 here it is 6.15 and we'll open up this select board meeting the town of Rochester on January 10th and I'll confirm that we posted the agenda in three places and I saw it on the website and emailed to interested parties so we can move ahead with this meeting. We'll have opportunities for public comment after we deal with the business on the agenda and limit the commentary to five minutes per issue so start off with the minutes from the December 27th meeting. Does anyone have any modifications or changes with those? Nope. I did not. I did not. So I'd move to approve the minutes as presented. Second. All in favor? All right. Okay. Got that. And we have in the first item on the new business is we have some of the library trustees here to discuss concerns that they have. So take it away. Hi everyone. Thank you for having us tonight. I'm Kelly Kelly. I'm chair of the board of trustees and just a couple of things that we wanted to address tonight if we could. There are some issues at the library as far as building maintenance and so we were as trustees we are just wondering what is our role in getting things done as far as the building reserve fund is concerned and how does that work? Well there is it's interesting we're looking through minutes from a special town meeting on June 26th that was addressing some of the issues at the library and it definitely authorized the public library board to establish and manage a reserve account for restoration and preservation of the library building so that was that was new. I know we've been leaning on the the main well the town reserve fund for building maintenance and we definitely have it's we there's not enough money to go around put it that way. So it's definitely on you know it's on our radar the the issues that come up trying to you know get the library painted and I guess a bigger issue now is the the water penetration through the siding which is probably contributing to the lack of holding paint but the process of getting in line for that is I mean well you do it quite well by showing up at the meetings and reminding us to do that. Basically we're we're trying to tend to the put the biggest fires out first you know I don't know do you guys have any comments? The document we're referring to is June 26th 2006. Yes that was a special town meeting in June and it puts the building as a municipal library but that's the the building itself is under the charge of the trustees so in the past they've always gone to the voters for money so as far as authoring use of the of the town funds that we have and reserve would have to go through the voters any money we put in there as far as I can tell. So what I've read in the past and what has happened in the past when they've done renovations on the property has been all through the voters. We bonded it back in 13 I think to do the work on the inside and we're still paying on that bond at a roughly about 13,000 a year so I would suggest to the trustees at least as I look at this that they seek grants and if there's a matching system on that to come to the town to support the matching part of that grant and to look for for a grant writer to get money to fix the building and that's the way I think I would approach that because we're the town's really not going to have any money to do that with I don't foresee that being a an issue that we're going to have but the library would be on the low part of the scale as far as budgetary concerns are you know it's just really going to happen like that so that that would be my suggestion my understanding correct me if I'm wrong because this happened I think before I came on the board was that there used to be a library reserve fund but then it got scooped up by the town reserve fund building reserve fund is that true I don't believe so this I don't know about that being scooped up by the town reserve fund maybe I misunderstood something I heard in the past then we also we have Jeanette with her hand up okay Jeanette you want to think up well yes um back in 2006 that special town meeting did indeed create the library building reserve fund it was specified however in that article that it would be funded by the proceeds of our 2005 6th annual appeal letter that money has been spent and then a few years ago the town combined the library building reserve fund into the other town building reserve funds so any funds that were in there you know were combined into one so we in effect lost our separate building reserve fund now I mean if the select board would like to you know re authorize that old library building reserve fund into a separate one I don't know if that would there would be objections to that but clearly there would have to be an article to fund that separate library building reserve fund you know their four town meeting and adequate funds put into there to take care of the building or I do not know of any grant that are out there available for this town building what came of the investigation of the folks that you were meeting with about the preservation of historic buildings that was well I followed up with her and she said this was not would not be a funded project that it was inappropriate for the funds that they had available so there are grants out there to explore though I don't know if there's there's no grants that would be appropriate for that that building but I guess the if we were to going back to the topic of the library having its own reserve fund that this initially it was funded by the fundraiser by the library itself not at least the one in the 2006 that was not a separate article of money from the town that was from the library's capital yes and some capital subsequent to that there was separate articles to fund the library building reserve account so what are you what are you pointing at there frank just this is a what the sweatboard letter said here about when they did the renovation and thanking the people that donated to the community added voter approval for the bond issue when they regarding that the the major bond for the big project yeah yeah so there's there's no question that there's money needed for the library building for this building for the town garage and I guess the basic question that we started was how do you get in line for the town building reserve funds which basically the the amount of money that's in there is is is really minimal yeah it's it's for patches you know I mean we did deal with the chimney on this building which was really a liability because that was about ready to start peeling bricks off and dumping on people's heads so really the for did that an investigation of the the sighting on the library has that gone any farther in terms of determining what um what a proposed fix would be for that or is that that taking that step yet not yet I'm still waiting to hear back from Jim about whether he would undertake that project yeah well the first step I believe was just to open it up enough to get an idea of what that project would would actually mean to see right that's what I'm waiting to hear back from Jim whether he would do that evaluation okay yeah and that's um did he have a price tag on that I'm still waiting to hear back whether he take it on and at what cost um and I'll get back with you when I hear that but I mean it's uh it's a it's a concern now the um I think another question that you had was um why you were asked to go to a petition to increase the appropriation for the library this year and that's basically the process we take that if there's an increase in an appropriation it goes to the petition and it's I don't see it as a real hardship back a couple years ago and the library was folded into the main budget and the select board had control of the budget and we chose to modify it a little bit to try and balance the budget then the library created a petition at that point to get that money back that that we had taken out of the budget so it's it's not a unfamiliar process to to run a petition to I guess our question was that it um the thing that Julie sent me which I appreciate her sending me it said that we were um it was for outside social service organizations that was how is it it was explained that um those people would need a petition to get an article and we're not an outside social service organization so I don't think that is the actual answer to the question of why do we have to do the petition is that the answer to the question is because the appropriation was more than it was last year yeah if we had level funded we wouldn't have had to do a petition correct which I think is what happened last year right we level funded for the last three years you're right right and then there was no petition involved yeah um yeah because this was just kind of um sprung on us later in the game we were able to do it obviously I'm sure right jenna there were enough signatures to get yeah yeah I was yeah it shouldn't be that that hard okay I guess it was um not I guess not knowing what the ask was from the library until that's when it triggered that for the petition yeah we go ahead what was the purpose of that is there a purpose to it the purpose of it is just to um for transparency and awareness so people you know have um you know just to show support you know but isn't the amount that we asked for in the article I mean that's people are going to say they're going to vote yes or no I mean that's they can look back in their last report and see that the amount has gone up we even are saying that in our um you know in our blurb that we're putting in the John report this year so but if that's something that we know that we'll have to do every if and when again we raise the budget we'll have to do a petition is that a the way that the structured now or yeah okay yeah okay let me ask a quick question yeah go ahead I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt am I understanding correctly that that this year's ballot will include a separate funding request from the library or is that going to be included did I misunderstand uh no it's the um the library the request of the life it's not a separate one it's just a a change in what they're asking from last year okay but it'll be include so then but that request will be included in the overall request of for for the building and not a separate item that's one request one request for the channel not for the library specifically no there is a separate article for the library separated out a couple years ago just to um just to have more clarity and so it wasn't just swept along with everything else okay okay I got confused I'm sorry yeah so there will be a separate item for the request from the library on town meeting the town meeting um okay thank you that's the way it's been for the last several years right exactly that's what I thought I did I was confused it sounded almost like it was changing I'm sorry which I I think actually does end up in in generating um some recognition and support for the library as opposed to it right swept along with everything else in the big big budget yeah okay um and then one final thing please um the two parking spaces in front of the library can that please be plowed out by the town crew um it seems like they they plow in front of the federated church and along you know that west side of route 100 um it's just kind of a little too much for a shoveler to be doing just the part you know down by the road not our our walkway or anything we we have somebody doing that but just not the state uh no they wouldn't plow that far Patty the the problem is the state the state plow comes by and completely fills those two parking spaces with a wall of snow which is too much snow for one guy with a shovel to then remove that when the town plow comes through town moving other piles of snow out of parking spaces they generally do the ones for example like Kelly said in front of the federated church but they don't come down and clear the ones in front of the town library and we're asking for the select board to to remind the town road crew that they need to make sure those two parking spaces are cleared of the snow left by the state plow who plows the pier so where do they put that snow where does the snow you got to push it over and push it down between uh here's Holland Crocs it's the only place you can go with it there's no other place it goes no so most of that's on frox land because they barely have enough no it's all where they put it all on i know the trees are on frox land right land what that the trees are on frox land correct and but if you look where they plow then it's it's really tight right right it's sorry because otherwise you gotta try pushing that through so yeah just removing picking up and removing the snow is it's hard to stand put it in here you got it you got it right you'd almost have to plow that whole section in front of the all the way to the church yeah in front of the patch pumpkin there right you can't really leave it there no you can't all right yeah we've been talking with the road crew about um taking care of some of the piles and in the village so definitely talking about that and it has been raised that uh john is willing to help out so yeah so we'll just get that on it right now but it's a it's not going to be a high priority job but the library certainly would be uh something that they do great thank you so you think it's gonna snow still if we're if we plan for it then yeah all right yeah yeah let's plan for it okay i think that's do you have anything else tell me no thank you all right yeah thank you what we want to talk about you're working on the board appreciate it thank you so the next item on the agenda is the highway mileage report for this year all right which is where is that last page here and where is this from dune where did it come from this is this is every year we have to submit this to the state just the okay the how much how many miles of which type of road we have right right as part of the funding you know the support from the state so as of in this report in class one roads um we have zero mileage because um route 100 and and route 73 are state responsibilities are not ours class two roads we've got uh 12.24 miles class three roads we've got 30 38.67 miles and the state highway is 17.135 miles so and we have 6.85 miles of um legal trails and 7.96 miles of class four road so i've moved to approve and then sign this get this back to the state so we're in good compliance second oh favor hi okay also the town clerk you've got to sign that too right yeah thank you so much i was looking at that i don't think there's anything else you have to do with the sign yeah all right now we have um speaking of roads we have a discussion about the um there's been a request for clarification of the legal trail between jerusalem and south hollow roads there is um party that's interested in purchasing um spot there and that that legal trail travels right through the property they're um they're looking at purchasing and their question is whether they can improve that legal trail to utilize it as access to uh possible home site their possible driveway and i um the little bit of research that i've been doing i i think that it is totally um totally acceptable and that's one of the reasons that we hold on to these class four roads and legal trails for um future options be it um residential or recreational i i have a reservation i don't know how the landowners that this affects have any say on this you know i mean i understand the the issue of want the guy wanting to come in that way um he certainly has two other access points on his property that he couldn't utilize but they're not very uh environmentally friendly i guess it's a way to what other i know he meets sun route 100 down on that but the class four road hits on his property on jerusalem too i was looking at the map in the office the other day and i was seeing that it was tight but that still is a pretty monstrous hill you'd have to climb to get up there but yeah i think the question was that once whether it was from jerusalem or from the top um that they would have permission to improve that to to keep the truck moving you know so to use it as a access to drive but i would think that i i don't know he did not specify a housing site like whether it would be right on that road i would think not i think probably would utilize a legal trial and then cut in somewhere on that would um that also splits another property too right is that correct how do you mean there's another property in between him and there is there another it's a map right there that comes up through there it's a very odd shaped log well who owns the green and before him um from above well between larry strauss's and from south hall and uh yeah from south hall lane is that i think it goes right to larry's yeah i think it i'm pretty sure it's not all this is all larry's land in between there well it doesn't um yeah it doesn't have the other doesn't have the other plot lines but i'm i'm pretty sure that larry's yeah larry's got his hand up there yeah yeah i got the see but this is where so the sand is on the beach right the sand is the sand this that's what i thought pasquale owned it between you and there but i wasn't sure uh we you know the problem go ahead larry yeah is there anyone on the meeting tonight representing the the purchaser nope i don't think so anybody on zoom maybe doesn't look like it larry um yeah so um you know i i i kind of echo a little bit i mean first of all um you know i certainly would love to see a single house on 700 acres you know i mean that seems like a pretty good neighbor to me um but um i mean frank does raise an interesting question of you know is that the i mean it is you know is that the right use for a legal trail um i mean i just were i what i might refer you to the town plan which which says in you know section uh under transportation um class four roads and trails section b trails are used exclusively for recreational purposes and are not intended for vehicle access therefore they are not maintained um so i mean i you know i i mean i'm not i'm not i'm not presenting that to you know because i'm opposed to this i'm you know i'm but there are there are things to think about um and i it also was unclear to me from their map whether their property actually abuts uh the class three or class four road on the Jerusalem hand um and certainly the lot is not landlocked they they do front route 100 um so it might not be their choice access but i don't know that the town is obligated to give them a convenient access my my other thought on this larry was simply uh if if we viewed this as a driveway that we're putting ourselves in a box here by limiting DeSantis if DeSantis comes out and wants to join in on this let's say um down the road or whatever then we've you know we'd be better off if we created it coming that way to be a road not just a driveway well it would still be a trail right if he improves it to be used as a driveway still is a town legal trail it still would be a trail but my concern would be you know future down the road for development or whatever because DeSantis has a very large chunk there too and my concern is he's he would be the landowner that would benefit the most by making an upgrade to that trail so i mean so you know there's i mean it just depends on i mean i think the current request is just to allow improvement and um and allow him to travel along the legal trail and branch off to a true driveway somewhere um we don't know where right um and uh not to reclassify the legal trail in any sense um and you know the the the the problem is you know what is the purpose of a legal trail designation i mean legal trails are defined in statute as legal trails are not highways that that's what the that's what the vermont statue says so um you know it it it you know and then there's a second part to his question is what about further subdivision of his property right that that becomes even more legally nuanced um whether he can then you know i'm not an attorney and these are real technical legal questions you know and and and it really then jumps into the planning boards court um you know can you call the legal trail frontage as a road right for more than one lot i mean the big lot has frontage on route 100 that's clear um but if you subdivide can you call frontage on the legal trail road frontage for a second lot right i mean i'm not pretending to know the answer well the the theory behind that larry is you just deed yourself a 30 foot right away whether you use it or not is not apparent if you know it doesn't matter pat yeah you need yourself a right away to what you're to still not fronting on a highway right it doesn't have to legal trails are not highway right but if you deed a 30 foot right away regardless you have you have the right mean all the way down to route 100 yeah you could do that yeah i don't i guess they they could do that you know i mean you don't have to use it if you have an access to your property but you in order to split it off you could grant a use of a driveway off any road as long as they had a 30 foot right away whether they use it or not yeah and not having that's true if if the town is going to allow this to be their driveway and that's the question right yeah and not having the purchaser perspective purchaser here we don't know i mean they could split it and have one entrance off a route 100 down there and then keep the uh their driveway off the legal trail on the upper part who we don't know how they're planning on on splitting that if they are pat you had something to say the subdivision is a conversation down the road it's not the conversation that should be on this table right now he would be entitled well he asked both what he asked both the answer would be the subdivision is is a whole different department a whole different discussion so um he can i believe he can do two dwellings on one parcel so he could build two houses under the current not under the current zoning rules he can but we have we have a precedence in place not to even bring up pine gap but to um brad leathers uh took a trail improved it to make a driveway access to his house and it continues to be a trail and it continues to be used for recreational purposes um more recently jim bean on um tunnel brook improved the access to his house and um he now drives up to his house and that was a trail well that's only a three season and it is not supposed to follow it it is still used for recreational purposes so we we do have some precedences in place where we have done this for landowners in the past so we do have to look back to what we have done and try to be fair and follow suit to what we have done for others well just because it's been done doesn't make it legal well these are other parcels that we're talking about don't don't have other access points either i mean uh this lot is quite odd shaped and quite large and he does have access points in two places other than going off the trail which would be yeah but there's not going to access the top of that property off of route 100 no no but chair left if he wanted to split he wanted to split that off you know he could split this land and still have access up this point off Jerusalem road is what i'm getting at i mean if this lot was serviced if if this lot was landlock and only accessible through this public right away there's absolutely no question that he would have a right of access absolutely right and that's what i'm getting at he has two other options there yeah i agree with i agree with that completely if he didn't have any other option i would look at it differently personally but i i don't know i i think we need to do some more research on this and go from there i mean quite frankly yeah i think we need to ask some more questions about it it's a little different request than what other people have asked in the past for this type of situation i think perhaps he should go ahead with his subdivision and determine where his access is coming from that way he'd be clear right from the start yeah it's hard to say not knowing what the what the plan is there Dave are you here on behalf of the planning board do you have any input mostly to listen to this here but i mean that one of our questions was similar to what Larry put forth was you know what is a legal trail you know and i don't quote me on this but i almost believe that in our planning rules that it says about road frontage right so there's a requirement for road frontage and i guess the question to me would be and for us would be what is the status of a legal trail what is it actually going to be used for and what other than a legal trail can it or definitely not be called specified that a public right away is is not a highway you know t19 number 502 i think 302 85 and um but road frontage we don't say highway frontage we say road frontage so this is where we get we're right we're going to need to there are semantics there are semantics we're going to have to dig a little deeper and probably get more um legal what i honestly think that if he's got access to other points that that makes this this is a more convenient way to get to his property no question coming in from that's why he's asking that from southern the southern uh lane there but yeah coming coming up from i'm not sure that is uh we have other parcels that will bring up a similar situation when they ever sell right um well that's the land that's my question was that you know there's we this could come up again and again we have some pretty large those are large large tracks and um i believe this property is in land trust and i'm not sure if that becomes i think that this orange chunk is in the land trust okay and the other stuff is not i'm not sure about that no okay i know it's all forest ground yeah feed right well i suppose he was hoping that the selectable board would come with a specific declaration today about what he can do but it sounds like we want to do more promise discussion yeah the promise discussion we're discussing yeah um i think we need to get clarification if he's got other access points whether that which has any weight for that or not i don't know well that and what the full definition legal definition is of a legal trail and well that's pretty much right here what and what constitutes road furniture right right all right so i guess we'll um we'll um you can table up dig into that a little deeper thank you larry for your input because this um you would be seeing traffic on that through through um your um your next so uh you know luckily for or unluckily uh if i were on the select board i would have to recuse myself but tonight i i don't all right okay well thank you for your input uh next on the agenda we've got the discussion about the town meeting there's been some some evolution and and directives from the state giving the towns a little more um flexibility about how to conduct the um town meeting in light of the ongoing covid situation so last year we did we do it zoom yes town meeting last year in australian ballot nancy got something she wants to pitch in about we did not have a town meeting last year we had two informational information that's right two informational meetings and then the australian ballot voting correct we can do the same format okay this um uh the legislature has approved s175 and this built us three things one it empowers municipalities to change the date of their town meetings two it empowers municipalities to vote by australian ballot rather than from the floor as we did last year and three allows the secretary of state's office to wave certain statutory deadlines or provisions for towns voting by australian ballot rather than from the floor on a case by case basis to wave certain statutory deadlines by on a case by case basis okay i guess that's to be determined what exactly they're talking about and then i think they're gonna give us a little bit more clarification next week and there is a second election related bill starting in the senate government operation this afternoon i guess that was friday afternoon that would do two things one eliminate the need for nominating petitions for town meeting it's unclear whether this would be for all australian ballot medians or only for those where a town has decided to move from florida into australian ballot and it would also eliminate the need to co-mingle ballots what does that mean co-mingle ballots because when you have a town that's split or you have like the school districts right okay the two like rochester and stockbridge we could co-mingle we wouldn't have to co-mingle them we could do our own vote they could do their own vote and then we put them together so what do you thoughts on that oh go with the flow i don't know uh what do you girls have to feel about that julie what's your julie runs the elections we run the elections yeah um i think if we went australian ballot that would be probably wise at this time with the high rates of covid um for safety reasons um it's just a matter of whether we want to change the date if we give ourselves an extra month we have four weeks to not be pressured with all of the deadlines and how that's a budget finance we have to finish with that tomorrow and we'd have to set the tax rate by tomorrow afternoon is that right in order to it's approving the budget right approve the budget by by tomorrow and then right then we could go forward with that so the other part of this is that depending on whether the second part of legislation is approved we won't know if we need to petition for any of the elected positions so when you petition that means you're going to need signatures and that all has to be in by the 18th of january we don't even have a meeting until 17th of january 24th if we stick with the if we stick with the uh february 28th town reading day then the the consent forms for all officers who are running have to be in by the 17th with 10 10 signatures each so there's just there's a lot of pressure with all the deadlines meeting i mean we're looking at for the town report we have to deliver to the we have to deliver the town report by the 20th at the latest 10 days from today no matter what way we go right well no not if we if we do postpone it just gives us a little more breathing but it just depends i mean we can do it what are the repercussions to moving it uh a month later is there what what are the unintended consequences that would happen there not the only thing is if if the if it's voted down it'll still give us a 30 day uh warning to go back out so that we could even jump in with voting with the school on may 3rd and we could do all of it that day because we're going to have to do another vote that day anyway so should we consider that to begin with well then we wouldn't have our 30 days if it was voted down and it'd be into june you wouldn't want that well no it would it would uh if we if we stick if we move the date to the 28th of march 28th that'll still give us our 30 day warning no i was referring to moving it to the same as the school vote yeah oh too far that's pushing it too far i mean it's if we know it's if we knew it was going to go um excuse me can i ask a quick question sure marcia um julie uh julie you're saying um that february 28th would be town meeting but i thought it was always the first monday in march which would be the seventh so our first monday will be the 28th of february so the first oh the town meeting is generally the first tuesday of march which is going to be march 1st this year oh okay excuse me i'm sorry so so um if you didn't change it the town meeting voting or whatever would take place on tuesday the first of march no ours are always the night before yeah ours are always monday night we always have a night before a town meeting day that's right that's right i'm sorry i was remembering from last year pardon me but if we went australian ballot don't we have to have the ballot open for the whole day on tuesday yes right yeah so yeah so regardless we'd be looking at tuesday the first if we went australian ballot as being our voting day that's what we did last year i remember was the if we went australian we did ours on monday because we have to do the school vote on tuesday two days in a row yeah we had to vote two days in a row yeah we ended up with the school vote here at the office but because we sent everything with us monday to the school to vote with us for the town meeting day for the australian ballot that's right we had a box out there for early school voting too yeah yeah yeah yeah okay so the uh i guess the real one of the questions here is are we going to hold on to having a in-person town meeting maybe and if we put it off a month or do we want to go with the multiple informational meetings in australian ballot which is probably the the will be a result in the least amount of gathering of people together nancy's had her hand up oh nancy yeah yeah i think it might now be a bad idea to wait at least for another day until you know more about what the legislature has done and what the secretary of state is going to do that's true we do have a meeting tomorrow night um on the budget to pass the budget hopefully so that way we know it's not going to make any difference it gives everyone of you more opportunity to think about it can can do can we enjoy the luxury of going to our next regular select board meeting with a decision it's gonna be too late too late no we can't we wouldn't be able to make a decision tomorrow it's not warned um no it is we have a special select board meeting warned to set the budget set the budget no but not to set the town meeting no what if we make that an emergency meeting that doesn't require a word right i don't think we'll know too much until the governor's sign they don't go back into legislation till tomorrow so we're sure they're gonna discuss it but whether it's got to go through all the signing and whether it comes out tomorrow or not you know it gives you an opportunity to think more about it can can we wait a week on that and have an emergency meeting on that Nancy would that give us time for everything else that would be still be okay okay so maybe we should do that to see what sugar is off on this that would fall under the criteria for an emergency meeting just have a quick meeting on the next week or something what do you think of that guys so we know what all our options are from the finally finalize their decisions because i i wouldn't count on having a clear answer by tomorrow evening but no i was just entering wouldn't either legislature tomorrow no so so what if we just table this until we find out more about what the legislature is going to wind up doing and then when julie finds that out she can let us know when we can hammer out a meeting and go from there what do you think of that is that fair would that be next week i'm wondering what i should say for the paper that you probably well no i mean that you're going to i'm just going to say that you're going to wait to hear what the legislature decides to do and then you would plan to have a special meeting that's the following week no if we make a decision tonight and then they change the criteria in a few days we'd have to meet again to change it so far to heart if we postpone the select board meeting do we still have to make a decision tomorrow night on the budget it wouldn't hurt to to take care of that it'd be nice to to put that behind us but if if we move the town meeting date we would give us all more time give us more time to do that and for the budget finance committee to to come to conclusions on what they want to do or what they're working on i i do you feel confident going forward barb that you're going to have the answers tomorrow i i think it's a question also for julie and christian but i don't see any problem with having a meeting discussing what we know what we don't know and then deciding whether or not we have enough information to make call tomorrow but recognize that perhaps it may not be done tomorrow night if it didn't have to be you found me yeah that's seductive procrastination well i must have worked i must have ordered it as vaguely as i could but we do understand you the news well we do have the option right now to decide to postpone the meeting a month right yeah and we would still that would give us more time to one see what the the the um covid situation is evolving and and we could still that gives us more time to make the decision about whether or not we want to do it just with informational meetings in australian ballot does it need to be published in the town report yeah so oh we won't go we won't go to print in the town report until we have a date we know what we're doing have a date night right see the date chicken or the what if we um let this ride for the until next week when we do have the of the legislature's final stuff and then we make a decision next week when we have a special meeting for that and maybe would that give us time enough nancy to do everything that we would need to do yes and just to put a little bug in your ear um there's a question being asked from the zoom room if you postpone the meeting does that mean that the deadline for the petitions may move forward that's going to be on a case by case basis when i would have to call the secretary of state and it's it's yeah something that there and that's still under legislative consideration so so we don't know so we don't know okay you all start with that jenette there is a question yep all right so we're gonna um we're gonna um table this and um we're still meeting tomorrow with the budget and finance committee and see if we can't finalize the budget which is something we need to do regardless whether it happens tomorrow or at the next special meeting in a week and we'll have more information hopefully when we can make a final decision on that so all right well we're out of speaking about tomorrow some of the things on the agenda could still include things that you pretty much have talked about whether like you're financing for the truck and some other other other areas besides just the uh question of the fund balance and matching grants there are things on the agenda that could be on the agenda that could be resolved tomorrow i'm sure but maybe not the whole thing i'll take my hand down okay all right it just gives us another opportunity yes yeah all right yeah i am also meeting with Larry Strauss tomorrow we're going to uh we've got more guidance from the ARPA funds oh yeah um they've been defined and redefined and quilted and baked and they're coming out of the oven we're not quite sure if it's done yet but we're going to meet and with what they've given us and and and we may be able to have some input into the budget i was wondering about that what we could be doing with the funding in that particular budget year okay okay that might be good yeah good to know some of some of the projects i don't i i don't i don't want to scoop patty but just i would just add to that is that all of the careful thought that all of us have put into it uh through the summer and fall and all the seminars and webinars and is it essentially last thursday got thrown out the window as the treasury department adopted the final final rule um and it's actually a big win for the town and the nation really um they tremendously uh liberalized and broadened and simplified all of the spending rules um so procrastination pays sometimes yeah yeah and and vlct just sort of sent a big email of like stop the presses you know just um if you're doing anything stop um you know uh too sorry sorry just oh never mind no so um anyway um yeah so it's all good news yeah really but it it's an entirely changed horizon um and it's going to be much easier and um but patty and i will talk about it tomorrow and we can share the details great all right thank you thank you so um we'll move on to um um johan you're still hanging out in zoomland she is still here all right you're on mute johan uh okay now you're good there okay i really you turn on the light so you can see me i like your hat things cold up here um i really don't have a lot to report i as you know been uh providing information as needed to the budget and finance committee um i'm still working on fema reimbursements and i'm now working on the bid package generator um those are the three things i'm going straight at the moment but what's the third thing you said working on the bid package for the generator okay um and providing information to fema and then working on the bid package okay working on the reimbursement from fema wouldn't it be nice if fema took a hint from the the arpa money and simplified everything i feel a little too late for us yeah okay and providing the bid package for what was this thing i'm sorry uh preparing the bid package for the generator the backup thank you i'm sorry all right well carry on then barb has it barb's got a comment yeah uh so johan is this new information that you're giving to uh fema no okay good stuff that i've been doing for the past okay i mean so the numbers aren't going to change that much or will they change which is i can't answer that yeah i'm sorry they strive which is another good try to pin me down well i can be vague you can be vague yeah i'm vague call me vague nothing good reason why maybe a little more time would help me so yeah yeah no question i'd actually have an answer by the time you're ready that was just just it's a tough it's a tough that's a tough road you're following i understand that completely so okay i'm not alone on it all right fair enough all right thank you okay um don't have anyone here on the highway front that probably out sanding or sleeping terry got anything on the utilities front no no thanks for coming out enjoying the heat do we have um chef get part here as the energy coordinator i am here not a lot to report we've got an energy committee meeting coming up on a thursday and we will have uh from my council on rural development john copens and uh was uh johnson there uh we'll be reviewing the uh rochester area climate account initiative ranked um priorities i did have a conversation via email today with greenmont power only know what i mean zillion seat zone around and they tell me that norwish technologies proposal was selected by gmp with the solar generation cited at murphel farm i believe that that means that uh it's in the gravel pit um farm has and uh gmp is meeting with norwish technologies on the 18th and they will provide us with additional details after that time okay um i think that's it okay well that's that's news oh uh you know also many some of you were involved with the jampies coming down to take a look at the uh facilities in town that might work for electric vehicle charging and the follow-up with them is they're basically we you know they're looking for our town to identify a parcel that would work and then they would be ready to move okay thank you okay um we don't have anything listed under the old business um so it brings us to public comments are anyone that's got something they want to speak about tonight i do uh dune yep yep um so this is uh report for uh emergency management i got a message from tori littlefield letting us know that there's a new uh state level requirement of all towns regarding emergency management let's read a little bit of it to you uh according to statute section 1220 bsa paragraph six the emergency management division will establish regional emergency management committees which shall coordinate emergency planning and preparedness activities to improve their region's ability to prepare for respond to and recover from all disasters uh this will require um each town designating two people to this regional their respective regional committee one of which is the existing emergency management director myself and then a second person needs to be appointed by the select board uh which should be a representative from the local emergency services community so terry and i discussed it and agreed that he would seek someone from the fire department to be that second person and to be recommended to the select board which needs to be done by the end of january so um so i there's still the room there but you might be able to speak to it as well so um and the next select board meeting on the 24th i have a conflict with the word of board meeting so i cannot be here but so i just wanted to come tonight to alert you to that and let terry uh bring the recommendation forward that feels as appropriate i've talked to rain kevin and i think i'm just going to be the one above it yeah so we just accept him terry you want to point you right now i would uh nominate terry sevry to be the second person to be part of the um representative of the town of rochester to the regional emergency management committee all in favor all right thank you terry congratulations um excuse me vick is already on he doesn't need to be appointed aesthetic excuse me right thank you yes all right great thank you thank you terry anyone else that um must speak about anything tonight i just say i had just completely forgotten how much fun it can be to be at a select board meeting and how how much i so badly badly missed oh is that a request to be nominated you looking for a job no no no not really you think he's being sarcastic well there we start casting my goodness it can keep coming by zoom yeah it's um it's it zoom actually makes things a little bit easier especially on a night like tonight no hands up in the room all right well thank you all for um to come in and we have our homework and we'll meet again by move to adjourn second all favor all right okay thank you good night all thank you thank you bonza you made it