Vernon Selectboard Mtg.                                                       8/17/09          

               Draft

  Accepted as Printed______________

                                                                       Accepted as Corrected _______________

 

 

VERNON SELECTBOARD

 MEETING

 

 

August 17, 2009                                                       6:30 PM

 

MEMBERS PRESENT:                                   OTHERS PRESENT:                          

Mike Ball                                                         Seth Deyo                                                       

Mike Courtemanche                                         Sarah Deyo

Lynda Starorypinski                                          Chief Turnley                                                   

Len Howard                                                     Cindy Turnley                                                  

MEMBERS ABSENT:                         Chris Garofolo                         

Robert Miller, Jr.                                             

                                                                                                                       

                                                                       

WELCOME AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

At 6:31 pm Chair Mike Ball called the meeting to order, welcomed those present and led the Pledge of Allegiance.       

 

PUBLIC COMMENT

No comments at this time.

 

MINUTE APPROVAL

August 3, 2009

Lynda starorypinski made the motion to accept the August 3rd minutes as presented. len howard seconded the motion. the motion carried.

                        august 12, 2009

len howard made the motion to accept the august 12th minutes as presented. mike courtemanche seconded the motion. the motion carried with 3 ayes, 1 abstention.

 

bills and warrants

 

mike courtemanche made the motion to authorize mike ball to sign the contract for fitts, olson & giddings for delinquent tax collection work. lynda starorypinski seconded the motion. the motion carried.

 

lynda starorypinski made the motion to approve warrants 3sg, 31S, and 32s. len howard seconded the motion. the motion carried.

           

Sally stated that any departments needing hold over of budget monies need to request it with the selectboard because when Sally closes year end the money is goes back in the general fund to offset taxes. This needs to be done by the end of August.  Sally also stated that when department heads are doing their new budgets to be sure that they include all of the expenditures. The reason for that is at Town Meeting voters are voting on the budgets expenses not the income or revenue.  

   

 It was the consensus of the board to have the treasurer draft a letter for the selectboard to send to department heads regarding budget hold over monies and revenues.

 

Lynda Starorypinski stated that the end of the three-month period for the Town Office closing on Fridays is nearing and would the board get a report of cost savings. The board would like to prepare a survey on how this has worked out along with some other questions that people would like to see answered. Mike Courtemanche volunteered to prepare the survey to be sent out.

 

LYNDA STARORYPINSKI MADE THE MOTION TO HAVE THE DEPARTMENT HEADS ASK THEIR EMPLOYEES QUESTIONS ON HOW THE FOUR DAY WORK WEEK IMPACTED THEM ALONG WITH ANY OTHER QUESTIONS TO BE PRESENTED ON THE SURVEY THAT WILL BE PREPARED BY MIKE COURTEMANCHE WHICH WILL BE IN THE TOWN NEWSPAPER BY SEPTEMBER 1ST. LEN HOWARD SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION CARRIED.    

 

MIKE COURTEMANCHE MADE THE MOTION TO GO INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION WITH THE TREASURER ON A PERSONNEL MATTER, WHICH THE DISCLOSURE OF AT THIS TIME MAY BE DETRIMENTAL TO THE TOWN AND/OR THE INDIVIDUALS INVOLVED.

 

Mike Ball stated that the board went into executive session @ 7:01 and came out at 7:26 and no action was taken.

 

TOWN CLERk

 

MIKE COURTEMANCHE MADE THE MOTION TO GO INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION WITH THE TOWN CLERK ON A CONTRACTUAL MATTER, WHICH THE DISCLOSURE OF AT THIS TIME MAY BE DETRIMENTAL TO THE TOWN AND/OR THE INDIVIDUALS INVOLVED.

 

Mike Ball stated that the board went into executive session @ 7:29 and came out at 7:31 and no action was taken.

 

VERECS- Sandy recommended going with Verecs-CIS, which will include all training.

 

LEN HOWARD MADE THE MOTION TO ACCEPT THE QUOTE FOR THE CIS VERECS SYSTEM IN THE AMOUNT OF $6200.00. LYNDA STARORYPINSKI SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION CARRIED.

 

Cemetery Markers- Sandy conveyed that statute requires that the town be responsible for cemetery stones if there is no family member that can or will do it.  Grave stones for the two markers that are needed will cost $200.00 each which will come out of the cemetery fund. 

 

VLCT- The board needs to appoint a member as a voting delegate for the VLCT Annual Business Meeting and Town Fair, which is September 18th.

 

LEN HOWARD MADE THE MOTION TO APPOINT LYNDA STARORYPINSKI AS THE BOARDS DELEGATE FOR THE VLCT TOWN FAIR. MIKE COURTEMANCHE SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION CARRIED.

The board thanked Sandy.  

 

COMCAST- There was no response from Comcast.

 

TIMBER SALE UPDATE-There was no response from Stave Hardy.

 

Seth Deyo reported to the board that the Farmers Market was doing well. He also reported that the pool would be getting some maintenance work in the near future.  

Seth stated that he was present to talk about the Town Forest. He stated that the recreation department gets called from citizens regarding the forest. He conveyed that he is responsible for walking the trails and taking care of maps and he would in the future like to be informed of any activity in the Town Forest area. Seth asked if new trails would be added and Mike Ball stated that in the Town Plan it talks about the Town Forest. Lynda would e-mail Seth a copy of the Town Forest Management Plan.

The board thanked Seth.

 

MIKE COURTEMANCHE MADE THE MOTION TO TAKE NEW/UNFINISHED BUSINESS OUT OF ORDER ON THE AGENDA. LEN HOWARD SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION CARRIED.

 

NEW/UNFINISHED BUSINESS

           

Mike Ball received a letter of thanks for The Gathering Place program for the Town of Vernon donation.

Mike Ball stated that Vermont Yankee is having a Safety Day on August 27th to collect cell phones for soldiers. It was the consensus of the board to have a donation box for cell phones placed at the town office.

The Town Plan will be on the selectboard web site (vernonvt.org) along with placing it for review at the Town Office.

 

LEN HOWARD MADE THE MOTION TO AUTHORIZE MIKE BALL TO SIGN THE 2010 NEW CONSTRUCTION CENSUS FORM. MIKE COURTMANCHE SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION CARRIED.

 

Lynda Starorypinski asked if there was any new information about the foyer project. Mike Ball stated that the board could have an update on the agenda for August 24th.

With much discussion about the Windham Regional Commission and their duties the board moved on.

 

MIKE COURTEMANCHE MADE THE MOTION TO GO BACK IN ORDER ON THE AGENDA WITH THE POLICE DEPARTMENT UPDATE. LEN HOWARD SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION CARRIED.

 

POLICE DEPARTMENT UPDATE-

Chief Turnley reported that most recently he has been working on the Policies and Procedures. He has some to review and correct before bringing them to the board for approval.

The chief stated that the hiring process has been on going for the past month and they currently have interviewed several people and have two good candidates and Officer Gauld is doing the background checks. He is hoping to send two candidates to the part-time academy in the beginning of September. He also has one candidate who was already been through the part-time academy and is in phase two and three continuing with part of his education and some other courses. Chief Turnley stated pending the approval of the board to bringing them on. Chief Turnley will be doing the FTO.  Mike Ball stated that he has not completed the ----- policy and he will have that ready by September 11th.

Chief Turnley stated that he talked with Vermont State Police about coverage in Vernon and they responded by saying they could not cover Vernon at this time. The Windham County Sheriff’s Department is willing to cover Vernon with a fee of $40.00 per hour using their own vehicles and $35.00 using the Vernon Police Department vehicles. Chief Turnley would opt to use our own vehicles and save the $5.00. Vermont Liquor could not do the coverage as well. The Chief did some rough estimates of the cost to the Town in starting September there would be 43 shifts totaling 344 hours totaling around $12,000.00.Officer Hebert is out for two months and Officer Gauld is pending doctors approval.  Mike Ball will send out for review to the board members the contract for the Sheriff’s Department for consideration on the August 24th agenda.

 Mike Courtemanche stated that the hiring process has been a bit confusing with some members knowing the candidate’s names and other not knowing. Mike suggested that the background checks be done before you come to the board requesting pending successful back ground check.

 

Mike Courtemanche made a motion for the board to reconsider the motion made on July 20th due to procedural flaw in the hire process. Len Howard seconded the motion.  2 ayes, 1 nay, 1 recuse.  the motion did not carry.

 

 

Chief Turnley requested the board to approve Lynda Starorypinski to be the Police Department Liaison. Currently Robert Miller and Mike Ball are the liaisons for the Police Department. This would be discussion item at a later date. 

 

Chief Turnley stated that he would like to publicly thank Seth Deyo and his staff for the great time he had while doing a presentation of law enforcement for the camp children.

 

The board thanked Chief Turnley.

 

MEDIA

No comments at this time.

 

MIKE COURTMANCHE MADE THE MOTION TO ADJORN. LEN HOWARD SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION CARRIED.

 

 Adjourned @8:43 PM.

NEXT MEETING WILL BE, August 24, 2009 @ 6:00 PM.

 

Respectfully submitted by ________________

Elaine Howard

 

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