Meeting Minutes
Town of Leicester
Selectboard Meeting Minutes
Monday, June 18, 2012
*Unapproved*
** See subsequent minutes for any changes
Members Present: Diane Benware, Ken Young, Tom Barker, Ron Fiske
Members Absent: Brad Lawes
Others Present: Arlan Pidgeon, James Russo, Julie Delphia, Sandra Trombley, Secretary
Call to Order: Meeting called to order at 6:35 p.m. by Chair, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
Review of Agenda: Agenda reviewed.
Dog Issue: Animal Control Officer:
Paul received a message of a dog bite. Paul contacted the person who was bitten. He is a probation officer for the State of Vermont. He was going to the residence to check on a person that he was supposed to check on. After talking with Brian Webb, Paul found out that there was nobody home at the time. He knocked on the door. No one showed up. He was getting ready to leave and a dog came through the doggie door and attacked him and wouldn’t let go. He got about 9 puncture wounds and went to the hospital. He will be out of work for about a week. He told Paul in his 30 years as probation officer, he has dealt with a lot of people and dogs and has never encountered a dog this vicious before. He is worried about a young child, either walking by or trying to sell something and coming up to the door. A young person would probably never be able to free themselves. He ended up pepper spraying the dog. The dog backed off a little bit, but came back again. This same dog attacked another person awhile back. This is the second incident.
Paul called the owner and they were out of town. He called the person who was supposed to be taking care of the dog and Brian said they are aware that the dog is supposed to be quarantined for 10 days. The owners will be gone until Sunday.
The dog is a Labradoodle. This dog is vicious.
Paul was on vacation in Nevada and his brother-in-law set up a day with Animal Control in Nevada. He went on a bite report. He got some forms that we might possibly be able to use for our town. He found it very interesting and learned quite a bit.
The caretaker, Sadona Hanfield, is probably working during the day. She needs to be called and tell her to quarantine the dog.
The dog is registered and shots are up-to-date.
Jim read the Health Officer Manual which reads that the dog can be confined and observation may be carried out at the residence of the owner; as long as the dog is unable to escape, bite, or exposed to anyone during the 10 day period. If the Health Officer doesn’t feel that the owner can contain the animal appropriately, the animal can be confined at a facility at the owner’s expense. The animal cannot be removed to another community without the permission of the Health Officer. Jim continued to read more rules about confinement. There is a toll free number to call for more information.
Paul said if a property is posted, no trespassing, you are not supposed to enter that property. The reason the dog got out was a gate was left unlocked. Paul is worried that it could happen again. Safety is the most important issue.
Paul will call Sadona.
Paul and Jim should meet her to see if she thinks she can quarantine the dog. Ken suggests they take a constable with them.
Julie stated that both of the dog bites happened when the owners were not home.
The Board will hold a hearing Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at 6:30 P.M. at the Town Office for the purpose of investigating a vicious dog complaint.
Julie will send a certified letter. Diane will post the warning of the meeting and the Secretary will take minutes.
The Board is acting in a quasi judicial capacity and parties are sworn in. Information is gathered from all parties and the Board then goes into deliberation and makes a decision. A written decision is made with an Order for any action to be taken.
Jim will make a phone call to the State Public Health Vet tomorrow morning to have an answer about the problem if they are unable to quarantine the dog.
Approval of May 31, June 4 and June 12, 2012 Minutes:
Motion by Tom to accept the minutes of May 31, June 4, and June 12, 2012 as written. Second by Ron. All in favor. So approved.
Julie made a comment on the May 31st minutes, one of the things they talked about was, adding the Salisbury Planning Commission to the Leicester Lakes Book. They actually weren’t a part of that they were part of the Leicester/Salisbury Collaborative, but not the Lakes Book. She did not make that change.
Review/Authorization to pay bills:
Bills making their rounds for signatures.
Motion by Ron to approve the bills. Second by Tom. All in favor. So approved.
Reports from Town Officials, Committees:
Health Officer:
Jim received a phone call there was a dog bite. He was out of town. Paul had already made contacts. We will continue on with that and call the hospital and Mike Erickson.
Julie thinks the hospital notified Salisbury in error. That’s how Brian found out.
Listers:
Jim reported that they are working on the grand list, trying to get that set so that they can lodge it, depending on BCA hearing date, and where you are going. He was notified there were two parties going to the BCA. Jim talked to Ed and let him know who the two people were and the ID’s. He is available Monday or Tuesday so he can be here to represent and speak on behalf of the Town Listers. Jim will be there also.
Jim mentioned for next meeting he wanted to talk about and put together a contract for the appraisal company to submit to the Selectboard for so many days of work where it would be outlined what they would handle, with a price. With what we have in our budget for listers, if that doesn’t change, it should not be a problem.
Diane asked if the Selectboard agreed to that proposal, what would the listers be doing? Jim stated they would be handling the day to day routine, data entry, property transfers, working with people that come in looking for information. Listers can also go out and inspect something. We have to have three Listers. Ed is selling his company to NEMRIC.
Town Foreman:
Arlan reported that they graded Delorm Road, Shackett Road and worked one day on Ferson Road taking off the shoulders and putting the dirt over on Swinington Hill. They put a couple loads of stone around the end of the culvert and in the farm driveways. They lengthened the culvert between Tweeter’s and the Cemetery. They leveled off the dirt they’ve been dumping over by the Town Shed where the sprayer went off over the bank. They took off some of the signs for the children. They replaced damaged signs. They got the cement blocks from Brad to put in front of the sand pile.
Ken thinks we should get more cement blocks 2x4x2. Recommend to get 6 of them and barricade the sand pile.
Motion by Ken to authorize Arlan to get 6 cement blocks at a cost of between $40 - $50. Second by Ron. All in favor. So approved.
Cemetery Committee: No Meeting
Zoning Administrator: No Report
BCA hearings Monday, June 25, 2012 at 6:30 P.M. to gather to do oaths and review the process. 7:00 P.M. first hearing and 7:20 P.M. second hearing and done by 8:00 P.M. Must have a quorum. Ed or James will be speaking in support of the Listers and Jim will also be there.
Town Clerk/Treasurer:
VLCT: Drug Testing:
Julie called VLCT. The Compliance Officer from VLCT came down the next morning and brought her a manual and he stayed for about 1 ½ hours explaining things to Julie and what needs to be done. There are a number of things the Town needs to do.
Julie entered Arlan, Scott and Steve into the random drug testing, today.
We have to do driving record checks so she’s going to fill out those forms tomorrow to check their driving records for the past year. When we get the results of the driving records, the Selectboard will need to make a determination of whether or not they can continue to drive for the Town based on those driving records.
The Board has to implement a Drug & Alcohol Policy and a Discipline Policy. Julie provided sample policies and state requirements for employer record keeping.
The Compliance Officer can come to our next meeting, July 2nd. Julie asked that he be put first on the agenda. Julie asked Arlan to bring Scott and Steve. Julie recommends that the Board read the sample policies and requirements before the July 2nd meeting. Bring all your questions and concerns and take advantage of him coming here to meet with us.
Julie asked them to review the information for the BCA hearings before Monday night.
Request: Removable Stage for the Meeting House:
There is an issue of being able to see the little kids when they have their plays. Julie asked if a removable stage was built at no cost to the Town, would the Selectboard have an issue with that if it could be put on when they have a play and then removed and stored somewhere. Not risers, but a lift.
Ron would like to see the plans and he offered to come and look and give some ideas.
Voting Machine:
Julie asked if anyone had an issue of Julie sending back the voting machine. We are required to maintain it and use it, if we have it, at the general election.
Motion by Tom to send machine back. Second by Ken. All in favor. So approved.
Julie reported the ticket books for Animal Control will be here in a couple weeks. We can talk about doing the census when we have the books.
Julie reported delinquent taxes are at $66,400.
Julie reported that she had to borrow money to pay bills this week. We have officially started borrowing money.
The printing cost for printing the books, Julie charged 9 of them to Planning/Zoning and 1 to the grant. Only 1 is for the grant. She charged Ashley’s time for going up and picking up the stuff from Regional Planning, mileage and certificate of mailing for the grant, to Grant Administration.
OLD BUSINESS
Next Steps - The Town Plan:
The grant part is done and mailed and closed out. There is a new grant coming up that Kate would like to apply for the Zoning Regulations with the specific stipulation that we do them in house and that ACRP be consulted as needed.
Town Plan Implementation: Julie mailed out color copies to all the surrounding towns, ACRP, Dept of Housing & Economic Development. This is the 30-day pre-notification of the Planning Commission Meeting. We have posted in all the appropriate places and the Thursday Addison Independent should be carrying the notice/warning. All the requirements for the Planning Commission Meeting for July 11th have been done. Once the Planning Commission has the public meeting, they will then have to present the Plan to the Selectboard.
Julie will send ACRP a PDF of the Town Plan.
Diane indicated there was a $500 line item in the budget for Research and Grant Writing. Diane feels that half of the line item should go to Julie for all the time she put in working on the Town Plan.
Motion by Tom to pay Julie $250 for time spent on the Town Plan. Second by Ron. All in favor. So approved.
Julie explained confidentiality of the tax credit on bills. A State Statute has been passed that gave us the authority to give it to attorneys, realtors, paralegals if they said it was a client relationship or real estate transaction. There was a lot of discussion about this. Property Valuation & Review states that the best practice is to require them to have something on their letterhead stating exactly what transaction they need it for. It is a very difficult situation and they have made giving out tax bill copies to people a hundred times harder. Be prepared for further discussion on the subject.
Grounds Maintenance: E. Morrison:
Motion by Tom to pay Evelyn Morrison $10 hour with a cap of $300 for flowers/weeding grounds maintenance. Second by Ken. All in favor. So approved.
Motion by Ron to pay $32.07 as a reimbursement for supplies. Second by Tom. All in favor. So approved.
Julie will have Evelyn complete paperwork as an employee.
Julie reminded that our purchasing procedure does not authorize anyone to make purchases without prior approval of the Selectboard. In the future, any items needed should come before the Selectboard for prior approval before purchases are made.
Ken will bush hog for free if the Cemetery Committee will work toward an 8’ lawn on the outside. Ken makes a recommendation to the Selectboard that Arlan pull up the brush, roots and debris. Ken will bush hog first; then Ken and Arlan will look at it. They would need two employees for a half days work. Seed it down. Ken will provide the mulch.
Ken has a local person to buy the box trailer and grader and take them away. $500 for box trailer and $2250 for grader and haul everything away. If they were to get the box trailer out, they could then slope and grade away from the building and buy new siding for the east and west side and have somebody put it up and let it look like something. There is still a 30 year life span on the building. This is why Ken thinks they should sell the trailer and grader.
Ken asked Arlan to stop cutting down the roadsides. This started when Ken complained after a hard rain that the water was coming down the road on Delorm Rd and nothing was coming down the ditches and he said they either had to build up the road or cut down the shoulders. Arlan cut the shoulders down and now it works perfectly. He did some of Ferson Road. He asked Arlan to stop because this is not an inexpensive operation between equipment and labor. Even though it is well worth the money, we still have to stay within the budget. Arlan and Scott thought they could do all the roads in town that needed their shoulders cut down, in four or five days. Until we see what we have for money, we need to hold off. We may need to wait until next year. We need to see how this is going to work.
Ken reported that they have been using approximately 1400 yards of winter sand for the past few years. Employees are back to work and they brought in most of the fill and they are going to level things off in the next day or two and the project will be done and ready to accept sand. Ken asked if they want to start a new sand pile, do they want to fill it up. He thinks they need to be very clear. Arlan wants to continue off the north side of the existing sand pile. Ken doesn’t want to keep handling material over and over. Ken thinks they have more than enough sand this year to take care of any winter weather coming along with the existing sand that they have. He thinks we should be stock piling more.
Ken asked if they wanted to start a separate sand pile this year, put 1400 yards in there. Some towns put plastic or tarp over sand piles. There was discussion of the pros and cons.
Tom would like to see the corner of the big sand pile pushed off and back and away from road for better visibility. Put the barricades right down the front.
They agreed to add the winter sand on to the back of the big pile. Later on they will move the front. They can do it all with the town loader.
Tom asked about the purchase of gravel from Markowski. There was a price difference of $2.40 a yard between Markowski and D&F. There was discussion about crushed gravel and screened gravel. The Board felt they should do business with both companies. Arlan will use his judgment depending on the type of project he’s doing.
Motion by Ron to accept the offer of $2,750 for the box trailer and grader and money to go into equipment fund. Second by Ken. 3 in favor. 1 abstention - Tom
Ken asked why they weren’t applying for a federal grant for salt shed. Diane stated they could Google Federal Grants for salt sheds and see what they get.
Julie showed the door tags for Animal Control Officers that Paul brought back from Nevada for us to look at. Julie thought they were a really good idea and would like to revise and update them for us and put something about the dog census and order some.
Motion by Tom to authorize Julie to have door tags printed at Little Pressroom. Second by Ron. All in favor. So approved.
Diane mentioned that Lt. Genova wanted feedback on any other safety concerns they might have to improve this Sunday’s race; he wanted to hear about it. He viewed this as an on-going discussion.
- Runners on both sides of the road (only in Leicester)
- Ask for more staffing on that strip
- Comment: representative from each town at the pre-race meeting.
- Invite Lt. Genova to come down to the race
Ken & Diane did not get to the inventory. Reschedule for next Thursday, June 28th in early a.m.
Motion by Tom and second by Ron to adjourn at 9:20 P.M. All in favor. So approved.
Next regular meeting, July 2, 2012.
Respectfully submitted,
Sandra L. Trombley, Secretary