 Always Rose there She'll join us in Yeah, Kari. Are you able to handle that? Okay? all right welcome everybody and We're going to be doing a few procedural Organizational things to get started. Do we have a lot of people out there who have dialed in? Or is it just us? Okay So our first order of business is to elect a chair and a vice chair And I will now open the floor to nominations for the office of chair I would nominate and Winchester That's chair. I'd second that Okay, it's been second for nominated in second any other nominations Oh Yes Sorry Took a nose dive Okay, I'm gonna close nominations then and since there's only one I'll just say all in favor Right. Okay. Thanks Any opposed? Oh, I think How's that Let's take nominations for vice chair. I nominate Jordan Sure any other nominations Alright close nominations all in favor, please say aye aye and we have officers. Thank you, Donnie So we have our officers for now We also need to adopt rules of procedure. We have to do this every March It took us so long to do it last year that we adopted the rules of procedure on January 8th of this year Having these are the rules that you'll recall establish the processes we follow during meetings when the regular meetings are Etc. And Kari, I think put them in your Google Docs. So you had a chance to refresh your memory Would anybody like to Offer any changes. Are you all happy with those rules as written? I'm pretty happy with the way that they were modified and would make a motion to accept Them or readop them as they were passed in January So that establishes our regular meeting is six o'clock So we'll continue that which I'm sure Donnie will approve of And finally we have to reappoint liaisons I'm thinking we still need I wrote down on the agenda Curtis Pondam IT and shed and I think we need the first and the third I'm not sure we need an IT liaison anymore Jordan. What do you think? I mean, I think that's kind of becoming a staff function now Yeah, it is I committed to trying to bring some of the file sharing stuff across the finish line for shortly after Town meeting for the new select board and I'd say that's pretty close. So I think by next By next meeting we should be able to kind of start transferring over to that and then that should be good to go at that point Yeah, yeah, you can just report report on it We don't have to actually officially appoint a liaison. No, I don't think so But would you all agree you still need a Curtis Pond liaison who shall recuse herself from votes? And on that topic and on the the court case before us. Yeah That's true. Okay. Do the same people want to keep serving Jamie you keep what you want to keep being Curtis Pond Yes and and Jordan you want to continue with the court case I Read it. I mean I can't speak for Jordan, but Yeah, I mean I've got some lingering to do is Somewhat new to that is it's kind of looping in Kari as well, but but I think that's wholly a wholly appropriate given his His role in town. So I don't think there needs to be any kind of official appointment there So, yeah, I guess Just carrying on with Ann and I for now has been working pretty well Then I'll take a nomination to appoint Jamie to be Curtis Pond. Dem liaison and and and T and Jordan to be Liaisons to the court the litigation that we're currently so moving forward with All right second second discussion all in favor Okay, thank you Oh, I see somebody else has joined us Okay, yes That's not really a liaison Okay, I just wanted to ask, okay. Yeah, I don't think anybody disagree with that Okay Let's see Are there any additions or changes to the agenda people would like to propose I Think I'm gonna chat with Kari and Donnie some more and then maybe we can revisit it in a couple of weeks Okay, the minutes Sorry, what was that? All right, you've also seen the board orders in your packet Jordan has the full packet here Are you ready to vote on them? Yeah, somebody like to move that we approve and sign the board orders I'd make motion to approve and sign the board orders as circulated previously by And Jamie seconds The second, okay, we got two seconds all in favor Okay, now we're up to the Cartography Associates Mapping project and Kari, I love these memos you've been putting in Are so helpful and they save us an enormous amount of time Of course we we've got $3,000 in next year's budget set aside Planning reserve We didn't really talk specifically about the payment schedule Otherwise Yeah At the same time we have to according to the contract we have to appoint a liaison who's going to be responsible did you all see that for Making sure that they get the information that they're going to plug into the maps so you would whoever it is wouldn't be working with John McCullough and the Listers and Probably the Planning Commission and the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission to get all the data and work with them And I'm thinking that could be Kari if Kari would Yeah, and I suspect if there's a mapping aspect to pieces of that Sarah would help as well Yeah I'd love to be like in in the loop on those conversations just because I love that stuff But can't commit to being terribly helpful At the start, but yeah, if you want to copy me in or if at some point I could be of service Please let me know Or if your load shifts as the year kind of gets Yeah, going As I get a sense of the scope of the work, yeah, but I can certainly Cool All right, then any other comments on the contract if all had a chance to look at it Questions comments thoughts In that case, I'll take a motion to approve Let me see. Well, how are we gonna do this Kari? Would you are you gonna sign it on our behalf or are we signing it? Yeah, I think you're Oh Yeah, I noticed the dates need to be changed on this document here. Do you have a one that we can sign tonight? No Okay, well then Can't wait till next meeting if we that's probably good enough Okay Then I'll take a motion to approve signing of the contract and to appoint Kari to be liaison To as we go forward with the contract Jamie's moved it second Jordan seconded further discussion One additional piece is that you have to specifically authorize the The payment of balance out of the planning reserve Okay The money has been set aside Yeah, it's also my motion to achieve that I heard sooner And that also waited for two weeks because I wasn't born Born that was Was was approved the contract that that's But I thought you said you need to approve to appropriate Isn't that part of the approving contract I don't know If it's I'm sure it'll be fine to wait two weeks if that's the safer route to go Okay Well, let's let's go ahead and just vote on it. Yeah, that's fine. Be sure we've got it done So does everybody understand the motion now? We're we're approving the contract. We're authorizing We're appointing Kari liaison and we're authorizing payment out of the reserve fund Which reserve fund for the planning reserve the planning reserve fund for The the extra the amount above $3,000 Okay, it's all in favor. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Thank you And if it turns out we have to we'll have to sign it again next Yeah, I'll get enough in it with a date and then we'll want it Okay All right, municipal climate relief fund loan for a hundred thousand dollars We just have a resolution here, but there were lots more documents in the packet Kari. Yeah, so the the resolution is the action that you're taking and it basically Authorizes all of the borrowing and then there are you write your number of signatures In fact Barbara just handed me this packet and came in the mail this afternoon Just the same documents somehow there's an additional signature page for the board, but That's what we're looking for so we can go ahead and close Yeah, well, it looks to me like we have to sign this Certification certifying that we have signed the note payable. Does that happen at the closing? No, just like with the dam bond all of this is prepared ahead of time And thomas on our behalf brings these documents to the closing Okay And the select board has to sign them all then there's the general obligation note. Yeah, so that's right And the resolution Which was in your packet and There were several things here. Yeah, there's there's a number of things The loan agreement we have to sign And then it looks like we have to sign exhibit b of the loan agreement Your today with a specific schedule of payments And we have to authorize the treasurer to sign the treasurer certificate So we have to do all those things to make that happen. Do we have a closing schedule? Uh, yeah March 28 Okay, so we'd better go ahead and take that vote tonight and if we have to redo it on the 25th fine But we can at least start signing these things. Yeah, I agree Okay So does everybody understand that there was a lot of complicated documents in your phone And it turns out there are many things we have to sign But essentially we're borrowing this $100,000 at 1.3 percent for What the documents say is up to a year if if we choose not to repay within a year, then they will re-authorize Basically, let's say See whether the balance is at that time and the balances do at the end of the year Yes, but but if we choose not to repay then they will let us that same amount for But we can also pay in small in increments. We can pay it whatever time they will be like It'll be applied to the principal. Yeah, and if it makes you feel better folks We got approved for the mosca woods The FEMA approved 75 of the mosca woods That's awesome. $333,000 that came in today So that's exciting. That's awesome very good Yeah, so Monday Sloan isn't much better for you Trist Yeah, yeah, so this will keep us going longer before we have to go to the bank if at all, right? So that's terrific. All right, so the motion will be to sign all the documents related to Borrowing money from the state Yeah, I think I think I should say you're adopting the resolution We're adopting the resolution and And signing all the ancillary documents Uh needed to borrow a hundred thousand dollars from the new municipal climate relief fund Correct. All right. Can somebody move that? So moved Okay, Jordan's moved it again and has seconded Anything else all in favor? Hi, hi Hi, thank you Public comments anybody Oh, yes our public has Failed to have some comments. So I'm actually this is on behalf of the board of abatement Um, I want to begin my email the chair and vice chair from the town clerk With several questions about where we are the status of leading up to the next meeting on march 25th with the two abatement applicants And one of their questions to confirm the start time I did not recall seeing it officially announced what time the start of the next board of abatement meeting would be And also I observed and told them that I didn't think an hour would be long enough To meet with each of the two applicants again get their status what they've learned since we gave them their assignments and tests And then go into deliberative session and make a decision So i'm here to ask with the select board this meeting is just before the next select board meeting on march 25th With the select board people are going to delay A start of the next select board to 630 so that the board of abatement could meet from 5 to 630 I think that that should be fine with what we've done so far on the agenda for that particular time is dealing with committees We've got a couple of contracts to sign a NEMRA contract And we have to point Kari to be treasurer. That's all I've got really quick Yeah, I expect there will be a lot of Kurdistan stuff at the following meeting, but probably not at that Things will come up, but yeah, it doesn't look like we're going to have a lot. So I don't have any problem with starting at 630 Anybody else? I think we need the time so Okay, then Thank you. I don't think we need to go around that because next meeting we'll start at 630 Thanks Barbara. Thank you Anything else Barbara? Okay All right, should we have a discussion about town meeting? Um, it was wonderful. Yeah, it was uh, it was really good Feedback guide received from various folks Immediately after and through the week was it was really favorable so that you know felt good Thank you to Kari and everybody else who put so much work into Organizing the communication around it. I think it really helped a lot right now the feedback that I had received is that um, it was It was very beneficial that people had Informative More kind of declarative Answers to to the questions that came up as you know, as opposed to You know more subjective type commentary That that was appreciated and I certainly noticed that too Do you think that helps go a bit? It seems like we Intensify the questions pretty well. Can I always count on people wanting to know where the money's going to go right? Is there anything anybody noticed that we could have done better? Well for one thing that the We'll be able to do a full hybrid meeting next time with just a little bit of preparation. We'll need a monitor or need the owl Yeah, you know, we can definitely do better in that way It wasn't really on my radar this time, but It's not that hard. Yeah. Yeah. Well in Barbara and Tegan We're just Worked their fingers to the bone and getting ready for this thing. Yeah. No. Yeah, and Barbara was the only one who'd been through it before so kudos to Barbara for Making that happen. Yeah I want to echo that because I've done enough of vets to know that when it runs that smoothly, it doesn't have a way There's a million things literally that could have gone wrong And the fact that you didn't notice any of that stuff right means that you know And it had to be Barbara because she's the only one Next year Tegan will know what she's doing too And the lunch was wonderful Now you've got a hand in that as well Yeah, I solicited all the food and friends of Callis did the rest Yeah, I think that's the first I'm always pretty much the last in line at those things and Do we do any kind of like headcount on how many people it seemed like there were fewer people this year than there were Last year anecdotally, but For how many people I can tell you how many people checked in at the checklist to get a four four voting card was 151 How does that come here again, and we thought looking at the room. We thought it was better attendance from last year But I thought it'd be more than 151. Yeah, that's how many people checked in and got a voter card I don't know if all you guys even checked in and got a voter card, so we would add your names to that. Oh good. Okay Yeah, I did. Do you know how many did last year? I have to go back and I'm sorry So I mentioned this to a couple people but what I was really struck by is how powerful it is to have Just one person advocate For position and if it's done well in a timely way so for one Donna swire when she spoke about the delinquent tax rate penalty that I mean I thought that The the most was going to be four percent and based on Donna's comments. I think it swung the pendulum swung And the other one was rick heen spoke to the reserve fund for the highway department capital and I think that really made the difference and just changed the the nature of the discussion at that point, so Just something to keep in mind Enlist your allies Well way ahead of schedule Um, and are people coming to talk about the Curtis Pond down jimmy or are you just going to make a report? I'm just going to make a report. Okay. Well, let's go before then So there's been a lot of movement in the last couple of weeks Um, I talked to larry hebert the contractor He's at this point Fine with the fact that we haven't signed a contract and just assuming it's going to happen He's turning down other work. So it's sort of our good faith Agreement And he's confident it'll come together and I'm confident it'll come together. So we're moving forward on that He's out of town The last week of march He's working The contract will be very similar To the document that we already have that was part of the big documents um, and we all basically Alter that and add things like payment structures, which he does a billing every two weeks Um As cost a crew and they go through it So we'll add some details and work out some details and I'm imagining that kari and I will sit down with him when he's Back and ready to do so sometime in the first half of april So we won't even have a contract until April right yep In terms of the funding You had in your folder sources and uses From when did we do that 10 days ago back in january hadn't changed I did not I don't I think the copy I had in the folder was a pdf So I didn't edit the one you all have But um, I have updated numbers here Um The old pledge column at that time was 8500 Those have uh all been collected except 75 750 And that 750 will come in shortly wants to do it over a few Payments The new pledges we had were Uh 160 575 All of that has come in except 27,000 225 And so that's going really well CPA checking account balance has gone up from 5724 To 12,354 Um, and the Maple corner community center dam account balance has gone up from 73 50 To 164 thousand 71 dollars And I can email you all of this. Yeah, sure. Um, so basically What that means is as of our last meeting the funding gap was 232,212 We've whittled that down to 209,900 so just under 10,000 We are In the midst of negotiations between the Curtis pond association executive board And two local families Who together are offering a Low interest loan to the Curtis pond association For $200,000 And so that will essentially close the gap the last nine or 10,000 will Come easily And so We expect that loan And the remaining You know roughly 30,000 in pledges to all be in our hands By the end of the month and transferred to the town sometime early next month And at that point We will have 1.2 million dollars earmarked in the town coffers For the dam project and be ready to sign the contract as soon as Larry Is ready to do so the assumption at this point is The construction will start June 1st. They'll probably start staging materials Two weeks before that depending on where we are in our mud season And what the roads can handle There's still one ongoing conversation happening I'm going to be meeting with curry and the engineers And some other Curtis pond association folks soon We're still figuring out a few things about the contract for construction oversight There we've have a proposal For d&k to do it. We have not signed that aspect of the contract yet And there's some question has come up on whether it would be worth Shopping around and getting somebody else to oversee the construction. And so we're just going to have a Conversation Decide if it's worth pursuing that to save might save us 40,000 dollars or something But there's pros and cons to both both sides The only two outstanding permits Are the army corps of engineers permit which requires sign off from the army corps of engineers As well as state historic preservation Myself and Michael at d&k and elizabeth peoples at historic and angela At army corps have been going back and forth On a near daily basis fine-tuning the unbelievably minutia details of Angles of signs Relationship to the river like really detailed stuff um, I think that we I know that we finally have a final draft of that document I emailed it to you all 10 minutes ago when we're already in the meeting Uh, because I just got it just before the meeting Um, it's still awaiting my signature and then one high up in army corps signature. So I um Would like to have you all Authorize me to go ahead and sign it Once I sign it The high up at army corps of engineers will sign it And it can all be finalized And then the only outstanding permit will be the town of callus permit um, which John assures me is no big deal. It's ready to sign He just likes to have a project have all its other permits before issuing the callus permit So now that that's all signed he assures me that will happen early this week Questions for jay Questions the Private loan through for the cpa That is in negotiation is that Um Likely to create any kind of impediment for future fundraising through the town at all that it's not for Are there any conditions related To future fundraising for For other maintenance Or is there just kind of a natural lifespan for that? So the loan is a three-year loan We're as part of the loan where there's no Spelled out monthly payment due But it does say that money we raise for the purpose of paying back the loan Has to go to servicing the loan sure and be transferred to the the loaners within 30 days of receipt of the funds So I I assume that for the three years Or however long it takes us to pay the loan back it might be less than that Money the cpa raises will go to servicing the loan But certainly beyond that I think there's plenty of opportunity to Raise funds for other aspects of long-term maintenance. There's no there's a like no Obligation to the town outside of In the event of a default of some sort or it's just going to reopen the Negotiation with the cpa Yeah Yes, completely separate from the town The cpa executive board will be the signatories And our general plan for paying it back Is to do a series of fundraisers this summer. We think that during construction will be a An easier time to fund raise than post construction There's a number of of large donors who have Said that they'll help with it But the general idea is to have a sustaining membership type Program where people can sign up online through our existing online donor site To make a monthly contribution And then those will all be lumped and paid Nice Great work jamie So jamie you're you're absolutely confident that this in no way puts the town at risk For having to pay back this loan I am i'm more than happy to Send the draft loan agreement to you all We could have the town attorney look at it if you want um The town isn't mentioned in it anywhere The owner of the dam isn't mentioned in it anywhere It's a really pretty Correspondent association is essentially going to gift this to the town Right So we're borrowing it and giving it to the town So it's That doesn't i'll leave the town to do anything that i can see Right Unless we sign something saying that we're wrong in here Yeah Yeah And and Yeah, it's i'm i'm not worried about that at all, but i'm happy to send it to whoever No, i'm okay How did the others feel I think having the lawyer I'm sorry. I think it would be good the lawyer review it just uh I mean it sounds like it's covered, but it's a lot of money and it's Being gifted and it's great. Congratulations. Jamie. That was like a little lot of work to get this done um But I think just double check in to ensure Because at least when we first started these conversations it sounded like The town might be on the hook so I I appreciate that shifted but Well, and i'll i'll clarify that the initial loan that was discussed Was from a different person And that person had been interested in learning Had been interested in loaning to the town And only would loan for one year Um, and that was a non-starter on multiple fronts. And so this is a completely different Loan that's not connected to the town in any way Yeah, I guess it for me it would be good to just see what the final Agreement is before it's committed and then make sure that we have Like appropriately vetted the mechanism for agreement for The gift so to speak just just because You know municipalities have funny have Had, you know, very different rules and you know, I would think that um thomas would would be um in a good position to Council us on that relative to the bond work and then Yeah, I just want to make it, you know, I assume that when it's handed over it's going to say that it's going to go into a fund That we've already generated because we're going to be transferring other money So we just want to make sure that right that agreement that it's structured that same way which we did that Once right and thomas walked us through I believe The language that I think the check from the community center The community center actually each organization Had their boards had to sign something saying this is uh I forget the language. Yeah, but you had already Received those funds. This is based on alone. So We will have received the funds, right? But yeah, if the CPA ordered a fault on this, right? You want to make sure that the town is in no way on it. Yes Yeah, or Or constrained, I guess, you know from You know seeking other Other financial mechanisms or something like that to To to serve as the maintenance of the dam, you know, I mean there's going to be whatever is going to be for the construction, but That would be my my only my concern during the during the term of the loan I guess and getting a better sense of what the conditions are to the CPA and landowners during the term of the loan Relative to the town's right to do what it needs to as the dam owner Which we will be after After the completion of the dam. Yeah Okay. Yeah So when we have a when you have a draft on yeah, we have I have a draft From them we're countering with one or two Editions to it and that they're going to have their attorney look at so why don't we fine tune it a little bit more? And then I'll send it along other questions for Jamie Where are we supposed to be make taking action on anything particularly? Did you say authorize authorizing me to Sign the Army Corps of Engineers On the path of the town. Yes, and I can pull it up here I Kari, I did email it at the beginning of the meeting to the select board if you want to if you have it and want to put it up there Jamie, what does what does signing this mean? Does this commit the town to Completing the project exactly the way they say or why do we have to sign it? um for some reason my computer is not opening it right now, but We've had to sign all of the permits as the applicant just to say we appreciate them. Thank you. Yeah and this permit does spell out various aspects of the Construction that are part of the plan. So there's a lot of stuff in the plan like Stone-facing of this fill way That dam safety doesn't require It's an expense. We probably want to have chosen It was a condition of this permit to meet the historic preservation requirements So there's there's a I mean, it's multiple pages long lots of addendums of photo aerial photos and This is where the sign is going. This is where the dam is going I I suppose that if something happened in construction That the bedrock was different than they expect it to be and something have to shift That will be a conversation that the contractors and the engineers and all the permit Folks who you know way on that would discuss But it doesn't commit us to anything that Isn't already part of the design of the project So you need Those just feedback. Oh that one. Okay You need us. I have a quick question. Yeah, donnie go ahead Just because you kind of touched on it there a little bit just Kind of curiosity here. I mean if this project comes in $50,000 over budget or even and let's say $10,000 over budget Are these people that are willing to Loan the Kernes bond association the money going to other those over costs as well I mean, I think that's uh Any project has risk of overages we've built in what we think is a Reasonable contingency to cover those overages I think that if it goes over the contingency It's a dialogue that will be had about where those funds come from But I think the CPA is committed to continue doing their part And and moving it forward be able to Work beyond without approval the change order right formal process to exceed the one point Two million right required towards approval. However, it gets paid right. Yeah Yeah, the contract is a not to exceed is that right? It is I believe there's one Section in it that's time and materials And that's maybe just around amount of concrete because they don't know Exactly where the bedrock foundation is at the bottom Um, and so they estimated that is but I think that's the one piece that Is is subject to flexibility As with any project in town You know things happen, but but I think it's a pretty pretty finite number Okay, donnie Yep, thanks All right, um, we are not going to authorize you to sign the contract obviously and I'm not sure we need to authorize you to negotiate the contract You can just do it You're not gonna authorize me to sign the permit or the permit. Well, you do need to authorize you to sign the permit But it on the agenda we um Right had said that we might authorize you to sign the contract, which we're obviously not going to do today And I'm not sure we need to authorize you to negotiate You can try to negotiate so the only thing we need to do is authorize you to sign the army core of engineers permit Yep, and that the signature page Um, it's signed by the chief regulatory division Tammy Turley of us army core of engineers um, and Somebody from the vermont division of historic preservation And then so they're listed as the primary signatories And then under worth it says invited signatory and it lists me as a select board now Would somebody like to move to authorize jamie to sign the army core engineer contract? So moved Okay, jordan has moved is there a second And second second Okay, all in favor I I guess I abstain you're abstaining Yep, hi jordan's eye, honey. Yep. Okay. Good. Thank you Anything else jamie on that one? Don't think so I think We're gonna do it You're a miracle worker All right Appointments barbara has been working very hard on These documents in which she has not only Listed all the potential openings and positions we have to fill she has contacted all the incumbents To see who would be willing to Uh serve and if uh, which ones are not would you like to talk us through sure barbara. Thank you Yes, these two little pages represent all the work So let's look at the one first for the annual appointments We'll move on committees and commissions later, but let's do the annual So I'll tell you what my process was was the first step was back in january. I first showed the list at Ann Winchester and Confirmed that at least her belief that the select board would like all these people Reappointed, but you guys will be going into a session to discuss that but at least I have her blessing To move forward with all of these people on behalf of the select board So I then went to each of these individuals over the next month lots of email communications To let them know that their one-year term was expiring Would they be willing to be reappointed by the select board for a matter of one-year term? So all of them in the first box Section that says for reappointment Are incumbents returning who have agreed to return if you guys choose to reappoint them The next section down would be new annual appointments And so it's listed there by position and if we have already identified a new appointee Who has agreed to serve in that position? They're listed there And to the far right is why why we were having to find new people to be appointed The two little arrows next to david and jaren for cb fiber alternate delegate Is because for years david has been the delegate and jaren has been the alternate But david has stepped down as the delegate And he said but he's willing to serve as the alternate and so jaren is willing to be the deer So they're just switching positions, but it makes it new for each of them I have one new addition to add to this Since I emailed this or putting your google folder last friday Um for the cv remc representative that's the central vermont regional emergency management representative You can see betty coplan has resigned Nick emlin has uh talked to jake aho Who is the vice chair of the emergency management committee and jake has agreed to serve in that position So when you're ready to review this and make your decision you can consider jaco in that position And may I just i'm not sure if everybody on the board knew that colblis had resigned So effective Last week last week So we know we no longer have an animal control officer And then on the second page of this report there are two um Animal appointments that that our select board has been continuing to make but they're no longer statutorily mandatory That's inspector lumber and wire of coal I have talked to both gregg pelchuk and john staffer who serve in those roles and they're they're both fine If you guys want to just eliminate those positions for the town of callas um so You can consider that and let me know if you choose to keep them Both gregg and john are willing to continue serving and be reappointed. So once you make the decision to let me know Did you ask them barbara if they ever did anything in these positions? Gregg pelchuk has been doing that has been inspected longer for years and never In fact, maybe we should let rose answer if he ever gets called on Uh, john staffer never gets called on. He's only been the uh layer of coal for like just under here I think gregg was the way of coal before john so And gregg can no longer do it if somebody years ago said that's a conflict of interest since he also calls a coal company But we might want to rose do you want to unmute yourself and answer if gregg ever gets called on to do anything as inspector lumber? Be able to she just email me. Okay Not to my knowledge Rose is actually one who responded and said that he would be fine if you discontinue that role in callas Okay, any other questions on the annual appointments? No, that's pretty straightforward. Thank you barbara. You're welcome Okay, so moment one for the board's committees and commissions, which is the other report And the way I started here was back in january I went to each of the board committee commission chairs to let them know Who on their Memberships term was ending in march to confirm with that chair that he or she would want that Committee member to be reappointed that once I heard from all the committee chairs Then I went to the individuals whose terms are ending this month to see if they wanted to be Reappointed for another three four three four or five-year term depending on what it is No, I guess I was cemetery commissions commissioners or five-year terms And so the first block are people who say yes, I would like to be reappointed for by the select board for another term The next one the next set of names Are where we now have vacancies and I've given you reasons why we have vacancies I'm going to bring your attention to the conservation commission We they have had two vacancies for a long time I got an email from larry bush at the end of last week Would I go back to them again one more time? I keep going back to them asking. Do you have somebody to nominate? for these Vacancies and larry said that he's been on the conservation commission for a long long time They've never had more than seven people on the commission and he would be fine if the select board chooses to eliminate The additional two seats so they would no longer have vacant seats. So once you have that discussion and decide let me know The rest of these I continue to work on recruitment to try to find but you guys may also know I've given several names to ann For possible new appointments, which she will be discussing with the select board when you guys meet on this And then also before the select board is if you would like to develop an energy committee You might recall that when Sam flash was here from cvrpc A month ago. She recommended a new energy committee Jan olson who was the chair of the planning commission strongly endorses that says it should be about five to seven people So if the select board would like to create a new energy committee You would need to determine how many seats do you want it to be how long the length of term would be? And would callus residency be required Didn't nick maker didn't the committee make a proposal about that? That planning committee do my planning commission. Oh, no, I'm sorry. I'm confusing it with um emergency management Oh, yes. Okay I can't tell you that I have an email from jan olson who does strongly encourage it. Didn't we used to have one? Yes Okay, good. You know better. I know we have an energy coordinator who's been on Who's been on for a while, but I don't see him on Uh Zoom now is that Douglas? No, that one Okay, and then the last thing I'd like to recommend to the select board. This is just coming for me is When you talk about all these boards committees and commissions, maybe consider adding a new responsibility to each of them Which is for them to be responsible to research identifying apply for funding of projects and activities Um, and and that way included they get a grant their post grant management And that's supposed to just always come to the select board and ask you for $5,000 for this or whatever But let them serve getting finding the funding for their projects and activities So any questions on this report? I have one comment there barba where you've put in the development review board and put rachel ceilig in there She's actually already a member and has her own term. So she wouldn't be filling out ryan's term I would just take that name out Oh, you know what I meant to put her under oh, I meant to put her name under planning commission That's what happened. This all happened on Friday. That's right. She's interested in the planning commission very much Yeah, that is correct rachel drop her down to the planning commission Which term ending to that 2026 2027 we have to talk about that. Okay. Yeah, and she'll stay on DRB do both and not only that I recruited her to be a Kurdish fondant No, I'm sorry, Kurdish fondant island Oversight person It's got to be a lot more responsibility as the water level is That's right. That's right A lot more surface area Okay, any more questions about that I I would like us When we're finished with everything else to go into executive session to discuss this because we might actually want to talk about Actual people and we shouldn't do that in public So, um, I'd like to put that aside as long as you Ask barba all the questions you want Okay, thanks barba incredible work Hey, it's what I do. It's what you do mister. It's what you do When they do play agenda Um, and we're all ready to reports is tegan tegan's there Hey tegan congratulations to you also on a wonderful town meeting And what What have you been doing with yourself since then? Yeah Which tropical paradise did you retreat to? Exactly and by that it's been today my house with my sick kid. Um So there's a lot of steps afterward there are steps that barbara and I didn't even know about that We're learning about as I dig into uh Some of the resources available to town clerks in the aftermath of uh town meeting So we're figuring that out. There's a lot of there's a lot of town meeting follow-up. There's a lot of Uh ballots we have to from what I gather put into the computer every person and how many ballots they were issued And how many ballots they returned? Uh, we are working with the school district to figure out what the next steps are for the next school budget vote Um, we're cleaning up the office. There are certificates. They're oce of office. There's a lot going on I know barbara was digging into the Dog licenses that we had maybe fallen a few days behind on and there's a few things that I didn't get done last week But now need to get done also, um But other than that, this is in theory a quieter time in the town clerk's office This next, you know, six weeks are so maybe longer. Uh, but I'm sure we'll have plenty to keep ourselves occupied Between the port of abatement and the extra election and just continuing to Get my bearings Since you brought it up Do we do You and donnie technically need to take an oath of office since you're being Oh, you did never mind Well, nice to nice And donnie jb. Oh, thank you. Oh, and I I've reappointed barbara as the assistant clerk Thanks to you again Cover you have more to tell us than you have So it's been an interesting couple days with the roads Yesterday the crew labored for quite a while and it was very slow going because I have muddy it was And wet heavy snow on top of that It was Put it this way And it all said it he'd never seen conditions like that before in all his time. So They didn't get very far yesterday. They um luckily this morning it had firmed up enough that they were able to To do more. Um, they did get over all the roads today. Some of them twice We did I we fielded quite a few complaints. Um, and there's a couple front porch foreign posts I just saw and Whatever condition they are it's in now. It's going to be worse Probably by tomorrow afternoon because it's going to be in the in the 40s the rest of the week. So we're back Going to be back in that season. Um So, yeah, so it's it's an ongoing challenge one thing that We observed last week is they did quite a bit of road work on the two roads that were Closed to school buses, which was loose and Bliss pond and loose was very frustrating because they were applying They applied at least a dozen loads of gravel, but it kept just sinking into into the mud. So Donnie's recommendation was just to go with larger stone Because it's sort of all you can do even though it's not ideal for grading season It is Hopefully more effective. So lesson learned on that one Um You you don't this time of year no Uh, I my recommendation to john was to use inch and a half clean stone um What they're purchasing right now Is a slate material and uh, if you can picture a big, you know mud hole And then throwing a bunch of gravel in it. It just makes more mud. It doesn't actually Do anything except for create more mud Whereas the stone is is more effective for this time of year But really unfortunate when they start grading. Um, this is all stuff that'll come back out and they will have to Once everything kind of firms up. We'll have to put some smaller material on top I think part of the problem right now was the availability of getting material. There's um, as far as i'm aware, there's only two pits Locally around here that are even open and crushing at this point Um, so that makes it a little difficult as well Are they are they using granite at all Donnie? Or Are they that was that was my suggestion I told them to I well, I didn't tell him to do anything my suggestion was if it was mine I would be using More of a fractured stone versus a slate stone The slate stone the problem is is it works really well except for once it's already submerged in mud Then it doesn't yeah, right They definitely did use gravel in january And I suspect that was associated with some of those tire punctures Which I, um, spoke with someone today who had quite a few of those So, you know, I had I was you had you were I was I was a recipient of two two slate gravel punctures Uh, thankfully I was close enough to needing new tires that I wasn't too annoyed, but um Um, but yeah, no, I it's it's a real challenge this time of year and you know as as detrimental as the more Angular stuff is you know for later it It's a little easier on tires and it compacts a little bit better Given the conditions or at least doesn't disappear if it makes the road passable right a little more Strenuous complaints have gotten about about safety, uh, you know emergency access, right? Yeah Which is valid so, um, the other thing is we haven't closed february Counting period yet because sanders been away and we'll do that on the wednesday, but I'm I'm pretty sure that we've reached our annual budget for gravel already And we still have the rest of one season to go so It's uh, so one of my projects will be to go through the budget in great detail and see where can we pull back in other places Because we're going to need to spend more money on gravel. There's just no way around that Well, I also I think with oh go ahead dummy I was just kind of curious. I mean the moscow woods Approval was was was huge And I guess depending on how quickly some of the rest of the project approvals come through Would we be in a position to start utilizing either the It's not a cash concern. Okay. It's just a budget. It's a budget, you know, we we want to stay with the That's a learning curve for me as well. What does it mean to go into a deficit mode? Certainly callous has done that in the past But I agree from a cash position. I'm feeling much relieved about that for you And sanders shares me it's not the end of the world if we do go into a deficit It's not the end of the world. She says we're to the town. We'll still be here 20 years from now Um, in particular with the with the roads right because roads has as historically always had a surplus That's how I remembered it. Well in the past the surplus has just rolled into the fund balance In the future we'll roll into the equipment fund, but Even if the fund balance, you know goes negative and you have to borrow for cash. That's not the end of the world, but I I was just gonna say that I think The the usage of the material has been up just because of what they've been using isn't working as well So they're dumping twice as much Material intuitive they would versus you know stone So I think that'll that'll also help as far as cost Is there any way to Have you revisited the stockpiling conversation like temporary stockpiling? Around around town through the rest of month season, which Well, um, I just thought I just thought with Donnie today about the Palchuk's pit Because that was the idea could we use that that quarry as a As a staging area before material, you know and get larger loads, you know something like tractor chatter to get in and out of They have to have it, you know, we're not in another dispersal Moving on the next next, uh, I meant to include this in the memo and forgot we had a We had an accident one of the crew backed the new pickup truck into a mailbox mailbox was fine $6,000 estimate on the repair to the truck bed It'll be fully covered by Ann mentioned the FEMA. I was on a call today Talking about the budget adjustment act, which was which mark all I talked about it At the town meeting they described it as mark did, you know the basically we're getting Reimbursed for all but 2.2 percent if the governor signs it this week and then This additional grant money would almost make us whole for all FEMA reimbursement So I don't understand that though. This is the JFO spreadsheet The joint business office did this spreadsheet and they say that we're getting 90 percent From FEMA from FEMA, but we're not we're getting 75 What we're being told is that there will be an additional Check cut by FEMA and I don't fully understand it. I don't get how the state has any say over how much I guess the state has incited to The entire pot of money that's available to Vermont for that particular disaster And has determined that FEMA can reimburse 90 percent And that they will come or seven point eight And then it's just 2.2 And then and then that you know that spreadsheet they lots of caveats. It's an estimate but the 30 000 dollar grant That's being provided They emphasize that that's really an estimate, you know, they're waiting to see what the final Guidance is and what our allocation will be but if it's anywhere close will basically be made whole Yeah, when I looked at this if it all works out the way they put in here We lined up paying something like 400 dollars for the total FEMA. I mean flood damage And that lose our road cruise weight is Yeah, I mean, I'll believe that when I see it So anyway We're to come on that one and then um, so I've been doing a lot of training on treasure rolled at the accounts payable Learning how to close the period This month payroll I'm going to spend some more time with wendy wilton on on the What she does for us in terms of payroll so we can bring all of that back in house and then the monthly bank reconciliation which best practice is to have the person that's doing Accounts payable be separate. It's a it's a control so that someone couldn't you know make errors in their favor So I talked with Sandra. She she's going to continue to serve as she's willing to uh, as our delinquent tax collector I asked if she had any interest in doing these monthly bank reconciliations As a you know, additional work and she's she told me to date. No So i'm gonna i'm going to speak with wendy next about What will it cost us to for you to continue doing that takes her about two hours a month And then I'll develop that into the contracts the nemeric contracts. There's more than one For the next year it starts in april and that'll be something I bring to you At the next meeting. Is that is it possible? We won't need an assistant treasurer if that if we did it that way Maybe yeah the assistant treasurer that that would really be about Accounts payable and payroll of very basic data entry parts And you know, I've done a little bit of it now, so let me get let me get more practice than it and then I can judge that but I don't know. It doesn't seem that all that time consuming We'll see Um, when are you going to give us our next I guess it'll be you our next What do you call it the monthly statement a financial report? Yeah, that'll be next time. We're just waiting to close Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that'll that'll be an important one because then we'll be two thirds of the way through the fiscal year Questions for cari. Thanks, right? I see we already heard about Curtis pond do we've got anything on it? Not only than what I shared earlier Jordan and an anything on the litigation I not anything that that requires discussion at this point. I mean it's kind of status quo I think by the next meeting we should have probably a warned agenda item For consideration But I'll circulate some communication on that For the ordinance. Yeah, yeah Ordinance. Oh, you want for amending the animal control ordinance? Oh, I see Yeah, I was recommended that we make some Some revisions to the existing one just to make it fit The actions that we that we would like to take in the future and and kind of Foresee situations that Yeah, anyway, so and it's gotten a little Kari and I spent some time Going going over and talking through some things and and felt like there there could be some Some more language in there. Um, that was more explicit about More procedural stuff that I think would benefit just the town in general To clarify our position and actions and so we're gonna Is that something that the the policy committee will work on? um Not necessarily If we do want the attorney to review it. Yeah, the attorney does need to read that's going to take a little bit of time. Yeah, I predict Yep Yep, yeah, have they reviewed the personnel policy yet? That's a great question That's the end of our agenda except that um, I'm going to suggest now we go into executive session under one VSA section 313 a 3 regarding the appointment or employment or evaluation of a public officer or employee and I don't think I need to read the rest Does anybody have anything they want to say before we do that? All right, I think what we'll do is if we do that then we'll just uh Donnie and Anne will stay on and we'll do it by email Um, and we'll by zoom by zoom. I'm sorry. I said email. Yeah, I zoom. Sorry. I'm trying to think of three things at once um, so I guess I'll take a motion to go into executive session and to invite cari to come in with us Under one vsa 313 a 3 So I'm worked. Okay. It's been moved. Is there a second? Second Okay, all in favor All right. Okay. All right. Thanks everybody. So we'll have to ask you all to leave