 I'm going to call the meeting to order at 5 o'clock. Are there any amendments to the agenda? I believe there's one. The executive session should be amended to, I forget the language is, but not personnel matters. Correct. OK. So that is an amendment to the agenda. I have three potential items under other business. Paul has been approached by Jesus Peter, the park, the beach. Right field beach. Yes, asking us to grade the road which apparently we have done in the past, which I was not aware of. I asked him that question, and he said yes, we've graded it in the past. But now he's asking us whether we want it. I don't know how much time it take. He responded, but he didn't tell me it's going to be eight hours, a greater time, or four hours, or whatever. But that's one item. We have outstanding the question of music licensing for the concerts. And I thought Elliott was going to be here, but maybe he isn't. I don't know. Hopefully he will be. And then we've got an interesting response from the state of Vermont. And you have the letters in your packet with regard to the traffic and speeding issues in Putnamville. And so I just want to talk about that for a minute. The interesting thing in that, they clearly said in that that we were responsible for speed enforcement on the State Highway, which isn't my understanding of the way it works. Maybe because it's in Middlesex? No. It's in our town. We don't just speed enforcement out of here on Route 2. They can. We used to, and then any money they collected went to a state. You're saying that's correct. But they're saying, but he's saying in his letter that it is absolutely our responsibility and they have no responsibility, which I think is incorrect. So anyway, just quickly, those three things, we do have one guest, Mike, why don't you introduce yourself? OK. I might grew up. I'm just here so you don't know I'm hiding behind a computer somewhere. OK. And we should introduce ours. I don't have that letter. No, we don't. She was going to get it, and I guess she forgot. I think I have it to pass out about degree. I'm Mary Skinner, select board member. Phil Hayek. Steve Martin. Linda Cole, Treasurer. Peter Hood, select board member and chairman. And Liz Scherke. And Cindy is our acting select board assistant tonight, taking the minutes, Sarah, out of town. So with that, the first item on the agenda is the executive session to discuss a matter of public safety, a concern about public safety. Is there a motion to go into executive session for that purpose? So moved. And is there a second? Second. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? OK, so we are now in executive session, so. Now here, did he leave? No. I think he left. No, he left. He had to go. Oh, OK. He wanted you to know that he left. Oh, OK. Thank you. So what I will do is reach out to him and say I'm sorry our executive session was so long. If you would like to appear before the select board, let me know and I'll get you on the agenda. Does that make sense? Yes. I'm sorry, Peter, I missed that. Peter, I missed that. Yeah, I wonder if you sound like he'll reach out. I'm going to reach out to Mike and just tell him, I'm sorry the executive session went so long if you wish to appear before the select board, please let me know or let Sarah know and we'll get you on the agenda. Yeah, I just want to say that he mentioned that he would appreciate hearing back. Yeah, no, no, no. It's only this candy. All right, you got one. I'm going to hold on to this right here. Let's see what this is. It's a iteration of obtaining licenses so that the copyrighted music may be played advanced summer concerts. Yeah. I'm Mary Skinner. I don't think I've met you. Ron Sweet. Hi, Ron. Nice to meet you. Ron is on the bandstand committee with me. OK. Phil Hegg. David Martin, select board. Brenda Carl-Troeger. Peter Hoed, select board. Ron. Liz Sharp, select board. Could I say a couple of things? I mean, I'm hoping you're going to say a couple of things. OK, at least two. So I may have created a misunderstanding here in a conversation I had with you, Peter, on the phone. And that is that Ron got an email that he then forwarded to members of the bandstand committee. And I received that. And I read it as a demand for payment, which is what I think I characterize it as to you. From somebody named John Bondi. And it was a strange email. It talked about the need for musical licenses under ASCAP and BMI and a third copyright organization called CSEC. And I looked at it and I read it as a demand. This guy was sort of speaking or purporting to speak for the three copyright organizations was saying that middle sex had to pay a licensing fee for each of them. That's not what it was. It wasn't a demand. It was an informational email from a friend of Ron's. I mean, John Bondi to Ron saying, heads up, musical licenses may be necessary. So there has been no demand. ASCAP, BMI, CSEC have not focused on middle sex in any way. So that's good to know because my understanding was that they had the bullseye on us. Oh, boy, OK. They don't. No, they don't. And one of the things that I did when I saw the email and mistakenly thought it was a demand was to try to figure out, first of all, how much would this cost if it's $25 or something? That's the big deal. And for ASCAP and BMI, there are form licensing contracts available online that you can look at. Phil, you may be familiar with this your own music. And each of us do have fee schedules. So for a town our size, I think up to 50,000 people, if it's a town, the total of fees for BMI and ASCAP is a little bit above $700. It's like roughly $350 each. CSEC apparently is higher than that. CSEC represents a smaller number of artists. So if you're not familiar with ASCAP, BMI, and CSEC, they hold the rights to songs that have been written by various artists. CSEC has, I don't know, Frank Zappa and some others. Smaller, stable, but apparently a higher fee. So we could be talking about somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500 may be higher a year. And that's something that the bandstand committee doesn't have the money to pay. So I was concerned about this. That's why I called you, Peter, and said, oh, we've got a demand, which we don't have. And it seems to me that, and we talked about this, it seems to me that the likelihood that any of these organizations would focus in on a small town, and they're apparently close to 40,000 cities and towns in the United States, there are hundreds of thousands of restaurants and clubs, all of which, theoretically, you're supposed to have licenses. The likelihood that they would focus on middle sex is incredibly small, and maybe it's near zero, especially since this ended up not being a demand. So, you know, I wanted to. Well, that sounds a lot better than what we were thinking it was. We thought the bullseye was on the side of the town hall here, and they were ready to open fire. Yeah, that's nervous. Yeah. So interestingly enough, both Phil and Durin to have experience with this issue. So they filled this in a little bit. I guess, you know, and I went online and looked at the stuff, and I saw that 50,000, and then I thought, geez, here we are. We have four or five concerts a year with a few people. What do we do? Do we restrict artists to only play their own music? Do we, you know, I wasn't sure what my response was gonna be, but that was my initial response, was that, you know, we can't be paying 1,500 or 2,200 or whatever it is. Right. It just doesn't work, and we don't want it to, you know, we don't, you don't, we don't, I think, wanna charge for people to go to those bandstand concerts. So what's, so maybe our appropriate response, which is, I think, what I said initially was to put the mass over our heads, and I mean, what's the risk? What's the risk for a musician who does this? Can they go after the musician? So the, my understanding is that the, is that the responsibility falls on the venue, not on the musician. These are annual fees. Right. I would imagine that if someday they develop to central database, so that the musician would then input, they go to a cloud, and they actually enter all the cover songs that they've, Yeah, look at the reporting obligation. That was, that was daunting. Yeah, although it's no more complicated than credit card, you know, credit card transactions. Yeah, if it's all automated. Yeah, it's not a real big deal, technically. So that if such a system were in place, then if I were a musician going to play somewhere, it could then be incumbent upon me to enter all the cover songs I'm gonna do, and maybe the venue will get charged 10 cents or 20 cents for a play of a song instead of this amorphous formula that these unregulated PROs, they're pulling numbers out of the air. What's PRO? PRO is performing rights organization, and that's these three organizations. So do the musicians actually make any money? Mm-hmm, a lot of money. Eat? They do. Well, some do. Some do. Like if you're playing the beat, well, the Beatles are dead. Back end, back end. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, rights are far from dead. But based on a paper that a Grammy-winning instrumental guitarist out of New Hampshire, he did some research and put this together because he was concerned. Back in 2015 anyways, I don't know what's happened in the last two years, but I believe it was ASCAP, their method for deciding how much I as a musician, a member of them would get paid a year. They recorded, by their own methodology that they didn't publish because they're not regulated, they recorded $60,000 of radio and $30,000 of television. And based on the percentage of that $90,000 that my songs were played, that would determine how much money I got. So if I'm an independent songwriter, I'm not getting anything. Right. Because they're not paid. When a song is performed live or it's on an album or on a TV show or in a movie, you've got line items specifically for each instance of the song being used. But when you're playing bandstands and open mics and small venues, you don't have a playlist. So these three organizations, by their own secret formulas, come up with how much per year a flat fee that the venue pays. And because it's a flat fee, there's no way that each musician knows how much to contribute to that flat fee if they were responsible for paying. That was a quick lesson. And the other piece is that there are plenty of venues who are just, like you said, stay at, you know, just don't respond, just stay under the, to the threats. It just seems, as you said earlier, it just seems so unlikely to me that they would pick out our four, I mean, first of all, it's no money. I mean, they can't even afford to write us a demand letter to say we need to have these licenses. I guess if we got the demand letter, we might have to do something. You know, there are places that occasionally do get voicemails left. They've actually been pretty aggressive in this area in the past couple of years. Yeah, but I think it was about, according to, when I spoke to Lauren Parker, she said that about the time that letter went out from the state, they pulled back. Oh, interesting. Yeah, apparently there were some demands that were directed at a couple of local venues and I'm feeling really small. Oh, like North Branch? North Branch, and they went to the AGE's office. And I remember this for my last days in the AGE's office. And there was an informational demand, which was essentially a subpoena that apparently went out from the Attorney General's office to the PROs. And that pushback, that may have been what caused the demands to evaporate. You know, suddenly there is no more pressure. There's an article put out by the Vermont League of City Towns in their most recent newsletter that they are coming down on small parks and things like that. It's in this month's newsletter. Oh, okay. Yeah, I understood that. I talked to Susan Sinning at the League of City and she's the attorney who wrote that. And it was my understanding that this was sort of a general article on, you know, here's what the law is and under the copyright law, you know, everybody's responsible for paying these fees. But I didn't think it identified any particular push in the direction of Vermont or cities and towns in Vermont. I mean, you know, the financial reality is that, you know, in addition to the unlikelihood that we would be picked out, ultimately their remedy is to file a lawsuit in federal court. And, you know, over- They can't give you a fine. Or would they give you a fine? It's not a fine. It's they would sue, to collect their fees. Yeah, with that, yeah. Yeah, so I mean, the retainer to the law firm to represent ASCAP or BMO or CSAC would so far exceed what they could possibly recover. So it's not, you know, it was a theoretical matter. It's not impossible. But it seems to me that there are lots of venues. Small claims for federal court. Yeah. I mean, you know the situation, Mary. And it does, it based on, so when I first moved here in 2014, I ran an open mic at the North Branch. And it was several months after I started that, that the North Branch and Capital Grounds and Nutty Steffs, they were all getting bothered by at least some of the PROs and they stopped doing live music. And then Lauren Parker, who's a real go-getter, she organized 10 or 12 venues, plus me, to go to the Attorney General's office and just testify as to the harassment that was being, what's that? I said that's interesting. Yeah, yeah. So it seems like their method of operation is to first make a bunch of calls and send emails out to demand money. Some of the debt collectors. They're kind of like, it feels like organized crime, actually, the strong-arming, trying to strong-arm people. And I'm a full advocate of musicians getting paid for there. As am I. I mean, I come from my whole family for generations has been in the book publishing business and obviously copyright, you know, all that stuff is a big deal. And became, you know, when photocopiers first came out and people were, you know, anyway. Yeah. So people should be paid. I'm willing to pay a little. I just don't want to pay a lot. Yeah, exactly. What they're asking for sounds like a lot for the whole tiny town. It's a huge amount. And the amount they ask for venues far outweighs the number of seats that they have in their establishments. It's not reasonable. Well, and it's too bad because as you just said, I was ready to say, I was ready to say, if we're going to continue the bandstand concerts, we can only have people play their own music. That doesn't actually solve the problem when it comes to the- It doesn't? Well, it doesn't always. It doesn't always, but there was a case that I read about where a musician was the only musician in this venue. I believe it was in New Hampshire. This was like years ago, like four or five years ago now. And he only played original material, but because he had joined one of these kids. Oh, a member. He's a member. And they're obligated to play his own music. Right, that's right. Jesus. It's really twisty. So you mentioned they're not a member of PRR, so they're playing their own music. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. Anyway, what do you think? We think. We're glad that you told us that. We don't have to do anything. Let's just wait till next time. Keep your head up. Excellent. Yeah, let's not advertise our concerts too broadly. Yeah, right. So I just want to say I did some research, as you did, Peter, to try to find, when I thought that John Bondi was demanding, to like, who is John Bondi? So I found a website called johnbondi.com. I found a website. You did? And he posts pictures that you can't really see here, but pictures of undersea creatures, cuttlefish, and sea anemones. And he has other business, but this is like the big thing on his website. He's your friend. It's hilarious. I'm not here to say it. I'm not here to say it. Who in the hell is this guy? So this John Bondi guy. He's got a cardboard fish fin. And it's funny. Bandstand members are constantly emailing each other, updating each other, and just staying on the same page. And this one just kind of slipped through. Well, in all seriousness, I guess what I would suggest is that we restrict the promotion of our concerts. To the local area, what makes sense? Not be up. I don't know why we'd be doing it. That's the only thing we do except for maybe seven days. So I think the only statewide, I think so. Anyway, I mean, maybe consider stopping the seven days then. I don't know, which is fly below the radar and keep our fingers crossed, I guess is what I'm saying. And in these days where you can do, you know, Google searches, you know, and put down concerts and probably every, you know, everything's going to come up. So if they really want to find us, they'll find us. Right. And the concert series this year begins on July 10th with Myra Flynn. And so 6.30 Wednesday night, July 10th, let me bunch you off. And so should we be telling musicians that we are not doing this? I don't think there's any use to it. I don't think anything has to be said at all. I just think I can continue on. And as a musician, you don't expect when you play at a venue for this issue even to come up. Well, I am a musician. No, I know you are. Yeah, and no, as far as being a musician, whether it's just or not, the responsibility doesn't fall in my shoulders and the risk doesn't fall in my shoulders for playing cover tunes in a venue. It's totally up to the venue. And because their method of operation seems to be to first make multiple calls and send multiple emails, if we haven't gotten any calls or any emails, then we'll see that. I was afraid that's what we were getting. There's no action. Yeah. Well, that's where Elliot thought this way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, well, anyway, well, thank you. Is everybody comfortable with that approach? Excellent. Welcome. Thank you for coming down. Yes. Yeah. Have a good meeting. That was much better news than we did. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. May all your news team be exactly the same. That's important. I know this is a little strange, and I know we're learning out of time, but I just want to go back into executive session for a quick minute, if someone would make that motion, for a public safety concern. Second. All in favor? All right. So you're off. I haven't done it yet. Two back in April. Penalty, yeah. Well, you know, I have an appointment next Monday for getting my car inspected and expired at the end of April. You have an excuse. I do have an excuse, but I didn't even notice it until I was on my way to Maine. I didn't even notice it was before. Oh, I'm not. No torture report. I mean, it's just you've got a copy of the budget as of. And $70,000 short, right? No, that's actually, you know, we have $70,000. But I have to ask Patty, because the one I got on the 20th of the month was we only had $50,000. Now we have $70,000, but it looks like she did something with deferred revenue. So I'm going to find out on that. But how can the revenue? Because if she deferred receiving it or something, I don't know if it's revenue, if it's revenue. So this has to be, it went from $50,000 to $70,000. So this was deferred revenue, which she's now been able to take as real revenue, so it's increased the balance that we have available. Why was it deferred in the first place, though? Because there's always deferred revenue. Meaning what? It's income that, because where we haven't been made yet. No, we accrue our monies. It's just like if we pay our bills for insurance for a whole year, and you just appropriate it, you already have each month or something like that. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around that. Oh, yeah, me too. Well, I've been asked that. About the income part, because our whole budget is based on, OK, we're going to spend this on money. Well, that's where. And we're spending, spending, spending, and our balances are going down. Well, that counts for 10,000 of it, so. Well, that's what I'm saying. How do you add income into this balance sheet? So ignoring that, well, this isn't a balance sheet. Well, OK. This is an income statement. But it still begs the question of what exactly is the deferred revenue? Where does it come from? I understand what it is, but I don't understand where it is for us. That's what I don't understand, either. Is it because we have a calendar year payment, and it's in two different fiscal years? And that's why it's deferred? I guess it's a revenue. It's not. It's not an expense. It's not a deferred expense. It's revenue. I don't know. Well, maybe. Well, we've got to get the answer. It's the first I've noticed of this, so I'll thank you. So assuming per-entry is correct. And I'm sure she'll think it's correct, whether we think it's correct or not. What's our projection for year end? OK. What? Tahi. Well, I know it's Tahi. You saw the bills that are here, so if we hold off, you know. But those bills are included in this or not? That's my first question. That would be no. Because those are all needed. These are dated June 4th. And this is through June 6th, so. 531. Yeah. So that's only 531. So we have a whole month to go, right? Yeah. They start voting 112. And that's about 100 grand. Yeah, so we're going to. So we're about 30, I would tell you we're about 30,000 in the hall. Potentially, just quick and dirty. Does that make sense to you, Duranda? Look at something. Because she might have approved the bills back to May, so that's what I want to look at. I can tell from this. That maintenance bill was $30,000 on the equipment. So no, that would be 521. 531, no. So that did not change. So that does not include these checks. I'm pretty safe in this. Yeah, and I mean, I'm just doing a straight, which isn't, of course, the slime dog way to do it. But if a million two is the total, that's 100,000 a month. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I do my financials at home, too. Simple. Keep it simple, stupid. Got checks in the checkbook. And that does not include the transmission repair. Yeah. That power divider, no, that doesn't include that. And then you've got $30,000 there to Du Bois construction. Yeah. Payroll for two, right? Yeah, well, those two things. So there's whatever it is, $40,000, which is not in the mail. Not in the million two, unbudgeted. Because we've already spent our repair budget, correct? Oh, yeah, well-spent. Well-spent. Yeah. Wow. Roughly. So Du Bois was, what, $30,000? $30,000. And then what do you figure in the truck repair? Under 10, not in 9,500. OK, well, we'll call it that. So our fund balance is under $88,000. So getting back to what we were talking about before during that, I agree, we have money. We have money. It's not like we're going to run out of money. I don't think we need to short-term borrow, at least as of this week. So here's a question, though. And I don't know the answer. I know the question. The question is, would we rather pay those bills in June and overspend our budget big time, or start out our brand new fiscal year big time in the hall? Because these are basically unbudgeted items. Our budget for next year is not going to cover these items in any way, manner, shape, or form. So it's going to be unbudgeted this year or unbudgeted next year. Well, your budget isn't going to, your number isn't going to change, because it's still going to be accrued to this fiscal year, even if you go out and even if you don't write the check till July. That's because the expenditure occurred. It's all the expenditure that's occurred in this month. So I think that's the case. That's the case we're getting at all this month anyway. You're going to, yeah, it is what it is. That's the new way, you know? OK. Sad but true. But it was a terrible winter. It was a terrible winter. I mean, that's what's making us over in this. The washout thing is in that water. And I'll find out on that. When was, what was the date of the washout? June 2nd, I think. What was that? No, I mean it was the Sunday night of Memorial Day weekend. It was like April, 19th, 20th, or something like that. Oh, April? April? Yeah. I thought it was May, which is happening. What's the date on that, Du Bois? But in the 24th to 24th, that was Sunday, right? It was a Sunday night. So that Du Bois one day, it was before the 28th. It was either the 19th or the 26th. No, I think it's this one. Yeah, either the 19th or the 26th. But I can't remember which one. Oh, here it is. It might have been the 19th. That's right. 529, and then what did this, they don't have a date? 529? Well, I was the day of the Reagan's Waste. That's when they did the work. No, they, they, look at the, they got the sheets. These things? 520, 521? Yeah. OK. So it was the 19th. 19th, and then they were, yeah. Yeah, 521. You should write that down so we don't forget. I'm pretty sure that's not in here then. That was me too. OK, so I'm going to, I'm going to do a little speed management in here, but Interrupt Me and Stephen Mary were at the Welch Park meeting. But for the benefit of Liz and Phil, we did have the Welch Park meeting at 4 o'clock. Carl was here, and the way the Benderson represented up on the phone couldn't have been a nicer gentleman. What we agreed to do, Benderson, Benderson is basically willing to take over the Welch and pay the entire cost of. Which is $30,000. Which is $30,000. Estimated to be $30,000. Carl is not certain, and we are not certain whether we want to give up our rights to that Welch. Our share of that $30,000 bill would be 15%. So it's really not much. But we all, so it really isn't much. But we did find out tonight that our well is the most productive well on that whole property, and it's the most shallow, which we didn't know. Our well produces six gallons a minute. This well that we would be part of only produces six gallons a minute. I thought you said a four for us. Whatever it is. It doesn't matter. But anyway. I think it is four, Mary. I stand corrected. But anyway, we have a very productive good well at our fire station. So does it make sense to be part of this? Who knows. What we agreed is Benderson is going to send out some kind of a little letter of agreement for us potentially to sign, saying that they're going to go ahead at their cost and their risk and do these repairs. And they're going to give us until September 1 to decide whether we want to be in or out, which is pretty nice of them. If we're out, we're out. We don't pay anything. And if we're in, we're in because they're questions with regard to we have conflicting information from Bernie Chinette. And he was not available tonight about what our potential use of that well could be. I really don't think we need that well. But we just have some homework to do before we make a recommendation to you guys about what we should do. Did he seem eager to want the well? Like, is there any care? He didn't care. He doesn't really care. He just said, we're willing to take over responsibility for the whole thing. Pretty nice of him. But it isn't a big deal for Carl. But they also have their tenant pay on these things. It's a bigger deal for Carl because Carl has the potential for more development and more employees on his lot. And he has one of his own wells, which might be inadequate for that. So he's in a little different position than we are. Why couldn't it just be Carl and? Could be. Could be. The other one is. Oh, no. And then the question comes up. And the other question that came up, which I think has, we're not going to be able to decide that quickly, is whether the whole well park thing should just be given up entirely. And part of the problem with that is we don't know who would be the owner of the assets of Wells Park. You can't just have it disappear. And we have some lots that are used for the septic and for the fire fund. Correct. And the road. So we have some more work to do. What we're going to try and organize on the 12th of June is a conference call with the same cast of characters but with Bernie Chenette on the call to straighten out this issue of potential. Because Bernie was very clear with us when we met with him before, saying that we were never going to get to use any of that water anyway. Because there wasn't enough capacity. There wasn't enough capacity. But now, apparently, something has changed, which none of us understand. So we, first of all, kind of get to the issue of what could we have and what's the potential benefit? And the only, we don't need to talk about this much longer. But the one thing that I wonder is, suppose all of a sudden that wasn't a fire department anymore and it was some kind of small manufacturing plant or who knows what it was, would access to that water be beneficial, it might be. And do I really think we're going to fold up the firehouse? I really don't. But you've got to think ahead and you've got to, we want to be smart before we give up our rights to these things. The other thing I believe is, and this is just my memory, is that the leech field that we have the right to use as part of Welch Park is our backup leech field for our permit at the bottom. So we've got to get to the bottom of that. Well, we've got to get the permit out before I look at it. So we've got questions before we're ready to say anything. But it looks like we're going to have until September 1, at least, to work our way through these issues. So the pressing issue is, right now, the consolidated building has a temporary water situation. And the state has rescinded their nasty gram saying we are in violation, which is good. But they only gave us, none of us could remember in fact, but it's like 30 or 60 days to get this problem fixed. So we've got to be careful we don't go past that. So anyway, the pot's boiling. So that water supply that the consolidated building is using, which is that Menderson owns, I thought they were using all of the capacity. That's what we were told. But now we're saying there's 2,000 gallons of capacity that isn't being used. So anyway, we've got to get to the bottom of those issues before we can make a rational decision. So that's that. We have a motion to approve the May 21 select board. Second. All in favor? Aye. Discussion up to take with discussions with RB Tech, sir? Yeah, I'll give you a quick. It doesn't get any better. After chatting with Ruben and having him go back and have Holland put together everything, he sent me the list. So the only computer we have that's running Windows 10 is Sarah's. They think that the one that Merica is using may have a Windows 10 license, for some reason, that was downgraded to Windows 7. But they've got to check, because that's ACS. Is that who's that service that does the licenses? Well, that runs on that. The NEMRIC, you mean? No, not NEMRIC. No, the Merica stuff. I don't know, whatever. The program. Oh, for that, that does all the deed stuff? Yeah. ACS, OK. So essentially, that's their computer, although we use it. So that may be fine. We may have to just buy a license to upgrade that. Everything else, including Paul's, which they didn't even know about, is running Windows 7. And I was wrong as far as I was thinking it was July 1 that it was running out of support, but it's actually going to January 1. I think it's when you told us it was January. OK. Some reason I had in my mind, it was July. But yeah, it's January. So we got a few months. So we got to sit down and really think about what we're going to. Because it's not in the budget. What we're going to do. Of course not. What is in the budget? Whatever is in the budget. Jesus. Well, who knew when we were doing this? I didn't know. I mean, you didn't know that we were going to get rid of? The support. No. I mean, the irony is, the Windows 7 functions pretty well. But they just don't want to support it. Exactly. As soon as they stop patching it, then we'll have problems. So we have more work to do. Coin drop. Coin drop. Yeah. Yeah. I'm ready. I'm going to get breakfast. I'll take my. But pancake, breakfast, and coin drop. I could cook up a wicked load of pancakes. Ask people to donate their used laptops. It's probably better than the equipment we have. Right. There are so many people on Windows 7, including me at home. I mean, I'm in the same mess. Right. Our organization is all Windows 7. I've got a laptop and a desktop, which are on Windows 7. So I'm looking forward to some kind of. And I don't think. Perhaps it might be even before that. And I don't think that. I don't think that. I'll speak to that a lot. Yeah. I think we have it that way. Anyway. Yeah. I mean, it's a massive upgrade issue. That's right. Everybody here. Discussion on June 28th, Middlesex Town School District meeting on whether to brand an easement to the town for certain uses of Rummy Efter becomes a WCUUSD property. No action. You've just got to copy the warning here. Yeah. There are a number of towns that are doing this. Initially, I didn't I didn't understand this. But once I had a chance to read it, you know, part of me says it goes back to the old thing. I've had the opportunity over the years to use U32 for all kinds of different things. I've never been to U32. So this fear that all of a sudden our school is going to be closed off to us may or may not be a legitimate fear. But is this a bad idea to do this? Sad. Ready? Who came up with this idea? What? Who came up with this idea? I think it was Callis that came up with it first. Yeah. But then it spread like wildfire. Wasn't did they do all that work on their building? Well, everybody's done work on their building's merry. I mean, it's just the current. You've got to remember, this is the current board doing this, not the new board. They are freaked out thinking and thinking we should also be freaked out that we may be happy to go to this combined board to get permission to use what we perceive to be our own school. Are they really going to deny us the ability to have town meeting there on the building that we bought and paid for? I don't think so. But if this step is a good step to make people comfortable, I guess it's fine with me. So anyway, it's happening. All right. OK. So there's nothing for us to do. This isn't a town issue, except that the easement is going to the town. So it does seem a little strange. So we're not voting for any money on this day either, or at least no. No. Well, there's so many votes. So yeah, that is. We haven't voted for the full budget yet, have we? That's the budget vote day, I believe. Yeah, it's the same day. It's the same day. It's on that day. It's just a separate. No, no, no, they changed it. This is a different day. This is a week later. They moved this a week later. So there's another one? Yeah, there's one on the 20th. Because otherwise it would be an article. So just to start out with, they improperly warned us. But they warned it for the 20th. And they warned it. The other issue, which I don't understand, is they're saying it's going to be a real meeting, not an Australian ballot vote. And I called up and said, hey, Chris McVeigh, lawyer, person, ever since we voted, whatever it was, that the school meetings were going to be Australian ballot, everything to do with the school has been an Australian ballot. And he said, well, we have a legal opinion, which says if it pertains to land rights, it has to be an open meeting. It's on them. They're doing this. It isn't on us. But they were going to have, listen to this, we were going to be having an Australian ballot budget vote at the town hall on that day. And having a live school meeting at the Romney School on this issue on the same day. You think that was going to cause some confusion and misunderstanding? Yes. Oh my god. So now? Anyway, at least it's a week later. It's the 28th instead of the 20th. Is it going to be an Australian ballot, or is it a live meeting? It's a live meeting. For the vote? No, it's an Australian. I thought I read something today, Australian ballot. Or no. Is that a live meeting? Not involving the Australian ballot. To act on the following business, not involving the Australian ballot. So it's going to be the first school meeting we've had in 20 years. And I'm not sure that's even legal. But I guess I'm not going to worry about it. They got a legal opinion saying it's OK. But I was sitting here. Sarah was telling me all this stuff I was going. But the budget vote's going to be by Australian ballot. Correct. And that's on the 20th. At 5.30, how many people you think are going to come out for that? Yeah, right. You would think that something to do with land rights and easements would have to be by Australian ballot. Well, the other thing is, wouldn't you think? Now, don't get me wrong. But this easement is going to the town of Middlesex. That's us. Wouldn't you think they might have mentioned this to us? Well, they've never been in touch with us. What if we say, we don't care. We don't want that. I'll give it back to you. Well, what if we don't let anyone use it, even though we don't have it? Well, whatever. We wouldn't do that. Whatever. It's just a little. The whole thing is more than a little bizarre. But anyway. OK. Waters are signed. OK. Now you're three issues. Quickly my three issues. So the park, the beach, has a request to approach Paul about grading the road there. And apparently we've done it in the past, which I didn't know. It seems a little bizarre to me. That's pretty long. I mean, I don't think that's work. I think that's half a day to grade that thing, isn't it? Yeah, well, I doubt. I mean, I don't know what it is. He didn't answer my question. I said, how many, you know, what's the money? What's the time? Whatever. He didn't answer my question. But Paul's looking for direction from us. Well, the question is, how long have we been doing this? Do we know? Did this start with Paul? I don't know. Apparently, I wasn't. Paul said we have done it a number of times over the years. All he gave me was a written response. Yeah. And I'm not sure. I'll have to. I didn't know. But I guess what I would do is recommend that our road commissioner deal with this question and decide if it makes sense and whether we should do it or not. I mean, if it's a little thing and we've done it in the past, that's fine. But, you know, why aren't the other towns contributing to this? Why doesn't the city of Montpelier send their grader out? Because they've got a lot more people using it than we do. Speaking of grading, can I just finish a couple of my three things? So does that make sense to everyone? Yes. Yes, absolutely. Steve Belial with Paul, and they'll figure that out. You all now did get a copy of that letter. I mean, basically, they need to do a traffic study to correct those problems. And they've committed to do it. That's the good news. The thing in there that jumped out at me that I mentioned before is they said we are responsible for speed control. And I believe what he should have said was we can, if we choose to, conduct speed patrols there at our cost and that we are not able to get reimbursed if they give any tickets because the tickets go to the state. So what we've always decided is we have, from time to time, asked our contractor to do some speed work in different places. But his statement that we are responsible just doesn't ring true to me. So that's not the way. Well, I think we have to challenge that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I mean. So we should maybe ask Sarah to do the letter. Yes. The music licensing that we've already dealt with, that was good news. I started reading through all that stuff when I made my headache. I can tell you that. Big time. Just a good question. Remember Warren Road, how we, we ended up keeping that as a class four. Yeah. Because it was great. Is that normal for us to grade the, I don't think, it looked like a professional grading because the grader had come by on our road and then I saw that Warren Road had been graded too. And I was like, oh, I thought we weren't doing that anymore. Yeah, we weren't. And it could be that they just, I mean, he might have hired someone, but it was right at the same time the other grader was there. He wouldn't have hired somebody. And it looks very professional. It's very wide. So you think we did it by mistake, maybe. Probably the, yeah, let me, yeah. I mean, if it was us, I didn't see the grader, but I saw the grader. I saw we kept it before, so we'd maintain the cultured form. Yeah, right, and we do do occasional grading on class four roads. Yeah, so maybe. We don't do the big spring beautification grading that it sounds like. That's exactly what's happening. Let's have graded. I know, and I was like, oh, he's like, this is great. I'm glad that we're having more than two. Let's send better than it used to be. Let's send Bill a bill. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Oh, dear. So I am going to reach out to Mike. I mean, I don't know how we stopped the spot from boiling. Should he have told us before? I mean, it needs to be over. I think the only way that you're going to stop the pot from boiling is that the select board is going to have to work as closely as they can with the fire department until things get resolved. Yeah, and that's going to take some work. Yeah. Well, I almost think we need to ask them to come in here and meet with us once a month or something like that. But let's get to the bottom of the issue about do we really have control or not? Because if we don't, then the decision we have to make is do we want to continue? Because there are a number of options. We all know what the options are. Option number one is to hire the city of Montpelier or some other entity to provide our fire protection, which is likely way more expensive than what we're paying now. Option number two is to tell the 501C3, whatever their name is, that they are no longer allowed to use any of the equipment. And we go out and hire, recruit, whatever we do. What we talked about the last time, I think it's having two or three. Do you remember, Mary? I don't know if you want to stay. Paying firefighters, real firefighters. And then their job is to supervise and recruit volunteers. And how that would work and what it would cost. And I mean, it would be. And do you still get mutual aid with that kind of situation? Yes, you do. Because again, as I've said over and over again, the real fire protection we get from our guys is that we have mutual aid. And they do come. And thank God they do. Because we ever got booted out of mutual aid. So I think it was your question, Mary. How do these other fire departments feel about our fire department? That'd be interesting to know. But oh, that was Cindy. I'm sorry. But let's wait until we know whether we have control of them. Could you just ask Sarah to sort out the articles and the bylaws too? Or the 501C3? Yeah, that would be worth looking at. Thanks. OK. All righty. We're done here. Yeah. Have a good journey. Have a good journey. I'm done. Yay.