Washington Planning Board

  Washington Planning Board

Meeting Minutes - DRAFT

December 2, 2014

0.0       Assembly:  6:30PM

            0.1       Members present: Crandall, Schwartz and Marshall

            0.2       Alternates present: Kluk

            0.3       Members and Alternates Absent: Cook, Dagesse, and Terani

0.4           Visitors: Paul Dulac, Lloyd Condon

Schwartz motioned to put Kluk in for Cook, Crandall seconded, all voted in favor.

1.0       Minutes: Minutes from November 4, 2014, no changes were requested, Crandall motioned to approve, Kluk seconded and all voted in favor.

2.0       Old Business:

2.1       Bartevian culvert and easement issue: Crandall said a letter was sent by certified mail to John LaFleur after our last meeting and he had received an email in response. Crandall said that his abutter Moore had retained counsel and was threatening to sue them if they signed the easement, he stated he will sue the town if the easement is not signed. We will wait and see what happens.

2.2       Warrant article #29 – Kluk asked about the timing for a public meeting or a mailing from the Selectmen. Marshall said he thinks they are doing a mailing about the October 25th public meeting when Eastman gets back from his trip out of town. Kluk asked about a date for the next meeting and would there be a date for that in the mailing piece? Marshall said they haven't decided when the meeting would be; they have to set the budget hearing (this has to be at least 30 days before Town Meeting). He said they are waiting on SMAC and WESAC and budget requests and CIP requests are coming in slowly. Schwartz said the budget requests haven't gone out yet to the departments. Kluk asked if the public meeting might be in mid-January and Marshall said yes.

2.3       Master Plan Update Committee – Kluk reported the group is working on drafting the first 3 chapters; Land Use and Zoning, Services and Facilities and Natural Resources. They are working on the second draft of the LU&Z and Services and Facilities chapters and have a draft of Natural Resources, which was not yet reviewed. Our next meeting is in January.

2.4       CIP  - We reviewed the CIP document that Schwartz updated since our last meeting. She explained the changes she had made. Crandall asked about the Building Fund and asked if we should establish one for the Town building projects? Kluk said she researched the existing building fund and found that there are no restrictions on it despite what everyone assumes about it. Marshall said the Selectmen haven't used it because they thought it was restricted. Kluk read from the minutes of the 2011 Town Meeting and the minutes do not reflect any restrictions. Crandall said that if it is not restricted we should suggest it be funded again. Schwartz asked if we should put money in it again this year?  Kluk asked if the building projects fail on the warrant should there be money in the CIP to start saving to do some work. Crandall suggested we establish a building fund with $100K a year for building projects. Marshall wants to check the previous fund with Matt Serge. Schwartz said she can add another fund line and if the existing fund is OK the two can be wrapped together. Crandall again suggested a new building fund and asked for a preference and amount. Kluk suggested another $10K in the existing and everyone agreed. Schwartz said she would change the name of the existing to Town Buildings Maintenance Fund and create a new building fund called the Town Buildings Project Fund and make the new one require a trip back to Town Meeting to expend. Marshall suggested $50K and everyone agreed. Kluk made a motion to establish a new buildings fund specifically targeting building projects, Crandall seconded and all voted in favor.

We jumped to Mergers at this point to accommodate Lloyd Condon from SDA church, see 5.1

2.5       Washington Event Sign – Kluk said that proposal has gone to the Selectmen to be included in the budget and should help in communication of town events.

2.6       Conservation Commission request for funds to update NRI maps – Schwartz spoke about the Conservation Commission's Natural Resource Inventory map update and shared a list of the maps needing updating. She said the mapper has promised to get them a price in the next week or two. She said we should put in $5000 for now and she will let us know the actual number as soon as possible for the budget. She shared the list of updates to the maps with the group and will email a copy out to members.

3.0       New Business:

3.1       Budget for 2015 – We looked over the actual expenditures from 2014 and our budget from last year to help determine our budget for 2015. We decided to keep Operations at $200, dues we need to find the quoted amount from UVLSRPC but it should be just under $1500. There was a discrepancy in what was paid in dues for last year, $1452.04 was paid and then another $2133.16 was charged to our account. Schwartz will ask Dagesse about it. For Master Plan we will go with $1000 for next year, but we will put in $1500 for printing. We will keep $2000 in the budget for consulting on cell tower matters, $100 for training and $250 for advertising, keeping our budget flat except for the map update, which could be $5000. Crandall made a motion to keep the budget flat with the addition of the map cost to be added later, Kluk seconded, all voted in favor.

3.2       New Members - After discussion with the board and Paul Dulac, Crandall made a motion to accept Dulac as an alternate member of the Planning Board, Kluk seconded the motion and all voted in favor. We welcomed him to the board.

4.0       Driveway permits: None

5.0       Mergers:

5.1       Lloyd Condon returned with the completed merger application and deeds for the SDA Church lot merger. He had a letter from the church authorizing him to represent them in this matter and to sign the merger document. TM 15-154 and TM 15-158, on King Street are the two lots to be merged. Condon found that one of the deeds had a previous merger of two of the original 3 lots. He provided us with the most recent deeds for both properties. The merger document needed to be notarized so Schwartz got a copy of Condon's license. He provided us with a check for the merger. Kluk made a motion to approve the merger pending notarizing the form, Crandall seconded the motion and all voted in favor. Schwartz will complete and send to the registry. 

6.0       Communications:

6.1       DES – notice of acceptance of Septic system application, 32 Sweeney Road, TM 20-11

6.2       Certified mail receipt for letter to John LaFleur, Nov.10th

7.0       Meeting date for next Planning Board meeting, January 6, 2015, at 6:30PM.

8.0       Adjournment:                       Time: 8:04 PM

            Motioned by Marshall, seconded by Kluk, all voted in favor.

Respectfully Submitted, 

Nan Schwartz