Selectboard reorganization starts a bit disorganized

March 10 was the first regularly scheduled meeting of the Charlotte Selectboard after the election, and one of the first items of business was reorganization, but the reorganization began a bit unexpectedly.

As the first step towards reorganization, board member Lewis Mudge nominated Frank Tenney to be this year’s selectboard chair, noting that he has been elected three times, been vice chair since 2019 “and probably sat in on more town meetings than the rest of us combined.”

But Mudge’s nomination was met with silence, before Tenney seconded Mudge’s nomination, saying “I’ll second it because I’m willing to do it.”

The ensuing vote was three nays with Mudge casting a lone yes vote for Tenney and with Tenney abstaining because he doesn’t think someone should vote for themself.

Then, Natalie Kanner nominated Lee Krohn, who is one of the two new members of the board along with JD Herlihy.

The vote which followed was 2-2, with Herlihy and Kanner voting for Krohn, Mudge and Tenney voting nay, and Krohn initially following Tenney’s lead by abstaining and declining to vote for himself.

With the board at an impasse, Kanner said she understood how voting for oneself may be personally discomforting, but it doesn’t violate a rule or selectboard procedure. She urged one of the two candidates for chair to vote for themself in a revote.

However, as Tenney pointed out, if he voted for himself, the vote would still be 3-2 against him.

When a revote was taken for Krohn, Herlihy and Kanner quickly voted aye again. After another silence, Krohn eventually voted for himself, breaking the tie.

With Krohn taking over to lead the meeting as chair, Kanner cast a motion nominating Tenney as vice chair.

That vote was confirmed with four aye votes and Tenney abstaining, once again declining to vote for himself.

The board voted to change the starting time for regular selectboard meetings from 6:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., so the next scheduled meeting is 7 p.m., March 24.

Even before the selectboard reorganization, another issue was raised — the deteriorating condition of the Dorset Street bridge over the LaPlatte River. The board had to confront an issue with a hole in this bridge almost two years ago. That problem was patched with a large 1-inch-thick steel plate that covered a portion of the bridge and was paved over. The weight limit was also lowered to 15 tons.

In 2023, the selectboard allocated not more than $23,000 for that patch job on the bridge. This patch job will be tens of thousands of dollars, said Mudge.

At the March 10 meeting, road commissioner Junior Lewis suggested lowering the weight limit even more because of three significant potholes that are about 2 feet by 3 feet and have rebar showing.

Lewis said he did put cold patch, which is a temporary fix, over the holes.

“I just want the selectboard to know that the coal patch does nothing for the strength of the bridge,” Lewis said. “It’s just cosmetic. It makes it look good, but it’s not good.”

Fixing these holes this time would take more than one steel sheet, or at least one very large sheet, he said.

From below, the bridge structure is filled with cracks and there are icicles underneath the potholes, which Lewis said he took as an indication that water is seeping through.

In response to a question from Kanner about what the big or medium fixes of the bridge might be, Lewis said the big fix would be to replace the whole bridge.

According to state records, the almost 90-foot bridge over the LaPlatte River was originally built in 1939 and reconstructed in 1960.

Around 15 years ago, the town contracted with someone for what might be considered a medium fix, where they chiseled out the bad cement and replaced it.

Town administrator Nate Bareham said he has reached out to the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission and the Vermont Agency of Transportation (Vtrans) to see what short- and long-term funding is available, but since it was the Friday before the Monday selectboard meeting, those inquiries hadn’t gone anywhere yet.

“The design of the bridge was terrible,” Tenney said. “There is no support directly under the tires.”

He said there are supports on the outside of the bridge underneath the guard rails and a support column underneath the middle, but none where vehicles’ tires actually travel.

“Where the tires go is where all these holes are,” Tenney said.

Without major alterations or completely rebuilding the bridge, it is almost guaranteed to continue deteriorating.

Lewis recommended lowering the bridge weight limit to 7 tons, which is the weight limit for the town’s covered bridges.

When his conventional school bus is completely loaded, said Tenney, who is a school bus driver. When full of students, his bus can weigh around 16 tons and carry around 77 younger students and maybe 52 high school students. The school district owns some buses that are even larger and carry more students. However, there are usually less than a dozen students on buses crossing the Dorset Street bridge.

Tenney said he would have to check to see how much his bus weighs when empty, but he suspected it would be close to the 7-ton limit, maybe even over.

Lewis said it would probably take two weeks to get out temporary signs with a lower weight limit for the bridge.

“Meanwhile, maybe we could get somebody from the state bridge inspection to take a look at the bridge, maybe somebody who knows more about bridges than I do,” Lewis said.

A motion to lower the weight limit on the Dorset Street bridge from 15 tons to 7 tons passed unanimously.