 First on the agenda is public comment, just a comment on anything that's not currently listed on the agenda. If there's anything doing on the one house rooms or on the police ad hoc committee, anything to report or update on those? No. I don't need to. I'll be on the agenda next month. Stay tuned. Oh boy. I think she's got warrants. There's going to be a lot of meeting, right? Who has the coffee concession next month? Somebody should. So I'm here on the only lunch night, but we're going to try and, I'm working with the committee on the Easter End of Hall restoration. And we're going to try and come to your meetings from time to time and fill you in on what's happening. We have been sending out the minutes of all our meetings to anybody that wanted them. And Perry's on our list and Adolfo's on the list. And it occurred to me that I don't know if the select board is getting those minutes another way. And we would love to have you on the list. The setting is just, basically just minutes, right? So you kind of know sort of a little bit what's going on. We've been able to follow along and see what you guys are doing, the progress you're making. The email that you can send to select board at random. Is there one? Yes. Oh. Want to send it to me? I will do that. I'm going to give it all to Perry. Our next meeting is, I'm Betsy Race. Right. Our next meeting is, I think it's January 9th. It's a Wednesday. Second Wednesday in January. And we are going to be forming the board for the Paul Restoration Committee. And we've got all the roles identified. And just have to put that together. One of the questions that came up is having a board like this, does it make sense to have a select board rep on the board? How do you do things like that? You can submit what the group is that you want to form and what the board looks like and what the roles and responses are for the request for a select board liaison on there. And then we take that. But is it even, I've never done anything like this. Is it even a common practice or is it kind of an odd thing to ask? I wouldn't say it would be a board. It would be a committee. Oh, we don't need a whole committee. You know what's nice is we get to these, but it also can't come to all the meetings. We don't know what's approved, what a lot of questions come up about. That's a select board, isn't it? That's on the 9th. Yeah, Wednesday the 9th. And we are currently meeting at Joan Fire Robin's house, which is her, she's giving us her home to meet because we don't have any other place right now. And she's in East Randolph. When you go towards the old school heading south, there's a new development of houses on the right. And her house has the flat roof. So. And we need a 530. You can't meet in a personal home because it's a public group. So it has to be in a public location that's accessible. Pardon me? You can do what you're doing. You can do what you're doing, but you have to do it in a place that's public. You have to advertise your meetings. You have to follow the open meeting laws. Why don't you form your official board? Why don't you form your official group here? And right now you folks are kind of acting as a community community members trying to solve an issue. And so that's happening in a kind of a, you know, kind of a public forum. When you go to, if you get this move, this to a real committee that's going to work with us, if I'm correct, you kind of have to hold those in a public place. Because you've got to meet all these other requirements, like handicap accessible, those kind of things. Well, it's handicap accessible. Yeah, I get that. So if we remain a committee that just decides to have a chair and a co-chair and a secretary, first-rate type thing, that's not the same as what I said the word for. You can have it as a friends of these. Yeah, exactly. You can be like Chandler. Chandler's friends of Chandler, which acts as the group that manages and takes care of Chandler's programming and all that stuff. You can do something very similar to that. And that's perfectly fine. That's not the old meaning of it. So we've got to be careful. We need to look at what you want your group to be able to do. So the only issue with this that I'm feeling is that where we could meet, that's you consider a public place. There isn't any place in East Randolph, and maybe Claire Martin would let us use the school. Claire Martin, I think the church might. The library also has a small meeting room. We're here counting the library. So that brings me to town hall. We really want to be able to use the town hall. And one of the things that's closed it is the Fire Marshal's report. And they're in the process of getting some more information to see if we might be able to use the upstairs. Again, we have to put in our head cap around and we probably have to do something about the toilet facilities. They needed the load capacity. And that wasn't in the structural foundation report. Well I know that when we helped us know about club meetings there you didn't want too many people walking upstairs at the same time because you could see them. We want a flexible dance floor. They didn't give you the bounce in your step. I guess they're not going to like that number if we had it done. I'm guessing they won't like the number if we ever had the engineering study done to give you a load capacity. It's going to have to be done. But I don't think it's going to get them to open it. So who does that of engineering? That's not what we had. No, so the challenge with what you may be asking for Betsy is that we have an identified problem with the foundation. And if we spend money to perform an engineering report to find the load for the building, we could do that but that doesn't fix the problem with the foundation which we probably should focus on finding that money first and then figuring out the rest of it. Because if we spend money to figure out the load but then we find out that there are some other major problems while we fix the foundation then that's money lost and determining the load of a building that needs other work. Okay. Then the last question that we had is the foundation report came in. What is the board's thoughts about the three choices? So three options. So we haven't fully discussed it on our end because the challenge there is it's going to require a multi-year plan in addition to all the other multi-year plans that we have. And the least expensive of those options was roughly $90,000. So it's not a project that we're going to be able to budget for in a year just given all the pressures that come along with all the other projects. So once we have a direct plan that we pull together with the community group to figure out everything that's wrong with it then we can bring it to the select board and say this is the project. It's not just the foundation. It's underneath the clapboards and everything else. So you need all of these other assessments before you can? I think it would be ideal to figure out what else is wrong with it so that if once we have the full number, if it comes up as $1.5 million then we have to figure out how to fund it or... I'm not saying it's going to you. You double it every time you talk to us. The committee... This is turning into an agenda item. Alright, so we can put it on the agenda. So next time when we come we'll do that. I will say that the committee discussed it and they were in favor that if you're going to do something to this foundation do it all and do it right the first time. And that's what they're willing to put their energy in and support with grant writing and things like that. When the adult will send you the select board email address you can include a link to where the open meeting laws are. I know where they are. Okay, so that defines what type of entity has to follow those two. Yeah. Okay. It may help you in how you structure it. Okay. Thanks. For the other... Yes. My name is Chris Wilson. And I currently have a verbal agreement to purchase 15 main street which is the old buildings. My intent with that building is to parcel it into between one and four different parcels for different types of businesses which encourage activity in the downtown area. The reason I'm doing this is a citizen of Randolph. Some of us I feel compelled to... I feel compelled to step up and help reestablish the vibrancy of our area. So all of my ducks are pretty well lined up. Again, I have a verbal agreement for... And it's a modest offer which they've accepted. And I have pre-approval from backing and financing. The issue I have is that because I want to move businesses into that building that have... I would ask a lower rent. The lower rents would not cover the current carrying costs. The current carrying costs, that building are about $40,000 a year. That couple with financing would increase. So the monthly layout as it stands would be about $4,200 a month. If I'm requesting rents of anywhere from 9 to $1,200 per section or 3,000 square feet, then I won't be able to cover the cost. In other words, I'll just break even as it currently stands. I can't imagine that retail is going to come back to Randolph for month. I know that the grand list is something that properties on that grand list are something like $780,000. If I were to buy it for what the grand list is, what it's posted at, my carrying cost on that building would be about $11,000 a month, which I just don't see that as sustainable. What I'm requesting is that good consideration is given to my purchase price and that the current, the tax on that property is modified to reflect the purchase price in that realm. So the select board doesn't do that. That request needs to go to the Lister's office. So the list as the town manager asked me, they said I need to come to the select board in order to discuss that with you guys. Would that go to the port of civil authority? It would if there was a purchase on sales contract or if something happened. We can't circumvent them? No, I'm not. The way I understood, he was trying to, when I talked to him, he was going to approach it in a different way in some kind of a stabilization, a stable, a tax stabilization. I'm sorry, we discussed that before and then I was speaking with the Delpho who did some research for me and said that that's not legal since it's not a new build. So then round two is to have the tax reflect the purchase price. Which I know has been done in the area before and so there's precedent set for that. But then I'm just taking the risk in order to do that. If you want a different value on your tax assessment, it goes to the board of, it's actually the board of adjustment, not the board of civil authority, even though they're the same, right? The board of adjustment. And so you have to show why your value for the property is different than the assessed value. And then that board takes a vote on changing the value of the assessment. So you're a select board member of that. No, it's a town and it's the justices of the piece, the select board, the treasurer and the court. The treasurer and the court. The treasurer and the court. But the number you approached me with, is that the number that's still there? Yes. I see no way. But I couldn't adjust it to that number. Just not have that number. Sure enough. I understand that. So usually what happens is you, you have an assessment of the property done. So you would have an appraiser assess it or what they come up with a value. And that gives you what you use to go to challenge what the listors have come up with. Okay. I mean, does the town have concern that that may end up being an empty building for an extended period of time or if it's donated to an apropos that we have other? I think there's a lot of effort being put into. There are. There's effort being put into it. I know that that's happening. But I'm just concerned after being here for so long and seeing a lot of properties just flatten out. And I'm just trying to figure out ways that we can help to stimulate the economy. So when it comes to challenging an assessed value on a property, that's defined in statute. And that board is defined in statute. So we can't override that. Okay, so I have to have a purchase and sales agreement in place. Yep. And then you can get an assessment done. You mean appraisal? Yep. And so then we'll forward you head with a contingency on that purchase. So I'll have a contingency in my agreement. Yeah, I would write it up for the contaminant for whatever you feel comfortable with. Okay. So you'll have an help. All right. That's good. Appreciate your time. You're welcome. Great. Any other? Thanks. Through and over the agenda? Sure. I could ask the board, we did not put it on the agenda. I'm not quite sure it actually needs a specific item, but we would need, as far as the staff is concerned, to request from the board to change the date of the January select board meeting to January 7th. January 7th is the 60th day from the date of the hearing for the reclassification effort of Roans, which is that same, it's the same week as the select board meeting only on a Monday. And that is the date when the select board is required to issue a notice of their decision. The last day. So we should go before that, in case we have bad weather that day? You can choose the end of the week. Any end of the weekend, 6th to 5th, or 4th on a Friday? Just not first. I'm free anytime you want to get this out of the way. Sure. So I mean, I personally think this is going to take up a pretty good chunk of time. Yeah. So we often became the meeting that pretty much dealt with most of this issue. And we have other items we would do another day on the fine with having two meetings that month. Could also be just a special meeting just for this decision. And then have every other business item held on the second. So what does the third look like? Those schedules? I'm free on the third. Let's set up for the third to do the roads. And then keep the regular schedule. I don't know. 530. I am scheduled to return to down to day four. I shouldn't have a problem. As long as we can return to town. Yeah. Okay. January 3rd. 530. I guess we know what you're taking. California. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Do you have a motion to approve the agenda? I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Those abstained. That one carries consent calendar. Meeting minutes from November. Warrants. Cemetery plot and a quick clean deed. That's ministerial rights. Motion to approve the agenda. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Stained. That one carries. New business legal enforcement action on the East Bethel Road. You have Marty from the town. You're here to talk about it? You could have all spelled out in the action. I achieved. So I've been receiving complaints about the condition of the property at east of the road owned by Hiram Junior and Senior, Sol's Junior and Senior. Went and took a look at it in, I guess it was April, the snow had mostly left and determined that there were a few zoning violations on the property, contacted the state as well, so the state enforcement officer has been involved, sent to him an official notice of violation, both certified mail, like I'm supposed to, and first class. The certified mail was never signed for, first class was never returned, but I did get a phone call from Isaac, the junior, Hiram Isaac's Hall's junior, that he did receive it and he's been very cooperative in letting Dan Mason, the state environmental enforcement officer and I do site visits, look at the property. He's made some progress and after numerous promises that certain things were gonna get done, oh yeah, it's gonna get done, this is gonna get done, he would say at every site visit, it hasn't been done and the last visit in September, I said I would give him till middle October and then I was gonna approach you folks with taking it to the court. And violations are still existing, so I am requesting that you authorize me to engage the town attorney to pursue this enforcement action in the environmental court. This property, as I also did mention, back when I started in the mid-90s, was part of an environment, was in part of a zoning violation in place of the environmental court. There were stipulations on the property that when the souls bought it from the estate, that they would clean it up or fines would be levated. You know, that, I don't know if it's too late to kind of, but that may play into it, so we could be kind of coming full circle in all this. So, we've got $2,500 in this year's budget for legal fees. Lots of questions, it's overdue. It's time to get it done. Yeah. So I'll make a motion that we authorize Mary to move forward with spending, so I want to put a line on it on here or not? Do I need to? I don't think so. No? No. I'm just going to authorize you to go ahead and move forward with it. This is a legal action. Yeah, this is a legal action. Do you think I'm into court for the zoning violation? Sounds good. What Marty just said. Okay. I'll second. I'll just... Motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed, abstained? Have fun. Get that one done for you. There's a few more probably, right? No, I think that was it. Okay. To the water and wastewater time that you made to make me into that. No, we don't need that. I think you might be able to have... I think I might be able to have a few more projects similar to that. Probably that are... We're working on. We're working on, right? Okay, now we have appointments. Conservation Commission, we have one vacancy. Two folks interested in Blackmore and Morgan Easton. Morgan is here. All right. Preference, questions for Morgan since she's here? All right. Nope. All right. Do you want to point out Morgan's name? We'll come up with a few hunts in different committee. We heard she was bored. We heard you. Perfect. Well, it's nothing better than having classes after you're all extended. Hey, no more classes to go to, so do you have time to work on some things? It's a new place to make friends. Yeah. Yeah, that's a little weird thing I'm a lot more recent with so many things. You can't come in for story time. Well, there'll be two in my party. Yeah, but I'll hang on this one. Okay, Conservation Commission. So, I know that Morgan is applying to be in two different boards, one of which she has competition for. And one in which she does not. I think in the interest of getting as many people that participate as possible, I would say let Morgan be on the one that does not have the competition. I'll remind you that the other one never meets. It met on one application from back when McDonald's changed their color scheme. That was kind of, you know, I've been on that board now for five years and been in one meeting. Oh. Well, that's a review. If I had to choose, I would probably be on the Conservation Commission, but if I have an opportunity to start on both, that would be great. But in the, I have a question though. Hypothetically, if I were to buy property and bring tree or for a field in the next year, would I have to resign from one of those positions or whatever? Depends if you're gonna move on it. Okay. Depends where your residence is. Okay. And some committees have people on them from outside of Randolph. Yes. It just depends upon what the committee is doing. Okay. Is there anyone already that serves on multiple committees? Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah. So I would like to contest that, yes, that is a wonderful, best interest of involving everyone, but. Well, with your background, I mean, I think, you know, I think you'd be certainly suited for both positions myself. Yeah. So, you know, and I know that the conservation commission certainly can use more input. So, you know, you've got some experience and over some skill sets, apparently, that would be beneficial there. So I'd, you know, I would be interested in seeing you on both of them for sure. That one there was, if you had a choice, you know, so. Yeah, and then to speak to, I guess, to speak to my interest in the development review is my education at BTC was in architectural engineering technology as the standard design and technology. And I stayed out of involvement in terms of discussions around Randolph development and whatnot, and I came and sat in on some, like the development review of the firehouse, and that was really interesting. I didn't have the time to join at the time to participate in that. It's a different committee. Oh, well, the design review process of that was interesting to me. I'm not specifically that. So if this would be an opportunity or a different way to participate in that fashion, with the conservation commission heavily involved already with the trail alliance locally and with, I've been involved in the passage of recreation department and youth programming around biking and the trail system. So, yeah, those are, I guess, the most relevant level of background to be able to do this. You also worked on that project at BTC, which I saw today surfaced again. So the trail network around BTC, yeah. Yeah, I wasn't sure if I meant like one of that. We had some development projects that some of their residents thought were gonna actually happen, but they were not real projects. So that was awkward. I was so angry at the residents about projects that we needed, so that was the crowd. Someone that I'm most familiar with your work on was trying to create a recreational trail network around the Randolph Center campus, so. What other applicants seem to have deep specialized knowledge in natural resources? Seems like a shame to turn someone away with that kind of background from position on the conservation commission. And I know Ian and I can also speak to him as being a very pilot ball flight candidate to serve on that, so if it comes down to your decision, I would support Ian serving on the conservation commission as well, and I would still, I mean, I still participate anyways beyond that, so I'm still happy to support conservation commission if I'm not sitting on that. And that's one of the things which I think a lot of people forget, is that you can still participate in commissions and committees by just showing up to meetings. You just don't get to vote if you're not an official member. Typically, that's not the most important part of most meetings. It's most of the meetings, the important part is giving your opinion, having ideas, furthering the discussion is usually what's most critical. Hopefully the committee will take that into consideration in their decision-making process as well as that show up to speak to that, so anyways, since Ian's not here to speak to himself, I came to the last meeting and they were talking about cooperation with the tech center, so that, I know he's been involved with in the past, he looked at the teacher there, so there was some talk with the forester about how to deal with some management processes of the town forest parcels, so I know Ian's got some good background and that sort of stuff. But anyways, yeah, go ahead, you guys can go ahead. Since I'm the one that showed up to whatever. All right. So what's the preference? Well, I mean, if Morgan sounds like someone who would be happy to go to meetings, even if she's not on the commission right now, vacancies open up all the time, certainly so. But most people, if they're not actually legally put on there, aren't gonna show up, and if Ian would be more likely to be there. Are you getting to a motion? I think he's getting to a motion. I'm just telling you, so that's, I think, I don't wanna reject Morgan, because I think she's so wonderful. Larry, don't be so soft. Come on. So anyway, I would move to a point, Ian Blackmore to the conservation commission and Morgan to the design review committee, yeah, committee and Cliff Rankin to the trustee of public funds. No? Is that too much? I just wanna know, but I have a question on Cliff. Oh, you do? Okay. Maybe you do one at a time. All right, we'll do one at a time. Just do one at a time. You can open it. And move to a point, Ian Blackmore to the conservation commission. So I'll second that. You can still go to those meetings and you should be involved. I'd love to listen to the forestry history of the timber sales for years. Yes. And some of the names I recognize from like the 50s and up, so. So I think if you participate, there'll be another vacancy probably, who knows when? And you certainly have a lot of knowledge. I mean, we did the same thing with Jessica Taffett in the economic development position. So yeah, just continue to participate. Okay, so we have a motion and a second for Ian. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Those abstained, that one carries. Trustee of Public funds, do you know if Cliff is the current or was a prior treasurer for the town of Williamstown? Because the prior one is the one the board they all fought with and they got into that whole mess. I do not know. My questions to our existing treasurer were more based on Cliff's experience on her working relationship with him, but I didn't ask if he was currently in that position elsewhere. Is this only until March? It will be for the board a minute later. Yes, it's until March. I'm just nervous because Williamstown has had some pretty rough going. And the very nice to know it wasn't the same person. Yeah. I agree. You can hold off. You want to come back? Can we just hold off? Sure, let's get him into to chat. So move him to January. Design review advisory committee. We actually have two openings and two interesting parties. Ready for a motion? Sure. On the move to appoint Ken deMorten and Morgan East into the design review advisory committee. And I'll second that. And then second all those in favor. Aye. Aye. Post. Staying motion carries. Water, waste water advisory committee. David Farnham. Interested. The letter just indicated he was interested in serving with no background. Any four minutes in March? This is, he's a member. He's on them. So he's on town sewer, right? Cause doesn't have to be a, don't you have to be part of that entity in order to be appointed to this? You don't have to be. The majority of the members. The majority of the members must reside or own property in either the water or sewer district. Okay. Three of the four current members meet this criterion. He says he is on the public. And he's on the public sewer system. Okay, I just wanted to make sure that was clear. Okay. So why would this appointment be up in March? The reported annual? Annually. For this committee? That's the way it works? Oh, okay. I didn't know that. Most of them are. Yeah. So. Except we've got a few, like the development review board. Planning commission. Planning. Most of them are annual. Mm-hmm. We've got them. I didn't, because like on the left committee and the energy committee that I'm on, I haven't, we have appointed people every year for those things. We do when we get that whole long list. You get the long list. And then we get the whole list. Through the whole list. Okay. Okay. I think that. So one at a time. Yeah. Yeah, okay. All right, well. In the past, we have singled some people off it. Yeah. But usually it just goes. All the way through. Well, I have no problem with David, but I make a motion to put David on there. So we're a water committee. Sure. One second. I don't know about your objection. We have a motion to second all those in favor. Aye. Aye. The closed stand. Payments are done. 2018 grand list, errors and omissions. Look at me. You're up there. Come on. Oh, no. Well, I'll just give myself a point of charge. This is just things that have happened since we filed the grand list. We had a few new veterans come on board, late the riders, and current use. You know, they keep changing things all the way to November and this is what we come up with for a 2018 grand list. The packet has the action item, the law, but not the list of... Oh, you don't have a list? I don't know that I need it, but... Put some more out. Is there any good ones in it? Let's get... Oh, sorry. What's PCA? Mine's not in there going down, so I'm not approving it. It's not going down. Actually, the grand list went up $6,700 and the current use got done. The total grand list only increased by 6,700. No, since I had... Oh, okay. Okay. No, we don't charge personal business equipment tax anymore, if I remember correctly. You're right. Okay. Most of the current use, these are properties that have either come in or gone out of current use since last... They're changed, transferred, or added, taken out. And those are just corrections, and we have... And what was, what happened with freedom properties? Well, they start, they had to start paying the education. They had a free ride for... For the views. Mm-hmm. I was just wondering why it was a correction here, though. Because it actually ended March 31st, and it never got transferred until after April. May 1, May 1. How does that... So, but then they only transferred half the value? No, the rest is immiscible because they're on a slight scale, 20, 40, 60 years. Going forward, they're got, they're ramping up. Yeah. Okay. They were on a free ride from the state for the education tax for... For five years? Five years. And this last March 31st was their drop dead date. That was the end of there. Right. Okay, so now they're on it. They gave them hours up 20% and that's why it's... It was like 11 grand for the town. I see. Okay. And the BCA, was that an adjustment? Yes, on the Forbes property up on the hospital. So they had had an appeal? Numerous. Numerous. Okay. We have a final put down on that. We still have one that you folks need to look at and sign off on. And then I think that's the end of the... Oh, that's good. So do we need to approve this list? Yeah. Yeah, you gotta sign off on it. I'm so excited for the state. You're making that motion or you want me to... Time it took you to ask that. You could have just done that. I just don't want to steal anything from you here. I wouldn't have done that. I don't even want to get credit or anything. That's so important. Go crazy. Okay. All right. Okay. And so I'll make a motion that will approve the list of adjusted values. So the Ed can sign it off to the state. I'll second that. The motion and the second one goes in favor. Aye. Aye. Those to abstain. Motion carries. Select court liaison, capital planning and budget committee and conservation commission. Both committees have again come to my office and have asked for a select court liaison. So we just wanted to share that with the select board to see if there's a willing volunteer or we'll want it to continue as... It seems to me we have two commission, a commission and a committee and two missing board members. I'll make it easy on you. I'll take one. I'll take one here. So I'll take the conservation commission. I've been to a few of their meetings. Find it quite interesting. So I'll let you guys split up the rest. I'm on the four committees right now and I'm not that eager to take on another one. Who does budget now, Mike? Mike does a budget committee. They meet at noon. So this would be more the capital budget meeting that really only meets three times a year during this time of year. Let's check with Mike and see if he wants that one too. It's not a budget. Yeah, it affects the budget. So you can ask him. Now we'll toss it around again. Okay, thank you. Have a good evening. Thank you. Water, wastewater, grant? We're just checking along. It's quick. I want to prove Mike wrong. Yeah, right. He sent me one saying he wasn't coming and I said, well, it looks like an easy agenda. And he goes, yeah, we thought that before. Like we're gonna achieve it this time, Mike. Okay, our water superintendent and our grants administrator discovered that, or a few weeks ago, they discovered that we had not closed out the USDA grant that was issued to the town to build the water and wastewater facility. So in our continued efforts to work that all out, we discovered that we had available to us over $300,000 in grant money for construction at the water wastewater facility. No grant match is necessary because the town has already met its match for the grant. So what's happening now is I've asked our water superintendent to figure out what we can construct that would allow us to use this money at no cost to the town. So he's been working with the engineer for the construction of the project to essentially figure out whether or not they can construct a storage facility that is badly needed for equipment. They've had those conversations. We have not had any funding requests for money that needed to be spent, but they feel that they can construct a facility that is needed with the amount of money that's available. As expended. It can be a nice storage facility. I'm guessing there's more than one that they can build. Yeah, a place to park trucks so they're not outside in the evening stuff. Yeah, something rather large. So we're in the process of identifying what we can and cannot do once we have an amount. We'll certainly bring it to the board because the amounts will require the town to spend money in advance and then seek a reimbursement. So we'll exceed the purchasing policy amounts. So we're hoping to spend as much of that money as possible. So was this money originally intended for something else and it didn't get spent on it? It was originally intended to construct a wastewater and water facility and it was just once the project had been completed, there was this much money that was left over. So this is part of a bigger grant? Much bigger, yeah. I think it was the original, several million dollars for the grant initially for the construction of the whole plant. It's just part of a 3. something million, wasn't it, that was granted and then there was a bond for the balance? Exactly. So this is left over from that grant? From that grant. I think it was initially issued, I don't have the exact date, but it was a little years ago. So why wasn't the bond just $300,000 less? I guess the bond was issued on the estuary before the construction took place. So the construction came in at less than what? 300,000 under the estuary, yeah. And it has to be spent on construction. Okay, well, let's find out what we can do with it. Should have something very soon, okay. Got me something about it in here. EV charging station grant. I've continued to work with the R3 Group that had initially brought this grant proposal for the select board and your packets are estimate for the cost of installing an EV charging station at Town Hall because the request to investigate a second location had come after the proposed bidders had visited Town Hall. We're not able to get an actual estimate for the middle island. The middle island, yeah. We're still working on obtaining an estimate for that to see if the power lines that go up the poles are sufficient or provide enough power for the EV charging station. So what we wanted to do is share this with you in an effort to show goodwill to the committee because we missed the first application date because there were several questions that needed to be answered that we couldn't just agree to apply for a grant without having these answers. Committee understood the next application deadline isn't until spring of next year. So this is just more of sharing with the cost, the approximate costs would be the bids that came in or roughly and all within the same area of the high 20s. There was one outlier that was going to cost the grant roughly about $30,000 which we all agreed was an outlier. So we're estimating roughly in the $20,000 range which would come in costing the town roughly about $2,000 as a 10%. Are we going to be careful of putting a charging station up on the building because that's our ADA accessible parking spot and that removes that from your account for ADA because just somebody without an electric vehicle unless you're going to allow anybody to park there and make the electric vehicle wait which kind of needs the purpose. Yeah, that location has ideally changed. It wouldn't be at that far end. We would probably push it in closer to the door which then became a concern because it could essentially be two empty spots. So the ideal location if possible would be in the middle aisle. So then it wouldn't change anything in front of town. It doesn't change anything in front of town if you go in the middle aisle. Exactly. So we're still working on it. The top item is a resolution. So the application requires that the municipality issue a resolution saying yes, we are supportive of this grant. We can meet the 10% match. It isn't something that we will, that I'm asking this like we're to approve now because we don't have all the information here but I just wanted to make sure that I can go back to the R3 group and say, this is still in the process. We're moving toward fulfilling that part of their mission. I think so. Well, business, economic direction, position. That just a follow up just to announce to the select board that we will commence recruitment for the position. I could say as early as tomorrow, although ideally we'll probably be starting on Monday where we will send out the position announcement, removing any contract position language from the announcement and essentially just making it a full town employee position. Once that announcement is complete, ideally probably on Monday, we'll share it with the select board so that the board members can then share it with their, anyone that they feel is interested in applying for the position, so. So we're gonna, and then we're gonna reach out to, are we gonna mark that position? I'm planning to work with BLCT. I'm also planning to share with BLCT's counterparts in our local neighboring states just if anyone wants to apply. We are, someone has intent to upload it to like indeed.com because people sometimes will just apply for things that they may not be qualified for. And it's a lot about, so the partnership with other, like our green man economic development, those types of agencies that should be distributed to those, even though they're not in our district, it would seem like there may be somebody out there from some place like that. Other regional development, course. Send it up to them, you've got Joan. Yeah, go to Joan, those, okay. I wanna make sure we're gonna get a broad range on this. Yeah, this is gonna be sent out to all of our partners that they can share it with their interested parties. Right. And at some point, I would like to ask us to let board for their thoughts on an interview panel. Ideally, I was thinking folks from the governor's office that maybe want to participate on the interview panel was to let board for sure. Other business-related entities in town, maybe green man economic. Right. And some of our partners in this would be, you know, certainly. They're gonna be able to work with them. Huh? Yeah, well, definitely. You gotta make sure it's compatible here. So, yeah, it would be certainly, that's a great idea is to put together that kind of a committee. Thank you. Personnel policy review and update. I wanted to share with the board that this week, I received a message from our attorney. He has completed our full review or a full review of our proposed personal policy changes. I did not include it in the packet and will not ask the board to make a decision on updating personal policy because I have not had a chance to read through the whole document. I hope to include it in a future meeting, but at that point, the version that the board will see will be a fully edited and updated version from our attorney. What's your lease agreement? Our town attorney, I looked at my time because Green Lantern's attorney, our attorney in Green Lantern had been working on a, we have been working on updating this lease agreement for the proposed solar array at the landfill. I gave him the time of 6.30 because we typically, we're running really late. Oh, we gotta get him by then. Yeah, so, but what I can share in advance is that this lease agreement just expands on the lease agreement that the board approved last year or earlier this year, I should say, no, earlier this year, this is a long form lease agreement that our attorney reviewed and then also our attorney participated with me and Green Lantern on a conference call yesterday just to confirm that everything had remained the same. Our attorney feels very confident that the town is protected and the amounts on here remain the same as those that the board had approved before for a lease, an annual lease payment from Green Lantern. And this is separate from the conversation that was brought up at the last elect board meeting by Green Lantern about the net meter, which is independent of that. We're waiting for them then. He was coming in to answer questions, but if the board doesn't have any, then we, you know, the board can make a decision, but we would like to wait for the attorney to ask questions. This is the one that's on the closed section, right? That's right, yeah. And it's only tying them into that. That's right. We did include items on here that will make the agency Green Lantern responsible for any damage to the cats. To the cats, yeah. Who maintains the access? To the landfill? To their, that road, they have to show a road. Their only requirement with regard to access was, one of the issues that we raised was potential opening of the landfill for any number of reasons, a new construction, reopening the landfill, anything else. Green Lantern didn't have a problem with us doing that, but in terms of maintaining an actual road, they would only be using the existing road. We're leasing them more, more land now than what they need to put the panels on. We're leasing them. So it was down to what they, in the early stages, we were leasing them the space they needed for their panels. But now I see whether they're reserving the right to install more panels. The lease agreement is for, I'm not mistaken, 1.5 acres sitting on top of the cap itself. So we get the same rent, even if they put in more solar panels. Right, I believe the agreement is for the 1.5. I thought they were already maxing out what they could put up in that space. I'm gonna get their new image in the back. Yeah, so I think their initial review on this, because I think this happened prior to me showing up here. Well, and it wasn't the whole thing, it was a smaller area, and then they wanted everything, the entire land that we had down there. And we said no. Right, so now they've just limited it to the top of land. And now they've taken the entire area. You don't want to point the top portion of it. What is the top portion that slopes out to the south? Just from the top and slopes down from. From the very top, brow, bumper. Yep. It's interesting that 1.5 acres is more than what they had come to us with previously. Well, I think they've had a couple of different footprints. There was one that was upwards of five, almost five acres large, and then decreased it over time over several meetings, I believe they came in, and then it was decreased from the larger footprint to much smaller, because their engineer had come back and said they couldn't, they felt that they couldn't expand to the larger shape. With the wheat. With the wheat. Yeah. Oh, yeah, it was. But it looks like now they've gone to drawing a bigger line, putting what the current poles, they're probably reserving the right to put more on if they come up with a lighter weight system that they can install. I just want to cut up that extra profit. And I'm so sorry. They can eat them all. I'm a little greedy. I got another bite of this apple. And Ray, it seems like it's acceptable. I'm not actually with it. No, I'm not awake to make them share what they talked to us. We can move on to the town report. They get the town report. Well, we have several items that remain open. One of those is if the board wished to dedicate the town report to someone. We haven't had two dedicated persons selected yet. How much time do we have to make that decision? January? Until January. We have a little time to ponder that. We still have, we have the budget meeting coming up. We also have the special meeting and then also the select board meetings. So we have a little time to pick that around. We can think of somebody to... It's also a photograph. We haven't discussed photograph. I don't know if the board has any preference. I can just assign someone with staff to pick something or they have a preference of a photograph to have on the town report. It needs to be someplace besides the village and the photograph. Let me ponder. Let me ponder the little thoughts on that. Who did dedicate to and what the photographs would look like? I think we had settled on. I think Larry had volunteered to write the message for the select board. So we have that. Right? We still have some time. All right. I think that was it, right, Shannon? Yeah. Yeah, those items, no. I could think of a handful of people that I might consider for that. About other business? No other business today. The other business I had was the selecting of a date in January for reclassification of the roads. About the manager's report. I thought I had plenty. We were looking to fill time. All right. I'll give those lawyers. I don't want to feel them too bad and turn around the boards and I'm upstairs. You don't want to go till 10. I'm actually in there, bud. I'm pretty sure the lawyer's still going to bill whether he, like... Yeah, I appreciate it. I'm just like, but at least let me sit in the chair for a second. Let him sit in the chair for a second. Our lawyer knows how I operate, so he didn't volunteer to come down. The town received word from the fire warden that he is interested in stepping down. He will remain as a fire warden until we find a replacement. The fire warden has sent an e-mail message to all of the chiefs informing them of his decision. And we're currently now in the process of attempting to find someone with the necessary qualifications. I think you should have a line. You get paid all of $30 for the year, just if anybody wants to know what's involved. Yeah. Your phone rings at all hours of the day. Asking for a permit. Asking for a permit or telling on somebody who they think is burning something they shouldn't be. You get to go out and inspect it at your own time and make friends while you're out there asking about the burning. Is this a statutory requirement? And actually, yeah. And if you, if there is a forest fire, you're the one in charge directing the firemen how to put it out. So. Yep. For $30. I have been. Is that statutory? That's my point. Is that statutory? The $30? Yeah, I don't know. But that's what you get. You get a check from ANR. And you have to attend at least two-thirds of the annual trainings that they have. And those are always in dairy. So. So what about that job? I don't know. We got Brookfield. We're not interested in Randolph too, just for the record. One of the suggestions that was raised was potentially finding money in the budget for the town to be able to augment any any costs. By statute, you have to pay if the fire warden presents to you their ticket points, you have to reimburse them a dollar per permit. A dollar. We have not bothered to collect our tickets. Yeah. We're going to do it all at once. I think it worth the check. It doesn't seem right. You know, these things have been in existence for 40 years. Well, they just went up. It was $20 until last year. $20? It went to $30. Wow. What's a 50% increase? This is the same state as it was. We want to have a $15 driven wage. Yep. Okay. It's a beautiful thing. We're searching. Good luck. We'll live from Green Lantern's year before we would like to. We're back to that section. Apologies. We're just killing time. No, we're not. We're doing real important stuff. Talking about the well-paid fire warden positions in the town. Every town has to have one. Yeah. Well, we're on the border under Hill Jericho, so there's two for under Hill and two for Jericho. Plus the fire department is across towns. It's the Jericho under Hill Fire Department with two fire stations. That's where I'm from. Jericho. Yeah. No fires, thankfully. No fires, thankfully. You guys haven't had any real fires either. We had a couple. Yeah. I'm here to answer any and all questions that pertains to the long-form lease for the solar project. You probably already told everyone about the phone call. Yeah. We briefly spoke about it. The decision that the board had was to wait in respect to, you know, the visiting attorney, but I guess God isn't coming. Okay. So. Do we plow currently down through past where they're proposing or access for it? We do plow when we need to get all the way to the end. And Chris Quarterly will have to go, I believe it's actually monthly, he has to make his way to... For monitoring? Yeah, for monitoring. Leachate all the other items that he takes out. So we do plow. As frequently as they might need. So on that aspect, the system itself is monitored through the internet, right? We're not actively on site. The requirement through the certificate of public good is that there is access to the site, and that's on the utility side because the utility maintains an easement already. That's basically bordering the road for the interconnection where the electric goes down to the point interconnection of the project, right at the cat portion of the landfill. But a utility easement doesn't mandate that the town has to plow for them to access that easement. Correct. And if there's an issue with the plowing and maintenance, I would say that we can work that into the contract to make sure that if there were... And it's didn't want you to assume that when you came here on a Wednesday to look at something in the snow, was it interesting that the town was supposed to plow here out? And it's not necessary because we're not going to be coming on a weekly, monthly basis when the project actually goes in and gets installed over that time period. There's going to be a bunch of activity, but this project is slated for construction beginning of next year, so it's not going to be during the snow season. So I don't see it becoming an issue and it hasn't been an issue with any of our other projects that we have that are on the remote side. Even where GMP requires access, we haven't had any issues on the snow side because the annual inspections will generally happen during the summer because that's when the system is performing at its peak and that's when they generally do an annual inspection. Okay. Any concerns? We just don't have to run down a plow if somebody calls and says, we can't get in here. Is it tough? To bring your snow shoes? To bring to recreation in this town. Didn't you just have thoughts about the space and the possibility of additional panels in the future? That did come up on the phone call and I can speak to that because we talked about the potential for expanding the landfill's capacity for landfill uses. There's nothing within the lease language that keeps you from doing anything else that you want to do on your parcel for landfill purposes. The specific solar site would not be able to be expanded any larger than it is, even in the future. And that's because of the way the rules work for siting on a capped landfill. We're on the capped portion of the landfill and there's no more room on that particular landfill to expand any further. I do know you have other landfills on the road and as far as you can demonstrate that there's separate accesses of interconnection and they're separate facilities. They're not considered one facility you could put in a new facility under a new permit. Even if they were to be considered the same facilities under size, you can go up to a 500 so we're not at a 500 right now. I was actually looking at your other capped landfill and trying to come up with a proposal that would work under the new tariffs. We haven't gotten there yet because the biggest issue is the utilities line. We're already dealing with a transmission ground a TGOV, a transmission ground over voltage and because of that issue there is a system restraint over putting any more generation. Particularly to this project Green Mountain Power is making the upgrade to accommodate this generator on a pre-existing issue with the system. So I would just from my professional I would say professionally from dealing with GMP over the last couple of years you'd have to reevaluate to see if additional generation is going to create that same transmission issue. And if it does it would be at the project's cost not at the utilities cost and it might be cost to have any additional generation because of GMP's system. The system can't take any more in that particular area. So knowing all that in section 500 use it says the tenant shall have the right to alter, replace, expand, enhance and upgrade the solar facility. You would mind us taking the word expand now. I don't believe that would be an issue. I would like to double check on the expand language but I can say that I don't think it's going to be an issue on the expand. We just want another quite negotiating bill about if you're going to be able to produce more power down there. We would never be able to produce more than the nameplate capacity. I can tell you in the real world the only thing that could potentially happen is 10 or 15 years down the road when the panels have reached a certain degradation and hopefully channel pricing has come way down and it's become like a ubiquitous type product and the performance of the panel has gone way up. We might put in new panels then but that's still a very expensive proposition and generally what we've seen is once they're in, they're left and there's no real financial plans to replace or upgrade panels because it's not. Until their life is over, right? Yeah. Which is the 25 year, hopefully 35 years. They'd have to become really super supervision and produce a whole lot more before it becomes viable to change amount earlier in the game. But you can come out with a new panel that's much lighter. You might be able to put more on top of that calf without weighting it down. Yeah, because that's the limitation. It's the weight, right? That's part of it. The space in the weight or is it just the space? It's physical. The panel sizes are not going to change. So what's change? So panels generally three feet by six feet. The amount of cells that they pack into that three foot by six foot is changing and the output is changing. So, you know, a few years ago we were doing 250 watt panels, that's three or four. Right. Now it's generally 340 watt. So even in a couple of years we went up by 100 watts. 100 watts. There are panels available that are 480 watts. They're just not used commercially in the marketplace because they degrade quickly. They're not reliable and they're extremely expensive. Yeah, as I say, probably cost per heritage. So every year it goes up by about 40 or 50 watts on what gets put out commercially. So projects that are going to get permitted for the 2019 cycle being built in 20 might have 365, 385 watt panels. So it's just a small percentage increase from the 340 watt. All right. I have no more questions. If the expand question has been answered, I'm fine with that. Just need a motion. Throw it into Delpho's hands. Motion to approve and make him the signer. Yeah. Negotiate the word expand. We Okay, I'll make that motion. I'll authorize Delpho to finish the negotiations with the expand word and move forward with the project. Okay. Make you the signer, too. Yeah, make you the signer. You're the town manager. That's your job. That's the motion. I'll second. Motion of the second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstained? Motion carries. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. I will get the answer to that question first thing in the morning and we'll keep on keeping on. Like I said, we're all on schedule for building out in the first quarter of next year. And then I think the next time you would see me would be a follow-up to the net metering question, which is basically does the town wish to have a participant as the net meter off-taker, which was the last meeting I presented on that. Which we hope you do, Ms. Washington, because that's another good benefit to take advantage of. We need to raise our amount of solar we're doing here by a significant amount in order to meet the goals. Right now we're at 10% of what we need, so. Well, I would say most of the diligence work and I can show you what is feasible for follow-up under the new set of rules. Okay, there is interest in, you know, from the Planning Commission meetings that have happened here and a lot of comments that came out, there's interest for a community solar project where people could buy into it if you're able to kind of put those kind of projects together, but we're hearing a lot of that kind of coming back. With communities, the best way to look at it and what we can help you do is it runs the same but it's a different business model. So on the permitting side we can completely deliver on a community it's a tougher proposition because you have to manage, even for 150, you're talking about 50 to 60, maybe even up to 80 individual players. So in that sense you have to really go to a community solar specialist and not that we aren't specialists but they're not entering the market as fast as they were three years ago because the rates are going down. So for them, the lower rate has taken away that spread so the management isn't really completely worth it. I will say this, Catamount Solar continues to do community solar very well, so I can give them a recommendation. I'm not trying to talk ourselves out of a job, but on the permitting, siting, and building side we can coordinate that and we've done our own community solar down in southern Vermont. It's just not an easy model to make work for sure. Good to know. That's basically what it is. No, that's fine. The community has interest in it. They think that's the direction they need to go, but they might not understand the economics. The economics, well and here's something that's hopeful is that the legislature and renewable energy Vermont, I encourage you to throw an email to Rev and say, hey please give us some more allowances for community solar, because that's being talked about right now, but it has never been pushed over the line to make it more valuable for community solar, because Connecticut just did that. It helps. You're going to need those incentives to make these things work. Alright, thank you. Absolutely, have a good night. Back to me. It's the same with the fire theme. At the last fire advisory committee meeting, I shared with the fire chiefs and the members of the committee an interest in reviewing our existing stock of apparatus equipment before they then turn around and can ask the select board to purchase a new tanker. The chiefs agreed they will plan to meet between now and potentially the next fire advisory committee meeting to discuss their needs and whether or not they would recommend the select board to purchase any tanker. So we'll have more to share after they meet, which will likely be in early January. The town has been working with RASTA in their efforts to submit an application for the Vorac grant, Vermont after recreation grant. We have an application that we feel will be great for the town, great for RASTA. It would request an amount of $60,000. We're working with them now. The deadline to apply is the 14th. We feel we've got a great application. We've got a lot of what would already be considered matching funds. We are a downtime designated area, so we're going to get extra points with the grant. So we feel very confident in the grant that we're pulling together. It's being spearheaded by Zach so he's really doing a lot of work with us this morning. He's done a really good job. It's a great grant so far. The R3 group has shared with us that they're taking up the mantle of child care. So they're going to be forming a committee to discuss the issue of child care. I've asked them to put me on the list because I'd like to start participating in those meetings, in addition to the other meetings that I've attended. They should have more soon. Damien DiNicola has agreed to be the chair for now. So at the very least a person coordinating the committee at the start. The ad hoc police district evaluation committee is next scheduled to meet on January 9th. That is the date when all committee members are asking to attend. They do expect at least for now that the meeting will are expecting to make a final decision at that point. At the last meeting that was held it was not an official vote that was taken but a consensus was that the committee would be leading toward a contract with the Sheriff's Department. That they wanted to have one final meeting with all members present so they could talk about everything, data, issues, requests before making a recommendation to the select point. So parking in the village we are working with the Sheriff's Department to really enforce the winter parking ban in the downtown area. We have created a plan to a long-term plan to amend the parking restrictions for the town that would make it more of a learned behavior to prevent that from happening in the area. We have not made any steps once we do. We'll bring them to the select court for recommendations and bring approval to implement because it would require a policy change. But until then what we plan to do is start reminding residents through posting on the town's website, sending notices to the Herald and potentially also posting out for a porch forum that overnight parking in the town and then reminding them that we have municipal lots that they may use for parking. Part of a long-term plan. I wanted to also just share a general update about the swimming pool. We've reconnected with our REC director and our now highway superintendent who was building the grounds at that point have reconnected with believe their name is Wesson and they are constructing company of swimming pools. They are the company that's providing us with the information that was requested by the board, the longevity of repairs, what life we should expect to see from those repairs should the select board go that route or potentially also costs for building a new swimming pool in addition to information that we may find for grants that may be available. We plan to bring that all to the select board at the January meeting so that they can review all the options and then decide whether where it wants to go for a new pool or for repairs. Good thing they went the roads to their own date because this January meeting is getting a lot better. I can say that if the select board were to choose to go for repairs as opposed to a new swimming pool we do have sufficient funds that wouldn't impact other long-term projects but really use recreation funds that are available and push those projects out a year or two or three. In addition to just funding processes that we can implement. It wouldn't be a huge burden on the down to prepare the pool. I have established contact with a codification company. These are the folks that would help us to make our current codes and policies more standard. Burlington has a great website where they list all their codes and it's an easy search for people who want to perform a search. I received a quote for service. It is rather costly. It's projected to cost somewhere between $2,000 and $5,000 depending on the level of detail that we would like and what we would like to have on the site. It's something that I'm still working on and one of the goals that the select company has set for me. It sounds costly until you get in a lawsuit and you don't have something with the current language and it's pretty cheap. You're right. Overall it's not it's really the $5,000 is something that we could find. So we did recently our highway superintendent our county junior and I recently met with New England Central Rail at the railroad railroad street to revisit the project railroad is comfortable with not requiring a guardrail but a K rail of sorts. It's just something that would act as a barrier. They also would allow larger stones that could be seen as art. They're still holding firm on a number of different things which include charging the town a potential fee for leasing the land and then also requiring some form of water movement storm water movement so it would still remain a costly project for the town but we're still open to speaking with them and we're at some point bring a final recommendation to the board for your review. We could charge them a fee for managing their storm water. That's just happening more than their personnel. Their engineers were surprised to see what the road condition is like but they also, they weren't in a position to go against the company but they were clearly surprised at what the condition of the road is like now. The plowing issue. With the feeling like well we should do something. Maybe. Maybe. Like okay we understand your concern. Your challenge is that they would not be the decision makers. Exactly. Their decision makers will be in my office in early January. Lock the door and hold them hostage. So that's an ongoing project for us. We are taking more steps to standardize our HR process. We had a speaker come in to address the entire town staff. We had a workshop called Respect in the Workplace. It went over incredibly well. Our highway team, wastewater team they all spoke very highly of the speaker and have asked to have more of these types of trainings so we intend to incorporate those on a regular basis. We are also going to start standardizing the hiring process to include more webinars, web trainings for new hirees. So we want to make sure that we are compliant with the law when we make changes. We are moving in that direction. We recently met with RACDC Perry. You were in attendance, Larry. We also attended. We had a number of different topics that we discussed. One of the items that was recently agreed to bring to the Select Board discussion was RACDC's interest in participating in a child care facility potentially one of our buildings in 45 South Bain Street. They are open to becoming more involved in that. They also asked me to bring to the Select Board their request to potentially have a partnership for their proposed housing facility at Salisbury Square. They seem to be very open to working with the town but also working with the business community and determining what their project will be like. They are holding firm on a few things but they are also being very open to having a conversation long-term if the town is willing to also have the conversation of becoming more involved in their project. I committed to bringing that to the Select Board. We didn't commit to anything else other than just to continue the conversation. We have to have more to share soon. And that is all I have for Manager's Report for now. Next is a motion to go into Executive Session and invite Adolfo on Attorney Town Communication and Labor Relations Agreements. I'm going to be going to Executive Session just a second and invite Adolfo to join us. Motion in the second. All those in favour? Aye.