By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—The Brandon Selectboard gathered for its regular meeting on Monday evening, preceded by its incarnations as the Board of Local Cannabis Control Commissioners and the Board of Sewer Commissioners.
As the Board of Local Cannabis Control, it approved a Tier 1 manufacturer: Funk’s Farming.
As the Board of Sewer Commissioners, it heard from Bruce Summa, who owns a multi-unit house at 41 Conant Square. Mr. Summa had asked the Board to reconsider its policy regarding apartment buildings. Mr. Summa’s building contains six apartments, three of which are permitted more than one occupant and three of which are permitted only one occupant each. The current water/sewer billing structure charges a flat fee plus actual consumption per residential unit. Since Mr. Summa’s building contains six units, he is currently being charged that flat fee for each unit. He asked the Board to consider treating his three single-occupancy units as a single unit for purposes of water/sewer billing, so that ultimately he would be paying the flat fee for four units instead of six.
The Board did not taken any action on Mr. Summa’s request but did suggest that it would reevaluate and revisit the policy, which had been put in place in 2006.
The Board then reconvened as the Selectboard and Town Manager Seth Hopkins presented his report. The full text of the report is available in the Selectboard packet for 10/9/23 on the town’s website. Highlights included:
- The town’s grant for the Conant Square Park & Ride has been closed out. All the town’s obligations have been met.
- Mr. Hopkins will meet with representatives of GovPilot, an online platform that the city of Rutland uses to streamline its permitting process.
- Mr. Hopkins and Board Member Tim Guiles completed additional FEMA emergency management training.
- The town attempted to obtain decibel-measurement equipment to help resolve a noise dispute between neighbors but was not able. Mr. Hopkins felt that the town had done as much as it could do to resolve the matter.
- Delinquent property taxes were $393,561 and are now $402,505. Delinquent water/sewer fees were $289,046 and are now $252, 357.
Board Member Brian Coolidge asked Mr. Hopkins about repair costs of the plate-glass windows at the Town Office, which had been the subject of previous discussion. Mr. Hopkins said that he had received one quote in the range of $20K and that one other company had visited the site but had not yet submitted a bid.
Mr. Coolidge also inquired about the parking lot in front of the Brandon Inn, which also had been the subject of previous discussion. Deputy Town Manager Bill Moore stated that the Inn had posted signage instructing guests to park behind the Inn and unless the Board wanted to change the status of that public parking lot, it could not compel people to park elsewhere in order to free up spaces for the other businesses along that stretch. Board Chair Tracy Wyman noted that the Inn’s rear parking was full on a recent visit and that the Inn itself seemed to be enjoying high occupancy recently.
Mr. Coolidge then inquired whether the Brandon Police Department (BPD) was compensated when it assisted with matters outside of Brandon’s jurisdiction, an apparent reference to a recent car accident on Route 73 in Goshen, to which BPD had responded. Mr. Hopkins replied that BPD is not currently compensated for these assists and that it responds to outside requests as a matter of public safety. Mr. Coolidge expressed some concern that Brandon taxpayers were being asked to pay for services delivered to other towns and that Brandon should charge for the use of its police force.
Mr. Hopkins suggested that he could initiate discussions with Goshen, Sudbury, and Leicester, if the Board wanted to begin the process of formalizing contractual relationships with those towns for use of Brandon’s police force. It was noted that an analogous relationship already exists between the Town of Goshen and Brandon Fire Department (which is not under the control of the Brandon Select Board).
Mr. Guiles noted that the Board should not take any action on the idea until it had been warned as an agenda item at a future meeting. It was agreed to leave the matter there and ask Police Chief Kachajian to attend the next meeting to discuss the idea.
Recreation Department Director Bill Moore then gave a brief summary of some of the Rec Department’s recent activities. He had been on vacation and did not include a written report with the Selectboard packet. He mentioned that the weekend’s Harvest Fest had been a success and that 66 Leaf People had been bought and created. He also mentioned that he was awaiting a quote for the resurfacing of the tennis court at Estabrook Park.
During the Public Comment segment of the meeting, Mr. Coolidge stated that he had been “disgusted” by what he saw as the wastefulness of a mailing that the Brandon Energy Committee had sent out to advertise an event to local businesses. Mr. Coolidge felt that the cost of the postage was not justified and that there were better ways to communicate with the public. He was joined in his concern by Brandon resident Sharon Stearns, who noted that she had received multiple mailings at her three businesses, even though those businesses were all at the same address.
Ms. Stearns also stated that she did not feel that it was appropriate for the Energy Committee to assume that Brandon-area business owners had not already researched and rejected the committee’s proposals. Furthermore, she felt that it was inappropriate for a town committee to promote any particular private business.
Mr. Hopkins responded that the Energy Committee has an explicit “outreach” budget and that the mailing fell under that rubric. But he did state that it was “regrettable” that taxpayer money, even if budgeted, had been “wasted” on multiple mailings to single addresses.
Bernie Carr, Executive Director of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce interjected that the Chair of the Energy Committee, Jim Emerson, had made an effort to weed out duplicate addresses from the mailing lists they were able to obtain but it isn’t possible to catch them all.
A representative of the Otter Creek Communications Union District then presented a report detailing its budget for 2024 and its proposal to bring high-speed internet to “the rural communities of Rutland County,” an area encompassing not only Brandon, but also Benson, Castleton, Chittenden, Fair Haven, Goshen, Hubbardton, Pawlet, Pittsford, Poultney, Sudbury, Wells, and West Haven. It’s a $14-million project slated to begin in 2024 and reach completion in 2025. Copies of the report can be found on the organization’s website: occud.org.
The Board then took up a discussion of the electric-car chargers in the municipal parking lot behind Dunkin’ Donuts. Mr. Coolidge stated that he believed the chargers should be financially self-sufficient, including eventual replacement costs. The charging heads have a lifespan of approximately 10 years and currently cost about $600 each to replace. The town’s current rate structure of $0.75/hr to plug in and $0.17/KwH for electricity has netted the town only $110/year, which Mr. Coolidge deemed insufficient.
Mr. Coolidge proposed increasing the rate to $1.50/hr to plug in and $0.30/KwH for electricity, which Mr. Guiles argued was out of line with what neighboring towns were charging. After a lengthy and sometimes contentious discussion, during which it was suggested that perhaps Brandon should rethink even offering charging stations at all, Mr. Coolidge’s motion to increase the current rates failed in a 2-3 vote, with Mr. Coolidge and Mr. Wyman voting yea and all other members voting nay.
The Board then voted unanimously to approve a new agreement with the Clean Water State Revolving Fund to reduce the amount of money the town needed to borrow from the fund for the ongoing wastewater plant project from $1.5 million to $849,457.00. The town has received a grant that offset the amount it would need to borrow to complete the project.
The Board also unanimously approved a warrant in the amount of $455,428.55.
The discussion turned to a proposal to use $18,318.00 in federal grant money obtained through Senator Sanders’s office to purchase an electric motorcycle for the town’s police department, which already has one. The Board was not enthusiastic about the proposed purchase and did not seem inclined to approve it. Ms. Reniche-Smith noted that before they make a decision to reject the proposal, they should determine whether the terms of the grant required that it be spent on the motorcycle or whether the money could be used in other ways. Mr. Hopkins cautioned the Board that since Sen. Sanders’s office had approached the town to offer the money, rejecting it might be perceived negatively and jeopardize future requests for funding. The Board ultimately decided to table the item until it could research the terms of the grant and speak with Chief Kachajian, with Mr. Guiles and Mr. Coolidge voting against tabling in favor of outright rejection.
The Board’s final bit of public business for the evening was the appointment of six members to the Budget Committee: Doug Bailey, Jan Coolidge, Neil Silins, Barry Varian, Patricia Welch, and Peter Werner. The committee will begin work on next year’s budget in November. All meetings are open to the public.
