Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Killington finalizes short-term rental regulation

Mountain Times

 NOVEMBER 25, 2020

The registration deadline is Jan. 1

By Curt Peterson

Killington voters approved the zoning change for Short-Term Rentals Nov. 3, 482-262, but the actual form to register required two more Select Board meetings to finalize.

The state defines a short-term rental (STR) as a residential property rented for less than 30 days at a time, and for more than 14 days in a given year. Killington has more STRs (900 estimated) than its 860 population, inspired by the Killington-Pico ski resort, and various four-season events and activities.

At issue was the fee schedule for registering and obtaining a permit for short-term rental units.

At the Nov. 17 meeting the Select Board debated whether to base the fees on “bedrooms” or “occupants.”

In the end, the number of bedrooms became the determinant.

A permit for a unit with up to two bedrooms will cost $150, permits for three-bedroom units will cost $200, and four or more bedroom unit permits will cost $250. These are annual fees and must be paid when the units are registered with the town. The registration deadline is Jan. 1, 2021.

In Killington many units qualify for two occupants per bedroom, “plus two” occupants total. A two-bedroom unit, e.g., could legally house six occupants.

One property owner asked whether his fee would be based on actual number of bedrooms, or the number that he actually offers to rent. In his case, he said, he rents fewer than exist.

Selectman Jim Haff said the number of bedrooms actually offered to renters should be the number the owner puts on the registration application, which determines the fee.

Landlords who rent for less than 14 days per year are not required to register their units.

The registration program will be monitored by a firm contracted by the town to scan Killington rental units advertised on the internet through short-term rental sites. The sites’ companies will be amending their application forms to include the required Killington permit number for each offered unit. They can then track how many occupants a listing boasts vs. the number permitted by the town.

According to Zoning Administrator Preston Bristow, some property owners were advertising properties with occupancies far greater than approved by the state. Problems documented by the police and fire departments regarding parked cars blocking roads and noise complaints by neighbors had inspired creation of the STR registration ordinance.

The term for all permits will run from Nov. 1 to Oct. 31. For this first year, owners have until Jan. 1, 2021 to get their properties registered.

Bristow drafted the registration documents.

Besides the number of bedrooms, registrants must provide their state-mandated occupancies relative to septic and fire safety regulations, and certify that requirements of proper rental insurance are met.  They also have to acknowledge awareness of the fire alarm regulations if they have an alarm system.

Selectman Chuck Claffey encourages property owners to register their units online to avoid Covid infection risk of coming to the town offices.

There were some complaints about the ordinance.

Dave McComb, who said he manages or owns around 80 STRs, objected to the November through October permit period.

He quoted the town zoning ordinance: “The duration of a short-term rental registration shall be one year from the date of issuance.”

Sue Walker thought the registration fee should match the start date of the permits – and if not, it should be pro-rated. The ordinance was adopted 17 days after the Nov. 1 permit effective date.

Haff explained the town had wanted to enact the ordinance in May, but a vote was called for, putting adoption off until after the election in November. In the meantime, he said, the town has incurred monitoring and documenting costs they need to recoup through the fees associated with this change of zoning and subsequent registration.

Data enumerating existing STRs are being documented. Town Manager Chet Hagenbarth said all the detached homes will be in the data base by the end of November, and condominiums will be entered in December.


Town accepts Durkee’s bid for the former Killington Fire House

Mountain times 

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

By Curt Peterson

On Nov. 18 Steve Finer of the Fire Department signed the purchase and sale agreement for the former Killington Fire and Rescue (KF&R) fire house on Killington Road. The price to be paid is $415,000.

The buyer is Fireside Properties, LLC, one of several local companies owned by Stephen Durkee, and title is to be transferred on or before Jan. 15, 2021. The building is being sold “as is” and there are no contingencies for financing or satisfactory inspections.

Durkee also owns Killington Market, Inc., an abutting property on Killington Road.

Finer signed the purchase and sale agreement. The town is acting as authorized sales agent for KF&R, who own the property. Because the town has financed, and will own, the new Public Safety Building, which will be finished by the end of this month, proceeds of the sale will accrue to the town.

Selectman Jim Haff told the Mountain Times there is written authorization for the town to sell the property on the Fire Department’s behalf.

The request for proposals called for a minimum bid of $300,000. There were two bids, each for the minimum amount, one from Rock Landscaping and Property Management, and the other from Ryan Orabone, owner of Till I Die Apparel.

In addition to the higher price, stipulations favoring the seller included a 10-year easement to the existing truck refilling tank and Roaring Brook water access system for Killington Fire & Rescue.

Fireside Properties has agreed to “work with the Town of Killington to ensure that future development of the property is consistent with the anticipated new town center designation.”

The buyer has delivered a $5,000 deposit to the town, the balance of the purchase price to be paid when title is passed.

Mr. Durkee did not respond to the Mountain Times’s inquiry into his plans for the property.

Friday, October 30, 2020

Killington Public Safety Building prepares to open, budget shortfall discussed

 Mountain Times

OCTOBER 28, 2020

By Polly Mikula

Last week the new Killington Public Safety Building received its temporary dept. of fire safety certificate of occupancy, meaning the town’s fire, rescue and police departments could begin to move into their new headquarters, Town Manager Chet Hagenbarth explained.

The new building on Killington Road is just over a mile north of the current fire station. The new 14,000-square-foot structure houses the fire department, Search and Rescue team, and the Killington Police Dept.

The building features four bays for firetrucks in the front facing Killington Road and one in the rear for light rescue and police, with sufficient spacing. There is also a hose tower to drain fire hoses and store them properly after use, an efficient exhaust system, a toxic rinse room (to wash off fire retardant and other chemicals before entering the building), a men’s and a women’s locker room with showers, and a mezzanine floor with office space and storage.

In a separate section of the building, the police department has a “sally port” to allow secure gated entry for a police vehicle, a temporary holding cell, an interview/interrogation room with one-sided glass, office space and rooms for proper record storage.

The building also features a 900-square-foot community room that can seat 50-60 people (not considering current social distancing requirements) with a small kitchen attached and public bathrooms.

“It’s a beautiful building and all went as planned building-wise,” said Hagenbarth. “Then we ran into a few big obstacles.”

Over budget

The first of those obstacles was ledge, the second was the pandemic, and the third was water capacity, Hagenbarth explained. “None of which were in our control, but its still hard to not blame myself… I’ve never missed a budget in all the projects I’ve overseen,” he said.

Cumulatively, additional non-building related costs added up to $478,121.51, after the future sale of the existing firehouse (estimated as a $300,000 offset), Hagenbarth reported Tuesday, Oct. 27 at the Select Board meeting.

The town had included a 12% budgeted contingency, for normal overages, he explained but these were “unexpected outliers.”

The town borrowed $4,775,000 to finance the construction after voters approved the measure in March 2019. The 4-acre parcel was purchased separately the year prior for $525,000.

“Ledge costs were incurred outside the building footprint through to the 45,000 gallon storage tank and for drainage, which was required to be routed around the building to the stormwater treatment swale in front of the building,” Hagenbarth explained.

Additional ledge costs totaled $211,888.17.

The Covid-19 pandemic contributed to increased costs by delaying the project and pushing it into winter months and by increasing the costs of materials.

“Winter conditions costs were incurred because the stormwater permit as delayed from July 1-Sept. 3 causing a two month delay,” Hagenbarth explained. “Subsequently, the additional two-month delay caused by ledge removal caused the building to not be enclosed prior to the winter weather conditions setting in. Had either event not occurred, this cost would have been reduced to approximately $40,000 for a potential savings of over $120,000.”

The delay that pushed the project into winter conditions cost the town an additional $161,155.37, Hagenbarth reported. The costs directly associated with the Covid shutdown totaled $54,708.10, additionally. But pending state grants could help offset this cost a bit, Hagenbarth said.

Finally, water capacity fell short of state guidelines, requiring additional effort to meet code. “A potable water storage tank system was required by code to be calculated using 50% of the well’s capacity of 55 gallons per minute. The potable water storage system calculation must assume all water faucets etc are running and keeping the eye wash station continuing to function,” Hagenbarth explained.

A $50,369.87 potable water storage system had to be added to meet those requirements.

Hagenbarth and the Select Board will discuss possible measures to cover the $478,121.51 additional project cost in the coming weeks.  “We have options, I do not think we’ll be going back to the voters to ask for more money or have to increase taxes to cover this cost,” he said.


Thursday, October 29, 2020

Board considers updates for school buildings

Vermont Standard
10/29/20
By Neil Allen
Standard Staff

On Monday, the Buildings & Ground Committee for the Windsor Central Unifi ed Union School District (WCUUSD) met to discuss potential solutions for the air quality and roof condition of the Woodstock Union High School/Middle School (WUHSMS) and energy savings at all of the districts schools with a presentation from Johnson Controls International (JCI).

School board member and committee chair Jim Haff explained that he had invited JCI to the meeting to explore options to get a better understanding of what the air quality issues are, especially in the middle school, and the roof load concerns that have been talked about since 2019 but have not been addressed.

He also is interested in getting a study done of all the elementary schools as that has never been done, he said.

“I brought Johnson Controls in because they have a proposal that would have net zero costs,” Haff said. “The costs are offset by the savings from energy costs.”

Dean Angeledes, representing JCI, said they looked at ways to upgrade the WUHSMS building “without compromising the new build.”

Angelesdes presented three proposals: The first tier was a low level upgrade for $2.5 million with a payback in less than five years, which would address issues like weatherization, switching to LED lights and introducing a new computer management system for the heating system. The second tier was for $2.9 million with a payback in five to 15 years, which would also include installing solar panels, new windows, and additional building controls and replacing transformers. And, the third tier for $3.7 million, with a payback of more than 15 years, would also include new ventilators, a conversion to hot water heating at WUHSMS and replacement of boilers at some of the elementary schools.

“This would create a better quality building in the short term and allow students and teachers to have a better environment,” he said. “The discussion becomes what the scope of the project is. We don’t want to spend a lot of money and have the building replaced in a short period of time.

“We’re focused on the elementary schools and getting them to a state of modernization,” Angeledes said. “For the high school / middle school, it would be a stopgap to get the school to a better place and a more energy efficient place to operate.”

Haff dismissed the first level. “There’s no reason going for $2.5 million if you can do $2.9 million over five years,” he said. “I think the [third level] for $3.7 is where we should start. It is an $800,000 difference, which would be $160,000 each year for five years. I have no problem spending the money if it means students can learn better, faculty can teach better, the noise level is down and the temperature is going to be within two degrees.”

Fellow school board member Bob Coates agreed that the issues needed to be addressed.

“I don’t know how anyone can be against a short term fix,” he said. “What are we going to say to taxpayers if we’re going to tear it all down? We’re going to be coming with a stretch [with the new school building]. We need to do what makes sense in that short term window.”

Angeledes said that whatever is replaced or upgraded with this project would be able to be taken to the new building if that were to happen.

Interim Superintendent Sherry Sousa was concerned about whether the work being done would require the school district to bring it up to code. “Tier two would bring it up to code,” said Angeledes.

Angeledes explained that for either the first or second tier, there would be no “break up” fee, a fee that the school would be responsible for if they decide to not move forward with the project, and that they would have to figure out what the fee would be for the third tier as that level would require them to do more mechanical design.

Haff put forward a motion to have JCI do a full presentation at the next school board meeting on Nov. 2. Haff, Bristow and Hough voted yes and Coates abstained.

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

How do the new Killington Transfer Station rules stack up?

 Mountain times

OCTOBER 14, 2020


By Curt Peterson

Killington Town Manager Chet Hagenbarth announced changes for using the town transfer station at 2981 River Road last week at the regular Select Board meeting.

The new rules apply to residential users only – commercial regulations will be announced later, Hagenbarth said.

Starting Nov. 1, transfer station hours will be 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

To gain access to the transfer station each driver will have to show a transfer station permit that can be used with any vehicle – multi-car families won’t have to purchase multiple cards as they do in other area towns.

The permits will cost $25 each and will be good for one year.

“The cards will be available next week,” Hagenbarth said.

In addition to the permit card, users will have to have a punch card. Trash disposal will cost $3 a bag – one punch on the card.

“There’s a 5-punch card, a 10-punch card and a 24-punch card that all cost $3 per punch,” Select Board member Jim Haff explained. They must be purchased at town hall.

Zero-Sort recycling is free, but users must have a permit to access the recycling bins, even if they aren’t bringing trash, Haff said at the Select Board meeting. Haff has been staffing the transfer station by himself since Santos Ramos, the previous manager, left the position.

Vermonters have been required to separate food waste from their trash since July 1. The transfer station provides receptacles into which biodegradable bags of food waste can be deposited free of charge with a permit.

“The biodegradable bags are available on-line, or you can get them at Hannaford’s in Rutland,” Haff said.

The Select Board also designated Nov. 7-9  as “Free Bulky Days” when any large furniture or appliance items that don’t contain Freon (such as refrigerators, air conditioners, etc.) can be delivered to the transfer station without charge. Members of the Killington highway crew assist Haff on Free Bulky Days.

“If the items have Freon,” Haff said, “the town gets charged for disposal, so we pass that cost along.”

Bulky items can be taken to the transfer station any time, but require paying for disposal. Haff said there is a “Bulky Sheet” listing charges for specific items the rest of the year.


Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Killington forest fire burns underground for three days, and counting

 

VT Digger

KILLINGTON — Firefighters are still working to extinguish a forest fire discovered Friday evening near Route 4, on Deer Leap Mountain. 

The fire is now under control and confined to a third of an acre, fire officials say. But the blaze is burning underground, and has therefore been difficult to snuff. 

Ethan Ready, public affairs officer with the U.S. Forest Service, said the fire has not changed size since Friday night, when firefighters from eight local departments worked until midnight to try to control the blaze. 

The Forest Service took command of the fire Saturday morning, and “federal resources will be staffing and working on the fire throughout the week,” Ready wrote in an email. 

New England’s dry summer has combined with higher-than-average temperatures to cause intense evaporation, according to state officials. Those conditions have dried out the ground to about a foot deep on Deer Leap Mountain, which flanks Route 4 near Pico Mountain Ski Resort. 

The Deer Leap fire has traveled through the forest root systems, spreading more slowly than a treetop fire would, but requiring extra effort to put out.

Vermont forests are full of organic matter, such as downed trees and logs, and that material normally holds enough moisture to prevent fires from moving underground. But this year, conditions have been so dry, that same organic matter that normally stops fire has fueled it, said Kathy Decker, forest protection program manager at the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation.

“That’s what the ground fires are really all about — that organic matter in the soil is so dry, it actually can burn,” Decker said.

To combat the burn, firefighters are digging trenches 1 foot deep and 3 feet wide around the area of the fire; that removes the ultra-dry top layers of organic matter that burn most easily. 

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Murray McGrath, whose family owns the Long Trail Inn, is a member of Killington Search & Rescue and helped fight the fire Friday night and Saturday. 

While digging a trench, he watched embers burst into flame, igniting the root system of a birch tree — an image he compared to switching on a gas stove. 

“It was scary,” he said. 

McGrath’s son Connor lives nearby, and was the first to notice the smoke coming from the mountain. He’s a member of the Killington Fire Department, and he hiked into the forest to assess the situation. He began extinguishing flames when they popped up from the ground. 

His work was crucial, officials said; he stopped the ground fire from morphing into a fire roaring up into the tree canopy, at which point it would have easily spread.

“If it wasn’t for Connor McGrath, it definitely would have spread quickly,” said Mark Fiore, Killington’s fire warden. “The wind would have taken it right up the hill.”

U.S. Forest Service officials say the fire was likely caused by a campfire left unattended. 

“The local fire departments have been responding to abandoned campfires throughout the summer, which becomes taxing on them,” Ready said.

Fiore has responded to three forest fires in Killington alone this summer, including another one that was caused by a campfire. In an average year, Fiore said, he sees maybe one forest fire, if any.

Forest Service and state officials encourage campers to check current conditions before building a fire, and never leave a fire unattended. Given the dry conditions, even experienced campers could make high-stakes errors.

“Usually you douse it down with water until it’s a little trickle of smoke, and then you walk away,” Decker said. “But you can’t walk away today. There’s too many fuels in the ground that could burn.”

The Forest Service website instructs campers to use an abundance of caution. “Use alternatives to campfires during periods of high fire danger, even if there are no restrictions,” it reads. “Nine out of 10 fires are caused by humans.”

Patty McGrath, Murray’s wife and co-owner of the inn, has kept the Killington community updated on a Facebook page for locals. While commenters were quick to point fingers at out-of-staters for improperly extinguishing the campfire, McGrath noted that the inn’s parking lot, where hikers and campers also park, was filled mostly with Vermont license plates late last week. 

“There are a lot of locals who have taken up more hiking and camping, picnicking, etc., who are not familiar with rules or the ‘leave no trace’ philosophy,” she said. 

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The conditions that caused the Deer Leap fire persist all around Vermont. 

Decker has heard of at least four ground fires in Vermont this summer, including one in the Northeast Kingdom and others to the south, such as Killington and Springfield. 

Four is a lot of ground fires for a single summer, Decker said.

“Regular looks like none,” she said. “This situation is not an every-year occurrence. There might be some localized areas that get this dry, but for the widespread area of Vermont to be this dry at this level is unusual.”

While the West Coast fires that have ravaged parts of California, Oregon and Washington this summer have been linked definitively to climate change, the question of whether climate change is connected to the Vermont wildfires is complex.

Ali Kosiba, climate forester for the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, studies the way Vermont’s forests respond to changes in climate. Paradoxically, watching the trends in precipitation and temperature over a period of decades, she said Vermont has actually been getting wetter in recent years. 

“We’re getting more rain,” she said. “That’s actually a significant trend.”

Still, this year, the Northeast is abnormally dry. Nearby states, such as Maine, face even harsher droughts than Vermont.

Climate change is likely to bring a new level of unpredictability, with future years departing further from average conditions. Most important for the forests, Kosiba said, is that this type of drought doesn’t persist for years. 

“Hopefully that doesn’t happen, but with climate change, we’re prepared for all sorts of new normal,” she said.

Thursday, September 3, 2020

Farm-to-trunk food giveaway today

Vermont Standard


9/3/20


KILLINGTON — Vermont’s Killington Resort, the largest mountain resort in Eastern North America and a POWDR company, announced a Farm-to-Trunk Community Grocery Giveaway happening on Thursday, Sept. 3, from 3 to 6:00 p.m. or until all 700 bags have been given away, at Pico Mountain, 73 Alpine Drive, Mendon, Vermont. The 100 percent locally sourced grocery giveaway is in partnership with Vermont Farmers Food Center (VFFC) and funded by a $50,000 donation from the Killington Play It Forward Fund at the Vermont Community Foundation to VFFC and Thomas Dairy.

The event is for those in local communities facing food insecurities including, but not limited to. Killington, Rutland, Mendon, Bridgewater, Pittsfield, Plymouth and Woodstock.

“/We realize farmers have lost much of their distribution network with restaurants in the state running at reduced capacity, so we’re excited to partner with Vermont Farmers Food Center and provide products purchased directly from local Vermont farms,” says Mike Solimano, president and general manager of Killington Resort and Pico Mountain. “By supporting our local farms and those experiencing food insecurities, we hope to strengthen our community and inspire others to take action.”


Thursday, August 6, 2020

School board votes to finish design, costs for new building

Vermont Standard

8/6/2020

By Allan Stein

Standard Staff

The Windsor Central Unified Union School District (WCUUSD) Board voted Monday to spend $137,000 to finish a schematic design and provide a detailed cost estimate for a proposed new middle-high school in Woodstock. The board’s 10-5 vote in favor of the allocation was consistent with the recommendations of the district’s Finance and Building & Grounds Committee on July 9.

The $137,000 will be drawn from the $250,000 in private donations restricted for use toward the $425,000 cost of architectural planning and design of a new facility to replace the aging one on the current grounds. A previous unofficial estimate placed the cost of the project — and a larger facility — at $68 million.

During the months following the Covid pandemic, however, school board members have been weighing a smaller building design that would comfortably meet the needs of 700 students.

However, WCUUSD Board member James Haff of Killington questioned spending additional money on a smaller school building project since a larger facility would accommodate social distancing requirements.

“It doesn’t make sense, to me, to vote on a building if you don’t know how many students will fit into it at this time,” said Haff, who voted against the $137,000

allocation.

WCUUSD Board member Robert Coates of Pomfret, who voted in favor of the allocation, said the “logical next step” was to come up with a detailed building cost estimate and design, which “may or may not be adjusted for COVID.”

“What we know is we have some pretty critical infrastructure issues that need to be addressed. I don’t think you can go to the voters with a hypothetical (construction cost),” Coates said.

“I’m not saying we are going to build the building,” noted WCUUSD Board member Claire Drebitko of Woodstock. “We’ve done so much work — why would we abandon it when we’re so close to the finish line?”

“What we know is we have some pretty critical infrastructure issues that need to be addressed. I don’t think you can go to the voters with a hypothetical (construction cost).”

— Robert Coates of Pomfret, WCUUSD Board Member