FINAL VERSION AS
AMENDED AND APPROVED ON April 28, 2003. Attest: _________
Town of Charlotte
Board of Selectmen
Minutes
Monday, April 14, 2003
7:00 PM, Charlotte Town Hall
Eleanor Russell
OTHERS: Peter
Coleman
Chris Davis
Tom Dunn
Erich Finley
Jonathan Fairbank
Frances Foster
Gary Franklin
Dick Greene
Avery Hall
Larry Hamilton
Tim Hawley
Marty Illick
Lynn Jaunich
Allan Jordan
Tom Kenyon
Christine Kovall
Phyllis Lary
Rose Ann Lombard
Martha Perkins
Nancy Sabin
Sylvia Sprigg
Dick St. George
Frank Tenney
Gordon Troy
Eric Van Vlandren
William Wisell
Jocelyn Bolick (clerk)
The meeting was
called to order at 7:00 pm.
The items on the
agenda were as follows;
Adjustments to Agenda
/ Approve minutes of March 4th and March 24th / Public
Discussion / Request to Close Part of Hinesburg Road for PTO School Champ Run on 5/31 at 4:30 PM for One Hour – Lynne
Jaunich / Covered Bridges Half Marathon – Rayne Herzog / Upgrade to Transmission
Lines in Railroad Right-of-Way – Richard Watts of VELCO / Request for Monies
from the Town’s Conservation Fund for the Preservation of Larry Johnson
Property on Lewis Creek Road / Alternative Settlement with Carol Aube-Hinsdale
/ Thompson’s Point Ag. Lease Resolution – Report from Committee / Trails
Committee Discussion (Mission Statement; Formation of Formal Committee) /
Approve Necessity Resolution for Fire Truck Bonding and Warning for the Vote /
Finish Selectboard Priorities & Workplan / Selectboard Updates
(Appointments to Town Commissions:
Allan Jordan to Affordable Housing Committee; Schedule Interviews &
Appointments) / Sign Bills and Warrants
/ Adjournment
Adjustments to Agenda
·
Letters from Vermont
Land Trust
·
Statistics from
Charlotte Rescue
Motion made by
Eleanor Russell, seconded by Debbie Ramsdell:
“To approve
the town meeting minutes with corrections for March 4th”
Vote: all in favor.
Correct reference on
page 2 from “Citizens for Responsible ???” to “Citizens for Responsible
Placement of Towers”.
Correct name of page
4 from “Peter Knowles” to “Peter Nobes”.
Correct name of page
5 from “Murray Hamilton” to “Larry Hamilton”.
Correct name of page
6 from “Dave Sternhorn” to “Dave Schermerhorn”.
Correct name of page
9 from “Bob Cheddar” to “Bob Chutter”.
Motion made by
Eleanor Russell, seconded by Debbie Ramsdell:
“To approve the selectboard meeting minutes
with corrections for March 24th”
Vote: 3 in favor, Debbie Ramsdell abstained
(absent from March 24th meeting).
Delete sentence on
page 3 that starts “Stephen Brooks asked if there was ever a time …”.
Correct reference on
page 4 from “old mansion property” to “Old Lantern property”.
Change reference on
page 4 from “animals or vegetables are getting into the well” to “potentially
dangerous bacteria is getting into the well”.
Change reference on
page 6 from “town council” to “town counsel” (2 places).
Correct name of page
6 from “Tim Huestis” to “Ken Huestis”.
Change reference on
page 9 from “town council” to “town counsel”.
Change reference on
page 10 from “Eric Van Vlandren gave Eleanor Russell” to “Tom Heilmann gave
Eleanor Russell”.
Correct name of page
11 from “Nancy Salem” to “Nancy Sabin”.
Correct name of page
12 from “Dave Grounds” to “Dave Brown”.
Correct names of page
12 from “Steven Rohr and Weinstein” to “Steven Moore and Richard Bernstein”.
Change references on
page 12 and page 13 from “Rural Farms” to “Aurora Farms”.
·
None.
Request to Close Part of Hinesburg Road for PTO School Champ Run on 5/31 at 4:30 PM for One Hour – Lynne Jaunich
CCS is proposing the
first annual CCS Champ run for the school in conjunction with a raffle and
followed by the school spring barbecue on Saturday, May 31st. It’s either a 1.5 mile or 3 mile race. They would like permission to close down a
portion of Hinesburg Road from approximately 4:20 PM to 5:30 PM for the
afternoon of 5/31, between Mt. Philo Road and Church Hill Road. The race will start in the parking lot, head
west down Hinesburg Road, U-turn at Church Hill Road and go back to the
school. The 3 mile loop will be doing
the 1.5 mile loop twice. Given that
there are children involved, they would like to close the whole width of the
road down as required by their insurance coverage. They will post signs to let drivers know that the road has been
closed. The race will be contained
within Hinesburg Road and the school grounds.
They will use barricades, and volunteers as security officers which is
required by insurance.
Someone had suggested
putting a banner up on Ferry Road. GMP
would charge approximately $300 to put up a banner. That’s a lot of money.
Jennifer Cole suggested notifying the people that live on that section
of the road that the road will be closed, as well as posting it in the
newspaper.
Motion made by
Eleanor Russell, seconded by Jennifer Cole:
“To close Hinesburg Road between Church Hill Road and Mt. Philo Road between 4:20 and 5:30 on May 31st, 2003.”
Vote: all in favor.
Second annual
Charlotte Covered Bridges Half Marathon – 13.1 miles. It starts at the school, goes on Guinea Road, Bingham Brook,
Spear Street, Prindle Road, Roscoe Road, Spear Street, Guinea Road, and back to
the school. Signs will be posted at any
intersection that is affected by the whole process telling the time and
date. Registration starts around 6:30
AM and the race starts at 8:30 AM. The first
racer finishes about 9:50, the last racer about 11:15 and they’re out of the
area by 1 PM, after a barbecue. They
have verbal approval from the school to use the gym and the cafeteria and the
fields for this event. They have a
Shelburne police officer manning the 4-way intersection at Hinesburg Road and
Mt. Philo Road. They clean up at the
school, and there are no traces of a race having occurred there. As soon as the last person comes through the
course, people follow them picking up the cones and other equipment around the
course.
There will be cones
down the middle of the road to make sure that people don’t go over to the other
side of the road. Last year, people
were going over the yellow line. Charles
Russell asked if it would be better to close the road down for 5 minutes to let
the racers go through? Last year the
racers took over both sides of the road.
Rayne Herzog agreed that it would be a good thing to do – 5 minutes is
not a lot of time. Peter Coleman stated
he was astounded how quickly they cleaned up last year – you wouldn’t have
known there was a race there earlier.
Rayne said that’s their goal – they realize they are using the towns
resources.
Charles Russell asked
if they were planning on parking in Dickersons field again. Rayne said that worked pretty well, so they
will not be taking up any more room
than last year. Debbie Ramsdell
asked if they needed volunteers. Rayne
said yes, they need about 20 or 30 volunteers.
The barbecue after the race is put on by Smokejacks, a great benefit for
the volunteers. Frank Tenney said last
year he had to go through the race, the volunteers were very helpful helping
him through it.
Motion made by
Eleanor Russell, seconded by Debbie Ramsdell:
“To approve Covered Bridge Half Marathon on May 10th, 2003, including closing Hinesburg Road between Guinea Road and Mt. Philo for 5 minutes”.
Vote: all in favor.
Upgrade to Transmission Lines in Railroad Right-of-Way – Richard Watts of VELCO
Tom Dunn talked about
VELCO – they run the high voltage transmission system in the state – 115,000
volts and above. They have no
facilities here in Charlotte at this time, but they are here to discuss their
plans for the town. VELCO is owned by
the distribution utilities (like GMP) that service customers directly. VELCO provides a transportation system
between power plants and the local distribution companies. If VELCO does their job, most people never
hear of them.
We’re using a lot
more electricity in Vermont than we have in the past. In the past 3 years, peak demand has gone up over 9%. The last major transmission line was built
in the early 80’s, but it’s running out of capacity. There are some equipment problems that have highlighted problems
that exist in the current system and have raised concerns. We are not seeing new power plants being
built in the state. These issues have
caused concern for the reliability of the transmission system.
Historically, Vermont
has been a winter peaking state. In the
last 3 years, we’ve been a summer peaking state – we’re seeing more air
conditioning. Peak demand is around
1023 megawatts. 10% of that is met by
in-state power plants, 90% is provided by the transmission system.
VELCO put together a
comparison study of different alternatives – they looked at spending more money
on energy efficiency, putting power plants in northwest Vermont, generating
more electricity, and generating more transmission lines. The transmission option turned out to be the
most robust of the options studied as well as the least expensive.
Vermont has power
contracts that expire in 10 years and we will have some decisions to make as to
how to replace those contracts.
Before a transmission
facility can be built in Vermont, they have to go to the Public Service Board
for a permit application. They have to
demonstrate that they have met the criteria of section 248. They want to build a “345” line from West
Rutland to New Haven. The estimated
cost of project is 125 to 150 million dollars.
They would potentially be looking to replace a line near Ferry Road in
Charlotte. There are about 6.4 miles of
transmission lines in the town today, looking to replace the line as well as
the transformer at the substation, which would require an expansion of the
substation. VELCO is planning on
spending about 3.7 million dollars in Charlotte. They would like to introduce a 5th transmission line
into northwest Vermont. You can’t put 2
lines on one tower for liability reasons.
What if you lose a tower – you then lose 2 lines.
Vermont is using more
electricity. We need to make some
decisions to have reliable service. Use
less electricity, build power plants, or build transmission lines. If nothing is done, the probability of
having a problem on the transmission system increases as the power load
increases.
Charlotte will
receive notification when VELCO files an application with the Public Service
Board. The filing should happen in
May. Tom Dunn offered to come and work
with the town.
Phyllis Lary asked
what this will cost the customers. Tom
Dunn said that VELCO is about 3 or 4 cents of every utility dollar today. When this project is built, he expects the
amount to go to 5 or 6 cents.
Tim Volk asked how
this project would benefit the residents of Charlotte. Tom Dunn stated the biggest direct benefit
is that it addresses the reliability problem that exists on the system
today. A blackout would clearly affect
Charlotte. Tim Volk asked if the
footprint of the transformer changes.
Tom Dunn said it would double or triple the size of the existing
substation.
Martha Perkins asked
what VELCO has studied about putting the lines underground. Tom Dunn said they are proposing an overhead
configuration because the cost of doing it underground is approximately 8 times
the cost of doing it overhead. The cost
of supporting transmission lines is shared throughout New England, but if the
lines were underground it would most likely have to be paid locally. Martha asked about cost figures of putting
it underground. Tom Dunn said it’s
about 13.7 million to do the line from New Haven to the Queen City substation
underground, about 1.7 million to do it overhead. Martha asked why was the decision made to go underground in
Milton? Tom said he was not employed by
VELCO at the time, but he felt it was a political settlement.
Marty Illick asked
about Velco’s commitment to renewable energy sources. Tom Dunn said they don’t buy and sell power, they just transmit
the power. They don’t have a position
one way or the other, by federal law.
Request for Monies from the Town’s Conservation Fund for the Preservation of Larry Johnson Property on Lewis Creek Road
Frances Foster came
to give information on the plan for conservation for Larry and Louise Johnson’s
property near Lewis Creek Road in East Charlotte. They would like feedback from the board within two weeks so they
can vote on this issue.
Larry & Louise
Johnson would like to sell the development rights on 26.2 acres off Lewis
Creek. It abuts a large amount of
protected habitat. The A.Johnson land
surrounds it on 3 sides (175 acres of protected property), and Susan Hoff
protected her land (110 acres of protected property) which is contiguous to all
of it. There is sort of a hole in all
of this land, and that is what you would be successful in protecting if the
town bought the development rights to this piece of property.
There is no public
access on this property because it is not being protected as a recreation site,
it’s being protected as a wildlife habitat.
There is access for the A.Johnson people to go back and forth to do
their logging, but not access to the public.
The cost of the project is $80,000 to purchase the development
rights. The Johnson’s are asking for
$6,000 less than the value of the development rights of the land. The proposed way to fund this would be to
get $32,500 from the conservation fund, to get the Charlotte Land Trust to
provide $38,000 and $9,500 from raised money and match. Totaled, that is $80,000. 41% of the project comes from the town
conservation fund, and 59% from the Charlotte Land Trust and local match.
The wording in the
purchase agreement given to the lawyers states that CLT will not alter the
rights and restrictions of anything to do with this property without prior
written approval from the town. If for
some reason CLT does not monitor the property to provide compliance, the
agreement goes through the process of how CLT will work it out with the town.
Charles Russell asked if
they had looked at the Lavalette model also.
Frances Foster said she had, she didn’t think it was as well defined as
the Vermont Land Trust model, but she’ll go back and look at it again. Charles Russell asked if hunting is allowed
on this property. The answer is no, but
Larry Johnson is the landowner – it’s really his decision. It won’t be written into the easement one
way or the other. However, hunting is
allowed on the A.Johnson property that surrounds it.
There will be a vote at
the next meeting (on the 28th).
Since this is not a
pending legal issue, the selectboard felt it did not have to go into executive
session to discuss the settlement with Carol Aube-Hinsdale. Charles Russell said that Jennifer Cole and
Charles met with Carol last Monday to talk about how to resolve this without
the approximately $4,000 fine. Her
ex-husband is purchasing land to solve the density issue. Carol did not have the approximately $4,000
to do the fine, she offered to do community service instead. She would like to have a one week writing
camp for kids at school who were not special ed but were performing poorly at
school. If we’re sure she is going to
solve the density issue or remove the fixtures (i.e., the other apartment),
what does the selectboard think of a solution like that?
Eleanor Russell said she
is in favor of it, perhaps we could put a timeframe on removing the fixtures,
pending the resolution of the density issue.
Jennifer Cole said the
day camp would be one week during the summer, and there were a lot of details
to work out. There would be preparation
time involved as well as running the camp.
Eleanor Russell asked for Carol to detail it more explicitly so the
selectboard can get an idea of the hours involved. Perhaps she could put forth her offer in writing?
Charles Russell said we’d
need to verify that the apartment was currently empty, and get a firmer idea
when the density issue would be solved.
So, the selectboard will get more details from Carol and talk about it
at the next meeting.
Sylvia Sprigg said that
Clark Hinsdale has said he would solve this issue for 4 years now. The town has incurred considerable expense
over those 4 years. Some of the fine
should be recouped in dollars since the town budget has put considerable outlay
in dealing with the zoning issue. It’s
not a great precedent to set to allow people to violate zoning ordinances and
pay their fines through community service.
Dick Greene asked if
community service for a week is truly worth $4000 to the town?
Nancy Sabin said this is
a massive house, it’s suited for 3 apartments.
But over 6 years has gone by!
The fine is less than the cost of the towns’ lawyer for this issue! What’s the point of having rules if no one
is following them? This is selective
enforcement of zoning rules and regulations in the town of Charlotte. It’s scary that the selectboard is setting a
precedent to take someone all the way through environmental court and then not
live up to the fine. When the
environmental court sets a mandate, it’s an order, not a suggestion. Can the selectboard just do away with the
issue of the fine?
Rose Ann Lombard said the
selectboard is setting a dangerous precedent.
If someone else comes along who doesn’t want to pay the fine, are we
going to wheel and deal? How often are
we going to do this? Charles Russell
said that if she’s not going to pay the fine, it will cost the town more to try
and enforce it. Rose Ann said that
would be setting a precedent for failure.
When do you prosecute? Where do
you draw the line? Eleanor Russell
asked if we could make the community service worth $5,000, is that a reasonable
way to pay the $5,000. Rose Ann said if
she’s going to go that way, it should be more than $5,000. There are 2 different budgets here, is the
school going to reimburse the town the $5,000?
Thompson’s Point Ag. Lease Resolution – Report from Committee
Dick Greene from the
Charlotte Sportsmens Alliance spoke about renting the open lands on Thompson’s
Point. This is not dealing with leased
land, just the open lands. A committee
was appointed to go over the caretaking of the open lands.
Recommendations of the
committee were to have the fences removed, there would be no pasturing, and
open land would be brush-hogged once per year.
This is because problems occurred with pasturing – a question of ecoli
with the cows, fences have been of some concern with campers, other areas being
fenced in without any leases on the property, access has been restricted to
some of the areas, etc.
For trails, there are 2
trails near Flat Rock Road, with a 3rd trail being a logging road
nearby. Sportsmen’s Alliance has
volunteered to clean up the 1st 2 trails, leaving it rustic. The third trail they would like to fill in
some wet spots, add gravel, and sign both ends of the trail. There’s a possibility of wheelchair access
also. There would be no picnic or
gathering areas established anywhere.
They are recommending the town look into creating two parking areas – one
near where the clubhouse is now, the other along Lanes Lane. This would help keep people off of Deer
Point Road.
Hunting – they feel the
town should be the one posting town property.
The area will not be used for target practice, skeet shooting or
trapping. All state hunting and fishing
laws would be applied to Thompson’s Point town land.
Recommendations –
continue the lease with the Pony Club until 2004. Renew Aurora Farms leases for 5 years. Allow them to cut hay where they have done so in the past. Ask the Sportsmen’s Alliance, assist in
trail maintenance and coordinating activity to clean up the old fences and
debris. There should be a contact
person for issues concerning Thompson’s Point.
Also, set up an advisory committee to review the leases, make sure the
PH of the land is kept at 6.6%, etc.
Committee feels there’s a benefit in reviewing all town leases with
input from the community and applying the same principles to all.
Charles Russell asked if
the committee talked about hunting versus walking. Dick Greene said there hasn’t been any problem in the past with
the 116 camps or the people walking. It
doesn’t really get hunted that much. If
you see someone road hunting, get a license plate and call the game warden. It is illegal to shoot across a town road in
the state of Vermont. It is illegal to
shoot from the road in the state of Vermont, also.
Gordon Troy asked if
there was any discussion on limitations of the use of these trails? Dick Greene said no, other than no motorized
vehicles. That means no snowmobiles in
the winter.
Do we want to do a 5-year
lease with Skip Sheldon or a 1-year lease?
Dick Greene said he doesn’t understand why Skip would agree to a 1-year
lease. If he has to keep the PH up and
needs to re-seed and keep the land up, it’s a lot to ask of a farmer.
Charles Russell asked
about the land near the mound system, it was never smoothed out? Avery Hall asked if there’s some way to
smooth it out – it’s too rough to walk on, hard to look at. Dick Greene said you’re never going to
brushhog the center of that unless you put in some money for drainage.
Charles Russell asked if
Skip Sheldon could commit to spending 4 hours in there smoothing it out. Skip said at $100 per hour with a furrow,
that’s $400. Charles Russell said we’d
need to rewrite the lease because it says 25 acres more or less, we need to
make a more accurate acreage. This is
not part of Aurora’s lease. We also
need to put in a provision for the posting.
Skip asked if the land
could be posted so that people don’t go in there and drive their trucks on the
land after he’s spent time smoothing it out.
Motion made by Debbie
Ramsdell, seconded by Eleanor Russell:
“Approve a lease with Skip Sheldon for 5 years for the hayfield on the northwest corner of Deer Point Road and Thompson’s Point Road for $2/year”.
Vote: all in favor.
Land which Ron Sweet
leases is also being leased by the Tennis Club. Dick Greene says the clubhouse area is dual-leased. Charles Russell says in his opinion, when
Ron Sweets’ lease ends, the Tennis Club will still be leasing the property and
someone could sub-lease it from the Tennis Club.
Trails Committee Discussion
·
Mission
Statement. Gary Franklin is presenting
on behalf of the informal trails committee.
There is a draft mission statement available for perusal.
Gary
Franklin said a few people have gotten together to talk about the formation of
a trails committee. There is support
for trails in the town, the question is whether to have a formal trails
committee that is sponsored by the town
and appointed by the selectboard. The
idea would be to make recommendations to the selectboard on where trails should
go and how they should be used, and link to trails in other towns. There is a great need to see how these
trails are going to link together. We
have an opportunity here to create something special, as part of that we need
to identify where potential easements would fit in on peoples’ land. There would be a need for co-operation from
private landowners. People need to be
convinced that a trail system is beneficial for themselves and the community.
Ultimately,
they would like approval from the board for the formation of a trails
committee, and discuss structure and appointments to the committee.
Debbie
Ramsdell asked how they would be built?
Gary Franklin said it’s too early to say how things would be built,
maybe certain sections would be built differently from others. No one is prepared to answer what the right
model is right now.
Debbie
said you would need to have money to create a trail system. Gary Franklin said that’s part of what the
committee would do – pursuing ways to fund the trail system. They see the committee more as creating the
concept rather than defining the actual construction right now.
Eleanor
Russell said the primary need is to develop a master plan and to take advantage
of opportunities that arise. Gordon
Troy, another member of the trails committee, said this is a continuation of
the work that was done 10 years ago for the original vision maps of the trails
that are in the back of the town plan.
The reality is that trails have huge economic value down the road. The Planning Commission supports this being
done.
Charles
Russell said we need to decide first if we want to form a committee, and if we
do, how do we form the membership? Do
we go after people or do we ask people to show interest if they would like to
be on the committee?
·
Formation of Formal
Committee. Everyone on the selectboard
agrees that we need to form a committee.
Gordon Troy said there’s a core group of people since the meetings
started last spring. Charles Russell
asked if everyone that needs to be represented is being represented – such as
snowmobilers? Gordon Troy said he has
no idea. The informal committee has not
been restricted in any way. Gary
Franklin said he circulated an invitation from people who would be interested
in being on the committee. Not everyone
who has been coming to the informal meetings would necessarily want to become a
voting member on a formal committee, though they still might show up
informally. He feels the invitation
should be output broadly – published in the newspaper, etc. Whatever makes sense to the selectboard.
Gordon
Troy says they’ve been meeting every other month or so. Marty Illick said to make sure lots of
people are represented. The selectboard
will draw up an advertisement for 2 issues of the Charlotte News. Martha Perkins asked about the liability of
trails on peoples’ land.
Gary
Franklin said there’s the potential for a lot of labor intensive work – Dan
Senecal-Albrecht (selectboard assistant) is interested. There really is no other opportunity to hire
extra staff. Marty Illick said she
didn’t know if they would need an assistant forever, but there’s a lot of coordinating
that hasn’t happened yet, and until they get really organized and have
databases ready, it would be helpful to have staff.
Approve Necessity Resolution for Fire Truck Bonding and Warning for the Vote
Charles
Russell said we don’t know what day we’re going to hold a hearing since we
don’t know when CVU will hold their hearing, and they want to do it on a
different day. It would be useful to
have the hearing at the fire station too.
The tour CVFRS gave was really helpful.
Eric Van Vlandren said they will be having an open house also.
Motion
made by Debbie Ramsdell, seconded by Eleanor Russell:
“To approve the resolution of the bond for the new pumper not to exceed $450,000 and hold a public hearing on May 19th OR May 20th (if CVU is having their bond hearing on the 19th). Hearing will be at the Charlotte Fire and Rescue Station”
Vote: all in
favor.
Change
“It is estimated that the cost of purchase of the purchase of a new replacement
fire truck” to “It is estimated that the cost of the purchase of a new fire
truck”.
Charles
Russell asked if the $70,000+ equipment on the list is on the truck. Dick St. George said no, some of the
equipment that goes on the truck usually comes with the truck, but not
everything. A list of equipment being
purchased separate from the fire truck includes:
·
1000 feet of 4 inch
hose.
·
1200 feet of double
jacketed hose
·
600 feet of forestry
hose
·
nozzles
·
strainers used for
suction
·
smoke ejector
·
thermal imaging camera
·
6 air packs and 12
bottles
·
radios and handlights
·
miscellaneous fittings
·
fire extinguishers
This
is all basic equipment. They have put
together their package and are putting it out to bid. The total for the basic equipment is $70,650.
Eleanor
Russell asked about the base price of the truck – that’s roughly at $380,000 –
that’s including the compressed air system, etc. By putting this package together and putting it out to bid, there
should be a little bit of money shaved off the entire price. Eleanor Russell asked for an answer to the
question “Why are we buying a Cadillac when a Ford will do?”
Dick
St. George said they’re proposing to put a bid out and get the best price
available. Eric Van Vlandren said they
are specifying the truck the way they are because they want to make sure in the
year 2023 that truck is still useful in Charlotte – who knows what the town
density or the square footage of the houses in Charlotte will be? They’re not trying for a Cadillac, they are
trying for a good truck.
Eric
Van Vlandren said Charlotte does not have a hydrant system. They want to do things that minimize the
water and minimize the manpower. That’s
another reason they made the choice for the new pumper. Chris Davis said the trade papers are
showing that the newer trucks going out are built to the specifications of the
truck that CVFRS is interested in buying.
Dick St. George said there are a lot of fire trucks going to compressed
foam units even though they have free water available.
Eric
Van Vlandren thanked Eleanor Russell for her article concerning CVFRS in the
Charlotte News.
Warning
for the meeting will be posted at the Old Brick Store, Town Hall, Spears Corner
Store, Senior Center, and Steve’s Citgo, and something will be put in the
Charlotte News.
Update
on the Harriet Barrows will – nothing new to report.
Postponed until a later date.
·
Appointments to Town
Commissions.
Motion
made by Debbie Ramsdell, seconded by Eleanor Russell:
“To appoint Allan Jordan to the Affordable Housing Committee.”
Vote:
all in favor.
Jennifer
Cole stated the Affordable Housing Committee is interested in having new
people, perhaps as many as 9, with diverse experience. Allan Jordan was interested, so they put his
name up for consideration. Allan had attended
a prior meeting and was impressed by the capable group.
Charles
Russell said there are 2 people interested in the one zoning board slot, 2
people for the health officer slot, 4 people for the planning commission, 2
people for the 2 slots on the conservation board, 3 people for recreation for 2
slots, someone for the second constable position, and an animal control
officer. Basically we need to schedule
interviews before the meeting on the 28th. Can we start the meeting on the 28th at 6 PM and deal
with the interviews before the regular 7 PM meeting? The selectboard has agreed to this.
Motion
made by Eleanor Russell, seconded by Debbie Ramsdell.
“To appoint Andy Mansfield, Harvey Sharrow and Charles Russell as fence viewers”
Vote: all in favor.
·
Eleanor Russell said
she and Charles, Nancy Wood and Kay had an informal hearing with the Property
Evaluation Review Board concerning the CLA (common level of appraisal). Nancy did a wonderful job with the
statistical data for Charlotte. The
upshot is Charlotte will find out sometime between now and June 15th
what the status will be – will the 4 high priced properties on the lakeshore
that skewed the CLA be excluded? The
fall back position is that they should consider a second category of properties
where the lakeshore properties are concerned.
There would be 77 properties included in this category in
Charlotte. They were reasonably
accepting of that idea – it has been done in another town in Vermont. The 3rd alternative would be to
re-categorize the properties as vacation homes.
·
Nextel is not going to
put an antenna on the Brown Silo.
·
Talked with Joe McLean
about WIZN and whether the town needs to be at the hearings. The only issue he should speak to is
compliance with the town plan.
·
Eleanor Russell said
J.P.Bettencourt wants to proceed and work with the town on an emergency
management plan.
·
Jennifer Cole had some
information from the Rescue Squad. The
Charlotte News had an article that said the number of real calls per week were
1.5 calls. A letter was received from
Jason Marshall to the selectboard describing the different levels of medical
care emergencies. He was interested in
clarifying the information that was in the Charlotte News article.
·
Code 3 – emergency
transport (always start out as Code 3 until the true nature of the emergency is
discovered).
·
Code 2 – non-emergency
transport.
There
are about 300 calls per year, the majority are downgraded to Code 2
emergencies.
·
Vermont Land Trust
letters. There are 2 projects that
Vermont Land Trust is involved in. They
would like letters of support from the selectboard.
Eleanor
Russell moved, Debbie Ramsdell seconded:
“Move that the selctboard writes separate letters to Vermont Housing Conservation Board to support Knowles and Devos”
Vote: all in favor.
Eleanor
Russell moved, Debbie Ramsdell seconded:
“To approve excess weight permit for John Barrows for 60,000 pounds subject to the approval of the road commissioner”
Vote: all in favor.
Sign Bills and Warrants
“To approve the Agency of Transportation reimbursement for the structure grant program.”
Vote: all in favor.
“To approve the GMP petition to locate poles, guys and wires within the highway limits of Lewis Creek Road in the town of Charlotte as shown on plan No. A0002263636.”
Vote: all in favor.
Adjournment
Next
meeting on Monday, April 28th, at 6 PM.
Meeting adjourned at 10:20 PM.