 here to talk about is to what extent does, is the town of Rochester wanting to take possession of the Dan Lyme daycare building, which, whether that is sold or kept for town purposes is another decision. But the, my feeling is, I hope to start into that, that it would be hula. So here comes Tom. I'll just preamble a little bit more then. I got almost to the point here and then I took that. Sorry about that. What's that white stuff? It was snowing in my house, man. My car says it's 37 degrees. It should not be happening at all. Oh, you want to come? No, I don't need to come. Shall we come? No, we can't. We can't. But it's snowing. You like writing? I know. I got to come. I would call. Okay. This is going to be a pretty nice change. I heard that. But I just wanted to double check on one of her editing buildings. It's really interesting. We can be addressed in here. Okay. We're going to leave this there. Thank you. That's not where I'm going to go. We still have stuff. I want to go. So we opened the meeting and I was introduced to the fact that we're talking about the extent that it was Julie Warnsch and the posted and the website. Can I mention this? Well, Mason has a question. Excuse me. I'm going to counteract you. Matt's Valley Market took down there. I saw that. I have called down. They have not responded. But I'm going to continue posting things there until they tell me I can't. So otherwise, I have to come up with another place. I'm not sure the market's going to qualify the hardware. It needs to be a place where people go regularly. So I need to post. I spoke to one of the cashier today because I was concerned about the community board as well. Yeah. They said that the owner or the regional manager from Rutland came around to all the stores and made them take down community boards. Yes, they did because they were community. But she said to call the Rutland office and express your... I did not call that. I'm going to do that myself tomorrow. Yeah. One of the cashiers told me the same thing. And so did Dick and Larry. They said it was too messy and they didn't like it. It didn't look good. Well, they didn't like the fact that people put out tires for sale. Or here's my services. I do the carpentry. What else is a community board for? Don't get me going. Not now. Okay. Thank you. Mason, you had a question? Well, kind of. Doug failed this. So Monday was the meeting, the 26th. And the 27th of the morning, everybody kind of went into action to make this meeting happen. And from that evening meeting, I was under the impression that our official news outlet would do something on it. And there was absolutely nothing. You're talking about? The Herald. This meeting. This meeting. I knew nothing about that meeting. I understand. You left, but before you left, you asked for the school board to give you information about their meeting. And I guess that didn't happen. But Dune was going to call the Herald on the morning to make sure that everybody was... Well, all I'm trying to say is there is a transparency issue that many voters in this town, even though there's a sign at the store, they have no idea that this is happening. I'm hoping in the future that there's more ways of communicating to all the voters because in the room right now, there's more school board members than public with the select board. So I'm feeling like a lot of people don't know about this. I just want to leave that alone. Okay? Luckily, we'll be on more media so people can still find out what happened that they cared to. And I will explain that since we've gone past deadline for this week's Herald, this will be in next week's paper. Nancy? Except I just asked Mason why the Orca Media recording of last Thursday's school board meeting was not posted on Orca Media yet. Yep. So he's got to find out. All right. So this was a warned special selection to address the topic of the schools, the town's interest in the Dan Lyne daycare building. And I was just about to say, and if we made a new appearance, that I'd start with my opinion is that it behooves the town to take the building and the town can then decide to sell it. I think that there is a big enough of an imbalance between what Rochester is bringing to the union versus Stockbridge in terms of real estate that's my point. Now I understand you have, and with your donated realtor hat, you've found someone who's interested in the property and this would not preclude that from happening, but I think the question is whether it's bought from the school or the town, which in a way they're the same, but legally it would be a different thing. So what do you guys think about that? I've been to a lot of the school board meetings throughout the last year, year and a half, whatever, how long it's been, it's been forever. But I do remember when the merger was drafted and discussed and pulled together that one of the points that Stockbridge made quite clear was that they did not want to carry the Dan Lyne building and that if it were to be sold, proceeds from that could go to paying down the debt that they will be assuming on July 1st and since Stockbridge doesn't seem to have as much debt as Rochester does on their school buildings, it seemed fair that we were keeping the high school building in the equation, the elementary school in the equation and sacrificing the Dan Lyne in order to make the merger go through. So I think that for the people that were at those meetings and the people that voted for the merger, that was made quite clear. It may not be specific in the actual merger language, but that was definitely the tone of Stockbridge agreeing to merge with Rochester. I could speak on that, that in the actual merger document it does state that the Rochester school board will seek to sell Dan Lyne daycare prior to the July 1 merger. It does not state though how those funds, where those proceeds would go. I know it was indeed discussed, but in the document it does say that the board will seek to sell the daycare. I think Stockbridge is more interested in getting it off the books so they don't have to maintain it. Yes. We really didn't talk about the proceeds of the sale. Harlan? Just a dog at it. I mean, why let it go? I mean, you have to try and run it as a daycare center, seeing as though that was what it was purpose for and remodeled for and brought up to date for it. But if that, if there's no way that could happen, at least the town could sell it and get something out of it. I mean, we've been dumping money into the supervisory union out of the town funds, you know, for the school thing. For a long, you know, I mean... No, I'm dead at your point. What do you think about that? Well, I mean, a daycare center is a great idea, but unfortunately you have to find somebody to actually want to control the business there. Exactly. And there's so many state statutes going through it. Like seven days or something, you know, looking for a professional daycare operator. There's something that's got the kids out there. Yeah. Yes, if we own the building as a town, we don't have to rush into selling it. We can first explore what Harlan's speaking about is as a town, we can subsidize getting an entrepreneur started. And this will help maybe sell real estate and have people move to our town if we have some good childcare facility. So before you rush into selling the property, once we acquire it, we should have some serious town discussion with the community. I agree that this community needs daycare. The school board did advertise in a number of locations, not just the Herald, but Valley News. I don't have the list of those number online places that we were looking for somebody to run the facility. We contacted Vermont First with Kids or Let's Grow Kids, Vermont Let's Grow Kids, and they thought it was wonderful, but they didn't have any more resources or anybody interested in doing a daycare in our area. Orange County was involved. Orange County's parent-child organization really took a serious look at it and just found that it wasn't going to be profitable for them. They're in their bylaws or in their policies. They have to have two people on staff at all times, and they found that they just were not going to be able to pay the two people on staff with the amount of kids that would be able to be in the daycare. I also think that the last time that it was run as a daycare, one of the reasons that it closed and helped me if I'm a little wrong was because they were no longer able to take children under the age of three because of mandates and certain stipulations, so they closed basically because they could only take three-year-olds and up, which now a three-year-old can go to pre-K. So the daycare may be something that phased out now that we've opened up pre-K and kids can go there at the age of three. It could complement because it's only a two-and-a-half-hour program at three-year-olds. It could complement that, and that was the original idea behind opening it back up, but it can't take... It wasn't able to take babies. The last time it was opened, that's why they closed. The actual discussion, you know, if it can or can't, isn't as critical at this time. The issue is the town acquiring the building. It's nice to have a background. Why don't you know we did our homework on this? Right, right. And we have the ability... But the issue is not, is the town going to open the daycare? The issue is, is would the town like to, you know, purchase that, the billing from the school board or the nominal fee of a dollar? Yeah, yeah. And one day, would they under stipulation that you guys would subdivide it? We'd subdivide it, what you mean, in terms of the separation from the school board? We can't really sell it to you until it's... Well, of course, that would be part of the deal. I think that we could, you know, between the school board and the town, I mean, we're washing each other's hands. They would have to be... They would have to be surveyed. Oh, we're good at regular fees. I have a question about the preschool playground equipment that's presently on the property. And if we could move it to a different part of the school to have the preschoolers still have their ability to have, you know, a playground. It's a piece of side building, too, that should be moved out. Yeah, okay. A sand thing, a table. There's a number of stuff. The preschool relies on, you know, that little, the little play set for the little kids, because the other one's a little too big for the smaller kids. Absolutely. Okay. So I would move that the town enter into the... Are we purchasing it from the current Rochester School Board or are we purchasing it from... Oh, stop the unified board. It's not being the unified board. And it would definitely be... I think we're here asking if there is any interest from the town, we would need to discuss it as a board to see if we have an interested party that would purchase it from the school board, and therefore we could take that money and put it back into... We could establish, you know, anything that scholarship funds or, you know, support for outdoor education or, you know, it could go back into the educating of the kids, whether or not... We just need to have that discussion, I would say. I think that would also... The discussion of what's going to happen to the school buildings is important, because, I mean, if... We could be having this conversation about one of those buildings after the unified board evaluates what they want. Another point of view you can see, you know, if we take the session of the... of the Tainterland Daycare Building and then sell that building, those funds could be used to potentially improve the due repairs on the school, which we may move other services into. So it gets kind of complicated, and I think there's a lot to think about. I don't think we want to brush it in. We need to look at it. We have a deadline to sell. I think we should retain the building first. After that, they don't own it anymore. After that, the unified school district owns it. But I think that... If the building were to be sold, could the funds from that be applied to the bond to reduce the bond expense? Do you mean right now? Yep. I would say yes, but I would need to make sure on that. The lawyer that... No, it wasn't the lawyer I was talking to. This is our financial manager I was talking to, and he stated that we could basically earmark that money. We could place a reserve on that money so that it wouldn't go into the new district. But it would never... Can you prepay bonds? I don't know. I would need to... The bond for the school... There's bonds for them, yes. Right. My understanding is those are part of what is unified. Yes, exactly. And I know that was another little thing of contention was the stock bridge is that we had debt and they don't. Right. I would say it's a big point of contention. It sounds like it's a big point. And I think we should probably try to work off, or find a way to reduce our bonds. We are walking in there with $390,000 in bonds and they have no debt. It's affecting our ability to be able to work together. I think moving forward, I think we need to figure out a way to get our debts down and our buildings under control. We have bonds, but we also have several million dollars with the assets in the buildings, too. So it's just complicated. It's very complicated. Martha... I just wanted to point out that this is not actually something to do with dandelion, but when you were saying assets, that the high school building has got things that the stock bridge doesn't have. We have a really nice auditorium that the players work hard to help repair after Irene. Yeah, there's definitely assets. The value is more than the debt. And also it sounded like you were starting to maybe make a motion or something? Well, I was going to move to have the select board express its desire to pick that building. And that still is... I don't think we can control the school board's decision or I don't know how exactly legally it's picked, but I think that you at least need to... The question for this meeting was, would the town be interested? And I would move that and say yes. I would say based on the public opinion that we do have here, I would also move yes. All in favor? All right. You still would be here. You would do the subdividing. Yes. And there's a guy that helped us do it, right there, walking in the door. I just had a quick question. So, should I say, and this won't be until next week, but should I say that you're looking into purchasing it from the current public board for a nominal fee? Is that correct? Yeah. Because... Details would be worked out. Okay. Yeah. You don't even have to... Don't put the nominal fee. Yeah. Okay. Because that's not, you know, definite, but I just wanted... Harlan and Mason. I was just wondering about the bingo property. I mean, it was talked about, but... The principles of the students, that has nothing to do with the town. Okay. So, we're going with the deed set. As it is at this point anyway. With what the deed set. I think that's another way. So, well, is the town going to, like, be a trustee for the high school student? We'll have to see that, but stay the way it is. Yeah. I mean, we need to have that discussion. Okay. I hear you. We need to have that discussion, but it's not going to be today. Not on this meeting. We'll put it on the agenda for the next meeting or something. Or, you know, this is all time related. Does that need to have a resolution by July 1st? I don't think that was even included in any of the work. It is. It is actually... It is. I have some information about it, but, again, it's... I think we need to warn it to talk about it, right? Frank Russell said that it wasn't private. Well, at the last meeting... You can tell me how much I can say about it. Right. So, that's a different topic than we're going to. But it's an important... It's going to come up, and so stay tuned. Mason, you have a question on this topic. Yeah, unfortunately, I wish Nancy was able to see that footage on Thursday, that Amy was spoke about the new merger board having a lawyer looking to probate court to secure the bingo property for the new merger situation. So, there is activity going on with the new merger board in relation to legal issues. I'd like me to speak to it. I can. I just don't want to step out of line. Please make it understandable. Okay. Good. I'm sorry. Well, through discussion with our lawyer, I found out that the Rochester School of Property is actually a trust. The principal and the high school students are acting as trustees. The school probably means the school of property. Yes, the bingo forest property. Yes, the bingo forest property that is in discussion. That the principal and the high school students are actually acting as trustees. It's a trust. Like the library. Okay. So, the purpose of the trust becomes frustrated or failing when it gets brought into the new district. So, if the new district feels that the property is of value and would like it to come into the new district because we did put it on the table and in our agreement that this was... We did offer it. We didn't realize it really was an ours to offer, but we did offer it as part of the deal. So, if the district feels that there is value to keeping at them, we would need to look into going to probate court to change the terms of the trust. Interesting. Yes. And if, you know, depending... to modify the terms of the chair of the trust, which may largely depend upon whether the town is going to oppose the petition to modify the trust and to allow the new district to hold the property for the benefit of school-age children in Rochester. Amy, another question. Wasn't that the principal and the high school students? That's correct. High school students. That's correct. Okay. So, we were actually... Tonight, we have a meeting after this. We were going to have a conference call with the lawyer to get a little more in-depth as to what it would take and if it is something that the new district is interested in going through this whole process if they find that it has that value. But we are really swamped with our budget and building usage discussion tonight that I would have put that off for another week. Why go home at all tonight? How does that work when there's no high school? Then we still have high school students. The trust becomes... Oh, right now... We still have high school students going to high school. So, the town should be a trustee for the property, for the future students, high school students of the town of Rochester. So, if you're tuition doubted. So, right now, we still have high school students. If I may roll up your question? Just the fact that they're not knowing that they didn't have the authority offered something, they never had the authority to offer it. It's got to come back off the table. I mean, my truck's in the trust. If they offered up my truck, they don't get taken. It's a mistake. People make mistakes. You got to back up and say it didn't belong there, which it doesn't. Oh, well. Correct your mistake. And the point is, does it have value to educating our kids? That's the biggest question. Does that have value in the education of our kids? Because that's what it's all about. And it's a discussion that, like I said, the new board needs to have. And it just got brought up at the last meeting. And, you know, because we do have a lot of national force around us, that's not posted that we kind of want Heisen. Do we need our own property? But on the other hand, we have this resource that maybe we could do, you know, some other activities there. When was the last time it was used? Right. And currently there's no good access to it. Most importantly, we have the intent of the person that donated it to the town. The principal and the high school kids could get it back into the town's hands. And again, I think that's a discussion for another day, but there was some concern that maybe the town would want to trade it for other property, and then it would not be. What other property? It's a property around subject, something from the national forest. Somebody had mentioned about that the town might be interested in trading that property with the national forest because of some national forest property that's in town near our septic. Oh, yeah. You're the Wells. You're the Wells. You're talking about the Wells. You're talking about the Wells. Yeah, right. So, I think that what needs to be done is to legally explore what the intent of the trust was and what the parameters in which that can be modified into the best purpose. We have to keep this pretty short because the next meeting starts in a minute. Quickly. So, how does that work with a new merger board lawyer where is our town lawyer in that process? Just, you know, in the whole process. School schools. It's us losing our independence to have town governance. This is not happening next week. This is we have a little bit of time, a few months to deal with it. And that's why these guys are headed to another meeting to deal with that. And is someone going to stay here to talk with the planning board about what we take for a subdivision process? Yeah. 630 or are we doing the walk around first? I'm not sure. Exactly the walk around plan. It's 630. Yes. I'll stay until 650. So, I think we've covered the topic of this special meeting now. The planning board convenes here now in 30 seconds. And while they're getting set up, I'd like to request a small executive session with the select board to do it with a separate legal matter. Yeah. Okay. So, when we can go in, we can go in the other one. Just get a quick session. Yeah. All right.