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October 28, 2019 SB Minutes

Select Board Minutes, Selectboard

SELECTBOARD MINUTES

Regular Meeting of October 28, 2019

South Hero Town Hall, Monday 7:00 PM

 

Board Members Present: Jonathan Shaw, Anne Zolotas, David Carter, and Sharon Roy

Board Member Not Present: Skip Brown

Others Present: Martha Varney, Administrative Assistant, Janet Yates, Town Clerk/Treasurer, Steven Robinson, Jeff Parizo, Sheriff Ray Allen, Samantha Chagnon, Tim Maxham, Tracey Chagnon.

 

  1. Called to Order:

The meeting was called to order by Chairman Shaw at 7:00 pm

 

  1. Adjustment to Agenda:

-None

 

  1. Minutes:

– David Carter made a motion to accept the minutes of the meeting of October 14, 2019 as written; second by Anne Zolotas. All in attendance so voted and the motion carried.

 

  1. Public input:

There was none.

 

  1. New Business:
  2. A. David Carter moved to sign a letter in support of the Recreation Committee’s application for a State Trail grant, to build a trail from the Folsum School to RT 2.
  3. B. The Board discussed an opening on the Lake Champlain Water Advisory Committee and will ask Bob Buermann for a job description.
  4. C. David Carter (Santa Claus) moved to sign a letter to VTrans in support of the Christmas parade to be held on December 7 at 5PM; Anne Zolotas second. All in attendance so voted and the motion carried. Part of the parade route is on RT 2.
  5. D. Sheriff Ray Allen met with the Board to discuss the Sheriff Department’s Report and the proposed budget for the 2021 fiscal year. Due to a 14% increase in health insurance costs, and adding a 2% cost of living increase, the Department is requesting $143,988.00 for 52 weeks of law enforcement service. He told the Board that the GI County Sheriff’s Department is the only fully staffed law enforcement agency in the region.

       During the past year there were no vehicular fatalities in the County (for the second year in a row). South Hero accounted for 29% of incident calls in the county, 39% of tickets issued, and 49% of warnings issued. Sheriff Allen said there was an increase in calls for mental health and there was general discussion about the procedure for handling these calls.

Jonathan Shaw asked if the current contracted 52 hours were sufficient? Sheriff Allen recommended an increase of 2 hours/week to allow for some additional hours on summer Sundays. There was additional discussion about whether to require organizers of large events to pay for Sheriff Department coverage.

Sheriff Allen wants to invite Selectboards from all the GI County towns to their new facility to discuss procedure related to its new designation as an Emergency Operations Center should there be a disaster in the county. He told the Board that this is the first designated center in Vermont.

 

  1. Administrative Assistant Report:
  2. A. See the report on southherovt.org or filed with this report.

 

  1. Old and Ongoing Business:
  2. A. Tracey and Samantha Chagnon asked the Board if the Town had any plans to post the landfill property or to put up “no parking” signs to prevent cars from parking along Dubuque Lane (a private road) during hunting season. The Chagnons discussed signs they had put up. After some discussion no action was taken by the select board about putting up no parking signs at the landfill.
  3. The road foreman was authorized to hire a new employee, with three members were in favor with one abstaining.
  4. Budget discussion began for the 2021 fiscal year. The Board chose to remain with the current 52 hrs/wk. with the Sheriff’s Department due to the requested increase by Sheriff Allen.in the requested budget. Additional budget discussion included town officers’ salaries. Budget discussion will continue at the November 11SB meeting, with the Fire Department and South Hero Rescue scheduled to discuss their budget requests.
  5. Jonathan Shaw is working on a proposal for assistance to recommend solutions for issues related to South Hero Rescue. David Carter wanted to be clear that, in his opinion, this proposal is not a reflection on the quality of South Hero Rescue personnel, but on how to address the lack of volunteers.
  6. David Carter attending the State Supreme Court hearing on Oct. 23rd in Montpelier concerning the Zlotoff Landon Rd. garage tax issue with the Town. He said the Town attorney did a good job. A final decision may take 2 to 6 months.

 

  1. Announcements and Communications:
  2. Jonathan Shaw read a letter from Wm Burchuck in reference to the budget deficit. He also read a letter from Lisa Tourville in support of continuing to find a solution to help South Hero Rescue.

 

  1. Adjournment:

-David Carter made a motion to adjourn 9:04 pm. The motion was seconded all in attendance so voted and the motion carried.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,                                      Approved by,

 

_______________________________               ________________________________

Martha Taylor-Varney                                       Jonathan Shaw, Chair

 

Administrative Officer’s Report to Selectboard                                October 28, 2019

 

Discussion Items:

  1. I will be attending the meeting in Burlington tomorrow hosted by FEMA to discuss the upcoming Risk Mapping, Assessment, and Planning (Risk MAP) Discovery meeting for the Lake Champlain Watershed. Risk MAP is a FEMA program that helps communities identify, access, and reduce their flood risk. At the meeting, participants will review the flood risk data gathered to date and discuss flood history, flood risk concerns, and mitigation.
  2. I will also be attending a FEMA NH Floodplain Management Program review class on November 7 in Lancaster, NH. I’m still hoping that a Floodplain Managers exam will be held in Northern New England or NY in the future, but these review classes are a way to brush up on the information presented at the week-long class I attended in January 2018 in Essex.
  3. Cathedral Square resubmitted an application for a planning grant after a location for septic for proposed senior housing had been determined. The grant is a federal grant to be administered through the Vermont Community Development Program. Federal grants require the applicant to have an active DUNS number. The current number has apparently expired and doesn’t show up under any search results on SAM.gov. The Town needs a DUNS number in order to be awarded a Federal grant. We have a number that Janet says we’ve used for FEMA. I have been attempting to re-register the number but have so far been unsuccessful. I would appreciate any help from someone who is more familiar with the process.
  4. Ads for a new road crew member were resubmitted to the Islander to run in the October 22nd and 29th

 

-Planning Commission: The PC continues to discuss comments from the October 2nd Public Meeting. PC member David Roy and Jeff Sikora are working on the form-base code section to try to address community concerns about this section. The next PC meeting is November 6th.

 

-Development Review Board:

– The November 13 continuation of a Conditional Use and Site Plan review for RL Vallee to build a Maplefields at McKee’s has been postponed to February 26, 2020. There will be no second DRB meeting in November due to Thanksgiving. December 11 will have a sketch plan review for a 2-lot subdivision and another variance request. As with November, there will be no 2nd DRB meeting in December due to the Christmas holiday. A site plan review has already been scheduled for January 8th. Recent decisions can be found posted on the Board outside the ZA’s office.

Respectfully submitted,

Martha Taylor-Varney, Zoning Administrator and Assistant to the Selectboard

 

 

 

 

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