 But Well, thank you guys for coming Welcome to our Arba American recipe plan act community outreach informational meeting We sorry, my name is Ramsay Pap. I'm one of the committee members and You guys want to introduce yourselves for be happy to hi on Michael body And yeah, this committee's been together since mid-March meeting at least monthly and We're at a point where we feel ready to roll out the intake and Thanks for coming out. Yep, and I'm Mary Richter right now. I am the acting chair Working with the rest of the group and then we have three other members that are not here They'll be presenting on Thursday the same material over at the Red Schoolhouse over at the VTC Campus and again, thank you for attending today's session or informational meeting So Project as you can see on the agenda, we're going to talk a little bit about Arpo and The funding that is going to be distributed to the greater Randolph area, which means basically Randolph Randolph Center East Randolph We'll talk about the scope of the ARPA committee our timeline that we have set in process for Taking the ideas and and trying to implement them Our framework for Making the most of this one top once in a lifetime kind of batch of money that our town is going to get to Hopefully do some really impactful things with Use of existing tools You know We're going to talk about let's not reinvent the wheel that worked somewhere else. Maybe it could work for us How to stretch the ARPA dollars are there are there other things that are other Pots of money that could use embellishing to make a project happen what ARPA means in Vermont and Our phase one we're going to talk about that and then phase two and take any questions at the end so If we can do the presentation and save the questions for the end that would be great Let's get started Do you want me to I could go ahead? Sure. So again, I'm going to kind of read from the slide So the the American Rescue Plan Was established in 2021 due to COVID And to be able to provide money to government state and local throughout the nation to respond to Things that have been lost as well as you know some recovery from COVID pandemic speaking, you know regarding Randolph, there's been a lot Being part of the Economic Council We were in what we called Crisis mode trying to get through that and so now we are in recovery mode and so we have been allocated the funds And now it will go through Some stages again as we Ram seems stated this is the first one with take first intake and then we will have a second round where it will be more formalized And again a lot of this information is available on the Vermont League of Cities and Towns Just real quick here that the last slide is important to note the The federal final rule did actually increase the flexibility for How these funds can be used which is it sounds like that's counter how it usually works usually final rule tightens tightens up the ways you can use federal funds the other pieces in april We recommended the select board There's a thing called the standard allowance If if you're getting less than 10 million you can just Take that And that saves a lot of paperwork I believe Um, so we recommended to the select board and then the select board approved as we're coming in at 1.37 million We are a smaller pool of money so we could do that So just to give an idea of the group, um, the so not the select board, but yes the select board in the town um, we're tasked with developing a Council or not a council but a committee And so it is a seven member committee which consists of trevor our town manager perry armstrong. That is our uh chair Myself as acting chair Jeff grout as our secretary Michael then we have matt ramsey and maria who's present today and it is our task to collect everything and then At the end make recommendations. So that's the purpose of This committee is to again How is the money going to be best spent for randolph and the randolph the greater randolph area so, um, we um The committee was pulled together our scope of work. There's the door um To review and discuss and understand all the app applicable Criteria or guidelines related to the use of ARPA funds So, um, we actually had a presentation from someone from the, um, vltc Uh, did I say that the way the vermont league of cities and towns came and talked to us about um different ways that we could look at Implement implementing, um The guidelines and what some other towns had done. So that's where we talked about the taking the standard um What did you call it the standard allowance the standard allowance it made a lot more sense, um for flexibility and for, um ease of reporting um, so We um Hello, thank you for joining us Um, so anyway, we um We are working with town staff to figure out how to engage the community and how to get the information out and and spent some time Working on a timeline and figuring out how we would do an intake how we would solicit projects and and how we would look at The criteria for implementing them um so we You know are reaching out to other Local stakeholders and potential partners if we need to that will be part of the process and um The main goal is to develop a list of potential uses for the ARPA funds And identify which of those need additional development research at other works So with our intake form we'll get the information we need and see how You know shovel ready the projects might be and in addition to that we um Since we've posted this on uh front porch form. I've gotten some inquiries regarding municipal uses for the money and anything that is regarding the randolph Infrastructure will not fit into this project really those quest types of questions Need to be forwarded and and passed on to trevor who manages the town So the purpose of this committee is really set differently than dealing with the infrastructure So we will leave that um again any references to infrastructure such as the water system maintenance of the roads and things like that will be then forwarded to trevor Should come through us or through the forms and then trevor will address those and then we will address the other pieces of that right likewise with the um intake Applications if it looks like a really great idea, but maybe is better Fits for a different pot of money that might be available. We see our job is helping people Sort sort that out as well so again, um, go it's just really What ramsey and might have said a lot of this is just information that can be found I don't want to go you know read what is on the bullets because again this information is available on the town website We'll make sure that we will provide additional information So it's easy to find it on the town website and then again anybody who's interested and possibly post the power point presentation so that um, it's easily accessible of what is being addressed because we're just going to go through a really high level and try just to give resources and The information and then you can find it Either on the town facebook page And as well as the town website I mean it's just important to note too that um the The community that we're talking about is the greater randolph community with east east randolph and randolph center included and and so the money distributed The projects need to keep in mind the the short and long term benefits for that entire area, um, you know, we don't want something that's solely randolph Village focused we want to it could it that doesn't mean it can't be in one of the locations But we want to keep an eye on the broad the broad impact Correct So what we've done is just to be transparent to the community is created a project timeline So each stage has to do's tasks to be accomplished And again, this will be posted on the town website and other resources And social media and i'm not going to go through everything But this is very high level and and the arrow is just indicating which stage of the project we're in So we're right now at the gather, um, sorry doing the informational meetings and then Having the intake forms completed and then that will then that arrow at some point will start moving towards stage three and so forth So this My goal I would hope and I think the committee agrees is to keep this on the town website So that everybody knows where we're at and ask questions as we move through the project Have anything else you want to add? No, you got you covered it. So really, um This is a pulled off of the Vermont League of cities and towns And just again, they provided us when they visited the committee of establishing and defining the framework for Doing the funds and again, it's to prioritize Good governance leveraging the ARPA aid and then, you know, really get what's the best Bang for your buck invest in the best uses for the long term recovery And again, I'm not going to go through each unless you want us to but this is a high level That, you know, is Just being transparent, you know gathering the information and really the key is Community involvement because this is not just for a certain setting. It's for all of us Yep community of involvement and really transparency throughout is really important We want to have as much information we want to people to be able to access that So we'll be putting things out on the website. We're we're hosting these meetings We may have some more meetings coming forward to try to generate ideas and maybe around Projects that come in that aren't fully fleshed out but seem really exciting for the community. So Right and also as you were mentioning, we're keeping an eye on geography that there's a good spread Yeah Also just demographics as well. There may be an idea that really is like Makes kids lives better makes working parents lives better makes the elderly lives better. So we're also keeping an eye on breadth that way demographically as well So when they talk about existing tools really, it's you know, there there are so many resources here in Randolph as well is that you know instead of You know trying to figure out well, what can the funds be used for there are resources and I Couple I can hit upon and I'm going to ask the rest if I've missed any But one of the things that we have is the town plan and so out of the town plan There are action items and I'll use an example out of the town plan One of the goals that was to have a An economic development director And that was accomplished and that was a task on the town plan And there are other pieces on the town plan and I believe that a lot of these Wish lists or things that we want to do as a town have come from A variety of people and a variety of committees and and discussions And I could see when I look at a town at the town plan. There are things that had come out of the The back and when we had r3, you know, there are a lot of things that came out of there You know re-energize randoff and that had for tourism Downtown a whole bunch of items In which I was part of and then there's also things that come out of the economic council and other committees that the again the town plan committee and so a lot of things are out there that can be Looked at to say, okay How do we have we accomplished this and if we haven't is this something we want to accomplish with the funding? Does it apply with the ARPA funding? Can we use that ARPA funding? Is there other funds that could be complemented with that so Again taking a look at what is existing but also what is new? So it doesn't have to be one or the other. It could be a combination of items I don't know if you had additional if I missed anything on that or no Yeah, and I just wanted to put in there You know, we do get a lot of in at least early on a lot of comments about you know The roads are horrible fix the roads, but we in one of our presentations. We talked about that and I don't remember the exact numbers, but 1.37 million dollars actually wouldn't do make a big dent In fixing roads It's a it's a it sounds like a huge amount of money and people wouldn't think yeah fix all kinds of things with that but There's other funds that that are specifically used for taking care of those things and we would use the money up immediately if we If if if we were even able to do something like that with roads a small amount of road work costs a lot of money so So we're really looking at projects that That maybe can leverage other grants. There might be other grants out there that can can help with a certain project But not that a project that's already covered by existing funds that that are already in place to take care of those issues right And if you think about 1.37 million If that and not that we would pick a number, but if that could that could be 137 10 thousand dollar grants or You know so many 50,000 or so we are thinking the word breath keeps coming up. Um Yeah, I don't think we I think consensus is we don't want to dump it into three miles of road Right And again, you know, don't reinvent the wheel. These are just some resources that the Vermont league of city cities and towns has provided um And you know it gives it helps just say, okay, what can I look at and how can I? Adjust my project. Does it fit into this? So and this is not this is not limited to this list. There's other Um areas that you can look but this is at least some of the information that the Vermont league of cities And towns has provided so Some of the things that where you can stretch as they say here stretch your arpa dollars is pretty, you know I don't want to say simple, but it's just here are some of the points is that they do It's funny. They write water and sewer however I've had a conversation with trevor and water and sewer is being handled by the town So i'm going to kind of skip that but things such as the broadband um Having safe streets the charging stations for evs items like You know things that need to be done maybe with some municipal buildings throughout town One of the things website. That's where I was just going to go. Thanks. So one of the things that the committee has already talked about And are considering is and we pretty much put that as a project is to update the town website It's antiquated. It's not user friendly And so there are already going to be funds that are going to be appropriated to updating the town website Um, so that will be forthcoming. I don't know if anybody wants to add anything else to this particular slide But this is pretty much in a nutshell um just in in In our initial meetings and getting together and information gathering, you know, we did go and look at a lot of other towns websites and um see what other people are doing with arpa money Projects and we realized at that time that our website is very limited. There's been discussions in randolph for At least as long as I can remember at least 10 or 15 years about having um A better town-wide website where and a town calendar was the other thing that a lot of people and a lot of organizations have talked about are trying to Communicate so a town website and then some security. There might be some things like digitizing land records and Things like that that are really important for for access these days going forward. Um, that is something that also Probably will be looked at as well. Yeah, and I think coveted opened our eyes to you know, what can be more accessible? Especially when you can't come into a building and access it. So this is now the opportunity to Digitize what records and so forth as rams. He had said To make life a lot easier for folks just to access the website. So Right. Um, yeah, and in terms of the evaluation criteria and it's also on the intake is Connection to intent of the ARPA funding, which is really imagining, okay, if The world shut down again because of another pandemic or another disaster. Um, how would randolph be better positioned to function? So something like accessing Land records online would would fit. So as you think about your projects think about, hmm How would how would what I'm imagining? Um make randolph a more self-sufficient place if the world shut down again Good point And again, this is just continuation of ideas Again, you know, I know there have been talk about, you know, bike paths and you know safety and things like that for pedestrians We already talked about broadband, but also some support for local nonprofits. And again, this is another Slide from the Vermont League of League of Cities and Towns that can be accessed, but You know affordable child care And that seems to be the driving force here in randolph for a very long time. Um, and one thing that I know companies Here in town is the driving forces bringing people to randolph and being able to have affordable child care So that they could go to work and if that piece is missing then They don't come so that it seems to be one of the the big things along with other I don't want to go down that path, but there's housing and a whole bunch of other things But child care seems to be one of the biggies that um come up all the time. So It's something, you know, we need to address so, um, it's pretty again just You know, this is our first phase of getting the initial intake Form this is pretty much a Snapshot of what's on the the website. So I'm going to read it because I can't remember So so we've received 1.37 million From arbor to strengthen the resilience of our community. So now we've got to decide how we're going to spend the money So by December 31st of 2024 um, I'm sorry identify how to spend the money by 24 and then allocate the funds by I think they all need to be done Allocated and used by the end of 26 2026 so Yeah, it's a pretty big window of opportunity, but it will go fast So and so what we've done is We're having a two-stage process. This is the one of the two To look at the the different projects that are going to you know be considered and then It will be up to us to review. We'll have a set criteria At a matrix to score and then you know what what is best for the community again Not just Randolph village, but the greater Randolph area That is encompasses that area and so What we will do is start the intake process which is going right now We've got some paper copy here, but also will be available on the town website Facebook page Front porch forum and then there will be hard copy Applications in the front lobby of the town hall here and so The window is going to be starting now until the end of the year to complete and submit And it will be best to submit it online because the way it will get tallied We'll get the responses and it gets tallied and It will keep it straightforward so that we could just pull that information electronically and then start our review and and what we're going to end up doing is not wait until the end of the year to start Start reviewing we'll probably start reviewing as soon as applications come in But again the window is going to be starting today through December 31st of 22 and just to be clear. We probably will Consider depending on what our what applications we get we'll probably consider Having some funds saving some funds potentially for later ideas or developing ideas We don't necessarily saying nobody can tell us any ideas after the end of December We just want to get started and have some concrete ideas to work with so that we make sure we know that Uh 2024 can sound like a long ways away, but it's really not it's right around the corner. So We want to get this process going But it doesn't mean that That necessarily we won't hear any ideas after after the end of December this year So again and but then that we'll end up opening another window After our review we'll open up another window To put in the final projects and the way I I and I think the committee we all look at it as it's going to be more formalized similar to like a grant process So again that the details of that will be announced For phase two in the first quarter of next year Right and just backing up to phase one The intake form is built around the evaluation criteria. We came up with So that it's well aligned and transparent There's a consideration of cost and we're not asking people to pull like 35,380 We're not asking people to pull that but we have bins under 10,000 10 to 50,000 50 to 100,000 100 to 300,000 and then over 300,000 those will be the bins The next evaluation criteria is connection to the intent of the funding. We spoke to that a bit earlier About resilience and self-sufficiency Community benefit that's really the breath piece geographic reach demographic reach number of people Who would who would actually benefit from your project idea? Viability is also key Can you share relevant relevant expertise as they're already a sort of You know, you've got a file with planning you've done for a while And then just the availability of other resources that may be able to connect And then economic growth. Just how does it help Randolph grow as a town? So those those are the the five biggies. That's our evaluation criteria and you'll see on the intake form Those are exactly what you're being asked to produce And then yeah in phase two after we sort The qualifying projects will have the opportunity to fill out much more detailed That's where we may want to see the line item spreadsheet and an actual nailed down number Yeah, and in this day and age with if if it involves construction and things like that we probably need to See that it's viable to make sure it can get done by 2026, but that gives us Making decisions soon gives us a lot of time to make sure projects and money the money can get spent So again, as I mentioned earlier that We're in phase one and then there will be more Announcements in the first quarter of 23 for phase two. That is going to be a little bit more detailed So we are Going to open the floor to questions if anybody has any Okay So, uh, just to declare that the 1.37 mil Is that going to be expanded entirely on community initiated projects or Is it possible that the select board may decide we want to carve out half a mil for x Yeah, we let's just say pot or the town website In other words, there's a cost of the new town website coming out of the 1.37 mil We actually talked about this and the if the town wants to do something It is it's an applicant as well as anyone else So they can't sort of cream off the top and say yeah, we're grabbing 500 And then you guys can play with the rest. No, they would be an applicant as well And that means it that's but the answer to the question about the website is yes that money That is something that we have talked about like The website that kind of thing would be part of that money Okay, and and so as I understand it then the round of our community you folks Will make the decision about who makes the final cut That is to say it will be the community that decides if the town gets x for a new website Just as you would decide if project y Goes on to the to the second round. Is that correct? I believe that we have to make a recommendation of the projects to the final But I I dare say it's it's likely that the select board is going to follow the recommendations of the Arpa committee. We hope certainly hope so. We hope so I mean and just for a little bit of background to when we first started the discussions about this It was it there was a little bit of a more narrow parameters, I think where For where the money could be spent and so that was where our our discussion started about You know one of the things that had been mentioned by a lot were if there was needed Needed updates to municipalities and and land records was a really big thing for a lot of towns because during covid it was so hard to To access things for for certain people or you know, maybe they're you know, maybe in Irene certain places with flooding and and Problems like that lost records because they weren't protected properly So so modernizing and digitizing and doing a lot of things like that was a was a big suggestion that a lot of other towns municipalities had looked into for that So that was a recommendation that really made a lot of sense to the committee when we started talking about that So that that's just a little bit of background But then the in the final ruling things opened up a little bit It's a little bit more flexible now for what the projects can be as long as they consider the greater community and Go towards building a resilient community But really looking at the effects of coat, you know, this money is came about because of covid and because of The the huge detriment that covid was to communities The ability for communities to come together to meet in person and to to do things efficiently So that's where a lot of that came from and that's that's still A focus that it needs to to look at but it's a little bit more flexible than it was originally Next question. Yeah So award decisions need to be made by December 31st 2024 Does that mean that they will not be made until then or will award decisions be made? Possibly sooner than that. Is there any hard or even soft? Date for when decisions would be made? I believe that we talked about sort of having a rolling Rolling decision making based on, you know, our initial Based on the initial batch of projects that we get looked at. I think that we talked about, you know, if you came to us with a really Concrete proposal that we all agreed was met all the criteria and Then we submit we put it out to different people to say, okay Here's submit us your like final grant more like a real grant proposal with the details and things that are really Well thought out and put together and ready to go our our Our hope is that we will be able to have them funded Not waiting for a whole year, you know, it's as soon as possible Yeah, and the and the key too is not necessarily all of the money allocated at once. That's what I was saying before like Um, we don't have to spend it all by You know We don't have to spend it all immediately But if there's projects that are ready, we are hoping to be able to approve them Yeah, and then the thing too is it gets escalated up to the select board to make a final decision So we as a committee will say, okay We're done and I agree. I think keeping it as a rolling You know review process and then bring it to select board that then it would be put on the select board Schedule agenda for review and discussion and approval and whatnot. Um, I can I yeah, I could see it as rolling not just All everything all at once and then being allocated all at once. I think it's it's all also, um The the phase one the intake Um Information we get will be able to help us sort out just how long phase two will take because if we've got, you know a million dollars worth of projects For 1.37 million dollars that becomes a very easy and very quick kind of Or if we've got seven million worth of ideas on 1.37 just playing with numbers That is going to make for a slower p2 process. So a lot of this intake process is to be able to say, okay I mean right now we hope to By, uh, I think we by the end of the first quarter of 2023. We hope to be sorted through Um, the intakes as they shut down at the end of this year We figure a quarter to really digest what what people are saying and tally up numbers um and ideas So so just sort of thinking through that timeline that would mean that Final applications of those proposals that make that make the cut shall we say um Those then couldn't be due sooner than in the second quarter of 20 20 23 hours. That's that's yeah, that's what made 2023 Which means the soonest I presume the soonest that are worth to be made Would be say third quarter of 2023. Is that does that sound right? I was yeah, I was thinking the third or fourth quarter of 23 Okay, I'm asking of course because I'm thinking of a project that's very time set has a lot of time Sense of elements, okay, and also elements where What the proposal is requesting may depend on when funds are available because there's a huge mix of of Funding sources that have to be juggled and I think too like like michael said like if we get We don't have any idea really. I mean you've been our faithful our faithful attendee at our meetings and So other than that, I don't know that we have a really great idea yet about the How many other project ideas ideas there might be so, you know We might get to the end of december and find that we have Three really good projects that people have proposed to us that will make our decision making process a lot easier So that might mean that then We could make a funding decision a lot quicker Depending on you know the number of projects that we have to sift through I think so I I think Until the end of december. We really don't have a great idea at the moment of of of what to expect But at the end of december we should be able to say We have this many projects in the works that we're looking at and have a better idea of What our time frame of making a decision could be Yeah, and we we've been thinking in terms of okay. We have till december 20 2024 end of To allocate these funds. So let's make sure we come in well before then And we even were like are we ready to have this meeting? So we push it back a week or two. So we're really ready I was like no, we gotta we gotta get the ball rolling here. So We're feeling good about having the intake applications open until the end of this year And then being able to really figure out. Okay, maybe can we figure this whole thing out in 2023? Do we spill into 2024 how much into 2024? But um, We are yeah that dropped that deadline of of last day of 2024 feels like We'll hit that So, uh, as you know, I mean, I'm I'm representing a project That's quite large. Um, the child care center that we're hoping to uh, to build Up there at the enterprise center of vdc. Um, and we're Ranging with the state with uh foundation funding sources the state Congressional delegation and so forth The fact that the magnitude of this project Is a large with so many funding sources I would presume is not going to count against The project in terms of the the ranoff arpa No, I think it's that's actually like a fantastic Point that it's the kind of project where Where we had said before, you know, if there's a project that needs a piece and there's a lot of other support for it That that speaks well to it actually I think because We want to make sure that That the projects that get proposed are actually possible That's part of our scope of looking at them and saying, you know, is this That what the intake form is going to hopefully tell us is are these different projects possible? So I think it actually They'll they'll work right in tandem together Something like that really meets the bank for the buck criteria We've got in in terms of like, wow, you've already lined up matching funds because we see part of our job is to like Figure out what other sources are out there and give people that information but If a project's already done that kind of legwork that just That would one wrinkle may be that what we asked ran off arpa for Maybe someone in precise. I guess I take it by early 23 will have a clear idea of what funding is in place What we need more funding for yeah, but you know, I It could it could be uh I don't know um It might be for I don't landscaping at the at the center or it could be furniture for the same. Yeah. Yeah, depending on when Yeah, and I think so that the idea of this of the intake form is to have that broad picture Maybe some specifics too, but you know, you don't have to go into you don't have to know those specific details for the intake form If that's what you're asking. Yeah, I feel like that's sort of what you're asking. So in the second phase Like Mary said it would be more like a Like a grant Request where you'd have the specifics and in regard and I know that the daycare center has been going Working on this for a very long time. I think you're going on to three years already four years. So um So you have done a lot of this legwork So the information that we're going to need for the second part You probably already have that information again. It's just what I'm hearing and correct me if I'm wrong Is that? Specific dollar amount and where is that specific specific dollar amount going to go regarding the daycare project? Am I understanding? Yeah, okay. Yeah And we'll have a clear as I say by by early 2023. Well, I Hope we'll have a clear picture of what we need when we need it and so forth, you know Yes, just it's a little fuzzy right at the moment, but um, plus you had a lot of you've got a lot of moving pieces on it And yeah, I I've been fortunate I think fortunate But I've been involved in listening to updates from Damian Of what has happened and what's going on and the needs and just some of the bottleneck and It just the different again, you've got a lot of moving pieces that you've got to manage. So, yeah But the the ran of ARPA funding would be would be a crucial piece of that Eric, do you mind if I ask you a question? Sure? Um, so we Was on the kind of the intake committee. Um, designing this form And we really try to figure out the the bins. We didn't we should people come up with a specific number Uh, we went with this bins idea the under 10 to 10 to 50 50 to 100 100 Does that does that seem sensible and helpful the to have those five bins under cost just kind of as a As a place as where do I land my you know scale and scope? It's it we thought asking for specifics at this point made made a little sense But just wondering if those are those bins were helpful Well, I think I think we actually have a Fair idea what what our ask is going to be I'm not sure how if that applies to other other proposers, uh, but but You know sure I know it's box. We're probably we're planning right right, okay But you feel like you could be even more specific than these bins at this point. Um, yeah We certainly could could be I mean, you know, we'd love to we'd love to we'd love to ask her over, you know The over 300 000 category, but I mean I think you know, we're we have Some specific need and amount in mind that fits within one of these bins So I think I think they're fine. I I don't know what other applicants are likely to Decide about what their ask is going to be. Yeah, that's I think in general people figure well Shoot for the moon, you know Right, but I guess you'll see 300 times five gets us over, right? That does it for my questions Okay No, thanks guys Yes, Jeff Joe did you have a question? Yeah It's right there I wanted you said that it includes all the towns and I just wanted to make sure I got them all It's east Randolph ran off center in Randolph village. Does it include anyone else? No, no Brookfield and Braintree have their own funding Anything that's considered Randolph, right? Yeah, we could say west Randolph too All right north Randolph, thank you I'm not familiar with some of the other parts as much so school streets very well represented Yeah, I know That's good. That's good. Uh, let's see. Uh, and I was wondering, uh, do you have money coming from the infrastructure act as well? They are aware of or is that something that you're still mulling over the infrastructure? Yeah, well, that would be a town question We are just arba. You're just Any other funding sources would need to be asked of the town manager Yeah, Trevor would know if I don't know if infrastructure funding is just going to state and the state divvies out or Yeah It's outside our realm of that's okay But potentially we may point someone the intake to like actually that looks like a really good Go for that. Yeah Well, I'm thinking if somebody pitched a project that really met some of that criteria What you might do then is start it and with a bit of money and then push it along to a much larger funding source Just curious and our our town manager is involved in our meetings So when we have questions like that come up, you know, so people have proposals When we're going through it, he'll be able to say You know, there's this other money that this looks like it would fit better So that's part of the that's part of the criteria that we'll be going through when we look at the proposals to see them and and filter them out and say if there's Funding from another source because we don't want to duplicate Funding sources, but we might want to add to funding like if there's a something that's limited And then ARPA funds could complement it then we want to look at that So we either want to redirect or have them work together or have them be solely fun You know, if it has to be something that's solely funded through ARPA then we'll be considering those options Gotcha. Now, I just wanted to know one more thing about the structure of how these proposals are going through You mentioned the select board. I actually don't know like how many steps they're going through right now Obviously, you're just going through initial applications, but then could you walk me through some of that? Well, I think this this is what I think and this will be discussed in upcoming meetings So, you know, we got through this first piece and now we've got to build out What I think how we envision it is that the first step this first step is are Giving the information out there and then gathering information from projects Gathering that information and then the committee will review projects and Like I said differentiate whether there's other funding sources for those projects and how viable they are And then we will reach out to people with the projects that We think are viable I believe and and have a more in-depth grant type application Be filled out so that we can really evaluate the the viability of the projects And then I think at that point we will also have some form of a Scoring matrix and hitting the points that we haven't developed that. Yeah, that's all right. Yeah We're still working on that. I'm totally just asking because you know if I have something pitched. I'd like to you know What kind of steps do I have to think about? I think that that is where we where we're going with that so we still have to develop our final processes, but um You know, we'll get the broad ideas Find out how many projects we're even thinking about so that we can So we can see if we are you know Overwhelmed with them or if we have a couple really well thought out Projects that we can then you know that will make it an easier decision if there's yeah, like michael said if we've got You know six three hundred thousand dollar Proposals then we have a lot more decision-making to make if we have You know For fifty thousand dollar proposals. It's a lot easier. So we just have to We're not quite sure Like they said, you know, both uh, michael rams. He said, you know, what are the quick hits? What are the short-term goals? Is that it's something that could be turned around quickly and then you're going to have a longer term goal? so Again with the goal here was To inform the community Get the intake going because as we all said 2024 is sooner than later It comes real quick, especially when you're on a project And the other thing was if we waited any longer to get out to the community You're now running into the holiday season and and we all know how the holiday season is so um I think we have done pretty well being Prepared for this round and we know what we've got to do We know what our to-dos are So that you know, we are Making sure we look at everything and it's transparent. It's fair and then Again develop our scoring process so that and reach out to the folks and keep going So I I envision that we'll probably have another meeting another informational meeting as we move along with the project this is just our very first step and It's um, it's been interesting. It's it's been fun, but you know, there's a lot of pieces to it and also being compliant with the you know the feds so Yeah, how much stakeholder involvement do you have to have just you have to have it advertised and then, you know Whatever you get it's what you get or say that again. I'm sorry. Uh, your stakeholder involvement. So us How much do you just have to advertise and then just hope people show up? Yeah, I don't think there's any specific requirement. Um You know, I I I think that a lot of different towns were able to kind of come up with a process that they You know, whatever they thought worked for them. So this is what our our committee came together and decided That this was the process we wanted to go to for reaching out to Um, the community to try to get ideas I don't think that that was really set in stone at a different community The committees were sort of able to make those decisions on how how do you want to go about trying to figure out the best way to It's it's just a really important We felt as a committee That it's really important to If we are to be representing the community and working on what's best for the resilience of the community That we get as much community input as possible. So and and FaceTime and and again, I you know As the others I I looked at other websites, you know to or other jurisdictions within the state and outside and within new england and there are some with Towns that didn't even do an outreach with the community They did a survey and they've done everything just totally online Some There was one that I read where they Had already allocated a huge portion of the funds and then the remaining funds they reached out to the community Using a survey. So again, there's no structure There wasn't you know, so it depends on the town too because there are some there's a lot of towns in vermont That don't I think there's one town that ended up wanting to do their project on The water quality or a water water treatment system something like that because they didn't have that And that was proving to be a really Difficult problem for them the town decided I mean they worked together with the committees and everything but that was a very big impactful Project for that area and so most of their money I think was going into that It was a single long-standing which totally makes sense for certain for certain places There might be a big project that makes sense like that, but we felt that it was important to reach out to the community for ideas You know, we had a few ideas that we thought were important like the the town records and the town website and some little things that Right. Yeah, we also talked about, you know, not everyone's online So there are paper intakes and you do see posters actually at physical locations throughout the town because Yeah, there's still a digital divide. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that was definitely Yeah, I did like your broadband mention. I think that probably would be Well, yeah, well used. Yeah, and related to intent of funding, right? Well, those are my quick questions, I guess and feel free to reach out Um, you know, I think we're listed um, on the on the On the website. Yep. There should be a contact So feel free to ask it send any other questions and we we meet frequently so we can address There's a question. Well, uh, well, our committee continue to meet publicly. Uh, so I'll have something to do on my first stage Yes, we will That's an easy one And you're more than welcome. You know that We enjoy having you, you know, join us. But yes, most definitely we will continue. So our next meeting Is that first thursday in november? I can't remember the day seventh I think it's this. No, it's not the seventh. I think it's the No, nine days of wednesday. It's my husband's birthday Is that election days the eighth? Eighth is lucky. Oh, that's the tuesday. So eight nine ten No, so then it's the week before because it's the first thursday Oh, yeah, because halloween is the is the is a monday. Yeah It'll be we're falling on the third. It looks like the third. Okay. That sounds about right. So yes So now that we figured out so the next um open meeting is going to be on november third And it will be warned it will be also on front porch forum and other locations and posted around And there's another informational meeting on um thursday night at seven o'clock at the red school house up in Randolph center. So, you know, if you generate any more questions between now and then and you want to go Listen to this presentation again You can go up there and ask questions Using my daughter's sleeves This is probably the best fit And just again the window for getting your intake in is between now and the last day of the year december 31st 2022 Yeah, sure. However, if on new year's day you have a fabulous idea That is well supported We might consider it It's not it's it it's a window. It's it's not it's it's you got to have a drop day You know drop dead date. Um, just so that you could get the stuff in but there's always a little flexibility afterwards Um, I wouldn't say into march, but you know, we really want to get it within This window so that we could get to work on What we need to do next and if a few trickle in so be it. That's not, you know, it's not a big deal And if if in the unlikely event that you don't have many submissions by december 31st Is it likely that you would then extend the extend the deadline in hopes of uh, uh, Drawing drawing more applications. Yeah, we've talked about that. I mean, that's I think like around the holidays Yeah, we've talked about various different things And I think it would make sense too for us to consider That if we had some really well thought out projects that were You know, depending on the on the amount of money, um, that we could approve a first round and then Do it again another, you know another time Right and we you know, we don't know if we're going to get overwhelmed with applications or it's really quiet But maybe on december 1st we can say oh, it's really quiet and we do Um formally push back But right now we've got the december 31st We we did we went back and forth a lot of like is that a fair window? Yeah It's still open and we left it open for discussion because I think at one point in one of our meetings we even said, um Considering, you know, how much comes in do we extend it to the middle of january? So again when we meet we'll we'll figure that out And we want to balance it too for, you know, exactly for the concerns that you have of a project that Has been underway and really needs might need funding Really quickly So, um, we don't want to be completely Locked into saying we can't make a decision to fund you until you know the third quarter We want to we want to be flexible depending on on what we see come in in december. It's great We'll we'll hopefully know a lot more by the end of december of a lot more clarity on on what the next steps look like Yeah So Whoops Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much for showing up. Thank you for the good questions. Yeah, those were great questions Definitely Well, thanks for Thanks for doing this Sure. Thank you. I was just curious. I need the clarification along system. Yeah I mean if you we have a couple hard copies here if you want to take one