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'?:
- daimler autonomous snowplows (germany has banned petroleum powered vehicles after 2030)
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