September 6, 2010

Dick DeGray was absent, so vice chairperson Dora sat in as chair.

At this week’s meeting, the Selectboard and Town government again demonstrated what it is that towns do: raise money, spend money, manage big utilities (water and wastewater) and public facilities (the parking garage, the Municipal Center), and appoint citizens to volunteer committees to oversee certain other things. Or at least, that’s what they did at this meeting.

Read on for the gory details.

Preliminary Remarks - Route 5 Lane Markings and the New Bike Lanes

Town Manager Barbara Sondag said that the Traffic Safety Committee is working on the Putney Road bike lanes. She said that Jesse Corum had attended the meeting, and had solicited feedback from bikers about the new lanes. She then explained why the new bike lanes are out in the middle of traffic which, she said, was because the road is state property and hence falls into federal jurisdiction regarding standards.

She said that the committee talked about how to deal with the “newness” of the bike lanes for both bikers and drivers. She said that it comes down leaving the bike lanes where they are or having no bike lanes at all. Brattleboro residents have expressed the desire for bike lanes, Sondag said, and she felt that drivers could learn to coexist with the new bike lanes. The Traffic Safety Committee, she said, agreed unanimously to keep the bike lanes where they are.

Sondag said the Town would be working with VTrans to make the bike lanes stand out more with colored lines and other changes. She said they hope to hear back from VTrans soon about the Town’s requests. Efforts to fine-tune and tweak the existing lane markings throughout the Route 5 corridor will continue, Sondag said.

Dora agreed that the bike lanes tended to come and go, and then there was the difficulty of getting into a turn lane which requires you to cross over the bike lane to get there. Sondag said they were working on some of those issues, and especially lanes that meander or mislead.

Jesse Corum also felt that the bike lanes were a big change for both drivers and bikers. He thought color coding was essential for safety reasons, because both drivers and bikers are expecting bikes to be in the far right lane.

Public Participation

Larry Bloch announced that the Charter Review Commission is holding public meetings on September 28 and 29 at 6:30 pm in Room 2 East of the Marlboro Tech Center on the second floor. They will be presenting the first complete draft of proposed changes to the charter and the public is invited to provide feedback.

These two meetings will be followed by a public forum on October 7 in the Selectboard Meeting Room room at 6:30 pm, to be recorded by BCTV for later rebroadcast. The full text of the new charter with changes highlighted will be run in the Reformer, the Commons, and on iBrattleboro.com.

Water and Sewer Loan Approval

The Selectboard approved a state clean water revolving loan fund application for $4 million dollars for the wastewater treatment plant project. This is the first of at least two construction loans. At next board meeting, there will be another loan application for remainder of construction costs which will be in the neighborhood of $15 million.

Unfinished Business - Loan Funds and Solid Waste Work Plans

Three similar mini-agencies: the Disaster Relief Loan Fund, the Small Business Assistance Program, and the Rental Housing Improvement Program all revised their policies and procedures, reflecting changes to the way operating costs are handled in each organization as well as other procedural changes. All policy and procedure changes were approved.

The Solid Waste Committee was also on the agenda for a public hearing on their fiscal 2011 workplan and a demonstration of correct recycling procedures. Martha O’Connor noted the poor public attendance for the recycling demonstration.

Sondag commented that the workplan was “pretty aggressive” and felt that it could benefit from public input. She wanted to hear from the public which items people would like to see pursued first and to find out if citizens were interested in volunteering to help.

Peter Cooper, Nancy Barber, Junio Anthes-Moody, and Jane Southworth were present with big piles of trash and recycling for their demonstration skit, along with copies of their workplan.

First, they talked about the seven parts of their plan once again, which are:

1 - hiring a recycling coordinator
2 - working with coordinator on education and outreach
3 - ordinance enforcement
4 - developing new policies for trash and recycling such as public events recycling
5 - five and ten year plans and goals such as bulky waste pickup and expansion of composting in public areas
6 - addressing composting issues - how to increase the rate of composting to reduce total trash weight
7 - develop evaluation tools for the committee’s work

Corum asked how the recycling rate is computed and wondered about the feasibility of the committee’s long term goal of 100% recycling in 10 years. He received a number of different answers. Nancy Barber said that 100% recycling might be a “pipedream” but was a worthy goal. Southworth gave a more technical definition: the recycling rate equals the recycling tonnage divided by total trash tonnage. Junio Anthes-Moody said that the 100% recycling rate was designed to ensure that 100% of recyclable items are recycled. Southworth then volunteered yet another definition, suggesting that 100% could refer to the number of residents who recycle.

Southworth then invited the board to comment on the workplan, noting that few members of the public were present to weigh in. O’Connor said she had already made her comments at a previous meeting and that in her opinion, it was the publc who had a responsibility to come to meetings and provide feedback.

Dora said that there had been a great deal of comment over the previous six months on iBrattleboro, the radio, and the Reformer, and that this informal commentary could be considered part of “public input.”

The committee then performed their demonstration with Cindy Sterling taking the lead role in their skit about recycling. Cindy and Junio played a “good recycling couple”, as they took things out of bins and verified the validity of certain recyclables, acted out checking the schedule in the waste management flyer, andcremarked joyfully about about the new recyclables such as plastic strawberry containers and yogurt containers.

Jane played the part of a solid waste worker who explained that rinsing out containers was really important to preventing rats and crows, not to mention foul odors, at the Solid Waste District sorting center.

The workplan was approved.

Monthly Financials with John Leisenring

Town Finance Director John Leisenring gave his financial report for July. Martha O’Connor asked about parking and wondered if the Parking Fund, which had been ailing, was doing better. Sondag said that parking had improved a bit and that permits were up. She said that nationally, parking is down close to 30%, so by comparison, our parking system is doing pretty well. Sondag said also that the downtown paving project had not impacted downtown parking and visitation as much as expected.

Both Dora and O’Connor noted that the parking garage had seemed somewhat empty recently. Sondag said that there needed to be continued vigilance as the parking system remains fragile, despite an upturn since May.

Transportation Center Bond Refinanced

The Selectboard approved the refinancing of a Transportation Center Bond which will save the town more than $200,000 in interest payments. However, the benefits of the refinancing won’t kick in until 2016.

A New Assistant Treasurer

Deborah Desrosiers was approved as Assistant Treasurer for the Town.

Rental Housing Improvement Loan for Evan Chadwick

Byron Stookey of the Rental Housing Improvement program, explained that the Rental Housing Improvement Program Loan is being issued to Evan Chadwick whose house is on Western Ave just past 91 at the northeast corner of Brattle Street. The proposal is to convert the addition off the back of the house to a one bedroom apartment. Stookey said that it was a straightforward loan application, and that his committee recommended approval.

The loan, for $17,000 at 3% interest, was approved with the condition that when the applicant received his $3,000 incentive from the Brattleboro Area Affordable Housing Apartments in Homes Program, it be applied to this loan balance.

Approved 4-0

Brattleboro Museum To Build A Sculpture Garden

Danny Lichtenfield of the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center explained that the area between the museum and the Marlboro Tech Center had become overgrown and unattractive, and that the Museum had opted to clear that space for an outdoor sculpture garden. However, to complete the project, they had learned that they need to apply to the DRB to reconfigure their parking. The reconfiguration will create a walkway space from the front of the museum to the new sculpture garden area through part of the former parking area. The application was approved.

Connecticut River Transit To Take Over BeeLine Bus

Sondag said that two groups had submitted proposals to take over the Brattleboro town bus — Deerfield River Transit and Connecticut River Transit. She said that Connecticut River Transit (CRT) was the operator most able to absorb the cost of taking on the BeeLine and that the Town recommends going with them.

VTrans will be working with CRT to facilitate the transfer of the bus service over the coming weeks. This includes the transfer of the grant, the buses themselves, the storage of the buses, and other bus operation issues such as scheduling. Bus routes will not change this year and the BeeLine’s current drivers will be able to continue with the new owners. The transfer process should be complete by November of this year.

Sondag said a long-term goal was reducing the length of each run to about an hour.

Daryl Pillsbury asked what would happen if CRT changes it’s mind about some of the points they agreed to in the transfer proposal. Sondag said that she didn’t anticipate that CRT would renege on any part of its agreement, and that Dave Pelletier of CRT was committed to providing bus service to the community. She said also that funding of the bus service from the General Fund should continue in order for us to have a better bargaining position with CRT in the future.

Daryl said he would support the transfer with some reservations, in hopes that CRT can do the job and perhaps even improve the service. He asked that members of the public who use the bus contact him personally if they have problems after the transfer. Dora said that she had been against the spinoff originally and remained hesitant but like Daryl, felt that “the train had left the station” and sounded as though she planned to support the transfer since it seemed like a done deal at that point.

The vote was 3-1-0. Dora voted against at the very last instant. Daryl asked if she had missed the train after all and she said yes.

Tax Map Maintenance Continues With Cartographic Associates, Inc.

Approved 4-0.

Fire Department To Purchase New Nozzle

The Fire Department got approval to apply to Entergy Vermont Yankee for $3,600 for a “Blitzfire” water monitor which is a sort of fancy fire hose nozzle.

Library First Wednesdays Lecture Series Gets Mini-Grant

The board approved a $400 pass-through grant to support the Library First Wednesdays Lecture Series. This is an annual grant that they get every year.

Corum said that he had attended a couple of the lectures and that they were a great enhancement to the town’s cultural life.

Library Applying For Grant To Digitize Photo Collection

The Library is also applying to the Windham Foundation for the amount of $5,000 to cover the cost of digitizing 1,250 photos from the Porter Thayer Photo Collection archived at the Library.

Their application was approved 4-0.

Radiological Emergency Response Grant To Buy New Muni Center Generator

The Town has applied for and received a grant from the Vermont Department of Public Safety for a little over $68,000 to fund emergency response center costs.

$20,000 will go to buying a replacement generator for the Municipal Center. Sondag said that the existing generator is 25 years old and getting to the end of its useful life. The Municipal Center requires backup power because the emergency and police dispatch systems are housed there. Laptops for the Emergency Operation Center are also included in this grant.

Sondag also mentioned a plan to move the Emergency Response Center to the Library, but it was not clear when or why. Sondag said that some of the money could go to that purpose, provided the generator is big enough to power both buildings.

The grant appropriation was approved 4-0.

The Tobacco Nest Gets Tobacco License But Issues Linger

A graduate student from UMass Amherst has big plans to open a “hookah lounge” at 128 Main Street downtown. He said that the “Tobacco Nest” is already out as a name and that the new business will be the 5301 Lounge. The plan, in brief, is to have a tobacco shop by day and a cigar and hookah lounge at night. The shop will sell tobacco and herbal products.

The business owner described his lounge as a place for hip smokers to relax that could provide an alternative to bars. He said he hoped his establishment would attract locals and as well as non-Vermonters, noting that the closest similar business is in Worcester, MA.

He promised not to sell tobacco products to minors and that the store would not be dealing in illegal substances. Nor, he said, would the shop function as a head shop. Hookahs, he said, are used to smoke fruit-flavored tobacco and non-nicotine herbal products.

Daryl moved to approve. But Dora was confused — “how can one smoke in a public place if it is illegal in bars?” she asked.

The business owner said that according to his understanding of state law, as long as the majority of income is from tobacco products and there is local approval, smoking is allowed. Upper Vermont has one or two such shops, he said.

Daryl then asked to change the motion to approve the license as long as it is legal in the state of Vermont. Sondag adjusted the motion to make it conditional to passing a review by the town’s attorney.

Dora continued to have questions. “What about employees working in a place where there will be smoking?” she asked.

In the end, the board passed the conditional approval by a vote of 3-1-0 with Dora against.

Entertainment License – West Brattleboro Association

The West Brattleboro Association got board approval for a live entertainment license for September 25 on the field next to the Chelsea Royal.

Ad Hoc Committee Created for West River Park

Sondag informed the board that the idea is to form an ad hoc committee to oversee fundraising and development of the new West River Park — similar to the Wastewater Treatment Plant ad hoc committee.

Sondag also provided a mini-update, saying that the Town is close to purchasing the property on route 30, as it has all the permits in hand. All they need now is an easement from CVPS, which they expect to receive this week. After that, the Town will finish the purchase and start the development phase.

The board decided to set the committee size at 5 members. Out-of-towners will not be discriminated against.

Committee Appointments – Conservation Commission

The board re-appointed Peter Seares and Michael Fairchild to the Conservation Commission for another year.

Appointment – Health Officer

Brian Bannon was appointed Deputy Health Officer.

Appointments – Capital Grant Review Board

Daryl Pillsbury and Jesse Corum volunteered to be board representatives on the Capital Grants Review Board, until Jesse remembered that his wife Lynn is on that board, at which it was decided that Martha O’Connor would serve in his stead.