Town of South Hero
Wastewater Committee
Minutes of a Meeting on February 24, 2025
Present: Sue Arguin, Bob Buermann, Nate Hayward, Bob Krebs, Steve Robinson, Peter Zamore;
Cliff Jenkins (NRPC), Emily Hackett (DEC), Achouak Arfaoui (DEC), Joan Falcao (Planning
Commission).
The meeting was called to order at 4:30 pm.
On motion of Bob Buermann and second of Nate Hayward, the minutes of the January 6,
2025 meeting were approved.
Peter Zamore noted that Mitch Richardson is no longer a committee member. He
identified Rich Goggin as a possible replacement. Rich is on the South Hero Fire Department, is
chair of the Vermont Electric Cooperative board of directors and is interested in joining the
committee. There were no other potential candidates identified by committee members. On
motion of Bob Krebs and second of Nate Hayward, the committee recommended that the
selectboard appoint Rich Goggin to the committee.
Peter Zamore then gave an update on the Lavin property purchase. An appraisal
identified a value of $1,075,000 for the lots to be purchased, well above the $750,000 purchase
price. Encore Renewable Energy recently terminated its option to lease most of lot 5 of the
Lavin property. A Phase I Environmental Site Assessment identified as the only issue, the
presence of PFOA’s at the southeast boundary of the Lavin property, due to past use of the
adjacent property as a town dump. Nate Hayward indicated that a list of closing due diligence
items are being discussed by the town’s and Lavin’s attorneys. In addition, Marty Lavin has
asked whether the town would also be interested in purchasing lot 4 (3.79 acres). There was a
discussion of the issue, generally in favor of pursuing the issue but with more information
needed concerning price and availability of funding.
Peter then described the status of further grant requests. A request to be included on the
CWSRF priority list for fiscal year 2026 was filed on February 14. NBRC would not consider a
grant request until its existing grant for the meeting house has been largely expended. The
timing of further grant requests requires input from Greta Brunswick (NBRC), who was
unavailable for this meeting.
Achouak Arfaoui indicated that she has completed her review of the 90% Preliminary
Engineering Report. She confirmed the gallons per day capacity amounts described in the report
but was interested in more detail on alternative disposal systems (ie, spray, drip).
Bob Buermann asked whether there was any further interest in pursuing the Allenholm
property for wastewater disposal. It was generally agreed that the property was not feasible, due
to parcel size and shape limitations resulting from the existing conservation easement, and the
distance from South Hero Village. Bob suggested that an expression of thanks be sent to Ray
Allen, to which all agreed.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:10 pm.