By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—The Brandon Selectboard convened for its regular meeting on Monday evening.
Town Manager report
Brandon Town Manager Seth Hopkins delivered his report, which is reprinted in full in this issue.
At a previous Selectboard meeting, Board member Brian Coolidge had requested from Mr. Hopkins a breakdown of the number of service calls that the Brandon Police Department (BPD) received in the previous month, as a way to determine what level of staffing would be necessary as BPD tries to rebuild its ranks.
Mr. Hopkins replied on Monday evening that in January, BPD handled 93 calls during on-duty hours and the Vermont State Police responded to 5 nighttime calls for service from Brandon. This averages to 3 on-duty calls per day for BPD. Mr. Hopkins stated that these figures show that Brandon “has a sufficient amount of protection in place for safety of life and property.” He also noted, however, that these figures were likely lower because of winter weather.
Community Development report
Deputy Town Manager Bill Moore delivered his report to the Board. Mr. Moore noted that the second installment of Brandon Idol 2025 will take place at the Brandon Town Hall on Friday, February 14 at 7 p.m. Board member Heather Nelson and other attendees shared their enthusiasm for the event.
Mr. Moore also noted that the Rec Department is seeking an Assistant to the Rec Director after the recent departure of Colleen Wright from that position. The job will be posted in various places, including in this paper.
An event for kids—Bounce House Karaoke—will be held at the Town Hall on March 1 from 4 to 6 p.m. The event is hosted by Colleen Wright Events.
A local theater troupe—One Room Theatrics—will be presenting “Private Peacefull” on February 20, 21, and 22. Tickets are available at paramountvt.org.
In response to previous questions from Mr. Coolidge, Mr. Moore also stated that the town had received a check for the Water Department’s share of the cost of the new water fountains at the Brandon Dog Park.
Boundary line at the old Training School campus
The Board unanimously agreed to adjust the property line of a parcel near the intersection of Jones Drive and Mulcahy Drive on the former campus of the Brandon Training School. The parcel is adjacent to the lot owned by Ultravation that is slated to be purchased by the Rutland County Humane Society (RCHS). During the purchase process, RCHS became aware that the parcel belonged to the Town and not to Ultravation.
The Town had not maintained or used the parcel since it assumed ownership of the land after the closure of the Training School. In fact, the Town was unaware that it owned the parcel until RCHS brought it to the Town’s attention.
Board Chair Doug Bailey stated that the parcel, roughly half an acre, was not amenable to development and was of little or no use to the Town.
The Board agreed to adjust the property line so that the parcel is now part of the lot that will be purchased by RCHS. No compensation was requested or received from RCHS.
Gran Fondo bicycle event
The Board unanimously approved a request to use Brandon’s roadways during the Gran Fondo cycling event on Saturday, June 28. The route will bring cyclists into Brandon on Route 73 from the Brandon Gap. The cyclists will then turn onto Route 53 and head north out of Brandon.
Organizers of the event stated that they will provide signage to warn drivers of the event and that they will have the cooperation of local law enforcement to ensure safety.
Town Manager Seth Hopkins stated that this event was in no way connected to his own “side hustle” of organizing bicycle tours.
An attendee asked that the organizers be reminded that the cyclists still need to share the road with local drivers.
Assessor’s Certificate
The Board unanimously approved the certificate of Brandon’s assessor stating that there are no pending legal actions stemming from the Grand List submitted in April of 2024.
Procedure to assess claims of ethics violations
The Board discussed the proper process for the evaluation of submitted claims of ethics violations under the state’s new ethics rules.
The discussion was prompted by the submission of a complaint by Brandon resident Sandy Mayo against Board member Tim Guiles. The complaint alleges that Mr. Guiles treated Ms. Mayo with disrespect during a previous Selectboard meeting. Ms. Mayo stated in her letter that Mr. Guiles “yelled” at her when she thought she had been given a cue to address the Board by Board Chair Doug Bailey. Ms. Mayo’s full statement is available in the Selectboard packet for February 10 on the Town website.
Mr. Bailey said on Monday that he was concerned that Ms. Mayo’s complaint did not fall into any of the categories of prohibited conduct under the Municipal Code of Ethics (“the Code”), which seems to limit the scope of its coverage to “conflicts of interest.” The Code defines these conflicts primarily as financial conflicts involving self-dealing by town officials or employees. It was not immediately clear to him how Ms. Mayo’s complaint would be covered.
Mr. Bailey also said that submitted complaints should be discussed by the Board in public meetings so that town residents need not worry that complaints were being ignored.
Board member Heather Nelson agreed that complaints need to be discussed publicly so that residents would understand why the Board chose its course of action in any given case.
“If for some reason we don’t pursue a complaint, people will understand why,” she said.
Ms. Nelson and Mr. Bailey agreed, however, that if a particular complaint involved allegations of a “delicate” nature, the Board might choose not to discuss them publicly.
In order to develop an official process for assessing ethics complaints, Mr. Bailey and Ms. Nelson agreed to form a working group that will come back to the Board with a proposal.
No further action was taken on Ms. Mayo’s complaint.
Public Comment
During the Public Comment portion of the meeting, Board Chair Doug Bailey reminded Brandon residents that the Otter Valley Unified Union School District annual meeting will take place on Wednesday, February 26 at 6:30 p.m. at Otter Valley. Mr. Bailey was especially concerned that residents attend this meeting because a floor vote will be taken to decide whether OV should convey 10 acres of its land for the development of the Valley Community Center, a new recreational facility proposed for the site. The cost of the facility is estimated to be $12 million, to be shared by the taxpayers of towns that approve bonds to fund the project.
The vote will be held at the meeting and will be decided only by those who attend. Attendance at the annual meeting has generally been low in the past, prompting Mr. Bailey to encourage attendance this year in order to have a say in whether this project proceeds.
A discussion of the crosswalk in front of the Town Office then ensued when an attendee noted that traffic rarely yields for pedestrians trying to cross the street there. He asked whether something could be done to encourage cars to yield. Other attendees agreed that the crosswalk was in a dangerous spot and that cars routinely ignored it.
Deputy Town Manager Bill Moore stated that there was no good place there to install blinking lights. Town Manager Seth Hopkins said that the crosswalk could be repainted in the spring or summer. He also noted that there is $4K left in the Town’s signage budget and new Ped Xing signs could be purchased.
The discussion then turned to the parking lot in front of the Brandon Inn, which some drivers use in order to bypass the traffic lights on Route 7. It was suggested that stronger signage was needed to prevent this and to keep drivers from making illegal left turns from the Center Street end of the lot.
An attendee informed the Board that because of the federal government’s funding freeze, local programs like Meals-on-Wheels are unable to operate, leaving vulnerable citizens without food and some local residents without jobs preparing and delivering meals.
The pastor of the Brandon United Methodist Church, Vicki Disorda, noted that the church provides meals on Tuesday afternoons and holds dinners on the third Saturday of every month that are open to those who cannot pay.
Warrant
The Board unanimously approved a warrant in the amount of $126,660.68.
