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[0:06] You're watching a Fact TV presentation of the Town of Westminster Select Board

[0:11] meeting.

[0:12] Call the meeting to order. Adjustments, agenda, I don't see anything that we're

[0:16] going to adjust on anything. I definitely won't have another executive session.

[0:20] Acceptance of the minutes of the last meeting we had, I've got to give those to

[0:24] Millie, we don't have them right now.

[0:27] No.

[0:27] Okay.

[0:27] No.

[0:29] In the communication and public comments, there's nobody in the audience, so

[0:35] nobody here can say anything. There's nobody on TV, so we're all by ourselves.

[0:39] Unfinished business,

[0:42] we got nothing for that, so this is going to be a short meeting. Okay?

[0:46] Yeah.

[0:46] Move on to new business. Fuel bid went out, and you can see it's all over the

[0:52] place. Chip's recommendation is to-

[0:56] Rebid it

[0:57] ... well, leave it alone right now, and then try to come back later on it.

[1:01] I think we should have a discussion-

[1:03] Well, I usually say this, it says, big red letters

[1:07] Rebid it, but he didn't say when.

[1:10] That's what he's saying. He said, don't take...

[1:12] He recommends that-

[1:13] Don't approve it

[1:14] ... don't approve it right now.

[1:16] Yeah.

[1:19] But if we vote right now, won't we lock in those prices, which might be better

[1:22] than-

[1:22] Well-

[1:22] ... the prices from now

[1:23] ... we ran into this with,

[1:26] after Russ got done in fuel. It was kind of crazy.

[1:29] Yeah.

[1:29] That we opened up bids, and when we opened them up, it was past the date that they

[1:35] were even good till.

[1:36] Right.

[1:36] So like, even if we approve these, I wonder, especially right now-

[1:39] That's what-

[1:39] ... they're even any good.

[1:41] That's what... Oh, because these are September 3rd bids, right?

[1:44] Yeah.

[1:44] So on that date, you got to go.

[1:46] Oh yeah.

[1:47] So I think what lenders have been coming here.

[1:50] Because my question is, we could go out for just to fill the tank up, as you go

[1:56] along. You just get on the phone and go, "Bonk off."

[1:58] Yeah.

[1:59] Basically, because we're buying such fill up, I don't know how much, how many times

[2:03] we fill the tank up on the heat and on the fuel for the trucks.

[2:06] You see what I'm saying?

[2:08] Yeah.

[2:09] We should have more of a discussion on this, to be honest.

[2:12] How long does our tank last?

[2:14] That's a good question.

[2:15] They're not that as big anymore because they're not in the ground tank.

[2:19] They're not the big ones.

[2:19] Right. They're in a little-

[2:20] But how old?-

[2:21] ... 20-foot cubicle now

[2:24] I don't know how often. I know when we had a bigger tank and we had quota on quota,

[2:28] they wouldn't, which they have some kind of weird deals, but they wouldn't do

[2:33] on-call. It had to be automatic.

[2:35] Right.

[2:36] And they might stop and drop a whole truck one day, they might drop only 1,000.

[2:41] And the road foreman at the time had a fit about it because he can't keep track of

[2:44] it. At the end of the day, my personal thought was that the tank's got fuel in it,

[2:48] and it's as full as it's going to get. So let's worry about...

[2:55] Let's put it on-

[2:56] On the ship of state said the fuel bids were open on September 3rd, and the

[3:01] results/recommendations are on the agenda item.

[3:05] Which was this.

[3:06] Yeah.

[3:07] So-

[3:07] He says to rebid. After that is to rebid

[3:11] ... which we could ask him to go rebid. I think you can keep doing it if you want.

[3:15] I think he should rebid it, but he also needs to make sure that when we open the

[3:19] bids and approve it, that they're good. The date is still.

[3:24] Because our stuff is so stupid right now, like, it could go up two bucks overnight.

[3:28] We don't even know. 100%.

[3:29] And how long has this went? You don't know how long this went?

[3:32] Yeah. What we should recommend to go back to Chip and recommend that he sends out

[3:37] the bid the day before the select, or that day of the select board meeting.

[3:42] So it's current.

[3:43] That's what we did in the past. We'd say, "Tomorrow night we're having a call,"

[3:47] because you can call around and say, "Hey," or send it in, but we're having a bid

[3:51] and it's going to be good for Wednesday. Today's Tuesday.

[3:54] Yeah.

[3:56] So I'd like to make a motion that we ask Chip to rebid the oil

[4:02] contracts to arrive the day before our next meeting, to get deep.

[4:08] Is there a second? We have-

[4:09] Sure.

[4:10] On that date.

[4:12] We have that, Millie?

[4:13] Yeah.

[4:13] Okay. So moved.

[4:15] And second to ask Chip to go back to rebid.

[4:18] Under discussion, I would just like to add, to emphasize to the bidders that we

[4:23] would like three products from one bidder, so we're not trying to find...

[4:28] We're not paying three different bidders.

[4:29] Oh, I see. The repeating oil,

[4:32] and we have-

[4:33] Propane

[4:33] ... propane and diesel.

[4:34] If possible.

[4:35] Right.

[4:36] Yeah. But anyway, that's-

[4:38] Actually, Bart, I mean, somebody doesn't do propane.

[4:43] Swanzey Oil only bid on the diesel.

[4:46] Because they don't do propane. The last I knew they didn't do propane.

[4:49] Well, they apparently don't do it anymore either.

[4:52] Okay. That's what. No, what they're going to do, you ever seen that fire truck?

[4:56] That's what they bought the... Well, the one that's 5,000 gallons.

[4:59] They go and they use it. The one that guy named Fred used to drive.

[5:04] Anyways, so we're under discussion.

[5:08] All those in favor. All those in favor?

[5:10] Aye.

[5:12] Was it Fred you used to drive?

[5:13] Yeah.

[5:13] Fred.

[5:14] Little Fred.

[5:16] He went to all the gas stations, all the farms. Loved him.

[5:21] Anyways,

[5:23] we're moving on to planning commission.

[5:26] Well, we might... So I could stay. You might have to stay in just...

[5:31] Before she changes her mind or before she knows that she's being appointed, I'll

[5:36] entertain a motion to appoint

[5:39] Adrian Major to-

[5:41] You're making the motion?

[5:44] I'll make a motion to appoint Adrian Major to the planning commission.

[5:51] I'll second. Been moved and second.

[5:55] You know what didn't ask is what-

[5:57] It was a fill a term

[5:59] ... we fill somebody's term.

[6:01] You just had two resignations, Matt Conklin and

[6:05] PE-

[6:06] Pablo

[6:08] ... yeah.

[6:09] Or to fill Matt Conklin's term. That's only because you could pronounce his name.

[6:13] That's right.

[6:16] Okay.

[6:17] All those in favor say aye.

[6:19] Aye.

[6:19] We got three aye.

[6:24] One, he has to go home and tell her.

[6:27] I have to remember it.

[6:28] Yeah.

[6:29] I was supposed to work.

[6:30] Probably told her the wrong committee to go up say aye on.

[6:34] We'll move on to seat listers position.

[6:37] This is the letter, excuse me, email I read.

[6:39] Oh, I read that.

[6:41] If you all read it, I think she'd be an excellent candidate for the listers

[6:44] position. She gives me-

[6:46] I make a motion we appoint her for-

[6:49] Mr. President

[6:50] ... the rest of this term, yeah, about the '27 election.

[6:54] It would be she'd have to run.

[6:56] Yeah, '27 election.

[6:56] She couldn't beat it.

[6:58] If, well, we could actually, so she would take the position-

[7:01] Till John Ewalt's term

[7:03] ... she would do John Ewalt, yeah. Because Fran's coming back. Right?

[7:07] And we still have, I mean, Rachel's coming back. I'm sorry.

[7:10] She still has to be appointed.

[7:13] Which she can be appointed just like this.

[7:16] To fill John's term?

[7:18] Well, he's the only one that's vacant because if Rachel comes back, she would get

[7:22] her term, right?

[7:23] She... Well, that, I'll look it up.

[7:26] She feel-

[7:26] I-

[7:26] I also think, I think she has to run again.

[7:28] I think she does.

[7:29] Well, no, she have, you can only fill the term until the next election, right?

[7:32] Correct.

[7:32] Well-

[7:33] Yeah

[7:34] ... until the, yeah, that's only, until next election.

[7:38] Yeah.

[7:38] Okay.

[7:38] Okay, great. Thank you.

[7:40] All those in favor?

[7:42] Aye.

[7:42] Who second to Jason?

[7:44] No, railed it.

[7:45] No, railed it.

[7:46] Railed it.

[7:48] I'll second it. It's okay.

[7:49] Thank you.

[7:49] And it was those two over there. Okay?

[7:52] Yeah. Okay.

[7:53] You got four ayes.

[7:54] Fine with.

[7:55] Town manager report.

[7:59] Oh, boy.

[8:01] What's wrong with the report?

[8:04] Well, Chip, I don't know if Ray likes it, but I'm going to read it, okay?

[8:07] I'm in the office on this tax assessment date. Well, he's basically summarizing.

[8:12] He's saying that there's a lot of traffic of people coming in paying on their

[8:17] taxes. The credit card machine is up installed.

[8:20] We've actually taken tax distribution from it.

[8:24] He's calculated the amount of tax distribution for West Minister and High School,

[8:29] which we already signed

[8:31] articles on that, which was a lot of money.

[8:34] But the fire district and highway provide half the budget amounts for taxes as

[8:38] well. The payment grant reimbursement has been assigned and submitted for 200,000

[8:45] in reimbursement on the 121 repayment project.

[8:48] The total was 343,695 with our share and the grant, and

[8:54] it was a check cut to Basen Brothers. Did a good job.

[8:58] The warrant for collections of delinquent taxes submitted to town clerk on August

[9:02] 27th. A total of 22 parcels were presented to SP&F, our attorney.

[9:09] They'll begin a title research to prepare for pending tax sales There have been

[9:15] two properties that have been paid off.

[9:17] The amount on the list, Kelly continues to monitor all other agreements every

[9:20] month.

[9:22] We still do, by the way, have a lot of agreements of people who are paying so much

[9:26] a month. Any concerns brought up by taxpayers will be addressed as soon as

[9:30] possible. He's doing it with Kelly.

[9:32] A few bids were sent out, recommendation is to what we just did, rebid it.

[9:37] The survey condition that Joe, I assume it's Joe Di Donato-

[9:42] Yeah

[9:42] ... yeah,

[9:44] is, where did I skip to? Joe is almost done. Northwest is the community.

[9:51] Basically, they moved the fence up, and I will get all the info together and set up

[9:55] a meeting with what happened with the fence in that tenant next door.

[9:59] The town tenant at the post office, yeah, he called the other day, and he had to

[10:03] get permission. I was like, "Go ahead and do it," because he's got to charge.

[10:07] I couldn't come. He skipped down to the

[10:10] post office. They said the septic tank was leaking on the hot water tank.

[10:14] So he went down and checked it out, and he had permission to go ahead and call and

[10:18] get somebody to come and fix it. It will come out of the maintenance fund for the

[10:22] post office.

[10:22] Is that one of the bills that we just paid 3,400 to?

[10:26] I believe so.

[10:27] It's a PO.

[10:28] PO.

[10:29] Really? Because I thought Donnie Adams just barely told us that, the septic tank.

[10:33] I think it's a bill for decamping that, yeah.

[10:38] Maybe.

[10:38] It could be. That's a possibility.

[10:40] Well-

[10:40] No, it'll be this one

[10:41] ... if it's not this one.

[10:44] That's payroll.

[10:45] Yeah. Chip said, I gave Chip authority to go ahead and fire someone.

[10:51] That's fine, yeah.

[10:51] I don't know who he did. I was out of town when he called, and he said, "I can skip

[10:55] down and give him authority to do it." And I said, "Go ahead."

[10:58] He did come. He did come by.

[11:00] Yeah.

[11:01] Yeah. Yeah. He did.

[11:02] It sounded like something that we had to fix right away.

[11:05] Okay.

[11:07] And information that Ben and his wife welcomed a baby girl.

[11:12] He's actually been back to work part-time already when he wasn't supposed to.

[11:16] He's been taking some well-deserved time off. He still reports to me the following.

[11:21] This is kind of like the town road foreman's report.

[11:25] They finished up the grants on Pine Bank Road. What was that for?

[11:28] A ditching.

[11:29] The ditching of the road.

[11:31] And they did a lot of work on that one.

[11:32] They really?

[11:33] Yeah, because I've been out. I've seen it all.

[11:35] And grading Church Street in prep for the Westminster West Fair.

[11:39] Mm-hmm.

[11:39] Oh.

[11:41] He worked it.

[11:42] Did not work.

[11:43] I went out there this week. It's all graded up.

[11:45] Yeah, okay. Grading also down in South Valley. That, you spell it right?

[11:49] Valley.

[11:50] No morals. South Valley Road. The mower has been out.

[11:54] Yeah.

[11:55] Yep, and Joey has been fixing the screener and all that.

[11:58] Ben will be back on Monday. So this is Chip's report and also our road foreman's

[12:03] report. And-

[12:06] I have a question here. On the paving job, okay, which it's a

[12:11] good job and all that, but we got-

[12:14] 121,000.

[12:16] 121.

[12:16] Okay.

[12:17] We got $200,000 from the state, plus we put in $200,000 in that budget.

[12:24] Why did we leave $56,000 in the paving budget?

[12:28] Why didn't we go and do another section?

[12:31] Because there was other bills, it was a lot less than that.

[12:33] I think he did it on his shoulder. Ask the boss man.

[12:36] I understand that, Craig, but I'm saying you had $400,000

[12:41] and our roads are going to Westminster, west up over the hill.

[12:45] Mm-hmm.

[12:46] $56,000 could have fixed some section.

[12:49] I just don't think we had the 56,000. That's all I'm questioning.

[12:52] Well, you had 400,000. It's in the budget for 200,000.

[12:56] I'm not disagreeing with you. I thought you used some of it for...

[13:00] We'll just have him to come and explain it, because last time when I talked to Ben,

[13:03] he already had spent some of the money. I thought, anyways.

[13:07] I could be wrong, but I think-

[13:09] Well, that's the question I have. I have the right to ask that question.

[13:11] No, you do. You're right. Give me another piece of pizza.

[13:15] No, I need to smoke.

[13:18] You do?

[13:18] Okay. Yeah, I'll have Ben come back when he-

[13:21] I'm just trying to,

[13:23] to clarify, the decamp bill was for a pump pressure

[13:28] switch,

[13:31] yada, yada, yada. It says also post office and town office, they have a sewer leak

[13:37] above the pressure tank next to the water supply.

[13:40] So that is something separate than what this is.

[13:42] I don't know.

[13:43] Because I knew they had pump problems.

[13:45] Sewer leak over the pressure tank?

[13:48] Yep.

[13:49] That was what the phone call was. It was dripping on the hot water tank.

[13:52] I don't think it's bad yet, but-

[13:55] I don't care.

[13:56] I know.

[13:58] It's just a small sewer thing. I got it marked down.

[14:00] Well done. John's good.

[14:02] He says, "I know the smell pretty well." And she said, "We have decisions.

[14:06] You go or I go." And I says, "By coincidence, I'm not down, so I guess you're

[14:10] going."

[14:12] Okay.

[14:12] Quick response.

[14:14] And I did hear back from them, but I figured you'd cut the air there, obviously.

[14:20] That's the town manager executive session, and we don't have one.

[14:23] Boards and committees, yeah, we got to still figure out how to meet up with the

[14:28] planning commission when we get all done, figure out where we are to get some more

[14:31] input.

[14:32] Yeah, we just invite them to all our meetings.

[14:34] That's, I think, that is the simplest thing for us.

[14:37] Yeah.

[14:37] Then why not do that since that's easy for us?

[14:39] Yeah.

[14:39] I'll reach out and see if it's possible.

[14:42] Okay.

[14:42] Yeah.

[14:43] And then there's no other business. The date of next meeting.

[14:47] When is the date of the next meeting?

[14:49] It's there. Fine.

[14:51] If we went back to the regular schedule, it would be next Tuesday, but in

[14:57] two weeks it's going to be the 27th.

[14:58] But I can't do... It's not next Tuesday. I can't do anything.

[15:01] No, I'm just saying come back to the regular second Tuesday.

[15:03] This is-

[15:04] That's going to be the 6th of October.

[15:07] Yeah. We want-

[15:07] No, but listen, the three of you guys, we had agreed with him if he ran again-

[15:13] Sure

[15:14] ... that he could get out of Tuesdays.

[15:16] Sure we can.

[15:16] And now we've got to switch because it's his music class that's holding us up.

[15:22] Okay. So, hey.

[15:24] I know you had problems with Wednesday.

[15:26] Yep, my second and fourth Wednesdays are tied up.

[15:29] Okay. What about-

[15:31] Let me think it's the second. I got to look that up. Hold on.

[15:38] How about these?

[15:39] Let's just say my Wednesdays are-

[15:40] How about the first and third Wednesdays?

[15:42] Or, okay, I mean, whenever we got to change the schedule, be honest with you,

[15:46] remember? So the first and third Wednesday, Ray?

[15:51] Or the first and third Monday? I'd rather do the Wednesday.

[15:55] He's got zoning or DRB in there somewhere. He said that the other day.

[15:59] Well, we got to make sure that the executive secretaries downstairs don't interfere

[16:03] with the select board when they have the zoning board meetings and stuff.

[16:06] But I think they're on Mondays.

[16:07] We give that priority to the building.

[16:10] I don't think of anything on Wednesday.

[16:12] Yeah, I think that-

[16:13] You are just not agreeable.

[16:15] So the 7th. You're agreeing to go on the 7th?

[16:19] I don't have the calendar. What's the first-

[16:21] The third Wednesday is the 28th. I got to really find that out.

[16:25] Can I just-

[16:26] It would be, it was the second.

[16:27] Yeah, because we've had to cancel my meeting this month.

[16:33] And I got-

[16:34] I have to make a phone call. Thank you

[16:35] ... I'm sorry. I need to schedule another for you.

[16:37] I think mine is the second and the fourth Wednesday is my meetings.

[16:42] Okay. So-

[16:43] Let us know. We'll-

[16:45] Okay. I'll let you know

[16:46] ... I will do is poll the board. And

[16:50] so we got two more weeks in this month.

[16:52] Okay.

[16:53] Let me do that. Let me just poll and let Ray get back to me.

[16:56] Yeah.

[16:57] And see. But right now you're out, and Wednesdays are fine?

[17:00] Wednesdays are fine. I mean, I'm going to make a, so we'll know if our planning

[17:04] commission goes. Adrian is not available Wednesday nights if she's on the planning

[17:09] commission and they were coming in here. But that's at this moment.

[17:12] I just know we need, to be honest, we don't even know if we need the whole planning

[17:16] commission. At least we need some-

[17:17] Yep.

[17:18] We have the whole here, they would have to warn us.

[17:20] We at least have the chair or somebody from the planning commission to come and

[17:23] give us an update.

[17:23] Have you had any interaction or block on it all?

[17:26] Not yet.

[17:27] It's not, uh-huh.

[17:28] I'm trying to get justice of the peace appointments from the governor.

[17:33] No.

[17:33] I'm not sure what's on them.

[17:36] What about board of amendment? 28th, 29th, are any of you...

[17:40] I got to have a quorum again.

[17:42] 28th.

[17:42] I got three different-

[17:44] I don't got it

[17:44] ... I got Vidal, I got Hudson, and I got-

[17:46] 28th. What is it?

[17:48] 28th or 29th of September.

[17:50] I don't care either way.

[17:51] No.

[17:52] So you still want the 28th?

[17:54] You're the most agreeable one of all of them.

[17:56] Yeah. 28th or 29th is fine.

[17:58] I'm trying to make this so easy.

[18:00] 28th or 29th is fine. 30th, no.

[18:03] Okay. I got it.

[18:07] Okay?

[18:07] Yeah. Are we adjourned?

[18:08] Yeah. Well, I'll entertain a motion. Yep. Okay.

[18:11] Second.

[18:11] So as you were, we haven't decided that meeting, so-

[18:14] No, we'll wait for Mike to call just to make sure.

[18:17] So make motion to-

[18:18] I just got to make sure.

[18:19] He backed you guys both.

[18:21] Yeah.

[18:21] Last week was supposed to have a meeting.

[18:23] Hey, one second. One of you guys-

[18:25] Yeah.

[18:25] One second. Okay.

[18:27] Move.

[18:27] Is that all in favor?

[18:28] Aye.

[18:29] Aye.

[18:31] Thank you for watching this Fact TV presentation.

[18:34] If you would like a digital or DVD copy of the meeting, please contact us by phone

[18:39] or email. Our phone number is 802-463-1613, or

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Westminster Select Board Meeting: September 15, 2026

Transcript