The Pittsford Selectboard continued weighing a local option tax, heard updates on Bridge 108, introduced a new police officer, and considered concerns over Dollar General at its Nov. 4 meeting.

Local Option Tax

Selectboard Chair Alicia Malay said the board is continuing to gather information about the town’s local option tax, beginning with a discussion of what is taxable and what is not. They are using information from the website of Morristown, Vt., which has recently implemented a local option tax.

Malay highlighted that everyday essentials such as groceries are exempt, but prepared meals aren’t. Town Manager Ann Reed added that clothing up to a certain value is also exempt. Malay and Reed believe between 75% and 80% of the revenue will go to Pittsford and 25% to 20% to the State.

Shawn Hendee, Pittsford’s water superintendent, suggested that “One way to help sell it to the general public is, we’re either going to have to raise our general taxes and fees, or we can have people from other towns helping us pay for it.”

Malay agreed to framing it as a choice between implementing this new tax, raising revenue through the general fund tax, or cutting services. She suggested Pittsford include information about the tax on the town website.

FY 2028 budget preliminary discussion

Reed provided general fund budgeting information as well as 19 questions for the selectboard to think about before their next meeting on Nov. 18.

Eliminating separation of line items by department, for example, has been raised before. “We’re all under one roof, so why are we breaking it out by department?” Reed asked.

Common line items across departments, she said, include postage, workers comp, property insurance, liability insurance, employment practices insurance, unemployment insurance, and all employee benefit insurances.

Highway, water, and wastewater are enterprise funds and have to be separate, Reed noted.

Reed is also working with the town’s IT provider to figure out what equipment needs to be updated or replaced, and indicated new servers may be needed for the municipal office and the Police Department.

The selectboard expects to consider the full budget starting at the next meeting.

Bridge 108 improvements

Reed reported on improvements still needed for Bridge 108, on Route 7 crossing Furnace Brook just north of the intersection with Route 3. While VTrans has put triangular reflectors on the side of the road that are visible as drivers turn onto Route 3, drainage, sidewalk paving and more have yet to be addressed. Reed asked selectboard members to sign a letter to the state’s Construction & Material Bureau addressing the outstanding concerns.

Segment 3 pushed out to 2040

In discussing schedule updates for the Route 7 reconstruction project, Malay highlighted that Segment 3, which passes through town, has been pushed out from 2038 to 2040, but said the town can’t put off sidewalk planning and construction any longer.

Reed agreed and added that water and sewer infrastructure also should be improved. She suggested the selectboard meet in executive session about this because “we’re going to have some fees coming up to make sure we’re in compliance.”

Dollar General issues persist

The Dollar General store has had a bright flickering light in its parking lot for around two months. Reed noted that she sent Town Attorney Gary Kupferer an email about the light and the store’s landscaping (which has since been improved) after the last selectboard meeting, but has not heard back despite following up with him.

Town drop box to move

Selectboard member Thomas Hooker remarked that he has concerns about the accessibility of the town drop box, especially for handicapped citizens. A motion to move it back to its former location was approved.

New Police Office Labonte introduced

Police Chief Joseph Manino introduced Pittsford Police Department’s newest officer, Nick LaBonte, who started with the department on October 15. He is in his second week of full-time officer training with Corporal Soulia. The training will take six weeks.

Draft Town Plan

Malay reported that the draft town plan came back to the selectboard from the planning commission with an enhanced energy-plan addendum.

The discussion centered around the statutorily required natural resource information to be included on the maps in the plan: highest priority wildlife crossings, interior forest blocks, and habitat connectors.

Board member David Mills requested to see all the research that went into determining those areas and said there were some “glaring errors” on the maps.

Mark Winslow confirmed that there are inaccuracies on the maps, noting that prime agriculture soils are not mapped correctly. He also noted an additional inaccuracy on one map, saying, “The current-use parcels aren’t mapped correctly. Surprise. So obviously they’re just taking it off landowners’ records and saying it’s all current use, which is not correct.”

He concluded that he doesn’t have a problem with anything else in the town plan, but if the selectboard does pass the draft, they should point out the errors so the Rutland Regional Planning Commission can fix them.

Reed asked for support to schedule the hearing on the Draft Town Plan for Dec. 16, provided she gets answers to the map questions.

Sangamon Road Communications Tower notice

After the initial balloon test, T-Mobile filed its certificate of public good with Vermont Public Utilities Commission, asking to extend the tower from 78 feet to 100 feet above ground level and add three antennas.

Malay announced that the town, as an interested party, will request another balloon test to see what the results show with the leaves off the trees in the area of the tower.

Malay Grateful for reelection

Lastly, Selectboard Chair Malay took a moment to thank the town for her reelection as state representative for Rutland-8. She has served in this role since 2025.

“I am extremely grateful for being reelected as the state rep for Pittsford and Proctor, and I am very anxious to continue in the work,” she said. “I love this job, so thank you. I really appreciate the trust put in me.”

She encouraged people to reach out to her. Her contact information is available on her Vermont General Assembly page.