Chris Viens: Looking to serve another year on Waterbury Select Board
Feb. 18, 2023
Hello Waterbury voters,
Chris Viens is a candidate for re-election to the Waterbury Select Board. Photo by Jeff Viens
This is Chris Viens. I am one of your current selectboard members and I am hoping to get your support to serve another year on top of the 10 years I already have. I have been in the construction business for over 40 years which allows me to bring solutions and oversite when it pertains to infrastructure projects, equipment purchases and new ideas to solve old problems.
Here is the short list of what I’ve been involved in. Prior to being elected, a couple of friends and myself presented to the selectboard at the time cost savings options for the two new fire stations that started out with a price tag of $5.8 million, but after our suggestions and a couple of votes it ended up being $3.25 million.
In 2012, I was elected to the selectboard, and the town was faced with having to build a new municipal building. After many discussions the process boiled down to two options. The option we have today cost half the price the other option would have, and it was out of the flood zone.
About 8 years ago after talking to the Agency of Natural Resources, I offered up to the board a chance to secure a stone quarry specifically to be used for the gravel roads. The board at the time was not interested in pursuing this. After all the complaints from the public last spring about the back roads, I again brought it up with the current board and they showed interest. The public has also shown strong interest based on the survey we just completed. If we can secure this option, we will reduce our trucking cost and carbon footprint. The other reason this is important is because some local resources will no longer be available.
Several years ago at Town Meeting I presented a spreadsheet on what it cost to pave 1 mile of road. The town has 27+/- miles of paved roads with an expected life cycle of 7 years. Back then to stay ahead of our paving, we needed to be spending upwards of $1.4 million per year and the town was only spending around $250,000. With my efforts each budget season, we have doubled the amount of paving done per year and we need to keep this trend up.
With my background and experience in concrete, I presented the idea of using foam board under many of our sidewalks to eliminate frost heaving. This has made our sidewalks safer to use and it prevents damage to the sidewalk plow each winter. We also used it in a section of road on High Street which has not heaved at all in many years.
I keep pushing to reduce salt and sand use on our roads which damages not only our vehicles, it damages the environment and especially our waterways. It also has big impacts on our budget which in turn lowers what we can spend on our road maintenance.
I hope you will be willing to support me again so I can continue working to help make sure our tax dollars are put to the best use.
Thank you,
Chris Viens
Waterbury