 That being said, I will turn this over to you, sir. Okay. Good evening, everyone. I'd like to welcome you to the April 19th, 2021 regularly scheduled Berlin Select Board meeting. Additions or changes to the agenda events? The only change to the agenda is we said that there may be an executive session. There will not be an executive session this evening. Okay. And I printed and print out everything very well here. Any public comment? Hearing none. Next up is working in the right of way. Permit application review for East Road. I should have that open, but I can't find it. Working right away, permit there it is. Okay. That is for Mr. Michaud on East Road. Correct. In Berlin. And what's the application for? For a driveway, we're building a single family residential home. Okay. Do I hear a motion on this? We have a discussion. I'd make a motion to approve the permit as presented. Okay. On discussion, Vince, did Tim go up and look at it? And is there any Colvert or any other requirements? I've spoke with Tim on the phone. I haven't met with him at the actual construction site. I don't know if he mentioned someone stopping by to look at the site prior to this meeting, but no one has made any mention to me. I suspect a Colvert will be needed. And my builder for doing the site work also suspects one will be needed, but I'm not sure if anyone from the town has determined what size. Tim should be on. Tim should be with us tonight, Brad. Yeah. Some time ago, I think we took and put a minimum diameter of 18 inches on Colverts. Yes. So I don't know. I mean, I don't have a map here in front of me to see your building site, but I'm assuming that you have to cross a ditch to get to your property. A very shallow one. You can drive, I've driven the pickup truck into the field many times with no issue. So it's very shallow, but essentially there is a bit of a ditch there. Okay. I believe that over the years, the town has actually diverted the water to the other side of the road. So most of the water that runs down that section of East road is actually on the other side of the road. Okay. There's Tim. We're, yeah, Tim. We're discussing the Michaud's permit for a right away, working in the right away. Yeah. I know that at some point the town had said that a minimum Colvert diameter of 18 inches, is that going to be excessive sufficient? It's going to be excessive for that spot there. There's going to be, I would say at a minimum of 15 for where their driveway is going to be. I'm assuming from the grade stakes and everything else, I was up there the other day right by the apple trees, by the shipping containers is where the driveway is going to go in there. So there's not, it's pretty close to the top of the hill, but I mean, a 15 inch Colvert in there should be good as long as they don't run into ledge. It is kind of rocky. There is some sections of ledge right there. So should be all right in getting a 15 in right there. Okay. So you're, It's not a very deep ditch. So an 18 is going to be over excessive. Okay. So you deem 15 is adequate? Yeah. Okay. Anything else on this? I'm good there. It's good site distance in both directions for that driveway. So, I mean, I don't know if they're planning on leaving those apple trees on the side and there's some trees there, but there's good site distance in both directions at that driveway. So there's sides put in Colvert in. I think they should be good to go. Okay. Is there a minimum? Sorry about that, Brad. Is there a minimum width of the Colvert that you're putting in up here? The width? I don't believe there's a minute, there's a requirement from the town. Of course, for them to put the Colvert in, I would think they'd have at least long enough so they could get trucks in there. That was one thing I wanted to mention, the Walker Construction out of Waterbury Centers who I'm working with for the site work. And he mentioned wanting to do a 30-foot mouth, essentially, where the driveway will meet East Road because our home is a modular that's 28 by 60, and it's coming in two pieces. So we're gonna have 60-foot long house pieces coming in, and they're gonna need to be able to make that term from East Road onto the driveway. So I don't know if there's any discussion that needs to be had about that 30-foot mouth. I don't know if they can cut it down once the house gets delivered. Well, normally, you know what I mean? If you guys do all your site work and set the house, and then at the end, when they're before they're done picking up, they put the culvert in and establish the end of your driveway would be a good recommendation. And then, because like it is, it's not that it's pretty gradual off the road into that field there. So that way that they don't end up, you see a lot of times when they do that, they'll mess the culvert up because they'll get over the end of it and they'll crush the end of the pipe. If they went to put the pipe in until the house has already been set, and then you get your 20-foot piece of pipe in your 20-foot driveway, and then you're not paying for them to dig the dirt back up that they're gonna put in there to get the house in. You know what I mean? So can they at least create the driveway and make it so that it's a smooth path over the ditch for the delivery of the house? They just won't put the culvert in until after the house is delivered? Yeah, that should be all right. I wouldn't see that there being a problem there. Okay. Now, typically the ones we've done in the past on any of these culverts, you use 20 feet minimum of culvert, gives you 14 feet of driveway with three inches, three feet clear either side of your driveway so you don't crush those pipes. Yeah. Trucks coming in in the future while they're doing construction. It sounds to me like they can create a drive prior to putting the culvert in and then put the culvert in at the end. Gotcha. Any other discussion on this? All those in favor of allowing the permit? Hi. Hi. Motion carries. There you go. Thank you very much, folks. Thank you. No problem. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. Well, the treasurer's report Diane. Okay. I posted for the conservation commission a snowmobile survey on the website. You did that on Friday. So if anybody wants to visit that. And also today I posted their, just for their meeting for Wednesday at two o'clock for the conservation commission, I put that on the website today. So if anybody wants to join that, it's at two o'clock, I could say on April 21st. And that's all I've got. Okay. Thank you, Diane. Hilltop end discussion. Vince? Yep. That's really, that's really with our chief. He might have a few things to say about that. The hilltop continues to be large consumption or resources over here. Sergeant Bassett over there this weekend and it was just one litany of problems after another that aren't really being reported to us unless we're over there. And then we just get a few people of all the things that are going on over there. Some of them are very concerning. Sexual based offenses, drug offenses, violence. I know Vince is working on trying to get us some additional funding to of coming out of our, we're having to deal with all those problems. But it doesn't seem to be lessening. It just seems to me getting worse. Have you looked into the state requirements for habitability over there or anything like that? I haven't looked at habitability requirements, but I've talked to several different agencies along with the state chasing the referrals that I get to follow this up, to see what's out there to give us some assistance for the chief and his team. Right now, I am waiting on the Bonnie Waddinger from the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission. She has a very good lead right now on a couple of possibilities that we may be able to get some funding to help support the additional cost that we're bearing because of this for the chief. I expect to hear something in the next week or so back from her on that. But other than that, every avenue that I've gone down has basically been a dead end. We'd like to help you, but there's not much that we can do for you with regards to this. So I've got a lot of hope that the Regional Planning Commission and some of their leads, one of the last couple that we've got left come through for us, but it's not a good situation right now for the chief and for the resources. Out of curiosity, the tenants, renters, the state is paying the room rents on this. Yeah, go ahead, Chief. I'm sorry, I missed the question, once. Is the state paying room rents on this? They're paying some kind of agreed upon rent for the rooms. It's like $80 a night for the residents there. So the owner of the hotel is making, I assume he's making a substantial amount of money every month. We have anywhere between 70 to 75 occupants at the hotel under this program. That's $80 a night. Chief, how is the owner to work with, as a manager of the owner, they have any communications with them directly? So he's been largely absent. In fact, a few weeks ago, there was an act of vandalism over there. There was a picture window or something broken, some kind of ongoing dispute between one of the residents there and another party who subsequently got arrested for that. But they broke this picture window. It hasn't been fixed, to my knowledge, economic services came to me to ask me what I could do about getting the window fixed. Because it's been weeks now, four weeks, there's just tarp hovering it. And so that should show you kind of where the owner is at, not taking, in my opinion anyway, not taking really any responsibility for the property over there. Do you know, I mean, has anybody been in contact with labor and industry, fire prevention divisions, with the life safety issues up there? Fire prevention has been through there because of an incident we had a few weeks ago. I noticed a number of violations, but not anything where they would shut the place down. But violations where they brought it to the managers or the owner's attention. It was my understanding that the owner was supposed to be there with us while we did that work for it, but he didn't show up, didn't make it. Okay. So at this point, Chief, about the only thing we can do is kind of chase the money. It would be helpful if we had some compensation for the amount of overtime we're putting in over there. And the state isn't gonna take responsibility for their tenants under this program. I'm not really sure what they can do. It is what it is. I don't expect that we would shut the place down and displace people because they need a place to live. But the reality is that it's having an impact on services. And although I brought this to Vince's attention, I was curious to how many times they've been out there that as you know, we contract with very town. Fortunately for you guys, they contract with APA of actual residents of Berlin and how many people living there at the time because they've gone from something like 12 calls prior to economic services, housing people up at the hotel to something like 41 calls. And in this quarter alone, it's been 43, 46, something like that. So dramatic increase from one year from the previous year and then just in this quarter alone, which calls for the ambulance up there as we did the entire entirety of last year. So it has an impact on us. It's having an impact on the ambulance services. I imagine it's having an impact on us. So they kind of put this program up there without any infrastructure to go along with it. So what you're looking for is just compensation for the overtime years you're spending out there or are you looking for something a little more permanent? Ideally, we treat the problem like almost like having a school resource officer. You have somebody who's embedded in this facility who is kind of the liaison or the go-to person for problems. Currently they act as a deterrent because of their presence but also they're familiar with the people who are there, they're familiar with some of the problems and they're better equipped to deal with it. But you freeze up the rest of the department to kind of do their thing and respond to calls needed. Unfortunately, even if they were to provide us funding like that, I don't have the staffing to deal with it. That's kind of the other issue is that we're barely able to cover shifts as it is now, let alone have an officer dedicated for two or three hours at a time for a problem over there. Now we have that officer dealing with something going on at the hilltop, I'm not able to go to calls that might be coming in for the rest of their life. Chief, I know in the past in other towns or small cities around these certain, I don't know how they've done it on an ordinance or something of these nightclubs where they're required to have security or a paid law enforcement officer on duty at certain times. Is there some kind of ordinance or something that we could look at that would possibly help out up there to defer that cost back on to the owner? The state is paying for security. That's some presence up there. And they were having a contract with the Sheriff's Department from a neighboring county that have a visible presence up there as well. But neither of those entities are able to do anything. Once something happens, they call us. So they're purely as a visible presence. And I've heard some rather disturbing things lately about some of the security on some, which makes me really question the value of that. Let's say security to the point where some of the issues brought to our attention could very well end up in criminal charges. Engaging in the... Yeah. And that's security personnel working at the hotel that we may have to have a conversation with about their conduct. Does the state police come, Chief, and assist you in any regard? The agencies that we rely on for, if there's some kind of major event there, Berry City has always been very good about coming up and assisting us. But as far as... Can you come up here and help us? It's not really fair to put that on another community that also has a police drone. Yeah, but to answer your question, I'm not providing assistance to us. Well, I commend you and your staff and everything that you're doing. And I think we need to put our heads together in terms of what we can come forward to do to assist you for sure. Appreciate you expressing it and letting us know. Thank you. Tom, Brad, Tom asked a good question if a municipality can bill for excess services. I don't know the answer to that, but I think that's a great question. I can follow up and I can see what I can find out about that, if that's even a possibility. I think that's a good question. I would think any establishment that is a chronic problem, I would think that they should be billed for the services that they're taking from the town. I'm just trying to think if, I think David may have had the right idea with the ordinance type of thing, three calls a month and anything after that, you start the meter running basically. And then if you did it that way and put it inside to bill the owner, then perhaps things might straighten out a little bit. But right now, I mean, the owner has no, other than keeping the heat on basically, if they're even doing that, is free and clear. So Vince, what we'll have to do is see if we can, if it's legal for us to enact an ordinance on excessive drain on town resources. Yeah, I will take a look into that, see what I can find out. Other than that, Chief, I don't know what we can do for you. I'm gonna tell you to keep up the good fight. I mean, we'll try to do what we can for you. I appreciate that. I mean, just to be clear, it's not that these issues are out of the ordinary. It's just, I think it's more impactful because we're such a small community and then concentration, all of a sudden of a population that we weren't really kind of set up to have to address. Well, I mean, the state program or the federal program that this is under, I think it was a very rushed job and very poorly conceived. Excuse me, Brad. Sure, Tom. There may be a way from, even from the zoning standpoint because when facilities get permitted, especially that go through the DRB process, they're required to address impacts of municipal services. And so we talked about the ticketing ordinance through our zoning app, zoning, new zoning. Here may be a candidate where you could use that. And so I think the quicker we may get that ticketing thing on board, the better. I think we're really close on that. It's just another tool in a toolbox. Yeah. How far out are you on that, Tom? Any idea? I really think we're there, Brad. Several conversations with folks from municipalities that have had this. I think we have everything we need. I think chief was looking at a separate municipal ticketing book for just zoning things. It's really the staff getting together, putting our heads together and coming up with a game plan. I've attended some webinars recently and I believe we're at our month-in staff meeting. Those webinars really talked about how municipalities can do some of this stuff. Yeah. Okay, anything else on this, chief? No, I don't think so. Well, we'll do what we can for you. Thank you. Yep, thank you, chief. Thank you. Thank you, chief. Good night. Thank you. Okay, board and commission appointments, Vince? Yes, there are a number of them tonight in the package that I sent out. I can tell you who they are and what they are if you like. We can start with the Cemetery Commission. We have an appointment for Michael Baginski, as a member. He was, he sent a letter of interest. We put him in touch with the current members of the committee and asked them to speak with them and give their recommendation. And he was recommended by the current members of the committee as well. And is he the only one for the Cemetery Commission? He is the only one for the Cemetery Commission right now. Well, what we go through these, if these, if the commission is all right with it, hear a motion to appoint. I make the motion to appoint Michael Baginski as a member to the Cemetery Commission. I would second that. Any other discussion on this subject? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Aye. The motion carries. So just a, just a point, two-year point, Brad. Each one of these appointments, the members have been in contact with the current members of the committee that they're interested in. I asked members of the committee to reach out to them and come back with a recommendation. So they have all been talked with by the respective committees they're interested in by members of it. Okay, well, I think the easiest way to do this, Vence, is go through it committee by committee and we will take in, discuss each appointment and vote at the time. Very good. So the next one is for the Development Review Board and it's Paulie McMurdy has expressed interest for that. Anyone else? No, I see only one. Okay. For the DAB. Motion? I mean. Well, I think your speaker went off on, yeah. I'll second that motion. Well, let's get the full motion here. I want a name. Flo, you want to take and make the motion again? Flo, you're on mute if you can hear us. Yes. Okay, fantastic. I make the motion to appoint Paulie McMurtry to the Development Review Board. And I'll second that motion. Any other discussion? Excuse me, Brad. Just one thing, Paulie is currently in an alternate. So this is making her a permanent position. Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Tom, how many other alternates do you have on the DRB? There are two remaining alternates on the DRB. Okay, thank you. Okay, Vince. The next appointment is for the Planning Commission. And that is Tony Snow. He's the only one for tonight for the Planning Commission. And I would make a motion to accept Tony Snow for the Planning Commission. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Next, Vince. And the last one for tonight is for the Recreation Committee. And it's Krista Zabriski. I'd make a motion to accept Krista Zabriski to the Recreation Committee. Second. Any other discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. That's it for appointments tonight. Okay, very good, Vince. Thank you. Local option assessment. Would you care to explain this to us, Vince? Well, Tom briefed me earlier. He sat through a briefing on this. And currently, state legislation is looking at raising their sales and use tax by 1% to subsidize, I guess is probably the appropriate word that comes to mind, the towns and municipalities in lieu of having a local options tax currently. So it's in discussion in legislation at this point. My thoughts on that, after discussing it a little bit with Tom, our thoughts, I should say, since, and I think also Tom will speak to this, the Vermont Leagues of Cities and Towns also recommends that if we're, a municipality is in the process of pursuing that now that they still continue because again, we don't know what we don't know regarding the state, how long that may be implemented. So even though we may gain advantage from the state earlier by getting this in place, we should continue with our pursuit of this to get our charter change done. So should the state repeal that or change that, we're in a position to put it right back in place locally as well. Tom, did you want to comment to that at all? Did you look into, do we need to do a charter change? Or is there anything? Yes, we do. I have confirmed that. Oh yeah, as I just compared the meeting today with Vermont Leagues of Cities and Towns, said there's an initiative to, I believe to raise the existing sales tax by 1% and then those monies would be used to, for municipalities, for their local purposes, minus dollars that the state would take out to pay for their various pilot programs. It's very similar to what the system is on an individual municipality basis. The discussion was that likelihood that if that comes to fruition, that the state would consider not avoiding existing local option taxes. But again, as Vince pointed out, the league of city towns said, there's no guarantee that that 1% will be there into perpetuity and that municipalities should actually look at that and plan accordingly and recommend and keep doing what you're doing to, if you're going to, looking at adopting a local options tax, keep it going. The question I have, Tom, if the state does it, does raise it to a 7% and gives back to the municipalities, whatever, are they going to pool the money and divide it that way? Are they going to take and use the actual sales figures from each town to redistribute the money? Brad, I don't know the answer to that. This is in committee now, the discussions at the state. And I haven't heard any specifics on the details outside of what I reported. Yeah, the only thing that worries me is we have a fair retail basis in town. If we do not pursue this and rely on the state, I would be afraid that the state may pool the money and divide it to towns who have very little retail base also. And so we would actually be losing out on a certain percent of our retail sales, the return on it. What I think what we need to do is encourage events to see what we need to do to change our charter, to be able to chase after the local option assessment. I just worry we may lose out by having all the money pooled and the state redistributing it that way, because there are several towns around here now that don't have any retail base to speak of. Brad, this is Vince. I agree. I think we need to continue down what we've started right now for the local options tax. So I'll get you some some further details of what's required with regards to the charter change and having to go to vote with this as well. Yeah. Thank you, Vince. So that'll take in, if you do that, Vince, we'll hopefully we'll be able to take and keep going down the yellow brick road, so to say. Anything else on this, Vince? No, nothing else for me, Brad. Thank you. Okay. Highly superintendent, discussion of a class two road paving bid. Tim? Yeah. It's, we got quotes to repave... Tim? Well, the junction road is a, what's that? I have the quote open in front of me. I can tell you that. If you don't have it handy, I've got the road in the dollar amount. I don't have it handy, but we got a quote to do a full reclaim on the junction road from the city line to where the black top ends now. And then we got a quote to overlay and reshim the airport road to apply to the airport road. To apply for the class two grant money that's out right now. We're in the process of applying for. Vince has got the numbers for those. Yeah, the airport road quote was 237,618. And the quote for the junction road was 156,712. And again, a copy of the quote is in the package that was sent to the board as well. Were there any other roads? Granger Road and Scott Hill Road also received quotes. But Granger Road and Scott Hill aren't class two. Correct. So the state right now with the state, that's the grant that we're applying for is for a class two highway only. It's a road that goes from one town to another passing through this town. Yeah. And how much is the grant gonna be for? I think it's up to their discretion. We'll ask for a certain amount whether we get the full amount is, you know what I mean? I would have to double check on that, Brad, but I think there's a cap at 175,000 on the grant. I'm not 100% positive on that, but that's what I recall. I call reading some things on that with regards to that. So there may be a cap and I will get you that information. Tim, what's the, how much did the voters allow you for the repaving fund? I think it was approved for 145,000. I believe we took the, when we did budgets, we took 5,000 off of that. So if the cap is at 100, you said 175 and we got 145. So that's 200, 300, 310, 320,000. So by theory, you could take and do both roads. If we get the grant, yes. Are these grants, you know what this grant is set up with the percentage of project thing or is it just you asked for the 175? And I would think that probably they're set up with some kind of percentage of participation. I could be wrong, but. No, you're correct. I believe it's 20%. So in reality, if it's too simple, we could get 40, 50,000 roughly for a grant. So that that's a lot less than what we needed. I mean, how about calculating that, right? Well, we still, even if you have a copay of 20%, if you get the maximum grant, you still have 145,000 budgeted in the town budget for repayment. Correct. So 145, that gives you 185, 190, unless I'm doing some math on here. Is that the way I don't understand it or you won't understand it to be? Well, if you get, if the math, well, for ease of figuring, say the actual amount for the grant is 175,000, we also have 145,000 in our own budget for repaying. Correct. But what I was leading to is, is this grant that you're only gonna be awarded up to 20% participation. So if say the project is 200,000, you're only gonna get 5,000 grant is what the way I understand it to be. But like I said, I'm not, that's how most of these grants work. Yeah. I see what you're saying. Yeah, $200,000 project, and you can apply for a grant up to 20%, they're gonna give you 40,000 as grant money. So that's the way I understand it to be. I will get clarity on that for you. But even so, even if they only go to, if they only do, if they're doing an 80%, or if they're looking for a 20% match, they would still be putting, well, it would depend on if they're willing to take and put up the funding for both roads instead of just... I would think they would look at it as one project, but possibly not, and the total of both projects was 240, was that what I understood, 220 or something like that? But what were the two projects cost again, Tim? Vince has the numbers. Let me pull them up again here. Sure. One is a hundred, but we also, we don't have to do both. We just, we got... Junction Road. Junction Road was 156, 712. Airport Road, 237,618. So the airport road, that part of it would be from the airport back to the Berrytown line. Yeah. It's been 10 years, roughly, since the last time I had anything done to it, but it's not... Sorry about that. 400,000 in projects that the grants you could possibly get is like 80,000, 80 something thousand max, I believe. Okay. It's the way I understand it to be, but like I said, it could be wrong. So the state's only doing a 20% match, not an 80% match? No, I think we're doing a 20% match. The state is 80. Okay. All right. And that's different. Different numbers, so. Yeah. Well, I would take in, I would encourage you, Tim, to apply for both and see what happens. Well, yeah. So, I mean, we're gonna put in for every and take what we get. I mean, Junction Road is in a little bit more of a out of shape per se than the airport due to the heavy traffic between Ireland running down there and the gas company being down there now. So it's starting to show it's where from the weight of the vehicles. Yeah. The sides are really starting to bow out, be pushed out from the weight. So. Yeah. Well, right. The ditch right there along by Capitol Steel, that's, that's a, I'm surprised it hasn't given up more than it has. I thought it was holding up fairly well. Yeah, we cleaned it last year. It was quite full, but I think it was either late fall or sometime in the winter, they cleaned the lines down there. So they cut all the trees out of, there. Yeah. Then it's opened it up quite a bit. So it could be, we could clean it again. And if we get to pave it, we'll clean it one more time before we pave it and hopefully dry it up something. Yeah. There's quite a bit of water that comes out from behind there in the, where the gas company is too. A lot more than I would have thought would have come out from there. Yeah. A lot of spring runoff in there. Yeah. Thank you, Tim. You're welcome. Thank you for your efforts, Tim. Take in, let Vince know how you make out if you need help or anything. Okay, thank you, Tim. Okay. Now let's see here. Okay, Brook Road, Brookfield Road, signage and parking discussion. Vince. Yes. So that was brought last week by one of the other board members to be on this agenda tonight. The basic topic of discussion was, with the increased parking and walking, the parking on the crest of the hill by the Darling Trail entrance parking area. They were board members and me to some extent have been getting some calls regarding that. They wanted to have a discussion tonight about possible signage and also speed limits that could be enforced as well. Because right now there isn't a enforceable limit on the Brookfield Road in support of the police. So I have started the ball rolling on that. There are some requirements in the orange book from the state on how to properly assess the recommended limits. So that's in place. I've actually got the chief's gonna have one of his guys out there with a radar gun, taking some sampling as well. I've got some road measurements to do like anything, a couple of state forms to fill out to make it an enforceable speed limit. So again, what that all that means is if our members of the force stop someone on the road and it goes to court, it can be defended currently. Right now the chief's understanding is that we don't have a policy that is defendable in court. So if they don't pay the fine and want to challenge it in court nine times out of 10, we're gonna lose. But I think that's on the speed limit. That's a little bit off topic of what they really wanted to discuss, I believe was types of signage to put up in no parking areas that should be posted with proper signs as well for no parking. Again, the example is the Darling Hill access area. The, and you said there were some problems with parking down by the boat launch. I guess there has been some issues there too. You know, there's a barrier and some signs there now that typically on any good given day on a weekend, people ignore and they park there. Can I add something for that? Of course. We have an extreme problem in the winter time trying to plow right there at the Brookfield and Paintern Pike South entrance where the boat launch is that parking lot. They pull up to the side of the road like they're parking the front of the car to the curb and they take up half of the road and then take off walking. And we've had them go over quite a few times this winter but there really isn't nothing the police department can do per se, I guess. Whatever they have is got no teeth from what I've been told, but it's causing a concern on all departments. Even in the summertime when we try to grade we'll have the road half graded and people will just pull up and park right next to the wind roll. And then, you know what I mean? We either have to leave it and wait until somebody comes back and moves the car or try to find somebody to tow it. So, you know, that's... Is the question there in most spots is a lack of no parking signage or is there something like this? I know for a fact, like by the Brookfield where the first parking lot right at the boat launch there's no parking signs. I think they're about every 80 feet or so all the way down past the Montpelier pump house on that Brookfield road all the way down that side of the road. And I had a sign made last fall with an arrow and, you know, showing that this was the end of the, you know what I mean, end of the beginning of the no parking and it didn't help. The signage that's up now, it's not enforceable? I'm not sure. Vince has talked with the police department a little bit more than I have about it, but... Well, I'm just curious. Does the signage need to say no parking? Violators will be towed? It does. It does say that. It does. Yeah, it does. It does. Got a number of tow company? Got a few of them. Well, I mean, realistically that's the only way people are gonna pay attention is if they start seeing their buddy's car go down the road behind a record. Yeah, the issue from the police standpoint is there are some state guidelines that we have to meet to make it enforceable should somebody challenge the ticket or the towing. So that's what I'm working on. That's what I'm working on right now with the police. Again, they're helping out. They're gonna go out and do the speed measurements and things, but the signage as well also needs to be done in a similar fashion. So we need to get that done and get it completed so that, and I haven't gone far enough yet, but there may even be some ordinances that we need to create, which there's a template for, to make them enforceable. That sounds good. Thanks, friends. The other thing would be if we're going, if I'm wondering if we shouldn't take in and look at how the area that we have to patrol, because some of that part, where the people parked there by the boat launch, some of that is in Montpelier, isn't it? Or Montpelier's property? I believe the boat launch is... Well, that's state. State. But on the other side, then you have the boat launch and then you have a section that Berlin controls that we allow parking at. Yeah. And then you have Montpelier goes beyond that. And by the pump house. Yeah. Yeah. The parking stops long before the pump house, but again, people still park there. Yeah. Well, I mean, if they're parking in the boat launch, that's on the state. That's not our problem. Because when they put the boat launch in, it was said to, it was for a boat launch only. Yeah. And from my perspective, if a fishing game wants to keep it for boat launch only, they can control it. Yeah. That's not really the problem. The problem is alongside Brookfield Road. I mean, there are times when, I know in the winter, it was down to one lane, basically because of the way people were parking, as Tim mentioned earlier. And in the summer, it's on a good weekend, there's a stretch of cars right down through there as well, making it maybe a lane and a half in some sections right there. I think that you're on the right step is getting the right parameters and the requirements get that posted legally. So if we do tow something, the town's not paying over, if it's disputed paying the tow bills. Correct. And I wouldn't think that it would be that hard to meet whatever guidelines that they needed, whether it's putting an ordinance in place or whatever, it's just getting those guidelines and get active on it so that we're not revisiting this issue in the future. Yeah. And just on those notes, I just wanna throw that out because I've had a couple of calls with regards to Richardson Road for a similar concern. They're looking to see if they can get some signage on that road as well with the speed limit. And dead-end notices because they're telling me, you know, there are people that just are flying down that road that over 35, 40 miles an hour on Richardson as well. And then they'll watch them because they think they're gonna go through and then they come flying back just a few minutes later. Tim, when was the last traffic count done on Brookfield Road? I couldn't tell you on that one. I don't even know if there ever has been. That's a great question, Brad. I do have an email. I was gonna set one up once things dry out for the Riverton side of Crosstown, but I can definitely get a hold of somebody and see if they'll put a counter on either ICANN or VinceCANN, but I have an email for the people who did the last one that I have records for. Yeah. I just think it'd be, it always fascinates me as to how many cars actually go down some of these roads. That's amazing. I can tell you, Crosstown, Tim and I had had this discussion, Brad, and I think it was three years ago and Crosstown was averaging about 1,000 cars a day. But I mean, some of the traffic counts, yeah, some of the traffic counts, you get on the Barry Montpollier order, just, you wonder how cars can go down there. But yeah, I would take in, I would think that perhaps getting a couple of traffic counts on those roads too, because it would help, especially if you're putting in a speed limit, it would help to have a number of, I won't say a valid number, but a current number of traffic on these roads. So we have an idea, we can justify some of our concerns. Yeah. Well, if you can get that done, is he also this Tim? No, I mean, we just need to be able to enforce the... What we got? Parkings that we have, and I mean, like Vince said, there's been times where we can barely get through with a dump truck in the winter time, the pile of road with the ditch on the opposite side, the way that they park. I mean, they don't even park with the flow of traffic, they park broadside to the flow of traffic. I've never seen anything like it in my life, but they do it. Yeah. Well, okay then, we'll see what we can do for you. Boy, Vince, you're getting a lot of stuff to do. I love you guys. Thanks a lot, Tim. We appreciate it. Right back at you, Vince. Thanks, we'll see you guys. Okay, thank you, Tim. Thanks, Tim. Thank you, Tim. You're welcome. Okay. Next. Next is Conservation Commission Update Vast and Administrative Support Discussion, Vince. Yeah, I don't see Phil on here tonight. And this is Wendy. Phil couldn't make it, so I'm here, but I don't really have anything to present. I can tell you our status as far as snowmobiling, but he didn't give me, I think he just had a granddaughter born. He did. Yes, that's what I thought. So he didn't give me any information. I can give you a quick update on the snowmobile where we're at with that, but I can't really give you much of an update on administrative portion of it. I can talk a little bit to the Administrator, but go ahead if you want to update on Vast, Wendy. So we had planned to have a walk through last Saturday of the trail up in the town forest and Mark Reeves emailed us. He said he had eight inches of snow where he lived at 1,200 feet. And we decided maybe that was not the day to go up. So we're gonna try again for next Sunday and not next Sunday, I'm sorry, next Saturday. And as long as the weather is halfway decent, we're going up and gonna go through and just look at the trail. And also, if there's time, have Mark Reeves and Dave Willow look at the bottom portion of the Ridgeline Trail and just have a second pair of eyes on that from Vast. And once we do that, Willow will have got through the trail walk through. We're working on the management plan that's coming along and we are well ahead of schedule right now. So you'll probably get something before June 1st. And we have contacted Vermont Land Trust. They're really slow getting back to us on anything at this point. So they do know this is in the works. And I guess, are there any questions? That's about where we're at. Any questions for Wendy? Okay, thank you, Wendy. Thank you, Wendy. So I'll just jump in as far as the admin support. What Phil has expressed is with the management plan and the Vast activity going on, they've basically doubled their meetings. And he was just reaching out to see if there's something that we could do or the staff could do to help support them with at least producing the minutes of meetings from an administrative standpoint and potentially also assisting in typing up the draft. But I think they're pretty good. And correct me if I'm wrong, Wendy. I think Tom's pretty well set on the draft of the plan doing that. Phil hasn't mentioned anything else to me on that yet. The draft is in good shape. So we don't really need help with that. Well, I know there are a couple of people that we use right now for doing minutes of meeting. And I guess my question to the board on behalf of Phil is, is that something that we could entertain adding onto one of those two that are doing the minutes of meetings now for different committees in the board if we would want to consider that? Vince, do you know what the cost would be to do that? I should, but I don't have it right in front of me, David. Okay. To be able to do that, but I can certainly get that to you right away. Anything else on this? I think that's it. Okay, thank you, Vince. Fisher Road Colbert update. Tom, do you want to take and give the latest update on that with the... Yeah, a couple of things. You know, we're using the state infrastructure bank for financing. We're able to secure 1% financing. They have requested that V-trans be involved in this, looking, protecting the state infrastructure banks assets for lack of a better term. And so that has slowed the process down a little bit as well. We were hoping to be going out the bit already. So we've got a pretty positive note this late this afternoon on V-trans. I'm thinking that they're soon going to sign off on our documents and we should be good to go on that. The other one that we have a, we've drafted some easement language for, look, you, Inc, for their consideration probably about two, three weeks ago now. And I spoke to Chip a couple of times. His voice, that he thinks the project is well-designed and good project, but they just don't, just not comfortable with the easement language. So I suggested to Chip that, give us some language that you would be comfortable with, but we haven't received anything yet. So those two items are delaying this project. You may recall that we have a, we have a pretty finite window to do construction and middle of October is when we have to, to stop working in those wetland areas. It's a 10 week out for the structure. So it's, I'm just expressing a concern of the time of the end of this, of getting this project done in 2021. Are there any options other than with that easement? There are, but they cost dollars. What doesn't? Okay, anything else on this fence? No, I think Tom's pretty well, giving you the summary of where it's at right now. Okay. Again, the risk, just to reiterate the one point, there's risk of further delay if we don't get through this easement fairly soon. It's already put us a little bit behind the eight ball. Okay. That's all for that. Approval of licenses, permits, vouchers and applications. I have those in front of me. I make the motion to approve payroll warrant 21-21 for payroll from March 28, 2021 to April 10, 2021, paid on April 14th, 2021 in the amount of $47,052.07. Also payroll warrant 21G21 with checks 21059 to 21089 in the amount of $29,826.45. March, 2021, general journal entries and March budget status report trial balance and delinquent tax report. Also the March reconciled bank statements for general fund sewer commission and water division. Your second. I would second that motion. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Minutes of March 1st, 2021 revised, March 15th, 2021 in April 5th, 2021. I think the only one we can do is the March 1st. Were you there for that, David? I've only missed one and I can't remember what the date was. Well, actually the end of it, last month. You weren't elected then. Yeah. So you can't vote. We don't have a quorum for the motion. So that one there will have to pass. Vince, refresh my memory on the March 15th, the revised one, what was that? There was one word I think that Justin had requested. It was from potential to is, I believe. Let me double check here. I can pull it up and tell you exactly. March 15th, March 1st was the one that was revised, I believe. It was the March 1st. Yeah, we can't vote on that one. Yeah, that's the one that was revised, not the 15th. Okay, and so the March 15th, you were here for the first meeting, right, Dave? Yes. Okay, so you were here, Flo, and I'm pretty sure I was here for that one. So have a motion on the March 15th, 2021 minutes. So, move on. Go ahead. Need a second. Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. April 5th, I wasn't here. I was. So that one there, we can't vote on that one. Right, so I'll carry the March 1st revised and the April 5th over to the next meeting, Brad. Okay, very good. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, approval of the emergency management plan, Bruce? Yes, good evening. This is the annual update to the town's emergency management plan. And as required by the state to be updated by March, or May 1st of each year, so there's a, the plan has been updated for contacts. Some changes to the, some of the appendices in the back of it, some of the hazardous material sites and high-risk populations. But the main thing is that we have to have it approved, by the 1st of May for the state to get it. Okay, motion to approve the emergency management plan. I make the motion to approve the emergency management plan. Here a second. It looks like Mr. Sawyer has stepped away. He's in my egg. Sorry about that, guys. I apologize there. It's almost dead and I had to grab this charger. There, okay. Need a second on the emergency management plan, Dave. I'll second the motion. Any further discussion? Anything else, Bruce? Just that I'm not sure, well, if it was sent to you or not, Vince would know the, in addition to the emergency plan itself, there's an implementation letter that gets signed off by the select board or their designated representative. And in the years past, that was the town administrator, Dana Hadley. So there's just a requirement that the person that signs off on that has had a ICS 100 or an ICS 402 class so that's the other part of the package that has to go in together to the state. So I don't know if that was provided to you or not. It was in the package that was sent to the entire board. So you all have a PDF copy of that in the file that I sent for that. What is the, sorry to jump in Brad, but Bruce, what is the date? Is it May 1st that that has to be in? Yes, that's correct. Okay, because I have gone online and I've looked at the ICS 100 class that needs to be taken so that I can sign that document. My intent is to get it completed prior to May 1st. So I should be able to get that completed so that I can sign this with the board's permission. I'll have the qualification to be able to sign this before May 1st. And if there's any issues, I've taken the course as well. Oh, perfect. I've taken quite a few of the ICS's like 100, 200, 300 and I think I did 500. So if you have any issues, I'll be glad to assist. My recommendation flaw, if that's okay, would be to have you sign that one now so we can get that completed and off our plate and I'll still continue to take that so that I can, if it comes up again, I'll, again with the board's permission, I'll be able to sign. Excellent, and I'll just ask Bruce, do you know what I need to validate in terms of how often they are done? I know the ICS 100, for example, I've done it every time I've been reminded, but do I need to print off the certificate to determine? Not that I'm aware of. I think this, it's on an honor system with the state. So I've never had anybody question it anyway. So... Okay, very good. Very good. And thank you. Thank you all. Well, while we're here, entertain a motion to have a Flow Smith sign on behalf of the board. I will make, I would make that motion to have Flow Smith sign the documents for the slide board. Do you hear a second? Second. And you're willing to do this flow, so that's good. Good. Any other discussion? Hearing none, those in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Okay. Thank you very much. Are you all set now, Bruce? Yes. Thank you very much. Not a problem. Thank you. Hey, Brad, I have one question while the board is still here. I missed it earlier. Rather than have to send the curb cut permit out to the board, could the board authorize me to sign that curb cut permit that we talked about approved earlier today? Is that an option? With the board's approval, I believe it is. Otherwise, I don't mind. I can bring it around or just slow getting them back, to be honest. Yeah, I'm good with that, Vince, quite frankly. I'll entertain a motion for that. And then what we'll do is if you find that's not legit, I will check that, I will confirm that before I sign it, even with your approval. If there's something wrong with doing it in that fashion, then I will certainly not do it and we'll find another way to expedite it. Well, we've already approved it. So a motion to allow Vince to sign for the board on the curb cut proposal for Ben Mishad? Yes. So moved. Second. Oh, any other discussion on this? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Let's see here. You said there was no executive session, Vince. That's correct. Okay, anything on your mind, Dave? No, I've got some thoughts that I want to explore before I bring it up to possibly help the chief up there to the hilltop end. I know that visible presence up there is a big thing that's gonna deter anything if we have any chance on it, but I'm gonna do some investigation and at the next meeting, I'll have some stuff for the board. Okay, thank you, David. Flo? I'm good and thank you, David, also. Thank you. Entertain a motion to adjourn. I make the motion to adjourn tonight's meeting. Your second. Any discussion? Hearing none, those in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries, we're adjourned. Have a good evening, everyone. Thank you.