---
title: "Stamford Select Board — February 5, 2026"
date: 2026-02-05
session: regular
speaker_labels: 1 cluster(s) named from the roll call and that meeting's chair in the minutes, 1 named from roster attendance, 4 of 6 clusters unnamed
voice_ids: {"SPEAKER_00":6,"SPEAKER_01":5,"SPEAKER_02":3,"SPEAKER_04":2,"SPEAKER_05":1,"SPEAKER_06":8}
duration_min: 28
audio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FVmK_pHUdNCgYb05pWjiUA1HQzOr4t0n/view?usp=sharing
audio_source: town drive
minutes: https://townofstamfordvermont.org/mediaItems/Sbd%20Minutes%202-5-26.pdf
minutes_pending: false
present: [Nancy L. Bushika, John Dunn, Michael Denault, Kurt Gamari]
absent: []
transcribed: 2026-09-04 (faster-whisper large-v3, CUDA; names corrected per data/name_fixes.json)
diarization: pyannote/speaker-diarization-3.1 (automated; cluster labels may over-split a single voice; unattributed paragraphs have no reliable speaker)
---

# Stamford Select Board — February 5, 2026

**Session:** Regular · **Duration:** 28 min · [Audio](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FVmK_pHUdNCgYb05pWjiUA1HQzOr4t0n/view?usp=sharing) · [Minutes](https://townofstamfordvermont.org/mediaItems/Sbd%20Minutes%202-5-26.pdf)

**Present:** Nancy L. Bushika, John Dunn, Michael Denault, Kurt Gamari

---
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Welcome to a meeting of the Stamford Celebration. If there is a matter to discuss that is not included on the agenda, you may do so by addressing the chairperson and stating your name and address. You will notice that all our meetings are recorded and this is to aid with the summarization of the minutes. Visitors are welcome and we allow five minutes of comments per visitor and 15 minutes per topic. Discussions will be held in a calm and civilized manner and respectful of others. Select board members present are...

**Speaker 1:** Michael G. Denault.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Nancy Bushika. John Dunn. Will there be any adding of items or removing items from tonight's agenda?

**Speaker 2:** Monitors to sign. Okay. So they show correspondence.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Will there be any adjustments to the agenda such as changing the order of items? I think we're good. And... And Jeb is recording tonight's meeting for his YouTube video. Okay. Hearing of visitors. Okay. Reading and approval of records and orders. January 29th. I don't think we can do any of them.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Two weeks in a row.

**Speaker 3:** Highway update.

**Speaker 4:** Some of the plows are needing some attention. Ram truck on Mount Padara for others. It's going to be some work. Most of it's on a warranty. So we'll get out of that fairly cheap. But they had a little part. So I'm going to get it tomorrow. Because I can still use it. Either 13 or 15 hours. 19 Freightliner. The repair that was made out to be working. So that was a water for the transmission. Did we get the bill for that yet? I don't think so. It's kind of a cheap one. $7,500. Yeah. It's fairly cheap. But I had the Freightliner mechanic come down here to do it. So I was trying to figure out how to do it. So I was trying to figure out how to do it.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** So I had the Freightliner mechanic come down here to do it. So I was trying to figure out how to do it.

**Speaker 4:** So I had the Freightliner mechanic come down here to do it.

Because it was still working also.

**Speaker 4:** And it had an issue. So instead of sending it out there and waiting a month to get it back. And we pay a little bit of a premium to have them come down here. But we were able to fix it in an hour or so. And so now we're trying to figure it out. This time of year is kind of tough. But I've got to get it back.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** And I asked Dave from town meeting if he would get together some figures on how much it will, it has cost us so far in the past couple, at least two years for the freight liner.

Unfortunately, they're all expensive. Once you have a warranty, you have to repair them.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Anything else coming up?

**Speaker 4:** The salt, there definitely is a salt shortage, I guess, in the northeast at this point. We have plenty right now, but hopefully I've got some more coming. So I would expect you're going to see, you know, not just us, but other communities probably coming back. I mean, I don't feel like they use a lot now, so you may see like during the storm, you know, it's probably going to be slippery. More so than it has been, I would say, in the past. But when the storm is all over, you're going to have the same condition. When you get these back-to-back days, you know, you may just, one day goes into the other without really bringing too much, without how much knowledge, you know, slushy or whatever. It might be slushy instead of bare, but just to try to keep it last.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** You know, I haven't been here in a couple of meetings, and I know there's been some, you know, negative feedback for some of the things that are going on with the highway department. You know, I see you. I watch you, okay? I watch what's going on. I want the board to know, and I'm sure most of the board knows, like the preventative things that you do that you see other towns and states not do. I see what you're doing, and I appreciate it because it saves us funds. I also want the people of this town to know that not only you, but your crew, I see you going downtown, not taking a, what, four-mile-an-hour vehicle down there, or a vehicle out of town that needs to be plowed, and using your own personal vehicles to go down and get parts. I see that. So I just want you to know, remember, I think it might have been Jim or one of you guys said, you know, you can please so many people, and there's going to be them. I'm telling you right now, we see you, and you're just not going to hear it as much from the people that are satisfied at that time. So thank you.

**Speaker 5:** Well, yeah, I mean, on that note, I have. I've pushed probably 700 miles, I think.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah. This winter, running around in the town.

**Speaker 5:** Yeah.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I don't bother getting . No, that's what I'm saying. We appreciate that. This town, we can put it up against other towns. Yeah. When there's spring and summer and fall, we look at it. The mud season and everything, you see the difference. Yeah. Thank you.

I feel like we're, you know, all of us there just trying to make .

**Speaker 4:** I still say upgrading county roads will help out the traffic to the . All my neighbors. We're working on it, man. We're working on it. Yeah. I think we're going to get in there, you know, and see how . Anything on recycling day?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** That dumpster's still. We got a big one or a small one or a big one?

**Speaker 4:** Sometimes it's good, sometimes it isn't. I think we'll just have to.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** There's a lot of logjabs going on in town, and there's a lot of it's not going to be patient.

**Speaker 4:** You know, they're all changing up. I've been talking to the residents that, you know, had some issues .

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Are we.

**Speaker 4:** Are we signing that agreement tonight? Oh, no. They're signing it first. They're signing it? Yeah. Are we? Yeah. Are we? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Are we signing it? Yeah. Are we? Yeah. Yeah. Are we signing it?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Oh, no, they're signing it first. They should sign it first so they won't bring it to you. Yes.

**Speaker 6:** Okay.

**Speaker 2:** They're getting their sign.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** So we're having them sign a road agreement like we ask anyone else who is plowing our class four roads to sign that agreement. Back to the minutes that is here now, and we can approve the minutes of January 29, both the board of health and the. The manoshea groups. The regular minutes.

**Speaker 7:** For the second.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** All in favor.

**Speaker 8:** Aye.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Aye. Aye. What do you have under discussion, Lori? Anything?

**Speaker 2:** Discussion topic for you. The school sent over this newsletter and wanted to know if you'd consider putting it on your website, sending it out through email to reach more people. They distributed it themselves. What?

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** They already have it.

**Speaker 2:** They created it and they sent it out through their email list, put it on their website. They didn't know if they reached more people who created it.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Also, we have a link on ours already, but we're not, we don't put any, I think our policy was we weren't putting anything else on our website.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Is there advertising inside the afforded school?

You know what I mean? Maybe they could just send it off to the fellows who do the Facebook and that could be put on Stamford Informed.

**Speaker 7:** That's just a newsletter, right? Yeah, we get it once in a while. You probably have better outreach on the Stamford Informed.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** I'm thinking this is one more thing we're adding to Lori's plate if she's got it.

**Speaker 4:** Yeah, you might as well call it the website, the Stamford Informed.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yes. He's got everything on there.

**Speaker 4:** I don't think anybody, it's not user friendly, our website. I don't think so.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Correspondence, Lori?

**Speaker 2:** I received the engagement letter from the auditors. They will be here February 9th and 10th, Monday and Tuesday, to audit the 25 books. They've already sent me a four-page document with over 35 requests to get to them ahead of time. So you'll see on, what is it, page nine, the price for the audit, $27,200. And then if you'll sign on the last page, basically we are agreeing to provide that.

Any augmentation, any work that they need to complete their audit. They will cooperate.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** We did a five-year, can I have a motion to sign?

Motion. All in favor? All right.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** They've been pretty easy to work with from what I've dealt with.

They're very good.

**Speaker 2:** And they're very knowledgeable about the system, so it makes it easy.

I think that probably all of us, it looks like. Yeah. I don't know why. You need the three anyways. Yeah. Yeah.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Everything.

Low here.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** I see on that house, is there a distance for the sewer off of the property line versus the structure? Because I noticed the sewer is within that 150 foot.

I don't know where it's going. I didn't see. Did I include the wastewater?

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yeah, that's it. I didn't read it real good.

I just saw the sketch. Okay. Okay.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** It should be. State looks at that. The state.

Okay. The state approves their wastewater. That's where the state was going. Exactly. They got to get that anyways. Yeah. Okay. The overshadow usually .

**Speaker 4:** Okay. The overshadow .

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Okay.

**Speaker 9:** I just, I read it earlier.

**Speaker 4:** Sparrow. Sparrow Drive.

No, it's great. We have something building a house out there. That's awesome. Yep. And there's a notation that will be going in the file. They've staked it out because it is closed.

**Speaker 10:** It's closed. It's closed. It's closed. They need to get the door out because it is closed. It's like 60 feet from the center. So when they start, in the spring, when they actually start, I'll be there to make sure that the corners are proper. So they don't get started and be a foot off. Right. Yeah.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** So I'm working with them on that. Yeah. I'm glad they're building . I just want to make sure, just like you said, as long as you're a foot off and the guy next door goes, oh.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Yeah. Well .

**Speaker 10:** have several times now they're very in fact if they can move it back further they will but it does tend to drop off there yeah they're on the lower side

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** older on that side yeah they're gonna be the first house on that side they chose

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** the lower side for the views yeah I didn't know if it went right down to know everyone else lots go straight across it goes straight across and go

**Speaker 11:** straight across sparrow and straight across the mill yeah get a little piece

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** on the other side yeah

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** is that is that something that we do

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** like yeah dude

**Speaker 12:** yeah just so I mean I build our houses

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** that wasn't your backside this shirt with a few구나 car it's only for select we should still have a driver as long as the listeners have it yeah

if the full copy yeah yeah okay just in case yeah what's that i'll make a full copy okay

**Speaker 10:** i don't know what happens i don't think we filed it i know you wanted you wanted the plot this this was like 10 pages i'm sure i didn't want to make a whole bunch of it yes it's kind of like the house is filed it's cute oh yeah there is a permit sorry there's a driveway permit it is next to harvey's right so it goes mckinney harvey's and then there's that about you

**Speaker 13:** you wish you did that on the other side

**Speaker 10:** because you're on this side yeah um i guess if the river wasn't there it would have bought us okay yeah so here's many more to come

who's building it i wonder they really don't need to know it doesn't matter it does it should say

**Speaker 4:** it i guess we don't care it should say there's no place for a builder down there unless you've got some plans

**Speaker 14:** i don't think he is the state approves something in water they don't that's the bigger they live

**Speaker 10:** in rhode island oh yeah but this will be there they'll homestead here nice

nice okay um what else do you have lori under correspondence

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** old business is the 9-1-1 numbering still working on that uh new business new business town meeting's coming up we've got prepared to answer questions everything went into everything went into the printer we've got to be delivered 20. we have to mail them out with a very good printer 20. we have to mail them out with a very good printer 20. we have to mail them out with a very good printer i will i will take them to reed's borough and

**Speaker 14:** so it'll be in the mail the moderator's jp is here right i guess he said yeah

um i just wanted to add um

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** several meetings ago we did a lot of work on conflict of interest um and we have the we have the policy but i don't think we ever gave it to any of our employees that's really good it's we have the policy it's filed away but i think we should give it to our employees my thought is to have lori email it to the chairmen's of all the committees and they can distribute it to their members and then as as far as our members are concerned they need to be those are the public board members so i think it's a nice statement but i do know they're doing some重 romantic policy we have previous employer commissions will questions about we know first and fifth Gloria As far as our members, Dave and Mike and Jim and whoever else works here, hired, Xerox, have them sign the cover of the policy, sign and date it, make a copy for their employee file. And if they want to read it, fine, but at least we've given it to them. Yeah, I thought about that afterwards.

I see I've got a policy. Should that be embedded or like written to the employee handbook?

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** It should be one of the documents that are given out when people are hired. And I guess we don't have that much of a turnover.

**Speaker 15:** Sometimes you want to refer back to it.

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** Any other new business?

**Speaker 7:** The state is going on signs of... About the same. It's like, I feel like Duke's a hazard.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yep, you hit that one, you land and hit the next one. That one, the other one's in there. We're in the town of Stamford, but it's going to affect us. Clarksburg. Yeah. I don't know. You guys mentioned this, but Clarksburg's going to be doing two bridges and the article was kind of a, it kind of contradicted itself a little bit, but if you read it, if you read it right, and I read it a couple of times, it sounds like you're going to do both bridges at the same damn time. That means the middle road in Clarksburg and route eight in Clarksburg River Road will

both have bridges down. The route eight one's going to be closed down for six months. It's closed right down.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** No bridge at all. Of course it's a little more. Maybe it is. That's two. I'm sorry. They're going to start. They're going to put a temporary bridge in six months or so.

**Speaker 14:** The one farther down on route eight? Are you talking about the one or four?

**Speaker 16:** Red Dye Red Mill store.

**Speaker 14:** Right. Yeah. That bridge. Yeah. That's going to be closed for two months. You're right. There's two months. What was the other one that you were looking for?

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Middle Road, Hudson Brook. Yes. Right by the bottom. I know. That's the one that's outside. No, that's Crossroad. So Middle Road is where you go by Moss or State Park. That's Middle Road. There's all the way to Franklin Street. If you go down, there's a hill and a sharp turn. That's called McKay Hill. It's a bridge right there.

That bridge.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Where the house burned. Correct. And it was a bad accident there. That's going to be getting repaired. I don't know what they're going to do. They're going to close it on its own. So their route is Walker Street, Daniels Road. Walker Street is by Edge Variety Store in North Adams. Right. So Walker Street. So Walker Street, Daniels Road, Henderson Road, back out on the four corners, including tractor-trailer trucks.

**Speaker 14:** Yeah. Wow. So there's also a conversation about the bridge outside of Natural Bridge on LaCalle Road.

And they may.

**Speaker 14:** Because that dam's coming out, and the dam buttresses the bridge.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Yep. So. That's all together, right?

**Speaker 16:** Oh, I've been saying that for years, that bridge.

**Speaker 14:** That dam's coming out? Yep. Yeah, the travel limit is taken off the dam. Wow. Where's that dam? I mean, dam removal can be. It can be five, 10-year, private. Right. But they're moving right along on it. Where's that bridge? Yeah, they don't need them anymore. Right on Route 8. Right at the base of where you would pull into Natural Bridge. They don't need them anymore. Right by the Beaver Mill Dam.

Yeah. So taking that dam out is going to affect the bridge above it?

**Speaker 14:** The bridge. All of it will affect Route North. It's tied together. All those amounts tied together. It's all Beaver Street, essentially, up in the park.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** And they said, with the bridge on River Road, they said the temporary bridge may extend far enough to have to close that East Main. Extension right there. Yeah. So the fire truck, if the fire truck has to go, they have to go up Middle Road. But it can't go Middle Road. It's got to go down North Adams. Yeah. They've got to go all the way down North Adams, back up over Walker Street. My father's house, across from Morgan Road. Yeah. It's going to be all the way around, back up. Can't you go over?

**Speaker 14:** I mean, we're up here to the Heights, but it's just on the other side of the bridge.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Right. Right.

**Speaker 16:** Go to the Mercer.

**Speaker 14:** Go all the way around. We're in the van where they used to live, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, you can't. You have to go to Taylor.

**Speaker 10:** Down the hill to make the left.

Yeah.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** It's going to be a nightmare.

I hate that word. That's why they say all roads lead to Stamford, right?

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Correct. They do now. So I just want the people in Stamford to beware. In the summertime, we may be going over, a lot of people will be going over County Road, down by Klondike and down. That's going to be.

**Speaker 14:** Change your habits over the East Road. It's just the traffic back there on that road is going to be.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Can you imagine? The traffic turns down the trail, takes more than a 90-degree turn to go over Walker Street.

**Speaker 14:** Yeah, then they've got to navigate.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** Get at Daniels Road, which there's a little bridge on Daniels Road that doesn't look real good at all. Go across that and then pull out at Mosser.

**Speaker 14:** You almost got to shut that off. You almost got to shut it off to just attract your trailers and locals. Yeah. You just have to. No one cruising. No one just going for a drive right at the time. Off. Off.

This is going to bite. And nobody's ever going to get to school on time. No. No. Nobody.

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** anywhere oh that's another thing the funny thing is the bridge that's one lane that's going to get fixed but not until 2029 because that just makes sense i'm just wondering about that one now and put the other one on middle road because then yeah the south end of middle road is going to get done i think next year

**Speaker 12:** and the town administrator are upset but the state does what they want and the golden carrot

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** is over them because they're paying for that middle road bridge which isn't the states it's town so it's about they're paying for it for them here's the money i'm not on their board but holy crap oh my father lives there and in order to get to my father's house i gotta go i guess i could go uh

**Speaker 16:** you can go around if you're just local

**Speaker 14:** yeah yeah

**Speaker 16:** can you imagine gps from tractor trailers

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** they're not 40 foot trailers anymore

**Speaker 17:** he's got logs he's got to go to new ashford gotta go over that east road

**Speaker 3:** maybe easier to park the north adams

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** yeah park your truck get your car that's been no funding

**Nancy L. Bushika (Chair):** okay um anything else if we have new business

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** or no motion to adjourn

**Speaker 4:** all right awesome

**Michael G. Denault (inferred):** it's gonna be a record display wow you guys glad I'm back no that was quick

jimmy you know I'm 16 you know I'm sorry I'm sorry I could be passing it to you Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right.