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Town of Pittsford Select
Board Special Meeting
Thomas "Hank" Pelkey opened the meeting at 6:30 p.m. Select Board members present were: Allen Hitchcock, Joseph Gagnon, David Markowski, and Thomas Hooker. Also present were Michael Balch, Kathleen Ramsay, and Linda Drummond.
Michael Balch suggested to the Board that they accept his resignation and appoint Kathleen Ramsay as the Town Manager of Pittsford effective immediately. M. Balch would stay on until July 31, 2007 as agreed as a consultant. D. Markowski made a motion to appoint Kathleen Ramsay as the Town Manager effective immediately. T. Hooker seconded the motion. The motion was passed unanimously.
Set Tax Rate for FY2007/2008
K. Ramsay reviewed the tax rate summary for the Town property tax rate for 2007/2008 as follows per hundred:
General Fund - $0.2307 Highway Fund - $0.1992 Voter Appropriations - $0.0000 (Too small to show) Total Municipal Tax Rate - $0.4300
State Education Property Tax from the State's notice of education tax rates for FY2008:
Residential Tax Rate - $1.2568 Total Residential Tax Rate - $1.6867
Non Residential Tax Rate - $1.2933 Total Non Residential Tax Rate - $1.7233
Village Tax Rate - $0.0420
D. Markowski made a motion to accept the tax rates as follows:
Municipal Tax Rate: - $0.4300 School Tax Rate (Residential): - $1.2568 School Tax Rate (Non Residential/Commercial) - $1.2933 Village Tax Rate: - $0.0420
T. Hooker seconded the motion. The motion was passed unanimously.
NEW BUSINESS
Allen Hitchcock attended the FEMA meeting held in Rutland on flood plain designations. There will be no changes to the Flood Plains in Pittsford according to a study done by FEMA as Pittsford was not included in the study. FEMA is changing their digital mapping system from paper maps. Every town will be receiving the digital mapping. A. Hitchcock suggested having Rutland Regional Planning Commission overlay the digital data over the paper maps and they can tell the Town if there are any significant changes. It will be local community responsibility to communicate any changes to land owners.
D. Markowski expressed his concern of the notification that Omya has sent that they are moving its administrative offices to Cincinnati, Ohio. He suggested notifying the Vermont Legislature of the Board's or each member's concern that this move will affect the whole region. Board members discussed that the State of Vermont has made Omya "jump through hoops" as a company doing business in Vermont which other businesses have not had to do. There will be a loss to the region of about $55 million which will be devastating and will have a major affect as Omya is a major employer for the region. M. Balch and K. Ramsay will be meeting with Rob Tikoft, production manager of Omya, on July 26, 2007 and will discuss different issues. Also R. Tikoft has invited anyone to call him at Omya to discuss their concerns. It was stated that Omya is the only company in the United States and Canada that is limited to the number of trucks it can have on Route 7. No other company has to comply with this limitation. Over the last three years, Omya has invested $300 million in Alabama and Canada instead of upgrading the Pittsford Florence plant. That is one-third of the State's budget that could have been invested in Vermont. Of the 3,000 distributors for Omya, only one is based in Vermont. The Board discussed taking a proactive approach toward keeping Omya's production facilities in Florence and attracting businesses that use Omya's products in their production process to Pittsford/Florence by lobbying the State Legislature and Governor for a more business friendly regulatory environment and State investment in infrastructure including upgrading Route 7. To initiate this effort, T. Hooker will contact the Governor and invite him to attend a future Board meeting to ask for his support. Without any further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:50PM.
Respectfully submitted:
Linda Drummond, Recording Secretary
Thomas "Hank" Pelkey, Chair Allen Hitchcock, Vice-Chair W. Joseph Gagnon, Selectman David Markowski, Selectman - ABSENT Thomas Hooker, Selectman - ABSENT
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