 That's 631. Me, you're late. I'll be in order. We have any addition. Yeah. One is next step in discussion about the town garage and then a right of way permit came in today. That is connected to a septic system that I'm bringing to you this evening so they can keep going forward on this project. Okay. Oh, yeah. Public comment. Hi. Hi. So this is Patty. I think you're acknowledging me. Yes. So you are a member of the public. Yes. I'm Patty. I live on the county road here in East Montpelier. And so I, I, and before I make a, well, I guess it's maybe part of my comment, but I attended the meeting earlier this year that talked about the county road closures and Larry's proposal. And anyway, I had looked at the meeting minutes and I didn't see that I, I, that I was listed as having made a comment in that meeting. I just am mentioning that, but anyway, I. Heard through the grapevine. That through some people from the rec committee. That there are four dates for the. Road closure. So I, I got to be able to attend that meeting. This year. And so I went back and watched the. Select for the last select board meeting. And I didn't, I just want to also just say that I didn't notice that that was coming up as an agenda item. With the select board. So it really caught me by surprise. I was surprised. My guess is that select board meetings do not have to be warned on front porch forum, but I do wanna say it's really helpful when they are. And I guess I need to like just make myself more educated about where to look for and to watch for the select board meeting agendas. So anyway, it's helpful when they're there, but I didn't notice that agenda item for the last select, that the last select board meeting agenda was posted. So I missed it. So anyway, I just wanna say that, you know, I mean, obviously this event's gonna happen on the 9th of July. So I understand that I'm not trying to like reverse any course or anything, but I am disappointed though, that after the select board voted down doing the event three times at the meeting earlier this year, and that was conditional on the insurance and the safety training, that now that those, you know, with the insurance and safety training issues resolve that another vote has taken for four times. And I understand that also that it's revocable, I may or may not be using the right word, but based on the results of the first one. So I guess my, I just have two suggestions, I guess. So first of all, I'm disappointed because it feels like this is sort of like happening without being out in the open. And, you know, I understand Larry is saying he's gonna communicate with people on County Road, it'd be nice if he communicated before because this is gonna come as quite a surprise, I think. But anyway, my suggestions are that the detour should not start at Barnes Road. That's a very difficult road for people to negotiate if they're towing a boat out to Calis or something or a camper or whatever. That's very difficult. I think it's much easier to divert people. I'm not saying close the road necessarily, but at least for the detour to divert people at Center Road. And I noticed that Carl's not there. I will make those suggestions directly to Carl and to Larry as well. And the other suggestion that I have is to do some data collection because, you know, given that the feedback that was collected has been kind of discounted for various reasons. I'm a little bit concerned that any feedback after the July 9th event could also be discounted. And I know you asked for a report. And so I'm going to suggest to and also volunteer to help do some actual data collection. You know, how many people are taking advantage of the opportunity? Where are they from? How many cars are getting diverted? How many cars are, you know, entering and exiting the closed section of the road? That sort of thing. So anyway, that's really all that I have to say. Okay, so I'd like to address it from the beginning. And the first thing that I'm getting out of the conversation that you were pointing to us is that we did not post our agenda. So the agenda is posted in the way that it is statutorily required to be posted. The front porch form thing was an idea that Michael Dwayne had. I do typically try to get them on there, but frankly, been quite busy. It's not required. And I did not get that agenda posted to front porch form prior to the last meeting. But again, that was always a nice to have. And this was actually an example of why I was concerned with people being too dependent on front porch form because it is not the official means. And it's on our website. It's, you know, the way it's kind of always been. It's on our town website. If you would like to be included in emails, it actually does get emailed to a group of citizens that I inherited from Bruce Johnson. And it is posted physically at the town office, at the post office, and at Four Corners Schoolhouse. And that's how it's always been. The front porch form thing is actually pretty new. Yeah. So, yeah. Yes. So four places that was posted. Number two, you said it was not our agenda. Oh no, it was on the agenda. No, yeah, it was on the agenda. It was on the agenda. It was posted in places. We're not trying to hide anything. We have minutes here from the meeting. It's a whole page of minutes where that was discussed at our open meeting. Everyone is open. Everyone can come to the meeting. Everyone's welcome. Yeah. The thing is going, as a matter of fact, we have never tried to hide anything about this. Everything has been an open meeting, open discussion. Our agendas have been posted. The minutes are here to prove that. So when you say we're trying to do something behind people's backs, I take offense at that because we are very open about our meetings. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like I said, I understand. I'm just saying how I think Gina makes a good point becoming dependent on the front porch form to know. So I just didn't know that it was happening. And so I'm not like, I think I have more. Larry's going to get a lot of backlash. And I'll talk with him about it. I think he should be trying to get more feedback and be more open, et cetera. So I'm not trying to point a finger at the select board. You're doing everything by the, OK, I'm not trying to say that. I'm saying that I think maybe, I guess the thing that's concerning is that the feedback that was solicited by the select board was kind of disregarded for various reasons. But one citizen is able to come to the select board and gain approval for something that's going to affect lots of people. And he wasn't, it's like, Larry, did you get input from other people? So like I said, you haven't done anything wrong. July 9th is going to happen. And I think it's going to be unfortunate that there's going to be a lot of blowback when people find out what's going on. But that aside, so I'm not trying to say that the select board did anything wrong, but I'm telling you how it feels to me. And I'm one person on that stretch of road. And it's not just the people on the stretch of road. It's the people out beyond the stretch of the road. So I guess at this point, like, and I will talk with Larry and Carl, I want to suggest to them that the detour start at center or at least divert traffic there. It is, I don't know how often any of the other people on this at the meeting or on the select board travel on barns. It's a tricky road. So and again, and the other piece is I think there should be some actual data collection. And I will talk with them about that because it will be easy to just, you know, what's he going to report on, right? Fifteen people and they had a good time. You're on the schedule. Three people that want to say something. I'm going to say I'm done. You're done. Just on the schedule. And Joey wants to say something. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, what would you like to say? Patty, real quick, on the website, it lists the agenda and it lists all of the information for the meeting tonight. And under the town administrators report, Gina has listed our meetings going through October 16th. OK. We also meet the first. We meet the first normally in the third of the month. It's the first of the Mondays of the month. It's pretty much, it's not a surprise when we have select board meetings. Hey, Joey. Oh, yeah, I totally get that. Yep, not trying to say that it is. I understand that. Yeah, Patty, I just wanted to address your feeling that the data was disregarded before. I'm really sorry that you feel that way. And I just wanted you to know that if 100% of the feedback was negative, then of course we would have listened to that. But there's more nuance to data interpretation. And I did have regard and think carefully about all of the data that I was given, including negative data, and it seemed clear from what I was made to understand that a lot of the negative feedback could be from actually misinterpretation or miscommunication and some elements that hadn't been smoothed out yet that might actually be corrected on the first event. So I hope this can help assuage your fears that we were just given data and disregarding it, because that's not what happened. OK, thank you. So the other thing about the approval for the first event is revocable, meaning that if we have a lot of, you're just saying that we may have a lot of blowback on this, if we do, we can say, hey, this isn't going to work. So it's not set in stone. He's going to have four events. Yeah. This could be ended after the first event. Well, it's time for a second or third of work. Whatever. Yeah. If we have a lot of negative feedback and this is not going to work, we can revoke it. We can revoke our approval. I'm going to speak from a East Palm Hill, your resident perspective. So the one thing I will say is no communication has come out yet about this event. So one thing I think that Patty's also feeling, the only team person in this town that has reached out to actually get feedback in an attempt to get feedback using front porch forum from a wide forum of our population was town administrator Gina Jenkins. Nothing else has gone out about this event. So I think part of what we're feeling, and this has been a concern of mine, there's now got nothing has been sent out about what is planned for the event, what the new plans are, so to Zoe's point about communication, nothing's happening. So I think that this is something that the select board should take into consideration with this as well. So I think that's what's tough. Where Patty is this, I've been waiting to see something come on front porch forum, some information, nothing yet. So as residents don't yet know outside of what was in that meeting, what the plans are and nothing was really clearly spelled out yet. So the thing about the way we handle this is we pass it off to the right board and to one other member of the select. So it was sort of out of our purview as far as advertising the event. It wasn't up to us. Yeah. And that's what I mean from a resident perspective. Nothing's really come out yet. So I think people are going to start to get concerned as we come up to the July 4th, week of July 4th, that what is happening, you know? So. They're going to say, hey, you've got people that's going to start to have it. It's going to be late. What's happening? You know, it's just what it's, it'll be, I think it's an important factor for the select board and can, you know, to watch what is the communication. You know, the last time that this happened, I posted on front porch forum about it happening in a very neutral way. I wasn't, you know, like, I'm not like, didn't try to make a position. I was just like, hey, this is happening. I want people to know because it wasn't there. So anyway, that's, but, you know, that can be part of your evaluation of how it goes, I guess. Well, we'll, we'll take everything under consideration. We'll reach out to the very government and we will definitely be reviewing the situation after the first event. I can promise that it will be on our agenda. And I think you know now where the four places are that we post our agenda. Yeah. That's not always on front porch forum, but it is posted. Yeah. Oh yeah. Get on the mailing list too. Yeah, I was going to say I'm heading, send me an email with your contact information and I can add you to that, to that group. Sure. Thank you. And then you'll know for sure. Okay. All right. Thank you. Man, we're going to go back to that. Well, you know, I felt rushed. So, but thank you for coming in and obviously this is not going to go away. It will be on our agenda as we move forward. Thank you. Thank you. Bye-bye. Yeah. Okay. So we have to review the minutes. Have you already done it? I think they're wonderful. I'll make a motion to accept the minutes. I'll second that. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Yeah, I fear they haven't, they do have it. The minutes are approved. Back to public comment. If Carl's not here today, if you're lonely up there, I can move to sit next to you if I'm lonely at all. Okay. I'm just trying to change. I want to make sure that Karen is comfortable. Anyway, no. Good company. I'm not. I just want to be happy. We're happy. Yeah, we can move on. I'm good. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So, what is our way to the first item? Number three, full appointment. So the next item is Washington County Sheriff, review of May statistics, consideration, contract renewal for July 1st. Okay. So we have the statistics here. Primarily speeding. Yeah. Oh, what a surprise. Not surprising. Yeah. That was a trial of restraint. Well, I think. Yeah, there is. It's quite a list. I actually saw them out in North Lawn Piliar. Parked on the road, it goes over to Plainfield. And I was really happy to see them there because people slide down that hill. Yeah. And yeah, they were off just to the side. You know, unfortunately, I wasn't speeding, but you know what? It makes you think now. It makes you think when you drive through there. I make sure that I'm not speeding. I wonder if they've been over the center. Yeah. I don't love that way that often. I do quite often. I haven't seen them out there, but I know that's always a big, big speed thing there. And then the contract, as you recall, when Sheriff. Yeah. When he was here previously, that they were increasing their rate to $60 per hour, starting in July. So that's obviously what this contract reflects. So if we continued with the five hours per week that we've allocated between that and then the mileage reimbursement that we would have, we should be within budget to essentially continue this contract. And I think it's important to note that as well, we are expecting the services of the Washington County Sheriff's Department to assist with the County Road event that was approved at the last meeting. So probably something you may want to consider continuing into July 1st. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds good. So that's a year of contract. Correct. Sounds good. I'm good with it. When you guys start passing around things to sign, you have the actual, there's two, that's correct. I do have a question related to that. Okay. As a console, if I have a question regarding some sort of law enforcement issue, it's so it's no longer BSC, but watching them. Okay. Yeah. You got it? Yeah. They're nothing against the, unless they just weren't able to do what they had sort of expected. I mean, we sort of expect them to do some of their hours, you know, under the contract. I mean, we're only just billed for what they did. But when they were doing no hours, it's like, you know, What's the point? Yeah. What was the point? And they're in town that expect us to have some law enforcement. I mean, so I think it was a good move to move to, because they actually commit to doing the hours and they do it. So that's okay. So anyway, where we're going to talk about bringing the contract to them? Yeah. So are we going to do a vote? Well, we should make a motion if you're happy with it. With the contract and the raid. I'm talking about that. Yeah. I mean, we've discussed it before. It was, this is nothing new. I'll make a motion to approve the contract from July 1st, 2023 through June 30th, 2024, at the appropriate, the agreed upon rates and hours. It's a renewal, actually. Okay. Yeah. So we have a second on that? I'll second it. Oh, can we second it? I'll debate with the sale. Hi. Hi. Here to have it, they do have it. All right. So the next thing that we have to consider are the cemetery price changers. And they are a definite, definite, they're definitely higher than they were. But competitive with, if you look at the other pages, there's other material there. They look pretty competitive, if not cheaper in some respects. They'd be familiar to the towns. So that's sort of why I came to talk about this a little bit. Okay. So you won't try to take a seat, that's where the thing is. Sure. Yeah, whatever you'd like. So with our new senator, everybody's calling for acts. James's rates are more than what we originally charged. That's sort of where this all came from. Yeah. So I took the opportunity to kind of raise them to the levels that our other cemeteries are at. Now, the other thing to know is I'm doing this unilaterally outside the scope of the committee because the chairman refused to call the meeting. Oh. So just, can I ask you a question? How about the foundation for the stolen? That should be in your summary too. It's like 600 bucks and maybe I didn't see it. You know, I'm not having it in front of me either. No, but usually I hire somebody outside. It wasn't really up to them. Yeah. So Eli had to switch that. Oh, like the same company does plain month, plain month. They do plain month, solid plain months. And they're doing the foundation? Yeah, so I don't care either way or the other. I just didn't know. I thought it would be there, that's all. I'm wondering if it's a, I don't look at the contract, but one thing is if setting foundations falls outside of the contract and that you would be hiring him independently. You could hire him or hire whoever you wanted to. I know the way I thought it was. I know his family chair. And it probably was. I think Eli got done with porn foundations. Oh yeah. When I asked him about it, because I had one before, I was just hired in the jail, Matt Peacock. And then he set the film. So, but there's nothing about filming here anyway. Yeah, right, right. No, I'll just say that's a just question. But no, it's a good question. And if that's something you want to put in the contract or the price list actually. Is it people that we know? Because whether you're going to get around it, they might do all this. And then suddenly right at the last second, they're going to say, hey, no, we can't do any of that till we have that foundation for it. Well, no, you can do all this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I can't set a song. You can't set the song. But there's nothing about filming here anyway. Right. So it's like, if someone asked about a song, that's stuff to them. Right. The way it was when I did it. Is it this part? I know this is a little the incorporation of monument foundations measuring less than 16 by 15 to the contractor. So we wrote this ish that they're paying him directly. Okay. Yeah. Right. We thought with the wealth of burial. Right. It's not really. It's a little bit. But yeah, that's what he needs to be paid. They may not tell you about it. I'm like, no, you just get your own stone made and then you hire somebody to set it. Right. Yeah. And using the monument dealership that cellular stone have people to set it as well. Yeah. That's part of the conversation. Right. It's like, do you want us to set the stone? Okay. And then I'll ask somebody to do it. Right. Yeah. And in his contract, he will do it for $600 for a particular monument square. Yeah. That's what's done. Yeah. Okay. So that's fine. Yeah. So my logic behind the actual numbers is it puts the onus on the people actually use the cemetery. Right. So people actually using cemetery are now going to pay more in theory the taxpayers are going to pay less as a result of that. And then to... The freight is something expensive. Correct. Yeah. So it is in line with the vast majority of the other cemeteries. Yeah. Yeah. I know it's an increase, but I don't really have a problem with it. I think there's going to be a lot of transitioning in cemetery burials. And then you're moving forward, you're going to have cremations and you're going to have composting. Thank you very much. Thank you. So. Yeah. You have a lot of places now. Cemetery is pretty full. There's only one cemetery that we're actually selling. It's a lot of this. I think it's appropriate. It's appropriate. The increase. Yeah. Not wild about it, but whatever. It is what it is. Right. Okay. So why was there no meeting to discuss it? So it was brought up that we got to, before we presented this, we should have a meeting amongst the committee. I asked Tim to call a meeting and he said no. We'll meet in September and discuss it with them. And we can't do that. We have to sort of do this now so that as we service this happen throughout summer, we're not losing money each time that happens. Oh, okay. So we, so as a, what are we of your committee and not a commission? Yeah. Ultimately those decisions fall on you guys. Yeah. And so here we are. Yeah. Oh, here you are. Here I am. How are we? So if we're not paying these new approved prices, then we will have to bolster the budget. How about those prices? How about those? In particularly the cremation grave only. So currently right now, James is charging 350 per grave opening for cremation. And we currently are charging 250. So we lose 100 bucks each time that happens. And if they choose to have it on a, on a Saturday, each hour is extra flat after. Why? Because he works for pull work weekend. That's just how it goes. No, no, I said, yeah. But I didn't say no. Oh. I didn't mean that. Oh, okay. I mean, I was just putting. Yeah. So, so what, what we're saying is we're going to be paying him the full price and we're not going to be able to recoup that. Right. Because our prices are not up to what he's trying. Right. That's right. And honestly, these numbers are very behind of others. And so that was a good time to kind of adjust me. Okay. Well, I certainly don't want to be negative on the whole thing. I guess we're going to have to approve something. Anybody have any thoughts or suggestions with us? Senator? You know, you're uncomfortable with the size of the increase. It just seems like a lot. It's like 1400 to 3600, that's over that time. That seems like a big difference. How many for a lot of raise you have left? You know, so that's the other thing that's coming down the pipe is we're currently having it surveyed and there are a fair amount of there. Yeah. So we'll just show you the last, the cemetery people decades anyways, decades. So we think once there's some run on cemetery lots. Yeah, right. Yeah. I mean, when you talk about, you know, huge increase like this. Yeah. You know, think, think about it. No, no. You know. Sure. Yeah. And I think you probably talked about this, but so the $3,600 for purchasing the cemetery law that goes into perpetual care. There's a portion of it. I think it's 20% goes into perpetual care, should go into perpetual care. So it'll be more money going into perpetual care, which should be going into an investment somewhere that will pay back interest and utilize it. Yeah. It'll pay. There is. It should pay out. It doesn't lie to us. There's a lot of money in the budget. Right. Or there is a, there is a fund. No, there is a fund. Yeah. I don't know. Seven other funds. Then we roll all the funds together. No. They should have a, it should have a code if you don't, you can't fool mingle the cemetery money. What that is. Yeah. With everything else. Yeah. Right now. Yeah. But on the grave lots, that's nothing that impacts what our contractors do. That's true. That's true. No, that's perpetual care. That's money, that's money that generally goes back into the, some of that goes back, that goes back into the fund to help fund that cemetery to the future. Yeah. But. So it doesn't. It's a current pot, for instance, on the full burial grave opening. It's 1,100 and that's going to be the same thing. Right. So currently or last year, let's say, three months, somebody would come up and dig those graves just to make charge us $1,100 and we charge $1,100. Yeah. So it just picks a wash. Right. So currently he's charging, game's trading 750, seeing we're still getting $1,100. I just kept it. Yeah. I want to go back. Right, right, right. And then the cremation grave opening, that's when you dig a small hole. Correct. That's, what does James get? He gets 350 to dig that. Okay. Just as a point of reference, Berlin corner cemetery charges $795 for a weekday grave opening rashes. And if you do it on the weekend, on a Saturday, it's in addition to $200. Wow. Yep. And again, they're using these, this resource to run the cemetery to pay the people to do what needs to be done. Right. Yeah. Can I ask a question that I hope isn't a waste of time? What's that? Oh, I'd like to ask a question, but I hope it's not a waste of time because it's not as important. I'm wondering what kind of grace period there might be for the overtime after 3.30, just because I know that even if they have the best of intentions, large groups of people can be slow to move as a mass. I'm not sure. Oh, you mean as there's a funeral? Right. So long as he's able to begin his work and get out of the cemetery before 3.30, that's fine. He's not going to turn it. Okay. What in what time do the ceremonies like typically start? Typically one o'clock. Yeah. Yeah. And they're one, I don't want them anyways. We got to be out of some before 3.30 or it could be over time and you can at least light some fire. Yeah. I guess the biggest, my biggest concern is on selling the graves for that big an increase. That just seems like a lot. But you're saying that's in line with the other. Yeah, I did have a grasp. Well, you have Calis-Williams Town, Green Mountain and Berlin. Yeah. And it's a little bit more than Calis and Williamstown. It's less than Green Mountain and it's a little less than Berlin. That's quite a bit less than Berlin. Berlin is 4,800. I don't know what plain markets. I don't know. I'm sure. I don't know what plain markets. 4,000, 4,800 in Berlin. I don't know. No one else seems to be concerned about it. I mean, how many do you sell a year? Maybe about a year. You know, it's all over the place. I mean, I would say like half, maybe half a dozen. Maybe that's a lot. Four great blocks, are you saying? There's some different purchases. Yeah, a total of six purchases. Yeah. Signing. Yeah, roughly. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. It's new terms. I don't know. Yeah. You want to reduce this a little bit? Well, I'm not comfortable with almost tripling some of these costs. It's like a lot. And then it doesn't impact our contract because that's not going to do with the contract. This is just to do with the town. It's not going to hurt anything. All the perpetual care, but okay. It puts less money in our fund, but it's almost, it's over doubling our cost. Would it make sense to ladder it, a smaller increase now and then a bigger increase in two years or three years? It makes more sense thinking about every aspect of these costs that you do with graduate. You know, it's just like a tax rate. You don't want to go up 20 cents in one year. You try to go three or four cents a year. Think about it. Well, that's the trouble with this. He's probably haven't gone up in 20 years. We haven't gone up in 30 years. Yeah. That's another point. Well, no, it's a good point because... It's like when life doesn't reduce it or something, they don't reduce, they don't increase it. Power rates for 10 years and you get a big jump. Well, it's all the same. People don't like to raise the rates, but when you do finally raise the rates, you have to raise them a lot to cover your costs and then people get all upset about it. And that's why you do a little bit at a time. So if you wanted to cut those back a little bit, you could. You know, this is not a sustainable amount of money to come in because you're going to run out of lots eventually. Well, I don't, yeah. And I'm just saying that once that ends, then we perpetually take care of those cemeteries without any income coming in whatsoever. So your chance to get your income when you can sell a lot is not after they're all sold. And I would argue that it's a pretty desirable place. What's that? It's a pretty desirable place. Yeah. It's better than being on somebody's mantle. It's better than Greenmount, listen to Interstate going by, better than... Yeah, lots of places. But then that's about a point. If the rates haven't been raised in 10, 15 years, then it will lose us to bring it up to competitive market rates rather than what we probably should have been doing on a gradual basis. Look at the crazy costs of things now. So I know people more than once to some theory they're getting 30 bucks an hour. Yeah. The guy we just got rid of in Berlin is $32.55 an hour. He's no longer there, of course, but for that reason. Right. For that reason. Anyway, I don't mind, you know, I wouldn't be against shaving some numbers off that. Japan can have a little more power. Right. And then look at it again next year or the year after. Well, if you want to do that, it's fine with me to make a proposal. So, good going. So again, where you decide on this, I have one more thing and that is that, you know, you're putting the onus on the people using that cemetery not to taxpayers. Not to what? Not to taxpayers. You're putting the more of the onus on the people using those services of the cemetery and not necessarily the tax. I mean, I live here. I, for instance, have never used the cemetery in East Montpere because my lots are in Berlin. Yeah. So my tax dollars is going to fund the cost of running the cemetery. You know, I'll never use it. Oh, but you're saying that there'll be more money going into your budget from selling lots if the place is covered. Correct. Yeah. As you were saying. Yeah. Right. And then the other thing I'll say is my tax rates have insistently gone from the last 25 years and they just have. And here I'm handing you a revenue stream and I'm getting pushed back on that. And when they're within the market rates, I don't understand it. Because the increase is so high. I hear you. So I say the same thing when we talk about our budget for next year is that we're looking at six or seven cents tax increase. And I am trying my best to cut our expenses. So we're not going to have that big an increase. It's the same with this though. Just right here. I understand. I understood. So that's what you're doing. I'm in a business myself where somebody doubles the price on me. I'm like, what's going on here? Right. And now I have. And I can tell you what's going on here. The board, the board of the past just chose not to raise these rates where they should have been. Exactly. And it'd be also interesting to note if we knew how many non-East Montpelier residents were buying these. Right? David, you know, you don't have a sense on that. Well, you know, all if 90% of the purchases were East Montpelier residents, I would might feel you might have a better feeling of not raising the rates as much. If I even have to guess, I would think it would be close to that. And this is why up to recently the rules and regulations of the cemetery said you have to have a connection to East Montpelier to be a resident or a past resident. Do you have any idea when the last time these rates were raised? No, I don't. I would say it's a decade. It's probably close. What do you think, Zoey? I'm listening. Okay. And thinking. I'd be curious to know what year, what was the last year that the rates were raised? We could figure. Let me see if I can. So the document on the website, but I don't know what was changed on the document is the problem. It is revised, it says as revised September 4th, 2019. But again, I don't know what was changed on this document. It could have been that the prices were not changed at all. There could have been some other wording in this that was changed at that time. So. So cremation logic, you know what I mean? The only things are really disgusting, the four grade loss and the two grade loss. And what if we just double them for this year? That doesn't seem unreasonable. On the end, we're on the agenda for this time next year. What's that? I have the same document she has. Oh, yeah. But again, I don't remember what was changed on that. I mean, I'd rather just say we doubled. You're talking about the grade loss. Yeah. Four grade loss. The 1400 right now. If we go to 2,800, that's 100% increase. If we go to two grade loss, 1,600, that's almost 1,800, but at least it's palatable more. I mean, I would think it'd be more palatable, but I guess it's not that big a point. We don't have to thrash this to death anymore. It's only a few hundred dollars probably in a year. And if you think about six transactions, if you multiply it out, it's not that much money. So I guess if I had no support with that, I could go along with any other. If I could go on to tweet it, which I'd like to, I would just double. Oh, there you go. And we can review it next year and pay. So are you gonna make a motion? I'm not making a motion. I'm not really supposed to make a motion. But if I have no support on that, go along with your proposal. Now I'm not hearing much comment, except I don't have any support. And I don't really care that much. So it's not gonna impact the tax rate very much. No, but it's, you know, it's, yeah, it's money. It's money. I just think about citizen needs more for their, they go to buy a four wave lot. He's gonna say, last year was 1,400, now 3,600. What did you do? Well, there you go. I'll make the motion. Let's see where the vote is. I'll make a motion to increase the current lot purchase cost doubling the four or four and two grave lots with the provisional of reviewing them, reviewing the rates and putting it on the agenda year from, and, you know. One year, guys. Yep. You're saying 2,800 and 1,600. Let's see if we have a second. I'll second it. All the paper please say aye. Aye. Aye. Two aye's. Yeah. Two aye's. I'll vote against it. Okay. We have three voting for it and one voting against it. I'm gonna be the one who votes against everything. That's okay. All right. Okay. So, are we done with that? I think so. Okay. All right. Well, you know what? We appreciate you. Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, I'm sorry that I didn't, that I discussed this at length so much. Oh. Oh, it's good to discuss it. Yeah, we do. Yeah. I appreciate it. It's good to. Yeah, but thank you. Yeah, I'm not trying to be negative about it. Oh, I know. Yeah, I know. This is the option. All right. That's a figure for next. Maybe next year we'll double it. There you go. Sure. It's time to go to the report. This is the main report. Nothing incredibly exciting. I mean, we're coming into year end. So, we have a little bit more discussion on some of those items later. Oh. Next. Where are we at? Okay. So, you want to know where we think we are going from an end of year perspective, the next agenda item is consideration of the fiscal year end fund balances. Really with this, you're looking at if we are designating any funds specifically or funds specifically to be classified as a specific fund for balance purposes. So, last year we cleared some funds that we had set up specifically related to the town office transition. We still have $10,000 in the treasurer transition fund that seems like we could release at this point. We are well beyond that. We were still in the midst of the transition last fiscal year, which is why the select board decided to retain this $10,000. So, the one item I'm proposing is that we release that $10,000 back to the general fund. And from a general fund perspective, based on where we are now and costs that will be incurred between now and the end of June, we are kind of eyeing a break-even. But keep in mind that break-even is really happening because we had $176,000, almost $177,000 of ARPA funds that were essentially recorded as a revenue in our general fund. That's why they didn't make sure. Otherwise we would have been short. So, we called that, that was connected to salary and benefits costs for the staff transition. So, some of those costs were in fact incurred in the prior fiscal year as well. Some were the majority of which were this fiscal year. So, it's helped offset. I've pointed out a few things here and I'm gonna be continuing to pour over the numbers, but we obviously know we had higher salaries and fiscal 23 of them was budgeted to the tune of around 18,000. Lister payroll costs are higher this year. I have 6,000 here right now, that's what they're at now, but that does not include what the time may be for the next payroll. This last payroll, they were way ahead of their budget with nearly 102 hours against for a pay period compared to a budget of about 46 hours, 23 a pay period. So, I'm not sure where their numbers will end, but right now we're at 6,000. 36,000 health insurance costs, which we know was too bold. One was a 20% increase in the rates and then also a change in the balance. So, the budget was based on kind of the balance of elections that employees had made in fiscal 22, but we had a new group of employees in fiscal 23, some of which did not take insurance now positions that were taking insurance. So, that's kind of the reason for the too bold in the change in health insurance. Roadside management expense. So, we have the Emerald Ashboro project, which was 17,000 over we budget 15, but it was just over 30. Yeah. And then basically I'm continuing to review the cost, but these are the big items. Right now, highway is trending under budget. So, you know, he's helping cover some of these overages, but... The majority of the costs are in. We shouldn't have too many outside of payroll, too many more large expenses posed. So, but that's something Michelle and I both, they're kind of pouring over right now as bills come in where they go. This fiscal year or next, because some of them were actually for next fiscal year at this point. And we always put, we always had extra money that we put into the next year's budget. And that guy used like 50 or 100,000 or something. And for 22, yeah, we've had, and sometimes we haven't even used it, but this year we did. Yeah. Yeah. The budget's a lot tighter than it has been in at least a recent past. All increases it costs. Yeah. You couldn't keep up with it really. Well, the health insurance. And the health insurance. Okay. A bunch of them. And health insurance, so I mentioned to Chair Gardner when he was in the office last week that one of the things that I will be doing is re-forecasting in particular salaries expense for fiscal 24. We know now who is here. There's a slightly different mix now in some elections and what we're budgeted at that time. So I think it's prudent to see where I estimate the numbers if the world stays as it is today. Understanding that anyone could choose to leave at any point in time and change the dynamic. But if we continue as we were today, as we are today, what will salaries and benefits look like for fiscal 24 if I trend the numbers? And obviously part of our discussion later with pay rates will also affect that as well. So once I get all these pieces and parts, I have seen, I believe it was a 13% increase that health insurance is going up. I think I assumed three in the budget. On top of 20 from last year. I was surprised. I kind of expected this year to be a little bit flatter given the large increase last year, but it looks like we're sold. So I wanna roll that in but we have some other changes that have occurred in employee elections that I think that's gonna kind of be fine as we go. So that is something I will do because as members of the select board know that have been around, we will be calculating the tax rate here pretty soon. So that's the reason I wanna re-forecast where we think we know we have a budget but the budget was based on a certain set assumptions. Now we know the world as it is today. Let's trend it forward, see where we think we're going to be and let's set the tax rate potentially if the select board wants based on maybe some revised figures from the budget. If we have something that makes sense that- Yeah, we need all this. Yeah. You will see a preliminary calculation at your next meeting. Okay. Well, we'll deal with that when we can get there. If the board would like to release that $10,000 pressure transition fund and we put that back to the general fund that- We can do that now. Yes, that would need a motion. Yeah. We can also now we release the $10,000 remaining in the treasure transition fund back to the general fund. I will second that. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. The ayes agree to have it, they do have it. So is that your treasury report? That's the end. Yes. Consideration of fiscal year and fund balances. That's the same subject. What was that? That's what we just went over. Oh, okay. So that item's done. Yes. The next thing is- Mr. Hess. Investment, investment of- Oh, whoops, look at that. Is that correct? No. No, I have a new word I made up. Investment, I just don't want to get chastised by announcing the word. It's investment. So I'm going to send it out. Investment of town funds. I think I've pronounced it correctly. And discuss town funds invest- Oh, this is another word, investment strategy. Review town investment policy. Okay. Oh, my God. What's that? So it's called right here. Yeah. Well, we have a new word in the beginning, but that's fine. You try to recreate it here. Yeah. Okay. Would you like me to take it away? Sure. Okay. At the last meeting, it was mentioned that we are going to the I, Gina Michelle, would like to meet with our bank to discuss potentially increasing the rate of interest or increasing the funds that we were getting on our cash balance. We- I went to the VLCT. You have, you have that in front of you. And I had a correspondence with a Megan, so it's really nice. Anyway, you have the investment policy from the Vermont League of cities and towns in front of you. And what we are contemplating, if you look on page six, we are well within, we are actually being more conservative. On the top it says the following investments will be permitted under this policy. And it lists nine different investment vehicles that they recommend. That's on page six. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We're going to be, Michelle and I, Gina, as a prior appointment, will be sitting down with two individuals from Northfield Savings Bank to review what we can invest in. So we are within both our East Montpelier financial investment policy, which is on the page, on the page before this document. And we are not looking, we are, I'm contemplating potentially just number one NCDs, not probably one in three. Not looking at government agency paper, but that would be fine too, like Ginny Mays. And we're not looking at commercial paper, repurchase agreements, money market funds even. But they are all within the recommendation of both, we are in compliance with the league and with our own policy. Carl had wanted some investigative and I investigated. Okay. So then we're looking for if there is, sorry? You're going to have a meeting? We'll be at 2.30 tomorrow afternoon. Yeah. I don't think we, we don't need a vote on this. But if you, if there's any objections, comments or otherwise, I think it would behoove us to just go forward with potential treasury bills are more secure than a C.G., because it'll be above the $250,000 limit. So if there's no, well, there's millions. Well, Michelle has a cash flow, and Gina put a cash flow of what our needs, we're talking about initially very short-term investments. And then we can take potentially a million dollars and put it out for a one month. This is a 5%. This is real. What are we getting on a million dollars now? It's actually listed in the document that we just looked at. You know, right, our treasury report. I mean, look at the kind of e-smile pillier accounts. Yeah. First one, I think you have it right on top. I have it. Right there. If you look on the right-hand column. Yeah. In my opinion, it's a little scary that we have other special accounts. It looks like we're earning nothing on $2.039 million. The rates that you see on the right are... That's what we're getting. Yeah. Some nuns. Some general savings. You're getting 30 basis points. Yeah. 0.3%. Yeah. I mean, that's only on the Northfield Savings Bank, we're getting 0.6% of a percent. Yeah. So we're obviously, when you invest in treasury bills, not through the government, but when you invest them through a brokerage firm, they're liquid enough that you could sell. If you've found, let's say you have a six month treasury bill, normally when you have a treasury direct account, you have to wait for six months. And then it gets... Yeah. But this is liquid enough that if you bought it today, the broker could sell it tomorrow. And you would get that tiny little bit of interest. Right. Now, if the market changes radically, an interest would go from 5% to 10%, you would not get that money back because the price of a bond goes inversely. But if it's a one month bill, you just have to wait the one month. And then you get your full principal. I don't know if you understand how bonds work inversely. Yeah, inversely. Okay, let's go. We're talking about very liquid, very short term paper. We're not going out two years, we're not even going to probably go out a year. And we're going to see what this CD raises. But the far right column should change radically. Right. Just think on 5% on a million dollars is $50,000. And we don't have to pay taxes on it. That's been a year ago. Over a year, what I'm talking about, when you talk about interest rates, it's 5%. If it's a one month T-bill at 5%, that's per annual. Yeah, yeah. And if there's no objections, I have no objections on a conservative cash blow and term basis, we would like to go forward with a program and you'll be able to see all this. So what you're talking about real money and when you're talking about doubling and tripling graves for people, that's not real money. That's a couple thousand bucks. This is real money. Let's come change compared to that. Right. And as I've been conversations with Gina, these are salaries we're talking about. I know. This would pay for potential salaries. Yeah. So we should keep pursuing it. No, no, I don't know about it. Okay. That's good to me. We'll report back. I'll report back and we'll report back. Yeah, next meeting. So the next item is town court reports. Hi, Rosie. Any reporting on records management and records retention? You have the floor. You're on mute, Rosie. In 2018, the select board approved a records management policy and an attached retention schedule. And we have been destroying or recycling or retaining documents pursuant to that schedule for those last five years. This year, I gave you a written report so that I don't take up a lot of your time tonight. But essentially where there may be a couple of changes, next year will be the year of larger changes. So I'm going to hold everything until next year and have you folks take a peek at those changes now as we anticipate a lot more retention records schedules coming down the pike now that COVID is over per se. The one thing that we talked about last year that I did not do was we were discussing checks in the vault, checks that are from our customers that have been scanned and cleared from our system. Treasurer Don Welch felt that we shouldn't keep them for more than six months. A discussion with the select board suggested no more than a week because of possible liability of people's account information. When I went back to talk with Michelle, the treasurer, she wasn't real comfortable with that not knowing what our cash flow situation was or what the processes were around tax time. So rather than bringing that back for a vote the next month, I didn't. So that Michelle could gain a better handle on the way the processes work. So at this point, we have well over six months worth of cleared checks in the vault. They are not any place where anyone can actually access them and there's very limited access to those documents. So I'm comfortable right now with where they are but I did want to let you know that that was something that did not get the followup that you had requested because Michelle and I made a determination that for the good of the town we wanted to hold off on that. So right now you're keeping the checks for over six months. The clear checks. Yes. And how long are you gonna keep them? We are keeping them for six months at a time right now until next year when I come back to you with a new recommendation regarding a different retention schedule. There are some towns that keep them for three years. Really? Yeah, because they feel like they need to keep it for as long as they're audit. Oh, okay. When all the checks scanned and they're banked we can just access them like we all have. Yeah. Yes. Why do you have to hold onto the physical copies? I'm not sure that we actually have copies of the actual scan check. We have the original check. Yeah, if I pay my taxes for the check, what do I do? You still have that check. It went to the bank. It came back. Oh, the bank? Can you do that physical check? No, you can't. How do you scan it? You can't do that. Oh, you're scanning it. Scan with the deposit. So you're gonna be physically in the bank. That's why you... Not unless we have. There's some checks on the scan. Right. Yeah. Okay. I guess there's some argument to be said we should keep them for a while, if we're saying it. The reason that we were keeping them for a while was so that if there was a question about somebody's payment that Michelle will be able to go back and check to see. Yeah. We have had to do that only once but it was probably three months back instead of six months back. Yeah. Steve, you scan the check. But the bank does not have a scanned copy of it. I think you have to hold on to it for as long as you have it. Yeah, right. There's no... The bank doesn't have it. Right. When I scan a check from my phone. Yeah. An image. I have the image. If you don't have an image, then you have to hold on to it as long as maybe... Well, you can press the record of the money coming out of it. I don't know. Of course. Yeah. So they have... You have that record. It was 15. I'll put it or say your taxes. Yeah, the person giving us the check really should have a copy of that cash check. And then you got to... They're banking institutions. You're off to get a receipt. Yeah. I don't get a receipt. Has there ever been an instance where you've needed to retrieve that check that you're holding on to? Three months, you said that. No, I didn't. You know, Jeff retrieved one last week. The evidence. That there was a question and Michelle did to pull the check because someone wrote that the dollar, the numbers that they wrote on the check was five cents off from the letters in which they wrote out. So it was sent. So it was still in technically number and number. But for some reason that the numbers, it was five cents. So it was not a big deal. It doesn't matter. But she wanted to see the bank reported something and she wanted to see the act for a physical check. And because of that, she didn't see the check for a while. That doubt. Okay. So you, so we're just holding on to it for the six months or three years? Six months at this point. Okay. Okay. We're saying for three years after the audit. Yeah, but the audit happens after six months. Does it not? The checks will be gone. I think the audit reference is really more about what other pounds may do. I don't know that that's really been a part of our determination. That's correct. It's mostly okay. Great. Anything else? Just that if you want to see what records we've gotten rid of, there are sheets that have a description of those records and the statute that allows us to get rid of them. Available for public viewing in the Town Court's office. Okay. See what you've got written here is not actually what's happening, right? The consensus of the board was to change the retention period from three years to one week given that bank patrons have easy access to electronic copies of their clear checks. Right. That's what you discussed last year and also in the minutes, you didn't vote it that night. No. Instead agreed to hold off on this change. Right. So we didn't make the change that we're not going to because it's one week. One week doesn't line up with six months, right? That was a change that was suggested was one week. That's what it says right here. Right. So it did not get changed. So we're going to just move forward with what you've been doing. Correct. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Anything else? Not for me. If you have questions, let me know. I don't have any of you. Does anybody else have any? No, thank you, Rosie. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. The next item, consideration of quote to replace town office network server. This was, oh, this is just a server. This isn't the greening thing. It's something we've discussed when we've discussed ARPA funds that servers last on average about four years. This one was installed in July of 2019. So we're inherently upon the time when it needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, this item is not in the capital plan. So its replacement is kind of unbudgeted anywhere. So ARPA gives us a great opportunity to improve our IT security, utilizing ARPA funds, replace the server with a more updated server to the tune of $23,000. I have not had detailed conversations yet with RV tech because we just haven't managed to connect about the quote. You know, this quote, we've only received one quote. As you all know, RV tech performs all of our IT resources. We don't typically go in RFP items like this simply because that can complicate the relationship that we have. And it would be difficult for RV tech to serve as something that they did not install. So. And this does not include the, when we talk about the. So what chair Gardner is referring to is we had a situation where an employee clicked on a link on Friday and we, unfortunately, luckily nothing overly negative occurred. I actually received the same email as well. It was an email that was I think going around in a lot of circles in Vermont on Friday. So according to RV tech, we were not the only one of their clients. I believe there were two others that also ended up with someone clicking on this link. It happens. So I had spoken with Reuben, who runs RV tech months ago about cyber because I get someone trying to scam us for money on almost a daily basis to get me to click on something in my email and ask him if anything we can do. So I didn't bring you that quote yet because I haven't talked to him. So he did send me some information because there's it's kind of two fold one. It includes cyber training for all of the staff so that they can be brought up to speed on what to look for to hopefully avoid this in the future in addition to kind of something that overlays with our email. So the way he explained it to me before and I need to speak with him again about it based on this quote I just received today is if someone does click on something in an email, it goes through something first before it takes you there to then tell you, I don't think you want to click on that. Yeah, so unfortunately, these are just the way of the world and I'm sure everybody's seeing it in their personal email. So yeah, this does not include that. This is truly just to replace the server. Yeah, I have a question. What was that? It's on the overall process, not on the- So on the filter they were talking about, would that be a good thing to do at that time? We're not necessarily connected, but it was a quote I was gonna, once I have some conversations with RV Tech and understand better what this service is that I would bring to you at a future select board meeting. Okay, you had a question. I do. As much as we love and trust our fellow local resident and you know what I'm gonna ask, what's the, do we have any reference on if these are remotely competitive in the ballpark or three times what did normally should cost? I'm exaggerating, you know what I'm probably talking about. Don't only because the only resource that I have, they use significantly more equipment than we would possibly need. So I don't know. My contacts, they have server rooms that are full of, actually a lot of people are doing off-site servers now. They're not even hosting them anymore. Yeah, which I actually considered asking RV Tech about if that was an option because, so if you did not wanna do this tonight, that would just leave it open for me to have that conversation. This was something that I actually was discussing with someone this weekend after I had done the agenda, that there are some options to do cloud hosting for your servers. Server on a cloud. To server on a cloud. And is there an Microsoft network? We are. We are. Yeah, but there's some complication with us with SharePoint because of NEMRIC, the financial system that we use, it can't operate, it has to operate. I asked this question when I first got here because of a huge Microsoft 365 fan that NEMRIC has to be hosted on a physical server. So I think that may be our barrier to doing this because the system operates on such old school technology, it doesn't really align very well with modern ways of cloud hosting. So I would love to be able to cloud host only because our server resides in our basement and while it is up off the floor, to me not the greatest location outside of it being cool, not the greatest spot for your server. So if you want me to do a little bit of digging with RV Tech to discuss if there were any cloud options, I would be happy to do that. That works for you. That's fine with me. It should have been rather loud. Who knows? Like I said, they were very receptive when I asked them about Microsoft 365 when I first came here. It just really is because NEMRIC is truly operating on very old platforms that it's... Doesn't line up. No. Okay. Okay, so we'll do it. Hold on this for now. I'll get it to me, Taylor. Sounds good. So the next item is appointments. Consideration of annual charter-based appointments with staff acting zone administrator open positions. So I see we have a page of, or two. You have, or three. So some items to note here that are not really renewals or just things to point out. Is that Patricia Canada who joined the town office last Monday is on here for assistant town clerk and assistant town treasurer. There's technically kind of two appointments that we're doing for her. One will appoint her from essentially now through June 30th. And then a renewal of that appointment starting on July 1st. And that's really just so that she can actively engage. Rosie's also on vacation the last week of June. So it actually would give Patricia the ability to act in a town clerk capacity if needed. Right, right. James Mangan is listed as a cemetery sexton based on the new contract that we have with him. Yeah. Pam Byron submitted her name to join the cemetery committee in the seat that was recently vacated by Elliot Morse. And then I recently found out, Rosie let me know that Alice Smith had passed away. So that would open a seat on the East Montpelier Village Committee. And then the only other piece I also gave the select board some information on is we do have to officially report to the state if we are, if the select board is once again re-appointing Ty Roland as our fire warden. Is there any reason not to? Seems like he's willing to do it. Yes, he is willing to do it. Yes. I spoke with him as well. I mean, it's pretty well called, so people push back and we spend a little two over the top. How's that? Oh, you know, Molly Bernstam and that type of thing. Molly Bernstam? Yeah, he's big on that type of thing. I mean, I got to copy the statute because I was trying to mitigate the situation. And you know, he was right, but. So it's back as if you can't burn stomp. Well. Burn underground? I don't know what the reason is, but I think you can get away with a little bit like that, but this guy wanted to burn a fair amount and Ty was not having anything of it. So eventually I told the guy talking to my firm, I would deal with it for him. You know, it's just, Ty is very black and white. Yeah. Very black and white, but you don't really have anybody else. I can tell you that right now. And so I would say that he'd probably be the best choice. Even though. Yeah. Even though. You know. And enough. Yeah, okay. Good enough. It'll be in the paper tomorrow. Whoops. Well, it's not. You just said some very obvious things. Yeah. You know, there's what it is. I just put my fire ring around it's something. It's something to be told. If you're a landowner, you're probably supposed to have permits now. Did you get them? No, I didn't. I said I would. I mean, I said I would, Bert. I just put my fire ring. I know I could do that. Would I get a permit for it? I don't know. Everybody, people have fires on Friday and Saturday nights all the time around you, especially if you're near my neighborhood. So it doesn't, nobody asked for a permit there. No, you're probably okay. And I do the same thing. Like if I have a pile of scrap, I'm tempted to burn that in a small fire. There you go. But that's not, but you'll find out that that may not work. This is a conversation. Yeah. Everything's being recorded right now. Yeah. I thought it was, I would. This conversation. So it's not like we're not letting any secrets out. No, we're not. We're just talking about what people do. Yeah. In general. Yeah. Okay, good. Sometimes there's, you don't need it. Sometimes. I don't know at all. Okay. It's, it's recorded. It's all good. It's all good. I don't disagree with it. So. That's it relates to Acting Zoning Administrator. I did speak with someone who may be interested in the position, but one thing I'm a little confused about and partly because I don't know that the Acting Zoning Administrator has actually really been called upon before is we do have an hourly rate in our pay structure for the Acting Zoning Administrator. Is that, what's the intent that that would be an hourly paid position if that person were called upon? Again, I don't have any actual. Is the Acting Zoning Administrator hourly paid? He's technically on a salary. Oh, well this would probably be hourly paid because they wouldn't expect him to, this person to use as many hours and it would only be temporary. Yeah. Okay, so. It was paid. Okay, so it is, okay. I just wanted to confirm that because I don't really know many history. I don't know anyone that actually did come in. Okay. Okay. Someone's on vacation. Okay. Someone would come in. Perfect, good to know. Okay. Now, who's yet? Well, I'm not going to say his name in case he, I don't know, he's not sure if it's, if it is a paid, he would need to speak with his employer because some employers have, you cannot have a second job and the fact that it's paid could be a challenge. So. Okay. Okay. I mean, yeah, and you can do it if you have to submit a claim. I have to. That's, yeah. Yeah. It's number one. No. Yeah. No, we don't. But they, they are in a position to actually know some of the regulations. That's all. This person actually does have a background in it. Oh. So. They're not on the Pay and Planning Commission, but. All right. So I will speak with that particular person and we will go from there. I mean, if they just want to do it for free, you know, employer they have now has a problem in getting reimbursed for something else that they're doing, you can just do it for free. So what I need us to do here with all the deployments, approve the slate of appointees. Typically you approve the sheet as presented if you are comfortable with. Like we've discussed essentially the only, that we're not assuming you are comfortable with Pam Byron being appointed, Patricia, James, and I only mentioned Ty, just because Rosie had given me this information she received from the state that we do have to. Have a special. Officially respond to them and let them know that yes, Ty was reappointed. And they were, and they were really supportive too, but it seems, it seems like. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But he does a good job. Well, he's definitely a viper, he's absolutely. Definitely. What? What? Exactly. Exactly. Is there a cost to put the main lobby, Patricia, you want? Not at all. I haven't burned anything. Well, I'll make a motion to accept these appointments. Okay. I'll second that. This is Zoe's. Yeah. Buddy, how about you? Yeah. We're just getting more discussion. Is there any more discussion? One and still two. One and still two. All of the people, please say aye. Aye. Yeah, I'd agree to have a majority of them. So, acts have a permit. New per cut, Coburn Road. This is a day adjacent to the property of 550 Coburn Road. Guthrie did go and look at the request. Does need a culvert. However, he said it's actually to the town's benefit to put this curb cut in and add a culvert. Okay. So it's a place that he's actually wanted a culvert, but really hasn't had a good way to get one in there. So he's actually gonna speak with the landowner because he will probably put this culvert in to ensure just proper drainage and to help with the drainage on the road in general. So I'm culvering them? Yeah. Therefore, do we have any idea what the expenses would be to the town? Oh, it's just within the budget. Yeah, this is a small, yeah. He would fit this in basically to his kind of normal annual culvert. Small culvert, yeah, these are little. That's right. These are the little culverts. It's not, it's not, it's not. It's the taxpayers money that were responsible for this. There's a change. There will be small change. I'm not choosing. I'll make a motion to accept or approve the curb cut. You two three dash zero, two zero. Awesome. We have a second on that? Sure. I second that. There's always a curb cut. Very good. Any further discussion on the curb cut? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Yeah, I appear to have to do that. Let's see. Consideration potential of FY 2024 employee pay rates potential executive session. And following that we have a personal matter potential executive session. What do you want to do? We should go on executive session in bars. What? I was going to ask it before we went into executive session if you wanted to go ahead and look at the second, the right of way permit that you have. Oh, that's right. That couldn't be an addition to the agenda. We have two things. What were they? One is the right of way. And the other was, oh, the garage thing. Yes. Well, let's do those. Yes. Okay. So the item is discuss potential RFP to seek a consultant assistant preparation and design request for a new town garage. The purpose of RFP of this nation would be to seek a personal firm that can develop a bid package to design a project requiring a standard deliverable to options for a new town garage. The product of this RFP would be a thoroughly designed RFP to be used for a second RFP to hire an architect, engineer, develop a full design of a new town garage that would include a setting of a new garage on that same premise for the project and a full building design that can be done in taking a bid. So where I got this is I've been pulled in a few different direction as it relates to trying to scope what we seek for a new town garage. Yeah. Proper project requirements and scoping of what you're looking for is gonna get us in the right direction to get a design. So putting something together, the RFP typically reads more than high-come design a new town garage for us. So I happened to see, I was researching other RFPs for town garages and happened to see where Brookfield Vermont had actually done something like this, where they actually asked if somebody could help draft a well put together RFP that could go to a design firm to then design the project because there's gonna be a lot of questions when we start outlining this. So that's what I wanted to, I'm just trying to figure out how to move this forward but I just don't have an incredible amount of time right now to dedicate to defining project requirements, running it by energy committee and all various stakeholders to then attempt to get an RFP put together. Yeah, I'd be calling or ever get back to one what's the other time for that? He sent something this afternoon, but I mean, it's essentially, if you look at what people put out, it's this is what we wanna build, this is where we wanna put it, this is what we want in it, these are the things we want considered, that's what we're talking about. Right now we have new town garage and a rough guesstimate on size, but that doesn't necessarily, you're gonna need more to do an actual RFP. I guess, I mean, I thought that in general RFP that we could write up, we would then engage the firm and we would do all that because looking for somebody's gonna do the whole thing, the whole design. You're gonna do a no firm. Yeah, Connor can do it, but we can't just go for a local firm. We have to go to, you know, we have to put it out in a competitive process. Yeah, you may get some bulls, you may not get a lot. Right, we may not, exactly. But we have to do our due diligence and put it out today. But you're saying that we need someone to design the actual, how are we gonna put on that? It's not a two second, it's not a two sentence document. That's my point, when you read these, and that's what I mean. It's very tough then, how do you compare the bids? Typically when you're doing this, you have something very clearly defined that you were asking of this. What you're talking about is something very high level. So what we could get from Connor versus what we could get from Longinus versus what we could get from someone I don't even know the name of, could be drastically different on what they're envisioning that you need as a build out. I'm so assertive. So would you do a hiring plan in your building? Yeah, put that out for these guys. No, no, seriously. That's what I mean. You mean that one we built? Yeah. They said, hey, we have a town manager. We don't need a hiring engineer. Right. So that's, so we ended up building it, having Longinus design build. Yeah. But did you put that out of the bid? Yeah, we did. We got maybe a couple of people that was it. Nobody really was that interested in it because they weren't the big enough amount of money. And we built it, it was dirt cheap. Yeah. I know you do. I think it was like $150,000 or something like that back a few years ago when they were cheaper. Yeah. Well, it's not a town, it's not a regular town of work. No, it's a more historic thing. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a little bit. It is, but it's insulated and everything, but you know, I would think that an architect, you would say, look, we want to build down garage, we've got six trucks, they're going to go in there, we have six staff, we want to have an office space, we want to have a tool storage area. Can somebody throw that together for us? And then that'd be like your, what you're looking for in general. And then when they come and meet with you, they'll ask a lot more questions. But you know. Then that's kind of my point. How do you compare bids though? Cause you know, it's not the way of hiring someone that's not, when you're bidding out, typically it's, I mean, the document we put forward for Emerald Ashgore to bid that project is significantly longer than what we're discussing, putting out for the town garage. I used to use, what I used to use and at VTRIANCE is always hiring so many to get to do architectural services, bridges, highways, all that stuff. And they have to rank all the proposals that come in. And I just got a ranking form from then and just filled it out with the main, with the main issues that we needed to be addressed in our building and send it out. And then, you know, you want somebody with a certain level of experience. There's a whole list of things and then you rank those. You have them, you add, you assign numbers to things that are the most important and the least important and then you just see how they hit it. Then you add them up. Right. But I think in a long run, if you're only going to get like two bidders, you're going to be able to figure it out pretty fast. We just did that for architectural services and engineering for a new central Masalaway City building that they're going to build. And we got one architect, clearly one engineer, and then a company that came in, West End of Samson, it came in with both architectural services but they teamed up with one and an engineering services. We ended out out of those, so you got, you know, you got three bids. And we took the, we ended up taking the bid on the one, we didn't make a big deal out of it. We took the one that provided the dual services because they were able to bundle things together. And in a long run, it was less money than what it was going to cost to hire a little bit separately. But that's just how you turn around and do it. We didn't get into a big ranking situation because we didn't have that many people. That's something central of the long run. Yeah. And we looked also the things that we looked at though and you're right, because sometimes you need a list of things and we have done that in the past. As you look at, you know, what do they have for experience in building municipal buildings? Yeah. What do they have for experience that they have in Vermont? Yeah. How many municipalities did they work for? And then, you know, that stuff starts clearing, clearing it out for you really easily. If you want to hire somebody who's done work in Vermont, Northern Vermont, how many people have been involved in a wet environment and building stuff like that? Those are all just things you have to sit down and throw together. And you got that from V-Trans or something? Well, that's what V-Trans has on it. No, but we didn't use that for central Vermont. No. And so, we're not going to use that for the next management issue because... So they already put out an RFP. They put out an RFP and got, and ended up, we just got, I told you, we just got like three beds. Yeah. Yeah. So it was easy. Some of these companies, some of these companies may have already done these in different scale and say, look, this is kind of what we're looking for. Show us what this town or this town and we give us an idea. Right, you're not trying, you're not... Get your experience. This is not going to be a unique project. With the accoutrements that you mentioned. Right. I mean, I talked to a bunch of guys and they're building these things all. They built, they're building one right now. They're building another one right here. They don't want to build one. They're building one for blah, blah, blah. I know it's okay. So they've got the experience, but we can't just both. It is, but definitely the same. They can't write the RFP for us to send it out to bid. What he's talking about is going to a specific company and then they scope it out. So that's the challenge. The challenge is we have to put something out there that people can give us some short bid for, so it's least competitive. And we have, of course, that's not going to prove it is not going to be bid. And they don't usually bid. You usually ask for, you have a request for proposals and not for requests, excuse me, a request for publications. And they give you a request for publications and then they might, some of them will throw in a number, but if they don't throw in a number, then you have to sit down and negotiate the number. The number is the next thing. The qualifications are the most important. Right. So that's actually something that we could do ourselves. Wow. I don't know. You want to hire me? I mean, that's a total different mindset to do that. So we've got to hire somebody to. I'm not saying that. I'm just kind of, I can't say that because I don't work here. Well, I guess that's where I'm coming from. I'm not really sure. This is all very informal. When you read our purchasing policy, it's very formal. This is going to have to go in the paper. It's going to have to go on the website and putting out a RFP that says, we want to build a new town garage. It's typically a little more detailed when you would see. And typically you're scoping. The fact is, if you don't know what you want and you don't have clear project requirements, typically what's going to end up happening, it's going to cost you a whole lot more in the end of the day because you have no idea what you really want and what you're going for. So that's what I'm trying to avoid, but I just don't have an incredible amount of time to dedicate to this. So if it comes to me, that's fine. I'll probably get to it in October. This is the best I can probably commit to. And we hire somebody on just an interim short-term basis. Is that what you say? That's what I mean. And that's what Brookfield had done. They basically said, we want someone who knows this business, who knows how to write a project requirements document to do this for us so that then we can go get a bid. And the whole idea was to try to save money in the end of the day. And you had to get what the cost would be? Well, this was in 2019. They put 15,000, as they said, they had a budget. Well, that's exciting. That's pretty good. Well, that's just pretty high. Yeah, for some of you who knows what they're doing with this, this shouldn't be an incredible amount of time. No, I mean, some of those things, I looked at DGS's webpage, Billings General Services' webpage. And they do think about the bid all the time. And they have a request for proposals on their webpage for garages, like for reports of parks and agency financial resources and maintenance shops for them and stuff like that. But it's somebody has to sit down and digest that part. I mean, just change all the names. Yeah, work for them. That's what I was going to do. That's what they're going to do. Yeah, that's what somebody else should do. I mean, when we were looking for our piece for Southern Mossall Waste District, we actually called City of Berry and got our piece from them and then finally had, we had a contractor that did that. Actually, Kathleen Jen, who was the- Oh, Kathleen Jen? Yeah, was just running it. So I'm going with this. I'm going in and I've got to hit a target here in a second. Kathleen might be the only one to do that. You guys, Kathleen Jen, you can get her name from the folks at the Southern Mossall Waste District. I could send you- Is she still working at it? She's under contract and she wrote those RFPs under contract. Oh, okay. I mean, it just came to me. Right. So that would probably give, to see you a lot of time and she's already has a written in a general way. She'll just ask you a bunch of a few questions while we, you know, it's pretty simple stuff. Right. Maybe be a few girls. Yeah. Yeah, that's what we need to know. Do you want me to send you, Barb Baird is the person who, is the administrative person that handles everything and just send her a note. She'll send you Kathleen's information. Yeah, she'll send me that, yeah. I just thought of it. Yeah, that'd be good. That's the thing. If we could just get someone, we're going to get a much better quality product going out with an RFP that actually is providing some clarity on what we're looking for. And, you know, and then So that would cut through you sit down when you're in figure out. This is the specs that we're, this is the size and whatever. And the other question the select board has to answer is who all is a part of this discussion? For example, the energy committee. Who all are we looping into reviewing all of this? Well, if you're main company, sorry. How much control do we get to extraneous other organization that want to add things to the next? That's what I'm asking. Who are all of our stakeholders in this process? Because that is, that is going to become overwhelming very quickly. If we're having to run all of this by all various, whether it's planning commission or energy committee or, you know, you name it, it's going to become a very involved project very quickly. We need to determine, and by the way, the committee technically is Gene Troyer, you, me and Guthrie. Just let you know. So if we need to revisit that or that we can. That's how I was going to. He was not in what I inherited. No, it's actually Gene Troyer. That's what I think we need to do. So we'll switch that out. Okay. Gene can do it though. Yeah. So I will send you, I will send you Barks. Okay. So that'll be a start. Yes. And then you need to know who's on the committee. We can talk about that next step. I'm on the committee. Yeah. We do need to listen to other folks who may have some ideas on what they want to see in it. But we can have a meeting with those folks. Right. And we have to keep in mind that you're going to have diminishing returns. You cannot do everything everybody wants you to do because you'll never be able to pay for the building. No, I know that's what I mean. That's what you know. That's why, yeah, I'm kidding me. I am highly resistant to that. Yeah. Adding in $500,000 items and this and that, no way. And God, people wouldn't go for it. And so Andy Shapiro has a little bit of a question mark for me. I wouldn't start fully. Recorded or not, that's whatever. We'll have to see. You mentioned his name on the committee. Well, yeah, I just, well, he has some very good ideas. I mean, part of what I'm saying right now is what he would say. There's good various committees to give input. Yeah. And then this is the deciding. Yeah. Right. This is everything. Absolutely right. There's gotta be, there's gotta be, there's gotta be hearings. It's the taxpayer's money. Oh, of course. But it doesn't mean that they're not going to make the final decisions. We'll have input. We will be full of the taxpayer's money. That's how we'll get, and we will solicit input. Yeah. That sounds perfect. Sure. I'm good. So that is the way I'm going to do this. Well, we can solicit it away, exactly. We'll do what happens at the end of the day. Fine. Yeah. Okay. We're there. Oh. You're there? Okay. Yeah. I'll take off there and hold him around. Okay, does that took care of, it took care of the addition of the garage. Now, the other was an access permit. Yeah, right here. Yeah. Thanks for you. Thanks, Brian. Thank you, Brian. This is potentially to trench across Lyle Young Road for the purposes of running some, some sewer pipes. Yeah. So. So do we have that? Yeah. We have to get approval for them to prop their last page. Yeah, we have a total picture. Yeah. Okay. Let's get that red pipe right there. Yeah, I did that little drawing based on my description of what they need to do. So. Okay. We're going to go outside that driveway. Oh, the red pipe over here. All our people. Because there is a little red pipe. No, no. On the website. Yeah. It's on the website. Okay. So I just, I'm bringing this permit just came into the office this afternoon, but wanted to bring it to you, given the nature of it. Is there a problem doing this? Is there a problem? Do we don't normally allow pipes all around the road? Is there anything like that? So we probably. Yeah, thank you all the time. Yeah. Just take it off. Thanks. Hello. Hello. Thanks. I can actually. I heard of this from Guthrie. So wrote the woman well aware that this request is there. He burns smokes. No, it's pretty good. And so are you. No, I haven't heard anything. Never in my whole life. And so it gives a gathering. Listen, I think that in most cases, when you're crossing a town highway, you have to have a psych ward approval. Yeah. Anything across the water line, sewer lines, that whole line power. I guess that's what it's you. You're going to be, you're absolutely correct. So I have heard of people digging across the road and throwing back in. I have heard of that. I'm sure that's never happened. Ever. Oh, well, well, well, well. You're a favorite. I'm good. I hope I'm singing a good tune. I don't have any air. I love to do except this thing. What's this thing? That's a very good. Do we have any specific case? Do we have any specific case account? He was supposed to be. Who's going to, who's going to make sure to see? It's going to be overlooking. Yeah. To you. Yes. Okay. All right. I mis-wrote that it's not 23020 in the addition to the agenda. It's actually 025. Yeah. It's this particular one. So, and I don't have a problem with this. Sometimes, sometimes to get a great picky about something. They can. They can. As well, we have D and O and G. So do you want to get picky? No. Okay, good. No, no, no, I'm fine. No good. D and O and G. Okay. So did you make a motion? But somebody made the motion. You did, right? Who made the second? Director Zola. Zola, I think seconded. Zola made the second. Move like a gentleman. Zola, you're on mute. I was saying, I haven't yet, but I can. Okay. I'll second it. I'll make the second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion is carried. That appears to be. That's, what else? Do you want to do the China Administrator Report? Look at what I think you're saying. Because then you can dismiss everybody, right? Yeah. Pretty much. China Administrator Report, I already mentioned it, but Patricia Canada officially joined our team on last Monday, June 12th. So just join me in welcoming her. Next is the trash, the issue of trash at a residence on U.S. Route 2. I wanted to give you an update on that. I actually got the update from the person who reached out to me and brought this issue to me that the trash has actually been cleaned up. Oh, wow. And there are now Cassella trash cans on the premises. So it appears as though the resident has now. The property owner probably did have to carry us to step in here. So the gentleman stopped by to let me know he was very happy that the trash had been cleaned up. So I drove over there, took a look. Yes, has been cleaned up. And I also reached out to the state, to Ryan McCall, and let him know that that has been cleaned up. So he appreciated that as well. Seth, great job. Thank you. Well, I'm being a new health officer. First, I'm very active. Yeah, there you go. Great job. So I'm losing. And the deputies, as the deputy health officer. Yeah. Okay, the deputies. Rachel Grossman is your second in command. Yes. Well, thank you. I'm going on vacation to my next year. I'm going to say health officers, maybe I'll pass that on. No, I'm good. Thanks. So what else we got? We have not a lot of vacation. So we have six zoning permits that have been essentially applied for not all of these have been granted, but two single family homes. Obviously, you have the curb cut, a subdivision, a shed, yes. Absolutely. And a boundary line adjustment. Yes, that's actually the David Rogers estate. Oh, the one that owes us tax money. They're dividing up the property with basically not all in one law or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. There's some buildings that are taxed across the properties. Oh, yeah. Is that a problem? I don't think it's time for distribution. The point is that we're just not going to make it any easier to collect that money, I guess. I guess maybe they'll sell some of the property and then they'll use it to pay back the taxes. Well, you're doing a lot of guessing there. They're going to have to. They can't sell the property without paying taxes. So somebody's going to have to go out and appraise the property from the town in the listed wall. Okay. And they only owe us a lot of money. Aren't you being kind of negative? No, I'm not. I don't like it when somebody owes the town like a lot. But they're going to get, you're going to get the money this way. Let's see what you might see. Or you think it's like hold a hand and something and rather than this one, which do you think I get? You can hold your hand out there all day. You're probably not going to get any money in this report. So. I'm not sure. It's like we're reporting all on. It's very good. You're good. I think we. Scott already mentioned that we have the meeting schedule as well as this document. Very good. Yeah. Okay. You know, this needs to be transparent. To the meeting. It's a black and white, Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. But it should be both. Right. It's posted in four places. I saw you. I think it is. But not a public forum. No. Okay. We have once we can do that. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The other Washington County contract. I can do that. If it wants. Because you're still. While bills. And there is one special warrant there, Michelle cut a check. On a warrant of the 15th. And essentially to move funds from M&T. We're still working on trying to get all that. So we need to sign that there. Yeah. Yeah. He has the actual. Yeah. Crazy. No. No. Oh, it's expensive. That must be the one. Is that going in on surgery? And that's on Monday. We. Yes. And that down the dip. Back over. It's actually more up. One at the bottom. Okay. It's the one that's up closer to the. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Oh, okay. They were about ready to mow that field and you're going to close it on Monday. How long is it going to go to. I don't know. I'll just stay here. So. What's the, even, um, That's the new town credit cards. That's the Northfield savings. Oh, okay. Yeah, I never saw that. Yeah. It's new. The first time we're actually paying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we've done a family report. We've done the warrants. So pretty well done. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Relatively early. Or so. But we're not. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. What's that? Are we going to a second session now? Yes. And. Under title. Personal matter. For now, matter. And I'm the exclusion. Yeah. For those. Remember this. You so so amazing. I did. Okay, all that they would be selling, I buy it. So we're out of executive section at 8.50. In any action taken? No action taken. No action taken. There's no action taken. There's no action taken. In executive section. Okay, there's no action, we don't have any. I would like to make a motion that we approve, as sec word, approves the FY2024 East Montpelier employee wages detail. She effective July 1, 2023. And that is, as I just an overview of what, what staff will be paid for the ensuing year. We have a second on that? I second it. All those in favor, we say aye. Aye. Aye. Do I have a period to answer if you have anything else? I know. I'd like to make a motion and be adjourned for tonight's meeting. Are you making that motion? We'd like to make a motion. I am making that motion. And we adjourned the June 19, 2023 town of East Montpelier select board meeting. I'd like Zoe to a second that. I second it. So I'd like to make a motion. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye.