the essex
October 18, 2018 • The Essex Reporter • 1
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FREE Vol. 17, No. 42 essexreporter.com
{ Thursday, October 18, 2018 }
Boards hire law firm for merger guidance
Rec depts. to explore shared office space By COLIN FLANDERS The town and village recreation departments are exploring whether they could both operate out of Maple Street Park while maintaining separate budgets and staff, a move their leaders say would create a true one-stop-shop for all recreational needs. “If we’re all under the same roof, we’re hoping speed and quality go together,” said Ally Vile, director of Essex Parks and Recreation. Her department is now located in the town offices at 81 Main St., less than a mile from the Essex Jct. Recreation and Parks’ offices at 75 Maple St. The unique relationship between the town and village leads to some confusion among recreation users over who offers what specific programs and who oversees what parks and facilities. Under a co-located office, there would be a single phone number, brochure, website and registration system, the directors said. They expect collaboration between staff on programming and marketing, too, but said staff besides front desk employees would retain their existing roles and responsibilities. The move comes amid ongoing efforts to align practices across town and village departments, including recreation. In September, Vile and EJRP director Brad Luck met to discuss administrative practices and planned to meet three other times over the next six months to wade through facilities, personnel and programs. The directors outlined logistical questions like how all the recreation personnel could fit into the EJRP offices, how much the move could cost and how co-locating could impact non-resident status for town-outsidethe-village participants. They hope to answer those questions and any others prior to developing the fiscal year 2020 budget, which the boards will start crafting in the next several months. They said a Sept. 1, 2019 start date would be ideal. Vile and Luck said they first considered co-locating their offices when their two departments were at the center of a proposal to create a new unified recreation district. That proposal, which would have blended the two departments and
By COLIN FLANDERS The selectboard and trustees will explore governance options in the event of a merger with the help of an outside lawyer, who may also guide them on how to enact a new charter if such a proposal ever takes form. Daniel Richardson, a partner of the Montpelierbased Tarrant, Gillies & Richardson, will work with the recently formed subcommittee tasked with researching governance models that could help the town and village become a single municipality – a goal both trustees and selectboard members supported earlier this year.
"We don’t change town governments overnight. You kind of have to get it right the first time." Daniel Richardson Lawyer retained by town, village
munity. “With so many people in that park throughout the year, I’m just trying to use what I see as common sense,” Levy said, noting he originally opposed hunting on these properties but recognizes the need to control the deer population. Selectwoman Irene Wrenner and Michael Plageman preferred extending hunting through March but eventually came around to the 45-day window. Wrenner stressed the need for better signage in the area, too. Andy Watts, the lone dissent, said he was “dismayed” to see members “back away” from their previous proposal: “I don’t understand what’s changed,” he said. Sopchak explained she was originally unsure about hunting season dates but came around to the tightened window once realizing deer season overlaps with several others. She added she was at Indian Brook Park last weekend and saw how crowded it is this time of year. Plageman noted weapons used after deer-hunting season generally have a much shorter range than the rifles used during it. But Sopchak said the type of gun matters less than the perception of those who feel unsafe at the parks when they hear gunshots. “It’s frightening,” she said. “From a
“A lot of the time we think we might be asking a lot of questions, but we might not be asking the important questions,” village president George Tyler said at the Oct. 11 joint meeting. The subcommittee – comprised of two trustees and two selectboard members – was supposed to share a report with its findings last week but pushed back its timeline after struggling to obtain the necessary information. Richardson should be able to help that process. He said vast experience in municipal law has taught him some best practices for pushing charter changes through the legislature and noted a “wide array” of options to choose from – anything from a total or partial merger to a model in which the village becomes a special district within the town. “We don’t change town governments overnight,” Richardson said. “You kind of have to get it right from the start. Otherwise it won’t function well, the citizens won’t support it and it won’t achieve what you’re hoping to, which is some greater efficiency and effectiveness.” Richardson’s firm charges a municipal hourly
See HUNTING, page 3
See LAWYER, page 16
PHOTO BY COLIN FLANDERS
Resident Patti Davis addresses the selectboard during Monday night's meeting. Davis, an avid runner, has repeatedly called on the selectboard to tighten its firearms discharge ordinance over conerns of hunting in several town parks.
Selectboard trims hunting window New proposal allows hunting on several town-owned properties for 45 days By COLIN FLANDERS The selectboard agreed Monday night to allow hunting on several town-owned properties for a month-and-a-half out of the year, substantially cutting back a proposal most members had tentatively supported just two months prior. Their new proposition allows gun owners to discharge firearms at Indian Brook Park, Saxon Hill Park and the Essex Tree Farm from November 1 to December 15; nixes a 500-foot buffer around the parks that would have extended onto private property; and leaves the so-called blue zone – a large swath of private land in the northern part of town – untouched. Town staff will now re-draft ordinance language, and the selectboard must host several public hearings before the new rule is on the books. The five-member board took no official vote Monday night, and enthusiasm for the proposal varied. But a clear consensus emerged during the hour-long discussion: Four officials agreed hunting will only be allowed during deer season, with chairman Max Levy and selectwoman Elaine Sopchak offering the strongest take, believing it represents a fair compromise between the rights of hunters and the safety of the entire com-
See RECREATION, page 16
FIRE UP THE GRILL
After joining health network, VNA unveils new name By AMANDA BROOKS
PHOTO BY KYLE ST. PETER
The Essex Jct. Recreation and Parks department hosted its first-ever Battle of the BBQ last Saturday. See page 3 for the results, and look for more photos from the event on essexreporter.com
The Visiting Nurse Association of Chittenden and Grand Isle Counties officially changed its name last Tuesday to the University of Vermont Health Network Home Health and Hospice. The two organizations have been officially affiliated since January, but they unveiled the signs bearing the new name October 9. Judy Peterson, CEO and president of the UVM Health Network Home Health and Hospice, said talks about collaboration arose during a lunch with John Brumsted, the president and CEO of UVM Health Network and CEO of UVM Medical Center, a few years ago, where both realized an affiliation might be a good idea. “It was very early on that we recognized that our mission is just really well-aligned,” Peterson said. “Both organizations recognized that if we want to participate in health care re-
PHOTO BY AMANDA BROOKS
John Brumsted, president and CEO of UVM Health Network and CEO of UVM Medical Center, and Judy Peterson, president and CEO of UVM Health Network Home Health and Hospice unveil the new sign for the Home Health and Hospice center last Tuesday. form … then we need to work as one.” Brumsted echoed Peterson’s desire for collaboration. “From that early conversation, my thoughts were, can we do this better together than separately, this being taking really good care of our
community,” Brumsted said. Doing more to take better care of the community is a major factor in the new collaboration, both Peterson and Brumsted agreed. Clinical manager Martha Brown See VNA, page 10