The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special meeting on Wednesday, January 29, 2014 at 5:00pm in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center. It is anticipated that the Board will enter into executive session immediately following the meeting to discuss a potential litigation matter.
Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100
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BRATTLEBORO SELECTBOARD
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2014
SPECIAL MEETING – 5:00PM
EXECUTIVE SESSION TO FOLLOW
AGENDA
1. CONVENE MEETING
2. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
3. NEW BUSINESS
A. Approve Warnings – Annual Town and Town School District Meeting, and Annual Representative Town Meeting
4. ADJOURNMENT
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ANNUAL TOWN AND
TOWN SCHOOL DISTRICT MEETING
March 4, 2014
The legal voters of the Town of Brattleboro and the Town School District of Brattleboro, are hereby notified and warned to meet at the polling places designated for the three districts in said Brattleboro, on Tuesday, the fourth day of March, 2014, to act on the following articles:
ARTICLE 1: To choose all Town officers, Town School District members and Brattleboro Union High School District directors required by law to be elected at the annual meeting. Also to be elected under this Article are Town Meeting members from the following districts: District #1: 16 members for three-year terms, 6 members for two-year terms, and 1 member for a one-year term; District #2: 15 members for three-year terms, 5 members for two-year terms, and 4 members for one-year terms; District #3: 15 members for three-year terms and 5 members for one-year terms. Voting on this Article is to be done by Australian ballot.
ARTICLE 2: Should the Town of Brattleboro provide property tax relief and help defray the cost of Police-Fire Facilities renovations by adopting a 1% local option sales tax. This Article is advisory only and shall be acted upon by all voters of the Town by Australian ballot.
ARTICLE 3: Shall the voters vote to approve the following resolution: BE IT RESOLVED, that climate change is not an abstract problem for the future or one that will only effect far-distant places, but rather that climate change is happening now, that we are causing it, and that the longer we wait to act, the more we lose and the more difficult the problem will be to solve; and we, the People of Brattleboro, do hereby urge the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and President Barack Obama to move swiftly to fully employ and enforce the Clean Air Act in order to reduce carbon in our atmosphere to no more than 350 parts per million.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Town Clerk shall forward a copy of this resolution to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and President Barack Obama. Pursuant to Town Charter, Article III, Section 2, this Article is advisory only and shall be acted upon by all voters of the Town by Australian ballot.
For the above purposes, the polls will open at 9:00am and close at 7:00pm. The polling place will be as follows:
Districts #1, #2 and #3 at Brattleboro Union High School, Gymnasium, Fairground Road.
ANNUAL REPRESENTATIVE TOWN MEETING
March 22, 2014
The legal voters qualified to vote in Representative Town Meeting are hereby notified and warned to meet in the gymnasium of the Brattleboro Union High School on Saturday, the twenty-second day of March, 2014, at 8:30am, to act on the following Articles:
ARTICLE 1: To act on the Auditors’ reports (Town and Town School District).
ARTICLE 2: To elect two representatives to the Capital Grant Review Board for a term of one year from March 23, 2014. (Two members will be nominated from the floor.)
ARTICLE 3: To see if the Town and Town School District will authorize its Selectboard and School Directors to employ a certified public accountant or public accountants.
ARTICLE 4: To see if the Town will ratify, approve and confirm the Selectboard’s appointment of a Town and Town School District Clerk for a term of one year.
ARTICLE 5: To see if the Town will ratify, approve and confirm the Selectboard’s appointment of
a Town and Town School District Treasurer for a term of one year.
ARTICLE 6: To see if the Town will ratify, approve and confirm the Selectboard’s appointment of a Town Attorney for a term of one year.
ARTICLE 7: To elect three Trustees for the Brooks Memorial Library to serve three years, and two Trustees to fill unexpired terms. The names for consideration for three year terms (2014-2017) are: Elizabeth Wohl, Jerold Goldberg, and Jennifer Lann. The names for consideration for unexpired terms are: Robert Stack (2014-2015), and George Howard Burrows (2014-2016).
ARTICLE 8: To see what salaries the Town will pay its officers.
ARTICLE 9: To see if the Town will authorize its Selectboard to borrow money in anticipation of taxes, grants and other revenue.
ARTICLE 10: To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $78,000 through special assessments on properties within the Downtown Improvement District (as approved by Town Meeting March 19, 2005 and as delineated in the Town Ordinance entitled “Municipal Act to Establish and Regulate the Downtown Improvement District”) to be used for capital and operating costs of projects of the Town’s duly designated downtown organization.
ARTICLE 11: To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $223,276.47 through special assessments on property within the “Mountain Home Park Special Benefit Assessment Tax District” (as approved by Town Meeting, March 24, 2007 and as delineated in the Town Ordinance entitled, “Municipal Act to Establish and Regulate the Mountain Home Park Special Benefit Assessment Tax District”) for the purpose of paying debt service on the capital improvements to the water and sewer lines serving the Mountain Home and Deepwood Mobile Home Parks.
ARTICLE 12: To see if the Town will raise and appropriate a sum not to exceed $10,000 to assist in funding Brattleboro Climate Protection for Fiscal Year 2015 (July 1, 2014 – June 30, 2015).
ARTICLE 13: To see if the Town will raise and appropriate the sum of $110,000 to support human service programs and facilities for the residents of Brattleboro to be allocated among service providers in the following manner: AIDS Project of Southeastern Vermont – $2,000; American Red Cross – Green Mountain Chapter – $4,000; Boys & Girls Club – $9,300; Brattleboro Area Drop-In Center – $9,600; Brattleboro Area Hospice – $1,700; Brattleboro Senior Meals – $7,000; Clark/Canal Neighborhood Association – $3,000; Connecticut River Transit – $3,000; Family Garden – $1,000; Gathering Place – $2,000; Health Care & Rehabilitation Services (HCRS) – $2,000; KidsPLAYce – $3,000; Morningside House – $7,500; Phoenix House RISE – $1,500; Prevent Child Abuse Vermont – $1,000; RSVP – Green Mountain – $700; Senior Solutions – $2,000; Southeastern Vermont Community Action, Inc. (SEVCA) – $9,000; Summer Lunch Program – Brattleboro Town School District – $6,000; Turning Point – $4,500; Vermont Adult Learning – $700; Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing – $1,500; Vermont Center for Independent Living – $1,000; Visiting Nurse & Hospice of VT & NH – $10,000; Windham Child Care Association – $5,500; Windham County Safe Place Child Advocacy Center – $1,500; YMCA (Meeting Waters) – $2,000; Youth Services – Big Brothers Big Sisters – $8,000.
ARTICLE 14: To see if the Town will approve the repurposing of the funds from the Agricultural Land Protection Fund to establish an Energy Efficiency Fund with the principal amount of $50,000 and to appropriate the remainder in the fund, being the accrued interest in the agricultural protection fund, to reduce the fiscal year 2015 tax levy.
ARTICLE 15: To see if the Town will appropriate up to $92,371.09 from the Unassigned Fund Balance as of June 30, 2013 to defray the costs associated with repairs to Elm Street and Elm Street Bridge due to the severe thunderstorm of September 11, 2013.
ARTICLE 16: To see if the Town will vote to appropriate up to $57,500 from the Unassigned Fund Balance as of June 30, 2013 to defray the costs associated with relocation of radio communications equipment off of Wantastiquet Mountain.
ARTICLE 17: To see if the Town will vote to transfer $310,540 from the capital fund to the general fund (being the unspent funds allocated to repairs at the Nelson Withington Skating Rink).
ARTICLE 18: To see if the Town will appropriate the sum of $200,000 from the Unassigned Fund Balance as of June 30, 2013 to reduce the tax levy for FY2015.
ARTICLE 19: To see how much money the Town will raise, appropriate and expend to defray its expenses and liabilities.
ARTICLE 20: To see if the Town will vote to exempt American Legion Little League Field from its municipal portion of taxes on its land and buildings at 12 Oak Grove Avenue for a period of three years from April 1, 2014.
ARTICLE 21: To see if the Town will assess a one percent (1%) local option sales tax in accordance with 24 V.S.A. Section 138.
ARTICLE 22: To see if the Town will elect or appoint members to the Town Finance Committee for a term of one year from March 23, 2014. Members to be nominated from the floor.
ARTICLE 23: To see what salaries the Town School District will pay its school board members.
ARTICLE 24: To see if the Town School District will authorize its Town School Directors to borrow money in anticipation of taxes.
ARTICLE 25: To see if the Town School District will authorize the District to accept and expend categorical grants and aid received from the State of Vermont and the United States Government.
ARTICLE 26: To see if the Brattleboro Town School District will vote to grant authority to the School Board to incur interest-free debt through the Green Mountain Power Evergreen Fund in an amount not to exceed Fifty-Two Thousand and 00/100 Dollars ($52,000) to be financed over a period not to exceed five (5) years, for the purpose of financing the following electrical efficiency project(s):
Academy, Green Street, and Oak Grove Schools – Lighting Efficiency Projects
The financing mechanism that the District will use is the Green Mountain Power Evergreen Fund, which allows school districts to borrow money at 0% interest over as much as five (5) years for the purpose of financing energy efficiency projects. The estimated savings from the lighting efficiency projects are projected to save the school approximately Five Thousand, Five Hundred and 00/100 Dollars ($5,500) in annual electrical costs at the current utility rates. The projected savings amount is less than the debt service payments will be on the loan. The lighting efficiency measures have a life expectancy of at least fifteen (15) years.
ARTICLE 27: To see if the Town School District will authorize capital expenses for improvements to the heating system at the Academy School in an amount not to exceed $375,000, to be financed over a period not to exceed five (5) years [24 V.S.A. §1786(b)].
ARTICLE 28: To see if the Town School District, pursuant to 24 V.S.A. §2804, will appropriate the sum of $256,272 from the Education Reserve Fund to defray expenses for FY2015.
ARTICLE 29: To see if the Town School District, will appropriate out of the audited Unassigned Fund Balance of June 30, 2013 the sum of $193,728 for the purpose of reducing the tax rate and defraying FY2015 expenses.
ARTICLE 30: To see how much money the Town School District will raise and appropriate to defray its expenses and liabilities.
ARTICLE 31: To transact any other business that may lawfully come before the meeting.
Dated at Brattleboro, Vermont this 29th day of January, 2014.
BRATTLEBORO SELECTBOARD
David Gartenstein, Chair
Kate O’Connor, Vice Chair
David Schoales, Clerk
John Allen
Donna Macomber
