 Let's call the meeting order at 631 and a half, 632 call. Any additions to the agenda? Yeah, yeah, I have an addition. During maybe Michelle's financial report. I'd like to give the select board. Just an update on what. Well, Gina, Michelle and I are up to with our investments and potential treasury or CD investments. Just a little blurb where we're at. Okay. Well, we'll get that in there. Thank you. Yeah. I have a little bit of discussion of. Things to do and posting the minutes, but we can take that up under other business town administrator reports. And she and I talked about it. Okay. I can. Review of minutes May 15th. Thorough as usual. I just noticed I left our chair off of the select board. So it's all right with you. I will. You let me go. I did. I hear in other parts of the minutes, but just not yet. Was this when he was here? Yeah. Yes. Chair Gardner asked. Yes. Yep. Yep. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Copy and pastes. Well, I guess. But next time. Insurrection. Insurrection. Insurrection. Insurrection. Maybe there's a coup that we don't know about. I have an amendment for the first sentence of the consideration of cemetery sex. Sexed in position, et cetera. I'm not sure if I think everything there is probably accurate in terms of representing what was said at the meeting, but after a conversation with a town's person, I would like to. I would like to. Amit certain parts of it just to make it. Easier to conform to everybody's recollection of what happened. And I've got this ready to email to you the address. You don't have to take notes. If everybody is okay. Simply say, Mr. Boucher explained that six or seven years ago, Mr. Boucher. I'm going to comment on this. The last one. To assist with this. Extending studies. So wait on that same sense. Lampson cell, that's what I thought too. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Any other further on is paperwork and and paperwork is. Together. If you. Fifth line down. Yep. To get that. Correct. It is Lampson. Yes. Yeah. If everyone says. Okay. send it. Send it to Deidre. We'll find it. That's fine. Yeah. So anything else? Well, I mean, to make a motion that we accept the message. Why, you're still reading them? Yeah. And probably have never been. No, no, you don't. I sense that he was done. Oh, very good. Yeah, good sense. Yeah. Anybody else have any comments on the minutes? No, we can still discuss it. Yeah, I know that. So you made the motion? I'll second it. Okay. Any further discussion? That's what you should do. Not hearing any further discussions. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. The ayes appear to have they do have it. So the motion was to accept the meeting minutes with the recommended amendments. Okay. Wow. The next thing on the agenda is our public comment. We have any public? Nope. Okay. The next thing we have to discuss, board work session to discuss municipal coordinated interview questions, potential executive session. Anybody want to go into the session? Sure. Sure. I moved to go into executive session with all the usual language that that motion entails about conforming to Vermont statues. I'll second. All the favorite detail. Aye. The ayes appear to have it. They do have it. It's okay. We're at an executive session. So we would like to, what do you want to say? I would like to move that we offer the candidates the position of municipal coordinator. And direct the town administrator to take further necessary steps. I'll second that motion. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. The eyes appear to have the do have it. Oh, the next thing our agenda is discussion on county roads. Celebration. I think you're. Up on the docket, so to speak. Right. Yeah. Everybody on the larry Gilbert. I live on county road. And I'm here again. You asked you to. Close. County road. On second Sunday of four upcoming months. So best friends and bikers can. Be out on the road. You know, I'm enjoying. Enjoying car three. And environment. I assume there are some new select board members. Yes. So if you like for just for their sake, I can sort of do a quick review of how we got to this point. Yeah. Hi, Scott has, can you see me like the screen went blank? I may have to just log back on and off, but. Yeah. I can't. Anyway, okay. Oh, sorry. Is everything all caught up as someone else speaking. Hi, I'm Zoe Christiansen. I'm also new. I can't see. You want me to move. You can sit here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There we go. Fill in new members on previous history. So. I will very, be very fast. I know we've done this before. Yeah. In last November, the county road paving project was completed. At that time, I came to the select board and asked for permission to close the road from the junction of center road and county road. To the junction of. Templeton road and county road. And the select board agreed. Agreed to do that. So on one Sunday, about 200 people or so came out and enjoyed walking and biking and rollerblading and rollers skiing along along the road. And during the course of that, several of them said, Hey, are you going to do this again? So a small group of people who were excited about it got together. Came up with a proposal came back to the select board and said, Hey, can we do this a few more times. Okay. So on this, this year. The select board said. They had two major concerns. One was. A concern about liability that an independent group kind of acting. Completely without any attachment to, to the town was, it was a concern that that made sense. And suggested that if we could solve that problem, we would be able to consider the issue again. So we went to the East Montpelier recreation committee. Told them about it and asked them to take us under their wing. And be a quote unquote subcommittee of the rec committee. They agreed to do that. I don't know if anybody from the rec committee is here to know. I don't know if anybody from the rec committee is here to know. I don't know if anybody from the rec committee is here to know that. Even though their main focus is youth sports, but they thought that just fit vaguely within the. Purview of promoting recreation within the town of East Montpelier. So. As members, not really of the. Rec committee. It is our understanding now that the town of East Montpeliers, is a really good idea. It is a good idea. I think it's a good idea to, to, to, to go on. In, in the, in the county road closure situation. And I think Carl may be able to speak to that more than I, because I know he's had some conversations with the league of cities and towns. So that was one objection, which I believe. We have addressed and overcome. The other objection that we heard was. I think it's a good idea. Some of those complaints in my opinion. We're a little unfounded simply because several people said. I'm going to, you're going to trap me in my house. I can't get out. I can't drive on county road. That's not true. It's only through traffic that would be the road will be closed to local traffic could come and go. Additionally, some people talked about emergency vehicles not being able to get out of the house if necessary, not sure how the barricades are simply very removable and any emergency vehicle could go through at any time. So. With that, I would simply ask you to reconsider this again, based on the fact that I think we've solved the liability issue. I know there are going to be some people who will continue to object to it. I know there are a lot of people who have been in touch with us. I know there are a lot of people who have been in touch with us. They're saying they would like to continue. Like us to continue trying to get this to happen. The motivation, my motivation is simply. The interest of building community. We. Live in a crazy time. Of political. Political division. Sickness kind of disease pushes us apart. So we put together a collaboration and insulation from each other. And I believe this is an opportunity to, for east Montpelier and a very risk free way to. Promote. Bringing people together in a very positive. And fun environment. And. What we're specifically asking for is to close. The road slightly different than what we did the first time. So it would be from Barnes road and county road to. So a two mile stretch as opposed to a three mile stretch. There are reasons for that. I'm happy to talk about those if you want for Sundays, second Sunday of July, August, September, and October. It's an experiment. I believe one with very little risk, very high potential reward. And I hope you'll consider voting in favor of this. Happy to answer questions. And I can follow up with the just relaying a little bit more about my conversation with Larry Smith of the Vermont legal cities in town, the passive basically our insurance agents. And he had already communicated at the time that we had our previous discussion about this that in order for them to be comfortable with it, it either needed to be a town sponsored event or an outside organization with their own insurance. And what I was able to clarify it with him was if it is a town sponsored event. And we talk especially about the rec board taking it under their responsibility. Then the current liability insurance that the town has would cover it. And he is also willing to give flag or training to the volunteers and the road crew would like to take part in that other municipal officers with constables of need for flag or training. I don't know. Then he's willing to provide it to everyone at the same time. I have one question, which is who is the contact when, if people start calling the town office, who can we refer calls to because similar with other rec board activities, we do not field any inquiries in this office related to any other sporting events or anything else the rec board does. So I want to ensure that this does not become. Something that we're then having to field phone calls about. So I want to know who I can direct people to reach out to. And the select board asked me to be the liaison to this group. And I indicated that I was willing to take those calls. There is a little bit of a catch now because of the timing of, of this decision. Then I'm going to be out of town for a while after a week from the meeting. So for the next week, I'll be in a different time zone. So Karen, Karen Chaffee from the rec committee has raised her hand and said she wants to be a part of. Making this happen. I called the select, the rec committee that wanted to make it clear that this was a select board decision. If we make this decision and that we are by no means forcing them to do it, that I don't want them to take any heat or if they take heat, I want them to be able to deflect it back at us. We're the ones who make a decision to go forward with it. Cause my concern is when I hold residents of approximately 80% were against this idea. So I'm going to guess that if this is approved tonight, it will prompt some. Yeah. And I just want to make sure I'm not feeling this. I know. It's a tough one. It's a tough one. I'm just going to coordinate with the, with the sheriff's department if that's necessary. I do the sheriff's to be, be in town. Last year was with the state police. Yeah. This year, the sheriff's in town. The sheriff would probably be here. At least. That day. Yeah. Do you want, do you want me? I don't want to be involved in this. I don't want to be involved in this. I simply do not have time. Yeah. Yeah. I'll make that call in the next week. Let's take a poll of the select board members. What do you think, John? Since you're sitting right here. Oh, I'm not in favor of it right now. So. Yeah. What's your concern? I just don't think the road should be closed down. I wouldn't. I might be willing to agree to do it one month to see how it goes. But I wouldn't. I might be willing to agree to do it one month to see how. I'd know the time to see how it worked out, but I don't want to agree to doing it like five or six months in the row. People are crazy over this. Yeah. The potential. Maybe they won't. I just, I just, I just think. There's people, you know, who are, who are against it. When we set up, was it an email we sent out? I put a post on for poor form and asked people to either call or email me. And I think the result, it was, it was around 80, 20, 20 in favor of 80 of posts. And I can't remember how many I didn't think. When you spoke to 70, you reported it at the time, but it could have been 70, 30. So with that majority of people were opposed. And I received very lengthy emails and offices. So we, and we represent, you know, we represent everyone in town and, and, but I do, I do understand that. You know, this, this would be under the town's liability. So the town still would be live if something happened. Our church would take the hit for that. Yeah. I feel better. That you folks would be willing to take the trip flag or thanks you show you're a little more comfortable, a little more aware of what your rights are and what you're, what the issues are working in the roadway and not working, but you would be technically working because you'd be there. But I, I still, I'm going to ask Zoe. Yeah, I did. I'm definitely interested in the idea of finding ways to. You know, foster more community involvement, especially given these times when it's difficult to find ways to do so inside. Like you said, across political lines and everything. I think it's a, you know, approving more than one month without really, I didn't know how the, the first event, how that actually worked out. And I think it would be. Good to see how. Like how it would function with trained flaggers. And I guess I can't really envision how it would work for the people that really want to get out of their houses and user road while maintaining part of the road. Sting. I guess what I'm saying is like, I really like the idea, but again, approving maybe five or six a lot once it, I think it'd be good to see how it would work out one time. And if people that are displeased with the idea, if they would be emolified somewhat, if it worked out better. Yeah. Scott. Can you hear me? Good. Yes, we can. Yeah, I spoke to a resident at length who's very much in favor right on the roof. I like the idea. I'd be more comfortable with a July and September this year. I think we should go forward with it. It was extremely successful. I know it was, it was unique and it was a festival last time because it had never been done before. Doing it four months in a row. And if the wheel kind of falls off the first month or two, is it, then you have to cancel. But I am definitely in favor of going forward with this at least, at least two months and certainly at a minimum two months. Then I maybe that July, September would work or July and August. But yes, I am, I am in favor of, of, of trying it out to some degree. Once again, little reservations, maybe on before in a row, but. Yeah. I'm very much in favor. Ah, so. I like the idea. You said the right things. It's a fostering community in these times is important. I wouldn't approve four times in a row. And I'm worried about the 80 or 70% of the residents that. Disapproved. I didn't want to shut. I'm worried about that. As John said, we try to represent everyone. So. I'm on the fence. If I did vote in favor of it, I would vote. For a one-time occasion. And I would then open it up to the general public. And get an accurate idea of who approved and who disapproved, because we do represent the whole town. So that's kind of my stance on it is I could give 10 to the approval to once, you know, I would take the flavor of the community after that. But that's, that's where I'm at. Yourself. Well, then it really asks you. And I am. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, so as I said, last time. I asked myself, how do I as a select board member respond to an idea that has very strong proponents that we heard from last time, people who. Including one person who lives on the route who was resistant to it and scared to let her grandkids go out on the road and then was delighted when she got out there. And then some people who are quite opposed to it. And I. Like Larry, I read some of the comments in opposition and realized that they were not opposed to the proposal that was being made. They were opposed to some, some other idea that was not being proposed, like closing it off to all traffic. Regardless of whether it was emergency vehicle or people who were living there. What, what happened in November, as I understand it, and what's being proposed now is, is different from that. And it gives people flexibility. And I think that was a minimum impact on traffic because of the time that is being chosen nine to 12 on a Sunday. And at a time that people are up and about and doing stuff. It's hard for me to think of another time during the week that you'd have less impact on the traffic. And it's, I forget your numbers, but it's like two minutes of extra travel time for you found going around. Yeah, six minutes. Six minutes, two miles. Two miles farther to drive. Two minutes. There's no way that's a 20 mile per hour page. It's going to take longer than that to go. Okay. So six minutes of extra travel time. And I've also seen that. In other settings where there's been a change from say a road that's for cars to pedestrian road. So it's an extra travel time for people to turn in to cars. And it's a lot faster and faster than fast. And then when it happens and people resist the same people resist it going back the other way. If it's proposed to get turned into cars. So this is something new. And I think it is something that. That probably people will like. If we give it a chance. So I would like to give it a chance. And we have, we have. The rec committee who's. Who's willing to help out with it. it. Are you willing to support it the multiple times? I would like to yeah I think that it takes time for something like this to build for people to become aware of it you know it might be rained out once or twice and it's not fair to try to judge something based on you know 30 people turning out when it's pouring rain or 10 people turning out when it's pouring rain. There should be some way that this is advertised to folks to explain exactly what's going to happen and it should probably be on a front porch forum or maybe some other outlet somewhere and because obviously people aren't understanding it then we're not the message isn't getting onto it. Yeah and you know what even though I'll be in a different time zone I can I don't have to take calls exactly when they come in I can return the calls at a time that's convenient so you've got you've got backup in the board anyway. I can continue to yeah to be the way you can. Yeah I just like one would send some. I'm sorry I was just going to ask if it seems to you like most of the resistance is coming from a misunderstanding that the road would be completely blocked off as opposed to having access to those who live there. The calls I got were they were just not positive about shutting the road. Well I think one thing that may help is when you do communicate explain how emergency vehicles get through how that's someone going to get through the how does that work I would personally be very concerned removing the roadblock and driving through that a five-year-old is going to be on a bike. Yeah immediately out of my view at what speed are they going to be trying so I just think it would be helpful if you answer those questions for people as well. That's at least what I was hearing a lot in the comments that I got is you know and that to me I can't picture what that looks like if I lived on County Road and I needed to get through or frankly you're probably going to have someone that just says I just want to drive through. Yeah right and you know if the road theoretically is open I mean you could have a belligerent person that says I live in Calis and I want to drive the lane because I heard from Calis people as well I want to drive the length of the road. What does that look like and I am still not understanding what it means that people can get through? Is the county going to lead? What did that look like in November where the residents who wanted to drive to or from their homes? Yes there definitely were there were people who came out of their driveways and and I think immediately realized that there was something going going on and and everybody was driving very very slowly and very cautiously and there were people who came to the barricades at each end and said hey can I get through and he said absolutely yeah just watch out there's a lot of people out and about and again they drove respectfully that we had the state trooper at one end and I think that that sort of calm things calm traffic a little bit and so if the sheriffs are around that's excellent they placed cones down the center of the stretch you know all the way along which made it you know at least visual a visual awareness and so I didn't hear of anybody having any issues with cars and I'm not saying it can't happen of course of course anything could happen but I think I think the risk is minimal and to your point John I think absolutely communicating broadly on front porch forum and I'd also like to send them a mailing out to all the people who live on that stretch of the road so they actually have something physical in their hands to to look at not everybody's on front porch forums so all right and one of the means that we had last year of communicating this to people was we still had in place those flashing highway signs that were communicating about the road closures for the construction hours from there and we repro somebody reprogrammed those so that they talked about the closure so that we don't have this time so I think going the extra mile of actually mailing people to live along the route would be a big help so I'm still for the one-time conditional approval and I'm not saying we don't have to do this wouldn't do the four times I'm just saying one time and then takes a flavor basically of the townspeople because I'm I'm I'm nervous about approving something that 70 or 80 percent of the people you know there's some pushback a fair amount of pushback I know there's a lot of approval or people that approve of closing the road but there's also a lot of people aren't so that's a big okay sorry I was just wondering if some of the pushback might be mitigated prior to the first event if there is going to be an event just by a clear communication to those saying beforehand this is how you will get out of your home yeah this is this is how so people will have an understanding of how it will work beforehand they might be less likely to resist it and also if you have a poll where 70 or 80 percent of the people are against it it's usually those that are in opposition are the ones that raise their hand and they can make a lot of noise so if you're in fact usually you don't open your mouth because it's okay so I don't know how accurate that is yeah if the loudest voice in the room isn't always the most accurate measure yeah exactly I'd like to suggest or recommend approval of four with the caveat Seth and I completely believe this that that if the first one or the second one if it is a disaster if people are screaming bloody murder I'm not here to create a a ruckus and and a division in the town I'm here to try to create a cohesiveness and so and so if that's what we're doing is creating divisiveness then I'm out you know I'm done we'll just cancel the last two or three you know I mean if the first one is so right people are so up at arms then then I'm I'm with you on that I do think as Carl mentioned there's value in saying we're going to do this four times because somebody go well I'm not around in July but I am around in August or something and so so being able to plan for it and advertise it and have it as have it have some gravity as opposed to so one off thing and you know and then I mean how many times do you want to me just to see me here anyhow so the four time proposal would be the second Sunday in July August September and October is that right that's what I yeah that's your proposal okay and the original proposal back in January was starting in in June and November November yeah right uh-huh and there would be no there would be no rain dates if if if it's raining on that day then that's it for the month right right correct fair enough I'm comfortable with that actually we need the rain just on a Sunday first Sunday yeah can you affect my range absolutely oh then we need to talk uh hmm well I'm in favor of that yeah is there some other way to measure public support after the first event I think they will probably get reaction you know we're gonna have to deal with it in some way the first reaction didn't really mean much so I don't really know what we would do to gauge reaction then both people call us that's what happens to me but you know as Scott said I guess we've made the point is you do get negative reaction but that's not really the consensus it's people that are negative when they call you and you get 10 people to call but what about 90 people that approved you know they're not calling you to say oh it was a wonderful time the people are going to call you the ones there oh I can't stand that what why did you do that I think the 200 people who are out there enjoying it you're right they they're not they're not necessarily calling you saying oh we had a wonderful time keep doing it it's it is a hard thing you know it's like I'm not sure how I mean I've noticed this at a meeting when you have a meeting like this and you have one person come in they're screaming at you and you think it's everything's bad well that's only one person out of the 2,500 the other 2,500 they're fine but they're not going to come in and say they're fine it's the person that's upset that's going to come in and scream at you so you always have to be aware of of who you're listening to and just to let Zoe and Scott know for the first one we heard from no one no negative no comments whatsoever it was only when it was all right the feedback only came when I actually asked people to reach out to me about this proposal to the thing one that essentially was presented tonight from January I guess I'd go along with it somewhat you know that and and as I said I think it's used that word that's strongly but true I think you're making a good case I like what you say I am a little bit nervous about it just not the safety point so much I think you've covered that pretty well it's just that the negative reaction I've gotten from some residents makes me feel like I hope we're doing the right thing yeah which is funny Seth because I'm I'm on the opposite I'm two and oh on people reaching out to me to two people live on county road love it and are in favor of it yeah it could be though that your political persuasion is is is a little different than mine is I interact with different people than you do I mean it's true you know Carl this different people will call Carl different people call john different people call me it is true it's that we wear our political persuasions on our clothes in our in our faces and on our hands so that's what happens with the people that approach you is people approach you because you're a different person yeah I recognize a lot of I mean I know a lot of people yeah we were complaining about it yes thinking that right for me it's a hard decision to approve it it is for me too it is for me too so but and you know I think that with the caveat that you would react to us or to townspeople if it was a bad experience for a lot of people I think that you are sensitive enough to to present that to us that you may say well I'll rethink this because you're you're you're also taking the flavor of what's happening so um so if it didn't go well mechanically how how would that work so if we held the first event on july 9 yeah you would have a select board meeting I went on the 5th somewhere around the 15th there's a 20 24th yeah so so we could I could come to your july 24th meeting yeah report and maybe some of you will right attend the thing you're coming out and and ride actually I'm not that worried about a personal experience that I would have there I know I've been doing it's it's the idea of seeing the other people seeing the 200 other no no I understand that that I understand it's the people that um I've tried to represent in the town that I that I don't want to make them feel they're not being heard and that um that they have concerns so so my question then those set this is is if we have an event yes on july 9 yes and you have a meeting on july 24 yeah um what happens in between I mean our um our I don't know Gina's not going to do this maybe Carl's going to do it well so let's solicit on front porch farm hey we just had this event what'd you think please let the select board know because we need to know if I don't think it's a bad idea I think that's a good idea I do too I'd like to take the flavor of the townspeople some way to see their reaction to that event okay that's fine I'm I'm I'm all for that I'm all for that I mean I'm not trying to be a hard ass about it no and like I said like I said if if enough people hate it then I don't want to continue right so yeah so I think that we beat the issue to death pretty much as a usual way but I think we would probably entertain a motion so how does this sound and I'm not making a motion I'm asking for feedback on a motion okay um I moved to give revocable authorization for four celebrations closing county road on the two-mile stretch from Barnes road to Templeton road on the second Sunday of each month from July through October 2023 9 a.m. the noon with the select board receiving a report on each event at the first meeting afterwards needs to be massaged to say who we're giving revocable I guess it's the rec board you're giving revocable authorization to officially yeah so that um the only would happen they would come in they would report and we would right but yeah I mean is it do we need our report after every event I mean I would think that we would get an answer the first one yeah I don't get we need to report after every event that's you don't need to do that I don't want to see that off if we if we don't have a report and then after the second one there's a big uproar then we'll have then we'll have to we'll have to address it I think it's an uproar we're probably going to know exactly reports the uproar that's my point yeah all right so I'll second Carl's motion well let me I revived it based on the feedback it now says I move to give revocable authorization to the recreation board for four celebrations closing county road on the two-mile stretch from Barnes road to Templeton road on the second Sunday of each month from July through October 9am to noon with the select board receiving a report on the first meeting after the July event or do we want to say is there a possibility that if the weather looks horrible the day before that you'd say hey let's cancel it for this month and so we should say the first report after the first event sure but Carl in your in your motion are you giving the rec board the authority I did somebody somebody the town is the way we've been discussing this the town is taking this on as their own project our own project rather than having an outside group come in with their insurance and so the select board the select board needs to authorize somebody to do it and the recreation board has said yeah we could we can take this under our wing okay but we can instruct this the select board we could we can instruct the rec board after the first event that is cancelled obviously right right okay what yeah and just further background I mean there were some questions uh from the recreation board and say basically are you guys on the select board going to force us to do this and uh my answer was no you're a volunteer committee and if you know if you don't want to take this on then then that's fine we can force you to do it we wouldn't want to force you to do it but yeah we can certainly according to language of the motion we can certainly revoke the authorization to do it okay okay we even when I was in Hartford we we had first Fridays so the first Friday of every month through the summer and into into September we had this whole townwide village wide get together where you'd have vendors out on the sidewalks and you'd have we'd have music on and a couple different venues and um there would just be hundreds of people there and we wanted to close down the main drag going to there but you can this is the only one you couldn't get the trucks to go around all these other turns and everything so you didn't do that but we had looked at doing that too and never we didn't get that far so I understand kind of where you're coming from and Randolph does close down their main drag I was about to say the New World Festival but they do have a way of yeah okay so do we have a motion yeah I just read and who's second it Zoe Scott no Zoe Zoe second the motion thank you I thought it was Scott I thought it was Scott go ahead I think it's me too I was a favor please say hi hi your friend me yeah yeah I'm good I'm staying yeah I want to say no it's all the same isn't it no staying is different than saying that I'm gonna stay good you're saying okay so four I'm gonna make any difference the four four of us said I and one person abstained thank you thank you thank you for coming in thank you for your good spirit no I hope it's going to be an asset to the community that's well that's that's my that's a great conflict so yeah I would be in touch with you about getting in touch with the insurance people and and also about communication on this so very good all right I will email you the motion sounds good oh the next item on the agenda we're running a little bit late but we had a good discussion consideration of cemeteries there's a contract sir sir hey we had yes would you like to come to the table so apparently the town's attorney has looked at the contract has made suggestions it's been a group agreed upon by by young James here and so we're James prepared to run a fight yeah oh do I owe you an email was there a question we did not was what the term was yeah the contract entered into the date that's going to be the day to enter into it but what the term would be I wasn't sure but and and I had the conversation with James and and nice um I you agree we'll convert yeah to what you had suggested yeah June 6th to December 31st yeah I picked the six assuming that it was a contract right right yeah so we could we could get it all cleaned up by tomorrow but just so the slide board knows this is a template Jim Barlow actually sent me our template that I then took what James had written and kind of married the two together and then we went back and forth with just a couple changes that we that we tweaked and um and this is where we are and Zoe and Scott uh if you don't know uh Jim Barlow is an attorney that we use for most of our legal questions he's someone who used to work for the Vermont League of Cities and Towns and he uh provides actual advice to us thank you Carl was there any observations of Memorial Day in the cemeteries I don't know if anyone drove by the cemeteries so how they looked no no should they were lovely thank you thank you they were great yeah I think Rosie commented the same she told me that it looked great yeah okay so this is Jim Barlow approved and um so remind me please of how much of the responsibilities formerly held by the sexton would be encompassed by this contract I would dare say all yeah let's see how we're doing now okay so I understand that he may have questioned as they come up and he can certainly come to the board with that with those but primarily day-to-day stuff will be on James and handle it okay so I understand there are a lot of phone calls the sexton yeah right you're prepared to handle that yeah I know I'm sorry take care of rolling corners so I'm right now so yeah okay so all we have to do is oh sorry go ahead I just must say that maybe I said it last time too but I'm impressed that a 17 year old is taking on this level of responsibility not only for uh willing to do so for East Montpelier but for so many other towns and you know I know John knows the importance of of um long time work in the the industry and I'm not sure if industry is the right word and um I'm confident with you having grown up in the field that you'll be able to do a good job for this for us I like it I got a question on the corner post yes um are you talking about the corner post on a grave site yes like before corner posts usually mark out what the person yeah usually we had this discussion last year they used to be grand you know what I didn't know so before James last well when I agreed to take over Elliot's spot yeah setting grand markers are clunky at best it's difficult to get them square right now and right so right now we're using actually a aluminum floor very like a cast aluminum uh snake with the initial on it oh so the reason before that is the easier to put in you can get them square you measure by measure get them down a little more get them down a little bit pushing nothing around you're at it's a long stake pushing on the ground and if they do get some into the ground you can find them with metal that's that's it's all it's a common way of doing it um the granite stakes or the granite corner posts um sometimes they get lost they sink in the ground you gotta you know dig a mile find them I like well that's good that's not the same that's okay I wouldn't have worked on my help you know that's one of that that's good but one was better that doesn't mean we can't use them but uh yeah I'm putting them in I'm not going to throw around granite and the other thing but what if what if someone said they want them by all means oh but the challenge there is is getting a granite uh uh monument complete make them yeah they're getting more and more difficult no there's no grand company out there that enjoys making corner posts with no money in it it takes you know a lot of make four cuts five cuts six cuts each time yeah and they're not happy doing it they kind of roll their eyes every time that happens so this is this is sort of directly you might have the same last like a letter in it that's usually okay I have a letter yeah that's a lot of work so look if I don't go ahead and turn it off it's okay so the way that I didn't lose that was going to shit huh before they do that no so I know kind of you know they don't like yeah it was done for years I like that's okay I just wondered what the deal would now tell a little bit about the asas rosie is a question there's a question hi there guys um I just wanted to mention uh regarding the corner markers the elliot was waiting between four to six months for each set last year um it's if they're really taking a long time to get and they're not prioritized um in the monument industry at all so what what he had said when the committee had talked about moving to the aluminum was that we can still obviously if somebody still wants the granite markers they're welcome to make those arrangements themselves yeah to get them you know along with sexton to get those installed however um they're responsible for the for the for ordering them for paying for them and for paying for the installation that's good cool thank you I think pretty costly too like that everybody's constantly says I think it was two four years or something like that I bought those anyway um now the monument foundation so that's something that you do yeah I mark out the plot we just measure where they want the foundation and dig in and pull the stone myself oh okay all right probably have somebody else comes to the stone because obviously I can't pick one of those suckers up yeah yeah right probably the granite company wouldn't come set it well somebody did yeah all right and at the end of the day I guess it's going to cost the town less money than we were paying before a little bit you know and you'll have your job and you'll know you realize a revenue stream uh larger than what you had before and we're going to have to do some of the mowers right it's we have to we have two mowers you have some mowers right so you have to decide what you want to do with right and sell on or largely yeah right yeah and how I will do this work be overseen by the committee right right rosie wouldn't you say by the committee but who's on the committee now me rosie uh emily goya mark lane mark lane oh okay um but the lambsons are gone no tim is tim is staying on until the end of the season on the committee so far it's not correct i'm okay correct and um who's the chair of the committee uh uh my um tim is the chair right now the chair okay yeah okay and ali it has he's walked away he walked away yeah yeah some hard feelings definitely yeah i would gas but i don't know what he wanted and you know by giving up half half the job i couldn't necessarily do it forever and uh and this is a kind of a fine way of doing it yeah i'm i'm probably gonna send him a letter or something i i'm gonna propose a letter would be fine i was gonna propose that we um i think we said some some kind words about his work last time but uh that we actually passed a motion thanking him for his long work on the cemetery selection we should send the letter yeah oh okay i don't think i have any other questions we're gonna end this we're gonna run from win to win is it a year or what are we doing we'll conclude at uh December 31 yeah we're running through December 30 okay we're gonna start getting whatever release today yeah yeah okay okay um so we don't have much call in the winter for anything occasionally someone might call and want you know they answer no no the answer question no and we usually uh you know leave the cemetery open kind of weather dependent at a certain point just it doesn't make a lot of sense to open you do more damage than yeah it's worth yeah okay yeah you want to make a motion to approve the contract don't we have a question scott no i'm good thank you but i'll make a motion we approve the cemetery services contract between the town of least one pillar in jam yard services lc to maintain the cemeteries um in the town of least one pillar um and that um that the slight word authorized the town administrator to sign the time track okay yeah we have a second i second the motion your second the motion yep shall we shall we also favor please say hi hi hi here they have it they do have it congratulations welcome aboard thank you appreciate it yeah um is it time to address like the openings on the board on the on the cemetery committee no we can do it not that well okay next month or the next meeting is when a lot of the appointments will be happening oh for okay you have someone i do uh pan byron okay yeah she and so she expressed some interest in great let me get so great shall i have her draw write a letter to you just shoot me and you got it perfect you got it yeah we'll be great talk to her about that she's here yeah and um was there the other the other um thing that with james new contract is is the price structure yeah um i think i developed that and we need to approve that here is that within the committee that's a good question right did you know in the past how the pricing structure that's the life order for that you know with this contract we never modify i never remember well the contract is a relationship between us and your company the price structure is a relationship between the town and we're using the cemetery precisely that's right rosy the last time that the price has changed was when the cemetery committee was still a commission that was elected and now it's not so my understanding at this point would be to change price pricing structure would be up to the select board and not to the committee right i think you're right that makes sense so did we agree to that pricing structure did we have problems with it well i think never can increase it in some areas there were some yes yeah for sure but those are some of the kind of kind of the same as they are all around here it's it's definitely aligned with the rest of something for sure yeah it's doubled the price loss right i know i don't i don't have a friend yeah i just got something like that i'm just going about my memory i think we're dead they weren't they weren't they were pretty inexpensive yeah yeah 1400 bucks and yeah now it's 2800 yeah i think that's worth four yeah i don't know it's a town resource and it's a town resource and i think we should be charging people the fair market price for using a town resource and it's covered it's what it's coveted cover yeah dodie cemetery everyone lots of people want to go there eventually eventually not not today but we don't really have i mean it's it's a little sloppy way of doing business when you don't have the price sheet in front of you when you're not comparing you know we had we had it though we did that we had last time we don't have it this time yeah do we do we need to do that tonight yeah you want to look down at the next meeting yeah that's okay i i've got more comfort let me um jean let me get um that together and you may have it but let me do it again and then i'm going to also send you other local cemeteries priceless yeah 20 month yeah so yeah right right yeah so we'll have our next week yeah my dad takes care of my mother yeah so if the word gets out that we're looking at this we might get a rush on buying plots maybe maybe okay we won't and then last thing i this is more for the committee but rosie might be interested that i i have made movement with the surveyor up there and she has at least laid out the plots and then i don't know the second so i'll i'll get that off too now we just have plots for sale and i don't um yeah that's what i thought and give those are all clothes i don't know it's called clothes but none none you can buy it buy it up at the one in callus go on they have a couple left they've won on the little hill there beyond riverbank store oh yeah no right yeah but that's in fact callus but a lot of people love their house and a lot of these popular people are not even dead cows wait a lot of you're going to be in a new state of the month thanks for accepting and saying thank you a lot of these popular are popular bills popular cemeteries yeah my family's in in this name okay thank you that's why i wouldn't want to be in callus which i wouldn't want to leave my family okay that's enough good recovery okay we're done back you got it very exactly except that um if people would like to approve it i would like to move to thank elliot morris for his long service and all the military leaders uh to the town um the cemetery commission on the cemetery committee and as sextant and to direct the town administrators to convey our thanks to them in a letter i would like to see that happen coffee i agree i agree a letter written to us okay is there a second okay all the favor please say hi all right the eyes appear to have us do have thank you for coming in next all right so the the actual mechanism connect later yes okay you got it awesome thank you guys yeah thank you um okay oh my gosh consideration of wanting to impound unlicensed dogs we got the dog the dog impound her right here so that's right so there's a copy in that staff you know near your name plate that has assigned all in here it does have one tweet that's all mentioned prior to the meeting from the one from the packet and it's all the website oh okay do we just see a motion it's the same thing every year right it's been changed in my we changed the language last year to get a little more um politically correct yeah and uh actually when seth and i first started on this left board it was directing the animal control officer to track down and kill these animals yeah and that's not politically okay so we just need a motion i believe so carl did you want the change that you emailed i did yeah okay what's the case one packet it's still the old that version that's the new so okay so what we did last year if i can just see this yeah um we um we we changed uh required in the first line to authorized and then um what i wanted to do just make that consistent and the third line says you are further authorized to make and return complaint okay so this is the new part copy version yeah okay so the next step is to i make a motion that's a slight word approves the warrant to be updated updated warrant to impound unlicensed dogs and i will recuse myself since it's direction to me as animal control officers do we have a second i also like it so also favor please say i i have a question first okay for what impounding does it go to the humane society where is the dog impounded or a wolf hybrid it doesn't happen scott okay then i withdraw my question it could go it could go yes i could some places take yeah so we had a discussion about yeah um it it's sometimes uh i'm necessary to impound dogs for other reasons like if they're being mistreated and we do not have facilities for doing that that's why i'm at that's why i apply but this is a different question this is a question of impounding them for not being registered and uh as as ruzi said it doesn't happen uh but we are um we have the ability to do it if you want if you want to do it if you want to and under those circumstances i i think the humane society would take them so yeah could be adopted we've talked about putting them in one of my horse trailers or cows better we across various means of implementing our laws yeah and i i have taken um not misbehaving dogs but uh stray dogs i've taken them home and kept them at my residence until i can reunite with the owner so it's there various ways thank you so i'll you can proceed mr chairman thank you all those in favor please say i i four i's have it one abstention and i'll sign it and i'll pass it around how's that can i can you tell me you can find what's that the nine dollars and thirteen uh it's neutered or not neutered yeah no yeah nine nine if they're fixed in eleven if they're in i'm sorry thirteen if they're not fixed if they're on time wow when they're late it's eleven dollars for fixed and seventeen for unfixed in carl in the past the constable has also been involved in the possible impounding of dogs that's who used to handle it rather than the animal control officer um okay i'm i'm just thinking back to a long period when the constable was also an animal control officer but uh sure so you're not signed this i'm not saying so zoe and start to coming to sign it yet until then i'm not okay let's do nothing okay i'm gonna move on we're 25 minutes late town treasure report and i guess scott's gonna say something also right so with a treasure report what you have here is a standard report you see i just put a note just so you're aware that michelle is having some challenges with the m&t bank reconciliation it really has nothing to do with m&t the credit card processing company that we use for some reason the detail report she runs from the credit card company compared to what she sees coming into m&t do not match no and it's very odd the way it comes in the bucket transactions and she has no idea which ones how they bucket it's not on the day it's it's very hard to follow so there is a delay in that um the budget status report is here but to be honest with you it's the the budget status as of like tomorrow morning is the one we're really focused on so um this is you'll you'll get an update for that at the next next meeting that will be much more informative than yeah because we have to yes you won't have any suggestions to make at the next right as far as the balance goes the fund balance extra money it's allocated for the SNAT it's going to be legal it has to be allocated now correct correct enough for next meeting yes okay so there's no red flags in this no bunch of paper yeah okay thank you i didn't see anything in here so i guess we're ready to move on to the um scott's um financial plan or anything just the absconding the subsconding of funds we're working on that right now um i mentioned to the select board last time that um we're investigating um invest investing our funds um and Gina and Michelle have done a cash flow um assessment or report about what what funds are available um on a short term on a what what's our cash flow basically um and the three of us and our representative northfield are going to meet hopefully next week um not this coming week but the following week when i'm back i'm in maryland right now um and we're going to sit down with our banker and um and invest in either cds or t bills a small portion of our money is um is bearing interest and it's tens of thousands of dollars that um that can be earned for the town um by going through this procedure it's it with interest rates at at five percent and t bills are five and a half percent right now and and our bank and our bankers very anxious to sit down with us so we've had a conversation between the three of us trying to set up a date and as i said we've we've got the numbers in front of us um this will all be extremely liquid um any of these funds can be sold on uh in in five minutes and uh and turned into cash instead of guaranteed of t bills are not guaranteed but if if they're not redeemable then we're all out of business so just wanted to give you an update and hopefully by the next select board meeting we'll have some numbers and maybe some projections happy to answer any questions but it's pretty straightforward at that point at this point what are the legal um options for us to invest in at the town yeah we it's in it's in our policies um jeannie do you have them right off hand or i do not i mean basically basically what we're going to be investing in is is insured cds or treasury bills on a short term my question was more than what's in our policies i was looking for the broader statutory authority that towns have to invest their money uh but i think that our our um policies are at least no more permissive than our statutory authority granted to us by the legislature i mean right yeah i mean right now our money is invested in the bank some of it in none interest bearing i'm actually uninsured i assume that if we changed our policy to say that we were going to on a monthly basis put some portion of it on number four red and the nearest or left wheel that there would be a problem with that well right it doesn't this financial problem that our own financial policies would prove you know would prohibit us from doing that right but just but i don't know what they are i think that that's the question i had last time yeah i mean can we do i i do i mean i was being facetious with the roulette wheel but it is important to remind ourselves we are a dylan rule state and uh we are not allowed to do anything that the state doesn't authorize us to do so as we contemplate changes in where we put or park our money then it's important for us to be conscious of what the legislature has authorized us to do okay yeah i don't know what it is no meaning yeah i was wondering too i mean i know that this is a safe investment right he's espousing yes i agree and it makes sense i mean we've never done anything like this before they're kind of wonder why whether it was just well it's it's been it's it's i said on a couple other boards and we are now investing our money instead of sitting at zero interest it it bewilders me too um but these investments that we're going to make will will put us in a safer position than we are now because we have some some accounts are not insured is what you're saying well you have your money at northfield savings bank which is insured up to 250 000 but we have millions of dollars there if you put them into t-bills in my opinion they're they're safer than northfield which you know obviously the government has made good the federal reserve as you know fdic has come to the rescue in the silicon valley bank but they didn't have to if they if northfield went out of business theoretically we're only insured up to 250 000 dollars right there's other towns that do it i and i think if we check we find out because i do know that more still are necessarily of course we're going to buy t-bills or cds and other banks i i assume that if it's in our policies that we actually do have the statutory authority to do it but i'm just curious about how wide our statutory authority is scott you suppose when you get ready to make a recommendation to us that you could um maybe work with a league of cities and towns or somebody to talk with jim barlow i'm not even sure we have to spend money and consulting with jim barlow as something that vlct should be able to help us with uh but to be able to inform us on that absolutely yeah i'd like clarification i know so yeah but thank you scott sure no it could be i don't know i mean well it's we're talking about tens of thousands of dollars that will be that we will be made it will be earning we appreciate your initiative yeah our our pleasure jean and michelle are are doing the legwork right now i appreciate their hard work okay um so we'll hear more about that in the next meeting yes all right um so that takes you a quick question um do you do not want us to do um basically you don't want us to pull the trigger until we come back to you right i mean if we if we get to go ahead you don't want us to invest t bills just keep it within northfield is that all no we can do the t bills that's what i want to prove it though you just can't do it right right and we need to know what the statute says as far as investing the municipal funds that are our responsibility okay so you don't want us to make any any investments before the next meeting nope okay i mean the the history of the way the select board has worked is when we have a cd that's ready to turn over then the select board authorizes re-investing in that cd right and you know maybe we want to revisit that and give somebody else authorization to move around our investment but the way we go right now the select board determines where the money is put that's just that's right okay no problem that's it and the policy actually states a lot of things but in the end it says the following investments will be permitted under this policy certificates of deposit for other evidences of deposits at financial institutions so it's somewhat wide open when you say other evidences of deposit right so and financial institutions i don't know if there's a term of if that's a term of art is a casino a financial institution i mean let's let's let's silly let's be practical is a is the federal reserve or the u.s government does that come under the auspices of this policy we don't know i mean it's a very day to me it's to me this is very wide wide open i just think we got a dot eyes across the piece yeah i think we're going to get to where you're recommending that we get to scott but we'll like to be careful yeah i think you could argue the national treasury is a okay i want to move on i think we need to hear more to next meeting me inserting this investment opportunity um so delinquent tax collector report and policy review what do we have so michelle has provided the report current balances 223,548 dollars compared to the same time last year 208,121 ish if you round um there were have some been some payments that have been received since she ran this report okay but um this is essentially where we stand you all have a copy of the detailed report that includes everyone's names i'm looking at can i i need i want to need to ask a question really or any question and i'm going to use a person name because the person i'm live so it's not going to impact anything but david roger's estate um he's got six properties some of those i'm pretty sure sold it and i think they're might be they might be however they did it they might very well be uh what would you call it uh the financing themselves so we should know that because if it's sold they're supposed to pay off this is alina yeah and the thing is if they didn't then the person who bought it would be technically i think after certain period time i'm going to be liable for the tax so and i just as a this is a big young person i know that i sold about two of those buildings and uh i know they just change a roof on one alone and i don't think he'd be doing it if you know it so i'm kind of concerned about that yeah but generally if they buy it unless they just got a handshake agreement do you think that's how it is i mean usually if you buy something you have a lawyer well you should have time there should be a title there should be a they should they need to be yes yeah the thing is i don't know the situation but it'd be nice to find out right this is asking the status of david roger how could this not come up in the title search who knows if they did a title search see i don't know all i know is i know somebody a young person it's picked up two or three of those buildings might understand it um i heard just in discussion that some had sold and yeah i know some money had come in so i'm not sure how it connects with okay these they're not huge amounts each building's not that valuable honestly but they're doing work on them already so they should have changed hands so i don't know what to do ask our delinquent tax i mean ask our delinquent tax collector to check in with the town clerk they own oh yeah pork sales and yeah and the and the and the uh maybe we'll have to contact the the court or the owner well usually you would i mean like that yeah it was just okay oh a new one yeah yeah yeah so wait a minute has that gone through poby the whole thing i don't know anything about it that's why i brought it well we gotta find out yeah so sorry about the four years what we do i know that's why i don't tell me the whole list i just have a few i have the yeah he's got one year four years over two it's not two of them it was in there and some of your papers had the whole list and there's some other people that are like five years overdue which i would say they should go to tax sale i want to see those names so i haven't seen my time i was associated with david and bet i know tax sale ten times by now yeah and and that is a bank always money i know it's just from 22 23 but crazy to us us bank well they might have taken over a property they would pay up actually actually this is at the bank there's a loaner they they wait that's better interest than we can uh we can uh get on the road yeah if you get it well thank you okay they have to pay it all of course anyways i just maybe somehow these lanes are slipping between the cracks because of those because of factors and probate yeah i don't have the help looking at this yeah i have a question since i'm new to this and zoe's new to this i mean you have 162 000 this this year is that normally get whittled down quite a bit that's it here oh how'd i get over there i don't know you know here just to help you guys out so i think you're straight so we probably ought to pick the ones that are the longest right yeah i mean doesn't our policy say that after two years we yeah put them in the tax sale that's what i would do anything after two years i'd say go for the vast majority of the week obviously they've been here so that's one reason i think michelle's a bit confused as to what the policy actually has been because it seems like it hasn't been consistently applied so that's one difficulty we run into in general yeah when we look at our policies across the board a lot of things are not consistently applied so some of this is when sat and i started on the slide board we had an elected delinquent tax collector uh who reported to us and um and acted in office in consultation with us at all times she was an independent elected official uh and her approach which we effectively never objected to was to make arrangements individually without any particular policy with uh each of the tax parents who was delinquent and uh when we took this on as a town staff function and uh we also i don't remember the exact timing but we didn't create the policy and we we had the delinquent tax collectors to follow the policy and we have a number of times gone through the process of saying okay these properties are not they're so delinquent we have to put them up for tax sale we worked with a lawyer to draw up the documents and over the time once we we get to that point and start setting out notices and people have paid there have been some where the ownership has been just kind of in limbo and there have been problems with the estate and in those circumstances we have not applied the policy because we haven't really had a good counterpart to to work with is that a fair summary set yeah i mean the repeat offenders are on this list of the same ones are always here i mean i i don't want to say names but uh so david rogers owes state is 30 000 is 60 000 of it roughly now we need to find out that don't go on probate if it's the first question i have because he's the biggest one here is what's happening with david rogers and his state and what's the status of that so i mean we can't send out a letter to him and or his state if it's still broke it well he could ask you could ask the judge where it's going i mean you have a right to know we have a right to know what's going on that's right question what's going on and it's been in probate for a few years now probably three couple three yeah yeah is that the way we do it we direct an inquiry to the judge in the case i don't think so i don't know i i we've never done that before well we always reach out to some i would talk to viral about it i think that what what we did before is the delinquent tax section we had before was working in the office of the probate whatever it was that's where she worked so we got a report on what was going on as far as this kind of activity was i think we are great to know yeah yeah we do so that's the first question is that's the biggest delinquent tax pay we have is david rogers and figure that out and what i understand is that his new wife is the property owner now okay point so we'll send a letter to him we need to but anyway there's there's kind of problems with this thing anyway because this this policy here says the satisfactory regular payment agreement and writing is accepted by the collector so they can you can do an agreement yes okay and then it says it's kind of funny it says down here later that if you did if you under this agreement if you write a check and the check bounces and you're you well you have you've got to pay the cost of the check so on so forth the cost of what you know for the not how does insufficient funds but then it goes on then it says you know if if or if an existing agreement has been breached the town and a tax collector may begin to follow the actions conduct the tax sale of the property i mean so they're supposed to have agreements and it's not only not only do they not if you're after check doesn't if it bounces well you can immediately start a tax sale it says what's this is saying and i just think that you know what you need to start doing tax sales well okay we've done that in the past and that usually comes makes people pay the taxes so well you're not doing the many favors by none no i understand understand that so why don't we just decide who we're going to send out letters to that we're going to say bring the tax anybody would want within two years okay that's what we need to do by with me that's fine i mean we've done that before and we've done with these repeat if any it's part of an agreement and who has an agreement and can we go into tax sale as it's an estate and probate that's true i mean we have to figure that out uh so we need to pick out the ones that have been over two years so would you like to speak with michelle to go over your history with this or because that's part of it is she needs guidance here yeah she probably read it you know i mean yeah but unfortunately that hasn't been the case in the past so it's very difficult to know when we follow policies and when we don't when both of us have encountered encounter numerous situations where we are not we have not followed policy so then there's only the place to start following policy i mean i that's why i come to you i mean the animal that's born as an example you know that policy has never been followed to do an rfp to take out an ad the paper it's not done that way so it's it's difficult from our perspective to sometimes know okay so our our policy here doesn't say anything about two years no it says not made within 60 days of being delinquent right you can you know to me yeah delinquent is one year it's the two payments haven't been made and then you're delinquent 19 whatever it is yeah okay so when we just follow the policy since we have the policy and we need to have a roadmap here yeah let's use our policy correct right i work for you i work for you well just a minute let me we need to see what i've agreed to it's yeah i mean it seems like we have a big list here a lot of money yeah yes but there's a but there's well that the whole probate thing with with uh Rogers Rogers is a major part of it well 60 000 yeah so that is one there's only one though so yeah so one sticking point here giving discretion to the delinquent fact but if there is uh if satisfactory payment arrangements have not been made within 20 days of delinquency yeah etc etc what are satisfactory payment arrangements it's not specified here well just use common sense so if you don't mind the fact that they have to be able to have to make payments in the amount large enough to cover their their penalty their interest and and to get them up to date before the next year you're exactly right i spoke too soon further up it says the payment schedule will be calculated don't we've done that so taxes and arrears will be paid in full prior to the following year's fine tax payout as people do that it worked out fine okay so there is a discretion yeah so i don't know i have do we have any agreements with any of these people i don't believe so no okay because that's what we did before we'd call the people up we'd send them a letter and then sometimes there was agreements and that worked out you just sent them a letter saying look sorry you know you owe us money you know you need to talk with us about we need to make an agreement um we're going to give you two weeks to come in and talk with us in the office to make the agreement if you don't if you're not here within those two weeks then we're putting proper tax out right now so has she sent out a letter every month just sending reminder notices to to the best of my knowledge i don't get involved in this process and right because i think we sent out a letter to her we said yeah i mean she needs every month don was sent a bill for um that month yeah he sent out a letter every month if it's don was not your delinquent tax collector so no don wasn't sitting out being right it was groups was your delinquent tax collector yeah well i thought dan don was sending out the letters don was not the delinquent tax collector i don't believe don was don was your collector of current tax right not your delinquent tax collector bruce was your delinquent tax collector yeah but i was here bruce sent no i was trying to send a standard uh statement that i've seen mr sending every month that way that's the only time i got to witness it that was what he was doing i was in the office with him the day that he was doing them you could contact another town and get a some or the league and get some boiler plate on on tax on tax payment agreement michelle has reached out to jim barlow he did respond back with some information yeah michelle just has a lot on her plate right now and i think was overwhelmed and i don't think has fully digested what jim barlow has sent so we we had agreements even our tax collector that we're doing it as a percentage of she she took some of the money right the eight percent over the interest of one one higher she she so that was her fee and she worked out agreement for a lot of different people had bruce sent any as delinquent tax collector to the best of your knowledge because we we inherited none took over this position bruce did have arrangements with various people i thought so too but i can't tell you details no but i know one of them is on this list uh i guess i won't mention any names but i know that he had agreements and people would come in and make regular payments every month so he did have that work with people uh so that does work i don't know if she has any documentation of what if if those were in place theoretically then that person wouldn't be on that list so something no but they they're on the list now but okay you know they cleaned up since you as town administrator inherited a lot of bruce's work as files is it possible that somewhere in your files i gave michelle the only information i had on okay so um we need to clarify the agreement process and then we need to clarify what happens if they don't enter agreement correct you didn't sell the property no i i'm with you on is you have to move to a tax sale to force people to pay and it does them a favor because they actually have less penalties if they pay their taxes quicker but i know i can tell you one of the person people on this list that's three years in arrears you have to pressure them yeah well the pressure is going to be putting them a tax sale and that's and then right just so you just direct the attorney borough to come in here and do the tile searches and set up the liens and you're supposed to get a warrants from the town clerk and then those warrants are sent forward to the tax to the to the attorney who acts as your tax collector yeah no we've done just saying that for me but but don't you think that we should send a letter out first saying give them a chance to get angry yes yeah i mean it sounds to me like they've been getting letters every month just saying they've been getting a statement every month correct it's not like they don't know they owe them but tell them if they have an opportunity to agreement if they fail the follow suit with that agreement then you're probably i think the first month that they're in arrears they should get a letter that says you gotta get into an agreement yeah yeah right because this says that if they don't make satisfactory payment or any new events within 60 days this is yeah then we have the option to start the tax sale yeah policy is pretty clear yeah yeah so what do you need so i need someone to help coach michelle through this because i don't know this process so i okay i mean i didn't inherit the delinquent tax that passed to the town treasurer yeah that's fine so i can come in with you we can go over that and the only thing bruce went over with her was how to run those statements and send those every month okay i see no information shared about any tax okay well i'll just come in i'll just come in she needs to have the legal yeah um background provided to her by our town attorney who's going to be hailing the tax count anyway does it the first step though is agree is it is it thinkable to just make a quick call to the previous delinquent tax collector and say we're looking for an example of one of these agreements where we find it that probably would not be a really well received but i can get michelle the number and she could try how about a fine i'll call town harvard can get their contract yeah i mean i don't really know that that's i think we could make that from scratch maybe that has reached out to a previous finance director that she worked with to gather some information okay we did our we put together our own contract we had contracts and made policy and the policy is pretty much similar to this one so yeah probably something from the league eventually right yeah league but just other towns have contracts already in place you don't have to reinvent it yeah yeah and we've done it before lots of lots so i don't know where the records are all that but i know that our previous tax uh delinquent tax collector one of the employees made a call yeah i don't know they might not have been that full they don't like to get involved and right okay you know what i mean yeah but i can i'll just call yeah case here amanda and they'll send me the contract yeah that'd be great okay amanda's uh can't think of a real estate no but she does the uh delinquent tax collecting for us for the town of there okay okay so we'll we'll move ahead yeah okay i'll i'll i'll just do that all right and we got to find out what's going on big roger's thing so would you have michelle call the roger's estate i believe michelle has been in communication with them i just i don't again i don't know yeah the details of that okay under an email and ask her i'll just come and ask her yeah i'll come in a while where the heck with them find out yeah okay absolutely all right yeah okay all right we're here oh so consideration of transfer of funds from general fund to other town funds as budgeted for fy 2023 so these are just essentially journal entries we need to make in the ledger for the budgeted item and items for fiscal 23 for these to actually record the costs and the general fund to then give the money to yeah these other groups or funds but you don't need a motion for that in the past you've done a motion okay we'll do a motion i'll make i'll make it the motion okay you made do you know what you made the motion for just out of curiosity yeah we're transferring money from one place to another place and jesus i didn't think we did we thought you were daydreaming over there second on that sort of vague motion i'll second very good i was a favor please say hi hi the i do have it are you saying hi i'm saying hi information in the minutes she's saying hi thank you for making that very clear all right okay happy to consideration municipal energy resilience program murph mini grant agreement this is an extremely approved this is the actual offer authorizing of me to fund the agreement and send it back to the state okay all right i think we can do that let me just see what we shouldn't be saying that we should be authorizing the town administrators to sign the just yeah right here the grant yeah since we are comfortable with this agreement i i make motion this dislike board authorize town administrator jenkins to sign the agreement via well apply a motion my motion we probably should leave your congress out of the bathroom this group of lights we can discuss it yeah i'm not second for it yet either no let's discuss it do you want to discuss it i did include you on a reply to some inquiry about this particular grant because i was under the impression that it was kind of being handled by the energy committee that now i was requested today for who on the who only was going to be on the municipal team yeah for this so we don't really have a lot of capacity so i'm not sure so nor do i have architectural drawings or a lot of the things that are being requested of this building i i thought the purpose of this grant was to get a consultant to kind of dig through all this information i did not realize requests would be coming into this office so just so you know i i did i have requested some clarification on what the expectation is of my time because there isn't much of it so right so so this is a four thousand dollar grant and it's to help with what resilience where that's yeah i mean i haven't even had time to read this grant in great detail because again i was under the impression it was the energy committee grant and i didn't know it was gonna do you want to make its way do you want to play it off or should we just no i think we do it i just i need to get some clarification and what we're gonna do with the money and i'm just well and i'm more of this i i specifically asked when this first was sent to me what my involvement would need to be was told minimal so now i'm a bit confused yeah and these little grants sometimes can be as much as they're just a big of pain in the derriere as the larger grants this is not the same reporting you got the same commitments well let's get the money let's get the grant approved i mean and then we'll try to deal with it appropriately as far as the workload goes and whoever's going to be administering the grant that it i mean or what what's the grant for basically what you're saying well i'm just trying i i specifically asked what my time commitment would be from this yeah i thought it would be minimal so that's the only piece i'm a bit confused on right now oh didn't only grant the scope of work right here subject matter facilities communication so this is something that that the energy resilience committee could do but the town will have to handle paying paying for everything that's fine it's it's i'm not sure what we need to be involved part of it is i don't have any information on this building so when requests are coming to me about this building i don't i mean i could probably dig and figure out so it's relative pumps were installed so it's relative to this building correct okay so architectural plans do not have those wouldn't even know where to put my hand on that um so some of the information that's you know lighting plan i don't a lot of this just doesn't exist so i thought that was kind of the point of this grant was to help hire someone to do this evaluation not that we would be putting it together i mean do we should we bother no i think i think we need to do this grant i'm just trying to figure out i'm just confused now on who's doing what with it but that's a separate issue from approving done like i said before a lot of work's already been done this building a lot and it doesn't say anything doesn't say specifically this building does it it's i don't see this building in the town garage that's what i'm thinking the town bar yeah yeah that'd be the easy one to do well the easy one would be if you swing this money towards a new new bill that's what i'm saying i know yeah can we do that that's ideally what would be great this is what would be these then you have your architectural plan you have your lighting plan you have your heating plan you have all that stuff yeah i would say that you know you're gonna have time to do this i would say that just that our maybe doing an an addendum to the to the work scope of work would be to specifically call out that found the new town barrage of a planning with the building want to make a very energy resilience most of kind of the state's can language but i think the energy committee i think could direct the effort it's to any town building right so okay so i don't know i'm not sure if i'm looking at the same thing you guys are looking at i'm i'm looking at on page one of one attachment aid that the scope of work yes if the grantee shall facilitate community meetings and communication about municipal energy resilience so this is money to help them pull community gatherings and forums you know buy bagels and cream cheese and orange juice for for those create a web page so that if i qualify local projects yeah could be the town barrage yeah yeah yeah i think it's safe well it is it's just kind of you know i was like trying to last sue this thing and get it and so it's something manageable yeah for that you know this could be just like yeah i'd go crazy on a meeting like that because there's no nothing there's not no specific specificity that's specificity whatever it is well i think we should move on and we're gonna yeah it's almost my bedtime but it is and we're not all the way through the agenda so let's not beat this course to deputy one so we did we have a motion do we have a motion i think we did i think you made one i did you made a motion do we have a second sure i think i hear a second all the favor please say hi hi what you're doing is approving the town administrator to sign the grant agreement anywhere to work out the details okay i would say the eyes appear to have it and they do okay um check my road for this next item set you have the original document that was received from washington electric there's a tiny version in your packet but you have the actual legal size paper yeah and that's the one that would be signed by the select board if you choose to approve this all i want to do is put some polls in a raw road right away so they have to ask that's yeah correct yeah yeah it's for a new house actually rebecca hill's future home on chicory road so they have to ask whether to put a poll in our right away and i think that's okay they usually put the polls post the row so they can service them it says a problem and you just haven't seen one of these in a while i think it was 2020 the last one yeah in a while i was sure what to do with but we don't have many new houses being built um you're going um anybody have any questions no i kind of know what it is oh you do yeah okay i think what you just said okay on this grand list i'll make the motion okay scott made a motion who's gonna make a second i'll make this so it makes a second all those in favor please say aye all right the eyes appear to have it they do have so essentially we were approved the do i just signed this installation of the polls in the town wrote right away on chicory road it's kind of all the way it reads it said select men but then it doesn't give that many lines so i the motion could theoretically set up or as you only decide i see this sign here i don't even see a place to sign well board is like them yeah this is so this is their paperwork is so antiquated my memory of the motion is that it included an authorization to the board or to the board chair to sign it i remember that way too yeah okay yeah i remember it that way okay side i am so what's new what else oh delta dental okay so this can be a very quick item there's essentially no change in the world we can make a lot of time to get it going like okay next item break yourself next item i'm gonna impact with that okay okay discussion on town employee delta dental plan i'm kicking off the agenda item in an official way okay okay no change right there's essentially no change okay changing calls let's do we have to have motion no no just uh okay thank you we're happy with that appointments cv fiverr town representative alternate so the gist here is i have reached out to the previously appointed alternate numerous times asking who was that uh marshal cultural oh and see if he would want to be reappointed and have not gotten a response i asked tom fischer who is our cv fiverr town representative if he had communicated with the alternate and he likewise had not gotten a response oh so we took that as an assumption that we did not want to be reappointed and ironically enough nick cosla while attending one of our meeting meetings noticed the cv fiverr on the agenda and said to me if the position was open he would be interested and as you have met mr cosla in the past he's on the planning commission of drb and actually have a background in broadband so it this is a topic that is near and dear to his heart so good i moved to a point nick cosla is a cv fiverr governing board town representative alternate and i'll second that i was i was gonna nominate dear but i'll be there please say hi hi hi rubber stamp um let's show care yeah we have warrants but we also have town administrator report oh we want to talk about we want me to talk while you're looking at yeah warrants pretty simple so for the town administrator report i have an update on maybe that's where to trash issue that i brought to you previously yeah ryan mccall who is works with the state did visit the property um the person that was home would not exit the residents and actually speak with him directly i'm not sure if they spoke through the door and what i didn't get details on what their conversation was ryan was really there just to observe the property and i sent in the pictures and he was responding to take a look at what was going on okay um he made sure he let me know that there is a very large aggressive dog on the property that he considered dangerous and cautioned me that if i do go to the property to not go alone bring a share and he likewise is not going to be going alone again either um so essentially his first visit on may 31st was to just do an initial evaluation of the property and he indicated that the property is definitely a thought this these are his words really um is definitely a solid waste problem is messy and is a violation of state regulations so stay tuned for more from him but it's at least the first step i think in the right direction um he's also going to be or he said that and his initial visit he didn't really see that it was enough to maybe declare a health emergency but he said of course the town health officer um can certainly decide that and that's true and we'll see what so the next bullet item is that jenny burley did officially resign um as the town health officer and chair gardener is now the town health officer so you can you have you're like the most powerful person in town besides the town clerk congratulations set i'm really proud of you yeah thank you i'm really very happy to get be the public health officer of 15 well you're so happy the ratings that you can take at no cost to oh that's good i'm i'm thrilled um so i could just go there and declare an emergency yeah i'm not sure what that process is but you have to set them a letter telling me you're going to declare an emergency you don't clean it up and then you have a meeting with the town clerk who is the local authority and then if they agree that there's an emergency then they stay a big declare but i don't know what's going to happen there then you have to end up going to court with them and everything do you have to go to court why don't you just go there this state police and clean it up the state police or the or the sheriff's department you need protection you got a vicious dog we drive the payload or in there and a couple trucks you clean it up and we would go in with the police and we would go in with a garbage guy and the garbage guy would bring in the truck and we clean it up and then we put it on their tax bill but we don't have a policy about that but i'm pretty sure that because it's in violation of state regulations what i think they said that the state would work with the individuals until there's a resolution and that they would be um responsible for resolving the issue i believe yeah so what was the expectation of the state yeah he didn't i mean i think we can leave it in the hands of the state or take it into the town health officers these are small potatoes for the state they have a lot bigger environmental issues than that but the point is he did i remember he did say that that that this is a violation but you can also approach it from the health officer point of view right if you want to and it's clear statutes on that one thing for the state i mean he responded very quickly to go take a look at this when i did send him an email so i mean he you know can we throw him an email that said would it be appropriate for us to declare that town health well they would probably want you to do it be easier for you to do it than then well why don't we just do that because it's not you've got to drive over saying it looks horrible come back here fill up the necessary forms and move ahead and change our policy reaction well i'm just let's let's see okay so what i'm wondering about is there's people that are complaining about this and they're saying that we're doing nothing we are doing nothing so why don't we do something we're contacting we're asking the i know that if we just let the state take care of us going to drag on for months well in all fairness so for the people that are complaining that have been complaining for years about this this just came to me we've actually had action on this in a very short amount of time i don't know what was done in the past with these complaints that's my point so while i've heard that there have been complaints for years clearly honestly yes nothing was getting done but we have taken some action since i sent a letter based on you know the last meeting i decided to reach out to the state thanks to zoe who did contact the state and found out that yes the state could help with this and then guthrie reminded me of this gentleman saying who i've spoken with previously ryan mccall so i went directly to him knowing that he was with an r so we have had activity in the very brief time since this complaint has officially come to me yeah so okay i you know i can't think about what it was or not done in the past so the that's a living in there is the owner or renter no idea we need to know i think it's a renter from what we understand and you can go to the rental codes the state remount rental codes and you can declare health emergency and you can put pressure on the property owner to clean up the property i think it's not health officer you have a you you do have a lot of power to respond to this how you go about doing that i don't know there's a book on it you have a he has a little certificate there that he received from the state it's up here in the corner set this it got pulled in the mail you'll get a little card your name on it you have a certificate that you can put on your wall this is second page that declares you as town health officer as a student first okay i put a frame realm so i was going to frame it for you but i didn't okay set that you're mr poot you're mr poop control to you got all these all these titles you're control oh yeah so okay so there is that there's very clear language very good was that oh so did you say something nope okay yeah there seems to be a lot of really good training for town health officer so i don't think we i'm not clear whether we're going towards a consensus you know uh asking the town health officer to go in or you know letting it play out with the state for at least another meeting i let him play out for the state for another meeting and then i'd have the time and then we can research that research research the actions that a town health officer can do and and then what seems like i should be doing that right but you there is a it must be a book in this place somewhere that explains it all because it is online it is online it is online that's right i would not go up blah blah blah but the health officer for eight years yeah but okay but i'm not a health officer anymore can can we appoint you no no no no no i did that i hated it when i was doing it so well i can i'll take this home try and do something so i have some information about what we can do and then if the state doesn't do anything by the next meeting then we need to pull the trigger on this aspect okay so our next meeting is pretty quick it's two weeks away to the 19th so that's okay i i volunteered to to put that to do that research i mean i did this for a long time i mean you have a form you go with and everything you should go with the sheriff yeah really should yeah um the point is um i still have time i'm willing to communicate with the state more i i used to work in garbage so it's i guess so interest to me so well if you want to call the state to see what what the status is of you know they looked at the site i'm not quite clear if they want to do something or not okay is that fair well it says in genius report uh that mr mccall will readdress the scene in a week or so and report his findings so it sounds like you're going to go out there any city wasn't going in without somebody with him yeah and it helped us have a right to have a cup for them yeah and when i when i called the uh environmental agency initially i was told that if anyone makes a complaint of you know citizen or otherwise and something is found to be in violation of state regulations it would be their policy to follow it through until there's a resolution um for every instance that's just that's from we're being told okay and just just a tip on working with police and something like this as an animal control officer i was faced with a situation where a ups driver had been bitten by a dog and the ups had no success in having communication with the dog owner about that they were very interested in the previous status of the dog most other thing and they were trying to get the state police to go out there with them and investigate state police chronically under staffed were not willing to do that with them but when i called up as animal control officer then i had a good conversation with a staff sergeant on duty at the time and he ended up making a call to the house and say hey it's important for us to get that information we got the information in a way that was documented so they figured out a way to get what was needed without sending somebody out there yeah and we have an agreement with the sheriff's that's all i'm just thinking yeah yeah we know i don't know but so the sheriff might not need to send somebody i mean that might be the solution but they may be able to handle it and the point i was making is you don't as a health officer you don't have to go to a property without a sheriff with you you can request one anytime that's the power that health officer has and they shouldn't be going to be cites by themselves i mean you can i mean i did it often enough when i knew there wasn't a danger involved but you but it just it just like that one there and i'd have a sheriff with me of course and where i came from we had caught when the cops were worth anyway so they went all right man no it sounds to me like you are referencing the relationship between the health officer and the sheriff independent of any agreement that we have with the sheriff is that correct yeah the health officer can we can have formal that can require assistance from from an option print statute and are they obligated to provide it or i'm just wondering whether we'll be charged under agreement i think i would pay them under an agreement because you're going to get them a lot more easily yeah i don't have to state statue maybe it has to be from outstate police not well the sheriffs are usually the ones that do this kind of thing but i thought so too but where i was we took our own officers yeah but it was easy for me so i didn't have to deal with staples yeah other sheriffs yeah oh yeah quick question um it's not that hard to find out who owns the house right because it's in fact i mean i but we don't know who's living in it but i but i don't believe that's who's living in it okay that's who i addressed the letter to the owner yeah for current resident because i we never got our sponsor left now that they didn't i assumed they probably wouldn't pick up the certified letter you get it back though they haven't it's at some point it'll come back it'll sit though i mean they'll hold it at the post office so if the observation you get the license plate number of the car there then that may be a way to trace who's actually living there and you also could have a letter delivered by the pair and you know what got there right that's a good idea okay so the other thing is that quick question do we have anybody interested in being the town's health officer i haven't response from just about anyone for any open position that we have you're good on dear good it'd be a great learning opportunity what about the coastline oh my god that's a terrible way to introduce yourself to your neighbors did we put that on uh phone point one the health officer it was in the last listing at this point i've been putting a list okay we have the transportation advisory committee person open we have positions i have been open now for a significant amount of time okay all right all right so we're going to kick this back to zoe she's going to reach out the state and see what action is being taken i'll try to figure out what a little research yeah we'll do a little research about what we can do on our end yeah to get this situation result yeah that sounds to me a reasonable course of action not accusing us of being slow no i am saying that we have residents of complaint i didn't know i didn't know they complained i think i was going to bottle that somewhere i never i've spoken to one and he came in one time and mentioned it to rosie said he had spoken i think previously with bruce and rosie i wasn't in that day or yeah somehow and he said he would come back and i don't believe that day he even left any contact information and then he never came back until very recently so that was when i officially yeah knew what was going on yeah well okay there's what it is we'll just move forward that's the best way to handle i know it fell to your lap seth but thanks for handling this seriously it's not not a not a fun job but i appreciate it thank you oh god okay uh so the next item is that i met with paul quayer and albert on friday to discuss burn permits i guess the way the process has been given that our fire warden was the chief of the fire department had calls going directly to the fire department for burn permits the problem is per paul and albert is that the majority of the staff that are there on a regular basis or ems trained staff it's not necessarily your fire staff so when these calls come in they said they really don't have people that it's not the appropriate people to respond to these inquiries so they requested that burn permit requests go directly to the fire warden however the fire warden would like to receive those so i uh so i reached out to ty and i emailed him back this today to see if we could meet on friday so he and i are going to need to discuss this process yeah but so one thing to be aware of in that meeting is that under ty the burn permits were issued after a site visit by the fire warden which is not necessary according to the law it seems like a good high touch way to really educate people on what can be burned and when when they're burning and the way a lot of those visits have been conducted driving an ambulance there fire truck or fire truck uh because um you know that way he had access to the emergency equipment if uh an emergency propped up while he was doing that so if yeah let's do something to keep in mind and i don't know how the logistics work now that he's not fire chief i think they were using that that was their when they ran down a number of calls us they were calling on a call yeah well we we pushed back and so yeah it's like wait a minute right yeah that's a call so i don't think they were doing it as often more recently they haven't done i mean as fires get all over the place my neighbor had going on a used slayer friday night i think there's some problems that we're dealing with here anyway i'm probably not getting to that no no okay hey so what next we had three zoning permits issued what is a shed to enclose diesel exhaust i thought it was the point it was a possible to put it out in the air not to impose i didn't print off the actual permit but it likely is on the website okay if i if i've loaded it already okay the other website okay yeah single family home and then the deck then i have the upcoming schedule yeah during the october dates if anyone has an issue with those then we'll continue reinteresting the schedule october we return to no august we return to our normally scheduled first and third and then no there's a money for August 10th oh no august 7th 10th and 21st we're already there no that's the small bit of fire department it's not for departments at all right yeah it's my mistake okay and then the minutes issue that i mentioned yeah it it occurred to me that the minutes that we've been getting are very accurate representations of the response discussions that we have here and there's history of the issues that that i used to incorporate i think bruce used to incorporate into the minutes and did those a lot of it was just by uh i think they've come up in the discussion i took what was in the select board memo and modify that a little bit but did a lot of copying and pasting from that and so i was talking to gina about um ways to um include more efficiently and i thought we could just go ahead and when we post the minutes at the website include as part of the same pdf the select board memo for that meeting in that way we wouldn't be putting any extra work on deadrupt to be recording anything more in the minutes and people reading them in the future would have access to to more of the background is that seemed reasonable to everyone it's reasonable to me yeah as long as it's not more work for anybody yeah it's it's something that's already produced and yeah putting it together right so it's maybe one minute more work and yeah that'll work does anybody care i mean does anybody read in there uh i i got a call certainly based on on the people do people watch the video cool yeah well that's nice yeah especially it's our interest in on the topic they'll go seek that information yeah and yeah it is true there tends to be a lot of information in the memo yeah because it's all there it's not necessarily all said yeah in the in the meeting which is why it's appropriately honestly appropriately not included the minutes minutes are supposed to be what was said in the meeting you know so it it seems like a very efficient way to make sure that information's captured all right it'll make it a little easier to find the memo yeah or annotated agenda yeah and it'll also help people 10 years from now trying to figure out what the happier thinking was we made such and such decisions yeah there's a lot of work that goes into those annotated agendas yeah so yeah all right sounds like a good plan good is there anything else um most of the dirt but that seems appropriate are you going more no oh i i'd like to make more during tonight's meeting that's why you're making the official motion i am second i don't know what you're going to get a second on that i saw the second third fourth