 I'll watch for him just that we'll have probably have to put anything he has says in under no an executive public comment public comment okay well 701 I'll call the meeting to order Dave you want to go through the list again who's here sure we have select board members flow Smith Justin Lawrence John Quinn Dave Delcore from the Times Argus Bill Gentilly who is on your appointment list Bill Wolf the police chief Diane Isabel Town Treasurer and and now we have James Kaltrera who is another one of your appointments okay any additions or changes to the agenda yes I had a I wanted to add a conversation about reopening the building what our plans are for that and also we'll probably have a executive session under personnel okay any public hearing none treasurer report Diane okay I have received the fourth quarter bill from school and this is always the adjustment bill because it's the last bill of the quarter and I've got good news with it for the first three quarters I have paid $1,675,874 and $0.29 for school payments the last quarter is going to be $1,612,245 which is a savings of $63,633.84 so that is good news for us okay anything else no the tax money has been coming in and I've had a lot of people I've been really looking at the checks and a lot of people who normally come can have been mailing the checks so so far so good the money is starting to come in okay anything else no anything else is on the agenda okay thank you very much Diane James Kaltrera private road name herring farm drop yes how's it going it's a going I'm with you this is pretty new to everybody huh yes it is just where is the road you want to name herring farm drive it's uh route 12 south headed south it's almost across from the uh fresh tracks winery it used to be where Michael hearing had his farm stand and what are you doing there so you plowed the field or somebody has no we actually sold the field yeah you know we actually sold that to Matt Morris and uh and uh Muriel Morris and now he's he's plowing the field but we're on the knoll so we're going to be putting four houses on that knoll okay so this is a a drive for a development then yep yep there's already an entrance that was already you know pre-existing you know for the herring farm uh and his farm stand and so we're going to be coming in off that been stated approved and everything and uh and then it's going it's going to turn left and it's going to head north about 330 feet and then there'll be three driveways off of that one driveway okay um any comment on this Brad uh tom has checked with the state as far as uh the suitability of the name they have no issues with it and at 911 now Dana is there um is there any requirements as far as the quality of the road goes for this uh not so much the name but just for the road well this will be a private road and so at this juncture in time there is not um the um they're using an existing access on route 12 am i right james so it's yes correct yep and and we are going to be upgrading the access to meet state highway approval right because that's that's what we had to do and the state's been involved with that yes they have yep good uh the the private road itself launched off the route 12 is that going have you talked to the fire department and all those other people that would have some input as far as the width and the uh yeah we went to the state of vermont about that you know the state highway highway transportation they came out met with us they issued us the permit along with our you know that actually uh comes in with our actual subdivision so they're you know fully aware and we're fully aware of what we have to do have you talked with the berlin fire department well when we had to send out the actual subdivision stuff we had to mail something to the fire department to the police department everybody letting them know what was going on okay then uh do i hear a motion on this a motion to approve the the private road game second any other discussion hearing that all in favor i i motion carries dana is uh flow on flow is on yes she's muted however mm-hmm well well i guess uh i guess uh james you've got your name thank you very much and mr herring appreciates it too okay have a good day thank you you have a great evening thanks for all your time thank you take care bye okay next is phil gently on the footbridge on irish hill and phil is on with us um i spoke to you last time about the footbridge in irish hill i also there was a suggestion regarding the snowmobile club i have spoken with dav rollo from the bary thunder chickens bary town thunder chickens and he uh indicated that they'd be willing to help in any way that they could they do not have a connection to irish hill at the moment right phil go ahead yeah i'll can can you hear me all right yes okay good well thanks for taking the time uh i guess i guess where we're at with this is tom willer and i went up uh to check the darling hill footbridge there and it's more than just a footbridge it's a horse bridge it's a bike bridge it's a technically i guess an atv bridge uh and i don't know dana did you get the picture sent out to john and justin and brad and flow and all did they see the pictures of the bridge i may not have so um no okay all right well uh the condition of the bridge is uh pour it best uh i'll send pictures out to all of you after the meeting i do have pics and i sent them to dana but i'd like you to take a look at them seriously there's a huge safety issue involved right now with that bridge uh i don't have the dates on when that bridge was built uh you know it's got concrete abutments it's got nice steel uh girders across but all the wood at this point is is fairly rotted there's a couple places that's broken through uh tom and i went up with bill clark who we all know bill he's a local guy that does a lot of contracting and you know it's quite a bit about these things he thought it was unsafe so hence uh i talked to dana we posted a sign on it i don't know what are the town's liability is on this bridge but it is worrisome that the bridge is unsafe at this point and it's uh used at your own risk at this point uh so that's that's where we're at presently uh my feeling is that with the uh corvid-19 activity uh and the use of not only the loop around berlin pond but public lands in general and townlands that we should probably look at repairing that bridge as soon as possible now it's it would be wonderful to have partnerships in this uh my hesitancy on the partnerships would be uh a delay in getting this attended to as soon as possible there is a lot of usage you know with people doing stay at home and trying to figure out new activity i mean i counted yesterday john you live on the pond too i don't know if you're outdoors yesterday i counted over a hundred people and justin you're on the pond uh you know there were well over 100 people walking around the five mile loop when i don't know how many people what's that john when i drove to the store i counted there were 11 cars at the bottom of the irish shell gate and 23 and down along the road and parking lots so we easily get 100 people yesterday yeah a lot of people and uh i do worry about that bridge and i would love to get a partnership going and i think either justin or or or uh verdana you mentioned that the thunder chickens we we as a berlin conservation commission had not come to an agreement or decision on whether you know a snowmobile trail up and over well would be appropriate i mean we're open to it but we haven't made a decision as a commission on whether that would work or not i know that the sense was wouldn't it be wonderful for to have a trail like that in the winter time to go up darling hill and cross the ridge and connect with northfield uh that would be i'm sure the thunder chickens and many other people that use vast trails would love to see that uh you know and would take quite a bit of work in coordination uh so as far as reaching out to other people i think it's something we can do in the meantime i think we've got an immediate safety issue and i don't know dane if you talk to uh rob or anyone about liabilities but we should probably take that under consideration given that we're providing a bridge and it's unsafe as a town so well if you don't mind just yeah i wanted to kind of interject um and i wanted to ask what you knew um it was my understanding years ago when that uh when the town purchased that parcel of property the darling road is open to isn't it already open to atvs and snow trams as long as the vectors are there and there's the other piece as well right right um so that i don't think really would require much of a part i mean it's already there that i mean the other trails or whatever it's good to have isolated trails for walking and isolated trails for right maybe no i agree i agree yeah i know that i've i've actually been up there on atvs with the snowmobile clubs and they have the manpower and then like a huge like all the resources where they would they'd we'd be able to make things happen much quicker um i understand the immediate piece for sure because it is a safety issue um but i just wanted to make sure that i mean i'm the only problem is just whether or not we can connect which is an issue that is outside of that right right we were approached probably 18 months ago maybe longer maybe shorter and we haven't uh we haven't connected again and i'll have to go back and look at the two gentlemen's names that came from the vast and the thunder that was one one of the people Dana referenced the rule right and we were open to that and we it never went any further i know that they got the the select board's approval to go under the interstate and come up to your land and do all that and i think i think linking it all together makes a lot of sense and would be i think a partnership is great i think the the board is presently composed of the membership we've had a discussions and to be honest with you the discussion wasn't so much about vast trails uh because we feel as though vast trails in some respects are well used and it's during snow season so you don't have the erosion and mud issues we think that when wildlife comes we've been told and i think you know tom willard's been part of this discussion that vast trails actually wildlife understand what they are and and uh coexist with them in in ways that we didn't think about before as opposed to the other issue we have up on that hill is mountain bikers and we felt like we've have to go slow with the mountain bikers because they've actually had some uh renegade trails cut in there and i'm i'm using tom willard as a resource not only for our guys historically what's gone on in berlin but he's an avid hunter whether it's turkey deer whatever and tom willard's are the belief that mountain bike trails the way they switch back and go back and forth create more wildlife habitat interruption than vast trails do uh deer and large animals and those they vast trails are like super highways and they know how to navigate them and stay away or do whatever whereas these trails that just switch back and forth uh they you know they interrupt porcupine turkey fox you know you go on with all the small wildlife and uh you know we think that that's probably more of a problem than a vast trail we just haven't connected with those folks at vast and we're not and i think i'd like to see a connection whether it goes i'm not sure what the landowner thinks on the other side of darlin but the other thought was to go across the ridgeline connect and then go down shaw outdoor center and end up in norfolk out by norwich university yeah which is you know i think as a conservation commission i think most of us believe we want to get people outside we want people to use our public lands we want people to understand and be in nature and i think with the corvid activity i think we're going to find more and more people discovering that you know berlin's a little bit of a gem with these lands we have and i think we should you know uh average not advertise it but promote it in such a way that there's good stewardship of the land and i'm not opposed to vast at all uh myself i don't know if every board member feels this way but we've we've talked about it and we've we've had a sense that that could work well so i think we're getting a little off topic here but yeah i think there should be a partnership and we can explore that now that the immediate need is that bridge needs to be addressed as soon as possible now obviously we went tom willer and i went ahead and at no cost to the town we had bill clark look at it we've got the estimate i don't know if you all saw that with the the estimate on the materials and the labor to replace that bridge and i think dana did it come in about five grand for something do you know dana it was around five thousand dollars i remember from the last meeting i think dana is dana muted right now i think he is he looks he almost looks frozen oh no he's blind okay it seems like john justin and i are the only ones oh brad there he is brad's movement uh so i think i think we've got so here you know approach mind me you know my question what oh sorry okay i think that i think the issue that the select board raised at the last issue was given the immediate needs the financial constraints on both town coffers and just where things are at in general that we have some concern about where we're going to find the five thousand dollars and should we be spending it on bridge repair and i guess my response to that would be uh we do have conservation funds in an account and this would be something that uh we think as a conservation commission would be aptly spent to address a safety issue and getting people outdoors and using the trails now it doesn't preclude the fact that if we were to spend the money we couldn't uh you know ask these other users of the trail whether it's vastly whoever else to help uh you know to help fund it uh and be part of the project uh so that's maybe an approach but i do i do think that there's an immediate need and i don't know how we go about i would hate to see us getting a partnership and a year from now still be talking about how we're going to repair the bridge when i agree i was just curious if i mean i didn't see any specs on the bridge or anything like that so one of my things was if this were to develop down the road i'd hate to see where we'd have to maybe put more money into a bridge again or do a completely different bridge what it was it built wide enough with the idea in mind that you may be able to use side by sides or snowmobiles to to go over the bridge i don't i don't think i don't know how wide a groomer is a machine could get across it as bill i don't know what you trail behind to do uh i mean how wide like it would you would probably i think you'd need probably a six or an eight foot wide bridge minimum oh you would okay i know i know that sometimes bellivance i don't know if you've ever talked to them or anything and it may actually save money with the bridge they're old truck beds that are all steel frame huge they could lay that down they'll lay those right down and then you'll deck them yeah that's a good that's a good point i mean if if we could find partnerships like that and make a few phone calls i'm all for it i mean we've already got the we've already got the structure there although i did notice that you know when that stream is raging and i i guess well maybe last winter it did it did erode a little bit of the concrete abutment on the east side where the stream comes and hits it but i'm not i'm i'm certainly i'm i don't think the commission would be opposed at all to looking at it a different way than having a a local contractor build out and use the girders that are there and make a wooden but anything as far as wit uh yeah i i don't think there's an issue with that either other than the the way it was built and the abutments that are there fit the rails that were placed and whether you could expand over it i'm not sure i think right now we're looking at a about a 60 60 to 72 inch width on it with that wouldn't be enough for what you're talking about that would only that would only be a trail behind but i mean it accommodates machines and accommodates atvs right now and horses and bikers and you know uh so i mean we could look at that and i'm certainly not not opposed to any of that any partnership we can get great i do think that the money we have in the conservation fund would be uh however we decide to go about this i think it would be prudent for the board to go ahead and you know allow the conservation commission to put some of the money out of our account towards this bridge we really feel like this is something that you know we believe in is important to get people you know up on the on the on the town lands and public lands we've protected up there and have have usage of that um so so so from my perspective i'm fine with using the conservation funds for that but i think just and brings up a good idea with the snow machine club and i'd love to see an expansion of that just to as you said phil to get more people out on the trails right we've certainly been enjoying them since we've been in the area and uh if we could you know take a day or two to coordinate and see if we can uh get some answers from vast or you know just try to you know explain what we're doing to see what the what the options are i'm comfortable with going ahead and voting on um you know using conservation money but also at the same time in parallel talking with the vast people to see if there's something that we can coordinate on in in the in the short term as well yeah i'm not sure what where the vast is where they are thinking the trail goes from justin where are they thinking of coming from you up to darling entrance darling hill and how are they navigating the issue uh prior i think what the piece that we're missing would be getting from actually josh walker's land on black road right down that section of road um i think that i mean especially as i think that we've we've had some good experience with the vast trail in berlin corners recently i mean i don't think it's nearly as impactful as people thought right and so if we can get through that section then it can it can tie the trailhead and that together and that's what'll i mean there'll be i think we may see a huge uptick obviously in snowmobile traffic if we do that right i i i can see where it would be best you know it's going to be have to be a board board decision i would i would assume so i don't know what that would do for a delay um like i'm i'm completely out with john on the fact that i think you guys should be able to spend that money to build a footbridge i don't know that we're going to be able to immediately talk with the vast people and say yeah that we're there in because one of the there would be money for that so if if we had um if the whole trail system was already in place yeah vast would actually pay for that potentially uh but because it's not there what we can utilize is some of the non-financial resources that these clubs use yeah but they're not going to want to do a lot without somewhat of a commitment of knowing they're going to be able to use that obviously so there are they are they working with like qualifal and landowners or whoever owns that like piece now to get to they're they're really trying to figure out a way and ultimately at the end of the day it's no different than the snowmobiles if the if the select board were to revisit that and decide that it made sense to to be able to connect that for the berlin corners we could potentially hold a hearing or whatever it may be to try and connect that right off black road without getting any additional landowner permission well i think that's something that you know uh the conservation commission is open to discussions but i don't i'm not sure myself or anyone else has the time or inclination to initiate right and figuring that the figuring that piece out i think what we'd like to do is i mean at this point because we have a lot of new members and everything and we haven't met because of the you know we've canceled our meetings to this point i have a couple members that only meet in person you know some aren't able to get on and figure out how to zoom and things like that so we're kind of in limbo but i think because of the makeup of the commission we are open to having people come present to us but i don't know there's a lot of energy to initiate research and kind of developments that's that's fine i all i'm saying is i don't mind getting some people that can get in contact with you or touch a base and and i know in the fact that all i was thinking was if you're gonna build a bridge i personally would like to see it built so that maybe potential future uses other than that i think you should build some money and i think it's a good idea to replace the structure of this non potentially dangerous but i just think that we should keep in mind that i believe i wouldn't be shocked if that keeps coming around for the next couple of years with the town and and i think it'll it'll have growing support yeah and i think i'll reach i'll call bellivance i don't care i know why don't you do why don't you do that because i think a wider bridge makes sense in the long run because of usage and i think we're all going to see a change in activity and usage with with the current activity in general what's going on in the mindset and the re you know the uh you know reworking our social networks and how we're going to deal with all this i i just think the you know i think people are going to find the outdoors a valuable asset now that they a lot of people didn't know was there i think we're going to see more people using these things public lands and i think we're all about getting people outdoors so it makes sense to have you know to build for the future in the sense that there could be other activity whether it's horseback riding or or vast or just more more activity in general i mean i i you know i've been around i go to a lot of parks and i know that that bridge that's there is is is you know it's not a very adequate bridge for uh traffic in a way obviously it's not used very often but when it's used on on on days like we've had like yesterday uh as john said how i don't know how many you said 11 cars were parked on the road and in that little parking lot there i didn't even bother i mean my wife wouldn't even walk around the crime yesterday because she said i don't walk on weekends there's too many there's hundreds of people i don't want to get close to them so anyway uh i think uh that's a lot of good suggestions justin and i think we ought to look at that i think right here from both you and john and i haven't heard from brad but it sounds like you're not uh you're not at all opposed to uh going forward and using some conservation funds let's just figure out of the safest way to get a crossing of that brook is you know hopefully in a timely manner this summer and maybe bellivance and other people come forward and we can have a unified effort here i mean so so do we need to are you looking for a motion on this dana or brad or turn get a motion we use on this say that again make a motion all right i moved to uh what was it up a move to approve the uh footbridge on irish hill up to five thousand dollars wasn't it i think it was yeah i've gained it has it in front of them i don't have it in front yeah it's forty six hundred yeah here's that i'll second that okay any further discussion uh what is uh phil um how is the uh how is the bridge constructed just two stringers with board to cross it's uh it's two uh poured concrete abutments with two it looks like uh steel rails like railroad ties going the length of probably 14 feet to cross from concrete to concrete and then it's wooden it's bolted on wooden decking on top of the rails and it has uh probably a four-foot uh uh handrail on it uh so that's where it is right now i'll send you some pictures i think that would clarify the bridge for all of you that haven't been up there seen it recently i can send you the pictures i took two weeks ago um when well i see the picture uh i'm trying to think how i'm trying to picture the bridge in my mind so basically it's just two two roads tight rails across the stringers and they have a deck going the other way across the stringers correct the decking the decking that's on there was three inch six inch planks three inches it wasn't pressure treated and a lot of them are that soft type of wood that could break any minute you know it looks strong but it's given in a couple spots it's rotted right through well um i would say from my point of view it would be to take in uh at least talk with so-called club in the 80s i think adam lane was president one time he's manager down at tractor supply okay and i think they would go up there sometime this week or this weekend and and maybe talk to them briefly about it and if they act uh able to uh get right to it so say i'm probably out of just taking me okay uh what do you think justin you think we could get have a meeting maybe on saturday if those interested or over the weekend and all walk up and take a look and talk about a little bit well i i'll tell you josh walker's been a huge factor and putting me in front of a bunch of people and talking about that he's a pretty active atv and snowmobile at you know rider and he's the one that has all those connections so i can touch with him i don't have a problem with it but i think okay the free labor is probably the biggest thing if that's that's a that's a huge piece of it you know here is um so and it would be really great if we could all get i can i can yeah i can get i'll reach out to you and i will absolutely uh i'll try to coordinate that as early as this evening okay that'd be great because i think the more the more eyes we get on it the better off will be on a bigger picture and you know if we could coordinate something for when people can get there on i mean this weekend the roger hill says we're gonna have measurable ploughable snow friday night and saturday so it's a good weekend we don't have to garden because there'll be too much snow on the garden so we could walk up there and take a look at it and decide you know if josh could come you could come i could jump you know whatever yeah i think i could get some probably some of the the barry town officers to come too yeah i i think it's a good idea let's all take a look at it and as i said the more the more thoughts and ideas but knowing that you guys have uh approved some funds toward it from the from our uh conservation fund that's that's good to know and then we'll take it from there and as as brad said if it if it can happen sooner and there's a danger then we should address it and get it done and then hopefully uh you know it'll accommodate what what future needs there'd be at the bridge you know maybe we can do it all at once all right well thanks for your time appreciate it thank you in the other discussion all those in favor all right all right motion carries thank you very much you're welcome brad for thank you so i don't know dana i don't know if you saw this but flow sent a message on the side dana do you have me muted i can see when i unmute my volume is up yeah i i did and she is not muted but she's showing on my screen is muted same here i just sent that back to her so i'm i did mention flow are you hearing us or can you speak no i don't hear it hearing but i'm not showing her muted now she's unmuted now yeah but i'm not hearing her no me either okay but as far as far as my keen technical ability i think she's unmuted thank you've done everything you can dana okay um let's see here the budget adjustment adjustment suggestions that was um we had that discussion at the last meeting and you asked me to speak with department heads on items that can be either eliminated or postponed in light of the financial situation caused by covid this is a list of items that i've discussed with department heads um tim davis diane and myself came up with these and so it's a list of suggestions for your review and this list um gives about a 10 reduction if you utilize each of those um so what are we talking about here for total savings um well 10 of the budget budgets three million two thirty five one eighty one so actually be three hundred twenty five thousand et cetera yeah again how much is that on the tax rate are you talking to me i can't hear you how much is that on the tax rate you say well fifty thousand is one how much is the three hundred how much would the three hundred thousand uh on the tax rate how much would it save us so i would have to say that would be six cents because fifty seven i think fifty thousand remembering that this is only we only control twenty four percent of the tax rate right just a universal portion i've also oops sorry go ahead would you go over the uh where the savings would be i'm sorry brad just say that again please go over where the savings would be um it would be um let me just read these down under the police department we have an open um that's an eighty thousand dollar a year cost if we were to delay filling that position for a period of six months that would be forty thousand um if we delayed filling the highway superintendent until november first that would be twenty nine thousand other items in the highway department is chloride reducing it by eight thousand i'm at me culvert materials by five tim says we're in pretty good shape with like put off cars so long it's like um but can you hear me you just don't need them or you don't need to fill that position because you don't hire anybody that's the thing so most of your major savings is coming from labor and that is most of it with the exception of the highway uh the police department cruiser delaying purchasing that for a year and also reducing the highway equipment and structures um cutting that in half from two hundred fifty thousand to one twenty five thousand well how so i don't believe this richison road and uh richison road is is the project um if we had 125 i am applying for a grant for that um according i have spoken with the engineer and we probably could get another year out of it i don't feel right about leaving any year but if we have to um we just may have to i mean to me richison road um that is no different than the the fabric on uh darling hill it's a public safety issue and i don't really think we should be putting that off too much more i mean it's been on the front of the over here for a while it should be cut by now so yeah i just didn't understand when i looked at that one in particular i mean that's a that's a 50 reduction yeah and he said you know possible negotiation for lower cost culvert replacement on richison road what else is coming the entire original budget was not entirely richison road right there was a highway equipment in higher yeah so how much of that was highway equipment and how much of that was say richison road and other structures the original highway equipment in there was 75 000 and what do you think the possible how likely like how would it be that we'd be able to negotiate that to a lower cost culvert um or is that just optimism i i'm i don't know you know i saw him i'm hoping it's not like mera lake road which was very expensive and you could float the queen mary through it um but again i mean it depends on you know the the permitting and the state requirement there i mean that's a major stream um so is there some likelihood yeah i'd like to think so well nana if we take in uh if we take in on the richison road project how is that going to affect the state share of the project anyone at the moment it doesn't because we don't have a commitment from the state on that that is i've applied for this will be the second year or maybe it's the third uh that i've applied for a grant for richison road the first year they gave me a grant for mera lake road last year they did not give me a grant um i keep trying until maybe i get a yes so um but it's it's not like a bridge replacement which is another slightly different program my my hope is is that there's some restart america money or or something to you know get the economy moving once things open back up and i'm hoping that there'll be a number of infrastructure grant projects that could potentially come down the road and maybe be used for things like this i think that would be a great yeah that's speculation i mean i don't know that but i mean in any time then the economy um has a has a real issue what happens from the federal government they you know they put out you know grants for infrastructure type projects to to try to boost jobs and get people working again we're keeping a close eye on what opportunities are out there and seeing where we can fit into some of those um again i don't know about this project yet how much money do we have saved for this project so far i didn't think to look before the meeting um diane i don't think we have anything saved for this we don't have anything because last year we were going to do the project and we ended up having to buy the excavator in a trailer that's right yeah so we spent it on that they had an accident we bought new equipment every year we've been trying to put aside the 75 000 was an attempt to start putting aside some money so we could pay cash for equipment and so far we have not been successful because we've raided the piggy bank everywhere but you don't have um capital reserve funds that are specifically targeted for specific things like we do but for this project we have i think we have a very small amount in a highway um reserve project i don't think it's any more than four or five thousand dollars diane knows better but um that may that may be one thing in the future we want to explore just from uh causing harm to ourselves sometimes and it's all it's all you know in good good reasoning but um that this is just very common across multiple towns right that um yeah something always comes up unfortunately and we end up using money and then we don't have any for for the intended use um right i think i think we've been trying to do this for like three years now and one thing or another has happened right so i guess um i'm not i'm you know you might not be ready to act tonight and certainly you have a little bit of time to ponder this um and we certainly could i to be honest i am trying to stay away from um hitting um salaries i want to have a very last problem i want to share that i joe stop's gonna be getting with me just uh so he's gonna send me the their new proposed budget this week and next thursday one week from this thursday there's a board of directors meeting um and so he's looking at about a 10 percent so that's another 30 roughly what 30 000 from the fire department yeah yeah and i have to really check because that's voted separately we're obligated you know so it might have to be we might have to borrow from our undesignated for if you want an immediate um result later okay well you'll figure out how we need to navigate that right it's not impossible it's not impossible no dana one of one of the things that i'd like to understand a little bit better um the delay of filling um the highway position till november 1st i'd just like to understand and maybe you haven't had time for this yet but you know what's what's the plan what does that mean because it is the the foreman position right or the superintendent position whatever um furlin calls the position um how would how would you how would you go about running that team and what what would it look like over the summer and what types of things wouldn't we be able to do i guess being being new to the board and being new to burlin i i always like to understand as much as possible before making these types of decisions sure i think that obviously that is not a very um appetizing um thing to do i think that if we were to do it um and it has happened i am told in the past i would need someone appointed as the foreman um from the highway team and work with them closely to get their schedule um i'm thinking that three people um it would be easier working with three people in the summer months in the fall months than the winter months um also maybe the another advantage is if you have a foreman learning um i i think our staff is very good at knowing what their jobs are but if you have them learning a little bit more i'd have to take a more active part in the um administrative items such as the payroll etc um but do you think that in that interim time you'd have any ability to just be able to oversee and make i mean i'm sure that you know nobody wants to be micromanaged and those guys are probably efficient at their job would it be a lot for you to be to know where everything was sitting and what needed to get done on a weekly basis and make sure it got done or would that be just a daunting task i don't even well i i think that i would certainly have to put vote more time to what now which is fine i can do that i'm gonna need much more communication with the highway department right now tim and i communicate often um and but as far as directing the day-to-day activity and making sure that day-to-day issues get done and i'm not a micromanager i'd like to you know trust that people do things and but i would know if they're not um obviously so um i'm not sure if i answered your question but yes yeah yeah i think you did i was just curious how you would how you would handle it or if you even couldn't i think that your management style from what i've seen is something that would probably be able to accommodate that once you knew what the weekly or daily tasks would typically be yeah i mean i like to work as a team and and i think that we have a staff that could work with me so um i think the other i offer that to you yeah i think the other thing for us to consider is over the over the next couple of months social distancing isn't going away so maybe you know especially after the the town highway crew did have reservations about continuing to work through this crisis uh maybe it's not a bad idea to cut down for for this one summer to to see you know and have a smaller have a smaller group um maintain the roads for the summer and see see how we do it's a possibility um and again you know to get a highway superintendent it will i would suspect it would take a while for someone to um get their routine down and get familiar with the community etc well i'm not finding dandy but all you all it takes is one really good storm you're down a man i'm sorry brad what you say i said that's fine and dandy not not in tim's position but all it takes one good storm being down a man trying to fix a road you're absolutely right so i can't see the real advantage of not fulfilling that position i mean tim's willing to help train by taking him around if you don't take that opportunity then you're going to be out on that experience if anything i'd rather see if you get to work a couple more months we could look elsewhere sure brad you were cutting out a little bit there so i couldn't hear the last sentence or two that you had said um well the thing if it is is that if uh i was worth approaching tim to see if he would just stay on for a couple of months to get through the summer trouble of course is you don't want to keep extending it out two months at a time but have you felt the r or p are the um the uh job applications yet data yes um as a matter of fact the job application period close i have um i believe i have seven applicants um which i will be talking to you about but i wanted to get how are we gonna do that first well um and as a side note how we're going to do the interviews and and how much the board wants to be involved etc okay um um well is there more on the budget adjustment brad i couldn't hear the last thing you said is there is there any more on the budget just i think we're on the right track i think we should probably um you know i'll review it i've reviewed the budget the past and and see if there's any other areas that we'd like the town administrator look well i'm just curious has the state has the state started doing anything with uh salary reductions or budget cuts um no yes and no um no from a budget reduction salary cuts but there has been a hiring freeze so no new positions created unless if they're approved by the secretary of administration that are directly related to the coven 19 response um and all unnecessary expenditures are asked to be put on hold for now that's the that's the guidance that's that's come out so far but um it it's a it's a it's a complicated uh big uh big environment especially with all the federal money coming in and everyone trying to get their arms around what the what the true you know target is what the projection is long term so um you know i i expect that more guidance will be coming out to agencies and departments um in the coming months as the legislature you know uh continues to try to get their arms around the issues well um um like i said i mean as far as the road foreman's position i'm not really in favor of not hiring someone because like i said it just takes one bit so hard when you're really screwed the other problem is is that you have ten willing to kind of park his strategies and keep the keep the uh workflow going would it make sense to kind of go through the the hiring process with the people that submitted applications and see uh where their wages might actually fall i mean is it possible that there's people in there that obviously wouldn't be hired on at the same prices we're currently paying does that make any sense it it makes sense um i believe that what you're offering for a salary you are not going to be able to get someone who is going to do the job you want for terribly lot less than what we have to talk about um the trouble is a specific skill set to that right was there a brand that did we might know more um after the may is it may 15th when taxes are due diane yes okay after after that we'll see where how we're impacted then um in the meantime i'll be glad to take a look at other things um if you decide that we really should not delay the hiring of the um superintendent uh yeah this suggestions i don't know if it's me but i'm not hearing you awfully well brad and you haven't broken up too am i okay it must be my burlin not internet here that is your wi-fi out on drugs bro yeah so any more on the budget adjustment uh not from me no in your discussion no i see you're on here is there anything you want to speak to uh no i like i said we're trying to do our part to help out and um i would like to talk about the brun pond issue we've we've been out there we've been quite a presence i think john you've seen us out there i hope you see us out there we've been after quite a bit um you know we're encountering some hostilities from residents local residents but again my feeling is that this is good for people's mental health to be able to get out and take a walk on a nice sunny day and we are patrolling the area and making sure that emergency vehicles and other vehicular traffic can pass through there and if not we're addressing it but my feeling and i hope the board supports me on this is that i would like to take kind of a hands-off approach to this particularly now because quite honestly i mean it is it is very important for people to be able to have an outlet and that pond area is beautiful it's a very popular place to go for a walk um and i'd like to continue business as we're doing it currently i certainly support you and that i'm not i'm not aware of any um residential hostility but um you know that there's definitely been um an uptick in the number of walkers and you you lock people at home for seven weeks and that's bound to bound to get people outside just wanting fresh air so we we see people go by i don't think that they're doing anything wrong the people that are walking together you can usually tell that their families uh the people that aren't um it's a little bit of a pain in the butt or but you know we're all dealing with it because you can see them on each side of the road right they're trying to keep their distance and everyone i've seen including you know that the residents on the road understand and i think i think everything's going fine i've certainly seen you guys uh step up your presence on the road and it's appreciated okay thank you very much that's all i had general or ladies and gentlemen's i'll leave you thank you if i can figure out how to leave you i'll leave you okay um if there's nothing else on the budget adjustment suggestion um the um you suggested at the last meeting um that i include the the legal trails which i have and also it was a good suggestion to uh coordinate the um policy to include the zoning um i was a little um surprise it was very little said about um how a road basically it just kind of goes by the road standards which uh was something that the board voted on many years ago to the state standards which we have um and so i've kind of alluded to that in there and the last thing i think it was just mentioned about whether it made financial sense i think that's what you were saying um and my problem with that was that none of the roads make financial sense quite frankly um and and uh and the amount you know depending on unless it's a large commercial property um other than that residential it it it really doesn't impact us that much so again that doesn't need to be approved tonight or i'm willing to have your suggestions i guess i mean i need help well i'm saying that um you know the uh like well the herring farm road i mean if if he would expect that i'm taking over at some moment and he really thought through how much of work in case you put it in the whole the kind of trap of heavy traffic fire engines and that kind of thing yeah i i think that i wrote myself a note to talk to the fire department james said he had um sent them things but i'm going to be talking to the fire department as well um and again i'm thinking that the town really just wants to maintain those standards that you approve that the state suggested and if it needed to be upgraded it would be incumbent upon the owner of the road um to do so and i know that i know that they definitely um the fire the fire department's definitely have the standards they they want to see and that ingress and egress so i'm i'm surprised i'll talk to i mean i that when james got on i was shocked that he didn't hear anything from the burlin fire department even on that i would have totally anticipated them having some sort of response or input um because typically they they want to have a especially with a new road or another residence they want to have a plan of action on how they can approach it they want to know how they can get their truck in there should something happen and there's an obligation there yeah i agree i thought i think i just conversation i'd like to have a conversation with the fire chief um Keith well and i can bring it up too i mean i'm going to be that meeting next week from this thursday too and i can talk to joan keith about it as well okay great i'll let you do it then so i won't you know with zoning yes other than other than saying that the road how how would i put it here um i would think that you could uh determine if the town with town standards as well as consistent with the town's zoning code um the zoning code as related to roads and too many pieces of paper in front of me i think um talked about roads being developed in a subdivision um a subdivision or and pu d whatever that is and i should have i should know what that is but the planned unit development thank you will require construction of a new extended or upgraded road and so it's um i think that the code probably should have said uh in with town standards as adopted by the board um and we have adopted standards i think again i think we're kind of almost gearing into the private road because there's a difference like most of the zoning grad has been around a private road development that the town will then take over not a public road that we already own so so there's a couple of pieces there i just i mean there are a couple of key key roads well i mean well i guess i guess some of them are already class three roads where there's potential for future development right in the four corners general area but i would think that you could just tie it in more or less with the widths i mean the the biggest thing is you know the line of sight you know you look at that you look at the road bed you look at all of that but to me when i when i'm thinking about it it's it's really just it's the safety piece of getting in and out and the widths that are associated with their current zoning um more so more than more than the state specs and i mean because the the state specs for a class three road are irrelevant with the road that we're bringing from class four to class three um it's irrelevant to that because it's grandfathered am i wrong dana or am i right rather whatever based on what we had looked at about a year ago when you look at the where is it i don't know if it's even in here um the the municipalities if it's a class if it's currently a class four road municipalities according to one of the titles in the vermont statues uh somewhere in bsa 19 i believe um if it's currently a class four road their grandfathered in and can automatically they can be upgraded to a class three even in their current form so if it's a nine foot wide class four road and we're doing any sort of maintenance to it or anything like that there's no reason we wouldn't have it be a class three for starters because that all we're doing is costing ourselves revenue we would generate from the state but and that's why because of that i know that i know we can you can upgrade it so i think that's what i guess makes it a little bit different with the zoning because we're already going to have the we're already going to have the typically the width there unless it's been turned over to a trail so there really is a lot to this policy i would like to see the policy i mean i think we can make it pretty simple um and it doesn't necessarily need to be tied to revenue but i think it could be tied to dwelling units which would be the ingress and egress piece for the fire departments and essential services and then you know when i even when i when i think about the black road piece i mean the town right now where it's costing us revenue to even though it's only a trial and i get why we didn't i understand everything about it the dynamic of it all but it is costing the town money when it could be a class three road for it not to be a class three road if we're going to even consider maintaining something so that's the whole reason i want the policy is so that it's clear concise and we in here's why we upgraded it because we you know i thought maybe there would be a rational thought process behind well if we have three dwelling units and they average two hundred thousand dollars a piece like you mentioned um but you know it sounds like it's probably just more of a density factor that we want to consider is you know the more the further you go down a say a class four road if you go down it a half a mile and there's 15 houses on it theoretically there's a lot more traffic so there's going to be a lot more congestion issues and a lot more ingress and egress issues so if we had a policy that was tied to you know dwelling units or you know units in a pud per per per mile or some sort of formula i mean i think that would make sense i think we can overthink it a little bit and i think that would be the easiest way to make sure that our residents were safe that the land was developed to the point where somebody may look at it and go you know what that lands a little more valuable because i know berlin has this policy in place so if i bought this and i was able to get it zoned and approved and make it through this process it would become a class three road it's already a class four road so that's that's the thing does that you understand what i'm saying there i i understand what you're saying i guess uh and my my whole thing with this and i agree with you is to make it consistent so that we have something to look at and to stick with it and we've got you know yes you can you can make the class four road into a class three road um and and not stand by your rules and i'm that's what i think we need to avoid um that right you know we're putting in the end you know there's got to be a standard right now the standard that we have is the state standard if we and but we certainly could put um you know from a development standpoint if there's going to be homes developed we certainly can put number of dwelling units and i think this would be a great conversation with the fire department because we should be consistent with what they uh suggest right that's that's my point i mean just and that'll help you i think this whole thing's maybe an exercise and education for the entire board on how we probably want to plan moving forward as well i mean i'll just help me work with uh the fire department and rework that a little bit yeah and they they probably have a lot of the information that we need when it comes to um i mean i'm sure they know that it you know the ingress and egress pieces and the factors that you know the length of the roads with the number of units on it how that impacts it i mean they're going to have that more at their disposal than we are so we should try to utilize that yeah i think there's something in our in here that talks about that but and i would think that we could we could keep it i mean you know when i look at the the width of the driveways you know the width piece i think a lot of the state spec stuff is more what's under the road right it's more you know core sample you're right yeah but i think the dimensional aspect of the the state specs we could probably look at so the dimensional piece of the width um and the drainage maybe on the side would be would be the big factors that that would that's a great point and and the right away what we need for a right away exactly and do we already have it you know if we already have it which i think if it's still a class four road we must already have a right of way that will meet the class three standards wouldn't we um yes yeah so i think go ahead yeah yeah and so we would need to especially if it's a hydrologically connected segment yeah so um i think that is pretty much your road policies still work in progress yeah and i appreciate the advice um i'll uh my next stop will be the fire department okay not from me anyone else okay um approval board minute make a motion to approve the select board minutes of april 20th second any further discussion i'm just wondering who puts the minutes together uh the minutes are done by bethenny town she does that from the this recording and then i review them um to see if there's anything that i think should be added or or correct i you broke up word at the beginning there for a second data who did you say it was it's um we hire bethenny town has does them and she does them from this recording they're excellent i think i think they you know they're they're very thorough i think she she does an excellent job too certainly a lot better than i probably can do for me yes do we have a go all in favor hi hi motion carries uh town minister deported i don't have too much for you tonight i'm just um i did include some minutes from the planning commission for you to review as well as draft minutes from the public works um board and i've got to remind these committees to um let you know when their meetings are so that you had availability as your as a liaison to either attend or um the comment you could um other than that i guess i would like to talk about and we still don't know about a date of reopening the building um but i think it's good for us to decide what we're going to do when we reopen the building um it's worked fairly well with four of us because we don't go in each other's offices and we don't other than shouting at each other from the hallway um or or else we call each other tom and i talk a lot on the telephone um but i think that we need to come up with with a plan and i think we certainly can with using the guidelines that are permitted to us one issue that the clerk mentioned to me today is she is uncomfortable opening um if she doesn't have um a plexiglass guard in other words if you've gone into maple woods they have a they have a plexiglass barrier i guess a sneeze guard or or something like that diane has one in her office um which has really worked out quite well rosemary had said she would like one as well and corin um so i guess and i'm and i'm trying to be very careful with what money i spend but i just think i should go ahead and get that done but but to make you aware the town did not pay for mine mine was donated by wayne lamerton right to make you aware that i didn't buy anything so i don't i don't have a problem with the the plexiglass but i think you know as a as a as a rule for now um both both or everyone in the office should have a mask available um we do okay and that any anyone that comes in is required to have a mask as well i think yes i think you know that's that's just standard operating procedure for now um and i don't have a problem with the plexiglass guard if that makes her feel more comfortable but you know i think it's important that she she wears her mask when when there's other people in there and that they do the same right um and of course the other part of that is that she has not opened the office yet and we are having some requests yeah i didn't realize that it was my understanding that it was open by appointment um big uh it is not i i think we certainly need to have the place open i understand the issues that wayne brought up i talked to one of my friends that's a realtor uh and i said hey let me ask you a question if you were had a closing scheduled on a house in the in a town and uh he goes well we haven't had any problems i said have you closed on any houses or sold any in burrow hunt and he usually has a couple of listings and he goes now i go well if you couldn't do any title work uh what would that he's like oh that wouldn't be good so um i think i think right now um i had a conversation with wean earlier today on the phone for quite a while um and i think he brought up some fairly decent points in the process um with all the stimulus money that's going around currently a lot of people's incomes as of today have remained fairly level i know it's not it's not perfect it's not a great scenario but these businesses are drastically impacted and and sometimes if they don't have the access to maybe a line of credit or um they can't make a purchase or i mean the financially we're really impacting them by not being open um and and a lot of those transactions i mean all of those transactions a line of credit or refi uh a new purchase a sale those are all dependent on our um on our them them being able to do the title work and based on what i saw that i forwarded to the i think that maybe i just forwarded to you Dana and i apologize if that's all i did but what my attorney had sent me um it looks like that was in one of uh phil scott's orders as essential services it was april 17 should i mean they're able to be completely open and and running and i i get that i think maybe they should be on a limited basis and they you know someone needs to do title work you know i don't know you can do Calendly i don't know if you know any of those but i'd be happy to help you with that where people can schedule um schedule having someone come in there i mean there shouldn't be more than one person obviously going title work at a time and that i think the governor's um um the end of that he wrote on that specified uh the number of people that could be in the office and some of the procedures um to follow uh while someone was there and yes it would be by appointment um so so two things uh one um flow has been writing um off to the side and she'd like to see the the office open to paraphrase um what she has over there so you guys can take a look but also i think that office needs to open uh immediately and um you know just for the reasons that just mentioned alone i i did not know that they were they hadn't been open at this point i think it's i think we need to open it um and we can work on the safeguards the immediate see if guards should be the masks and gloves as she she feels comfortable but the plexiglass we should try to get on right away for her as well but okay we should all right i'll have a conversation with rosemary tomorrow about it um i you know rosemary does not work for me and which is why i was um wanted to chat with you okay yeah so my my thing would be do we have a safe do we have a place i mean because if if we get some sort of pushback or whatever someone's not necessarily comfortable with it um do you in your mind have any sort of idea on how we could keep some distancing uh any like recommended procedures based on how you know that office operates would it be uh that you know worst case scenario she goes and finds the records and brings them to a location in there somewhere or i mean how would we do that how i mean obviously i mean i am i'm not a i'm not an expert on how you do a title for us but um i'm rosemary has been very helpful with people as far as um emailing uh documents and and that blister cards blister cards and things like that um and i think that you could you could maintain social distance um i know she was concerned about someone touching the documents um obviously the uh the recordings um of deeds etc you i mean you have to yeah there's a case for putting everything online but um it's uh i don't know what else you can do i mean you know people have got to do this they've got to research things and yeah i mean we can ask that they wear gloves i mean that's not the end of the world i mean i think everyone has a different feeling on um you know whether you know someone should touch paper not touch paper touch boxes not touch boxes but again um we i mean we certainly could supply gloves we do have gloves to supply okay oh good yeah we do my personal thought is that if we supply gloves and we have masks there for everybody and we require people wear the masks we need to get this town open we need it needs to be running people people need to be able to make transactions and we have a lot of businesses in this town that those are the ones that are really going to hurt if they have a problem paying their taxes but honestly uh and and i agree i mean obviously diane and i have both had people that have had to have things notarized and with masks and things they have we've been able to do this we found a way and i even have people have paid me cash i find a way to make you know make that work i have found like today somebody wanted to receive i said wait outside i'll get you on and you know when everybody was happy yeah i think i i i mean i i think we should be open for records tomorrow if we can be and and if you do if you get if you my my thought behind it is if you get pushback or you find yourself in a situation where you don't you know you you can't relay that or whatever for the board i mean i'm fine with i'm available all week and especially with zoom we can have a special select board meeting or whatever we need to do to to figure this out all right well i just didn't want to overstep my bounds rosemary and i have a very good relationship and i'm sure we can work that out thank you um that's all i had brad on that dana how about the warrants we need to get the warrants approved oh thank you um we're having a several items that diane has sent you to be signed electronically that is stuck somewhere um one item i'm looking for especially is the approval of the liquor license you approved your last meeting i think we have a few warrants that have not come back and so i'm talking about tonight's warrants oh oh you mean to vote diane yeah yeah yeah i guess i forgot to put that on this okay i can't handle this i can't handle too much at once um so i guess we need to do that brad you're muted brad so i can't hear you brad can you unmute yourself let me see if i can help for a minute thank you help me yeah all right i moved to approval of warrant report number 20 g 20 in the amount of i'm going to get the amount here uh could you do you want me to read it it would you that would be helpful i will i've got it right here okay your glasses on i know i need my glasses thank you diane yep general fund accounts payable warrant 20 g 20 with checks 20176 to 20197 in the amount of 42,722 07 payroll warrant 2022 for payroll from April 2012 2020 to April 25 2020 paid on April 29 2020 in the amount of 41,248.95 so moved thank you thanks second thanks any other yeah i just wanted to make sure everyone did you see that uh text about some of the stuff in the office i just wanted to make sure everybody saw that and if anything uh popped up did you read your email that i sent out today brad was in reference to a text i got from current um it was just some some some suggestions and recommendations um one of the suggestions if i might barge in justin thanks thank you um was and i spoke with rosemary about this um when you come into the town office in the vestibule at the front door there in back of the bulletin board there's a window goes into the um where corinne's office is and they had suggested perhaps moving the bulletin board and using that window so people would not have to come in to the office um an issue we have with that i've got to somehow figure out how people can get to diane um and i really can't have diane running back and forth to the window um the other issue that corinne is concerned about as you know is the floor in in the office that has broken tiles um she is concerned about the asbestos that i had verified and had the state look at it and they were not concerned um and then of course um there is the wall issue um which is going to be quite expensive and in light of where we are um i was going to just see if i could have that window repaired and um i hate to keep putting things off and off but i'm not sure what else other choices we have so i think that's what justin was saying yeah yeah more or less um i just wanted to make sure everybody saw that saw the concerns uh obviously we can't do anything with it because but i right now um but i wanted to make sure everybody saw that and just had an opportunity to look at it because there was some of the points like we brought up we already knew um i don't think the wall was on there um i think maybe not i think that wall is something we definitely do maybe not expanding at this point like we had talked about but i definitely need to look at uh i mean it's it's leaning in a little bit whether it's structural or not we do have i mean i think we need to get a less costly repair because we do have insurance money on that on have we received that yet or no they're waiting for us to move um so i i think we i guess i don't like to say i think it's a good idea for karen and rosemary to to be able to petition off their office at some point and i i've always thought that about that office way before covid for security type standpoint it's just not set up conducive to that um i mean in all reality in all reality you could probably save a lot of this burden and just say if somebody wants to doesn't need a receipt wants to drop off a tax payment or they want to move stuff couldn't we just do it right through the door somehow well they do diane does have customers come to her door i have about a third of them we can i mean we could maybe change that into a window i think we'd have to do something about getting people out of the weather um well i'm just talking the front door at the town clerk's office i mean you could almost change that door and do a transaction right through there i mean they must make a door where you can slide stuff in and through well or even do like a dutch door i suppose um but again like a man again people that i've seen the check a lot of people like to hand it to me they see my face they see i got it even if they don't want to receipt they like that um and a lot of people if we can make signage on the outside or whatever to come to my office around the building right so i mean the signage would be minimal for them to go over to that door which would avoid i mean if they have other things it would be pretty easy for them to walk through the double doors that are there now and leave the town clerk's office door closed and communicate i mean there's that that's cheaper than breaking out windows and it would definitely reduce people or accommodate it you know i mean and then we'll just build an underground tunnel right into the vault no just hey i heard that i like it oh so no i mean we're not going to be able to avoid the vault but a lot of other things we can definitely really easily restrict and i think we need to think of those things i think it's uh you know with with the fact that we have to just make it work right yeah right yeah i agree so that's all i have around table i think bra just went on mute it looked like you just went on mute you were a little broken up so i couldn't hear you and then i saw your mute like come on do you have anything for round table john nothing uh small poor flow can't say anything but she has been she doesn't have anything yeah i feel like i'm dealing with Marcel Marceau here uh no thank you i i didn't hear my name call the round table yeah i i don't i don't have a lot i just wanted to thank gana and the rest of the team for putting together you know a proposed revised budget you know that's it's not an easy thing to go through and it's certainly uncomfortable for everyone doing it but i appreciate you guys taking the time to do that and to give us something to consider you know none of us are in a we're in a unfamiliar territory here with all that's going on and how long it will last and whether or not it'll come back and all kinds of things so um i appreciate it i just wanted to say that so thank you thank you john we appreciate you saying that and um i have a great team no i have none motion to adjourn i'll make a motion to adjourn second all those well says i as well