 Well, thank you everyone, welcome to the meeting of the Waterbury Select Board of Monday, May the 16th, 2022. I welcome everyone. I just wanna talk a little bit about, I know we've had kind of in the past, maybe some rules and guidelines to go by. Anyone who does have any questions or they wanna speak, it should go through the chair and the chair will, myself as a chair, will recognize those folks. Please try to be brief. We encourage any kind of comments under two minutes. Also, if you're speaking in the public section, which will be going over after approving the agenda and the consent agenda, it should be something that's not being addressed under one of the other agenda items. So with that, again, trying to keep the meeting civil, trying to keep the meetings on time and running well, we'll live by those standards. So I thank you. Can I have a motion to approve the agenda? Is there no changes or add-ons? I'll move to approve the agenda. Second. Second. Any discussion? Can we put it in the chat? I know Bill wanted to add a session and none of us know what executive session at the very end. So if that's a friendly amendment to have executive session at the end, I don't know what exactly Bill's looking to discuss. Okay. If so, all in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. I could have a motion to approve the consent agenda items. So moved. Thank you. Second. I'll second. Thank you, we have two seconds. Any further discussions on the consent agenda? If not all in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. That was the point on the agenda where we allow the public to speak, if anyone wishes to speak on something that's not on the agenda, now it's the time for speed. Well, you hear that? Yeah. That would be really helpful. Because that would be how it will be good for... All right, I just have a few updates. I did share some information. Can you just say your name for that? Tom, Tom's been there. Thank you. What did I say? In terms of Hope Davy, it's now a part of the... It's in the Vermont reptile and amphibian atlas for a certain species. And the vernal pools are also part of the vernal pool mapping project, which is done by the Vermont Center for Ego Studies and the agency ANR. It's a joint venture project. And there's a number of... We have frogs. We have wood frogs. We have salamanders. We have spotted salamanders. And we have the wood turtles down below West Garden's house. So this is actually a very appropriate night to be here because what's happening, it's just like flushing the toilet. Right from West Garden's house, right down over the back, 10 down, nine right to the stream, all of the sediment is going right down into that river. And the wood turtle, in particular, is very sensitive to sediment and water quality. So, and then the wood turtle is actually disappearing because of human impact, which would improve the nose, the fact that the nose is there now. But there are ways to do trails that have much less environmental impact. It's not that trails can't eat it, but when you have numerous separate trails down in a steep bank and they serve as rivers on a storm like this, it just carries everything right down into the stream. And we have fishermen here. And what it's gonna turn into is that in 20 years of whatever you'll be fishing, only stock fish because when you're ruining the upstream habitat, that's where you're headed. And the other thing, this town floods. And when you eliminate the forest floor, it's all part of the big sponge that holds back deluge when the real storms come. So when this town fills up again, think about where that water's coming from. You know, it's coming all the way up from stone. It's coming from the Red River. But when it's allowed to just, you know, free flow down the embankments. It's not held back by what's out there. Then you end up with that slide. So my major point is just that it's from less gardens and down and also out by the stream out from the hooker ages. It is class two wetlands as I shared here in January. And as I told Steve Watts right there in the speech a year ago, the same. And David Frothian actually worked on me around the wetlands permit that was done that identified the class two wetlands three years ago. So, but one and two and 18 will be as wet in the morning as when Frothian had been. And the bigger picture is all it means is degradation that we have had as all that water in the river. So we continue as a town to be out of compliance with wetlands regulations. And I've made the point before them, I'll just make it again, that there are better ways to do things. And turn a blind eye, then you're going to lose the resource and that's what we're going to process. So, I just wanted to share that. Any questions from the select board members? Any idea where we are with the study or that area in the mushroom? I don't think, I think, well, Steve could probably answer that fast because on the rec, on the rec study, you know where we're at, Steve? Sure. So we received two proposals last Friday. We'll be evaluating those and we'll be bringing back a recommendation to you at your next meeting, your first meeting in June. And yeah, the natural resource issues are going to be addressed in that study. It will be addressed? That's correct. That's part of the study is to look at the next one. The study will give us a list of the scope that there'll be. Yeah, I'll send you some information prior to your meeting, your first meeting in June. Thanks, Steve. All right, that's it, Tom. I think that's where we really have to go is have people in the study who, I'm not saying me and you know a little bit about this stuff, but again, hopefully the experts are going to be at the level of point out and you're right. We don't want to lose that resource. It's really perfect. Yeah, there's a lot of experts that interest in that. Yeah, people, you know, threatened endangered species spoke from the Department of Agency of Natural Resources, and I'm sure they'll comment on whoever the rec study people will probably be in touch with those folks because that's something really great. Thanks for bringing that up again and keep on trying to get that. Thanks, Tom. Thanks. Any anyone else from the public have anything to bring forward? Are you folks able to hear me yet? Yeah, yeah, we can now, Bill. All right, good. How's everyone? Sorry to be. I've heard everything. I just I'm in now and you can hear me. So I've had a little success with something today anyway. So carry on, Mike. Thank you. We're hoping you're feeling better. Well, I'm hoping I am too, but it's a slow slog. OK, OK, we'll move on to the next item. Treats committee interview Erica Fuller. Is she here? She is on Zoom. OK, yes, good evening. Hi, Erica. Hi. If you could tell us a little bit about yourself, why you want to be on the committee and what you what you could add. Sure, absolutely. Thank you. Hi, everyone. So I'm Erica Fuller. I'm a resident here in Waterbury. I've resided here for about three years. I grew up in Underhill, Vermont. And I attended last month's tree committee meeting as I was curious to learn a little bit more about what they're working on. And I was, first of all, just really, really impressed by how welcoming the group was. Steve and and the other members really enjoyed being able to participate and understand a little bit of what is happening on the tree committee with some of the natural spaces throughout the town and some of the planting that's happening this season, this summer, rather. I have some service experience. I've done a lot of service throughout my time. And I really enjoy volunteering, which is why I want to get a little bit more involved in the Waterbury community. And this is a way where I think that I can benefit in learning a little bit more about tree management invasive species here in town and other issues and progress that we can make as a town related to our trees. So I think that I can benefit, but also I hope to bring a just general curiosity and excitement to be involved. I love doing hands-on work. And it sounds like this group gets out and gets their hands dirty from time to time. So that's why I'm interested. And that's why I'm hoping to be considered in joining the committee. Thank you. Questions from the board? I'll just make a comment. It's always great to have new volunteers because there's never enough of them. Erica, do you have any technical background in civic culture, either coursework or practical in the field kind of work? It sounds like you like volunteering, which is, as Chris said, is a very critical thing. You always want people to roll up their sleeves, but in specific that whole civic culture tree management area, do you have any specific experience in that? Yeah, I appreciate the question. I do not have any formal education in environmental studies or anything in that realm. I'm just an outdoor enthusiast that wants to become more educated through service. Thank you. So, Mike, while we're on this subject, I've got a question for Steve, if you can answer. Somebody asked me the other day about the cemetery up in the Library Center, and the fence being down. Wanted to know when it was going to go up, and I suggested to them that the reason it might be down still is because there's some possible tree planting that's going to happen up there. Is that not the case? Is this the Maple Street cemetery? Yes. So I think the cemetery commissioners decided that the cemetery would be a lot more attractive. Bill can probably speak to this better than I, but would be a lot more attractive without the fence, the tree planting. We may do some additional tree planting. We've done a lot over the last several years there. But that's all I really know in terms of fence. So the fence came down because they just felt it would be nicer without it? Be more attractive, that's my understanding. OK. I'm waiting at you now. Yeah, Erica mentioned she met with us. She's a volunteer professional. I don't know if you want to tell about any of your experience there, Erica, but I was totally impressed. Sure. Very sure of a story. Sure. So my day job is I work with the American Red Cross. I'm a volunteer recruitment specialist for Vermont and New Hampshire. So I recruit volunteers. So that's something I'm willing to bring to the table if we are looking for more volunteers within town government. I'd be happy to collaborate to support in some of that marketing that goes along with volunteer recruitment as well, because that's my expertise. And then a tree committee is what I'm hoping can be my fun time. Any further questions from the board? Might just bill. Can you hear me? Bill, go ahead. I'm sorry. I guess I was muted and didn't know it, but I was trying to respond to Chris's question. A couple of years ago, the cemetery did have in its budget $25,000 to replace that chain link fence that was there. And even though the budget passed, when they wanted to start moving forward the project, I suggested to them that I thought the cemetery would be much more aesthetically pleasing without a fence at all. And certainly, if we're going to have a fence, something other than a chain link fence, which I think is about the worst kind of fence you can have there. So they decided to see what it looked like after it was taken down. And once they did, they liked it. And then some of those trees were planted along there as well. They are in the process of trying to think about some entry. They're thinking about some stonework or something else that might go in there. They're thinking about a way to potentially honor Jack Carter. But anyway, the fence will not be returning there. Thank you, Bill. Any other questions from the board? It's a three-year term, Mike Ending. Three-year. That's why I thought. It's a period of 2012. OK, so she's not fulfilling it. She's not filling in for a term. No, this is an open position. Full term. OK. I'll make a move to appoint Erica Fuller to this stated term and thank her for her interest in serving the community. Well, so I'm going to. Thank you. We have a motion to second. Any further discussion? If not all in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Welcome to service in the town, Erica. Thank you. Thanks, Erica. And on that topic, just Karla, would you mind sharing? We still have open board and committee positions, right? If anyone in the public is interested, I just want it. We never I know we have a sheet up on the town website, but I just wanted to flag that publicly. Is that still the case? Yes. Right. So anyone else wants to be on the board or committee on Waterbury BT? We love volunteers. Yeah. Part. Part beat of the community. OK, we'll move on to the next topic. Consider the use of on street parking, the railroad station, black that that they they agree. Martin, you can speak to that. So, Mike, would you like me to introduce Marcus here? OK, sorry. Yeah, I'm there. So I'm Martin Million, a development director with revitalizing Waterbury. We own the Waterbury train station. And this is Daniel. Lucy, she's the general manager for Blackhawk coffee and bakery, who we signed a lease with for the train station. Yeah, you're very excited. Built to be for the location coming soon. Thank you for coming to Waterbury. Yes. So, yeah, so they went through all the development review board meeting, I think, what was it? The 16th or so 20th April and they're now requesting to use public parking to build the onset parking needed, which is 16 spots. 16 spots. Hey, the question that I have, I know, from being on the development review board, this was a constant angst because we always never really, you know, they were designated spaces for different businesses and as much as I'm very pro business, but the spaces were never really there. And I know they're supposedly the previously see had an agreement with Tolgram Park for for spaces. To me, it seems like that seems like the best course of action. I don't see how we could really designate a certain number of spaces that we really don't have. Are you looking? Excuse me, Mike. Are you looking for an additional? Mike. Yes, Mike, this is built. Yeah, I built. So, you know, you you just expressed your frustration from being on the DRB. But I would, I would very much so. Yeah, I would caution you against, however, you know, taking it to the extreme to say, we're not going to approve these spaces that we don't have. The fact of the matter is that because of how the zoning bylaws are written, this has to be done. The trustees of the village had to do it for years and years and years and then the village went away and now it's up to the select board. And as we've talked about many times and maybe it will be addressed in the the bylaws that the Planning Commission is working on. But there are many, many communities now everywhere, not only in Vermont that say for commercial uses in in in downtown's. Parking requirements are really passe. We're trying to move away from cars. We're trying to move towards pedestrians. So I think this is a perfunctory request just to be able to allow the new tenant to meet its requirements given the current bylaws. But, you know, the the the Green Mountain Coffee Cafe, when they went in there and when they were in business a few years ago, they had this dispensation given to them by the by the trustees. And there was no, you know, there was there weren't 15 cars parked on top of each other. So I think you just have to do what you have to do. It's it's unfortunate. And maybe this will be changed when the bylaws get changed. But I don't think we should say we can't do this because if you can't do it, they can't open. Right. I understand that. But can you get anybody asked that they try to get some additional parking in, in, you know, the darn tough, you know, whatever that the parking lot, whatever forms the parking lot across the way. I will just say that when the Green Mountain Coffee Roads were space, they they at least 40 about 40 parking spots from Wayne Lamberton in that area, the children's partner, their use was for a a museum that had also 100 people, 100 person occupancy at one time. They use for this property. They created a max of 45 seats and that's during the summer using outdoor seating. So it's a it's a use that's a lot less demand. And I mean, I know that there is a downtown parking ordinance and I know it's very stressed. I would say it's more stressed in the main and so three area versus over by the park. So I don't know if I can help allocation works out, but it seems like there's less stress on the public park. This is an area. Bill's point is very well taken. You know, I understand where he's coming from. You know, I think the requirement for parking should go away. I think that's, you know, it's our take. It's not what's the current way downtowns are run. You know, it's kind of free free parking. But as we see in our community, for any parking is becoming, you know, more and more of an issue. You know, I'm more than willing. I would like to at least hear this, too. Yes, we'll approve the parking spaces with the agency that they try to get some additional free spaces from when I look at, you know, the park. Mike, I really don't think you should put a contingency on it that they have to get least spaces. It's not. I say try, not will. Big difference. Why? What is the what is the reason it's going to cost the money to do that? And there is startup business. I think just let it go. OK. Maybe I could jump in here for a minute if I could. I could just jump in here a minute. So so I think I think Bill's right. This is a process that went through the development review board. They do have some on-site parking. We have five spaces, including two handicapped spaces. And, you know, those spaces are are well utilized. I think, you know, they they have a relationship with new owners of Pilgrim Park that is not an option, as I understand it, to to have an agreement. So I think, you know, I'll do respect. You know, we need to follow the lead of the development review board that made this a condition of approval that they come to you and seek the use of 16 on-site parking spaces. You know, there are some a fair number of downtown businesses that do have on-site parking. So, you know, we do try to where possible. We we work on managing the private spaces as well as the public spaces. But we are blessed with a really good supply of some public parking spaces. And so I think we having those available to the businesses as a resource is is important. We added parking around the park back probably 20 years ago for this very reason to help businesses out. So I would encourage you to to give the permission to the the owners and applicants to utilize the 16 on-street parking spaces. Yeah, thanks, Steve. That's all I have. I was just curious as to how many parking spaces they actually had and how many additional they were looking for. I wasn't, you know, going to request any guidelines to actually establish more parking. Because finally, come to the conclusion or conceded to the fact that here in Waterbury, especially after the reconstruction project took place, we've lost this barely significant number of parking spaces that we actually have more probably commercial business space than we do have available parking for it. So it's going to take it at your own risk, to deal with business owners. And so far, we haven't don't seem to have lost too many businesses because of lack of parking and managed to shuffle their way around and share spaces enough so that everybody seems to do all right. So I'm happy to approve this request. This is also more of a daytime business. And when we generally are running into issues, it was more like dinnertime, evening time in terms of parking from what I've seen and heard. So I think, you know, it fits well in that regard. So also in support. Thanks, Danny. I support us allocating them the full spaces. And I think the only other action for us is to take our aptly named parking lot. And as you said, Mike, now that we are this like we're to the driver's seat coordination on the parking ordinance moving forward is something on our never ended to do this. But I think that is important. I think in the case of this particular applicant, we are implementing what is the best practice in planning, which is to not have parking minimums for commercial uses in a downtown. I will say to Chris's point, we did do spaces. I think the number was like 11. I live on Main Street. I see much more use of the Main Street, Long Street parking post reconstruction project because the spaces are well delineated. It's well lit, particularly in the poor between, say, Prohibition Pay and Builds Market with historic land posts. So it's very easy to see and folks are more willing to try. So I support allocating the 16 spaces and recognizing it's an interim stock gap and he has a board need to work on the broader policy. So that this doesn't keep coming up. I appreciate that. So I'll move that we improve for the on-street parking for the Black Hat Cafe. Second. Motion is second. Any further discussion? Who's seconded that? Me. Any further discussion? If not all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. When do you plan on opening? Hopefully August. August? Yes. Great. And is the board okay? If Carla does add co-invasion on parking for By-law and Relight to our literally named parking lot? Yeah. Thanks. What are we going to add? Co-ordination on parking ordinance and By-law Relight for our parking lot, I think. I assume that's a friendly amendment from everyone. I don't think it hates emotion. I'm just saying. Yeah. Just on our agenda. Because it's called the parking lot. Parking ordinance. Okay. And co-ordination with By-law Relight. I think we'll move on to the 100 by 100 relay for Saturday, August the 13th. Sign off. Thanks. Thanks everybody. Thank you. Thank you all for your community service. Thank you for coming. Thank you for coming. So I guess I'll talk about this because Eric is not here. Eric. I have a question. I forward you email from Evan. The lucky. Requesting your approval for this year's, the lots one 100 relay. I think the last time they ran through a library in 2019. I have several years before that the race is scheduled to take place on Saturday, August 13th. Morning still. I'm down. The definition level in the evening. Anticipating approximately 200 runners that are all stretched out. And I sent you the two relay links that will be done through Waterbury. Does anyone have any further comments? It seems pretty benign. It's one of our many road races that we seem to have going through Waterbury. And I get another positive separate tourism and. Well, health and wellness. Yeah, this is a particularly low impact one because as Carl said, they're all stretched out and doing a relay. And we've never seen them. I'll second. We have a motion and a second and further discussion. And just for clarification, what are we approved? I know like the gravel grinder, we weren't actually approving our road closure. What are we? I think it would be great at some point for us to have a checklist about what permissions are needed for what type of event. I just feel like personally, I know we have our W on the agenda. Special event permit later. I know we did the two races before it varies depending on if there is a closure. I don't know if there's a document I'm unaware of, but as. A prospective event organizer, I think it would be nice to know I'm doing an event. Is it on a road? Does it need a closure? Do I have alcohol? Do I have vendors? What are those check boxes I need to fill out? Just, you know, and I don't, Carly, if you differ to me, it seems like you keep getting incoming inquiries and kind of have to triage. And maybe that's a fine system. That's working. But I can, I can just. Yeah. That's more just commentary. No, 100% bill. I can get together. Just so that I said, Hey, I'm doing an event in Waterbury. Right. You know, it's actually in the woods. No one's selling anything. And it's not a public property. You don't need a permit or. I need to close a program. So we need to call the trailer. Whatever the appropriate. I know that depends on what type of event. Totally. Right. Currently don't want to check this for each of these individual events. Right. Or over. I just don't know. I don't know. I just don't know what they need to do. Okay. Well, like to get this full packet from our company and everything that. You know, I think I, we have, there are certain things that we, we have, you know, if you need, if we're going to have the. The car show or. You know, if somebody's going to be running the car show, you know, you know, if somebody's going to be renting a facility, there's a lot of things that we do, but these kinds of things. I mean, I don't know how many years in a row now this 100 by 100 relay. It's really them telling us they're going to do it. And making sure we don't have any issues. I think trying to. Make a checklist for every eventuality is just. Difficult. I think, you know, the gravel grinder, this event, and even the, even the leaf peepers half marathon is pretty straightforward. They just come in and they tell us, this is when we want to do it. This is what we're going to do. And I think we're able to be nimble enough to, to figure it out. I think trying to get a checklist for everything that may come down the line is, is not necessary from my point of view, but I think we're going to be able to figure it out. Yeah. I mean, this is not necessary from my point of view, but this will be the last one of these. I have to talk about it immediately. I'm not going to worry about it. I understand you're concerned, but I think it says, as Bill said, and Carlos says, it's kind of a narrative on, you know, anything that doesn't require road closures or more significant kind of things. And I think based upon the narrative, if we have any concerns about that, it's a XYZ on that or there never has been since I've been on the select board. You know, person's been on longer. And it basically is asking permission in case there's road construction going on or, you know, I'm different people's change their route, like my couple of years, because an answer construction itself, I mean, I deferred to you all as staff. I mean, I'm not doing it for you. I'm just not doing it for you. And I was just wondering why someone was having a funeral and a heart, they wanted to have fear last minute. So they had to come in last minute. So I'm just as a community member who might not permit an event all the time. I don't know where someone would find that info. What I'm hearing is folks should just email Carla. And so maybe we just need to have a sentence that says, if you have an event, check with Carla and maybe most likely they don't need to come before us. But I think having that info would be. I encourage you all to stop around and not do the checklist. I don't have anything further. Okay. Thanks for that. Okay. There's no further questions to move on to. We have a motion I'm sorry. Right. If we can have a vote, all in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Being unanimous, motion passes. Next item is revitalizing water very special event permits for arts festival July 8th or 9th. Mark. Hi, I'm back again. What a plan I'm speaking about this, but here I am and Karen was trying a lot on Zoom, but she does not have power at her house currently. So I'll stick around. I don't know if there are any questions, but I'll try to answer the ones I can. Did you just tell us what is going to be closed or what the plan is for the event? Yeah. So the new location for the event is on the lawn in front of P5 and Pilgrim Park. That's the left-most building, building if you're on the north, you know. Going to the flat post. Yes. The one that has the next nice spot of lawn from the south side of the building. The only section that will be a road that will be closed is the little part on, what is that? The road street? Bad Gelberg? No, it's, yeah, it's, yeah, just the little section really free for you to see those two red, that's the only part that will be closed during the time of the event. And the traffic will follow the blue arrows there in front of the building. We'll be a similar event, they'll have music. Yeah, Friday will be the block partings to be our garden and Gryff will be playing at the main event and then Saturday during the day, they'll have different kind of performing arts on the stage as well as the art vendors around the area. So no change other than not being much though straight in the water. Yeah, that's the main change. Do you really have access to parking in the back? I believe it'll be there in use during the parking for the event, yes. So this is the first year of this change? Yes, it wasn't a secluded, it hasn't happened for, so it wasn't a motion. It didn't happen last year, but there's been a lot of changes in tent code on the support they need for putting it on streets. Like, I don't know if they did that last year, but they brought in these huge Jersey barriers for the stage coach, the stage tent, and the other pre-tentative area and it made the event seem a lot smaller and got no way caused issues for safety and getting fire trucks through, so it's really something that... In order to anchor the tents down far. Exactly. Are you planning to do outreach to neighbors in the area and is it going to be part of the event in the past? I would in fact bear in with, keep up with that kind of work that she had done in the years past. I know she had a long talk and many walkthroughs with Wayne to make sure that it was allowed at this area, of course, because it's private property. So would there be something on like front porch forum and what are we around about, about where the word closures might be, so it would be cool to know. It'll be, yes. I think there's probably less as I'm now reflecting on having done some of that door knocking myself during my RW staffer days. There's certainly many more residences directly above where it was on Sto Street as opposed to this location, which is, yeah, more industrial. So probably fewer potential residents. Right. Any other questions? Danny, do you hear what's that? Danny, any questions? You're good. Thanks. Do I have a motion to approve the special event permit for the art press? Do you have one? Thank you. I'm sorry. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? They're always looking for volunteers. I spent 15 hours last week hanging out with a brand new marker running around and taking out trash. So stay tuned. Volunteers are going to be there again this year, so more I have, the less I have today, so. But I'll have to do a lot, don't worry. Subscribe to the RW newsletter on the website. Volunteer is always good. If there's no further comments, fall in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? There being none, motion carries. Thanks. And the last item is an update on the municipal manager's search. Give you a little update. We had a search committee met on May the 9th in attendance for it was myself and Danny for the select board. Lefty Sayo substituted for Natalie Sherman, Skip Flanders, and Maroney Minter was a library commissioner. We basically elected at the meeting, elected Skip Flanders as chair of the committee. We also elected Natalie Sherman as the secretary for the committee. And I wound up, because Natalie wasn't in attendance, I took a meeting minutes for the last meeting. We reviewed, there was a questionnaire of questions from the consultant from BLCK, Rick McGuire from EFUD and the select board. At that point, Rick had just seen the answers and most of them were self-explanatory, but a lot of them needed further details from especially the town manager, such as what a prospective range of salaries, what are some of the features of the community, what we wanna highlight, job descriptions, et cetera, those things we need to put together with Bill, and I know I talked about meeting with him, but Bill just recently after he came back, has been ill, that has yet to happen. We reviewed the revised timeline. Initially, the consultant had a hiring up till in December of this year, we felt that was insufficient. And we had them ratchet back the timeline to meet the November 1st hiring and the consultants felt that was very doable. He also mentioned such things as reference and background checks take way longer than you expect them to do. He said that process might take about two to three weeks. Two to three candidates would be in the final interviews. The final interview process is lengthy as it includes input from staff in the community. I know there's been a lot of buzz. I know probably some of you have gotten some of the emails about this person and that person wanted to be on the search committee as of what we determined. And Danny kind of jumped in at any time, if you have anything to add. We felt at least the best thing to keep the committee down to a reasonable level was to keep it at that five member level. But add input from the community in other ways and add input also from staff. They could be part of when we have candidates in tours, et cetera, even before that, we could get and again, all the public is invited to any of the selection committee meetings. At the first selection committee meeting, I was surprised. I thought we would see a few more members. We really didn't see any people on Zoom because they are a subject of open meeting laws that we are attending. First round, the review of the first round is looking at August 1st to 15th, September 15th to the 27th would be a screening of applicants. There would also be, he talked about August the 22nd where the first advertisements would be placed in the paper. And he recommended to not go to advertisement too early because you lose a lot of people in the process. You want, you know, hot commodities because people are gonna look for other jobs and suction. You know, if you're advertising too early, you may lose those people. He also recommended a pay raise should be like 20% between high to low. And again, as we said, we're gonna consult with Bill on his possible salary recommendations on what we're looking for. You know, again, we'll probably offer a little bit less for people with less experience, more of someone has significant experience. The part, a lot of people have been concerned that the process is moving too slow. The Cook-Sulton didn't seem that it wasn't. He said, you need to have suitable time up front to compile information about the community, compile information. So when you go to advertising, you have a good solid base, you know, to start seeking people. We talked about, we wanted the process to be gendered neutral in its process. And Rick McGuire, the consultant needs information to the questions no later than early August. So the thing that we need up front to get started with is starting on the Waterbury community profile. Because that's gonna be essential when we get out and you advertise to tell people a little bit about the community. And that's not just as easy as some folks would say. I know he's sent us a sample of Norwich's community profile, I think also. Did he do Williston as well, Danny? That's what I was gonna ask you because he said he was going to, but I don't think I saw that. So that's why I was gonna ask you that. I don't know if I missed that. No, I think he may not have sent it. So we might, let's see. Oh no, no, he sent the Williston, I think job description, not the sample community profile. And you would think he would know that because he was a town manager in Williston. So this isn't gonna be like a tourist brochure, right? It's gonna give both sides of the coin. No, but we want, you know, people who's gonna know, they don't wanna know a little bit about Waterbury. We may not have candidates who are from Ducksbury, from Burlington. We might have candidates from Hartford, Connecticut. We don't know where they're gonna come from and they don't know what's going on. What I'm talking about is, you know, when you're talking about the community, needs to include all aspects of the community just right. Not the highlights. We can forward you the example from Norwich for the whole board. No, this is like a six page document, like really broken down. So that should be helpful. And then I think, Mike, I think we should follow up and ask him for the Williston example. I think it would be helpful to have more than one. Just so the applicants will get a clear picture of the community as they can, right? Right. Thank you. We also asked him about fringe benefits for town managers. And hopefully we're gonna get from BLCP kind of like what a range of fringe benefits are for different town managers from around the state. So we have some sort of guidance on what we might or might not wanna offer, you know, prospective candidates. Question was coming up about the town car. Again, we got rid of the town car and basically Bill felt it wasn't necessary. But again, some candidates may look at some sort of, you know, a vehicle or something to get around. But I don't think that's probably gonna be any offer that was, you know, there's some real strong reason to provide a vehicle. I would think we'd go with some more of an allowance for mileage, et cetera. The profile, Rick wanted to be completed by the middle of July the 15th. And we also wanna address the top issues facing the community. And we wanted to keep it at a relative minimum, looking at probably three to four, you know, we have probably many issues in Waterbury, but he wanted to say, keep it to the three to five real important issues, you know, that we have within the community. Mike, is it okay? Just in terms of the profile, I wanna find Carla raised this before. Obviously, we have all of the Dunn-Byrid Vitalizing Water, right about under the grant, I just got a water route for the shiny touristy, because we need a little bit of shiny touristy. And then we also obviously can gather demographic data all the time for, and then also just want to flag four top issues in the light. We also have a number of different plans, being the planning enthusiast, so we have a town planning, an economic development, strategic plan. So just to say those are resources, obviously I understand the committee will probably put its own spin on things, and certainly some of those have not been updated in several years, but just wanted to flag all of those things as resources. Yeah. There's also, there is some competition going on. He mentioned that Westminster, Barrie City, Barrie Town, Brighton, Townhill, Essex Junction are all seeking town managers. So the good candidates are gonna, you know, they have options. So we may have to sharpen our pencil to, you know, get a potentially good apple. I don't think Waterbury would be that old. I do too. I think there's a lot of things that why Waterbury would be more attractive under a lot of those communities, but some of them, you know, again, some of the more rural places, they may have some attraction, but the size and whatnot probably doesn't justify enough higher level salaries, but some people might like living in a more rural community. For me, it brings to mind two questions. One, how many towns are actually moving forward with the managerial system, or are they just replacing the fears that they are losing? And if all these towns that you've just mentioned are main imperial towns already and those managers are retiring as well, as me, it says it throws up a red flag and asks the begs of the question as to why they're all getting done at the same time. Is it just coincident that their tenure is running out, you know, or they just, you know. Just to answer that real briefly, all of them with the exception of the Essex Junction were already town manager places. The only reason why Essex Junction is on there, the state just recently split. So it's a new entity. So they, and again, Essex Junction is bigger than we are. As to your question, I think it's just where you're seeing in a lot of state government and whatnot, the aging of the workforce. People are getting toward retirement age. There was an example, you're seeing a lot of people, you know, I'm sure Bill could say, in some of his, you know, town manager association meetings, you're probably seeing more gray hair than young kids. And I think it's just a natural turnover. We saw that in the USDA app. We saw a flipping over our staff. I think a lot of, you know, businesses and governmental entities are just seeing that happen now. And it's just a turnover. So I don't know why. Bill, do you have any comments on that? No, some of the towns that you just mentioned I hadn't heard about yet. You know, there's a wide range of reasons, I'm sure. There's a number of people that are, you know, of about my age that, you know, we're the baby boomer generation and, you know, it's kind of getting time for the ones of us that are even toward the end of the baby boomer generation to be moving into these times. My guess is that for some of the same reasons like for me, you know, it's been a pretty stressful couple of years with COVID in my case, you know, it's really since the flood in 2011, we've just been going straight out, great guns, all kinds of reconstruction and building. And I just feel that I've kind of done what I can do and I don't have other large big projects really in me at this point. So for me, it's time to move on. But yeah, it's a challenge. And I think part of it is just this whole, you know, it's been referred to a couple of times in the media as the great resignation and the great retirement. And those are both COVID related things. So I'm not sure, but that's what it is. I mean, Be More Blunt, I was wondering, you know, is there a level of frustration with a lot of these people that are just said, I'm like, I can't do it no more, I'm done. I don't know that. I'm not gonna off, you know. There may be some of that, but there'll be people out there. You know, there's plenty of people out there looking for to have important jobs that are meaningful, that they feel that they can be making a difference. And I'm hopeful that you'll be able to find somebody who's, you know, one of those people looking for a job like this. I think it's a great opportunity. It's a great community. Got a lot of things going for us here. And, you know, there's always challenges and the next people in line are up for the next challenges, I hope. Thanks, Bill. The only other last thing that I didn't want to bring up is that the consultant said, we should starting getting together a draft employment agreement. I know Bill doesn't have an employment agreement. He amended to have an, like not necessarily a town attorney, but an attorney that's skilled in employment law, you know, review whatever document that we do have. And I think Rick was going to get some examples of draft employment agreements. And at least it would be a good start. And then, you know, have an attorney who, you know, has the skills to do that, perhaps something, you know, that would work. Anything I've missed, Danny? I don't think so. I think you're just bringing up a couple of things for me is maybe circling back with Rick, because I don't think we've seen that example yet. So it'd be good maybe to reach out and touch base with him. And then the other thing to note is we wouldn't be meeting again as a full group with Rick until mid to late June. But I can't remember, Mike, did we talk about meeting without Rick? We had tentative meetings with Rick, 616 to 623. And, you know, with, you know, I want to kind of speak the bill a little bit first, but I was hoping to reach out with Skip and, you know, maybe just having the committee meet, you know, some of, you know, we just don't want to leave it, you know, hanging there, you know, keep on the momentum of what we had for a month ago. The other suggestion I would make is, you know, there are a few action items hanging in the air that feel like, oh, we can easily gather X, Y, and Z, but I just think it could be super helpful to clarify who's responsible for what, like you mentioned, you would talk to Bill, particularly to get rolling with like salary and job description. But in terms of the community profile, just because the information's there doesn't, we don't have someone who's working on it. So that might be something to think about and decide who's going to get to work on that. Have job assignments. Great. You just mentioned the job description. Is that something that Bill's going to be working on? Has that been decided? Yeah, we talked about at least, you know, once I meet with Bill, once he's failing better again, that we would at least, you know, work on, you know, he would best know what kind of is in his job responsibility right now. There is no job description. And those we do have examples for, I think he sent us Norwich and Williston for those examples. So at least there's sort of something to work off of. Any other questions? I just carved my minutes on the select board page. Took a minute. Anyone else need some? Yeah, we're posting the agendas in the minutes on the select board page. Thank you. Okay. There be all the select board items we have. We do have a request to go into executive session. So can someone make a motion? Make a motion. I'll move to go into executive session to deal with motion allergies. Thank you. We have a second. You should invite Bill off on writing back. And Bill's included, yeah. Can you invite me too for a few minutes? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Lindsay.