 Right, we're going to call the middle sex select board meeting at five o'clock p.m. on Tuesday, August 1st 2023 to order. And we're going to welcome our guests. Do we have any guests on zoom. Yeah, we do. No, I see Orca. Oh, I see Scott I should. Hi, Scott. Welcome. Anyone else. Yeah, they're not guests. And who do we have for guests here. We would say your name. Samantha Bowden. Show me the show. Okay. Okay. And Eric. And Steve Martin. Here comes Kevin Thompson are telling us. On work on. He's coming up the steps. Okay. So we are going to approve the minutes of the July 18th 2023 select board meeting action likely. Do we have a motion. Okay. And a second. Okay, any discussion. Okay. Okay. Hearing none. All those in favor of approving the minutes of July 18. I. Opposed. The eyes have it reviewing, amending and approving the agenda for August 1st 2023 action likely. Is there a motion. To approve the amended agenda. Okay. Is there a second. Is there any discussion, Sarah? Is there something we need to know? Okay. Just the. Reviewing amending and approving. Okay. All those in favor. Of said motion. I. Okay. Opposed. Okay. Well, we have. Scooted up to 508, but it's really 504. It's everyone here from the highway department that you were expecting. So we can talk. Yes. Okay. Okay. So the highway department update road updates. FEMA RPA. Steve is here. Review and approve model contract agreement for all town road repair conducted due to the July flood for which FEMA compensation will be soft action likely. Take no way. Road people. I guess I'm going to give that briefing. Okay. Thank you, Steve. I'll start off with all the contractors. Dale Percy construction. They're on Brook Road. They have two more locations to rip rat the bank and brook to the road. And they should be finished this week. With all of their big work, maybe some minor touch up early next week with a little bit of finish gravel. And they will be complete. And they will be pulling out. All seasons excavating on lower sunny Brook Road. Tomorrow they're going to be putting in their second set of twin culverts. In that second location, there was legend there. So they'll be doing that tomorrow. They've got a little stone ditch lining to do. On the upper part of the road, a couple small culverts, but they're going to be most of their major work will be completed this week. Next week with minor cleanup seed mulch and the top gravel. Jay Hutchins on Culver Hill. All the culverts and the dips line will be completed this week. And they have some minor work and top gravel for next week. Government Hill Road. They should be complete this week. Possibly going into next week for some of their finished gravel, depending on the trucks. Norton Road. They installed a new four foot cross culvert. That will be complete by today's end. The culvert was in. They still had a little bit of ditch work and stuff to do there. And then they will be moving up. There's a pretty large washout just up the road from that. They will be completing that tomorrow and they'll be done on Norton Road. They've asked the town to go up and do some grading to finish that off. Jason Merrill. He was on McCulloch Hill Road. He completed filling some of the washouts so the traffic could get through. It was a lot of it was up by Vic Dwyer's. He went to Portal Road. Completed reinstalling a large culvert that was there. I believe that was a seven foot culvert. It needs to be replaced at some time in the future. But he pieced that together and patched it and did a really nice job and got that back together in a road in good shape there. Norton Road. He also installed a new culvert just on the start of Norton Road. And that's completed with the exception of some of the top gravel. And that'll be done by the town or part of some bid work that we're going to be putting together. Shady Real Road. Eric was going to have Jason Merrill over there on a new black top part of the road. Fortunately it was on the side that doesn't have the finished coat. But there's some wash out, some holes there so we can put it together so that Pike Industries can patch it and do their top coat. John Peacard and Ray Hickory both completed some driveway culverts. I haven't gotten any of the paperwork from them or from anybody else actually. So I've been after everybody to send that paperwork in so we can start reviewing it and making sure that everything is there that we need. And that's all I have other than one of the things that Eric and Vic and I plan on starting this week putting together some packages to put out the bid for the remainder of the roads. There's still a lot of damage on a lot of roads. And the town is not going to be able to get all that done. So we'll try to put the bid packages together that make sense so we can put it out a bit. Hopefully we can start doing that. We'll start putting the packages together but hopefully we can get it out to the contractors by the first of next week. For the rest of the work. Pardon? For the rest of the work you said? Yeah, for the rest of the work. So we'll put together bid packages. What needs to be done? The work that they're doing. I consider the emergency in the sense there's what they have been doing. People are in pretty large places. It's not where somebody's going to get stuck. It's where somebody might get hurt or killed if they go into some of these holes. So I'm considering that emergency work. Vic and I and Eric talked about that in the beginning. So that's where we're at. So I just have a question, Steve. The work that all of these contractors that you've just given the report, it's on, but none of it's finished work. It's just making it passable. No, it's going to be finished work. This stuff that you gave reports on today? Mm-hmm. Okay. Jordan, how do we pay them? Where does the money come from? Do we have enough in reserves to pay these people before FEMA gets us our money? We're going to start. Yeah. Because, I mean, they're going to probably start. I mean, we've already got bills and orders in there now and we're going to go as far as I can with what money I have and hope for the best. Might have to take out as far as short term as we need to be, but I think we're okay for right now. I was wondering, how does that, you said that you haven't got any paperwork. I assume you haven't got any bills? No. Bills from who? Contractors? We're getting. Contractors. Because we're getting bills for gravel and stuff. Right, but I mean the contractors are actually doing it. I haven't gotten anything from the contractors yet, but I am, we're getting like the colors we've paid, I think at least three bills so far from. Yeah. I think there's a bill in here for John B. Karnan. If that's got to do with the road work. No, I think that was just moving the excavator. So. Yeah. Then. There was even a, oh, Clemens, Dave Clemens. Yeah. He asked me, well I got a bill, should I send it to you? And I said, no, send it to Steve. Because he used, he used his excavator down there. Or one of the guys did. Somebody, he talked to me about that. Somebody used his excavator. Mr. Frank. Couple days. I don't know what they did. Or anything about it. Or if any pigeons were taking or anything. That's up to the select board. They, they, they were, you remember, I can't think of his first name, but I think it was Frank. Kevin. Yes. Remember when we were down there? Sorry, I didn't mean to point my finger at you. No, you're right. Remember when we were down there and he had, he said that he borrowed that and they were running that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That day, that one of the first few days that we were down there. Yeah. And it was borrowed from that day of Clementson. But anyway, so. Can I ask who operated it, though? Was he operating it? Yes. Yes. Okay, so we've got to have paperwork. We can't just, we can't pay anybody without this paperwork in hand. Okay. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah. And you mean this that we're going to talk about? No, I'm talking about, we have to have a W-9 and certificate of insurance. Okay. So if there's no insurance on it, he wouldn't, he wouldn't be, you know, a lot of those guys, you know, I mean. This is a requirement of them and not a requirement of us. But what about this? I understand that, but I'm just saying I bet a lot of these people, or some of these people don't have it. They have W-9s. Yeah, that's just a form you fill out. Right. But, you know, that's part of the paperwork that goes along with FEMA. That's why, you know, we, we made that clear a while back. Something to keep in mind, too, is no one asked them to do this. Right. Exactly. I think that's good. Yes, Randy. I think we touched on this in the last meeting when we talked about folks submitting for repairs that they've taken it upon themselves to move forward with, without direction from somebody authorizing it here. And we talked about if we were able to receive compensation from FEMA to cover those costs that the select board felt like, yeah, we'll submit it as part of our overall package, but it's not a guarantee to any of those people because we didn't request it. We didn't authorize it. And then the big question for me as I sit here listening to this is, you know, the FEMA folks want coordinates which we can get, but photos pre and post as well, even for these emergency repairs that we're dealing with. And if we're not getting the proper documentation for that compensation, then at that point it's, I guess it's questionable as to whether they would get paid or reimbursed for those efforts. Can I clarify, are these efforts that they felt like they were helping the town or this was on their own personal driveway? This was in the roadway. This was before we could even get down there to do work. I see, yeah. Like my neighbor was digging out the culvert that was just that kind of thing. And then they're asking for compensation for that. There were several, several people we saw several people out there with little excavators and stuff fixing like on Wood Road. Yeah, I know. They were fixing driveways because some of those people were told, you know, here again, it's like, you know, we hear on the news don't listen to the news, I guess. But some of our people were saying, you know, some of our government people were saying, well, you can get paid for it. So, yeah. Yes, Sarah. How soon after the event were these repairs made? How soon? Day or two? That actually, having sat for this whole team's thing, you can you have a better chance of compensating them if you can document that they did it within the first 70 hours after the event. After the flood. They will need insurance. They just will. Otherwise, they're not going to get paid. Okay. And the problem that we're all going to face is that FEMA's going to write a check for everything. And then in a year from now, they're going to come and audit everything. And after they're done auditing, they're going to hand the town of Biddlesex a bill and say these contracts weren't done correctly. Pay us back. That's what we're facing. Just try to keep that in mind. Okay. Do we know what like we had that submittal that showed, I think there was what like 30 pages of what FEMA pays for all kinds of equipment. Is that what they're going to pay? Yes, sir. I'm going to send you the link to the two and a half hour YouTube thing. Just watch it and talk about that. How much you're going to pay? You can use, you can Google as the Vermont Emergency Management person said you can Google the equipment what you can pay for the equipment, not labor because that has to come from our own policy but it has to but you can Google what an excavator costs for an hour or two hours. I got that. Is that what you're talking about? Yes. There's like 30 pages of listed all equipment. What I'm saying and as I understand now you haven't got any bills for any of this work. No. No labor bills yet. So if FEMA is paying $80 for a 30,000 pound excavator and these people are charging $150 an hour Yeah. Are we responsible for the rest of it? You know, FEMA is going to come in in a couple of weeks and they're going to have project managers here and you can talk to them about that. Those are the people who should give you the answers. Okay. Yes, Bridget. I just wanted to mention that money has come into Middlesex Community Fund that's designated for flood issues and not much money has gone out. So if we get into a situation where maybe a contractor isn't able to be reimbursed otherwise that's still $200 per household that they could get back. Okay. Thank you, Bridget. I also, Peter, I also think at some point in time as we work our way through this process we're going to have to face the reality that some of this stuff is not going to be reimbursed and that maybe we need to use some of that ARPA money to at least partially reimburse some of these folks but you know, until we can really get our arms around what it is and how much it is and who it is and all that I think we just have to we just have to keep saying assuming you give us the paperwork that we've requested you to give us we will do the best we can to get you reimbursed but we can't promise you we're going to get you reimbursed. And I believe that the FEMA is now allegedly reimbursing homeowners who repaired who paid for repairs on their driveway and so I'm actually going through the process to see how that's going to look because because we paid something and I just want to see if it how the process works so that if it works that is an option for people but they just have to do it in the next, you know, I think how many days did we get? 30 days to do this? Okay, they have okay, 60? Is it or? Yeah, okay I knew it was 60 for SBA but I didn't know if it was 60 for the regular FEMA Okay, so but my question is this Sarah as we're reviewing this and approving the model contract agreement for all town road repair there are people doing the work right now who haven't completed this yet is that right? No one has completed that yet so we're going to ask them retroactively that's the only thing that I think we can do you can either ask them personally do you think they'll bid out those projects this is part of they should sign the bidder should sign those contracts this is a kind of fast-acquired system whereby every town is needed to repair their roads right away we've entered a filed and request for public assistance 4720 through the FEMA portal and I ended the meeting yesterday and those two things mean that FEMA will now send a project manager to the town within the next couple of weeks but the project manager is going to meet with Steve and Eric and Dick and say okay what roads do you need to work on and every town is in the same position which is we've already started working on the roads and there's a part where FEMA says we consider this part emergency because Eric needs to get on the other side of town and then FEMA says now after 70 hours it's no longer emergency now it's post-blood recovery it just sounds in a hard position but if each project is bid is under $250,000 per road and you make the three phone calls and we put the bid out on the registry we are really doing the best we possibly can and you have a lot of contractors here that's really good you're not throwing money you're not getting your brother in law to pay the roads then we can make a good argument for that we just have to give them those contracts and say sign it they might say well I'm not going to sign it in which case that's fine but if we're going forward there should be those kind of contract signs that just helps support our audit during the meeting yesterday FEMA said the number one way towns have to give back money is through contracts you can't execute the contracts correctly it's the number way to get hit so try to execute a contract try to make bids try to make phone calls try to do the best you can well and it's in everyone's interest contractors well not every contractors interest to sign it but especially middle sex contractors that we may end up eating the bill if they don't sign this I just changed the ending so that if you guys designate somebody like you designate the the treasurer to sign the contract so this life board doesn't have to sign it every time and is this where did you get this contract it's something that worked on with Bob Ivermoulcom she is in the Marshfield is in the same situation to a much worse degree than we are that they were cut off and we needed to so she modeled that on the VLCT contracts of sample contract and then added some FEMA clauses gotcha yes Vic I had a question more or less for Sarah was when you said I don't know you said something about talking to somebody there was a meeting yesterday in Waterbury and there's going to be another one on Friday right these are all the same things when you file a request for public assistance you have to attend FEMA Webinar and so I did it online because that was my group there are going to be more too but you can also watch the YouTube video but you have to sign up so that FEMA sees that and then you go back into the 4720 and you click the box saying yes I have attended this meeting so we don't like Steve or you were free to attend any one of those they loved it and I also did it and I have the YouTube recording and the PowerPoint to kind of look at a little funky but you can watch the whole thing and I can send it to you guys you can watch it in your living room it's helpful I think it makes sense for Steve to watch it if you're helping with the FEMA paperwork did you get that email I do I haven't watched it though is the FEMA RPA application is that what we're talking about RPA stands for what okay so that's what you've submitted but we haven't actually you've just put us in the portal we haven't done any kind of like submission of anything yet you just say how much damage do you have I gave us a million dollars damage on the roads because that may not be a million dollars but FEMA is like if you would put 900,000 and you were 999 I'm sorry you're just getting that much so we put in for a million dollars of damage and we put for under a million dollars of damage for emergency services like debris whatever costs were incurred on the flooding things like that we're in the system Eric and I are both in the portal so if I die Eric can go take over there you go one more pot to wear I got a question for Dorenda if I could go backwards you said you've paid some or you've gotten some McCulloch bills did they send slips of that so we know they never send slips no I have a bunch of slips of this that's the same question I was going to ask is anybody because we have to have slips load slips as to what road they're going to that could be part of my nightmare trying to put that together with all the contractors and what went where so you have all the load slips well I should have all the load slips is that just from the town no okay yeah because I think now we I know in the last set of orders we've paid a bill and then we also I think there's three bills in here maybe yeah so I don't know if they got in this pay run or not but I I saw them come through so yeah there were three for McCulloch at the other end here I had the guys keeping the load slips and marking down what loads went where okay yeah that was something I was the question I was just going to ask because I just read that like last week I did that right from the beginning there so there's probably one more coming because the last I knew it was more like 60 so they got a small one so it might even be one more to render are you keeping some sort of spreadsheet that's like separate stuff for this flood so we're keeping we are there's several binders going around Sarah's keeping one binder for like all the requirements I believe right Sarah or something like that aren't you kind of files yeah we have a binder that has all the bills we're putting into it all the forms that have been signed and then Cheryl gave a binder to Steve that has equipment rates it has all the invoices has basically a duplication of a lot of stuff we already have so there's several copies around what we don't have are load slips or yeah something like that I don't know if we need them as long as somebody I've been keeping them Steve will probably need them when he puts it in and also the other thing to mention when we get down to rates of pay it's not just their rate of pay it's it's with all the benefits included so I'll have to get you that information Sarah just one other thing just while we're all here we need to get maintenance records for all the roads I don't know if those exist oh my goodness yeah so what people wants to see is if a culvert was blown out what was the last time that culvert was cleaned out hmm good luck with that one I will do what I can that's a good answer well, as Sarah mentioned you have to have before and after pictures and most of the residents are kind of fixing themselves who's going to maintain that if we're going to get audited in a year from now and we're going to have to put the bill should we be keeping a file and asking that to you in class I have a file that I have photos by address in each file so you are having people who are sending it and also was it a Jay Hutchins who did a drone yeah Jay Hutchins did that I've got one for McCullough if you need that everything footage from Merrill Drive up to the flood well, Jason had to park his truck the first night because it was all blown out so I've got video of that section get that to you Sarah, when people are sending you the picture does it come through with the coordinates on it? some do some do so what if they don't you know, we're doing the best we can yeah okay so you're not feeling like you have to get a coordinate on every picture and as long as we know where it is we can get the coordinates I know it's just no work no one's going to note that John Peacart isn't charging the town let's do this contractor A is in charge of the town preparing somebody's driveway that's the number one thing and do you guys feel like you need help do we need to hire someone to help you guys administratively on this you're talking to me do you feel like I think our department's okay because we're relying on everything coming in pre-coded and we're paying you right yeah okay and we sent we made three phone calls and an email in order before the town hired Steve just get that in okay so should we approve this is there any discussion that people want to talk about this application for contract for services can you also just designate people who could sign that contract yeah but has everyone looked through I just looked through the the first couple of pages the whole thing it's pretty standard right I guess my only worry was about paying them like you said we can take out a loan if we have to we have to I mean we have money available right now this is the only section here that like it's vague and what they're asking everything else makes sense to me a lot of it's boilerplate type stuff and flow down requirements from other federal contracts but where the invoicing billing it's not really there's nothing attached to that for them to enter so I have question about that I'm looking for there okay you want to ask well just if you look into the contracts I don't know if you went through this with the person that prepared this but there's a line item that is a bullet there's no bullet but it just says invoices and billing with a line for entry what exactly are they looking for there it's just an article page 2 of 15 it's under article 2 compensation and billing and it's in bold type with a colon and a line for entry take a contact name or something I believe they're looking for unit price or or a lump sum does that make sense well up above under compensations for the above services will be and then there's a couple lines there where you can describe what that is two sections down from that it says invoices and billing I think it's an address and maybe it is, maybe it's for contact or address contact name and address I thought it was vague and didn't really specify what we were asking for there so are they going to know what the cost is in advance not to fill that in that's what Dean wants well compensates for the above services this contract would just be for the winning bidder so it's going to be we're not going to ask every contractor so as Steve and Victor and Eric put together their bid packs for whether it's a section of road, a specified section or a road in its entirety then they'll price that, they'll enter that in here and then that's when they'll sign the contract they'll ask our local people who have already been doing that work to sign that too they're going to fill in probably what the price is yeah they'll have to I mean if you're going to ask people to retroactively sign this they'll have to take the aggregate of their billings and enter that in there just going to have to do the best exactly yep so can I just have a look for a moment so I just barely got a chance to look at this contract and it's true most of it's boilerplate but the part that concerned me was exactly what we're talking about now and what I can see is it's one thing if they've already done the work and they know the price but if we're trying to hire somebody to do a job and I don't know how many of these they're going to be but they're going to be some because you're about to put together bid packages are we making them say that they have to say that is the price and there are no deviations no matter what happens I think they can give us in other words it's a contract at a fixed price there's no such thing as time and materials no it says a ceiling price the time and material if we can avoid that it's best to avoid it if you do use it it has to have not to exceed price which there's language in the contract for that but it did seem like there was ample opportunity to have an approved unit price listing and using that so it's not necessarily time and material but it's done by approved unit price that's my take on it sounds like Steve agrees at the presentation yesterday it was on time and material absolutely not just avoid it they couldn't have been more clear they do a big act right through time and material so lump sum or unit price like a unit price per job it will cost 125,000 to repair this job this route or for every truck load of material it's going to cost X to transport per hour the material itself whatever it's going to be inch and a half is going to have a price you know for inch stuff would have a price they don't want that you can do that people want to be able to compare bits and if you're doing time and material it's hard to compare the bits that's why it's easier if they have a lump sum I see we'll say I can do this for 75,000 contractor pieces I'll do it for 80 but don't they say what they're going to do within it so then you have at least you can see what they're doing right okay so the bottom line is guys I think we need to approve this wait does it say anything about yes it does say stuff about insurance okay with the change that Sarah is adding and with the if someone wants to make a motion on who can sign this on behalf of the town on behalf of the town I would say that would be Eric or Vic Eric what do you think anyone I think Eric is fine either Eric or Steve well well Steve I would say Eric I would say Eric he's a town representative yeah okay how do you feel about that Eric okay because who else would sign it it would be it says a witness as to contractor right so could Eric be both Victor could be a witness somebody on the board Steve could be a witness or actually probably even can't their wife be a witness or not the town hall okay yeah just anyone right right okay so who wants to make a motion I'll do it okay allowing Eric to sign on behalf of the town yes with the changes that Sarah made in that second page about invoices and billing second second by Randy is there any further discussion okay hearing none all those in favor of approving the contract for services for the workers who are going to work on the road say aye aye posed alright it was passed okay is there anything else on that agenda approving the v-trans curve project for center road action likely this is the result of the meetings we had down there whenever it was two years ago right for three years ago whenever it was yes remember we marched around and they talked about where they wanted to put all the signs we still have the documentation I think it's probably up in the town so I don't see any reason I don't see any reason why we wouldn't do this I mean the only the only issue I can see is once they install these signs at no cost it's our obligation to maintain them but it is a safety issue and we're going to get substantial value having them produce the signs and install them so you'll have to get people to get used to stopping coming up Brook Road yes is there going to be a stop sign there? yes the stop sign will be on Brook Road because center road will be straight through oh god that's good that's a good thing I think it is a good thing and what we also talked about back then was in a situation like that which is a serious situation you know maybe we at our cost should put up a pre-signed sign saying notice change of traffic I don't know what it would be but some warning so like don't go whistling through there I wonder if we could even have a solar light with a red blinker serious I already see myself blowing through that stop sign alright is there any is there a motion for approving the v-trans curve project for center road okay thank you Randy Randy has made that motion to approve it and Victor has seconded any further discussion about said curve project hearing none all those in favor of approving the v-trans curve project for center road say aye aye opposed the ayes have it okay well we are five minutes ahead of schedule but we do have our zoning administrator Kevin Thompson here he's going to request to waive the fees for flood related permits required by FEMA action likely would you like to speak Kevin sure um let's see like everyone else I've been kind of thrown into this um so what I want to do is just waive all of the permit fees for any improvements in the flood project as part of the national flood insurance program pretty much anything over $500 that's done on any house requires a permit um and we need to we need to keep that up to stay in the program so that anyone that wants to buy flood insurance is able to um and these people have all been hit pretty hard uh and I just like permission to waive the way many fees related to flood damage in the flood overlay districts and that's um the three mile bridge that's the bridge road that's lower sunny brook um there's a few other small areas um yeah root 2 where that house is root 2 where the house is um the blue house and I think the camp is down off of root 12 right after martinsbrook after you cross the new bridge oh it's tucked way down in there nobody knows this there but I know they did have damage because they have stuff out on the street yeah more standard is Putnam school pretty much? no um the overlay district actually this is it all stops before Putnam bill um there's only one house that might possibly be or maybe two I'll be double checking those uh and then ongoing we're I've been talking with the chair with sandy the chair of the planning commission um I want to try and figure out a way to um skip over the um conditional use reviews on any of these permits because then they end up involving warning neighbors and it's a process that takes a month or two in order to get a permit and most of the houses on three mile bridge road are actually in the flood way which is even more strict than being in the flood zone um so pretty much anything that's done in those houses requires conditional use review and go in front of the ZBA so I might be back in a couple weeks with another request but for now I just want to be able to tell people yeah we need to do this work you're going to have to if you're doing things you know you have to bring stuff up above flood level and you and we do have to have permits for it let me ask you this I thought that like when you did work inside your house that you didn't need a permit if you are out of the flood zone okay but when you're in the flood zone you have for any work that you're doing you have to have permit any improvements I mean for instance we have one house on three mile bridge road it didn't get into the first floor it just filled the basement so they lost their electrical panel they lost the furnace their hot water heater their electric panel is going to have to be moved up into the garage up above day flood level the furnace and the water heater he's already had someone look at the furnace they think they can repair it so he's not actually replacing it it's not an improvement so he can leave it where it is but the other things are being replaced so that's considered an improvement and they have to get moved above day flood level do they also have to then raise their house that's a whole other thing I don't understand that how are we going to get all those people to raise their house? FEMA so we have to go by the FEMA rules on these things I'm working with the Ned I lost his last name he's the floodplain manager for our district we actually have done a tour of most of these houses figured out where high water mark was during the flood they're helping me they're preparing a spreadsheet for me and then I'm supposed to make a determination as to whether or not the damages is above or below 50% of the value of the building if it's above that then any repair is made then the whole thing has to be brought up to standards if it's below the 50% mark then any repair is improvements made just the improvements have to be brought up to standards the standard might be that the panel is upstairs so the standard is that the panel comes upstairs above flood level and the furnace comes up but you don't have to raise the house gotcha but if it's over 50% of the value if it's over 50% then the whole property has to be brought up to current standards okay that's going to be a difficult conversation yeah and is there well this is probably getting off topic a little bit but if it's over 50% does that make it more appealing for like a FEMA buyout like what we did with Rich Road they are so I've inputted seven houses for FEMA buyouts on a list and I have a meeting with Lisa Kohl at the hazard mitigation grants manager on August 15th the person who spoke here before the meeting and she is very well aware of our area and has said that middle sex will be given a high priority because for example Victoria Halligham whose house was lifted completely up above obviously got flooded and she's never returning so I think that is a definite buyout we'll see what happens after the 15th of August we're on it do other people have questions? for now the people I've talked to do whatever you need to do to make the house safe we'll go back and do the permits afterwards whatever if we don't have those when we do get audited by FEMA we can be booted out of the flood insurance program I have a question about the flood insurance program if I live on a hill could I get flood insurance or is this only when you're in a flood zone that you get flood insurance? no anyone can get it anyone can buy flood insurance the problem you run into when you're up on a hill is what happens to your house may not meet the definition of a flood in for instance water running down on top of the ground and filling up your basement or the first floor of your house that's not a flood so yes you can buy flood insurance but it's likely not to cover what you would like to have it cover but the national flood insurance which is what you buy through FEMA right that is for people in flood zones that's for anybody is that the only flood insurance that exists that's the only flood insurance that exists like my insurance company doesn't have a special flood insurance it's all through this I don't believe so I've never heard of that but flood is excluded as an insured hazard in all the standard property policies so that's why we have this national flood insurance policy and everyone who lives in a flood zone is required to have it no you're not required to have it if you've got a mortgage the bank will normally require you to have it so can I ask this question sir did you before this flood they had made repairs or improvements but they had to seek these permits yes so these requirements to have a permit to do this kind of work is regardless of whether or not we've had this flood it's because they live in a flood this flood over life district gotcha that was very helpful thank you Kevin we don't have any questions Randy or Vic or Peter I think it makes sense to waive the fees okay that's the least we can know would waiving the fees include anybody that moves into a more extensive rehab or additional work over and above just I'm fixing what was existing I guess my suggestion would be to make a motion that we will waive the fees to repair the damage and if someone wants to go way beyond that then we can they'll still go through the entire process the only thing that's changing here is they're just not cutting a check for the permit itself I will also mention that this is going to require a lot of my time that we don't have budgeted but there is also FEMA money it's a newer program I've got the info on it and I'll give it to Sarah that covers all my work that's related with all of this so it doesn't go in as part of the overall number we submit to FEMA I don't know it's a reimbursement I don't have the info with me probably part of it it's part of that 5% administrative costs it was something that they talked about the team's meeting yesterday they mentioned there was a question about our zoning administrator in another town saying you know whatever we're going to put out a frequently asked question bulletin to address that but I think it is it would definitely be part of the part of the administration I think to do the whole thing but I didn't know if this was I don't know we've got 55% of the whole project can be spent on administrative costs that's decent yeah that'll be significant I did a training last week on what we need to do as ZAs and this was brought up and that is square FEMA FEMA's going to reimburse that because you're doing exactly what FEMA wants does it make sense we do this at Capstone we code it differently on our timesheets do you guys have that capability of coding this time that you do that's related on your timesheets I've only put in one time sheet with the FEMA staff when I do is a highlight in pink so when they're auditing I spend five hours on a Friday a day that I don't normally work and I spent it here what did I do I worked on the portal I worked on gathering information for the flood buyouts I make it all FEMA related including debris because I worked a lot on debris so that's how I do it but they want to see on each timesheet you make it as clear for them as possible when they're going through the hour so like all of our staff knows that I added the column just to put perfect make sure you know what road we're working on the whole nine yards okay and Shelly has a question what he was saying is anything 50% above would have to be brand standard but what a concern is we're going to run a cost sheet on what that house is worth it's going to be from 2017 so the cost is definitely going to be lower and answer as to whether or not because we know what a common level appraisal is and how low we are whether or not we make that adjustment okay and that's the number that FEMA wants that's a good question I'll also be getting spreadsheets on the cost of repairs that we will use as a base so everything I got to use the same formulas everything for every structure and then anything I come up with the homeowner can always appeal it they can come up with their own numbers and submit those and we can adjust from there but I have to start all with the same all from the same base and do you have to generate that list or is that a list that's readily available through like an insurance database or something like that this that is being generated by the Vermont by the regional floodplain manager for me and they actually have a lot of the they actually have a lot of the cost from our grand list of what the value of the property is yeah you're going to be busy yes do you feel like you're going to need support I don't think so I'm getting support from the state on this and they're setting me out and if I do I will ask the thing is I'm done my daytime job another week and a half so now you'll be 40 hours every week for us okay are there any more questions about this topic of waiting the flood related permits only that I would suggest that if we're supportive of this that there's a sunset to it yes that's a great idea sure do we want to pick a date like I mean this could be this could go I mean this is for flood affected people too in flood zones the funeral money to reimburse for my time is sunset it at 180 days from the event okay let's do that I think 6 months is fine I don't think you're getting shorter than that no I think matching it up with that date works so is that a motion I would make that motion to wave flood affected permitting fees for repairs to sunset in 180 days from the date of the event okay and are we just making this clear that this is for anyone in middle sex just for the flood just for the flood overlay just for the flood overzone is there a second okay Vic seconds it all those in favor okay I post alrighty so the next thing is thank you Kevin thank you for your work you don't want to stay and hang out flood debris update MOU with the state of Vermont ratification possible okay what is that all about is that this thing here so we were on a time crunch here flood debris yes please so the dumpsters may or may not be reimbursable for the town chances are they will not be reimbursable because what FEMA wants to see and reimbursing gathering flood debris is a state approved flood debris contractor actually has with them a consultant from a different company who is just there to consult that every time they stop at a house and pick up trash I'm sorry flood debris that it is flood debris and not stuff you wanted to get rid of from your basement and that is the only type of debris removal that FEMA can compensate if we went with Kasella we would have to hire ourselves a consultant to sit with Kasella and go through to make sure we're someone who's trained to make sure that everything that was being picked up and put into the container was flood debris so when you look out there and you see the stuff that's by the road that is serious has already been through here and they have determined that is not flood debris people put it out so what we did because the state of Vermont said in a friend porch forum post put your flood debris out on the town right away and the town will pick it up this came as a shock to every single town clerk in Vermont was we had to hustle to get a contract and the only people we could really get a contract that would be approved and would be reimbursable is serious so we had to sign an MOU of understanding and that's what you've got now and that's what I signed and I would just like the board to approve it they are serious has gone through today they went through Monday and they went through Tuesday they're going to do a second pass around the good news is I talked to Kevin Sudbury who is with Cirrus and he's from Florida and he said normally when he goes to other towns they spend weeks and weeks and weeks in fact he brought cold weather clothing thinking that he would be here for months they're so self-sufficient that everybody found a way to take care of us through flood debris on themselves so they're just going to cut their time short and that will be less cost to us so I hope the board just approves it because there's really nothing I can do about it now can I just ask a question about flood debris though but it does include like if your basement got flooded and you had stuffed animals down there and baskets you're in the toilet yeah I said would you pick up a toilet they'll pick up a toilet but they won't take a they won't take a charcoal grill they won't take a washer or dryer they won't take a downstairs refrigerator someone will take the washer or dryer though well to do that what I did was I talked to Boldix and had and Kim said you could do two things you could put down a metal recycling bin or else I could just get some of these scrappers to come through the scrappers themselves some of them were flooded out they needed the money so I said yes once again an executive decision sorry no that's great but it doesn't cost the town anything any questions about this so I hate to bring this to you but there was no one any questions from the board are we contracting with them or is that I'm sorry Randy just had one question you just made a comment about something that put a question in my head as is we're contracting with them not the state correct well we're contracting with the state this MOU is with the state is the part that's a little tricky which is that the state may come back and shift some of the bill to the town but we don't know how much and we don't know what percentage it's seems like that's every time we turn around that's exactly right and we understand that the Kasella dumpsters that we put out there we're just going to pay for which we've already talked about well FEMA said hold on to your receipts so is there a motion to approve the state for debris removal okay Peter second any seconds Randy's seconding it Sarah as there any further discussion okay hearing none all those in favor of approving the MOU for disaster debris removal and management say aye aye opposed okay great alrighty sick we're almost on time Evelyn but I think we can just go ahead we have Evelyn Prim here to discuss she's from Montpelier communications coordinator to discuss improving communications among neighboring communities action unlikely welcome Evelyn thank you so much for the opportunity to speak to you all I'm wearing my Montpelier hat tonight I'm also a middle sex resident and so you may recognize my name here and there but so my position is the communications coordinator and it's a brand new position in the city of Montpelier so I'm making the rounds in all of our neighboring towns to just introduce myself and say hi I exist I am a public information officer so I am the go-to person you have something quite a burning question you would like more resources I welcome anyone to email me anytime my goal my main mission is to basically effectuate the city council's goal for responsible and engaged government through effective communication and so up until they hired me they didn't have anybody specifically doing that role so I'm really glad to be the trailblazer there and as a the state capital of Vermont we are inclusive of and aware of the fact that our community extends beyond our just city borders and so when I use the word community I mean inclusive of most of central Vermont because Montpelier has a lot of people that visit from neighboring towns and come in and would benefit from the communications that the city has so I actually brought some show and tell items that are yours to pass around thank you welcome so just some examples of some of the work that I've been doing and I would love to get that out there just to our broader central Vermont community a couple of things in there so I just have a welcome letter that is basically just what I said here today and then two issues two recent issues of the DPW news so that is a weekly newsletter that comes out on Fridays by the public works department and it has been essential in these last couple of days with flood recovery efforts and getting communications out as we also use social media quite heavily we're getting into Facebook and podcasting on Spotify so really trying to diversify a lot of the different communication materials that we are expanding on and especially in rural Vermont where folks have spotty internet access but maybe have great cell reception like I do over here on Mead Road it Facebook was a lifeline for me and for the city during the day that we lost power and I was trapped in my home for several days because of flood water and the only way I could communicate and answer questions from the public was through Facebook messenger so just some interesting stories and lessons learned from this flood event that we really hope to grow from and there's also just a pamphlet of some that kind of encapsulates the communications aspect of my work and also on the welcome letter has my contact info so I just again just wanted to put a face to the name and let you all know that everybody is welcome to reach out to me anytime my job is basically 24-7 so I'm happy to respond anytime I'll be texting you at 3 o'clock in the morning she's fast to sleep and I welcome questions and I'll just hang out because I enjoy talking to the goings on is there anyone who has questions for Evelyn anyone on the board or comments my only comment is wouldn't it be nice if the state of Vermont tried to improve their communications which I know they are but Sarah's already pointed out that some of their messaging was untimely and poor and just flat out bad so I commend the city of Montpelier for your efforts and thank you for coming to see us tonight thank you I like this DPW weekly newsletter and anyone is welcome to sign up for that you do not have to be a Montpelier resident to sign up so if you need any help I'm happy to help sign people up if they have trouble with the subscription form and do you know how the businesses are doing right now like what's the pulse right now so we've been myself and our city team has been coordinated pretty heavily with Montpelier alive and our volunteer hub leaders on that they have done a phenomenal job raising them over a million dollars now so far and as I think it just broke the news today that they were saying that they've been issuing the first round of grant checks so that's going to be a huge help to just keep the recovery efforts going the feeling definitely around town now that the massive piles of debris have been removed is much better so I think we're just about to hit the upswing but still a long way to go just catastrophic devastation downtown have they talked about like what the like are there recommendations for these stores to change their entries or to raise up their floors or something like what is everything Kevin Thompson mentioned is what Montpelier is going to be advocating for as well so basically getting your utilities if you are in the river hazard zone making sure all of your utilities are up away from the flood zone and in Montpelier it's two feet above the base level elevation or base flood elevation and so that means a bunch of different things to different businesses sometimes that just might mean raising it up in your basement two feet or putting it on your first floor so it's really a case by case basis and so our hats off to our planning and zoning and community development department for being the people that are going to be helping each individual business navigate that are there some businesses that have reopened I think the candy store did yep I think the candy store and yellow mustard actually I saw today I was really happy though because they're my favorite place to get a sandwich you know it's really awful still yeah okay could anyone on the zoom or in the audience have any questions for Evelyn well okay well there's no action but thank you Evelyn for your information and we can hold on to these right here these could be things that are in the tab clerks I suppose for people to take Sarah I'll leave these with you alrighty let's see where we are ooh it's almost 615 approving a demolition bid for 28 Rich Road action likely Sarah? so last time we were here you guys approved a bid for one of two bids for asbestos consulting on Rich Road and when I put together when I was putting together the letter to I contacted FEMA she said she said you know have the the abatement person the company you chose make the consultant if they do find asbestos let them go through the bid process to get contractors instead of making going back to these demo guys and having them do it because that was part of their bid and they're still a little bit so we do not have to consider asbestos for looking at it we have three bids for demoing Rich Road which is taking it down to grass level returning it to its natural state and we have one for Hutchins which is the most complete bid which is 42-3 as you'll see no one has anything about asbestos here we have this other all terrain excavating which is the lowest bid that's 34-304 and then we have Jarrett we have Blue Mountain trucking which is 42-5 so some of these are really they're extremely similar and I'm a little confused as to it's a C attached for others for their 62-56 that did not come with any attachments maybe it's but anyway team would like you to go with the lowest and best bid I don't see that there's any distinguishing characteristics in these we don't have to consider whether they're already owned are they women owned they're not bad they are not bad what is that term not bad actors bad apples no there is like bad apples it's bad bad juju naughty they're not on sam.gov's naughty list oh okay there's like a weird name so I don't know Randy has gone through this and it is substantially lower than 34-32 do you think they're doing it just to get the bid I think so but it's not like I didn't say it didn't call them up and say so the other two were this everything was open at the same time oh right they were all blind bids they were all blind bids okay I don't know I don't know anything about it so maybe Vic do you know any of these companies you know Jay Hutchins Jay Hutchins what's the the second bid there was like 42,000 that is from yeah E-Mountain do you know what I asked you about you do right they're exactly 42.5 both of them but we have to go with the smallest you don't oh I thought they said we did no I mean they go they're gonna say why didn't you go with somebody else why wouldn't you go with the lowest I have no idea I don't know anything about this work but I I mean I just okay so I guess the only reason I wouldn't is there any chance that does it say here um that it can exceed no no this is what they mean by months gone okay so this is what it would cost even if it costs them more even if they found oh there's an underground oil tank here that I have to remove that's been leaking everywhere that happened to me this is the only reason I do that we went with the lowest bid and then they found all this stuff and we ended up costing twice as much as they did giving a prescriptive form in that manner creates a situation where they're apples to apple bids so they're all gonna be in the same boat if they if there's something that they came across that was unforeseen I mean I have if you're if you're looking at um all all terrain which is the it's like they're raising is a lot cheaper everything else is sort of the same I don't know yeah I make a motion make a motion that we accept the bid from I don't have all terrain the the cheaper one yes all terrain and how much is the amount 34 304 for the amount of 34 304 okay is there a second Randy's seconding it any further discussion all righty all those in favor of accepting the demolition of 28 rich road bid from all terrain excavating for 34 304 say aye aye okay opposed none okay let's see the next thing is to render treasurer's report action possible um I think some of the questions I had I've already asked um the other thing is last week I handed out the bid from um RB technologies and I don't know everybody had a chance to review it if you want to take any action on it he actually contacted me last week and I told him to defend just a little bit busy no action had been taken on it and so I don't know if you want to take any action on it yet I know there was questions about used equipment I just had a general question um does anybody have I've been having very uh a lot of difficulty even to get into the email or to have any of that like the attachments pop up does anybody else are they they run Rackspace um I've had no problem with my actual emails I know my internet has been horrible lately and I gotta I gotta say that like I'm 20 I don't know if it's 1500 1500 feet beyond their maximum distance that they they allow so I have real crappy oh really it was working fine it was working okay it was slow I can I can accept that but it just won't even pop up it's been horrible lately but there's the this is just a server quote they are supposed to be we talked to him back when Reuben was here about changing over the emails and we talked to him about installing that computer that's been sitting there for probably six months and I thought the understanding was he could go ahead with that but maybe I misunderstood it so I thought he I'm sorry didn't mean to butt in exactly what you're saying I agree that's what I heard yeah that's what I heard too so but this is what has you know I can ask him again I asked him and this is what I got in return so I can reach out to him tell him these other things are more important and my understanding from previous conversations it was that the server wasn't expected to last a long period of time and even pushing it to this point was questionable as to whether or not it was going to move forward I think as far as I had some questions about refurbished equipment sounded like a timeline I've talked with some IT folks that I know you know and they said it's not completely uncommon to see refurbished stuff although they tried to avoid it so I don't know if my concerns there have necessarily been satisfied but I do recognize that the communications that we've received thus far is that we probably shouldn't prolong the replacement of the server for too long do we go back to him and ask him how much longer it would be if we waited for new equipment or is that a possibility or do we I mean the price will change I'm assuming I wouldn't be opposed to going back to him to say what's the lead time for the new equipment and I guess the question that I would have too is going to warranty a refurbished piece of equipment just as long as a new piece of equipment and what would be the cost implication be I don't think a couple weeks delaying this a couple weeks is going to make a significant difference and I think having that information would be good the other thing I think we should do is get a price for that other work and a time commitment I mean I you know that was all supposed to be done back in the spring now I have a price let alone get the work done and I don't want to delay I don't want to delay the I don't want to delay the service the server thing either too much so you know we can get a quick answer on that fine but we need to move ahead okay I'll put in an actual phone call to him as opposed to an email and Larry looked it over he didn't think there was he thought the hourly rate was comparable with other places and you know he said if you do go with someone else sometimes they start you out with starter fees you know they're lower and then they raise their prices did he say anything about the refurbished equipment no he said he said that he was looking why he was looking online at Dell and he came up with 3400 that included the operating system and user licenses but that RB came out with 5300 but he may know something about availability that isn't apparent on Dell's website and then he says I think you could ask if a cheaper server would work well enough but he may have chosen what he considers and so it's always zippy because Larry doesn't know exactly what we do here in terms of you know the power that this server needs to have he thinks it's a pretty powerful server but he again doesn't know for sure like what's required on it but I sent this to Sarah and someone I think Peter and Sarah well the question is we've you know we've waited this long I think waiting another two weeks is a big is a big deal but I'd like to know what we're gonna not that we're gonna dicker but I'd like to know what the price is gonna be on the email and on setting up that computer and when they can do it and why they haven't done it I mean we gave them the go ahead to do that I believe didn't we Darinda well that was what I thought but then I said well maybe we told him he had to wait until July 1 I don't remember exactly now it's been so long ago that was like last November I think October November okay is there any action no is there anything else you want to share Darinda no I don't think so alrighty any questions for Darinda alrighty okay so now we're on to other business the Welch Park update Peter nothing to say nothing to say okay I left I mean somehow I don't know I'm gonna go down there put on my hip boots and walk into his office and sit there until he produces whatever document he's supposed to produce I'm a little frustrated because I leave the messages that he doesn't get back from me same old story since the flood everybody's gone dark okay but anyway I know what my mission is alrighty we have orders we have those I'll sign those I thank you for sending those along earlier Darinda I did actually open them up and review them and I sent a message to VIA saying the checks in the mail yeah we just signed it here yeah I have a question though I thought I was late in doing number four invoice number four yeah but you hadn't sent it to us I believe remember when you talked to me afterwards you said oh yeah I found it I don't think I sent it to you or something right and I'm just wondering did we ever pay them for invoice number four which was well if you hadn't sent it to us and okay that no they wouldn't have gotten paid but what one is this is this is invoice number five this is invoice number five yeah I'll look again to make sure not too long ago for VIA I know that was this one but then I remember thinking that it had been like a month this is the one that's in here but I think we just signed one I think so maybe that was it yeah so they're close so I think then we probably are and they usually tell us if something's a miss I think we're almost through yeah we're almost done yeah like so we have a meeting tomorrow actually okay at the RIA clock on zoom to do the final not for the town but like our final subcommittee meeting yeah and then we'll invite them here to the town this services through 6 30 so okay all right okay so correspondence Samantha Bowden email yes this Samantha has sent an email to Peter and me saying what happened with the Samantha do you remember you're here yeah the letter that was supposed to be sent out I was hoping to get an update from Peter okay um Peter did you hear Samantha a letter about me road yeah I'm wondering about the letter also we were supposed to get a draft letter but I will follow up I'm sorry I haven't followed up in the last couple of weeks but I will okay this is about the neighbor putting things on the road okay okay all righty is there any other matter that may come before the board we have a couple people on the zoom they're visiting I didn't know if they had anything to say Bridget you have a question I just wanted to say that I was helping the conservation commission implement the NRCS USDA it's flood mitigation grants and the conservation commission has asked if Victor and Eric might be available when those site visits happen I don't know if Eric's still there he's not yeah so I guess there's about six seven people that have signed up thus far to have the USDA folks out to take a look at the site they say that 90% of the projects that they do pay for are riprap or erosion and debris removal Vic I didn't know if you knew of areas in town where you thought that folks might qualify they might not have seen the front page 4 and post that the conservation commission put out and two I understand that it's also for public areas as well so if there were things owned by the town per se that you feel that the site suffered damage this time around there will be imminent property loss if it were to flood again the state will pay for 100% of the administration and the engineering costs and then 75% of the work itself this is flood related yes the only place that I know of the only places I can think of off the top of my head are Brook Road specifically been said by the agency of natural resources that don't touch the river so we wouldn't be touching the river there's a lot of stuff it would be I understand Matt who was on the conservation commission he's offered up to do the engineering work for the different sites and then the homeowner would be on the hook for the 25% the homeowner or the town for the 25% of the actual work involved so but I'll send and if it's okay with everybody for me to reach out to Eric are we talking about buildings that are in danger of buildings if they are right so it won't cover any property damage thus far but if they come out and they see that and they determine that if it were to flood again there would the risk of property loss is there they will pay for the engineer to design the repair and 75% of the actual repair I yes I've had people on the Brook Road approach me where there's like 150 feet of trees fell down and they're right on the Brook and fell down what I'll do is I'll get a list from Adrian of who's signed up thus far and then Vic maybe if you think of anybody else that we should reach out to their concern that there are folks that might benefit from the program who didn't see the front page forum post Sarah yeah I don't think this has to do necessarily with debris in the river right Bridget doesn't have to do like if you've got unstable banks that you can shore up your bank so that they're less likely to flood next time isn't that what this is about according to their presentation if they feel that the debris might cause future property damage they will remove it you're talking about with debris any debris that is from this flood because we were told that we don't touch trees yeah but I saw that as well but according to the presentation 90% of their projects involve riprap and debris removal those are those big chunky rocks that shore up the shoreline okay what is this project called or program called it's the it's a division of the USDA it's called NRCS e WEP natural resources it's the water let me see I'll grab my folder okay so this isn't the Sarah did you get any clarity about that other program that's for non flooding areas here go ahead Bridget this is the program that I mentioned last time around Thea the road works for you USDA she wanted to make sure the slide board was aware yeah I just thought you're going to Sarah posted on to the conservation commission Sandy Thea and I got together and thought maybe they could use a little bit of help so I've been helping I drafted the letter to request involvement in the program and the conservation commission sent that into a couple days ago Paul Sermanara okay Paul thank you and throwing this out to all you guys but more towards Vic you know just in regards to Brook Road it would definitely be worth while just to get clarity on this of what you know what exactly is what is this covering what are the stipulations what what can it do just from a town perspective it would be a huge advantage if we could get any money whatsoever especially for Brook Road again I it sounds like we're not sure exactly what the guidelines are as far as imminent damage at this point all we have to do is have a site address they come out they take a look they tell you whether or not you fit the criteria of the program perfect tell him Brook Road in middle sex and let him know about it so Adrian's working together on a list but I guess what I am asking so I'll mention Brook Road Vic I'll send you a list of folks that are already included but it's I'm assuming that Adrian's getting physical addresses not an entire street so can I just say something about the those roads that have erosions that is a perfect thing when the FEMA project guys come out you look at Brook Road and you say how can we shore this up what do we need to spend money on to shore this up and that's a FEMA project I mean I think these guys are talking about the river but if you're talking about the drop-offs and the erosion of the bank it's FEMA through and through you wouldn't mess with this so this also could be fires, windstorms and other natural disasters that's correct and so for example these are private homeowners but the town has to be the sponsor so it's kind of like the same thing FEMA is very reluctant to deal one-on-one with towns they deal with individuals they do but they don't like it but so it's the same thing like doing a buyout they deal with the town the town has to sponsor those six or seven homeowners or how many others want to be part of this grant oh yes Eric camp so when you guys are talking about this and she said specific addresses so like my sister's house one below mine 100 Wood Road this has been up for discussion for two years having people come up and look at it and we're down there putting sand bags up and stuff to keep water from going in and there's yet to be any kind of solution and then with the flood it took out everything so it's like something like she's talking about a certain location that should be looked at well I think that it would it would be valuable for that address to get on the list the program is the natural resources conservation service emergency watershed protection and I just learned of it prior to the last select board meeting but the conservation commission is it is volunteered to be the official town sponsor and so the letter was submitted basically they say all you have to do is ask to be included in the program we follow up with a list of sites then the USDA folks come out with probably Matt who would be the engineer that these folks would be hiring and hope and folks were hoping that either Vic or Eric could possibly be involved as well but I didn't make that commitment okay I was just questioning that because like I said that one on a wood road where my sister is located is like even now that they've come up and the town's done a great job doing what they can do to get our road open but every rainstorm now it's potentially pouring into her house so I'm down there at midnight one o'clock, two o'clock in the morning putting up sand bags so I just think it needs attention quicker than yeah I'll go ahead and I'll reach out to A.J. to make sure that your address is included it's actually my sister not mine but what is that speed address 100 Wood Road yes sir so Mr. Kemp I talked to your sister she was delightful during this whole experience that road engineering project that is a great thing for FEMA for the town to bid out to bid out to correct Wood Road that's a perfect thing you shouldn't as an individual have to worry about town water coming into your road into your house right if that road needs to be re-engineered or straightened out that can be on a bid list that is a great idea because since Wood Road was so damaged because I think what you're talking about is the actual water coming down the town road right it's not coming through her backyard for example which is what this program is supposed to do this program is supposed to help private landowners who have water coming from other sources that they can use resources to shore up I mean they said that my culvert at my house wasn't big enough but I had Eric up there the day the first last storm and it's all coming down the road yeah I think that it's on I know Wood Road is on the list to be in don't you think aren't you guys looking at Wood Road as a road to repair in general yeah we've looked at that situation between him and his sister for probably five years don't you think that if we could bid out in this FEMA project that's something FEMA would enjoy paying for because otherwise she has to file a claim with FEMA if something's ruined in her home the idea is that FEMA doesn't want to do payouts they don't want to do payouts and if there's something like this culvert is too small for example that's a great thing to bid out replace the culvert is to just do it and then FEMA would pay for it sounds simple doesn't it it does why isn't it yes it's happened many times and the water comes off the property above the sister there's a place for that water to go but they don't want the water to go down there because they have like a landing that goes down to the back of their house so in this case it's not the town road problem that's not true at all it is the town road I've had Eric up there during the storm watching the water come off the ledge piece that's sticking up above on the corner which turns the water down the road which makes the road my culvert wasn't even half full water when Eric came up so the drainage is not working properly from the town it's been filled we got pictures of it that we've sent in to you guys just recently that you guys have raised that road almost a foot and a half which leads you right to that house so it sounds like maybe we need to why don't we you know what Mr. Camp I'm going to just suggest that Eric I'm just going to suggest that Steve take a look at it and maybe and maybe we'll look at it and just make it a decision whether or not this could be part of the FEMA improvements that's my recommendation right it was like that's the part of the water road they talked about earlier in the residence it was myself and four other people with our practice just thought they actually put a road for us to get down the road I mean we got them out from the town at that point we just made our own road but you would agree you would agree just let it alright well thank you I'll just put it in the minutes and pass it on to Steve how's that I don't mean to negate what you're saying but you would agree that this issue has happened many times before that's the part of how it is for the flood we brought it up to be attention here it's been my sister has called everybody to find out who will come up and do something with it and now with this past flood it was like not even like bad as like just barely getting some water into the house it was like coming in like a river so we were down there with sandbags and stuff until the actual road gave way enough but it doesn't down the road right okay so we'll have Steve come Sarah is that something or you I'll put this over to Steve okay great thank you okay thank you are there any other matters that come before the board Liz I just have one quick thing Peter all of you board members received an email from Paul O'Tenty I think she sent it out at 10 o'clock last night saying she is stepping away from our emergency management coordinator role two things about this one is selfish for me so as as luck would have it guess who the emergency management director is it's me so I'm whatever she was handling is now coming in my direction and it was pretty fast and furious today so I don't anticipate it getting better soon so I think we do need to try and find somebody to take over that that role in the short term I will do my best to to do it with help from Sarah and other people but I think the other thing Sarah sent her out a very nice email today I tried to call her I couldn't reach her but I will but I think we should do something for her she put forth a tremendous effort during this flood and I don't know whether you know I'm thinking about a gift certificate or I don't know what we should do but we definitely we definitely need to thank her for her efforts on our behalf okay I agree we'll do it so Sarah will you take care of that I guess maybe get a gift certificate for something yes Randy I like to suggest that we push something out in front court porch forum asking if there's interest from folks to step into that role I mean it's a big role to fill these days and with this fresh on people's mind you might find a good quality candidate that's interested can I ask a clarifying question I felt like before this flood Eric said I'll be the emergency management director or coordinator we attended the meeting he stepped down as the emergency management coordinator Paul stepped down as the emergency management coordinator and then Eric we attended that emergency management meeting yes Eric was the new EMC it doesn't work I agree yes but so we really did sort of agree to have someone in the minutes and it was Eric but really and then Paula took over and so really and I agree having Eric or anyone on the fire department for that matter doesn't make sense because they're usually out doing their duties they can't be in an emergency management situation so I think we want to make that clear that it's like somebody who has the capacity to and time to like be at a disastrous event and manage it honeybee barrett for weeks following right okay so you're going to put that out there on the front porch forum too thank you Sarah but for the time being Peter this is your role till we have to find someone yes I mean I think I think the worst is over but it's mostly caused from people from the state who want updates you know apparently the governor was in town yesterday and noted a lot of debris so he calls up his people and his people call me and say what about the debris and I call Sarah and I say what about the you know it's a little frustrating but we'll get through it we'll get through it anything else from the public or our board members before we adjourn alright it is 644 and I'm adjourning the meeting for the evening thank you everybody