The Police Fire Facilities Project will move forward with tentative plans to complete the three building projects for the new total of approximately $12.9 million, requiring a return to Representative Town Meeting to request the additional $7.9 million. First, though, there will be a short detour while the committee searches for a new property the police can call home.
The Brattleboro Selectboard approved changes to the Citizen Police Communications Committee mission, heard about upcoming changes as Connecticut River Transit and Deerfield Valley Transit Authority unite to become Southeast Vermont Transit, and voted to continue individual staffing level reviews rather than look at the entire staff structure as a whole. Also of note, a new Town Manager may be proclaimed within days.
How many police officers can be sworn in by a town clerk at once? Almost all of them. Read on for all the details.
Preliminaries
There will be an announcement regarding a new Town Manager “any day” according to Chair David Gartenstein. This follows another round of many meetings and interviews.
Gartenstein said the board had received a petition asking that the voting age to be lowered to age 16. He said the board intends to put this before voters, despite the legality of changing the state’s voting age from 18. “Final approval of a charter change rests with the Legislature, not the Town,’ he cautioned.
Gartenstein noted that downtown was again “hopping” over the weekend, unlike Keene, where he said six Brattleboro officers helped “maintain control” during the Pumpkin Festival courtesy of our mutual aid agreements.
Interim Town Manager Patrick Moreland wants everyone to know there will be a three minute siren test on November 1st.
David Schoales said that the Waste Management finance committee was looking at proposals that could lead to single stream processing. Gartenstein said that the town pays a lot for our waste management. John Allen said it would take a while to get those costs down.
For Public Participation, James Banslabin congratulated and complimented police officers, relaying a few recent positive comments received by the department.
Water & Sewer Commissioners – New Truck
The Department of Public Works would like to replace an aging utility vehicle, a 2005 Chevy TrailBlazer, with a 2015 Ford Interceptor with extended warrantee.
Rather than opt for some trade-in value, the plan is to give the utility vehicle to Parking Enforcement to replace the retired police cruiser they’ve been using to collect meter revenue. Public Works Director Steve Barrett said this would result in being over budget by $832, but it seemed worth it.
Everyone liked the plan, and the board voted to approve the $30,832 purchase of the new truck with plans to hand off the other vehicle to meter readers.
Police Department Swearing In Ceremony
Town Clerk Annette Cappy made an appearance at Tuesday night’s meeting to swear in new and recent police appointments.
Mike Fitzgerald was appointed as Chief of Police, Mark Carignan replaces Fitzgerald as Captain, and Adam Belville has been appointed to the position of Sergeant.
And then there were the others. As the primary candidates stepped forward to be sworn in, the sea of blue uniforms grew to over a dozen officers, all in need of public swearing-in.
Cappy led them through the oath, mostly in unison except for name-stating and position being taken in the department, both of which sounded much more muddled.
As quickly as they filed in, the newly-sworn police staff took their leave.
“No one wants to stay for the budget talk?” John Allen inquired as the room emptied.
Financial Report with John O’Connor
Finance Director John O’Connor reported to the Brattleboro Selectboard on monthly finances ending in September. It was the third such report of the fiscal year, marking 25% of the year complete.
General Fund expenditures are at 24.9% of the budget. The Utilities Fund rests at 22.4% and the Parking Fund comes in at 20.1% of their budgets.
The Police Fire facilities Project has spent $12,862 in this fiscal year.
Just over $4 million has been loaned out and just under $400,000 remains to be loaned.
There are 44 active grants, and 12 in the pipeline.
“We’re in really good shape,” said O’Connor, and “tracking well to the budget.”
Police-Fire Facilities Project Discussion
Police Fire facilities Project Manager Steve Horton returned to the Selectboard Tuesday night with information from the PFFP Committee, as requested by the board at their last meeting.
There was some initial confusion triggered by a recent story in a newspaper, over who should be at the meeting and what was being discussed. They soon refocused on the Plan F, unveiled at their last meeting.
The Committee, Horton said, has prepared a budget to complete all three projects as Plan F, at an estimated cost of $12.9 million. Actual costs, he cautioned, will vary depending on the price of property for a new police station.
This approach would keep plans for the fire stations downtown and in West Brattleboro the same as before. Brattleboro would take a new approach with the police station, finding a a suitable property to purchase and then building a new facility at that location.
Horton said that they hoped to find a property with an existing building that could be renovated, saving more on the project costs.
Plan F costs, the committee said, break down as follows: Central Fire has a $7.175 million price tag. West Brattleboro Fire is estimated at $1.49 million. The estimated cost of a new police station (and property for it) is $4.23 million. These costs include expenses already incurred.
With $5 million already borrowed, another $7.9 million would be required of taxpayers to cover the costs.
The PFFP Committee prefers to locate a site for the police station and come up with specific numbers before calling a new Representative Town Meeting. Interim Town Manager Patrick Moreland agreed.
“To warn a bond vote we need to identify the object and purpose fo which we are borrowing money.”
John Allen said that good properties are out there, and Kathy Dowd said they would be investigating options within the next couple of weeks.
The committee remains committed to the idea of doing all three building projects at the same time, but asked the Selectboard if the $12.9 million price tag was the right amount to use for their planning purposes.
The board generally thought that the committee should report what numbers are required, though David Gartenstein cautioned them that there was no guarantee of approval.
“We’ve faced significant pressure over last few years to keep tax increase to a minimum,” he said. “I hear John’s words about not increasing taxes. We also have deferred expenses in our capital plan that we push off year after year. I don’t know what the answer is. We have to look at these needs, other capital needs, and operating budget. We need a long range vision before we can answer that. I’d encourage you to come in with the best numbers possible on the three components.”
Kate O’Connor asked what had changed that reduced the price from $14.1 million to $12.9 million? Horton said that savings at West Brattleboro combined with a new approach to the police station brought the price down, again cautioning that the costs have not been fully determined.
John Allen said that the longer we waited, the more the project would cost.
The selectboard discussed timing and implementation of a new $7.9 million bond, making note that any bond decisions made before the next fiscal year begins on July 1st would be reflected in the next tax rate.
“If Representative Town Meeting authorizes spending more money by issuing bonds, that would be an additional expense authorized,” said Gartenstein, “and we’d cover those things as we are setting the tax rate.”
Spoon Agave then gave most people in the room a handout and paraphrased it for the public.
It was his view that the board and committee were working with blinders on, seeing this only as about Police and Fire facilities. Agave said it could be much more, and in the process we could spend our limited tax dollars more effectively to make everything count.
He suggested adding a few more floors to the Central Fire facility and moving Town offices from the Municipal Center to the new location downtown. The Police could then use the entire Municipal Center.
Part of the design, Agave said, would be modern, ample community meeting space.
“What will enable our town to be able to survive and well in uncertain times will be the strength of the fabric of the community,” said Agave, not money or energy, “so what we have and we will always have is people and land.”
He said that when he thinks of spending large amounts of money, he asks what really does the most good for the community, for now and in the future. “We will need to build that fabric.”
Dowd thanked Agave for his good ideas as the committee rethinks the police station situation.
Gartenstein added that the board would have data regarding the usefulness and necessity of the West Brattleboro station at an upcoming meeting.
CPCC Mission Statement
The Citizen Police Communications Committee (CPCC) met recently to examine their role and mission. Tuesday night, the Brattleboro Selectboard accepted their proposed change in scope.
The old mission was “to provide consistent feedback between police and community, arrange for an independent means to mediate disputes between community and police, and to foster community safety.” It lists tasks for them to undertake.
Ann Wright said their desire was to simplify and clarify. “We are the keepers of the process, and make sure all complaints have a place to land,” she said. “A citizen who goes through the process has follow-up.”
The new mission, which they choose to accept, is “to facilitate mutually respectful communication between citizens and the Brattleboro Police Department regarding complaints, compliments or information concerning police procedures.”
Endorsed by the new Police Chief, the new mission was accepted by the board.
Terry Carter added that this could be a model for other communities, and that there were opportunities to get involved and make long-term positive changes.
Staffing Level Reviews
The Brattleboro Selectboard has been holding staffing level reviews when vacancies occur in town departments. They get to hear from the department head as to the importance of the vacated position.
This ongoing look at staff began in March and was scheduled to run for six months.
Over grimaced looks and mild objections from Interim Town Manager Patrick Moreland, the board chose to extend the process another six months.
“It is additional work,” said Moreland. “Not crushing, but as to its merit, it escapes me.”
Moreland suggested they instead take a look at the entire staffing chart to see if it matched with expectations of services desired. “It seems more proactive rather than looking at individual circumstances.”
The board, however, found the process of publicly examining each vacancy to be useful, and the idea of looking at the entire structure less appealing.
“that seems to be micromanaging,” said John Allen of the entire-structure approach. “i don’t know what departments need without their input.”
Connecticut River Transit Changes
Connecticut River Transit (CRT) is “consolidating” with Deerfield Valley Transit Authority (DVTA). CRT is responsible for running busses in our part of the state.
Randy Schoonmaker from DVTA gave the board an overview of the planned process.
The purpose is to create one strong company to provide better service to the region. Neither company is being gobbled up by the other, nor will either have control of the other. There will be a new eight-member board of directors, four members from each, to oversee the new operations.
While everything is subject to possible changes, the current plan has many steps. First is for the two organizations to change their bylaws, allowing CRT to become a subsidiary of DVTA.
Shortly after the new year, the new board will assume control, and CRT’s board goes away. Randy Schoonmaker becomes CEO of the new organization, Jan Turk becomes general manager of DVTA, and Rebecca Gagnon continues as general manager of CRT.
The new, Wilmington-based company will be called Southeast Vermont Transit (SVT), will serve 37 towns, and will officially start on July 1, 2015. It will include The Current and The MOOver divisions. The DVTA and CRT logos and lettering will go away.
No other changes in service or staffing are expected.
The Selectboard has a Memo of Understanding with CRT that outlines the town’s current bus service agreement. It will need to be updated to be an agreement with SVT when the time comes.
It will also need to reflect accountability for the money being contributed by the town, said David Gartenstein. The new board structure, he pointed out, means that Brattleboro will be losing their municipal representative to CRT’s board.
Schoonmaker said that Brattleboro would not lose representation so much as gain another company and board to look after our busses. “You’ve gained another company and experience in lieu of a specially appointed board member,” he said, adding that board positions would open up and Brattleboro people could apply when that happens.
“Our oversight is giving the money,” said John Allen.
New routes to and from Bennington were examples of planned improvements, as were electronic fare boxes and “taking confusion out of the bus schedule,” said Schoonmaker.
Still, Gartenstein suggested some sort of formal input by the town would be appreciated when it comes time to sign the next memo of understanding.
November 4 Meeting Schedule
Tuesday, November 4 is an election day, and the Selectboard meeting room is scheduled to be in use for voting purposes. This presented the board with a choice: delay the meeting, or hold it somewhere else, such as in the BCTV studio where it could be televised.
The board opted to hold their regular meeting on Election Day, in the BCTV studios.
Also Noted
The Brundgardt family gives their approval to relocating the Theresa S. Brundgardt Senior Area to make way for the skatepark, as long as it had an accessible pathway.
Homelessness and addiction are downtown issues.
660 items added to the Brooks Memorial Library catalog in September. There were 29,440 items checked out and in to borrowers.
Fire Department has continued mechanical issues with vehicles.
“As the Waste Water Treatment Project draws to an end…” is a phrase that continues to begin DPW memos on the topic.
The Union Hill intersection work will take place in early Spring 2015. Main Street sidewalks will also be repaired at about that time.
Traffic lights continue to be a struggle to operate.
