 Okay Welcome everybody to the Essex Junction trustee meeting, please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance Welcome everybody if you haven't signed in please do so first order of business in We we had we had begun at 515 to kind of do a Special reenactment that we're playing for annual meeting. So it says 515 on the agenda We got over that now. We're on to the regular meeting And so I don't think one of the changes here. I think The annual meeting preparation Tim German. We're not going to be doing that. That's been done So we're not going to do that. So Evan, Mr. Municipal Manager any other agenda changes additions? No, okay. Fantastic So first order of business comments from comments or questions from members of the audience, but anything that's not on the agenda tonight Yes Please come on So hi, I'm Abby Ticocchi. I live on Cordroy Road and I am a member of the Essex Energy Committee And I came tonight for two reasons that our energy committee related one was to the first is to submit a letter from the Energy Committee to The trustees and village planners, which is to say that on behalf of the Essex Energy Committee We would like to express our sincere and heartfelt appreciation for the village's preparation and Submission of the grant application for the electric vehicle charging station on Railroad Avenue In addition to committing village funds toward the expenditure the committee is very a very much appreciates learning that the Existing charging station served approximately 21 monthly plug-ins and that it generated revenue for the village Based on recent data being developed by the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission in connection with the new energy sections of the Eco's plan s6 town and s6 junction together need to see roughly a hundred new Light-duty electric vehicles registered in s6 each each year through the end of 2025 to get halfway to the goal of 2050 The availability of convenient well-situated electric charging infrastructure is vital to achieving this goal And we would like to work with the village in tracking usage and revenue All as a means of ultimately promoting cleaner more efficient transportation and in our community So thank you again for your forward-thinking planning The committee looks forward to working closely with the village to make s6 an energy innovative Location to work live and play and that assigned by will dodge the chair of the committee as well as David Sopkin David Gottlieb Natalie Braun John Peach Kenworthy Irene Renner Bradley Pryor and myself So thank you for that and I have submitted that letter To Darby And then the other energy committee related issue is the the Vermont energy energy dashboard Which is a wonderful website that I don't know if it can be pulled up But it's it's if you have a chance to check it out It tracks the progress of all Vermont municipalities to try to reach the 2050 goal of 90 percent Renewable energy for the whole state by 2050 And there are issues with the dashboard right now It's a beautifully made web portal that Allows us to submit our own community initiatives and stories And it sort of promotes Both competition and like camaraderie for all of the municipalities to work together to to get to this state goal But right now the web portal is set up so that it separates sx junction from sx So when you click on sx, it doesn't the population is not representative of the You know the full town including the village the village has been separated out And we find that to be problematic for a few reasons Being that let's see what I'll read what will go because it's great It's a demographic issue But also because there isn't a separate energy committee in the village right now The sx junction is on this site, but it looks like not doing anything which we just established you are doing a lot of stuff Which is great And then also when you like pull up the population for sx it just says you know about 10,000 whatever It's just half of the population of the full town So since we have a common energy committee covering both municipalities because the committee does consider itself working for both The town outside the village and the village We have a unique situation where the biggest power producer in the state is situated in the junction Combining town and junction helps to make town resources available to help offset that consumption Deploying each municipalities resources together has a greater effect on the whole For an example the town benefits for the megawatts produced from the hydro facility and the junction benefits from the fact that There are more areas for solar development in the town outside the village The two municipalities have gradually been working more closely together, which is amazing Combined energy would be consistent with that broader goal And although density patterns are different the problems are largely the same for the two committees There's high potential for residential solar Sun common was just that our last Energy committee meeting talking about how sx holds the greatest like potential for growth and expansion in the solar industry Restricted areas for ground-mounted solar lots of housing and businesses that could use weatherization Roughly the same ratio of electric vehicles to gas-powered and it goes on so Rob from the energy action network Confirmed that they would like to to merge both but that there's a cost to that just have to rebuild some of the website We also reached out to the the CCR PC just to confirm that we wouldn't be by Trying to merge those two things on the web portal. We wouldn't be cutting either off to any potential resources or funding or anything They agreed that they thought it would be a good idea to combine the two on the website so that we could all Drive all initiatives for all of sx together But they estimate that the caught the fix could cost up to six hundred dollars At this point we they also let us know of a couple other resources we can look into you to try to cover that cost But basically they were asking it whether or not the town would be willing to make a contribution to help cover the cost of having to do that Merge on the web portal and so we wanted to ask the village trustees whether or not they would also be willing to make a Contribution to help get that done if necessary I didn't want to I don't want to interrupt you Yeah, sorry. I want to say first of all, I'm really glad you asked the RPC If it would interfere with something else, and I that's always a personal concern of mine And I'm glad you did that as I thought I love you I can only tell you we we can't we can't make I'm gonna I'm gonna guess what the answer to your question is But we are kind of technically not allowed to make a decision in the public No, we totally understand so you but I think we what would it needs to do is land on our agenda in our next meeting And then we can take action Okay, I'll have will submit some more information to and it's 300 each town and village Yeah, if we can't find funding for it somewhere else Yeah, but we'll reach out to efficiency Vermont and some other suggested places to see if we can figure this out with the board's Consent I'll put this on the agenda for the next meeting. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you and we'll communicate before them okay, and then I'm lastly and having nothing to do with the energy committee, but the fact that I did To watch through the fun read it Earlier, which is really cool, and I'm looking forward to seeing it at the meeting, but I did I wanted to express public record that I didn't I I Find there to be some some casual and unintended and implicit bias in the way that the performance has been written And that there's no need for the historical accuracy of having men read male parts and such I feel that relegating the women trustees to Reading narration, although there is much more narration than there are lines for men It's a it's a it's a disservice and and is disrespectful to the women who are currently representing the village So I just wanted to state that for the record I do I did enjoy the comment about whether or not that woman was denied her permit or whatever for being a woman But I do agree that the other comments within the script About women were Not funny, but sexist. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate it Anybody else from the audience have a question comment We're good Okay, we are on to the next piece and as I said, we have already done the annual meeting preparation and so I think we will move on to Presentation of the FY 17 audit report by Casey Scandore Kittle Branigan and sergeant Welcome Casey I'm Casey Scandore from Cattel Branigan and sergeant your audit firm for your fiscal year 17 audit I'm assuming of all the financials at this point. Yes I'm just gonna give kind of a brief overview of some of the main points obviously not gonna go through page by page But if there's anything that anyone wants me to elaborate on either as I go or at the end just let me know So the very beginning of the audit Is the most important section the independent auditors report What you're hiring us for to give an opinion on the opinion was unmodified, which is the cleanest opinion you can get So everything went very well This year's audit also included a single audit, which is required when you expend over $750,000 of federal funds this relates to your department of transportation grants and The reporting on that single audit is at the very back of the financial statement Report one is the summary of the actual federal expenditures that you received. It was 985,000 and this is all related to your highway construction projects Report for the very last page of the audit is the summary of those single audit results There was no significant deficiencies no material weaknesses No findings So overall everything Very clean very well accounted for The next section of the audit is the management discussion analysis, which is written by Warren and that's It's the financial government financials aren't comparative. So this does an excellent job of comparing year over year significant changes over and under budget items fluctuations basically an analysis of What happened during the year? Beyond just looking at the numbers and reports The government-wide financials are on the accrual basis of accounting, which isn't what your internal records show monthly. This is going to report your capital assets and your debt Your equity in that section shows net investments in capital assets, which is just your capital assets net of the related debt So while it is equity, it's not spendable equity The fund financials are what you generally see for month to month. It's on the modified accrual One thing about your financials now is they don't show cash And that's because the cash account is merged with the town So the town actually shows the cash and the village financials show due to or from the town of Essex So the due from town of Essex is basically the village's cash The equity section on those fund financials is broken into non-spendable assigned Restricted and unassigned and those are all detailed On page 28 The unassigned came in at I believe nine and a half percent, which is within your policy ten percent less than ten percent So everything everything is fine there Non-major funds there was a couple new ones this year that are shown in the financials the village acquired the senior center So that's showing us a new fund this year And the economic development and building maintenance accounts were broken out into their own funds And those are detailed in the back schedules The proprietary funds are your water sewer wastewater Those are your you know business funds self-sustaining funds again with the cash the cash flow is generally a Very informational statement to see how you did but the village is being that you don't have cash It's a little misleading because it's yes, so it's kind of better to look at the change in that due to town account Which is basically a reflection of your cash, but it's not your standard cash flow The footnotes are all Right in line with last year. I believe the only new footnote is just disclosing the acquisition at the senior center But other than that everything is consistent in in line with the prior year No new standards disclosed or anything that nothing new this year, so the audit went very well Lauren and her staff do an excellent job and We're very pleased So I don't know if it's anything you want me to go into more detail on any of the statements or Any specific areas? Please So with not showing the cash Does that then have any impact on borrowing and or could that have any impact if we don't necessarily have to look good asset I don't believe so because you're still showing that And it is up in the current asset section So it has the same the same effect as having a cash asset and technically do have the cash It's just a shared account for recording Purposes it's just Technically and practically it's right there, but on paper looks different and if there could be any Impacts on that. I don't believe so. Um, if you ever it's easily explainable if you ever did run into a Issue And then I know it's like the one of the very last Statements number eight on the last page it says ability that's it's junction was turned to be a high-risk oddity Yes, so for single-oddit purposes You can only be considered well risk if you've had clean single audits in the prior two years So because the village hasn't had to have a single audit in every year, so they didn't have one last year It's impossible to be low risk. So even if it's a single audit next year Still be high-risk you have to have it that third year Okay, and that high-risk low risk is basically just for the testing So if your high-risk were required to test 50% of The expenditures to get testing coverage if you're low risk that percentage drops So that's really what the high-risk low risk Relates to them. Thank you Disney how many days were you guys here? We were at the town offices for five days So five full days there was three three staff member two other staff members and myself During both the town and the village, so it's not just the village, but and what do you ask of the staffs? We send a list ahead of time. We're very our auditing techniques are very focused on the balance sheet So we send a prep list ahead of time, you know bank reconciliations receivable listings pulling invoices for fixed asset activity Loan documents for the grant testing. We're pulling all the grant files reviewing all the reimbursement requests And making sure all those procedures are followed so we're We're keeping them running around for the whole week. They're very happy on Friday when we say we're leaving I just Want people to understand how much goes into an audit there is a lot. Yeah, just getting the materials together And then what happens during the week of the audit? There's a lot of preparation. We appreciate all the preparation that Lauren and the staff do ahead of time because it makes it that much easier for us because Even if they're a hundred percent prepared, we're still hounding them with questions and things. So so we The list is like four pages. I think that we get it There's always Something else too that we're asking I just keep them on their toes so that they don't you know And for the people at home the village and town funds is not like done like a business It's it's fund accounting right with a D not just And it's different in the audit system. I mean we've definitely I mean there's two full sets of financials that go along with governmental so it's it's a lot of a lot of work goes into it But we get a clean audit clean audit. Yeah Are there anything that struck you that maybe we should be working on? I don't think so. I mean everything's great. We just had a couple entries for things like depreciation But that's generally expected Who we you know have our software that runs, you know the actual calculations, but I mean everything Nothing Thank you. Good question. So good good point. I mean I It is much appreciated what the staff goes through and it's we we're just so used to having good audits in the village in the town And I'm not sure every community does it and it's just something we routinely have always done You know, it's a it's a public service step. I think the public doesn't isn't always aware what's going on good points Thank you. We're still trying to get better in our procedures every day Because we know what audit time looks like and you might as well Do it and get prepared for it and make your policies and procedures in line with it so that this week slash Plus goes better Any other questions? Casey, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks to Lauren and her staff If you don't mind Okay, so we are on to our next to old business in our dealing still dealing with the replacement of the Main Street bridge Getting engineering company. Good evening Dennis. Thanks for coming. Thank you. And this is gonna get fixed this year This is great. It's gonna get fixed this year. All right We actually Have a copy of the specs and a copy of the plans both of which I picked up today So we're trying to get them out the bid date. We've got scheduled to open bids Is April 20th? And we're trying to work around school days out also, so we're gonna hold a contract until school is out So we can get out there and it's just too busy an area to have one school and kids are walking by so But those are done. I'm gonna leave them if anybody's really interested Nothing really different or strange about it. It's gonna be a concrete Pre-stressed concrete deck that's gonna go on railing will be either steel or aluminum Pretty easily managed We're gonna fence around the construction so that it's protected and We're also going to provide Jersey barriers So that the the approaches and the traffic it's a narrow bridge, but there is room for cars to get by But we need to provide it's gonna be if you know a good four weeks Maybe five weeks to construct this and even with the fencing We need to have a place for the people across and the pedestrians to get by So we've laid out a safety plan in there for how we're going to set up those Jersey barriers It's also close to the entrance and exit to 81 Main Street So that's another concern to make sure that we don't end up with any Traffic collisions like that so we've kind of looked at that fairly carefully. We think we're pretty good We find we have to make changes will make it with a contractor during construction Excellent So that's on its way One of the things we did find out and that's one was to let you know that we are going out to bed on that project And we'll keep you appraised of that and we'll come back to you when we have The bidders with a request to approve the low bidder to get us going on the project There were some things that came up on the bridge towards the end that we found that is the second reason I'm here, which is to get a small contract amendment for the engineer The changes that we found the pedestrian bridge was actually attached to the main Highway bridge and as a result water had a chance to get in and get in underneath the Rebar or the reinforcement that's actually Underneath the the deck railing of the bridge so structurally it doesn't affect any load on the bridge but it does if you Ricky and his crew went out there with a hammer and chipped away Well, Penny was there watching and I was there in the beginning I just had not to stay because the river was up and I didn't want to go swimming, but You can see where it's actually eroded in that area and so from a pure structural point of view What we need to do is essentially fix that. There's also some damage to the Northern abutment and as you come off the bridge, there's a retaining wall that's got about a 10 to 20 degree camp That we have some concerns about if we're going to excavate and redo the sidewalks and everything is in that area So we had we check with the state to see if the contract changes the extra work would be eligible and Be transit it would be So we had Timmy we engaged to me to go ahead and do more work on that to get those so we're going to tie that meeting We straining wall back into the abutment There's a way to do it through soil anchors and stuff to get that so it's not going to go any farther and that'll be stable We're going to fix the damage on the bridge It's more surface damage than anything and we will fix With stirrups and other things underneath the bridge on that one side and clean it up Those were changes that we thought If we're going to get in there and replace that pedestrian bridge We're we're not going to leave the bridge with damage that we know that needs to be fixed. It doesn't make any sense The preliminary estimate that the engineers come up with is that it's still within the Grant money that we've talked about so it's not like a huge extra cost, but there is some extra cost So we built that into the project and again the states approved that additional work So we're not to go back to that it's a 90% state grant So it's going to cost the community an extra 10% so we went through I reviewed the Engineering agreement that we gave you a copy of ahead of time It's a $7,200 engineering adjustment, which Will cost the village $720 with the 90% grant aid so in my view it's a good it's a good deal for everybody But I didn't want to go ahead and Sign this additional contract or myself whoever gets delegated to do it without checking back to you to make sure that you guys We're okay with that. Yeah, well we have a recommended recommendation for a motion here Why don't I make that just so we make it official and this is for the total men's stuff in the 10 process seven This is for 72. This is the total amount for the contract amendment Yeah, okay Well that I'll make a motion that the proposed engineering contract amendment in the amount of $7200 with engineering ventures be approved Oh, sorry any discussion just a quick thing. Yeah, but that as you're saying 90% of the cost to help reinforce the retaining wall Will be covered in that 7,200 though That's for the engineering for how to replace the wall It's not the actual cost to replace the retaining that's correct to reinforce reinforce that right I just want to make sure that right yeah, we'll find out what the extra cost is in the bid. Yeah shortly Okay, any other questions you go on it's just going to comment to Denny about the when you say in the bridge I know the pedestrian bridge was added, but the the Bridge we're calling the bridges actually a box culvert, right? Yeah, it's a box culvert with a slab on top So if you want to call that right? Yeah and at some point I Believe because it's a class one roadway the bridge actually belongs to the village as opposed to the state And that is You know just looking at what's out there in the condition. It's in it's got life I don't think there's any danger of it structurally having any problems initially But just looking at it, you know, you're probably looking as a capital project I'm taking a wild guess here. Maybe 10 years down the road. Maybe 12 15 years We probably ought to start looking at what needs to be done to replace that structure. It's narrow I know when Rick Hamlin had done some work about putting a bike pedestrian path up 15 up on the the north side. There's a question about carrying it across there Maybe that's about the time when some of those things go that that bridge gets discussed and Usually the chain of these things the state doesn't give a lot of bridge grants It would not cover the cost of replacing the bridge, but it would cover some of it and usually their cycle is about three years So we've got time to build on this. Okay, Rick had some UVM engineering students so when engineering students come in and they did a drafter design of a wider bridge with bike lanes on each side, I think and then also Just around the corner over on educational way. They had a roundabout actually so that to improve the traffic flow for track You know traffic coming in out of high school in the morning in the afternoons, which was very quite quite nice The whole design that they didn't like integrated The actual nice thing about a bridge of this type is pre-stress concrete Anchored in is if at some point you decide to replace the bridge This doesn't necessarily have to go away. It can be picked up moved over and built into a concept for a new structure So I mean there's a lot of options, but obviously this one needs to be fixed. It needs to be fixed now So we'll go through them Any other questions so we have a motion on the table all in favor All right Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Yeah Okay, we're on to new business and request for a tree committee logo Nick Warren you want to come up to Four out of six two are out of the country and I thought we could at least introduce ourselves to Yeah She's welcome one of his projects is to make his way to every single committee so and it's not in terms of importance It's just your begins with tea is that you're going to give you a heck of a welcome Now that you don't meet again till 2019. I'll be fine Well Mary Joe is there rich boyer there Warren yeah myself You know I let me let me intro Nick The thing is is that when we saw this just put into the consent agenda It gets tricky because then we don't look at we don't deal with it We and then that sort of invites if you've got a committee just stick it in the kind of consent agenda And it will get approved and we said yeah, we can't really Set that as a precedent. We actually have to require you to come before us in our our stern judgment and Explain yourself to us So Part of our mission of the tree committee is to be educating the public forming partnerships with organizations in the town Which we've done with parks and recreation with the high school and The Essex We've got a mouthful of a name village of Essex Junction Tree advisory committee and we thought that one kind of is hard to get out And maybe it'd be good to have something that really shows what we're doing. So we thought that let's so we work with the center of technology with the graphic department there and made a pitch to the students and one of them work with us and We went through a couple of Designs and that's what we came up with. It seems fairly simple and it's very descriptive Any questions I like the design Yes, but the official names remains the tree advisory yes, it does it just doesn't Help the symmetry Well, there's two lobtop two on the bottom and it fits in I get I think it looks great. I mean the the town with the energy committee. They have their own logo They have their own Facebook page. I think that it makes sense in this day and age that we're trying to engage people Right having a logo and whatnot. It looks nice. Good. Yeah. Thank you for doing this. Okay I have one other item that took place. Yeah as much of you everybody knows the emerald ash borer who's been discovered in Vermont and Down in Orange County and they've since done Some scouting and realize now that it is This one It's been found in Barry and Plainfield I think great and Grotten as well and Grotten so And that's the early scouting that's been done. So it could be much more widespread than that I Want to just give you a little update of what we have for ash in the in the right of way about 21% of our Our trees are ash In the right of way not including the parks Stevens Park and the others It's really consolidated down in the Southwest Quadrant The Hayden Tyler Levois Wilkinson that area where they just planted solid Astries throughout so we have about 116 trees down there 189 ash trees overall that we've been able to count Unfortunately down in that development those developments the when they were done the Builder decided to plant ash on private property too. So it's a solid band of ash trees and Depending How much time we have and if there are any new developments controlling it We're just not sure yet, but our committee was going to try and develop an action plan Working with other agencies and Working with Rick In public works and then bring it to you to see how we might approach this Because it could be expensive for removal and others and how we might budget this in Planting the future. Yeah Yeah, so I think What we need to do is figure out For example, what Could be done how much of the work could be done by Rick's crews the town crews village crews Because this is going to affect the town as well and I Now they did an inventory of their trees a while back and I don't have I don't know where it is at this point or what their percentage of ash trees are but They'll all be affected but speaking of the village My initial thoughts Is you know, what can Rick do with his crew what needs to be contracted out? No, that just takes care of the trees We could remove okay in the public right away Then there's the expense of stump grinding and replanting right, okay? So that is something that we hope to be able to put into a budget form get some estimates So that you'd have some idea of what cost would be associated with this Is it so the only there's no there's no Prevention it's just completely moving the tree once it's once it's been hit. That's it there's no way of preventing the This this particular insect Is difficult to control right it will girdle the entire tree so it goes around and girdles it and Not really a lot that The federal government APHIS is willing to get involved with at this point They will assist the State Forest Parks and Recreation with a quarantine area Or once they determine the outreaches of the insect they are still looking so as we as we know now if it's in berry it's 30 miles from here now There's obviously a lot to read about it. You've got some pamphlets, but the way it moves the fastest is firewood That's why move with a firewood That's why there's a quarantine that will be set up on how to move that ash in and out of that area And how to treat so treatment-wise they're looking they've got some work that they've done with In other insect species that can be a natural predator to the emerald ash borer, but that's it's early in that There are treatment controls that have been used in other states And It's in typically the safest way is a trunk injection of the chemical and it translocates up through into the leaves So there are control Measures because not only Are we going to be concerned about the public trees? But residents of communities in this state are going to want to know what can they do with their trees on their property? So our role as the tree committee would be to gather as much of this information as nix said put it together in a Some sort of report form and then submit it so you have an idea on how to that's what we're facing As part of your plan will you guys be addressing the spacing of trees? to be replanted and then also a Recommendation of species absolutely to be replanted. Yeah, yeah, because I Would hope that we would do some type of varietal types of trees because then when the next blight comes through like Dutch Elm and Elm disease and Ash borer we're not doing this again and again where we deforest an entire block or an Entire area. Yeah, we thought we'd learned a little lesson about that given the the Elms have graced all of these communities And go and plant a solid species but yeah one of the things that occurred at my former village We had plenty of ash trees. Yeah ash trees on private property were to be done by private Entities and they needed to do it and the village had to actually enforce that to be done because of the quarantine and And the fact I assume that you have experience out there because the Midwest and places have been down I have I would suggest that even if it's only 30 miles You know the way obviously you guys know trees grow and stuff After you remove a whole blocks worth of trees It'll never I mean it won't look the same. Yeah, unless you get going early At least get some growth the good thing and Another thing the community should be looking at it in Essex Junction. We have a Pretty good diversity of age class and that's what you're referring to so that You know all your trees are not starting at the same age as well as diversifying species, so it's important in both areas However, the areas where we have the most of the ash trees that Nick was referring to Are new developments. So the other species of trees that are in these areas are a little leaf linden So the lindens will be fine and all the ash trees will have to go so There'll be a bit of an age diversity, but you'll easily see it. It won't be Several different you can be a sense of the time the timescale like let's say It's it sounds almost like it's inevitable that it's gonna come this way And then how long would this What how long does this infestation last? How does it remediate? How does it resolve itself? It moves by the insect about three miles a year Okay, that's it has been transported right far away. Yeah keeping keeping Us as a vector for moving the species through firewood out of it and just the natural insect flying Yeah, it's about three miles three miles a year, right and then if you're going to Use a chemical to control It needs to be done two years ahead of when that insect would get there And then it has to be done every two years from then on Until it can be shown that the insect is no longer in the area. However You know that being said We're looking at now about how can you know sort of getting ash seedlings going and Catching seed and then as it goes through trying to spot and try to get it going again trying to replace the ash by You know planting new seedlings Because about if you haven't heard about oh, I think it's around eight percent 68% of the state forest population is ash and if you think about that, that's quite a quite a bit We're fortunate, you know, we still have 21% but some of the communities of Williston and South Burlington, which have a larger newer Developments in them they are upwards of like 50-55% so what you're going to see a real Muting of the landscapes there I would assume that the chemical injections you're talking about if one tree is missed Then it almost would be not pointless, but near Not very impactful and then especially not just public but at private lands as well Right because there's no way that you're going to be treating the forest Right. I think the tactic has been partially that if there are some beautiful specimen older trees then they might try and Save those with treatment But to try to treat them all Be very expensive to do it So that's the bad news Well, we know what it is news is necessary. Let's know I'm glad you got people think you know Thank you for being on top of it and coming up being so organized and informative about it. That's helpful Well, we'll try to keep you informed as this goes on Also keep keep an eye if you can on the news because Forest Parks and Recreation and the Department of Agriculture will do an excellent job And also we're looking at workshops with them You know for public awareness, and they'll have a lot that they're going to be developing Because they knew it was a matter of time before this would be here What's a sign that your tree is infected? You're going to see decline in the top dead wood and the biggest sign visually that We have learned from other states is woodpeckers. Oh Really believe it or not and then what's called epicormic shoots so in on the main part of the trunk You'll see small shoots start popping up and where you see those you want to look for the d-shaped exit hole From where the adult emerges out But the biggest indicator so far that folks have seen is woodpeckers in the trees What that was going to the trees going in and they're going after the larva that are in In the trees can't we encourage that and like give them or maybe Extra funding for them or something bringing woodpeckers Because I don't mind woodpeckers here for you But then the other problem with an ash is much like birch or other soft wooded trees Once they start to decline They start to fall apart quickly. So as your village tree warden my other hat That is the other thing that concerns me is keeping an eye on things and not and Not only the public property, but private as well. Yeah mention. Yeah power lines And other such things that may be impacted by Yeah Well anyway Do I hear a motion to go back to the initial business that we accept the tree advisory committee logo? So move second all in favor any further discussion all in favor. Hi Thanks, and do you have any more questions any more any any other questions for? Thank you so much Next order of business our village newsletter policy Darby good evening. Thank you everyone for having me here so what I put together was a village newsletter policy which Essentially codified everything that had been happening for the past Six or so years that we cut the newsletter The one thing that I would like to note is the way I see this is this is You know the protocol and the requirements Generally if there is time I do go around to the individual websites and Grab events off of their and stick them in the newsletter, but you know sicknesses vacations all that good stuff happens So it can't be guaranteed every week Yep I Just gonna tell you that I really appreciate the effort that goes into this having some familiarity with this kind of stuff So I know how much work this is pulling us all together on every week. So that's a good thing Any questions for don't you know my darry can you explain why we're putting it into a policy form? We talked about it. Of course. There wasn't really any particular You know impediment for this I was just chatting with Evan and he did mention that it's always good to have things in writing So that you know if there was ever an incident like say a Nazi group Wanted to have their information It's a good did I summarize that correctly? Thank you. I we said hate group, but yes Substituted Nazi for it. Yes, you know Just in case they're listening Yeah, the idea is that as a policy, you know Sometimes somebody objectionable may come to you and say well you do it for this group You do it for that group, you know, you got to let me advertise my jamboree and By policy we can say we don't allow any advertisement of hate groups or things of that nature and I guess at the bottom it says I'm the final say on appropriateness, so But we wanted to make sure we have policies and procedures For those things so that we are treating people equitably and groups equitably It's a very good idea And I do thank Darby for all of her hard work of doing all this any questions I Think we're just our silence is just our endorsement of good work So I will make a motion that we adopt the Village newsletter policy So any further questions all in favor. Hi. Hi. Thank you. Yeah So we are on to annual meeting preparation and this is Evan and I and I you know Evan you want to you want to chime in you want to take the lead on this or Actually, I'm like you today since this is all new to me. Okay. Well, I I met with Steve earlier and we just sort of went over the Agenda for the annual meeting As you know as we said, we're gonna have a little re-enactment ahead of time The in terms of the actual Information I'm gonna be presenting Lauren has provided me With the same slides that we saw when we approved the budget. I don't think there are any surprises there I Lori has they passed a resolution honoring in the legislature honoring on neighbors day And so Lori wanted to read that resolution at the end. So that's one of add-on thing that we'll be doing here That's sort of the you know Extra business or an article for other business section What the question I have for you guys was What do you think in terms of me and Evan you to let me just get some feedback Is this an opportunity to sort of update people in terms of consolidation efforts, you know We don't really discuss it in the budget. We're just presenting the budget and possessing You know talking about the wastewater fund and everything like that and enterprise funds So we're not really doing anything in terms of saying Here's where we are in terms of consolidation It's not like we have something some brand new piece of information to present but on the other hand I'm just curious people getting sort of reading bits and pieces of it getting the sense of it and if it's Appropriate if I should try to do some kind of a summary in the town annual meeting max presented a Slide that said here's here consolidation efforts to date here in the departments that remain to be consolidated or not Not consolidated I'm just curious if you think I should try to go there and I think kind of a presentation I think I mean rather than rehash The same thing the Max or we did it was presented a town meeting We could have some kind of a flyer some kind of a handout People can pick it up there rather than I mean depending on if you want to do something George You want a presentation PowerPoint? That's fine But I'm just thinking to simplify the process that you could we could have a handout You know explaining what what the consolidation efforts here you know to date are and You know things we're looking at initially in the future and then if under the article 4 or under You know the article 4 where we go into other business and people you know want to talk about other things We're going to be hanging around if they want to talk and express their feelings. What's been done? I think that I Would say it can't hurt I mean the more not more that we can share this information I think the better in terms of whether it's a flyer is great I think also it's two slides and it can just be quickly here's what we've done. Here's what has not been done, right? That's really all I had in mind and then and then say are there any questions Does anyone have any thoughts or comments about it? I mean, it's an opportunity for us to get some feedback That's that's really the only reason I was going to mention Yeah, I don't think it can hurt to engage in the community in the conversation. We will I'll just I'll keep it very brief Can't think of anything else Question the question and answers that I sent to you Should I go through those I don't do you want to get those made up for annual meeting and having to pass out? I think that would be good. Yeah, I do. Yeah. Yeah, I appreciate that and so we'll hand those out And then I will I can just sort of present those in the flow of the description of the budget Good, so it's good. Yeah And then do you want anything to add to this? No, next year you'll know it up You'll have it all I did. Yeah, and I let me add tomorrow night Remember you and I are channel 17 and we're gonna be like a dry run Yeah, it'll be a spoiler alert for me We'll see you there. All right Okay, so we'll move on to the manager's report and All state parade street closure request in your packet. This is just informational only for tonight the All-state music festival, which is hosted by our high school is asking for a road closure They did not come to us first before they accepted This event and originally they wanted to come down Main Street and have Main Street closed for The better part of two hours around five o'clock So staff worked with them we have an alternate route that takes them out old Colchester Road And and down that way, so it's not on a busy street it does have Some homes along that way. There's about 30 homes and then Arbor Think of the name from the housing subdivision that's in there, so One of the things that we're gonna they're gonna be here in two weeks Asking for permission one of the things we want to work with them on is They're gonna need to notify all the property owners in this route that the road is gonna be closed for two hours and There's the Back entrance into one of the subdivisions, which is the housing unit at the end of Old Colchester, Audem pan. You're talking about Audem pan. Thank you. Basically, the falls route to a Right, Audem pan. There's a temp There's an ability to get into Audem pan through the other street, which is I think Athens and so we It's two hours, and so we want them to be able to notify other than that we have no ability to close a road for that length of time on Without proper notice so you're saying leaving the high school and then coming on North Street and then Right running on to all and then going up to Audem pan through just asked to Audem pan Turn around and come back And that's the best we could come up with that was not going to take We only have a couple police officers on shift. We can't do all this. It's about Yeah, it's significant, but the The band Whatever state band gathering whatever they have something on all-state and Gathering is on the weekend as well, correct? Yes, it's a whole weekend. It's a whole weekend thing, but the the actual Parade is that day at this time And what we are trying to work with them They've already invited everybody to come to this event and do this So we got caught in a jam with this I really think Rick and both ricks for coming up with Something that could work so there's no embarrassment Etc. But our requirement at the very least is going to be to notify all these residents That the road is going to be closed for a couple hours And those who live in Audem pan will at least be able to use this back entrance temporarily, I don't know And I don't know what you know, it is well our guys are looking at it could be used But we're going to find out remember remember when they came and if it can't it can't but it's going to be The road needs to be closed for two hours as I recall Going back to maybe ten or more years They had the all-state parade or a gathering of bands here and they actually went through the five corners But it must have been on a weekend and I remember seeing all the different bands from all over the state here Their comment that was their comment was well ten years ago. We didn't even we didn't have to ask for permission Well, we said that that was ten years ago So we said well, this is the process now and so it was just as busy back then Right, I don't think they just sort of went out Well Well either way have there been any conversations about if they were willing this to change the day at a time Yeah, that's why I think it goes the weekend have more of it have more of an opportunity to do We're already doing for the memorial day parade just recreate. I know I know it's I'm guessing I you know There's problem in there in their format. It probably makes sense. They're introducing right, you know That's the weekend of the event and that's what showcase Showcase the the the bands to allow the kids to really feel what they should be feeling in their Accomplishments and have them go right through the community But the way the way it works is like on Saturday morning. They have they start doing all the thing They probably have a whole weekend of things I know what you say, but how these conversations happen is what I'm wondering we were not We weren't asked to be we weren't asked to be part of any of their planning other than their request for the road closures And we said obviously from step perspective now to the five corners And then we worked with them with an alternate That's all we had and so I just wanted to give you a heads up that they're coming in two weeks Give you a little preview if you have some questions and thoughts Chief Gary was now available to be here tonight, but he will be here In two weeks to be able to answer any staffing questions Of how we'll be able to make this work Personally, I would like someone from the staff to ask or to try to engage the I'm sorry, I can't think of the name right now, but to ask them if there were willingness to shift to the day I agree. You know even for their sake it'd be nicer for them, right with the you know for the kids to go marching. I mean The old Colchester Road plan is not is a pretty good plan, but there's not it's not well populated there It's kind of like let's start you up in the parking lot along an old road I mean, it would be nice for them if they would take advantage of Potentially maybe it'll be there'll be a blizzard, but it's only me But you know it might be it could be a beautiful spring morning and Marching if they mark went used a normal parade route now They can the police are pretty good at closing that whole thing off. They've got that down They're not even doing the whole thing. They're selling that little piece of it But that's something for them to think about I yes I I think they've done a good job. We're not criticizing. Oh, no. I'm just saying so we just we didn't Yeah, I Know that staff did when they came up with these ideas Yeah, but like I said, we we got caught no five o'clock on Friday. It's not a good time to go marching around here Yeah, so So I just want to give you that heads up. So they'll be here at your next meeting. Okay, I really will talk They are seeking people to host the students there are hundreds of students Anyone can help out. Okay. Thank you Okay That's just a normal update of the calendar. Yep So, okay is Well, you know, we do need a quick executive session just to give an update on some personnel. Yep So we will move from there and on to the Trustees comments and concerns It's not on the agenda, but we we've had some complaints about some parking on Park Terrace Basically the parking at around McGillicuddy's There is this event The NCAA Tournament, I believe which Lyola of Chicago is in the final four I've heard were you parked over here? No, the funny part was I drove by there before and it wasn't crowded, but apparently I Was also there about an hour by there about an hour and a half before the six o'clock game and by the time You know and so there have been people parking over there Public works did put up some temporary barricades that say no parking on it. They're on the what would be the north side of south side of the street and Across from the building and our police will be enforcing it And then permanent signs are going to go up there. The village had previously amended its ordinance to have no parking Allowed on that street. So we'll just be putting up the signs and enforcing it. The other thing is and Sorry Derby left for the evening You know we we have We are trying to put the word out that there is a large parking lot right behind road rescue There's signs that say park here park here please and so We really want to get the word out that That that'd be a great Employee parking lot or owners of the businesses so that it opens up parking spots on their lots And the only restriction is you can't park there overnight So we're going to do a front page a front porch forum posting that shows the picture and You know it even shows cars parked in there so Without a tow truck So I I wonder just I I mentioned it to you. I just was curious I've been some towns where you have a more of an identification more of a sign There's a lot of there's a Caffeine of signs around here and if you're from out of town You might you might see a sign that says public parking and you don't see it You know it just doesn't even register. So I wonder if a place like park terrace if you had Public parking and then you had like the village logo or some kind of a specific signal You know look for this and then you had that over there. I mean it might it might be a fairly easy fix Maybe that would be Wasting money. I don't know but for some reason people are not parking in our public spaces Well, it's just like in burlington. I mean they have they have the the blue signs with the white peas on it Yeah, where the parking is something that's a little bit more That registers a little bit more that might it might really help. Yeah, maybe we should look into that So, but we are looking into it as a staff and that's a good suggestion I think we need a little better. I think they call it way finding signs. Yeah, you know, we're to you know park and stuff but Uh, interestingly enough, like I said, I went right by there. There was tons of spots, but I didn't go at game time but um There's plenty of spots a block away But you do have to go a block away. You do have to go through five corners You would have to cross Five corners to get back so There's also spots out behind our village offices here and behind burnout library that are available So yeah, it's right there as well. Yeah, so for all those people watching Son TV who are planning to go the nca game those were all your parking spots are Okay, thank you. Thank you So now on to other trustee comments anyone have any comments I'm just going to make a plug for the events tomorrow evening 5 25 George and Evan you too about going over the budget. Yep And then Elaine and I at 555 we we hash out a vigorous debate about The two C's that are uncontested. All right, sounds good. Sounds good We're anxious to watch that. Yeah, right. I'm thinking about a skit from Saturday night live with a bit of a That's a dedicated versus You could introduce yourself as a late subject That'll be different Confuse everybody Anything else Good Reading file everyone good with that Okay, so we will move on to the consent agenda Any comments all in favor? And We will take a short break and get ready for a Relatively brief. I hope executive session. Do we need to do that? Oh, we need to make a motion. I'm sorry. Yes, we do I need to make a motion for I will make a motion that we Boy, I don't have the I don't have this to the board this state the law Actually, I think the personnel you can just go into with personnel We can just choose to go into executive session. So I will make a motion that we Enter executive session for the purpose of discussing personnel And to include just manager and finance director in in the meeting Second Any further discussion all in favor all right Okay