~ APPROVED ~

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

• Approve Minutes of Last Meeting
• Craftsbury Outdoor Center Marathon January 27, 2007
• Mellett-Gravel Pit Update
• Bridge #4 Update (Montpelier Meeting)
• Sand Use at Sand Pile
• Tax Sale Report
• Lands Not Identified on Town Parcel Maps
• Certificate of Highway Mileage – due February 15, 2007
• Road Foreman Report
• Clerk's Report
• Other Business:
• Selectboard Goals for 2007
• Town Website Update
• Taxpayer issue (executive session)

The Selectboard met at the Craftsbury Town Hall on Tuesday, January 9, 2007 at 7:30 PM. Selectboard present were Bruce Urie, Jim Jones and Susan Houston. June Cook (Hardwick Gazette) and Michelle Warren (Clerk of Selectboard) were also present.

Mr. Jones made a motion to approve the December 12, 2006 Selectboard Minutes as printed, Mr. Urie seconded. The December 12, 2006 Selectboard Minutes were approved.

The Craftsbury Outdoor Center Marathon scheduled January 27, 2007 may be cancelled or moved forward to the Feb. 23^rd weekend instead. On January 20, 2007, a decision will be made regarding the date of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center Marathon.

Mr. Urie said that Act 250 is supposed to be sending a letter to the Town for the gravel pit. Mr. Urie recently spoken with Kurtis Mellett who said to forget the commercial gravel pit, just go with the Town gravel pit. Mr. Jones said they had met with the Melletts and offered $2.50 for gravel and $1.25 for sand. The Town would pay for the stripping process and the new road. To recoup the stripping costs, $1 would be knocked off for gravel and $.25 for sand until it met what it cost the Town to get the area stripped and the road put in. The price would then go back to $2.50 and $1.25. Mr. Urie said the municipal 10 acres of disturbed land doesn’t trigger a permit. The Melletts would possibly be willing to lease or temporarily sell the gravel pit area to the Town for a specific time period. If things go as planned, Mr. Marckres possibly could get started as early as this spring stripping the gravel pit.

Mr. Urie met with John Weaver (Head of Structures), Mike Hedges (controls financing), Dale P. (District Administrator), Scott K. and the Town’s Engineer (and assistant). Mr. Weaver said at the meeting that it’s a buildable bridge plan but that it should have 6 pages of environmental drawings for permits. Mr. Urie explained at the meeting that when he talked earlier with Chris Brunelle at the bridge, Mr. Brunelle stated that if you stay out of the river, you don’t need the permits. Mr. Weaver replied that the state needed to get general construction permits. Mr. Urie said that if the Town does need to get the general construction permit, it will take at least 6 months and 200-300 engineering hours and our engineer thinks it’s not necessary. At first Mr. Hedges said he would need the expenditures prior to July 1, 2006 but agreed to extend it when Dale P. persisted.

Mr. Hedges said all he can do is offer us $100,00 toward the bridge. Mr. Urie said the estimated total with the contingency was $471,000 (approximately $450,000) which leaves the Town about $200,000-$250,000 short of being able to build the bridge.

Mr. Urie explained that there are two possibilities for the bridge. The 1^st choice is to pull out from the plan parts that the road crew could do (such as roadwork). Dale suggested meeting with Mark Cody or Royce Connelly and ask them what they thought we could save on the plan if the Town used our own equipment. Mr. Urie also needs to check with Mr. Marckres about the Town Crew’s schedule as well to see if they would even have time to work on it. If the $50,000 plans were taken from the $250,000 cost, the Town would need to vote on putting up a bond to repair the bridge. The engineer suggested that to obtain a realistic figure, start a bid process right now and put a caveat in the bidding process, subject to approval by the town voters.

The 2^nd choice is swapping the Nelson Bridge (estimated to be repaired 2-3 years from now on the State Bridge Program) for bridge #4, because both Mr. Urie and Mr. Jones felt that bridge #4 was more dangerous. The Selectboard needs to find out if Dale is willing to swap Bridge #4 with the Nelson Bridge and if so, what would then be the time frame for Bridge #4 and also the Nelson Bridge to get repaired. If they put Bridge #4 on the State Bridge Program without swapping, it would be about year 2012-2015 before it gets fixed. With the cracks widening already on Bridge #4, Mr. Urie didn’t think it would last until then. In State Bridge Programs, the State pays 10%, Town pays 10% and Feds pay 80%.

A construction inspector (tests concrete quality, etc.) would also be needed, which would cost an additional $30,000-$40,000. George will check with Dale to see if someone from the State could be sent over to be the construction inspector, which would help save money. Ms. Houston suggested having a map available at Town Meeting to help explain the 2 bridges.

Mr. Urie should know by the end of the week if swapping is a possibility. If the Town can swap the 2 bridges, the Selectboard will explain at Town Meeting the 2 choices, cost to bond the bridge repair for specific length of time (such as 10 years) or to swap the out the 2 bridges for repair.

With 37 bridges and 557 culverts in Craftsbury, more than most small towns, maintenance costs will be an ongoing process.

Mr. Urie said that he would bring the 2 contracts to the Selectboard Meeting next week regarding the Young Bridge litigation. The Town needs to authorize about $2000 for engineer work (such as traffic study interpretation) and also authorize about $2000 for additional work/meetings requested by Mr. Weaver. The grant would reimburse most of it.

The Selectboard haven’t spoken yet to Mr. Calderwood regarding sand use at the Town Shed.

Mr. Urie reported that it’s been a year since the Town’s tax sale. He spoke with Angela Ross, who said that there was only one that wasn’t redeemed and that was the property that Tony Jones bought (the schoolhouse near Allen Young’s). Angela still hasn’t been able to locate the owner of that property. Mr. Urie said that Ms. Ross handles all the tax sale paperwork for the Town, such as notices in paper, Internet searches, etc.

Mr. Urie explained that after Wayne Mutrux made the town maps, there were 4 parcels with no ownership. One parcel is near Wayne Dunbar, Randi Calderwood & the Schwarz’s. The 2^nd parcel is a piece off King Farm Road, about 2 acres with water rights. Hood originally owed it along with the Town Garage but that section never got deeded over to the Town. The 3^rd parcel is in Collinsville, near Jim Waterhouse. When it was subdivided into 20-30 pieces in the 1970’s, the piece in the woods never got surveyed. The Town will try to locate Mr. Caron who hopefully can help. The 4^th parcel is on Colburn Hill and there is no record of ownership now.

Mr. Urie that they need to acquire names on these parcels and get them into private ownership so they can pay taxes. When Ms. Houston asked if back taxes would be owed, Mr. Urie and Mr. Jones explained that since no one was billed, back taxes wouldn’t be due. Mr. Urie said he would send Ms. Ross some maps and she will follow up and work on publishing "An Act to Quiet" to start the legal process.

Mr. Urie said that the Town hasn’t added any mileage. Currently, the Town has:

• 18.24 miles Class 2 Roads
• 42.6 miles Class 3 Roads
• 7.962 miles State Highway
• 4.710 Miles Class 4 Roads

Mr. Urie filled out the Certificate of Highway Mileage form.

Mr. Marckes was absent, no report given.

Ms. Brown was absent, no report given.

Ms. Houston explained that it’s easy to get caught up with the day to day maintenance and hopefully the Selectboard can set an appropriate time to look at the big picture, especially the Town Plan. Mr. Urie and Mr. Jones agreed.

Michelle Warren said the Town Website Committee had a meeting Jan. 4^th. Many sections had recently been added to the website such as the Historical Society, Library and weather. Webstats have been about 200 visitors per month. At the next meeting, we plan to elect officers, finalize the letter to submit in the Town Report, plan a table for Town Meeting day and then break off into groups to update the website. For long-term sustainability, the cost of maintaining the site will need to be addressed. Along with web hosting & domain name costs, the Committee hopes to purchase a webedit program accessible online so that different organizations or different members of the website committee could edit portions of the website. Ms. Warren explained that if something happened to her, the Town Website would halt. With this software, different members of the Website Committee could take over if needed. To pay for these expenditures, the Website Committee would like to try Google Adsense on some of the pages of the town website. They are family-friendly ads that if visitors click onto, it would earn money for the website. Mr. Urie agreed to try the Google Adsense. A copy of the website meeting notes were given to Mr. Urie.

Taxpayer issue (Executive Session) was discussed.

The Selectboard Meeting adjourned at 9:30 PM. The next Selectboard meeting is scheduled at the Craftsbury Town Hall Tuesday, January 16, 2007 at 7:30 PM to finalize the warning, finalize the budget and also discuss creating an Ancient Road Committee. The Selectboard will need to meet again around January 23^rd to make sure everything is set for the Town Report.

Respectfully submitted,

Michelle Warren, Clerk of the Selectboard