Stamford Select Board — 2026-01-08 (Regular)
Nancy L. BushikaKurt GamariJohn Dunnabsent: Michael G. Denaultabsent: Douglas Wright
At the January 8, 2026 regular selectboard meeting (76 min, three members present), the board went into a brief executive session on personnel and delinquent taxes, came out and approved hiring an attorney to follow up on delinquent taxes (no decision on personnel), and approved the December 4 and December 18 minutes. The bulk of the meeting was a preliminary 2026 budget work session covering highway, general, and special fund line items, with most items kept, adjusted, or held pending salary data and final bills. Other items tracked a planning commission municipal grant (sign and send by January 24), a January 15, 2 pm Zoom with Planning, Select Board, and Conservation, the Green Mountain Power pole-redo project, and 911 numbering survey progress. The budget is to be reviewed at the January 15 regular meeting (and possibly again on the 27th).
On the agenda
- Pledge of Allegiance / opening (led by Laurie, who is not otherwise in the room); board members present announced
- Agenda changes: add executive session for personnel (two items, 'for Sally and Dave Tetra. Separately.' as transcribed) and delinquent tax sale
- Executive session: personnel and delinquent taxes
- Hearing of visitors (none recorded)
- Reading and approval of records and orders for December 4th and December 18th (minutes)
- Highway update (two items expected to become warrant articles; 'not quite ready')
- Recycling (container-size issue with hauler; letter sent, expected resolved)
- Delinquent tax sale (attorney to follow up, decided in executive session)
- Planning Commission municipal grant (15 pages of paperwork; BCRC; Jan 15 Zoom; PUSIC energy-area change)
- Budget work session (highway and town line items)
- Correspondence
- 911 numbering update (town survey ~1/3 done)
- Town sign update (sign is up; pole finish undecided; Jim not present)
- New business (parking 'in front of [the park]' - brief, no resolution recorded)
- Motion to adjourn
Motions (5, 4 passed)
Go into executive session for personnel and delinquent taxes Speaker 4seconded: Speaker 4passed
“Motion to go into executive session for personnel and delinquent taxes.”
Both the motion and the second are attributed to 'Speaker 4' (likely a diarization over-split of one voice). The vote is garbled in the transcript ('All in favor?' then 'Motion.'), but the board did go into executive session and later came out. No vote count stated.
Come out of executive session Speaker 5passed
“Motion to come out of executive session.”
Chair: 'Second? Second. All in favor? Aye.' Second not attributed to a labeled speaker. No vote count stated.
Approve hiring the attorney to follow up on delinquent taxes (executive session decision) Nancy L. Bushika (Chair)passed
“Executive session decision motion to approve hiring the attorney to follow up on delinquent taxes.”
Second acknowledged ('Can I have a second on that motion? Second. All in favor? Aye.') but not attributed. Chair then notes 'no decision regarding personnel.' No vote count stated.
Approve records and orders (minutes) for December 4th and December 18th Speaker 5passed
“Motion to approve the minutes.”
Transcript is garbled across several 'Aye'/'Yes, I approve' turns; the Dec 18 minutes were approved by the three members present ('Three of us will do it'). No vote count stated.
Adjourn Speaker 1no-formal-vote
“Motion to adjourn. Second.”
Transcript ends at the chair's 'All in favor?' with no recorded answer or adjournment; outcome recorded as no-formal-vote rather than assuming passage.
Other decisions
| Personnel | No decision regarding personnel after the executive session (agenda item added 'for Sally and Dave Tetra. Separately.', as transcribed). |
| 2026 budget (preliminary) | Preliminary 2026 budget line items set for highway, general, and special funds; many items kept at prior level, raised slightly, or held pending salary data, final bills (e.g., NIMRT legal bill), and LCT figures. |
| Town report dedication | Town report to be dedicated to 'Daddy Howe and Betty Badness' (as transcribed), using the photo of 'Daddy' (color preferred); Speaker 5 (unidentified) is working on a photo of Betty and will go 'old school and knock on the door' of CJ for it. |
| Highway warrant articles | Two highway items 'will probably both have to be warrant articles'; board is 'not quite ready' for them (prices still being gathered for the season). |
| Recycling container issue | Hauler should bring the smaller container all the time; a letter was sent; 'that shouldn't happen again and should be over.' |
| Dog license fund | Dog license/tag fees go to a separate fund (about $1,070 collected, per Speaker 3); no maximum was set; unused money could be transferred by town meeting vote. |
Who owes what (14)
| Action | Owner | By when | Note | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Work on the 15-page Planning Commission municipal grant paperwork (Lori and the chair to work on it Monday); chair to sign; everything else handled by BCRC | Nancy L. Bushika (Chair) and Lori | sign and send by the 24th (January) | Chair: 'I think I just have to sign, and then everything else is done by BCRC, hopefully.' | open no date in the minutes |
| Go to the BCRC meeting (the third Thursday from now) | Speaker 7 | — | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶34 | |
| Attend the January 15, 2:00 pm Zoom with Planning, Select Board, and Conservation (adjust the energy portion so it does not specify the PUSIC range in specific areas; municipality can voice there) | Select board (all can sign up at home) | 2026-01-15 14:00 | overdue the minutes set 2026-01-15 and it has passed ¶ ¶32 | |
| Continue driving around town checking 911 numbers (~one third done; a few more weeks expected) | unnamed (recovering from hip surgery) | — | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶39 | |
| Reach out to the Green Mountain Power / National Grid project coordinator about the pole-redo project (poles being staged near the old Walmart, to go along the ridge) | Deb (Speaker 10, resident) | — | GMP 'want to come next week' to the next meeting and talk to Dave (highway); chair: 'If not, I'll say, Deb, call them.' | open no date in the minutes |
| Provide town report dedication photos (including one of Betty); go 'old school and knock on the door' of CJ | Speaker 5 (unidentified) | — | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶233 | |
| Check the LCT figure (budget line not yet final) | Speaker 3 | — | VLCT/BCRC: $4,000 again; anticipating ~$10,438 per quarter for highway revenue. | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶315 |
| Fill in the salary parts of the budget and fix the error in the salary spreadsheet | Laurie / Dave | — | Plowing salary $29,001 (three workers vs two); FICA/Medicare, child care tax, and workman's comp to be adjusted. | open no date in the minutes |
| Chase the 2026 website and email maintenance quote (asked by email, no answer yet) | Speaker 3 (asking on John's behalf) | — | Transcript: 'You emailed him asking what his 2026 quote would be, I haven't heard that.' | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶326 |
| Review the $600 school-closure cost (March town meeting closed school; May special election unanticipated) | Nancy L. Bushika (Chair) | — | 'I have to look at that, right.' Law enforcement at the election budgeted at zero for 2026. | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶265 |
| Look into the Salad Waste Alliance payments (three paid in December vs four expected; estimate for 2026) | Nancy L. Bushika (Chair) | — | 'I'll have to look at that.' | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶331 |
| Look into the aging Xerox copier (hard to find parts) and the aging file cabinets | Lori (chair: 'she's looking into that') | — | Open to donated/used file cabinets; consider one or two a year. | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶334 |
| Talk to Lou before 'going down there' (dog kennel/dog expenses line) | Select board | — | 'So if they'll keep the thousand, we're gonna talk to Lou before we go down there.' | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶254 |
| Re-run the budget review; turn completed figures in to Lori | Select board | 2026-01-15 regular meeting (and possibly 2026-01-27) | 'Stuff will have to be turned in to Lori.' | overdue the minutes set 2026-01-15 and it has passed |
Statuses come from data/action_status.json, which only a person changes; "overdue" means the minutes gave a date and that date has passed. Mark one done with
scripts/action_status.py --done "a phrase".Money (21)
| Highway loan - final 2026 payment | 2026 is the last payment on the highway loan. | $44,857 principal + $785 interest |
| Highway plowing/road labor salary | Dave going 30 (hours); starting to plow earlier than last year. | $29,001 (2026, three workers; $26,900 last year with two) |
| Highway health insurance¶ ¶76 | FICA/Medicare, child care tax, and workman's comp to be adjusted when salaries are filled in. | $111,966 |
| Equipment replacement estimates (highway) | RAM loan ~6 months remaining at ~$6,000-7,000; possible 2019 Freightliner replacement decided at town; discussion of borrowing from the town to save interest. | new RAM ~$140,000; Freightliner ~$200,000 |
| Lincoln Road culvert loan¶ ¶130 | $47,951.20 (budget ~$47,900) | |
| Highway sand / salt / special projects / miscellaneous¶ ¶137 | Sand use doubled last winter (stockpiling); salt back to the prior year's $35,000 budget; special projects 'not enough to keep up' in the chair's view. | sand $4,000; salt $35,000; special projects $35,000; miscellaneous $500 |
| 2023 flood reimbursement | Not budgeted - 'we'll wait before we budget that because who knows what they're going to do.' | $4,600 submitted; ~$4,500 expected |
| Clean Water Act grant (Sportsman's Road)¶ ¶154 | Two grants submitted for the Sportsman's Road (Elkenwell) culvert; the first was declined after applications were accepted, a second was submitted from a different angle; awaiting decisions. | $17,000 received (2025 portion); ~$20,000 spent (2026 project, combined) |
| School payment | Affects money market interest; money market interest budgeted at $2,000. | $700,000 paid this year |
| Revenue: beer and wine | $185,000 (kept) | |
| Revenue: education billing fee | Auditor says the town should anticipate this expense instead of budgeting the municipal payment; exact source of the figure unclear to the board. | $3,800 |
| Revenue: land sale fund interest / money market / local fines / driveway permits | Mid-year bank swap changed interest income considerably. | land sale fund interest $1,500; money market $2,000; local fines $0; driveway permits $100 |
| Revenue: National Forest / state-owned property / sale of town-owned property | Dollar scaling not stated in the transcript; recorded as spoken. | as transcribed (unscaled): 'budgeted 35, got 42, budget more like 40'; 'budgeted 200, got 285 - 200 okay'; 'budgeted 10, stay with the 10' |
| Select board salaries (2026) | Number of meetings unknown ('Never know.'). | chair $1,000 (paid $840); members $4,500 (last year $3,450) |
| Elections (2026: three elections - March local, November, plus special elections as needed) | Law enforcement at the election budgeted at $0 (spent $600 last year, unanticipated May special election). | ballot clerks $1,000; ballots $100; election expenses/supplies ~$300 (spent $294; absentee postage rising) |
| Bennington County dues / VLCT | LCT figure to be checked. | BCRC $4,000 (paid ~$4,000-4,700 last year); anticipating $10,438 per quarter for highway revenue (~$40,000 budgeted) |
| Legal expenses (NIMRT)¶ ¶292 | Final bill from NIMRT not yet received; 'unless we think we're going to have any more lawsuits.' | $1,000 (budgeted $5,000 and paid $6,000 last year; prior year $1,000) |
| Select board expenses / tax sale purchase¶ ¶324 | Attorney fees were not in the select board expenses line, per the chair. | tax sale purchase $2,000 (2026 tax sale); ~$2,600 last quarter was for signing |
| Town office operating items | Xerox copier aging; parts hard to find - replacement being looked into. | postage $1,100 (78 cents a stamp); office supplies $1,200 (spent $1,244); copier $850; bank and check charges $150 (last year $183, currently $84) |
| Planning grant (municipal, BCRC) | Transcript figures are garbled ('Grant refers to 28. Their total comes to 28. Our town matches 2,800.'); survey and kickoff for the town plan. | grant total ~$2,800; town match $2,800 (as transcribed); planning commission: expenses $200 + grant-related (survey/mailing) $2,000 |
| Smaller line items | Dog license fund holds ~$1,070 in a separate fund; no maximum set. | conservation commission salary $175 (five members); Board of Health $25; cemetery $1,000; dog expenses $2,000 / dog officer $900 / license book and tags $200; emergency management generator $500; town flags $800; ZBA $250; town lighting (as transcribed, some unscaled) |
Follow-ups named in the minutes
- Review the 2026 budget at the January 15 regular meeting (work continues; possibly again on the 27th); completed figures to Lori.
- Planning Commission municipal grant: sign (chair) and send by January 24; BCRC handles the rest.
- January 15, 2:00 pm Zoom (Planning, Select Board, Conservation): adjust the energy portion so it does not specify the PUSIC range in specific areas.
- BCRC meeting (third Thursday) - Speaker 7 attending; municipality will be able to voice there.
- Green Mountain Power / National Grid pole-redo project: GMP wants to come to the next meeting and talk to Dave (highway); Deb (Speaker 10) to contact the project coordinator if needed.
- Two highway items expected to become warrant articles at town meeting (not ready yet).
- 2026 delinquent tax sale: attorney hired (executive session decision).
- Sportsman's Road (Elkenwell) culvert: two grant applications pending a decision (first declined, second resubmitted from a different angle).
- 2026 elections: three elections expected (March local, November, plus any special) - election costs budgeted accordingly.
- Red Cross: confirmed they submitted a request this year; it will be a warrant article.
- Chair to check the ~$600 school-closure cost and the Salad Waste Alliance payment count (3 vs 4).
- NIMRT final legal bill still outstanding before the 2026 legal line is confirmed.
What the extraction was unsure about
- Front-matter 'present' is used verbatim: 'Kurt Gamari John Dunn' is one entry, likely two people (Kurt Gamari, John Dunn) with a missing comma. Roll call in the transcript (Speaker 1: 'John Dunn. Kurt Gamari.') confirms both attended.
- Motion to go into executive session: both the motion and the second are attributed to 'Speaker 4' - almost certainly a diarization over-split of one voice, but kept as labeled.
- The adjournment motion's vote is not in the transcript (file ends at 'All in favor?'), so the outcome is recorded as no-formal-vote rather than assumed passage.
- Many budget figures are spoken without thousands separators or dollar context (e.g., 'Keep it 45', 'we budgeted 35 and we got 42', 'Town lighting 5000 and we spent 51. Go up 52'); amounts are recorded as spoken and flagged in the notes.
- Likely transcription errors were kept as-is: 'Sally and Dave Tetra', 'Daddy Howe and Betty Badness', 'Fish and drink', 'taxi anticipation loan' (probably a tax anticipation loan), '47押'.
- No formal public comment was recorded; a resident (Deb, Speaker 10) participated in the budget work session about the Green Mountain Power pole project and was asked to call GMP if needed. Speaker 10 is treated as a resident, not a board member.
- The executive session content between going in and coming out is not in the transcript; only the decisions reported on coming out are recorded here.
Transcript
381 paragraphs · 1 of the diarized voices in this
recording carry a name; the rest stay "Speaker N" because the archive cannot match them to the
minutes without guessing.
381 paragraphs
Speaker 1 — heard only in this meeting
Speaker 2 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 3 — the same voice as in 58 recordings (the archive does not name this person)
Speaker 4 — the same voice as in 38 recordings (the archive does not name this person)
Speaker 5 — the same voice as in 40 recordings (the archive does not name this person)
Speaker 6 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 7 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 8 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 9 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 10 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 11 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 12 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 13 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 14 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 15 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 16 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 17 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 2 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 3 — the same voice as in 58 recordings (the archive does not name this person)
Speaker 4 — the same voice as in 38 recordings (the archive does not name this person)
Speaker 5 — the same voice as in 40 recordings (the archive does not name this person)
Speaker 6 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 7 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 8 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 9 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 10 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 11 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 12 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 13 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 14 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 15 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 16 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 17 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 2: or removing items from tonight's agenda?
Speaker 6: Motion.
Speaker 2: Anything on recycling?
Speaker 7: I know that they want to adjust the energy portion so it does not specify the PUSIC range in specific areas. I'm leaving that.
Speaker 7: I'll also be going to the BCRC meeting the third Thursday from now.
Speaker 7: Not so far. I think it's waiting.
Speaker 8: There's a deadline, right?
Speaker 9: Yay.
Speaker 10: Oh. Green...
Speaker 10: Yeah. They're... They've been... They're redoing all the poles.
Speaker 10: I can find that out. If you go down... You know where the old... Where they came out of the old... The old, old Walmart?
Speaker 10: Where there's nothing there. National Grid. Yeah. Lay down there. Where they're staging all those poles. Those are going to be... Yes. Put along the ridge. Yeah. Yep. So that's... I do know that. I was talking with the woman who was kind of head of all that. She said, if we have any questions, because I've told her in the past, I don't seem to get good information on what's going on. So if you want, I can reach out to her, but she's coordinating that whole project.
Speaker 10: It's like a super highway, that's behind our house. It's 64? Yeah. Wow. Five, six, seven, eight. Five, six, seven, eight.
Speaker 11: I thought we were good.
Speaker 12: You got to go up on that one.
Speaker 11: requested that we're still waiting highway retirement we've got to wait on that
Speaker 2: unemployment outside services municipal road permit fee now why did we have a thousand
Speaker 2: um did we get the um reimbursement from yet for the doors the garage doors
Speaker 13: the big ones we have um not the electric update we did okay so where does that show oh yeah right
Speaker 12: senecal just we just got the bill yeah that's all that we're paying that right yep right equipment maintenance and repair
Speaker 2: what vehicle would we be replacing
Speaker 14: I think we do.
Speaker 12: Unfortunately, we're spending the money anyway, because the repairs are as much or more than
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 2: That's Heat Town Garage.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I mean, that's one that you just don't know.
Speaker 7: Is this it?
Speaker 13: What the heck is that?
Speaker 11: $4,600.
Speaker 13: in, yeah.
Speaker 12: Well, I did get numbers.
Speaker 11: what the figure is land sale fund interest swapping banks mid-year made a considerable difference in our interest income 2000 well let's go 2000 or 15.1
Speaker 13: So.
Speaker 10: How many people getting married?
Speaker 10: Seventy-five or a hundred.
Speaker 15: yep that's zero remember the money that we put in for dv fiber for people that needed aid
Speaker 11: no 27 000. wouldn't that be nice i know it's in our it's in our paper so i'll check i think i
Speaker 6: Yep.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 13: or not get a dog.
Speaker 13: Dog expense.
Speaker 7: Yeah, let's go with the thousand.
Speaker 11: Oh, yeah.
Speaker 11: It's only for local elections, though, these ballots, right?
Speaker 13: One hundred.
Speaker 13: employee benefits i don't we're in training are we still keeping 150.
Speaker 11: okay nothing yet we budgeted 47. oh what'd you say kirk
Speaker 16: keep it 15 000 again
Speaker 7: What expenses do we spend?
Speaker 6: $250.
Speaker 6: $250.
Speaker 17: Sorry, John missed that.
Speaker 11: got good file cabinets and we're always open for the option 100 bucks yep and internet
Speaker 15: generous tonight. You're right on it tonight. What do you want? Well, that was 1,244.
Speaker 15: 250.
Speaker 15: 52.
Speaker 13: this year?
Speaker 11: So they got a request.
Speaker 10: It's still West.
Speaker 11: Okay.
Speaker 11: Oh, that is the 8th.
Speaker 11: Yep.
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.