Danville Vermont             

~DRAFT~

                                    Town of Danville

                            Selectboard Minutes of

                        September 15th, 2011 Meeting

Chairman, Douglas Pastula called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm. Selectboard present were, Denise Briggs, Michael K Walsh, and Douglas Pastula. Also present was Merton Leonard, and visitors, Dot Larrabee , Alice Hafner, and Hertel Boisvert. The minutes of the October 1st meeting were approved as written, on a motion by Michael K Walsh which was seconded by Denise Briggs.

Hertel Boisvert, the covered wagon master and driver from Danville Quebec in 1960 centennial celebration, was present to present a token of his gratitude for the hospitality he has always received during his visits to Danville VT. He presented a wooden sculpture of a Rooster to the Board and the Town made by Lynn Montmeny of Sherbrook Quebec, representing a symbol of thank you and good luck. He also informed the Board he is having an English version of a book documentary made of his wagon trip in 1960. After some pleasant conversation with Hertel, the Board thanked him for the gift, and bid him a safe journey as he left to drive back to Quebec that night in the rain.

The Board had requested bids to begin repair of the cellar water drainage problem and foundation work, at the old railroad station. There were three bids received to the bid request posted in the paper, which the Board opened. The bids ranged from $16,460 to $24,554  which was all more than budgeted for this phase of the job. The Board discussed various ways to reduce the cost of the project, and will discuss the alterations with contractors to determine if  the cost can be reduce sufficiently to allow the project to move ahead.

Wendy's written request included a temporary liquor license request for East Shore Vineyards at Autumn on the Green.  The Board approved this request as long as it is not set up on school property, on a motion by Denise Briggs that was seconded by Michael K Walsh. The Board also gave approval to Town Attorney Toby Balivet permission to hold a tax sale on November 1st and to act as agent for the Town at the sale, on a motion by Michael K Walsh seconded by Denise Briggs. As Denise will be assuming duties of the treasurer of the fire department, Wendy requested she stop in and discuss the stream-lining of the bill handling process, as all bills paid by the town allotment go through the Town Clerks Office.

Kevin's written report stated that along with the regular road maintenance they have been working on the remaining storm damaged projects as well. They are using free fill from some of these projects and also the Route 2 Project, on the class 4 roads in an attempt to get them passable as well, at the lowest cost possible. The Joes Brook Paving repair is scheduled for the 22nd which will finish the damage repair on that site. Kevin hopes most of the remaining damage to be finished by next meeting. In an effort to do that, bids requested to finish up Morrill Road and Roy Road damage are being requested to be opened at a special Board meeting on Sept 29th. The Board agreed to have a special meeting to open the bids and possibly choose a contractor on the 29th.

            Merton reported that he attended the latest FEMA kickoff meeting for the Tropical Storm Irene on Monday Sept 12th. Not much new information, but attendance was required to get the Town registered to apply for flood damage reimbursement from Irene. As estimated damage is still expected to be under $40,000 for this storm. We have not received any FEMA reimbursement for the May damage yet. Evidently no payments have been made yet, as no towns represented at the meeting had received any money yet. NVDA is doing the initial damage assessments for FEMA for this storm. Merton met with Doug Morton of NVDA yesterday and identified and filed nine sites for storm damage reimbursement. As Morrill Construction has finished their work on the Federal Connector highways, Merton notified state contact Dan Hale the project was completed and ready to close out. Mr Hale called from somewhere in Southern Vermont, said he would make a note of that but doesn't know when he will be able to return to file the official close out. Work on the Water Andric Bridge has begun, the first abutment has been poured and is curing.  The Joes Pond swimming water did not pass the last test taken a couple days after tropical storm Irene, so the beach was closed for swimming. Water level during Irene was reported up to 3 feet higher than normal with a lot of debris floating in it. This high water level is evidently caused by a ruling of the ANR that the dam level at the outlet could not deviate anymore than + or - 3 inches from their mean level. The ruling was intended to preserve the wetlands, but during this tropical storm the flora just floated away. Many camps also experienced water damage from the high water level. Another water sample was sent in Tuesday for testing, and the water has cleared back to normal. Merton noted that the Town Emergency Operations Plan has been revised, and asked for any additional revisions need to be made.

             The Board reviewed and approved the orders for payment.

With no further business, the Board voted to adjourn at 7:45 pm.

Respectfully Submitted,

Merton Leonard

Clerk of the Selectboard

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