 So I'm going to call the meeting to the Bethel Select Board to order this Monday, June 26th at 6 p.m. Our usual chair, Chris Jarvis is away. So I would accept a motion to appoint a temporary chair. So move to point nine, David to be temporary chair for tonight. You okay with that, Lindley? All right. So it's like Dave is it. Okay. All right, Dave. So it looks like Greg is here. He's your first appointment. He's online. Okay, Greg. Good afternoon. Hi. How are you? Thank you. So I let this like board know that I gave him a copy of our, part of our email that you can stop me when I'm wrong here, that the 24th of May is about when Tessie's closed. You're requesting a reduction in your water bill. I let them know that how the EUs are that you currently have 14.99, but that you may want to remove the point to eight because you don't have any employees. And then perhaps you're requesting to go to a vacancy rate for the remaining seven for the restaurant. And I did the math. And if the select board approved those changes to get you to seven regular EU for your apartments and 7.71 for their restaurant with the new rates in July, the, it would be $782.68 per quarter cheaper for you. Okay. But you might, I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for, sir. So you're going to want to tell them. There's no plans to reopen the restaurant. If it does open, it would be over the third new party. And it'd be sometime next year. But they're only asked. Okay. They won't open this year. So my question is the 7.71. Bacon, that's a vacancy rate on 7.71. Did you calculate it? Yep. Okay. And removing the point to eight because he was at seven point. He was at 14.99. Excuse me. Seven of them are his apartments. And then it left 7.99 and point to eight of that was. Covered was employees, which he does not have. Can I ask you to just repeat the dollar amount? I was hearing the EU's, but I missed that. Sure. What I said was because the new rates are going to take effect July one, I calculated based on the new rates. So if we moved him, if you remove the point to a EU. And you dropped the restaurant from. Seven point seven one, you know, just seven point seven one vacancy rate. His quarterly bill. Would be less. Sorry. I've lost my place. He would be, it would be, he'd save $782.68 per quarter. I had to base it on the new rates because. The old rates obviously go out, out the window. So. Cause if he stayed. Yeah. So the new rates. Yeah. There's a savings of 7, 8268 per quarter, but as he just stated, he has no plans to reopen the restaurant. He has it on the market, but. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. So if I read the previous information, actually the new rates are actually a little lower than they are. The sewer rate is a, oh, no, you're right. The water rate is a little yes. Yep. The water rate is lower. It's starting in July than it was. And that's why I was thinking sewer. Yep. The water rate decreased from. And they're not on sewer because they're not on the. Right. No, he's not on our town sewer. So I guess we need to ask him or talk to him. I don't know what you guys wanted. So how does that sound to you, Greg? Sounds fair to me. Okay. I guess we need a. Oh, well, did we. Grant. They. Moving the restaurant to vacation. And reducing the EU's to account for. They're not being employed. Okay. Do I hear a second? Okay. Any more discussion. Hearing none. All those in favor. Okay. Okay. So Greg, your new bill will come out in July. So that'll be the savings for you. All right. Well, thank you very much. Okay. I think we can hear you. Teresa, just to clarify something that's not really related to Greg, but you should the building sell. We can't hear you. Are you able to hear me now? Did we lose sound? I hear you and. Thanks, Laura. I bet Paul can too. I'll just mouth things at them. Now try. How about now? Yes. We were having technical difficulties. Yeah. It's fun. I don't think this necessarily is related to Greg. It's more just a curiosity for me. Let's say the building sells and there's a new owner. Will the vacancy rate hold with a new owner or will it reset to the full amount and then the new owner would have to come back to the board if they weren't gonna open a restaurant and wanted a vacancy rate? Right, it'll have to, it will. Read, if a new owner buys if they're gonna open a restaurant, obviously it'll go back to regular rate and if they're gonna do a different use then they would have to come in and talk about that as far as what they're gonna use the space for. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Okay, that's fine. I'm taking notes, no big deal. Thank you for letting me know. Okay. So Greg, did you, were you able to hear that at the end? We kind of had a little technical issue. Okay, so your new bill doesn't come out until July and there was a reduction in the water rates because our budget dropped a little bit. So we'll move that section of vacancy, remove the employees and go from there. Thank you very much. Thanks, have a great evening. You too, thank you. Okay, we have a public comment. We have several people on Zoom. I can't read the names, cause my- Oh, it's Laura Perez and Paul Valley. I was trying to figure out how to raise my hand on the Zoom thing, but I don't see how to do it but I have a comment. Go ahead. I was just spending of an update about the Juneteenth event, but the equity and inclusion task force hosted on June 19th. We had a big barbecue and bounce house and we didn't have live music, but we just had some music playing in the background. And it was just a really great community event. I think we had more than 125 people in attendance. And Farmer James did a brief introduction and spoke a little bit about the importance of celebrating Juneteenth. And we had students from the Sharon Academy who participated in hosting like some carnival games and also supporting the kids in the bounce house. And just overall it felt like a really lively, fun community event. And I was so happy and proud of Bethel for hosting it and wanted to share the update that it seemed like it was really well received by our community. Did you end up doing the parade, the Parasol parade or did you get rained out? I think that was different. So Juneteenth is the event that was in honor of the end of slavery. I'm just curious about the event. That was totally separate. And those events for Pride Fest were not hosted by the Equity and Inclusion Task Force. But I did hear that it got right, like the many parts of the Pride Fest events which were the following weekend were rained out but they still also hosted all of the indoor events. And while I wasn't in attendance, I did hear that they were also really well received too. Oh, that's great. No, I knew they weren't related. I was just curious since we were talking about it. I wondered, I was hoping they didn't get rained out. It was kind of tough. It was a little spotty at times. I know we were so thankful for the Juneteenth event because there had been rain really every day leading up to the event and every day afterwards. We were really looking for beautiful weather the night of our event. That's great. The fire department did the barbecue, right? There's no food. Yeah, we actually hired a company called We Smoke Everything and they did a great job. The food was awesome and it was really sweet. There are three young men who are new to the Bethel area and their moms, all three of their moms came one from Houston and two from Massachusetts just to support them during the event, which I found really heartwarming and sweet that they were all there. That's great. It's wonderful. Yeah, and I hadn't had their food before but it was really good and I also learned that they're doing like a pop-up barbecue business at Roma as if anybody's interested. There are a few different days of the week, so yeah. We ran out of food really early because we only ordered enough food for 50 people because that was double what had been at Juneteenth in the past and so to have like 125 people was a big growth in participation. But yes, we should have more food. And next year, right? Next year. It was absolutely great looking at the people who were there and enjoying it. The, yeah, young, old, the diversity, it was great. Well, thanks for coming, Jean. Well, that's it for my update. All right, thank you. Thank you, Laura. And Paul, you got something to add? Any comments? No, I'm good. Thanks. All right. Well, and well, we need to back up. We need to approve the agenda. Does anyone have any additions they'd like to add? I do. The Christian Hill Tire issue. Yeah, sorry about that. I got the Christian Hill Tire issue. I did get here back from the lawyer. So I want to add that after the water project update. Okay. And I can give an update on the energy committee. I'm going to put that under any other business. Yeah. Move to approve the agenda as amended. Grab a second. Second. All those in favor. Okay. All right, so we can move on to water. Phase two water project update. Okay. So we, what I know so far is that they, the contractors planning on starting on Monday, July 31st, their normal work hours are going to be seven AM to five PM Monday to Friday, generally speaking, obviously, if they ran into something or. Some of the came up, they needed to deal with, they would deal with it. The plan, the contractor plans to start on sand hill right now and then actually start on the sand hill. You know, it's going to be, it's going to be on the island avenue. So the schedule has not yet been finalized, but that's what I'm aware of. They may at some point have two crews working in Bethel, especially when undertaking the railroad crossing. Because that section of work is going to take around two weeks and but that really depends on railroad flagging when that's going to happen. The winter shut down will take place sometime in November or term of 170 days to substantial completion. So they will start, then they will pause, and then they will start again. And then they still only have 170 days, it's just not gonna be consecutive. Aldridge and Elliot were, because of the Bernie Sanders, you know, the earmark for 750,000, I had to put out a request for qualifications for the Sandhill project for the engineering and they were the only submitters. So that worked out good. Mike had a manor of Aldridge and Elliot was reaching out with a couple of people at the state. So I still have yet to coordinate that work. So it depends how fast we can move through the federal project. I would like obviously to have the same contractor that's doing the water, do the storm water and the issues with Sandhill, but I can't commit to that right now. I'd like to, but I can't. So that's what I know about that if anyone has any questions. At 170 days, that's five days a week. That's how it's laid out. Yeah, yeah. But they might work Saturdays is something that they have to. If they had to, yeah, if they, you know, hit something or, you know, something on a ride. Which? Like the weather. Yeah, like the weather, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Or like Main Street, they ran into, I don't think it's gonna be quite some bad up that road. I've seen that road dug up once in my life. I don't think so. Cause then it's like there in Highland and Bicentennial and, you know, Graham and so yeah, it won't be the, you know, traffic issues. Bicentennial was a field. So it's not, you know, when I was a kid that I don't think that should be any problem. No, and they know where the water line is there. So, and we don't own the sewer line there. They have their own septic on Bicentennial. So fingers crossed. Okay. So. Well then, that was. A little Christian Hill tire issue. Christian Hill tire issue. Okay. So the last select board meeting, we talked about what was going on that we have, I'm not sure we have, I don't think we have 10 people, but they were, had popped a tire during the road construction. Then we, I sent them to contractors and insurance, they were denied. Our insurance company is also denying them. So we talked about what, you know, should we just pay for the tires, you know, so that people aren't caught in this limbo where they would be forced to go to small claims court or to, you know, just seemed in my opinion, fair. The select board had asked me to speak to the town attorney a little bit to see what his take on it was and he said that normally the town is only responsible to pay for claims for damaged tires if the residents can demonstrate that the town was negligent. Most cases, this means the town was warned of the hazardous road conditions, such as a large, you know, brahole or something and failed to respond and complete the repair within a reasonable time. So here he's without a few facts, but he said when the residents' complaints began, if there was sufficient time for the town or the contractor to take remedial action once the complaint started coming in, then we may have responsibility and we did certainly that happened. The timing of the tires was before the contractor finished. So I'm not gonna read you as full things, but he did say, he said that, yes, that, you know, obviously we're always worried about precedent, but he said this case is somewhat unique because the damage results from a construction project and not normal wear and tear on roadways, which we would, you know, that truck hit in a pothole, that sort of thing we wouldn't cover. He said my proposed solution of paying the claims without requiring for action does have advantages. Paying claims that are submitted would hopefully avoid allegations and upset from residents that the town isn't treating them fairly and it might be the most cost effective solution as well, depending on the number of claims because obviously if we needed to go to court and defend this, if you say you were gonna spend $3,000, that's gone very quickly. So at this point, I do have that I'm aware of one, three, I think I'm, if I have to go back to the food list, I think I'm aware of seven to eight tires that will be, and we're talking, you know, one tire, not all four. So because we did not take remedial action when we had, it's tough, you know, and I think for me personally, I just feel like the residents are gonna get the shaft by having to go to small claims court. I just think that's so unfair, it was our project and yes, some things happened that shouldn't have happened. There also, I admit there was weaknesses in my RFP. So, and I specifically stated that, I didn't specify how many lifts of material, certain things like that. So, you know, if we didn't think it was necessary, however, apparently it was. So there's enough problem here to go around that it seems to me the fairest thing would be to, either you're gonna pay a flat fee for one tire, you're just gonna have them bring in a proof and we're gonna reimburse each, you know, tire, obviously. We're aware of the players. So if 20 more people came out of the woodwork right now, we would be, no, you know, because they would have come forward by now. So that was his only suggestion is that we obviously ensure that the claims have a reasonable evidentiary basis. So I would assume if we haven't heard from them by, you know, now, then we're not gonna pay those claims. So somebody would have called, trust me, we've heard from everybody else repeatedly in some cases. So do we do a flat rate per tire or do we just say, send us the bill for the tire? I mean, how does that? We, in fairness, it may be to get the bill because everybody's tire is different. If you drove, you know, your car tire may be cheaper than, than Dave's truck tire, you know? So for me, yeah, I think so, because I'm afraid that if you just gave everybody two or 300 dollars, that could just rub salt in the wound, you know? So, like I said. Are we able to identify at all why this happened in such big quantities? It just doesn't seem like something that happens typically with road construction. So why this job was it so prominent? So a couple of reasons probably was in some cases, you know, we don't know what the status of some tires were. Maybe somebody's tire was, had less tread on it than somebody else's, but we certainly are aware that the material, the town and the contractor may disagree on the, we agree we suspect the correct material. We believe we suspect the correct material. We just believe that maybe means and methods weren't specifically followed so that when the material, this material in particular is overworked, it separates the stone from the fines. So it becomes, the stone can become sharper. So it could be a combination of maybe somebody's tire, how fast they were. I went up and down several times. So did the road crew and, but there's just so many factors at play. I only went up and down a couple of times. If I was going up and down that road, because I lived there or worked and was going up multiple times a day, obviously my chance just increased exponentially. So it's definitely a unique situation. I've never seen it before. I've never seen it in 18 years, but of course. Well, and I guess my, my questioning kind of is leading towards if we say yes to this, what, what protects us, the town in the future? I know you were mentioning, you know, doing a better job with the RFP and stipulating that, but, you know, resetting a precedent that should somebody in the future pop a tire, maybe because they were running on bald tires and they're like, hey, but you know, the town did this in the past. I'm going to get them to reimburse me for my tire. You know, I just am looking at it from that perspective and how do we protect ourselves if we say yes to this? So what the attorney said is there is a reason to consider the, you know, the precedent, the presidential impact of the decision and whether it would lead to more claims for tire damage in the future. Although this case is somewhat unique because the damage result from a construction project and not normal wear and tear on the roadways from the usual case that involves, you know, when people hit a pothole or something like that. Obviously in RFP, we would certainly in the future specify means and methods and lifts and that sort of thing, which these RFPs are going to become, you know, 20 pages long. So I do think that this was such a unique situation. If we were doing a project and somebody hit a pothole, we're definitely not going to cover that. I mean, I think that that's kind of the disclaimer here is that this is just a one time and so unusual. I would have expected their insurance company to cover it, but or our company, our insurance company to cover it and then subrogate, but they felt it was the contractor's responsibility. So they weren't going to do that. And I think at this case, there's definitely precedent, but there's also monetary as far as are we more responsible by making the choice to save town money by not ending up in some crazy lawsuit by paying them or, but I understand what your concern is. But I do think there would be, I'm not sure we'd be setting a precedent because we've just never done this before and I've never seen it before. So I don't know. It's a slippery slope. I agree, Lindley. I do agree, you know, but just because we did it once doesn't mean that, you know, there was definitely a multi-things at play here that I don't see happening again, but I don't have a crystal ball either. So yeah, so Dave's not going to say anything. I think he's recusing himself from this issue. And as a resident of Christian Hill and somebody who popped a tire, so he's having no participation whatsoever with the issue. So at this point, I mean, like I said, I have all the names and addresses of the people that have approached us because either talking to them, sending them on to the proper insurance company originally or, you know, through doing their claim through our insurance company. So I'm happy to, you know, reach out to those specific people. But somebody would need to make a motion or whatever. Can we kind of on Lindley's line, maybe about the ball tires? I don't think most people do, but do we know what the status of some of those tires were? Like? Some of them, I think some of them had just, you know, a couple of years use on them. But obviously I don't know. I haven't, you know, inspected the tires or anything. So I don't know the status of that. All or not, they weren't the only one. So yeah. Two of the vehicles were brand new vehicles with brand new tires. Which were not his. I can say it out for sure. Yeah. So some of his back, love it. If the condition was such that, I will move that we reimburse the specific individuals for their particular claim on the understanding that this is a unique circumstance. Yeah. Not new town policy. Right. Yeah. Good. So before somebody makes a second, I have to write this down. Specified individuals that have already made, can we add to that and say that have already contacted the town? Yeah. That's what I was trying to say. Yeah, I know it's hard to. OK, thank you. OK, thank you. All right, I'm still not going to vote. No. I'm going to ask a question. Because some of the people were involved with two tires. Are you just, this is a one tire per plane thing? I think it's, it's reimburse them for how many tires they lost, you know? Yep. That was my intention. Yeah. So they're going to be a second. Second. Those, all those in favor? All right. All right, I'm making a, Dave. And we need one more. Thank you, Lynn, and me. OK, thank you. I'm sure I'm missing anything in the. OK. So. Minutes in communication. Do we have anything? Is that the town manager for part of that? Or town manager where I gave you was there were some let it just slate of changes regarding cannabis. So I put that in your packet saying that. Basically, it further restricts how local governments can regulate cannabis establishments. They can continue to regulate some cannabis cultivators. However, they can no longer use local ordinances to regulate public nuisances as applied to outdoor cultivators. So and they can no longer be regulated by Act 250 or municipal zoning. But we never really touched that anyways. We really the only thing that we heard was a local person on Main Street. We have seen you've approved. You had a received one permit for a grower. But that was all we had seen. It just saying local zoning authority over all sizes of outdoor grow operations is now prohibited. If we had any concerns about cannabis cultivation, we would have to forward them to the Cannabis Control Board of the state for regulatory oversight. So that you had much power over it before you have less now. And that's really it. OK. Then you're right. You had two sets of minutes. You're right. Minutes. Minutes of, I'm not used to bouncing around quite so much. May 22nd. Of May 22nd. And June 12th. And June 12th. I'm going to ask if we do them separately because I was not here on the 12th. OK. As I did entertain a motion to accept minutes of May 22nd as printed. Second. Those in favor. And then I would accept the motion to accept the minutes of June 12 as printed. Unless there are some additions or omissions. All those in favor. And I'm recused. Yeah. OK. So now we are at other communications. Let's see what you had in your packet for five minutes. You had, let's see, select four minutes. Bethel energy committee meeting minutes. Excuse me, that was a mouthful for some reason. And then updated May budget status report. As well as I did put in a nice article in the Herald about the equity inclusion book club. So I photocopied that and put it in your packet. It was a little photo and discussion of the book and talks about when their next one is. So I thought you should see it in case you didn't read the Herald. So that was in there. So reading this. This was interesting about how the minutes came from the energy committee. So is that what I assume that Scott is now leading the charge? Well, yeah, and that should say forward fest at that one place. Yeah. So we're on three up from the bottom. Oh, oh, OK. Oh, yeah, I got you. Yeah, Scott agreed to be the kind of run the meeting person. And so this is going to submit a resignation to the sec board. I am not sure that she knew she needed. Oh, OK, yeah. Oh, OK. So that's all I can if I remember all the e-mailer. Um, it says guest was Spandragat Chris Lester, April Peterson, Steve. I was in a lot of Iran. I bet I'm guessing Steve. Steve Neera, Stevie, Stevie, Stevie, Stevie. Yeah, he's Scott's. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So he was there. OK, they just didn't say in the minutes. Um, is Chris Lester and you have April Peterson in the minutes and then April Lopez in the meeting minutes. So you have one name in the attendees. He didn't remember the last name of the of the ender. OK, so I don't know. Um, I was just curious are they going to join April and yes, Chris, which is one person. I just know. Right. Um, that was the thing that I said I was going to do is I'm going to e-mail them and tell them they wanted to. Yeah, so you're going to be able to press so that they are OK and Van. Oh, perfect. So you've got three people. We've got three people. Nice. New people. So that Chris, Chris is. Yeah, because I am. I mean, there's a bar. Yes. Not that that's not. No, no. I guess I'll make sure I know the right person. They all had interests. You know, so that's great. That's that gives me some. That's wonderful. You really score. Nobody ever gets three people at once. And one rose was looking for another meeting that she couldn't find. So she walked in and it was the energy committee and said, well, can I say? You said that's great news. Yeah. And so they have basically said that they're going to go back to the beginning, the drawing board and take a look at the original, why the committee was created, what its mandate was. Take a look at the. Town plan energy portion of the town plan and proceed from there. So great. With while continuing to do the. The forward fest E. EV show. But that's that's the update. So I got them those documents and and they're. They're just trying to figure out, well, it's a it's a reboot time. Yeah. So they are moving forward with the E.B. thing for forward pass, because I know Scott came in and he was questioning and I said, look, even if you just need to do a booth this year to hand out information about residential home improvement upgrades and programs, that's fine if you're overwhelmed by all this at once. So, you know, I said, we'll talk, he was said, well, we have a meeting and we're going to talk about it. All right. Well, whatever you need to do is, you know, fine with us. So. OK, well, good. Thank you. OK, any other business necessary to come before the board? Is there any questions on the budget status reports? Are you good? That's your fault. That is my fault. Thank you. So they really didn't know a lot of questions. Well, I know, but there's still a while I have questions. I'm so and I did say in here that oh, the oh, I didn't tell you is I'm off on Friday and Monday. So I'll be off Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. And then on Wednesday, the auditors will be here. I'm like, oh, boy, so I do have a begin. I do have a little comment. Yeah. Christian Hill is I know we talked about berm removal when we grade roads. Yep. And we're losing what I call Fay Hill, the first hill up with it. Yeah, it's half gone. Because they're wide and going too far wide. Well, I don't know what you want to call it, but the water can't get off the road. OK. Water can't get to the ditch because it's a berm on both sides of the ditch. Oh, both sides of the road. I got you. OK. So there's ditches, six inches deep, a foot wide going back and forth. There's a berm. OK, unfortunately. We're losing our gravel into the waterway. All right. So Berm removal, Fay Hill question. OK. No, it's not there. That's the whole road. That's just my and just below my house towards Bethel. Probably four or five hundred yards. Not going to grade that much more because there's a big hunk of ledge showing in the road. Yep. So it's like road berm ditch. Yeah. Yes. And this is a personal thing, but I'm still going to say it. I have a curb cut, a new curb cut that I've approved, had approved. But the ditch doesn't match what my requirements were to put a culvert in. So now my culvert is a third plug on the out set out. Yeah, because there's no ditch there for the water and silk to go. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, call. So I don't know what to do. Call the road foreman. OK. Definitely call the road foreman and tell him what your issue is and he can come up and take a look. That was the speed sign of the speed dolly. Don't tell you. My wife says, damn lights, not supposed to be blink at me unless I'm going too fast. Yeah, well, it's no matter what I said it. Well, it shouldn't I said it. So it was only a certain parameter. I want to tell you it's trouble. I had programmed that thing. It's supposed to flash at thirty six, but it flashes no matter what. More than that. OK. Well, you know what gets people's attention. I did hear from. I can never remember his first name. The Garo Jordan Jordan. I always want to call him Justin and he did say thanks. He said he thought he was happy with that. And Lindley, you gave me the radar to take gun, but it had batteries stored in it. So it was corroded a little bit. And then I tried. I cleaned out. It wasn't bad. So I was surprised why it wasn't working, but I can't get it to to work. So I'm like, yeah, I didn't know. I mean, because when the batteries were corroded, but the whole it wasn't. It looked like the little head down at the bottom, the little motherboard looked fine, but I don't know. Did you say that they were free? Because I was thinking if I sent, I mean, I can buy a new one for like 60 bucks. So I didn't think it was worth sending back for repair. Yeah, that one was one. I believe the source was AARP when they were. I it was early, better block stuff, and they left it at the Arno block. I think just in case folks wanted to use it. And then we tried to get them to take it back and they were. They didn't want it back. So that's funny. All right, yeah. So I I don't know. I guess I'm going to have to get rid of it. I so I'm sorry. I tried to fix it, but that's OK. But and I looked, I did Google it to see how much one was going to be. But anyway, so we did get the dolly out. And then the other two speed signs, there's one currently by the school and one by Mascoma. We got our other two. They just came. So when the road crew has a chance and probably Richard, he's the one to install the other two. We're going to we'll put one back, you know, on North Main and then one so that when you're coming towards the school, where there used to be one on the right by Dennis Woods, because people either obdirection, they seem to be flying. So we're going to leave the dolly on Christian Hill for a little bit and then move into Church Street. So that I will admit that coming in from Randolph, 35 and then 25. It happens pretty quickly. I mean, you really got to work at being 25. We go by. You're right. I agree. And that's kind of like, I don't know if we're going to change that 40 mile an hour speed limit sign close to the bottom of Camp Brookrow, because it's three tenths of a mile where you see a 40 mile an hour sign. And then you go around the corner and there's the stop sign. And that's like the New Jersey Massachusetts Turnpike and people just shoot right out of there. I did ask Morgan about it. I can't remember what his response was or something, because even though, you know, it shows route 12 going this way that way, waiting for his July. He has no more sign money. OK. He's he can't he's like, well, I can't buy any more something like that. So I think he's waiting for his July budget because we did talk about it. Yeah, because that can be, you know, people that come and they just look in, you know, and they see the 40 mile an hour sign, then you go around the corner and it's like, and if there's a car already stopped there, I mean, I've seen it come close driving towards town. People shooting out of there and then seeing people in front of me like slam on the brakes because there's somebody at the stop sign. It's like, oh, shit. Yeah. So one thing I didn't forget to tell you, sad news actually under the list or under the town ages report is Mo and Judy Brigham are two of our listeners. The other is Paul Valley are have their house on the market and are going to be moving. So yeah, they may be. We're not September, maybe October. So obviously, you know, not great situation. I told them they couldn't move. But they're going, they're going. Anyways, despite me saying no. Anyway, so I did. We have Nemerick starting the reappraisal. I reached out to Nemerick right away because I know that they you can hire them to do listing stuff. So my conversation with Chris Mealy from Nemerick was like, look, you know, Teresa, if you guys had somebody in the office and off, you know, that worked in the Lister's office on their computer, they can do some of the updates. And then he said, Nemerick could come in just to do the values. I also did work contact another local town person to see if they'd be interested in coming on as an assessor. So is that way they could be the assessor? Maybe we try to hire someone to work in the office to do the computer stuff. Paul, who was on earlier, is not interested in doing the computer work. And there's a lot to it to be a Lister. It's like a three years before you really know. And a lot of towns are moving to outsourcing it. Now, didn't we budget some extra money to work that way? We did, yep. We budgeted money for an assessor that we didn't have one. And then Mo and Judy were, you know, doing trainings and doing a good job. And then they were just, if they had some, they were, they had a couple. They were looking at hiring outside help for, for like doing the dam, the hydro project in a couple of places that they were unsure how to do. But Nemerick was like, just wait and we'll do them in the town, wide reappraisal. The other thing is we need someone to oversee the town, wide reappraisal. So I had a staff meeting in-house to say, OK, because I'm the only one who works 40 hours a week, Pam doesn't, Kelly doesn't. Deetre does, I'm like, look, if somebody wants more hours, now is the time to step up and you want to learn more, you want to do this or that. And like I said, I also talked to somebody who has a business doing this to see if they would be interested in coming in. And they are a Bethel resident, but I think what's going to end up happening, my guess is we is that at the next town meeting, you'll probably be voting to get rid of the listing position and contract it. And what you may have to do until then is, you know, we just have to hire, you know, somebody either. If we have people that want to be listers to be more figurehead staff, then we could appoint somebody if we feel we need to fill it, you know. But so we just kind of have to see I'm waiting to get a response. So we have response from Nemerick, but I'm waiting for the person that I approached to see one of the things we talked about was sitting down with Nemerick, myself, Pam, a local contractor and saying, OK, what is it exactly the responsibility is going to be for the town during the town-wide reappraisal? Because Mo and Judy are obviously in it right now, but as soon as they leave, we know that it's mailings by street. There's a whole process of stuff that needs to happen. And because the local contractor is that I talked to was very familiar with all Bethel properties and he's been in, you know, he does reappraisals, he's a certified reappraiser. Be a nice person to have on board. So I kind of my feelers out and we'll see what will happen. But I just want to let you know. Hi, Lindley, just curious. My recollection is somebody sitting on this like board cannot be a Lister like could not serve in that role as well. Is that correct? Oh, I'd have to look at the sheet. There's that this I'd have to look to see if they can. I'd have to look, Lindley. I can't remember if those are conflicting or not. I can't remember. Yeah, you want to be a new Lister. Want is a funny word, isn't it? Yeah, well, I'll have to look, Lindley, because I can't remember what are compatible and incompatible offices. I'll vote for that waiver. Yeah. Oh, did you just vote me into office? Yeah. No one nominated me. Compatible offices with listing. I'm not sure. I know that Pam might be willing to just be a figurehead. Like if we had to technically had to have three people, Pam is willing to, I think, be one of the people. And a town clerk treasurer can be a Lister. That's very common in a lot of towns. She obviously doesn't want to do the whole training, but if they needed a signature on something, but hopefully they can get through to October. And by then the town reappraisal will be underway and we will have a handle on it. And worst case scenario, we're not the only town that goes unfilled with positions like that. It's not against the law, it happens. And they will have already, they have done the grievances. So they've sent out the change of appraisal notices. So if they were going to leave, you know, now is the time. Well, except for that pesky two-year rolling reappraisal. But. But the reappraisal people will handle those grievances, right? They will, along with your regular Listers, but since it won't be a bio, then we will have had somebody on board. They'll play on board, yeah. But it could come to the fact that at the next town meeting, we're voting out the Listers and going to hire people. But we can, you know, that somebody said. It doesn't sound like it's easy to find somebody. So hiring somebody may not be easy as just putting out a. Exactly. I mean, Nemerick would pick us up and it would definitely pick us up, but it's not cheap. The best option would Nemerick would be to also have a person who maybe was just an office assistant who came into the Listers office, you know, so many days a week just to learn VT PI and because that's the new software that's coming down the pike and to process all the property transfer tax returns and because Nemerick can do that, but they're going to be a heck of a lot more expensive. So I don't know, it's not great news, but I obviously I'm very happy for Mo and Judy. I was just teasing them when I said they, I'm like, no. They're like, well, we didn't really want to tell you. I'm like, no, that's why, because you can't go. But so let's see. I thought maybe they were just moving into the town offices. Yeah, see. They're already there enough. I know, no, they're going to move to be closer to their son, to one of their children. So, you know, we wish them well. Can't keep them forever. But anyway, so I'll just keep you updated on it. I've got some feelers out and we'll see. I'm hoping. We'll bring them in. Well, that's right. I'm hoping for the local person, if they're willing to, you know, that would be a really good fit for us, but. We'll see. Yeah. Do you remember, I'm just recalling when we've been looking for Listers in the past, we had sort of all put feelers out to different folks and one of the pieces of feedback that we got back was that the rate of pay was too low. And I know we've been incrementally increasing it. Do you know what it's at currently? So if we want to try to talk this up to people, we kind of are speaking accurately to what the current rate of pay would be for somebody. I can't, I can't off top my head tell you, I don't know what it is. I think the thing here, I will be honest, I'm torn, pardon me, thinks that we should move away from local listing and move to a more professional, you know, because if you go in and talk to Mo and Judy, I mean, they're going to tell you three years and then the state just launched new software and the state is going to be mandating every six years that we have reappraisals. And there is so much to it now that for someone to come in, you know, and ask Paul, he's been doing a little while, but come in and it would be tough for us to bring in three new Listers or two new Listers and with Paul because they're not going to know anything. They're not going to know the software, they're not going to be able to do any of the work. I just don't know. I mean, unless somebody was interested in working directly with Mo and Judy for the next couple of months to get them in the right direction. I don't know, Listers have always been hard to find. It's getting more complicated every year. It is so complicated, it's crazy. And I know just enough to be dangerous. So I don't know, Lindley, I guess, you know what? If you know someone that might be interested, send them to see Mo and Judy. That probably, then they can get it directly from the horse's mouth and if they're interested in it. But as far as the rate of pay, obviously, we're going to have to go up on that. But I want to say it's, one of them is making 19 or 20, or maybe it's coming in the new budget, they're going to be 20 and 21 or something. I think that's right. Table one, I'm trying to remember. No, it's low because July one, I think they were going up because of the reappraisal, Lindley. So I do think that, I want to say it's like 20 or $21 an hour. That's for the experienced one. Right. The non-experiences is less. Is less, yeah. So, but we're going to have to look at that because you're right, that could be a real deterrent because it is such a, it's a hard thing. You've got to be really sharp to want to do that. And it's just a lot to it, so. And you can make $15 to $17 working at McDonald's. You can make $17 at McDonald's, yeah, you're right. It's a true point. It's crazy. It's true, we're going to have to really, definitely look at it, Lindley. So I guess if they were interested, the salary may be negotiable. If you could find really good people, but yeah, I would say send them to Moe and Judy. But yes, if people are interested in that, definitely reach out to Moe and Judy and make a time to go in and sit with them and see them. And it's certainly a commitment. And to become a new Lister, they work Monday, Wednesday, Fridays, whether they tend to 12, 30 or nine. You'd be doing that, plus you'd have to be taking a lot of classes online on your own and for training and going places for training. So it's a pretty good commitment. But, so sorry, I forgot to put that in my packet. I don't have anything else. Yes, Jean, you were talking about the speed signs. I just wanted to, every time I see it, I say, I need to tell this one in... Anyway, coming back from a two rivers meeting, there's a speed sign coming into the town. And in addition to telling us as we're going, if you're half a mile away, and you're going over that speed limit, you see red and light lights. Red and blue strobe lights. And it looks like the top of a police car. I'm not gonna tell you. It's full of people down. I don't know if ours have strobe. How do you know that? Yeah. Don't. Well, if you know the red and blue, did you see them? Yeah, were they, were you speeding? When I got there, that there was no car there. They're flashing lights. Yeah, I don't think the one that we purchased has strobe lights and they're pricey. Yeah, no, I get it. These were, I just paid the bill for two of them was like 6,700, I think. But the dolly that I provided, I don't think that that doesn't have strobes on it. Just as a one, yes, white lights. I'm just making the... Well, yeah, no. It caught my attention. I bet it did. Well, so you know what? It's something to think about. That's for sure, because whatever it takes. Teresa, I have a comment on the signs. I feel like I'm taking a soft track, but since it came up, I'll just share citizen input, is that every time I cut, I'm caught speeding by a sign and it flashes, it really slows me down in whatever town I'm in. And I'm always surprised, because I never mean to be speeding. It's usually just like mindless or whatever. And I love the reminder to slow down. So I just want to give that positive input that it really does change my behavior, whether it's in Bethel or another town. I think that's true. It does for me, certainly. It's like, I'll leave the town office and there's the one right there by the bank. And I'm always cognizant of that. So I think it does too. I mean, we've been out walking before doing the AR people doing the walk around town and people see them boy and they pile right on the brakes. So I do think it's good. So adding two more and then maybe next year we'll add a couple more in different spots. We're trying to hit all the entrances of the town so that slows everybody down before they meet pedestrians. Yeah, and we often flee from the park and the old Valley Motors parking lot. It just looks like a regular vehicle there and they just pop them left and right. Yeah, we did have some enforcement on Christian Hill. We had asked, I'd asked more, Oscar and Justin do some targeted enforcement on Christian Hill and they made some contacts the other day. So which is good though. Yeah, those people, I knew once it was paved people were gonna fly. People love new pavement. Yeah, oh yeah. We'll never slow them down up there. They need those strobes that you saw. Where did I see one that actually it's a flash so it makes you think they took your picture. Oh, that's a good track. I mean, it's a big white flash. Did you say something, Lindley? Yeah, can I bring up a controversial topic on the topic of speeding? So Chris isn't here to defend himself but is there a plan or anything along the lines of putting the bold outs back in for the summertime given that they're really about traffic calming and pedestrian safety and we do have an uptick in traffic downtown in the summers with tourism. Well, I will tell you this that the road crew had been counting down the years until they were out of the woods on that grant. I mentioned them the other day and they were like, no. That's why I said controversial topic. I know, they don't know but I also think them not wanting them is not a reason not to put in something that's a safety feature. They were in town doing, oh, the crosswalks and stuff but where we had them last year seemed to be the best spot. We had one when you first come off from River Street Bridge on the end of, you know Lang Durfee's Bethel Mills building and then I know that Penny really liked the ones that the crosswalk near Spalding press we were moving the one in the middle of the town really we didn't, I didn't receive any comments last year once we removed that one that was by Brad's. The trouble with that is it's a curvature in the road the road's too narrow and people don't know how to park next to the curb. Yeah. Meaning there's all kinds of reasons why that one was not working well. Yeah, it's true. And but the ones at Spalding really were nice they kind of narrowed that crosswalk drew more attention to it. Yeah, so no, they just had got they but I will type not lying when I say they've been counting down the years because we talked about it. They're like, wait, is this the year we can say? So they weren't the only ones but the ones last year I didn't get a single comment nothing got damaged. The only thing was somebody didn't like that they had cones on top instead of flower pots but the flower pots had been kind of a target in the past. So, you know, I'm not sure. So do you want the back out? Don't look at me. Lindley says yes. I think they're smart. As somebody who is a pedestrian in downtown it certainly makes it safer to cross the street when traffic is heavy when people don't have a good line of sight because there's parked cars, you know it just gives a pedestrian more confidence and it also is a traffic calming. We talk a lot about people speeding through downtown and they do slow down because they don't want to hit them. Yep. I get that they're controversial but the less so uses that as a pedestrian zone on a daily basis, they make a difference. Yeah, and less so now, honestly. Last year we put them out and there was no Hullabaloo whatsoever. If I recall with the accessibility grants that, hey, that's what's wrong. They talked about some sort of safety crosswalk kind of things as well. And so if I don't think that's inconsistent with that study. So you'd like to see the back out. Okay. Denise? Yep. Dave? No comment. I don't. Carry the way. No, no, I just, no comment. Okay. Well, there's three of us. So I'll let the road, no, they can put them back out. I'll tell. In the record, please state Chris's ball bouts will be being put back out. Yeah, I will say that. Chris's ball bouts back out. Yeah, last year was fine. And like I said, Penny, we actually knocked on it, you know, went to this ball thing and asked her, hey, do you mind if we spray this crosswalk? Do you mind if we do this or that? So she was tickled that we asked and it kind of worked out. I think it really drew good attention to that first crosswalk when you come into Bethel, especially right there, it kind of slowed people down. And so I do think that. And the other one, I'm not sure. I guess it just brought, you know, the one on the corner. I guess, I guess the only negative thought that I have is we already don't have enough parking in town. And by the time you put those out, you've taken up probably three parking spots. You're not taking up parking. You don't take up parking. You cannot park that close to a pedestrian crosswalk. It is illegal. So just because people do, it's not a good reason to say you're taking up parking. It's illegal to park that close. We looked at this time and again with AARP when they were doing this grant and that's just not, it's not an argument. Yeah, the one by Langs I think is in the striped area. But anyways, well, the good news is what we also did was I did reach out to Kelly Stoddard for last year and said, look, we're not putting out all the bulb outs. Is another town interested in having some of them? And she was gonna reach out. So we had take, use the ones we were gonna use and then, but I'm not sure if anyone came and got them, but we did offer a portion of them back to her in case another town wanted them. So, but yeah, I'll let Morgan and AJ know. So they can do that. Yeah, I'd honestly had forgotten all about them, Lindley. I was so focused on the crosswalks and my promise that they would be painted before Memorial Day and look good on Labor Day that I totally spaced on the bulb outs. We had a brief conversation and that was it, but we did get some compliments. I know there was hope to let them go. Yeah. I think the compromise that you've come up with of putting them on the side of oncoming traffic, so it's not on every crosswalk, it's two. It's still protecting pedestrians. It's not cutting down the same amount of lost space. It's a good compromise. I think so, and I think that's why we didn't get, because the couple of years before that were brutal when a page of things, not all we were publishing. Sorry, that's no problem, we'll let them know. They'll work it in their schedule. So thanks for that, Lindley. I totally had, just slipped to buy it and it wasn't even on my radar anymore, so thank you. Okay, any other business necessary to come before the board? Hearing none, I'm going to entertain a motion to adjourn. Second. All those in favor? All right.