Killington Select Board Disagrees About Town Pool Bond

Vermont Standard

By Curt Peterson

Standard Correspondent

Killington—After having two weeks to contemplate prefunding the replacement of the killington town pool, a $75,000 per year, 10 year proposal, selectman Ken Lee announced at Tuesday’s select board meeting that he objects to putting the plan up for vote at the 2016 Town Meeting. He preferred the town wait till the project needs attention, then wants to finance it with a bond as they have previous infrastructure expenditures.

“I’m 72,” Lee said. “Why should I pay for 10 years for something I may never see?”

Town Manager Seth Webb reiterated that the estimated total cost of the project, including necessary rebuilding of the recreation center and pool house, would be $1,400,000, and the $750,000 pre-fund will actually pay for only half of the cost.

Selectman Chris Bianchi, who has school-age children, defended the proposal, saying it makes financial sense for the taxpayers.

“We know we’re going to have to replace the pool in 10 years, and it’s better to put the money away ahead of time instead of waiting and having to pay interest on borrowed funds later.”

Three residents attended the meeting. All had opinions. Charlie Holland agreed with Lee.

“I like the idea of waiting and financing the project with a bond,” he said. “That way the people who live here when the pool has to be replaced can decide if they want to replace it at the time by voting for the bond issue or against it.”

“I just got a letter from Social Security,” Holland added. “They say I’m not getting an increase this year because the cost of living hasn’t gone up. But if we increase our taxes to finance replacing the pool ten years down the road, that’s an increase in the cost of living.”

Webb and Bianchi pointed out the prefunding idea would raise homeowners’ tax rate by one cent.

“On a $300,000 home,” Bianchi said, “this would mean only a $30 increase in taxes per year.”

Resident James Rich also objected to the pre-funding plan. “We might put $750,000 away over ten years”, he said, “and then the voters might vote not to replace the pool anyway. I’m 76—I might have helped pay for something I’ll never see.”

Bianchi implied he saw the argument as a generational issue.

“I represent all the people in town – not just the senior citizens who don’t want to pay ahead for anything and leave all the cost on my kids.

That’s how I look at it.”

Select board chair Patty McGrath stepped in to say she thought the discussion was valuable and that she saw both points of view. She thinks prefunding is a good idea, agreeing with Bianchi that for years the town has been catching up on overdue maintenance and infrastructure issues, and planning ahead financially makes good sense. She suggested a smaller amount of money, perhaps $25,000 per year, that would have less impact on taxes might be more appropriate.

“It’s good to hear everyone’s opinions on this,” she said. “Ken’s on one end of the spectrum and Chris is on the other. I’m in the middle.”

It was agreed that the board would give the issue more thought and revisit the discussion at the next meeting.

Seth Webb reported that three residents had applied to serve on the committee searching for his replacement as town manager. Since the board was seeking three committee members, they agreed to appoint Walter Findeisen, Chris Karr and Gerri Russell, the three applicants, to the committee.

Later, Webb said the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, which is providing backroom services in the Town Manager search, has received 35 applications for the job to date, and there are still 15 days before the deadline for applicants to file.

“Typically a lot of applications arrive at the last minute,” he said, “so we are looking forward to having a lot of choices.”

Like other towns, killington is spending considerable time on its 20162017 budget.

Green Mountain National Golf Club, a town-owned enterprise, performed well during the past season, according to David Soucy, golf pro and general manager.

“All the courses in the area are suffering this year, but we paid all our expenses and were able to pay back $39,000 to the town at the end of the season,” he said. “We’ve reduced expenses by $30,000, partly due to lower fuel prices, but mainly because of careful purchasing.”

McGrath, Soucy and Webb all said the course has a good reputation among golfers, which has enabled them to maintain steady membership numbers and to weather a wet spring.

Webb’s review of the general budget demonstrated an anticipated tax rate increase of less than 2 cents over last year, the goal set by the select board. He attributes much of the achievement to increased revenue and a proposed carryover of $175,000 from a large budget surplus this year.

Police Chief Whit Montgomery presented a budget for his department that is increased over last year’s only because of the addition of a second full-time officer.

Comment: Maybe the Selectboard should consider how to pay for stuff we have already incurred debt on , like the golf course. We have an approximately million dollar balloon payment due in a few years. If  Bianchi and McGrath are worried about paying interest they should be looking at funding that balloon payment. But of course that was never the plan - the plan was always to roll the balloon over and pay more interest on an already rolled over debt. So given that scenario, any concern about paying interest seems disingenuous at best.
Also  there are other significant financial challenges out there - funding a new firehouse, redoing the golf course irrigation system, oh and finishing the repaving of Killington road. Somehow the budget for phase two of the Killington Road repaving project disappeared such that it can only be repaved from West Hill to Schooolhouse Road instead of to Dean Hill Road. The road bond we voted for a couple of years ago was supposed to ease us through the project yet somehow we're lacking the funds to do the projects as planned. What happened????

Vito