 So, call meeting to order 602. First on the agenda is to approve the agenda is right. That needs to be amended or included. I, we need to discuss the, um, You know, year and report that review, uh, that document that I created for both myself and the select board. Sorry. Maybe we could do that, you know, around. We can do that. We can do that. We can do that. We can do that. We can do that. Do you want me to do the town meeting stuff? I sent it to everyone. I got some feedback from Dave about a couple of mistakes that I fixed and, um, But we should talk about it. Yeah, that's fine. We'll just include that into the. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I have a quick topic to discuss, but I think we can do it under other business and don't need to add it to the agenda. Okay. I'll just write, uh, Let me just remind myself. All right. And then the, um, The executive session pieces I'd like to take off the agenda for the, this evening. So I haven't, um, Haven't been able to, uh, Make contact with the, the chair of the world and board as of now. So I just felt it would be, uh, we, Um, And I don't want to, um, you know, We, you know, We, I need to talk for, we, for, we go through this piece of it. I wouldn't want to go through this and without getting their opinion. So, uh, so we'll probably like it. We'll have it on next meeting. So we're going to remove the Cassella piece only, but leave the other. Probable. Possible civil litigation. We'll leave that one in. negative session was a two-parter. Right, yeah. We'll just take out the Cassella piece and we'll add it back in in two weeks. That's great. It sounds like Moe does not want to do that, Chris. Well, we can put it off till next year if you want. I don't care. Why? I don't know anything. I think the only thing I just... I think the only thing I'm just kind of worried about is us talking about the matter before the other board. It's in the second session, nobody knows about it. That's fine, just forget it, Chris. Just forget it. We'll do it sometime next year. Well, we've got a long year. It's only the 11th day of the year, so we've got a long time to go. But if any of the board members would like to move forward with the discussion tonight on that, you know? Well, we can at least talk about what the details are, not necessarily making any decisions or anything, but just get some background information like will be helpful. Yeah, I agree. It doesn't hurt to talk about it, knowing that we're not going to make any decisions and that you still want to talk to the Royalton Board Chair. Fine, Mary, we'll just keep it down. All right, anything further? Move, we accept the agenda as amended. Second. Okay, all in favor? Aye. Aye. And this evening we don't have any appointments, so we'll open it right directly up to public comment. So if anybody's on for like to bring up anything that's not on the meeting agenda for this evening, now's the time to do it. You can either unmute or you could type a question or raise your hand in the chat section there. Okay, we'll hear none. We'll move on. So first up is just the yearly adoption of the Highway Mileage. So in your packet we have the certified Highway Mileage for kind of Bethel for 2021. Anything that you need to add to that, Terese? Sorry, I was muted. We'll all put it on the keyboard at the back door of the office so you guys will have to come in and sign it because it does require a select board signatures. Well, if anybody doesn't know that the Highway Mileage is just us certifying that these are the miles of certain class roads that we have here in Bethel. Lines up our funding that we have through the state as well as our maintenance thing. There's no change from previous year? No, sir. No, no change. So unless anybody has any objections or any comments, I would entertain a motion to adopt the certificate of Highway Mileage for 2021 as it's presented. Go for it. Goes Mo and Paul. So Mo moved it. Paul, second? Up. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Ready? That was always a really tough one every year to go through. And that's why for anybody, you know, that's on that typically is not part of the meeting's year round this time of year, you know, right before or right after the beginning of the year, there's a lot of just typical annual adoptions that the town runs through. And then as soon as town meeting day happens, usually we have another round of, you know, appointments and things like that that are done at that point. So usually the first couple of months of every year is really just going through the yearly adoptions, which we have tens or hundreds of them to do. So we do a few every meeting. And then we had the next couple we had, I don't think any of these really have changed other than we just haven't formally accepted the resignation or appointment. So just to clean up our bookkeeping here, we had the official resignation of Brett Morrell Cornelius as a Lister. He was a gentleman that was brought on last time, but really hasn't taken the position. So just a matter of accepting the resignation. Yeah, he never took the oath of office, but it's nice to have it in the record book since he was elected at town meeting. Move to accept resignation. Second. Hey, all in favor? Aye. All righty. And the second was the appointment of Eric Benson to the planning commission. Eric had moved the DRB to planning commission. Are you doing both? Yeah, so like a month ago also just really just kind of bookkeeping on that as well. The motion to appoint Eric Benson to the planning commission. Is that a yearly, in this case, is this a temporary position or is this permanent? It's normally three years, but he said he's only gonna do it for a year. So I would just move to a point for one year. Okay. So the motion to appoint Eric Benson for the planning commission is this a one year term? So moved. Second. Okay, moved by second by Paul. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Eric knows, Eric knows about this, right? Trees. He's been, he's the chair of the planning commission. Chair, and then I realized that he was. Do we need a letter of interest? No, he told me, he said, you know, Trees, the board, he goes, I'm the chair and the board's never appointed me. I said, oh, and he forgot to send a letter and I said, it doesn't matter, you're already doing it. So I said, it's fine. And he meant to send a letter, but honestly we've been too busy working on the zoning regulations. We've met a few times and that was as far as we got. Right. Being very gracious. I'm doing it very helpful. Our planning commission meetings are, we're meeting twice a month and then he and I are also meeting so that we can, because via Zoom, it's a little more difficult when you're trying to amend zoning regulations, I think meeting in person. So he and I meet and then we look up statutes, questions we had and then I just drafted three sections to send to him to look over and we'll draft it forth and then we'll send it to the planning commission. We're trying to, you know, make the process a little bit easier. So instead of us trying to parse wordage that night, you know, we can, we'll have some more of verbiage to talk about. So. Okay. Any further discussions in regards to the resignation or the appointments? Are there none? I got a person waiting. I didn't realize. Yeah, Teresa, this all locked out earlier. I didn't mean to either. I try not to do that, but obviously this time. It was the first time I ever did that. So when I signed in, I was like, nah, that's kind of weird. Yeah. Me too. I didn't know if it was just. I hadn't signed in yet. The program or something happened to you or? I had a few people waiting so. We weren't alone. Next up is the, to go over the town meeting day warning as well as the remote informational hearing notices. And it does. It's a lot this time. So I've drafted the warning and there is a meeting on, or a webinar with VLCT. I think it's on Wednesday or Thursday, which I'm going, I've signed up for, which I am going to take the, just to dawdle my eyes, cross all my T's. But the good news is, since this has your signatures on the second page, I'll have you sign the warrant when you come in to sign the highway miles certificate. And if there's any minor changes to the warning, I'll let you know. But frankly, there shouldn't be. I think it should be good, but. I guess the only question I had with just looking at the warning itself was, could you just take me through briefly on, on the listers and where each term stands with those? Because I got a little confused with, I understood the list for three year term, which is the seat that's open. But yeah, a little confused when I saw the list or one for two years that expires next year. Well, that's the balance of somebody else's seat at this point. I think it was, I don't have my town report with me. I think it was Roberta's because Louise ran her own term. And I think that's what it was. I think that there was a balance of Roberta's term because if there was Roberta, Louise and Jim. So maybe it's either Jim or Roberta's. It's a balance of a term because listers are three years and they're staggered. And Judy got elected last year. So did Brad supposedly. So Judy got in last year and Brad. So this would be the balance of somebody else's term. But we all know that Louise is gonna run and then she's going to retire July 1st. So we're, we know we're gonna be looking for, come, you know, we're gonna be looking for a couple of listers. We did hire, you hired Mimi first scene and she, but she's just out to work in the office for 10 hours a month. So I think we're gonna see what we have come July and it will make, you know, an ad in the paper and this and that, but if we don't have somebody else, we're gonna have to look at the assessor piece. But really, you know, I'll have a conversation with Judy Brigham once Louise retires and see what Judy's feelings are because it really has to be somebody who's committed to, you know, it's a lot of education piece. It's helpful if you have specific backgrounds, you know, but right now we have nobody running and I prefer that, you know, unless somebody really wants to do the job and do the training, they shouldn't run. So Louise would run for that two year position? Yeah, but she's gonna retire in July, but Lindley had her hand up. Yeah, so sort of along the lines of what you were just saying, I'm just curious, and this maybe is what you're gonna learn at the VLCT webinar, but we have to sort of assume that we're gonna get some write-ins on Australian ballots. So if nobody's in a position like one of the Listers, you know, they're not actually listed on the ballot and we get some write-ins, what happens with that since they do have to be qualified to do the job? How do we handle that situation? Well, they don't have to be qualified to do the job. You know, that's a hope that you have. Like to be honest, I haven't been a town clerk for a few years. It used to be that you, it was a minimum write-in per year, like 13 or seven or 13, depending on how many were on your list, you're on your checklist, but to be honest, I don't know what that number is for Bethel or if that's still the same election rule, but whoever wins, if someone that does a write-in wins, they're in, there's your Lister, and then we'll just be looking for one when Louise retires. But if nobody runs, then so be it, or if there's a minimum vote to get and you don't get it, then same thing. They have to be a Bethel resident, don't they? Of course, yes, yeah. Will that be stated on the ballot so you don't get write-ins from towns, necessarily, no? No, because no one else is gonna be at the polls voting. Only Bethel residents are gonna be voting. You would have already gone through the check-in or the check-out if you went to the polls and if we mailed you your ballot, you're gonna know you're only a Bethel resident. She's only gonna send you one if you're on the checklist anyways. So no, it doesn't need to be. And if somebody got wrote-in who was not a Bethel resident, it'd be a spoiled vote so it wouldn't count anyways. But so we'll just, we'll see, yeah. It's hopefully, I guess at this point, like I said, it's a conversation with Judy once Louise retires, but if nobody runs, then I think we'll be looking at the assessor piece, even if we try to maybe a few towns together and we all find somebody and that person gets full-time job and we could work out benefits and that sort of thing. I think there's a way to do it. What's the deadline for getting on the ballot? January 25th, was there was that list in your last packet? I'm pretty sure it was the 25th. Yeah, I'm just curious because I, so where I'm going with this is there's somebody who, Bethel resident who had come up as a potential list or has experience, but really it came down to at the time what we were offering for compensation just wasn't worth her time. And seeing that we've just sort of done an increase, we've done some increases over the past couple of years, but we've also just done an increase both with Mimi and with Judy. If this person were interested, is that sort of a negotiable piece? I think so. I mean, you guys are the ones who set the salary, but you could certainly have them email me and I could tell them what Judy's salary was in Mimi's and I can also send them that. Well, what you had in your last packet, you could also give them that and say, look, here's a list or one, this is what we're paying her, here's a list or two, here's what we're paying her. So if you follow these criteria, this is about what you're gonna get. Now, if she had many years of experience, he or she, I'm sure the slack word would negotiate that salary, but to what extent I can't say. Great, that helps. Sure. So the only thing different on this ballot is, we did, I left, I tried to leave it as similar as possible because even though you're voting Australian ballot, at least it's, it's what we're used to seeing. The only one on here that's different is number 15, which is what I tried to explain to you before. It apparently did not bring my A game that night because I couldn't get it explained to you, but shall the voters authorize a grace period of three days after the established time for payment during which the collector of delinquent taxes shall not charge a penalty pursuant to 32 BSA. This is because right now we pay, you have to pay an or postmark either on that day or you postmark your envelope for the day that it's due. So if Chris mails in his payment and it's postmarked by the 15th, but Lindley brings hers in the day after the 16th, Lindley, I'm gonna, is going to be charged. That's right, 1% interest plus 8% penalty. So what happens is we have limitations with our software. What we, if, if we charge, you know, that day, the day after, if we charge everybody the 8% penalty, 1% interest for your May, like we're supposed to, any postmarks that come in after that day, we have to physically reverse the, you know, reverse the interest, reverse the penalty. If that number is high, it takes us awhile to do that. So it's, you know, it can be a big waste of time. Our software does not, it's the only way our software works. And that's just one of the drawbacks of the software. But it's also difficult because we feel in the office because people, you know, if you have a postmark, sometimes we don't get it for three days or more after the due date. So here's, you know, this Joe, whoever, who just, you know, forgot to make his payment and is a day late, you know, we're gonna charge him the 9%, but yet if you had postmarked it from Bethel on the 15th and then it doesn't arrive till the 17th or 18th, you're, you know, you make it in. So that's the reason that 15 is on the warning. If you disagree, I can take it off, but... I have a comment on that. Sure. Because I have something personal going on with me is I've had people mail me checks, one from Rockbury that I got notified today that I wasn't gonna get it, is that 21 days that it's been gone, it's not here yet. I have another one from Waterbury, Vermont that is 12 days old, it's not here yet. Yeah. It depends on the post office. That three days is, as far as I'm concerned, you can do it if you want, but what are you gonna do if it's 10 days late and they lived in Bethel and mail it, you know that that is just a post office screwing off. Yeah. Well, we can't, you know, we obviously have no jurisdiction over the post office. So... If you're gonna do it to somebody who actually did something right. Yeah. They mailed it on time. Right, so what I'm saying is, if the, it depends too, if they mailed it on time, even if I don't get it for 15 days, Dave, if that postmark is the 15th or before, they're good. We're gonna waive the interest and penalty. You're all about what the postmark says on the envelope, but we've had, you know, we've had some lag times, serious lag times on receiving money. Some of the accounts where you're sending, like Dave does with his bank, you know, he has his bank sender check or somebody has their bank sender check, even though they live very close by, that check may not get cut in this state. It could be cut out west. I've had some come from Nevada. Yeah. Somebody local and it just takes forever to get here. The thing I'm talking about is coming to me from personal accounts, personal checks. No. It has nothing to do with a bank bill pay or any of that stuff. If it was bill pay, I paid my bills bill, that works because I spent all my bills bill pay and I pay anybody in the country and they get it in less than seven days. The thing is, I will say about bill pay with some banks. That's not the case. People have called and said, hey, they took it out of my account. I said, just because they took it out of your account doesn't mean they mailed it because a lot of, if you are using, depending on the bank you use, it's not a local check. It's coming out of a different state. So we have- My check's all come out of Nebraska. Excuse me? All the checks that come on my account come out of Nebraska. So, you know, some of them do take a while. We have had, I know a lot of the bill pays, say on their website, I guess, expect base that you wanna check to get somewhere. You need to send it 10 to 14 days prior, but anyway, we don't need to get in this conversation. I'm just saying, if you put in three days, what are you gonna do for that five day or that eight day? Nothing. They're gonna get charged the interest or penalty unless, and the reason we say three is we've been really monitoring it recently to see how long away from the 15th are we getting postmarks? And the average is one, two, three days. Okay. That's really been, you know, the average one. So after three days, if we get a postmark, it's not the end all be all to reverse the interest or penalty on two. But when you get five, 10, 15, it's a two-part entry, excuse me to do. And so, you know, it just takes time to do it. And we've also had a lot of people, you know, upset who say, but this way we're putting it to the voters. If they don't want it, they'll say no. If they wanna give people a three days, they'll say yes, if they don't, they'll say no. But it's at your choice what goes on in the morning. If you have no interest, if you don't want people to have a three days, I can remove this. It's not a big deal. It's just something that we were trying, you know, hoping that we were thinking about squaring away. I think we also have had some dates where our taxes are due. It's usually picked the 15th of that quarter. And we've had some times where the 15th might land on a Saturday or a Sunday. In which case we always, we accept it on a Monday. And we do accept it on a Monday because there are, I think there's one date in the next tax year, but I was afraid to change it because I think if you had 15, 16, 14, 15, people are gonna get confused. Whereas if it falls on a date and we're not open, then we collect it through the next, you know, through Monday. And we put that on Facebook and, you know, front porch warm and let people know because people have hard enough time sticking with the 15th of the month if we had the monkey with that. Well, actually I did monkey with it twice. There's two 16s and two 15s, so nevermind. I didn't change it last year, but this year I did. There's two 16s and two 15s. I forgot, last year we didn't and because I didn't want a monkey with it, but when I was reading the LCT thing, they suggested that we put the accurate dates in. So since there are only a date off, I guess I did this time. But again, nobody know. We'll see, you know, people don't always read their tax bill. Teresa, it was a good question that was asked in the group chat there in regards to the job descriptions for some of these positions. Do we have a place on our website where individuals can go and read about whatever, a Slack board member or a Lister or a Ranger or, you know. Oh, sorry, I had the chat covered with my open box. Do we have that information rarely available for people that they could go on research? They should be able to go on. If you go on to the Secretary of State's website, you should be able to look at any thing that you want. They have a list usually under, if you go to the Vermont Secretary of State's website, you can go to like town meeting and it will tell you walks you through everything, everything you ever wanted to know about elected officials and more. Because there's not a job description per se. There's a list of Slack board duties and, you know, what they are responsible for, what they can and cannot do. And that's why you have that massive Slack board handbook. I was thinking more of the Lister design or the positions that come up. Yeah, so we're all on there. If you go to the Secretary of State's website, there's a list and it will usually about town meeting and it will let you know what they, what jobs are. You know, the Lister is responsible for the grand list and it will talk a little bit about training and stuff. But if you can't find it, Jesse, just email me and I'll send you, I'll find the link and send it to you. Thanks, Linley also sent me. Can you send me something for the Lister's? Yeah. Yep. Thank you. You're welcome. So the, back to the warning, you can see it's the budget, social service agencies are out or are listed, you know, number 12, not individually, but as a group. White River Valley Ambulance is also listed separately. So this is a pretty standard, you know, there's nothing, no capital funds added, no other questions. So it's a pretty straightforward ballot. I've got a question about the budget being an Australian ballot, it's either up or down. Yes. Where, you know, when we have our regular meeting, it can be adjusted and we have had some lengthy discussions about two and three and $400 items. Yes. So are we going to, is that something that's going to come up in the informational, will it be adjusted at that time? No, it can't be adjusted. Once it's on, it's on. Once the budget's out, it's out. It can't be in this case. So no, we can talk about it and defend our position as to why we put it there, hopefully we educate someone so that they feel more comfortable with the item. But no, it's either up or down. OK. So yeah, which is, you know, it was definitely different for us. Hopefully next year we'll be back to normal. So one of the other things the BLCT was having us do was the town of Bethel Remote Public Informational Hearing Notice and Agenda. Obviously there's some missing information here that I haven't put in yet about, you know, the phone number, the Zoom link. But it's Monday, February 15th at 6. We'll do it as part of a, or that's our special meeting. And then Monday, February 22nd at 6 is part of our regular select board meeting. And that's the one that you have to have because it has to be 10 days prior to the town meeting. So the 15th, remember, that's in addition to our schedule. So this will be the only thing on the agenda. So I went through the agenda. One of the things they wanted you to put in was times. But I don't know how long it would take us to discuss these. So I didn't do that. And then they had created this informational handout for remote hearings. So this kind of let everybody know. So I think during the meeting, what we'll do is people will be able, I'll check my email so people can email me questions. It also, they suggest that we give them a phone number to call, which is my cell phone number, which I frankly wouldn't want to publish. But I think what I'll end up doing probably is maybe Chris and I will do these, maybe we could do a remote hearings from the office. Because Chris and I could social distance and I could leave the phone on that night. That way people could call in. It also have access to my budget book. And I have all that stuff. So that might be easier. But so anyways, so these are all the things that they're suggesting that we put out. So the warnings will go out, the agendas for the public informational hearings, and that will go out. And also go out because obviously once the ballot's done, Lisa has to post a sample ballot. So it'll go out. I'm not Lisa. Excuse me. Pam, I'll have to put a sample ballot. Teresa, what was the date for the special informational meeting? February 15th. 15th, OK. Thank you. So and I need to contact Zoom and figure out if we get more than the usual people. And they have to buy a special license for that day to like an expansion pack. So we'll see. But the other thing, Dave, I got to thinking about as I was just thinking I've got everything done for the town report, I don't. That budget page that I do that Chris usually reads at the beginning of the beginning of town meeting, I need to get that done. And I'll make sure I get that out prior to the meetings too. I thought I was done with town report, but. Chris, do you have a projected date you're hoping to get town report out to the printers? This week, this Friday. Thanks. Yeah. How can you do that if you're not to the 25th for people to apply for some of the positions? Because it doesn't matter. We're not publishing the ballot. Anybody who wants an article on town meeting has to petition by this week. So we'll wait for that. But I thought that first two mo and then I went back and read it. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing though. So it's this Thursday. Anybody who wanted something on the warning had to have it in. So that's the wait for this week. But so Chris, I'll draft that budget report and get you that to look over. OK. The other thing I had was the year in review since the select board decided that we would do one report instead of two. Dave, Eddie brought to my attention that I had goofed up some wording under the town upgrading the town garage in paragraph five. So I fixed that. Was there anything else in the year in review that people saw a mistake or want to add? Yes, I have a series of grammatical type things. And something structure stuff. But as far as content, I was wondering if we wanted to put in anything about the ordinances that we passed this year. OK, sure. So there was the trash ordinance. Trash ordinance and the dog ordinance. I can add those. That was it. I'll drop this off to you tomorrow. Yeah, when you sign the other stuff, that's perfect. And I fixed the town garage stuff. Yeah. OK, I got another question about the it's not 2020. It's actually 2021 that the solid waste fees and structure is different. But I am getting hammered by people that said, how did this come about? And we didn't know anything about this. We don't know what to do. We don't know. Do we need to do something more to get the information out that there's the fee structure is different? How you do it is different? Well, I mean, it wasn't your decision. It was the transfer station board. They've published it in the newspaper. They've put it on their website, our website, Royalton's website, Facebook, and had signs at the facility. OK, I'm getting people left and right saying, we didn't know this. Me and my wife went down there to take the recycling in. We each had to pay $3. I don't know. It just went on and on and on about all this stuff. I said, well, I explained to them that you can go somewhere else. That's no, that's true. And I don't, you know, those are all the key spots that we would normally publish data. So if people aren't reading the paper, aren't looking at the signs that have been posted, the transfer station, or looking at our website, Royalton's website, or, you know, we're at that's. Well, I guess where I'm going with that, I guess where I'm going with that is, whether it's in the town report or where it might be, Bethel and or, well, Bethel and Royalton, there's a lot more people read that town report than read the paper or definitely a lot more people than look at the website. Yeah, I have only a little blurb and I don't know what it costs us per page or quarter page or whatever. Maybe we should think about that. I don't know what is in Jen's report for the for the town report. I can look and I have no idea what it says, but we can always add if she doesn't have a fee schedule, we can put a fee schedule in. Include. They've been handing them out for over a month. I know that. Some acres in. The people in the program. Oh, I also know, Dave, that she did send them out. She sent them out last month and maybe he's going to do it again this month with any of the billing, the monthly billing. She also sent one to them. But I can see about inserting and I don't think it would hurt Dave. I think that's a great idea to insert a fee schedule into the town report. You're saying that's a that's a that's something that probably is read by more people than you think. Sure, that's a great idea. I think that's a great idea. I'm sure we have an extra page because we haven't heard from a couple of people. So that's fine. Thank you. So did anybody else have any changes on the year in review? No, but Thomas has his hand up. No, I didn't see it. Sorry. You're still on mute, Thomas. Thomas, we can't hear you. You're on mute. No, I think he may have signed in and OK, we can't hear you. I just let me on. OK. Now you muted him. My guess is, you know, the step when you come in and it gives you the step to do your computer audio. OK, try again. Just leave and come back. Right. Like, go out and come back and make sure you hit the button that says computer audio. They did. Oh, there you are. We're learning. I know. Sometimes. I had a tree sign a few things, but I'll just email them to you. OK, good. Nothing major, just. No, and I haven't, like I said, I forgot about the budget. I thought it was done until just now. I don't think I did that budget piece. If I did, I don't remember doing it. Hang on, let me admit Leonard back in. Here we go. There we go. Should be coming back in now. Yeah, my guess is he didn't connect his computer audio, which is like what happened to or Dave one time there, I think. Yeah, now we're off to unmute. Do you have anything plugged into your computer? Sometimes if you have like headphones plugged in or something like that, it can get me down. Yeah, yeah, sorry about that. That was on my end. I had something turned off. That's OK. I just said you just looked on the website for the Bethel Waste World Waste Waste website. There's nothing on there that says anything about pricing at all or changes. And then there's a link. We went to the link where supposedly it talks about prices and there's nothing on there either. On which website? This is the we're on the Bethel Royalton transfer station. Oh, OK. And yeah, there's nothing to be anything there. All right, I'll check and see. I don't know why it's not on the Bethel Royalton transfer station website. I know Kelly put it on ours. Is this about last time because I wanted to see that was on there. It's on the White River Alliance website. Why are you on the White River Alliance? Yeah, we'll take a look. Is the other website an active website, Therese? I have no idea. I don't know. I mean, I don't know here. I just wonder if maybe, you know, maybe it's not an active one. Anyone can take you to anything. So I was there from the Bethel Royalton transfer station. It doesn't take you to anything. It does. I actually just followed all the links through the website. Going there for us. Let me see if I can retrace what I did. It's all OK. So. Well, this might be the way you go through Lindley. So if you go town of Bethel website, Bethel Royalton Solid Waste Program, and then you have to click the link. It's under Jen Bartleman's name. It's the White River Valley or White River Alliance Solid Waste. So go into that, take you to their website and then under about us, there's a price list. And then on that page, you have to click the P.E.F. link. So it's like 100 clicks in. When you go when you go to the Bethel town website and then. So under services, that drop down list. There's the Bethel Royalton Solid Waste Program. And then on that page under Jen Bartleman's name, there's a link to the White River Alliance. You have to dig for this. We're going to make it work for that. It's kind of difficult to find. The only question I have is along with sort of what Dave was saying, can it be more prominent? The changes can it be in a space where people can see that they have to that they're changing something that says that instead of digging for the changes, because there's nothing up front that says fees and things have been changed. Do you know what they have? Yeah, I don't know who maintains her website. I think she pays somebody to do it. I'll have to ask Jen and I'll take a look at it tomorrow at the office. But I'll ask Jen about that. Yeah, because you shouldn't have to dig for it. And I'll have to ask Kelly to make sure it's more front and center on ours. And maybe it can just be as simple as Kelly links the, you know, up at the top of our pages piece of White River Valley or Bethel Royalton Transfer Station, just to say updated pricing list and link right to that P.E.F. on the front page. So then you're not digging in. That's probably the easiest. Yeah, that's what I have her do for price increase. OK, sure. Yeah, I'm not sure who updates Jen's Rob Fish. Maybe I don't know. She was having trouble with that guy, so I don't know who he is. We'll figure it out. But thank you. So I'll make sure that Jen and Kelly make some changes. OK. So anything else, anything further on the town meeting warning or informational hearing agenda? I might have misunderstood, but. You said the budget and stuff is going to. For this right with the informational meeting. Is everything set prior to the informational meeting or going to get set after the information? It's set prior to the informational meeting. So basically what we're going to do is discuss the budget, how we got there, what the numbers are. Normally at a regular town meeting, we would be voting on the budget from the floor. But this year because of COVID, we're going to be voting the budget Australian ballot. So these are informational meetings. And so we'll just be talking about the budget. It's really a less than two percent increase over last year. And but we can talk about any line item that we want, hopefully be able to explain that to people. So devil's advocate, if it's voted down, what happens to the budget? I go back to the drawing room and the stinky thing is about that's the really the thing that stinks about voting Australian ballot, your budget. We will have no understanding as to why it didn't pass. Right. So we won't know if people thought it was too low, too high. We missed something. So what we would do is I would go back, take a look at it and then but actually what I would do is ask for probably do another public meeting and try to get some input to figure it out. And then we would make another stab at it. But you probably get some inclination of that at the informational meeting. So I would think I would think so. I mean, I feel like, you know, once people read the town report and see the budget and see the notes on the budget that people feel pretty good about the budget. I, you know, I feel like it's a good budget going through this year. And I feel good about it. If I was a school, I wasn't feeling confident putting their budget forward, but I feel good about ours. But hopefully we answer all those questions at the informational. And once I draft the budget report and have Chris look it over, we'll put that out on, you know, from porch forum and stuff and Facebook and let people, you know, see that. And hopefully that will also increase attendance at the informational meetings. And that's always the challenge with, you know, the virtual informational meetings versus in person is, you know, we know that in person, you know, there's on average 200 citizens of the town that are there to discuss it in informational meeting. If I had to bet, probably a lot more than 10, you know. Exactly. Now I would say if there was something egregious that, you know, there would be a member of the community that would attend something talk about that. But just kind of kind of a different way of doing these things. Exactly. You'll see the same thing that we had down to the transfer station. I didn't know about it. I didn't see anything on it. You're probably right. Through this process of the two informational meetings, you know, again, just like it's drawn out here, we'll go through the whole warning of what everybody's voting for and why and then like when we get to the budget, we'll go into the budget, you know, highlight any of the maybe major changes and how that affects us. You know, I remember, you know, 15 years ago when I got here, I used to always ask every year, how many pennies is that going up? And nobody could tell me, you know. So I mean, but, you know, I will know how much Thomas was that affect you, you know, two pennies on the tax rate. What does that mean? So what changed? Yeah, yeah, because we can share a screen so we can also put out, you know, we're doing the meeting, share the story of those changes. But we'll also try to get some links out and some information on Front Forge Forum once that's done. So people will have an idea of what's happening. Right, anything further with that item? Are we good? And I would just say, board members, if there's anything that comes up afterwards in regards to the write up, the year and review write up, just send those, that information to Trace. Trace, when would you need that by? Well, it'd be nice tomorrow to have it because I need to get this thing done on Tuesday and it's going out Friday. And so it'd be nice to have it tomorrow. But you all have come sign stuff tomorrow. Anyways, the warning and the certificate of highway mileage, so. Yeah, okay. I guess, you know, that would be the thing as we should get a motion to accept the town meeting warning. Don't move. Second. Okay, all in favor. All right, town manager's reports or anything that we haven't gone through, Trace, that's on your report? Yes, so I forgot to tell you, I don't know why at our last meeting that Oscar was in an accident and I just got the insurance report today and he totaled the cruiser. Luckily, he was not injured. That's the most important thing. He was working for Royalton but was driving our cruiser. He was doing part of the DUI Occupant Protection, I believe, program patrolling. So Royalton PD is gonna pay the deductible and underwriting, we also have the same insurance company. So underwriting is going to talk to each other and let us know if we should have some agreement but I just got the settlement number today so we'll definitely be able to buy. What they gave us the value of this cruiser was more than we paid for the other one so we'll have to start looking for a new cruiser. In the meantime, he's going to be just using his truck and he's provided me with his proof of insurance and we've worked that out. So also I spoke with Carol Ketchum, the chair of the Robin Loan Fund regarding interest on deferred loans that we talked about last meeting and he said he didn't waive any interest. So I just extended the amortization schedules and I mailed those to both parties, the letters and telling them what that would be. I put those out last week. So that was good. I'm working on the horrific 2015 hazard mitigation plan. I made it through all 50 pages today but oh my God, there's so much data in there. Fire structures, hazmat spills going back a long way because of weather patterns and I did reach out for someone at the state today to help me with the weather pattern stuff. So apparently when the select were adopted in 2015, you had agreed to look at it every year when you did your local emergency management plan or after any incident, which you did neither. So and it has to be done. If we don't get it to FEMA and adopted, we lose our 12.5 ERAF and we go up to 25%. So I actually worked for my house today so that no one would bother me and I got through all 50 pages. I still need to add some data and then we're gonna have to start holding meetings, the emergency management committee. I've already put it into River's newsletter and so we'll start going through holding some meetings. We'll include it in our select board meetings and try to get it to FEMA before it expires so that we don't, it's critical that we don't lose our ERAF. So working on that, I have another meeting this week about the Bethel Connections Grant. So I will let you know what we're gonna do there. So I think that's everything that was in my report. That's good. But I didn't say what I needed to tell you about. And we had some meeting minutes there. I think it was just one set of meeting minutes in there. Was this like word minutes? Yeah, there was minutes from the equity inclusion committee. Yeah, there was, yeah. And it's like we're meeting minutes from the 28th of December. Anybody have any comments on those? Are we good to approve them as written? Roll. Second. Okay. Second, Paul, all in favor? Aye. Okay. Lily? Chris might already be aware that there's a group of folks in town who have been tossing around the idea of still holding some sort of virtual social gathering on town meeting day and kind of calling it the untown meeting. And it's not at all intended to supplant town meeting or even really be about the actual discussions that we would normally have on town meeting day, but we didn't wanna go forward with the idea if the select board had any issues with it or felt like it was sort of undermining the fact that the select board can't be hosting the meeting. So really more informal and sort of trying to retain the social piece of town meeting. And then one of the thoughts was to invite different town committees to kind of present just like they would with the tables out by the pie kind of a venue for them to say, hey, here's what we've been working on. Here's what we'll be working on this coming year. Maybe get interest or new members, things like that. So yeah, I just wanted to put it out there to you guys and see if there was any issue or reason where you should not push forward with it before we go starting to do that. Are you gonna serve virtual pie? We're actually discussing how to do pie. I have a really good idea. I haven't gotten all the players involved yet, but it is in our thoughts. Is this going to comply with all COVID regulations? Well, it's gonna be entirely virtual. Oh, virtual? Yeah. Okay. As long as people are aware when the polls are open, so that they're not, that they know that they're voting whatever and I guess as if it's something to participate in, that's great because it would be nice to know what people are talking about as far as I don't know how you're gonna structure it or whatever. Well, so the loose idea, I mean, this is still in the works, but the loose idea would be that there'd be sort of a chunk of the meeting that would be about committees and different groups to give them a little bit of a chance to talk and give people what they're doing and then actually have it structured in a little bit of a way of like speed dating, but you can do this with Zoom breakout rooms where you do like these speed networking type things and so it would be a get to meet your neighbor and there'd be a series of questions. So you'd get plopped into a room with three to six random people that maybe, you know, maybe you don't know. You'd all introduce yourselves. You'd have to answer a certain set of questions. You'd have a timeframe and then you'd be sent into another room. So it's just a way to meet other people, have a little bit of fun and engaging conversation and kind of catch up on what social and kind of committee endeavors are happening around town. That's a great idea. The pie piece. So this is, this is my idea was to, um, if we can get it sponsored, which we think we can, is to hire a local baker to do either individual pies or slices of pie to go. And then when you go vote, you get your slice of pie. So you have to go vote to get your slice of pie. That's a great idea. So that's sort of where we are with the thinking, but we didn't want to push it out unless everybody was on board and felt comfortable with it. That's a great idea. Yeah. People might donate baked goods to, you know, like they normally do for, um, town meeting. Yeah, that was sort of our thought was the only issue with that is making sure everything's COVID safe. We were kind of thinking if we can get somebody who we know is a, is a baker is served safe, certified, all of that. Then we're not, we're not going to be able to do that. We're not going to be able to do that. We're not going to be able to do that. And then you're going to want me to make sure that it goes to the right person. That. So there's that. Yeah. Well, that's interesting. That will be fun. Just as one questions, are those ballots being mailed out or are people picking them up? You will have your normal choices, which are, you will either go to the polls and vote, which will be COVID safe. Everybody's going to have a mask on just like they were the other time. We will have the other two polling stations, so that's kind of a request one directly from the town clerk. We're not going to do a mass mailing. So any issues or questions from the board? I think it's great if you figure it out, let us know if you want us to publish the meeting or anything, just let us know. Well. Yeah. Hopefully it'll be at a time when we're not, you know, working with polls or counting votes or whatever. else to come before the board this evening? Oh, I forgot to wish you a happy birthday, Chris. Well, I spent three and a half hours of it sitting at DMV this morning. You couldn't ask for a better birthday present than that. I had an appointment at 10 o'clock and I got there and they said, oh, we don't show that you have an appointment, but if you go wait outside, we'll get you in. And two hours later, I said, uh, am I getting in today? And they're like, we'll get you in once you sit in the lobby now. So now I sat in the lobby about an hour and a half later, they got me in. So I was like, oh, it's because you forgot about you for the first time you were in the parking lot. Oh, nice. Nothing like being made feel special on your birthday. Oh, if you have to go to the DMV, you like get that appointment like months ahead of time because they are booked. Oh, I renewed my license today. Well in advance when it needs to be. Yeah, it's definitely different. So, Teresa, I had one question on the budget information that we have in the water fund. Yep. The salaries and overtime. Yep. A coding issue maybe? Or is that? I see it there now. I'll have to ask Beatrice just to make sure that Tim and Richard's salaries are going incorrectly. Yeah, it doesn't look like it's quite right. Yeah, the overtime could be right. Just because, you know, Richard gets works eight hours of overtime every pay period because he works seven days a week. So Saturday, Sunday, or two hours every week. But and then he was doing some overtime during the project. He actually helped do some we needed to do temporary water. So he did that. But yeah, that is low. Now that I look, I look at it again, I'll ask DTRI because there's a percentage of Tim's salary that goes there. And there's a percentage of Richard's. So I should all look and see, make sure that CompiCount has the right percentages. Okay. Yeah, thank you. I'll take it. Good. Anything else? Great. So we are now I just need a motion to go into executive session and we got to talk about it first. Sorry, there's that's the funny thing about the state rule, where it says, okay, so two topics to be discussed. And one's regarding a contract negotiation with Kasella and the other illegal matter of pending or probable civil litigation regarding property rights, where I have some confidential attorney advice to deliver to the board and any decisions we made an open session. The thing about the open meeting law is they want you it's kind of ridiculous in one extent because they want you to have a conversation open session that lets them know that you have really determined that premature general public knowledge regarding whatever the topic is, is apparent before you go into executive session. So that's why it's set up in this two part boat. So the first part when it says that we have a motion to find that premature general public knowledge regarding the contract negotiation with Kasella, and this other matter would clearly place the town or disadvantage because you risk disclosing your negotiation salary strategy on both issues. It's it's very cumbersome because it has to be two separate motions. And I really don't know how we can have this great discussion about it in open session without giving way too much information. Obviously, we're trying we may negotiate something with Kasella. So obviously we can't put that out in the public because we don't want them to know what we think. So there's that. Then the other is some possible civil litigation. And so the same thing, there's a strategy there that we need to deal with a landowner and we don't want him or his lawyer to know what we're thinking either. So I just kind of want to take the opportunity. We don't see this very often. And I wanted you to know that's why it's a two part motion. It's not because I was bored. It actually adheres to the statute. And and as much as it's cumbersome, this is the way it works or why it is. So I tell you, I think also you didn't even have to mention who we had a contract with. I don't think I have to mention that name. Well, when they sample that they give you they advise you to if you can say it's with ABC company or whatever, they actually advise you to do that because of course, as you know, Dave, somebody sue the town. I gotta say people dig hard enough they'll know what you're doing. I know. I know it's true. I just am trying to follow the course of the rule. But but anyways, I just wanted you to know normally we go in and it's a one motion deal. This is why it's two. But it's it's not it's not 100% decided that the negotiations will be through just one contractor either. Right, exactly. Hasn't been determined. So right. But that's just the wording. So and that's what they want you to do is have this discussion about premature public knowledge. And so it becomes a two motion thing to get into executive session. But I just thought you should know why it was there. Okay, so we just need a motion to last sentence. Is that correct, trees? Oh, it's still a two part note. We need both. I just read part of it. But we have to read it all out again. I, I can I'm only so you need to make that motion. I'll make a motion to find a premature general public knowledge regarding contract negotiation with Cassella and a separate pending probable legal matter regarding property rights were clearly placed the town of a disadvantage because the select board risks disclosing its negotiation strategy on both issues. If it is discussed. Oh, if it discusses the contract terms in public session. Second. Okay. All in favor. All right. All right. So we'll be closing it. Oh, hang on a second. Is it was it Mo who did the first motion? Paul and Lindley Paul Lindley. Okay. I didn't hear the second motion hasn't been made yet. Oh, yeah. No, I know that one. I just want to make sure I got the motion in the second correctly, ma'am. I move that we go into executive session for a for what we've already done. All that stuff we just said. There you go. Second. Okay, all in favor. Hi. So we'll be going to executive session. So there won't be I don't believe there'll be anything that will be decided. So back in public session. Decide anything. Okay, I'll, I'll just add the ending, Lisa, the time later. Sounds good. Have a good night. Good night. Bye, dog. Hi, good night and happy birthday, Chris. Thanks.