Danville Vermont             

                                   ~Draft~

                                        Town of Danville

                                    Selectboard Minutes of

                                September 1st, 2011 Meeting

Vice Chairman, Michael K Walsh called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm. Selectboard present were, Angelo Incerpi, Denise Briggs, Michael K Walsh, and Marvin Withers. Also present were Kevin Gadapee and Merton Leonard, visitors, Ken Linsley, Kirk Fenoff, Gary and Barb Fontaine, Norman Patenaude of Pike Industries, and Vivian and Charles Layton.  The minutes of the August 18 meeting were accepted after a typo of treat vs threat was corrected, on a motion by Denise Briggs that was seconded by Angelo Incerpi.

Bid requests had been sent to Kevin's bidders list of six paving contractors. Two sealed bids for the North Danville Paving project had been received at the Town Clerks office. The Board proceeded to open them with the low bidder being Pike Industries operating out of Waterford at $71.82 a ton. With an estimated 1600tons required for the project the total cost will be around $114,912. The other bid request was for paving repair of storm damage to the Joes Brook Road. Two bids were received for this project, with Black Top Paving of West Lebanon being low bidder at $89.75 per ton. With an estimated 320 tons required for the project the total cost will be around $28,720.

The Layton's were present to discuss the flooding of their property from the May storm as well as the recent tropical storm Irene. They informed the Board after an earlier flood event in 1998, the present culvert was installed across Cormier Road. This culvert was installed straight across the road although the brook runs at an angle across their property. With the recent storms the brooks full force is directed into their property causing the banks to wash out eroding their lawn, and widening the brook. They also have noticed more water in the brook during rain storms since the hill side on the other side of the road was logged off. In other places where the water has been washing into the banks, the ANR has been recommending armoring the banks with large rocks, to keep them from washing. Kevin will ask the local ANR official to visit their property and give his recommendations for alterations to protect their property.

Kevin reported on August 28th the rain started lightly around 3am here. By 8:00am it had picked up considerably so he called his crew in to start patrolling the roads, turning water off the roads where they could. The grader went out about noon cutting water bars across roads and keeping culverts and lead-outs open. An operations center was established at the firehouse to take all calls at one location, and to dispatch all assistance from there. This system worked incredibly well with everyone knowing where the problems were and where to send help. After the storm passed late Sunday evening there was some road damage, a few roads were closed to washouts stranding a few people. All were checked for their safety and wellbeing. Early Monday morning four contractors were called and each directed to a washout area, as were the road crew. By noon everyone had access to leave their property, and by noon the next day all roads were open. Most of the Irene damage has now been repaired. Morrill Construction has completed their work on the Federal Connector Highways. Kevin and Wendy are meeting on a weekly basis with the FEMA representative to enter the repair data into the FEMA system for reimbursement. Repairs still continue on some of the damage of the May flooding. Most of the repaired areas held through the Tropical Irene storm with little damage.

  This continued rain has caused gravel to continue to collect in the road culverts. Kevin has discussed this with Troy, and would like to hire the firemen to flush the culverts out on a reimbursed basis, which would allow the road crew more time to work on the flood repairs. The general consensus of the Board was positive, as Michael and Denise recused themselves from the discussion. Kevin also has two flood projects involving stone work that he wishes to put out to bid. He would like to request bids from his bidders list, made primarily from contractors that have recently done other recent construction work for the town. After some discussion, Angelo Incerpi moved to go out for bids on these two projects using the list Kevin has assembled, Marvin Withers seconded the motion which was approved. Angelo was very pleased with the town's personnel turnout and dedication to this tropical storm Irene and requested a thank you note in the paper to be appropriate. The other Board members were all in agreement.

            Merton reported that FEMA representative Greg Paul has been redirected to Rutland area to access early Irene storm damage, there. It is hoped to be temporary as Wendy and Kevin only have about half of our roads entered into the FEMA process, a couple more meetings are needed to finish. Merton and Kevin met with early assessment team Aug 31 for the latest storm event, estimating $20,000 to $40,000 of new damage. A meeting on Route 2 traffic is scheduled for Wednesday the 7th at 12:00 pm. VTrans & Pike is requesting to work on Saturdays and at nights. There will not be any drilling or blasting at nights, it will be excavation type work only. The construction is not going to be in a comfortable stopping point for the winter and spring if they do not work longer hours and get more accomplished then they are with the current restrictions. After some discussion, that included traffic improvement has been noted and they have to do what they have to do to get to a winter stopping point, the Board's general consensus was to let them proceed with the nights and weekend work.

             The listers are requesting approval of a two error corrections to the grand list. The first one is a house that was in place on April 11th when listers visited the property during their rounds to update property assessments, so they added it to the property appraisal. The owners contacted the listers after they got their tax bill and informed them the house was not there until April 6th. The cutoff date for accessing improvements to the property is April 1st so it should not have been added. This change would reduce the grand list by $1339.00. After some discussion, Angelo Incerpi moved to reduce the grand list by $1339.00 as requested by the listers, Marvin Withers seconded the motion which was approved. The second request, a lister was using his own property appraisal to calculate taxes for a property owner who wanted to know much his taxes would go up if he added a barn to his property. That worked fine and when the lister received his tax bill the increase had been added to his taxes.  This change would reduce the grand list by $252.00. Denise Briggs moved to reduce the grand list by $252.00 as recommended by the listers, Angelo Incerpi seconded the motion which was approved. Merton checked on a cemetery complaint, all cemeteries viewed looked good. In talking with the sexton he did not know of any one that was looking for a lot or of no cemetary not mowed except for Boot Hill.  The bid request for the station repairs and will be posted as soon as paper can get it in print. The planning commission has been working on the village area of North Danville for updating the zoning bylaws. They had a proposed map that appeared larger than what most considered being the village. The general consensus of the Board was to request they reduce the area on their map.

 The Board reviewed and approved the orders for payment. There was a separate request for reimbursement for food purchased during the storm on August 28. Denise Briggs moved to pay the food reimbursement request asap, Michael K Walsh seconded the motion which was approved. In one other order of business, there was a discussion about the paint for the town garage being painted as a school project. At the school, each project is evaluated and accepted on a basis of size, cost, and the students proposal. This project was accepted by the school without materials. Angelo Incerpi moved to pay for the paint and materials for the garage painting project out of the highway building fund, Denise Briggs seconded the motion which was approved.

With no further business, the Board voted to adjourn at 7:55 pm.

Respectfully Submitted,

Merton Leonard

Clerk of the Selectboard

Send mail to Mert.Leonard@DanvilleVt.com with questions or comments about this web site.