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)






- bechard's diner used to own the building our apts are in





No comments:

Post a Comment