 So we'll get started. We'll call the meeting to order 602. And first on the agendas to approve the agenda. So if there's any, any additions to the agenda, I know Teresa has one. I have the addition, um, the revolving loan fund committee met with the campbells and approved their loan. So it is for $30,000. Um, still at 4% and it may be a little bit over 30 months. Carol said they were just basically keeping the $1,200 month payment. The same. So if you guys approve that tonight, I'll reach out to Carol and he will call. Um, I think it's Jeff Lewis who does, he'll do a promissory note. They're also going to pay off their existing loan. So they have a loan. So they're going to pay off their existing and then use the balance. Okay. So, um, I want to just put it at the end, uh, behind a Bethel Royalton transfer station audit. Okay. Prove the agenda as amended. Okay. Okay. And this evening we do have, uh, we do have Kurt. So we'll, uh, he's our appointment. So we'll take him first. And then after, uh, we get through with Kurt, we'll open it up to public comment at that time. Um, we've been doing that now for a little bit because. Usually there's not too much in public comment, but every once in a while there's an item that. Take a half an hour and then it's not really fair to the appointment one. So. Um, so we will move things to Kurt and thank you, Kurt, for coming back. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for having me back. Um, and, um, so, uh, I figured if it's okay with you, I'll just give you the briefest of reports that I have at this point. And, uh, and then if you all have anything you want me to, to be aware of or be looking for or anything like that for you, then, uh, let me know that. Um, So I. You know, this is, I've completed a couple of full weeks of, of legislative activity. Um, and, uh, at this point, um, I don't remember if I told you, but I've been appointed to the commerce and economic development committee. And, uh, which I requested, uh, precisely because I, I felt that that was the thing that Bethel and the other four, the three towns in our district. Are important to them. And, um, and, uh, and I was pointed as the clerk of that committee, uh, which. I guess is, is something important. I'm not, you know, uh, it means I handle some of the paperwork is what happens. Um, but, um, and, uh, I was also appointed the liaison to the, um, energy and technology committee, which is the one that's, uh, working on broadband. And again, um, I sort of asked for that if, if, if I could have my, my druthers and they gave it to me. And again, mostly because as you're, as we all are aware, broadband and, and cell coverage and all those are, are challenges for our towns. And I just wanted to be, mix and be able to, to, uh, be part of that. So, um, and then, uh, for caucuses, which are groups of, uh, legislators across the political spectrums that, that choose to have common interests that they want to promote. Uh, I'm a member of the, um, climate caucus. I'm a member of the social equity caucus. I'm a member of the, um, uh, of the, uh, workers caucus for, for kind of working people. And then I'm also the member of the rural economic development caucus. Uh, again, I felt like those were areas that could best sort of serve our communities. And, uh, so I asked to be parts of those, um, at this point, though, they're, they're gearing up everything is sort of in preparation for the governor's budget address, which is coming out, I think tomorrow or this week. Um, and, uh, at that point, since my, uh, my committee is commerce economic development, we've been hearing a lot from the, from the agency of, of, uh, community, uh, commerce community development and a number of other organizations such as that. And we'll be, uh, going over, um, you know, allocations and that kind of stuff. Uh, as, as probably doesn't surprise you, everybody wants more money. Uh, and, uh, and probably everyone's going to be disappointed. Uh, but, uh, but, you know, that's where it's where we are with that. Um, and so that's pretty much where I am at this point. Uh, nothing that I'm aware of is, is big and, uh, well, the budget's big, but, but there are no other bills that I'm aware of that are, are hurtling at small towns at this point that are in imminent danger of becoming real and having an impact pro or con on you. So, uh, um, but, uh, and you have any questions for me or any things you are, you've heard of. I, I, I, I gathered, uh, I've heard, uh, Tari skits, uh, uh, there have been times when I've sent her memos and she's already gotten the memo. So, uh, um, uh, so if, if there are anything you've heard of that you want me to keep an eye on or look into, let me know. Well, I think, um, and what I'll do with, um, or I guess probably how we'll, we'll do the conversation with the current is, you know, first we'll, um, as, as like people, we can, um, go around the table and then if anybody, um, in the audience has anything that they'd like to bring up to Kurt, um, feel free to like raise your hand in the message area. Um, and then trees or myself can, um, call you guys in, um, at the appropriate time. So I know the two things I had written down and one's kind of more important to our development of the town. Um, and one is kind of more what everybody's thinking about right now, but, um, so the first one, uh, Theresa and I, we're talking today about it was, um, you know, we currently do have, uh, two, um, state highway grant, um, applications in. Okay. One is for, uh, a bridge, um, rehabilitation and the other one is for the, I'll call the rehabilitation of the sand hill section. Um, you know, typically the state funds about $7 million a year in the, uh, in that grant program for towns. Um, and last year there were no issues because of COVID. And then the rumor was that the grant funding would be, would be funded by about half for this year, which is three and a half million. So I don't expect you're going to say yes, no, or it is, but maybe you could look into it. I know that if it's fully funded that I'm sure at least one of our projects is probably top on the list that we'll have a good. Opportunity of getting it, which we can continue to get our ducks on the road for it. Yeah. Um, but if you say, it looks like the grant funding isn't there, it's going to be half as much and we'll just, you know, move that aside and work on other projects. And so that's ready, but, um, so that was kind of, um, yeah, I guess we, you know, we, um, Teresa and I have been talking about in regards to our projects. And then I think, you know, the big one that a lot of people are talking about right now is, um, especially after the meeting last week is the, you know, the education funding piece. Um, you know, great advocate. It's a, you know, a 9% increase on the state education tax rate before it even gets to the local and, um, which, um, you know, as a taxpayer, um, very concerned about such a jump. Um, you know, usually an average increase a year taxpayers are two or 3% not, you know, 9% plus. Um, you know, not to mention a lot of people are still, um, um, you know, seeing the impacts of COVID financially. Um, not alone, you know, I was doing math and, you know, the right now the proposed extra nine cents on the tax school rate here in Bethel. Um, you know, that's $90 a year per 100,000. So, you know, for every $100,000 of your house is worth, you're going to pay an extra $90. That's just school. And then you got to think, you know, our, that we had proposed is about two cents. So, you know, right out of the gate, you're at 11 cents. Um, you know, which is, you know, a hundred, $110 per every $100,000 worth of value. So that's, you know, that's pretty substantial. I mean, I would say the average taxpayer knows what $200 maybe increase on their taxes, which, you know, It's not nothing. Absolutely. Yeah. I don't know if there's anything better on that or anything or. I mean, yeah, I know that, that. That there are huge concerns about that. I mean, those, that proposal, if I remember, it came actually from, from the, uh, the governor side. Uh, and, um, and the legislature is looking at that, trying to figure out what to do that. Um, but, uh, I know everyone's very, very aware that that's, that that's not, uh, Not a popular, uh, Uh, thing to have in the background lurking. I don't know if you know, but the, um, uh, a report came out, uh, proposing to, uh, redo the entire education funding system. Uh, it, it, it went on coupling. Uh, the, uh, Property tax for primary residences. Uh, from, from, uh, uh, education funding and that, uh, you know, that's, uh, I suspect that'll be through a lot of process and discussion. And oh, yeah. Cause it's a, it would be a major change, but, uh, but that's something that's been advocated now, uh, by, by all ends of the spectrum. all ends of the spectrum, you know, from the Chamber of Commerce to the NEA to, you know, kind of all the different kinds of parties have said, you know, our tax system is not really, it's convoluted and it's not really working. So that would be an interesting thing when that comes through. What's the report say, Kurt? What do they want to base it on? Income. Yeah. This will kind of force the issue a little bit too, I think. Yeah, but they wanted to, you know, because one of the points they made was that, you know, if you make, you know, if you make 10 times what I make, if I make a, you know, $100,000 a year and you make a million dollars a year, your house is probably not still not going to be 10 times bigger and more expensive than my house. In which case, you're getting a break. Now, there are all sorts of income sensitivity things that are built into, you know, the homestead rebate and all that stuff. It just makes it more convoluted. But, and again, you know, on the one hand, that makes our current tax system, incomparable tax systems, it actually makes it more fair than a lot of other states. But it's still, you know, you're still, you know, it still isn't hitting the highest income brackets. And so what they want to do is switch it to income tax. The second homes would still be paying property tax like they always would. Commercial properties would still be paying property tax like they do. And then they've also talked about actually expanding the sales tax to a broader number of products. We actually have the most exemptions of just about any state that has sales tax. We exempt all sorts of things. And so they would be talking about cutting that down. And the idea is all this stuff would disperse the tax burden over a broader number of people and a broader number of sources of revenue so that the overall tax on property and that for education and those kind of things would be spread out more widely and more fairly based on people's income. Yet to be seen, they haven't done testimony or anything like that to see if that's really true. That's, but that's what the state tax department is proposing. So And that's good. It's been, I think, you know, Vermont's only one of five or six states in the country that have a real estate, you know, tie to the taxes of most of our income based. But they've been talking about that for years too. So hopefully maybe they'll get a little action. They haven't. And if there been, you know, it's one of the things I did was if because I was, I think Moe remembers when I stopped by his house one point last winter and I said, that was something that was important to me was to figure out why, why our education isn't funded by income tax or something. And so I got up there and I started asking this question. And a number of people were saying, just wait till this report comes out. And and when it did, then I asked the question, well, how come this wasn't done sooner? And and they said, honestly, they thought a few different things. You know, there are some people who it's going to hurt, you know, people with the highest highest incomes and those kind of things. And also, if you have a high income, but you live in, you live in a condo, you know, that you're going to end up paying more. And and so Chitton County doesn't particularly has a lot more of that going on. And and so so there's some of that. And then also just, they're sure it's going to be such a big process and battle that a lot of people have just been afraid to even go there. So but looks like they're, they're waiting in. And I'm, I'm glad they're at least going to have this conversation. So the other thing that's in the news, obviously that's looming is the pension liability. Yeah, teachers and state employees. I know Bethel participates in the state employee retirement system. So I think that NEA is obviously going to have field day because they don't want, you know, the proposal right now is to not give cost of living increases. So I'm sure that will get shot down. But I've been, I was waiting to see if we're going to increase our funding because right now obviously that an employee, automatically a percentage of their salary goes in and so does town share. And I think the last time they raised it, if I'm was like October 2019, I think for us. So I'm just surprised and don't understand how all of a sudden we could be short like 92 million or whatever that they need infused in it this year. Some of that, some of that was that, you know, of course, all of this is, is based on projections. You know, so they're not out of money now. It's just that, you know, and, and some of that was that it was based on projections of how their current investments would be paying off and, and they were, they had, they had been over, over optimistic. And, and so, so if I remember, I actually a huge part of that, that indifference comes right from there. But yeah, this is again, course from that comes from the state treasurer, Beth Pearson, she gave us a talk on it and she knew it was going to be popular. And, and I at this point get three or four emails a day from, from teachers expressing their, their opposition and, and, you know, and I, and I rightfully so, and I think the question is going to be how, you know, how can they work that out? And fortunately, I am, I'm just a baby legislator. So I'm not, I'm not in a, in a super hot seat, like some of them will be, I'm sure, but it'll probably be a combination. I mean, I can see our bond town and employee side, our contributions going up help, you know, cover some of that. So and then an infusion of cash from the state. So we'll see it's, it was interesting to hear about it, but yeah. So, so is there currently anything that is going to be on your agenda in your committee itself that may, may be something that, you know, Theresa, you know, should be looking out for downtown or not that I'm aware. There are some things that if, you know, they talk about on the board, you know, because when you're at the actual state house, they have a bulletin board and they put things on the board on the wall. And, and then, and then they, and they usually get, you know, you know, the, they get through to about about 10th of what's on the board. And, and so the, at this point, the chair of the, my committee is mo, I mean, he's mostly gathering that stuff, but he knows the very first thing we're going to have to look at is this budget when it, when it comes out as, and I know already the, I mean, appropriations and ways of means have both been meeting and, and looking at the pieces they've been able to get from the governor, but when it all comes down, that'll be the, that'll be the time. So my committee's mostly looking at that stuff where we've been meeting with Vsac and, you know, and all, you know, all, because all the colleges are asking for more money. Everybody, and so we're all those. So Dave is in the chat. Dave, Eddie has some questions. Yeah, start with some comments. This shortfall with retirement. Last time I negotiated with the teachers that was like five years ago. This is not new. This has been whiting there on the horizon for years and years and years and legislature does nothing about it. So it's time to jump in, even as the freshman legislator, get your feet dirty. Yeah, we'll help you make some enemies quicker. You can never have too many of those. Maybe not. Be a leader. Yeah. Yeah. The other thing is I read those numbers on Beamer Vermeers or whatever that's called. Beamer is the Vermont municipal employee retirement. Yeah. Do you look at those percentages? My God. I didn't realize, I mean, I wish I had a retirement plan like that. Maybe we should be looking at that. I mean, no cost of living when the amount of money that the town and the employer put into that thing. Oh my gosh. Yeah, what plan you get? A new retiree. Maybe people should look at cost of living that does people who've worked for 45 years or more. They've got a 0.03 cost of living raise, 0.03 that when you're passing out three and four percent cost of living raise to other folks, maybe they're not really realistic. So maybe we ought to be looking at that. Some points to me. All right. The question I have is I know some small business folks that are, I know our unemployment rate is much higher than we'd like, but I know some small business people that are trying to get help and people are saying, no, we're not going to come back to work. The state or the feds pass out money like it grows on trees. You don't have to look for a job. All we have to say is we're afraid of COVID. Don't have to go back work. We can draw unemployment forever. Obviously not forever, but if you guys would do something about that, like you got to look for a job, you got a job offered to you and it's safe, you need to take it. All right. I'm done for now. Thank you. I may be back. All right. I think there is something on the Vermont unemployment website about that, about, you know, refusing to work. So I haven't read it, but I know I remember seeing the headline, so I have to see what's out there. Yeah. Well, people know, I mean, two of these two people I'm talking about know of, they know people who aren't working that know the job and they called and said, we really need you come back work. And they said, no, sorry, we're making too much money. Yeah. And I'm sure there are people that will always take advantage of those kinds of systems. And I don't know what the Department of Labor's requirements are around that, but I know that there was some discussion at one point. One of the one of the many, many briefings I've been to where they they were talking about that that they they're aware there's a certain amount of abuse. And the question is, how do they, how do they catch it? And, and, and that's a good question. If you're offered a job, go to work. Yeah. Yeah. Simple. I know how can how can you prove that they didn't, that they were offered the job? Well, if you want, I might be able to get somebody to, well. Yeah. Sounds like Dave's hiring. All right. There you go. No, I'm not. I know who is. Yeah. I know, you know, as a whole court, you know, and, you know, Mike, I've grown up in Vermont, been here my whole life. And, you know, and what we continue in anybody else has been here for, you know, their whole life that we're really seeing, it happens every year, but we're seeing more and more is, it's so much gets passed down from Montpelier to the local level that by the time we get the budget, I mean, there's really not a whole lot of finagland we can do at the lower level to try to make it more cost efficient, you know, you know, a lot of the costs are handed down from top to bottom. And, you know, like this education one is, you know, a perfect example, you know, it's hard to make up, you know, nine cents, you know, on your tax rate, you know, you know, and then if you do, at that point, who were you penalizing, right? I mean, you're, you know, additionally, you're penalizing the education of the children, right? So, it's a very difficult one. You know, hopefully, you know, there'll be more talks of the, I don't want to say Act 46, but more things of how can we be more efficient with our money and you know, our local municipalities are really taking it hard, especially over the last few years. It's, it's, you know, and, and I know that at least a certain segment of the legislators are aware of it. I mentioned I'm part of the workers caucus and part of the purpose that caucus is that every, is to look at every bill and every proposal with the question, how does this affect the average working person? That's not in Chicken County. Well, yeah. And, and, and, and I think you'll find that, yeah, most of these, like I said, I'm, I'm on like the rural economic development committees that have people who are specifically trying to, to, to, you know, look at things so to, to for it not to always benefit Chicken County, because absolutely Chicken County, you know, they have the votes, they have the money, they have the influence and, and a lot of small communities. As you look at, if you look at employment, you know, a whole bunch of I have a, I was just connected to from the, who was this? This is not the auditor. But it was one of the people who looks at different, she's works for the governor's office, she goes through all their programs and looks for inefficiencies and, and, and stuff like that. And, and she was pointing out that if you look at almost any data about, you know, the prosperity of Vermont or the health of Vermont or anything like that, you look at it and you say, oh, that looks great. And then you, you look at Chittin County and Chittin County, you go, that looks really great. And then you look at the rest of the saying, oh, that's a good, you know, Chittin County just sort of, you know, skews the numbers so, so that, so that, you know, if it looks like per monitors are making a darn good wage, they are in Chittin County, right? Leonard also has a question. Yeah. I have a question regarding the revamping of the tax laws. Have you, you say that this has sort of been sitting around for years and sort of stalling and people are hesitant. Have you considered doing polls or surveys to get the people's information? See if the people want this. And if they want this to use the people to move this forward. Have they considered what? I didn't quite. Polls, polling the citizens, polling the towns to see what people want. Polling that information to push this forward faster. I mean, I don't know if anyone has, has considered that or not. I mean, I think, I think in theory, you know, people, that's what representative democracy is supposed to be, is that, that, you know, people are supposed to tell the representatives and, and your representatives are supposed to then carry that with them to the, to the legislature. But I don't know that there's been a specific polling or, or, or along those lines. But it's not a bad idea. Absolutely. Speaking of polling, Kurt, and I know for many years there used to be, used to be a questionnaire that would come out from the dole poll, dole poll. Is anybody in the legislature going to, legislation to be picking up that? I mean, I used to always think that was a really neat, you know, he used to pick like maybe the top 10, you know, top 10, you know, things that were going on for that past year might be, you know, marijuana or something else. And then, you know, then you could get everybody kind of feedback on town meeting day on, you know, people like this, do you not like this? Yeah. Is that ever going to get resurrected by somebody else? I mean, it was a, it was a personal initiative by Senator Doyle. And, and it arose out of the fact that he taught polycyc classes at Johnson, I believe. And so it was actually originally sort of part of his educational piece for his students. And when he ran it long after he retired as a teacher, and even after he retired as a senator, but no one has kind of picked that up. That was his sort of personal baby. But I agree. I think there were, I was never 100% sure what he did with that data. But he certainly collected it. Yeah. And I think, you know, maybe it goes a little bit with what Leonard was saying is, you know, at the end, you know, some of these maybe bigger topics, at least on town meeting day, if you can, you know, all of a sudden you find out that 85% of the people really would like to see this. Yeah. At least it kind of pushes the legislation a little bit to act on it, you know. And, and, and looking back through, I was looking at some of them from over the years and, you know, believe it or not, I don't know what he did with them. But believe it or not, you know, you may be two, you know, one or two off that list did, did see progression and eventually, you know, became law or a policy. So maybe a white poll or, you know, it could be something like that or. Yeah. I think he had a student staff. Yeah. No, I just always thought it was great. And then, you know, unfortunately, you know, his life and then, you know, you just, you know, don't have it. Yeah, I agree. I think. Yeah, he definitely collected them. I know there's other teachers, I mean, that are maybe not professors, but that are teachers that have, you know, that are senators or whatever. Maybe they'll pick up the torch. Since they would have students, you're right, they would, you would need staff to go through that. I remember getting ours and giving it to the local legislature and they were, everybody seemed to fill them out. There were always or hundreds of them. Yeah. Yeah. I don't see anybody else in the chat, Chris, with a question. Okay. Well, I thank you, Kurt. Sure. I would say, you know, any, anytime you, you know, get anything out of any of the committees or any of the programs you're associated with, if you see something that you think that might be a benefit for the town of Bethel in any which way, feel free to, you know, either send it to myself or the board members or Theresa directly and, you know, we are happy to look at, you know, whatever might be. Yeah. One of the things I was posting on my, which I think I posted on a Bethel community forum that on my legislative Facebook page this last week, I came across a lot of different services for people trying to start small businesses or wanting to, you know, reevaluate or, you know, what they needed, ways to apply for grants and those kind of things. And so I've been trying to post that stuff out there in our communities for people who may want to have access to that information. I'm also trying to, you know, I'm keeping my ear to the ground to different kind of grants again that might be beneficial to the town. I signed on to there's the Better Places grant, which Bethel may have even applied for. And I signed on to the bill to fund that because although they're taking grant applications right now, they haven't been funded yet. They're guessing they're being funded, but so, but I certainly thought, well, I think Bethel's applied for that. I'm definitely signing on to that. So yeah, trying to keep my ear open to any kind of things that could benefit projects, things we're doing. And again, if you hear of something, even if it's just a rumor of something, you say, I've heard there might be a thing, contact me and I'll fish around, see if I can find that thing. Therese, do we have a link on our town web page to Kurt's legislative page? Probably not, but I can. And if not, it might be neat for us to have a link there, you know, local legislator, individuals could go to the town web page and be able to pull up, you know, yours or, or maybe, you know, probably the, probably should have the Windsor senators if they have a page as well. Yeah, I don't know that I don't know if they do, but yeah, you could check that out. Yeah, because then rather than the middleman, you know, we might be able to, we'll see this small business information on, you know, on your page and, you know, so that'd be good. One of our things tonight to talk about is that we're talking about. We get the legislative update from BLCT and I put one in the packet tonight and they always summarize the bills on the back. And so sometimes it's that I might email you to be like, is that really going to come out of committee or, you know, is that something to worry about? Because a lot of it is just stuff that's out there. We don't know. Sometimes it's that I'll see something and be like, oh, okay. Yeah, it's just like, you know, my day job as an acupuncturist, there's a bill that someone proposed that was sent to the Health and Human Services Department. And so I sent a notice about it to the Acupuncture Association. And then I did a little research into it. And and it's what's called a short bill, which is basically it's not really a bill. It's a, hey, I have an idea. And, and, and that's all it is basically. And it's not all worked out. And most of the time, those go and they die on the wall. And so when I discovered that, I went back to them and said, you know, yeah, there's this bill says, you know, I encourage insurance to pay for acupuncture, but, but I think especially this year with COVID stuff there. Yeah, I would not look forward to anything happening with that one. So yeah, but yeah, have your hands full this year, but are you enjoying it so far? Are you enjoying it so far? I mean, is it overwhelming at first? Yes, all that. It's, I am starting to enjoy it. The first couple weeks, especially with with the pandemic, you know, normally they would sit you in a room with a whole bunch of other people and they'd have a number of briefings that would kind of walk through and they chat with you and, you know, they'd each take 20 minutes or whatever. And, but instead, it's, it's nonstop Zoom meetings. And my, my Tuesdays at this point between my first meeting in the morning and by time I end my last Zoom meeting at night, I start at eight and I'm done by eight or nine in the evening. And so that's the sort of the way it goes, but I'm starting to, starting to figure out what the rhythm is and, you know, which nights I can sleep and which ones I can't and stuff like that. That would be good. Well, good. Yeah, so. It is a lot. Again, I think, I think it's great that, you know, that our, you know, we have our local legislators in our town, you know, it's really always handy to have that person, you know, you kind of know the path that Bethel's been on and you're really local. So, and like I said, I really want, I really feel like it's important to have these kind of communications either in this format or, or, you know, have Therese call me on the phone or something. And I've tried to set that up with all four towns in the district, just, you know, just so you know what's going on. Well, thanks again, Kurt. We probably would like to talk all night and get the rest of our agenda. Yeah, you guys have business. I can just, I have another meeting in another half hour. Thank you. We'll see you in a month. We'll look forward to seeing you in a month. Thank you. All right. Anybody have any other comments in regards to anything that we talked about with Kurt or? I have one more, one more question I just thought of and which is maybe everybody will think I'm being a smart ass, but I'm going to ask it anyway. And with all this Zoom meeting, uh, if we have approximately 200 people serving the legislature receiving approximately $200 a day in room and meals times six weeks, that's in excess of $100,000 that we're going to save this year. Maybe we could put that towards the deficit. You're funny. I'm very upset about that because it's an opportunity to save some money. I did hear, um, you know, of course I don't know for certain, but I did hear that there were some, some of those typical, um, you know, room and board type, um, things that aren't being applied right now. So I don't, you know, know for certain on that. But I thought they were a little excessive when it was over $100 a day to eat. I can eat a lot, a lot of good food for $100 a day. I would be a very large senator or legislator. I got that kind of money. But it would be good. It'd be fun. So we'll, um, we'll open it up to the public comment period. So if there's anything that's not on the agenda for this evening that anybody would like to bring up, uh, feel free to do so now. You can just, uh, unmute and talk away hearing or seeing none. We will move on. Doug's been awfully quiet. So we have, uh, next up, we have an appointment to the energy committee. I can't remember how many individuals we had on the energy committee because it started off a pretty large number, but I think it dwindled down. And then you appointed a couple of people from Royalton and Leo's been, I think it was at five maybe. Could be. And Leo's been to the last couple of meetings. So this was in the box and that just didn't happen. So Ben attending and he has some solar background. So it seems to be a really good fit. Yeah. Yeah, it seems it. And I met him, uh, two years ago, I think his family had moved up here from Miami. So yep, his wife's on the recreation committee. Yeah, they have some kids in school. Yep. So unless anybody has any further questions there, just need a motion to appoint. Move to appoint Leo Bangerton to the energy committee. I can. Okay. All in favor? All right. Okay. Yeah, if I remember right, I think that might make six now on that committee. But remember we have two, yeah, two Royalton. Okay. And next on we had discussion regards to age 48, which so the legislation had had approved two bills here over the last month. One first one was, was the authorization to allow towns like ourselves that do town meeting day in person to allow the option to go to Australian ballot without, we'll call it all the red tape that you would have to do to get there and allow the local select board to make that decision, which we did. And the second piece of it that was just leaving out was, you know, what was it? Two Fridays ago, Teresa and watching the news and I saw it come across on and how they put it through on the news that sounded like the old bill. And I was like, Oh my God, Teresa, did we move ahead before it even got approved? And so she got looking at it and said, No, this is a different one. So so this last one age 48, what it does is that it it authorizes a select board once again, if they choose to to do or to go to 100% mail in ballots like the presidential election. So that, you know, is a an option that we have. Um, you know, definitely the, you know, there are pros and cons of everything that we do. Um, you know, the way it's been designed in the past was we've always had the option to the option to request request through the town clerk a mail in ballot, which is still still the case. So any individual can call and request a ballot to be sent to them. And, you know, and then usually we did things in person. So I know talking, you know, talking with the town clerk that she would rather, you know, just see it stay the way it is, you know, feel free to have as many people call in that wants or needs a mail in ballot for, you know, whatever the cause may be medically or might be distanced or it could be COVID, right? I mean, you know, so you can call in for any of the reasons to get one other than just doing a mass mailing due to just it's going to take a lot of work to do it as well as there's quite the expense to pay for it as well. So right, because when you mail out an absentee ballot, you mail, you're not only mailing the postage on the way out, but you also are including an health address envelope. And obviously, that's nothing that we budgeted for. And just so people know, there's a lot of options for people to request an absentee ballot. You can go online to my voter page on the Secretary of State's website. You can town call the town clerk's office or the town manager's office during the day. If you're working during the day and you can't make that phone call, the town manager's office has voicemail, so you can call and leave a message, you know, saying that you want one, and you can also email the town clerk. So there are multiple ways to get an absentee ballot. Obviously, the polls will still be open at the school, just like it was during the presidential election. So there's a lot of ways that people can request a ballot. Trace, was there money included in that bill somewhere to assist with postage? Not that I'm aware of. It talked about, because in Act, because let's see, we have two, because Act 162 was the original one, and now this is H48. It said that basically they could, no, I mean, I didn't see any money in there, not yet. I think it may come about as a reimbursement, but it's not certainly anything that they sent with it. So we don't know yet. We don't know sure if we get reimbursed. So we already got our first reimbursement. I filed not through FEMA, but it was called the LGER. So I got all the money back that we had spent in the transfer station, for cleaning supplies, all that. I had mentioned it to Pam, and she thought that there was, she had a meeting with the election director there, and she thought that there was some money going to be there for the setting up the tabulator and printing of the ballot and all that, whatnot. I don't know. I haven't spoken with her about that yet, but I don't know. I mean, it could be a reimbursable thing. I don't know. But like I said, currently there's multiple ways for people to get ballots, and let's face it, town meeting is not a highly voted thing too. It's not a presidential election where a lot of people do. Leonard has a question too. And I'll get right to you here just in a second Leonard. And I had talked to Kurt White as well there a week or so ago, and he had mentioned, as of right now anyways, there was nothing set up financially to reimburse the towns. Doesn't mean that there won't be, but as of right now, the switch that we did from in-person to Australian ballot, there's no compensation currently as well with this H48, the way it stands right now, there's nothing tied to it financially. But you never know. It could be. So, yes Leonard. As the NIL and ballot option is so new, how are we really forcing the information out there to citizens of Bethel? Are we adding to that so that it's more widespread, so that people really know the options? How are we doing that? How are you doing that? After this meeting, because they needed obvious, because it was funny to me that the legislature gave the decision to the select board, which I think is funny, because the town clerk has, you know, it's also elected a similar playing field. So we needed to wait to see what the select board was going to do tonight. And then Pam's going to put something in the paper. We're going to do from porch forum. We're going to do Facebook and the website and to get the information out so that people realize that there's four options for them to get a ballot. An issue on their part, but there will be four options and we're going to do, like I said, add in the paper for the Herald and all the other options that we have available to us via social media. Okay. So you're going to use Instagram and all of that? Well, we don't do Instagram. We do Facebook and the website. So we'll put it out on Facebook. We'll put it on our website and we'll put it on front porch forum and we'll put it in the Herald. So those are the places that we use. And two, the information is going to be distributed because you'll see it, I think, with on the news possibly because other towns are going to follow. I know it looks like Royalton at this point from what Pam thinks maybe doing the exact same thing. I think you'll see a lot of the towns choose not to mail and to have voters participate by requesting the ballot like they normally would. I'll completely get the mail thing. I know that's expensive. I'm wondering have we just making sure that we exercise outside of the envelope anything we can to get this information out there. Again, it's new and people don't won't really be familiar with it and recognize that it's happening. Right. Well, people have been able to request an absentee ballot for years and years and years. So there's always been that available. But I think you'll see some advertising maybe from the Secretary of State's office and I like to think so that they'll do some you know, preemptive strike from above. We certainly will use the avenues that are, you know, open to us to let people know. And we'll definitely do our best. And I, you know, fortunately, I think when you have such a drastic change in a short period of time like we have, you know, because everybody in Bethel is used to meeting in person and doing all of our conducting our business in person to now doing this. I guess you say remotely right come in to your ballot that I think there's definitely going to be hiccups in the system. And unfortunately, there's probably going to be some individuals that might be misinformed on certain things. But I will, you know, definitely do our best that we can to get the correct information out there to everybody. But the other thing we should talk about is safety at the polls because Pam certainly has been all the town clerks, not just Pam, were sent bottles of hand sanitizer, you know, screening face shields. So if you voted in person at the presidential, it was pretty slick. They had people set up so you could get right through and she had a table out in advance of masks, anything case, we didn't have it this time. It's better, even going to be even better because while she had a great setup at the fire station, this will be at the gym. So it'll be bigger, which is nice. So she'll be able to have everybody really kind of spread out. I was actually kind of shocked that the legislation went and allowed that at the select board level because when you look at the way the town clerk operates, you know, the town clerk is a voted in position. And typically, you know, a lot of individuals don't understand that the town clerk has a lot of different powers that supersede the select board or the town because it's an elected official. So I was actually surprised that they went that direction and they didn't just leave it up to the town clerk to decide that. You too. It could have been just down to money because you guys have control of the budget and she doesn't. So I was shocked too. So anyway, so you'll just need to decide if everybody's on board with that. And that's why I, you know, that's why I talked to Pam because it's, you know, I guess the way I see it, it's her elected duties and what, you know, how would she like to do it? And it sounded like from the talk that I had with her that she would like to do things the way she has done it in the past, the way they're set up to do it, which would be to have ballots in person and then anybody that wants a mail-in ballot that she will get those to them. Yeah, that was my conversation with her and certainly Paul's the chair of the BCA. And so there's other people here to weigh in. But I mean, what is the board feel? I mean, do we want to stick with the process that we have in hand or would like to change that or? Well, I had a conversation with Pam about it from a BCA kind of point of view. And it seems like she really has a good plan. We'll have the tabulator there. So the only thing we'll need to deal with Ray and potential write-in votes that come along and we'll have a better setup for going through the ballots afterwards. And it seems like she's got a good handle, good control on how it's all going to happen. It's a very safe environment over there at the gym. So I would be in favor of leaving it to the way we have it. I agree. Mo or Linley? Yeah, I'm inclined to go with where Pam is feeling just because it's sort of her jurisdiction. I'm assuming Mo agreed to, but he was still on mute when he was talking. Yeah, he looks like he's fixing it. There he is. I was reading your lips, Mo. I kind of knew what you were saying, but you were muted. You get that way. So I mean, I don't think you necessarily need any motion because we're not changing anything. So it was like we're all on agreements on keeping it the way that that we have done it. So okay. Does anybody have any other further comments or questions in regards to that? Okay. And then we had a couple of liquor license renewals in the air, a first and a third class one for toes years. So we'll just need a motion to approve. And then we will have to stop by and sign those at the office. Yeah, they're at the back door on a like we usually leave them. Mo moved it and Linley seconded it. Okay. All in favor? All right. And did the Mascoma Bank change term? Was that the one that you told me you didn't quite finish or is this one is finished? This is finished. Yeah. Yeah. We talked about it. No one was happy, but this is what we got. So we have to, so it's down. It's also at the back door with the liquor licenses for you guys to sign. Looks like I don't need to sign. Oh, really? Three spots? I'm sure we can fit your John Hancock. I don't care. I don't know why they didn't put five. That's odd. I remember for a long time after the board went to five, we had three signing at three spots for the longest time. Yeah, I didn't even catch that. She asked me who they were. I expelled them all out for. I didn't even catch it, but you can just sign it and put your name under, then she'll have it. Do you actually need a motion for this or? Yes. So just need a motion to approve the change in terms for the loan for the Mascoma Bank. So move. Back in. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Under protest. There you go. It's two of us. We'll have to shop around next time, Therese. Well, you got it. Is it already? This was the money that had long been spent and took out the eyes of it being something other than it was. I'm lucky they agreed to. And then next up, we got a draft of a social media policy discussion only item for tonight, so we won't be making any decisions. No, this is just I'd started to work on it. We should have had one, frankly, years ago. And so I have a list. I had Kelly go through the policy book and it's scary. There's some of them that are still like in the 90s that haven't been revisted. So I figured we just tackle them one at a time. So I'm going on to the personnel policy. So I really just wanted you all to see this. VLCT's template is like 17 pages long. It's a big deal because of social media policy. I don't think that people realize that when you promote discussion like on Facebook, you could be violating the open meeting law or your that's the public records act. And so there's a lot to it. For example, the town has a Facebook page. And I finally had Kelly shut off the comments because obviously it wouldn't surprise us do some fairly not nice things were posted on there. And we don't have the staff to maintain it 24 seven. So this way, you know, I tried to look at this policy in a way to up for us to distribute information so people can read the information, but we're still encouraging them to participate in duly warned meetings or calling their local rep, you know, the local maybe call us like we're going to recall the office, but we can't have ongoing discussions on Facebook. That's just not appropriate for us. And you have to keep a lot of that stuff. And so there was a whole lot to it. So this is really just a draft. I have already talked to Rita who sits on the equity and inclusion committee, and she's agreed to look at it. I'm going to have Kelly look at it because she deals with social media. I'm going to ask Nicole Sear because she I don't know how it happened. But the energy committee has a Facebook page. I'll have D tree look at it because she direct, I think direct has their own or has her own page. So and I'll get Pam, you know, I get a lot of input and I'm also going to that way we can get feedback and I want your feedback. I want you to read it. And then if you have questions either write right on the policy and drop them off or, you know, send me an email and it's going to take a little bit of time. As you can see, it's it's lengthy. And it covers a lot, you know, First Amendment rights and what our rights and responsibility are of removing it. But I don't have a problem with, you know, like people having a Facebook page, for example, we'll use the energy committee. I don't know how they got one of the Conservation Commission, Lisa is saying has a Facebook page. But, you know, with that, you know, comes great responsibility. And I have no idea who authorized these things to start. So I have another committee who might want to do a website. So I said, okay, but you have to come to the slack board, because I don't know how these others got started tonight. And that way people can talk about because you have the fire department has one that I want to know too. And so, you know, that's what's that saying with great power comes great responsibility. So if somebody has the Facebook page or a website, they have to be in charge of it, they have to monitor it. We do not have staff to do that. And so I think what we need is a policy, which kind of helps someone if they're going to, if they're going to have a Facebook page or a website, you guys have authorized. But I also think it's important that the select board gets these requests. That way, a couple things happen, a, you know what's happening. B, everybody's doing the same thing. If our Facebook page doesn't allow comments, maybe nobody's should, you know what I mean? So I thought everybody has a set of rules. I also don't want someone to get the town sued because by the conservation commission and the fire department, and then don't worry about that fire department also has HIPAA laws. There's a fire and photographs. And yeah, I think there's a lot more to it than people realize. And I just want to make sure that it's also fair to the person overseeing the website or the Facebook page that you have some rules because you could inadvertently get yourself and or the town sued by no, you know, by just not understanding all the rules that are the laws that regulate it. So I'm, I'm not anti social media. Well, maybe a little bit, but just, just, but I think it's important that we have one. And so that's really all I want you to know was I was working on this list of policies and would just like your input on it. And I will certainly send it now. I'll find someone on the conservation commission. I want to make sure. Yeah, I'll send it to you, Lisa. I just want to make sure everybody that already has something existing gets input on it. And also then everybody has the same rules. I think, Lenley, did you have a question? Yeah, more, more of a comment. I mean, obviously, this is a lengthy document. And one of the first things that was occurring is that some might not read it. And I wonder if there's because I like that there would be like a designated agent. So from the conservation commission, who is responsible. So we have a point person that we can go to should something come up to say, Hey, what happened here? Or, you know, what's going on? But it made me kind of think that while they that designated agent should be required to read the full policy that maybe also having a consolidated like here is what your responsibilities are one or two pager that then they sign that then that sort of is that a little bit of a contract between us to say, Hey, I understand the responsibilities, I can refer back to it. If I'm unsure, I don't have to go through this whole 11 to 12 page policy, but then have that sort of signed. Okay, I'm designated as the person in charge of this. So just something to kind of add to the to-do list. Well, you are so good because there is a page that came with a policy that does exactly that. And I didn't include it in here. But I agree. Oh, but I agree. Eleni has his hand. But I do agree that a checklist kind of saying, Okay, you're going to sign off that you've read this policy and that if you've had any questions, you've asked, but here's a checklist. So we're all following the same goals. Because even if you get rid of somebody, if you say you remove a post, because, you know, it was horrible, we've had a couple, I know you find that hard to believe, but you have to save things and there's a whole system to it. And if I didn't like what you said, and I pulled your post, but I didn't pull, you know, Leonard's, then, you know, somebody's going to have a field day who's making these choices. So I feel like we really need to have a good set of, you know, rules. So like I said, it's just the beginning of the policy. And I just wanted you all to see it and get your feedback, which will compile with Lisa's and Rita's and fire department and Cole and, you know, probably get a bunch of people together. So and I think it's great. And, you know, this is just another one. I mean, we've had many different policy revisions in the last two years. I mean, I know you should see the list. And Lisa is our witness to all these. I mean, some of these were like dinosaurs. I mean, you know, policies that were written in the 50s and 60s and 70s. And why we still were functioning with those same things was beyond me. But, you know, social media policy is just another one. I mean, we went through the personnel policies and all of those. Yeah. And we got to go through that again because it's changed. And there's still some policies from the 90s. But it's good. This is one that frankly you should have had. I had done in another town in 2014, if that tells you how long this policy has been out there. But Leonard had his hand up. Whoever's assigned, I just have an idea. Whoever's assigned for me to be in control. I need to hear you. Whoever's assigned in each committee to monitor the social media platforms. Is it possible to have a meeting with just them to go over everything and make sure that each group, each entity is on the same page? Because you, I mean, I know the equity inclusion committee. We're sort of working with the website with them. And we came to Terry because we didn't know what the rules were. Right. Exactly. Well, we didn't know what the rules were either. You're right. Yeah. Actually, I started like developing a website. And then after the first draft, I said to myself, well, what can we even put on here? Is there any rules? And that's how I got to you. And we didn't want to spend a lot of time. And then you guys would say, Oh, no committee can have a website or something like that. Go ahead, Lenny. Sorry. We know, you know, like anybody who's contributing or assisting, but the people on the committee know exactly what the rules are. It's great that they collectively meet with somebody from this elect board and get that get that down. Yeah, I agree. I think that Chris's idea of a checklist is good because first we'll go through the policy and I'm going to send it to everybody or a bunch of people to get feedback. Then I'll take their feedback and we'll compile it into this new draft and then definitely have a meeting. But I think it's important that if somebody's going to have a website or Facebook page, they should have to get permission from the select board. I don't think any every Tom, Dick and Harry should have one. I know the fire chief has had problems with his website. And because, you know, like I said, he has HIPAA rules, which apply if someone took a photograph out an accident. So it becomes, you know, a bigger deal. And I don't have the staff to manage it. And so I think the other thing about this policy that I like is it requires at least us in the town office. Maybe we have a little, you know, notebook in the ball. So we have everybody's username and password. That way, if God forbid something happened to somebody, that's in the central location too. So maybe, you know, someone comes forward from the committee and says, Hey, so and so is, you know, sick or whatever. And you maybe you didn't know what what it was that at least now, you know, we'll know what it is. That's actually a really great point, Teresa, that it may be even having the town has control of the actual accounts and controls, like is the administrator on the accounts and controls the passwords, because like when the group started, when COVID started and the group was formed around Bethel Strong, there was a Bethel Strong from Irene group. But we cannot figure out who is the administrator on that. And we actually think that the person who started it and is the administrator has passed away. And so here's a Facebook page that no one seems to be able to get access to or remove, but is now not doing its job and getting in the way an active group trying to do a job. And so I think definitely having having that layer of control over access into the accounts is going to be key. Yeah, I think so. And I just want everybody's input, because as you can see, this thing is daunting. It's huge. Yeah. And you know, when you first read it, you think, oh, it's crazy, it shouldn't have to be this big. But then once you realize everything that entails and how many laws it touches, you're like, wow. So just a couple of comments. I hate to play devil's advocate, but you mentioned that in your manager's report, the town owns the liability for these sites. So in the committees, people come and go, you know, somebody's running the show one year and then maybe they get off and somebody else comes on. So it just, it seems like an area of confusion. And also, maybe all of these Facebook pages and whatnot should have no comment, the ability to shut off comments. I use it as intended to is just putting the information out there to promote, or we're going to have a meeting at such and such a time and place to accept ideas on different topics, but not just avoid the whole comment part of it, too. So just couple of, you know, or certain projects they're working on, you know, you know, I definitely agree that I think, you know, you kind of, I guess, one way information, right? Information out, but not in. I 100% agree. And I definitely took that spin on it when I was, I took this original, you know, model from VLCT. And that's exactly the bend I took to it. I think you're 100% right. And certainly, so that was my bend. I tried to change the language as I went through it. Well, I mean, unfortunately, we're not a large enough municipality to be able to afford somebody to do the course. But, you know, I mean, the larger cities and towns, they have, you know, social media coordinators. I mean, I think, Lenley, the school has one, you know, so, you know, a lot of identities, you know, of your employer, you know, large employers have them. And, and, and unfortunately, for our side, you know, we can't afford to pay somebody just to do social media. But I like, I believe it was Lenley's, you know, we're just talking about, you know, that the town is in control of that. But then you're going to allow certain users to, you know, one user per committee to, you know, be responsible for it. I think so. And it's tough, too, because there's so much to it. And, I mean, hey, if we had money for more staff, I don't want to hire a social media consultant. That wouldn't be the position I would. I mean, if we have enough problem managing our own website, you know, Paul, helpful, other people kind of chime in when something's wrong. You know, if you have five minutes, we'll try to go through all the links work. And it's, you know, things change. So, and certainly our whole mission is to disseminate information, but to get people to come to forums like this, so that they can talk about stuff. So what is the timeline goal trees? Are you thinking for this? Would you like us to provide our comments between now and the next meeting? And then you're going to bring a draft ready to be approved for the next meeting, that deal? It'll probably take a month before I get through it. Because what I'm going to do once now that I know you guys have looked at it, I will expect to see your input in another week or so. You know, a week would be great. And then tomorrow I will send it off to everybody who's agreed to look at it and give, you know, they're going to need a couple of weeks to get through it because they got full-time jobs. So, you know, it'll probably a month, month and a half, but while that's out there, you know, kind of, you know, everybody's looking at taking a peek. I'm going to start the next one. I have to do it because I have, there's some issues with it. I need to deal with our personnel policy and that one's going to be easier in the sense that I'm going to draft to get the employees to look up. Then I send it to the lawyer because there's some legal stuff we need to address. So, and then like I said, I had Kelly make an index of all the policies and some of them are old. I haven't even read, more than half probably. I just saw the date on them and I'm like, oh, Lord. I mean, the good thing is we are updating these policies as we are. Oh, and I did receive a nice email from Laura Perez of the Equity and Inclusion Committee. They have a subcommittee that is going to, and I responded to her email today, get together some ideas on, and they're gathering information from other places. So, basically, what I gathered from her email, which is what I'd like to see is some sort of like guidelines checklist so that when I am drafting policy, there's maybe specific language that needs to be in there or that we can use. Certainly, I've been using that with the zoning. We did it with Town Plan as kind of a group effort as Leonard and Lenny and Thomas know. And now I'm doing that with the zoning and I've actually been helpful because Owen's on that. He, we're doing this joint DRBPC. So, Owen has been super helpful because I'll read this section and be like, oh, this is old. This doesn't sound right. He'll be like, how about if we change it to, you know, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, all right, perfect. So it's kind of been nice to have a fresh set of eyes to take a look at once we got through the Town Plan. I certainly learned a lot about, you know, accessibility and some of the wording. And so that's been, you know, helpful to apply that with the zoning. So I think if the Equity and Inclusion Committee comes up with this, you know, guideline checklist, whatever you want to call it, that would be wonderful. So I'm excited that they're working on that. All right. So any further discussion with the social media policy? Or are we good for this evening? Are the policies something that we can see on a website or in the Town Office? Is that publicly accessible? Yeah, some of them I think are, don't hold me to it. Maybe it's just the ordinances that are on the website. Some of the policies, yeah, they're all on a binder, you could if you wanted to see something. What I could do is, if you're interested, just email me, Jesse, and I can always scan you the index that had Kelly Cree. So you can laugh along with us and say, oh my God, some of these are so old. So, you know, it's a process. And I know Laura had asked, because it was Laura and Jerry and Owen and, you know, anyways, and so it's all fine, you know, and I think what we'll do is, as you guys are working on crafting your stuff, when I go through them, you know, I have questions, I can, I know I can reach out to Laura, Rita, or yourself, Jesse, and someone would help me with it. So, but the personnel policy is next for me just because I, you know, have some issues that I need to deal with there. And I know some of the information is not up to date. But yeah, if you want that, just send me an email to remind me and I'll scan it to you. All right, we'll move on. Next, we had the Better Connections Grant letter of intent. So we're looking for a couple of seniors that live in Bethel that would be willing to be on this committee, be basically on a kind of a committee to get, because we're trying to get some input here. We are writing it, as you can see, it's the, it's, this is the $7,000 that we've been budgeting for the last three years with energy committee. So I finally talked to them and said, listen, it's going away after this. So we got to do something. Well, Owen, myself, Nicole Sear and Rebecca Sanborn Stone had been needing to talk about this. And so we kind of came up with this idea about village accessibility. So from eight to 80, as we know, a very typical issue for Main Street is accessibility to the businesses. So, and Rebecca thought that would be a nice twist on the application. A lot of people, you know, there's some standard stuff, but this would be unusual. She also reached out to the lady at AARP, and they would be willing to, you know, send a letter, you know, be of support of it. So what we'd asked for is basically we're going to be looking for, this is not for construction projects, it's for plans. So we talked about was doing an accessibility plan. So we could actually that something that could be kind of broken up in bite size pieces that we could actually afford, because, you know, we all been to towns where you have these wonderful plans on the shelf, that there's no way in God's greener if you're ever going to get the money to build it. And so that's just a waste. This is something when we put out the RFP that we're going to have it so that we could do something in stages. The other thing we came up with is low cost ideas for each business. So say babes, since Jesse's sitting here, what's a low cost thing that babes could do that would make their building more accessible. And Owen definitely liked that idea. So that way, we get something per business and then something, you know, as the town. And also maybe trying to create, connect in what Rebecca works kind of uses as a, she calls it the necklace, you know, if we connected peevine in the downtown. And so we don't want it to be so big that we can't get anything out of it. Because, you know, if the plan has too high of a, you know, threshold, we'll never see anything. The other part of that was going to be so accessibility. And then I guess they like to see some sort of economic survey. So part of it that Rebecca was thinking, or maybe it was Nicole was thinking maybe you could do some sort of, you know, why are you losing, why, when people aren't coming to shop in downtown, where are they going? So you can kind of take a look and see, you know, where the, where the customers are going. So let's see. So yeah, so we're looking for a couple of people to be each couple of seniors to be on the committee so that they can kind of review this and also be part of the RFP. What would you want to see as a senior? So that's something that where anybody knows of anybody or wants to volunteer. That would be great. Our next meeting I think is, I think it's next Thursday. Or no, maybe it's this Thursday, I guess. So that's what it is. So that's the money that we have. There's also a stormwater component to it, but we have to see what that is. You know, basically the discussion was it was going to super increase our grant match. We couldn't afford to do it. And we have not decided what that stormwater sec part could be. So we're working on that. Theresa, a couple of people that come to mind as potential committee members, you know, Rebecca had asked me this and that there are probably half a dozen to a dozen people who are probably 60s and up that walk in town every single day. And one, so like Carol Ketchum is one of them. There's a woman who I actually can't remember her name, but I chat with her occasionally, that she and her grandkids walk, she walks through town probably four or five times a day. And, you know, occasionally she'll have her grandkids. So there's yes, thank you. So, you know, there are definitely a handful of people that are actively using that accessibility. And so like I think that Carol might be a great starting place and then he might even have some other suggestions. Does Norm Whitcomb also, Lisa, you probably know, no, there's a guy who I'm picturing, but I don't know his name. He walks like he just goes and he does not stop or look at you. Danny White? Yeah, Lisa's saying yes. Danny White or Scott White? What you got there, Lisa? Scott Putney walks every day. Oh, Scott Putney, okay. But he's, he wasn't who I was thinking of. But yeah, there are a number of people that I think would be great for that as they use it for exactly what the grant is kind of going for. Okay. And Norm Whitcomb walks down through there. Thank you. That's what I meant. Okay, I'll reach out then to a couple people and invite them to the next meeting. Lisa's saying cliff ciphers. And then we can, you know, like to try to get a couple, you know, people on. So it's also going to become a kind of a steering committee. So it would be a bigger, it's not going to be just a one, one and done. It's going to be help us get the application and then let's get the RFP out. And Nicole Sear, luckily has taken on a good portion of it. She's wanting to do, I said, no, I don't have time to do that. I just can't. And the other piece was we did reach out to two rivers. So they will do a little bit of it because only 10% of the grant can go to something like that. So that would go to two rivers. But Nicole actually is excited to kind of lay things out. And, and so I think that'll be helpful. I just said, you know, I'm happy to pay the bills and do the reimbursement, but I can't, you know, be the liaison to set up every meeting. And it's just going to be too much. But I think the overall feel is great. I like the idea of making, you know, Bethel more accessible. And that's a problem we had in the town I came from. This, it's the way it always was sidewalks are lower than entrances to the business. You have a big entrance to your business, right? Lindley, the stairs. So, you know, I think this would be a nice topic. And like I said, as long as it's laid out, so we actually would be doable, you know, that's the thing. It's not just some crazy, you know, scheme that we can't. Cherise, just as an aside, because this whole conversation has brought it up in my mind and I've been meaning to say it for a few weeks now. When it snows and they do the snow removal, they've not been actually clearing the curb cuts. So that the snow is just piled at the curb cut, and you have to actually walk up and over the pile. And at some point, somebody's going to complain or get hurt trying to get over a pile. I think it's just probably with a lot of turnover of who's doing it. They didn't know to necessarily go and clear out each curb cut where there's a crosswalk. Okay, so what do you say curb cut? You mean where it goes down into the like those little things? Truncating the ramps. But none of the ones on Main Street have been cleared for any of the snow storms that I keep meaning to bring it up to you. Oh, I'll let Alan know because he hasn't changed. So he should know that that needs to be done. So accessibility to crosswalks need to be cleaned out. All right, I will let him know. Thank you for telling me. So as I drive through, I just don't notice that, you know, so I will tell him tomorrow. All right, well, that's a great list. Thank you, Lisa. Lisa's like kicking out the names over there. So I have a good list. But if any of you on the board are a senior and you would like to be on this committee, certainly let me know if you'd love to have you. So that's all I have for Better Connections, Chris. Okay. And you don't need anything, any action on that? No, you guys have put that in, put that in and for a while. So, you know, you already, already had approved it, like I think two years ago, maybe, yeah, this will be the third year, I think. Yeah, at least. Yeah. Because we put it in the air a couple years ago when we were talking about the potential electric car charging stations. So I think that's where, when it started, and then we didn't do it the first year and we added it to the second year. And that didn't happen. And yeah. So it's out, it looks like, you know, especially if we're the only one writing for accessibility, we, you know, stand a good, you know, they already accepted our letter of interest. So our letter of intent to file. So they were, they already got on to the next phase, which sounds like Kurt's signing us up. So yeah, that's great, though. Sure, we got money. So yeah, good news there. Okay. And then we had the Bethel Royalton transfer audit information that everybody got. Yep. So anybody has any big discussion on that now? Or if not, you can always get back to Theresa or others would comment. So just went to the BRTS board at the beginning of the month, I can see Mo nodding. So that's a yes. And then the auditor, Rick Brigham is coming to their next meeting in February. So Jen and Mo had done a nice thing and asked, you know, everybody on the BRTS committee that questions to get them to Jen, you know, a couple weeks prior so I can get them to Rick Brigham so that Rick's prepared for whatever the questions are going to be. But I think you guys normally get a copy of this, but I just wanted it on there. And I'm still, Rick is doing our single audit right now because of, you know, FEMA, and then we have the DWS RF. And then he told me today that he thinks we might, because Pinello Bridge and the rest of the DWS RF are going to kick in an extra might need a second single audit, which I have not budgeted for, but knocking on all sorts of wood in my house right now. We will have some legal money we could spend, overspend audit, underspend legal. So everybody knock on wood at your house right now and hope we could. So I did reach out to FEMA and they're saying no, that we can't put any portion of this single audit, but I did reach out to DWS RF and the program manager there was out. So once I hear, maybe I can get some of it through there. So we'll see. I had a couple of questions, Therese, but I'll probably just catch up with you. Okay. So for the moment, I mean, it's just, it's the same pattern as what you're used to seeing with the town office or the town office, the town that you can see their revenues, expenses and all that. But the main thing is that you can see at the time what the due to battle was at that moment. And so like we always talk about, that's just a snapshot in time. And that's great. Yeah. If you have any questions, email me. I'm happy to get back to you. Anybody have any questions in regards that they want to get out now or just follow up with Therese behind the scenes of need be follow up with Therese. I got had a couple of questions. Yeah. Okay. Good. And then anything that we haven't touched base there, Therese, in regards to Tim. Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot about the campbell. So like I said, they, they have a loan, which I don't know off the top of my head how much is left to it, but they're going to, they borrow the 30,000. They are going to pay off that loan. So this will be their only loan left. I don't think they have that much. They'll have a basically they left the interest rate the same at 4% and then they left them at the same payment. So I have to run an amortization schedule based on their current payment. So Carol said he hadn't done all the math, but it was 30 plus months. So he was very happy. I asked if there was collateral, he said no, but they did get their financials. And so they were the revolving loan committee was fine with everything and makes the recommendation that they get the loan. So we would just need a motion to approve the revolving loan funds recommendation. And then I'll reach out to Carol tomorrow and hill to call the lawyer. Okay, all right. And then we had the town managers report. I know we pretty much went over a majority of it all, but yeah, they did. We left it on there. Yeah. So the town reports gone to the printers. So that's good news. Always a lot of last minute back and I've looked at it because Kelly was out last week. So we we got it out the door. So I'm very excited. I'm sure there'll be a mistake because there's always one that you don't catch, but I'm the budgets right. Every all those numbers look right. The warrant is right. So fingers crossed. So that's all I have. Okay. Yeah. So I remember what was it last year they cut off a portion of the yeah, the warning services piece, right? And we just it was one of those things you've looked at it and looked at it and looked at it. But this time it was good. We got it earlier in the day. And so I had Dietrich go through it, then she then I took it overnight and I went through it to see what I found. And then so we were able to get, you know, get two people through it to make sure that I was trying to make sure all the numbers tied out to the budget. And so the school is doing their own this year because they weren't going to be able to make it on our timeline. And so they're going to be their own. Okay. So the other news is that the consent of candidate forms were due today. So Chris Jarvis is running unopposed. And then Wayne Townsend and Jean Krause will be running for the three-year term. So now, you know, Pam, one will be able to work on the ballot and get that to the printers along with programming her card. All right. Did we have any other names for any of the other positions other than? No, which means so the list start is the will be open. I'm assuming Louise got hers in for her position, but the other Lister position will be blank. We did have a town agent, grandeur, all that sort of stuff. So those were filled. The disappointing thing is the school. Nobody submitted, Pam said, for the school. And there were people that when she talked to someone, they said they were running. Well, they didn't get the paperwork in. It means whoever is drawing the short straw and that counts, and that's a hand count, the school ballot. You're going to probably have all right ends. So I know it's... Well, who's buying pizza that night because we're going to be there for a while. Well, it's at the school. It's whoever takes the ballot to Royalton. And you counted Royalton, I believe, correct? We counted both spots last year, if I remember, right? Yeah, we actually, I think we went to the central office to the S.U. office. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, because usually you leave the town and go to some place for the school. So they're going to have to, that's going to stink. I mean, hopefully... All right. Yeah. So because Pam called and was like, hey, you know, who's running for the school? And they said they had names, but they didn't get their forms in. And unfortunately, it's just like paying your taxes. Like there is no forgiveness. Like you can't sit in tomorrow, you know? It's a hard close. Yeah, so it is. So that's too bad. So our ballot will be full except for the Listers. You can find work with Judy, you know, once and we'll make a plan for the future. But so yeah, so that will deal with that one. But the school is going to stink. Now you're hand counting the vote EA or NA for the Australian for the budget, which would have been easy enough. But now you're going to be doing that. And you have every single name to see who's going to get the votes and they need a percentage of the checklist. It's a whole thing. So I was just, I felt that I'm disappointed because it just makes more work for the people counting. Yeah. I think I got a cold coming on for that night. So I won't be able to go to the school. Yeah. That's going to be a long night. Yeah, wherever school votes last year, somebody else has to do. Yeah. Get the new BCA members to go. Yeah, I tell you. I actually had a husband and wife who did it for years and years and years. The presidential one was actually easy. And there was only a couple of handfuls of ballots that had to be counted behind, you know, what got tabulated. And Bethels will be easy this year because you're tabulating it and you're doing it on, you know, you're counting it. And it's so it will be easy. It's the school that's going to, I feel bad. That's too bad for anybody participating in that. So. Yeah, long night. Yep. So we have a slack board meeting minutes from the 11th. Anybody has any changes? If not, a motion to approve. Okay, all in favor? I approve by Moe and second by Lindley. And, and, and actually we had quite a bit of different committee meeting minutes in this packet. Recreation committee was in there. The energy committee. Planning commission. Planning was in there. I don't see it in my packet right now, but I read that. Two rivers is in there. Yeah, two rivers. Transportation. I also gave you all of the updated warrant or warning and the no remote public informational hearing notice that went into the town report. So you could see that because I had to put the, I made the zoom link to that one obviously. So, and I had given you, I'm not sure, do you guys get emailed to you the legislative update? Yes, I do. You have to sign up for it. Yeah, I get one sent to me. All right. So is that something I don't need to keep putting that in your packet? And I can't remember how I got it, but it started like a year or two ago and I got on the email. I don't know if I gave it to them or if I got signed up something. They went, they went from paper to email. If you wanted it, you could still get it by paper, but you had to sign up for it. Yeah, I received one. So I don't need to keep putting that in the packet then. You guys can get that yourselves. Okay. I wasn't sure. And then with, with Kurt Cumming, I thought you should see it. And I also made my little note about the back because I have panicked more than once when I've seen the summary of new bills and I've been like, Oh my God. And then you call like a representative and they're like, calm down, Teresa. It's never going to get out of committee. So, but there's sometimes you see some harebrained stuff in there. I was reading through them there. The one. Yeah, I was, I was reading through one just the other day of the new proposed bills that are out there. Of course, there's always there from all ranges of spectrum, right? One of the others that you probably will see on the news I've seen already is that marijuana that could have been on our warning this year, but with not being able to do it in person, I think that's really difficult. And it will also give us a little more time to research it and see what the legislature is going to do this year. But the town is going to be able to vote on that. So we will be voting probably March 2022 on that. But it gives us a little more time to understand the whole issue and what we're going to be voting on and also to see what they change while they're in session. So that, you know, I've seen it already on the news that some towns are voting it, but that's something I want to be able to in person and talk about. And so I just, if that comes up and you see it, I know it's out there, but. All right. Anything else come before the board? My dog's running hot laps through the house. So nice. His attention span has ended from the looks of it. Well, earlier, I don't know if you could hear earlier, but he found the hardest bone in the house and he was dragging around all the hardwood floors. So I couldn't hear it. So it was all excited. Anything else that we have? Or are we good for the evening? I think we're good. Now our, it's not our next meeting, right? Is our next meeting the one, is it part of an informational meeting or is that the one? I mean, I think we'll have it on the budget. We'll have it on the agenda in case people want to talk about it, but it's the 15th is a standalone meeting, which I think. Yeah. President's Day. So that's the standalone meeting. And then we'll do it again on the 26th. So I need to reach out to zoom. And so which one, which one, Teresa, do I need to be in the office with you? Just the 15th one? Well, let's do it on the 15th and then see if we get a lot of turnout. We'll do it on the 26th. I just wondered if that would be easier, Chris, for you and I to be in the same location, but we can talk about it as it gets closer. Maybe it won't be. I mean, I'll have all my I mean, my guess is we will arrange and get somebody calls in and then nobody will. And, you know, that was my concern. You know, putting out your cell phone number. So everybody has called it. I thought if you stayed at the office, I know maybe I'll just do it from the office because then if someone called, I can answer the phone there instead of publishing all of our cell phone numbers for someone to call in. And I think too, I can reach out to zoom to get some sort of, I think I can get like an add-on. I'm going to call an expansion pack because I don't know what to call it in case we have a bunch of people, which I doubt we will, but maybe I wonder if the 26th or the whatever the last one in February is won't be more only because by then everybody will have received their town report, but I don't have our talent. I mean, the Batman and me says probably won't see more than 10 people, but generally that's, that's, that's if that yeah, I mean, look at the school, they don't and they have a much bigger budget than we do. Yeah. So we will see. All right. Well, just need a motion to adjourn. So moved. Okay. Everybody have a good evening. All right. Thank you. You too. Stay warm. All right. All right, everyone. Good night. Good night.