 So I will call the meeting to order at seven minutes after with apologies for my own lateness. Our weekly updates on highway issues. Discussion of center road potholes. Yes. So I had Paul mark a bunch of the potholes, not all of them. He tried to do what he thought. Anyway, I had Jason Merrill go around with me. Jason has indicated he knows quite a bit about how to go about these potholes. So they'll stay in there pretty good. So I had him go around with me and he's going to be submitting a bid. I did tell him that depending on what that came in, maybe we'd add more, maybe we'd take some away. Maybe it would be so high that we just can't afford to do that. And we're just going to have to put some asphalt in and patch them the best we can. So that's where that stands. I have not received the bid from him yet or anything, but I understand that he is working on it. This is down to the exit. Yes. It's center road a little bit on as you started on my color road. And there was also some that I had him look on Shady real road. Great. So can he, is he gonna, he would just do the filling the potholes, right? Right. I was gonna say it would be pretty incredible if he could do it all over because usually it's big companies that do that. No, no, no, no. He's not gonna resurface the road. I mean, we're just, those potholes are dangerous, especially to motorcycles and bad for the vehicles too. I mean, the cars fly down by here and they don't seem to slow down much. So they're hitting a lot of potholes. But anyway, that's the story on that part. I'll just continue right on. Currently we're up on Barnett Hill Road, upper Barnett Hill Road. And we're removing some ledge up there in a ditch line. Right now we've done some ditching, cut some trees. We're fixing the end of one of the larger culverts up there. We should be done up there, well, hopefully this week. We're gonna start resurfacing on McCullough Hill Road on the 13th of July. Three to four days of, there'll be four trucks hauling. So that'll be pretty intense for three or four days and hauling the gravel and grading that off. Then one of the next projects we're planning on doing is the center road, the guardrails. There's sand debris from years of sanding that's underneath those guardrails and it's preventing the water from going off the road and it runs down the road. That creates a hazard, but anyway, we are going to be doing that. I think as soon as we get off Barnett Hill Road, we're gonna be taking care of that. And the other thing is, as far as our pit goes, we've got our pit pretty well in shape to have McCullough crushing come in and screen sand for our winter sand. And he is scheduled for August. We don't have an exact date, but sometime in August. When we do do that project, we would probably come out of Notch Road, go up center road, come back on Brook Road, but we will put that out so that the public knows what's going on because the trucks are gonna be pretty steady for that few days that that's gonna happen. And during that time, we'll make sure that the roads are graded and chlorated because it's gonna have a lot of traffic. So again, I don't know an exact date, but when we have that date, we'll give it to you. See, are they on a four day week or are they on a five, still on a five? They're on a four day week. Hey, Steve. Yes. Victoria here. And no way do I mean to undermine what you're saying or I am right here though. Yeah, Paul did a heck of a job today, but they're mainly on McCullough Hill taking the ledge out with that hammer that they got. They did today. He was down on McCullough Hill with that and then he's back all day on that hill. Yep. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, they took a lot out. They took a lot or, you know, they broke up a lot of ledge. Yep. And we've been using, we're gonna be using what we're saving a bunch of that. It's going up in the pit, but we're gonna be reusing it on Brook Road. We put up whenever we get a chance to get down there and do that project down there. We're still gonna meet with a state stream alteration guy and he hasn't gotten back to us. So right now is a good time to do it. The stream is pretty low. So yeah. They put some of that stuff on Upper Barna Hill. Charles was taking the stuff away from Paul and they're gonna flatten that curve by art downings. That's correct. Yeah. How long do they have that for a week? No, just I think until Thursday. Oh, okay. All right. No, I was just wondering. Yeah, they did quite a bit of it today. Yeah. I'm gonna call a hill. Yeah. So Steve, it's Peter. I just wanted to tell everybody that Steve and I did meet with the road crew and had a good general discussion with them. We were concerned about a few issues but nothing really serious. The one thing, and I'm sorry, Paul isn't here because I've been trying every once in a while to get a hold of him and I've been able to get a hold of him. The question of summer uniforms came up. The day we were at the town garage, they were all in shorts and t-shirts. They did have their boots on but no uniforms were visible anywhere. And I asked the question and they said, well, in the summertime, when we're just operating the trucks, we're not out working chainsawing, doing whatever in the equipment. We wear our shorts and t-shirts which of course aren't our uniforms. I never did, Darinda, get a chance to find out from Paul whether we're, and it's hard for me to tell looking at the records, whether we're paying for the uniforms, whether we use them or not. I think we only pay for them when we use them but I'm not sure. Every single week we get a bill for them. So the question is, and I need to find out who the contact person is from Paul. Apparently we don't know who the contact person is. Maybe you know Steve. I sent that to you. I'm sorry? Didn't I send that to you? No, you said Paul, you sent me the name of the company but not the contact person. Yeah, there was a girl, I sent this person. I'll resend it, I did send it. So the question for me is, A, is it safe for them to be wearing shorts at all? And if they are wearing shorts and t-shirts in the summertime, are there summer uniforms available that we can get from the uniform company? Because they're saying, they'd like us to buy these shorts and t-shirts form because they're using their own shorts and t-shirts. And I didn't promise them we were gonna do that but I said I would look into the options but I don't know whether it is okay by League of Cities and Towns and VOSHA safety standards for them to be wearing shorts and t-shirts. Do you know the answer to that, Steve? I don't know the exact answer but I believe it is. Because I know Paul checked with the LCT on that issue. One of the things that I would mention is that we did talk about that day was that and we had said that we would buy them is maybe we just do some t-shirts and have them made like three or four t-shirts a piece or whatever and just so it says town of Middlesex. So they are wearing something at least people know that is the town of Middlesex, people. Yeah, but the question is the question which came up for me after that was if we're paying for these damn uniforms they had to be sending us the t-shirts but I don't know if they can do that or would do that or there's more work to be done. Dorenda, aren't those aren't the uniforms? Don't we pay according to what they take back for cleaning and- Every, every, we get every bill we get it's for 11 matter of fact I can have one I can forward it to you. It's for 11 sets of uniforms which covers a two week period and a long sleeve shirt can't in a jacket and we pay $23 for that in addition to unbloom fees and ongoing like any kind of alterations you pay flat rate every single they go through and you pay back no matter what. So if something gets damaged, it gets back. So we're paying- I'm not wearing long sleeve shirts and jackets I can tell you that. But we're being charged for them. So the thing is, can we at least switch out the shirts? Can you stop this stuff? I don't know. Yeah, that is a good question. If they don't have t-shirts and shirts available as part of their uniform service we maybe need to buy the t-shirts and suspend the uniform service in the summer. I don't know what the answer is but they're not using them so. Well, they do have short sleeve uniforms. Yeah, they want to, let me talk to them see what the options are. I don't think they're gonna be happy with short sleeve and the uniforms. And what are they gonna do the minute? I mean, chances are they could go out the very first day and still oil or wear the t-shirt and that's gonna look terrible again. That's the point of the uniform. No, no, I totally get it. I just, what I don't like is the fact that we're paying for these uniforms and they're not using them. And they wear these God-awful looking t-shirts half the time. The ones weren't bad the day we were there but I've seen them in beer commercial t-shirts. I've seen them and I won't even tell you what I saw. But anyway, they shouldn't be wearing those shirts when they're working for the town of Middlesex. It looks bad and I don't like it. So, and I don't like paying for something we're not using either. Yeah, those uniform bills are good. I've got that, believe me, I've got that front and center on my list. But generally they were in good spirits. They're pretty happy. There was no negative discussion about pay or any of that, Dorinda. I gave them the big overview picture but I didn't thank you very much for those detailed sheets but I did not pass them out to them. Okay. They didn't seem to want them. I said, if anybody had any questions, they could reach out to me anytime or Steve and we'd answer their questions for them. And we promised to meet with them Wednesday but I know I've got it on my calendar the first week in September, I think. Yeah. So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Okay. Can I ask one more question, Peter? Yes, Vic. Hey, Steve, what's the agreement you have with the timber company up there in the town pit? All they did is come up and cut the stuff and put it into logs, hardwood, softwood, whatever and put it up on the top and they were paid by the hour. So what happens to, like I saw my friend Bill Cox up there, like he was hauling away the firewood and my friend, Weston was hauling away the pole. The town get compensated for that? Well, I know that Paul had somebody else getting some of the stuff up there at one point and will the town will be getting a check for that? Any of the stuff that's good that's going out of there is the town will be getting a check for it. I don't know about the hardwood, firewood. That was just laying up there, but I mean, any of the logs, I know that Paul has been having, well, let's see, it was- Fontaine. Fontaine, thank you, Mark Fontaine. The pine went to Fontaine, the pulp and the other stuff went to Weston and they took the firewood, two loads of it down to the camel's hump road. Okay, that could be. I was just wondering if you guys, I didn't know what the agreement was. I didn't know if the town was getting compensated for that. Doing the stuff up there on the thing, his agreement was what I just barely told you. Can you say that again, please? I said the, as far as the guy that was cutting everything and doing that workup, the agreement was just an hourly rate and he was just moving stuff up on the top. I'll find out where everything went though. Yeah, it started out Fontaine, but Fontaine wasn't doing it quick enough, so they got, what's his name there with the forwarder? Apparently you know more than I do. Well, I was just verifying it. I only heard it from the guys up there. I'll check into that. Okay. To the answers. Okay. Anything else on the highways, anybody? And Steve, did we get a successful bid for the roadside mowing? We have gotten one bid in. Hopefully there'll be another bid coming in. I know there's a couple other people that do that work around. So I'm hoping we'll get another bid, but if not, we did receive one bid. Okay. We're only doing it once this year. Is that right? That's correct. Didn't Paul say at the meeting we had done at the fire station that the town was gonna hire a cutter and they were gonna do it? Did that, I must have changed? I don't think he might stand corrected. I don't think he said that that's exactly what we were gonna do. I think he said that's one of the alternatives that we have. Yeah. Okay. But they would only be doing it once. Right. Okay. Dorenda, you're up. Okay. We squeaked by, how exciting. We squeaked by for the budget. As we stand tonight, we have about $15,000 left in the FY20 budget. And we still had like, we had $5,000 worth of bills that came in after June 30th that were for FY20. So we're gonna wait for another, probably for another week or so or to the next select board meeting. And then we'll cut it off and nothing else will go into FY20. But it sounds like we're gonna be better off than we thought maybe we were gonna be. A lot better. You're coming in on the budget. I mean, I think some of it has to do with some unexpected revenue we received that helped. Right. We were under spent. I reviewed the report quickly. We were under spent in some categories. We had extra revenue when we were under spent. So maybe we threw the back door paid for our new truck motor. Well, we had, like I said, we had some unexpected revenue come in. Two of the committees sent down all of their budget. So there was none left over out of those. And I believe all those bills have come in at this point. So what was the unexpected source of revenue? Well, there was a storm grant that came in that was $10,000, over $10,000. And then there was some list of revenue that came in that we weren't expecting. So those were unbudgeted items. And that's what made us, you know, that helped there. That was over $20,000, just between those two items. And then we were under spent in some of the line items. Amazing. It's at one point we thought we were gonna be 30 years to $60,000 over. Right. Can I ask a question? Did we save any money by not having an assistant for two months? Yeah. Yeah, that was one of the areas where we were under spent. Yeah. Well, for instance, I'm looking at the report right now. We had $99,000 of unbudgeted revenue. So that's real, that's real money. State aid to highways. I don't know how we were so far off on that, but that was under my 25,000. That was purposely done. That was purposely, we lowered the budget because we were shortfall because we had put in the $40,000 the year before. Right, right. We had to lower the expected revenues in order to make it balance out. Right. But all I'm saying is, when you look at the budget report as it stands now, we had 15, I'm sorry, this is really small. I'm trying to look at it. We had about 11,000 of property tax revenue over budget, 19,000 more in payment and lieu of taxes, 24,000 in, excuse me, 14,000 in town clerk fees, which makes no sense to me, Sarah. How are we so far off on that? It's nothing, Peter, you're misunderstanding. We specifically put in the budget lower numbers. In the revenue line items. In the revenue line items because we knew the budget was gonna come in over. Yeah, well, I'm willing to say it worked. Or it appears that it worked. So that's the good news. The only real numbers that were unanticipated were the last two items. So the state aid to highway is usually a known number. You're usually within a couple thousand dollars of that. And the same thing with all these other ones we pretty much know what those numbers, the second pilot numbers and all, but we had to make them lower in order to make the budget work. We'll see when we talk about the budget, which will be the next item we talk about, you'll see what I'm talking about. Okay, okay, I'm sorry, go ahead. Okay, but yeah, so we've got, technically we have about $15,000 left. I don't, I'm hoping there's not $15,000 left and bills to come in though. That would put, and so that would help. So that takes care of that one. You've got the escape tax rate for education. You wanna see that? Yeah, yeah. Down a little in both categories, that's good. Yeah, that's good news. So I did a preliminary estimate on the taxes. And again, so if you look at that paper that I sent you, it shows estimated number four receipts. And so again, those are the numbers we plug in when we go to set the budget, when we go to set the tax rate. So that's how we get it to balance to where we need it to come out to. And when do we think we'll be able to set the tax rate? At the next meeting, I'd like to finalize it. Okay. So you're going to set the proposal though, Dorinda? Already did, it's to be in your email. I have the email that was sent out. Well, anyway, I have the one that has the rates. Did you send another one after? I sent the one that had all of the warrants and the budget. I have the one that included the KCOHARA one with the tax rates. Is it? There's one that came out this afternoon. No, there's one. That was one that Dorinda would ask the tax rate worksheet. Okay. Yeah, I haven't seen that one. That came out before. So, I don't know if you want to discuss it, you know, or, you know, figure out what you want to do. The good news is using these numbers that I've put in there. You're looking at on the municipal rate, which is the only thing we have anything to do with is a 7.95% overall increase. And that's pretty good based on an 11 plus percentage budget that was passed. Yep. I'm happy to discuss if anybody has any questions. I haven't had a chance to even look at over yet. I just, I just got it quickly before the meeting. So if we can do it at our next meeting, that means tax bills could go out before the end of July, correct? So that isn't as bad as we thought it might be. No, we were looking at the first week of August, but if we can get them out in July, we might even be able to adhere to the original date. Maybe not, not quite. It's going to be a little bit beyond the date we set because it has to be 30 days from the date of the tax bill. Well, I guess the question that I have for the select board is in the past, at times, we have had special meetings to set the tax rate. And if everything is all ready to go, maybe what we should do is have a quick Zoom meeting to set the tax rate, and then we can adhere to the original schedule. The original schedule, meaning that the first payment is due in the middle of August, rather than the first of November. Yes. With probably financially, that's probably prudent because we have, well, we have a hundred thousand, we had a hundred thousand dollars in Japan, but the warrants tonight are about, one was 67. I just like the idea of being able to have the tax due dates consistent and the same and not be moving them around every year. I think that leads to confusion and misunderstanding. So unless everybody strongly disagrees, I would suggest we plan a short Zoom meeting in the next few days or in the next week to set the tax rate and then we can get the bills out. Wait a minute. I thought I'm looking forward to getting my bill, I'm not. You can't do that. Excuse me? A couple of things. One is, when are you getting the homestead file from the state of Vermont? I've been told that the income taxes aren't due until 2015. You're right, I'm sorry, say that again. Since income taxes are not due this year until July 15th, and that means the HS 122 isn't due until July 15th. The state is not going to be able to give to Rinda and Amy a list of who's gonna be taxed on the homestead rate versus a non-state homestead rate at least for a week after July 15th. Right. So you are looking at, that's why I was thinking at the next meeting we might have, because what date is the next meeting, like 7th or 12th, 1st, right? Yeah. Yeah. So if you did it at that meeting, you would just be behind by a few days. I'll say again is guys, and it isn't that big a deal for me, but I do like having the, I mean, if by having a special half hour meeting, we could stick to the original dates. Why don't we wait and see when that report comes in? You're saying, why are you shaking your head? Because people have until July 15th to file their homestead. So there's no way you can get that report by the 15th. And so you would have to send out a revised tax bill of anybody who filed the report. So what you're saying is it's likely that we won't be able to set the tax rate at the next regular meeting. You've got all the information to set the tax rate. You just can't run the tax bill. But there's no point in having a special, I got it, I'm sorry. I misunderstood that. There's no point in having a special meeting if we can't run the tax bill. So we might as well do it at our next slide board meeting. Right. Because people could be getting a state payment and that won't show up till after July 15th. Right. Are they saying it's a week? Do they, are we saying it's a week after July 15th? Is that how long? Well, we're hoping that it's pretty quick. I mean, we certainly got the education numbers much earlier than we were expecting. They told us August 1st for those. So I'm hoping that they're processing all these taxes that are coming in now. And it's just these late filers that will get updated. And we send out revised bills afterwards. But if we get the initial file, we should be able to go forward. Okay. Thank you. That makes sense to everybody? Yep. Yep. Okay. Along those lines, I'm wondering, we should have something Peter, if we should have something at the next meeting to suspend the 8% or postpone it late filers. It's something you guys are gonna have to consider. I don't know, it's your decision, you made the decision whether or not to impose the 8% fee or the 5%. I think that's what you decided on, which is a good revenue source for a lot of towns. And you may want, but you might want, you have to amend it anyway, since you had a date already fixed. That wasn't right. You said April 15th, and that doesn't exist anymore. Right. What did we do last year? Did we suspend it again last year, Sarah? You suspended it last year, but this spring, before COVID hit, you decided to impose up to 5% penalty on those who did not file or late file their HS-122s. Assumed by April 15th, and I think April 15th was mentioned in your motion. So that was the, that of course has all changed because the tax date changed, along with that, too. Was that on the warning, Sarah? No, this wasn't voted by the town. This was a select board. Oh, well, I mean, be worth to seeing if we actually use the term April 15th, because if we didn't, then it's still valid. Right? We can take a look at that. I'm glad we're in the new year. I wish this virus had gone away, but we got what we got, as they say. Yeah, right. We are where we are. I have the motion, and April 15th is in the motion. Thank you, Sarah. So we need to redo that, yeah. Thanks for the reminder as well. Yes, yes, yes. Anything else, Torenda? No, that's just for me. The written is becoming an essential and a significant portion of each of our meetings. Money, money, money. Torenda, do you want to talk about the $20,000 check we received for the FEMA buyout? You can. You know more about it than I do. I just know we got money. So I have the feeling the state is really, really eager for us to not be one of the towns to back out of doing one of these buyouts because after we expressed concerns about upfront costs, the third party, which is supposed to chip in for the remaining 25% of the FEMA buyout, sent us a check on Friday for $20,000 to be used for expenses ahead of time. The problem is that the board has not signed the agreement yet with the state of Vermont. So the question- We don't have the agreement yet, do we? We don't have the agreement yet, correct. So the question is, do we just put that check aside? Do we cash it? What do you want to do? How do you want to do it? How do we cash it? Why don't we ask them? Why? Escrow it. Just don't send it. Yeah, put in an escrow account. So it's in the bank and then we'll take money out of it when we sign the contract, if they send it to us. Do we have it? I think what they're asking is once we cash the check that's pretty much committing to entering into the program. A contract. Right. So it's not a matter of where we put that $20,000. It's sourcing through a line item for the grant. That's not the issue. Yeah. I just want to enter into that contract without seeing a contract. So why don't we just hold on to the check until we receive the contract and see what the contract says? That's what I would prefer. That's why we're still holding it. It came in last Friday and we're still holding it. Why wouldn't we cash it? We're going to use it, aren't we? We can always give it back if we don't use it. Iowa's slide was a bad practice just to hold on to checks. Yeah, me too. I'd put it in the bank. If we don't use it or don't spend it, we'll give them the money back. We're not going to draw it down or use it for anything. No, but the question becomes, does that mean you truly are going forward with this project? I think that's what the listener is asking. No. No, we haven't signed the contract. So it's segregated that we hadn't admitted. It's disputed money. I mean, that's what you do in real estate. You hold it and then you decide what you're going to do with it. And I thought if you actually took a step of us growing it, we're making it clear we don't think we have a contract. We're just don't like money sitting around. Don't like checks sitting around. Well, they're the same thing. My recommendation is, my recommendation is we put it in the bank, but put it in a separate account and obviously don't spend any of it. Well, it has to go into our account. We can't open up a separate account. Just, I mean, I mean, I've been out in our bookkeeping system, not a separate bank account. Okay, okay. Okay. So anybody disagree with that? Well, I'm fine with it. Yep. Nope. Okay. Okay. Anything else? Madam treasurer. That was it for me. Okay. So considering town health officer, reappointment action possible. Sarah. So I'm waiting. I've asked Elizabeth Fortman is our current health officer and she's been health officer for a long time. And she seems to be overworked. And so I've been talking to other people about stepping into that role. And one of them is a retired doctor named Robert Penney who lives on center road. Perhaps you guys know him. I know him really well. I'm going to dinner with him tonight. Well, he kindly, I have kindly brow beaten him into asking him if he would like to be the town health officer. And he has kindly said yes. And I think he'd be good. He's got a medical background and he's available. The only issue is getting his to reply and saying that she doesn't want to do that. So I thought I'd have reply by now, but I don't. So you have contacted Liz? Yeah, I have. I'm just waiting for her to say, no, I don't want to do it. But we've had some problems. For example, we've been waiting for, well, I've been in this job for seven years. We've been waiting for six years for a sign off on a health order on a place at Woodrow that you were involved in. And I haven't been able to get it and the property owner is about to throw a fit. Sorry, it really needs to be signed off. It needs to be done. And that's the type of thing that we just can't have that anymore. That's been lasting for five years. It's a cloud over his title. And only the health officer can sign off on it. This is Goody's former house. Yeah. Okay. I mean, could we send her a letter? Could we send her a letter? Go ahead, Peter. I was just going to say, to be polite, let's send out a second request or maybe a third request or whatever, but let's be ready to appoint him in our next meeting. Okay. It just has to be done by the end of July. Right. So, you know what you could do is you could send a certified letter saying, unless we hear from you, blah, blah, blah, we'll assume that you no longer wish to be appointed as. You know, so even if she doesn't. I don't think we need to send a certified letter. Let's, she's done a lot of good work for the town. Let's be respectful of her. I don't think it's certified mail. I don't like to do anything that says she hasn't done a good job. I just don't know what we need to prove to Sarah that we've done everything we can together to have her quote sign off. We'll have our emails. Well, it's up to you. You're the board of points, the health officer. So you can point to whoever you want. You know, it doesn't, you don't need her permission. I would just, I would just like her. I agree with you. I would just like her to say, I'm happy that you've got somebody else to take the job. Boom, then we're good. Good, yeah. All right. Well, maybe jam packed 21st. We have also as of yesterday lost our dog officer, right? Yes. How come? She moved out of town. Where'd she move to? Alice. Okay. So there's a problem. We've had a very quiet, good time for the last five or six years under her, under her privilege. So we need to find somebody to do that. Well, it's not for lack of looking. Let me just tell you that. I've known about this for about six months. Erica is a friend of mine. And she kind of gave me the heads up. And, you know, who wants that job? Well, is she willing to continue to do the job or she doesn't want anything to do with it? I think that Erica is good enough that she would probably hang on a little bit. I mean, she's not going to come over to middle sex and start rescuing dogs, but she can probably do things by phone and fight reports can be sent to her and to me. But, you know, finding somebody who is as knowledgeable and connected to dogs who is willing to do this, it's just not that easy. She's been unbelievable. So, number one, when the time comes, we really need to thank her. And, but number two, does she have any idea of anybody who might be able to go? She's also looking. It's like the same thing. It's like finding somebody to go to step onto the ZBA. You know, it's just hard finding volunteers. I'm having hard time finding co-workers who are under the age of 65 who were willing to give up hours on a Tuesday in August. I mean, they're, you know. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't exist. No, I hear you. I mean, we're good. It's, and that's a job where there's real work and trouble and everything else involved. They're, when that job gets busy, it's busy. And, you know, you got to be ready to jump and take action. So, I love dogs, but I'm not raising my hand for that one. Well, Jesse Peacart might do it. Alparone? Oh, Alparone. Yeah. But I mean, I know it was Jesse Peacart, but Alparone. No, I know. But maybe Paul would do it. I don't know. Does anybody talk to them, Sarah, that you know? I talked to them while we were going through looking for Erica, but I will ask them again. I think, I'm not sure. I think Paul's concern was that he didn't have a place to hold the dogs. The dogs, so, but I will definitely ask. Well, he doesn't, I mean, I understand you needs to take him to the shelter, but it isn't like part of the job is holding the dog. I know. It's just you're called out at all hours in the night. I know. I know. You get paid if you submit a bill, which Erica wasn't very good at. I'll call up BearSpawn tomorrow and just try to lead on them if they're open. Yep. That'd be great. There's also, didn't Erica work for a couple of other towns? I wonder if there's another person in another dog catcher in a different town that might be willing to take on our time. Worcester stole her from us. I mean, they were, they were so desperate for dog catchers that, you know, they came to us. Are they thinking like East Montpelier or something? I'll ask Rose. Wow. And then they'll wander in 1200 bucks that you make. It's not very much. It's kind of a stipend. You put your... It's gonna be a problem because all of a sudden we're gonna have a dog problem. We're not gonna have anybody to handle it. How about, how about people who take dogs in, you know, like Len Lowe or Kavanaugh? Amy Kavanaugh? Amy, yeah. I'll ask her. You know, part of the issue is the, it's a two part, it's a two part issue. Don't go too into it, but you've got to be diplomatic like Erica is. You've got to understand the law when the town gets involved when the town doesn't get involved. And you've also got to be able to physically deal with the animals. I mean, those are three unique and separate talents that you don't always get together. Or is training available though, correct? I don't know. I don't think so. No one... The League of Cities in town doesn't have a manual or training The League of Cities in town has the big book of Wook which is talks about the law. And you know, the idea that if it's dogs, if a dog bites the neighbor dog or a dog bites a visitor in the house, that's not a town's problem. The dog runs out into the road and bites the visitor, then it's the town's problem. You know, those types of issues. But again, it's the, there's the other component of having the dog carrier going out at night and getting the dog if it's wild, if it's running on the interstate, you know, those are the, those are real cases. Oh yeah. Wow. Yeah. The other thing, I mean, not only did Erica do all that but she was wonderful at mediating those problems. I mean, when's the last time we had a dog here and we used to have them all the time. We haven't had one in a long time. And it just handles them. Yeah. And she does a really, really, really good job. She's just excellent. And she gets it, she gets it before it gets to a crisis situation. If you've got a barking dog, she somehow works with them. Plus she knows all these training techniques. I mean, she's great. Well, then we should just tell her we can't find anybody forever until she finally. Let's ban dogs. I do have a nickname for you, Sarah. Yeah. Wendy Glander. Oh, Wendy Glander, yeah. She lives down at the bottom of Shadyville, right? Yes. She's a real dog lover. She works at the post office, right? Yes, she does. She's George's daughter, right? Yeah, she is. We've talked about it. Great. That's a great suggestion. I will reach out to her. That is a great suggestion. I didn't know she was a dog lover like that. Yeah, she is. Well, that's great. Well, we need to find somebody and we need to remember to thank and honor Erica for all her good work, because she's done. You know, we don't hear very much from Erica. She just handles stuff, but she's doing stuff all the time. I should have to think how many hours she's put in on our behalf. But I know she loves it. She loves it. Night after night in a row. So anyway, let's see here. Where are we? Approval. June 16th, select port minutes. Do we have a motion? Move approval. Second. Thank you, Steve. All in favor? Aye. Everybody say aye. Unanimous? Yes. Boarders, I didn't send you an email yet. Madam Treasurer, but I will. I was looking them over before the meeting. Correspondence. Sarah? No, the only correspondence actually is kind of a somewhat BCA correspondence. And that is that you have an appeal, but that's something we can talk about under other matters. OK. Well, I'd say we're to other matters. All right. So we have, since this is the lion's share of the BCA, our next board meeting, as you know, the select board meeting is on the 21st. It looks like we're going to have at least one appeal of property of the grievances. I came in today. Tomorrow is the deadline for them. I'm suggesting a BCA meeting on the 28th of July, where we do the pre-election stuff. And then we have the hearing. I guess it's going to be through Zoom. How does that work for you? We can't do it. You think it's too much to do it after the next select board meeting? We can't. You don't have the proper number of days to mourn it. Oh, OK. All right. And it is, I guess. Do it. And while I have you here, as you know, election day is August 11th. We have, I've been meeting with the town clerks in Washington County, and we're all going through absolutely extraordinary precautions for this election. I don't want anybody who has had a prior illness or anybody who has had a prior serious illness or is of a fragile age to be at that town hall that day. And if you need something. What are you considering a fragile age? Watch how you answer that. Careful, Sarah. They might have eliminated a few of us. The birthday girl would like to respond to that. Yeah, I'm waiting for what she says. So what I'm saying is that on August 10th, the board of civil authority is proud. We have sent out, as of today, we've sent over 250 absentee ballots. And that is on July 7th. So that has been a tremendous outpouring of absentee ballots. It means that we're probably going to have to process them on August 10th here at town hall the day before the election. And actually, the fewer people, the better, I think. And again, I think we should try. We're going to have to be spaced out. We're going to be working with masks. It's not going to be pretty. It's going to be uncomfortable as we process over 300 absentee ballots on the 10th of August. So I would hope that you guys could just let me know if you're who's willing to do that on the 10th of August and who feels comfortable doing that. I know Liz and I both have tight day blood, but I guess we're going to throw ourselves on the funeral pyre for that, right? We'll risk our lives. It's fun. We'll risk our lives to run ballots. Is that a, what day is that? Because I'm going camping, I think, in August sometime. That's on Monday. Monday. Oh, the 10th this? Yeah. Yeah. I could, I can do the 10th, I think. Very good. I can help you with that. And probably we need about two other people. It's going to be a curriculum task. I might get Dave Smith, our new assistant town clerk. But otherwise, I would like most of you guys to stay home for your own help. And this is, this is at one time, seven o'clock? No, no, no. We're going to be on the 10th, on August 10th. We're going to try to meet as early as possible. I'm thinking like five. Oh, OK. We're going to run about open and process over 300 ballots. OK, did you want me there in the morning? Do you want me to take the morning off to do that? No, we're supposed to wait till the end of voting, the end of absentee voting on the 10th. We can't, we can't open them until then. Which is when? It's at 5. 5. 5 p.m. on, yeah, just normal office hours. That's absentee voting. But the 11th is 7 p.m. But this is the day before. What we'd like to do is process all those absentee ballots. Run them. I see. And then I see, I see, I see. Yeah. So Phil was good, but I don't know. I mean, Phil is also in a sensitive age group. If you appoint me as an election officer again, I'll do it. But you're in a sensitive age group. I am not. I'm at 65 yet. Fragile. We're quite fragile. So now we go at the ages. Well, I would volunteer, but I think you'll reject me because I'm in the fragile age group. I'm in the fragile age group. You did not want to have this. I was just talking to Katie Winklejohn, the clerk and Worcester this afternoon, her friend got COVID and he has permanent kidney damage. It's don't, you don't want it. No, I don't want it. I asked my doctor if I was in the high risk group. She said, you bet you are. Yeah. Thanks for that. So anyway, I'm trying to be very careful. Right. So I think we get, and I, you know, using CO is not that great because he's a candidate. But of course he can, but that's something the board of civil authority. But at least now, at least I can have Dave Smith, Liz and, and, and I can work on it. And we'll try to get one more person. You don't want to hear what she's talking about. Derinda is very good. And Derinda's had a lot of experience. So that's good. OK. I am going to be out of town, both the 10th and the 11th. But I need to stay away anyway. So. Well, make sure you ask for an absentee ballot. So do you want me to send my little postcard back? Or can I just ask you? I want it in writing in an email. What do I have to do? I, I, I send my little postcard back. I'm a little worried. I don't have to send the postcard back, do I? Because I got the, I got the ballot. You got the ballot. That's good. OK. All right. Um, anything else, anybody? OK, then get ready for an exciting meeting, the next meeting. Set the tax rate. What do you do? You have a, you have a couple of things that's also going to be the planning commission is doing its presentation, is it holding the public hearing or we're getting, it's getting kicked up to the select board at public hearing on the quote and quote energy plan. And also the people do voice who did the village, who's the consultant on the village plan, or they also want to do a presentation to the board. So the 21st is jam packed. But it's still Zoom, correct? It's always Zoom. Couldn't it be Zoom now until the next, until whatever? I know. Oh, man. Oh, it's crazy, guys. It's crazy. Well, thank you all very much. And we'll keep swinging. Put your pennies away. Get ready for your tax bills. All right. Bye, Peter. Bye, everyone. Are we done? Bye, everybody. Yes. Bye, everybody. Bye.