marble Mill and at the Beach also. Debbie Winters said details matter and people notice when a community takes an interest in their assets. She said they now have a master plan for Marble Mill and have always known they would have to work on it over a number of years. She said they need to start somewhere and by creating a capital line item in the budget for this would help get some of these things done. She said if they can start picking away at it then the community will start seeing things happening there and will want to invest. She said you need to prove to the community that something great will happen like they did with the playground campaign. Ron Kilburn said he’s been going to Marble Mill lately to take pictures. He said he met a woman who showed up there to have a picnic with her grandson and asked him if it was a safe place to bring him and eat. He told her it was and he said that was nice to see. He said he also noticed the graffiti was painted over and said it looks very nice. He said the Abenaki stone canoe monument had some stones knocked over and he was glad to see that someone had fixed that too. It was decided that they would talk with Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager, about putting a capital line item into the budget for park improvement.

  1. Any Other Necessary Business:

Adam Paxman stated Halloween in the Park will be held on Saturday, October 31st from 5 to 7 p.m. He said he would have an update on Christmas in the Park at their next meeting.

Any Other Business: Chris Leach said he missed the Totem pole being erected in the park but said it looks very nice. He said he talked with the Postmaster about a drive up mailbox and was told there are rules and regulations about the locations for each postal mailbox. He said they can’t change a route or move a mailbox.

Any Other Business: Reg Beliveau presented the Board with the Village’s COVID-19 Work Policy. He also said VT 211 can be called Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for emotional support. He also mentioned the Village was seeing a pretty good response to the grants for unpaid and past due electric balances that create a risk for disconnection. The website to apply for the VCAAP grant is www.publicservice.vermont.gov.

  1. Executive Session if Necessary:

None.

  1. Adjournment:

Chris Leach made the motion to adjourn the Regular Board of the Trustees meeting at 8:53 p.m.  Adam Paxman seconded. There being no further business at hand, Neal Speer, Village President, adjourned the meeting at 8:53 p.m. Motion carried.

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Neal Speer, Village President                            Date

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Dianne Day, Village Clerk                                Date