[0:00] They got their hip with the buttons on. I'd like to call uh um Public Works and

[0:07] Safety October 5th, 2026 to order roll call. Mayor Dan Eckstein here. Mr. Matt Barnes

[0:15] here. Ms. Pam Weisman here. City Attorney Tyler Rothstein here. Clerk Treasurer Dana

[0:21] Watley here.

[0:26] For the uh short agenda. Motion to approve the agenda is submitted.

[0:35] So

[0:38] OK. Pam Wisman. I'm sorry, I was calling for a roll call. Yes, Matt Barnes, Dan Eckstein,

[0:46] yes, 30.

[0:50] Minutes from September 21, 2026. Any questions? Did you have any questions?

[0:58] No, I got a chance to look him over. You did? OK. I would make a motion. We approve

[1:04] the minutes as submitted. September 21st. OK. I will second that.

[1:14] Pam Wiesman, yes, Dan Eckstein, yes, Matt Barnes, yes. You and this one yeah.

[1:29] Approval of the claims.

[1:35] Do you not have any questions?

[1:40] It's The only thing I was curious about on page 8.

[1:52] 71 cents for pika. That seemed awful low to me. Payroll, it's a payroll thing,

[2:00] page 8.

[2:03] The 5th item down.

[2:09] 3rd quarter for taxes, it says it's 71 cents.

[2:17] Oh no, no, no, that's, that is the um 941 payroll taxes. That's how much we were

[2:22] off, so that's why I had to pay the 71%.

[2:29] Works for me.

[2:33] Anything else? Nope. Entertain the motion. Motion.

[2:42] OK. Payne Wiseman? Yes, Matt Barnes, Dan Eckstein, yes.

[2:49] They're all business. I am on New business Was

[2:57] the. Um So the sick leave that was presented for you in front of you, you think you

[3:04] have that. From No set dates. The September

[3:12] 18th through September 25th. Yeah. Any questions? No.

[3:21] OK, I would entertain the motion. I'll make the motion. 2nd. OK, Pam Wisman, Matt

[3:28] Barnes, Dan Eckstein, for you.

[3:36] Any uh board comment?

[3:40] I'm good. OK. Sherry have Whenever it's my turn, I'll.

[3:48] You wanna do, OK.

[3:52] I'll be due both times and council too. Yeah, OK, so briefly, um, the Hartford City,

[3:59] Montpelier, and the county are all applying for an Okra grant for owner-occupied

[4:04] rehab. We've talked about this for several years and we're finally gonna be able

[4:07] to move forward with it. So what it would do is allow, uh, low-income residents who

[4:13] qualify. To apply for funding for either a roof repair or HVAC, um,

[4:21] or I believe a, a ramp, an ADA ramp from the outside of the home to the, just to

[4:27] the porch area. So it's, it's up to $25,000 max. Uh, there's, there's a process,

[4:33] there's a lot involved here, but it's gonna be a If we receive the funding, it's

[4:38] gonna be a really great opportunity for the homeowners who will be able to take advantage

[4:43] of this. There's no cost to the homeowners at all, so that it'll be fully funded

[4:49] for them. And um questions. The entire grant's $25,000 per homeowner. No, I'm sorry,

[4:57] it's a $500,000 grant. OK, that's not gonna go very far. $25,000 isn't gonna do anything.

[5:03] OK. The max is up to what's the match per household match is, uh, let's see, the

[5:10] match will be split between the entities I talked about. So Hartford City $25,000

[5:17] Montpellier $25,000 County $50,000. Economic development 25,000. So, OK, so last

[5:23] meeting council approved 25,000 for the OOR. That's for all, all of these grants

[5:28] or just the one? I thought it was just our part of the whole grant, OK, because I

[5:33] thought it was just for the county's part of the grant last when it was, it's our

[5:37] part for the whole grant. OK, good. OK, good. That's what I wanna make sure a minimum

[5:41] of a 10% match. So, OK, that's fine. I, I knew we'd approved 25,000 last meeting,

[5:48] and I was like. That's our portion of the match, but every entity is putting in at

[5:53] least 25,000, so they're we're all. Everyone's partnering together to bring this

[6:00] program to the county. So if we get funding this time and we're expecting a pretty

[6:04] big turnout, we'll see, or, you know, pretty big application pool. So we'll see how

[6:09] that goes. If it goes well, we can turn around and apply again, provided, of course,

[6:13] there's funding for a match. But once you complete a round, you can turn around and

[6:17] apply again. Okra has some stipulations that you can only apply, have one project

[6:21] open at a time, but this is a little bit. Different than that, so there is an opportunity

[6:26] if it goes really well that we could go back and try again. So explain that grant

[6:31] again because I guess I didn't hear that part initially. I just, I heard you say

[6:34] that we had a $500,000 grant, but it, the city matches $25,000. So no, we,

[6:42] uh, it's a $500,000 grant. We need at least 10% from whatever entity applies. The

[6:49] city, the county, Montpelier, and economic development all pooled their money to

[6:56] put up a match. Now our match is gonna exceed the 10%. Our match will be about 125%,

[7:02] but right now that's a competitive rate to go in at because you say ours, you mean

[7:06] Hartford City. The 125 total from total from the entity so we're we're it'll be one

[7:12] application so the county's doing the application am I correct on that. Well, that's

[7:18] what it was last the county's, it's under the county's round. OK, that's what I thought

[7:22] the county was doing the application. I just wanna make sure I'm clear. Yeah, I'm

[7:25] sorry I got confused. Yeah, you, yeah, you, it's not, it's not a city, right, right,

[7:29] OK, well, I, I thought I'm gonna have to change my minutes for council if I like

[7:35] circumference. It is a county. It'll go against under their okra, OK, OK, but it

[7:40] will apply to, to all entities. So there will also be an effort to split because

[7:46] everybody put in equally. There'll be an effort to split with Montpelier County and

[7:50] Hartford City as far as number of applicants that receive funding for this round,

[7:54] and at 25,000 apiece and um we figure 20-25 houses, so it's. It's a nice amount.

[8:02] You start breaking that down. It's not the amount we wish it was, but we know what

[8:06] everything costs. So are we doing any type of vetting process for the contractors

[8:11] doing the work? Yes. And Dan, maybe you can speak more to that. Well, that's something

[8:18] on the grant, um, the administrator will kind of lead that. Um, Klein Peter will

[8:23] actually go through the steps, um. Of each part of the grant, which will be a part

[8:30] of the, the contractor, so he did announce this morning, if you can remember this,

[8:35] and I don't remember the stipulation, but to apply to be a contractor, you had to

[8:41] be registered with the state, is that correct? registered through Okra. There was

[8:46] some registration that he encouraged contractors to go ahead and do upfront. I'm

[8:50] sorry, I don't have that information. I just want to make sure because I mean we're

[8:53] doing this to improve the community's. Housing situation and if you're just having

[8:57] a cousin do the work and they're taking a chunk and then the house is left in shambles

[9:04] there are very because it's through Opra there are very particular um and stringent

[9:10] boundaries around that. Is it an income qualification? It is an income qualification,

[9:15] yes.

[9:19] And, and you gave us these. I gave you um letters of support and I also gave you,

[9:25] and I'm gonna give everyone these. I gave, um, this is a survey that's turning the

[9:29] surveys in with the application helps our chances. So if everybody could fill out

[9:33] a survey for us, it's a quick 6 questions that you circle answers to and there's

[9:38] a 7th if you want to give information, but certainly you don't have to, everyone,

[9:41] I'm synonymous. So it takes what, a minute and a half, Travis? Doesn't take very

[9:47] long. Okra loves community involvement. So any, any more, as much documentation as

[9:54] you can get. From community, um, residents that just, you get more points.

[10:02] And same thing with bigger the match. Financially, you get more points too, so. Um

[10:09] These questions are for us personally though, not for our community, right? You know

[10:13] what, I was a little bit confused to how they were written there. They are for you

[10:16] personally, but then when you get to the last one, it's like, well, I think it's

[10:22] just in general, how can we improve the community. So it is, it is personally, but

[10:29] OK, yeah. Yeah, Got you. Thanks. Thanks,

[10:37] Sherry.

[10:40] Last thing I have is this Saturday is citywide cleanup, um. From 9:00 a.m. until

[10:46] noon, it's supposed to be. Nice. Supposed to be in the, in the low 60s and it's gonna

[10:53] heat up. So, um,

[10:58] This is where we need everybody to step up and come out in a couple of hours and

[11:03] Help clean up and um There's gonna be uh donuts initially, and there's gonna be some

[11:11] hotdogs and chips, um, that will be cooked. So 9:00 a.m.

[11:18] to noon this Saturday. Where are you meeting at Wyler Plaza, yeah, good.

[11:25] OK.

[11:28] Gotcha. They have anything?

[11:34] OK. OK.

[11:38] OK. Thank you, we're adjourned. Give me a second.

[11:51] I'll grab the wall too. I just dropped it just too.

Board of Public Works and Safety

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