OFFICE OF THE SELECTBOARD

TOWN OF HALIFAX, VERMONT

REGULAR MEETING MINUTES

January 21, 2025

6:00 PM AT THE HALIFAX TOWN OFFICE

CALL TO ORDER

Edee Edwards called the meeting to order at 6:00pm. The other Selectboard member present in person was Tristan Roberts. Selectboard members remote on Zoom were Karen Christofferson, Rhonda Ashcraft, and Randy Pike. Members of the public and town present in person and remotely were Emily Dow, Patty Dow, Mike Fournier, Nancy McCrea, Bob Teree, Ed Forlie and Maria Huffman, Keith Stone, Kaitlin Stone, Mary Brewster, and Cara Cheyette.

CHANGES AND ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA

Under new business: make a request to the Trustees of Public Funds for disbursement from two of our public funds.

Focus on meeting minutes from December 3rd and December 17th, (which discussed purchases). 

NEW BUSINESS

Town Right of Way Matters

Permit Application-The property owners (Ed Forlie and Maria Huffman) submitted a late permit application for work in the town Right of Way (ROW) concerning the fence on Sprague Road that they newly constructed in the summer. It is a plowing problem for the town. It is in the Town’s Right of Way and as feared, it was damaged from town plowing during the last snowstorm, discovered this morning, according to Mike Fournier. Forlie stated they had submitted the permit application with a late fee and that the fence had been damaged yesterday with what they understood to be an 8-inch snowfall. They asked that an incident report be created. 

For background, they lost about 8 feet of property along one side and 5 feet on another side of their yard after due to attritional plowing over the years. It was mentioned to the Road Commissioner (Brad Rafus), during that time. As a note: their house is 25 feet from the road. Forlie submitted photos taken today, and is concerned about the fact the road center appears to be shifting towards their house, and not towards the house on the opposite direction which is much farther from the road. They worry about road encroachment towards their house. 

Upon measuring the road earlier, Mike Fournier concluded from the center of the road to the fence is roughly 12 feet. The standard road width is 49.6 feet edge to edge. Keith Stone noted the Highway Ordinance adopted in 1983 states the Right of Way must be cleared of rocks, fences, debris and more. Terms of the ordinance also state that the town is not responsible for damages. 

Edwards noted another town’s solution to a similar issue was that they allowed conditional use of the fence with the contingency that it be taken down during winter months. 

Roberts acknowledged the concerns of Forlie and Huffman. He also noted that town may just be expanding its use of its legal right of way. He is confident that the crew is doing their best under difficult circumstances. Plowing is difficult as the Road Crew tries to get as close to the edges as possible to maintain safe traveling roads. He mentioned the idea of adding plow sticks. 

Further discussion was had about the tracks veering off the roadbed, and the movement of sod when the road is not frozen. 

It was acknowledged the Road Crew has to plow multiple times during a single storm depending on the weather conditions, and that it is difficult and dangerous work. We want to ensure safety and use of the property but at the same time adhering to the town’s needs to use the ROW for the traveling public. Keith Stone noted in state law and town ordinances that the town assumes no responsibility for objects placed in the town right of way. 

More history was discussed. Roberts suggested and the board ultimately agreed to a future site visit by at least some board members. Alternatively, a full Special Meeting might be arranged to speak about this permit and property matter further. 

Winter Maintenance – Clark Road Turnaround

Keith Stone felt the issue of a limited turnaround should be addressed as a violation or penalty from the Town Junk Ordinance as there are more vehicles on the property and in Town Right of Way (ROW) than acceptable.

Town Constable Kyle Farnsworth visited the property twice and gave verbal warnings. There is more difficulty turning around in the winter due to the passageway being shortened from plowing. Roberts said he could look at it, and work with Emily Dow to research and draft a letter. The winter roads policy may also apply.

Conflict of Interest – Ethics. H875 new requirements for SB & Others

The town must designate an ethics liaison who would be the point person any ethics concerns is directed towards. Recommendation would be an employee but can also be a selectboard member. Roberts offered to take this on and attend one of the required meetings. Christofferson moved to appoint Tristan Roberts as the Town of Halifax Ethics Liaison.

Pike seconded.

Motion carried as 4-0-1 with Roberts abstaining. 

Gravel and Budget Analysis 

The board received an analysis from Bob Teree about costs of town material, including gravel. Teree was in attendance virtually.  

Edwards noted she asked for this discussion, with its purpose being informational, without expecting further action. 

Roberts stated he did not wish to discuss this report given that Teree said he would not discuss this in open session, and he noted that citizens are encouraged to offer input on our budgets for the town in our meetings. 

Edwards stated she wanted to speak to the main point for the report, which asks why Halifax is spending more on various items, notably gravel, compared to neighboring towns Marlboro and Guilford. Teree sent an update to his report to all Selectboard members. In it, Teree made a specific request to do a forensic audit.

Edwards noted the history of gravel in the Town of Halifax: Gravel is a natural resource and limited in quantity. Halifax does not have much gravel in town at this point. The cost of gravel is likely influenced by: How far is the town from the pit? What is ownership of pit and does that matter? Quality of material may impact cost, too. During Hurricane Irene, our own local town crushed gravel was leveraged and used up quickly. The town has also trucked gravel in years past from other locations; using our road crew to make multiple trips to the pits we purchased from. 

Should finding a new gravel source be a priority for the board? The board did not make it one in the recent past. It may not be easy to keep costs low while sustaining good quality. In the recent past, someone accidentally ordered more gravel than was originally budgeted. Edwards was not aware of the specifics on this incident, but understood it to have caused a budget overage.

• This summer, GMP started working toward connecting the town to more resilient electricity to our citizens who experience many outages, by doing more underground work. We assisted, using far more of our time and materials (4550 yards) than expected.
• GMP reimbursed us for gravel and other expenses, paying an initial $100,000, followed by paying a second invoice in full with a check for $81,086.50.

Teree offered to answer questions by the board, having originally stated he would not do so in public session. The board found no legal justification to go into executive session, however, which is why this was on the agenda. 

For some technical detail: 

• The town used 4550 yards of grave for the GMP project, for which we were reimbursed. 
• The roads lose, on average, an inch of gravel annually.
• Edwards asked Microsoft Copilot with our annual yards of gravel purchased, based on 49.6 road width and 52 miles, how deep would that be? It would only be 0.14 inches deep.
• We get competitive bids. We match our invoices.   
• As a note: in April Edwards discovered a formula correction and our current vendor gave a credit of roughly $13,400.
• Fournier is problem solving with gravel and road quality, like getting a screener, adding new finer material to what we’d received, and requesting a compactor for the future.

In responding to Teree’s additional request for questions and whether a forensic audit was justified, the source of information was not apparent to Christofferson, and she was taken aback by the people copied on that report. Roberts had stated earlier there was the broad distribution of the report. 

• Christofferson noted that a forensic audit could cost over $100,000, and it was not something she felt justified in signing off on.
• Edwards noted we are doing a standard professional audit this year. 
• In her ongoing recitation of history and facts of current practices, Edwards stated that we were doing our best as a community to budget and control costs responsibly. Teree said he had made it clear in the report he was not accusing the current board of wrongdoing.  
• Fournier noted that $100,000 was added to the gravel budget on the floor at Town Meeting recently.
• Pike and Ashcraft made note that the public should come to budget meetings to give input or observe.
• Members of the board thanked Teree for his attendance.

OLD BUSINESS

Loader and Excavator Financing

The Selectboard looked over financing options for the John Deere Loader. Christofferson circulated a spreadsheet to the board in advance of the meeting. We had dealer finance costs and some from M&T bank from 5-7 years, annual payments in arrears or in advance, and monthly options. Edwards had hoped that with a longer term that the annual payments would be lower and spread out more easily for the taxpayers. However the finance charge differential between the bank and dealer was really making the 7-year option from the bank only $600 less  per year than the 6 year dealer option in arrears. The extra year of finance term costs $27,000. Christofferson mentioned again her hope that maintenance cost would only have one year of a gap, and we’d be turning the vehicle in with some life. Edwards stated her opinion that keeping these vehicles for only 7 years might not work for the town in the long run.

Pike made a motion to accept dealer option #1 municipal lease option for the $30,106.15 annual payment. Roberts seconded. Motion carried 5-0. 

Excavator financing from the dealer required auditor reports for the last 2 years. Christofferson had not heard back from the dealer, nor do we have information from M&T Bank.  This discussion was tabled.

Request to Trustees of Public Funds (added to the agenda at the beginning)

Patty Dow and the Trustees noted we need to create a paper trail to get the funds in the current budget transferred from two public funds. Edwards made a motion to ask the Trustees of Public Funds to make out a check to the Town of Halifax from the Eames Fund in the amount of $1,700, and to write a check payable to the Town of Halifax for $14,000 from the Scott Fund. This was seconded by Roberts. Motion carried 5-0.  

Professional auditor update and NEMRC software

Christofferson spoke to auditor Bonnie Batchelder. She asked if we had converted from Quickbooks, and Karen said we are in the process of acquiring NEMRC modules. We will need to do work close out certain things for Fiscal Year 23 and Fiscal Year 24 before work can begin. Her team’s rates range from $95-$250/hour. If we can convert to NEMRC, this will reduce costs. Costs may be much higher than we anticipated.

NEMRC has multiple components, including the General Ledger that we’ve had for multiple years. Karen has experience with data conversions. NEMRC’s fees for assistance are $145/hour. Cynthia at NEMRC was going to get a staffing estimate for their conversion help. The goal is for Patty Dow and Christofferson to do as much work as possible. We may have an option to pay for the modules in the next fiscal year. 

Budget Finalization and New Information received for Truck 6 repairs

Following the discussion above, Edwards noted that we don’t have final numbers for NEMRC, for the audit, and other items. She suggested we will need another meeting to finalize the budget.

Edwards noted that truck #6 is the pickup truck, and we did not budget to replace it. In order for it to pass inspection, approximately $13,000 of repairs are needed. Edwards asked what the impact to the Highway Department would be if we didn’t have this vehicle. Fournier responded that the crew would drive the brand new 6-wheel dump truck (one ton) to get parts. 

160,000 miles are on this truck, and it might take as long as 6 months to get it repaired. It is run  about 16,400 miles per year. After discussion, Fournier was given approval to continue with repairs, and Pike offered to help find other repair shops. 

Town Meeting Warning

Edwards noted there are 2 new articles for agencies requesting funding, finalizing the raise and appropriate amount, and a question about the 1% local tax to discuss. The whole thing must be posted between January 23 at the earliest and February 2 at the latest. Budget figures are vital, so this will need to be done at the same time as the final budget meeting.

Roberts and the board decided not to pursue the 1% local tax option. Edwards noted we would not request funding for the grader.

For the Town Report, Christofferson will work on the Road Commissioners Report, Edwards will write the Selectboard Report, and Edwards and Gina DePaolis will be meeting on Thursday, when they will need the Secretary laptop. Emily should be able to come with the laptop and maybe stay for the meeting.

Final budget meeting and writing the warning articles was set for the 28th of January at 6 PM.

Hearing of Visitors
No comments.

Approval of previous Meeting Minutes

Roberts made a motion to accept December 3, 2025 Minutes with no changes. Edwards amended to note a change to remove a comment to check with sign in sheets.  Christofferson seconded. Pike & Christofferson asked that the time a Selectboard member joined or left the meeting be put in line instead at the end of the section. The approval of meeting minutes should be on the bottom, when it occurred. Motion carried 5-0.

Edwards made a motion to accept December 17, 2025 minutes with minor changes. Christofferson asked for standardization of the format and name. One typo was noted.

Ashcraft seconded.

Motion carried 5-0.

SELECTBOARD ORDER

The Selectboard orders were signed and Edwards read the aggregate amount for orders on January 21, 2025 for an order total of $28,812.36. 

EXECUTIVE SESSION 

No Executive Session was held.

ADJOURNMENT

Roberts made a motion to adjourn at 8:00pm. Ashcraft seconded the motion. Passed 5-0.

Respectfully submitted, 

Emily Dow

Halifax Administrative Assistant 

Recording Link: https://youtu.be/JYmzqBnIGWk