OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Barrie City Council Special Meeting - September 5, 2026

City Council — Thursday, November 6, 2025
BodyBarre, Vermont
SessionCity Council
DateThursday, November 6, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 2:10:33

Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

Council uh today is Wednesday, September 5th, 2026.

0:05

It is 6.02 p.m.

0:07

And I will call this special meeting of the Barrie City Council to order.

0:10

Uh the first item on the agenda is the adjustments to an approval of the agenda.

0:16

Any changes, Mr.

0:17

Manager?

0:17

Uh just a clarification, uh Mayor, because it wasn't in the packet that I did email the council about um item 4F on the consent agenda authorizing the manager to execute contracts, and I'm requesting your approval of the prospect heights redesign contract for 292,410.66 cents to VHB.

0:39

Um this was uh competitively bid, it was scored by uh panel of three reviewers, and we would receive two uh two proposals, and we are selecting the um the one that scored highest both technically and on the cost perspective, and this would be funded from the state grant award um for prospect heights.

1:01

Thank you very much.

1:02

And council, uh I did ask the manager to send all of those documents to council so that you'd you know I figured the review was important, the thoroughness of the review, not that I was questioning the the results of the staff reviewers, but I thought it was important for the council to have all of the information so we could see what they saw.

1:20

Uh so we did that and we'll make that part of the minutes as well.

1:24

Um other changes to the agenda, council?

1:28

Then a motion to approve would be in order.

1:31

So moved.

1:32

Thank you and seconded.

1:33

Thank you.

1:34

Moved and seconded.

1:35

Any discussion?

1:36

Hearing none.

1:37

All those in favor of the motion is presented, please signify by saying aye.

1:41

Aye.

1:41

And those opposed, thank you very much.

1:44

Uh and in the minute that we did that, I realize that I did at the end of the meeting.

1:49

I'm just gonna give the council a quick briefing in terms of where we uh stand on our SNAP uh program here in the city.

1:56

So I will do that at the end of the meeting.

1:58

Uh so council will move on to item 4A on the agenda and excuse me, we'll move on to the consent agenda.

2:05

We'll be approving the minutes of the meeting of 1028-25.

2:08

Do you have any licenses and permits under that section?

2:12

There are none.

2:13

We'll be authorizing 15 the $15,000 allocation for the adopt adopt a storm drain program.

2:21

Uh we will be uh appointing Fred Pond as the Barrie City representative for the regional bike share pilot program steering committee.

2:29

We'll be uh we'll be approving a retroactive $5,000 allocation or prospective $5,000 uh allocation from the Bruce Trust to support the SNAP benefits for the children of Barrie, and we'll be authorizing the manager uh to execute contracts as needed.

2:47

Yes, sir.

2:47

Uh thank you, Mary.

2:48

One one other really important point on the contract for prospect heights is uh this was in um my email to you, but it's also important for the minutes that your authorization to me, I'm requesting it to be contingent upon receipt of a CDB D DR award.

3:04

Um so we would notify VHB that they've been selected as the as the as the winner of the of the RFP, but we would not execute that contract absent um uh receipt of the CDB GDR application that we made this fall.

3:19

So I just wanted to clarify that as well.

3:20

Thank you.

3:21

Any objection from the mover and seconder?

3:24

Okay, then we'll work that in there.

3:26

Um just briefly, council, uh, a couple of things.

3:30

I mean, authorizing the I did the math on authorizing because everything, all decisions with me are always math based.

3:38

So um I looked at the $15,000 authorization for the adopt a storm drain program, and in a constituent had had stopped me and said, well, you know, that's kind of a cute program.

3:50

And so I did the math on it.

3:51

Um if we consider uh the $15,000 and we consider $30 an hour for labor, which is pretty conservative.

4:01

If you add in employee benefits, FICA, I think our average DPW contract rate is probably much higher than that.

4:08

Um $15,000 would buy a $500 hour.

4:12

There are so then I uh texted Nicholas and I said, How many storm structures are there in the city?

4:18

And he said there's a thousand.

4:20

So uh if it took 20 minutes for a staff person at DPW person, and believe me, we've got more important work for them to do, but if we had them clearing a storm drains and it took them 20 minutes per drain, that would be 333 staff hours.

4:36

Um so it kind of compares favorably with the 500.

4:39

However, in the out years, this program is only a thousand dollars.

4:44

So if we had to pay our staff um to clear storm drains, we could maybe clear 100 storm during so this is a really cost-effective program.

5:00

If people get behind it, I don't expect, well, maybe we'll get every storm drain in the city um adopted, but you know, if we even got half of them adopted and citizens were out there helping out with some of the light lifting, it would be a huge time saving for DPW.

5:16

So just wanted to say she's not here yet, but I just want to say thank you again to Councillor Gustin for presenting this program because it's going to be a really cost-effective program for the city.

5:26

In terms of the Bruce Trust um money, as I'll tell you later on, we're going to keep that powder dry right now.

5:35

Um we've managed to raise some funds through the program.

5:38

Uh every single day I'm talking to our food shelves.

5:41

Like I said, I'll outline it more thoroughly later.

5:44

But at this point, I don't anticipate um this SNAP thing changes daily.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Flood Resiliency███████████████████████████████31%
Public Safety███████████████15%
Procedural█████████████13%
Landlord Tenant Relations█████████████13%
Community Engagement███████████11%
Food Assistance███████7%
Public Engagement███3%
Mental Health Awareness███3%
Engineering And Infrastructure██2%
Summary of Proceedings

Barrie City Council Special Meeting - September 5, 2026

Barrie City Council convened in a special meeting on September 5, 2026, at 6:02 p.m. to address several urgent city priorities, including flood resiliency planning, public conduct and nuisance property ordinances, and the SNAP benefits gap. The meeting featured detailed presentations on riverbed maintenance, statistical reviews of recent ordinance enforcement, and an update on the community's successful fundraising efforts to supplement federal SNAP funds. The Council approved a new neighborhood committee and moved to executive session to discuss real estate matters before adjourning.

Consent Calendar

  • Minutes: Approved the minutes of the meeting held on October 28, 2025.
  • Storm Drain Program: Approved a $15,000 allocation for the "Adopt a Storm Drain" program; City Manager noted the program is cost-effective compared to DPW costs.
  • Bike Share: Appointed Fred Pond as the Barrie City representative for the regional bike share pilot program steering committee.
  • SNAP Benefits: Authorized a $5,000 allocation from the Bruce Trust to support SNAP benefits for children of Barrie.
  • VHB Contract: Approved a contract authorization of $292,410.66 for Prospect Heights redesign services by VHB, contingent upon the receipt of the CDBG grant award.
  • Warrants: Approved city warrants for the week of November 5, 2025.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • Byrne Rhodes (Councillor): Expressed gratitude to the City Clerk for the large voter turnout and the effectiveness of the "Vote Here" signage during the recent bond election; noted the bond items passed.
  • Councillor Gustin: Expressed deep appreciation for the community's response to the SNAP crisis and the work of local food shelves; honored the 75-year legacy of the Beauvair family business.
  • Councillor Spaulding: Raised concerns regarding the subjective nature of potential nuisance property complaints and the impact on rental housing supply; suggested the ordinance should ensure equal accountability for property owners who live in the home.
  • Councillor Ruth: Commented on the positive experience serving at the voting table and the joy of assisting residents with voting.

Discussion Items

Flood Resiliency and Riverbed Maintenance

  • Expert Testimony (Roy Schiff, SLR Consulting):
    • Position on Dredging: Expressed strong skepticism regarding widespread dredging as a flood solution. Stated that digging deeper channels creates unstable banks and increases water velocity, leading to severe erosion and sediment buildup at bridges. Noted that a 100-year flood requires a floodplain width of 6-8 times the channel width, making channel deepening physically impossible and unsustainable for the Stevens Branch.
    • Flood Storage: Emphasized that flood storage capacity lies primarily in the floodplain, not the channel. Advocated for reconnected floodplains, removing fill, and protecting river corridors to allow natural sediment transport.
    • Infrastructure: Supported targeted dredging only for specific infrastructure failures, such as undersized bridges or stormwater outfalls that are out of design compliance (e.g., the Berlin Street Bridge outfall).
    • Modeling: Outlined the city's ongoing hydraulic modeling work to test various scenarios, including removing fill, widening corridors, and altering bridges, to determine the most cost-effective mitigation strategies.
    • Regional Approach: Discussed the potential for municipalities to purchase land in neighboring towns for floodplain storage if it demonstrably reduces downstream flood risk.

Public Conduct Ordinance Update

  • Chief of Police:
    • Statistics: Reported 17 ordinance-related incidents at City Hall Park (12 verbal warnings, 5 one-day trespass notices), 14 at the Auditorium/BOR (13 verbal warnings, 1 180-day trespass notice for violent behavior), and minor incidents at other parks.
    • Effectiveness: Expressed that the ordinance was worth implementing, providing officers with tools for accountability; noted no repeat offenders so far.
    • Coordination: Confirmed that the public conduct ordinance works in concert with the "Situation Table" mental health team to address underlying risk factors.
    • Social Media: Clarified that social media reports do not always correlate with police data and encouraged residents to file formal reports.

Nuisance Property Ordinance Proposal

  • City Manager (Nicholas):
    • Proposal: Presented a draft nuisance property ordinance modeled after St. Albans, aimed at landlords with units receiving three or more criminal citations.
    • Concerns: Councillors raised concerns about tenant rights, the feasibility of evictions, the inclusion of owner-occupied properties, and the applicability to the Barrie Housing Authority.
    • Proposed Adjustments: Agreed to refine the ordinance to require landlords to initiate eviction proceedings rather than complete them, ensure accountability for owner-occupied problematic properties, and clarify enforcement roles (Potentially Fire Chief or Police) to maintain community trust.

Neighborhood Committee Creation

  • Committee Formation: Approved the creation of the "Neighborly Berry" committee with a membership of 5 to 9 members, a quorum of a majority, and a council liaison appointed. Intended to foster neighborhood engagement and potential tree adoption programs.

SNAP Program Update

  • City Manager:
    • Status: Reported raising $18,000 in private donations to purchase $25 gift cards for all SNAP recipients to cover the 50% gap caused by federal funding delays.
    • Operations: Confirmed that food shelves (including Capstone, Dan Mullin's Place, and others) are operating with no wait times or panic, serving all residents including those outside Barrie City.
    • Outlook: Stated that with state coordination, the full SNAP benefits are expected to be restored by late November if the USDA releases contingency funds.

Election Report

  • City Clerk: Reported a successful bond election with 128 ballots cast; both bond items (Barry City Waterbury-TIF and TIFF Fund) passed, with the DPW fund receiving a higher margin. Hand-counted ballots were verified against machine counts at Alumni Hall.

Key Outcomes

  • VHB Contract Authorization: Approved contingent upon receipt of the CDBG grant; contract not executable without the award.
  • Flood Study: Council directed staff to proceed with hydraulic modeling to evaluate bridge removal, floodplain restoration, and stormwater outfall cleaning as primary mitigation strategies.
  • Nuisance Ordinance: Council directed City Manager to revise the draft ordinance to include owner-occupied properties, clarify the "initiation of eviction" standard, and address the Barrie Housing Authority's unique legal constraints.
  • Committee Establishment: Officially created the Neighborly Berry committee to support neighborhood initiatives.
  • Executive Session: Moved to and subsequently exited an executive session to discuss real estate matters.
  • Adjournment: The meeting concluded at 8:37 p.m.

Meeting Transcript

Council uh today is Wednesday, September 5th, 2026. It is 6.02 p.m. And I will call this special meeting of the Barrie City Council to order. Uh the first item on the agenda is the adjustments to an approval of the agenda. Any changes, Mr. Manager? Uh just a clarification, uh Mayor, because it wasn't in the packet that I did email the council about um item 4F on the consent agenda authorizing the manager to execute contracts, and I'm requesting your approval of the prospect heights redesign contract for 292,410.66 cents to VHB. Um this was uh competitively bid, it was scored by uh panel of three reviewers, and we would receive two uh two proposals, and we are selecting the um the one that scored highest both technically and on the cost perspective, and this would be funded from the state grant award um for prospect heights. Thank you very much. And council, uh I did ask the manager to send all of those documents to council so that you'd you know I figured the review was important, the thoroughness of the review, not that I was questioning the the results of the staff reviewers, but I thought it was important for the council to have all of the information so we could see what they saw. Uh so we did that and we'll make that part of the minutes as well. Um other changes to the agenda, council? Then a motion to approve would be in order. So moved. Thank you and seconded. Thank you. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of the motion is presented, please signify by saying aye. Aye. And those opposed, thank you very much. Uh and in the minute that we did that, I realize that I did at the end of the meeting. I'm just gonna give the council a quick briefing in terms of where we uh stand on our SNAP uh program here in the city. So I will do that at the end of the meeting. Uh so council will move on to item 4A on the agenda and excuse me, we'll move on to the consent agenda. We'll be approving the minutes of the meeting of 1028-25. Do you have any licenses and permits under that section? There are none. We'll be authorizing 15 the $15,000 allocation for the adopt adopt a storm drain program. Uh we will be uh appointing Fred Pond as the Barrie City representative for the regional bike share pilot program steering committee. We'll be uh we'll be approving a retroactive $5,000 allocation or prospective $5,000 uh allocation from the Bruce Trust to support the SNAP benefits for the children of Barrie, and we'll be authorizing the manager uh to execute contracts as needed. Yes, sir. Uh thank you, Mary. One one other really important point on the contract for prospect heights is uh this was in um my email to you, but it's also important for the minutes that your authorization to me, I'm requesting it to be contingent upon receipt of a CDB D DR award. Um so we would notify VHB that they've been selected as the as the as the winner of the of the RFP, but we would not execute that contract absent um uh receipt of the CDB GDR application that we made this fall. So I just wanted to clarify that as well. Thank you. Any objection from the mover and seconder? Okay, then we'll work that in there. Um just briefly, council, uh, a couple of things. I mean, authorizing the I did the math on authorizing because everything, all decisions with me are always math based. So um I looked at the $15,000 authorization for the adopt a storm drain program, and in a constituent had had stopped me and said, well, you know, that's kind of a cute program. And so I did the math on it. Um if we consider uh the $15,000 and we consider $30 an hour for labor, which is pretty conservative. If you add in employee benefits, FICA, I think our average DPW contract rate is probably much higher than that. Um $15,000 would buy a $500 hour. There are so then I uh texted Nicholas and I said, How many storm structures are there in the city? And he said there's a thousand. So uh if it took 20 minutes for a staff person at DPW person, and believe me, we've got more important work for them to do, but if we had them clearing a storm drains and it took them 20 minutes per drain, that would be 333 staff hours.

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