July 5, 2022 SELECTBOARD REGULAR MEETING MINUTES—APPROVED

HALIFAX SELECTBOARD

TOWN OF HALIFAX, VERMONT

SELECTBOARD REGULAR MEETING MINUTES—APPROVED

July 5, 2022

 

CALL TO ORDER:

Sumner called the meeting to order at 6:01 pm. Selectboard members present were, Lewis Sumner, Patrick McAllister and Pete Silverberg, and Tristan Roberts and Paul and Tina Blais. Others in attendance in person or remotely were Stephan Chait, Mary Brewster, Michael Fournier, Andrea and Gary Rand, Janice Bliss and Chris Parkins, Doug and Marilou Parkurst, Patty Dow, Raquel Smith, Edee Edwards and Robin Gabriel. 

 

CHANGES OR ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA:

  • Award Gravel bid 
  • Purchasing Policy 

 

APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MEETING MINUTES:

June 21st meeting minutes approved 5-0. 

 

NEW BUSINESS: 

  • Open bids for blacktopping:
    • Bazin Brothers awarded bids at $107.25 for paving ($288,288 total), and $45 for shoulder material ($27,000 total), passed 5-0. 
  • Sign contract for Windham County Sheriff:
    • Contract for FY 23 signed, passed 5-0.
  • Sign “No Trespassing” notice on Town property:
    • Get notice signed for trespasser motioned by Sumner, passed 5-0.
  • Nominate local leader to participate in the 3rd Vermont Community Leadership Summit on Aug. 10th:
    • Tristan Roberts volunteered and was nominated. Motion made by Silverberg, passed 5-0.
  • Sign delinquent dog license warrant: 
    • Gets signed annually per state law. Motion made, passed 5-0:
  • Contamination Costs:
    • Last meeting we discussed recycling services not being used properly. Podlaski reached out to TAM, they have not been charging us a fee for recycling contamination in the past year.  
  • Email distribution of meeting agendas:
    • Discussed how the distribution list is created and managed, and using Mailchimp for email distribution. Podlaski will review and report at the next meeting. Roberts agreed to support her.
    • Sumner suggested Podlaski annotate where agenda items are coming from in the agenda draft before sending out. 
    • Some items have been put on the agenda before we have enough info to talk through. Items that come from the public to the board should be reviewed by the board first before being placed on the agenda.
  • Rules of Procedure:
    • Roberts shared Selectboard Rules of Procedure that were adopted at the October 5, 2021 Meeting. The board discussed that per VLCT guidance, Robert’s Rules of Order may not be suitable for small boards. 
    • Podlaski will locate the original signed copy and update Rules of Procedure for discussion at the next meeting and posting on the website. 
  • Property with no bids for tax sale:
    • We had a tax sale on June 22, 2022. Two properties were sold to individuals. One property had no bids and was purchased by the Town of Halifax at attorney’s suggestion that it can be retroactively approved by the board. Blais wants to make a motion that we reject the tax sale and re-bid. Silverberg moved that we do as attorney suggested and approve the purchase of the tax sale with the proviso that it was done incorrectly and should not be retroactively approved going forward.The motion seconded and passed 4-1, with Blais voting against the motion.
    • The Board discussed addressing the issue of retroactive decisions and the possibility of addressing this in the Rules of Procedure. 
  • Local Highway Finance Report
    • Dow is going to fill out a report and send it back. 

 

OLD BUSINESS:

  • ARPA Funds:
    • Generator for the community center discussed in the past as a high priority for use of funds.  It costs about 15K for a generator. Silverberg will invite community center members at the next meeting to discuss the possibility of altering the contract.
  • Post Office Update
    • No update this week.
  •  DV Fiber Update 
    •  Edwards sent a written report discussing DV Fiber installment. DV Fiber has approved a high level design for the optical fiber based network using a grant from the Vermont Community Broadband Board. It includes pre construction work as well as paying power companies for the poles made. As of now, construction dates are TBD. Consideration of using ARPA funds to help match funds with BDCC for high speed internet. A decision needs to be made by September in order to get matching funds. The school board has approved to have a location provided as a local hub.

 

OTHER BUSINESS:

  • Award Gravel bid – Zaluzny awarded for the amount of money we have in the budget, passed 5-0. 
  • Purchasing Policy – There was discussion of the benefit of newspaper notifications and a suggestion was made to remove this. The purchasing policy will be reviewed at the next meeting. 
  • Someone asked if we can create a liability waiver for volunteers. To be discussed at the next meeting. 

 

HEARING OF VISITORS

 

EXECUTIVE SESSION

 

SELECTBOARD’S ORDER

Sumner, Silverberg, and Roberts will be primary signers of the Selectboard and Highway order. Another member may sign if a primary signer is out. 

 

SIGN OVERWEIGHT PERMITS

 

Sumner motioned to adjourn the meeting, passed 5-0.  Meeting adjourned 8:24 at pm.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Roza Podlaski

For the Selectboard

 

Recording link:

July 5, 2022 Regular Selectboard Meeting Minutes – YouTube