 You are well. Good evening, everyone. I'll call the meeting to order as town manager has in the time charter at the select board's annual reorganization meeting. I'm tasked with calling the select board meeting to order party election of the chair for the good evening everyone said a couple of just a reflection I wanted wanted to read as we get started this evening. It was two years ago this week that our world quickly changed. The CDC declared COVID-19 a global pandemic and Governor Scott declared a state of emergency. We had to change a lot in our town operations quickly to work in this new environment and with the pandemic that was an unknown. The room was facing the same challenges. Our local schools, businesses, medical providers all have to find a way to operate in this new environment. It's not been an easy two years. We've been through multiple waves of infection and continue to learn more about COVID-19. We've been fortunate that modern medicine has made able to produce effective vaccines to help protect against COVID-19. The latest wave is waning, but is generally understood now that COVID-19 will be an illness that stays with us. The world has lost over 6 million people to COVID-19. 608 of those people were from our state of Vermont. These numbers are hard to comprehend and are devastating here. COVID has affected affected us all. I've certainly learned a lot about myself and gained new perspective these last two years. A quote I'd like to share is from basketball coach Jim Valvano. He said, every single day and every walk of life, ordinary people do extraordinary things. I think all of us can think of multiple friends, colleagues, neighbors, emergency responders, teachers, frontline workers who have done extraordinary things to help our community the last two years. So thank you, everyone, for your help and dedication to helping others. I'm reflecting on this past week and appreciate the time this evening to share these reflections with the board and the community. Thank you. Next, the First Order of Business. I'd like to call on nominations for the chair of the Wilson Select Board for this coming board year. I'll open the floor for nominations at this time. I would nominate Terry McCake. Are there any other nominations? I'll close nominations. Terry McCake has been nominated to be chair of the Wilson Select Board next year. I'll call for a vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. It's my pleasure to pass the gavel to Terry McCake. That wasn't quite 15 minutes of fame. So we started a new select board year and the first thing on the agenda is to elect the vice chair. Are there any nominations for vice chair? I'd nominate Ted County. I'll second. Are there any other nominations for vice chair? Here are no other nominations in. I'll close the nominations and call for a vote. All those in favor of electing Ted County as vice chair say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? And no abstentions. So thank you very much. And as we begin this new select board year, thank you very much to the staff for all their hard work during the past select board year, especially getting the budget in order. And thanks to all of our citizens for voting and giving us the go ahead on the budget. So we're very much appreciative of that. Next thing on the agenda are the minutes of February 15th, 2022. Is there a motion? Move. We accept subject to modification. Is there a second? Second. Page one. Page two. And page three. Here are no corrections then. All those in favor of approving the minutes of February 15th, 2022 say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That's there any abstentions? Hearing none. I'll move on to public comment. Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to make the public comment at this time? Anyone on Zoom who wishes to make any public comment at this time? Yep. I've got a hand raised for Ron Boomer. Ron, I'm going to connect you just a moment. Yes, we can. I was just wanting to thank y'all for everything you do. But I wanted to mention a few things. I want to compliment Sarah Mason. She's probably one of the most helpful employees that I don't know if she's even an employee, but representative of the town of Williston. She's helped me with a lot of things. And I just wanted to throw that out. The next issue I had was a disagreement with the budget. I know it's a little late, but I was wanting to point out that the starting salaries for police officers don't, and I'm coming from being a vocational rehab specialist. There you're, it's not a living wage. It's like $25 an hour or less that it turns out to, and I think we have better luck if we could raise that and attract better candidates. I just wanted to mention that I would like for the union to be tougher and get more money out of this because I think the police officers and the firefighters and teachers and the nurses. There's a lot of money on the table that I think we owe them. And then I also wanted to mention I'm not in favor of dog parks and until we get dogs under control. And then I have my wife is a cancer patient and I have rheumatoid arthritis and I've really have appreciate and still appreciate the mask mandate and ask that that continue. I don't trust the dropping of our guard that's happening. It looks like in two weeks will be visited by another version of Omicron. So, that's all I wanted to do and just thank you once again. Thank you. Anyone else? We'll be time to talk as each subject. Will we take each of the items on the agenda or people will have an opportunity to make a comment. One more person Terry. And this is a Patricia Peterson. We spoke on the phone earlier today. Patricia and I see you told me would call in I see your phone here so I'm going to connect you to speak with just a moment. Patricia are you there. Yes, I can hear me. Hello. Hello, you can hear me. Yes, we can. Oh, very, very good. Okay, hi. Yes, my name is Patricia. My last name is Peterson and I, I want, I did write something and prepare something and instead of speaking it over the phone I'm going to post it on some porch farm. But I would like to say that the reason I called in is regarding agenda item number eight for tonight. And then the notion of feedback community groups to encourage feedback. I think it's very important. I think it's really important that everybody has the chance to share their view. And actually the reason I chose to not share what I wrote for tonight was because it's basically me expressing my view. And, you know, that's great, but it's important to hear what everyone thinks in the community. And so I'd like to thank the staff member. I don't really know who it was that it may have froze on us Scott back here in just a moment. I think we're back. Patricia, we just had a technical difficulty on our end here. Can you hear us. Patricia, are you still there on the phone. Yes, I am. Yeah, did you have it. We got cut off there for a second. Did you have anything else to share. No, no, that was it. I just, I'll publish my thoughts on the form, but I'm not sure if how much everyone heard, but I think it's really important to keep conversations going and to have a lot of opportunities for residents to give feedback on any issue I've never listened, but especially this issue. And the more that people can understand that their views will be heard and will be acknowledged, even if they're not popular, everyone doesn't agree with them. That we're all, we have respect for each other in this community, and divergent views are welcomed. So that's all I wanted to say thank you. Anyone else. Let's see anyone else there. Then we'll move on and to item number five, that's the equalization report recommendation, right return the determination. They are going to start off and then introduce bill. Yep. And Bill, I'm here getting you connected right right now. So you might recall in this past January, the select board appealed the 2021 equalization study. Specifically the common level of a phrasal or CLA dip just below the 85% threshold, which would be the threshold that requires the town. Prepare for a townwide reappraisal. The property evaluation and review section, the Vermont Department of Taxes has reviewed the town's appeal with staff. And it's offered to redetermine the CLA 85.07%. You'll see with, with the agenda, there, there's some documentation shared by the state. And should the board wish to accept that request, a motion would be in order to authorize the chair to sign this documentation. So we're getting a town assessor bill him and connected and he can comment on the song as well. Bill, I looks like you're muted. I can't see you, but hopefully you can hear me and you could just unmute and chair video if you like. You can be an hour. Yep, you're good. Okay, great. So as we spoke a couple months ago in regards to this equalization study, I had questions regarding the use of a couple of the sales and felt it necessary to appeal the study more over the fact that we were just below 85%, which would trigger reappraisal. We did receive the notice as they were indicated that they accepted our appeal and brought it up above the 85%. This is, I mean, in effect, kicking the can down the road a little bit, but considering we just finished reappraisal and 16, I think it would have been a little premature to try and get something done the next year or two. This gives us another two, possibly three years to implement a reappraisal. On a side note, I was talking to Corey parent, State Senator from Franklin County yesterday, and we had spoken about problems with the CLA statewide and reappraisals coming down the pike for most of the towns in the state. And at this point, Corey was indicating that the current $9 for property that we received from the state to do maintenance and reappraisals is right now being looked at to increase to 12 or $13 per property. Which may help offset the expense of towns that have to do reappraisal so quickly after the last reappraisal. Any questions for bill before we call for a motion. I'd be looking for a motion that. Move to accept the redetermination of equalized education property value and coefficient of dispersion as of April 1 2021 as proposed by the state of Vermont in a letter dated March 4 2022 and authorized the chair of the select board to sign the required documentation. For a second. Discussion on the motion. If not, all those in favor of the motion say aye. Hi. The opposed. We've done it. Thank you very much. That's good news to all of us. Thank you everybody. Thanks. All right. Moving on to the local emergency operations plan 2022. Eric will introduce the subject and then. Chief Collette would like to make a few comments. Yep. So the local emergency operations plan is updated annually and shared for emergency response operations. We distributed a copy of this year's plan. As I mentioned, I have chief Collette on zoom to answer any questions and I can connect chief here for a second. If he wants to provide that just a couple of general general comments here. I'll second chief. My chief. Good evening. Good evening. So. Many thanks to Lisa Steadman for her work on this to update this plan for you tonight. Really, this plan is an ongoing working document in this document that you see in front of you just is updated. So annually we will go through all of the contacts and. Phone numbers, et cetera on this document and. Lisa did a ton of work on that and really. Simple stuff that we would take for granted, such as not being able to just rely on a seven digit phone number. So this document was updated to reflect all of those changes. And any updated changes within businesses identified or partners in our emergency management plan. So I'd be happy to answer any questions, but for the most part, it's a boilerplate document. It's been updated to reflect the current contact information. It's something that we've seen every year for a long number of years. Any questions from members of the board. And I'd be looking for a motion on this one as well. I'll move to approve the 2022 local emergency operations plan. As presented through a second. I'll second. Discussion on the motion. If not, all those in favor of approving adopting the motion say aye. Aye. Any opposed. All right, and we're moving right along. Next is on the issue on the agenda. Is the issue of the. Face covering rule. And I guess you bring us up to date as to where we are and what we might do. Sure. Well, I'll just recap as we have the last couple of discussions on this agenda item. On December 7th of last year, the select board adopted a face covering rule for indoor public spaces in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic under authority granted to local governing bodies as passed by the legislature and act 1 inside into law by Governor Scott. The act 1 dictates that should admissible governing body and act of face covering rule. It's initially in effect for 45 days and the governing body shall meet prior to the end of that period, but either to repeal or extend it. Extensions of the rule are for 30 day increments and require the same process of reconsideration to occur prior to the end of any extension period. All local face covering rules will sunset on April 30th 2022 in accordance with Act 1. The board approved a 30 day extension of the rule to February 20th at its January 18th select board meeting an extension through March 22nd at a February 15th meeting. I've included a copy of the current rule as adopted with the agenda. If the board wishes to make any amendments to the rule if extended these could also be considered for discussion this evening. So this evening the select board is asked to consider whether it would wish to extend the face covering rule for an additional 30 days from March 22nd or repeal the rule. And I, I shared with the board the health department updated its website on Monday and Terry asked I skip a brief overview for folks watching at home as well. So I'm reading on health vermont dot gov slash COVID-19 slash protect yourself and others section of the state website. So first is talking about get get tested when needed. You can detect others by getting tested if you have COVID-19 symptoms or if you're a close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. You are not vaccinated or not up to date on your vaccines, especially important to get tested if you're at higher risk for COVID-19. So you can reach out to your health care provider to ask about treatment. Stay home if sick, whether you have symptoms of COVID-19 the flu or another contagious illness. Please stay home if you're sick and call your health care provider if needed. This help keeps germs from spreading protects those who may be at risk of serious illness and gives you a chance to get well. Masking and other precautions you can choose as a level of severe disease is low in our communities. Each person can decide if they want to take precautions based on their own personal level of risk. Decisions about additional precautions depend on your risk. Your decisions may be influenced by your age or health condition, your immunocompromised. You spend time with people at a higher risk or who are unvaccinated. These precautions may include wearing a mask, which helps protect you and the people around you from getting or spreading COVID-19. Examples of high quality masks are N95 or KN95, which are very good at blocking droplets. You can also wear a well-fitting mask with at least two layers of tightly woven fabric or a layer of disposable mask under a cloth mask to increase effectiveness. There's some additional information, but that's kind of the main sections of the health department's website this week. Thank you. Is there any, only in the audience who wishes to make any comments on this issue? Tony, you can make a deep message if you wish. Just identify yourself. Thank you for allowing me the time. I spend an inordinate amount of time out in the public, not just here in Wilson, but all over the state of Vermont. And I often engage in conversations with people in the mask mandate is one of those things that comes up probably more often than anything else. The good news is the last week or so with the schools relaxing the mask mandate, I've never seen somebody smile in the town of Wilson a long, long time. And I don't think there's anyone that can contest that that's a good thing. Public safety is at the forefront of everyone's mind. And I think we've done a great job with that. We sometimes don't agree. And that's okay. That's what public discourse is about. But we have reached a point when I go around now where there's a vast majority of people that are not wearing masks, whether they're shopping or their employees in local stores or businesses. They've thrown in the towel for lack of a better term to use. They're exhausted. It's not just about a few minutes that you have to wear a mask where you're going in to pick up a few items at the supermarket. It might be for that person that's there for 10 hours a day and has that mask on. It takes away a part of the personal interaction. They're worn down. They're tired. I've talked to employers that have lost employees because they're fed up with wearing a mask. And they're asking in some cases to be relocated to a store in another town if that's an option. The last time, you know, there were some comments about it being the right thing to do. I think we have a lot of professional input at this point that are choosing to say it's okay. It's your choice. If you want to, if you look around, most people in here are not wearing a professional mask. Some people are wearing homemade masks. If you want to wear an N95 or something more important, great. If you want to stay home, great. But I really think that we've reached the point where the vast, vast majority of the people in this town would fully support the exercising and the ending of the mask mandate. That's just not my personal input. I can tell you, I would love to see the mask mandate and as soon as possible. But again, if your goal is to represent your constituents, I can tell you right now with no uncertainty and no hesitation, the vet members of this town would like to see the mask mandate go away. So thank you. Thank you. Anyone who wishes to make comments? I'll just give a moment, Terry. Anyone on Zoom would like to make a comment on this? If you could raise a virtual hand or write to me in the chat, the chat just goes to me. Let everybody know that. So just get a couple of seconds here. I'm not seeing anyone else with the comment. So I'd like to get the feeling of members of the board as to whether or not there's a solution to this by either eliminating it for as soon as possible or it's not yet. I thought is that we should probably get rid of it. As soon as possible, schools are. And the CDC is not really recommending it for indoor. Stuff anymore in the last I looked and. Hopefully it's. Infection rates go up even more or go up. Hopefully the legislature and the governor will either do the right thing statewide or give us the authority to do it again. But as it is now, I think, you know, for following the science. I think we should get rid of it. I don't know if you remember, but last meeting I asked the question last time we considered this, I asked the question of what's changed. And at that point, nothing had changed, at least in terms of the sources that I put a lot of faith into, which is CDC and the Department of Health. That is changing. I have to admit, I'm not a fan of repealing the rule. I worry that COVID is going to come back. And we need to be more diligent about what we do. But when the two sources, as I said, I trust no longer are strongly or recommending we wear a mask indoors. I have to abide by that. Okay. I'm an educator myself and our, our school went with the option on Monday. I know Wilson went last week. I know there's a lot of folks on both sides of this issue out in in Wilson. And I know we always took as a board, I think the first step for safety. And follow guidelines that were around science based and factual based. But I do feel like it is time to go with some recommendations that I'm with you, Jeff. I don't think we're really done. But I'm hopeful that we are making progress. And if something does spike that there will be decisions at a higher level or give us that power back again to to reinstitute if needed. But I would, I would like to say that it's still an option for anyone who wants to wear a face covering. We're not saying that you can't. And in fact, I certainly would encourage folks that might have help compromise people that they, you know, visit or within their own house or themselves. I just think it's if we're, we're going to allow the schools to have an option and we can have a mixed message out in the town that we're mandating this, the public schools can do that option. So I would, I would say I would would end that. However, I'm cautiously saying that because I don't know what's on the horizon either. I think I'm on the same page as everybody, you know, I am optimistic that, you know, the trends that we're seeing in cases and hospitalizations. But but data and is also saying that there are possible that's not possible that there are those brains out there that we may be affected by. And so, you know, I will I do support ending the mask mandate now. I will say though, based on what this what's happening in schools right now, since the mask mandate ended in Willis then I in my son's house alone. He has been a close contact seven times in the past seven different children and that's just in his house at school. So, maybe it's maybe it's six now that I say that, but multiple times in one week. So, while I do support ending the mask mandate, I think that, you know, we all need to individually take stock and make the choices for the health and safety of others as much as possible and continue that and that may include mask wearing. But as a personal choice. Correct. Now I'll join the chorus and say yes, it's time to repeal the mask mandate. All the towns around us have repealed theirs and. Wilson cannot be an island among to itself with the rule. COVID's not going to disappear. It will keep on coming back just like the flu has since. The Spanish flu arrived and it'll be here. And hopefully the will be vaccines that will combine both blue and. For foreseeable future. So it looks like we are in agreement. We just need a motion and among in that motion, we would need to have an effective date as well. Move under the authority of act 1 to repeal the town of Williston's face covering rule effective forthwith. Is there a second. Second motion. So any discussion on the motion. This that I got to use the word forthwith. We're in board discussion in motion right now. We don't. No discussion on the motion. All those in favor of the motion and say aye. Aye. Opposed. The abstentions. We have passed the repeal of the mask mandate. And thanks to those for you have spoken on both sides of the issue. You can take your mask. I think we're still covered in billy. Are we wrong? I'm sorry. It's up to the town manager. Folks in the building wondering with their mask. It's okay. I'm running a little bit ahead of time. So, yes. If you would come to the microphone and identify yourself. I'm sharing right when this is the third time I've been here regarding mask mandates. I would strongly encourage that it's thought I'm thankful to the select board that you did today. Repeal it effective immediately. So I greatly appreciate that. Thank you. And God bless. And I also agree. It's a choice those that want to continue wearing it. That's fine. And for the majority that don't that's also fine. Thank you. Thank you. So the next item on the agenda is we're not quite ready with to start that discussion yet crystal Lee. As a meeting that she expects to be done by eight o'clock so we can continue on. The agenda with other things since the next thing we'll be looking at is the. Our performance allocation process and a general overview. With or just for like. I'll just I've got some slides prepared so I'll just I'll get those up here. Okay, so this evening we've finished the municipal budget we've. Staff wanted to provide an overview of the board for the American rescue plan act funding may recall we've gone through this a little bit during the f y 23 budget process and the board. Some of those initial funds. There's a number of other ARPA funds to look at and it's a, it's a funding source, which we're very fortunate to have. It's, I'll never say never, but I think it would be highly unlikely that the town will get this type of federal aid again. And likely our service here. So, I think it's there's a lot of pieces of this for the select board to be thinking about over the over the next few months and I'll emphasize throughout my comments tonight that. There's time there's time to make these decisions doesn't have to all be decided the next couple of months and the board has a lot of different pieces to consider and as part of this discussion. So one acronym after talking with Shirley to kind of familiarize in our vernacular here that we'll probably see a lot of times in the coming months here because it's a reporting requirement. We're talking about the coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery fund, and I can't pronounce what the acronym is. That's what I'm kissing. So this is part of ARPA. And this is the arm of the ARPA funding, a designated by Congress in 2021 to assist local governments in responding to COVID-19 public health emergency. So it's a three cap where we are in Williston, we're receiving $3 million of this funding, one and a half million we're receiving 2021 and the other one and a half million will be receiving for our full allocation. There's some deadlines set with this funding that we have to the town has to decide how it wants to spend the funds by the end of 2024. And then all the funds have to be spent by the end of 2026 so about four and a half years from now just for four and a half years all the all the funds need to be expected. Just a reminder of the allocations that the boards identified to date during the budget process, 300,000 in general fund revenue for FY23, 187,000 for capital projects with a note if we're able to receive grant funding for any of those capital projects that would replace the use of the long acronym funding. About $130,000 for radios and turnout here for the new fire staff and about $55,000 towards community and country for ongoing project needs in the capital budget. This total is a 670,000 and that leaves just over $2.3 million in ARPA funds that haven't been designated at this point. So you may recall in January we received the final rule of how we can have the town can use this funding from the US Treasury Department that was tasked by Congress to come up with with the rules for this and had a report on it. So you might remember we had different buckets we looked at initially one was lost revenue one was infrastructure one was economic impacts. The new rule says it's given a standard allowance of up to 10 million for each town so that's to say any town that received under 10 million, it can all be classified classified towards its general government expenditures. Speaking of ELCT especially around this this provides municipalities with the most flexibility that could be wished for with this funding so that's good news. But it also makes the conversation more complicated. I'll say because there are even more directions to think here for the board. So it's kind of just some some general thoughts I have for the board to think about here. The select board is tasked with determining the vision and goals for the use of this funding how to use them for the community what outcomes with the select board like to accomplish the town and capital plans can be tools to assist in looking at some goals that have been looked at and in the past and identified. Unlike a municipal budgeting process that we just finished these allocations don't need to be determined all at once just by the end of 2024. So they essentially are functioning as reserve fund that must be spent by a certain date. This allows the decisions to be made incrementally and to consider holding some funds for forthcoming opportunities like future grant matches reduction of future financing needs potential operating revenue for overall general fund services to to smooth potential impacts of future years just to name a couple couple of general concepts. So I have a suggestion for the for the board to consider as as we hold these discussions coming up this spring. This idea of three separate buckets for for this funding one bucket towards capital projects one bucket towards advancing town goals and the third bucket as kind of a subset of these aid funds as a reserve and holding that reserve. We can make some funds to really decide on in the future and there's if the board wants to move forward with this type of structure. These funds can get moved around. For example, if the board doesn't need to certain amount of money for the reserve the kind of let's just let's wait and see hearts of the fund that could be transferred as we get further down the road here towards a capital project in the future for example. But you know, given where we are. We have the flexibility with this funding and it provides some opportunity for that to think from a revenue standpoint and from an operational standpoint some some strategic how the board how the town board want to be strategic with some of these funds. I will say at staff level we're continuing to look at the infrastructure funding that was passed by Congress earlier this year we still learning more about that and what some opportunities might be there as one example. Some things coming coming down the line here and also waiting to learn from the state as the states receive code funds what other grant opportunities at the state level might be available and what local matches might might be in line for those so. There's ways I feel the leverage this funding towards other funding sources to just be aware of, but we don't have all that information yet it's still going to. So I outlined just a starting point a framework for a potential process to consider. This is a month with 5 Tuesdays, so if the board was interested in holding a special meeting on March 29. Staff's prepared to present some of these larger capital projects. I've been the capital plan for consideration for this funding to begin to them a little bit more look at look at their scope and look at how. These funds might might be able to be used towards some of these larger scale projects. Could consider holding a public hearing then for some general feedback on this funding could provide me as manager. I look for direction on the vision and the priorities the board has for this funding. The board could consider initial designations for some of these short term capital projects with a larger scope to begin. From that feedback I could then transmit a draft vision and spending plan for your consideration and direction after that feedback. And if the board want to look at the 3 bucket model that could be built into the into that piece. The board could consider initial plan adoption and a periodic reevaluation with a final plan for spending need to be completed by the end of 2024. And that deadline could encompass spend today and future spending plans. So I'll stop there. I was going to just kind of have a high level overview because there's a there's a lot to unpack and think about board and staff is looking for the board's direction and vision. It's it's not something you certainly don't need to have any direction like that this evening. It's looking to have this just initial overview and. Um, sort of welcome the board's questions, thoughts, anything staff can do to help help think through some of these big, big spending decisions in the months ahead. So I'll, I'll pause there for questions discussion about the board. Any comments or questions regarding the possible process that were asked to look at. And is there is there by available for a special meeting on 29 of this month. Yes. Well, I won't be available on the 29th, nor April the 5th. Sorry about that. I'll be traveling. I would very much like to participate in this. And then the only other thing I wanted to point out is, I'm on the process to consider in the public hearing. I think it's critical. I think we need to hear from folks, you know, what are their priorities, which could, you know, range greatly from a specific project or title project to know only use it to lower taxes. And sometimes it's easier to put something out to the public to see whether they have absolutely up objections to it or support it. Other comments. I am available on the 29th. That's that works fine for me. And, and like Jeff, I think that was my, my big note actually was, you know, was getting community input. You know, we hear a lot, you know, anecdotally or about, you know, certain priorities from certain subsets. You know, but, but definitely a forum to kind of, you know, focus that on, you know, what our community really sees as priorities and goals for our town as we, you know, look at some of these bigger ideas. Gordon. As now I'm available. I don't know. Schedules do change. There's movement towards spring sports. I hope that with that at school. So to be determined for me. I'm available on the 29th and a little low on my meeting quota for 2022. So I'd be here. And I'm available also questions, comments from the audience. Any questions or comments from anybody on zoom. Let's give a moment here, Terry. Anyone on on zoom, which to push to comment on this. No, no comments on zoom. Okay. We have four out of five that are available on a 29th. That would be. We would, we would have. TV broadcasting that as well. That would be my goal. I just have to, I'd have to check with them for their availability. But yeah, certainly we'd like to set that up. Okay. So I just want to give Jeff a chance to review what was, what was said at that meeting and then we can. Have further comments at another meeting after after that. You're giving God to two meetings. So that this is something that will. I mean, it's not an emergency that we need to implement this right away, but we need to start working on it. I didn't know I'm surely did you have anything to add? All right, then we'll move on to the. Select word rules of transaction and the meeting schedule. So Eric, you're good. You have. Made a modest modification of the. Rules of transaction that we've had for years. Yep. Yep. The 1, 1 change of note. We had some language in there about virtual meetings and last year's iteration, the rules. So I think it's section 5.2. I just. Updated that that language to reflect offering a hybrid option when it's feasible moving forward. It's the only only change I've made in these in these trap rules that under consideration tonight. And I can, I can speak about the schedule after the board. There's no other discussion on the rules of themselves. I'll pause there. Any. Questions so much regarding the rules of transaction. Then we can probably take care of. The meeting schedule along with the rules of transaction in 1 motion. Eric has discovered a couple of things that we need to. Change on the on the schedule. Yep. So it's always interesting how calendars line up so traditionally the boards met once in the month of August during the year and that's just been the 3rd Tuesday. So this year, the 3rd Tuesday happens to be August 16th, which is Bennington battle day and it's a, it's a town holiday. So the wreck for the board to think about a different Tuesday in August to meet. I put on my initial draft August the 9th and then the town clerk reminded me that's primary election day. She did share that she has additional JP she could that could help with the election, but certainly with that going on the board may not want to meet that evening. So August 23rd is also another possibility, but I'm just kind of look to the board to see when when you'd like to meet now this. So, the 1st, the change will be the November 1st meeting date instead of the 8th and. There's a 2nd change I went to just putting in this the meeting on the 29th of March at the very beginning. So the big question is then what do we do in place of the 9th, either the 2nd or the 23rd. Any, anything that comes to mind it's a favorable date for anybody here. 23rd 23rd. Yeah, 23rd. 23rd sounds like it's got the majority vote. And so. With those changes, I would have been looking for a motion to adopt the board rules of transaction and schedule a as amended. Move to adopt the select board rules of transaction and meeting schedule as amended dated March 15 2022 for the term of the current select board ending in March. 2nd, 2nd discussion of the motion. You're done. I'll listen to you with a motion say, all right. The opposed. All right. Then we're moving to the designation for family and allowing. So, this is. Outlined in your rules of transaction, but typically the select board will designate 1 member 1 alternate to sign warrants on behalf of the board during the year. We're also made for informal review at regular board meetings and since the full board using email after signature by the board's designee resolution included with the agenda, I can circulate. This evening just looking to see should the board like to establish this practice again and which board member would that it like to designate as it's a primary and. My recollection is that the primary. Signer is Ted and the secondary was was Jeff. If you're willing to do that, the board is willing to accept that. That is fine. I guess we actually need a motion. We designate. That Kenny as the primary and. Jeff Gears is the alternate to sign warrants on behalf of the board. Here is your second second. So, that's not. Hearing that all those in favor of the motion say aye. Opposed. All right, moving to liquor license applications approval. So another another annual item at the March meeting for the select board. So you'll be acting as a liquor control board. Should you like to take up action this evening. To consider a list of renewal applications for liquor licenses that included with the agenda for the new license term of May the 1st of 2022 to April the 30th of 2023. Since your agenda was transmitted on Friday. There were a few establishments that hadn't submitted their application. Please report those came in over the weekend to the town clerk. And you have an updated listing in front of you this evening with with all of the license applicants. There's been no violations or concerns with any of these establishments in the past. If we are going to approve this, we need two motions, one to approve them and one for the to authorize the template to sign them. So, we don't have to sit here and sign the wall like they've done in the past. Could you remind me what is 1st versus 2nd versus 3rd knew you were going to ask me, Jeff. I thought it was opposite what I thought it was 1st class just beer and wine and 3rd class is like hard alcohol. You know, maybe it says more about me, but I think it should be. 1st class is beer and wine 2nd class or 3rd class is is hard alcohol 2nd class is retail sales. I had to research it that's what I was spending my day doing. I'm looking for two motions. I'll move to approve the liquor license applications for the year beginning May 1st, 2022 and ending April 30th, 2023 as listed on the applications listed date list dated March 15th, 2022. And I'll also move to authorize time clerk Sarah Mason to sign approved liquor license applications on behalf of the select board. The second second discussion on the motion. We're right in the middle of a motion so after we get that yes. All those in favor of the motion say aye. I suppose 20. The town liquor. Control have the jurisdiction to decide whether there would be another I guess it's 3rd class another liquor retail store in this town or is that strictly done at the state level based on population perhaps. Some towns have more than 1 and most have 1. I believe that's like a control board that doesn't face that. That's at the state level. Okay. And just some personal input. I think that wine should be the class. Moving on to I guess managers report at this point. I think Chris is wrapping up soon. I sent her a note. So it's not on yet, but we can, we can. Okay, our timing will work out. So it's a few items from my, my written report this evening. I've been quite wrapped up getting a quarter report together. I plan to get that done this evening. I'll have it out for the board this week. And the April 5th meeting, I'll also, I won't be in attendance for that meeting. I've asked HR coordinator assistant to the manager Aaron Dickinson to attend in my place. So get to get to me Aaron Aaron this evening to do a great job for us. She's been here, I guess over 3 months now. Time flies. We'll recognize our police officers Sabrina boot and Kelsey Parker, who are attending the 113 Romano police Academy basic training class for police professionals. That's going to start next Monday at the Academy. And also more updates on chitin County public safety authority moving through the spring, but some good news to share. You might recall our CCPSA board is working to amass a necessary capital. Just over $2 million that would be required to get the dispatch center operational for the region. Part of this funding was Congressman Welch submitted an earmark for the recent spending bill. And we've learned that this earmark was included and Congress passed that spending bill last week. $750,000 has been earmarked for CC, CCPSA and that spending bill. So it's a good news for CCPSA where continuing to meet as a board and look at trying to fill that funding gap. So I hope to bring back to the select or some additional updates on on that this spring. And we had a project going on on Oak Hill road last week. You may have seen the equipment right near the 4 corners here. And that was a project for stream bank prepare along with some sewer system protection there that town public works department was was overseeing with with months of earth moving as a contractor. And it's just interesting. What was the sewer protection. And then the other piece of it is, is, is that mixing a town public works project with the enterprise fund sewer. Whatever sewer, do you get my point? Sure. Yeah, we used a misspoke there that it would be it was a it was a sewer and a storm project each had a each had a part of the funding there. I can send along a full breakdown. Okay. And I'm just wondering, did do we have to worry at all about, you know, one is is general town. And then two of those are the enterprise funds. The storm water and the sewer. And I'm just wondering if you have to handle them somewhat. I don't know, you know, accounting. Is there an accounting issue? I guess it's the way to put that we do check. Based on the funding. Okay. All right. Good. Thanks. Okay. Good. Thank you. And I skipped over you, Shirley, but we have the finance report if you'd like to give your, your finance report summary as well. Nope, still still waiting for. Any changes from the last time. I'm just going to talk about the, the, the bigger changes. So, when you look at the expenditures, police look like they're under budget at 50%, but really the majority of that is because passive is now billing us annually for our insurance, both property and casualty insurance and workers comp. So there's only quarter of it billed so far where normally at this time we would have 100% billed. The town manager's budget is only at 26%. But when we put the budget together, we have the the ACR coordinator assistant to the town manager position and the budget assistant to the town manager. So it's sitting 100% and the town manager's budget for actually splitting it 50-50 when we put the job together and we split position we're splitting the wages 50-50. So that helps their budget look a little bit better. Stormwater. They're outside services. They have, I don't know if you remember, we have the blue Williston program that we're using a consultant to help individual residents and nothing has happened with that program yet to share, but we saw more activity in the spring last year. So I would imagine we'll see that pick up. Water maintenance is currently at 25% of budget, but that's mostly hydrant maintenance work, which we'll see more of in the spring. And at this point, there's been no costly water breaks this winter and that has had an impact. So keep your fingers crossed there. And same thing for water and sewer outside services, we have the same issue with the passive insurance not being built. And that folks, it has big changes. Questions for surely. No, I'm good. Thank you. Okay. I think our first catering permit of the new calendar year here. It is from VEVO catering. It's on 787 Bradley Lane, the Ndau's sugar house there. It starts the 26th from 11 to 4, and they're having a maple open house there. They're going to offer maple inspired cocktails for cash from 12 to 4. There's a tent set up on the property for guests checked with chief Foley and planning and zoning. No, no concerns with with this request. I'm looking forward to grant this came in front of questions for Eric. I'd be looking for a motion to approve. We approve. I have a second discussion on the motion. Very none, a motion say hi. And he opposed. And surely you have something to talk about. This is a change of authorized representative for our drinking water state revolving fund. This would be the select board has to allow Shirley to act as an authorized representative for the purpose of furnishing the state of Vermont with information data and documents concerning our projects. We have that are our finance through that fund. So we would, we would look for a motion to authorize Shirley as the board to out those actions on the town's behalf. Any questions for Shirley? No, just a comment. I'm going to abstain from this because that's the point of the programs. The team I work with supports. Any other questions for Shirley? We need a motion. We have motion made and seconded to appoint Shirley and sort of discussion on the motion. If not all those in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. And abstention. This is yeah. Any other business at this moment, we can come back to it if we need to. That's a very early business to talk about at this moment. I just have a question. So in this little low we had I went and cleaned out my select board files. And Eric received some of the benefits, but the results of that already, but it turned out that we now have an energy and community planner, but we also have a position called the energy coordinator. Volunteer. Volunteer. What's that? A volunteer. A volunteer. Right. But I wanted to make sure I kind of understood what is the role of the energy coordinator now that we have an energy committee and an energy planner. And maybe that's not a, just as I had these two things, I was going, well, I should ask. I can speak to that. So that's been something on my list of review as well. I appreciate Brian Forest Service as our energy coordinator these last couple of years and looking with having a staff position to take over those duties. I was trying to have a conversation with Brian to see what his thoughts were there and I could bring that feedback to the board when you look at the appointments coming up before the coming year, whether that's a volunteer position that may or may not be a volunteer role at the town. We need to fill out this time. Yeah. You know, Brian's great. He's very passionate. He is very persistent, might be a good word. He's good. So I don't want to ward the good work he's doing just trying to understand. Wasn't that a state statute that made us point that position? It was a, so I recall it was a position that the board has the authority to appoint under state statute. But it's not a required state statute position. Remember, things like Fent's View or Blair Cole, they also have that type of discretion that the town to power the charter number years ago. I miss those. Me too. Yeah. The way you're pulled. Wasn't there a Fent's View? Yes. Yep. Yeah. I was the elected town agent for Richmond for a long time. Town agent. Town agent. I thought. It sounded a little bit like the authorized representative. Actually, you receive the legal papers when this town gets sued, which I never did. Nobody ever knocked on my office door, which was in Richmond, but I was hoping it'd be more like a, you know, kind of a James Bond type. I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have run for it. So you didn't get the car and the watch and the, no. What's that? Yeah. License. No license. All we do is just to leave. She told me she should be along in just a minute or so. I can, I can start. Okay. Let's get over to the visual representation, community values, and Eric will lead off. Well, how Chris Lee, our CJC director will be along. Oh, what? She just logged in. So perfect times. All right. Let's give her a moment here. Good timing, Chris Lee. We just started, I was just starting my introduction. So Chris, Chris Lee is joining us now, our CJC Executive Director. The select word at its June 15th, 2021 meeting, pass the motion to continue to fly the Black Lives Matter flag of town hall for nine months and revisit the conversation at that time. Per the motion, this discussion has been placed on the agenda to revisit the conversation as nine months have passed since that virtual motion was adopted. This evening, staffs identified a possible pathway for the select board to consider outline the memo included with the agenda. Chris Lee and I can speak to that here. As the board wants to consider this. So Chris Lee and I spoke last week, and this pathway is to engage the community in conversation about the values of Williston and identify possible approaches to articulate and reflect those values visually, inclusive of speaking out against racism in the community. These conversations could take place over the coming two months this spring. And the goal would be to have a summary reports of compile and transmitted to the select board for review. In the interim, this could pause the conversation on the Black Lives Matter flag and allow deeper community engagement to occur on a values-based discussion basis. Once this work is completed, the select board could take the report under advisement in discussion on policy direction moving forward. This could include whether the Black Lives Matter flag continues to fly a town hall and or if there is another preferred alternative and visual message reflective of the town's values to pursue inclusive speaking out against racism. So I'll turn over to Chris Lee if you have anything to add on our overview, Chris Lee. Thank you. Good evening. So I am here just to also just share some support for engaging our community and these types of conversations and really hoping that we can be reflective of more thoughts and considerations from all various experiences and opinions in our community so that we are best representing the ways in which our community can and wants to engage in anti-racism work. Certainly the flag is an important message and we've heard from businesses and from individuals that they would be interested in further dialogue around some creative conversations and solutions. And so this was an effort to try and engage the community in dialogue and in conversations and to find a pathway forward that can be reflective of the town values and what the citizens of Williston are hoping to bring forward. So all questions or comments regarding the issue? My one question is so we know we agreed to the nine months and then we're going to go through I'm hoping I fully support this engaging the public in the discussion and kind of opening dialogue but we will continue to fly the Black Lives Matter flag. I'm hoping then through that process. That is our hope. You have a draft motion and the words in that motion could reflect that. Try to capture that. So Chris Silly, hi Jeff here. The goals or what you're outlining as what you hope to accomplish are great. 100% behind them. It's the how that I'm most interested given that it's the how that I'm now interested. How do you propose to do this? Because I think that's a really tough it's to get true community engagement in this process which would be wonderful but it's also incredibly difficult to do. I suspect it's going to be very difficult to do. So I'm curious in the how. Thank you. So my vision of how to make this happen is to open it up to the community and have facilitated conversations with using a restorative model where we're really talking about the issue. What are the values? What do people care about? What are the voices and solutions but also hearing from those who might not be in support because their voice also does need to have importance placed on it and be part of the conversation and reflection of who and what is in our community and where are we? And so I think by invitation to all members of our community through facilitated conversations that are without blame or shame or without judgment or bias but to really just give people that opportunity to be heard in a way that can really reflect the truth of where people are sitting either in support of or in opposition or in another realm of maybe these other creative models. We know in efforts that we've taken already that citizens do have a lot to say. Will it be hard? Yes. Will it take time? Yes, that's why we're asking for a few months but I think that there will be opportunities that we can create where we can have small group discussion, provide a virtual option for COVID safety and it's an opportunity for us to glean really the voices in our community and come back to all of you with those reports. So it's not just to have the conversation for someone to say, yes, I support this. It's also for us to really hear and glean as a community, the various voices that we share community with. Could you give some examples of what you, like how a facilitated discussion might be carried out? Everything from advertised, who might you, when I say target, that's not really the word I'm looking for, but when you're casting your net out, that type of thing. And then the last part of that is would it be appropriate for a select board meeting to be a piece of that facilitated discussion? Great questions. So I think, you know, really reaching the citizens of Williston, we would use every platform that we could. We would want to put something out. I would believe on the town website, on the CJC websites, ask, you know, at the library, ask other stakeholders in the community to support just kind of the advertising of that. Maybe utilize front porch forum utilize the observer so that people in Williston really know and then make those concentrated efforts to reach some of the parts of Williston that we know might not always be, you know, engaged in some of the same ways that, you know, other folks are maybe asking the schools to support it's something in the, you know, in their school news so that parents can see that. And then thinking in terms of, you know, a place in the community where we could hold these these facilitated conversations again. One idea I had was to see if we could utilize the school in classrooms so that it's small group and we the facilitated conversations would be each facilitator would be asking the same questions in each group and collecting that information using, you know, various, you know, maybe, you know, various post-it notes and things on the walls so that we can move things around and really get people the opportunity to engage with one another and then taking those the opportunity to glean all of that information to then have a second round and then a third round. So really giving the opportunity for maybe three or four rounds of this to happen so that folks might not have that the comfort level in the beginning but maybe we'll start to build some of that comfort. So that's what I'm envisioning. We've certainly have done this with other, you know, other sensitive issues and it's worked really well through the CJC and I think that we have, you know, really professional facilitators who can take on that role of those conversations and then your question about, you know, kind of select board meeting, you know, kind of be a place to have this happen as well. I would point that back to all of you and ask that question. Is that something that that you would want and is that, you know, something that that's interested to have happen? Thank you. Questions for the audience. Hi, I'm Sharon Ray Quinn again and my opinion on the Black Lives Matter flag is it's been flying for nine months. I would like to have it removed personally. I think that all lives matter. I think that there are some members who protest peacefully. However, I think there are many more that have created violence, chaos, set fires, destroyed businesses, not just in America but throughout the world. I mean Portland just went on and on and on. It's just so sad in my humble opinion. I would like to see a POW flag blown here. I wholeheartedly support the brave men and women in the armed forces and the National Guard. They put their lives on the line for us every day. Right now they're in some precarious places in the world. And that's my opinion. So I hope that you consider it as this moves forward. I also have personally and would like to take a moment to publicly thank Chief of Police Foley and his officers for the amazing job that they do in our County Village. They're short staffed and I think they deserve some recognition. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone on Zoom or we should make any comments? I've got a hand raise on the phone. I believe that was Patricia. Patricia, I'm going to connect you. Yes, hello. Can I be heard? Yes, we can. Oh, great. Okay, hello. So my name is Patricia Peterson and I'm going to just share something. I don't have anything prepared. So I'm just going to share. I have a thought about a way of visual representation. You know, one of my I'm aware that I've been taught that black folks don't they experience more generational poverty and maybe living on literally 10% of maybe what other other people are earning. And so poverty is real. And so I was thinking about I had spoken earlier today with the town manager and it looks like in part of the budget there's $800 for I don't have my notes in front of me, but you know, there's this wiggle room money. So I had a thought that we could order specifically from a black owned business a back on maybe emergent business safer example like the coffee supply. And if we paid a little bit extra to build a relationship with a developing coffee shop not necessarily in Vermont but maybe in a community where a lot of people are living out or near the poverty line. And we created a relationship a business relationship with with different businesses not just one business and kind of had a variety and stuff. But and then we could put out a press release that we're doing this we could have a visual display at the town hall. There could be a group of community members who could choose so that the you know choose the products and stuff so that the town staff doesn't have to work more. There's a lot of ways that we can show appreciation or a sense of inclusion for people who who are of different backgrounds you know different levels of melanin in their skin in addition or or instead of it doesn't really have anything to do with the black lives matter flag because it would be more of a of a true gesture of using some of the resources from the town to try out something and and I know just I feel that that's more concrete. So I just wanted to share that as my contribution for tonight. I think we can make visible the use of products created by businesses run by people at or near the poverty line who who yeah who are a BIPOC I guess. So that's what I want to share. Thank you. Cindy Provost Cindy. I'm going to connect you to talk. Yes. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes. Yeah. Hi. Good evening. Thank you. I would have to chime in with what Sharon mentioned as far as the black lives matter flag being removed as well. It's been up longer than it was supposed to be and there are other ties to that flag that are not my hope reminiscent of what people in the town believe in or would want to believe in. I think a lot of I go back to when my kids were in school in Williston black kids white kids didn't matter. No one thought anything of it as well as parents had friends I do have friends there are and no one thinks anything of it. They don't make an issuance of it. Everyone's the same and this whole this whole thing where it has to be so specific it's no different than calling out people in school you know race theory and stuff like that and that's definitely happening. I I witnessed it at my daughter's graduation three years ago two years ago three years ago it was ridiculous that there had to be mention of specific colors were all the same and there never used to be this issue in my kids were growing up everyone treated everyone the same it wasn't even questioned it wasn't mentioned it didn't have to be and because it's mentioned so much now it becomes an issue and that's how I feel and I see it every day and it doesn't have to be this black and white issue it's it just makes it more of a problem and I think that the American flag is flown in this country for a reason it embodies everybody in this country everyone has the same rights freedoms opportunities period that flag should not be there our flag American flag is what this country stands for for everybody in it and it doesn't have to be specifying and pushing other pulling other people out just because they're different in a different color religion whatever it may be it's just making things more of an issue and that's how I feel that I feel it's valid I think it's factual and I think something needs to be done about making all these issues such big issues when they're really not and they don't have to be if people just embody it in a different way so that's what I have to say appreciate your time. Thank you. Any other comments from the zoom audience. No, no, no other comments there. I think we're at the point that if we agree with our conclusively to go forward then there is a motion suggested. We need to direct the town manager to work with the community justice center to facilitate community conversations centered on Williston shared values and how to communicate these values and deliver reports summarizing the primary themes from the conversation conversations and opinions identified of how to reflect Williston's values virtually. Inclusive of speaking out against racism further move to reconsider the further move to continue flying the black lives matter flag at town hall. Oh, sorry. No strike that further move to reconsider the flying of the black lives matter flag at town hall when the report is completed on the outcomes of these conversations by the town manager so that it may be taken under advisement during further discussion. I made that up just as I was. Is there a second? A second. There was a discussion on the motion. So does that mean the flag is staying up or coming down until the outcomes of the conversations? Staying up. Okay. All right. I'm in favor of the motion. I hear what people are saying. I know I was the one who made the motion to put the flag up and the one who made the motion to have it continue being long. And this is such a third rail these days in our society. It is hard to even talk about it ever. So I'm glad that the conversations are going to happen. I do particularly because in my view and just my view that we're all so polarized that we all talk past each other. I mean I somebody recently when we had this debate the first time somebody was very offended and I knew who it was and he was a wasn't a professional. He's a guy who worked with his hands and somebody said something about white privilege and he said what privilege? I'm white and what privilege? You know my hands are he didn't say callous but you know he said I work with my hands I work hard. I don't have any money. I don't know what that's talking about. But I know what the term means but I don't think that's how it's taken and the thing that concerns me is you know I was a trial lawyer for a long time and the phrase that I always used to think of is and a lot of people think that means that you're manipulative. If you're a good one it means you're actually not and hopefully I was good. But you go to the jury where you find you got to go to them and you got to go to the public where the public is and what I get concerned about is that we all stay in our little circles and we only talk to people who agree with us and we don't we don't have the conversation that we need to have. And so we use phrases that the other the other side doesn't mean one person says one side says white privilege the other sides will all lives matter and they you know that meanwhile will no black lives matter. Well it's it's all skew lines oftentimes and so I I think everybody is very well intentioned but I'm really glad that these conversations are going to happen. I Chris to Lee I got to tell you it's it's it's going to be hard and you know I salute you for it. But I think these conversations have to happen. I myself was thinking recently you know as everybody knows my daughters are Chinese they're adopted. I was noting yesterday in New York City a man attacked an Asian woman and hit her 125 times they could count because it was on camera and charged and broke broke her face and there's brain bleed and he's charged with attempted murder and he used a racial appetite right before he did it that indicated it was a hate crime. The increase in anti Asian sentiment and violence against Asian Americans is something I take very seriously something that scares probably not as much as they should. Because I have this false sense that we're in Vermont and everything's gonna be okay. Even when it isn't but I understand the other is a part of me this is well maybe we should have a flag that says and racism or something like that but but my point is that you know there's no nobody's a bad person here. This is a really complex thing this is a real issue and so this this conversation really has to happen and I'm very in favor of the motion and Christa Lee you know we'll we'll buy a nice present at the end. Maybe a just maybe a meal at one of the fine fine restaurants we have here. You know so that's my statement. Any further discussion? I would just like to add that you know as part of this I I know the town is is looking at their policies surrounding diversity equity and inclusion and and ongoing trainings but I think that's integral and to continue to look at ways in which the town can you know become more equitable within its practices and in within its language. In in policy writing and in you know hiring practices or whatever the case may be but I think that that's also that they go hand in hand and that you know needs to be considered as well. If there's no other further discussion on the motion Jeff one one quick thing. Well said Greta and Ted thank you. Ted you brought up an interesting point how to recognize what Christa Lee is doing and I sure hope that sometime in maybe my lifetime you know the concept of needing the Black Lives Matter Mac won't be it won't be needed. I will feel comfortable that we no longer need to do that and if and when that day comes and I sure hope it does Chris Lee I hope you get the flag. There's no other further discussion then all those in favor of the motion say aye. All right. That concludes the agenda for the public part and the next part for the executive session. Could we choose to do that we choose to do that need a motion that's been suggested. I'll move that premature public knowledge regarding a union contract matter would clearly place the town at a substantial disadvantage and for the move that we enter into executive session to discuss police union contract matter under the provisions of title one section 313 a one B of the Vermont statutes invite. Police Lieutenant Josh Moore finance director Shirley Goodell Lackey and town manager Eric Wells to join. This is a second. Any discussion on the motion. It's not a lot since they were the motion say aye. The opposed. All right. We are an executive session will get on stairs and all of their folks have been invited.