 Act 92. This public body is authorized to meet electronically. In accordance with Act 92, there is no physical location to observe and listen contemporaneously to this meeting. However, in accordance with the temporary amendments to the open meeting law, I confirm that we are providing access to the meeting using the Zoom platform. And all members of the board have the ability to communicate contemporaneously during this meeting through this platform. And the public has access to listen in and, if desired, participate in this meeting. And you can find your access to this Zoom platform on the town website and post it in town at three places at least. And the people that are on a requested email list get it directly to them. So here we are. Before we start, does anyone have any additions to the posted agenda? I do. I'd like to talk about the exciting prospect that they're threatening to repay Route 100 between Stockbridge and Rochester next year. So. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Yeah. Let's go to the Hancock Town Line. No, not quite to the Hancock Town Line. No luck there. How many years has this been? A lot. In a while. So let's see. Everyone is pretty obvious who we have here. Of course, any non-unanimous votes have to be by roll call. But for the most part, we haven't had to deal with that. So we'll move forward with the minutes from the last meeting and they look good to me, except for one addition. I think Julie, we should put on there that the we exited executive session at seven o'clock with no action taken because he mentioned that we went into it, but we have to come back out of it. Yeah. So if anyone else have any adjustments to that? If not, I'd move to approve the minutes. Seconded. All in favor? All right. All right. We've got those minutes. So, well, let's talk about that. The prospect of them paving, they reached out to ask us for any information about infrastructure that is under Route 100, which would be water lines and sewer lines, what have you. Joan, have you seen this yet? I did. I'm going to be in the office, I think on Wednesday, I want to pull out that infrastructure, that water, what was it, something about the water infrastructure mapping that was done for the town in 2015, because that would be a good document at least to send to them and then maybe remind ourselves of where all the drainage issues are. Well, that's what I'm going to bring up. I know they want to know where our water lines are and sewer lines, but I think we really need to make a big stink about the storm drain, which is their storm drain, because when it was caving in on the north end of town a few years ago, they finally came and fixed it, but they refused to do any improvement on the system as a whole. They only repaired what was broken and I think we really need to have them add another inlet to that storm drain somewhere in front of the skip mart or the bakery, where it troubles up so badly, and that'd be the time to do it instead of paving over something that needs to get torn up yet again. Right, there are probably other places where we might suggest either they upsize or add new drains because we probably don't have enough in some of those places. That right off the top of my head is one of the worst spots in town. Now, I know that the proposal for the larger of the storm water projects that was researched and designed for us is the one that would handle that line that would end up into a treatment situation underneath the new park, and even though we wouldn't necessarily be triggering that whole project, I don't see why we couldn't make sure that the system that would eventually feed that project would be in place and updated ready to go with any. We can even have a quick consult with the watershed consulting associates who did the storm water master plan for us and see if they had any suggestions that we can add to that and pass along to the state. That leads into and which is a big part of making sure that the storm water is directed appropriately into those catch basins is sidewalk and curb situation in town. So I guess we knock on wood, we don't have a Bethamont Road project, we don't have a failing sewer site project, maybe this is time to revisit that topic and make sure that we can optimize whatever energy the state is putting into the working on the road where people wanted it. Am I correct in that you said they were planning to do this so they say next summer? There was no commitment there. No date set on it. Okay. Okay. Hello Catherine and Jeff. I'm sorry I let you in a little late there. We were just talking about the state threatening us with repaving Route 100 next year and all the other little things, ducks we'd like to get in a row around that such as the storm water runoff and maybe improving some of the sidewalk and curb. Yeah. So Aving 100 what a concept. Yeah. I'm going to say it's been years. So anyway that's what I wanted to have the agenda is definitely so I think the sooner we start making noise to them about more than just where the town water line is but what you know because that is their system the storm water runoff it's not the town system so I think we really need to press them to address the issues with that. Dune? Yeah. I think you could also put on your list that area in front of the library that's been a catch basin for so many years. Mm-hmm. Yeah that is I believe that is right at the corner of the park is where the confluence is one system heads north and one head south. I'm not sure there's nothing in the library now that would probably require something coming in under the road to tie into what is headed or even building it up in front of that area so that it doesn't collect there. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Dune? Yeah. There's a catch basin right in front of the entrance to Pierce Hall and that runoff from in front of the library comes and dumps into that catch basin then runs out behind Pierce Hall and over the bank. Yeah. Oh yeah. So we get a lot of the runoff that actually comes from north of Pierce Hall. So that's where the proper curbing and sidewalk could really serve to direct the run into those catch basins instead of letting it puddle but yeah. Okay. I'm making notes of all this stuff Dune so. Thank you Bruce. Yep. Yep. All right. So since we just dumped a bunch of stuff on your lap John to research you might as well go right into your updates. Okay. Let me just get the cat off my notes. Okay. Let's see. It's going to be short. Want to let you know that I recently learned this last week that we are able to draw down for partial reimbursement of our FEMA work. It's there a number of we have like four three or four different what FEMA calls projects. One of them is completed roads fully completed roads and that one is still being reviewed. It's being it's under review by FEMA the FEMA folks for weeks months really and I'm not sure where that stands at this point but meanwhile we also have unfinished roads and of the unfinished road project we have probably completed somewhere close to 80 percent of that work now and they have all the paperwork and backup documentation for work that was done on those road that kind of subset of roads through the end of December and they have obligated those funds so we're able to request reimbursement for 75 percent of what we've completed through the end of December and my conversations with a fellow at this state who is our sort of FEMA representative has said that his estimate of what that adds up to is somewhere in the neighborhood of $130,000 so he sent me all the paperwork so I can start filing for that reimbursement. I don't know how long it takes and I'm not sure how long it's going to take me because it's it's a whole lot of work because you can imagine these are you know federal forms that have to be fed out and triplicate and a lot of it is information that's been long since submitted but it has to be resubmitted in a different format for this particular process so anyway I am going to get to work on that so that we can at least see some of the money that FEMA owes us a little bit sooner than sometime in 2021. So there's still hard to believe but there's still a massive amount of paperwork that has to be done for our full reimbursement but I just want to let you know that I'm waiting my way through it and I'll be able to spend a little more time on it once the single audit is done because a lot of that is is addressing FEMA costs as well and putting them into categories that the accountants can use as opposed to the way that FEMA wanted it submitted so full employment for me for the next who knows how many months and then the last thing was just I wanted to ask you if you had been able to give any thought to the additional paving that's going to be needed at the town garage once that project gets underway which will probably be you know maybe the first or second quarter of 2021. Do you remember last time Cooter had estimated about $10,000? Sorry yeah for that and I know I don't need an answer tonight but it is something that I'd like to get back to whatever partnerships so we know what the paving issue is going to look like and they can include it in the budget and then obviously the town you know inside whether you can put it in the highway budget for the coming year. Yeah which we have just started work on that so bring it up on Wednesday. Yeah yeah. Oh and one other thing I just want to let you know about if you remember the Better Roads application that we put in for Rogers Brook which is that caved in Coulvert that's near the Bethel town line and when the Bethel Mountain project was completed we were told by the folks at V-Trans to go ahead and apply for that Coulvert upsizing and replacement. Right. And our application wasn't approved so I talked to the folks at Better Roads just to find out why whether there was something wrong with the application or it turns out that ordinarily the Better Roads program gets up to six million dollars a year to disperse the towns for projects like these and this year largely because of COVID and the delays associated with COVID and the need to divert federal funds to COVID related things they only had 300,000 dollars to give out this year and as a result they decided not to give grants to projects that were in excess of $20,000 because they wanted to try and spread what money they had out as far as possible with as many towns as they could so otherwise we said our application was fine and there's no reason why it wouldn't be approved so I will be resubmitting it again in December and so maybe next year we'll be able to replace that Coulvert. All right thank you that's it right? Yes that's it for now. Tony I see you joined us tonight you got any reports from the literary world? Yes a couple here we will the trustees will have a meeting tomorrow at 5.45 and it'll be on whatever this is called we don't do Zoom I think but whatever and it is accessible we're still open by appointment to have people come in and browse the bookshelves and pick up on the porch is still going on that seems to be doing pretty well you can call or email the library to get to get these things we have some serious building problems that we need to get to which means we us we have a leak in the roof that's probably going to require a lift to get somebody up there fortunately it appears to be one in one place but we're afraid that it will damage the upstairs ceiling if it doesn't get fixed soon so that has to be done and there's some painting that needs to be done the entire building needs to be painted so that should be budgeted for along with all of the downstairs windows need some work on their sills some of them some of the sills probably need to be replaced so those are kind of pressing issues for right now so we're kind of moving out of painting season if you're going to get a lift that would be the time to do both things at the same time is there any ways someone can get up to deal where is this leak around the chimney or where is it oh i think it's on the south side towards the back but i don't know why i'm saying that because i haven't seen it we have tried to get someone to go up there and so far all we can all we've been told is that we'll we'll need to get a lift i'm telling me i know ray harvey has had used a really big lift to help fix the the lights on the skating rink recently so he might be able i don't i don't know if he could use it but he's got one right we're trying to we are asking some of those people just so we can find the source for one i mean that sounds like that probably something that needs to be dealt with before winter i think so yeah and of course the painting would be next summer next spring summer yeah we got some issues with the town office there too so i'm not sure we'll be able to do the whole building and the town office also needs painting and plus the chimney's got to come down and be rebuilt and that's going to be a probably a i'd say somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 grand fix that he said he might have to go through the roof on that one so we'll have to think hard about this i think fixing the roof is important though and then we'll have to go from there all right okay thank you thank you i know there are other places that need paying the bandstand too is in bad shape yeah we've got a lot and everything requires somebody with workman's comp that works on municipal so yeah have to find people to do it yeah right all right thank you thank you um got um well in terms of um terry's not here to talk about the utilities but julie do you want to talk about the program you got that application in time in for um to help people that are having trouble with their water bills uh yeah so uh as a town um we are registered for anyone who is having trouble paying their utility bill so between i believe it's march 1st and december um i've got to go over a lot of the paperwork has just been sent in today so if anybody um would like to call in or uh we can start the process i believe everything has to be done uh by december so it'll or the the program is extended through december 15 so um so julie i have a question i i you said the town is registered do you mean it's registered for a for a program to help people out that are having trouble yeah it's it's the vermont um covid-19 a rearage assistance program vcaap correct yeah it's part of it's uh it was established in july using an eight million dollars from the federal cares act funding and uh they just opened it up to uh municipalities and the towns that have utilities uh services water and sewer services to help uh people who are having hardships due to income loss thank you so so they extended that julie they did okay do people have to apply for it they will yes so there is an application um i do have paperwork coming in tomorrow i'm taking um they're going to be speaking with a lot of the registered um towns to give you an idea how to process all of that paperwork do we have a ton of delinquencies there you know i don't think we have a ton um but that's a that's a good question i've i've got to um research that tomorrow and this is bird these would have to be uh more than 60 days overdue so just uh not just uh no that's correct yeah so anyway that's um program was out there um then it really um got dropped in our laps at the last minute so thanks julie for jumping on that and um see if somebody can take advantage of that correct so julie if anybody wants more information about that it's okay to call you at the town office yeah please do okay great thank you all right so um on to new business um i'd do anything about roads tune no no they're all they're all there okay sorry no i um well the leaves off the park today i was going to say the road crew was was clean up the park yep no just um enjoying a little um another warm week you know and anticipation of changes to come yeah i i got a call into uh laws ag there so we can put lime and fertilizer on it this fall they should be uh he didn't he was uh out he was busy today and he didn't get back to me but i'll give him a call tomorrow it's it's going to be about a thousand bucks to have it done uh for what we need with the soil test that i had this spring he'll be putting on uh see two ton of lime and i don't know 70 odd bags it was the material was like 750 dollars and uh the application fee was 250 so i'll be doing that that'll be do be done sometime this week or next i don't know when it's about time i guess it's been a while since we put thank you frank yeah there are parts of it that are really kind of bearish yeah he won't have as easy a time around the trees but you know i figure if we do anything is better than nothing so right exactly we'll see what happens with it thank you go from there all right so on to um new business let's talk a little bit about the um the future of the high school building so um pat you've been working um with the school board a little bit about their anxiousness for us to um to make a decision yes and uh i have the the school board has been uh had a few changes along the way and an election so um now i think we are worse we're stabilized into who's doing what on the school board they have designated a point person for me to communicate back and forth works with um and that's Amy wilt um so they actually are starting a meeting at 6 30 tonight and i would like to join into that meeting and um with this with this this this new revitalized school board that we have here and um i i know that they're going to be asking us um for some type of information or commitment uh towards the high school building um and so now that we know what we're dealing with with for a school board um i would be ready to present them with uh a statement of um we do have a commitment towards uh obtaining the high school building um i do think that we should mention um that our interest is tied to the continuation of the merger um and um if we you know if we think that there's going to be a uh unmerging of the school systems that does tell us that you know going through all of the red tape it takes to separate this property um we would want to all be going in the same direction and not go in this direction and then find out that they've changed their mind so um i think it's time for us to make that statement to them they're looking for that statement from us um but in exchange um i would like to have a statement from the school board about their commitment towards the future of the school district does anybody have any thoughts to throw in there for me of course i'm back to my old feeling on that i i think we're repurposing the wrong building that's where i stand on it well when we when we did vote for the merger we've the the merger was designed towards the high school building so i i kind of think that if we were to change buildings we would need to amend the merger document on what was voted on by the school right by all the voters um i hear you i hear you um everybody's got concerns like you know what what should we do which one is best and they're almost a toss up um for uh value and economics you know longevity usability yeah there's all these categories and um many of us has been through both buildings and pros and cons for both one um but it was decided when we voted on the merger that it would be the high school building um what it would take to change that i'm not sure that it would be the high school building that was given up right yeah yeah the only the weirdest thing about the two buildings is that each one of them has something that's important like the high school building has an auditorium which is used by the public etc and the elementary school has the cafeteria and gym and stuff so you know each each of them has something that it's too bad they weren't all in one building you know that kind of thing i have a question for you patty this catherine um how you doing um thanks for the work you're doing on this project um if i would like to know how if the school district i i guess especially if the stock bridge really goes towards the um undoing of the merger how would that affect us in terms of acquiring a building would we then just be acquiring two buildings um i would assume that if we unmerged everything that we had voted on during the merger would dissolve so then there would we would get back the entire campus elementary and high school if if it was decided if the state approved it and i believe that the voters have to vote on it as well i believe it has to be voted on as well so you know there's a lot of ifs there um about whether or not this an unmerger it's an easy word to say but not an easy thing to do so um there would be a lot of hurdles to do that i'm not saying it's not doable um but he i would assume that everything goes back to the way it was but but we don't need to vote on repurposing the building i understand from an earlier meeting correct um it's already been when we voted for the merger we voted for all of the particulars that were part of that merger and disposing of the high school building was part of the language of the merger so i just okay rob do i understand that you don't need any town vote then to make this deal nope what i'm told by lawyers is that we already voted on it it was in the merger and we already voted for it so one of the things in the uh the report the building assessment report was uh was some figures associated with um converting the high school building into an elementary school which has significant cost to it but if we for if the merger unmerged and we became in possession of both buildings and at some point the town decided that we wanted to make the high school building the elementary school building it would seem that that's something that could be done with the idea that the funds for uh turning that into a turning the high school building into an elementary school building would have to you know go go towards that end i think that anything that has been discussed in terms of plans for the repurposing of the building to date uh you know which is still in the much much in the planning stages uh i don't see that there would be down the road a big significant problem if you know there if the town were to decide that they needed more space for the elementary school i mean i don't see that as some sort of hurdle at this point that is insurmountable in the future but i don't see how we can do it now well that if there were an unmerger uh there'd be involvement of the state education system you know and they would step in and um our per pupil cost would go up significantly so it's a little bit more than just what would we do with the space we have at that point with an unmerger there there would be a lot of decisions to be made um considering arts right um and and what would the state do with us so that is that is a whole different conversation that i don't you know i would need to be facing that yeah in order to get those unknowns yeah uh we'd be we'd be lucky to survive as a school i think if uh the merger doesn't work i think it cost-wise it'd be just too expensive just to throw numbers out there i think uh rough numbers were currently at 17,000 per student and if we were to unmerge and went on our own we would be at 21,000 per student that would would make everyone's taxes go up two to four thousand dollars a year pat i had heard that we had a rise in the student numbers at the elementary this year is that true or did you know that it was uh it was presented to me that there were new people that had moved into town etc etc yes there are there are more new pupils in Rochester uh than there are in Stockbridge um but the i'm not saying that we've got a 30 percent rise in okay no i just wonder you have a few more kids okay Robert you had something you want to say yeah both both principles said to me in the course of the various business uh building meetings uh that the they didn't think as i understood it that the schools were sustainable unless they were merged and that means that all this push from Stockbridge to break up the merger which i and i don't know whether that's coming from five pistol people or or all of stuff i don't know but that's a very heavy decision because of this very serious decision and at some point i think uh we we need to publicly start examining if that becomes a movement what that means the second thing i might just as an observation there's a lot of money involved there's a lot of money that to maintain the building there's a lot of money to fix it can we really do that without putting enough to a vote and i'm not i'm this is a question not a you know i'm not arguing i i feel the same way about that robert i i'm a little apprehensive and maybe as the paper says maybe we've done it already but i i don't know i would think we would take a lot of flak from the community if we just went ahead with something like that i i don't know my sense of this is that we're dealing with a tremendously complicated issue here it's really complicated yeah and that the Stockbridge people really would just wish this was easy and was over like that yeah it's not easy and and um so i i guess patty's going to be on the spot in there and the people a lot of people are going to be wanting her to say yeah no problem i'll sign it check tomorrow it's just very very complicated and and um i and i i guess i would say i really think we should very cautiously step forward into this i think you want to put in the elementary school in there in the future or something else happening in the future that's a very big point but there's a bunch of those kind of things in here so i just say that we should step slowly that's all i i agree with this not trying to move too fast because it is this complicated i mean there's um the um you know the town could own that building and lease it out but that we can't as a primary purpose being landlord we're not allowed to do that that building would have to have some municipal purpose and we could still lease out um aspects of it but it's um we're not just looking at buying this building to to um just for the sake of having a building so one thing i think it would be um worth asking the school board tonight or then the next meeting is there are um you know vick and catherine and i've been involved with the the envision project about trying to come up okay who would want to use that what what could happen in that building and would the school board be willing to lease that building out as it as the situation is now for for someone that does want to start something and then it could start the ball rolling in terms of down the line a little bit and it can show to the town of rochester okay we we could take this on in the interest of having um control and making sure that good things happen to the community for the community for that building but but kind of sparked the fire and maybe stockbridge could get things going a little bit and then offset some of the expense that there um the school board is worried about with the building so i'm just wondering why the school board would be in any better position to be a landlord than the town i mean i don't really understand why one entity is better off as a landlord as you call it than the other when we have definitely said that it's our intention to retain the campus as our asset and and we would be the town most directly benefited by it and what we're hoping in the planning stages is that would stimulate economic development in this town i think dune was talking about in the short term and the fact is that school board owns the building right now so they would be the de facto landlord in the right they do right now that's right yeah and they have i would like to see a little more of a merger i would like to see a little more of a merger than a loveless marriage that we're in right they're wondering where the romance went frank yeah i mean we're operating two different buildings and it's it's not saving us money no it's not you know i mean and we've got three buildings that we're dealing with as a school system and so i just think it's crazy and if we don't start using things a little differently then i don't think the merger is worth a merger i wish there was some way to keep the auditorium i mean that's something that has been for town meetings and the players put a lot of money into that fund raised a lot after iran to fix it up and i always used it and you know that the kids used it for school and it's too bad it's in a separate building you know oh well i i don't think there's any question that the town you know whether we want to have a say into the future use of that building that it benefits the the building i don't think we want to just you know have a someone in there and start manufacturing tires just having more jobs in town you know it has a you know i'm i i'm optimistic that it will eventually come to you know be another one of the shining lights of rochester but it's right now that the power is turned off and that's not shining too bright yeah there are those that have said that you know well if rochester doesn't start showing interest in the building we'll just they'll just put it on the market to to sell it outright as a commercial building so yeah they're they're kind of they're kind of pushing for something from us and i think that i i would like to ask for a commitment from them um at the same time that we make a commitment about acquiring the building um like i said you know it just doesn't it doesn't seem to be worth the while to go through the time expense and lawyers and surveyors and all of that um only to end up with them uh wanting to unmerge with us and uh then we'd have these two properties that we'd have to eventually probably merge back into one so i i'm just i i would like to go before the school board this evening and and say you know with the new school board that's in place now do do they have a commitment to continue with the merge does that sound like it's i think that's a very good question to present to them with the idea that the town is interested and um do you know what time we're scheduled to be on their agenda tonight um well their meeting started at 6 30 but they have a bunch of stuff to go through first they know i'm coming in later okay i think there's a there's a big political problem here uh which is right in the middle of all of this that is there there's there's a very vocal hostile bunch of i don't know how many four people ten people a thousand i don't know but they're very hostile about the merger and they're hostile about rochester and they're very uh anxious to get the high school off of the ticket they just don't want to pay for that's impeding a lot of the process of the we're talking about it not to mention the school board thing i don't know how you deal with that except somebody the school board of a town somebody should start making a public statements about the importance of the merger in terms of success education which is true the principals think it's working the value of the towns all this kind of stuff all we're really hearing about is these what i think is a relatively small number of really pissed off loud people well that could be the whole population stock bridge too but i really good thing that happened rob is that the news the new person who got invited voted on to the school board justine um calvin kivakis grew up in rochester graduated from rochester high school and has a lot of connections to rochester and i feel that she was is a person who would work very hard to keep things going well between the two towns yeah she's great but there's already a lot of hostile feedback on i know but i mean she's a good addition to the board they see her as the rochester mentor and candidate or something but at any event you know it's going to be really difficult to to be effective and successful in this very complicated difficult problem if we can't kind of get everything on an even if they want to blow off the merger which is what the same people hate the high school want to blow up the merger well i believe that uh joe biden's got an even bigger problem than we have right now and i have faith that things can go forward and that there can be a new spirit of unity in general and and i i'm going to work towards that i think that needs to be somebody's agenda that needs to be a job how can we stop stop the hostility make the merger work for the sake of the towns and the kids i mean somebody needs to step forward and start doing stuff publicly politically to make that happen i think otherwise we're ceding the the um loudspeaker to the to the people that are causing a problem i think yeah the school board play a big role in this like the primary role of course but but in a in a communication sense i think they've been pretty fast well i think haven't been we're all volunteers and and it all comes down to how our time is scheduled and i think that rob makes a really good point and that maybe there should be a regular communication thing that emphasizes the positives of the merger the assets to you know if the repurposing of the high school how that could benefit the region not just the the town of rochester yeah i think there's a lot of pr to go forward i agree with you rob and that definitely should happen but somebody's got to do it some i mean they got some and maybe maybe some presentation to the board should be we really need to work together some kind of to say yeah our in a good faith sense our intent is to take over this high school but it's very complicated and we we want we need to know that the merger is going to hold and we want us maybe you should put together a committee of people with this you know to to to publicly start to talk to talk about the positives of the merger because all we've heard is the merger is a disaster and it is not if you talk to the principals not only is it is it good for the kids it's good financially i mean that's what the principal say at least that's what they mean so but i don't think that that word is getting out and i think it should another thing that bothers me a little bit with all this too is uh you know do we need another town building we've got the library which we can't find anybody to paint we got a hole in the roof we got a an old town office that's going to require a lot of work and maintenance down the road that's going to cost this community money we've got a town garage that's kind of almost lived up to its full potential and we've got an old firehouse sitting there that's going to crumble one of these days because it's just made out of block and so how many more buildings do we want to have that we can't afford to maintain this high school building is a lot of square footage what's the possibility of you you know you don't have to sell a bunch of stuff to get rid of it but i'm just what about the town office and the town office to go down there yeah that's true get rid of that whole thing and put the library down there too and get rid of that library the library the library is a a little jewel and and very and something the town really loves i think we can i understand that catherine i'm just being facetious when i said that i know well we don't want the high school building to turn into the warehouse building up in hencock no i i agree 100 i think the town office idea is actually a pretty good one you know i wouldn't want to move the library i think she's right but imagine nancy at the budget meeting somebody saying oh how about this how about we pay 40 000 a year in the maintenance of this building with our taxes i mean it's just not fixing it we know yeah so what would be the reaction in the in the budget meeting where the or anybody responsible about the realistic cost of these things it's very complicated it's a very it goes beyond the budget meeting it actually goes to town meeting where there would be discussion and you'd quickly understand yeah your people are that probably needs to go to town meeting to be discussed i'm sure it will be discussed though i mean if if the town office was moved to the school there's a building that the town could divest itself of using some of the revenue for that to back down at the high school i don't know anything really about the size of the lot where the old fire department is but it minimal pretty minimal yeah i think a hood spiraling might be interested in that space that'll that old firehouse lot goes right over through almost to the credit union they think very close yeah it's uh the credit union parking lot i think is is firehouse property i think the firehouse could be on the credit union property i was gonna say maybe the credit union would like to improve well since since building is right their lot is right on the building line i think i remember right so what are you gonna tell him that i do i've got back up to my my request to the school board about um their their commitment towards the merger um i i think that there's a lot of people tonight that that support that idea and and that's really just a common sense statement you know are we all doing this going in the same way be pulling apart anyway um so um i do have a little something that i had prepared going going in this direction so i'm really just going to make a little statement and i'm not going to open the floor to a lot of if ands and buts that don't need to come up tonight just need to come up further again but i do want to start the conversation and i want to start it with a commitment um i are they with us i think that's an excellent idea patty a really good idea i think it'll cause some steam there you know but i think it's a great way to kind of put it back in their court and and try to get people to get to get their head screwed on right that's a good idea okay so i'm i if my uh brothers in select uh agree i'm okay with that that yeah we gotta we gotta move forward somehow but um i want to move cautiously mm-hmm so am i correct that what you're going to tell them is that the select board agree that they're in favor of um uh making a commitment to take over the building i wouldn't say that yet i wouldn't say that yet well she she she didn't put a date date she said that the town is interested in acquiring the building uh and would make a commitment but she also but the town also is needing a commitment from the school board towards the sustaining of the merger right right and i think that's a really good statement it gives them hope but it also lets them know they have some responsibility okay so if i said that the select board is in favor of the town taking over the building in the future at some point but they would like the commitment from the rscd board that they're committed to maintaining the merger i wonder if you should wait till patty makes the presentation before you put it in the paper i wouldn't even mention it myself yet it's all something that happened at this meeting i'm supposed to be reporting on what you happen but i don't know she's gonna she's gonna participate in the uh in the uh school board meeting tonight regarding the future of the high school building so patty if something interesting happens that you feel is important you could email me and let me know because my deadline isn't till tomorrow afternoon late something interesting always right okay fine you know what i mean i think that you would you would phrase it um i would be cautious of saying that we're we're you know we want to buy the building by say it's safe to say that we we want to have a say in its future use that's not good enough how about if i said you're interested in in taking over the building or in the idea of taking over the building you haven't made a commitment but you're interested in it well it's it's um i don't think we want to put words out there that communicate our commitment to do that we there is a definite interest in that and the interest and you know in what happens with that building that will be of a the ultimate benefit to the town and if that is the form that that that unfolds is through the town ownership of that building then that that will become apparent but it's not i don't think we can say that okay you're interested in the future having a say in the future the building has that but at the same time you don't want to get them looking for commercial other commercial interests in that building right right i mean not just a benefit to the town but a benefit to the region you know yeah to the quintown area don't exclude benefit to stockage by whatever the repurposing of this building could be but they don't have a right to do that until the five-year merger period is done right right a first refusal for the next couple years yeah i wouldn't worry about that right now i think doon's point is very well taken i think the word commitment should never be used but but a good good faith interest or or good faith good faith interest that's good you know but you know dependent on some kind of statement of commitment from them about what's going to happen to the merger i think it's begging up but it's a lot of people won't like it but i think that's i think doon's right you know eventually the negotiation so the these kind of this kind of language right now it's kind of important so i think doon's right i mean it's really a lot does hinge on their intention whether or not to continue with the merger because that does really throw the whole different different ball at us if that if that happened so it's almost um this whole concept of the five-year cooling off period to really let things settle down was it was a wise idea and then i don't know you know it's important that we're talking about this now because you know we're halfway through those five years now but um i don't think that um we need to quite jump just yet and it does seem that there're just a few people in stock bridge that are really pushing this diverging we don't know whether the entire town is willing to to upset the merger may ask a question pat what if they say well what's the hold up why why don't you take it now or within the next six months how would how would you respond to that well i would just say it's very complicated it's very complicated yeah yeah i'm just getting questions that likely to come i was basically saying that the ball is or about the sub-fighting of the property and um there was a list of things that needed to be done you know prior to us why are you building this would be subject to um have they think they may have had a survey there but much response would be uh what you done towards this goal as well because you're the one to call going first and oh they're they're the further we're the so they have prepared the property to be sold to us and so if they've got if they've done all of their homework sub-dividing and um all that we want to see what those we want to see the new surveys is how is that not going to work i would respond by saying the ball is bending your quirk any months a lot month um but we understand that COVID through a monkey wrench into what you needed to concentrate on and maybe we've got you know stabilization and kids back in school and can we get back to this because you're the ones that are pressing to get done so we're ready whenever you are what have you done that's what i would say would you if i may fall up would you want to see anything about um we're working on developing financially feasible plans for the building i mean that to me is sort of the acid test if we can take this on or not is can we come up with a financially feasible way of doing it connect to rap's point obviously everyone knows that we have formed a committee to explore options for the high school and are asking if the school board and we could if the school board would consider leasing the building to the town so that we can pursue entities that could benefit from this space this would take um our task to the next level i don't i don't think you're asking them to lease it to the town we're asking if they're interested in if they if there is a entity that that wants to jump start um the project in there would they be willing to lease it while they're waiting to sell it to the town eventually i don't think you're asking to lease the town's not asking to lease it from the school board right now right that's good because we don't have a project for it you know but it's it's hopefully that other and then the one thing to keep in mind is that we don't have any money for it either no we got well a dollar but no that's not yeah i have to say we all know about the 40 000 uh uh cost of keeping the building open and that's minimal that's minimally that's that's mothball that's not keeping it open to the level that will be housing people doing things you know and we're going to need to have a new town employee as a janitor to take care of this building um you know we do have some models from from some of the other maker spaces we've explored and what we've been hoping is that we create a revenue model and have this entity that is yet to be named that would help in the administration of the use of the building you know to me as i listen to all this it's in the interest of not only the town of rochester as well as the school board as in addition to any potential users i see a tried partnership in some sort of exploratory use of the space in which everyone will benefit by investing some aspect in whatever this new entity is going to be because of the school board wants a transition the town really wants to acquire the property but they they don't want the risk right they don't want the financial risk so they're being ahead they're hedging and they're going to maybe run down the clock for two years i don't know what the select board's thinking in terms of ultimately acquiring but i would imagine that thought is at least past frank's mind and so um i'm saying that there's an interest in potentially three different entities in having that building used and maybe we could even create some sort of contract in which there would be a partial investment from three different entities with revenues coming in being from the third part the users of the building as a possibility just to even explore what we can do let me let me be grim from the town can't afford that building the town can't afford that building the only way they can afford that building is if some creative work is done on designing fundraising and usage that has income and all this kind of business that's a lot of work and it's very complicated but my feeling is right now today we can't afford that building all this with it and we recognize that and the hazards in that recognizing that everyone wants that building and that it's an important building to the town for symbolic reasons for functional reasons but right now we can't afford that building we shouldn't be rushing into anything nor should we be promising anybody i don't think anybody's rushing into anything rob but everybody's agreed that they don't want the building empty either they don't want it to be another warehouser and so i think you know the school wouldn't want the building to be run down the town doesn't want the building to go out of their control and whoever is the entity that is now going through the explorations there's multiple committees at work right now it's not just one committee to repurpose that building they all have a stake in the future of that building and it could potentially be a benefit to the entire region at some point you have to just invest and explore and look towards an outcome or a goal yeah but there it's like you know there's a bridge between what we could do right now and the potential there's a right now there's a gap there and that's only one way to cross the bridge and that's one foot at a time yeah sure i'm just saying yeah is that the people of the town we can't afford this building and so and i'm not hearing that except maybe from frank i think there needs to be uh some kind of foundational understanding of that and that means that defines the job that must be done and the care we must take the combination of caution and action that should be expressed here which is complicated that's all i'm saying yeah do we can we move on to the next part of the agenda or do i think we um could we beat this horse to death oh no and there's not really a lot i can say except for a lengthy and complicated conversational subject i've i got i got my question answered and i i think i can take this in just a very small paragraph um but a large statement in a small paragraph yeah yeah i'm going to reach out to the town of bridgewater which had a much smaller school but they had the same deal and they have um took possession of one of the school bellings and they've um i think they're leasing it they to a non-profit organization that they've got a daycare going on there got so i'm just going to reach out to them and see exactly what what transpired there and what you know what what they found worked and didn't work but what did what did plimoth ever do with their school too they closed their doors you know some years ago um i don't they had a little building there pretty good size building actually right there in in plimoth so anyway um yes martha um in in this um talk about the town meeting because this might be a a dynamic conversation at the town meeting on the same high school building topic but um how are we going to run the town meeting this year um sounds like it's um will we be able to have it there it's in the auditorium well no we're looking at the um we can make most of our um or all of our decisions with australian ballot we can turn this into you know that requires a vote from us right the body yeah so is this because due to covid you're considering doing it all mostly australian ballot or um because we have the option there's the state guidelines are coming down to that effect yeah they're they're coming down to that effect and there are certain procedures we would need to take to the vote and i think the town has to vote on whether or not to make all the decisions australian ballot right yeah we'd have to have a meeting ahead of time well ahead of time well well i thought i read that the leg because of covid the legislative body can elect to do that for 2021 so i i take that as that's a select board is that am i correct on that yeah yeah i think so so we could we could vote to have australian ballot for this year right for this coming year and then i think they're going to extend that through to 2021 well which will be the meeting will be in 2021 then the the issue is how do we present what's being voted on and in a clear and in a way we're going to have to i mean the town report has all the information in it but i don't think it's as easily presented as you do in the unfolding of a town meeting so we have to really give a lot of thought into that town report is to being a real explanation and telling the story of what these decisions are not not just an accumulation of numbers and facts dune is it possible that in addition to the written town report that gets mailed out you had some sort of live stream or zoom presentation by the board or something i know you couldn't get as many people on that wanted to talk probably but maybe somebody from each i don't know and then people what i was thinking we might be able to do was that we could have the the officers of the community and and people on the budget and finance a few of them a spokesperson for them maybe and the heads of all the departments that we have and we could do a zoom meeting with everybody involved there and have a call in session for the community where they could call in and ask a question and then they could get an answer that way possibly i've been on zoom meetings with uh several hundred people from around the world all at the same time what is our general turnout on a town meeting at 120 we could easily do 120 i mean i think that we could do it we could do a town meeting by zoom and the other thing there's another thing too that a lot of the software and i'm not sure if zoom allows it but other meeting software i've been involved with you can actually put a question to the audience they vote it tabulates the whole thing um you know just is done very very quickly um so i'm not i'm not totally convinced that you'd have to do everything by australian ballot if there's also people who don't have a computer or don't have the the you know a computer or something to to do zoom or whatever there's a town on the film them excuse me you can't call in yeah oh okay yeah providing a lot of information and julie will be getting she's already received some of it and there'll be a lot more which we have to be playing paying attention to uh david asked a question about electing the officials um i'm an incumbent so obviously i'd be on the ballot but if somebody was going to run against me usually they stand up at town meeting and that's when you know they're running they might might not be able to do it that way all right you're a shoe in patty okay well you know that that's not that's not that's not my point because we we are you know the town clerk and listers and and things down the way and sometimes there are other people that want to step up to the plate and run against somebody and then there's other times when there's nobody wants to fill the spot so we actually call out there and beg for somebody to take the spot so um i just that was my that was david's question and i didn't really have an answer for how that was going to work there is something coming down from vlct on a remote public meeting and they'll be providing a toolkit haven't seen it yet we haven't seen the toolkit yet no okay i think there's a lot of information that will be coming out within the next couple of weeks because we're we have an early town meeting this year march one and we have to comply with all of the state laws on posting meetings and giving everybody time to send in what they want so yeah we're not going to figure it out tonight so let's to be continued but um it should be i'm sure we'll talk about the high school building some though i'm sure that's gonna come up it'll definitely be on the agenda yeah so guys yeah well thank you all um it's um teamwork right does anyone have anything else they'd like to speak about before we um sign off here and let paddy go to the school board meeting i know you're excited about it rare to go i'm going to be there to support you all right then i guess we're um then we're done thank you all for coming out and um see you in the funny pages thank you night off