 Good evening. I'd like to call the Monday, November 7th regularly scheduled Berlin slugboard meeting to order With us tonight on my left is flow Smith and Joe stop my right Carl Parton and with also is Vince Conte our town administrator and Diane Isabel town treasurer and Editions are changes to the agenda one addition. That's the chief is here Requesting a little bit of a short executive session to discuss Personnel issue public comment hearing none Good Samaritan update Rick D'Angelo's Should I just sit here or whatever wherever you're comfortable. Okay, great While we're waiting for this To pass out a little bit of information that I have you know I Took the liberty of preparing And I'll tell you what it is one the first sheet is just a cover memo for me with Telling you who's been staying at the what we call the welcome center where the city will tell us This and the chief can I give you one sure and that's all I have sorry So I'm Rick D'Angelo's son the co-executive director of the Good Samaritan Haven and I thought I would take Maybe about five at the most ten minutes to go over this and then open it up to questions does that sound okay? So before I comment on this cover sheet I have to I'd like to say something give you the big picture You know I've been working in housing for believe it or not more than 35 years and going back to Working at the pine Street in in Boston In the mid 1980s So and then I've had a long career in affordable housing and I'll tell you I have never seen anything like the situation we have Today with homelessness not only in Washington County, but in the state of Vermont and all across the United States it's really unprecedented and You know we've long had homelessness in urban areas But now what's happening is we have it in a lot of rural communities as well and if you were to Google Homelessness, New Hampshire you'd see all these towns and Across New Hampshire that are having issues with the homeless if you Google Homelessness Maine you'd see the same thing in Maine. So this is not just a local problem. It's really all over I Actually do a talk that I call the perfect storm that talks about This situation and all the things that have contributed to it, but we don't have time for that tonight So for Good Samaritan Haven, you know, we've been in the community of the area for 35 years our approach to Responding to this because we are the lead Organization on homelessness in Washington County There's really two three things I'd say one is we want to have decent and safe facilities That are not overcrowded and that can't be managed We were in once old single-family house in Barry for 30 35 years and we knew we had it to do something different so now we have three facilities and And we will also be involved in managing a fourth this winter another thing we've tried to do is Spread the load around Believe me, I am aware that homelessness can have an impact on a community on a neighborhood and So the four shelter programs we're going to be running this winter Will be in the town of Barry the city of Barry Berlin and the city of Montpellier We think it makes more sense to Decentralize the shelter system so And I guess that well the last thing that I would say about how we're trying to respond to the problem is have good facilities good programming and Programming that includes real case management services and also has Focuses on health care health care is a very big issue for people who have become impoverished like this So that's the the big picture now. I want to tell you a little bit about what we've Experienced at what was the Twin City Motel? Which we now call the Welcome Center I? Guess the first thing to say is it's a beautiful facility and I'm not sure if any the chief has been there and You probably pass by it. It's We are really blessed to have such a great facility. It's efficient modern clean looks good And and we are committed to keeping it that way We have a Pretty significant reserve fund that's going to help us maintain that property and I think that's important So our very first guest was a veteran a 70-year-old veteran he was bouncing around from couches to living in his car and And and he came to our he came to our facility I'm pleased to say that he was able to reunite with some family Within about a month. I'd say he was He was on to a better situation So since that first visitor we've had 62 different guests and you can take a look at the overview I've provided And I don't know what you think about that, but how you doing? Nice to see you I'm just giving this select for a little overview of our new shelter facility So I don't know what your reaction is to that demographic, but I compiled these numbers and I was surprised by them two things really stood out to me is the number of people who are employed and secondly the number of people who have serious health care issues and That has become a really big issue for us to the extent in one case We had an individual who was sent down from UVM Medical Center, you know, they gave us a certain description of who he was and when he arrived in the ambulance We were taken aback by the level of his need Including you know, we had to have his adult diapers changed on a regular basis and and so on and We said we just can't accept this guy And we actually did have to call the ambulance service that night to take him up to see a CVMC and say we just we cannot have this individual here So that is a really striking problem is people who have Poor health and they have nowhere to go and the health care system cannot accommodate them These other things here too are also surprising to me the number of older people and among It's generally among the older people that you're seeing the veterans as well so I want to just make a few comments about safety and How do we manage the welcome center? It's not always easy. Let me tell you things do come up and But we are doing our best to make that the highest priority and We do that in a couple of ways One is we have a clear statement of what our expectations are and That is the second and third sheet in this package and I'll make a couple of points about that. So there's that Secondly, we move people around amongst our different shelters on a Close to a daily basis if somebody doesn't fit in at seminar it well If somebody is doing really well at Seminary Street and Barry and they think that they can do even better We'll move them to the welcome center because there they have a semi-private room They have more independence and so forth if they're not doing well at the welcome center We can move them back to Seminary Street Or we may move them to our our facility in the town of Barry and this winter There will also be a fourth what we call an overflow shelter and In my pillar and the overflow shelter For lack of better word it houses the tougher toughest crowd of all there are people who are living outside and many of those folks are You know, they're really struggling with some kind of substance abuse or severe mental illness Oh The last thing regrettably is that we require people to leave. We call it exiting and And out of the 62 people who had been at the welcome center so far. We have exited eight people so it's not an insignificant number and But we feel it's something we just have to do sometimes Any questions so far about the demographics and that sort of thing sure Actually, I don't see we don't have anything here for like a substance abuse issues Well, it's definitely a problem. It's not measured all of these things here are There is what somebody has stated to us. We're not doing a diagnosis determine if they have mental illness So it's it's self-attested so don't I it's it's a significant issue For sure and then you're calling this the welcome center. This is not necessarily the first first stop And then you you evaluate and then move them appropriately, right? This is just that's just a name Yes, okay, and the first stop is usually seminary Street There are some people who are at the welcome center It was their first stop because we made an assessment that they'd be a good fit so on to I just gave you a sample of What we call our resident manual just to give you an idea of what we expect from people and And sir, you just asked about the the alcohol here Alcohol use it is something we definitely have to Be on top of as much as possible and you'll see the last item on the page Please help us prevent harm from excessive drug and alcohol use. They are not allowed on our campus Breathalyzer tests are usually given every night and our blood alcohol limit is 08 which is the legal limit for driving a vehicle, I believe and And if someone is over that number we have to we invite them to take a walk and Sometimes by taking a walk they can get below that limit But if they can't get below that limit we ask that we require them to leave for the night Now that becomes more of an issue in the winter time You could be asking somebody to leave on a bitterly cold night You could be putting their life in danger and and we're talking about that right now and Trying to strategize on how we might Keep our campus safe, but at the same time Not put somebody's life at risk Just some other things here on that first page. You see it says sorry visitors are not Permitted in guest rooms and in fact we strongly discovered discourage and try to prevent having any any guests at all on the campus But sometimes people do need rides and somebody's there to pick them up and of course so forth Take a look at the last sheet, you know that last section there You get an idea of You know again some of the things that we do to keep the welcome center safe You know we we check the rooms every night. We check on people twice a day We're checking belongings. We can do that. We have the right to do that We have cameras throughout the property and Like I said earlier, we do and people stay we will do it immediately if we need to and It's it's an unfortunate thing, but there is it's Potentially too many things to go wrong to take chances. So we try to be strict about that How long can a residence day? 90 days As long as they obey the basic rules they can stay for 90 days and if they are working on an exit plan We will extend it beyond 90 days Because the reality is It's very hard to get housing within 90 days in this market. In fact, it's really hard to get housing at all in this market We've had people on waiting lists You know, they're they're good They're potentially good tenants and applicants, but they it just takes a long time to get to the top of the list In the beginning when you first proposed this this project Wasn't it less than 90 to get 90 days that you thought somebody a resident would stay? Well, 90 days has always been our baseline that you have 90 days and Some people leave before then as you can see well, you can't tell from the demographics but some people do leave before 90 days and They could be leaving for all kinds of reasons So Rick I just had a question real quick out of these four locations like say Seminary Street How many how many beds do you have a seminary Street? We have 15 at seminary although we increased that to 20 in the winter time What about in the welcome center house how many? Well, we have a legal max of 35 but as we have this average is out The numbers we've had so far have ever for October for September not took October They averaged about 24 at night and actually I I Think we will probably stay below 30. I'm just not comfortable going up to the max and then the berry town facility That's 15 and what about Montpere is going to be is that going to be that's ten ten beds Where's that in my pair at the Christ Church? I just want to come at it and not really knowing and But when you came to us at first it was going to be a zero tolerance For alcohol or drugs and in my mind point oh wait, it's not a zero tolerance I mean because there's some of these people that at point oh for become combative and stuff like that have you been experiencing any of that stuff things have definitely happened there have been eight people exited and And it's always you know if there is a regular Kind of push and shove on the alcohol thing I mean the reality is there's a number of people who have been struggling with alcohol and other things for years and You know we try to work with them and to help them and And to try to keep it under control and is it is Washington County mental health involved to deal with their some counselors they have a Clinician on site once a week Contacting Washington County will help to help them with the exiting or how does that occur? Well, they don't have any emergence they have some emergency housing for their own clients But they don't have anything beyond that we are the emergency housing resource in the county so when people are exited I We try to find another help don't find another solution, but sometimes there's no other solution and in fact I mean one of the most challenging incidents that occurred in our since we've been there is We had a gentleman who struck one of our staff members. He actually heard him pretty significantly and So that gentleman was exited immediately. I think he ran off or something and But he's you know began to loiter around the property so So You know people or just there are some people who are just out there Camping and on the streets and under bridges and so forth Have you had any of the local businesses come to you with any concerns? No, although the chief did speak to me on behalf of one of the businesses I actually had interaction with one that They've had an increase They're in their numbers about 30% Since what is that can you say I prefer not to they wanted to but it was a manager of one of the facilities It just was wondering if during the daytime as these people come and go Are they monitored other than your cameras? I mean like they just Free just their own property. Yeah, when they do they come and go during the day from the property just Well, they are free to come and go during the day. There is a curfew This is an excellent outline of rules and expectations. What do you have for staffing to actually because there's a lot of It's a very hands-on interactive form of I don't say policing but interaction with your Residents How many people do you have an operational staff from the facility? And there's two of those folks on it any given at any time and Then we also have our administrative and Our case management staff is also on the property. So during the day, there's there's more staffing there. How much Problems do you have getting people to leave if you're taking them out for alcohol abuse or whatever if they're if they're exited Yeah, well, they generally leave I mean they always leave because they're just not allowed to be in the room the room is closed to them and I Mean I the one incident we've had that was troubling was this Individual that I mentioned who came back and was loitering around the property and the same individual that assaulted. Yes. Yes so I'm not sure what to I mean generally speaking though people just you know, they do I had a question just I seen recently on the news that Burlington has these pods and Just asking if you have any insight of what those pod units cost a pretty unit they're in the I think they're in the $40,000 range They're pretty well individually contained little small one my issue with those that approach Is the supervision? Yeah, no, I understand. I was just curious because there is a And I've been more involved lately. There is a huge need for housing We've got the mental health issue and the substance abuse issue and it's huge, but How do you handle it, you know, I mean, I guess you guys are doing a pretty good job of it What you can do, but that's really small in numbers what we need in central Vermont Because we've got the hilltop that that has become, you know an issue You know for the police department and stuff like that when it gets over thing So I don't know that there's any one quick answer on how you fix this, but at least you guys are doing something It is a very vexing problem and I'm not sure what the solution is either We tried different things all the time and talked about different approaches I Quite frankly It would be my desire someday to have this even fewer people in this facility maybe one person to a room most of the rooms are doubles now and But again, you know, there's such a need that it's hard to argue for that When there are so many people that need a place to stay Well that too is like this the Montpellier one I think I'm Dave Sawyer by the way that spoke with you I thought it's getting somebody to man man these things overnight the volunteers to To be there to help you man like even the Christ Church at ten beds Because I talked with the woman there in Montpellier and she was saying how it's It just isn't the people to to do it to help staff it That thing is very challenging and I'm actually not in favor of having volunteers work in the shelter it especially like that overflow shelter in Montpellier, it's too tough for crowd and Just that things things can happen and I don't think it's appropriate for somebody to be volunteering for that But it looks like it's going to happen. We're working with another group to operate it together So a lot of things are blamed on COVID over the last couple of years and you're talking about the perfect storm and I was trying to think Vermont's from a larger demographic perspective Vermont's population is decreasing yet the housing availability is also decreasing Is it because and in the COVID surge a lot of people bought second escape homes in Vermont? So there are a lot of unoccupied houses in Vermont that so To that decreases the available housing for the average person I'm throwing that out there just as a philosophical question But that probably hurts us right at this point second-and-third home I Unoccupied homes Should have downsized and moved into a smaller unit and made our house available you know for for another new household that there's a lot of factors and But it I Vermont business magazine recently did a study and they found that Vermont has the second lowest vacancy rate in the country So that's tough and I don't know if any of you have relative friends children that are looking for apartments in this area It's really tough. I've talked to two that are 20 and 21 years old and they've numerous applications with no callbacks This is probably in your ballpark Who's doing it right? If you looked around the nation sure. Yeah. Well, I a lot of people point to Houston, Texas They have a program where And it you know this costs money you can imagine When someone becomes homeless as soon as possible They are subsidized what they call a supportive housing permanent unit so they get in an apartment with supports almost immediately and And the idea is you don't want people to get entrenched in homelessness. You don't want them out on the street and So that would be the I guess the gold standard and but think about how hard that is to do You got to produce the units. I mean Houston is a big city You know, I think they've been pretty go-go on development and so forth, but It takes a long time to develop housing here in Vermont If you're familiar with Down Street the project they've been working on here in Berlin That's been on the works for three years. I think so Houston has they've got some apartments that have 8 900 units. So yeah, so maybe that's how they can do it They've got the huge Have you thought of doing the breathalyzer test earlier in the day? You mentioned that you do it in the evenings and that as winter comes That will be difficult to exit in the later hour of the evening per se Have you thought about doing it at a different time? Well, that's I'll bring that back to my staff. We'll bring it up in our experience the drinking happens during the day people leave and You know and they go out and they Get alcohol somewhere and they drink it somewhere and then they come back later in the evening So so based on when they return for example, exactly So do they have a set time they do that breathalyzer or is as you're seeing them start to return? We do it in the early evening like from six to nine in that range or If somebody has been out and they're coming back at At 10 o'clock we do it be when they return But if they were to come back at five o'clock you wouldn't necessarily do it at four or five o'clock Probably not. No, could we do it in that that early evening shift? And I don't want to make it seem like we've got everything figured out there This is still a work in progress, you know a brand new facility and You know and we're doing our best Is there a work requirement for any of the residents down there? Encourage not required I'm actually surprised the number who are working and You know some people just they could not work. They're either too sick or too frail or Whatever it is. Yep. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Yeah, sure your efforts as well I really appreciate the warm welcome and thanks to the chief. He's He's been a real ally Both here we have staff at the hilltop, too, and we understand that it's very challenging there I think things have gotten a little bit better Are you finding that by taking a hard line you're getting it's easier to Screen your applicants It's tough on the screening because think of it like this people come to us They're desperately in need and they're at your door. They show up and you want to house them That's our ethic the people in the staff care. They want to help and And you know you do an intake It's hard to do a very very tough screening, but I have to say your questions right on point You know we are looking again in our intake in our screening process and Thinking maybe we should do this on an application basis And and have a more thorough screening So we're not we're minimizing the risk or lessening the risk at least It's a tough choice Any other questions for this and this I guess I just one more is there an absolute emergency? Location heated location that that folks could be taken to like a Barn with a with a wood stove in it somewhere I mean, you know a garage or something I mean whatever especially in the I'm thinking of January and February and yeah, right? well You know about this we've talked about this a lot with the chief That's why we are trying so very hard to get the Christ Church up and running That's really the end of the line there and There's nothing beyond that that I'm aware of During the day we set up a warm-and-shelter at the library down in Berry City, so that's open during the The hours that they're open so they are working on getting staff For that for the opera funds to staff that at the Aldrich library, but right now it's still in the infant stages Do you have a rough idea chief in Berry City? How many homeless you think you have in Berry City? So that number is it's kind of a moving target because they're very transient They will go back and forth between the two cities using Berlin as a conduit So last time that I was told we had approximately 45 there on the street and then We do have a couple of smaller encampments. We do Go to the meeting Monthly and we meet with Don Little who also is at the outreach And so she keeps a pretty good tap on that but it fluctuates So we get folks from outside of the area that will come in from White River or Burlington And that's so it's very hard to really picture what the consistent numbers are so We'll see new faces every now and then they'll tell us oh, yeah, we came up from Hartford Well, I thank you very much. I actually have another meeting to go to I'm one minute late right now, so But thanks for the warm welcome See here appointment of Jim Ryan to the seminar commission Yes, Ryan is here And this is the appointment letter Mr. Ryan has already done some volunteer work in the cemetery and expressed an interest to To get on the cemetery commission Thank you for volunteering Does anybody know when they meet or anything? Fact I know I'm not sure they have a meeting so there's another fairly new member that I'm reaching out to to try to Get that up and running again. So okay, I move to accept the appointment to Jim Ryan to the cemetery commission Any further discussion all those in favor motion carries Thank you very much, sir I'll be in touch Yeah, I should get some questions for you for us Thank you, thank you. Thank you. I got Capital mutual aid Folks my name is an intern chief Joe Alter from the various city fire department. I'm also the vice president for the capital fire mutual aid Just the update on the the radio system that you're Fire and fast quad folks are being dispatched on that System was actually a grant that was received from it's a year my grant from Senator Leahy back in the 90s So right now that system is approximately 30 years and aging old Most of that sit the towers are not interconnected Basically, they took advantage of some of the existing agreements that were out there And they put that equipment up To get the current radio systems that you have now We've been trying through the years trying to do to replace that system and really we just have not been able to get the funding and The mechanism to get it going we did have Berlin's communications to an independent audit They said that it is aging It is very hard to find equipment to replace those to notify our first responders So CVPS a the city of various in Montpelier Teamed up together. We hired a consultant from Tel Aviv. They are communications Consultant that specialized in telecommunications, and we looked at all aspects Basically, we said here. This is what we currently have. This is what we're proposing Tell us if it'll work what improvements will make and what to expect out of the improvements they did this study and they agreed that the investment in the Infrastructure was critical and that we needed to move forward with that. They also helped us in designing the system into a summer cast system Basically the summer cast system means that the nine towers on the the mountain tops would go off all at the same time We had some problems with balance And the balances is that we had to add a tower in Norfield and we had to add a tower over in Chelsea Basically to strengthen the signal for the area so that if Chief Stov was over in More town and he could not hear what was going on here for his Berlin fire department or The Chelsea Chief was over here in Berlin at Walmart shopping He would be able to hear his folks go out and respond appropriately. So we looked at that system is very effective Currently what they do is in places like Middlesex and more town They can't hear their tones effectively from the locations. So they have to do multiple tones So the dispatchers are doing double the duty to try to get the same Emergency response out there. So we're go we're planning to alleviate that So what we did is we took the study. We engineered it through Tel Aviv And we took that study and we went to the state the state on the same time is shedding Approximately 110 agencies. They are having problems with dispatchers and they provide free Dispatching services to a number of communities a number of those are fire and ambulance a few police agencies also So they notified them approximately 18 months ago that hey listen the states getting out of dispatching Services and what you'll have to find another location to dispatch now Some of the agencies have pre-existing Agreements that the state will honor and they will stick by that so that you won't have to worry about that and that I believe the Berlin PD has that Existing agreement and they're not in jeopardy of that at all But the other agencies will have to be go somewhere else with our system. We've actually proposed to pick up Chelsea Norfield PD War and came on this last month here. And so we're really trying to lock it in Approximately 750 miles about seven seventy five thousand people plus the daytime influx Which is hard to guess but from what I'm understanding for the chamber commerce. It's about a hundred thousand people throughout the area So we're trying to cover that Large amount of distance one of the things where we're running into is mass glass and distance mass of the mountains that we run through Glasses the buildings and distance between the powers. And so that's why we're adding those additional towers So we were trying to figure out, okay, how are we going to fund this the legislature got on board? Capital fire Barry Montpelier sent folks to the legislature testified on multiple times They came up with some state grant funding that they were going through and we Tended that application using the city of Montpelier as a fiduciary and we were tentatively awarded 2.4 4 million The total cost of the upgrade is about three point two three So you're like, okay, Joe, that's about a million one sure. What do we do with that? So as we're going through there's going to be a phase two of the grant funding so once we get official notice in December and we can move forward get the project rolling and then Apply for phase two funding to finish that off the project will last about 18 months It'll be upgrading that the whole system Barry Montpelier said that listen we have customers from this area and that we feel that the Dispatching infrastructure should be on each of the cities. So they went in they purchased Consoles and furniture and they're upgrading both their facilities. They also have a conduit Fiber after conduit that goes between the world's facilities that will Create a backup redundancy for dispatching with them. And so that really makes it a failover Capable, which is very good and attractive to the state. What's the state does not currently have? So they've agreed to become a tertiary dispatching backup for us vice versa So we fostered that with Terry the valley and we're working forward with that with them One thing that the governor did say is like hey listen We're going to we know how bad the infrastructure is and how old it is, but we don't want you back So what happened was is that we created this spreadsheet? This spreadsheet is a way of paying it forward so that the chiefs that are Forced with the radio system now for cattle fire does not have to come back and say hey Our hands are open for some more money because again, it's antiquated the radio system lasts with the new technology Has to be 10 and 12 years So manager chef lec from the town of waterbury who is very good with numbers offered to come up with this spreadsheet Basically, what he did is he took the the allocated grand less for each of the communities and that's how he came up with the numbers So the town of Berlin is approximately $5,500 Annually on a sliding increase and you can see that across with a 10-year period Basically in the end if it's invested correctly, it's approximately just shy of a million dollars It really at the whim of investments and actually had a third-party Investment analysts look at this and he said is a very sound way of Saving for the future So basically it's like if you're saving for a fire truck and you put money inside each month And you say okay, listen This is my savings plan at the end of 10 years or 20 years when you're ready to buy a fire truck you have that money on hand Basically, that's what we're trying to do for the radio system next year so basically what chief want to be to come in and advise you folks is that Your dues went up a little bit for capital fire mutual aid is probably $400 a year and that is to Pay for the connections to the towers and any of our day-to-day business For managing the radio system and capital fire mutual aid, but also your capital improvements What plan portion is about $5,500 a year and that we would be asking the towns to please move ahead and budget that as an annual payment to capital fire to into a Capital improvements plan dedicated for the replacement of the Radio system one thing we don't want is to get ourselves into the situation next time around And there are a lot of people that say hey, what about cellular and you know the broadband folks We did go to them. We went to Velco We have some positions on their towers that they're offering us AT&T and Verizon are coming along But that's really technology. That's 10 years from now And right now there are dead spots in your in your communities that you can't really reach with a cell phone And it's very hard for a firefighter to take this $1,500 phone into a fire and try to work it with their wet fire gloves And then expect this to be working afterwards. This is not reliable inside of building This is very well known and it's very cumbersome when you have zero fire Environment to be able to see in or you cannot touch So we so we have to be very realistic our portable radios We want to be able to key them up push down the man button and have somebody answer that when that When that firefighters in need and trying to find a lost firefighter So this system will improve this dramatically the system was capable to interact with future LTE developments. We've looked at that. We also designed the system to say listen Most of the fire departments can't afford to upgrade their pagers and portables and mobiles all at once So what we designed was this mixed mode system basically integrates P25 and digital and the Interquated older technologies so that that allows those you folks to budget down the road to say I want to replace that But be realistic. The other thing that we did on the RFP is that we incorporated special pricing for those radios for those communities that are looking to Upgrade their portables for two budget cycles so that they would hold the price in for two budget cycles so that we can move forward I thought with that was very great Smart things especially economy of scale issues, especially when we can do some bulk buying So I Think I've covered most of it chief. I'm going good or did I miss something? No, you you've covered everything I think just So what you're looking at on your spreadsheet is in addition to our current dispatching fees What are we currently with? Somewhere around 53 just under 53,000 So if I may address that your your dispatching fees are different from your capital plan. That's in front of you Dispatching P fees pay for dispatchers butts in the seats that pays for them to be able there That's staffing that is so that we can keep the lights on and move it forward So this right here This is a savings plan so that we're not coming back Because if we had to come back to each of the individual towns for 3.23 million to upgrade everything Just imagine what it was going to cost. I mean it would be Astronomically and everybody would be that shock and off so we're trying to do this realistically and and respectively But we're also trying to utilize state funding, which is there now We have been working with multiple agencies and trying to make it work There are some members of the public that have popped up some questions that we've tried to answer And I'm sure that you folks get that on a regular basis I will tell you that chief Pete and I have been working in this for the last 18 months and We're at the point where I think we're comfortable to say we're ready to move with the first step But also I have to do my due diligence and what the commissioner and the governor has said is we need to save for the future We need to put this money aside and this is the easiest way that we could come up with So some of the smaller towns had some issues We really originally came up with the five thousand per community But some of these towns only have six hundred and fifty folks in there So it really was not economically feasible because it was half of their budget what they were applying to put away So what manager Shepplett came up with was the Immortize grand list fee that you see there in the main column So the question it seems like this is is very critical infrastructure and the state is certainly willing to Get on board with grant funding and even in a very divided Federal government from time to time This is pretty bipartisan as far as getting emergency critical infrastructure grants. I I'd have to assume that A project such as this would be supported both state and federally So we apply for earmark funding from Sanders Leahy and Congressman Welch and we did not make the cut on that So we actually prepared the request as they wanted us and we were not successful in that We attempted this to 12 years ago to do the same thing on a smaller scale and we again We were turned down for that So one of the other things that we looked into the system fire the assistance the firefighter grant and the communications portion they put a cap on it fifty thousand dollars and Because if we were to turn around and say hey whistle we need three point two three million. Here's our study Here's this is that we'd suck out that major portion of the funding that's been allocated to Vermont And so that's why they did that is they put a cap on it So basically that assistance the firefighter's grant is a fifty thousand dollar capital. It's mainly for portables and and pagers 50,000 for region or per per town per grant so per applicant Even if there was a regional approach And I actually asked that very question to chief power. Who is the the region's representative? Who does the AFG? And what's the what's the term of the fifty thousand dollar limit? It's annually and it's only for appropriated by the federal government You have to understand that there's a lot of people waving their hands and I need I need and he and there's always SCVAs and turnout gear and trucks and you name it people are putting that in so and they have their own identified Portion every year. So this is what we're going to focus on this year one of its retention and recruitment Other thing is physical fitness or health and safety So you once that priority is identified annually Everything else goes to the bottom and so you're really not making that priority. So what may be a priority to us? Isn't a priority set by the FG folks So there's just a new wine item of sixty two hundred to stop and start off with for next year You'll see that Incorporated into the dispatch. It's right out over ten years. It's like one point three percent increase a year for ten years So that's not I mean it's not a big increase And we try to be reasonable too. I mean I understand it's not cheap, but also It's critical infrastructure. We need to be able to plan for it appropriately Luckily, we've been able to negotiate through the waters that have been set out through the legislature and you know Knock on wood everything should be fine and in December so we can really move forward. It's an 18-month project It's not easy to do I've been up to the mountaintop several times up in Berlin Just trying to bring it through and make sure we evaluate them. I've been to each of the radio sites some of them are duct tape and and bubble gum and So that the the rodents are in there several of them don't have generator backup What we've designed is is that every one of them will have redundancy backup and battery power and a generator so and a lot of that is through connections with Valco and AT&T and folks like that that have agreed to provide their generator connection to Norwich University was one of the other one So we really tried to explore that we tried to do microwave as much as we can Utilizing the bandwidth from Valco doing a public-private Cooperation and I have to give them a big shout out Valco has been huge and helping us try to move this project forward It seems to me a very thoughtful approach It's obvious a lot of time and effort went into it Very well done any other questions Thank you very much This year which has yet to be ordered There's an issue with Ford Exports The Ford Explorers that we normally go to are pretty much off the market The company that I have been dealing with So there were somewhere in the neighborhood of 7,000 orders canceled at the last minute So departments that have been waiting on her for months We're all of a sudden told you're not getting and have to kind of recalibrate and come up with a better plan Having said that they can get us Tahoe's it seems like the Chevy Tahoe's are more available It'll be a little bit more expensive than the explorers, but they're pretty much on their lot ready to go So I'm asking for the board's permission to go ahead and Give the green light to what was budgeted for that vehicle Somewhere in the neighborhood of 41,000 The budgeted 45,000 And the car and the ink and that's for one. That's for one beautiful What's the lag time on these? Probably four months By time I can say it I Been without my cruiser my take home cruiser now for at least two months and it doesn't look like I'll be getting it anytime soon They're telling me December now, so And that By contract and supposed to have a vehicle so right now unless I take one out of the fleet and leave the patrol short That's not happening. I've been using my personal vehicle You mentioned that Cody's had one down there. They still have that one down. It was a lot of it's gone I'm also asking for the board's permission to be proactive and go ahead and give me the green light to purchase a Ford Explorer With the consideration that it's probably going to be nine months before I can actually get it here It was just not budgeted for currently our fleet is Literally the wheels are falling off of it The bills are you know when we do bring it to be repaired. They're a thousand dollars a pop Just so you're aware tonight I have the budget package for you to take home and review in the fiscal year 23 budget I have budgeted for to police vehicles You'll see that in there as well For the next year's budget, so by the time that vehicle the orders it now by the time it comes in will be in fiscal year 23, okay, and that budget starts July 1 right correct I'd be willing to make a motion to let the chief Purchase the vehicles on the budget amount and also retain the second vehicle that is budgeted in the 23 budget I second that based on the need and the explanation A further discussion all those in favor Motion carries public works supervisor higher. Yes, so you have his resume there. We couldn't be here He's gone through the interview process. There were three candidates. This guy came out on top Diane was in in the original interview with him as well as myself the public works board and Tom And this is the the recommended candidate He has he has all the credentials he went on a tour of the system on Saturday as well With the public works board Again, he's the top candidate out of the four applicants of three that were interviewed He's local from very He's got a ton of experience and knowledge He has his licenses as well, and we have I get if the board agrees to it tonight We have an offer letter prepared And he would be willing he's he's ready to start right after the first of the year He's been in Barry for 15 years, I think he said Well, you probably want to cross them make the motion to move forward with the Offer of the position to the individual that's been presented to us this evening That was second Any further discussion on this that will we be having I know with the assistant cultural position we were kind of Unsure about really the the amount of salary and benefits this guy. Yeah. Yeah It is it is it's paid for by public works Comes out of their budget. Yeah Starting salary is 80 But they've offered it I think all said and done with insurance and everything it's around 121 So it's about 21 21 total package and the salary and benefits the How many what's the vacation look like it's two weeks two weeks start What's the plus he's got the water operators license What does that do with their contract with Simons and Well, that's that's the Discussion that the public works board and we are having right now There's some debate about the length of time that will need Simons on board after he comes on The thought is to give him on board give him a month or so to evaluate it and then Then make a decision at that point the expectation is is for Simon is probably about two months after hire Simon's annual contract is what? I want to say it the annual is like 58 Just shy is 60. I think it's about 58 Okay And this this salary you said was coming out of public works public works fun. Yeah, and How are they looking they in good shape? Yeah They should be okay, they will still be a surplus The only question I have on this Vince in terms of this letter is the indication of a probationary period for at least 20 I've never seen that before where it's not set in stone Six months or one year. It says at least Works board came up and I see and recommended and then my other question real quick the other contract we have with The subcontractors that are currently doing what was is it was too right there's two to Those are both one's water once sewer. Yeah And the contract with the sewer the other contract, you know what that that was how much that was 65 And then the water side 58 okay, but those won't necessarily be eliminated because they're actually doing the work Yeah, but one one can be done fairly quickly That'll probably decrease but this one yeah when Simons goes away The other discussion on this all those in favor all right motion carries The approval of licenses permits vouchers and applications to approve 23-09 for payroll from October 9th, October 22nd of this year paid on October 22nd of this year in the amount of 5897 dollars and 71 cents also payroll warrant 23-10 For payroll from October 23rd to November 5th of this year paid on November 9th in the amount of $49,334 and 27 cents Also payable warrant 23 g o 8 with checks 22 3 9 5 to 22 4 4 3 for payables in the amount of 268,880 dollars and 59 cents payable warrant a CH payment number 2 to Vita Through a CH withdrawal on October 18th of this year in the amount of 20,000 $518 and 2 cents for the Fisher Road culvert project payment number 2 Reconciled bank statements for the month of September and October for the general fund checking account and the sewer water Your second second any discussion All those in favor all right motion carries Approve October 20th 20 22 minutes I Make the motion to approve the October 20 and 22 minutes as presented with just some Changes here and there which I'll share with dance Substance and it includes spelling of names And just the way things are worded So I've made notations throughout You said you said you had questions about the substance of it You had said substance. That's what I thought I heard you say was substance Yeah, so the issues that are in here are Spelling of names are accurate and then there's just some as long as factual. That's all I'm looking at It's all factual in terms of names and checking spelling and then you know just making it consistent throughout just to be clear There's there's two minutes from the 20th. Okay. Yes, and I would say the same thing for both of those So my motion includes both of the minutes for October 20th. The issues are the same for both of those I've made the notations and I will give those to them I'll second that I believe I can I think I was here for that one. I don't think I was here for the Any other discussion on this all those in favor Now the approval minutes of October 27th 2022 I make the motion to approve the Thursday October 27th 2022 minutes just slight changes to you know Spacing and capitalization and names and titles and things of that nature Your second Your second thank you Any further discussion hearing none those in favor signify by saying hi hi Motion carries Joe roundtable Well, I did give Vince. I believe the the rate the estimate for the radios Yeah, that never made it to the packet. Okay, one of the things I think with your new new employee When he comes on board is maybe explore the idea of expanding or the extension of the water main from Montoya to Barry We had there Oh, I think there's a Honestly, I think there's a higher priority Which is our sewer line? Yeah 302 is a good example now. We've had an issue with the hospital line as well Yeah There seems to be a lot of unknowns with regards to our older sewer system in the lines Where they go what's what the condition? and with the recent event With the hospital line It wasn't good and there again, it's it's due to some surprises That we should have a better handle on quite quite frankly I think that will be our product should be my my opinion is that should be our priority To have them get a full understanding of what we're really dealing with with regards to that Then there's more to come on that. It's it wasn't a good situation there And it's gonna be costly as well to repair But you're right. There's there's there's a lot of opportunity there for on the water side as well In the radio the estimate for the radio for the EOC. Yeah, I will send that out To everybody as a follow-up as well It's all set. Yeah Maybe just to continue I think there was a There were some people that were calling on the back roads in the last week or so I do want to make note that Tim and the road crew got out in the trust those But we also got to realize that that's And I'm not saying it's a It's in you know a tech employee or equipment operator issue I Firmly believe that we have a material issue and we just spent a whole lot of money I saw going out to you know the people up in the Graniteville area. I think we have resident We have two sources right here in town That I think it'd be well worth looking at And materials for materials I'm not exactly sure where legue is currently, but what used to be FL brusso stone products at Thomas 63, you know Okay, is now McCullough the slate you're talking about the slate versus the ground I'm gonna tell you speak personal what I started talking about slate because that's a scary word to a lot of people Yep, okay. I have been testing material since 2006 And that is good material Just saying The old Bruce's pit the old Bruce all of it out 63 I don't see a lot coming out of legue's pit lately. No Whether towns get mostly from pike That's not like But that's also an option as well you got pike industries down on route 14 And You could look at pike industries you can look at the old well now the McCullough and you can look at legue and it's all very similar I think now my time rap I think you got a bad rap in the early 2000s on a big project the state and where there was a lot of tire Issues Okay, I don't know where they currently are they do a lot of local small projects So that's kind of off the radar for me But yeah, it's just that this stuff is what we're using currently. It's just unraveling. No, there's not enough of the fines the Compact if you want to call it Play like the toriel the plasticity. Yeah, it is very low. In fact, it is nothing And so it doesn't hold it doesn't bond and that's why we have what we have on this back Say other options The old show no I wanted to share that I've had a lot of people come forward with positive feedback regarding the open forum that we did at the Berlin Grange and I wanted to thank orca media I think they did a really wonderful job in in coming in and filming and Also opening that up to the residents of Berlin and there was a great attendance So that means a lot to me and I believe the rest of the board as well and The only other thing is I just wanted to touch on lovers Lane Bridge again to see if we can request the state to be more Decisive I know you said Vince that they had indicated three to five years If we can get a more definitive, you know versus a three to five year I think the residents really are speaking something more And we appreciate what the representatives are doing for sure Yeah, I've got a contact that I'm talking with I told them I'll call them every quarter to get an update and see where we're at on that Ideas on average how to leverage through the state I'm all I just what I've heard from the residents is how long it's been down and that Tucker's business isn't operating and that trucks aren't going over any longer and Some residents would like to see it open Just to normal traffic Right and I know that too So those are just some concerns that have been brought forward so I appreciate everything you're doing and what the representatives are doing as well Thank you No, I just want to on the on the watt this individual iron looking at those things I think that the public works board is going to save some money down the road You know eliminate one of them contracts and you know It ain't gonna be immediate, but I think that it's gonna be pretty level out fairly fast My round table topic and I specifically didn't bring it up When Rick Daniels was here from good Samaritan because good Samaritan is specifically a non-profit organization But I don't know if any of you read the Times Arias Rutland here last week about the Cortina and in Rutland and The Cortina and in Rutland is our hilltop They've been housing throughout COVID over 150 Rooms to people experiencing homelessness, and they've been very taxing on the police department And it was very interesting The town has gone and I'll read the quote from the Times Argus The town has gone as far to call for a review of the ins Act 250 permit And that's in environmental court right now and According to the select board chair the town has worked out a deal with the Cortina and its owners in which Cortina and will pay the town 75,000 for two years and additional police services And it will pay 22,500 per month to the town until March 31st When it will stop housing people through the state program. So I know we've discussed it a little bit how You know, we added an extra officer for Partially that reason if not exclusively that reason and the business that is profiting from The program that is taxing on our police force is is giving back to the town Where it's costing the town a lot of money So that's certainly something that I think we might want to consider in the future near near future especially with the hiring of of the new officer If not because of that very closely related because of that anything that's No, just don't really have executive Entertain a motion to go in the executive session and make the motion to enter executive session to discuss a personnel issue with the Supervisor Craig pelletier