Town of Charlotte
Board of Selectmen
Minutes
Monday, July 14, 2003
7:00 PM, Charlotte Town Hall
Debbie Ramsdell
Eleanor Russell
Jennifer Steele Cole
OTHERS: Dan
Senecal-Albrecht (selectboard assistant)
Mia Graham Beer
John
Bevan
Rosemary
Bevan
Stephen
C. Brooks
Holly Callery
Jake Callery
Dana Farley
Erich Finley
Karen Frost
John Hammer
Sylvia Knight
Kate Lampton
Lou Lanzerski
Jeff McDonald
Martha Perkins
Peter Richardson
Diane Rosenfeld
Pete Rosenfeld
Sylvia Sprigg
Amy Vasquez
Richard Watts
Bob Wright
Jocelyn
Bolick (clerk)
The meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm.
The items on the agenda were as follows:
Adjustments to Agenda
/ Public Discussion / Aurora Farms: request to participate in Vermont Wood Ash
Utilization Project / Award bid for Mack Trail construction / Varney Farm:
brief progress reports on uses for farm / VELCO update / Authorization to
expend funds from Capital Reserve for purchase of thermal-imaging camera / Speed
Limit discussion: Dorset, Mount Philo
Road, etc. / Authorize letter of support for VLT easement on land adjacent to
Berry Farm / Approve minutes of June 11th, June 23rd, and
June 30th / Selectboard Updates / Authorize bills and warrants / Adjournment
Aurora Farms: request to participate in Vermont Wood Ash
Utilization Project
Dan
Senecal-Albrecht had a letter from Tom Kenyon of Aurora Farms asking the selectboard
to approve a request to participate in the Vermont Wood Ash Utilization
Project. The operator is Aurora Farms, but
the landowner is the town of Charlotte.
By signing, it allows Resource Management Incorporated (RMI) to take plant,
soil, and water samples, and place wood ash on the property.
Motion
made by Jennifer Cole, seconded by Eleanor Russell:
“To approve allowing Charles
Russell to sign the agreement with Resource Management Incorporated for use of
wood ash on town land”.
Vote: all in favor.
Award bid for Mack Trail construction
Dan
Senecal-Albrecht received correspondence from Dufresne Henry. The low bidder for the trail construction was
New England Water Systems. Dufresne
Henry has worked with New England Water Systems (from Lowell, VT) before and
believe they are capable of performing the contract. Their low bid was $139,667.05.
Engineers Construction was $283,390.50 (from South Burlington). The Dufresne Henry estimate was $140,000.
Motion
made by Debbie Ramsdell, seconded by Eleanor Russell:
“To approve low bid from New
England Water Systems of $139,667.05 pending approval by the Vermont Agency of
Transportation”.
Vote: all in favor.
Jake
Callery said Dufresne Henry has a long history with the town.
Motion
made by Eleanor Russell, seconded by Debbie Ramsdell:
“To appoint Dan Senecal-Albrecht
as project manager for the Trevor and Melissa Mack trail and authorize him to
sign the appropriate documents”.
Vote: all in favor.
Martha
Perkins asked if it made sense to have a citizen work with Dan. Charles Russell felt that it’s a pretty
straight forward project, sort of a clerk of the works type project.
Varney Farm: brief progress reports on uses for farm
The
owner (Stephen Rockefeller) is looking for an answer by August 1st
on what the town might do with this project.
Five
earlier suggestions that are being researched (based on the June 30th
selectboard meeting):
People
often voted for more than one choice, or voted for several and ranked their
choices. Several more opinions came in at
the town party: community center, sell privately to someone for a B&B,
small business, startup business, incubation center, café, coffee house, youth
space, hostel, theatre, mix of uses, etc.
The one theme seems to be to make it a community resource – a public
space for the arts or a pub of some sort.
Affordable Housing. The use Peter Richardson
has agreed to champion in his memorandum is affordable housing. However, this is an opportunity that does
not have to be “either / or”. It may be
difficult to accommodate the property as a community resource, however, since you’ll
need to get support from the town. The
buildings are in good shape. The barns
are straight and tall, they look great.
The potential is in taking the main barn and seeing if duplex up-and-down
units can fit into it. 6 or 8 units,
maybe more, could be well accommodated.
The existing house could also be used for residential purposes. The other agricultural buildings - they did
not spend much time with them, but there is a lot of square footage there.
Ellie
asked if Peter had any sense of cost, could they pay for themselves? Peter said their viewing of the site was
pretty superficial, he didn’t know about the shape of the roof, for example. He feels the selectboard is casting around
for ideas and this is a good way to go – they need direction from the
selectboard now.
Sylvia
Sprigg said that the density rules are not the same for historic buildings, or
for an existing site rather than for a new lot. This is already in the town plan and has been for years, but
there hasn’t been a site that could take advantage of it. Peter said there is a provision to increase
density, but you need to start with a bigger mass in order to get any effect
from it.
Organic Farm. Martha Perkins
wanted to talk about the organic farm idea.
Lindsey Katchell of the Intervale Foundation (and vice-chair of the
board of NOVA) is one of the people interested in the idea, as is the president
of NOVA. Charles Russell understood
that they have also looked at the Perry property. Dan said they need that sort of place – office space, density,
visibility. Martha said patience will
be needed also, the concept and the vision of an organic farm is wonderful but
it takes some time to do it. It doesn’t
mean that it’s not moving forward.
Trail Use. Dan talked to
Gordon Troy a little bit about the equestrian option. Gordon described what the Green Mountain Horse Association does
down in the Woodstock area. He feels
without the linkage to the trails, should it be built and they will come? Or should it be occupied and going, and
someone will build trails to it? At
competitions, you could get easily 30 trailers or more … the property would be
small for that sort of purpose. Dan
hasn’t had the chance yet to contact more trail groups.
Office space. Dan and Kate
Lampton exchanged emails about getting in touch with some of the non-profit
organizations.
Hospice. Dan exchanged voice
mails with Vermont Visiting Nurses Association (VNA). They have one hospice in Vermont, an 11 bed facility in Williston. Their executive director sounded interested,
but it wasn’t her job to work on that.
New ideas. Jake Callery also spoke
about the VNA. They currently run 3
adult day care centers now (one is in Colchester), and are interested in one in
Charlotte. They made a presentation to
the Charlotte Senior Center, and got turned down. Jake said an adult center takes people who are mildly
disadvantaged (wheelchairs, walkers, etc.) and they are exposed to all sorts of
activities. There would be no cost to
the town, the funding would be supplied by the VNA. Many of their clients get state and federal aid.
Jake
can get Mary Lou Morriset (head of the day care program) to come look at the
Varney Farm setup. There are some
hang-ups - they need a modern bathroom facility and a modern kitchen. A meeting will be arranged with Mary Lou to
look at the Varney Farm. This would be
solely in the house, not the barns. It
would simply be the main floor of the house.
The upstairs could be affordable housing, etc. Martha Perkins said that she was once involved in a redesign of
an old house. It was a huge process
trying to fit bathrooms in the main house with all these small rooms – it might
make more sense to renovate the barn rather than try to fit the VNA into the house. Jake said the VNA just doesn’t have the
resources.
Holly
Callery spoke about a group out of Hinesburg, Shelburne and Charlotte that
represents 7 churches that are working on building a resale shop. The shop would issue financial grants from
the proceeds to benefit the communities.
It would foster co-operation and good will among the communities that it
serves. It would promote recycling to conserve
natural resources and offer items for resale at reasonable prices. They are looking for a minimum of 1500
square feet – the downstairs would be possible because they could do different
things with the small rooms. They would
work perfectly well with affordable housing apartments upstairs or in the barns.
Holly
feels it should be perceived as a community resource that serves the needs of
the town, but does not rely on town resources.
The problems she sees is that they are very close to a decision on the
Newman House, and she feels that they would need to make a decision about that
property before the selectboard makes a decision on the Varney Farm. Holly also said they would be able to pay
some rent.
Amy
Vasquez and Mia Graham Beer are part of 9 women on a steering committee looking
into the possibility of a children’s museum in the area. It’s an imaginative learning, hands-on
center. They intend to be incorporated
in the fall. Charles said he had been
to one in Acton, Mass. Mia said it was
a very similar idea. The one in Acton
was an original Victorian home. It did
not appear that they took down any walls, yet they transformed each room,
including the stairway, into a creative space.
They also have a science center in the rear of the primary residence,
along with gardens and trails that meander between the buildings, as well as
art forms scattered around the property.
They feel the house on the Varney Farm speaks more to the type of museum
seen in Vermont.
Martha
Perkins asked about funding – Mia said they are still in the planning stages,
but since it is a historical building, there should be some grant money out
there. They have somewhat of a 4 year
timeframe, but they are still in the planning stages. They feel that they could use the entire building for the museum. Potentially, they could use the barn to
develop something down the road, but initially they would not be developing the
barn. Amy asked if there was any other type
of information to present to people in order to give them an idea of what they
were trying to achieve.
Dan
will setup a house visit for anyone who wants to see the property. Ellie said they will obviously need to
request an extension on the August 1st date, the selectboard will
need to draft a letter presenting the options that the selectboard is seriously
considering. Dana Farley said she would
not go past September 1st.
She feels that an acceptance of the offer accompanied by a status report
would be more to Mr. Rockefellers’ liking.
Dana also strongly encourages an outline of the towns’ proposal of the continued
maintenance of the Demeter park.
Ellie
started a list of items that need to be investigated: septic, water, cost, density issues, by-law issues, etc.
Stephen
Brooks said there is a process problem here – the vision of the town is to
maintain the open, rural landscape. The
current discussion has been wonderful but all the ideas being considered are
ideas that are always talked about being brought into a village area, not in a
rural landscape. This is a great
departure from the viewpoint of a rural landscape.
Currently,
the property is being rented out to 3 or 4 people. The barns were last used about 3 or 4 years ago. This parcel was part of a bigger parcel that
is now the Charlotte Park and Wildlife Refuge; it’s the northeast corner of
that bigger property. It’s the
remaining property The Demeter Fund owns in the town, and they are looking to
dispose of it. Dana said there is no
conservation easement on this property.
Charles said there’s a no-build zone on the property - it’s the area
west of the barn.
Peter
Richardson said the next step is for the selectboard to hire some consultants
to check out the septic, etc. Dana said
the barns are the only property where there is a written report. Ellie said the big thing is the cost
feasibility. Peter said that’s a
process, it’s not a quick answer. In
the next 45 days, what’s the board going to do? The selectboard should use its best judgment to figure out what
the top 2 uses might be for that property and figure out the costs associated
with it. Let’s see what kind of
coalition that can be assembled.
Jennifer
wondered if it makes sense to write a letter to Mr. Rockefeller, as Dan
suggested, accepting the offer and saying we wanted to achieve the following
goals: maintain the historical nature
of the site, minimize traffic, don’t impact the town financially, etc. Dana said that you might be overestimating a
sense of urgency here. Mr. Rockefeller
already thinks the property should benefit the town, and he’s not going to step
away from the table at this point. Dana
doesn’t think it’s smart for the town to accept the offer before doing
feasibility studies – it may cost more than the town wants to spend.
Martha
Perkins said that maybe the agencies interested in the property could work
together and put together a proposal.
Charles said that if some groups got together and achieved the town’s
goals in a proposal, the selectboard would readily accept that.
Peter
Richardson feels that the board needs to take a stand on something – there are
some themes here that keep recurring.
The selectboard needs to provide direction. Ellie said there’s still data missing – septic, water, etc. Peter feels the selectboard should make a
decision such as “affordable housing makes sense; now let’s figure out the
costs”.
Charles
said one of the goals is to not create a lot of traffic on Route 7. Stephen Brooks said it’s already too
dangerous. Charles said the Berry Farm
baseball field went in without a lot of concern, and that entrance is a lot
more dangerous than the Varney Farm entrance.
Debbie felt that you can see fairly well at that spot. Dana said when the town gets more focused on
potential uses, get a traffic engineer involved. Ellie is more concerned with parking than traffic – you’re trying
to maintain a rustic view.
Ellie
said we still have to hear from the Intervale people. Charlotte Park and Wildlife trails go almost up to the farm right
now, and there are planned trails up to Shelburne. Sylvia Sprigg asked about parking for the horse trails; Charles
said that was all part of any of these solutions. Debbie asked about the site visit – she would like to see the
property. Can it be posted? Talk to Dan (425-6129) or send him an email
if you would like to be included on the site visit. Sylvia said to get it over and done with at one time. A meeting to continue this topic will occur next
Monday (7/21) at 7 PM to continue this discussion.
VELCO update
Jennifer
Cole presented a draft entitled “Velco Statement for the Town of Charlotte”
from a committee that has come together of people who are concerned about the
VELCO project. This Wednesday there is a meeting with the
Public Service Board to schedule meetings with VELCO. Bob Fletcher is the attorney.
Jennifer said the selectboard needs to make a decision whether or not to
apply for party status, and whether to do it alone or with the planning
commission. Town and planning
commissions in the state have a statutory rite to have party status, but they
need to file for it. A letter needs to
be written to request party status, and Erich Finley has been working on a
draft.
Ellie
said the first question is whether we want to have party status. Jeff McDonald said the Planning Commission
would like to work jointly with the selectboard in obtaining party status. Sylvia Knight said that a group of citizens
that met the end of June is looking to the town process to try and answer their
needs and issues. Erich Finley said
that they wanted to flush out some feelings from different groups – basically
they want to educate the town and make sure everyone knows what is involved
with the upgrade, and is it really necessary.
Sylvia said there are a number of social costs associated with the
project, and the social costs would be higher than the alternative configurations
that were proposed.
Stephen
Brooks asked Jennifer whom she was speaking for – Jennie said she’s speaking as
a member of the 3 person committee – one from the town, one from the planning
commission, and one from the selectboard.
She was providing information, not necessarily speaking for the
committee. Stephen asked if Jennifer is
proposing that the town accept the draft as the towns’ position. Erich said it’s a stake in the ground – get
people to take a closer look at it.
It’s a starting point to get to the towns position. You can’t just ask for party status, you
need to define your position. Stephen
asked where the option to bury the line is in the draft. Jennifer said that may be a good solution in
some areas, and maybe not in other areas.
Charles
asked that the bullet “We suggest that this list be used for other communities
…” be removed from this document. Dana
asked Richard Watts (of VELCO) if this draft conforms to any written criteria
asking for party status. Richard said
he has not ever been involved with this situation before. He doesn’t feel it’s unreasonable since
VELCO understands it has to work with the town. Richard said the town had a couple of weeks to file the party
status request forms. Charles and Ellie
said that party status needs to be defended on Wednesday, however. Kate Lampton said the draft is a great
statement to give to an attorney, but don’t get into wordsmithing issues. The suggestion was made to contact the
manufacturer of the cable and get an estimate from them about the cost to bury
the cable.
Martha
Perkins asked Richard to talk about Richard Sedano. Richard Watts said he’s a former commission of the Department of Public
Service and he represents an independent think tank that helps communities in
mandatory issues such as this. He would
give the town a 3rd perspective.
Sylvia
Knight doesn’t believe that burying wires through wetlands would be feasible or
advisable. Through residential areas,
definitely bury it. Underground wires
avoid the impact of overhead wires from winter ice storms, having to cut trees,
etc. It may be more expensive at the
onset, but you save costs over the years.
You don’t have to use toxic herbicides to control vegetation. This is something that could be worked on
throughout the process. Ellie suggested
taking the draft to Bob Fletcher tomorrow so he can draft a letter requesting
party status on Wednesday. Stephen
Brooks was concerned that this draft was not at a warned public hearing.
Kate
Lampton suggested for getting party status, you just want to outline the issues,
not to present solutions or alternatives.
Motion
made by Eleanor Russell, seconded by Jennifer Cole:
“To ask for
party status.”
Vote: all in favor.
Motion
made by Eleanor Russell, seconded by Jennifer Cole:
“To use the information that we
have received to help the lawyer draft a statement which defines the issues the
town of Charlotte is concerned with (using the Velco Statement for the Town of
Charlotte as input).”
Vote: all in favor.
The
hearing is at Wednesday (7/16) at 10 AM.
Charles wants to have the town lawyer there. Anyone who wants to go to the hearing can go. Jennifer said Tom Dunn did offer to come and
do an informational meeting and site visit (possibly next week) to look at
certain areas where there might be specific questions. Jennifer will figure out as a member of the
selectboard when to have the site visit.
Authorization to expend funds from Capital Reserve for purchase of
thermal-imaging camera
Postponed.
Speed Limit discussion:
Dorset, Mount Philo Road, etc.
Pete
Rosenfeld of Greenbush Road said that previous selectboards reduced speeds on
Greenbush Road, but an adequate number of signs were never posted. Before speed limits are implemented
elsewhere in the town, he feels it would be nice to make the Greenbush Road signs
functional. Ellie requested a speed
limit on the Thompsons Point Road.
Dan
presented some interesting data from the Metropolitan Planning
Organization. They put in a counter on
Dorset Street between June 16th and June 23rd. There were 2000 cars in 7 days on Dorset Street. 93% of the vehicles were going greater than
35 mph. The majority of cars were in
the 31-50 mile speed. 15th
percentile was 35 miles or lower, 50th percentile was 47 mph or
lower, 85th percentile was 54 mph or lower.
Jennifer
Cole asked about the striping on Dorset St.
Dan said he asked Junior to do it.
Jennifer asked how a town would decide the best speed after a traffic
study is done. How does it get
enforced? John Hammer said that
Shelburne has 15 policemen who spend an enormous amount of time writing
tickets. If you want to control your
speed, don’t lower the speed limit – enforce the laws that you have. Get more policemen and sheriffs around
here. It will cost money. Most of the people who speed around here are
people who live around here.
Jennifer
said there are probably some areas that have changed over the years (more
housing, etc.) where people might want to go a little bit more slowly.
Sylvia
Sprigg said you don’t have a lot of accidents on rural roads. There is a safety issue on Greenbush Road,
and the selectboard should concentrate on that road. Concerning the letter from Anne LaBombard on Mt. Philo Road,
there is no good answer. They don’t
recommend setting the speed limit lower unless you have enforcement.
Authorize letter of support for VLT easement on land
adjacent to Berry Farm
Dan
received a letter from the Vermont Land Trust seeking a letter of support from
the selectboard for VLT to get VHCB funding to purchase development rights to
the Hinsdale property adjacent to the Berry Farm. There are 2 parcels, one on the east side of Route 7 across from
the Hinsdale Berry Farm Road just south of Higbee, and one on the west side of
Route 7 at the intersection of East Thompsons Road and Route 7.
Motion made by
Eleanor Russell, seconded by Jennifer Cole:
“To send a strong letter of
support for VLT easement”.
Vote: all in favor.
Approve minutes of June 11th, June 23rd,
and June 30th
Motion made by
Eleanor Russell, seconded by Debbie Ramsdell:
“To approve
the selectboard meeting minutes with corrections for June 11th.”
Vote: all in favor.
Minutes
were done by Dan Senecal-Albrecht.
Correct on page 2 – change “he also
has concerns that snowmobiles …” to “he also has concerns that snowmobiles not
cross the trail”.
Correct on
page 3, Charles Russell should have 2 L’s in the last name.
Motion made by
Eleanor Russell, seconded by Debbie Ramsdell:
“To approve
the selectboard meeting minutes with corrections for June 23rd.”
Vote: all in favor.
Minutes were
done by Kim Johnson.
Robin Reid
is spelled incorrectly throughout the document.
Correct on page 3 “building a
driveway in another town’s right-of-way” to “…old town’s right-of-way”.
Correct on page 4, “no recognition of
natural communities” to “no recognition in VELCO’s report of natural
communities”
Correct on
page 5, Belmont is really Beldock.
Correct on page 5, change “fences on
both sides didn’t away” to “…didn’t go away”.
Correct on page 7, “if the city
couldn’t afford the multi-modal system” to “…multi-modal station”.
Correct on page 9, “Eleanor Russell
says no, but they have a bigger cut” to “…bigger per cent cut”.
Correct on page 10, a typo, repeated
sentence about the store needing parking.
Correct on page 10, the issues were
“Robert’s farm vehicles” should be “Robert Mack’s farm vehicles”.
Correct on page 13, misspelled
Russell.
Correct on page 13, “should expand
advertising” to “should expand advertising for the director”.
Correct on page 14 “Dana Farley says
Davis wants” to “… Davis Cherington wants”.
Correct on page 17, change “Eleanor
Russell asked Jennifer Cole to be that representative” to “Charlie Russell
asked Jennifer Cole …”.
Correct on page 17, change “common
level or appraisal” to “the towns common level of appraisal”.
Motion made by
Eleanor Russell, seconded by Debbie Ramsdell:
“To approve
the selectboard meeting minutes with corrections for June 30th .”
Vote: all in favor.
Minutes
were done by Kim Johnson.
Correct under “Members present:”, Ellie Russell was listed twice, Debbie Ramsdell
wasn’t listed but she was there.
Correct some
spelling errors; they were handed to Dan for corrections.
Selectboard Updates
Motion
made by Eleanor Russell, seconded by Debbie Ramsdell:
“To approve the highway access
permit for the Alma T. Clark request”.
Vote: all in favor.
Motion
made by Eleanor Russell, seconded by Jennifer Cole:
“To approve the highway access
permit for the co-housing project with the condition that the applicants assure
mowing once per month during the growing season to allow a 550 foot site
distance to the north.”
Vote: 3 in favor, Debbie Ramsdell abstained.
Ellie
asked about the money approved for the cemetery projects. Has anyone heard anything about the
cemeteries? Debbie and Sylvia said it
has been a big success.
Ellie
said the Rec sports coordinator position will be interviewed this week. Someone from the selectboard should be
there. There is only one
applicant. Ellie volunteered to be on
the interview committee. Jennie will go
if she can also.
Debbie
said there is an updated job description for the Senior Center, since Ann is
leaving. They removed 2 paragraphs from
the job description, since those tasks were being done by other people. The updated job description, when available,
can be obtained from Mary Mead. Debbie
said someone was over there today that looked really good, and this person
wanted a copy of the job description.
Jennifer
wanted to know if anyone knew about the Park & Ride at the Train
Station. It’s possible that vans can be
leased if several people are heading to the same place. John Hammer said that you can’t get enough
people to ride the train for $1, how can you get enough people to lease a van?
Motion
made by Eleanor Russell, seconded by Debbie Ramsdell:
“To appoint Charles Russell to be
the representative of the selectboard for the Oversite committee at Demeter
Farm”.
Vote: all in favor.
Dana
Farley said that Steven Rockefeller is interested in a proposal that will
establish a standard and express it to him how it will go on in
perpetuity. It needs to be carefully
spelled out in writing.
Debbie
Ramsdell asked a question arose concerning the south side of Pease Mountain – its
Carl Moulton’s wife’s horse pasture.
They clear cut it to make a pasture.
It’s less than 40 acres, so they didn’t need a permit. They made a pond, and they haven’t submitted
a permit for a land site.
A
question arose concerning gifts to the town that turn into increasing tax
dollars. Charles said it goes to the
question of how much you want to pay to keep that beautiful farm on the edge of
town. How do you maintain a farmhouse
over the long term on a tight budget?
Stephen
Brooks asked Debbie Ramsdell if the senior center board is legal yet – have new
members been properly voted into the board?
Debbie said no.
Authorize Bills and Warrants
Done.
Adjournment
Next
meeting on Monday, July 21st, at 7 PM.
Meeting adjourned at 9:40 PM.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Jocelyn Bolick.