TOWN OF RUTLAND

SELECT BOARD MEETING

October 12, 2010

MINUTES:

The meeting opened at 6:40 P.M. with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Board members present: James Callahan, James Hall, Steve Hawley, Stanley Rhodes III and Josh Terenzini.

Review of 9/16/2010 Minutes

Mr. Hawley motioned to accept the 9/16/10 minutes as written. Mr. Hall seconded the motion. Three were in favor of the motion and Mr. Terenzini and Mr. Callahan abstained as they were absent from the meeting.

Review of the 9/28/10 Minutes

Mr. Hall motioned to accept the minutes as written. Mr. Terenzini seconded the motions. All were in approval.

Town Clerk/Treasurer - Marie Hyjek

10/27/2010 is the last day to register to vote for the November 2nd election.

There will be a meeting for the poll workers on 10/19/10.

Notices will be mailed after the election to those people who have always been on the "All Elections" list or the "March Only " list for absentee ballots. The State has mandated that anyone requesting an absentee ballot must call or write for one before each election.

As of this meeting, there have been about 150 absentee requests.

On October 18th there will be an advance notice for the election in the Rutland Herald and again the official warning will be in the Herald on 10/25/10.

There have been sixty revised tax bills and the Town is still getting downloads from the State. Property owners are advised to discard the original bill and use only the revised bill to avoid errors.

There is some discussion going on in Montpelier regarding only having to file one's homestead paperwork (HS-122) when there is a change of residence. This may go into effect next year.

There will be a BCA meeting on October 13th at 6:00 P.M.

There was no heat in the Town Offices on 10/12/10 when the office was opened and Ms. Hyjek asked that the Board review the original proposal on the two boilers that were installed. Mr. Rhodes will have a consultant take a look at what needs to be done to have the second boiler fire.

Ms. Hyjek provided water and sewer information for the Board to Review.

The Board needs to sign paperwork for the yearly audit agreement with A. M. Peisch.

SWAC - Charlie Shields

Hazardous Waste Day at the Transfer Station is scheduled for October 16th. Electronic collection (anything with a cord on it) is scheduled for October 30th. Panasonic, Toshiba and Sharp are asking that information be logged as to model and who brought the item in since they are funding the pick-up. Mr. Terenzini will speak to Dick Lloyd about performing this task. Anyone bringing in anything with freon will have to pay a fee.

Transportation Council - Charlie Shields

The Federal Government is requiring that any advisory signs not meeting standard reflective requirements need to be replaced by the year 2015. Street signs need to be replaced by 2018. Workshops will be held towards the end of the year to explain procedures for accomplishing this.

Mr. Shields gave the council information on the proposed service road for the south end of Town.

There was a discussion at the Council meeting on the difficulty in turning left off McKinley Avenue. They would like it to meet the light at Post Road.

There was a discussion on the inaccuracies of the accidents logged by the State.

The Board will request the Planning Commission to do a study on the proposed service road.

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Rutland Regional Planning Commission - Fred Nicholson

The RRPC ended up with a surplus of $800 at the end of fiscal year 2009-2010.

The RRPC responded to the State's request for a contract on the "Challenge for Change" which depicted how the Commission plans to save money and work with other agencies to accomplish the same.

Subjects for the upcoming meetings include VELCO's tower in Wells and the Fair Haven biomass wood pellet plant.

Mr. Rhodes asked where the Commission stood on solar farms. Mr. Nicholson replied that the Commission is in favor of all alternative energy sources, depending on the location i.e., don't waste good agricultural land.

The Department of Energy has given $200,00 to the Commission and $35,00 of it will be spent to do a study of the Green Mountain College power plant (wood furnace). To create jobs, they are looking into having row crops of trees to supply the furnace and different types of wood are being looked at for suitability.

Highway

The Town paving is done.

Three contractors expressed an interest in the opening for another subcontractor to plow this winter. They were Tim Hubbard (RutlandTown), Tom Pritchard(RutlandTown) and John Jozwiak(Proctor). Tim Hubbard was chosen and he will add another truck to his existing one to cover the area Tony Flory used to plow. The other two letters of interest will be kept on file. Mr. Terenzini made the motion to accept Tim Hubbard as the new subcontractor and Mr. Hawley seconded the motion. All were in approval.

Planning Commission

The question of zoning has resurfaced in light of the three to one margin vote in favor of some sort of zoning by voters at the March election. Mr. Rhodes said that Mark Blucher from the RRPC and Kevin Brown, the Town attorney, will be involved. Mr. Rhodes also noted that any new zoning rules cannot be applied backwards, only going forward from the point of adoption. He also said that there is a need to discuss a DRB(Development Review Board) vs. a ZBA (Zoning Board of Adjustment). Mr. Hawley motioned to have the Rutland Town Planning Commission start working on a "minimal" zoning document. Mr. Callahan seconded the motion. All were in approval.

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Town Administrator - Joseph Zingale Jr.

There will be a bus trip on 11/13/10 from 9:00 A/M. to 3:00 P.M. to visit a wind farm in Lemsden, NH.

The land for sale by the Town in West Rutland will have the bids opened by the Select Board and then passed on to Russell Reay, a forester. This is following the same procedure as in the past. It was reported that four wheelers including four wheel drive trucks have been tearing up the road to the 100 acre parcel for sale and eventually the road will be impassable if it keeps happening.

The State Employees Credit Unions needs an amended ACT 250 permit as they have made some changes to the original plan.

On 10/27/10 the Transportation Board is meeting with John Kalish and Mr. Zingale suggested a Select Board member attend.

Mr. Rhodes mentioned that everyone needs to have their time sheets into the Clerk on the Friday before the Select Board meeting or they will not get paid until after the following meeting.

New Business

There will be a moratorium for the water and sewer O&M costs levied by the Town for one year. It will be reviewed in six months and the accounts that currently hold about one million dollars cannot fall below $750,000. This will not affect the Alpine users or the Clarendon Park. New hook-up fees will still be charged. The moratorium was precipitated by the City's double digit hike. Mr. Zingale added that seventeen businesses in the Town were told by the City that their cost would be increased five times. Mr. Nicholson warned that one million dollars for water/sewer lines is not really a lot of money in today's world and he would not want to see a bond issue that the rest of the tax payers would have to pay. Mr. Callahan motioned to have the moratorium begin with the next billing in January for October through December. Mr. Hall seconded the motion. All were in approval. The insert to be mailed with the next billing, explaining the moratorium, will be worked on by Jim Hall and Marie Hyjek.

If the Town adopts the new highway construction standards, then the Town would be eligible for extra funding from the State. This applies to subdivisions and new developments. Mr. Rhodes tabled discussion on the issue until Byron Hathaway, the Road Commissioner, could be present.

The Tapestry "Lights On" program which is for children who go home to an empty house, is holding a get-together on October 28th.

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Mr. Hall motioned to accept the proposal from A. M. Peisch to do the Town audit for $13,500. Mr. Terenzini seconded the motion. All were in approval.

Correspondence

Mr. Zingale and Mr. Hall attended the Act 250 hearing with VTRANS for the Green Mountain Plaza and surrounding businesses. The State would consider a right only curb cut so that Farrell trucks could access their business. VTRANS is requesting a traffic study with accident records. Mr. Hall said that a lot of this information is already available from the 4 and 7 Corridor study.

In regards to needed upgrades to the Town pool, Mr. Zingale checked out a couple of agencies but they do not allow money to be spent on pools. Senator Sanders sent a letter to this affect as well.

A M Electric has given a proposal for the transformer at Dewey Field for $3,690. Currently, the transformer is too close to the building to open it and do any work. Mr. Hall motioned to accept the proposal from A M Electric and Mr. Hawley seconded the motion. All were in approval with the exception of Mr. Rhodes who abstained as he has business dealings with this company.

In regards to the overgrowth of shrubbery around the Northwood Park sign, the Recreation Committee, which is Jim Hall and Jim Callahan, will work on a solution to this problem.

Mr. Hall motioned to end the meeting. Mr. Terenzini seconded the motion. All were in approval. The meeting ended at 8:10 P.M.

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Stanley Rhodes III, Chairman Date

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James Callahan Date

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James Hall Date

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Steve Hawley Date

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Josh Terenzini Date

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