 Please assemble for the 233rd girl in town meeting doesn't look like there's anybody left the symbol so please join me in the saluting the flag it's behind you I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God individual with liberty and I've been a long time since we've had a real town meeting I've been privileged to serve as the moderator for the pre-town meeting for the last three years and I'm this will be that if you count the years that I was that I'm probably at 21 years of doing it and I'm not here forever and I've always wanted to find that it was finding part of my responsibility it's just part of the any officer's responsibility to find their successor so if any of you are motivated I will help you transition into that that's being said the first article of business is to elect a town moderator for the year ensuing this is article 22nd and the and the nominations are now but I remind you there's no need for a second it's just the nomination process mr. one thank you and in light of that I will step aside and ask the cheer of the select board to take over so that there's no sense of bias any other nominations for moderator hearing none those in favor of Paul Gillis congratulations thank you and thank you I it's a job I have longed for for many years I was previously in state service and I had to work on town meeting day so I couldn't even attend and then when I was finally freed from self-service a state service I was Ruth towns parliamentarian for a while and then I got the job and at the time it was a different town meeting than it is today first of all there was a few more people but it was also that we voted everything on the floor including the budget and I think this reasonable argument that the budget should be voted by a larger number and that elections should be done by a larger number but it does tend to drag us out of that and so today we have three more articles one of them isn't even an article to speak of it's just to review the reports and the the most provocative and and perhaps the best opportunity for us to serve to talk to each other as a town will be article 25 the other business but to go next is to hear the reports of the town officers for 2022 and if you have a booklet or if you don't there's one back there and I just take the opportunity to go through it page by page to invite you to ask questions about it the select board is hungry to answer questions and the select board report is at five page five with the budget at seven and this would cover as you can see the basic finances of the year any questions about the select board's report the assessors report you remember we used to have listeners but we don't anymore so we now have an assessor and the assessors report is there any questions about that the town clerk's office report is on 16 and 17 and 18 and 19 or actually 17 the births and deaths number of licenses and things you also have to come up here to talk so Matt Levin Lord Road I'm tempted to ask just in the interest of being provocative when I'm on a board myself I often ask the treasurer whatever what are the one or two things in the budget that are the most interesting right if we were we're doing our fiduciary responsibility of being responsible for the town's budget if you would to point out to it's a lot of numbers right are there a few places where you feel like something interesting is happening or if you were particularly paying attention to what was going on this is something that would stand out I this is completely oh I have no idea what it is because I really don't look at the budget that carefully so if you were say here are a couple things that are interesting what might you point to for the citizens to have a sense of what's going on and that I assume there's something interesting but I literally don't know what that might be the one of the more interesting things was basically our increased costs in our budget one of the one of the big things was the increased costs in the budget and our insurance rates which I think the board did a good job on maintaining the budget that we had control over our troubles are that we have a budget that's driven by outside forces such as insurances cost of equipment etc if you're looking at the budget I would ask you to look at the where a lot of your increases are coming from it's it's not that we have spent foolishly it's just that our expenses have just gone up like everybody else's and you know how that is fuel costs for the trucks etc etc other than that I can't say as I know anything that really stands up for me you know the other board members have something to say I'm Flo Smith I'm the vice chair and I would echo what Brad just explained I would also point out that we did raise funding for the police department and I believe that Berlin is growing I think we all know that and with that comes additional additional fees thank you also echoing what Brad said the insurances if you look at page 11 you'll see under health insurance for the police that the budget in fiscal year 23 was $205,930 and the budget for fiscal year 2024 is $262,000 so Brad said it really well that some things are outside of our control but when we looked at the budget we tried to hold our costs where we could and not have the budget impact adversely on the residents we are looking at the future for local options tax and that was on the ballot before basically it was a minimal amount of people that it did not pass as a result but we are going to look at that in the future that could help our budget going forward because as we know things do not decrease in terms of our needs we will always be asked for more and so the police did ask us for more and we looked at that in all regards and you know our police force is increasing we needed other vehicles with additional staffing comes additional costs and so that's built into the budget as well so that's what I'll add and I think maybe Joe has some to add as well thank you yeah so with the growth of the town there's a lot there's a need of the support services like flow was talking about the increase I think it was one additional officer for PD but we also have administrative needs and so adding the assistant treasure that was an added position and so you're going to see that as well the support of the growth of Berlin it's all be quick I'll probably yeah reiterate a couple of things that the board said to but just a couple of things of interest second year I just crossed my second year and the job for this come from the private sector so the public has been a little bit eye-opening for me as well on this but a couple of things on the budget as you all know costs are going up I'm going to go to the highway real quick you know two years ago we didn't really have we had a lot of debt and we've paid that that off but going along with that on a capital budget there wasn't a lot of planning in advance for highway equipment police cruisers and things so there was a significant change in the budget and when I say significant I'm talking about $300,000 plus or minus there just to start putting money in the capital budget so we would not have to borrow money as interest rates go up right when it comes time to purchase a $280,000 dump truck now each year because we're trying to do one a year and build a real plan to do that along with the police cruisers as they wear out we need a replacement to be able to purchase that so that money is showing up in the budget to build that up and then every 7 to 12 years we're going to need to buy a piece of heavy equipment a loader or a greater will need to be replaced mechanical equipment that wears out so that's been a fairly significant change in the past two years in the budget as well that that's had an impact as many of you are aware as well we just recently went through police negotiations we settled on another three-year contract I think it went personally I think it went reasonably well it dragged out far too long but we did reach a reasonable agreement and if you look around the state Berlin is fortunate enough to have one of the only fully staffed police forces right now within the state that includes the state police as well I gotta say they're a pretty good group of individuals as well so we're very fortunate in that respect and I think a lot of it has to do with the new chief as well there's been a morale change there in that department and the officers all seem very happy to be working here as well and glad to be here in fact chief pump pump brand is in the back so so and again as Brad started off insurances just to give you a number for some of the costs that we don't control you'll see it in the report but our health premiums twenty three thousand eight hundred and seventy dollars you know there was a difference of from last year's budget to this year's budget overall about thirty five thousand dollars in cost just for insurances and things like that so it's been a significant increase all the way around on that it was one more thing I wanted to mention and that was our audit report some of you'll be looking for that that dragged on for some time at just completed they got their final information last week so that will be coming out it will be available and it will be available on our website as well because it just came out there's we still have to go through the management review with the board on that as well there were there were a couple of findings I don't have them in front of me so I won't try to talk to them but there there were but they were pretty much minor in nature nothing critical but that will be out and available very soon thank you question question is that a question for me for you and the board years ago we used to give formal presentations about the budget and we just stopped one year and I'm never quite sure why I would like to see that again we could do it by video I could get it done at a local for you and it could be on the website so people could just this small conversation was very enlightening and I appreciate the comments so I might be confused on this a little bit we did hold some public hearings with the board when we were reviewing and presenting the budget you're saying above and beyond public hearing we used to have Mike's guys would do stand over there and do the school and then the chair would do it for the site board and it was graphs and charts and okay just so that on time meeting day we had a good idea okay all right thank you where were we we were at the end of the auditor's report I mean assessor's report that was page well no I guess we did the clerk too so pages 20 and 21 the board of civil authority the board of the statement anybody want to talk about that no Berlin highway department 21 zoning administrator 23 blood insurance zoning administrator 24 stop me if you have questions sing it right out planning commission report 25 police department 27 through 37 yes Matt to similarly point out any point to the police report that might be quite a question well just as I asked about the budget is there just things that are interesting there are things in your report that you might point out to us that might be a bit of an issue I think the only real thing of interest is it's been pointed out previously some of the stuff is just outside of our control that have cost more this year than they have in past years probably the most point of interest is taking on an extra officer and the reasoning behind that is police departments have traditionally kind of had been flowed with staffing Berlin over the last couple years has really struggled with maintaining staff and that causes a stress on officers that to cover those shifts and causes an increase in overtime budget you're not getting quality enforcement or services when somebody's having to work 20 or 30 extra hours a week so kind of planning on that we're never really at full staffing we took on an extra officer right now we're better staffed and anybody really that I can think of especially in our local area let along the state and that allows us to be more proactive than we have been in the last year year and a half and allows a little bit more of a buffer for those officers not one officer on shift all the time taking all the calls we have some overlap allows officers to kind of share those responsibilities and share that work work for us so I think that's pretty much the only thing of note that's a real big change in in our budget in particular is having that extra person yes we do there has been as you probably aware in the news a significant increase in workplace violence at the hospital we have historically prior to my coming on board had an officer dedicated to the hospital and it was like an overtime shift and that stopped happening for whatever reason was well before my time so I don't know really what the reasoning was behind that the hospital has asked us recently to try to be more present there and I've tried to discuss how that would look financially because I can't just post an officer over there out of our own budget and they're not able to fund that on their own but we do try to be as visible over there as we can officers make that part of their kind of routine patrol to pop in and make sure people are good there and there's being seen any other questions yes sir um sort of following the incidents that occurred in the hilltop yes any improvement in that looking at page 29 is obviously quite a few incidents that occur in the hilltop over the last we've recently have had weekly meetings with the hilltop to kind of increase communications there along with representatives from the state so they can kind of keep an eye on those interactions I think over the last couple of weeks there has been better communication it'll be interesting to see if that results in kind of a downturn and our responses there but I do feel that we're there's a better relationship there now than there has been in the past they certainly seem to be more responsive to some of our concerns as they seem to be more responsive to some of our concerns of late anything else thank you thank you the list of the town of berlin staff and their wages and benefits is on 38 and 39 recreation committee 40 conservation commission 41 and 42 42 development review board and then the other reports are not that you shouldn't read them but they're not town reports so they're they're worth reading but they're not town departments so any comments questions on the town report in a sort yes ma'am I didn't see anything in here on the town center and I'm just wondering why it's not included here and if there's anybody that does let us know what's happening just keep hearing grips and dreads who's our town center expert was some news recently about that I probably can't speak too intelligently about this as much as Tom and Karla would be able to um so as you know we're the third in the state um the only one outside of chitin county chitin county that's been approved for the new town center one of the um a couple of the uh contingencies that go along with that there's some actions that we have to take as a town with regards to that and and one of the stipulations is we have to have some sort of office property located within that town center We negotiated and met with the Washington county this the school union district For 3.8 acres as you come in off a 62 on the mall road on the left hand side To give that back to the town and that is Within days of being completed So once that's complete And we have to decide what we're going to do with that property to fulfill part of the requirements that we have with the state for that new town center Some of the other things that are going on in there you heard about Fox Run, I'm sure the development they they're the ones that spoke today that they're purchased the property from the mall Are in the process of it to put that I think it's a 30 room Unit in as well There is a there has been another application applied for another The restaurant coffee shop in that in that area as well that's moving along and That's probably about as much detail as I can provide But I'm happy to Get something updated on our website as well. I'll have Tom and Carla do that And we'll have some some updated and we also have thanks to our Tech group of clerks new clerks We do have a facebook page as well where we'll be putting information on so i'll put in a plug for that while i'm here to this time as well Is that okay for now? Okay Back to the warning To that point, I think it would be helpful if the plan for next year For this meeting was to have someone available to be able to give a report to everyone about that It's slow progress. So I don't expect that there'll be some big change between now and then but even though There are only a few of us here. I'm sure we would all appreciate Even if it's a few minutes an update in this forum. I think that would be great If I could also ask Paul, um, I have to admit I have never entirely understood the relationship between the town and the fire department And i'm not asking anyone to explain the whole thing But i'm curious if someone could give an update on the status of that relationship And I know in the past there were discussions about things changing. So If someone could just give us a brief update on exactly what the connection is See anyone from the fire department here, but Well, you have the president I usually see them over there. So I so if you could just give us a brief update on where things are because I've lost track thank you Great question Been asking that for a long time myself um So we have had these discussions For four years now about the relationship between the borough and fire department in the town and you know, it does it Is is it right to stay that? That corporate entity standalone department and My opinion is no Back in the day when there was nothing but a dozen farmers out here in the town of berlin And we had three roads. It seemed to be the right thing to do In fact, no one wanted to touch it because we wanted it done But when we're talking about the growth of berlin um This is the You know what we were just talking about earlier. Um, you go up and down the berlin mom player road. We we have new Small communities or whatnot popping up It it only stands to reason that the town the fire department needs to grow As well and as a volunteer it is not going to happen that way um, I think in your report i'm going to apologize. I think the budget, um, you see the first page, but the The documentation the sporting documentation is not not in in the report and so we'll put that up on the website as well um, but There is a chart in there which um forecast it shows the first Shows five years of call data and it projects where we see we may be going And that is not some of that is medical calls. It's not somebody's house burning There's just a lot of traffic coming through the town of berlin. We we are that intersection Okay, central vermont a lot of those are motor vehicle accidents And a lot of alarm activations and whatnot with the growth that we have so we've had those discussions And we're getting maybe a little more serious about it. In fact, I had my My chair asked me how close are we to having these? You know having an outcome And so I asked him I said, I don't know how close is the select board in having that outcome But anyway, um, we're having these conversations And I think if Unfortunately, we don't see the the supporting documents in there, but last year we turned around for the weekend coverage So I have people at the station on weekends and we have a response time of three minutes or less Okay, it's a lot better than the 11 12 whatever minutes it takes for someone to get from their house to the station to your place on lord road Okay, um When you look at that supporting document, you're going to see week weekday shifts and right now I've got a zero in there It's just we have to have these conversations and where are we going to be? So I don't know how close we are But the conversations are Are going Continuing. Thank you Is there anything else? There will be more I'm sure. Okay Article 24 She'll the town I'm sorry. Yeah, I just because joe just spoke to it. I just wanted to ask joe His budget information that's not included in here which Are you going to make that available on the website or you're going to put it on I'll give it to to To the town to put it on their website. Okay, because I think a significant amount of budget information did not get included in the report I found very useful Anything else on 23 of the town reports? 24 she'll the town collect its real and personal property taxes to defray the expenses of the town for the period july 1st 2023 through june 30th 2024 in installments one fourth of the taxes to be due by delivery Or by us postal service postmark no private postal meter postmarks Honor before august 15th 2023 One fourth of taxes due or honor before november 15th 2023 One fourth of the taxes due honor before february 15th 2024 and one fourth due on or before May 15th 2024 with an eight percent Penalty and one percent interest per month or a portion thereof to be charged for the late payment of any installment Now it's been three years since we've done this, but I need someone to say I move the article Anyone second Pat and the floor is now open for discussion and There is no discussion. You've got to hear it again Anyway Shell the town collect its real and personal property taxes to defray the expenses of the town for the period july 1st 2023 through june 30th 2024 installments One fourth of the taxes to be due by delivery or by us postal service postmark no private Postal meter postmarks honor before august 15th 2023 one fourth of the taxes due honor before november 15th 2023 one fourth of the taxes due honor before february 15th 2024 And four one fourth due honor before may 15th 2024 with an eight percent penalty And a One percent interest per month or a portion thereof to be charged for late payment of any installment Are you ready for the question? eight percent if you're late And in one percent interest on top of that in other years there's been lots of debates about that That would be a require an amendment. I'm not encouraging. I'm just letting you know that Anybody else ready for the question all in favor of This article article 24 say aye Those opposed no the article passes Now we have an anomaly in the Report there is no Five however I believe that the clerk will reassure me the posted version has an other business article At least the one that you've handed out to me So It's not right here But I can assure you that you would be okay to go forward and discuss anything you want as long as it doesn't involve a binding vote And one of the among things we're going to do today is we want to hear from our representatives, but I was wondering if this was the right time to talk about the We have been talking earlier To the extent that anyone takes an on legal advice anymore You can't cram it in for Tuesday. You can't you need a special Um Vote that election of 30 days notice and uh, but that may be so that would be a special town Yeah, it also includes meals on wheels, which is critical I I anybody else I'm just talking for you No, okay We've we've had some discussion since this morning just to try to understand The best way forward to to move this to support them Obviously, we have a feeling from the people that we're here this morning in this afternoon That we want to move forward with that the only way to do it properly after further discussion It's is we will have to hold a a special meeting on that And then bring it to bring it to a vote to the town So there'll be a special You know vote for that as well. We've got to do the 30 days So that's the soonest that we'll be able to do that is you know, 30 days from now is Have the meetings bring it to a vote at that point in time So just as a point that the they are coming to the we have a select board meeting monday And they are coming as well to talk about it with the board Right and again, that's a question That's a question we can we can talk with them about with the board can speak with them on on on monday as well So Okay, thank you Saturday or Does everybody always come on tuesday because it's town I think we only have one example of that. There's only one year where we had town meeting And this is it. I'm saying was anyone able to come because tuesday's a work day and they could never come to town meeting Just asking a floor question Yes Okay I mean, I guess if you went back to the town vote where we said we'd go to saturday that was an assumption People supported that that was the goal was can we get more people here? There are not more people here But it's a saturday during school vacation And it's no storm Not a great example Next year I expect to see this whole hall filled wouldn't love it And I think it would help if the select board could produce some very controversial issues I have two comments one is related to what we were just talking about one about the previous topic Just if I might just some background on the on the senior center so As I understand what happened is that they Like the other entities that are on the ballot They missed the deadline to submit the materials necessary to get on the ballot And there were a few others that are the usual us usual that we see year after year that at least one other That also failed to submit on time to get on the ballot And this is not a large percentage of the funding of the senior center So it is not the case that they are in danger of suddenly ceasing operations It is an important part of their budget, but it's not a huge percentage So I I trust the select board will Move forward in whatever way is possible But in terms of your concern that there's like they're not going to shut down because of this It's not a good thing for them, but it's To get to to pegs point I I do wonder About this question of what happened how many people are here I was going to pose a different question to you paul That what we just voted on article 24 has to happen Right, I mean if it doesn't That's it's an important thing for the town function so The question and then I'm going to pose a different question the question What would happen if there was no one here to vote on that now? Obviously the select board would be here so there would be at least some people here to vote one person is the town Right, so but I'm wondering to get to your joke If it might make sense for the select board and others I'm sure as the chair of the board of civil authority We could be brought into this conversation as well Does it make sense to try to figure out? Not inventing a controversy That's not but but is there something we could do with programming or something else To make it so that this activity was more appealing to more people to pull them in it would take some work I'm not trying to minimize it and it may be that we talk about it. We don't come up with anything, but it seems like It would be better if there were more people here and so it might take some work To get a few more people here Because I mean look what happened when I said well tell us about the budget and you told us about it And then even the few people here said oh and that made us think about other things So I'm wondering In the hypothetical what if you had a town meeting and no one showed up There would be things that have to happen that wouldn't happen even if it's only one article So maybe we need to put a little bit of work into Creating a little bit more something so that we make sure that that doesn't happen Not that it's easy But we can at least try In my experience one of the things that We've done over the years inadvertently and with the legislature support is to Give more power to the state than the towns and more power to the select board than the voters And there's a deficit that and I think that's directly proportional to the interest that people have in local government Many towns not not I'm not making a judgment here don't Don't seem to dare to put policy questions to the voters And even though that might not be in a binding way that sometimes boards don't want to hear what the people have to say But in order for us to have a vigorous town meeting we need to have a vigorous electorate and it seemed to me that if we if the board were willing to share some power It doesn't have to be anything more than to see what the voters think about the direction of the common or In order a series of articles we could add here. They wouldn't necessarily be binding, but they would involve Drawing together of the folks that are here and And an opportunity for the kind of dialogue that we started to have today here So that's just one person's thought Representative donahue, would you like to speak to us? That is a pre approval from earlier this morning. So and As well you want to come up too Thank you. Sure. Thank you all. Thanks very much A couple of quick things. First of all, I left outside if you want to pick one up A copy of the comments I made on the house floor yesterday about berlin and the hilltop in And it really was a challenge to all of my colleagues to say we we can't do things That leave some towns and the people that we're trying to help strand it Because the people we're trying to help if we're not helping them in the right way if we're not providing supports They're they're not in a better environment. It's not helping them So hopefully as we plan for the year ahead We'll do a better job. I think we're facing a lot of problems that could have been expected That because the federal government stepped in with with covet with so many extra dollars to do so many things And then people Get used to that as the norm and all of a sudden there's no money anymore And people are perceiving it saying, you know, well, we can't cut that people rely on it But then that means we take over funding it whether it's Housing for homeless whether it's food You may have heard in the news recently the supplement to food stamps people were getting are coming to an end People have come to rely on that So That's one big area that we're having to deal with. There is still lots of extra revenue Because of the economic impact of the covet funds That's all going to ebb away And we're looking at the subsequent year as being a significant potential drop in income A real budget pressures So if we increase base funding, we'll be back to looking at cuts in the subsequent year So, you know, there's some big money items I would love to hear not in public form, but individually send me an email Um, I don't think we can do it all if you think there's something particularly critical with revenues we do have Let me know what your priority are because basically one is Sustaining the things we have the proposed budget has a lot of areas that have no increases Not a decrease but not an increase and in today's environment. That means it's a decrease Things like funding our designated mental health agencies um So Increasing them to maintain against inflation It would be a huge budget item. So that's one is our budget Number two is the house has passed a family The house committee has passed a family and medical paid leave Program that would pay a hundred percent of somebody's salary for up to three months for a very broad range of needs And that would come through a payroll tax So it wouldn't be in the general budget, but it would come out of people's Pay bills. I think there's a lot of good reasons for supporting that, but it's it's a big cost involved for folks Third one you've heard a lot about and that's the Clean heat or affordable heat or unaffordable heat depending on what you title it I really support doing things to really attack and address climate change This particular mechanism is a little bit Well, it's certainly untested and it will cost a lot up front for the payoff You know a decade or two or more down the line So hearing input for that is really important for me and then finally child care, which we also all know as a crisis But proposals to put um, you know Uh Not just tens of millions, but 100 or 200 million to better support our child care system So I would really be interested in hearing back from people Second big area is the legislature itself There have been a lot of discussions around wanting to increase the opportunity for people to serve And the diversity of people who serve working families And so forth who really are not able to because of the financial pressures That means proposals for spending a lot of money for instance providing child care providing increased Salary levels or year-round stipends for the off session where there's a lot of work involved health insurance things like that Certainly something to be said about it But also a real change sometimes in functioning. There's a lot of push right now to Extend some of our remote voting Opportunities that we use for covet into regular sessions So allowing people to vote from home if they have to stay home with a sick child For instance and not be present in the state house Which raises a lot of issues. That's one. That's a big concern of mine So those are some things to think about that I would welcome input And one last thing I want to tell you about if if people missed it last night on channel six on Six o'clock news wcax There was an awesome little feature on a 13 year old young man from berlin jesse Backdorff Who did a great job? He was incredibly articulate Talking about the right to repair bill He does a lot of computer work for friends and neighbors One of those kids you're just so proud of you should be proud in berlin to have a young man like this entrepreneur can't Can't do some of the repairs that he could easily do because of the Sort of monopoly on repairs that a lot of things come with now He's the one who educated me about that need as a result I put in a right to repair bill along with some other Cosponsors and wcax was doing a report on it and I said You know somebody had to talk to his jesse because he's the one who educated me And so they went out and did this feature On him and he just did a great job. It was a really nice piece. So you might want to you know Look up on the web and take a look at it because lot lot to be proud of that young man from berlin So thank you very much. Thank you And I'll I'll stick around you almost over if people have questions. I want to talk feel free So everybody, I'm ken ghostland. I'm your other stay rep and it's an absolute honor to represent berlin I love this town it's a beautiful beautiful community and Very fortunate to to do it going back to one of the comments about the lack of Uptown meeting and People showing up and stuff like this. I've been and I was on the slipboard in norfield for 10 years We've been constantly fighting this battle. I think in norfield. I think we go monday night if I'm not mistaken to try to get more people involved and try to get people to Come back more in the community. I think we keep trying to do everything and it's it's uh It it's sad because it's very very important to what we try to do in brimont a couple things and touched on A lot of stuff the one great thing about uh, ann and I as your representatives is we come from A lot a lot of times different Ways of looking at things and dealing with things she deals with a lot of healthcare stuff. I'm more of a businessman more of a Um Administrative guy. I work hand in hand with the administration Governor a lot One of the big things and I I put out there and we all do Update every other week. It's either Ann or I and it's on front porch forum And I think she does a blog and I do the facebook thing But we try to keep everybody appraised of what's going on And um, this hilltop situation has been uh, is a is is a huge problem. It's been a problem the chief the select board Vince Everybody has done the job as far as I'm concerned where the job hasn't been done is the state And About three or four weeks ago It really really came to a head And I just happened to be at the right place at the right time And I knew we had a problem because I have a pretty good relationship with the administration up here and And uh, I knew we were finally going to Because you're putting these officers in jeopardy. You're putting everybody in jeopardy. You're putting citizens in jeopardy You're putting the the The hospital right across the street people are reluctant to go there. They're reluctant to go to the mall You can see you can see Uh, how many situations we have right down here at the travel center. So that's finally Being dealt with and uh, and I'm Quite optimistic that this is finally going to get under Uh, control. I I um, I know there's there's a lot of working pieces to this So, uh, it it is uh It's been a major frustration For me for a long time And I think it's being resolved. The other thing that People are going to want to hear about I think is is the closure of a of lovers lane bridge in Uh, river chin and also the route 12 bridge That's that's going to be a lot of work done and probably be replaced well The good thing If there is a good thing, um about the 12 Route 12 bridge being done something's going to have to be done to Uh, to your To your lovers lane bridge because there's no way you're going to get vehicles back and forth between here and north here We have these uh, thanks for all covered bridges in north here You're not going over those things with certain pieces of equipment And weights of the vehicles and all that stuff. Um Paving I think paving is is due in 24 Don't hold me to that stuff because it always gets changed and stuff like that, but you'll see a big You're going to see a big Advancement in your roadways between Montpelier and uh, northfield Um, your police department, uh, I couldn't be more proud of I think the chief has done a heck of a job and, um It's just great. Um The other thing is is uh, hopefully we're finally Getting on the other side of the cove we can get back to more of a regular Relationships that will work Used to working with uh, face to face, which is very very important Uh, get out talk to people. I Usually really really enjoy that Last couple of months have been very difficult for me, but uh, I'm on my way back on that. So The hopefully we've moved on from that The other big thing that's been touched a little bit on In here that really really needs to be Talked about is the affordability. We've all everything's been discussed about The employees salaries and uh, and the equipment what it costs and all this The big thing I'm a businessman. I'm a common sense guy. I I don't have a college education. I went to cte and and uh, I guess I got lucky and And uh, I kind of look at things out of common sense thing, but we've had a tremendous Tremendous amount of money coming to this state for years Because of senator lehi or a lot of it because it's senator lehi Senator lehi is retired That money is not coming the way it used to come So people need to really really I don't want to be mr. Duma gloom here, but I'm a realist and We really need to watch the money and be You know accountable for the affordability of what it's going to cost to live in this state The other thing I've gone back to the public safety governor initiated I think back in august the 10-point safety plan We're working on that. We have an update On that that just came out We're constantly constantly going over that we obviously we have a third problem With a With a lot of bad things going on and we're trying to get that into control I introduce it's bill h312 That has a lot of the governor's concerns a lot of the administration's concerns and there's a lot of stuff in there That maybe you'll want to follow What we're doing I don't want to keep you here all day but I I guess in in in closing um, we just need a What I feel is a lot better balance coming out of Montclair To coming to the towns Working together um Because We're all in this together We're all doing this all for the same reason and that's you the citizens and Just try to make every community in vermont better and safer for all because That's really what we care about. So if you have any questions, I'll be around here afterwards. I'm sorry. I got here late, but uh some other situations came up including the snow and stuff like that, but Be more than happy to talk to anybody and again pleasure serving you anybody question Try to steal his report Hey, we've been holding lunch for you. Thanks. Thanks. Check them out the window. Thank you kin. Thank you, ma'am Our time administrator country has A sermon just just a couple just a couple things I want to I want to follow up on a couple of things that I think are important From which some of the things that you brought up Things that are going on in the town Maybe that you might not be aware of and things that I'm gonna Ask you to be aware of I guess that that we need So we haven't had for some time an economic development committee They were just re-established two weeks ago Again, we've talked a lot about the town growing It's going to grow whether we want it to or not. So we need to be prepared for that. We need to Be a little forward looking and manage that growth as best as we can This is going to be one of the functions of this committee is to help us Do it the right way what's best for the town and everyone involved And an example of that is one of the first things that that we've asked them to look at is We're growing the staff has grown a little bit should be stable But we don't have enough room in the town office right now We've got a job trailer outside where our listers again granted there. They're one day a week and our public works Supervisor are working out of right now out of a job trailer outside We have a police force. It's a nine-member force and they're crammed into one small section of the office as well There's not not enough room for them either So that's an immediate need One of the things that they've been asked is what do we look like in five years 10 years and 20 years? And what are the plans to get there and grow smartly? And effectively so that that's something that's going on anybody has any ideas They're going to be meeting every other week on wednesday nights It's it's a public meeting. You're welcome to To to attend those or or even just send some input or thoughts and ideas will take them all The other one that came up today that would be interesting and The board and i would love to have your feedback on is your opinion and thoughts on the fire department Becoming part of the town becoming a municipal fire department again That's something again preliminary discussions are underway. It's going to move forward in some fashion But what are your thoughts and ideas on that as well as at some point? If it moves forward it will have to be a vote From you all to approve that to move forward. So that's something else Another thing that's very important not just for the town, but overall That word we're working on is Child care facility talked about that 3.8 acres of land over there We've had some preliminary discussions with the school and in the hospital About the need. There's a tremendous need just in the central Vermont area as well Again thoughts and ideas are welcome But that's something that we're seriously looking at from a town perspective as well how to how to move that forward And next to the last one is again something to think about there is a handout on the table With a lot of facts and numbers on it and some general questions around the local option tax I know we've we've tried the town has tried for Three times now the last one was reasonably close Barry just passed it. There's been some articles on that lately But that's something that we're going to be continuing to look at And try to get more information out to everyone to understand it get questions back that we can answer. Hopefully To To consider what it means to the town overall should it pass is about 600 thousand dollars a year in additional revenue That we can use to table up stabilize the tax base and fund our capital fund with as well And then the last thing Our public works board or a town town of board of volunteers like everyone else public works board and our d rv board would love to have some Fresh faces and new members. There's some openings there So pass the word to anybody that may be interested get it out there that we would We would love to fill those those last two committees up as well And with that I will Unless there's any questions on any of that Hope you'll join me in thanking these people who have worked hard for us during me We could go on forever, but if someone were to move to adjourn And someone would second And are you ready for that question all in favor of adjournment of the 233rd burlin town meetings say aye No, as opposed no See you next year or maybe at that special Thank you