By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—The Brandon Selectboard met on Monday evening, having postponed its scheduled meeting on April 10 for a week because the agenda had not been posted online in time to properly warn the public.
After approval of the evening’s agenda and the minutes from the previous meeting, Interim Town Manager Bill Moore gave his report, starting with an apology for the oversight that caused the postponement of the meeting.
Mr. Moore then recounted the efforts of the highway, buildings, and grounds crew to prepare the town and parks for spring and summer, cleaning up the parking area at Estabrook Park and adding dirt to the softball diamond. Repairs have been made to the town’s wood chipper and Mack truck.
The Wastewater Department has been fixing pumps, though there remains one at Newton Road that needs repair. At the wastewater plant itself, the influent pump needs to be replaced or repaired. Replacement of the pump was slated to be done during the upcoming upgrade, so the need to repair it now is poor timing. The Selectboard had spent the hour before the meeting at the wastewater plant receiving updates on the progress of the work there.
A nonprofit called Brady’s K-9 Fund has donated a bulletproof vest to Brandon’s police dog, Guinness. The donation represents a savings of roughly $1500 for the town and will help ensure the dog’s safety while on duty.
Brandon has been awarded a $40,000 Transportation Alternatives Grant for a scoping study to assess the feasibility of a Brandon-Forestdale Connector Path. The grant was applied for through the Rutland Regional Planning Commission and will require a $10,000 match from the town. The grant was applied for in December.
The Rec Department will soon release details for its summer camps at Estabrook and Branbury.
Please see the complete Town Manager Report in the packet for the April 10 meeting for more details about all the above.
During the public-comment portion of the meeting, an attendee asked why the Town Office had stopped sending out the meeting agendas via email, as had been the practice for many years. Mr. Moore explained that the agenda is available on the town’s website but that a sizeable number of people had complained about the decision. Board member Tim Guiles suggested that if the agenda is sent out via email again, that it be publicized so that any town resident who wanted to be on the list to receive it could sign up.
Jim Emerson of the Brandon Energy Committee reminded the Board that there will be an all-day music festival at SolarFest on May 13 to raise awareness for renewable energy. Mr. Emerson also reminded the Board of his previous requests that ARPA money be used for town-owned solar arrays, stating that he was getting quotes from suppliers.
The Board then welcomed Andres Torizzo of Watershed Consulting for an update regarding the stormwater catchment system proposed for West Seminary Street. The plans are 60% complete and show a system of underground chambers that would abut the playground and basketball court. Funds would need to be obtained to implement the project, but Mr. Torizzo believed that such projects are not difficult to fund these days as grants are readily available for environmental protection.
The project would require that West Seminary be excavated and Mr. Torizzo suggested that the basketball court would likely need to be resurfaced, but once construction is complete, there would be little need for maintenance.
The project, if implemented, would begin in summer of 2024 and require partial closure of West Seminary.
Mr. Emerson of the Energy Committee then requested permission from the Board to apply for a $4,000 grant from the Municipal Energy Resilience Project, which would be used to fund books on energy conservation for the library, a Town of Brandon energy survey, and energy-related mailings. The grant would not require a match from the town. The Board approved the application unanimously.
The Board also approved an update to the Emergency Management Plan, to ensure that all necessary information was current. Mr. Hopkins, who is the town Emergency Management Director, discussed the possibility of creating an “emergency management committee” composed of town residents, and of perhaps dividing the town into emergency management “zones.”
Larry Stevens was appointed Brandon Health Officer while the position of Deputy Health Officer was left vacant for the time being.
A proposal was set forth by the Board to authorize a Board member to sign payroll warrants ahead of Board meetings. Because payroll must be met every two weeks, but the Board meets on the second and fourth Mondays of every month, it often occurs that the Board ends up approving warrants for payroll that has already gone out. The proposal would allow a Board member to authorize the warrants before meetings in weeks when the payroll and meetings don’t align. The concern, as expressed by Board member Tim Guiles, was that the Board’s approval of completed payroll was simply “performative” and perhaps not in compliance with statutory obligations. After some debate about the practicality of the change, it was decided to table the proposal until the full Board could be present for the motion.
A warrant for $632,424.88 had been approved at a special meeting after the postponement of the April 10 meeting.
The Board then went into executive session to discuss the selection of town manager (see article on page one).
