Trustees Meeting 11/24/25

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SWANTON VILLAGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

SWANTON VILLAGE MUNICIPAL COMPLEX

120 FIRST STREET

SWANTON, VT 05488

REGULAR MEETING

Monday, November 24, 2025

6:00 PM

PRESENT: Suzie Kelleher, Trustee; Neal Speer, Trustee; Adam Paxman, Trustee; William “Bill” Sheets, Village Manager; Dianne Day, Village Clerk; Matthew Sullivan, Chief of Police; Damon Broderick and Ch. 16. Via Teams: Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager.

1. Call Meeting to Order at 6 p.m.:

Neal Speer, Village Trustee, called the Regular Board of Trustees Meeting to order at 6:00 p.m.

2. Pledge of Allegiance:

Everyone in attendance stood for the Pledge of Allegiance.

3. Agenda Review:

Bill Sheets, Village Manager; said he needs to add a Clean Water Grant Funding request under #16.
 

4. Public Comment

None.

       5. Approve and Accept Minutes from Monday, November 10, 2025 as presented:

Adam Paxman made the motion to approve and accept the minutes from Monday, November 10, 2025 as presented. Suzie Kelleher seconded that motion. Motion carried.

6. Approve and Accept Village Warrants through Thursday, November 20, 2025:

Suzie Kelleher made the motion to approve Village warrants through Thursday, November 20th, 2025 as presented. Adam Paxman seconded. Discussion: Adam asked what the payment made to Aquatic Solutions for $13,244.00 was for. Bill said he would research it and let them know. Motion carried.

       7. Swanton Village Police Department Update with Chief Matthew Sullivan:

Chief Matt Sullivan was present for this update. He stated the Village Police Department responded to 139 incidents in the Village during the month of October 2025. The top ten calls for service were 13 suspicious person/circumstance; 11 threatening; 10 citizen assist; 8 motor vehicle complaint; 6 welfare/suicide check; 5 family fight/domestic; 5 crash, property damage; 5 VIN number inspection; 4 trespassing; and 18 traffic stop. He said out of the 18 traffic stops 25 tickets were issued and 15 warnings. He also said all but 3 were associated with traffic. Matt said there were 15 arrests with 14 individuals and 18 charges. Only 1 arrest was associated with traffic. Matt said currently they are working on getting their training requirements done which include Use of Force and Tazer. He also said they’ve been making good progress on evaluations. Matt also talked about how his department is now helping NUSI with all their Swanton cases and have had 7 in the last two weeks. He said this is their most important work and it’s extremely busy and he’s surprised at the volume of intakes. Matt said Officer Kelly Badeau is doing this work and her salary is covered by a grant.

Chief Sullivan said the department responded to 100 incidents in the Town of Swanton for the month of October 2025 and said the top ten calls for service were 32 traffic stop; 23 directed patrol; 6 motor vehicle complaint; 6 suspicious person/circumstance; 4 agency assistance; 4 citizen assist; 3 crash, property damage; 2 alarm; 2 threatening and 2 juvenile problem. He said there were 32 traffic stops resulting in 15 tickets and 28 warnings and all tickets and warnings were associated with traffic. Matt said there were 4 arrests with 4 individuals and 5 charges. Two arrests were associated with traffic stops.

Adam asked if there was anything upsetting or alarming going on. Matt talked about the high volume of fraud cases and said it’s drastically increased. He urges everyone to be sure who they are dealing with on the internet and to never give their personal information unless they are sure. He said never purchase Apple gift cards and just don’t engage them. Neal Speer also talked about the Medicare scams going on out there now and how residents are getting scam calls from them also. Bill Sheets asked if there was any information from the Attorney Generals office that could be posted on the Police’s Facebook page or website pertaining to fraud to educate people. He also asked about how many hours above contract they are with the Swanton Town Police contract. Matt said he would have to look that information up. Bill also said the selectboard is looking to have the police contract price in December but said the Village is waiting on the dispatching cost from the City of St. Albans. He said he would reach out to them again tomorrow. The Board thanked Chief Sullivan for his update.
 

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

Suzie Kelleher, Trustee, stated the board has reviewed and acknowledges receipt of this SQRP report. Lynn Paradis said there were a few higher marks this quarter because the Village was a little late getting three routes out and mailed due to the AMI meter conversion. The board said they understood that.

9. Review and Approve the Village of Swanton Employee Handbook:

Bill Sheets, Village Manager, stated this was sent electronically to the board for their review about a month ago. He said the department heads and their legal counsel have worked on it and feel it is now complete. Bill said this has been a big effort by everyone involved. Adam Paxman made the motion to approve the Swanton Village Employee Handbook as presented as of November 24, 2025. Suzie Kelleher seconded the motion. Motion carried.

10. Review and Discuss Village of Swanton Community Recognition Day Policy:

Suzie Kelleher showed the board her draft Community recognition day policy and explained why she is considering this. She said she needed to add the enterprise departments in the Village section but feels good about the rest of the policy. Some discussion took place regarding age. The board all agreed that they were in favor of this policy, and it can be viewed on the Village’s website.

11. Review and Approve Village of Swanton Internal Control Checklist:

Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager, said this checklist is from the State’s auditor’s office and she needs to fill it out every year. She said this year it needs to be filled out for the bond bank application for 124 First Street. This checklist just shows some of the Village’s financial processes. Adam Paxman made the motion to approve the Internal Financial Controls Checklist as presented and also authorizes Trustee Suzie Kelleher to sign the document. Neal Speer seconded the motion. Motion carried.

12. Appoint Alternate Representative to the VT System Planning Committee on behalf of Swanton Village Electric:

Bill Sheets, Village Manager, said the Vermont System Planning Committee – VSPC – is a collaborative process, established in 2007, for addressing electric grid reliability planning. Its purpose is to ensure all options to solve grid reliability issues get full, fair, and timely consideration, and the most cost-effective solution gets chosen, whether it is a poles-and-wires upgrade, energy efficiency, demand response, generation, or a hybrid. Bill said all distribution utilities hold membership on the committee as well as many other entities. The Swanton Village Manager technically serves as our member, however, we’ve never, to my knowledge, appointed an alternate to attend in case I cannot make it.  He said VPPSA has offered to all members that its regulatory staff person, John Abbott, is available to serve as an alternate to any DU with interest in appointing him. It is my view that this makes a good deal of sense, and he recommends the Trustees appoint him as the Village’s alternate. Suzie Kelleher made the motion to appoint John Abbott as the alternate representative to the Vermont System Planning Committee on behalf of Swanton Village Electric. Adam Paxman seconded the motion. Motion carried.

13. AMI Project Update:

Bill Sheets, Village Manager, said our AMI work continues with more than 1,070 water meters and 3,471 electric meters installed. The front office crew continue to go above and beyond to get the water meter exchanges scheduled. We continue to see progress on the software side and are in the process of fine-tuning processes and communication between all involved. We have completed installation of all but one route for primary residential routes, with three phase and solar remaining. The final residential electric meters are scheduled to be installed tomorrow. Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager, said they are having some demand reset issues and said Laurie, our billing specialist, has been working on it. Lynn said she was supposed to try it again later today. Lynn also said there were some solar customer issues that Laurie is working on because they’re not coming into the system correctly. Lynn said other than that things are coming together.

14. Orman E. Croft Hydroelectric Generating Facility Dam Repair Update:

Highgate Falls downstream flooding potential with the without the rubber dam. We have an engineering assessment from Wayne Dyok, P.E., which concludes that there are no significant differences between downstream flooding with the rubber dam removed compared to when the rubber dam was installed.

The Request for Qualification (RFQ) has been issued for the alternatives analysis assessment. This process is multi-layered, and it is anticipated to take two to three months to identify the preferred engineering services firm.

We anticipate issuing the companion, Clerks of the Works, Owners Representative RFQ on or about December 1^st. As a reminder this is to identify an industry expert who can represent our needs as we navigate this process. This is anticipated to be an hourly/as needed contract.

The high lift pump that we need to fix Unit 4 has been ordered from Voith, the manufacturer of the Unit. We are hopeful that we can receive and install this motor within a month.

15. Village Manager Update:

Electric:

The Electric Department continues to exchange electric meters while balancing their day-to-day activities and we are on our way to being done with the AMI project.

Public Works: 

Public Works has already been busy dealing with some early winter weather. We have a water leak at the intersection of South River and Lake that Public Works began to repair today. They identified the area of the leak today and will make repairs tomorrow. They are preparing the old plow truck, new box installed this year, getting this ready for this winter. They also did the mechanic work to repair the old plow truck at Hydro, which is at the end of its life.

Water:

The water team continues to be busy with plant maintenance. Both Tod and Avery are being trained to conduct water meter readings, and they will also become certified in traffic control/flagging. We want to use them as a force multiplier to assist Public Works with traffic control at water breaks.

We are working with Aldrich and Elliott and others to finalize access and training for the Highgate water and wastewater pumping stations.

Wastewater:

We are likely to be substantially complete in February or March. The second clarifier is up and running and the clarifier expert is on site today and tomorrow to certify the work. While we are no longer on schedule, with a two-to-three-month delay, we do remain on budget. The effluent pump building has windows and heating installed, so we are at punch list for this building. Jason and Dillon will be required to move out of their office area for several weeks while they renovate that space. We are trying to determine whether they will end in the garage or a job trailer.

Miscellaneous:

B-6 bridge: The topic keeps being discussed at various meetings so just in a point of clarification the Swanton Village Trustees have chosen their preferred alternative, which includes a new UHPC full-width overlay, with new sidewalks and railings. This work scheduled for 2028 or 2029 includes a 2.5 percent estimated match of just under $110,000.

16. Any Other Necessary Business:

Bill Sheets, Village Manager, said the Village of Swanton has contracted with Aldrich and Elliott, in the amount of $17,500 to perform a hydraulic Assessment and preliminary engineering report. This will allow us to begin to prioritize capital expenditures and hopefully seek grant funding for future projects. This step is not only required for  proper planning but is required to apply for grant funding. We do need a motion from the Trustees so that we can receive a grant from the State of Vermont for reimbursement in the amount of $4,375, or 25 percent of the project costs. Adam Paxman made the motion to authorize the Village Manager to function as the signatory for the Village of Swanton’s Drinking Water Planning Grant. Suzie Kelleher seconded. Discussion: Suzie asked if this was to repair water lines. Bill said this was to prioritize the tasks that are needed. Motion carried.

Any Other Business: Adam Paxman reminded people that Saturday is Small Business Saturday and he said to shop local. Neal Speer said so far the Village Green looks very nice.

17. Proposed Executive Session for Legal:

Suzie Kelleher made the motion, seconded by Adam Paxman, to go into Executive Session at 6:59 p.m. to discuss a legal matter where premature general public knowledge of the subject matter would place the Village or person involved at a substantial disadvantage. Motion carried.

Adam Paxman made the motion to exit Executive Session at 7:47 pm. Suzie Kelleher seconded. Motion carried.

ACTION TAKEN: None.

18. Adjournment:

Suzie Kelleher made the motion to adjourn the Regular Meeting of the Board of the Trustees at 7:48 p.m. Adam Paxman seconded. There being no further business at hand, Neal Speer, Village Trustee, adjourned the meeting at 7:48 p.m. Motion carried.

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David Winchester, Village President                  Date

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Dianne Day, Village Clerk                                Date