 Good evening, everyone, it's June 26th, 2023, it's 6.15, and welcome all to the select board meeting over Rochester, Vermont. We have confirmed to the open meeting law by posting our agenda in three places. We have posted it on our website and we have emailed all the interested parties, the long list of them. So we will proceed with the meeting. The first thing that we would like to do is review and accept prior meeting minutes. We have two meetings that we were at, June 12th, 2023. I have read the minutes and I move that we accept these. I second it. All in favor. All right. I, they are lodged. And we had another little meeting on June 22nd. I have read those and I move that we accept those minutes. I second that. All in favor. All right. Okay, normal regular business. We also let's get some normal business out of the way with approving the May Treasurer's Report. I did read that over and the real proof of the putting comes in the next month because this is May. So June being the last month of the fiscal year. I did read it over. I accepted it. Julie is paying very close attention to what she needs to look into a little bit more and accepting the figures. So I move that we accept it. I second that. I also read it. All in favor. I. All right. And you can sign. Okay, so we are now at number three on our list is removal of a planning commission member. This was a letter submitted to us by the Rochester Planning Commission on behalf of the Rochester Planning Commission and writing to request the select board remove Lewis Cochee. Did I say that right? Come to the planning board. We have not seen or heard from Lewis in months. He has failed to respond to numerous emails and calls from our chair and from me looking at his attendance record for the past year. We see that the last meeting he even tried to attend by Zoom by Zoom was in August of last year. We urge you to use your power under statute 24 BSA section 43 23 A. We really need a full active seven person board to do our work. That is especially true right now when we are revising and updating our zoning bylaw, which was last revised in 2009. Roll up your sleeves. So the select board can agree with the sentiment of the planning board. Is there any discussion? Yes. Yes, there is. Okay. Robert, this is Kristen. It looks like you're on both your computer and your phone. Could you. Oh, that's an insurance policy. One of the two of them. So you're not echoing. Okay. I'm gonna hang the phone on and then I'll talk to the computer. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Robert. Thank you, Kristen, as always. Patty, I received, well, there are two things. One, are you the chair of the select board? Well, why did you not introduce the fact that Dune isn't available to be present tonight before you started the meeting? He's the chair and he's nowhere. So why would you, why am I watching you on Zoom replacing Dune and approving minutes from a former meeting and the chair is not present? Because we have a quorum and we are allowed to proceed with the meeting because we do have two out of the three members here. Well, I think it would have been proper for you to say Dune is unavailable. He and his partner are whatever and I am sitting here in a quorum to approve the minutes from the former meetings and to move forward with the present meeting. Okay. So you just so noted that for me. Oh, thank you very much. It is on the record. Well, I also want to say, Dune sent me an email about an hour ago saying that Mr. Louis Gucci-Gaci, whatever his name is. First of all, I don't know who he is. Secondly, I don't know the word, what is the word ghosting mean according to the select board of Rochester? What is ghosting? I'm not exactly sure where you're picking up that word. I read the letter from the planning board. Ghosting is not in that letter. So... Well, well, I want to put forward the definition of ghosting to the town of Rochester via Dune. He said, Louis Gucci, whatever his name is, is ghosting. Is ghosting. What does that mean? I would assume that he is not visible and we can move on from that. So noted, ghosting means not visible. Well, no, it's got to be a legal statement in the town records that Dune, the chair of the select board said that Mr. Gucci, whatever his name is, is ghosting. Okay. That's got to get into the minutes and I hope Martha Slater's listening. It is in the minutes of the right now. Okay, that's good. Okay, so are those your comments on this? Well, thank you for giving me extra minutes and I hope the time clock's not running out, but there are other comments that I don't think, my voice doesn't work so well these days. So I'm sure you're happy about that. But Tim Collabro is on this meeting and these, whether it's Martha Slater or Tim, the minutes that are put into the record by Julie have to be recognized by what I put forth, ghosting. Who has the authority to say someone's ghosting? I'm not quite sure, but we would prefer to move on. We have a lot of people in the room and so... How many people are in the room? Three? 15. 15. 15 people, no? Well, let them speak forward. Okay, thank you. Does anyone else have any comments about removal of a planning commission member? Who's the member? Lewis Cotche. Oh, I've heard of, seems to be a ghost. Okay, no other comments. I think that this situation with Mr. Lewis Cotche should be in an executive session and not put forth to the public. He is not an employee of the towns, therefore, it's not necessarily a personnel issue. This is the planning commission coming to us. So it's one commission asking the select board. Well, who's... Well, Patty, who's present with regards to the planning and zoning board in the 15 people you just mentioned? What are you presenting? Dan McKinley and Sandy Haas. Well, Sandy Haas should comment and so should Dan McKinley. I think they had it covered in their letter. Do you have anything that you'd like to add to that? It's in the letter. It's in the letter that I just read. Okay, so I move that the select board and the planning commission remove the name of Lewis Cotche from the planning board so that we can appoint a new person to be in that spot so that the planning board can proceed with the work at hand. I second that. All in favor? All right. Thank you. And thank you, Lilith, for your service. Okay, to move on to use the time of the same people that are sitting here with us, we have a planning committee requisition discussion. That's what we wanted to move on to, correct? Yeah. So let's say you, I don't have anything on that. Can you hear me all right? Can you hear me all right in Zoom land? All right, I need to move forward. I'll go ahead and if folks can hear me. This is Dan McKinley, chair of the planning commission. We've been working on the revision of our town zoning for several months. It was less revised in 2009. So there was a lot to be done with it. A lot of new statutes that we had to have reviewed the regional planning commission is assisting us with doing that. They've done an outstanding job of digging deep into our existing zoning and finding things that needed to be rectified, be following the statute and just to improve the flow of the document and also to address new issues that we've had since 2009. Housing is a big one. Energy is a big one. They're really helping us move this thing forward. I think we've been going since last summer. So we're moving on a year with this process. And it's going well, a little bit of challenge with doing things remotely for some of the period, but it's moving along. We had a $3,500 contract with the regional planning commission to begin with to move this process. And we recently met with Sarah Wright, who's our person from the regional planning commission and Kevin Geiger, the regional planner, to talk about our progress and what still needs to be done. And the money that we had in there, $3,500 in the contract is not gonna see us through getting the documents revised. We're almost at the point where it's ready for a final edit, review by the planning commission and then a planning commission hearing. So we hope that by October, we'd be able to do that. And we're requesting an additional $3,500 to move us to that goal post. Once we have it reviewed by the planning commission, planning commission would have a hearing and then it would be revised by the community comment. Then it would go to the select board or review a hearing and hopefully adopting it. So we're looking for the cost to be $7,000 altogether, not to exceed. I don't think that we really had anything in the budget for this going forward. No, we did. So we may have to look around, see where we could pull that kind of funds from. I'll also note that we originally applied for a grant for $7,000, she keeps it to do this work. We didn't get that grant, so we tried to cut it short and we're realizing it's not something we should cut short. So this money, is it going to reverse? Yes. All of it. The contract, yeah. Would it be possible to move this to a next meeting when we have a full board? Yeah, I think so. I mean, we're moving into the next fiscal year. So we'll take a look at our next fiscal year budget and see where we can pull that funding. I'm not saying that it's not something we can do, it is something we can do, we just have to roll up our sleeves and see where we can pull that from. Yeah, figure out where it's coming from. So, let us do our work and I guess we will be getting back to you and we need to make this work, so. May I make a comment? Yes, go ahead Robert. I'm very concerned about the dependency on grants and non-profit organizations seeking money from Tuberuzada Quichi. Someone has to figure this out. There's something not right with the dependence of Rochester for grants and monies that the taxpayers pay all the time and the town has no money, just like Bethel and then they lean on Tuberuzada Quichi to finance new hotels, new buildings, roads, whatever. So someone has to figure it out. Robert, I'm not concerned about what Bethel is doing. We have been in between grant writers. We had one leave and we have one that's just coming up to speed. So therefore we do, in the interim, we did need to rely on Tuberuzada to bridge that gap. And they are a very vital resource and a valuable resource. So we will still continue to rely on them for certain grants. But why does the town of Rochester rely on Tuberuzada Quichi to finance the things that Dan McKinley wants to do or the school wants to do? There's too much money coming from out of Quichi. Where is that money? How do they get the money and you don't have? The people that work for Two Rivers are highly qualified people. I'm not saying that the playing board is not, but it's a wonderful double checking to have someone that is highly qualified to write grants to walk you through what you need to do. That's, Patty, that's not the question. Joni retired, she left six or eight months ago. There's a reason why she did. So I don't understand why, whether it's Bethel or Rochester, why you guys have to lean on that very important financial institution to finance road improvements, infrastructure, library improvements, and so on. What is the answer to the question I'm asking? Why do we rely on expert people? Catherine has something to say about that. That's not what he asked. Hi, Robert. You know that Two Rivers is our regional planning commission. We have a volunteer government here. We are not city planners, we are not urban planners. They have not only access to funds that pass through them, they have an awareness of all the funding available for various projects. And that's why we have a planning commission. We rely on their expert and their guidance. It's a very, very essential part to Vermont government. But should that come from the tax base of a town and not lean on to the separate operation? And who just spoke? Hey, Rochester. Who was just speaking? It's Catherine, I'm asking you that. I can't hear what you're asking. This is an issue that you have with Rochester as a taxpayer of Rochester that I would suggest you put it in writing. Well, Catherine, Catherine, it's not like Bethel is not in the same place because we use a lot of money from Two Rivers out of Quichy. But you're taking up time in this meeting for questions that we can't really respond to. And there's a lot of people here with business to do tonight, Robert, please. The point I'm trying to make is that either Rochester and Bethel raise their property taxes. Oh, here's Dune. I think he's in Canada or something. I think your point has been made, Robert. And I think we're all set to go forward from here. We're really were. Did you wanna chip in, we're talking as you probably know about the planning and zoning requests for additional funds. And you are on mute, just so you know. I got some to say. Basically looking at the budget here that we have that's ending this end of this month, it looks like the expenses we have here are 6,500 that we fiscally budgeted in July of 22 to June of 23 of this year. And so you've used only 1,500 of that. So I don't know if that's accurate or not. We need to get the accurate figure behind that. If your 3,500 is calculated into that from the past or not or if that was a grant funds, we can answer some of that. You might have funds enough in there already if we use them before the end of the fiscal year. But at the close of the fiscal year, those funds turn back into the general fund. So we'll have to get, the girls will have to take, look at that and figure that out. And I'm trying to find it through here, but it'll take me a minute. But we can definitely have some kind of answer for you down the road. So there may be money enough there already. We don't know. Okay. Yeah, why don't we do the contract for 3,500 if we have more? Yeah. Yeah. Or come visit with it. Okay, that sounds good. Thank you. No problem. Yeah. Yeah. And we'll have to reverse bill for the, what they've. Yes. Let's bring it all up to date. Yeah, bring it up to date. And then we can figure it out before the end of the month. Yeah, that would be nice if, I don't know if it's possible, but if we could get something from them, so tomorrow and tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. May I ask a question to everyone present in this meeting tonight? I feel it seems to have a turning point. We'd like to hear from Dune first. He's been waiting. I don't have anything to say in particular. I'm just, I'm glad I made it here in time to get in on the meeting. I've been driving through the rain pretty heavy for a while. So I'll just. We can hear you well. So stay tuned. All right. Okay. So should I ask my question, Patty? Yes. Go right ahead. Okay. If anyone in the room, including Catherine Shankman, Dune, I want you, somebody to answer this question. What is the percentage of property taxes that goes directly to the supervisory unions? What's the percentage? If your taxes are $100, how much of that money goes directly to the supervisory union? Can anyone answer that question? We're on an agenda. You have asked this question before. I'm not sure if you got an answer, but you can ask that question separate and away from this meeting if you'd like. I think that's totally improper when Dan McKinley is asking for $7,000. The answer is 85% of property taxes go directly to the supervisory union. That's what. We don't have to work on answering your question. Well, that's very typical. Okay. Thank you. I'm going to now move over into the recreation department and do you mind, Del? Yeah. I sent an email to the board on the 16th of this month. And I'm assuming you all read it, but I'm pretty much going to read it verbatim. And so the recreation department is utilizing the umbrella of the town of Rochester in the grant process. There's three of us that meet weekly working on several grants to reduce state space. Norm's worked very hard on that and we are at the Jan at this well. It's a great team and we get a lot done in an hour, but the main question is that, well, say this allows us to skirt the nonprofit criteria that most of the grants we are seeking requires. It's a long process. At our last meeting, we have decided to continue with each of the many grants but also start the bidding process of this project. As a contractor, I know that this process also takes a considerable time. We think it's imperative to move forward on many fronts to be able to possibly get the grants in place and a contractor chosen to possibly do the work before this coming week. We also have been moving forward with the land transfer of Martha Slater's property. You know, so you're aware of the uptick on that. We got an email today from the lawyer. He's meeting with, is it this week, Norm? Yeah, it actually depends on, Julian, do you have a busy week this week? Every week's busy, but doodly. Then tax bills go out next week, right? But it's probably a deed search and that kind of stuff. Yeah, we can probably work something out. Next week would be better. How about you? Okay, good. I'll set him up for that. And basically, he's drafting the deed and Martha has agreed to the actual block points on the property. So we're definitely moving ahead with that. And it'll get done soon. Probably what we're primarily looking for is stepping forward with the bidding process. Yeah, because we have... We have to kind of move in the direction of almost doing everything at once or else. So we have 11 grants out right now. We're working on it, but there's various phases over 11. But in particular, there's the state of Vermont recreational grant that requires actual bids. They want three bids from each phase of the job. And we got to get that grant in by September. So we're looking at two solid months of collecting bids if we get to bid out soon. Have you drawn up a scope of work? So I have. Okay. Did you read the email? I read the email. I did read the scope of work right away. The scope of work, if you want me to go through it, but basically I have a list here. So basically I'm requesting help formatting this particular list that I sent you into the bidding process that Rochester has. And I don't know who does it. Oh, the cricket is doing it, but I can read it verbatim of what I wrote in the email. I don't think you have to do that, Dean. I think we just have to sit down and go through the forms. I think we do have the forms in the back that we've used in the past and we can sit down and draft something out. So who would I sit down with? Well, it'll be Kristen and myself and probably Julie will be involved. Okay. So should I set up a meeting? Yeah, we can do that sometime. Probably after the fourth, if that's all right. I mean, things are kind of crazy right now. Is that okay with you, Kristen? Yeah. Okay. I'd rather make sure you're good with whatever. Yeah, just getting through the fiscal year we're trying to live right now. Yeah. Yeah, so it'd be better if we do this in July so these gals can close the books and we can move forward that way. I understand. Yeah, thank you. I think the, well, I'm trying to make clear is that we can't just get the grants and then have the money and then get the dibs out and then it all almost has to happen together. Well, you never get the grant money until after the job's complete. So that's just the way it works. Yeah. So we're working hard. We're relying also on some of the ARCA funds that you've promised us. Yeah. So it's, I think it's coming together. It's just, I think the land thing, I think it's going to happen within a month. I think the bidding process is really the missing part of the puzzle and I did write, I CC cricket on this. I don't, you know, I've never really written a bid from the point of view of the town. So that's kind of what I like to help with. Yeah, we'll get that. Yeah, we have a template where it'll all fall into place. Can I make a comment? Yes, you can, Robert. Was that Dean Mendel speaking? Yes, it was. Hi, Robert. I have total respect for Dean and he's always sharing goodness with the valley. That's been his life. But I want everyone to just, you know, just sit back and think about this. If your property taxes were 45% for the supervisory unions, Dean would not have to go through 11 grants to get money that he's trying to support the children with. We'd have 45% whether it's in Bethel or Rochester put towards the goodness of the valleys. And it's a disgrace. 85% of your property taxes go directly to the supervisory unions. And guess what? We have no school and the town of Rochester doesn't know what to do with the existing school. So all that money could be awarded to do or to Dean for his goodness to support the community. And it's something everyone should think about. OK, thank you. I mean, we do have an elementary school, and we do support our high school students to go to other schools. OK, so we're good there, correct? Thank you. Thank you very much. And so now I think I'd like to move on to Jan with shelter team and personnel issue. Oh, it says personnel. Now, can you talk about the need for us to have a budget and how we go about getting a budget back and who we talk to and what the process is to have a budget? We have 10 really good, solid volunteers. We've done really good things. And we need to all have our CPR recertified in September. It's up to 100 bucks a person. So we're going to need money for that again. And supplies to volunteers have been putting money out of their pockets for a long time. So I think the town needs to help with running the shelter, helping support the shelter if we're going to have one. So when you say you need a budget, you're asking the town to contribute money towards you or you need to structure your organization with a budget. You need to have a budget. Now, we need to have money from the town to support the shelter team function. And we always have had money. And when Vic was an emergency planner, there was a pot of money that we could use to print stuff and send postcards and all that. So I'm just looking to figure out how to get that back. How to get back on that. Submit a budget to the budget finance committee when we meet in the fall. And then we'll have you in to support whatever your budget is and justify that. You just have to put it together and bring it in when we meet. And we'll call you in. You just get Julie to know our hand in your budget when we request them to come in. And then we will notify you. No, just you can. We don't call part of the mound. Yeah, you sit down and write your budget. We'll sit down with you in person and discuss it. Yeah. Is this sometime in the fall? October, mid-October? I reach out to each department and let them know that we're going to be working on the budget or whatever and give them a deadline. So when I do that, I'll add you to my list of people that I email. And then you will just. And it's OK with me if it goes in EP. I mean, Larry and I are working together all the time anyway. So. Well, we'll have to see how it depends on how the account looks at it and all that. So we have to keep everything. We have to keep everything separate as best we can. That's what I wanted to know. So and the other thing is just about knowing. And I can go on back and forth and dooms on the line. And he knows we've had many, many emails back and forth, back and forth about stuff being cut down. It shouldn't be cut down. And I send letters to the town every year. And still, things get cut down. So I put up a fence on part of my property. Just giving you all a heads up. OK. You had signs at 1.2. Yeah, I put up. No mowing. Signs. Yes, they just keep. And so he came, put her cane, he put the blade down. He got to the sign and lifted up the blade and put it down on the other side. And then he mowed it. And then he did the same thing on the other no mowing sign. I also have tape on the trees to mark the boundaries. So to this date, that all has not worked. Not done on your side? Yeah. Maybe this year will be a charm. It'll be August. Yeah. And I, you know. I don't. I take care of the ditch. I take care of all the downwood. I take care of all that stuff myself. So long as I'm able. Can't remember when you said it. And so noted to anyone else that has a part of their roadside where they do not want to get roadside mowing to contact really the town office fairly soon. Well, put me down, Julie. Do I still need to send the letter and put up the signs and all that stuff? I think they just need to move there. OK. You can mark that. Thank you. Thank you for our patience. OK, let's move on to, well, I'm going to go back up to number four, approve to abate delinquent tax amounts, which is $5 or less. The total amount of that $5 or less comes to $34.76. I move that it says 1972. Oh, I'm sorry. Last year we approved 34. So it's going down. It's $19.72. So I so move that we're the total of $21.65. One circle, but the total is $21.65. Which number do you want? This one was circled, but this is the total. $21.65. OK, $21.65. I move that we abate these small balances. I second that. All in favor? All right. $21.65. Thank you, Doom. Yep. Number five, sign the audit engagement letter for fiscal year 23. We, again, are contracting with Payson Holly certified public accountants to go through the audit of our books. They have done a very good job for us in the past. And each year it gets easier and easier for everyone. So I move that we accept. I need to reveal what the cost is, don't I? The certified public accountants, Payson Holly, to do our audit. I second that. All in favor? All right. Aye. OK, we're moving on to number seven, which is Bruce Marshall and Jeanine Weir. The subject that I have listed here is slavery in Vermont. So you do have something to say. We're ready to hear. Well, what do we have to say? We've titled something, Slavery in Vermont. What does that mean? Well, we have slavery in Vermont. Even though we voted against it and the Constitution spoke against it. Improved it, sir. Improved it, sir. People want to prohibit it. We also have laws and statutes. We have green books with all the statutes. And we have a situation where we came to the town for help. We asked the town to enforce its bylaws. The town said, we're not going to enforce the bylaws. In fact, the town made up stories about things, about facts that we brought forward. So we're just asking Dune to do his job. We're asking. We're asking other people to do their job. We're asking the town generally to do their job. We have come to the town numerous times. We came to the town. And we're not given honest responses. What we have been through is egregious, and it's unacceptable, and it's brutal. What we've received from the town, the legal system, from a corporation in Vermont and their legal counsel, all engaging in extremely unethical, brutal behavior toward us. This is not acceptable. This country was founded by the inspiration of the Iroquois League of Nations and their inspiration. And the rights conferred from the Great League of Peace comes through that Constitution today. This is not a dead thing just in the past. This is today. We have these rights inspired by the Great League of Peace, the Iroquois League of Nations, and also from the Magna Carta, whose rights comes through the US Constitution that we have here today for us. It's something protected that cannot be denied. And it's the same thing with the Vermont Constitution, which is the main charter in Vermont, the pivotal bedrock law of this state. So you have the US Constitution and Vermont Constitution, which are bedrock law here. They are law that cannot be violated. And yet, how we've seen the town of Rochester operate a court of law. It's disgusting. It's disgusting. That's what's happening. It's just a come. Look, it's just a matter of we have certain rights that cannot be molested, that come from the Vermont Constitution, the US Constitution, founding documents. And so all we are saying, and all we choose to say is there needs to be a change here. That the town of Rochester and their officials, their employees, and the boards of Rochester need to start doing their job. And there needs to be support from all parties responsible, particularly Denton McKinley and Sandra Haas, and all parties involved and responsible to support, to do his job, which is what we've said numerous times in different ways, which is for Dune to give a notice of violation to Lyman Hall Incorporated that their plat map filed in Land Records in 2003. There's also a quote unquote, corrective one that they claim is a corrective plat map. They filed in 2019 that they need to remove these from Land Records, that they violate local bylaws and law state of Vermont, inclusive of fire code. Fire endangerments are never grandfathered. Nothing with Lyman Hall Incorporated's situation was grandfathered in 2003. We have said these things ad nauseam. So all we can say at this point is you need to do your job. All parties need to support Dune to do his job because a lot is on Dune. He wears a lot of hats here. That can create big trouble. But this is how it is right now. And he has a job to do, a job. It's not within the realm of Dune's duties and responsibilities to rubber stamp the breaking of the law when lives are in danger, when people are being brutalized, when people have expressed huge suffering and major fallout from an instrument, a financial instrument in Land Records that sucks people in with a pretense of legality that they rely upon and then get really hurt. It's not okay when people come and say, I suffered from this for years. And we, you know, how much more can we say to you? These are financial instruments in the Land Records that Dune needs to be supported to give Lyman Hall Incorporated a notice of violation regarding that it's up to Lyman Hall to remove these platmats from the Land Records. They need to be held in trust of Julie Smith because they involve things. And secondly, Julie Smith needs to be supported that she needs to follow the law and not record Lyman Hall Incorporated's judgment against us, which is an legal void, court non-judice judgment that has been submitted to her for recording and she needs the support to follow the law and to stay within the bounds and responsibilities of her position as town clerk. And that's what needs to happen here. There needs to be ethics and honesty and we have not gotten that in this situation and it needs to come here because otherwise there's just a continuance of a pattern of grave brutality toward us and it's just not okay and we're just saying. Let's come to some resolution here. I have read, I have printed out, double-sided and read all the documents that you sent to us this morning. The only thing that I really see in here that I feel at this point in time we need to respond to is that we do recognize that you have issued a second notice of bogus for non-judice, judge's and the legal judgment. You asked in the paperwork that we verified that you recognized that you have filed that paper. Well, it's actually that's not what the letter says. No, all we've said is you need to do your job that our rights under the U.S. Constitution and the Vermont Constitution can be un-molested. So whatever you think of that, that's your business, that's up to you. All we are saying is that we've done this. We have these rights that come through the inspiration that you're clearly the nation that come through the Magna Cartas, writes the Magna Cartas through the Constitution. And then you need to do your job. That's all it is. At this point in time we have the right to secure counsel, which we have done. So I have a feeling this will bounce back and forth until the resolution is found. Well, there is a resolution. The resolution is in the land records. Okay, there's a valid judgment in the land records. Okay, the power, the authority in this nation comes from the people. The judge is a substitute authority. She is not the true authority. We are not going to be enslaved by any of these people who are taking away the authority from the people. And that's our authority to have a court. We are going to do it. That's all we're going to do. Yeah, we don't really need power. Yeah, we know it. Bruce had some really important things, but ultimately- Dune should quit. No, no, no, no, don't go there. All right, we're not going to do it again. Dune just needs to do his job. We're not saying Dune should quit. He should do his job or get someone who can do their job. No, no, no. Just for this point, Dune needs to do his job and I'll just further say, since we did title, you know, what we wanted to say today, slavery in Vermont, that, you know, slavery does exist in Vermont. Absolutely. And you're part of it. We've experienced it. Part of it. Let me just speak. The past four years, three and a half years of litigation from being sued by Latin Hong Incorporated, that's slavery. When no one will help you, when there's grave, brutal dishonesty and unethical behavior in courts, in officers in a town, in a corporation, in their legal counsel, having to constantly deal with the case, which, you know, we went to a contract lawyer. He referred us to a real estate lawyer. The real estate lawyer said, this is extremely fraudulent, but I can't help you, you need a whole firm. So we call a few firms. They're quoting us between $80,000 to $90,000 to take us through litigation because it's so complex in fact in law, the case. And so having to do this for a lot of pro-say parties, it's a huge amount of work. When it's such a complex case in fact in law, it's a brutal, unbelievable amount of work. And a lot of people go through eviscerating nightmares from pro-say litigation. And it's not, all I can say is it's not okay to be so unethically brutal toward people when they come to you and say, please just follow your bylaws. Please follow this law, the state of Vermont. Like there is fire safety code. Just please do your job. And that's all we're saying. Please do your job. Please support Julie to do her job. And please support June to do his job. That is all we're saying because slavery is very much a reality in this state. And the only way it will stop is to have the rights per the founding documents being molested. And for people to find a deeper sense of ethics that's beyond the sadly, what's become of too much of this country is too much of a materialistic egoic power paradigm of prestige in place versus coming from ethics in the heart. And that's all that has meaning to us. And we're just asking for people to self-reflect about being actually honest in the situation and to actually do their job. In fact, we didn't bring, Robert Finkle came here on his own accord. We had brought him in to look at our property. I agree with that statement. Yeah, and we also have a, from a Tony Dislaurier looking at it. A Tony Dislaurier. Tony Dislaurier. So it's really interesting when certain people just look at that and oh, they don't have to see anything. They don't have to see anything. You see, and that's, I don't want to go into the intricacies of law here. But I think we've made our point. Obviously we've been through a horrible situation for three years. It has been destructive to our lives, our health, and a number of things. And, you know. But we just want healing at this point. And we want people to reflect honestly because there's huge repercussions when people decide they're just gonna look away. And, you know, this is supposed to be a country of the people and by the people. And that's what stands. And in the end, frankly, only kindness matters. And you can think that's very silly and just my philosophy, but that's what's real. And everything else you can get what you want and think you're getting this and that and connections with these people. And so, oh, who cares about Bruce and Jeanine? They'll just leave Rochester. But hey, you live with yourself. Get your house stolen, get your money stolen, everything else. Get your time stolen. In the end, only kindness matters. Yeah. And that's all we have to say. Well, thank you very much. Counsel and they define Julie and Doome's job. That will take place. Forever. Thank you. Thank you both. Next item on our agenda is acceptance and approval of Rochester High School committee to proceed with Duboy and King's floodgate design. That would be Catherine. Acceptance and approval of the high school repurposing committee's floodgate design. Information to share. I'm just going to come up here because I've been probably hearing back there and I want to make sure you can hear me. So a month ago today, you participated in a meeting with Jamie and Sarah Wright, two Rivers and members of the repurposing committee. We talked about many things. The stage that we're at with the Brownfields environmental assessment and the flood plain mitigation plan and the removal of the tank. So that's what I'm going to give you an update today. So we were able to communicate with Grace Benson, the state environmental officer who basically said, oh, I'm waiting for the flood plain mitigation design because then I'll be able to respond whether that meets the federal HUD guidelines. We really want to be eligible for HUD funding because we're looking for a few million dollars. And Bernie Sanders has again supported our project which has gone into the Appropriations Committee. I think we learned last year that we really need to manage our expectations, especially considering the condition of Congress right now. But it's a great vote of confidence that he has put another million dollars into that funding and he's pushed us through again. So that's HUD funding. We're under the account of the USDA Community Facilities account, that's HUD funding. So Eric Law has reviewed our project. He's from USDA. All the boxes are checked positively. So you know that we mitigate the floodway by boundary adjustment, that's been resolved. And so the flood plain, the fact the high school auditorium is located in the flood plain as of taking in water during a rain. So we need an engineer. We have an engineer through DNK and DNK has been doing all the work with surveys and so forth. But the one that has really got experience with flood plain mitigation design and that happens to be in an employee of DNK. So what we have here is their invoice and scope of work for creating the mitigation design for the flood plain. And there was a sufficient funds left in our initial planning grant that we got in 2021 to cover the cost of this design. This design is very important because it's gonna allow us to go forward with everything else that we're doing. So I brought that for you to sign, Patty. The cost of this is set at $3,500. Yeah, $3,500. Can you verify that that balance is still available in that grant? Yeah, I'll verify that too. Yeah, she already did that. And that it's not earmarked for any other expense? No. Okay. No, as a matter of fact, once we get the design, then we have what we need to go to get that extra $10,000 because we'll know what the cost of this is going to be, which is still an unknown to us. Not the cost of the design, but the cost of the actual implementation of the design. So that's what we're gonna need to get that additional $10,000 that we're eligible for. So the other thing is that, all right. So any questions about that? Can I ask who's speaking? Oh, I'm sorry, Robert. It's Katharine Shankman. And I have to apologize to my tone of view earlier. Yeah, very good, bless you. Thank you. I take all that if you wanna give. Okay, so the next thing is, any questions about the floodplain mitigation? All right, so the next phase in the environmental assessment process is the testing and sampling of the site, the property. And that work plan is being developed right now. I got a grant, or we got a grant for $32,000 from the Department of Environmental Conservation to cover all of that. And we had assumed, even as recently, I think, is May 26th, that that proposal from VHS, is it? Or VHB? VHB? Yes, VHB, those are names. And that proposal did not include the cost of removing the tank. All along, Sarah Wright from Two Rivers has said, well, if their funding comes in, they can cover that. But I think at that meeting, she had just learned that the state was not allowing them at this point to use that fund for tank removal. So she's been working for the last three weeks to push that. She seems very confident, so I'm not gonna get anxious, but until I got all the T's crossed and the I's dotted, when it comes to big bucks, you do sort of, it worries the back of your mind. And she emailed today that they're going ahead with the proposal for the cost of the tank removal. Lyle Smith, who works for the school district, is working to install the interim above ground tank, and he's working with VHB together with all of this, so it's all gonna be coordinated. And they think that it's all going to be done by the end of August, so we'll see. I think Sandy emailed me wanting to know about when the Brella investigation is going to be. If that's an inspector that's coming on site, I don't know the date of that because we're still in process, but as soon as I know anything, I'll convey it, okay? So I don't know, Patty, whether you printed this out, but I just wanted this VHB thing also for your records. Sure. Okay, thank you. Thank you, and thank you for all that work. Still more to come, but we're getting somewhere. Yeah, we're getting somewhere. And I just wanna say that I don't know whether, if I had known now when I started this project, whether I would have ever jumped into it, you know? But I have to say that I have brought a deep appreciation for all the volunteer work that does happen in this town, whether it's with our government or our agencies and organizations, it is what keeps the blood flow of these towns. Our fire department, I mean, it's also meaningful, and it really is what binds us together as people in a community. So I wanna just officially say thank you. It's nice to hear. You're so lovely, Catherine. Thank you. Can I make a comment? Yes, you can, Robert. Catherine Shankman, I wanna say thank you. I also, I'm sorry about my voice, but I also wanna thank Dean Mandel for community support and the opportunity for children to grow up in this town and be responsible. I'm sorry, my voice is not good, but I don't know how we're all going to reflect on Jeanine's commentary regarding Lyman Hall and the town of Rochester and so forth. It's something we all have to ponder and think about, but it's, you know, I know you people think Robert is not from Rochester and I'm not. I'm from Bethel, Vermont, and I do everything I can every day to support the towns and going forth. I think everyone, whether it's Zoom, I don't know where Dune is. He's got an assistant up there. Hey, Dune, but I think it could be proper to request recusals from recusals. In other words, officials should say, you know what? I'm resigning. I'm done with this stuff. Thank you. And so, you know, I'll end my commentary with this thing is to God bless everyone involved tonight whether it's, oh, by the way, I wanted to mention that Cooter and the road crew of Rochester are stellar. They're wonderful guys and they've done a great job. Thank you. Okay. We're going to move on to number 10 on our list of proven scientists paid for grant administration as she's getting up and running. We are going to reimburse her for time that she has spent on grant writing, which takes a lot more expertise. And so what I have here is grant administration retro pay of 100 hours at 643 additional per hour, $643. I move that we approve this. I second that. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you. A lot of thank yous tonight. Okay, now we are moving on to the driveway permit for Nick Darbeloff, Rogers Peak Forest LLC. They just need to mark it. They haven't marked it yet, so we're not, we won't approve that at this point. I'll call in this next week. John's going to look at it. Ray's supposed to put some flag in up there. He's coming off the Bethel Mountain Road somewhere. I'm not sure exactly where it is. And John wants to just make sure. And it's in writing, so I think they've made the decision. You're right. Very good. So they're, I don't know whether they're purchasing property or leasing or whatever they're doing, they're coming in from. They're purchasing a piece of property so they can access the rest of their property. That's, there's a purchase and sale agreement and in the works. Works, okay. That's a wonderful solution. You didn't want to purchase until we knew that you could put it directly in. Yeah, and I think we'll just get to it as soon as John, soon as Ray puts some flag and tape up there so we'll know exactly where it's going. So we will forward this. Yeah. And I'll give him a call this week. Okay, I think we're ready to hear from our departments. We have no one here from the library. How about the highway department? John's busy doing ditching on North Hollow Road and Cooper Run and stone lining the ditches. So that's what he's been up to. Okay. So many glitches. And the bridge is coming along. They got one wing wall poured. They're going to be looking at backfillin' that this week and then after the fourth, they'll be starting on the other side. Okay. And he's ahead of schedule, so. You never know when snow is gonna come. Yeah, he said he's going at it, which is good. We do have our utilities operator here tonight. Hi, Terry. Yeah, we just got the report from P and K. I got to read it and get back to them then. They need to get it filed by Friday. By Friday. Okay, so you'll be reviewing that. You just got the firecrack back and the doctors were pregnant and lost. I think I noticed that, Bill. Really? Yeah. I was surprised that you didn't need me to know. I was glad it wasn't mine. Can I make a comment? Yes, you may, Robert. I want to put a message out to Nancy Woolley and her dear husband, Charles. He's a wonderful man. And I hope that all the improvements onto the park will maybe give light to Nancy. She's a wonderful woman. I agree. Thank you, Robert. Do we have Jeff get part? No, we do not. And do we have any grant updates? Just a quick one that we did receive our reimbursement for the high school study of $9,226.74. That was our requisition three. If they say we deserve the money, they should give it to Max. That's right. Okay, I think we rearranged the schedule a little bit, but I think we have made it through all of our business for the evening. Is there anything else? Hey, Patty. Oh, yes, sir, Robert. Don't ever call me, sir, but I do want to thank you for your diligence and your responsibility. And I know Dune is witnessing this meeting and I hope that the townspeople, whether it's Rochester or Bethel, they respect the people's words. Thank you so much. Okay, if that is it for everyone, I move to adjourn. Sorry, good. All in favor? All right. And they get ready to dig up. Thank you, everyone.