Wallingford Fire District No. 1

 MINUTES OF THE PRUDENTIAL COMMITTEE MEETING
 October 24, 2007

The official copy of these minutes can be obtained at Wallingford Fire District #1 Office.

Called to Order:  Chris Rabtoy called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.   Also present were Rose Regula and Stephanie Biagini/Clerk-Treasurer.  Chris McPhee was absent.  

Visitors:  Ann Gates Miller  

Highland Water Supply: Ms. Miller attended the meeting to hear about the Ferguson Camp Water Usage agenda item.

Approval for Minutes: C. Rabtoy made the motion to approval the minutes for October 10, 2007 with a couple of corrections.   R. Regula seconded the motion.  No further discussion.  Motion carried (2/0).     

Prudential Committee Pay Order:  C. Rabtoy made the motion to approve the pay orders as presented.  R. Regula seconded the motion.  No further discussion.  Motion carried (2/0).  

Old Business:

E-Mail from Town Administrator: C. Rabtoy read an e-mail from the Town Administrator.  “The Selectboard discussed the upcoming vote on the fire truck last night.  They want to make certain that the vote on the fire truck is done properly.  From reading 
the town's contract, they understand that the fire truck can only be voted on by the three members of the Prudential Committee and the three members who live outside WFD #1 and outside WFD #2, and therefore, the vote by the people would be non binding.  If they are wrong, can you provide them with the correct information, i.e. statute, etc? by October 29th.  Thanks”.  C. Rabtoy said a call has been made to the State Attorney’s Office regarding this portion of the contract.  R. Regula asked if the Selectboard would be asked to attend a Fire District meeting to discuss this issue?  C. Rabtoy agreed they should be and in turn the Fire District should have been given the same consideration when they spoke about the contract or any other topics that pertain to the Fire District.  He doesn’t understand if they were going to discuss the purchase of the fire truck then why not invite the prudential committee.  R. Regula said that it was the question from the Town Clerk about the interest rate that had lead into the conversation.  No further discussion.   

Contracts: As for the Caretaker Agreement and the contract between the Town of Wallingford and the Fire District, they are at the attorney’s office for review.  R. Regula made a comment that we should be getting something wrong that takes him this long.  C. Rabtoy agreed.   

Contractor and Snowplow Contracts: The contracts were sent to VLCT for review for comment by their legal department.  J. Barlow from VLCT said that it would cost about $120.00 for them to produce a general contract that would be used for both purposes.  He suggested that the district not use the current contracts on file, as they are not the appropriate contacts for our services.  Regula commented that she does not agree and that we are spending so much money and she thinks that we can find something on our own that is more suitable.  The clerk said that VLCT strongly suggested that we do not use the contracts and that a general one be put together.  C. Rabtoy suggested that the whole board know about before we decide what we do.  R. Regula wanted to know where C. McPhee was and C. Rabtoy replied he had to go to Boston and he called earlier to say that he could not make it.  This discussion was moved to a future meeting.

Key for Fire District Office: R. Regula couldn’t remember which minutes to refer to regarding the discussion on the key to the office, but the Town Clerk had requested clarification and the need for 48 hours notice to enter the Fire District Office when it’s locked.  C. Rabtoy said that the VT State Law in Landlord/Tenant Handbook states if it is not an emergency you are required to give 48 hours notice to enter the premises.   C. Rabtoy went on to say that it seemed that someone was in the office and locked the safe and that we can remedy the situation by giving M. Breznick a key to the office.  Note that he will only be able to enter the Fire District Office when the Town’s Halls front door is unlocked because only the Fire District Treasurer has access to the building.   C. Rabtoy remembers requesting a key to the building and was denied.    

Truck Informational Meeting/Vote: R. Regula wanted to verify something, the information meeting was going to be held on Nov. 6^th & 7^th and did something happen that the dates changed?  C. Rabtoy said that due to circumstances beyond their control that the posting had to be scheduled for Nov. 13^th & 14^th for proper time of warning.  

Previous Minutes: R. Regula mentioned that there was little written on the minutes regarding the Highland Water Supply Association billing issue.  The clerk said that there is mention in the minutes that there was discussion was about the billing process and on previous minutes that a detailed presentation of the analytical water analyses. Copies of the Highland Water Supply proposal (C. Rabtoy will give the office a copy) and cassette tapes from the meeting are available in the Fire District Office.

Posting of Minutes:  R. Regula has said just a question from various people as to why copies of the minutes are not put on the web site.   C. Rabtoy said that he got this from the Town Clerks office as well as from the VT Statute 1 V.S.A. § 312. (2) Minutes of all public meetings shall be matters of public record, shall be kept by the clerk or secretary of the public body, and shall be available for inspection by any person and for purchase of copies at cost upon request after five days from the date of any meeting. R. Regula said that it takes such a long time to have them on the website and people are wondering what we are hiding.  The clerk said that the meeting minute tapes and minutes are available in the office.   

New Business: 

Corey’s RV Supplies:   A letter was written to the committee from Ken Corey of 360 School Street (Corey RV’s Supplies) for consideration of water usage for his live bait tanks.  Since water will not be disposed through the sewer system when the tanks are cleaned he has estimated about 12,000 gallons of water per season be graced from his sewer bill.  C. Rabtoy made the motion to have Mr. Corey keep track on a log of how often he empties the tanks.  R. Regula seconded the motion.  No further discussion.  Motion carried (2/0).   

Ferguson Camp Water Bill:  It has come to the attention to the board that water has not been billed for the camp, due to the meter not working properly.  C. Rabtoy brought to the board last year’s usage for the camp and suggested that be billed for the average water used for this year.   C. Rabtoy made a motion to table any decision on the Ferguson Camp Water bill and setting the rates for Water/Sewer Usage because they can’t be done with out the other, because we don’t know what are accurate numbers are.   In the meantime, a brief discussion about the property at 49 River Street and their water usage.   The clerk said that Dale and Mark had gone out to the property and identified problems with the meter it may have been tampered with by someone, possibly during renovations.  The clerk also mentioned that a lot of people were identified living at that house. She suggested that since a reading could not be read properly that a bill could possibly be generated on the average of people residing at the residents.  R. Regula said that she would like someone to check it out.  C. Rabtoy offered to contact P. Rice the owner of the property and find out what is going on with the meter.  R. Regula commented that P. Rice probably doesn’t know how many people and she’s guessing 6 people reside at that property.   

Another item was brought up by C. Rabtoy in which he reiterated what R. Regula told the committee at a previous meeting that she had under good authority been told that there were 4 bedrooms going into that new building down at the Old Stone Shop on Main Street .  R. Regula said that came directly from C. Dunigan.  C. Rabtoy said that C. Dunigan turned around in his last correspondence with Fire District and wrote that he only had one bedroom in the addition and the current bedroom over the Stone Shop would no longer be used.  

The decision was made that they would both look over the water readings and meet on Tuesday morning at 8:00 a.m. at the district office to go over any findings identified and then they could be turned over to Dale for re-reads or if water meters need to be check for accuracy.  

Coin Drop Complaint: R. Regula brought up an excerpt from the Selectboard Minutes regarding a compliant about a Fire Truck idling in front of the Stone Shop all day and when asked to turn the truck off they declined.   Her question is why were the truck running all day and secondly why weren’t they considerate enough to turn the truck off.  The complaint was made by C. Dunigan.  R. Regula said that she would like to ask W. Allen those questions.  He wasn’t able to attend this meeting, he had another commitment.  C. Rabtoy requested in the future that more notice be given to individuals that need to attend meetings to answer questions and that the complaint could have come to the Fire District Office to be addressed.   

Fire Hydrant Report:  A report on the flushing of fire hydrants was handed into office by W. Allen.  The report will be reviewed at the next meeting.  

Church Street Incident: R. Regula said that she had an incident last Friday regarding water running down Church Street .  She received a call from B. Lohsen about the over flow line leaking water and coming down Church Street and tried 5 places and couldn’t get a hold of any one but R. Regula.  C. Rabtoy said that he didn’t get a call and R. Regula mentioned that she tried his home telephone not the cell phone, because she didn’t have it on hand and didn’t leave a message.  She tried to call everyone she could think of and talk to someone in person in order to know what to do.  A brief discussion on emergency numbers occurred.  The end result was that a list will be complied with the following contact numbers:  Prudential Committee Members, M. Breznick (pager #), J. West (his office #) & D. Munson. C. Rabtoy didn’t know about the incident until he spoke to C. McPhee inquiring about the status of the contracts being reviewed by the lawyer.  C. McPhee had mentioned that R. Regula spoke to his wife because he was out of town.  So in turn C. Rabtoy called J. West and he explained that he was performing maintenance up at the water tank, flushing the top water off the tank and let it run a little longer than expected.  For the record the water was running down the ditch not running down the road and J. West did call R. Regula back to explain to her what was going on.   

Audits:  R. Regula wanted the status of the monthly audits.  C. Rabtoy said that possibly she is referring to the auditor’s positions.  R. Regula will bring to the meeting more information on what she is referring to.   

Public Comments:   No comments.  

Other Business/Announcements:  

Executive Session:  None.  

Next Meeting:  The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Prudential Committee will be held on November 14, 2007 @ 7:00 p.m. – Town Hall.  

Adjournment:  C. Rabtoy made the motion that the meeting be adjourned.  R. Regula seconded the motion.  No further discussion.  Motion carried (2/0).  Meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m.  

Respectfully Submitted:

Stephanie P. Biagini - Clerk/Treasurer                                       Date Approved:  November 28, 2007

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