Town Projects Tax Rate, Orders New Fire Truck

Vermont Standard

2/2/2017

By Curt Peterson

Standard Correspondent

Killington – The Killington Select Board announced a .289-cent increase in the projected 2018 nonschool residential property tax rate at their Jan. 24 meeting. On a home assessed at $200,000 this would mean an increase of about $60 per year over the 2017 rate.

The rate includes the controversial $100,000 commitment to support a 2017 FIS Women’s World Cup Ski event, if the event returns to Killington. Selectman Chris Bianchi has said in the past the World Cup support represents about 1 cent of the increase.

There are lingering objections to the ski event commitment. Both David and Diane Rosenblum commented to the Board that the money would be better spent on maintenance of infrastructure.

Diane Rosenblum is on the Shelburne Memorial Library board and said she resents having to restrict the library budget while the Select Board is dedicating funds to a big event in town and reducing revenue by eliminating the retail sales tax portion of the Options Tax, about $400,000.

“I don’t own a business,” she said. “I’m retired and just a homeowner. I’m not going to get anything back out of this donation.”

The Board has described the World Cup support contribution as an investment in local businesses on the basis they are the ones who are collecting it for that purpose. In the past in an average year the town has received $875,000 in Options Tax revenue, including a 1-percent sales tax on retail sales in the village. One of the items voters will consider at the 2017 Town Meeting is rescinding the sales tax as of July 1, 2018, which will not affect revenue this coming fiscal year.

Rosenblum’s husband David concurred, citing a recent minor head-on collision that he attributes to lack of maintenance on Killington roads.

Robert “Sal” Salmeri, owner of Mogul’s nightclub, would like to see the $100,000 contribution spent on bus stops and other infrastructure issues.

Gary Rath and Alan Naylor, representing the Killington Volunteer Fire Department (KVFD), said the Department is satisfied with the 2018 budget negotiations.

Rath and Naylor recently traveled to KME Fire Trucks in Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania, near Stroudsburg, where the new fire truck purchased last spring was ready for final inspection.

“There were a few failures regarding specification issues,” Rath said.

Because of space limitations in the current firehouse custom dimensions had been part of their order, but a few of them had been missed by KME when the truck was built, so they are busy remedying the problems.

“It will be another month and a half before it’s ready for us to inspect again,” Rath said. “We won’t accept the vehicle until it is done the way we ordered it.”

Once the KVFD approves the truck it will be sent to New York for another week of equipment mounting.

The firemen also announced they are reducing the number of vehicles in their fleet by one – a “platform truck” with specialized uses will be sold, along with another truck that is due for replacement. The replaced trucks would be traded in for a new purchase or sold privately to recoup their value. Rath asked for authority to order an aerial truck called a “quint” from Pierce Manufacturing, Inc. in Appleton, Wisconsin, at a price of approximately $1 million.

A quint, or “five” truck has five functions: pump, water tank, fire hose, aerial device, and ground ladders. According to Rath, Pierce is the best place to purchase a quint. KME does not make them.

“We can save 3 percent by ordering it before the end of January,” Rath said, which would amount to about $30,000.

The fleet reduction would provide multiple benefits, the firemen said, including lower maintenance costs and smaller space requirements for the new firehouse.

The Board unanimously approved ordering the truck.

At previous meetings the Board had been advised KVFD has found an appropriate site for their proposed new firehouse on the access road. Naylor and Rath asked the selectmen for their support in pursuing purchase of the land – they would like to negotiate an option that would hold the parcel for them while their due diligence is completed.

The Board approved moving ahead with the project.