 Can you assume it's 6.30? Sure. Okay. I'm gonna call the meeting in order at 6.30. Are there any additions to the agenda? None for me. Anybody else? No. No. Review of minutes May 1st, 2023. 15. Motion to accept the minutes. I will second and discuss. Accept. Right. So thank you for these great minutes. Once more, we would like to point out that although it normally takes six pages or sometimes more to cover everything we do, it's only took three pages this time. So the upper right-hand corner, you could change of each page. You could change six to three. Oh, three of six, or two of six, or one of six? Yes, one of three. And then the other change is the last paragraph on the first page, the first sentence. I believe that what Mr. Cueto reported was that Emerald Ash borer chambers were found on some of the cut trees. They did not find the insects themselves, but rather the living chambers. I had not heard that term before, you're accurate. That's exactly what he said. I was unaware of the, I was fascinated with that term actually. Yeah. Yeah, I thought so. Really? I talked to Jeff today. I think it was after a while. And that's what he told me about. Just to give you an update, I'll take it apart. Yeah, that was all I had on the meeting. If I could also just note a change that I'm gonna make the motion to adjourn, there's a Mr. that I'm just gonna strike. Wow. Yes. Wow. Yep. I got so used to just the four of you and then Mr. Cueto reported. Yeah, I see that. Look at that. I guess theoretically, I wouldn't understand it. Okay. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Your honor. Please vote Zoe. Thank you. Aye. Thank you. The minutes are accepted. Public comment. I see people here, are you public? We're not, for, I think the 640s. Okay. Hope you are expecting anybody else for the 640 agenda item. Okay, so, we don't have any public comment. Let's move to the next item. It's consideration of cemetery, sex and position in cemetery and maintenance contract. So, we as a team with the cemetery commission. history. So he was the assistant sexton. Yeah. And then somewhere along line, Tim's son got hired. Yeah. So the assistant to the system. And then this fall, Elliot decided that's a large part of his job. He wasn't able to do any longer now was meeting families, dig cremation holes, map out cemetery lots and so forth. And he wanted to get done with that, but yet still continue. In that conversation, I agreed to take up that those duties. And in fairness to those guys, I probably didn't articulate it well enough where that was for the short term until we found somebody I thought that was sort of a given. Yeah. And it wasn't certainly my part. So we went through the wintertime, springtime, I emailed Jean and asked if there was any movement on finding a new sexton. And of course, she got the same word that well, I thought, you know, I was going to do it. Yeah. So I put the word out and found my friend James here, who is in that that line work. He, he recently signed a contract with Berlin Croners. He's open to sign on with the spawn player doing pretty much, you know, suits the knots on all the cemetery items, including mowing, mean families, selling lots, so on and all paperwork, so on and so forth. Well, he was also mowing and trimming. So in coming up with this at the at our first meeting, I brought this this proposal up turned out it was actually about $4000 less than what we're currently paying. And some feelings were her. And so I feel bad about that. But when we did propose it, he, they resigned, who resigned, Elliot and Tim resigned. So here we are. So that happened on May 10. We held a meeting here May 10 with those two fellows resigned. They resigned because I think I can't speculate why but I mean, I'll be tries they didn't move the position on the tip. I don't know. Because he was the assistant. He was I don't but he also had opportunity to take over those tasks and didn't chose not to do it. He doesn't want to continue without without Elliot. I can't speculate on why they quit just feeling were hurt. And it's one of those things and this wasn't a monetary issue. This was it wasn't gone. Nothing was said about monetary. It was that some of the tasks the piece of his job description he didn't want to do. And I wasn't going to let it fall on snows. But I can't do it. And definitely either my own job and like so forth. Correct, including the cemetery commission. Another funky item there was that the sextants also served on that committee as well. That was not. There's issues there. And so they they Elliot has since resigned. Tim wants to remain on for the season and resigning in October. Tim is going to keep remain on the cemetery commission. Okay. And not. Which is just you have a meeting. Correct. Right. That's not to work. Right. What about him? So I don't know much about him. I've never met him. I'm sorry. He was helping. He was helping occasionally. And I really he was doing a fairly regular. I mean, I don't work to see April. Yeah. And they always had about the same. Okay. So I don't know what the answer to him is. Okay. Because he was in that meeting. And so I can't speak to that. So I'm here today to present a kind of a contract with James and his company to maintain the cemetery. So you flagged an issue just in passing John about a member of the cemetery commission also getting paid by the town to work on the cemeteries. And I mean, that's been widespread on the cemetery commission. I'm trying to think. Do we have other commission? Thank you. Thank you. So it's for the purpose of the history here. And I have trouble obviously keeping these words separate. But it used to be a commission elected by the town's people. And it became a committee that is appointed by the select board. Now, and I'm trying to think whether we have other models where that's a case in town where committee members, I mean, the commission did the work before it was a commission. They also did the work. Yeah. And the committee continue to do the same. And they do paid work. Right. So what do we think of that? Is that a good model? Is that a bad model? Does the rec committee do that? Yeah, I don't know. No, it makes no sense. So here, three here in life, the problem is when committee members who are in these positions also develop budgets based on their work. It's clunky at best. Yeah, this was a very uncomfortable meaning because they serve on the committee. Right. It's clunky at best. It's sort of a contract. It's sort of a fact. It's exactly that. Yeah, it's not directly related to this, but just for my own clarification. What are the checks and balances and the audit? Is it self-covered? Who knows? Is the work being done by from an hourly or it's all the other system? No, I mean, no one in this office is reviewing any of the work. Sorry. They turn it in time. It's just like any other time. I understand. But if two people get together and say we work five hours, but they were hanging at the wayside you, there's no way to I'm not using anybody. I'm going to put safeguards in because who knows in the future. Part of that probably even comfortable conversation was exactly that like it was, well, I made the polls and we hired James and well, who's going to supervise James and like what comment back was who supervises you. And you know, it just went sprout down the hill from there. And so anyways, feelings were hurt. Here we are. Yeah, I don't want to have that conversation. If someone came up to me or any of us said, hey, I don't think they did anything and they were paid $3,000 from internal controls. Yes, that's the first effective. There's always a difference. In fact, you have to watch the appearance. The fact is there can be nothing wrong or, you know, happening. However, the appearance could be that the potential could exist for something to occur. So you are always trying to avoid that or have mitigating controls in place to keep everything balanced. That's where you're talking about. The commission they were taking in cash. No, no, they were doing they're working for themselves. It was a bad it was a problem. We got an argument at a meeting, you know, blah, blah, blah, you know, so then we went to the committee, more supervision by town, they were covered by insurances, etc, etc, etc. So I'm just bringing up this. Yeah, this is town lies. We're going to move on to a different part of us. So you're right. And so recently that was over because they reached out. So I don't, you know, there's not nothing no sense in meeting that exact. And just just to reinforce your sense of the awkwardness of the meeting. I mean, obviously, I wasn't at that meeting, but I first got wind of this when Rosie contacted me and was talking about the potential contract for some of the services and was asking, so how does this work with a conflict of interest with committee members voting on whether to recommend this contract to the select board. And but yeah, yeah, that's a good point. So anyway, right. So I do have a copy of the contract. I'm not sure what the procedures is for doing this. What is in the back of my mind as those seminars and not the mode yet this year. That's in the back of my mind. Yeah. And we do have again, personally, I'm not going to let this fall on snows. I'll do what I got to do. If we have services up there, and we do have a couple coming up. Recording in progress. I was recording the chaos. So I just wanted to ask about our equipment. Yeah. Oh, this generally using our equipment. And we already have a couple of hours. Correct. So in terms of those, it's hard to say, you know, the talent to decide what to do with that equipment. Maybe some other department or department. I don't sure there. He also brings with him is a known assurance. And the equipment, he'll take the graves. There's also part of our agenda. We're going to talk about fee structures. I've made some adjustments with that. So that the town. So not only we can pay James for the services he does, the town also realizes some revenue stream as well. From from people with contract or hiring our services that they graves and so forth. But we've been contracting that out. Correct. You've been contracting for full for full burials. Yes, for $1,100. Mr. James here chairs 650. We're going to keep our rate. Okay. And then he got to do the meeting with the people the fans. Yes, yes, I guess I want to make sense. Would you like to say something about yourself in your work yet? Well, I have been doing this for quite a while. My dad's in a similar business. And so I'm pretty experienced in it. I do have my job. So I do have my own equipment. So I don't know how I know how to summer area operation stuff. And I know the ins and outs of stuff. But I do have any questions. I've definitely from you guys. First, if any situations came up, that what happens? Where do you live? I live in I'm located in Cabot. And how long have you been doing this work? Well, I'm 17. But you have been helping dad for like 10 years. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Did you have a school system? No, I actually went to a private school over in Marshfield. So how does that work? I didn't know he was 17. But he holds LLC. And so you'd be contract with the LLC not necessarily him. But I don't know the answer to that. That's a that's a some attorney's question. Well, it's on the liability insurance. You're only going to see so if he has that. Yeah, it's an LLC. James is I don't want to be sure. Jump on this back in my office. You guys give him the nod for the interim. Do you guys want to do that? I think I think he'd be open for that. I mean, we haven't seen the counter. Yeah, so I do have it. I can't have one cop. By the hour notes, it's a $19,000 contract on a year payable over four installments. Okay, one piece seven 1429. On top of that, he will get paid for his services. On the other yep, other fees. So that's by the foot by the job. For example, a full grade 700 a cremation rate 250. There's overtime for weekends for Saturday, specifically, and after 3pm. And last year, what was the budget? So I want to say with 24 rings of bell with me. It's what we've spent. I have to look it up. Yeah. Right. So why don't we just review the contract? Yep. Well, well, on an interim basis, we'll have to pay by the hour for that. Or if we approve it, I guess it'll all be in the same amount. If we don't write it, then we'll have to pay him by the hour. Would you be accepting that? I mean, we just kind of have a you've got to look at this. And we just going to be fine. Is that? Yes. There's a few hopes that we have to jump through to make sure there's gonna be okay. And just know like this kind of came to head on Wednesday. So this is a new expression. So I don't I don't blame that at all. Do you want to discuss the fees increases? It's kind of it. So we just try to get it on your day. What's gonna happen tomorrow? If we give you the green light, James, don't speak to you. Go ahead. So where are you at here? You're at $30 an hour. He gets paid $30 an hour. If we do not sign a contract, we'll pay him now. Yeah. Keep track of the hours. Okay. If we do sign the contract, then that's gonna be in the green total. Okay. So I move to approve payment to what's the name of your LLC? JM Yard Services to JM Yard Services at the rate of $30 an hour for cemetery maintenance on a provisional basis be replaced by the fee for the annual contract if that is approved at our June 5th meeting. Is that a good way to word it? That's a little clumsy, but I'm sure that it'll come out okay. It's already if I ask a question, you need a second on that, right? Right. I'll ask that. Oh, yeah. That's for the discussion. Yeah. So it does stay in here. Let's look at the wrong contract. You company your LLC is called Creative Visions. No, that's the wrong one. That's the next one. Oh, okay. Because that's mowing too. They all look alike. Okay, so your second is a motion. Okay. All the favor please say. Okay, so the other thing that could happen is if there's a barrier or something. So when you have I have at least one schedule. Okay, and we'll pay him on the rate that he's set in the contract. Yeah, specifically to those. Okay, so that sounds good. This is a change. It is. And again, I wish it didn't come down this way. Yeah, that makes me feel a little slightly uncomfortable because Eli is sort of the town for years. Yeah. On the other hand, when we made the change from the commission to the committee, then there were some rumblings at that point. And this is just an aftershock of that transition, I'd say. Oh, it's about packing. Would you would you assume that you want to go to the next page on the summary? So yeah, the current fees, which would you assume that this would not be in your packet? A lot would assume it would always be in your packet. I made no assumptions. What do you assume? I made zero. Okay, let's go with the fees. I got it. Turning costs. Four grade and lots. Only grades locally are about a thousand dollars per month. So that's that's all the money. We own that property. We own the land and that's right. So are you talking on behalf of us? Yeah. So and then the other thing to realize is Mr. James, you're collecting 10% or selling the lots. That should be that should be in here. Okay, we'll assemble the contract. Okay. Okay. So premation will have to keep you the same? Correct. To most of the sales occur with somebody on the cemetery commission or whatever doing the sales or sometimes it just come to us. No, it does not because they they generally physically meet somebody at the cemetery. Is this the big one? So all sales would be going through you? Yes. Okay. Because I know when I bought mine, I met with Elliot. Okay. I'm learning. I'm like, I like your period here. So here you go. Okay. You got no property. The full burial price. That is kind of consistent with other cemeteries of getting and it still allows for town to realize revenue stream and then the cremation grave opening. That's a little low compared to others. And again, it fits James as well as the town for realizing some revenue there. Are these James also you get a 10%? No, no. Just on the sales. His fees are going to be in the contract. So that's fine. Yeah. We can read that. Okay. And then currently we don't have any additional fees for Saturdays. And so it's very common cemetery charge for that. James, you do not do Sunday burials. I do not. And again, that's not uncommon to hear of. Okay. And then there's a 330 overtime fee where it's currently there's none. So some females and rightfully so it's just setting boundaries and people can really hang around cemeteries sometimes and if they understand that there's a monetary hit there, they can understand that. So these things we can change. Okay. Okay. But you just bear in mind his costs are in consideration of that too. So you I would definitely look at his fee structures versus that and see what all fits and so forth. Okay. Yeah. All right. There's a full the full burial for your openings that include the foundation for stone. No, foundation. So that's gonna be it broken out here somewhere. I think it is just it's in his contract. Okay. Yeah. I'm gonna read this. Oh, his foundation fee because a lot of people hire something. Right. Right. So it is higher. So some cemeteries don't like to do that. Oh, they don't. No. Oh, really? Plainmont has a place that just they just do theirs. Oh, okay. What's the average? Good to add those plainmont. Yeah. Okay. Let's see how we bury those a year off the top of your head. One, two, five. When Pat's really started, we almost never do barriers up there. We've got six. So six last year. No, it's last year. I want to see me three. So it's low single digits. Just so we have one discussion at a time, please. I was just asking knowing nothing about any of this. What is the average per year of burials? It's in the low single digits. Okay. Okay. I don't need to listen to a centeno. That's that's single digits. Okay. No numbers of people. So you mentioned Pat Healy. He's been doing backhoe work for for the town. So with with this contract, this proposed contract, would he be out of the picture? He would. I had had that discussion with him and he's he was doing to help out. This is not his bread and butter. In fact, with Pat, there was a lot of parameters like the week before Memorial Day, he wouldn't do any work there. He doesn't work on Saturday. So a lot of stuff in there that came with Pat and right. So he has his own cemetery to look at and so he was sort of more or less helping us out and and doing it for a premium, you know? So I think this is okay. Okay. And James, what other cemeteries are you working at now? Well, I currently work at Erlen Corner Cemetery, but I also hold my dad out when he takes care of over 70 cemeteries. 70? 70, yes. Okay. Yeah, he does everything for those bombs. Yeah. So I'm I'm normal. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, I like that. Yeah. Thank you. Welcome. So we're allowed to digest. Yeah, for sure. We got it. So we'll let you thank you. Well, thank you for all your work. Yeah. I appreciate it. Keep us up to date. We'll move us to the next step. Yep. And then for going forward to our next to a cemetery fee structure. We just did that. We did it. No, we gotta go over the whole thing. 705, discussion of listers. We have one lister in the building that I've seen. You're talking to herself or there's no other one. Oh, okay. Do we want to go into an executive session discussed with the listers personnel matter? This is really about the budget. We're talking about the budget. Yeah. The lister's budget. Okay. Let's talk about the town lawn mowing contract renewal, which is what John has already reviewed it because he thought it was a cemetery. That's okay. They said lawns are all green. What's the burn? It's very dry out right now. So what do we got to look at in the town? So the lawn mowing contract, this is a three-year contract. So it was done in 2020. Temprase for paying the talk to me because I wasn't aware that this was a renewal. I don't have a list to go off of. So this is a renewal proposal for a renewal about agreement. There's essentially no change in the agreement. Same rate, same scope of work. So if you are comfortable, he has from what I have seen at least done a good job. I just want to get a little bit of history on it. Okay. So when we started doing the contract for mowing the lawns, we discussed putting it out to bid because that's what a lot of people do and we did. We put it out to bid and I don't think Tim was the lowest but he was local and we felt comfortable with giving him that contract. And we thought that because he gives us good service, he is local. We continued it on. And so we could put it out to bid again if we so chose but I don't really choose to do that. I'm just giving a history. Yeah. I just want everyone to know that. I read that in 2020 it wasn't partly because of COVID. At least that was the reference in the select board. Yeah, but we had it. We had it before 2020. Yeah, no, I know. And so because you know gives us good service as local, it seems reasonable enough. We've continued it. And I just soon continue with it today. It's fine. That's up to the select board. Yeah. What are you saying? She said she's happy for no complaints over the last few years. No complaints and I like hiring local people to do the workforce. And he's not proposing an increase. He's not proposing an increase. So what the heck? I'll make a motion to accept the contract. We have a second. So we made the second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. They always appear to have it. They do have it. Okay, that's out of the way. Are the listeners ready to discuss the, okay, good. So let's tackle that discussion with listeners. This has to do with their budget overrun. It sounds like you folks are going to go way over budget. Reading this incorrectly or am I reading correctly? I don't know. What are you reading? I'm reading the select board memo. Turning the actual results to fiscal year. The listeners are tracking to a payroll of 30,000 against a budget of 23,000. The actual results as of April 30th was 25,246.25 versus a budget of 23,000. So currently, well, as of the end of April, over just under 2,500. However, once we roll in May 11th, April, which we can see now, they're at 26,414,415. So now we're at 3415. So if you annualize those numbers for what we've incurred year to date, that would trend that they would end a year at approximately $30,000 against the budget of 23,000. But again, that's just supplying an average using the year. That doesn't mean that's just a way to trend the numbers. And then I've summarized the hours worked by Lister through May 11th of 23. Deb has worked 628.25 hours. Ross, 464.5. And Chris, 297.5. So historic, I don't know if the Listers have ever gone over the budget that I can usually weigh under. Yes, usually weigh under. It does seem odd because we don't have any more new properties. So was there, can you give us some clarity on what's going on? Because we're way over budget and in my memory I don't remember going over budget. So are you going to tweak back your hours until July 1st or what are you planning to do? We did get the message from your last meeting that we should try to scale back so we could postpone doing some tasks that we could wait until July to do. We have our role in the equalization study for example when we set the CLA and so we talked to our district advisor and she said don't do it until July that's fine. But we have to do our part of the Homestead Declaration downloads and the current use because we have to lodge the grand list in June that's a statutory deadline. And those effects you know the tax bills are going to go out and everything and the grievance period the whole thing. So that is going to be complicated by the fact that and this is part of one of the reasons that we racked up so many hours. I alone have taken over a hundred hours of training this year because I was new but also because they've introduced a brand new software program for us to do the current use and the Homestead Declaration and the equalization study thing too. And so there's a lot of training associated with that they just rolled it out we're supposed to start on it like this week but there's a training actually Wednesday this week and they told us we should all go to it before we die then so we're planning to do that. And you know that was kind of a monkey wrench in the works we didn't really need but there's a little bit of money in here that's reimbursements that are mileage and postage but that's insignificant to the whole. I mean those things probably should be moved out into the budget line for postage and the budget line for mileage. I don't believe those items are in this. I don't think I'd have to look I don't believe those items are in here this I actually ran on the payroll module I'm not I'd have to look but I'm not sure if those are in here. Well they're posted to the payroll in general. I'll have them to the other accounts. Okay. But anyway oh sorry. What's the hourly? 19. 19 dollars. I think we should cut it down. Together within budget. Well I think that's a cool idea. It's all 25. All right here you go. Yeah so the other thing is we did like 50 site inspections last year and this year has been more like 75 because there's been that much more work done you know a lot of people go houses or got all crazy with the COVID thing where they're you know upgrading and building garages and decks and stuff. Every one of those represents time we have to spend sketching and well first we do a site visit. We have been spending our Saturdays going out and doing those site inspections and then we come back and we have to put the sketch to the program and do the assessment and that's going to generate a change of appraisal letter so we're doing that too. So last year we sent out maybe those 110 change of appraisal letters. No those 110 current use changes. Maybe a hundred change of appraisal letters and this year is going to be more like 130 or so. So there's you know it's actually more work and then what else I don't know let's see I took some notes. So said that training is is a big budget buster if you spent 100 hours? Well that's like $2,000 right there. That's why that's why. Well there's good thing news about that is once you get trained you don't have to get trained next year. Yeah that's kind of a that's like a staff transition thing I guess. So 130 change of appraisal letters? Oh 230. I'm not adding it up right now thank you. So basically what I'm saying anyway is that if you hold your hours down to July 1st do the things that are necessary and then next year we will expect less training because you'll be trained and our budget can be more in line with what we have budget in the past. Is that correct? I have no control over the time. Right now because it's a hybrid they want us to work in their software program online and then download it and upload it back and forth between NEMRIC and their programs because we have to generate our tax bills from NEMRIC. What they're working toward is our tax bills will be generated from their software program and not NEMRIC. They're kind of phasing us away from NEMRIC and into their software programs so that we're working together with them instead of two different software programs to have them talk back and forth to each other. Who's they? The Department of Taxes Property Evaluation Review Division. Thank you. They're the ones that we work with. And the other thing was we're statutorily required to lodge the grant this June 4th so there are all these things we have to do we can't just put them on. No, no, I understand that. But one of the things they said was we could, this is part of the district advisor again, apply for an extension so instead of trying to scram it all in in the next couple of weeks we can spread it out toward the end of the fiscal year. It's still the same amount of work but you can take our time getting at it. So we did bring the form tonight that you have to sign to get the extension. And that was spread to anyone. So you said the end of the fiscal year. That's all the six weeks. That's still going to be all the hours in between now and July 1st to get that done. If you file an extension you can do it in August. That's correct. That was a 30-day extension so it's only from June 4th to July 4th. So most of the work is going to happen in June anyway. So it's not going to get to the end of the year or whatever. But it means instead of us, you know, working on it like crazy for the next couple of weeks when I just paste it out. It's going to take us more than usual. Well, they just pasted it out for the next long time so they're doing it. The deadline for June 4th and the July 4th. So that's all. And we can do that. So yeah, I mean if you go back to the beginning of this year you remember that we had a period where Ross was out for 10 weeks so we did the best we could to keep on track all the things we were supposed to do. It probably took me twice as long to do anything as we take him because we've been doing it for 20 years so that didn't help. But we stayed on track. We got the tax bills out on time in spite of the long phone calls. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, you know, it wasn't an ideal year in that sense either. Yeah, we just don't want to have a trend so it sounds like we're not going to. This is going to be some one-time expenses training, etc. And we'll try to keep your hours down until July 1st and then things should settle down after that is what I'm getting from you. What is the budget for next year? One up slightly. I can't remember if it was 20 to word. There was a request for an order pay increase somewhat typically. You just answered it. But yeah, not. Still wouldn't cover this. 24 to 5. Yeah, okay. I went actually higher than has historically been. This budget has been kept flat for years. Yeah, because you've always been way in. Yeah. So the other thing I just want to mention is we also did our own projection for the fourth quarter of this year. We only compared it to fourth quarters because if you take it and spread it out the whole year, the third quarter is traditionally a very slow time for the listeners. So you can't say the fourth quarter is going to be level with the other quarters. It kind of goes up and down. And the fourth quarter is the big push to lodge the grand list in June. So everything happens as of April 1st. I mean, you know, we'd like to go out and do some of our inspections earlier and spread it out over the year, but it's got to be as of April 1st. And there's houses under construction. We're supposed to say it's 46% done on April 1st. So just to be clear, if you said that, we could actually see a higher rate of hours from now until the end of the fiscal year than has been through the year. If you hit by fourth quarter, you mean what we're in right now? I'm just saying don't compare the fourth quarter to the third quarter. If you look back and say, this is how many hours you put in on the third quarter, that's not indicative of the fourth quarter. So I thought you said the fourth quarter was more than, yeah. So in other words, the 7,000 is going to go up. Yeah, I have. No, no, we're not going to do it that way. Our projection was 31,000 was, you know, Yeah, so it is higher than what I was saying is that I've averaged over the entire year, but she's saying it's a fourth quarter is heavier than it would be higher than what I calculated here by averaging the year. So what did you come out with? 30. So the only comparable conversation that I'm aware of happened before I joined the select board, but I was at a select board meeting for some reason that where it came up, where the listers came to the select board and said, Hey, look, look at the hours that we put in so far this year, we're going to go over our budget. And we would like some some extra money in the budget in the select board decline to do anything that night. And I don't think I'm not sure, but I don't think they acted on it. It didn't sound like they were inspired to act on the request at the time. And I'm honestly not sure where the budget ended up that year for the listers. But my point is, the listers were proactive and they came to the select board and they said, Hey, we're on track to overrun our budget here. Can you help us out? And, you know, this was a different process where Gina flagged for us that you guys were running hot and we needed to come to you. So I'm wondering, going forward, what you guys think would be a good process to make sure that this doesn't happen again? Or at least we're aware of what's going on. We know we're going to go on because of, you know, circumstances just caused it to happen. But I think we're saying is if we're aware of what's, instead of, Hey, this is the situation. This has been going on for months. We can do a budget status report and hold a budget status report once a quarter, once a month, whatever you know. Well, I've actually spoken with Michelle about creating updates that can go to the various individuals, you know, teams throughout the year. So really, I would rather us get into a cadence of each month. Here's your budget. Here's where you are. I mean, I think that the budget has always been 20 hours. I think it's a total week for it. That's by memory of what's in the budget for the listeners. So, I mean, when you're filling out a time sheet, if you also know on average what you should be working, it's the budget status is just putting the dollars to it. But yeah, well, I think that, you know, with all our new personnel here, this is going to be one of the processes that we gave you in this, giving you an eye on the budget. So, it's fine. Do you usually look at budget status reports and your selection needs? Yes. Do you usually look at budget status reports and your selection needs? Yeah. Okay, that might be quite a question that might be baseless and ignorant, but some of the trainings were based on synthesizing state software with other software. Is that correct? Yeah. And the state actually reimburses the town. The town has gotten $1,255 or something. So, there's another line in the budget with $1,259 sitting in it, which is supposed to be the state reimbursement to the town for the time that we spent working on some of their stuff. And they talked about in the legislature this year, that's $1 per parcel. They talked about a chain. I don't know where I'm supposed to look. They were talking about raising $2 per parcel because they recognized the fact that it does not reflect how much time we're actually spending on this. And now they've added these two more modules to this software firm. They're basically having us do a little bit more of their work. So, they're trying to pump up the reimbursement to the town. So, the town really does have $1,200. So, we have some money that we go back in our budget. Yeah, $1,200. I've asked Michelle about that. Yeah, okay. I was just wondering if they would reimburse all of it because it is their software they want. The one thing I should tell you about the training that the state offers is that all of it is tuition-free. So, they're already giving us all this training for free. They don't charge us a thing because they want us to be as good as we can be. And they acknowledge the fact that this dollar per parcel is a piton compared to the amount of time they're taking of ours. So, that's why they're talking about giving us more. The other money they give us is for that grand list re-appraisal fund that goes in there. And that's kind of being saved for the day when you are re-appraisal. So, they really want to touch that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some towns do use it for their listeners as they go. Yeah, we're going to need it for other reasons. I know. That's the best thing to do is to hang on to it. Yeah, put it in the fund and put it away because that's kind of cost us a loan and a thousand bucks. I don't think we're going to squeeze any more out of the state. They think they're being as generous as they can be right now. But that's a good point, Zoe. It would be nice to squeeze that, but I mean that's not usually successful. Well, write a letter to your congressman and tell them that two dollars in parcel would be better than one dollar per parcel because they definitely were talking about it. I don't know where it went. Yeah. Okay. I think that we've had a fruitful discussion and we can move on. And we're expecting less hours. We're squeezing them down as much as we can. I will say that today we were just looking at some of the re-appraisals we've done. It's not even a complete list and our grand list has grown over $2.1 million as a result. So, we're actually making up for it. Generating some money. Well, the idea is to stop the tax rate increase that we're going to vote on in August. So, in that spirit, how about we invite our representative into our next meeting, now that the session is over, to just have a conversation about this and other issues that affect us? Or the meeting after this. Let's just see what we have for items. Yeah. Okay. Is everyone satisfied with our meeting with our listeners? Yeah. I mean, I hope you've heard our message because we were concerned the last time we heard that there was a budget bust and we were not aware. Yeah. So, thank you for coming in and giving us all the reasons. I think that we'll keep an eye on things and you will too. And we'll see how it goes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for learning all the new software. Well, I know there's a lot of things to learn. These parcel ID numbers, why don't they add a field for parcel ID numbers? So, it's kind of evolving as people are complaining about stuff like that. So, it's going to be better next year than it is this year, I hope. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Oh, 725. We're a little bit early, which is okay. Is anyone coming in too? He's driving at night that it's very dark at the intersection of Town Hill Road in U.S. Route 2. And, initially, I thought he was asking for a traffic light. It's a street light to illuminate the intersection. My biggest concern there was that VTrans would have an issue with that because we're kind of illuminating. I know we have Town Hill, but Route 2 is not ours. But, no, they were okay with that if it is something the Select Board wants to do. I took just an informal count. It's not common unless we have our Route 14, U.S. Route 2, there's street lights there. But, I mean, Muddy Burke doesn't have one. I mean, it's pretty common when you drive down Route 2 that they don't exist. If we think that would be helpful, it's not an expense. It's not an expense. I drove around the other night and I had no headlights on my truck. The street light would have been nice, but I'm not going to get this in the slide for you. And Edie Miller actually sent me an email because she gets agendas. And she said, I'm not sure what the discussion's about. She said, but she suggested visibility. I think what she was thinking was, if the issue was visibility to see the street signs and whatnot, to maybe add some reflecting strips on some of the signage there. And that could help draw, again, your lights would then catch that if she said, if the concern was not seen, the intersection. So, here's some of the history behind that. Ten years ago or so, the town went out and replaced all of its street lights with the LED ones, which are much more efficient and brought down our power costs. At the time that we did that, then the Energy Committee, Dave Grundy leading it, did an inventory of the lights in places that might get a light, that didn't have a light. And that corner came up and I spent some time looking into it. And I couldn't find any justification for putting a light there. There's no commercial business there. There's no pedestrian safety involved. I mean, if you look at some of the documents that lighting engineers put on, they want to have lights everywhere. If you have a railway grade level crossing, then with no pedestrians or anything else near it, you should have lights up according to some of them. Not just the red lights, but just white lights. But in terms of objectives for safety, I couldn't find anything. It was a select board decline to put anything up there. But since then, there have been some improvements for a while. There was a large sign saying Town Hill Road that was there. And that made it much easier to see the intersection than we just had the four by four post. And that's gone now. If we could tell Guthrie, it'd be a great idea to have that back. I've missed that. But if you have your headlights on, if you have headlights, sometimes they go out unexpectedly and they're like, oh no, I wish there was a streetlight here. Especially when you're hauling a bulldozer on the back of the truck. Yeah, it's like, yeah, then that helps. But we've also seen that along Route 2, at least coming from the village, I don't come from the other direction and I have to know there are now two signs, one on either side of the road saying, hey, this intersection is coming up. And as you come down the Town Hill Road, there are now two stop signs, not just one. Plus the huge reflective sign on the guardrail on the other side of the road just indicated this is two-way. I would say that from a traffic safety point of view, a streetlight there might even make it less safe because without the streetlight, you can easily see, or at least more easily, see the headlights of traffic coming from the other street than if the streetlight were there. I thought the same thing. I questioned that as well. I mean, I like it when I drive home tonight. I have the term that I make on my road. I always know if there's a car coming to the right. That's why I can see the light coming. It's the light, if the road was lit, I know because I don't come from the other side of the road. That's why I can't go with the vehicle in the car. You can't see people. It's like, oh, I can see the car. And would a streetlight dampen the reflective ability of the signs, or would you use it in a streetlight? You might not see. Right. Oh, I think it would. So to the negative of the. That's true. So getting a flavor of this discussion, I'm seeing this. Yeah. I knew there was a lot of history with this. I think that was what, I think, prompted the speech that we have today. So I knew we all would have history on this and be the best to. That's another change worth getting in the minutes and into the discussion, that since 10 years ago, we lowered the speed limit in conjunction with the state. We worked with the state, petitioned them. They. Well, it wasn't 10 years ago that we. No. I'd say since we considered this. Oh, yeah, yeah, right. Since then. Yeah. Yeah, it's been. Yeah, it's like two years ago that we've been. It was about a year ago. And so that also makes the intersection safer than it used to be. But yeah, getting that East Montpelier sign, I'm sorry, Town Hill Road sign up would be helpful. And, you know, it wouldn't be a bad idea to put reflective tape on the poles the way that the state is done with this pedestrian crossing by the post office. So what happens to the sign of Dennis Maystall letter to get knocked over? I don't know. Well, I'm just asking that because if it did get stolen, you want to make sure you put it in so it doesn't get stolen this time. Yeah. It's not a real sexy sign. Now, you know why? You never know why people taste stuff like. Somebody took the sparrow form sign. OK, so we're. So just to cut the chase here. Yeah. Just reject that. We're just, we're just a discussion. We don't, you don't need to actually. No, we are going to talk to the road foreman about doing some things to improve the visibility there. Yeah, sounds good. So let's, let's like to move to the next slide. Somebody has something to say. I always do, but no one. That's OK. What I agree with you is this, let's move along. OK. OK. So this next one, discuss residential trash concern on US Route 2. So with this, I believe this has been going on for a couple of years. It's still here. Particularly, it's a residence. It's right behind Classic Auto. And there's trash. Ginny Burley, I've reached out to Ginny Burley because I knew Ginny had been involved. And Ginny was never able to really make any headway there. You all have pictures there in front of you. It's essentially bags of trash. It looks like the resident is disposing of their household waste just outside their residence. So Tyson went and took some photos, which are the photos that you have there of what he saw. There is a regulation in the bound zoning documents that's over here in section 3.13 that does state that the outdoor storage and trash or recyclable materials, which is to a principal or accessory use, shall be screened or hidden from public view and the view of neighboring residential properties. One of the neighbors that did come in and speak with me about this, the trash, the wind blows. The bags are being ripped open, likely from animals. So then wind is blowing, trash is blowing all over that area. Tyson told me when he was there, the property adjacent to this, it kind of slopes down towards the river. And he said, you can see trash blown down into there. So it's clearly making its way around the area. It's not contained. One challenge is it sounds like no one can actually speak to the person that lives there. So I'm not sure. Is it a rental or is it owned? I believe it's a rental. But no one's really sure. So just so you can find out from a listener who owns the property. Well, I mean, I have that. I mean, that's on the website. Yeah. You know, I mean, I'm the owner is responsible. Yeah. So I don't know. Would you like a letter drafted to the owner stating that a concern was brought to the select department and I can state the violation of this particular zone. I always don't please contact the office. And we can go from there or say, please clean it up. Well, yeah, it's inferred. You're in violation of the regulation. And unless it's cleaned up, that would be further action taken whenever that is. OK. That was that was my yeah, I don't really know. That's OK. We'll listen. We'll just figure it out. Yeah. I guess that's a good first step. I just want to put out the mark that that regulation is kind of a thin read. It says that you can't have a garbage can next to your house. Do you have to put a shield on it? There's a reality that that is not like a garbage can. Yeah. The health officer has a perfect right to be involved with that because that draws on animals like. Yeah. Right. They have a rabies problem in Chittenden. It could be a potential rabies problem here. Absolutely. The health officer filed a health board against the owner of that property and cleaned it up. So I'm thinking that this goes, yeah, I agree. That's exactly what I was thinking. This goes way beyond this particular zone regulation. I don't know whether it's just OK to use that as a first shot across the bow to see what happens. And then we use other tools if we need to. Oh, we could say that. But we have other tools. Yeah. But we could say this is in violation of this regulation. Also, there are health concerns that our health officer is involved with. And if we need to take to that step, we will. And it could be in violation of state littering laws. I haven't looked at them. And if the health officer chooses to go there to talk to those people, she can go with a sheriff as well. Because they are allowed to have a sheriff with them. Of course, you don't have to pay. But they should have a sheriff with them. But that's all right, absolutely. You'll see later in this elect for memo that the town health officer is also requesting that we find a new town health officer. So we're going to need some probably additional help with this. That's OK. We've got to get a letter out there. We'll see if we get any action. If we don't, then we'll just have to go the next step. Yeah. Yeah. Somehow she must have sent a letter. This is all here, say, that I heard. But I heard that he then tried to start burning some of this brown. And then actually started a grass fire over there. I'm not sure when this was. I think it was last summer, maybe. I don't remember either. And I don't remember. Yeah, there was some kind of grass fire because I know, again, you know, then you get all sorts of things coming at you. But someone from Classic Auto had told Tyson that when the fire started, he ran over to move Mike Brown's trailer. So it didn't burn up because of the tree show. Yeah. So somehow Jenny did get something across to this individual. But, you know, when I spoke with her, she she didn't feel like she was making any headway. But she that that. But again, I don't that it was someone told me that the attempt to burn the trash was a response. It could have had nothing to do with Jenny. For all I know. Yeah, because I never remember Jenny coming in and talking about that. She usually keeps us abreast of stuff that's going on. I never knew you. No, no, I don't. She never came in. Um, this was going on before I started because I'm pretty sure Bruce knew this was happening. Yeah. Because I remember hearing something about it, but then it kind of fell off. I was told this person is going to come in and talk to you and I never did. So it honestly. Are you feeling okay with fighting the land? Oh, yeah. I'm fine with that. You could also do that in concert with Jenny, if you wanted to. As long as she'll she'll sign her name to it. Yeah. I mean, I can reach out to you. You can send it certified. I don't know what you guys do in this town. We do a certified. Really? Yes. I never got a certified letter from you guys. So just throw your trash on your front line and get a certified letter. And just some history of our enforcing something like this. There was a case five, six years ago. In a not too far away part of town where neighbors complained about it wasn't really trash. It was stuff that some people maybe thought should have been thrown in the trash. But it was stuff. It was household objects. Yeah, that. Yeah, that. That were. Yeah, that were piled alongside a shed. And Bruce asked a bunch of us on the select board to go by there and give an opinion on that. And none of us thought that it was worth enforcing against. But that was a whole different ball game than bags of trash that. Yeah, it was just stuff. Yeah, it was just stuff. It wasn't cheap. But yeah, well, we're all keep our homesteads in different states of repair or disrepair. Yeah. And there's no regulations to address that. Yeah. But this is a little beyond that. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So everyone happy with moving on to the next one? Yes. Discuss potential changes to town, office, telephone, and internet service. This is a whole lot of information. There sure is. To summarize it, Arbitech has been working with consolidated communications because for the new phone system that they're working on for us, we need to change a bit of our kind of underlying configuration with consolidated. The change of the actual phone setup is a savings to the town for the new SIP runs sit. They call them SIP. But I have to ask you all the tech stuff. For the new SIP lines that we need for the new phone system. So that's going to give us a bit of a savings for the year for our phone costs. It would be, I guess, the same number of lines? Yes, the same number of lines are just a different type of line than what we have today. And is that a good number of lines that we have today? Is that five lines? Is that a reasonable number for the office? Yeah, that's what we haven't had any issues and that's what's been working since I've been here. Is it too many? No, I don't think so. It actually does work. If all of us end up kind of being on the phone it gives us that flexibility. It hasn't happened, but you never know. So as part of this process, Arbitech is well aware from coming into this office that we have a pretty slow internet speed. So they actually ask consolidated to just put a quote together to actually upgrade us to a fiber line which would be much faster internet than what we have today. So I actually have reached out to Com, so our internet is through Comcast currently. I had actually reached out to Comcast a couple of months ago to see what it would be to increase our speed because my computer is downloading updates. I have a running joke around here. I'm going to go home and do my updates because my internet's faster at home. So I reached out and it was about the same price as what Consolidated has quoted. And I was like, I just basically was like, I forget. We're bumping along okay. But Arbitech made some really good points that what we're on today is not as reliable. It's certainly very slow. Actually can be problematic for them as they're trying to download updates and things into our server and into our network. Obviously it's slower for us in the office. It doesn't usually pose a major issue. If we had a bunch of people in this room though trying to operate Zoom or do too many things, I mean I'm plugged in for a reason with this laptop to try to limit the Wi-Fi strain because of Orca being on Wi-Fi. So definitely I try to employ some strategies in here to not drench the limited bandwidth that we have. So it would certainly be beneficial. That being said it's obviously a hit to the budget if we do upgrade our internet speed. I just want to point out that what you were just talking about is a different issue than what you're presenting here. I think because the Wi-Fi speed it has to do with the capacity of the routers. It does. It's the overall capacity of our lines which is slow and it doesn't matter whether you're getting to them through Ethernet or Wi-Fi. It's still the same. Oh correct, yeah but it's even slower through the air than it is through the Ethernet which is why I have this laptop that we're running Zoom on today for this meeting directly plugged in. So you lose, whatever you have plugged in hard line is always going to be faster than what you have going through the air. So that's the reason why to try to, what's already diminished by going through the air I try to stay hard plugged in for Zoom so that Orca's operating off of the air and I'm operating at least off the plugged in. So we're both not straining that limited air connection. So in general it'd be about $2,200 an additional cost for the year for us to increase or improve our internet speed. We have some kind of funky stuff with the budget as I've been digging through this that I mean all in all we can mitigate some of this because Guthrie's phone budget is a bit too high the town budget is a bit too low. I'd like to get some of that stuff consolidated up. I'm fine keeping the garage separated but I'm not quite sure Ryburs was coding his cell phone to the town garage phone expense but that's where it was. I think he just did that because the Verizon bill came in as one. You just put it to one place. But when Tyson was hired I put his cost to the municipal to the town office cost not so. So by the time we work through all the math given that we have a little bit of flexibility in our phone budget we'd be looking at about probably $900 to $1,000 an additional cost to upgrade to a faster internet service for the office. So I mean up to you guys. I mean we've been. So I didn't understand what the conversation was with consolidated and Comcast. I see the consolidated 100, 100 fiber aesthetic IP option to 10 per month. But I did not line the Comcast numbers. I'd have to go dig those back up. I basically reached out to them when I saw how much more it was going to be. I just it I purged it from my plate and did not pursue it any further. This because this came to me from our IT company said okay I it was about the same price. I remembered it was about 200 ish a month to go to Comcast. So I just didn't take it any further because they can provide the 100. I can't remember what the speed was. But the thing with Comcast with cable is that their upload speeds are so much slower than their download speeds. So it's not going to be 100, 100. It might be 250, 50 or something like that. And I don't know how important upload is here. It sounds like maybe the Listers are going to be uploading quite a bit with this new software. Not the next month or two. But anyway it sounds like what you're putting before us is just the consolidated. Consolidated. Yeah I didn't go over the Comcast numbers. It's the same service you've been doing. The experience that we personally had with Consolidated and getting the fiber they've been great. Right their service when we have an issue putting it in has been fabulous. Same with me. I don't like the idea of everything being in one. Even the one I hit with my excavator the other day was flipping down the road so the truck was stopping. I called them up and I said you know the line's in the road I have to keep pushing it up with 2x4s and the trucks are going to need it. They came out and fixed it really quickly. It was really good. Yeah the only reason I didn't go pull the Comcast numbers as well is I like the idea of one bill too. That would be nice and you know if we can just If Ruben's group is suggesting they go to Consolidated I think. Okay so I'm good. Do you have any motion? I don't think so. Can't we just agree? I said you did but I don't know if you really do. Consensus says good to go. Go for it. You're changing. Okay. Well you're changing providers. Changing providers and there's an increase in cost. Yeah we can make a motion. Good. I don't think it feels better. I think you should. Have a minute saying you approve it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's not beat a dead horse anymore. Sounds good. I'll make the motion. Yes. Oh you're going to make a motion? Well we're going to vote it. We have to vote. You're going to vote on nothing? We just said by consensus that it's okay. You all just kind of agree. We just agree so we're not making a motion. It's a beautiful thing to move on. That's what I'm saying. I thought that's what I heard you say. So the next thing on an agenda is appointments. Or our appointments. So here we go. Yep. So Nick Coastler who I see is on did submit his name for the open position we have on the development review board. So Nick is here if you can hear us. There he is. So. There he is. Yep. Hello Nick. Good thanks. He has a good sound. Happy to hit you guys while I'm at 30s. My appointment is me. Yeah. Thanks. Have a second acceptance all of it. Thank you for throwing your hat in the ring. And no worries. I thought it was a pretty good crossover already being on the planning commission. And you know the town needs all of them happy to step in. Are you keeping my seat nice and warm? Or are you keeping I think you took my position on the planning commission. So thank you for doing that. Don't get where Chris got. Yeah that's right. I'm not coming back. Do you have anybody else who wants to become a member of the DRV or just Mr. Coastler? No one that reached out to me. Yeah. Okay well sounds good. Thank you for thank you for offering to willing to jump in the new things down here. Yes. Yeah it always works pretty well when you're on both. Yes. You know the regulations. Sure. Yeah. With Jim. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you very much for sending the time. So we usually vote on these at the end. Yeah. All at once. We vote them all together you know. We're going to go to the next emergency planning committee. And consider your hats in the ring and we'll probably accept it. Yeah. Well we're yeah we've had four people. Yeah. Reach out about about this committee. So. Good let's take a call. And then I renamed the ARPA committee future projects committee. Okay. I don't really want to call it ARPA. Yeah that's a good idea. Um so Ginny Callan and Ed Deegan have expressed some interest in that. So I think it's worthwhile at least getting it started. And Ed being on the capital improvement committee I think is a really really good fit to be on this on this committee. So I was actually pretty excited when he expressed his interest. Yeah. And Ginny of course very involved in town and would I think be very good on this committee. Should be. Yeah. For CV Fiber Tom Fisher would like to continue as a town's representative. His term is just up. So I've reached out to Marshall Cottrell a couple times but I haven't heard anything back. So I'll continue trying to confirm. But I don't want to assume that's a reappointment there. So that's where we stand with that. And then next is the town health officer. I did provide you guys some information with what just very briefly what the state says about the town health officer can put this out and see if anyone is interested. Ginny just really doesn't have the time or ability to perform this this duty anymore. Okay. Is there a stipend connected with this? There is. Okay. Well maybe a little bit more of an enticement for somebody maybe. Yeah. And she told me when we spoke that the main thing she deals with our housing violations she said that's really kind of her issue right now she just can't really get out a lot. And do these inspections that you have to get out and do. She said the dog bite things is all foam. So that's a little bit easier for her to for her to feel. But really the majority of the things she deals with are people reaching out with housing violations. What happens if we don't have a. I think it's a I think I'm the slide board. A chair. I think I think I have the last one. Yeah until we get somebody. I dodged the bullet because she stepped in. That's good. So you'll go recruit. Oh yeah I love it. And I've got a lot of time to do that too. Thank you for taking that on. You're welcome. Yeah. You're welcome. But you know I can shift it to somebody else. Controlling health officer. It couldn't be any better. Okay. But so we're going to put it. We're already involved in the dog bite. Are we going to put it on the front porch form or something? Yeah. Okay. I'll put it on the front porch form. Sounds good. And then I'll print it out from the state website provides a high level summary of the requirements for the town health officer. Yeah. Yeah. Let me make a motion to appoint all of those individuals to those appropriate committees. On slate. On slate. Yeah. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. The ayes appear to happen or they do have it. Um. Next. Just with I'm not sure we read out the names of those on the emergency planning committee list. Oh yeah we did not. So right. Rachel Grossman, Patty Givara, Renee Kibbutt, Kyler, and Lydia Faizie are the four names that we have down here. I think all the other names that are here we've said. Yeah. I read it before so it's okay. Oh you read it? I read it before. Okay. I won't correct your English. So the next item is preliminary update on property tax payments. It was a busy day with tax payments today. Yeah. And obviously they are still coming in and Michelle what you see here was what essentially she had gotten and put it in process probably from what we've received until about 2 p.m. today. So we still had quite a bit coming in though this morning was certainly busier than this afternoon. And then payments will still be put in the draw box tonight. So we will have more I'm going to guess in the morning when we come in and I know I've heard the box click a couple times since since 5 p.m. So or since we last checked it which was around 5 p.m. So I mean this is very preliminary. I mean there's still numbers in it. There's still a stack of checks. I know Denise and I worked together to double check accounting of over $5,000 of a payment that came in at 4.30 today. So in cash. So cash. Yeah. So we have a new kind of thing and I think it's good when it's cash of that any significant fund amount we have two people count. Yeah. So Denise and I counted that at 4.30 today. So definitely that's not in these numbers yet. So I know why I've seen checks. I know I've stamped and received checks that are not in these numbers yet. So I'll obviously give you a better update. Is this normal? These kind of numbers. What? Okay. Just kidding. Well, not next time. Yeah. This is kind of. And then we'll see where things because there have been some delinquent people that are in delinquent status that have been paying. So we really need to get a feel for that. And then we can start talking next steps as it relates to that process. Yeah. We need to get all the numbers together. And who paid? We didn't pay blah, blah, blah. This number is sort of like. It gives you at least a gauge. But it says some people bought in money. That's basically it. Yeah. There was a bunch of payments sitting in that money. And there was a significant amount of money. Yeah. It doesn't really give you any hard information as far as comparing last year. Okay. Blah, blah, blah. Okay. Yeah. We will. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for all your hard work today. Yeah, really. It was a lot. It was a lot to choose from. They got it in the evening as well. From what you said. Yeah. Why not? All right. Yeah. Please make a move. She didn't plan to work all day, but she didn't. So she. No, that was nice. Exeter this morning, we had a, I'm not sure, I think I made, but we had a family emergency with the town clerk. Yeah. So she was out. Yeah. Can you please thank her for us? Yes. And please also convey our thoughts to Rosie and her family. She seems to be doing okay. They've all been taking care of her. Yeah. I'm hopeful that Rosie's back tomorrow because that means everything's going okay personally. Right, right. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So the next thing is the warrant. We have it here. What's that? We're so ahead of schedule. We don't know. We don't know. We don't know. That'll all end. I just, I know it's not over yet, but I just like to note that every meeting that the new, the second to newest select board member of these meetings have been way ahead of the schedule. Just like that note that we can continue that. We tried to. Okay. Just one other thing. Sometimes those circumstances are gone. But it could, but some of us may have, may have some, some good luck here. I just want to. Yeah. Well, yeah. Not done with? Yeah. It's a little, I think it's holiday. Have you started? No. They're pretty small. It does have a couple large payments on it though. One would be the 24 Mac truck. Yeah. Yeah. That truck is in here. Oh yeah. Right there. The truck is there in addition to the tree. Project is also in there as well. So those are your two outliers that are kind of outside of normal business so that I can think of all the time. So process that much to get the service on the generator, right? The town office, right? Yeah. The warrants are not on the website? Oh, I'm sorry. No, no, no. Okay, I'll pass it on. Let me see what we have. Do we have a service contract? Bushes are? I'm not sure. I didn't inherit real clear. Okay. Because I have a contract. We have a contract. I would think, yes. So I need to reach out to them and that was kind of new in that. Check that out. Yeah. It's sweet. It's, you know, he comes and changes the oil. They come twice a year and if there's an emergency, I can call him up. I don't remember having a contract. Probably should. They've started to like once before since I've been here. But that's, we don't pay anything. 4.25. That's probably what we pay for our yearly contract. And they just. I don't remember having a contract. Something to look into. I have not seen one but that doesn't matter. Okay. Did you call him or he just showed up? He just showed up. Okay. Who was it? If we do have him. Bushy. Buti. Bushy. Bushy. Bushy. Bushy. It's a father and son. They put our generator in and they're really responsive. Did they install the generator out of curiosity? Yeah. They installed. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. We didn't have them. Yeah. See how it's just right. We didn't have Bushy putting them in services. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it was a, that's only a year or two ago. We are. Maybe two years. It wasn't that long ago. Now, it might have been pre-COVID but not much. Yeah, it was not long ago. I remember. Right. So the warrants and then your, the town's administrative report. That's, So, first on that is, and I mentioned that Mac Bossers, the 28th payment is in that, in that warrant. So he has finished removing the trees. The road crew is still continuing to pick up the trees. I think they're going to be out tomorrow doing that as well. Just, it's a lot of trees. So I, Paul Cade actually popped in here just after five today. And I know he was out there today. Jeff Cueto was out there today with Guthrie and everything looks good. So, Yeah. All went well. Matt has been great to work with. He did send, but it came in this afternoon, the invoice for the remainder because he just finished today. But I told him that would be on the next, the next select four meeting we were already done with, with getting things together with this one. Well, I saw him work out Marie-Blaise today. Yeah, it was Marie-Blaise March. Oh, Marie-Blaise. Okay. That's what they were talking about. Yeah, that was what they were talking about. Yeah, yeah. And then next, the, as we just mentioned too, the 2024 Mac truck was on this warrant, Juicy and John. And that truck is currently at the Tenco facility in New York. And it's currently, hopefully being worked on. Guthrie and Frank had a, they thought they were gonna have to go there, but luckily we're able to, thankfully with technology today, to do a phone video type thing, to review the controls and where they want everything placed in the truck, sent a lot of Guthrie sent pictures, they sent pictures back. So he's basically continuously in conversation with them with questions come up, but that is in process. So he thinks, he said there's a slight chance you keep fingers crossed, maybe we'd see the truck in June, but he thinks most reasonably, we'll see it in July. It'll be ready across the day, possession of the truck on. Another shout out for Guthrie. He actually invited me and I went with him to the municipal equipment show in Field Day, that was at the Berry Auditorium last week. And I just wanted to let you guys know, I think it's great that Guthrie includes me in things like this, and he took me so that I could meet. Number one, he put me in a truck. I got in a truck that was exactly like, like what we're getting. And he wanted me to see what the controls were like and talked me through the things in the truck. So he was able to show me equipment and show me things there that it was very interesting. And then I got to meet people from other towns in addition to meeting some of our vendors. So it was a really good opportunity, a good time to spend a little bit of time with the road crew as well, because obviously I don't engage with Guthrie a lot, but not necessarily the rest of them. So it's a good opportunity to get out and... That's great. That's wonderful. Kind of learn their world a little bit more. Next I have is, I want to discuss the potential to purchase an additional laptop for the town office that could be used in a loaner situation, or as a loaner in situations to mitigate an issue we've been having lately with three listers in the office at the same time. We only have two workstations, so one lister has been going out into our very small researcher, copier area, and kind of setting up a desk and like today, I asked them this morning if all three were going to be in, I said because that can't happen today because just so you guys know when tax payments come in, we stamp your payment slip, we walk to the copier, we photocopy that, and a lot of times your check that you've given us as well for you, we give that back to you, we need it flow and there just wasn't... There's not enough room if someone is trying to sit and use a workstation in that area. So I put that computer there when I first started because Bruce was like, I don't know what you're going to do with it. I'm like, oh, there's a hole here. I'm going to put it here. I thought typically it was used, it was the auditor workstation that was more in a flex space in the office. That's where Tyson sits today. I put it there because no one was ever at it. Anyway, from what I heard, no one ever really used it, and if they did, it was typically on the weekends. This is obviously fine here. Well, unfortunately, in the events of last week, it's not fine there, and I'd rather just remove that to eliminate that issue from occurring again in the future. And if we had a loader laptop, I would have to reduce some things with this network cable because I have it on the guest network right now. But we could, I could, okay, if three of you were here, here, you can check out the laptop for today. Here's the laptop, use it here. I would never let that laptop leave the premises, but it's an idea because if the three listers need to be here with two workstations, it's the best thing I can come up with. That makes sense to... Yeah, this conversation is okay. Get in the room. What's that? Can we end this conversation and okay the purchase of a laptop? Would that be in addition to the machine that's out there? I would actually take that machine because it's a desktop, so I can't practically put that anywhere else. So I would just remove it. Rough idea. What type of laptop you're looking at? I mean, we'd probably be looking at 2,500 or so. Oh, a good laptop. Well, that would include RVTEC's time to get it set up and all of that. I mean, I'd get a pretty low one. I mean, I'd get the most economical laptop that I could possibly get at RVTEC with their comfortable way. We can also not do this at all. No, that's fine. I mean, laptops. Because they work... They managed to work it out today when I said you couldn't do that. So I don't know how often I hate to spend money on something that we don't meet on a regular basis. Right. Last year I don't recall this issue and I know no one was sitting at that desk even though it was before Tyson. Doesn't that encourage them to put more hours in? I was going to say. I'm finally not doing it. Yeah. But I then request that I can remove that desk. That's that workstation. Okay, let's remove that. We'll see what happens. Because I just want your approval to do that because I did ask to do that. Yes. And it was said no. But... And we'll see what happens. I find... The researchers don't ask to use that. Oh, no. It's not for... It's a town office. Yeah, yeah. No. No one else could be allowed to get on that unless you were somehow working in the town office. So... I found good. I've used it once, like eight months ago when I was in here doing some stuff but in the day. But I usually bring in my own. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. Get rid of it. Okay. Okay. Just to let you know the... Normally I would have had the financial reporting package for you and Michelle was working feverishly on it last Thursday. And she's just... You know, she's dealing with the bagging transition. She's now dealing with an extra bank wreck. This is honestly her first time doing all the tax payments on her own. She started on May night last year. So this is really, really her first time handling this on her own. So it's been a lot. So I told her to remove that from her highest priority list. I said, you know, obviously keep working on it but let's get through the taxes first. Yeah. So I will have that for you with this meeting. That's fine. Yeah. Perfect. And then next I just want to we kind of already did, but I just want to formally let you all know I really thank Denise for being here. She has been a lifesaver in many respects over the last few months. But today she... I texted her this morning said I'll fill you in when you get here. Can you go get the mail? Can you, you know, immediately started what do we need to do? And Denise was on it. I mean, came into chaos and Michelle and I dealing with a full parking lot and a bunch of people here to pay their taxes before nine o'clock this morning. We opened the door a little early to go ahead and get started with it. So, um, so anyway, Denise and Denise worked all day today and, you know, she was hoping to only work Monday, Tuesday, this week, but today it was like, I'll just see what you need. I'll just see what you need. And, you know, I'm always trying to not abuse the graciousness of this lady, but she's, she's just always here for us. So... You know, her objective were often just like this. Yeah, so I just wanted you all to know that. So thank you. I think it's important to do that. Our full thanks. We had two new permanent applications since your last meeting. One was actually a new dwelling. So kind of to the lister's point, we are seeing activity in town. And then a new storage barn. And then you have your remaining, your upcoming schedule. Yeah. So special meeting is just, it's just a meeting. Special meeting just means it's not happening on your first or third Monday. All right. So it's a special meeting date. Following Monday. Yeah. So it's not necessarily special as in it's an addition. It's special as in it's not at the regular time. So now we have to go into executive session, I believe. I move to enter executive session to discuss the personnel matter. But also Mr. Right. Mr. Chairman. Okay. So we are in executive session, are we? I believe so. What time is it? 8.34. Okay. 8.34, we are getting out of executive session. No action has been taken. Or will be taken. Or will be taken. Anything else we have to discuss today? Well, actually we said no action will be taken in terms of, we did discuss in connection with personnel matters, getting the Charter Committee back together. And we put a time of September for that. Then let's talk about the next steps for doing that. We have a standing Charter Committee. We need to call them. And we need to email them. And do we want to then put out a call? Well I guess maybe we should first see who's willing to continue serving. We don't want to get the committee to be too big. It's been a good size. It was seven to nine. Seven. I think so, yeah. Yeah. Is the reason why if the committee happened to want to meet before September, are you waiting for September? If you are with me? If you are with me, it's just that it's easier to get. It's hard to say. No, no, I get it. But maybe they'd want to meet earlier. But we should do is email all the people they were on before. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we'll see where they work. And they're still, just to be clear, it's a standing committee. So they're still on it. Yeah. And Slutport decided to keep this going. Yeah. In the standing committee. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And then I've been a Slutport liaison to the committee in the past. Somebody else is interested in taking that on. Then I'd be happy to fill you in on that. The other thing about the, on reaching out, should we be specific about what they're going to discuss? Yes, I think so. Yeah, I would say so. I think so. Yeah. And are there any other issues that we want them to discuss? Trying to remember if we've come up with anything. We should probably just ask them to just take a look around at the legislative landscape and what other towns are doing to see if there's anything else they want to bring to it. Oh, we definitely have two positions we want. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep. Okay. I believe so. I mean, close meeting and adjourn tonight's meeting, that's Slutport. I'll second it. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. The odds are fair to have if they do have it.