WOODBURY – Town Clerk Robin Durkee reported extra copies of the Woodbury Town Report for 2024 had been received. She said copies had been mailed to voters, who should already have received them.
courtesy photo from HCTV
A revised certificate of town highway mileage was signed, correcting the designation of two Class 4 roads at Nichols Pond, where a spur off Nichols Dam Road serves two camp lots that Peduzzi said has never been considered part of the Class 4 Road. Residents there will be able to keep their E-911 location addresses on Nichols Dam Road, continue to restrict access and post “private property” signs.
The revised map will show Nichols Dam Road going as far as the parking lot next to the dam. TH 14 will be shown as “untraveled” as it crosses the brook and goes into the woods, Peduzzi said.
Durkee reported she is purchasing furniture for the town office basement, spending $2,359 on bookcases and storage cabinets, plus $169.39 for two air purifiers.
A considerable amount of time was spent discussing options for finishing the basement’s new cement floor. Thinking long-range, the space could be useful at some point for an office or workspace, said Peduzzi, as the main floor and small listers meeting room are limited. Money is available in the insurance settlement, and the time is right while the space is empty, she said.
An estimate for glued-down vinyl flooring from Country Floors is about $3,000. Another estimate for an epoxy covering came in at $4,400. Board member Lizzy Higgins said she thought paint would be enough and would be cheaper.
Insurance funds for the basement from the 2023 flood came to $31,980. Expenses have come to about $17,000 so far, with $4,000 still owed to the concrete floor contractor. That leaves about $10,000 left with other small projects to be completed and paid for. Board Member Chris Casey suggested the small projects be completed and paid for before the board determines how the floor might best be covered. Higgins said she would check into the cost of painting.
Woodbury’s new Town Treasurer Lilly Baron reported her training has been going well and Assistant Treasurer Tom Beers will continue to do bank reconciliations. Baron said former Town Treasurer Brandy Smith has been providing training as promised. Peduzzi asked about Smith being appointed as the assistant town treasurer so she can continue handling payroll for the near future and Baron reported she is preparing documents for that.
Lister Bonnie Collins said town property tax maps, last updated in 2017, must be updated now to facilitate the upcoming reappraisal. She had asked three contractors for quotes on the work, but only received one firm proposal from Christine Chamberlain who has done tax mapping work for several towns, including Calais. Chamberlain’s proposal was complete with a cost of $8,200.
Collins said the lister education fund, currently with over $10,000, can be used to pay for the mapping. When the maps are in a digital format, she said, they can be posted on the town website and updated regularly. Paper maps will still exist at the town office, she said in answer to a question. The board deferred a formal decision on Chamberlain’s proposal until its next meeting.
John Reid, appointed to be Woodbury’s liaison to the newly-formed Vermont Ethics Commission (EC), explained requirements for the town’s compliance with new legislation, saying the EC is not an investigative or enforcing entity, but serves in an advisory role to the state’s municipalities. Most ethics issues in municipal governance center around conflicts of interest and gift giving or acceptance, he said.
Reed prepared a list of town officials required or encouraged to take part in state training developed by the EC. He will notify the people on the list and track who has completed the training. It takes about 15 minutes to complete the training in written form and a bit longer in a video format, he said.
The board adopted Reed’s proposed motion for a town ethics policy which said, “That such a complaint (conflict of interest) be directed to the town’s liaison to the state’s Ethics Commission, who shall investigate the complaint, and report the findings to the Select Board and Auditors,” with an amendment allowing for anonymous complaints to be accepted.
Reed then delivered an AV progress report, saying he’d received permission from the school to use the large monitor in the Community Room to zoom future select board meetings. The board decided to give it a try for the next board meeting.
Road Commissioner Alfie Larrabee said the crew has been doing a lot of snow plowing, as it’s snowed almost every day the last few weeks. The trucks have been holding up well and the crew is prepping the grader to begin shaving back the ever-growing snow banks, he said. The supply of sand is still a concern but isn’t a desperate situation yet and he’s working on options to bring in more. Larabee said he’s had no complaints about the lack of sand on town roads and he would like to keep it that way. If the road crew needs to cut back on its use of sand, hills, corners and crossroads will be prioritized, with straight-a-ways sanded less, he said.
Skip Lindsay’s recovery officer’s report noted all of the 16 projects from the July 2023 flood, comprising 64 separate damage reports, are now in a post-award monitoring phase and all funds have been received.
Two bridge replacement projects are in the same status and Lindsay reported he had signed forms, covering final approvals for funding of two mitigation projects. He said he’d received conflicting statements from FEMA and Vermont Emergency Management about the use of leftover funds from those projects and is trying to get a definite statement about whether and how those can be used.
Lindsay said he had received a letter indicating FEMA fund disbursements had been paused, followed by information about a court order pausing the pause. He will be closely monitoring issues related to federal funding under the new administration that may affect the town’s reimbursement and will keep the board informed of new information.
Michael Gray reported forms for the USDA Emergency Watershed Protection Program grant agreement had been received from the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission. He will review the application forms for discussion at the next meeting.
Dates and times of the Woodbury Town Meeting are, Saturday, March 1, 10 a.m., in the Woodbury Elementary School gym; pre-town meeting, Thursday, Feb. 27, 6 p.m., also in the gym and the Mountainview Union Elementary School District budget vote, Tuesday, March 4, between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., at the town hall.
The meeting ended with bills and payroll orders being approved and signed.
The meeting is available to be viewed at HCTV.us
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
