 Today is Wednesday, May 25th, 2022 and we have a quorum present so I would like to call to order this regularly scheduled meeting of the Chittenden Solid Waste District. Before we begin I just wanted to make a very brief welcome at least for me. Renee Marshall from Colchester is the alternate. I'm not sure Renee if you've been to any meetings before but I just wanted to identify you to the rest of the board and welcome you here. I understand Liz can't be present tonight so you'll be representing Colchester and I'm glad to have you here with us. I believe all the other commissioners are familiar with each other and have been introduced in previous meetings. Thank you. So with that the first item on the agenda is the agenda itself. Are there any additions requested or changes to the agenda? I would just like to add under other business a community cleanup fund reminder. Yes. Any other changes or additions? Hearing none then the agenda will be followed as presented and the next item of business is public comment period. Are there any members of the public either on Zoom or by phone who wish to address this board? I am seeing nor am I hearing anyone so I believe then we can move on. We'll close the public comment period. Move on to item number three the consent agenda which begins on page three of your packet consists of corrected minutes of March 20 March 23 2022 to recall the last meeting there was a request for some clarification or additional information that is highlighted in yellow in that in those minutes also included the draft minutes of our April 27 full board meeting program update report executive director update and the finance report any requests from commissioners to pull any of these items for discussion and separate action. I am hearing none I'm seeing none I'll then declare that the consent agenda is accepted as presented in the packet. Moving on to item number four we have several folks who will be leaving their official capacities either on staff of CSWD or as board members coming up so this is a time for resolutions to to acknowledge their many years of service and give them some thanks and Amy as secretary I would ask you to to read the resolution for Nancy Plunkett into the record. Jen holiday is actually going to read that. Oh well thank you very much Jen. Thank you I'd be honored and I just wanted to say before I read this I feel there's really no way we can express our gratitude and list all of what Nancy has done over the 30 years she's been at CSWD her work has been central even though it's not super public there's not a lot of the public that sees what she does but it really has been central in guiding us internally in our decisions on how we best serve the public and stay true to our mission so Nancy's leaving behind a legacy of her work and the impact of that work and we will always consider her part of the CSWD family so with that I will read the resolution put it in front of me whereas Nancy Plunkett has served as waste reduction coordinator waste reduction manager and director of special projects for the Chittenden solid waste district in an outstanding manner for 30 years whereas she has been a dedicated and conscientious public servant working continually for the betterment of Chittenden County whereas she has continually exhibited wisdom, fairness and commitment to the mission of the Chittenden solid waste district whereas she has given selflessly for her time and expertise leading and working alongside staff across the Chittenden solid waste district whereas she has provided outstanding leadership and guidance to her team and to the community whereas she has always exhibited patience, kindness and a good-natured approach with staff and the community whereas she helped to build the waste reduction program from inception including implementation of mandatory recycling and the 1992 distribution of recycling bins to every resident in Chittenden County whereas the work she completed not limited to oversight of the district solid waste management ordinance and solid waste implementation plan and reports waste composition studies diversion and disposal reports and household surveys the school business and community outreach program per capita disposal data pilot programs including residential organics collection and asphalt shingles cnd and commercial film recycling economic analysis of curbside collection of organics consolidated collection and solid waste trends modeling will continue to inform and inspire district staff and members for years to come therefore be it resolved that the board of commissioners on behalf of the residents and businesses of 18 communities in Chittenden County hereby convey their sincere appreciation for exemplary leadership and outstanding service so moves up early to second westward thank you thank you very much in answer you guys you've been here I think since the very beginning from day one and your your loss will be tremendous I think for the entire district but I'll turn it over to other commissioners who'd like to offer a comment I would just like to say I think I've been here on board that is about as long as Nancy has but I can attest to how wonderful she's been how effective she's been how productive Nancy I was just remembering back uh got to a very difficult meeting that you handled so well with the consolidated collection with the public it blew my mind how well you did that that was hard I think I'd have lost my cool in that one so you just uh and not just that but you've done such wonderful things for this and I wish you the best uh in in retirement or whatever new adventures you you will have I I recommend retirement highly so I will say that so thank you so much thank you Katie so I had the pleasure to work for Nancy for almost 10 years and in that time I grew as a person and Nancy I'll tell you that part about being kind with staff goes above and beyond what a manager should and have to put up with at times with a person who's trying to figure their adult life out but I learned so much as a person in the ordinance world of managing haulers and ordinance and how to just interact with the public and I just learned so so much more than you know um and I really can't thank you I I'm so glad I have the opportunity to let you know that you had a really big influence on my life so thank you for everything thank you other commissioners or Nancy would you like to say anything um I can without starting to cry um thank you very much I I'm very grateful for the opportunity I've had to serve the district and work with such amazing team members over the years um I'm very excited about retirement but I'm also sad to be leaving my CSWD family and I wish you all the very best thank you Nancy Nancy I just want to thank you as well from from my perspective particularly when I was first coming on board as executive director and just how much I valued your guidance and your example to Katie's point of just how you work with your team and how you interact with your colleagues and just just the vast knowledge that you possess and and I was only able to take advantage of just the smallest portion of it for that I am sad to not have access to much longer but for you I am so happy because no one deserves this more than you do so thank you Nancy thank you with that I think we are now ready to vote on this resolution all those in favor of the resolution please say aye aye I declare the resolution unanimously adopted and accepted and I'd like to make sure that the record reflects that unanimity and the sincerity um with which we voted and appreciate all the work that you've done for us Nancy and now you're welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting or you may move on and enjoy your evening and the first step towards retirement next item on the agenda are resolutions for acknowledging service of two board members who are stepping down after 13 years in the case of Doug Tapp and 10 years if I'm correct for Abby folk um when you add that in with Nancy's service we're losing 55 years of I'm sorry 53 you know 53 years of expertise tonight but again we have resolutions before us in our packets and if the secretary could read those off I think we'll take them together um read them and then we'll we'll address them jointly Amy if you could read them or a designee Sarah did you want to read those I'll be happy to thank you um whereas Abby folk has served on the board of commissioners for the Chittenden solid waste district in an outstanding manner from 2013 to 2022 whereas she has been a dedicated and conscientious public servant working continually for the betterment of the town of Charlotte and the general community of Chittenden county as a representative to the Chittenden solid waste district whereas she volunteered many hours of her own time and expertise working on the Chittenden solid waste district board whereas she has continually exhibited wisdom fairness and commitment to the purpose and mission of the Chittenden solid waste district therefore be it resolved that the Chittenden solid waste district board of commissioners on behalf of the residents and businesses of all 18 communities in Chittenden county hereby convey their sincere appreciation for her leadership and outstanding service adopted this 25th day of May 2022 by the Chittenden solid waste district board of commissioners I guess we'll take it if we have a motion to to adopt that resolution thank you I guess we'll take them separately um um uh any commissioners we wish to to speak on uh reflection of of abby's service on the board yeah I would I just like to I've always uh when abby came on I really appreciate that she brought some really fresh new ideas um to the board and you know she uh truly had a uh tremendous concern for the community and for our mission and I think we were very lucky to have her and I personally will miss her being on the board thank you uh brin yeah I um I had the opportunity work with abby um in when I was at the agency natural resources as well and um she just has a significant amount of passion for this topic she has done some impressive projects in her community at the school um it it you know it'll be sad not to have her join the conversation because she she really does um advocate quite well and quite heavily for um residents and the residential community perspective so um she'll be missed well I just want to reflect on one moment on abby's commitment to organics management and food scraps and really moving um those programs in charlotte and in advancing the conversations here at the district she has had a really important voice in in those conversations and I want to add my own recollection that abby abby did a great job of kind of bringing us back to what we're all about and also concern with them education and and children and youth and the future and making sure that we stayed that that the future stayed foremost in our minds and I very much appreciate that well um hearing no other comments then let's go ahead and act on this resolution all those in favor please say I hi hi hi and again I will declare this to be a unanimous um adoption of the resolution um with great thanks to to abby uh and we wish her well the next resolution for for dug whereas dug tap has served on the board of commissioners for the jitman solid waste district in an outstanding manner from 2010 to 2022 whereas he has been a dedicated and conscientious public servant working continually for the betterment of the town of hindsburg and for the general community of jitman county as a representative to the jitman solid waste district whereas he volunteered many hours of his own time and expertise working on the jitman solid waste district board whereas he has continually exhibited wisdom fairness and commitment to the purpose and mission of the jitman solid waste district therefore be it resolved that the jitman solid waste district board of commissioners on behalf of the residents and businesses of all 18 communities in chitenden county hereby convey their sincere appreciation for his leadership and outstanding service adopted this 25th day of may 2022 by the chitenden solid waste district board of commissioners don't move guess it second south burlington thank you thank you paul and again any any comments that commissioners would like to share yeah i'll i'll just i'll say um i was always very full i mean dug always blew me away with his he was an alternate for a long time and was such a regular attendee and so he and lin were just really uh they always consulted and uh you know i have found them always to be a very steady uh voice uh on the board and i was very relieved when when uh dug took over lin's place um when lin left and so uh again i will miss dug and i thank you for his service and i wanted to share that um my interaction with dug mostly in the last has been in the last years as as the chair um and by email but very impressed with his incisive understanding of some some critical issues um very very helpful to to bring focus helpful to me and i think also helpful to sarah and helpful to the board um and again pointing out it was kind of behind the scenes but um very helpful and and that will be missed sarah i'll yield to rick and then thank you i just wanted to say that i really appreciated the work that dug did with me to help bring me on board and acquaint me with some of the very many things that i didn't know about the triton that solid waste district his background was incredible and that is what i wanted to comment on was um you know dug was one of the original mirf operators in the state and so he was really intimately involved with um the beginnings of of us being uh in the mirf business and and he knew um he knew this business you know back and forth and really was able uh like paul said to to work with lin and and they were very much a team and really exemplary of of uh the primary commissioner of the commissioner and how they work together and it was uh it was an honor to know him and and to you know have have access to his expertise i think then we are ready for action on this resolution all those in favor of the acknowledgement of the service of doug taff please say i thank you and again i will declare this unanimous and sincere um approval and thanks to doug for his many years of service we're now ready to move on to uh item number five on our agenda which is uh an overview review of the june annual organizational meeting preparation begins on page 33 of your packet um i'll turn this over to sarah for for her review thank you very much and um this is a this is the same process that we've used through the pandemic so i think we do want to actually talk though about um whether or not we would like to try to have our annual meeting the june meeting in person so i i put that in in the brain for you to think about as we're kind of discussing the process as well so each year in june we are required to elect our officers um at an annual organizational meeting we are also required at that meeting to um authorize certain um certain abilities for the board and for the executive director um regarding finances um and just kind of general business type resolutions so it it tends to to be pretty quick um it's been a little longer when there's contested elections and it couldn't be can be longer as you read through the process if we do need to use breakout rooms for uh for meeting virtually so uh i again just kind of updated the guidance that we've used for the past couple of years if we are going to meet in june in kind of this virtual nature so what we like to do is to have um anyone who may be interested in serving on the executive board which consists of or as an officer so the executive board are five five commissioners um the chair is automatically a member of the executive board and the remaining four are elected by by the board commissioners um the officers are chair vice chair secretary and treasurer um the chair and the vice chair are uh generally are our commissioners the secretary and the treasurer can be a member of the general public um the current officers are paul roos as our chair alan nye as our vice chair leslie melvin as our treasurer and emi jewel is our secretary um so on the current executive board paul alan leslie paul stabler and leave right thank you i'm just so quiet these meetings and it is a one-year one-year term of service so each june we do pull these elections generally um what happens is anyone who wants to serve um you can either be nominated by a fellow commissioner or you can self nominate for the position um we would present kind of the slate of nominees in the june meeting board packet so there will be two meetings the first meeting is the annual organizational meeting that will start at 6 p.m um on um june 22nd and then the regular business meeting will simply follow immediately following the conclusion of the annual organizational meeting um and we don't put a time on that just because if it is a contested um there's a contested vote we want to give time for votes to be tallied so paul i do think we want to kind of take the temperature though to before we go too into too much detail about virtual workings if there's a desire to meet in person for the annual meeting uh yeah let's let's open that up for a little bit of discussion any commissioners have have comments that they'd like to share observations either in support or or or concern about meeting in person what were the what were the stipulations that wilson had on using their space on the second floor initially it was uh just that masks be worn and that no food be present but i have not checked recently so they may have removed that requirement and the only other comment i did want to make is with the hybrid meeting when we have in person in williston if we go into executive session of course channel 17 turns off the camera and leaves the room um but we would need commissioners to have a way to join the meeting and the last time we did that i had my laptop and there were only two folks so they could just look at the screen there and join but we would if we had a full um you know more folks we may need people to have laptops to do that we can figure out the logistics of that but that's just another issue that might come up uh brinn and then henry sure um so uh i'm on the city council for minewski we've been meeting in person um for the last couple months um masking is in minewski's optional at this point so um just saying that i'm i'm comfortable we i've been doing it so i'm happy to do it for this meeting too henry yes i'm i would appreciate meeting in person on occasion and the once-year meeting would be great um partially as i'm new to the board like to meet other folks and um i'm in meetings all the time with my job and i think we're all appreciate there's a difference between zoom and in person so i i would i would be a big fan and much prefer meeting in person and the rule is being whatever they are at the time whatever the side is so be it thank you thank you henry i would offer the observation i have not been following a cdc guidelines right much um recently they're always seem to be now incredibly confusing but i believe within the last week or two did hear a broad recommendation that um masking that that people be masked when they're in a public in indoor public um setting so um i if should we go to a a meeting in person i would certainly encourage all of us to be masked as much as possible alan and then paul said i don't know what the technology is it wasn't um office but i know that i spent uh a meeting in both the esics trustees and the town select board in esics and uh their technology uh can can do things on the board and the large tv's they have so if uh you know we are going to have a hybrid meeting um you might check with one of those uh amy because it was pretty impressive thanks alan paul stabler and i just wanted to speak in support of meeting in person i uh would very much like to do that especially at the organizational meeting i think it's a good thing too but um that's my two cents amy would there be refreshments uh the the light the dinner provided as we used to enjoy yeah i will check with the town um they did have that restriction previously but they may have changed that so i'll find out and and definitely send that information out because that would be a big draw rather than waiting till after a a meeting to have a little something to eat still up i'm not sure if you're have another comment or question i think there may be a leftover hand for me yeah i'll i'll drop in here okay um i just had a consideration for for amy and staff if uh what i'm hearing is that uh there's a general inclination to say let's go ahead and do this but i would hate to see you go to a lot of work and then have only one or two commissioners show up so perhaps if we could just have a show of hand of commissioners who at this point knowing what you know would be inclined to come to an in-person meeting i think that would just be helpful to raise confidence so just a raising of hands i'm seeing a goodly number here so i i think we have a good direction to do that my only caveat would be should conditions change dramatically and we're hearing from authorities that we might want to reconsider that might change things but i think at this point um you you can plan on an in-person organizational meeting and join regular board meeting um so we'll post it as a hybrid meeting so that anybody that did want to join remotely could do that okay we need to be considerate of anybody who is not not fully comfortable being in person all and amy let's um verify not so much public paul for your information but amy let's verify with wilson the availability of i know that they have obviously technology available but i agree with alan s6's large view screens are very helpful for displaying you know any documents and things so if i can i just can't remember and i'll tell you if you remember um if wilson has that availability i don't remember seeing it but um we can double check and if not maybe we could see if s6 is available for us to use that room instead for the annual meeting so we'll we'll do some follow-up with the towns yeah for the town of wilson just said um i didn't have to wear a mask when i was there for the slack board meeting the other week so and neither did neither did the slack board members but some people in the audience were wearing masks yeah and i don't remember seeing that there was a kind of large um view screen available so that could also be helpful for um for folks so we'll double check on the availability and uh i think probably the ability to have food might uh might sorry did you want to continue with an overview of it or um you so i think um so yes thank you so the the nomination process i think has been working pretty well for the past several years which is you can um if you want to self nominate you can do so ahead of the meeting and you can um simply send me and or amy i think probably amy as the secretary would be certainly most appropriate um your nomination and for which position or positions that you wanted to be considered for you can certainly talk to paul um as well as the chair and and you know get a sense from him as far as the amount of time that may be involved i did include in the memo descriptions of each of the uh officer positions um so that you could kind of get a sense for what that might entail um but really talking to the current officers about you know the time that that they feel that um they're they're putting into the positions would be most beneficial um and if you are interested in serving on the finance committee that committee is appointed by the chair so there's not an elected position uh elected committee it is appointed so the exec board is elected but the finance committee is appointed by the chair um so if anyone is interested in in any of these these options definitely let us know um send your self nominations to any if you know anyone who is nominating someone else um we would just need to have that be confirmed at the annual organizational meeting so you may certainly nominate someone else um hopefully you'll get their their sent to do so ahead of time and then we will just confirm the nomination of that person at the annual meeting and then um at the meeting if there are more than one um one person kind of bind for your position we will then vote each position in turn starting with the chair and then going to the vice chair treasurer secretary and then we would vote um for not more than four people for the executive board because the chair is uh an automatic member so if you have five you then have that on the ballot and you would write in four names if there are contested ballots then um what happens is the chair will um name a teller and the teller and the secretary will then take the ballots and they will go to a separate room tally the ballots come back and then report on the vote and now that's how the process will go. Thanks Sarah I would like to put in a strong recommendation for all commissioners to seriously think about um putting your name in um as important as regular board meetings are um you do learn a lot and you also can have a lot of influence on on a committee or on the executive board where there's an officer position um so if you are committed and I believe we all are to to the work and to the mission of this district there is no better way to to um do that than to um step up and be part of the leadership team or or part of the committee that said all meetings are open to all commissioners you do not need to be an officer or on the exec board or on the finance committee uh to attend any of those meetings and I'm really very very much strongly in favor of inviting all members at all times to these meetings um you learn a lot and it helps you be a better commissioner um those are my comments please I don't want to hear any any nominations or self nominations tonight you do have time but uh after the after tonight please seriously think about it uh any any other observations on this issue before we move on I'm seeing none so I think then we're ready for item number six which is um appears on page 36 of the board packet it's a reimbursement resolution this is a piece of the MRF financing puzzle um and it's coming up now because it's a good time to to address this piece of the puzzle but I want to steal any thunder from you Sarah but that's just to explain why we're dealing with this tonight generally what we're talking about so turn over to Sarah thank you appreciate it um yeah so it is basically one of the the paperwork things that um a board or councilors like board needs to do when um they're seeking these kinds of funds and it is um basically laying the groundwork and giving the authorization for a district to seek reimbursement from the bonds when when they're issued not hopefully it's not when they are issued um so that any you know project capital project bond project um costs are incurred they are directly related to that you can then seek reimbursement from those those bonds at a later date after they've been issued and this comes into play because if we're working through the bond bank for example they issue twice a year so say the bonds are approved in november there's um a bit of a waiting period and then the the monies may not be dispersed until may um so for example we may want to um have some some site prep work being done so we may be incurring some um permitting costs associated with the project we may you know possibly clearing costs associated with the project ahead of when funds are dispersed so this would authorize us to be able to apply those costs initial costs to those bond dollars and then seek reimbursement from that so it's um it's basically one of those checklist items um that we will need to do thank you sarah this resolution which is fairly long a page and a half is on page 36 of your board packet um rather than having it read out in its entirety if the board is comfortable welcome entertain commissioner to move um that we adopt this resolution as it's presented in the packet and then we can open up a discussion uh and zero in on specific language should commissioners have questions if that's acceptable to this board that's how i would recommend that we that we proceed i move we adopt the resolution as written in the packet south burlington thank you we have a second second westward thank you very much katie um questions discussions observations on this resolution my sense just to open up the discussion that it's it's a necessary um i don't want to say administrative but peace to have in place um that will make this process work to the benefit of the district um we're not it doesn't authorize any expenditure of any monies but it does provide a mechanism for um ultimately paying for work that's done prior to this successful um floating of a bond issue tim you're muted sorry i just had a chance to scan through i see that this is basically uh self-retiring after a short amount of time that was my only question just read it one more detail thank you other questions comments from commissioners or staff i think we've given it then enough time not hearing of any other commissioners or any other discussion so we will now vote on this motion to approve the reimbursement resolution as presented in the board packet all those in favor please say aye opposed say nay abstentions the motion and the resolution is approved we'll now move on to item number six a declaration of inclusion um which is something that um i after reading the packet has been um a lot of work has been done across the state on this and it's time now to bring this before our board but i will turn that i think believe it over to amy uh believe you wrote the cover memo on this so if you would like to bring the board up to speed sure thank you so cswd is requesting that the board of commissioners approve the resolution for the declaration of inclusion that's included in the memo uh it's on page two of that memo and i've also included the diversity equity and inclusion initiative um to provide additional information of the work being done in vermont that paul just mentioned just as a way of background governor scott um issued a proclamation of inclusion in may of 2021 and this dei initiative is a guideline that was developed with the goal to have all municipalities in vermont adopt and implement the deco declaration of inclusion of course the overarching goal here is that we convey that cswd is a welcoming organization where individuals feel a sense of belonging and can express their opinions and that cswd formally condemns all discrimination in all of its forms and the memo includes that information as well um as well as the work that the district has done and we want to be very clear that this isn't a box that we want to check or follow because of the governor's proclamation it is something that's very meaningful to district employees and so we've already begun work um in this effort the outreach and communications as i mentioned has been doing work since um 2019 the vermonters guide to recycling translating that information into different languages um looking at workshops with live interpreters and creating videos and then following some training as i mentioned in the memo we also started a justice equity diversity and inclusion committee which we refer to as jedi it's made up of uh staff across different departments we certainly have some challenges with getting together being that everybody is so busy but we've made this a priority and we found time to start working on different areas that where we want to see improvements so in summary we do request that the board adopt this declaration of inclusion thanks amy my personal feeling is that this is an important statement and i think it would be important to read this out um into the record if you wouldn't mind and then we'll see if we can have a most moved and second and discussed sure be it resolved that the board of commissioners of the chitenden solid waste district hereby approves the declaration of inclusion as written and presented declaration of inclusion the chitenden solid waste district condemns racism and welcomes all persons regardless of race color religion national origin sex gender identity or expression age or disability and wants everyone to feel safe and welcome in our community as a municipality we formally condemn all discrimination and all of its forms commit to fair and equal treatment of everyone in our community and strive to ensure all of our actions policies and operating procedures reflect this commitment cswd is an organization where all individuals feel a sense of belonging and can express their opinions so moves back in burlington thank you it's been moved and seconded to approve this resolution for this declaration of inclusion commissioners who wish to address the the resolution tim your hand is up but i think that may be a holdover uh lee yeah i think this is great am i muted or not no you're on okay my screen was saying i was but um yeah i think this is great and and the work you were doing is is absolutely wonderful um in reading through the memo i've you know followed the link went to the web page uh saw all the the uh recycling information did not know it was there until i read that uh got a link to it sent it to our public information manager because as you know we translate materials for our parking bands and snow bands and all that so he was not aware of it and so we're going to start adding links from our page to cswd website to really get that information out and i'm going to talk with our our p&i people too as far as you know dealing with a lot of the residents around burlington landlords i think it's some great information to get out there as well but i appreciate you doing this this is this is wonderful thank you wait brim yeah i appreciate the um the team working on this forming a um working group um dedicated to it um also really appreciate bringing the work done so far um to the board and just relaying that you know it does take um some dedicated thought and effort and and genuine um effort at that to to um move the needle in this regard um so thank you for um the work to date and looking forward to seeing um more progress in the in the coming year thank you brim i would like to offer um i believe this resolution uh very much reflects the the values held by the town of underhill for the residents of underhill um i'm on page 56 i see there was a list of many municipalities that i believe have already taken action and adopted the resolution i'm not sure where under hill has acted on it yet um but i'm very comfortable that that uh my support of this as a representative from under hill will reflect the wishes of the vast majority of the residents of my town any other um comments on this resolution i just say i applaud it i've always believed that diversity is a strength for any community or organization it brings fresh ideas new ideas uh diverse ideas and that just i mean history proves time and again that it's um you know that that's a strength not a weakness so i applaud this thank you paul i think we're now ready then to to vote on this resolution uh the or this declaration of uh inclusion as was read by the secretary all those in favor please say i i i if you are opposed say nay or if you wish to abstain please say that now the resolution is now passed unanimously thank you very much in uh next item on the agenda item eight is the odf promos screen purchase uh information begins on page 70 of the board packet um i believe um i'm not sure do i see josh on is josh here or is it going to be you sarah i don't know josh is sick today so i'm going to ask dan to address them hello thank you dan yes thank you all so memo our item number eight is uh seeking authorization to enter into a purchase agreement for the acquisition of a trauma screener for the organics disposal facility for those of you unfamiliar with that type of machine it's basically the drum type of screener that enables us to sift large from small and we there are a couple different types of screeners that are used for that purpose in in composting but this is the drum type we have a lot of familiarity with them we've run them for uh decades we don't have one at the moment we're seeking to correct that and this particular machine as noted in the memo is uh seeking to tackle uh two of our biggest operational challenges at the moment um namely plastics contamination and uh overs processing and and disposal of said overs um so uh plastics contamination has become a really big issue in the last few years particularly it's always been an issue it's an issue with every compost facility that i've ever visited or known of but it's grown tremendously uh in the last years last few years since the full um implementation of act 148 or the universal recycling law following that we had a lot of people getting into compost for the first time and um uh similar to what we've seen in at the mirf with recycling and people wanting to doing a lot of aspirational recycling and thinking wanting to do the right thing but putting way more in their blue bin than uh is actually acceptable we've seen a lot of confusion and a lot of new participation in the organics realm with people using um non-compostable plastic film liner plastic essentially liner bags that are made of polyethylene and other materials um and while we endeavor to separate these from our product our process as much as possible through other means uh the scale of our operation requires a um mechanical intervention as if you will um to to help us achieve a decrease in plastic getting into the process uh or continuing throughout the whole process um yeah so there's that and then overs processing has always been a challenge as well but because we have introduced more plastic as a community over the last few years what's happened is it gets chopped up through our particularly with the addition of our window turner which in all other regards has been an incredible addition to the process um it does have the side effect uh unattended effect of making big plastic into small plastic and uh this has been very problematic for our product quality um and can you just um please before you go and um elaborate on what you mean by overs yes industry term right so if you can imagine the compost that you collect in your kitchen going into a larger container and then eventually making it to us we mix that food waste with leaf and yard waste and wood and other things goes through an aeration process for a number of weeks before then going into windrows or long long piles that get turned for continued aeration and curing until after a couple of months it is finally ready hopefully for screening which separates big from small as I said before so the small or the fine portion of that mix is what is sold as compost or then blended into other products to make topsoil and garden mix everything bigger than in our case approximately three eighths of an inch is considered overs and there's a couple of different streams of this material but they're comprised historically they were comprised of mostly wood wood takes longer to break down than all the other organic matter and if it's clean enough wood then you can recycle it back into the beginning of the process and you know save on inputs and also innocently your compost with bacteria and fungi who are already present on that material however if it gets contaminated enough it becomes a contaminant itself and it makes it's not usable not reusable without extremely degrading your finished product so we go through an extensive effort to try to minimize the amount of contaminants that get into what we call these overs and anything that we that is not reusable we end up spending a lot of money sending to Coventry and either landfilling or depending on the makeup potentially using as road base at the landfill but still tens of thousands of dollars in a very you know in last year alone to get rid of this material so this machine in addition to pulling out plastic earlier on that would prevent the big plastic from becoming small also would allow us to clean up the final overs what we call overs to significantly decrease the amount of this material that would have to be landfill and then most well not most importantly but thirdly perhaps it would give us some backup or some redundancy to what is our loan screening plant at this point historically we had three up until a few years ago and we were happy to get rid of two of the very old trommels that we were operating but finding that being entirely dependent on one machine of course it can be very stressful this time of year particularly so that was that's just a bonus if we get this machine on our site and then also a point to make too that this this is budgeted in the fiscal 23 budget but we're bringing to you now because of the lead time it takes to order equipment and to get things in so we would we're authorizing the purchase in this fiscal year but the money would not be coming out of this fiscal year's budget that's correct yeah then we've been working at this for over a year now recognizing that this is going to be a big challenge for us and that we need to do something about it and we did a demonstration of the machine that we're seeking to acquire a little almost a year ago and it worked fantastic for what we're trying to accomplish however the other reason for doing it now instead of waiting a couple of months until the new fiscal years in place is that we've been informed that with all of the supply chain and inventory issues not to mention inflation we with this machine all of the machines leaving this factory are going up $30,000 in price start after it for any machine leaving after June so that was the other reason to go now instead of waiting and I unfortunately that's going to be probably every piece of equipment that we bring before this board for the next year or two is going to be we're going to be seeing some sticker shock but I think we're right on the edge with this one luckily and hoping to get it through before that happens I need your questions sorry did you have anything else that you wanted to add before we open it up no okay Katie your hand was up first then we'll go to Henry thanks Paul um so I'm all for this purchase I'm all for approving it I just have a technical question about the equipment um when we first got compost screeners they did not come equipped with machine guarding I put my safety hat on here we had to retrofit a lot of that equipment with machine guarding stuff on it because all the moving parts you could basically stick your hands into and that was an additional cost and maintenance time I just want to make sure that it's um you know on your mind that if it's not coming I don't know if it's coming from the US but it might not come with the all of the appropriate guarding on it that it should so maybe have josh uh esti check it out for you know make sure all the appropriate guarding is on so you don't have to fix it afterwards it's my only interest is to comment yeah good comment absolutely and actually every screener that we've ever purchased has required a little bit of additional guarding to be added some are some are much better than others coming out of the factory in terms of what they bring but yeah that's the first step that we always take when we acquire a new piece of machine thanks Henry um yes yes Dan I um if you could send out a youtube video I mean I just googled it when I got the meeting agenda you know the ODF trauma and see what it does but just to better understand what you're buying and um and I'm probably an aspirational composting myself but I do all mine at home I'm guilty and I assume this this trauma will also apply to the upgraded MRF so the the trauma is only four of the compost okay so unrelated okay really unrelated yes yeah okay thank you yeah and I will try to uh include a video while we're speaking if I can get to pull it off I wanted to chat Tim Tim lots of I pulled up a few but would like to see the one it's that that you think mom better applies sure to what it is looks like a nice toy uh Lee yeah thanks Dan um I was able to watch video earlier today pretty impressive rig what size loaders do we have at the ODF we have uh two 644 John Deere 644s and 1524 and uh all three of those would be perfectly adequate for loading this then one of the benefits of this type of uh machine is actually that you don't need a ramp uh and historically every every screener that we've bought has uh required a ramp and in addition to being more wear and tear on your loaders it just is much less efficient you end up spilling a lot more and uh you end up using more yeah more fuel so we're we're really excited about that aspect of it this will also be a portable machine that will allow us to use it in multiple areas which is not something that we've been able to do historically does the ODF still have an excavator did I can't remember we we do it's uh it was replaced with the windrow turner and we have not we our decision on that was not to put any money into fixing any large issues with it but we have yet to quite let it go we keep finding a couple of things where it's been incredibly useful so it'll be eventually that will be uh leaving our site yeah just they were using a pretty significant loader in a video I just want to make sure that the equipment we plan on using you know we weren't smashing into the side of it and we're able to clear it yeah the you know it's an excellent piece of equipment yeah it's very accessible from a low height without a ramp thank you I have a couple of questions for you Dan or Sarah in the memo you identified some some savings on the operations and rentals and also additional revenue have you come up with a with a rough estimate of when the the purchase would pay for itself uh it's rough at this point I would say but yeah just rental avoidance alone we spent 37 000 renting a similar size machine not the spring but the spring prior for two months and so we we hope not to uh need to rely well we we we shouldn't need to rent any screeners if we had the second one on site but so that that alone is you know what like 12 years but that doesn't count come that doesn't look at all the other benefits and the main purpose of having it which is the plastic separation and the ability to sell our product from for a good price which is in question I didn't even mention the upcoming legislation it is in the memo but didn't speak to it tonight and can more if wanted but or the cost avoidance with additional overs disposal last year when we we demoed this machine we were able to avoid I think that's in the memo as well but tens of thousands of dollars I think yeah it was it was over 20 000 that were for approximately one year's worth of our final overs stream which was destined for the landfill but we were able to pull out a significant tonnage that you did not need to pay for disposal and in fact we're able to turn around and make into topsoil and sell for revenue so looking at those numbers I think you've identified them but when I read the memo I came up 30 000 you identified an operational savings 37 in rental savings an additional 10 000 in in revenue producing more saleable material comes up to roughly 77 75 000 so 420 divided by that and that's really what I'm driving at is if those numbers are correct you know then theoretically this pays for itself in five or six years and I presume the machinery would would have a life of longer than that period of time for sure yeah but particularly given that it wouldn't be run as much as we we run something like a loader it's we would use it heavily but not as not 30 hours a week that on average I think we would be aiming for less than 10 hours a week maybe 15 so yes approximately that that's as close as I would be able to come up with at the moment for six to seven years probably ROI captain yeah so are you just maybe a look are there two separate parts in the process when you use it how do you separate the plastics from the overs or are you using it up like one part of your process where you're hoping to take out the plastic and then one part to take out the overs at the end is that yeah so this with this I may not I don't know if it says in the memo this would be coming with two drums one is a two inch drum and one is a half inch drum so the two inch drums would be the primary objective of removing the large film plastic kind of midstream post-aration prior to windrowing and then we would utilize the smaller drum for every all other screening at the end of the process for cleaning up overs potentially actually for screening some of our soil blends that currently we depend on our star screen on which is not a great match for sandy materials such as the ones we make because we use rubber stars for that process so yeah does that answer your question it's it's because we we have the two separate screens we use it a couple different stages in the process this coming to get out the plastic before even though it's the window is kind of okay thank you yep leave your hand is up again I'm now it's still up or oh I put it back I put it back up just another question you kind of alluded to it life expectancy of this vehicle and a piece of equipment and is it going to be something that is going to put it be put on a replacement list that you know down the road it's something we're going to have to budget for in 10 12 years I think 20 I would say yes with the caveat that we don't know what the waste stream is going to look like that far out you know I'd be hopeful that we we made so many other advances in our contaminant reduction that we're also doing at the same time that you know this extra step of screening would be unnecessary but until that happens you know that's kind of a big ask and perhaps aspirational that yes we would become part of the replacement schedule for the two screeners and our four-wheel loaders do they have a replacement you know expected useful life give any specifications they do I and I'm forgetting if it's eight or 10 years I think it's one of the two but that is that is with the assumption that you're using it like 30 or 40 hours a week so we should be able to extend it easily 10 or more 10 or more years I would say we're planning we're planning for 10 years and we feel given the hours that's more than reasonable life expectancy for this piece of equipment thank you I'll ask another question and I don't see any other hands up but sorry you already identified that this is in the approved 22 23 budget and I went back and looked at the capital equipment with a capital program and it was listed for the ODF in in 2023 so I would like to ask question where's the money going to come from and the answer is is that out of the capital reserves or is it going to come out of operating revenues capital budget and the money is already in the capital budget other questions and discussions on the on the trouble screen we have not yet had the motion to approve this purchase we've had the discussion before that which I think in this case is fine we move forward with this action ethics seconds up Burlington thank you and just to be clear I think the motion is to approve the resolution as as printed in the the board packet which I believe appears well the memo begins on page 70 so I believe it'd be page 72 or 73 71 bottom page 71 thank you so it's been moved and seconded to approve this purchase is a further discussion by by the board on the purchase I'm hearing none so I think then we're ready for the question all those in favor of approving the purchase of the ODF trouble screen as presented in the board packet please say aye you're opposed please say nay if you'd like to abstain please indicate that I declare the purchase approved thank you I would just I just found it is actually 10 years is what the manufacturer estimates for lifetime so we should be well well beyond that so thank you and again in the chat box is Tim has posted a link to a youtube if any commissioners can focus in on that and look at it later and see what we've just authorized next item on the agenda is executive session for the purposes of discussing contract negotiations in particular the mirf contract do we have a motion to be read off Amy to yes I move that the board of commissioners of the Chittenden solid waste district go into executive session to discuss contract negotiations with respect to the Kasella contract where premature general public knowledge would clearly place the district it's member municipalities and all other public bodies or persons involved at a substantial disadvantage and to permit authorized staff other invited parties and the solid waste district attorneys to be present for this session the commissioner I'd like to move it thank you westburn thank you katie before we act on this this motion kelton I see your hand is up I just well work to use myself from this in the final of the voting on the chisel contract and kaylan the alternate such you wish you could be here within the year night so thank you all I'm gonna hop off and I appreciate it thank you have a great night thank you very much kelton forget for you uh paul stabler I was just saying goodbye sorry okay okay uh the motion is to enter executive session uh all those in favor please say aye aye are there any opposed we'll now enter executive session which is on it can be accessed via the email separate email that came from sarah item number 10 on the agenda kasella contract extension um sarah make a motion to extend the end date of the merp operations contract with kasella waste systems under the same terms and conditions to september 30th 2022 so moose up for linkedin thank you paul seconded Essex thank you allen any discussion on the motion to extend the current contract with kasella for three months hearing none I think we're ready for the question all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye you're opposed to say nay if you abstain indicate the extension is approved thank you we're ready now to move on to item number 11 other business uh sarah did raise one one item and I just have one follow a final comment but actually I just know that is on as well for uh nola if you wanted to jump in um she had asked if we could remind commissioners who do have community cleanup fund projects kind of in in the works um that receipts are submitted in a very timely fashion um nola do you what is the date your your deadline for receipts to be able to pay be paid out of this year's yeah so the hope is that we would have everything even new requests in um before mid june so june 17 i think is the friday yeah that would be acceptable and we're happy to help with if you have any questions um you know anything is confusing please reach out we are happy help uh page 29 of the board packet to have a list of the balances i'm not sure if they're up to the minute but but primarily pretty much accurate town by town balances that money that that are available so it's there to be used yes with the exception of the requests that are pending receipts so it does not include those because we haven't funded those projects yet tom your hand is up um has a request been received from jericho recently the select board did uh no i do not see a request from jericho the deadline is june 15th yes or i mean uh i think sarah said the 17th so just you did the friday yeah that's fine any other questions and on the cc community cleanup funds i had one comment that i just wanted to reinforce but before i do that any other business to come before the the body tonight i'm hearing none i just wanted to point out again i'm as i said earlier i'm always encouraging commissioners to attend all all board meetings and want to point out that tomorrow night there's a finance committee meeting at five p.m then there's an exec board meeting at five p.m on june 13th and then june 22nd is our next regularly scheduled full board organizational meeting as always please you're more than welcome to attend those if you're interested contact amy or sarah and you get the get get you the invites in the proper links so any other work to be done by this board tonight if not we'll entertain a motion to adjourn don't move westford thank you katie thank you paul all those in favor of adjournment please say i very good i declare this meeting adjourned thank you all have a good evening thank you have a good evening