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Post by Admin on Feb 5, 2016 15:15:48 GMT -7
Road and Weed Committee Meeting, Thursday, Feb.11, 2016,
6:30-9:00 PM Liberty Hall kitchen on Sirius Rd North Glastonbury. Agenda: Develop a 5-year plan for road maintenance. Bring your ideas.
We will post an agenda and meeting documents here as they become available.
Read about the Forum's Comprehensive 20 Year Road Plan here.
Download meeting documents below.
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Post by Admin on Feb 13, 2016 12:03:09 GMT -7
Road Committee Meeting on February 11th, 2016 The Road Committee meeting was well attended. GLA Board Members Charlene Murphy, Dennis Riley, Paul Ranttalo, Ed Dobrowski and Dan Kehoe were present. Approximately 15 landowners participated. Those with power sat on one side of the room, the landowners were crunched together on the other side and behind the wide kitchen counter. Some could barely see above the counter and appeared to be out of view of the directors.
The six item agenda covered old and new business, included an item for a "5 year plan" and made provisions for landowner comments. The Glastonbury Community Forum produced a one page handout that was distributed to all present. It described a 20 year road plan with a variety of options and costs that had links to even more detailed information on the Forum. Meeting commentary follows:
- Paul, Ed and Dennis presented ideas and goals for 2016. One issue discussed was spending $25,000.00 to hire a road engineer to analyze our roads, list problems and propose solutions with costs. Later in the meeting it was noted that there was still $42,000.00 in the GLA Savings account that was not allocated. According to the 2015 End of Year Balance sheet the total amount of money stashed in the savings account was $133,749.07 as of December 31st, 2015. Thus it would be easy to pay for a road engineer without ever touching the 2016 GLA Budget money which is separate.
- A landowner questioned where the figure of $25,000.00 came from. Was it an official quote? It turned out that the $25,000.00 figure came from another landowner who based on personal driveway planning experience with former Board member William Smith thought that $25,000.00 would be adequate to analyze our road system. The figure was never vetted by the Board.
- Around 7:15 an energetic, war veteran land owner stopped by with his young child. The child smiled broadly and I could feel the hearts of those present melting. Who could not be gladdened at such a warm smile and from someone who may represent our future? His father explained to the old guard Board members why he was not paying his assessments. He was fed up with GLA Board waste and inefficiency. He complained that the roads must be taken care of and that too much money was spent on administration and attorneys. It was later noted that the 2016 administrative budget now consumes 27 cents of every dollar the GLA spends. The amount of money spent on roads has fallen to just 67 cents for every dollar collected. It appears that as the older Board members have aged they are less willing or able to perform their duties. Much of their work has been transferred to paid employees and that drains money away from the roads.
- The subject of a new snow plow was brought up. Walter Wunsch stated that our current snow plow is in "excellent shape". However he also discussed the snow plow for sale in Belgrade and noted that it would cost $10,000.00 to purchase. The North Glastonbury Ombudsman discussed the research her son did and suggested that a good quality used plow, truck and sander could be purchased for around $25,000.00. Charlene Murphy suggested that we should save money for another year or so before making a purchase.
- Walter was asked a question from a landowner about what was the original purpose of the 770 acres in South Glastonbury and 176 acres in North Glastonbury that is owned by the Church but is NOT part of Glastonbury. Both properties fall outside the Covenants are thus are not subject to GLA jurisdiction. The answer felt like a 20 year reunion. Walter waxed enthusiastically about how in the "old days" before "outsiders" came the Church was an all powerful institution. Landowners were a homogeneous group; they thought and believed alike. Harmony ruled and a glorious future was envisioned for Glastonbury. An architect from the Philippines designed plans and even models for high density development on the 770 and 176 acre Church sites. A business park, town center, a community center, perhaps a park and other buildings were planned. Walter still had the original architect's model for South Glastonbury safely stored in a storage unit in a High South bomb shelter. "It was beautiful" he wistfully stated. Walter and Regina's business SpecTec was supposed to be in the new business park but when their lease ran out the park was still a farmer's field. Thus they built a factory near their home in High South. Today the 176 and 770 acres are empty fields that border paved roads paid for by landowners. It was a nostalgic moment that depicted a past vision that never came to be. Many of the older Board members remembered it well and no doubt had bittersweet feelings.
- The Glastonbury Community Forum presented a vibrant 20 year comprehensive road plan. Several visions and options were discussed. Precise calculations were presented for a new paved loop in North Glastonbury, bringing all gravel roads up to County standards or just maintaining roads as they are. It was noted that the GLA is an inefficient and increasingly expensive provider of services. The GLA only collects 85 cents of every dollar they bill landowners for. Then for every dollar that is collected, 27 cents is used for administrative costs. Legal costs deduct more and just 67 cents is left of every dollar collected to spend on roads.
- An RSID or RID state and county program was discussed as an alternative to GLA financed roads. The RSID would be funded by increased property taxes. The County collects 100% of every dollar billed and does not charge for administrative costs associated with collecting funds, accounting for them and paying bills. Thus for every tax dollar spent via the County would equal $1.42 spent via the GLA. Financing through the County and State would also yield a loan interest rate 62% less than what the GLA could get; 2.5% vs. 6.5%. An enthusiastic discussion from landowners followed. One person noted that if road maintenance costs were included in an RSID then GLA Assessments could be lowered. Another noted that the Church's 770 and 176 acre parcels could be included in an RSID. Thus all landowners who benefited from improved roads would share the costs of those improvements. It was agreed that a new sub-committee should be formed to discuss a various road plans. Several landowners volunteered to serve. Dan Kehoe stated that the Board must approve the committee and every volunteer that wished to serve. The Old Guard retained veto power.
- Many more details and specifics were discussed and will no doubt be included in the GLFPC summary which we will post above and you can view via their web site. As the meeting was winding down one original landowner and current director leaned over to the former GLA President and asked "Do you support an RSID"? "No" he replied emphatically. "Neither do I" responded the first director.
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chris
Full Member
Posts: 175
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Post by chris on Feb 13, 2016 14:56:32 GMT -7
Good summary of the meeting. A couple of observations: As different aspects of planning for the roads were discussed, it was noted that the committee was looking to develop a 5-year or short-term plan for the roads while the county and other road plans are usually for a 20 year period or more. One landowner suggested that the committee continue with their short-term plans which included assessing which roads are in the worst shape and therefore needed priority attention, which would also be based on their usage, and to plan for opening or making drainage ditches on both sides of primary roads. She also suggested that four landowners be appointed to form a long-term planning sub-committee to study the options for developing longer term plans, to begin with placing advertisements for requests for proposals from road engineering firms to assess road conditions and to help develop those plans. It should also be noted that a landowner initiated Comprehensive Road Plan has been developed and published on this forum, and it should not be summarily dismissed, but carefully studied. Director Kehoe said that the GLA board would have to approve the sub-committee and the proposed members. Director Riley said he also would like to be on the long-term planning sub committee.
Although at least two directors expressed opposition to even considering the possibility of using RSID financing to improve roads, obviously without knowing all the facts, the road committee and GLA board should not hastily dismiss the concept before all facts are known and made public. For example, when considering the hiring of a road engineer to assess the roads, if we investigate doing an RSID we might be able to get the county engineer to do the assessment for less than a private concern would charge. "Investigate" does not mean that we have to go with the RSID - we are just doing our homework, learning about and presenting all the FACTS. How anyone can make intelligent decisions about anything without doing the research and learning all the facts is beyond me.
All landowners should be encouraged to participate in these discussions by attending these important meetings. If one does not participate, one should not complain. These committee meetings, and on this forum, are where you can make your suggestions known.
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