 All the public hearing to order on the town plan revisions. We're waiting for this. So yeah. Is anyone here from the public? I'm here, but I just am here to watch. I just have been meaning to check in and I don't have any comments. Thanks. I thought there was going to be a presentation of some kind. No. I mean, we had that last time. Yeah, well, we had it like two ago. You know, really, that was when the true presentation was when Zach attended the meeting and presented everything. So the last one was pretty quiet as well. I mean, Julie participated mostly to provide commentary on it. But that was it. Okay, never mind. I was going to say that's the... Yeah, so this is for the town plan. I think the zoning amendments are already passed and assuming no appeal occurs. I hear the doors though. I'm here from the, I'm the member of the planning commission. So I'm here if there's any comment or anything that I can bring back to the planning commission. The only thing that Zach sent me earlier was he has amended, which it's in the website. And I provided the copy to the people here in the room. It's essentially kind of the opening introduction to the town plan. And all he did was include the dates of when we've had the hearings and then assuming the board moves forward tonight, that the plan would be adopted essentially as of July 11th of 2022. So that's the only, that wasn't really a change of the plan. That was just, he just added those pages just so it was clear that that would be included in the, that those revised dates would be included in the town plan. Yeah, we've had, we've had to cancel, we've had to cancel our extra security for our, for the public forums. So it's, it's been okay. That's, that's kind of why Amy and I did not decide to show up just in case they were going to go over the ramparts so. God, Scott, what a thing to say. We took, we took, we took the early feedback that we did actually get from the public and incorporated some of it in the, in the, especially when I came to the cell tower stuff or whatever, but it was pretty, it's been pretty muted after that. Yeah, that's what Zach has told me that really he felt that a lot of the comment came through your meetings, your hearings. So I, he and I spoke earlier today, we expected this to be quiet. So, you know, at the end of the day, I mean, I, we can leave this open as long as you guys want. Have you opened the hearing? Yes, the hearing is open as of now. Okay. We can close the hearing. We're just waiting for people to tune in. So if, but I did, my note does state that the actual start time for the select board will be after the hearing. Right. And it can start weekend. It's not like we have to keep the hearing open for 30 minutes. But we could keep it for a few more. Yeah, I think at least 10 to 15 is. Yeah, I would think so. Fair. I mean, you don't want to be accused of shorting the hearing. Correct. I agree. But what happens at clock? I don't know. It's not working. Oh, it's not there either. Where did it go? Oh, it's up there. Oh, there it is. I don't know if it's, I was messing with this earlier today. Now that we changed the battery. Wow. And it's still working. It's still automatically set. So, I don't know. We need a new clock. Yeah. It's okay. I could use my phone. So the major changes in this, in this plan is really around cell towers, communication towers, right? Pretty much. Yeah, we went over the changes last time. Right. You are here. Correct. That was, that was really basically the major issue was the cell towers and the scenic views. We certainly got a lot of feedback early on when we had many, we had many of our constituents that came to our planning commission meetings and tried to incorporate many of their ideas and feelings. And as, as we know, as we all know, the public service kind of takes major control over it, but we tried to incorporate as, as much as we could into the, into the town plan. Well, they, they, we don't have power to say no. Yeah. Yeah. The public is more issues. That, that, that's, that's basically, that's basically it. But we tried to at least put at least put a little bit of muscle into the, the scenic views, especially because part of the scenic views on the Jacobs horn of the moon, some of those ridges were not put into the original town plan. And we just tried to incorporate some of that. But yeah. Yep. Yeah, we went over there pretty thoroughly. Yeah. The PUC rules basically. I'm just, I'm not sure if Seth's mic is, I'm not sure if that amplifies or I'm not sure if we're hearing him as clearly as we hear Gina. Is this the only mic that's actually, Oh, what's this thing here? That's the only one that's actually working for that. This one's different, right? Oh. We don't need to. No, that's not connected because we're using theirs. Okay. This is there. And this is the one that always goes, echoes for like a half hour. If we turn it on. Yeah, we turn it on. Let's get weird. How's, so you can hear me clearly? You're muffled. You're muffled. Oh, that's good thing. Thanks. Why did he put this? What's that? This is a mic. Try, try it now. Am I muffled now? Less so. Less so. We can hear you. You're, you just got to talk really loud. Okay. How's that? Very good. You're not muffled. You're just kind of faint. That's good. So, yeah. 640, we should wait five more times. Right. No one else can tune in. Or no one's gonna tune in basically. Yeah. Probably. Love it. I took a lot of bets on the under and over. It was, it was somebody between zero and one, as I spoke to Judith. She was walking her dog today. I wasn't sure what was going to be zero or one on the under and over. And who was going to show up today and. So. I would guess that we would have had more people at the first hearing, if there was a lot of interest in this one. Probably the changes are only of interest to people who might site cell towers and communication towers. Well, no, they're just to the people that wanted to stop the cell towers. That was a big thing, that was the portion. But if I wanted one, and I was interested in it, and I lived in those areas, I might show up, but no one really cares that much. Did you keep this hearing open? Yeah, I got someone right there, who would know our dental service. Who? Oh. No, that's Judith. That's my daughter. I'm using her laptop. I had an issue with mine, so I'm using her laptop. Katie has joined, but she said she was here really just to listen in. She didn't have any specific comment. Okay. Well, most people that want cell towers think that the PUC has to find the word that correct. And they think the town plan is not that important. And that correct. Most of the people are going to come to hearing people that think that the town plan is important. They may take it into under consideration. But yes, overall, they will do what they want to do. It's, you know, it's a five pound weight, not a 50 pound weight. You're right. You're right. It's a one pound weight versus 50 pound weight. We're just killing time. It's only one. It's only one month. Yeah. Okay. So I move that we adjourn the public hearing that 643. That sound good. Yes. Okay. We're out of the hearing. I'd like to call the select board meeting to order. Yeah. 643. Do we have any additions to the agenda? I don't see any on the select board menu. Does anybody have any? No. Okay. We've no additions. We have the minutes to review from June, June 20. I just had a small correction. If I could just find it real quick. In just discussing the. Golly. No, I can't find it. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't have a second sentence in the first full paragraph. Under the proposed amendments to land use and development. Regulations. It provides the proposed amendments focus on certain specific issues. I'm just wondering if we could just say the proposed amendments focus on. Issues designed to address. So get. Delete certain and specific. Okay. So the proposed amendments focus on certain issues designed to address. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. And I don't recall. And maybe we didn't. I just don't remember. And I didn't look back on the tape, but the proposed amendments were described as intuitive. Was. I don't remember that being said, but. I don't. What paragraph are you looking at? I'm looking at. Yeah. I'm looking at the net. It's a two sentence paragraph right before chair. Oh, we'll describe this intuitives. Okay. Yeah. I just didn't remember that. And that seems like a. An unusual description. Anyway, that's all. If it was said, it was said, I just. I don't remember that they use, but if I made a statement. With paying more attention, maybe. Some of us are probably dosing off. I don't remember that description either. But it was probably there. We can remove it. And if someone wants that specific word, they can offer it. I don't remember that description either. But it was probably there. We can remove it. And if someone wants that specific word, they can always go back to the recording. Yeah. So I probably said it. Okay. Okay. And that's fine. All right. I think we should leave it. All right. I make a motion. We accept the, the meeting minutes. From June 20th, 2022. With the minor corrections. With a proposal. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. I'm sorry. I missed it. Was it Amy or Judith who made the second? I'm sorry. I'm stupid. Judith made the second. Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'll try not to be able to hear you. She's really. Okay. Do we have public comment? We do. I would like to, I would like to thank Gina and Guthrie. For their. Prompt and beautiful work on putting the North street sparrow farm sign. Back up seriously. I much appreciate it's a beautiful. thank you for your prompt and diligent work on putting the sign up. We can now, if we want to tell people how to get to our house, we can. Anyway, thank you, Gina, and thank Guthrie for deserves all that credit. I will let him know. Yes, thank you very much. That's the end of my public comments. Oh, you're done. Okay. Well, thank you for the public comment. Anybody else want to say anything? I don't see anybody. All right. Um, let's review the hearing feedback in discussion of next steps. So really, this is for the board to decide. Are you comfortable adopting the town plan amendment, the amended town plan? And so we can move forward with a motion to do that? And probably should it will be done. Does anybody have any thoughts about adopting the plan or negative thoughts or positive thoughts? John, give me a thought. Few not much. Not few. I think I actually I don't think it's going to have a negative impact on anyone. And I think it's it does kind of set the stage for the town. It kind of explain to people a little bit about the fact that they don't want to destroy some of their some of the scenic views and have cell towers all over the place. So I think this so and I so I think it has positive as negative as I don't think it's a strong negative anywhere. So and just to give research and reassurance, it's really been well insurance. Yeah, re insurance. It's really been well vetted by the planning commission and we had lengthy, lengthy, many who spent hours on taking the public comment and trying to incorporate that into as best we can knowing what the reality of the situation is just to give the select board some comfort in or vetting process. Yeah, I mean, the people that you have that were pushing you to change the plan there. They're not for cell towers period, I believe. So you really only heard one side of it or did you hear both side? We only heard the we only heard the negative. We did not hear any proponents of cell town cell phone towers. But as far as I know, I did miss I did miss the public hearing that was at the firehouse. But our conversations up to then were the Jacobs Jacobs rodent and Horn of the moon recording in progress. Oh, man, some of my some of my comment, my jokes, my jokes were not included. Should I go back? So that yeah, I don't think we really had any proponents, but it was mentioned that, you know, silos are possible. And that there are some people in town. And, you know, we would all like better cell phone tower service, relax, we would all like better cell phone service. But most of it was negative. How can we prevent changing our scenic views from being altered by cell phone towers? Right? Yeah, I mean, I'm always concerned with who you hear from, you always hear from a vocal minority, or as a vocal majority. I mean, that's always my, my thought in these matters. But being as a decision isn't really made by the town as far as a cell cell tower permit goes. And they did that sort of wisely in a way to take that out of town control. Because there's a lot of people in these towns that don't want a cell tower, but it's the same mentality as not in my backyard. We want better cell service, but we don't want backyard. So, you know, in any of these processes, we're going to hear from the people that don't want them. And we don't hear from the people that do want them. But it's not, the language isn't such that it prevents the cell towers. So the criteria that you put in place is, you know, acceptable, I would think, and any developer could still put a cell tower in these month later, they would just have to pay attention to some of the site. So I think that it's okay for us to adopt the plan. That's my personal thought. I don't know what everyone else thinks. And you, you, you think the same, what do you think, Judith and Amy? I appreciate all of the hard work that's already been done in the vetting process. So I would, I would approve the plan. I'm thinking that that's our next step where I'd be in support of that. Yeah. Me too. I mean, were you asking me something specific, Seth, like about what I think about cell phone towers or just. No, no, no, no. I was just thinking what you think of the amendments that are made to the town plan and whether we should move ahead. I think those are perfectly intuitive and they were small tweaks to an already polished document. Okay, sounds good. And I noticed you were used to the word. Into it. I'll remember it now. Now I'll remember it. And I think I'm going to take or nail you on that. And thank you. Okay. So let's make a motion to adopt the amendments to the town plan. So move. All right. And Judith, you're seconding it. Okay. Okay. And all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. The eyes have it and it is passed unanimously. So that takes care of the town plan hearing and the feedback that we got. And the next step. All right. The next thing on our agenda is a town treasure report. Is that something you're doing? Yes. Okay. And we have some stuff to look over. You have a monthly report. Now the numbers are still not final because obviously we're at your end. So we're closely monitoring every invoice that is received. Yeah. As to which fiscal period it goes in. Right now we are at a deficit of just under 25,000. And actually it's another two-brand lower. I think we're at around 22 right now because we did find in the review of the warrant one invoice that actually needed to move into 23 in fiscal year 23. So that reclassification was made after this report was done. So we're essentially just closely monitoring for the next 30 or so days any invoices that come in and ensure they're captured in the correct fiscal year. But this is where we stand as of now. So we have a small deficit. Yeah. Just a small deficit. So kind of surprising in today's times that it wasn't a little larger but you know. We had budgeted for some extra anyway. So that's a deficit to actual revenue or to to the general fund correct? To plan revenue or what we've taken in. To the plan. Yeah. Yeah. To the plan. Over budget. It's really expensive. Right. Over budget. Yeah. I was just trying to figure out if it's due to doing the taxes or if it's just we just missed the mark on the revenues in general. It's not really revenues. It's really expenses exceeding the original plan. I mean a lot of expenses have gone up. Right. Yeah. Oh I mean you can miss this by a lot. It's still a lot. You know it's it would be expected. Right. Right conditions. I mean my fund is like way over budget and certain items. It's like oh my grain bill is up. You know. Right. Half a million. You know those are the kind of numbers at the end. It's like oh okay that wasn't planned. But the Deesha fuel bill you know instead of being 75,000 now it's 156. Oh really hard to hit the mark on some some stuff. Yeah. Yeah. This is something that we will dig into. Michelle and I have. Yeah. I have as you all know from my financial background lots of thoughts on how I like to look at budgets and data. So we'll be creating some different more kind of refined reporting to dig into these numbers a bit. Yeah. Plus to your point because costs are a little bit harder to predict today. It's very important that we do build a little bit more detailed reporting that we've had to use in the past. Yeah. To really have a handle on on where where the costs are and especially as we look to when we need to create the next fiscal 24 budget. Exactly. Thank you. You know. Still a dark the dark one. Yeah. I know. Well you can predict a lot of it but yeah it is still hard. And then with all the personnel changes here that's correct. And that's that's another piece to it. I had intended to get a little further with some of this analysis to present you to you but you know. There's only so many hours in the day. Oh yeah. We don't want you to be using all the hours down here. Okay. So is that your report? Yeah. Okay. And then Michelle did complete the treasurer's financial management questionnaire which is a requirement as we get in through here and there's essentially no change in the same. It's the same answers as essentially we had last year. Yeah. Same responses. So the only I think tweet to it was the note about bank accounts just because that's you know we have changes in the accounts as we get into 23 that we will go over with the auditors but that that was it. It was no no structural change to yeah the way we we are currently managing everything from an internal perspective. So assuming everyone is okay with the report then if we get a motion for a chair gardener to sign off on that report. Oh that's gotta be signed off of. Correct. Okay. So we need a motion with that. So move to it. Judith made the motion. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Amy's second. Amy's second. Perfect. I'll second it. Sure. Okay. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. The ayes appear to have it or do have it. So that takes care of the town treasurer report. The next thing is a VCRD community leadership summit attendee nomination. So there's an August 10th. Provided you the email. There's a leadership summit. It's being held in Randolph. From what I understand in the past some members of the planning commission like a member of the planning commission has attended. I think Clarice may have gone to the last one. Oh yeah. So I didn't know if the board had any thoughts on an attendee that you would. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. He's gonna be around the August 10th. I would think so. Do they have a free mail down there? I think so. Oh then he'll go. They did one of those site visits from the Vermont Council on World Development at Hardwick in 2015. And it was a big planning session where everybody sat down and talked about what was important about the town. Yeah. And they hit on you know economic issues you know social issues different things and they really kind of drive some planned some new plans for economic development especially that's what I was concerned about. Yeah. And it was very you knew who supported it pretty much everybody supported so when you went to a hearing you put you put up those big those big goals and you just look at economic development and said you know this is what we want to do. And everybody said yeah we all wanted to do the town want to do it let's do it. Made it a lot easier to do things. It sounds very interesting I mean it would be something I would be interested in except that we're in the midst of the audit at that point in time so it's a tough time. So I think Carl probably would love going there. Wow. Who knows. I can send him an email and ask him. Or Judith. I won't be the I won't be around on the 10th. I don't believe is that. Yeah that's right Judith because I think you mentioned you can't attend the August 11th. Yeah. I won't be around that day. Don't get arrested. Do you think I'll get arrested. No you never know. Are you going to say no. No no no. I think you're out. The 10th is on Wednesday. Yeah. The boring old Wednesday. Is it during the day. I assume so yeah. Yeah. I understand it's already August 7th that we're not at the college. Oh it's a meeting. Yeah so they'll have food there in there. I bet you. Well send Carl. Okay I'll ask Carl. The next item discussion capital improvement committee's annual request for information on future capital projects. So that's that question that they always get. Yeah I included this on the agenda but the capital improvements committee has yet to meet and I believe they've only received one request. I didn't know if the board had any thoughts or ideas. I know looking at last year the items that were on that were upgrades to the town garage and the town office which we certainly know that we need to do to both. So I didn't know if you want to meet at least mention to the capital improvements committee that that may be something we would want to revisit. Well the town garage we should because we have this offer money and that may be one of the projects that we present to everybody to see if that money could be spent on that project because that's a big project and we have a big part of it. So I'm in favor of talking to them about that. The thing about the town garage thing is we have to get a plan. Yeah and that means hiring somebody to fill in an engineering study. Exactly. Right. Go up there be with some people. I would like to do that. I'm sure Guthrie would and start to move ahead now. Well the first step I would take then is to set aside some is to do it. I said I'm on that on the capital improvement committee. They said make sure you have any ideas that come up that you follow the process which means fill out that questionnaire and you might fill out the questionnaire and say look we'd like to go a step further investigate the new town garage and authorize an engineering study and just you know what it'll be we throw you know $25,000 or something out and just say look we want to have an engineering study see what we need and then pass that by the committee. And the same thing with with the town office says if you want to do that you might not authorize the money but you could possibly authorize the money for that too who knows. There's also a water supply that we talked about I know that's that we have not got the ground support for that and I'm not I could care one way or the other on that I'm kind of able to look to that whole thing but that's another thing that keeps coming out but we have not followed we have not taken step forward with a process and they want to process. Right Scott he's on the committee too. That's correct I think Ed is looking to hold the meeting maybe in September because we really haven't had anything on the agenda but no John's correct. I mean so so how do we move this ahead and get out of just a quarter second? Okay so you're going to have the meeting and then do you pick are you going to pick a project? I mean okay so you've presented three projects they're all expensive do we how do you narrow it down to one? I think I think after we might promote one of the projects or have them in some sort of sequential order and then be able to select where to pick the projects in the end right? Yeah I don't think it really works on we take a project. I mean some of our lengthy conversations in the last few meetings were about the sidewalks we don't we have new sidewalks and we thought well it would make sense to put because these are all obviously long-term plans 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 year plans what makes the most sense and not to pick a project but should we start to allocate money for restoration for maintenance for upkeep of the sidewalks for instance and not just pick that but what what is logical for the town and not to entertain a surprise in 10 years and say we didn't allocate I don't know doing something with the sidewalks and so I never really got the I never really got the sense of picking a project but if there's three projects or three issues that need to that need long-term investment or putting money aside for then they would be entertained, scrubbed, and then and then presented to the select board within the capital improvement committee was a plan. Suggested the possibility of creating line items for those those three projects and setting aside a certain amount of money each year and over time maybe you'll develop enough money so you can do an engineering study but you can do it quicker if you want. Well because we've got the arbor money coming up right we may want to you know we've got three quarters of a million dollars that we can put into a project and actually make a big difference right so that's why I was trying to fast track it a little bit more and saying well this is not a 25-year set aside program $3,000 a year for 25 years no I'm saying there's a pot of money coming up let's identify a project and start thinking about that. The capital improvement the capital improvement committee for the most part and John please you've got a lot more experience than I do there's really it's really long what you do by really long-term perspective it's not yeah wow this is a project that we have this arbor money and we should be investing in that I don't think that's really what the committee reviews it's let's set aside and allocate for long-term planning. I think there are some immediate needs especially like in the town office. Yeah the town office has a touch of thing because we almost need a new well agreed but there are some things that we could use now like furniture I mean I'm going to bring in a desk from home at some point and replace what I have in mind in my office because it just doesn't really a capital project that's something that we can just say well this spent you know flight operation yeah that's that's pocket change they're looking for long-term projects but what they're saying to me now is that they're not interested in setting aside money for a town garage when we think you have some more immediate need but but I think there are probably some immediate needs like in the town garage that will be significant enough dollars. The town garage now is a project and it really needs a new you know. We have a certain amount of time to spend at our performance I would say that we don't rush out and spend all money that we set aside some money for it. Have Gina fill out the survey and ask that we set aside say 25,000 up to 25,000 for an engineering study for the town garage. I'd like that yeah I think that'd be great okay so but then the town office should there should be some funding going away to help you know set aside some money for an engineering study for you know our planning study for where would it be do we want to continue this building or do we want to create a new building build a new building store or buy a building so no so one of the reasons we bought this thing over here one of that let's put a town garage a town building right a municipal building right right next door so we have that link and we've done some work for septic in this and that to find out if it would work so that's that's another very expensive project so we can't do a lot of expensive projects not all at once as far as fixing this building you know repairs instead we have been putting money aside for them in in our budget there's three thousand a year whatever it is and we could spend that money on furniture or whatever we need to fix it you know well we don't have what's that I'm sorry I'm just looking at the survey that will be prepared I mean these are the types of questions and issues that come up within the survey so one project might be you know the town garage one project might be the town offices are updating town offices you know you can categorize the need and what type of project it is rationale for it I mean the survey kind of allows it's just that it's a survey it allows an opportunity for kind of this conversation that we're having for various projects we get the information then from that you make the planning rather than and I look forward to getting the results of the survey so that that can inform our planning but we're not going to have a survey about whether to buy a desk or something no you know we need to yeah we can buy things for town office out of the budget that we already have we can get the building painted out of the money that we already put something here do we do an addition on the building I would not recommend it the building is it's got problems water it's small we're not going to throw hundreds of thousands of dollars into this bill it's just not appropriate for this site but maybe we are it's just a lot right maybe we ought to do have maybe we ought to just put in a request to think about doing a planning assessment of what we would do how we a new building yeah and you don't have to go and build it you don't have to borrow the money but at least you could start the footwork where you're planning out what might be the best choice and what size of building might be and where it might be located and and that's not going to cost us a million dollars to do and we could probably use some market money to do that yes even if it's so I would suggest that we thought the surveys would yeah at least those two things yeah okay okay but I'm just saying that if we want to make some repairs on this building we have some money budget right if we want to think about this the worst thing about this building is there's not enough room we can't overcome that right and this flooring here creates a really bad back problem for me but um it's been decided over the years that this building would eventually move to the historical society right and we would build a new building yeah so we've already kind of made that decision so we haven't decided how big the building should be or any such thing of course but um we wouldn't mind if I just to go out and get some further yeah and what's but what's so would you mind having Gina fill out that survey for the CIC I think these two projects should carry into this year but we need to do something yes in all fairness with COVID and whatnot there's reasons why this fell to the wayside so I think now though we could put a little effort into doing to your point some studies and but the thing is that if we're going to spend our money on a project or two we wanted to what Judith has said and the people have said we want to put it up to voters on what to do with the money but we're not clear on the delineation of the money where we can spend it we're still not clear right so anyway doing this study or plan for those two projects okay we good we good okay so the next item is preview of 2022-23 property tax rates oh yeah it's not somewhere yep so I've updated the tax rate calculation based on the latest brand list and rates that we've received from the school for the schools yeah so essentially the overall I mean I've given some specifics the the rates homestead and non homestead decreased for the school tax rate and then likewise as well for the overall calculated tax rates we've gone down for homestead 3.8 percent and then for non homestead 2.4 percent and then we will continue we will reevaluate I will reevaluate these calculations again once as the enlisters are still working through specifics of the grand list and we'll present to you rates that will hopefully be set at the august first meeting yep and because you're going to play off the budget too money that you need yeah then it's updated with the current yeah right for correct how's Ross last I've heard he is recovering so what's wrong with Ross I hadn't heard that we can talk about it later that's fine yeah okay okay so that sounds good on the property actually anybody have any questions on that no consideration v-trans fy 2023 better roads great I've received the grant agreement for the $56,000 to replace the culvert on cherry tree hill road yep so really just seeking the board's approval for chair Gardner to uh or well really no I'm sorry the board to authorize me I think I'm the one that can yeah I think I'll sign this yes I'm sorry to offer any emotion to authorize you to sign that correct I'm Guthrie and I actually went out on Thursday and drove kind of all the construction that's underway which we'll get into the next one the next next agenda item but so we looked at these culverts so so it's how much is the grant for 56 so and we just need a motion to have Gina sign that so move you just made it who's who made the second John John made the second all the favor please say aye aye aye the eyes clear to have this you have it the dean has to sign that great um where can I ask you one question before we move on where is where is where is it a quicker road just around the corner no I think it's the one that's near the trailhead parking oh it's that one it's that one it's the one that's near the trailhead parking it's not the one at the bottom of the building it's it's the one that's up the hill yeah I do this yeah by the side water there off the water yeah there's a lot of water there yeah so right there right there the depth on the last when you go to quaker and let the cherry tree no you go up your own cherry tree road and then you go to the big depth yeah you go up the top of the hill yeah I'll quaker yes if you made a left on cherry tree yeah yeah you go through the big depth start coming back up and you know how you have the trailhead parking there right on the right yeah at that point it's right right before the trailhead for oh yeah right this is so much water yeah wicked so they're gonna put it up you just hear the water well they're gonna put in a bigger culvert says they're rusted out it's too far yeah I don't know how big it's gonna be all right what it is yeah okay so now the next thing is the county road project yes so so is that are they doing that right now they started today I haven't driven over there but yes so pike was on site starting today yeah and they are starting to reclaim their pavement so yeah so it will become gravel yeah at some point here very soon and it will remain gravel until late august yeah to allow time for the culvert work yeah to be completed we don't yet have the finalized schedule for the culvert work partly because blue mountain is trying to figure out the timing very specifically they're trying we're trying to minimize the road closure as much as possible so they're trying to stage the work so that they can kind of take each area down separately so we don't have two sections of the road closed at the same time it's not closed it will not be closed at all until the culvert work because okay good and I just and just so the board knows I'm using front porch forum as a means to communicate yeah to to the town so I did put a post last week to let everyone know this was coming so it's uh like I said I'll probably make a run out there at some point this week take a look but but yeah it's um it's going to become gravel the other piece I wanted to go over with you is I did receive the updated quote from pike for all the paving work um and it is as you would expect higher than than anything you've seen previously so the latest update that um that I had from Bruce it was at a 986 986 thousand for their their quote it's now at a million fifty six a million fifty seven if I round um the original quote just to give you a frame of reference from I found the date of May 24th of 2021 with 793,000 so we're 263,000 up from the original for this project oil just went down so it oiled to go down a little bit yes I'm in close contact with Tyson with pike um so you know obviously you know but it we'll see what where the numbers are we could be a little less than this that's his hope as well yeah because the prices have dropped a little bit right but he did send me the history of it's it's pretty amazing when you see what's what's happened to the to the prices um oh yeah great this year so um but I just wanted so I'm gonna be digging into this project a lot more um to to really get a handle on on the cost and kind of what has been spent today everything in our general ledger it's it's there's a lot of costs that kind of go into one fund and I think some people knew in their head where things were well I need to dig into the invoices and actually know what we've spent a date on this project and kind of where we're going but um really pike is the only number from any update you guys have seen that's really has changed yeah they're the ones so dependent on the culvert going to be what culverts already have been purchased yeah right yeah okay okay and yeah here's what it is yeah it is what it is but we certainly want to get a handle again oh yeah we should be I mean it's a million bucks yeah and the state's paying part of that yeah we do have some grants yeah yeah yeah we have about I think we have about 300,000 in grants to help cover culvert work yeah yeah yeah cover them both yeah because we have a paving grant and a culvert correct yeah okay um so that's it on your yes so I can move to the next item discussion on talent management in 2019 we're at low cases have continued to drop so yeah I was hearing today about the new variant in health they're worried about it well because vaccines are not effective or they're not sure that's what they were saying about and then by the time you get another vaccine for the new variant you're already behind the eight ball because a new variants come along it's kind of interesting yeah it's kind of scary kind of scary it's just keeps going around and everyone's like you know heck with it you know they're sick of it and so you know very few people mask some do but it was it was an interesting report okay so that's it so the next thing is the access permits yes we have two access permits these are all both related to an approved subdivision on Wheeler Road that was recently approved yeah called the kitchen sink yeah subdivision um road foreman Perry has already approved both of the curb cuts so given that we only have two members here I think if the board is comfortable with approving these curb cuts but they're essentially right in line with what the subdivision that was recently approved yeah are so this is just the next step in that process right so you're just that I think that only one of us has to sign it if the board can pass the motion correct and then I would like to add if possible 22 0 4 1 that's the um common line sun sub the curb cut or access oh you mean up on trailer yeah up on yeah we I thought we did a lot you did I forgot to get you guys to sign it oh rookie mistake so if we could just add to this motion for to authorize your gardener to sign that then I can mail them their actual is this the other one I've already there's two here I provided the two I didn't provide this one but what's the name of this one it's uh the Harry's son yeah it's the Harry's son Kyle common line yeah it's on uh sweat row row this is where um yeah remember it's where Kyle wanted to um say certain things about digging across the road right remember that yeah right yeah add in language but yeah it was really unnecessary because the utility has their own requirements anyway yeah yeah we did vote on it last week we did we voted on last week so I guess if you want if we want to make a motion this says I can sign on those three yes so so these kitchen sink holding and there's two of them they're both the same both the same it's two different it's yes it's both under the same name because it's all connected to the kitchen sink holding subdivision so wait a minute just out of curiosity so they're making two access this is two curve cuts yes on wheel road yes was there a map included I didn't see a map with the app um there wasn't with this um because not with the access I think because it was all the next step in the subdivision my guess is it's probably with the with the subdivision paperwork but I yeah usually they submit it with the access permit application because yeah I think Bruce was handling all of these and kind of passes over to me in the in the transition so yeah these did not have have that information okay um so just out of curiosity there was already an access permit there for samples on trailers or was that never he never had an access permit there probably is that going through this you don't know because you don't know the history of it I don't know there's a big history there yeah yeah and it joins my one of my friends on the back so I got the information in the mail which I didn't open it so I probably have a map home actually so it does say this sketch drawings have to be included with this is there is no sketch here no sketch so what do you think I mean and then the mailing address is 438 gallas and hill road that's where the guy must fit right right oh okay and this is this is on uh school house road is 790 feet to school house road and the other one's on 1050 feet school house road so yeah but see you know what it is right but got three is building right there here you said all the same all the same so modeling okay there's a cemetery in between it the old cemetery's got three is building on one side of it and then that access must be on the other side which is where samples was was but got sold to this place and that's where those trailers are parked that um the guy at the end of the road had all the problem with the town court on environmental court yeah what's his name on the end of the road it's a pilot he's not happy with the town so yeah but anyway so those trailers are there or they were there but I wondered where the access permit was but the access is there must be right here it's got it so that we did that was three three accesses there eventually well I don't know whether that was ever a permitted access for samples on in his trailers oh yeah I know he might just just he just practically used it yeah um I don't know because everybody feel comfortable voting on this well if Guthrie looked at it I'm fine with it yeah yeah Guthrie's fine with it I'm fine with it yeah okay I know where it is there's no traffic on the road that's the thing yeah he was well versed on this because I think he was involved in the well he's like he lives next door he was involved in the DRB part of this as well yeah yeah and then it rolled a dead end and what's his name it's like right beyond that the road forks will go to a strike this school road takes a left so you so um we would approve this we would vote to approve to approve this yes um that'd be so I make a motion that we approve the access curb cut applications for kitchen holdings um for the site to 709 feet to school outthrowed and the other one which is 438 well excuse me which is 1050 feet to school outthrowed yes it's further down right yeah but you just we want to make sure that we have those numbers in there just so well you just put the numbers from the access well access permits 128 access permits 128 no it's true there's 28 and 29 yeah 26 and I had 22026 and 22027 26 and 27 oh okay that's right there yep 20 yeah 026 and 027 so that's where you're approved okay so we're going to put the access permits number 22026 and 22-027 um for curb cuts uh to uh kitchen sink holdings LLC yeah but the thing is you have to have some one of the site and have um chick with a BU or chair chair niger sign it and what's the other one and then zero four one and the name on that is comline kom lin and son son that was already been approved yes that was approved by motion but now we're really just authorizing him to sign this is a chair gardener to sign cool that's a tough one I hope you got it all worth it okay well thank you so that's so and I'll sign that do we have a second I'm sorry okay that's okay uh all those in favor please say hi sorry it's okay it's not very clean what she'll feed you that yeah well anyway this has done it's close enough yeah thank you good okay the next thing we have the warrants um which I can pass right yeah I haven't seen them yeah I've got them right here and I look there is a stand on the website no I didn't mean for those that are physically I usually go on for the meeting and look at it I didn't think I looked at other stuff like the town plan stuff later or not so the sand the sand all that time right from La Pages so it's in yeah taken out the right project for 2022 the sand I see there the angle is a thousand bucks for water what is what's the front post of $5059 to Fairfield that's for the repairs of the Mack truck it looks like okay it's a post piece of machinery in the front of the truck okay yes that's probably the one those parts were delivered on Thursday yeah they were delivered on Thursday the comment from the front office was Guthrie you got some heavy stuff delivered to the office yeah too heavy box it was heavy it was pretty heavy but that's the stuff that can kill your budget too yes all of a sudden you know it might have been three thousand a year ago now it's fine yeah that's right this what's happening to us too it's like oh oh nice so that money went back to the state that's the money from senior pines yes that's the annual payment correct yeah any other questions keep it keep it no no i'm not going to keep it i know how you are 7-11 right i didn't buy it to 7-11 what's that oh never mind 7-11 is a day and given that we don't have three board members here we would need a motion to authorize chair gardener to sign oh that's right we don't yeah thank i already signed it but i was just doing that yeah i would move to authorize chair gardener to sign the war on behalf of the select board second all those in favor please say aye aye so you you don't have to sign okay so what's the next thing personnel matters we're getting here well we have permit applications report so we've issued five new application or no we've received five new applications and i just want to point out that one of these permits was actually issued by the new running administrator so all right wow five and one of the people and he got to do it on one of my permits so and one of the people who got a a permit was um is a a uh what do you call it uh environmental permits coordinator for the state over in berry and in st john's very worst of both places oh cool yeah nice you might know him judas peter okay yeah i'm not seeing the name oh yeah it's the third one twenty two zero four seven yeah okay i didn't know he lived in town that's pretty cool the three three people with some sort of connections to to the town into well to the town obviously into into anyway government work so is there anything else that we have to go over with we just have our meeting schedule yep and that's all i see that's it yeah next we would go into personnel yeah so we could tell um i don't know if we need executive session for all um i don't know if you want to just peek at the i'm looking at memo i don't okay so as far as municipal systems all that doesn't have to be an executive session does it no i don't think so we can talk about the hours um and then i have what about the zoni administrator so for the zoning administrator um so to give you all a little additional background the previous ta slash zea um had a town issued cell phone we no longer we close that portion of the account yep so the current zea tyson um will regularly regularly conduct business on his cell phone so i'm requesting that we it's around 42 a month um for us to issue a cell phone but because he already has one um the preference is for him to maintain his own yeah um so his phone number is actually on the website um he actually asked me to do that because he wanted people to have his cell phone so i'm asking the board to authorize a 40 mobile site then can we can we talk about the use of a separate cell phone versus him using his personal cell phone because his communications in his capacity as a zea are all public versus his private communications aren't and it might be easier to maintain that distinction by having separate cell phones yeah almost all state employees have a separate cell phone like i can't you know i always use my work cell phone when doing work business um because any and everything you know i might do is all it can be public so i think it might get um how do they track the public use of that phone i'm just curious because a lot of corporations have gone away from the dual phones because there's outlook apps that are on the phone you're not actually so i don't know how yeah it's just you know a number of public employees have gotten in trouble not trouble but the state has gotten in trouble because there have been conversations state related or public conversations started started on private cell phones that the person thought were private but in fact were public and to maintain that distinction the state at least has made the determination that it's better to separate the two and to always have no i don't understand what happens that they go into discovery mode somebody's getting sued is an issue they can the attorneys can ask for that cell the cell phones and they're not going to pick out what's public and what's private they're taking an old cell phone they're taking all the call off yeah and and all of his communications should be you know all of his communications are public record so i know but if the calls aren't being recorded i guess that's what i'm trying to figure out what the what the benefit is to that um i know for me personally i mean i haven't asked for a company phone i mean my cell phone number will likewise go on it won't go on the website but i don't personally want to have two phones um yeah and tyson and i did discuss this and this was his preference as well but does he understand that some of the conversations will be public is what you're saying i know but are we recording so is the state recording all calls that go into those text messages are right in there too yeah text messages emails anything on your phone emails again go through an outlook app that's not connected to a cell phone anymore at least for us the state may operate differently i have an outlook app on my personal phone that's how all corporations microsoft 365 you can download an outlook app onto your phone the emails are in our server they are in no way connected to my phone through the microsoft 365 outlook app you're not actually logging into exchange anymore the old school way this is the new way of of doing things this is how a lot of corporations because corporations likewise get phone records subpoenaed and corporations have moved away from this with microsoft 365 was really the game changer for that and stopped issuing secondary cell phones what's the danger though i mean if your phone is you understand this is going to be public is what you're saying right the cell phone because he's using it for town business all those conversations have to be public knowledge and we don't know the difference between the town business and his personal business he actually has two numbers connected he has a google phone number that's set up that is an 802 number that's going into that phone that is separate from his personal number the number that is on the website is not his personal phone oh okay yeah well that's okay he has a separate number that's his professional cell number that's different from his personal cell number yes okay all right that's different than what was being described or what i heard right it's a different no that's fine yeah it's he did that because his personal number is not an 802 right so he wanted to be an 802 number so that's why he did that so the number that we're actually publishing is the 802 so that might be as should be fine i think that's perfect and i can tell you that other towns are doing this because i didn't think of that i thought it was well it's the same phone yeah it is a separate number um but but yeah and i can tell you other phone other towns are doing this this question did recently come up in one of the listeners ironically enough connected to his owning administrator position because towns are starting to issue it sounds like do this this mobile stipend option yeah that sounds great perfect but yes he does have an 802 number i'm sorry that is separate it's just he is using his personal phone but it is yeah right and i mean i could likewise do the same thing it's just my number doesn't need to be as publicly out there as as his does yeah understood yeah that makes common sense to me i mean i won't vote on whether to give him the 40 bucks i'll recuse myself of course but but i think we should make the motion to give him the $40 for the stipend right he has a question yeah no i'm just why are you recusing i'm sorry we've he's already been he's now the no but i mean it looks like if i'm trying to steer money towards somebody i know then i would recuse myself for that vote and so so someone says oh you're giving him 40 bucks you know that person right well whenever you sign the payroll i mean yeah what where how do you draw a distinction i'm just not okay this was my proposal my idea so it's already mine i'll tell you that yeah you know and i was just trying to duplicate you know or come close so $40 seemed fair to me um yeah now i'd move for approving that or authorizing that so we should have a motion i'll second it all those in favor please say hi hi okay so okay so the question was do we have to go into executive session i mean unless you want to discuss a municipal assistant position well i think there are some other topics that may executive session but not not this one we can talk about municipal assistant stuff right now right without going into executive i mean i i read the the memo it's just general information about the process of hiring the new denny's i mean i have some questions about it but i don't think that may explain exactly session okay um i agree yeah okay okay let's chat yeah let's chat um so what are you thinking we we've got to hire somebody how many hours a week i mean i'm in discussion with both the current municipal assistant and the town clerk yeah and the treasurer yeah i think we need to replace the position as is which is a full time position and not not fold in other duties with that because i know that that was kind of being bandied around a little bit before but first going to do it's it's kind of confusing to me what some of the previous conversations have been because i understand there were conversations in the fall that essentially kept the staff that we have in place today the the proposal that was put forth was a full-time ta a part-time za a full-time treasurer full-time municipal assistant and a full-time town clerk i don't know where the secondary conversations went when it was then that bruce would not continue as ta and potentially becomes ea and then obviously that didn't happen but you know um it looks like now that that's my question is a little bit redundant because we've hired people in exactly the same capacity as they were we were talking before about reconfiguring things a little bit but it seems like we probably don't need to now because we have everybody we need we found a treasurer we found a i mean i think we were thinking that maybe the new assistant would do some of the treasury work or something which i'm sure he or she will probably still be doing but you know to the same extent that denise does i mean there's enough work to keep them all busy yes there is there's more i would like to leverage that position more than that has been thus far there's a lot of administrative tasks being done by the ta being done by the za that we could leverage that position a little bit more to do especially if we got a skill set and when you see in the job description i would love to get somebody who would have the capacity to update the website that actually takes a fair amount of time and i am the one doing that um so it would be great to to seek some skill set to be able to take some of that workload off of right i mean i think what was going on is bruce is doing a lot of hours and so now we're breaking up that position and putting forth more people dividing it he was doing more things he'd like to he'd like to do the website pretty well yeah he did yeah but in all honesty i mean i i don't want to you know he had asked me if i was going to have there's there are a lot of things i have to do for the za that need to go on the website um and i right now i'm doing those things for tyson mostly because frankly the website is cumbersome to update it's very easy to make a mistake and it is not something you want to make a mistake on yeah so i do not want multiple people updating the website so it needs to be one person yeah so right now that's me there's no one else that can do that so yeah if we can get that skill set it would certainly help yeah and yes to your point i think there are some things you know i think there were some things that the previous ta like to do like to kind of maintain control of i'm trying to relinquish and focus on some other things that weren't being focused on at that time as well so right and then also i mean the front desk can get very busy yeah friday it was practically an open door for from nine to twelve when we were open it was in for some reason mondays and fridays are really bad but friday was was kind of funny not in the hallway because they were both quite stressed because they couldn't get anything else done because it was just constant flow of people coming in here well you know we're not we're not in the office so it's hard for us to really assess what's going on i think that you're in a position where you can figure out what we need so we don't really know i mean bruise is doing a lot of work we know that um how would you want to make changes description and the recommended minimum minimum qualifications and knowledge and skills well we already we already have this isn't amended this is not the original this is a revised municipal assistant job description it is much more robust than what is existing today okay you know whether we get someone with the skills or a computer perspective to do website and things like that will remain to be seen um but frankly i mean the the pay rate will also be adjusted based on you know what we may or may not find i mean we're looking for the right person going to look for that right fit so where you have education and experience you have associates degree or high school diploma gd and two years um they're not you know those associates degree has two more years added to high school or gd so i'm just wondering why it's yeah this is how the current one is worded so i copied what was existing today um you would probably do a different level of experience for the socialist degree and more um experience time for the for the high school diploma gd that's what i would say if somebody came here with a with a a two-year socialist degree in computer sciences you wouldn't expect them to have to have the same amount of experience as somebody which is a high school diploma yeah i think the way this is supposed to read and the other one was worded weirdly too and i wasn't sure how to word this i think it's intended to be associates degree or high school diploma and two years so it's high school diploma is connected to the two years exactly so yeah it's it was oddly worded before but i i that one thing i thought of doing was associates degree or and then maybe moving the high school diploma gd down to a separate bullet i don't know do you guys think that makes more sense okay or start with high school diploma gd and two years experience level or associates degree good idea yep yep okay i will make that revision and where are you gonna um put this rosie and i have discussed that we would start with i don't we both agree we don't really want to go an indeed route right off the bat because you just get a whole bunch of people that are not really fit for the position so there are a whole bunch of lists are muni net um rosie would put it on the town clerk there's likely even a town treasurer because you know anybody but these skill sets could be crossing all of that we would go with vlct um probably put it on front porch warm too yeah yeah um for sure that's going to be here yeah would love it if there's someone in the community that it's a good job we're fun it's a good place to work i've always said that okay so the question is we should probably start advertising that's what i'm asking if the board would authorize me to start for rosie and i and michelle will get together then and get this posted out there and uh go for it yeah all right yeah yep and rosie thinks there's enough work okay rosie at the mention of this position going anything less than part time was very visibly concerned so okay yeah because we're bumping up of course our salaries in the town office significantly yes uh that was our concern i think you know cleaning up to this point right but it looks like that's what we're gonna have to i mean one thing about spreading all the duties among a bunch of people is it's less than the risk if someone leaves right kind of where we were kind of stuck between a rock and hard place before is that everything was centered in one person you're like oh oh oh oh if that person leaves were in trouble this way you know you're less vulnerable to that well my management style in general is very much not that so yeah but you're you're good at um assigning duties outside your realm keeping your realm relatively small and having everyone have their own little things to do which means oh one person leaves not such a big deal much much much easier to replace someone when they don't have everything to do so no no we're not trying to do that but people leave for different reasons so i guess that's where we're at it just bumps up the salary and it makes the town office a little more crowded because more people and of course that's one of the reasons we have to think about a new building because it's too small so so approved by consensus is appropriate as far as the advertising goes i would think so yeah yeah yeah sure do us proud okay so is there anything else you need to talk about as far as that position goes okay yeah sounds good the only other piece that's on here that i think is certainly appropriate for um open session is a retirement celebration for denise and for don um just requesting the board rosie and i've just been talking about what to do and um potentially something for late august it will be after denise actually leaves only because denise is leaving right as we're getting through the election so we just yeah between the audit between the election just yeah no one has time i mean we focus needs to be on the work not yeah on party planning not trying to sound it all sounds good but um but yeah just wondering if the board would just authorize a you know a word we have no way we're not looking to spend we're just thinking if we can get some mild light catering and we're thinking of some kind of picnic type you know something very casual and just fun but an opportunity to thank these individuals and so 500 bucks is reasonable fine try to find a date yeah exactly and uh that it's certainly fine with me i don't know about everybody else but i would think so sounds good yeah yeah it's appropriate it's too bad that bruce is not gonna want to participate in something like that but that's the way it goes yeah yeah but i know that don and denise because i appreciate it yeah yeah so i don't think any of that needs to go to the next recession and anything else not for this one if you want to go into executives there's just a couple things yeah okay just some feedback on the transition yeah okay so we'll do it so we need to go to the executive session under you know the appropriate vsa we want three a three close enough you're gonna do it let's see accept okay you all may do that something make a motion we go into executive session talk about um personal matters personal feedback um in the exception what vsa 313 a three yeah okay close enough we have a second uh do the second all those in favor please say hi hi so we're out of the executive session oh is your recorder on okay we're out of the executive executive session no action taken that's it the main motion we adjourn oh okay that's the next step uh all those in favor please say hi hi