Danville Vermont             

                                                 2008 Selectboard Report 

             With the inauguration of the new President, we are in hopes that the nation's economy will be revitalized very soon. We were able to reduce both the Municipal and the Highway taxes to allow a reduction of the tax rate by approximately four cents. We appreciate that part of this reduction was made possible by the officers and employees of the town, giving up any wage increase for 2009 and by the reduction in spending the second half of last year. We are still unsure of the amount of state aid the town will receive, but projections we used were based on the best information we had coming from Montpelier.

             This year we have had several veteran staff members retire from their positions. Fire Chief Howard Gadapee with the most years service to the town with the Danville Fire Department, we wish him well in his semi retirement. Louise Lessard called her cemetery sexton work to a halt. We thank her for the many years of service. Steve Cobb wants to spend more time looking after his business, and less in the town hall. We thank him for the time he has spent auditing the towns business. Perhaps the most missed will be Ginny Morse whom retired as Town Clerk at the end of the year. She takes many years of knowledge with her, we appreciate her many years of service. Many thanks to Wendy Somers who has been an asset as interim town clerk.

             We have great hopes of completing the digital parcel mapping of all the land parcels in the town this year. It is a larger task and more time consuming than originally thought. If you have not come in and reviewed your property on the preliminary maps, please do so we can map your property as accurate as possible.

              The Planning Commission and their consultants continue to work on the zoning bylaw revisions. They expect to have the draft of the village areas completed by this spring. They also have applied for a new grant to continue with the zoning, which will be directed towards developing a detailed land use plan that will serve as the framework for new implementation strategies (regulatory and non-regulatory) that protect the towns rural character. Watch for the public meetings designed to receive public input on the ongoing revisions. The Conservation Commission continues studying the town forests and developing usage plans. They held a public showing of the town forest on Bruce Badger Memorial Highway and a public discussion of a forest management plan at the Town Hall.

       The operation of the Joe’s Pond Beach was again under the direction of the West Danville Community Club. It was another successful year for swimmers with the beach water testing very good for swimming for the fourth consecutive year. The Community Club has added the beach erosion wall and implemented the removal of the old beach house. They are planning to have a pavilion built in place of the beach house, and make other improvements to the beach area this summer.

       The North Danville School upgrades continued this year with the removal of some old steam pipe insulation and re-insulation of all the steam pipes. The two oil tanks were found to be leaking and were replaced with one larger one. An on demand water heater was installed for the bathrooms, and the oil hot water heater turned off. Additional upgrades were installed on the boiler as well. It was found the basement exit is lacking insulation, and will be addressed shortly, in hopes of increasing the buildings heating efficiency. The North Danville School Association continues to strive to keep up with the every day maintenance and improvement of the building.

       Once again the Highway Department was busy keeping up with the rain events last year and the resulting road washouts of August. This year we have received $140,580 from FEMA to help with those repairs on Calkins Camp Road, Old Stage Coach Road, Woodward Road, Kittredge Road, Coles Pond Road, Pope Brook Road, and McDowell Road. We have also been approved for up to $240,000 additional money for repair of the Wightman Road. The lower Joes Brook Road Project was completed last year by the road crew with about 1/2 mile of the road rebuilt including new drainage, road base, gravel and fabric installed, with the paving reduced to one coat to reduce spending last year. The plan is to add the second coat of pavement this year. Two small grants were received from the Better Back Roads program. An 18-inch culvert was replaced on Old Stagecoach Road, and a section of ditch and culvert work was completed on the upper Morrill Road.

             This year we expect that the Harvey’s Hollow Bridge Deck will be rebuilt with a 90% grant from the state that was received last year . The FEMA repair work has to be finished, including the Wightman Road project. With any time remaining the work will continue on Brainerd Street, including modifying the old railroad crossing to be more car friendly. It's hard to say where the economy will go this year, but we did survive the skyrocketing fuel prices and the salt shortages of last year. At this time we feel we are in good shape budget wise, unless the state and the economy gets too carried away. We did have a larger surplus due to cutting some work projects and receiving the FEMA payment for others.

             This year we plan to replace the last truck in this round of truck replacements. The wood boiler continues to work out well at the garage. We have had to buy some wood as there was less time for tree work and more people are requesting to keep their roadside wood when it is cut. We are still looking for the work to begin on the village section of Route #2 Project, we have had more meetings but haven't seen any progress.

       Thanks to the many volunteers joining us from the fire department, we did get their leaky roof replaced on their garage, without any labor cost. We noticed when the roofing came off that there was inadequate insulation in the ceiling and some of that was out of position. It was repositioned and an additional 6 to 8 inches of insulation added, with the expectation of reducing the oil consumption. Even with the sale of Earth Tech to United Water Service, the Waste Water Treatment Plant continues to run well under their management. The recycling program continues to grow in spite of tight quarters. We were able to improve the parking slightly, but were not able to enlarge the parking lot as much as we had hoped. Greenup Day and the associated two Bulky Days have reduced the road side trash, although we do continue to see some illegal dumping in some remote areas.

            As we have reduced many budget items we will maintain a close watch to ensure the revenues and costs meet our expectations. The voted appropriation amount shown in the budget is the amount that petitions were received for the Warning. Any change in the voted amounts at Town Meeting will be adjusted to the budget at that time. The Fire Department have asked to start a Capital Equipment Fund to allow for future replacement or refurbishment of their equipment. 

            Once again thanks to all the town officers, appointees, and employees, who participated in the operation and governance process in many ways. We also thank all the many volunteers for their countless hours of service to make our town a fine place in which to live.

 Danville Selectboard  

Michael Walsh    Marion Sevigny     Marvin Withers     Denise Briggs      Doug Pastula

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