By STEVEN JUPITER
PITTSFORD—The Pittsford Selectboard convened for its regular meeting on Wednesday, January 22.
Budget warning
The Selectboard unanimously approved the warning for the agenda for Town Meeting. The proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 is $1,827,883, of which $1,404,123 is to be raised by taxes and $423,760 through non-tax revenues.
This represents an increase of less than 1% in total expenditures and a 1.4% increase in the amount to be raised by taxes.
According to Town Manager David Atherton, the main cost savings this year were the elimination from the budget of the $60K for the Transfer Station, which is now in private management, the elimination of a loan payment for a fire truck (paid off with money from an existing capital fund), and the decision not to fill a highway department position that was vacated since the FY25 budget was passed.
The full warning, with all agenda items, is available on the town website and will be printed in a later edition of this paper.
Syndicate Road
The Board welcomed Doug Bailey and Ralph Ethier of the Brandon Selectboard to discuss the dumping of trash along Syndicate Road/Carver Street (the road is known as Syndicate Road on the Pittsford side and Carver Street on the Brandon side).
Brandon town management had proposed several months ago to gate off the road to vehicular traffic in order to prevent people from driving trucks down to the unpopulated area of the road to dump trash. The rural road has long been a site for illegal dumping. Last year, someone had dumped a large amount of construction debris directly in Otter Creek on the Brandon side. Brandon spent over $1,000 to retrieve and dispose of the debris after the state mandated that it be cleaned up.
Several Brandon residents had been to Pittsford Selectboard meetings to oppose the proposal to gate off the road, but this was the first instance of the two towns’ selectboards meeting to discuss the issue directly.
Mr. Bailey, who is Chair of the Brandon Selectboard, said “we would like to open a dialogue and hear from citizens of your town.” He asked Pittsford residents to contact him directly if they wanted to provide input.
“We probably won’t come up with a perfect solution,” he added.
Pittsford Selectboard Vice-Chair David Mills, who owns and cultivates land along the roadway in question, recused himself from the Board while the discussion ensued but did comment as a resident, noting that he has had to clean up debris from target shooting for years, including shattered glass bottles, shredded paper targets, etc. He said, however, that he was not in favor of reclassifying the road to a trail and had not been aware that Brandon was considering the change when Brandon town management first approached him to discuss the issue as an abutting landowner.
Pittsford Board Chair Alicia Malay ended the discussion by saying that the two towns would continue the conversation about the problem.
Ethics compliance
In keeping with Vermont’s new municipal ethics law, Act 171, the Board unanimously appointed the Town Manager (whoever holds the office) and Board member Dan Adams as Pittsford’s ethics liaison and recipient of ethics complaints. Any Pittsford resident who wishes to lodge an ethics complaint against any town officer, employee, contractor, or committee member can relay that complaint to Mr. Adams or to the Town Manager.
Allowance of ATVs on town roads
John Eugair and Mike Markowski submitted a draft ordinance to the Selectboard regarding the use of All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) on town highways. The ordinance was the product of a working group that included Mr. Eugair, Mr. Markowski, and David Mills of the Selectboard.
The purpose of the ordinance is to create a legal framework for the use of ATVs on class 2, 3, and 4 town highways. Route 7 is a state highway and would be outside the scope of the ordinance.
According to Town Manager David Atherton, the group had been studying the issue since last fall and had looked to other towns’ experiences and ordinances to draft its proposal.
The draft is now with Pittsford’s attorney, who will assess the legality of its provisions. Once the attorney has signed off on the legality of the proposal, the town will hold public meetings for citizen input before the ordinance is voted on by the Selectboard.
Transfers from Transfer Station and Well Loans Funds
Because the town has relinquished all responsibility for the Transfer Station to private management, it no longer needs to maintain a fund for the Station’s operation and maintenance.
Before the meeting, the town’s Transfer Station Fund held $7,084.72. The Board voted unanimously to transfer those funds to the town’s Sewer Capital Fund, since no further expenditures were needed for the Transfer Station.
Additionally, the Board voted to transfer $13,684.24 from the town’s General Fund to close out the Well Drilling Loan Fund that showed a negative balance of that amount. The Well Drilling Loan Fund had been set up as a pass-through for the interest-free loans that the state provided to Pittsford residents who needed to drill their own wells when Proctor terminated service from its reservoir in Chittenden.
According to town management, the one remaining active loan was not likely to be recovered and the fund no longer served a useful purpose. The transfer of funds allowed the negative balance to be “zeroed out.”
Police recognition
Pittsford Police Chief Warfle recognized Officers David Soulia and Stephane Goulet for their work maintaining safety on Pittsford’s roads. Officer Soulia had 1,023 traffic stops last year and Officer Goulet had 572. Chief Warfle presented a certificate to Officer Soulia. Officer Goulet was not present.