 three. So thanks Toby for being on. Is Alfred going to try to join Dino? Well, there he is by Dolly. I am so impressed. Yeah, I had to hold his hand. But by social distancing though, right? No, we were about a mile, two miles apart. That's still enough. Yeah, it's having a hard time connecting to his audio. Hi Alfred. Alfred, I don't know if you can hear us, but right now we cannot see or hear you. Rose is going to coach Alfred. Rose, you're on a phone. Can you use the chat function on the phone? I don't know. I don't know. Duff wondering. Alfred, can you hear us? Well, if he can, we won't be able to hear him because his microphone is not enabled. And I can't do it from here. Let me try this. I'll see if I can turn on his, get him to turn on his video, send him a prompt after we do that. This is going to be exciting stuff for people watching this, you know, after we're going to the orchestra. Sharon, I have the chat option, but I never did it before. And how do I send a chat to Alfred? Go ahead, Sharon. No, I was just wondering if you can, and maybe Alfred can hear us even if we can't, and we can't see him. And he might explore whether he can send us a howdy. I'm sending Alfred a chat right now. We'll see if he is able to respond. Keep working on that if you want to move us forward, Denise. Alrighty. Toby, you want to give us an update, please? Toby? Toby, you're muted. Yeah, I saw it. Yeah. Yeah, roads are- Alfred. Have a- Join the meeting. Well, there's Alfred. Yeah. All right. Let's see if I can turn on his mic. Can you hear me? Hey, Alfie. Hey, Alfred. Hey, Alfred. Hey, Alfred. I am here, watching well. Good. Welcome back. So Toby was just going to give us an update, and then we'll get an update from you. Okay. Yeah, just Alfred was going to go out and take a look at things today and see where we're at. And he and I talked about what the next steps are to get the crew in to deal with any issues that we have on the road. I sent you all an update on what the state is telling us about municipal highway crews, and I emailed that to everybody. Yes. Thank you for that. And I'll let Alfred tell you what he discovered and what we're next steps are. Take it away, Alfred. Alfred, yeah, so I just took a large run around town and from what I see, it's mainly just potholes and there's a few clay boils, but you know, nothing that people can't get over. And with the rain, the way it is, we can't really do much for grading and whatnot. But also, you know, once it does dry out, I think we can keep our distance to go guide the grader and keep his own truck, you know, and we'll just have to, and the shop is going to be the most tricky part for keeping the social distance thing. But certainly the work that is needed out on the road, we can just be in individual equipment and you know, keep cleansing it. I mean, that's the best that we can do. Is your 14-day quarantine over? To not until Wednesday. When Wednesday, this will be the 14 days, yeah. Okay. John? But I can, you know, I can go in and kind of steer the guys in the right direction in the meantime. Alfred. Or if it's, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, so I'm out of the bottom. F.D. Kaplan reached out to me before the weekend saying that he can, the road was really bad. And then she just emailed me said it was almost, she was almost unable to traverse it. She actually turned around and went up Lighting Ridge and back down George. So I'm assuming the stretch between where George comes onto it and route 14 must be really bad. Okay. That's one road I didn't pass tonight. But I can, I mean, we can certainly go take a look at it tomorrow. But if it's, like I'm saying, if it's wet and rainy, you know, it's going to take a pile of gravel to get it. To get, you know, I mean, to get it fixed. But I certainly can go look at it and make a plan. That would be great. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Rose. I, I had a couple of comments that I wanted to make. I read what Toby had sent. And then I further went on the State of Vermont website and, you know, read the whole thing in its entirety. And I, I like what Alfred said about checking the status of our roads and whatnot. And one of the sentences right before the part that Toby highlighted said that construction necessary to support the COVID response and maintain critical infrastructure. And I view our roads as critical infrastructure. Yeah. I'm not in favor of the crew taking long extended time off going like verbatim what the governor said. You have to stay home, stay safe till May 15th. I feel that if we did encourage or allow or support the crew to stay out till May 15th, we would totally lose our critical infrastructure. And as everybody knows, the amount of money that we budget and fund every year for our highway department is such a huge amount and rightfully so. So I think here in Palestine, we support the roads. We put a lot of money into it. We support our crew with good equipment and whatnot. And I, you know, I'm in favor of like a wait until this rain is over. But I know Big Bird's quarry is open. I did speak to someone on the highway department that I know. And he said that everybody has their own piece of equipment. They're sanitizing. They have bleach water solution. And the social distancing when they're in the shop, they wear a face covering. And they, they continue to work five days a week. The Worcester idea is hit or miss. They come for some days and they stay for other days. But so that's my son. I'm really concerned. I was off today. So I was home. I didn't go out. Greg reported to me that Adamant Village is pretty muddy or Adamant road. And so I really would like to see the guys doing what they can to keep our critical infrastructure. Thanks, Rose. Okay. Well, I certainly agree with that. I was ready to come back to work the day I landed in Vermont. But due to the governor's order, we were told not to. So, but I'm ready to go now. I mean, after Wednesday, I'm fully in. And my guys, I'm sure are ready to do the same. This is what we do every year. It's not, it's not our idea to not be working on the roads. So you tell me to go fix them. I'll go fix them. But I also have to do it wisely with the rain. I mean, if, you know, the rain and how long gravel on the roads, when they're soaking wet like that, we all know what that does. So it is sort of a judgment call. And I'm sure other towns are doing it. But they're also using judgment and same as I will have to. That's, I think that's the thing that the, I don't see where the discretion is in the language that Toby sent us necessary repairs only be doing repairs. As necessary, how holes, failing culverts allowed, normal springtime maintenance, et cetera, not allowed. So it's parsing where is our discretion under the order, right? Is that what we're trying to do? I think we're trying to decide how much further we want to take the road crew not coming in on a regular daily basis. I think some of that is what we're trying to, going to try to determine here. Given the governor's additional order, it does say, and I, I see what Rose said, Dean critical and may continue in person. Friction necessary, I mean, local interest. So I think this project is a judgment call as to what is critical. Probably some of the, some of the grant projects being critical. John, you had one of the, I can't hear you. I'm sorry about that. The red language. And then the second one says, Paris up his bubble. The failing car or a lab. Did anybody get that? John's reading the red language right now. I'm going to log out. We're a bad connection. Good idea. I think, I think that Alfred will use judgment. The one, I think that the road crew at one time was concerned about spending time together and using one person using the truck and then somebody else using the same truck. We're a way to avoid that. Yes. You know, there's enough trucks. So one guy in each truck, one guy in a greater, you know, that we can definitely keep each guy in his own, in his own space while we're working on the roads. You know, in normal situations, we do trade trucks and one guy will be in it one day and another guy is next day, whatnot, but these are not normal situations. So we're going to have to stick to the truck that we're in. And also cleansing. We'll also have to do more cleansing. Like if, like if one guy is in a gray or that is in ordinarily, then we'll have to wash it before the next guy gets into it and whatnot. It's just going to be a little more time involved and work. But I mean, that's, that's, that's what we got. That's what we got to have to do. Alfred or Toby, what are your feelings from the crew or anything? I have not, I have not spoken with the guys, but one of the things we have to do is we have to institute policies to make sure they're safe and they're also feel that they're safe. So we probably need to sit down with them and talk with them about all the things that we would have to provide them. I've provided them with gloves. I've provided them with disinfectant sprays. I have not provided them with individual masks. That's something we would probably have to do. They've taken some of that on themselves, but I think it's, it's incumbent on us as the employer to make sure they have all the equipment they need, the PPE for, if we're going to make them come back and not make them, but ask them to come back in under these conditions. Okay. Alfred, have you talked to them? I haven't. I, I sort of wanted to wait until after this meeting and I would call them tonight and just kind of explain to them what, what we decide or what we talked about during the meeting and kind of get a sense of what their thoughts are after that. I mean, my guess is that they're chomping at the bit and they want to come and do their job. I know I do, but you know, I'm sure that they'll, they'll do everything in their power to keep themselves and others safe while we're doing it. Okay. Sharon, you wanted to say something? John is back. Go to him and then come to me, Denise. There's nothing much more I wanted to say other than the bolded language that Toby provides, the sentence after the bolded red language talks about repairing potholes is, is allowed under executive order. So I think that means very long wheel track type potholes as well. I mean, we got to make inner infrastructure as Rose says. Well, I think again, part of the reason the roads are in the shape they are is the weather. We haven't had a period of time when we could actually go out and do repairs. But there's starting tomorrow for four days of clear weather where we can get out and actually patch and repair and do a little bit of grading to improve all of those conditions. But the cycle of, you know, one day of rain, one day of clear and the next day of snow, the next day of clear has not given us the opportunity to actually do anything on the roads. And I've been on roads in East Montpelier and they're in the same shape we're in because there's just the weather. It's not, it's really a weather issue more than a manpower issue. Sharon? I think that given the given the current environment and some of the other things that we're all working on, we should thread this needle really carefully around the governor's order. I would not want to see us interpreting. I would not want to, I would not be in want us to be interpreting the order expansively in a way that makes things potentially or might create the perception that the guys are not safe. So I would ask that, I'd like to hear from Alfred that he's read the order and Alfred that you're comfortable, you understand it and that the things that you're proposing to do can be done within the context of the order. Yeah, it's right. Well, I haven't read it. I haven't read it work. Okay. I haven't read it word for word, but the bottom line is we've got to keep our distance and we've got to keep things clean. And if guys are in their own vehicle or in their separate vehicle or not switching vehicles, that's going to give us the distance that we need. You know, I mean, we certainly cannot fix every pothole that's out there. We just can't. I mean, I wish I could, but we can't given mainly because of the weather. Now, if we get some really decent weather and, you know, we can go fix that, then I'm all into it. But, you know, we've still got clay boils. We've still got muddy spots. So I think it's, I think it's that's where the judgment comes in. We're going to have to use our judgment to as to which spots are more crucial and, you know, by keeping our safe distance. And certainly we can keep our distance if we're out working on road. It's the in the inside the shop is where it's going to be more challenging. Right. Because every, every half inch wrench that we grab or every screwdriver that we grab, we're going to have to clean it. So that before it goes back on the bench. So that's where it's going to become more difficult. And all working on the roads, I think we can, we can do that. And also dealing with the public. I mean, somebody comes up to our truck, we're going to have to, you know, force the six foot rule. I mean, that's some people are not, are not okay with that. So people, you know what I mean? I've had people that don't agree with that already, but we're going to have to be strong and tell them, no, we got to keep the 16. And also I would be concerned about making sure you're not all, you know, the break room is nice, but I wouldn't encourage like everybody eating lunch together in the break room. You're going to have to be really sure that the bathroom is cleaned on a regular basis. Yeah. Yeah. Well, like I said, most of the time we'll be out on the road, you know, so we'll be eating our lunch in the truck beside the road somewhere or, you know, or outside the truck. But yeah, I think that you're right. Being in close corners is going to be the hardest part for us. I think the governor's order was pretty, I thought was pretty clear about um, potholes, culverts, all that stuff are allowed, but other springtime maintenance, we don't do street sweeping, but things like ditching and stuff, he says specifically are not allowed. And road crews should only be doing repairs to roadway infrastructure that's necessary to ensure imminent safety. To me, that frames what's allowed, Alfred. It's less about distancing and you can do it. It's not, to me, I think we've moved past. You can do anything as long as you're distancing. And how I read this is it starts with distancing, of course, but only to do necessary repairs such as potholes and culverts. And I don't think that you can do the other things, even if you're distancing, ditching, for example. So that's what I mean by the really conservative view. I don't think we want, I feel strongly right now, we don't want to be accused of stretching this interpretation or interpreting this too broadly. Right. Well, first of all, first of all, we are not going to have time to do any ditching or any kind of, you know, a lessons in emergency culvert. That's not, we're not even going to be able to think about that. We've got so much grading and gravel to haul that, you know, we're going to be able to keep, you know, doing the necessary things for two or three weeks. And by then, this may be, he may have already, you know, dissolved the order. So as far as the non-necessary, the ditching, the post-corner stuff, we won't be doing that anyways. There's just not enough time. We've got two or three weeks of just grading and hauling gravel. I mean, it happens every year. This stuff happens every year. Well, and then things like, things like that sound like they're within the governor's order. And also that they, they do social distancing all on their own. We have authorized the, the memo says through April 15th, we need to decide if we're going to extend that, if we extend it for how long, and what way we would interpret the governor's order as we dissolve this test. Okay. As we, as we what Denise? As we've all, we've been discussing about what the governor's order means and what's allowed and what's not. So I think we need to make a decision because April 15th will be here in two days. We need to make a decision if we're going to extend it through like April 30th maybe to give ourselves a couple more weeks. What would the board like to do? Why would we not extend to May 15th, which is where the governor is now? Only because things might be different by, by April 30th. And if we extend it to May 15th and we don't have an opportunity to get back to doing what we're supposed to, what the road crew would be doing, that's all. I'm just, I'm just trying to buy a little time. So my sense is that there is, again, the infrastructure is semi-critical. I mean, it's not like the road is washed out or the potholes are untassable. But I would say that you could ask the road crew to continue the situation that you're in, but that we would ask them to come in and improve the conditions on the road. That would fall under the emergency critical infrastructure to get roads passable. And so if they get them done in two weeks, there'd be another two weeks where they wouldn't be required to come in because they couldn't do ditching and they couldn't do other, other maintenance work that's not acceptable under the governor's, the governor's order. So would we not leave it up to, right now it's up to Alfred and Toby about calling the crew in. I think they've been called in. Would we not just leave it the same way so that they would be called in as needed? I mean, if you have a day where, like today, we're fordrain all day, they're not going to do anything anyway. So why would they come in just to sit around in the garage together? That's where the judgment call comes in. That's where when the weather is good, we come in and we fix what we can. And you know, that's where the judgment comes in, but leave it, leave it somewhat open so that one or two of us can make that decision. Yeah. Does, well, how does the board feel about that, Rose? I'm in favor of that. And I just want to make sure that, you know, the guys know whether or not they possibly might have to work tomorrow. I would feel bad if they had such short notice, like, you know, it's 7 30 at night and they don't know whether or not they might have to work tomorrow or whether or not they could sleep then, you know. So, but, you know, I'm all in favor of extending this directive. I don't, I don't know. I think it would be more inclined to extend it to April 30th instead of 8 15th. But if you leave the language the same, it says at which time we will reevaluate the situation and make a determination. Yeah. We'd be meeting on the 27th and could probably reevaluate the situation at that time. Right. What if you wanted to say something? Yes. Thank you. Actually, yeah, I agree with what Rose just said. I think it's a sensible approach. And the fact that we do have the meeting on the 27th does position us to be able to look at it again. The other thing I would add is, Alfie, when you're speaking with the road crew or maybe it's you and Toby together, making sure you give them a chance to state any of their concerns. And if there is things that need to be acknowledged that you need to think outside the box to work around so that they feel comfortable performing their job, I want to know about it. Yeah. Yeah. So Cliff and Rose, you would agree with me on the April 30th extension? Yes, that sounds good. Okay. And John, what's your pleasure? What's that, Sharon? Is that on the assumption that the governor may dial back the May 15th? Is that what we're thinking? Yeah. I mean, I've listened to enough things, as I'm sure everybody else has. He did extend to May 15th, but I wonder, you know, if that could, if that changes, we don't want to be in the position of extending to May 15th. And then the governor dials back a little and we don't have any way to make any changes after we tell them to be gone to the 15th. I see. So we're worried that they could, you know, go on a vacation or something. Well, or else it could be that the weather is such that by April 30th, there's no potential other than, you know, being out in the trucks and doing gravel and grading. I just think by doing it to April 30th, it gives us a little bit of wiggle room. Yeah, I'm fine with that. I want to keep the guys safe. The ultimate goal for me is to make sure they're safe. They feel safe that we're doing our job in following the governor's directive as much as we can. Actually, I would say that we're following the governor's directive. My words would be that we're following the governor's directive, because that's where I'm not seeing, I don't know where we get discretion to say as much as we can. And maybe that's, from what I heard from Alfred, we're not really looking to expand it. If we can't be doing the spring time maintenance ditching anyway, that's probably a moot issue. But I would want the motion that we offer to include that we are working within the governor's directive until April 30th, blah, blah. Okay, John. Just for clarification purposes, what Sharon said is exactly the case of your only allowed to operate within the parameters of the directive legally. And last Friday, I was on the phone with a deputy secretary of a state agency. And we were talking about us to go a matter unrelated to town work. And she said, if you see that that in fact, these folks are running a construction business in violation of the directive that people are to call state police and they've been directed to shut those things down. So it's very clear. There's no leeway, whatever is contained in directive is all you're allowed to do. Nothing more. So based on Sharon's motion, I would second that. And I think that we could, I could draft an addendum to the memo and send it around to the board to comment and approve. Sounds good. I didn't make a motion, but let me let me play around with the language. No, I said I would want the motion that's offered. I was Can we just extend the letter that we just sent out? I mean, it's that letter's clear. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Maybe just add an addendum to the memo from April 5th, extending it to April 30th to be reevaluated. Does that does that one say within the within the constraints of the governor's order? Does it have language like that in it already? And if it doesn't, can we add that? I wanted to take an add this language that Toby sent us. Yeah, I like that idea. Yeah. And say that it's our intent that we be operating within the parameters of the governor's order. Right. Section 6b. So I can do that and send it around to the board to review and comment. Okay, with that, I'll make the motion that we extend the extend the extend the order we've the policy we've put in place for our road crew to April 30th with the understanding that we are operating as strictly as necessary within the parameters of the governor's executive order and that offered is going to talk to the guys and be sensitive about where they are in terms of safety and comfort level. Okay, I'll second that. Did you get that Katie? Katie? Katie. Yeah. Yep. Okay. You can also use the thumbs up thing too. Yeah, I'm still typing that's all. Okay. So we're good. All right. All those in favor, we have to take a roll call vote because this is Zoom clip. Hi. Rose. Hi. John. Hi. Sharon. Hi. And I'm an I. Okay. Anything, Alfred, does that make sense to you and Toby? Yes. Yes. I might just add a couple of things. You guys need to feel free if you see a spot out there that you feel an emergency or it needs to be addressed, you can call me, you can text me, you can email me, whatever. You know, I would rather hear ASAP than to hear it at a meeting and then I should have texted. You know, feel free to call me anytime and let me know because it's a big town, as you all know, 80 miles a road plus and I can't see them all. Yeah. So, you know, in these emergency situations when we're going to be sort of part-timish, feel free to call me. Let me know. We will. And also to answer, I think it was Rose's question about guys being able to plan. We don't get to plan our date for the next day. That's all winter long. If it snows, we have to go. We know that. The guys know that. So, you know, it's hard to call them, you know, at least I'm calling them that night and not at three in the morning and saying, Hey, let's go to work. I do get that. I do get that, Rose, but we don't, you know, to me, it's the same situation as it is in the wintertime. If it happens to snow half an inch, we have to go regardless. That's what we signed up for. Yeah. I just didn't want them to think that they were under this directive to stay home, stay safe, that they didn't know that we are going to be taking care of the roads. So, yeah, I totally understand that. And I totally trust your judgment, Alfred. Yeah. Yeah. And just so you know, the guys all told me that, you know, when we were talking about this, that they were happy to come back in when they were needed. So, they're all of the understanding that they will have to come back in situations. Oh, good. That's good to hear. Thanks, Toby. Okay. All right. Pam DeAndrea was going to be on call in, but I don't see, do you see anything from Pam DeAndrea, Cliff? That doesn't come on board yet. Okay. Because, you know, we had the discussion last meeting, and I raised the issue of my concern with the grants and somehow making sure that if we spend a lot of money on a project, and then the federal government says, oh, we re-think, you know, some of this grant money, and now it's not available, and we've already paid out money, and then we can't get reimbursed. I think I forwarded to everybody, and it's in the Google folder, the email from Pam about the project in East Calis. That's the one for around the Calis Post Office and Moscow Woods Road. It's that gully thing that we've been talking about for a couple of years. She says that that is all set to go, but I don't know when I was going to ask her, when she got on the phone, is when would that project start? Alfred or Toby, do you have any clue as to when that project might be started? Well, I think they're working on the engineering part of it, is what they're working on right now. So we won't be breaking ground this year, certainly. Oh, really? I guess I got the impression. Well, Toby may be able to correct me, but the last I heard was that they were working on an engineering study, money for the engineering part. Yeah, I agree. So from what I understand, this round of grants is for to do the final engineering. They've only done just a survey and preliminary look at it. They don't have the full engineering, and I believe Pam was saying that we would have to get a grant for the engineering part of it first and then go and apply for a grant to do the work after that. Well, one of the emails from Pam says, we were going to put in some time for Alphina to help with some excavation, perhaps to help the engineers test the soils. There you go. Right. So that's still engineering. That's just they can test all so they can see what soils there are there. So there will be a little bit of excavator work, but it's only maybe a day. It's not the actual project. Okay. All right. So I just wanted to put that on everybody's radar and make sure that we're not getting into something that we might not get reimbursed for later. But sounds like it's just going to go forward with what it is for now. So in that same discussion of grants, I talked with Shawna about the George Road grant. She said that money's already been set aside and that that's not an issue. So we can go ahead with that project and not worry about there being no money at the end of it. And again, we'd have to wait to start to work until the state allows contractors to go back to work, but we can continue. We have not had a site visit or put it out to bid, but we can continue to do that at this point. Okay. Is the board in agreement with that? Thumbs up from Cliff. Sharon's shaken. Thumbs up from Rose, John. Okay. Good. Thank you, Alfred and Toby. Yes, you're welcome. And we're so glad you're back, Alfred. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome back. Yes, thank you. It's nice to be here. I gotta say. Good for you. You're back home. Yeah. I won't say I'm a new man, but I feel like one. Good for you. Okay. I'll see you on the road. Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you. You're welcome. Next, next here, I see. So we put Judy, do you have anything you want to update us on from town office perspective? Can you hear me? Yep. Okay. I just thought I'd update you that we are setting up a schedule that's working. Barbara and I are alternating weeks, and Sandra's coming in on Thursday afternoons, and Jan as Lister's coming in on Friday. And I think we've organized it so that everyone feels safe. There seems to be agreement that we don't want to be in the office together because it's just very close quarters. So we have a protocol of going in for our shift, cleaning everything up when we leave, and then there's a period of time between each one of us. So that seems to be working. I went in last week and worked part of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, left early enough so there was time between me and Sandra and got all the recording of the land recording caught up from the last two months. Wow. So I feel really good about that. There's very little that's outstanding, just like a few documents that just barely came in. So we're up to date with recordings. We're monitoring calls. Barbara's going to take over monitoring the phone so you and Cliff are off the hook. So she will pick up any messages when we're not in the office. And so far there have not been any emergency requests. It's really been a lot of requests for tax bills and Lister Cards and routine things. And Sandra's sending out those copies of tax bills as requested. And we're doing our routine April stop. We're doing dog licenses and overweight permits. And I think the critical piece is allowing Jan to get in there so that she can start working on the grand list and all the things that the Listers need to do to prepare for tax bills. Yeah, good. Yeah. And I read the governor's latest order and they're talking in there about some other requirements and stuff. It's actually pretty interesting. And I thought I'd say this, but it's pretty interesting to read the order. There's a lot in there. Did the lockbox thing get ordered? The outside? Yeah, the lockbox was ordered. It should be arriving any day. And we also ordered a new door lock system, which arrived and I've had keys made. I think I'm going to ask Andy to put that in over the weekend. I'm trying to arrange it so it's in between people. Yeah. And as soon as the lockbox comes in, I'll ask him to do that. Perfect. Anything else that you guys still feeling supported and all that stuff? I know I do. I don't know if Barbara wants to chime in, but I think we're doing great. And I think you all are doing great in terms of navigating this really unusual situation. Hey, it's like a learning experience. Barbara? I certainly feel supported by Judy, Sandra, and the select board, as well as residents who call in and thank us. And from time to time, Judy and I both get emails from people thanking us. And so I feel great about how we're operating. Oh, it's so nice to hear. Thank you for your efforts. Yeah. What a great team we have. I'm proud and pleased to be a part of it. Thank you, Barbara. I just want to chime in. Sandra's not on this call, but I think you all are aware that she is really keeping up with everything. And on top of the pandemic, she's, you know, taking medication for a recurrence of Lyme's disease. Yeah. So, but she's very energetic in the mornings and says that she really needs to cut back on the afternoon. So we're working around that so that she can get back to health as well. Yeah. And she said that her, the internet for her at home, it's actually working out well. Cause like you said, morning, she has energy. And then sometimes in the evenings or on the weekends, she'll do stuff. So however, whatever works for people to be able to get their work done, I don't think any of us have any problem with that. Right. That's what we're doing. Yep. Okay. Do you want to wait to talk about IT and town hall painting until after we let Nick in? That was the, okay. I need it. How are you? Hello, doing well, all is well. And you know, while in the last few minutes that occurred to me that if the board is going to be having a discussion about whether to entertain the proposal for me to be the years management director, I can sign out for a while until you call me back. I don't need to be part of that discussion. No, I, from my perspective, you have, you have experience. You've been the one helping to update our plan. I think it's a great idea. I just meant in terms of the board's deliberation about that. Yeah, actually, Nick, if need be, we can just put you into a waiting room and bring it back in, then you wouldn't even have to sign out. But I don't anticipate that we'll need to go there. Okay. Yeah, I'd like to discuss a reduction of the salary increment of 100,000, maybe down to 80,000 a year. That could be a deal break. Oh my. Can I have some money? Sure, Toby, you deserve some of that. So board members, I think this is a great opportunity for Nick to take the lead on this. Like I said, he has the experience. He's been the one updating the plan. He's been in on the initial setting up of our team and what we're, what we're doing. That's my two cents. Anybody else want to chime in? John? Well, Denise says, you know, I was excited to hear that Nick stepped up and was interested in even doing this. This is awesome. So I'm very excited about his being appointed. I'd like to get it done before he backs out. Yeah, before you, before he wants to negotiate the salary, right? Cliff, your thoughts? Yeah, no, I'm totally on board. And I want to say very much thank you, Nick, for stepping forward. You know, it's important with everything that's gone right now that people do step forward. And it's just one of the great things about this community that we all share in love. So thank you. Rose? Yeah, I concur what Cliff and John have said. We appreciate you, Nick, coming forward to doing this. We appreciate everything that you've done, updating the plan. And so I'm fully in support of you being our emergency management director. Thank you. Sharon? Same what everybody said. Thank you, Nick. Hi, Nick. Alrighty then. Nick, do you have any requests, anything that you think you need? Well, let's see. My first thought is that just to acknowledge that with this COVID crisis, the select board and the town officials really came right into a strong proactive response. And I think that was widely acknowledged and appreciated. So that's, that is great. And that is part of the response phase of the four phases that Mercy Management including, which includes recovery after response, mitigation after recovery, and then precariousness in front of them before the incident. So there's a lot of ways I think we can build out what we're doing. And it all it all is about teamwork. It's definitely not a solo act. And so I would be looking, my customer request is I'd be looking for engagement from the select board and then working as a team because it takes a team of people to do this. Takes a village, right? Takes a village. And I already have, you know, a shopping was just things that I'd love to get to work on one right near the top is this government emergency telecommunications service we get, which I think I've mentioned before, but this is in a situation where there's a national emergency, telephone lines, landlines are being totally overwhelmed. And this is a free service where we can identify town officials and, you know, a dozen or so people in call us who get put to the front of the line by the landline providers so that when the phone lines are overwhelmed, those people can get through the emergency communications. So that would be one of your first things to work on then? Yeah, if the select board feels okay about that, and I'd like to get a list of things from all of you about who should be on that. I think that's something that started right away. I think that sounds like a great idea. I'm sorry, go ahead. Oh, and sometimes I'd love to sit down with Toby and Denise and anyone else and sort of go over, prioritize some of these ideas and see which ones we could take action on, especially ones that don't cost any money. We like the ones that are free. Yeah. All right. And just the last thing is thank you all for your voter conference. Absolutely. I think we can make it fun and do a lot from the town. If we can make COVID fun, I'm all for it. All right. I would make a motion to nominate Nick to be the director of emergency management. I'll second that, John. I'll second that. Okay. We need to do a roll call vote. Cliff? Mike? John? Hi. Sharon? Hi. Rose? Hi. And I'm an I. So, Nick, do you want to be put on our agenda regularly? Like our next meeting is the 27th. Do you want to be a regular? Do you want to be a regular? I don't think I need to be on every agenda. No, but on an estimated basis, that might once every couple of months, something like that, or as the need arises. Okay. No, I don't need it to be a regular agenda. All right. Great. Thank you. And you have a document that I need to approve. That's the LENB. Right. You have some updating to do on that now, though, right? Yes. I guess I'll take based on your vote tonight. I'll just change the names in those spots. Who has, who signs that? Who has to sign on? Select board chair. Is it the chair or is it the emergency management director? It's the chair. I'm pretty sure it's the select board chair. Okay. Maybe you could authorize me to do that. And you could send me the form. I could sign it and scan it back to you. Okay. Is Toby going to stay coordinator? Or is that going to be blank? You're asking me to keep serving? Yes. Yeah, I can certainly do that. That would be a big plus because Toby's got a lot of institutional knowledge around this that I've done. Yep. No, it'd be good if Toby wouldn't want to stay on. So let's have one. How much is my salary again? Oh, it's under negotiate, Toby. 50% of Nick's. Yeah. Wait, 75. I think that, that as I read the statute that I sent to all of you, the director can appoint this coordinator. So I'm, I would be really happy to leave that to Nick's authority. But thank you for answering the question, Toby. Oh, I, I mean, I'm very strongly in support of Toby's willing to stay on the coordinator. And so it shall be if Nick appoints him. All right. So about the signing of the documents. I'll get those to you, Denise. The advice. All right. Would anybody like to make a motion to authorize me to sign those? So what? So moved. Okay. Is there a second? Second. All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Cliff? Aye. Don? Aye. Sharon? Aye. Rose? Aye. Alrighty. Thank you. You're welcome to stay on Nick or you can depart. It's up to you. Okay. I'll depart. And one last thing is that if you we still have a couple of weeks before we are required to turn in the document to the planning commission. If you look at it and see anything seeming bogus phone numbers or any information that should be added or subtracted, please let me know. And I'll try to keep a single version of this thing so we don't get scattered versions. Just, just let me know and I'll change. Great. And when it gets, and when we're, and when we sign off and it's sent to CBRPC, we'll need to put a copy on the website, the town's website. John? Nick, do you have contact phone numbers home and sell? I can put in my iPhone as we're talking. For you? For Nick. For Nick, what, what are your phone numbers? Oh, mine. Okay. Sorry. Home is 2294919. The cell is 5051024. 1024. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. I'm signing out as well as EOC. All right. Thank you, Toby. We really appreciate everything. Thanks, Toby. Thank you, Toby. Hi, Toby. Alfred, are you staying on? Are you still there? Oh, Alfred. I thought Alfred left a lot of time ago. I wouldn't blame him if he did, but I think he said he was leaving. Maybe he's just keeping abreast while he's eating his supper. Oh, because it still says Alfred's iPhone. Yeah, he's probably got his phone running and watching and following the meeting while he's eating his supper. How exciting. Supper time entertainment. That's what I would be doing. Yeah, right. Sure you would. Where it's in his pocket and he doesn't realize it's still connected to the meeting. All right. We should talk about the RFP for the town hall. You remember at town meeting the voters approved a higher budget than we requested because one of the estimates that came in was like 50,000. I think the voters ended up approving a $50,000 budget, but regardless of what the amount is, it needs to go out to bid on an RFP. Given the, once again, given the situation with the COVID-19 stuff, there may be a really hard time for people to be paying their taxes. And there was something that just, I think I forwarded to everybody just before the meeting that I found on VLCT post about taxes. So we don't have to decide tonight about putting out the RFP, but we should really think about it. I know that the town, we agreed that it was really a priority because it's a newly done building and we don't want the outside to deteriorate and then cost more money. So I just wanted to put that out there. Comments, thoughts? Denise, being dense, what are you actually putting out there that we hold off on an RFP or that we consider not doing it? Yeah, I'm just putting it out there. What does the board think? According to the thing I sent everybody from VLCT, it sounds like, and maybe it needs further, probably needs further investigation, but it sounds like, remember we decided to hold off on the chipper. Yes, Jim, about doing that. And it sounds like now, what it sounds like from VLCT is, is that we do have that authority with like the chipper, the Town Hall RFP, because, you know, people's tax bills, a lot of people are going to be hurting. So I would like for us to talk about it. We don't have to decide tonight. Yeah, I'd like to read what you sent and consider it clearly in light of what you're specifically proposing. I get it. It's kind of an interesting position. A lot of these guys aren't able to work right now, so they're going to be looking for jobs they can jump on top of once the gates open again. And, you know, we could shop an RFP without committing to a start date, citing the circumstances that currently are going on. We certainly would not be ready to enter into a contract until we have a better picture of the tax situation and the overall finance of burden that we're looking at. But at the same time, it might be good, and I'm not saying we should have to do it right now, but while we're considering this, we got to be thinking about what's going on in the market that we might be able to get some very competitive offers. That's true. That's a very good point. Rose, did you have a thought? Oh, Sharon, go ahead. You were in the middle of your sentence. No, I wasn't. I wasn't there yet. I understand, yes, we need thoughtful consideration about this, but I do agree with what Cliff said that we might find some people that would be willing to sharpen their pencils. So I think just by putting the RFP out doesn't necessarily obligate us to a certain start time. And, you know, I looked on my bank account and my stimulus money is due to get posted on Wednesday. So I'm definitely going to put that money towards my property taxes. So, you know, everybody's getting 1200 bucks. If people are on unemployment, they're getting the regular unemployment plus $600 a week. So I know someone who's on unemployment and they're bringing home $888 a week. And so I think that people will have the resources and, you know, it needs to get done. It's part of like before we open up and, you know, start posting venues there and whatnot. So, you know, I'm just in favor of, I guess, putting out the RFP at least. Okay, John. Yeah, I agree with what Cliff and Rosa said. Put the RFP out and it will take it. Yeah, I think the RFP, I'm fine with that. I just want us to be thoughtful, which I know we will be about spending the money. We have a draft RFP. Beauty. Sorry, I'm getting kicked out of my bedroom. There's a draft RFP for the painting of the Town Hall. Is that something that Barbara would send out or could send out? Sure. I mean, once we have a list of invited people or places where you want to advertise it, we can manage that. Yep. Don't you mean to us, Denise? Say what? Did you mean to us? What? I don't, I'm sorry. Barbara, send the RFP out to us, or did you mean to disperse it broadly? Oh, I meant to disperse it. There's a copy of the RFP in the folders for today's meeting. Yeah, there is. And I can certainly work with Barbara because when Donna sent out the RFP for everyone to consider and discuss, she also included a list of people we would potentially want to invite to bid on it, a list of companies, I should say. And yeah, I can, you know, I can certainly help identify where we might want to advertise it, whatnot. Now, do we have to, or should we advertise it on the VLCT? Don't they have sometimes a list to advertise RFPs? We did that for the IT RFP, I believe. Yep. Okay. And do we, are we required to also advertise it in the local newspapers? I don't know if we're required. Judy, maybe you could respond to that question. I think we have typically in the past, whether it's a requirement or not, I don't know, but I thought the requirements were more like you need to have at least three or four bids, or I can't, I can't remember, I have to look at the specifics, but that's what we've done for it. I think we require, I think we're required to have three. Required to solicit at least three bids, we might not receive three bids, but we are required to solicit them. Right, right, because when we did the RFP, when we were looking to maybe transfer IT support, we sent it out to several places, and then we got, what was it, five responses or something? We sent it out to seven different places, got six responses. We did list it in the paper on the website, as well as the VLCT avenue. Okay. So does the board want to go ahead with sending out the RFP, or do you want time to think about it? Well, what's your pleasure. I'm in favor of sending it. Okay. John? Yes. Rose? I mean, I'm sure. I'm sorry, guys. I was in the wrong meeting folder all day. I was in 314 instead of 413, so I didn't see it. Does it, does the RFP leave us the flexibility to not contract? Right. Do not go forward, even if we get bids, you mean, right? Right. Yeah. So we have, yes, you guys are confident in that, if that's the case. I would want to review it and make sure the language is there, and if it's not, we make sure it's spelled out very explicitly. Like I say, we can certainly cite current circumstances, and say we don't have a start date for this project. But we are interested in wanting to know who'd be interested in doing the work once we can move forward. Right. And obviously it wouldn't be until after the governor's stay home, stay safe order is lifted, which may or may not be May 15th. Is it something that you feel like we should run by Jim? No. I just feel like we should, I would want the language to be clear that we don't know when, when, or whether we will move forward. I would want us to have the ability to actually not even move forward at all. Cliff, do you think you could draft something up in the second round for us and give us a... Yeah, that's what I would propose is I can take a look at it and also review it again with the town hall committee and say, you know, this is what we're going to add in. Is there anything else you want to add to it? And then we can make your final decision on it at our next meeting. Okay, sounds like a good plan. I'm getting a text message from Verizon, or is it Verizon? No, it's from Xfinity, which is the cable provider that gives me my internet, says there's a good chance I'm going to experience service interruption here any time. So I end up getting locked out of the meeting. I would like to be ready for that eventuality by assigning someone a co-host duty. Who would be comfortable taking on that assignment? I can do it Sharon, John. Sharon? Duty knows how to do it, right? John, it looks like you're pointing to rocks. I'm in town. I have good internet here. Okay, I'm going to turn you on as co-host Sharon. That was Sharon, according to my screen. That's Sharon. According to my screen, it's up. This is Rose. Well, hopefully, okay, let's see if we can hurry up then. IT update clip. Give me a sec to get Sharon enabled if there's something else we go to real quick and then come back to IT. I don't think there's not anything much else that I have to report on. I think we're in good shape. Everybody seems to be holding their own. I just said it's an awesome team effort. Looking at COVID-19 numbers, 560,236 in the U.S. as of this moment. Wasn't there like 7,000 deaths in New York City? Yeah, I think it's upwards of that. 22,101 nationwide. It's horrible. It's just unbelievable. What I do want to do is one of the things that Cliff's going to talk about is we may be eligible for this refund of some expenses. Cliff's going to talk about some security stuff at the town hall for the Wi-Fi. We've got the lockbox. We may be, I think you have to have $3,300 or more worth of expenses. Sharon, you've been giving you the co-hosting, so you should have some different controls on your screen when your menu bar pops up. Okay. Oh, pause, stop recording. Exactly. Security. Okay. You have the ability to mute everybody or kick people out or if someone comes into the waiting room, you can admit them. Okay. Sounds like a doctor's office. So I'll try to back up, start from the beginning with IT. There are some projects that we're currently working on that would qualify for this reimbursement funding that Denise mentioned. And we also could look at, we had talked about last time around turning on this public Wi-Fi hotspot at the town hall. That happened. We did not have to spend any money to make that happen. The existing system, we turned it on and it worked. So we still have the option to upgrade the connector device that manages all of that for us to firewall. So we can look at that and if we decide it makes sense, this is another expense that we could possibly get reimbursed for. The other things relate to IT to be aware of this is branching into a separate subject now. I'm talking about the reimbursement, but we have signed a contract for moving forward with the work on the server. And I believe cutting the check is amongst the items that have to be approved. It should be in the stack that Denise has. One of the things that came up in the discussion with RB Tech while we're talking about the server is recently we had done the upgrade to our backup system. And what we have discovered is that the internet connection at the town office is not as robust as we would like it to be. I'm sure everybody's aware of that. It does limit the ability of this system to give us a complete backup. It's working most of the time, but not all of the time. We need to consider having a alternate backup solution. And the most practical one is to set up what they call it the slingshot connection. This basically consists of a couple of antennas and some hardware between the town office and the town hall so that backup information can be laid over to a backup device that moves to the town hall and gives us another layer of security and backup on all of our system. So I asked RB Tech to provide us with a quote for that. They have provided us with a quote. There's a copy in the folders for today's meeting. It's about $2,200 to get the system in and turned on. And we would also tap into Andy Feliz to do some of the legwork, getting the mounting plates on and the wiring in place at the RB Tech's instruction so that we can save some money there. But even going that route, it looks like we're roughly looking at about $2,200. Don't put that on everybody's radar. So I'll ask my question so it looks like John is frozen. Does this also give us the ability to have security when people are accessing the Wi-Fi from the town hall talking about? This would be a completely independent system from the public Wi-Fi hotspot that we have turned on at the town hall. It would rely upon the firewall system that's in place at the town office and would maintain the same level of security that we have at the town office. So it would be better security than at the town office. I mean town hall. It would be an extension of the security that's in place at the town office and have nothing to do with the public Wi-Fi hotspot. What it would do though is it would move us closer to the goal that John, like John's logged out, is going to try and come back in. This little John has been able to give us the full, you know, have somebody working at the town hall as if they were in the office. It's one step towards that as well. Okay. All right, thanks. Bye. So that was John just calling that something happened with his internet connection. He's going to try to reboot and rejoin, but no guarantee. Okay. So the question, are you asking us to approve this $22, roughly $100? I want to put it on everyone's radar. I encourage everyone to take a look at the quote and come back with questions at our next meeting. And I would like to put it up for a vote at that meeting. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you. Hi, Pam. Anything else? Click on IT. The only other thing I could add is that some of the other committees have started contacting me to schedule meetings through Zoom. And we were able to do it as a no-host meeting so that they can have their meeting and I don't have to be sitting in there or nobody has to be sitting in there acting as hosts. Yeah, I'm sure that some of them are really needing to have a meeting. So how do we put the word out that, and how does that get scheduled so everybody's not trying to use it on the same night and time? Well, they could actually use it at the same time. We spoke of stuff at meetings that would not be an issue. The way it's working right now is people are contacting Barbara and she either sends them directly to me or asks me to get in touch with them. Usually she sends them directly to me and says, you know, get in touch with them and just take you up with the meeting. Judy, has there been any issues around handling this that way? No, that sounds fine. Okay. Yeah, I mean, if it's up and running, we should make it available so that they, I know the Conservation Commission has been wanting to meet. So they would still need to do an agenda and it would be posted and all the same routine except for UD by Zoom. Right. And the way the temporary rules are operating is it's really only select boards, new board meetings that we call the record required. They have to be, you cut out, they have to be recorded. That's great. Yeah. Okay. Alrighty then. Let's, PM, we already talked about, we had that, we had that on around 7.30. I apologize. I was busy with kids. Sorry about that. That's okay. Does anybody have any questions about it? Not that I'm here? No, we basically said that this is mainly the first phase is for mostly engineering studies. And so we're just, we're good to proceed. Okay, great. All right. Well, feel free to reach out with me, to me if you have any other questions. And I'll let you know as soon as we have a contract and when we can start. We haven't solicited for an engineer yet either. So once I have a contract, I'll do that and reach out to you to see if you want to review the proposals with me. How are you holding up with two kids at home? We're doing fine. Good. Good. We're doing just fine. Thank you. Everybody else okay? Yep. Everybody's, yeah. Everybody's just plugging along. That's all we can do, right? Okay. Sorry. I missed the agenda. No. I didn't realize what time I was on. So I apologize for that. No worries. Good to see you. All right. Are you ready to stop zooming? All right. Let's make a... Give him a minute for his audience to get in. Hey, John. We're ready to stop zooming. We're about ready to adjourn. Are you have anything else? No, I just want to make sure our roads get just encircling back in summary of our being the most important thing for me is to make sure these roads this time of gook maintained to a minimum standard so that we can get fire trucks, ambulances, and people who need to get to the hospital. One nice thing, well, I guess the buses are still running to deliver meals, but they're not running as much. And I think that helps a lot. I think stay safe, stay home. People aren't out on the roads as much. Some people have to go to work, so we have to make them safe and passable for roads and sharing, for instance, that go into town all the time to work. We have a considerable elder senior citizen population, and I think if we need to be cognizant of that. Yeah. But I do, I would support if anybody has anything to contact Alfred right away. He seems rarer and revving to go, so let's keep him going. Do you want me to make a motion to adjourn? Oh, Sharon? Before I make a motion, you guys know how I enjoy absurd things that are on the internet. I encourage you to all watch the Saturday Night Live from home that was Saturday night, and they did a whole skit on Zoom meetings, and it is absolutely hilarious. Great, that sounds great. I make a motion that, oh. One last thing, if Katie could like, at least a smile now, she's making me tired just looking at her. Does your face hurt, Katie? Yeah, I'm like, why are you still smiling? Katie always smiles. Wow. I make the motion that we adjourn. Okay. One last thing, Katie, when you get the wording for the part we talked about with the road crew, if you could send that to me so I can grab an addendum to our memo and send it around to the board, that would be great. Sure. What was the name of the project that was noted with the Shawna project? The Shawna project was George Road. George Road, thank you. All right, so a motion has been made to adjourn. I didn't hear if there was a second. Okay, roll call, Cliff. Hi. Rose. Hi. John. Hi. Karen. Hi, and I'm an I. Hi, Captain. Thank you so much, everyone. Hi, everybody. When's our next meeting? 27th. Regular meeting. Regular meeting. Okay. Very good. Okay. Before everyone leaves, everyone try to match Katie's smile. Ready? Stop it. Beauty and cutie in the teeth. Good night, all. Good night, everybody.