Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Greater Barre Services Study Committee
Date: February 14, 2002; 6:35 p.m.
Place: Aldrich Library Community Meeting Room
Present: Barry Driscoll, Dawna Attig, Alex McHenry, Gordon Booth, Charles Fantoni, Joan Carrigan, Deb Martin, Dan Bellavance, Aaron Brodeur, Carl Rogers, Larry Johnson, Glenda Nye, David Delcore, Mary Welch, Wayne Pelkey, Doug Farnham, Mark Reaves, Chief Michael Stevens
The meeting was called to order at 6:35pm by Barry Driscoll, Chairman. Barry opened the meeting with the agenda:
Minor change in Agenda. Agenda item #2 moved to after items #3 and #4.
1. Acceptance of Minutes
Move to accept the Minutes. Have a motion and a second with no discussion. Approval with all ayes.
4 The minutes of 01/10/02 were accepted.
Last month’s Parks presentation was very good. One housekeeping item, though, the Websterville Road Park was inadvertently left off the list under Barre Town Rec. Fields.
Last month came up with a draft survey and was included with the minutes. There was some discussion on what should be included on the survey and when it would be distributed. It was decided to keep it short and have people list their choices in priority order. Also, to separate into indoor and outdoor.
This subcommittee will approach the Barre City and Barre Town boards and ask to do the survey at Town Meeting day.
(Barre Town Police Chief, Mike Stephens.) Introductions were done. Alex begins by saying that their subcommittee has a little more work to do. Mike was here to give a run down of the Barre Town police department and it’s differences from the Barre City Police Department.
Barre Town buys a lot of their stuff on State contract. They use different gauge weapons. A Barre Town officer handles a case from beginning to end. That is from taking the call to solving the crime. Where as, Barre City has the job broken down into different positions. Both departments already cooperate. The Town buys dispatch and overnight jail space from the City. Each are invited to the others Trainings. Both are in need of a firing range and are working with the State to find an appropriate place.
There really is no cost savings to be had by merging. Philosophies are different; each belong to different unions. The City is urban and the Town is rural. There are different sets of problems. There was some discussion on the different types of crimes and populations in each community. The Chief felt he really could not give an answer to a merge. There were too many assumptions. He did indicate that there already is an efficient system that serves each community.
2. Reports from the subcommittees: Administrative, Police, Fire/Rescue/Ambulance, Sewer/Water, and Highways
Going around the table in terms of the various sub-committees and what progress they have made.
Administrative. (Dawna Attig, Bill Chase, Glenda Nye)
Dawna reported that she and Glenda have met with the Tax Assessor Caroline Lockyer of the City and Joe LeVesque of the Town. The two municipalities differ greatly in the number of parcels and Land Use. The City is finishing up a two year process of reappraisal. The town has not begun theirs. The City has a new CAMA system and Barre Town is installing theirs. Both could be helped by further automation.
We have the two more groups to do before the next meeting, Zoning and Planning and the Clerks.
Police. ( Alex McHenry, Larry Johnson, Mark Reeves)
Will make the offer to Chief Whipple to come in and speak with us also.
Fire/Rescue/Ambulance. (Mark Bernier, Dan Bellavance, Deb Sartelle)
Everything is on schedule getting a lot of information.
Water/Sewer. (Charles Fantoni, Guy Isabelle, Mary Welch)
Nothing to report. Done with field work.
Highway. (Paul Simonetta, Wayne Pelkey, Barry Driscoll)
Have not met with Blondin.
5. Other Business
No other business
6. Round the Table
General comments around the table.
Next meeting is March 14, 2002.
Motion to adjourn and seconded and no further discussion.
4 Meeting adjourned at 8:12pm.