 So I will call the Select Board meeting of January 7th, 2019 order and invite you to rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I'd like to welcome everyone to tonight's Select Board meeting and remind you if you could turn your phones to silence, that will be greatly appreciated. So it doesn't disturb the meeting, should it go off? Okay, next item is the agenda additions and changes and Greg, I saw that we have a few things at our place. A couple things that made some corrections to the resolution and appreciation of Randy Viennes. I reached out to Randy and just clarified a couple things, so just some edits there that you can see. For item 6G. Correct. Okay. There's a typo in the memo under consent items, the approval of minutes that was not intended to be under consent, so we'll move that up to 6L. So we'll move 7A consent up to 6L. Andy did his reading and noticed that there were a couple of items in the reading file that had already been read by you at a previous packet, so 8J and 8A, which are memos about the Emerald Ash Bore and a letter from VLCT, those can both be struck. And lastly, there was a request from the audience to bring up the Village Highway stock and Town Highway tax discussion. I would, I have no problem doing that, I would recommend that you let the interviewees and presenters go first as we typically do that with guests before getting into the business, but I see no problem with moving item 6I up to after 60 if the Board is amenable to that. Okay. Thank you. We'll move approval of all the changes Greg just listed. Thank you, Ari. Well, I have a second on that. Second. Thank you, Mike. Any further discussion about amending the agenda for those items that Greg just described? Okay, hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you all. Okay. We're going to go on to item 5, which is public to be heard. This is a time for the public to speak to the select board on items that are not on tonight's agenda. Is there anyone here tonight wishing to speak to your public to be heard? Margaret, if you could just state your name for the record, please. Are we doing okay? Okay. Regarding the electric light bill, and I thought that we had a whole big thing where they replaced all the light bulbs with energy saving light bulbs. Street lights? Street lights. Street lights, sorry. We should have reduced our bill instead of having it go up. So I'm just curious to get a little more information on that about, you know, did the replacing light bulb save us money, and if so, why is it going back up? I remember asking that question to Dennis last year, and it was something about we don't get a bill specifically, there's not a meter on those, right? There was an answer, and I forget the details, I hope it was something about green mountain power has a kind of a set fee regardless of how much energy I forget the details. Okay. But we can come back. We'll come back. Yeah. Okay. Any other, anyone else like to speak to your public to be heard? Okay. Thank you. Then we're going to move on to our business items, and the first item is 6A, and we have an interview tonight with Alan Batula for appointment to conservation and trails committee. Alan up to the microphone, and I do want to mention to the select board that Alan and I work together at IBM, and he's a subcontractor for my small company, and having the conservation trails committee has nothing to do with my company, but I just want to make sure the board's okay if I stay here, or do you think I need to recuse, I'd like to stay at the possible. Everybody okay? All right. Thank you. Andy. In the same light, Alan used to work for Alan 20 years ago, but I think we're past that. It's a small community in there. Yeah. Yeah, we work together, and I remember laughing a lot working with you. A lot of fun. A lot of fun. Okay. So Alan, if you could give us a little bit of your background about who Alan is, and what your interest is about wanting to be appointed to the conservation trails committee. Sure. We moved here in 1990, so I've been an Essex resident for quite a while. Raised my children here, worked here, have taken a lot of advantage of the recreation opportunities that are in the town, as well as other towns. I'm a big proponent of having those kind of opportunities for citizens, and now that I'm retired and have some time, not quite so crazy, it occurred to me as a way to get involved with something that I care about deeply, and also a way to contribute to the community. So hence my interest in the committee. I think I'm pretty good at analytical tasks. I think I'm a pretty good listener, and so the chance to contribute, listen to what people want, help make things happen for the town is something I'd really like to be involved in. Okay. Great. Thank you, Alan. So I'll open it up to the board for any questions for Alan. Mike? I don't have any questions, but I wanted to thank you for stepping up and volunteering. Thank you. My pleasure. Very much. Irene? Have you attended any of the meetings or any of the work days for this committee up until now? I have not. No, I haven't. I've been a taker, not a giver so far. Yes, sir. So you've been a, well, I don't know, nearly a 30-year resident now. You've seen the village and the town change over those years. What do you see the role of the committee and some of the places and the need? Just as a kind of point of interest, I've actually lived, I lived in the town for a number of years, and then I've also lived in the village, so I've actually lived in both communities. I think one thing that I see that I would like to have some impact on is the use of the treescapes, the urban landscape that we have. I think as we've seen the concentration of development, particularly in the center, which I think is a good thing. I like to see things compact, but also we have to make sure that those spaces are inviting. It's not just concrete, and I think that tends to happen unless you try to do something about it. I've watched Indy and Brooke kind of go from, I don't want to say no rules, but a pretty free, open, do whatever you want to having to get some control over that space, and I think that overall has been a good thing. I think it provides access for the people who are really interested in it. And then I've watched the Saxon Hill project kind of a little bit from afar, and I know there's a lot of work to do there. I think that's a great opportunity for the town to get some more recreation space. Thank you. Okay. Anything else? Okay. So we'll possibly do this in open session. Is the board comfortable with open session? Absolutely. Okay. So what's the board's pleasure? I'll make a motion since I've never worked for Allen before, or with Allen before. I would move that we appoint Allen to the Conservation and Trails Committee. Thank you, Irene. Do I have a second? I'll second it because I've never worked for them either. Okay. Any further discussion about appointing Allen Petula to the Conservation and Trails Committee? I just want to say that of the many bosses I've had over the years, Allen was one of the good ones. So I think that's awfully nice of you to say that. Thank you. Okay. Then all those in favor of appointing Allen Petula to the Committee signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Motion passes unanimously. Welcome aboard. Thank you very much. Thank you, Allen. And staff will reach out to you. Okay. Great. Thank you, Allen. You're welcome to stay for the whole meeting if you like, or you're welcome to go. Okay. We're going to move on to business item 6B. We're looking to have another interview, an appointment, perhaps, to the Energy Committee. And Dave, I'd like to invite you up, and if you could help me with your last name before I butcher it. Howard. Howard? Howard. Okay. Great. First, also thank you for wanting to volunteer in our community. So similar to Allen, I'm going to ask you if you could give a little bit of background about yourself and what your interest is on being appointed to the Energy Committee. Sure. Dave Howard, originally from Utica, New York, moved here over nine years ago to work at dealer.com. I've been working at dealer.com ever since. Met my wife at dealer.com. We've been married over three years. We lived in a condo in Essex Junction on Pearl Street for about two and a half years. Then we moved to South Burlington. And then we moved back to Essex Junction right off of Kordoroy. We've been there almost two and a half years again. We have a lot of friends in the neighborhood and it was an awesome neighborhood to move into. We were really excited to make the move, to have a house and start our lives. We have a 16-month-old son who actually just took his first steps last night, so that was pretty awesome. Congratulations. Yeah, we were pretty excited. And our neighbor, Abby, who was a member of the committee, she just left. I don't think she's moved to Michigan yet, but they're getting really close to making the move. Ran into her a couple of months ago. She was talking to me about the committee and asked if I was interested. That was when she let me know that she was moving and that there was a potential opening on the committee. So we talked about it a little bit. I learned a little bit more about it. Since then, I've attended a few committee meetings, attended the Button Up Vermont event. So got to meet a lot of the committee members, got to learn more about what the committee does and based on what the committee works on and what they pride themselves on and the efforts that they do to find efficiency and helping the Essex and Essex Junction be more efficient and implementing more solar and things like that. My wife and I have embraced that lifestyle, I guess I would call it. We have solar panels. I drive an electric hybrid car. So the values that the committee has, I feel like I have the same values. I think of the same things as just as important to my son's future as future of everybody else. Being part of the committee and participating and contributing felt like a pretty solid fit and hope that I can contribute to the committee and its driving values. Excellent. Thank you, Dave. Okay, I'll open up to the board for questions today. Anybody? Elaine. Any thoughts on particular projects you're interested in taking on as part of the committee? Well working at dealer.com actually, there are a lot of Essex and Essex Junction residents. So something that I've already done is reaching out to our wellness team and starting to make connections with residents in Essex and Essex Junction for future, to advertise and promote future events like the Button Up Vermont initiative. There are a lot of other events going on in the community to help promote solar with companies in the area. So helping to raise awareness with the residents to let them know what the committee is doing, seeing if there are opportunities to have them sign up for things like Button Up Vermont, doing those free audits, learning how to be more efficient, learning about opportunities with solar, and all that. So I hope to be able to, I guess, start helping with creating the bridge between the residents at work and what the committee is doing. Anybody else? All right. Someday the town will buy an electric car. I've been asking for hybrids for years and electric cars ever since. What do you recommend? I just leased the Honda Clarity, and it's pretty great. I like it a lot. You had one before that? Yeah. I had the Ford Fusion electric hybrid. It was nice. I liked it, but the Honda Clarity is, it drives much better. Some of the features on it are space age, it feels like, compared to what I was driving, which is pretty funny. Thank you. Yeah. Anybody else? I did run into Will Dodge, and he spoke very highly of you. Oh, great. I know you attended a couple of meetings and did the Button Up. So, great. Okay. If there's no other questions, I'll ask the, what's the board's pleasure? I want to open session. Anybody come forward? Okay. Anybody? I'll move. We have approved the appointment of Dave Aert to the Energy Committee. Thank you. Elaine, do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Andy. Any further discussion about appointing Dave Aert to the Energy Committee? Okay. Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Passes unanimously. Thank you again for wanting to volunteer in our community like this. Thank you. And somebody from the Manager's Office will be in touch with you. Okay. About next steps. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Okay. Next item of business, which is a presentation from Will Moran of Essex Rescue. Welcome. We're just talking about you earlier today about the assessment, right? Right. We just wondered about it. Right. The NISWA subsidy, which is what brings me here tonight. So do you have a presentation or are you going to just talk? No. I was just going to speak to it, if that's okay. Okay. Very good. I'm going to give you a quick snapshot of what is happening with the board for the opportunity to come and speak with you all tonight. I'm going to give you a quick snapshot of our organization. A number of months ago, we had embraced all of the communities that we serve through a municipal leadership engagement night. And some of them are the board, Irene, Elaine and Evan attended, which was great. and to let you know about us so just very quickly Essex Rescue has served Essex and the other surrounding communities for about 48 years. In that 48 years we have progressed from literally a single garage at the high school to a standalone organization that responds to about 2,300 requests for service per year. 90% of our staff is volunteers who contribute about 29,000 volunteer hours per year. That's about 500, a little more than 500 a week through 41 positions that we staff over the course of a week. Our service is staffed 24 hours a day through two different operational periods and as I said 90% of the people doing that are volunteers. We have six paid employees including myself and we staff between one and two ambulances depending on the time of the day. Just based on the increasing demand on our service especially over the last two years we've identified the need to staff a second ambulance during our peak loading time which is begins to increase around 6 a.m. and peaks around 2 o'clock in the afternoon and then it's a gradual decline now to about 10 o'clock at night. So we now staff a second ambulance between 9 o'clock in the morning and 5 o'clock in the evening Monday through Friday. We'll sustain that for a period of time before we transition to staffing a second ambulance for probably a greater or probably our first step will be to go to 12 hours and then after that will probably be upwards of 24 depending on how the increases in request for service we receive continue to climb. So our annual budget's about $880,000 of which your contribution is I believe 8.6 percent. The agreed upon municipal subsidy which is a per capita rate is $3.87 which a survey that was conducted statewide of ambulance services that specifically looked at municipal subsidies of those who responded to the survey. The survey yours was third from the bottom as far as the rate. So I can assure you that through our efficiencies in financial management and our efficiencies in cost recovery through billing of both federal state and private payers, we do our very best to recover what funds we can that are available to us before we go to our municipal partners to request for municipal subsidies. So $3.87 I can ensure you're getting a fantastic deal. The highest respondent survey was $64 per person. So I think you're getting a I think we're serving you very well from that standpoint. So there's a lot I could say in the week I spent well over an hour talking with your members of the board this past fall. But what questions of yours can can I answer? I could go in a lot of different directions and talk about why our service costs what it does. But so much of what you're paying for is the cost of preparedness. Essex is very fortunate to have a paramedic licensed transport service that's based in your community. Our average response time is five minutes and 24 seconds to anywhere in Essex. And you know as compared to many of our partners around chinning County, I think you guys should be proud of having service in your community that I will say with 100% insurance our services looked at is a very very well respected and well run service statewide. So what questions can I answer of yours? We're very fortunate to have your service in our community. Absolutely. One of the questions that came up during the the the budget discussion was the that assessment 387 per capita. And we know that as your needs arise for for servicing calls that you're going to need more another ambulance. And is your are your capital needs already in that 387? Or would we be looking at a step function, you know, increase to pay for capital? So as of right now, yes, $3.37 does account for our capital savings as well to purchase future equipment. You know, we have a capital plan in place that identifies ambulances, cardiac monitors, things like that, which are our big capital expenses as to when we will be purchasing those next. As more likely, I think the biggest impact on future adjustments to the per capita rate are gonna be more to do with staffing. We sx rescue is an anomaly statewide when it comes to our ability to foster a volunteer staff. I can say we everywhere throughout the state volunteerism and the ms is no is not immune from this. Volunteerism is down. We know the ms workforce statewide is shrinking and we are most likely statewide over reliant. We over rely on volunteers to staff and bonuses in 2018. The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration published a new Hampshire statewide assessment of their earmast system. And one of the criticisms of that system is that it's over aligned on volunteers. So the impact that I see as the executive director is and I've seen this with other services is that call as as call volume increases, you begin to over. It's an over tax on the volunteer, right? So if I have a volunteer who works in night shift, they go to work all day and they arrive at our station by 545 and then they're on for a 12 hour operational period overnight. So they come off duty at 545 in the morning, then they have to go to work the next day and I will routinely come into work in the morning to find out that the crew has been up all night or they got to bed at about 430 in the morning. So at some point we will hit that critical mass where this just not a sustainable model for volunteers any longer. But I will say, and we work very hard to do this, we do everything we can to take advantage of those volunteers who are available to us. We completed a recruitment or a recruitment campaign in the fall of 2017, which netted us a net gain of more than 20 volunteers. We currently have a waiting list to get on to join our organization. I can tell you from the colleagues that I speak to around the state, no one has that problem that I do. So yes, the capital piece is accounted for currently. I don't see big shifts in the volume of equipment that we currently have, where I forecast the biggest change in our budget is going to be staffing. Absolutely. But I also don't think we're on a steep trajectory. I think it's more shallow. I mean, we do see development and most of that development is within the Essex community, but it's not a whole, it's not a wide open sale. I think it's planned, it's steady, it's on a trajectory that through proper planning can be properly prepared for. And we do our very best to recover every dollar that we can through the payers that we have available to us. But as you know, Medicare and Medicaid do their best to pay as little as possible. The insurance industry is not in the business of handing out free dollars. So we have to look to our partners to basically support our budgets and to fill in the gaps. Thank you. Well, welcome. Other questions? Elaine. Well, would you talk about the impact of new development that we're building in the village in the town for seniors, multifamily housing? Right. How that impacts your services? Absolutely. So anytime we see housing developments, we are going to see an increase in call volume. So we know that private residences are the number one type of location classification who relies upon our service. When we see high density housing, like a senior living facility, we know that is going to have an impact that we will feel. So, you know, I would hope that as the local governing boards consider planning that they also recognize that is going to have a direct impact on essential services such as EMS. You know, and again, when I talk about the impact that it has on the volunteer and their ability to, you know, conduct the normal business, we know that as we see more development within the community, that has a direct relationship to the number of requests of service we receive. And at some point, that request of service will, I think, the wave will overcome the ability of the volunteer to meet the need, and we'll have to rely more upon paid employees bill of debt. So, yeah. Anybody else? Aside from, say, senior housing, is there another type of housing that tends to generate more calls? Any type of high density housing, you know, which I don't, you know, is senior housing? I can tell you, so we have looked at our call volume for entire service area. And we've taken the data and we have produced what is called, they're called heat maps. And essentially, it's a focus of density. And we display it through a color scale on our call volume. And I think most of you could probably guess where the two epicenters are within our community. So, and those are squarely targeted over our senior living facilities. So we know that, you know, if a 100 unit senior living facility is going to come in, we know that's going to be an epicenter for us. Other types. It's not so much the private single family homes, you know, again, it's going to be more of the densely populated areas where you have, you know, an apartment building. But yeah, I, yeah, that would be the best, the best answer I have for you. Yeah. Do you have to, when you have the higher calls to the apartment buildings, is that if you broke it down, would it be similar on individual residents basis? Can answer that information, I can answer your question with information I have in front of me, as far as if you were to look at it from an apartment building that anyone could purchase an apartment versus an apartment building that is defined for seniors? Is that what you're asking? Yeah, I was thinking just any age. Any age. One unit in the apartment building versus one unit. Right. Yeah, I haven't looked at that specifically. That would be some data we'd have to dig into. Other questions? Well, Andy? You mentioned that you're, you're, we're supporting your, your capital plans. And we've, we've commented earlier on Ambulance is how about your building? Is it okay? Is it, you know, it's a, right, it's a, you know, you've got a 99-year lease and 100-year flood plan. We do. So we have been, since last July, looking at our facility, defining what our current needs are, what we think our future needs are going to be in the next 40 years, and then making, and then trying to decide is the right solution for us. We do have some concerns about our current location as we're in a flood plane, and that can have a direct impact on our ability to respond in cases like the Hurricane Irene, which had a detrimental effect on the state. We have never had our facility flooded, but it's come up to the edge of the parking lot. So starting this past July, we stood up a building committee. We've done a market assessment of real estate that's available. We would like to stay within the Essex community, as far as our, our central hub, looking at commercial real estate that's available in the areas that we would like to be positioned, and a lot of it has to do with access to, to move from where we would be, to have, to other parts of the community. Those are all options on the table, but we're also looking at a major renovation of our current facility. So we have partnered with an architect and a civil engineer, and they've, are just last week, they surveyed the property, and they're putting together an initial set of conceptual drawings if we were to do a station renovation, because what we do know for sure is that we, we can't continue to operate in the space that we're in. We have outgrown that building in many, many different ways. One of the impacts is that we can't store all of our emergency response equipment indoors. And this time of year, I can't leave a stocked ambulance outside. It has to come inside. So one of our first response units, the equipment was stripped off and the vehicle was moved outside. So I could have a third ambulance stocked and ready to respond if needed. So we are moving in a direction. It'll either be to relocate within Essex with a new facility or, or a major renovation of our current facility. But until we have some of the answers from the civil engineer, you know, we, we, we aren't ready to make that decision yet. But we certainly appreciate the opportunity that we have to be on the, the, on the high school's campus. And there are some advantages for us that, you know, we did identify such as the 100 year lease at a dollar a year. You know, those are the types of advantages that are going to be difficult to reproduce somewhere else. So there are a lot of benefits to that. So, yeah. Okay. Elaine? Do you forecast, you know, out five years or so, what you expect the annual per resident cost would be for each town? I would not be prepared tonight to answer that question. I certainly could follow up with you on that. Yeah, I'd appreciate that. Absolutely. Thank you. Absolutely. Yeah. All right, Elaine. And then Mike. At some point, I heard that you were short drivers. You were looking for drivers and that they could bump to the top of the wait list or something. Is that still true? Because we're on TV and some people are watching live and they may be commercial drivers or people who are comfortable with a big rig. Right. So as one of the, we finished a recruitment campaign this, around this time last year, it was a little later than this time last year. But many of the people we brought on have made it through all of their training. So in that, in that year's time in which we had a driver, a significant need for drivers within the last year, a lot of that need has been answered. And, you know, but that comes in ebbs and flows. You know, what we can't predict is when, you know, we could have seven or eight volunteers next month, you know, say, hey, you know, for whatever reason, I'm going to be exiting the organization and then all of a sudden we find ourselves facing that need once again. But we have, since I took over the organization, we've done, we've made quite a few changes to streamline our training processes. We've also taken steps that when we get providers into our organization that have previous experience, they are fast-tracked through our driver training process and we recognize their prior experience to be able to get them through their training more quickly and efficiently to get them into the front seat of the ambulance so they can operate and we take advantage of what they can offer us more quickly. So, yes. So we are always looking for volunteers. We're always accepting applications. We don't always have openings, but we do maintain an inventory of applications and as the need, as whole holes and openings come up, we reach out to people who've applied and we get them, you know, we've fairly defined application process and interview process and we get people into the pipeline and moving. So, yeah. Mike. I'm curious. This doesn't have anything to do with the budget, but what were you doing before you came to Essex Rescue? So I spent the last, my career in emergency services started 23 years ago with the city of South Burlington. We had a junior firefighter program. I spent the last 15 years working as a senior firefighter paramedic for the city of South Burlington. During that time, I was also the emergency medical services coordinator. So in that capacity, I worked directly for the fire chief with my, and my specialty was emergency medical services and helping him run that portion of the municipal service. So. Got him a nice fit. It is. Any other questions for Will? What's the call volume and how is that increasing year to year? Sure. So the call volume, the total call volume for 2018 was 2,280 requests for service. If you compare that to the calendar year 17, it was a 4% increase. That was 2,194. So it was approximately a 4% increase. Okay. And if you transport somebody, you go to a site and you have to transport somebody. Then insurance, I think, pays you. Right. But if you don't have to transport, would you go and you administer whatever you have to do, and you don't transport? Who pays for that work? We do. So that's up until three weeks ago, that was an expense that we wrote off. In some cases, we arrive at someone, and I'll give an example. In some cases, we get called for someone having a diabetic emergency. Their glucose is very low. We arrive on scene, and we provide treatment at the advanced life support level. We correct the underlying medical problem, and ultimately, because of the support the patient has available to them at home, they don't require transport to the hospital. But all the equipment that we've used, the fuel that we've used, the ambulance, the mileage and the ambulance, all of that goes unpaid for. There are some payers who will pay for an assessment that does not end up resulting in a transport. One of the efficiencies, one of the steps that I took recently to improve financial efficiency was we switched to an out-of-state biller, ambulance biller, for us, and one of the things they do, that they're very good at doing, essentially is finding how you're figuring out how you can get paid where you didn't get paid before. So we are now, for those patients who have insurance that will pay for an assessment that does not ultimately result in a transport, we are billing those insurance carriers. If we do have a community member who doesn't have that benefit as part of their insurance package, we will not bill them for that expense. So I can say that what you bring up is a problem that every EMS organization nationwide complains about, is that more of, so often, we go out and provide essential services, but then there's no ability for us to recover the cost. That is changing, and Etna was one of the first insurance carriers in the south that started doing that. I think that wave, that trend is going to continue to increase. It's not very available when we look at the spectrum of payers that are available to Vermont residents. There's not a lot of them that offer that benefit. I believe we will see that change. So, but that's something that, you know, myself, my colleagues around the state as leaders within the industry, we're the ones who have to push the insurance industry to build those types of benefits and to plant. Okay, great. Because we, you know, because essentially what you're doing is the town of Essex is subsidizing the insurance industry by providing subsidies. You know, I mean, we can, you know, we, the EMS industry nationwide has been frustrated by the declining rates at which Medicare reimburses at, you know, our position is that they don't pay their fair share. So we have to go look elsewhere to help us make up that cost. So I can tell you that we are doing everything we can to increase Medicare reimbursements because, especially in a community like Essex, which has a significant portion of senior citizens who are, you know, Medicare beneficiaries, you know, they are, they are one of our significant user groups. So. One of the epicenter hotspots you. Absolutely. Mike and then Lee. So now I have a question on the flip side of that. That program that you solicit isn't the right word, but the mailing that I get every year that I respond to. The membership drive. Absolutely. Yeah, the donation. That's the case then we won't, we won't bill for the ambulance piece. How, how is that working out for you? Is that, is that a push? Is that like a 50-50 push or is that a loss? Uh, I mean, it's, it's, it, um, it supports if 12% of our budget. Wow. You know, we, it's really, it's a double-edged sword, but both the edges are benefits. It benefits our organization because for you the resident to pay $50, it's $50 that we can put into our budget. Right. That's our benefit. The benefit for you or the community member is you will never pay in that calendar year that you sign up for. You will not pay a dollar more if you get transported by ambulance beyond what your insurance benefit is. So if the insurance payer pays 60% of the bill, we will write off the remaining 40%. You know, it's, it works from our standpoint because far more, you know, we get more subscribers in the, into the membership program than we do as far as users. Right. So it's, it is a net gain for us. But there's also, you know, for those who choose to spend the $50, it's a significant, it's, it's not an insurance policy, but it's kind of like an insurance policy, you know, and it's one that will insulate you from having to pay anything beyond what your insurance can, what, for anything beyond what your insurance benefit already is for, for ambulance transport. So. The easiest check I write every year. Oh, well, I appreciate the membership, so. It goes to a good cost. Yeah. Elaine? What is the basic cost to roll out an ambulance? I know that it varies depending on the call, but right, what are you spending when you send someone out? So the, the, the easiest way to answer that question is to take your, your, your annual budget, or to take your call volume and divide it by your, or take your annual budget divided by your call volume. Yeah. Okay. Which is a very simplified answer. And I don't think it paints an entirely accurate picture. But if I was to give you that number, it'd be $3. I'm sorry, $386 per response. But that's an oversimplistic number. Sure. But it does give you some gauge at what the cost of readiness is. And then when you talk about the calls that don't result in transfer to a hospital, what's the ratio of they do and they don't? Right. So it's about, oh, so. What percentage of calls? Number of calls are non-transports. Yes. It's about 30% of our calls are non-transports. Big chunk. Yeah. Significant chunk. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So if you figure we, on average, respond to about 6.4 calls per day. Two of them. Two of those are going to be non-transports. So yeah. Okay. Anything else? Anybody? No. So thank you for coming in and for providing such a vital service to our community. Absolutely. And I'll just end by saying I do plan on continuing the municipal leader engagement night and you guys will see an invitation late next summer for that and I hope to see you all there. So. Thanks. Thanks again. Good luck. Thank you. Okay. We're going to move on to business item 6D. We're going to hear from Paul from GMT. Paul, how do you pronounce your last name? Paul. Okay. So Paul Boney? Paul. And Mark. Okay. And we're going to hear about Green Mountain Transit and we were just talking about you and our budget earlier as well. You thought you might be. Yeah. So do you have a presentation or are you just going to be talking about this? Got a handout, I believe? I have a handout. Very small handout. First off, my name is Mark Suisse. I'm the general manager. I was here last year. I see some familiar faces. So this handout is fairly brief. I figured we'd be focusing on obviously the financial part of the presentation that we had done previously so if we can just kind of get into the presentation. Miss Paul, you got some opening statements? No, I just thought you noticed there was an increase in your assessment this year. We noticed. And we figured you probably would pick up on that. Yeah. And I think it's very fair that you understand a little bit more about the finances of GMT as to why that was necessary. It's the first time. I don't know how many years since I've been involved with GMT. And so we'll try to give you a picture tonight of what's going on and why that was necessary. I'd answer any questions you might have. Okay. Sounds good. So if I can highlight on page two which gives you the urban revenue types based on FY17, we're going to update this obviously, but this just gives you a pie chart that tells you where our funds actually come from. What's happening across I would say between the federal government and the state government and funds are becoming level funded, especially from the state. And so VTRANS is kind of level funding every year. But as you all know costs go up. We have union contracts, et cetera. And so what we have found ourselves going into FY19 is fine. It's FY20 that is the reason for the assessment increase. So that just kind of gives you an overview. The rest of it is mostly just information for you to have. Very similar to what I had shown to you last year. So this year it's typical for GMT to have the assessments right around 3% every year. This year due to some some budgetary issues for FY20 the board voted to actually increase to the member communities which Essex is up one more percent which as Paul mentioned was 4%. Some of the reason for that. Some of the budget challenges the staff and board have been working creatively to balance the budget with the least impact to partners and passengers. As you notice then December 18th was the vote from the board. The urban system isn't the only place facing financial struggles. All areas affected the staff is working to look at options in the rural systems as well. So how we're made up is we have an urban system which are the members communities and the rural system which is Washington County, Franklin, Grand Isle County. We also do Sugar Bush and Stowe seasonal service. So those are rural areas. The urban area which is Chittenden County we have the assessment ability per the charter. In the rural area we do not have that ability. It was never put in the charter. The charter was originally just about CCTH Chittenden County but since we expanded and took over GMTA in Washington County and then Northwest public transportation up in St. Albans kind of merged everybody together but that assessment didn't change. So just the member communities in Chittenden County are the only ones we can assess. The rest become donations basically. What we're actually trying to do is we're trying to maintain the urban system urban area with the ridership. The double-edged sword as I heard earlier is when gas prices go up ridership goes up. Problem is when gas prices go up so do our costs to operate the vehicle. So ridership right now is up about 3.81% system wide. So you saw the prices go up in our fuel. The ridership always kind of dictates as it goes with it. And that's country wide. That's every public transit agency pretty much in the country. Everybody was down right around 6% to 10% when the gas prices were really low and that was again nationwide. So it's very our industry is very we can you can actually kind of gauge what's going to happen. All the next coming weeks staff will present service options for the board with hope to creating efficiency and improvements in the system to benefit overall health of the organization. One thing we're presenting to our board is that we're giving them probably 10 options to meet the budget deficit we're going to run into in FY 20. That can be everything from fair increases to possibly some service suspensions. But what we're going to maintain is we are definitely going to maintain the urban system so that there'll be no effect to Essex. It will be some other some other possible decisions that the board will have to make in recommendations and we have actually finance committee meeting tomorrow morning which will present that to the board as well which will give some options for the board to make a decision which way they want to go and how to get to a certain location or a certain spot in the budget. As of late this afternoon actually we've been working as a staff just kind of trying to find all the options that we can on the table and we actually came up with some actually good news. So we may have found some some options that we'll share. Paul doesn't even know this yet. So sorry Paul but we literally just found it before I got over here. So so we're working working all that just trying to find the best way so we don't want to impact the service too much. And so that's kind of the goal for us to present to the boards. They have a full picture when the decision is made. The overall goal is to maintain the services for our passengers and again like I said ridership being up 3.81 percent. We're trying to continue that because as ridership gets better for us it means more funds for us. It means across the board there are stick figures called stick figures there's an acronym transit always says acronyms and I can never get that one right. But it's basically says how many riders you get per passenger mile per fuel and includes fuels and there's five of them total. If our ridership continues to grow then we could effectively continue to receive those stick figures which is about 200,000 for each one. So almost a million dollars. We did lose one the two years behind so we did lose one which we were pretty close to losing anyways. So we're maintaining the four that we have and we think as ridership continues to grow we'll probably just continue to maintain hopefully get that fifth one back. So that's a lot of information it's a lot of words but basically just wanted to kind of come in here let you know where we are for FY20 and we'll continue to kind of make sure that you know the assessments hopefully the one percent was like first time since I've been here as well. So that four percent instead of three. That's one thing I'd like to just give to your board a little sense of where we've been in the last couple of years and what our situation really has turned into. This is something that didn't happen overnight. We've seen this coming for the last two or three years. We've had some significant fund balances in the rural system. That's that down to a point now where we will exhaust that during this fiscal year. So there'll be no fund balance nothing to go back on. The cash position in the urban area has been decreasing annually. So that we're we're certainly going to be in a position now for the first time since I've been around of asking the board for an anticipation note and anticipation of grant funds. Just in case our cash flow gets to the point where we have trouble paying bills. When we look at and you saw the percentage of federal and state funds and even most of the federal funds come through the state or a lot of those do. That that has not even been level level funded to try to balance out our rural system. The state has moved 200,000 out of the urban system into the rural system to help prop that up. But that certainly lifts us $200,000 short of where we needed to be. So that was a major factor. The other thing that we've had to do to kind of keep things afloat is is there are certain federal funds come in that we have we can use for operating we had a little bit of a backlog of those funds available. And so we've been having to infuse those into the operating going forward. So we're reducing those those amount of funds that are available. So I'm just trying to paint a picture to you that the board is taking this very seriously. It's going to take some some reasonably serious measures to make sure that we are can balance our budget and basically that's all we're really attempting to do now is a balance. Be nice to be able to build up another reserve but we don't see that at this to take a point in time. Your ADA funds if you if you notice the chart in there you're you're I think your senior does the scheduling with that van and over the last couple of years they've done a really great job. Now that can fluctuate all you need is a couple of people moving in that require SSTA services if they're not picked up by your by your senior director to get them on the senior van you can see a spike but hopefully once you see that you'll you'll be able to work with with our staff and get that person into your senior van whatever possible. So that's been working out really well so congratulations on being able to handle that. So is there communication then between your board and and our staff that if there is a new ridership for the SSTA that we're made aware so that we can reach out to them and see if the senior is is beginning you can correct me Mark I believe between the your senior director and our staff that does the same kind of of work that there is that communication super good yeah and then the federal shutdowns not helping right now so so what so we are kind of anticipating what the next step could be if you know line of credit if we have to etc but federal shutdowns not helping so that we can't drop on any funds sounds like challenging times challenging times most challenges I've heard actually since being on the board yeah okay questions Elaine I saw your hand first do you have any figures you can share regarding ridership particularly at the bus station in the village we have yeah I can get those two I just have the overall number but like I said it is it is increasing in the town that that would be great to share so all the roots of service Essex you can see the see the numbers on those and that would be the first time a couple of years are growing up yeah I'm wondering I think the last time you guys came before the village trustees I asked in terms of analyzing ridership and like at the Richmond Park and Ride and people who move on from Richmond down to Montpelier have you ever considered putting a line from the Essex bus stop to the village bus stop to the Richmond Park and Ride to enable everybody here and there are a lot of people here who work in Montpelier so that they can take the bus from here instead of having the transfer in Burlington they can come to the park they can pick it up here and ride through the Park and Ride down to Montpelier is that ever going to be a route that might be considered being added I don't know if that specific group but I will tell you we just went through the next gen study which is 18 month study to kind of make our system take a look at a whole system see how it works and interlining is one of those comments that has made from going from point A to point B without nothing and you know not anything in the middle like the DTC or anything like that so I don't know if that specific one was mentioned but I can I can grab the report and let you know you know that would be really helpful I mean there's a lot of Montpelier workers in Essex and going to Park and Ride is halfway there yeah so it would be a lot easier to start from here can't wait until the new some of the new Park and Rides come up the that would be helpful because Richmond is right now it's overflowing that too it's hard to find parking there okay anybody else Andy I recall in the past seeing a lot more numbers from from you and I is that maybe that's comes later I don't know I remember seeing line items that have all the different communities what they're what they're paying so we can we get some sense whether you know how much we're paying relative whether whether it's you engage in paying and we can provide those those good things there's one one sheet that has all the assessments on it for for every community so that would that would answer that question we could share that sure so just send it to Evan and he can distribute to all of us so that's that's two two items so far so it's probably not a good time to talk about expanding rounds but there's businesses in the Saxon Hill Industrial Park who I've heard from that would love to be able to have some bus service that way it's getting to be more populated and developed so that a lot of workers going in and out of that every day that I think could benefit from some type of bus service I think we've we've received some inquiry on that as well directly okay John Moore met with with you Evan John Moore that he meet with you yes so I think he's yeah on it it'd be important to know whether there's a kind of a survey being done up there to how many people are really interested in that in that bus service and I think they're working with revision and Blodgett and someone else up in that area we seem to have a lot of not only of our own residents but Winooski and just north and east of here seem to be a lot of their employees track through I think route 15 I think it's the number 10 or 2 which tracks through the which I want to say 2 2 tracks to Winooski so but we'd like to keep up on that and I know that Katma is also involved in that we're going to throw acronyms around because I don't actually know it Katma's dead yeah we work very closely with this we have an employee assistance pass we're all sorts of different things with them so I know the group is met so great okay other questions so if you can get the detail I'll get all this this week sooner will be better because we're right in the right in the thick of it get it to you by tomorrow that'd be wonderful Mark thank you okay thank you and Paul for allowing us to be here good luck thanks for your time all right yeah thank you for the information okay we're going to move on to our next item of business which we brought up from 6i we're going to do that now which is the decision of whether to accept village rolling stock budget is that got your name next to it Sarah or or we can okay Greg so this is to talk about this little that you've seen in your reading file that came up during the public works budget discussion last week but basically staff had put together a proposal that was going to eliminate the highway tax and also try to equalize the tax rates between the equalize the tax rates between the town and the village a little bit more basically just to recap that the idea was to take the village rolling stock budget put into the town operating budget and eliminate by limiting the highway tax with the town outside the village it would have basically offset would have been about a dollar difference between of increase or decrease between town inside town outside the village there were a couple of changes to the public works MOU that would have had to take in place to to allow that transfer to happen one of them was going to be that increase over six percent the select board would have had to authorize that increase of more than six percent the second piece was to allow would have been to allow the transfer of village capital funds into the town operating budget at this point feedback that staff has heard from both boards maybe not the right time we still think it's a good idea and a really good idea in terms of eliminating the highway tax standoff setting some of those budget or tax discrepancies between the town the village but from what we're hearing it's probably not the right time to do it this year so recommendation is that it be held off postpone this year the select board not accept the village rolling stock transfer still keep the highway tax in place for the town outside the village and to keep this idea somewhere on the back burner on a shelf somewhere to to be pulled off and dusted off and reconsidered as other merger consolidation discussions take place okay questions or comments about leaving the rolling stock with the village and the highway tax as is I think the village trustees are going to have to make some other adjustments I think meeting tomorrow okay one of the yeah so one of the options for us would be to to perhaps take the building supervisor completely but that's something we can talk about I think the trustees would if this were the case and the rolling stock did not transfer and the highway tax remained in place that there would be other areas that the trustees need to explore reducing in order to maintain favorable tax rate and so they they would not want to be able to support the 20 20 percent or 30 percent of the building's manager position that was initially put on the books so okay so that's something we'll have to have a discussion amount but in general the idea would be because they're looking for the trustees looking for an answer tonight about the rolling stock and the proposal right now is for us to just leave it with the trustees and leave the highway taxes as is for now knowing we're talking about merger and if we do go forward at some time in the future that that would maybe that's the right time to do it but right any any concerns about about that plan okay hearing none I'd like to put that in a motion if we could right you want that I think that Andy I guess I'll ask the question no sorry I'm not making the motion I'm asking a question sorry sure had to do some thinking there I know I know this this this the intent here is to have this be kind of a trade you know don't do one unless you do the other do we should we have the discussion about whether to eliminate the town outside the village highway tax whether or not the rolling stock moves because I mean we've been we've been I mean I brought this up when we set the tax rate last year I asked to eliminate it then and it didn't fly I don't know if consideration is different now whether it should be discussed again who are you asking the question the board I guess you know yeah my thoughts on that Andy focusing on the microphone not I appreciate because I can answer it for you if you wish or you guys could go well my my thoughts are to to leave it unchanged this year for this budget and and it could be if we go forward with merger and the public wants it that's that's that's the time when that would disappear that would also help with the budget impact to those outside the village at that time and I think that would be the more appropriate time at which to to get rid of of that tax so we're not hopefully talking less than another two years or so something like that but I'm not in favor of getting rid of it in this budget I'd like to for the reasons I just stated Mike I'm not mistaken that rate is 0.011 and I there's a couple more there but for all intents and purposes it's one and one tenth penny exactly I'm not mistaken based on the assessment or the 280 that we always use I can't remember but is that a hundred and 20 or a hundred and 30 thousand to 50 perfect sorry to 65 one hundred and 65 thank you so if we eliminate that there's another 165 that we've got to find or cut someplace right if we were to do that now anybody else yeah what's what's the board's pleasure all right I would make a motion that the select board not accept the transfer of village rolling stock into that town highway budget in fye 2020 and what about the highway tax leave that as is and to leave the highway tax as is thank you all right have a second thank you Elaine any further discussion not accepting the rolling stock and leaving the highway tax in place okay hearing none all those in favor but the motion signify by saying aye aye aye post nay a motion passes for one okay we're going to move on to our next item of business which is approval of process to send letters of appreciation to volunteers right yep so this idea came up recently abbey tycokey as you heard recently stepped down from the energy commission committee the chair of that board bill dodge reached out to staff was interested in showing some appreciation for abbey think it started with the resolution was an idea and typically don't do resolutions abbey was really good good member of the energy committee but she'd only been there for about a year before life circumstances took her away to michigan I think but so started kicking around the idea more and figured that they could absolutely try to do something to to recognize volunteers who do step down after they've done some service for the town the idea was to do to a general letter of appreciation from the select board could be signed by the select board chair nothing too too elaborate but just kind of thank you for your service speaking staff and the chairperson of the committee you can try to cover some tasks and ideas and thoughts that show what the person has done any tasks they've worked on or efforts that they were a part of and just be able to fill that form letter out a little bit and then be able to put it on the consent agenda and bring it to the boards and have the chairman sign comments on that process good to have policy for those when these things come up I think a lot of appreciation would be certainly appropriate for everybody or nearly everybody I guess there's always could be exceptions so what's the any yeah comments questions concerns are you I don't think we need hard and fast rules but maybe just some parameters we've appointed people to certain committees and they've shown up to one meeting and they couple of years they've been there so I think I don't necessarily want an automatic letter generated just because someone resents from our committee but if they've shown up at meetings they've done something to warrant a letter then I say by all means let's send a letter and would that letter need to be approved by the board or give the the staff the I would think that just a quick consultation with the committee chair to make sure it's not someone who excellent you know I just say is it okay if we send this letter maybe put it in our consent agenda or excuse me our reading file but I don't think we need to approve that kind of paperwork right Andy who's who's it going to be signed by is that what the idea is to have the select board chair sign it given that then should the select board approve it before you know or or are we going to make one motion to say that the select board chair can always sign all letters of appreciation from here forward well it could come from the manager I guess I mean I thought and we hadn't putting this together is that it would go on the consent agenda that's what I would prefer to see see the consent agenda and then if if if discussion is warranted someone could ask for it to be brought to the business I don't think it's it's going to hit right thank you okay that's the board's pleasure do you like a motion I would thank you I would move that the select board approve the form letter of appreciation for outgoing volunteers and degree to a consent agenda approval process for the personalized letters second okay thank you Irene thank you Elaine any further discussion about that process there was some discussion we hear about having the committee chair agree to the content as well do we need to have that as part of the motion or does it is that just going to be a process thing I didn't mean for it to be agreed to the content as much as provide some examples or input no that's somebody's he's asking I think he wants to know if the motion needs to include that process of having staff contact the chair of the committee at which the letters well there was also the discussion about whether the person who's been appointed to the meeting ever even shows up for a meeting yes right and the chair would know right the chair of that committee would know right right right so it's the it's it's not necessary I'm not going to turn to the other right right chair because uh the the chair of that Jesus whether or not the individual is appropriate to provide a letter of appreciation you know I was I was part of the discussion that we just had I'm just I'd be willing to make a friendly amendment to the to the to the motion I was I mean motion I think I suggest that we just say in consultation with committee chairs okay with that that was great yeah okay sounds that works well thank you Andy okay any further discussion on that okay all those in favor of this new letter of appreciation policy signify by saying I I I posed came motion passes unanimously before we move on to the next item I need to apologize to my esteemed colleague George Tyler for not bringing you into that conversation of six I with the rolling stock I that was totally my bad I apologize for not bringing you into it there's no bad anywhere about this it's it's we just needed a decision so we could because it was kind of just a stopping point that's all we just needed to to have some okay and it's not that we're not you know into consolidation it's just at this time the only the only bad was no decision and he just any decision was a good decision okay other than to not decide something okay okay but thank you for coming tonight again I'm sorry for not bringing I'm going to stay for a little while okay awesome great we're going to move on to business item five of those business item five f or six f rather which is approval of resolution of appreciation of Lauren Mariso Greg that's on page 11 yes so continuing our idea of for a theme of giving appreciation to people who deserve it Lauren more so absolutely deserves some some recognition and a resolution of resolution of appreciation the select board seeing the resolution tonight the trustee will see it tomorrow night but Lauren was a long long time employee of the village in the town checked the date the the copy that Elaine has has the actual date of when she was promoted to the finance director in the village but Lauren was instrumental in the village finances for for decades when she started working the town just as just as important she was instrumental and and helping the two communities consolidate their finance departments budgets everything else she will be missed tremendously but hoping there's there's a a good person to fill her shoes but we're still going to miss Lauren and hoping that the boards are willing to sign her resolution of appreciation for Lauren okay questions or comments about the resolution before us for Lauren or so many years of dedicated service we're good okay can I get a motion to approve it so moved second thank you Mike thank you Irene any further discussion about approving the resolution in appreciation of Lauren or so hearing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye opposed hey motion passes unanimously and when you give this to her again tell her we will miss her and that we greatly appreciate the many years of her dedicated service oh actually thank you that's usually the process yeah why don't you read that into the record for sure resolution in appreciation of Lauren or so whereas Lauren or so was hired as accountant computer manager for the village of sx junction on June 7th 1993 and whereas Lauren was promoted to village finance director slash MIS director in 2006 and whereas Lauren was hired as co interim village manager for the village of sx junction in September 2012 serving in that role for more than 10 months and whereas Lauren was hired as finance director for the town of sx and the village of sx junction in January 2015 becoming the first unified finance director for the town of sx and the village of sx junction and whereas Lauren retired on December 31st 2018 concluding more than 25 years of dedicated service and leadership to the entire sx community and whereas Lauren played a crucial role in consolidating the village and town finance departments and aligning village and town budgets and whereas Lauren's budgeting skills, creativity and fiscal oversight ensured that the village and town had strong financial bases and whereas Lauren served as a mentor to numerous municipal employees demonstrating leadership through honesty and expertise now therefore be it resolved that the board of trustees and the select board on behalf of the staff and citizens of the town of sx including the village of sx junction hereby extend our most sincere appreciation to Lauren for her 25 years of dedicated service to sx adopted this eighth day of january 2018 by the sx select board and sx junction board of trustees thank you melaine okay we already had the vote so do you have a comment it's january 7th shouldn't say 2019 it should say oh probably probably seventh day as well isn't today the same well i can correct that and bring it to your next meeting i think it's going to the okay yeah seventh and then 2019 okay great we're going to move on speaking of letters resolutions we're in 6 g and that's approval of resolution in appreciation of randy vians great yes randy vians the assessor another longtime employee for the town who is going to be missed quite a bit most are retired on the 31st same day as lauren randy started off here in estix as the appraiser for the town of estix he was promoted to the assessor in 1999 he's been in that position ever since then well respected in the town he also did a lot of work at the state he was a longtime member of the vermont association vermont assessors and listed association he was often testifying down in front of the state legislature doing research in terms of assessment current use reappraisals those types of things so another person who who we believe is very much deserving of a resolution of appreciation and hope the board concurs thank you greg comments questions about the resolution and i'll have to fix the date on that one too and well a lot of people don't usually come into the town to talk to the finance director directly i could tell you they come in to see the tax assessor a lot he's popular again and in my first 10 months i have never been anywhere where people didn't complain about their tax assessment and how they were treated randy and his department do a fantastic job and did of explaining how your taxes got to be what they are based upon value in the process and uh karen has some very large shoes to fill in that respect as well but i know she's up for the task but randy was really exceptional at his people skills they seem to really enjoy that position he sure did okay um elaine you want to read it into the record and then we can resolution in appreciation of randy viennes whereas randy viennes was hired as a appraiser for the town of essics in 1994 and whereas randy was promoted to assessor in 1999 and whereas randy retired on december 31st 2018 concluding more than 24 years of dedicated service and leadership to the entire essics community and whereas randy oversaw the 2007 reappraisal and whereas randy always treated residents business owners customers and co-workers with respect and honesty and whereas randy was a longtime member of the bremont assessors and listers association spending time on the board of directors and as chair of the legislative committee and whereas randy was a member of many legislative summer study committees and often testified in front of the bremont legislature on matters such as assessment current use legislation and the state's equalization study and whereas randy was appointed by governor peter schumlin and governor phil scott to the state of bremont's current use advisory board and whereas randy received the michael p siprian lister of the year award from the bremont assessors and listers association in 2011 and whereas randy received a sherry vermelia award for recognition of outstanding service from the northeast regional association of assessing officers ink in 2017 now therefore be it resolved that the select board on behalf of the staff and citizens of the town of Essex hereby extend our most sincere appreciation to randy for his 24 years of dedicated service to Essex and the state of bremont thank you Elaine okay what's the board's pleasure on that resolution so moved second okay i think Irene beats you there mike that's fine okay any further discussion about the resolution in appreciation of randy beans hearing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye opposed okay that's unanimously and when you do see him again please thank him for his many many years of wonderful service there's just a nice guy to talk with and we thank you all for your support of staff and they certainly lasted long enough and we're happy to be here doing the public's business it's great they've even talked to people who are never happy when they come in but they leave at least with a better understanding of why things are okay we're going to move on to business item 6H which is approval of town meeting outreach schedule and prep in your packet there was this table and Irene pointed out a few dates that won't work because we'll be busy here so I appreciate that Irene thank you and across those out but the ones that are in yellow are the the available ones and as we've did in years past if everybody can sign up to do at least two events and it's nice to have two people at an event but it's not necessary so I was hoping you had a chance to look at your calendar and if you wanted to offer up some slots to fill I would fill in the table and then make that available to Evan to distribute to everybody it's hard to see there's just the ones yeah they're they're just some slashes through the the uh like on on February 4th okay all right who who would like to to go first and let me back up what as you know what we do here is we hand out information on the menu and and the time for the town meeting a budget Q and A kind of summary and we want to talk also about what other Q and A's or handouts we want to want to do and and I think Greg had some ideas you know one I think would be on governance kind of where we are with governance but I want to think about doing one where we are on the shooting ordinance and something that people may want to to hear about and open for other other suggestions if you have any so why don't we start on on dates then if everyone's had a chance to look at their calendar Irene looks like you have a couple circled or a few yeah I'm good for line six line 10 all right you go up three that's awesome thank you sure 18 there okay next I can do one more jaco 12 Irene are you on 18 did I hear you say yeah she's got yeah we can do it together yep so 18 okay great it's often more fun to be working together Andy I can do six and 13 you say you have a third one I do that you don't you got it okay super thanks for the two though he laid 11 and 12 and did someone already take 18 Irene and I got that one oh okay yeah 18's covered I'll find another date then um the 27th oh so so 22 line 22 11 12 and 22 okay great all right I'd like to to do line 15 um let's see I I can do line 21 let's see line four how about that okay so that gives us one two three four five six seven eight nine ten 11 perfect I'm serious yeah that's pretty good I was hoping at least 10 we got 11 so that's that's great and Andy if you're able to do another one and you know that'll be fine not necessary but that'd be great okay so thanks for that so what about Q and A's town meeting info right town meeting time and menu and stuff Q and A obviously on the budget summaries so we do one on governance everybody yes what about shooting yes shooting ordinance what else any right and do we miss any I think you covered I think we're good we were thinking would that would that be part of the budget one where you talk about that because that's budget enabled right though either way yeah yeah or we could either part of the budget you could also go ahead and draw more attention to it you could separate it what what would you guys like I think the fewer pieces of paper to hand out the better people fill in the data if we're handing too many sheets so include that info make sure it's explicit on the on the budget yeah we have like a you know a full quote or a special box on the budget page about it because we don't have a lot of details at this point right right an introduction to the idea by next year we can talk about the process okay and it looks like you're you got an idea okay so then we have those four things the town meeting info Q and A in the budget governance and shooting ordinance that's probably probably that's that's good that's that's a pretty good okay all right I don't think we need a motion not to do that do we all right thank you all for you know being willing to go above and beyond and do these other things that's great okay then we're going to go on to what else we have six j you want to just introduce the next two Greg the executive sure six j there's a labor relations agreement coming up with the police looking to inform you on management goals for that upcoming negotiation and or that it be discussed in executive session as is permitted through state law and k moving on to k evaluation employees that we would also like to discuss an executive session also allowed for evaluation of employees okay and so our next item of business is six L and that's the approval of the minutes so do I have a motion to approve the minutes of December 17th 2018 Irene I would move approval of the minutes of December 17th 2018 with select board member corrections sure thank you all right we'll start on page one and then go to page two Irene construction of the sentence in the middle of line 152 was a little awkward I thought I'd love to change a couple of words and have it say since 2012 Ms. Delphia had been a member an officer of the blah blah blah and now welcomes the opportunity to serve for us what line 52 see I thought I heard 150 all right easy yeah all right thank you okay all right all right all right I can read again if you want what yeah could you do one more time yes on line 52 in the middle instead of in I'd substitute the word since so that it reads since 2012 Ms. Delphia had been a member an officer of the South Burlington Planning Commission and welcomes the opportunity now to serve Essex everybody okay with that okay anything else on two page three page four page five all right at the end of line 231 no at the line at the end of line 230 I'd like to take out the and making which then flows into any necessary repair and replace that whole phrase with beyond one year is that clear okay yeah everybody okay with that all right page six page seven and last they but not least oh all right page seven just have some corrections to the corrections to the minutes but I don't know how many of these are detailed enough that they need to be spelled out I think the most important one is 330 where we take out the last five words add members of both boards so don't add members of both boards right context was and then on line 338 we need to add Andy's name because he seconded it and Mr. Levy asked for select board member comments okay any issues with those either those lines okay and page eight all right on line 360 please I believe Mr. Watts wondered aloud if those select board members were campaigning might use to sit out then I would insert the line the group determined that all could participate if they don't campaign right sure provided they're not provided they're not at the same time yeah everybody okay with that one on page eight okay all those in favor of the yes I have a question going back to line 330 yes so are we editing the minutes here or are we editing the minutes that these bulleted items edit do you understand what I'm saying I know that's very meta those were words that I had added because I had crossed out some words that were there in the previous minutes that right and in the previous minutes the secretary in the draft that I don't have in front of me for example she doesn't say to take out the words that I asked her to take out and add this phrase so to just keep it simple I'm taking out the phrase that I added because it's either than saying remove these other words that I said to remove blah blah blah well okay so my question is understanding what you just said I mean these particular minutes that these changes belong to are not the minutes for changing so we would have to change this line we have to change this line in order to make the minutes make sense please Greg just a process this has happened a couple of times so we have a new process that you might have noticed that we don't give you the minutes that you're signing tonight because sometimes if there's corrections to the corrections you have to go back a couple of times so the word so we're correcting corrections that's okay but they haven't been been signed we're waiting a little bit longer to sign them because we've had some times where we have signed corrected minute trying to prove minutes then get corrected so does it matter when they're signed or when they're approved well that's my question I don't mean to part part hairs here but if the board is going to be approving changing already approved minutes we need to open up those minutes again that's my only point and since we're very particular about process on this board I felt I should point that out I'm fine with going back to the change I asked for in those minutes rather than correcting the change as it was made but that still requires a change here that's fine that's fine I just want to make sure we're correcting the right thing and not getting in trouble are you clear because I'm not who can explain that it makes sense when you look at the minutes of December 15th which I did this afternoon okay so in terms of these minutes that we're looking at today on line 330 it's my understanding that we are not making a correction to line 330 at this time is that correct this line will have to be updated according to what I handed you on the December 15th minutes which was to take out a certain phrase about and joint board members to which I also said add members of both boards right that align the correction with the appropriate correction for the minutes so we're not opening up other minutes the way to do it that is they say a little awkward but I think that's the process that we have to find okay all right glad we got that cleared up all those in favor of the select board minutes of December 17th 2018 with corrections signify by saying aye aye opposed okay most passes at zero we're going to move on to the December 18th minutes do I have a motion for that I would move that we approve the select board minutes of December 18th 2018 for the joint meeting with select board member comments and corrections corrections sorry do I have a second on that okay thank you Elaine all right we'll start with page one and move on to page two Irene are you on one or two I'm just curious if the description of Lauren's duties on 43 match what is on her resolution because I thought she was just the village co-manager was she also town manager and assistant manager she was definitely assistant manager she was village manager as she was village manager interim village manager right I just want to make sure that this is correct because I don't think it reads correctly right now right town should probably be village change town to village is this a village co-manager yes okay so I'm taking out the words town manager and assistant and inserting village co- hyphen at the end of 43 does that work for people she was the village assistant manager and assistant you should keep the and assistant manager just add the word cross out the word town and then add village and co to manager got it thank you page two lining at the end it's really wordy instead of saying the location of where each line came from could we just say the origin instead of the line at the end of 80 so instead of location origin you said that whole long phrase location of where each line came from it's just really redundant and I think we could just say the origin of each line it's just a simple way to say it not each line's origin that works too even shorter it's just it's just a mouthful I don't think you have that Kelly are you okay with that yeah also line 64 we have the word recreation and we have the word recreation and the next line so maybe we don't need to be too generous there either with saying it twice you see that okay so take the one out at the end of 64 okay are you okay with that all right page three page four all right I don't remember these lines such as 140 and 143 and 147 and 156 and 160 I see the word rolling stock but I thought it was a rolling stock and especially when we say phrases like we do in here like we're gonna move rolling stock somewhere considering rolling stock moves I think it would be nice to say fun every time we say rolling stock in this section okay everybody heard that it's just adding the word fun after rolling stock 159 and nowhere else correct but I can look through 140 143 147 156 161 I think that's it 159 did you say it's all over that section yeah I just do it's all over search your place okay so anything else on four all right yeah sorry 167 members consider using the highway tax not for the building manager but to offset funding for the building manager what line one seven once 67 I have oh in the middle 171 oh let's see it there 170 how did your numbers move for more I'm looking at the old draft sorry about that okay so now that I finally found the line sorry the changes for we're just adding to offset funding in between highway tax and for the building manager okay we're okay with that because it's not a direct funding of the building manager's position with the highway tax obviously okay page five page six and anything else have okay all those in favor oh oh eddie go for it comment I wasn't at the meeting but our policy doesn't allow me to recuse myself so I will vote okay just zero where okay thank you okay uh sorry so there's a notation about minutes here in these their parts and it starts at the bottom of five goes on to six on my paper but maybe it's all on six on yours there were no minutes of November 19th discussed that day nor were they on the agenda so we don't really need those lines here what's approval minutes for November 19th right they were approved of prior meeting they were approved on December 5th so remove 237 and 238 that's what your line number's saying yes if if 237 was actually an agenda item it was not it wasn't okay okay there was just the leftover okay okay all right for artifacts all right all those in favor of the select board minutes of December 18th 2018 with corrections signify by saying aye all right opposed okay motion passes unanimously now we have one more set of minutes right do we what was it send it to oh that's it just that's it okay great all right then we're gonna move on to consent items do I have a motion to approve the consent items I move approval of the consent agenda item select board member comments thank you arena have a second second thank you Andy okay we have the check warrants in there and the letter of appreciation to addy any comments or questions Andy yeah I noticed that check warrants 17501 completely repeat themselves in 17503 is that a error or is that extra work for anybody when that happens you asked that and I forget to get an answer so we'll we'll get an answer we'll get an answer we'll get an answer it's it's extra work please don't do it but you know yeah okay anything else in the consent okay hearing none those in favor of the consent agenda signify by saying aye all right all right all right all right okay passes five zero uh comments on reading file anybody we took out J and K Andy he uh stormed the state house event thanks for sending me out it's actually called local government day but yeah it says a little bit violent almost okay so I'm like VLCT did you like yep it's sorry it's item M eat M would you like a supply you with a yellow vest no I go in peace okay Elaine I'm curious whether um item D the memo regarding Champlain Water District are they coming is this for us to read now and we're going to talk about it later or is this just information and just information but if you have questions we can get answers or um have Aaron or Dennis come speak to it other comments or questions um on the legislative breakfast that's coming up on the 28th of January I'd like either I'd like to sign up I'm going to but as as of you can chamber board you guys are sending me an email you'll get Tammy or Travis I'm going as a member of the chamber board and I'm going for work so I already paid for it you're going to be up at the head table are you no I'm not I'll be in the cheap seats certainly I am going to be in the cheap seats oh well I'll be there with you in the cheap seats okay all right on letter O the meeting schedule I'd like to draw your attention to the annual meeting time which has changed it has never been at seven before to my knowledge so I'd really like to make it seven thirty so that we're consistent with what everyone is used to because it's a tradition the charter says it has to be seven thirty also that's the title thank you yeah the charter seven three I think that's something I know we changed our meetings to seven but I think that one I think that's important I think it's yeah thank you otherwise we'd end I'm sure we'd end a lot of people come in late and go what are you doing we're already starting is there a community dinner ahead of time yes and that starts at six six thirty thirty thirty six thirty yeah yeah we used to do a little earlier but I think six too much too much too much time yeah but it leaves enough time for people to go in the hall and see the the different tables that are set up and stuff and also on that with the latest budget schedule it's you have the 28th January 28th is still penciled in but we're probably going to look at that later and have the public hearing on the proposed budget on January 23rd okay okay any any other comments on that I just have a question about the outreach so when we go to these games like do we need to pick up a table and and get documents or what happens we we used to get tables and chairs and Irene and I put together like this this board remember but I don't I think the main thing is to get tell make sure that the staff knows how many copies we need to get and then you you just you know find a some place to put your stack down or so and then you just hand them out I can go with you to your first one if you want and show you pretty informal okay just we first color everybody that walks in the door ask them if they live in Essex right if they do okay do they get it they don't just say they don't you can invite them to town meeting anyway I've done that to many people when they laugh they laugh by the third or fourth event that we've been at the basketball game they're like I already got I already got it I already got it I already got it I already got it I already got it I already got it I already got it I already got it I already got it I already got it okay then if there's nothing more on the reading file then let's go to we have a need for an executive session and we have a lot of motions to do to get there right yep here we'd go upstairs this should take about five ten minutes maybe okay so Andy I move that the select board make the specific finding that premature general public knowledge of the town's position concerning the proposed labor relations agreements with employees would take place would sorry would place the town at a substantial disadvantage thank you Andy do I have a second on motion one second thank you ooh she passed thank you Irene okay any further discussion about executive session with motion one and when we come out there's no action in court so we can let Scott go home all those in favor signify we say aye aye aye okay we need a motion to make a legal Andy I move that the select board enter into executive session to discuss labor relations agreements with employees pursuant to one DSA section 313a1b to include the unified manager deputy town manager and we sent Sarah home not the finance go Mike okay do I have a second Mike yes you do thank you all right any further discussion about motion two hearing none all those in favor signify we're saying aye aye