Trustees Meeting 6/24/24

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 SWANTON VILLAGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

SWANTON VILLAGE MUNICIPAL COMPLEX

120 FIRST STREET

SWANTON, VT 05488

REGULAR MEETING

Monday, June 24, 2024

7:00 PM

PRESENT: David Winchester, Village President; Eugene LaBombard, Trustee; Suzie Kelleher, Trustee; William “Bill” Sheets, Village Manager; Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager; Dianne Day, Village Clerk; Matthew Sullivan, Chief of Police; Heidi Britch-Valenta, Village Grant Specialist; Wayne Elliott & Jameson Haddad, Aldrich & Elliott; John Lavoie, and Ch. 16. Via Teams: Adam Paxman, Trustee; Liz Curry, Chevon Cooper, and Clemente Varas.

To watch this meeting in its entirety, go to Northwest Access TV on YouTube. Unless otherwise noted, all motions carried, unanimously.

1. Call to Order:

David Winchester, 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 he needs to add 10a. to the agenda to discuss and approve the police department using Stonegarden funds to purchase equipment.

4. Public Comment:

None.

5. Approve and Accept Minutes from the Monday, June 10, 2024 meeting as presented:

Eugene LaBombard, Trustee, made the motion to approve Minutes from the Monday, June 10, 2024 meeting as presented. Suzie Kelleher seconded the motion. Discussion: None. Motion carried.

6. Approve and Accept Village Warrants through Thursday, June 20, 2024:

Suzie Kelleher made the motion to approve Village Warrants through Thursday, June 20, 2024 as presented. Adam Paxman seconded the motion. Discussion: Adam Paxman asked about the payment made to VEPPI in the amount of $13,106.43. Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager, said that was for purchase power. She said they no longer accept checks for payments, so they have to do an ACH transaction. Motion carried.

7. Discussion with Liz Curry for Potential Sponsorship of VCDP Grant for Abenaki Headquarters:

Liz Curry introduced herself to the Board stating that she is a consultant for non-profits and municipalities and specialize in helping to redevelop properties. She said her goal is to assemble all the grants and financing while also coordinating projects and working with clients. She said she’s very focused on making sure the money is in the bank before they put a shovel in the ground. She said the goal of the Abenaki is to have a better space for their programming and for their food shelf. She said the pressure on the food shelf is very high and their building needs a lot of capital improvements such as a new roof, structural improvements, better efficiency and interior upgrades. She said all the grants that are needed for this are just about completed except for this Community Development Grant that they are asking the Village to consider being the pass through for. She said this is the last piece they need in order to fund the whole project. She said that is why they are here tonight, to ask for this consideration. Adam Paxman asked what they are specifically asking for. Liz said in order to access Vermont Community Development grant funds a municipality is the only one that can be the applicant. She said if the municipality agrees to sponsor the grant on behalf of the non-profit the Village will manage these funds. She said the Trustees would adopt a series of Resolutions and hold a public hearing and agree to pass the funds through to Maquam Bay. She said she would do the bulk of the administration and the Village’s attorneys’ cost are covered by the grant. Adam asked Lynn if she had any concerns about taking this on. Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager, stated the Village did this with the Blake Commons project and prior to her working here with the Swanton Central School project. She said the only problem she would have is the Village would have to do subrecipient monitoring of this grant because they are passing it through to Maquam. She questions whether or not it will trigger a single audit and she’s fairly certain they’re going to have one this year and next year. She said if they don’t and this triggers one, who would absorb those cost. She said that is the main question she has, and she asked if they would have to do a mortgage on the property and asked if this is truly a grant or a loan. Liz said it’s a grant and as far as the mortgage goes it’s more pre forma. Liz also said there are funds to cover the single audit if necessary. Liz said as far as subrecipient monitoring, she will manage most of the details and do all the reporting. Lynn asked if she would have to do year end reporting on this grant with community development. Liz said that is something she would help with. Lynn said she is comfortable doing this as long as herself, Heidi and Liz can work closely together. Lynn said she’s familiar with these because she’s worked on the Blake Commons one. Eugene LaBombard asked Heidi if she was comfortable with it. She said her only concern was if the Village applied for this grant, would it preclude them from applying for any other grants. She said that’s not the case so she is fine with the Village taking this on. Suzie Kelleher made the motion to authorize the Village of Swanton to sponsor the VCDP (VT Community Development Grant Program) grant for the Abenaki of Maquam Bay of Missisquoi. Eugene LaBombard seconded the motion. Discussion: John Lavoie stated the Abenaki have turned the corner on how things are run there and said they have all the right people in place. He said it’s nice to see them getting their respect back from people in the community who see the change. He said several community members donate to their food shelf who never have before and they feed approximately 700 people a month. He said his wife Debbie has written over $200,000 in grants so far this year for the food pantry. He said the Pow Wow was great and hopes to see it continue. He thanked the Board and said this will go to very good use. Suzie Kelleher stated she is a proud member and supports Abenaki and will continue to. Motion carried.

8. Wayne Elliott, with Aldrich & Elliott, will present Bid Analysis and Recommendation for Award for Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade:

Wayne Elliott and Jameson Haddad were present for this item. Jameson said he would run through the Bid Analysis and Recommendation for Contract Award No. 1. He said Kingsbury Companies, LLC was the lowest bid in the amount of $6,821,785.90. Jameson said the total project cost is $8,507,491.05. He said this contractor appears to have adequate financial backing, bonding company appears viable and their review found Kingsbury to be acceptable. A&E has worked with Kingsbury Companies, LLC on multiple past projects and is confident in their ability to perform the work. Jameson said it is their recommendation to award this contract to Kingsbury Companies, LLC in the amount presented. He said their job progress must stay on schedule and they recommend monthly job meetings with owner, contractor and resident representative. He said contractor’s job superintendent is to be consistent and on the job site at all times while work is being performed as well as the resident representative. Jameson said after all grants and subsidy’s are applied to this project the total project CWSRF loan will be $5,651,917.21. Eugene LaBombard made the motion to award the Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade contract to Kingsbury Companies, LLC in the amount of $6,821,785.90 and also moves to authorize Village Manager William Sheets to sign all necessary documents pertaining to this contract. Suzie Kelleher seconded the motions. Discussion: Bill Sheets, Village Manager, asked if the centrifuge would be installed soon. Wayne Elliott said he would find out and let him know. Motion carried.

9. Swanton Village Police Department Update with Chief Matthew Sullivan:

Chief Matt Sullivan was here for this presentation and handed out the statistics for the month of May 2024. The police department responded to 179 incidents in the Village. The top ten calls for service were 12 suspicious person/circumstances, 7 citizen assist, 25 directed patrol,18 traffic stop, 15 community outreach, 6 trespassing, 8 welfare/suicide check, 7 agency assistance, 7 crash, property damage, and 7 juvenile problem. He said they conducted 18 traffic stops issuing 1 ticket and 18 warnings and made 7 arrest charges with 7 individuals.

Matt said they responded to 321 incidents in the Village and Town and the top ten calls for service were 79 directed patrols, 27 traffic stop, 26 suspicious person/circumstance, 26 community outreach, 19 agency assistance, 13 motor vehicle complaint, 11 welfare/suicide check, 9 juvenile problem, 8 disorderly conduct, and 8 property watch. He said they conducted 27 traffic stops, issuing 9 tickets and 23 warnings, had 12 arrests charges with 11 individuals. Matt said they worked an additional 12.8 hours for the Town.

Matt showed the Board the speed data results from South River Street. He said they measured 14,232 vehicles from May 30^th through June 13^th. He said out of those vehicles 6,704 went above the 40-mph speed limit. He said it showed the following:

41-50               6,128 = 43%                

51-60               508 = 3.5%                  149 between 1600 - 0200

61-70               34 = 0.24%                  10 between 1600 - 0200

71-80               7 = 0.05%                    2 between 1600 - 0200

81-90               27 = 0.19%                  8 between 1600-0200

Matt said most of this information isn’t surprising and said they will continue to monitor and ticket offenders. Chief Sullivan then showed the speed data results for Maquam Shore Road. He said they measured 18,489 vehicles from May 14^th to May 30^th. He said it showed the following:

41-50               7,578 = 41%                

51-60               867 = 4.7%                  362 between 1600 - 0200

61-70               82 = 0.44%                  47 between 1600 - 0200

71-80               13 = 0.07%                  13 between 1600 - 0200

81-90               58 = 0.31%                  38 between 1600-0200

91-100             2 = 0.01%                    2 @ 2000

101+                2 = 0.01%                    1800, 2000

He said this is concerning and will continue to have directed patrols in these trouble spots during specific times. Chief Sullivan said he didn’t have much of an update on the situation VSP had going on on Elm Street other than the suspect has not been caught yet. He said this is a VSP first degree domestic assault case that happened outside the Village and ended up on Elm Street. David Winchester, Village President, asked if there was anything they could do in the future to inform residents as to what is going on. Matt said that’s difficult to do when another agency is the lead. He said this is something they don’t have control over and he said the other thing here is that he doesn’t want people to think this is an anomaly. He said these things happen on a regular basis here and in the State. He said recently they had an incident where a male was pushed to the ground by a juvenile, they had an aggravated domestic assault at Marble Mill, they had an aggravated assault on a juvenile, and they had an incident where an individual pointed a gun a one of his officers. He said people need to understand these are the things they are dealing with and you can’t put out too much information or you could jeopardize the situation. He said the best thing to understand is if you’re seeing a large police presence in your area, stay inside and remain calm. Suzie Kelleher also said if you see something, say something. She said don’t post it to social media without first calling your police department. They also talked about the incident that happened at Swanton Recreation and how it ended up being juveniles who ended up hitting a stop sign and mailbox while trying to flee the officers. He said it’s been very busy and is labor intensive. They also talked about a system that could notify residents through their cell phones in case of an emergency. Matt said Burlington PD tried it and didn’t have much luck with it and said he would need to rely on VSP to send the information. Chief Sullivan said this case that just happened on Elm Street was a situation amongst people who all knew each other and not random individuals. He said as far as being armed; most Vermonters are armed.

10. Approve Purchase and Upfit of New Vehicles/Equipment in Police Department Utilizing Operation Stonegarden Funds not to Exceed $113,874.00:

Chief Sullivan said they partner with the Border Patrol department and work a detail called Operation Stonegarden on their time off. He said they’ve received federal funds for this grant through the Department of Public Safety and it’s a certain amount of money split between the agencies that work for the Border Patrol. Matt said last year in the Swanton sector, which covers all of Vermont, eastern New York and New Hampshire, had 7000 encounters with illegal aliens and this year they’ve already had 10,000 encounters. He said the pace has picked up substantially. Matt said the Stonegarden grants go for three years, and the funds need to be spent by the end of September of this year. He said in the past anything purchased for the Stonegarden operation could only be used for that. He said they have lifted those rules, and the police department can now use these assets in their department as well as Stonegarden. He said they have a total of $113,874 and would like to purchase a pickup truck, a trailer and a UTV. He said this UTV will come in handy for the rail trail as well. Suzie Kelleher made the motion to approve the Swanton Village Police Department to purchase a pickup truck, a trailer and a UTV with Stonegarden grant funds not to exceed $113,874. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Motion carried.

10 a. Approve Purchase of Night Vision Goggles in Police Department Utilizing Operation      Stonegarden Funds not to Exceed $62,559.75:

Chief of Police Matt Sullivan said they’ve also been awarded Stonegarden grant funds from the Department of Public Safety in the amount of $62,559.75 and would like to purchase five sets of Night Vision Goggles. He said these goggles are a huge advantage to the department while working Operation Stonegarden as well as working a boat detail. Suzie Kelleher made the motion to approve the purchase of five sets of night vision goggles in the amount of $62,559.75. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Motion carried.

11. Discuss Initiative for Village of Swanton Collecting and Donating Items to the Two Food Shelves in Swanton:

Suzie Kelleher stated this is her project for the Village employees to donate food or money to the two local foods shelves in Swanton, the Abenaki food shelf and the Church of Nativity food shelf. She said the department who donates the most will be treated to pizza for lunch. She said she added a food donation component to the block party so that Swanton residents can donate to that as well and those donations would be split between the two food shelves also. Eugene LaBombard made the motion to approve this food donation initiative for Village employees to be held between July 1^st and July 15^th, 2024. Adam Paxman seconded. Motion carried.

12. Bridge B-6 Construction Update:

Bill Sheets, Village Manager, informed the board that July 10^th is the start date for this project. He said we are in the process of notifying as many companies and citizens as possible about this project and subsequent bridge closure. Our Public Works has ordered all detour signs, and we have secured the required number of variable message boards, which will arrive on July 1^st. This will have a significant impact on our public works team but will result in significant savings to our citizens. Chief Matt Sullivan has begun to finalize his traffic calming/traffic management plan for this closure. We held our pre-construction meeting this morning with all involved with this project and we are on schedule.

13. Review and Approve the Sale of 2.6 Acres of Land in the Town of Fairfield:

Bill Sheets, Village Manager, informed the Board that the Village of Swanton has owned an approximately 2.6-acre parcel of land, abutted Pond Road, and located on both sides of Whites Camp Road, in the Town of Fairfield, since approximately 1908. This land was acquired as it was important to the development and control of the Fairfield water line. This water line was the main source of water for the Village of Swanton for several decades. The Village of Swanton transitioned from Fairfield Pond to Lake Champlain as a primary source of water by 1979, when the Water Treatment facility was built on Maquam Shore Road.  He told them the assessed value of this land is $160,700. Bill said the Village of Swanton proposes to sell this parcel to the Town of Fairfield for $1, as this property offers no benefit for the Village of Swanton or its citizens. Bill then explained the advantages of selling this property. He said the Village pays $2480 annually in taxes to the Town of Fairfield. He said if they sell the property the Village won’t be responsible for a share of bridge and road maintenance for Whites Camp Road because they both need repair. He said the public works crew will no longer be responsible for cleaning out debris located at the concrete dam or mitigating the local beaver population there. He also said the Village will have no further liability for future issues with the dam located on this property. Suzie Kelleher made the motion to authorize Village Manager, William Sheets, to sign a Quitclaim Deed between the Village of Swanton and the Town of Fairfield, conveying a certain parcel of land located in the Town of Fairfield. She also moved to authorize the Village Trustees to sign the Notice of Proposed Sale and publish as required by law. Adam Paxman seconded the motions. Discussion: If no petition is presented to the Village of Swanton Clerk within 30 days of the date of posting and publication of the Notice prescribed by 24 V.S.A. § 1061, Village Manager William Sheets is authorized to sign the quitclaim deed on behalf of the Village of Swanton and deliver said deed along with associated necessary documents to the Town of Fairfield, Vermont to thereby convey any and all title, rights and interests the Village of Swanton now has in the parcel of land described within the presented quitclaim deed to the Town of Fairfield, Vermont in exchange for One U.S. Dollar from the Town of Fairfield. Motions carried.

14. Village Manager Update:

Missisquoi River Crossing:  G.W. Tatro kicked off this project today, beginning the mobilization and staging phase. As a reminder this project will first focus on the drilling, followed by the connection of the new water line from Foundry to Canada, via Webster Terrace. The contractor will keep access to the boat launch as long as possible. We will have signage out once the launch is officially closed.

W. Scott Mueller Hydro-Electric Summer Internship program:  On 05/29 we interviewed candidates at MVU, selecting one to work as a summer intern in this program. Once again, thank you to Attorney Paul Nolan, who started this initiative by donating $2,500 annually. Unfortunately, the intern who accepted this position later declined to accept another offer and the other candidate failed to respond. This internship will be unfilled this year and we will try again next year. If there is a member of the public who has an interest this year, please reach out directly to us to discuss.

Dry Hydrant Fire Department Request:  This is moving along exceptionally well, with all permits in place to proceed. There will be a site visit on July 9^th at 1:00 PM to provide final analysis to approve the $10,000 grant. Everyone seems to support this project currently.

6 South River Street:  The Request for Proposals (RFP) are due back on July 1^st. We will provide further updates at our July 8^th Trustees meeting. We have more work to do with the ECAA (Evaluation of Corrective Action Alternatives) and working with the NRPC, who manages Brownfields funding, we believe the best approach is to do that collaboratively with the selected developer.

Wastewater:  All bids have been received. The apparent low bidder is Kingsbury Construction. We have a Total Project Cost Summary, using expected funding prior to final design approval, which could have an impact on subsidy/grants. The centrifuge has been delivered and is on site, we will make that portion of the project a priority.

Merchant’s Row:  The handicap ramp for Merchant’s Row has been installed. We have taken care of lighting, added handicap parking spaces, added railings and finally added the handicap ramp. This is in advance of the improvements scheduled for construction in 2025.

20 Foundry Street: It has come to our attention, following a land survey of 20 Foundry Street, that a portion of our fence at our Foundry Street Wastewater Pump Station, is on the 20 Foundry Street property. The best solution is for us to move our fence onto our property. Jason Starr will be working to do this as quickly as possible.

Hydro:  We have the new control ring for Unit 1. This will be installed once water levels go down.

Public Works: The team continues to work on all things related to the bridge closure. The Pine Street sidewalk is nearly done, the sidewalk has been poured, with some minor work remaining. For pickleball nation, we will be providing two sheets of pressure treated plywood for their practice area. We have applied to the State of Vermont leak detection program again in 2025, as part of our continued analysis of our infrastructure.

Water: The Water/Wastewater team, along with maintenance teamed up for a multi-day project for a deep clean of one of their two clarifiers. The other one will be cleaned next year. They continue to work on their written emergency action plans, as well as other required maintenance and equipment upgrades.

Electric:  The Electric Department continues to be busy with various projects. The new vault has been installed and power provided to the new Green Mountain Bistro. They will be ready to make all the lighting improvements once the security package is approved. We hope to get that in front of the Trustees within the next month. They are ending maintenance and trimming season and are now into construction season, with several projects. They are starting on installing poles for DCU’s for the AMI project.

15. Any Other Necessary Business:

Suzie Kelleher gave an update on the Block Party she’s organizing and said banners have been put up. She also stated she will hold a Promote Swanton meeting on June 28^th at 6 p.m. at the Village Complex.

Dianne Day, Village Clerk, stated the Village received some Open Meeting Law changes from VLCT to take effect July 1, 2024. She said some of the changes made were adding the Northwest Access TV recording of their meetings to the website as well as putting information on the website giving instructions on how to submit notice of an open meeting law violation. She said another change imposes annual training requirements for the Village President and Village Manager which take effect in January of 2025.

16. Executive Session to Discuss Contracts:

Suzie Kelleher made the motion, seconded by Eugene LaBombard, to go into Executive Session at 8:51 p.m. to discuss contractual issues where premature general public knowledge of the subject matter would place the Village at a substantial disadvantage. Motion carried.

Suzie Kelleher made the motion, seconded by Eugene LaBombard, to exit executive session and re-enter open session at 9:41 p.m. Motion carried.

ACTION TAKEN: Suzie Kelleher made the motion, seconded by Adam Paxman, to authorize Village Manager Bill Sheets to sign the contract with Wiemann & Lamphere Architects in the amount of $325,245 for architectural design services and engineering coordination for 124 First Street to be paid by the electric department. Motion carried.

17. Adjournment:

Adam Paxman made the motion to adjourn the Regular Meeting of the Board of the Trustees meeting at 9:45 p.m. Suzie Kelleher seconded. There being no further business at hand, David Winchester, Village President, adjourned the meeting at 9:45 p.m. Motion carried.

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David Winchester, Village President                  Date

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Dianne Day, Village Clerk                                Date