Fairfax Selectboard Minutes of 01/28/08

Selectboard Members present: Bill Ormerod, Judy Cleary, Jeff Blake, Charlie Swanson and Randy DeVine. Staff Members present: Don Pigeon, Road Foreman, and Erin McSweeney, Administrative Assistant to the Selectboard. Public Present: Carolyn Branagan, Peg Stewart, Peter King, Melinda Carpenter and Deb Warner.

1. Call to Order

Bill Ormerod, Chairperson, called the meeting to order at 7:01PM.

2. Minutes

Judy motioned to approve the minutes from the meeting on January 21, 2008, as written. Charlie seconded. All board members voted in favor.

3. Items on the Agenda

A. Don Pigeon - Would like to attend a workshop in Swanton sponsored by Vermont Local Roads and VTrans. He would like to present the Bank Stabilization Project for River Road to Linda Bodette of Better Backroads.

The board reviewed an Access Permit from Hannah and Dana Decker. A 15" culvert is required, and brush should be cut 200 feet in both directions.

Bill discussed trash pick up on Wagner Road; Don informed him that the concrete pad that Clean Green was going to use to place a dumpster is located on the right hand side of Wagner Road right before White Pine Road. Bill will contact Bob Perry to see if a dumpster can be put there.

B. Donna Meunier- Donna reviewed the warned items for Town Meeting with the board. Charlie motioned to sign the warning. Randy seconded. All board members voted in favor.

C. Randy DeVine - Randy backwashed the sewer system. He also completed meter inspections and changed out meters at 1192 Main Street and 1189 Main Street.

D. Melinda Carpenter and Deb Warner, Library Trustees - The Library Trustees submitted 2 proposed budgets for 2008. A third budget was inadvertently submitted to and reviewed by the Selectboard. The third budget was only intended to be used as a guide for creating the 2 proposed budgets. Bill suggested that the Library Trustees should only submit one budget for the board's review.

Peg Stewart attended tonight's meeting; she indicated that the financial statement for the Community Library should only reflect the salaries of the community library staff, and should not include those of the school library staff. All of the salaries are included as one sum under the line item "Salaries and Social Security" in the Community Library's budget in the Town Report.

4. Public Input

A. Carolyn Branagan attended tonight's meeting; she informed the board that the Town has not been awarded a Transportation Enhancement Grant.

B. Peter King attended tonight's meeting. He expressed concern that as of January 1, 2009, the Town will be reducing the health insurance benefits for Town employees.

5. Other Business

A. The board reviewed the Correspondence Worksheet.

B. The board reviewed the following policies: Filling Pools from the Municipal System, Refunding of Fees for Planning Commission / ZBA Hearings, and Special Road Sign Requests. The Refunding of Fees for Planning Commission / ZBA Hearings policy will be reviewed when the board reviews the Fee Schedule.

C. The board approved a request from the Ladies of the United Church to sell items for lunch at Town Meeting.

D. The Amateur Radio Club would like to use the Fire House for a meeting every other month. By consensus, the board did not approve this request.

E. The board discussed a preliminary sewer allocation application from Elisabeth Kirkpatrick on behalf of the Shepardson Hollow School for the property at 24 Fletcher Road. Since the school is not the owner of the building, the application will be returned to Elisabeth.

F. The board reviewed a memo from John Workman regarding the trash on Old Academy Street. John and the members of the Fairfax Green Association would like to meet with the board to discuss how to the trash removal arrangements for the development.

G. The board reviewed an e-mail from Jill Quong, who owns the duplex at 1268 Main Street. She would like to convert the existing duplex back to a single family home, and build a new duplex. Jill was granted a preliminary sewer allocation in May of 2007 for the project.

Charlie motioned to approve the request to move 1 municipal sewer allocation and 2 water allocations from the existing duplex to a newly constructed duplex on a separate lot provided that the original duplex returns to being a single-family home, which will retain one municipal sewer allocation. Water for the single family home will be provided by an on-site drilled well.

Judy seconded. Randy suggested that drawings including a detailed depiction of both the water and wastewater connection to the municipal system for both of these structures should be presented to the board when the project is considered for a final sewer allocation.

6. Adjournment

Judy motioned to adjourn the meeting at 8:46PM. Randy seconded. All board members voted in favor. The meeting was adjourned at 8:46PM.

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Erin McSweeney, Administrative Assistant to the Selectboard