 So we'll call the regular select board meeting to order first up is public comment public comment on Something that's not on the agenda Seeing none. I'm gonna jump out. Thank you all To approval of the approval of the agenda So moved Sorry second Those in favor. Hi. Hi. Hi Who's to motion carries? Do we have anything on oh, we have minutes on the consent calendar Yeah, you have that draft. It's a little more spartan this do so think about whether or not you're okay with that That was as on your recording secretariates Get what I can pull together that one's rustic Alright entertain a motion to accept the consent calendar so moved Second all those in favor. Hi. Hi Motion carries Into the business part of the agenda First up is the 25 budget review and discussion We got the new version. It's out for the public also right Trevor. It's posted Yep, it's all in the packet and then I'll put a standalone copies here up for folks once you approve it and all that once we got a final Do we have any questions on the? Changes that Trevor made for us in the last meeting. I don't have it Yeah, it was just the four to the salary lines that we talked about last week. So that was it the rest of it's the same All right, um Hearing no questions We're We're not taking a boat tonight to accept the budget. We're gonna let you put it into the actual town meeting Warning and vote them both through at the same time Yeah So not seeing anything there Reboot we're gonna review the draft of the town meeting morning Yep, so we've clarified a few things. Let me just scroll down to it in my dark. So we have in there The greens are the elected sort of open questions The blues are just the don't lose in place holders Make sure they all match and then the yellows are the new things just into the scheme the library trustee There's one for a term of first. They changed their bylaws. We knew it was different than the last time So that one that's in green and article one Emory was able to verify I highlighted where the senior senator petitioned To go up four thousand dollars. That's article. Oops scroll too fast. I'm gonna say 19, but 14 14, yeah, and then as you get into the article 25 I just put this in here for consideration usually we have gravel road reserve as the other one with the paving reserve for where Any surplus goes that highway equipment reserve is the one that's really short funded the gravel road reserve has a healthy balance Even though we've been using it for different emergency response type stuff so just to give you Give you the options if you want gravel road reserve, we go back and change it That was just sort of as a way to goose the funding Since we're fully staffed and if we can keep it, hopefully we won't have year-end surpluses. That's where they've been coming from by and large It's through a lack of sustained employee numbers. I think it makes sense to have it go into the equipment reserve Especially because we got some more equipment that needs to be replaced But yeah, that's sort of the real area need and then We could use the tool other reserves in the future if you wanted to but that was sort of the out of all of our It's the one in the Kind of the worst spot police reserves close, but it's brand new. So That's to be expected and then Anybody have concerns with going with highway reserve instead of Grappler reserve. I Think it makes the most sense. Sorry. Let's go. No, I just no concerns And then there's I gotta verify that term on the budget can be a pretty sure that's Mike Penrods But I wanted to double-check it And then the one that's the remaining term Rachel Putney stepped off in December. Oh, no Yeah, and so we're short one. We've been advertising for but it's not been anything that's produced a lot of hits That's bad. I'm sorry to lose Rachel. She's been great She it was family calculus in terms of just there, you know, they're busy. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah Yeah, sounds like they're jamming She and Paul are energizer bunnies with the family. That's no doubt. My apologies for being late. I got tied up in another meeting so That's fine 28 and 29 both say town treasurer one of those should say town clerk Yeah, the dangers of copy and paste and moving too fast You got the site right with E and F Yep, 28 would be the clerk then if it's E Can somebody bring me up to speed up we have we have we Move the cannabis board forward to March February 1st No, we proved we approved them. Oh, you did. Okay. I had since I had this I had the sense from From the earlier message from from Trevor that we might We might hold off on a decision on those as well, but I would have voted to approve them anyway, so that's fine We might have you Hey, I'm all for that Yeah, we may have you ratifying just so there's no issue. I don't think they're okay. All right, that keeps everybody safe Yeah, so we'll fix those on 2020 and that's the those are the questions That's the language you've seen before we did by that the 1991 vote on use of Australian ballot does apply here. So these floor votes. That's why they're all here Article 30 was one. I just wanted to get before you so you could think about it. This highlights. What should we be doing? Using Australian ballot more broadly is in use for everything from our budgets to elected officers outside of the budget committee in our case To if we have an appeal vote on an ordinance change on a land use change Those are Australian back school does all their stuff by Australian ballot We found that participants went up during the pandemic we were able to get ballots in everybody's hands and It make the broadest number of voices can participate because it become you know a longer window And you can participate from home in the office on election day. Is it as traditional as town meeting? No, but how representative is a hundred and fifty people on a snowy Saturday morning in a town of 40 Sort of the counter to that and I think towns are moved, but I just wanted to put it before you I think you can probably guess Where I'm at on that one after a career on town meeting floors I think it's a good idea. I'd love the ballot box Yeah, yeah, I think good Yeah, I mean I think my child Yeah, I was gonna say no, I was gonna say my question was just related to like what participation has looked at and it sounds like If it's gone up then Why not We we saw bigger numbers during the pandemic especially the year that we mailed everybody about it That made it about as easy as possible and do is fill it out stick it in the envelope and send it back to us I don't remember the numbers we had Emory Poland, but that was a that was a bigger spike You know turnout is still like a good roast turnout at the local level. I think it was in the 30s in terms of but Is there a cost to it or is it covered by? There would be but we are sort of bear some of the cost because we do Budgets and select board races and all things by Australian ballot anyway. Yeah So we're talking about a marginal change based on length of warning It may not even be a change at all because we already have to do them. I Think it makes sense That question was stolen right from The statutory section on the but we've sent this all over to Mike Taren as well so that we get his eyeballs on it So we make sure we've got everything worded The way we want it and then you'll see there's the two placeholders that are reserved for the inching question We had hoped to reconnect with them today on those We flooded him with questions all at once So sort of in fairness to Mike we we loaded the zone pretty good So we've reserved we'll have those worked out before you have to warn it But the reason there's two of them is that as we've taught stark in the past The potential for a vote of the existing district to sort of allow expansion and then a second for those that are in the Expanded zone to to or not to get in and they would both be from the floor as well based on on that 1991 language, so that's why there's two articles set aside for it And then what we'll have back for him too is sort of that multi-part question on if the expanded districts approved Can you go in and amend sort of that budget at St later on and what does that process look like? So we'll have all that the strap warning right now But everything else other than those five quote at the end is exactly More or less the same as you've seen in in prior to the same sort of base Base program But this is just a draft So this is also what you talked about if there's anything you see you don't want on you do want on We haven't talked about anything in any different article 30 is the only sort of new wrinkle for you Um Again my apologies for arriving late and in the middle of this going over the proposed warning. I see in here The question about appointing a town treasurer 28 and 29 but they look redundant To say treasurer one's supposed to say clerk. All right. That's what I wanted to be clear on Yeah, I copied pasted and changed the statutory reference the title Okay, so it is going to so 29 will be clerk and work vice versa 28 vice versa. Yeah, 28 will be clerk. Yeah, okay and They've got till Monday and but to your knowledge has anybody Applied to run for the clerk treasurer position No, that's why I'm rethinking he'll step forward to it sort of with that kind of provide that 45-day window if So he's offered to do that Okay, excellent. All right, again, sorry for my tardiness, but That's fine You guys are joking with him You folks have gotten through more in 15 minutes, and I think you've made a land speed record here I Was not even on vacation Three minutes late for a meeting once and we're already like five I don't know item five. It's like, whoa. Wow. Well, I might actually have dinner before 9 30 That's good to me. I Have a question about just the situation with the town clerk then since it's looking like we don't have anybody running Even if they vote down appointment, we still have to appoint somebody for at least one year So do we have anything out there to try to recruit anybody for that? For applications Not yet. I think when we start the application process that might be A good time to figure out if there's some contingency plan basically If the questions don't go And and then we just come back with I mean, it might depend on what happens with the questions Are they narrow margins are voted from the floor but the australian ballot piece pass on try again in november Well, you're inside that window and then that way, you know, if we've got a elect for the remainder of a term We're queued up for that. So there's a couple of different options are enabled because it's a gubernatorial presidential year Um, I feel like I should know this but are we allowed to try and help Encourage people to run and what is the deadline for them? Is it 29th? It's it like soon It's yeah, I the 29th is but I wouldn't quote me on that. It's soon is It's it's definitely it's it's monday um, yeah Yeah, it's it's in typical bureaucratic fashion. It's the sixth monday before town meeting day Um You gotta love it. Nothing's ever simple, but it's monday at the close of day of the cloaks cloaks office which is But trevor didn't you say that uh emory was willing to put his paperwork in and run Yep, just to be able to fill that position for a period of time while we appoint somebody Yep, so then if the articles Yep, the articles pass it gives you time to appoint and train and have some over They don't pass then you're still kind of in the appointment game anyway But it gets into that. Do you go back to the question? Do we have an election at the point? So that would be a little wrinkle there But it gives us some options at least Well, that's nice of him Yeah, I keep joking with him that this is all like these are all signs. Do you really want to go like? As hard as possible. Maybe that's its own thing, but um, so I have another question um about if that Passes that all public questions are by a shrillian ballot within the future That being the budget committee would have to do a petition to run and be on the ballot Uh, yeah, I mean you could always we could restructure that it could be different But I think one of the things is that it could be by ballot like everybody else. It's not A super high bar in terms of the number of signatures But I think one of the things we should talk about over the next year is the buddy generally We've sort on it before but just to make sure it's if we're going to keep it Is it as vibrant and useful as possible so that the members who volunteer Those who run, you know, it's a good experience that they're getting some out of it. We get something out of it um, and we've got great people there now, but Um, are we using it to its fullest potential? Is it an idea that I try to reinvigorate and keep or is it an idea? That may be the time for something different. It's calm. Um Uh, I I have a question also about 31 in 32, which are placeholders right now. Um What might be the distinction between those two Questions and are they advisory or Not They in this case, they would be 31 the the thinking is based on prior votes and what we've understood of the process to date There's third, for example, would be a vote by the existing district uh residents Voters to expand the district and then 32 would be for for those inside the expanded district boundaries So the new district residents would vote to join as well It's how we've held pending What mike tarant says is the best way to construct that based on articles of merger and in statute and all Right, so so they would be not advisory. They would be I don't want to use the term mandatory, but Right They would be subject to um, yeah, okay I just want I didn't know whether we were going an advisory route like shall the town consider expansion of The boundaries to thus and such these would both be Depending on the results. Um, and I'm assuming we're going to Speak with this in terms about this in terms of fiscal 26 Oh, probably yeah Or later this Yeah, and some of that is the piece we're waiting on from mike two is how do we handle the budget piece? Sort of at a later time and that might dictate effective dates for example If there's we've got to wait for regular cycles or there's a way to adjust or what it might be but yeah Yeah, and tree does the police services committee? um Are you still working on this question of the boundaries being kind of wonky Uh, yeah, but we didn't meet uh this week A combination of people sick and the weather So I had lined us so we're back on monday, right? Okay. Yep monday Yeah, um, but yeah, that's one of the topics we gotta Okay, all right. Look at what that is like right now. It's just all the properties that touch route 66 than route 12 and um wind over road um And then what that's 12 a I guess down through so um, right It uh, but it adds a lot of properties that are Are not really there like some of the properties on sunset touch 66 Oh, it raises the question of you know to those Does that entire property go on or what do you do? So it's just kicking that around some To get a final decision on the borders so it can come back to But but it doesn't go back into the neighborhoods east and west or north and south left and right whatever it is. I'm not sure the geography but Right, it just follows um 66 And it doesn't go back in off the side streets, correct, right? Uh, and a lot of that was the when we started talking about the challenges that would bring for a dispatcher Yeah, absolutely Yeah Sure, no that that makes sense. I got pretty quick complex quick. Yeah. Yeah Okay, yeah, well it makes working on those pieces for us Excellent excellent Okay, so that uh, we'll have a final version of that That's the next meeting for To vote on managers report I sent you the separate thing about the say word logging starting that was just a kind of a general heads up there As I mentioned what we really want to dig into the FEMA stuff they want us to dig into it So we can start moving that I'm going to try to dedicate a good chunk of time here to Move some of those things to completion um So we can get those done. I feel like there was one other That was smaller but timely um We've also been invited to participate in conversations about the eclipse that's coming We're not on the line of transit or whatever it's called, but you just you may hear about that I still don't fully understand what the draw is but Well, I think we are on the line of transit Yeah, and and regional tourism authorities And I believe the state tourism authorities are making a big big deal out of it It's like from monster stonehenge of the Over but we're not Randolph's the the primary areas in the northeast kingdom. Okay. Oh, I see very northern part of the state We're gonna see it But they're going to get the full effect up there that The major impact so at the state level the planning is all is statewide But the big impact is in the northern part of the state We've already got people trying to reserve spots to park their airplanes on the airports. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah crazy It's insane. It's insane. They said it could be worse than fish The fish concerts that came to coventry I love it. I love it springing back to vermont reggae festival Good days. Yeah. Wow. Wow a different group of people though Yeah, yeah, they're saying these aren't all going to be fun loving They're not going to be no A little bit different Yeah, yeah, I'm sure we're gonna get some, you know crazies but Well in that case, I'm glad we're not um in the northeast It's all right scott scott and his crew just did both training the other day. So we're ready Oh boy, oh boy, just crack out the flashlights Great. All right. Uh next uh entertain a motion to go into executive session So I move Uh second Scott maybe join us for the first one if that's okay with you guys too Okay Yep Great all those in favor Hi Opposed motion carries Thanks everybody for tuning in