Stamford Select Board — 2024-09-05 (Regular)
- Pledge of allegiance
- Roll call
- Agenda additions/changes
- Public comment (Pat Kennedy, recycling; Mill Road / high-line work)
- Regular minutes of August 15 - acceptance as written
- Road conditions: storm tree work, Mill Road/County Road paving discussion, .3 mile section of County Road (Town Highway 12) reclassification
- Highway garage roof quotes
- Recycling (40-yard pickup fiasco, where recycling goes, household hazardous waste law, alliance updates)
- Emergency management (nothing)
- Fire truck loan (Adams Co-op)
- Delinquent dog licenses
- Town website: meeting recording storage (state requirement)
- Sign two deeds (lots 294 and 188)
- Excess weight permit (Riggs)
- Old business: sign permit for campus library; CDL drug testing
- New business: none; use of school facility form; Vermont 250th anniversary; VLCT budgeting/spending/borrowing seminar Sept 18
- Executive session (legal matters and personnel)
- Motion to adjourn
Motions (6, 6 passed)
Accept regular minutes of August 15 as written Speaker 33passed
Use Stevens to repair the highway garage roof for $38,000 Speaker 1passed
Reclassify the .3 mile section of County Road (Town Highway 12, to the Pothole line / Risky Ranch) as a Town Trail instead of a Class 4 road Speaker 7passed
Go into executive session (legal matters and personnel) Nancy L. Bushika (Chair)passed
Come out of executive session Nancy L. Bushika (Chair)passed
Adjourn Speaker 23passed
Other decisions
| Approve two deeds transferring lot 294 and lot 188 (Alcon Wall) | Board approved signing both deeds after a check had been lost in the mail and later found. |
| Sign Riggs excess weight permit | New excess weight permit (Riggs, associated with the white trucks / highway work) received and check received; chair to sign. Utility and emergency vehicles noted as exempt. |
| Sign permit for campus library (community building group) | Permit ready with check from the community building community group; sign 54x30 (11.25 sq ft), must be at least 50 feet from the road; location to be marked; ask Pam whether she wants her flowers relocated. |
| Use of school facility form | Request for first and third Thursdays of each month, September 2024 through August 2025, 6-9 p.m., to use the town multi-purpose room if the town office exceeds seating capacity; previously approved. |
| Theresa's resignation accepted | Lori reported receiving Theresa's official resignation letter the same day; board accepted it, expressed regret she was leaving, and the chair will send a nice letter. |
| Fire truck loan arrangement | Adams Co-op agreed to write a 5-year loan for the fire truck; interest-only first month possible; loan papers to be written when money is needed; truck expected around Thanksgiving with first payment due in December; funding expected from the fire truck equipment replacement fund. |
| Invite Sally Gold to the next meeting | Decision from executive session to invite Sally Gold to the next meeting. |
| Gate keys for the trail gate | Keys for the two locks (same key opens both) were dropped off at the town office; plan to keep one set in the office and give one to the fire department for emergency access. |
Who owes what (13)
| Action | Owner | By when | Note | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reach out to asphalt contacts and obtain paving quotes (hot mix and cold mix) with a starting price and recommendations on which road(s) to start with (e.g., Jepson Road) to begin the paving conversation | Dave (road commissioner) | — | Chair: 'If you could reach out to your contacts and just give us a starting price and suggestions what roads to start with. Start a conversation.' | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶198 |
| Follow up with the tree work crew and verify the bill once received | Dave (road commissioner) | — | Storm tree work completed the week before; crew was back for pricing but busy; ~2 full days total. | open no date in the minutes |
| Start taking pictures of Mill Road now to have them on file | Dave (road commissioner) | — | Requested by the chair to document road condition for any future damage/remediation discussion. | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶89 |
| Check with Bennington contact about possible funding for road work on Mill Road/County Road | board (suggested by chair) | — | Related to the high-line work; board members unsure a funding program exists. | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶143 |
| Contact the high-line contractor / National Grid about Mill Road work: safety (flagging), notification, and any road remediation plan | selectboard (chair) | — | Chair: 'we can look into this and see what can happen.' Resident asked the board to make this a priority; a contact person was requested. | open no date in the minutes |
| Call Luke (dog warden) about the remaining delinquent dog owners (7 people, 9 dogs) | Laurie | tomorrow (next day) | Chair directed: 'Laurie, you call Luke tomorrow.' One owner licensed a dog that afternoon; one more expected the following week. | open no date in the minutes |
| Email Luke to obtain copies of any delinquent-dog tickets for office records | Nancy L. Bushika (Chair) | — | It was unclear whether tickets had been issued. | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶419 |
| Find out the price of cloud storage (or increased website capacity) for meeting recordings now required by state law on the town website | Laurie | — | State law now requires audio or video of meetings on the town website; current website storage is insufficient. | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶547 |
| Coordinate the gate keys: keep one set in the town office and give one to the fire department after confirming they don't already have one | Laurie / fire department | — | Two locks, same key; discussed after the trail reclassification vote. | open no date in the minutes |
| Complete two CDL drug tests via Southwestern Vermont Medical Center | Laurie (scheduling) / two garage employees | 2024-09-30 | Drug testing company unresponsive; insurance contact said normal service expected by mid-September; decision to 'be crabby' and wait for the mobile unit if tests are called. | overdue the minutes set 2024-09-30 and it has passed ¶ ¶669 |
| Mark the location of the campus library sign (at least 50 feet from the road) and ask Pam about relocating her flowers | board / Laurie | — | Sign 54x30, 11.25 sq ft. | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶649 |
| Sign up for the VLCT budgeting, spending, and borrowing seminar | Nancy L. Bushika (Chair) | 2024-09-18 | Wednesday Sept 18, 10-11:30; request that it be held at the town office. | overdue the minutes set 2024-09-18 and it has passed ¶ ¶733 |
| Send Theresa a letter of appreciation for her service | Nancy L. Bushika (Chair) | — | Following acceptance of her resignation. | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶748 |
scripts/action_status.py --done "a phrase".Money (5)
| Highway garage roof repair (Stevens, replacement only, no insulation) | Approved by motion; funded from ARPA money. | $38,000 |
| Highway garage roof quote (Vermont Roofing Company, with insulation)¶ ¶201 | Previous quote; different product than what the board wanted; not selected. | $82,000 |
| Fire truck loan (Adams Co-op, 5 years)¶ ¶401 | Chair said repayment is figured at 'like $60,000 a year' for five years; first payment expected in December if the truck arrives around Thanksgiving. | — |
| Excess weight permit fee (Riggs)¶ ¶616 | State-mandated fee; check received. | $10 |
| State road grants | Discussion: Vermont grants max at $200,000 for Class 2 roads (East Road received one); Class 3/4 roads like Mill Road and Jepson generally don't qualify; paving estimates floated informally at $1M-$2M, no quotes yet. | — |
Public comment (2)
| Pat Kennedy | Offered services of his North Adams, Mass. recycling company: mattresses ($45 vs $55 at Casella/Lenox), tires ($8), appliances, e-waste; could pick up from the transfer station or the public, diverting bulky items; discussed transfer station costs, a future pickup app, and leaving flyers at the recycling center and town hall. |
| unattributed | Mill Road / County Road: US high-line (National Grid) power line upgrade work has brought heavy truck traffic (including 80-ton forwarders) with no resident notification, no signage, and no flaggers; washboarded, deteriorated road; asked why residents were not notified, how the town can obtain money for road remediation, and that the board contact the contractor about a repair plan and safety (flagging); noted 45-foot bridge over Rolling Ground and daily ATV traffic on Route 264. |
Follow-ups named in the minutes
- Dave to bring back hot-mix and cold-mix paving quotes and a starting price / road recommendations
- Board to contact the high-line contractor / National Grid about Mill Road safety, flagging, notification, and road remediation
- Laurie to report cloud storage costs for the town website's mandatory meeting recordings
- Gate keys to be split between the town office and the fire department (pending fire department confirmation)
- Two CDL drug tests to be completed by Sept 30; monitor the drug testing company's return to mobile service
- Sally Gold invited to the next meeting
- Theresa's resignation accepted; appreciation letter to be sent
- VLCT budgeting, spending, and borrowing seminar on Sept 18 (10-11:30, town office)
- Delinquent dog licensing wraps up at the end of November; consider rabies-shot enforcement options if owners remain non-compliant
- Bennington Library 'Fix-It Fun' on Nov 9 (recycling alliance update)
- Fire truck expected around Thanksgiving; first loan payment due in December
- Energy audit results for the garage (with Lori) still pending; potential for shovel-ready grant funding
What the extraction was unsure about
- Transcript uses automated diarization; the front matter itself warns cluster labels may over-split a single voice. Most non-chair lines are 'Speaker N' labels and identities are NOT assigned beyond what the text itself reveals (e.g., 'Speaker 30' is Bill per the chair; 'Dave' is the road commissioner, likely Douglas Wright per roll call, but this is inference).
- 'Speaker 16' (Mill Road commenter) and 'Speaker 4' (Pat Kennedy) are separate visitors; Pat Kennedy stated his name, the second commenter never did - attributed as 'unattributed'.
- 'Alcon Wall' (deed lots 294 and 188) appears to be a transcription artifact of a place name; recorded verbatim as in the transcript.
- No vote counts were stated for any motion; 'aye' responses are fragmented across speaker labels, so vote is null throughout.
- The $38,000 roof figure is from the motion text and the chair's reference to Stevens' prior meeting quote ('no insulation 38'); the $82,000 figure is attributed to Vermont Roofing Company by a speaker, not the chair.
- The fire truck loan total principal is never stated; only the ~$60,000/year repayment estimate mentioned by the chair.
- The meeting has no 'part' field in front matter; treated as a single-part meeting.
- Several rapid-fire speaker lines in the declassification vote ('aye. aye. aye.') are ambiguous between different speakers due to diarization; recorded as a passed motion without a count.
- Recycling discussion (where the town's recycling ultimately goes) ended without a decision or action; it is recorded as a discussion item, not an action, though a visitor suggested contacting Paula Kamperman at BCRC.
Transcript
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And to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 5: Be sure.
Speaker 6: We do.
Speaker 7: Right next to that nuclear waste.
Speaker 5: to having that. Perfect. Do you have some flyers you could leave outside in the
Speaker 6: hallway? I definitely do. I can take a picture of that. Yeah, perfect. I've got one. I'm also a
Speaker 8: Would it be worth putting one up on the bulletin board if you didn't have to dump for people who are needing a resource for mattresses?
Speaker 9: Are these prices with the free outage?
Speaker 11: I don't want to lose money, but I mean, if he's taking them for cheaper than what we're charging now or the same, I would say for his efficiency, if he's up here at this point, I don't see anything on his list that we shouldn't just say, Hey, you want to grab it?
Speaker 13: Then I also want to know what, what do you do with the mattresses?
Speaker 14: I would love to make them my pillow.
Speaker 6: Leave your flyers out there.
Speaker 16: Is that anything to do with?
Speaker 17: And it's not.
Speaker 18: And they did.
Speaker 19: And they did.
Speaker 20: Up there.
Speaker 11: Other than.
Speaker 11: Give us money.
Speaker 20: National force.
Speaker 21: This is the.
Speaker 23: Dave.
Speaker 20: On file.
Speaker 24: The conversation.
Speaker 25: It's.
Speaker 21: you know i always wonder if problems if you know people have talked about mill road over and over
Speaker 27: develop this town and where's the money well we said we just bought a new truck and we bought a
Speaker 11: pay for some gravel through the clean water act now on the other hand is is every year it's going
Speaker 28: right all right all these other things didn't we have bill and jim didn't we have years ago
Speaker 11: that know they you know but what's your recourse when they say no go further you know they could at least have
Speaker 30: started so is there is there a contact person did they give us that's i agree with you
Speaker 31: to go to hell for that for that they might say those words yeah you wouldn't
Speaker 32: have a motion to accept them as written motion second all in favor
Speaker 21: Yeah
Speaker 11: Yeah I mean it is dry
Speaker 31: Well it's every day they're behind our house every day
Speaker 33: Every day
Speaker 35: I mean if I can't the roads have gone way down
Speaker 36: So Jepson Road
Speaker 11: The chip seal
Speaker 23: Oh yeah that's a whole March two million dollars
Speaker 24: The only other
Speaker 37: So David
Speaker 37: That was from Vermont Roofing Company
Speaker 37: Right
Speaker 38: I don't know if they're going to be cheaper
Speaker 39: Yeah no
Speaker 40: Or just put it out there
Speaker 19: And we
Speaker 41: We're going to have to
Speaker 20: and then got thrown back down
Speaker 23: way over to the Stamford line. I don't know if it is or if it isn't. It is on the map. I don't know what there's is called but maybe it's on the
Speaker 19: maintain it either but people do but two people broke up there is a camp there
Speaker 23: that they can people drive their jeeps on a trail yes yes yes I believe yes you
Speaker 37: believe houses on right so I just want to make sure that we the town don't lose
Speaker 42: I think it's because they're doing that work around the sensitive area.
Speaker 11: Nature is going to get in there.
Speaker 42: What if they increase the demands on what it has to be, and still, it's going to be on Pommel's Class 4? Then all of a sudden, we're liable for a million dollars. And they will. They're going to eventually.
Speaker 41: Right.
Speaker 19: But you would have to anyways.
Speaker 43: It doesn't matter whether it's a Class 4 or being a trail.
Speaker 8: Aye.
Speaker 13: Aye.
Speaker 44: We're pretty fine.
Speaker 45: Now do we know if, do we know if National, if they gave the fire department keys?
Speaker 46: It's on the trail, but it's way…
Speaker 24: It's farther down towards Massachusetts.
Speaker 47: It was too accessible. Yeah.
Speaker 11: From Martell's to the Pound of Lime should be a trail.
Speaker 11: So people were paying.
Speaker 48: So that's what's the number one power.
Speaker 31: We don't know where it goes.
Speaker 49: Call Paula Kamperman at BCRC.
Speaker 50: She'll tell me, oh, it goes up to, you know, I don't know.
Speaker 51: Yeah.
Speaker 27: He was a guy.
Speaker 42: He actually had a company called New Earth Salvage where he was going to spin turbines by burning plastic milk jugs.
Speaker 52: Basically.
Speaker 11: Yeah.
Speaker 27: he's like stop in for a beer and i'm like are you kidding me jim he was definitely a character
Speaker 53: is uncommitted. I hate to
Speaker 45: Paul. I'd rather just hear it clean. Yeah, we've got it.
Speaker 54: We don't get the money.
Speaker 8: And if we're paying him to make these excessive phone calls. It was due January 1st. You had it on April to pay it and now here we are in September and he's billing us to remind people to do this. It's crazy.
Speaker 55: Suck aids.
Speaker 19: That many?
Speaker 41: A lot of cash.
Speaker 27: We can't impound them.
Speaker 23: Right, and people won't pay it.
Speaker 27: You could put a lien on your house.
Speaker 56: Literally.
Speaker 57: Well, they're so crowded.
Speaker 56: if there's a report.
Speaker 57: it's on the house of the dog you guys got.
Speaker 41: I know Luke had a real tough time
Speaker 58: with a lot more capacity than Payne.
Speaker 59: Pause something?
Speaker 13: And nobody's dog died, right? I'm just saying. I've gotten things from you in the past
Speaker 60: and my dogs have died. Yeah, you'd think though if I sent you a letter
Speaker 61: with a fine, you'd say my dog died.
Speaker 13: They haven't responded, but other people continue to throw away and be like, oh my dog's dead.
Speaker 61: Right.
Speaker 27: are we mandatory to confiscate that dog? You might be. That's what Bill's saying.
Speaker 27: Well, I think our ordinance says
Speaker 62: because everybody would want it,
Speaker 63: Yes, it's the vet bill.
Speaker 52: I guess.
Speaker 42: But like you said, it costs more. You can get a rabies shot.
Speaker 19: Well, then we'll be doing everybody's, too.
Speaker 41: That's what it is.
Speaker 64: Put it on their tax bill.
Speaker 11: Right.
Speaker 32: No.
Speaker 32: Yeah, that'd be good.
Speaker 65: somewhere.
Speaker 54: something has to go on the minute.
Speaker 13: to record?
Speaker 60: It wasn't mandatory last year.
Speaker 61: So could it just be a link
Speaker 62: on our website
Speaker 28: is keep it up there 30 days, right?
Speaker 66: It's in one of the cumulus clouds
Speaker 19: It's got to be that
Speaker 13: Well I can store them
Speaker 19: but they don't throw any money that way
Speaker 23: That's a great idea
Speaker 19: We don't have the capacity
Speaker 3: in her car
Speaker 67: Maybe she didn't want to buy the land
Speaker 49: Oh, we went
Speaker 53: What's that?
Speaker 68: I had to
Speaker 31: You just turn around
Speaker 69: And you can't get there
Speaker 23: Okay
Speaker 23: Oh, don't sign it
Speaker 32: Well, Holly must be
Speaker 20: Riggs, just learned the overweight permit
Speaker 21: Ten dollars
Speaker 24: Yeah
Speaker 70: No, because you're the insurance company
Speaker 8: Who says the excess weight fee is ten dollars
Speaker 11: We don't, mandated
Speaker 30: What are our bridges
Speaker 71: I mean, they were mining
Speaker 23: You know, some kind of caution
Speaker 72: They go up and down that road
Speaker 73: Okay, old business Yep
Speaker 51: We have to draw in there
Speaker 36: No
Speaker 74: Some of them are low enough
Speaker 37: I do 51 but
Speaker 44: Do you have tests?
Speaker 20: Collector
Speaker 11: If we have tests coming up
Speaker 40: It's only if they call for it right?
Speaker 74: It's a random
Speaker 21: No
Speaker 75: This is just our insurance company doing it
Speaker 20: Counseling
Speaker 3: Or
Speaker 21: Whether you have to or haven't
Speaker 23: We can't have our guys out
Speaker 11: We're behind as it is on our duties
Speaker 76: oh rate for the uh new hire does that number have to be public okay
Speaker 62: we don't mention nothing about the lane sale right no no and now that we're back in open
Transcribed 2026-09-04 (faster-whisper large-v3, CUDA; names corrected per data/name_fixes.json). Names corrected against the minutes. Diarization is automated and over-splits one person into several labels. Raw model output with timestamps: SRT.