Stamford Select Board — 2026-01-29 (Regular)
- Opening: Pledge of Allegiance and welcome
- Roll call and hearing of visitors
- Agenda changes: move finalizing budget and review/finalize of Select Board report to end of meeting; note possible executive session for personnel
- Sympathies (Kirk's father; Doug, offered to Mary Lou Wright and her family; Michael Denault's mother)
- Reading and approval of records and orders (minutes of January 8)
- Highway update (Mike's truck breakdown, snow plowing, state road work)
- Recycling (dumpster status)
- Costello report received
- Correspondence (Small Town report; R.L. Lefebvre)
- School walkways and janitor status
- Green Mountain Power agreement to rebuild poles, guys, and wires
- Hearing of visitors (public comment)
- Grant correspondence (July 2023 flooding 'Iread' match) and 2024 grand list certificate of no suits pending (signing)
- Certificate of highway mileage (signing)
- Barb Doley letter (correspondence)
- 911 numbering update
- Town sign update
- Church sign lights (zoning)
- Review and finalize budget and Select Board/town report (Articles 1-14, including paving, truck borrowing, and eliminating the office of Lister)
- Motion to go into executive session for personnel
Motions (7, 3 passed)
Approve minutes of January 8, 2026 mover not statedpassed
Sign the Green Mountain Power agreement to rebuild existing overhead poles, guys, and wires within the highway limits of Mill, Clough, Lincoln, Robillard, and Brookside Roads (permitted under V-Trans Section 1111) Speaker 2passed
Sign grant correspondence (additional 'Iread' 7.8% match, almost $11,000, for the July 2023 flooding) and the 2024 grand list certificate of no suits pending mover not statedpassed
Sign the certificate of highway mileage (mileage changes at the top of County Road; adding to legal trail and taking it off the Class 4) Nancy L. Bushika (Chair)no-formal-vote
Sign the Select Board report (deceased/absent members' names listed without signatures; official copy signed by the three present) Nancy L. Bushika (Chair)no-formal-vote
Accept the budget as proposed and the town report as revised, and sign Nancy L. Bushika (Chair)no-formal-vote
Go into executive session for personnel Nancy L. Bushika (Chair)seconded: Speaker 4no-formal-vote
Other decisions
| Dedicate the 2026 town report to Doug | The report had been planned to be dedicated to Dottie (Howe) and Betty (Bendis); after Doug died while serving, the board decided to dedicate the report to Doug alone. Doug is a long-serving selectman (he has a signature slot in the select board report); his first name only appears in the transcript. |
| Barb Doley letter response | The board concluded the letter appears to be a personal/civil property dispute (hay cutting over her property; raised before) and agreed the board should send a letter stating it reviewed it and that settling personal property matters is not in the Select Board's wheelhouse. |
| Church sign illumination | Board informally concluded the church's illuminated sign is acceptable under the zoning bylaws (signs may be illuminated; the restriction concerns illuminated signs). |
| Retain the 2019 Freightliner as a spare | Highway staff recommended keeping the 2019 Freightliner as backup since the new truck (a Ram 5500 one-ton instead of a Freightliner) will not arrive within a year; the Ram was preferred for reliability, parts, and ease of maintenance. |
| Agenda change | Finalizing the budget and reviewing/finalizing the Select Board report were moved to the end of the meeting after new business, per the chair. |
Who owes what (6)
| Action | Owner | By when | Note | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Send a letter to Barb Doley explaining the matter is a personal property dispute outside the Select Board's authority | — | — | Agreed in correspondence discussion; no individual assigned. | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶111 |
| Write to Callie about the planning grant to ask why she wants to come in person | Speaker 12 | — | 'I'll write her and ask her why she wants to come down to person or not.' | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶71 |
| Copy and file the Costello report | Speaker 3 | — | 'So I need that. I need to copy and put in a box.' | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶21 |
| Work on the tax breakdown for the town report (per-article/per-household tax impact) | Nancy L. Bushika (Chair) | — | 'I'll work on the tax stuff for the town report.' | open no date in the minutes |
| Work on the select board report | Speaker 16 | — | Transcription garbled: 'I'll work on the stock board report instead of...' | open no date in the minutes ¶ ¶462 |
| Address personnel/training issues (including town equipment used on private driveways) in executive session | Select Board | — | Motion to go into executive session proposed by chair and seconded by Speaker 4 at the end of the transcript; result not recorded. | open no date in the minutes |
scripts/action_status.py --done "a phrase".Money (10)
| Additional 'Iread' match for the July 2023 flooding grant | 7.8% match, 'it comes out to almost $11,000'; now being re-offered; Nancy to sign. | ~$11,000 |
| Equipment maintenance and repair (highway) | Budgeted $45,000 last year; spending described as '79' (thousand), much of it Freightliner repairs; staff describe it as a consistent 'about 70,000 a year' rolling investment rather than a one-time tax. | — |
| Town Article 5: borrow for new truck (Ram 5500 instead of Freightliner) | 'So the 150 for the freightliner, we're going to borrow that from a bank'; cab/chassis about $70,000; the current Ram loan is paid off in June; plan is a rolling loan so truck and paving do not raise taxes. | $150,000 |
| Town Article 6: release from land-sale invested funds¶ ¶349 | Town releases up to $131,000; the land-sale fund balance was stated as $170,000 (Speaker 9) and $178,000 (chair). | $131,000 |
| Town Article 7: borrow for paving the remaining gravel portion of Jepson (and up the hill on LeSure) | 'Borrow some not to exceed $276,000 for paving the remaining gravel portion of Jepson.' | $276,000 |
| Town Article 8: borrow for remaining paving¶ ¶179 | 'We're borrowing that from the land sale fund. And that will have to take a loan out from the bank for the other two articles.' Loans cannot exceed five years without bonding; bonding is long-term debt requiring special voter approval, a bonding attorney (~$4,000-5,000), and special publication (~$1,000 x 3); not feasible for the March vote, possibly August or November. | — |
| Paving/resurfacing program total | Total described as $600,000 (first garbled as '$588?'); includes the normal five-year chip-sealing program (~$130,000 this year vs $235,000 five years ago, freeing ~$70,000-100,000 toward extra paving); LeSure section was quoted at half a million years ago, now '180' (thousand); East Road cost the town nothing last year. | $600,000 |
| Budget line changes vs. last year | Cemetery is down from last year; library is up $4,000; fire department is up $1,000. | — |
| Tax impact discussion | Chair's example: a $200,000 increase in the town portion would cost about $600/year on a $580,000 town valuation; staff: 'Every 100,000. 20 bucks.' | — |
| Shore Road¶ ¶341 | 'A couple years ago we put $60,000 into the spring mud up there.' | $60,000 |
Public comment (4)
| Speaker 11 | Concerns about possible lack of training and use of town equipment (loader, plow trucks) on private driveways (e.g., 'Klaus Laurie's'); asks how much the town has paid for consistent private driveway plowing; also concerns about road salt (vernal pool on Robillard Road had no frogs; plans to have her well water and the vernal pool tested at her own expense). |
| Speaker 6 | VCR changed turbine setback language from one kilometer to 0.5 kilometers, which did not make it into the letter sent to BCRC; her goal is to change it back to one kilometer. Also on the planning grant: Callie wants to come down (not time-contingent), town's portion already signed online, one more paper needed; opinion offered to wait until after the election when there is a full board. |
| unattributed | Offers condolences ('awfully sorry about your day'); states this is the first they have heard of the town-equipment issue and reserves the right to look things over. |
| Speaker 4 | Reserves the right to research the town-equipment use issue (first time hearing of it; 'I don't know off the top of my head what the rules are or aren't'); no comment at this point. |
Follow-ups named in the minutes
- Executive session for personnel (training; town equipment used on private driveways) - motion proposed and seconded; transcript ends before a recorded result.
- Send the Barb Doley letter (personal property dispute outside board jurisdiction).
- Green Mountain Power pole and wire rebuild expected to start this summer.
- Jepson Road may qualify for grants after it is paved; note this in the town report.
- Planning grant: one more paper for the town's portion; wait until after the election for a full board (opinion offered); depends on Callie's timeline.
- VCR turbine setback language changed from 1 km to 0.5 km and was missing from the BCRC letter; goal to change it back to 1 km (raised by Speaker 6).
- 911 numbering update: no update reported this meeting (Bob was working on it).
- Bonding (loans beyond five years) would require a lengthy special approval process; earliest realistic votes are August or November.
- Town report to include per-article/per-household tax breakdowns and note that chip sealing is the normal five-year maintenance plan.
- School janitor status unresolved: janitor quit, temporary cleaning service in place, and two meetings went by with no quorum; no clear follow-up assigned.
What the extraction was unsure about
- Speaker N labels are automated diarization clusters (front matter notes they may over-split a single voice); no identities were inferred. Nancy addressed 'Lisa' while Speaker 6 was speaking, and Speaker 3 appears to be town clerk Lori (referred to as 'Lori' in third person elsewhere), but the transcript never states this.
- Several budget figures are garbled in the transcription (e.g., '1 million 186 104', 'the bottom is 106 815', 'town expense 438 174', 'we spent 79'); exact totals were not extracted.
- The grant match program is transcribed as 'Iread' (7.8%, almost $11,000); the program name is unconfirmed.
- Town article numbering as discussed: Article 5 (borrow, truck), 6 (release $131,000 from land sale), 7 (borrow up to $276,000 for Jepson), 8 (borrow, land sale/bank), 9 (eliminate office of Lister); the full article text is not legible in the transcript.
- The final motion (executive session for personnel) was seconded and the chair began the vote, but the transcript ends before a recorded result, so its outcome is unconfirmed.
- Whether 'Speaker 4' is a selectman or a resident is unclear: the label is used for board-level participation (seconding the executive-session motion) and resident-style remarks ('I live on Route 8 and 100'); context suggests Speaker 4 is a family member (child) of the late selectman Doug.
- Motions to sign the highway mileage certificate, the select board report, and the budget/town report have no explicit second or recorded aye vote in the transcript; they are marked no-formal-vote rather than assumed passed.
- The transcript references a recently deceased selectman 'Doug' (signature slot in the select board report; town report dedicated to him; offered sympathies to 'Mary Lou Wright and her family for the passing of Doug'), but he does not appear in the front matter present/absent lists; attendees were filled verbatim from the front matter as instructed.
- The input path given in the task (2026/2026-01-29_selectboard.md) was found on disk at transcripts/2026/2026-01-29_selectboard.md; source_file uses the requested relative form.
- Paving cost figures vary in the discussion ('$588?' vs '600,000'; '$235,000' vs '$200,000' vs '130,000'); values are reported as stated in the transcript.
Transcript
Speaker 2 — the same voice as in 39 recordings (the archive does not name this person)
Speaker 3 — the same voice as in 58 recordings (the archive does not name this person)
Speaker 4 — the same voice as in 40 recordings (the archive does not name this person)
Speaker 5 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 6 — the same voice as in 12 recordings (the archive does not name this person)
Speaker 7 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 8 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 9 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 10 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 11 — heard only in this meeting
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 18 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 19 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 20 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 21 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 22 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 23 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 24 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 25 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 26 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 27 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 28 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 29 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 30 — no voiceprint match
Speaker 5: Yeah, they came in the planning committee and they said they had a janitor.
Speaker 7: You had no objection to this?
Speaker 8: Right. It said something about...
Speaker 9: Yes. Yeah.
Speaker 9: Sorry, I'm jumping all over here.
Speaker 9: All in favor.
Speaker 10: That's all I can do tonight.
Speaker 12: my next goal is to change that back to the one kilometer. Okay and as far as the planning grant
Speaker 13: I think it's just a sign like for you to sign the town's portion. We did. Oh. Didn't we do that? That's
Speaker 14: yes I signed something online. We signed the application. I think there's one more paper.
Speaker 15: I think that she wants another paper where she
Speaker 12: agreeing to give whatever amount the town is eligible. Yeah yeah I think so. If we don't sign it she's usually right on top of it and emails Lori and says where's your signature and we'll do it. I'll write her and ask her why she wants to come down to person or not. Okay. Sorry for that. My opinion is to wait until after election when we have a full board here. Sure. It depends on her and the grant. As long as everything's ready to proceed on her.
Speaker 14: All suits are settled now, so we're good. Our assessor did here, so I guess you guys
Speaker 16: No.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Or old business?
Speaker 17: Thank you.
Speaker 17: report warning for the town standard article one is to elect the following officers they'll be done
Speaker 18: and those are the final numbers yes if you have any questions about the budget numbers
Speaker 9: you guys have john you probably have the final budget right uh i think it's over here no yeah
Speaker 16: you should have a copy the bottom is 106 815 yes yeah the first page is
Speaker 14: 2019 freight oh yeah change the date getting to 2017 or 19.
Speaker 19: winter time you gotta have something else are we gonna say replace or then uh maybe
Speaker 20: to take that ABS light off. It's crazy. It's just going to be a consistent
Speaker 9: There's people that got all kinds of questions.
Speaker 21: What about tires and things like that?
Speaker 9: Yeah, things aren't realized.
Speaker 22: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 22: That's always there.
Speaker 22: So Article 5.
Speaker 7: Yep.
Speaker 21: Yeah, but the maintenance-wise, it's easier to work with.
Speaker 21: Way more reliable.
Speaker 23: Freightliner, we've got to bring all the investments there.
Speaker 23: And you're really using it for what, plowing?
Speaker 7: I'll let Mike call in.
Speaker 7: Okay.
Speaker 7: The ram that we have now will be paid in June.
Speaker 19: That could be this year?
Speaker 19: Okay.
Speaker 8: Did you get a final cost of what it was all going to be?
Speaker 14: $588?
Speaker 14: amounts.
Speaker 23: Do you chip seal part of Jepson?
Speaker 19: I don't think.
Speaker 24: in order for the chip seal to be put down.
Speaker 20: The rest of Jepson Road
Speaker 24: that we would typically have to do
Speaker 24: going to be the additional
Speaker 7: on Jepson Road for like $125,000.
Speaker 7: We didn't spend any of that.
Speaker 19: Okay so.
Speaker 7: That's bad.
Speaker 25: So.
Speaker 8: Get it done.
Speaker 21: So the Jepson part
Speaker 19: listen or not
Speaker 26: We just paid
Speaker 25: Then you're going to have people like
Speaker 27: You're always going to get that.
Speaker 17: And then figure it out.
Speaker 9: can take it all out.
Speaker 20: And it has grown.
Speaker 24: This is the next spot.
Speaker 8: LaShore and Bulger.
Speaker 9: I think it would be beneficial.
Speaker 26: They can see the breakdown of it all.
Speaker 20: And it makes more sense.
Speaker 28: in the taxes?
Speaker 29: in the cost for that.
Speaker 25: and I don't utilize it.
Speaker 17: Oh, there's people like that.
Speaker 17: I'll send you the calculation, boys.
Speaker 24: in the wind.
Speaker 19: they've got to go back down.
Speaker 23: Nothing.
Speaker 17: People that are buying a lot of the lots around
Speaker 17: if the roads are dirt or tar?
Speaker 19: I'm just thinking use.
Speaker 25: 30 years ago you could park
Speaker 17: Was that John Bold's?
Speaker 22: to go.
Speaker 9: We have $170,000.
Speaker 23: So you're looking at $470,000.
Speaker 19: And that's
Speaker 30: or will it just start at the hill?
Speaker 7: it just makes sense.
Speaker 7: I think they're both
Speaker 23: Yeah, they own everybody now.
Speaker 21: It's crazy.
Speaker 22: Oh, okay.
Speaker 21: If you don't do it,
Speaker 8: the cost of all this stuff.
Speaker 17: It's not showing up on the paper.
Speaker 8: It seems
Speaker 9: to be
Speaker 9: is getting
Speaker 17: at the time.
Speaker 9: So,
Speaker 8: Is this going to be seen by everybody?
Speaker 8: So I can make a sloppy signature?
Speaker 9: Okay, then we've got to say something.
Speaker 20: You've got to buy it all at once.
Speaker 24: Let's see where they land.
Speaker 7: to three roads.
Speaker 19: We've never been able to do that.
Speaker 7: $235.
Speaker 19: Okay.
Speaker 19: in the town report.
Speaker 19: Well you know there's always washboard.
Speaker 25: you know you can eliminate the grader.
Speaker 19: three or four days?
Speaker 20: We're gonna make it possible.
Speaker 7: Yeah. Gotta think about that.
Speaker 24: if you do that all
Speaker 8: Send it.
Speaker 16: I'll work on the stock board report instead of
Speaker 22: When did Betty
Speaker 22: He was a selectman
Speaker 22: Those were all the dedications
Speaker 17: Oh it is?
Speaker 24: In Massachusetts it is for sure
Speaker 7: Yeah I think so too
Speaker 22: Jim did yeah
Speaker 17: on second thought
Speaker 22: rescind that motion
Speaker 17: That makes sense
Speaker 15: I got them
Speaker 17: But if we just start doing it that way
Speaker 14: because I didn't want to let the cat out
Speaker 16: Maybe we just discussed the dedication
Speaker 17: Yeah that makes sense
Speaker 22: Yeah About Doug
Speaker 22: watching them play basketball
Speaker 17: Was there some reason?
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.