ANTRIM PLANNING BOARD
Regular Meeting
October 18th, 2018
MINUTES
Members & Planning Staff Present:
Janet McEwen (Chair), Chris Condon (Vice Chair), John Robertson (Ex-Officio), Bob Holmes (Member), Steve MacDonald (Alternate), Carol Ogilvie (Planning Consultant); and Ashley Brudnick-Destromp (Assistant to Land Use Boards)
Members Absent: Lynne Rosansky (Member), Mary Allen (Member), William Bryk (Member); and Jeanne Cahoon (Alternate)
Others Present: Ron Haggett (CIP Committee Member), and Bob Edwards (Selectman/CIP Committee Member)
CTO: Chair McEwen called the meeting to order at 6:58 PM. The Chair sworn in Mr. MacDonald to take the place of Ms. Rosansky
I. CIP Presentation on Fire, Police, Water & Sewer
Mr. Hagget started the discussion by mentioning that this year the CIP Committee decided to visit the departments on site and in person for the first time, and he believes it was a great benefit by doing so. The committee visited the Fire, Police, Water & Sewer, and the Highway Department, and will be visiting with the Rec Department in the near future.
Mr. Haggett explained they went over the numbers with the department heads to make sure they were aware of what they were asking, and that they were aware of what their numbers are for this year and next year.
Mr. Haggett brought up a conversation they had with the towns’ road agent, Jim Plourde, and how Mr. Plourde would like to swap the locations of the transfer station and the Highway Department area. He also mentioned the market for recyclables has changed, and things are stacked up because the market is slower or just not what it used to be for recyclables. There are also no overnight facilities available for the highway department, and using a trailer for overnight situations was brought up. A place where someone could eat, sleep, and shower during an overnight.
Mr. Haggett went on to say the Police Station is completely computerized now, and the computers are being maintained. The station has to meet the various requirements on their end in order to maintain communication. Most of what the committee received from the police was replacement of computers.
In terms of the Fire Department, Mr. Haggett said that the Firehouse leaves a lot to be desired in terms of space, ability to store things, and not having a place to go and get cleaned up after a fire. Mr. Haggett went on to say the things the committee would normally expect are equipment changes, and vehicle changes. Those do not seem to be a problem, and the departments are using their vehicle schedules correctly. One of the things the committee asked is if the Police Department would be interested in getting a capital reserve account in order to smooth out their purchases. Chief Lester did not feel there was a need for one.
Chair McEwen asked if the cruiser payments would be coming out of tax payers money. Mr. Haggett stated that it would be coming from a few different areas. Mr. Haggett explained that the most major expense will be a new server when one is needed for the computers.
Mr. Haggett said that one of the things they would like to do is get the CIP Committee minutes put on the towns website so that people can see where things are going to go in the future with these major things. Sewer & Water will have one of the biggest expenses we will see in the future. There is mention of lagoons, sewers, wells, storm water, and you get some of that by talking to the Fire Chief and the Road agent because they are washing vehicles, and the wash water is just going where it is going. That is ok, but if you have someone really looking at it, they can say you cannot do this anymore, and then we will have a problem because we have nothing in place now to deal with that type of situation. What these in person meetings have done, is that you are looking at this incoming year, the
obvious things and the specific purchases, but you aren’t looking at the what ifs? What if we have 5 years to put in a sewage treatment plant? It could be a large amount of money.
Mr. MacDonald stated he was not at the Sewer & Water, but last year they said it would be around 3 million dollars, and if it’s in 5 years it’s 5-6 million, and in 10 years could be 10-15 million. Mr. MacDonald said they could make a requirement at some point that we have to have a treatment plant instead of lagoons. Mr. Haggett mentioned the wells, and how we had done 4 test wells that were bad, and just found one this year that will be good to use.
Chair McEwen asked what can come out of the user fees, and what will go to the tax payers in general. Mr. Haggett said there are not enough users and not enough fees to cover everything. Mr. MacDonald said that split is not clear, how it is coming out, who is going to pay what. Mr. Robertson and Mr. Haggett got into a conversation about how the bill increases as time goes by. Mr. Edwards is involved in the sewer aspect, and mentioned that the Water & Sewer Department is doing an asset management plan in a joint effort with Bennington. Mr. Edwards said that all the GIS mapping is now complete, and that they will be using a system called CUPS to store all the information on. The town will know life expectancy and critical assets by using this data, and will know when things will need to be
replaced, and when user fees will need to be increased. They will re-access the user fees to make sure they are appropriate. Mr. Edwards said the study should be completed by the end of November, and will give us much more information.
Mr. Haggett asked if that program can be expanded outside of water and sewer, and used for Highway Department and the Transfer station, and maybe the Fire Department. Mr. Edwards said you can do an asset management plan for all, but Water & Sewer was the first one, and then we should look at Highway and Transfer station, eventually all town buildings. Mr. Edwards said you can put all on the system, and maybe there is grant money to help do that.
Mr. Haggett mentioned how all the buildings are starting to use more technology, and how there seems to be a lack of stationary engineering. You need someone on site that can handle these issues, but it’s not ideal. Mr. Robertson and Mr. Haggett had a discussion about Antrim, and the technology within it.
Chair McEwen asked if the asset management program will have a person that handles it Mr. Edwards responded that there will not be an official director, but everyone will be trained on the software to use it.
Chair McEwen asked if anyone had questions about Police, Fire, Water & Sewer. No one on the board spoke.
Mr. Haggett stated that the committee will be meeting with the Rec Department next week, and then will have met with all departments.
Mr. Edwards stated this is a very simplistic picture of what will be in the future.
Chair McEwen stated she wanted to go over the numbers on the spreadsheet. For the Fire Department she wanted to discuss the numbers. She wanted to verify what was going in and what was going out. She wanted to verify if they needed to vote for the $400,000.00 to be used for 2021. Ms. Ogilvie said they are doing $75,000 every year towards that. The breathing apparatus and the truck are the biggest expense.
Chair McEwen went over the Police Department’s numbers. The only thing on there was cruisers.
Chair McEwen went over Water & Sewer. Ms. Ogilvie stated that those numbers have no effect on the tax rate. The funds will come from user fees.
Mr. Edwards mentioned they have not discussed with selectman or Donna Hanson what is needed for government buildings, so those numbers could change.
Mr. MacDonald, Mr. Haggett, and Mr. Edwards all stated how they preferred to meet with the departments in person like they did this year moving forward. Mr. Edwards liked that they did not hold back, and told us what was crucial.
II. Website
Chair McEwen asked to speak to Mr. Edwards while he was here regarding the towns website. Chair McEwen mentioned that the planning board had a homework assignment to review other towns website, and realized the ones that they liked, were all done by the same company Antrim uses, just a modern version. That company is Civic Plus. The Chair brought up that Kristin Bixby had already put together the information for them, and that it would cost $4,500 to re do the website. The Chair stated they would still like someone from Civic Plus to come in and do a presentation. Mr. Edwards said that he will review the information provided to him that was originally typed and sent out by Kristin Bixby back in July 2018. It will be discussed at the next selectman’s meeting, and will be in the hands of the
selectman now.
Mr. Condon agreed using the same company would make sense. The question is meeting with them and asking to change the look and visuals and if that is an additional cost to the $4500, or if it is included. Mr. Condon would like to get a proposal from them for more than updating the platform, and to completely re-do it. Mr. Robertson would like to know where this lands in terms of budgeting. You could spread the cost over the course of 3 years according to Ms. Bixby’s information. Mr. Edwards said they would have to allocate expenses on it, as everyone uses it. Mr. Robertson said as he reviewed Ms. Bixby’s information, he thinks that it should be added to the Planning Boards budget for next year. Mr. Condon said that the planning department has input in it, but it should not be in the Planning
Departments budget, should really be in the towns budget.
Mr. Holmes stated that it should not be a big discussion if it is only $4500, it needs to be done. A discussion was had amongst Mr. Holmes, Mr. MacDonald, and Mr. Robertson on how the town websites update keeps getting put off, and needs to be addressed. Chair McEwen interrupted, and said now that it is in Mr. Edwards hands, it is in the hands of the selectman, and they will discuss with Ms. Hanson at the selectman’s meeting. Mr. Edwards said that is correct, he will review it, and will get back to the Planning Board with the next steps.
III. Minutes
Minutes from October 4th, 2018
· Review: Chair McEwen ask the board to review the minutes. It was determined that no motion needs to be made to review the minutes, but to approve them.
Discussion: Mr. Condon made a motion to approve the minutes as amended by the planning assistant, Mr. Holmes second the motion. By a voice vote, the minutes for October 4th, 2018 were approved as amended.
IV. Planning Assistant Report
- Ms. Brudnick-Destromp gave the planning assistant report. There are 2 cases going through the Zoning Board of Adjustments Currently. One on Tuesday October 23rd, 2018 at 7pm, and the other on Tuesday November 13th, 2018 at 7pm. The first is for a side yard setback variance, where the owner owns both properties affected by it. The second is the home purchased on 15 North Main street, where the owners are looking to have 2 conversion apartments within the home to rent out both units. There application is for both a special exception as well as the frontage variance of 125ft under the duplex requirements for frontage.
- There was also an attorney by the name of Francis D. Parisi who represents Vertex Tower Assets, LLC. They are interested in building a cellphone tower that has multi use to it, and are already under contract with AT&T. This is something that will be coming to the planning board around December 2018. Mr. Parisi wanted to come in and introduce himself, and give the board a heads up so it’s not a surprise. Ms. Brudnick-Destromp offered him a preliminary consultation, but where his office is in Rhode Island, he would like to wait until he had more information gathered so he could just move forward with the application process. Mr. Parisi informed Ms. Brudnick-Destromp that the company would do 1 or 2 balloon tests to help ease abutters. The proposed property is Tax Map 209 Lot 3, and is leased land.
V. Master Plan
Chair McEwen stated because the Website was already discussed, and that they are not ready to go over business inventory just yet, she would like to move on to discussion of the Master Plan.
Chair McEwen asked Ms. Ogilvie if she wanted to go over anything this evening pertaining to the Master Plan. Ms. Ogilvie mentioned that on November 15th for the workshop meeting they will go over that. Mr. Holmes also mentioned he will be working with Ms. Ogilvie via email on the Master Plan.
VI. Other Business
Chair McEwen mentioned she might not be able to attend the next meeting, Mr. Condon will act in her place if she is unable to attend due to cataract surgery.
Ms. Brudnick-Destromp informed the planning board she ordered new manuals for 2019 for the board, and one for the Zoning Board of Adjustments.
Meeting Adjourned: ~ Mr. Robertson moved to adjourn at 7:55pm, Mr. Holmes second that motion.
By a voice vote, all were in favor.
Respectfully Submitted,
Ashley Brudnick-Destromp
Assistant to Land Use Boards
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