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Trustees Meeting 12/28/20

  • Monday, December 28, 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

Monday, December 28, 2020

7:00 PM

PRESENT: Chris Leach, Trustee; Adam Paxman, Trustee; Eugene LaBombard, Trustee; and Reg Beliveau, Village Manager. Via Zoom: Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager; and Elisabeth Nance, Economic Development Coordinator; and Ch. 16.

Unless otherwise noted, all motions carried unanimously.

  1. Call to Order:

Chris Leach, Village Trustee, 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, December 14, 2020:

Eugene LaBombard made the motion to approve and accept the Minutes from Monday, December 14, 2020 as presented. Adam Paxman seconded. Discussion: None. Motion carried.

  1. Approve and Accept Village Warrants through Wednesday, December 23, 2020:

Adam Paxman made the motion to approve Village Warrants through Wednesday, December 23, 2020 as presented. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Discussion: None. Motion carried.

  1. Approve Village of Swanton Delinquent Tax Collector to use Attorney Vaughn Comeau if Necessary for Upcoming Tax Sales:

Eugene LaBombard made the motion to approve Delinquent Tax Collector Betty Cheney to use Attorney Vaughn Comeau for upcoming Tax Sales if necessary. Adam Paxman seconded. Motion carried.

  1. Economic Development Coordinator – Grant Information Update:

Elisabeth Nance informed the Board that the consultant for the Downtown Scoping Study wants to make sure they’re on the right track with all alternate plans. She said there will be a zoom meeting on January 27th from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. when they present the alternative projects. She said they can pick pieces and parts of different ones and see if any of them make sense to do. She said she wants people to have the opportunity to see what they have been working on. Adam Paxman asked if the Agency of Transportation is involved. Elisabeth said they will be invited to the meeting. She said there is a one-time grant opportunity called Better Places and has no match. She said the idea is to use funds from this grant and do some of those quick demonstration projects. She mentioned a few of the projects they could work on such as reverse parking and crosswalks. She said she would like permission to do the application which is due January 22nd. She said projects need to be completed by August 2021. Adam asked if she is expecting to receive the max amount of this grant. She said she’s anticipating $15,000 to $20,000. Reg said they need to notify VTrans ahead of time in case they have any issues. The board agreed that Elisabeth will go ahead and apply for the grant with Better Places. She then mentioned the Better Connections grant which does have a 10% match. Better Connections is an integrated planning process that funds municipal efforts to increase multi-modal transportation options, improve land use, water quality, public health, and economic vitality in Vermont’s community centers. She said this helps to provide targeted assistance to connecting places and connecting people. She said she would like permission to go ahead with the Letter of Intent for the Better Connections grant. The Board agreed to this as well. Adam asked where they were at with the MVU sidewalks. Elisabeth said they have an upcoming meeting but said it’s moving right along. Chris Leach asked if she had an update on the Carroll Concrete property and the Riviera property. She said she will be talking to Carroll Concrete next week and said she has a meeting with the Brownfield people in January regarding the Riviera.

  1. Discuss 2021 Draft Budgets:

Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager, said the only big change she had was on page 19 in the police department budget. She said she will be renaming the line item “cruiser lease” to “equipment lease”. She said they do have a cruiser that will be paid off in September and she added the fingerprint machine lease to that so it brought it up some. She said other than that she went through and fine-tuned the salaries more and said she put in for a 3% increase. She said there were some savings in the health insurance rates as well. She said she would like the Trustees to adopt the budget at their first meeting in January. Adam asked how the water and wastewater rates are looking. Lynn said the year-to-date numbers are not final yet but will be as soon as our cycle 4 billing goes out the end of December and that will help those revenue numbers. She said sewer will come in with less revenue but there is money in the bank in that fund. She said she is hesitant to raise sewer rates because of the economic climate they’re now in. Adam said he noticed testing in the sewer fund was up and asked if that was because of phosphorus. Lynn said they need to test more things this year in the water department and the state requires more testing in the sewer department as well. She explained in more detail what testing would be done in each of those departments.

She said the General Fund is anticipating a tax rate for 2021 of 0.0931 which is up from 0.0811 for a difference of 0.0120; the fire department is going from 0.0497 to 0.0498 for a difference of 0.0001; the Police Department is going up to 0.4249 from 0.4228 for a difference of $0.0021; she said the Highway Fund is level funded and their new truck will come out of their savings account. The rates in that fund are the same as last year, 0.3186. She said in total they are looking at an increase in the tax rate of just under a penny and a half. She said she feels they have what they need in the budget and it’s not asking too much from their taxpayers given the COVID environment they’re in. She said the basic services will stay on track. She said Ace Hardware added to the grand list. She said a home assessed at $150,000 would see an increase of $21.25; a home assessed at $200,000 would see an increase of $28.33 and a home assessed at $175,000 would see an increase of $24.79. Adam asked her to show taxes on homes assessed at $200,000, $250,000 and $300,000. She said she would update that information. The Board thanked her for all her work on the budgets.

  1. Any Other Necessary Business:

Adam Paxman said the park lights will be coming down Saturday, January 9th and if anyone would like to help just show up and help. He asked Reg if there was an update on the relicensing for the Hydro Plant. Reg said not at this time, everything is at a standstill. Reg also said one of the Trustees would need to fill out a questionnaire for the auditors.

Any Other Business: Eugene LaBombard asked if there was an update on the broadband topic. Reg stated Elisabeth would sit in on the meetings to gather information for both the Town and the Village. Eugene said they are looking for a representative so they can actively support this issue. He feels it’s a very important issue because there are places with no broadband services. He urged someone to step forward and help with this. Reg said they would need to join the CUD in order to help. Reg said just because they have chosen to not join the district at this time, they should still gather information.

Any Other Business: Chris Leach said he noticed there isn’t an American flag in the park. Reg said they have one on order because the other one was tattered. Chris also said as far as the drive-up mailbox issue goes the Post Office is in a terrible deficit right now so they aren’t able to add anything. He said because they have mailbox pick up available to their residents, they can’t set up a drive thru mailbox at this time. He said not all community’s have this feature available to them.

Any Other Business: Reg Beliveau stated he received a call about the crosswalk by York and First Streets and said it’s very difficult to see people in it during the evening. It was suggested they have flashing lights there as well. He said he would look at what they can do there.

  1. Executive Session If Necessary:

None.

  1. Adjournment:

Adam Paxman made the motion to adjourn the Regular Board of the Trustees meeting at 8:15 p.m. Eugene LaBombard seconded. There being no further business at hand, Chris Leach, Village Trustee,  adjourned the meeting at 8:15 p.m. Motion carried.

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Neal Speer, Village President                            Date

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Dianne Day, Village Clerk                                Date