Trustees Meeting 9/8/25

Web version

SWANTON VILLAGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

SWANTON VILLAGE MUNICIPAL COMPLEX

120 FIRST STREET

SWANTON, VT 05488

REGULAR MEETING

Monday, September 8, 2025

6:00 PM

PRESENT: David Winchester, Village President; Adam Paxman, Trustee; Neal Speer, Trustee; Suzie Kelleher, Trustee; William “Bill” Sheets, Village Manager; Dianne Day, Village Clerk; Jason Starr, Wastewater Chief Operator; Damon Broderick and Ch. 16. Via Teams: Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager.

To watch this meeting in its entirety, go to Northwest Access TV on YouTube. The video will also be posted on the Village’s website once available. Unless otherwise noted, all motions carried, unanimously.

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

David Winchester, Village President, 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, stated they do not need an executive session for legal tonight.

4. Public Comment:

None.

5. Approve and Accept Minutes from Wednesday, August 20, 2025 and from Monday, August 25, 2025 as presented:

Adam Paxman made the motion to approve the minutes from Wednesday, August 20, 2025 and from Monday, August 25, 2025, as presented. Suzie Kelleher seconded the motion. Discussion: None. Motion carried.

6. Approve and Accept Village Warrants through Thursday, September 4, 2025:

Neal Speer made the motion to approve Village Warrants through Thursday, September 4, 2025 as presented. Adam Paxman seconded the motion. Discussion: None. Motion carried.

7. Swanton Village Wastewater Department Update with Jason Starr:

Jason Starr, Wastewater Plant Chief Operator, began his presentation talking about the upgrades taking place at the wastewater plant. He said the electrical work got done today but still have some left to do. He said the windows came in and, in a week or two the windows and doors will get installed. He said they got the new centrifuge installed and it’s up and running very well. He said their electrician did an amazing job rewiring that area and installing the new control panel. He said in lagoon #2 they installed a new baffle curtain, replacing the approximately 20-year-old shredded one they had. He said that will extend the time frame and allow the natural process to work a bit more before it comes into the plant. He said it lessens their chemical use to treat it. He showed the concrete work being done for the new filter building. He said they’re installing new sand filters and once the sludge comes in from the lagoon it goes through a clarifier and then into these filters for further treatment. He said the goal is to lower the phosphorus levels and these filters will help knock it down even lower.

He showed some projects they’ve been working on such as a new tank for storing chemicals, removing and relocating the emergency generator that was beside the screen room, removing the clarifying domes so they could be rebuilt and installing a galvanized back board by the lagoon that holds the aerators control panels. Jason said some of the 2025 maintenance projects include wastewater UV racks being refurbished, a new Foundry Street storage shed built by BFA building trade students and installing fiber throughout the Village for their camera system. Jason said his maintenance team consists of Josh Packard and Nick Williams. He said they also replaced electric parts at the Water Treatment Plant and installed a new rotary strainer for the Hydro Plant. They also rebuilt the grinder at the Foundry Street Pump Station and moved fiber from overhead to underground. He said they sided the hose tower and jet outs on the Village Complex as well. Jason said the maintenance crew installed a new welding hood at the Complex so when they need to weld something this will remove the fumes from that. They also installed a new compressor, camera system and emergency ladder at the Water Plant. Jason showed that they had 16 corrective actions for the wastewater plant, 9 for the water treatment plant, 15 for the Hydro plant and 32 for the Village Complex. He said they had 325 work orders for the wastewater plant, 300 for the water treatment plant, 900 for the Hydro plant and 250 for the Complex. The Board thanked Jason for his presentation.

8. Review and Sign Wastewater Plant Upgrade Line of Credit Documents:

Adam Paxman made the motion to authorize Village Trustees to sign the $5 million dollar Wastewater Plant Upgrade line of credit documents. Suzie Kelleher seconded the motion. Motion carried.

9. AMI Project Update:

Lynn Paradis, Assistant Village Manager, stated they are partially through their AMI upgrade and are running into some problems. Billing was as of Friday about two weeks behind and as of right now Laurie worked over the weekend and got most of cycle 4 done along with cycle 3 and mailed out. She said they are probably a week behind schedule but she’s hoping by the end of September they will be caught back up. Lynn said they have a little less than half of their electric meters installed and quite a bit of the water meters installed. She said they went from two crews down to one crew on installing the water meters. She said they are still having trouble with the software companies because they aren’t fully integrated and the billing software representative who was scheduling weekly meetings has dropped the ball on it. She said she and Duane got hold of the project managers through VPPSA and followed up again today to get these meetings back on track. Lynn said they were kind of thinking that Swanton was done but she said they aren’t and are still having issues. She said they had to put their feet down a little bit to get those meetings back on track so they can get some of these bugs rectified. Lynn said they will get there, it’s just going a little slower than some thought it would be. Lynn said she is finding their billing software is not as good as it should be with the AMI so once this is all deployed, they need to decide whether or not they want to stay with the same software vendor or can they be better served with a different software company. She said once they’re done with the AMI upgrade the customer portal would be the next piece to put in. She said the Village will have the meter reading data and our customers still won’t have it until we do the next phase. She said before they get to that step, they need to really look at the billing software because that will drive where they will do their customer portal from. Lynn said overall it will be good once it’s done. She said they had a three-day training with Aclara and that part of the software looks nice as well as the reports that can be generated. Adam Paxman asked what they could do to help as a board as far as helping resolve any delays. Lynn said Bill hasn’t been involved with this up until now and she copied him today in some email communications so she’s hoping that will help. She said if Duane, Bill or herself can’t get things resolved then she would reach out to the board. Adam said whatever they can do to help to just let them know.

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

PC Construction mobilized at 0630 this morning on site to begin the process to remove the rubber dam. The crane will be on site to begin the removal work itself on Wednesday of this week and the total project time, including demobilization, is estimated to be a maximum of three weeks.

Our annual plant shutdown begins on September 22^nd, and it is expected to last two weeks. This is the time when we complete a significant amount of maintenance work while we are dewatered.

At the same time, we will immediately begin the process of identifying next steps which include utilizing our contracted experts and contract engineers to build a list of alternatives before seeking a scope of work and eventually an RFP process. All will be complicated, with the requirement of ensuring acceptance of the proposed plan by FERC and the State of Vermont, Agency of Natural Resources. This entire process will take a significant amount of time, but it is critically important to get this right.

11. Village Manager Update:

Police:  Following the approval of the Elementary Schools SRO contract at the last Trustee meeting, we are pleased to formally welcome back Chad Parah, who will be filling that role.

Electric:  Electric continues to have several call outs for outages, to include a blown fuse on County Road on Saturday and a broken pole in front of the Catholic Church on Sunday.

Public Works: The dry hydrant near Johns Bridge, which was installed on August 28^th, has excellent flow and it is now functional. We need to complete some concrete work and add bollards and paint to complete the project.

They are continuing work on the sidewalk project, and they still plan to add three insertion valves by the end of the year. We conducted interviews with many qualified candidates today and we hope to have that hiring decision soon.

12. Any Other Necessary Business:

Adam Paxman stated he would like to have the island in Jones Court removed before winter. He said he has talked with Dean Ryan, Public Works Foreman, and he is in agreement with this. He said it would be easier to plow and maintain Jones Court. Adam requested we put this as an action item on our next agenda.

Any Other Business: Suzie Kelleher stated the Hometown Heros Banner second round will end on Monday, September 15^th at 4 p.m.

Any Other Business: Neal Speer said he would like to thank Linda Cross for the great job she does keeping the flowers watered throughout the Village. He said they look beautiful. He also wanted to thank the Bartemy’s and Suzanne Washburn for all their work on the new swan pond. He said kudos also goes out to Branon’s Pool Supply for their generosity as well. He reminded everyone that there will be a SEP meeting on September 18^th at 5:30 in the Village Complex.

13. Proposed Executive Session to Discuss Legal: Discuss the Highgate Water/Wastewater Extension Memorandum of Understanding (MOU):

Tabled.

14. Adjournment:

Adam Paxman made the motion to adjourn the regular board of trustees meeting at 6:57 p.m. Suzie Kelleher seconded. There being no further business at hand, David Winchester, Village President, adjourned the meeting at 6:57 p.m. Motion carried.

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David Winchester, Village President                  Date

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Dianne Day, Village Clerk                                Date