Present: Selectman W. Glenn Major; Selectman Richard Miller; Town Administrator Tom Landry; Administrative Assistant Judy DeVito, residents and member of the press.

 

 

Mr. Major called the meeting to order at 7:30pm.

 

First Selectman Woody Bliss joined the meeting by telephone.

 

Discussion/decision regarding the appointment of Ryan Cornell to the Board of Assessment Appeals for a term to expire November 13, 2007. Ryan Cornell said he is currently a real estate agent at Camelot Real Estate. He said that he would like to make a contribution to the Town and this seemed like an appropriate place because he could utilize his expertise to the advantage of the Town. Mr. Bliss made a motion to appoint Ryan Cornell to the Board of Assessment Appeals for a term to expire November 13, 2007. Mr. Miller seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

 

Discussion/decision regarding the appointment of Hal Mathews and Seth Miller to the Select Committee on Veteran’s Affairs to fill the vacancy (Michael Carley and Gayle Weinstein) for a term to expire December 31, 2008. Hal Mathews said he is a veteran and was concerned about the inequity caused by legislative oversight upon the tax exempt assessments that veterans were accorded in the last reevaluation. He said he would be glad to help out in any way that he can. Mr. Miller made a motion to appoint Hal Mathews to the Select Committee on Veteran’s Affairs to fill the vacancy of Michael Carley for a term to expire December 31, 2008. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

 

Seth Miller said he has lived in Town about five years. He is a veteran and wants to help on the committee. Mr. Miller made a motion to appoint Seth Miller to the Select Committee on Veteran’s affairs to fill the vacancy of Gayle Weinstein for a term to expire December 31, 2008. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

 

Discussion/decision regarding the reappointment of Don Gary and Allen Swerdlowe to the School Building Committee for a term to expire December 31, 2007. Mr. Miller made a motion to reappoint Don Gary and Allen Swerdlowe to the School Building Committee for a term to expire December 31, 2007. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

 

Discussion/decision regarding the reappointment of Allen Swerdlowe to the Building Committee for a term to expire April 1, 2009.  Mr. Miller made a motion to reappoint Allen Swerdlowe to the Building Committee for a term to expire April 1, 2009. Mr. Bliss seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

 

Discussion/decision regarding the field between the High School and the Middle School- Dave Juneau. Dave Juneau, Chairman of Weston Parks & Recreation Commission and Dave Ungar Director of Weston Parks & Recreation Department wanted to make the Selectmen aware that they did not want to lose the field between the High School and the Middle School to parking spaces or any other development that is non recreation.  They just want to be sure that when the planning is being done that this space remains for recreation.

 

Dave Juneau said that he spoke to Ellen Uzenoff Chairman on the Board of Education who said that their board agrees that that area is very important for recreation. It is the only area that the Middle School has. He said they are confused as to who has the ultimate jurisdiction in that area.

 

Mr. Major asked what triggered the concern. Dave Juneau said the rising apparent need for parking on campus. They know that parking is tight but they are also passionate about recreation. Mr. Bliss said if parking recommendations were to come up he believed they would come from the Board of Education.

 

Mr. Juneau asked what the process would be if they had a need for parking space. Mr. Bliss said the responsibility for facilities (where money would be spent) to alter the property owned by the Town is the responsibility of the Board of Selectmen. The responsibility of the Board of Education is to define education specs and present those to the Board of Selectmen who in turn seek the advice of either the School Building Committee or the Building Committee depending on what the activity is with regard to a recommendation. However what is viewed as minor changes gets done without going through any kind of approval process. This should also go to P&Z as an 8-24.

 

Mr. Ungar said that some processed stone has been placed on the ground in the Southwest corner of that field area. Mr. Bliss suggested that Dave Juneau write a letter to the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Education expressing their concerns. He said that he thought it was important that they go on record with both the Selectmen and the Board of Education. Mr. Major said that he would take one step more and ask that Parks & Recreation get together with the Board of Education to actually talk about specing out what needs to be done.  He suggested they get some preliminary cost estimates so that it could be properly placed in the ten year plan.   

 

Discussion/decision regarding a resolution in support of 20% Clean Energy by 2010.- Keri Enright  Martin Strasmore introduced Alison Martin, Keri Enright from SmartPower, Oren Barack , high school student and Kasandra Strasmore. He said that they have given the town a resolution and they are asking that the Board of Selectmen support the 20% clean energy goal by 2010. He said the concept is preserving the future.

 

Keri Enright said they are a non profit marketing organization called SmartPower that was founded in Connecticut. They do basic market research with polling and focus groups to find out what consumer messaging should be to the market.  They also do market initiatives such as the 20% by 2010 clean energy campaign. They go to municipalities all over Connecticut and Pennsylvania and ask them to commit to 20% renewable energy by the year 2010. There are incentives for making a leadership step and committing to renewable energy. That is called the Connecticut Clean Energy Communities Program. That is a partnership between SmartPower and the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund. The funding comes from that program to increase awareness about renewable energy.

 

The Department of Public Utility Control has mandated that CL&P and UI offer this option to all of their customers. The cost to consumers is an additional $3 to $12 based on the number of kilowat hours that the homeowner uses per month.

 

As we sign people up for the program, with a goal to eventually get 20% of electricity usage to the Town by 2010, for every 100 sign ups in Weston, we get a free 2 kilowatt solar panel that we can put anywhere in the Town. The program has the support of a team of 10 high school students. Earth day is coming up and there is an event at Earthplace where they have a joint sign up table for all the Towns to participate. If they get 300 people signed up we will get six kilowatts.

 

Weston is part of the ICLEI program where many cities throughout the world have committed climate change initiatives.

 

Ms. Enright said in the first year if you choose a national supplier of the renewable energy (that means the energy is produced anywhere in the United States) Weston will get a rebate of $1,669 for 3% savings and then it increases to $3,000 in 2008, $5,000 in 2009 and $7,000 in 2010. 

 

The Connecticut Clean Energy Options program which is the official state program is about twice as expensive, $3,000 in 2007, $7,000 in 2008 etc. The sources are coming from this region. They give you the choices as to whether you want to do national or community energy.

 

She encourages that you put in your own onsite generation.  Any type of renewable energy would count toward the 20% goal. This is an investment for the Town and in fifteen years when the investment is paid off then energy would be free. There is a lot of up front cost to do that.

 

Ms. Enright said it is about diversifying your portfolio and finding alternatives to what you currently have. It is up to municipalities to take a leadership role since they are not seeing it on a federal level. On the state level, the governor of Connecticut has committed to the 20% by 2010.

 

Mr. Bliss asked how many families in Weston are currently signed up for this. There are 18.5 currently signed up. Mr. Bliss said he really wants to know what it would cost us. We have to be factual in what we relate to people with regard to what we are doing, what works, what does not work and how it works.

 

Mr. Bliss suggested that he would go over the material between now and the next meeting which is April 26, so that we may be ready on the 26^th to make a decision. Mr. Major said that there was some confusion about what our projected electricity consumption was and hopefully we can verify those numbers in the mean time. Mr. Major said we would table this item to the next Selectmen’s meeting. Mr. Major asked for the information by the 23^rd so that they had enough time to review it.  

 

Mr. Landry asked for background on the two organizations that they are recommending that we use.

 

Discussion/decision regarding STEAP Grant Application authorization. Dorothy Curran and Hal Shupack said they were here on behalf of the Weston Historical Society because they have the intentions of applying for a STEAP Grant. Weston Historical Society plans to build an archive facility. They have been in the process of trying to accumulate the bulk of the money before they move forward. They have raised almost  $500,000 to date. The Kiwanis foundation has committed $10,000 for five years a total of $50,000. The rest of the community has given $450,000. They are going to ask for a STEAP Grant for $250,000 and that would be about ¾ of the money and then they would go out to the community for the rest of the money.

 

Mr. Landry said that a part of the application is an authorization vote from the Board of Selectman. The Town is the applicant and the way it works is you have to spend the money first and then get reimbursed. Mr. Landry said he did not know if the Historical Society was expecting the Town to front the money to them, and then get it back.  He asked is they are going to have to go borrow that money for actual construction and then pay it back, when we get the grant and we funnel it through to them.   

 

Mr. Shupack said at their meeting that evening they passed a resolution authorizing the Board of Selectmen to make an application for a STEAP grant on their behalf. Mr. Major asked if the society could expend the $250,000 and then get reimbursed. Mr. Shupack said they did not like to do that that they currently have no debt and are financial solvent. They have an endowment that they do not want to touch but they could put that up as security. Mr. Shupack said if the Town could fund the money that that would help.

 

Ms. Curran said that they are not clear when the grant decisions are made or when the state funds are released.

 

Mr. Shupack said that they have a building committee and have already interviewed architects and will be making a decision on the architect within the next two weeks. They are moving forward on the projects. This is an addition to the cider shed on the site.

 

Mr. Bliss made a motion that the Board of Selectmen authorize moving forward with the $250,000 request for a STEAP grant in support of the achieve at the Historical Society with the understanding that the Town and the Historical Society work out the dynamics of when the funds become available and how they get distributed. Mr. Miller seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

 

Mr. Shupack said that they planning on having a ceremony at Town Hall on June 10^th to accept the Fitch diaries that go back to the mid 1800’s. The Fitch family are loaning the dairies to the Town and when we have an achieve facility they will then be on permanent loan to the Town.  

 

Discussion/decision regarding ECS formula and Education Funding.  Mr. Bliss said Education Cost Funding is a formula across the state for which Weston gets very little money. The issue is the Governor’s proposal to raise income tax by ½ % and send a lot of money to education. The money will be distributed through the ECS program. You have to decide if you think the program is going to go through or not. If you do think it will go through then we want to maximize our position. Right now we get .07 for every dollar of increase income tax. If the state increases the total income tax paid by Weston residents by $15 million then we get about $900,000 back. Mr. Bliss said he felt this was not a good return on investment.

 

The First Selectman from Madison is proposing that the state increase the foundation number (per pupil reimbursement) of state aid up to about $9600, as a minimum. Right now it is supposed to be 10% but it is not it is 6% and they are talking about raising it to 10%. This will get us more money than the $900,000 but not a lot more money relative to the amount of money that we are sending in. If the proposal for the income tax increase goes through and the education reimbursement goes through, we will not come out very well.  This is a proposal in which 43 towns would improve their reimbursement. A number of towns have signed up for it and a number of towns have not. He wanted to know if the Board wanted to go one way or another with this.  

 

Mr. Major said he was able to make a comment one way or another.  Mr. Bliss said currently the minimum student aid that everyone gets is $250 per student per year. The proposal is to raise that to $970 per student over a five year period. The question becomes how do you fund that?  The answer is 1/2 % increase in income tax. Mr. Major said his reaction would be to fight against the ½% increase, because we would be paying the $900,000 anyway. He did not see an upside to supporting the reconfiguration of the increase. 

 

Mr. Miller said when we support a raise in income taxes a significant amount of money will be paid by the residents in this community to the state much more than we would receive. He said he would rather not support the ½%, so that the people in the community would be able to support the needs of the Town.

 

 

Mr. Landry said the School Building Committee is recommending these four contract awards to the Selectmen. The bottom three have to do with the roof replacement and the contract could not be done until after Town meeting had decided to approve those funds which they did a week ago. The Silktown Roofing contract has been reviewed and approved by counsel and is ready to sign. H.B. Fishman Co and EnviroScience Consultant have not come to a final contract document. Kohler and Ronan do not have anything to do with the roof that is part of the construction project.

 

Mr. Major asked when the H.B. Fishman and EnviroScience contract would be ready for signing. Mr. Landry said next week. Mr. Major suggested that we authorize a Selectman because over the course of the next three weeks they will be rotating in and out of Town.

 

Mr. Major made a motion to authorize the First Selectman or Acting First Selectman to sign the following contract subsequent to Town counsel approval. Ronan & Kohler $58,150, H.B. Fishman & Co. $106,000 not to exceed contract of $106,000, EnviroScience Consultants $20,215 and Silktown Roofing $1,537,000. Mr. Miller seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

 

Any other business to come properly before the meeting- None

 

 

ATTENDANCE:  The meeting was convened at 9:14pm in the First Selectman’s office by Mr. Major with members Mr. Miller present, and Chairman Bliss participating telephonically. The purpose of the meeting was to receive a status report regarding a police matter affecting public safety which could not be discussed publicly.  The report was provided by attorney David Zabel of Cohen and Wolf. Town Administrator Landry was also present. No votes were taken.

 

ADJOURN: At 9:47 pm a motion (Mr. Miller, Mr. Bliss second) to adjourn executive session and reenter open session passed by unanimous vote.

 

At 9:48 pm a motion (Mr. Bliss, Mr. Miller second) to adjourn the meeting passed by unanimous vote.

 

Respectfully Submitted

Judy M. DeVito

Administrative Assistant

Approved 9/06/07