Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Greater Barre Services Study Committee
Date: May 9, 2002; 6:38 p.m.
Place: Aldrich Meeting Room
Present: Barry Driscoll, Dawna Attig, Alex McHenry, Charles Fantoni, Joan Carrigan, Glenda Nye, Wayne Pelkey, Chip Castle, Paul Simonetta, Mary Welch, Larry Johnson, Richard Fitzgerald, Dave Delcore(Times-Argus), Steve Micheli
The meeting was formally called to order at 6:38pm by Barry Driscoll, Chairman. Barry opened the meeting with introductions for the benefit of our guest, Steve Micheli and the following agenda.
1. Acceptance of Minutes
Move to accept the Minutes. Have a motion and a second with no discussion. There was approval with all ayes.
4 The minutes of 04/11/02 were accepted.
Mary Welch opened the discussion with the background of the report that they submitted to the committee. They visited the filtration plant and all of the Water Districts, with the exception of two private ones. Each has their own charter and governed independently. Each has separate staff of volunteers. With the exception of a few, they are interconnected.
One characteristic of them all is that they have a definite pride in ownership and each feels their water quality is better than the others. All are open to dialog and cooperation.
Steve Micheli. The discussion is opened with a brief talk about Chlorine and Ozone, which are used as disinfectants. We then moved the discussion to merging. We needed to know what the trend has been in merging. Wayne Pelkey had some experience with this when Trow Hill went into talks with the city. They had one charter since 1957. The Fire Departments are all volunteers. It got very tiring and all of the regulations were hard to keep up with. You should get legislature blessing but it also depends on the charter.
The question was asked that if by some bolt of lightning this committee recommended merging all of the Districts who would oppose. The main reason is that most like their independence. But opposition could be a factor of education. Perhaps those against don’t know how much could be saved.
When city takes over it inspects. Barre City also has all the prints of the whole system. If getting tired of running the districts what would have to be done to put them together. A lot of the problem is the lack of volunteers. The long range planning required by EPA directs that it be decided who will take over in the future. The time is ripe to revisit the issue of merger. There are no hidden costs in connecting the Fire Districts. They are already interconnected.
How much of a problem for Barre City is Barre Towns waste water? Basically it is residential waste. The Booth Brothers presents some problems. It is hard to treat because it is a different kind of waste. They also release their waste in large loads. The city is working with them to have a more consistent release of waste into treatment. Barre Town helped to finance the upgrade to the plant. It should last twenty years. The biggest problem is coming up with fair water rate. There are a lot of variables.
What involvement have Barre City board and Barre Town board had in these issues? They have worked closely with one another. And finally, it was suggested that the two governing bodies decide on one engineering firm before unification.
Going around the table is terms of the various sub-committees and what progress they have made.
Fire/Rescue. (Mark Bernier, Dan Bellavance, Deb Sartelle)
Barry brought up the issue of Doug Brent leaving. Deb mentioned that she had spoken to Mr. Jennings. They
are hoping to get the Town and City key people together again to see if they can get more ideas. They need to get Peter John involved.
Both committees working together on fires in severe drought. This is possibly generating more ideas. So, give them a couple of weeks till finished with plan.
Wayne mentioned his concern on the plan of first response and that it is not a good plan
Police. ( Alex McHenry, Larry Johnson, Mark Reeves)
No report yet, dancing around issues.
Water/Sewer. (Charles Fantoni, Guy Isabelle, Mary Welch)
Had discussion tonight.
Highway. (Paul Simonetta, Wayne Pelkey, Barry Driscoll)
On for next month.
Recreation/Special Services. (Joan Corrigan, Deb Martin, Gordon Booth)
No final report yet.
4. Other Business
Next month is Highways. And this should finish most of the work. So we might want to possibly wrap things up by Labor Day. Possibly produce a final report with six chapters. Compile numbers from Wayne Pelkey’s spread sheet. Make up of sub committees and recommendations.
5. Round the Table
Went around the table for comments.
Next meeting is June 13, 2002 in the Aldrich Library Meeting Room. Meeting adjourned at 7:58 pm.