Selectboard Meeting Notes – Cappy Retiring, Station Plans Approved, Finances Lookin’ Good

Town Clerk Annette Cappy is retiring! Oh, dear. Oh, my.

Plans for Central Fire Station were discussed and approved by the Brattleboro Selectboard at their regular Tuesday meeting at the Municipal Center on Tuesday. Finances are looking good on many fronts, a big Caribbean food and culture festival was given permission to take place, the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance told the board what they’ve been up to recently, a new highway arts project got permission to find out if the project was feasible, and more.

Preliminaries

Chair David Gartenstein began the meeting talking of executive sessions but got everyone’s attention quite quickly with his announcement that Annette Cappy, our Town Clerk for over 25 years, is retiring come December 31.

He thanked her for her years of service with a reminder of the numerous town meetings, elections, birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, and dog licenses she helped facilitate during her nearly three decades of service. He said she had been named the 2012 Vermont Town Clerk of the Year, and will be in the history books for licensing the first civil union in July of 2000.

“Whaaat!” exclaimed John Allen. “We should turn in our charter now. This town is done.”

Town Manager Peter Elwell said he couldn’t top Gartenstein’s remarks.

For selectboard comments and committee reports, David Schoales mentioned the new downtown Farmers’ Market on Flat Street each Tuesday from 4 to 7 p.m.

Gartenstein reported on “ambitious plans for changing the layout of Route 30 from Cedar Street to the north end of Cersosimo’s development” past the I-91 bridge which is being consider by a Route 30 Scoping Committee. He said their goal is to make the area safer for pedestrians and bikes, but the plan also calls for shifting part of the state road to town control which would result in additional maintenance costs to Brattleboro.  “No activities up there create revenue,” he said, so there is a big issue for the town to consider when the scoping study is completed later this fall.

Two members of the public raised safety concerns during public participation. The first was a request for a flashing light for pedestrians near Holton Home, which, after some confusion by the board, was reported to be a project already in progress.

The second was a concern that a second bike safety sign is needed for the opposite direction in an area near Vernon Street.

Liquor Commissioners – JerkFest Festival

The Brattleboro Selectboard, acting as Liquor Commissioners approved educational sampling and festival permits for the Vermont JerkFest, a Caribbean themed event featuring food, music, and drink, taking place on August 6 at Vermont Agricultural Business Center. The sampling will occur at the Strolling of the Heifers building during Gallery Walk the night before.

The Williams Agency of Cambridge, MA is putting on the event, and Nicole Williams was on hand to describe the event and answer questions. She said her company specializes in festivals that combine sustainable food and culture, and that this festival is a “fusion of love for local food and agriculture as well as culture.” She hoped it would “connect people with the people behind the products.”

Live music, steel drums, activities for kids, chef demos, and a jerk cook-off are part of what is planned. “You can jerk anything,” said Williams, from “ice cream to mini cheesecakes with jerk ganache. There is the spice, then the grilling process.” She mentioned local Vermont goat as one of the festival’s planned delicacies.

Special event permits related to the event were approved as well.

With these permits in place, the Town will also issue an Open Air Meeting Permit and an Entertainment License for the event. The Department of Public Safety will issue an Assembly Permit.

Police-Fire Facilities Project

Groundbreaking for West Brattleboro Fire Station will be August 4 at 4 p.m., with work beginning the first week of August.

Architect Ray Giolitto and Project Manager Steve Horton presented the board with the latest plans and elevations of Central Fire Station. 

If you stand at the current front of the building, the new addition will be built mostly in the rear, to house larger fire trucks and a new hose tower. The old and new buildings will connect and be open to one another forming the new larger facility.

The current building will be renovated appropriately, with administrative offices on the first floor taking some of the space currently used as a truck bay. The other current bays will be used for smaller vehicles.

Upstairs is living space, training areas, bunk space, a kitchen, and locker rooms. 

Tucked in to both floors and both additions are spaces for storage, equipment upkeep, IT and tech equipment, record-keeping and decontamination.

Dick DeGray asked about current floor cracks in the bays, and was reassured that everything has been checked out and no additional, unanticipated work is required to keep them in use.

He also questioned the need for dispatch services in town, and wondered if they could be out-sourced to Westminster and their new facility. Kate O’Connor said it was safer to do our own dispatch, Gartenstein wasn’t sure it could be done, and the Fire Chief warned that police, fire, Rescue Inc, and the DPW use the town’s dispatch services.

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Town Manager Elwell said he had “great news on project financing,” informing the board that the bonds for the project are expected to have an average annual rate of 2.7%,  lower than the 3.3% amount anticipated in the debt schedules used by the Selectboard and Representative Town Meeting.

David Gartenstein did some quick math, noting that saving half a percent on $7.8 million is significant, to the tune of 30-40,000 in the first year.

A verified payment schedule will be delivered by the end of July.

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Police station plans are next on the agenda for the building committee’s consideration.

Overall budget and schedule adjustments show that the police and central fire stations will be delayed by about 2 weeks each, but that over $1.1 million has been shaved off the original project budget numbers.

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As for the future of the Municipal Center, Elwell said it wasn’t a high priority issue at the moment, but work was being done to investigate potential rental or leasing of space freed up by the future police station move. Work, he said, would resume on this issue later in the year.

Re-Appoint Health Officer

Assistant Fire Chief Peter Lynch was re-appointed by the board to serve as Health Officer through July of 2019. 

Dick DeGray asked about and was told that several hours a week of the Assistant Chief’s time might go to non-fire activities, leading him to ask if this was the best use of his time. He suggested alternatives become a matter of discussion at some point.

Dale Joy said she had worked with Lynch as both fire and health inspector and appreciated his work in both capacities.

Preliminary FY16 Year End Financials

Elwell warned the board that the results were preliminary, with bills coming due and payments still expected, but overall it appeared there would be a significant surplus for the recent year. Almost half a million dollars of the expected $675,000 surplus came from a handful of unusual events.

There was an error in prior year accounting for risk management insurance, leading to $93,000. There is $80,000 of start-up savings with the new health plan, nearly $150,000 in savings from vacancies in the police department, $100,000 of fuel savings, plus a mild winter for the Department of Public Works salt and overtime budgets.

DeGray added that the Rooms & Meals taxes were exceeding projections as well, and John O’Connor noted good forecasts for the Utilities and Parking funds.

David Gartenstein cautioned that the town faced many big projects. Elwell commented that in general it is best to not have a large surplus. “We don’t want to budget more than we need,” he said. He admitted that if a year was going to be substantially off, having it be a surplus is the better option.

Gartenstein said that school taxes could be down this year and the overall tax rate could be a savings over prior years. DeGray praised the town’s financial oversight, noting that there had been no deficits since the monthly finance report began.

Here are the numbers:

The General Fund ended with revenues at 99.9% of budget and expenditures at 94.9%, with a few final items remaining to be booked. 

Utilities Fund expenditures are at 98%, and Parking Fund expenditures at 85.5% of their respective budgets. 

The Solid Waste Fund revenues and expenditures are 100.7% and 104.1% of their budgets, with June bag revenue and expenses not yet recorded. There may be a slight deficit in this fund.

$3,330,179 in loans from the town have been given, with $804,466 is available for additional grants and loans.

There are 59 grants active and 9 in the application process.

Downtown Brattleboro Alliance Semi-Annual Update

As part of an effort in recent years to keep better tabs on how money for the Downtown Improvement District is spent and what programs are pursued, the Brattleboro Selectboard has asked the representative downtown organization, Downtown Brattleboro Alliance (DBA), to give more regular updates about their activities and programs. 

Both Kate O’Connor and Dick DeGray noted their ties to the organization, and while no vote was required this evening, DeGray was warned by Gartenstein that when the budget was up for approval, conflict of interest rules might prevent him from voting.

Michelle Simpson-Siegel , president of the organization, said the group had new offices in the Galanes building, had recruited new members, and had provided the board with a report.

David Gartenstein pushed for a few more details, which led to a reading of a Powerpoint presentation of committee accomplishments by Simpson-Siegel (who suggested that perhaps she and Gartenstein take turns reading from it — Gartenstein declined) 

Most of it was a continuation of the things people know and like, such as downtown flowers and lights, special events and promotions, and marketing efforts. In the newish category, Simpson-Siegel hinted that Brattleboro may be stealing Keene’s Pumpkin Festival in the future.

Arts Committee Proposal for Highway Art Project

Arts Committee Chair Adam Salviani presented the board with a proposal for a highway art project created with the efforts of Tad Montgomery, who joined him to answer questions. The basic idea is to find some spots visible from I-91 and to have a selection process to identify suitable installations. Funding would come from grants, donations, and online campaigns. 

Salviani mentioned the whale tail near Burlington as an example of they type of project that could occur. “It’s a great opportunity to engage the local population, and get an iconic representation of town.”

Montgomery said the idea came to him in the middle of the night to put art along I-91. In preliminary discussions with Mollie Burke, however, a concern that this could come in conflict with state billboard laws arose. What would prevent McDonalds from erecting giant arches and calling it art?

Montgomery said he thought for a year then realized he could create a process that a company couldn’t replicate. The project would be exceedingly local, community-oriented, and substantial.

The Selectboard was asked to form an ad hoc committee to take on the project.

DeGray said he wanted any new art project to show how it would be funded for perpetual care, or how it would be temporary.

Kate O’Connor wanted to know that the state would approve of art along highways before creating a committee. She felt more preliminary work was needed to see if the idea was even feasible, and warned that bureaucracy is slow. “I’d like to know what AOT says. It could stop right there. We can endorse this in theory…” she said. “I’d like to hear back before the ball gets rolling.”

Gartenstein found the idea interesting but broad and undefined. He, like O’Connor, said they could endorse looking into the feasibility, but wanted to hold back on going much further right now. They encouraged the art committee to go to the Windham Regional Commission and Vtrans to find out if it can be done.

Montgomery pressed for a committee. “We’d like you to appoint a committee do the work and dive into details.”

“The state will decide if we can do it or not,” said O’Connor. She suggested a subcommittee of the Arts Committee get to work on it.

“This committee, as I envision it, will have a serious hunk of work to do.” Said Montgomery. “Community outreach, evaluating proposals.” He felt something along the lines of the Police Fire facilities Committee would be about right.

“We’ll get there when we get there,” said O’Connor.

“Gotta get to first base before going to second,” agreed DeGray.

Montgomery said they didn’t have to appoint a committee that night, but could simply put out a call for interested persons to join the committee.

DeGray tried to clarify. “Once you get answers, if you need more people, come back. Tonight you get permission to move forward from here.” And, to be clear, he added the request for a committee could be years away.

The board endorsed the idea of looking further into the feasibility of possibly being able to consider adding art near highways, and encouraged the arts committee to go forth and find out if it could be done.

Other

BASIC has $58,000 so far toward a skatepark.

The Rotary Club is working to install a 9 hole disc golf course at Living Memorial Park.

84 water shut-off notices in June were sent by the town.

You did see above that Brattleboro might steal the Pumpkin Fest from Keene?