PRESENT:
Selectmen: Piet van Loon, Gorty Baldwin, Priscilla Cotton, Gary Katz and Chris Williams.
Also Present: Paul Van Gelder of Newfane Business Association, Edward Druke, Sr. of Emergency Management, and Doris Knechtel as Administrative Assistant.

1. CALL TO ORDER
The regular meeting was called to order by Chairman at 6:31 p.m.

2. SCHEDULED MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC
A. NEWFANE BUSINESS ASSOCIATION - PAUL VAN GELDER
The Newfane Business Association is organizing a Newfane Community Yard Sale to be held on Saturday, June 28th from 8 A.M. to 4 P.M. The yard sale will be along Route 30 and West Street. The purpose is to raise money for additional funds needed for the summer concerts. The side judges have indicated that the event will not be able to use the east side of the common for parking. Mr. Van Gelder is asking permission to use the Town Office for parking. Motion was made by G. Katz and seconded by P. Cotton to let the Business Association use the Town Office parking lot on June 28th keeping an area open for residents who will be recycling. Unanimous.

3. UNSCHEDULED MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC
A. The Board and Emergency Management Directors have received a Public Works/Highway Department Mutual Aid Agreement Proposal from Windham Regional Commission. E. Druke has reviewed it but has not discussed it with the other members on the Emergency Management Committee. The Board also needs to review and discuss the contents with J. Gray present. The towns of Westminster, Dover, and Putney have signed the agreement and Brattleboro is in the process. The item will be discussed at the meeting of June 5th.
B. Ed Druke reported for the Village Enhancement Committee that a “Welcome to South Newfane” sign is being designed by Townsend Signs on Auger Hole Road that is to be erected on Fred Jenness’s property on Dover Road (TH#2). E. Druke indicated that included on the sign was to wording about slowing down. He will be responsible for obtaining a permit for the sign. P. van Loon reminded those present that discussion at previous meetings regarding traffic calming “welcome”signs, called for the design of the signs to be uniform in nature for entrances into the villages of South Newfane, Williamsville, Newfane and possibly Brookside.
C. VT Emergency Management Managers received word for FEMA that there are unsolicited funds available under Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) for fiscal year 2003. Eligible projects can include training activities, planning, the purchase of emergency response equipment (not vehicles), or innovative projects/programs that better prepare Vermont communities or responders for all hazardous events. The grants require a 50/50 match. Applications have to be received by June 2nd and must be spent by September 30, 2003. E. Druke will contact Bud Knickerbocker of WRC regarding the application requirements and he will discuss a possible application with the other members of the town’s Emergency Management Committee.

4. F. OTHER ROAD BUSINESS
(1) There was a discussion about what happens to the ditch material that is removed from the ditches during road maintenance. In some cases it is given to the property owner if they want it so it doesn’t have to be trucked too far. It is also brought to the Fitzpatrick pit off of VT Route 30 at no cost. C. Williams suggested that some of the ditch material could be put over the guard rails in areas of erosion. Vegetation will grow in the ditch material.
(2) E. Druke and G. Katz drove around and looked at some of the roads that had been graded and looked at the ditches. There is some mitigation work that needs to be done to keep the ditches in good order.
4. D. ACCESS/RIGHT OF WAY PERMITS
(1) There has been a request for a logging access off of Depot Road (TH#2) on property now owned Powling/Fletcher. The site distance in an easterly direction is limited. The access has been denied for this property in the past. If the access is to be used for logging only, the permit should be conditioned to require flagmen. It was suggested that Powling approach the neighbors about a shared access. Motion was made by G. Katz and seconded by C. Williams to have a letter sent to Powling/Fletcher to suggest that they contact the neighbors about sharing a common access before the Board makes any decision about the current requested access. Unanimous. (See also RC Report Item #1.A.)
(2) Motion was made by G. Katz and seconded by G. Baldwin to approve Access Permit #A03-02 submitted by Neil and Anne Montgomery in Timson Hill Road (TH#44) onto Tax Map Lot # 00D057 with the conditions that an 18" culvert one and one-half the width of the access be required and that access be level or down gradient for 20 ft. Unanimous. (See RC Item #1.B.)
(3) The Board reviewed the request by Donald Liptack to dig across Railroad Lane, a legal trail, to change the location of a water line away from a replacement septic system which has been designed by an engineer. After much discussion, motion was made by G. Katz and seconded by G. Baldwin to approve the request with the condition that the Board and the neighbors be notified in a timely manner as to when the work is to be done. Unanimous. (See also RC Report Item #2)

4. ROAD BUSINESS
A. ROAD COMMISSIONER’S REPORT - (See attached report)
(1) Item #3. A. - The Board asked J. Gray to put the speed limit signs up where required on Baker Brook Road (TH#19) and parish Hill Road (TH#26) by the uniform standards.
(2) Item #3. B. - The was discussion on the location of the cold patch storage, whether it should remain at the old town garage site or if it should be at the new town garage site.
(3) The Board spoke of culverts throughout town that need attention. The fairly new culvert on South Wardsboro Road (TH#1) by Van Iderstine/Dahlin is not working properly; the culvert on Timson Hill Road (TH#41) by Sinon’s is plugged and may need to be replaced at a different angle; and the culvert on Timson Hill Road (TH#41) that extends through the wall by the G. Raymo property needs work. It should be a priority to keep the culverts and ditches in good condition in the event of an emergency weather situation to mitigate any problems.
4. B. ROAD FOREMAN’S REPORT - (See attached report)
(1) Item #5 - The bids for Roadside Mowing and Calcium Chloride have been prepared by the Administrative Assistant. Motion was made by G. Katz and seconded by G. Baldwin to advertise and send out the bids to potential bidders. Unanimous.
4. C. EXCESS WEIGHT PERMITS
No excess weight permits were submitted that required any action by the Board.
4. E. DISCUSSION - SEARS ROAD (TH#44) CONTINUED HEARING
A letter has been received for the abutting property owners on Sears Road (TH#44) regarding the discontinuance of the road. The letter indicated that the Kearney’s will bare the costs of the legal work required for transferring the right of way that is needed for the Johnson’s to have ingress and egress to their property. The hearing for the proposed discontinuance of Sears Road (TH#44) began on January 23rd, 2003. After discussion, the Board agreed to meet for a site visit on Thursday, June 12th at 6:30 p.m. at the road site and to continue the hearing after the site visit at the Newfane Town Office for a possible decision on the matter.
4. F. OTHER ROAD BUSINESS - (cont.)
(4) A letter has been received from Farber/Friedelson regarding damage to their fence and shrubbery as a result of winter maintenance. The claim has been sent to Terri McAdam of VLCT. She will be in the area on Friday, May 16th to review the site.
(5) A letter has been sent to the Verizon Right of Way Manager, Karen Kotecki, by the Chairman, regarding the removal of the 75 or so old poles along Depot and Dover Roads and a question about a new pole the has been recently set in Williamsville.

5. A. DECISION ON AUDIT BIDS
Three bids were received from CPA firms (see minutes of 05/01/03) for the auditing of the Newfane financial information for Fiscal Years 2003, 2004, and 2005. There was also a question about GASB 34 standards, what it means and does the town need to comply with the standards. G. Baldwin spoke with each of the CPA firms and supplied the Board members with a GASB 34 Guide for Vermont Towns from VLCT. G. Baldwin pointed out various aspects of the GASB 34 standards. There does not appear to be any direct requirement to comply. If Newfane has to meet the GASB 34, the new reporting standards would begin in FY 2004. The standards require a better tracking and reporting of Capital Assets and depreciation. There is also a requirement for tracking and reporting infrastructure which includes bridges, drainage systems, roads, sidewalks, dams and lighting systems. It does not include buildings or land. The town has been discussing setting up the inventory of the culverts and road infrastructure to reduce the town’s cost from 20% of the total cost to 10% on highway project grant applications.
The audit firm of Graham & Graham bid $6,900 for FY 2003. Pieciak & Company, Inc. bid a total of three years for $18,050 and if GASB 34 required a total of $20,500 for three years. Mudgett, Jennett & Krogh-Wisner bid a total of $18,000 for three years. In conversation with the firm, G. Baldwin indicated that is GASB 34 is required, it would be an extra $500 per year, or a total of $19,500. G. Baldwin’s recommendation is that the town hire the firm of Mudgett, Jennett and Krogh-Wisner for a three year period. The CPA firm has been auditing Newfane’s books for several years and would know where changes need to be made to comply with the GASB 34 standards. Motion was made by G. Baldwin and seconded by G. Katz to awards the bid for the auditing of the Newfane financial statements for FY 2003, FY 2004 and FY 2005 to Mudgett, Jennett & Krogh-Wisner, P.C. for the cost of $6,000 per year or a total of $18,000. Unanimous.
5. B. DRAFT PERSONNEL POLICY
The Board will review the Personnel Policy at a later meeting. It was mentioned that highway employees are sometimes not taking their one-half hour lunch break and are receiving overtime pay for the extra time over 8 hours. Employees should be taking their required lunch hour break.

5. C. OTHER OLD BUSINESS
(1) C. Williams will speak with Walter Phelps about the repair of the front doors. The Board is very pleased with his proposal and offer to fix the doors to bring them to good working order. He will need to contact the Administrative Assistant about the rental dates for the building.
(2) A letter has been received from Marc Gray which indicates that his hourly rate for the use of equipment and labor for the mowing of the cemeteries and the town office lawn remains at $20.00 per hour. Motion was made by C. Williams and seconded by G. Katz to accept his rate for the mowing of the cemeteries and the town office lawn and to ask if he can also mow the lawn at the Williamsville Hall and weed wack the hill occasionally. Unanimous.

6. NEW BUSINESS
A. APPOINTMENTS
(1) REPRESENTATIVE TO RESCUE, INC.
A possible candidate has been contacted, but no response has been received as yet.
(2) ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT - TERM - 2007
A letter has been received from Edward Nelson of Timson Hil Road which indicates that he is interested in serving as a member of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. Motion was made by G. Katz and seconded by G. Baldwin to appoint Edward Nelson to serve as a member of the Zoning Board of Adjustment until 2007. Unanimous.
6. B. GOALS & OBJECTIVES LIST
The Goals and Objectives list will be reviewed again at a later meeting. The priority items on the list seem to be in the works.
6. C. SCHEDULE MEETINGS WITH BOARD, TOWNS AND AGENCIES
Sheriff Sheila Prue and/or a representative from the Windham County Sheriff’s Department have been invited to meet with the Board on June 19th. The new contract for FY 2004 should be available at that time.
6. D. OTHER NEW BUSINESS
(1) S. Hescock prepared information for P. van Loon regarding the amount of oil used for heat at the Town Office, the Williamsville Hall and the Town Garage. Each building uses about 2,000+ gallons per year, with the Williamsville Hall using the most. It was suggested that the town put out a bid for oil with the option for pre-paying. The town may want to also incorporate the local fire departments to get a better price per gallon.
(2) It has been determined that the drop inlet drain in front of the South Newfane General Store is the responsibility of the property owners.
(3) Chairman P. van Loon will write a letter on behalf of the Board to Patricia O’Dell Vietch regarding her abandon trailer that is within the town highway right of way and on someone else’s property on Hunter Brook Road (TH#32).

7. ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT’S REPORT
A. Item #6 - Andy McPhail called to indicate that, with the Board requested use of Duration paint, he would increase his bid by $200 to $6,700. Motion was made by G. Katz and seconded by P. Cotton to award the bid to Andy’s Home Care Services in the amount of $6,700 for the painting of the Williamsville Hall. Unanimous. Replacement of any trim or clapboards will be extra time and materials.
B. Item #2 - David Clarkson has filed an appeal to the Zoning Board of Adjustment on the town issued permit for the Eagle River Mining, Inc. project. There has been an Act 250
Application filed by Eagle River Mining, Inc. for an extention of the existing mining permit for that property. Questions were raised about how the residents can be involved in the Act 250 process. Those listed as abutting property owners or owners within the general project area will receive from Act 250 a notice of application and hearing with dates to respond if there are issues and/or a date when a hearing will be held. The Selectboard and the Planning Commission have each received a copy of the application for review and comment.
C. The Board has received the March 2003 Revenue and Capital reports. Also received were the April 2003 Revenue, Expense and Capital Fund reports. For the end of April 96.85% of the anticipated revenues have bee received. For the end of April 76.53% of the Town and Highway budgets have been expensed.
D. The new phone system has been installed. The office personnel are becoming familiar with the changes.
E. Bazin Brothers has been contacted about when they will begin the bridge project on Bridge #32 on Bruce Brook Road (TH#21) No response has been received as yet. Property owners and emergency vehicles need to be notified.

8. MINUTES
The Board reviewed the minutes of the Regular Meetings of 04/17/03 and 05/01/03 and the minutes of the Special Meeting of 05/08/03. Motion was made by G. Baldwin and seconded by C. Williams to approve the minutes of the Regular Meetings of 04/17/03 and 05/01/03 and the Special Meeting of 05/08/03, as written. Unanimous.

9. PAY ORDERS
Motion was made by G. Katz and seconded by C. Williams to approve the Newfane Payroll and Accounts Payable Warrants for the following amounts:
05/03/03 Payroll $ 2,550.80
05/10/03 Payroll $ 2,556.23
05/15/03 Payroll $ 1,788.07
05/16/03 Acct.’s Payable #25 $ 49,196.64 Unanimous.
IRS Electronic Federal Payroll Tax Payments
05/07/03 $ 1,317.55
05/14/03 $ 799.73

10. CORRESPONDENCE
A. A copy of a letter has been received from the Agency of Natural Resources to the South Newfane Baptist Church which indicates that wahts to amend their existin gpermit by eleiminating the proposal to connect to the water supply at the Inn at South Newfane and drill a new on-site well.
B. A Project Review Sheet has been received from the Environmental Board the Kindle Farm Children’s Service is planning to construct a 10' X 14' wood shed on the back of the existing garage and construct and operate an 18' X 20' blacksmith shop and attached wood shed.
C. The February and March summary repoerts have been received from the Windham County Sheriff’s Department as well as the detail report for 04/13/03 to 04/26/03.
D. Notification has been received from the Vermnont Department of Health that John Feifel has been reappointed as Deputy Health Officer for Newfane for a three year term commencing on May 1, 2003.
E. The May 2003 issue of Opinions from the Secretary of State’s Office has bee received.

11. EXECUTIVE SESSION
No matters came before the Selectboard that required Executive Session.

12. ADJOURNMENT
Motion was made by P. Cotton and seconded by G. Katz to adjourn the Regular Meeting of the Board at 9:57 p.m. Unanimous.

Doris A. Knechtel
Administrative Assistant
Newfane Board of Selectmen

Posted: Town Clerk's Office, Newfane Store, Williamsville General Store, and South Newfane General Store & Deli. www.newfanevt.com

ROAD COMMISSIONER’S REPORT of 05/15/03

1. Access Permits
A. Powling Access: The best arrangement at this site would be to have a common access with the existing drive adjacent to the property. Sight distance is a serious problem in any event. On a 40 MPH road the sight distance is supposed to be at least 560 feet in each direction. The distance to the left exiting the site is probably okay at 515 feet. However, the sight distance to the right is only 240 feet, making this a potentially dangerous situation. If the Board chooses to approve the access permit for logging only, it should be conditioned to require two flagmen when vehicles are entering and exiting the site. The permit should also be conditioned to require that the property owners seek a separate permit if they decide at some point in the future to create a residential access at this site. Two previous Select Boards have rejected residential access permits for the sitebased on safety considerations.

B. Montgomery Access: This permit is okay to approve. The site is on a 30 MPH road and sight distances are fine in both directions (well over 500 feet each way). The permit should be conditioned to require a 15 inch culvert at the road since water clearly runs along the side at the proposed access popoint. The permit approval should also remind the property owners that the access should be level as it comes to the road.

2. Other Permits
The Liptack permit request to dig to lay pipes across Railroad Lane is okay as long as the pipes are a minimum of six feet deep. But, there are a couple of important questions that need to be answered before issuing the permit: How long would the road have to be closed for the digging and what would the neighbors who need to use the road to get to and from their property do during that time?

3. Select Board Questions
A. Speed Limit Signs on Baker Brook Road: The Board asked for Jim’s recommendations about where to put the additional signs. He suggests one opposite the existing 25 mph sign and one shortly after the right turn onto Baker Brook Road from the bridge at Parish. However, Jim believes that enforcement is still the problem since discussions with the Sheriff’s people indicates that no enforcement would be done unless a vehicle was traveling 15 MPH or more over the speed limit.
B. Cold Patch Storage: Chris asked if we could move the cold patch storage from the old garage to the new one. Jim believes that it is valuable to keep it at the old garage since it is out of the way and a State inspector has looked at it recently and said it was not a problem there.
C. Bridge Sweeping: This is just a follow-up to an earlier suggestion to look into alternatives to hand-sweeping the bridges in Town - I noticed today that VTrans also sweeps the bridges by hand.

4. Recent Heavy Rains
Following the heavy rain on May 2, I road around with Ed Druke to see wash-out damage long Newfane Hill Road. The heavy rains has resulted in significant scouring and wash-out problems there and on numerous other Town roads. The road crew has been dealing with the problem areas in a priority order and has done at least the preliminary fixes on most of the roads since that storm and the short one last Sunday. Some of the smalleer roads such as Wiswall Hill and Bensch still need attention and will be worked on shortly.

Gary Katz, Road Commissioner

ROAD FOREMAN’S REPORT 05/15/03
TOWN OF NEWFANE HIGHWAY

1. The following roads were graded and raked: Otis Lane (TH#22), Upper Spring Hill Road (TH#23), Timson Hill Road (TH#41), Beetlestone Drive (TH#25), Newfane Hill Road (TH#20), Sir Issac Newton Road (TH#7), New Road (TH#30), Loop Road (TH#76), Cemetery Hill Road (TH#16), Flynn Road (TH#49), Steepway Road (TH#21), Browns Road (TH#45), Wiswall Hill Road (TH#11) from Rohan’s to end of Wiswall Hill Road and rough spots on South Wardsboro Road (TH#1).
2. Street signs are being put up that were stolen. Additional missing signs ordered.
3. Vacation time is now being taken throughout the ummer months.
4. Equipment: A. The ‘90 Mack is back in service. B. The 2000 International 4900 series truck is being repaired at Delureys in Hoosick, NY. C. All other equipment is operational. D. Sanders to be oiled.
5. Bids should go out for Calcium Chloride and Roadside Mowing.
6. Green-Up Day was a successful event and it went very smoothly.

Respectfully submitted,
James O. Gray, Road Foreman

To: Newfane Selectmen MEMORANDUM
From: Doris A. Knechtel
Subject: Administrative Assistant’s Report
Date: May 15, 2003

1. Ed Druke will be at the meeting this evening as a representative of the Village Enhancement Committee to discuss the entry sign in South Newfane on the Fred Jenness property.

2. David Clarkson may be in this evening regarding the Eagle River Mining, Inc. matter of permits received and the Act 250 application.

3. VLCT is investigating both claims of fence damage, Crispe and Farber/Friedelson. Terri McAdam, from VLCT, will in the area on Friday for site visits.

4. Signed letters have been received from the current property owners on Sears Road (TH#44). The Board will need to set a date for a site visit on Sears Road (TH#44) as the last step of the Discontinuance Hearing before making a decision.

5. The Roadside Mowing bid and the Calcium Chloride bid need to be advertised and sent out soon. Copies are within your information. Don Elliot who has been doing the roadside mowing for the past few years informed Jim Gray that he has sold his tractor and will not be available for the job.

6. I spoke with Andy McPhail, Andy’s Home Care, about the use of Duration paint on the Williamsville Hall building. He did get back to me on the adjustment for the use of the more expensive paint. The additional cost would be $200 for a total of $6,700.

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