CAVENDISH SELECT BOARD MEETING 4/10/17

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.  The following action was discussed at the March 13 night’s meeting:

A. Telecommunications: Due to restructuring of the state’s Telecommunications Committee, the decision on the grant that Comcast has submitted to expand their service along Tarbell Hill and around Knapp Pond, has been delayed. Margo Caulfield has been asked to serve on the Telecommunications Committee, which she agreed to do after the entire town has broadband coverage. The option of “dark fiber” is being explored. Dark fiber refers to unused fiber-optic cable. Currently, VELCO, which has numerous lines in Cavendish, uses 6 of the 72 lines of fiber.

B. 100th Anniversary of Solzhenitsyn’s Birth: 2018 is the 100th birthday of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel Laureate and Soviet dissident who lived almost 18 years of his 20 year exile in Cavendish. We can expect to see an increase in visitors. The town needs to continue to honor the privacy of his family and “No Directions to the Solzhenitsyn’s” still holds.

C. Outer Limits Brewery: Wesley Tice addressed the board about his proposed project of a brewery, tasting room and restaurant at 60 Village Green in Proctorsville-next to Murdock’s on the Green. They plan to start renovating the building in May with operations beginning in 2018. They are requesting allocation/connection to the Cavendish Municipal water system.

The brewery would require 4,650 gallons of water per week for brewing and cleaning purposes. They will generate 3,720 gallons of wastewater per week, which will be pre treated with an internal wastewater treatment plant. The system is to be sized for 1,500 barrels per year with the ability to easily expand in the future. The long-range projection of the brewery is to produce 5,000 barrels per year.

Layout with plumbing is still being designed and will be submitted to both the state and Cavendish upon completion. Outer Limits plans to submit the WR-82B form to the state after this meeting.

Randy Schemp, the head of the Cavendish Municipal water system was on hand to discuss impact. There appears to be sufficient water to meet the needs of the brewery. However, until the application is submitted to the state and town, a much better sense of impact and need will be known. It will be based on this information that the SB will make their decision for approval.

D. Murdock’s on the Green first class liquor license was approved, which includes outside consumption.

E. Town Sewer Ordinance: Mike Smith of Weston & Sampson, the town’s engineering firm was present to discuss the importance of upgrading the town’s current Sewer Ordinance, which was passed in 1966, five years before the Clean Water Act of 1971. Currently, the town is responsible for any violations. The proposed draft reviewed by the board would allow the town to hold sewage users responsible and clearly spells out what you can and cannot do.

One area that the town wants to see changed is the use of sump pumps, which significantly increases costs for the town’s wastewater treatment plant. The town wants to use the revised ordinances as a way to help property owners upgrade their systems so sump pumps are no longer needed, which will ultimately save them and the town money.

Smith encouraged the board to adopt the ordinances as is before Outer Limits Brewery is given a permit. Further, he urged the board to require a “high strength waste water agreement,” basically how would an emergency situation be handled, e.g. such as an entire barrel of beer accidentally spilling and going down the drain. This could have serious consequences for the town’s wastewater treatment system.

The board plans to adopt the ordinances at their May monthly meeting.  Anyone interested in seeing a copy of the draft, should contact the town office-802-226-7292.

F. Waste Water Treatment Facility Aeration System: At this year’s town meeting, the voters approved a municipal bond in the amount not to exceed $790,000 for the purpose of complete replacement of the Town Wastewater Treatment Plant Aeration System. The SB approved the following: Step 1 Engineering Service Agreement from Weston & Sampson for the WWTF Aeration System Improvements for a cost of $9,750; application for the loan for $10,000 to pay for Step 1; and appointing the town manager as the Town’s project representative, which allows the town manager to sign engineering and contractor agreements and to process payments and change orders

G. Bridges

#58 (Depot Street Bridge): Weston & Sampson has recommended to VTrans that instead of continuing the practice of stringing the water and waste water utilities to the bridge, to consider directional boring that would bury the utility lines under the river and be separate from the bridge. This system already exists at the Mill St. Bridge in Cavendish, next to MacMolding. If this approach is feasible, this would make bridge replacement much easier and potentially could be less expensive. While the bridge will not be replaced until 2019, VTrans is starting now to talk to abutting property owners. The board approved the feasibility study.

#21 (Greenbrier Bridge): Repair of this bridge will go out to bid this summer.

#22 (East Rd/Old County): A grant has been applied to make the necessary repairs resulting from Irene. If awarded, Bruce McEnaney, asst. Town manager, wants to ask the state to bid the work of #21 and #22 to the same contractor in order to reduce costs and hopefully expedite the process.

H. Town Wide Tag Sale: Approval was given for use of the town greens for the 7th annual town wide tag sale-July 29, 9-2.

I. Memorial Day Activities: McEnaney provided an update to the board on this coming year’s Memorial Day activities-May 30 (Tuesday). The guest speaker will be WWII veteran Jim Hasson with parade and cemetery activities taking place in Cavendish. A luncheon will follow at the Cavendish Baptist Church. CTES sixth graders will be making poppies as well as placing flags on the veterans’ graves in the town maintained cemeteries. It was noted that in the past,  school children were responsible for cleaning the cemeteries and decorating them prior to Memorial Day. However, with the mergers of schools, this custom was dropped. To reduce the use of plastics, planters will be used in front of both war memorials and a natural fiber wreath will be tossed into the Black River.

K. 2016-20121 Town All Hazard Mitigation plan was adopted.

L. Resignations/Appointment: Ginger Wilk submitted a letter of resignation as Justice of the Peace. This was accepted with regret. Selectmen Jill Flinn’s resignation as Animal Control Officer was on the agenda. Since she had not filed a letter to that effect, and wasn’t present at the meeting, this was tabled until May. Wendy Regier was appointed to the Planning Commission, which recently dropped their membership from nine to seven members.

M. Town Garage: The building has now been stripped and the floor cleaned. It will cost $21,000 to remove the asbestos, which is covered by insurance. There is still no final figure as to what the insurance company will pay for. As soon as that figure is available, discussion can begin as to what to do about the building. In the mean time, one of the two trucks that were damaged but repairable, is being picked up and Ludlow’s truck returned. The town greatly appreciates the support from Ludlow and commends the town crew for doing such an excellent job particularly under some such adverse conditions.