BRATTLEBORO — The Selectboard unanimously approved the fiscal year 2015 property tax rate at its July 1 meeting.
For the upcoming tax year, the combined municipal and school total homestead rate is 2.8156. The non-residential rate is 2.6725.
Both tax rates are up over the previous fiscal year. The homestead tax rate is up 3.45 percent. The non-residential rate is up 4.05 percent.
Representative Town Meeting members approved a revised $15.7 million municipal budget 112 to 12, at a special town meeting, June 2. Voters had defeated an original $16 million budget at a special town-wide budget referendum in April.
Selectboard Chair David Gartenstein noted during the board meeting that the homestead tax rate increased $0.939 compared to fiscal year 2014.
About $0.266 of the increase is attributable to the municipal budget, while $0.673 is due to the school budget, said Gartenstein.
Board decides to wait after Skate Park Site Committee presents findings
The Elm Street lot, Crowell Lot, and two sites at Living Memorial Park topped the list of recommended sites for a potential municipal skate park.
The Skate Park Site Committee presented its top four recommended sites for a 6,500-square-foot skate park.
While members of the Selectboard and those in the audience spoke in favor or against specific sites, board member David Schoales noted the exchange's positive tone. Conversations about where to build a town skate park have been contentious during the 10 years that proponents have been working to get one built.
The board established the seven-member site committee last December after attempts over many years to build a skate park at the Crowell Lot in the vicinity of Western Avenue, Green Street, and Union Hill dissolved into cries of foul over a perceived lack of a public process. Park supporters have disputed this assertion.
Site committee members presented the group's top four sites after winnowing down a list of 41 possible locations. The committee visited the 10 most feasible locations. Committee members individually ranked these sites based on cost, size, location, multi-use, and topography.
The Elm Lot, now a metered parking area at the intersection of Elm, Flat, and Frost streets, received the most points, at 1,819. The Crowell Lot was second with 1,518. The two sites at Living Memorial Living Park - the basketball court (1,458) and the upper field above skating rink (1,428) - came in a close third and fourth, respectively.
The committee also presented a list of pros and cons for each of the four locations.
For Elm Street, the pros included the large lot's ability to hold both a park and parking, potential access to downtown development grants, minimal noise impact, highly visible site, and being near locations, such as the Boys & Girls Club, that also cater to youth.
The cons for Elm Street included limited opportunity for expansion, proximity to “bad behavior” such as selling of illegal drugs, pedestrian safety concerns, and potential subsurface contamination due to past industrial use.
Crowell Lot's pros included mixed recreation in an existing park, high visibility, decreased cost for maintenance, possible use by Green Street School, and traffic sounds to provide noise buffer.
The cons included limited area, traffic safety issues, neighbor objections, and relative lack of amenities nearby.
The lower Memorial Park location received positive marks for its proximity to amenities, being family friendly, and expanding the current park recreation options. On the down side, however, the space is small, the need to reconfigure the current use could cost the town extra money, neighbors there are concerned about noise, and there are potential Act 250 issues.
Memorial Park's upper site had positive aspects such as being a large, unused space while not being near residential areas but close to other recreational options. The cons included its isolated location, accessibility issues, potential Act 250 issues, and its siting on a steep hill.
Most of the audience's comments, both for and against, focused on the Elm Street and lower Memorial Park sites.
A couple living at Brookside Condominiums, which is next to Memorial Park, spoke passionately about how a skate park “in their backyard” would affect their living situation.
Another audience member suggested constructing a temporary skate park at the Elm Street Lot, and evaluating in a year whether the location worked.
The board thanked the committee for its work.
Selectboard Chair David Gartenstein said the board should conduct its own research before choosing a location for a skate park, adding that the town needs to consider long-term costs associated with the park and visit all four sites.
Union Hill up for upgrade
The Selectboard approved a construction plan aimed at improving safety at the dicey intersection of Union Hill, Western Avenue, and Cedar Street: where drivers, pedestrian, and cyclists cross more than their fingers when crossing the roads.
“I think this is a really good design,” said Gartenstein, who also serves on the town's Traffic Safety Committee.
According to Hannah O'Connell, the DPW highway and utilities superintendent, pedestrians crossing the intersection “must be very quick and brave, as we learned today.”
(O'Connell and DPW Director Steve Barrett had visited the site earlier that day to take photos for their presentation to the Selectboard.)
The intersection, both busy and, by numerous accounts, poorly designed, has posed safety concerns for years. Last December, a pedestrian was killed during a hit-and-run accident.
The grant-funded construction project will improve safety at the busy intersection by narrowing the top of Union Hill by 40 feet, moving two crosswalks back from the intersection to allow for more visibility of pedestrians by motorists, narrowing the road on Western Ave, creating green space as a traffic calming measure, and adding a bike lane.
If all permits, approvals, and bids are awarded quickly, the city could begin construction as early as fall. If not, work would start in the intersection in spring 2015.
The Agency of Transportation (AOT) awarded Brattleboro a $70,000 grant last year for engineering and construction to improve the intersection.
O'Connell added that part of the grant has paid for engineering studies and designs by New Hampshire-based engineering firm Holden Engineering & Surveying, Inc. The remaining $41,000 will fund construction.
The project has wended through multiple state and federal processes, with more to come, O'Connell said. She characterized progress as slow.
The town has tried to improve the intersection since 2004, said Barrett.
Many features make the intersection tricky, Barrett had said during an April public meeting. Western Ave is a busy main artery through town. Cedar Street and Union Hill line up diagonally. Pedestrians must brave 80 feet of macadam at Union Hill. Meanwhile, visibility in the intersection can be limited, especially on the Union Hill side.
According to traffic count data Barrett referred to, 800 vehicles pass through the intersection during a peak driving hour of 4:15 p.m.