[0:33] It is six o'clock.

[0:35] This is the September 22nd meeting

[0:37] of the Beartown Select Board.

[0:39] I'll ask you to join me in the pledge.

[0:46] The flag, the Republic privilege stands

[0:52] on Indi Liberty for,

[1:01] we have an agenda for us.

[1:04] Are there any changes to the agenda?

[1:07] I don't have any. None. I do a motion.

[1:12] Do we approve the agenda as presented? Second.

[1:14] That a second. All those in favor?

[1:19] Aye. Aye. Aye. And we don't have

[1:24] online yet, do we?

[1:26] We do not. So it looks like it's the three

[1:29] of us approve.

[1:34] We have to approve the September 8th, 2026, meeting minutes

[1:43] 2026, meeting minutes with minor grammatical

[1:46] and spelling corrections as deemed necessary by the mayor.

[1:49] I would second that right. Motion to second.

[1:52] All those in favor? Aye. Aye.

[1:58] We have any announcements?

[2:02] No. The only thing I might mention is I started

[2:05] to put together, but then I wasn't sure about the,

[2:07] all the fact, all the facts.

[2:09] But October 3rd department

[2:13] posting in the annual fall festival at the rec field,

[2:20] we'll have a host of fun activities for kids

[2:24] and runs 10 to three.

[2:27] Be a touch a truck.

[2:29] And it's the police department saw Thunder Road Day.

[2:34] But I did wanna put that out there that

[2:38] that's coming out before your next meeting.

[2:42] Gotcha. Spiffy New bucket

[2:44] voter from the clerk's office.

[2:49] Well, other than Secretary of State's office,

[2:53] began mailing early ballots to all active voters yesterday.

[2:58] That will continue through October 1st.

[3:02] And if any resident doesn't receive their early

[3:04] ballot by mid-October,

[3:09] See your BYOB post Yes. Court

[3:12] Form.

[3:13] Yes. BYOB.

[3:13] That means bring your ballot to the poll with you,

[3:17] even if you're gonna vote in person.

[3:19] We have eliminated stock of ballots that Secretary

[3:21] of State did give us.

[3:23] So bringing your ballot will, number one, you will not have

[3:25] to sign an affidavit when you get there.

[3:27] And number two, help us with our limited stock of ballots.

[3:31] Well thank you.

[3:36] And hey, number six, receive guests for non-agenda items.

[3:41] And we have people in the room.

[3:42] And I know that she'd be expecting an update.

[3:46] Is that from us? Well,

[3:50] I'm Linda Mercy.

[3:51] You all know that? Yes.

[3:53] And we were here, the twins, Andy Henry.

[3:58] Melissa Smith.

[4:00] We were here the beginning of August

[4:02] to let you know there was gonna be a fundraiser

[4:04] and we wanted you all to come and blah, blah, blah.

[4:06] And it was a great day.

[4:08] And for the first time, having not knowing

[4:13] what to expect with motorcycles.

[4:15] We've done it for 25 years with snow machines.

[4:18] And we've always, you know,

[4:20] I was down pretty pat how that goes.

[4:22] We, we had an excellent day, great turnover,

[4:26] turnout, excuse me.

[4:27] Great turnout. And we,

[4:31] after everything is paid

[4:33] and cleared, we dropped off a check to the town

[4:36] for $4,549.

[4:39] We cleared. So to the, to date, we have

[4:43] a little over $21,000 in that skate park fund.

[4:47] It's gonna go toward the new structure.

[4:51] The new structure guy was, and I have been talking

[4:54] and it's not gonna be getting now until spring

[4:56] because due the lateness, it's gonna freeze and all that.

[5:00] So CATME Construction is gonna start

[5:03] and we're gonna be the first ones on in April or May.

[5:07] So, so we find, you know, like Randy,

[5:10] Randy is the event coordinator.

[5:11] He put this together. He was the main go-to person.

[5:16] Randy Henry, Melissa Smith, I don't have the title.

[5:21] Membership Director. Membership director.

[5:23] She was, did a tremendous job that day as well as my family

[5:28] and for everybody that's been there for the last 26 years.

[5:31] So you thank the rec department?

[5:35] The rec department was great.

[5:36] Those guys were, helped us put the tents up,

[5:38] helped take the tents down, made sure the lawn was all mow,

[5:43] everything was clean over there and did a great job.

[5:46] So I don't know if you have anything you'd like to say.

[5:53] We were honored to be able to participate

[5:55] and put it on for the

[5:57] Motorcycle for the first time.

[5:58] And I think it's, we're gonna try to do it again next year.

[6:01] So, and we learned some, some things we should have done.

[6:04] Things we we won't do again. Things we will do again.

[6:09] First time around, I thought it went remarkably well. Later

[6:12] Start.

[6:13] Yeah, later start.

[6:14] Like some of those guys are kind of wissy getting up at,

[6:18] you know, eight I get on Saturday is not

[6:21] what they wanna do. So.

[6:22] Well it's cold on a motorcycle too. Right? Exactly.

[6:26] Fair weather riders. Exactly. Randy to do,

[6:29] We'd like to do it again there.

[6:31] Do it there again.

[6:33] I mean we should be able

[6:34] to do it there again. I mean, unless you,

[6:35] That would be for the,

[6:37] for the recreation board and coordinating the guy.

[6:39] But I, I don't see any, why not?

[6:41] We typically hear when things go bad

[6:42] and we hear anything, so that's always good.

[6:45] Good. We didn't hear anything

[6:47] either, so that was a good thing.

[6:49] So would you say you're gonna do it again next year?

[6:51] You gonna try to make this an annual

[6:53] thing, like the snowmobile ride?

[6:54] I'd like to make it annual. Got a little later.

[6:58] Keep on bikes. We get a lot of our members from Maine

[7:01] and New York and stuff.

[7:02] So eight o'clock's a little early for 'em,

[7:04] So they Get three hours.

[7:07] That time of year was good though. Yeah. Yeah.

[7:09] That time of year it was right before school started

[7:13] and everything else.

[7:14] The summer was kind of ending and everything.

[7:17] It was, it was good for us. So, so hopefully, yes.

[7:21] And then the snowmobilers are gonna do it again in February,

[7:25] I think they don't have a date yet,

[7:26] but we'll be coming up doing that again.

[7:30] Still using the school. Oh, to use the school.

[7:32] Of course we had, you know, Dave was the head, you know,

[7:37] he did all that.

[7:38] So now Mark Tetro is doing all that.

[7:41] We're very good friends with Mark, so we'll be working

[7:45] with him anyway.

[7:49] Thank you guys. Thank you for the Thank you,

[7:51] Thank you.

[7:52] Thank you for your contribution to the town and,

[7:54] and keeping this park viable and useful and aging the youth

[7:59] and forward to the new structure.

[8:03] And you know what too, a good thing was a couple

[8:05] of the young younger kids came out and they really helped us

[8:09] and they, they, it just shows them that in order to keep

[8:12] that park up, they, they really need to step up

[8:15] and, you know, keep it clean

[8:17] and make sure you know, bad language over there.

[8:20] And they were fantastic.

[8:22] So they've been in contact with me

[8:23] and they wanna do the one in February too, so That's good.

[8:27] It's a, it's a very well used park.

[8:29] It is for sure. Harry and I walk up there all the time

[8:32] and it's, unless it's we're walking at seven in the morning,

[8:35] there's never anybody there

[8:36] That's raining.

[8:37] And even sometimes you find a diehard

[8:39] True.

[8:40] You're right. You're absolutely right.

[8:41] And that's one of the boys that helped us is a diehard kid

[8:44] that's up there and he just really enjoys it.

[8:48] So, so thank you. Thank you. You thank you Linda.

[8:52] Really appreciate it. Thank you.

[8:53] The v twins for your virtual birthday. Definitely.

[8:56] All set. We're gonna out

[8:59] guys. And alright,

[9:03] We have Michael Miller again.

[9:04] He never has anything. Mr. Jerome is here.

[9:09] Next items. So down.

[9:13] Good evening. Josh Jerome with DADC is going

[9:17] to give us an executive director's,

[9:18] I guess you'd say. Occasional

[9:19] Report.

[9:20] Yeah, definitely Apologize

[9:23] for not coming here sooner this year.

[9:26] I think every time I reached out the agenda was full

[9:29] or an opportunity.

[9:31] I wasn't available. But as long

[9:34] as you're busy doing the good work of the, that you need

[9:37] to do, that's more important than, you know.

[9:41] So I'll give you guys an update in

[9:43] what I've been doing in Berry Town.

[9:46] It's this year. So first, first started with reaching out

[9:49] to property owners who own commercial space in all

[9:52] of the village centers on Berry Town.

[9:55] We have four of 'em. See if there was any projects

[9:58] that would qualify for the center

[10:02] tax credit state.

[10:05] I had two property owners reach out

[10:07] and then engage conversations

[10:09] with 'em about their, their projects.

[10:12] Eventually one of 'em decided not to pursue it

[10:15] 'cause they had experience with that program

[10:17] and wanna jump through all the stay hoops.

[10:20] Totally understandable. I think been a competitive project.

[10:25] And the, and the other project, it's the

[10:29] Granville general store.

[10:32] This program, we tried to develop a project where

[10:38] work that she had already done the beginning

[10:41] of the year, we could qualify.

[10:43] 'cause you can, you can submit an application with the state

[10:47] project is ongoing but not complete.

[10:51] So it is just a matter

[10:53] of just like terminology that you're using.

[10:55] So we tried to figure out what the other code improvements

[10:59] that structure needed

[11:03] and tried to engage the fire marshal

[11:05] and we just couldn't find anything

[11:08] that was gonna be competitive.

[11:10] And so we, we got gave above above one. So she,

[11:15] Between a and a hard place There.

[11:16] She totally was, you know,

[11:18] She, she had a door that she couldn't

[11:19] fix fixing the stairs.

[11:21] She couldn't fix the stairs unless she made it accessible.

[11:24] Timing just wasn't on her side of, you know, if

[11:28] so tried to make it work, didn't work.

[11:30] But you know, it came out beautiful. It did.

[11:33] It came out great. And, and so,

[11:36] but that is a program that, you know, I I'm gonna continue

[11:40] to engage property owners in the, in the designated centers,

[11:43] village center areas

[11:45] because Baytown has never gotten,

[11:47] got an award in that program.

[11:48] And I, and I think there's some opportunities there.

[11:50] I've already talked to one business owner about a property

[11:55] in one of the village centers just in the last two weeks.

[11:59] They had looked at this property,

[12:01] purchased it at one point they backed away

[12:03] because of some code improvements that were required.

[12:06] So I, I told 'em, told this person about the, the program

[12:09] and I said, let's keep the dialogue going

[12:12] and see if we can figure out a way that helps him get to a,

[12:16] a guest to want to purchase that, that building.

[12:19] Because I know the owner would love to sell it.

[12:22] And, and maybe that can make a difference, you know.

[12:26] And so, you know, we'll just continue to hammer that, this,

[12:29] this at the end of this year, beginning of next year.

[12:33] The other big sort

[12:34] of push was obviously the Wilson Industrial Park.

[12:38] You know, we tried to get a bunch of businesses together

[12:43] who were interested in getting solidated fiber from

[12:47] through the park because

[12:48] it doesn't go through the whole park.

[12:50] And we had heard, you know, that were issues what

[12:55] the existing service there

[12:58] and solid, solid came back

[13:00] and was like, there's an issue with them

[13:02] because they have to go underneath the hour tracks.

[13:05] That's just, they pain in the ass for them.

[13:08] And, and it requires them to know that they're going

[13:12] to get a certain return on that investment.

[13:15] And so, you know,

[13:17] it just didn't seem like there was enough businesses

[13:20] to provide that return on investment for them.

[13:23] So, you know, this is like a conversation

[13:26] that's just ongoing.

[13:27] We can get a certain number of businesses to say yes

[13:32] that could jump to their service.

[13:35] Then they might run it under,

[13:37] underneath the railroad tracks and go through that process.

[13:40] What do you have at the DPW shop? First slide?

[13:46] First light fiber. Yeah. Yeah.

[13:49] The other, the other service in the park is,

[13:58] Is it fit or consolidated

[14:00] Or Yeah, they're one and the same.

[14:02] Yeah. Right. Spectrum would be the only,

[14:04] so under spectrum, that's what it is.

[14:06] It's, you know, I definitely,

[14:07] I've heard it from a couple businesses like FBOs,

[14:11] passive dimension like that.

[14:12] They are sort of like the net heavy and when it goes out,

[14:17] 'cause it has gone out, they have to close up shop

[14:21] for the day, can doing what,

[14:23] and so, you know, that that's, that's a problem.

[14:25] Right. So again, we, you know, we're just gonna continue to

[14:29] that dialogue, communications open

[14:33] and bring in the consolidated people and maybe, you know,

[14:36] Have you talked to Firstlight at all?

[14:38] I was gonna say if, If 'cause they're at the,

[14:40] if they're at our public works station shop,

[14:44] I haven't talked to Firstlight now and

[14:46] It's not that far down Parker Road, all these businesses.

[14:50] Okay, well I'll, I can give you a contact for sure.

[14:53] It comes in from Well that's what I was just thinking,

[14:55] like is there a way to come down this road here,

[14:58] shoot out that way.

[14:59] It might be a lot more complicated. Well, even

[15:00] If you got, if you got fiber from one side of the tracks

[15:02] and then fiber from the other side of the tracks, I mean,

[15:05] Yeah, I don't know,

[15:07] but I'll give you, I'll give you a contact.

[15:09] Yeah, that that'd be great.

[15:11] Imagine a fiber optic line underneath a set

[15:13] of railroad tracks is a very good,

[15:18] I mean That, I don't think we're talking a very big

[15:20] line there either.

[15:22] You know, problem with

[15:23] that is the railroad requires an case and all this other stuff.

[15:27] So it's a, it's not just a matter of

[15:30] actual drilling underneath.

[15:32] There's a lot to it. They need a, if it's not concrete,

[15:35] in case it's gonna be certain steel enc, casement so, so big

[15:41] you could also have the right way to do it

[15:42] because they own found a lot to it Yeah.

[15:46] Process, you know, you know, just for, if like,

[15:50] if it's only two or three business gonna sign up, right,

[15:52] they're not gonna go with that. So maybe we

[15:55] Could get around going underneath the

[15:57] Railroad tracks.

[15:58] That would be, that would be great.

[15:59] So thanks Chris for the context.

[16:03] You know, and,

[16:04] and obviously you guys have already heard

[16:08] Chris about just issues

[16:09] regarding the wastewater treat facility

[16:12] affects Mount Creamery, our wastewater discharge permit

[16:16] with the state and conditions

[16:18] that the state has imposed on them.

[16:20] This is an ongoing conversation that I have Mount creamery

[16:25] and state officials because it's, it's critically important

[16:30] to resolve this positively for the town

[16:34] or region for the state.

[16:37] And so I,

[16:39] we have another meeting coming up here in a few more weeks

[16:42] with all the stakeholders.

[16:44] You know, the conditions that the state has focused on

[16:48] that discharge permit are pretty steep.

[16:53] And, and it's a question whether

[16:55] or not the can actually meet that

[16:58] and the timeline that state is stipulating.

[17:01] So, you know, I think that's

[17:03] what the general conversation is, is trying

[17:05] to figure out like where there's flexibility with the state

[17:08] and the permit and timeline

[17:12] and for the conditions, right?

[17:15] We all understand that the state's up against sort of like,

[17:18] hey, coming down on them so it,

[17:20] you know, it's downhill, right?

[17:24] But there's, there's gotta be some flexibility in,

[17:27] in the end because attention,

[17:30] like look at all the other sort

[17:32] of dairy processors in the state

[17:33] that have closed on the one right here, which also had

[17:37] same conditions, you know?

[17:41] And so again, that was a

[17:42] Death by a thousand cuts.

[17:44] Yes. No, no, absolutely.

[17:46] And so again, we we're just,

[17:47] we wanna keep the conversation going, keep it positive

[17:50] and try to find common ground.

[17:54] Hopefully we will have some, you know, news to report

[17:58] after the next meeting.

[17:59] It's at the end of October.

[18:04] It is one of the projects that I am sponsoring

[18:08] priority project list that happens every year through Sun,

[18:13] the regional plan or the economic development corporation,

[18:16] C-B-E-D-C, right?

[18:17] Those, those applications are,

[18:19] are coming due here in the next few weeks.

[18:21] And that, that is one I'm going to submit

[18:24] because again, it's important for projects, critical import

[18:29] critical projects to be put on that list

[18:31] because that is the, ultimately that is the list

[18:33] that the state uses to award grants for the next year.

[18:38] So, you know, the program comes up

[18:39] and state finds money for something

[18:43] that can help throughout creamery and it's on the list.

[18:45] Then they have a better chance of securing some

[18:47] of those sprint, see those jobs go away.

[18:51] Are they two or three shifts now?

[18:53] Just feel like they're three

[18:54] Shifts.

[18:56] I think that least the third shift might be

[18:58] more of a cleaning shift.

[19:01] They're product producing on three shifts,

[19:03] but there's a lot of a lot of jobs there.

[19:04] There's a lot of good paying jobs. They paying jobs. Yes.

[19:07] The thing is is that this is tricky

[19:10] because right,

[19:13] it's not just like the state saying you need

[19:18] pre pretreatment discharge system.

[19:21] It, it's also compounded by the fact that

[19:24] wastewater treatment facility, it's

[19:26] beyond its design capacity.

[19:28] Thanks. It's like, it's not an easy solution.

[19:35] So again, you know, because facilities

[19:39] beyond their design capacity, we're continuing

[19:42] to have conversations state figure out

[19:45] where in there is flexibility here, city

[19:50] and their issues

[19:52] and with the, the high end users of the system.

[19:55] So it's, it's, it's different,

[19:56] different components, but it's holistically

[19:58] The last meeting, it was brought up,

[20:00] brought up a few times and we're hoping to hear

[20:02] that there's been some progress at the next meeting.

[20:04] And that's some internal housekeeping we've been kind

[20:08] of asking for and that they've seemed

[20:10] to have embraced since our last meeting

[20:12] and just

[20:17] how they handle it internally, you know, making sure that

[20:21] things are being the way they should be instead

[20:24] of being washed down the drain

[20:26] The cream rate.

[20:28] But the reality is it's like, you know, they've been,

[20:30] they've been trying to make improvements

[20:32] and they can, you know, they can collect data, which,

[20:35] you know, hopefully that's, that's one

[20:37] of the arguments is like they don't have enough data

[20:39] to support sort of the state saying you need X, Y, and Z.

[20:43] Right? So they wanna have a longer trail of, of data to,

[20:47] to be able to make some decisions on are they using the

[20:51] monitoring pits now?

[20:53] Yeah. Yeah.

[20:55] But they can't, they can't change their, their practices

[21:01] sufficient enough to reduce like

[21:04] significantly the BOD.

[21:06] Right. You know, it's just, it just happens.

[21:09] They are making improvements.

[21:10] They, they recognize that,

[21:11] but they're still gonna generate BOD

[21:14] and it's still gonna go through the system.

[21:16] And so again,

[21:18] we'll just keep on having those conversations. The

[21:20] Thing we learned as part of that conversation

[21:22] and you know, it was them talking to us, so, you know,

[21:27] you have to, but I I, I believe it.

[21:30] Yeah, they're owned by Land O'Lakes,

[21:32] but they're really stand on their own Land O'Lakes looks at

[21:37] them as, you know, you need, you need to be profitable here.

[21:41] And so the management here is, is kind of, you know,

[21:44] operating this facility as Vermont Creamery

[21:49] and, you know, don't necessarily, yeah,

[21:50] they have maybe deeper pockets,

[21:53] but not necessarily at the same time.

[21:56] So yeah. So I think the conversation's good for sure.

[22:01] I mean obviously there are issues, we've experienced issues

[22:04] with our system and that, and it all needs to be looked at

[22:08] and addressed, but hopefully we can come up with some,

[22:11] some way to, you know, make it work for them,

[22:13] but also make it better for us,

[22:15] better for the treatment plan. Yeah. In time

[22:18] I have faith they're having flooded Sterling Hill

[22:21] with three feet of foam in a long way.

[22:23] I guess that's a good thing.

[22:25] Well it sort of related to that, you know,

[22:27] brick riding the hood facility, I don't, I don't,

[22:31] don't get a lot of information from them.

[22:34] You know, they're just barely using it.

[22:35] I did speak with one individual who, who had

[22:40] signed an NBA wood hood about potential purchase of

[22:45] that asset to start up a, a business that was sort

[22:49] of related to the beverage sector.

[22:53] It, it, it seemed like a, it wasn't a viable sort

[22:58] of proposal, but I,

[23:02] I wouldn't be surprised if it came back up again

[23:05] because it is an asset

[23:07] and they seem pretty interested in it,

[23:12] you know, and, and again, just kind of back

[23:13] to the Wilson Industrial Park, you know, I think

[23:17] this past legislative session,

[23:19] Vermont's already a hard state to do business in.

[23:22] Right. High tax rate.

[23:25] And, and there was a moment during the legislative session

[23:28] where I think there was a representative

[23:32] that had pushed for sort of like a higher tax rate

[23:37] for, you know,

[23:38] high income earners, businesses, stuff like that.

[23:41] And I know that scared away at least one business owner

[23:46] who was thinking about opening up a,

[23:50] a facility at the Wilson Industrial Park, they kind

[23:53] of made the decision that they weren't gonna make an

[23:55] investment in this state

[23:56] because they just business friendly.

[24:00] And so why would they, so that was unfortunate

[24:04] because I think that piece of legislation came from

[24:07] a very city

[24:09] representative, unfortunately.

[24:15] But the other things

[24:16] that we worked on had been working on

[24:18] is just marketing the park.

[24:21] You know, regular Facebook ads.

[24:22] We run every once in a while

[24:23] and we change up the, and all that kind of stuff.

[24:26] But we did A-W-C-E-X spot with the Wilson Industrial Park

[24:32] in the beginning of the summer

[24:34] and, you know, 32nd ad it was run over a period of,

[24:38] I think 10 days, 14 days, something like that.

[24:42] We had a, a native piece on their website also,

[24:48] you know, and that, and that generated about 270,000

[24:51] impressions with households with the, the,

[24:56] the TV spotted about 170,000 impressions

[25:00] and a hundred thousand for the, the native piece

[25:03] that, that we developed.

[25:06] And so, you know, we could see, you know, people would go

[25:09] and click on and follow through to get more information.

[25:13] And so that was something that we never done before.

[25:15] We hadn't worked with WCAX

[25:17] and we're just trying something different.

[25:19] And actually we're, we're doing another shoot

[25:23] with them this Thursday actually.

[25:25] And it's, and it's focused on the nitro trails system

[25:29] 'cause it's beautiful out there this time of year.

[25:32] Gonna get some good drone footage

[25:35] and shots of the, the system.

[25:38] We'll run a spot. I think we're, we're shooting

[25:41] for the first or second week of October.

[25:45] I think it's the week of the fifth

[25:46] that we're shooting to run that.

[25:49] And you know, the goal was to just, again, this is a,

[25:52] this is an asset in the community

[25:54] and we should be highlighting it as as much as possible.

[25:58] Certainly. Is it, it's it's part of the selling, you know,

[26:02] sales pitch to start your business here or move here.

[26:07] So, you know, been a little frustrated trying to connect

[26:11] with people from the Millstone Trails Association

[26:13] to help with it.

[26:16] But I think, you know, we'll be able to do it without them

[26:21] and we'll, we'll, we'll guide everybody towards, you know,

[26:24] how to access the park

[26:26] and, you know, you need, you need a,

[26:28] a permit and all that kind of stuff.

[26:29] And so that'll be fine.

[26:32] Probably get some, some shots

[26:34] of the DISC golf course in there too.

[26:36] 'cause that's another component of the Town Forest.

[26:39] Have you spoke with Guy Norwood? Our rec director?

[26:42] I haven't spoken with Guy. No.

[26:44] He's, he's one of the founders I believe

[26:48] of the Cory Disc golf course.

[26:49] Yeah. And he is also involved with mta.

[26:53] He's involved with pretty much everything,

[26:54] recreation in the town, the pickleball, everything.

[26:56] Yep. Okay. So He could be a resource for you.

[26:59] Okay. Yeah, thanks. I'll, I'll definitely reach out to him

[27:02] to help develop the native piece

[27:07] and yeah, so that, I think again, that's,

[27:09] we've not done anything with WCX before this.

[27:12] We're, we're gonna do something new,

[27:13] and this is sort of a collaboration

[27:15] with the Barry partnership where Tracy's focusing on some

[27:17] of the down downtown stuff,

[27:19] and I'm using my pieces to focus on Wilson Industrial Park,

[27:23] Wilson Trails.

[27:24] We're gonna collaborate on the fifth, on the fifth Pro,

[27:28] you know, ad And I think that's just gonna be a general sort

[27:33] of like quality of life aspect of Barry, you know, you know,

[27:37] trails downtown, you know, housing, stuff like that

[27:42] Opera house, you know, so that'll probably happen end

[27:47] of year, beginning of next year.

[27:52] Yeah. And, and I'm also

[27:54] working on a business recruitment guide.

[27:57] Again, that's not something

[27:58] that I don't think the a DC has ever done.

[28:01] And this goes into sort of in the same vein,

[28:05] we are redoing our website.

[28:06] It was very antiquated, wasn't, there wasn't a lot

[28:09] of content that was useful that I felt.

[28:12] And so we've been working with a, a web design company.

[28:15] It's almost done. They're just putting the final touches on

[28:19] some of the last edits for our next review.

[28:23] But it'll, it'll mesh with the,

[28:24] the business recruitment guide, which is again, it's going

[28:27] to sort of like highlight the community

[28:29] and you know, part of my job is

[28:31] to represent the city and the town.

[28:33] And so, you know, I've tried to, tried to blend them as

[28:37] where it makes sense and then separate them

[28:39] where it also makes sense, right?

[28:42] Because there's different assets in both communities.

[28:45] And so, you know, highlight one over here

[28:47] and highlight this one down there,

[28:49] but you know, it, it is still, you know,

[28:52] holistically it's one, one big community.

[28:55] And those should be, I'm, I'm hoping that the,

[28:58] the website definitely is, is late

[29:02] and it was supposed to launch in June, but get delayed

[29:05] because of personnel issues at, at that develop firm.

[29:09] But we're shooting for October for both

[29:14] the business recruitment guide and the website to be done.

[29:17] So when it, when it goes live,

[29:18] I'll definitely share it with all of

[29:20] You.

[29:21] Yes, please do. Yeah,

[29:23] I I do think that the website's gonna be helpful

[29:25] because, you know, one of the things that

[29:28] we've heard a lot about is, you know, commercial space

[29:30] and availability of commercial space

[29:33] and there have been like, you know, times over

[29:37] previous years where, you know, I think we've tried to do

[29:39] that just with the, an Excel file

[29:43] and that just becomes on wieldy to manage

[29:45] and to keep updated on a weekly basis.

[29:49] So with this website, I can send somebody a link

[29:53] and it goes to a form property owner goes, it goes right

[29:55] to a form, they fill it out, populates in the back end

[29:59] of the website and then they send, you know,

[30:01] they can send a picture

[30:02] and it automatically ends up going on the website.

[30:05] So, so I think that'll be really helpful as long

[30:09] as I give property owners to, to fill out the form, which,

[30:12] you know, I think we can, you know,

[30:18] some of the next things, you know, we,

[30:21] I won't take too much thunder from a future agenda item,

[30:25] but tax stabilization policy drafted,

[30:30] you know, a, a revised tax stabilization policy and Chris

[30:33] and I and Kate have met to discuss it

[30:35] and I know that'll be at a,

[30:37] at a future select board meeting boom.

[30:40] Yeah. That, that fully get into.

[30:43] And then, you know, some of the other things are just trying

[30:46] to figure out what projects there might be in Berry Town

[30:49] that could be good projects to utilize

[30:54] CHIP'S new program in the states

[30:58] and learning about it.

[31:00] And, and if I find that there's a, a good project

[31:03] that could fit, then definitely would wanna bring that to,

[31:06] to Chris and have that conversation with you guys.

[31:09] Remind me of what CHIP is, that's the housing

[31:12] Community Housing infrastructure program.

[31:16] Yep. It's, it's, it's, it's,

[31:18] it's in essence it's project based tax,

[31:21] tax increment financing, project based tiff.

[31:23] That's what it's actually, we had, we had a meeting

[31:26] with VLCT today to discuss,

[31:30] and you know, there's,

[31:32] I was told like there's not one approved chip project yet.

[31:37] Really? Yep. It's still pretty new. Yeah.

[31:41] But, and, and I think that's gonna happen,

[31:43] but you know, they're, they're trying to figure it out,

[31:45] you know, but again, it's,

[31:46] it's another tool just like tax stabilization to help

[31:51] with development because we only

[31:53] have so many tools in this state.

[31:54] And so let's try to figure out a way to,

[31:56] to utilize 'em as best as possible.

[32:00] So I mean that's, that's a pretty good summary of, you know,

[32:04] things I've been working on and happy to take any questions.

[32:09] I do not have any questions.

[32:10] It sounds like you have been, been, I'm plenty busy, but

[32:14] Do you, when the w CX piece run,

[32:16] do you put those on your Facebook

[32:17] page so that we can go see them? Yeah. Okay.

[32:19] Yep. Absolutely.

[32:20] Yeah, and I'll, I'll email you, I can email everybody

[32:24] because they, what they usually do is they'll give it

[32:25] to me like in, it's just a YouTube

[32:26] and Yeah, when it comes out, when it go, when it goes live,

[32:30] I'll, I'll make sure you guys see it. Great, thank

[32:33] You.

[32:34] I missed the one, I missed the first one I remember it was,

[32:37] I think you may have mentioned that it was coming up

[32:40] or maybe Chris mentioned it to us,

[32:42] but I somehow stream my WCAX.

[32:47] I don't have cable, so I I don't get local ads. Yep.

[32:50] I get he get ads for apps

[32:52] and Snoopy sleeping on his dog house and stuff like that.

[32:55] That's, yeah, that's what I, I I've learned a lot, a lot

[32:57] of people stream WCEX actually watch

[33:02] cable news anymore.

[33:06] Anything you're lacking or anything, any

[33:11] headwinds you're running into currently

[33:14] or the rest of, I guess I'm, I'm curious what your,

[33:17] you're taking the temperature is, right?

[33:18] You know, it is like you're just broad based. Yeah,

[33:21] Yeah.

[33:22] I mean I think, well this, it's not really related

[33:26] to Beartown, but I mean, I think, you know,

[33:28] the city manager in Bear City leaving sort of left a void,

[33:33] you know, with some of the projects that are, are ongoing

[33:36] and, and somebody had to step in

[33:39] and so, so that's taken up more

[33:41] of my time than I anticipated.

[33:44] But you know, I think there's a interim solution now and,

[33:47] and hopefully, you know, that my time can can be, you know,

[33:51] recaptured to focus on other things. I'm

[33:55] Sure they appreciate you stepping

[33:56] up and filling that void though.

[33:57] Yeah, I mean whatever, whatever's needed, right?

[33:59] I mean, critical projects, right?

[34:01] So I wanna move 'em forward,

[34:04] but, you know, my board meetings, you know, I, I give

[34:09] and my board packet, you know, economic data every month

[34:13] I look at retail tax receipts, you know, gross receipts,

[34:16] mill room, alcohol receipts, you know, just

[34:19] to figure out like what's going on out there.

[34:23] And it's kind, it's, it's,

[34:24] it's a really weird market right now where, you know,

[34:27] some businesses are doing fine, right?

[34:29] You know, some businesses are not doing fine

[34:34] and, and they're not.

[34:35] And and they're, it's really hard for some different sectors

[34:41] and I just don't know, I don't know how to make out of it,

[34:44] you know, because it's just seems kind of crazy

[34:47] and chaotic most of the time,

[34:51] but yet, you know, people still go to the store

[34:53] and buy stuff, you know, every single day.

[34:56] So some business are doing completely fine.

[35:01] Yeah, it's, it's hard to get a good read

[35:06] through all the different facets

[35:07] because, you know, you've got the manufacturing side

[35:09] and then you've got the retail side

[35:10] and you've got the service side and Yeah.

[35:14] And the, the data's not, while it's there,

[35:16] it's not always transparent either. It's not like you can,

[35:19] Yeah, nothing's conclusive, you know, I thought, you know,

[35:22] the old air thing, you know,

[35:24] and trying to get manufacturing back, you know, onshore

[35:27] that just really isn't materialized.

[35:30] And again, you know, when we're heavily taxed state,

[35:33] so it's really hard, you know, some

[35:34] of the Facebook ads I was pushing out there was, you know,

[35:37] out of the region trying to try to try

[35:39] to identify like communities there, Quebec, you know,

[35:44] Jersey, New York and this really hasn't worked

[35:48] because nothing's moving because of the tariffs.

[35:52] Right. It's all that.

[35:58] I'll have to look his number up.

[36:01] Thank you Josh. I, that was, that was good. Thank you.

[36:05] I could just add too, since Josh has been on,

[36:07] it's been been great.

[36:08] He is very good to work with

[36:09] and I think he understands that balance of Berry City,

[36:14] Berry town pretty well and,

[36:16] and is certainly working hard for both communities,

[36:18] which benefits both communities.

[36:20] Yes. So I appreciate his efforts.

[36:23] I do have one thing briefly, and I'm not an expert

[36:26] and I'm not trying to be

[36:27] or whatnot, does the state give any consideration

[36:30] to the fact that the hood plant is currently shuttered,

[36:33] essentially shuttered

[36:36] and they have their own pretreatment requirements,

[36:39] which was the straw that broke the camel's back,

[36:43] as we all know, in order for that facility

[36:46] to come back online, I am sure

[36:48] they would have to do the same thing.

[36:49] Is there any, is there any,

[36:50] is the state giving you any thought to the fact that

[36:55] the loading won't be

[36:56] what it currently is once both of these are online?

[36:59] With regards to Berry City's capacity?

[37:02] I mean, I, I,

[37:03] I think this next legislative session we might see some

[37:08] conversation because of all of the closures

[37:11] that have happened that the state might have

[37:14] to appropriate some resources

[37:16] to help mitigate these, these situations.

[37:18] Right? Because if they don't do something, you know,

[37:22] it's just gonna continue,

[37:24] It'd be pretty sad to be a dairy state

[37:26] and have to import all of our milk and cheese. Yeah.

[37:28] It's not just the treatment

[37:29] or the pretreatment, it's the three acre's, the three

[37:31] Acre, it's all, it's, it's, it's like I said earlier,

[37:34] death by a thousand guys.

[37:35] Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent.

[37:37] So I'm, you know, again, in,

[37:40] you never know what's gonna happen in, in every session

[37:43] and hopefully they can appropriate

[37:45] resources to help mitigate this.

[37:47] I would agree. Thank you. Thanks

[37:52] Josh.

[37:53] Yep.

[37:57] Hey, next item is a

[38:02] occasional report from

[38:04] Your Martin. No, that's,

[38:08] Josh is allowed today.

[38:14] You've been up to You a clue.

[38:17] Absolutely nothing. It's

[38:20] That easy.

[38:22] So hopefully you got my report

[38:24] that I gave Chris going there.

[38:29] I'll just kind of highlight some of that.

[38:35] So it's been pretty productive this summer.

[38:37] We've got lots of stuff done.

[38:38] We finished hold road,

[38:41] we did some storm water projects paving.

[38:44] So we did eight miles

[38:47] of paving this year just over that.

[38:50] And with that we came in our budget amount

[38:54] by $20,000

[38:57] and we also got a grant for 180,000.

[39:02] So we saved $200,000

[39:05] in our ping budget.

[39:07] So it was a good year.

[39:09] It worked out good because of the whole

[39:15] escalating of gas prices and up being,

[39:17] Which is shocking with what Diesel fuel has done. And

[39:20] Yeah, I'm glad we're not paving now.

[39:22] We paved in July 'cause it's gotten worse.

[39:24] But you were able to, to

[39:27] do everything we did and come on your budget.

[39:29] So that was really good.

[39:32] Boulder Road, like I said, that was reopened in early July.

[39:36] The construction bid was for 622,000 and change.

[39:42] And we actually came in below that

[39:45] by like a thousand dollars even

[39:46] with the change order that we all approved.

[39:48] So that was good as well.

[39:52] Stay underneath and then that's,

[39:57] everybody knows that's covered by FEMA and state funding.

[40:01] Our share for that is roughly 2.2%.

[40:07] So it was over, it was over

[40:12] what we were obligated for that project.

[40:16] However, we were under

[40:18] what was obligated for another project.

[40:20] So that made up the difference.

[40:21] And we ended up being about $30,000 over our

[40:25] overall obligated.

[40:27] So terrible. It was a huge hit. Plus

[40:32] When we first started having the compensation,

[40:33] I think we had $500,000 that we had set aside

[40:36] for all these projects for our, for our match.

[40:39] Yep, that's what I was gonna point out.

[40:42] You know, we, we end up with 30,000.

[40:43] That's, that's very good.

[40:45] I've thought of 23 blood

[40:47] so far. So

[40:51] I Camp Street to go.

[40:52] Yep. So Camp Street

[40:56] VHP is still working on final plans to

[40:59] do the bid documents.

[41:02] So at this point in the game, we can't expect

[41:05] to have them turn it over and bid and start construction

[41:08] and be done this fall.

[41:10] So it will be a spring construction season.

[41:14] So we'll, we'll should see bids this winter

[41:17] and start first thing first, first thing,

[41:22] first thing as soon as possible.

[41:24] There was the snowbanks here gone.

[41:26] Yep. So at

[41:31] Wilders burg, the, there was three chambers I could put in.

[41:34] As we all know, outta the seven

[41:42] sew and water basically that's been working as normal.

[41:48] Unfortunately our operator's

[41:50] leaving us at the end of this week.

[41:51] So we're down a person,

[41:54] but we've got resumes back

[41:58] and hopefully we'll have someone picked out here soon.

[42:03] The pump over on Orchard Terrace,

[42:06] the rails were done the other day

[42:08] and they just need to put the new pump in.

[42:10] So that'll be done soon.

[42:16] H and C outside, we had our new loader

[42:18] that came in last week.

[42:24] I was, I attended the Public works expo out in Houston,

[42:29] Texas back in the beginning of, I guess, I guess it was,

[42:33] yeah, August or end of August.

[42:36] End of September. So I went out there for four or five days

[42:42] and I was able to do that

[42:44] because of this George Cromwell emerging leader scholarship.

[42:49] So they basically paid for everything

[42:50] but $150, which found paid.

[42:55] So that was good. I got to meet a lot of people.

[42:57] There was, it was the biggest conference I've ever had in we

[43:01] call PWX history.

[43:04] So there was, there was 18 118,000 square feet

[43:09] of vendor space that included equipment.

[43:13] Like what's outside to programs,

[43:17] asset management software to manholes

[43:20] to everything you can think of.

[43:22] It was anything public works related, emergency management,

[43:27] fleet, all sorts of stuff.

[43:29] And they had classes every day

[43:33] in multiple classes.

[43:36] It was like being back in college in the, the where it was,

[43:40] it was two big long hallways

[43:42] and you took me 20 minutes to walk from one end to the other

[43:46] and classrooms on either side and multiples.

[43:49] It was huge. Just huge.

[43:52] But it was really, it was really good. A lot of fun. So

[43:57] Did you get the secret recipe to the salt crisis?

[44:02] No, that wasn't, it wasn't a class. I laughed.

[44:05] I get through winter without salt. Yeah,

[44:06] I laughed when he mentioned somewhere in here said he

[44:10] talked about winter,

[44:12] winter operations and you're in Texas.

[44:16] There was some, not a lot.

[44:17] It was mo there's an a separate one they

[44:20] do just for winter stuff.

[44:21] But there was some, there was some plows, but not a lot.

[44:23] I did talk to Arine making person down there.

[44:29] There was, there was a lot of stuff.

[44:31] It, it is just, it's hard to, I was talking

[44:34] to den about it today.

[44:35] I was like, you just, it's hard to

[44:38] think about all the things

[44:39] that was going on while you were there.

[44:41] Like I had an app, literally an app

[44:43] to pick out like which ones I wanna go to.

[44:45] And like it would send me reminders and,

[44:47] and you'd go through and like, okay,

[44:49] it'd sign up for like three of 'em.

[44:50] Okay, which one do I really wanna go to?

[44:52] And then, you know, it's just

[44:55] so much is going on it, it was really good.

[44:57] I, you know, Being a part of the New England chapter

[45:02] for a PWA here, you know a lot

[45:04] of us from New England went there

[45:06] and so I got to know like the parties are here in New

[45:09] England even better so we can bounce ideas off.

[45:13] I met the, the public works director from Hawaii

[45:16] and you know, the one from Des Moines,

[45:21] Iowa and you know, so there's a lot of contacts

[45:23] that I've made and you know, bounce ideas off of it was,

[45:28] it was really good to see that no matter what size

[45:30] or town was or city is, you all have the same problems.

[45:33] It's just a different skate.

[45:39] I remember what I said in my notes a couple weeks ago

[45:42] when I let you know that he had a successful trip.

[45:45] Right. Prob that he'd love to tell you

[45:49] and if not, you'll probably

[45:50] see something in a budget request.

[45:54] We did budget for it for this year, but then I was

[45:56] Also, oh I didn't mean that We

[45:58] weren't talking about the expo. Oh

[46:00] Maybe the next item things you see.

[46:02] Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Things you

[46:04] Back with and Definitely a lot of good ideas, lot

[46:09] of things that, you know, other parts

[46:10] of the country are doing that you know are applicable here.

[46:14] But we just, we don't see those things here

[46:16] so we don't ever think about 'em.

[46:20] But it was, it was really good.

[46:26] What else? So you

[46:31] mentioned a couple times here

[46:34] reviewing asset management systems

[46:36] that could combine work orders,

[46:38] GIS information infrastructure,

[46:39] condition maintenance history.

[46:42] And one of 'em goes on to mention AI

[46:47] digital work orders.

[46:49] What is that one piece of software

[46:51] or is that a piece of software

[46:53] that just integrates other pieces of software?

[46:55] Yeah, so we've actually been, since I've gotten back

[46:58] that was like right now how we do a work order

[47:01] or keep track of all this stuff

[47:02] is in basically in the spreadsheet.

[47:04] And that's how we keep track of our time for everything.

[47:07] And it's to go through for fema,

[47:10] for grants, for all this stuff.

[47:12] It's cumbersome to go through

[47:15] 'cause it's not necessarily labeled right?

[47:16] Someone typed it in, misspelled something

[47:18] so then it doesn't pop up or it's entered in.

[47:21] You know, one of the things that came up this winter was,

[47:24] you know, where I was trying to give you guys all assault

[47:27] and plowing update, well it was plowing and,

[47:31] and brush cutting or plowing

[47:33] and this, so it, it wasn't capturing everything

[47:37] and I had to go through piece by piece and,

[47:39] and look all this stuff up.

[47:41] So what that asset management software does is

[47:46] basically keeps track of all that stuff.

[47:48] It's kind of like a, a more robust

[47:51] fleet software type thing.

[47:54] You create a work order, the guys

[47:58] put in whatever materials they use, the time,

[47:59] their equipment, all that stuff.

[48:01] Keeps track of it. And then it also can link it to an asset.

[48:04] So a road or a sign or a sewer manhole

[48:07] or whatever it may be for an NASA building

[48:11] and ties all to that.

[48:12] So we have a history, we have a cost

[48:15] and then you know, all that where it is, you know,

[48:19] GIS and everything and it keeps track

[48:21] of it all so much better.

[48:23] And then it, you know, for the future it's,

[48:26] it'll make it much easier.

[48:28] The next person that comes in

[48:29] after me isn't gonna be looking through a bunch

[48:31] of handwritten records and be like, what went on?

[48:34] They can pull it up one click, it's right there in front

[48:37] of 'em, everything that was going on.

[48:40] Or if I need to, they, it does reports, it does

[48:45] capital planning.

[48:47] Like you can do your capital planning for you.

[48:50] So you can put in like these buildings, the facilities,

[48:52] the big one is the facilities.

[48:54] We have this thousand page document

[48:56] and we need to create a facility plan while this can help

[49:00] us and it's data driven.

[49:02] It's not us like, okay well we think this is gonna be done.

[49:06] You know, we put a mission rating on everything

[49:10] and life cycle on it

[49:13] and works it out.

[49:15] Okay, it's this much cost now it can take into account it's

[49:18] gonna cost this much five years and work it all out for you.

[49:23] When all said and done, you can say in this storm cost

[49:25] us x Yep. To the penny.

[49:27] Yep. Yep. I mean it's as good as you put it in.

[49:29] But that's, that's the plan.

[49:32] This is something that you're looking into now? Yes.

[49:35] I assume the next budget cycle

[49:37] Maybe or sooner Told

[49:40] you. Okay.

[49:43] It was something that I was

[49:45] Is this a, is this a AccuFund

[49:49] size piece of software or is this

[49:53] It can be.

[49:54] So it depends on which one you wanna go with.

[49:56] You know, there's, there's, I mean that was my goal was

[49:59] to go down and look for this kind of software

[50:01] and what was out there because I,

[50:03] I didn't even know what was out there.

[50:06] And when I went to Texas, that was what I was looking for

[50:09] and I, there's probably 30 different ones down there

[50:12] and I've kind of narrowed it down to the three four

[50:15] and we're kind of looking at those now,

[50:17] figure out which one works for us.

[50:19] 'cause they all have their little niche on

[50:21] a different section of stuff.

[50:25] You know, there's one program that can do your permitting,

[50:28] it can do your, it can do your invoicing, it can, you know,

[50:33] your utility invoicing, it can do your, your

[50:38] payroll, it can do all the,

[50:39] it can do literally all those things in one program

[50:44] and asset management and budgeting and whatever else.

[50:48] So it's like a gigantic AccuFund.

[50:52] Then there's ones that just focus on, you know,

[50:54] just water and sewer.

[50:56] So,

[50:58] So we do pay a a lot of money and,

[51:01] and monthly maintenance costs, subscription costs,

[51:06] whatever the proper term is for that,

[51:08] for all the different softwares that the town uses between

[51:11] police and the clerk and the EMS and finance

[51:16] and all those different departments.

[51:18] We wanna just be careful not to create overlap. Definitely.

[51:21] Unless the overlap makes sense.

[51:24] If there's pieces of AccuFund that this could do

[51:27] that AccuFund still hasn't gotten resolved or Brisbane

[51:30] or whoever, whomever it is yet

[51:33] or whatnot, that may be worth, but I'll leave that.

[51:36] That's the manager's that's under his purview,

[51:39] so I'm gonna leave that entirely up to him. Yeah,

[51:40] A lot of these things are also modular, so,

[51:43] but you can do just the asset management

[51:45] and then say you want to later you can add on,

[51:50] On all or nothing.

[51:51] Right.

[51:53] And I don't, I don't, I wouldn't take your thunder

[51:56] because I know you're evaluating it,

[51:57] but evaluated that's trying.

[52:02] Well just because you know, I mean everything looks great.

[52:06] It's all shiny and it's good, all this stuff, but it's good.

[52:08] You know, you already hit on that garbage and garbage out

[52:10] and what is the real world day-to-day usage

[52:13] and you know, when it's, everything's set up perfectly,

[52:16] it looks great, but people are gonna go in there

[52:19] and, you know, mess stuff up and not put it in the right way

[52:22] or not do this and just look, keeping an eye to

[52:25] that user side of life

[52:26] and the day-to-day operational side as well

[52:29] as getting accurate information.

[52:32] I've played with a few of these systems over the years

[52:34] and it's, you know, there's a, none of 'em are perfect,

[52:36] you know, you know, you get, you think you're gonna do it

[52:38] and then you're like, oh no. So

[52:42] Yeah, I've already Take your time. I guess reached

[52:44] Out to some people about different ones that are using it,

[52:48] what they like, what they don't like.

[52:51] Yeah, it's, it's,

[52:53] We know that the way we track our buildings

[52:55] and the way that we, it's very inefficient

[52:59] and antiquated and we know that the way that that DPW has

[53:02] to track all the fleet maintenance stuff

[53:04] and all was, is cumbersome.

[53:09] So if we could make improvements in a couple

[53:11] of those categories, I would be all for it.

[53:13] Especially if it 'cause we all

[53:15] because know, you know best 'cause you live it,

[53:20] but that we are not overstaffed.

[53:22] We don't have people sitting around

[53:23] looking for something to do.

[53:24] Correct.

[53:27] I have to say our fleet has gotten much better

[53:30] and since we switched over to the cloud-based system, that

[53:33] that system is much better.

[53:35] We're using about, before it was cloud-based,

[53:37] we're using about $10 of the $8,000 program.

[53:40] Now we're using $8,000 of

[53:43] Very good.

[53:50] Yeah, that's all I have.

[53:54] Well I was disappointed.

[53:57] I'm sure after this airs on Friday,

[54:00] likely we will all be getting phone calls about Camp Street,

[54:03] but we're doing our best.

[54:06] That's all we can do. Yeah.

[54:07] It it's unfortunately it's part of the process.

[54:11] Yeah, we were, I mean we were optimistic that was gonna be

[54:16] this this year we knew we were cutting it close,

[54:19] but it's just at this point it's not gonna happen.

[54:21] As, as we said, we were cautiously optimistic.

[54:24] Yeah. We're up against the 30 day mandatory bid period.

[54:28] Right. State.

[54:30] No, I get it. We're Already end of September

[54:32] and we don't have bid docks yet.

[54:36] So close. You know, it's just gonna,

[54:38] not gonna, unfortunately

[54:40] No, they still, the second week in November to close,

[54:42] they still revolve around deer season

[54:44] or is it, do they stay open?

[54:45] Sure. Weather or now

[54:47] Mohammad's plants.

[54:50] It used to be so used to get a surcharge.

[54:53] If they start up after a certain,

[54:55] like every quarter they get a surcharge for power.

[54:57] So that was their shutoff.

[54:58] They didn't want to get that surcharge

[55:00] unless they knew they had enough work.

[55:03] So they paid for that. So that was what it used to be.

[55:05] I don't know what it's now.

[55:09] Well regardless, usually run Halloween.

[55:13] Yeah. You're you're gambling at that point. Yeah,

[55:16] That's what we've always for

[55:18] 25 years I've been at the company, we've,

[55:20] we've always said if you make it to Halloween,

[55:22] all bets are off after that.

[55:24] I mean I I can remember back when I was at the state

[55:26] that we were, they handed out turkeys,

[55:30] the contractor did hand out turkeys to the paving guys.

[55:33] So that tells you what later it was.

[55:37] Yeah. And it stink because you

[55:39] Don't know, like we could have a fabulous fall

[55:41] and perfect weather right there into

[55:43] December 1st and you know,

[55:45] But can't count.

[55:48] I've also, the fire department,

[55:50] two separate occasions been out on October 1st

[55:53] for foot snowstorms.

[55:55] Right. That brought down trees and power lines.

[55:58] Yeah. Those early ones are the worst because

[55:59] That's not that, that's only a couple weeks away. Right,

[56:01] Right.

[56:02] Those, the early ones are the worst

[56:03] 'cause there's still leaves on the trees.

[56:04] Right. And anything else from the,

[56:09] from the board for Josh

[56:10] before we move on, anything you wanted to Chris,

[56:14] other than the heads up?

[56:15] Nope.

[56:17] No. Other than the public works, they,

[56:19] they've done a fantastic job this, this summer.

[56:23] The gravel road. Pretty well caught up now I think.

[56:28] I'm glad to hear, hear that. We,

[56:30] I think we really are honing in on a, on a little good team.

[56:35] We are doing a lot.

[56:37] Josh and McCadden are doing a lot to, to make it

[56:41] or of a team atmosphere,

[56:46] some struggles over the years with that.

[56:49] How do you do that? Yeah,

[56:51] He is alive.

[56:53] That's amazing. Like he announced his own entrance. Yeah.

[56:56] Yeah. So I would just say that they,

[57:00] they've done a fantastic job and,

[57:02] and things look good overall.

[57:06] I was, I was pleased to hear after getting flooded 23

[57:11] and 24 and not being able to get the gravel road work done,

[57:15] we were already behind coming into 23,

[57:17] but to know that we finally caught up.

[57:19] That's good news.

[57:23] And Holden Road looks good too,

[57:24] but I mean, Sterling Hill looks good by the way. Yes it

[57:26] Does.

[57:28] We're not done with a adapt,

[57:29] but it's much better than this.

[57:32] Yeah, I didn't realize that there was supposed

[57:35] to be a drainage ditch from culvert.

[57:37] Saw the right head so I it's so full.

[57:41] I had never seen them there. All right,

[57:45] we will move on to item number nine.

[57:50] Authorizing an unbudgeted purchase from the highway fund

[57:55] for a line locator.

[58:01] Chris apparently is tired

[58:05] of listening to Bob

[58:06] and I drone on, so he gave me a cheat sheet.

[58:12] Oh, that's not it at all. I'm just trying to be helpful.

[58:14] No, it is helpful. Rather than us trying

[58:16] to pick out what we feel is right.

[58:18] Yes it is. Mr. Martin knows

[58:22] advocating for purchasing a more advanced utility locator

[58:26] than the basic model included in the FY

[58:28] 27 water fund budget.

[58:30] The water fund is budgeted $5,500

[58:32] to replace an aging line locator.

[58:35] The proposed radio detection RD 8,200 SG survey grade

[58:40] utility locator, which improves the town's ability

[58:43] to locate buried infrastructure, tracer wires,

[58:46] electrical lines, and other conductive utilities.

[58:50] Would that pick up PVC water lines?

[58:53] No, unless there's a tracer on it. Okay.

[58:56] The equipment would supplement Dig safe

[58:58] by locating privately owned infrastructure on town.

[59:01] Property that dig safe typically does not identify

[59:04] the locator could benefit multiple town departments

[59:06] and assist with work at the recreation area, fire stations,

[59:10] water facilities, municipal building,

[59:12] and other town properties.

[59:14] Its mapping capabilities would improve infrastructure

[59:16] records and reduce uncertainty about the location

[59:19] of utilities.

[59:22] Josh proposes purchasing the equipment from EJ Prescott

[59:25] for $16,231 and 66 cents.

[59:30] The water fund would contribute the budget

[59:32] of $5,500 while the highway fund would provide the remaining

[59:35] unbudgeted 10,000 731 66.

[59:40] Josh believes savings in the FY 27 paving budget resulting

[59:43] from the Graniteville Road grant could cover

[59:45] the additional cost.

[59:47] The town manager agrees

[59:49] that the more advanced equipment could save time

[59:51] and record keeping.

[59:53] The town manager emphasizes that funds approved

[59:55] for specific purposes should not be routinely redirected

[59:58] without a clear and transparent justification.

[1:00:02] Select board is being asked

[1:00:04] to decide whether purchasing the more capable equipment now

[1:00:07] is preferable to buying a less effective budgeted model.

[1:00:10] Our manager also suggests

[1:00:12] that the paving budget savings could instead be used

[1:00:15] to pave the gravel portion of Sterling Hill,

[1:00:17] which was previously deferred because of limited funding.

[1:00:22] And I will let you add to that,

[1:00:26] Josh, anything you may want to.

[1:00:30] Sure,

[1:00:31] Yeah.

[1:00:32] So we like it. Like I said, we were planned to get a

[1:00:35] pretty basic line here or sewer

[1:00:39] and water, basically just hook

[1:00:44] it on and, and it reads it out

[1:00:47] and mark with paint, this one

[1:00:52] has the g really what you're paying

[1:00:54] for is the GPS capability of it.

[1:00:56] And it can go down to,

[1:01:01] so it's very accurate.

[1:01:03] You put it over, you mark it, pins it to your phone

[1:01:07] or tablet, whatever you have it

[1:01:10] and then you just keep going down.

[1:01:11] You can pin you know, align from here over

[1:01:15] to my office if you want to just keep going down through

[1:01:18] and then puts it in the map

[1:01:19] and then we have it for later on.

[1:01:22] One of the things, and I, you know, as far

[1:01:25] as all town usage is really the,

[1:01:28] the rec department is the one that came to mind the most.

[1:01:31] We have all these lines that come out

[1:01:33] of our main power over there

[1:01:35] and we don't really know where they go

[1:01:38] Light poles.

[1:01:39] Right, thank you.

[1:01:42] But where they go, yeah, in and in between, we don't know.

[1:01:45] And our, you know, as-builts are only as good as the person

[1:01:49] that drew 'em on there and who knows, maybe got nicked

[1:01:52] and they had to go around something

[1:01:54] and they just, you know, drew straight line.

[1:01:56] There's no repeatable locating on it.

[1:02:00] Like, oh, there's no tie off.

[1:02:01] So you can't go, okay, this was here, you know, you can go

[1:02:04] to a break, a water break, you can go to a sewer break

[1:02:07] and pin all those things.

[1:02:10] And this right there in the map.

[1:02:14] And you have mapping software that these go.

[1:02:20] Yep. We, we already have Esri

[1:02:22] or Art Map that we use that have all of our water lines

[1:02:27] and sewer lines and culverts and that sort of stuff.

[1:02:31] So it, all that stuff in there. Let this be more accurate.

[1:02:34] Yep. Like right now it was ba our water line maps were based

[1:02:37] on basically the drawings we have now.

[1:02:40] They were kind of like laid in there

[1:02:41] and as we go along we're kind of making 'em better,

[1:02:45] more accurate with the, the little GPS that I have

[1:02:47] that's accurate within four feet.

[1:02:50] I can give you an example. We had problems

[1:02:54] with the sewer in this building several years ago now,

[1:02:59] and we knew there was a line that went out

[1:03:01] through a process of elimination.

[1:03:03] There were two separate sewer lines

[1:03:05] and one went out to the road

[1:03:07] and they, they knew there was a problem

[1:03:09] with it, but couldn't find it.

[1:03:11] Didn't know where to, didn't know where to, they, you know,

[1:03:14] relied on Gary Munson remembering 20 years ago

[1:03:17] what he might have remembered.

[1:03:19] It was, I don't Was you here for that? It

[1:03:21] Was right after or right before I got here.

[1:03:23] Yeah. And it was like ridiculous trying to figure out

[1:03:28] where this sewer line was ultimately the problem, I think,

[1:03:30] if I remember right, it was the telephone pole

[1:03:32] that got drilled through it out by the road. But

[1:03:35] This was on one 10?

[1:03:37] No, right here. Oh,

[1:03:38] this is right here for this building.

[1:03:40] The amount of work that went into trying to figure out

[1:03:44] where the sewer line,

[1:03:45] the existing sewer line was located, was it,

[1:03:48] So Hours trying to figure it out. So how

[1:03:51] Would that locate a sewer line?

[1:03:52] Or you would locate it when you put it

[1:03:54] in or if you had Yeah,

[1:03:55] So two things.

[1:03:56] You could do it when you put it in,

[1:03:57] but also our camera has a sonar thing on it.

[1:04:02] It's right at the camera So you can,

[1:04:03] you could follow that way too.

[1:04:05] You could chase the mouse. Yep.

[1:04:12] Poise.

[1:04:14] I'm assuming when we were had to hire

[1:04:16] that company up at the tower to locate the power lines,

[1:04:19] we could do it ourselves. Now

[1:04:21] We could.

[1:04:22] I dunno if I trust it.

[1:04:24] Well, I just, there, there was a lot going on there,

[1:04:27] but like for the wreck area, definitely,

[1:04:29] like, there was a lot,

[1:04:36] But point is dig safe.

[1:04:37] That was outta dig safe's purview. Right?

[1:04:39] We had to hire somebody to do

[1:04:40] That.

[1:04:41] Yeah. Goes

[1:04:42] Quite often.

[1:04:43] Goes to the meter or the pole or whatever.

[1:04:46] That's where they end. So

[1:04:47] That's, that's bizarre because it is safe.

[1:04:50] I painted lines where I was going to have

[1:04:55] to dig, dig well beyond,

[1:04:59] and they mark the water line,

[1:05:02] they mark the power line from the pole all the way even to,

[1:05:06] to my garage and to my, they mark both of them

[1:05:09] with their little flags.

[1:05:10] They marked everything even after the meter.

[1:05:12] Usually they don't do water lines, they call up.

[1:05:15] You have to call us in. Then we go. Mark.

[1:05:18] Definitely did. We got lucky.

[1:05:20] I guess I got somebody definitely an

[1:05:23] overachiever. It sounds they

[1:05:24] Don't, they don't do sew water lines for

[1:05:28] most U2 municipalities.

[1:05:32] Lucky me. Alright,

[1:05:35] so have some notes here.

[1:05:38] I'll open it up to the board.

[1:05:39] I do have some questions, comments, but

[1:05:44] Yeah, I don't really have, you know, I think it,

[1:05:47] it makes more sense to get the better equipment.

[1:05:51] I, I can a lot of different places it would be useful and,

[1:05:56] and beyond a dink safe safety factor.

[1:06:00] There's the factor of you don't know, like, you know,

[1:06:03] private homeowners thought stuff within the, the right

[1:06:07] of way that, you know, it may not be after or otherwise

[1:06:11] and it's one encounter or,

[1:06:15] or one project goes awry

[1:06:20] and it's just a lot more

[1:06:22] than not.

[1:06:27] That's Josh's judgment.

[1:06:29] And I agree with Todd. I just have one quick question.

[1:06:31] When is Sterling Hill scheduled? Currently?

[1:06:33] It's not. Okay.

[1:06:35] It was two years ago. Not this year. Yeah. Last year.

[1:06:39] And we, it was part, we cut Sterling Hill

[1:06:43] and the milling on this side of town, out

[1:06:45] of the paving budget to bring it down to what was,

[1:06:48] Yeah, it was during the first part of the Ukraine war.

[1:06:53] Basically went from say like $8 a ton to 120.

[1:06:59] So thank you.

[1:07:03] So you think this will save you time

[1:07:06] and make your job easier and more accurate.

[1:07:09] Information

[1:07:11] Accuracy is like record keeping is

[1:07:13] what we really need to focus on.

[1:07:15] I, in my opinion, like in my department,

[1:07:18] like I have flat files from a hundred years ago in my office

[1:07:23] and they're all rolled up

[1:07:24] and if I just open them up,

[1:07:26] I don't know if they're gonna roll back together.

[1:07:28] You know, it's, it's a gamble every time.

[1:07:30] I've got a lot of 'em digitized,

[1:07:32] but you know, there's, there's still not perfect.

[1:07:35] Sometimes you gotta go to the, the actual one to do that.

[1:07:40] Well I heard you say when I was online how,

[1:07:43] when you're not here anymore,

[1:07:45] but that's gonna be a lot of years. So

[1:07:47] That's not at least, but

[1:07:50] Even Josh may not have the best memory after 20 years.

[1:07:53] That's true. We don't have, I mean we have a few,

[1:07:57] but you know, you don't have those 30 year people anymore.

[1:08:01] 40 year people in we, it's probably not fair

[1:08:04] of us to rely on them either.

[1:08:05] Yep. And we need to keep better records than that. Yeah.

[1:08:11] So I regarding,

[1:08:17] yes, it's, it's an unbudgeted

[1:08:20] and yes, we got another grant

[1:08:22] that we never know if we're gonna get 'em until

[1:08:24] after the budget has already passed.

[1:08:25] That money typically has become fund balance

[1:08:28] and conversation is not, you know,

[1:08:30] so we might as well spend it.

[1:08:31] That's certainly not the, the flavor of the conversation,

[1:08:34] but to me it doesn't make any sense

[1:08:37] to se spend $5,500 for something

[1:08:40] that doesn't full fully fulfill our needs when we have

[1:08:45] the money available to us to do something that will fulfill

[1:08:57] You have other questions?

[1:08:58] Well, I guess we don't, the Sterling Hill conversation.

[1:09:03] So how it went last time, it was me that got it next.

[1:09:06] I'll, I'll own it.

[1:09:11] The concern was that it's gonna increase the cost

[1:09:14] to repair it every time it gets washed out.

[1:09:17] I think three or four times.

[1:09:19] It's either completely or partially been

[1:09:20] washed out since 23. No,

[1:09:24] Didn't wash out in 23 or 24.

[1:09:27] Just the edges. The edges washed out.

[1:09:29] Yeah, we washed the whole road was since the

[1:09:31] box culvert, we've

[1:09:32] Oh nine and 11, then they put the box

[1:09:35] Culvert.

[1:09:36] Yeah. So since the box culvert we just used

[1:09:37] loose portions of the road.

[1:09:39] Yep. But still, if it was paved we would have to repave it

[1:09:44] and if we weren't dealing with FEMA money, obviously

[1:09:48] that would be an expense to the town.

[1:09:51] The other concern is a lot of those residents below

[1:09:56] that gravel portion have have hardened s of

[1:10:00] that little brook by some manner or another.

[1:10:06] And I would worry about large sheets of asphalt,

[1:10:10] what could possibly happen if they were to

[1:10:14] get all jammed up.

[1:10:15] And it's not a natural

[1:10:20] ravine anymore, but that's just my 2 cents on Sterling Hill.

[1:10:23] Obviously we're not gonna decide on that tonight,

[1:10:25] but I just wanted those were, those are the same arguments

[1:10:27] that I brought up two years ago or

[1:10:29] whenever it was that we're having that, that conversation.

[1:10:32] It's, it is just a thing

[1:10:33] that this opportunity may not ever present.

[1:10:36] Getting, getting Sterling Hill back into a,

[1:10:39] into the plan is gonna be tough, you know, given

[1:10:42] the cost of things.

[1:10:44] But I just, I just threw that out there

[1:10:46] because it is something that did get but

[1:10:53] 24 Paving, which is what got cut.

[1:10:56] Exactly. And

[1:10:57] and you're, you're a hundred percent right in saying

[1:11:00] that the, the, the picture is different this time.

[1:11:04] I think it was around at the time it was around $60,000

[1:11:08] to pave it or I was just found number actually.

[1:11:15] So it's the, the money that's here is well with the,

[1:11:18] that's left over from that paving grid that we got.

[1:11:20] It's, it's well within the means if we wanted

[1:11:22] to pursue that in the future.

[1:11:24] But since it came up, I just wanted to believe Dave was

[1:11:28] around for those conversations.

[1:11:29] I know you weren't believe Todd wasn't. Todd wasn't. So

[1:11:35] If, sorry Tracy, just if, as far as the locator goes,

[1:11:39] whether there's any sort of grant funding

[1:11:43] through Rural Water

[1:11:44] or even the passive equipment grant, they, you know,

[1:11:48] if this would qualify under that

[1:11:49] and whether we've utilized it on something else or not,

[1:11:51] but I think it's this time of year that the applications go

[1:11:55] for that and I, I can't remember it's five or $10,000.

[1:11:59] Yeah. I don't know if it would've

[1:12:00] because it's, you know, geared towards safety

[1:12:02] and you might be able to make the

[1:12:04] Necklace or Argument.

[1:12:05] But I mean it's something to,

[1:12:07] it's something it is. We are looking at it right now.

[1:12:09] Yeah. And if there's something more priority

[1:12:13] Priority by all means, but

[1:12:15] Send batch also.

[1:12:17] So it's,

[1:12:19] I know what it's capped at this year.

[1:12:23] Every year it's, that's a different Right,

[1:12:29] Your number Josh?

[1:12:30] Yeah. Okay. If we, I'll throw out a question.

[1:12:33] If we paved Sterling Hill, would it be open in the winter?

[1:12:38] I wouldn't advocate for that. No.

[1:12:41] I mean a gravel road it, gosh can correct me if I'm wrong,

[1:12:45] but a gravel road in general is expensive to, to maintain.

[1:12:50] And so paving it I think would help alleviate some

[1:12:55] of the constant work we're having to do down there.

[1:12:57] The erosion and stuff like that, that occurs,

[1:13:00] you know, on a rainstorm.

[1:13:02] So it mean less times we have to go down there.

[1:13:04] However, I still don't think personally

[1:13:07] that hill could be open in the wintertime,

[1:13:10] but I I would not advocate for that.

[1:13:13] I remember now. I remember

[1:13:15] Both ways. Yeah,

[1:13:16] I remember it both ways.

[1:13:17] Both ways. It was little, but I do remember Yep.

[1:13:21] You're looking at 24

[1:13:26] To pave that whole road. That doesn't sound right.

[1:13:31] Try again. Usually it

[1:13:35] to sharpen your pencil he has to

[1:13:38] Yeah.

[1:13:39] Blunt that thing up a little bit.

[1:13:42] Yep. 24,000. I'm just

[1:13:47] comparing it to the driveway that we paved.

[1:13:50] I was thinking that I wasn't gonna say it.

[1:13:54] That was You hire them out. I need my driveway done.

[1:13:57] I mean if we're, if we're gonna do it, you know, as part

[1:14:00] of, you know, paving next year if we're gonna,

[1:14:03] so it would have to by itself.

[1:14:05] Yeah, you're gonna, you're probably double that.

[1:14:08] So we could incorporate it next year

[1:14:10] and we could just carry that money over

[1:14:12] or have that if we so choose to, to pursue that.

[1:14:15] Have that due before July 1st. Due before July 1st.

[1:14:20] Yeah, that would work too.

[1:14:22] Well Chris, talk about it with Josh

[1:14:24] and if you wanna put it on an agenda,

[1:14:25] we'll, we'll talk about that.

[1:14:29] We obviously can't do anything about it now.

[1:14:33] So I think that horse is done for So

[1:14:40] what would the, I would entertain that motion.

[1:14:42] I would like to make a motion that we

[1:14:47] purchase a radio detection RD 8,200

[1:14:52] SG survey grade locator kit ILOC

[1:14:57] length and five inch transmitter signal clamp from EJ

[1:15:02] Prescott of Berlin

[1:15:05] and the amount of $16,231

[1:15:08] and 66 cents of which 5,500 will be paid

[1:15:12] by the water fund with a balance of $10,731

[1:15:16] and 66 cents coming from the highway fund.

[1:15:20] Second.

[1:15:22] Alright, we have a motion and a second.

[1:15:24] I assume there is no further conversation, just

[1:15:27] Don't set it down behind your vehicle and

[1:15:30] On the ground.

[1:15:34] Aye, with that being motion

[1:15:37] and second I'll call the question.

[1:15:39] All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye.

[1:15:42] And I did receive this

[1:15:43] and I received an email from Bob

[1:15:45] with comments on a few items and he was okay with this

[1:15:48] because it does benefit all.

[1:15:50] So now that we've all voted,

[1:15:51] I will share Bob's thoughts on that.

[1:15:58] And number 10, consider awarding an East Cobble Hill

[1:16:02] Cot replacement contract town received an

[1:16:09] e Trans Structures grant

[1:16:10] for $83,600 funded on a funded on a 90 10

[1:16:15] basis to replace an 18 inch culvert

[1:16:18] with a 48 inch culvert on East Cowell Hill Road near

[1:16:21] 1 53 East Cowell Hill.

[1:16:23] Is that the A-frame? It's, it's below it.

[1:16:28] Next What, what's his name? The owned A-frame It's in else.

[1:16:32] Yeah. Okay. Penny Town officials determined

[1:16:37] that the project exceeded the town's in-house capabilities

[1:16:39] and issued it for competitive bidding town.

[1:16:42] Sent bid request to 12 contractors on August 28th, 2026

[1:16:45] and posted the project on the Vermont bid registry.

[1:16:48] Six bids were received

[1:16:49] by the September 17th deadline ranging from 98,700 from

[1:16:53] Northwoods excavating

[1:16:55] to 33,300 from Hal Holstrom Excavating.

[1:17:00] Josh Martinel recommends awarding the contract

[1:17:02] to Halstrom Excavating

[1:17:03] and the town manager supports the recommendation.

[1:17:06] Halstrom Excavating previously completed the Wildes burg

[1:17:09] bank stabilization project for the town

[1:17:11] and the work was considered satisfactory.

[1:17:16] And anything to add?

[1:17:24] I just have a couple, I mean Yep.

[1:17:26] And I I know they've done satisfactory work.

[1:17:28] You're not concerned that it's like 50% less than the next?

[1:17:31] No, we met with 'em, we met the, you know,

[1:17:35] partner just Paul or whatever, they came out

[1:17:37] and looked at it with us, you know,

[1:17:39] and satisfied with, you know,

[1:17:44] being able to do it for that.

[1:17:46] And you're also not concerned

[1:17:47] that this bid is exactly the same as the next bid. Okay.

[1:17:50] I was gonna ask that after we got to the next one, but

[1:17:53] I have the sticky note on this one, so, okay.

[1:17:56] Those are just my two questions.

[1:17:57] The coincidences for some reason don't

[1:17:59] tickle this board's fancy.

[1:18:02] I guess they even had a chuckle between themselves that,

[1:18:06] you know, should we leave it

[1:18:07] or should we just like change it a little bit

[1:18:09] and they're like, leave that.

[1:18:10] I would've either tacked a couple hundred dollars,

[1:18:13] taken a couple hundred dollars off.

[1:18:14] That was the debate they had internally

[1:18:17] For the same reason.

[1:18:18] 32 9 9 9. Exactly. Something. Yeah, something.

[1:18:23] Okay. So this is a big 12.

[1:18:29] We need, this is a long one. How long is it?

[1:18:33] It's 65 feet. I saw that somewhere.

[1:18:36] We've already purchased the culvert.

[1:18:37] So it's, it's literally just, it's deep is the problem.

[1:18:40] You know, it's 17 feet deep on one end.

[1:18:42] We would have to eat rent equipment and stuff

[1:18:46] and by the sounds they're planning on gonna have it done.

[1:18:50] They may work overnight and be done Monday day. So

[1:18:54] So Cobble Hill will be closed Yeah.

[1:18:57] For through traffic. It'll be open to e to that point,

[1:19:01] but it's gonna be essentially be a, a double dead end. Yep.

[1:19:03] Yeah. For short time. As

[1:19:06] Long as we do some outreach on that.

[1:19:07] Yep. To notify people. All right.

[1:19:10] What is the flavor of the board?

[1:19:17] I will make a motion here and the,

[1:19:19] when I get back to the, my right.

[1:19:21] So that's what I get for jumping ahead.

[1:19:22] That's my papers. Yeah.

[1:19:26] So I would move

[1:19:27] to award these SC Hill culvert replacement contract

[1:19:30] to Holstrom Excavating Northfield and the amount of $33,300

[1:19:35] Second. David can have it.

[1:19:38] We have a motion and a second. Any further conversation?

[1:19:43] Hearing none. All those in favor

[1:19:46] A Aye Aye.

[1:19:48] And there we have it. Don't recall.

[1:19:53] Did Bob have a Yeah he said he was, he said he was good

[1:19:57] with the two bids as presented.

[1:19:58] So

[1:20:00] Just told us about one coming up. Oh now

[1:20:02] This is the one right on the corner, right as it,

[1:20:04] it's kinda that sweeping corner and it comes off the

[1:20:07] The hill.

[1:20:08] So it's a deep, it plugged during 23.

[1:20:11] It plugged and then washed out the road.

[1:20:14] Make sure I was at the right spot.

[1:20:16] It was one that was flagged as under size.

[1:20:20] This would bring it up too.

[1:20:21] We haven't had a lot of luck with

[1:20:22] the structures grants lately.

[1:20:26] I Tried to get one for the culvert

[1:20:27] under Snow Bridge Road.

[1:20:28] 'cause that's another Dek one that's undersized.

[1:20:31] We did Bolster Road recently on the, yeah,

[1:20:33] so there's this one bolster road there.

[1:20:36] I still have another one to do up on Emerald Street.

[1:20:40] That one's a Culver. I didn't think it was last year.

[1:20:43] This one might been.

[1:20:45] So I'm happy with that.

[1:20:49] Yeah,

[1:20:51] Good work going after those two by the way.

[1:20:55] And is this I, no,

[1:20:58] before we move on, missed my own question.

[1:21:01] What Happens with the balance of the grant?

[1:21:05] They, They keep it. That's what I thought.

[1:21:07] So it's not like fema. It's not like fema.

[1:21:09] No, I didn't think so. It's

[1:21:11] Just a reimbursement Number.

[1:21:14] 11 sitter awarding the EMS East Bay

[1:21:19] parking lot paving contract.

[1:21:23] The ambulance fund has budgeted.

[1:21:25] Yes, I said budgeted $70,000

[1:21:28] to repave the parking lot at the Berry town.

[1:21:30] EMS located at for McLaughlin Road as part

[1:21:33] of a multi-year effort

[1:21:34] to upgrade parking lots at town facilities.

[1:21:36] $70,000 allocation includes $50,000 for capital improvements

[1:21:41] and $20,000 for Department of Public Works labor

[1:21:44] to remove the existing asphalt bid requests were sent

[1:21:47] to five local paving contractors.

[1:21:48] August 28th, 2026.

[1:21:50] And all five submitted bids by September 17th.

[1:21:53] Bids range from $43,000 from J McDonald

[1:21:56] to 33,300 from Holstrom Excavating

[1:21:59] project includes removing the existing asphalt,

[1:22:02] preparing the site,

[1:22:03] and installing approximately 160 tons of type three

[1:22:06] and type four pavement.

[1:22:09] Competitive pricing allows the selected contractor tole the

[1:22:12] entire project with a without assistance from public

[1:22:15] works, which is a bonus.

[1:22:18] Josh recommends awarding EMS paving contract

[1:22:21] to Hal some excavating the town manager

[1:22:24] supports the recommendation.

[1:22:29] Oh, they see now would be your

[1:22:34] time to point that out.

[1:22:40] You can do it too. Yeah, that is

[1:22:42] so you're not hearing things.

[1:22:45] Those of you watching later whole folks.

[1:22:47] That is exactly the same bid.

[1:22:49] That was agenda item number 10.

[1:22:54] And do we have an idea on schedule?

[1:22:58] Not for this one Likely spring.

[1:23:03] There's still time to do it now,

[1:23:04] but I, we gave them until the end of this spring.

[1:23:08] So

[1:23:12] I'll say the same thing I said when

[1:23:14] we paved this out here.

[1:23:16] Please no duck lawns,

[1:23:20] nothing irritates me more than a freshly

[1:23:23] paved parking lot with puddles.

[1:23:24] And

[1:23:27] I would move then to award lease bury EMS paving contract

[1:23:32] to holster Excavating of Northfield in the amount

[1:23:34] of 33302nd.

[1:23:38] Right. We have a motion to second Any

[1:23:40] further conversation.

[1:23:43] Anything else you'd like to add or All right.

[1:23:45] Hearing none. All those in favor?

[1:23:47] Aye. Aye. And I already spilled the beans,

[1:23:51] but Bob said he was okay with both of the bids.

[1:23:55] He just liked that number. Yeah.

[1:24:01] Hey, whatever. It works for us.

[1:24:02] It was under budget on both of 'em.

[1:24:04] So take it number 12.

[1:24:08] Josh, I actually think we're done with you.

[1:24:11] So I do have one thing.

[1:24:13] I got a call from a resident, I'm sorry.

[1:24:15] So I have to just bounce ahead so we don't have

[1:24:17] to keep Josh here through round table with a concern

[1:24:22] from a resident off of Liberty Libert Cent Street

[1:24:27] with locating the water shut off.

[1:24:33] We're not aware.

[1:24:35] So Her name is Sheila.

[1:24:38] I don't know, I didn't get a last name.

[1:24:41] Is it the one that's really funky under it?

[1:24:44] Found a shutoff there?

[1:24:45] So there's one person that had, it's like a manifold.

[1:24:49] There's a a one shutoff for like three houses

[1:24:52] and then there's another shutoff.

[1:24:54] And I believe they found him. So

[1:24:58] This was just yesterday that I had this,

[1:25:03] If it's not the same person, then I'll,

[1:25:06] Well it was, it was Mr. Mitchell that, that checked in

[1:25:10] with me because he was on the board when we awarded

[1:25:12] that waterline project up there.

[1:25:14] And his concern was that we had a re a project

[1:25:17] that's was completed in the, the relative recent past

[1:25:22] last few years and current enough

[1:25:25] where we should have had records on, on

[1:25:27] where those shutoffs were located.

[1:25:29] Yeah. So all the G Ps, they're all GPS for that project.

[1:25:33] The ones that were outside of their work were not gps.

[1:25:37] So this could be one of those ones that's on that header.

[1:25:40] And they didn't work on that one.

[1:25:42] They only worked on the one that served the three.

[1:25:44] So that's why that one might not be locatable.

[1:25:48] Understood. Gotta

[1:25:49] Love.

[1:25:50] There's, there's I believe two sections.

[1:25:52] One on Riverton and there's one on Brook Street I believe

[1:25:55] that have these weird, like one curb stop

[1:25:59] and then it goes out to like two or three houses

[1:26:01] and then they each have their own curb stop.

[1:26:03] But we only did work within the right of way.

[1:26:05] So like it goes to that first curb Stop

[1:26:07] that we have the next one.

[1:26:09] We don't curb Stop. Right on the old

[1:26:15] Curb.

[1:26:16] Stop at the main line and then each house has one, right?

[1:26:17] Yeah. Okay.

[1:26:19] And then he wanted me to point out

[1:26:20] that the Churchill Road sign is missing.

[1:26:23] Okay. The corner of Westerville and Westford right there.

[1:26:27] Okay. That was it for

[1:26:31] That Honorable Select board member.

[1:26:38] Thank you Josh. No thank you. I join Ryan. Thank you.

[1:26:42] You wanna go see that after

[1:26:44] The front end loader?

[1:26:46] I saw it. I was gonna do it in round table, but I will now.

[1:26:51] I volunteered for bulk trash day.

[1:26:54] Ryan was operating it and did a great job.

[1:26:58] It moved beautifully.

[1:27:02] Although I was a little upset where one woman went up

[1:27:06] to Ryan and go Thank you for all your hard work.

[1:27:10] I'm like, he's

[1:27:11] Sitting in there with

[1:27:14] radio a seat that moves.

[1:27:17] It's a beautiful piece of equipment.

[1:27:19] I sat in it. It's very comfortable. Yeah.

[1:27:22] I gotta point out to these guys, the,

[1:27:24] the biggest thing about that, that was the selling point is

[1:27:26] that there's a bar in the front

[1:27:28] that when you have the bucket up you can see out

[1:27:31] and the bar's not right where you need to see to load the

[1:27:33] Truck.

[1:27:34] Yes. So remember you mentioning in

[1:27:35] that when we were purchasing it, we

[1:27:37] Had the bucket up when we first got here tonight

[1:27:39] and that's why Chris and I sat in it

[1:27:41] and you can look right out like,

[1:27:43] like there's nothing there. And

[1:27:44] Then how much was that?

[1:27:47] It was after trading. Like 170.

[1:27:50] Yeah. Yeah. I don't remember

[1:27:53] Exactly.

[1:27:54] Nice piece of equipment

[1:27:56] Collapsed.

[1:27:57] Would you say the, what'd you say retail was on it?

[1:27:58] 2 80, 72 80. Somewhere There.

[1:28:01] They're all about the same.

[1:28:04] Just so Director Danforth doesn't get equipment. Envy

[1:28:09] Crushes.

[1:28:12] Nothing to be envious of.

[1:28:14] Yeah. The next ambulance that you need,

[1:28:15] that might be what they fix it with.

[1:28:19] Thanks Josh. Yes. Thanks Josh. Have a good evening.

[1:28:23] All right. Number 12. We need

[1:28:27] to appoint a voting delegate effort with cities

[1:28:29] and town's Annual meeting.

[1:28:33] They'll conduct Vermont League Cities town annual meeting

[1:28:36] virtually on October 6th.

[1:28:39] The meetings include the annual meeting, the league itself,

[1:28:43] the property of fund, otherwise known as passive

[1:28:46] and the VLCT employment resource

[1:28:49] and benefits Trust herb.

[1:28:52] And if voting delegate must be appointed

[1:28:55] by the select board in advance of those meetings and passed.

[1:28:58] For the most part the has been the account manager

[1:29:02] would entertain a motion.

[1:29:05] You may wanna say something.

[1:29:06] Yeah. Before you make your motion. Yeah, go ahead.

[1:29:08] That I found out today when I received the,

[1:29:13] the voting paperwork for VERB

[1:29:16] and for passive that they're actually not going

[1:29:19] to be having their meeting in regular

[1:29:22] VLCT meeting on October 6th.

[1:29:24] It's actually gonna be, I can't remember off the top my head

[1:29:27] if it's November 8th or 18th.

[1:29:29] So what I would just say is, is leave out the date. Yeah.

[1:29:34] And, and just to point it the

[1:29:36] voting delegate for those meetings

[1:29:38] At AT and verb annual meetings and then scratch the rest.

[1:29:44] Okay.

[1:29:47] Ready? I would move to points.

[1:29:52] The town manager is Barry Town's voting delegate

[1:29:54] for the VLCT.

[1:29:55] Passive and verb annual meetings. Second.

[1:29:59] Aye. Motion to second. Any conversation? Hearing none.

[1:30:04] All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Didn't know about that one.

[1:30:09] So he didn't provide me with any commentary on it.

[1:30:12] Quite sure he'll be fine with, well

[1:30:14] Plus he wanted, We could have

[1:30:17] Can be a select He

[1:30:19] Could, that would've been, he is not here.

[1:30:22] That's how that used to work. If you,

[1:30:23] He'd be the tree warden too, if he wanted to be.

[1:30:26] Yeah. Tree warden delinquent

[1:30:30] tax collector. Sure.

[1:30:32] Keep going. Okay.

[1:30:36] We need to pay the bills.

[1:30:40] So we do not have Bob here

[1:30:42] so we can take them all at once if he wasn't in there

[1:30:45] Anyway.

[1:30:46] I don't think there were any Nelson. There

[1:30:46] Was not any Nelson's regardless.

[1:30:51] So we have September 15th and September 22nd.

[1:30:55] I believe both FY 26 and 27th. It is

[1:30:59] Not a FY 26 for September 22nd.

[1:31:02] Okay. But there was for the 15th.

[1:31:05] Yes. Unless somebody else

[1:31:09] wants to move this

[1:31:13] To Approve the accounts payable warrants

[1:31:16] for fiscal year 2027 for September 15th and September 22nd.

[1:31:22] Well as the 20 fiscal year. 26th.

[1:31:24] September 15th, 26th warrant.

[1:31:28] I'll second that It be fiscal year 27th for this 22nd.

[1:31:32] Yeah, it's fiscal year 27th. Yeah,

[1:31:34] It's the 27th and 27. Then went back to the 26th.

[1:31:37] All It's okay. Then I second

[1:31:42] Thank you.

[1:31:43] Sure. Anyway, regardless. Motion. Sorry.

[1:31:51] Josh's ride Minutes.

[1:31:54] It's amazing how quiet those things have gotten

[1:31:56] in in 20 years.

[1:31:57] He used to be on a job site

[1:31:59] and they were all, every piece

[1:32:01] of equipment was obnoxious so loud.

[1:32:04] There was a Newel Road grant with Carol

[1:32:08] and Johnson Equipment.

[1:32:09] I was not aware of that.

[1:32:11] Grant Carroll Concrete and Johnson Rental.

[1:32:15] What was that grant?

[1:32:21] I know we're working on, I think, I think

[1:32:25] that was just part

[1:32:26] of the brand aids

[1:32:31] Got, yeah,

[1:32:33] We're working with the state now,

[1:32:37] but we're not there yet.

[1:32:41] So I think that must have just been grant

[1:32:43] aids a grant on it.

[1:32:46] On the invoice. That's what it was. Yeah.

[1:32:50] We had an incident with a PD cruiser.

[1:32:56] A what? A PD cruiser.

[1:32:58] Oh. Quite some time ago.

[1:32:59] Oh. Just finally getting effect.

[1:33:01] Just finally getting out.

[1:33:02] Yeah. You did mention that sometimes months ago.

[1:33:04] Yeah. Yep. You did mention that.

[1:33:08] And how is our zoning bylaw consultant

[1:33:13] doing on their budget versus progress?

[1:33:16] I think I, I think it's coming along.

[1:33:19] I haven't, Brandon, I haven't seen Brandon since they met

[1:33:22] last Wednesday to get a brief

[1:33:24] on it other than what I've read.

[1:33:27] I think they're moving in the right directions.

[1:33:31] Lemme say think we're, I think

[1:33:32] they're fine as far as the budget goes.

[1:33:33] They're not gonna charge us any more than

[1:33:34] what our contract is regardless.

[1:33:37] Right. That's been made clear. Right.

[1:33:38] But I, I've just, I want them to get all of the grant

[1:33:41] that they can because that's the, obviously

[1:33:43] that's the business that they're

[1:33:44] in, you know, for their business.

[1:33:46] I want, but I also want, I wanna make sure that we get all

[1:33:50] that we can get out of it.

[1:33:53] So that's, that's good to hear.

[1:33:55] This is something that's come up

[1:33:58] numerous times over numerous years

[1:34:00] and it just hasn't come up in a,

[1:34:03] how can we possibly have a meter at a,

[1:34:12] on our Novus, if you look through the invoices, our,

[1:34:17] our meter stations have a meter

[1:34:22] transmit information.

[1:34:23] We get the information, we all know that they're working

[1:34:27] and there's $0 and 0 cents.

[1:34:30] I don't know how they could possibly be transmitting

[1:34:32] and doing something without using it. It

[1:34:34] Must be such a, I don't know. I don't know.

[1:34:36] Is it so low voltage that it's not enough

[1:34:38] to gotta be meter to pick it up.

[1:34:40] It's really not picking up any.

[1:34:42] Okay. Al mentioned some stuff at the PD shed

[1:34:45] he wasn't happy about. Was that resolved?

[1:34:47] Oh Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I'm sure.

[1:34:50] Believe me, if Al wasn't happy,

[1:34:53] I'm sure it was he Wouldn't let it go.

[1:34:55] And then I'm gonna save,

[1:34:57] I think the, I think the police department's

[1:34:59] very pleased with it too.

[1:35:00] Yeah. I'm gonna save the next one for round the table.

[1:35:02] So that's all I had. That was enough on,

[1:35:07] I was just gonna ask, do we recoup the costs like

[1:35:09] for country canine for the rabies hold?

[1:35:11] Do we,

[1:35:12] Do we what?

[1:35:13] Like recoup the costs when there's fees

[1:35:15] for like the canines of rabies hold.

[1:35:18] We budget some money for, We budget for that.

[1:35:23] A lot like that $400 charge.

[1:35:25] There was I think probably the biggest

[1:35:26] one I've ever seen. That

[1:35:27] Was a big one.

[1:35:28] Yeah. Yeah. We don't, what

[1:35:31] Was the outcome of the animal? Was the animal Okay.

[1:35:34] That I don't know. We

[1:35:36] Needed a happy ending on that one.

[1:35:42] Yes. The animal is healthy and living life to

[1:35:46] Fullest.

[1:35:47] Exactly what I wanted to hear.

[1:35:49] You're his new favorites.

[1:35:54] All right. There's nothing else I will call the question.

[1:35:58] All those in favor? Aye.

[1:36:02] And we have it. We have paid the bills.

[1:36:06] We need to ask if anybody's opposed.

[1:36:07] It's unanimous miscellaneous. Mr.

[1:36:11] Violet, do you have anything for it?

[1:36:13] Just a couple of things and David's here,

[1:36:15] but he reported to us in our department head meeting

[1:36:17] that they have begun moving in some stuff

[1:36:20] to the new EMS Berlin location.

[1:36:24] I think you were hoping by the 1st of October.

[1:36:26] What did you 1st of October That to actually be fully

[1:36:30] moved in and operating out of

[1:36:31] that new facility across the airport.

[1:36:34] Do we get a tour? Oh, I'm sure we'll go on.

[1:36:37] Yeah, we're just waiting on the final occupancy permit

[1:36:39] from the fire Marsh's office and then we can

[1:36:41] get everything in.

[1:36:42] But the furniture got delivered today

[1:36:43] and they finished the baseboards.

[1:36:46] The fire alarm system's gotta get programmed tomorrow when

[1:36:48] everything's in and I think they're gonna inspect

[1:36:50] it hopefully this week. And we should be good to go.

[1:36:53] We'll have to warn it, but we'll do a similar

[1:36:54] to a site visit for real tape over or something like that.

[1:36:58] Yep. And then the other thing is just a early reminder,

[1:37:03] but the meeting schedule in October is altered a little bit.

[1:37:07] You'll meet next on October 6th.

[1:37:11] And this is for the public as much as anything

[1:37:12] but October 6th and then again on October 13th.

[1:37:16] So you'll meet back to back weeks

[1:37:18] and then we'll not meet back

[1:37:19] to back weeks in the month of October.

[1:37:22] That was scheduling around. Yeah.

[1:37:24] Scheduled around me. Really? Yeah, that's fine.

[1:37:28] I just wanted to make, I'll say it again. October 6th but,

[1:37:36] And the clerk's office, nothing.

[1:37:40] All right. So round the table Mr. Susie,

[1:37:45] I guess I will bring up the bulk trash day.

[1:37:48] I think it's one of the best services that we have in town.

[1:37:52] And one of the nice things is that

[1:37:56] Spalding High School had some six kids who volunteered

[1:38:00] as far as project graduation.

[1:38:03] And the three that were our at our station all worked hard

[1:38:09] and they could have cut loose at like

[1:38:12] 11 o'clock I think is when they were scheduled.

[1:38:15] And they stayed till 1230

[1:38:18] almost on their own.

[1:38:21] So they worked hard and it was, it was nice to see 'em.

[1:38:25] Had some nice conversations.

[1:38:26] A picture of you with them. Oh, did, yeah.

[1:38:32] So it was, it was good.

[1:38:33] And you know, I did kneely,

[1:38:38] I actually did get hurt, but it didn't last long.

[1:38:43] Sorry. Basketball hoop. I heard. Yes.

[1:38:46] It, it could have been bad if I didn't have the

[1:38:48] hard hat on, hat on.

[1:38:50] Truly. Yeah. The basketball hoop with probably 200 pounds

[1:38:54] of sand in the base.

[1:38:56] And I was at the back

[1:38:58] and saying, hold on, I don't have a good hold of it.

[1:39:02] But it got pulled off the back of the truck

[1:39:06] and when it went flying forward,

[1:39:07] it hit me right in the side of the head.

[1:39:09] It stood up. Yep.

[1:39:12] And it stunned me for a second, but,

[1:39:19] but I was okay

[1:39:20] and you won't mouth off to that basketball hoop again.

[1:39:23] Could have called us. We'd have come on.

[1:39:25] That's what I was afraid of.

[1:39:29] But other than that it was just a, a great day.

[1:39:32] I think I saw that there were like 37 volunteers overall.

[1:39:38] So again, it was a, it was a great day

[1:39:40] and get a chance to, you know, see a lot of people

[1:39:43] and it was fun.

[1:39:47] It is good. A volume like this year versus last fall,

[1:39:51] I don't think it was as busy.

[1:39:52] We only had two stations as opposed to three.

[1:39:56] But every time you'd say it's not as busy

[1:40:00] as it was in the spring and then you'd look

[1:40:03] and it'd be six trucks.

[1:40:04] Right, right back.

[1:40:07] So I would say volume was probably down a little bit. Yeah,

[1:40:11] They were Mattresses.

[1:40:13] Yeah's got it right there. But I do the, just

[1:40:16] to give you an idea, it was down here, not wrong.

[1:40:21] They registered 142 trips,

[1:40:26] that's down from 185 last year.

[1:40:28] 170 60 year before.

[1:40:31] The year before that, the year that 125.

[1:40:34] But that was the same year

[1:40:36] that we had done the special collection

[1:40:37] after the flood, after the floods.

[1:40:38] So we attributed that. So it, it probably,

[1:40:44] I mean in 2018 it was 218 trips.

[1:40:46] So just looking at this, I'd,

[1:40:48] I'd say we're down probably about 20 trips on average. I

[1:40:51] Feel like I remember that.

[1:40:53] Hmm. I feel like I remember

[1:40:54] That the, the 20 18 1.

[1:40:56] Yeah.

[1:40:57] But you know, people are very appreciative of it.

[1:41:00] Yeah. You know, I, I dunno,

[1:41:03] I'm sure there's other towns that do it,

[1:41:05] but I personally haven't seen one

[1:41:08] I can Berry City does, don't they?

[1:41:10] They do some form of it. I think.

[1:41:13] I, I don't know if they do exactly like we do. I

[1:41:15] Think theirs is more like tires and mattresses based.

[1:41:20] I can say, I can report to you

[1:41:22] after talking to Mike Gilbar that they did turn,

[1:41:25] I think he said 10 people away that did not have proper

[1:41:30] documentation to identify them as next question resident.

[1:41:34] And we're pretty confident they were

[1:41:36] not Berry Town residents.

[1:41:37] How was that received? I think pretty well overall.

[1:41:42] I, I don't think there were any issues with that.

[1:41:44] I think there were more unhappy people about the mattress

[1:41:47] and, and box spring charge is, is what I heard out of that.

[1:41:52] But at the end of the day, I don't even think

[1:41:54] that was horrible.

[1:41:55] Was it Tina? Tina would know. No,

[1:41:56] It wasn't horrible.

[1:41:57] I mean we had people make some comments

[1:41:58] or you know, had to come back

[1:42:00] and pay us for them 'cause they didn't have the cash.

[1:42:03] But then you had the people who made comments

[1:42:05] that it was still cheaper than getting rid of them at Ella.

[1:42:08] So Yes. And I had a, I had a friend

[1:42:10] that just took one back to the landfill,

[1:42:11] the transfer station, whatever you wanna call it.

[1:42:13] It's still called transfer station in Williamstown.

[1:42:16] It was $60 there.

[1:42:18] So it is, it is definitely still a bargain.

[1:42:20] Thanks of both of them. You know, some

[1:42:23] of 'em are definitely surprised,

[1:42:24] but again, still it's what it

[1:42:28] Is.

[1:42:29] Yeah. Certainly not a profit center.

[1:42:33] No, it's not a money maker for the town, that's

[1:42:35] for sure. Su I don't

[1:42:39] Have anything This week.

[1:42:40] No.

[1:42:43] Susie, what? This crew? Yeah.

[1:42:47] Looking good. Your heart

[1:42:48] Before you got hit in the head, I guess

[1:42:53] Mr. Vin.

[1:42:55] Yeah. I don't have anything in particular.

[1:42:57] Just to, I know Josh is working on it

[1:43:00] and I didn't mention it, but just the, the roadside

[1:43:05] trimming, you know, just a never ending. I no, they've

[1:43:08] Been working, I've been hitting it pretty hard. But

[1:43:10] I was thinking earlier, I was thinking to myself,

[1:43:13] I remember as a younger man snowmobiling in Maine

[1:43:16] and they put a hydraulically operated sickle

[1:43:18] bear on the groomer.

[1:43:21] So when I down on the trail, I just, I couldn't

[1:43:24] but think to myself like we could do something like, like,

[1:43:27] Like the gigantic chainsaws at the Yeah.

[1:43:30] Power line companies have

[1:43:31] that swing off the bottom of the helicopters. That's

[1:43:34] Amazing. Yeah.

[1:43:35] That looks like some scary work to me.

[1:43:36] But we're a ways from there. So yeah.

[1:43:38] Stick with the pruners.

[1:43:41] While I was trying to answer some of my, all

[1:43:44] of my questions were on that one warrant.

[1:43:45] I didn't have any on any of the other ones.

[1:43:47] I could not figure out further the life of me.

[1:43:49] Why the cemetery commission minutes were in the AP slips

[1:43:54] and then so I read them, I figured there had

[1:43:57] to be a reason You put

[1:44:00] The entire minutes in there. Yeah.

[1:44:02] We put, we saw, we had somebody volunteer

[1:44:06] to do some stone cleaning, cleaning

[1:44:09] and they went

[1:44:12] and bought the supplies that they needed to do it.

[1:44:15] And they submitted reimbursement.

[1:44:17] Well it was $2,500 worth of cleaner and whatnot.

[1:44:19] The cemetery commission was not expecting.

[1:44:23] So there was a long debate.

[1:44:24] That was one of the things that was,

[1:44:26] that was in the warrant, was reimbursement check.

[1:44:30] And then I saw in there that it was,

[1:44:32] there's conversation about, this isn't, it's not news to me,

[1:44:36] but it possibly turning the vault

[1:44:40] into a cemetery office.

[1:44:42] And there was comment about the, the slate roof.

[1:44:46] The slate roof was inspected a number of years ago

[1:44:50] and was deemed to be delaminating

[1:44:53] and that was how it appeared in the five-year

[1:44:55] plan to start with.

[1:44:58] And that was a slate roofing contractor

[1:45:00] that did that evaluation.

[1:45:02] I can't remember who it was,

[1:45:04] but it was definitely evaluated.

[1:45:06] It's definitely been some time.

[1:45:08] That was the same time that the budget

[1:45:10] for pointing it was, was generated.

[1:45:15] Not by the company that I work for either. I will add.

[1:45:19] So those are a couple things that need

[1:45:23] to remain front and center.

[1:45:24] They, they can't really be put on the back burner

[1:45:26] 'cause they're gonna be extremely costly.

[1:45:29] If we go beyond the, the point of

[1:45:35] of, you know, too far,

[1:45:38] You're gonna Hear more about that

[1:45:43] potential repurpose

[1:45:45] because I'm going to have

[1:45:49] likely Brett come in and talk to you about that.

[1:45:54] I, 'cause I did mention that a couple weeks ago when you

[1:45:57] had, and I already had my own questions about that, how

[1:46:01] that was actually gonna, I would like him to come in

[1:46:03] and explain it to the select board.

[1:46:06] So you're gonna see him likely

[1:46:08] before he gets done for the year, be good to meet him.

[1:46:12] 'cause I don't think you met. Yeah, we have

[1:46:13] not, I don't think you've met Brett.

[1:46:15] Yeah. So anyway, you'll hear more about that.

[1:46:18] The, the the conversion part of it.

[1:46:20] Yeah. I just wanted to point out that the, the roof, I,

[1:46:23] I have not physically seen that, that that estimate

[1:46:26] or the one for the, the pointing of the, of the,

[1:46:29] there's some cracks in the,

[1:46:31] in the joints in the, in the granite.

[1:46:37] But that was, it was pointed out 'cause I questioned it.

[1:46:40] I said it looks fine to me.

[1:46:41] And, and that's when it was pointed out to me

[1:46:43] that a professional slate company came and looked at it

[1:46:46] and said it is delaminating.

[1:46:51] That's all I have.

[1:46:54] So we are going to go into executive session.

[1:46:57] I would ask that we invite

[1:47:00] Director Danforth join us.

[1:47:03] Okay. Under this. Yep.

[1:47:05] So I move to find

[1:47:07] that premature general public knowledge would clearly put

[1:47:09] the select board at a substantial disadvantage.

[1:47:13] Second that I also move

[1:47:17] that we, we vote first. Sorry. Yeah.

[1:47:20] A motion to second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye.

[1:47:23] I move to go into executive session for contracts

[1:47:26] and labor agreements with no action expected.

[1:47:28] And invite director Danforth to join us.

[1:47:32] Second. Right. Motion to second. All those in favor?

[1:47:38] Aye. Aye. There we have it. We are in executive session.

[1:47:41] Have a good evening Eric. See you in two weeks folks.

[1:47:47] First invitation.

Barre Town Select Sept 22 2026

Transcript