 Okay, all right So it's seven o'clock call the meeting to order. We do have two sets of minutes We can only do one at the moment until tether rise. We can do the minutes of May 22nd 2018 if there's a motion I move to approve the minutes of May 22nd 2018 with any amendments there, too There's a second a second and then page one page two It's just found one typo in the middle of the page after the the bullets in the second line It talks about the select board agreed the subcommittee with Ted Cunney Trial emoji town staff and representatives from Catamount family Outdoor Center should read will instead of with regular issues discussed Then again that the on the bottom of the page on the third bullet On the first line the town upgrading the substandard should read stream Crossings in that steam Then y'all some page two Page three your comments always in favor of approving the minutes of May 22nd 2018 say aye Aye There's no opposed. So we have done that one. We'll need to wait on the Second set of minutes until tether rise So perhaps we go on a public comment is anyone there's audience who wish to make any public comment any issue tonight Yes, sir Welcome back. Please identify yourself I'm sorry. I can't hear you when I get to the mic. I will sir. Yes, but that's the ring doesn't amplify the At all Yeah Simply going to talk into it. My name is Jeff Atwood. I live at 146 North Williston Road I'd like permission to approach miss joy and give her a couple pieces of paperwork That's that okay Here tonight about affordable housing unfortunately, I've been here for ten years speaking about affordable housing and Today ten years into having the state's first approved growth center There is still zero perpetually affordable homes for ownership and the two main developers in that growth center One of them is the head of the DRB and its partner is Snyder companies those gentlemen are Going to build somewhere around 500 units and They're not going to be asked or they're not going to have to build a single perpetually affordable home for ownership They're going to build a percentage of rentals Which that's great when mr. Raleigh is charged in 1875 for two bedrooms and 1500 for single bedrooms and We're trying to retain the youth and we're trying to build affordable housing in Chittenden County They need 3500 homes And there isn't a single home in that growth center to date That will work for any of those children in that schoolyard that I'm helping to build a school for Those kids will not have an opportunity to have any of that housing Because it's at 300 to 450 thousand dollars It is an absolute disgrace when you have a man on the DRB that Takes part in an affordable housing task force when you have a state senator that's on that task force back in 2013 when you have a select board member on that task force and Then you have a weekend retreat on affordable housing in 2015-16 and you allow your head of your DRB and another man to build 350 some on homes and none of them are asked to be affordable They're given all at market rate Whatever happened to lead by example those kids in that school are being taught that This is an absolute disgrace. It's shameful miss Ingram said it herself after that retreat I've got absolutely no respect for these gentlemen in here, ma'am They are devastating this community the last 10 years are going to be so So excuse me ma'am. I'm bipolar and the last time we met I was in the middle of a mania attack because of these gentlemen in this situation I'm fine. I'm going to try to settle down. I'm going to get to my notes a little bit But this is just ridiculous what's went on here, and I'm going to do everything in my power to turn it around This is absolutely this we have a state Legislator the head of the select board for the last 10 years Are you telling me that's what your colleagues expected? Did you vote on that legislation? Back in 2005 2006 You were not there my goodness. I bought into that hook line in sinker I came to this town Worst decision I ever made because I wanted to build affordable housing in Chittenden County I wanted to be a champion of it. I was going to do it here where I've worked most my life I was going to do it in a town that I lived most my life, and I was going to do it in a town where I grew up This has set me back 10 years, but this isn't about my project tonight. I'll tell you about that the next time This is about a growth center the state of Vermont's growth center You you've lured ccta out here to help get it and how many people are riding that bus How many people would be buying it or riding it if you had 200 to 300 homes in there? You might even have some diversity and some color You have totally missed the mark Those men have made tens of millions of dollars, and you've got simply some rental units for this community Sooner or later somebody that's got some power Okay, or some real authority is gonna know what's went on here, and they're gonna agree like me This is unbelievable in this state in the state of Vermont This is nothing more than a Western a modern-day Western where you have a couple guys that own the housing Build the banks build the hotel Or let's call it American greed. We've all seen that show too There isn't a single voice in this town over the last 10 years then mrs. Ingram or Miss Ingram But we haven't heard from her for a couple years She's felling right in line finally This is the other voice right here, and I'm gonna keep coming here and saying it until I see some affordable housing that Those officers can own are they worthy? Are your officers? Mr. McGuire the officers that you represent your staff down below The public works are they worthy of owning a home in this town? That's affordable or just rental Is that building some roots? Do you think if you put people 40 to 50 60 70 years old in that growth center that kids 20 or 30 You're gonna want to come live here. They don't want to be around us. They want to be around kids youth This is gonna sting this is gonna sting this community, and this is really gonna sting Chittenden County You blew a golden opportunity three to four percent interest rates You could have had a hundred and fifty to two hundred homes because in that growth center is last item You build 20 to 30 percent affordable You could have had a hundred fifty to two hundred homes 900 to $1,200 mortgage and taxes and What do you got? You've got a few rentals Bellevue he won't tell me what's going on. I Go in there to see him. He knows I'm looking and trying to figure out what's going on here I don't know how many they've built. I know they're only rental Okay, have they met the 20 to 30 percent. Will you give me some answers because I don't trust these guys? I flat out. Don't trust them. You don't have a state legislator You don't have people like this on boards and stuff and come up with zero It looks dirty. It looks like a duck. It walks like a duck. I think that's enough for tonight Thank you for my five minutes, but I'll be back throughout the summer They're further further public comments from anyone in the audience If not We're still missing one of our select board members, but I think we can go on to board applications Interviews and appointments. We don't really don't have any interviews tonight, but we do have a list of incumbents who Like to talk a little bit So coming up the end of the fiscal year here So there's a number of community members who serve on boards and committees for the town And as custom has been we contacted folks in May to see if these incumbents would be interested in continuing their service Include in the board packet is a report that lists the individuals who are interested in continuing their service to the town on these boards and committees Question before the board is tonight is we're asking To approve Reappointments for these folks listed in the memo Folks who decided they didn't want to continue service Those positions have been advertised in the town and we're accepting applications at this time so they're Motion would be in order for I'd move to reappoint the individuals currently serving on town and regional boards and commissions to another term as indicated in the report dated May 22nd 2018 Sir a second I'll second discussion on the motion just real quick How many people said no? I'm just curious. I Mean that that's just a real positive sign You probably get a sense by looking on the last page of the manager's report There's a listing of Positions, okay. Yes, good point. Yeah Just as an example We have one Number of the well the our representative on the Wunewski Valley Park District has asked to step down Although she did say that if we could find no one else she'd continue, but I think we do have an applicant for that Joy Peterson is stepping down from the old brick Church And our town service officer has been that for Gosh a long time Is moving out of town and feels like she would not be able to continue And I don't know the person on the Recreation Committee who's sleeping, but anyway that that gives you a sense of And the the other one was It lists a Ben King Father, oh This is the son one that resigned as a son Okay, father's on the board. I get it now Yeah, you can see my confusion though, right? The motion All those in favor of motion say aye Quick request Rick at no rush This is not a priority by a long shot But if I could get or maybe the other select board members would like it also a list of folks on our various committees That would be just something I would love to have and be able to refer to I've been working on a computer program makes it's right in front of me here That will present prepare that or provide that reports, right? Thank you On to liquor license application for the Fairfield Inn is a representative from Fairfield here tonight One should come up to the the microphone if you would please we do have your application for a new license I think So if you would identify yourself and tell us a little bit about what you want to do My name is Nicole Murphy. I'm the assistant general manager at the Fairfield And we're looking to sell beer and wine in our small market store inside of the hotels as a convenience to our guests We're looking to offer probably Three or four types of wine and the same three or four types of beer So two domestics and then two locals so that it would be a nice selling point for tourists And they wouldn't have to leave property to get something like that So be available to the clients only So hotel guests I mean technically if someone came out and had proper identification from the outside they would be able to purchase But that's not something we ever see People coming to buy things from the hotel otherwise and our friend desk would be the people who are trained to sell I've already gone to the class to have the second-class license And that makes me eligible to teach on-site to the front desk team and we would just have a display Available in the actual market itself and then in a closed lock locked office The only front desk employees had access to we would keep all the actual product So is this a new? Is this a renewal or the first time? This is the first time okay, and this is relatively common in the hotel Yes, industry for lack of better words there Yep So our hotel only offers breakfast service at this time and since we don't have a lunch and dinner option a lot of select service Hotels are offering beer and wine on site Right, and this is just a convenience. They don't need to hop in their car right drive to a convenience store something like that Exactly, it's well monitored your it'll be with it 24 hours a day the staff are trained will be trained Okay I mean it is it is true. You know you just flew in you're tired. It's cold, and Okay There's no further questions Second-class liquor license to interstate management company Oh Second Hearing none all those in favor of the motion say aye. Hi Very much for coming Next is a liquor license application for jiffy mark Thank you And this is a change of owner owner But this is there's no one here representing, but this is a change in ownership Jiffy mark located at 500 s6 roads being acquired by global Montello group corporation global Acquisition date is tentative for mid-July So a new second-class liquor license is required for the establishment due to an ownership change Staff has no issues with this There's no proposal to do anything different than they're doing right now I could my understanding they plan to use the same staff that they using now So I think that's what I said in application Question I have is there I mean it is a different owner and is there any reason to have them in to talk to us Now And with that include the manager of the Just like any And the other question I had is I'm sorry which which is 500 Williston Road. Oh, yeah, it's a station Yeah s6 Road Oh, okay, okay, all right, almost to the dam down there. I'm sorry. Okay. Yep. Okay, I Okay I did to grant a second-class liquor license to global Montello group I'll second sorry for the discussion of motion Since he were the motion say I So moving into the stormwater loan agreement James here He can give a brief overview of the project a star and then we can update you kind of where the stands for the Board action pieces here Yeah, I'm here for any additional questions outside of the great work Eric's been doing Wrangling all the various entities that are playing apart in what's going on here with Metta Ridge But as a reminder to the board Metta Ridge is participating in the Allenbrook Flourceration plan We are updating their stormwater system and the town has been very active Searching for grants for these residential neighborhoods that are trying to upgrade their systems Even after getting refused one grant we applied again and we're Award of the grant for this particular project or I should say what we're calling phase one Which is two of the three ponds We submitted bids for this project and actually the bids came in under what we Were prepared to pay for and had grant funding to pay for That bid is anticipated and hoped to be awarded to the lowest bidder and Really what we're working on now and Eric's been really active in is making sure all the paperwork is in line and making sure that legal counsel has reviewed that and All the T's are crossed and eyes are dotted to make sure that we can move forward Any other questions about the big picture reasonings about why we're here or Technical questions about the pond and the plans I'm happy to address But I think Eric can talk in more detail about where we stand legal agreements Just one quick comment if you don't mind Between the the grant was successful the second time and bids coming in below your estimates. That's both good news Yes, we need we need good news I'm not a betting man because most of my guesses are wrong when it comes to applying for grants at the state, but yeah, it's all great news So we're asking the board tonight. There's two items. We're asking the board to consider taking action on there's So metal Ridge is looking to have its loan finance 100% by the town and that loan amount would be 338,000 dolly $705 this includes $16,800 and eligible loan expenses for project management from the consultant engineer on the project So we're asking the board if it would support approving first the loan agreement There's a copy in your packet and also the escrow transfer agreement Board may recall a couple months ago. It amended its stormwater loan policy So we could have this mechanism in place for metal Ridge and if it came up again Where the town could supply the financial security by transferring money from the stormwater fund to the escrow funds? This is in place Retired 10% of construction costs as part of the development agreement need that in place so the administrative permit can be issued So we also need a mechanism to document that so the zoning administrator could then issue that issue that permit So by approving this escrow transfer agreement the board approved that transfer of funds And then we'd have documented that that took place So those are the two pieces the board's ass take action on tonight, but What we've done is we've reviewed Sats reviewed in the town attorneys reviewed the additional documents legal documents that go with this transaction Everything's at place except there's one piece. We still need to work out The town's requested an opinion stating that none of the restrictions report in the title report Effect the ability of metal Ridge to construct operate maintain a repair the stormwater system this was To assure Wilson that will not encounter any problems down the road from a third party claiming some kind of interest in easement area Per the stormwater agreement the town's going to assume Responsibility for ongoing maintenance and repairs of the system once it's complete and certified both phases the phase this bid is covering is What we're calling phase one which is ponds two and three and then pond one would essentially be phase two of the project If that makes sense probably price a number of plans So we want to be sure Before that's taken on all this is certified is what the town attorney is asking So right now there's some disagreement in how this assurance can be documented by the attorneys and they're currently working to resolve the issue So with that in mind the motion before the board tonight to consider would be to approve each of these The loan agreement and the escrow agreement Asking that once this final piece is Sorted out that the town attorney grant final permission to authorize a town manager to sign these documents to proceed Deadline to keep in mind is the bid was a 60-day bid Available and that deadlines coming up on June 18th About this maybe a month ago or so and postpone an action because we didn't have the appropriate paperwork. So Can I just get reassurances from you again that these escrow transfer agreements are on a case-by-case basis? We're not doing a blanket agreement to do that every time so we get to review it each time Yep, that's correct as part of the policy. They say the board need to approve each transfer Practical matter, I think this may be the only one anyway Probably the only request we've had for an escrow like this and To reiterate one more thing with regards to the bid date of June 18th If we do not award or rather if we don't give metal ridge to go ahead to award the project to the contractor That contractors under no obligation to stick with that bid in which case we could be in a scenario in which we'd have to Go back out for bid and no guarantee that the cost would come in around the same number. So I think everyone's hoping we can Get the final paperwork in line and give the go-ahead I think one of the reasons why an escrow has been an issue with this particular project Is that it involves new construction whereas other projects do not and so there's different roles that apply And the easement issue is that I don't know what the correct words is it it seems like it's Achieving consensus whatever the right word is their agreement between the two attorneys is is is reasonable and doable Our Joe Fallon believes that we have to know what restrictions there are We're gonna be responsible for maintaining it and we need to understand what those are and their attorney has taken a position that I'm not quite sure exactly what their position other than they there's a Special provision in the agreement and not in a demification, but a Anyway it and that does off the town some protection, but Joe would like to have the additional Information about what easements are and that they don't represent a barrier to us to maintain the system Right now both The balls in their court essentially because our attorney has written them a letter explaining Exactly what we're looking for and why and we're waiting to hear back if if for some reason There there is an impasse Then it may end up coming back to that board that or to this board rather And I don't know what form that would look like at that point. My hope is that The two attorneys will work out some sort of compromise or a solution that is acceptable to both parties I hope so too. The worst case scenario sounds like it would be as the attorneys don't come to an agreement You'll you'll have authority to sign, but you will not sign And then we in a sense go back to square one about because we'll go by the 60-day period and The contractor could do everything from agree to hold the bid price for longer to nope Not want to work elsewhere, but I got other work and we'll just okay. Just make sure I was understanding I Okay Interesting question do they have a wastewater permit? I guess they do. Well, they're big though, but never mind. I'm sorry All right, I'm good For the questions there are two Motions recommended I would move to authorize the manager to sign the stormwater loan agreement and related documents for a loan in the amount of 338,705 with the Metta Ridge homeowners association after approval to proceed by the town attorney Do we have a second all second as your discussion on that motion? Hearing none all those in favor of that motion say aye. Aye. There are no opponents So moving on to the second motion. I'd live to approve a transfer from the stormwater fund to the escrow fund in the amount of $32,190.50 and authorize the manager to sign the escrow transfer agreement with the metto metto Ridge homeowners association After approval to proceed by the town attorney This is for a second Discussion on that motion if not all those in favor of the motion say aye Congratulations, thank you very much So we on to the Chittenden solid waste district budget and we have the general manager sir reuse and our representative to the district Craig Abrams night to Talk about two things one about the budget and one of it give us a general update on the activities Welcome. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time and thank you again for having me My name is Sarah Reeves. I'm the general manager for the Chittenden solid waste district and for the benefit of People in the audience and folks who may be watching at home The Chittenden solid waste district is a municipality created by Act 78 to implement solid waste management mandates legislated by the state of Vermont We function much like a school or a water district in that we are a government entity and we design regional solutions to challenges faced by our member towns Our district happens to encompass all of Chittenden County and we are the largest solid waste district in the state and we serve a population of approximately 156,000 people and over 6,000 businesses We are governed by a board of commissioners volunteers who are appointed by local select boards and city councils Our mission is to reduce and manage the solid waste Solid waste generated within Chittenden County an environmentally sound efficient effective and economical manner We currently employ just over 50 employees in five main departments administration finance unregulated hazardous waste Facilities and outreach and communication We also manage or operate five types of facilities our drop-off centers the environmental depot the rover the materials recovery facility And Green Mountain compost I'd like to provide a 30,000 foot view and then I will bring it down to about 5,000 feet on one or two of the particular topics and then I'd like to open up to any questions that you may have We are budgeting in our general fund revenues in the amount of 11,000,131,561 dollars we are budgeting expenses in the amount of 10,000,597,613 dollars and we are looking at a very heavy capital expenditure year this year unusually so 1,755,000 dollars the bulk of that Is at the materials recovery facility and that'll be part of the 5,000 feet that I'll go into What we are not proposing are any increases to the solid waste management fee that will remain at $27 a ton We are also not proposing any increases to the trash fees at the drop-off centers We are also not proposing any municipal assessments or per capita assessments Nor are we raising the fees at Green Mountain compost we did that last year and the fees will remain at $52 a ton at GMC The tipping fee did increase at the materials recovery facility on May 1st it had been $21 a ton for the past four years and due to combination of things the price of paper plummeting and the fact that we have this heavy capital investment year coming up Caused us to raise the tipping fee. We do have a differential and that will be Rectified over the next few months, but because we were raising the fee in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year We only raised the fee to $25 for our in-district members and we raised it to $50 a ton for our district members We will be closing that gap over the next few months, but we wanted to Not unduly burden Burlington who is really the only community that still pays directly the tipping fees and they just would not be able to make that leap within the same fiscal year with one Quarter left to go But they are aware that the tipping fee is going up for them as well in fiscal 19 and they have budgeted accordingly and the last two fees that have gone up one is the administrative fee for our biosolids program and again That is due to capital investments that we need to make there as well as to a change in how we allocate our expenses across all of our budgets and Finally, we're also for the first time. I believe charging for blue bins We've never charged with a little 16 gallon blue bins before I will not be charging $5 again. They cost us about $5 and 60 plus cents so we will not quite be recouping all of the cost book pretty close and then that's in an effort to I think try to give that last maybe final nudge to the community who are still not Fully embraced the carts and there's only a couple who are still using that the blue bins They're really very small and we really want to encourage more people to recycle as much as they can So most of our communities have gone to the larger carts Including Burlington. They're they're making their way through every year. They buy more carts and supply them to their residents So those are the areas of Highlight I would like to talk a little bit about the material recovery facility as I mentioned that is where the bulk of the capital investment will be we are contraction required to replace the Equipment on a schedule regular schedule and so we own the building. We own the land We have to buy the equipment and then our vendor operates it for us So according to our schedule the balers do and according to our schedule the balers Has to do for several years Hours and it should and it is needing to be replaced. So that alone will be around seven hundred thousand dollars Also this year. We need to replace the tipping floor literally the floor where the material is is dumped out Scripped up and then begins the sorting process We can no longer patch it So we need to replace the entire floor and that'll be about a hundred and twenty thousand dollars So those two projects are eating a big big chunk of the capital budget We're also making some investments as I said in our biosolids program in our drop-off centers We are budgeting to replace the drop-off center in Heinsberg We are looking to make other investments in the drop-off centers That we manage as well. So all of that together Hopefully we'll accomplish this year. It's a pretty aggressive schedule But much of the work does have to be done in this next fiscal year And with that, I would love to open the floor to any questions that you may have but anything I'm sure that we some questions. You made the six o'clock news tonight on the blue bins charge so in recently the legislature put an amendment onto a bill to allow a waiver for the Recycling the paper. I wonder if there's any anticipation that That you're this district would do after the waiver. Yeah, so we were one of the entities that Requested that the agency put in or asked asked for that to be able to happen that is a extremely last resort measure and The reason we requested that is as simply a relief valve. Should it be necessary last summer well backing up so China implemented several years ago a new environmental program called the green fence and they were starting to really serious about some other environmental policies and testing the waters and Shooting across the bow This past January and then fully implemented in March was their new much more stringent program called national sword And what that did was it changed their acceptance criteria on a whole host of scrap materials coming into the country Some of the contamination allowable contamination levels Went down to below 1% So the allowable contamination of mixed paper or junk mail essentially is 0.5% We could routinely meet 7 or 8% with the highest technology and the best technology Murph can meet a 3% contamination rate. I don't know who can meet 0.5 So essentially it has become a ban that through the entire system into chaos It affected us and that the only material that we said to China was mixed paper It affected us because 37% of what we process at the Murph is mixed paper. So we saw receiving last summer of words of $75 a ton for our paper to last month having to pay 57 So that swing has affected everyone across the country. It's a global issue Obviously China was the largest consumer of that material of all recyclables So we are working with our broker to go to secondary markets Vietnam India Thailand Indonesia So we've been working Korea. We've been working through their secondary markets. They will be filling soon Vietnam has already closed the doors for the summer. So they'll be reevaluating in the fall We anticipate that the smaller markets will close soon. So the requesting ANR to Put in just that one line It isn't to wave the disposal of all recyclables as you said it was just for paper And you have to be certain criteria. We're talking with the agency about what that criteria criteria would be But our goal is to not ever have to ask for And it would also be temporary. I would anticipate it would be a month to month Because the markets are changing month to month. So if for example, if the price to move paper to a Market to broker is a hundred and fifty dollars a ton and it costs a hundred and twenty five to landfill it I Have to take the less expensive option for the district it Unfortunately, but I would do that only again as a last resort and on a one-month basis and I would reevaluate again It's not something that we hope to use but it is a relief valve should we I we need to Guess I mean I understand this is the reality of this situation. So I'm not questioning that I'm just trying to understand What does it say or mean when? the one market you didn't mention at all in terms of waste paper was in the US and We are I believe a large producer of Virgin Paper I Work at I don't work for national life I work at the National Life Building and I watch paper come in by the And it is a relatively small country a company in a large country. So I guess I kind of have this Weird not weird. I have this misunderstanding of why is it that we rely on markets outside of the US as opposed to Markets in the US now. You're the solid waste district you might have an insight onto that Obviously, you can't have an answer for that because you aren't the paper industry, but I just appreciate your thoughts on that absolutely and This has been a long time coming. This has not been in development. That's happened in the past two years This has been 20 to 25 years of planning On the government Chinese government's side and they've done a good job They started out with their manufacturing processes building very large plant building building mills of every size Right encouraging the building of small medium and very very large paper mills They are the largest consumer of that recycled paper product because their ability to Run their companies at a very low cost They were able to command or or pay very good prices for the recycled material. So the recycled material followed the money the money was in China and Little by little the mills in the United States started closing There are very very few mills left in New England is you probably know We used to rely on mills in New York and Canada and Maine There are no new mills in Maine The the one mill that may be reopening actually was just bought by a Chinese company So China is now starting to invest in the United States in some of these more recently mothballed mills One company I was I was in Washington about a week and a half ago and I was talking to brand owners and manufacturers And Pratt Industries was there and they are I think the fourth of the fifth largest paper company in the US and They are the ones that are making Significant in the billion-dollar investments here in this country. So there is some hope and I spoke with the vice president of Sourcing and she was telling me that they still want mixed paper So you better believe that I have her business card and they do have plants in New York. So I will be absolutely Looking to try to utilize Whatever we can as close as we can To be able to move our material as long as it meets their specifications And that was part of the issue as well. China was taking everything in any condition The US plants were more picky as they should be and as they should as China should have been all along So now what this is requiring is requiring all of us in the industry to literally clean up our act So what I want to do by making this connection with with Pratt and working with our customers We sell to Canusa Hirschman We have local customers Getting a better handle on their specifications Talking with our vendors operating our Murph making sure that we are meeting those specifications And if we're not why and finding out how we can I see this as an opportunity You know, we have an opportunity to be able to take advantage of these investments that are coming down the road We just need to make sure that we're set up to do that This is going to be another two years of Figuring this out while Pratt makes their investments while Canusa takes the look and sees what they're doing in Cheshire forest products We'll probably follow in Cheshire paper will follow if Pratt does well everyone else would jump on board and we'll see more capacity Particularly in the Northeast within the next two to three years. We the district need to be primed and ready to Move our material there. We're not there yet So that's my goal for the next couple of years is to make sure that we have in place what we need to take advantage when that opportunity rises on a constructive Criticism note if you don't mind comment constructed comment note I'm an engineer and what would have been really helpful for me is kind of a actually a Written summary of what you did as your introduction. What happens with me is I Look at this and I see numbers, but I don't understand them They you need to I shouldn't say you need it would be helpful for me If you could pull out information like you mentioned what the overall budget was what you need for revenue What you would like for revenue coming in versus what you see your expenditures as how much your FTEs are Increasing those types of things that just the kind of the bulleted list of those things would have been very helpful for me I dig through this and I just can't pull out that information easily And plus, you know, I received this I think on Friday I Didn't really spend any time on the weekend What's that we had it for a while, but It's it's just not possible for me to do that I did want to talk to you about There are some comments in here where you talk about the solid waste management fund and You mentioned that it isn't increasing But you also seem to indicate there changes that are going to be happening to it And I want to under you there's a comment in here that says minimizing our reliance on the solid waste management fee Will be our priority and I want to understand that because it sounds to me like If I interpreted this correctly, you'll be Only focusing that revenue on a certain part of your operation Where in the past, maybe it was used more broadly and so One way to look at that is I think I got your point about it's a way to help us understand How our operations are running, you know, where are we really spending the money versus bringing in? But the other way to look at it is is that you're keeping the fees small But you're also using it for a smaller piece of of your budget So Where does that other revenue come from to run those other pieces? Those will actually be increases Kind of won't they maybe I'm getting the picture wrong I don't know and that but I'm trying to understand that and a bit of it is is if you could This may not be able to be done real briefly, but as briefly as possible What is the history of the solid waste management fund and what I mean by that? What was it meant to do and what are you changing it to now? I'm gonna start there because that's that's a great question And it leads to one of the other projects I will be bringing to my board this summer and that is our charter so when I look for guidance on historical things I go back to the charter and I Look there first and the last time it was amended was 1992 so before my daughter was born was the last time it was touched and It things have changed as you can imagine So when I look at the charter and I see I look for exactly that what can this management fee be used for? It's quite vague on the one hand. That's good on the other hand. That's not so good So there's not a lot of guidance as to what it historically was supposed to be used for other than operations in general, so I think over the years the district has probably simply used it as it needed to to get programs going to You know subsize operations to whatever was needed to run the district and administer the district which is appropriate What we want to what we mean by trying to minimize the reliance on that is to properly price our Goods and services just like any other business would properly price their goods and services What we need to do is focus on what are the costs of goods and services and making sure that we know per ton Exactly what everything costs to to do in the district. We don't have as accurate a An idea of that as I would like so we're focusing this year on Streamlining our finances Simplifying our operations becoming more efficient where we can so we can get down to that bottom line number and say okay per ton this is what this costs and Whenever the you know the inbound revenue was not enough we would subsidize was always management fee and the goal to Minimize your reliance on that is though it doesn't keep going up and up and up and up essentially. It's a trash tax so if we want to maintain that support at a certain level we have to Recognize that there are other areas where we can receive Revenue whether it's tipping fees or sale of materials Etc. So we're looking to where can we? Maximize those still keeping a good value and that's the other thing too It's not a shifting of the cost necessarily But there are some items that we don't charge our customers for and there's always a cost You know recycling isn't free composting isn't free But making sure that the cost is directly related to what is the cost us to actually make this product run this operation? And what is necessary so we're trying to not trying to we are looking at What is critical to the function? What do our residents and our members want us to do and and how do they want us to do it to an extent? And just going through all of our infrastructure We started that conversation with Green Mountain Compost for a streamlining Green Mountain Compost looking for efficiencies We're having a conversation Focused on the drop-off centers in a couple of weeks with our board and staff and then we'll be going on to the MRF So looking at the big key areas where we do receive other streams of revenue So that we don't have to continue to rely on a trash tax to support operations Okay, I guess and I understand what you're saying And I'm just going to throw out. I Don't know correctly how to put this I Like I think it's a good idea the concept of is we have the solid waste management fee that we charge on What is disposed of as trash and we use that fee partly to do things like subsidized recycling We use it to subsidize compost to the point where right now At least the recycling is free for I think There's no subsidy It's definitely not free. There's a cost. Oh, I get I get I get the point There's a cost, but when I bring recyclables to the drop-off center, I don't get charged the fee and I think that's a good model because It helps encourage me to dispose less because I'm not only paying whatever the fee is for somebody either to collect it or Me to take it to the drop-off center, but I'm also paying that $27 a ton, you know, however that works out to be but I get this What I get free is these ways to divert material away from being I think that's a very good model And I guess my point would be is I Don't know if it's a good idea to move away from that model Is that what I'm hearing is we might be moving away from that model I think one of the disservices the entire recycling industry has has done for the past 40 years is to put the idea out there That recycling is free and I understand the incentive and you want people to think before they throw and take a look at their their trash and Put it in a different place so that we can you know rely less on disposal because we only have the one landfill and and that is true But it hides the fact that there's a whole process behind the scenes You know pull back the curtain There's a multimillion dollar facility that has to sort through that recycling and there is a cost for that And there's a cost to process food scraps and leaf and the our debris into Quality high quality compost so we need to somehow balance that right and to make sure that there's there's the understood value of The processes and sometimes when things are perceived as free they are perceived as having no value And we're trying to get away from that to say yes, you know This is valuable to me as a consumer as a resident as a business owner. I will pay for that I'm not going to pay more than my trash. No, I should you it's got to be a balance So we're trying to find what that balance is sending the right incentive signals to continue to divert but also to get across the fact that These things do cost money to run into managing to do properly. That's the key as well Understand the point. It sounds like it's just a shift in to shift in the district because what I mean by that is in the past there was this model if you will of we need to make things like recycling as convenient and Cost-effective as possible now It's and I guess what I'm asking is as we shift to a new model that says we want to still keep it convenient But maybe it's not going to be as cost-effective because we want people to realize the value on it Is that something that the district is alone in or is that something we're seeing across the US? absolutely across the US and you know the The issue that is popped up, you know with China is forcing it particularly on the West Coast programs to be shuttered and abandoned And we do not want to do that. We are not proposing that at all So models are shifting across the country We are seeing tipping fees going up dramatically in the region in the Northeast region tipping fees are For commercial and non-member communities are anywhere from seventy five to a hundred dollars a ton As things kind of continue to constrict landfill space is constricting waste energy plants are being shuttered New models have to happen and that was part of the conversation again at this meeting that I was at in Washington was You know the old ways are gone and they're done and things are changing everywhere So how how they change needs to be individualized and so we're looking at it certainly as a district But we're also talking to our sister districts We're all looking at how we do things differently. We're all facing the same pressures So things will be changing Okay And then the last question I have is the the biosolids you said the administrative fees were changing for the biosolids What is the administrative fee charged to do? right, so we have certain only a few of our Member communities actually are part of the body's all biosolids program So we don't actually process anything We are essentially the fiscal agent or the not even the fiscal agent they pay directly but we manage the contract and We manage the logistics for moving the material to the different locations So whether it's class A class B or disposal. So essentially our only function is as manager of the contract so Well, again, we are also responsible for replacing the trailers and that's our capital investment that we are Needing to ramp up. We had not been replacing them on a schedule and we are doing that now So it's managing the purchasing of the trailers Getting them out to the vendor checking up on the vendor making sure that they're maintaining that the trailers properly making sure that They're sending things where they need to go that they're charging people correctly, etc Is that bull is that cost-borne only by the Advantage or participating in that program. Yes, so for instance, and I have no idea if the Tritown Essex wastewater treatment plant does or does not it doesn't matter, but if it does it is participating if it doesn't it isn't Okay Okay, I think I think that's that's it After no further questions and a motion would be in order to approve the budget if you wish to do so I've moved to approve the fiscal year 2019 in solid waste district budget as presented Is there a second? If not, I'll I'll second the motion There's very for the discussion of the motion. I feel like I'm in a bit of a quagmire tonight Let me explain first of all, there's only three of us. I wish there were other board members here. There aren't My my quagmire is is that if I vote no I have concerns I'm not sure I'm a fan of the new direction the district is going. I may be in the future I'm just not tonight And Craig I would actually you've been quiet so far. I'd actually like to hear your opinion Because I value it and think you're doing actually a pretty stellar job as our representatives. So Is that okay too? Certainly is I think you know Sarah's done a really remarkable job since she became the general manager And I think one of the things that she really Explained to the board Was that we needed more insight into the financials of the different departments? so the way she has reorganized the departments and then the budgets and expenses have really started to allow us to see different costs and I think in in in the in that process We've seen that we need to reconsider how we will Potentially do things going forward and I think tonight she really described that there's really been no decisions made I think what Sarah is really sharing tonight is that this process is ongoing and The board members town reps are going to be very involved And I think you know as we move through the process She and myself, you know, we'll be sharing things with the select board. I think she really tonight just really wanted to share the possible Directions that might occur So can I ask a follow-up questions that okay? Would one option one of those options be? That the solid waste management Assistance fee did I get the terminology right always mention fee solid waste management fee instead of keeping it level? It is increased As a way to I'm going to use word subsidize again some of these programs that Are heavily used partly because they are so cost-effective in other words I guess I'm asking if it is that something that's off the board or is that something No, it certainly is Not off the board It it's an interesting and a different approach and I think there would be very different viewpoints on our board We have a pretty diverse group Difficult but good. Yeah, absolutely and and it makes for very very Interesting conversations very in depth and and involved and very passionate so there would be certainly a Difference of opinion, I would think in in what you're suggesting which is increasing essentially the subsidies to these programs and that has has Not been met in the past from what I understand and I've Years, but has not been met in the past with Great I've been embraced. I'll put it that way I've been embraced by to you know to overly I think we're the third highest Fee I know that Addison County is higher than us as is central Vermont, and then I think we're number three So we're already up there. I think we also provide the highest level of service of any district Bar now yeah bar none and so the fact that we are able to provide the level of service to our residents and still maintain a Modest solace management fee in the scheme of things of what it costs is a testament to all the work that happened before I got here So that model has been good, but that's a very valid Question to bring to our board and Craig certainly can on behalf of the town to say You know there and Wilson is not the only town to bring this up in this particular in this budget session So you are not alone and wondering should we you know continue to subsidize certain projects and programs over and above What we happen in the past and again, you know From whatever reason and we're not sure Trash dispose keeps going up. So we do have the volume the volume and so we do see an Overage in our estimations and the revenues excess revenues from that fee So there you know there is room I think just in from a budget standpoint and from our actuals standpoint to use that that over Excessive amount to continue to subsidize some of the programs It's kind of gets to a philosophical question, too. So it is very much is yeah, so I can see that being heavily debated But it being a very good debate to have so I Know that one thing that I'm encouraging our finest committee to do is to meet more regularly So this would certainly be brought to them and they would debate it and then bring it to our executive board Which Craig is a member of they would debate it bring to our full board and they would be it So we would it would be vetted pretty thoroughly. So it's certainly not off the table and we can easily put it on the table So just for my my curiosity. Do you receive many complaints about the? The fee charged some waste management fee charge the haulers Every now and then Will receive a grumbling, but I'm not sure if it was a bad day Or if it was truly related to the twenty seven dollars because we're not the highest and we do have good services If you raise it, of course, you will hear from that guarantee Good. Thank you. Thank you chair for letting me so the motion before us is to approve the budget Are you ready for the question? All those in favor of proving the motion to say aye aye There are no negative votes. So thank you very much you Would give us a quick verbal report on any other activities that you might have taken up So I had mentioned that we are looking at some key infrastructure operations, so we are in the middle of Taking a look at streamlining green mountain compost in preparation for the 2020 ban on landfill Landfill ban on scraps of food scraps being put into the the waste stream. So and July 1 2020 all Generators of food scraps all of us Have to find some way to keep the food scraps out of the trash and that can be through composting that can be through hiring a hauler to Take the food scraps away dropping them off at a drop-off center dropping them off at the mountain compost If your community allows garbage disposal is putting in a garbage disposal, but you have to somehow keep them out of the trash So we are right now looking at our efficiencies to ensure that we can receive the material at the mountain compost You know while maintaining Our low level odors to no odors That is the priority and if it seems that we are unable to Meet the increase we need to find a way to divert the excess So we're actively looking at that right now because we know that that's a priority The other piece as I mentioned is the drop-off center strategies We're meeting in a week and a half two weeks with our board and staff to talk about the future of the drop-off center Systems and the next will be the future of the MRF Because of all of the reasons that we discussed earlier. So that's happening there as well Last I think we were you were here. I think Brian Wright was here also and There was discussion about potentially increasing the capacity of The compost facility. Is that still being contemplated? So we're not looking at increasing our permitted limits that that is what it is So we are not at all seeking to go above that What we're looking at You know Depending on whether or not you believe the study that the consultants for the state did several years ago Chittenden County may be producing by 2020 You know 14 12 to 14,000 tons of food scraps a day a year No Well, hi without that would be horrendous We would be buried in food scraps. So it would not be good a year. So but still it's a monumental amount. So right now. We're accepting about 5600 tons a year and We're quite comfortable with that So but we know that we have responsibility to somehow manage or direct the management of the remainder So that's the piece that we're looking at right now is Do we do it or do we come up with a system where some portion of it is diverted? To some of the other capacity Holders either within Chittenden County outside Chittenden County and there are some options So there are some farms that are coming online Grow compost is growing. They've expressed some interest in doing more business in Chittenden County Even though they're across the greens So we're looking at partnering. We're you know a lot again all these options are on the table But that is our primary focus right now and again, it's to be a good neighbor and that's what I'm continue to be a good neighbor This is just my own personal feeling I think in the past the district was very good at telling the town what it was going to do as opposed to coming to town and Expressing how can we work together and and as a member of the district to be honest? I don't know how it's to put it that didn't feel very good And the chef expressed before Craig we greatly appreciate your updates almost monthly and really appreciate the That to keep us informed. What's going on with the district? Anything else any questions for them. No, thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate you being here So moving on to the Maple Road traffic comming study Presentation Lisa are you going to tee this up? And we have members from the tool design group as well So few folks would identify yourselves and do your presentation I'm Lisa Sheffler the assistant director public works and this is Marshall regional planning and Nathaniel who's going to be doing the presentation She's with he's with tool design We just got a quick short presentation and hopefully answer some questions in regards No We have an adapter No pressure Mr. Chair, I'm wondering if it might make sense A few minutes for me to give my manager's report sure why don't we do that while we're waiting for No problem. We'll go on two minutes. I mean another option. Maybe use my computer. Yeah, we can try Yeah, that's So we will proceed to the manager's report them. All right, I don't have much There are a couple items first Kind of a follow-up report concerning our Planning department as you recall recently we announced the promotion of Matt Boulanger Position of planning director due to the retirement of Ken Belivow as director And Matt will be starting in August when Ken retires So that created a another opening the Senior planner position and we've decided to fill that as a planner position rather than a senior planner and promote Emily Heyman Who is currently planning technician within the department? So she will assume the planner for the developer review board And of course she'll be working closely with that who is the former senior planner working with the developer review board So that means now we have to hire a planning technician and we'll be advertising that shortly and the other piece of this is Melinda Scott who is the conservation planner in the department. She's been with us for three years and has Well, she came to us with eight or nine years of experience. We've decided to promote her to senior planner position So I think that completes for the moment. I do all the movement within the planning department I Want to touch on is the radon testing that we had done at the various town buildings This is an important thing that All people should consider because right there is a fair amount of radon existing in this area And that's a gas That's invisible Over long periods of time if person it's supposed to read on gas they can develop lung cancer So it's a very important issue and I know when I moved into my house I had it tested and it was positive in the basement for it on and they installed a mitigation system I had a retested recently and it came back fine So in any case we had the town buildings tested and we had problems with two buildings One was the Old Brook Church, which is above the state limit and we will be looking to install a mitigation system there Fortunately, no one resides down there At extended time period, but there are groups. There is one group in particular that uses it Good part of the day on Sundays So we've notified all the users of the big church that We have this issue and we've passed the long information to them from the health department The other building is this building this came below the state limit, but just barely and We're talking about the downstairs level this building is on a slab. So there's no basement and So we're going to have this building Put in a mitigation system for this building as well and we're also going to put the various buildings on a retest schedule and the health department recommends that the buildings be retested every so many years So we'll have them on a test schedule And one more thing before we or maybe two more things before we go into the presentation We've been approached by Channel 17 with the prospect of conducting a monthly TV show and We'll be able to focus on various issues of interest to the community and bring in various speakers and presenters including department heads and possibly select board members And so we're going to give a try our first show is plan for July 12th We'll just see how it goes and I think it's an interesting opportunity so we'll just say one of the concerns I have is the amount of time it's going to take to produce these things but You know we'll have to evaluate that as we move forward and in the final comment is You've probably noticed the maple tree across the street from the town hall is not looking good Yeah, it's been in poor health for the last several years and I think it is dying so We'll have to look at it and see if it Comes back a little bit this year, but it's not looking good fortunately, we have planted a Another maple tree on the other side of the sidewalk several years ago in anticipation that eventually this tree would pass away, but When we did that we did not anticipate it would be the same We'll be looking to put another tree that's somewhat near the existing maple tree My thinking is that we'll probably put a different species in I love maple trees, but With all the concerns about different pests and everything I think it makes sense to try to keep a variety and in fact at one Point there's a photograph of the old brick church and there's a bunch of elm trees That are in front of it, and maybe we can find no tree that's resistant to the challenge and I have an elm tree in my backyard so Oh, it's it seems to be resistance been there over years So maybe we can find something like that. But anyway, I just wanted to mention that So that's all I had for this evening beyond my written report Interesting you mentioned the TV program. I was at a Meeting over the weekend and someone mentioned that it would be nice if we could do video presentations Regarding various boards and commissions that we have in town because most people don't have a clue as to what they do and Sure of some more interest in serving on them. So just a thought actually now that you mentioned that we are looking for program ideas and They should be directed to Eric. He's keeping track. He's got a bunch already I think there's a wealth of material out there. We can draw upon it. Just a matter of whether the effort is Sufficient to warrant the Work that's involved it. Thank you, Rick. Then we are ready. I think for the other presentation for the maple road traffic coming To Should I speak so This is the project timeline to date. We held a kickoff meeting on October 2017 We had a local concerns meeting in this room in January 2018 in April we hosted an online survey where we solicited community feedback and Tonight is the select board meeting So I think probably most of you are familiar with the location of Maple Road. It is a Approximately two block long street in between old-stage road and US Highway 2 slash Williston Road It is a curblous narrow 20-foot wide street Paved in asphalt and primarily residential and character These are the existing natural resources and built environment You can see that there are a handful of utility poles fire hydrants sewer covers sidewalks and some streams and brooks So part of this type of project is developing a purpose and need statement to identify the purpose and need and For this project the purpose is To ensure that the design of maple road Supports the safe and efficient movement of all modes of transportation While also retaining the neighborhood character of the road and supporting the needs of its residents The need for the project is documented by resident concerns related to discouraging cut-through traffic lowering vehicle speeds and enhancing safety for bicyclists and pedestrians Getting into the existing conditions here Road is a local street. So that is the Lowest on the functional classification scale it's intended for local traffic. It's under town jurisdiction The right-of-way is three Rob 49.5 feet the paved width of the road is 20 feet and the AADT, which is average annual daily traffic in 2016 was 135 vehicles posted speed limit 25 miles an hour CCRPC conducted several speed studies on the road These are the averages of Those speed studies as you can see the north-south segment has the highest 85th percentile speed Which is still relatively low at 29 miles per hour And The east-west segment has a slightly lower Sure, so that's a in transportation planning and engineering that is a measure of essentially the speed At which the top 15% of vehicles are traveling and it's used to assess Kind of what what the outliers are in terms of speed So we also looked at the volume on the road again. This is relatively low If you compare it to other roads in the area, it's significantly lower The Traffic as we assess it looks like it's primarily residential traffic as well as some school drop-off traffic So based on the purpose and needs statement and in light of the existing conditions We developed several different alternatives These were presented in the community survey, which we will get to the results of I'm going to present the alternatives So the first one is what we call alternative a sidewalk north side so that would be a five foot wide sidewalk on the north side of maple road between And then that would be Continuing on the west side between Village Grove and the Oueston Road Alternative one B would be sidewalk south side So between old-stage road and Village Grove the sidewalk would be located on the south side And then as again an alternative one a It would be located on the east side on the north-south segment The second alternative would be to add speed humps The location of those would be one on the north-south segment and one on the east-west segment and I would also just like to note that this was modified slightly from the one that was presented in the community survey Initially, there were four speed humps and then it was styled back to two speed humps And in this slide here you can see where the location of those would be The third alternative is an advisory shoulder, which is a relatively new type of treatment It is dashed lines Approximately five feet out from the edge on either side that create a space where bicyclists and pedestrians or other non-motorized users would operate When vehicles are encountering each other they would be allowed to Enter into that space, but in general they would drive towards the center of the road this is a type of treatment that would be used on very low volume roads and The intention is to create a visual separation and To sort of further clarify what the usage of the street is Finally alternative four would be no-build so we would be retaining the current design and operation of Maple Road So now I'm going to talk about the community survey results This is open from April 11th to April 22nd It was promoted by CCRPC and the town of Williston via front porch There were a total of 39 responses 33 of which were complete 95% of the respondents were Williston residents and 51% live on Maple Road Before I get into this I also just want to note that when we presented the Alternatives a no-build option was not included at that point. We have since added that in and we've also noted That there was a preference for that that emerged in the open-ended responses, so if you're wondering why that's not up here That's the reason So what this shows you is the preference rating of each of the four alternatives that were presented among all respondents You can see that it's roughly split down The dislike and the strongest likes are to the right and the likes We also segmented out by Maple Road residents as well as Wilson residents in general who did not live on Maple Road and what we can see is that for For all of the alternatives none emerged as a strong favorite However, there was the strongest disfavorability among Maple Road residents for either of the sidewalk options And then in terms of life and strong like there was somewhat over 50% for speed humps and then Roughly I would say about 55% strongest like for advisory shoulders, so you can see some differences between What residents of the street preferred versus non-residents? We also had an open-ended response section and some of the common themes that emerged from those responses were a preference for a no-build option The feeling that the location of the sidewalk whether it was on the north side or the south side would be a cause of disagreement potentially Concern regarding the responsibility for sidewalk maintenance and the possibility that pedestrians may still walk in the road Even with a sidewalk given that We be looking at a very fairly narrow sidewalk to fit in the space there so based on those results, we are recommending a no-build option and That is primarily based on the fact that the vehicle speed and volume data that we evaluated don't suggest into themselves the need for a modification and That the community survey results and Indicated disfavor for either of the sidewalk options and that there was not a strong There was no strong support for the second two or alternatives two and three that emerged from that And finally there is not a history of recent history of crashes on Maple Road that would warrant a further Investigation of that so as far as next steps go we are planning to submit a final report for the study sometime this month and Now we'll open up two questions in discussion So I know have a number of residents here from Maple Road and perhaps they have some questions and more comments They'd like to make it this time if you would just identify yourself and I have one alternative I want to present It's just a it's something I've really we thought of maybe Just apologize for not to identify yourself, please. Sure So if you imagine any T intersection And I went on Google Street view and looked at pretty much not maybe not all of them But most of the T intersections around town The perpendicular road that tees into a straight line road that there is in every instance I found 100% There was a stop sign at that T at the road that tees into the straight line road So in our case The straight line is maple road flowing into Village Grove So if you're standing that intersection, it's our road bends it makes a 90 degree turn But in essence the straight line is Maple Road into Village Grove and Maple Road effectively tees into that and The stop sign is actually on Village Grove so our Alternative proposal is to just Place the stop sign where it is customary most in every other instance the I found 100% of time Where it's the perpendicular road going into the straight line. So I don't know if that's Confusing or not, but it's just it's very customary around town and it makes sense because as you're coming up to what would be a term If there's going to be a one-way stop, I think the stops I thought to be at that turn versus Going around turn you should not stopping stopping will be the safer alternative and the straight line traffic Could continue on as as it does so That's an alternative It's kind of late in the game, you know, but it seems to make sense to me I think it would address the safety concern that a lot of us have expressed And anyways for what it's worth I'm kind of presenting here and I'll just Would be remiss if I didn't pass out my little diagram So I'll just do this for your reference. On the top are four examples of four other intersections Around will stand that I have this T intersection that they describe and you'll notice the stop sign Thanks Multiple studies that we've conducted for traffic home measures throughout the town It's highly discouraged to relocate or place a stop sign without having a stop sign or warranty analysis done and currently Been brought to our understanding as we discussed this with the design engineer that most likely neither Intersecting warrants a stop sign Give me The amount of traffic generated in that area currently there's 13 homes on Maple Road, and I believe 11 on Village Grove So I think that the MUT CD, which is the man the unit manual on Uniform traffic control devices is what we follow which is most municipalities follow I think they state that the highway needs to exceed 6,000 vehicles per day in order to technically warrant a stop sign and or 12 month period Five or more such cracker crashes has happened over a two-year period as an alternative if If the board doesn't want to spend additional funding on a stop sign study for this intersection MUT CD recommends maybe possibly yield signs out there for both intersections, but If you get a traffic study, I think our four intersections here deliberately has a very local Just low density. You just normal neighborhood roads I bet if you did a traffic study on these four examples and most of these freeway to intersection examples They wouldn't have that volume of traffic either. So again, we're I'm just this I'm presenting this Alternative this is something very customary and normal in Williston and at the intersection where you so I'm just thought and you know not traffic expert here, but I believe I Believe this intersection is a little bit of an outlier and I think this would address I think most importantly would address just the safety concern of the cut-through traffic people were pre-disposed of Probably driving a little more aggressively the most and just they haven't stopped where they would normally stop anyways at a T intersection so It was also discussed amongst the committee Stop signs are not used for traffic calming measures And they're very discouraged as a traffic calming measure I just wanted to make sure that everybody's aware of that So would you know I'm sorry Tom I certainly don't want to spend more money on another thirty thousand dollars studying traffic science. I think you know, it's true there's only 11 houses on the road and it doesn't meet the federal standards for highway volume and all that kind of stuff But what I can tell you is that it is the thorough way for great school kids walking to and from school And biking to school. There's enormous lots of kids on that road and because of the nature of the road Because it is less busy. They tend to sort of be all over the road When you're on that road my experiences for my own three kids is that It's I thought the traffic the speed and things really fascinating because they are also The speeds were so you know, it seemed relatively low, but there's there's just been a number of numerous times where either a motorcycle or Truck or something goes speeding around that corner And because it is like a 90 degree turn And it's scary and because there's been no accidents, you know, I think as a parent My kids are all teenagers now. So I don't really worry about my kids All these other little kids on the road. I Think the town is courting a disaster there for some family and some some child and and I don't think it requires The study to figure that out. It's sort of a common sense kind of thing I Have not a sign. I don't know the science and stop signs versus all the other things But it seems to make sense that you know people are very particularly in the mornings and they're cutting through they're trying to get to school quickly and They and they just they turn that corner up old-stage and they start ramping up and they go And they go around that corner. It's a 93 almost white corner And they have a stop sign there For some people to stop would mean that they can't just keep speeding up. They have to stay slow stop Look and make sure there's no kids or anyone else on that Relatively blind corner and then go and I So I again, I just I really would hate to have the town spend any more money I just think it's you know, we moved to stop sign 25 feet to a different corner And I think in try it and I think we'd make Really a quite a difference Thanks. Yes Tom's neighbor And I'm retired about two years now. So I know what goes on down the street It's pretty bad Old-stage road is another There's a lot of racing on there So, I think the speed bumps are needed Thanks Anything other comments from the audience before we go to the board On the stop sign Just to be clear, it wouldn't be making it a three-way stop sign As a one-way stop moving the stop sign from So not making it three-way just to be absolutely clear about that understand I'm just talking about the only thing I would add to my comment so that I think we really are not Are opposed to sidewalks? I checked yes on the speed bumps in April, but I haven't thought about that I'm really opposed to the speed bumps. I've talked to the neighbors and Learned more about those. So we're in addition to my comments We're really the no-bill is we're really on board no bill But we're really on board. I think a lot of neighbors are with you know, just a simple moving of the stop sign and to piggyback on that about Against the sidewalks element again. It was described as local road design for local traffic but it made making improvements of a stop sign or of a Sidewalk sir Calver. We just make it look like more of a thoroughfare invite more traffic in my in my opinion And I think there's just more stuff being built in task-formers areas. There's just gonna be additional traffic And it'll just get As we have discussed prior Throwing a stop sign and relocating a stop sign can cause liability to the town for many circumstances many different reasons We have spoke to regional planning in regards to what it would take to get a stop sign warranty Analysis done and they basically said they would be able to do it. No problem as for the cost There wouldn't be a cost for the town of Williston directly My only fear is if we do the stop sign warranty analysis and find out that it's not warranted Then that leaves us even more of a liability by putting one up after we have the proof in the documentation that one is I'll learn to I'd ask you a question about the other ones that are presented in the map Where are they warranted? For the location they're in right now and you probably can't answer that right now, but for which ones well They did the map that My guess would be that they were designed when the subdivision was designed and they were They were installed at that current time if we went around town and did stop sign warranty analysis I bet you're gonna find a lot of places and they're not warranted and they would be removed And I don't think that the town wants to start doing that at this time But I am pretty sure as you know in Blair Park. We just removed Stop signs and we changed an intersection with the stop sign warranty analysis We also removed some on Zephyr Road And left them on Day Lane because they weren't warranted at that area either So it's a catch 22 if we do an analysis it may deem that they're not necessary But I'm not sure as I had mentioned before I was doing some research today to the MUTCD and There's really no guidelines in regards to a yield sign and maybe if I mean if that's another alternative We wanted to look at and instead of having a stop sign completely people are yielding to each other First To spend more money When we don't need to really spend it for something that does seem so common sense. So it just seems a little I think part of the answer that is that if we were to want to reduce the speed limit or increase the speed limit We have to do a study For that because that's a state law I'm not sure About the rest of it though Presenting this this alternative so Things like stop signs traffic lights these are subject to the manual uniform traffic control devices This is a federal document many states have their own interpretation of it that get into specifics around Certain traffic thresholds that need to be met for the installation of a particular device I think it would be Important to point out the distinction between a stop sign which is a traffic control device. It's meant to mitigate the interaction between vehicles versus something like a speed hump, which is a Geometric change the room intended to actually slow down the speed of cars The reason that there are these requirements in place are to create standards and Within the transportation planning engineering industry To ensure relative uniformity across all applications so that drivers who are driving in One state or one town don't encounter radically different conditions in another place. So There there's there's some logic behind why a stop sign would or would not be warranted and why it needs to follow certain protocols to Justify So speed humps typically are Installed following traffic studies. So looking at speed and volume and also in consultation with the neighborhood And their desire to have Any particular traffic calming devices in some cases there's a very strong desire for it in other cases There's a strong desire not to have one it really Traffic engineer would kind of look at that a little bit more holistically around whether You know a there's community support what the classification of the road is so if it's on an arterial or collector Room such as, you know, the main road up here then you would not necessarily want to raise Like that on a local street where there's support from the community and why there's some traffic data suggests that there's a speedy problem and The speed might be warranted and recommended in that case So you're going to question the uniformity sort of issue. I totally agree. I think there should not be uniformity I think this diagram, I don't know if it's doing it justice or not But I think my goal was to illustrate that I'm proposed for this work Some of us are proposing to be you have a uniform So that's very consistent around town So I think this would people come up to this T intersection They would expect to stop in this instance because they're stopping a similar T intersections around town So I've just had I think this makes a lot of sense because it's simply a hearing to Other many years, maybe all T intersections I didn't look at all but certainly 100% of the ones I looked at around town So the uniformity part was definitely top of mind as I put this together Joy just a couple of comments just because I feel like I had to Blair Park I worked there it has been so much worse since that it's so much worse since that since it was changed The way the traffic's going through and how much speed is going on So I was always like why did you move that stop sign? It had a lot of control and then when you did now it's it's worse I also just in support of the neighbors I mean you've got a beautiful street. I would hate to see a sidewalk going down there and rune It's it's just this little Hamlet that's absolutely beautiful and to do something like that would just destroy that street. Sorry I'm not sure that a speed bump is either so I have to agree with Andy I mean to me it makes so much sense and doesn't cost a lot of money you're using a lot of resources I don't understand and by nature I stopped there when I go through There's not even a stop sign in my stop there So I just say I guess I'm not understanding why something that's not costing a lot of money That isn't requiring major changes infrastructure, whatever can't be tried or done. I I'm just a little lost with that so rather than some of the major things that are being proposed. There's definitely some geometric issues with Maple Road where it makes that that turn is it doesn't come in as a as a direct tee So the way that it kind of curves you would probably need to remove some pavement and I'd say you couldn't just Change the location of the stop sign you'd have to do a study and I would probably recommend that you modify the intersection Or even if you wanted a yield sign Like you said you said something about adding yield signs doesn't do that same thing So leave the stop sign and add the yield sign anything that causes people to start paying attention at that corner Again, I'm just thinking of if it doesn't Require a whole bunch of major changes to a really beautiful road. I don't understand why we would Certainly for us we would not Which based on our preliminary analysis with the data from CCRPC just does not suggest that The stop sign would be warranted at that location and one one thing I also know too is We sort of look at it as a team intersection of the sort of north south and east west my understanding is that those road was built well after Maple Road and that In some ways Maple Road represents the through Movement so in some ways village road is actually teaming into Maple Road the primary vehicle movement I would assume is going through on people Sure, but the bulk of the volume is going from the north-south segment to the east-west or vice versa rather than going The majority of the local traffic is kind of just going straight to their points of exit It's not really. I don't know. I don't agree with your characterization if you take away the public traffic Technically, you're right. It's an addition onto that road But it is a straight line from it's virtually a straight line from route to village road and at tees even though the back shows occur It's it's it you know I don't think any pavement needs to be taken out or anything else. It really isn't it's a tee there and and Pass historically Maple Road. Yes, human leader, but it's a tee and And a stop sign I think you know, I'm not really a favor. I'm not a favor of a yield sign I don't think people that are the people that are going fast through there aren't going to slow down for yield sign But I think they will stop for a stop sign and Here you're saying technically about volume. It seems like again, there's you know, like Rick over here Who's home retired and here's all the time? He sees it if you're on the road and with those kids you see it and It may not the volume may not require it may not allow this And again, there's there's got to be somewhere in the rule books a common-sense approach That does allow us to do inexpensively do something that will really truly solve that traffic And I'm confused about stop sign doesn't slow traffic stop sign stops You know a speedboat you keep rolling That's confusing It won't be going So as you can tell based on the conversations tonight, we've received multiple different feedbacks. Yes. No, maybe so we want this We want that there's been no real consensus. That's why the staff is doing the recommendation of Currently no build until we can figure out a consensus Like the engineer said that we don't we don't want to recommend putting in a stop sign or relocating a stop sign Unless we did a stop sign warranty analysis, I can't I can't Legitimately going and say I recommend this with no data to back it up I For their questions from the board Understand how stop signs work. I mean I know how they work what I when I'm getting at it Octagon in red and am I supposed to stop at them? That actually is a little bit my point is right now we have a road where Two roads where it's the town. I'm sorry. I shouldn't say that there's no direction of who has the right of way So if there were and I'm just trying to explore this a little bit if there were an accident and How would they ever sign blame because there's no right of way is there at all? There's always a right of way actually if you go back to when you took your driver's ed class It's the same as the four-way intersection down here on North Wilson Well, the person that gets there first gets to go first if you both arrive at the same time The person to the right has the right of way I'm just trying to we put stop signs in to help, you know those of us maybe who are challenged and You have a road the road Maple Road bends well as I come off of route 2 Heading towards old stage it bends to the left. I've got village Grove coming in straight Do I have the right of way because I'm staying on Maple Road? Or do I have the right of way because I'm going straight up a stop sign technically They have to wait till you clear the intersection or the turn Really, there's a stop sign there, but if I heard you right that was probably you the town would not encourage having a stop sign there now I don't think it would the data would warrant it Warrant it because it would happen is if you were on Maple Road, and you got to that intersection You would still have the right of way because he would have to enter into traffic Well, I think one of the legs of that intersection would need a site. You couldn't just have a free for all So here's a it's a great example If you took away the stop sign which would be technically correct given the volume of traffic the studies and everything else I can guarantee and Rick I you live right in that corner I can guarantee that there would be an accident because village Grove people would sort of shoot out there and everyone No one would know It would be a really super unsafe corner if maple Grove didn't have a Stop sign there, even though technically Technically it shouldn't be there, but if it wasn't there to be disaster, and I think Conversely we just feel a stop sign on where Andy's proposing it technically Doesn't fit The standards to be understand those are good things they have those theaters But it doesn't mean from a real common sense Point of view I wish I had an appendix in the back of it. It's a common sense Look here Wouldn't mean my life a lot easier. Unfortunately, they don't believe me. We don't like that It's we're appreciative of it certainly appreciate the town went to all this effort. I'm with Tom I don't want to spend another hour. I never really thought it was going to get to this maybe that was naïve but Anyways, I've said everything I can possibly think about If this is mostly for the residents in the audience this question is is can you describe The cut through how the cut through works and what I mean by that primarily is which direction is it is it from old stage? So they just rather than waiting the six-car back up on old stage they come from April road and there's two cars that are And they make a left on Those are the critical and I get that I Does it so it's a public road so we can't Prohibit people from using it as a cut through the concept is is how do you discourage them and I'm I guess and believe me What I'm about to say I'm not even invested in but I'm still going to throw it out Have we looked at? Physically preventing the cut through and there might be two ways to do that What's that? Okay, I'm saying is this at all an option physically either you could block off Part of the road or you might make maple Place one way. I'm just putting these out there for argument sake So so what I'm hearing is there's no ability to prevent it from being a cut through How do you discourage it how do you make it it on how do you make it on convenience so there's less desire to use it as a cut through Which is the stop sign as you've indicated on on what you gave us The reason that we connect developments and different subdivisions That also allow cut through is so that traffic can move easier throughout the town I mean we've got grid streets going in we've got Blair Park. We've got Zephyr Road Those are all cut through to avoid tax corners You know so all there's cut through places throughout town and there's nothing we can do to prevent them other than half dead end or one way Colder sex no way in no way out one or one way in one way out So we can't do that and at our at our public informational meeting the kickoff meeting and then we had discussed Possibly shutting one end of the road or the other end down and I said fire department police department Go for that much and regional planning had never seen that happen anywhere in Chattanooga County before so I don't think that's an actual possibility yeah, like Lisa said we really try to promote street connectivity rather than dead ending and Creating all these disjointed street networks It's If you're doing the cut through I'm sorry, I'm going to explore for a second if you're doing the cut through from old stage to route to the Wilson Road to get to school quicker so you avoid the cars and Is there a stop sign where maple road meets Wilson Road? Yes What if there was a stop sign that said no left turn? They're gonna make some neighborhood. Well, I've got an easier question Who does the signs that you know say caution children caution blind child caution whatever You have them you have the caution children Public works so so is there one on I don't believe so Would that do anything? Because it to me I mean when I see those going along I you know it on your street anyway I'm always looking for kids just because of the nature of how it's set up, but I would think if I were driving along And I saw that it's going to be an instant indicator to go and be really paying attention because that's I Because you're not going to stop people that are sitting through right probably You may get some though and if you I mean that You're not going to stop the traffic But if you can slow it down and if a sign like that does something and doesn't have speed bumps going through your road or a Sidewalk going through your road wouldn't that be a cool idea if it works. I just wondered. I just didn't know of that something that Can be done. That's worth a try That's definitely this if that's something the board would like to see happen. We can definitely I'm just throwing stuff out there That's see what you folks might be amenable to Neighbors will be happy It's really sort of that simple You know, I appreciate all the creative things. I personally like that Blocking off the road on the whole stage. I'm the only one on the road that likes that But you know bar bar, and that really it's what Andy's proposed. It's just so simple cost effective And while it doesn't fit the I Have worked the state government for decades and know that wherever there's a regulation There's just to be another regulation allows you to do it if you wouldn't give it a look I would be surprised if there wasn't Something that allowed us to do this I guess what I'm getting at though is since that does appear to be a problem from what I'm hearing from you folks Why not do something that isn't a problem where if that sign putting one of those signs up is not a problem It can be done at least you've got something going in your favor while you're sitting there trying to find out if you can move your stop sign That's that trying to get you something without causing a massive problem So Tonight we are without two of our members. We're not going to make a decision on anything tonight We do have some or some new information that we didn't have before tonight with the stop sign information actually one of those that you Put it out there is in my neighborhood. So thank you very much Never thought about it, but I will know if there are more questions from a question, I'm on page 22 of the Scoping study I'm on the first paragraph in 3.4 and there's a statement in here That I just found a little disturbing We were hoping you were going to catch that I saw that too They approved it the statement supported that's why it's called the draft It's been changed and I don't know if it's okay with the revised Okay, so it's been deleted if you will, okay If there are no further questions or comments tonight will be Back talking to you folks again. I'm sure very soon. So we'd like we need to get This thing resolved. Thank you very much for coming. So we'll go from one traffic thing to another and we'll talk about the Traffic ordinance amendment and Eric All right, so We've taken a look at the town's motor vehicle and traffic ordinance The last couple weeks here and there's a couple proposed amendments for the board to consider here to amend the ordinance First one. Let's go through the memo on the board packet weight regulations Proposing a new section. It would be articles Here where we where we would look to restrict through truck traffic on some roads in town and the reasoning behind restricting through truck traffic It's a way to Descript to prevent Trucks from trying to find shortcuts Cutthroughs again from state roads to to local roads in town Trying to these roads are more suited for their use both the design standpoint and original construction of the road to keep heavy trucks off them and Also keeps these larger trucks out residential areas. So we'd be talking about Trucks going through town from one space to another if there was a delivery on that road Something that nature to access that road public works would provide permission for that the the other major section of The ordinance is kind of look is looking at universal global changes and appendix B stop and yield signs again here Looking to make sure in the ordinance right now It's a little bit over the place referring to our state routes in town us route to our and they're two way proposing to change that To always reference the state route first and then put in parentheses Road name for example us route to the Winston Road route to a Essex Road and By doing this it provides the police department with a mechanism. They can write a ticket Under part of state statutes so the town can get a portion of the revenue from the tech ticket on the state route In a well, we'll come back to this. Yeah, in addition on the backside here Let's clean up some addition of the stop signs For one the four-way stop the board approved for north bolistan governor Chittenden Road Out in view and then upon review we realized that the two stop signs listed for us route to right out here We're listed in the local ordinance. So same idea that to clean up that piece Removing James Brown Drive and Essex Road stop sign Which has been replaced by a traffic control signal and we'd add that signal into Appendix C That's overview of what staffs recommended for consideration for changes by the board a next step would be to more of public hearing Recognize the full boards in here tonight. So it may be Boards discretion what it wants to do and here to answer questions The question I have is is a little bit similar to the discussion. We just had the Prohibiting truck traffic from using roads as a cut through I get the concept. I like the concept Do we have the right to do that? I guess it's a way to put that What is the rationale for doing that? It's something allowed by the board You know speaking I was checking with Bruce today from public works. I sat down with him and Officer Shepherd who's truck enforcement last week to go through this It's really thinking about avoiding that unnecessary truck traffic on our local roads that aren't built to withstand as much of that forced state roads originally Made a better base on them trying to avoid that truck as some extra truck traffic when possible and you see some of these roads we've listed like Walker Hill Road Cove Road A lot of trucks now with GPS systems are putting them here for the quickest way to point a to point B So would there be signs that say no through truck traffic or these standards? I mean does that they reference that? Federal guidance document uniform traffic something something something Is this appropriate under that? I'll have to look for the exact wording. I know you know in our discussion. Those signs are out there We put the restricts. Yeah, I just want to make I just I just want it's a new thing It's making me a little bit uncomfortable from this standpoint of you know, I get the wear and tear piece I get the Well, I get the wear and tear piece I just want to make sure that there is a sound rationale that we can hang our hat on No, blue Bruce Who are our public works truck are released very strongly as I do in the manner manual on uniform traffic control devices? I think is something like that. Yeah, anyway, and he would not be Suggesting a change that was inconsistent with that. Okay. I mean there are certainly other roads that I would like to see have truck traffic limited on You know just for instance North Williston Road, you know down through what is called the hollow It's just scary meeting a truck on that road I'm not suggesting we can do that yet actually in a way we have the weight limit on the bridge Crossing the Winnicki River is lower than the bridge capacity To handle it in other words the town imposed a lower weight and that's been a Point of controversy periodically in the past. Okay, and that was actually my other question. It's the 24 Thousand pound 12 ton limit What's that equate to what are we talking for a truck there? Man is this I assume it's not a pickup truck But I assume it's definitely something smaller than you know, your big tractor trailers that You see on the interstate and that type of thing It would just be helpful for me to understand what that what that means And I'm trying to picture it for example a dump truck fully loaded with with fill or gravel I'm right. I'm just thinking some examples who may be able to look up and find an answer to would you know Would the delivery truck that that delivered our new clothes washing machine? Exceed that or not. It just just to help me understand even if it did it would still be permissible If there's a number of questions on this then we're probably have to bring People who are more familiar with this than Eric and I And have a continued discussion on this Probably be good before he actually I go to scheduling a public hearing on this to do that and come back with answers Explain the piece about getting a piece of the Speeding finds In my conversations with Police officer who was part of our group reviewing this But having that in there there's different ways to write a ticket and you could write a ticket Under this provision if you had a reference this way in the ordinance where if it was on the state road The town could collect some of that revenue for it being on a state road right now We can't because of the way it's described. Yeah, but the way it's written in the ordinance. So by simply changing We're not going to issue more tickets. We're just going to get money back for those tickets. We do issue Okay, this so ordinance change Start off with just a simple Stop sign removal I'm sorry addition And then we said well, you know, you look at the ordinance We see some discrepancies the way we describe some of these roads and by the way I know one of our police officers has suggested a couple different changes and No, you just described it's how my wife sometimes gets so mad at me when she thinks she's asked me to do a simple project Couple hours later. I'm still not done because I found all these other aspects of it It's probably a good point you're asking the wrong person No more than two sentences no more than any two syllable words yes or no I don't want to know how I just want to know that it will Usually sit there. He'll just go Any further questions that we need to ask Good to move on to other business we do have a catering permit This is for an event schedule for June 23rd Location is the Isham farm on Oak Hill Road That is a wedding reception and the caterer is Bevo LLC doing business as Bevo Yes, please Discussion on motion if not all those in favor of the motion say aye aye we have Majority Just care of that. Is there any other business we need to talk about tonight? Very none just a gavel adjourned Well done guys