 I'm going to call the meeting to order at two minutes, two minutes after five. We do have three members of the Select Board here and Liz Scharf on the Zoom. We have Eric here and we have Dorenda and we have three guests. Would you introduce yourselves, please? John Christian. That's Jay Hutchins. Okay. Michelle Johnston. Thank you, Michelle. Thank you. And on the Zoom we have, who's Sarah? On the Zoom we have... And Shelley. Welcome, everybody. And here comes some members of the fire department. Welcome. So as you can see, looking at the agenda, Sarah and I amended the agenda today in light of the weather forecast and put the planning commission off until our next meeting. And we also put off reviewing the proposals for asbestos abatement for the FEMA buyout at Rich Road just to try and shorten up the meeting a little bit. Other than that, are there any amendments to the agenda? I have one amendment, which is before we start the meet of the minute, I just, meeting the meat of the meeting, I just have a few remarks. So if there is nothing else, I will do my few remarks and they really, they really center a fact that I am delighted that Dorenda is sitting here this evening and made the decision to resend her previous letter. And she's here. And I look forward to working with her. And I know the rest of us do as well. And the other thing is I want to have it be noted in our record that none of the confusion, unhappiness that we experienced with regard to her position had anything to do with the work she was doing. There's no question that she does an excellent job as treasurer. And I'd like that to be reflected in the minutes. So that's it. Thank you. Welcome, Dorenda. So with that, we need to approve the minutes of May, June 20th and 27th. I'm sorry. Oh, okay. June 20th and 27th. Regular select board meeting and special select board meeting. Is there a motion on the regular meeting? Do you want to pair them together? We can pair it together. Sure. Make the motion. But I don't remember. I know I came to the special one. It's easier. Okay. I'll make a motion to approve the June 20th meeting minutes. Second. Victor. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded to approve the June 20th minutes. All those in favor. Anybody opposed? You're abstaining. She wasn't. She wasn't here. Okay. So that's right. You're the world traveler. Yes. I opposed. I'm sorry. I opposed. Opposed or abstained? Opposed. Okay. Okay. So I'm not sure with that. I'm not sure we can approve the minutes. If it's only two. No. Yep. We don't have a third person. I don't think. I think we can do it if we have three, right? But we don't have a third. We have three voting. We have three voting. We have three voting. No, I think we're okay. Okay. Majority. Yep. We have a motion on a special meeting on the 27th, please. Okay. Thank you. Seconded. Okay. It's been moved and seconded to approve the minutes on the June 27th meeting. All those in favor. Aye. Aye. Seconded. Okay. Opposed? No. We've approved the minutes. Thank you. Okay. The big news for this evening. Highway report. Reviewing the historic flood. Assessing repairs and assessing required resources. Considering hiring an outside contractor to be in root. What are you going to do? Agenda first. Oh, we never approved the agenda. No. I'm sorry. Would you move the agenda, Randy? Okay. Seconded. Seconded. Okay. All in favor. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Keep me on the straight now, Randy. Good job. Okay. Highway report. I was in the middle of my sense, but I think to be reimbursed by FEMA assigned to repair and driveways and town road intersections action likely. But who's up? Very well. Okay. Okay. So. We're probably all aware center road is passable. Roof road is accessible by both ends. East Hill is passable. Shady, real molly soup was passable. Culver is passable from the top, but towards the bottom, it gets pretty rough. But cars can make it. Can I clarify that? Eric, I don't think cars can make it now. They can't. I was just wondering. Cars can make it now. They can't. I was just down there. Okay. So we're, we're at just trucks now. Below that. By Warren road, we have a slide off where half the road is down. We've made a lot of progress in a short amount of time. For the most part, we're just working on getting everything access that emergency services. Yeah. That's our call right now. Yeah. We're on Wood and Macy right now. Yeah. What's the next priority after that? Culver. Okay. You're going to talk about the hiring stuff contract? Or are you? Can I just ask one clarifying question about Culver? Because right now you can't go down anymore. Like people were coming up and now there's like this chasm. So there's no way to get over that giant place that fell. Eric, but just between East Farm and Sarah's house. And if you know that it just passed the chaplain's house, that yellow house. There, that was a one lane. And it was crumbling on both sides. And I didn't, I don't know if you had a chance to add any fill because I'm afraid that any major thing is going to then degrade that and not make that possible for our one access out. I did this morning. Say that again. No. This morning. This morning. You put something in there this morning. Oh, great. Thank you. For everybody could speak up a little bit. The fan makes it, I think a little. Thank you. Yeah. So. You started started to ask me about contract for Culver. Yeah. Yes. Eric has been talking with John and John came tonight to give us a presentation of what they would do. The slide off on Culver Hill. Culver Hill Road. Yeah. We can move tomorrow start on Monday. All right. There's Eric and I talked about some large stone at the bottom to key it in and probably bring that stone up to the Culver outlet and then start putting fill in after that. Probably a type three type four stone to start with and behind it will probably put a smaller stone like a type two just so it can get bigger stones. Got a lot of boys are going to stuff wash rule and get a single laughter. They'll put some fabric up against the bank going out and get in there and cut it down a little bit, bench yourself in. That's a long ways down. It's good 25 30 feet down to the top door to solve. Right. And I figure it's going to take anywhere from 1100 to 1500 cubic yards material fill. Yeah. I've talked to Northeast. I've talked to color. They have it for the bigger stone. And we'll just put in on the surface, put in 18 inches that's graded and six inches of that gravel. Gravel. Gravel. That's the same stuff we've been using on our roads. There were trees here before. So I don't know if you guys don't look at real up there or not. I haven't gone down there to look at it, but I'm familiar with where it is. I think probably we do need to put it. I don't think I have enough room to put some big rock like you did on the brick road years ago. You're going to be pretty steep on it. That bank is pretty steep as it is. Liz will be relieved to hear that. She doesn't want anybody flying off Cover Hill Road, right Liz? I'll tell you what, I want to take that cross in here yesterday. No, I wouldn't. Peter, I'm raising my hand. Yes. So I talked to John today about this and I think I sent some emails that Liz has understood. I attended the Vermont Emergency Management webinar for the day. I do it every day. Today we ask questions about FEMA reimbursement. You can go through the motions on this, but you've got to go through the motions on this Aaron. You've got three calls. This new hire is not to borrow the couriness to SAM.gov. Otherwise the FEMA will not reimburse us. Just going to go through the motions. Okay. Do you understand what I'm saying? So we need to get two other... Even if you don't reach the person, you just... Document that you did. I would say phone call and then she'll follow up by email. That's the best way to document it. Absolutely. We've just got to go through the motions. We've got to follow the rules. We don't want to be stuck with a huge bill we can't agree with. Right. Thank you. I thought FEMA was after we want to get the roads open for public safety, for emergency services and everything else like that. We just finished it up in Westford. They want us back for another one. The AOT, we're on 14 and 15. They want us to go to two other places tomorrow. Right. Well, we'll take care of the... Take care of the back room stuff. Right. You're recommending that we hire them, right? Should I still mobilize them? I already know Monday here. What's I get there as soon as you can? You know? Yeah. I can make the phone calls and document it. Make some calls tonight. You can't get a hold of anybody. You can't get a hold of them. Well, Cori's are... Saturday, but maybe you're not interested in working Saturday. What's that? The Cori's are open Saturday. Yeah. But maybe you're not interested in working Saturday. They've been putting in quite a week right now. Okay. We pulled off quite a few of our projects to do this stuff for the state and the towns. Right. We're going to Berrytown. We're going to Craftsbury Cabot area there. It's a better place like Warship. I know. Thank you. You know. And I gave Eric my hourly rates. I don't know if you guys want it. You need a certificate of insurance before we start? Yes. We do need a certificate of insurance. Eric, do you want me to send one to you at the town clerk? Send it to the treasurer. The treasurer? What's the email? Do you have any rough idea? I mean even rough, rough, rough idea of what you think it's going to be? Take 1,500 yards multiply it by $45, $50. And you got 20 feet of 24 inch pipe or 40 feet of 24 inch pipe put that by $50 a foot. How many feet? 40 feet. We're going to have to riprap the inlet a little bit. He's a riprap fourth. I mean just going off the OT prices, you know it could be $85 a yard put in a type type 4 stone. Jesus, that's going to be what is that, 90 feet long down there. It's you figure 4 feet deep we're going up about 10 feet. You got a calculator? He's working on it. It's 133 yards times 85, you said? 85. You got your fabric there, probably figure 500 square yard roll at $3 a yard. I'm trying to figure as high as I can for you guys figure, figure the mobilization at $7,000. You're going to have probably 323 may have a 321, because you're going to have to double bail it. I'll have to have a 315 with a risk of doing some of the trench work. We're going to have a D4 that's the smallest dose we've got and then a vibratory roller. You guys got any waste material anywhere that's got a top sill and crap in it, so we use rubber material on the soap to help hold it. So if you did ditch it in front of whatever. It would be a little bit of a pit but not really a hole. So that's $90,000 without the equipment. Yeah, well you're probably right. I figure it high. I mean, I know we've done it before and you know, give a higher rate and then you come in a little bit lower. I'd rather be high. All we're looking for tonight is just a dartboard, a general idea of what it might be. We know it's a big number. Do you want to do one on Brook Road? I figured out about I throw $30,000 on it right now. Yeah. We've got the culvert for that. You go to the 30 inch bite back in. 36. That's the same size that's there. You want to go to 48? Use of Biden's money. That was one of the questions that I had coming into this is, you know, areas where we've got failure and we're looking at upgrading whatever we can to prevent future. I couldn't get 48 inch bite. I've got 60 feet of it. If you want to sell it, we can put it in. You know, we did an intersection up in Eastmont player through the 14 North and Route 2, okay? We had a whole job done. We had all the recesses done in the pavement for line striping. All we had to do was line striping. We had that storm come. They had a 36 inch pipe there, 30 inch bite. They upgraded it to 42. Yeah. This is the time. I mean, if we're ever going to do it, this is the time to do it. That's for sure. The hole is already there. It's deep enough. You got a good place to bury a soul. There's a key of soul in there. No, they got it. They got that out, did they? Finally. Okay. Well, thank you very much. That's great. We'll make those phone calls to the paperwork in the background. Yeah. Start Monday. You got a place to put your machines there, so a place you can get them out of the way? Yeah. Well, you're not going to travel at that lower part of the road, right? We're going to some end for Route 2. Right. Route 12, I mean, yeah. Okay. Well, there's a 2 in there. Yeah. Route 12, yeah. It'll be confusing. All right. Okay. Good. You're all set, Eric? You're all set. Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks for coming to our meeting. Well, thank you for the work, fellas. Yeah. Other needs a new address. Before we move on from this, one of the things that comes to my mind is all the responsibility that Eric's got right now. If it would warrant having somebody focus on just all the documentation. If we've got to hire somebody to help Eric out managing all of this. I like that idea. You guys want daily reports? I think the more documentation, the better. I mean, from what I've read through some of these emails coming, as far as documenting for FEMA reimbursement, they want GPS locations, photos pre-post, lengths of road, sections of road, how far, roughly? So I think, you know, I was just after that, you know, your time is better spent out there managing your people and getting progress made out in the field. And I just felt like it's going to be a reimbursable expense but looking at having somebody kind of manage the back end for him so he doesn't have to and creating a successful path forward for the town to basically just hand stuff over. I talked with a little bit. Victor probably knows some people dealing with the state, people that might be willing to do that kind of project management type of stuff, but I think it would be well worth looking at trying to pull somebody on to give you that. You ought to cite GPS before and after? I mean, I'd have to go back, but yeah, it makes sense. We can do that for you. We'll give you all the data. Yes. Keep in mind that your camera, if it's an iPhone and probably with an Android 2 has location services already on the camera, if you go under your settings, you make sure that the location services is tagged to be on. Then it has the GPS coordinate. So if we are to do that, we need to do it right away sooner rather than later. So how do we accomplish that? Do you have, I mean, do we have people in mind? I can get some names. I don't know if Victor has names in mind. I talked with Sven. He was, you know, from his seat. If he doesn't know somebody, he probably knows somebody that knows a firm that's able to do that. But I can start trying to pull together some names and I don't, like I said, I don't know if you have some Victor through all your connections at the state level folks that have dealt with this through Irene maybe. Peter's construction out of Granby, Vermont has people that are that they will, I mean, if you ask. Well, all I'm thinking is if we're going to do this, we need to have that person on board first of the week. Yeah. So probably three names. Got it. So I'll pull together a couple names that I can and I'll forward those on to you, Sarah, so you can compile a list of the names and pass that off to Eric or Victor. So we can try to make that effort move forward. And that should all be reversible, right? Absolutely. I would totally assume so. Yep. So I think we should I think we should give Eric the authority to hire that person consulting with you and Victor. We don't need to have a special meeting to do that. I don't feel like we do unless somebody else you okay with that, Les? Yeah. I just want to get our ducks in a row and get moving on this and longer we wait the harder it's going to be and there's nothing worse than trying to put information together after the fact. Absolutely. So you'd be looking for somebody for full time for a few weeks? Yeah. I mean, I don't I don't even know as if I understand what it's going to take to make that happen. But I think you know, it's probably coordinating with the road commissioner and the road foreman and the contractors at hand. I've got to believe it's at least half to three quarter time. I would imagine maybe it is full time. I don't know. They're going to be a lot of they're going to be a lot of moving parts. So, yeah, I think it is full time for a few weeks. Okay. You want to make that motion, Victor? Yes. I move that we looking to and to hire a person to do the administrative work for for for the road crew and the work being done under FEMA on behalf of the town. Yeah. And this would be if we're going to do this, my recommendation is they do all the FEMA stuff, not just this project. Yes, I would I'd be fine with that. Yeah. Yep. Because Eric doesn't have the time to do it. Absolutely. So if we're going to do it, let's have somebody do it and do it right the first time and get our money on time and all that, right? There's a lot of work to do out there. Yes, indeed. So I think it's going to be ongoing for a while. We'll just have to see how it goes. Is there a second to that motion? Not yet. I'll second that. Okay. So the motion is I'm going to restate the motion the best I can. The motion is to hire somebody to manage the flood recovery work and the FEMA paperwork associated with it so we can be properly reimbursed. Could we use the word instead of somebody a consultant? I did administrator. How about administrator? Sure. Administrative consultant? Sure. That makes sense to everyone? Yep. With that, all in favor of the motion? Aye. Opposed? That was I or opposed? No, it was an I. Oh, okay. Thank you. Okay. I think that's good. I have one other question on the road. Hiring somebody. What are we going to do about all these driveways? I guess is the question. Liz had a thought on that today. I don't know if she wants to share that. You want to share that now? Sure. Yeah. So I got in touch with the League of Cities and Towns earlier this week because I'm sure all of you have gotten calls from neighbors and we in particular on Wolverhill Road lost a lot of driveways from the culverts as well as a lot of the road itself leading from the culvert as you've seen. And so I reached out to the League of Cities and Towns and someone got back to me and they read our highway ordinance and they said that our highway ordinance states that the homeowner owns the culvert and is responsible for the culvert. Maybe this is responsible for the culvert. Which in normal circumstances is true. So for example, if I kind of messed up my culvert because I was driving my tractor all over it or it gets clogged, we're the people who go in and take care of that. We don't ask the town to come in and take care of that. But she thought there was a case because all of these culverts are in the town's right of way presuming that the driveway goes directly to the town road that it would be wise for us to hire a contractor to do the driveway repairs for those driveways that connect the main roads or town owned plus three roads and have that bundled up into the FEMA request. And you know, Vic and I talked today about the, I mean, and really it was the argument for that is that the town really would probably prefer to have these done correctly, right? Not just willy-nilly someone going in with their tractor and That's a huge part of this for me is this is a chance to fix some of those driveways which are causing us headaches for Exactly. So some of the culverts are fine like mine was totally fine. It could be clogged. It could be used again. But that this is an opportunity but like my neighbor down the road has a rusty old metal one that was falling apart and failing to begin with. So this is an opportunity to replace the culverts that need replacing have one person do it well and then bundle that into the FEMA. She stated that for individual homeowners like me to navigate the individual assistance program for FEMA is going to be extremely burdensome and complicated for people. So I just want to state as an example just as we're communicating with townspeople if we decide to go this route and hire a contractor who will come and do people's driveways again it will be triage those who you know literally can't get out those who maybe are elderly or need you know whatever and that people like me who just did it because we had a literally a newborn baby that had to go to the hospital so we hired someone to come in and do like a one lane for us so that we could get the baby to the hospital our driveways not done it's a temporary fix we assume that eventually the town will get to it but we're not going to get reimbursed by the town for that money that we paid and if I want to I can try to do my own reimbursement with FEMA but I'm not going to bother right so I just yeah so anyway so I think that that's where we should head I think it's this is a much greater thing than like oh my culvert's kind of messed up I'm responsible for it this is like where the roads are gone and and this is an opportunity for us to fix it make our roads right not have you know fair weather people thinking they know how to do this and doing it all wrong and causing further damage to the roads so I have a couple of questions if someone like you has spent money to not redo your driveway up the hill but to make it so you can get in and out of your driveway why wouldn't we be willing to assuming they have pictures and documentation and all the stuff why wouldn't we be willing to submit that the town maybe you would maybe you would but I think that what we what we're trying to and here's the thing you're going to have to continue to work on my driveway eventually or this contractor is going to eventually have to because it only has one of the two culverts in the other part of my question is I think what we need to do is and correct me if I'm wrong guys but not try and do final repairs initially I think we need to get out there give people access to their houses and their property and then go back and finish up and do the proper job and I don't want to do it twice you know you kind of got to walk a line but if we can get the culvert in and just make it so they can get in and out and then go back and finish it up later I think because otherwise I mean I think there are hundreds of driveways I kind of just driving around for half an hour I counted 75 driveways are you going to repair the whole driveway no no the culvert area where access is the rest and this is not like my neighbor of the road who has his own driveway off of our private driveway we're not fixing that right this is literally those that are attached and in the town right of way and I think that you're right Peter that you know sort of doing these temporary fixes is a good way to go with the intention of making them right eventually right and I don't know Sarah that's going to be a question whether or not I mean certainly we're going to keep our receipts we have pictures and everything whether or not we can bundle that into the request is another I don't know the answer to that question can I say something yes so obviously this is an issue with all of the retail that's going to experience extreme flooding so before we do this this would be a good idea for Eric and Vic to contact VTrans and find out what other towns are doing about this and you just have to get the message across that if you've got a crappy driveway like my neighbor across the street has a really bad driveway you know fixing that junction is not going to happen before you fix your driveway but there's a lot of misunderstanding going on I'm getting emails from people saying look at my really bad driveway you know but you own it and it's also kind of affecting the road so there's a little communication here but otherwise when I talk to FEMA we got to be very careful how we roll this out because people are correct but when I talk to FEMA today FEMA's number one concern is or events number one concern is fix everything you can now right away as soon as possible they're going to give you a little bit of a waiver to get you don't extend out RFPs and fix that if you had to hire people do it get it done that's what they want so you guys are on the right track so the question is Sandy has a question I'm sorry Sandy thank you I wanted is there an opportunity for the town to have larger culverts put in place because some of the culverts going into the from on driveway seem to be very small and cannot accommodate the volume of water that's been coming in quick answer to that is yes we're going to do this we want to right size that again is the reason for us to manage this so we can do it correctly where there need to be bigger culverts bigger culverts etc the minimum size that's allowed is 15 inch there's no more 12 inch anymore did you hear that Sandy so yeah the whole advantage of doing this and going out on a limb a little bit assuming we're going to get you know we're going to get reimbursed is so that this can be done correctly we have problems all over town with driveways all the time where people have put in culverts incorrectly people have built driveways incorrectly this will give us a chance to build a dip so the water runs off to the side doesn't run into the road have the proper culvert there and it's not that nothing's going to be forever but yes this would make a big difference so who or what group of people would we hire to do that work gentlemen I mean there's enough work across the town where obviously Eric will need to be dealing with multiple contractors you know depending on the availability I would think it would need to be multiple contractors yeah I mean are you going to hire one contractor as suggested or are you going to hire multiple the only trouble is somebody's got to manage multiple try is that something that goes to this person that we're I mean ideally anything that that covered under this FEMA you know project if you will would run through the two of you and this project manager administrator whoever you whatever you want to call them but ideally between the three of you everything would kind of funnel through and I mean that's where you know just understanding the field work that you've got ahead of you and and getting this tied in you know you really need to be able to rely on that person to work with some of those subcontractors directly I think there's there's a handful of people that probably would do it in the town I think I think we need to hire assuming they're assuming they're one or two man shows we're not hiring somebody who has a crew and multiple machines they got Ray Hickory and John Vicarad yeah yeah they know how to do it right yeah yeah but you know what you guys know the capability of those people they're capable of that yeah yeah same rules apply in some cases they've already done some of that work in terms of emergency repairs you know and if there's nothing saying that you can't reach out to the three or four and hire three or four of the people that you reach out to depending on their capacity so right now Ray Hickory is pretty busy with the pond for the next few weeks and yeah but we can reach out certainly there is two or three people the problem of not having it done or already started now is the we couldn't they couldn't get material and then they couldn't get the material if they got it to where they wanted it oh I know that's getting better yeah well the first thing is just to have people be able to get in and out of their driveways and the people who have to reconstruct their driveways they're going to have to work on that themselves but excuse me isn't that the whole idea of getting FEMA FEMA wants you to do it they just want you to get so people can get out and out of their driveways people can get up the road and then we can come back and fix it it's not finished grade that's what I've read I have understood it that's the good question do you have a spec how to put it in the culvert yes it's part of our driveway a little dip before if your driveways above the road you're supposed to have a dip I'm the only guy in town that has that so many driveways mine in 50 years well that's exactly what I'm talking about by doing this and controlling this process we can fix that you have to follow this you know this thing this is the new normal with all this rain global warming you got the opportunity to fix it we're talking about fix it right we should respect so there's no question on how to put it in and someone can come and check it I know those guys are great and I'm not taking anything no I agree and I would just make a side comment which is having been driving around the last few days and looking at some of the places where we have ditched and especially where we put in that ditched stone boarded that ditched stone work and I know that's expensive to put it in but man oh man there was I couldn't see any excess washing or erosion or anything at work like a champ and we've spent a lot of money a lot of money doing that and boy at work and also some of the places where we have put in larger culverts they didn't fail this time and it ends in the long run so I think we need a motion to do that okay oh I was to the motion and I had another question oh I'm sorry go ahead right in front of my house on 31 East Hill Road there's a big culvert that goes underneath the road and there's a big deep spot where the water pools and over the years that's things filled up with sand several trees were cut as they fell across the road and there's stumps in there there's trees in there and water was going over the road this time so I mean that has to be looked at too yeah yeah yep oh there's you know the good news is right now nobody's going to complain if you're pulling trees out of Brooks and streams this is the time to do it we did a lot of that in Irene I would write down the brook with a skitter and cleaned out a lot of those trees and the fishing was good the next year yeah so anyway we've got an opportunity to make things better but in the short run we need to get things so people can get in and out and all around Victor so the motion would be to hire contractor contractor or contractors that are willing to work on driveways to get to get access for the for residents to to access the town highway can we be specific about class 3 roads that sounded like that was a pretty important distinction making this as clear as what wouldn't we do a class 2 or a class 4 anything about a class 3 or above um I think we would do class 4 okay can we also say we also say within the towns right of way so that people aren't thinking that we're going to be doing there because a lot of people have shared driveways and their driveways are off that that's a good idea we can say that within the town right of way so that people can access their town highway and that the work at best best management practice to adhere to the state of Vermont drive typical妒 they're not reuses direct the okay all in favor of that motion yeah well and I okay okay all those in favor of the motion any opposed I just just tell you how I phrase this motion so that if that's okay with you. Go ahead. Yes. Okay. So, uh, hire contractors to repair driveway connections within the towns right away. Well, to allow for egress and ingress to town highways adhering to the state of Vermont specifications. Does that sound right? Yep. Should we say. Repair including culverts just to make it clear. We're doing the culverts. I think so. Yeah, I think so, too. Right. Exactly. Okay. Okay. Done. Well, anything else, gentlemen, we need to do tonight. Yes, Sarah. I mean, with regard to the roads, I mean, yeah, the road crew. So I'm getting a lot of questions about trash removal for people cleaning out their road, their houses on three mile bridge, et cetera. And I talked to the state of Vermont today and they said any debris left in the towns right of way is the town's responsibility. I know this isn't at a burden for you guys, but I think you probably remember tropical storm Irene and I don't know if we're looking at hiring another contractor, but I told people that you guys were meeting tonight. You would discuss this. Pete Ainsworth has said in the past during tropical storm Irene, the road crew said dump your people can dump this stuff on the lot across from his property. And he's fine with that. This if you want to do it with this flood, because the road crews busy with other things, you can come back and pick it up later. It takes a death. I just want to free. So can you think probably we need to do that? The question is whether the road crew has the capacity capacity to do that along with everything else or we need to hire a cell or somebody to come and pick up that stuff. Yeah, you repeat that, Sarah. That's all I raised my hand for. I just can get that very last part. I'm sorry. Called up and said in tropical storm Irene. He the road crew asked if they could people could dump their stuff on this lot across from him. And he said that's fine. And so putting it in front of your yards like they're doing in Monterey right now and it all looks like a big rummage sale. So yeah, room. So I just want to I want to understand the ask. Is it to be able to remove trash that has floated down through the flood zone and then deposited on their property or their personal belongings that have been damaged by the flood? That is the issue for you guys to decide. And the state I asked them the state that today, they said anything left in the town's right away is the town's responsibility to clean up. That was their answer. That's all I got. So it's gonna be primarily on three mile bridge road and some on route to that's and maybe lower Sunnybrook. Yeah, lower Sunnybrook. Yes. Well, I mean, I think it opens it up to anybody who's had water intrusion to their buildings. You know, I'm thinking about Center Road. There were folks that were talking about having water in their basements. And so it really opens it up to anybody that's had water intrusion into their basement. And quite honestly, how do you police that anyway? But I think it's an important distinction on on what's included in this. I just think we should be clear on what we know, but it's pretty tough to say to somebody whose basement filled up with water that you're not going to pay for their stuff or as if it came in from the river, you're going to pay for their stuff. I wouldn't want to be saying that to someone on the phone. I could tell you that. I think if it's in the town right away, we clean it up and we can decide whether we're going to clean it up ourselves or whether we're going to hire to sell it and come in and grab it. Can I just ask something? I'm a little confused. Are you saying that people are? Like I would never expect the town to take my garbage from my flooded house nor nor are we willing to take your garbage. Flood damaged property stuff, whatever it is, water damaged stuff as a result of the flood. So the old couch, which was down in the basement wreck room that probably now weighs a thousand pounds because it's sopping wet. That's eligible. Your your food scraps for the last two weeks are not eligible. Okay, but I guess I would never have known that I would never have put my stuff outside on the side of the road. I would hire a dumpster to come and take it, but you're saying we are now allowing everyone. We're going to tell everyone that they can just put their garbage on the side of the road from their flooding stuff that is damaged as a result of the flood. But look what's going on down there. Okay. I just didn't know that existed, that I could have the town pick up my stuff that was damaged by flood. You're up on a hill. You're not supposed to have flood damage. Well, I did have flood damage, but I'm not going to put it down on the side of the road. I was going to say it's good out here. I think when we right when we we advertise that, I think we're going to ask people will do it on an honor system. We have to. I mean, I'm not going to go down and pick through and decide what's eligible and what isn't. I can tell you that we're going to pick it up, whatever it is. If we do this, I would suggest if the board is going to support this to have folks be responsible for getting it to whatever site is deemed if it's off from this piece of property that this person's allowing and not task the road crew with picking stuff up off the side of the road and loading personal belongings into their dump truck or whatever, and then having to transport it. That would be my that would be my that's going to be. Yeah, Dorenda, should you think about getting a roll off put on to that site? So it actually goes into something instead of just being dumped on the ground? So here's so here's what I was thinking. You know, we have one roll off the town garage. We run down on three mile bridge and maybe one somewhere in route two if we can find it and say we've provided three roll off dumpsters for you to put your stuff in and then let Cassellah haul them away. And I don't know where we do it on where we do it on route two, but there must be some place. Maybe down by the shady road or something like that's Yeah, they could get it down to the fire department parking well, they could get down to the junction. Now I would think if they're on route two with it. Because that's where Pete's land is. Yeah, you need like one on 12 side one on this side. If there's damage over on route 12 shady real area, you know, that's I don't know, huh? There's there's damage in Putnamville Putnamville. Yeah, something like that. And then so probably four roll offs is what we're thinking. Yeah, three at least one, one down there, one of the town garage, one on the other side down by 12 somewhere. And if you wanted a fourth, you know, well, I would think if we had one over by Putnamville, one on through my bridge and one at the town garage. I think it should be in Putnamville. Yeah, I don't think we want to stick one out and say by the by the access area to true. No, no, I agree. Listen, I can tell you, I can tell you somebody who was a big user of Cassella in downtown Montpelier and I believe I have 12 dumpsters down there. There have been times when I think I'm doing half the trash for the whole city of Montpelier with my dumpsters. And we've tried locking the dumpsters, we've tried signs, we've tried everything. And if you do any of that stuff, all the people do is pile their stuff up next to the dumpster and that makes it worse. So anyway, there's no, there's no perfect answer to that. If you put the if you put the thing there, we'll say we'll keep it there for what do you think two weeks? Unless they're full before that. I'm sorry, unless they're full before that. Well, then they have to then we're going to call Cassella and haven't come dumping it back. I think I think a two week span for folks to be able to get their stuff out and get them to these dumpsters is adequate time. And then once they're gone, they're gone. Yep. So I will make the motion. I don't make very many motions, but I'll make the dumpster motion. Three dumpsters for a period of two weeks, which are designated for flood damaged waste, whatever that is. One to be in Putnamville, one to be at the town garage and one to be wherever Pete Ainsworth designates in his spot down there. So we're second to that motion. Second that. Okay. All in favor. Okay, we're spending we're spending money like we have it. But this is the time to do it. Well, I think people will really appreciate that. Thank you very much. That was that was question number two. Yeah. Okay, go ahead. We already have any independent contractor working on roads? We do. Okay. Yes. Because can we get a list of those because we have to have a certificate insurance in place? Great. Thanks. Other than what Sarah said, don't they for the town, don't they have to have some some paperwork in? Right? That's what she's talking about. Okay. Yeah. So but I don't know if we I know the usual people we have in place already. So we don't have to those. That's what we have. Okay. What about Daniel? I don't know when I'm in place for him. Is he doing anywhere? I saw his truck on one of the roads. Lower side book, I think. Yeah, he's not gonna work for us. He's not. Okay. So that's my question. I don't know who's doing work for the time and who's not doing work for the town. And I just want to make there's stuff going on right all over the place. All over the place. So yeah, if we can just whenever but I think like we have Johnny's, we have you know, Ray's, we have all of those Jason. I believe we have Jason. He just did the culverts for us. Jason's. Yeah. And I think that's about all we we have working for us. Okay, that's all I want to make sure. So how are we going to implement this? You're talking about the dumpsters? Where are they gonna go? Well, it sounds like two locations are pretty set. It's just the Putnam location that we've got to find a suitable spot for, right? Yeah. Start and bridge still closed? Is it open now? I don't think so. I don't think so. I think it was last time I saw it. That's not a good area. I don't know. I wonder if there's someone who'd be willing to have it put in the driveway. Yeah, I have I have some people like who have been flooded severely and I can ask them if they wouldn't mind. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Would you mind making that call, Sarah? No, no, no. I'll call her tomorrow. Okay. I just my only recommendation is that we maybe not advertise this too wisely that when people call the town clerk's office and say, are you guys doing anything about dumpsters? We can just say instead of making a big proclamation. That's a great idea. I know what you're saying, but I hate that. I mean, if we're gonna do it, I want people to use it. I don't want them to be piling their stuff up beside the road and expecting us to pick it up. So I know this results into more phone calls, which you're already flooded with, but maybe just advertising. If you've got flood damage property, call the town clerk. Perfect. Okay. And then and then they've got to make the effort to get to you to find out about what resources are available. Yeah. Um, the the other question that I had is we haven't tasked anybody with reaching out to Kasella's or to designate the locations and I just want to make sure we're all clear on who's tackling that and not assuming I'm happy to call Kasella. I'll communicate with you, Sarah. I'll communicate with you somehow. I'll call Kasella. I just want to say there's a big storm warning coming in like very soon where they're saying like one inch size hail and for some reason to go to the lowest room in your house. An interior room or the lowest floor of the building. There were some tornado warnings on the western slopes. Okay. The locations impacted include middle sex according to this warning. What time? It's coming. It's it's in Heinsberg right now moving 45 miles an hour. Um, right this moment. So I think very soon. We need to be quick. Okay. Somebody should also contact Pete. I don't mind. I'll call Kasella. I'll call Pete. What about that area where you get the dry hydrant? Is that? Yeah. Down by Du Bois. Right. It's a gate there. It's a Du Bois. Yes. Okay guys. We gotta we gotta move now. One other thing on the road. Guys. Yes. Shady real pavement. Yeah. Has been undermined. Oh. The new. So we've gotta peel it up. Yeah. Or at least that section. At least it's under only one level instead of where they doubled it up already. Okay. Well, we gotta do whatever we gotta do, right? Yeah. Just letting you know. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Setting the tax rate. Dorenda. Okay. I gave you the sheet for what I'm suggesting. Um, currently and this kind of ties in with the treasurer's report. Um, currently, this is where we stand as of right now with, um, where we ended up for year end. I know there's still money that still bills to come in. Um, so that will change a little bit, but, um, but I think we're okay. The other thing last year, we not knowing what was going to happen. Um, we added, uh, a penny or two extra to the gentleman. None of your. We added a penny or two to the, um, tax rate to cover some unknowns last year. Um, we didn't have to dip into that. So with all that extra, I believe that we can set our town portion at, uh, just under three cents. We all know the state came in with an 11, uh, point 1184 for the homestead tax rate. I mean the point, yeah, 1.7045 for the homestead and 1.6309 for non residential. So added together, we have a non residential rate of 2.3248 and a residential rate of 2.4468, which keeps us under a 15 cent increase to the residents. I only have one question and it's the same question I ask every year. Yeah. Which is, uh, we increased our fund balance by a pre substantial amount in part due to that extra, extra money we collected. Right. Um, is this a time to use a little of that fund balance? Well, that goes to the next part of what we're going to talk about. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Um, so, uh, with all this money that we're going to have to put out before we get any Dima money, we're going to need a fund balance. Yeah. Um, I don't doubt that. So, I would not suggest that we use any of that right now. Okay. Um, I think based on, uh, over a 10 percent increase in the budget that, you know, to only incur less than a three cent tax rate is probably a reasonable. Once again, it's the schools that are getting us. It's the school that's doing it. It's not the time. Right. When you say increased, you mean three cent increase, right? The, the town portion increased less than, um, three cents. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what we can tell. That's what we can tell our, uh, voters. Yeah. I agree because as much as all these big wigs who are coming up from Washington is telling us they're going to turn the faucet on, we know it doesn't get turned on that quickly. Yeah. Any other comments or questions? Liz, you're good. I can't find my family. I think they're out wandering the roads and so I'm a little worried. Otherwise, I'm fine. You don't have any questions about the tax rate. What's my question? No. Okay. Are you willing to make a motion? You're the tax rate lady. Tax rate lady. I'll move that we accept her in this, um, tax rate of whatever we said, 15 cents. Whatever the motion is, I'll make the motion. Well said. Okay. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. I'll second it. Okay. Thank you, Victor. All in favor? Guys, that's one of the most important things we do every year and, uh, I appreciate the work you did, Durinda. And also your, your comments make good, make good sense to me. I was, uh, and I, and believe me, I know there's more to come, but I was, I was very pleased to, uh, to see that, uh, to see that year in report. Um, do you have anything else for us? Not for the pressure report. Okay. Let's see if we can quickly consider options for purchasing a used rescue vehicle with 135,000 for 135,000 from the North Howard Park, uh, using ARPA funds. Action, action likely. I was thinking about this earlier today and I was thinking, oh my god, you know, is this the right time for us to be doing this when we've got everything we're, we're, we're facing here? But in thinking about it, and I've been thinking about it all day, I still think this is a good opportunity to solve a problem for the fire department. And I also, uh, noticed that I think for the first time in history, the fire department budget is underspent. So there's, in a way, a little bit of money there to help us with this. So I'm supportive of, I'm supportive of doing it. And I, uh, we've got members of the fire department here to answer questions. If anybody has any questions or I can try and answer. Um, I have a question. Yes. I just wanted to verify, we're sitting on $345,000 of the remaining ARPA funds that we haven't already, uh, pushed out. Is that correct? That's about right, yes. And somebody from the fire department, uh, has looked this vehicle over thoroughly. Jeff and I both have. Yeah. Questions that I have. Can I just clarify, Randy, when you said that we have pushed out, you mean that we'd like reserve? We don't have only $135,000 left. No, we have $345,000 remaining currently. But we haven't committed. We've, we've spent $170,000. Okay. So looking at, looking at this, it would leave us with $210,000, uh, of ARPA money that we could still allocate to other uses. Okay. Anything else? Anyone? Dorenda's got a question. Oh, I'm sorry, Dorenda. I'd like to make the rec, recommendation that we don't use the ARPA funds at this time and let it ride for the year we pay for it with the money we have in our fund balance. And maybe by the end of the year, we'll have enough that we don't have to take that loan or anything, or we'll still have the ARPA funds we could dip into. Can we, if we use the fund balance for this and decide at a later point in time, is that an allowable expense of the ARPA to reimburse for that? Well, we don't have to say what we've used ARPA funds are until next March. So, I think, I would just, let's, I think you're better off not saying you're using it and use some of this money like we did when we bought the pickup truck. And then you can always make the decision to put it in ARPA. Yeah. Okay. I like that. All right. I like that. I'm good with that. Keep me up, Liz. For clarification, talking about using all the money, just buy it out right now. With town funds. With town funds. Okay. Yeah. I would, and if nobody has any other questions, I'd make that motion to use town funds to purchase this vehicle from North Hyde Park for $135,000. Let's start with that. Okay. Thank you. Is there anything else we need to know about this far department before we do this? So, the one thing on the truck has the lawyers, we need to put a deposit down through some type of paperwork as a lawyer come up with something to that. I mean, I can call them tonight and say, hey, we're, it's, we're going to give you $135,000 when your truck's available. And they were saying we'd like at least a deposit down. Yep. Do you know what they're looking for, for a deposit? I don't know. I would think 10% is, is that unrealistic or? I mean, we can do. I don't know. I can ask them what they want for a deposit and get back. Just because I was, I was like to take the high ground. So, I would say, is a 10% deposit okay? Rather than if they say what they want for a deposit, I'd say 50% if it was made. Getting it in September or something? Their truck build comes in August. They're, they're progged at a 60-day truck build. So, if we're lucky at the end of September, October time frame is what. Now, how do we protect ourselves in terms of. So, that would be in the thing if, if something happens to it, you know, in the. We'd have to negotiate. Yeah, well, we would have it if it gets, gets in an accident before we take transfer then. I would, whatever it, whatever it is that it's in substantially the same condition. Right. As it is when we give them the deposits off, the transmission blows up, if the engine blows up, if they roll a damn thing over, whatever it is. And that's, that's a rough. I would look at the lawyer we put together. I would, I would say something to, you know, include a satisfactory inspection. Yeah. Of the vehicle before. And I have no, I have no doubts that they, if anything happened, they were going to tell us about it. And if they're. I know, but we just got to. I know, and that's why I said that. I don't want, I don't want to get in a fight with them when they say, oh, you know, the bad news is we just heard it needs a new transmission, you know, or whatever. That's, that's what I'm, I'm all fine with that. And I'm sure they will. I'm sure they want to do that as well. So, so we don't have, we don't have a standard, no, we don't buy enough stuff or sell enough stuff to have a standard purchase agreement, do we? We could probably copy one from, no, we bought enough equipment. We could probably modify something we bought. Okay. Let's not scare them to death though. No. I mean, something they probably could do. I just, I just wanted a language to protect ourselves. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So the other thing I have that's, that's as a result of our weather thing, the fire department is getting used more for operation. So we, can we just finish this before we go on to another topic? So I'll amend my motion to include a 10% deposit along with a satisfactory purchase and sales agreement that includes a clause to require a satisfactory mechanical inspection of the vehicle prior to final payment. I will die. Uh-oh. Because it's plugged in but that end isn't plugged in. No. Over here. It's not connected to anything. Oh. What happened? It's not connected to this. I think our, our creative wiring here was, so that goes on. It just, that end wasn't plugged in. Did the computer die or did the computer die? Okay. The computer died because it wasn't, it wasn't plugged in. Oh, I see. Okay. Well, well, that's the way that goes. Can we bring it back? Oh, once it reboots. Once it reboots and... Well, let's wait to vote until it reboots. How about that? How about we just, it's, the storm is getting really, really close. Uh, and you're, and you're on and you're recording, right? They just don't have video. They could have audio. If you turn your audio on. I don't have, I don't have the mic in front of me. Is there a retrofitting for this vehicle after you get it? Just, just to put our radio on it. And it's, yeah. And as we go, they have one highly different frequency. Yeah. I'll bring this back. And the name on the, so... Right. Mine. Yeah. Very minor. Because all the, all the lights and the sirens. Yeah, okay. No. Because I know only buy a truck. No, they are to do the hard part. They're going to think we got struck by lightning. Yeah. Just right in front of you. Not too far from it. I'm not hearing anything. But it looks like it's splitting on the radar. On the radar. Yeah. That's what I... It's a baggie. Yeah, that'd be good. Why is this not... Yeah. Because everything, I think, just kind of... That should be on. Well, this, this should be on. This right now is just, all we need is the TV on. And I don't know why the TV is there. Here it comes. Eight, nine o'clock is what it's going to be really about. Thank God. Let's get the hell out of here. All right. Okay. I'm working on it. I hate driving through storms. Hey, is it okay to drive? Why don't you wait and I can turn everything off? No, no, no, no. No, I can do that. I'm not going to be a baby. Oh my. Stolen final updates. Seriously. I'm not the target. It's a 12-hour update. I can turn everything off. Yeah. I think we're, I think we're done with the Zoom, unfortunately. So let's, let's vote on the motion. All those in favor of the motion? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Liz would be in favor, I'm sure. But we've got three. We've got majority here, so... So, boys, you're good. The other thing, the other thing that the fire department is concerned about is getting a water softener in down at the fire department as soon as possible, which is estimated to be how much? 4,600. And we've been an operation center. This is our third time and we're running the risk of opening again tonight and we need to have pot of water. And we were, we did have people, it was a shelter for people that got in an accident on center at midnight on Monday Tuesday. So that's, that's a water softener. Here we go. And a purification system to make the water potable. Just a water softener. Enders of filter. Welcome back. That's installed. Fine. We didn't get struck by, okay, so... I got scared. Three of us, three of us voted for the truck. You vote for the truck? I voted for the truck, yeah. Okay. Who first and seconded the motion on the truck? Randy. Randy. Victor. And we all approved it. So the question, quickly now on the floor is, the fire department is anxious to install a water softener at the fire department so that they can have potable water down there. The, this, this recent thing again caused a problem. You know, when you have people using that building and you don't have potable water. Okay. I was drinking the water at the fire station. So you're telling me it's not drinkable? You should report to the center of Vermont hospital in the next 24 hours for 10. I filled my water bottle and drank it all and I didn't die. Okay, that's good to know. So it's not as, as much a deal for adults but if you're continually drinking it, that's why we constantly have to have buying cases and cases of bottles. Okay. I see. Okay. Yeah. The toilet's like terrible. Say no more and it's better for the, it's better for the heating system to have softened water too and a lot better for the shower. Let's just share the money. Everything is better. They're in a new budget year. Yeah. We have, we have funds. They're out of their budget. I think they spent like 60% of their budget in this last year. Right. Yeah. 70. 70. First time in history, I think. So anyway, I will make that motion that we purchase the water, purchase and install the water softener. For the estimate that we... Yep. Yep. I can send that again if you need it, Sarah. I'll give. Dorinda probably needs it. Yeah. Second? So is there a second? Send you one. Victor? That's okay. This is... So it's moved and seconded all in favor? Aye. Okay. In light of the, in light of the impending storm, I'm going to adjourn the meeting unless there's something urgent. Yep. Which I meant to do when we set the tax rate. What is the board's thoughts about extending the first payment due to currently it's as of August 20th? Yep. Wonder if we extend the first payment to September 20th because I think people are really struggling and if we send out tax bills next week, which they have to go out next week in order for an August 20th date, that's just like... Okay. And we've got the money to bridge that gap, right? I'm hoping. We're using that fund balance little by little, Dorinda. Fund balance. But that's what the fund balance is for. Yeah. I'm going to make that motion. Okay. Thank you. Second. Nice. You're on. The tax, the first tax payment to September 20th. Okay. Is there a second? Randy? All in favor? Aye. Done. Okay. We do need to sign... Your idea, Dorinda. Your idea. Yes. And who rejected that, Randy? Yeah. We're going to move everything else to the next meeting. Yep. Can I just clarify? Are we having a select for a meeting on Tuesday? That's the plan. Yep. Okay. Does the road go out of the way? Eric is still sitting here. Yes, sir. Oh, I'm waiting. I wanted you to make a public thank you to the road crew for all of their work. Thank you. On behalf of the whole select board. But I just really appreciate you guys have worked very well this week. And I know that you've had to lots of phone calls and upset people and scare people and you guys have done a great job and... And please keep it up for another 20 minutes so we can all get home. Yes, sir. Thank you. Please keep it up for another phone box. While we recover from that. Okay, everybody. I'm adjourning the meeting. We are out of here. Thank you all for your time and attention.