BENNINGTON SELECT BOARD MEETING BENNINGTON FIRE FACILITY 130 RIVER STREET BENNINGTON, VERMONT 05201 MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2008 MINUTES BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Lodie Colvin-Chair; John Zink-Vice-Chair; Sharyn Brush; Matt Maroney; Chris Oldham and Jason Morrissey. ALSO PRESENT: Stuart Hurd-Town Manager; Dan Monks-Planning Director; Scott Murphy-Director of Economic and Community Development; Jason George; Kari Dolan; Mike Kline and Nancy Lively-Recording Secretary. At 7:00 P.M., Lodie Colvin called the meeting to order. 1. MINUTES - JANUARY 24, 2008 MINUTES - JANUARY 28, 2008 Sharyn Brush moved and Chris Oldham seconded to approve the Minutes of January 24, 2008 as submitted. The motion carried unanimously. Sharyn Brush moved and John Zink seconded to approve the Minutes of January 28, 2008 as submitted. The motion carried unanimously. 2. WARRANTS The warrants were circulated for signatures after Mr. Hurd answered the Board questions on the Honda registration, Green Mountain pipeline and toner. 3. CITIZENS None. 4. CHANNEL MANAGEMENT & RIVER CORRIDOR PROTECTION PLAN & GRANT OPPORTUNITY Jason George, from Gomez & Sullivan Engineers, did a power point presentation for the Board on the Channel Management and River Corridor Protection Plan (Corridor Plan) with the following highlights: * The Roaring Branch and Walloomsac Rivers have historically presented extreme challenges related to erosion and flooding for the Town of Bennington and surrounding communities. * The assessment of the Walloomsac River watershed concluded that the river system has greatly departed from a stable condition due to both natural and human related conditions and will remain dynamic and pose a threat of further erosion and property damage during flood events. * Dredging, channelization, roads and berms are the primary factors causing the instability of the Roaring Branch and Walloomsac rivers. * The river system contains a large supply of coarse sediment - boulders, cobble and gravel - which n the presence of numerous stream-side berms magnifies stream energy and prevents the river from accessing its floodplain under higher flows. * The Corridor Plan is a series of management measures presented to guide the decision-making process related to mitigating fluvial erosion hazards in the river corridor. * The actual implementation of holistic watershed-scale restoration activities (e.g., corridor protection, vegetative buffers, bank stabilization, berm removal and bridge maintenance) will require considerable stakeholder involvement - short-term sacrifices in order to achieve sustainable erosion and flood hazard mitigation. * Projects were ranked and prioritized based on their likelihood of achieving the equilibrium of the river system (leading to channel stability), costs, technical requirements, and anticipated societal acceptance. * The highest priority restoration actions may be implemented over the next one to five years in an incremental fashion; lower priority management measures can be addressed as resources become available. * The Park Street Bridge and Town Garage/Jard property areas are two high priority restoration areas. Kari Dolan reinforced the need of the Corridor Plan to enable the river to be able to overflow its banks safely and more economically during the inevitable flooding that will occur repeatedly in the years ahead. Mike Kline, funded by a $50,000 grant, would like to design the solutions to help restore the northern river bank just east of the Park Street Bridge and to modify the channel further east along the lands the Town is studying for its public works facility. There is no local share other than in-kind services. The corrective actions, themselves, will probably be quite costly to implement - "possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars". However, there is funding available and once in place, the cost of maintaining the areas will be much less. Mr. Kline will be working with FEMA on the Town of Bennington maps and with the Planning Commission on the overlays. Sharyn Brush moved and John Zink seconded to authorize the Town Manager to sign the SFA - Standard Grant Agreement with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation for river and floodplain restoration design services in the amount of $50,000.00 ending on April 30, 2009 as presented. The motion carried unanimously. Sharyn Brush moved and John Zink seconded to accept the Channel Management and River Corridor Protection Plan dated December 2007 and to have the Planning Commission create the Town of Bennington's Fluvial Erosion Overlay Plan. The motion carried unanimously. 5. DOWNTOWN DESIGNATION RENEWAL Sharyn Brush moved and Chris Oldham seconded to approve the Application for Renewal of the Downtown Designation through the Vermont Downtown Development Act (24 VSA Chapter 76A). The motion carried unanimously. The Community Reinvestment document was circulated for signatures. 6. 2008 LIQUOR LICENSES The following 2008 Liquor License Renewal Applications were circulated for signatures: 1. Chili's Grill & Bar at Bennington, VT 2. Hannaford Food & Drug Store 3. Hunter's An American Grill 4. Pizza Hut 5. Short Stop #117 6. Short Stop #145 7. Stewart's Shop #195 7. MANAGER'S REPORT Mr. Hurd circulated the Town Highway Annual Financial Plan for signatures. Mr. Hurd reminded everyone that the Annual Town Meeting is scheduled for March 3, 2008 at 7:00 pm at the Firehouse with voting, including the Presidential Primary, to take place on March 4, 2008. Mr. Hurd noted that the Select Board will meet informally at the Town Offices on March 17, 2008 to sign warrants with the second formal March meeting to be on March 31, 2008. 8. OTHER BUSINESS Mr. Maroney noted the old zoning violations that date back to 2003 that are still outstanding. Mr. Hurd will check into the status of those. Ms. Colvin had recently taken brush from family property to the landfill in a borrowed truck which had a logo on the side of it. She was required to pay because the payment criteria is logo = commercial (pay) and no logo = personal (don't pay). It was Ms. Colvin's opinion that this system doesn't work and everyone should pay a lesser amount. This would be more equitable and more beneficial to the Town. Mr. Hurd added that is costs $20,000/year to chip the brush and he will look into this idea. EXECUTIVE SESSION - CONTRACTS AND LEGAL At 8:45 P.M., Sharyn Brush moved and John Zink seconded to go into Executive Session to discuss Contracts and Legal. The motion carried unanimously. Respectfully submitted, Nancy H. Lively Secretary