 Good evening. I'd like to call the Monday, July 17th Berlin select board meeting order with us tonight our flow Smith on my left on my right Joe Stobb to our Nelson with us also is Diane Isbell town treasurer Chief Potter brand of the police department and Tim Davis of the road crew Public comment In addition to their deletions danger, I would like to add discussion on debris removal And or dumpsters under their center, please flooding updates Chief yeah so a couple of paths here both and Torr can speak a little bit on the emergency management side of it Continuing to attend briefs. I don't think we're expecting it There's going to be rain tomorrow, but they're like we've experienced the last several days We're having regular conversations and contact the state EOC Despite what they might think on their hands. There seems to be some communication posts here and there The department heads met with representatives from the National Guard on the SEOC's behalf to see if they're ready needs that You're continuing to have they haven't been met yet. So I think that was a good conversation There was a delivery of humidity fire dehumidifiers and fans That was delivered to the fire department about an hour ago. Those are for our residents For anybody who might be in need of them. I went down to Sear Park trailer park to met some of the residents down there Getting rid of debris is going to be an issue. We had some conversations with that I Think all the other needs down there are being met currently There's still some holes and communication as far as people communicating to 211 that live here in town But us not really being aware what some of those issues may be. So I think we're trying to bridge that gap As far as the PD's out of the house No injuries and everybody stayed safe over this course this kind of disaster Or staffing as good We had a flat on one of the vehicles going through some water they had some obstacle and a flat tire But other than that our vehicles are in good shape and put into good shape Our PD didn't suffer any issues that I'm aware of The surrounding beatings however have had issues that Washington County Sheriff's Department The Ferry City Police Department and my failure Police Department all experienced significant flooding their processing area Redamaged and really not useful at this point I extended an invitation for them to use our facility that becomes a problem for them I think that's all I have to report out Any questions from the Chief? Very helpful. Thank you Tim how are the roads getting better? They're getting better. They're making a lot of progress. We all are across town Started Tuesday morning with a war zone And as far as I can figure last night when I was going to pay for it So it was 17 roads that were inaccessible Tuesday morning and By 7 o'clock Saturday night, I Believe everybody except for the Richardson road with the culvert failure is Able to drive out. I may have missed one or two. I'm not sure but I believe I Haven't got any phone calls that nobody couldn't get out Not everybody's That don't put the doctor We've made pretty good headway on Marylake Road Brookfield Road. Don't map is All the way accessible to the gate There's still some small Some ditch work and stuff to do out there that is gonna get done Here in the next couple of days, hopefully with them Me and my guys have started on Chase road trying to push the rock the brook up through to the bridge From what got washed out there and then we're gonna just my plan is just to work out through we have one culvert to replace tomorrow and then just start filling in what's left the two foot the three foot washouts and They're putting the road back clean the ditches out more. You know, I mean we went through And clean as much as we could to get the water back out of the road turn the water back to the ditches cleaned Oh, you know and set the escalator in front of the bulldozer To open up all culverts get the water back to where it was supposed to originally be clean them out clean up bigger Pipe sort of the trees and logs and stuff. It's real stuff didn't do Well, go away I'd like to thank everybody for everything that they've done for us and support and making phone calls and answering questions and You know the contractors that have helped us out. I believe we're We're we're ahead of a lot of other people at this point. I think would be My biggest fear when this all started was his wintertime Whether we were gonna get stuff put back together. We'll follow it's I Think we'll be in pretty good shape here not in the close in your future It's gonna be a thing I'll be a spread it's gonna be a marathon for sure to be out Thank you for your efforts Don't you guys get any questions or questions for Tim? Are you having issues with the cleaning materials gravel or anything? No, we're We're covering poles at the end of the day, but you know, I mean we're We're we're making it you're pulling out a couple different places to keep food everything so Everything's kind of coming together They've had some mechanical failures and everybody's Loaded from loaders breaking down the crushers breaking down. So we've been pulling out of the pits around here That was Graniteville So everybody's getting a little bit of Everything They've been For the dirt that guys really they they like to work late So in order to keep them moving they've been hauling in here to the shop So in pits close, they got a stockpile to work out of until 7-8 o'clock when they want to quit so We've been moving along the phone calls that I'm making there was to Try to put the whole thing together tomorrow for the bridge for Richardson road for the pickup over the bridge down in Granville We were having a little bit of trouble Reaching the logger that has the bridge just due to the fact of lack of cell service everywhere's narrow and So they've finally connected today, I guess I'm playing phone tag and that's looking like right now It's coming together is they're gonna pick that bridge up between 10 and 12 tomorrow some point and then we'll be here on Richardson road and then As soon as it gets here, I think that's gonna be Our next we will stop what we're doing and focus back to Richardson road We'll get the bridge in get gravel put back up to it So those people can drive in and out of their houses that it'll be accessible And thank you Tim I've actually received many compliments on you and your staff and how responsive you were and how hard working and dedicated And you were just in there doing whatever was needed whenever Greatly appreciated. Oh the guy's holding up. Good with rest a little bit of rest a little more rest that we got over the weekend was Definitely what everybody needed you know, I mean from six o'clock Monday morning until I think I left 730 Saturday night with like 93 hours Those guys were only four hours behind me and that was just because I was coming in a little earlier in the morning just to kind of Tree our things and get everybody pointed in the right direction and where we were going to make sure that things were lined up for we peeled off and Started going on the next So you have enough trucks need any more equipment. That's becoming much I think we're good at this point like everything. I mean is is like biggest problem now is we're having with the trucks is The lines everywhere's like every person I've talked to in the last couple of days from the surrounding towns to The truck drivers that are hauling for us to our trucks going in and getting the bigger rock the type 2 is People in there and there is a line of tailgate so far as you can see in front of you in every pet because it's just They're trying to get the easter on their cows cabinet playing field of marriage filled with more town. It's it's just Some of them guys have never seen anything like that before so it's it's just kind of a Waiting game and it's played out kind of nice for us would like I said bringing material here Because if they get jammed up they can start pulling out of what they've got here in the yard to pick the pace back up Well, they shop will through the works in the pits Were there any additional damages from last night's rain Just the one over on my run road the original clean out wasn't quite a Up the snuff and the the rain that came last night kind of silted the The brook ditch back in and it turned it back out in the road, but we went down today with our excavator and Really cleaned it cleaned it and I just have the Hearing just when rolled because it's all good gravel. I told them just when roll it right up the side of the road They still got their one lane road on the side of it and then He said it was already starting to dry out So my plan there is to pick it up and put it in truck and take it back where it came from Need more questions for Tim? Pain turnpike That's gonna be a big one. Yeah That's gonna end up I Know where we left this morning. We were kind of talking about Looking at the possibility of at least knocking it in and back filling it some to Stabilize the infrastructure that runs through there between our water line and the sewer line that run down through there and it just but I Know as far as we thought this morning that Everybody kind of doesn't feel comfortable trying to open it back up the traffic not knowing what voids and everything else are underneath there and then it's all fresh material that starts to Rain or we get any more heavy rain and it decides to start going around the pipe. I'm assuming that it went around the pipe just Sheer head pressure on it If it starts to take that out in the middle of the night, nobody knows about it somebody ends up run it into that So we're potentially looking at another official road extended closure on the road but the only Good thing about it is it's not on the way to the hospital Maltillier was the one that really I think suffered for that being Fisher-Odeley Okay Fire Department Joe Matt, did you want to say anything you want me to say? Well Good evening everybody. I can't see you but I trust her there I apologize for not being there in person But the emergency calls took priority tonight We are still active at the four corners fire station. We ended up hosting the FEMA region one incident support team and the The coordinator for pretty much all the swift water rescue teams in the state When they evacuated the state emergency operation center, they called NASA if they could come Take some space in our firehouse. They've success. We've done that now for a week it did we did identify some Some challenges that we didn't necessarily Know about going into this, but I think we'll be on the on the tap going forward for us to take a look at We have the same level of electrical service coming into the firehouse that I have in my house It's to under damp service. So it's pretty under it was probably very appropriate for when the firehouse was built in the early 90s But you know, we're gonna have to take a look at that as we go forward I'm not entirely sure when we'll be done with our guests I Would say within the next week or so We have gone back as a fire department and I guess let me ask this do you want to Kind of an idea of what we did throughout the week or do you just want to kind of where we're at now and going forward? Well, probably both. Okay. Well, so we stood up Monday and started operations based out of the four-corner station and We ended up actually coordinating a lot of the swift water rescue Calls for service across central Vermont because we had the personnel there that we're going to do them Monday night we slept about 75 People in the four-corner's fire station that has a sleeping capacity of four All of the urban search and rescue teams that were coming in from out of state from as far away as North Carolina and Michigan Touched down at the Berlin firehouse before they were set out to their staging areas their response areas We worked pretty well solid Monday until about one o'clock Tuesday morning and we were able to Kind of put everybody down for for rest Throughout the day Monday. We pulled the trigger on evacuating Weston's mobile home park pretty much the route 12th corridor from Chandler Road to Montpelier As well as the seat drive home park behind the state garage We had a crew down on the 302 corridor monitoring Monitoring the flooding and helping folks figure out how to get out and get in and move around In that 302 corridor all the way from Berlin State Highway to the Berry City line Throughout the day Tuesday, we had crews in and around town Both responding to those requests for assistance getting out of residences Monitoring floodwaters as they went down trying to help Tim's crew figure out what roads were open what roads needed to be open We worked very closely with Chief Bob Ryan with Tim Trying to set those priorities for getting The the town back opened in an orderly fashion We did where I lived down to West Berlin was isolated until Tuesday afternoon when Tim was able to get cross-town road open back up that provided emergency Access in and out down on that end of town Throughout the day Tuesday and Wednesday, we were working with the FEMA crews and the The state use our teams Helping them through navigation and trying to figure out where they were going We had a number of calls for service throughout the day But not only came in through the traditional channels, but came in through places like state hazmat where they would call and say hey there's a Propane tank that's Off-gassing and it's been disconnected and in a bad shape Can you guys go take a look at that and try to try to help figure something out? So a lot of it was triaging those calls and figuring out what needed to happen right away and what what could wait Thursday and Friday we started a pretty big Demobilization if you will we still had a lot of our folks around but we were able to leave them away from the station more And taking care of their normal day-to-day lives. We did keep a crew on at least during the day through the weekend Of course, we were worried about additional flooding on Sunday And then Joe I believe it was about three o'clock Sunday afternoon you pulled the plug and and we were done from there So we're back around to Monday again. We are started. We are keeping I Guess you could say we have the widget board going of the things that We wish we had had and we didn't We did open the shelter at the elementary school Monday night, sorry bouncing around a little bit And we had 95 people in that shelter at one time Our our shelter capacity at the elementary school is 50 Somewhere we're supposed to have 50 cuts and a closet full of supplies. I don't think honestly I don't think Berlin's ever truly had that all of it at once So we do have some contacts in with the Red Cross to see about Filling out the rest of that equipment that's supposed to be in place For us to be able to open the shelter up I guess I will shout it give a shout out to the school. They have been Incredible hosts all of the USAR teams have been sleeping in the elementary school this week and They have found it to be a a very as best as can be Expected, but they've they've been a very welcoming team over there for us We did I Think we're still evaluating we may have some flood damage to our rescue truck Some electrical damage to it from floodwaters. We're still evaluating that to see what See what we need to do going forward with that vehicle other than that I think I Think that wraps up everything I had on my list to tell you Happy to take questions So just that just to add to when he was talking about the electrical service. So when When the urban search and rescue the swift water crew came through I mean you got 225 people filing through there and most of them are at school But you do have a dozen plus in the station and it's hot humid they ended up bringing in AC units we started out with generators switched over and had electrician come up and switched over to you know, right off regular power So that took a little bit, but we also had some challenges with the service And so that was a couple trips with the electrician And going back to the number of people I mean we had 700 over 760 hour man hours Over the course that time with an average of probably 12 at the station any given time That first night we had a crew down on 302 and helped evacuate over 60 people off 302 And the first I'm gonna say Tuesday Wednesday night we were doing mutual aid calls in Montpellier So going back to chief Pompry on and the fans and decommitifiers that were received this for the town residents We are going to Help either deliver them or the issue of power We got five decommitifiers and 37 fans and I wish that was maybe a little different Because any one household's gonna want to three anyway to those decommitifiers, but it is what we have Donation from the Amazon to add nice that is wonderful There was a number of Local groups that have set up in either a food truck or Dropping off food and such So at the end of the day, we also have a crew that'll go out and distribute that we've been trying to get it out earlier and earlier And I don't necessarily think we're we're reaching all the people that probably we should But Let's see so we got a probably about half a dozen roads We went out and did a road survey yesterday And we probably about have half a dozen their spots that probably I mean we can get up the better part of it But there's gonna be some sections of it that we're not gonna put a truck and It would be accessible by pickup And was sure But I want to add to and the fire department was Critical in doing this we had a lot of people that were saved But didn't have access to medication or some other critical thing they needed So Bonnie would take the calls and then we'd coordinate had to get the fire department It helped us out quite a few occasions because they had four wheelers side-by-side second kind of get places You could start your motif Visibly walked medication up like half mile to a location on Brookfield road make sure somebody has their medication So you're trying to be creative and getting people some of their essential stuff basic So that was just my add-on to the mats Thank you, Matt Any questions for either Matt or Joe Um Joe Matt has started the after-action review process. Yes, um, I'd like your permission first before I ask him I'd like just have him to see that through to the end That's okay with you. Yeah, Matt. Is that okay with you? Would you want to take that through to the end? Yeah, it's fine with me perfect, thank you and Matt's already created a Link Start putting your thoughts online so I'll send that out to everybody if you have me and puts for any more questions comments, okay Thank you all for your service big thank you and Next on the agenda is to ratify the appointment of tour Nelson is the administrator Mr. Chair, I recuse myself from this discussion. No fortune. We have a quorum. I Make the motion to ratify the appointment of town administrator appointment of tour Nelson My second. Can you further the discussion all of your favor? All right motion carries Mr. Chair, I move that we fire the interim town administrator God bless you Okay Paving bid openings there should be three bits right there that I've received and I put in your packet a copy of the RP that went out so you can Refer to it during your collaborations. I have one bid here from ST Paving Incorporated This bid the name of the bit better is J. McDonald Authorized representative is Paul Lampson boss and I could say and the bid is $118.25 per ton with a total job cost of $487,190 plus or minus This is J. McDonald Paul Lawson. Yeah, ST Paving 119 you said For time her tongue was a hundred and eighteen point twenty five So I have a bit here for me fresh coat asphalt shape PCOR for Barry and For an estimated tons of five thousand tons at a cost of one 23 hundred twenty three dollars per ton with a total job cost of six hundred twelve six hundred and twelve thousand two hundred and twenty six dollars and How much tons that was one hundred and twenty three ton one hundred twenty three dollars per ton per ton? Okay, thank you five thousand five thousand tons My bid was four thousand one hundred and twenty tons. I didn't say that before I think industries they have a bit here of Espany number of tons and material is 1005 the cost per ton is 95 50 Total cost of the job is 95 thousand nine hundred seventy seven dollars and fifty cents. So what's the difference? So I Don't think somebody better right There was supposed to be all three separate beds. It's just three projects. Yeah, they were all separately for each project. I Think pipes is yeah, there's three minutes here three minutes. Yeah For each project and my knowledge mine is one bid. That's what I got here They're all supposed to be been separate if you if you read through the RFP For sure correctly. It says all jobs are going to be been separately and this bid on their bid. They said they all ask This one said this bid is to pave the airport road Pine Hill Drive and from the Shaw's Maplewood entrances to the Highway 62 intersection in Berlin as per instruction So just just to add on that if I may I I personally reached out to fresh coat nst paving To confirm that they understood that they should they were supposed to bid each individually Thank you Vince. So much. So your first Did their friend that say which project that was for? That was for Pine Hill Drive the next bid is Or two thousand four hundred and fifty ton At a cost of ninety one dollars and forty cents a ton total cost is twenty two thousand two hundred and twenty three thousand nine hundred and thirty dollars and that's for airport road and the last bid is for Shaw's Maplewood and skim coat Estimated estimated number of tons is two hundred and twenty cost per ton is a hundred and seventy six thirty and the total cost of the job is thirty eight thousand seven hundred eighty six dollars and The total cost of all three projects is three hundred eighty five thousand six hundred ninety three dollars and fifty cents Assuming their math is correct Well that sounds like that's the lowest bid that you have for the entire project And I think it's I mean I'm assuming that it's for the entire project probably the lowest bid for each individual project, too They're all they're all in the 90 Yes, I will provide just overnight The only thing I noticed in the bids that you had Brad for all of the tonnage Their tonnage was much less in terms of what they would utilize for all three projects so I think on Pine Hill it was a thousand five and Airport road was two thousand four fifty and two twenty for Shaw's So that would be just about three thousand seven hundred ish Mine was four thousand one twenty or Presumably all of the projects And up here 25 Can I ask another question? Yeah, go ahead. This one's just it's Vince, but that's okay We've changed your name since okay. Thank you. Yeah, I'm sure I've been called a lot of things since then but that's okay The question is for Tim actually Tim they were supposed to also reach out and Let you know if they were gonna do a the site review and check the tonnage themselves as well Did they all three do that? Yes, okay Okay, you know, thanks Vince. I just wanted to make sure that was clear. I Came up with three thousand six forty five One more thing to add I'm not sure you guys were made aware of it because it came Came with privy like during his departure This happened but we have a state grant The Pave Airport Road, but I believe it's the two hundred forty thousand as well We've got the grant for I believe it's a 30% match so that is For the most of us is coming from wasn't to grant the Pave State grant to pave the airport road for the Boston Highway Grants. We've received that this year We got word earlier in spring that we were Accepted for it, but they had to go through a Review process and what not and we've been waiting waiting and waiting and waiting not hearing anything in them I believe it was the Friday that Vince's last day at the end of the day. He sent me an email Saying that they accepted accepted the project and we have been granted the The grant I have some paper work Yeah, you should you should have received a copy of it Diane Yeah, okay now to does anybody just like we need to sign that or not. We all said on there Does anyone need to sign that grant that's it'll need to be signed? Yes But it's a it's a standard one It can be signed by the by mr. Nelson as well. It doesn't have to be the board. It's a I do have it So mr. Chair, I would recommend we pay with this decision until the next meeting Just so maybe we can get a better idea of what expenses were Possibly facing with this disaster and a better idea of what we may or may not have coming from FEMA I think in potential we're looking at a cash flow issue With you know all these expenses having to be paid and waiting for Firmly reimbursement things like that so The invoices are starting to come in from the project right now and a little sizable In a second I second that motion. I think that's why is at this point. Thank you for the suggestion to her Any other discussion on this all those in favor All right Okay motion passes Okay Ratification of the pump purchase for the sewer I make the motion to ratify the pump purchase decision That was beaten for which we are doing the ratification tonight second Okay, and the pump purchase is for to pump a manhole to manhole at the sewer line on Pain turned by North fails Yes Okay, any other discussion on this all those in favor I motion carries Trying to still do things but door with As far as When you do that, can we look into the fact that being rewarded that grant We don't pay for the airport. Yes. Yes. I mean if we don't use it it makes sense To perhaps not pay the other two projects. No, I agree. Well, so The only reason this it was a section out here that we have some problems with the winter time now Then it's it's gotten to be so thin. Yeah, all that was was And yes, we can cut it out But it was just the little wheel tracks in so the bottle stopped coming back And we ended up there today and fill it again because the rain keeps falling real well So I was more or less just a Yeah The flat the wheel tracks out from some every truck traffic because that's what that was but yes I agree like the pine kiln Don't have I was just curious If there was a timeline on that grant class to grant that if we Didn't fulfill it in a certain amount of time That we we because that Grand is pretty much the whole giving that pace for Sound for the job. If it's we got to 20 and I think I said that very close to or the it was This I was just curious that if we could look into that to make sure that oh, yeah I don't want to shut down. We want to actually just issued it. Hey, you think they at least give me 30 I Get a little like warranty Okay anything Anything else on that Tim? That was just your worry. Just say but yeah, I'm expired. I'm trying to line this bird stuff up too So I'm kind of dead. Yeah, I got you. Okay, um The um I guess probably a discussion on the local options tax brolin pilot or volunteer fire department merger Um, I guess first option first option first time on the options tax I know Dave Sawyer was on the air it out broadcast And I just wanted to pick his brain see how a few thoughts and comments from that how that went Joe, I think have you done that yet or Have any thoughts on how you thought how it went or Well, I mean they're giving us it's like a seven to ten minute um period of time and there's just You know, there's a few comments that go out. I think it's really about just starting This is just starting to get the word out to talk about it. Um, I think I think when we turn around we're gonna have me the august seventh meter Right, we have like half hour or whatever discussion of The fire department merging with the town And that's going to be hopefully I'm hopefully there's a lot of town folk coming um The two of them go together And they really should be discussed together um But going back to my thoughts on I mean, you don't get you really don't get any feedback during the session Okay so Have you seen that? I've not. Oh, okay. I've seen that. I've not seen yours. Have you seen that? I have not either one of them Neither one of them. Oh my and so I'd like to see more More feedback going out to the do this new fangled social media. So I guess the town now has a instagram account or something Well I guess it's a newer better thing than facebook Can you help us on this? I'm a huge proponent of the local options tax. I think it will be very beneficial. I think there's more Um opportunities as a result and I think it will be benefit for the residents and the town And given everything we're experiencing right now We need it more than ever in my opinion And I think there's just general a lot of not a lot of Knowledge out there what it was about. I was talking to Cali today and and somebody was Just asking for their tax bill or something and somehow the local options tax got brought up and they didn't know anything about it or You know that we recently voted on it in November and And Cali was able to explain to them and everything. So I think there's just a lot a lot of good information out there I wonder if ray lean and staff from aired out would actually come to our next sweat board meeting And actually kind of do a session here Where we can I can I interrupt just for a second to Give you my take on that flow because We we do have a contract with with ray lean On aired out to do this So tour her her contact information is in the computer or I can send it to you again as well But the two interferes there were two interviews in june that both joe and Dave did We're in the process of looking for Two more volunteers residents For july to do a similar thing But I would suggest and ray lean is willing to come to a select board meeting But also maybe tour Just to reach out and chat with her There's a there's basically a program lined up by quarter Of how we're and what we're putting together for information to get out to the public and To your earlier point. They are also able to track statistics On who's who's looking at the views? And give us some demographics on how many are residents and how many are not And if there's positive and negative comments So she has all that information. She's given me one report before I left If you just reach out she'd be more than happy to speak with you on it Or I can I can reach out and have her get in touch with you If that's easier But we have that it's lined up. There is a plan leading right up to To november on how to manage that and she did a very similar program for barry And I'm not saying that's why it passed but it passed first go around Following a similar program Thank you vance So what is our plan for bringing local option stacks back to the voters? Well, we gotta do some sort of education on it, right? Before we we had a good setup of staying there at the Grange hall, right? That was there with fair turnout there, too Then I think that was about to all the chatter changes And I'm trying to think does the town need a chatter change to incorporate the other fire department or is that No, is that right vance? I I did not see anything when I looked through the charter or the administrative code that required that Okay, so the only thing we need to do is Is find a way to get the information out to the voters About what the local options tax is how it will benefit them and Then take and put it up for uh, uh, the voting for a charter change As far as the education part Um, I don't know I know vince put together and you probably still have it been so very thorough Overview was in written form And you presented it to us at one of our meetings Select board meeting with other residents and I'm thinking that would be really good to get out as part of the educational process And uh, whether we do bits and pieces of that through front page forum or on the website You know download the document where people can open it read through it Maybe even have question and answer session Um, I think any of that would be beneficial because you put a really good amount of information into that document Yep, there's two documents. There's the The power point and then kind of a I think it's a one pager maybe a two pager of some very specific Numbers and information as well I yeah, they're they're in the computer. I'm happy to uh, pull those out and send them as To to tour as well. So if you want, please Yep I will do that So what are we voting on in november? Excuse me? I hate to break in again, but um Uh, matt romay has his hand up. It's been up for a while. I think he has a question for the board Yeah, matt Oh, no, I was just going to Of volunteer as a tribute for I aired out If you're still looking for somebody I'm happy to go and uh explain how that local options tax will affect the fire department and um I mean I if if we are in entertaining the discussion of the merger tonight Um, I'm happy to to say a few words on that if you desire to hear them Sure Go ahead. Um, so all those hours that uh, joe mentioned earlier that uh, I mean it's it's it's an under report right now because I I know we don't have everything documented, but Um, we're gonna struggle to find a way to compensate our our folks for their efforts last week and Part of that is because we are a separate entity from the town. The fire department is not the town um, there are, uh grave concerns right now in our fleet and um We can see shiny red fire trucks, but when you when you think about Uh, a capital improvement plan for a tower truck Uh, joe, do you want me to mention our grading? Right now or hold up. This would be a great time to mention that Okay, so A year ago we were notified by iso, which is the insurance services offices the and that's the I guess the best way I can describe it. It's the black box that determines insurance rates as regards to fire protection So, uh, you're graded on the scale of one to ten ten being no fire department. No fire protection at all one being, uh, awesome fire protection and It's a it's a weighted study based on your, uh, water supply Based on your communications system Based on your fire department based on your manpower based on your equipment and, uh, there are And again, there's there's a manual for it, but uh, I They put all this stuff into a computer and it spits out a number We have the same iso rating in the town of berlin that the city of montpelier does And that's saying something because they have full-time personnel in the station They have a Municipal water system throughout their entire town their entire city And for us to be able to make up for those things as an all-volunteer department Is pretty epic to be honest with They notified us a year ago that they were going to downgrade us by a grade from a four to a five And for a single family two hundred thousand dollar home. That means about two hundred dollars a year in homeowner's insurance I have not been able to get an insurance company to tell me what that would mean for 802 honda or comfort in or center from on hospital those places But it's got to be a met worth of money Just changing that one iso grade And for us to maintain a grade of four Uh, which we were notified a couple weeks ago that we got our final determination We are going to maintain a class score fire rating for the town of berlin Part of that we were able to do Uh, just to give you an idea for a full-time fire personnel To cut to get the same point benefit. You have to have three volunteers It's a three to one ratio Um We were able to do that through our mutual aid Membership from the capital fire mutual aid system, but we were also able to do that through the work of our volunteers and They're doing it for nothing I I will tell you I have a semi unpopular opinion that the town of berlin is not Set up right for a volunteer fire department. We have 2,900 nighttime residents Uh, we cannot adequately We can't adequately do the job with Uh, an all volunteer force anymore based on the industrial and commercial nature Uh and retail nature of the town That risk uh quotient Is rapidly climbing Chestnut place is a huge risk that's added to our risk analysis Fox runs that the next one that will be another one that adds to our risk Within the town of berlin and we're going to seriously have to look at a change in how we do business Um at the fire department It's my opinion that, uh That we need to become part of the town And by becoming part of the town we gain We gain things day one Our insurance costs They don't evaporate but they are decreased significantly Our accounting costs are are all of these other things that we have to pay for because we are our own entity all of a sudden, uh Become quite less of an impact on the budget What does it change though is our need to adequately fund the capital improvement program We bought a uh tower truck in Maybe a year ago now Or a little less than a year ago now We had to do that because our old tower truck was 85 feet and iso requires 100 feet Or you're able to reach all of your buildings, which I don't think we were able to do anyway But it requires 100 foot towers. So now we meet that We meet that requirement That tower truck is used it is not going to survive forever It takes $75,000 a year in the capital improvement plan to replace the tower truck Uh cash money if you will so that when it uh when it wears out we can just write a check for a new one Um, we don't have that kind of uh input right now into our capital improvement plan I think that's where that local options tax becomes so important Um, I'll take the opportunity while we're here. We're always taking volunteers Tuesday night 6 30 come on down to the firehouse We'd love to have you but You know, it's becoming uh Uh, it's becoming a pretty exceptional challenge right now to recruit trained and retain volunteers Uh in this day and time we were extremely fortunate over the last week We were able to pull from people that we normally don't get a chance to to Um to support that flood operation Um, and I'm hopeful we'll be able to do it the next time it happens So there's my little pitch for the local options tax Thank you matt The else on the local options tax Uh, you know along with the part department, uh, Joe mentioned, uh Public hearing will be on our agenda for the next meeting Uh from what it looks like we're looking to form a committee Uh to explore that Um And if so, I think it'd be wise to put out Um A notice beforehand looking for committee members I'm not sure there's going to be that many people here at them. Well Hopefully i'm wrong and hopefully we'll have a list of people to choose from But I'd like to or you know in case somebody couldn't make it that night who would be otherwise interested Do you have an idea of the size of the steering committee? It wouldn't well be much more than seven. I was I was going to throw out five myself but I would but I would You know, I would imagine we're going to have a select board member on there I would imagine we would have at least one member from the far department on there um Now I don't you know, this square can get kind of Out of hand quickly. Um, you know, you got your active firefighters got corporation members And Things like that. I I don't want Anybody from the far department to be left out of this process or on the corporation to be left out of this process. So Um, I'm not limiting to one person from the fire department and there might be multiple categories Um, the fire department person that would be on this committee, but Well, if you you shoot for uh, you shoot for a seven man committee, you're going to have three One from the select board one five two from the one from the fire department one from the corporation and four from the general public I I personally think that's a good Um, good balance to start for And and we can reevaluate it Yeah, come Monday, but um, I think I will go ahead and send out a notice that um You know if you're interested in serving on this committee to go ahead and Put your name in well and just be open to the idea that that um Might change as far as your your balance In my opinion, I was thinking more on the lines of you know, two from the select board two from the fire department three from the Community, we don't necessarily get a whole lot of community involvement And this might actually they might come out of the woodwork. I don't know It's always possible. I also would be willing to do one of the sessions with aired out if No one else comes forward or you know, if that's fine, and I appreciate you offering too mad I think it would be very nice for you to be involved as well You know, someone else who might be good would be jerry d. M. N. T. D.'s He was he was on our board of directors for about six years and I was thinking of him as well In terms of the steering committee Yeah, he's very knowledgeable and a lot of experience And a past board member for the steering committee if he were wanting to would be jeremy Thank you Those are just some people that come to mind. I also think pat mcdonald would be great on the committee We're sure there's many residents that would be interested So that's great Maybe we could even do a mini presentation of the powerpoint At a select board meeting doesn't have to be the entirety could be broken down. Thank you Night to him. Thanks for everything. We might be able to break that down into pieces and have a small piece for board meeting You know leading up to november so thought anything else on the Merger and then the local office tax Going back to november's vote. We're thinking about this be going towards town meetings Where you have the majority of people coming out correct? Yeah Yeah, anything else on this Approval licenses permits vouchers and applications I make the motion to approve payroll warrant 24 dash o 2 for payroll from july 2nd to july 15 2023 Paid on july 19th in the amount of 72 484 dollars and 26 cents Payable warrant two four Go to with checks two three one three three two three one four seven For payables in the amount of 35 828 dollars and 75 cents and the reconciled june bank statements for the general fund and sewer water checking accounts second Any further discussion? All those in favor Those working carries Um, let's see signatures for This is a full tax and I have that over here This was a gentleman, uh, we appointed to the development review board Couple meetings to go and just never sign before Well, it was the spelling of his name, right? Yeah, right okay, and All right, so it empowers contract signature here again, this is uh Contract we approved Last week, but uh, did not actually sign Let's do exactly the same. This is a second year but three year contract and this is just for the plate You know, this is what they're going to do how they're going to do it How they can be so thank you And we do have a schedule for the last week in september for me to be joining the audit okay the approval The minutes of june 19th I make the motion to approve the minutes of june 19th, but there are just a few grammatical Issues under stray animal holding agreement on page two The It needs to say stray animal There and on page three just a few grammaticals Nothing major and I'll pass those over to tour so those can be integrated But I see no reason not to approve them based on that here a second second Any further discussion? All those in favor. All right. All right. Motion carries approval of June 26 minutes I make the motion to approve the monday june 26 regular select board meeting minutes as presented The second Any further discussion? All those in favor. All right Motion carries and the approval of the july 10th minutes I make the motion to go ahead and approve the monday july 10 Minutes as well. That was a rescheduled select board meeting here a second I second Any further discussion? All those in favor. All right Motion carries and minutes for july 12th I also go ahead and make the motion to approve the emergency meeting regular select board minutes or wednesday july 12 2023 as presented to us this evening Second Any discussion? All those in favor. All right Motion carries Round table as well. Oh nothing. Thank you. Joe Okay, thank you for A couple of things What do you better know? First of all, I would like to extend a big thanks to first student who was the school school bus contractor they were very helpful monday night and Doing several rounds of evacuations moving people to school moving people to the very auditorium Giving people off the barium appeal road into shelter. They were Excellent to work with they were very helpful and a lot of great work Secondly, I also like to extend thanks to Shaw's They had a lot of people sitting in their parking lot monday night including me Um, and they came around very early monday, uh, tuesday morning Offering food and beverages and use of the restrooms even though the store was not open yet They were very grateful accommodating to that and and we'll have a whole lot more Of thanks as as time go on by just want to start that In your packet, uh the town health officer Us solicitation went out today and a copy of that is In your packet And then lastly as was mentioned earlier From the emergency management team Definitely having need For a shelter manager and a shelter operations team moving forward and We're going to need to work on that in the future And then lastly, uh, we'd like to talk about the removal dumpster. Yes. Yes. Sorry about that. I forgot that And before we discuss the debris removal, I would like to give a big shout out for all of The folks who have extended themselves tremendously. I received a tremendous amount of thanks to Um The road crew and I know the fire department has done a lot as has U-Tour and The police department. I just am so proud of us in here in berlin. I'm glad to be a part of it So I thank everyone for everything Okay on the dumpsters So I guess the biggest need for dumpsters right now is the uh, mobile home park on cedar drive Um, I've got a call into the stadium seat right now. Um asking what exactly Our responsibility is versus the mobile home park owners as far as debris Currently they're being told by the owners that just a pile I need to breathe into the Uh, you know, to the right of way of the of the road there Um, and the tunnel come by and take care of that. Um That's what they're being told right and either way. Um, it's going to be Um Very soon becoming a health Issue might even you don't need to get the health officer involved Um, but we must when you say debris you're talking just plumps them or are you talking? Uh Stuff other than limbs and wood it could be it could be any of that could be Damaged appliances You know damage flooring and skirting and and so forth It's not you know the town It's not supposed to be doing your regular household waste But you know this other stuff That comes up, you know, what is going to be our Um take on that. So that's your your rugs your furniture and everything else. Correct. So you're Regular household trash that is is now You know and soaked in flood mud It's something different than regular household trash. Well, the other thing also is if you're going to be doing appliances um Even junk appliances have value It's crap Do we so you gotta I mean Realistically you try to separate the mail Well, maybe we put a couple different dumpsters down there one from metal and one one for Just debris and as far as I I think your Vlogs and trees and everything else that's being Um Collected it, you know, it's gonna be the last thing they picked up But you know, we got to think about that. Maybe we pile it up and we haul it somewhere We have a stump dump, right? Do we use it? no, that's That's gone by the board Yeah, that's gone by the board. I'm pretty sure Well, maybe we pile it in the back and we have a bonfire and celebrate the rebuilding I don't know, but they're gonna have a lot of debris down there. We got to take you do something Well, I mean realistically A lot of that stuff There's no value to anything that came down the river because there's too much dirt in it. That's right You know, we can't run this through a chipper. No um I don't know if there's going to be now there is a machine out there It's basically a grinder and that's made to grind the stumps So just dirt isn't going to bother any and I don't know if worth seeing about If there's one of those kicking around and off but there's You'd have to hire a dip. I think it's the household Debris the the the buildings the furniture the all that we need something You know to collect it And control so if we're gonna put it if they're gonna put it on the side of the road like they're being told And then the town's gonna come pick it up Turn it and dumps you first Honestly, I mean then didn't we just They pick up the roll off If that's what we pay for that's what we pay for Well, they are very they're doing this and and it's a little easier because they're a community to begin with And so you look at burlens you can't put something at the bottom of Chase road I think some somebody's gonna come all the way down the bottom of the hill drop it in a dumpster. Right But you know, you have 30 some odd people down Cedar And very few of those trailers you got price day When the question would be it would be the Locating the the dumpster like The only thing if you if you put dumpsters down there, they're a lot easier to fill the dump truck And they're just on the ground sure and but uh I don't know if gasella or mires if you could take it Ask them for a price on that I mean if you separate the metal then I mean when you get a pile of metal you get old bulldogs and they'll come Scoop it up and dump it in I think what you're gonna find short of appliances people are just gonna clean and they're not sorted Yeah Well, I mean you some you can't do anything with furniture because you got the the shellac and the varnish on it You can't burn it you can't Ship it somewhere to can't chip it Or chip it but I mean you can't Like if you were to chip that wood grind it you could you could dig it to the state Uh in center at the boiler there at the But everything else anything that's not It has a brandish or shellac on it or paint Yeah, I mean it's it's it's all going to the dump. It's couches and clothes. Yep couches and clothes And she's out for the ones they're wearing right now She let's really say been down there Where you've been down cedar? Take a ride Sun's up till nine sad place So the question now is if you pursue the dumpsters And how we go to pay for it and if FEMA pays for We have to have somebody there monitoring what it gets put into it Whether it's a town employee or whether we could contract it out On what's going on that Like why why what are you looking at that's that's the FEMA's requirements for reimbursement What's being what's being put in there Do you want to go? No, I thought you were Long term could we You're gonna sit down there and watch it all day or you're gonna go down there and just kind of Well, perhaps you'd be better off to take and let them let the debris get piled up Bring the dumpster and then just send down a loader or hire somebody with a okay loader type of thing and just That way there you could say you watch what went into it Fair enough That makes sense. Yeah, I don't know. I mean Every time I've had a dumpster at the farm the dumpster is charged by the ton You don't get charged for the Dumpster there you get charged by the ton when they dump it So but now of course they may get charged for having the dumpster brought into that again in a while Well So should we have the town administrator acting town administrator to pursue this? I Would recommend he Start looking into options and report back In meanwhile, we can communicate with cedar the people of cedar. Yeah to pilot out front Get it ready for removal When you talk with whatever trash company has the best deal Um You might want to see about two dumpsters Oh All that. Yeah. Well, I'm thinking if you if you go to cedar It is filled up And you have another one that West is Yeah, pick your poison. Right The truck can run back and forth and still be going loaded both ways Because I mean it's all about efficiency to them Okay, anything else on this? It's all I have Any executive section anticipating? No, sir Motion to adjourn. I make the motion to adjourn tonight's regularities schedule. It's left for me All those in favor