SelectBoard Minutes - May 26, 2009



Minutes from May 26ths
Vershire Selectboard meeting

Present: Rita French, Marc McKee, Vern Stone, Dani Sweet, Gene Craft, Wendell Farrar, Bill Baylis, Debra Kingsbury, Jeff Smith, and Jane Freidlander.

Vern called the meeting to order at 7:05pm.

Vern moved to appoint Louie Cadwell, Rob Benson, Syd Vesey, Steve Ward, Bobby Hodge, and Helen Lons to the new town garage committee. Rita seconded, all were in favor, and the motion passed. The charge for the town garage committee is to spec out a new garage facility, the amount of property needed for this garage and the appropriate storage that goes along with that, while taking into consideration the potential for future growth.

Wendell Farrar was present to express his disappointment with the selectboard for not hanging flags along route 113 in honor of Memorial Day. The selectboard apologized to Wendell, and assured him this would not happen again. The board explained they were in the process of ordering new flags and hoped to have them up in time for Vershire day. Wendell reminded the board how important it was to honor our fallen heroes throughout the year, but especially on Memorial Day. Wendell also wanted to make sure the board was not going to adopt a policy of a Vershire day parade every five years; he thought this was a very bad idea. Rita explained to Wendell the board had dropped that idea, and were planning to have a Vershire day parade every other year, starting with 2010. Marc expressed the need for people to step forward and form a parade committee to begin work on the 2010 as soon as possible.

Jeff Smith and Jane Freidlander were present to ask the selctboard about the possibility of erecting a gate across the entrance to Fairbrother Road. They explained that Fairbrother Road is a class four road, it is not a through road, and in fact it ends at their home site. They expressed to the board their intentions were not to keep people off their property; they were not going to post the property, however they would like to keep ATV's off the property. Their goal is to be "good stewards of the land," and bring back the original farmstead, but felt that irresponsible ATV drivers were getting in the way of those goals. Some ATV operators had been destructive and created deep ruts and excessive mud, as well as leaving garbage behind. Jeff and Jane thought most of these irresponsible drivers and riders were kids, however would still like to stop all ATV use on their property. Rita commented that a gate probably could not be installed to block access to any town road, but the board would check into it further. Marc encouraged Jeff and Jane to install "no ATV" signs on their property, so riders using Fairbrother Road would know there was no outlet. Marc also let Jeff and Jane know that members of the local ATV club were very responsible people, and he would speak to them about getting the word out to look for these few irresponsible drivers. Vern told the couple to contact Gary Goodrich for a historical perspective on the road and the property; Gary may be able to shed some light on whether or not Fairbrother Road was ever a through road, or how far it extended onto their property.

Bill Baylis was at the meeting to report Nate Pero had replaced and installed the flags at the town center, and had completed it before Memorial Day. Bill will draft a letter of thanks to the VFW for the donations of the flags. Bill fixed the flag light at the town center, so that it cannot be moved, and the flags will always remain illuminated. Bill asked the board why there were shutters missing on parts of the town center building, and where they might be. The board didn't know, and directed Bill to contact Neal Hochsteadler, or John Zimmer to see if they knew. Bill asked if he needed, he would be happy to price replacement shutters for the town center building.

Marc reported on behalf of Rob Benson that the softball field at the town center had been completed. Volunteers got together and replaced all the gravel in the infield, installed bases, and the field looks great. Costs included $100 dollars for materials, and $300 dollars for three loads of gravel. The board would like to thank all the volunteers for their hard work!

Roger Carpenter fixed the circulator pump at the town center building.

There have been some interests expressed by other towns to rent our mower. Vern remembered the town's people expressing concern about that specific issue at town meeting. Rita suggested there be a policy in place to address this issue. Marc thought it would be worth looking into, with the possibility being that the town could use it as a source of income. The discussion was tabled.

Marc and Vern will check out a couple of reports from Syd about Rowel Road; one being the dumping of large trash from a private residence, another the dumping of a refrigerator full of rotten meat.

Orders were signed.

Vern adjourned the meeting at 8:50pm.

Rita and Marc retired to executive session.