Van Buren News
Friday, February 23, 2024
Saturday, April 22, 2023
Van Buren Community Garden
Angelica is teaching the group this year.
come out and grow some veggies and strawberries
- start your seeds now to have them ready to translplant into the community garden by the basketball courts and playground at the Keegan housing complex next month
Van Buren Community Garden Playlist
Thursday, October 20, 2022
- wabi 5
- wagm
- wabi 5
'just two good ol' boys, never meanin' no harm...'
- q 96
policing accounts for up to 40% of municipal budgets:
87% of the people in prison lived their whole lives below the poverty level
Wednesday, May 4, 2022
van buren town council meeting april 3rd, 2022:
💡 highlites 💡:
- all van buren town employees recieved a 5% raise at the last council meeting
- oh no ! jim and dee at saucier's iga reportedly say they want to leave the grocery business !! ... so the town is trying to get them a grant to help update the store
- the town may have a buyer for the tax aquired property pine tree apartments across from the clinic but for now the town is going to collect rent from the tenents and is going to recieve back rent from a c a p and the federal government's covid rent relief program, and may get more rental funds from the housing authority's hud section 8 program in the future, adding to the town coifers
- the van buren ambulance company is going to start being on call to do hospital transfers which could bring in $2800 per ambulance run
- the ambulance has a new billing rate and a new billing company to collect funds
- the town is now saving $$$$ / year because all of the streetlights - except the black painted ones on main street - have been switched to l e d bulbs
- 13 town fire hydrants aren't working but the parts to repair and replace them are in transit
- there are large scale plans to repair and promote the boat landing as an attraction this summer, including putting a new metal roof on and rescreening the pavilion
-a possible contest between grand isle and van buren for a boat race, food cook offs and other competitions is also in the works for summerfest
- the van buren boat landing is the only international seaplane airport on the st john river, and is considered by many to be one of the most scenic waterway vistas in the northeast !
- the town has paid back the county sheriff's department for the increased presence after van buren's (and half of aroostook county's) police left
- the town has budgeted $223,000 for paving road repair asphalt this year, but since asphalt is made from petroleum the price will probably rise
- nancy says she might ask stephen king to help repair the library parking lot - the maine author had earlier funded the new bathrooms in the library because - she says - 'he likes libraries'
- 😮⚡⚡⚡peter says van buren has the second cheapest electricity in the state ⚡⚡⚡ !!
- the auditors the town hired are late with their report, but nancy and luke say the town has underspent $222,000 and is in good financial shape, tho some of that $222,000 surplus will go to the ambulance company, which, along with the wastewater treatment facility, usually operate as a business, and are called 'enterprise operations'
- the town plans to repave alexander road - the town transfer station (dump) road - this summer
- the town reports the scale at the transfer station is giving inaccurate readings because of wind gusts so building and maintenance manager rick sirois is planning to build a railroad tie windscreen for the scale which is recalibrated by an engineering firm each year
- paul says the town could invest the future surplusses if things continue to go well and possibly make as much as 7% interest
- mr wate (?) has purchased the old northern girl vegetable processing plant in the opportunity zoned industrial park near keegan and is planning to build greenhouses to raise vegetables for it
- the town might buy a trailer for $50,000 for the ambulance crew to stay next to the ambulance garage by the fire station
- the town council specifically asked for residents to give ideas and input for the design of the pocket park where the old hardware stores were and is asking state leaders for help, info and funding ideas to advance the further revitalization of our community
- - -
video 1
1*
order
all councilors are present (where is joey ouellette ?) anne, peter, paul, john, richard present + nancy + luke present, rick sirois - on zoom
2* modify agena agenda adopted
3* approve last minutes - approved
4* budget review a. ambulance:
last council meeting all town employees get 5% raise
amy is the ambulance crew chief and does the training which lowers ambulance budget
patient transfers ... transfer milage brings in money 1 run = $2800 just for milage
ambulance crew 'responding' app $350/ year
vehicle purchase account: ambulance c i p fell
revenues:
new billing rate and new billing company !
comstar ambulance billing ?
has groups focused on billing different insurances
autotronics: one of the ambulance rig inverters is bad
it was a free ambulance from connecticut
diesel is $6.40/ gallon
medical supplies: duty gear $2500
ppp free + discounted
amy triaged medical supplies to only get what ambulance needs
heat (?) line for ambulance 62° 148 main st (phil's pizza) ambulance lives at they don't pay rent but they pay heat and electric
ambulance also heats the ambulance garage (peter carboneau building near fire department)
new metal roof for 148 main street ?
add heat pumps - set thermostat at 63° and heat pumps keep that temp stable only raises electric bill a little
video 2
misc and declassified:
on call people...
street light bill way lower with l e d bulbs
credits for streetlight electric ?
all streetlights except the black downtown poles are all l e d
ballast on downtown streetlights need to be retrofitted to be l e d
public utilities commission sets fire hydrant rates
13 hydrants not working waiting on new hydrant parts and new hydrants - $71000 for hydrants (new ?)
boat landing
international seaplane base need to market it it is a public park (only one on the st john river)
echo zero five baker call sign ?
wharf has broken railing
boat landing building needs a new roof
highway dept could roof it has a new electrical box
strap roof ?
economic development appropriation
boat landing river race with grand isle ?
video 3
asphalt $100,000 / year ? asphalt price rising ?
grant money for asphalt nbrc letter of intent mdc (?) $200,000 maybe
20% match for grant maine new hampshire and vt fed money for dying timber industry
dump road is really beat up but is a public benefit road
marquis road not public benefit road ?
paul - all the county roads are bad
payroll - people quit + get payout for vacation pay
big payout 2019 ... etc
build fund for vaca pay payout maybe put it in an earned interest account
where do you get 3% interest ? paul has 7% - has cracked the code !
town took money out of the stock market for library ?
good problem to have - extra money for the town to invest for extra $$$ - maybe able to lower mill rate but investing ties up money for a set date
warrant article system - can't spend money until town meeting or town council appropriates it
paul says town should discuss investing funds with a financial advisor
library/town invested funds before stock market crash and lost principal and town funds from the past can't be - or are very hard - to be accessed because of lost passwords from multiple town managers
video 4
msad 24
town has paid back the county for the sheriff's raise caused by the van buren police dept leaving
what were the county sheriffs getting paid by van buren for when van buren had police ?
why does government need 4 different police agencies ? (state troopers, highway patrol, county sheriffs and local police and crime patrol watch) and who are they really working for ?
because of the new border station and new border patrol station, van buren now has more law enforcement officers per capita than any other town in maine and the lowest crime rate in aroostook county, which has the lowest violent crime rate in maine, which has the lowest violent crime rate in the nation
the van buren council said the county wide sheriff allotment is at 40% of what they need to hassle homeless people like the late nicole who had been forced to leave her tax aquired property shelter behind robin's where she stayed by herself - by a trespassing charge... then she overdosed on meth or recieved what william h burroughs called a 'hotshot', - an intentional overdose - with whomever she was forced to go to after that - she had recieved a two year sentence with all but two months suspended, leading whomever she got her meth from to probably figure she turned state's evidence, like josh bressette from williamstown mass did, who had been allegedly murdered in the bronx for it - after being arrested transporting heroin from springfield, mass to williamstown in a prius - dave and i once had to gaurdian over josh's aunt heidi when she was 14 and a blond kid came to dave's house around 8 pm and tried to get dave's sister jen, jen's boyfriend jeff, heidi and their friend stephanie - to go to a late movie on a school night ...dave and i put our foot down telling jen she should have asked to go to the 7:00 pm show (we wouldn't have let them go then either)... after the kid left we asked jeff who he was and jeff said he didn't know !...34 years later we found out the notorious serial killer louis lent had been the janitor at the pittsfield movie theater the blond kid wanted to take jen and her friends to for the late show at that time ! 😨
but louis lent, like almost all serial killers, wasn't homeless so the police didn't hassle him
the diamond knot serial killer was a police !
nicole's bike is still in the shed there go get it if you need it - the door is open - tho it might be stolen - she collected bikes and put them behind the old irving where she was camped at before that - she was a hall, as am i, and the old hall house was just behind irving which the nuns took over when they came here around the time the base was built, before the convent next to 148 main street was built
jimmy frank said the convent had a tunnel that went all the way to the old hospital the nuns assisted at across from the highschool...
...which became moreau's electric after the hospital closed which had something to do with alphena and her sister - whose 14 year old brother, hector, allegedly ran away from, saying that the doctors were trying to kill him !... then he died from appendicitis there !
also, my friend dorothy, who was born and raised in keegan, believed the nuns at the hospital stole her only baby and said they sterilized her sister who had the same psych condition i have...which made me wonder if they were really nuns or some kind of imposters (??) maybe dorothy meant some other 'they' when she told me that...i don't think eugenics was ever part of the catholic doctrine ! does anyone know anything about that order of nuns ???...
... then continues on underground to the church, which was built at the beginning of the cold war and is, i guess, the closest thing the town has as a fallout shelter in the advent of a nuclear war
so you should probably and quickly start going to church again if putin attacks poland
peter says we have the second cheapest electric in the state
budget covered
5*
action items public auction
192 lind street lot 80 town will make a quit claim deed
old business
people planning to buy pine tree apts
john heemer
last transfer 1983
woodland property and industrial park property (storage unit) warrant article for surveying
warrant for pine tree apts: acap $1200 for lost back rent application for covid rent relief town will get covid rent relief for back rent working with vouchers for tenents
if town owns it to get hud section 8 funds from housing authority
escrow account deposit from new buyers,
town has 2 months insurance on pine tree apartments treasure warrant (?)
$10,000 ?
6*
old business b - payment schedule:
rick sirois on zoom :
fire station - upstairs out (?)
library - (?)
what streets need changes ...road section near levasseur house patch / pave
$213.000 with grant - alexander road most effective $223.000 for paving this year
have to wait for bids
library shim on top of parking lot - lots of cracks
has clay
stephen king helps libraries
motion passed $223,000 for paving
video 5
*7
new business:
wastewater and ambulance are 'enterprize funds'
both are operating as businesses
$560,348
or
$588,544 for ambulance revenue
operating at a loss of ...variance
property tax : people paid twice
state revenue share $65,000(?) more than expected ?
$138,121 more revenue than town expected
$203,000 surplus ?
2020: town underspent $222,000 but some of it goes to cover ambulance losses plus some for surplus
overspent animal welfare
c i p capital investment plan
😁
ics account has better insurance
town closed ambulance account
audit company is way behind tho town is in good financial condition
felcher - vs - h r smith auditors
nancy has old windows xp computers at the library
8*
video 6
town managers reports
luke:
d o t planner visiting with luke
town is openly asking state leaders for help revitalizing, to make plans and find funding
n a a board
n a a building to be purchased by town or build a new garage ?
save taxpayers $7000/ year
buildings to tear down:
3 asbestos reports are in out of 5 buildings 2 have small asbestos problem
comstar ambulance billing very difficult process
240 runs to be billed
presque isle ambulance $1 million behind
grant applications at town meeting
roosevelt heights housing complex ? grant with americorps
cdbg hearings - have to attend to get grant
economic development grant for sauciers i g a
jim and dee want to get out of business ? 😳
diner grant being closed out - equipment dispute
default if they don't appear in court
letter of intent for jay lajoie - $200,000 to jay to pave / upgrade road
vegetable processing plant to mr wait (?) he is planning to build greenhouses and reopen the old northern girl vegetable plant !
9*
video 7
town council report
peter :
dana cassidy equipment dispute ?
scrambled ?
town took equipment back
restaurant is cleaned out old bank building ...?
denny wants to resell house on stilts next to violet brook
start design of pocket park - town's people should help with ideas
revitalization committee (store window displays)
town info booth moving to near the farmers market pavillion
paul - nancy's retirement ? plan to resolve ambulance dept problems
mobile home for what ?
tabled by luke
$50,000 on a trailer add on to fire complex
maybe a new fire department building ?
oh, 148 main st - where judy, randy and i live ! the $50,000 is proposed for a trailer for the late night ambulance crew who now stay downstairs !
i sometimes wake them up at night by getting angry and yelling at the people i see in my head who attack me when something i do, see online or hear on the radio, bothers them
they are being projected into my mind's eye somehow by what appears to be a 1/2 " diameter invisible ball who i only found out about after it/ he/they pushed out of my brain one night during a hurricane in north st pete one week after i became vegan - presumably to look at some bugs who had taken shelter beneath my tent
john:
rick says railroad ties will be put on the transfer station scale to block wind
error at transfer station scale
light on scale confuses people
tar weight (?) empty vehicle - 80 lbs off - scale is messed up
issue is the wind which q the scale reading
adjoun 8:05 pm
- - -
hey, how come canadian ambulances can stay solvent when they charge 9 times less ?
is it because of the canadian single payer health care system helps pay or what ?
Mmm
Wednesday, February 2, 2022
https://tinyurl.com/3pabkwkm post link
the next council meeting is next tuesday, february 15th 2022
once again the big discussion at the february 1st van buren town council meeting was the new snow plow, which order voted upon last summer was canceled by the manufacturer because the daigle and houghton dealership sold it's business to a massachusetts company named allegiance but another truck order is in the works
edna is apparently selling her building on main street and there is litigation involving one of the restaurant buildings about the kitchen machinery
the town wrote a hud grant to remodel and help renovate the old 'frog's hollow' for the then new owners
the town is planning to get a whole new computer system for a little over $7000 for the municipal building and is also planning to sell a swampy woodlot in woodland it is currently paying the property taxes on
a discussion came up concerning the town charter purchasing plan possibly being amended to give town officers more discretion to buy things quickly instead of having a town meeting for the residents to decide what to fund
john mentions the tennis courts at the high school will need to be resurfaced, the company that replaced the old courts last summer didn't get the resurfacing done and the school and john are looking into a new company that can possibly resurface the courts with a floating base that might prevent frost from cracking the surface for decades
van buren had the coldest temp in the contiguous u s the night of this council meeting:
van buren town council meeting 6:00 pm tuesday feb 1st, 2022 videos with notes just below:
nancy is present on the computer in a zoom meeting which is also in person at the van buren town office
van buren town council members:
in the video, deputy town manager luke dyer is seated to the left of the table, paul is seated to the left of luke, anne sits to paul's left, john is left of her and peter is seated to the right of the table
devin the i t expert and assessor's agent is seated in the audience in the front left, with the public works administrator rick sirois seated behind devin and nick the grader operator seated to rick's right
video 1:
1. attendence (min 2.59 video 1)
2. modify agenda (min 3.12 video 1)
3. approve minutes of jan 18 council meeting and the assessor's meeting minutes (min 4.05 video 1 )
4. old business: (min 5.00 video 1)
edna's building to be listed at tax assessed value on fields realty (min 5.24 video 1)
dorn management update (min 7.09 video 1)
woodland property revolving loan 25 - 30 4 acres useable acres near woodland school 20 acres swamp
town of van buren is paying property tax on the woodland property
5. new business (min 9.33 video 1)
item a.
new trucks
western star truck update daigle houlton dealership sold dealership to massachusetts company so the truck maker won't sell their truck to van buren
valley limited from canada has truck at same price building a new trailer facility allegiance
valley limited bought freightliner in maine and are thinking of building a *trailer* facility in the valley ?
international and western star are competitors
valley limited is near heartland
lots of western star trucks in the valley
ryan daigle facilitated deal
nick grader operator and rick sirois from highway dept grader uses a lot of fuel
anne new councilor
devin tech expert
new truck replacing 2004 truck
drama ! 2004 truck turned off in middle of the blizzard - electrical issues
nortrax, jordan miller grader corporations
peter says the trucks plow to fast
maxadine
$150,000 for sidewalk plow truck, got them for free
video 2:
peter - can't afford 2 brand new trucks
2 years until new truck chassis
white truck has little power replaced the 1995 truck
paul - keep preliminary investigation into new trucks every year ?
c i p (capital improvement plan) budget and highway dept budgets will pay for new truck
paul says town has low debt ratio
old plows are 1980s plows
new truck has a single axle
maxadine truck is a dual axle for longer runs that need more power
25 mph max is how plow drivers are taught
new truck due early next winter
7 year note on $140,000
truck on order isn't funded yet (?)
can get grant for new trucks if they are electric
$75,000 being put into c i p each year from surplus (capital improvement plan)
we have lower mileage
town still has police cars they can sell
peter - the town should sell cop cars
any expenditure over $5000 has to be approved by the town council
paul wants town manager to be able to move quickly when new trucks become available
john town should use technology to vote quickly
paul wants town council to appropriate (?)
nancy says town meeting has to vote to appropriate
auditor is not saying how much money the town has
*town charter has a purchasing policy*
anne - replacement schedule
video 3:
luke - all departments have the same problem with vehicles and computers
peter - time to spend money
rick sirois is in charge of 3 departments
nancy - town manager does stuff town council says but council only meets every (?) two weeks
item b. (min 65.48)
new tech infrastructure
phone system is 20+ years old
computers
arpa money for technology
if town office is remodeled and rebuilt will the new computers be able
devin is the i t guy
jason mentors him
$7000 complete system installed
minute 1.16.18
$7189.76 arpa funds
town departments won't be connected
phones will be unlocked
motion paul
simple computer 101 name of company
passed
new computer for rick 😄
video 4:
7. manager's updates
lawyers clients lawyers no response
serving papers on restaurant equipment
nmdc
selling the restaurant
fema reimbursements
no grant applications in process
new jackets for the ambulance dept
ambulance billing not completed
caribou wants medicaid and medicare to pa
reconciled payments are overdue
change vb ambulances billing service (?)
audit numbers are late
mike is town accountant (?)
irish smith town auditor
councilor's reports
john - tennis courts have to be repaired ?
no more cold cracks with floating base on tennis courts
- matflex uses 32 tiles on a raised, ribbed platform per court
town won't be able to play home games because there is none to surface the new courts
$60,000-$90,000 to repair tennis courts with this new tech
grants ?
highschool courts are all paved needs surfacing and is tarred with asphalt
update next meeting
abyl basketball
free electric vehicle programs
maine municipalities updating fleets with efficiency maine grant programs :
van buren snow machinery in action:
the sidewalk plow cost $150,000 but van buren somehow got it for free
is this dodge ram 5500 that also plowed the sidewalks during the february 9th storm the infamous 'white truck'?:
...or is this the white truck ?:
- daimler autonomous snowplows (germany has banned petroleum powered vehicles after 2030)
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
'Nicole Hall, 32, Amity: criminal threatening, 364 days in prison, all suspended, 1 year administrative release sentence; criminal threatening (2 counts), 48 hours in jail (each); violating condition of release, 48 hours in jail.'
'Nicole Hall, 30, Houlton: criminal trespass (three counts) 90 days in jail (each); theft by unauthorized taking or transfer (two counts), 90 days in jail (each); operating after habitual offender revocation, priors, $1,000 fine, nine months and one day in prison.'
'Nicole Hall, 32, Van Buren: misuse of identification, filed without costs. '
'Police say she was arrested and charged with burglary, theft by unauthorized use of property and operating after habitual offender revocation.'
'Nicole R. Hall, 29, Houlton, criminal trespass (three counts), theft (two counts), operating after revocation.'
'Nicole R. Hall, Hodgdon, 27, unlawful possession of scheduled drugs, unlawful trafficking of scheduled drugs.'
Offense (Class):UNLAWFUL POSSESSION OF SCHEDULED DRUG (C)
Sentence:2 Years, All But 6 Months Suspended, With 2 Years Probation
Court:AROOSTOOK SUPERIOR COURT (HOULTON)
Docket Number:HOUSC-CR-2015-00052
Count:1
Sentence Date:2/29/2016'
Wednesday, October 6, 2021
van buren, maine council meeting tuesday, october 5th 2021
https://tinyurl.com/277khuw4 - post link
https://tinyurl.com/46evt8mn - van buren updated fb link
the artwork are from mr smith's the lawyer's shopfront
so the schweitzer family outbid the parent family on demolishing the top floor of the house at 123 tyler street by paying the town $350 to be able to demolish it but the town awarded the bid to the parents who will do it for $5000 anyway
town councilor peter madore built a deck under the town's farmers' market pavilion with lumber cut rated by van buren's ace hardware as part of the town's revitalization efforts now you have a place to go to get the best fiddleheads in the spring without hunting all along main street and keegan for them & will the town allow recreation and medicinal marijuana farmers to sell their produce there ?
stay tuned to this same bat channel to find out !
there were two bids on the town boiler contracts and the town heating oil and gasoline contracts one by dead river and one by tulsa but the prices quoted appear to be for different measurements you'll have to try to figure it out from the video i've no more hair left to pull out
the big discussion on tuesday was the new truck (video 4) the wastewater department requested and the council and nancy shifted funding around and planned for the wastewater department to sell an older green pickup to the recycling department for the waste water department manager rick sirois to be able to order the new compost transporting truck quickly rather than wait a month for a special town meeting where only about 3 people would have come to vote for the truck anyways
apparently the town ships it's compost to fields in canada
town meeting on playlist
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
imaginary likeness of the recycling center's green pickup truck not an actual representation
2022 dodge ram 3500 pick up truck
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