 I find that due to the state of emergency declared by Governor Scott as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to addendum 6 to Executive Order 01-20 and Act 92, this public body is authorized to meet electronically in accordance with Act 92. There is no physical location to observe and listen contemporaneously to this meeting. However, in accordance with the Temporary Amendments to the Open Meeting Law, I confirm that we are providing public access to the meeting by the Zoom platform. And anyone can find out how to get the credentials to get on there by checking out the town website or the posted agendas or contacting Julie to get a specific email invitation to the meeting. And it looks like there's nobody else in the waiting room. And away we go. Does anyone have any additions to the agenda tonight? I sent some things in Friday, just a little bit ahead of the notice that I got about the meeting. I don't know if the board has seen that yet. Questions about the two rivers out of regional commissions, regional Energy Committee. That didn't make it in time to get on the original agenda, but we'll put it on there right now. Anybody else? Hey, Dune, I had something about lot lines. Okay. So I guess we'll start with the minutes from the last meeting, which I thought covered everything, except at the very end at the end when it says we adjourn the meeting to go into executive session at 645pm. We failed to communicate to Julie that we exited executive section at 710pm with no action taken. So I guess we should add those to the minutes. And with that addition, I'd move to accept the minutes as typed up. I second that. All in favor. All right. Okay. Cool. So, Joan, what's up? What do you got for updates? Let's jump. There's two items. One is with regards to the town garage stormwater project, which we're now hoping to do next year, getting it out to bid early in the year, maybe, you know, by January or February. We had an onsite visit with Cooter. And one of the things we were looking at was the paving. No, no, if you remember, there was a discussion a few months ago now about the extent of the paving the grant itself will only pay for a portion of the paving. And Cooter would really like to be able to have the rest of it done. Just make sense rather than having kind of a bump, you know, yeah, in the middle there. So I asked him today, if you could give me an idea of what it might cost to do the additional amount and what it is he'd want to do. So he said it would be two inches of asphalt to match what would be installed under the grant. So he don't know how many square feet it is, but he figures it's going to be would be a cost to the town of about $10,000 to do that additional paving. So you don't have to decide right away but it is something would be good for you to decide if that's something you want to include in the highway budget for this coming year. And there's, we've been putting off several little problem spots around town so maybe this is the year that we can attack. Do all of it. Yeah. Okay. So then the other item is just an FYI. Last week I sent you a V trans announcement that I received that we will be receiving was part of a larger paragraph that discussed the fact that we're confirming what we already knew which is they aren't going to be doing the structures grant, and the class to this coming fiscal year, but part of that was also which I missed the first time we're ready when I read it a second time I realized there's a little bit of positive information in there also, which is to offset the fact that they're pausing these grant programs, they're going to be increasing the amount of money they give us through the supplemental highway funds that we get every year. They said that they had. So was it $7 million available to distribute. Seven, yes. Yeah, okay so and so I was wondering, do you know when we actually get that money, because I'm very curious to see how much additional world will be getting this year. I don't know offhand but I've heard through chatter that some towns already receiving. So, it's just a matter we'll have to look it up. All right, well let's be on the lookout for it and then I'll be very interested to see how much additional we have and then you can decide how you want to deal with that within the highway budget, whether you want to try decide for rainy day. Yeah. All right, well that's good news. All I have. Yeah, that'd be helpful to know as we move into the budget season. Right. What's going on with that. Thank you, Joan. I don't see anybody from the library highway so Jeff, get part. Let's talk about what you had to report from two rivers on the energy. Still there. I think he has to unmute. You're on mute, Jeff. Maybe I can do it. I got it. I must have double clicked and put it right back on. I spoke with Jeff Martin, actually, I sent an email to each board member and to Julie. I'd spoken with Jeff Morton to Martin rivers out of Quiche on Friday. Everybody signed the regional committee energy committee document that's going to they're going to only be three towns on the committee Rochester Hancock and Pittsfield. And one that came up is that the agreement between the towns and two rivers out of crepe out of Quiche calls for each town to identify a primary participant and an alternate. So in that regard I had the questions. A member of the select board planning to participate as a primary town representative for the committee, or do you want me to fulfill that role. I think that it'd be great if you would be willing to fill that role in your role as our energy coordinator. And then it would make sense then to perhaps one of the select board to be the secondary. Very good. Happy to do it that way. Like to have the second name available for the invites to the first meeting which is he's thinking November 18. He's got the energy for energy meeting. I guess I can do it. Yeah. So excuse me. Jeff is the town energy coordinator. Am I correct? I'm sorry I thought I heard. Thank you very much. Sorry to interrupt. Well, thank you, Frank. You're familiar with energy. Yeah, somewhat. Yeah. Yeah, I will I'll notify Jeff Martin. I'll notify Jeff Martin that you're the alternate Frank and get him some contact info. Okay, thank you. Appreciate that Jeff. I also just as an FYI. I saw a notice from the Vermont council on rural development. They have a climate catalyst program. It's in the second year. And what they do with this is that it's a jury acceptance. I applied for it. It goes over a whole year. And what they do is they try to help climate. Change projects. You know, mitigating climate change. They try to help folks become better leaders and present things and. I thought geez, this is great. This is a free thing. I can utilize that and tap into the brains of people that have been on energy committees and. You know, people at the state government level as well. So I'm going to utilize. The, you know, coordinator position and working up a full plan for the board's consideration, all the options, all the benefits, savings costs, all of that kind of thing. Utilizing this process. Now I hope to have some idea of some at least some preliminary budget numbers for folks soon so that you can get going on the budgeting process. That's, that's it. And I will have more time next year. After I'm officially retired, it's a little bit of a juggle right now and I expect to, I expect the tiny violin from you guys on the select board. I've seen how hard you work. Right. So I only tiny violin right now. Right. Well, thank you for the tiny violin. It helps. Yeah. Dan, you wanted to talk about having a clarifying statement or something that we can give people that have questions about lot line modifications like what Rob has been dealing with lately. You're muted. I have a second inquiry to the planning commission about a parent lot line mistake. Steve Lewis, because name is out on state garage road. Yeah, Steve Lewis. He has 0.7 acres and his next door neighbor, which I think is family member his cousin owns 0.4 acres, but Steve's being taxed for 1.1 for both of those slots. And he came to the planning commission via email to me saying, can you fix this for me. And I sent him to Rob Gardner. Just kidding. But I'm wondering if this is going to be something that's going to happen. So this is twice in the past six weeks or so that we've had this happen. If they're just to understand what the process is when someone has that kind of concern or dispute. I don't know who's going to be responsive to them. Is there a formal process for that? And could we potentially write it up so that they know where to go and they don't get the run around from me or. This sounds like another situation like Rob encountered where a new tax mapping made some assumptions and it's not like someone is intentionally wanting to change their lot line so much as they're all of a sudden. There's been a change or a mistake made in how the lots are allotted. So, in Rob's case it seemed to me that the simplest way of dealing that was when we redo the tax maps again next year to bring that situation to the attention of whoever we get to be doing the maps to at that point clarify the mistake that was made. I don't think that there needs to be and it's not like they're legally changing anything because what the tax map the showing is actually contrary to what the legal deeds are saying. And I guess in Steve Lewis's situation is it sound like it that's the same deal they had he and his brother had two separate lots and I don't know Rob you had something you want to say. I actually sure was waving at me. Okay, but no she had a good question which was if you're in a situation like this like we've been taxed now for this plan. Should we be it should there be a process when we repair this to try to get the money back I have no idea how much money does but should that as long as you're thinking about a policy or mechanism to deal with this. Is that possible if somebody had a thing like this they ended up paying their taxes like I did. So I think I'm not asking for an answer I just think that should be in the mix I'd also kind of respectively respectfully suggest in this process dealing with the issues dysfunctional in my view. And so if you're thinking about a process if there's only two people it's hardly a house on fire but if other people in the town as things go through this appears you might want to look at the totality of the process by which somebody goes through this process to put their land back together that's all I had to say. And then there are the other situations where someone intentionally wants to adjust their lot line with the agreement with a neighbor for whatever reason that that needs to happen just to clarify something or you know get another parking space or what you do and that that's a pretty clearly defined process where you have to get permission from any mortgage holders on the property and then the lawyer would modify the respective deeds to reflect that that agreement and I think that's something if it's a just a small area I don't know what the cutoff is for what's going through the small area but very you know less than a third of an acre or something. Does two rivers have any policies on that. Have they had any experience with that Dan do you know. I do not know I haven't reached out to them how to handle that. I'm reaching out to them and see what if they have a similar situations I can't believe we're the only town that goes through this in a tax map situation right. They may have something that they've worked with. You had something to say. Listen, it goes by that you got to pull your deed, and everyone is responsible for knowing what they've been deep did for property when they bought it. And it is your responsibility to keep an eye on things to make sure that numbers don't change from where your deed is so you're always supposed to follow your deed. I wouldn't say that the delistors are still part of this procedure, although, once they set that grand list they really can't make many changes until the following April. So that may be why it seems as though the listeners are not be responsive they have lodged their grand list, and we have based our tax rate on it and that's not supposed to change at this time of year. So that's probably pending for the change when it comes to its next cycle which starts April 1. So what the listeners will do is they'll pull the deeds for both properties and try to determine, you know, where the line should be, and are you being taxed according to what your deed is on your property. So it most times it really does kind of start and end with the listeners. And that said, you know, it shouldn't be a zoning thing, unless it's like what doon said that to two owners want to move the line first through zoning and legal and all of that. But if it's just a correction to the tax map and they're being billed incorrectly and their deed says something different, I believe that the listeners just make that change the following April the following year. They just failed to respond to me. So whether if they're going to make the change and ever told me, nor did they follow up in the conversation with a map guy. And then when I tried to appeal it, they turned me down. So I'm just saying that's when you consider that this is an odd, is an odd issue with the weird missing deed and everything but in my sense that there was a legitimate problem I have a correct lead old tax map so I'm going to be just correct. I didn't have any mechanism by which to talk to anybody about this I was basically shut out and I had to go do a bunch of work. I don't want to give you a rant about that. I just think it ought to be considered as part of the process. Have you put up your list? Just if you're list recording. You're breaking up. Well, I'll talk to Rob late about it. Not an emergency or anything. I'm not, you know, I'm not setting the house on fire. If you're going to lay down a policy that you ought to think about that. Oh, so you're telling them to see if I understand if you want me to respond to him is that he has a dispute. He has to pay taxes on more land than he has. And then in April, he can talk to a lister or file a grievance. And then they can make the record make the adjustment. They cannot make the adjustment. The middle of the year because they've set the grant. There's no time. There's no recourse for getting the money back that paid in extra taxes. Not, not clearly. I suppose you could. You could work out a deal with the neighbor. We're supposed to pay the taxes and give him 50 bucks or whatever. That would be one way of doing that. But it's, I think that the main thing is to get it clarified. So going further. We calculated on years. Not a big amount of money like under $100, I think, but still still it's $100. It's not a big deal. Yeah. I would just like to request whoever just came in that 802, 229, 8154 there seems to be a lot of static coming from your line. So if you could mute until you have something to say that would help because I don't know if everyone else is hearing it, but you're a little, your little box is highlighted as if you're talking because of the static. No, if you've heard that or not, but okay. I'll respond to Steve Lewis and like to CC someone on the select board. If you want to CC me, I'd be happy because I've kind of been digging into this a little bit. Thank you. Thanks folks. All right. No one's here from the highway, but I think they are getting close to spreading tan. A little bit of snow and underneath my valley and my yard this morning. The in terms of new business school absentee ballot. The second I have someone I think that wants to. Yes. Yeah. Okay, you want, you want me to forward that on to you. Yeah. Okay. I'll send you the proper information. What some. Do I have your email just a second. There with me all there's someone that's having trouble getting in. I think I just sent it to him. Robert. Okay, yeah. Pat Harvey just sent that to you. You got it. All right, there you go. Is that where all the static is coming from? I'm hearing a lot. All right. Yep. Yep. I'm looking for you. No, no, it's a busy time, but it's, um, you should be able to, you can go to the website, you know, and find it yourself. It's a lot easier, but I'll see you on the, on the zoom meeting. Okay. So we have, we're talking about the absentee ballots for the school. What's the, what's going on with that, Julie? I just wanted to announce that if anybody would like to request a absentee ballot, they're more than happy to, you know, they can call me at the office and I can either mail it or they can pick it up. But I just wanted to get that out here. And we haven't had a lot of, a lot of people picking them up because all the absentee ballots were mailed out by the state. So. Um, Julie, I have a question about that. Um, I got one because, um, um, you're, you're assistant. Oh gosh, what can I think of her name for a minute? Kristen. Hello. Excuse me. Kristen asked me if I wanted her to send me one and she did mail me one. I didn't even know about it, I guess beforehand. So were they, they weren't mailed out in general? Is that it? No, they weren't mailed out there. They've asked that people request them. Okay. That's why I wanted to make the announcement. All right. And it's, it's for a, a, a spot on the RSUD board, right? Right. It's for a directing spot. And when is that, when is that vote? It's the same day as the election on. I guess. Third. And that's for the absentee ballots. If someone shows up in person, they'll have access to those ballots. That's the, um, that's the polling place, correct? Right. Okay. All right. Cool. That is pretty much what we have on the agenda for tonight. Um, Oh, I have one quick question. Yeah. For myself. Um, I'm having, um, a lot of medical issues that are making my walking dad. So I ended up, I'm going to have to have a handicap access ramp put on front of my house. And, um, um, Sorry, my brain is just so tired lately because I don't get much sleep. Anyway, David Curtis and Dean Mandel are going to build it. And start next week, I believe, and they applied at the town office for a grant. I'm not a grant of building permit. Excuse me. I have approved that building permit last week. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. The reason I'm asking is because someone said to me that they thought maybe the ramp was going to be, because I don't have a big front yard was going to be too close to the road. And it was, I would get in trouble for that. But if you approved it, it probably was within the setback for that. Thank you. I wasn't sure if it had been approved or not. And I just wanted to check and make sure. Thank you very much. Yeah. All right. Unless there's anything else anyone would like to talk about. I've got another question. If I may. Yeah. I respond to Mr. Lewis. Who should I put him in touch with or who should he contact in April? When the listeners are. Revisiting the grant list. He should. Yeah. I guess we need to. Well, it would be a now. The second person on a list of. I would think that when we get the new mapper. That's that when we present him with this project, we'll also highlight these as two problem areas that need to be. Have attention to them. Robert. Did that answer your question? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's, um, I, I'm. I'm kind of got that on my. On my desktop here that. Something to. You know. When we have the new tax mapping. Yeah. I suppose I wouldn't hurt to bring it up and make it. But I think the more people paying attention to it. Pat. Are people finding these things because it's now. So you can go online and see the tax maps. Some of these may have been problems right along, but we just switched from paper to digital. So maybe that's where all this is coming from. I don't know if it's. So much as I think when we had the, um, The new tax maps done with the other company that was more professional, shall we say that they, um, I think he made some assumptions without digging deeply enough and in the, um, And made some mistakes. It sounds like that's what happened. So. I have a couple of, it's Robert. I have a couple of things to add to the agenda. One year. You were okay. Um, we were, um, Pretty much at the end of the agenda, but, uh, can you wait till we finish? The reason I'm late for the agenda is because the Julie, the town clerk sent me the invite and the passwords for this meeting, which was dated back in September. So it took me an hour to get through to figure out what was going on. So I would think you, which you should have a talk with Julie to make certain that democracy. And sending out information where we would be joined in a public way. Is properly zoomed or emailed to people. So she sent me a, an invite and a password to a September meeting. So I'm delayed. So now you're calling me out. For the agenda being. Here's the deal. Okay. Just calm down there, Robert. No, it's not, it's not, it's not. I'm just aggravated that the town clerk doesn't have the responsibility or didn't have the responsibility to send me tonight's password and a zoom meeting. You know, there's been two weeks since the last meeting. You know, it's not that hard to do your own research and find it on the website. Or in the town office. Go on to your website tonight and see if you can find the code for tonight's select board meeting. Yeah. Good luck. Yeah. I have a question. For everyone. What's your question? I have a question and I have two requests. The question is, was Joanne McDonald. Fired from the town of Rochester. No, she wasn't Robert. You know what? We talked about this two meetings ago. Ad nauseam. It's getting old. This is old history. She quit. She was not fired. I think you've got that information before. What's your next question? No, it's a request. Well, question request. What is it? The request is. The written rules by the Civil Board of Authority of Rochester for election day. Where are the minutes of the Civil Board of Authority. To lock down the rules of election day. That. Not use the select board, but the Civil Board of Authority should have. In the presence. And in the hands of. People that are going to vote. Where are the minutes? I don't quite understand your question, Robert. You're asking about the. The process by which the voting will be performed this year. No, I'm asking you about the process of the people that put forth the rules. To put forth on November 3rd. I don't think. I think you go back in the select board meeting minutes where we, we discussed this. Pretty thoroughly. I need to interrupt. I spent an hour with Will sending from the secretary of state office today. And the select board of any town in the state of Vermont. Does not have the jurisdiction to create and enforce rules. For election day. The board. That's, that's that. That is actually the town clerk's responsibility. No, it is not. Yes. The town clerk has jurisdiction on election day. On election day from 12 a.m. To November 3rd till midnight. Every rule that's written before that is no one rule. There are no rules. What rules. It's the state. No. Julie read the rules. Last. The last meeting I was in. And she told everyone what the rules are at the high school. Right. The time when she is in, in, in that's her jurisdiction. She's running that election. Oh, so. Right now there's a rule in Russia. That says you have to hold it. You have to be present. A human being. Being has to be present. Holding a sign in front of the school. You cannot close the school. You cannot close the school. You cannot do anything. Now that rule is. Do you understand what I'm trying to get here? Not really. No. No, I, I, I don't really. You're talking about. Your, your, the rules that have been set forth. Julie, Julie should read, read the rules that she put forth in the last meeting. We talked about that. Those rules are null and void. Because they didn't go through the civil board of authority in Russia. Do you not get that? Every rule till, till, till. The day of election. Voted and secured supposedly by the select quarter. Rochester is null and void. Confirmed by the secretary of state's office. Today. They're void. So I could. What a sign in the lawn. Down at the school. Legally distance from the entrance. And go away. He's just an ass. Hey. So Robert, you're, um. What's your point? What are you trying to, what are you trying to do? You're trying to get. Your ability to do something different than what the. This, the town clerk and the select board have decided are the appropriate ways to go. I mean. You mentioned the select board of the town clerk. There's the board of civil authority. Which includes. Patty. Right. And two justices in the piece that was confirmed. I don't know. So I have to do is will said to me, Robert, put this forth to the select board tonight. If you have a select board meeting as you're doing now. Invite two justices in the piece. And say, folks, we're going to switch from a select board to the town clerk. There's the board of civil authority. Which includes new Patty. Frank. And two justices in the piece. That was confirmed today. But we'll send it. So I have to do is. Will said to, to me, Robert. I'm going to switch from a select board to the board of civil authority. Patty, Frank and Dune. Two justices in the piece. Present the rules for election day. And they're good. It's gold. It's done deal. But I don't understand why the town of Rochester doesn't understand the responsibility of the. Civil board of authority. Robert, if this was a real legitimate concern and complaint. I'm not dissing your concern as obvious, but don't you think that bringing it to our attention. Before the meeting, maybe even a couple of days before, or a week before the meeting and not halfway through. And at the end of the meeting that, that if you wanted some action, that that would be the logical way to go about. Requesting. I interrupt. I sent you an email saying that the select board has no authority for the rules for election day. And you ignored my email. I'll share with everyone on this video tonight. I'll send the copy of forward. The email I sent to you do that said the select board of Rochester. Or any town or village in Vermont. So I would say. I would say that. I would not say that this is an unlawful jurisdiction over election day rule. You ignored me. I understand. That was two weeks ago. So now you're accusing me of, of not addressing this. In a more advanced way. This is it. Well, I would recommend Robert. We, um, thank you for your concern and bringing this to our from the Secretary of State that we're breaking the rules, and we should postpone the election, what are you asking here? I would suggest that Marshal Slater, June, Patty, and Frank have a conversation, a conference call with Will Sending at the Secretary of State's office, so he can actually define what I'm trying to communicate to the Santa Rocha. So, Paul, thank you. Thank you, Robert. Is that all that you had on that you want to talk about tonight? I think I've already spent enough time, but... Yeah. Oh, so I have. Well, I was agreeing with you. Well, what I would suggest... I think you've made your point. What is my point, Joe? Put it back to me. The point is that you do not agree with the action that's taken by the Rochester Select Board or Town Clerk. Exactly, because there's a position between the Select Board and the Town Clerk. It's called the Civil Board of Authority. OK, thank you. You said, is that the... You said you had two things you were concerned about. That was the second one. Is that correct? Well, one of the other requests was for Julie to reread the rules that the Select Board submitted in the last conversation that we had and put them public. You know what? They're on Orca Media. You can go back to the past meeting and hear those read again. So if you want to see that again, I don't think is there anyone else on the meeting here that wants to hear those again or do we want to give the date when they can go back and find them? Because I'm finding this to be a little bit... What's the word? It's getting a little old, Robert. You're asking for the same things over and over again. And the information that you're asking for is out there on the record. And I don't think we need to have Julie read those again. Unless Julie, do you feel like reading those again? I mean, it shouldn't take too long. I think the decision should be up to Julie, not you. Yeah, because she's the one in charge of the polling place. So, Julie, do you have any... She's in charge of the polling place the day of election, not President's rules. Yes. So let's hear Julie read the rules. Robert, why don't you come in and I'll give you a copy of them. I think everyone present should hear the rules that have been written by the Select Board and support that you need. Why were they written by Julie, actually? I have already heard the rules. They were read at another meeting and they were published in the Herald. There's a number of... It's all new, this is Robert. I mean, the election is coming up and it's pretty clear what the process is going to be. And you seem to be the only one that has a question or a problem with that. And I think you know how to find that on Julie, if you want to give Robert a copy of them so he can have them in paper, that's fine. But I don't... I would suggest that Julie send those to the Secretary of State's office and get confirmation that they are proper rules under the Select Board. And Will's sending Jim Condos will say they're null and void because the board is the Civil Board of Authority of Roth said they didn't approve them. Okay, thank you. I think that's... You've made your point and we'll work to improve upon that. June, all I'm asking... We know what you're asking, Robert. You've asked it over and over. It's okay. You've made your point again and we'd like to move on here. We're just about... I guess we were asked at the point of asking if anyone else had something that they wanted to contribute to the conversation and we understand what you're saying, Robert. Does anyone else have anything else they'd like to talk about? Thank you, Robert. You can go in and get a copy from Julie if you want to see that in print instead of on Orca. And we'll... June, I already have a copy of it. Oh, okay. Okay. I would suggest to Julie that you just send it up to Will Cennie because he's been concerned about the town of Rochester for a long, long time. Okay. It's funny. I have not heard anything from him, but I guess we'll leave that to you to share with us. So the next meeting is going to be Monday, November 9th. So it'll be interesting to see what transpires between now and then. That should be an exciting week or two. So we'll see some of you at the polls and I guess a lot of you have already sent your ballots in. And so thank you all for being here. And that's it for tonight, except for we are moving into an executive session to continue a conversation about employee issues. Well, good night, everyone. Thank you, June. Good night. Thank you. Yeah.