Town of LeicesterSelectboard Meeting MinutesTuesday, September 3, 2013*Unapproved*** See subsequent minutes for any changes Members Present: Diane Benware, Tom Barker, Ron Fiske, Brad Lawes, Ken Young Others Present: Julie Delphia, Arlan Pidgeon, Jeff Lee, Diane Harvey, BLSG Representatives, Sandra Trombley, Secretary Call to Order: Meeting called to order at 6:30 p.m. by Chair, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Review of Agenda:Approval of August 19, 2013 & August 29, 2013 Minutes:Motion by Tom and second by Ken to approve minutes of August 19, 2013 & August 29, 2013 as written. All in favor. So approved.Review/Authorization to pay bills:Bills making their rounds for signatures. Reports from Town Officials, Committees:Listers:Jeff & Diane reported what they have been working on. They have been meeting with people to redo the maps. They have two proposals and they will be getting a third proposal next Tuesday. Jeff said everything is going fine. Chair thanked Jeff & Diane on behalf of the Board and explained that if they have questions to feel free to come to the Board. Julie explained that it’s nice to have the listers in the office every Tuesday to answer the phones; even if they might not be able to answer all the questions. James, the appraiser has been a help. He will come back in September and spend a day with the listers.Town Clerk/Treasurer:Julie reported that delinquent taxes were at $55,500. New tax bills went out. Tax money came in for awhile, but not so much now. Julie is concerned that she is going to have a lot of late filers and not going to hit the September 1st date. Julie has a list of 30-40 people that she thought should have filed for a homestead and more than that should have filed for their credit. She has only received four. Julie is hoping that the September 15th download that she gets will have a lot of people on it. Julie talked about the lines in the parking lot and the need to get some paint and fix Julie’s parking space and paint hash marks on the other side to make it a bike area. Tom will provide the paint. Tom asked about the check for the Brandon Fire Department. Julie explained it was the final payment for the 2012/2013 contract. Diane has contacted Gene Pagano, a member of the Prudential Board to negotiate a new fire protection contract. It is in their hands to come back to the Board. The new Fire Chief would like to meet the Board. Cemetery: Tom reported that the Cemetery Committee has not met. Don Durkee is done and has submitted his bill. Julie has the invoice in the bills to be paid. Arlan and Brad went over to the cemetery. There was discussion about brush removal. Town Foreman:Arlan reported that most of the sand has been hauled. He will start on the ledge on Thursday morning. He is going to use all they can of the ledge for the culvert. Motion by Tom and second by Ken to approve the bills. All in favor. So approved.CORRESPONDENCESelectboard Institute Classes in Killington for $60, Saturday, October 19 in Killington and Saturday, November 2nd in South Burlington. Register by October 11th. OLD BUSINESS:Better Back Roads Grant:Diane reported that they have a letter from Allen May, Better Backroad’s Coordinator that the town has been awarded a grant in the sum of $10,000 for the Reserve Road. The work is to be completed by October 15th. They will need to ask for an extension since they just received the letter September 3rd. Things they need to do:
find out the cost of the pre-cast concrete slabs
find out cost of crane to set slabs
find out what permits are needed
find out about extension
Senior Center Building Needs:Diane asked about the Senior Center. Ron needs to get back to Paul Francoeur. Items were missing in his bid and he needs to submit a new bid. Ron hasn’t heard from Miner. Tom will contact Munger. NEW BUSINESS BLSG Representatives were invited to come to talk about measures that can be taken, where the EEE was found in Leicester and what steps to take. Diane reported they had received notice on Friday from Erica Berl that EEE was detected in Whiting, Sudbury, Brandon and Leicester. Mort Pierpont stated they could not give any information. This is a disease situation and all information would need to come from the Department of Health and Erica Berl. They have a risk assessment map and Mort doesn’t think they have changed it from “moderate”. All information comes in on Friday afternoon’s at 3:00. Diane stated that they want to keep citizens informed. Julie is putting info on Leicester’s web-site and the Front Porch Forum. All Town Health Officer emails come to Julie’s email now; so there shouldn’t be any delays getting the information. Mort explained the BLSG is not involved in plane spraying and if asked by the State Department, they would help with ground support. They haven’t been asked. BLSG does only nuisance mosquito control as needed. Mosquitoes have died down quite a bit as of late. Diane was told by Gary that BLSG was looking for a Leicester alternate representative. They have not found anyone. Julie thought a representative from the lake would be good. Gary felt the lake already gets more than their share of services. The alternate representative’s responsibilities would be to attend the meetings the first Thursday of the month at 7:00 at the Stephen A. Douglas house in Brandon. They wouldn’t be voting unless a member was missing. Diane reported that they tried to get information from their BLSG minutes, but they were vague. Diane asked if there was a decision made not to spray the west side of the lake? Gary stated they spray between 100’-150’ from the lake. They don’t spray within 300’ from people who opt out and don’t want to be sprayed. They don’t want to risk drift. They hit where mosquitoes are the worst. They have a route that they follow. Certain times of the year are worse than others. They can only spray where they can get the trucks. They only spray when needed due to the expense. Mort explained that BLSG will define their setbacks this winter. Julie was told that they were not spraying the west side of Fern Lake. The minutes didn’t reflect information about this. She was told it would be in the minutes, but the minutes were vague. Julie has to field all the calls. Mort reported there was one night that they did not spray the lake. Julie asked if they were spraying the road on the west side of Fern Lake. People call the Town Office. Julie asked how is the Town and the Selectboard to find out about something that has a major impact on the residents? How can she answer the questions that their citizens have? Julie stated that when the fish kill happened, and there was discussion about not spraying the lakes at all, she found out about it by someone who was part of BLSG. Mort explained the position they were in with Leslie Wright and they had instructions to give her a lot of leeway as far as property boundaries go. Dr. Ben Lawton, Mort and others went out to her home and Dr. Lawton opened up the avenue of not treating the Westside Drive which is along the west side of Fern Lake. Mort stated that things will have to change this winter and how they will honor the no spray zone next year. Julie explained that it would be good to receive an email if the minutes are not going to reflect the discussions at the BLSG meetings about important topics of discussion. Diane agrees that we need to strengthen the communication with Leicester Representatives and Town Office either with emails or by attending Selectboard meetings the 1st and 3rd of each month. Julie is fielding all Department of Health information. Diane thanked BLSG for coming and invited them to keep us in the loop. Zoning Bylaws Language: Diane reported that Kate had Sandy place the ad for the September 23rd special hearing to adopt interim zoning regulations. Kate presented a copy of parts of the by-laws that will be in the warning for the September 23rd hearing. She provided a notice of the public meeting September 19 about shoreline protection. Jim Carroll and Kate are meeting tomorrow in regard to the Smith site visit and trial on Friday. Kate provided a copy of Title 24 interim regulation requirements. Kate went through some of the proposed changes:Page 7: add definition of boathouse and insert between Boarding House and Building a Structure. Clarification of boathouse definition. Strike 2nd sentence.Page 39: Section 620 Water-front Lots: Kate proposed options 1 – 4. Board liked option #2Page 8: add definition of “envelope”Page 8: Front Yard Setback: clarify language ‘is defined as’ the distance from the lakePage 22: Section 320 Zoning Administrator – boundary line adjustmentsPage 22: Section 330 Certificate of Compliance – Propose letter of compliance to satisfy the bank’s requirement of no known violations. We do not issue certificates of occupancy. Rename this section.Page 29: Section 400 Exemption from Permit. #3 Handicap access ramp. Access to the residence. Jim Barlow stated there are some federal and state requirements. Some more research is necessary. Is not public access.#4, #7 remove.#8 Correction of Section 647 to 550#10 & #11 addition of state regulationsTomorrow when Kate meets with Jim, she will be going over all of this and bring back to the Board. Tom recommended they recess this meeting until Monday, September 9, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. LIMITED PUBLIC OPINION: NoneMotion by Tom and second by Ron to go into Executive Session at 9:00 p.m. for the purpose of discussing pending legal action. Motion passed unanimously.Motion by Tom and second by Ron to come out of Executive Session at 9:17 p.m. No action taken.Motion by Tom and second by Ron to recess until Monday, September 9, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. Motion passed unanimously. Respectfully submitted, Sandra L. Trombley, Secretary
