 Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Rochester Select Board meeting. I can't hear anyone. Oh, there it goes. Thank you. March 11th, 2024, it's 6.15 p.m. to comply with open meeting law. We have posted the agenda in three places around town. We have placed it on our website and we have emailed all persons that had interest in knowing about the agendas and the meetings. Yes. First thing on our list is approving prior meeting minutes. We can go back to select board meeting minutes way back in February 26th, 2024. I have read the minutes and if Frank has read them agrees with them we can approve them. Yep. Second. Approve. Aye. All right. Got it. On that same evening we had a pre-town meeting. I have read those minutes. They seemed accurate. So I move that we accept those. I second that. All in favor. Aye. We had a special select board meeting on March 1st, but since Dune is not here and Frank wasn't there, we're going to skip this one and catch up with it in our next meeting. Full board or wherever we have. So that moves us right along to should we take on our guests or move into new business? I'll go right to the grant discussion for the AED. I think that's why number two on our list is grant discussion for AED. Is there someone here to speak on that? I believe, Marka. I'm not speaking on that, but I'm sorry but I don't know what the AED stands for. We'll let Janice tell us. Defibrillator. Jan, you're on mute. I'm not sure if you're here to speak on this. Seven times. Automated external defibrillator. Thank you. Okay, should I go ahead? Yes, please. So I wrote the grant to Ben and Jerry's and I got a letter on the sixth saying that they approved it. So they approved $1,500. I sent a message to Dune but I never heard back and I understand he's a way. Yes, he is. How's the country? Yep. So the AEDs can cost up to a little over $2,000. So my question is, can the town kick in the balance? Do you want to do the shopping? Do you want me to do the shopping? How does that work? How long is the grant available to us? The check might be in the mailbox today. I don't know. You received the check today. Are you got it? How much was it for? $1,500, Martha. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry to bother you. Sorry. So I definitely need all supporting documents and anything that you would have to support that, Janice. You mean the grant or you mean? Yeah, 100%. Like all everything that you sent in or the request that you made, any sort of correspondence that you have, I need all of that to go along with that check. Okay, I just send them an email asking for the money. That's fine. If you could just send it on to me and then you said you got a letter if I could have a copy of that too, please. Well, I don't know if I got a letter. I haven't been down to the mailbox, but they said they were sending the check and I should have got it by now. But when I get it, I'll let you know. Okay, so as for the shopping, we certainly trust your expertise and you would probably be looking to buy the best unit you can as close to $1,500 as you can. So once you have some proposals for purchasing, come on back to us and we'll see if we can squeeze it in. I talked to Sally Roberts over at Werba and at the school they have one, it's Z-O-L-L, and the shelter team did our training for CPR and AED. The Z-O-L is what they used. It's very easy to follow and it also can communicate with the Werba ambulance. So they can read the strip en route and know what's going on. So I want to try to get a Z-O-L. Is that the one that you know is $2,000 or $2,500? Yeah, it depends on which website you look. I was trying to find, I was told that somebody might be able to, one of the ambulance companies might be able to get me a discount, but they won't do it at Werba. So I'm still looking around. Okay, remember we're tax exempt. Yeah. Well, I'll get Kristen the information and start looking. Well, congratulations. Anybody that can get a grant based on an email? Wow, that's good work. You just have to know what, you just have to know what words to say. All right, be careful. We'll come at you again. Terry, do you have any access to those? I would probably go through Werba, so. Yeah, just curious because you would be the one. We have one and that's it. You have one at the firehouse? Yeah. Then pick up. Then pick up. Yeah. Do you know what brand it is, Terry? Not right off hand. Okay. Maybe we should keep them similar if we could. I would think you'd want to go with what Werba has because, you know, that's what they're teaching and that's me the best lesson I've learned. Yeah, she suggested that. Is that where you got yours through them? Originally? I know. It's been. Power is quite old. Werba fixes it. We send it over every couple of years and they go through it. Oh, okay. But I'm sure it's not the newest model. Okay, so we have a plan in place for this. Let's move forward. Thank you, Jan. You're welcome. Good. The third item on our list is permission for 100 on 100 August 10th from 130 to 5 o'clock passing through and they haven't provided the insurance. Do you have that? Is there something we signed on that? Just in case I want to have permission to be able to come through town. This is a bicycle race or running race? I think it's bicycle race. 100 should be the next, right? 100 on 100. What is it? It's a relay race. It's a run-and-run race. It's running. So I have no problem with improving every year. It doesn't seem to disrupt the town. Their placement of checkpoints is that one that has... We're going to use the school department rule. Yeah, and that was fine by us in the past. So I see no reason to not approve that. And welcome to run through our town on August. Don't they have to go to the school? Yes. Yes, we just have to have them take care of it. They usually do. They do this every year. And we'll move on to number four. Park use application May 24th through October 4th for the Rochester Farmers Market to take place from 3 to 6 p.m. I do have the application in front of me. Is there any discussion? You asked last year, you asked me to provide also the vendor rules just for you to have a clear idea of what is expected of the vendors. So I attached that. You did. I got that. The other thing is insurance. We have to wait for a few vendor fees to come in so that we can pay for the insurance. But I can give you a copy of the insurance as soon as I have that available because we pay for insurance every year. It's last year, actually, because we pay to have EBT at the market to have that program. Last year, just at the market alone, there was $3,500 of local produce and goods that were purchased through the EBT program at the market. People in need are getting good food. Yeah, yeah. Awesome, awesome. Anybody else have any comments on this? I move that we accept the farmers market use of the park every Friday from May 24th to October 4th, 2024. Seconded. All in favor. All right. And we can sign this. 311. Yeah. I'll put my name right here. You can put your name there. Usually only one of us sign it. Five of us. Yeah, but we're always on the chair. Yeah. Well, thank you. I hope we have a very good season. Not as much rain as last year. Well, please don't there for the last year. Well, you can make a half night of rain. The mud right now wouldn't be welcome. Okay. Park use application May 31st through October 4th for the library summer reading program from three to five. This also takes place on Friday afternoon. It coincides with the farmers market. I understand this works in good harmony for parents to go shopping and the kids get together with other kids and have a blast. So I believe this takes place over more towards the gazebo. Yes. Yes, they put their advertising in the market and we leave a space open for them to go through the gazebo. So it sounds perfect to me. A great compliment to the farmers market and I move that we accept this application for town park use. Second it. Hold in favor. Aye. Oh, look, it's another park use application. This one is for a specific day. It happens to be the same day as the 100 race. It's August 10th, 2024. But this one's from noon to 2.30 and it will be a family concert with the band called Busy Morning Band. It is sponsored by the library. So, boy, it's August seems a long ways off, but it's right around the corner. I see no reason for this event not to take place. It's just a two and a half hours. Yeah, two hours at that. 12 to 2.30, it says. They're probably allowing it for cleanup. Oh, on our agenda. Oh, that's all right. And I move that we approve this one. I second that. All in favor. Aye. Rochester Public Library, August 10th event is approved. We have a calendar. Yes. I've got to write those on the calendar because you've got, there's one in September now, I know. Yeah. And it's way stretched out there. Or something that wants to get married at the same time as the park. Yeah. We need to keep track of that. Moving right along to number 7 on our list. Martha Slater is with us, and she'd like to have a discussion about the 4th of July. If you can hear me, 4th of July comes on a Thursday this year. And basically every year for the past 20 some ideas, I've been just getting, I have to get permission from you to organize the event. I've talked to Becky Dona, and it looks like she's pretty sure Pierce Hall is going to be doing their chicken barbecue, as usual. I talked to several people about music, and McKayla Richardson told me that she was interested in organizing a group to do games for kids and things. So there'd be, you know, it's the usual thing with various activities on the park, and the parade going through and everything. And maybe I can get Bernie to come again this year. Who knows? But you never know. But yeah, he's come several times. So anyway, I would just like permission I have. And if anybody has some good ideas for my theme this year, last year's theme was hometown happiness, and I still haven't thought up of a theme yet. But the reason I asked permission this early is because I discovered that the company that I ordered a portipotti's from and stuff like that need to know like months in advance because they get everything all, you know, booked up in the summer. So if I could have permission to start organizing the 4th of July parade, et cetera, again, I would like it. Thank you. Move the use of the park and give permission to Martha to start organizing the 4th of July parade. Second that. All in favor? All right. Martha, go for it. Thank you. Thank you. I know there's a lot of work involved there. Number eight on our list. This is relining the parking lot at the town office here to accommodate more parking. And Susie Smolin is here to visit with us on that subject. Hi. Mike, I want to start with a question. Has this, has there been discussion prior to tonight about the idea of changing the way the parking lot is used? Specifically, we all know that there is a challenge for parking between the businesses and residents, visitors. And it seems to me that there could be another row of parking down the middle here. I don't know if it would be single or double. And my other thought is, is just the area beside the brook. There are occasions where cars actually do pull in perpendicular to the brook. And the only active use of that area is for people to take their dogs to do their business. So perhaps, you know, it could be extended a little bit if need be to accommodate more parking, but even a single line would allow another nine cars, a double line would allow 18 cars. And an additional four or five on the other side would make a huge difference. And then there perhaps could be a municipal parking sign up on route 100. We take a lot of pressure off the town's parking shortage. Well, I'm going to point towards the ladies that work at the town office and see if they have an opinion on if there's a congestion problem, a lack of parking spaces, or people fighting over parking spots out there. I know it's probably been 10 to 15 years since we extended the parking lot. It's been a long time since it's been reconfigured and paved, that's for sure. Would we do lines before we did more pavement? I wouldn't want to even put lines on it at this point. It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense because it really needs a good paving project and that's 40 grand probably to pave that, I would guess somewhere around that. Well, I only bring- Just the town office, the town gradual one was 37,000 and that was hardly half the size of this. I bet we'd be looking at 40 to 50,000 just to pave the parking lot. That's my thought. I would say when the time comes, which is like Frank is saying, shouldn't be too much in the future except for finding the money to do it. That would be the time to think about reconfiguring the parking and do lines. I was prompted to bring up this inquiry because I've been involved in a number of conversations about just parking for the hardware and for Naples Soul and for Town Clerk and for the grocery store and for the cafe. There's been a lot expressed about how difficult it is for the tenants above the cafe, the tenants above the hardware store, etc. I was just curious if it had ever been considered and if it could be considered. Well, the last time it was considered, the parking lot was enlarged. But you don't have any overnight anyway? No. It was not overnight, right? No. So tenants would be out of question. Yeah, nor would be. What we might be able to do is put it on Google Maps that it is a municipal parking lot and that's really just going to alleviate people that are driving through and want to stop in town. If there's no parking at every 100, they can come here and park and walk through town and just let people know that that is a public space for them to park. That's part of why I'm asking because if ITI, people are coming back to the office and often that double row there is completely full. So it really doesn't leave room for much of anything else. Okay, well thank you. I think we also have public parking down by where the EV charging stations are. That's also a public parking lot as well. I know, but walking on the road into town isn't the most comfortable thing. I mean, there were sidewalks there, which is also incredibly expensive. I'm not suggesting it, but there is sidewalk parking down there. It is pretty well, pretty funny. It is all white, but it's all white. It's white on this side. Oh, okay. Yep. Excellent. So yes, will we visit this again when the time is right? Parking has always been an issue in the town and when ITI redid their building, it was an issue before the zoning board then. But it was felt that there's very few places in town that can really comply with the parking ordinance anyway. Apartment houses, what the cafes done over there probably alleviates a lot of their parking. You're supposed to have two parking spaces for every apartment. So when ITI did their business over, built that big addition there, we overlooked the parking because of the jobs that it would create for the people in town. So that was an issue that came up and we just looked at it like the municipal parking lot is free parking first come first serve. And that's the way we looked at that. I think you have to also be concerned about people who are coming here to do work and making sure that they have enough parking spaces. Right, but we don't, they're just permitted to park there. There's no written agreement. It's just free parking for whoever. I'm talking about over here for town office work. Oh, we have signs on this side that say town office parking. Right. I've never had a problem finding a parking spot here, but to be continued. Okay, thank you. Okay, next on our list of wonderful things to do, we're up to the town of Rochester is blessed with a lot of assistance with people that are appointed to positions. Dune is not here tonight. So we're going to tackle a few of the positions so that the list is sometimes it takes us an hour to get through all the appointments. So we're going to tackle some of them. The attitude being these are ones that are essential people to run the town. So we want to get them reappointed comfortable in their positions. And next time we have a full board, we will tackle the rest of them. So we did someone here too. So out of our appointments, they're skipping down to water commissioners and sewer commissioners. The appointments for that are the select board members. So I move that we appoint the select board members as water commissioners and sewer commissioners for a one year term ending 2025. Seconded. All in favor. All right. Cut the job. Thank you. Good luck. Plant your seeds. It's time. Sewer plant operator and nominate Terry Severy for a one year term that it would expire in 2025. Seconded. All in favor. Aye. Sewer plant operator assistant. I nominate Cody Bowen for a one year term expiring 2025. Seconded. All in favor. Aye. Water plant operator. I nominate Terry Severy for a one year term ending 2025. Seconded. All in favor. Aye. Aye. Water plant operator assistant. I nominate Cody Bowen for a one year term ending 2025. Seconded. All in favor. Aye. Aye. On-site wastewater officer. I'm not sure he's ever really done anything like this, but I nominate Dune Hendricks. And for a one year term ending 2025. Seconded. All in favor. Aye. Aye. Grandville first response representative, which I think maybe we would just want to say Valley Rescue Squad representative. I'd like to nominate Rob Gardner to continue in that role for a one year term ending in 2025. I second that. All in favor. Aye. All right. Tree Warden, we the select board, I nominate us as the Tree Wardens for the town for a one year term ending in 2025. All in favor. Aye. Energy coordinator, Jeff Gephart to continue on doing a wonderful job that he has been for a one year term ending in 2025. Seconded. All in favor. All right. Recycling coordinator, I nominate Julie Smith for a one year term ending in 2025. Seconded. All in favor. All right. Aye. Park committee, that is the select board, as you can see we approve this and that. So I nominate the select board as the park committee for a one year term ending in 2025. Seconded. All in favor. All right. And the last one we have for tonight will be more later, animal control officer, human officer, I nominate Jeff Brown to continue in his role in a one year term ending in 2025. Seconded. All in favor. Aye. That does not cover them all. So if you were appointed, you would say, hey, how come I didn't get appointed? We're going to wait until we have more of a select board to do the appointed. And if there's anybody out there that's interested in being appointed to anything, please let us know. Because we would certainly like to have more people involved if we can. So there's a list in the town report where you can look through and see what's available and if you want to join, let Julie know. That'd be great if we could get some people involved. Now it's time for our departmental reports. Do we have anyone from the library? We don't have anyone. No. We do have someone from the highway department, though. Hi, Frank. Yeah. Hi. Cooter's at it. He's at it. He's plowing. Lugging it. Doing what they have to do. Well, we had a good rest for a whole month. Got one. Yeah. It's a hard, it's not easy on equipment, that's for sure. And I'm sure they're sick of it. Okay, so we are still expecting the roads to be posted at some point? I would say. That's up to John. I don't know if he's going to do it this year. I think he's gone and talked to the people and said it does justice. It's a lot of work to post every road in town, too. And I think, you know, he's this early season. He knows which ones to go see. Just go see the people. He still doesn't post every road. Right. And I think it's probably. Yeah. Some towns just post it on their website and don't put the signs up on the road. Right. And this year is probably the year that he probably wouldn't post anyway. A lot of the roads were pretty well thought out there for a while. See the difference at the Granville Tell Line? Yeah. By God. Yeah. The roads I feel are in pretty good shape. Yeah, there's some bad spots out there, but as a whole, I think. Yeah, I have heard a lot of thumbs up about our roads. So that's a really good thing. Okay. Well, that was a fun road report from the community. For a change. Uh-oh. Here comes the utilities operator. What do you have for us today? Nothing right now. Okay. Are you working on fees? Rate increases? Yeah. Looking at that. There's no sense doing it until doomed by it. Right, exactly. We will forward that. And then we'll be doing a spring walk around next month. So depending on now when the snow goes. Yeah, they say we could get another storm next week. I heard it was the first day of spring. But they don't know. It's coming up to be coming up the coast. Yeah. Thank you. I'll just get ahold of who was king. Because we said that we didn't have to. I think we entered a three-year contract with him last year. Yeah, I think so. Instead of trying to do every year because they wouldn't get their paperwork out. And then half the time they were late getting there. So if we don't get it done in April, we kind of get a little nasty note from the state. It's been different. I've seen a lot of years we couldn't do it in April because they're still small where they've been plowed. So, but we'll see. Okay. Do we have a Jeff Gephardt for energy coordinator? He's still recuperating. Say, how's he doing? What's that? How's he doing? He's doing pretty well, actually. Considering he was pretty fortunate, really. Okay. Grant updates. I took care of what I needed to with Jan. And I've already received your email. So that's great. And other than that, waiting on FEMA. Yeah. Okay. And is there any discussion about the LHMP, the local hazard mitigation plan? That we received the BRIC grant from the state. We were awarded. BRIC, Building Resilient Instructure and Committees. BRIC. Everything's going to be okay. And then there's, it requires signature so that I can send it back and start the next step. Okay. Let's get it going. And then you'll be left in for the boat. Yeah. Yeah. Everything's in there. Okay. We are the subrecipient of the state. Move it along. Thank you. Also, we have, we're just making a statement with this as an announcement that there will be an open meeting law for boards and committees. There's a lot of committees in this town. This is not, this does not just apply to the select board. This open meeting law applies to a lot of committees, commissions. The only thing I think that's exempt from this is a task force like Hawaii's I wrote. So there is, there is this April 17th at 10 a.m. to 11 30 a.m. There is a small cost for it, but it is, it is very valuable to keep your mouth out of trouble and stay with the open meeting laws. You really don't want to be in violation of those laws when you're making meetings and decisions. So we're just going to public saying we recommend this class to everyone. You go into it. Legislature also changed some rules. Yes. So that's why this is really important to attend. Yes. A little bit in our favor. They could cut us a little bit of slack. So like if people need the length or whatever, they can just reach out to you and then they can register and sign up for it. Yep. It's sponsored by VLCT. So I'm understanding that this is via Zoom. This is not in person. Yes. Okay. So we can get the link from by calling the town office. Yeah. It doesn't say what platform it's on, but I'm sure it probably. Okay. Thank you. As a comment for town meeting, I would like to thank all who attended town meeting and especially those who voted for me. I will do all I can to serve one at all. Thank you so much. Don't get to say that at town meeting, so I'd like to take that opportunity. And with that said, I think we're open for public comment. I have a comment. Bring it on, Nancy. It was really difficult at town meeting to not be able to hear, and the equipment that was being used was really not in good shape. I think we should take some ARPA money and buy some proper equipment so that we can use it here. It could be used on the select board table. It could be used to pass around. I don't know how much it costs, but. Well, one thing I noticed that the light bulbs were in great shape because we couldn't see anything from the stage into the crowd. Your wife might as well have not come. The mic was cutting out a lot. I did notice that if you held it to your mouth, it worked just fine. But the minute they dropped, just a little bit is out. Dropped out. And 99% of the people that use the equipment don't know how to use it, and then they forget. Maybe in the future, we need to advise that to use this equipment, you've got to really keep it close to your mouth. Well, I don't even know who owns that equipment. Kristen said that the batteries, the AA batteries, were all dying, and they were in the back running around trying to find AA batteries. They didn't have them. That's happened before. I'll make sure we have them for the next meeting, or get our own equipment. Why not just change them? Change them? Yeah, you know. I think they don't laugh. That's it. Yeah, I don't see a change over here. That would be the smart thing to do. That, guys. It was like his personally. Wildwood? Yeah. Jake Wildwood? Yeah. Those were like his mics. Those were his. Yeah. Well, in the future, we could definitely supply the batteries and just make sure they're in. Well, it also comes down to the select board. You cannot hear the select board talking into the audience. So having microphones that could be passed back and forth on the table would be helpful too. Well, the two mics that were there, certainly. I thought we were working good. I didn't know. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. Well, we'll take it under advisement. And they won't make any differences to whether you flag off the seats and tell everybody they have to sit up front because they won't. We're going to need to use some for part cleanup, I think. You just get a lot of debris on the part of this. And even when the snow goes, there's going to need to be a lot of clean up there, the raking and everything. It's going to be expensive. The shit is going to fell over. No, I took it down. The little little kids don't do it. What did you expect me to do? Go get it. Oh, I took it down. It's great. More of the points that come down. Oh, I know. NRF. They did it everywhere else. X. I took it down sooner than. K.E.W. Q.C.R.W.A.T.U.C.M. But I didn't. They did it everywhere else. Yeah. Oh, there was a lot of trees down yesterday. But glad you didn't get one of our new ones. It was close. I wasn't happy looking at that. That was close. Anything else I call meeting be adjourned? I second that. Jesus. I'm a driver. Record time. Hey, you know, don't drag it.