 My favorite is public comment inquiries for anybody who got a very large crowd tonight. We usually used to see about two people, maybe, you know, Doug and one other, and that's about it. So typically the public comment period is anything that's not on the agenda for tonight. If there's anything you want to bring up or comments or something like that, this would be the time to do it. And then after that we'll move on to the agenda portion of it. So is there anything that anybody has or wants to share? It's been a couple of weeks, Doug, do you have any of them? Lisa, any of them? Everybody showing up? Oh yeah. And then if you haven't, just make sure at some point you don't have to run up at the same time, but just make sure we get your name on there for the record. And then the other thing too, tonight as it goes, there is a portion or part of the meeting where you're able to present for, what's that? Yeah, just make sure that we introduce ourselves with who you are. I know a lot of times most of us know a lot of you in here, but not everybody. So just make sure you just get up and introduce yourself. That way at least they can put you on to the meeting. That's part of the master plan. Yeah. We officially received the town plan from the Planning Commission, which we should have gotten a copy of that in our packets. And we put a new copy out online with the edit so it kind of did it with the, so that in your example you can see the edits that were made from the Planning Commission after the public hearing. Also, so since now that we officially loaded the Planning Commission to move it to the set board, you can see that you have not less than 30 or more than 120 days after the proposed plan is submitted to the legislative body to hold your first public hearing. So I'm suggesting that you do it November 9th at 6. That gives us time to warn it. There's obviously statute for it, you know, things about warning it. And then you can just do it at 6 o'clock as the first part of your normal cycle meeting. That's our normal meeting by just checking. I believe so. That's what it is. Am I wrong? 9th? Yeah. Great. Oh, I'm holding it in 6. I don't know. By words. So yeah, so I was thinking you can just do it at 6 o'clock. You don't have to be here regularly. So obviously I'm talking about the town plan. So I'm going to get it electronically. So I'm going to get it. But if everybody's good with that, then I will follow these rules. You make sure that you get it in the statement just like you did for the Planning Commission. And there's also the statutory stuff we have to do. So you guys are good with November 9th at 6 o'clock. I'm not told. Excuse me? It should be fine. Alright, I have a motion. Motion to set November 9th at 6 o'clock. At our normal select board meeting is the item for the beveled down plan. Is that a move? Second. So is that a meeting unto itself or just... We'll just make it the first. I'll try to think the rest of the meeting is correct. It'll be in budget. Alright. We don't have to worry about stuff too. But yeah, maybe that'll be the only other thing we can do about that. Correct. Okay. But hopefully, if there's any questions or controversy, people will require you to mention that. I wouldn't think it would be quite as long as the last one. No, we did vote the other night. We need to have it available, you know, Zoom or anything like that. We don't have to know. We could. It's just a trick because the acoustics in here are so poor. I know. I sat in on the other one there. I know. It was tough. She was really tough to hear. It is because we have people here. So it is. Any further discussion on the town plan? Less than we had to do last time when we had the... when we did last time, you know, the river corridor pieces, which was new for not just our town, but the city as a whole. There was a lot of information to take in. Sure. I found a couple of things interesting in the town plan. When I was reading through it, you know, with the survey, I was going through the survey, and you guys had a chance to look at the survey that was set up. Oh, just a brief plan. But I thought it was interesting that most respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the town should and then they had, you know, five or six different things that the town should be doing. One was obviously more business, business, business. And then down below, as most respondents disagreed, or strongly disagreed with the following. It was kind of contradicting each other. Less business. I was like, business, I know this. Boy, there was a piece in there about encouraging retail and small business, but on the other side, prioritizing historic preservation for business development. So, probably a little bit. Maybe down the road on the planning, we should maybe clear up those questions a little bit, because I kind of want to share a little bit of good information so far. There's another cheer over here if you want. Yeah, and you can pull it down here the way you want to give yourself some more space. Any further discussion on the town plan? And for anybody that hasn't been to a select board meeting before, and I just, when I first started, when I came here and I first started sitting on the board meeting, you know, kind of in the public, and it was like a walk-in, like one or two people, the same thing. It's just, it's kind of a strange thing, because it's really, it's a meeting of the board members, so it's kind of like almost like a little private meeting of five or six people, but it's done in public setting. So it's kind of a little weird to have the meeting go, because it's, you know, so at times, you'll probably see us not really speaking, like checking out, it's more kind of like in a group setting and talking about the town plan or something like that. So if anybody does want to comment on when we get, it sounds like the majority of you came for one piece of it, but when we get to that point, just be patient, let us put your hand up, try not to talk over people, especially right now with, you know, Mass and things like that, because you're over people. So just put your hand up and I'll recognize you, you know, at some point, you know, be all at the same time. But next up, we had the Two Rivers, I don't know, was it Two Rivers? Yeah, we have Two Rivers, frankly, which is a letter that we gave once a year from Two Rivers, in regards to the grant process. And we've participated in the past, and we need some signatures. We are about to do more of those hydraulically connected road segments to bring us into full compliance with the municipal rules general permits. So obviously they're saying they haven't been funded yet by the state, so don't start any construction projects till we get the word. But certainly it does a lot. It's nice, it's culverts, it's stone-linked chain and that sort of thing. So we've participated in the past. I think last time we got $25,500. We were up there. That's a good program to do. So this application is for one day that's not been released yet? Basically this is just a letter of intent. Once it comes out, we want to apply because we can get $24,000 for a $6,000 car match. So we just need you guys to sign the letter of intent and we'll pass it around. Move to sign the letter of intent for TROS. Grant an aid program. Second. Bader? Bader. Bader. Bader. Bader. Bader. Gene's 30-year appointment for the... She does that every year. She does that. There's only one way out of this thing. Once you're in it. So we have Gene's appointment to the planning commission. I'm assuming that's something that Gene wants to do this year. There's a letter in the packet. I think it came to the... It's for you. It came to the planning commission to publish here. And it was good. That's some good insights. So it's good. Well, I mean we talked about it at the meeting. It's probably been over a year now. We've been talking about that our committee I'll go back up. After Irene, we saw a reassurgent of activities and people wanting to get involved in the community, all the programs and community committees. And then here in the last couple of years we're seeing a lot of that people are leaving these committees. And some people have been on these committees for 20 hundred years or so. But a lot of it's just people that come on for a year and leave. One thing that keeps Bethel moving forward like we want it to do and continue is really we have to make sure that our committees are full. The planning commission is one that we have to have full through the state. But we have other committees as well that are still struggling. It's in here tonight that it's a little pitch for the recreation committee is always looking for people. Planning commission. Yeah, we made a mistake. That's a planning commission. But she's not here. She dropped those off in line. Recreation committee is always looking for people. So planning commission is looking for people. DRV. DRV. As I said. I don't know the conservation. She's pretty well stuck. But we didn't talk about that at the last public hearing for the planning commission. I said, look, if you don't. If there's not just one committee, cut the time and we'll find one for you. It doesn't work for the first time. Yeah. Yeah. Can I make a suggestion that maybe there could be some kind of public forum held or some informational gathering held. How our time government works. What the select board does. What the commissions do, et cetera. These are all words. This commission, that commission, but I don't think most of us don't really know what that all involves. How often they meet. That it's a voluntary position, et cetera, et cetera. How they vote, et cetera. I think that would be maybe informational and encourage young people to come to that to see how it goes. You know, either getting information out there through social media is the easiest nowadays or another good one would be talking with our town meeting day committee. That might be something where they could maybe have a little display of how the hierarchy of the government works and how the committee is following those areas. I think I saw your hand up. David Fair, one of the household and one of the directors. Who runs the rec committee? Right now the chair is Emily Bergman. Really? Do you know her? She's my neighbor. No, she's not. She's my neighbor. She's my neighbor. No, she's not. She's my neighbor. The committee is, you know, we go on time a little bit, but it looks like the committee's a busy telecom person for that. And I know she's really looking for people, David. Yeah. Yes, sir. I'm taking a little of that. Just refer the gentleman here to the operating manual, the well done piece of information that's online that tells you all about what's going on and encourage him to take a look at it that explains committee structure and what you guys do. And if you didn't get it, if you didn't get it towards our operating manual card, I believe we have... There's someone on the board that's worked out on the office. Yeah. We have someone on the office. Everyone on the office. That's a great resource. Yes. Well, I think it's a great idea. We got that too, and I flipped through it, but I think most of us who don't have a whole amount of time to sit down and read this whole manual from front to back, especially I'm talking about younger people. I think we're all in agreement that we want younger people here involved as well. I think for them, there needs to be done something a little more that's a little more involved and maybe a little more personal. That's a good idea. Maybe it's a unique thing because there are these folks who are... Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. Yes, Gene. One of the things in our current social-historical situation that triggered me is the impact of the COVID crisis and what that has meant in terms of the need for different kinds of infrastructure that we have thought that we... that we have previously thought was necessary. I'm speaking specifically about broadband, but the whole notion of the economy and education and so on, that prompted me in part to say the planning, the town plan needs to really need some help in looking at that. That was part of my motivation. Yeah. And that's the idea behind the town plans. The town plan, the world in which we live in has ever evolved in it. That's why you don't just have one town plan and just let it roll. Every so many years, we have to put together a town plan because you start working on it in year three and then by year five you implement it because the world changes so fast. Things like... Can you imagine if, let's say, we were still on dial-up? Can you imagine doing the Zoom meetings on dial-up? That would have never happened, right? With Crashel server. But there are things like that. We've talked about with the energy committee and things on electric vehicles and solar panels for homes. There's a lot of things that are changing and it's good to get new perspectives on that as well. I've had a couple of conversations to DC Fiverr and to really try to see how fast they can get lines in and to expand and that sort of thing and gotten people to contact them to sign up, to have the surveys done. That way they get to your area and you can just sign right up. There's definitely some more information about that. I can give you that town. Our town plan is just one part of a regional town plan. Right. I'm the Bethel's representative on the Two Rivers Commission. Our town plan is critical to the town of Bethel. It's also linked integrally with all of the surrounding towns that are in the Two Rivers region. There are 31 to 32 towns that are involved in setting up town plans and they're all linked together. So it's not just us. It also has to relate to all the other towns around us. I just want to say that today is different than three years ago. Two years ago. Yes. I'm sitting at home. I'd like to tap on to what Dean is saying. I've been organizing for Bethel, Vermont strong since April. And the number of people who have interest in being involved and engaged in this community is phenomenal. That was my experience and I've never served on a board or commission but I am energized to think that there's potential out there not just during a crisis but the energy is out there and there are ways to get people engaged and I am committed more than ever to working with the town and figuring out the best way to... whether it's an informational meeting whether it's actually tapping people understanding what their strengths and interests are. It's a real personal thing to say I'll serve on a board or commission and it's not just try this one, try that one. It's what's the talent out there? What's the interest and matching that up with what the need is. Dean, I support what you're saying. It's a different world but in the world that we're in the response has been phenomenal. I will also say there were several community leaders that asked me if I might be interested in serving on something. So there was that. Perfect. Anyway. So we'll just need a motion to appoint Dean Kraus as three-year term for planning commission. So who? Second. All in favor? Aye. We'll get something out there regardless of committees. Another one reason why well, when we ask somebody to be on a committee they say, ah, I don't have time. You know, it's always I don't have time. I'm sure if it means a lot to you, you'll find time but I mean, I can't tell you that it's only going to take you one meeting a month because, you know, we meet twice a month but you're kind of always doing something in regards to select board and then the same thing with like the committees. You know, most committees meet once a month. You know, it's for an hour or two in an evening and you're kind of always kind of doing something with that. You know, if that's working on a town plan behind the scenes or, you know, recreation and doing something, you know, on that or might have activities or you're kind of always doing something but trust me, there's time out there. All of our committees are open for them. They're open meetings so if anybody's interested just go and sit in on these. Yeah, or you can just go and visit them. Yeah, they're all subject to open meeting laws so they have to be posted several days in advance. It's a good way to find out what you really want to sit on now. Thank you, Gene. Thanks, Gene. Carol's not here tonight. No, he just submitted his letter. So as we know, Carol is a man of many ball caps in this town and he's probably more and more caps than anybody else in this town at this point and he's trying to hand those off to others now. He's heard the best of it. So Carol was looking, Carol was resigning on his place on the South Railton Senior and Senator Ford but he also wanted to appoint Paul Baylor, Paul Baylor to take over him for a term of one year. I thought that was pretty great. He was on and found his own place. So I put in his two separate motions so obviously you want to accept Carol's resignation with a regret and then you could make... I know that Paul didn't submit a letter but he's already... but he and Carol already had a conversation about it so you can either appoint Paul or we can have Kelly send him a letter and ask him to submit a letter of interest. I'm not really sure how you want to do that but I was just trying to act on Carol Ketchum's wishes. But the first one would be obviously that motion to accept that it was a wrap. A motion to accept the resignation of Carol Ketchum from the South Railton Senior Senator Board. So I'm moved. Would I like to call the board to thank you for the years you've taken from this? Yeah. Maybe you should give it a lot of time. Yeah, it's too late. Second? Second or more? Okay. Paul Baylor? Uh-huh. How does the board feel with appointing Paul without a formal letter of request? You know, that's kind of a personality. Here, I'll talk to you. Yeah, he does. So I think it's... I mean, the request would be nice. Yeah. Yeah, I think we could talk about it. Like he said, if you have any questions, please call me, you know, find me and follow his appointment and his address. So... I feel comfortable with appointing Paul without a value of Carol Ketchum. And I know the only reason why we went to a formal process was because there were people at times that have been appointed for things and they didn't know they were appointed. People want to make sure that we don't, you know, we've come away with those from town meeting day and all of a sudden, somebody figured out that they're doing a duty now that they had signed up for us. Right. And Carol will send him a letter just like... So do I hear a motion to appoint Paul Baylor to the South Burelton Senior Center Board for a term of one year? So who? Second. Okay. Second. All in favor? All right. I would just want to check with Paul. I mean, I trust Carol's judgment and everything, too. Yeah, he'll call it a letter. You know, we've kind of established a method to do these just to be sure of ourselves. It'd be good to just follow up with him. He probably sends him a letter. I mean, I know Paul will be signed up and I'm sure it's fine. All right. And then we have the discussion on the structural engineering responses for RFP. That's for starting the first process of, you know, what can we do with our existing highway department between the land there and a bunch of proposals in there. Hopefully Theresa's taking time to go for a plan for that. I would say they're all... I've dealt with all but one at one point to all pretty reputable companies. I think the only thing going through there when I was looking at it was, you know, there was a combination of, you know, there was a lot of different services for different... Yeah. We're trying to put apples to apples. Yeah. That was GPI. We're trying to follow what we were looking for for baseline versus all the add-ins. Well, GPI is high. I don't know the next many ways, but I read all the proposals and was obviously Du Bois and King comes in at 2000. Then they offer an add-on, which we don't want this alternate add-on of working with this guy. I've never heard of it, but we wouldn't need to do that anyways because that's what a design builder would do. McLaren has a... McLaren's four-bit are 1900 and then Du Bois and King is at 2000 and then Child Engineering is at 3500. You could also see the letter that I also got from Carl. He sent me a bunch of information and I've worked with Carl before. And I felt like after comparing the three plans, which were really the three that stuck out with Du Bois and King McLaren and Child Engineering, I actually would prefer to deal with Child Engineering. I felt like we were going to get more response and McLaren is obviously very basic. Du Bois and King as well. But if you looked at Carl's, he had some really good points on here about things that he was going to do. And he wrote with Carl before. He's very thorough. He already wrote me a letter in advance to tell me about the plans, to tell me, you know, what building it would have been, what it would have done. So he obviously does his work. I also liked the idea that his fee was based on following assumptions and one of them is that, you know, although the lives over the roof was below the 42 PSF, pounds per square foot, there's also exceptions for existing buildings which may apply. And I will spend time looking into those. And, you know, he also was doing a stamp. If you look at his scope of services, he was doing a, obviously reviewing the current building code requirements and comparing it to the design levels. He was also comparing a stamp breaker with the feasibility of reusing an existing spring. And so, and we're limiting our mezzanine. I just think that it's a little bit extra money, but I think that we're going to get more information. And it's just going to be, I just think we're going to get more information. And obviously this, like, work out the right to not make it a little bitter. And I write them all, and that's my opinion. So this is Child Engineering? Yeah. What are you talking about? I just have one quick question. What does Paul F.P. stand for? Oh, we put us, I'm sorry, we request for proposal. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Yeah, we're doing the, because we need to evaluate the, what we want to do is I want it to be outside of the 10 block, so we need to have to build a new one. And then we saw it, reuse the rooms if we can, and new windows and lighting and try to use existing. And then there's an old, built in about the 80s, a wooden back piece. I want to take that off and have that new metal. And then maybe add on as an additional bay on the left, but we need the existing structure. So I needed a structural engineering to see if that was possible. And so that was the chance for our side to set that up. Thank you. So he's at 3,500? He is at 3,500. Not to exceed 3,500? He's at 3,500. And the player is at 1,900. And I just feel like we're going to get, by reading the proposal, to be read as a proposal, and prepared on the side, by the side, and to what you're going to get. I feel like we're just going to get, we're going to get a little bit more information, which is what we need, because we're going to figure out what we're going to need there. So again, if you write the proposal and have other plans, let's just send them. So do we have money in the budget to come in? Yes. In the capital building? In the capital building fund? Yes. But you can get it out of the way. I mean, I'm good with that. I know reading through it, there was a couple in there that, you know, their baseline sids were less. You quickly can see that their add-ons were expensive. So, I think it's important. Yes. Gene Krupp. Is there anything to consider it? There is also work that needs to be done in the town office. That's on New York. I see. Yeah, I'm going to talk about that. So, my question is, is there, what conversations have there been or should there be about combining the projects so that town office, town, et cetera, is one complex? I just, yeah. Well, we can't combine them because of the, can't put the town office up there. There's just not enough room because of the space. Because part of that lot, there wasn't, obviously it comes off and then there's bank. The sand pit is also with an old landfill up there. So they have underground fuel tanks. So they're actually connected on what we can do up there. But yes, I actually have to go through the town office and I do want to get some work done there. I found out some other stuff about that too. So, I actually believe that we should stay where we are. And I think that that goes with getting to the town festival. We've done like two things to it and two other three maybe. And I think it's in a good spot. If we pour out the garage and we, there's a fire department that we can move, we can actually fill that out a little bit or even a little more parking. But really, parking is people think parking's an issue. It's really not. I mean, for us, we can also try to work and put our buys to house next door to see if we can park for a couple of people over there. But I think that, you know, really at tax time, but obviously through the COVID, a lot of our people now are mailing their tax bills or just dropping them in a slot after we're closed. But you know, it doesn't know us a thing. It doesn't know us a thing. And even if we were to get rid of it down the road, we need to do some maintenance to it and find a somewhere where we could go and then buy and land now, obviously. And then all the developments are just expensive. I think we would, a person on hand in this would be better suited to just stay where we are but do some work to make it work. I just want to know if there have been any any thought in Yeah. buying and their husband. Yeah. Yeah, the challenging thing that we've had with that is, you know, as we all know, that living here in Beverly is a very limited land in the village area to do anything with. You know, it's in the river corridor or it's a foot plane or it's not feasible. And these are the steps that we're taking right now is it's really that, you know, this would be to have someone come in and say, yes, you can put something here and this is how much it will cost you or no, you can. And then we're looking to the other and in the meantime, we've kind of last year we talked about the board of, you know, we can't, you know, even though both of these are needed to come down, you know, to make it cost worthy for the taxpayers of town. We can't do all the projects at the same time. So we've identified the highway garage as being the first priority. Well, actually the first priority back up first priority was the water which we're doing now. The town highway, I don't know, we'll call it a shed garage. What do you think, Doug? Or it's a proper pronoun. And it's not, so, so that is getting our attention right now and then what we'll be talking about which we've been talking about here for months or half a year now is if we go and do something with the garage, what do we need to put into the office to get us through the next 10 years or so until we can make a decision on, you know, do we just keep the office through those rounds? Do we add on? We need to go down. But we have to talk about it. So this is just really just the exploration phase of can we build something there? And we have a steel structure so would it be cheaper to just kind of keep the structure and add on to that? Of course, it's kind of like, as we're finding out, it's kind of like putting vinyl siding on your house. You put vinyl siding on and then 10 years later when you need to fix it, they don't make that vinyl siding anymore. And the steel structure's kind of the same. Exactly. That manufacturer doesn't do it anymore and they need to find some way else. We're looking. Yeah, same thing. Yeah, same thing. So we're hoping that, you know, we're thinking we might be able to save as much as $30 a square foot. If we can reuse that steel that concrete and all that. So. I mean, we had done a We had done a study, what was it though, about three, four years ago, four years ago. We estimated up there about a half million dollars just to build a, call it a basic facility from scratch. Not knowing what there is underlying issues there. So it could be more. Where, you know, trying to take the end of the steel structure would be drastically cheaper. And we know that Chelsea just built a new town garage for a million and we just don't have money left. So if we can reuse that structure, reuse some of it and make it up the code and stuff. We good? The town hall's been looked at for 30 years. Excuse me? The town hall's been looked at for what we could do down there for 30 years. Yeah. I mean, I guess I'm going to go with Teresa's direction. Do you have an object that's going to make the other bridge not flow anymore? Well, yeah. We had one, we had one of the bids who had, it was really the base bid. You know, it didn't really include anything else. So if you were going to get more services, you're going to have to go to one of them. You know, there were three of them in there that had a base bid and pretty morbid in it. Probably. Probably. So if we can do any extra, it was probably going to be possible to fit. You know, Charles was in there and kind of, I guess he's kind of in the middle. Well, he's, well, he's definitely not the highest, but he's lower than in GPI. But I feel like you're just going to get more service and I think we need more than, I think, I'm going to explain the proposal to everybody. So everybody got the same proposal. Everybody got the same score and he just came out with, I feel like, but here's the money. We're going to get a little bit more information and information is powered just to know that it's going to hurt. So we'll move forward and we're going to build our base. So. It looks like you could have it completed by the end of the month. Yeah. By the end of October. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it might help give us some direction towards budget, you know, conversations. Yeah. Just as well as it might have been and two occasions and it was, it was funny because like, how it printed off, I, I had the child, child's engineering proposal and on another page I had his email that said, Theresa and Carla and I thought we were talking about Carla's looks and I was like, you know, that's pretty good. Yeah. The plans to the, I don't like your object. No, I, I don't know the reason I was trying to figure that out. No, it was just an example of the fact that things he had already done, he got, he had already gone a certain mile by saying, hey, this is what it is, this is who they are, this is what you got. So, anyways. That's okay. I think if you want to pick someone else, then okay. That's fine. That's Dave, do you mind playing it? Yeah, I don't know one person in the audience was Kate and I thought she had worked in this town a lot to know and she had not anything. I'm just, honestly, I didn't look at the prices first. Yeah, I did the proposals, I looked at the basics of the proposals first. We had a little bit more and then I went back and did the, you know, then went back and looked at the prices. Well, quickly some of those other ones, I mean they were everything extra. So, I mean, instantly if they put a days worth of time in it, they're going to be over you know, any of these other ones. Yeah, they were quite a bit more. Which, I mean, we all know a days worth of time, you know, you don't really need a lot of money against it. Especially when you talk like driving and phone calls and all that stuff that comes with it. Yeah, well I, prior to Theresa saying any of this, I don't know if I would have said I had a leaning towards child, but it was always more comprehensive and the add-ons on the others were sort of sticking out of like, oh, I wonder how likely it is we'll hit those add-ons and then end up, you know, we could select the lowest bid but end up actually paying more whereas I like that in a way that he did is like, this is the limit no add-ons as an option it won't exceed this. Which, you know, gives us a better ballpark in some ways than doing some of the work with all the add-ons. So, do I hear an emotion to use child's engineering to do the structural engineering piece of this? We'll have the, what was the exact number? 3,500 not to exceed. Oh, not to exceed. 3,500. So, not to exceed 3,500. So, move. Okay. Okay, all in favor? Aye. Aye. And then, this was kind of continuing talk from the last board meeting we've talked about the creation of an advisory committee. Yep. So, as you can see, Jesse and every and I say that he was here but everybody else assigned it is what you asked him to do which was to come in and basically make a statement and write a little bit about you know, what they wanted to do with it. I, this email with Jesse and we had come up with a, a nice, I thought this was a nice information statement I think it was just me. I don't know. And it says the committee on inclusion and equity will be cast to understand the issues of inequality in our community suggesting ideas on how to remedy those inclusive community for everyone. I know that in a follow-up email from maybe it was not pointing everybody that was on the letter just yet but having maybe the committee but as having people submit a letter of interest just like they were just like Jean did kind of tell you a little bit about themselves why they wanted to join that sort of thing I think that was your comment that you called on and but that was it I think it's a great idea I'm sorry I'm trying to find my paperwork someone likes the printed two-sided once in a while half of it goes one way I've written some notes I was trying to find I don't see Jesse's mission statement Oh and I did both say I'm sorry on the letter on the letter two that they submitted I did make a note that the PC made these adjustments so all I got the hearing on-time plan we worked together as a group and came up with some suggestions and Laura sent me some incorporated those changes so despite the letter saying that I wrote my little note that says PC already made these adjustments so thank you for that I thought it was a nice cooperative way to work together to get the working right so so we did that so just so you know you can do that you made those adjustments as a PC So do we have something that we can give them that describes the responsibilities of a committee and the structure my plan was to obviously do the e-mail this is obviously the commission statement so they know and I thought we can write that up anyways give them the information on how to take a night take your time get the location give them all the sit down with them like though my plan was to work their first meeting and to help them get organized and just said you need to be quick a chair you can fix someone's going to take the minutes and go over the open meeting and then the first time that they need so that was kind of my plan I figured that would be helpful for a committee that's named so that was my thought and then there would been nothing else and they'll be wrong and yeah and I know kind of organizing a committee in the past you have to be careful of the size of the committee too which well most of the time in this town we're talking about the committees but in some cases the size of the committee you know if you get try to remember what the which could be an old saying I think it was like over six or something like that it just becomes more not as productive meeting you know the more people can have over a certain number I mean maybe six or something and there's not to say they have an odd number if you have in the case of a ties or anything like that with decisions you've got an odd number and like an example right now the planning commission could have minimum of three but currently this has to just ten and nine but we could have up to nine by state statute but you know basically you want to find the right but it'll depend on how many people you know what you're going to be looking for is people who actually couldn't commit to time and the other thing is too is you maybe have someone who can't come to the meetings regularly or something else on the side for you or you know help in some other way if they're fundraising or when I help write grants if you know that sort of thing and I would explain all that process to an organization because you guys just need to decide and it's only going to depend how many people put in letters of interest whether you know so typically what we ask for is for a committee member to be an official member is you know a year candidate so you know they're on for a year and then after that you know they can re-op or get off we do typically ask like you know this thing is you know some sort of formal correspond to the saying that I'm interested because we have had in the past individuals that didn't know they signed up for something and then they found out about that afterwards and you're trying to reverse it because it becomes more formal and we have it in minutes and you know so do we want a stagger well some people let us just say some stagger terms so that you don't have everybody you know jumping off the guard you have several committees that don't have any terms but that's I think something we could talk about organizational meaning is you want to have time so we can help stagger so that would be one of the things we can talk about at the first meeting and stuff and then once they get organized they can kind of just write it a little more even kind of all the other meetings that are going on so it's kind of like you know there's school board I mean there's different pieces of the community that's not necessarily the channel related you know you know because the I know it's challenging because some people might have a certain day of the week that they're free but usually the Wednesdays or there's a lot of meetings on Wednesdays on Mondays Tuesdays and Thursdays or DRVs or whatever you know like the website you can kind of see when everybody you know what they believe the conservation commission has been made by Mark who eventually will come inside some people were meeting at the town office but now we're just down to one committee or two that really meet there because it's hard to social distance and it's so small a lot of people are meeting here there's also a conference or downstairs too so you can work it out I mean I'm sure we'll find a place for you I know the trans BRTS board actually met one night at the conference yeah because it's all planned out with this year but anyways but yeah it's a little fun to figure out so yeah I mean the membership of the committee is tricky I mean usually it's just trying to get the numbers but if you have the numbers then it's kind of more you know picking you know individuals that are going to because you gotta think as a committee especially if you're the chair right it all you know evenly spread out the work and people that are really helping to function you know and have a good diverse membership you know some people strong in one area some people strong in other areas kind of have a mix not everybody's you know following the same path you know have a good discussions lively discussions with controversy I mean we you know we don't always agree you know it's good to have I know one thing that I've written some notes down here so even though one thing I found out in Bethel years ago when I first moved here is even though it's a small town in Bethel there are different different like different pockets of the town so you know like for instance there's you know you have like Christian Hill you have East Bethel you have Gilead and they're kind of little subsets the same town but you know you could talk about one issue and those four different locations will have different information for that or see things differently so maybe you know when you're looking to fill membership maybe not just welcoming all groups of people but also look at that subset of where they come from inside the town which is kind of cool because you know somebody in the downtown differently than somebody on you know Cooper Hollow Road you know when you get off the beat path so it's kind of neat how that used to and I wasn't here back in the heydays I don't know maybe some others could tell me but I used to hear that there was some pretty interesting gatherings or meeting different sections of the town and you know and how we do things but I always thought that was kind of interesting it's such a small town and you have these little you know supper engines of the town so I think it's true with any town you know you always want to make it sort of like diligent you know so but anyway so since that makes sense for people who want to be on it to submit what is interest for the select board to appoint them it seems like if you just make you can make a motion to create the advisory committee it was laid out and then people will submit letters and then the select board will appoint and once you get enough to go that's where is organizational thinking figure it out so I guess I was confused on where the like I mean I went through everything but where was the specific commission right here in the town manager's report oh okay right there which is this it's right which is also the same thing yeah yeah we've worked back for a few months so I think the motion to start the committee is would be great and then the other thing throughout that too is and we talked about other committees as well it's always good to try to get the school involved as well and granted it's you know in the past we've kind of looked for maybe It's harder now that we don't have the high school here, but it used to be trying to find active members in the school at an upper level grade because they're a little more responsible to help out with things like that. But definitely the school is a good resource as well. Question? No, there's really no, for the most part it's just a formality of making sure that a person has interested in it. So that's why we've kind of done the letter with the person of interest so that we make sure that that person is interested in the position. I think the only time when it hasn't been yet, when I've been here, but maybe if the group was getting too large, you know, maybe that's happened. If that ever happened, you know, if it was a very large group and you say, oh geez, you know, this is your 18th member, you know, maybe the top of the group this way, that's never happened. But I mean that was probably the only thing, the only other thing that I've done recently is because we have some of the membership has been low, like the energy committee. We just appointed two energy committee members from outside the community. So it's more of an informational for the board to know not really like who the person is that's going on and how they're qualified because that's not really, you know, if you have an interest in it then you qualify, right? But it's more just, you know, are you from the community who's like the biggest thing usually? And did you approve of wanting to be, you know, so those are kind of the main, yes? I think that in this particular case, there can and shouldn't ought to be some consideration given to diversity within the committee as it relates to the purpose of the committee. People who maybe have been historically disadvantaged, marginalized, etc., in our culture, I think there is reason to expect that this committee will embody the diversity that it seeks to empower within the community. And I think the purpose of the committee and its own understanding of how it's constituted should take that into account. And that may be a different kind of diversity than locating geographic neighborhoods on the town. So I think that you want to make that suggestion and make it out loud. Yeah, I mean, I guess until you guys, guys and gals, until you appoint a chairperson, you know, I guess the biggest thing I would just say is, you know, just make sure that when you are members, but getting members that, you know, that those members are speaking for the admission statement that you've put out there, right? You know, obviously we don't want to exclude any groups of people. So making sure, ideally and perfectly, you know, well-rounded, you know, everybody's representative. And my guess is probably, you know, just like all the other committees that we started. I started a vision committee about five years ago, and it started off great. And then after like a couple of months, there was two of us, you know. So, you know, it becomes like almost, you know. So pick some people in the lab. Yeah, I think that's really, you know, everything's exciting and new when it starts. But, you know, this is something that you want to keep going for years to come, not months to come. So just keep that going. Yes? I have a process question. Okay. When you give us a brief overview of the way that power and decision-making flows between the committee and the rest of the town. So, right, we're creating this, we're hoping to include this committee. So, I guess I'm asking for just an overview of how committees interact with the rest of the town, lovers, and what a committee can accomplish in decisions they make on their own. Sure. What happens is all the people involved in committees almost are advisors. So what happens is you have your monthly meetings and you submit your minutes, and they go and it's like work out. So it's like working, you know, knows what you're working on or whatever, so that's great. And you have something specific that you want to do one time, I don't know, a year or two ago. And I think that you'd like to do that again, maybe once COVID is over, is get all the committees together so that everybody knows what everybody is working on. But say you wanted to do something, Andrew, you wanted a writing grant, you wanted to work on some specific project or whatever. You would just talk to me and then, whatever, I'd help you, whatever I could with the grant or whatever the project was. And you could just come from the select board if you want to come on. Clearly you can come every couple of months. Some committees, you know, most committees show up every couple of times a year. And give the select board an update. In the meantime, they keep updating by minutes. So no committee other than planning at a couple, had actually any authority to do anything. Absolutely. Yeah. A little bit with Conservation Commission, yeah. But you're all advisory, so you can make recommendations to the board. So say you wanted to change something. You know, you decided that this policy or this process could be better done. Then you just say, hey, please. I think we could do this. And we work together and, you know, maybe it's a new policy and a new ordinance and whatever. Then you can bring that idea to the select board. And they got it back according to you. And that's kind of open about her. And then we'll move from there. And then sometimes it can go the opposite, too. It could be, you know, we've had times where the select board might have a project, let's say, and task a committee with that project to take ownership of that. Absolutely. And then, you know, we kind of check on to see how's that project going and where you're at. And, you know, and bringing that information back to us. So you just kind of, you know, kind of a subset to the select board working on a specific task. Another way to think about it, too, is, and I'll use the example of the Energy Committee in our town. So our state has a big initiative towards alternative energy. And the, our Energy Commission is sort of tasked with looking at that, understanding what the state's asking, and then helping the town develop a plan of action that will suit our time. Because the state's plan can't necessarily fit for a small town. It can't always do everything the state might want us to be able to do. So there, there that sort of go between, between what the state's asking on the select board will eventually enact, in a way, right here, if you're kind of taking that information, distilling it, thinking about it from the perspective of the town, the town needs, the town's abilities and capacities, and then kind of coming back to the board and saying, okay, here's what the state says, here's what we think, you know, and then helping us make a more important decision based on the state. So it's kind of, there's multi-tiers that they could be coming from, but that's another perspective to look at. I think that's a great reason. That would be good to start with the first organization on the green side. Obviously everybody has some ideas, so maybe you start looking at those ideas and say, okay, well, here's a couple of things that you could really focus on and to, you know, I always want committees to have a goal so that they can actually feel like they're taught or something, instead of just pushing the same off, okay. So, you know, we can talk about all that. Well, not to offend anybody. It sounds like we're dancing around some sort of lawyer semantics. This committee is going to be inclusive on every level. Race, ethnicity, black, white, Indian, Asian, trans, non-trans, cis, male, female. Is that what we're talking about here? Because nobody's really said that. We've sort of moved around here. I think it needs to be said that it needs to be recorded. But that's what this committee is about. It's one of the different reluctance to anybody. And a lot of committees I've seen in this town in my last, in my decade being here. I mean, that's what it's about. It's about inclusion. That word says it all. Not just in towns, different towns. We're bringing the towns of that word together. But we're bringing the community of diverse people with diverse ideas, diverse backgrounds, born here, not born here, which seems to be very important. That is what this committee is going to try to do. I just wanted to get that said, because we're sort of dancing around the words. So, traditionally marginalized groups now, we want to be helpful, we want to be supportive. We have ideas and things to contribute that we think are around the world. And more I think is, how can we support the selector? Who can support the town? And it's thinking about racial justice right now in this moment where that is a national, international priority congress, help the selector. Think about that question, are there things that we could be thinking about as we kind of develop our own agenda? That is really in the spirit of let's all, let's all grow and learn together. And I ask questions, challenge each other. We really want to do that. We want to be a part of this conversation. So, I think the question too is not just what these people go as they want, which is probably all of them, and the point is not all the same, but what do you all mean? Similar to my description to Andrew, I would say take exactly what is happening at the national level and also what our state is saying, what they're going to do and kind of help us. You know, it's got to be a give and take. Help us make better decisions based on what you're learning. You're obviously much more steeped in it than the board is as a whole. And so you're going to bring to us perspectives that we might need to hear that we're not aware of or things coming out of the nation or the state level that kind of need to be brought into play in ways that they don't already exist in the top. I think you're already doing that with the information you put into the top plan. You're already on that track. There's no part of you that's not on that track, but it's exactly that. It's like tying all these pieces in and Chris said it earlier too, and I know you're on the task force for the school, but tying in what's happening with our school kids. You know, what are they going to be learning within their school day that then the town can also be backing up and kind of putting all those pieces together. And I think it's going to be a lot of factors coming in. And I would sort of imagine that we'll see you a lot more at the beginning of starting a committee because that is the point. It is to inform us and us to inform you and kind of have that backing up for it. It needs to happen. And so as you're both in the selecting new members and us appointing them, it's also us knowing who you'd want to appoint. I think that Laura's point is really apt that somebody could put their name in that maybe has a really counter agenda that could actually be harmful. And we might not know that, right? So I think it's not to say that they don't belong on the committee, but it's the more open and the more communication we're having between all of us, the more we're going to be able to help. You guys can find us first. And I think it would also be good for you to understand what the select board does. You know, what we do and what in relationship to the committees, you know, we're kind of overseeing so many different facets. I mean, you hear tonight what we've been talking about. It's everything from coin drops to renovating the town garage. So it's good for you to get an understanding of what we do so when you bring your ideas and concepts to us, you know what we can do and what we can't do. There are certain things that we don't have the ability to do. Yeah, so it's good to understand that. I have a handbook that's like this thick. I mean, you know, when this came to me and my daughters and I think the first thing that came to me is like hope that we, like there's a lot of influence out there right now. Influence is at all levels, state level, world level, Vermont level. And, you know, Bethel, you know, Bethel is different than, you know, all the other things, right? And we're all different somehow, right? And I think what I'm hoping that the committee would do would be first, you know, kind of, I know it's hard, but try to like shun out everything out of Bethel, like all that energy that's flowing around, but not in Bethel, and really kind of look at Bethel as itself and say, you know, what really do we have our issues in Bethel and how do we make that work, you know, and then go where are we at hell? Because I just think... Yeah, I mean, right now, like, you know, Bethel is much different than Burlitzer, right? And, you know, and Vermont is much different than California, you know, so there's, you know, there's a lot of influences out there right now, and I really would like to see us like really look at the Bethel residents or Bethel community on, you know, with this topic of how can we better build that relationship, that community relationship, you know, together? And how does that look? Not just, and again, I think school is a very important piece of this, but, you know, and I think in some cases in this committee to do it right, you kind of almost maybe need to get some people out of their comfort zone that, you know, may not want to be on the committee so that you have that opinion, that well-rounded opinion in the community. I mean, I think it's probably one of the trickier committees to run because it's, you know, you know, the topic right now is on every TV station, it's, you know, you can't go, you know, check your phone the first thing that's going to pop up, right? And I would like to see us kind of, you know, you guys take on that, guys, girls, you know, the issues that we have here, not necessarily what is another area, but really how do we make that work here enough, right? And then maybe once we get to work here enough, then we can influence our neighbors, right? You know, like, get that sprawl, you know, of positive behavior. Yes? Again, I'm going to take the, you know, there's a little dancing around the topic. Can you go more into detail on what why you want us to avoid and just like you, I hear that there's this topic on the news and on Facebook. What topic are you speaking of? Well, I don't think I need to go through the topics because they're on every TV station, every night. What I'm saying is, what I would like to see, and, granted, your committee can do, you know, anything that you want with it, but, you know, this is, Bethel is way different than, I've lived in Bethel for 15 years, and, you know, Bethel is different than Windsor where Windsor is different. So all these places are different, and what I'm saying is, you know, there's so many outside influences right now is what's somehow, if we can, you know, try to block out the influences and try to just specifically work on Bethel, you know, because what works somewhere else might not work in Bethel. And what works in Bethel may not work somewhere else. But I think the overall goal from reading the mission statement is, you know, we want to make sure that everybody feels included and to do that, first, we need to figure out why aren't people feeling like they're included in Bethel, right? And then another report says why aren't people feeling included in New Hampshire, that's not the purpose here in Bethel, right? So that's what I'm saying is just kind of trying to figure out what's happening in Bethel. How can we make that work in little from there, but... Well, how can we figure that out by ignoring the vibe that's going on in Bethel? I've heard national level and state level, but I've heard nothing about the town level. There's a trickle down effect. Well, the people of the town are looking to the town for that leadership on this topic. Racism, discrimination, bigotry, just ignorance. So you can't have what you can't ask us to do our job and then ask us to try to, like, put a bubble around Bethel because there is no bubble. I think what you can see in leadership here in Bethel is that our town is probably going to have one of the first very few committees that are looking into inclusion in that way, right? I mean, do you know any other towns that are currently doing that? I would probably willing to bet that there's probably not more than less than a dozen of those in the whole state. So I think that right here in the local government here in Bethel, let's open up the committee and let's explore and see where we go with this. If I might, my guess is that the people who are forming that committee probably need to have some acquaintance with the rules and regulations but in terms of how they actually carry out that mandate, I think the people there who know how to do that. No, and I don't think anyway I'm not saying that you don't, I'm just saying These committees are from Bethel so we want to start with Bethel residents first and how we can do that is by sticking in the Bethel area to start. And I will to add on to that just so you all know and the partnership the George Floyd the Joel and Bethel marching rally for Black Lives we had a bunch of volunteers who helped with safety volunteers I don't know, people handing out snacks, masks, thank you cards all the things to the speakers we from that group we started a listserv that's called Black Lives which as of today has 70 members who all live in Bethel basically and so to me that's like there's some kind of disconnect happening which I feel like is kind of what you're talking about is that from our perspective it was an overwhelming desire to be talking about these issues from Bethel residents which actually honestly surprised me as someone that's new to Bethel I didn't necessarily get that vibe but it's been really heart-warming and so this idea of starting this community is really I think this group of people trying to figure out how this energy in town to prioritize this issue for residents and to kind of connect those dots I agree with Chris but this is the exciting thing for me about this is that I feel like Bethel can really be even though we are a small town with 2,000 people right in the middle of town it's quite close this is still something that we care about we're still going to prioritize and there's still work to be done we can model for you know all the other towns yeah it does feel like that with all the wisdom and knowledge you know we want to work on some stuff and then I think it's very good so I think that we'll all learn a lot in the process and learning a lot and there is to be more detail than what is directed for this committee and all the other committees it's kind of like there is I think the same in this none of this would have been possible without all those things that we just talked about none of this has ever come up before without all of those outside influences so yes we want to center on death but we cannot pretend like those things don't matter in this bubble we have to use those things as a catalyst to make death a stronger in that area not leave it aside and forget it we have to include it because none of this ever hit the table until we turned on our TV every day we looked at our phones every day, every day, all day and there it was and that's what made all of this possible that was making this conversation possible where I said so that's important to remember and that in building this this committee which is going to be a part of this broader community work under your umbrella this committee cannot pretend like that's not an end for we have to pull from some of that to make this work for this tab and that's something that we have to remember I would say so I agree with both what you learned and what David is saying I think that's where we are looking to be the experts knowing more than we know in coming to us saying here's what's happening at these different levels and also the federal experts, your federal residents your citizens of this town and so then also coming with that information and say we're going to put all these pieces together and give you some advice as to what's the next step I think I also I appreciate that both of you have sort of called out some of the awkwardness and some of the lack of terminology right and I think that's really important I think that I don't I want to say this and I don't want it to be contrary because it's not but I think that there's a lot of not saying something because you don't want to say the wrong things and we're all we're all in that boat I myself will admit that I'm in a deep educational phase and I'm going to say the wrong thing, I'm going to offend somebody I'm going to do something that I regret but if we're all in this together and acknowledging that sometimes we can't come up with the right term or the right set of words to express what we're trying to express but instead we help each other and figure it out and say okay I'm noticing you're struggling to put a set of terms to that can I give you some and you tell me if they're the right instead work kind of together you find those because I think you both called it out and it was totally act it was like exactly we were dancing around subject matter but at the same time we're dancing around because nobody wants to be offensive nobody wants to you know we're all citizens together and we're really working together you know same here I have to make sure that minority is strong, direct put in our sense they're not derogatory that's a line to hold it's not a hard line to hold it's a line to hold and we have to do that and it's okay in fact to call each other out on it we'll also turn around and be supportive and here's maybe where we're trying to go with this Thank you I also like that just a few comments which are generally the select party considering this and imagining what this committee will have an offering that will look like I made these comments as a person who holds very few marginalized identities I'm about the resident I'm a white heterosexual but Leonard was saying to Chris your feedback that you've been giving my understanding as a holder of those identities of this committee that can be made up of individuals who live in this town with intersecting differential identities that are customized is that they're going to bring their personal stories and understanding of the town of Bethel to make the town of Bethel better for everybody including this says Heterolignan like me right so their purpose I think is me what I'm hearing and some of your feedback is a concern of oppositional ideology or viewpoint in town and what this committee is going to do what it seeks to do is to make this town better for everybody and not just and nothing else but they want to propose a motion to create the advisory committee for them to we weren't going to upload it to the members no because no we can't always say we're going to be acting on this as well but the process where we can put it in letters is going to be in this lecture so then we're going to have video artists into us we have another meeting in two weeks and then basically we can get a base of people together and point it and then with you guys to come on members after that then what at least a space for people you know as somebody using that I mean apart from this I just want to say thank you for supporting this committee there were certain people that were like let this happen our experience the people that bought the depot was probably me and I know there was a lot of panic about what that was going to mean and it was a gay bar we've been really pleasantly amazed and surprised by this town and feel really accepted for the most part and like people are willing to hear each other and talk to each other which is so thank you again number three says your tool for when you're putting this committee together on the formality and the things like she can be educated on that yeah cool yeah we'll have a more organizational meeting like I said so in two weeks we're having another meeting so we'll take care of three people and then we can start yeah three together you and me it's like it's me and I that's right yeah I wouldn't say much I've lived here for the stories I hear everything I've heard I've never heard of never saw it why? for one but let us know that there are 70 people in the 70s I don't know at least three yeah I was like yeah I don't know how about these how long does he just want to be warm in the winter? yeah really? yeah I have a lot of fun so as I I convince my husband to come because my husband is a project manager he's worked in construction for like 40 years and he's a friend of a project manager so he offers he comes down he goes to the office and I was like oh really? and he was like sure so he did and he came down the day he went through the entire building and and then he said I don't think he really could get into the office but he did and one of the things that actually came out of it is that he knows how great to be electrical and that's clean I've got CVO schedules coming to put another term in and I want to get the basement so he came and he goes to get up there with something going on so he took a picture of this and see what he was about to climb around and so I asked a looper to come by and he took me down there and sent me all his deckings around and that loop was put on in 2009 so just tonight I actually found little quarantine is 35 years not for a rated quarantine level so I sent an email to that company but obviously there's a list of things that need to be done the first thing that I want to do is get the basement and if you have these big blocks who knows when you come out there's a door there's like this much of a missing so cold air, snow vermin whatever, in and out and it's all in the bathroom so I had Mike Noscrock set up a couple of years ago upstairs and he made a song going drunk because Tim Nels would be like not to make that any traffic on the way so he was like calling up from the basement just throwing a bunch of stuff upstairs so we didn't have a bunch of stuff so I just wanted the board to realize that there is a there's a list of things to be done but I just I don't feel like it's I don't think that we have the money to build and build and have a location to go I am going to leave the insulation contractor to develop a basement and I need to get a contractor in because one of the if I could get the basement done this winter in the door and I've been up to that because all this office so there's no screen so that's why the squirrels and I is coming in now and the siding can use to replace sometimes the sheeting so it's one of those things that we will talk about to me when you see me coming down and it does it looks like it's the native roof it's the native roof decking and the siding the porch is a problem because the porch needs to be plastered because anybody who knows on a safe truck goes by it's going to increase our windows because the slash is the slash all the way up on the porch so there is still a huge tank in the basement there's actually still a tank there's a little building next door that you don't see you don't need to I don't need to I'm not going here so to melt the syrup right there you'd like to move that move that high joint is take out that building and I was like when you go check it out it won't go up in there and if we could, if we did that we could also go that way but the siding really is the only one that doesn't go but I wanted to put some estimates and numbers to it to say okay there's some problems but it's a good location for us I think people can walk to it from town they don't like to put the cannon it's not that far I've walked into town before but I just realized we're creating this capital plan for the road for the garage I need to fill this data and put this in to build it but I have to say if we're going to do the roof which obviously has to be done even if we get materials we've got to do the phase check and the soffit next year and I'm not sure why should we do the siding at the same time or we're going to have a little can of worms here but I'm hoping once we get a number on the town garage that we'll have a better idea of where we stand and maybe we do it in pieces and we'll get it packed the holes packed at least for the winter because right now the water comes out the porch actually leaks there's a light bulb that can go on the porch but I don't put it in there because water runs out there and I'm going to be stupid but I don't think I can stand it because it elects us to make screwing the light bulb with water from now so anyways I just want to just like go to the city to have somebody go through that building and lay it out there as to but I think it's worth putting some money into it because we put a little content in 2009 and then we built the town manager's office like that's actually basically it goes over the door and go right to the basement so you really have to put this asbestos pot on the floor as long as we don't disturb it so we'll be able to go over it if it needs care and it hasn't been given any that's been the problem with building for years absolutely right now is there any grant money available for regularization maybe we'll get some help with the other stuff just like the salt yeah salt building for salt work that's a great idea and get efficiencies even on it because there's some sort of rebates but um I don't know if there's anything special for you I don't know probably all I'm saying but I can ask but I have a solo problem we still don't have a solo problem between now and the end of our current project what are you thinking that you need for minimal well I know that I'm going to need money to insulate that we would take that out of the capital fund to do the insulation of the basement so for this winter I really just want to get the door actual door on the basement so the snow doesn't come in we'll look on the reef there so that the water doesn't also come in and get it insulated so I think the hardest suggestion was to take the glass out and just put concrete block on it and insulate it and we can pack some of the holes so that the heat someone stays in the building and it's a little bit warmer and on D2 guys office we're going to take where the outside inside the garage on the rest cruise some blue water to the wall at least temporarily just to make for office a little bit warmer so I'm just trying to save a little bit of energy but I think as we work on the capital plans for town court I will certainly have to work on it but yeah so Oscar you're tasked with finding a stray cat and drop it off at the end as soon as possible so yeah well he can come and go this is the only time you're allowed to pick up that stray cat last time last time I was like I got a cat what do you want to do with it so all of the information for you on the roof because I just tonight Dr. Everett loved you I just found tonight just on the warranty incentive email so at least we'll get it cashed and we'll see how long it's going to take these people to stand behind their roof warranty so there it is it's ugly and it's long but so we have 25,000 on to do I'm mad at you we do because we have the capital and funds so yeah we do and I haven't been currently on the insulation but I think I'm gonna put out today insulation but but so this means that my husband will never offer to do a favor like that is he going to donate his labor for the repairs? yeah I said that he's like like no waitries but anyway I'm gonna throw it up because I knew there was so many things wrong with it but I just needed some of those expertise to kind of get a good job yeah very sorry I don't have no money but most of them said to give me the cash down the back so that's right keeping that all the time behind the wall that's right all the time I'll give them some of mine thank you that was not funny so anyways I'll give you a post about the roof it's been done years ago it's true the town I came from before it was the same thing and even when I was looking at the school the first thing everybody cut is building maintenance I had to build a new fire station I had to redo the town hall holly holly and we'll church with that circle society I mean they didn't maintain anything it was how they kept the tax rate low which is exactly what that was if you don't fix anything you spend the money you could have decided to fix it in the future and let it go to thought and saved all that money right then and then we kept the can kind of where you're at so then at budget time we can work a little more and I'll re-dress I plan on going forward to address those because we didn't talk about that we moved forward with the highway new highway garage or renovations of it and we had to make the town office feasible for the next 10 or 15 years so we talked about it not for labor not for labor it looked like it was not properly installed yeah it only had a one year warranty on labor so then they've been people kind of looking back because of the leaking on the back yeah when he was out there he sent me photos and I planned you can see what I did in the winters when the baby got home that's right, duct tape we had duct tape last for many years anything further on the town office nope and this backbite went just back to last time yeah last time we had talked about the purchase of a used cruiser and so that's in here you can see I gave you an email from Oscar because we got some questions and he feels he could probably sell an existing cruiser for 5,000 you know we can buy one for like 10 and he does tell you on here that that's a real variance, I also need to place them that was taken down last time last week well one one of the questions was we didn't buy the same any vehicle and the second one was if we did purchase that vehicle from Norwich for I don't know whether it was 10,000 whatever it was what else would we need to you know, upfit that or is it anything else because like last example last time when we retired from Tahoe which I know everybody in town was sad that he had to put all hardware and like from I hope we buy that $7,500 I think yours or my time the upfitted it was like 13 grand the upfitted it's coming with an updated raster radar which itself is a custom radar that we use through speed enforcement that's newer than the system it's coming with a newer digital ally medium recording system which I don't have to burn DVD to put burn on an SD drive it's fully equipped with a siren comes with a one thing I have to do is transfer a radio but up to the process and I think because I'm going to do it myself is there anything we can't put on that vehicle that tires but I'm going to need one tire but I'm going to need one tire as well but that's without doubt and I've got good prices of tires these 164 mounting grounds for tires these tires that are on the road should be able to come off from the splinter that's the rigidity of the upfitted that I can think of there's really no out of pocket what are you thinking I know that this one is relatively the same age as the current cruiser but what are you thinking of the longevity of this vehicle would be for us because right now as you know that it wasn't three to five years closer to five five years is kind of what we you know, I mean it could be replaced in three years but you know, three to five is kind of easy so this cruiser now has 115,000 on it this cruiser that I'm looking at has 77,000 on it it's been kept up there's no suspension issues yes, it's a 2013 but it's in better shape than the cruiser that I've got now as far as suspension and the body is decent it is a Vermont car most cruisers, Vermont cruisers it has been kept up and clean and they get an easy look and it's gaining rust I did get the opportunity to take the handle, it's nice I think what you're getting is when you take into effect and you're outfitting later down the road to replace this one when it dies you're going to cost the car more it is personally more I guess the way I look at it is if we invest 10,000 into this you know, let's say maybe you get back, you know, three, four or five grand for one that we have now but is our $5,000 or $6,000 investment right now would be worth it being the same we'll let it get us I think you get three or four years out of it maybe even five years out of it how many years have you had this cruiser? 30 I think it's the third is there any model on it? a lot less than the top anybody that didn't know the top we had the only like 1992 towel that had literally a VHS cassette tape it was a relic had antique plates on it you're going to get three years out of this one pretty short I'm never going to give you a guarantee on that but when it comes to outfitting a new cruiser you're saving money now then when you are five years from now because everything in this cruiser is all set running you go all I have to do is take this normal and go replace that cruiser in three years if you went to an hospital you're looking at 75,000 an hour you're looking at a minimum of two weeks of outfitting so if you take that into effect your long-term savings brings me up to get to 117,000 miles because if you want to have to outfitting this car if this dies in which I'm hoping to go you're going to have to strip all that out and replace it with something else the DED system in there we replaced that video system the video system out of the box for a watch car for our needs, forgive me for talking to everybody that's the impact camera system that's a 5,000 and 20,000 so I'm trying to focus you can't be much because well I was looking at the car factory this Norwich one and every time they brought in for service you know they record the mileage in Norwich for instance they were only doing like 6,000 miles a year I can't see that much I think you're less than that I think 12,000 was a high number I was just a fall cry because the 5,000 maybe would be 3,000 miles on this one at least would be longer and with these open to do areas I'm not hoping I mean at first I was looking at what the alternatives could be so let's say we didn't do anything right now we kept our vehicle a couple thousand dollars into it to get going and the next year at this time we're going we need something and it sounds like to get another vehicle like this you know it's going to be 10, 15,000 easy and most of the used cruisers that we get the one you have it now came from down there window window window and that was kind of there I guess no it looked like it's been very well and this one was used in a few years that's my own little opinion I think the other question was do we buy another cruiser with not knowing the direction that we're going to go with services so with you being over in Whirlton from where you're time right now where you're looking at having to pick up another individual or to get a split shift with over here which obviously that person in the vehicle or the other thing that we talked about which I don't believe we still have got any information maybe you're working on it but if we did work out a deal with Whirlton came in and was controlling you know have that individual on full time they need a cruiser they need a cruiser it would somehow be incorporated if Whirlton were to take over in the government the cruiser would become part of that I talked to the Whirlton but to do that you're going to have a cruiser that's part of the the cruiser's work I can't expect that to be cooking along it's it's the rapid rate of the the allied like I said you take Norwich off the Whirlton it's the same the same but if I were to make a comparison between the video system and this system like right now this system this system right once the Whirlton department takes over if that's what happens wouldn't it then be their responsibility to upgrade the department that they just picked up it depends on the every time we contract out the things that can come to play and we're still we just scratch the sources of the possibility of doing this I also reached out to the VST about the contract and we didn't have a constable we would do some stuff so we're still super early in the game in what would how everyone would look right now I wouldn't know we're just moving forward with the fact that and that's that's how we're going right now just kind of sticking with that and we've been exploring all of our you know and we've done this before before Oscar came with Mark retired well retired and came back out of the force just out of his name he was going to retire you know we did our due diligence just like we would with anything you know look at what does what does Vermont State Police do we go into the constable you know we've talked to the townspeople in the past that one of the largest voices from the town well voices as a whole is that you know the town doesn't want to see a police department so you know we want to see a small form of a plot in order which is been a constable for years in this town and that's where a large amount of people in the town would like to see it instead and of course it's always easier we're always like maybe we can contract with the Sheriff's Department maybe we can contract with World's but then we get the numbers back you know because they're expensive Windsor County we tried that thing years ago and they were like five times what we had budgeted so it was very expensive and then you know sometimes when you get Sheriff's Department you don't get that community feel either you know it's an identity that's not from the town that comes in that does a little bit of enforcement and then the use the other thing we also have to look at in our town is it's more than just speaking enforcement and local law enforcement it's also the animal end of it because if you don't we could contract with the Sheriff's Department and they may say well I'm sorry but we're not going to pick up the animal control all that so then we would have to either hire somebody to do the animal control or appoint somebody to do the animal control so it's a very convoluted level stuff at the local level I may have an animal control issue I don't have a cage which is the animal they ride in the back sometimes I get my ears in Did I understand that the last time Oscar your term was expiring eventually too? No. Okay. But you said the term was up and you were thinking about it so how long? Well what happened was so we typically we have a constable in this town and we have had a constable in this town for quite some time and we do, I guess you would say part time so it's 20 hours a week and so that's the way we've done it and Oscar recently a few months ago took the town of Wilton had expanded their police force over there so Oscar has gone over there we'll call it more full time over there and he right now is only running half of what we normally would like him to do here so the conversation at this point has been do we do we hire another constable to pick up those 20 hours do we hire another constable just to pick up the amount that Oscar is already picking up or do we, like we started looking like Vermont State Police could they do it for us Sheriff's Department and now what we've talked about is the means that Wilton has an extra patrol person over there maybe we could contract with them to come in and do some of the local patrol of course right now now we're dealing with a vehicle that it's kind of like really going to do something with it because we're going to dump some money in it and then the fear is that we put money in it and here from now we're like, I've got to put more money and a good deal has come across with a vehicle that's in good shape do we pull do we pull the trigger on it likely good is that even if we get in the vehicle you know one or two things that's going to happen we're going to hire a supplement to Oscar to help out doing constable or Wilton takes it over of which they would take the vehicle so at this point it's almost kind of a foolproof get-the-vehicle thing because we're going to need one more idea yes and if you went for some reason which I did not have the point to have now but B.S.P. is we would sell a cruiser for somebody what's that we're pretty fortunate with our community because constable and police are literally break down the road so they do a lot of not scheduled but they do a lot of patrolling for us at times but again can't pick up the phone to them and come get the stray dog that's running over them or if you want to call me I'm not going to bother you and here in town for many years we had some Vermont State Police that actually lived in the community here so that was always kind of an extra benefit of when in jail we could call that person up and they would take care of things for us we don't really have that question anymore we have it in the mail and it's not like that so yeah it's almost like these two conversations we're having tonight this is an opportunity I think for us to take a pause for the cause what I know is that I don't feel safer around the presence of people I can't speak for anyone else but I know that is something that they can trust it and thinking about long term I know this is not an immediate conversation but just what are ways that we can meet the needs of what are this particular conversation that we're having before is that there are voices that have not really been heard and like folks in our community and in our surrounding community you know just some of the optics of this is not really the optics of reality I wonder if it's almost an opportunity for us to kind of take a breath together and be like who are people in our town who hasn't heard from about this can we make sure they're in this room can we make sure that before we spend more money responding to it if we could have some more time before we invest it it does feel like it's very connected to the I mean I go to the our entertainment community anyways like I was saying before over the years you know the residents of the town have always wanted a constable not grow bigger than a constable the constable right now a majority of the work that he does do when he's around is speed enforcement which speed enforcement you know we're not talking you know he's not knocking on doors for search warrants what he is doing is he's getting people that are driving 62 miles per hour in front of the school and I think we can all agree that speeding in front of the school is very dangerous and we had kind of an outcry about two years ago the speed through it wasn't just through the village but it was going up church street it was like going up the hill people would gather especially around the corner speed and then they came to straight away and that's why sometimes you'll see Vermont State Police will sit down by the fire station and what they really are doing is a school zone it's a safety zone and some other things that we've done to try to help out with speed enforcement for when Oscar isn't here is we've done the speed board you know blink of sign to say this is how fast you're going so the majority of what Oscar does here with us is speed enforcement animal enforcement but at the same time Oscar's credentials are at the point where he's able to help us do more if need be things provided with us over the last couple years which has been great because he has the full credentials of a police officer so he has been able to help us with some things like drug issues we used to have we used to have I'm sure everybody that's been here for a while we used to have a very ugly I'm sure it's not gone but we'll say a very noticeable drug presence right in the downtown so some of that has been indirectly dealt with by having someone like Oscar are costable before really didn't have the power to do that so that would be more handed off to the Vermont State Police and then all they have five people on duty and they do a very large area so they don't have to do work at all so I just wanted to make sure everybody knew what Oscar's duties are here in the town versus what we call full time police so any of the things like Oscar will respond or help from the state police do medical responses pass non community outreach and that's another good point that Oscar has pointed out is that when somebody has a medical emergency at home the majority of the time the first responder at that home is the police officer it's not the ambulance the police officer is the one that starts first aid while we're waiting for that so it's an overall our funding can always be discussed just like every other budget we do grows and everything else so certainly the Bethel residents have made a reference on wanting over the past how many years because they approve that budget every year at town meetings I think that was the original decision a town meeting that we were going to have a particular type of a constable and what they were going to do and what kind of hours that was a town meeting decision because I think it's a if you're a constable like Mark you're a constable which means you just have to go to you have to have a little bit of training Oscar's a 2B which means he can't do death investigations but he can do this by everything else so there's different training for police officers so certainly when Oscar came it was a step up in the Bethel and he brought with him child seat inspection all that sort of thing but the residents have voted every year to approve that budget so by that case it's the same one cover and probably in the last five years our budget on constable is probably almost double but it's not double to the point where you think like we're getting more what's happened is there's just so much more policies and procedures that are sent down from state federal levels that like for instance there's a lot of behind the scene work that that Oscar has to do like if you pull somebody over for 62 and a 25 in front of the school a person wants to go to court or about that then we pay up and Oscar has to go represent us in court for the speeding ticket it's a lot of that type of thing or in some of the cases especially if you blame them you know something to do if you pull somebody over and the person had drugs I mean that's like a whole day with the paperwork you know so yeah it's the paperwork that you're paying to do the service so it's it's kind of very I mean what we're looking at today is this in our it was a capital plan but what we've been doing in the town in the last 3-4 years mostly is we've started these different funds so that we can have money appropriated for cruiser fund, capital funds or these funds that we've had available so that we need to replace something that we don't have to go to court and say this is money that we started appropriating a couple of years ago so we have that so that we can take advantage of that when we find a good deal of money and they did approve a capital cruiser plan because we did start that and fund that and schedule that was also in the town court last year and do it this is the second time this has been on the agenda they tabled it last time so it's I think something that I appreciate I will not speak for anyone else who really interested in having services and programs for young people to support children parents that are visiting in different ways that don't involve and maybe it's a vote and conversations right now but I think as bar owners we know that there are other problems than hearing it's a big problem and in fact before our bar was closed for COVID we had to get more pan and other types of immediate remedies that's probably the problem but I also think that in our experience the problem is something I'm more into right now we know we know we know we had any questions the situation of the national conversation impacts us locally even though it doesn't seem like it should and this is an illustration of some people feeling less comfortable or even fearful with police and police feeling that they're under attack by a population that whatever so this is a classic example of the kind of conversation that needs to happen with all the respect it may be that in some cases it may not be best to have law enforcement in uniform in the school doing the drug education because there will be some in those schools or in families who have to have the talk and for whom the blue and the guns and all that kind of stuff represents something entirely beyond and outside of my experience so that's a good to hear the difference between constable and police but the physical appearance isn't different and so it's also good to hear that for everybody it's not the same a comforting experience and you're going to be your anxiety goes up as well well it sounds like so I think what we're talking about inclusion and equity and our current world wide and regional reaching out to somebody like Oscar to be a part of the group to talk about some of these things but I just want to get back onto the topic that we have tonight which is right now we've been saving money for 3 years for our we've been saving money for 3 years for our cruiser the cruiser does need some work the question on the table is do we invest the money into the cruiser and hope that it lasts us for a few more years or do we take advantage of a new cruiser that virtually needs nothing other than tires we do have the money for our fun so I guess if somebody wants to make a motion to purchase is that we can go from there so who? all in favor? who's seconded? David next on we have the town manager's reports which I think we went over almost everything I just to give you an update the other obviously besides the town office five months later we'll be on the roof I'm working on the next budget obviously a capital building plan because I got back into a number somehow for the town for the capital and a capital road plan which I was trying to hope to combine all those things together but it's going to be a huge undertaking I'll get some of it done but I got it as something ready to town I'm also reviewing the H&H study by Ripple that's the hydraulic study by Ripple so I can create our future the permanent canal bridge so that I need to get that done so that that can go out over because that's going to go out designed build what are we thinking like in the spring because we only have a couple years right now spring big time so aside from the roof and the capital budget and our budget and figuring out the budget for that what's the current plan with that are we looking at designing a brand new bridge are we thinking about the H&H study by Ripple I asked them to do two things one is the standard which is the regular concrete bridge that I talked to on that Rasket Ripple and said no so if you want to put it another 80 bridge it's maybe not going to be long so it's just going to be a lot easier to deal with so that's how we're going to go I think it's like a chance that it's going to sit you know beside where the temperature is now and try to identify the temperature so we're just renting it for $150 a month but the design build it's going to go out the design build is going to go out and do another main bridge but do it there so that'll go out the design build so doing that also working with Aldrich and Elliott and Tim on plans for Crystal Drive and Sand Hill they're actually planning money so they're getting ready to put together a planning brand so that we can do that because we know we need to attack both of those at the same time I kind of started doing talking looking at costs to downsize the road group and outsource some of that work but apparently this is just a lot all of the months we're budget coming in so I'm going to take a minute to get into all of the stuff but it seems like right now, between now and through winter we should deal with what we currently have and maybe bringing back our seasonal and stuff should be able to cover all the flowers yeah that's my plan right now as I'm just going to bring back a seasonal through the winter because right now it doesn't make sense if we're going to end up keeping more of a skeleton crew and outsourcing some of it then that's what we're going to be doing I don't want to hire somebody right now and end up saying great you don't want to spring it back so that's my plan at this point also as we do not receive any petitions against the dog ordinance or the trash ordinance so they went into effect on Friday a lot happening at the time a lot of things to do so that's where I stand there the other thing that's obviously in your report is Tim's updates on the water project down here we also had asked for I'm going to give you another minute some other information but then there's Tim's updates on the water project the superintendent that was in place he had left for another firm and so the superintendent now running the job is actually Jay who was the project manager but things picked up and they actually seem to be making a little bit more progress and so things are moving forward any activity on the sand sorry the place that was selling on sugar mail put it in the paper so no no activity here do you have any numbers on our lead project no I don't know for a while and as we know the project is going to go into next year so there's a lot to go into that and we know it's going to be next year yes it's the 100% and we track all that separately so that's from the 14th of September so are we going to discuss the board festival again request at some point it's under communication so it's up next you said you want numbers oh yeah that's what we're going to begin that's what I mean we're going to talk about we ask for information on the historical cost yeah it's the last couple years of expenses that's what I gave you yeah I'm going to start so is there a motion to approve the minutes from September 14th maybe when we pass into that I get the draft later I just want to read a better second second give it to Paul okay on favor we have the august financials we have the good we have the comments on the the auditors were here this week and in terms of good they were wrapping up the transfer station and we spent over $750,000 federal money we have to have a single lot excuse me so we will come back and work on that but we audit for the books for Bethel's good he's happy so far and everything so he's happy the guys I did see when were they going to start bringing in the sand to the town I'm going to say purchase the name sand to date they have been I don't want to say the four letter word but eventually that's going to draw exactly no it will be sanded before I thought I was coming to four guys like you saw the auditors no on the financial I didn't see I didn't see the cost he's been hauling he's hauling they've been hauling this time of year we are then getting those halloween snowstorms they took the sandpaw through all I just said we've got a bill probably Dylan has so Randolph's been hauling a lot through town too truck out the truck everything up there highway garage wise all set and then the fourth festival financial everybody has got the history of the cost there so when we get to the budgeting we can talk about that based on your request from last meeting anything else that we didn't include you welcome hey it's the largest turnout we've had a long time very cool usually we're lucky we're trying to get more than two people here it's Lisa usually Lisa and sometimes Doug that's all it's about oh yeah making most of it John shut up okay happy meeting you happy meeting you happy meeting you