Burlington LP Events <back to main>

** Councilors missing: McDonough, Shannon
   *Mayor Clavelle out of town, Carleton as stand in mayor, Montroll nominates Knodell stand in president of council

Local Control Commission:
2.01 - Communication from Damon Brink, Co-owner, Nectar's, Re: Complaint regarding renewal of liquor license (amended by Curley)

2.05 -Curley Motions to have a response sent to Mr. Brink
Curley: Mr. Brink did not bring his complaint before the License committee before sending a letting to LCC, and denies his involvement with Club Metronome even though he now owns the establishment
Montoll: City should address communication and not place it on file
Carleton: have a copy of the letter placed on file & respond to Mr. Brink
Blais: It's not a right to do business in Burlington, it's a privledge; tired of hearing businesses whine like 2 year olds

7. Special Outside Consumption permit (one day only):
135 Pearl, 135 Pearl Street, Saturday, July 9, 2005, re: Vermont Pride Celebration

Curley: "they've been doing it for years without a permit"
Permit approved proactively by full council

Council General City Affairs:

• Keogh: Glad the legislature is finally wrapped up
• Perry: 4th of July celebration was a great success

Committee reports:

• Perry (Parks, Arts, & Culture committee): Moran plant - a committee has been appointed by the Parks, Arts, & Culture committee, the new committee is meeting on Wednesday
• Blais (Public Safety committee): attended the opening of the new Emergency room at Fletcher Allen on Saturday; almost wants to be injured to try it out
• Carleton: Changes and timelines for priorities for City Council 2006 almost verbatim of what Kelleher submitted to Carleton; There will be a workshop on housing with Brian Pine before next council meeting

Public Forum:

• Steve Arthur: Re: 17.5 Resolution: requesting Board of Health to study city-wide Dental Health relative to Household income & insurance coverage (Ashe, Fiermonte, Knodell)
  • How do we get lower income to go to the dentist? they already know these answers at the State Dept. of Health; fluoridation helps everyone
• Loyal Ploof: Fuoridation is the medicating without consent; as like many other Old North End residents, he cannot afford bottled water to avoid the fluoridation
• Sean: Before making a decision on fluoridation, be sure to listen to public opinion, as a majority of residents do not want fluoridation
• Maryann (James Ave): potholes a problem; Dept. of Public Works told her would not be fixed for 2 years; she told DPW representative she would contact city hall, and the rep. responded, "If you enjoy complaining, then complain all you want." (Blais leaves, following  resident)
• James (VT Workers Center): Specialty Filaments, company walking away from worker's, giving only 2 weeks severance pay; they've filed a court injunction so the company will not be able to move machinery until they give the proper pay to workers; the company received tax abatements and other bonuses from the city, the company's land is worth $2.2 Million

6.01 - Communication: Andy Montroll, Chair, Ordinance Committee, Re: Consideration of Time of Sale Inspection Ordinance

• Montroll: If there hasn't been an inspection in recent years, then they can schedule one; director of Code Enforcement Office, Gregory McKnight, disapproves of the resolution, as they currently plan rental inspections every 1-1 1/2 years
• Ashe: Inspections allows office of code enforcement to get more done
• Fiermonte: Resolution allows safe housing
• Bushor: Resolution should also state that the property should have been inspected within last 18 months
• McNeil: If the resolution passes, the code enforcement office would be working for realtors

Commission reports

• Board of Assessors - (none in attendance); postponed until next council meeting
• Church Street Marketplace Commission
  • Bushor: Re: Universal trespassing - is it for a certain period of time?
    The time is up to the police and or owner of the shop; stores have agreed to the contract for one year at a time
• Library Commission - would like to come before the council in a month regarding their feasibility study
• Retirement board - struggling with long term sustainability of plan
  (no questions/comments from councilors)

Burlington Bay Update / Stormwater in Burlington
presented by Dr. Mary Watzin, Steve Goodkind, and Steve Roy (assistant)

• Salt levels of the lake in the winter months are the equivalent to seawater, salt is also a contaminant, but unsure of how it affects the ecosystem
• Toxicity had some moderate effect of inhibition of reproduction in ecosystem; incidences of toxic blooms have declined in Burlington Bay ('99-'04)
  • George: Did you test during the time of the sewer break of it's affect on the lake?
    No, the study was not functioning at that time of year
• Stormwater presentation was a joint effort with other surrounding communities
• EPA Phase II Stormwater rule for Municipal seperator stormwater sewer systems (MS4)
• City Submitted a 5 year plan to meet the minimum EPA standards, which included a 6 minimum control measures:
  1. Public involvement (Kids stenciling signs above drains)
  2. Illicit discharge and elimination
  3. Construction site's runoff control
  4. Post construction stormwater control
  5. Pollution and housekeeping of city property (ie salt shed on Pine st. and street sweeping in the spring)
• Review the alternatives to the College St storm drain (empties near the Boathouse underwater)
• Improving Inglesby Brook (Behind Champlain Elementary), construction started last week, completion in October
  • What kind of stormwater program does Burlington Want ?
    Currently basing their model after South Burlington's, which generates $70,000 annually
  • Bushor: What about how to utilize money to prevent more problems from happening?
    We will need a more definitive plan in order to answer that question

Resolution 14.02: Request for stormwater impact report (Carleton, Montroll, Blais) -passed

Winooski River sewer break working timeline:
(best case scenario)

• designing until Aug. 10th; permitting process from Aug. 15th to  mid. Sept.; Construction from End of Sept. til Nov. 20th; nothing overdue on the timeline as of yet
• Bushor: Person from Public forum expressed concern regarding working with City of Colchester (Goodkind dismisses it at first) Bushor requests clerk give a copy of letter to Steve

Resolution 14.05: Resolution for Winooski River Storm/Sewer Siphon Line Crossing (Carleton) -passed      

Burlington Currency Project
presented by Cara Tassig, Executive Director, and Amy Kershner (Americorp VISTA)

• Operates with staff paid in Burlington currency, working on getting 501c4 status, expanded their Board of Directors to include stakeholders, also working on getting ebanking with currency
• Currency increases competitive advantage among businesses, promotes community loyalty, provides grants and loans for economic development, some visitors to the city buy the currency and frane them as souvenirs
• Currency needs to be accepted by the city and other larger companies to prosper, otherwise they're toast; about 65% of the businesses they polled said they would acceptd it if the City would also accept it
  • Knodell: City should take time to see if they could help residents; start a committee to learn how the system works & come up w/ ways to use the currency
  • (After presentation Kelleher introduces himself to Ms. Tassig)
    

17.5 Resolution:  requesting the Board of Health to study city-wide Dental Health relative to household income and insurance coverage (Ashe, Fiermonte, Knodell)

• Ashe: Need more info to decide on this issue
• Keogh: Does the Board of Health have the capability to perform what the resolution is requesting?
  Chair of BoH: Not at this time, needs to consult with Katherine
• George: inconsistency with the Board of Health's decision about medicating residents
• Carleton: Supports the resolution and the researching, but cautions use of city's funds
• Ashe: What is the Board of Health currently working on?
  Chair of BoH: Currently pesticides
• Fiermonte: Board of Health should be dealing with this issue, not the council

Communication from City Atty McNeil re: Pending litigation
Council moves to executive session