 I'd like to call this meeting, this special meeting to order at 503 Tuesday, May 24th, 2022. Adjustments to the agenda. Okay, seeing no adjustments, we'll go right into discussion. 3-1 EEI service update on HVAC and heating projects, Rochester and Stockbridge possible actions. I can go ahead. I was in attendance meeting, virtual meeting, Robert Mayer was as well and Ethan Bowen was. Unfortunately, Pat was under the weather and unable to join. So, not everyone may know, but we've been actually limping along with our current boiler at the Rochester Elementary School. I guess it had a leak and was repaired recently, but it needs more repairs to get us through another winter. EEI, as we know, has been evaluating our buildings to try to help bring us more efficient. The Rochester boiler is in immediate need so that is where they focused at first. They did provide us with a solution in the subcommittee meeting that we had that would change us from a steam boiler to a hydronic LP system, changing from oil to propane, changing from steam to hydronic. There are some other options with the LP part that we started to talk about a little bit, but they really have not been fully vetted for cost yet. We brought up questions about pellets, wood, or wood chips, I guess, and electric. Again, they haven't really been fully vetted for cost, but they are a cost more than the LP system that was presented to us. The timeframe for EEI to switch our current system to the hydronic LP for the coming school year is pretty tight. As we know, all the work would really need to be done by the end of August, meaning we would have to approve this change by June 1st. So the committee discussed quite a bit and felt that the timeframe to make that commitment to an LP hydronic boiler system just didn't leave up a lot of time to really explore it and explore our funding options to try to figure all that out. This does leave us with still the issue of the current boiler needing to get through another winter, and that we are going to need to repair it, and it is that cost of repair. But it would give us some time to be able to move forward on making a decision on a new system for the future, which we're going to need to do, but this would hopefully give us a little bit more time to look at the cost, look at funding options, etc. So the cost to repair the current boiler, I think it's about $12,500. Is that correct, Jamie, or somebody? Yes, but it looked like that would be best case scenario if they didn't find a crack in the section. If they do take it apart and using gaskets and all that doesn't resolve the leak, because they find a crack, then they're going to have to change out a section of the boiler which is going to be an additional 2,000 something or other. So it'll be a little bit more than that worst case. That's an add alternate on the proposal if I recall. Okay. The cost of just changed over to a new LP system is quite a bit more than that. We're talking in the $700,000 range. So the committee would like to recommend to the board that we approve repairing the existing boiler for this coming year as we look to doing a change in the future, in the near future, but for subsequent years. Anybody have any questions or comments? Can I just add because I was and do know so we're still working really hard on additional grant funding as well. I have a meeting with Lyle just on Thursday to work on an RFP. The state's indicated that they may have some interest in us around doing a significant match around pellet heating and multiple buildings in the SU. The recommendation of the fix gives us a solution while we continue to work on the EEI performance audit. We've got efficiency Vermont showing interest in working in your district. They're especially interested in Stockbridge. We have this, it's pellet heat, correct Lyle? This RFP is for? It's for wood heat in general. I think it really depends on the size of your school and what makes the most sense for your particular application. I think part of the process that we want to go through is between now and in the fall, when you look to make a final decision around what to do moving forward for next year, would be articulating the plan for phase one, which is the immediate work with the EEI, phase two, which would probably be about five years from now, and then phase three, 10 years from now. It's what I'm picturing we're going to be rolling out to all of our districts and when I think about ARSUD, that would mean both Rochester and Stockbridge, is that we'd be articulating a three-phase plan for the board to consider, and then also suggesting how we would put money away and use the performance contract and your building reserves to pay for this. Then the board would have some decisions around bonding going with a longer range plan, just how they would go about that. We would give you multiple options. The immediate that is needed from the board is direction to the administration to go ahead and do the repair at this time. It sounds like we're ready for a motion. I would move that the ARSUD board instruct the administration to go ahead with repair of the existing boiler in Rochester. Yeah, I think that's all we need for today because we know we're going to do the other work going ahead. Is there a second? I'll second that. Thank you, Robert. By the way, are these two numbers, this is a quorum, correct? We have Pat too. Oh, we have Pat. Okay. Yes. Good. I hope you're feeling better, Pat. Any questions? Yeah, any discussion? Sorry, Amy, you're doing a very good job running this meeting, so I don't need to say anything. All right. Any further discussion? Okay. There's been a motion and a second. So all in favor? Aye. Thank you. Aye. Pat, aye for me. Then all opposed? Okay. The ayes have it. Still the four of us did vote, so that is still quorum. So we're good. Okay. Okay, great. Then the next on the agenda is the High School Environmental Assessment. Unfortunately, I did not see this email until I just sat down in front of my computer and I tried to open it and I did not find any. Oh, I'm sorry, Robert. I think I thought you meant it for the June board meeting, not for this meeting here. So I did look at the edge. So I got confused about that. My apologies. I would have jumped on it sooner. Okay. Well, let's see. I was hoping that this document would be in front of everybody, but there's been something in that. Vic, could you help me out and give a quick summary of the document? I will make sure that it's converted to a PDF and distributed right after this meeting. Yeah. Thank you. And thanks for allowing me to join the conversation today. I'm appearing as the co-chair of the High School Repurposing Committee. And I wanted to introduce a topic tonight for your consideration and not for decision making tonight, but just, again, to introduce a topic and suggest some things for further reading and follow-up, which I'll get to in a minute. It has to do with the environmental assessment of the high school building. There are reasons why we believe that environmental assessment should be done very soon, which I'll get to in a minute. We brought this to the Rochester Select Board last night, and they agreed to go ahead and begin to pursue the process as a step towards considering the acquisition of the building. As the potential purchaser of the building, the residents, the Select Board, they need to know what, if any, contaminants, well, we know as best as is an issue. We need to know what contaminants are in the building, what is it going to take to clean up, how do you get the money to clean that up, all that information, and that we think that it would be important to have that issue settled before going to ask the residents for a vote so they can have an informed opinion about what the, at least that aspect of the building is about. Also, part of what would potentially make the high school project work financial is to have tenants in the building willing to pay for leases to be in the building. And in order to attract tenants, they too need to know if the building is safe, meet standards, et cetera, and whether all the environmental issues have been addressed before signing on the dotted line. So that's important. Third issue is that in Vermont, legal obligation, liability, for cleanup transfers with ownership. And I want to say, I should say it at the outset, I'm no expert at this. This is learning on the fly. And I learned a lot in the last week, particularly from staff at Two Rivers. So I'm sharing recent knowledge and would encourage you to have your own contact with Sarah Rait at Two Rivers for more background and understanding what your liabilities, obligations, advantages are in working through this. So there's two types of environmental assessment. One is, pertains to the National Environmental Protection Act, that has to do with federal funding programs. So as we go forward, we're going to want to access implementation grants through community development block grants that will require a National Environmental Protection Act survey. This is a desk type of audit. It doesn't mean going to the building and drilling holes. That's review of documents primarily, and that will take a couple of months to pursue. And we're going to want to do that before ownership is decided. The other process is a state level process that considers brownfield sites, which this would be. It's an existing facility that's being transferred to a different purpose and is likely to have contaminants in the building. It needs to be assessed. There's a process for doing that. The first step is that the potential owner of the town in this case requests the state to determine if the site is eligible for an assessment. And in order to do that, it requires the approval of the current owner, which would be the school board. So there's documentation that the school board would have to approve and provide to two rivers who then transmitted to the state. It's a one-page document. You ought to have your lawyer look at it. You ought to consider it. It's one of the things that Robert attempted to send along to you today. So just in a nutshell, what the process is, there's three phases to it. The first phase is primarily a desk type of audit with a look at documentation for what might be in the building, what's been proven to be in the building and site, not just when it was a school, but going back to whatever the original purpose of the building was. And we know that there was a wood products factory somewhere on that site in the past, back in the days of the railroad. So that's sawmills. And I'm sure there are petroleum products driving those saws. And so they're going to look back that far, at least. So the first step is that desk audit, they will examine whatever documentation is available, come to conclusion about the probability of contaminants. That is the conclusion of phase one. That then goes transmitted to the state. The state after three to four weeks deems, it's complete. And then at that point, the buyer enters into what's called the Bralla process, which is the Brownfield reuse and environmental liability limitation. Exactly. Thank you. Let's see. Is the audio coming through? OK, I just got somebody just texted me. OK, good. Yes, what Robert said. And what that does is if you go to that process, which is a next step, then you are relieved of state level liability for cleanup. The process will provide guidance and funding for both the examination and for the actual cleanup itself. So after this phase one is done, phase one is the desk audit, then the next step is phase two. The first part of which is a consultant would put together a work plan to figure out, based on the documentation they've got, what might be there, how to sample the building, how many holes to drill, where, what's in the ground, what in the walls, the air handling system, all of that. And then the second part of that is the actual sampling process, where a contractor would be brought in to do all that work. There is state funding available to pay for all that. And the result of that would be a clear picture of what the contamination risk of the whole property is. And then the third phase is the plan for improvement, where you get contractors come in and figure out, OK, how much is it going to cost to take care of all these different problems? That whole process is easily nine months, maybe longer. Yeah. So this is what we've just learned this past week from Two Rivers. So at the end of that process, the buyer, whether it's us or anybody else, would be in a position to understand what's in the building, how to take care of it, what it's going to cost to take care of it. And the buyer can, at that point, back out and say, not for me, I don't want anything to do with it. And if that's the case, then the owner is then obligated to clean up what's been discovered. So here's again where my advice to you as a school board is to really take a close look at your obligations and liabilities for this process before you decide if you want to do it or not. But what we were told also is that in one second, one last point, the school as the owner already owns the liability for the process. So this process would not add new liability. That's what Sarah Ray told us today. So let me stop there. Talked a lot. You might have questions. Go ahead, Ethan. I have to remember what I was going to ask. Yes. Regardless of the transfer, is this something that needs to be done anyway, just as we own the building, whether we transfer it or not? Yeah. What Sarah told today, it's not required. I mean, you're under no legal obligation right now from the state because the state doesn't know what's there. I got you. If someone's aware of what's there, then there becomes an obligation to clean it up within some reasonable time frame. So this presents the option of us doing nothing. And this is me being devil's advocate just to look out. If we do nothing and do not present it as a sale to anybody, we are not liable and no investigation happens. I just wanted to put that out there. Yeah, that's my understanding. OK, that's the understanding. It sounds like we do need to get our lawyer involved in this to find out what are legal. And I very much appreciate both you and Roberts and the committee's work, the detailed work on this, because obviously this was going to come up somewhere and much, much better to have it be now than further down any road. So yeah, very much. Thank you. Go ahead, Robert. Yes, I did ask the question, and Sarah is going to research. If we did demolition, that possibly might trigger a need for environmental assessment, probably doing absolutely nothing, but then you'd still have to heat the place if, well, you could let it just go. But I have asked that question in the past, and we need to check with the state to see if that's even an option, because they may require us to continue to heat it. They may not allow us to let it go to pot. So I haven't gotten an answer on that. I'll let that slide, but I'll try and follow that up. I remember hearing that before. Right, but I haven't heard that. I wasn't that we weren't, we couldn't actually, we might not be able to, like, the Department of Ed or something like that, might have a say in whether we can actually let it. And I just want to repeat to anybody who's listening or for the recording, this in no way indicates any preference on my part as far as what happens to the building. I just think it's always very important to explore all the possibilities of what each new part of this process brings. So we have, we need to get our lawyer involved to look over this document, correct? Is there anything else we're taking away from today, aside from this knowledge of this process and the length of the process? Now, just one other thing is just the recommendation to speak that someone speak with Sarah Rae, do you have a more detailed background on the process? You're getting the second hand from me. I'm certainly no expert. And it's always better to speak to the source. Could the next committee meeting be a meeting with her? Yeah, sure. Well, no, I guess that's all right. It's a board meeting. It's not committee. Committee is to do with the energy efficiency of the entry school, getting a little confused what committee we're at, what meeting we're at. Jamie? Just so I'm clear, I remember originally that this environmental study had to do with trying to seek out grant funding. Is that accurate? It isn't necessarily a requirement of selling the building for a dollar to the town? I think as a practical matter, it's going to be required to get the confidence of the voters to accept the building. And my concern is that the building, I've already heard from several people, including one of the select board members, that they're very concerned that the building is contaminated and you can't deal with it. So let's not take the risk with it. I think that there are other people in the community who feel the same way. I mean, we know from the Black River study there's asbestos. PCBs is all in the news. The oil tank has been discussed. And who knows what else from chemistry lab and whatever else might be in the building. But so my opinion is that it'd be well to clear this issue up in advance of trying to mount a vote in the town. Ethan, as is Henry. Go ahead, Ethan. Oh, I'm just savoring the silence we're all dealing with right here. This is big. This is a, yeah, just big. Okay, so it's from sitting down, some of us, sitting down with Sarah Ray. And can you forward, at least me and Jamie, contact information, email, whatever. Happy to do that. Set up a conference with her. And where is she? I'm gonna need whatever document you sent to the board before to our attorney, because I don't have a copy of that. Yeah, I'll send that in. If I, I'll convert it to a PDF and both documents to a PDF. And if you do need the favor, Jamie, if distributing it once I sent it to you. While I'm on, I wanna point out that strictly speaking, it's only the first phase that needs to be done before applying for federal grants. But as a practical matter, I think we need to, if we're going to sell it to the town or to anybody else, we'll have to go through the process. And really, I'm sort of of an opinion that we don't want to bury our head in the sand. This is a liability that we had all along. So keep in mind, we may have to go through a similar process when we're working with the, some of the work on the elementary school, like digging up the tank and that sort of stuff. If we're gonna get, we may need to have some, and I'm not sure yet, but we may need to have some environmental assessment. Well, and also remember that this does, although it sounds quite alarming, we did have kids in there three years ago. So we're not talking about that this is a, really has this toxic waste dump. That's right. To put it into perspective. Thank you. Thank you. And I would look forward to reading the information that will be provided the PDF on this. I mean, this goes without saying, it's just, wow, I wish somebody told us about this a year and a half ago when we were trying to put it out to real estate agents. I wish they just said something like, cause they must have known about it. Somebody must have known about it. We could be so much farther ahead of the curve. Okay. Pointless to say, but I had to say it. I understand. Okay. Is there any further questions or comments? Yes, Robert, go ahead. Yes, why don't we put this on the agenda for next meeting on the 7th and allow some time for it? It may be that we have to have a special meeting for this at some point. Yeah. I think it's reasonable, Jamie, that you and I could meet with this, Sarah, right before that meeting and possibly with our lawyer and have something to, we'll have something to bring to the board. Great. Any further discussion on this discussion item? I just wanted to mention that all the hazardous things that you're speaking about were part of a renovation that I just completed. So this is not, you know, it can, it's scary, yes, but it doesn't have to be that scary. It really, you need to do the testing before you get too, too worried. They asked best this, we know where it is. We've been, you know, had that under control for a while. You know, you can manage that and still have school in there even if you have asbestos. You know, the PCBs are unknown. The stuff we had was cocking and it leached into some blocks. So we had to cut some block out before we put the new windows in and frame them in. That was not, you know, insurmountable. People take out oil tanks every day and do soil mitigation efforts. So I'm not, I wouldn't, you know, raise the alarms just yet until we actually do testing. And the report may come back very much in our favor. That is an option. Yep. Thank you a lot for putting that into perspective for us that you have done this with other schools recently and it's not as scary as it seems. Okay. Thank you. George. All right. Is there any public comment? Pat, do you have any comment? I mean, Pat Harvey. No, I don't think I have any comment especially since the RSUD is going to be conferring with their attorney. I just, I'm just gonna let that dog lie right where it is for the moment. And we will have discussions further down the road after you've made your decision about which way you're gonna go. If you're going to hold our hand through this process or continue to hold our hand through this process, I should say. Thank you for what you've done so far or if this is where we terminate the relationship. So that's, you know, I'm just gonna sit still and wait until the time is right. Mm-hmm. Okay. If there's no other public comment, is there any other business? If not, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So move. Seconded. All in favor. All right. Thank you, everyone. See you in it.