by Raymonda Parchment
GREENSBORO – Dan Predpall provided a grim update to the ongoing wastewater system project, with Chair Eric Hanson saying, “Basically, the project is dead for now. We don’t have a site for the town wastewater. . . We don’t have a purchase and sale agreement. We don’t have anything. We’ve gone to ARPA, to the state, and asked them, can we extend this?”
When the discussion at Greensboro’s December 11 select board meeting turned to creation of a new town group to take on planning for the wastewater system, Josh Karp, scribe, said transparency is important given its relevance in town discussions in past months. “You guys, respectfully, you’re out of your mind to propose, given what’s happened, that you’re going to have a wastewater committee meeting that’s not going to meet the open meeting law.”
With no system planned, ARPA has asked the town to rescind the funds, which totaled somewhere around $5 million. Hanson said they will start from ground zero next year. The board discussed the situation at length, unanimously approving the motion to send a letter officially rescinding the ARPA funds.
Predpall said going forward, he would recommend a committee for the wastewater project
Hanson said “I would suggest that we set up a wastewater committee in the new year, issue them the charge, okay, go from square one or two or three, whatever you want to call it, and come back to us with a recommendation.”
Hanson said the board could select a committee in January to get this going again officially, a committee of maybe five or six people.
David Kelley said “There’s plenty of people with a vested interest in getting a wastewater system, and those people, I think, should come forward and help us get back on board.”
Board member Ellen Celnik said the group should be designated as a task force, or work group, not a committee.
In response, Davis Barnett asked “I’m curious as to what the difference is between the task force, work group, committee. Are there certain reporting requirements that are different, or transparency, or why?”
Kelley said a committee will probably have to adhere to all the open meeting laws and give notices of their meetings and don’t have to post public notes.
Karp then made his comment about transparency, after which Kelley elaborated on the differences between a task force and committee, again. “If it’s a committee, if it’s set up officially, it has authority, it has responsibility, it has a certain structure. It has to have a chair. It has to have a clerk. It has to have a vice-chair. It has to have someone who takes minutes. The minutes have to be recorded. Meetings have to be recorded. So, yeah, you can do a committee if you want, but if you don’t have people who are volunteering for the committee, you’ve got no committee. If you have a task force, it’s an informal group of people who are willing to work on the project and report back to the select board.”
The board discussed the matter at length, and ultimately motioned to set up a full wastewater committee. The rules and responsibilities of the committee are to be laid out in January.
Raymobda is a VTSU - Castleton English Major interning with The Hardwick Gazette.
