Selectboard Minutes
Regular Meeting of Monday January 8, 2024 at 7:00 PM
At South Hero Town Hall and via Zoom
Board Members Present: David Carter/Chairman, Skip Brown/Board Secretary, Ross Brown/Vice Chairman, Anne Zolotas and Chuck Hulse
Board Members Not Present:
Other Staff Present: Sue Arguin, Town Administrator and Kim Julow, Treasurer. Also see sign in sheet of in person and Zoom attendees. *Attendance SB 01-08-2024
1. Called to Order:
– The meeting was called to order by Chairman Carter at 7:00 pm.
2. Adjustment to Agenda:
-Re: New Business. The Grand Isle County Sheriff will not attend. Add Guy Maguire of SHLT.
3. Minutes:
-Ross Brown a motion to approve the minutes of December 11, 2023. The motion was seconded, Chuck Hulse did not vote, the others in attendance so voted and the motion carried.
4. Public input:
A. Kim Julow would like to acknowledge that the Town Hall now has an AED installed.
5. New Business:
A. Ross Brown made a motion to approve the draft of the ordinance for Livestock Running at Large that has been posted on the Town website and available in Town Hall for review since December 11, 2023. No comments from the attendees were made. The motion was seconded, all in attendance so voted and the motion carried. Note that there will be a public hearing before it goes in effect.
B. Ross Brown made a motion to adopt a Town Burial Policy that has been posted on the Town Website and available in Town Hall for review since December 11, 2023. No comments of the attendees were made. The motion was seconded, all in attendance so voted and the motion carried.
C. Guy Maguire of SHLT was present to discuss a proposed trail public access agreement between landowners Steve and Kelly Robinson, Isle of Patmos Lodge #17 and Alice Wells, The Town of South Hero and South Hero Land Trust. See attached*RobinsonTrail Agreement Draft. The Town will review this and it will be discussed at the January 22 Selectboard meeting.
D. Sue Arguin advised that the Town Hazard Mitigation Plan has expired and should be renewed. She will work on this and advised that there is a cost to the Town of $3287.50, which will be added to the budget.
E. There was a general budget discussion with Treasurer, Kim Julow. Several line items were discussed and filled in on the worksheets.
6. Town Administrator and ZA Reports:
A. There was no new ZA report. See the written reports from the TA filed with these minutes (Below on the website or in Town Hall).
7. Old and Ongoing Business:
A. see below
8. Announcements and Communications:
A. none at this meeting
9. Other Business:
A. Ross Brown made a motion to approve and sign the orders 24-13 & 24-14 and to pay the bills associated with the orders. The motion was seconded, all in attendance so voted and the motion carried.
B. Town Clerk/Treasurer updates: Budget discussion as noted above. The draft of the Town Audit is complete. A final copy will be sent soon.
C. Recreation Commission (RC) update: See New Business C above re: the Trail info.
D. Road Department update: There was a discussion about private road Dubuque Lane. Since the former Town Landfill is off of that road, the Town is a 1/8 stakeholder in maintaining the road. All stakeholders should have an equal share of the cost of the maintenance, but there has not been a written agreement nor has there been consistent upkeep on the road. It was suggested that a meeting between all of the landowners be set up that the Town will attend. Also, there has not been a policy regarding driveway culverts. A new policy will be enacted stating that the Town will ditch and install driveway culverts and that the landowner will pay for the materials.
E. Old South Hero Meeting House (OSHMH) project: There was a meeting of the committee today, January 8. The project will proceed as previously outlined. While the warned meetings have been held regularly over the past several years, there has been little public involvement. The committee acknowledges that progress has been slow and that transparency has been lacking. There will be more public outreach in the future.
F. ARPA fund updates: none at this meeting
G. Wastewater (WW) update: Test pits have been dug and a report from the committee will be forthcoming. Ross Brown made a motion to approve and sign a document appointing Sue Arguin as Authorized Agent for the project. The motion was seconded, all in attendance so voted and the motion carried.
H. Town Hall Feasibility study committee: A final report of the Town Office Feasibility Committee was submitted. It was determined that the Old White Meeting House may not be the best choice for a Town Hall. The report suggests that the committee be dissolved. Chuck Hulse made a motion to dissolve the Town Office Feasibility Committee. The motion was seconded, all in attendance so voted and the motion carried. It was suggested that a Town planning consultant be considered to help with the process of locating and building a new Town Hall. Since it will cost $, Sue will look into it and try to get an amount for budget planning.
10. Adjournment:
-Chuck Hulse made a motion to adjourn at 9:20 pm. The motion was seconded, all in attendance so voted and the motion carried.
Respectfully submitted, Approved by,
_______________________________ ________________________________
Graham Brown, Secretary David Carter, Chairman
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ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT
1. In the process of applying for 40% of the grant that was awarded for the Town Office
Committee so they can go into Step 2 of in planning for a new town office.
2. For the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan there will be a kickoff meeting that I’ll be attending
on January 18 th at 10:30.
3. I’ve been calling around to different appraisal companies to get quotes on how much it
would cost to perform a town wide appraisal. They all seem to be saying the same thing
and that it was going to be around $100-$110 per parcel. South Hero has 1245 Parcels
so that would be around $136,950-$140,000 to complete. We currently have $65,016.21
budgeted currently. I would recommend your budget to add $72,000 more in the event
the state mandates us to do it now.
4. Workshop: Project Management 101. I will be attending this via zoom. It is being put
on by Jenna Lapachinski of the Preservation Trust of Vermont. It shoing how to organize
around initial vision, define goals and priorities, navigate funding considerations, and
help move projects from an idea to implementation. I invite everyone on the selectboard
to attend. It starts at 10:30 AM this Wednesday, January 10 th .