 Good evening. I'd like to call the Monday, June 4th, Briggs Select Board meeting for Broen to order. To my far left is Pete Kelly, Wayne Lamberton. And to my right is Angelina Capron. With us also is Diane Isabel, the town administrator, Dana Hadley. Any additions or changes to the agenda for the data? Brad, I'd like to add, since Tim is here, a discussion on the road grader that needs some repairs. And I'd like him to tell you about it. Do you agree? Reveals? That's all. Okay. Public comment? Hearing none. Treasurer's report, Diane? We've been talking with the attorneys as far as tax sales. And we have sent a tentative date of August 9th for tax sales. At this point in time, we have six properties. Thank you. And when we come closer to the tax sale, then I will present them to the board. But in the meantime, obviously, the residents can come through and pay for them. And there might be a couple that we pay for. So they might not all go to tax sale. But I just want to make you aware, at least we have a date that we've established at this point in time. I also wanted to just mention that the assessors have sent out the change of appraisal notices to the residents. And I believe that they are going to be meeting for grievances on June 14th. That is my understanding from them. The other thing that I would talk about a little bit is, and I will present it next time that we have a meeting, is I want to get some under $5 fees waived, okay? And also I'd like to be able to talk about having the late filers these waived by whooping that up on the agenda at the next meeting. So just to make you aware, we'll be discussing that. The late filers, it's the homestead issue. Yes, people that file their taxes late. Got it. And the under $5, obviously, is just... Right, we've done that before. Yep, quite a few times. That's all I have. So you're thinking next time? The next, yeah, the next meeting we'll put that on the agenda. Okay. And I'll discuss that. The speech is still looking at the war, and so we'll take and go with the death, the emerald... Yeah, thanks. So I'm here at the Town Tree Warden, and I gave you a little informational thing. Obviously I copied and pasted some of this because there are no pictures, as suggested in some of this. So this is just sort of an overview to give you some general information on what's going on. Emerald ash borer is an invasive species that has been in the United States since the early 2000s, late 1990s. It's progressed across the mid-lakes region through Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Quebec, New Hampshire, and was found in Vermont this past month. It was found in Maine, Northern Maine actually at the end of May, so just like within the past two weeks. This is a pest that preys on species of the ash genus only. White ash, black ash, green ash, brown ash. Mountain ash is not a true ash, it does not post that tree. It kills the tree. There is no known successful control mechanism for ash. So from a forestry standpoint, that's a huge economic and management issue, from a roadside tree standpoint, it's a huge potential cost and safety issue. So I, as Tree Warden, I'm here to discuss specifically roadside trees. The state has been very cooperative and proactive in putting together some suggested plans for how to evaluate what's going on and some suggestions with how to deal with it. And I've been talking with them, there may be some grant money down the road, which is probably more detailed than we need right now. But I think to start with, it was initially identified in, right near the intersection of Washington Orange and Caledonia counties on Brook Road in Plainfield. It travels or spreads at a rate of about two miles a year. It takes approximately five years for an infestation to become dense enough to identify. So by the time you identify it, it's here, it's killing trees. We are in a high risk area because of our proximity to the initial infestation site. There are now five sites that they've identified. The presence of Emerald Ash border in a couple different towns, I think very towns, the closest, Montpelier actually, they just identified it there. So I guess that's closer. It's likely that it's in Berlin, okay? Even though Ash statewide is approximately 5% of our tree population, as I drive around the roads here in Berlin, I'm guessing it's much higher. So that puts us in an even higher risk area. The primary mechanism for spread is people, firewood, logs, hopefully, that sort of thing. So it's something that we need to address. And if you flip to the third page of what I've provided here, this is a general overview of a way to proceed with figuring out how to deal with this. The first item in the action plan would be to determine our road right-of-way widths. Perhaps this is information that we already have, but since we're only dealing with trees or specifically dealing with trees in the road right-of-way, we need to know what those widths are. The second seems just to be responsible members of the community to notify the public that there will be an inventory taking place to identify trees that are within the road right-of-way and then perhaps expand the discussion to those trees that are proximal to the road right-of-way that are potential hazard trees or high-risk trees. As I drive around the town, and especially if you go, a very good example is if you go up Crosstown Road, there is a power line right-of-way on the right side of the road, and that power line right-of-way is lined with ash trees that are not in the town right-of-way. As part of this, it might be an important feature to keep good communication and dialogue going with the utilities to know what their plan is and how they're dealing with this. And then a plan for removal needs to be developed. That could involve moving roundwood to a local site and having it available as firewood to local residents. It could involve a more centralized deposition site. Casella has been talking with the state as having some interest in a potential site for that. It could involve having it chipped on site and blown back into the landowner's property. All of those have a cost, and I don't know what our sort of, all of the things we need to figure out is how do you do that? Do you hire a contractor in? Do we do it in-house? Those are things I don't, just bringing it to your attention. It's sort of, it's on the radar. But one thing for you to keep in mind, and these are, this is sort of researched information, because of the way emerald ash borer infests the tree, it doesn't start from the crown down. It typically infests the main stem, perhaps where upper branches are leaving the main bowl of the tree. The structural integrity of the tree falls apart very quickly. So when these trees die, research shows that it's as much as three times more expensive to remove them as it is to do that before they die. Because they fall apart. Because they fall apart, they're a risk, they're a liability, yeah. There's also some of the, just the structural way ash grows and the grain of it also adds to that. But it's also, much of it has to do with the way the emerald ash borer affects the tree. So if we remove the trees, because earlier you said the spread of this is pretty much human. So if we make it into firewood, or we chip it, or we blow it back onto the property, as long as a similar tree is not available, these things will die, or are we just? No, it's here. Once it's here, it's here. And it will infect trees, half inch diameter and larger, period. So basically the trees that are outside the town is right away. They're gonna die. Are gonna be infested anyway. Yes. Okay. I was thinking the same thing. If we bring the firewood here, are we bringing the disease here, but it's here anyway. It's here anyway. Yeah, and it's not. So if we cut trees that are not infested, let's say right tomorrow we cut every ash tree in the town right of way, brought all that roundwood to the town garage and had the public come and take it. We're not spreading anything. If there is, if there are larvae in those trees, potentially we're spreading it within the town. So what we're doing in that case is maybe speeding up the spread of something that's going to get here anyway. Also making use of something that we have to do something with anyhow. To re-burn what in the town garage? No. Is there a natural predator or just? There are a couple types of parasitic wasps that prey on this type of beetle and they've played around with it. I think New Hampshire has actually imported a couple species from Asia where it comes from. Nothing is really impacting the spread or the population. So one of the things Vermont, by establishing a quarantine, and I'm sorry I'm talking fast and forgot that part, we are in a quarantine area. So there are specific regulations on what can happen with ash trees in the town of Berlin. They've quarantined the whole state. But given that there are recommendations on how to slow the spread and that's basically restricting the movement of ash within the high risk areas which we're in during the quote unquote fly months. So that's from May 1st to October 1st when the beetle is active. Moving ash within the town of Berlin is not gonna change that. I think that's sort of slang driving towards it, Daniel. Yes. I was like, what is happening? Yeah, that's what it is. Okay, do you know if any other community has developed a plan, an action plan? I don't know. Yeah, yeah. Daniel Fitzko with the state is the urban forestry coordinator and I've been corresponding with her. She's meeting with utilities. She's talking with other communities. So I'm kind of in contact with her to get the best available information to guide us forward. So do you think that maybe public notification without communication would be one of the first steps that we would understand? I think one of the things we need to know is just what we have to deal with. I, in my little world, which isn't much of Berlin, I see a lot of ash trees that are just outside the right of way. So I don't know what we can do there. Yeah. But other town roads, we really need to do an inventory of roads that are within the road right of way to know just how much we have to deal with. And I'm willing to take that on and get a group together and implement that inventory. So, and you're saying, and I'm sorry, I'm a little slow on this. Sure, I'm talking fast, I'm talking fast. You're saying that even though the tree may look healthy, it's best to remove it. Yes. Before it becomes unhelpful. Yes. So Brad, you need to get an answer to this, but would there be any advantage in contacting a firewood provider to have those trees for three years at too much work or too close to the road, too problematic, I should say, for them to have them for nothing to cut them up and sell them if they're in the biz? Well, I mean, firewood, long length is selling for around a hundred and ten of cord now. I mean, why would you give it away? Well, so we don't have to deal with the issue. You incur the cost. Yeah, if we marked the trees and said, of course we would have to deal with private hand owners or whatever, if they could have them in, if they cut them up. Well, I mean, the first thing is, even with the infestation that's around here, are the trees having any value for lumber? Some of them might. Whether they're fairly healthy, but along with the firewood, you couldn't sell them outside this area, right? There are, there is one market that I know of in the quarantine area that's buying ash saw logs. I think the issue there would be the logistics of how to get three ash logs right, yeah, right, it just may not happen. Economically, feasibly to a place in Groton. That's why they just cut the three in dollars. Yeah. Just chop it up, throw it in your truck and sell it. That's firewood. Even that might never be worth it. But if you get one tree here, that would be a mile away. I mean, so right now, if the tree is chipped, the chipwood can be moved around. It's considered, the chips are considered small enough to have killed the larva or stopped the potential spread, but I can't, I was trying to picture, you know, are there guys that have set up small enough that they could go to a tree here and a tree quarter of a mile down the road and cut it and chip it and make that anything worthwhile. I don't know anybody like that. There might be people out there. Maybe it's a new business stream. It's a, the trouble is, is that you're not dealing with firewood, you're looking at trees 12 to 20 inches. Pretty, you know, you're not looking at anything too beautiful for a stem, but I mean, you're looking at a fairly consistent piece that will go through a processor. Then, if you have a tree that is good enough for a log, if you were able to bring them back and yard them somewhere until you've done enough. How is the insect, where does it live in the trees? In the Cambium layer or? Yeah, so what happens is the beetle lays eggs in the main stem of the tree and those larva hatch and they eat the Cambium of the tree. The detrimental part is, first of all, their population explodes so quickly. The larvae are fairly large and they do this zigzag pattern through the tree that just girdles the tree. One of the easiest ways to identify a tree that's been infested is by the woodpecker getting at the water boat. Yeah, and it's here and it really stinks. It just really stinks. The only thing there is that though the road, we have the right of way through the land, but if you were to educate the landowners that they're either gonna have a tree worth X number of dollars for either turnings for ax handles, or they will have a pile of firewood for conserving glass and behooved them to have a logger go in and maybe look at it before it's just a pet tree that's worth nothing. The other thing is, of course, I mean, if you, in your travels, when you inventory the town's trees, it might be worthwhile talking to the landowners and see if they'd be willing to do an ash kind. Yeah, I think that's part of why I believe it makes sense to put out some sort of informational, you know, this is what emerald ash ore is, this is how it affects the tree, this is the research, and that we're going to be specifically looking at roadside trees. But anybody that's got a wood lot, I'm sure their forester's been in touch with them to educate them on this. You know, the county forester's a really good resource. I think it's people that have a half acre to 10 acres that might not recognize how much ash they have on their property. And again, I think it's the gray's land that's up on the road there. Those stems are all six to 10 inches. You know, from a value standpoint, there's not a lot there. From the utility standpoint, when all of those trees die, there's a real problem for them. That's how I'm doing this. I'm looking at money made, I'm looking at money saved. Or value given. That's the big thing. For us, that's the big thing, is the cost of just managing those trees. The hard part with doing it in the town right away, you have maybe a band of 10 feet on the edge of the road. And if you get ahold of the landowner, well then you have a place that's probably, now once the tree is dead, the beetles are out of luck. Yeah, so I was surprised to hear today that in a, so I was asking you about, well, what if you cut the trees? How long does the beetle persist? And what I, the information I got from the state is that they'll reside in that tree for up to a year. And that surprised me, because ash dries out pretty quickly. But yes, they're looking for a better hose. Actually, those beetles live in other trees. Only ash. Faxness, the genus Faxness, yep, that's it, yep. That's all I have. Yeah, yeah, that's things. So I guess what I'm proposing is that, and I don't know if we have this information somewhere to know exactly what the town right away wits are on all of our town roads. We have many roads, a lot of information that the clerk has in her office. Do we have every single road? Probably not. But I think we certainly could pull together what we do have. Yeah. And I'll speak to Rosemary and Corinne about it. Yeah. See if they can help me pull it together. That would be great. So that you have an idea of where you are. Okay. And I also think, and I'll wait to get in kind of advice from you, when we could put this on our website or other ways we can get this information out to residents of the town. Yep, a French forum maybe. A French forum. Yeah, yep, yep. Could we summon the tax bills? We could. When did they go out? They will be going out in July. Oh. Probably about around the 10th. That'd be a good idea. That's a good way. Okay. Everybody help yourselves. Well, not everyone. That's all people don't know. I can put it together sort of a little informational thing and then perhaps you and I could work on language just to allow the folks that we're going to be doing this inventory and it's here. Yeah. Does that make sense? I think that makes a lot of sense. Okay. Yeah. And then an inventory, well inventory roadside trees. I guess the other thing just as an aside, I mean this ash sort of brings it all to a point where we need to discuss it but there are other trees inside the town road right of way that probably need to be dealt with if we're doing this anyhow. Dead Elm, it comes to mind. I know there's a couple up around my house. We've had a lot of discussion on trees and as you know, it's very expensive. Yeah. And we've spent maybe up to $1,000 on one tree and our budget, unless we do something different, doesn't support that. Yep. And I'd like to say we could take care of it immediately but it certainly concerns me. I was thinking if you could find somebody to have had a use for that that you could just give it to them. And I'm thinking of, you know, there's many trees, Sam, I'm sure that you can think of that should be taken down, you know. And they're not ones the power line will deal with. And, no, that would be the best thing but you, but no. Okay. Well, I guess I bring it up because if we know we have to deal with some percentage of what's in the right of way anyhow then maybe it's more cost effective if we're there anyway to look at some of these things. Right. And it doesn't hurt us to have a plan. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We won't be able to have enough volume so that we can, that's made a difference. Yeah. But if it was something we could make a fuck at it. Well, they logged out on the Berlin Palm just when they're on the field road and they took a lot of ash because it was way up. The price of it was way up. Oh yeah. Because of this. And he cut a ton of ash out there. Yeah. I guess the other part of it, I don't know, I can't think of any place but again, my corner is small. If there's any high conservation value ash that are in the town on public land or within the town right of way there are ways to treat the ash to so that the Emerald Ash Board doesn't get into it. It's not a one-time treatment. The tree needs to be treated every two to three years for the rest of its life and I'm guessing it's expensive but if there's something out there that has high value then we should certainly put that, sort of consider that in the plan. Are you going to speak to the Conservation Commission? I already have. Have you? Yeah. Yeah. And we didn't, we couldn't think of anything but so, but I'm just thinking. Because I don't think that they would know that. So, so once the inventory's done plan for the removal of these trees needs to be developed and that needs to include somehow a disposal mechanism whether it's a central site that the timber is brought to or a chip down site or somebody comes in, you know, sort of contracts to take it away. I mentioned that there's a fly season. The, from October 1st until May 1st, so through the fall, winter months, the timber can be moved more freely because the bug isn't active. So, it opens up our opportunities or a logger's opportunities to move that wood to different markets. So, you know, that's something just to keep in mind as we do. Did you say the May through October? May to October is called the fly season, so that's when the bug's active. Okay, so that's not a good time. The restrictions on movement are pretty small there from October 1st through December or through the winter to May 1st of the following spring. You see ideal time. Yeah, yeah. And then I guess the other part of it is that if we're, you know, if we're taking trees that people have a connection to out of their yards that are in the right of way, is there a way that we can replace them with something? And I think the biggest cost of that would be digging the hole, the seedlings and saplings. There's a couple different places where you can purchase a native species that's suitable to the site like sugar maple or red oak or red maple that's not onerous in cost. But, you know, if we're putting a ladder out and we're saying, well, we're probably gonna take a tree out of your yard, it would be nice to maybe be able to say that we can replace them. So that's a whole lot of information in a nutshell. Yeah. Well, I'll pull together what we have to right away. Okay. And give you a list. Okay. And I'd love to tell you it's gonna be done tomorrow, but it probably won't be. Oh, well, okay. So we'll work on that. But I do think a plan as we go along would be great, I think. Okay. Well, if we were, if July is when tax bills go out, if we could, you know, sort of know that we've come right away with and put together a package to put in those tax bills before July, is that a reasonable? I would think, yeah. I think that sounds good. Yeah. And then maybe we could talk on a plan for the rest of it. Or a schedule, I guess. Thank you. All right. That's all right. The approval of licenses, pervince. Dr. I move that we accept the general fund that counts payable warrant number 18G24 with checks 18130 to 18160 in the amount of $65,072.79. And the payroll warrant number 18-24 for payroll from May 13th, 2018 to May 26th, 2018, the amount of $40,111.57. Second. Any other discussion? All those in favor? All in favor. Motion carries. Let's see here. Approve of the transitional work policy. Yes, I had given that to you for your last meeting for your comment. And I was hoping you would, if you agree with it to make a motion at this meeting and to sign the policy. It was just a minor claimant from the last time, right? The, what we did from last time, we took out suggestions of work jobs and to give ourselves a little more flexibility. It does say in the policy, we're not able to guarantee somebody would have 40 hours of weed. But you put the changes we discussed last time. That's right. I get it. I move we approve the transition, the transitional return to work policy as presented. Second. Any further discussion? There you done. Those in favor? Signify it's the aye. Aye. We'll close. Motion carries. Bit opening for road paving data. We do have bit opening for road paving. The bit went out for Fisher Road. And the reason we limited it to Fisher Road was because of the state grant. Depending on pricing and things like that, there may be some adjustments at the end of the project depending on if we have money available for other small areas of town. We have received two bids. I think both gentlemen and both companies have represented. Okay, sure. Make sheet sheets for you. I think I'd like to do this. This is simply eventually. And so we just need to open the bids. From pike industries for to machine, pave and cold plane, 1,810 ton at 93.75 a ton for a total of $169,687.50. Could you read that amount again, Wayne? $169,687.50. And what was the per ton? 93.75. Thank you. For 1,810 ton. I don't know how to read this, guys. I really don't. Here you go. So I have a bid from Hutchins. The Fisher Road is a two inch type overlay, 1,300 ton, $79 per ton, $102,700. This is the price listed is for night work. And then there is cold plane, 11,800 square yards, 265 per square yard, $31,005. Again, the price is for night work. What was the per ton price, Pete? For the 1,300 tons. Plus $79. Thank you, per ton. I can read the list. They have provided all traffic control necessarily, flaggers, uniform, trapperage, cold plane is two inch, sweep the roadway after cold planing, site cleanup, deliver the cold plane, blinding 1,300 tons to the town of Berlin, if requested, it's not responsible for the control of any traffic signals during and after our constructions and it is understood that any traffic signal loops on the project will be removed during the cold planing process and JHI is not responsible for any damage to any traffic signal equipment caused by the cold planing and we are not responsible for reinstalling the traffic signal that was located on the project. That's too bad, because I would save us a lot of money. Yeah. We had a police code signal here discussing the traffic like situation at the mall and the hospital. He said, I told him, I said, we're gonna cold plane that two inches and he said, you're gonna get into our loop. But he said that the light will remain and go on automatically and then just go through it's cycle instead of, the way it's looped right now is the left lane turning to the mall and the left lane going to the hospital or the only ones that have a loop. So that's what sets the light all the time. So if they, if we take them out of there, he said the lights are still gonna work, but there might not be any cars that's gonna turn to going to the hospital and they're gonna have a green light there. So he said that, you're gonna get people saying, well, why is it like over there and we don't have one here and so, but he said that that's a real minor thing. But we are waiting for price of every place. New signal. This system anyway, as we discussed with the budget preparation time. Just we don't have that. The light will still operate if we take them out. It's just to realize that the wire and the road or whatever it is is going to go. So how are we getting new signals for the intersection? Are there some cameras? He just said new detection system. So I'm assuming it's cameras. I asked him cameras and I think he said yes. Yes. So he's not going to socket in between? Not if we put up new signals. Right. Our lights that are there, the crosswalk light, all that stuff is good. We have to change the controller, the box because that's been there since 1983 and it's getting to the point where they can't get parts to fix it. The wiring. The wiring is in pretty rough shape. I guess what I'm saying is once they grind, we're not going to worry about the loop. No, there will be no longer a loop. Right, you're going to be out of a loop. Tim has spoken with the vendors regarding the hospital access and other considerations there that we need to be mindful of. Because the reason I did was because we paid bill there, we put that skim code on there last year, we had to and it was a nightmare. So I suggested night work because the traffic won't be as bad. What was Hutchins' total? Okay, so Hutchins for the Fisher Road paving proposal, 79 per ton, 1300 tons, 102,700. And then for the cold paving proposal, it was 11,700 square yards, 265 per square yard, a total of $31,005. So I mean the total cost is 133,705, yeah. For 1,300 tons. So can I ask a question? Sure. Is this legal? So the 9,375 a ton is the machine pay of the classical public fund? Yeah, as requested per ton in the document that went out. So it is. Is the grant 80% of the cost or 175,000? It is 80% of the cost. We're responsible for 20. 20% with a ceiling of 175. These guys aren't gonna be happy for me to say this, but we have in the past taken it under advisement and done our pencil sharpening. And I will bring it back to the next meeting at the board if you're more comfortable. Well this is the issue and I'll just say it. If we use the tonnage that Hutchins came up with at 1,300 tons and use Pike's combined number of coal planting and paving, that makes them a little better. Who's a little better? Pike. If you take Pike's tonnage and use Hutchins number before coal planting and paving and add it together, it's like within $7,000. So I'm just trying to figure out how the fairway is to do this. That's what I'm trying to do. I think that matters when we do need to discuss it. There's a 500 ton discrepancy. We take this to the next meeting. You can get us out a, we are second to put that way. Sorry. Oh, I need further discussion. You get us a breakdown of all that data. Yes. Be a little close. Okay, Al, any further discussion on this? The only discussion I have and just a suggestion and what I've been telling everyone that we go to, if you guys give us the length and width that you want, we won't have a 500 ton discrepancy because we're going out there and I know where the state paved to, I know, so I'm sure that we have different lengths and widths and that's why there's such a discrepancy. If the town just gives us, and again, you're based around a per ton price, so if you give us 3,000 feet by 40 feet, we're all gonna come up with a five ton in each other, the exact same number. The only issue that I have is that the grinding I don't, you did it by the square yard and he did it by the ton. So it's hard to make a judgment. So we might have clarification questions for you in the next week. I think that's the barest lead. That's good advice. Follow the payment team on this little next meeting. Hi. Hi. Do you want your contact information? I believe so. If not, I can bring that. Oh, it's probably here. It's on there. Oh, okay. And I know I have you. Thank you both for your time. Thank you for your chance. Yep. All right, then opening for roadside mowing. We have two beds for roadside mowing and on your cheat sheet, I only knew the name of one. So the other one is a mystery one that we'll need to fill in. Okay, can you help Idlila take and go through the, did she's going to be able to do this one beautifully? I just, I had all the comments from the world. Thanks guys. Just going to be my tutor. Yeah. I was just guessing what I was going to say. Well, the thing that I don't understand is, is that one over there with them? So why we got, so they had the measurements. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I went right over there and I said, where we're going to start, where we're going to end, and what, what. The only thing that we're not going to do is in front of the state hospital where they paved that extra lane for the buses because they've already paved it. And we went for it all. We all did all and everything. There's about 500 ton. Yeah. In this case it's $45,000 and that's the difference in the bed and I think that we need to get clarification or else we might not be giving it to them a little better. Yeah. Do you know the, do you know those, the answers to those questions? When you, when you measured it, do you know the, the left and went? Oh, he wrote it all down. Well, I was with him. But he wrote it all down on, on the papers and because the state paved in off of 62 and they reclaimed out already. I think we, we should be able to ask the question of someone, what a square yard up grinding ways. Uh-huh. What's a square yard at two inches? We should be able to figure out what that includes. So we, so we can convert it to tons. And then- Well, I was surprised that they went with yardage. Right. I just, I just think it's like a fair way to make a decision. Everybody knows that. Well, that's right. You have to do that. But John, if you're right, if you're measuring it, jot those numbers down. Oh, I'm going to be there. Yeah, we might as well have them. I'm going to have them. No, I'm saying before we decide who's doing the job. Yeah. Well, I'm going to call them both and I'm going to go over there with them and we're going to measure it. That way when they say- And I'm going to write it down. And make sure they both the same. 0.8 to 0.B. Yeah. That's the problem they're doing about a ton. Because if 1,300 drawn in 1,800 right, then they win. It's a good pay by the time. No. That's, I just want to, I want to know that we're doing, we're giving it to the little bit. That's all. And I think we need to figure that out because now the numbers are covered. Yeah. Sure. We can do that. Okay, Wade. I have a quote from Lampson's Property Services. To do roadside mowing in the town of Berlin, it'll be $5,250. This is for one pass both sides and a second pass on agreed roads. Well, he did two passes on all the black top last year. But does it say over the rail mower? It doesn't. Because he doesn't own one over the rail mower. And we've got to have an over the rail mower because the ditches, he can't get close enough and that is where we had a lot of complaints last year because you could mow as much as you mowed with a push mower. So it's just sad. So we went to, and it was in the bid right then, that we wanted at least no less than a five foot over the rail mower. So it says price for mowing roadsides will be $5,250. This is for one pass both sides and a second pass on agreed roads. This may require us to, you might have a faster question next to it. So this is from Donald Dexter in Williamstown. Dear select board members, please find and close my bid for your roadside mowing. I have currently two charters equipped with tire brand long arm over the rail mowers. They have a cutting width of five feet, which I believe is the widest available mower in this class. Single pass mowing on a closed straight could be done at a cost of $5,000. However, in order for me to mow to the specified minimum width of 60 as required by your bid specs, I will need to make a second pass on all of your streets. If a second pass is needed, I will take a bid price to $7,500. I'm sorry, what was that price again? $7,500. Okay, if it needed two passes. Again, insurance by the town of Berlin listed, other insured will be issued prior to any work performed. Sincerely Donald, Donald Dexter. I would suggest that you take it under advisement so that we could look at the research themselves. I'll make that one. A second. All those in favor? All right. Bid opening. Bid opening for the trailblazer. We have... Is it too early for us to submit a bid? We have two bids for the trailblazer. One I don't... Both of them I did not know at the time, but I only knew a few. So, we have two bids. And this is the surplus trailblazer, 2008. Bid from a Spencer Tinkham. He's from Randolph. He has a 603 cell phone number. He is bidding $2,777.77. Nice idea. And it might mention the base bid was $2,500. I might have a bid from the Gorman Group in New York, Albany, New York, in some places. And their bid is $2,652. The Gorman Group. What's your years for it? Ooh, $2,777.777. And in this case, we're not looking for the low bid. Right. I'll make a motion that we accept the offer of Spencer Tinkham. Second. Any other discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Also, I might add that the successful bidder, if the successful bidder cannot fulfill the terms of the bid within seven days, would the board like me to bring it back to you, or do you want to go to the next bidder? Go to the next bidder. This is an excess of our minimum bid. Can I see the back bidder? You don't have to re-advertise it. This one? Yeah. I'm somewhat interested in that one, my son. This one? It's not the Gorman Group, but we're thinking of it. It's an old pad off my desk. That's TJ, right? Yeah. TJ bidder. Okay. That's why I was wondering. You're going to have to move your notepads. Because he said he was going to bid. Yeah. Okay, we're going to go to the back side of it. Okay, Browns Mill Road, speed limit. We had a letter that came in from Sarah Winters. Sarah lives on 36 Browns Mill Road. She had mentioned this to Jeremy some time ago. We never followed through with it, so she brought it up again. Browns Mill Road, as you know, is off of Route 12. Just past George Groce's farm. It's a short road. It goes over the bridge to a T intersection, and then the road on the left side goes to a home on the left and on the right. It goes out to a few more homes, but it turns into a private road very shortly. I can't think of how many feet. Sarah's concerned about the speed limit, which is 35 down there. I did speak with the police chief about it, and he says he would also recommend that we lower the speed limit. If you decide to go ahead and do that, we would need to have a public hearing on the change of the ordinance, and go through the ordinance change as we have in the past. So what are you looking for for a speed limit? That's a very good question. She does not suggest one of the chiefs suggested 25. Wasn't there, this has come up several times, and wasn't there a process for this we'd have to go through with the or is that depending? That's what I was just saying as far as, you know, if we go, we have to have a public hearing, and then the ordinance then has a 60-day, and I'm not sure what they call that. Do they take the speed? You don't have to do a traffic study. That's what I was referring to. They put the hoses, and they see what the speed limit is, because people that said, oh God, they're going 40, and they're really going 28. Well, I had hoped to avoid a traffic study, but. Well, if we can't. Where is the, can you remind me where this is? It's on off of route 12. If you're on route 12, Dog River Farm is on route 12, and if you're going toward Northfield, it's the next street on the left. Just before you get to the railroad. Before, yeah, before you go onto the railroad. Oh. Great. So it's a short, it's very short. 20, 400 feet from route 12 to the furthest point. And then there's, you go like he said, you go across the bridge, and then there's Brown's Mill Extension, and we only plow up to 25 feet. So basically, it's neighbors. It's, yeah. I mean, they're only people driving. It doesn't go anywhere. You have to, I mean, you would only go there if you wanted to go, to get there, or you wanted to go through the property. And just to be clear, I'm not saying that I want to make him jump through every hoop and require him to study. I just thought that was mandatory. If it's not, I don't think it's been mandatory in the past. I don't see in our records that it has been. I think it's helpful. If you were talking about Crosstown Road, I think I'd give you another. I think there's a total of 12 or 13 people. What did she tell us the day we met down here when the one who built the guardrails? Did she say 12? 12? Probably right. I'm not very many people. Are we gonna go there and shoot right at her? Well, there's the issue. That's my point. I mean, we can make it 10 miles an hour, but if no one's down there to enforce it. I'd have a picture of it. I would. I mean, it's a road that when you turn on to it in a very short time, you're going on the bridge over the Dog River and you come to that tee, you have to, you can't be going very quickly. You should turn there. So does she really think they're going faster? She does feel that they're going too fast. She's concerned as she says in the letter. She said in the letter. She's concerned about her kids. Yeah, because I read it. It was the kids and whatnot in the road. They had a basketball hoop on the end of the road in the driveway, but the kids playing in the room. If you turn to the right. Which is a typical vermin for kids to play in. Sheila's in the first house after you come off the 12. Well, it wouldn't be recommended if you live on 302. But you're on it before the bridge. But like you say, it's a good point. We can say zero. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, this happens a lot. People are concerned about speed unless we have a police officer available to go and monitor. And I don't know how many car trips are in and out of there every day, but if you have 12 families, it's, what, 30 car trips a day. Every morning, when people go to work and then they come home with it. Maybe 30 trips a day. They work down here on that road in the daytime, they've never seen the car. It's fine. It's fine. We washed the bridge down the other day and never had a car until it was punched on me and do cars on me. Well, that's what I say. I mean, and the reason I reference the road study is that 35 miles an hour, when it's four feet in front of you, you could be going 15. It's still quite a, and if you have kids in the road, five miles an hour is too fast. So if they're really only going 20, she wants to lower it to 25. What are we accomplishing if we are not going to enforce it? She's also asking for a children play a sign. I think that's easy. That's no problem. We can do that. Yeah, I mean. I think for children. It's giving them the right to play in the room. On a dead-end road. Yeah. That's what's assigned us. But it is a warning. I mean, there's something up there. Well, it is a warning, but I would think that people that live there know that there's kids at the first time. Right. I mean, a sign is a sign. I don't make problems with the sign. What I have a problem with is spending the next six months to lower the speed limit when we're not gonna afford it anyway. That's the issue I got. Well, if we wanted to enforce it, you'd need to lower the speed limit. That's, I mean, I guess that's the best answer. If they're going more than 35. Which we don't know. Right now it's 35. If the police were down there monitoring how fast people were going, I don't know how fast you were going. That radar car that the police have, does that take in the count? Does that give you any information back on speed? That's a good question. I'm not sure of that, but I would ask. Yeah, I was just thinking of that because they have it under the bridge here. Yeah. Let's put it down there. Okay. Especially if it has the pass. If they put it right just before the bridge, it's playing a room to get it off the, because that road's not very wide. Okay. Just before the bridge, if they set it up right there, they're going to nail them the minute they come off route 12. I'm not sure if it records or not, but I will speak with Mark about that. Yeah. Did that be handy? Yeah. What do we need to put the sign up? Do we have any signs? No, I have to get one. Oh, we can get one. Do you mean the kids are placed on? Is what you're talking about? I don't know the speeds. I'm not sure, I'm not sure. So you better always, we would like to bring this back. I will speak to Mark about the radar sign and then maybe we'll bring it back up in the community. That sign can give us any kind of data back, then probably put this off till next meeting. I thought they did, but I don't know if it was. You would think it would, but then why do you need to do this, studying with the hoses and all that, if you could just- The hoses are the only different hoses. Okay. It's just a counter. It just counts. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. But I think it does, I think it gives them a rough idea of what they've got for speeders, because I know they had a complaint out here on Crossdown Road, and she knew from some data what the average speed was. Yeah. So they had it set up out here on Crossdown Road quite often. It was just moves away. I would say have them put that down there for the whole- And I'll speak with regional planning as well, because they do traffic studies and secret databases. Probably a weekend and then sometime during the week. Yeah, if they left it there for four days, and if they set it up- Thursday through Monday. Thursday up through Monday. Yeah, that would give me a good- Good idea. Okay, so motion to table this, though. No move. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? Those who carries? Town and ministry would be four days. Well, if you're fortunate, I don't have much of a report this time. The assessors have been very busy pulling their figures together. We've been working with them closely so that we can be guaranteed. And once they're through getting the grand list posted, I'm gonna ask them to come visit with you as per that new policy. Prior to, I'm hoping, prior to setting up the tax rate. Will you ask them to give us a list of the changes? You have. And I think they can. I don't mean because Pete built a deck, but I mean- We're keeping a very close eye on Pete, but- Right, but- The overall changes, yes. If it's $10 million, we ought to figure out why. Exactly. Till the money I hide under the deck doesn't make the deck work anymore. Did he else leave? That's all I have to say. Okay, Tim, you had something with the grader? Yeah, we had a pretty good problem with it. They've been working on it for two weeks now, trying to figure out what the problem is. We thought it was not transferring fuel from one tank to the other, because that could only get down to half a tank a minute in one run. And it has two 50 gallon tanks on each side. So they came and they only takes air in one spot, so he said maybe it's pressure walking somewhere as it's through the fuel cap. So we've got a new fuel cap that didn't fix it. Then he put a gauge on the fuel line. It runs idling as that 40 pounds of pressure and working it is between 80 and 85 because it skips, you can't even go hardly. So I had it out of here the other day and did come stock road and I had 85 pounds of pressure and it stayed that way and it ran on good all day. So then Timmy took it and went and did the Bear and Mount Perry road. And he almost didn't get back here, but it stayed at 85 pounds of pressure. So they came here last Thursday and hooked up to his laptop and he made it run on one cylinder, two cylinders, three cylinders, trying to figure out where we're losing our power and it's the injectors. So we're gonna have all new injectors cost $543.45 a piece. So six cylinder? Six cylinder. And all the labor comes out to 49.85. The labor's 49.85. Yeah, 4,900 plus 3,000 for the part. That's an estimate because they can't tell if... Did you say the total labor in the parts was 49? Yeah. So it's $5,000. Yeah. Well I don't see that we're gonna have to talk about it. We're gonna have to get it right there. Unfortunately. I think the policy is ignore what $5,000 has to come before the board to approve or purchase. No, yeah. But we could be more than that because once they get in here, they might find that the injector pump is bad. The main problem they got is the return fuel from the injectors back to the tank because you've got fuel that's circulating all the time is extremely hot, he said. So he said that he's... Definitely the injectors are gone because that will cause that, but he said that when we get in there, we might find a pump going and some other problems. So we just got 6,400 hours on it, I believe. Would you be able to maintain 85 pounds of the bad pump? The pump has nothing to do with that. The transfer pump is at 85 pounds. Then the injector pump is up around 6,000. Yeah, so... But the bottom line, as far as I'm concerned is we need a greater, we need a greater else. We've got no choice, we need to get it fixed as soon as we can. So I'm hoping that we go forward with the repair on the greater. But the only problem we're gonna have is that he can't get any indefinite time when they can come and start working on it. We wanted to be aware that we had a major expense coming out. Yeah, we could be down for a while because it's got so bad now that... Well, they want us to agree. I asked about retin' one and nobody has one available. What about your voice? No. No. I run that one. That ain't nothing to do with it. Simple as that. And this is the only service that I street... Cat. Yeah, this is cat. I mean, we gotta ask him to please get here as soon as I can. Yeah, because I see here where he's put down travel back and forth every day. So I don't know if it would be cheaper for us to hire Newton or somebody to haul it to Britain. Ask him if they'd fix it quicker. Because I'd rather have him work on it up there instead of in our shop. Well, why wouldn't we ask him if they would start sooner if we just had it delivered there? Yeah. Okay, but we couldn't be over $5,000 and that's why I wanted to come and talk to you about it. So when you say maybe a new pump, like how much you're over... Well, we'll probably look at $70,000 and your info. Yeah, so we could be over $10,000. We could more than double this. Yeah. Well, what's our option at $300,000? I hear it. We're at $250,000 greater. Yeah, a little short. So it's inoperable right now if you just can't. Well, we're going to try... He ran it out here in Doya the other day, but he didn't work it. So the fuel doesn't... It's not pumping the fuel and it's not getting off. So can you damage it by using it like this or is it just not run well? I can ask him tomorrow, but I don't think so. Maybe it's already been done. It injectors the one else, what it is. But... We use money out of the Equipment Fund to fix this. We use money out of the Equipment Fund to fix this. Yeah, but that is getting slimmed and done. Quick braking stuff, Tim. It's not only braking, I have to buy long stuff for that. Really? Yeah. What's that? The Equipment Fund. Oh, I'm good with that. I'm asking if we use it. You budgeted money for next year, right? Correct. But I'm saying we could use $8,000 to fix it greater if we need it. And I'm saying yes to that. When you said it's good money there, what did you do with the Equipment Fund? Oh, I don't want to tell you. I'm talking about taking it out of the Equipment Fund. And you're thinking of the repair fund. I didn't know what you'd spend all the money on. Well, it wasn't beer. So, another thing that I'm going to say to you, I'm not trying to buy a new grater, but when we went to that show a couple weeks ago, I talked with both the cat and John Deersail and them over there to see if they had one to rent if we needed to rent one, and either one of them do. But they told me that the federal government has a plan for towns now to buy equipment, and that you make a one-payment-year thing. So if it came to July, we're going to have that money. If this thing's going to cost us a lot of money, I don't recommend it fixing it. Would you say $6,400 total time on it? Hours. Hours, yeah. But what kind of gaming for it if it doesn't run? Oh, I don't know. Well, it needs to run before that. We need it to run now. Right now. Right? You know? Yeah. Well, greater than that short supply. If it could be traded, it could be operated late. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I wouldn't be surprised if we get $100,000 or better for it. That's what I'm saying. So if we're going to spend $8,000 or $100,000, we need to do it. So, I'd see if we can bring it up there and see if it'll work on it right soon. I'll give Jeff Newton a call tomorrow and find out where it'll cost us to truck it up there. The other thing is taking it over the cat nature that it will work on it. Right. It costs $5,600 a month. Oh, that'll work on it. Well, yeah. If anybody will either send somebody here or I'd rather not have them here because it ties up the shop. Yeah. And we just, you know, he came down and worked on the front end of it. That cost us almost $12,000 to fix that. And after he got it all apparent, he didn't have the parts that he needed. So they had to run back up there. Yeah. And we got charged his hourly rate and travel time and everything else. My point is that hauling it up there, having Newton haul it up there and having them haul it back will be cheaper than paying the travel time. Paying them the travel time. And they'll have the parts. Yeah. I mean. We'll be rating the shop so if something, they'll have to pay up their shop. Injectors, then maybe they're expensive, but you can change that stuff. That's not like, you know, it's like a deeper spark plug. Yeah, it's not like that. Quite a crack, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The only problem is, is they got to tear the whole top of it off. The exhaust system, the air breathers, everything's on top of the motor, so that stuff's got to all come out of there because they got to tear the whole top of the motor right down to the... Every time they do that, they want to make sure they come down. So paying them back. Anything else, Tim? Is it? Yeah. I'm going to get with those guys with the paper. Okay. Yeah, and I'm going to hold here. I'm going to write down every message that they have. The problem is, they can't change their unit price now. Right. Because they know each other's price. So we've got to calculate somehow. So what I did, and I'll... Now who was high on tonnage? Pikes. 1,800 tons. Hutchins had 1,300 tons. Well, the only thing I can think of is that I told this guy from Pipe that if we have money enough, I want to reclaim from Shaw's driveway through the four corners up here and we paid that. So I hope he didn't add that tonnage in there. The problem is, his price per ton includes milk. Hutchins price per ton includes just laying asphalt. Then they give a square yard price for milk. So you could run Pikes price per ton on Hutchins quantity and Pikes law. Yeah. Which is what I did. Yeah. But I think to really check it, you need to calculate what a square yard of milling weighs. So it will be what? 3 by 3 by 2 inches? Yeah. Because you're grinding it 2 inches? Right. So if you figure that out, then you've got two checks that say it's a little bit worse. Yeah. But it'd be nice to know whether we're looking at 1,300 or 1,800 ton. Now, I hear somebody say that we're sending in that we could take the millions? Yes. Both of them? Only at one? Well, that's one of the recycles. Right. But that's one of the clarifications I think we need to ask. Because I know some of the grindings. Well, let's come up with a list of clarifications. One of the things we'll do is I'll give you copies of that so we can read it because we haven't seen that if we just open it. Because? I'd like to see the bid request. I've got one. Because I have a lot of uses for that grinding support. And we got a whole bunch last year, up to 64, from the Comberkeys, because they wanted to get rid of some of it. So we sent our trucks over there and hauled it back in and showed them that's gone. That works good on shoulders. That works good on, you know, if they pave in somebody's driveway, you put that stuff down and it stays there. Where you put down gravel and then they got gravel all over your road and just it works good. And I'd like some of that because it's going to be good grindings because there's no pavement over there in the last year. I mean, it's just a skimcote but we're going to get some good stuff from there. Did we have executive section? No. Is the oldest still on this? I'll get a hold of the cat tomorrow and have it done up there and I'll get a little judgment and see what the price of truck is. I mean, Bellavance trucks do, but I guess get a price. So we got a rough idea of the cost of trucking up there. See, it runs. It's not like it's hard to load. Oh, no, it runs. It runs when it's cold because he couldn't get it to skip over here in the doyer. Yeah. But... It's funny, some machines, they put fuel heaters in it and some they put coolers in it. Well, he said that normally the fuel runs pretty cool and that was his main concern that it might be more than wrong with the injectors because the fuel, he said, was extremely hot coming back. Well, he said the injectors were bad were they blowing back into the injectors? Blowing by, he said. Yeah, so that heat the fuel was crazy. Yeah, that's what he's... You know, he said that's definitely how he knows that the injectors are bad but he said that normally it doesn't get as hot as it was. I forgot what he told me when the temperature coming back into that tank. Well, he got three or four of them bad. You're putting a lot of heat back through. Yeah, but he's a little concerned that it might be something to do with the pumps, too. Good. What did you tell him for a thickness, Tim? Two inches. Two inches, milling, two inches. Oh, really? I brought him a list of questions. I went with Hutchins when he measured it but he's got a thing on the bash of his car that he just sets it and it tells him he doesn't get out and wheel it. And Pike came Friday and last Friday I left Thursday night to go camping for the weekend so I wasn't around. And he asked me where we're starting and I said right where the state left off by the emergency room, which is real obvious and I said we're going all the way to Paintern Pipe. The only thing that we're not doing is in front of the state hospital where they put their bus stop thing in because that's all new black top there. They did that themselves. And I said we're going to do the ramp going towards Montpere on Fisher Road. And I said the width is there so just measure the width of it because we're going to go the same width. And he said he was finding to figure that out really easy. I got another quick question. We had a lot of pretty close calls down on Paintern Pipe North in front of Northfield Savings Bank. I was wondering if we could put a turning lane to go up to the hospital and then a straight lane through so those cars don't have to stop and wait for all the cars turning to go up to the hospital because some of them are pulled out and went by and then there was cars coming out of the hospital thing because they're in such a hurry to get out of there. Do we have to have a traffic study there or can we just put a turning lane like what we kind of did in front of your store? Which way are you headed? Heading up this way. Coming from Montpere up and they turned to go up to the hospital. The lane going down through is plenty wide enough that we could move the yellow line a little bit and then put a white lane. So what you're saying is you wanted to be able to drive past the cars turning to the hospital? Yeah, because you get traffic backed up quite a ways there. The sight view off of Stewart Road. Oh, fine, fine. Yeah, there's no... I was saying you push the cars over a little bit and they have to doze out to get a view down the road. No, no. Because once you get past the Northfield Bank on Stewart Road you can see both ways. Yeah, it's good sight vision there. But I mean it's... In the morning times that is crazy down there. And then in the afternoon when the hospital's changing shifts it's just... there's so many people turning to go up the hill and then you got traffic backed all the way up down towards Emmons' house that a lot of those cars want to go straight through but there's no lane there. Well, there's room enough but there's just no lane so they probably don't dare to pass on the right. If there was a lane there then it would be... So what you're saying is we can chuck that line over three feet and create a straight through lane. Yeah, and just put an arrow and turn up to the hospital and we want them to go straight through. Who would have to do that? Stewart? Well, they're going to have to... Somebody's going to have to strike... Road... Fisher Road when we're done through all the crosswalks so... Wherever they use. The only thing is, is the state does all of our yellow lines on our Class 3 roads. So the state's going to be coming and I'm going to call Shawna tomorrow and see if she has any idea when the state's coming because I want to get okayed from you guys first before I have to do anything so if you guys say it's okay then I'll just get a hold of Shawna at the state and L&D is doing for the state this year again so when they strike it I'll just have them move that yellow line over a little bit because they put a break in it for the cars to turn and go up the hill. So when they start back up on the lower side of that intersection I'll just have them set over a little bit so that we've got them enough and then I'll see if I can't when they're doing the hospital painting I'll put a white line and some arrows down there. David see what there's a policy on this there is or isn't well if there isn't I would be glad to look I don't think I've ever seen such a policy. You're not changing the traffic pattern I don't see an issue I mean with that. It's actually a safety. I don't know because I've got to get a hold of Shawna and find out when they're because she usually notifies me when the painters are coming to town here to line force so because I had them change the yellow line in front of Maplewood so people going down the paint turned it like had a lane to get into and the cars could keep straight going through there and then last year they came and painted and didn't put it back there they just went straight down through so they were late in the season yeah they were real late it's all worn off now yeah that's why I say I want to find out when they're coming so I want to get that corrected there again well I have no problems with that I don't think we're changing anything no not really all we're doing is making a little some people will sneak by but some people hang way over to the church of the bank so nobody can get by them if there was a lane and then they would realize that's where they born we're not changing traffic pattern all we're doing is chucking the lane over I don't think this is an issue so I guess you could say we have consensus here okay I'll get a hold of Sean tomorrow and find out when L&D is coming so I can move that yellow line over a little bit give us a little bit more to make sure we have plenty of room for two lanes there is I mean it's going to be close to 12 feet a lane there now yeah I have an unrelated question to that but there's some hedges at the end of these roads that make it very hard to see we talked about that they're out of the town I've almost got it twice already they're not in there right away they're not in there right away I've already had complaints when I first came here we moved the stop bar down and we moved the sign down so that people wouldn't stop until they got to the end of the hedge but and the hedge is not in our right way it is nasty you don't try to plow that in the winter time I can't see it's dangerous okay well thank you very much next time I want to make sure that I go with those guys and write down the figures this time alrighty okay P, rail table wait no, no, no executive motion to adjourn second so period