Select board bestows honors, chooses leaders, supports banner

March 27, 2022  |  By Lisa Scagliotti 

Waterbury Town Manager Bill Shepeluk (left) and longtime village trustee P. Howard "Skip" Flanders (center) now an Edward Farrar Utility District commissioner, are recipients of the Keith A. Wallace Memorial Community Service Award presented by select board member Chris Viens (right). The pair were honored this year for their longtime service to the town. They recalled how in March 1988 Shepeluk started in his position and Flanders was first elected as a water commissioner. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti

The Waterbury Select Board last week chose new officers, decided to hang the inclusion banner indefinitely, and took the first steps toward finding a new town manager for the first time in more than 30 years. 

Meeting for the first time since the Town Meeting Day, the board worked through an agenda that read like a blueprint for the work it will take on for much of the rest of the year. 

Town Clerk Carla Lawrence opened the meeting as the board reorganized, unanimously choosing Michael Bard as chair and Dani Kehnmann as vice chair. 

New members Alyssa Johnson and Roger Clapp, both of whom were elected on March 1, joined for their first meeting. 

Bard has served on other town boards including the Development Review Board. He ran unopposed for a second three-year select board seat on Town Meeting Day. He accepted the nomination as chair noting that the role’s key responsibility is running board meetings. “All of us have equal votes,” he said. 

A joint session with the commissioners of the Edward Farrar Utility District followed with the combined group discussing several key issues both boards will work on together in the coming months including the search process to find a successor to Municipal Manager Bill Shepeluk who plans to retire at the end of 2022. 

Shepeluk noted that it was March 1988 when he took the position of municipal manager in Waterbury. The boards both agreed to work with the Vermont League of Cities and Towns to conduct a search for candidates with the goal of choosing the next manager in time to have a transition before Shepeluk would end his tenure. Details of how that process will be structured will be decided in future meetings with a consultant from the municipal government support organization. 

Keith A. Wallace Award 

The two boards used the occasion to take care of one item of business usually done at town meeting. But because there was no in-person town meeting in 2021 or this year, the annual Keith A. Wallace Community Service Award was not given out either year. 

Two awards were given to catch up - Shepeluk was presented with a plaque at the select board’s Feb. 28 meeting. And on Monday, the group named P. Howard “Skip” Flanders the other recipient. It was a reversal of roles for Flanders who usually hands out the award at town meeting. He was visibly surprised. 

“I didn’t have an inkling where you were headed,” he said to select board member Chris Viens who presented the award. 

Viens praised Flanders’ institutional knowledge as a longtime village trustee and now utility district commissioner, as well as one of the community’s most knowledgeable local historians.  In thanking Flanders for his service, Viens acknowledged Flanders’ love for his hometown. 

“The pleasure and pride that I can see on your face as you stroll around town is apparent,” Viens said. “Because I know you feel good about the community you live in … it fits good in your heart.”   

Initial steps toward merger

The board discussed initial steps toward eventually combining the utility district into town government instead of it being its own municipality as it was structured when the village municipality was dissolved several years ago. Members of both boards agreed to begin with transferring several properties owned by the utility district to the town along with two loan funds still under the utility district’s control worth over $1.8 million. 

The utility district trustees said they aim to put these steps on the ballot for the district’s annual meeting in May. Voters in the district which aligns with the boundaries of the former Waterbury village municipality are eligible to participate in the district’s elections. 

A reciprocal step would follow if district voters approve of the transfers. The 2022 town budget calls for appropriating $600,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to the utility district to upgrade the water system for the Kneeland Flats Mobile Home Park and possibly upgrade a water line along Route 100 if costs allow. Those two transactions would go hand-in-hand, Shepeluk explained. If utility district voters don’t approve the land and loan fund transitions, the district would not receive the federal funds. 

The properties to transfer to the town are the small spot where the Welcome to Waterbury sign is near the roundabout, the Elm Street municipal parking lot Rusty Parker Memorial Park and the 40 acres where the Ice Center is located. 

The utility district still owns 51 South Main Street where the former town offices were located until Tropical Storm Irene damaged the building in 2011. That property is not included in the transfer. Utility commissioners said the district is continuing to explore possibilities for that property that could come to fruition before a merger of the two entities happens. 

Inclusion banner returns 

The board briefly addressed the matter of the town’s inclusion banner created last fall and hung near the municipal offices from December until Town Meeting Day as the board directed. 

The board agreed unanimously to return the banner to the posts. It bears the message “Waterbury, Vermont, condemns racism and welcomes all.” 

All of the board members spoke in favor of continuing to hang the banner. “It stands for what this town’s about,” Bard said. 

Viens agreed adding, “In view of what’s happening in Ukraine, I think it’s even more important” to send a message of inclusion. 

Clapp noted that Waterbury sent some 250 soldiers to fight for the Union in the Civil War “to end slavery.” The move connects the community to that history, he said. 

Several members of the public addressed the banner topic as well. Mallory Culbertson said she’s noticed new stickers from a white supremacy group near the roundabout in downtown Waterbury. For the past several years, activists with groups such as the Patriot Front have spread their messaging with graffiti and stickers in communities across the nation and in many towns in Vermont including Waterbury. Members of the group in 2020 even spray-painted slogans on the Waterbury Dam. “It’s important to take a firm stance against racism,” Culbertson said. 

Lisa Walton, who ran for select board on Town Meeting Day, questioned whether the board should hang the banner on the poles by the municipal offices which are used to fly banners announcing events. 

The frame, donated to the town by Waterbury Rotary, can hold four banners and community groups can schedule using spots for up to two weeks. The inclusion banner would leave three spots for event banners. 

Walton said the board is establishing a precedent to use the banner frame for something other than event notices. 

Former board chair Mark Frier was in attendance via Zoom. He noted that the select board can decide how to use the frame given that it’s town property. Shepeluk agreed. “The banner policy is a select board policy,” he said, adding that the message the banner conveys is from the town’s own Declaration of Inclusion. “You have the perfect right to put this up,” he said.  

Maroni Minter, co-founder of the Waterbury Area Anti-Racism Coalition, told the board that he had heard from new residents in town who took note of the banner and its welcoming message. “What we’re doing here is making a difference,” he said. “We’re attracting new people. And our town is moving in a direction people want to move in.” 

How to improve internet service 

The board’s final discussion centered around the topic of expanding broadband internet service to reach all households in Waterbury.

Linda Gravell addressed the board with an update based on her representation of the town to the CVFiber communications district. One step underway looks to towns to potentially commit some of the federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act towards expansion of internet service in communities. Waterbury is set to receive just over $1.5 million in ARPA funds with about half already committed to be spent.

Gravell said the communications district has the potential to take advantage of matching funds to match up to $75,000 from Waterbury’s federal allocation for a total of $150,000 to be put toward an estimated $3 million project to expand internet capacity to reach those not served and underserved in town. 

The board had many questions and expressed some skepticism of building a new network to serve an estimated 200 addresses that includes camps and recreation areas. It agreed to take up the matter to discuss at greater length at an upcoming meeting.