Trustees Meeting & Public Hearing 10/30/23

Web version

SWANTON VILLAGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

SWANTON VILLAGE MUNICIPAL COMPLEX

120 FIRST STREET

SWANTON, VT 05488

PUBLIC HEARING &

REGULAR MEETING

Monday, October 30, 2023

7:00 PM

PRESENT: Neal Speer, Village President; Chris Leach, Trustee; Adam Paxman, Trustee; Eugene LaBombard, Trustee; William “Bill” Sheets, Village Manager; Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager; Dianne Day, Village Clerk; Jeffrey Lewis & Jason Booth, Aldrich & Elliott; Heidi Britch-Valenta, Grant Specialist; Matthew Sullivan, Chief of Police; Damon Broderick, Shawn Cheney; Ch 16.

Unless otherwise noted, all motions carried, unanimously.

1. Call to Order:

Neal Speer, Village President, called the Swanton Village Wastewater Plant Bond Vote Public Hearing to order at 7:00 p.m.

2. Pledge of Allegiance:

Everyone in attendance stood for the Pledge of Allegiance.

3. Public Hearing for Wastewater Treatment Plant Bond Vote on November 7, 2023:

Jeffrey Lewis and Jason Booth from Aldrich & Elliott were present for this public hearing. To view the entire Power Point presentation it’s on our website, www.swantonvt.gov under the Wastewater tab and titled Swanton WWTF Presentation.

Jeff stated this public hearing was a good opportunity to let the taxpayers know what they’ve been doing and what the wastewater project looks like. Jeff said there are two main reasons why they are requesting this project now and they are we have equipment reaching the end of its lifespan and needs to be replaced and the other is the need to remove phosphorus and reduce our limit. He said the wastewater plant was constructed in 1972. Jeff said in 1989 the Village added a secondary clarifier treatment to the plant and that was intended at the time to also reduce phosphorus. He said in 1996 an upgrade was done to address sludge dewatering, in 2018 their latest discharge permit was issued, in 2019 a 20-year evaluation was performed and in 2021 a pilot test and preliminary engineering report was issued.

Jeff said 100% of flow passes through the pump station located on Foundry Street. He said the electrical components are 34 years old and past their expected lifespan. He said the Village has done a good job of replacing pumps but the equipment behind them that helps them run has been in service for over 30 years. He said they plan on replacing all the electrical components with state-of-the-art new equipment that will improve reliability and keep them running. He said everything that passes through the Foundry Street pump station then goes to the facultative lagoons which are 15-acre ponds that are 4 feet deep. He said over the years the baffle curtain there has completely failed and that will also be replaced. Jeff said they will also replace all the electronics in the lagoons because they are requiring a lot more maintenance. He said once the solids leave the lagoons it enters the solids contact clarifiers. Jeff said this equipment is at the end of its expected life and will be replaced. He said they will also bolster this with an additional process after them to help remove the solids more efficiently. Jeff said the microscreen structure will be repurposed for a new filter process.

Jeff said there are diffusers that have been in process since 1989 and those will be replaced as well. He said the two blowers and pumps will also be replaced. He said the dewatering machine will be included in this project and replaced as well. Jeff said the main building where Jason and Dillon work hasn't been updated since 1989 and a new HVAC system will be installed, leaking windows will be replaced and they will make this a more comfortable place to work out of. Jeff showed the board the new treatment technology that will remove phosphorus and it’s called BluePro Filter. He said right now they are working with gravity and said this will be much more efficient than that. He said they tried other technologies and chose this filtering process.

Jeff said if the bond vote passes, they will advertise for bids in April of 2024 and begin construction in May 2024 with completion in December of 2024. Jeff showed the project cost: construction = $5,860,000; construction contingency (15%) = $879,000; engineering = $489,190; construction phase services = $639,791; other costs = $117,200 for a total bond amount of $8,000,000. Jeff then showed the project cost minus the state aid, additional funding and grants that will be applied to this project amount. It is as follows: Total bond amount = $8,000,000; CWSRF Planning Subsidy = $199,600; VT SRF Green Project Reserve = $100,000; CWSRF Construction Subsidy = $750,000; VT SRF Pollution Control Grant = $1,039,309; ACCD Grant = $1,000,000; VT SRF Loan Amount = $4,911,091; Loan Interest Rate, Term = 2%, 20 years; Annual Loan Payment (estimated) = $300,516; monthly increase in sewer bill = $18.

Chris Leach asked if the water service will be interrupted during construction. Jeff said no this will not affect the water service. They discussed the uniqueness of the plant as well as phosphorus removal. Adam Paxman asked how farmers get rid of phosphorus. Bill Sheets, Village Manager, wanted it noted that the $18 increase per month begins one year after construction is complete. He said they held five open houses and only had two voters show up and ask questions. Neal Speer thanked Jeff and Jason for their presentation and asked the voters to come out and vote on Tuesday, November 7^th from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

4. Public Comment:

None.

5. Adjourn Public Hearing:

The Public Hearing for the Wastewater Treatment Plant Bond Vote was adjourned at 7:30 p.m.

6. Call Regular Meeting to Order:

Neal Speer, Village President, called the Regular Meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.

7. Agenda Review:

None.

8. Public Comment:

None.

9. Approve and Accept Minutes from Monday, October 2, 2023 as presented:

Adam Paxman made the motion to approve and accept the Minutes from October 2, 2023 as presented. Eugene LaBombard seconded the motion. Motion carried.

10. Approve and Accept Village Warrants through Thursday, October 26, 2023:

Chris Leach made the motion to approve and accept Village Warrants #99 thru #108 as presented. Adam Paxman seconded the motion. Discussion: Adam Paxman asked what the payment made to Norcan Hydraulic Turbine, Inc. for $48,716.00 was for. Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager, stated that was to repair the guide bearing on Unit #3 at the Hydro Plant. Motion carried.

11. Review and Acknowledge 3^rd Quarter SQRP Report:

Chris Leach made the motion to approve the SQRP report as presented. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Chris stated he has reviewed the report and is happy with the numbers presented. He said all departments within the Village of Swanton do a great job. Motion carried.

12. Heidi Britch-Valenta, Grants Specialist, Request for Signed Resolution for the Municipal Planning Grant for Public Works Infrastructure Investment Planning Project:

Heidi Britch-Valenta, Grant Specialist, stated this is an annual opportunity to capture money for municipal planning projects and said she thought the public works department could use these funds for water lines and sewer lines that are unfunctional or undersized. She said the amount of this grant is $13,950 and requires a $1550 match from the Village. Eugene LaBombard made the motion to approve, adopt and authorize the Board of Trustees to sign the FY24 Municipal Resolution for Municipal Planning Grant as presented. Adam Paxman seconded. Discussion: Chris Leach asked if the Village currently had a map of all water and sewer lines in the Village. Heidi said yes they did. She said there are water breaks in the winter months, and this would help with that. She said this would also allow the Village to approve future water connections due to having more stability and potentially gain more customers. Motion carried.

Neal Speer asked if there was an update regarding the Brownfields Program at 6 South River Street. Heidi said it was her understanding that they’re currently working on further groundwater testing and said there was a data gap during the last one. Bill Sheets stated this would be a good time for Heidi to give a brief update on other grants she is working on. Heidi said the Transportation Alternatives Grant Application she is working on. She said the Village did a study that highlighted a lot of safety issues for vehicles and pedestrians and subsequently applied for a $300,000 grant. She said that grant is in hand and the project is underway and there will be a meeting in December with VHB. She said the next application would be to go a little further and look at the issues on Church Street behind the park. She said there are storm water issues on that street as well as parking. She said they decided to look at a whole comprehensive fix on the street and turn it into a one-way street, adding bike lanes and parking on one side only. She said that would be the focus of that grant which is due on December 8^th. She said there would need to be a public hearing and she would come back before the board on November 27^th with VHB and hopefully get approval for this project. She said if the Village applied for the whole $600,000 grant there would be a $150,000 commitment. She said this would happen over three to five years so the Village would have time to plan for this. Bill said as a reminder VHB will be here on November 27^th to talk about this and the I-89 northbound job. He said this $600K project would include 74 Merchants Row and all the way behind the Village Park on Church Street. He said they anticipate picking up between 35 and 40 new parking spots, while taking care of all street scaping needs, sidewalk needs and storm water needs. Heidi said she wanted to bring to their attention that the Village has an opportunity to apply for a $175K grant to be used on Class 2 roads for paving or other projects. She said Dean has selected Lake Street near the railroad crossing, South River Street and Linda Avenue to be repaved. She said the Village’s match would be $35,000 coming out of the paving budget. Neal Speer asked if this was for the next construction season. Heidi said it may come in later in the construction season and Bill said to plan on that for 2025. Heidi gave the board a summary of some grants that were already in process before she started and some she’s currently working on as well as some of the closed grants. Neal Speer mentioned the Airport grant that is slated to go out to bid in November. Heidi said they have come to a point where they have all their easements and are ready to go out for bid.

Shawn Cheney said there are going to be some changes on the state level in Zoning with places that have water and sewer services available. He said they are in a housing crunch right now and there is a huge shortage. He said because of this the state is changing some things and this won’t be just a town thing when it comes to zoning. Single family homes will now be permitted for a duplex and water and sewer usage will be based on acreage. He said this will change the game on a lot of these places that were sold for $110 or $120K and weren’t affordable to tear down and build a duplex on. He said now if you can get four units on it with municipal water and sewer you’re now going to be able to afford to tear down a property and rebuild a multi-unit place and can be resold. He said this will add more development, decrease the urban sprawl and they’re seeing a lot of momentum with this. Bill Sheets said the Village thought they were at 60% capacity for wastewater but they’re only at 50% capacity as it stands right now.

13. Swanton Village Police Department Update with Chief of Police Matthew Sullivan:

Chief of Police Matt Sullivan stated the Village police department responded to 137 incidents during the month of September. He said those incidents included 21 traffic stops with 6 tickets being issued as well as 16 warnings and 1 arrest and 6 arrest charges with 6 individuals. He said the top ten calls for service were 21 traffic stops, 19 suspicious person/circumstance, 12 directed patrol, 15 community outreach, 7 motor vehicle complaint, 7 citizen dispute, 5 alarms, 5 crash with property damage, 5 search warrants, and 4 welfare/suicide checks.

Chief Sullivan said the police department responded to 263 incidents in the Town and Village combined. He said those incidents resulted in 46 traffic stops with 19 tickets being issued, 34 warnings and 2 arrests, and 14 arrest charges with 13 individuals. He said the top ten calls for service in September were 46 traffic stops, 30 directed patrol, 11 citizen dispute, 12 agency assistance, 29 suspicious person/circumstance, 24 community outreach, 14 motor vehicle complaint, 7 juvenile problems, 9 search warrants and 7 welfare/suicide checks.

Chief Sullivan said he was curious to see what their “use of force” incidents were and said last year they had 2352 total incidents and 33 of them had “use of force” and that’s in total with all of his officers. He said those 33 “uses of force” incidents involved 25 individuals which represents 1% of the 2352 incidents last year. He said so far this year they have responded to 2295 incidents with 15 use of force year to date which is only a little over a half of percent for those incidents. He said this involved 11 individuals. He said on average looking at many years the national average is about 1.7% involving threat and use of force. He said he’s talking about low level use of force.

Eugene LaBombard asked if anything stands out within his department. Chief Sullivan said they’ve been very busy as far as addressing the drug problem. He said his officers do a great job addressing drugs and motor vehicle enforcement. He said they are working on some pretty in-depth cases involving drugs and property cases. He said they’ve done a good job of pushing drugs out and compared to where they were at they’ve done a good job displacing it. He said they work with federal agencies as well. He said they also offer services to those suffering from substance abuse disorder and he tells them straight up that they know what’s going on and they want to see them get the help they need. He said if not they will continue to aggressively work on this.

14. Review and Approve Missisquoi Water Line River Crossing Loan Amendment:

Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager, informed the Board that they are now in Phase 3 of the construction of the new water line in the Missisquoi River. She said she needs the loan amendment documents approved and signed for $1,014,020. Bill Sheets, Village Manager, said they are still under the bond amount.

Eugene LaBombard made the motion to authorize Village Manager William Sheets to sign the amended State Revolving Loan Program document in the amount of $1,014,020 for the Missisquoi Water Line River Crossing job.

15. Scott Godin Request to Connect to Swanton Village Water via Bobby Bonk’s Private Water Line at 444 Maquam Shore Road:

Adam Paxman made the motion to enter into Water Commissioner’s meeting at 8:05 p.m. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Motion carried.

Adam Paxman made the motion to approve Scott Godin’s request to connect to the Village water system via Bobby Bonk’s private water line and also approved his water allocation request for 300 GPD. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Motion carried.

16. Review and Approve Updated Water and Wastewater Allocation Request for 44 North River Street:

Chris Leach made the motion to approve Judy Paxman’s request to increase her previously approved water and wastewater allocation of 400 GPD, to 560 GPD for water and 420 GPD for wastewater. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Motion carried.

Chris Leach made the motion to exit Water Commissioner’s meeting at 8:07 p.m. Adam Paxman seconded. Motion carried.

17. Village Manager Update:

Reminder:  November Bond Vote: November 7, 2023 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Swanton Village Complex

Open Houses at our Wastewater Treatment Facility, 33 North Street.

Saturday, October 14^th:  10 AM and 2 PM (4 people attended)

Thursday, October 19^th:  10 AM, 2 PM and 6 PM (2 Village residents attended)

Monday, October 30^th:  Public Forum at the Swanton Municipal Complex (7PM)

Bond Vote:  November 7^th

FCIDC:  I made a presentation to FCIDC on October 19^th, requesting $3,500 in funding to fund an Economic Impact Assessment from Economist Jeff Carr. This funding was unanimously supported and we will have an assessment in place within a couple of months. We want a professional to detail the economic impact of a new Public Safety Facility.

Depot Street Bridge:  Heidi is working on the RFP, with the option to close the road for a brief period and reroute traffic on Beebe Road. The Town Selectboard and the State of Vermont are aware. As a reminder, we will need to set aside an additional 300k in next year’s budget to cover these repairs. We are not certain that we will have bids in place to know the exact amount, but we do know that the bids are well likely to exceed the 200k in grant funding that we do have.

MVU Field Trips:  We will be hosting several field trips for MVU. Jason Barney and John Kipp will be bringing students to tour 120 First Street, to include police and fire, and that will extend again to Hydro. They have also been invited to the WWTF.

Social Media:  We got a significant amount of positive feedback from the article (Facebook, website, and St. Albans Messenger) related to Dalton LaPlant’s W. Scott Mueller Hydroelectric Internship. Great collaboration here!!! We have also had several recent posts related to the work done by Public Works, Electric and many detailing the WWTF upgrades.

Public Works Interviews:  Interviews for the open position were conducted on October 20^th. Matt Depatie got the job, and he will start with us on November 6th.

Upcoming important dates:

Veteran’s Flags in the Park:  November 4^th at 0900 (rain date 11/5). Take down will be Sunday November 12, at 0900.

November 13, 2023:  We will be holding a joint meeting with the Selectboard to have an open dialogue about the future of policing in the Town of Swanton and beyond. That meeting will start at 6 PM.

November 27, 2023:  We will be holding a joint meeting with the Selectboard and VHB to have a public forum related to the Exit 21 project.

18. Any Other Necessary Business:

None.

19. Executive Session to Discuss Customer Accounts, Personnel and Real Estate:

Adam Paxman made the motion to enter Executive Session at 8:20 p.m. to discuss Customer Accounts,  Personnel and Real Estate. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Motion carried.

Adam Paxman made the motion to exit Executive Session and Re-Enter Open Session at 9:30 p.m. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Motion carried.

ACTION TAKEN: Adam Paxman made the motion to enter Water Commissioner’s meeting at 9:31 p.m. Eugene LaBombard seconded. Motion carried.

Adam Paxman made the motion to approve the Village of Swanton to write off $602.07 in the water department and $186.80 in the sewer department for a total of $788.87. Chris Leach seconded the motion. Motion carried.

Eugene LaBombard made the motion to exit Water Commissioner’s meeting at 9:34 p.m. Adam Paxman seconded the motion. Motion carried.

20. Adjournment:

Chris Leach made the motion to adjourn the Regular Meeting of the Board of the Trustees meeting at 9:35 p.m. Eugene LaBombard seconded. There being no further business at hand, Neal Speer, Village President, adjourned the meeting at 9:35 p.m. Motion carried.

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Neal Speer, Village President                            Date

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Dianne Day, Village Clerk                                Date