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Trustees Meeting 12/13/21

  • Monday, December 13, 2021
    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

Monday, December 13, 2021

7:00 PM

PRESENT: Neal Speer, Village President; Adam Paxman, Trustee; Eugene LaBombard, Trustee; Chris Leach, Trustee; Reginald Beliveau Jr., Village Manager; Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager; Dianne Day, Village Clerk; Ken St. Amour, Ken Nolan; Gordon Winters and Ch. 16.

Unless otherwise noted, all motions carried unanimously.

  1. Call to Order:

Neal Speer, Village President, called the meeting to order at 7:03 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, November 22, 2021:

Chris Leach made the motion to approve and accept Minutes from Monday, November 22, 2021 as presented. Adam Paxman seconded. Discussion: None. Motion carried.

  1. Approve and Accept Village Warrants through Thursday, December 9, 2021:

Eugene LaBombard made the motion to approve and accept Village Warrants #112-#119 through Thursday, December 9, 2021 as presented. Adam Paxman seconded. Discussion: Adam Paxman asked about the payment made to Champlain Divers in the amount of $10,170. Reg Beliveau stated that was for diving services to inspect the clear wells and reservoir. Motion carried.

  1. Ken St. Amour – AMI Meter Presentation:

Ken St. Amour and Ken Nolan were present from VPPSA to give this AMI presentation to the Board. AMI stands for Automated Metering Infrastructure and Ken St. Amour said the Village has been working with him for over 3 years now on this. The Village plans on installing AMI meters for both electric and water/sewer meters. Mr. St. Amour discussed the timeline and said they hired Lemmerhirt Consulting in 2018, had some initial education meetings and did site visits and interviews. He also said in 2019 they worked on the analysis of work needed to implement AMI, attended Distributech and started the RFI process with 11 vendors. He said this was also evaluated by a large group of stakeholders. In 2020 they began the RFP process and narrowed it down to 3 vendors. After thorough evaluations and follow-up questions they went down to 2 vendors. He said they did reference checks and were ready for final vendor selection. He said they also began working on documentation preparation such as the cost/benefit analysis, cash flow analysis and cyber security issues. Mr. St. Amour said this year they have begun negotiations on complicated contract terms, multi-tenet model, statement of work, legal review, financing options and regulatory filing. He said they have chosen Aclara Solution as the vendor and went on to explain how electric meters with radios would be installed. Mr. St. Amour also explained how the network works and how the data is collected. He said instead of monthly consumption readings the Village will now be able to read meters every 15 minutes if needed. He said customers will be able to better track their usage and the Village will see power loads and adjust accordingly. He said the projected cost for this project is approximately $1.7 million dollars. He also showed the annual costs projected for the next 15 years.

Ken Nolan went on to explain the operational efficiencies and the regulatory side. He said the regulatory side is the driving factor because the legislature last year slipped energy issues into the transportation bill stating that every utility has to have either a specific rate for electric vehicles or a whole home time of use rate meaning rates that vary throughout the day implemented by 2024. He said it’s almost impossible to do with the historic mechanical meters and utilities have to go with an AMI meter where they get a 15 minute or hourly reading. Mr. Nolan said on the positive side once these meters are installed there are lot of benefits with time and analytic availability. He said VPPSA will be able to use this data for forecasting when they buy power on the open market. Mr. Nolan went on to discuss the electric and water AMI 15 year summary. He said benefits begin accruing in year 2 and continually increase through year 15 and cash flow is expected to be positive in 1.7 years and the AMI system payback is 5.71 years. He said because the Village is doing water as well they will see a better return. Ken said VPPSA will finance member utilities to do the AMI installation and they are hoping to get some ARPA funds to help defray the cost which is approximately $12 million dollars. He said they have asked the legislature for about $6 million dollars and said if they did get these funds it will be a 3 year payback period instead of 5.7. He said there are no guarantees but they are getting a pretty good response. He said they are talking to banks now about how they can structure the financing of this project on behalf of all their members and just have the utilities pay for it over time. Eugene LaBombard asked if the Village would need to go out for a bond vote. Lynn said she would on the water meters and they are hoping to lump that in with the river crossing water line job and will put it on the Village ballot. She said she wouldn’t have to for the electric meters. Ken said the timeframe for this project is sooner rather than later and they are working out the final details now. He said three utilities will do the install at the same time and contracts should be ready to be signed in the next few months. Reg said the Village has been working on this for a few years now and he appreciates all the work that has gone into this. Ken said the Village will move forward with this it’s just a matter of working out how they will structure the financing of it. Mr. Nolan said the next time they come in regarding this topic they will have contracts and financing options and more structure. The Board thanked both for their presentation.

  1. 2022 Budget Discussions:

Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager, said these budgets are not final and she is still fine tuning because she doesn’t have solid wage numbers yet. She said she has all her insurance rates and she is still finishing up her November financials. She said they’ve just renegotiated their uniform contract and will see a savings there, especially in the electric department. She said across all the budgets she has a COLA (cost of living adjustment) built in at 5.84%. She said every company is looking for help right now and there are some areas where the staff isn’t being paid competitively and could go some place else and make more money. She said she is trying to adjust those wages so they don’t lose good employees. She said that also affects social security and what they pay into retirement.

ELECTRIC FUND: She said she would highlight the bigger changes. She said she increased the hydro maintenance to $77,800 because there is work to be done on a generator and they will begin the start of a 5-year maintenance plan. She said the purchase power budget will be overbudget because of the dry summer they had. She said at this point they are almost $200,000 overbudget and that will end up being higher. She said VPPSA has budgeted them at $2.1 million dollars and they will also see a savings in 2022 because generation at the hydro plant is now behind the meter and they will also see a savings being 100% renewable. She also said the VPPSA administrative budget is up this year. She also said Workmans Compensation is down almost $9000. She said employee benefits such as retirement and dental have increased some and health insurance has gone down. She said interest on long term debt is down quite a bit and she will have a bond paid off in 2023. She said she doesn’t feel like she needs a rate increase in 2022 but she will revisit that in 2023.

WATER FUND: Lynn said under maintenance of reservoir she is decreasing that budget by $9000 because they only have to clean and inspect it every 5 to 7 years. She said her chemical budget is down about $12,000 because they are not using as many chemicals. Reg said there has been a change in the operator due to retirement and the new operator is monitoring the plant more and not using as many chemicals in how he operates. She said her maintenance of lines is up some because they have some hydrants and gate valves that need replacing. She said the employee benefits are going up a little bit in this fund. She said she hasn’t raised the water rates in a few years and there may be a slight increase in 2022.

SEWER FUND: She said there is an increase in the plant maintenance because a centrifuge needs work. She said that is done every 3 years. She said there is a reduction in their chemical budget as well. She said she has an employee retiring at the end of the year and the new operator has reduced the budget. She said the flows are down so their chemical usage is down. Reg said they have reduced the phosphorus levels as well. Lynn said she has increased maintenance of storm drains from $8,000 to $15,000. She said health insurance has decreased some. She said they also need to purchase a camera to be used in sewer lines.

HIGHWAY FUND: Lynn said the first three budgets she discussed are funded by rate payers and the highway fund and general fund are funded by taxpayers. She said grant income isn’t usually budgeted and because she knows they have a grant to do the bridge repairs she budgeted that this year. She discussed how she budgets their labor as well. She said health insurance has gone up in this fund because employees have made some changes. Transportation is up a bit because of some repair issues and gas and parts prices are up. She increased that budget some. She explained what was in the equipment budget.

GENERAL FUND: Lynn said the rent line item was down a bit and she said she removed some capital funds for building repair. She said property insurance was up a bit as well as health insurance. She said she will continue to budget for two part time summer help jobs.

FIRE DEPARTMENT FUND: She said the Town Fire Assessment is going up a bit and said this is based on the grand list split. She said if the Town grand list grows anymore it will change the split from 76%-24% to 77%-23%. She said the dispatching line item has stayed the same for another year, their workmans compensation is going down and they are asking for an increase in the transportation line item for repairs, tires, gas, etc. She said they are also asking to increase the equipment replacement fund and the radio equipment fund. She said they kept their personal protective equipment the same.

POLICE DEPARTMENT FUND: Lynn said the School Resource Officer position is partially funded through a federal grant so the line item amount is what will be billed to the high school. She said right now they have a full time SRO and a part time SRO officer. She also mentioned the Town Police Contract and are waiting to hear back from them on what they want for sure. She said she budgeted $13,000 for the fingerprinting they do. She mentioned the COPS grant and said she receives $41,667 and the fourth year is fully funded by the school. She said the telephone budget is increasing quite a bit and she has more work to do on that. She said property insurance has also increased as well as the liability insurance and health insurance. Workmans Compensation went down some. She said the transportation expense is up too and that’s because of the gas prices. She said they will be ordering a new cruiser in 2022 as well. She said when they try to stretch out the number of years they keep a cruiser they end up having to put too much money in them for repairs because they have so many hard miles on them. She said they get about 3 years out of a cruiser and less than 200k for miles. Reg said they’ve looked into electric vehicles but the alternator can’t run all the necessary equipment.

COMMERCIAL BUILDING FUND: Lynn said the only thing in this fund is the property taxes on the Riveria Hotel property.

ESTIMATED TAX RATES: General Fund tax rate is going from 0.0927 to 0.1010 for a change of $0.0083; the Fire Department tax rate is going from 0.0496 to 0.0515 for a change of $0.0601; the police department tax rate is going from 0.4210 to 0.4811 for a change of $0.0601; the Highway Fund tax rate is going from 0.3172 to 0.3477 for a change of $0.0305. She said the total tax rate would go from 0.8805 for 2021 to 0.9814 for 2022, about 10 cents on the tax rate. She said the main thing driving this tax hike is because of the workforce right now. She said if they don’t adjust labor rates in some of the department’s she said they are going to lose employees, specifically public works and the police department. She said the police department especially, some agencies are recruiting heavy and offering sign on bonuses and are actively pursuing employees, even here at the office. She said when an employee can leave here and make more money doing manufacturing there is a problem and she feels they will lose employees. Reg said they could face a mass exit. Chris Leach said his theory for 30 years has been to pay good wages to keep good employees. She said as the budget stands right now a $200,000 home would pay $103.08 per year for fire protection and $962.30 per year for police protection. She said people give the police a lot of flack but when your house gets broken into that’s who you want to call. She said the highway fund would cost $695.42 and the general fund would be $201.91 for a $200,000 home. She said she has never given the board a budget with this high of an increase so it was tough for her. The Board agreed that everything is increasing and said our wages need to be competitive in order to keep employees. Lynn said they have a really good staff right now and they want to keep them.

  1. Any Other Necessary Business:

Adam Paxman said the Fire Department held their annual Christmas party on Saturday, December 11th and presented Lindsay Potter with the 2021 Firefighter of the Year Award. He said she is the first female firefighter to receive this award and said it was well deserved. Reg stated he has worked with Lindsay quite a bit in fire prevention and he along with the board congratulated her. Adam also said Christmas in the Park was held on November 27th and said he went well with a good turnout. He wanted to thank everyone who helped to make this event happen and also thanked the Chamber of Commerce. He said his word for the week is FAMILY. He urged everyone to spend all the quality time they can with their family.

  1. Executive Session If Necessary:

None.

  1. Adjournment:

Adam Paxman made the motion to adjourn the Regular Board of the Trustees meeting at 9:28 p.m. Eugene LaBombard seconded. There being no further business at hand, Neal Speer, Village President, adjourned the meeting at 9:28 p.m. Motion carried.

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Neal Speer, Village President                            Date

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Dianne Day, Village Clerk                                Date