Washington Planning Board & Select Board
Washington Planning Board & Select Board
All Boards Meeting Minutes
November 12, 2015
0.0 Assembly: 2:00PM
0.1 PB Members and Alternates present: Jim Crandall, Nan Schwartz, Jean Kluk, Steve Terani, Andrew Hatch
0.2 Select Board Members present: Tom Marshall, Bob Williams, Al Krygeris
0.3 Other Board members present: Brian Moser, Larry Gaskell, Janice Philbrick, Jim Berry, Steve Marshall, Linda Musmanno, Kathy Atkins, Tom Taylor, Steve Hanssen, Diana Hanssen, Ray Clark
Crandall opened the meeting and thanked everyone for attending. He said there was good news and bad news, the good news was that there is no quiz today, the bad news is that he tends to talk too long and becomes confusing to people so he plans to keep it simple. Crandall reviewed the sheet about what the Master Plan is and its purpose. He said that a town cannot have a Capital Improvement Program (CIP) without a Master Plan. He said it is updated every ten years and is a vision for the future, not a Planning Board pipe dream. The recommendations and goals came from the public meetings, the community survey, the community workshop, review of the old Master Plan, Committee and Department input, the public hearings. This all lead to the document that was approved by the Planning Board and also endorsed by the Selectmen. The PB gave out lists that would help the committees know what chapters they could be involved with and this is meant to be helpful but not a mandate. There are many goals and recommendations in the document, which can be overwhelming but they are things to keep in mind and goals to work toward. Many of the goals don’t require money to achieve them. There were a few recommendations that apply to all committees; that every group be transparent, post minutes, announce meetings, use the website and the event sign, Nixle and Washington News, Did You Know? in the Selectmen’s minutes.
Crandall said that the purpose today is to get feedback and where we go from here. The Planning Board’s job is over but many of the goals and recommendations are ours and we are moving forward with them. He asked if anyone wanted to give feedback. Jed Schwartz said that he read through the document and really appreciates the effort and thought that went into it. He said the breakdown list is helpful to his commission. He had no criticism and asked everyone to take it seriously as you move forward, he felt the past Master Plan wasn’t as clear and guiding as this one.
Crandall said that the Planning Board is going to tackle our list in January and come up with priorities for what we want to do. He said you could start with low hanging fruit. He said the PB envisions putting our accomplishments in our annual report. Tom Taylor said it is an excellent document and very important and he read the whole document. He said when he was a Selectman the Planning Board and town was being challenged by the Cash subdivision. Our town attorney said the fact that we had a Master Plan was important to the case, we also had a CIP and these documents backed our positions in the case. He said that another issue came out of that case concerning the true status of our old town roads. He thinks this issue still needs resolution to protect us in the future. Larry Gaskell said that any road not maintained by the town for 7 years becomes a Class VI road at best but it is not discontinued.
Tom Marshall took his Selectmen’s hat off to speak as a member of the Planning Board. He said that the committee did a yeoman’s job, it was 2 years of hard work based on lots of input and the Selectmen accepted the plan. He said he was involved with the Cash issue and it went away because of the cost to the developer to upgrade the road to the development. Taylor said we were headed to litigation. Marshall said there are still issues with roads in town that the Selectmen are dealing with but the Master Plan talks about scattered and premature development and maintaining our rural character. He said the Selectmen are aware that a lot of the goals and recommendations are already being worked on, some are new and we welcome your input, everyone’s help is needed to do things properly.
Crandall wanted to thank the committee; he said Jean Kluk and Nan Schwartz did a lot of work, Steve Terani and himself were PB members on the committee, Bob Williams, Lolly Gilbert, Carolyn Bullock and Annie Bissonnette were on the committee donating many long hours of work. He acknowledged Andrew Hatch of the Energy Committee, who wrote the Energy Chapter. Gaskell commented he read the document and was on the team that worked on the Hazard Mitigation Plan update, which should be back from the UVLSRPC soon. Schwartz commented that if there are changes we can update that chapter as needed.
Marshall said that in our area of the state we are not considered bumpkins, we are respected for being on top of our stuff because of things like our Master Plan and countless other efforts by town employees and our many dedicated volunteers.
There being no other comments, Crandall thanked everyone for coming.
Adjournment: Time: 2:25 pm
Respectfully Submitted,
Nan Schwartz