TOWN OF FAIRFAX

SELECTBOARD MEETING MINUTES

Monday, September 13, 2010

Selectboard Members Present: Bob Horr, Bill Ormerod, Randy DeVine, John Mitchell and Peter King. (Bill Ormerod arrived at 7:30 PM)

Public Present: Kevin Hastings, Amoskeag Woodworking and Tim Smith, Executive Director of Franklin County Industrial Development Corporation; Chris Santee, Fairfax News; Carolyn Branagan, State Representative Franklin County.

Call to Order: Bob called the meeting to order at 7PM.

Agenda Items:

7:00 PM Kevin Hastings - Morse Building, Fletcher Road

Kevin introduced himself to the Board and gave a brief description of his background. Bob welcomed Kevin to Town. He stated that his business is called Amoskeag Woodworking, presently located at Prim Road in Colchester. The business does approximately 80% architectural millwork at commercial sites. They are located in Chittenden County, but have done work in the Boston and New York areas, as well as New Hampshire. Kevin stated that their first goal is to get in and to get settled. All production will be located at the Fletcher Road facility with sales remaining at the Colchester location. Brad Morse operations will remain at the Fairfax site. Employees will be the six employees from Morse and twenty-eight employees from Amoskeag. They will keep the Morse name. They are happy with the building and area. Kevin is concerned with tax stabilization and the current assessed value of the building. He stated that the assessed value is much higher than the sale price. He will setup an appointment with the Listers to discuss his concerns. The time frame from move in and operational is by the end of the month.

Tim Smith, Executive Director at FCIDC weighed in on the Community Development Block Grant. There will need to be some involvement with the SB. Jim Boylan has been hired by Kevin to do the application process. They will do an overview for infrastructure and equipment, and a site visit will be entertained. They plan on doing solar upgrades to the kilns to be cost effective. Kevin wants to offer local Vermont products. John asked the question “what is the time of application to approval”. Tim thought it would be spring before money would be available. The paperwork will be looked over by the Town attorney and a public hearing will be held to convey what the project is and address any concerns. The Board is very excited to have this happening for the Town of Fairfax.

7:40 PM – Road Standards, Set Backs, Bylaws

The Board was asked by Chair Bob Horr what their pleasure was concerning the road standards in the bylaws. There hasn’t been a response back from Fire or Rescue regarding the compromise. (Skip was supposed to send them the information regarding the compromise.) A letter will be written to the Fire Dept. and Rescue. The e.mail from Westford regarding their road standards was discussed. There isn’t anything in the regulations regarding enforcement of the regulations. However, we could put it in the document. All new homes need to be compelled to have 911 numbers and roads need road signs prominently displayed with light reflective material and should be large enough to be seen from a shared driveway prior to a C.O. Skip’s hand-out on revised road and driveway proposals, dated September 8, 2010, was again reviewed.

Tax Stabilization:

Bob will contact Attorney Brian Monaghan regarding property located at 293 Fletcher Road, to see if they can, from a legal stand point, lock in the appraised value of the property.

Land Acquisition:

Bob spent some time with Barb Young making final changes to the P&S agreement. A target date of Tuesday October 12, 2010, for a public meeting regarding the land acquisition was scheduled. Bill will do a power point presentation. The date to vote on the land acquisition will be Wednesday November 17, 2010.

Water Ordinance Amendment:

The Table of Contents was never included in the ordinance as well as an Annex Section or the page numbers. Randy will go over the amendments to the water ordinance at the next SB meeting 9/20/10. A concern Randy had was with reassigning water allocations. There’s nothing in the ordinance regarding sales of the allocations. Under no circumstance will the sale or transfer of a water allocation be acceptance, it will be returned to the Water Commissioners.

TE Grant:

Bill made the motion to appoint Stacy Wells as the LPM (Local Project Manager) for the TE Grant.

John second. Discussion. Motion passed. Vote 4-0-1

Senator Bernie Sanders Grant:

Discussed, criteria sent and application for grant sent.

Alternative water source:

The information from Ken Yelsey discussed. Randy discussed water being made available on Woodward Road. We will continue to look for an alternative water source.

Carolyn Branagan – State Representative Franklin County:

Carolyn stopped in as she was next door at a School Board meeting. She received an e.mail from Lavallee regarding sidewalks in the Town of Fairfax. She also talked about the new road signs and in order to receive state funding we have to comply with the state. The cost of the signs discussed. She will come back to the next SB meeting 9/20/10.

A letter was received from the school directors regarding a piece of property, where the old town garage was, to investigate donating it to the rescue squad.

Purchase Orders:

There were some questions on the orders. The orders were not signed.

Other Business:

RFP’s for bids on town auditing. We currently have A.M. Peisch & Co. out of St. Albans, VT. We will investigate other options for a C.P.A. familiar with governmental practices.

CIP & Budget:

We will get references from the two interested parties.

HHWD:

We will call Dave Shea to get a quote for what he will pay us for metal per ton.

A cell phone was discussed for use by the town office for long distance calls. The Board will have Cathy look into this. We currently have SurfGlobal for our internet service.

Adjourn:

9:30 PMJohn made the motion to adjourn.

Peter second. Discussion

Motion passed. Vote 5-0-0

The next SB meeting will be held 9/20/10 at 7 PM.

Respectfully, submitted by Stacy Wells, Adm. Asst.

__________________________________

Robert A. Horr, Selectboard Chair

RAH/sw

The minutes are unofficial until approved at the next Selectboard meeting.

The minutes are unofficial until approved at the next Selectboard meeting.