 It is five o'clock, call a meeting to order. We have Vic Dwyer with us. We have Sandy Levine, and we have Paul. Are there any other? Recording in progress. Got some more people coming in here. We have Sky Barish. We have, I'm trying to, it's Jason. Hi, Jason. Hi, Sky. I think that is it. Welcome, everyone. Any additional amendments to the agenda, Sarah? No. Okay. And Sarah Bajay just entered. And Eric. Okay, they're coming in fast and furious here. Hi, Sarah. Hi, Eric. Welcome. We've just barely called a meeting to order. So you haven't, you haven't missed a thing as they say. So the first item on our agenda is appointing a middle sex voter to fill a vacant select board seat until the March 2023 town meeting. The board will consider applications received so far from Sky Barish, Sarah Bajay, Vic Dwyer, and Jason Merrill. Action likely. Before we get into this, I would just like to say it is very refreshing and nice to have four people who are interested in taking on this position. In the past, we have very seldom, we have very seldom had choices or opportunity to pick. And I, and I'm sure the other board members read your letters carefully and we appreciate very much your interest in the position. So thank you all for that. I guess what I would, what I would offer to the board as a way to go about this is give each one of the candidates just a couple of minutes to talk about why they're interested in taking on this position. And then we can see where we go from there. Does that sound right to everybody? Yep. Okay, so no, no particular order other than the way you appear on my screen, Jason, you're up first. So in a couple of minutes, tell us, tell us what you'd like to tell us about your interest in this position. You're muted, Jason? Anything. There you go. Yeah, I can't hear him. No, I can't hear you, Jason. Yes, no go. Okay, well, let's move on to someone else. Let's do this. We'll move on to the others, Jason. You keep trying to get yourself unmuted. Jason, if you try turning off your video, that might help. You're next on my screen. Okay, thank you. My name is Sarah Berger. I've been living in Middlesex for about, I believe this will be my fifth summer. I'm originally from the Northeast Kingdom. And in the time I've lived in Middlesex, I've sort of gotten slowly more and more involved. I think I was first looked into doing some work with the Emergency Management Committee during COVID. I've also helped with some technical assistance on Zoom calls. I was on the Zoning Board of Administrators and then left that to become a systems-owning administrator, which sounds fancier than it is. Kevin only has to recuse himself a couple times a year, but I've gotten to learn about a lot of the town's functions through that. And then for a brief moment, I also filled in as town lister when we were obliged to have two. So while I learned about that position, I did not spend a lot of time doing it. And I would say that, serving in town government has always been on my list. My family has a long history of service in that regard in Vermont. And it seems like a great opportunity to work with a bunch of people and learn more about what we do in town and also bring some of my new skill sets. I'm sure you guys saw my CV. I have an executive level position and a nonprofit. And I also have had various jobs as like a civil servant. And I'm currently an upper level program manager where I work remotely. So yeah, I think I have this skill set and look forward to serving the town. And of course, happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you, Sarah. Skye. Hi, everyone. I'm Skye Barsh. I live at the end of Notch Road. I formerly lived on Nap Road. And I am interested in serving on the board. I love middle sex. I love being part of this community. I have a lot of experience in communication and community building. And in my former life, I was a reporter and attended, I don't know how many select board meetings in central Vermont and city council meetings in South Burlington. So I've seen a lot of things play out through the years from act 60 to act 250 and how state legislation impacts local communities and how local communities can build things and policies at the local level that have really incredible impacts. And I would just like to be part of that. I think middle sex is at a really interesting time with some of the changes in the village. And I think I mentioned in my letter, I'm interested in seeing that area of town become more walkable and bikeable. I'm really interested in broadband access. I also work remotely and it's very frustrating that a lot of the time is my colleagues don't can't hear me and I'm cutting out. And I think for economic development and for young families, high speed internet access is super important. And yeah, I think that's the thumbs it up. Thank you. Thank you. Victor. Yes. I've been in town since 1969, if that makes any difference. More than brought up here in Vermont. I've been attending meetings here for every since before the pandemic. And then I've been the road commissioner. I think it's when Shane took over, about a month after Shane took over and I've been the road commissioner every since and have gone through a hearing of a new road commissioner and actually having to take over and do both the road commissioner and the road foreman work for a short period of time during the transition. My background has always been, I was an engineer for the state of Vermont for a close to 50 years. I do enjoy working with the road commissioners and the town crew. And so there's some things we still want to do. We do day to day, we just attend a lot of meetings. We just got off at budget committee meeting, the road crew. And so I think being on the select board would help for us to complete our work in the road crew. 90% of our budget goes to the road crew and 90% of the monies. So I've found that a few times that not having a vote was kind of a hold up. And so I think that it would be good to be a part of it. So I think that it would be good to be on the select board and be the road commissioner as it has, those two have gone together for years. Thank you. Thank you, Jason. Can you hear me? Yes. You got me. Wonderful. Well, for the past 27 years, I've been volunteering for the town of Middlesex, whether it be on the fire department or as the town fire warden. I spent many years coaching over on the fields over at Romney school, mostly baseball. I've been a community member, like I said, for the past 27 years as an adult, I lived here my whole life. On the fire department, I think I was there for 18 years. I was there to help get our first new fire truck in over 30 years. I was on the building committee for the new fire station that we had built. I'm a small business owner. I have local employees. Got two different businesses. I've got a property business where I manage and own rental units, commercial and residential. And then I own a construction company where we're currently down here on center road, putting in culverts for the town of Middlesex. I've been involved in local youth organizations where I've been a board member for Central Romance Gaten Association for 12 years. We've helped grow that organization into what it is today. Since then, I've left that organization and I'm working with another small organization and coaching youth hockey. As far as being on the select board, I wouldn't necessarily say it's something that I've been dreaming about doing, but I feel at this point in my life where my kids are a little older, I feel that I could fit in with the current board and help keep this community the way that it is. I'm a pretty straight shooter. I don't like to hold things back. I tell people how I feel and I like listening to opposing views because my views aren't always the correct views. So as a select board member, I feel that I'd help this community. Thank you, Jason. Thank you. Board members, questions for any of the candidates? I have one question to ask and I would ask it to all of you and give you a chance to answer. As you know, this appointment tonight is for a position just until town meeting day. And I would be interested in knowing your thoughts about running for office on town meeting day if you enjoy your short-term experience working on the select board. Why don't we start with Sarah? Well, my screen's all changed around. I'm sorry, Sarah, go ahead. Sure, that's a great question. That would be my plan, but I also know that I would wanna wait and make sure that I was a good fit for the select board and that it was the right place for me to be before I ran. I feel it is, which is why I threw my hat into the ring. Okay. Okay, thank you. Sky. Yeah, same as Sarah. That would be my intention, but I'd wanna feel it out and make sure it was a good fit all around first. But hopefully, yeah. Okay, thank you. Vector. You're muted. You're muted, Vector. I would anticipate that I would run in March. I have no reason to think I would do otherwise. Like I said, I enjoy working with the road crew and I did, I was select board member in the 90s for a couple of free terms, but then I, so I'd like to do it again. Okay, thank you, Roma. Jason. Yeah, did all those former remarks there. You know, if I fit in with this group and I don't upset too many people, then yeah, I'd run again. Okay. Thank you all for those answers. That's a good, fair answer. The other thing I would point out is, is any and all of you have the opportunity to run for the seat on town meeting day if you're not one of the, if you're not the person who was appointed tonight. So this is just a short-term appointment with no commitment beyond that. Yes, Randy. I have a question for the group. You know, that the select board is here to represent the best interest of the town residents and sometimes the need to put personal agendas to the side and look at what's best for the town is extremely important to me. And I'm wondering if you're able to say that you're able to do so. You know, sometimes people have extremely strong beliefs about things and I just, it's important to know that people are thinking about what's in the best interest of the town. So Sarah, we'll go in the same order. Sure, yeah, I think that's a great point. I would say that although I grew up in Vermont, you know, I'm fairly new to middle sex, I think compared to a lot of people on this call. And well, I would broadly say that like, yes, I want to know what's in the best interest of the town. I don't want to engage in civil debate. I want to learn. I want to work together that I don't really have any sort of pet projects or historical desires or anything that would potentially get in the way of me making decisions with the other select board members in the town's best interest. Thank you. Ms. Kahai. Yeah, I think I have a sort of a unique perspective. I don't have kids in the school and I'm on a class four road. So I think I have sort of a good sense of understanding like how different people interact with the town services differently. And I don't have any agendas. I don't have any conflict of interest when it comes to the board. I think really my heart is in, I love middle sex. I just want to keep it a wonderful place to live, a wonderful place for people to raise families and a safe and thriving community. Thank you. Jason? Yeah, no hidden agendas here. I'm kind of a common sense person for the taxpayers. The taxpayers, I don't want to go become a municipality like Montpelier where we're buying things that are unnecessary, not to throw Montpelier under the bus, but very physically responsible. And I want to do what's best for the taxpayers. So no hidden agendas. Okay, thank you, Victor. Yeah, I have no hidden agendas, no access to grind. I have been doing this road commissioner work for about a year and a half or a little more. And I think everything was, as run along, we had certainly kept on the crew that was there before, except for a couple of guys, one guy retired and one guy passed away and one guy resigned. So yeah, I have no agenda other than making middle sex affordable to live for all of us. Thank you. Thank you. Other questions, board members? Yes, Liz? So one thing that I find sort of special about this board and I've been on it for, I think this is my eighth year, ninth year. And this is actually probably my last term. So not this March, but in the previous March, I probably will not run again. So there will be another opening. But one thing that I've noticed is that, despite the fact that many of us have different backgrounds, different work experiences, different political leanings, is that we communicate really well together and we listen to each other really well. And I've found that as board members have changed, we have a mutual respect for each other and are able to listen to the other person's opinion, not necessarily agree with them, but I believe that for the most part, we really do come to consensus on things. And also just to sort of remind you that most of the stuff isn't terribly fascinating stuff that we're talking about, right? We don't have too many really big, hard decisions to make in this town. But when we do, I believe that we have really worked well together. And so I would like to hear from each of you sort of, how would you rate, if you had to do it on say a scale of one to 10, how would you rate your communication and listening skills when you're in a meeting? Or maybe I should back up and say, how would others rate you when you have been in your own meetings with others? Okay, one is the least and 10 is the most. Yeah, what is the least level of communication and listening skills? So it's just sort of overall respect for what other people have to say. Okay, Sarah. I would say that I would probably be rated as an eight or a nine. Like I said, a lot of my backgrounds in nonprofit management, and that includes overseas, where there can be major cultural gaps and even language barriers and where it's really easy to misunderstand or have people feel like they're not listened to. So I spent a lot of time in that environment. And then I also was a middle school English teacher for about a decade, where you really have to have great listening and communication skills or stuff's gonna hit the fan pretty quickly. So yeah, I would rate myself about an eight or a nine. Thank you. Skye. Yeah, I would also say an eight or a nine. I just got a nice compliment at work recently and a colleague told me that when I'm in a meeting, she feels like the rest of the team feels like things are gonna be okay. And I think that comes from my sense of listening and I think if anything, sometimes I like pause too much to speak up. So that's sort of the other side of that coin, but I do think that I think I listen a lot. My business in Montpelier is a fitness studio and it's a lot of folks who are coming in with either like a health issue or they wanna make a big change in their life and that requires a lot of listening and empathy. So I think I've been able to develop that skill pretty well. Thank you. Jason. Sure, to put a number on it. Kinda hard to say because I'm usually in charge, whether it be at my company where I have people working for me and I gotta get my point across and they have to listen. But when I have 30 plus rental units where I've got people living and people working in my properties, I gotta listen to their needs. Right now I've got 14 residential units where I'm constantly listening to issues, whether it be neighbor issues or apartment issues. It seems like I do a lot of listening, but I also have to solve a lot of problems on the fly. As far as speaking to people, like I said before, I try to get my point across because I don't like wasting time. Let's not beat around the bush. Similar number, eight or nine I guess, pretty much where I'm at. Okay, thank you. Victor. Yeah, I don't know as I would put a number on it. We'd hopefully it'd be eight or nine, but certainly you take a lot of calls, especially like this much season we just had. You get a lot of people that are really angry and they want what they want. They want it right away. And other than one exception, that it was just the person was out of control. I've even had people call up and be really angry and by the time we got off the phone, we came to a complete understanding that we would do it as we would help them as soon as we could get there. Even with the road crew that we took over, there was some speculation on when I was road commissioner, whether everybody would quit or not. And I believe that I was able to communicate with the new foreman and the existing people, the crew members, Charles and Jay, and I think we have a good working relationship and we all respect each other. So I must be able to communicate to a lot of people. Thank you. Other questions, anyone? Okay, so with that, we're ready for nominations. Don't everybody speak up at once? I'll go, I'd nominate Jason. Okay, thank you, Randy. Is there a second for Jason? No, a second. I would nominate Skye. Is there a second for Skye? Those are tough. Other nominations, yes, Phil. Nominate Victor. Is there a second for Victor? I'll second that. Okay, thank you, Randy. Other nominations? I would nominate Sarah. And is there a second for Sarah? Phil? I'll second. So we have two candidates who have been moved and seconded and now we will vote. So I guess ladies first, all those in favor of Sarah to be our appointed select board person, please raise your hand. Thank you, Liz. And all those in favor of Victor, please raise your hand. Hi. Okay. So it looks like you're at Victor. Congratulations and thank you. Thank you. Thank you to everybody. Thank you to, yes. I just needed to vote. I couldn't see it because I was taking minutes. So instead of who raised their hand for Victor? I did. Randy and Phil. Randy, Peter, Phil. Randy, Peter and Phil. Okay. And only Liz for Sarah, right? Yes. Okay. So I sincerely mean it. I really appreciate all of your interests in this position and your time and effort to do this. And I hope you will continue to be interested in the town and we are gonna have openings and other positions as time goes along. So anyway, thank you all very much. You're very welcome. I would like to also add a thank you. Just to say that I think every single person that applied is highly qualified to either do the job or learn the job. I think everyone brings a great and different skill set. I think this is gonna be a great select board person. And so I just want you all to know too that there are other opportunities where you really can make a difference. And that may even be more interesting than the select board such as the town planning, things that you can really dig your heels into. And so please don't look at this as, oh, I'm never gonna run again because I think it's really important that we have this kind of democracy and that we have people who are interested in helping lead the town and that there definitely will be other opportunities. I think the follow-up on that Liz is that, the participation in these meetings is extremely important. So even if you're not part of the official select board, I would encourage all to attend. I can speak from firsthand experience that I attended these meetings prior to being on the board for well over a year and was given many opportunities to voice my opinion. So I would encourage everyone to continue to attend. Thank you, Randy. Absolutely. Okay, guys, thanks again very much and you're welcome to say. Sarah, are you at something? Yes, if Vic is going to stay as the select board member right now, he needs to take the Vermont Oath of Office. So, Victor, how are we going to do that? Can you read it to him? I can read it to him. Thanks, guys, congrats, Victor. Thank you. Hold on to the right back. It's easy for me to read it to you. Randy, I'm going to come up and get those orders if you're done. I'm not, but yes, feel free because I can stay after. Well, okay, Vic, all you need to do is just come into the office but if you're going to do this right, if you're going to be part of the meeting as a select board member, you got to raise your hand. Where is he? Where do you go? He's right here. I can't see him, okay. He's got his hand up. Okay, Vic, just repeat after me. I, Vic Dwyer. Hi, Vic Dwyer. Do solemnly swear or affirm. Do solemnly swear or affirm. That I will be true and faithful to the state of Vermont. I'll be true and faithful to the state of Vermont. And that I will not directly or indirectly do any act or thing injurious to the Constitution or government thereof. Can you do that a little bit slower? I'm sorry. All right, that I will not directly or indirectly. I will not directly or indirectly. Do any act or thing injurious to the Constitution. Do any act or thing injurious to the Constitution. Right, or government thereof. Or government thereof. So help me God. So help me God. Under pains and penalties of perjury. Oh, under pains and penalties of perjury. All right, that should do it. And then I'll leave the oath here. We can notarize it. So, but it's now witnessed by everyone. So I think you're good. All right, thank you. Okay, thank you. Again, welcome, Victor. So we're already a little behind schedule, but I thought that was a good process. And I wanted everybody to have an opportunity to speak. So I thought that was good. Oh, my papers are blown away here. Bear with me. Okay. Considering the Lister's request to correct the 2022 grand list due to errors and omissions, RE parcels in the Owen Ward subdivision and the Menach subdivision action likely. So is this Annette who is presenting this? Who's presenting this Sarah? Let me just, I'm going to unmute her. It is going to be Annette and Shelly. I believe both Annette and Shelly are here. Okay, yep. And Annette's video is muted right now. So I'm just asking her to unmute. I thought I unmuted me. Okay, good. You're unmuted. Okay, good. She's still showing up muted on my screen. But she spoke. Okay. Yeah, okay. So I think she's okay now. And there's Shelly. Shelly, you can speak. Yeah, I think I'm already unmuted also. Good. Hey ladies, you're up. I'm just going to re-admit it. Here comes Annette. She's coming back again. Well, this is Shelly. My understanding is some of these errors were done prior to us being on board. And they were found by Sarah when someone came into the town office looking for direction on the parcel ID. Yep. And so with the help of the consultant, they were fixed. Can you hear me? Yep. Okay. This isn't that. Yeah. So we're talking about the Manash property and the Christopher Amante property. They come out to be exactly the same. Christopher Amante was charged the entire thing and Manash had a little piece of that. So it comes out to 271 for the Manash property and 455-800 for the Christopher Amante property, which is- So just to be clear, my understanding of this is that there were two small parcels which were subdivided, which weren't recognized when the grand list was created. So this is recognizing the subdivision and properly including in the grand list the value for both properties, but it doesn't change the overall value and doesn't change the grand list. Is that correct? Thanks. I'm only speaking, do you mind if I speak? Because only because I have a better internet connection than Annette and Shelly. So the first one, the first issue that you've got is the WJH Realty property at the end of Leland Farm Road, which was also known as the Owen Ward subdivision. And Shelly was right, this never happened before their time. There were four lots sold from that subdivision in the recent appraisal year. And unfortunately, the larger lot, which was retained by the owner of WJH Realty, Mark Cannon, did not somehow ended up in the possession of his neighbor who had 3.46 acres and he ended up getting 49.52 and the owner of the larger lot who had 45 acres didn't appear on the grand list. So that error was caught and by separating those two and properly attributing the 45 acre lot or so to WJH Realty, that is solved. The other issue is there was a misread, it seems of not again, not our listeners, but there was a misread of the subdivision of Monash up on South Bear Swamp Road, where the title, the total acreage of 395.96 or 0.97 acres was transferred to the Amontes when actually 5.97 acres was retained by Monash. So that needs to be corrected. And those are the two issues. Thank you, Sarah. Thanks, Sarah. So I am correct that this does not affect the grand list, the total of the grand list. You can ask the listeners that. Shelley? The corrections haven't made, but so it should not affect the grand list, but it will affect the property taxes if I understand it correctly. So this needs to be resolved so that when the property taxes go out, they go out correctly. Okay. Oh no, exactly right. Okay, thank you. So was there a motion to approve these two corrections to the grand list? Liz? Yeah, I move it. Kelly, you'll second. Okay, all those in favor of correcting these two errors to our grand list, will you say aye? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. We have... Just you guys need to sign that when you come down to sign things as well. I'll leave you notes. Okay, thank you. And Shelley? Brenda, your big moment. Is that here? My big moment, Sarah. Yeah. Okay. Well, I... That's right. Thank you for sending out those sheets. I appreciate it. Yeah, no problem. Yeah, so I sent you the breakdown when I sent all the paperwork, but just before the meeting, Peter called and asked to send the backup sheets with it, which I thought I probably did, but the only thing, the backup sheets, they don't tell you from sheet to sheet. It doesn't tell you any different information regarding values or anything like that. It's just I went in and changed the tax rate by a penny for each different one, and then it showed me how much money we are raising for that. So it nothing changes above the bottom where it's the rate it's shown. So the first one you have is basically what we need to cover as budgeted. And then the next two that I, number two and number three, that's adding a penny to each, to the tax rate. And one of them will raise, basically every penny raises $23,777. And looking at the cost of inflation, just what I've seen come through in bills since January, and most of it again have been related, not just to highway, but certainly those have taken the biggest effect, but the cost increase for heating fuel, everything is just jumped substantially. And I know that we did not build into the budget these kind of significant increases. So I am very concerned by just going with a break even. I don't have the final numbers of where we're coming out this year, but I do think that we might be like right, almost a break even for the end of year, which is very good. It surprised me. That's a big victory where we saw what we were going to make. Yeah, well, if it's over, it won't be over by a lot, but we have a few more adjustments to make and then we'll be able to get you the numbers. So I am recommending no less than option number three. That will give us, if we put say 4% on what our budget was, you're talking $60,000. This would raise $47,000 and still we keep savings to the taxpayer. Also last year, we did level fund and the taxes went down for people once again due to the education rate. So this is the perfect opportunity to be able to make up this shortfall that we think we're gonna have. Thank you. So I have just a couple of quick thoughts on this. And I agree with everything Dorenda said. I'm scared to death about what the actual cost of things is gonna be. I mean, we're not even three weeks into the new year. So it's pretty scary. So for me, it's a choice between three and three. And I hate paying taxes as you all know, but I want the time to be fiscally sound. The other comment I have is historically and this year might be the exception or if it isn't the exception, it's gonna be very close. We underspend our budget. And that has helped us out over the years. This past year, we did not. So I don't know whether that's gonna be the case going forward or not, but it's something to think about. Peter, when you say option number four, are you talking about increasing another penny? I see options. Another three cents, a total of three cents added. Okay. So option one is even Stephen, option two, it's a penny, option three, it's two cents and option four is three cents. So what we are left with is option two, as Dorenda said, gives us a cushion of $23,777, option three, $47,149, and option four, $70,726. When we're talking about $1,503, 408, you know, $70,000 or $47,000 doesn't sound like a lot of money. And as Dorenda says in her last thing, if inflation really tracks at 4% and some of the things we pay seem to be way more than 4%, we're gonna be 60,000 over. So that puts us right between option four and option three. Yes. I did not, and Dorenda's only got his one, two, and three, there's no four in that attachment. I said I didn't run a sheet for, I just said that's how much it would raise. Can I ask a question, Dorenda, do you know, what is it that we're gonna have to, because you know, rates for borrowing are gonna probably be going up as well. So what do we have on the bucket for borrowing in terms of like trucks and things like that? Well, right now the only thing on schedule is the truck that will be due in the next, few weeks. So, and I've contacted the bank, but they have not gotten back to me with a rate yet. But the other thing is, is, you know, I think there's other things that are, that are gonna come up that may not have been budgeted for. And I, we saw the salt budget just in the last, the last two bills increased significantly. Heating is like through the roof. Certainly we know diesel is right there. So I just think that we, you know, even though I think when the budget was put together, we kind of all built something into it within the departments, but by no means do I think, you know, and I heard that health insurance is going to take a substantial increase. Big hit. Big hit. And we pay for six months of health insurance before we hit a new budget. So. Right. The other, the other two things I've been thinking about is, I'm scared about the cost of our paving project. I mean, we're not gonna know until I actually do it what the cost of the material is, but it's going up like a skyrocket. So we could, we could easily need extra money to cover that. Yeah. To that one, there's two paving projects in the work. And if we use up all the funds for the first one, there's nothing left for the second one. Absolutely, absolutely correct. Something else I wanted to say and it just flew out of my, flew out of my, out of my mind. So we are, we are not considering any, any contribution from fund balance, right? Well, the fund balance is, I don't think everybody has a clear understanding of the fund balance. You're using the fund balance every time you have a shortfall in the budget. So if we come in overspent, that money is being used out of the fund balance. Cause if anything left over at the end of year, the year goes to the bottom line. And last year we did not, we were over budget. I think I don't remember the exact number, but we were over budget last year. So that came out of the fund balance. The other thing is we use the fund balance to as a cash flow. And we have not, as long as I've been on, we have never had to go out and borrow to pay our bills in anticipation of taxes coming in. The other thing that doesn't happen, anybody who doesn't pay their taxes, we're still on the hook for paying the school portion. So that is our floater. And I hate to bring that down to zero, but it doesn't do any good to say, we're going to take $40,000 out of the fund balance. You're just better off overspending your budget. Because it's coming out of the budget, you know. I disagree at all. What is, I mean, when we were talking about this a while ago, we weren't sure what the fund balance currently is. You have a rough idea what it is. I only have it from when we do the audit because it's a very convoluted thing to figure out because you have to take each, every dollar that we have and how it's allocated. And so when the audit was done last year, there was $147,000 in the fund balance. And I believe we also used, this money has also been used to pay, you know, like the addition, we were comfortable in making the addition and the wages and things because we knew we had this money to back us up. So I just think that, you know, I hate to talk about anything to do with the fund balance, to be honest with you. Yeah, I just, that was my memory is that that was about where it was. So really, I'm really hovering between three and four in terms of where I think we should be. I think one and two are too skinny. I would support for myself. I mean, I can't, I mean, how can you predict, I read all these articles in the Wall Street Journal and hear there and everywhere about what they think inflation is going to be and the numbers are all over the place. So I would be sort of a option number four. I'm sorry, who is that? Liz, I would be sort of option number four. You're saying you can turn off the volume. Oh, that's better. Okay. Yeah, I have a date for option number four. Okay. Failure to comment? Yeah, I agree with you, Peter, that I think three is the minimum, but considering four really should be on the table. I'm definitely afraid of what inflation could possibly do. It continues to be high and certainly all of the things, the heating oil, gas, like this is salt in the past, and with the possibility of huge increases in health insurance, I mean, almost daily we're reading about UVM and how much they're going to ask for increases. So I think we're staring at that pretty significant inflation right away. So I think I'd actually be in favor of four. Randy, any thoughts? I wholeheartedly support number four. I think that that gets us back to a point where we're basically looking at the break-even by the time you factor in inflation. Yeah, I'm afraid that's right. It's scary, but I'm afraid that's right. The residential rate will still have a savings to the taxpayers. It'll be a small one, but it certainly will be a savings. Yeah, it's almost two cents, right? Yeah, it would be 1.69. It would be the non-homestead. That would be almost two cents over on their rates. So increase. So Peter, do you order your hand up? Yeah. I'm gonna, so for the benefit of the other board members, I'm gonna buy a floodlight for Victor so he isn't the man in the dark. I got one. I have one, it still doesn't work. Too much light behind me. But anyway, one more time for the newbie. What's the difference between three and four and money-wise? One cent. It's like $23,500, Victor, in additional revenue for the one-cent extra. I would be in favor of option four. Okay. I'll make that motion to support option number four. Okay, is there a second? All second. No, thank you. No, I need a motion with the actual municipal tax rate. Okay, sorry, hold on, let me read it. Okay, we'll have to figure that out. So if I look at the option for number three, Derrinda, and the tax rate for that would be... You should do the first municipal, then you can add it together with the education for both homestead and non-homestead. Right, so the town rate would be 0.5921. 0.5921. Yeah, and the local agreement would be 0.0024. 0.0024. Yeah, so I come up with 0.5945 between the two. 0.5945. Right, but that's between, for both the local, that includes local agreement and town. So I'm sorry, it's 0.5945. 0.5921 for the town. Right, and 0.0024 for the local agreement. So that's 0.5945. Yes, okay, thank you. Good job on that motion, Randy. I even wrote it down just in case Sarah made me repeat it. There you go, good job. So Randy moved, Phil seconded. Any further discussion? All those in favor? All right. Opposed? All right. Okay, it's unanimous. 0.5945, okay. Okay, thank you, Dorinda, for the work you do on that. No problem. I appreciate it very much. I remember a lot of long evenings with us all staring at those sheets trying to figure out what we were doing. You make it easy for us, so. Thank you. I appreciate it very much. Okay, hold on. Can I ask one question, Dorinda? Yes. How much does each penny raise? Each penny raises $23,777. Thank you. $577, the sheet that I have says. Oh, really? I had $777, but I don't know. Wait a minute. I'm ready to get it on. You got it. Opposition number two for the penny, $23,577.12. Okay. Thank you. Must have been a typo on my cover sheet. Thank you one and all. Anything else for your treasurer support, Dorinda? That was setting the tax rate. Just on the treasurer report, as I said earlier, I was hoping to get a updated budget status to you. Hopefully by the next meeting we'll be able to do that. There's a couple of reclassing of some things that are in the wrong pot that needs to get put into a different pot, but I think it'll help. The other thing I wanted to mention is I reached out to bonds a couple of weeks ago because of the propane price to see what we could lock it in for and also diesel. They won't lock in diesel because it's so volatile. They're saying that we pay, it's their cost with a fixed differential of 18 cents a gallon. So I don't know if there's, and I didn't go out to anybody else. This is where I started because I don't know how the board feels about locking in prices on anything, but they did give me a lock-in price on propane that you can lock it in for a year or two years at a fixed rate of 1.986. I do know there's other people out there. I kind of thought that was on the high side, but maybe not, I don't know. I'm not an expert in the propane department. I do know last year we paid, we started out at $1.48 a gallon and we paid as much as $2.27 a gallon. The scary thing right now is, and as you've all heard me say in the past, I buy a lot of fuel oil, I don't buy much diesel, but I buy a lot of fuel oil and I buy a lot of propane and we've been trying to figure out what to do and our decision for us was we were not gonna lock in at this time. I mean, the last month, rates have started coming down. You know, who knows what's gonna happen, but I don't see any overwhelming benefit myself in locking in and when somebody's offering an unbelievable deal and that doesn't sound to me like an unbelievable deal. No, it didn't to me, but I didn't wanna pursue it any further until I really felt to see how the board felt about making any changes. Is the cost plus arrangement for both the diesel and the propane? No, just the diesel. And they wouldn't offer the cost plus for the propane? He just gave me a locked in rate. Yeah, with propane, they're not the only, I mean, with the both of them, they're not the only people available to do it. But I don't wanna put time into it if we really feel that we might have a chance of not, you know, the cost coming down and not having to lock into it. I'm afraid, I mean, I called around all over the place last month and I got crazy numbers all over the place, but they were all crazy high as far as I was concerned. So again, my decision for myself or our decision for ourselves was that we weren't gonna lock in either the propane or the fuel oil, which fuel oil is relatively similar to diesel if you ignore the tax business. But I don't know how others feel. I think for my personal situation, I probably wouldn't lock in either. I think one good thing to know would be, and I think we have some information available to us, but grabbing the overall usage amounts and maybe shopping around a little bit, I don't know how long we've been with Bornz, but I don't think shopping around is a bad idea. I don't think it is either, Randy. All I would tell you is that, you know, there's always some outrider who promises a lower rate, but unless they're willing to lock it in, they're gonna lower rate. Who knows what you're gonna get, you know, and they're not willing to lock it in in the lower rate in my experience. Yeah, I think in this market, it doesn't hurt to pick up the phone and make some phone calls and see what the response is. Yeah, I think in this market, if you're able to get a cost plus deal where you know that, you know, you may be able to fluctuate as the market comes down, which I don't know, I believe it's going to in the future. I think that's where my head would be at. What I've been able to do in the past but I wasn't able to do this year is get a similar to what Dorenda talked about, a fixed price above the rack price. In other words, you know, they buy the diesel or the propane at the terminal, whatever it is, and that's the price that floats and that's the big number, but the 18 cents or whatever it is can be locked in, but I don't know how much benefit that is. You said Dorenda, it was $1.96 per gallon of propane. D, what he would lock it in at was 1.986. Yeah. So, has the difference of municipal costs versus municipal costs? Liz, are you able to... I'm going to have to go someplace else. Liz, I'm going to have to send you to the other room. You're on mute, Liz. Yeah, we can't hear you. I'm going to go into like half. Now we can. You can't hear me. Yeah, they can hear you. Okay, I can't hear you. It's all right, I just... Ashley. Now, can you hear me? Yeah. I can hear you. Okay, I can't hear you, but my question... Oh, I think now, now talk to me guys. How about now? Yeah, I can hear you. Crank up your volume, Liz. Okay. There you go. Much better. So, my question is how... How much does municipal propane differ in terms of like the cost that I pay for propane, for example? Is it a big saving? I think it probably goes by gallons and not so much by whether it's on mispality or business or what. It's your usage most of the time. Okay, so they're giving you a one point, based on your usage, probably. I'm assuming, I mean, they didn't say... I mean, it's a company we deal with, so they didn't ask me how much I used or anything. I just called them up and asked them, you know, what a fixed rate would be, and that's what they came back with. How much do they... How much should we use generally in propane? Well, last year we used 6,500 gallons. And do you know what the cost per gallon was then? It ranged between $1.48 and $2.27. Oh, okay, yeah. Okay, so it's like $13,000 versus $14,000. Yeah, I mean... Here's what I would suggest, guys. I mean, if you could take a few minutes or maybe an hour and call three or four of the reputable people around and just see what they have to say. I mean, there's no reason we have to do anything tonight. That's for sure. And just see what they're saying. Would that be a problem? No, it could be done. Okay, thank you. And then we'll have a little more information. Okay. I have a question. Have we ever locked in? Like, have we ever done that? We have. Okay. So it's really more about right now with the volatility. Does it make sense? Okay. In the past, in the past, I think for the most part we have locked in. We haven't since I've been here. We haven't. Really? We haven't locked in since you've been... No. Okay. I get confused between my own business and the town's business. I don't recall it being locked in, but, you know, again, that's been the last, I know I've got three years worth of records. And it was a different price at every delivery. Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's hope it continues to trend down. How about that? So we'll have a, we'll have some further discussion on this at the next meeting. And if anybody has any, any thoughts or ideas, let Dorenda know. Anything else, Dorenda? Nope. That's it. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. Middle sex, root two and Riverwalk scoping study update. And presentation of final walkable middle sex scoping study, select board endorsement of final scoping study action likely. Thanks. I will just kick this off. This is Sandy Levine. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Because I also noticed this starting at six o'clock for planning commission meeting in case there was a quorum of the planning commission. There doesn't appear to be so I will. Open the meeting for the planning commission and acknowledge that there's no quorum. There's just myself and Mitch who is here. And then. I think we'll have a little bit of time on the scope. And then we'll have a little bit of time on the scope and study is here. And he can do the presentation for the, the select board. And there, what we would be looking for for the, from the select board is at the end of this to endorse. The final study. It, it is a study. It's helpful in moving forward any. Any questions that we have. Any questions that we have. Any questions that we might be involved with, with root two. And it, it just shows to V trans and others. Within the state or for any. Funding we might seek for this, that it is endorsed by the town. The planning commission will do the same as well. So I will turn it over to Dayton. Thank you, Sandy. Well, thank you for coming. Oh, no, thank you for having me. I'll keep this to hopefully kind of as a quick overview of the study and people can dig into it further at their own leisure. I'll share my screen if I can, as that should hopefully give some simple graphic aid here. But yeah, we've wrapped up the, the scoping study, which I think really looks at in greater detail, a way to build a walkable village center that is supported by residents right there in the village and in the broader middle sex community. And long report. I won't worry with every single detail, but I think suffice it to say that this document's built off of a whole host of previous planning work. You know, we always stand on the shoulders of giants and these efforts, you know, ranging all the way back to a 2001 village plan that identified a need for walkable facilities in the village center. You've had so much growth and so much activity starting to happen in your village center. This continues to get echoed in the 2019 plan, the village center designation and a more broad study that preceded this that we assisted with that came in 2020. And so what this one really dimes into is the nuts and bolts of how this is going to get done and continue to sort of prove both of the real need for this from a safety perspective on a state highway that is the main street of your village, as well as clear public support. And to really hone in on those points, you know, we document a lot of things in this report to give that big background. This report also includes sort of a broad overview of the potential to connect the village via some sort of trail up to Walter Kelly Park, although that's not really the main focus. I just want to mention that is included in this report. We look at things of, you know, the details of exactly how the road is built. And I think this, these images really point out that a two foot wide shoulder at best is really what people have to walk on. And that's, you know, that's clearly not enough. We, we document the in this, this Central Vermont Regional Planning Council, what was working with us on this and conducted speed, a speed study. And I think one of the most sort of frightening things about it is that it documents last, last season, that we had a 85th percentile speed of 57.3 miles an hour entering the village from the West. And again, a good document to have on hand to if V Transurail 1L says, I don't think there's a safety hazard. You've got some pretty clear arguments to the contrary. It also documents that the village in every aspect meets warrant for a pedestrian crossing. And, you know, as we have to show in these pictures, a typical Friday night in the summer in the middle sex village, there's pedestrians crossing. That's going to happen. So we go through and document those pieces. And then, you know, the other piece of this documents in depth is community support. And I want to point out that we've had four, this, this effort had four separate public meetings, two of which were somewhat invite only because we want to hear directly from the residents in the village. And so those first two meetings were focused on their concerns, their needs. We heard from the residents of church street that they want it, don't want, they love having camp meet nearby, they don't want it really coming over on the church street. We heard that loud and clear and this plan reflects that. And then we had broader community forums that the first ones we heard we got to had over 140 responses. And the key thing is that people felt unsafe walking or biking through the village center. People want to see a walkable connection. And there's generally positive support for that throughout about 70% of the comments we received in the study have strong support for improvements to walkability in the village. So those are the, those are the efforts that went through to sort of develop this. And when it really comes down to it, we proposed three nuanced different ways that this could move forward. We looked at one that was very similar to the 2020 study that creates streetscape improvements around sort of camp meet center and Gallagher Road and does a little bit at the same time. We looked at one of the things that was very similar to the 2020 study that we had about 100 intersection. We looked at a version of that that only has the pedestrian crossing and sidewalks. It doesn't do as much expansion of on street parking and traffic calming elements into the roadway. And we looked at one that includes bike lanes through it. And in ranking those and discussing those with the public. With Louis looked into greater detail on them. The preferred, we don't design these studies to say we've developed three options. You need to pick one. We say we've developed three options. Tell us what's good. Tell us what's bad. And we'll build something better. And what came down as the preferred design is one that does have streetscape calming elements through that camp meet center. But we also are trying to say we need, we need bicycle connectivity on here too. So it includes bike lanes and we're calling for buffered bike lanes where possible that would provide a little bit more information than just a layer of paint. But that bike lane inclusion would have to shift the roadway. And so this preferred designs would seize this as phases that would be worked with, with V trans on any future roadway improvements. Because the roadway at this main curve west of church street and east of camp meet would have to move the roadway north just a little bit to accommodate the sidewalk and the bike lanes and the travel lanes as we need them. And that being said, earlier phases of this, if you could work it out with the state transportation agency could just be the south side sidewalk that would connect all the way from camp meet over to Roots market ahead of any other improvements and other pieces like traffic calming and road narrowing improvements around the Gallagher road intersection can come later. Pieces like bike lanes and road alignment changes can also come later. So that's the preferred design. You see here, this is probably a better detail of what we're looking at. There's a five foot sidewalk on either side on street parking accompanied by a bull bout that surrounds pedestrian crossings to make it short and much safer pedestrian crossing right between what is effectively now the filling station and camp meet. Mountable curbs, curb aprons at the Gallagher road intersection because we well know that heavy trucks need to access that route. And connected sidewalk all connecting the filling station across Gallagher road. And that's about where the northern sidewalk would end, whereas the southern sidewalk would continue have small retaining walls all the way down to church street have a pedestrian crossing at church street and connect to Roots market. And this is where you can see here to these little dots is where we're proposing a buffer bike lane, provide better bicycle connectivity east and west through the village center. And we recognize as well in this project that what we're calling for is a deviation from some of the B trans standards that they often apply to their highways. And we think that's absolutely appropriate, giving the context of the village center and all the safety and traffic speed elements that we've documented in the study. So that's a really quick flash through. I don't want to take too much of your important time, but I want to leave more time for questions and diving into any details that you had. But I think what we leave you with here, I think is a really important document to have in hand when V trans comes knocking at the door and saying, Hey, we need to do updates to route to. Right. We have a document in hand that we can take directly to them and say that V trans bike ped coordinator has reviewed this. Here's here's the design alternative that's supported by, you know, multiple rounds of public engagement over 143 people participated in responses to this study. We've documented a need for pedestrian crossing. We've documented safety needs and the high speeds of traffic. So that's a great opportunity to make middle sex walkable and make our state highway systems work for everybody. So that's the early that we've got an implementation chapter in the back that kind of walks through some of those next steps and overview of those permits that would be required for any future efforts. And then, you know, detailed appendices for when you can't sleep at night, you could read all about each one of the public meetings, the speeds, data, a full cost estimate of the preferred design concept and the archeological resource assessment. So that is a very fast summary of the study. And we're proud to hand it over to you now. I'm here to answer any questions you may have, or if there's something I glossed over that you'd like more detail, just ask. So Sandy. What happens next with this. What happens next is well, hopefully the select board and the planning commission will endorse this that will sort of have the stamp from the town. And it, you know, if there is funding that comes up to be available to implement some of this, we could try and do that as the town of Middlesex. Realistically, I think what happens next is when V trans does their next project to work on this section of root two, which I've heard is coming up in the next five years or so. We will hopefully be able to work with them to implement all of these pieces, if not most of these pieces. And it will at that point have the endorsement of the town to do it. So this gets submitted to V trans. It doesn't get submitted to V trans. It's something that we keep that we've been keeping them in the loop along the way. They've, they've seen it. We would have it in hand when they come to us to talk about work they want to do or would plan to do a long route to. Okay. Thank you. If the town wanted to, they could say, we want to do all of this right now. That's, I can't see the town of Middlesex taking on a one point something million dollar road project right now. But if that's what the select board wanted to do, you could. Yeah. No, I think, I think the discussion all of all along has been to make any significant progress. We've got to find some outside funding somewhere or some grant money. Yeah. Right. And you know, there may be other grant money that becomes available and we're certainly keeping our eyes and yours open for that. And having this scoping city, which is, you know, the next step that anybody would need to do before you do construction, it makes a project like this that much closer to being shovel ready to get off the ground and go. Yeah. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Questions board members. I've got one. Just looking at the proposed design. I'm curious what kind of thought was put into. You know, the main, the maintenance needs of, of, you know, plowing sidewalks. Right. The, the onsite park or on street parking for cars. I'm imagining that V trans. So right now V trans goes through and plows all that, right? I'm imagining that that shifts the burden over to the town. So it would likely do something in that sort. If this was built as proposed. And the, the plowing, the plowing burden in essence. There's a couple of ways we like to look at this is that. There are towns and places in Vermont and beyond that sidewalk plowing is purely the responsibility of the landowner. And if you work out, you know, sort of the shared responsibility there, the town wouldn't necessarily have to plow sidewalks. The other point being that sidewalks that are available to the, to the walking public. You know, seven months a year is a whole lot better than sidewalks that are available zero months a year. So we see that element as sort of an improvement. That could be done sort of in stages before trying to put that plowing responsibility on the town. And as for the narrower traffic calming elements in there, that is something that would have to be a discussion with V trans. But there's been a lot of discussion in other communities as well, that if they can get these traffic calming improvements in town plows have to drive this corridor anyway. And that might be one of the discussions that V trans would need to have with a community to say, we can give you these traffic calming improvements, but we need you to do the plowing of the main road. That could, that could be, but that's all conversation sort of down the road. And it was something we thought about a lot, but that's the real trade-off. If you design, if you design a village street around large highway plows, you get a large highway with sidewalks on the side of it. But if you want to design for a village, there's a little bit of that narrowing that is important. Is that any of your questions, Mr. Jerry? It does. It doesn't alleviate the concerns, but it answers the question. All right. I also wouldn't say, I wouldn't say it's out of the question for V trans to do the plowing here. The width of the roadways lanes is no different than what's existing now. If V trans plows that area now with less than 14 feet width. It's not the narrow roadway. It's not the narrow roadway. It's not the narrow roadway. In other sections through middle sex. But that said, I think there would be pushed back from V trans because it would be a narrow roadway. Yeah. And it's just not, it's not just the narrow roadway. It's, it's in and out of all of the. The parking spots and the cleanup that's needed. You know, I think about what I see when I go to Barry. When I travel to work and whatnot. I mean, you know, I think it's a good point. I think that's a good effort to not just plow the traveled lanes, but then to clean up all of the parking spaces. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry. What's down to is potentially having. You know, parking bans. So the, the parking spaces can be plowed at night. And you know, we've all seen what goes on in Barry and all the parking spaces. So I can't believe we just had some degree of success with the snow and some degree of failure. Well, it just the added the sheer impact to the town highway budget to deal with that one. This one piece of it. You know, I just want to make sure that we're not missing. That piece of the conversation. Right. And then there should also be. Guys, as we, as we work our way through this process. We're going to have a lot of time to consider. with the trans and, you know, this is a step, but not a final step by any stretch. I was just saying there could also be public-private partnerships. You've got by and large one landowner at the moment where most of that areas are and they've got snow plows, they might be able to be an arrangement for them to do it. And frankly, the safety risk of having cars going 50 miles an hour in front of our major businesses in town, you can't put a price on that with people walking and bicycling and crossing the roadway there, and I think that's an important consideration as well. I'll have to agree that I was just at Roots and trying to pull out and so many people just racing by and I was like, oh my gosh, like this is like a really busy intersection because it's people coming off to go to the Mab River in the summer and in the winter. Sandy, I have a question. Did you like have you started to investigate, you know, the bridges and roads infrastructure bill to see if there's funding to help with this particular project? And I also wonder, you know, would this be a competing project potentially with, you know, other needs in the town, you know, especially around our dirt roads and the need to look at, you know, potentially resurfacing areas of, you know, really bad mud areas. And I don't know, that's just something to think about as we're, you know, looking into this and how do we sort of triage it? I mean, I think we need to make sure we're not competing with the other, you know, very important needs within the town. We've sort of viewed this as, again, standalone V-trans at some point is going to be doing work on route two when they do that. Let's try and get this done. And in the meantime, if something else comes up and there's something else that would come up would be more along the lines of funding available for downtown revitalization. That's not available for fixing the back dirt roads. That would only be available for the village. Peter. Yes. There's some grants out through Ross Gowen from the Agency of Transplantation for that type of work right now. At least they were advertising it through the Agency of Transportation and Vermont Local Roads last week. And the other thing is I've been in conversation with some people that, you know, are with the state AOT as far as plowing and stuff. I think, which is not a bad thing, this isn't a deal breaker, but I think they'd stop plowing right at Middlesex State Highway as far on route two and they would pick it up the other side of town. So we would probably, the town of Middlesex would be plowing from basically Middlesex State Highway out through to route 100. That's my understanding. So it's interesting, and just because I got back and forth through Morton all the time in the wintertime going down to Sugarbush, they redid their roads and sidewalks. They don't have on-street parking, but the state definitely plows right down through Morton. Because they don't have on-street parking. Yeah. So that's one of the things I wonder is if there's some way to create, this is just something to look at, some way to create more off-street parking and not have the on-street parking. And that solves the plowing problem. I mean, certainly in the summertime when it's busy people are going to park on the edge of the road, but it isn't the same thing as having on-street parking. I don't know. All good things to talk about and think about as we go forward. I think what we need to do tonight is approve this study and add it to our portfolio of work for future consideration. And Dayton, thank you very much for your work on this. Thank you. And your presentation tonight was helpful. Thank you. So is someone willing to make that motion? Can I ask the question first? So it's just going to cost us any money out of, you know, if we go forward with this third portion of the study? The study's completed and it's already paid for. There's nothing else to do with this. This work is now done. Whatever else we decide to do will likely cost some amount of money depending on if V-trans does it all or if the town does it all. But we're all set for this year then is what you're saying? We're not by approval. We're not spending any money. I just wanted to check on that. Okay. That's good. It's my understanding that endorsing this tonight essentially says that the select board's interested in reviewing the future potential of this should V-trans come through and do work at that point in time. Or grand money become available. Who knows? Right. But it's not locking us into anything. No. It's just leaving the possibilities open for future exploration. That's correct. We're not committing to anything at this point in time. Yeah. I agree with you all that the safety, you know, safety plays a big role. I, you know, obviously everybody probably picks up that my concerns are really the added duties and the added fiscal obligations that it imposes on the town. But yeah. So as long as it's just to say, yeah, if everything worked out and then this looks okay and it doesn't lock us into anything, then sure. Is that a motion, Randy? I don't want to make the motion. No. I'll make the motion that the select board endorses the middle sex route to and Riverwalk final scoping study. Is that the motion that we're endorsing it? Yep. Yep. Is there a second to that motion? I saw it. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded that the select board will approve the route to and Riverwalk scoping study. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Randy, I didn't see you vote. I raised my hand. Oh, you did? Okay. Thank you. So we've approved it. Thank you, Sandy. And thank you. Thank you, Sandy. Update from the Planning Commission approving the letter to the Center Vermont Regional Planning Commission requesting review and approval of the updated town plan approved by the voters at the March 2022 town meeting action likely. Bye, Dayton. Yeah. Thank you. This can be a rather quick update. I don't remember if I had given everybody an updated sort of table that I have of our projects. I just put it in the chat for folks to see. There's not a lot of updates. We're finalizing our zoning for the town. I expect we will vote on that and pass. We had a public hearing. We got some good feedback. The couple, you know, relatively minor tweaks that we need to make an address, which we will do. And I expect we'll have that done next week. And we're meeting next week. The next step is to pass that onto the select board. And I guess I'd like to know when the select board meets next, because I'd like to have some time for myself and Claire Rock with the Regional Planning Commission who's been working with us on the zoning to be able to come and, you know, make a 15, 20 minute presentation to kind of walk through what's changed. So we can, so the select board can be informed about what's in the zoning and what's in the zoning update. I think we're meeting again next week because we postponed this meeting because it would have normally been on the 5th of July, I believe. Okay. Then when is your meeting? Sarah, I think I am. Yeah. And then, oh, I've got a feedback. The second of August. Okay. We'll be on for August 2nd. I can't hear you. Should be on for August 2nd. Okay. Well, yeah. And we will be able to pass it on to you before then. But the presentation would be for August 2nd. And then you could put it out for notice. You'll need to have a public hearing and put it out if you want to put it out for vote that would have to be on the ballot by September. Okay. So what you need from us tonight is? Oh, then, okay. That's just the update for the zoning. But the other piece is I learned from the Regional Planning Commission that as part of the process of adopting a new town plan is for the Regional Planning Commission to confirm that town plan to say that they've reviewed and they approve it and it's in line with sort of regional and state planning goals and so on and so forth. And that gives the Middlesex Town Plan extra standing when it would be considered in any state proceeding. So in order for the Regional Planning Commission to do that, they need an actual letter from the Select Board asking them for that. I shared with Sarah just some draft language for that plan. And I guess what I would be looking for here is a vote from the Select Board that you would send a letter to the Regional Planning Commission asking requesting approval of the Town Plan and Energy Plan that was passed by voters at March Town Meeting. Sounds good to me. Anyone willing to make that motion, Phil? Yeah, I'll move. Is it just approval of? Yeah, it's just a letter requesting approval by the Central Regional Planning Commission. Okay, so requesting approval by the Regional Planning Commission. Thank you. We have about a second. I'll second it. Okay, thank you, Victor. All those in favor of the Town sending the letter, which we talked about in the motion, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, we've done it. You're all good, Sandy. Great, thanks so much. And Sarah, you have that draft language. Do you need anything else from me? I can send it again. No. Liz, can you just turn that down? Yeah. All I need is just an authorization from the Board that Peter signed it, or who should sign it, or I can sign it, whatever. We just need the Board to vote on that. Why don't we have Sarah sign it on behalf of the Board? Does that make sense? Do we need a motion on that? I don't think so. We're all in agreement. Everybody nodded. Yeah, you're good to go, Sarah. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, moving right along. Highway update. Eric, welcome. How are you doing? Wait a minute. You missed one. No. Oh, I'm sorry. What did I miss? You missed. Is Mitch still here? We've got to rename those roads. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, I'm sorry. There he is. I apologize. I must be getting hungry and thirsty. Sorry. Okay, next. Hi there. This will be fairly quick, actually. I have three items, only one of which really needs action. One could take action. The other one I don't think I want action just yet. I think it was probably in March I requested that you guys approve renaming a private driveway as Black Bear Way. And you did approve that, but it turns out the folks that lived in that road said no, we really want it to be called Black Bear Hill. And I said, okay, I checked with the post office in Vermont E911 Board, they said that's fine. And so now I would like you guys to rename that road Black Bear Hill. Is there already a sign up there that says Black Bear Lane? Yes. They pay for it, though, don't they? Yeah, because it's private. We don't pay for it. But you know what? Who's billing them? Because I don't think we were told to bill them. So when we say they're paying for it, I believe we paid for the signs and who's billing them? I guess we're not. I haven't seen a I haven't seen a bill for a road sign. Have you guys? I thought I saw one come through from who do we have do it? We have Peacard Lane and then we had this. We should be turning around and sending that to those people for reimbursement. I'll check on it tomorrow. I thought I saw something come through. The Peacard Lane sign is up, so we definitely got the sign. We got the other one too, I thought. Yeah, that's definitely up. I've seen it coming down. The question is who paid for it? We did. We ordered them. We paid for them. I'm quite sure the bill came through our office. I vaguely remember it. I'll double check it tomorrow, but Well, we have to invoice them. They have to pay us back. The bill did come through to you, it did, didn't it? Yeah, that's what I thought. Charles Peltier picked them up at that used to be L and D as traffic. It's up by UPS and FedEx. I can't think of the name off the top of my head. The sign is what it's called. I don't remember exactly. In the past, all we've done is just given them, they've come through. The residents of the private drives have given us a check for 80 bucks to pay for it or whatever it costs. Okay. Okay, well, I'll check on that tomorrow. Hey, Mitch, was it a mistake that we made? No. I believe it was a miscommunication. So don't you fill out a form for that? I did not. I don't know if there is a form. I guess I took on this role right when COVID emerged and Raika retired and we never did catch up to do any training. So I've been just okay. I haven't had a lot of road. This is the first set of road names that have come through. So I'm learning. So I will take the blame. The only thing I can imagine is a scenario where they say, well, we asked for Black Bear Hill. We shouldn't have to pay for two signs. You're right. I agree that it's would be good to have something in writing and I did not realize there's a form. If there is, I will use it in the future. If there's not a form, I will get one made. So we have everything documented henceforth. But I think she's asking the question, who is this second sign on? Is it a middle sex era or was it a landowner era? I will be happy to say it was a miscommunication and I'll take the heat for it. If you need 80 bucks, I will pay 80 bucks. No, that isn't the point. It's just we need to know if we're billing for the second sign. If they're not just changing their mind, I think is the question. They didn't think they changed their mind. They thought we miscommunicated about what the name was going to be. I would bill for one. Okay. Thank you. I will make sure this doesn't happen again. Thank you much. And is there a particular landowners? Who do we know who we billed to? There's three of them up there. There's two residents on that road. So somebody needs to figure out who the bill should go to. I'll figure it out. It's not that hard. You're going to split the bill between them? They do everything else that way. I wouldn't be surprised. That's what they would do with the sign. I'm going to plow it. Do you guys want to make a motion? What's the motion? To change the name. If it was an error, I don't think we need to make a motion. I would like to get it codfied in the I'll move that we approve the name change to Black Bear Hill from Black Bear Lane. And that we bill for one sign and assume it was an error on Metal Sex's part. Is there a second? Second. Okay. All in favor of that motion, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. We've taken care of Black Bear Hill. In terms of how we say Sonny Brook and how we say lower Barnett, I did read Patty. I did read Patty's letter. I think that for me, that'll the Barnett thing. Just grammatically, Sonny space Brook makes more sense to me than Sonny Brook altogether. But yes, Sarah. Okay. So I did some research on this and Board and Apry members, it's Sonny Brook, one word. And Net Halas, who's lived there since on Sonny Brook since 1976, says it's one word. And that's, I went through as far as I could go back and the records, it is one been one word. Somehow it got separated into two words and I don't know how. So the sign now is two? The sign is one. That's the way it's supposed to be. Yeah. What I would say real quickly is that in the case of both Barnett Hill and Upper and Lower Sonny Brook Road, Barnett Hill, the town's signs currently are spelled with two T's, which is the correct spelling. Somehow the nine woman board and the post office have spelled them Barnett with one T. So all I'm really looking for you is you guys to affirm that the correct spelling is Barnett with two T's and that I can get those guys to change their records. Phil's making the motion, I believe. Yeah, I'll make the motion that we affirm that Barnett is spelled with two T's and that Sonny Brook is one word. And that's it. And we inform the proper authorities. Okay, thank you. All in favor of the of the motion Barnett with two T's and Sonny Brook, one word. Say aye. That was a fun one. Now everyone. Eric and Victor, you're on. I'm sorry. We have a plethora of things to discuss. Is Eric here? Yeah, I'm right here. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, you can explain the Kenworth track if you want. Okay. So Kenworth arrived at Tenco in New Hampshire last week. Apparently the ball was dropped from when Tenco moved from Barry to New Hampshire. Parts were never ordered. So now we don't have parts for the truck to make it a complete dump truck. Talking back and forth with Tenco, they found a body. They found some parts. They're not exactly what we wanted, but they can make it work. They're probably 30 to 45 days out before they can work on it. I then talked to Viking. They can match the price and they can start on it as soon as July 18th. So one added thing, the transmission, they didn't realize, neither company realized that it was a manual transmission. And so we couldn't hook to the front of the engine. We have a special on the back of the engine on the hydraulic. Right, which is an added $1,500. An added $1,500. And for $700, is it? We can get a stainless steel toolbox. And for another $700, we can get a spinner that moves left or moves right as you're sitting in the truck so you can spread sand underneath both wheels. Is that correct? Correct. Which is advantageous at some point. Yes. But anyway, that's where we're at. So we need to make a decision if we want to switch over to Viking or not so that we can get moving on the truck. Can I just get a clarification on which truck this is that we're talking about? Is this the one that the brand new one? The one that we ordered? Yes, correct. Okay. So my feeling on this is we've had pretty good service over the years from Tenco, but this is a real failure as far as I'm concerned and we need that truck. So I'd recommend if Viking can do it and they can match the price that we, I mean, I know nothing about Viking, they're reputable, they do good work, all that kind of stuff. Very much so, yes. A lot of towns use them, just like Tenco. I mean, it's, they're equivalent to each other. And where is Viking located? Williston. And Tenco's, yes. Well, there's another reason. Yeah, 25 minutes down the road. Everybody else feels, but if it means we get our truck a month sooner, that's telling for me. I don't know what to say about the toolbox and the spinner. I like the idea of having sand under both wheels. Well, that's very helpful, especially on hills. Yeah. The only thing we have to do, Peter, is somebody has to go over to Hopkins and New Hampshire with the salesman and bring the truck back to... Correct. Go to Winston. Hey, Vic, this is all I, if I could just throw in a quick question. Any accountability taken on Tenco's part after we've done probably 30 or 40 years worth of business with them on questions? Is there any... Did they have any ownership in completely dropping the ball after we've used them repeatedly for the last 20, 30, 40 years? They did admit that they dropped the ball. Correct. Right. So just, just my bad type thing. No, no consolation prize. No, no, no. Okay. Fair enough, I guess. But I'm not saying, yeah, Phil. Yeah, my question was just, you know, to Eric and Victor, as far as what's your recommendation? I would switch over to Viking. Okay. Yeah, I've always thought Viking was a better product. It's just, we didn't use it before, Phil, because they call, there's a candy cane that's out in front of the truck that that they use to hook the plow up. And the people, the crew members thought that that was a better, because we can't have the plows on in the truck, in the garage. So it was easier. But Eric has easily shown them that it's not a big deal to swap the plow. No, it's not. Good. Sarah. I'm a little confused. Who's, who's picking, why do we need to pick up a truck in the New Hampshire? It's a Tenco now, and we need to take it over to Viking. Okay. So you're buying the truck from Tenco? Oh, no. No, no. Green Mountain, or no. You're supposed to put the equipment on the truck. Okay. The truck, the Kenworth is built. Correct. Kenworth is built, it now needs add-ons. And someone, and Tenco is not going to do it because they're going to, they're 35 to 45 days out. So you're going to take it over to Viking in Williston, and they'll put on the add-ons. Is that right? Correct. Sarah, always, the truck was always going to have the body and the plow and frame and all that stuff put on, but we were going to write one track, one check to Kenworth of I get it on Shelburne Road. Okay. So now you're going to write one check to Kenworth for the body and then one to Viking for the parts. No, no. Still going to be the same way. Just a different manufacturer. But just move, the Kenworth truck is only the trucking, the truck itself. It's just the chassis. And then the dump body and all comes from the company. They make it all up and then you buy the truck complete. Okay. I just have to put this in the minutes and I don't understand. So we have a couple of decisions to make here. I mean, one decision is, which is Eric's recommendation and I take it Victor's recommendation also that we switch from Tenco to Viking and then we have a couple of options to consider. One being the second spinner and the other being the, the other being the toolbox. Why don't we deal with the, why don't we deal with the Viking decision first and then hear a little more about the sander and the toolbox if that's okay with everyone. So that we would, that we would change from Tenco to Viking with the understanding that they're matching the price for the dump body, sander, plow and other associated equipment, which was specced in the purchase of the truck. Correct. That's exactly what I was going to move. With the addition of the $1,500 adder for the standard transmission. Yeah. Yeah, because yeah, because they can't put the PTO pump on the front side of the engine. So it goes off the backside of the engine. So that modification is, is where the 1500 comes in. So I will second, I will second Phil's motion to move the truck to Viking with the additional $1,500 cost for the PTO equipment. Yep. Thank you. You want something, Vic? I was just, you know, I was just clarity. It wouldn't have made any difference because if Viking had to do it, they would still have the same 1500 because they would still have to, because of the transmission, they would have to put it in the back of the engine. So that's, that's fine. I mean, you know, whatever you would think, they might have, they might have known that when we ordered the truck. But anyway, it's not a perfect world. We all know. So is there a second for Randy's motion? I was seconding Phil's. Yeah. Okay. No. I need the motion Randy seconded with that add on and I'll accept the amendment. So we're good to go. So it's been moved and seconded that we move from 10 code of Viking and we acknowledge the $1,500 increased cost for the change in the setup on the hydraulic pump. All in favor. All right. Hi. Anybody opposed? Okay. Now our road foreman and road commissioner are recommending that we consider spending $1,400 additional dollars guys for the toolbox and the second spinner. 1200. It's not a second spinner. It's, it's what they call a reversible spinner. So you can reverse it when you're inside the truck to change the pattern. And what it does is it'll throw it to the other side of the truck. Got it. So you're covering, so you're covering your pattern over to the right part. Got it. And there is no, there is no toolbox on the truck now. Not that I could see in the paperwork. Not that I saw here. And it was 1200, wasn't it? Six and six? So was it? No, seven and seven. Oh, seven and seven? Okay. Well, I think we should definitely do the reverse spinner. And if there's no toolbox, that means the stuff's going to get thrown in the cab of the truck, which is a mistake. So I think we need to do it if someone's willing to make that motion. What are you guys keeping the toolbox, Eric? Well, what we used to do was be like a hammer tow chain and anything else that you might need. It's not the end of the world. If you don't have it, it was just a suggestion. Are tire chains something that you put on only at the shop? Or are those able to be put on out in the field? Or tire chains are probably too big and too heavy to fit inside the toolbox. And typically you'd either put them on here or what we did was we'd hang them on the front on the plow side of the truck. So you could put a tow chain in there. You could put a hammer in there. You could put some tools in case you need to fix something. Guys, our trucks have never not had them. Let's put it that way. They've never not had them. Oh, there you go, Paul. I think you don't want that stuff rattling around on the floor of the cab of the truck. They're kind of handy. Yeah. And then a violation to your CDL to have stuff flying around on the floor of your truck. If not, it should be. I think it is. I would make the motion to approve the $1,400 for the toolbox and the reversible spinner. Thank you, Randy. Is there a second? I'll second it. Thank you, Liz. It's been moved and seconded to add a toolbox and the reversible spinner for a total additional cost of $1,400. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, thank you. Any other any other road news? How's the donor? Not going too bad at all. Can't complain other than not having any trucks. So we're still down to dump trucks. Yeah, so what's the update on that situation? The transmission cooler somewhere between here and Mexico, they got a tracking number, but they can't find out where it is. The clutch fan for the other one is supposed to be here on the 16th. So that's where we're at with those. And can you clarify which ones for which truck? I believe the transcooler is for the international and the fan is for the western star. That's correct. And there's just no way just to confirm, and I know we've talked about this, there's no way to jump that switch so that the fan's on all the time so we can use that truck. Not to my knowledge. Do we know or have any idea how much this fan is going to cost? Because isn't the western star the one we're trading in for the new truck? Yes. So is it, I mean, how much money are we going to be putting into this before we trade it in? I guess it's my question. I don't know the answer. I don't know what the cost is on that fan. I do know that the transcooler for the international, they've been talking with allegiance on a daily basis to find out where it's coming from, and they can't, and allegiance does not have any luck. So we need to get this fixed is what you're saying no matter what, you know, no matter what. Yeah, okay, okay. We've got to give them a working truck or they're going to give us, you know, I get it. Hey, Eric, I just wanted to say welcome. I wasn't here when you were hired, so I just wanted to say welcome aboard. Thank you. Peter, yes. Well, we've been over. Eric and Charles and Jay have been over in the pit. We're trying to prep that right now for some sand screening. We don't have a date yet the week. No, no, but I bet I would bet we're probably getting pretty close. Yeah. Then the center road culverts kind of want to get three done right the three worst ones are done as of tonight. And they're planning on having them done by the end of the week. Correct. I talked with the Hutchins and they want to start reclaiming the last week in July if they can tentatively. So they'll reclaim it and spread it, you know, and grade it out, water it, and compact it and let the traffic hit it for a couple of weeks before they come in with a paving. Also, when the culverts are done, my plan is to go back over to Center Road to finish the ditching. We still have the single axle dump truck here and we can use that if need be. Hopefully we have a big truck ready by then, but right. You know, if Jason is available there, is he going to do that again or is he going to start? I can ask him. I hadn't asked him. I can. Jason, all I would say is let's be sure we're ready. So if we need to rent a truck for a couple of days to make sure we get that work completed, let's make sure we're ready to go. We were going to move our mowing machine on Friday, but it wasn't going to get back to the dealer until late. I think what we're going to be doing is having them deliver it on Monday. I talked to her and I don't think the price difference is going to be all that huge. They haven't scheduled to go to someplace else, so we would end up losing a day and a half. I don't really want to do that. Our contract said it was coming in on the 18th. The 18th to the 30th, which was Monday anyway. Okay. Well, I was under the impression that we were supposed to be able to pick it up on Friday. That's what the original deal was. Okay. So it's different than what the contract is. I don't want to lose a day and a half. I think we just need to get it so we can get it done. The sidelines are pretty bad at a bunch of our intersections, you can't say. Very. You can't see signs either. Right. Okay, guys. Thank you very much. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you. Bye, guys. Goodbye, Eric. So we have minutes to approve. So our motion. I can't move. I think Phil just moved. Didn't you feel that? Okay. Thank you, Phil. In a second. Randy, thank you. All in favor of approving the minutes of what's the date? I don't know if it's the 21st. Okay. Thank you. Please say aye. Bye. Any opposed? Elizabeth Stain. Okay. Yep. We need to approve renewal of the Washington County Sheriff's Department speeding enforcement contract. Jesus. The worthless contract, but I guess we don't have any choice. Maybe they'll get the speed down to 55 coming in the middle of sexual knowledge. Yeah. I think I've only seen them around like one day. Yeah, exactly. They don't do the same. I mean, unfortunately, it's a joke. It's a saving. We don't get the speed enforcement, but it's frustrating because we want the speed enforcement. But I don't think we have any other options. The state police have nothing to offer. It's minor standard. So I have a question on this topic, actually. I think that, and maybe I mistook some parts of the conversation, but did I hear, I think it was Bob Lucas was saying something about the posted speed limits in town aren't necessarily valid because of something to do with us having to reapprove something. Is that what it was? Yeah. So I guess part of my question is the speeding enforcement contract with them is kind of a wasted effort if they're not enforceable, right? That's correct. I don't think it's that they're all unenforceable. Yes, Sarah. That's what I was going to say. Okay. And they do do some speed enforcement on Route 2 and Route 12, right? They're supposed to. Not two, but they've seen them on 12. Yeah. So is somebody able to is somebody able to just articulate what? We need to get up to speed and get all our signs correct and the spacing of them correct and, you know, the traffic study, there's a cost, of course, associated with a damn traffic study. I feel like every few years we're doing traffic studies, but we need to do whatever it is. I couldn't agree more. The main issue is at the bottom of shady rail. Okay. And then there's some other issues. Yeah. Thank you. I just, I was quite clear. Good point. So can we approve this the sheriff's contract? Is there a motion? I'll move it. Okay. Thank you. Let's second. Is that the only change is just that we're just contracting with them at a different rate? Yeah. Yeah. And we never, they never fulfill it anyway. Do they know? I'll second it. They never spend the month. They never spend the money. All in favor? Hi. We paid $1,200 to them this year out of the $7,000 budget. Right. Good job. I have one quick item and we don't need to, we don't need to decide tonight. We can't decide tonight. But Dick Picard called me this week and said, we had told him last year that we planned to paint the back of the fire station. And he wants to know if we want to do that late summer and early fall, he has, he has the time to do it. The next step would be to, of course, get an estimate from him and approve and approve the estimate. But I think we need to do it. The back of the fire station looks really bad and it's deteriorating. But I don't know how others feel. If we're going to burn the damn thing down or tear it down, there's not much point in painting. Yeah. I would hate to waste money painting it if we're, if we're going to, you know, do something like that. All I would, all I would say is I made all the members of the select board promise me when we, when we built a new fire station, if we couldn't find a good use for that building, that we tear it down within two years. Well, guess what? Here we are, what, 10 years later. We haven't, we haven't torn the damn thing down yet. We painted three sides of it and we painted the roof. So I don't know what the answer is. I'm going to, I would suggest we get an estimate from, from him and let everybody think about this. Yeah. Yeah, Sarah. So I've been talking to Karen, who owns Roots Farm, the Roots Farm stand. She's got, she's got a major issue where she is the parking and the parking is, is impossible there and deliveries are even more impossible there. And she's for this is very preliminary, but it's wondering if there's some way to kind of remove the fire station and they could use the back of that as a lot for their cars or maybe even deliveries to walk down. This isn't some, this is just very preliminary. And I don't know if she would have to lease it from the town or if she would have to buy the land or whatever that works. But they can't, they're looking for another curb cut from VTrans on route two and they're just not going to get it. It's impossible. Why can't they expand their parking behind the building there? Because it drops off. Fill it in. I don't know. I think the bigger trick is not just the parking, it's the pat, backing a, packing a truck in and out these big tractor trailers that deliver their stuff. They're backing in and out. It's just not working on that in, in the curb cut. Back a tractor trailer in up where the fire station is and roll the stuff down the hill. That doesn't make any sense. Just looking or just using that for employee parking. Oh, okay. I mean, the one, the one thing I would say is, so where, where that old garage was, where those thousands of tires were, remember that? We were considering, considering putting a fire station there at one time when we built our new fire station. That is more or less on a level with her parking lot. And if she wanted to consider. The issue is not, is not the, is that it's the ingress and it's the entrance and egress of tractor trailers. That if you look at her lot, she's got these two, these got these two curb cuts. She can't, it's impossible to get those trucks in there and out. Anyway, I'm just saying that someone is. Here's what I would suggest. Come to us with a proposal, but I like the idea of utilizing the land that's down on the level with her parking lot somehow and whether that can work for her or not, or whether it makes no sense. I don't know, but there's a pretty good size piece of land there and we cleaned it all up and removed all the tires. So it shouldn't be that big a deal to do it. And we need to agree on some kind of rental agreement or land sale or who knows what, but yeah. Well, she owns that land. No, she doesn't own our land. She owns that land behind the edges. She bought it. They have dam staff bought it. That's how we bought the town forest. Oh, you might be right. Okay. Okay. All right. I'm great. A quick question. What do we have stored in the old firehouse at this point? Oh, we have some, we have some highway equipment. We use it in the winter time. We put the chipper in there and a few other things, but other than that, there's Would we be interested in renting it on a short-term basis to CV fiber as a warehouse while they're in construction phase? Which could this fall into next spring? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Because when I was in the garage, I mean, I don't think the power's on in there right now, but that's easy to fix. There's no heat in there. I told you that. And I don't think they care. This is just heavy spools of wire and other equipment that they need or other supplies that they need to string the fiber. And again, we're one of the first or the first town that's going to be built out. And they want, they want staging areas where they can put stuff. And when I was talking, you know, she asked about it. And I said, well, we've got this old firehouse. And they were like, huh, what do you want to rent it? I said, well, I'll ask. So is the floor in there capable of taking a forklift? Is it? Oh, could it support a forklift? I would say yes. We had heavy fire trucks in there. Oh, I mean, I was just, I was just thinking about the floor being cracked. I thought the last time I looked in there, it was all cracked up and at different levels. So it may be difficult for a forklift to drive in and out with heavy spools of wire. So somebody might just want to look at that. Yeah, I mean, I could say come over and take a look at it. And if it's something you want to pursue, then we can do that. Yeah. Would we consider renting parking spaces to their employees? Like just at the town hall? That's a good idea. Is that a lot of money? I think the parking is limited enough at the town hall. I don't think it is. And how many people do you get here on a regular basis out back? And the back, it says there's there's not much going on. They only have to be in the winter. They have to get out of the way so that the road crew can get their stuff in and out of the garage. Well, let's let her come back to us. How many spaces she needs, what she wants. Let's not let's not block the doors of 65 or can use it. Okay. Can I just talk to you guys about one other thing very briefly? Yes. So next Tuesday, you're going to meet at Romney at five o'clock and go over to the look at the north to look at North Bear Swamp or whatever you remember. So we're supposed to have thunderstorms not saying that's going to happen, but should there be a contingency in case you guys if in case it's a storm? If they're violent thunderstorms, we postpone them. But if it's just a shower or light rain or whatever, we're going to stand out there and look at it. Can I stay here? Yeah. Thank you. You're out there holding a flag to show us where to stand. I have one other question for Dorinda. Did you receive an invoice from CB fiber for the money that we have? Okay. I'll contact them again. I'll hit them up. Okay. So we're going to meet at Romney at five and then the board meeting will start at six. Is that the plan? Right. Well, it may be that we start off with a quick BCA meeting and then go into the select board. Okay. Okay. That's fine. If that's okay with the chair, the BCA chair. That is fine. And that's what we should do. Would it be okay since I bike on that road all the time that I don't go? Is there a reason why I would need to go? I've seen it on a very regular basis, all the puddles and all the problems. Should I? I'm happy to come, but like if I could be out there to represent the interest of the bikers who use that road. Okay. No, you do not. I would say you do not need to be there. The discussion is not going to take place out there. We're going to inspect it and then the discussion will be at the board meeting. So yeah, I mean, I literally see it. I don't mean to sound snarky. You've got plenty of it. I know. Okay. Right. Why is that not a question? I want to check in on two things. One is you're obviously going to have the road commissioner and the road foreman invited right to that walk. I believe so. Yeah. Okay. Great. And we're taking care of inviting the neighbors from the trails committee. Okay. That covers everybody. The one thing that Liz just mentioned, obviously when you're there, you're going to be looking at a little bigger picture. Everybody knows the puddles are there. I think the idea is to say, okay, what are some options? What are some possible solutions? And that would include probably looking at the side of the trail that's grown up and the berms that are there and things like that. So that's just going to be going to look at the puddles we all know about and leaving. It'll be a little more a deeper inspection, I guess. Okay. Michael, what solutions are you're looking for? What problems that your solutions to what problems? Well, the conversation was whether or not to turn it to a trail. That's the main reason that you're starting this idea. But we're not wedded to turning it into a trail. We want something that is usable by bikers and walkers in better shape than now, but we don't want a major overhaul of the roads so that everybody's going through there at 50 miles an hour. Back to go through at 10 miles an hour with your four-wheeler? Well, yeah. I mean, I think you raised last time, Vic, also that there are people who drive their trucks through there. We're not saying that shouldn't happen, but for the long term... Look, look, look, guys. I don't mean to cut you off, Michael. Let's go out and do the inspection and then have the discussion. And that's fine. I don't want to have the discussion in advance of the inspection. I'm just wondering what solutions you wanted to answer. That's so... And it's going to be two 14-foot lanes with sidewalks and bike paths. There you go. Can I actually ask a question? Not about this road, but maybe it's a question for Vic. You know, Vic, Bulldoch Road between Bulldoch Salvage Yard and East Hill Road? You know that? Waterhouse Road. Yes, waterhouse. So there's a giant tree that's down that's really dangerous. Like, it's not... It's like hanging. It looks like it just came down recently. And I'm not sure. Is that a town job? Because it's dangerous. It's not like... I wouldn't even recommend that like someone who doesn't have a lot of experience take it down because it's hanging from high up. It requires sort of a skilled person. Is that something that town does or would that be somebody who owns that land? I would have the tree warden look at it. Isn't that his role? I don't know. That's what I'm asking. I just noticed it yesterday and it's interesting. It is our responsibility to keep class 4 roads. Okay. We don't want a tree dropping on somebody's head when they're hiking, biking, horsing, four-wheeling, whatever it is. So the answer is, unfortunately, yes. I think it's us. Okay. If it's too difficult, Liz, for us to do and we feel that it's a danger with the guys we got, then we hire it out. It's kind of like the trees in front of Steve Martin's barn. Okay. Right. So anyway, it's not far past Jamie's. You would go from that direction and just literally walk up. You would see it. Don't you have your electric chainsaw list? Well, I would never do that. This tree is far too scary. I'm just teasing you. I'm just teasing you. We'll go up and take a look at it, Liz, and we'll come back to you. Thanks. Okay. Oh, anything else? Anyone? Sarah? Correspondents? We've got orders to sign. We've now once again got a full-fledged select board. So that's a good thing. Victor, congratulations. Welcome and condolences. All of those, all of those. You guys need to sign the Lister's error submissions. You need to sign the Washington County Sheriff's thing. Yep. Yes. Welcome to the board, Victor. Great. Right. No, I mean it. It was good that we had so many people interested. It was. Okay. Thank you, everyone. See you next week. We'll see you at the Romney School of Heaven Forbid. There's some horrendous weather event forecast. We'll be in touch by the middle of the day. We won't wait till, wait till four o'clock. Okay. Bye, everybody. Thank you. Bye, everybody. Thank you.