Weston board discusses zoning, AOT refund and scofflaw dog

By Bruce Frauman
© 2017 Telegraph Publishing  LLC

Work on a new  zoning permit application for town landowners was brought to the Weston Select Board’s attention at its meeting on June 27. The re-write was started several months ago, according to board member Charles Goodwin.

Board Chair Denis Benson wanted to see more details to determine if a property was in a flood plain.  Goodwin said that the segment addressing the dimensions of a completed building was unclear whether this referred to just the project, which could be an addition to a building, or to the entire finished building, of which the addition is just a part. He then asked acting Zoning Administrator Kim Price to suggest language.

Town Clerk Kim Seymour will send  by certified mail a second delinquent notice to the owner of an unlicensed dog, at the request of board member Jim Linville. Linville said this was “another layer of protection for us and another layer of vulnerability for the (dog owner).”

Linville is concerned that an unlicensed dog might expose the town and the owner to liability. The town is protected by its insurance policy, according to Linville. Seymour said there is only one dog on the unlicensed list, one that was licensed last year, but not this year. Seymour also said she knew of no town policy specific to rabies vaccinations, though Linville, reading from state statute, said “we could impose a penalty of $500.”

The board asked Select Board Administrator Cheryl Barker to file for a refund  from the Agency of Transportation for emergency work done on Shaw Knoll earlier last month. The state will reimburse a town for such expenses in excess of 10 percent of the non-winter highway budget. Benson estimated that this amount would be $16,000.

Kim Seymour, in her role as town treasurer, said the cost of GoDaddy hosting the town’s website and email servers is about $600 for a two-year contract. She said the town’s IT consultant, Southern Vermont Computer Systems, recommended upgrading four town computers with 8G memory cards from the current 4G cards.

After discussing more pricey alternatives and a possible need to redo the website, the board agreed to continue using GoDaddy for website hosting and email services and to upgrade the memories of four computers at a cost of about $70 each.

Instead of inviting Trustees of Public Funds to talk with the whole Select Board as previously discussed (Downer steps down as zoning chief, Weston board taps interim), board members Goodwin and Bruce Downer will set up meetings with one or two trustees at a time and report back to the board. At the previous meeting, questions were raised by the town auditors about the reporting of fund collections and disbursements, and board member Ann Fuji’i asked about the history of each fund.