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Middleton Select Board Meeting- 1 September 2026

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Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with the liberty and justice for all.
Roll call, if I'm a hand in here.
John, let's sit up here.
Tim Krevin here.
Roxanne is it?
Yeah, Roxanne is on the phone.
We're going to skip the approval of minutes tonight.
John, you're up.
Oh, jeez.
Sorry.
This is for the 391 watershed.
Thank you.
I'm John Mullen.
I'm chair of the Sunrise Lake Watershed Advisory Committee, and I appreciate you allowing me to get on the agenda tonight.
I know you're pretty busy.
But we're a little under the gun, and I'm apologizing for Stratford Regional Planning.
What I have here and what you have in your hands is a 319 proposal grant application for phase two of our Sunrise Lake Management Program.
Phase one is almost complete.
That included the Lakeshore Beach Culvert Project, and we should be completed by the mid-October, the Hampshire Shores Rain Garden.
So phase two would be another project next year, which has been thought to take care of the town beach for the runoff that occurs on the town beach,
and the boat ramp, or better known in here as the canoe launch.
There's a lot of stormwater in the town, and the people of Middleton have supported this project with materials and labor,
and it's been a great asset to have that project completed.
So basically what the letter does is say it's a letter of commitment to this 319 grant.
It explains what the grant is.
I gave you a copy of the application and conquered, so that's why I'm here to hope that you can approve this letter of commitment,
and I apologize again that it's so quick, but whatever, they had some manpower issues and couldn't get to it quick enough.
Any questions about the letter or the project or the commitment, what that means?
The project itself will go under review by the public, by the board, before we even dig anything like we did before.
We had meetings, got input from the public on what they thought the project should be, at least the current ones.
And that will be the same process here.
We will have a list of materials that we would like.
Same contractors probably will have a bid process, just like we did before.
So I hope you guys – yes?
So we're not being asked to commit any funds right now.
We're asked to do what we've done before.
You just –
You continue to support.
It says in here where possible.
Where possible.
Where possible.
So if you have labor shortages or whatever, you're not committed to anything, but that where possible, that is your outage.
So I'll make a motion to agree to sign the error to support this endeavor and to share our support by signing the letter of intent to get the grant.
I'll send it.
Roxanne, do you have any questions?
No.
Now, I have two documents.
I have the original one that was sent to me that has Roxanne's name on it.
I also have one with your name on it.
Oh, oh, perfect.
So I will leave that.
You let me sign it, if you will.
Sign it right now.
Okay.
You're going to sign it here?
Cheers.
All right.
All in the family?
Aye.
Aye.
I'm sorry.
Aye.
Aye.
Oh, thank you.
I'll ask for that.
Here we go.
Just give me a copy of the font and sign them afterwards.
I was going to say, you can take it and just make me...
Oh, oh, yeah.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate it.
Thank you for your support.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
All right.
Six is discussion.
And the vote.
Best.
And there's only two suppliers, right, two suppliers of that particular piece of equipment in this region, if I'm right,
if I'm correct, they've done a lot of work, and, I mean, I support what they're doing.
Go ahead, Dan.
Okay.
So I have two quotes here.
They're for the DEV1 DX100, which is a 100-horse machine.
And basically what we did was we looked into these machines.
We tried one out, demoed one, and then started working with Equipment East.
Now they have, it's a territory.
So although I did call up north of their territory to get the other pricing for just the machine, and I have both quotes here,
obviously they didn't come down and take a look at the machine that we have right now for the trade-in.
So their trade-in, excuse me for a second.
I have some of the other towns that have purchased these, and they really are set up for municipalities.
They do a lot of things.
There's a lot of attachments for it.
And three-part boom, which allows you to work closer to the machine, more compact.
And with that three-part boom, when you extend it, then you get your extended reach out of it if you do need it.
So that's a plus.
It has the push blade, which we don't use much of, but it has that if you need it.
It has a four-wheel stick.
This one's got pretty much all the bells and whistles.
They've got them set up all the same way, and it's for towns.
And some of the surrounding towns that have already bought them and are very happy with them,
Sunapee, New Hampshire, Sutton, New Hampshire, Bethlehem, New Hampshire, Princeton, Mass., Chelsea, Mass.,
and they've got a longer list.
I just asked them to send me a few, and that's what he did.
I don't know if anybody saw what we did in town, but it definitely did the job that it was set out to do.
The question I was going to ask if it was the same one there.
Yes, it's the same machine, but it will not be the same machine.
Not the exact same one, but the same model.
Yes, it's the same exact machine.
So I have the two quotes here, and what I will mention is a majority, the lion's share of the cost of this machine
is going to be coming out of the block grant, which is a grant that the state gives us.
Just so people that don't know, is a grant that the state gives us each year, or money that they give us.
It's not a grant.
It doesn't need to be paid back.
They call it a block grant, but this is for federal highway money, and how they divide that up is however many miles of road you have in town.
Obviously, Manchester and the bigger cities get more money because they have more mileage of road and all that.
So that being said, we got in the neighborhoods of $65,000 last year.
We're in the neighborhoods of $65,000 this year.
We already received one check.
We do have all the money in place for this machine right now to buy it.
And we are using $26,000 of our capital reserve fund, which is set aside for stuff of this nature.
Okay, so you got $130,000, you got $156,000, right?
Yep.
So the other $30,000 is coming from trade-in?
It's actually $40,000 from the trade-in.
Yep, so on the quote right here, the invoice total would be $152,066.63.
That was from Equipment East?
Equipment East, yep.
And I'll give you these right, if you want to look at them.
So what will this do that your car next to the air will not do?
This will handle the mulching head, which will do all the ditching.
Now, when I scrape shoulders, I can work on the same side of the road as the truck.
And we stay going on the one side of the road and not really interrupt the traffic going out.
When I have to physically ditch, I've got to get on the opposite side of the road because the boom is so big, it's only a two-part boom.
So you have to reach across and scoop out the thing and then load the truck.
Of course, you know, you have to watch traffic and all that.
This one here, where you have that three-part boom, that allows you to work.
You can put it in the machine.
The way the machine is mounted on the table is more cab forward.
So when you swing the machine, the back end of the machine doesn't swing out as far.
It only sticks out about 30 inches beyond what the frame is.
So I can work right in one lane and not have to worry about swinging out into oncoming traffic so that it will be safer.
Also, the cab is a lot more operator-friendly as far as being able to see around and being able to, you know, observe everything.
Yeah, this machine right here is going to make a big difference in town.
All the spots where the trees are grown out to the road, rubbing the mirrors of, you know, trucks and buses and stuff like that.
That will take care of this.
So it's a, in my opinion, it's a must-have for the town to get it to where we want it to be as far as being able to access the ditches and keep the brush at bay.
Right.
Yeah, and I think you also mentioned in the past that it's much better in terms of dealing with the power lines as well because of the...
Right, yeah, the height of the machine and everything.
I mean...
I mean, you do well.
I've been pretty good so far, five and a half years, and I don't even want to say it, but we have not interrupted any cable or power running the machine.
So with the trade-in, that's it.
Would it be beneficial to wait one more year for another blocker to come in and then buy the head and everything all one shot?
Nope.
Nope, because we've got the money right now and the machine's just going to go up.
The machine went up $9,000 since last year.
So you're going to purchase the machine and the head at the same time?
I'm purchasing the machine and the two digging buckets.
We get a grating bucket and we get a digging bucket.
You're not going to buy a 360 rotator for it?
No, that was never the plan.
Wouldn't it make more sense to purchase one of them with the mulching head, too?
Gives you a lot more mobility.
The mulching head is just a quick disconnect.
Right, but you put the 360, you can put any attachment you want on it.
No, that mulching head goes right on that machine.
I understand, but you can buy a 360 and spend that thing however you want to help you.
I'm not going to argue with you.
Can you direct the questions to the board, please?
Would it be worth buying a 360 rotator head to put on that machine at the same time?
For $30,000, no.
Colleen?
Is there anything that the machine you currently have can do that this will work in?
No.
Any questions?
Roxanne?
No, I'm all set.
The block grant money, don't we lose some of it if we don't use it by a certain time?
No, what ends up happening is you have two years, I believe, and we'd have to check into this,
but then it would go into the general fund.
We don't actually, it doesn't end up going back to the state.
It would go into the general fund.
So then we would have to write a foreign article if you wanted to use that money to be lost as the general fund.
Well, the thing is, is their fiscal year, like we, they just started their fiscal year 27 in July.
So the 26 money actually has, I believe, and we would have to look into this, I don't know,
would have two years from July to spend 26's money.
27's money will end in July of, yeah, it's, it's ahead.
Right.
Do we have any idea how many people currently run that machine out there?
Yeah, are you the only one, or is there any guys who operate it as well?
No, right now I'm the only one.
You're the only one?
Yeah.
What kind of, Dan, what kind of warranty comes with this machine?
It's three year and 3,000 hours, whatever comes first.
They come on site to fix that game or something?
It goes wrong or we have the trailer right there?
No, they, they would come on site.
They have a mechanic and that's, that's the other thing.
They're based out of Bowen, New Hampshire.
And, you know, if it was something that needed to go back to their shop, they have the trailers and stuff.
They don't charge it for it, though.
They will go back there as long as it's under warranty?
As long as it's under warranty, yes.
Dan, I just want to confirm, because you have money from the CRF.
Yes.
From the block grant.
Yes.
To get this machine, you're going to be using money for your next block grant to get the motion head.
Yes.
And you have the two quotes necessary for our process.
The what now?
The two quotes that we need.
Yes.
Yeah, I have them right here if you want to look at them.
I trust you.
Well, I mean, I'll give you these.
Oh, yeah, you're going to give them the, well, the chat, but yeah.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, no, absolutely.
Does someone want to make a motion?
I'll make a motion.
I'll second it.
Any discussion?
I've asked the questions I had to ask.
I wanted to make sure we had the quotes.
I wanted to make sure that we were doing it correctly.
We appear to be doing everything correctly, so.
All in favor?
Aye.
Okay, I appreciate it.
Thank you, Dan.
Thank you, Dan.
All right.
Any comments?
We really are going to go into non-public.
Bonnie, I'll make the motion that we go into non-public.
We have other.
Okay.
Careful.
Wait a minute.
Joe.
A long ago, I didn't come to the meeting like that, but I asked.
Okay, just a minute.
Joe's asking a question.
So anyhow, I know that at one point you were talking about some pricing for the town, and probably cocaine and stuff like that, and I've been working on that, and I know Roxanne has asked the fire chief to do some of our RFPs still.
Yep.
Right now, I have a verbal commitment, a little background.
The school is this 7,000 gallons of cocaine a year between the building, whatever.
The town of Middleton had a little over 9,000 gallons.
The school was getting the propane for $1.51 a gallon.
The town was paying $1.91 a gallon.
Same company, a tenth of a mile apart.
Big difference.
Mm-hm.
Okay.
Knowing this, I've been talking with another company, and right now, between the town and the school,
we could get the propane that $1.39.9 logged in for one year.
So, you guys need to talk about shift months yourself, because I need to get this deal done, okay, if that's the price that you want.
I don't know what kind of pricing he's gotten from anybody else, but I think that $1.39.9 is a pretty damn good deal.
Yep.
All right, so having said that, I think that will save us the town, I'm going to say probably 15,000 gallons.
And on average, between the two, you know, $0.25, $0.30 a gallon.
That's because, no, it don't change.
It's not big money, but at all levels.
So, who is that?
It's feeling appropriate.
They're under me, but they have a great job in Rochester's school.
Does the town and school own our tanks, so anybody can fill them?
I mean, I have Easter, and I can't have someone else come and fill the tank.
That's the same as I cover it.
Do we own our tanks?
No, we don't.
And the next part of the deal is they need to swap out tanks.
What they will do is they will contact the other supplier and see if they want to trade out steel.
If not, they will come over and they'll put their own stuff in.
Do you know if there's a fee from?
No, from private.
Okay.
So because of liabilities, they will come in and they will have to do a pre-inspection, so to speak.
Make sure things up to code, that sort of thing.
Because they're assuming the liability once they put their tank in of the whole system.
So they'll want to sit there and look at that.
And I can tell you the step is all up to code.
So you don't have an issue with that.
So having said that, I mean, it's just, I'm also trying to work on a deal for the diesel and the gasoline drug here, for the town and the school.
We had a business meeting last Friday morning up at the governor of Westbrook, SAU, and the new superintendent like that.
And there will be a hot sleep if we can get this deal with the propane for their schools at that price.
As well as they're going to give you the gallons, but they used for diesel and the gasoline.
And I'm trying to go with the same company because they do municipalities as well and see what they can.
It's not going to be a locked in price because with the multiple pricing is right now up and down and stuff.
But if we can get a lock in, their cost plus what a markup they're making, delivery.
Awesome.
It could be significant.
Yeah.
It could be pretty good.
We have to come out of non-public, and then we adjourn.
We can't adjourn from non-public.
No.
Thank you.
Second.
Can I get a second for the non-public?
I will.
Thank you.
And then you need to do the roll call on the call.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Come on.
Roll call?
Money, yes.
Mike, yes.
Jonathan, yes.
Tim, yes.
And what was the time?
Where do you write the time on?