WILTON – The Wilton Selectboard met Tuesday night to deliberate new tax acquired amounts, junkyard and business permits and received updates on recently-acquired grants.
The meeting began with an update from the Wilton Free Public Library director Jennifer Scott, which included a review of the year’s initiatives and programs the library has hosted, as well as their statistics from January to August. Scott recognized Cassandra Savage, the children’s librarian, for her hard work as the library transitioned to virtual programming through COVID-19.
“She really deserves some props for figuring out how to connect with kids during the summer without having them in the building,” Scott said.
After her update, the permits for three new junkyard permit renewals was brought to the board by Charlie Lavin. Town Manager Rhonda Irish confirmed that, after advertising the permit requests to the public, she received no complaints on the issue, and the board unanimously approved them.
Brian Patterson, owner of Honey Comb Farm, requested a medical marijuana permit for an adult use retail store and cultivation at a location he is renting from Robin Wood Plaza off of Route 2. He will be taking over what used to be the Morning Star Counseling building and converting two downstairs units for growing flowering marijuana plants and using the units directly above to run the retail side of the business.
“Odor has been one of the bigger concerns,” Lavin said during the discussion of the approval of the permit. Patterson will include a mitigation system as well as air filters throughout the structure of the building to combat this problem.
When it was brought to the Selectboard, Patterson’s plan had already been approved by the Planning Board, but the Selectboard has the authority to approve the permit. Irish had asked community members to call or email with concerns over the approval of the permit, but none were submitted. The board unanimously approved the permit, but the vote spurred deliberation to reassess the ordinance previously passed by the board regarding the number of medical marijuana businesses that they could approve. It is an issue that they plan on revisiting in future meetings.
Irish presented the changes to the Franklin County General Assistance Ordinances, which were unanimously approved. The financial allocations for heat and food for families have been increased, each amount specific to the number of members in a family.
There are three newly accepted grants or donations, all approved by the board in last night’s meeting, concerning the improvement of the town of Wilton. The first is a $5,000 grant that the town clerk requested to be used for elections. The second grant is for the Fire Department and comes in the sum of $1,852, which will cover two-thirds of the cost of new intrinsically safe two-way radios. The third sum was for $500 and came as a donation to the Wilton Recreation Department from an unnamed parent’s company with the request that it be “put to whatever you deem appropriate.”
There was an update for the setting of minimum bids and the taxes placed on 6 real estate locations that will be auctioned on Oct. 14 at 5 p.m. at Kineowatha Park. Selectboard member David Leavitt proposed that $500 be added to all 6 of the tax amounts and that vote passed.
Gwen Doak and Norm Hurlburt applied to join the Broadband Committee. Irish pointed out that it might be beneficial to have members on the Committee that were also members of the Planning Board. They were unanimously approved, bringing the Broadband Committee member count to ten members.
In regard to the meeting held in late Sept. concerning the Wilson Lake retaining wall, Irish updated the Board on the latest progress. Jessica Kimball, one of the overseeing landscapers for the project, has received input from the public and she is in the process of developing a new formal plan to be brought to the board in the near future.
