Select Board Meeting 4/13/15

Select board (SB) meetings are recorded by LPC-TV and are available at their website and on Comcast Television.  Written minutes are available at the town’s website.  Two of SB members were absent George Timko and Wendy Regier. Monday night’s meeting included the following:

1. Action Taken

• Annual Town Highway Financial Plan adopted

• Approved the opening of two new town accounts: Ballantine Animal Fund and changing the Recreation Fund from a savings to a checking account

• Approved a renewal of the Williams’ Country Store Liquor license

• Reviewed and approved the Cavendish Local Basic Emergency Operations Plan (LEOP)

• Approved pursing plans to hire an assistant to work with town manager Rich Svec in several areas including but not limited to: cemetery supervision, transfer station administration, project and program development and supervision, grant applications, grant administration, wrapping up remaining Irene recovery activities.

2. Telecommunications: Comcast was to attend the April meeting. After a number of tries, Svec finally has appropriate contact information and will coordinate getting a representative to the meeting.

3. Bridges

Culvert/Bridge Study: Katherine Otto of the Southern Windsor County Regional Planning Commission (SWCRPC) provided the SB with the summary findings of the “Cavendish Bridge and Culvert Inventory.” Of the 733 culverts, 79% are town owned. While Cavendish has an average number of culverts, when compared to surrounding towns, they have fewer bridges. Thirty-Seven culverts were considered to be in poor condition, while 33% are less than the state standard of 18 inches and some were only 12 inches. The current town budget for culverts is $3,200. Otto recommended that if the town bumped up to $5,000 they could do a lot more to resolve issues. She also recommended that the town apply for funding-grants due May 15-and she would be willing to work with Svec on the application.

Davis Road Bridge: Under construction, the bypass is now much tighter, but it avoided a six-mile detour. When the concrete is poured the bridge will be closed  for a few hours. Projected completion date is early summer-June.

Bridge #21Greenbush/Stephens Road: The culvert is in such disrepair that Svec requested that an application be submitted this year for replacement in 2016-2017.

Bridge # 58 Depot Street: On May 11 (Monday), at 6:30 pm, as part of the Cavendish Select Board’s (SB) regular monthly meeting, there will a special hearing regarding the Depot St Bridge in Proctorsville, which is due for replacement in the next few years. For more information about this meeting. 

 4. Hazardous Mitigation Plan: Hazard mitigation is any sustained effort to permanently reduce or eliminate long-term risk to people and property from the effects of hazards (e.g. floods, winter storms, high winds, material spills). The purpose of this plan is to identify such risks and how to reduce them. Cindy Ingersoll of SWCRPC has been working with Svec on this project. Some modifications were made to the first draft during the course of the meeting. Svec and Ingersoll will meet soon to finish the document and submit it.

 5. VELCO Connecticut Valley Transmission Line Project Presentation: An upgrade from the Coolidge Substation (Cavendish) to the Asctuney station is being planned. A presentation on the project had been scheduled for May 11, but given other items scheduled , it was agreed to move the presentation to either May 6 (Wednesday and Planning Commission meeting) or Monday, May 4.

 6. Cemeteries: Following this year’s town meeting vote to give the town/SB responsibility for the cemeteries, a petition was started to revote this article. Requiring a 30-day period from the day of the vote, no petition was submitted. Woodie Woods has been helping in the interim. He has received one estimate ($12,500) for mowing the two largest cemeteries-Cavendish High Street and Hillcrest in Proctorsville for the season. The company would provide their own equipment, insurance coverage etc. However, there are five smaller cemeteries that need to be done with hand equipment. At this point, Svec is still gathering information about how to proceed with this new responsibility. Woods noted that there are three interments that need to take place. These are slated for mid-May.

 7. Energy Committee Report

• Solar Array Dedication: On Monday, April 20, there will be a dedication of the Solar Array at 11 pm at the site, followed by reception at the town office.

 • Solarize Makes Sense:  Cavendish has joined with Reading, Brownsville, Weathersfield and Windsor to work as a team to promote residential solar power through a program called “Solarize Makes $ense”, run by the non-profit Vital Communities.  For more information. 

8. Municipal Water: The exact cause of the excess water usage that required drawing water from the second well thus triggering a “boil water” notice is uncertain. However, several things were found: a possible slow leak on one of the valves (this will be checked after the snow is gone); and one if not two houses had leaks due to frozen pipes bursting. One house had a ¾ inch pipe that had been gushing water for several days.

Svec asked that if municipal water users have a leak, it’s important to let the town know so they have a better sense of what’s going on