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Trustees Meeting 8/8/22

  • Monday, August 8, 2022
    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, August 8, 2022

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; Elisabeth Nance, FCIDC. Via Zoom: David Kull, MacFarland Johnson.

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, July 25, 2022 as presented:

Adam Paxman made the motion to approve and accept Minutes from Monday, July 25, 2022 as presented. Chris Leach seconded. Discussion: None. Motion carried.

  1. Approve and Accept Village Warrants through Thursday, August 4, 2022:

Eugene LaBombard made the motion to approve and accept Village Warrants #70-#74 through Thursday, August 4, 2022 as presented. Adam Paxman seconded. Discussion: None. Motion carried.

  1. Elisabeth Nance – Letter of Support for Grant through FCIDC for Vision Nutrition:

Elisabeth Nance stated FCIDC is applying for three grants this year for Swanton businesses and they are Vision Nutrition, Green Mountain Knitting and Green Mountain Welding. Elisabeth said she has drafted a letter of support for Vision Nutrition. She said there is a match but that will come from the business not the Village. Chris Leach made the motion to authorize the Board of Trustees to sign the letter of support for Vision Nutrition’s grant application. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Motion carried.

Elisabeth also gave an update on the Riveria Hotel. She said they removed the underground tank which was more toward the front corner. She said it was mainly full of water and some sludge on the bottom. She said there will be some ground water sampling next week. She said there is some asbestos on the first floor and some in the basement that will have to be removed. She said the Village can apply for a sub grant for that removal. If they use federal funds there would be more restrictions but if they use Village funds, it would be a quicker process. She said this would cost approximately $30,000. Reg Beliveau said the plan is sell the land and recoup all their expenses. Elisabeth also said there are clean up funds but they cannot be used for asbestos removal. She also said because it’s a historical building they may have to do some mitigation and install a plaque or name the site the Riveria something. She also said the Village should document the removal of this building on their website.

  1. Swanton Village Police Department Update:

Chief Matt Sullivan stated that in the month of July the Village responded to 140 calls for service. He said out of those calls the top ten calls were for 10 calls for citizen assist; 5 calls for motor vehicle complaint; 19 calls for suspicious person/circumstance; 5 calls for agency assistance; 8 calls for directed patrols; 10 calls for citizen dispute; 21 calls for traffic stop; 5 calls for theft; 5 calls for alarms; and 5 calls for welfare/suicide checks. He said there were 4 tickets issued and 16 warnings and 5 arrests. He showed the arrest analysis for July which consisted of 2 unlawful trespass arrests; 1 unlawful mischief arrests; 1 disorderly conduct arrest; and 1 violation of conditions of release. He also said the police department responded to 264 incidents in the month of July between the Village and the Town of Swanton. He said the top ten calls for service were 74 traffic stops; 26 suspicious person/circumstances; 18 agency assistance; 14 citizen disputes; 14 citizen arrests; 10 welfare/suicide checks; 10 directed patrols; 8 motor vehicle complaints; and 8 boating accident/incident calls. He said there were 16 tickets issued and 49 warnings. Chris Leach asked if the Chief saw any trends happening. Chief Sullivan said traffic issues seems to be trending. He said there should be more of a buffer when speeds transition instead of a rapid drop. He said he noticed that on Route 78 by the high school and he would like to see a buffer there. Officers have been very proactive in identifying drug locations and have identified 4 more locations. He also said he met with the Officer who gave a warning for someone speeding 20 mph over the limit. He wanted to find out why he gave a warning instead of a ticket and said he feels this Officer is just too nice and may find it harder to ticket individuals. He said he had a mentoring moment with him and should be good from now on. Neal asked about the ATV’s being allowed on the Town roads. Chief Sullivan said he hasn’t had any issues in the Village but said there was an incident at the High School recently. He said when someone calls about an incident by the time they get there the ATV is gone so that makes it difficult. Chris Leach mentioned having discussions with the elementary schools regarding an SRO officer. Chief Sullivan stated they have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow with the school. Chief Sullivan also mentioned the training that his officers recently had.

  1. Discussion and Update on Bridge Repairs:

Reg Beliveau stated they received a couple of bids returned and the winning bid came in at $323,250. He said they received a grant for $175,000 so have a shortfall of almost $150,000. Reg said he thought it may be closer to five years before the State replaces the bridge. He said even if it gets escalated it will stay take that long. He said if they’re going to do a repair, they should do one that’s going to last at least five years. He said this bid will provide that. David Kull, MacFarland Johnson, agreed and said this repair will definitely take them out to five years. Adam Paxman asked how badly does the State want the bridge open? He said maybe that’s where they need to start. Chris Leach said they’ve done that before when repairs needed to be made in front of Swanton Lumber. Reg said they have the $175,000 grant until December of 2023. He said they repaired the joint that was flapping and making all the noise. He said he asked VLCT and they can use ARPA funds to do bridge repairs. He said he thinks the next step is the Trustees need to approve the bid and then contact ECI and let them know they’ve been awarded the bid. Adam said he was not willing to pay for this. Eugene LaBombard stated it needed to be done. Reg said he talked with the State and they are saying it will be replaced in 5 years. Neal Speer stated if they put $375,000 in repairs how much further down the line will they push back replacing the bridge? He said they’ll say we can push it back another 5 since they repaired it. Neal said he’s all for telling ECI to do it because if they don’t it will get worse. He said closing the bridge won’t work either. Adam said he’s right there with him but they’re giving the State of Vermont a pass to push it back another 5 years. Reg said they needed to contact ECI and see what there schedule is like. He said he would also contact the State of Vermont. David Kull said he had some contacts with the State that he could reach out to. He also agreed with the Board about the State pushing the schedule back on replacing the bridge if repairs were made. Adam said he didn’t want to put one dime of taxpayer money into that bridge. More discussion took place regarding the repairs that are needed. Reg said he would do more digging with VTrans and look for more funds to help with the repairs. Eugene LaBombard made the motion to accept ECI’s bid to make repairs to the bridge for $323,250. Adam Paxman seconded. Motion carried.

  1. Any Other Necessary Business:

Neal Speer reminded everyone that voting day is tomorrow.

Any Other Business: Adam Paxman stated they had a great turnout for the car show and had 205 cars in the park.

Any Other Business: Eugene LaBombard asked if the Village was still hiring for any positions. Reg said no and said they hired a maintenance guy and an operator at the Hydro Plant. Eugene also asked if the mural was painted at the beach. Adam said not yet because he couldn’t remember if it was approved. He said he would reach out to them. Reg talked about loitering at Foundry Street and said the police are aware of it. He said they put a gate up from dawn to dusk.

  1. Executive Session if Necessary:

None.

  1. Adjournment:

Adam Paxman made the motion to adjourn the Regular Board of the Trustees meeting at 8:05 p.m. Eugene LaBombard seconded. There being no further business at hand, Neal Speer, Village President, adjourned the meeting at 8:05 p.m. Motion carried.

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Neal Speer, Village President                            Date

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Dianne Day, Village Clerk                                Date