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AVON TOWN COUNCIL
MEETING MINUTES
MARCH 4, 2004
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 7:30 p.m. in the Selectmen’s Chamber by Chairman Hines. Members present: Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Carlson, Shea and Woodford.
PUBLIC HEARINGS:
The call of the Public Hearings read as follows:
LEGAL NOTICE
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
Notice is hereby given that the Town Council of the Town of Avon, Connecticut will hold a Public Hearing on Thursday, March 4, 2004 at 7:30 p.m. at the Town Hall, Selectmen’s Chamber, 60 West Main St., to consider the following:
To consider and permit all interested persons to speak on the plan of the Town Council to accept a parcel of land designated as open space, parcel 4980021, 15.97 acres, as shown on a map entitled: Phase I, Bridgewater Estates, Open Space Boundary Survey, Bridgewater Drive, Avon, Connecticut, dated January, 2003.
2. To consider and permit all interested persons to speak on the plan of the Town Council to acquire 10 Sunnybrook Drive, located adjacent to the Library, designated Lot 12, as shown on a map entitled “Sunnybrook Acres, owned by August G. & Lillian V. DeVaux, West Avon Road and Country Club Road, Avon, Connecticut, scale 1”=100’, March 1954, certified substantially correct Merton Hodge Surveyor”.
Copies of said maps referenced above are available for review in the Town Clerk’s office during normal business hours.
Dated at Avon, Connecticut this 17th day of February, 2004.
Philip K. Schenck, Jr.
Town Manager
a. (03/04-17) Acquisition of 10 Sunnybrook Road Property and Transfer Appropriation
Library Director – She reported as requested by the Town we made a survey, studies for footage needs, other possibilities of buildings in other places in Town. The Town Council felt that the best approach was to stay at our present location on Country Club Road, and for us to begin discussing with abutting neighbors the possibility of acquiring some property in order for the Library to expand. We are here because one neighbor has decided to sell and we are ready to go forward, although the expansion is not going to happen tomorrow, but the needs are there. We have determined the priorities for the building, and what is needed in order for us to serve residents better from 18 months old to 90 or better, to provide all needed services.
Chairman Hines – He reported you have covered the need very well, and the Council has been looking at the needs and decided that if we were going to expand the Library, we had to purchase additional property. One of the items is a special exception, so that the Library would be allowed in a residential area, but you can not cover more than 35% of the lot with building, parking, sidewalks, and in addition there has to be buffers on the side, at the discretion of the Planning & Zoning Commission which could be 40 to 60 feet, so we need additional property. This particular parcel at 10 Sunnybrook Road is probably not going to be parking, it probably will be where the building expands but we do not know that exactly, and we are looking for other parcels too. The first step was to look at
where we could acquire some land, and that is what we are doing here. He reported we would like to open this meeting to anyone who would like to speak.
Mary Sutter, Vice President of the Library Board of Directors – Reported she would like to comment on a couple of things. One is we have made the determination that expanding the Library in its current location is by far the best option that is available to us, and because we have made that threshold decision it is critical as previously mentioned that we acquire property contiguous to the Library. This particular parcel of land is probably the most strategic and most critical to our expansion needs because of its adjacency to it. We do not have an architect as yet, but we have had some very preliminary sketches done for us by the volunteer pro bono architectural student, and the most favorable way to build an addition on the Library would be to build off to the left side of it, in other words
toward this particular piece of land. Doing that would enable us to maintain the architectural integrity of the Library, which is something that is very important to many of us, and it would also allow us the largest number of expansion possibilities as we start to talk with architects. We think it is very critical that, since we have the opportunity to purchase this piece of land, that we act on it now, because it may be an opportunity that may not come before us again for a long time.
Charles Kilgore, 66 Burnham Road - He reported he would like to say that he has lived in this Town for 58 years, and watched our Library from the time it was a brick structure across the street from where the school is. As a builder, he and his people added to that library many years ago, he was Clerk of the Works when we built the present Library and a member of the Building Committee when we revamped it a few years ago. He lives within about 600 feet of it, and sees all of the activity there, and it is a very busy place. He has confidence in the people who researched this, and negotiated it up to this point, and he whole-heartedly endorse the idea of buying this property.
Alicia Rendell, 10 Sunnybrook - She reported she lives at 10 Sunnybrook Drive, and she wants to say that when communications came to them back and forth about selling their property that they took it under serious consideration, we have our neighbors in the cul-de-sac to consider as to how this would effect them, and we were assured by the Planning & Zoning Commission that it was going to be a 75% landscaped area and that the parking lot was not going to be near the present driveway so that their neighbors across the street were going to have people parking next to them. She further reported she and her husband felt assured that it was going to continue to maintain the same kind of area we are living in now, with greenery on the side and it is a beautiful piece of property and the Library has done such a
magnificent job with the landscaping and keeping it private and not allowing disturbances on the property, of people walking through and that sort of thing.
Renee Perry, 16 Sunnybrook Drive - Reported she and her husband live right next door and of course have a lot of questions. The first thing is whether there is a projected plan when this Library is going to be expanded.
Chairman Hines - Reported no we do not, that is the unknown factor at this time, but a couple of years ago we were thinking of expanding the Library and the high school at the same time, both projects are now larger than we had envisioned at that time, we may not be able to but we do not know as we do not have costs on the high school expansion as we are just forming the building committee tonight, and it may be a year before we know that and whether we can combine the two or not. It could be several years, it could be ten years we do not know at this point. What we would do with the land is remove the building and put grass down and landscape it in the interim.
Mrs. Perry – She reported if you were to put the Library and expand it onto 10 Sunnybrook into that area, would there be a driveway that would be coming out to Sunnybrook so that you would have access to get into the Library from Sunnybrook and also from Country Club Road.
Chairman Hines – He reported we do not have a plan, at this point he would say it is too early to say, but if we were to have a driveway on Sunnybrook it would require acquiring more property on Sunnybrook before we could do that.
Mrs. Perry – She questioned since she lives at 16 Sunnybrook, would the Town be coming to them eventually to acquire more property.
Town Manager – He reported your lot was not one of the priority lots in the initial discussion, the Librarian has some very preliminary sketches of various alternatives. The property that would probably be on a higher priority, when looking at the driveway from the church going in, there is a white house on the left hand side, or to the east of the driveway, that would probably be the one with more of a priority. The reason we are here tonight is that the Town Council last year, the Library brought forth the idea of the expansions, asked us to touch base with the immediate neighbors and let them know that this was occurring. It was at that time that the Rendell’s indicated they might be willing to sell their property, if they had said no, they were not interested then we would not be here
tonight. The Town is taking advantage of an opportunity that presented itself because the Rendell’s had future plans in their life to vacate that piece of property. If a resident decides to move, and you are interested in selling to the Town, we certainly would be willing to talk with you and see where your property is and to take a look at it, the same thing would occur with a property immediately to the east of the Library driveway, and perhaps some of the rear sections of some of the lots on Burnham Road. The Town is constrained like anyone else with the regulations of the Planning & Zoning Commission in terms of meeting the appropriate ratios of building to lot size, the buffering requirements and all of those sorts of things. When the original Library was built in 1982, the Architect was given specific instructions to try to make the building fit in reasonably well with the neighborhood in terms of a single family home, it is not a cement
block brick face square big box type of library, it is a gabled roof with dormers and other things to try to make it fit in somewhat with the neighborhood. We are really here this evening because of an opportunity that was presented and the Town Council decided to take advantage of.
Mrs. Perry – She reported another question is if you were to put a driveway on the Sunnybrook side, we have children on the street, that would also bring in a lot more traffic which she would be totally against, as children walk there and adults as well. The other thing is the air conditioner, since the library would get bigger so would the air conditioner, which means the sound from that, even last year the system was going off all the time and we were constantly hearing that. So what are you going to do for that.
Town Manager - Reported there have been no specific plans yet that show a building, a location, a circulation plan, a pedestrian plan, a planting and buffering plan, none of that has even been done. All we are doing is looking at acquiring property for the potential future expansion. At such time as the Council decides to move ahead with that project, it would be like any other project and the concerns that you are expressing, should be expressed now also, but they would be at the time really related to the plan that is before the Planning & Zoning Commission. There would be a public hearing, all of the abutters would be notified, the neighborhood would have an opportunity to come in and review the plan, make suggestions and so forth. We do not even have a plan yet, other than we have some
square footage indications, that we are looking at a building that is about twice the size of the existing building in terms of total square feet, the existing building is just short of 20,000 square feet, the new building would be approximately 40,000 square feet. Once we know that figure, then we know how much additional land we have to have to meet that type of a building foot print.
Mrs. Perry - She reported another concern she has is in her back yard, because the parking lot comes up to where 10 Sunnybrook is and because our back yard is there as well and if you buy other properties, in the back of our home. We are trying to decide if you are just going to keep moving backwards as well as to the sides. We are not against the Library, we love the Library, a lot of people go there and are educated there, but it is our home as well so we are concerned about it.
Chairman Hines - Reported he can assure Mrs. Perry that the Town Council wants to be a good neighbor, so before we submit something to Planning & Zoning we want to make sure that it looks like something that fits into the area. For example originally when the Library talked to us, they were talking about a 50,000 square foot building, and we felt that was way too large to ever fit into that area, and they are now looking at what they can do with a smaller amount. He is sure that Planning & Zoning and the Town Council will be looking at that to make sure that all of the plans are properly buffered and it is not causing problems to the neighbors. If we have some problem with the air conditioning right now, we can look into that also. He questioned whether the Library Director has had
discussions on that.
Library Director – She reported we are unhappy with the noise of the air conditioners as well, and with the addition to the Library we went where we thought we would go to the south of the building, where they are now, but they would be removed. Part of that is that it is difficult to control the temperature in the building, both winter and summer, and so part of our plan is to have a better HVAC system which would include a quieter air conditioner compressors, but there is nothing that we can do now to control it. We used to make sure we turned it off for a long weekend if we were going to be closed, so that it would not bother the neighbors, then with the size of the building and the temperatures and computers, now we keep it on. But we are hoping there is something in the interim that we
can do as we approach summer, but we hope to rectify that situation with the expansion.
Dan Neagle, 529 West Avon Road – He reported while he is sympathetic to the needs for the space for additional Library space in the Town of Avon, he is just not convinced that it belongs on Country Club Road. He has been in Avon on West Avon Road for the better part of 15 years, and in that time he has seen expansion to the Nursing Home, to the Baptist Church, the high school expanded, the middle School expanded, traffic increase with the increased development on Huckleberry Hill and increased traffic coming down Country Club Road. He attended a Planning & Zoning Commission meeting a couple of months ago to talk about the Carmen Funeral Home, an expert stated that we are going to have minimal impact on the traffic through West Avon Road and Country Club Road, and many people stood up at that meeting
to complain about it and only one in favor. Then he read in the paper that the Commission approved the funeral home to go on that corner of West Avon Road and Country Club. Since then two new traffic lights came on West Avon Road, and now we are talking about taking the Avon Library which is currently at 18,000 square feet, which you say was designed to be compatible with the residential neighborhood, then expand it to 40,000 square feet. How can a 40,000 square foot building be compatible with a residential neighborhood in Avon. Then again he is not sure how the current Funeral Home is compatible with the residential neighborhood, but apparently that got through, and our current Planning & Zoning Commission saw fit to grant them a variance to tear down a residential property, it bears a striking resemblance to this Library expansion where we now want to expand this Library in a residential zone and tear down another residential property. And from what
you are telling me, it is not out of the question that that could continue even further down Sunnybrook. When he was at this Planning & Zoning Commission meeting and heard that there was no traffic impact to West Avon Road and to Country Club Road and everyone stood there, then 50 people spoke out against it, and they approved it anyway, as there apparently was not going to be any impact on the traffic. In the Valley News a week ago, he read how that whole intersection is being considered for redesign because of the increased traffic flow in that area. His concern is what are we doing to our residential neighborhoods, and why are we anxious to take it away. He is sympathetic to the needs of the Director of the Library, he loves the Library, his children go there. But to take this 18,000 square foot building and turn it into a 40,000 square foot property, for the time being, because we may always want to expand it further. It is a grave
mistake and to add to that about a month ago, he went to the Avon Middle School for a Board of Education public hearing about how we may not have enough money in Avon to fund the hockey team or the girls swim team or the football team does not have enough money for all of these other pieces of equipment and things that they need and to run football is $25,000 a year with the insurance and the equipment. Well, if you do not buy that piece of property, you can keep football in Avon for ten more years, by allocating those funds towards the athletics in this Town, which are far more important, or you can put the intramural sports program back into the Middle School. That is where we need to concentrate this, as spending our money, our tax dollars to acquire a piece of property to take it away from the residents and the residential neighborhoods of Avon is a grave mistake, and hope you do not allow it to happen.
Rick Griffin, 17 Sunnybrook Drive – He reported he lives diagonally across from the property that is to be acquired. He has a letter which lays out some of his concerns, and Mr. Neagle did a good job of explaining some of the broader issues. A lot of the discussion has already taken place, the need for the expansion, and he would like to find out more about those issues, and what is the future role of the Library, he has three children and has always looked at the Library as a real asset, even moving there it was an asset being as close to it, but he questions what the Library is not fulfilling right now that they need more space for expansion. He questions what the other areas are that have been considered, but the Town is not growing around the area of where the Library is, it is growing more on
the western side, maybe there should be a smaller Library to serve that side of Town. Has anyone looked at the traffic problems that have been mentioned, we already have a lot of traffic problems periodically at different times of the day. As the funeral home is added there is increased traffic, has anyone looked at the potential impact of that, for zoning there has to be some kind of a variance granted as it is residential at this time. He questions the size of the expansion, given the size of expected growth in the Town, and he heard from 17,000 to 20,000 or 22,000. He questions that this Library when it was built was done for the size of the neighborhood, and to double it would it fit into the neighborhood. Assuming this is going to go forward, he has two concerns, one is the idea of having access off of Sunnybrook, it is a dead end road and would destroy the character of the residential neighborhood, also more traffic with people cutting through from Day
Road and different areas, and would change the overall character of the area. The buffer area has been talked about and it is extremely important to have, to protect us from being impacted by the noise and the site of the structure. To reiterate the budget, and why this needs to be happening now, and why the money cannot be allocated to the budget as we go forward to the coming year.
Chairman Hines - He reported we appreciate your comments, there are a lot of questions that have been raised. Some have been studied by the Library, because the Council asked the Library to look at all sites in Town, and they did that and came back stating that they thought this was the best site. The Town Council gave comments that we thought the 50,000 square feet was too big, and we would not authorize that. We do not know what size building we are going with, but want something that is compatible in that area, the Town Manager indicated the two key parcels being to the east and west on Country Club Road, and this one came up, and we thought if we were ever going to do it, we would have to take advantage when they are available, we cannot wait until we are ready to build, as they might not be
available at that time. When the opportunity occurs you try to take advantage of that, and how far back we go into the south portion of Sunnybrook, we do not know at this time. We are going to have to balance the need of building expansion and parking, and that may dictate the amount of land that we have to just how much we can build. All of the questions you have raised, and concerns about that, will be looked at once a plan goes ahead, but we do not know how long that is going to be, and that will be mainly Planning & Zoning Commission looking at that. From a cost standpoint, the Town Council felt that if we are ever going to acquire parcels, you had to take advantage of it when they were available, so that is one of the reasons it is here tonight.
Mrs. Perry – She reported if you are going to acquire that land, why cannot you leave the house up, if it is maybe undecided as to whether you will do the Library or not, so that if it is not used it can be resold to another family.
Chairman Hines – He reported that is a possibility, the Town Council will have to decide what to do on that. The general feeling was that we did not want to get into being a landlord, the intent was for expansion of the Library, so that we would demolish the house. We might offer it so that if someone wants to buy it and move it, that is a possibility too. We do not want to be a landlord, as there is upkeep and other things or problems that could happen there, it is not normally the Town’s position to get into that type of thing.
Library Director – She reported the needs for the square footage have been studied based on standards and our value to the community, the projection of population and that sort of thing. For example one of our priorities are young adults, ages 12 to 14, right now we have 380 square feet consisting of one table and four chairs available surrounded by books for that age group, and we see that as a very under served group, with Middle School children coming over after school. Very often they are sitting in the foyer or at picnic tables for a place to sit and visit and they need a place to be, we would like to increase their area to 1,000 square feet. We have priorities and square footages, and know what we would like to have but of course we asked for the moon, because we know we must work with the
needs as realists. Once we work with our building program, and our needs and priorities are set then we will have an Architect for what we can accommodate from that program and work with that. The Town Council brought up a question about a branch, and it was considered, frankly the literature that she studied advised against it, unless you reach a population requiring a building of 25,000 square feet, and of course the continued operating expenses, it is a big commitment to take a branch and the population is growing on the west side, but anything that would be over there would probably downplay the current library. We took all of those possibilities, including maybe splitting services, such as doing story time somewhere else, but at the Library all ages come in and parents drop the children off for Story Time and go downstairs and check out the books, it would also be very expensive to split the services too. We checked out all of those possibilities.
Margaret Zikowitch, 46 Sunnybrook Drive - She reported she lives down the street, and the Library has been good neighbors, and is sure they would continue to be. She served on the Library Board and presently volunteer in the Children’s Department at the Library, and have seen first hand the use that building gets, and also knows the tightness of the book shelves, there is need for extra space. She also is confident that the building that will be expanded will be done very tastefully as the present Library was done.
Keith Sherman, President of Board of Directors for the Library - He reported he would also like to address some of your concerns, many of them have already been mentioned and addressed. He would like to point out that the Library gets tens of thousands of visits each year, and so there are many people who are already coming to the Library, it is just crowded in this space that we have so he is not certain how much the traffic would in fact increase, much of what we need is to actually accommodate the people who are coming already. So while there may be some increase, it is not like bringing a new business to the area where all of a sudden people are going to have a new destination to go to, they are already going there. As to why we need to be where we are and how we came to that conclusion, there is a
document available in the Library for people to look at, that describe the results of the focus groups that we had with people, what activities are crowded and need space, things of that sort. He would encourage you to come in and ask for a copy of that to look through that will address some of your questions as well. One of the key things that came up was that the Library is a central location right now, and putting it in another area would actually displace many of the roles it fulfills now, for example the high school, the Middle School, Pine Grove and Thompson Brook are all within a very easy reach, and that is a big constituency of library usage, so to put it in another area of Town would be a real displacement. As for expenses, we did a close examination of finding a new site and redoing a whole building, and the conclusion was that would be a much higher price than just expanding the building that we do have. He hopes that will belie some of
your concerns and he will be available at any time if you would like to call him to answer questions.
Sal Riccardi, 103 Fox Den Road - He reported his question is whether this is a done deal, have we made our decision that this is going to happen? And then once it happens, then are we going to do the planning? That is his initial question.
Chairman Hines – He reported the Council felt strongly enough that we ought to acquire the most important parcel to the east and west of Country Club, and this one became available, so we have spent time and money negotiating. So it is generally the thing we do, but as far as the planning for the future, we do not know, that is pretty much a function of timing when we figure we can take care of additional debt so that could be quite a number of years, we do not know. We may know more a year or so from now after we have had the initial cost of expansion to the high school and whether that is possible, then the question is what kind of cost might be involved and whether we can do two projects in one time period or whether we had to phase them. We try to phase all of our programs out over a four or
five year period so that we do not borrow in any shorter time periods than that so that we have the maximum amount of money we want to spend on debt, and it does not have big spikes and so forth. It could be quite a while before we get into that.
Mr. Riccardi – He reported that is a budget issue, and apparently there are budget issues right now. We are talking about taking sports, not having our children have sports in school, but yet we want to expand the room for the books on the shelves, so we are saying that we need more room for the books, and the children in school can do without sports, so that is where our priorities are apparently, it is with the books and the size of the shelves, and I have a real issue with that. It sounds like this is already done, and he just heard about it two weeks ago, so was this talked about publicly before we made this decision?
Chairman Hines – He reported he would say that we have been discussing it for well over a year, we had many meetings, each year when the Library Board comes in with their Capital Improvement Program, they have talked to us about this. It may be three years that they have been discussing it with us, and has been in the capital improvement program for architectural fees and down the road for a long time. There is one important thing to know, that if we purchase this property, we are not taking it out of this year’s budget, so it is not going to impact this years budget, and we will probably go to the Board of Finance and ask that it be taken out of surplus, this is a capital program not an operating. When the Board of Finance is looking at operating budgets this year between the Board of
Education and the Town Council, this should not be an item. We have made them aware, they have attended joint meetings where we have over a year ago looked at long term financing to do both the high school and the library project. They are aware of that, and they are probably thinking that this will come out of surplus, so it should not impact the immediate budget this year, it is going to impact us in the long run, we have to pay for it.
Mr. Riccardi – He reported but the surplus should be used where we most need it.
Chairman Hines – Reported that could be used for that reason.
Mr. Riccardi - Reported yes, and that was his big objection, the money issues.
Chairman Hines - Reported he understands, and that is one of the things the Town Council has been deciding over the last couple of years, is there something we want for the long term, are we going to expand the Library in the long term? And we generally felt yes, just like if you have more children in the schools, then the Library has more children. Then it came down to, if we are going to do that, do we have enough property there now? The answer was no, we would have to acquire some property, so we started looking at the most important pieces we thought which were the two parcels on Country Club east and west.
Mr. Riccardi – Reported he just heard that it is not really going to bring more people into the Library, but that it is going to make it more comfortable, so it is going to be a luxury that we are going to have at the Library.
President of the Library Board of Directors - Reported, that is not what he exactly meant to say, if it was interpreted that way, yes this is an increase but now the building is difficult to use, it is not a luxury to increase it to an efficient size so that people can partake of it in an efficient way.
Mr. Riccardi - Reported then it is not going to draw massive people to the Library, more so than it is now.
Library Director - Reported the Town is growing certainly, and we do want to be able to accommodate that.
Mr. Riccardi – Reported most certainly, but are we growing enough to double the Library.
Library Board President – He reported that is his point, most of that space is being added to meet the needs as it stands now, which our space is over utilized, there is no room to work, no room to have the story times that we want to have, there is no room for people to be able to reach the books safely because they are so packed together and high.
Mr. Riccardi - He reported have we looked at surrounding Towns, in particular Farmington, very similar to Avon, a little larger? What size is their Library?
Library Director – She reported it went from 24000 to 48,000, for 20 years, which is what we are doing, they also have a branch library now. Their population is not expanding, ours is.
Mr. Riccardi – He reported it almost sounds like we are trying to keep up with the Jones’, and our priorities are totally wrong, and I am totally against it.
Mr. Shea – Reported he would like to make a few comments directed to the audience. He is going to support the purchase of the property, and the Library. I think that this Town has a very good and healthy history of working with the neighborhood in an effort to make sure that it is done in compliance with the neighborhoods wishes. We are not doing the Library, or purchasing the property in an effort to make cuts in other’s budgets, he does not think there are going to be sacrifices because of this purchase. Therefore he feels compelled to say, it would be a travesty if any activity, much like swimming, hockey, football, was cut from this budget. I think that those are activities that round out ones education like drama, music and the Library, and I think we can produce a budget to
this community that satisfies those needs, he does not view them as extras.
Mr. Carlson – He reported in 1970 or 1971, the Council, or Board of Selectmen at that time, had the foresight to acquire the Pine Grove property, they sat on that property for almost 20 years, before they built that school. I give the predecessors to this Board a lot of credit for having that foresight to buy that property. I think that is much like what we are doing here, and we are being opportunistic as we see property become available. He is not one who is going to say tomorrow that we should break ground, but he is one that says, when we have the opportunity to acquire property that sets us up well for the future, that we ought to take advantage of that. So he will be supportive of the acquisition of the property tonight.
Mrs. Hornaday - Reported she would like to piggy back on what has been said, and that is she does not see this tonight as any decision about library expansion, and in fact she has had a lot of questions about that and the need for it. However, if there is any anticipation that we are going to need or want to expand the Library at some time in the future, if we do not buy properties there that are contiguous to it now, we are forced into buying elsewhere in the future. So that she sees this as almost like insurance, just like the Pine Grove property, and some other land that the Town owns, the M H Rhodes property might be a good example, that we do not have any big plans for it at the moment but if a need arises then the Town has that land available. If we decide to go forward with the Library, we are
going to need a little more land around it, so she sees this as planning for future possibilities, and maybe even future probabilities, but in her opinion it is not going to happen real soon, because there are other priorities in the Town that are going to take precedence over expanding the Library. But she is going to vote for buying this property just as an insurance for the future.
Dan Neagle, West Avon Road - He reported he does not want anyone to think that he is against the Library, or the services it provides, his children go there regularly, and it is a wonderful thing. He questions whether or not it is appropriate to expand our current Library in a residential neighborhood. He questions the access and the traffic patterns that are developing on West Avon Road and Country Club Road, and his feelings are that the Planning & Zoning Commission has ignored those, and he feels largely, as a result of that whole thing with the funeral home, that he as a taxpayer, as somebody that attended these meetings, was duped. And now we are talking about expanding the Library again into a residential neighborhood, ‘oh, there will not be any traffic impact’, and as a he said, we
all know that is not true. So we are talking about insuring this, and preserving our rights to expand it, but what are the traffic studies, what are the feasibility studies for what is happening down Country Club Road, what is happening there? What are the plans to that, what other tax dollars are we going to have to spend to improve those, because we have now made West Avon Road and Country Club a ‘hub’, a center of activity in the Town of Avon. Now that West Avon Road and Country Club Road are drawing all of the people and the residents from the Huckleberry Hill area, and the Northington, and North Gates, and the Bridgewater’s, and all of the others. We are not drawing them to the Town Hall area or Route 44, we are drawing them to residential neighborhoods. His advice for the M. H. Rhodes property is to build a Library, you have an abundance of Land, and maybe that is something that can happen in the future.
Mr. Woodford – He reported there are some very important meetings that are coming up, that he is sure that you are aware of. We are not sure whether there are going to be sports at the school or not, but that is out of our preview at this point. Those two boards are going to be having some meetings, and you should be there. Secondly “the horse is out of the barn”, West Avon Road is a major thoroughfare in this Town, it is not just Avon traffic, it is from Canton, Simsbury, from all over. That road is a major road and is going to be a major road and that is what it is, you are not going to change that.
Chairman Hines - Reported Thompson Road is another concern, now that we have put the school there, we are concerned with whether that road is adequate in the present design just to take care of all of the activities there, so putting another major facility on that site is not a utopia. If they were going to go to 50,000 square feet, which the original plan was, definitely we could not put that on Country Club Road, you would have to go onto other sites, we could not acquire enough land to do that. These are all things that are going to have to be looked at down the road, all of the comments we have heard tonight are very valid, and fortunately we have had our Planning Administrator, Steve Kushner, here to hear all of this, which is very good. He further reported the Library Director can see that
this is not a slam dunk when you see all of the neighbors around that area, they are all good neighbors but they want it to be a very good place and something that is compatible with their neighborhoods, and he is sure that we want that too. So we will consider all of your points and he is very pleased that you all came out and gave us all of your thoughts tonight.
The public hearing on this item was closed at 8:30 p.m.
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mr. Shea, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council authorize the Town Manager to sign on behalf of the Town of Avon the Purchase and Sales Agreement for the property located at 10 Sunnybrook Drive.
RESOLVED: That the Town Council favorably recommends to the Board of Finance an appropriation not to exceed $291,000 from Account #01-0390-43913 General Fund, Other Financing Sources, Undesignated Fund Balance and Account #01-8700-58000, General Fund, Other Financing Uses, Interfund Transfer-out-to Account #02-0390-43918, Capital Projects Fund (Facility & Equipment), Other Financing Sources, Interfund Operating Transfers In and:
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
Acceptance of Open Space: Bridgewater Estates
The public hearing on this item was closed at 8:31 p.m.
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mr. Carlson, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council accept, on behalf of the Town of Avon, 15.97 acres in the Bridgewater Subdivision from the Silvio Brighenti Family LLC, designated as open space.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
b. (03/04-56) Adoption of Ordinance #70: Delinquent Payment of Property Taxes on
Motor Vehicles.
The Town Manager reported there has been some State legislation that has just been introduced in the last 10 days which may obviate the need to adopt this ordinance. But what he would suggest we hold the public hearing, then table it, and if the State legislation is passed we will just disregard it and not adopt it, but if it is not passed then we are prepared to adopt it. The Town Clerk read the call of the public hearing as follows:
“LEGAL NOTICE
TOWN OF AVON
Notice is hereby given that the Avon Town Council will hold a Public Hearing on Thursday, March 4, 2004 at 7:30 p.m. at the Avon Town Hall, Selectmen’s Chamber, 60 West Main Street, for the following purpose:
To consider adoption of a new Ordinance #70 – FEES FOR THE DELINQUENT PAYMENT OF PROPERTY TAXES ON MOTOR VEHICLES as follows:
SECTION I
PURPOSE
The purpose of this Ordinance is to permit the Town of Avon to assess a fee with respect to the delinquent payment of motor vehicle property taxes. .
SECTION II
ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM FOR COLLECTION OF FEE
Pursuant to Section 58 of Public Act 03-6, the Town of Avon hereby imposes a fee in the amount of Five Dollars ($5.00) on each payment of a property tax on a motor vehicle that is delinquent at the time of payment, provided that the Collector of Revenue of the Town has notified the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles of the delinquency. For purposes of this ordinance, a tax shall be deemed delinquent if it has not been paid on or before the first business day of the month next succeeding the month in which it became due and payable.
SECTION III
EFFECTIVE DATE
This ordinance shall be effective on April 1, 2004.
Copies of the proposed Ordinance 70 are on file in the Town Clerk’s office, Avon Town Hall, and are open to public inspection during normal business hours.
Dated at Avon, Connecticut this 19th day of February, 2004.
Philip K. Schenck, Jr.
Town Manager”
The public hearing on this item closed at 8:35 p.m.
On a motion made by Mrs. Hornaday, seconded by Mr. Shea, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council table this item to the next meeting.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
MINUTES OF PRECEDING MEETING
On a motion made by Mr. Shea, seconded by Mr. Woodford, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council approve the minutes of the January 29, 2004 minutes as read.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
On a motion made by Mrs. Hornaday, seconded by Mr. Carlson, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council approve the minutes of the February 5, 2004 meeting as amended, paragraph to read as follows: “Chairman Hines reported at the CRCOG meeting, two things were disturbing to him. An outfit called Rome/Smith out of Hartford, hired Howard Dean the former First Selectman of Marlboro, the legislator reported all of the ethics bills that were discussed and defeated last year, are coming back to Committee. All volunteers will have to disclose their full financials, and if that happens he will quit, and not continue. The former First Selectman of Marlboro knew that, he helped us last year in that area, and will continue to help us this year, and with the Town Manager at CCM and CRCOG we will continue to do our best,
but that is a real problem.”
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson and Woodford voted in favor. Mr. Shea abstained, absent from meeting.
COMMUNICATION FROM AUDIENCE - None
COMMUNICATION FROM COUNCIL
Chairman Hines reported he testified at Monday’s Legislative public hearing on the Volunteer Firemen’s bill, where the City of Hartford and Stratford have entered into labor agreements with the unions and the Towns, where they prohibit their town employees from volunteering. There were a lot of pros and cons and a lot of towns represented. He spoke in favor of the bill that will prohibit this kind of action, in order to allow them to continue to volunteer.
Chairman Hines reported he also testified in favor of a Code of Ethics, we have one set of bills now which we have asked our Representatives to oppose, and that is a very erroneous type of thing which would require all kinds of financial disclosures for all of our volunteers.
There is another group, the Governmental Administration Elections Committee which has a bill which is establishing a task force to recommend a Statewide ethics code for municipal office employees. They will study it for a while and come up with recommendations, he believes that is a good compromise and he will speak in favor, the Council of Small Towns, and Capital Region Council of Governments are all speaking in favor of it.
OLD BUSINESS
01/02-59 Review and Discussion: Local Option Elderly/Disabled Homeowners Tax Relief Program: Harry DerAsadourian
Mrs. Merlin reported she was not here for the Library discussion, and would like to comment as to what we can do to help lessen the opposition to our budgets. She also spoke to Mr. Harrison of the Board of Finance. She saw in Burlington they give tax abatements to seniors because a lot of the opposition comes from people with real concerns. She questioned what this Town can do to help some of the elderly with their burden of taxes. Chairman Hines reported the Town of Avon has a pretty extensive program, it is on the agenda tonight, this is for low income people and there are definite guidelines they have to follow, we expanded that program last October, and tonight we are looking at expanding it further, as well as the tax programs for veterans.
Chairman Hines reported we had a meeting recently with the Board of Finance Chairman, Board of Education Chairman, Town Manager and Town Assessor to see what we could come up with to try to explain the revaluation situation so that people had a better understanding before they got into the budget process, some of these ideas will be presented prior to the Board of Finance Public Hearing. The Town Assessor reported the packet contains quite a bit of information on a few subjects. The first one is an overview of the Avon housing stock, showing the makeup of the single family residential market in Town. What this shows is 100% value ranges of homes in the town in $100,000 increments, there are roughly 4,676 single family homes not including 1,850 condominiums, and you can see the percentages of the various
categories, $200,000 to $300,000 being the largest category in Town. From zero to 1/2 million dollars represents 78% of our housing stock. Chairman Hines reported the main point of the slide that ‘this is a wealthy Town and everyone owns big wealthy houses’, and this shows that is not the case, so that when people say we can afford anything that is just unreasonable.
The Assessor reported we do not hear about the lower end because they do not turn over, the occupancy of those homes are much longer than the higher end where there is more turnover, so where there is activity is what you are hearing about. Another slide shows an impact study, where we chose three homes, looked at what their assessments were prior reassessment, after reassessment, as well as factoring the change in car assessments. The first example shows a mid range house, with three vehicles, total assessment before reassessment was $187,000, using current mill rate they have a $5,300 tax bill, you can see the change from 2002 to 2003 with a 32% increase in their real estate, but yet their overall total assessment change was 26%, and applying the neutral mill rate of 22.7% their taxes went up $39 by using
the same levy, then in the third column using the 24.5 mill rate – the increase is $400+. The Town Manager reported that is the levy in the budget being presented for the Board of Finance Public Hearing. The Assessor reported this shows that just because an individual got a 32% increase in their real estate, that does not mean that their total tax in fact was going up to that percent. Chairman Hines reported the best thing about this chart is that people know what they have been paying the last couple of years. The Assessor reported we can expand it, if you have any suggestions. Mr. Woodford reported you might want to explain why the lessening of the tax impact on vehicles and why that is happening. The Assessor reported because the values are down.
The Assessor reported the third slide talks about the property tax reduction program that we currently offer. To give an overview, we have the State Health Homeowners Program, and it also tells you whether it is a reimbursable program from the State versus one that the Town is absorbing the costs of. The largest is the $2,000 for the State Elderly Homeowners Program, of which we have approximately 92 participants, a program where income can be from zero through $34,000, and the Town has overlaid and gone up to $37,000 from that and we have 18 on the Town’s side. We also have a veterans program, we have additional veterans program which is reimbursable, also, we have an income based veterans program, we have a totally disabled which is the HEW Social Security Disabled Individuals, unrelated to
veterans, and then we have the firemen’s program. The Assessor reported the next chart shows the same theme but with more detail in terms of the number of participants, for example the Veteran’s Program which, regardless of their age whether they are disabled or not, they are entitled to $1,000, assessed value, funded by the Town, and above that they are entitled to an additional $500 which is reimbursed by the State. Chairman Hines reported we have 931 people in the various programs. The Assessor reported that benefit varies from town to town, the assessment varies regardless of where you go but defined by the mill rate the value of it varies.
The Assessor displayed the income limits and benefits to the elderly program of 2001, 2002 and 2003, what the Council approved two months ago. He provides this just as information so that we have a base line. We have 17 recipients who fall under $13,000 and 23 that fall under $17,700, and in the $17,700 to the $22,100 we have 27. The highest income range for the State is $26,500 single to $32,600 married and we have eight persons. The Town program of $32,000 to $37,000 we have 17 participants and that costs us approximately $2,300.
With all of this information one can see pretty much where our housing stock is, what we are currently offering, and what it costs us, what the State is providing the elderly homeowner versus what the Town has done. A 25% increase in benefits overlaying what the State provides would only be $12,500 total, and adding what we currently provide would be another $2,300. The Assessor reported when we talked in October if the Town ever wanted to provide another tier, say up to $40,000, it would be very difficult to do because you are giving someone a benefit that is almost percentage wise greater than the person at the very bottom, so that you would have to broaden the benefit at the base and work your way up, so you have some room to provide $100 or $150 for that person earning between $37,000 and $42,000 for
example.
Mr. Woodford reported it seems like the most good we could do is say income of $26,500 and down. The Assessor reported in a few years that lowest level will be gone as people are no longer moving in here with that type of income level. He would like to point out that if we use zero to $13,100, 75% of the individuals are currently receiving the maximum benefit, as the formula is figured either as a percentage but no greater than, and there is a good number of them that are already at the maximum so they are in need. The same with each of the others pretty much, 75% of the participants in each of the income categories are maxing out their benefits.
Mr. Shea reported if we were to in approximate terms, what kind of impact would we have if we were to expand the program from $26,500 down, at 25% or 50%. Mr. Woodford questioned whether the percentage is the benefit amount we are talking about. He questioned what that would mean to a person in the lowest category. The Assessor reported $50, in the $26,500 category instead of receiving $250 they would be receiving $312. Chairman Hines reported we could go to 50% and it still would not be a big amount. The Assessor reported he can return with an impact at various points. Chairman Hines reported his concern is that he would like us to make a decision tonight, so that we can announce it at the budget public hearing, April 1st
On a motion made by Mr. Carlson, seconded by Mr. Shea, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council increase the maximum increments as follows:
from 1,250 by $250
from 1,000 by $200
from 750 by $150
from 500 by $100
from 250 by $ 50
On a motion made by Mr. Carlson, seconded by Mr. Shea, it was voted to amend the previous motion to read as follows:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council increase the increments as follows:
from 1,250 by $350
from 1,000 by $250
from 750 by $200
from 500 by $150
from 250 by $100
On a motion made by Mr. Carlson, seconded by Mr. Shea, it was voted to amend the previous motion to read as follows:
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
Mrs. Merlin questioned if this program will almost eliminate the tax increase to them. Chairman Hines reported to some extent yes, if it is just the house they will see some increase. Mrs. Merlin reported at a meeting she attended the fact was thrown out as to how bad the revaluation will effect those people, and it sounds like this addresses that to a good extent. Chairman Hines reported for the lowest income people, yes. Mr. Carlson reported there are 110 people out of 4,600 single family units, it is a small percentage of the total housing stock that is impacted here. We also have to stop thinking frankly that opposition to a discussion of a Board of Education budget, is solely coming from this group, his phone calls are coming from parents as well, and their homes are not on this side of
the graph, the comments are from both sides.
Mrs. Hornaday reported whether it is the budget or not, the real thing is it is so that these people who lived in their homes forty years can stay in this Town, and the Town is diminished when we lose the demographic diversity, so it is really important and it also is a witness that we value what they have given to the Town over the many years they have been here. She reported even though we show the increase including vehicles, we should be prepared to talk about the real estate property itself, because people always say there is the tax on their property and then there are the cars, as people get two or more different sheets of paper showing their taxes, they want to think in terms of this in how much they will be paying on the house, then they are quite content to hear but you will be paying this much less on
your car. She reported another thing is how people apply for these programs. The Assessor reported there is a filing period of February 1st through May 15th and they would come to the Director of Human Resources or the Assessor’s Office. She reported she would like all of this information in the handout, so that people know where they need to go to apply, so that people know that if they qualify for this that we encourage them to apply for and take advantage of it. The Assessor reported he will work with Human Resources and Recreation to put something together and to get the word out. The Town Manager reported we already know the names of people who already qualify and they will receive written notice as well.
02\03-52 Review, Discussion and Approval, Specifications for $93,000 State Grant, Buckingham Ball Fields
The Director of Recreation reported over the past few months we have moved along with the Buckingham Project, there have been some modifications to the program. We are prepared to go out to bid with these, only the legal portion remains to be done. He outlined what the base part of the project is going to be. He and the Town Manager met with people interested in lowering these mounds that we were going to use as landscape areas, then look at a children’s playground in that area. We redrew the bid documents in order to get an alternate price of moving that material away, the goal here is to put off the base portion of this for bid, we have a landscaping plan which is an alternate, also grading this area and recovering it as second alternate, which will also give us a good working
contract price that we can work with to move those mounds. We have to drop back on some of the items that we originally proposed, the second parking lot, and minus a playground. Public Works has agreed to provide the labor for the island cut-through, parking lot aprons, and the handicapped accessible parking spaces, as well as any signage needed and any needed turf enhancements. Material and supply costs will come from the funds available for the project, estimated not to exceed $15,000. We are ready to move, but need formalization with the documents and would like to move ahead.
The Park and Recreation Committee met yesterday, and the Director of Student Activities have reviewed and approved moving forward. The general consensus is that this is a relatively small construction job especially with the fencing, this may not take very long to complete.
Mr. Shea questioned whether it is fair to say that this project may be complete other than the two alternative bid items. The Director reported we are hoping so, with the pricing structure it is hard to say, but our goal is to finish it, and we are saving $15,000 for the turf. Mr. Shea reported you will have two growing seasons before the fields are opened up, but if you are short could there be some use of that money. The Director reported yes, once the bids come in we will have a better idea.
The Town Manager reported just as a reminder it is the Junior Women’s Club that has come forward and said that they want to donate that playground if that mound is removed, and if we do not get a price that allows us to remove that mound we are not going to be able to have that playground there, and we will have to direct the Junior Women’s Club to try to find another location. Mr. Shea questioned what kind of material it is. The Town Manager reported it is gravel material. The Town Engineer reported it is actually dense sand, it was originally envisioned that it was better material but it is not, and if we had a job going on right now we could use it, but it is not something that would warrant moving it, stock pile it and then reload again.
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mr. Shea, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council approve the following items to be included in the base bid and two alternates for the Buckingham Ball Fields project:
Base Bid
Post & Cable periphery fencing along Buckingham Road and front Parking Lot
Regulation baseball infield – subgrade and clay, sodding, and pitcher’s mount.
Complete fencing enclosure for the baseball field – backstop, dugout enclosures, foul line fencing, outfield fencing, and gates.
Outfield warning track – subgrade and material
All-Purpose field protective fencing along slopes.
Seasonal stone dust pathways and stone dust dugout “floors”.
Alternate Bid Items
Removal of mounts, re-grading, and topsoiling of the area for playground and picnic area development.
Landscape planting between fields.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford.
03/04-09 FY04/05 Budget
Recommend Budget to Board of Finance
The Town Manager reported you have a summary and formal motion. The issue is whether you want to provide any guidance or recommendations to the Board of Finance regarding the Board of Education budget, or regarding the budget in total. Chairman Hines reported we can just agree that we want to move ahead on the budget as is before we get into any statements.
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mr. Shea, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council recommend to the Board of Finance the FY04/05 budgets for all funds as follows:
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
Chairman Hines reported the second question is that we can make recommendations if we want to. Mrs. Hornaday reported we do need to be aware that we are not always hearing what the residents are saying at the public hearings, and then we make reductions. We did not hear anything from the residents about the classrooms, but those are the areas that we go to, and the areas that residents keep asking questions about they are not answered and that is not where reductions are made. And some of the residents who keep being told that we cannot cut in the line items, as long as the Board of Education or the Town Council is not spending the money we have been given by the residents, if we do not cut where they are saying, and if we are not spending it in a way that they find appropriate, then they are
going to keep voting no, to try to send the message that they do not like where we are spending the money they are giving us. There are specific areas within the budget that they think are over expenditures and now she is also hearing and reading about and receiving e-mails from people saying maybe we can go to the surplus, and maybe we can, but surplus is not the place to go for operating expenditures and short term things.
Chairman Hines reported the only time we want to look at it is for major purchases like land, and also to help out in a revaluation situation because it is necessary to do so. Mrs. Hornaday reported this Town has been very generous with trying to support education, the senior programs, the road programs, buying property, recreation – and at some point we need to be just more aware of what they are saying. They ask the questions, and we ought to be hearing what is behind the question they are asking, and she is not certain we always are. But the fact of the matter is 60% of the residents in Town are under 65 and do not have children in the schools, 20% are public school families and probably 22% are what we would classify as seniors. The bulk of the people in Town are either unmarried or
married people but without children at home right now, so their question is always are we giving good value from what we are spending and they ask some questions about whether we are spending the money in the way they think it should be. She wants the Board of Finance to be listening in that direction.
Chairman Hines questioned whether individual members of the Board of Finance should be contacted and just talk to them about it. One of the problems we all run into whether it is the Town Council, Board of Education or Board of Finance, is you hear a limited number of people at a public hearing or Town Meeting, then what do the rest of them think. They contact you sometimes, and sometimes they do not. Mr. Shea reported we are elected to act in the best interest of the Town. Chairman Hines reported yes, we have to look at everybody and try to understand that which is always a question. The bottom line is the vote on the budget, and when they vote it down two years in a row, they said that they are not happy with what we are doing.
Mr. Carlson reported when we make a change to a line item, after the budget has been approved, we bring it back here, have a discussion on it, and say increase this line item and decrease this line item, there is always an offset. He questioned does that happen as well as in the Board of Education, as he noted in looking at this years budget document, there were several line items that said, line item changed after the budget was approved last year. Which given the fact that they cannot alter the bottom line number, says that money came from another line item somewhere in that budget, and if that discussion happens in a public forum, and it is voted on with full knowledge, then that is what they need. His point being, those are the discussions that need to happen, because there is as much against about
where the money is being spent as there is about the amount of increase.
Mr. Shea reported government is about choices and he is just surprised that the first choice was to cut or eliminate sports, and the same for drama, music and art. There is more to education today than there was years ago, and it is about rounding out culturally how you educate children before sending them out to the world. He reported with regard to surplus, in his seven years on the Board of Finance, we did touch the surplus at times in an effort to offset the tax increase and revaluation years and in non revaluation years. In accordance to the new philosophy among government accounting, he recognizes that the surplus has to be higher, and something should be said at the public hearing, that this is what our percentage of surplus is, this is what we have done, we made some extraordinary purchases that
we would not normally make and our goal is to get the surplus to 10%. He reported while he may not agree with everyone about what you can call surplus and what you cannot call surplus but that is a discussion for another day. It is going to come up and we should be prepared to address it. Chairman Hines reported to come out of surplus we have $300,000 for the Library property, and $80,000 for architectural studies for the High School. Mr. Shea reported philosophically he wants to protect surplus, but does not view it as a vulnerability if we use it at a time when it is appropriate, but we have a goal and we are trying to get to that goal in a pragmatic way and we can do that in the best interest of the Town. Mrs. Hornaday reported she stated surplus should not be used for operating expenditures, rather for emergencies. Mr. Shea reported many of those people do not realize what we do with that surplus and how valuable it is to the Town. Mr.
Woodford reported people just do not understand why we have that much money sitting there and doing absolutely nothing, and it is hard to understand.
Chairman Hines reported going back to the question, do we want to make any statements to the Board of Finance in addition to our letter. Mrs. Hornaday reported she does not want to call people individually, and since she has been able to talk about this, she is content.
a. Review and Discussion: CIP Old Farms Road/Bridge Improvement: Tom Daukas
The Town Manager reported reviews were developed for two projects, there is a compendium of items and actions going on with this since 1983 in one case, and 1999 in the other. We also need a resolution for funding available under the Federal STP-Urban Program administered by CRCOG.
The Town Engineer reported we have two separate projects, they go over Thompson, Scoville and Old Farms Relocation which start back in the early 80’s, when the inter-state trade-in funds were available, involving many studies and alternatives, different alignments, using existing corridor and using a road along the river. Basically it starts along the intersection of Rte 10, Old Farms Road and Tillotson, the intersection of Country Club. The final outcome of all of the different alternatives and options had a lot to do with the school, was to relocate Old Farms Road south of Beaver Pond, to intersect by M. H. Rhodes, parallel to the old railroad bed for the relocation, then a portion of Old Farms Road is going to cut back to take the curve off near the school and pretty much get back on the
existing alignment and up to Country Club Road. This project has been going on for many years, and the main change is that the money pretty well dried up and different other sources of funding, we are still doing an environmental document because there is federal and state money involved it was first called an impact statement, then when federal money came along, it became an Environmental Assessment. The Town Engineer reported they keep changing the rules on it, changing the models that you have to use. Right now it is moving along, and he is assuming by next December it should be done, so we are really making progress on it. Part of the original document was that we get a preliminary engineering design out of things and we got a lot of that preliminary engineering design, mapping, wetlands, mitigation done, and rights of ways laid out, so there is quite a bit done. The reason we are putting up with it, is the construction end of it for the portions
that are eligible, and that is the resolution we need for tonight to go to CRCOG which is 100% funding for the construction end of it, but we have to do all of the engineering from now on, but for the previous environmental documents, assessments and environmental impact statement we have probably expended $600,000 in money, but in Town funds it has been 7 1/2% of that amount. When we get to the point when we have final contract drawings, the State will bid it, award it, inspect it and be responsible for all construction.
Mr. Woodford questioned why we need money in the upcoming budget for this road. The Town Engineer reported right now to fund up front, we have to pay the consultant and then get reimbursed from the State later on. Some of the things that we are doing we have to do on our own, part of the money is to pay for the environmental consultant and to continue with the design in the next year after we have completed that document, there is also money in this program for the bridge. We are making an application trying to anticipate construction funding, and that needs to be completed first, before we can continue, but he can see an end to this part, then we will go into the final design on the project, then we are looking for construction. The piece from Tillotson Road to M. H. Rhodes is approximately 2
million dollars, originally there was a bridge spanning where Beaver Pond is south of Old Farms Road, that will go to a conventional box culvert there, changed some of the standards, lowered the design speed and the curvature to save some money. He reported this is about the fifth resolution we have had, but this is needed to make an application for the grant.
Mr. Shea reported this is needed for safety reasons, especially with the new larger vehicles on the road. Mr. Woodford reported we are going to end up fixing and repairing the old road. The Town Engineer reported the school is willing to grant the easement, for the right-of-way, of roughly 9 acres of land there, and we have been dealing with the school for a conservation easement along this part of the road.
Chairman Hines questioned whether the Tillotson Road area project is part of this. The Town Engineer reported that is a different project. Originally was just for the bridge, we added another piece of road because of the bottleneck on Route 10, and the Town offered to do the design on Route 10 which is a State road, but to expedite it the State agreed to tie it in as one project and bid it all as one project.
The Town Manager reported we have been pushing for a lot of enhancement of that whole project in terms of landscaping, brownstone treatments, moving those two pillars, and other things, and we are not sure how much of that they are going to agree to, and how much they are going to say they are not going to pay for it, in which case we may be coming back and asking for some extra money to do it in an aesthetically appropriate manner. He wanted to at least alert you to that now, and we feel that this is critical to do this correctly from that standpoint because the next one, if it ever does get funded, around Beaver Pond, is going to have the same type of impact. The Town Engineer reported this will set the tone of the whole area, one advantage to the rest of the road, we are not talking a different design
standard because you are not going to have access to the abutting properties, no driveway cuts, you can have informal drainage of open swales along the side, and looks considerably different.
Mr. Shea questioned whether Representative Herlihy has helped out with the additional funding. The Town Engineer reported he has helped us, it was stalled in Environmental Planning with the State, and with the Federal Government now it is not, we are looking for all different types of sources of funding, because the maximum money that CRCOG has allowed is 2 million per town for any one project. We are coming up with an estimate of 1.997 million on this piece, by cutting out the large structure, which it was over 4 million before, and the money is just not there. We will do this now and do the rest later on through another type of funding, and the piece to the north was always considered to be done by the Town. The Town Manager reported if you look at that as a total project, if we ever had to come
up with a share from the Town, we could argue that finishing that section from basically Scoville up would be our share. The Town Engineer reported we are looking at possibly, he is investigating using some local bridge money, as we have two good size culverts here and they could classify as a bridge on Old Farms Road. That would go a long way to help. We are talking about possibly connecting the bike path from the trail down to Fisher Meadows and back up to Country Club Road. There are a lot of benefits in some enhancement money that would possibly be available for that. Once we get that environmental document done and signed off, if we do that it will be a major accomplishment.
On a motion made by Mrs. Hornaday, seconded by Mr. Carlson, it was voted:
WHEREAS: Federal monies are available under the Federal STP-Urban Program, administered by the Capitol Region Council of Governments.
WHEREAS: It is desirable and in the public interest that the Town of Avon make application for Project 04-98 (Old Farms Thompson Road Relocation which has funding available under the STP-Urban Program.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED: That the Town Council for the Town of Avon authorize the Town Manager, Philip K. Schenck, Jr., to apply for project funding under the STP-Urban Program and to execute any documents necessary to obtain such funding.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
Review and Discussion: Scope of Services Recreation Master Plan
The Director of Recreation and Parks reported he polled colleagues and received over 70 responses, we developed from them a scope of services document containing everything, the general consensus being that no one is going to look at that in terms of a contractor and not understand what we are asking them to do. Chairman Hines reported it is very extensive. The Director reported it may be overdone but we wanted to put everything on the table so that all of the components were there, if in fact we go for an RFP on that, it permits us to break each of the components into prices, and we can decide to move at certain levels. Chairman Hines reported this is another item we may need to go to surplus on, this is not in the budget. The Director reported it has been suggested that we do an RFP first, which
prequalifies the firms, so that they are qualified to be able to do what is being asked of them, requiring an investment for the advertising. He is looking for the authority to move forward from here.
On a motion made by Mr. Shea, seconded by Mrs. Hornaday, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council authorize a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) be advertised and mailed to prospective Contractors to pre-qualify them for proposal submission on the RFP for Scope of Services – Recreation and Athletic Facilities Master Plan.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford.
VIII EXECUTIVE SESSION: Litigation/Negotiations
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mr. Shea, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council go into Executive Session at 10:35 p.m.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mr. Shea, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council come out of Executive Session at 11:00 p.m.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
VI OLD BUSINESS (Cont’d)
03/04-32 Set Town Council Meeting Date – April 1, 2004 (Conflict with Public Hearing on FY04/05 Budget)
On a motion made by Mrs. Hornaday, seconded by Mr. Carlson, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council set the next Town Council Meeting date for Tuesday, April 6, 2004 at 7:30 p.m.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
03/04-40 Set Public Hearing: Adoption of Ordinance #71: Restriction on Construction Activities: 7:30 p.m. April 6, 2004.
Chairman Hines questioned whether there would be contractors we should inform. The Town Manager reported we can put the word out, certainly to the contractors doing local projects at this time. We are getting a lot of complaints on this, which is why we are talking about an ordinance, this would help zoning enforcement, and part of the problem is noncompliance, when they bring in a new contractor or the subs do not get the word from the General Contractor. Chairman Hines reported the fines would only be $100. Mr. Shea reported the incidences he has heard of, usually someone goes out and speaks to them and it is taken care of. Mrs. Hornaday reported the problem is with big developments, with lots going on with the trucks and the rest, and the neighbors having to deal with it. Mr.
Carlson reported it is the rock crushing, not just the regular noises of hammering. Mr. Woodford reported he would want all the contractors to be notified.
On a motion made by Mrs. Hornaday, seconded by Mr. Carlson, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council schedule a Public Hearing for April 6, 2004 at 7:30 p.m. for
Adoption of Ordinance #71. Restriction on Construction Activities.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
03/04-55 Appointment:
Natural Resources (formerly 03/04-29)
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mr. Carlson, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council table the appointment to the April 6th meeting.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
Natural Resources (formerly 03/04-63)
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mr. Carlson, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council table the appointment to the April 6th meeting.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
Natural Resources (formerly 03/04-55)
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mr. Carlson, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council table the appointment to the April 6th meeting.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
CRCOG –Regional Planning Comm. Alternate
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mr. Mr. Carlson, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council remove this item from the Agenda.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
Representative to FVVNA
On a motion made by Mrs. Hornaday, seconded by Mr. Woodford, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council appoint Mary Harrop to serve as Council Representative to the FVVNA for a term to expire December 31, 2005.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
Representative to Senior Citizens
On a motion made by Mrs. Hornaday, seconded by Mr. Woodford, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council appoint Anona A. Broadman to serve as Council Representative to the Senior Citizens of Avon for a term to expire December 31, 2005
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
Avon Water Pollution Control Authority
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mrs. Hornaday, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council appoint Louis N. Usich Jr. to serve on the Avon Water Pollution Control Authority for a term to expire December 31, 2007.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
Avon Water Pollution Control Authority
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mrs. Hornaday, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council table the appointment to the April 6, 2004 meeting.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
03/04-64 Appointment: Avon High School Renovation/Addition Building Committee
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mr. Carlson, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council adopt the following CHARGE to the Avon High School Renovation/Addition Building Committee:
BE IT RESOLVED: That the Town Council has accepted the Board of Education’s Statement of Needs” as outlined in the Board of Education’s “A Report on High School Facility Needs” dated October 30, 2003 and revised December, 2003, and further
RESOLVED: That a Committee, “The Avon High School Renovation/Addition Building Committee”, consisting of seven (7) members to be established for an indefinite term to:
Organize in an appropriate manner to carry out the functions of the committee to include a chair appointed by the Town Council and a vice-chair and secretary from among the membership to be selected by the Committee.
Familiarize itself with the “Procedures for Constructing Public Building’s Avon, Connecticut”. These “Procedures” have been drawn by the Town Attorney and define the Town Charter and Connecticut General Statute steps and requirements to be followed in a school building project.
Familiarize itself with the local needs assessment as detailed in “A Report on High School Facility Needs”, dated October 30, 2003 and revised December, 2003.
Phase I: Recommend for Town Council approval through an open, competitive process, the services of a qualified architectural firm to:
Determine whether the permanent additions and renovations to the Avon High School as outlined in the Avon Board of Education’s “A Report on High School Facility Needs”, dated October 2003, and revised December, 2003 can be fulfilled at the location of the existing Avon High School site located at 510 West Avon Road and;
Determine whether the Central School Administration offices currently located at the Towpath School Simsbury Road (Rt.10) Avon, can be relocated as part of, or separate from, the permanent renovations/addition to the Avon High School site located at 510 West Avon Road.
Phase II: If either the additions/renovations to the Avon High School/and/or the Central Office can be accommodated at the existing Avon High School site located at 510 West Avon Road, the firm selected may then, at the direction of the Town Council, be further retained to prepare external and internal configurations of the proposed addition/renovations to the Avon High School building, including, or not including, the Central Office, and to provide appropriate sketches and schematics and detailed cost estimates of the project and its components.
The selection of a qualified architectural firm should be completed by June 1, 2004. The determination of whether the current Avon High School site can accommodate the necessary improvements by August 1, 2004 and, if so further directed, the schematic plans and cost estimates should be completed in accordance with the Capital Budget Submission schedule of the Town for FY05/06, but in no case later than October 1, 2004.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mr. Carlson, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council appoint Henry R. Frey, Jr. to serve on the Avon High School Renovation/Addition Building Committee as their Chairman, also appoint Ann L. Dearstyne, James H. Eacott III, Douglas M. Evans, and Robert M. Paine.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
On a motion made by Mr. Shea, seconded by Mr. Woodford, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council appoint Jeffrey P. Brighenti and John J. Papa to serve on the Avon High School Renovation/Addition Building Committee.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
Chairman Hines reported in the letter to the Building Committee Members it should be made very clear that this is a two phase effort that we are asking them to do, first to find out whether we can do this, and at the completion of that come back to the Town Council with their report, which can be oral. If that is successful, we would then authorize them to go on and get costs for a second phase, the costs of the program.
03/04-65 Status: Nomination of Avon Center for National Register of Historic Places
The Town Planner reported the State did continue the public hearing that they originally scheduled for February 26th, to sometime in October. In the interim on March 18th, a public informational meeting was scheduled to take place at the Senior Center. The Town Planner reported he will be running the meeting, and the Deputy Director of the State Historic Commission will be there as the main presenter to speak on the program. As a handout tonight he has a packet of information, containing a letter sent to each resident and a draft agenda, which went out to the 130 property owners of the 247 separate properties today. There also is a copy of a letter that was circulated by an anonymous individual or group, which contained some factual problems, and presented some information that was very confusing
and the confusion really stems from the difference between a Historic District and a nomination on a National Register of Historic Places, which is the process which is being considered. The process we are considering is largely an honorary designation, although there are some legal issues that have been of concern to both the Town Council and Planning & Zoning Commission, and our Town Attorney will be at the meeting to address them. The process that people are confused with sounds like almost the same program, but it is a whole different thing, and that is a Historic District. A historic district requires the enactment of an ordinance by the Town Council, with a whole set of rules and regulations and govern things that people really are concerned about, like whether they can put an addition to their house, what color they can paint their house, and things of that nature. In the informational letter we tried to explain the difference between the two
programs, which was reviewed by the Town Attorney before mailing.
Mr. Shea reported he has a question about the first designation, if it is honorary what is the advantage or benefit, those questions will be asked. The Town Planner reported the Historical Society told us, which got the Planning & Zoning Commission involved in the process originally, was that past experience has shown that it instills a sense of pride of ownership in a neighborhood, it has a positive impact in terms of property values and might impose some incentive to a property owner to make some improvements to their property. It truly is a psychological component, an honorary designation, beyond that there are some tax benefits, which he is not aware of the details on, but apparently if you have certain types of rental income properties or commercial properties you are entitled to a 20% tax credit of
some sort under a 1986 tax law. These federal income tax credits would be received from the federal government for improvements that would be made to the property. Mr. Shea reported this would affect 130 people, he would venture to say that people would say why would they want anyone involved with a piece of property that they own , even though it is supposed to instill a sense of pride. Chairman Hines reported the State should be able to answer that especially when we are talking about tax benefits, if there are any. He questioned whether the Town can pull its property out of this if we wanted to. The Town Planner reported he does not think so, the Town would have a vote as to whether or not they support the nomination or not. The way it works is that this informational meeting on March 18th is in fact informational, the formal public hearing will be in October.
The Town Manager reported if the Town Council would want to vote to have our property withdrawn from that or not support, and there is a form we can use to do that, and that would be submitted along with the other property owners. We as a municipality do not have any more authority control or anything than any other property owners. The Town Planner reported in East Granby a gentleman who was the Director of the State Historic Commission, was and still is a resident of East Granby, and on his own as one individual, independent of the town, placed a portion of Main Street in nomination through the National Register process, and our Town Attorney indicated that any individual can nominate a district as long as they have access to the data, and have the knowledge to do it. In fact, the State told us that
about 25% to 30% of the nomination process of applications that they review are actually submitted by Historical Society’s and not the chief governing body of the municipality, so it could be anyone. What we have asked for of the State right now, is that at the meeting on February 26th our Town Attorney wrote to the State, a copy enclosed, asking the State to withdraw the application, and the nomination. There was some discussion at the meeting as to whether the law allows that to occur or not, and in the interim the State said at a minimum what they will do is grant an extension, which they commonly do. This Board is a group of volunteers, staffed by J. Paul Loether, only meets every six months, therefore they said in the interim while they are waiting for a consultation with the National Parks Service, they will agree to a continuation to the meeting in October, and nothing officially can happen between now and then, and they encourage the towns to in fact
have public informational meetings, which we are obviously interested in doing. It may be that between now and the 18th or shortly after that, we will get a formal answer from the Park Service as to whether we have permission to be withdrawn. If it is withdrawn, it is also possible that another group or organization can submit the application in another name.
Chairman Hines reported we need to get the Town property out of it. The Town Manager reported we need to realize that several years from now unbeknownst to us, someone can go ahead and resubmit something with our property in it, and it would continue down the process and we might not even know about it, it is that type of process. The Town Planner reported he asked the Town Attorney’s office why that was, and they had an interesting explanation which is worth mentioning. The Federal Government uses processes that are somewhat casual, and it is somewhat as any individual can submit the application without any endorsement by the governing authority of the municipality, and the reason is that the Federal Government actually considers the impact, the implications to the private property owner to be
minimal, almost non existent, because it is really not a regulatory governmental program, it is really an honorary designation, a list that is kept in the National Parks Service, which says that ‘we are honoring your property, congratulations you are on this list. But as he understands it, there really is not a rebut that goes along with it that is what people are concerned about, that is the Historic District process. The flaw in that argument really, as he explained it, is in the State of Connecticut, and apparently we are the only state where this is the case as none of the other states have this issue, is that the Connecticut Environmental Policy Act was amended several years ago to include a provision which says that not only are certain environmental resources in the State have such significance that they are considered to be assets, but certain historic properties, historic resources and cultural resources in the State are also theoretically of that
same magnitude, and can be protected under the Connecticut Environmental Policy Act. So although there is no real bureaucracy that goes with the federal aspect of it, theoretically it sets up the possibility where a private individual can sue another individual if they want to demolish their structure and that is really what has the Planning & Zoning Commission concerned. The Town Planner reported whether it has ever happened, the Town Attorney’s office is researching it, and there are six to eight cases state wide over these many years with thousands of properties that are already on this list and last week they informed us that there was not a single case where anyone had prevailed under the law, that no one brought a successful case under the law. At the meeting on the March 18th , the examples we will hear from the State is that unless a building were of truly monumental proportions. Chairman Hines questioned whether Towpath School would
qualify. The Town Planner reported it would be like Mark Twains house, what our Attorney is telling us, and the State is telling us, is that something like Towpath really does not meet the test, based on the cases that have been brought. It does not mean that someone cannot file a lawsuit, but what our Attorney is telling us is that they would not be successful. What also was interesting, with development efforts we might be interested in, if there were a group opposed to the Town’s efforts, of selling it or what we think might be appropriate redevelopment of that property, if someone wanted to be successful in their appeal, the better route that they would go would be the more traditional route, to file a lawsuit against the Planning & Zoning Commission, that is the tested course. With these other few cases over many years, no one has ever been successful, and the likelihood of someone focussing in on that as their prime issue given the track
records would be minimal, what they would do would be to follow the normal course.
Mr. Woodford questioned who filed this application. The Town Manager reported this goes back to the potential for a pharmacy to go in and purchase in essence the south side of Main Street, where the People’s Bank is now, to tear that down and put in a brick/concrete square block flat roof pharmacy, the Historical Society became very concerned that all of those Greek revival houses along there would be pulled down and ripped down and it would destroy the character of the Main Street. The Planning & Zoning Commission became concerned as well, and the preliminary discussions took place and we were also in the process of looking at starting to update the Comprehensive Plan of Development. We had an analysis down of what we had in the center, and at the same time see if it would qualify for
this designation. We went to the Planning & Zoning Commission, had the money approved, $3,000, the Commission hired a consultant, the consultant in the RFP was to prepare the study, the Study was prepared and it was prepared in a manner that it could be submitted. The Consultant went ahead and submitted it, before going to the Planning & Zoning Commission and coming back to the Town, and that is how this thing got further than it should have.
Mr. Woodford questioned whether the Consultant can take back the application. The Town Planner reported we are asking the National Park Service that question, what our Attorney said, is that in every other aspect the government local, state and federal, if someone is an applicant and they submit an application they have the right to withdraw it, the person from the State does not immediately agree with that, and agreed with a consultation with the State.
The Town Manager reported the Historical Society has been a supporter of this all the way along, and Terri Wilson has been the primary person as part of the historical society, that has been an advocate for it as well. The Consultant who did the study, has done many of these. The Town Planner reported she has been doing this for 24 years. Chairman Hines reported we should ask on the 18th whether we can withdraw the Town property, we would like to have that consideration. The Town Planner reported Terri Wilson has received many calls from people breathing a sigh of relief, and thanking her for a clarification, apparently there will be supporters of the nomination as well as people with a lot of questions. Between the negative and positive letter, and his letter which is a neutral point, that
at the meeting on the 18th, we use the meeting to educate people and see what they think, and bottom line if more than half of the people do not think it is an asset, and do not want the federal government involved at all, then the district will not go forward. Each owner has one vote, even a large company that owns many properties gets one vote, with 247 properties in the proposed area and 130 letters sent out. The reason it is without precedent in terms of the rather casual process the government has, according to our Attorney, is because they view it as sort of a non regulatory honorary designation. He cannot think of another example where someone can make application on behalf of any government program without an official letter from the Town. Chairman Hines questioned whether we should get our Legislators involved in this. The Town Manager reported maybe our Congresswoman Nancy Johnson can help, and also at the State level because of the State
Historic Commission. Chairman Hines reported yes, and Kevin Witkos can be contacted, to educate him of the situation.
NEW BUSINESS
03/04-74 Review and Discussion: Renewal of EAP Service Contract
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mrs. Hornaday, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council authorize the Town Manager to sign, on behalf of the Town of Avon, the Beacon Behavior Services agreement for a 3 year renewal, from July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2007, at a net cost of $3,515 per year, as recommended by the Director of Human Resources.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
03/04-75 Historic Preservation Grant, Town Clerk’s Office
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mrs. Hornaday, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That Philip K. Schenck, Jr., Town Manager, or the Town Clerk as his designee is empowered to execute and deliver in the name of and on behalf of the Town of Avon, an application and a contract with the State Library for an Historic Preservation Grant.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
03/04-76 Review, Discussion, Approval, Grant Application “DUI Enforcement Vehicle Program
The Town Manager reported we have an opportunity to receive a grant in the form of a vehicle from the State, it would be integrated in with out existing enforcement program, every officer that is out on the street is responsible for traffic, responsible for DUI enforcement and seat belt enforcement. This will hopefully alleviate to some extent the pressure on our vehicle replacement program. Chairman Hines reported we will be able to pull one vehicle out of the budget, potentially. The Town Manager reported yes, the vehicle would say ‘DUI Enforcement’ on it, and if we ever did set up any special DUI programs, or anything of that nature, that vehicle would be used for that, if we decided to participate in those programs, although during the last couple of years we have not. Chairman
Hines reported it seems that every time we have had one of these DUI programs, in that period of time we have to grant overtime, there are very few DUI’s but a lot of motor vehicle violations, which is fortunate because we do not have a lot of bars in Town, the Liquor establishments we do have are mainly restaurants and we do not have that kind of a problem. The Town Manager reported this is just an authorization to apply for it, if we do not get it, it is not an issue, if we do get it, then we will proceed. It comes through basically federal funding, then passed through the State 80%, the part that comes from ours is not a cash contribution, we are not setting up a DUI program.
On a motion made by Mr. Carlson, seconded by Mrs. Hornaday, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council authorize the Town Manager to sign, on behalf of the Town of
Avon, the DUI Enforcement Vehicle grant application, for 80% federal reimbursement
on the purchase of one fully-equipped vehicle in amount $41,590, with $33,272 being
reimbursed.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
03/04-77 Supplemental Appropriation: $1,100 Donation Avon Junior Women’s Club
Chairman Hines reported the money was raised by them having a dinner. Mrs. Hornaday reported this is in addition to the money they raised for a playground, that is wonderful. The Town Manager reported interestingly enough they have asked the Superintendent of Public Works if there is something in the Public Works Department, and were told if they want to donate anything in particular to write a letter to the Town, the same as this for the Police Department.
On a motion made by Mr. Carlson, seconded by Mr. Shea, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council hereby recommends that the Board of Finance amend the
FY03/04 Budget by increasing:
REVENUES
General Fund, Other Local Revenues, Donations from Private Sources, Account
#01-0360-43651 in the amount of $1,100 and increasing:
APPROPRIATIONS
General Fund, Patrol Services, Other Equipment, Account #01-2107-53319 in the
Amount of $1,100 for the purpose of purchasing miscellaneous Police equipment.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
03/04-78 Supplemental Appropriation: $9,000 Swimming Pool Maintenance
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mr. Shea, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council favorably recommends to the Board of Finance an appropriation
not to exceed $9,000 from:
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
03/04-79 Review and Discussion: Endangered Lands Coalition
On a motion made by Mr. Carlson, seconded by Mr. Woodford, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council remove this item from the Agenda.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
03/04-80 Approve Tax Refund: Countrywide Tax Services, Planto, Texas, $1,619,47
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mr. Carlson, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council approve a tax refund in amount $1,619.47 to Countrywide Tax Services, as recommended by the Collector or Revenue.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
03/04-81 Set Public Hearing Date: Lakeview Water Main Assessments
On a motion made by Mr. Woodford, seconded by Mrs. Hornaday, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council schedule a public hearing for April 6, 2004 at 7:30 p.m.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favored:
03/04-82 Approve: Capitol Area Substance Abuse Council (CASAC) Grant
On a motion made by Mr. Shea, seconded by Mrs. Hornaday, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Town Council authorize the Town Manager to sign on behalf of the Town of Avon the CASAC Local Prevention Council Grant Contract in amount $3,105.00, for funding to support local activities related to substance abuse prevention, as recommended by the Director of Social Services.
Mrs. Hornaday, Messrs: Hines, Carlson, Shea and Woodford voted in favor.
TOWN MANAGER’S REPORT/MISCELLANEOUS
The Town Manager reported we received a letter from CRRA, about the new rates for disposal, that is going to be a $13,500 increase in our budget that is not in the budget at this point. He will have a list of subsequent budget adjustments, packaged together so that when we have to make our adjustments at the Board of Finance work session, he will have additions and deletions.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 11:18 p.m.
Attest:
Caroline B. LaMonica
Town Clerk
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