 call me to order. And is there public comment items not on the agenda? Okay. And additions or changes to the agenda. Denise. Just the reason I'm here is just to ask. I don't know if it's appropriate to ask now, but with Governor Scott's. Lifting of all restrictions. Does that. Can I ask about the use of the town hall or the town office for. Yeah, I mean, he just barely did that today. So we haven't even had the chance to digest it yet. And figure out. Where we go next. We're planning to review the town hall usage policy. Which is different than using it for weddings and. Concerts and things like that on June 28. And I haven't even had a chance to check in with the office staff about using the office yet, but I will. So we have a cemetery commission meeting next Wednesday, a week from this Wednesday. And. It's with him saying that we can gather indoors and everything. I'm just hoping that we could just get a key and go back to meeting as we always have. Because these zoom meetings are not easy for the cemetery commission. I don't need to go into any further detail on that, but they're not easy. No, I get that. All right. Let me check with. Judy, like I said, he just barely did that today. So I haven't even had a chance to think about it much. Effective as of midnight tonight. Yeah. And, and you know, all we did in the past was just take a key and open up the door and there wasn't, it didn't involve any staff of the. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't have any town governance at all. So we'd like to be able to do that next week. If we can. Yeah. I remember the good old days. I'll check in with Judy and get back to you. Does that sound like a good plan? Sounds like a plan. All right. With that, I'll say good night. Oh, you're not going to stay for the entertainment. I guess not. Oh, come on. We're trying to, we're trying to wake the dead tonight. Yeah. All right. I'll read about it in the paper. Yeah. I'll get back to you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Bye-bye. All right. We will do the treasure or Dillington tax collector reports. On June 28th. So let's get started on the rest of the agenda. We have. The letter two of intent to participate in the municipal roads group in aided program that we need to sign. And it has to be done. And signed and back to, I checked because I wasn't sure. Toby didn't say where you send this form back to, but you send it back to, you know, it's to do with roads and send it back to CBRPC. Okay. So if anybody has any questions on that grant aid program, or would you like. To make a motion to approve. I would, I would move. I would make a motion to approve. Okay. Is there a second. I can't hear you. Sorry about that. Normally I use the space bar to unmute there for some reason. That's not working tonight. Yeah, I would second it, but I would also like to propose a friendly amendment that. We approve it and authorize. I guess Denise to sign it on behalf of the select board. Because the signature line asks for a duly authorized representative. Yes. Yeah, that's, that's. That friendly amendments accepted too. All right. Are you ready to vote. Cliff. Hi. I'm an eye, Rick. Hi. All right. Next up loose road. I believe is, is it one culvert or two culverts Alfred? It's one large culvert. Okay. Kind of the same. Same deal. We knew we had applied for this grant. It's a. Structures grant. And. It's on a class class two highway. Yeah. Okay. And. It is loose road. 48 inch. 60 inch culvert. 60 inch now, but it's going to be larger. It's a big one. Yeah, it's a big one. We're waiting on a hydraulic study. Yeah. That will determine the, the. Final size of it. Okay. This is just approving the grant. Yeah. That will. Sure. That's. Like to make a motion to approve. There's no further questions. I will, I, I, I, I, I'll make that motion. So moved. Okay. Oh, second. All right. And would you like me to sign. Yeah. Can we give. Certainly authorized Denise to sign on behalf of the select board. Yeah, I will accept the amendment. I accept that friendly amendment. All right. Are you ready to vote? I'm Cliff. I. I'm an eye, Rick. I. All right. Lightning Ridge Road, Alfred. That's to repave the. That's to repave part, right? Not anything else. No, it's just from root 14 to the school. It's resurfacing the pavement. Just that short section of asphalt. Yeah. No, that's not even a mile. Is it? It's 1700, 1700 feet. Yeah. Okay. And. This is considered a. What is this? This is a. Class two roadway. Project. And I'm just looking to see. What's the rough. What's the rough. Repay. What's the cycle on that asphalt? How often do you have to resurface? It's. Seven or eight years generally. That's not bad for that. Yeah. Depending on, right, depending on condition. The last time we paid that we put in fabric. Yeah. You know, we should have grounded it all up, put in fabric and new gravel under it. So you've got a decent sub base in it. Yeah. Yeah. So this. We can just. You know, top coat it and. You're just grinding surfacing it. Yeah. And there is one, there is one culvert that we may have to replace. But that will also be included in the grant. And paid. Paid for by the grant. Yeah. And this grant is 80% eligible for state. Cost and is the rest of the work in kind. It can be. Yes. Yes. Okay. Right. Yeah. I mean, it's usually usually on paving. It's not though, because. Because we don't have payment equipment. We just hire a contractor to do that. Okay. But we might be able to get some of our in kind by changing the culvert. Okay. We'll do the culvert. We'll change the culvert ourselves. Yeah. Okay. All right. Any further questions and are you ready to. Well, I want to object to unkind work. We need to be kinder. Only. All road work is kind work. Right. I want the record to reflect. I only support kind of what road work. Okay. All kind. All kinds of road work. Yes. Okay. On the road work needs to be kind. Okay. All right. Would somebody like to make a motion to approve. This grant agreement and somebody to sign. So moved. There a second. But still can't. Yes. John. Okay. Would you like to authorize. Me or someone to sign this. Yeah. Yes. Friendly amendment. Okay. So I would sign on behalf of the board. And. Are you ready to vote? Yes. I'm an eye, Rick. I. John. Yes. And I'm an eye eye. All right. That takes care of those. Okay. Next up and my goodness, we are five minutes or so ahead of schedule. Good thing you guys tuned in early. You run a tight ship. Yeah, we do. All right. So we originally had this on our agenda. I think it was our last meeting in. May, maybe. And there were some questions concerning the site distance. I'm not sure they were connected or I know. I know. Alfred was there. Alfred, do you want to give us an update? Yeah. I met with Victor there. And we talked about the concerns that I put forward to you. And we looked into how we could remedy those concerns. And we come up with moving the. The curb cut. Like 20 feet. To the south. Which got us a little bit further away from that. High point of the road. And also we talked about clearing some brush and trees. To allow for better site distance. And that has already been done. Okay. Now the trees that were removed, they were in the towns right away. Yeah, I suppose they were, I didn't really. Look at that. It's certainly on. Victor's property. Okay. I'm just wondering if they were in the towns right away. If you. Tray warden. They were small trees. Well, the town didn't. He did it. The property owner did it himself. Okay. So he, he has full right to cut any tree that he wants as far as. On his property. So we were concerned the last time. That we didn't have, is it 200 feet. Site distance. It calls for 300 feet. Okay. And have you achieved that goal? Yes. Yes. And then some. Yes. Okay. That's good. And does it, I can't remember when we talked before. Does it need a culvert? Yes. Yes. It's a 15 inch diameter culvert. And the property owner is responsible for purchasing the culvert. That's correct. And the crew installs it or do they have to get somebody to install it? No, they'll have, they'll have a contractor there to put the road in. So they'll. They'll do the culvert at the same time. Okay. So they purchased, they purchased the culvert from the town. No, no, no, no. No. No, no, no, no, no, no. No. Not, not on a new perk. Oh, okay. No. All right. So the contractor will. Install and purchase the culvert. Right. Understood. Okay. Any, anything else after. And then I'll give Victor and. Try to see a chance to say whatever. I think it's a safe situation. Okay. So, in other words, it's good to go, right? Yes. Okay. Board members. Board members. Do you have any questions and Alfred on this? Yeah. Does that just they're using the B 71. It's a design standard on that for residential. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. The B 71 standards is. Yeah. Typical, right? Yeah. That's for. Yeah. I mean, that's. That's standard for every new cup. Yeah. It's the Vermont standard. Yep. Yep. All right. Anybody else have questions for Alfred or Tracy and Victor? Do you have anything you want to add? Well, I just wish to. Apologize for our absence. Last time we were. Quite embarrassed to realize at seven. Or 6 p.m. I forget which the previous meeting was, but we were on the property in Calis and we looked at each other in horror. And said, Oh my goodness, we've missed the zoom meeting. We were actually visiting with the flower family. County road. No worries. We're regaling us with many tales. No, no worries. You don't get a black mark. Thank you. Appreciate it. But I am grateful to Mr. Lairby for meeting with me. And. It certainly. Was important for us to make sure that we have a safe. Exit and entrance off Jack Hill road. Despite the fact that. When we're there, it. We almost never see cars. It's a nice, it's a nice feeling to live. Or be in such a quiet place in Calis. Yeah. And it's a beautiful road. Yeah. All right. Thanks for working with us. Yeah, we appreciate it. There's a picnic table up there. You're welcome. Anybody's welcome to go up and sit and enjoy the peace and quiet. Nice. Nice. Thank you very much. Would somebody like to. Make a motion to accept that to accept the. The curb cut application. The revised. Yeah, revised. Yeah. Okay. And the following conditions I have is that the curb cut was moved. 20 feet to the south. Brush will be kept cleared. Small trees have been cleared. So we have an impact. Sight distance to meet the 300 feet. Necessary. A contractor will install a 15 foot 15 inch. Culvert. And. The 71 standards have been followed. So. I guess I will. So many make a motion. Yeah. So moved. Okay. So second. Second. All right. Would you like to take a vote? Cliff. Hi. I'm an eye. Rick. Hi. And John. Yes. Alrighty. We are just moving right along here. Amazing. Hi, Ruby. Thank you. All right. Anything else, Alfred? Nope. No, no on this issue. Okay. Cause we're going to move on to other things unless you had anything else. Quick. With that, I think Tracy and I will sign off. I've been up since four. So. I feel for you. Probably Alfred does too. Yeah. I can relate for sure. Yeah. Sure. Thanks for what all of you do. I look forward to meeting you in person. I agree. I was just going to say that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. See you Tracy. Thanks. Thanks, Alfred. Okay. I didn't have anything else on the agenda that you asked me to put on Alfred. So is there. Is there anything else? Yeah. Well, it's just a quick question that kind of follows up from, from Fletcher beans. With the restrictions lifted. Can I. Can I stop taking temperatures with the guys every day? And whatnot. I think, you know, I hear what you're saying. I hear what Fletcher is saying. The governor just barely. Lifted those restrictions today. I don't think the board has even had chance to think about it. But I know. That. All those other restrictions have been lifted. Except, except. I was just listening to the news for a minute. That the restrictions are still in place, like in hospitals, but obviously the town's ride is not a hospital. Other board members, it's not on the agenda. So I'm not sure how I feel about. Making a decision, but what are your thoughts? What's the inoculation on the crew? That's not really something we can ask. Oh, okay. I didn't know that. Sorry about that. Yep. Alfie. Do you still have a non-crew members coming into the building periodically? Just the salesman. Very periodically. I mean, if it's salesman pops in or something, but. Well, I'm guessing. I'm guessing. I'm guessing. I'm guessing. I'm guessing. If it's salesman pops in or something, but. Well, I'm guessing you would prefer if a salesman pops in that you make them wear a mask. Temperature. Yeah. Well, I can't take their temperature, but I can, I can certainly ask them to wear a mask and we still, I mean, you still, I still have the signs up saying. Okay. Mass fired, but. I just, and I can do it for another week. If you want, I just, you know, just it's a birding. I'm not going to lie. Yeah. Do you know how the, do you know what the atmosphere is with the crew? As far as. As far as masks and all that stuff. Oh, we're still wearing masks. We're still all doing that. Yeah. Well, I just wonder how comfortable they would all be is, I guess my question. Right. Right. Well, this is sort of brand new. So I haven't really helped them out. I just was taking the opportunity to ask yours, but I don't know what your opinion before I, before I do anything, but. I think we need to. Because this was such a huge issue with this COVID. I'm pandemic. I think it really needs to be something that's put on an agenda. And we have a. Regular discussion. And officially document what our decision is. Yeah. Yeah. Do you see what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. I would add to that that a lot of these. Restrictions or requirements that we've been. We have put into place were based upon input. From the town health officer. Right. We should allow him an opportunity to weigh in as well. Yeah, let's see. Katie, can you make a note? Yeah. I think we need to. Minutes that we need to invite the town health officer to our next meeting to talk. It would be good to also have him there. As we're talking about the usage policy because. Maybe the restriction. There won't need to be any restrictions in the policy when we. Use the town office in the town hall for meetings. So yeah, it's unfortunate that we just found this out today. So we're going to do that. We're going to do that. We're going to do that on the agenda tonight. Does that make sense board members? Yeah, I'm good with that. Sounds good. Okay. I just want to make sure we do it the right way. So we don't have any repercussions. Okay. Anything else, Alfred? Nope. I don't think so. Okay. Things are rolling along smoothly. I'm sure you've had a lot of road work to do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How is the roadside mowing going? It's, it's going, but it's, it's kind of slow. I mean, because I haven't found somebody that wants to operate it yet. So I'm taking a man from my crew to do it and. Yeah. You know, this is the time of year when guys are taking vacation time and. Yeah. You know, there's a lot going on. So it's working on it. For sure. Yeah. It's a juggling act, right? Sorry. You don't control all the variables on this one. Yeah. And is, is add on board to do mowing at the. Curtis pond town office that stuff. He has been mowing it. Okay, good. I guess, I guess there might have been a misunderstanding about the town hall. Because I thought he was mowing at least the part in the front. I think he is. Yeah. Well, it needs it again. I looked at it today and it's, it's needs it. So I'll have a conversation with him and make sure that he's. At least doing that front. But I think the discussion that came up was. Related more to in the back. Right. I did. I did have a brief discussion conversation with Jamie. Edible garden. So I've got to put that on a. I've got to put that on a. Upcoming agenda. As well. Yeah. Yeah. But certainly as far as, as far as in front of the town hall, that little median there. Yeah. That can be mowed. You know, with the same equipment that we use for the town hall. And paying. Yeah. Okay. But yeah, I will, I'll have a conversation with that and see what, what his. What he's going to do. I know he's been mowing the town. Town office in a swimming area. Yeah, I did see one invoice from him. In one of the sets of orders. Yeah. And I've got another one on my desk that I will put on an order very soon. Okay. But I know. Mowing it. Yeah. That reminds me. Don't forget the end of the fiscal years coming up. Yeah. Yeah. I've got a bunch of them. I'm going to work on that tomorrow. Okay. I'll have at least two orders to put in. So yeah, I'll get, I'll get it all I can on there. All right. Very good. Thank you. Yeah, thanks. All right. Okay. We'll move on. Washington County sheriff's contract. This is for FY 22. And the amount we budgeted for in the FY 22 budget is $4,000. Their rates did go up. I think the. I don't remember. Oh, it went to $30 and 75 cents. And. The mileage rate remains at 0.625. So this is our standard. Contract with our very responsive. Sheriff's. I have to say. They're really great to work with. They're very responsive. And helpful. How many hours are they willing to give us a week? Well, you know, it, it's $4,000. And it is. $30 and 75 cents. So let me turn on my calculator here. We back into that $4,000 number by virtue of that's all the hours they're willing to give us at $30. Or is that just the number we set? And then we fit their hours into that. We, that's the number we set because that's what we can afford. It comes out to like a hundred and. Oh, maybe I did this wrong. Let me get my calculator back. So. $4,000 divided by. An hourly rate of $30. And 75 cents comes out to. 130 hours of fiscal year. We used to get, we used to get some money back on. Tickets. And I think we still do get some, but it isn't as much as we used to. Is that sort of answer your question, John? I'm just not remembering was that in our select board budget? Yeah, for the year. It's on. It is on page. I just looked it up. It is on. Um, page. It doesn't appear to be page numbers here. But anyways, it's under police patrol. It includes the constable stipend shares patrol. And it's also under police patrol. It's under police patrol. And it's under police patrol. East Calis street lights. But it's in the budget for FY 22 for $4,000. Okay. Thanks, Denise. Yeah. Okay. With somebody like to make a motion to. Approve the contract and authorize someone to sign it. So I'll make that motion. And I will. Put in to authorize Denise to sign that. And to representing the board. Okay. Is there a second? I'll second that. John will second it. Okay. Thank you. Any further discussion or questions? In that, is that, is that a total labor cost or do we. Do we rent? Do they sometimes provide us with things like. Speed carts or anything like that to get filled against that? Or is that, is that total labor? No, that's just in there. It says they charge us for. Extra services and special equipment and whatnot. If we ever do need to do something like that. Right. We ever needed them to do like traffic control or something like that. They would charge us extra. I was just wondering if that was again, and that's all against the 4,000. Budget. I just wondered if they did any of the, you know, this. The speed cards that we put out to. We, we all, we own that speed cart. Okay. Sometimes the sheriffs. Own those and some. That's why, and they. I wasn't sure about that. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. You're ready to vote or is there any other questions? Right. Cliff. Hi. I'm an eye, Rick. And John. Yes. All right. Woodbury volunteer fire department. Hi, chance. Hi, chance. Hey guys, how are you doing? How are things over in Woodbury? Slow, exactly the way we like them. Yeah. That's a good thing, right? Um, so this is our contract for FY. 22 fire protection services. And thank you for changing, rearranging the. Dates of billing so that it. It works better for us and probably for Woodbury too. Yeah, they've, they've been taking it on the, on the short side, because they're Woodbury. So, uh, they've been paying us right on July 1st, but we're finally in a position where we could push everybody out to January to make it easier for both towns. So. Yeah. That's great. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you. And there's no changes in the contract. Nope. The only changes are the dollar amounts that were reflected in the budget that we sent in to get approved. Yep. All right. Does anybody have any questions for chance? No. Thank you, chance for putting all of this together. No problem, Rick. All right. You know what? I lied. There is one change Denise. You'll notice on that last page. I used to put all the select board slots in there for signatures. And because you guys normally approve it for one person to sign, I removed the other four positions and just left it as the select board chair. And we should probably say in there, you know, on signing on behalf of the board that way. Yeah. And that's what I, that's what I usually do. Yeah. That's what she does. I just eliminated the four slots that I. That's good. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of documents from the state and everywhere just come through with that. It's just. What people do. Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. All right. So. Did we have a motion on the floor? I can't remember. All right. Okay. You're saying no. So I'm gonna like to make a motion to, I'll make a motion to approve the. Okay. Okay. I'll sign on behalf of the board for FY 22. And note the change of date of payments. And I would add. That we will authorize Denise to sign for the board. Okay. I'll sign on behalf of the board. There are a second. I second. Okay. Are you ready to vote? Or do you have anything else you want to. Talk about. All right. I'm an eye, Rick. I'm an eye. John. Yes. Alrighty. Thank you so much, chance. Say hello to everybody for us. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. And the fire department for us. Sure. We thank you guys as well. And as soon as I get that from you, Denise, I'll get it signed and sent back to you in the. As well. All right. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you. Thanks. I'll see you in the summer. Yeah. Okay. Next up. Is our contract with Sullivan and powers. They've been doing our audits. Now for several years. So they kind of got the hang of it. I note that the. Amount we budgeted for this audit, this fiscal year 22. Auditing fiscal year 21. Is we budgeted $15,200. So over the course of a couple of years, it's slowly gone up, but that's. Understandable. Last year, it was 14,900. So it's gone up. But $400, $300. From the previous year. Are you, is everybody. Good with the contract. It's our, it's the same one that we've had every year. It's the same one that we've had every year. And Sandra has reviewed it. And says there's no changes. Except for the amount. And we already knew it was going to be more. All right. With something like to make a motion to approve. Signing the contract or someone in the powers of the engagement. Audit engagement letter. Okay. Is there a second? I'll second it. Alrighty. Can I ask a question? Do we ever, do we ever put this out to bed again? You know, just to keep it competitive at all. We haven't. I think this is their. Third year maybe doing it. So we might want to. We look at things, you know. Next year and. And see, you know, where everybody is with this. And if we want to. Yeah, that's. That's a bit again. Yeah, we had competing bids when we first contracted. Right. Just so you have that historical information. Yeah. Okay. I was wondering, I was curious to see how. Recently that was done. Sounds like fairly recent. So. Yeah. Okay. I think there's the motions on the. Movie. I can't hold you. That motion included to have authorized Denise to sign on behalf of the board, as I recall. Okay. Sounds good. Ready to vote. I'm an eye. Rick. Hi. And John, there you are, John. Yes. All right. And let me see what time is it? It is. 738 we're doing. We're doing pretty good. Thank you guys. All right. Next up. Okay. I see, I see David bill bills here. And. Bill. Or David is very joining us. He was supposed to. Is here from the board of WEC. I'm sorry. What is the. I didn't, I guess I didn't hear what you said, Mr. President. I'm sorry. I'm just saying the board of WEC and Barry's place. Oh, okay. All right. So talk to us about. What's going on. Your request. Could I share the screen? Yeah. I got to go get my water. I'll be right back. Okay. Screen shares enabled. Right. Go for it. So it's been awhile since I've met with you guys. And so this is a combination of first off. There's people from WEC or with me tonight. So we have been working together over the last couple of years. And so I'm probably going to talk mostly about CV fiber and. Steve and bill can talk about. The activities that WEC have been doing to support this effort. Everybody knows the. 20 towns in the CV fiber district. So this is the cost of the job. That is 1300 miles is 26,000 premises. We're estimating the cost to bring fiber to every premise about 46 million dollars. The greatest, the need is great. So here's a town of callouses to conditions. There are. The underserved, which we call anybody getting less than cable. And there's five hundred and 39 premises in callous. 40% have got cable. So, and showing what we're trying to do, and this is probably doesn't show up very well, this is the map of Cal is showing all the underserved premises, which you can see is pretty much everywhere except for cable is. And the purple line is a line that Weck and Velco are gonna be building this summer that goes from East Montpelier substation to Maple conna substation. That CD5 will be able to take advantage of to serve the premises along that route. So it's a pretty good arrangement with Weck and I'll let them talk about that in a minute. Where is the substation in East Montpelier data? It's near the Weck office, right Steve? Behind the office, open the office. Yes, yes, it's effect is right next. It's sort of a hundred yards up the hill west of route two from the office. So we're also one of the things you probably already know is that, you know, if you talk to a real estate agent in central Vermont, they always say, well, we can't sell houses where there's no broadband high-speed broadband, but also there's a return on our investment that we think is pretty significant in basis for making investment in fiber to the home. So I've been working on that pretty hard. So this is the list of things we've done so far. We've done feasibility study and business plan. We've designed a phase network build strategy to target the underserved. We receive grant funds for projects in Moortown, Roxbury, Northfield, Middlesex, East Montpelier and Calis. The first of which that we're gonna see benefit in Calis is the pole inventory. And so beginning probably in early July, you're gonna see a couple of people roaming the roads and the where poles. Join the meeting. To inventory all the poles so we can do the engineering. So the next step that we got a grant for was to do a high-level design for the entire district. And we're hoping to get a grant to do the next detailed engineering for 300 miles, which include all the underserved in the five towns we're talking about in the phase one project. And through the partner efforts with Weck and Delco, we're hoping to serve at least 50 premises sometime later this year to get a hundred funded megabits per second service. We're working on finding all the funds we can find, including a loan from Vita, which we hope we won't need for a few years since the interest is about 6%. And we believe that with the right situation because right now there's a lot of people doing fiber, but we wish we'd have enough work done to start the Fivern network next year and try to get all the first phase of the underserved including callus done by the end of 2022. Are you going to be able to get the materials? Well, that's the issue. So there's some work, I mean, and working with EC Fiber, they have made an arrangement with a consortium to purchase all the material, you know, both fiber and equipment at a discounted rate and hopefully some preferential rates. That doesn't mean it's all going to be available when we need it. So that's sort of the caveat in getting this thing built. But we're, you know, we're gonna do the don just to get it done and see if that, you know, makes it through to the, so in terms of building the inventory, I'm building the network, we have to do the poll inventory, complete the network design, make ready is where we get all the polls ready to attach the fiber. And so then the construction of the fiber and then the less thing is the drops from the fiber to the home. So all those things have to happen in sequence. So here's what we, you know, in terms of estimated costs, this is where we came up with the $45, $46 million for the whole district. And it's like the cost per mile. That's all the districts in CB fiber district? That's every, that's every premises. That's not just the underserved. So we're planning on doing underserved in the first two to three years and then try to finish the rest of it the next two years because we really, well, actually the legislature that passed age 360 this session requires any money to be spent that we're given by the state only go to the underserved. And we have to reach every one where we can. And so then I broke down the callus costs, which is there are 896 premises, 80 miles. And it comes out to about $3.2 million to do all of callus. Sort of the local share, if we want to call it that. So our construction schedule is beginning, you know, beginning the end of this year, going into 2023. Next year, we hope to do the five towns, Callus East, Montpelier, Morton, Middlesex, and Worcester. And then the second priority build out will build out from the core. But we will have done all the prep work for that the rest of the towns in terms of engineering and the poll inventory. We decided that we better have the data ready and be ready to move if we can as soon as we can. The, yep. So where would we come up with? I mean, where are we gonna get the money to do this whole big poll? So right now, I mean, the state of Vermont and the legislation, this session of the legislature, they appropriated $150 million to go to Fiverr in Vermont. There are 10 CUDs. Our estimate is over the two year period. We have the money this year and the next year. We may get between $8 and $9 million. And so it'll help considerably to keep this thing moving. And then the governor has basically said he wants to spend $250 million of the opera money. So there could be another hundred million from that that would go to the CUDs to build this network. Then there's the additional money from, well, there's grant money that's going to the towns that we're not gonna make a hard pitch for it, but anything that you want to, I'll get to that slide in a minute. Yeah, you mean the opera funds. There's not a grant, right? It's just money. So there's state opera funds and then there are town opera funds and then the squishy county opera funds, which seems to have some issues right at the moment. And the town money only comes in two pitch. You get some this year and some next year. County money, if the Treasury Department decides that the state of Vermont can give the county money to towns, it comes all at one time. So it's pretty complicated. And so here's the opera stuff that as far as I can determine from the Treasury data, you can see the local money that the town's gonna get. And I guess the state has set up a portal for this that you would apply for your money, but you'd only get half of it this year. Yeah. And a half next year. The county money for Calis is about 368. And then you can see below the tally that we've compiled for all the towns and CV fiber land. That's a good amount of money if we're able to get some small pieces of it contribution. And since broadband is one of the items described and the legislation for spending money, we'll hope that you will look at us favorably. David, is Woodbury a member of CV fiber or another CUD? You know. Did we lose David? Yes. And he's just to let you know I'm on the line too. Woodbury is part of CV fiber. Oh, good. That is okay. I was wondering if they're not building out Woodbury at the same time as Calis. We're basically sister towns. It looks like did David drop off somehow? I'm not sure. I thought we were gonna, you were gonna have us at 745. I'm sorry if I wasn't. Yeah, it's just, it's really hard to nail the times down completely, but we're glad you joined us. Yeah. Whenever you're ready for me, I can offer some comments, but we've been working, this is Barry Bernstein by the way, and we've been working pretty closely with all the CUDs in our territory, which are basically three covering our 41 towns. So I don't know whether David went over what, but WEC is planning to build what they call the middle mile. We're going to put about 9,860 miles throughout our territory for unserved on our polls, which we 100% have. And for those of you who don't know me, I'm a Calis resident and until two weeks ago as president of the co-op's board of directors. So Steve Nolton is also joining us. I just asked him, he's the new president of the board of the co-op. He's been on the co-op for six years. It's to let you know why. And Bill Powell was going to be joining us too. Who's, I don't know if you can, if you can remove David's screen for us so we can see each other or is that possible? I don't know that David was done going through the slides. He fell off the call. I think he's back. He's back now. Oh, okay. You're back, David. Yeah, bad internet. So what our ask is, is where any amount that's like what is willing to allocate is very acceptable. And then the next, can you guys, can you give us? Are you doing the same presentation to all the other towns in CV Fibers district? They lost them again. Yeah, lost David again. I think the plan is for them to do the same presentation to the towns. They've already been in discussions with Middlesex and Worcester because CV Fibers goal is to do 150 miles in four towns for the first project. So if I can just take over for a minute and switch unless and when he comes back you can ask the questions. WEC has been working with Velco. That's the state transmission company owned by all of the utilities. And our first, one of the reliability projects for Velco is to connect all our substations this year before 2021. The first on our project is to connect our East Montpelier substation with the Maple Corner substation. So that's about 10 miles of fiber that goes from East Montpelier to Maple Corners. But a section of it will go through Calis and will enable us to be able to run fiber to the town hall and then the town office building. That's gonna, I don't know how many people in Calis but on that whole line there'll be about a hundred homes that will be, that fiber, high speed fiber will be available. And what we're planning on doing is running from Kent Corners on the poles that go behind the town hall over to the town clerk's office. That's about three quarters of a mile of the line. And right now WEC is just about ready to apply for $30 million from a rural utility service part of the Department of Agriculture to build about 850 miles of line. But until we get that money we don't have funds that we can actually use to that. But as part of this Velco project if the town can come up with $35,000 that will allow us to run that three quarters of the mile of line and connect up both the town hall and the town clerk's office. So it goes from right at the Kent Corner behind the Kent Corner Museum. And you'll see the line pretty clearly behind the town hall to the office. Will it go up? Is that that's Old West Church Road? Is it gonna go up that road? No, that particular, Dave, are you back on? Yeah, I'm back on it. Okay, that particular line will just be off the road and it's gonna go right along parallel to the road that goes right past the town hall. That gospel hollow. Gospel hollow, excuse me. I should know that after 50 years, right? No, wait, wait, wait. So you're going on Peek and Brook Road? You going up that road? This particular bill does not go on Peek and Brook but the bill that we're doing next year will be. Oh, okay. So this is just essentially connected to the line. The line you're running from the East Montpelier substation to the Maple Corner or whatever you call it. Yeah, it's gonna go down Lightning Ridge and then... Old West Church. Old West Church and then cut it over. Yeah, both you and I will be next year's project. Well, so it's really excellent to hear it's about 35,000 to run fiber to our town, to town, to our two municipal buildings. I think consolidated was gonna hit us for 80 grand. We were gonna pay for the fiber and then they were gonna rent out the fiber that we paid for. I thought that was a suspect proposal. Anyway, so I'm so happy. Thank you. Yeah. I'm so happy that WEC and CV fiber are working together. It is a beautiful thing. Thank you. Well, we've been working for two and a half years, all of us together. WEC's been trying to figure out what our role is. And by borrowing this money, we're gonna be able to borrow that money over 35 years at a fairly low interest rate. So it's gonna mean the cost of that to the CUDs is gonna be less than they could build out themselves. That's why we got into it. It's a big nut for WEC, but the board's behind it. Steve and I have been working on it pretty much for two and a half years and we're pretty excited. We're very close. We just need to get this last bit and hopefully this Velco-Calis town clerk's office will be just the beginning of our long haul to get everybody on. Yeah, this is really good. How fast do you need your money on that, on the 30th of the day? Well, to be honest with you, that particular 10 mile line is gonna start construction in quotes. I mean, it's mid-July, so we will really need that money pretty closely to that timeframe. So it's a fast turnaround, okay. It is, it's very fast. So even with the money from that CB fiber is getting from the state, we don't know, that's not gonna be available to after the 1st of July and whenever they release it and it's gotta, so there's a, Yeah, it's fine. Yeah, this is a very important thing for the town of Calis and for WEC and CB fiber. So. Well, I know that we did put some money in our budget and I'm just trying to find it. I think it was $10,000. It was $10,000. $10,000, yeah. So David, did you have more? Oh, Scott. Hi, this does sound absolutely wonderful. I just wonder who's gonna be the internet service provider once the fiber is there. Yeah, we've got a, David and I are gonna do that ourselves, right David? We've got a pickup truck. Go ahead. Go ahead, David, I'm sorry. So we're drafting an RFP that should be issued on the street by the end of the month or early July. And we're going to hire an operator that's gonna manage and build the whole thing for CB fiber. We're hoping we get some responses on this. We know that Deerfield Valley fiber down in Southern Vermont, they actually, I believe, are close to signing an agreement with one provider from Maine. We're hoping that there's enough providers that are out there that will bid on this that we can do it affordably. Because our main goal is to keep costs as low as we possibly can and serve everybody. And not be evil, right? And not be evil. Yeah, there'll be no throttling of the fiber. You'll get whatever you know, no throttling. The words are universal access at affordable rate. And there's also gonna be some federal funds for helping to subsidize low income households. So. That'll be important. And will the school then be having high speed internet? Well, some of the schools in district already have it. I don't know what Calis does or not. They don't have cable. I believe they have cable. But the other schools and libraries that signed on to the ARA money 10 years ago got high speed fiber from Sovernet, which is now part of First Light. But no, some of them didn't, some of them don't. I think, as I mentioned at the last time, I think I talked, Calis is the only town office without high speed internet. No, I said school. In the 20 towns. No, I asked if the school would then be having high speed internet. Yes, they would go right by the school. Is the school gonna receive any funding through this ARPA or some other source that you're gonna ask them? The school works money? The Department of Education or the Agency of Education has got money. I'm not sure. And I know there's infrastructure money in there. Whether the schools have thought of the agency or just thought about dedicating some of that money to fiber, I don't know. They currently, actually most schools currently do get subsidy for their fiber service or their internet service. I figure out what the program's called. But, and they- The school will be getting money and I believe high speed internet will be part but it's for infrastructure or mechanical or building things. So there will be money going directly to the school in 2021 after July 1st, I believe. And who's going to contact the district to see about getting some of the funding from the school district if they're receiving money? You're looking at the person. Okay, all right. Yeah, I mean, have people from the town been participating with the League of Cities and Towns seminars on this? I have some, I think Sandra and I are going to attend. There's some kind of a training. I think it's on Wednesday. Yeah. Just to learn more, I have attended a couple training or informational sentences. Yeah, the portal is up for towns to access their money. It doesn't look like, from what I've seen in the comments, it's not that easy to do. Oh, great. I mean, it's all set up but I'm not sure it's that easy to navigate. Did you get through all your slides, David? Yeah, I did. I had one more to say that says thank you. Oh, okay. So I guess what's, I mean, you said you're going to have a draft MOU. No, that would be only necessary if you guys decide that you want to give us some money. Right. Right, and we have to make that decision, obviously. Right. And you'd probably like us to make that decision sooner than later, but I don't know that we could make that decision tonight. I mean, I wouldn't say there's an enormous rush. I just want to make sure we were on the docket to be considered. And as you work through your process for hearing other possible uses, and of course, I hope there's no others, but whatever it comes, whatever you guys want to do to help, because whatever money we get that's grants, we can lower our rates. And that's sort of a major. So David, I think that the $35,000 is something that is more important to make the decision as soon as you can. I just want to say that, because that line is going to have to be built. Contractors are going to, the contractor is doing the Velco build out is the same one that we'll use for doing that. So it's extremely important that that money be approved. So we did think to put $10,000 in our budget. So you're asking us to find $25,000. Right. I'm not sure. I mean, we're coming up to the end of the fiscal year. And I don't know, I guess I'd be interested to know what board members think. I don't know how much there is currently in the technology fund. I don't think there's much in there. That you have. It can happen after July. You can use money after July first. I don't know when you're going to get the money from the town money from the state. It's probably going to be after July first. So $10,000 that we budgeted, you can't use until July first anyways, because it's FY 22. So, and we didn't know, we just happened to think to put some money in because we didn't know how much, you know, clue how much money to put in there. So now we'd have to find $25,000 in the FY 22 budget that we hadn't planned on. You know what I'm saying? How about the reserve fund? There's a school, but you probably don't have that anymore. Now that you're, oh, no, that's for the school. I'm school. That's for the fund balance here. Yeah, sorry, sorry. It's all right. I mean, you should, you know, work through your process on the APA funds, but that money is there now. Yeah. So you and July, if you decide you can come up with the balance of that $35,000 out of the APA money, that's great. I don't think you do it this week or it's four weeks from today. It's not, you know, not going to hurt that. Okay. And I guess as soon as you have a draft, I know you, I guess I'd want our town attorney to probably review it. Okay. I can send that tomorrow. And you can, it'll have a blank amount in it. Yeah. Right. I'll just say, because David and I still have to work this out. He hasn't, whether that money would go directly to Wecker to the CUD and then to Wex. So we'll, we'll just have to have to have a little, we still have the conversation on that. So. Okay. Other board members questions. Oh, this. Thanks. It's a good presentation. Thank you. Yeah. And it's like this ARPA money is coming, sort of coming right at the right time. Yeah. I just want to say one other thing, David as a Calis resident, and he has donated so much of his time and energy and mapping skills to this project that. We're very lucky. We're very lucky. Yeah. Thank you, David and Barry. Yeah. Now without Barry, it's been a great project, great collaboration. Yeah. Okay. Anybody else, Bill, did you have any final? No, just to thank Barry and David for their respective roles. You have some great value in their services to the town. Yeah. Judy, did you, Judy, I see you're tuned in. Did you have something you wanted to add to this discussion? No, just I'm very grateful that there's going to be a little spur that goes down to the municipal office. Yeah. Too bad, Judy. We would like to get it before you, before you. I know my timing is not good. But thank you for your great work. Yeah. I'll send the copy of the slides to you guys. Okay. Thank you. Judy is, her house is along that spur. So. There you go. Right. Aha. She'll be the retirement president. Everybody right. I'm sure we'll be having further discussions and then probably invite you back to a few times. You have to say I'm a bill over the drop of a hat. I'll be right there. Okay. All right. Thank you guys. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you guys. Good rest of your meeting. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. I see, is Alfred really still there? Did he sign out? No, I'm still here. Oh, okay. Was there something more you wanted to hear about? Well, I'm real curious about the next to last on the agenda. Oh, okay. But if I am not involved in that, then I don't need to be on. It probably doesn't involve any discussion with you, but you're welcome to, you know, you're welcome to stay. Well, does it affect me? Well, it will affect everybody. It's a staff person. Okay. Then maybe I will stay. Okay. All right. Next up, when we did the appointment for the DRB last time, I was under the impression that Barbara Whedon was still wanted to stay on the DRB, but that in fact is not the case. So Dot Helling has asked that she be changed over to complete Barbara's term, which ends in 2024, 2024. So it seemed like a reasonable request to me to just change the term. Does that make sense? Sure. And then Ann Winchester, so now we still have, so we now still have one vacant full-time member seat on the DRB and Ann Winchester has graciously offered to fill that seat. And it expires in 2022, but, you know, we can always do a reappointment or maybe she won't want to be reappointed. Who knows? So I would say, I would make a motion to appoint or change Dot Helling's term on the DRB as a member to 2024 and appoint Ann Winchester from changing her from an alternate to a member to fill out the term ending in 2022. I'll second that motion. Okay. Anybody have any comments on that? Is that right? Both were assuming original term. I thought, I don't remember from the minutes, Katie, do you remember what we put her in? She was appointed to a vacant term that expires in 2022. So she'll be moving to a term that expires in 2024 and Ann Winchester will be moving into the spot that Dot was in expiring in 2022. So she'll be up for reappointment again next year. Yep, because they're staggered. Right. Thanks, thanks, Katie. Okay, you're ready to vote? Cliff? Hi. I'm an I, Rick? Hi. And John? Yep. Alrighty then. And Katie reminded me that we had already done the reappointments to CV Cybert in April and I forgot. So there you go. So we don't need to do that. And Katie, you wanted to do a quick website update? Yeah, that'd be great. The select board had approved me to work with the town clerk and the assistant town clerk at $20 an hour for up to $600 in order to accomplish updates that needed to happen because the Gov Office work that was done on the Calis website left a lot of loose ends that needed to be tied up. And so I'd met with Judy and Barbara and Scott and Nick joined us and we kind of identified the goals from the outset which were basically to reduce redundancy on the website and also identify where there's unneeded storage happening on the website and move that content somewhere else so that the website isn't used for that and operates faster to organize content with a user end perspective understanding who all the people are that are using the website and basically to have one person who could follow through on the website content management and like just have that consistency that's a little hard when you're doing a million tasks a day to remember the details of how each piece of the website works. So what I've accomplished, oh Cliff I wonder if I could do a screen share in a minute. Sure, you should be enabled. Oh cool. You've got it. Well, I think this is it. So what I've accomplished first and foremost is just to make sense of what was happening these buttons that you're seeing at the top had been kind of dumped in and needed some thoughtfulness up to it. So Judy and Barbara created their ask of how they wanted the content that already existed to be reorganized and sorted so that it made sense by category. We hadn't previously had a zoning tab and a land records tab which we do now. And then down here there are some buttons that were not landing us in the correct location so they've been fixed. We have a calendar now on the home screen that correctly shows links on the date that is there which wasn't working when they first did it and we've got public notices now on the front page. Very good. Yeah, so we've added, well, let's see. So there were just a lot of details that I fixed that are kind of on the user end which I believe will make it much more straightforward for the town clerk and the assistant town clerk to do what they want to do or for us to work together to get things done. There was a lot of tidying to do basically going back to 2000 and well, let's see. 2010 when the website was formed the backend needed quite a bit of cleaning up the way a file folder might need to be cleaned up after that many years. So it makes a lot more sense and is more manageable. We added an accessibility statement at the bottom of the page that clarifies for users who might be using assistive devices or seeking to understand what they should do if something is not accessible to them. The town clerk reviewed this and it essentially says that we will make all efforts and here's how to let us know if there's something more that you need if you're using a web reader, for example. I went through all the pages and removed formatting that would make it unreadable for web readers so that it's more accessible. And basically we've got a few outstanding pieces. The zoning section is a little cumbersome and we've reached out to John McCullough to talk with him about how we could improve the user end on that. We have VPN access setup for my computer now so that anything that is on the website that we would like saved somewhere else now is saved to clerk chair so that it's not on my local computer. And let's see, I think going forward we've decided that there'll be a protocol that any suggestions or edits that need to happen for the website. For example, if boards or chairs need to ask for a fix be made, they could direct that to me or the town clerk could pass that along so that that's not on the list of tidying things that they need to do and just randomly out of the blue. And then of course we'll learn with the transition to the new town clerk what their needs are. I don't think this is a big project anymore. So far I've put in 21.75 hours which is less than me, that's $435. So it's less than what the board had originally planned for Barbara and I plan to continue to touch base and communicate about any like redundancy issues as we notice them on the website or receive feedback so that as things are added they're not being added in multiple locations that the website pages are speaking to each other. And I guess I wanted to check with the select board about one particular ask. The select board has minutes going back to 2006 on the website, which is lovely but very, very hard for anyone including us to search for something if we wanted to search for roaming horses. We don't have a way to do it. And now that I have VPN on the laptop, the town laptop I could move, I could hand move documents which is the only way really to do it from the website which is the place that they're all saved electronically onto the clerk share. And then any of us could log into that remote accessible folder and search because now PDFs are searchable internally. So it takes some time for the computer thing. Yeah, so I have, there's a little more than eight hours remaining. I can't anticipate how many hours exactly it would take. I think it would be far less than eight. And then I could show you anyone who wanted access to it could get VPN access and search it remotely too which is kind of cool. And then we could think about doing that for any other boards. Like maybe if that only takes two hours we could say let's do DRB next or Conservation Commission or something. Yeah, I think it's fabulous work Katie. Thank you, Judy and Barbara. Yeah, fabulous. I mean, I like the idea of doing what you suggested with the minutes that would be really helpful. Cool. Yeah, and if it runs over if we need to extend the budget a little just talk to us, you know. Okay, I can't imagine it well. Yeah, perfect, excellent work. Thank you, that'll be a huge improvement. Have you gotten much feedback from folks access in Wednesday? There were, initially there were a few people I think Judy's still on the call. There were a few people reaching out and we routed them to our meetings together. We were able to address them right away. Basically it was tidying and some initial ideas about usability but it wasn't extensive. I think maybe it was three or four things. And I think three of them I was just able to resolve. And then there were, I think people do have opinions about how they like, how different things look but it's been quiet for two months now. Is that what you would say, Judy? I would, yeah. And a lot of the feedback was kind of ideas about photographs and things and it's subjective and there's actually a lot of technical issues around choosing different photos. They have to have a certain, what, Pixar or something. I don't know what it is, but I had given them many, many photographs and it came down to like two or three that were actually usable. So that seems like not something to put a lot of time into if it's basically a usable, attractive, not distracting website. And going forward we can change the pictures. Is that the idea? Yeah, we can. As long as we might have to actually assign someone to create photos that have the right criteria that would work on the website. Scott, you had a coma? I gotta say this was long overdue and we were so lucky to have the people working on this who did the web wash that we've needed almost since I was involved in it early on. I'm very, very comfortable not being involved in it anymore. Thank goodness we have some people who really know what they're doing. Thank you. Yeah, and thank you, Scott, for your previous work. We really appreciate it. Yep. To some of pieces, for sure. Okay, we think we got it. I think the only other thing to consider is some ongoing role for Katie in terms of website maintenance that's maybe a little more heightened with a new town clerk that might be less time to devote to the upkeep and posting and all that, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think we had designated certain people to be the webmasters, we probably should have too. So somebody else knows how to do some of this as well. Yeah, a little redundancy. Yep. Yes, I'm really happy to get everything. Sorry, Judy. Go ahead. No, just gonna say I really appreciate everything you've done, Katie, and I think you've learned a lot in the process about how to change things, just how to maneuver the whole administrative end. I can't even imagine. I feel like, and if it's that the town clerk who is elected likes doing this sort of thing or is very much at ease behind the driver's seat on it, I'm happy to show what I've done to anybody and it's very easy to understand once someone has shown you what to do. So I'm happy to play a role in whatever way makes sense when that transition happens. Okay, good, thank you so much. Nice work. Okay, do you have everything you need, Katie? Okay, friends, anything, friends of Town Hall? Yes, very briefly, because of other items that came up for this agenda, I asked Denise if we could push out the review of the usage policy until our next meeting on the 28th. Also, after meeting with the friends last week, the friends were involved in applying for this grant that we had spoke to the select board about before. I took up an inordinate amount of our time and consequently what got backburnered was the rental agreement and management agreement documents. So we will not be ready to meet with the board on the 21st as originally planned. What we're going to do instead is meet on the 21st, just the friends at that appointed time to hopefully finalize those documents. But we will wait until the documents are finalized and ready to present to the board before we come back and ask for another date for a special meeting. And that isn't a problem for anyone on the board. And we appreciate your understanding of the situation. And thank you for your work on all that. Welcome, thank you. Okay, ready to move on? All right, salary increases for staff, that includes. Bye, Scott, thank you. Thanks. That includes the road crew, the office staff, we, when we were formulating the budget for FY 22, we looked at the CPI to come up with the amount of 2.1%, salary increase, and we need to vote to approve those, that salary increase for all the employees. Do we, oh, go ahead. That's what this is about. We had a, I'm sorry, Rick, you weren't involved in those discussions when we were putting the budget together, but you will be next time. So what we've come to do is to look at the Northeast region CPI. So that's where we came up with the 2.1% salary increase. So we're looking at, I mean to, okay, yeah, I'm not up to speed on this issue at all. I'd like to, I'd like to, this is a place I'd like to have Sharon in here too, with this conversation. It may be. I mean, I run completely blind on this right now. So I don't know how, you know, how we're, usually I like we, in any kind of salary increases like this, how we do it. I mean, I've generally, we've had kind of a methodology that we really approach. Right, and that's what we've done over the last couple of years is look at the CPI, plus a certain amount to base our salary increases on. So that we have a methodology and a formula that we use on a regular basis, instead of just picking the number out of the air. Yeah, oh yeah, I know. All right, John, you wanted to speak? So maybe to fill Rick in a little bit and kind of further fill out this discussion. Yes, we've been looking at the regional CPI and that's the CPI, the consumer price index. Yeah, I know what it is, yeah. The feds established for the Northeast region and I can't remember if that includes New York or not, but certainly the New York, New England states. And then of course, it varies from month to month somewhat. It goes up a little bit, it goes down a little bit. It varies from day to day actually. Yeah, but there's a website and they have monthly CPI indices posted. One of our points of discussion, this is what Sharon, who Sharon was in the learning mode. She wasn't that, when she started out like anybody, didn't really fully understand what that was all about. And then we came to the conclusion that well, we need to have a consistent fixed point in time because it is so variable over the year. What do you pick the lowest? Do you pick the highest? But I do wanna point out that yes, we're in unusual times. We're seeing all this ARPA money flowing in and we all celebrate, but associated with this influx, this outflow, this pumping out of money from the federal treasury to all the states for them to spend on all sorts of infrastructure projects. That means they hire contractors and they hire employees and they do design work and then they buy materials and create demand for everything you know that goes into all kinds of construction from fiber optic cable to concrete to wood. And what that's done is it's driven the seat, it's created huge inflationary impacts. I believe this is, I just read an article yesterday that I believe the CPI right now for the country is like it's been hovering, you know, around the 2%, 2.1, 2.2 depending on the region. It's in the low fours. That's what I've heard, yeah. That's how it works for me with you. And I know that we fixed a point in time generally like because so we've said December every year we're gonna look at the December CPI when setting our budget, our budget line for salaries, we've based it on the December CPI the last couple of years anyway. That's the number. I would like to ask for us to, if we have any ability given these difficult times for Vermonters, quite frankly, there's such an influx of people here you can't get a contractor, you can't afford building materials, you can't afford Vermonters, can't afford to buy houses if they can even find a house. And I'm sensitive to that. And you know, our employees live in that bath of inflation and to the extent that we have any ability to adjust our methodology, maybe to a compromise point where we maybe go a little bit above use a number of somewhat higher than the normal December CPI. And I know we set our budget already but if we have the ability to bump it a little bit in that recognition that this inflationary trend is not gonna go away anytime soon. There's infrastructure bill in plain it's locked up in the Senate. I mean, the Republicans have proposed a trillion so that's the low number. So I don't see this getting better, I see it getting worse and we're locked in for another fiscal year at the south they're at. So I just want to put that on the table. I'd like her to consider varying from this a little bit, increasing it a bit above the, what was it, 2.1, Denise? 2.1. So here, I hear you and I totally agree. We always have the ability to if there's money to change the amount that we want to give even though it's in the, even though we did it through the budgeting process I would like us to maybe approve the 2.1 tonight because we're coming up onto the beginning of July or we can wait and have a more deeper discussion on the 28th and perhaps get some additional CPI numbers to see where we're at currently. I would like to wait on that just for that. I mean, I need to get a bit of grasp on this piece. There's one thing about, when we do this because we're building a baseline this is probably, I mean, we don't know how long this inflationary pressure is going to last. I mean, I'm hearing the Fed saying that this probably isn't a long-term thing at all. So what we do is pull. I hear you, John, I'm not, I just wanna make sure. I know you're with me, Rick. I know you're with me, Rick. I know you're not in agreement with me. No, no, no, I'm just trying to, I need to get my head around this a little bit better. I don't wanna, I'm not rash about these decisions. I don't like to run blind. So if we can, that's possible to wait. Well, we could wait until the 28th and possibly look at discovering some different, where we're at with the CPI now and get Sandra to join us for the meeting, our treasurer, and maybe do some recalculation and see if the budget can handle a larger increase because I agree. I think that we really need to look at this issue and make sure that we're being fair to our employees but also what the tax payers can absorb. So this may be a one-time blip where we budgeted a certain amount but we're gonna do higher. And that would depend on what the budget can afford and that's why we would need Sandra. Right. So Sharon might be here next time, hopefully she will. And so there'll be a fuller board decision. Yeah, it'll be a fuller board discussion. We all can be held responsible for whatever comes out of here. Yeah. You know what I wanna, I just wanna, I need to get my head around this a little better. Yeah. Rick can digest more and Sandra can help us through a number of moves. Yeah. But Rick, if you just type in consumer price index. Oh, I know what it is. I use it all the time. Oh, okay. So yeah. Yeah, no, I'm well aware of what it is. Okay. So what I'm hearing is we may want to, what I'm hearing is we wanna rethink and recalculate what we might give for salary increases. And I'm all in favor of doing that, doing that work. Yeah. Thank you, Janice. That would be great if we could do that. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Sure. All right, so we're not gonna make any decisions tonight. I'll put this on for our next meeting and it sounds like we're gonna have a pretty full agenda. So I may be seeing if people can meet at six instead of seven. We may want to devote like the first hour or something to review of the town hall usage policy or to have this discussion, see how kind of see how it goes. Yeah, that's fine with me. Okay. Sounds like it'll be a busy night, so. Yep. Well, they all are. So I appreciate everybody's volunteer efforts in the time that you all spend attending meetings and reviewing documents and all those things that go along with being a volunteer. Thanks, thanks to Denise, you and Katie and everybody that keeps them up there on the website. Or I mean on our shared site. Yeah. All right, so we have next up, personnel matters. I've asked Cindy Kedemann Warren to join us because she is the consultant we use when we were working with the union. There has been a petition circulating and some front porch forum postings and they do not necessarily contain all accurate information. Maybe a percept perspective of accuracy. So just to give a little history because Rick wasn't on the board then and I don't want to get into every nitty gritty detail. The board had started working in 2019, the summer, roughly the beginning of summer 2019, the board was taking a look at and making revisions to our personnel policy. Then in August of 2019, we received notice that the road crew was going to unionize. And that was also about the time we start looking at budget. So time went on, we met on many occasions with the union, the board held a lot of sessions reviewing and commenting and working with Cindy on a possible contract. Then we were yet with COVID in 2020. So that affected our ability to meet and we thought that we were near the end and ready to sign a contract. And then we were notified by the union personnel that they were going to, what's the right words? They were going to certify as a bargaining agent for the town of Callas road crew. So they- So can I clarify this a little bit? Yeah, go ahead. Let me clarify, just kind of put a sharper point on all this, the road crew, that is the employees at our highway department outside of management. Management is Alfred and to some extent, Toby, organized and with the IBEW, that's the acronym for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, believe it or not. And they've been part of a statewide effort to organize, basically unionize the various municipal road crew shops around the state is building a movement. So they did the vote and the three members of the crew at the time, Jacob, Paul and Bruce all voted to support the union. So that's a unanimous vote. And so we move forward. We engaged in bargaining as Denise said, COVID got in a way. I will also note that the timing wasn't the best even prior to COVID because we were in the throes of budget development in November. I think we might have met with them in October or late September, but we were heading into budget season as anybody knows who's watched what we do, followed what we do at the select board is that we get into budget development in the fall. And we meet pretty much every week for long meetings until we arrive at a final budget. And then that hell has to get to the clerk, Judy gets all this information and Sandra to get to the printer. So we can put all this information in our town report in time for town meeting. All that is a timing issue. And we did not have a spare moment to spend or we had very little extra time to spend negotiating a contract. And so we kind of didn't really get into it full steam ahead until spring and then came COVID. But despite all those difficulties, this is a first contract. It's never been a union shop before. We did arrive at, we did negotiate and we did reach an accord. We did reach a compromise. And we agreed on contract language, the representative of the road crew, the staff at the time, checking in with his staff, with the road crew staff, the IVW. And you're talking about the union staff, right John? Yep, the IVW representative, checking in with them, some of the staff met with us in person, depending on the day we met. And they reached agreement on all the language and the contract. So then it's a simple matter of the vote and it's all the same people. Well, one road crew member went to work in another town. So we lost one of them. And so it's down to two. And then a new road crew member came in who did not, who chose, which is their right to not join a union. So two out of three were union. And it got down to the point in time where they ratify where the crew then votes. That's the union crew votes on the contract. And despite having agreed to the language, the final set of language has been reported to us that they could not get a, of the two people, they could not get both of them, which was necessary for the contract to be ratified. They needed a majority of the crew. So maybe they had one, maybe they had none. But at the end of the day, the contract was not ratified. In addition, it is our understanding that one of the crew left the union at the same time. So now there's only one of three road crew members that are, is a member of the union. So because of that fact, the IVW did not have a majority of the crew that was union. And as a result, they had a withdraw. And so they filed a petition to decertify basically to remove themselves and remove them, to cease the unionization effort. And the contract that we worked both sides worked so hard on basically now is not gonna go forward. And as Denise said, there have been aspersions cast and representations made both on front porch form and in the petition, there are some accuracies in it and there are many inaccuracies in it. So that's why I think we're here to discuss this at some level. Right, Cindy, would you like to chime in at all? No, I think you've got it right so far, but happy to contribute where you think I need to. Okay. Yeah, so that's kind of where we're at. And I realized that both sides worked in good faith to get to where we were. And then it sort of just kind of fell apart. And that's unfortunate because I think it was a really well done, well negotiated contract. Not everybody got, I mean, negotiations means you don't get everything you want. Everybody compromises. Everybody gets a little something like this, a little something like that. That's a negotiations work. So it's unfortunate because I think the contract was good on both parties. So the idea is that the board wants to go back and revisit the contract and see how we might use some of the good things in updating the personnel policy. Cindy? I think you mean you wanna update the board's personnel policies, not the contract. Right, right. Thank you. You're welcome. And I just wanted to clarify as well some information, just some information for people to have so that they know, select with the town and at the taxpayer's dollars, provides some benefits that are really pretty good. We have a Blue Cross Blue Shield Gold Plan where the employee pays 10% and the town pays 90% of the premium. We also have an HR HSA fund which covers any deductible and other out-of-pocket expenses, including prescriptions. And also at no cost to the employees, the town provides dental insurance for the employee and the employee can purchase additional coverage to cover family members, kids, spouses, things like that. We also provide a life and ADA insurance in the amount of $50,000. So it's a life insurance plan. And we have a short-term and long-term disability coverage. So those are some, my dogs hear the looms. I can hear the looms on number 10 or Nelson. So those are just some benefits that I think maybe get lost in the shuffle when people are looking at their paychecks and how much they make an error. We have been, and periodically review and compare, and it's really hard to compare to other towns because not everybody has the same setup. So it's not apples to apples when you're looking at comparing other towns to callas. And I see John had his hand up. You can keep going, Denise, but I wanted to say more around those lines. One of the drives of the original unionization effort was not only a memo, I think that was a trigger point, but there was a perception that folks were making making more in other towns than we were underpaying folks. But when you do the comparison and Cliff put together an amazing grid of each town that we looked at the towns in our region surrounding towns. And quite frankly, that's the labor market we're competing in. And yeah, there were towns that had small incremental higher wages than us, but they had less robust health insurance and benefits. And when it all kind of sugared down, we were right in the middle, if not in many respects doing better by our employees than our surrounding towns that we had been hearing were doing better by their employees than we were. And the cutting to the chase, we reached an agreement. If we had not been able to reach an agreement at the bargaining table, which we did, we arrived at final contract language that had to be voted on by the employees. Had we not been able to reach agreement, there's a thing called impasse and then there's a next level of process and you go through arbitration, et cetera. But we reached agreement at the first level on a first contract, which is a big heavy lift. And I can assure you that the IBEW, which is a national union, a big union, which is highly experienced in these areas, they would not have allowed us, the town of Calis, to screw our employees, to underpay them and provide them a lesser set of benefits than surrounding towns and not instruct those employees or encourage those employees to not agree to our terms and instead assert that we are at impasse. But instead, the IBEW working with our employees agreed with us that this was a fair first contract with a balanced set of salary and benefits. And so kind of getting back to why we're bringing this up tonight, there have been assertions that it has been anything but that we have driven the bargaining team, I'm sorry, the union away from the bargaining table and they left town because of us, nothing could be further from the truth that we basically reached an impasse that we didn't reach agreement, that's not true. We were quite frankly, at least a majority of our select board, I think it's pretty much across the board, we were very encouraged by the unionization but we were very supportive and we see it as beneficial to us and our taxpayers may not get into that, but just kind of in sum, I think it's important that we do lay out for those who are watching this and who might watch this recorded meeting in the future that and make clear that we were a team, we were team players and we supported the unionization effort and continued to and the union had to leave the bargaining table for reasons that were beyond our control. And also just to be clear, when this all, when we found out that this wasn't gonna go forward, the board talked about what are we gonna do next? And I realized that people don't maybe understand the process the board has to go through, but we meet twice a month, we have to put items on the agenda. Sometimes things move at turbo speed and I realized people don't necessarily understand that or really have an appreciation for all the things that are on our plate to deal with. We did recently, May 24th to be exact, sent a memo to all of the road crew employees giving them notice that we were paying them their the retroactive pay, which went into effect on July 1st of 2020. And also we asked if we could have a meeting with them to talk about how we might move forward. So the select board put it out there already that we would like to have a meeting with them. So just for the record, Cindy, did we miss anything? No, I think you covered it pretty well. Okay. I also like to bring up, and this is not a set up folks who anybody's watching will be watching, my bringing up the concern about the CPI suddenly going up, right? That contract that we had all agreed to and then was abandoned not from our side, but from the other side. The reasons beyond our control, as I mentioned earlier, that was based on a CPI at the time. And that's kind of locked in. So here you're select board. You know, I initiated it, but everyone else seemed like similarly concerned, brings up the fact that, you know, the CPI has skyrocketed, it has doubled in a span of a few months. No one could have anticipated. And that would have, and that will have a potentially severe impact on the ability of our employees at their current wage to continue to live at the same level lifestyle, you know, at least over a few years if that continues. So we are on the 28th going to discuss paying our employees, hopefully, some increment more than we actually have to. Now, in terms of the union bargaining process, we're under no obligation to do that. And how did we just pay them what the CPI was at the point in time we reached agreement and if they said, that's not fair, it went up. If it was ever challenged, we would win hands down because that's the standard approach to arriving at wage amounts and compensation. So any assertion by anybody in this town employee or otherwise that this select board is insensitive and uncaring and does not take to heart the struggles that all our employees, including our road crew are dealing with on a day-to-day basis, we all live in the same economy, that that's not true. And I just wanna underscore that, that I found that petition and the follow-up statements by some residents that were borderline cruel and particularly if they're inaccurate. I have no problem with people being tough because that's how I behave. And I get a lot of criticism for that, which I can take, but when you think you're being tough and you use inaccurate information or you outright misrepresent the facts as they are, I got a huge problem with that. And unfortunately, this is a situation we find ourselves in tonight. There were some facts sprinkled in with a lot of misinformation. And I received, and as to have another number of other select board members receive phone calls by very concerned citizens, very concerned for our road crew, not so much about the select board, concerned that our select board would be so acting in such a nefarious way. And I had to, and they were surprised because they would never have thought. And I had to assure them that the representations and those posted statements weren't actually in line with what actually happened. So thank you, Denise, for bringing this up tonight. Yeah, well, and I appreciate you allowing us to kind of. And as John said, some of the front porch form postings, unfortunately, might have been made because people had inaccurate information. I did have phone calls from folks concerned. Some were sorry that some of the postings contained some derogatory marks against some of the select board members because they realized that there was probably another side to this story that wasn't being told. So here we are. And I think Cliff, you wanted to say something? Yeah, I agree that, as Cindy said, I think we've pretty much covered what happened previously. It's unfortunate that after both sides made some compromises and that we thought we had reached a point where we would have an agreement going forward that that did not pan out for whatever reasons. However, there was discussion about that both sides were working in good faith. I would hope that going forward, which is what we need to focus on now, that we can continue to operate in good faith. These meetings that the select board holds are open meetings. Yes, we do go into executive session, but usually that's because there's sensitive matters that need to be discussed, or there could be legal reasons for that as well. But anytime a decision is made, even if it happens in executive session, that information is shared with the public. It is not something that's done behind a curtain and hidden out of sight. I welcome anyone in the community to attend the meetings, to engage directly in discussion with us, because when there is disagreements, when there is uncertainty around the facts of a particular situation, it is only by meeting face to face and discussing directly with others that you can achieve an understanding. Everybody has a chance to speak and everyone has a chance to be heard. And I definitely wanna encourage the board because as you know, my time on the board is soon to come to an end, and this won't all be resolved by the time I have stepped down from the board, but I encourage the board, the community at large, the employees of the town, anyone with concerns to attend these meetings and make them known. And I guarantee you, if we do that, if all of us do that and work hard at working together, that we can resolve any issue that arises and we can do it in a way that will be satisfactory to all parties. I mean, I think we really try to make our meetings open to the public. We never, we never don't let, we always let somebody have a chance to speak always. So I think we do a good job of including the public in our meetings. Rick? I just wanted to say I'm new to the board, but we've discussed this since I've been on the board. I've looked at that process and I've learned about it. It's been very, very fair and it hasn't been, you know, we care deeply about the employees. And we felt this was, I mean, I wasn't in on the negotiation of this, but it was done really, really well and it was done in good faith. I mean, I'm kind of a fresh set of eyes and I've been on contract negotiations with myself on both sides of it. I mean, this was, I think this was very fair and very balanced. And I agree with you that's not, you know, I'm actually disappointed that people go behind the backs of basically and then tell things that are untruths. You know, that bothers me a lot. As a board member, I won't be intimidated by that. You know, personally, that's not a, not someplace I'll go. You know, we're doing the best we can for people. We're being fair. We care deeply about employees, but we're not going to be allow ourselves to be muscled or anything else. That's not, I mean, that's, but I speak for myself on that, but it's not if this, if we were being in any way unfair on this or if this process had been nefarious in any way, I wouldn't, you know, I'd be saying it, I'd be right up front, but it's disappointing to see that backhanded approach. I'm not impressed. And I have to say Cindy was instrumental in getting us to where we got to with the contract. You know, she would say, you know, that's not gonna fly or let's think about this language and maybe propose something else. So she really helped the board and I'm forever grateful to her for the time that she spent meeting with us with COVID restrictions, wearing masks, you know, it wasn't always a pleasant way to get together. But thank you so much, Cindy, you were very helpful. Really appreciated you and your upbeat personality. I think really kept things in a good place. So we thank you for that. Yeah, I'm one of the strange people that enjoys the negotiation process. And I can say as tough as it was, it was great working with all of you on everyone involved, the crew, IBEW and the select board. Okay, I think we've set enough on this topic. I hope that others in the community will watch the orca portion of this meeting. I think it was very helpful. I think our comments were very balanced. I hope they were balanced and that people see that there was another side of the story that they didn't know about. And we really were not at liberty to say anything until the union withdrew. All right. Thank you so much, Cindy. You're welcome. Have a good night. I'm sure we'll be in touch. Okay. Cindy, take care. Thank you. You too, Cliff. Stay in touch, Cliff. I will. Not sure how they let you get away. I have to figure out an out clause for them. Yeah, I know. Good night, everyone. Okay, John, you wanted to say some final comment? Yeah, you brought up a good point that I meant to bring up. While we are not bound by confidentiality at this point and not bound by confidentiality, number one, because the bargaining is over and there's no longer a union. We continue to honor that out of respect for our road crew. And the only reason we bring this stuff up tonight because there was a breach of that, quite frankly, the respect from my perspective by the postings that went on. And when it's one side doing that, we try to maintain confidentiality out of that maintaining that respect. We then make it difficult for us to provide the counterbalancing information. So that's why we're bringing this up. Otherwise we would not have brought all this kind of dirty laundry out tonight. Yep. All right, so can we move on? It is nine o'clock and I would like to go over. I haven't had a chance to get caught up on minutes. I'd like to go over what I think we need to do for our next meeting. We're going to try to meet at six. We'll figure out whether it's usage policy or it's to talk about salaries. We probably should make some more appointments. There's always things that pop up at the last minute and let's see, I don't know whether I've been working with that group about domestic animal ordinance. I don't know whether that'll be ready for the board to review on the 28th or not. I worked with the group, it's currently with Jim to look at before it comes back to the group because we had a lot of questions. So that's where we're at with that. So anyways, that's kind of where we stand or anything else for tonight or would you like to adjourn? I think that, you know, that Pam is interested with the Kent Hill Road project. She, I think they're working on identifying some funding for that. So you would like that on next time? I think so, yeah, but it's tentatively anyway. I'll verify that, but I think they've there, they've identified the preferable grant for that. Yeah, I read the email she sent. It sounds like it sounds promising. Yeah, it does. So I think it probably is timely to do that. And then I have to see where the stormwater, the East Calus stormwater project, because I'm not quite up on that one right now, so. And we also have to get on the agenda town highway seven. They would like to have that portion of town highway seven that's on Gary Schultz property discontinued. And then there may be a request to redesignate GAR Road as a trail. Is that right, John? John, is that right? Yeah, I've been thinking about this as one select board member for 10 years. And I have received phone calls from a number of residents who own properties or live along there or even residents who don't live along there who utilize it, who have concerns with cars driving through there sometimes fast. A lot of times not local folks, which is fine, but folks live there and their residences are there and people are driving through there at two in the morning on the drunkard run and they're woken up. And so increasingly that's become like the swimming beach. And part of that beach is the road. The roadway itself, people sit on that and then they get up and move out of the way for the car to come through. A lot of that traffic, 99% of it is not to serve the local properties, build the lots on those properties or the hall, but it's someone looking to take a different route through. And it's unnecessary. And I think it diminishes the area in general. So the idea, my thinking is, and I've spoken with a number of residents, including Rowan Jacobson, who's kind of one of the point people on the Memorial Hall reconstruction effort about it's currently designated as a class four, I believe, Denise, am I right? No, I think GAR road, yeah, class four, yeah. We provide some minimum level of maintenance to assure that it's passable by a passenger vehicle. That's kind of the standard and standard. If the select board were to redesignate that trail, we then have a broad range of authority in terms of what can and cannot happen on a trail. There are some trails in town. We might wanna say, you can do everything but automobiles. There are other trails and maybe going through a sensitive wildlife area where you don't want any motorized vehicles at all or you don't want any traffic, even foot traffic in mud season. So if by designating that a trail, the property owners, including Memorial Hall, maintain a grandfathered right to their historic uses of that road, i.e. accessing their property, as they do now, the Memorial Hall could continue to have weddings that's a historic use and other community events, renting a hall out, that would be maintained. And then we could then restrict, and this is what I would propose, the road from motor vehicle traffic. And so that would make it, and of course my little vision, I told this to Denise on the phone is, wouldn't it be nice if that dirt road, which he roads into our ponds that we're trying to eliminate erosion from, wherever we can, we could seed that. It's already got a gravel base. We could seed that and we could turn it to grass. It would still allow for the passage of vehicles, but it would now be a nice grassed area that more like a park lane that would be a better quality experience for all the users of the lake. And hopefully the camp owners would agree. So that is my thinking, of course. It's a great vision, I like your vision. Yeah. All right, so if there's nothing else. Can I, I see of the LEMP on there, the revised LEMP, on that, is that- Say what? Say what? It looks like the LHMP, we've got that on for the next meeting agenda. That would be, we need to adopt that on July 26th. I thought we adopted it at the last meeting, but this is a revised version, is that? Yes. What we did at the other meeting was we reviewed the proposed changes to the LHMP. Then the select board has to adopt it. I mean, if it's ready, we could adopt it sooner than the 26th, but that's the deadline to adopt it. I misunderstood. I was thinking we adopted that. No. Because we do want to stay on top of that. Yeah, we do. Because that affects our ability to get FEMA money if we have some kind of a disaster. Yeah, and we're looking at a heightened hurricane season already, so. Yeah. All right. All right, is that if there's nothing else, would you like to adjourn? Katie had her hand up for a minute. Oh, I'm sorry, Katie. Just to get your question answered, Katie. I just wanted to make sure that as you guys are planning the agenda, that there was a couple of questions around the town's policy after the governor's lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, and inviting the town treasurer around that CPI discussion and the Kent Hill Road funding. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks, Katie. All right, is there a motion to adjourn? So moved. There a second? Well, I guess we can't adjourn. Nobody's going to second. Oh, John seconded it. Ruby seconded it. She's sick of me sitting in this chair all day long. All right, let's take a vote. Cliff. Hi. I'm an eye, Rick. Eye. And John. Yes. All right, thank you so much. We did, we got a lot done. Thank you so much, everyone, for your due diligence. Thank you, Denise. And everybody, thank you, Katie. Thank you, Katie, yay, Katie. Great job on that. I feel bad that you guys have so many minutes to do. I was like, are there two or three unlucky board members who want to have a 20 minute meeting and get through them or we'll do them at the next meeting, you think? I hope we can get through them at the next meeting. Some I've reviewed, some I need to review. Okay. Yeah. Okay, more fun next time. Yeah. Stay tuned. Thanks. All right, good night, everyone. Good night, everybody. Good night. Night, everyone. Thank you. Yeah, thanks, John. Night.