[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:02] You're going to call meeting to order at 5.33 p.m., present, then false, glory, agenda. David Utiger, citizen Utiger,
[0:19] Howdy Hughes and Michael Hughes. Any relation between you two? A little bit, okay.
[0:30] Fifty-second anniversary. Wow. Wow. We're going to put that in public comment.
[0:35] Make a note of that, huh? First, Laurie, can we review and approve the meeting?
[0:44] I would like to review an approved minister 9-2.
[0:49] No second that.
[0:51] Are those in favor?
[0:52] Five.
[0:56] Okay, then we...
[0:57] Any
[1:03] request from you?
[1:04] Nope.
[1:06] Any public comment?
[1:13] Public comment.
[1:14] None.
[1:15] Seeing none.
[1:17] Okay.
[1:18] Continuing business.
[1:21] Main street and town of Peru.
[1:23] traffic calming discussion.
[1:52] Doing the left turn of the green and slicing off a part of the green and the whole
[1:56] thing with a little bar needs to dry my stuff. I'm not like totally on a percent of
[2:00] positive but it's just such a it's just such a miniscule min-minimal solution to
[2:08] the problem. It's maybe you'll take care of 200 feet in the village. I think that
[2:13] the counties that he's got back here and do a study that goes from root to
[2:18] liver to the fire station. I see how they can call the driver on that
[2:22] scratch road because that's the scratch road that everyone's really concerned about.
[2:26] It doesn't help the hues of me or anyone living on up in Monroe to make do that
[2:32] left turn in the village. But I don't want to sound like I'm here just from my
[2:36] I don't solve this interest because I think I don't know what I'm going to do.
[2:42] Like I said, all the way from rural letters to the forest station,
[2:49] all the way from past potters.
[2:52] I'm here speaking for potter.
[2:53] Even a river.
[2:55] Back in the sand.
[2:58] I want to be with what you're saying,
[2:59] without even having heard from you before.
[3:03] I mean, look at my son, I don't know.
[3:05] And Patty will talk about it quickly.
[3:07] You know, even if the speed signs were changed, say, at the fire, my suggest just look
[3:17] as night time.
[3:18] Well, maybe, you know, people see the sign that says 40 gone with 30 at David's.
[3:23] Maybe they should start 30 at, you know, just if people see it, will they do it?
[3:30] Yeah, perhaps.
[3:31] But it at least says, OK, it's not 40 anymore.
[3:38] It's grown up in Vermont.
[3:39] And I got nervous lessons.
[3:41] It was kind of a no-thing to grip.
[3:44] All dirt roads are 35.
[3:46] And this 40 thing is crept up.
[3:48] I know they're not dirt anymore.
[3:51] But they're the same roads that work, right?
[3:55] And the same people are still walking back then
[3:58] as they are now.
[4:00] So yeah, I agree with David.
[4:01] I mean, it really should start more than the 200 feet in town, because, you know, you
[4:12] see.
[4:13] Yeah.
[4:16] I mean, we're not qualified to, you know, we can make suggestions until we turn you
[4:22] over.
[4:23] These guys are the experts.
[4:25] They can love maybe narrow the road, maybe put some, we can talk on and on about some
[4:31] certain kind of violence and just something. Let's see what they actually said. I mean, maybe they're really
[4:37] just, I mean, you're not going to change your nature to people, certain people are going to drive,
[4:42] like they drive that out, or they're not going to be able to stop it. At least if you can get a percentage of the people to slow down.
[4:51] Yeah, I'm not sure where the speed bumps went and why they're not being used because I felt like they really made a difference.
[5:04] I don't know why we never put them up this year. I think there was some discussion that
[5:07] they've been flattened, but they still exist in some way, shape or form.
[5:13] I don't know why we didn't put the flat ones out because even the flat ones are more
[5:32] I don't know that anyone ever complained about them. I know it was said at some point in time that they
[5:38] were flatter than they started their life, but I feel like they still had some help.
[5:44] a way I was taking down the winter to plow, but yeah, so I think guys what what we said before
[5:52] and I want to reiterate again like we've had some concerned people come in. This is not something
[5:57] that I think the select board is going to do by ourselves. We want to see a group of citizens get
[6:07] together brainstorm you know call it a committee right a committee of citizens come together with some
[6:14] sort of consensus recommendation, the select board can approve the expenditure to engage
[6:21] that engineering firm again. And I feel like we had a really nice big meeting with lots
[6:25] of people over here, where we do feel like we have some experts on our side who have put
[6:31] some time into the initial preliminary analysis. As a select board, I think I can speak for
[6:38] to say that we're happy to devote some funds toward that.
[6:43] And we'd love to see that directive sort of spearheaded
[6:47] by the three of you and Heather and Heather and kind
[6:54] of some directive in terms of let's talk to the people.
[6:58] And I appreciate your holistic approach, right?
[7:00] Because I think that's where it's like we see this as a,
[7:10] I see this as a, I've heard lots of people come in here and talk about their issues.
[7:15] And David, it's okay to be selfish and want your issue solved.
[7:19] No one's going to come in.
[7:21] That's just human nature, right?
[7:22] You want your issue solved.
[7:23] You want your issue solved.
[7:24] Heather wants her issue solved.
[7:26] You know, the boo bars want their issue solved.
[7:28] We've heard from all these people, like let's get some of those people together.
[7:31] Let's pay the outfit to do a holistic sort of, here are these suggestions.
[7:38] you know, and then we can look into how much does that cost?
[7:42] What kind of money do we as a town have to put toward it?
[7:45] What potential grants are there available?
[7:51] Study in the map.
[7:54] As far as I know, and you can interrupt me,
[7:56] but as far as I know, the only study that was done
[7:58] was a possible redoing of that term there, by the direction.
[8:05] So they did, so we had, there's issues here,
[8:08] there's issue, and I think I'm assuming when you brought up Boobar, it was probably an
[8:13] issue on Lubbers Lane. There's lots of issues. Yeah. And all they talked about was the point
[8:20] of the green and cutting that out and changing the direction of it. And then Heather has all,
[8:25] and I don't think the study did this, but Heather also brought up the fact of not having
[8:30] two entrances into North America, by the fire station. But that doesn't solve this problem.
[8:41] And I think to be candid, you know, there was, you know, the town spent some money, we got a report done by that firm.
[8:50] It was one idea.
[8:54] I think it was generally met with a lukewarm or varied reception. Some people liked it, some people didn't.
[9:02] Some people thought, like David just said, well, it's going to maybe solve a problem for a few feet here.
[9:07] But I think that's what it's really lacking is, let's look at our issues and let's put together a plan that could potentially address as many of them as possible.
[9:20] And then, you know, is that the town has the resources to tackle a few of them?
[9:28] We could tackle a few of them right away where we have to apply for some grants or we have to, you know, one of the things that I thought was interesting that they said,
[9:36] which you know as roads get wider people drive faster. So one of the things that we as a town
[9:43] have probably not been cognizant of over the past years and years is allowing these roads when
[9:48] they get repaid to get a little bit wider and get a little bit wider and get a little bit wider.
[9:53] You know that's something that needs to be top of mind as we you know do some of this work like
[9:59] no the narrower the road the closer the trees are to the side just people
[10:08] That's leading into human nature, right? That's the idea of like you're not going to change
[10:12] human nature, but if human nature is drive slower on narrower roads that have trees closer
[10:20] to them.
[10:21] I mean, it would be nice if it could resolve it and not have to aesthetically change the
[10:25] whole traffic matter of the town.
[10:28] I know I can't admit. Another thing is the construction traffic. There was a lot of construction traffic. I don't know about this summer was a particular busy summer, but there were lots of big trucks.
[10:41] dump trucks pulling trailers with graveyards on them and they never could get around, could
[10:48] get some village as there's a turn there.
[10:51] They can, I've seen them, they're huge and there's a lot of them, so that's a consideration
[10:56] of how to take them in line.
[11:00] People drive really, really fast, not coming into the village, past our houses.
[11:05] It's crazy.
[11:08] It's not people that don't know where they're going.
[11:09] Well, it's not people that don't know those people, it's just that.
[11:14] Well, I think what we're waiting for is for a group of people to, and Heather,
[11:21] I thought when she left here was ready to work on that.
[11:28] Yeah, I guess from my standpoint, like, you know, like, you're free to form a committee.
[11:35] We love to see a committee formed. I'd love to be a part of that.
[11:39] that, you know, or we may be, we may be a part of that, but let's get some info from
[11:43] those folks and let's get kind of a, you know, what we want to take to the engineering
[11:49] firm would be, here's, you know, here's kind of our, our list of our issues, yeah, and
[11:56] say we want you to take a look at Lovers Lane, because we know that's a problem, it's a major
[12:00] cut through, it's not just Benem who came in, their neighbors came in, and we all know that
[12:04] that can be an issue.
[12:05] And let's take a look at this whole corridor.
[12:08] And we know potters and you know, like let's give them
[12:14] that directive that we really need to look at all of that.
[12:18] Well, why don't you put it on the agenda
[12:22] for the next record meeting that citizens are invited to come
[12:28] I'm in the meeting in the form of committee to deal and we need to deal with the traffic.
[12:37] I mean, I'd like to see.
[12:39] And then maybe have the study done, and then you can have public automated form of committee then.
[12:48] I don't know how to go about through it.
[12:53] I have to be more than that, letters sent out to all attacks there, setting up on the
[12:58] evening.
[12:59] Yeah, I don't think so.
[13:00] I think at this juncture we just need a couple of people to get together.
[13:03] It's not for the post-popism.
[13:05] I mean, to be great, you know, myself, I've never really looked at your gender every week.
[13:10] I think if you, like literally if you guys would talk to a few people and you come in next meeting with a bullet point list,
[13:16] that's kind of working toward what we need to engage with them, you know. Where did you leave it?
[13:24] It wouldn't be. So they they were paid for that study. So I think this is true. I'm telling you what
[13:33] I think I know. They were paid for that study at least a couple of years ago. Sometime after COVID and
[13:38] before I got on the selected. Yeah. So they were paid in full for that report that they put together.
[13:45] Andy asked them to come back. They put together a 30-45-minute presentation where they talked
[13:51] about some of their experiences calming in other towns and other cities, towns. And they
[13:57] also talked very briefly about that plan that they put together. And it got a lot of really
[14:03] good ideas spurred. There were 30 people in the room. Yeah, I mean 30.
[14:17] Critical
[14:18] mass. Yeah, it was right before the July or August. It was right before the July or August
[14:38] agenda for next. Does somebody take attendance? Is that meeting by the chance? Do we know who is there? I don't know about an active name.
[14:47] 20. Plus. I'm actually curious how Lucas was there. And how did those people know that we were having that?
[14:57] So, what are the people?
[15:04] I think we just posted notice. We said, you know, hey, five or whatever. 20 people showed up for that meeting. That was on a posting, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[15:13] Three tonight. Let me put something together of that sort that, like, we want to, like, let's not lose them. I think we really got a roll text.
[15:32] It would be the first Wednesday of the month.
[15:43] It could be as simple as if we got some people there.
[15:47] We'll adjourn our Slack board meeting.
[15:49] We can also hear and talk for a few minutes about some ideas
[15:53] and just kind of start to formulate that.
[15:56] Maybe it's okay, I'm gonna call the boo bars
[15:59] and get their concerns
[16:00] and then they're gonna outline her concerns
[16:03] and Potter can, you know,
[16:05] outline his concerns.
[16:06] It'll be eight pages long.
[16:08] And, you know, yeah,
[16:14] I will say again,
[16:15] like, I felt like that group that did that study,
[16:20] they have some knowledge.
[16:21] Could we have that study out that night?
[16:24] not to go back to that, but then just to start conversation.
[16:28] Yeah, did Andy send that to you?
[16:31] No.
[16:33] I'm going to send you a little bit of a blueprint.
[16:35] Once upon a time, there was a...
[16:37] I remember seeing a blueprint on it.
[16:40] And I was going to die.
[16:42] But that was...
[16:43] The mudders were all mudders too, but...
[16:45] Yeah.
[16:46] Did it?
[16:46] But he told you then that when I came in,
[16:48] he said he'd send it to me.
[16:50] Yeah, because we...
[17:24] So this is, yeah, this was the one that they, and this was dated 20, 23, so there you go,
[17:31] three years ago.
[17:33] That's it, that's it.
[17:37] But, you know, MSK engineers and the other person that's from the
[17:47] calming authority or something?
[17:49] I don't know.
[17:50] Yeah, so there were two people with the event. One of them was one of the engineers.
[17:53] And one of them was some state or county whose specialty is in traffic calming.
[18:02] And he had a couple of slides that he presented about a project in Bennington.
[18:27] And I believe, and I don't want to speak out of the term, but I think the gentleman who
[18:32] is on the staff at home and community or whatever, he's also a bit of a gateway toward
[18:38] some potential funding as well.
[18:41] So basically, if we engage him and get his help and it's kind of approved by them, he'd be
[18:48] in better chances of obtaining some funding or help toward that project.
[18:55] If we just call the state up and say, hey, we want to do this, we're going to say, okay,
[19:00] well, ask your taxpayers.
[19:03] And I feel like, I know he mentioned right, that project got a fair bit of state funding.
[19:11] The town had their, Bennington had to kick in a couple bucks,
[19:13] but then they got a grant towards.
[19:16] Do you have any idea how much the speed comes across $1
[19:22] ,000?
[19:24] I don't think that's a rubber, you know?
[19:27] I know.
[19:27] First they're tired, I don't know.
[19:28] Christopher Trolley?
[19:35] You know, over just over the years, I was going to talk about,
[19:38] do we put a couple of those flashing speed signs,
[19:41] or do you bring something like that in?
[19:43] And you know, there's lots of stuff we can do.
[19:47] And frankly, I feel like no action has been taken because it ends up being just one person's opinion.
[19:56] Why'd I like to see this? Well, I don't think this will work. Okay, well now we're not going to do that.
[19:59] And I think that's what an engineering firm and someone who is on their job is literally to study traffic calming.
[20:12] Maybe not just this section of the village, but take it from Greenland to half the pond.
[20:22] Right.
[20:23] I mean, because that's a size of a big truck.
[20:26] Yeah.
[20:27] That's all the time.
[20:28] Or even in winter.
[20:30] A lot of things.
[20:34] That's how good.
[20:36] And we have someone has this gentleman's name of contact information.
[20:41] Yes.
[20:46] Conning guy.
[20:47] Yes.
[20:47] Yeah.
[20:49] Andy had the most relation with him or the most communication with him.
[20:53] I once said they also did.
[20:55] Didn't they have some of those like traffic counters and whatever in place?
[21:00] They did.
[21:00] At the point.
[21:02] Yeah.
[21:02] Yeah.
[21:03] So again, are you saying that this particular representative
[21:05] in this group would be at the October meeting?
[21:09] No, I don't know.
[21:10] They're not going to need it, though.
[21:12] We would re-engage.
[21:14] We are happy.
[21:15] We as a town will be happy to re-engage with them.
[21:18] If the committee.
[21:19] If the committee, we want a committee to give some consideration
[21:23] and thoughts and have something to give to them and say,
[21:27] this is what we want you to consider and look at.
[21:30] they could basically then give us a proposal and say I'm making this up you know
[21:35] it's 10 grand to do a study from there to there to there we'll present you a
[21:42] drawing or two we'll present you a summary of recommendations and then we can
[21:47] make sure that makes sense and then we can approve it we as a select ward can
[21:52] approve that expenditure that we're gonna give MSK X dollars and here's what
[21:59] they're going to present to us. And then we'll have something that, you know, that's really,
[22:05] in my opinion, that's the key to getting something done. They would return to us a deliverable
[22:09] that is done by an engineer, oversawed by a traffic calming specialist, a presentation of,
[22:18] here's a suggestion, right? Here's, I mean, there's multiple options. One next, you know,
[22:24] This is small, medium, large.
[22:26] Yeah.
[22:27] Yeah.
[22:31] For a service, they must have some idea
[22:33] what's the traffic is that happened for a seller.
[22:37] Right.
[22:37] I mean, good wild means.
[22:38] I'm sure they could tell you how many visits they have
[22:41] in the winter.
[22:42] No, they did have a counter-record.
[22:44] Yeah, a counter.
[22:46] Yeah.
[22:47] I don't know.
[22:47] It's, you know, so hard to remember.
[22:49] Was that two years ago or eight years ago?
[22:51] Yeah, exactly.
[22:52] But they did have a counter-record.
[22:54] You just stand out there one day and just keep stepping on it.
[22:59] It's it on my porch.
[23:02] All right, well good.
[23:05] Let's keep the ball rolling and try and...
[23:09] Put a gate.
[23:10] Try and get somewhere with that.
[23:11] A gate, there you go.
[23:14] Goes up and down.
[23:15] One car goes through.
[23:17] Right.
[23:22] How about a tunnel from Route 11 to Aptiphone?
[23:27] Yeah, just by past a whole time.
[23:29] 300 trillion dollars.
[23:34] We'll name it the University if you finance it.
[23:39] Actually, whatever you want, you finance it.
[23:41] Okay.
[23:42] You could put the power line in your money, right?
[23:44] There we go.
[23:52] I'll text some people and see if they come.
[23:55] Adrian sets us this long.
[24:00] She could come to the meeting.
[24:02] Who's this?
[24:04] Yeah.
[24:07] They're registered until the meeting.
[24:13] Yeah.
[24:14] I mean, I think the people that have come to the meeting
[24:16] I mean, potter and it's just a bar maybe, you know, put it on the agenda and say that this is your opportunity.
[24:24] Get Heather to come back.
[24:27] And would it come down to a post at 10 meeting for the, for this to proceed?
[24:34] I don't understand where it goes, where, where the final will go ahead.
[24:40] I mean, if there's a proposal that has to get approved.
[24:48] I don't know that answer, but I, you know, there's,
[24:51] It depends on the cost, right?
[24:53] So if we said today, let's go spend a couple of grand
[24:57] and put some signs up, we could approve that tonight.
[25:00] And you could buy some signs.
[25:02] I would think it would be prudent upon the select board
[25:05] if this is a major expenditure to have some type of, you know.
[25:09] Feed that, like, yeah.
[25:11] Yeah, like we wouldn't just, you know.
[25:14] care and say something about, for her time as a trader, it was a certain amount of money
[25:22] in the town, has to get alone and it has to be approved by a town meeting.
[25:29] But that means I don't know if that's true, that's just...
[25:33] I think we're a long way away from getting to spending a lot of money.
[25:37] Exactly.
[25:37] I mean, I think, yeah, right now we're not even past the first step, so.
[25:44] Yeah, but I think that's a reasonable goal, right?
[25:46] If town meaning is in the spring, right?
[25:48] Do we have something back from then?
[25:52] Do we have some ballpark numbers?
[25:55] Do we have some, you know, like that's six months from now?
[25:59] Plus, that's enough time that we could put that on a town
[26:03] mean agenda, say there's the town elect to spend,
[26:08] I'm just making us up, you know, a hundred grand
[26:10] with the hopes of getting a $200,000 grant
[26:13] to enact as much of this plan as we can.
[26:17] You know, that would be a ultimate sort of action item on it.
[26:24] Or, you know, it could be as simple as the project by Heather's house is, you know,
[26:34] 20 grand because the road already exists.
[26:36] We're just closing off a road and it's a couple days worth of time with an excavator.
[26:40] you know maybe that's done right away with our own funds or maybe we buy a couple
[26:46] humps and put them I don't know right
[26:50] okay
[26:59] any other comments okay thank you
[27:05] leaving us okay do
[27:10] you want to take this we have extra copies of this if you want to put
[27:14] in your okay sure okay great you
[27:25] probably liked it better when you're you
[27:27] you're up a driveway and put on a door or the action is now.
[27:31] Yeah.
[27:32] No, I love where we are.
[27:34] Yeah.
[27:36] You realize how many people walk on there.
[27:39] Oh, yeah.
[27:40] If I look for my porch towards David's, I can't see, but the curves right there, and you see
[27:46] people's friend one for the ditch, you know?
[27:49] That seems to be where, you know, they're not bad going by our porch, but then all of a sudden
[27:54] or be out of the way around.
[27:56] They come through there, like you, you know.
[27:59] And then the car's old.
[28:00] This is particularly bad.
[28:02] And this must be bad.
[28:04] So like I said, I mean, maybe my speed went through
[28:09] something out further.
[28:11] Gates, arms, I don't see the floor,
[28:16] they have a series of them by toes that drop off
[28:19] which also give pedestrian walk there.
[28:22] They don't have to worry about planning.
[28:26] Yeah.
[28:27] But it's fair enough.
[28:29] We're going to send a couple people that are doing them.
[28:32] I watch the license plates because I'm really concerned with the summer.
[28:35] Who exactly is doing this?
[28:36] And it's way more.
[28:38] But I would say that there's no loss.
[28:41] Right.
[28:41] They usually turn around and around since anyway.
[28:43] So.
[28:46] Thank you.
[28:48] Thanks guys.
[28:49] Thanks for coming.
[28:49] Appreciate it.
[28:53] Thanks.
[28:54] By the way, town network service is crowded by so many.
[28:58] I didn't see that
[29:02] in there.
[29:16] Thought we reviewed it already.
[29:45] Why is he calling?