 Let's call the meeting to order. It's around 6.30 or so. It sure is. 6.33. 6.33. Do we have any additions to the agenda? No. I don't hear any. Okay. I love Zoom. Do we have minutes? I'm afraid not. Okay. Is there some time we will have minutes? I hope so. I'm pretty discouraged. Can you do the statutorily required one? So I suggested a few meetings ago. Just to get us out of this little bit of a backboard. That's my priority, yes. Yes, that's my priority. Okay. Okay. I'll move to the next thing. Public comment. Do we have public? I can't see any, but you guys are in a better position to see than me. So just who's in the room besides Gina, Zoe, and me, it's Jim Barlow, Michael Dwayne, and Ross. Okay. So no public comment. The second. Oh, and Sean for more. Sean Temple. He's doing attendance. Kyle's doing attendance. Yeah. What's that? Oh, we do have a public comment here. I can take calling on people in the room, Seth, if you want. Michael Dwayne. Is he public comment? Yes, okay. At a public comment, Edie Miller had contacted Seth and me by email regarding the upcoming signpost edition and wanted to know if there were any particularly major issues coming up at the town meeting other than the generally important things that always come up just in terms of a little blur for the signpost. So Seth gave her a comment that the fire, excuse me, that the town garage issue might be of something of great importance for people to chime in on. And so if there was anything else that folks thought Edie via the signpost should put out to folks to let her know either through me or through Seth or if anyone on the select board wanted to send her a quick note. Because she was just letting to put a little blurb in there. Okay. And thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Michael. Yeah, I did respond today. Yeah, Seth responded today. Yeah. Okay. So I don't hear any other public comment. I think that's correct. Let's move on to the discussion of the town attorney on tax appeal hearing. I think it was 430 personal number, 0704, 0, 0, 0. Tax appeal. So your sound is getting pretty marginal, Seth, but we heard that you wanted to move on to the discussion with the town attorney. The town attorney is here with us and we can do that emotion is in order to go into executive session. And I had the nice extended agenda here with the exact motion up, but I don't see it, but I probably have it right here. So I moved to go into executive session under one VSA section 313 a one F. This is a confidential attorney client communication section of our meeting for the purpose of providing professional legal services to the body. Is there a second yet we have a second from Zoe second. Okay, so all of the favor. They say I can you hear me okay. Yes. I yeah. I the eyes have it. I can't see Zoe. Yes, I'm assuming the eyes do have it. Yep. Oh, okay. Let's go into executive session. We are out of executive session and no action was taken and that was that 52 were out of executive session. Okay. Everyone ready to move to next item. Yeah. Okay, consideration of annual certificate of highway mileage, probably no changes. I don't believe no changes says Right, so we can sign the certificate as presented. I have the original here for those that are in attendance to sign and then those that are not can sign when you're back in town. Sounds good. I'll be back. About willing Be ready to go to the next item. The next item is a big one discussion on local hazard mitigation plan due to expire December 3rd 2024. And I don't think I I believe there were some of us that were part of the last plan. We did hire a consultant or we didn't have to pay them. I don't believe Is that true? We had a consultant help us make the last one. So what do we have to do? We have to make a new plan, right, Gina? Correct. It needs to be updated. I met with some representatives from the state today and the state has grant funding available for this. It's about $13,000 in total with a 25% match from the town. From what I heard from them on the phone today, regional planning apparently does have capacity to do these. We have to do this in an open bid, though, a public bid to retain a consultant, but I was at least pleased that regional planning is a potential. So all I know of this is really what you see in the memo. I happened. I did not even get the email directly. It went to the town clerk and went to the zoning administrator. It was afforded to me. So then I completed the form from the state and said, I have no idea what this is. So this is where I'm at. I have opened the document. I have not read it in detail. It definitely is a lengthy document and certainly seems like a process. So what I'm seeking from the select board is your support approval to start down this path with the state to do what I need to do to apply for the grant. Obviously, then I'll get the grant agreement. There's a few, there's a risk assessment I have to complete. There's a whole heap of steps that we'll start going through. They apparently have a draft of a fee that I can then use that we will publicize through our normal purchasing policy. Hopefully get someone on board in February, a consultant that can start this work. And yes, a consultant has to do this. This is not something that could just be done in house, as you know, because it wasn't last time. No, no, I remember doing it last time. It was quite a process and there was a lot of people in the room and There's we had to work on. Yeah, it was a lot of work. And so they are very important, though, you know, the town, all towns in the state have an ERAF rating. Don't ask me what that stands for right now, but It affects how much we how much funding we get. So one, there's funding federal funding that's only available to you if you have a hazard mitigation plan in place. So as it relates to everything that we're dealing with a FEMA right now, the 25% that FEMA doesn't cover how much the state reimburses as of that. Having we have every box checked we have the highest ERAF rating that you can have in the state. A big portion of that is this is having this hazard mitigation in place. So it is very important. And even when I spoke with someone when I first got this email and had no idea what this was From the state, she said that they're certainly very difficult to put together a whole lot easier to update them if you have one Still does take I sat on a presentation last week about this whole process and I felt a little better that there were a lot of towns there that were kind of Not in the loop same as me on this process. That it can take anywhere from 12 to 18 months to do these even to update them. So, you know, I think as we get bits back, you know, we'll see what consultants come up and we'll talk to them about timing and from what they said on the presentation, if you don't think you can have it done before you expire, there's usually some grace from the federal government. So So as soon as we can get this started, I would like to, but I kind of need to Before I tell the state, let's go and let me start doing what I need to do so that we can get this ball rolling. Are you looking for a motion. I don't know if I really need a motion. I mean, I'll bring you all the grant agreement when it comes in. You know, like I always do, but I'm I don't know that you necessarily need to give me a motion to apply for all of this. So we're not spending any money. So yeah, once I execute the grant, that's a different situation. Yeah. Right. So let's go bids and all that kind of stuff. You know, obviously all of that will get to you. Godspeed. Anything I just want to get the ball rolling. You can get rolling. You have our blessing. Okay. That good. Thank you. Are you nodding your head? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Next item is the update on special joint meeting with the Cal select board to discuss each monthly fire department budget and agreement. And the update is pretty simple. Is the 15,000 they're going to be putting back into their budget from their ambulance revenue. So Cal's agreed. We agreed. It's not a huge amount, but it's okay. So that was a decision. So it reduces our our budget that we have to come up with for them for 10,000 and 5,000 Cal's. Any questions on that? Okay. What's that? I think Zoe is quietly shaking her head. They have a hard time hearing that. Oh, okay. It's hard. I'm not sure again. With that. Okay. That camera up there isn't very good. Got it. Any questions? Okay. You ready to go to the next item? Yes. Okay. Final finalization of FY 2025 budget development. So I just, I don't have many questions over it. I have looked it over pretty well. Does anybody have any questions besides mine, which was on the capital reserve account? It looks like it was a million and now it's a million seven. And that seemed like a big jump. How was, how'd that work, you know, for the capital reserve? It added, it added 700,000 one year. What page are you on? Let me see. I got to see which page I was on. Not that one. Oh, I've got to find where I was. I was reading it over. Okay. So I'm on the town of East Montpere accounts and it is. You're in the reporting package. Yeah, which I'm a little confused. I've on that too, because it says 12124 on the left and then it says December 23 on the left. On the right. I mean, this is the M and T bank, Northfield savings bank, miscellaneous plus one page. You're on the budget. You're ahead. You're on the agenda item that is town fresher report. Oh, okay. That's from monthly report. I got to. So let's look at the town budget, which is the one we should be on. So anybody have any questions on that? So the budget as is in the select board memo, but then also I emailed the select board. This is the budget. The select or budget is increasing 3% from fiscal 24 to fiscal, fiscal 25. However, unfortunately, the tax rate is going up 4.7%. And that is because the grand list is actually decreasing by $1,000 in the latest 411 report. So that's math. And yeah, a whole lot I can do about that. So I don't know. I have not asked solicitors. I know I asked Rosie. I know there was some property put into current use, which would obviously reduce the value. So I think that's the main driver. But when grand list is essentially staying flat, the tax rate is unfortunately going to go up more than the budget does because it's math. So from a budget perspective, I've kind of tweaked it as much as I feel comfortable with right now. Didn't put some, you know, grant revenue in that wasn't in the past and some corresponding expense because the town does typically get a highway grant of some sort every year. However, it's never historically been budgeted, but you should put something in there. So that's how I was able to offset, you know, some of just the inherent increase in expenses that we are experiencing as everyone is well aware of. So we kind of are where we are, unless the select board has any specific comments or changes they would like me. Can I just ask, you know, what 411 were you looking at that you said the grand list appeared to be going down? The one that you lodged on January 15 that I received from Rosie. It went down from compared to what? Compared to the tax rate that was calculated in August. The 411 report that was used then. Let me see if I have that on my computer at home and take a look at it. I'll be back if I find anything. Okay. You're trying to say something, Seth. No, I'm just. Your, your sound is marginal. I'm speaking right into this thing. This is right in, right? Yeah. I think if you turn your head. Cuts in and out, but okay. I definitely won't turn my head. Only when I look at the paper. I love zoom. Okay. So any questions for Gina, because it looks pretty good to me. I agree. I mean, it's a pretty modest increase really. I mean, I know it's tough to increase it all, but. It's modest compared to what everything is costing us these days. Everything costs so much. You know, it's funny, the inflation rates only 3% or whatever it is right now, but it doesn't factor in the fact that everything went up a lot. And now it's still only 3% from now on, but everything rose 10%. It's 3%. Exactly 3% on top of the 10% or whatever it was. But that's the kind of stuff that we're dealing with. That's why it's so hard to keep it to 3%. When you're talking about increases in budget, because everything went up a lot. And now it's only going 3%. But that's this month. I think this is pretty, I think this is pretty defendable. And I think I think it's pretty dependable too. I think you did a great job. Yep. That's what I think too. That's what I think too. It's a pretty tight budget. Deb, if you're listening still, the grand list when I calculated the tax rates in August was 3156582. The one Rosie gave me, I didn't open the actual file, but I made a note and my budget file is 3154028. Technically it's 2000. I rounded to 3155 for the budget. So I kind of rounded up. I kind of rounded up, but Well, it sometimes comes up anyway. That's Tom Brazier has his hand. So, I will call on him. Okay. Yeah, I can't see him. Yeah. I thought you guys had a great job with the budget. I looked at all the great care. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. So if there's no more comments on the budget, we can move to the next item. Everybody okay with that? This is a meeting where we moved to adopt the budget, I believe. Yeah, it is. So I will make a motion to adopt the fifth bill a year 2025 budget as presented. I'll second it. Okay. We have a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Yeah, I appear to have they do have it. Okay. Now we'll move to the next item, which is finalization of 2024 town meeting warning. So the only thing that I want to add in, of course, is discussion on the town garage, but I don't think we have to have that on the warning. Do we? I believe we discussed when we discussed this before we said it was appropriate to come up under article two. The, here are the reports of the several town officers into the app they're on and it's already in the draft board report. Yeah. So. Yeah. Right. It's in the, it's in the select board report. So that would that will open it up for discussion. I'll make sure that we do that. That would that will be a special discussion point. To give people a chance to ask questions and to for us to give information. Well, okay. If you put it that way, Seth, I wonder if it would be helpful to townspeople to just add another article with that on there. So that people looking over the agenda ahead of time will have in mind, hey, this is going to be discussed and might even decide whether to come or not based on that. That could be. Yeah, that might be helpful. We want people to come to town meeting. Right. I think that's a, I think that's a great idea. There's really no downside to that. Yeah, there's no downside at all. I'd rather I welcome that. It's a really nice to have a healthy discussion on that. Since we were talking anyway about putting it in article two, would it make sense to just have that be the new article three bump up everything by one. No, leave article two as it is and then the garage discussion would be article three. I mean, the When we have non binding discussions like nuclear freeze or whatever that that goes at the end, but this is not a non binding discussion. This is a future budgetary discussion and I think it belongs in the beginning. I mean, it could be put other places, but I think it's not out of place being the new article three. You know, Michael is moderator. Do you have any. I don't disagree at all. It sounds like a good idea. Okay. Thank you. It doesn't matter to me. Whatever works. You're discussing having it put out in the signpost to write earlier. Yes. I mean, I think it would be good to have it as an article three because we could just sit way down from our select board report right into that. I think that's probably a good idea. Right. You can foreshadow it in the select board report. So the next paragraph, we're going to talk about just a moment. Yeah, it's easier to blah, blah, right down through into that. Yeah. Okay. So let me do it that way. Okay. Make it a new article three and then just change the numbers and the rest of them. Okay. All right. Any more comments on the warning or town meeting as we vote on, don't we do not right now. Yeah. I'll make a motion to accept the proposed final draft of the 2024 town meeting warning as provided for us tonight. That work as amended. As amended. Yes. As amended. Now we just need a second. I'll second it. Oh, sorry. You're second. Sure. Is there any further discussion? Yes. Let me just take your and then make a comment. So it's. Okay. So I just want, and this is probably how we've always done it because you do your homework and go back and look at our previous documents, but I just wanted to check in about page four, having the town forum. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Warning as part of the town meeting. Warning. Is that really what we've done in the past? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I just hadn't remembered it being that way. Thank you. Yeah. And we did. Well, we don't have anything else that night. That's all we have. We will then have a select board agenda. That will come after this. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, we just don't want to set a time for our meeting because the. The town meeting forum sometimes isn't very busy. So we like to start the town. Like board meeting is right afterward. Yeah, not a specific time. Last year, I believe I had like an asterisk that said the select board meeting would essentially start immediately following the town forum. Yeah, perfect. Yeah. Yeah, I just remember the old days and Bruce who says specific time and then we'd have to sit there and Twitter or thumbs for an hour. Right. Okay. So. Are you happy with that? I'm delighted. Delighted. It's a big word. Okay. So I don't think we have voted on the motion. We've been having a discussion. So can I call the motion? Please. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. The eyes appear to have it. They do have it. The town meeting. Warning is finalized. Blackboard report. Looks good. It was just one thing I had a question on that page. Page. No, the next one. Third paragraph up. The East Montpellier fire department entered 2023 being led by interim chief Albert Petrell. Albert was officially voted. And I thought it would sound better if there was in was put in there after the voted. But maybe that's okay just to leave it. What does everyone think? That seems like a good edit to me. Yeah. It just sounded a little odd. It just sounded a little odd. It just sounded a little odd. I think we're all out there. Yeah. The city is officially voted. As chief. Yeah. That's our, Scott sent me a couple of tweaks. Up in the third paragraph issue of that page about our path. Yeah. a new TEM will truck. I think it was those two. I don't have it right in front of me, but I already made the changes on the file. Yeah, this is just a couple of typos. Yep. Yeah. Yep. No, that sounds good. Can I ask a question? I'm sorry. You signed this and that is select board members listed include John Jewett. He's not here to, he's no longer on the select board. He was here as a 2023 report. He resigned December 18th. So do you really? I mean, I certainly want to give him credit and thanks for all the time that he served on the select board and he doesn't have a chance to vote on this report. So I think it's voting on the report. Yes, we usually do. You normally vote to finalize the report. The whole report, the town report, the whole item, the whole document, not just this. No, you usually, yep. Doesn't matter to me, whatever you want to do. Well, his name has been removed from the warning and he's being acknowledged on the, yeah. I would take him off if we're up to me. I questioned that too. I was going to ask the same question, Carlos. Yeah. I'm trying to be consistent, I'm trying to be consistent from one page of the town report to another. That's kind of what I think about when I'm looking at it. Yeah. And actually the report has been made after he left. So we're kind of signing on to this. Yes, so you're probably right to take him off. Okay. Any other comments on or edits on the select board report? Just going to the town warning or town meeting report. So we need a motion, right? I move to approve the select board 2023 town report for the new town report as amended. We have a second. Yes, Zoe. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. The ayes appear to have it, they do have it. Okay, that takes care of that. The next item, consideration of Colbert engineering design RFP responses. Yes, just... So all the packages that you just know, finally, I was a little confused on the prices. I did not see a firm bid from the wolf. Now maybe I'm reading it correctly. They were just, with this short of a time frame, even DuBois, as much as they did make their effort, both of them were just going on, essentially providing info by hourly rates. Okay, that's kind of what it looked like. It was just an hourly rate, definitely on the wolf. DuBois and King had some other numbers. So we have to choose between the two, correct? Well, so Guthrie and I had discussed a long time ago and discussed with these coming in, given that both of these firms happen to be the firms that we also have under contract to perform engineering work for us, we'd like to use one-on-one project and one-on-another because then one, we're spreading the work in hopes that we can get these designed as quickly as possible, and two, it gives us an opportunity to work with both firms on two rather sizable projects to kind of see how this goes. So- That's a good idea. We could say, the wolf will handle Sanders and DuBois can handle Sodom Pond. Or vice versa. Sounds good. Your way. But the goal with these is, and the timelines work, Guthrie was very pleased, Sanders Circle, I relate to both of them as the priority because obviously that road is currently unpassable. So in a worst case scenario, Guthrie and I have discussed, if we couldn't repair that road in 2024, we would obviously have to install a temporary bridge. But hopefully with these time periods, we will have plans, be able to go to bed. Guthrie feels confident we can get on someone's schedule this year to get this work done. So that's where we were with this. As you all know, this is also gonna be the town's first projects that are done after the passing of Doug Newton. And we're probably looking at spending five to six times for these, this work from what we have in the past. That's just, Doug was really working for free. So it's a new world. But this all should be FEMA. The reason I put these out to full bid, but in the times, Argus, we have followed all the rules for FEMA. So all of these costs will be reimbursed through our FEMA storm fund. So. Okay. So that sounds like a good idea to me. Yeah, I was pleased they were able to even get something back. I mean, I was pretty aggressive. They both kind of emailed me and they're like, you're wanting a response this fast. I'm like, well, we kind of need these designed as quickly as possible. So that's why we kind of went with, give us an idea of your plan and the hourly rate is kind of gonna be what it is. For them to really, really truly hone in on costs would have taken more time. Okay. So. Good question. Why are we gonna get... What's that? Seth. Why are we gonna get any more clearly defined costs from them just rather than hourly bill and hourly rate? It doesn't look like it to me. Not right now. Now. I had the exact same question Seth did. Okay, is it gonna be $10 million or a dollar? And again, we can certainly do that. Likely means neither of these repairs will occur in 2024. I'll need to give probably a, because I'll have to dig into these in much greater detail to provide us that information. It has to be done and soon. Yeah, I think we should just move ahead with it. Don't give us more information about getting into this, but we're in order to get these moving, we need to execute agreements to start getting both of these designed. Okay, I think we just need to do it to get the job done this year, 2024. Since we've already And it's not gonna cut Sorry, we seem to have a delay between here and Florida. So we keep talking over each other. Sorry about that. But since we've already authorized you to go ahead and choose these firms for work, do you need any further authorization? I think to be extra safe for FEMA purposes, I would like a motion authorizing specifically DeWolf for Sandra Circle, Duboy and King for Sodom Pond that I can accept the bids from the firms for those respective projects. Okay. Okay. That's what we need to do. Is there a second? Oh, I have a full second back. So a second set, okay. We have a second. Okay. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. The ayes appear to have it. They do have it. Now you need a motion for the other one. She covered it. Yeah. The motion was for both. Oh, okay. I didn't hear it. That's an order. Yeah. It's kind of broken up. Okay. So we're good. Can we move to the next item? Yes. Okay. Treasure report. And that's where I was getting my documents confused here. And just asking about the contribution to the capital fund, which seemed big for one year. Now I wonder if that was ARPA money that went back in there or what's the story with that? That's ARPA money, correct. That is the regular allocate and ARPA money going in as well. Okay. That's what I thought. Okay. Who else has questions for the monthly report besides the dates wrong on the left? I'm making an answer about that. Okay. And what else? Anybody else have questions? No questions? You know, you have anything to say on that? Well, let's move to appointments. We've got two people and we've got the energy committee as a new member, Mr. Costin. So we need to appoint him. Is that correct? Mr. Costin had moved to East Montpelier and I'm delighted that he wants to be on the energy committee because he's, okay. And yeah, I'm glad. He's been attending the meetings. I know just from speaking with them, McCall, I think he's attended the last probably three or four meetings and has been very interested and involved and decided to accept to officially join the committee. He's been working as his occupation and as his advocate on energy issues for many years. That's great. I've been on a committee with him and I fully endorse him. Nice. I move to appoint Daniel Costin to the energy committee. I'll second that. We have a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. The ayes appear to have it, they do have it. The next is, I guess Chris Rackinnelli is stepping down. So Aaron Borland has him is interested and we need to appoint her. Just Chris kind of still held the title for last year but is officially fully taking those reins and is the lead for green up. So she should be the one appointed in that position. Chris has done that work for many years for us and he has wanted to put it aside for several years now. So I'm delighted that Aaron has the experience of working with him on it and is willing to step up and take over officially. And he is still supporting. Yeah. But he was officially in charge of it. Great. Okay. So we need emotion. I moved to appoint Aaron Borland to be the, to direct the town's energy. I'm sorry, green up activities. What's that officially called? The chair of the green up committee or? It's a green up coordinator. Green up coordinator. Green up coordinator. That's what I nominated her to be. I'll second. Oh, very good. We have a second. Okay. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. The ayes appear to have it, they do have it. Warrants, we only have Carl. Oh, no, we have Zoe in the office too, right? Yeah. But still, to authorize me to sign. Yeah. Yeah. We need emotion for that, don't we? Yeah. Scott, you're gonna make that motion? Is he still there? Yes. Yes, I make a motion to authorize Carl to sign the warrants for the select board. No, he's not here. So I'll go ahead and second it. Okay. Um, any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. The ayes appear to have it, they do have it. That's the warrants. The next thing is the town administrative report. What do you have, Gina? Not a whole lot. One permit since your last meeting, well, two meetings ago, because I didn't do this report last time for a bike shed. And then we have your future meeting schedule there for your reference. Seth, did you want to look at any of those dates because of your schedule or no? Well, February 5th, I'm not gonna be an East Monterey. What if we did it the next week, the 12th? 12th and 26th. That would work. That's two weeks apart. Let me just- It works better than this. It works a lot better than trying to zoom in from here. This isn't working the best. I mean, we're getting by, but- I second that motion. Yeah, the 12th works for me. Okay, works for me too. I wanna go on the record and say, I'm glad that development in East Monterey is proceeding apace with a new bicycle shed in town. Make sure night. Yes. Yes. You have anything else on your town administrative report? This is something. This is a 16 by 16 foot building. This is something that some people might call a garage. And I'm just very happy that it's being called a bicycle shed. Anyone still there? Yes. Okay. So nothing else on the administrative report, Gina? No. Okay. So now we have the early, too early probably for all the select board candidates. 730. We have one. Yeah, we have one. Let's just have that conversation. That's Tom, right? Can I contact the other and just let him know? He has a private meeting. Okay. Come on at 8, around 8.15. Oh, okay. Okay. Well, we've got some other things to do anyway. But we can talk with the one candidate that's in there, is Tom. Sure. Sure. Should we go into executive session? Yes. It's not a contract issue and not an employee. Cannot do it. Yeah. Last time you spoke with the candidates in open session, you went to executive session for you all to discuss the candidates. Thank you. That is not according to the open meeting. Well, the statute is the appointment or employment or evaluation of a public officer or employee. But the select board is a public one. Okay. I guess it's kind of gray. So we're going to talk with Tom now. Tom, would you like to come up here? Okay, we're ready. As you probably know, I was on the select board from 1993 to 2008. About $7,000 a year as the chair and investment advisor representative, which is the next hire license above a financial advisor. So I work with budgets every day. I have a lot of experience through the prior department with mitigation of emergencies. So I believe that I can add stuff to the select board. I think I've got some knowledge that maybe some of you don't have. After 15 years on the select board before, why in heaven's name would you want to come back? Well, to be honest with you, I hadn't even thought about it, but when John resigned, I had like 20 phone calls within two days asking if I would consider. I considered it. I have a little more time than I used to have when I was farming. If Seth can attest it, it's when you're farming, you don't have a lot of time. So, and that's what I was doing at that time, some perspective of the select board. And I'm very familiar with the town about it. Well, I have a question. Is it appropriate to ask whether you would, and I'm asking the select board, is it appropriate to ask if you would be interested in running for a term position in March? Is that correct? I only have a position or a petition in to run. Okay, thank you. Okay, whether it's appropriate or not, you answered it. Thank you. Any other questions for Tom? Those are my two questions. Thank you for all your service. Okay, thank you, Tom. Yeah, thank you, Tom. So we'll just have to interview the other candidate later and do the other stuff we have to do now. So the other thing that we have is a personnel matter. And we might as well go in an executive session and discuss that. Everybody on board with that thought? Yes. Okay. I am. Yeah. So I moved to go into executive session under one VSA section 313A3, the appointment or evaluation of a public officer or employee provided that the public body shall make a final decision to hire or appoint a public officer or employee in an open meeting. And she'll explain the reasons for its final decision during the open meeting. Okay. So you made a motion. And we have a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. The ayes appear to have it, they do have it. Nick, why don't you take the hot seat? Sure. Welcome back. Thanks. Oh boy. So we're out. Yeah. We're out of executive session now at 7.54. And Gina, did you want to briefly summarize? Yes. So what we discussed was sadly the municipal coordinator for the town office tendered her resignation and is moving out of the area. So we will be posting the position to hire her replacement. If you know anyone, let them know. But so we will be recruiting for that position again here in the near term. Right now, thankfully this employee gave us long lead time. So Patricia's given us until the end of March. So the hope is that we can manage to hire someone and have a little bit of time for them to train before Patricia leaves us. So that was the executive session. All right. So thank you, Gina, for that update. And now we've got another select board candidate in to discuss his background or his reasons for wanting to join the select board, Nick Kosa. So thank you for coming in, Nick. And we'd like to hear from you. Yeah, thank you for having me. So we've been living in town now about a year and a half, been serving on the planning commission as well as a development review board. We've relocated up here, planted roots and looking to continue to grow those roots and serve the community. Just switched jobs to be more local, working for North Country Federal Credit Union as their chief information and technology officer. So trying to be a part of this community and give back as much as I can through volunteering is pretty much a passion of mine. I've got almost 30 years of corporate experience, all sorts of things as well as some construction experience. So I'm a very well-worse than economics, budgeting, some of the construction's ways and means from a business side. And then some of the exposure on the planning commission talking about some of our challenges around how do we continue to grow housing in a very pragmatic way? That there are some concerns of how, you know, we have some declining enrollments in schools. So that's a bit of a concern that we are looking at, but that's something I also wanna try and elevate into this forum as well. If I give it, given the opportunity, it's a pretty big concern as we move forward. As well as, hey, what are we doing with our water and sewage problem in the Village Center, right? It's a bit of a concern of how we continue to effectively grow without overpopulating. So just a couple of thoughts on that. Again, my background's pretty diverse in what I've done. I'm happy to take any questions you might have. Okay. So what do you have for questions? Does anybody have any questions for Nick? I've got a couple myself, but what is, what do you have any questions, Carl? I'll ask you a question and I ask the other candidate or variation on it at least. You're now serving on the Planning Commission. Would you anticipate serving on both or would you drop that? Given the opportunity, if the poll got too much and or if there was a conflict of interest, I would serve on this network. Yeah. And why the Dickens would you wanna serve on this board with this group of people in the, I think it's about impacting change and having diversity of thought. Yeah, she's good. Okay. All right. So my question, Nick, with that. So we was gonna ask a question, Seth. Sorry. Do you wanna go first? No, I want you to ask a question because I never hear from you. So I'm very happy. Sorry, you mentioned impacting change and your desire to be on the board. And I was curious if you could expand on that. What type of change you're thinking of? Or if you're- So I am very big in preserving our environmental footprint and the picturesque beauty that we have in town. But I also think that needs to be weighed with our declining enrollment and how do we adequately take care of the population? Some of my neighbors are aging and they've expressed concerns of, you know, what do we do with our land and our homes when we're done? There's nowhere for us to go. We don't wanna leave town. So how do we start to balance and look at that? How do we do the appropriate housing studies? So when I say impact change, how do we preserve what we have and grow at a pace that meets the needs of our town? I don't mean overpopulate. I don't mean overdevelop. Nothing like that. But it's more about are we attracting the right level of builders to look at our current zoning? What can we possibly do? And are we looking at senior citizen housing? Is that an option that we wanna think about? So when I say... Is that right now? I think right now we should be looking at housing studies. I think our master plan, the way it was written about 10 years ago that talked about growing the village and we have now bookend problems that we can't grow at the central village, right? We have a sewage problem and we have a water problem. So if we can effectively grow that part of town, we need to start to pivot and figure out what other parts of town can we look at and potentially grow without ruining all the beauty parts we have down. So I think a housing study is required. That answer your question? Yeah. Okay. So my question just has to do with the time commitment because I think you're pretty busy but are you gonna be able to make those 630 meetings a couple times a month? Yeah, so... They go on for a couple hours. You know, switching jobs and working at a credit union which kind of shuts down at five o'clock and no one looks at phones and emails is a nice adjustment for me. So my nights and evenings have opened up quite a bit. We do have a board of directors meeting on Mondays and starts at five but like today it got done at seven and I was able to get here. If it gets done at seven, I can always dial in that one time a month but the other weeks I don't have a problem. So it's just once a month, the board of directors meeting? Yeah, and I have the schedule so I can always correlate that to see if that conflicts with anything happening here or not. This is bi-weekly, right? Yeah, so... Twice a month. Twice a month. Yeah, first and third generally but we tweak it so this month, the first was January 1st and we decided we didn't wanna meet them. But again, typically that meeting is about two hours so I would either be dialing in half hour later or dialing in time from work. Right, okay. All right, I guess that was my major question. Kyle, do you have any questions? I don't, no, I read through everything. No, I don't have any questions. Oh, I guess the question that I asked the other candidate, are you intending if you were given this position or not, are you intending to run for the select board in the March election? If given this position, yes, I fully intend to run. Yeah, don't you have a petition out already? Yeah, we started getting signatures and then I can get the rest of it. That was my question, thank you. Yeah, because they have to be in by Monday the 29th. Yep. Yeah. Just, I'm sorry, I'm sure you said it clearly and I just missed it, but the board of directors meeting on Monday, is that every Monday or just a month? No, once a month. That's my thought, I wanted to make sure. Yeah, thank you. That would be terrible. Is it the first Monday of every month? I literally got the calendar cadence and I don't know if it's necessarily the first Monday. I can take a real quick look, not necessarily. Like it's like, February, it's on a Tuesday, March. I look at second Monday, I think. So it fluctuates. Sorry, March is March 18th, right? Okay. The cadence moves around a little bit. Yeah, sounds okay. Oh, I see. Okay, all right. Any other questions for Nick, before we let him go home? I don't hear any. Of course, I'm a long ways away, so I might not hear it, but. Motion to send me home, all right. Okay, thank you. Thank you for coming in, Nick. We appreciate it. Okay, so now we have to go back into executive sessions, is that correct? That's correct. I moved to go to the second. It's written under one, VSA, sections 313A, three, the appointment or employment or evaluation of a public officer employee, providing that the public body shall make a final decision to hire or appoint a public officer employee in an open meeting. And she'll explain the reasons for its final decision during the open meeting. Second. Okay. We have a second? Yes. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. The ayes appear to have it, they do have it. Okay, it is 8, 18 p.m. and we are out of executive session. We are about to take a vote and then state the reason for the vote. Okay. Yes. I would like to make a motion to appoint Nick. I'm sorry, I don't have the agenda in front of me. What's his last name? Post-Level. Ova. Okay. Ova. To the select board for the remaining portion of the term until the March election, reason stated his new to the area, his fresh perspective as being a fairly new resident to the town of East Montpelier, basically his perspective on, yeah, good enough. I will second that motion and I would like to add as part of the discussion that we have received the advice of council that even though it's a really short time between now and town meeting that state statute really implies strongly that we should be doing this. The council, our attorney advised us to make the appointment tonight. And some of us discussed just leaving it empty until town meeting and allowing the voters to make the choice, but we're acting on the advice of attorney and choosing to appoint someone tonight. Okay, so we have a motion to appoint made by Scott. We need a second on that. I seconded it. You second it. Now we're gonna vote on all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. So we have three ayes and then we have an abstention, is that correct? No, it's unanimous. It's four ayes. You're not unanimous. Oh, four ayes. So it's unanimous. So we just, somebody just has to, Gina, can you let Nick know? Okay. Yes, and Tom, yes, I already have a note. Okay. So that takes care of that. Is there anything else? Other business, not aware of it. Other business, there isn't any other business. No. I'd like to make a motion, Gina. I'd like to make a motion to adjourn. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye.