WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-YCQM - Mayor Thom Lauzon - June 12, 2011

YCQM - Mayor Thom Lauzon - June 12, 2011

June 12, 2011 -- Barre Mayor Thom Lauzon joins Kristin Carlson and Keith McGilvery to discuss storm flood damage and recovery.

TRANSCRIPT:

The day of the flood, Keith and i were both on Harrington avenue, you went backwards to do cleanup and have some examples of the damage.

 Not showing you anything that you probably haven't already seen, but for people who are at home, we've spent a lot of time up there, and weeks later, families are still living with all of this soot that's really covering their yards, sidewalks, and streets, and i spoke with a mom of a 5-year-old this morning who said i have the right to know what is in this stuff. She's keeping her 5-year-old inside. You know, what do you say to her?

 Oh, I've had many people ask me about that. I have spoken to the health department, spoken to the agency of natural resources. Now, in terms of the content, i mean, it's important that we get it cleaned up quickly, not from a toxicity point of view, because in terms of the substance, i mean, it is essentially river dirt. It is a fine silt, and for the most part, it is dirt.

 She tells me a lot of it is potentially sewage that is being pumped out of people's basements and drying up as it gets sunny out there.

 Well, you know, people say that a lot. We didn't experience a backup of sewer system. During this whole thing, which was amazing, you know, our sewer system, unlike some municipalities, it didn't fail, it continued to procession.

 They had big problems.

 They did. Fortunately we did not. On an average day in the city of Barre, we process 2 million gallons of household sewage. During the flood we continued to process, we pegged our meters for two days at 10 million gallons a day, but we continued to process. So there wasn't a backup of the sewer system. Some of the things that we were concerned, fortunately, we did not have many events of oil tanks rupturing or oil tanks tipping over in basements. We had two or three of those events. So for the most part, in terms of a health risk, in terms of toxicity, not a concern. But it is like living in a coal mine. I mean, the sooner we can get it picked up, as you probably noticed when you walked around and you breathed this in for a while, you know, it is not healthy to be breathing that in simply because of the fines for an extended period of time. That's why we're working to clean it up.

 I spoke with an air quality expert last week. He said it is not a bad idea to wear masks. We didn't see anyone wearing masks on Harrington Avenue. You are a -- Harrington avenue. Would you want your kids out playing if this is in the air every day?

 Nope. Don't blame her a bit. You know, but, again, you know when I was a kid, i used to eat dirt. So, you know, again, I'm not trying to make light of it. But we were -- in terms of that concern, we addressed it early. That was one of our primary concerns, there were instances where, you know, oil was mixed in with the water, but the way it was explained to me by the agency of natural resources, is that in terms of the volume of water, they couldn't even give me an estimate. They said it was billions of gallons of water that went through the city, and the potential amount of, you know, either oil, either washed up from the road, or perhaps oil from a rupturing tank, you know, when you looked at how much that was diluted, they said, no, we're not concerned about that substance being toxic, but we are concerned, they sailed, if people have asthma -- they said if people have asthma. Absolutely, people should be wearing masks. Again, getting back to the great community, Adam martin at miles supply came down with cases of masks. They have them at the Red Cross shelter. That's why we're opening the flood relief center, because most people don't know where to get them. It if they go there on Monday, there will be cases of masks, and people when they clean up, they should be wearing rubber gloves, they should be wearing masks, they should make sure that they wash thoroughly, you know, if they are shoveling muck, they should wash thoroughly and take every precaution. Because, you know, individual homes are going to be different.

 What do you say to moms and dads who say school will be out shortly, they want to know when their kids are going to be able to play outside and be normal 5-year-olds?

 Today. I mean, in virtually every area of the city, I'm very proud of dpw, what they've done, our department of pub lk works. You know -- public works. We've been washing down the streets, getting back to the agency of natural resources, generally speaking, they discourage municipalities from having the firemen use the hydrants to wash the streets down. Anr has been extremely cooperative. They recognize these are extraordinary events, so they gave us clearance to do that, and if you drive around the streets now, there's still streets like Harrington avenue where, you know, and that is really an extreme example, the street was just decimated. There is no street left. The bridge was washed away, the street is gone, the tower is gone, you know, so there are certainly areas in the city, certain areas in the city where you want to be more careful, but for the most part we've done a great job at cleaning this up.

 We are going to continue our discussion with mayor Lauzon about the flood damage, and also the cleanup and how long it could Washington! Hey man. Hey fox, man, how's it going? Man, physical therapy makes Kandahar look like summer camp. How 'bout you? The sessions are tough, but i gotta' get back on track. So, is it helping? Yeah, man, sleepin' straight through on most nights. Alright man. I'm glad you called that hotline. I'm a veteran and these services are for us. Whether your wounds are visible or not, treatment works, and calling the confidential veteran's hotline can help.

 Welcome back, everyone, we're continuing our discussion with mayor Lauzon about the flood damage and how his community is trying to clean up. This is something that is so devastating, and the impacts are still being felt as we've been talking about. How long do you think it will take before things get back to normal?

 I think normal is relative. You know, i mean, literally a year. In terms of repairing all of the damage, you know, again, we're trying to be mindful of budgets and, you know, certainly summertime is about the worst time. Right now is the worst time to be bidding paving. There's some streets in the city that are certainly passable. They simply ex-patterned -- experienced what think call -- what they call scaling. Water gets in between the pavement and lifts one layer of pavement but leaves one and makes the street unsightly and certainly not fun to drive on, but it is safe. So that damage we probably won't fix until next year because, you know, we'll get the most bang for our buck if we're bidding those in the spring as opposed to now during the summer when you look around Vermont, i mean, everyone is paving, so the price has gone up. There's some areas where, I'm not saying that cost isn't an issue, but there are simply some areas more critical, like Harrington Avenue. That will be one of the first streets to be fixed, simply because there is no street right now. And i mean, we've restored the street to the point, our benchmark is, and can we get an emergency service vehicle down that street. And that's our benchmark. Once we're able to do that, then we move on to the next area, and we properly triage the city. But literally, it will take a year or better.

 I think early on you estimated the damages between 1 and $2 million. Is that still the number you're using, and how is the city going to pay for this? As you know, Barre is not flushed with cash.

 No municipality is flush with cash, neither is the state. So, you know, i mean, we are going to struggle like any municipality is going to. What i floated out to the council this week is i just warned them that we need to start thinking about this, because if we are to move our recovery along, it is important that we stay ahead of the curve on certain decisions. So really, there are only three options. Hybrids, but for the most part there are three options. We can dip into reserves, which personally i am not a fan of. We could bond for it, we could push these expenses out. I could have that discussion about the streets, I'm not willing to have that discussion about the emergency services. The emergency services alone will probably run a quarter of a million dollars. That was the labor, the supplies, the non-tangible things that went into the emergency response and the flood recovery effort. I have never thought it is a good idea to, you know, to bond for those types of expenses and to pay for them over a number of years. Again, streets, i wouldn't have as big an issue with. Or like i told the council, we could simply, if we look at it in the context of $2 million, our share would be roughly 25% of that, 500,000, we collect about 5 million a year in property taxes, so we could pay for it in one fell swoop, simply by tacking a 10% surcharge on our tax rate.

 And do you have an option you prefer, then?

 Well, you know, I'm looking at the 10% bump to the property tax. The only reason being we're a community, we're about 77% of the people who live in Barre get a property tax rebate. So if we increase the property taxes, essentially the homeowner isn't paying for that, or the resident isn't paying that, they are simply receiving a larger property tax rebate. Again, probably something that the people at the state of Vermont don't want to hear, but I'm simply trying to minimize the impact on the residents of Barre. Because, you know, even beyond paying for the city's share, you have to remember that most of these residents have suffered a loss at one level or another. And even if you suffered, you know, even if you were lucky enough to have flood insurance, it usually comes with a high deductible. On a personal level, my flood insurance on the commercial properties that i own, i have a $50,000 deductible that i have to meet. So i pay the first 50, they pay everything after that. So, you know, so virtually every affected homeowner, you know, has some cost to baron one level or another -- to bear on one level or another. We will be looking at that very closely; we will be talking to people. The last thing i want to do is put an additional burden on them. So we may do the 10%, you know, we may end up doing the 10% surcharge on the property tax, but we may end up doing it one year down the road. Give people a chance to recover.

 Back to the repair work for a quick second that needs to be done, you've talked about pushing some of that back a bit to get competitive pricing. If we do that, do we run the risk of it then becoming more costly, the problems exacerbating and becoming worse, only increasing the price tag there? Should people have to live with that for a year?

 Again, that's a great point, and that's something that we're certainly going to, you know, certainly going to consider, but, you know, at the end. Day -- at the end of the day, it needs to be a community decision. We'll have some public hearings, we'll have people come in and weigh in on this, but the bottom line, you know, some people, i have spoken with some folks who simply, it is obvious to me they want to run from it. We are not going to run from it, we're going to hit it head-on, get it done and pay for it. So in terms of the work, know, some of the work being put off for a year, certainly it is a consideration, you know, in some respects it may be more expensive, you know, a year from now, in areas where the street literally can't wait that year and like you were saying, will cause more damage by waiting or putting the public at risk, that's not an option, either. I mean, we'll have to get that done now.

 What is the biggest need right now, mayor?

 Boy, you know, i mean, the biggest need right now is this declaration. Declaration.

 Everyone is on pins and needles. It doesn't sound like a guarantee from what we are hearing.

 It better be. Because one of our small business owners made the point and said, you know, we're sending billions of dollars in relief to countries that turn around and attack us. What about small businesses in America? And that was a point that this gentleman made at our meeting. So, you know, the good people of Vermont -- i mean, this isn't just a Barre thing. I mean, Barre and central Vermont is -- we were attacked -- we were tacked onto the declaration the governor made earlier on for the people who experienced, you know, flooding right here in Chittenden county and the northeast kingdom. The bottom line, the good people of Vermont need help right now. I am hoping the federal government will provide it. I'm hoping we see at that that declaration next week.

 A few minutes left. I want to switch gears to you for a moment. There's been a lot of talk about you running for higher office. A closed door meeting with republicans, the lieutenant governor, you, Brian Dubie who ran for higher office, tom Simmons, state's auditor. Have you decided what you are going to do?

 I have not.

 This election?

 I have not. I originally said i was asked some time ago. I said, you know, Karen and i will, you know, Karen and i will spend some time together, memorial day weekend and really talk about, you know, because it's got to be a family decision, you know, at the end of the day, and so i said we'll spend some time together on memorial day weekend and we'll talk about that, and obviously Karen and i spent no time together. [ laughter ]

 memorial day weekend on Thursday night i didn't come home, on Friday, i actually came home Saturday from Friday, and, you know, literally got very little sleep that weekend. And right now, you know, today, my priority, my focus is 100% on the people in the city of Barre. That's my home. And i care deeply about it. And that is the job i was elected to do. Right now, the job is a little more challenging than i wish it was, but, again, it doesn't excuse me from the responsibility of it. I was elected, you know, i accepted the office, and so like i said, i mean, i have literally been working 20 hours a day to put things back right and to bring a sense of normal is back into the community. And we're really getting there. People are certainly not normal for the 25 folks up at the shelter, and that's where our focus is going to be for the next week. And then, you know, the week after that, I've got the folk -- to focus on people that lost furniture, you know, the week after that, we've got people who lost vehicles. And that's obviously more of a challenge. So, you know, for the time being, the election, 2012, you know, it is a year away, do people really want to hear -- people really want to see my face now? [ laughter]

 on a campaign commercial? I don't think so.

 You're the dad of two grown children. Could now be the right time?

 Maybe. You know, maybe. And what it's really going to boil down to, again, is, you know, both Alex and Miranda are in college next year, so Karen and i will be empty nesters, and, you know, maybe that contributes and sort of makes it the right time. But, you know, above all, i want to really think about it and make sure that i have something to contribute, that i have good ideas, and whether it's statewide office or national office, i mean, what is really important to me is not just sitting in a chair, you know, I've been pretty active, people probably most people would say I've been the most active mayor they've seen in Barre in a while. That's the way i like it. I think when you're elected to office, when you're given the honor to serve, i think, you know, you go 110%, do it every day, when people need you, you step up. So right now, you know, even though you want to turn the conversation to me, right now it is not about me. Right now it's all about Barre, all about Montpelier, Berlin, Lake Champlain, getting people relief they need and seeing good leadership from -- at the state level, at the federal level, and certainly at the local level.

 So listen, i promise you will be one of the first five phone calls i make. How's that?

 Sounds fair. I'm just curious about the outcome. What was the point of that meeting with everybody, the top republican leaders?

 The meeting was actually something that i had suggested to pat McDonald when she have accepted --

 the Republican Party?

 Pat is the head of the republican party, and pat has worked for us as a special projects director in Barre, i think a lot of pat. She is a leader, and, but, you know, one thing that -- one thing that i noticed from the republicans, and, you know, i am not always a huge ra ra republican, but i noticed not just from republicans, but from the democrats, when you get two or three people who think they may be interested for an office, they tend to stop talking. They tend to stop talking about the party. And i don't think that's really a good thing. What i suggested to pat is i said, look, if we have people who think that they may want to seek higher office, why don't we get everybody together? Why don't we talk about the party? Why don't we talk about a platform, ideas that work. And so we did that, and, so, you know, i wouldn't describe this meeting as closed door. I mean, we would have let you in.

 Keep that in mind. We are going to have to leave it there, mayor. Thank you so much. Again, as mayor said, there is a flood recovery center in the city that's now open 7:00 to 7:00 every day for people who need help. Mayor Lauzon, thank you so much for your time.

 Thanks for having me.

 Thanks at home for watching. Have a great Sunday, everyone. Take care. Captioning provided by caption associates, llc captionassociates.com