Trustees Meeting 5/8/23

Web version

SWANTON VILLAGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

SWANTON VILLAGE MUNICIPAL COMPLEX

120 FIRST STREET

SWANTON, VT 05488

REGULAR MEETING

Monday, May 8, 2023

7:00 PM

PRESENT: Neal Speer, Village President; Adam Paxman; Trustee; Chris Leach, Trustee; William “Bill” Sheets, Village Manager; Matthew Sullivan, Chief of Police; Priscilla & George Rogow, SPAN; and Ch. 16.

Unless otherwise noted, all motions carried unanimously.

1. Call to Order:

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

2. Pledge of Allegiance:

Everyone stood for the Pledge of Allegiance.

3. Agenda Review:

Neal Speer stated that Tim Smith, FCIDC, could not make the meeting tonight and the Swanton Armory Update with Cpt. Tiffany Ferrer, US Army, couldn’t make it either. He said both those items would be rescheduled.

4. Public Comment:

None.

5. Approve and Accept Minutes from Monday, April 24, 2023 as presented:

Adam Paxman made the motion to approve the Minutes from Monday, April 24, 2023 meeting as presented. Chris Leach seconded. Discussion: None. Motion carried.

6. Approve and Accept Village Warrants through Thursday, May 4, 2023:

Chris Leach made the motion to approve and accept Village Warrants #43-#46 as presented. Adam Paxman seconded. Discussion: None. Motion carried.

7. Tim Smith, Franklin County Industrial Development Corporation (FCIDC) Update:

Will be rescheduled.

8. Swanton Village Police Department Update:

Chief Matt Sullivan provided the Board with handouts showing in the month of March the Village Police Department responded to 99 incidents in the Village; conducted 13 traffic stops; issued 4 tickets and 12 warnings and made 8 arrest charges. The top ten incident types were 13 suspicious person/circumstances; 13 traffic stops; 8 citizen assist; 8 welfare/suicide checks; 7 community outreach; 7 theft; 6 information reports; 5 motor vehicle complaints; 4 agency assistance; and 4 citizen disputes. He said in the month of March the Village Police Department responded to a combined 184 incidents in the Town and Village; conducted 27 traffic stops; issued 16 tickets and 21 warnings and made 30 arrest charges. The top ten incident types for both were 27 traffic stops; 22 suspicious person/circumstances; 16 community outreach; 13 agency assistance; 12 welfare/suicide check; 9 citizen assistance; 8 information report; 8 thefts; 8 motor vehicle complaints; and 6 DUI alcohol or drugs.

Chief Sullivan showed that in the month of April the Village Police responded to 100 incidents in just the Village; conducted 9 traffic stops; issued 1 ticket and 9 warnings and had zero arrest charges. He said the top ten incident types were 11 suspicious person/circumstances; 11 information report; 9 traffic stops; 6 citizen assistance; 5 agency assistance; 5 alarms; 5 crash w/damage; 5 welfare/suicide check; 4 community outreach; and 4 directed patrols. He said for the Town and Village combined there were 225 incidents; conducted 35 traffic stops, issued 8 tickets and 29 warnings; made 3 arrests and had 6 arrest charges. He said the top ten incident types for both the Town and Village were 35 traffic stops; 28 directed patrol; 18 suspicious person/circumstance; 14 agency assistance; 13 information report; 9 community outreach; 9 citizen disputes; 9 alarms; 9 crash w/damage; and 8 motor vehicle complaints. He said the Town asked how they track where they are patrolling when they do a directed patrol so he is having his officers put that information into the system as well. Chief Sullivan said in general the officers are doing a great job. He said some of the drug work they have been involved in caught the attention of a human trafficking specialist so one of his officers is now working on getting a Homeland Security Investigator’s pass work and they are looking forward to having a federal partnership which will help in getting officers up here to help with some of their investigations. He said he is in the process of doing

an evidence room audit and it is very tedious and will take quite a bit of time. He said they currently have two officers at death investigation school and it will be great having them certified. He said as of now it’s himself and Officer Gagne who are certified. He said they recently completed patrol rifle qualifications and participated in the Big Rig event. Chief Sullivan said as far as the drug activity in the Village and/or the Town, he feels his officers have pushed it out of the Village and more into the Town and surrounding communities. He said there are two target locations his officers are currently working on at this time. Discussion took place on the “suspicious person/circumstance” call for service. Chief Sullivan said that’s kind of a catch all for when someone calls with a concern or complaint and officers respond to it. He said it's hard to actually track the data on that because it could mean several different things. Adam asked if the thefts were in a specific area. Chief Sullivan said he would need to read the narrative on the case to see where they are located and said he would try and get more details on that. Neal Speer asked if the new Rail Trail head will add incidents to the police department. Chief Sullivan said he didn’t think so but said it would definitely have more use. He said there may be injury calls and figuring out how to access the trail but didn’t think it would affect his department too much. The Board thanked the Chief for his update.

9. Swanton Army Update with Cpt. Tiffany Ferrer, US Army:

Will be rescheduled.

10. SPAN Request to Paint Outside Walls of Maquam Beach Outhouse:

Priscilla and George Rogow, members of SPAN, were present for this discussion. They talked about painting sunset scenes on the bathhouse there as well as painting the concrete benches that are there. She said flowers, butterflies, dragon flies, etc. would be added over time. They discussed what would be painted and the Board suggested maybe windsurfing, boats, etc. They also talked about incorporating swans into one of the paintings. The Board agreed that this was a great idea and approve SPAN painting at the Maquam Beach. Priscilla said they are looking forward to getting started and will begin once the water is turned on at the beach house for Memorial Day weekend. The Board thanked her for coming in and said they look forward to seeing the artwork there.

11. Village Manager Update:

Swanton Village Manager William “Bill” Sheets, gave the following updates:

1. 6 South River Street: We received the SSI (Supplemental Site Investigation) report from KAS. There are some additional soil mitigations that will need to occur. The study identified some lead and some benzopyrene and the soil in that area (shallow) will need to be removed. This report must be reviewed by VT DEC and the timeline to have a draft Corrective Action Plan (CAP) in place is October of 2023. Any plans to sell this property will occur in 2024. Bill said the Village would apply for Brownfield funds to help defray the cost for this. He also said they would do an RFP this summer. They also talked about how the CAP would get done. Chris Leach said it seems like there is no end to all the issues and that they’re being preyed upon. Bill said the Village is responsible as owners of the property and said it would get done.

2. Heidi Valenta-Britch started part-time today and will migrate to her full-time role on June 1^st. She is already paying dividends based on past relations with a number of people, to include the USDA.

3. 124 First Street: Weimann Lamphere work continues, the RFP is out to select a Construction Manager. The small building on the property has been torn down and the aggregate tower is next. Civil engineering is underway, and a stormwater analysis will be one the first steps on overall design and building placement.

4. Ecopixel: The new website is progressing well. Internally we will review the website on May 11^th and then receive training on May 18^th. We will conduct a final review on May 25^th. The launch date is tentatively set for May 31^st.

5. BFA Building Trades: Two classes will be touring both the WWTF and our Hydro facility. We hope to continue to provide tours for the trade schools to engage students who might be future employees.

6. Monday May 15^th (Governor’s cabinet tour): Heidi and I will be going to Richford at 0900 on the 15^th for the Governor’s kickoff. Secretary Flynn will be holding an open house at Highgate airport from 11:30 to 1:30. We will be hosting Agency of Commerce members here at 1300 hours and will take a tour of the downtown area (Gordon’s Champlain building). We will also highlight existing projects and have a conversation about overall economic development.

7. Adjustments at the water plant. For employee safety we are adjusting staffing to ensure that Tod Jones is not operating the plant alone, specifically during any high-risk operations. Avery will be working 50 percent of his time at the Water plant, with the other 50 percent at Maintenance and Hydro. We will test this, at no cost to the taxpayer, for the rest of the year to determine whether we can make this work for all three sections of the organization.

8. Safety Committee/training updates: Our safety committee has been up and running for the past couple of weeks, with safety officers named in each section. We have attended a significant amount of training with more to follow soon.

9. MicroTransit: Brian Savage and I attended a meeting last Friday where we will combine with St. Albans to work with agencies to get Micro Transit set up. This will take at least a year to pilot and any pilot would last for three years.

12. Any Other Necessary Business:

Neal Speer said he wanted to add that he attended the SEP meeting last week at the Abenaki headquarters and they were very well received by Debbie Dubois Lavoie. He said they toured the food pantry and said it was a great place to hold a meeting. He said they also got to meet Chief Joanne Crawford as well. Neal said Hank Lambert and other SEP members wanted to thank the community for all their participation. Neal also wanted to thank David Shea for doing such a great job at 6 South River St. and said the fencing came down today.

Any Other Business: Adam Paxman said the Memorial Day parade is Monday, May 29^th at 2 p.m. He said if you’re interested in joining them be at the Mary Babcock school at 1:45 for line up. He said the Flags for Veterans will go in Saturday at 9 a.m. on May 27^th and will come down June 3^rd. He said the Chamber of Commerce office will be open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. beginning May 15^th.

13. Executive Session to Discuss Personnel and Real Estate:

Adam Paxman made the motion to enter Executive Session at 8:07 p.m. Chris Leach seconded. Motion carried.

Adam Paxman made the motion to exit Executive Session at 9:13 p.m. Chris Leach seconded. Motion carried.

ACTION TAKEN: None.

14. Adjournment:

Chris Leach made the motion to adjourn the Regular Meeting of the Board of the Trustees meeting at 9:14 p.m. Adam Paxman seconded. There being no further business at hand, Neal Speer, Village President, adjourned the meeting at 9:14 p.m. Motion carried.

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Neal Speer, Village President                            Date

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Dianne Day, Village Clerk                                Date