Rutland Earthworks Board
Meeting Minutes – December 11, 2017
Members present: Peter Craine, Norm Anderson, Butch Nadeau, Glenn Kauppila.
Members absent: None.
Guests: Anita Carlson, Kate Gervais, Carol Martens.
Meeting was called to order by Anita Carlson at 6:07 PM.
Meeting Minutes
Inaugural meeting. No previous minutes to approve.
Peter Volunteered to act as secretary for this meeting.
Discussions:
Election of Officers:
Peter nominated and voted as Chairman [Motion: Paul; 2nd: Butch; vote unanimous @ 6:08]
Election of Vice Chairman and Secretary tabled until next meeting (Glenn was not present at the time). [not a formal vote]
Communications Norms:
Possibilities discussed: email, and texting. Not all members use texting; group agreed to use email for information purposes only. No business will be conducted through email.
A round of Introductions (including guests).
Outline of future work:
This is a new group. We will decide the work we will perform, and how we coordinate with other boards/commissions/etc.
Peter outlined some work which he thinks is necessary for the group to complete:
- Update Earth Removal by-law based on feedback from Attorney General after last amendment review
- What sort of soil/earth policies should we consider? Too many to mention right now
- “Like kind soil” importation by-law and/or regulation
- Earth (soil) processing going on in town that might be a nuisance to neighbors and might present health concerns.
We will likely need to coordinate with other boards, even those not represented in the Earthworks Board, to accomplish these tasks.
We also need to be cognizant of enforcement of any by-laws or regulations (How are these enforced? Who does the enforcing?)
It is our hope that once the “heavy lifting” is done the board can meet infrequently.
Meeting Frequency and Days:
When should we meet? Peter suggested Thursdays (Monday=Select Board & Board of Health; Tuesday=Planning Board, Conservation Commission, and Agricultural Commission; Wednesday=By-law Review Subcommittee). Group agreed.
What time should the meeting be? The group agreed meeting at 6:30 would work best.
The group also agreed that meetings should be limited to a maximum of 2 hours, and should not go that long very often.
Given the set of work we see, how often should we meet? Norm suggested twice a month, for now. Group agreed. We also agreed to revisit this in six months to see how we feel about it.
We are very close to Christmas week so we agreed to not meet until the new year.
How does the public contact this board?
Email seems to be the best choice. There is always a paper trail.
Peter will contact IT to set up a generic email address (oh, say, earthworksboard@townofrutland.org). Peter will also contact the Town Clerk to make sure it’s on the board’s web page.
Board’s Mission Statement
Many ideas thrown around. Some samples:
“To protect the Town’s people and resources”
“coordinate with other boards”
“monitoring”
“completing”
“support other Town boards”
“Preventing misuse”
“Regulation (write and provide for enforcement)”
“alteration and/or relocation of earth”
Peter will look at combining these thoughts into the first draft.
The Board will continue this discussion at the next meeting.
Next Meeting
The Board’s next meeting will be at 6:30 PM on January 4, 2018.
Adjournment
Meeting adjourned, unanimously (Motion: Butch; 2nd: Glenn) at 7:11 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Peter Craine
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