 Well, good evening everybody. This is Evan Teach. I'm the Unified Town and Village Manager. Before the festivities of the evening get started, tonight is also the Village Board's annual organization meeting. And so for the board and the audience watching, here is the proceedings. I am going to ask the Village Board and only the Village Board members to, if they want to nominate a person for Village President, I will also then ask if anybody else wants to be nominated, then I will get a second and then I will do a roll call. Once a Village President is established, that person takes over the meeting from there and then asks for a nomination for a vice chair. Is that understood? Thank you. Okay. May I please have a nomination for Village President? I move Andrew Brown to the President. I'll second that. Is there, before I take a second, is there anybody else who wants to make a nomination? Are you sure? It's going to be a good, fun year. No, no badgering of the witnesses, sir. Okay, going twice. I have a second from George Tyler. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. I heard no nay. So 5-0, Mr. Brown is the Village President. The meeting is yours, sir. Congratulations. Thank you, Evan. Trustees, thank you again. I appreciate this honor highly. Having just been reelected to three more years in the tasks ahead of us. I'm looking forward to it, but more so looking forward to working with the four of you and our community as we move forward. So thank you. With that, are there any nominations for Vice President? I don't want to nominate anybody, but I would like to, before anybody attempts to nominate me, I'm wondering if someone else would like to be Vice President. I have to admit I completely forgot about our reorganization tonight. It's a very short notice. And so I'm wondering if one of our new members would like to have an opportunity. But it might be a little awkward to ask one or the other to step forward. So maybe I'll throw it over to Dan or Andrew, what your thoughts are. I'm getting to put in for it. I've done it for a while and it's a nice little experience. And I suggest that anyone who did throw their name in the hat, throw their hat in the ring. Well, I'll tell you what, I would like to, I'm going to nominate Raj Chala to be Vice President. Raj was here a little bit before Amber. And so he's the, he's the, he's sort of the next batter up. So I'm going to nominate as a surprise, sort of a surprise witness. I'm going to nominate Raj Chala to be the Vice President. Thank you, Dan. Now, do we have any other nominations? Hearing no other nominations, no matter how much Raj tries to mouth another name? Seriously? Well, okay. Confidence, buddy, to vote. You got this, Raj. I'll make it easy on you. I won't get sick. Okay. You do have to take the baseball cap off to take the, I'm just kidding. I knew the haircut. Yeah, you can't wear a hat. It's just one problem, Raj. You can't, Vice Presidents have to expose their top, their heads. You can't wear a hat. And they have to share their cinnamon buns. Yeah. All right. So hearing no other nominations, all those in favor of Raj Chala being available to Vice President, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. And hearing no nays, that seemed to have passed unanimously. Congratulations, Mr. Vice President. Thanks, George. There you go. Good luck, Raj. Let me know if I can help. And this is how an unviolent coup happens. Yes, yes. It's, you know, great empires fall because there's not an orderly transition of power. And I think we just seen the orderly transition of power here. George, it cannot, cannot understate your leadership. Thank you so much. All right. Thanks, George. So with all of that done, do we have any agenda additions or changes tonight from staff? No, unless you want to move a couple of things to consent. So I would like to propose items D, the considering approval of street markings on the north side of Maple Street, as well as E, to consider approval of grant applications for covert crossing replacements at Densmore Drive and Brickyard Road from the main agenda into the consent agenda. The rationale for that is personally, I don't see any of these things as controversial or things that we need a debate on. If any of you disagree, please let me know. And is, is it appropriate to bring something out of the reading file? We can always bring something out of the reading file. Would it be to discuss it? Yes. What would you propose to bring out? E, the, in this case, it's listed as the letter regarding the crosswalk beacons. We can also discuss putting it on a future agenda. If that's, it looks like we have a busy night, but it's, I'll take whatever the boards. I would prefer to do it out of later night. I think that, I think that if it can wait another night, I don't believe that there's a time precedent on this. It looked like the next grant round may be available in July. Yeah, I was basically going to want to do something, take a different path. We can talk about it tonight. Okay. So Evan, if you could put that on to the agenda for our next meeting, that would be greatly appreciated or Marguerite and maybe a clarification. So you're okay to leave it on now. We leave it on the reading file and we'll bring it on to the next agenda at your next meeting. Thank you very much. Thank you. And the executive session H was going to be, I would propose that we remove that from the agenda. I don't believe we need an executive section to talk about this. Um, I'm happy to second, but it sounds like there are a couple of different motions. Do you want to do you want to wrap it all into one motion or yeah, what's your pleasure, Andrew? I think it's fine to just wrap it all into one motion. I just first wanted to make sure that everybody would be okay. Taking those items out, though. So are you talking about moving age to regular discussion or not? No, I believe our general discussion on age would be wrapped into F about, frankly, where are we going next? Gotcha. And I don't believe we need exactly a session to have that conversation. Okay. Okay. And just to be clear, we do have Mr. President, we do have that one item to discuss that is not related to next steps. Just a reminder of that. I don't know what you're referring to. Um, we have sure we have Claudine here tonight. We have an issue that we wanted to bring up about the wastewater treatment plant. Okay. Yes, I haven't forgotten about I. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Recap. Okay. So as a recap, D and E would come off of business items and go to the consent and H would just disappear. So are we just going to move that we approved the agenda as amended? It would work for me. It would work for you. I moved it and approved the agenda as amended. Second that. I'll second that. I think Raj, speak to it. Uh, any further discussion on those motions for that motion? Hearing done. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Okay. Great. Thank you all. Now we have our agenda. And that brings us into public to be heard. So this is a portion of tonight's meeting where if there is anything that anybody wishes to bring up to the board that is not on tonight's meeting, now would be the time to do so. And if anybody wanted to discuss the outcome of the annual meeting where we're going next, anything around separation or merger, those are the kinds of topics that would be appropriate when we have public comment in F, which will be happening sooner than initially anticipated. So if you are using Microsoft teams, please go ahead, raise your hand. Let me know you'd like to speak. And I will be sure to give you the floor time. I see no hands and I'm also not seeing any, uh, anybody calling in so we don't need to worry about people on the phone. So with no hands raised, I will go ahead and, uh, close the public to be heard portion and we will go ahead and move on to business items six a, the interview and possible appointment of Evan Lawrence to the bike walk advisory committee. And Mr. Lawrence, I see you here with us tonight. It's nice to have you here virtually. Yeah, thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. And typically we do offer, um, if there is anything that we discuss that may compromise your, your employment or things that may, uh, jeopardize your, your, um, your livelihood, if you will, uh, to have this in open session, we can do it in private in executive session. So if you'd like to do so, we can. Otherwise, if you're okay moving ahead in the, in the public session, we're happy to move forward. The public session is fine. Uh, so if you just don't mind starting off with, uh, your, your general, if you could expand upon your letter of interests, you know, why you're interested, uh, what you'd hope to bring to, to the community in this capacity that be appreciated. Sure. Um, yeah, I'm excited to be a new member of, uh, Essex Junction. Uh, my partner and I just purchased the house in the village, um, two months ago. So, um, just eager to try to help give back to a community that has already given back to me. Um, we moved here about a year ago, right before the pandemic, uh, to color or from Colorado to Vermont. It was a very safe landing spot during what was otherwise very challenging time. And I just want to try to get my, you know, setting some roots into my new community and help out as much as I can. Um, I've been on a board of directors, different capacity from the past. And this just seemed like a avenue that felt, um, like I could put good energy into. And, uh, obviously I, I want to see this community grow and prosper and any way I can do that would be, you know, um, something I'd have interest in. Well, welcome to the village. We're thrilled to have you here. Thanks for choosing. Thank you for choosing to live here. Um, and sorry you had to come during a pandemic. We're usually, uh, yeah, that was a challenge. We decided to move to Vermont before COVID was even a, uh, a whisper. So it was kind of serendipitous to land in the safest place in the country, essentially. There is something about Vermont that we really enjoyed and we wanted to get back to kind of the northeast and, uh, yeah, but it was, it was a challenge to be moving across the country in March and, um, our, our housing originally fell through. So it was, it was kind of a strange time. But like I said, we felt the community kind of wrap their arms around us immediately. And I, I want to have an opportunity to get back. Other trustees, any questions for, for Evan? Uh, Evan, I'll only say that I really liked the way your letter was written. Uh, it seemed to sort of, it resonated with all the things that we're looking for, for people on this committee. And it, it signals to me that you understand what this is about. So I just appreciated you taking the time to think about it and step forward. Appreciate that. Hi, this is Raj. Um, Evan, I used to be on the bike walk committee. I'm really excited to have you step forward and kind of hear you're excited for the committee to get your perspective, especially being such a recent transplant for someone or somewhere else. Is there anything, I mean, you've been here a year, it sounds like, right? Is there anything that, that stands out to you as something you'd like to address, um, in the near future and maybe, you know, long thinking, longer term, you know, having a fresh set of eyes, what, what are you seeing and what are you thinking about when you think about walking and, and biking and connectivity in this area? Right. Yeah. Um, thanks George for the kind words about my letter and to answer your question, Raj. Um, yeah, I mean, I'd love to see what's already kind of on the docket as far as what other people have had, uh, in mind for the town, but ultimately I, I am a cyclist and I, I do like to use other modes of transportation if we can, you know, I think it's a, it's a great way to explore our surroundings rather than speeding by in a car. Um, so I've always been passionate about that, uh, in any time there's easy access to that, to get people out and to make it, um, obtainable for people, I think is a real benefit. One of the things I've noticed in the short time that I'm here, so I am, you know, again, to echo what you were saying about fresh eyes, I didn't notice a ton of bike parking space for us to lock up a bike if we wanted to hop into a restaurant, which isn't happening a ton right now, but for the future, uh, it would be nice to have maybe some more space where that can happen that the sidewalks seem plenty, plenty wide enough, but, um, ample parking for that, um, so people can feel safe and secure leaving a bike or, or something of that nature, um, and then, um, you know, as far as like long term vision, it would be really great to make our town even more accessible by bike or, or by a short walk so that people can feel safe walking down streets and whether that's additional bike lanes or, um, you know, a cohesive pathway that like really allows people to kind of move from one place to another. Um, I've lived in bigger cities where they've been able to accomplish that. I've lived in small spots that, that do it well too. So it's certainly, um, it's out there for us to want to try to, um, evolve our town around, but, um, you know, nothing really specific. Just want to be part of the conversation, have a seat at the table and be able to help in any way I can. Great. Thank you. Trustee, is that the other questions? If there are no other questions, we could move to a point, Mr. Lawrence, right now, if somebody wanted to make that motion. Uh, I would move that the, oops, I lost my, I moved the trustees appoint Evan Lawrence to the bike walk committee. I just don't have, I'm scrolling through. I don't have the term length. Um, I guess it would be two years for two years. It ends June 30, 2023. Thank you. Sorry. No worries. And Dan, did I hear a second from you? Yes. Yes. Great. Trustees, are there any further discussions? Hearing none, all those in favor of appointing Evan Lawrence to the bike walk committee, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Hearing none. Congratulations, Evan. We look forward to having you on the, on the committee and seeing what else you can bring to our community. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Thank you. And next, we have a presentation on across the dotted line community connections in Essex from Gabrielle Smith from Heart and Soul of Essex, and I believe Henry Wu as well. So welcome, everybody. Thanks for so much for having us here. Um, this is not going to be terribly long. We just wanted to have a chance to give you an overview. I want to make sure that Henry do have access to sharing your screen. Not right now, but I think I just write it to you. Very. It should be that. We're seeing him. We're seeing him, Gabrielle. I see him. And so, so this photo story initiative was created and organized by the Heart and Soul of Essex. For those who are not familiar with us, the Heart and Soul of Essex is a nonprofit that was created nine years ago to manage a grant from the Orton Family Foundation to implement their community, Heart and Soul engagement model here in Essex. The nonprofit has continued since the end of that project in 2014 with the purpose of stewarding and highlighting the six community values that were identified through the project with input from over 1000 residents of Essex. Those values are local economy, health and recreation, community connections, education, thoughtful growth and safety. For more details about the values and information on the activities and outreach to gather the data that went into them, please visit our website at www.heart and soul of Essex. Across the dotted line was designed to help get out the vote for the April 13th ballot and to engage residents of the town of Essex to post photos and story captions that describe a connection you share across the dotted line that is the border of the village within the town. Essex residents were invited to submit a photo and a caption with a short story about the people in the photo, their connection across the dotted line and if they were inclined something they both love about Essex. Photos and story captions were submitted via email or with the hashtag across the dotted line on Facebook or Instagram. More details on the project and a growing photo gallery can all be found on our website at heartandsoulofessex.org. So there are 13 stories and photo photos and story captions in our gallery. They've been also shared via Facebook and Instagram. Residents took photos, especially for the initiative and also submitted existing photos. We'd like to go through the gallery of photos with your permission and read aloud the story captions. We estimate this will take less than five minutes. Yes, please go ahead. Great. Thanks. No, no, no. Go ahead. I just wanted to ask first. I know you have a full agenda. I'd also like to offer that there's anyone in the public who wishes to read their own caption. If you could raise your hand in teams and will will staff could help me and see that if you'd like to read your own caption, all captions are less than 100 words. So I just remember to unmute yourself and then when you're done reading, we mute yourself. And then we'll take turns reading aloud the other photos and of course, we'll each read our own. So our first photo is from Basanti Maillette and her husband. Basanti was one of our original heart and soul volunteers. And her story caption says we've been married 16 years. He grew up in the junction. I grew up in the town. We've lived in Essex. Our whole lives raising our family in the town. We grew up in and loving all that Essex has to offer them. Great schools. Here we go. I can't see because thank you. No, no. Yeah, there you go. Great schools. No, sorry. Can you bring it just a little bit up, Henry? Sorry about that. I've got that one key thing blocking me. There we go. Perfect. Great schools. Great community. Thoughtful growth, development and safety. Basanti and Justin Maillette. I'm going to click to the next one, Henry. Oh, sorry. I froze. You want me to read the next one? Yeah, that'd be great unless you see that. OK, there you go. The next one is yours. Like. Great. OK. All right. This is me and my sister, Stephanie. From 2001 to 2014, we were active volunteers with the heart and soul of Essex. We both still have several mementos we hold dear. One is this T-shirt with the six core values that our community identified. Our parents recently bought a house together with me in the village just a mile away from Stephanie in the town. We're so happy to be near each other here in Essex with great services, wonderful local businesses and a beautiful landscape. Next up is Sue McCormick. I can read this one. Oh, I see you here. I see if Sue wants to jump in. Oh, yeah. You out there, Sue. Want to do it? I'm good with Henry doing it. All right. Go ahead, Henry. All right. We are cousins. Two of us live in a bustling neighborhood near five corners in the village. Two of us live in a cabin in the town outside the village. Before the pandemic, we used to hang out in the neighborhood for trick or treating, socializing with the neighbors or walking to get a creamy. We used to hang out at the cabin to listen to birds, watch bats, have a bonfire or hear the band play. It's the best of both worlds. We can't wait to go back to our back and forth. Next up is our Phyllis and John Wiley who live in the village and Betsy and Paul Fleming who live in the town outside the village. Across town, across the years, our friendship began when our kids both attended founder school. Kids activities brought us together on the sidelines at school and sporting events and deepened over many years of home and away games, team dinners, sleepovers and more. Now, even though we moved to the village and the kids have grown up and out of the house, we still have fun together and value the ties that bind us. This next one is from Robin Moore, a town outside the village native and village resident. And Brian Sheldon, a village native and town outside the village resident. We believe that everyone in Essex is our neighbor and we believe great things happen when Essex works together between them over 10 state championships for Essex. Next up is you too, Henry. All right. So next is me, my Henry Wu, my brother Nathan Wu and our friend Patrick Herron. Patrick lives in the village and Nathan and I live in the town outside the village. Even before Henry and Nathan lived in Essex, we shared a common bond through soccer. Throughout middle and high school, we competed against and with each other in soccer, track and field, cross country, Nordic skiing and scholars bowl. Even as we prepared to go off the college, we still run together and are grateful for our friendship formed through academic and athletic pursuits. One of my favorite photos at the end of Michelle met because of a shared interest to become one community of Essex. They've also learned that they have many things in common. They both adore and cherish their children, love their families, love to dance, hike and run and discuss politics. They look forward to getting together in person soon after COVID to go for hike and celebrate with their families together. I've been in Newhart town of Essex resident and Sarah Michelle Staltz town and village of Essex junction resident. Is Tracy here? I'm not sure. If you'd like to read this one. I am actually if that would be OK. That would be great. Tim Miller, Essex Essex junction firefighter in Tracy Delphia, newest member of the town select board, share an appreciation for all things Essex. Whatever side of the dotted line they find themselves on rest to shore. These two are enjoying everything Essex has to offer with so much to do. It's easy to love where we live. Thank you, Tracy. People hear my voice all the time. Go ahead. All right, Mom, Mary Ellen and son, Andrew, not only share a love of good food and many games and many genes, they share a love for all of Essex. Whether it be a hike or fishing in Indianbrook, playing one of the many parks, listening to fair to a fair concert from the comfort of their own home and more. They know Essex is more like than different. The next one is Annie. Thanks, Annie. Hi, thank you. Lisa and Annie first met 15 plus years ago when Lisa's children took swim lessons with the uni. They have remained in one another's lives and are now very close friends. Annie's son, Kale, taught Lisa's children film as an instructor with Essex Junction Recreation and parks. Throughout the pandemic, Lisa and Annie have gone on many walks throughout the town. Annie has enjoyed the ab workout from Lisa, making her laugh so hard while they walk. Both Lisa and Annie have worked with children and families in Essex for many years. Lisa Allen and her family lived for 17 years in the village and for the past five years in the town outside the village. Annie Cooper lived and raised her children in the town outside the village from 1996 and in the village since 2009. Thanks, Annie. I can take this next one. So this is my mother, Dongdong Lin and her friend, Yan Sun. Dongdong and Yan first met at the Brownout Library and became close friends soon after. They danced together in the Vermont Chinese School Dance Group and their kids took piano lessons with the same teacher. Today, they enjoy hiking and improving their cooking skills together and they're thankful to have bonded over their shared Chinese culture. And I think there's one more. There's two more. Great. As senior members of the Essex Town, oh, Pat's on the line, Patrick, you want to? Okay. As senior members of the Essex Town Select Board, Pat Murray and Mandy Watts understand the need for Essex Town and Essex Junction to work together for the best interests of all residents, regardless of the outcome of the vote. Together, they worked many volunteer hours. They worked for the best interests of all residents. Together, they worked many volunteer hours getting the re-vote ballots ready to mail out to all active voters. Andy and Pat have served together for two years and look forward to continued collaboration in the year to come. I think I might have seen Karen here. Well, I mean, there's like not much to read, but. Can you just read the quote? Yeah. If Karen's here, does she want to read it? Yeah, I'm happy to. Okay. The vote is precious. It is the most nonviolent tool we have in a Democratic society we must use. And Congressman John Lewis. Thanks, Karen. So. We had hoped to see many more residents participate. Given that the response has been very low and the merger we vote is over, the board is inclined to end the project along the original timeline in the announced of April 12th. The initiative has had no costs other than the time that Henry and I have put into it. We're not requesting any funds or time of staff or trustees. Our current plan is to maintain the photo gallery and keep it up for a period of time. Probably a few more weeks at the discretion of the board of Heart and Soul of Essex and we will continue to manage the social media hashtags as well. Why was this the time to promote our shared value of community connections? While there were many voices in the community sharing information in differing points of view, especially about the re-vote on the merger, Heart and Soul of Essex offered a reminder that we are connected by our history, our economy, our schools, our social networks, our faith communities, our volunteerism, our landscape and so much more. Relationships are an easy way for people to think about and actualize this. A photo is a powerful storyteller. The Heart and Soul of Essex project sought to ensure that as Essex continues to grow and continue to change, we hold on to what is special about our community and that decisions reflect what matters to the people who live and work here. This initiative is a continuation of that purpose. We hope that many residents will enjoy viewing the gallery at HeartandSoulofEssex.org and photos as they are shared on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks, Henry. So we'd be interested to know if any of the trustees or members of the public in attendance see any reason to continue the project as the board could take that under control. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you. Thank you both so much for this. Not just for the presentation, but also for this initiative in general. Personally, I found it enjoyable to just talk with my mom about something different. It was a great opportunity and I really appreciate that as well as just seeing the connections that do exist that we don't talk about on a regular basis. So from that perspective, thank you. And other trustees, do you have any thoughts you would like to share? I just thought it was terrific. I loved seeing all the people, most of them I knew, some of them I didn't. It was great seeing them in situations and in poses that I'm not, I don't normally see them in. It was very good. I really appreciated it. Thank you. I just add that I'm in no rush to see it stop. I have not had a chance to participate. No. And I I think it'd be great to keep it going. And if you need help with that, I'd be happy to help out. I realize it takes some effort and time. But I think the community needs some need some more of this right now. And it's a great place to focus. Go ahead, Amber. I was just going to echo Raj's sentiments and say I think it's really important to keep it going as well. I think it's a great place to focus. I think it's a great place to focus. I see a lot of negativity on Facebook. And it's like it's nice to see some positives around this. Thanks, Sam. Go ahead, Dan. Dan, you're muted. Yeah. All right. Sorry. Thank you. No, I as with Amber, I echo Raj and in your comments, Andrew and George. This I think it's a great place to focus. And I'd like to see it continue. Those stories have been going on. I know I've lived in the community now for five years and they've been going on all the time. I mean the way the school system works with the kids in the town coming to the high school. And then, you know, as Henry said, competing in track and sports, your opponents and then you come together and it's great. I think it's true throughout life in general. I mean, everything. So positive stuff. I like it. Thank you. So yes, it certainly sounds as if the board would like to see this continue. I'll bring that back to the board of Heart and Soul. We appreciate that. And I see there are some members of the public who wish to also address the board of Heart and Soul. I see. I think I saw any Cooper. Yeah. Thank you, Andrew. Henry, I would like to thank you because I was crying and didn't think I could read the one with me and Lisa. I'm crying now. But then I've known Henry since he was four. And I taught him and his brother Nathan to swim. And so when Henry and also Patrick and when Henry read the picture of he and Nathan and Patrick it reminded and they're going to college it reminded me that it is OK to be an emotional you know, have the emotional rollercoaster of the experience and share it. And so I'm thanks to Henry and Gabrielle for all the work that you do in conversation and around relationship and with kindness and care. I would like to join the trustees and say that I wouldn't mind it continuing and like Raj I offer my time if that would help. And also I understand if you stand where you stand. Thank you so much for your time. Thanks, Andy. Thank you. Andrew, are there other members from the public who wished to speak on this item? If so, please go ahead raise your hand using Microsoft Teams. And I'm not seeing any other hands up. So, Gabrielle, Henry, thank you both so much. Henry, good luck to you as well as I understand you're off to a new chapter in life. So congratulations and I wish you well. Thank you. And don't forget about Essex when you're when you're finished. Absolutely. Thank you all for having us. We appreciate it. Thank you both. OK, and so now we will go to 6C to consider an appointment of the trustee to the Cannabis Study Committee. Evan, were you taking this one? Or Marguerite or other stuff? I don't know where Evan is, but I can try and do just a little bit here. Evan, if you have things that I missed, please do let me know. But I think you can see at least the memo here now. And so this is basically from Robin Pierce and Oiso and Greg in that sense. And essentially they are you know they're forming a committee in an internal board committee to do this research as you know the Cannabis you know is a hot topic and is changing fast and is right now in discussion. So they want to put together this team which you can see here on this memo and they would like one member from the trustees to join this sort of internal board to have that perspective in there as well. And you can sort of see the select board. Evan, I don't know if you remember who they appointed, but they appointed at their last meeting last week someone as well to be on this board. So the internal Cannabis sort of board. So they would love someone from this trustee board to be on there as well. I think it was Pat Marguerite. I think it was Vince was it? It was Vince Pat Marguerite. That's it. I don't know. Well, thank you for that Marguerite and George just think your hand was up first. Go ahead. Are you calling me, Andrew? Yes. Tonight's my night to pick on Raj apparently. But I know that he's discussed this when we've had when we've just generally discussed Cannabis and what's going to happen. And so I'm wondering if Raj would like to take this. But Raj has his hand up maybe he's got some other ideas. I think that's what he was doing is he was just So let's just end the debate and go to Raj to take it on. To deflect I had more of a general question about the overall aim of this because I see a bit of a hole here in terms of we've got economic development, we've got zoning, we've got police and community development, but we don't have anybody representing public health or any sort of that aspect of this. And I realize that this is internal and we don't necessarily have that in our municipal government. But if they're going to make recommendations presumably to the select board it seems that those should include input from someone who's an expert in those issues. So those points of view can be considered equally with the others. I think it would be I think it would be sort of a disadvantage and not disadvantage is maybe the wrong word. I think it would that input would be it would seem to me to be late and maybe not quite taken as equally if it were to come in public comment after the recommendations were made to the select board if you get my comment. So I don't have anybody necessarily in mind. I'm just I'm wondering if that has been discussed and if it has how and if it hasn't I certainly would like to see someone where the staff reach out or someone reach out and identify someone with that expertise and the impacts of this for our community in this process and I'm going to say I just want to reiterate I'm saying that not quite understanding the full purpose of doing this where this is coming from. So I guess I could have asked that first but I do think in terms of the health side of things there is a town health officer Jerry Furkey who I wonder if this is something expertise to help bring to the table. I would ask I would ask him I'm thinking we have a relationship with Howard they have licensed alcohol and drug counselors there we have Annie I believe has been in contact with someone who's going to present before the economic development commission with extensive experience in this topic so there's others in our community that have this experience so I just didn't know if that was appropriate or intended. I think that this might be helpful to hear from maybe Evan or Mark who helps to put the committee together to better understand the intent because somebody like from Howard Center may be a good resource to have a good consultant, a good person to conduct some research with but whether a member of the committee is another topic so Evan or Mark Reid I don't know if either of you could expand on that a little bit. Well I can touch on it I also see Robin Pierce is with us tonight you know at least the village board knows the state is legalizing marijuana they are proposing at least at this time a opt-in to retail sales of marijuana as with most things with the state they are providing the rules for where so it opt-in and maybe some minor boundaries of where you could limit their locations near schools or something like that and so the idea of forming this committee was to do some of that research of the law as we know it get some community outreach as to what are some of the restrictions that if the village and town were to think about opting in what are some restrictions that you would like to see working with the police as to how they view this activity and then as Jaraj you mentioned we'd be happy to contact Howard mental center or someone else for their for their wise input as to this but just so that you know we wanted a more broader impact of whether the community wanted us to opt in or opt out and now I guess I would say that doing that without considering we've got economic development commission so considering the economic impacts of this without also considering or seeking out similar information from the health impacts of this seems slanted to me I get what you're saying but I think we either need to put a call out to an interesting community interested resident who wants to spend time on a committee or because I think you know I believe the economic development commission is also looking into that avenue but I feel like I'm not sure why that's their scope so that isn't a dig on anybody but I'm not sure why the economic development commission would be looking into the health impacts of cannabis as opposed to sticking to the economic they are looking at I don't believe they are looking at the health impacts of cannabis I think that's on their upcoming agenda actually so I'm I'm just I don't have a lot of I would just encourage this group to really dive into how can they get input so that the input given to the select board at the end and the trustees includes that includes those thoughts and perspectives could I I want to just jump in here I would if I look at this committee in the makeup of it I would say that probably the charge of this committee is to identify those things where we need more expertise you know we don't know I'm going to guess there's probably a lot of information out there already about health impacts but how accessible is it and how can you transcribe it and bring it into the community and make sense of it and translate it into action I would guess that that's kind of the broad charge of this committee is to figure out what we need to know what we know and what we don't know and and go after those resources and gather them and summarize them and bring them to us I'm not sure who's next Robin I think we haven't heard from you yet so just a big picture stuff there are some timelines for the Act 164 the governor has named people for the board cannabis control board they're going to adopt rules but not before March 1st 2022 on or around May 2022 they're going to begin issuing licenses for small cultivators, testing labs and on or before October 1st 2022 begin issuing licenses for retailers now there are some tools for municipalities and also from my perspective there's a spectrum here retailers how many people are going to be employed there from an employment perspective but if it's cultivation or value added manufacturing there could be a lot more jobs in that in the retail side but tools for municipalities I'm just thinking off the top of my head here when it comes to this if we opt in for retail is we could have smoke or vape free ordinances permit retailers in certain districts create a buffer between those spaces and where youth congregate still practice as safe routes to school signage, product placement there's a lot of stuff to think about here also if we I'm not sure where I said it and I'm just checking something here online if the village does want to opt in for retail it has to happen by March 1st 2022 so we have to have I'm guessing a village-wide vote before that day but the rules haven't even been set up yet hopefully they're going to start this June but it'll be quite a while the governor just I think it's three people for the cannabis control board just a little bit after April 1st so we're lagging behind a little bit there's a bit of time but there's lots to think about so we can't really control other things we can control retail sales thank you Robin and so what I would say is it really does seem as if this committee is to be the research arm what is it that we can do how do we leverage those capabilities one way or another how do we then present this and how can we message this information out to the community and a part of that should then also be the health side, the health impacts not just the economic side of this so that way we can have a balanced conversation but whether we need to have their employee or a a cannabis expert on the committee I think is not necessary but rather to have them as an expert to come in and speak to this group I think would be more useful than having them at every meeting yeah and the municipality does have an opportunity to set up their own cannabis control board so they can control what happens in their community with cannabis it's a sort of subset of the state cannabis control board it would be a village cannabis control board go ahead Raj oh I didn't realize I thought I was turning my hand off my hand sorry as far as what Robin is saying about the cannabis control board for the village my take on this was that it was going to be similar to what the state does with licensing of liquor establishments bars and such that the town would actually be the one who would authorize the establishment and re-up the license yearly or whatever bi-yearly whatever it is you know the time frame but maybe something different than that Robin can explain I didn't think it was the village that would actually have the say over that yeah we can do it through a zoning bylaw we can issue conditional we can issue conditional approvals of a local license through a zoning bylaw the uses are subject to zoning so we have some control from that perspective I guess Dan you're right it's a bit like you know they may have to go to the town to get a liquor license but they have to come to the village first to get approved to open a restaurant so unless there's anything else from the trustees we can turn this over for public comment if that works and Annie I see your hand is up go ahead I appreciate that the Economic Development Commission does not exactly fall within the village it's complicated but since I'm the chair of the Economic Development Commission and Raj is correctly stating that at our next meeting which is tomorrow morning we do have someone presenting in this vein about cannabis and I would like to please speak to three things I say three randomly could be four could be two one is that organically due to the fact that I have decided to start putting the agenda up for local option tax and cannabis from the EDC meetings onto Facebook it has created some discussion and some people talking about how they feel about local option tax and everything else which is what we want we want to get feedback about local option tax we want to get feedback about cannabis we want to get feedback that being said it was Raj himself that made a great comment on the on the Facebook post which sparked a discussion at the next EDC meeting about the health discussion and it just so happened that she was the first resident Mariah Sanderson who is I'm sorry I'm going to my notes Mariah Sanderson is the Coalition Director for the Billings of Partnership for Healthy Prevention works Vermont she works with Justin Hoy at Essex Chips in there I think so there's some intertwining there and so she happened to be somebody coming to the meeting last week so I invited her back as a resident to talk about what she wanted to talk about up front of the meeting so that I didn't waste time on the next meeting and then we organically got into a conversation about a thing that is in our mission statements of the Economic Development Commission has in our mission statement an appreciation for the impact of emerging issues, trends and state or municipal policies on both current and prospective business development I would suggest that the Economic Development Commission very much has space to be in conversation with residents with everyone about all the topics however I agree with Raj that it doesn't belong at our table my hope was to have Mariah Sanderson speak tomorrow morning you're all invited us at 8 a.m. so that we could put this out there before the conversation turns very business like I would recommend as a resident and as the Economic Development Commission share that from my standpoint as a resident, as a community member and as somebody who greatly embraces business and all that it does for our community that we do have someone on the committee that has this background so that there's a constant I'm just going to repeat what Raj said earlier he's correct it doesn't belong at the Economic Development Commission beyond this one presentation and I do believe that belongs at the committee level for a consistent conversation that remains healthy for our entire community as we do this great stuff with cannabis that will be a great resource for us in so many ways thank you thank you Annie and I thought I had seen another hand from Lori it looks like she has taken her hand down all right go ahead Lori hi and I apologize I'm not on video I just want to say you know to keep in mind that there is a huge resource on the House Government Operations website from all the testimony that was taken last biennium that would help get to some of the questions I think that you are looking for and experts that came in and did provide that testimony that can help inform the decisions of the committee so I just wanted to throw that out there as a resource and obviously if Karen Dullet and I can help in any way let us know thank you Lori other members from the public wish to address this item seeing no other hands up go ahead bring it back to the board so Raj is this something that you would be interested in or are there other board members who would be interested in serving on this committee I'll jump at once Raj is either very still I just lost my connection I didn't know what's going on I just had to leave and come back what happened we didn't point you to the committee well I was going to say I appreciate that I'm a little hesitant because I'm already doing the diversity and inclusion the dual committee that is just about to ramp up with four or five meetings I'm happy to try it but I'd be interested to see if anyone else from the trustees wants to do it first if not I'll try what kind of commitment are we talking about Evan Evan Robin I would ask Robin he and Aliso are doing that but Amber also as they're hand up so maybe we can answer that why don't we first know how much improvement is and finish that question then we can go to Amber yeah I think we have to think about this seriously we seem to be getting more and more committees Amber and I are on the Economic Development Commission committee while we staff it the housing committee planning zoning other committees and this committee if we're not going to run out of ours we're going to run out of daylight very quickly so it's important but we have to make sure that we're not over stretching people because without happens you don't get the quality product you're looking for okay Amber I was going to jump in and save Raj and say I'd volunteer alright there you go there you go that is camaraderie alright there you go you'll get a literature review on it too but yes cinnamon buns coming alright so it sounds like Amber is willing so would someone like to make a motion to approve of Amber being the trustee member I'll second thank you Raj thank you George any further discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye anybody opposed great Amber thank you for doing that I think you'll also bring a great lens to it as well so looking at the agenda we have moved D and E and so now we go into F the discussion of the annual meeting outcomes so to try and help frame this what I'd like to have as a goal from this is really to debrief and discuss the next steps from or to debrief the outcome but to also discuss and identify what the next steps are for us as a board of trustees and also for us as a community with the permission what I'd like to do is like to have us trustees quickly go around talk about briefly our thoughts and what we've heard and then from that point in time turn it over to the public to help us in this process so does that overview and process work for you guys work for you all so I'll just kick it off from the debrief I mean for me it seems overwhelmingly that the community wants to merge but the village appears to be not we don't have a dance partner for that option so as such I would also then say that overwhelmingly the village is perfectly fine separating knowing that merger failed for me that overwhelming sentiment from the community tells me where what our marching orders are in terms of the capability to get there to get a charter ready by November I think maybe a bit of a tough stretch but I don't think it's unheard of I don't think it's impossible given the standing at the polls for the few hours that I was there I would say that I heard nothing contrary to that so for me I feel that our next steps are pretty clear other trustees I'll wait and quick I've heard from a lot of people in passing on the streets and in the village just ask them prior to the vote what their opinion was on things and I think overwhelming opinion was that if this didn't work move forward they wanted to move forward with separation and I don't see separation as the end of a great community as a whole I think we can still coexist as two separate municipalities and share some things if we choose to do so but I think we need to move forward and the momentum that we have right now I think it would be it would be an error to let this lapse and not continue with this momentum and carry it through to the fall so that's my opinion in brief I'm happy to go I look at it and say I think I said this before I think the message I'm trying to glean a positive message we've had two very emphatic knows from the town about merger I'm going to say we didn't do exit polling so we don't know why people voted the way they did but I would say the message I get is that the town just does not want to have us become a large community we have a bit of a dichotomy here if we call ourselves Essex the second largest community in the state we have roughly 22,000 people right behind us is Rutland right behind them is South Burlington the current fiscal year budget for Rutland is $22 million the current fiscal year budget for South Burlington is $26 million the current fiscal year budget for Essex is $15 million how how is this economic miracle possible that the second largest community in the state is providing full services for $7 million less in Rutland and $11 million less than South Burlington and the answer is it isn't because the Essex budget unlike the South Burlington and Rutland budget doesn't include the operating costs of the most densely populated part of the community when you add in the villages budget you get $19 million that's what it costs to run Essex it costs $19 million not $15 million and until we all understand that and accept it we cannot be a unified community unfortunately and so I think with merger we said we would be happy we understood the impact of this for the folks outside the village we were willing to phase it in over 12 years but the answer emphatically has been no twice I think we have to look on the positive side of that and say it's not necessarily about the money it's just probably about the change in the political landscape but I think that is the clear answer we've gotten from the town but I think the clear answer we have to send back is that the disparity in funding and the responsibility in the tax burden is unsustainable and so we must take action we've been saying that all along there's no secret about it and so if separation we looked at separation as an option for governance change the community now is our community in the villages emphatically telling us that's what they would like to do so I think it's something that we absolutely have to take seriously thanks thank you George Amber or Raj I feel like we can really add anything more to what's already been said so I'll just echo the sentiments yeah I'll do the same I think everybody's pretty much hit it hit it right in the head and I'm disappointed I think we had a great opportunity I think the merger proposal that was put forward that the both boards and especially the governance subcommittee spent I don't know how many evenings working on was a fair respectful conscientious genuine honest offer of an effort to come together respecting the challenges that folks in the town outside the village had I'm disappointed that they're at how this played out but I'm very excited with the energy in the village I'm very excited to see people who can see a future for the village and and just the level of energy around that it's great and I really want to run with that I think people are tired of this conversation but but our neighbors in the village are rearing to go they're ready to envision a new village of Essex Junction and what that means and what it can mean and I'm all for it and I think we should move with deliberate speed I'm not sure how November fits into that I'm one of those that's not ready to commit to a date for that yet I think we need to be thoughtful and most importantly I think we need to be engaging the village and figuring out what we see as the new village going forward before we move to call the question as it were so I'm excited disappointed and excited I guess at the same time but let's hear what everybody else has to say thank you trustees so with that I will turn it over to public comments so if you are using Microsoft teams please go ahead and raise your hand to let me know you'd like to speak for some ground rules if you have questions I will take your questions down and do my best to answer them once everybody has had a chance to speak if a question may arise or if a question is dependent upon the answer to another question just get all your questions out please please expect to only speak once I'm not going to set time limits so please don't just take this opportunity to go too long so with that go ahead raise your hands and let us know what is on your mind Micah thank you for starting this off it's not an easy position to be in I don't actually have much new to add to it I just wanted to say from the public perspective I think what you were all just saying nailed mine and my wife's sentiments exactly I wish the merger would have worked but now that we are where we are we've got our direction I say go for it thank you thank you Micah and for those watching please know I'm not trying to not pay attention to you but I'm trying to write down questions that arise so please don't take offense if I'm not staring at you as you're talking so all right Mike Sullivan go ahead Mike you are muted if you can unmute yourself and then go ahead the floor is yours I knew that I disagree with George it is about the money for services I don't get the die is cast the track is switched the throttle is wide open okay thank you Mike Elaine go right ahead thank you very much I just want to say a thank you to each one of you and to the staff for coming to the table with the select board in good faith and we're working so hard all these years on a merger charter that was full of compromise and full of innovation and plans that would have made a very good merged community and I'm very disappointed that it didn't work out but I want to thank you all for the enormous amount of work that you did to get it as far as it got and I also want to commend you for taking the extra step of approving a advisory vote so that you now do know what the community is interested in pursuing you've saved a lot of time by doing that and so thank you for having the foresight to ask that question at the same time and I do see on the agenda that you have a discussion about a merger alternative committee so I think that's an excellent idea and I urge you to pursue that thank you very much for all your hard work thank you Elaine anybody else come on people go ahead Annie I thank you for so many opportunities to speak this evening and I always feel heard and respected and I'm so grateful for that George sorry I should talk to Andrew but I got to talk to you George you pushing for that 12 years tooth and nail for the town outside the village you pushing for that 12 year tax difference you pushing and fighting hard for that respect for TOV residents we'll go down in history in my heart the right thing it was just beautiful I just love it I think about it a lot and I just love the passion okay that being said I agree with Andrew that our community has been very clear I think the quiet here tells you that and I think that even the agenda item probably shouldn't be called what's the name of it that Elaine just said merger the committee of merger alternatives just call it separation and call it a day come on and then I do want to bring up a sticky topic may I really why not I wrote it down so I'm going to read it I don't do that much so please know how seriously I'm thinking about this I as a town of Essex resident pay taxes to the town of Essex and that includes payment for taxes for not payment but taxes for the Essex community the town of Essex community development department however and I think this is a legality actually the town of Essex cannot and does not provide village residents with those services so I'm a town of Essex resident I pay taxes to the town of Essex community development department and I receive zero of those services for my tax dollars to compound this issue I then pay 100% so it's 41% of my taxes go 41% of village taxes go to that 100% of village taxes go to pay for the village community development department 41% of the town of Essex community development department is funded by the residents of the village of Essex Junction who receive zero services from that relationship 100% of the village of Essex Junction community development department comes from village tax payers I have dedicated my time and energy as a volunteer to the town of Essex community development department as the chair of the economic development commission and I have great ideas and passion for all the things that I've been really excited about and so I'm in a personal struggle because my energy for me my energy is valuable my energy is where I have value and what I choose to put my energy toward is where my value lay for me whether or not someone agrees with me it's okay so I'm in a sticky situation do I continue to confidently say yes to the town ballot budget item and give 41% of my tax as a village resident who we then confidently say yes to the community development of the budget and then serve as the chair as a volunteer like it's complicated and so a little bit I think maybe we uncomplicated not my particular problem and obviously I can't change at all myself anything to do with the economic development commission for the town of Essex because that is the select board's job and that is the oversight but there's no oversight of the economic development commission from the trustees yet our community development director participates like I don't need to say this more right you hear what I'm saying so I'm in a I'm like a little bit mind blown part of the economic development commission bringing committees together towards an idea of merger towards you know all those things was that the economic development commission went to visit me went to visit the village planning commission and the village planning commission was eager and prepared to take action in their new coding laws to have dedicated money to decide to give to the economic development commission for funding for building out better businesses I would I would recommend as a resident speaking only as a resident I wouldn't want to see that happen I would prefer that village money stay in the village I you know so anyway these are complicated things and I don't think enough people think about them but I'm certainly thinking about them today and I I just offer you that I'm you know thinking about it thank you very much for letting me be heard thank you thank you Annie go ahead Gabrielle thanks I have some I have some comments I kind of written down and I have some that are better off the cuff I'm I'm really grateful and thankful that I live in the village today I I'm grateful to let go of my hopes of merger I now see it's not a path that's open to New York to Essex I believe that the majority of our neighbors across the village border will never vote for an equitable provision of services and the taxes that pay for them George you hit it right on the head and I find myself having some sympathy or empathy for those that say well why can't we just try again and someone said to me well Gabrielle not everyone has the history that you have it's not a question of history for me it's a question of logic right? I mean what is the plan that's going together across the finish line I don't know what that is I haven't heard it from my select board and I haven't heard it from my TOV colleagues and neighbors and no idea what it is that's so important to them that yet again we vote down this plan to me we have to merge and then move forward but that's not going to happen and I don't see any reasonable brain I don't see any reason why but what's the logic of waiting and trying again I honestly don't see it so my primary concern today is to let go of that and know that no miraculous future merger plan is going to pass I've put a lot of energy into finding a common way forward for Essex and Essex Junction and I'm really glad that I did I'm so grateful that I got to vote because the result to me it helped make it clear it helped me let go and say yep we did the best we could in our community and the village as you've all noted we've tried so hard to make this work and it's okay that's not what they want and so let's move on for all of our sakes for our sake and for the sake of the town we could all name 15 things again I share a disappointment for me the re-vote was always about the vote from the Essex middle school ballots always I had hoped to see that our neighbors might finally understand, accept and vote and the tax inequity that we would merge and then work together I had hoped that my neighbors would not believe the corrosive and inaccurate narratives about who we are in the village about the services we provide I saw another post on front porch forum for one of the leaders of no merger now describing them as luxury services I mean what is that narrative right and why do people believe these things for me it's just a good reason to let go and to move forward and I'm ready to move forward with clear eyes and an open heart to work with all of you and to choose the best path forward separation is something I really want to look at that's what that vote is about understanding if that's the best path forward it's not a revenge thing it is not anything other in our community working together to decide what matters and act on that for all of us to make a wise decision that's grounding what matters most to us and just my last comment is that so much faith and I'm really grateful on the board to help us with that thanks thank you Gabrielle Elaine I do see your hand is up I just want to make sure that other people who have not yet spoken have had an opportunity to speak Irene go ahead thanks so much Gabrielle if you were reading the same post I was I believe the phrase was lavish services I appreciate you directing your comments to me please Irene please don't engage in dialogue with other members of the public thanks for that reminder I believe the post that was seen was referring to lavish services meaning a much higher budgeted amount for the Brown Island Library for example and the EJRP Rec department then the comparable named departments under the town I also heard a comment that mentioned getting nothing for one's town tax dollars when it comes to recreation maybe one here does not use Indian Brook Reservoir has never hiked at Saxon Hill but the town has many many parks that a lot of folks enjoy who don't necessarily live outside the village so just a reminder that you might want to check out what that town budget pays for before assuming that you get nothing for those tax dollars thanks very much Diane Clements go ahead Sure thanks I like to present the dead fish in the room and I like to thank the state of Vermont for the fact that creating an incorporated village meant the town that that village was incorporated within was not required to provide any services once that incorporated village was established which is just fomented what has happened for decades I hadn't realized that peace until recently in reading some materials dealing with our merger effort so we've been set up by the state thank you very much and let's let's place the blame back and put the dead fish in their feet as the causing this to continue where it didn't need to go I would like to see this community remain whole I have been very discouraged over the last couple months but what would really discourage me the most was hearing about the distrust that my fellow town folk on either side of that dotted line have of each other and it's become because of various segments of this community despite the efforts of those who are trying to work cooperatively to move in a forward direction I hope that we can move in a forward direction if that happens to be separation because that's where life has taken us then let's go there and put our effort into that because I hate to say it it's kind of like the Hatfields and the McCoy's and at some point in time I don't want to see the guns come out I already hear them they're rattling out there and I don't like it anymore the disgust with people talking about dividing the school district well you know what that's probably the one saving gem this entire community's got we got a group of people working for the best interests of students cooperatively providing the opportunities they didn't have before this merger the effort and the shining star that is providing to us I hope we continue to look at it so let's move forward guys it's the only direction we really have at this point okay there are too many bridges and I'm quite sorry to say are being bombed and ready to be lit and some of them I'm sorry to say the tender is just too close well so let's move forward and say you know what guys we did our best effort and let's move forward thanks thank you Diane Dylan you're next yeah hopefully you can hear me here hello everyone and thank you to the trustees for your public service and the staff for the support and for everyone who's come out here tonight I can tell you that when Candace and I have recently walked around our community as it started to thaw it out and spoken with neighbors about their thoughts on this topic I mean we really hear everything and that comes also from our friends who live outside of the village who present other viewpoints and I just really want to encourage everyone here tonight to recognize that whatever you look at for alternatives whatever the different ideas are that are put on the table just to emphasize that we really need new voices that are representative of all the viewpoints in this community and I know that you're accustomed to bringing those to the table I know that you're sensitive to that but you know I hear a lot of voices in these conversations that I've heard over and over and that's because they're committed they're dedicated they want what's best but I worry sometimes if you don't hear all those other community voices that are also frustrated they're also looking for alternatives they may have some really creative ideas because whether or not you were in favor of merger or not the conversation we're having is a really important one it's about where do we want to be not now not five years from now not ten years from now but in the future what resources do we want to have at our disposal how do we want to leverage them who do we want at the table and how do we work together to be a really strong community that continues growing in a way that's thoughtful that meets the needs of our community members and moves us forward so I just encourage you that as we start this conversation whatever it may be bring the voices to the table listen to them ensure that we're reaching folks in new and creative ways because whatever we do it's going to have to be really creative for us to be competitive moving forward so if I can help if Candace can help if folks on our street can help I know there's a lot of folks who are ready to lend a hand so let's get to work do this together and hopefully we can build a better path thank you thank you Dylan Tim you're up I wasn't going to speak and then all of a sudden I felt compelled so again you know I just want to reiterate the statements in the sentiments of tonight I think that if we look at where we're at I'm personally exhausted from merger I don't see a viable path or solution that gets us anywhere closer than another 30 years of bickering and frankly I'm tired of it and I just don't have it in me anymore I wanted to take a minute and just thank the board to really say I'm glad that you're hearing the voices from within the village I know it's a difficult position I believe that if there's a group of individuals it can get us to where we need to be that it's you folks I've had many private and side conversations with a lot of you I know you to be trusting and caring and I just wanted to express my thank you to you and say I'm happy to be a village resident I wouldn't have it any other way and I'm truly blessed to be here this evening thank you Tim and is there anybody else who has not yet spoken that wishes to speak and those of you who have spoken if you are not looking to speak again please do lower your hand to help ease my confusion Andrew I may be up in the presenters area only because my phone is linked to but this is Harlan Smith yeah go ahead Harlan so sorry thank you that's alright obviously as with most villagers I'm I'm disappointed but I'm at the same time I'm happy I've been on many a jobs where you're trying to get by in and you ask the question and does you have a question or direct no and then you ask the question more time and if the answer is still no then you do the job yourself and I think we're in the same situation so I would encourage you to follow the vote which was if merger wasn't going to happen to seek separation I am going to ask a question since I don't think you've had too many opportunities to answer so for a simple minded person who really doesn't know how the municipality piece of it works but I feel like a lot of the work has been done and there's not a lot of dividing up that needs to be done I feel like the charter is pretty simple we write a charter we want to take care of ourselves this is what we're going to do I know there's some stuff that's intertwined but I don't know if it's easily undone so if there's any way that somebody might be able to speak to that that would be great and then my last comment I would just like to encourage you to get out to all the parks Colchester has some beautiful parks Burlington has some beautiful parks and you don't pay taxes to go and see those thank you thank you Harlan and just so I can try to best understand the question it's really about how would separation work and is it more than just drafting a charter um yeah I guess you could word it at that but I mean for me it seems pretty simple we draft a charter to become our own independent I assume that since we already know the tourists of mother incorporated villages that became cities there's probably charters out there with a lot of the language we already need so if you can speak to it if it's more complicated than that then sure I mean I don't want to tie the meeting up for a long time but I feel like this is pretty short and sweet and I know that yeah November is probably a stretch but if it is as simple as I'm thinking there should be potentially a charter in place by November um so yeah if somebody gets a chance to speak to that a little bit that would be great I will make sure to do my best when we get there thank you Harlan uh Sarah Michelle go ahead Sarah Michelle Stoltz you can go ahead and meet yourself sorry hi um so I just want to say I am feeling the same way as many people here and thank you Harlan for talking about different parts because I have to say I have had so much fun in Colchester so much fun in Jericho under hill just some places that we can go hike and enjoy nature and then we can come back to our village that is bikeable walkable shoppable friendly and loving and that's that's awesome um so I just want to respond to also Andrew too um talk to me about our rep department and our library um I just want to say that you know I also in the past had a few concerns about um you know how much money in our budget we put towards the library but then I wisely told me that it's more than the library is a community center and we don't have a community center and I used to want to mention it was fabulous and I always said to myself you know we need a community center in Essex there's so much need and our library has become that and that's really a lot less expensive I think than a community center so I am so appreciative of all the um financial support and the volunteering support that we've given to our library is I think it's one of the best and um I really don't find that because I've been to the town library I really don't find that that happens there it's not in a location that allows for like teenagers to go after school and um you know the 5th graders like we do in Fleming and so yeah so I just want to mention that um also I've also been a little concerned that I completely support our um our move forward and I want to know when we can start um with that process I also wondering how we can maybe divide things up into like what are the areas that we need to research so that we're covering all the bases and getting everybody informed to you know research how we can separate and move forward it's time we've spent way too much time and energy on this I want us to take our time and energy and the fabulous energy we have in the village and fabulous minds we have and put them together and I think it's going to be great and I'm really excited about it and I'm ready to jump in and help um I the last thing I'm going to say is that yes I was in favor of merger but the bad taste that sort of the hate that I started to hear from a small group really has just left that bad taste there and I just want to get that bad taste out and um I'm looking forward to that so um hopefully those people in the town will think about maybe putting their energies into perhaps coming up with their plan of merger if they really really really want to try I don't know it's up to them but I know which way we're going to go forward so I appreciate everybody here and thanks to everybody for all their efforts. Thank you and so just looking through the list going to those who have not yet spoken John the floor is yours um but doesn't make any sense to reiterate what everybody's saying um thank you to everyone um who had a significant amount who did a significant amount of work um but I really don't think it was for not um all of that work that went into trying to have a merged community um got us to where we are now um a few years ago I was doing rewriting the 125 year history of the fire department and I got a chance to read a lot of stuff that was written in 1893 when the village of Essex Junction decided to step out and they did and look what our forefathers have created and and if we did it then I'm sure we can continue to do it now and turn the village into exactly what we want it to be I'm all done. Thanks guys Thank you Sam go ahead Hi folks thank you I just want to reiterate support and my appreciation for all the work you have done I'm from the city of Rutland so I know of these troubles I don't know why I moved from there into the same situation but I will caution folks that separation may not be a panacea it may not magically make all the acrimony go away it's going to require effort dealing with our neighbors in the town when and if we're separated so I support the effort and I'm excited for it but I have some expectations there that there's still going to be a lot of fences to mend that's all Thanks Thank you for that and as I'm looking back through the list I'm seeing no new hands up so for those who have already spoken if you can please try to keep this brief that would be greatly appreciated Elaine please go ahead Thanks very much for the chance to speak again I appreciate it I would like to make a request slash recommendation and then just address two other things there are still as Annie brought up the community development cost that village taxpayers bear for both the town and the village in a similar way the village also underwrites the capital budget for the town of Essex 42% of village 42% of town tax receipts for capital come from the village but the FY22 budget for the town of Essex does not include is 98% spent in the town outside the village projects that are going to occur outside the borders of the village there is a small amount of money there for equipment which would be shared but 98% of the town's capital budget and FY22 is going to be spent outside of the village historically for the last several years that percentage in the high 90s has been the case the village does not have the option at the moment for our capital projects to be paid for by our tax dollars as part of the town so in addition I believe the village's capital budget is around $700,000 the contribution on an annual basis I may have that wrong thank you George so my recommendation and request is that regardless of where we go in the future the trustees have a place to go right now that could deal with a decent portion of the tax of the city that exists by talking to the select board about making sure that either 42% of the projects being handled in the town by that budget happen within the village that could be either just taking 42% of the town's capital budget and applying it towards the capital project list for the village or it could be going towards other projects or it could be reducing the village's contribution from the capital tax or reducing the village's contribution to its own capital tax and using what comes from the town budget so there's room there for the trustees to go to the table with the select board and say this is an existing condition that needs to be addressed it's not equitable that 98% of our town tax budget is being spent outside of a portion of the town so I encourage you to explore that opportunity in October when discussions about the budget start happening another thing I want to just talk about if I may is yes I do, I agree with Harlan that I think a new city charter is actually not going to be a difficult or time consuming process but the process that will be time consuming is the communications with residents to understand what needs to be hired but also planning for what the administration of a newly constituted s6 junction municipality would be there are positions that will need to be hired there will be agreements that need to be unwound and there will be new expenses and so I think that's the planning that is going to take a lot of effort so not necessarily the charter itself but what the charter and personnel and finally I just want to acknowledge and uplift something I've heard in many speakers this evening and that is the emotional lift that has been burdened on the village and the town outside the village during this extremely contentious process I heard it in Gabrielle's voice in Tim's voice in Diane's voice we are exhausted this conversation has really shown some rifts in our community and so I really want to acknowledge that one of the important things is that we move on in a positive way there is a lot of wonderful positive energy already in the village online about what we're going to do next and I want to encourage us all to focus on the opportunity that's in front of us and focus on the fact that we are entitled to our own information as a municipality and a community and I want us all to gird ourselves against the condescension and the misinformation and the bullying and the disrespect that is already starting to come our way even this evening at this meeting we are better than that and we can move forward together and prove that we can stand alone and do it well and bond as a community in a way that we haven't before because we've been through this collective trauma together I want us all to focus on the good things that are coming and again thank you all of you for your intense efforts to bring this community together sorry I went on very long no thank you Elaine those were all very important parts and you've made my response to Harlan already shorter so in some ways you've already got some time out Diane I see your hand is up was there anything else you wish to address tonight I don't see that my hand is up Andrew but no I don't need to address anything else thank you I think I can lower your hand there we go Dylan I see your hand is also up was there anything else you wanted to address to the board tonight was there anything else you wanted to address to the board tonight I'm going to go ahead and take that as a no and Sam Hooker your hand is also up was there anything else you wanted to mention I already take some data microphone open you can hear doors opening and shutting my hand shouldn't be up I'm all set alright thank you alright so we will go ahead and close the public portion and bring it back to the board George I see your hand is up do you mind if I go through the couple of questions that were asked go ahead so Harlan's how separation what I think I'm oversimplifying as how does separation work and is it more than the charter Elaine really hit the nail on the head there that it's the charter itself no isn't complicated at all the complexity is really in the transition period similar to the merger process there would be a timeline in which we have to unwind the agreements we have to draft a budget for the newly incorporated city of s extension there are people who need to be hired there are these types of decisions that need to be made these types of boxes that need to be checked where frankly that's where I assume the time is going to be taken not necessarily in just a drafting of a charter I think there was a question from Sarah Michelle about when can we move forward and how are we going to move forward on this I would say stay tuned to the next agenda item it was mentioned before how that was written as a committee to study merger alternatives and I will admit that I was pretty adamant to have it not to just say separation because personally there was an avenue I wanted us as a board to pursue I wanted us to look into I've heard from some residents who live near the village but don't live in the village and live in the town who have said that they wanted to become a part of the village there is a way to do that but frankly what I've also heard is the iron is hot the desire from the village to just move forward with separation frankly outweighs for me I think outweighs a timeline in going through that kind of a process of looking to expand our borders or looking to have other members from the town join us in the village should people who live outside the village want us to not do that frankly if you want to get a petition together and tell us otherwise maybe then personally I would consider it but at this point in time I think we really need to do what is best for our village as Elaine so eloquently highlighted the tax inequity that has existed for so long we need to we need to finish this process or get this process started so we can then finish it so this next topic I would say really is that merger study committee so if you don't mind hanging on a little bit a little while those were all the questions clearly what we sort of the beginning really seems to be the overwhelming sentiment of it's time to move forward with separation the exhaustion the frustration disappointment I've heard that loud and clear frankly I echo all of those sentiments having been a part of this and George Raj I know the two of you is a part of the government subcommittee for the past three years or the previous three years to get us to this point must also frankly be exhausted with that whole merger conversation and I can only imagine how that must feel I do appreciate the work that you've put into it so with that trustees anything else before we move on to the next topic and George I believe your hand was up yeah Andrew I'm not exhausted I'm raring to go that was just like step one I got we got like step five I'm lodging in charge man we're ready to go no no trouble with that I do want to debunk a popular urban legend we sort of etched around it tonight which is that the village has luxury we spend our our resources on luxuries like repairing our streets as Elaine pointed out because that's the only the only way they get repaired the the village uses the same statewide pay classification study that the town uses and that all the other large communities use to negotiate our salaries and benefits we have we I will go having put together budgets and looked at other municipal budgets I can assure everyone who's who from the village we are extremely efficient we are extremely well run we are not we do not have luxury services why do we spend more money on the Brown Hill Library than the town does well why does Essex High School cost more than Essex Elementary School it's a bigger building it has more people in it it costs more dollars per day to open its doors to the public that's why it's very simple we don't have luxury services one other thing I'd like to point out is that generally speaking if you look at municipal budgets densely developed areas are more efficient in terms of municipal spending than rural and suburban areas it just stands to reason you send a snowplow driver down the street in Essex Junction that driver within 30 seconds clears a path for two or 300 homes that same driver to clear that many places in a rural area like the outer limits of the town probably takes about a half an hour so generally speaking generally in terms of municipal budgeting densely developed areas are more efficient spenders and are more efficient for municipal expenditures that's about it I just wanted to debunk that because there's no way I would stack Essex Junctions services up our fire department our community development our parks and recreation I'd stack them up against any in terms of efficiency and cost against any other community in the state thanks thank you George for also correcting the disinformation and the distortion of facts it's easy to to create false narratives it's a lot harder to do what you've done which is actually correcting those false narratives so I appreciate that thank you trustees anything else on this agenda item okay now I need to find my agenda so bear with me for a moment I believe the next agenda item was the committee I don't remember which there's a agenda on the screen now thank you no problem so there we are item G discussion and potential action non-merge alternatives committee so as I alluded to a little bit one of the things that I have said early on is my desire to have this be a merger alternatives committee at this point I'm completely happy to have our discussions be about separation there aren't other alternatives for us to look into at this point in time I did move forward with taking the the comments at our last meeting to help to help expand upon the charge of this committee and in doing so and in conversations with Evan one of the things that came pretty clearly to light is the overwhelming majority of the answers that would need to be asked the questions that would need to be asked as to how do we move forward with this process what is separation going to look like who is going to do what those types of things are questions that between the trustees and staff members that that's where the answers are going to happen and so the question was do we need a committee to ask the questions if when I was proposing this the overall goal from my mind was really to engage the community in these conversations given the limitations on staff time to continue to meet during the evening as we just heard earlier from one of our staff members I'd like to go back to the conversation of do we want this to be a citizen led committee to be a major focus of the trustees work moving forward and when I say that what we can do is instead of adding more meetings to our schedule if we could agree to have the first hour to an hour and a half of our meetings dedicated to nothing but this topic I think what that would allow for is to keep this process moving and frankly would make this more open to the public than having a citizen led committee and I say that not to seize power I say it not to disempower the community but frankly to help open this up to the community otherwise these meetings would likely have been held during the daytime these meetings would likely then not have been as open to the public and frankly I think would have then disallowed members from the public to really weigh in so with that I would like to add I would like to get the trustee's perspective on that concept Dan, go ahead Andrew, I agree with your comment about the instead of having a separate committee having a committee meet and then come back to the trustees discuss what they're doing with the trustees I think your path forward expedites the process and it makes it much more easy to follow rather than duplication you know, what I'm saying is when you have an advisory council or meeting that's at another time during the daytime what have you and then the information is passed on people may not get the whole message and this keeps it condenses it and makes it much more easily available to the community as a whole and just to echo what's been said in the past about the whole creation of the new charter it's unlike what we did before with the whole merger of two communities we're looking at one charter that we don't have to negotiate with another side on this it's our own deal so sure there are things that would have to change and look at the MOUs and anything there's positions to be hired but I forget who said it actually I think it was John said it in 1893 they were able to come up with the municipality and no reason that 128 years later we can't do the same any other trustees want to weigh in on on that concept of having this be a major focus of our meetings moving forward yeah I mean I'll I'm just trying to pivot to this you know as I said in my comments before I think one thing we're not going to be able to do well one thing I'm curious if we'll be able to do is I wonder how effectively we'll be able to engage and bounce ideas and possibilities back and forth with community in this in the paradigm in the process you're suggesting um and I I didn't realize that's what we're going to be talking about so I didn't really think it through but I was almost going to say maybe one thing the community this committee could do what would be to take a broader look at at bringing or engaging the community in a conversation about what they see the village becoming it's short medium and long-term future how is it made up what's its governance look like what is its economic future look like what is its feel like what's the feel what's the you know how does it relate to what we've done with part and soul how's it relate to what we've done with um design design like all of it you know and instead of doing the the work of of researching how to undo MOUs and negotiating all of that that this citizen committee really you know do what we find it difficult to do in these meetings which is really kind of do public outreach um and that's what they could be tasked with and then we would have that group be able to bring that information to us because I think in this model where we have these public meetings and the way we have to do them it's very difficult you know three of us show up at one of these events it's a public meeting you know there's all kinds of things but if this and maybe those rules will apply to this committee too um but I think if we if we think about the committee in that way doing the public outreach and doing that that work um and we do the the more nuts and bolts municipal end of it that could be one way forward yeah go ahead Amber I was just going to say that I support um I support your new approach Andrew um I think one of the biggest concerns I've had about um about the committee and the timeframe is stuff is I feel that there's there's a lot of education that needs to happen um and so at least from our perspective we have that we have that background um so we can kind of hit the ground running and I think it's absolutely important to have public comments I think you you're right we're going to get I think more folks at 6 30 at night than we are at 2 o'clock in the afternoon or at 8 o'clock in the morning um the other thing I was thinking about the other day was I wonder if there's some um you know they're doing these uh coffee chats with the chief and the coffee chat with Evan um you know while it is a public meeting you know it's it might be helpful to have one or two of those to try to get during the day to get that other portion of the population because I did hear um the one coffee event that I attended with the chief was there were some concerns about well why are we doing this at 10 o'clock in the morning um you know on a Friday when other folks you know maybe can we do it on a different day during the week um so maybe part of this is you know maybe all one of us take take it one month or one or take it one week and do every couple of weeks or something and kind of shift it and shift the days of the week um and times to see if we can get as many public participants as possible coffee with amber yeah we wouldn't want to do that right seriously with your bonds right with your coffee bonds or whatever coffee and cats with amber exactly go ahead uh so just so you know amber I spoke with my executive producer uh Tammy getchell about my my coffee chats and we have talked about having guests uh on the chat uh so uh we'd like to book you or any other elected official uh on to the show um but all seriousness great suggestion uh we've also talked about trying to do it different times in a day maybe early evening when I don't have a night meeting um and other things just saying um and so happy to do things like that as well um but I'd love to have yes um and so uh because I'm just not that exciting I'll talk to my agent Evan and we'll be in touch oh we'll have my people call your people exactly so I do wholeheartedly agree that one of the things that I know personally I am not strong in is the public outreach side of things I think that it is something that um within our municipality we could use some help with uh is being able to really do the outreach and that is I agree that's where I could see a committee a group of volunteers who are much more versed in that than I am uh really helping to lead that effort um and I think we I think we were all uh emailed some ideas on this um if it wasn't everybody I will make sure to forward that and put that into the into the um reading file for our next meeting um so that way we can all be on the same page there uh George go ahead yeah um Annie Cooper texted something into the message file and it was the thought that I had at the same time so we're on the same wavelength I guess but she asked or she suggested why not see if heart and soul can't get involved with some of this um they are already uh well versed and skilled and have in public outreach um and also in they've defined community values for the town as well as the village um and they could help probably uh transpose some of those values into communication and um engagement with other people in the village just a thought have we has anyone else thought of that no I think that anyone is here from heart and soul what would they think of that I think that that is a great direction to go down as the experience is already there um and so by why reinvent the wheel when when it's already there right um like along these lines uh Evan if you don't mind I know that there is a staff member who has um offered to be a part of helping to coordinate this whole process um and really helping to step up and help to lead it uh do you mind uh having having them speak about this and some of the ideas no I no no I don't mind so Brad I see that you're you're with us um are there other thoughts you'd like to to share sure yeah um thanks Andrew uh I have the chance to speak with some folks today and and um I think the there's a great opportunity that you you have outlined Andrew and Raj I think you kind of have hit the nail and I had two in terms of letting the trustees do the boring work of um writing the charter and dealing with um with all the complexities of what's gonna have to be done to um undo all of the consolidations that have been uh done to build a budget to build an org chart for the future um I think I think you are the group that can tackle all of that I do think you know listening to people talk earlier in the meeting there is a lot of really great energy in the village right now and I think it would be silly not to tap into that and and harness it and um the heart and soul heart and soul is actually working on a press release to dissolve um so I don't think that group per se is going to be able to take on this work but I think there are plenty of folks in the community who'd be willing to step up and do that that kind of work and so I think you could create a parallel committee um that is going out and doing the outreach um asking people the questions engaging with them um it's a great time of year to launch something like that as we as you know things become safer with COVID and the nicer weather um to do a lot of stuff outdoors this summer um and interact with the community and figure out what it is they love about living here and what they want to do in the future and um I think you know I think it would totally be possible for those two groups to then come back together in the late summer early fall and and have a village celebration and summit and preview the the new charter and plan and preview all of the great work that they've done um as you get ready to try and get this thing voted on before the end of the year so one thing I want to bring up and you you just hit this part is uh the end goal I know for me I tend to struggle um understanding where we're going if I don't understand the timeline that we're operating within um I know that there have been a few people who have talked about you know we don't need to we don't need to go about this too fast uh frankly I want to propose a strong disagreement with that and I would like to see us um get this process completed and this may sound ambitious um but follow that November timeline and the reason I say that is whatever we propose ultimately has to be uh approved of by the legislature given that the legislature uh meets from January 2 to May if we wait until our normal April elections by that point in time it's too late by that point in time we also find ourselves into the next biennium so frankly at that point in time we don't really know who's going to be on first we don't know what what the outcomes may very well be uh we don't know who may be representing us in the legislature um so honestly if we want to do this and if we want to do this seriously I'd like to challenge us to get this process done before Thanksgiving and look to see if we can have this vote this upcoming November realizing that is how many months seven months away so it is certainly an expedited timeline um but without that I think honestly we're uh we're putting ourselves up for some increased risk so George why don't you kick that off uh I I just want to say one thing I I I would like to argue uh against having it be a foregone conclusion that we're gonna just dissolve all the existing uh inter municipal agreements that we have um I would like to approach those with an open mind um because if you're really serious about this uh you gotta you gotta be serious about doing things that make economic sense for us um and I I know that we talked about the police station and we we're all assuming that maybe we would probably continue to want to share that but there are other things I'm on the on the joint town village stormwater committee for example um it's it's a sensible reasonable thing for us to to continue for that's just one small example um and I think when I look at the other big inter municipal agreements we've made particularly around administration I wouldn't be so quick to just say we're absolutely gonna dissolve those I would I would approach it objectively and dispassionately and with an eye towards um doing you know saving money uh because there are there are positions where um you might have someone like the assessor's office or people in administration where it's gonna cost us more it would cost the town more um to provide the same thing it's it's where you can get a synergy um and I think it's not something we should just dismiss out of hand I think it's something we should um think approach thoughtfully at this point it's just when you're just starting out and then after you've looked at them and we thought about it um maybe if you if you don't want to if we think we shouldn't continue it but I think um really we should we should not have that be a assume that we're just gonna disband all of these inter municipal agreements that we have I'd like people to take a good hard look at them I I don't disagree with you George um one thing I want to make very clear though I don't want us as a village us as a municipality to ever be thought of as a customer to ever be thought of as um a second class citizen or a second class board we we experienced that this past July um I don't ever want to go back there again so I don't disagree with you that there may make some sense for some things uh to explore about not just outright cancelling at the same time if we are not guaranteed an equal seat at every single table related to the service delivery related to the budgeting chart to the oversight of those then I to frankly that's a zero uh a non-starter for me um again that July was one of the most painful experiences I've ever experienced being on a board and I never want to experience that again nor do I want to see our community go through that right right but for example if you did that if we did if we and I'm just this is hypothetical at this point and I don't want to go too far down into hypotheticals because you're trying to get this committee off the ground I don't want to go down into the weeds but just as an example if we if we negotiated a uh an arrangement with the town because the town and the village are going to continue to be we're going to have to continue paying off the police department uh uh the the bond for the police department um and so chances are we're going to have to come we would have to come to some uh agreement over it but that agreement could include that the village now has a seat at the table over with any uh police policy uh decisions that are made I mean you could you could always negotiate that you can always put that into a contract go ahead rush oh guess I was going to say that would be part of I guess that would be part of the you know work that we do with whoever's doing the public outreach you know that what are the options what are the costs you know does it make more financial sense to keep uh joint clerk um for instance you know and and and really kind of see where people are at if they if they really want the independence and they're willing to pay for it um but that's part of the outreach and I guess the timeline um so I don't disagree with you George I think I think it's it's got to be looked at everything's got to be looked at sort of holistically um the timeline I'm I'm one of those it's not in a major rush but I but I get it I get the process um I'm just thinking back to obsessing about the process over the merger timeline um I just you know again I think one of the things if we're going to do a post mortem on on merger and we probably ought to um if we do if we do a retreat um we can always do better on outreach I mean there's not been anything we've done in this community the past 16 years I've lived here that we couldn't have done better on outreach and I just want to make sure that if we do anything there's enough time for that um it should be rather it should be simpler I mean it's just the village this time you know um but that doesn't mean that everybody's going to agree and I think there's a lot of energy and a lot of momentum but that doesn't mean that we're not going to have um people with some really well founded concerns um and I think they're probably listening tonight thinking oh great now this and I just want to make sure that that we have enough time to really kind of work through that um and if we if we do if if we have a group of people put together that can make that work then I'm all for it but I I don't want to I don't want to look back into in a year or two and um regret not putting that time in because I think this is a big move um in a lot of ways I think it's bigger than merging um and I just want to make sure we do it right um and go through the go through the steps as deliberately as we can so I'm cool with the timeline if if we if we put together a really good process to engage the community because the rest of it honestly the rest of it there's going to be some difficult negotiations and conversations with the select board but really I think the harder conversations are going to be internally with the community so any other trustees thoughts on that um one one thing Andrew yeah um regarding Raj's comment engaging the community I don't disagree we there's always room for improvement but in the same respect I heard about the the contract or the the Charter for a merger that it's not good enough it's not good enough you can go under the assumption it's not good enough if you're looking for perfection we might as well stop right now and just go with status quo we'll never have perfection we'll never make it as something that a community that everyone's going to like there's always going to be somebody with the problem with something about it that what you what we should strive for is the majority and look down the road and say we've done we've created something that's good for the majority of people I mean you can look you could dissect any aspect of government and find something that a portion of the community that's not going to be happy but I'm not looking to to try and get that small I think we got to look big picture what's best for the whole and I'm not going to worry and say well we didn't otherwise what's the metrics we use to judge what how much outreach and when do we know that we've done enough community outreach do we have to pull everybody in the community and there has to be a certain percentage of the community that weighs in or you know it could stymie the process so I hear what you're saying but we got to be careful we got to focus and as everyone said before we've got a lot of momentum going energy going positive energy and move forward with this process Roger is your hand still up for something new or so any of the trustees anything else so Brad as a I think you've now been deputized as the project coordinator manager of oversight for this effort in terms of next steps what do you think about if we can put together some type of a project plan to see this through and have that ready for our next meeting sure no problem are there other thoughts that you or suggestions answers you'd like tonight to help move this forward no I mean I think I think there's enough to put some things on paper for venue all to look at and consider I know the public there's some people in the public that probably want to speak to this issue to that may you know may help provide some more clarity agree so there's nothing else from the board I would open this up to the public if there are comments you'd like to make if you have an expert some of you certainly have much more experience in the outreach side of things than I know I do would love to hear that and speaking of that Sue McCormick why don't you start us off hi everybody first of all I just want to thank you all for all of your hard work you've put in a lot of hours and time on a plan for the future of our community and I just really appreciate it so I want to start there I just want to really share I'm really excited that Brad has stepped forward to help you all go forward and you know I really like the idea of having two parallel processes happening at the same time I think that you as the trustees are in a really good position to deal with the technical details of what are the legal issues how do you work on all of that but I implore you please do not engage the community around those technical details that is where people who have successfully for many years kept the status quo in place what they do is when we get into the weeds they can sow enough doubt and disunity around the details so we can get everybody in an argument with each other and really what the community is good at weighing in on and actually what only the community should be weighing in on is to share with you their vision and their values what matters to them and if you can do a good job hearing what matters to the community you can present a plan and let them know how your plan aligns with their values when we try to engage with the community around all of these nitty gritty details and then we can get ourselves into a lot of confusion of course the community needs to know those details but if you do a good job engaging them around their values you can show them how those details align with their values and you can also see if there are some places in your proposal where there is an alignment and make adjustments so I just want to strongly encourage you to consider two parallel processes I agree Andrew there is a lot of energy right now I think it would be wonderful to get something to happen by November and I think if you have the trustees working on the technical details the community committee working on the engagement work and then you bring all of that together and check for alignment make the adjustments that you need to that you could really get this done and I did have a question about the details I'm hearing on this call that a charter change is a pretty simple thing to write up and so I just have a question about timing how much do you need to have all those details figured out to be able to write the charter change or is that something that happens after so I did have a question about the timing around those things yeah so the vote that we would end up having about incorporating an independent city would need to include the finalized charter the finalized transition plan everything in relation to creating the new community would need to be done at that point that's helpful great I think we're ready to do it I'm really excited I think we have a great community there's a lot of energy here and I think we can get this done I would also ask George if I missed anything there that's exactly right you have to have the the charter pretty much and any other agreements that you're going to bring down but the charter has to be in finished form before so voters can know what they're voting on it can't be I think when I talk to Sue about this Sue McMurray Hill not Sue McCormack she said you can have a few minor changes but you pretty much have to have a finished product before you go to the voters and the process would be you would have the vote in November and then it would go down to the legislature in 1st of January and at that point you don't know you have to assume take the most conservative estimate and assume that it may not get improved until May but it could be approved sooner than that or rejected you don't know I'll remind everybody we live in a Dillon rule state not a home rule state like New York and the Vermont legislature has all authority all authority to decide what to do with municipal charters so that's something to keep in mind it's not just a simple matter of as the town discovered last year with their 3-3 charter initiative it went down there and it got tabled it's unpredictable it becomes a political process when it gets into the legislature frankly thank you George yeah Mike Sullivan your next uh oh so yeah I have so many posted notes in front of me now that it'll take a minute to get through but first of all this is beyond the last topic but I really like what Gabrielle Smith said Gabrielle Smith said about letting go you know it's about a friend of mine once said forgiveness if you keep the anger you're still attached so letting go becomes the becomes the thing and I also want to say that I believe my wife and I my wife and I my wife and Marie and I posted the very first town or village wide house meeting for heart and soul at our house and it was a little surprise about that so yeah so I retired last June this is not what I wanted to be doing but here I and where I am is where we are so I would be happy to throw my hat into the ring for this outreach program and so I would I would be happy to be considered for that for an opportunity on that situation we will be an amazing independent community thank you thank you Mike Aladin thank you very much just want to like Mike throw my hat in the ring with respect I would love to participate on the technical side having been very intimately acquainted with the process for many years I would love to be of any assistance that the trustees might need on the charter development and the transition plan side and I'm so grateful and frankly relieved that there will be another talented group of people working on the outreach that's a wonderful idea thank you thank you Aladin Marcus thank you both my wife and I support she can speak for herself but I know that she has sent a note into Andrew acknowledging the fact that on her own that she wishes to be a part of if at all possible if need be on this committee or in any way to the trustees to help from a marketing you know outreach standpoint I also I'm in the same similar line of work so I would also put my name I want to recognize what Dylan said earlier and not stand in the way of a diverse voice from our community participating in this process but I do have a question and it has to do with the timing specifically if we do this vote if we time this out so the vote hits in November as suggested on the non-binding proposal that we just voted on my understanding is this would be the only thing that we're voting on we don't have an election this November so I'm curious about the cost and why why we feel the need outside of this recent vote why we would feel the need to rush this process to November versus saving it for what might be a money saving matter to the town you know the village meeting vote next year thank you thank you Marcus so I don't know what it would cost to have a village only election in November and I would look to as we go through this process I would look to staff to help provide that that number in terms of why November as compared to to April you know without having the amount of money that we're talking about it certainly isn't something that I think we are committing to tonight frankly I think what we're talking about is a goal post to hopefully achieve if at the end of the day we find out that there is some other reason we can't if it's too costly and we don't have the money for a special election then that would certainly push it back no matter what but having that that amount will be helpful the other reason though for pushing it forward goes back to trying to get it through this upcoming or this current biennium and not waiting until the next biennium in the legislature as that again we don't know who our representatives would be in the next biennium in the legislature and so that could pose some additional challenges and some additional issues so that's where that's coming from thank you I appreciate that thank you Marcus okay I am not seeing more hands Annie Cooper so I'm so excited right now this this is so beautiful I feel so inspired I feel so ready I feel so enthusiastic and I feel so joyous I can't I can't be any more grateful than how this conversation how this conversation has gone this evening and where we are right now I just feel joyous I feel I just feel I can't keep saying it I'm joyous I'm excited I'm enthusiastic and I'm grateful please start to dismantle please let's go Marcus Serta is a huge support in my world and I am so grateful to the Serta family for making me feel like a human I can't say enough about at least in Marcus Serta and what they have done for me just as a person to make me feel proud of myself but Marcus I want to head for November thank you for that anybody else from the public okay I'm not seeing any other hands Marcus I assume your hand is still up as a holdover oh yes my apologies and I'm sorry I never intend to make one cry publicly or otherwise alright so we will go ahead and bring this back to the board for tonight we're not looking for I if we were looking to create the committee we could vote on that now although I think what we need to do is we need to in Bradford if you would feel otherwise I feel we need to wait for some more parameters around this committee before we could actually vote on it I would just put a plug out to the community to stay tuned for our next meeting and hopefully we could get this process kicked off to accept some applications and appoint some people to the committee yeah Andrew we'll get some details on paper for you guys to explore next time and then get the process moving from there great so with that I think we are finished with this agenda item and Marguerite do you mind putting the agenda back up because my thank you so the next item that we had because H no longer is necessary I was going to be an executive session so that will bring us into the consent agenda I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda with one minor note that the draft minutes from our March 16 meeting do not have the times you know I thought I had sent that out in an email to Linda I think yeah okay let me check with her I do remember her saying she got them so maybe they just didn't get into the packet okay yeah I don't remember what the time was actually we just want to pull that one out for the next meeting we can do that was that the March that was the March 16 exactly it was an executive session mostly so yeah Mr. President I don't think you need to pull it out just have maybe the motion approve it and add the times for the time to be added based upon the email that I sent I don't know sounds like a friendly a motion to friendly amendments my motion no second that thank you Amber thank you Dan any further discussion on the motion hearing none of those in favor please signify by saying aye anybody pose thank you and into the reading file and board member comments Andrew I'll make any further discussion on the storm water committee actually I was I was requested it sort of tapered off and then it got reinvigorated because of some issues that we are dealing with and so I was asked if I would be so it was an opportunity I guess I could have brought it to the trustees and said does someone want to take my place but I didn't I just said okay I'll do it and I'm seeing everyone shake their hands and I'm going to do it and I'm going to be on the storm water committee so I pointed myself to the storm water committee I hope that's okay Amber is very upset all right all right I'm crying but I'll try to hold it back thing of mine I actually like storm water so you know I'm not Dan was shooting darts through the screen at you all right the only a couple of things I wanted to say again that's we on the board are pretty well intimately aware of this but just for the community just the continued path of the Crescent connector finally coming through to fruition and how exciting that is as well as this potential for the Colchester Essex multi-use path project which I have to admit the the press release I found early yeah the press release I found a little interesting as it seems as if there was a major word that was left out of that press release I had to do a little digging as it said we're going to create and then nothing I just found that part interesting but that's a pretty exciting that's a pretty exciting project and and hopefully the it continues in under 10 years all the way to West Street somehow which would be amazing yes it would any other comments from trustees staff anything you want to make sure to get out if I if I could Andrew one one quick shout out to the clerks department and all the volunteers that help put on the election I I don't know if anybody really understands what goes into a local election especially when you mail out ballots about I think 1614 to 16000 mail out ballots with envelopes stuffed in them with ballots inside them and all that goes into putting on this type of election and how hyper accurate they try to be and gracious to people who may or may not understand which district they live in where they vote are they going to be in town could they do everything that goes into it they put in weeks into this and then you get to the day of the election and Diane Clemens and her group do it at the high school and will sending over at the middle school does his group and it's a Herculean task they really deserve a big round of applause and thank you and by the way they barely make anything of anything what they do and just the time and the safety thank you very much thank you thank you Evan for saying that and I'm so sorry that I neglected too and the BCA all the envelopes stuffing all the note checking and all the things thank you everybody yes thank you for keeping our democracy alive and well and safe and as you guys have all seen male vote voting voting by mail has extended the votes from people we you know and so I think you guys for making that decision thank you thank you yes thank you okay so I'm just getting to the motion part for our executive session bear with me for a moment you should see it on the screen maybe yeah thank you I think we want the other one though oh there we go and do we have yes let's do so we have Jim with us okay so I move that the trustees make the specific finding that general public knowledge of pending or probable civil litigation to which the public body is or maybe a party would place a village at a substantial disadvantage so I made that motion second I'll give that one to Raj any further discussion on that motion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye great I move that the trustees make a decision to discuss pending or probable civil litigation to which the public body is or maybe a party pursuant to one vsa section 313 a1e to include the unified manager assistant manager and water quality superintendent I'll second thank you George and just again for clarification Evan we don't need our attorney right you we are going to have our attorney and just for clarification we are not coming back into this so when you guys make that motion we're going to adjourn and then we're going to go into exact session okay so George I will close out the meeting and meet your executive okay thanks Evan do you accept my amendments to also include the bill's attorney yes thank you any discussion on that motion hearing none those in favor please signify by saying aye aye anybody opposed as Evan said we will not be coming back so thank you all for joining us have a great night and I look forward to this next time thank you