Danville Vermont             

~DRAFT~

                    Town of Danville

Special Selectboard Meeting

Route #2 Project

Minutes April 10^th, 2008

The Selectboard met at the Danville Town Hall meeting room on Thursday April 10^th, 2008. The meeting was warned in the Caledonian Record as well as posted on the usual bulletin boards in town. Chair Marvin Withers called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm. Selectboard present were Marion Sevigny, Doug Pastula, Denise Briggs, Michael Walsh, and Marvin Withers. Also present were Merton Leonard, Tim Ide and the following visitors: from VTrans Ken Robie, Kevin Marcia, and Gary Santee of Stantec; from the Arts Council Alex Aldrich, Sonia Rea, and Michelle Bailey; Members of the Route #2 Committee (LRC), Mary Prior, Ken Linsley, Crystal Fox, Jeff Frampton, Thomas Beattie, and Jane Browne, Interested Citizens; John Dauteuil, Leonard Carson, Catherine Toll, Alice and William Cruess, Barb and Gary Fontaine, Cheryl Linsley, Alice Hafner, Nancy Lewis, and reporter Sally Anderson Cook.

             This special meeting is the continuation of the discussion about cost reductions on the Route #2 Project with the Vermont Department of Transportation and the LRC. In response to previous discussions, Merton had sent a letter to the Secretary of Transportation, Neale Lunderville notifying the Secretary that the Board had identified approximately  $1,000,000 in cost savings. He wrote that they were not going to be able to reach agreement on further cuts as it would be getting into the noticeable visual and safety aspects of the project and agreement could not be reached. He requested that the Secretary and VTrans reconsider their requests for further cuts and continue with the project as designed.

             In response to the above letter, the Secretary called for a closer look of the Project costs, resulting in a new proposed cost reduction sheet, that Ken Robie passed out to all attendees. After discussion on each item on the new sheet, agreement was reached on reductions as follows: construction changes of the roadways reduced costs by $472,116; town supplied office space elimination cost of $10,132; a reduction of street lights to one side of the road reduced lights to 53 plus 7 retained from Hill St to Highland Ave a reduction of $282,068; a reduction of number and size of trees and shrubs throughout the Project for a cost reduction of $58,021; elimination of the park benches reduced costs by $16,800; reduction of VTrans contingency costs at a savings of $135,932; reduction of construction engineering of $181,242; the Gazebo reconstruction was retained as designed with no reduction, this all results in changes to the Project that will save a total of $1,156,311. These changes were agreed to by the Selectboard, Local Review Committee, and VTrans.  Further study will continue on the tree and shrub placement as well as VTrans will continue to study the underground utilities and construction contingency costs.

             Another Route #2 Project meeting was not scheduled at this time, the Board adjourned at 7:55pm.

            Respectfully Submitted, 

Merton Leonard

Clerk of the Selectboard

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