 versus to approve the agenda, is there anything that needs to be amended? I have a report from the White River Consortium. Do you want to under other communications or other business? I'll report. Oh, the White River Valley Consortium that I went to a couple of months or so ago, and then another meeting today this afternoon. Yeah, if you want to do it like under, yeah, we do it under any other business, sir. I don't know if we formally needed a spot for for the resignation from the shooting range. No, it was part of the conversation. So no, because he's just a volunteer. That's why I that's why I didn't put it on there. But and I just think it's part of the bigger picture over there. Okay. Okay, all in favor. All right. Right. First, we do have two appointments this evening. Cecil's still coming for his. As far as I know. Okay. So our first appointment is here. Francis. Brown and Sylvia is on the zoom call. So they had. They had a request in regards to being removed from the town water system. Trees probably. Yep. So I talked to had a good conversation with Sylvia. And so as I said in here, they're moving forward with drilling a well. Sylvia has some serious health issues, which she or Francis can elaborate if they choose, which do not allow her to utilize any town water because it's not a good idea. She can't drink it with it. Anything. And so I wasn't sure because the water ordinance to me had a couple of spots that I was on the theater on. So I sent it to Stitzel page and Fletcher and said, Hey, can you interpret these sections for me? And they did. And that's what's in here. And they're saying that once a property connects to town water, the owner of the property cannot avoid the obligation by the law. And they're saying that the current town water, the vacancy rate is $100 and 83 cents per quarter. Now to be clear, Sylvia and Francis received sewer and water and they obviously are going to continue to use sewer and want to pay for the sewer. What they don't want to pay for is the. The vacant water rate. I did explain that. It's not a good idea. It's not a good idea to pay for water. It's not a good idea to pay for water. It's not a good idea to pay for water. It's not a good idea to pay for water. And it isn't our choice to coordinate. We're mandated by the state to coordinate. So, you know, that's, that's our case. Obviously you knew you were on town water when you bought the house. When you guys bought the house because you guys paid a water bill. You didn't know that it was coordinated at the time, but somebody could have asked, I mean, if, and this is the if, if the water rate, if say they pay sewer but don't pay water, eventually when that bill gets large enough, it could trigger a tax sale because we can tax sale not just on delinquent taxes but on delinquent utilities. So obviously I don't want it to come to that. And I told her, I'm not a water commissioner. So, you know, the rules. So I provided information. I sent Francis and Sylvia a copy of the agenda, a copy of the note and a copy of the law and lawyers interpretation that way. I promised her that I'd give her everything that you had. So, so that's where it stands. I'm not sure if Francis or Sylvia has something more to add or if I tried to just hit the highlights. As you can, or you can just come close to my phone. Paul isn't here. Yeah, one of our board members is remote tonight. So and then the acoustics in here is terrible. So you'll have to be out of the normal to speak in this room. So that's not going to give any sound for us, but it will for the people who are remote. Yeah. OK. All right. So. So I guess you're all pretty much aware by on here, Trish. Explain to our trees. Yeah, explain it pretty well to you. But the fact that my wife can't drink the water, she can't even shower in the water. But she has many chemical sensitivities and florax. She doesn't use it because her hands turn lobster red. Yeah, she said that she had chemical sensitivity issues. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, other chemicals are so. I mean, she's just allergic to basically any chemical. We don't use any kind of chemicals in our household. So can you hear him, Jean? He's saying that his wife's allergic to chemical. So it's kind of a terrible, terrible acoustics in here. Yeah. Yeah. So so therefore, you know, we've decided the only alternative. I mean, there's filters. I know you've mentioned filters, but we've researched all the filters and they none of them basically take chlorine out of the water. Oh. So our alternative is to build a well, which has been a costless, a lot of money. And we're on fixed income, a small fixed income. And we can't afford to pay for something that we're not using. Like to me, it's like paying for a dead horse. You've probably heard that expression. We still would use a septic and we're willing to pay for that. But we feel that our bill should be cut in half. And when the water was shut off after we build it. So the water won't be even hooked up to your heating system or anything. Yeah, we'll it will be going well right away. I already talked to well drillers. So the well drillers will hook the water to from the well to the house for correct for your heating and all that. I wasn't sure what you do. So. No water for your toilet. Or if you want water to be long or wash off none of that. Well, all the water you use that well, it will. What do you mean? Yeah, and right now we're using, of course, town water for like you said, flushing the toilet. Water in the Ponzi's with that takes. Haven't even washed their car since we came up here. So I can't see. So, you know, basically we don't use the town water anyways. So the town will shut off your water at the curb stop then. Well, which qualifies you for the vacancy rate. If we shut off the water, you get the vacancy rate. So, but. So that's. So are the sewer and water bills separate or is it all one? It's one bill, but they're two separate rates. So he will get a bill for a sewer and he could get a bill for bacon wash. So we're only talking about the water portion. The sewer portion is still. Yeah, he's still going to use the sewer portion. Yeah, so because they're not going to put in a sentence. That's that's that's important. Yeah. Yeah. So I just want to make sure I got things clear. So I think there's two things being discussed here. So I think from what. Mr. Brown has said is that he's looking to just continue all water and all bills associated with the town water. Yeah. And then we're talking about if he went typically what happens if you're not using town water. So so the the the statutes that we have so in place for water sewer and other things is, you know, we have a limited amount of users in our system. And so there are statues that are put into place to protect the town's interest in delivering water in that area. So your house happens to be in in the water district. So so we protect ourselves by by putting different statues in there because it lets us for whatever reason, let's say everybody started to drill a well for whatever reason, then it could really put an onus on the town for, you know, if you had, I'll make it up to 300 users. Now you only have 200 users. That means, you know, the rates are rate change at a drastic amount. So the challenge we have at the board is so I mean, I think we definitely hear you on the humanitarian end of things of that the water in some ways to to your family is is not usable for anything because of this the situation you have. But on but on the formal policy end of things when it comes to being water commissioners is it sounds like that the best the best that we could do for you would be to put you on what we call a vacancy rate, which means you wouldn't be using any water, but it it still pays for the system to be delivered water to your doorstep. Now, the differences is that right now is it's only 80. Right, so 80 percent. It's only 20. So it's like a 20 percent difference. So if we decide to do that as board commissioners, you know, the the bill of, you know, 130 dollars, maybe a hundred, but it wouldn't be zero. So we wouldn't be able to get you down to zero, a zero bill. Hope you understand that portion of it. Right. Is there any reliance on the water system that have drill wells in the town? Not that I know. I mean, years ago, there were other people that extended past on Pleasant Street, but the town had issues with the delivering of water. I think the pressure. So they did end up the town removed several people from the system and the town paid to install wells for them because the town was responsible for getting these people water and they could not because of so many leaks in the system and they didn't have the pressure to get it to them. So that happened. That's the only that's what I know about it. There may be something else, but those are the that's the only thing I'm aware of. And I don't know exactly how many houses that was. One, two, three, four, five. Five houses stopped. And that was because of the ordinance, the town had to provide them with water and they couldn't because of those such big issues they were having with the system at the time. So they drilled them wells. But if someone else currently has a well, I'm not aware of it personally, some somebody else here, maybe, but I'm not. So usually if you're on, there's more water users than there are sewer users. So some people do just get a water bill and then some get both. So there's about three hundred and, I don't know, maybe three to 40, three fifty connections of water and about two thirds of that also have sewer and certainly you're one of them. But and then like Teresa was saying, 80 percent of the total bill that you get billed a quarter is for what we call fixed costs. So the fixed cost is, you know, from the treatment plant to, you know, all the pipes delivered to your curb stop before it comes into your building. And then the other 20 percent of cost is more of a variable cost, like how much water users are using on the system, treating X amount of gallons is so. So in some cases, it's. I guess if this was me, anyways, and you were going to choose between having your water shut off and paying a vacancy rate, which is 80 percent of the cost, anyways, or having your water left on for an extra 20 percent. It might be, you know, I know you're not happy with it, but it might be better just to leave it on to you to wash your car or water your flowers or, you know, I know it's not what you want to hear. It's the thing is, if we allow, which, which clearly we have provisions inside the the water policy, but if we if we allowed one person to drill a well inside the town, then it could allow everybody to do that overnight, you know, for whatever reason, and it could be a drastic shift in the policy. I think for me and I, this is where we're all probably weighing this. How does like the the hard thing and the sticky thing about this is we create a very slippery slope, right? If we allow one user to be removed because they drilled a well, then what prevents us from doing that for a different future? So a different idea, which Dave was sort of on the same page I was on, was could we look at this as a hardship, abatement and do it in an entirely different way, where it's very case specific. And I can't, I can't recall up the top of my head what our abatement rules would say in this case. But I know we have had hardship abatement cases before and we've talked about them. Yeah, you've abated like interest and penalty on, you know, on water sewer before. I think that you have abated. Thank you. I'm not sure you've abated anything huge with water sewer. I have you that I can think of. I know you've done given people breaks on their bill when they're doing construction or improvements to two properties. Seven specific reasons why you can abate. Well, that's taxes, right? Well, with you, this water ordinance has to prevail. And right now the water ordinance states, you know, they can't disconnect or they can, but they have that they're responsible for the rate. I think in the past, you know, I could go back through the water ordinance and we could look at it that way at a future meeting. I could go back and reread the ordinance again and see what, because you guys had passed some rules about the vacancy rate. And I know one of the things that was if they had the water shut off at a residential home, you'd only charge them the vacancy rate, like if they go away for winter. But right, I guess I'm thinking something totally different. Yeah, you are right. You're thinking just abating their water bill. Yeah, or even even being able to come to some common ground or some middle ground that maybe it's not a full abatement, but it's, you know, they're still hooked up, hooked onto the system, even though it's shut off at the curb stop. Right. But for for that, and so say, in the future, they sell their property. That property is still hooked up to the water, right? They're still selling that amenity with the property. We're not fully disconnecting them like the folks you were talking about on Pleasant Street, but sort of coming to some something different. And I know that that, you know, then with our abatement rules, it might require them to come back every so often to re up this. Or when there are new board members, they may make a difference. But, you know, there's all the layers that come with abatement, right? And and your policy or their ordinance, it's ordinance, the ordinance, you know, is more about when you were going to offer vacancy rate. But I would have to go back and look at it again. I'm happy to do that, if that's what you guys want to do for now. I have no problem going back and and reading that those sections of the water ordinance again. And I mean, because the lawyer's interpretation was pretty clear. Yeah, like walking in tonight is like, I don't feel like we have an alternate option. And so then the idea becomes how how can we still work with our our residents, but also still be responsible water commissioners? Right. So maybe what you're talking about is maybe a less than 80 percent, whereas they still pay something to the town for water. But, you know, some right. And it'd be case specific. So I recognize that they're selfless fraud. It becomes. Yeah, it's true. Because Mrs. Brown has very specific health issues that are probably extremely uncommon. So that's what you guys want to do. I'm certainly happy to research that and you would have to make a decision another night. Yeah, I mean, that might be the only way to do it. I mean, it's when it comes to the ordinance itself, it's pretty black and white. Like, like Lenly was just saying, it's the ordinance is there for two reasons. It's one to protect the town for so that none of the customers jump off of the the water district, but it's also there, like we said, in the Pleasant Street, where where you have the right to water. So if all of a sudden we fail to bring water to your house, then we are responsible for that, too. So kind of it goes both ways. So the other way that Lenly was just saying is that sometimes we're able to do things as under a pavement, which isn't it's not a permanent like we're shutting your water off and you're not getting a bill. It's more of a, you know, something that you have to do either by the quarter or, you know, and it has to meet certain criteria for abatement. So I guess, yeah, I thought I have. I guess that's what I was going to do was tax assessment. I was going to see what what like when we do tax abatements, it has to fill one of the seven criteria. It's right, Paul. And then the abatement that you're talking about is done by the BCA and it's based on tax tax abatements only. Right. So I guess Trees was Trees was going to look into seeing what the what if any. Your the abatement formal policies would be in our ordinance to allow an abatement to be done on the water and sewer. I'll take a look. Is that it? I wonder if there isn't another whole possibility. And that is, are there public funds available for people with disabilities that might be applied for so that the town is paid, but you don't have to pay for it. But it's because this is becomes classified as a person with a disability who now cannot use the town's water. But you're obligated to pay for it. Is there another source of funds that you could apply for some sort of assistance that might be able to cover that and and. Meet your needs while at the same time meeting the towns. Yeah, you should talk to. Oh, Paul, I'm drawing a blank. The bigger agency capstone there you go. So that would be one thing is that you and Sylvia could reach out to capstone, like a community action and see what they have available for funds that may be able to assist with that. You could also possibly speak to Sylvia to speak to our doctor. Maybe they're aware of some federal funding or something. Because of her condition that could do that. So that would be something that you guys could look into as capstone and other funding to try to pay for it while we look while look at the ordinance and see what the water commissioners were commissioners options are. But capstone would also be able to look into I throughout disability. But I also don't know what there is in terms of if you're my age should help or assistance for those who are retired on a limited income, et cetera, et cetera, they would have access to all of that and might be where you I think that would be a good place to look while we do research on this end. Now is there another way to get the bill paid is what I'm saying if our hands are tied. So it sounds like just to recap for now we're the board sounds like that we're formally going to deny the removal of the removal from the water system. But we're going to look in to see if there's any possible abatement that could be done that's on the Townsend things that sound right, right, keep it. Makes sense. I mean, I don't think you have a choice. You can't allow them to discontinue. You'd be violating your own ordinance. So that's true. So basically, yeah, so no, you can't just going to act or but you can but we can look at other options. See on the vacancy rate, we can look at the abatement. Yeah, and see where we go. So at a minimum for right now we can move you to the vacancy rate, which is 80% of what you're currently getting charged. And then we will look at the abatement process to see if we can abate your water rather than take you off it. And then maybe Therese can maybe Therese after the fact can send you the list of the agency that has some information, maybe on some assistance that you might be able to get third party wise. Yeah, that wouldn't have anything to do with the town. Yeah, there may be a couple options I can send you about assistance. And then we follow back up at the next meeting. Yeah, so I think you should make a formal motion though to deny their request. Deny but do we have to make a motion to put on vacancy or that's something that you can do by yourself? No, I think you should do both. I think you should make a formal decision that you're going to deny their request and that you're but you're going to move into vacancy rate, yes. Yeah, both put it all in one motion. Sorry, I'm trying to make a note to send Sylvia capstone and other information and other water funding information. So you were mentioning earlier all about people that within the water, whatever you call it, they have their own septic. So do they pay? They wouldn't pay a septic to their family. They just pay water, right? Some people just have water, so they just pay a water bill. We don't have any. My house, for instance, has water but no sewer. Right. So I just pay a water bill and I have septic at my house. And we don't have anyone who gets just a sewer bill because they go hand in hand, of course. So yeah, but we do have several that just get water bills because the sewer system doesn't extend to the far enough out to their properties. But so it looks like we'll go to, I'll schedule, I'll put this back on the agenda to talk so that they can talk about abatement at their next meeting, which I think is the 22nd. Is our next meeting the 22nd? Yes. Okay, the 22nd. So I'll do that. But in the meantime, we'll look at the, I'll look at the ordinance and I'll send you and Sylvia some information about capstone or other places that might help pay for the water rate, water, if the bill is going to continue. So I won't have a solid answer for two weeks, but at least I'll give you some people to start talking to. Okay, I'll wait for 20 seconds. You said that this month or the next day or whatever. Yeah, I'll send you the stuff in the mail like I did this time. And if nothing happens, I would just have to go further. You, I didn't hear you. I'm sorry. I said, if nothing happens with that, I would just have to go further, you know. Which is certainly you're right. Yep, absolutely. So yeah, but hopefully we can, we'll see what we can come up with. I just, I wasn't reading the ordinance for abatement. I was looking for the rules about disconnection. So I'll go back through it and read it again and see what it says. Okay. And send you some information about that as well. All right. All right. Thank you. We want to say if we could. So we'll just need a, so we'll just need a motion to formally deny the removal of 85 Geico lane from the water system. But we will effective immediately start them on vacancy. They're next bill. Yeah. Okay. Lindley moved it. Dave second it all in favor. Aye. Aye. All right. All right. Cecil. It's not allowed this time. Bring your fan club with you. Oh, yeah. Let's not know we did. Yeah. So yeah, and I guess Cecil's appointment and the next item up are kind of flowing together here. So if the board doesn't have an issue with you mind, do we mind just doing both topics at the same time? That's fine with that. So, so I don't know if you knew or not see. So we had the, the form, well, the formal adoption of the updated rules and regulations to affect artificial flowers at the cemetery that we had planned on doing tonight as well as, as well as your reappointment as cemetery foreman. So I know in the past it sounded like talking or Teresa, there was some misunderstanding between whatever many boards ago or administrations on what exactly their title is. So the, I guess the correct title would be cemetery foreman. So the, the board is the commissioner of pretty much you name it, water sewer, gun shooting area, cemetery, you know, so we end up being the commissioners for everything at some point. And then anybody else is usually a foreman or. Yeah, or a sextant is either a sextant commonly known as the cemetery foreman. So, but yeah, and Cecil is aware of the changes to act because I talked to Cecil about the wording because I wasn't sure how far away when I drafted it like six inches from the monument. And then I asked Cecil, he's like, no, you're too far away. Put it, you know, tight to the mind. So he did help me with the wording. I thought the word, I mean, I thought the wording was great. And thanks Paul for, for showing us some other options of floral and decoration policies that you had come up with. But I guess right now the language that we would, would change to would be, the new language would be artificial flowers that are permitted from Memorial Day to Labor Day but must be removed by the first Saturday after Labor Day. Flowers not permanently planted must be secured to monument or hung from a shepherd's hook that is securely installed tight to the monument. Any flower or decoration not properly installed will be discarded. So that was secure to, okay, must be secured to monument. So you don't have to say to the monument, okay. And I guess the way I see this adoption to the policy is well, anytime you make the adoption to the policy it's a formal process, but it's also in some ways in my eyes a temporary thing too. Like this was giving the option to individuals that wanted to see the artificial flowers, the option for us to trust them on making sure that this is going to get picked up too. And I would assume that if we get to October or November and Cecil Cumminson says there's discarded artificial flowers all over the place or next year in May or whatever you say we got all these new ornaments that have shown up but they're not fastened to headstones or they're just improperly put together then we may have to take harsher direction on what to display in the cemeteries. The signs are currently up. Yeah, I currently, I wasn't going out for a month. And I didn't ask Dave to do it. So right now he's right. I drive by the use of that full cemetery all the, you know, every day. And he's right. I mean, people, there's some people that are obeying the signs. I haven't had the time or the manpower to deal with it. So it's kind of, he does a nice job. He does such a nice job Harold. Yeah, so I mean, I guess if nobody has any complaints, I mean, this is the language that we had talked about a meeting two meetings ago, I think almost now. So, you don't have anything on that question? Yeah. So I couldn't hear what Cecil was saying but does that mean that the ones that, for example, the artificial flowers in the plastic containers with the spike coming out the bottom would not be, would have to be in a shepherd's hook or somehow a fix to the monument? That's kind of the wording that we use. Cecil was just talking about leaving the signs up but this says it must, but you guys had agreed to the night that the motion was made. You guys agreed that they had to be, oh, that we would have the cemetery foreman and the cemetery commissioners would come up with rules but you liked the idea of the shepherd's hook. And then, so that, I also looked at your wording from that policy. Because when we talked about how close to the monument should the shepherd's hook or something be. So then we talked about being tightly connected to the. Yeah, so those to the monument. Yeah, so we're saying they either have to be planted in the ground, put on a shepherd's hook or secured somehow to the monument. So yeah, so just those ones with a spike at the bottom probably would be a no-no because they're not permanently planted, they're not secured to the monument and they're not on a shepherd's hook. So I think those would be not allowed. Yeah, I just wanted to have that out there because that seemed to have been a popular one that we found when they did the cleanup. So just to make it clear, I like the wording. I think it works very well. All right, so Jean wants, we're gonna add the word the, must be secured to the monument. So we'll need to do that. I also had updated the rates because we'd approved the rate increase. So I did have to adjust that for the eight lot. So we did the math there. And then Dave Eddy had asked and I saw that in here that it does say 10% of all sales will be dedicated to development of an improved record keeping system and the acquisition of future new cemetery areas. Is Fairview, can it expand? Can Fairview expand? Could Fairview hold any more lots? Oh yeah. Okay. And as it says in the policy that 10% of the sales are supposed to be being used for better record keeping of the lots and future development of, you know, so it's a site. So I wasn't sure, is East Bethel Cemetery full? Pretty much. Yeah, I wonder. Anne Gilead. Anne Gilead. Christian Hill. Oh, Cherry, maybe a little bit. So that's, you know, that's something to think about too, I guess I wondered how many more. So really Fairview is the only one that currently that probably could be expanded to hold more. Yeah, I'll have to look at the map. I was curious about the borders of that. It's pretty hard to tell by the map. Yeah, I wasn't sure. Well, the property tax map, yeah. Cherry Hill, you've got a few up there. If you want to use the swamp, you've got a lot more. Probably not. There's probably big rules against that. I think that Fairview, time will sink down and we'll just keep putting them on top of the other. Oh, nice thought. Oh, so okay. So how does that, so now that you said the 10% thing. So currently what, what are we, are we not putting any money aside from? Well, they do, the cemetery money all goes into its own cemetery fund. It does not go into the general fund at all. It all goes in there. We budget for cemetery mowing, you know, or like we budgeted for the wall to fix the wall. So we, you know, but- But do we have a separated subsection in there that 10% of each thing gets dropped? I don't know, I'd have to ask Paul. Because it might be something that we- I'll ask Pam. Something that says we should have, but- Maybe we allocate some of the money that's there, and I don't know how she does. I'm assuming that she put some in the cemetery, some in perpetual care, some in reserve fund. So the reserve fund, I assume, is what's going to, you know, to do that. But I'll double check with Pam. Tomorrow's the primary, so I'll check with her. Yeah, I'd ask her first thing in the morning. Yeah, I will. You need it by nine. Yeah, I'll ask her first thing. So we'll find out. And then she's on vacation. Yeah, and then she's on vacation. So we'll find out in a couple of weeks, but I think that's the way she allocates it, because that cemetery fund is fund 50, and it does have a breakdown of money in it. So, but if you guys are all set with the draft, you can make a motion to accept the policy, and then I'll just fix that one thing and take the word draft out of it. Yeah, so just need a motion to accept the cemetery rules and regulations policy as amended. So moved. Second. Okay, all in favor? Aye. And then, Sue and Cecil still wants to do it. We'll make a motion to- How much do you want to pay? Eight. That was part of the question. Yeah, so I mean, we have talked about, well, not just the cemetery, we've been slowly, sorry, I was a G. We've been slowly trying to get our appointment values to current. And what I say is we started looking at some of these a couple of years ago going, the health officer at $600 a year, that's ridiculous. And so we've been kind of slowly going down the line of reappropriating more correct funds for individuals like that. So it has definitely been something we've been talking about. I know the health commissioner one on the, well, interim basis, we've changed it to an hourly thing just so that we could see how many hours the health commissioner actually puts into something but that person that's doing right now has deferred their income. So I mean, Dave, you were, acting cemetery commissioner for a couple of weeks. What do you think? He was acting cemetery for me. He was doing his job. I got to do the other. And I can tell you pick that $500 and stick it with the sun, no chance. Because I know how many hours I had in my first three weeks and months. So I don't think that, I think we are suggesting 1500 rather than 500. I think that is a reasonable place to go to and we'll see how that works. And then reevaluated at five to five. Reevaluated at another time. In the fall. Is that something that we can do and make effective immediately so that Cecil has put that amount within this year? Yeah. And then we'll reevaluate for next year. I think so. Anybody, Jean or Paul, anybody else have any questions or comments for here? It's that. No, sounds good to me. How do you feel about that? $1,500. How much? $1,500. I can live with that. Okay. Until 2060. 2060? Okay. 2060. That's right. I wanna get one thing clear. If I'm not there cutting brush or working on the wall or cleaning stones, that's gonna be extra. I'm not gonna include that in the 1500. Right. And that's the way it's been in the past. Cecil has done work, he cut. So we've got a bill because Cecil was not. I think that probably already this year I've burnt well over $500 worth of gas. Yeah. I think one thing that, at least what I'd like to see Cecil is, and we were doing this currently with the health commissioner is, we're just trying to understand those positions a little better on. So right now if we do the $1,500 as a stipend, right? But maybe if you can work with Therese to kind of give her, maybe it's once a month, like here's about how many hours I put in a month just so that we can try and gauge that. All right, let me go half an hour here, 15 minutes over there. Yeah. And back to the town clerk, you might spend half an hour, you might spend 45 minutes and still not come up with anything. Yeah. And then you're out walking her to keep track of her time. Yeah. Even if it's just an estimate of what you think is good because in order for them to pay fare stipends, they're trying to figure out how many people, well, you know, these hours people are working so they can compensate them. But yes, and we've done that in the past, we had someone trim, no, cut two trees at the Gilead Cemetery and I just got that bill. And you know, it's crazy. So it would be nice to get informally some information back to Therese to say. Like last year, I made four trips to East Bepple to celebrate because they couldn't make up their mind but they wanted to fare, fare, fare somewhere else. Right. So you can't, you gotta give them the opportunity to get it where they want it. Sure, yeah. And then we can better balance what the yearly stipends are based upon the hour's work. I mean, if all of a sudden I'll make it up. If all of a sudden we say, wow, this is a... Is that when you cost a lot more hours than what I'm getting paid for, you wanna pay more? Not really. No, but it will kind of look at future compensation. I mean, if, I'm just making it up, but I mean, let's just say just the cemetery foreman piece of that you spend. What does that mean? You're gonna sell the lots. You're gonna sign the certificates. You're gonna dig the graves. You're gonna, yeah. It's gonna be made out foreman, not commissioning. Right, because that's the policy. Apparently, yeah, different towns are different. I think, like in Brantree, they're elected cemetery commissioners, which is interesting. So the certification and funeral certificates come through both foreman and commissioners. So two people have to sign it? No, only one, but there's a separate place to do that. Yeah. So yeah, it says in the definition that you're a sexton or a cemetery foreman. Yeah. I mean, you're a delegated representative from the board. So. So many majors talk to somebody in a way before I do it. I think Dave, a couple of different times, one of them was up to Fairview when we pulled up the seed of brush. Yeah. Which it looks a lot nicer, I think. Yeah. Sounds good. And one thing I'd like to see done is a new fence up to Limpus Cemetery, back of the mess. At Limpus Cemetery. Can you get us like an estimate on that? And then we can see where, because you can get us an estimate. We'll be working on the budget here October. So it's coming right up. Because we put some money in last year for the wall. And then I thought we put, we put some into repair, maybe the fence at Fairview. Yeah. But yeah, if you give me an estimate on Limpus, we can, you don't have to do it tonight. One reason I didn't do anything last year or this year is because lumber's gone so sky high. Yeah. I know hopefully by, you know, next when the new budget kicks in next July, hopefully by then things have ratcheted down. Yeah, we'll see. Well, we're talking about spending money. Uh-huh. There's a lot of work to be done at Cherry Hill Cemetery. And now that I have had opportunity to walk all over it. As far as cutting trees, there are six dead hemlock. And two of them are going to be on graves by this time next year and all that. And then. Gilead has got to come down. Luckily, these hemlock, I mean, I don't know why. One of them, I don't know why it's still standing. And just above there, by my family's grave site, there's trees that haven't been trimmed up since I was a kid. And you can barely drive a small car from there without getting all scratched to shit. That's at Cherry Hill. And then there's a pine, three pine at Gilead. So that's something that I could ask like Derek Aldrigate or Sa'a Loka Lager for a price to cut some trees and just build it into the next year's budget. If we, you know, or see if we have money in this budget. What do you ask for when that big pine came down up to Gilead if it didn't smash it in stone? Yeah. It's not one over, but it didn't break it in the next one. Is that considered perpetual care so that if the town has a budget for the money, can't that come out of the cemetery fund itself? I would say. I would think so. Cause I mean, it seems like those tree removal would be perpetual care. So we just don't want to break up that much of stone. Nobody knows how to repair. Exactly. That's better. Better to get ahead of it before the stones are broken. I think the three big pine up to Gilead, two over half dead. There's six on that lower section of Cherry Hill that are dead. Two that are, like I said, I don't know what, yeah, I don't know why they're still staying. So would that just be as cemetery commissioners? Do we just need to make the motion to appropriate the money from perpetual care to cover the cost of. Yeah. Yeah, I think, yeah. You can do that tonight. You can do that tonight. And then we, and then Cecil or I, one of us, you know, we can, do you have somebody in mind who you'd want to cut the trees for you? You know, looking for somebody for Gilead. Don't nobody want to do it. I can ask. Except for Chris. Yeah, I can ask around. So I'll ask Eric. And Chris, Chris actually owns a meadow behind the cemetery. Yeah. And he doesn't have a problem dropping them down into cemetery and cleaning them up. Yeah. I mean, if somebody wants to cover them. Right. So I can ask, I could ask Derek, I could ask Morgan, if honest. Okay. I don't know what we cost. I could find out. I mean, Morgan jewelry. He might want to do it on his own time for the firewood. I could ask Morgan too. He's certainly qualified. But all right. So we'll do that. Hold down. All right. All right. We'll work on it. Since we're only now becoming clear of the distinction between commissioner and foreman. Do we understand or have any place where we have, what are the responsibilities of each? Well, let's see how it leads it out, isn't it? The reason I'm asking is we're also, there were some things that you were doing that you were being reimbursed for or paid for. And you were saying that that's going to continue to happen. Are we clear what those are and what those aren't? What is it that you're doing as a sextant or the foreman for the commission and what you're not? I think it would be helpful if we had that spelled out. I think that what the policy says is that he's the appointed representative of the commissioner. So I think that he's carrying out your duties as cemetery commissioner. He's doing the stuff, he's doing the work for you. The only thing he can't do is make the rules to make the policy that the commissioners have to do. But he does all the, the date, he basically runs the cemetery as your representative. But there are certain things that what you're getting at. What I'm saying is if we've got something like we have to hire somebody to come in to do X, Y, or Z like the mulling, we're hiring somebody to talking about hiring somebody to come in to do logging or to take down some trees. Are those the kinds of things that is the foreman rather than having the authority to just decide does that need to come to the commission? Well, I do the, see when I did the mulling bids, we put them out, we reviewed, we drafted the RFP and then they went out and then you guys awarded the bids. I just want to be clear. We did. Yeah, so basically he comes in, if we need to issue an RFP, we do. If it's something big like that, then you guys will, then I bring it to you guys and you guys would otherwise if it falls for my bailiwick and I'll just pay for it. And then I do it. I think it goes wrong with you guys. Yeah, obviously, yeah, yeah. They figured that out. So, but all right, I mean, I just want to be, I might have the authority to do what you do. What might be helpful in this case is, and we may not have tonight, but what might be helpful is to have a drafted up version of the responsibilities. I can look at the regulations and that's the cemetery law. For the cemetery foreman, I think, is what Gene's looking at. Kind of like a job description. I don't think so. Not tonight, but I'm thinking, you know. Because you've already drafted something. You've always got the phrase that doesn't make me require it. Signed up. Yeah, we'll take a look. I'll look in the statutes. Well, right. I think it's pretty clear. So, right now just not to get too far off track here. So what I'd like to do is do a motion. The first motion would be to increase the stipend per year for the cemetery foreman to be $1,500 a year. Effective, let me do. Effective July 1st, which is the budget season that we're in. So moved. Second. Okay, all in favor? All right. All right. And then, and then we'll do, and then Cecil is seeking reappointment as the cemetery foreman. Does that sound correct, Cecil? That's right. So if, unless anybody has anything there, I just needed a motion to accept Cecil as reappointment to the cemetery foreman. So I'm a second. A second by Paul. All in favor? All right. All right. And I would say, you know, definitely, Cecil, any, like feel free, you know, August, September of each year to get with Teresa and give her your wish list of- He usually talks about that. These are the things we really would like to do, maybe in the priority that you want to do them. And then, you know, because budget time is us throwing a bunch of stuff against the wall and see how it all settles in. And you might get some things and not others, but at least, you know, you can get some of those things taken care of. Also think that you should authorize the tree removal. That looks like six, you've got six. So I would say, you know, you're looking at 10 to 12 trees here because you've got nine that you can think of off the top of your head. So there may be more. So could we say hazardous trees? Yeah. Let it be a little bit more open to the decisions that need to be made. Yeah. And you might want to up to a certain amount of money because it could get pricey fast. So- How much money is in that account at this point? I honestly don't have it in front of me. So I don't know, but I would think, can you think we could get all those trees cut for five grand? You think we could get 10, those six dead hemlock and three pine cut for $5,000? I would hope. I would hope so too. I think you could. Yeah. We'll look around and see what we can do, maybe more too, because- Sometimes a lot of people want the wood for it. Yeah. This guy, the tree for my neighbor was $7,000 for one pine tree. I know, it's not strong. I know, we've paid- Especially if we're asking the whole other way. Well, why don't we for now, I don't know. Do we want to just go get a quote? I think we should- Figure out how much it's going to be and then we'll just approve it. I think we should have a number to work with to find out what it might cost. Okay. Why don't you just see if you can get something, a fixed number for the next meeting and then we can approve it at the next meeting. I'll talk to Morgan and Derek, Altragetti and Garry, see if we could come up with some pricing. Oh, sure. Yeah, he's done it before. I'll ask him. He's usually pretty good about it. Okay. Chris doesn't have a problem so they've knocked him down the window and he shouldn't have one. Yeah. You'll have to do that because they paid it all. Yeah. And can you talk to Chris Forrest and see if he cares? If he wants the wood, if we cut him and drop him in this field, he doesn't. So we'd have to, whoever cuts it has to clean up the paper. It's not good for nothing. Huh, enough? Time's no good for anything. Yeah, true. What is it? She had an outdoor furnace or something. Yeah. I don't want it. Okay. I'll talk to a couple of people, see what I can find out and I'll call you. All right, let's go. Put this in the paper. But what in the paper? Your policy because you caught help because you didn't. Because we're separate. Because we didn't make a public announcement. The new rules. Oh, yeah. Well, they should know they were here. I did publish. Boy, I remember what I put in. I'll put it in the paper. The good call. They're off to fling. So I know. True or not. I will put that wording in the paper. What wording in paper? You knew about it. I knew about it. I don't see the page. Yeah, I know. I think that would have been an off. But all right. So we're going to leave the signs up. Nobody's complaining. If we get a bunch of complaints, I'll let you know and we'll go from there. Yeah, you tell me that. Right now, nobody has said anything. Like I said, 99% of the people are going by the signs. You got this. I think there's only five. Great. Fairly. Before you leave. At some point, I would like your opinion on sites for natural burial. Another natural burial sites. Well, that's but whether we have any site. We don't. Well, no, we can't can't legally do it in the cemetery. I think I read that regulation. I think the law says a lot of sites in the cemetery doesn't work. We hear it. It's going to be tough if somebody's bought a lot and they want to be with their family. If it's not in that section. No, I know I'm just asking. I'm just curious. It seems to me that that is something that people may in Bethel residents may want. And the current policy requires a vault. So that's not a green barrier. Now, my question is one of information. You know a little bit about green burials. But is there a way that the town of Bethel can provide that? And where even if it's in whatever town forest? Well, that's there are ways there are ways to do it. I'm just asking if we all need to look into. They did it. Here's what they did on their private land. On their private land. You can do it on private land. But if you. Well, I think that the most obligated version of the same for both of these fly. And only got a small blurb in there. But I'll look at it again and see if it leads me to a statute. And I understand that. So I made it by. But I just invite your comments, even if there's no space available, even in a designated area within our current problem. All right, well, I'll scope it out and see what I could buy it. And then thank you, Cecil. Thanks, Cecil. I'm glad you're back. I'm glad you're back. You should be. How much did you get? So public comment, I guess, sir. Make sure it's for this one. All right, well, we sent the we sent the bill. We'll now open it up for public comment. So if there's anybody, there's currently nobody here in the audience. So if there's anybody that wants to speak now. We have Ellie or Christine. Anything for public comment? Don't tell everybody. Nothing from me. Thanks, Ellie. Christie, anything for you? Thanks, everybody. What's all that ruckus in there? My goodness. For so many people. Hey, I'd like public comment on the record that I'm tired of the humidity. Thank you. That's all I have to say. We'll get right on that. Yeah. We'll do what we can about that. Setting up the new weather machine right now. At least you're not here. Yeah. It's it's brutal down here. Yeah, there's no air conditioning in this old building. Paul made the right. Hey, I grew up in a Grange Hall, my whole childhood. So you don't have to tell me. Woo. I bet. All right. So hearing no public comment, we will move on. We had the. We had the generator bid and the wastewater pump bids that. Theresa kind of told us last time. And it looked like pretty much that the. The individuals that had given us some budgetary prices on it ended up being cheaper on them. And this was part of the ARPA money that we had planned on using. So the good news is you can accept the money into the general fund. So you've accepted the money by saying that it's a. Revenue replacement. So it kind of helps you with the procurement rules. However, that being said, we have stuck to the rules. We put it out on the state bid site so that you can open it up to everybody. I had written to VLCT to see if American Iron and Steel came into play, which luckily it did not. So. So yeah, and then it kind of worked out too, because the funny as things do, because I truly believe that Tim Mills is still pulling the strings, no matter what I think I'm doing, because he had met with the Yankee generator, had a relationship with them, and they were part of the bid. We'd gotten some information to figure out how to come about this. And he met with Laramie Water Resources, to spill Laramie. He'd come as a recommendation from Aldrich and Elliott. So we went through the whole public process and then they ended up being the low bidder. So I thought, well, I'm still at it. And I mean, I know this was kind of the one piece of the ARPA money that we kind of had agreed early on in the process that we were looking towards taking advantage of that money towards this infrastructure. And this is going to save the utility users a lot of money. And these are 40 year replacements. I mean, in the pumps, Richard keeps saying, are we getting over the pumps? Yeah, because, you know, every 16, 18 months, we're rebuilding one. So the good news is, too, is our other employee at the wastewater plant, Clayton Whitmarsh, is familiar with these pumps. And that's what he runs in Heartland. And we, Richard went down and met with him. And the news is you may actually get a chance to meet Clayton because he's going to cover a week's vacation for Richard. And so it's also nice to have someone and he's a certified level five. Heartland's a big plant. So it's nice that he's familiar with the pumps. So that was nice, too. And Richard's kind of kept him in the loop as we've gone along. So so I would make a question. Yep. The big result for the gender. The gender. Oh, I see is generator versus pumps. Yeah, I'm looking at a hundred thousand dollar difference. And I'm saying, wait a minute. Yeah, yeah. No, no. OK, I got the first one was that I read it that time. Place the diesel generator. And the other one was for the pumps. OK, so. So I would just entertain a motion to. Award the bids to Yankee generator and Laramie water resources. Her, the bid sheet. So move. OK, all in favor. Hi. Perfect. How long did you say it was going to take to give that stuff? A couple of months. Well, at least I think the generator bid said it was at least 20 weeks out. And that was a while ago. So that was a month ago, I guess, or not quite a month. OK, it's but it's good. So this will roll into our rest of our American rescue plan spending. I know we talked about finalizing this in September. And so I did a little math for you here, saying this is what we are going to be awarded. This is our generator minus our wastewater pumps and our balance. And, you know, I'm I'm still I would still like to see 20,000 of it go towards reduction of the purchase of the Western Star so that it helps that capital fund because we have a lot of equipment need. I'd also like to see the rest of it put in the roads, gravel roads, so that we can, you know, make some headway. Do similar. What do exactly? Not so exactly what we did after the April 2019 flood, divide the town into quadrants of AJ and Morgan, Ryan Slack and and, you know, work on the sections that we know are bad, that we know need to be done and have them done and material brought in. And and, you know, it's it's a boon for us, this kind of money. And we also have some matching money for the Sand Hill. We do. And now that I've attended that class. For that webinar, the 20 percent that we it was originally a 600,000. Here you go, nothing. Then it made it through the federal government. Now we have a 20 percent match. However, money that we used in the DWSRF fund, not all of that's federal money. So any portion that we get that's non federal can go towards buying down our our match on that. Plus the draft plan, IEP plan came out. They divided our project into two funds, one for 850,000 and with 425,000 of forgiveness and 850 and 425 forgiveness. And then the other portion, which is the pump station, Crystal Drive, that where they didn't give us any disadvantaged subsidy where they gave us 425,000 on the other. So Wayne, Ellie and I emailed today and I asked Wayne, he's going to make a comment to them and say, wait a second, where's our where's Bethel subsidy on that? And then we're going to try to figure out a timeline. Where's the Bennington amendment from last time? We finally whittled down. Well, it was funny. He did ask me if I was going to get us that money this time. I got the final loan documents and I finally did. They've given us a little more money. So anyway, so we're still waiting to see, you know, how that's going to play out. But but yeah, so there's money to go in the roads. And yes, there's matching funds all over the place. So it's definitely I've talked to Ryan Slack and I need to talk to him again about working on a detailed capital road plan because that's why it started with we have this list of grants now, which is helpful. It shows us where our match is coming, you know, what our match is. So but it's also on Monday. So anyways, I just want to make my plug one more time for American Rescue Plan spending. Hang on one second, Christy. Dave, the what I call the Fay Hill Road, the hill right off the pond. Was very was has two different types of material on the surface of the road. OK. And we had that dry spell. The stuff that came, I think, that came out of Brookfield or somewhere, which was like a hard packed material. So it would have come from like Randolph Center from. Yeah, yeah. And then the rest of the road was a gravel, crushed gravel. Now, I've got hostile, the the crushed stone was still good and hard and there and the crushed gravel finds were going up in smoke and they got rocked really fast and it was just trashed. Yeah. So I think we want to really. We start putting money into gravel or whatever. I think it needs to be put into something. We need to look at the material we're using. Yeah, that's a good idea, because you're right. You get better quality. The road stayed where that hardback was. Where the gravel was came from Tucker's. That's the stuff that came from Tucker's. And that's the challenge is the. Crushed material that is mine typically ends up being a better overall product, except for you can get into wear and tear issues with tires and things like that, because it's sharp and angulated where gravel stone is less fractured. So it's rounder. So it's easier on car tires. But what happens is that kind of moves out of the road because it doesn't have to be a new kind of like it's like a catch 22. There we have one driver on our left. Suspended tires everywhere. Yeah, he's I mean, it's so wash porty and that truck out there five miles an hour is all I can do to stay in the cat. Yeah, now the other road I can go and speed it. Yeah, well, I think it makes the point looking at. No, I think so, too. Definitely quality material to put out there. So Christy, sorry. Go ahead. Don't apologize. I just I just had a clarifying question. The monies you keep referring to is that the American rescue plan monies you keep saying you're trying to spend down? And is that what you're talking about? Yeah, we're talking about American rescue plan. Got it. I just want to make sure I understood. Thank you. Yeah, sure. Oh, so I feel like my my take on this money and I know we're not making this decision. But no, we said until September, but yeah, but I agree with Theresa on, you know, pushing a bunch of that into things that we know we were going to spend that money like gravel roads and some of these upgrades, I think that, you know, even left with four hundred and twenty thousand, that's still a fair chunk of change that we could pick off some really nice ones on here that also I think will make elements of the community feel good and feel attended to, which is important. And so I'd like to sort of maybe see a version of this and Theresa, I'd even be happy to work with you on it if it's like and I'm just I'm going to name random ones just because they're what I can see, but like a website upgrades, five thousand, that's an easy one to pick up. The pick up the twenty thousand towards the New Western stardown payment, things like that, that we just pick off a handful that are these smaller ones. And then what what's left then goes into some of those bigger known continuous maintenance, like capital and yeah, and then kind of play with it from there because I can't I mean upgrade to the pool, you're probably looking at easily one hundred and fifty grand, if not more. I mean, and that's just without getting all the big estimates and I, you know, repairing sidewalks, that's just such a vague notion that I, I, you know, I'm just waiting for better connections to finish because everybody keeps saying, once better connection finishes, then we're going to be open for some grant money that we will qualify for that, you know, we don't, you know, now and we don't even budget sidewalk repair. They're likely sidewalks because of accessibility issues. Yeah, in that, is there, is there a reason we have to make the decision by September? Like, could we sit on some of this for a while to wait to see what better connections to finish this and what else? Sure. Yeah, you can. Because you don't have to, well, you have to, I say it, you have to obligate it by, I think it's twenty twenty four and spend it by twenty twenty six. But certainly if we're going to make a commitment into the roads, we need, you know, you probably want three hundred and twenty thousand to give you're going to get anywhere, you know, we're getting roads done. I mean, Chris, we just did a, you know, Christian Hill, and that was a high estimate. And we just got, I just got a letter today. We did get our bike head grant to do that sidewalk and that's from Gifford's to the school. That's four hundred twenty five thousand. So, frankly, much less than this isn't going to get us probably as far on the gravel roads as we need. Do I think that, yeah, we could pick off twenty thousand worth of other stuff? Probably sure. But, and yes, of course, you could reserve it for a little bit longer. I also, for us to just want to make a plan moving into winter, if we're going to, you know, then the guys can say, OK, we're out. Where's the real trouble spots? What are we going to hit? What are we going to repair? What are we going to do? So, but the priciest potential from the Better Connections grant is sidewalks right here in town. And that may be a place that. And part of it is we need to start budgeting for sidewalk maintenance and repair. We don't. When I came to badly budget a thousand dollars, I wasn't aware that would be sidewalk replacement. And that's a whole different. All the wax can be fish. So anyway, that's. But yeah, I mean, it's definitely something I think that my plan is to put money into the budget this year to start for sidewalks. I mean, we have to. We have to start somewhere. And we always just can't rely on a grant all the time to get, you know, I didn't write them. And I think we look at this list, you know, kind of like Lynn Lou saying, like, regards if we pick some of these off now or later, I think this is, you know, the list of. Priorities here is probably things that we're going to do with our town. It's just a matter of when, right? It's, you know, so, you know, we may use some ARPA money to do the website now, or maybe we dump it into the road and then we come up with our own money next year. Like either way, we're probably going to. Yeah, it seems like most of the most of the ideas that have hit the sheet are things that we kind of somewhere or another thing that need to happen. Just going to be, yeah. And I'm hoping with vorac and better connections that maybe some of that signage money that they're going to design will. I don't know if we're going to get that money. You know, I don't know. I don't know yet what we're going to get to people from after better connections. People just keep telling me we're going to be eligible for money. We, you know, after better connections, but nobody I don't know what that is. So they don't know. Exactly. That's darned it. They still have not. Narrowed it down to specific. We were recommending X, Y and Z. Yeah. They're about ready to do that. Yeah, they're still wanting to make sure that the people, the key players, including the select board. Yeah, or because our last steering committee meeting, I had a commission meeting. So I couldn't go to steering. And then I got an email today from Nicole with a schedule to see about myself and Richard and possibly Morgan getting together with Paul and Jean. And, you know, to look at the slide presentation, which obviously I forwarded to all of you about the big ideas. And so they said there'll be a better explanation that goes with that. And so, so, so yes, I'm aware of that. Right, the slide presentation doesn't make sense without somebody talking with that. Right, that kind of makes sense. And then so we just have to, just with the ARPA money, we just have to be careful right now because we have, you know, four or say four major projects that we have monies appropriated to already. So now it's not a point of are we going to do them? It's we do have it and we have to do it within the next year. Right. So where does Bethel's match come from? Right, not just Bethel's match, but unfortunately a lot of estimates on projects have now been exceeded with energy prices and things like that. So I think we really have to be careful that what we do spend on anything other than some of that matching money right now, because one way or another, we're going to have to do that project down. It's either we're going to lose the grant, which the last thing everyone do is give the grant back because then next time they're going to be like, well, we're not going to give you a grant. And I'd hate to be in a position where we go and none of these are bad ideas, but I'd hate to be in a position where we go and spend money on these things. And then we have to go to the voters and say, we need a quarter million dollars to fund our pieces of these four large projects that we, you know, the sidewalk, the water, the Sand Hill and Christian Hill projects when we could have, you know, avoided that. And some of them we can't. So some of that money can't be used as a match, but we can fill in the gap of something else. Again, it could be that project that we think is 700,000 could turn into 850 or something now that prices are more expensive or the cost of pipes up or whatever. But I would say when we do this, we probably should not just get this list together, but get the list of obligations that we have with our grants and what those matches are. Yeah. Which is this that I gave you. So I will add that. I made a note to add the matching grant funds on here. I'll also have to see which can we can match with our fund, which we can't. Because all four of those projects we're talking about have to get done like in the next, or would be getting done in the next two years, right? Yeah, we've got a lot of them. It's quite a bit of projects in two years that we're going to have to take. Because we've got two, yeah, two haven't waiting for grant agreement. Yeah. And one, of course, well, the BO-REC, which is not, you know, it doesn't cost us anything to match. Right. Not to mention you don't want to do them all at the same time, because at least two of them are going to be in the same location of the village. You know, Pleasant Street sidewalks and Sand Hill. You wouldn't want to be doing all that at the same time, because you're inconveniencing. You know. You wouldn't want to say everybody offside all the time. Oh, let's just do them all at the same time. If you could just sign it. The week's full starts. Yeah. All the time. Let's get the buses backed up down through the village. So I would just say when we do make this, we just got to sit down and... Yep. The ARPA money, looking at our budget that we're getting ready to set and whatever those match pieces are. Yeah. I made a note to add the matching money there. So it didn't even, because they were in such different places in the packet, my brain didn't put them together. Even though you said it in your report, I'm not sure. So we'll use these matches, but my brain still connect all those things. I mean, it's great. I mean, that we have secured, you know, four projects that most towns are probably lucky if you could do one of those, not alone four of them, you know? Yeah, I mean, we are. So we have the opportunity to get stuff done. It's, now we just got to make sure we can catch our match too, right? Yeah, because we're at 1.2 and then we add this other four. So we're at 1.6, just that we've secured just in transportation, while grants alone. Because we had talked about this next waterline project. Yeah. May have to, you know, we'll have to look at what piece goes on the service writers versus what may have to be. On the general. On the general, you know. It depends on the package as well. So. It does. It depends on that. And that's why she put my email to me to meet to talk about the timeline. And I had just gotten, when Tim was out with his hip surgery, he had got notes on the plans. So I don't know how far he'd gotten through, but I was able to get those plans to Mike Maynard. So Mike, so now Mike, Wayne, Richard, and I all need to sit down and kind of understand the project because we were considering a bond vote, you know, in November, but we can't do that. Now we're lucky if we get a bond vote in March. I didn't hear that. They're waiting for the draft. On waterline stuff, water services stuff, like with some of the extension of the, I don't want to say the extension of the T-bill, but that piece that's coming, there's some 90-10 money that's in there with water that I don't know if that project would qualify for 90-10 money, but you know, I know there's some of that stuff that's coming. But again, it's first come, first serve, you know? And that's why we're... Or Bennington will get it if we're not hurry up. And that's why we made the right decision to move with to full design. I mean, I think we're at 85% design or more now. So, you know, so we'll see, like I said, I just had that conversation with Wayne today. So we had, Ellie was going to move for a coin drop. That sound right, Ellie? Yeah, there was a funeral being held at the brick church at the same time plus they were going to do some program at the town hall. So all that funeral traffic, we didn't want to interrupt because it was Peter Hart, a fire person. And so we just want to postpone, we postponed until this coming Saturday, same place, same time, eight to 12. That was very nice. Anybody on the board have any issues with that? Move, we approve. Okay, all in favor? All right. Probably guaranteed to be a heck of a lot cooler, Ellie. Oh, that's good. Thanks for improving the weather for us. Yeah. Well, at least it's supposed to be cooler. I'll believe it when I see it. That's what I hear. Yep. You have to date it to it. Yeah. All right. Energy committee's request to fundraise at the Ethel Energy Show. So I talked to, emailed Nicole after I talked to you and she said they're, no, they do not have any specific fundraising plans. They just want to be able to accept donations because she had written to me, I'd sent her the fundraising policy, which said they can't do any fundraising without permission from the select board. So what they are looking for is permission to basically solicit donations. And then the donations will go. We'll use as she explained an email providing incentives and things like that. So whatever she gets now will be sent back out to the special energy. I just don't want them to get in a situation where they, I don't know, I'll make it up. They get $5,000 donated and then we cross budgets and then the money is not spent by June 30th. And I was very specific about that. I said, yeah, but you don't, you have to spend it by June 30, 2023. She was like, okay, I'm not sure she's expecting a lot, but she just wants to basically use it for providing incentives. And so it's just nice. Does anybody on the board have any issues with the energy committee collecting donations? Second. Okay, all in favor? Aye. All right. And just a motion to authorize myself to sign all necessary closing documents and related to the Bethel Royalton Transfer Station. So moved. Second. David, just click on the draw there. I was gonna be faster, faster. Yeah. All in favor? Aye. I'm not sure exactly what there will be if there's gonna be a purchase and sale or what, but this is the, and for me, this is what our lawyer drafted, but then Royalton's lawyer was drafting something and he needed to get it to Bob Fletcher and then Bob interviewed, but their lawyer was on vacation. So it's kind of a little bit of that. And so anyways, so we're all aware of the deal and what the deal is. So no changes. Okay. All righty. I may have completely, I did. Because I didn't have it for you yet. What, the ditching? Yeah. Okay, because I was looking like, I don't have anything in here. That's why I had to put the name in because I had done, because I was gonna be off on third part of Thursday and Friday. I hadn't, I hadn't done the tabulation yet. So the motion to award the Grant and Age ditching project on Christian Hill will go to W.B. Rogers. And was that, that was all inside of the grant and budget for that? Yeah. Actually there, the bid came in and it's, and we have more money on the table. So I reached out to Rita and said, hey now, what else can we do up there to I know, because these are those hydrologically connected segments. So her and I need to meet to see, I wanna see if we can go further or do another piece in the same area. Gotta look at our, look and talk to Rita. Cause I said, I don't wanna leave this money on the table. So anyway, so W.B. Rogers was a little bitter. Okay. So just need a motion to award to W.B. Rogers. So moved. Second. Okay, moved. Second by Dave. All in favor? Aye. Aye. All right. And then I think everybody had saw there that there was some vandalism that was done at the shooting range. And so, and Dave Griffin is, as September 1st, he's resigning. We did put that out on front porch forum and Facebook, I think. And so we've had two people so far that had, you know, that may be interested and it would be nice if we could get a few people interested because it's a lot for one person to do. We were very, very lucky with Dick Adams. And the minute somebody shot, he got in his truck and came down. And you know, not everybody can do that. And so, and there's been, unfortunately, since Dave has been there, there's been, this is not our first vandalism and people are still shooting shotguns despite the signage, despite the rules. Then somebody did this, they were standing maybe 10 feet away with a nine millimeter and just did this just until that thing just broke down. And Dave and his brother Skip were there and they said, what do you want to do? I said, leave it. Just leave it alone. Just leave it down and see how many people come to shoot and see that this is it. Maybe they'll call the office and we can get them to volunteer their time. And I think that Dave and Skip maybe left it down for a couple of days but then they went down and repaired it. But you know, this isn't that their people are leaving trash. They're shooting shotguns. They're vandalizing, trying to take any donation money or anything that's there. And Dave had wanted to build something else before he got done in September. And it's just, you know, it's God bless you, you know? But he's just really frustrated by it. And part of me was like, just close it but frankly, we can't because we can't enforce it to be closed. We could tear everything down but people are still gonna go there and shoot. But I did ask Oscar to, if he's there to drive by more and I did make a police report which I gave you the information about and then Oscar gave me a case number. But, you know, my mother used to say that you can't have anything nice. I'm not, you know, it's frustrating. Well, again, it's- And I don't know how we're gonna stop it without- I think the top thing is there's- To police it. You know, there's a fair amount of people that use the facility. Yes, they're great. Just like anything in our lives that there's always that few that ruin it for everybody. I think we ought to have a hearing on whether or not to continue maintaining and providing a shooting range. I'll look at it now and see what comes. And see what comes. I mean, people come and we say this is what we've experienced and we need help. And that's what happened before, I think, is that came up and we did do that and that's how Dick Adams came to light and he was the one who took it over. I think in the beginning, more people would offer help. And then of course they didn't. So it might not be a bad idea to get people riled up. No, we're against the people who are interested in having it here. And we can say, look, all right, now we can't, we need help. If it's paired with a hearing or not, you know, one way is kind of what Chris was saying. It's like put it out publicly, like it can be from porch forum and Facebook and all of that, but even a sign that's right there so that users see it at like, help us keep this, you know, and Alan, what, you know, what you can be like, this will go away unless you are responsible and, you know, and then the rules are underneath it and all. And the rules are posted. Clear as a day they're out. That's obvious, but it's also the like, and the dangle the, this could go away. Yeah, if you're not responsible. I could put something out on from porch forum and Facebook and just openly discuss and post the picture of the vandalism and just say, these are what's going on. Someone is there. The gentleman who's been graciously taken care of it is no longer, you know, a September is not going to do that. And if you don't want this to go away, we need people to police it and use it responsibly. Right, and maybe even kind of hold each other responsible when they're there. If they see something happening then it kind of gives them the permission. I'm not sure. You don't want to play with the guy with the gun? No, the guy that's doing that, I'm not sure I want to walk up to it and say, hey, quit that. He's got it loaded in nine mil there. Right. That's not sure. I'm not sure that I want to be the guy that goes up and tells him, eee. It's, it's true. And, and, you know, I'll take my 40 and then maybe we'll go. It's a valid point. I got thinking of that when I was, when you had told me about it there about two weeks ago when it happened or whatever. I mean, it kind of segues into the constable discussion a little bit with, you know, not to say that this stuff couldn't or wouldn't happen even if we had a constable here for the 20 hours a week that we'll promise people. But, you know, we do have the, you know, what we promised versus what we're getting for service, right? And, and we know how, you know, most of how law enforcement works is, is being out there visible as a deterrent, right? And I think, I mean, how often do we see nothing against the two constables, but how often do we see the constable, right? Like if you're a local person, you know at this point, not very often, right? And so, so you will see some of this stuff. You'll start to see some of this stuff like bridge graffiti and this stuff and things popping up again because people think that I never see that, so I can do that. divine parlor is stabilized. They broke the top finial. Maybe I'm not sure that's the right word, but off the top and they, in the floor, they've done, yeah, so maybe the related who knows, but it's like, you know how it is. Like anytime, you know, there's a shift like that, you know, people are going to take advantage of that. That's right. So it kind of got thinking like, well, the first thing came to mind is, you know, maybe half the time I hear the gunshots from my house, like maybe I should just drive down once in a while and see who's doing it, you know, because I've always just assumed that somebody was doing that anyway. So, but then the other piece is me, it just angers me because my girls and I, we go down there maybe once a year to do some target practice, but you know, I'd hate for a few bad eggs to ruin it for everybody because there's not a lot of places to go do that safely. And what happens in the argument that was made last time was the argument to keep it in town was, you know, to adopt a safe location for people to do it rather than people doing it, maybe in a not so safe location at home, right? I mean, so, but yeah, it's pretty unfortunate that people need to go and do things like that. But I think we're starting to see some small stuff pick up, you know, that we had seen in the last couple of years. Security cameras. So. Well, we've talked about that and there's not really a great place down there. And then when we had some signage up, Dave had experienced the day he was there, there was two people and they climbed all over the woods and the bank and so they were trying, they won't find them. And they're also shooting so they could shoot them out and then we see each other talk about it. But it's interesting, they went out looking for them because there was a sign there that said, you know, it, but I asked Morgan about it and he said, he was very happy when the town said no more shotguns because he said, we used to hear BBs on the roof of the town garage and he said, and he said, if people are down back shooting, he goes as employees of the town, we're not hanging out out back. He goes, we're kind of staying here in the, some of the shop and you know, but if that's what you want, happy to put up from Fort Torm Post, Facebook Post and let people know publicly about it and do you want to add it to a future agenda item? No, I like, I like Glenn Lee's approach of, let's at least this step, let's put it out there and say, did you know this is what happened out there? And you know, it's just- Almost a little bit of public shaming. Yeah, absolutely. Not like a person who did it, but just saying like, if this continues, this amenity will go away. Here's what you're risking. You're for your moment of fun. You could ruin the whole thing. Okay. So do you don't want on an agenda yet? No, but I think if we get it out there in front of the public of- Gene's right. I like Gene's idea too, is let's see what we've done. And we may have to, like if that continues, we have to revisit the whole thing. It could be a once in a lifetime kind of thing. They've done it, yeah. So, but I think Gene's done it. It's a good one. And I'll tell you right now, Mr, they'll come out in droves. But it's not a bad thing. I think Gene is right. So if this doesn't get their attention and remind them of the rules, like- Yeah, no, I agree. Then they get a cap and then we can say, okay, well, what are you gonna do about it? You can sit here and complain to us. We don't have the staff to do it. So- We did this a few years ago. I think Chris was on the board then. We had one select person who was really animate about shutting it down completely. And we had a hearing and had, I don't think we had more than three or four people that came in to support keeping it open. Really? I was back when I first got on the board. Yeah, I remember that. It was before the second amendment started. I think at that time we had adjusted some hours called, didn't we? Yes, yes, because Dick was keeping an eye on things. But this particular select person was very animate about having, it was right around the time of some of the school shootings. There was a heightened awareness of that. I think the first thing is if we get that out publicly, individuals that do wanna take advantage of that site may have a new renown sense and going out there doing- Redirect people- Some supervising on their own time. If we are looking for somebody- Yeah, and we have put that out but we'll do it again in this time. I mean, Adam's is great because he would run right out there. As soon as he heard the first shot he'd go right out there and find- Dick was- Because I don't know how many times I'd have to drill there or something and he'd come down and be all happy to see them. Oh yeah, he's a great guy. But yeah, sorry, we'll do that. And then the last piece, so we had talked about that sometime around budget season or just prior to that that we'd start the conversation of, basically this is a budget oriented discussion on what do we do with the constable, police, whatever. So rather than get too far ahead of ourselves I wanted to break this down over like several steps rather than just have a lot of people in here at the board level. I'd like to- I was trying my notes here. I was thinking more at this point at the- At our level is- And then we can get good public buy-in would be- What I'd like to get at tonight is what are our options currently? So, and if we could lay out- Make it up. Here are four or five options that we have. And if as a board we can lay those options out there then we can start to have a discussion on does this option work? Does this one not work? Can we forward it? Can we not afford it? Does it fit into what we wanna do here in the community or not? So I guess what I wanted to get out of the board tonight is entries because Theresa's been doing some notes as well as what currently are our options when it comes to our constable. Obviously the first option is we can leave it the way it is, right? We have two constables that give us time whenever they can, which right now is- Rare. I don't know. Nine hours of patriot. So it's rare. And these are just my notes and feel free to jump in. The other option I had come up with is like we talked about the budget session last October, November was finding a full-time person because there's been difficulty with hiring part-time people because of wage benefits or need elsewhere in order to attract somebody. Maybe we need to hire somebody full-time. There's always the option. I'd say it's a popular one. There's always the option of having a police department. Just throwing things against the wall option-wise. And then like we had talked about the last couple of years is there's the outsource. So we could outsource our community policing to the sheriff's department or the state police or another identity. Thank you. So I guess what I wanted to do just kind of with the board members tonight is let's just formalize an option sheet that we feel are realistic options for our community. And then we could start getting some feedback both at budget season and community members can put in their input on full-time individual versus part-time or how they feel about a police department or- It also helped me do some research. I think the fifth option is no coverage. Right, oh yeah. There is an option of you do nothing, which sometimes we hear that, which is the DSPs right down the street, but we also know the DSP is short staff, shorter than we are. So- And now when we looked at outsourcing before, those have been significantly more expensive options with less for the town, right? Like get less coverage for the town and less that they are willing to do that currently our principle does, right? So there's sort of that way of- There is. Expensive and we're actually getting less for our money. Right. But yeah, we're getting up now. This will probably cost you X if we can provide the service, right? Like there's no commitment behind like, we'll even be able to do this. Right. If we can it's gonna be XYZ. I do talk to Frank Severi, he's on the select board in Rochester and they currently contract with Windsor County Sheriff's office and he's been, they've been happy with them. They pay, I think they pay about 28,000, 30,000 a year and they get a specific amount of coverage and they will do more than just traffic enforcement. They will do, if they're in your town for whatever 20 hours a week or 12 hours a week, they will do what you need them to do. Whether it's do a welfare check or do, you know, on something else, they will do those, then verification to probably look at, you know, drug issues or reports of ESP, that sort of thing. I don't think it's like animal control. We would have to have our own animal control. So if we went to no coverage then you would have to do an animal control. You would have to have a point. You'd have to hire, we had a dog warden. So you'd need a dog warden. I will talk to the lawyer, the dog warden. I could catch one of them. If any of those options will require a dog warden. Oh, right. Yeah, unless Paul says stay. If you contact out. That's outsourced. Yeah, so nothing, you need a dog warden and the contract out, you'd need a dog warden. Yeah. Does the dog warden, with that cover, is that animal control? Because I know sometimes. It depends on your ordinance. Dogs, it depends on your ordinance. If you just deal with dogs, which is all you should be dealing with, then it's just a dog warden. Because people can take care of cats to the Humane Society or whatever. If it's a raccoon, a skunk, this or that, you'd call the state police and deal with the game warden. So, but, so yeah, so you're right. So I added that. You need a dog warden for your VSP option or your no option. And you said start a PD was one of your options, right? Well, yeah, but I mean, I just threw it out there. I just want to make sure. I mean, again, PD doesn't necessarily need to have six cops. No, no, no. But Randolph was another person. I lived in the police department and went to Orange County. Sheriff's, yeah. And I don't know. I'm gonna be interested to know if they, what their, you know, has any, I don't know what they have full time coverage. I don't know what they have. Yeah, following that, but that's another place. Yeah, I'm making up. Of course, I guess the first option when I said stay as we are, I guess maybe it's two options because we currently are not where we want to be, right? So I guess our, our current option was really 20 hours a week part-time person that we can't find someone to do 20 hours a week. And we are currently at, you know, two part-time people with very limited exposure. Exactly. So yeah, I said either higher full-time person or higher part-time person or two people, which is kind of our stay the same option. And I know, you know, a lot of things could change. I mean, I know the, you know, the elections for the sheriffs will be happening. So potentially depending on who gets on or off, there can always be, you know, new proposals on how someone wants to, you know, do something. But. I think that if you were going to, you know, you could contract out, I mean, our current year budget is 40,000, 41,000. You could contract out for 41,000 with either BSP or the sheriff and get. About what you're getting now. Maybe, oh yeah, maybe, maybe a little more. For a lot more. Okay, with the sheriffs, a little more BSP, a little less. Yeah, right, exactly. The good news is about contracting it out is as we are in a pickle now, people on mandatory overtime, they can't help us. So we actually would be a priority for somebody and somebody's out for surgery, somebody's out for, we have no one to cover. Whereas if we contracted out, that's their problem. They have agreed to provide us with this coverage and we're guaranteed that coverage. That's the thing we can't do now. And if you hired one full-time person, you're not doing that for 40,000 a year. No, I'd heard the estimates on that. You'd probably need to budget like 80 to 100,000 a year when you count benefits. That's what I was thinking. If you went full-time. And that's one person. So that means they'd have a varied schedule. You wouldn't have 24-7 coverage, of course. But oh yeah, you'd be, And that would be what you would call full-time constable. You know, they would probably have credentials more so than that. I think that this is the direction that's going to fill in. Even though you've adjusted this in a year or maybe a half ago, is it worth getting the numbers from both the checks? Oh, sure. And VST, just to do this comparison, I feel like. Yeah, I can also do a salary survey. But I think Chris is right. We'd be looking at 80 to 100 a year with Benny's for one person. But then I think we have to understand the reality of our situation is, let's say we decided to go to a full-time individual. Will we even be able to attract a full-time individual? Cause like all the agencies around us are short in. And they're all paying probably more and have more resources than we do. And it's challenging, you know what I mean? So it's like, let's say we wanted to go full-time. Is that even realistic at this point? It's true. You're talking about, you're right, as far as we don't have a lot of equipment. We've relied on these people using equipment from their other positions. Whereas, you know, if you contract it out, obviously they have to, if their car isn't working, if they're, you know, they're doing, providing the training. Also the rules too, you know? That's, beliefs are tricky business in the sense that, you know, a lot of things can go wrong quickly. And it's a lot of liability for the town. Where if you are contracting that out, then that entity is the one responsible for use of force policies and making sure that everything is current and that person is training. Yeah, and it's up to date on their standards. I mean, my personal preference is that we would be that we contracted out. Because all of those things that are beyond our purview to figure out, are they the most up to date on this? Do they understand that? That they're being paid competitively. Right, are they getting the proper community policing training that we need them to have? If they come from a bigger agency like the VSB or the Sheriff's Office, they're getting that training because, you know, they're in a larger group than us trying to, you know, to figure it out. So we had the four, we had five options. Yep. We're currently in a situation where we say we can't find anybody part time. When's the last time we looked? Well, because we're currently experiencing a dissatisfaction with our current situation. Only hours, yes. We're not, we're not getting what we had hoped to receive for the dollars available. So my question, the follow up question is, how hard have we tried to find something, somebody to do what we need done? Not at all. I haven't asked that. I mean, that's, I'm not right. Because until what last year we were getting, Oscar was doing more, when we had spent two years, I forget. Well, it's been two years. I mean, even when we were, we had the position to open, we struggled to get through it by now as before the first shortage. So I think that if Justin is on mandatory over time, I think that reality is. You may be absolutely right. Right. I want to raise the question. Point, we haven't actually looked, but we also, having the figure on the pulse of what's happening around the state and have a good idea that it's not as likely. It doesn't mean it's not impossible. And you might attract somebody who, to take a full time position who's come from a bigger agency that maybe is just sick of it and wants to come to a smaller agency. But to me, that's still, that is still is a big burden for the town because again, it's making sure these policies and their training and everything is where I feel like if you contract out you're basically mitigating your liability. You're transferring your liability. I mean, a lot of reason why our, well, we call it a police department, but our constable budget has pretty much doubled in the past like five or six years is because of the amount of red tape that comes along with the position now. The trainings, the extra time for documentation or going to court or, you know, so that's why, that's kind of where the 20 hours was. It used to be, you know, 10, 15, then turn to 20 and you're not really getting any extra. It's just there's more behind the scene work. It's true. The packets that they have to put out to send to the state's attorney's office would boggle the mind that I've seen it and it's... So options wise, because I just want to, you know, then we can say here's the options the select court's looking at and then we can get some community buy in. So safe to say that option one, which is stay as we are which is a combination of we really want 20 hours but we're really not finding the right fits for that hours. So, and that might open up the discussion like Jean said is maybe it's time that we sit down with our two constables and say, if you can't give us the 20 hours we're gonna have to open the position up to see what may be out there, right? Does that kind of sound like Jean? That the second option is a full-time individual. Do we want to put money and time and by resources to have a full-time individual if we could even find somebody? The third one, we had PD. I mean, do we feel at this point with the board that that's an option or do we feel that that's kind of a lost option that we should just, lost option? Yeah. So maybe we just cross that one off the list, that's all. And then outside source, so Sheriff Vermont State Police or something else that will leave that alone. And then five, no coverage slash animal control. You just crossed your fingers and hope for the best. Yeah, I mean, we could go for a full-time individual and get with no coverage, right? I mean, you could end up in that situation if you can't fill those. So it sounds, those four options that we have any other options that we can think of that day? Do you want to leave no coverage as an option like just calling it a day and tell people they're going to take a gamble with the state police or do you want to leave that as an option? I mean, if you're putting this to the public, I don't think it hurts to have it as an option, but yeah, I mean, I'd want to hear a sure good story. I think we should hear from what they want to hear from people. I'd want to hear a strong argument with resources behind it as to what are the, why would we go that way? What are the reasons? And I know for so many years, we kind of got spoiled as a community by having VSPs so close. Like, we used to have one or two troopers that lived right in our immediate area. So we always kind of got that double coverage and their cruisers parks, nice strategic spots. And now we don't have that plus the BSP is short-handed. So they don't come through as much as they do now because they're out doing their own stuff. Cause I guess the next meeting what I'd like to do is open up the options and start exploring them. So start getting some feedback on, we can start doing some homework on just having the discussion, I'm not gonna vote on anything, but just how would that look if we went with option one, two or four or five that we have around here? I will have to admit that I was reading here. Did you have an option where we were gonna have our own police department? We did, yeah. So- But we just drew a line through it. Okay, because if you're gonna do that, you and I had the conversation about other employees in town that are doing stuff that they're not, that's not their job. Right. Police department is not your job or your job. No. You've already have jobs. Yeah. So I- No, and as someone who's- It's not in the- Overseen of police department, I think would rate my resignation so fast. And I don't wanna say the only thing- This thing is close to PIs. I don't wanna use the words of the only thing that's good for, but a community of our size from what I gathered for information, one of the greater benefits that you can have by being a police department is sometimes the grants and other monies that are out there to attach to that. So- You can get COPS grants. Yeah, there's a lot of different grants that you can get out there. COPS grants where they pay for a year and then you have to keep them retained for so many years and each year your cost of that goes up. And I just would like to say that my pitch here on options two or three, which is higher full-time or stay as we are. My experience is that Bethel has been very lucky because we do rely on these people being trained and properly trained and we're not constantly reviewing policies to update, to make sure that our policies are up to date. And I think that certainly as a municipality, one of our responsibilities is liability and by contracting out, transferring that liability to someone else is something that shouldn't be taken lightly. Yes, it's gonna cost you more money because you're maybe you're only gonna get instead of 20 hours maybe you're gonna get less but you have an incident, one incident and it's a lot, it's a lot for your community and it's a lot, not that Justin and Oscar are wonderful people because they are but situations happen. And it's something that I think that needs to be weighted a bit more heavily than just it's about the money. So we'll get those options out there. And I'll do a little research. We can advertise those a little bit and then we can just start breaking those down. Does anyone talk to Wilton how they can handle three or four people? They get a lot of grants. So just like we were talking about because they're a police department, they get a lot of grants to go to the interstate and other places like that. So they can spend time. They do. In those areas and that's kind of one of those benefits that I was talking about by having a police department, you can qualify for a lot of these pieces. Really, I feel a thing, is there any way that everybody's talking about regionalizing things? No, working with Wilton and Rochester, I don't know how it would all work out but have a regional police department with six or seven guys that, okay, Wilton's got a major, oops, so they could take off from there for that afternoon or whatever. But yeah, one person that could I know it's something to talk to. I mean, I had mentioned it to Oscar and he'd had a conversation at one point with Loretta about maybe we don't contract with the BSP or the Sheriff's Office, we contract with Wilton because you're right, they can participate and click it or ticket and DUI stuff and then they're being able to pay their people time and a half to do those certain patrols and they can also get cops grants, they can get equipment grant. They do qualify for stuff that we don't but that is a benefit. And that is something that Oscar talked to them about. So it's something I can certainly reach out to Loretta because last time I knew she was short-handed. It was her and Oscar and because Mark Preston was gone, I think someone else left. So I'm not sure who's left in Wilton besides Loretta and Oscar right now. I know one of the sheriffs that's running for Windsor County Sheriff and one of his proposals that's not being done now is to do what you were talking about, Dave, where getting into the smaller communities and maybe they have make it up. One officer that controls these two communities all the time that's contracted inside that they don't have. But the other thing too is they just don't want their bodies right now to do it. I mean, it's the want versus what's realistic right now. So. But so I can reach out to the sheriff Loretta, the sheriff and look at a salary survey or look at like a PD because it's not just a salary. You're also talking equipment. Vehicle wouldn't probably be just a used car. Well, it's not just a budget. It's what is realistic at this point on that. Crystal clear about what we're looking for. What kind of duties we want this person or persons or agency or whatever to provide. I think we need to be crystal clear about that. We're talking about a constable. That's one thing. And I'm not sure. Well, I'm sure the community is not clear about that. Because everybody has something different that they want. When you talk about public safety and law enforcement that conjures up different images in different people. And there's a big difference between a constable that I'd never heard of until I came to Vermont. And, you know, police. So, and it's clear from reading those responses again that the community is not clear on that distinction. You know, the word constable. No. England. Oh. Constable on patrol. Oh, I didn't know that. Oh, interesting. Yeah. And it used to be, you know, the big difference between a constable and an officer was the credentials. It was the big differences. But now, again, kind of where policies have gone, the credentials for a constable are the same as the credential for a police officer. So it becomes that same thing that even if you get a constable, it's probably gonna be trained the same. Yeah. Cause originally constables could just be any person. Then, oh, I want to say maybe 10 years ago, but they said constables had to become part-time certified. So they had a special program through the police academy to get these, if you were gonna be a constable, you had to actually be a constable trained, which was a great idea. Cause you had people running around being a constable that didn't have, you know, the training. So yes, we're lucky that both of our constables are, you know, two E's, which is a long conversation, but yeah. But I think that's good when we start this path through talking, this discussion is kind of revisit what we're looking for. And I think everybody wants something different. So you're worth it for traffic control. Well, and I think- And God willing. Right. It's done more than separate. You're right. But traffic control and, you know, I think, you know, you still would need other stuff. So it's hard to know. You just, unfortunately, you can't rely on the DSP anymore. And it's too bad because they're social staff too. So it's too bad. Anyway, all right. All right, well, we'll outline this. So we'll continue our discussion with the- So that's why I gave you the survey. So you had to read the results myself. Oh wow, this is what they said. Did we have anything left that was on the town managers report? Just one. So we were awarded, it was on your grant list, the VTrans Bike Ped Grant for 424,000. Our local match is 106 for 530. So that, so we were awarded that. So that's great. So we're looking at, we have currently secured, you know, like $1.6 million just in transportation grants. They obviously have others pending and that doesn't include the whole rack of 331,000. And then, you know, phase two of the skate park that Ellie had secured, which was a $25,000 grant. So that's on there too. So- And she reported the other day that they had a donation. Yes, they had a large donation. Yep, that's why I heard. That's awesome. $10,000. Yep, I heard they got a $10,000 donation. That's amazing. Just in general or something to say. It was for the phase two of the skate park. So yeah, so I mean, I feel like we're doing well as far as, you know, certainly writing grants is great. And, you know, now it's just for me, for me it's, yeah, the overseeing and the paperwork. Well, again, the amount of grant money that we've gotten is- I've got to write a couple RFPs. Well, I've been trying and working with Two Rivers, Rita is awesome and she's super helpful. And then, yeah, as you can see, I have two RFPs that I haven't written yet, but I need to write. But anyways, we're getting there. So I had that, and I also wanted to say that Hayes and Sol's last day is August 18th and I'm sad to see him go, but he has a young family and we have to make financial choices that benefit our family and I fully respect that. But we're going to miss him because he has this excellent work ethic and just this great personality. So we have- You don't want to risk for this. And no- Don't blame me. No, have we- I didn't even know about it. Yeah, I texted Chris and he's like, what are you talking about? So we're sad to see him go. The great thing is Hayes and has agreed to come back to be our seasonal, one of our seasonal. So while he's gone, you know, AJ and Morgan are sad to miss him, he is going to be our seasonal. So Paul, Feeney has agreed to come back as our seasonal, which is great. So we're still going to be looking for someone to fill Richard's seat, but obviously looking for a full-time person. I've just put the ad in the newspaper. I already published it on the state website. So it goes to Holly Hayden and then anybody who's on the listserv gets it. So we- Do you have any opportunities with the kid that's helping out? Adam, no. On doing a winter maintenance? I don't, he, though, I would, I'd have to talk to Demi at South Royalton because he does not have a CDL and he does a Demi sidewalk plowing. So we obviously, you know, it's going to cost us, you know, approximately $10,000, I guess, to get somebody a CDL. We had done that before and the person, you know, moved on didn't stay long. So obviously- It's always a gamble. To get somebody with a CDL, because if we're going to make that sort of a commitment, somebody's going to have to sign a contract that they're agreeing to stay or something. Or that they pay back money. Yeah, somehow. I mean, we can legally do that. But I don't know, I'd have to find out. But at least, and what we're saying in Morgan and AJ are also saying is the CDL, they can train them to be equipment operators, but, you know, you need the right personality. We need someone who's positive, who's a team player, who, you know, just really has the ability to get along and learn, but somebody who has, you know, a CDL. So the ads are out and we love you for people. Just the attention to detail that Adam, right? Is that Adam? The young guy, how are you doing? Yeah, he's nice, isn't he great? I mean, just like, you know, wire brushing the steel and repainting the fences and stuff. I mean, just that little bit of attention to detail goes up very, very long. Yeah, he has- I've had so many compliments with just some of the things that normally didn't get done that have gotten done this year. Well, it's been good because of bringing somebody in separately apart from Richard who had water sewer duties. And so that compliment really goes to Richard. He is overseen Adam. And, you know, a couple of people came, brought up about the fence. I think it might've been Dave Algegetti because he was working at Babes and said, hey, you know, this fence needs some work and then we've done other stuff. And of course, Paul Valley has done some great work for us at the band shell and Peabine and the little pocket park. And we're gonna get Adam to paint that. But it's been nice to paint somebody about a CDL to do some of this work. And Richard has done a great job overseeing him. And so I'm very thankful to Richard for doing that. But he is, and he's a nice, Adam is a nice young man. And so no, that's it for me. Just wanted to tell you about the Hazen and awarding the grant. And select board meeting minutes from the 11th. Do we have any changes to that? Are we good to prove as written? I'm good. All right, Paul's moved it. Okay, all in favor? All right. All right. And other communications, there was a little bit in our packet there, the other communications, the Ford Festival Committee was in there. Equity Inclusion Committee. There was something in there. I thought... Act 250 spotlight. Energy committee, yep. Paul Valley's a volunteer spotlight. And you're, these are preliminary year end numbers because it's not over. So, you know, we're still paying bills, which we will until the end of August. So this is where we sit preliminarily. I haven't made all the audit adjustments, but these were June, so far June 30 numbers. Nice, yep. Also too, I saw in the news that they, you haven't noticed yet, via MVP and Blue Cross ask for like 15%, but I heard they just passed, they awarded something, which I think is for people who have to go into the network or the, not the network, yeah, I guess, but they were asking for a big increase and now I'd mentioned it to Chris. So I'm hoping that normally when they do that, that they don't always give it to them. Their state public service board, whoever reviews that, but still 10% is great. Well, let's see. One of the continuing largest increases a year that a family is healthcare. I know, great. Jean, you had, Yes, several months, maybe a couple of months ago, you asked for somebody to attend the White River Valley Consortium, Working Communities Challenge Project. Was that the one that you just wanted to hear? That was held here, you were there, Chris. So I just thought today, they had a meeting in Fairly, which was a demonstration project of a renovation of a building downtown that was in their business district that they were able to basically replace the building. You know, all they saved was the foundation, but in the course of the presentation just some things that I made note of that I think are worth, first of all, Fairly with a population of 1,000 hired a developer zoning coordinator. So this person's on their staff full time to do development work, economic development and the whole zoning piece. So that was a huge... I think it's great. We had someone in Bristol who did part-time but did zoning and economic development. And it was great. They worked with the Listers and permitting and they were on the PC. It was such a secret. So anyway, I was number one impressed by that, a community of 1,000, half the size of us. And that person is very proactive. Every time there's a person comes in, looks for a building permit. He says, okay, I wanna work with you to make sure that what you want to build can meet muster when it comes to zoning. And so they have the time and energy or whatever the mandate and the support from the community to actually work with the developer and to make sure, A, that what they wanna do is going to be approved. But also, did you know that this fund, this fund, this fund, you can apply for X, Y, Z. If you make any of your housing units available, can the ADA accessible, you can apply for X, Y, Z, Z, Z. And I will help you make, do those applications. The work still remain, it's a very close interworking relationship between the public and public agencies and the private developer so that this particular piece is going to have a commercial retail fund and then seven residential units. So efficiency apartments, two one-bedroom apartments, two of them ADA accessible, and one point some million dollars. And it's possible because the community, in my opinion, had the first site to have the staff to be able to work with. And it's brand new that this is the first piece this young man has done of this scale. He has done property management and he owns some properties. But this is the first thing that he's really built from ground up. And so you have a kid with a lot of energy and vision and then a seasoned expert working with him to make sure that all the ducks are in a row. I was very, very impressed. The architecture, it will, while they are not renovating, it will be consistent with a building that burned down, a century building that burned down that was across the street. Oh, neat. When they had a major fire that took out that whole site of their downtown community. Wow, so they still have that. So they will still physically represent, it'll have the appearance and it will blend into that historic character. There were some other things that that particular individual did for that town. They did not have a town plan that was really very effective. Now they have one. They did not have a unified zoning by law. Now they have one. But so that those some, and he kept the emphasized over and over and over again. We have an asset that not every little community has. We have a water department and they don't have a sewer department. Well, we have water and sewer. Right. We have. We do. I agree. I actually talked to somebody about this recently who was, I wasn't sure if they were going to be retiring for what they did. I said, Hey, do you need some Julie? Oh, okay, thanks. Thank you. So I talked to them because of that saying, Hey, you know, we're going to doing a townwide reappraisal. Plus, you know, we have to do some updates to the town plan and we doing zoning and we don't do, we don't right now do much enforcement or going out and looking and saying, Hey, you know what? I'm going to meet with this person and make sure they build and let people know, Hey, do that economic development piece. So I did mention to someone recently like, Hey, if in the next year, so you're thinking about making a change, come see me first piece because, you know, I think that it's very important that zoning and economic development can really go hand in hand, especially if you have someone who's well versed in it, who also can learn about what's out there and turn people on and get people to come to Bethel by saying, Hey, Bethel has somebody who knows what they're doing and can help you find money to maybe achieve these goals. So I think that's great. I'm amazed that fairly. So fairly has done that. And I noticed in the ARPA saying somebody suggested we need to hire. An economic development. Yep. Energy committee is looking at seeking and I suggested somebody with climate, but they're looking for somebody to be an energy guru that we might share with nearby communities. So there may be. It may be a person with multiple hats because it's something that Chris had mentioned before and I agree with him is if we have somebody in the office who does these things, they're going to be familiar with the town plan and say, Okay, these are the energy goals laid out in your town plan. How are we going to achieve them? Right. And it, you know, so it's, you know, so yeah, I think that's definitely something to think about. So I wanted to report that. Thank you. I think it was, from my perspective, a meeting well worth attending. And while they did not have the historic building designation that they needed to or chosen to try with, they certainly had some things that some pieces put together that amplify that public private linkage teamwork that I think we could learn a full walk from. Nice. Oh. Thanks for going to fairly. That's nice that you went on. Yeah, Chris Sargent was going, so I was able to. Oh, cool. Oh, cool. So. All right. Thanks, Gene. Anything else to come before the board? Okay, hearing none, just need a motion to adjourn. All right. Good night. Thanks, everybody.